Zortress is FDA approved, is used as standard of care at some other institutions, and may also be given as standard of care if it is believed to be the best immunosuppression regimen for a particular kidney transplant recipient. The rationale for testing Zortress vs. Rapamune is to determine which of these drugs is more effective in preventing chronic rejection of the transplanted kidney. Because these two drugs are related to each other there is no current literature addressing the replacement of Rapamune with Zortress in an immunosuppression regimen, therefore the goal of this study is to compare these two immunosuppression drugs.
This study is being done to compare the effectiveness and safety of two different kidney transplant immunosuppression drugs, Zortress (the study drug) and Rapamune (which is used in the current standard immunosuppression regimen).