Abbott Laboratories announced the launch of a multi-million dollar global research effort to study the effects of D-Receptor activation in patients with chronic kidney disease. This research will be conducted to evaluate whether active vitamin D therapy has cardiovascular and renal protective effects in chronic kidney disease patients.

The new program builds on data being presented today at the American Society of Nephrology annual meeting in San Diego, as well as new treatment guidelines from the National Kidney Foundation that emphasize the importance of regulating levels of active vitamin D to prevent bone disease and other mineral metabolism disorders in patients with chronic kidney disease.

"The area of D-Receptor activation is ripe for study, particularly in light of outcomes data we are presenting at the American Society of Nephrology meeting on dialysis patients who receive active vitamin D therapy compared to those who do not," said Ravi Thadhani, MD, M.P.H., director of clinical research in nephrology at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

"Our data suggests that understanding the mechanisms that result from activation at the receptor level is a key – if not the key – question we need to answer to really help the millions of patients who suffer from chronic kidney disease. This research is designed to help answer that question," said Thadhani.

Abbott's new worldwide research program will involve a number of preclinical and clinical studies designed to examine the effects of D-Receptor activation on cardiovascular outcomes and renal protection in chronic kidney disease patients.

Today, more than 20 million Americans, or one in nine adults, suffer from chronic kidney disease, and approximately 65,000 Americans die from kidney failure each year. Another 20 million are at increased risk of developing kidney disease, and the population of people with kidney failure is increasing by 6 to 7 per cent annually.

"Research on the therapeutic value of D-Receptor activation is one of the things our work group identified as critical to improving the management of our patients across the continuum of chronic kidney disease care," said National Kidney Foundation CEO John Davis.

While previous studies on D-Receptor Activators have focused almost entirely on the treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism, this new research program will examine the broader effects of D-Receptor activation.

"Given what we know about the significance of vitamin D, it is important to study the effects of D-Receptor activation in chronic kidney disease and to better understand the potential therapeutic implications," said Michael Holick, MD, Ph.D., professor of medicine, dermatology, physiology, and biophysics at Boston University Medical Center and one of the nation's leading vitamin D experts.

"Data surrounding D-Receptors is provocative and allows for greater mechanistic insights, so much so that we have significantly broadened the scope of our research programs in this area," said Laura Williams, M.D., M.P.H., global project head for Abbott's renal research program. "This research effort has the potential to offer significant additional health-related benefits."