Hi Eqz, I had a look at AKF free screening “Know you Kidneys”;...

Hi Eqz,

I had a look at AKF free screening “Know you Kidneys”; it’s very basic & depending on the test centre, offers BP, blood glucose test & eGFR (blood test). So an indicator that you need to see your Dr for more in depth screening. It’s possible they may offer this, as you are going to miss a whole bunch of diabetic people who may still be asymptomatic & in that stage where kidney damage is occurring but not showing up yet in screening. If you are drawing blood for eGFR, it would be very simple to use the sample for 2 seperate tests.

It’s a no brainer that Janssen with be giving AKF funding to increase their awareness campaign (in particular for the link between diabetes, kidney disease & cardiovascular disease) & free screening. Great advertisement for Invokana (prescription drugs can be advertised in the USA). They may even do showbags lol.

Looking at this in the context of the US health system, I think there would be quite a large percentage of the population who don’t have adequate health insurance cover & avoid going to a Dr for fear of costs, so these free screenings would be important to help address the kidney disease burden on their health system & these patients falling through the cracks.

It’s certainly pointing in the direction that PromarkerD may become a companion diagnostic test for Invokana & whether this will be available through AKF, I don’t know, but Janssen (J&J) are very big on injecting funds into community programmes & research (obviously there is mutual benefit to them with scripts); they have just pledged $500 million for the fight against HIV & TB.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/johnson--johnson-commits-500-million-investment-over-four-years-to-help-end-the-epidemics-of-hiv-and-tuberculosis-300931193.html

The AKF article did not give specific details of how Janssen will be assisting them, but if the above announcement is anything to go by, I think the assistance will be big, as there are many more people with diabetes & kidney disease than HIV/TB & they have the magic bullet to treat it.

Pretty smart to maximise their exclusivity in the market now for drug indication of Diabetic CKD/CV through these programmes, because other big pharmas are on their tail with FDA applications for the same indication in the SGLT2 Inhibitor class of drugs.

Have a great day all