University of Michigan forms chronic kidney disease consortium with pharma companies

The Renal Pre-Competitive Consortium (RPC2) will develop and utilize large-scale data exploration to find new treatment targets for CKD.

It will combine the R&D expertise of the pharmaceutical industry with clinical and molecular data collected by U-M nephrologist, Matthias Kretzler.

Kretzler has established a renal database featuring data from over 1,000 patients and from various animal models of CKD to advance research into the condition.

Each consortium member will contribute bioinformatic and scientific capabilities as well as retain the right to evaluate targets of interest independently.

AstraZeneca head of the cardiovascular and metabolic diseases innovative medicines unit Marcus Schindler said: "For AstraZeneca, joining this consortium represents a great step forward in our aspiration to become a leader in the treatment of chronic kidney disease.

"We believe that knowledge generated in the consortium will lead to an expansion of our portfolio with targets that have a strong patient-based foundation."

AstraZeneca said its participation in the consortium complements a two-year research collaboration formed last year with the University of Michigan.

Under the collaboration, targets from the company’s cardiovascular and metabolic disease portfolio are validated for their potential in treating CKD, with the goal of discovering new targets and driving re-purposing of existing medicines depending on new understanding of disease progression.

CKD is reported to affect over 200 million people globally and more than 30 million adults in the US.

Image: The Renal Pre-Competitive Consortium will combine the R&D expertise of the pharmaceutical industry with clinical and molecular data collected by U-M nephrologist, Matthias Kretzler. Photo: courtesy of AstraZeneca.