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Akebia Therapeutics Announces Favorable Payment Term Modification of Loan Agreement with Pharmakon Advisors
Company Strengthens Cash Position in Advance of Potential Vadadustat Launch CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Akebia Therapeutics®, Inc. (Nasdaq:
About this update from Akebia Therapeutics, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Company Strengthens Cash Position in Advance of Potential Vadadustat Launch\nCAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Akebia Therapeutics®, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKBA), a biopharmaceutical company with the purpose to better the lives of people impacted by kidney disease, today announced it has amended the terms of its loan agreement with Pharmakon Advisors, LP, the investment manager of the BioPharma Credit funds that it originally entered into in November 2019. The amendment extends the maturity date of the loan to March of 2025 from November 11, 2024. Under the terms of the amendment, Akebia's quarterly principal payments have been deferred until October 31, 2024 at which time the company will begin making monthly principal payments. Details of the amended agreement are provided in the Form 8K filed on November 2, 2023.\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n\"We are pleased to have amended our term loan agreement with Pharmakon, a favorable modification we believe protects and extends our cash runway until well after a potential approval for vadadustat in March 2024,\" said John P. Butler, Chief Executive Officer of Akebia. \"Strengthening our cash position in the near term provides us the flexibility to best enable a successful commercial launch of vadadustat if approved.\"\nAkebia has $35.0 million of principal outstanding.\nAbout Akebia TherapeuticsAkebia Therapeutics, Inc. is a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company with the purpose to better the lives of people impacted by kidney disease. Akebia was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit our website at www.akebia.com, which does not form a part of this release.\nAbout VadadustatVadadustat is an oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor designed to mimic the physiologic effect of altitude on oxygen availability. At higher altitudes, the body responds to lower oxygen availability with stabilization of hypoxia-inducible factor, which can lead to increased red blood cell production and improved oxygen delivery to tissues. Vadadustat is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Vadadustat is approved in Europe and Australia for the treatment of symptomatic anemia due to CKD in adult patients on chronic maintenance dialysis. In Japan, vadadustat is approved as a treatment for anemia due to CKD in ...