The COVID-19 pandemic has brought concerns to the CKD community, including the patients, caregivers, and medical professionals, due to the lack of research on COVID-19 and chronic kidney disease (CKD). The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) and 27 other organizations in the kidney community wrote a letter to request supplemental research funding for the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease (NIDDK).* In response, on July 27, 2020, the Senate released a bill that included $200 million to be used on COVID-19 research.** 

Why is research funding needed?

Many people with kidney disease have weakened immune systems and, therefore, are at a higher risk for experiencing severe symptoms if a virus, like COVID-19, is contracted. Recent reports show 15-20% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients developed acute kidney injury (AKI), or sudden kidney failure, which demonstrated a link between the novel COVID-19 virus and the kidneys. Based on this connection, a couple of trends have become increasingly prominent in kidney medicine, too—primarily the increased need for both telehealth services and home-based care.

What does the ASN want the funding to go towards?

The ASN requested emergency funding for two separate organizations: the NIDDK and KidneyX. KidneyX is an innovation accelerator that has a prize competition, called Redesign Dialysis, to catalyze “the development of wearable or implantable artificial kidney technologies that with appropriate support could be ready for regulatory consideration within 3 years.”

One such benefit of an artificial kidney would allow dialysis patients to safely receive care at home instead of sitting near other immunocompromised patients for 12 to 16 hours every week at a dialysis clinic. With the requested $200 million worth of funding, KidneyX would increase the prize purses to draw in more attention from private investors.  

ASN also requested $100 million to go towards kidney research by the NIDDK.

The goals of this research are to address the: 

• links between COVID-19 and the kidneys; 
• susceptibility of CKD patients to get COVID-19; and 
• CKD patients’ response to vaccines and medications developed to treat COVID-19. 

What was Congress’ response?

While Congress failed to release funding for either organization in previous funding packages, the Senate’s supplemental bill, which was released on July 27, 2020, included $200 million for the NIDDK “to explore several research opportunities it identified on the negative effects COVID-19 has on kidneys and people living with kidney disease.”

In related news, the Senate also recently proposed $154 million in funding for the NIDDK to perform COVID-19 research, too, which appeared as an Emergency Supplemental package for the 2021 Fiscal year spending bill by the House Labor, Health, and Human Services Subcommittee on Appropriations.

As the most recent Kidney News article states, “the next objective for the kidney community will be ensuring that COVID-19 funding allocated to NIDDK is appropriately dedicated to kidney research, reflecting COVID-19’s disproportionate burden on kidney patients and the kidney injury it causes.” 

*Murray, R. (2020, May 20). ASN Leads Kidney Community Letter to Congress on Emergency Supplemental Funding for NIDDK and KidneyX | Kidney News. KidneyNews. https://www.kidneynews.org/policy-advocacy/leading-edge/asn-leads-kidney-community-letter-to-congress-on-emergency-supplemental-funding-niddk-and-kidneyx 

**ASN Policy Staff. (2020, Aug. 3). Latest Senate COVID-19 Package Includes $200M in Supplemental Funding for NIDDK. KidneyNews.