Novo Nordisk is putting its soaring semaglutide sales to work, agreeing to pay up to $1.3 billion for KBP Biosciences’ phase 3 challenger to Bayer’s chronic kidney disease (CKD) drug Kerendia.
Denmark’s Novo Nordisk ended last week by raising its sales outlook again, citing soaring demand for its diabetes and weight loss medicines Ozempic and Wegovy as the key growth drivers. The company began this week by putting out news of its third deal in quick succession, revealing it is using some of its growing cash pile to acquire KBP’s non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (nsMRA).
Bayer received FDA approval for a nsMRA, Kerendia, in June 2021, but KBP was undeterred by trailing the German drugmaker. Months after Bayer won approval, Singapore-based KBP began a phase 3 study that could position it to carve out a niche for its rival nsMRA, ocedurenone.
The late-phase trial is evaluating the effect of ocedurenone on systolic blood pressure. Bayer noted (PDF) a reduction in blood pressure in patients who received Kerendia in phase 3, but its pivotal trials focused on measures of kidney and cardiovascular health, leading the FDA to approve the drug as a way to reduce the risk of renal and heart problems in adults with CKD associated with Type 2 diabetes.
KBP’s study positions ocedurenone to come to market as a treatment for uncontrolled hypertension in patients with advanced CKD. Novo Nordisk, which also identified potential uses of the small molecule in kidney and cardiovascular diseases, thinks it has acquired a drug candidate that may have an edge over Kerendia.
“With its expected benefit-risk profile, ocedurenone has best-in-class potential in treating uncontrolled hypertension and could help address a major unmet medical need in people living with cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease,” Martin Holst Lange, head of development at Novo Nordisk, said in a statement.
Novo Nordisk has agreed to pay up to $1.3 billion to acquire the asset and pursue those markets. Neither party has disclosed the size of the upfront fee. Evidence of whether Novo Nordisk is on to a winner is likely at least one year away, with the primary completion of the hypertension trial scheduled for September 2024, but the Danish drugmaker has already seen enough to plot out plans for a broader phase 3 program.