PRIME-CKD explained by Hiddo Lambers Heerspink

It was a breakthrough in treatment for people with chronic kidney damage a few years ago. By chance it was discovered that kidney patients benefit significantly from medications that lower blood sugar levels, originally developed for people with diabetes. These so-called SGLT2 inhibitors slow down the decline of kidney function and sometimes even halt it entirely – even in individuals without diabetes.

“Large studies show that these medicines work well,” says Hiddo Lambers Heerspink, professor of clinical pharmacology at the UMC Groningen. “But this is not or insufficiently the case in a number of people with chronic kidney damage. Patients also sometimes suffer from serious side effects. Why do people react differently to the same medications? That’s what we are going to investigate.” PRIME-CKD is an international partnership in which researchers, doctors, pharmaceutical companies and industrial parties join forces. The Dutch Kidney Foundation is also participating in PRIME-CKD. In this video, Hiddo Lambers Heerspink tells us more about this research project.