New Drug Bardoxolone Improves Kidney Function

Study: New Drug Bardoxolone Improves Kidney Function

In Phase II Trial, New Kidney Drug Improved Kidney Function About 30%

By Kathleen Doheny
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

June 24, 2011 -- A new drug appears to improve kidney function in people with type 2 diabetes who have chronic kidney disease, new research suggests.

The drug, known as bardoxolone methyl, works in a new way, says researcher David Warnock, MD, the Hilda B. Anderson professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is slated to present the results of the phase II trial of the drug today at the European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association Congress in Prague.

"This is a promising new treatment that may change the course, the whole way we approach severe kidney disease in diabetics," Warnock tells WebMD.

The results are also published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Diabetes is a major cause of kidney disease, which boosts the risk of kidney failure and the need for dialysis.

"There are 26 million Americans who have chronic kidney disease," Warnock says. "There are 500,000 on dialysis."

The hope, Warnock says, is to improve kidney function with the drug enough to delay or prevent the need for dialysis, which costs about $75,000 a year per patient.

Lynda Szczech, MD, president of the National Kidney Foundation, who reviewed the findings for WebMD, said the results look impressive, but she awaits results from the final clinical trial (phase III), now under way.