Based on their synergies in renal disorders, Keryx Biopharmaceuticals and Akebia Therapeutics have announced a merger in an all stock deal to form a company specialised in chronic kidney diseases (CKD). The combined entity will be named Akebia and will host Akebia’s Phase III oral hypoxia-inducible factor stabiliser, vadadustat, along with Keryx’s marketed drug Auryxia® (ferric citrate), which is approved in the US for hyperphosphatemia in dialysis dependent CKD patients and for iron deficiency anaemia in non-dialysis dependent CKD patients.