Ardelyx and Knight Collaborate to Bring Tenapanor to Patients in Canada

Ardelyx, Inc. announced a license agreement with Knight Therapeutics, Inc. (Knight) that provides Knight with exclusive rights to commercialize tenapanor in Canada. Tenapanor is Ardelyx’s oral, first-in-class small molecule treatment that has completed Phase 3 development for irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) and is being evaluated in a second Phase 3 study for hyperphosphatemia.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ardelyx is eligible to receive up to CAD 25 million in total payments including an upfront payment and development and sales milestones, as well as double-digit tiered royalties on net sales. Knight will have the exclusive rights to market and sell tenapanor in Canada.

“We are excited to bring Canadian patients a product like tenapanor with its differentiated mechanism and established efficacy and safety profiles in both IBS-C and hyperphosphatemia,” said Jonathan Ross Goodman, chief executive officer of Knight. “The addition of tenapanor to our pipeline will further enhance Knight’s leadership in GI disorders. Because of its novel mechanism, we believe tenapanor will have advantages in treating IBS-C through an entirely new approach than those of today’s approved medicines. In addition, we see great potential for tenapanor as the first and only new option outside of phosphate binders to treat hyperphosphatemia, with an opportunity to make an important difference for patients who would benefit from a new safe, effective and easy to take alternative. We look forward to working with the Ardelyx team and Health Canada to bring tenapanor to Canadian patients.”

“Knight has a proven approach of successfully collaborating with biotechnology companies to bring forward important medicines, which makes them an invaluable component to our strategy of working with industry leaders to bring tenapanor to patients with IBS-C and hyperphosphatemia,” said Mike Raab, president and chief executive officer of Ardelyx. “This agreement marks the third collaboration we have now put in place to support the development and marketing of tenapanor in key geographies outside of the U.S. With a highly differentiated product profile, we believe that tenapanor will make a meaningful impact on Canadian patients and are pleased to be collaborating with the experienced and proven Knight team to make this a reality.”