Purpose-built for physicians
In December 2021, the FDA approved the first therapy indicated to treat primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy. Since then, several novel drugs have received accelerated approval for the disease, and more are in the pipeline.
“In just the last few years, there’s been an explosion in therapies available to us,” Jackson Kim, MD, clinical assistant professor in the division of nephrology at Stanford Health Care, told Healio.
Kim, who graduated from medical school in 2017, said he was taught that immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy “was not a big deal.” The disease progressed slowly, if at all, and was treated with kidney supportive measures.
“At the time, it was poorly understood, and traditional teaching hadn’t caught up to what [researchers] were realizing: that it wasn’t such a benign disease,” he said. “Since then, we’ve undergone a big change. It turns out that a significant portion of these patients will end up with kidney failure. Early on, all we had were steroids. These [new] therapies have certainly changed the landscape.”
