Novo Nordisk has agreed to acquire ocedurenone, a drug for uncontrolled hypertension, from KBP Biosciences in a deal worth up to $1.3bn.

Ocedurenone, an orally administered, small molecule, non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, is currently being evaluated in the late-stage CLARION-CKD trial as a treatment option for patients with uncontrolled hypertension as well as for those with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Uncontrolled hypertension is when a person’s blood pressure remains high despite taking two or more blood pressure-lowering treatments.

An estimated 1.28 billion adults aged 30 to 79 years worldwide have hypertension and only about 21% have it under control, marking a significant unmet need in the treatment of the condition.

Martin Holst Lange, executive vice president and head of development at Novo, said: “Hypertension is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular events, heart failure, CKD and premature death.

“With its expected benefit-risk profile, ocedurenone has best-in-class potential in treating uncontrolled hypertension and could help address a major unmet medical need in people living with cardiovascular disease and CKD.”

The drug has already been assessed in nine clinical trials, including the phase 2b BLOCK-CKD trial, in which it demonstrated a clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvement in systolic blood pressure from baseline to day 84 in patients with stage 3b/4 CKD and uncontrolled hypertension.

Beyond CLARION-CKD, Novo said it expects to initiate late-stage trials in additional cardiovascular and kidney disease indications in the coming years to "maximise the full potential” of ocedurenone.

Commenting on the acquisition, which is expected to close before the end of the year, Dr Zhenhua Huang, founder and chairman of KBP Biosciences, said: "We believe this transition could unlock the full potential of ocedurenone and benefit more patients with cardiovascular and kidney disease worldwide.”

The deal comes just a few weeks after Novo announced an agreement with Valo Health aimed at developing new treatments for cardiometabolic diseases.

The collaboration will utilise Valo’s large human dataset and computation powered by artificial intelligence and will see Valo receive an upfront payment and a potential near-term milestone payment of $60m.

Valo is also eligible to receive milestone payments for up to 11 programmes, totalling up to $2.7bn, plus research and development funding and potential royalty payments.
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