Doctors Discuss Controversial and Radical Solutions in a Bid to Alleviate the Kidney Organ Shortage

VIENNA, September 6 (PROTEXT/PRNewswire) - Transplantspecialists from around the world met yesterday to discusscontroversial, radical and novel approaches to minimise theimpact of the current organ shortage problem in a bid to helpdesperate patients in need of a kidney transplant. The full-daysymposium, which opened the XX International Congress of theTransplantation Society in Vienna, marked the launch of'Controversies in Renal Transplantation'. This is a new globalinitiative supported by Fujisawa and driven by an independentsteering committee, co-chaired by Professor Robert Gaston of theUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham, USA, and Associate ProfessorJonas Wadström of the University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden.

Kidney transplantation continues to be severely limited by alack of donors. With recent trends indicating a rapid growth inthe number ofpatients with end-stage renal disease requiring akidney transplant, it has become more important than ever toaddress the controversial aspects of renal transplantation in anera of organ shortage.

Sunday's meeting was entitled 'Controversies in RenalTransplantation: Organ Shortage - Narrowing the Gap'. Thedistinguished panel of experts drew upon existing medicalliterature and their own experiences to address important andthought-provoking questions, namely:- Who gets a transplant, who doesn't and who shouldn't?- How do we define candidacy in an era of limited resources?- Can we more effectively manage transplant waiting lists and the patients on them?- How do we deal with donor-recipient incompatibility and antibody-mediated rejection?- Should we embrace non-heart-beating donation?- How far can donor criteria be extended?- Should recipient risk factors influence the quality of the organ offered?

In his closing remarks, co-chair Associate Professor JonasWadström explained, "The shortage of kidneys has led thetransplant community to explore new and innovative practices andtechniques to expand the organ donor pool. Optimising donorallocation and utilising extended-criteria donors and non-heart-beating donors are just some of the avenues being explored to tryand navigate a way forward to help patients with end-stagerenal disease".

The 'Controversies in Renal Transplantation' initiative willrun for 3 years and will comprise a series of educationalmeetings to be held internationally. The goal of the programmeaims to generate discussion, education and awareness of thecontroversial aspects of kidney transplantation amongst themedical community and among patients and potential donors. Thisimportant initiative is the latest step in Fujisawa'spioneering activities to help expand the kidney-donor pool.Notes to Editors:

The 'Controversies in Renal Transplantation' initiativefollows a highly successful series of meetings on innovations inliving-donor kidney transplantation, also supported by Fujisawa.

The steering committee members are: Professor R.S. Gaston(Alabama, USA); Associate Professor J. Wadström (Uppsala,Sweden); Professor U.A. Frei (Berlin, Germany); Professor A.J.Matas (Minneapolis, USA); Professor M.L. Nicholson (Leicester,UK); and Dr A. Sugitani (Fukuoka, Japan).

More information is available at http://www.livekidney.com ormedia@fujisawa.de

Fujisawa GmbH is a subsidiary of Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd., based in Osaka, Japan. Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. isamong the world's top 30 pharmaceutical companies and employsover 8000 people in Japan, Europe, North America and Asia. Sinceits launch of Prograf(r) in Japan in 1993, the first in theworld, Fujisawa has become one of the world's leading transplantand immunosuppression companies.

Fujisawa plans to maintain its commitment to transplantation,and is dedicated both to improving the results of solid-organtransplantation and to ensuring the health and quality of life ofpatients. Prograf(r) is currently available in nearly 70countries and forms the centerpiece of Fujisawa's continuinggrowth. Additional information on Fujisawa GmbH can befound on the Company's Web site at http://www.fujisawaeurope.com.http://www.fujisawaeurope.comSource: Fujisawa GmbHMarite Ode, Fujisawa GmbH, PR+Communications, T: +49-89-45442249,F: +49-89-45442030, media@fujisawa.de

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