The number of living kidney donors now outnumbers deceased donors in transplantation and is predicted to rise

VENICE (Italy) 22th September (PROTEXT) - Data presented today at the 11th Congress of the European Society for Organ Transplantation in Venice, show that in the US the number of living donors now exceeds the number who donate following their death, with the proportion of the total predicted to increase. The data was announced at the start of the congress at a major symposium sponsored by Fujisawa entitled Living Donor Kidney Transplantation 2003: Looking to the Future, one of a series of activities in a major global initiative sponsored by Fujisawa, which aims to help the transplant community educate and raise awareness of the issues involved, and to encourage debate into all aspects of living donation. Greater focus has been placed on living-donation of organs as the number of people requiring a kidney transplant greatly exceeds the number of donor organs available. Indeed, as transplantation has become more and more successful, the numbers and types of people who are now considered possible candidates to benefit from a transplant has grown, and demand for donor organs is expected to continue to far exceed organ availability. The latest data available (up to the end of 2001) show that 52% of donors were living donors and that the number increased by an average of 12% each year in the previous five years, compared with 2% from deceased (cadaveric) donors. In contrast, during the same period the number of patients on the cadaveric organ waiting list increased by 11% per year.(1) It is now common for partners, distant relatives and friends to donate a kidney, as well as siblings, parents and children. This has been made possible due in part to the recent advances in immunosuppressive therapy, including Fujisawa's Prograf(r) (tacrolimus). Fujisawa is committed to supporting the transplant community in addressing the continued medical, personal, and ethical issues associated with living donation, now that donation of organs from a broader range of altruistic donors has been made technically feasible. More information on living kidney donation can be found under www.livekidney.com Fujisawa GmbH is a subsidiary of Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., based in Osaka, Japan. Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. is among the world's top 30 pharmaceutical companies and employs over 8000 people in Japan, Europe, North America and Asia. Since its launch of Prograf(r) in Japan in 1993, the first in the world, Fujisawa has become one of the world's leading transplant and immunosuppression companies. Fujisawa plans to maintain its commitment to transplantation, and is dedicated both to improving the results of solid-organ transplantation and to ensuring the health and quality of life of patients. Prograf(r) is currently available in nearly 70 countries and forms the centerpiece of Fujisawa's continuing growth. Additional information on Fujisawa GmbH can be found on the Company's Web site at www.fujisawaeurope.com. References: (1). 2002 Annual Report of the U.S. Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients and the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. www.optn.org/data/annualreport.asp Marité Ode, Fujisawa GmbH, Munich, Germany, tel +49 89 45442249 or fax +49 89 434129 or email media@fujisawa.de Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug "PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to be published under the "CTK" slug. Protext is a commercial service providing distribution of press releases from clients, who are identified in the text of Protext reports and who bear full responsibility for their contents. PROTEXT