NEW YORK — Renalytix on Thursday announced the launch of a consortium focused on advancing biomarker-based tests for predicting responses to existing drugs used by chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients.
The consortium — called Personalized Drug Response: Implementation and Evaluation of CKD, or PRIME-CKD — is being funded with $10 million over five years from the European Union's Horizon Europe program. Renalytix said it will receive around $1 million for commercial translation activities.
PRIME-CKD aims to demonstrate the utility of biomarkers that can be used to guide treatment selection for CKD patients both in routine care and in clinical trials. Successfully validated biomarkers will be submitted to the European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration, Renalytix said.
In addition to Renalytix, consortium members include Academisch Ziekenhuis Groningen; the University of Michigan; Lund University; Region Hovedstaden Hillerod; Universitaetskliinikum Hamburg Eppendorf; Universita Degli Studi Della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli; and the University of Leicester.
Also part of PRIME-CKD are Universita Di Bologna; IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna; Fundación para la Investigación del Hospital Clinico de la Comunitat Valenciana, Fundación Incliva; Hessels + Grob; Agentschap College Ter Beoordeling van Geneesmiddelen; Universitätsklinikum Erlangen; and Nierstichting.
"Results from this project are expected to translate into significant patient benefits and decreased societal costs associated with CKD by helping ensure that patients receive the most effective therapy, at the right time, to slow or prevent the kidney failure requiring dialysis or transplant," Hiddo J.L. Heerspink, PRIME-CKD coordinator and University Medical Center Groningen researcher, said in a statement.
In October, London-based Renalytix reported $2.9 million in revenues for fiscal 2022 on growing demand for its KidneyIntelX blood-based assay for acute and chronic kidney disease detection.