NxStage touts study results showing improved sleep, less restless legs

March 8, 2010 by MassDevice staff

NxStage Medical Inc. is touting the latest results of the Freedom trial of its home hemodialysis system, saying it helps improve patients' sleep and reduces symptoms of restless leg syndrome.

NxStage Medical Inc. (NSDQ:NXTM) is touting the latest interim results from a study of its home hemodialysis system showing it helps improve patient's sleep.

The Lawrence, Mass.-based firm said the most recent data from its Freedom trial, compared with the Medical Outcomes Study sleep survey and the International RLS Study Group Rating Scale, showed that overall sleep quality significantly improved during the first four months on the NxStage System One.

The study also showed improvements in four of the five sleep scale categories (sleep adequacy, drowsiness, sleep initiation and maintenance) and fewer respiratory disturbances, according to a press release.

And patients with restless leg syndrome benefited as well, with 36 percent fewer patients reporting any symptoms after four months.

Last year, news that NxStage's system caused patients to require significantly lower levels of anti-hypertensive drugs sent the company's stock soaring 5 percent. That data, also from the Freedom trial, compared how much blood pressure-controlling medicine patients were prescribed at dialysis centers with how much they needed after four months and a year of home dialysis. The results showed a nearly 50 percent reduction in the average number of prescribed anti-hypertensive medications over 12 months. Nearly one-third of patients in the study stopped taking the drugs altogether and 56 percent experienced a 50 percent or greater decrease in the amount of medication they needed to control their blood pressure. The trial also indicated that home hemodialysis reduced expected mortality rates by 40 percent.

NxStage posted a best-ever $40.5 million in revenues during the fourth quarter, up 14 percent from $35.7 million reported during the same period in 2008. Net losses were $43.5 million, or 93 cents per share, during 2009, which included an $8.7 million, 19-cent net loss during the fourth quarter. Those results compare with a $51.2 million net loss in 2008 and a $9.8 million loss during the final three months of 2008.