Novo Nordisk Suing KBP Biosciences Over Failed Kidney Disease Drug

Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk is suing KBP Biosciences and its founder and executive chairman, Zhenhua Huang, PhD, for $830 million over the failure of the kidney disease drug ocedurenone.

A ruling from a court in Singapore, where KBP is based, stated that the litigation will occur in New York. The court granted a request by Novo Nordisk to freeze the assets of KBP and Huang.

Novo Nordisk spent $1.3 billion to acquire ocedurenone in October 2023. The following year, however, a phase 3 trial in hypertension and advanced chronic kidney disease found that the drug did not improve systolic blood pressure. Novo Nordisk claims that KBP withheld negative phase 2 data on the nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist’s efficacy and that positive data were the result of quality and compliance issues at one of the trial’s test sites.

Novo Nordisk expected that ocedurenone would compete with Bayer’s Kerendia. Instead, pulling the plug on the drug resulted in an impairment loss of $816.5 million for the company.

Source: Fierce Biotech