Swiss-based pharma company Novartis announced this week that it would be acquiring Chinook Therapeutics in a deal that could reach $3.5 billion.
Under the terms of the deal, Chinook will receive $3.2 billion and an additional contingent value right worth of up to $300 million depending on regulatory achievements.
Seattle-based Chinook, which focuses on severe, rare chronic kidney diseases, leverages single-cell RNA sequencing, human-derived organoids, and translational models to discover and develop therapeutics targeting key kidney disease pathways. Its lead program, atrasentan, is an ETA receptor antagonist licensed from AbbVie. Atrasentan is currently being tested in a phase 3 ALIGN trial for IgA nephropathy — a rare disease that can lead to kidney failure — and the phase 2 AFFINITY trial for proteinuric glomerular diseases. The company is also evaluating an investigational anti-APRIL monoclonal antibody in a phase 1/2 trial for IgA nephropathy.
Novartis is currently testing its own drug, iptacopan — a first-in-class, oral, targeted factor B inhibitor — in phase 3 trials against IgA nephropathy. The drug also had a successful phase 3 trial last year for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a rare, chronic blood disorder.
