NEWTOWN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Palladio Biosciences, Inc. (Palladio) http://palladiobio.com/, a private biopharmaceutical company founded to develop medicines that make a meaningful impact on the lives of patients with orphan diseases of the kidney, announced today that it has acquired global rights to lixivaptan, a selective vasopressin V2 receptor antagonist, from Chiesi USA, Inc. 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,” said Lorenzo Pellegrini, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Palladio. “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," said Michele Ollier, MD. "Lixivaptan represents a late stage, de-risked orphan development program in an area of high unmet need with no treatment approved in the US."
"We are pleased to have completed this transaction with Palladio Biosciences in an effort to bring this important medicine to PKD patients worldwide," stated Ken McBean, President and CEO at Chiesi USA, Inc. "As a company focused on developing treatments to address important unmet medical needs, we are glad that Palladio is committed to the development of this product."
About Lixivaptan:
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.
About Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) - Key Facts and Figures:
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, which can each grow to be as large as a football. 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.
About Palladio Biosciences, Inc.:
Palladio Biosciences is a privately-owned, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing medicines for orphan diseases of the kidney and is located in Newtown, PA. For more information, please visit www.palladiobio.com.
About Medicxi:
Medicxi is a life sciences focused venture capital firm, recently spun out of Index Ventures. One of Europe's largest dedicated life sciences VC firms, Medicxi has offices in London, Jersey and Geneva. Past and existing portfolio companies include for example GenMab (Copenhagen: GEN.CO), PanGenetics (acquired by Abbott), Minerva Neurosciences (Nasdaq: NERV), Egalet (Nasdaq: EGLT), Molecular Partners (Swiss: MOLN. SW), Versartis (Nasdaq: VSAR), Levicept, XO1 (acquired by J&J), MorphogenIX, and Gadeta. For more information, please visit www.Medicxi.com and connect with Medicxi on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Chiesi USA, Inc.:
Chiesi USA, Inc., headquartered in Cary, N.C., is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on commercializing products for the hospital and adjacent specialty markets. Key elements of the Company's strategy are to focus its commercial and development efforts in the hospital and adjacent specialty product sector within the U.S. pharmaceutical marketplace; continue to seek opportunities to acquire companies, marketed or registration-stage products and late-stage development products that fit within the Company's focus areas; and generate revenues by marketing approved generic products through the Company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Aristos Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Chiesi USA, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A. For more information, please visit www.chiesiusa.com.
Please note that lixivaptan is for investigational use only.
