Lawmakers push for more funding on chronic kidney disease treatment

Bipartisan lawmakers on Wednesday called for increased technological innovation towards chronic kidney disease treatment and prevention.

Advocating for more funding for kidney disease research, Reps. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) and Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) spoke at The Hill’s “Kidney Disease and the Road to Saving Lives” event on Wednesday.

Bucshon and DelBene, co-chairs of the Congressional Kidney Caucus, spoke to The Hill’s Steve Clemons about the fight against chronic kidney disease in the United States.

“We need to do more,” DelBene said at the event sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation. “We need to make sure that patients can be at home, we need to look at areas of transplant. There’s great work happening on artificial kidneys and those need investments to continue that research.”

“We need to make sure people have access to all the tools that are available to them,” DelBene added.

The two lawmakers said they support a partnership between the Department of Health and Human Services and the American Society of Nephrology, known as Kidney X, that aims to “accelerate innovation in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of kidney diseases.”

The program, partially supported by congressional funds, has “funded over 60 innovators with solutions ranging from patient created tools to the first prototypes of an artificial kidney that could replace the need for dialysis,” DelBene said.

Bucshon added that the Renal Anemia Innovation Support and Expansion Act, designed to help treat iron deficient patients with chronic kidney disease, is “an area of opportunity to get people better equipped to do this themselves and in their own homes.”

It “will have a dramatic impact on their quality of life,” he said.

.@RepLarryBucshon on Chronic Kidney Disease: “If you want find a place where you can substantially impact peoples lives, the lives of their families, and maybe cut down the expense we have as a society on healthcare, this should be a focus” #TheHillKidneys https://t.co/4dqhzE1Q6y pic.twitter.com/S9jE2ULxdU

— The Hill Events (@TheHillEvents) October 13, 2021