Akebia leaps, after agreeing termination deal with Otsuka over vadadustat

The original news that Japan’s Otsuka (TYO: 4578) had decided to give back rights to vadadustat to Akebia Therapeutics (Nasdaq: AKBA) caused the US firm’s shares to slump. However, the disclosure that, as part of the termination, Otsuka has agreed to pay Akebia a settlement fee of $55 million saw its stock leap as much as 40% to $0.50 pre-market on Friday.

Under the terms of their agreement, Akebia received $265 million in committed funds from Otsuka plus development and commercial milestones, representing a total transaction value that could have exceeded $1 billion.

As a result of the termination of the agreements, Akebia is regaining the rights from Otsuka for vadadustat, an investigational oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor, in the USA, Europe, China, Russia, Canada, Australia, the Middle East, and certain other territories.