January 2021 OTS Meeting Recap: Dr. Joseph Leventhal

On Friday, January 15, 2021, OTS held a special meeting to present information on a Phase 3 clinical study for kidney transplant patients.  We were thrilled to present our speaker, Dr. Joseph Leventhal, the Chief of Organ Transplantation in the Department of Surgery at  Northwestern Hospital.   Northwestern is the only transplant center in Illinois to participate in the Freedom 1 study, which is organized by Teleris Therapeutics.

The Freedom 1 study is a 5 year, randomly, controlled, multi-center investigation of a therapy that can eliminate the need for anti-rejection drugs in living donor kidney transplant recipients.  The therapy, called FCR001, uses stem cells which are collected from the donor and given to the kidney transplant recipient. 

Dr. Leventhal explained the results of the Phase 2 study on this therapy.  In the Phase 2 study 37 patients received the FCR001 therapy along with a kidney transplant.  26 of the 37 patients (705) were able to get off all immunosuppressant medications within 36-126 months.  This therapy also showed that these patients had significantly better renal function, lower need for meds to control hypertension, and the patients reported a better quality of life.  This cell therapy was the first successful demonstration of durable chimerism and tolerance in mismatched unrelated kidney transplant recipients. 

This Phase 3 clinical study has started at 10 transplant centers across the country.  The centers are enrolling patients in this study now.  To learn more about this study, including the study locations and eligibility criteria, please go to this website:  www.freedom1study.com.

Organ Transplant Support sincerely thanks Dr. Leventhal for presenting this important information at the  meeting on January 15.