Ardelyx Inc. could have a rocky row to hoe when it makes its case for tenapanor, as a hyperphosphatemia therapy in adults with chronic kidney disease, before the U.S. FDA’s Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee Nov. 16. The big question facing the adcom is whether the change in baseline serum phosphorous levels achieved by the drug is clinically meaningful. Clearly, FDA reviewers don’t think so, as that question already has resulted in delayed PDUFA dates, a complete response letter and two formal dispute resolution requests.

New research presented by the University of Michigan revealed groundbreaking results for Certa Therapeutics Pty Ltd.’s lead candidate, FT-011, for serious inflammatory and fibrotic diseases.

New and updated preclinical and clinical data presented by biopharma firms at the American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week including: Boehringer, Chinook, Eli Lilly, Horizon, Ionis, Lexicon, Vera.

New and updated preclinical and clinical data presented by biopharma firms at the American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week including: Alpine Immune, Ionis, Kezar, Valenzabio, Xortx.

New research presented by the University of Michigan revealed groundbreaking results for Certa Therapeutics Pty Ltd.’s lead candidate, FT-011, for serious inflammatory and fibrotic diseases. The results of a chronic kidney disease study presented at the American Society of Nephrology meeting on Nov. 4 concluded that FT-011 reverses the activation of molecular markers associated with fibrosis.

GSK plc may have pushed the door open Oct. 26 for the use of a new class of oral drugs to treat anemia in U.S. patients with chronic kidney disease who are dialysis dependent. The U.S. FDA’s Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee voted 13-3 that the benefits of GSK’s daprodustat outweighed the risks in that population. However, the committee didn’t push the door wide enough for patients not on dialysis, voting 5-11 on the question of whether the drug’s benefits outweighed its risk in the nondialysis population, even though that group conceivably could see a greater benefit. The test now is whether the FDA will follow the committee’s lead.

Hoping its drug, daprodustat, can succeed in the U.S. where two other hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase inhibitors (HIF-PHIs) have failed so far, GSK plc will present its case Oct. 26 to the FDA’s Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee for the drug's potential use as a treatment for anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease regardless of dialysis dependency.

Sumitovant Biopharma Ltd., a subsidiary of Sumitomo Pharma Co. Ltd., agreed to acquire Myovant Sciences Ltd. for $27 per share, up from its earlier offer of $22.75 per share, which Myovant had rebuffed. The deal is worth $1.7 billion on a fully diluted basis, with an equity value of about $2.59 billion.