Home Dialysis System Gets FDA Approval

The first kidney dialysis system that can be used at home was approved by the Food and Drug Administration, according to Aksys Ltd., which makes the machine.

The company’s Personal Hemodialysis System will allow people with chronic kidney disease to perform short daily dialysis at home--say for an hour or an hour and a half, four or five times a week--instead of traveling three times a week to a dialysis clinic, where the process takes about five hours.

Aksys Chief Executive William Dow said about 70% of chronic kidney failure patients in the U.S. could use the at-home system.

Shares of Lincolnshire, Ill.-based Aksys, which rose 12 cents to close at $4.56 on Nasdaq before the regulatory clearance was announced, soared 59% to $7.25 in after-hours trading on Instinet.