Otsuka bests Vera Therapeutics in kidney disease showdown

Adam Feuerstein is a senior writer and biotech columnist, reporting on the crossroads of drug development, business, Wall Street, and biotechnology. He is also a co-host of the weekly biotech podcast The Readout Loud and author of the newsletter Adam’s Biotech Scorecard. You can reach Adam on Signal at stataf.54.

A monthly treatment from Otsuka reduced by more than half the levels of a toxic protein in the urine of patients with an autoimmune kidney disease. The results presented Friday achieved the interim goal of a Phase 3 study and were numerically superior to study results posted Monday by a competitor, Vera Therapeutics. 

The Otsuka drug, called sibeprenlimab, lowered proteinuria levels by 50.2% after nine months compared to an increase of 2.1% in patients given a placebo. The statistically significant difference was 51.2%. 

Serious side effects were reported by 3.9% of patients on sibeprenlimab comapred to 5.4% of patients treated with placebo.