Palladio Biosciences announced it has acquired global rights to lixivaptan, a selective vasopressin V2 receptor antagonist, from Chiesi USA. Palladio will develop lixivaptan for Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD), an orphan kidney disease for which there are no drug treatments approved in the United States.
“We are very pleased to be developing lixivaptan as our first product,” Lorenzo Pellegrini, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Palladio said. “We believe that lixivaptan may be able to delay the progression of PKD, thus decreasing the need for dialysis and/or kidney transplant and potentially extending the lives of patients with PKD.”
In conjunction with the lixivaptan acquisition, Palladio closed on a Series A venture round led by Medicxi, one of Europe’s largest dedicated life sciences venture capital firms. Michele Ollier, MD, Partner and co-founder of Medicxi, and Jonathan Edwards, Ph.D. principal at Medicxi, have joined the Board of Directors of Palladio Biosciences.
"We are excited to be supporting Palladio Biosciences," Michele Ollier, MD said. "Lixivaptan represents a late stage, de-risked orphan development program in an area of high unmet need with no treatment approved in the US."
Lixivaptan is a selective vasopressin V2 receptor antagonist. This mechanism of action has clinical proof of concept to delay the progression of the autosomal dominant form of PKD. Lixivaptan was previously administered to more than 1,600 subjects across 36 clinical studies as part of a prior clinical development program for the treatment of hyponatremia. Palladio expects to leverage this extensive data package and the learnings from recent PKD drug development activities to advance lixivaptan for PKD.
PKD is an inherited genetic disease that affects thousands of people in the United States and millions globally. The disease is characterized by uncontrolled growth of fluid-filled cysts in the kidney. The continued enlargement of cysts and replacement of normal kidney tissue causes irreversible loss of renal function. In the United States, approximately 2,500 new people with PKD require dialysis or a kidney transplant every year, making PKD the 4th leading cause of kidney failure. There is no cure for PKD.