Travere to pay Everest $112.5M upfront for rare kidney drug

Travere Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TVTX) has entered into an exclusive licensing and collaboration agreement with Everest Medicines to develop and commercialize civorebrutinib, an experimental treatment targeting multiple immune-mediated rare kidney diseases.

Under the terms of the agreement, Travere will make an upfront payment of $112.5 million to Everest.

In exchange, Travere secures exclusive development and commercialization rights for the drug in all global markets outside of China and specific countries in East and Southeast Asia.

Everest remains eligible to receive up to approximately $1.03 billion in additional cash payments contingent upon the achievement of specified clinical development, regulatory, and commercial milestones across up to five indications.

Travere will also pay tiered royalties on future annual net sales, ranging from high single-digit to double-digit percentages.

Civorebrutinib, also designated as EVER001, is an oral, covalent reversible Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor.

The therapy is engineered to inhibit BTK, a primary mediator of B-cell receptor signaling that drives the activation, proliferation, and differentiation of B-cells into antibody-producing cells.

In immune-mediated kidney pathologies, this B-cell activation leads to autoantibody production, resulting in glomerular damage and impaired renal function.

The transaction expands Travere’s existing rare kidney disease pipeline.

The company plans to investigate the drug for primary membranous nephropathy (PMN), immune-mediated focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), and minimal change disease (MCD).

These conditions are characterized by severe glomerular damage and proteinuria, which frequently progress to chronic kidney failure requiring dialysis or transplantation.

Clinical proof-of-concept for civorebrutinib was previously established in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial involving patients diagnosed with PMN.

Data from the study indicated rapid and sustained reductions in both anti-PLA2R autoantibodies and proteinuria.

Patients maintained stable kidney function alongside high rates of immunologic and clinical remission through 52 weeks of follow-up evaluation.

The drug profile indicates it has been generally well tolerated throughout its development history to date.