Shares in Renalytix PLC (AIM:RENX, OTC:RNLXY, FRA:2O9) climbed 24% to 2.35p after the precision diagnostics company published two-year data showing its kidney disease test was linked to lasting improvements in patient health.
The study of 2,470 patients with type 2 diabetes and early-stage chronic kidney disease was carried out across two US health systems, Mount Sinai in New York and Wake Forest/Atrium Health in North Carolina.
It assessed the company's kidneyintelX.dkd test, which Renalytix describes as the only test of its kind with US Food and Drug Administration approval and Medicare reimbursement for early-stage kidney disease risk assessment.
The test uses blood-based biomarkers to predict how a patient's kidney disease is likely to progress, helping doctors decide how intensively to treat them.
The results, published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, found that 29% of patients who were retested moved into a lower risk category over the two years.
Patients designated high risk at the outset were 10.4 times more likely to suffer significant decline in kidney function or kidney failure than low-risk patients.
The company said the data showed the test changed the course of disease over a full two-year period, which it described as a first for a kidney prognostic tool.
Use of SGLT2 inhibitors, a class of drugs that protect the kidneys and heart, rose across all patient groups, reaching 56% in high-risk patients.
The rate of decline in kidney function improved by 43% from baseline to two years.
Renalytix said no comparable risk assessment tool exists with the same regulatory and reimbursement status.
