Akebia Therapeutics has entered into a collaboration and licence agreement with Otsuka to develop and commercialise vadadustat in the US in a deal worth over US$1 B. Vadadustat is an oral hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) stabiliser in Phase III studies for the treatment of anemia associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD). In addition, vadadustat is licensed to another Japanese company, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, for the development in Japan and other Asian countries.