Insights from IIgANN 2025 in Prague: Advancing the Science and Shaping the Future of IgA Nephropathy
Chris Christodoulou, Senior Manager, Scientific and Medical Affairs
The IIgANN 2025 Symposium, hosted in the historic city of Prague, brought together global experts in nephrology, translational science, clinical development, and patient advocacy. Professor Vladimir Tesăr and Professor Jonathan Barratt, both part of the organizing committee, as well as many worldwide key opinion leaders who served as main speakers and panelists, made this event a catalyst for deeper collaboration in tackling IgA nephropathy (IgAN)
Emerald Clinical Trials at IIgANN
Emerald Clinical Trials’ Scientific, Medical, and Clinical Affairs team—represented by Claudio Hegenberger, Vice President of Scientific and Medical Affairs, and Chris Christodoulou, Senior Manager of Scientific and Medical Affairs—joined by Business Development Director, Oz Sahin—attended IIgANN 2025 to remain closely engaged with the latest advancements in IgAN research and patient advocacy. Through meaningful discussions with sponsors, investigators, patient advocacy organizations, and key opinion leaders, the team identified several promising areas for future collaboration:
- Opportunities for patient-centric trial design, especially around burden reduction and meaningful endpoints
- Interest in biomarker-based trial enrichment and early signal detection
- Potential partnerships for real-world evidence generation and registry-based studies
Our team had the opportunity to connect with Emerald Clinical Scientific Leaders Dr. Chee Kay Cheung, Dr. Richard Lafayette, Dr. Irene Noronha, Professor Vlado Perkovic, Professor Hernán Trimarchi, and Professor Muh Geot Wong, as well as other key opinion leaders Dr. Raphaël Duivenvoorden, Professor Jürgen Floege, Professor Loreto Gesualdo, Dr. Ali Gharavi, Professor Nicolas Maillard, Dr. Dana Rizk, Professor Yusuke Suzuki, Professor Vladimir Tesăr, and Professor Hong Zhang — all of whose work continues to shape the IgAN research landscape.
Key Scientific & Strategic Highlights
We’ve captured some of the key highlights from the meeting—insights that will shape future research and innovation in IgAN. With approximately 40% of patients progressing to kidney failure within 20 years, the need for earlier intervention and risk-adapted clinical trial designs that account for disease heterogeneity has never been greater. We look forward to working with our Scientific Leaders to conduct studies that address these challenges and bring renewed hope and improved quality of life to patients around the world
Biomarkers & Translational Research
The role of biomarkers in early diagnosis, risk stratification, and targeted treatment continues to gain momentum. One of the meeting highlights was the update to the International IgA Nephropathy Prediction Tool.
Data from national registries also offered new insights into histological predictors of progression. For example, glomerular C3 staining emerged as a potential independent marker of decline in kidney function, further supporting the role of histopathology in personalized treatment planning.
The role of complement activation, not just within the glomerulus but also systemically, was explored in depth, highlighting new avenues for therapeutic targeting across both the alternative and lectin pathways. Discussions also touched on trial methodology, real-world feasibility, and how registries can support next-generation evidence development.
Patient Voice & Real-World Impact
The meeting also reinforced the growing role of the patient voice in shaping the future of IgAN research. A dedicated Patient Panel, hosted by the IgAN Foundation, addressed key challenges such as quality of life, access to diagnosis and treatment, and the real-world burden of living with a chronic rare disease.
Speakers emphasized the importance of incorporating patient-relevant outcomes into protocol development and endpoint selection, moving toward co-created clinical research. Industry symposia echoed this shift, with real patient stories grounding scientific discussions in lived experience.
KDIGO Guidelines: A Shift Toward Risk-Based, Individualized Treatment
Although not formally presented in the scientific program, the final updated KDIGO guidelines for IgA nephropathy were published during the IIgANN 2025 symposium and referenced widely throughout the meeting. These updates reflect a significant evolution — from traditional supportive care toward risk-adapted, disease-specific therapy. The guidelines emphasize the use of validated risk prediction tools, early introduction of renin–angiotensin system inhibitors and SGLT2 inhibitors, and more selective use of immunosuppressive or targeted therapies based on individual progression risk. This shift is expected to drive changes in both clinical practice and clinical trial design, encouraging more personalized and proactive disease management.
Pediatrics: Addressing Early-Onset IgAN
Pediatric IgA nephropathy received focused attention at IIgANN 2025, with discussions highlighting the unique clinical course, diagnostic challenges, and long-term implications of early-onset disease. Presentations emphasized that while some children experience a mild course, others face an elevated risk of progression, underscoring the need for age-specific risk stratification tools and treatment approaches. Ongoing efforts to include pediatric populations in future trials were strongly supported, along with calls for more robust longitudinal data to guide care in younger patients.
Looking Ahead: Emerald Clinical Trials’ Continued Involvement in IgAN Trials
Connecting with our Scientific Leaders and other key opinion leaders (KOLs) at IIgANN 2025 was important to the Scientific, Medical, and Clinical Affairs team at Emerald Clinical. As leaders in renal research, we take pride in our continued contributions to advancing the field. For more than two decades, we have had the privilege of helping sponsors conduct the research that is advancing the diagnosis and treatment of IgAN and bringing new hope to patients. Our commitment remains steadfast—to collaborate with scientific leaders and foster new discoveries that will shape the next 20 years of innovation.
At Emerald Clinical we continue to conduct trials that are designed to answer the right scientific questions, address genuine unmet medical needs, recruit the most appropriate patients, and help provide the data that will be most likely to achieve regulatory approval and commercialization. Our mission has always been to ensure that innovative treatments reach patients in need around the world. We are proud to stand alongside our Scientific Leaders and other global KOLS in IgAN research whose work continues to make a profound impact.
“IIGANN2025 in Prague brought together the world’s leading experts in IgAN to discuss the fantastic advances in our understanding of this important global cause of kidney failure and celebrate the advances in treatments made possible by the global network of nephrologists committed to delivering high quality clinical trials in this uncommon glomerular disease. None of this would have been possible without collaboration across continents and a single vision to deliver better care for our patients. The work is not finished though; we need now to explore how we combine these new treatments in innovative trials and how we rapidly incorporate all these new data into clinical guidelines. What is clear is that to continue this good work we need to build on our global networks and utilize Scientific Leadership models, pioneered by Emerald Clinical, in our planning and delivery of the next wave of clinical trials in IgAN.”
Professor Jonathan Barratt, Renal Scientific Leadership Team, Convener of the International IgA nephropathy Network and Mayer Professor of Renal Medicine, University of Leicester, UK
“IIgANN 2025 underscored how far the field has progressed, from understanding disease mechanisms to implementing more nuanced, risk-adapted approaches to treatment and study design. It also made clear that the future of IgAN research lies not only in biomarkers and novel therapeutics but in collaborative, patient-informed innovation. Recent drug approvals and a robust clinical trial pipeline are poised to transform the treatment landscape for patients with IgA nephropathy. Ongoing trials are now exploring combination approaches, novel immunomodulators, and precision medicine strategies, offering hope for more personalized and durable disease control in both adult and pediatric populations.
Chris Christodoulou, Senior Manager, Scientific and Medical Affairs.
“Conferences like IIgANN 2025 are so valuable in allowing the world’s IgAN KOLs to network in person. These are the top researchers who are posing the next questions to ask and discussing the therapies that will give IgAN patients new hope and a better quality of life. I found the question posed some years ago and still being debated, “Is IgAN only one disease?” extremely interesting. Based on what we know now — that from an epidemiological standpoint, different ethnic populations exhibit different responses to both the disease and to treatments — there is the possibility that IgAN is not the same disease across the world. As we gain more knowledge of differing pathogenic pathways and responses to treatments in different populations, better biomarkers can be identified and more targeted treatment strategies developed to make IgAN progress a truly global advancement. Emerald Clinical is committed to working with our Scientific Leaders in helping make these discoveries.”
Claudio Hegenberger, Vice President, Scientific and Medical Affairs
