Shire move to improve CKD management adherence

Shire Pharmaceuticals, the US subsidiary of UK-based Shire, has announced the launch of On Track, an innovative program designed to improve adherence to disease management regimens among chronic kidney disease Stage 5 patients with hyperphosphatemia (elevated levels of phosphorus in the blood). In addition to offering the highly effective phosphate binder, Fosrenol (lanthanum carbonate), Shire has created On Track, a program designed to provide resources to patients, health care professionals and renal care teams that can help them collectively identify "real world" solutions to adherence-related challenges.

About half of all CKD Stage 5 patients fail to attain serum phosphorus control, and poor adherence is a primary barrier preventing them from achieving success. In fact, up to 73% of subjects are repeatedly non-compliant to phosphate binder therapy. Specifically, 30% have decided not to fill one or more prescriptions due to costs and/or lack of transportation to the pharmacy, while 21% of CKD Stage 5 patients admit to not taking medicines as prescribed due to side effects, cost, and the belief that they already take "too many" drugs. This is not surprising, since CKD Stage 5 patients are prescribed an average of 12 different products for concurrent medical conditions.