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SuspendedNCT04523727Updated Nov 10, 2026

Study to Evaluate the Safety and Tolerability of Ferric Citrate in Children With Hyperphosphatemia Related to Chronic Kidney Disease

A Phase 3 interventional study of ferric citrate in Hyperphosphatemia Related to Chronic Kidney Disease, sponsored by Keryx Biopharmaceuticals. Suspended at 14 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 6 Years to 16 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-10.

Sponsored by Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (part of Akebia Therapeutics) · Phase 3, Interventional, and Treatment

Why this study was suspended
Sponsor decision
Updated Nov 10, 2026Primary completion movedGo to Updates ↓
Phase
Phase 3
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
45
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
6 Years to 16 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This study will be conducted to assess the safety and tolerability of ferric citrate in pediatric participants with hyperphosphatemia related to chronic kidney disease (CKD).

02

Conditions studied

  • Hyperphosphatemia Related to Chronic Kidney Disease

Keywords

  • hyperphosphatemia
  • chronic kidney disease
  • CKD
  • ferric citrate
  • pediatric
  • dialysis
03

In context

Hyperphosphatemia

173 studies on the registry are indexed under Hyperphosphatemia; 16 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 45 is below the median of 101 across 143 interventional studies indexed under Hyperphosphatemia.

Browse Hyperphosphatemia studies →

Lead sponsor

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals is the lead sponsor of 14 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.

First submitted after Keryx Biopharmaceuticals became part of Akebia Therapeutics.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
6 Years to 16 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Age 6 years to \<17 years at Screening.
  • Weight ≥ 20 kilograms (kg) (dry weight for dialysis participants) at Screening.
  • Chronic kidney disease (CKD) requiring chronic dialysis (i.e., hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis), or CKD not on dialysis with an estimated (eGFR) \<30 milliliters per minute (mL/min)/1.73 meters squared (m\^2) at Screening.
  • Documented history of CKD-related hyperphosphatemia for at least 3 months prior to the screening visit.
  • If participant is or is not on phosphate binder(s) at Visit 1, serum phosphorus must be:

    • 6 to \<13 years: >5.8 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL).
    • 13 to \<17 years: >4.5 mg/dL.
  • If participant is on phosphate binder(s) at Visit 1, and serum phosphorus is not greater than the above stated age-limit criteria, approximately 1 to 4-weeks of is required and at Visit 1a or Visit 1b, serum phosphorus must be greater than the age above stated age-limit criteria.
  • Transferrin saturation (TSAT) \<50%.
  • Serum ferritin of \<650 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL).
  • Parent/legal guardian must be willing and able to give written , and child (participant) willing and able to give age-appropriate assent according to local regulatory requirements.
  • Female participants of , defined as post menarche and not surgically sterile, must have a negative serum pregnancy test.
  • Dialysis adequacy stable on current mode of dialysis prior to screening and agree to maintain dialysis prescription for the duration of the pharmacodynamic assessment period unless changes are needed for safety. A minimum dialysis adequacy (dialysis clearance of urea-dialysis time/volume of distribution of urea [Kt/V]), defined by the following:

    1. Hemodialysis adequacy: single-pool Kt/V ≥1.2 for at least 1 hemodialysis session within 2 months.
    2. Peritoneal dialysis: At least 1Kt/V reading ≥1.8 within 4 months.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Active significant GI disorder, including overt GI bleeding or active inflammatory bowel disease.
  • Liver transaminases ( [AST] or alanine aminotransferase [ALT]) >3× the at Screening.
  • Unable to swallow pills, if participant requires tube feeding, ferric citrate must be taken orally and not administered via feeding tube.
  • Non-renal cause of hyperphosphatemia.
  • Active drug or alcohol dependence or abuse (excluding tobacco use or medicinal marijuana) within the 12 months prior to Screening or evidence of such abuse (in the opinion of the Investigator).
  • , except for participants who have been disease-free for at least 2 years after curative therapy.
  • Participants with a functioning organ transplant.
  • A known allergy or intolerance to ferric citrate or any of its constituents.
  • Female participants who do not agree to remain abstinent or assent to use a combination of 2 of the following highly effective methods for at least 28 days before the first dose, during the study (including during dose interruptions), and for at least 30 days after the last dose:

    • Barrier method of contraception: condoms (female or male) with or without a spermicidal agent, diaphragm, or cervical cap with spermicide.
    • Intrauterine device (IUD).
    • Hormone-based contraceptives which are associated with inhibition of ovulation.
  • Females who are pregnant or breast-feeding other children. Participants who are being breastfed are eligible to participate in this study.
  • Any other medical condition that, in the opinion of the Investigator, renders the participant unable to or unlikely to complete the trial or that would interfere with optimal participation in the trial or produce significant risk to the participant.
  • The participant, in the opinion of the Investigator, is unable to adhere to the requirements of the study.
  • Receipt of any drug within 4 weeks before Screening.
  • History of hemochromatosis or iron overload syndrome (e.g, hereditary sideroblastic anemia, thalassemia).
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(9)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

GFR and eGFR (kidney filtering)

GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is how much blood the kidneys filter each minute. It is usually estimated from a blood test — eGFR, by formulas such as CKD-EPI or MDRD — and some studies ask for it to be measured directly instead. Usually given in mL/min/1.73 m².

Check the method, the units and the minimum the study states. A value of 90 or above is in the normal-or-high range, but kidney damage can show in other tests too.

Washout period

A planned gap after a treatment, so that its effects can lessen before the study treatment or a study assessment. Ask the study team and the doctor who prescribed it before changing any medicine.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.

Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.

ULN (upper limit of normal)

The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.

“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Investigational drug or device

A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.

It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 3
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
45 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Ferric citrate

    Participants aged 6 to \< 17 years will receive ferric citrate for 36 weeks at a starting dose based on body weight categories.

    Drug: ferric citrate

Interventions

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Number of participants with serious and non-serious treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) including gastrointestinal (GI) AEs of special interest

    Time frame: up to Week 40

  2. Number of participants with clinically significant laboratory abnormalities or changes in laboratory results

    Time frame: up to Week 40

  3. Number of participants with TEAEs leading to the discontinuation of ferric citrate

    Time frame: up to Week 40

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change from baseline in serum phosphorus to Week 12/early termination (ET)

    Time frame: Baseline; up to Week 12

07

Study locations

14 sites
  • University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) - Children's of Alabama
    Birmingham, Alabama 35233, United States
  • Phoenix Childrens Hospital
    Phoenix, Arizona 85016, United States
  • University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) - Department of Nephrology
    San Francisco, California 94158, United States
  • Stanford University Medical Center
    Stanford, California 94305, United States
  • Children's Hospital Colorado
    Aurora, Colorado 80045, United States
  • University of South Florida
    Tampa, Florida 33606, United States
  • Johns Hopkins Hospital
    Baltimore, Maryland 21287, United States
  • Helen DeVos Children's Hospital at Spectrum Health
    Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503, United States
  • University of Minnesota
    Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States
  • Children's Mercy Hospital - Kansas City
    Kansas City, Missouri 64108, United States
  • University of New Mexico
    Albuquerque, New Mexico 87110, United States
  • Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
    Cincinnati, Ohio 45229, United States
  • University of Utah
    Salt Lake City, Utah 84113, United States
  • Seattle Children's Hospital
    Seattle, Washington 98105, United States
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

1 registry update since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedDate before it movedWhere the date was before it moved

Started Jun 2022 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Feb 2027, 56 months after the start.

Primary completion moved once since we started tracking on Sep 25, 2026: Dec 2026 → Feb 2027, on Nov 10, 2026.

Earlier changes are on the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Aug 19, 2020
First posted
Aug 24, 2020
StartActual
Jun 16, 2022
Primary completionEst.
Feb 2027was Dec 2026
CompletionEst.
Oct 2027
Last update
Nov 10, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
Primary completion
Dec 2026→Feb 2027
Nov 10, 2026
Show all 1 update
  1. Nov 10, 2026
    Primary completion Dec 2026→Feb 2027
    + 1 other change: verification date

From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04523727
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Aug 24, 2020
Start date
Jun 16, 2022
Primary completion
Feb 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Oct 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Nov 10, 2026

Study contacts

Chief Medical Officer
study director · Akebia Therapeutics

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
Yes
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is suspended, as verified in Nov 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Discussion

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Studies of the drug tested here: Ferric citrate

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