GenoMed's Message for First World Kidney Day: 90% of Kidney Failure in U.S. Can Be Prevented Now
Contact: David W. Moskowitz MD CEO, GenoMed tel. 314.983.9933 dwmoskowitz@genomed.com
ST. LOUIS—March 9, 2006--GenoMed (OTC Pink Sheets GMED.PK), a Next Generation Disease Management company whose business is public health, announced today on the eve of the first World Kidney Day that it can prevent up to 90% of chronic kidney disease in the United States.
In September, 2002, GenoMed published a peer-reviewed medical article showing how chronic kidney disease due to diabetes and high blood pressure could be prevented in a total of 1,000 white and black male veterans from St. Louis. In unpublished data, GenoMed's Chief Medical Officer has prevented kidney failure in 350 Hispanic men and women followed since July, 2001 at a free clinic in St. Louis (La Clinica).
Diabetes and high blood pressure account for 90% of kidney dialysis patients in the United States. Medicare currently spends about $25 billion annually on dialysis and kidney transplantation for about 300,000 patients with kidney failure. Since 2000, kidney failure has been increasing at an epidemic rate, 7% per year.
Recovery of kidney function is not possible once a patient is on dialysis. There is a very narrow window of opportunity when prevention is possible: before the patient has lost more than half of their kidney function, that is, when their serum creatinine is still less than 2. (A normal serum creatinine is 1; when it's 10, it's time for dialysis).
Patients are still being seen by their primary care providers below a serum creatinine of 2, and haven't yet seen a kidney doctor. So education of patients and their primary care providers--general internists and family practitioners--is absolutely critical.
Said Dr. David Moskowitz, GenoMed's CEO and Chief Medical Officer, "It is fitting that the first World Kidney Day should fall during America's National Patient Safety Week. People of color throughout the world, including the U.S., are even more affected by kidney failure than whites."
Dr. Moskowitz continued, "I am deeply honored to be named today a Defender of Patient Safety by Missouri Watch (http://www.missouriwatch.net). The only thing needed to keep patients off dialysis is just to let them know that it can be done. It's unfortunate that it has taken over three years for the news to get this far. A whole generation of patients who could have been kept off the kidney machine three years ago has gone on to dialysis and an early death."
About GenoMed
GenoMed discovers the genes that cause disease and uses this knowledge to improve patient outcomes. The company's primary commitment is to public health, which involves public education. In addition to having treatments for acute and chronic kidney failure, emphysema, and autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis and alopecia, GenoMed has developed a broad-spectrum anti-viral approach that is expected to work for avian influenza, and has already worked for West Nile virus. GenoMed's anti-viral treatment is specifically mentioned in BioShield II, scheduled for debate this summer in the US Senate (see Section 2151 of Senate bill S. 975). To enroll in GenoMed's free clinical trial for avian influenza or West Nile virus, which uses existing, extremely safe medication already present in every drug store on earth, just go to www.genomed.com and click on the link for either trial.
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