Travere licenses Everest’s kidney disease drug in deal worth up to $1.14 billion

June 2 (Reuters) – Travere Therapeutics said on Tuesday it has signed a licensing pact with privately held biotech Everest Medicines to develop and commercialize an experimental kidney disease drug in a deal worth up to $1.14 billion.

Here are some details:

• Under the agreement, Travere will receive exclusive rights to develop and sell the drug civorebrutinib outside China and parts of East and Southeast Asia.

• Everest will receive $112.5 million upfront and up to about $1.03 billion if certain development, regulatory and sales milestones are met.

• It will also get royalties on future sales.

• Civorebrutinib, also known as EVER001, is an oral treatment being studied for rare kidney diseases driven by the immune system.

• Travere markets two FDA-approved therapies for kidney-related conditions: Filspari for IgA nephropathy and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, and Thiola for cystinuria.

• The company said it plans to evaluate the drug in various rare kidney diseases, including primary membranous nephropathy, FSGS and minimal change disease.

• Civorebrutinib is a BTK inhibitor that blocks B-cell signaling to reduce the production of harmful antibodies that accumulate in the kidneys, causing inflammation and damage.

• Travere said the drug has generally been well tolerated so far.

(Reporting by Padmanabhan Ananthan in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)