AstraZeneca www.astrazeneca.com and its global biologics research and development arm, MedImmune www.medimmune.com have entered into a collaboration with the University of Michigan and Eli Lilly to develop new treatments for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD).
CKD affects more than 200 million people worldwide and more than 30 million adults in the U.S. Although it can occur at any age, it is becoming more common in aging populations and the statistics show that the prevalence of CKD is increasing.
The goal is to identify new therapeutic targets for the treatment of CKD. The “Renal Precompetitive Consortium” (RPC2) will combine extensive clinical and molecular data collected by Professor Matthias Kretzler at the University. The professor has established a renal database containing information from more than 1.000 patients as well as from multiple animal models of CKD to advance research.
The consortium will access the database to explore key pathways that drive the progression of CKD and identify potential new targets for medicines. Each group in the consortium will contribute their bioinformatics and scientific capabilities to build on the analyses already begun by the university.
“We have to find ways to bring new therapies to our patients faster”, said Professor Kretzler. “The RPC2 gives us the opportunity to combine large-scale clinical and molecular data exploration with the expertise of the pharmaceutical industry”.
AstraZeneca’s participation in the consortium complements an existing agreement between the company and the university where targets from AstraZeneca’s cardiovascular and metabolic disease portfolio are validated for their potential in treating CKD. The project will aim to discover new targets and drive re-purposing of existing medicines based on new understanding of disease progression.