AAKP Flash Survey - Transplant Medications

Through AAKP’s Center for Patient Research and Education, we are conducting this important survey to collect kidney patients, family member, and living organ donor insights about the need for greater innovations in transplant medications.

These include immunosuppressive therapies that help maintain the ongoing health of the transplanted organ and prevent kidney transplant rejection. Survey insights will be shared with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), other Executive Branch agencies and the United States Congress. All responses are anonymous.

Over the past decade, noteworthy innovations have been achieved in kidney medicine. These include new drugs that slow the progression of kidney diseases and prevent kidney failure, dialysis machines that allow people to dialyze at home independently, and new diagnostics that help detect early kidney transplant rejection.

Yet, very little has changed in the past decade for transplant medicine. The last new immunosuppressive therapy that came to the market happened over 10 years ago – and many patients rely on transplant drugs that were developed over 25 years ago. Kidney transplant success rates within the first year are quite high – but there are currently no clinical endpoints that measure how effective transplant drugs are maintaining long-term graft survival. This means transplant patients can expect a very high success rate in the 1st year – but there is currently no way to determine if particular transplant drug can achieve survival rates at 5, 10, 15 or beyond 20 years.

Organ donors, kidney patients, transplant surgeons and the larger kidney community believe it is a time for change and innovation in transplant medicines. The kidney community has been working together to bring forward a new generation of transplant medicines to help transplanted kidneys last longer. When kidney transplants last longer, practically, that means less transplant patients will experience organ loss, a return to dialysis, a return to the transplant wait list or premature death.

AAKP believes the ongoing health and survival of already transplanted kidneys is a key part of the solution to increasing the number of organs available for other patients in need of a transplant – while also reducing the number of patients on the transplant wait list.