American Kidney Fund Launches Patient Access Initiative to Address Gaps in Kidney Disease Health Care

ROCKVILLE, Md. (Nov. 3, 2022) — The American Kidney Fund (AKF) today announced the Patient Access Initiative, a new effort to better understand and address ongoing health care access issues faced by people with kidney disease, including rare kidney disease, and their caregivers.

"We know that a significant number of kidney disease patients have challenges accessing the proper care necessary to appropriately treat their chronic kidney disease, including kidney failure," said LaVarne A. Burton, AKF President and CEO. "We need to closely examine these obstacles, which can lead to life-threatening gaps in care, and develop actionable solutions so that we can slow the progression of kidney disease. Our new Patient Access Initiative represents a critical step toward addressing the crisis in kidney disease in America."

A multi-year effort, AKF will host an in-person Patient Access Summit in 2023 with the following objectives:

• Identifying existing, widespread obstacles and challenges to achieving patient access to innovative and effective treatments across the kidney care spectrum
• Collecting insights on the challenges patients and caregivers face while navigating public and private insurance coverage
• Understanding current resources used by patients and caregivers to get information about access to innovative and effective treatments
• Improving recognition of how racial, ethnic and socioeconomic challenges affect a patient's ability to access and afford innovative and effective treatments
• Creating strategies for improving provider education about new treatment innovations and equipping providers with tools to help patients access those innovations when approved
• Developing public policy solutions to patient access and affordability issues

AKF will establish a steering committee of public policy experts, advocacy professionals, industry stakeholders, health care providers and patients with experience in this area to review the current landscape, discuss barriers and solutions and help plan the summit and make recommendations for a path forward.

Initial funding for the Patient Access Initiative is made possible thanks to generous seed support from Travere Therapeutics, as well as Leadership Sponsor Novartis, Champion Sponsors Horizon Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and Supporting Sponsor Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease. Other sponsors are anticipated to join this growing effort.