Akebia Therapeutics Lower Following Announcement Of Public Offering, Corporate And Clinical Developments

Shares of Akebia Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: AKBA), a biopharmaceutical company that focuses on products for the treatment of kidney diseases, were trading lower by around 0.5 percent early Tuesday morning after the company announced it plans on offering and selling $75 million worth of its common stock in a public offering.

Akebia will use the proceeds for the continued clinical development of vadadustat in patients with anemia secondary to CKD, including to prepare, initiate and conduct its PRO2TECT Phase 3 clinical trial. The company added that the proceeds will also be used to advance its product candidate, AKB-6899, through Phase 1 development.

In a separate press release, Akebia announced several corporate and clinical developments, including dosing the first patient in its global Phase 3 PRO2TECT program in December. The company also stated it has "made progress" with its intellectual property efforts in Japan for vadadustat.

"We achieved all of our clinical and corporate objectives for 2015, positioning Akebia for continued success with the vadadustat anemia program in chronic kidney disease and further building our pipeline of HIF stabilizers," stated John P. Butler, President and Chief Executive Officer of Akebia. "The launch of our global Phase 3 PRO2TECT program in non-dialysis patients is a significant milestone in our efforts to establish vadadustat as the best-in-class treatment option for chronic kidney disease patients with anemia. Following positive Phase 2 data for vadadustat in dialysis patients, we are now working with regulators to finalize the design for our INNO2VATE global Phase 3 program, which is expected to commence this year."