Akebia says not in alignment with FDA on path forward for VALOR clinical trial

Akebia (AKBA) announced that after meeting with the FDA it has not come to alignment on a path forward for the design of the VALOR clinical trial for the use of vadadustat to treat anemia in patients with late-stage chronic kidney disease not on dialysis. As a result, Akebia does not plan to initiate VALOR and therefore does not expect to pursue a broad label for Vafseo for CKD non-dialysis dependent patients. Akebia recently completed a Type C meeting with the FDA. While Akebia has not yet received final meeting minutes from the face-to-face Type C meeting, based on the FDA feedback, Akebia believes regulatory alignment for such a trial would require a significantly larger number of patients than proposed, and accordingly would require meaningfully more time and cost to complete. “Because we remain steadfast in our belief of the significant unmet need for an oral option to treat anemia in CKD patients not on dialysis, we are disappointed in the outcome of the meeting,” said John Butler, CEOr at Akebia. “We believe our decision not to pursue a broad NDD-CKD label, based on our discussion with the FDA, is in the best interests of our shareholders. We were encouraged by the discussion with FDA on smaller subgroups of CKD patients where we may be able to align on a potential clinical trial design and path forward. Importantly, everyone at Akebia will continue to work toward our goal to make Vafseo standard of care for patients on dialysis.”