CALGARY- Nov 29, 2012 – XORTX Pharma Corp. wishes to congratulate Dr. Beth Soletsky and Dr Daniel Fieg on the successful completion of their phase II clinical trial in adolescent hypertension entitled “Uric Acid Reduction Rectifies Prehypertension in Obese Adolescents” and publication of results in the prestigious journal Hypertension, 2012;60:1148.

The trial, a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled study, was conducted in adolescent patients with serum uric acid (SUA) ≥ 5 mg/dL, BMI > 95^th percentile and prehypertension. Increased serum uric acid is causative in early onset hypertension and a key concern in an estimated 80% of obese adolescents.   At the end of 8 weeks of treatment a clinically significant reduction of 10.1 mmHg in SBP and 8.4 mmHg in DBP were seen in patients treated with uric acid lowering agents (UALAs), compared to an increase of 1.7 mmHg and 1.6 mmHg in the placebo group (p<0.01).  Additionally, treatment with UALAs resulted in a significant decrease in systemic vascular resistance of 17.9%, compared to an 8.6% increase in placebo (p<0.05).

This important work demonstrates that lowering serum uric acid is a new, feasible therapeutic approach in the physician’s armament to treat chronically elevated serum uric acid in early stage hypertension.

Original Article: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/60/5/1148.abstract

About XORTX Pharma Corp. is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development and commercialization of therapies that will improve patient health throughout the world. XORTX Pharma Corp. has one primary program focused on the treatment of hypertension in adolescents with accompanying hyperuricemia.  Secondary programs include uric acid lowering agents to treat insulin resistance and a diagnostic for detection of susceptibility to dermal rash and Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.

XORTX Pharma Corp. is a privately held company. For more information, please visit our web site at www.xortx.com.

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