FDA Clears Test to Help Patients With Kidney Transplants

FDA has cleared a test to help manage potential organ rejection in kidney transplant patients.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared a test to help manage potential organ rejection in kidney transplant patients. The test, called QMS Everolimus Immunoassay, helps doctors monitor the drug levels in the blood,  so that the toxic side effects will not hurt the transplanted kidneys. More than 87,000 patients are awaiting a kidney transplant in the U.S..

Everolimus, marketed under the trade name Zortress, was approved by FDA in April 2010 for use in adult kidney transplant patients who are at low-to-moderate immunologic risk.

Transplant patients are routinely given drugs that suppress the immune system