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A multi-center study led by the University of Alabama at Birmingham has found that the least expensive kidney organ-rejection drug is as safe and effective as two more costly drugs.

The work is being published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Michael Hanaway, a surgeon in UAB’s division of abdominal transplantation, is the lead author.

“We have now answered a very important question for the transplant community,” Hanaway said of the study.

The three drugs are antibody preparations that act as intensive immunosuppressants. They are given intravenously in the operating room at the time of the transplant or soon after transplantation.

The study followed 474 patients from 30 U.S. transplant centers for three years. Researchers found that the drug alemtuzumab, which costs about $2,000 per patient, worked better or the same as the drug basiliximab, which costs about $4,000, and rabbit antithymocyte globulin, which costs $10,000.

Based on early results, UAB transplant surgeons began using alemtuzumab three years ago. Alemtuzumab monoclonal antibody was originally approved for lymphoma treatment. It has been around for a decade, but its safety and effectiveness had never been studied for kidney transplants in a multi-center study.

The odd names, alemtuzumab and basiliximab, derive from a standard scientific naming scheme that researchers use for monoclonal antibodies.

Co-authors of the study come from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, St. Barnabas Health Care System in West Orange, N.J., the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Astellas Pharma.

Join the conversation by clicking to comment or email Jeff Hansen at jhansen@bhamnews.com.

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