HQ Team
June 13, 2023: Swiss drugmaker, Novartis signed a $3.5 billion deal with Chinook Therapeutics to boost the US-based company’s last-stage experimental trials of two drugs to treat chronic kidney diseases.
Novartis will merge Chinook with a newly formed Novartis subsidiary. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2023. “Until the deal closes, Chinook will continue to operate as a separate and independent company,” according to a statement.
Chinook stockholders will get $3.2 billion or $40 a share in cash on closing the deal. A contingent value of up to $300 million in cash is also planned “upon the achievement of certain regulatory milestones.”
According to the statement, the deal is fully in line with Novartis’ strategy to focus on innovation and will significantly expand its renal portfolio, complementing the existing pipeline.
Lack of treatment options
Chinook’s pipeline includes two late-stage assets in clinical development to treat Immunoglobulin A Nephropathy (IgAN), a progressive, rare kidney disease that mostly affects young adults and currently lacks targeted treatment options.
As many as 3 in 10 patients progress to kidney failure and dialysis within 10 years.
Chinook’s Atrasentan drug, currently in phase III development for IgAN with a pivotal readout expected in Q4 2023, has shown significant reductions in proteinuria — high levels of protein in the urine. Causes may include relatively harmless or more serious conditions, including kidney disease or immune disorders.
Atrasentan is also in early-stage development of other rare kidney diseases.
Suppression of tumor
Another drug zigakibart is a subcutaneously administered anti-APRIL monoclonal antibody that induces immune suppression and tumor progression through the activation of certain pathways. Its phase III trial is expected to start in Q3 2023.
Monoclonal antibodies are a certain type of protein that is made in the laboratory and can bind to certain targets in the body, such as antigens on the surface of cancer cells.
“IgA Nephropathy is a devastating disease mostly affecting young adults and potentially leading to dialysis or kidney transplantation,” Vas Narasimhan, M.D., CEO of Novartis.
‘Challenging healthcare issue’
The deal will address “one of society’s most challenging healthcare issues, with the potential to bring additional much-needed treatment options to patients.”
In the US IgAN affects up to 21 people per million per year with a higher incidence in Asian populations. IgAN is the most common cause of kidney failure in Caucasian young adults.
Another Swiss drugmaker, Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche, along with US-based biopharmaceutical company Omeros Corporation,
Vera Therapeutics, and Ionis Pharmaceuticals are in the race for developing IgA medicines.
