Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects an estimated 10% of the world, which is just under 800 million people.
According to the US-based National Kidney Foundation, 90% of people affected by the disease don’t know they have it at the early stages, allowing it to progress undetected.
In some cases, CKD is caught only at “end stage,” when kidneys are failing and require either a transplant or dialysis — a grueling, weekly procedure to remove waste and excess fluid from the blood. The average survival rate of dialysis patients is five years.
Curespec, based in Yehud-Monosson in Israel, claims its unique device, Nephrospec, can postpone the dialysis treatment of stage three and four CKD patients by up to 12 months.
The treatment promotes new blood-vessel formation and restores damaged tissue function after six painless treatment sessions over a three-week period.
“There is currently no cure for CKD, only medication that can slow its progress,” Curespec CEO Rotem Kaynan tells ISRAEL21c.
Kaynan, a biomedical engineer, says the startup is hoping that one day Nephrospec could keep CKD patients off dialysis indefinitely.
“CKD patients are normally in a constant state of deterioration. Our expectation is that with this treatment, they remain in the maintenance stage for as long as possible.”
Keep reading at israel21c.org.
Curespec is a biotech company working to improve treatments for chronic kidney disease and hypertension. Company CEO Rotem Kaynan is a Technion alumnus.
