Vifor CEO Stefan Schulze tells Scrip that an expanded deal with Korsuva developer Cara Therapeutics means the US biotech will not have to invest in a commercial organization as the Swiss firm will mobilize its well-established sales force to launch the treatment for dialysis patients with CKD-associated pruritus.

HIF-PHI inhibitor failed to show non-inferiority to ESAs in the primary cardiovascular safety endpoint of a Phase III program for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease.

Japan’s regulators have approved a large batch of new products, including a novel antibody from Chugai, two world-first nods for the country’s second HIF-PH inhibitors and an asthma therapy, and the first Humira biosimilar in Japan – as well as five drugs from Novartis.

Astellas’s oral HIF-PH inhibitor shows non-inferiority to one established ESA in head-to-head trial and while there were cardiovascular benefits, the picture is complex.