Mayo Clinic, Summa Health partner on liver and kidney disease study

Mayo Clinic and Summa Health System are collaborating on a study on treating polycystic liver and kidney disease.

The research will focus on Apatone, a drug from San Diego-based IC-MedTech that’s also being investigated for treating cancer and joint inflammation.

As the name would suggest, polycystic liver and kidney disease is a disorder in which clusters of noncanerous cysts develop on those organs. Symptoms can include high blood pressure, back or side pain and headaches.

Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic will conduct preclinical and possibly eventually clinical research on the drug’s treatment of polycystic liver and kidney disease, while Summa researchers will lend their expertise.

The drug is nothing new to Summa, which has been researching it for year in its Apatone Development Center in Akron, Ohio.

“We first studied Apatone as a supplement for cancer treatment. It’s currently being researched in a clinical trial for patients with chronically painful joints as a result of a prosthetic knee implant, and now we’re looking at a potential application for polycystic liver and kidney disease,” said Steven Schmidt, vice president of clinical research and innovation for Summa.

IC-MedTech began enrollment for a phase 2b clinical study of Apatone, evaluating pain relief in patients with total knee replacements.