Keryx Biopharmaceuticals announced that the final dataset from the phase III short-term clinical trial of Zerenex (ferric citrate) for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia in end-stage renal disease patients on dialysis has been selected for oral presentation at the upcoming National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Spring Clinical Meetings, to be held April 26-30, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Zerenex data will be presented by David S Goldfarb, MD, Chief of Nephrology, New York VA Medical Centre, Professor of Medicine & Physiology, NYU School of Medicine, in a presentation entitled “Advantages and Disadvantages of Existing Phosphate Binders.” This presentation will be the first part in a session entitled “Future Directions and Challenges for Phosphate Binders.” The session will take place on Thursday, April 28, 2011, 8:00am - 8:30am PT.

In accordance with the company's Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) agreement with the FDA, the phase III clinical programme for Zerenex consists of two clinical studies, the completed short-term study, and a long-term safety and efficacy study that is currently ongoing.

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals is focused on the acquisition, development and commercialization of medically important pharmaceutical products for the treatment of cancer and renal disease and is developing KRX-0401 (perifosine), a novel, potentially first-in-class, oral anti-cancer agent that inhibits Akt activation in the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway, and also affects a number of other key signal transduction pathways, including the JNK pathway, all of which are pathways associated with programmed cell death, cell growth, cell differentiation and cell survival.