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FDA Approves Tacrolimus for Lung Transplants

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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of the transplant drug tacrolimus (Progaf) for the prevention of organ rejection in adult and pediatric patients receiving lung transplants. This is the only immunosuppressant drug approved for this patient population.

Tacrolimus has been routinely prescribed to lung transplant recipients for the past 15 to 20 years and is “the primary calcineurin inhibitor used as the backbone of immunosuppression for lung transplants,” Joshua Diamond, MD, associate medical director of the Penn Lung Transplant Program at Penn Medicine, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, told Medscape Medical News in an interview.

Read more, here.

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CareDx To Acquire Transplant Hero Medication Management App – M&A

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The acquisition of Transplant Hero builds on AlloCare, the comprehensive CareDx mobile health app for managing the day-to-day health of patients before and after transplant. Transplant Hero strengthens CareDx’s focus on the transplant patient journey and adds to its growing digital portfolio which includes a robust suite of cloud-based solutions and software for transplant centers and dialysis providers.

Read more here.

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Prescription Discount and Assistance Resources

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“Use the card to receive discounts on prescriptions while helping fight kidney disease at the same time. All medications are eligible for savings, including pet meds! Every time you save using the card, the National Kidney Foundation will receive a donation from Watertree Health, at no cost to you.”

Check out more information about the program, here.

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Does Timing Matter When Taking Anti-Rejection Medications for Your Transplanted Kidney or Heart?

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Having an organ transplant can feel like a new lease on life!

You find that you can suddenly do more of the things that you enjoy. However, new recipients are sometimes overwhelmed with all the requirements of post-transplant living.

Protecting your new gift requires some discipline and consistency. As a new transplant recipient, you become keenly aware of things like:

  • Water-intake levels
  • Urine-output measurements
  • Changes in weight
  • Blood-pressure levels
  • Blood-sugar levels

To maintain the health of your transplanted organ, it is important that you take your immunosuppressant (anti-rejection) medications, but also at the same times each day.

Anti-rejection medications help to tame your body’s ability to attack and potentially damage your transplanted organ. To accomplish this, however, anti-rejection medications need to be taken:

  • Every day
  • At the same times

Read the full article, here.

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American Kidney Fund Statement on CBO Score for H.R. 5534, Comprehensive Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage for Kidney Transplant Patients Act of 2020

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“The American Kidney Fund is pleased with the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) scoring of H.R. 5534, the Comprehensive Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage for Kidney Transplant Patients Act of 2020, which estimates the bill will reduce direct federal spending on Medicare benefits for some kidney transplant patients by $400 million over 10 years.

“H.R. 5534 will add a new Medicare coverage option solely to cover immunosuppressive drugs used by kidney transplant patients under age 65. People with transplants must take immunosuppressive drugs or their body will reject the transplanted organ. For people with a kidney transplant, the devastating impact of losing their kidney means they will have to go on dialysis or try to find another kidney-a daunting task with close to 100,000 people on the wait list.”

Read the full statement by AKF, here.

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