Chinook Therapeutics has signed a licensing deal for a lead drug that its CEO hopes to enroll in phase 3 clinical trials.
The Vancouver, B.C.-based company signed an agreement to develop a late-stage kidney drug at its Seattle offices, the company announced Friday. The agreement with Chicago-based AbbVie Inc. allows Chinook exclusive, global development and commercial rights to the drug and furthers the company’s kidney disease treatment pipeline.
Chinook, which opened a Seattle office in Eastlake earlier this year, is led by Eric Dobmeier, a former Seattle Genetics executive. Dobmeier, named president and CEO of Chinook in April 2019, lives and works in Seattle.
Chinook signed the agreement with AbbVie in December for the drug, atrasentan.
“It’s an opportunity to add a late-stage product to our pipeline,” Dobmeier said. “It has a great path forward for kidney disease.”
In 2016, the United States spent $114 billion on chronic kidney disease, according to the National Kidney Foundation. The foundation estimates that 37 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with the disease.
The agreement includes an undisclosed cash payment to AbbVie and stock in Chinook. If the drug is successful and brought to market, AbbVie also will receive payment through milestones and royalties.
Chinook closed a $65 million Series A funding round in August 2019.
The AbbVie drug, which will become Chinook’s lead product, has been through multiple phase 1 clinical trials. It reached a phase 3 trial last year with 5,000 patients enrolled to treat kidney disease in diabetic patients, but that trial ultimately closed.
Dobmeier thinks the drug can be used to treat other rare kidney diseases.
“Initially it was the mechanism [that interested us], but then we got interested in the drug itself,” he said.
Chinook’s Seattle office will focus on the development of atrasentan and the next clinical trials.
Dobmeier said he plans to “substantially” grow the Seattle presence from five employees and 3,000 square feet of office space.
“We need to grow quite a bit,” he said.
