AstraZeneca Korea and Abbott said they would collaborate to provide a more systemic treatment and management of diabetic kidney disease in Korea.

The Korean unit of AstraZeneca and Abbott Rapid Diagnostics Korea signed a partnership agreement to improve the treatment environment for diabetic kidney disease patients on Tuesday.

AstraZeneca Korea supplies blockbuster diabetic drugs such as Forxiga (dapagliflozin) and Onglyza (saxagliptin), and Abbott, point-of-care testing kit Afinion 2 Analyzer.

According to Shim il, director of the Cardiovascular, Renal, and Metabolism Business Unit at AstraZeneca Korea, 30 percent of Korean diabetic patients suffer from diabetic kidney disease.

However, the kidney screening rate is still too low, despite many guidelines’ emphasis on early detection and treatment, he said.

“Through co-promotion with Abbott, we will maximize the two companies’ synergy effects and establish a management system to detect and treat diabetic kidney disease early,” he added.

According to the Diabetes Fact Sheet 2002, published by the Korean Diabetes Association, the number of Korean diabetic patients nearly doubled to 5.7 million in 2020 from 3.2 million in 2012.

About 30 percent of type-2 diabetic patients accompany kidney disease, meaning that one-third of Korean diabetic patients have a problem with kidney function.

Diabetic patients have an average annual glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) that decreases two times faster than those without diabetes, and the 10-year kidney survival rate for diabetic nephropathy patients is very low at 40 percent. Accordingly, the importance of managing kidney disease and diabetes together is increasing.

However, the awareness and diagnosis rate of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is significantly low.

According to the Korean Society of Nephrology, the number of CKD patients is steadily rising with an average annual growth of 9 percent. Still, only 4.4 percent of the total estimated CKD patients received treatment in 2017.