Akebia passes vadadustat for anaemia phase III study with FDA & EMA
pharmafile | October 7, 2015 | News story | Research and Development | Akabia, FDA, anaemia
Akebia Therapeutics has announced the successful completion of the End-of-Phase II Meeting process with the FDA and the Scientific Advice Process with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for its lead product, vadadustat, for patients with anaemia related to non-dialysis dependent chronic kidney disease (NDD-CKD).
The company has reached agreement with both the FDA and EMA regarding key elements of the Phase III program, known as the PRO2TECT program, and expects to launch the program later this year. The PRO2TEC program includes two separate studies and will collectively enroll approximately 3,100 NDD-CKD patients across 500 sites globally.
John P. Butler, president and CEO of Akebia, says: “Akebia’s Phase III program is designed to provide the medical community and regulators with a clear understanding of vadadustat’s potential benefit and safety advantages over rESAs, the current standard of care worldwide and, with a positive outcome, to establish vadadustat as the best-in-class treatment option for patients with renal anaemia.
“We are pleased that the regulators are in agreement regarding the importance of an active-control trial as this design is the most clinically relevant and commercially valuable, and will allow us the quickest path to full enrollment. We are now moving rapidly to launch these studies and advance our goal of bringing forward new treatment options for patients suffering from renal anemia.”
The correction study will address anemia patients not currently being treated with recombinant erythropoiesis stimulating agents (rESAs). The conversion study includes patients currently receiving rESA who will be converted to either vadadustat or the active control with the goal of maintaining their baseline haemoglobin levels.
Both studies will include a 1:1 randomisation and an open label, active-control, non-inferiority design. Primary endpoints include an efficacy assessment of the haemoglobin response and an assessment of cardiovascular safety measured by major adverse cardiovascular events.
Brad Maroni, chief medical officer at Akebia, says: “This Phase III program builds on the positive data from our Phase II program in NDD-CKD patients which demonstrated that once-daily vadadustat can control and maintain hemoglobin levels in a clinically relevant range while minimizing fluctuations in haemoglobin levels that are associated with increased cardiovascular safety risks.
“These two Phase III event-driven studies are designed to establish the safety and efficacy of vadadustat in the setting of contemporary clinical practice patterns, and support regulatory approvals globally.”
In addition, Akebia discussed with the FDA and EMA a parallel Phase III program, known as the INNO2VATE program, for vadadustat in patients with anemia related to chronic kidney disease who are undergoing dialysis (DD-CKD).
Yasmita Kumar
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