Several classes of medications, including corticosteroids, calcineurin inhibitors, endothelin receptor antagonists, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and rituximab, have been shown to be effective for the treatment of FSGS and have been demonstrated to have significant protective effects on podocytes.
Synthetic adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) has been demonstrated to be effective in patients with membranous nephropathy, minimal change disease and some histological subtypes of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis.