GenoMed, Inc. Announces Drug Therapy that Delays Kidney Disease
ST. LOUIS, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- GenoMed, Inc. (OTC Pink Sheets: GMED) ("the Company" or "GenoMed"), a St.
Louis, Missouri-based medical genomics biotechnology company, announced today a new drug treatment that delays the progression of kidney disease caused by type 2 diabetes (adult-onset diabetes).
Based on pilot data over three years conducted by Dr. David Moskowitz, GenoMed's Chairman and Chief Medical Officer, the drug regimen slowed the rate of progression of renal disease due to type 2 diabetes by 200 percent in African-American men and 50 percent in Caucasian men. The disease was reversed altogether when patients were treated early in the course of the disease -- before their serum creatinine, a standard measurement of kidney function, reached 2 milligrams per deciliter.
Moskowitz gave the patients a high dose of a specific ACE inhibitor. Beginning in 1993, he discovered that ACE -- angiotensin I-converting enzyme -- is a "master" disease gene that is associated with approximately 40 common,
serious diseases such as kidney disease and other complications of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and its complications, emphysema, congestive heart failure and even some psychiatric diseases and common types of cancer
such as colon, prostate, and lung. Drugs used against this enzyme are called ACE inhibitors. "We've identified a correlation between the ACE gene and many common diseases," Moskowitz said. "What makes the association so powerful is
our clinical outcomes data."
With the new treatment, the time to kidney dialysis for African-American men increased from 3.3 years to an average of 9.3 years; treatment for Caucasian men extended the time to dialysis from 2.7 years to 4.0 years. The data suggests that if this new treatment were started early enough, both
African-American and Caucasian patients with diabetes would never need dialysis.
According to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine (9/20/01), the annual cost of care for patients in the United States with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is more than $18 billion, and accounts for six percent of the
Medicare budget. The leading causes of ESRD are diabetes and hypertension. ESRD is a chronic, incurable condition; the 10-year survival rate is approximately 13 percent.
Moskowitz says that using existing drugs for new clinical indications is, in many cases, the quickest and least expensive way to improve a patient's condition. "It usually takes 10-15 years and hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a new drug before it meets FDA approval," Moskowitz said. "Using this new regimen with an existing ACE inhibitor can delay a patient's renal failure and need for dialysis. This regimen should reduce the high cost of treating ESRD."
Moskowitz, a nephrologist trained at Harvard, Oxford and Washington University in St. Louis, left a career as a staff physician at the St. Louis VA Medical Center and assistant professor at Saint Louis University School of
Medicine to start GenoMed, a biotech genomics company. "The promise of GenoMed is to improve patients' quality of life and to save money by identifying genes which cause disease," Moskowitz said. "We have compelling
data that is immediately valuable to patients, their physicians, and their health care payors, and offers immediate cost savings."
Dr. George Griffing, director of the division of general internal medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, said, "GenoMed's findings offer great hope to patients with certain devastating diseases, and dramatic
opportunity for cost savings."
Type 2 diabetes is nearing epidemic proportions, due to increasing numbers of older Americans and more obesity and sedentary lifestyles, according to the American Diabetes Association. Almost six percent of the American population
has diabetes, and type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 to 95 percent of those suffering from the disease.
"I'm excited because our initial data is so promising. The challenge now is to reach health care companies and large employers who can capitalize on the clinical and financial outcomes for patients," Moskowitz said.
The science of genomics promises to extend and improve life by identifying genes which cause disease, and then developing drugs to counteract the effects of these disease-causing genes.
About GenoMed
GenoMed is a biotech genomics company based in St. Louis, Missouri, that
is working to translate knowledge of disease genes into better patient
outcomes as rapidly and safely as possible. The company's primary work is
genotyping disease specimens, and GenoMed expects to complete four million
genotypes in 2002. Building on its initial discoveries and success, GenoMed
is dedicated to (1) identifying additional disease-associated genes; (2)
working on new treatments using existing drugs; and, (3) developing new drugs
specifically designed against disease-causing genes. GenoMed's stock ticker
symbol is GMED.
For additional information specific to the new treatment, please visit
www.genomedics.com and contact Craig Hall at 941.366.6677 or e-mail at
chall@floridafunds.com for a GenoMed investor package. |
