The Acquisition of Chinook Therapeutics by Novartis will help it in terms of manufacturing innovative medicines for the treatment of kidney diseases.

United States: Novartis AG on Monday, 12^th June 2023 announced that the company has agreed to acquire Chinook Therapeutics for up to USD3.5 billion. The Seattle based biotech company's two late-stage programs aimed at treating rare, severe chronic kidney diseases will expand the buyer's renal pipeline. Chinook is a Seattle-based company that develops precision medicines for the treatment of severe, rare kidney disorders. The organizations pipeline of four unveiled programs is driven by atrasentan which is an oral endothelin A receptor antagonist that is in continuous Stage III development for Immunoglobulin A Nephropathy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), More than 1 in 7, that is 15% of US adults or 37 million people, are estimated to have CKD in the United States. One of the late-stage resources, Atrasentan, an oral endothelin A receptor antagonist, has shown critical decreases in proteinuria, with its essential readout expected in Q4 2023.

Information is supposed to be perused out in the final quarter from the pivotal ALIGN trial (NCT04573478), a double-blind, placebo-controlled study intended to look at the efficacy and safety of atrasentan to placebo in patients with IgAN who are in danger of moderate loss of renal capability. According to the companies, patients who received atrasentan experienced significant reductions in proteinuria as well as a favorable tolerability and liver safety profile in an earlier Phase II study. Iptacopan is being developed for several other complement-mediated diseases, including immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) and cold agglutinin disease (CAD), C3 glomerulopathy (C3G), lupus nephritis (LN), and kidney diseases C3 glomerulopathy (C3G).

Iptacopan (LNP023), a drug discovered at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, is already in Novartis' pipeline as an internal IgAN candidate. The Phase II AFFINITY trial (NCT04573920), an open-label, basket study designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of atrasentan in patients with proteinuric glomerular disease who are at risk of progressive loss of renal function, is also being developed for the treatment of glomerular diseases.

According to the Chief Scientific Officer, Novartis, “We are excited by this unique opportunity to address one of society’s most challenging healthcare issues, with the potential to bring additional much-needed treatment options to patients. We are pleased that Novartis recognizes the significant value that the Chinook team has built with our pipeline of clinical and preclinical programs for patients with rare, severe chronic kidney diseases. We believe this transaction is great news for kidney disease patients and the programs we have built at Chinook.”

According to TechSci Research, Novartis acquisition is for the development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of rare kidney diseases. With this acquisition, Novartis will be able to expand its kidney disease treatment portfolio. It can create an impact for other biopharmaceutical companies such as Sanofi, AstraZeneca, and Bayer AG. It will further enhance the research and development area of Novartis and help to improve overall market value in the kidney disease treatment segment. Also, this acquisition will improve Novartis position in the market and increase its share in kidney disease. It will create a threat to other companies and increase fragmentation in terms of share distribution.