Overview
ChemoCentryx is a biopharmaceutical company developing new medications targeted at inflammatory disorders, autoimmune diseases and cancer. Each of our drug candidates is designed to selectively block a specific chemoattractant receptor, leaving the rest of the immune system intact. Our drug candidates are small molecules, which are orally administered, and, if approved, could address unmet medical needs, including improved efficacy, and offer significant quality of life benefits, since patients swallow a capsule or pill instead of having to visit a clinic for an infusion or undergo an injection.
In 2016, we executed on our strategy to form an alliance with a partner that could provide upfront fees and milestone payments to support the clinical development of our two leading drug candidates, avacopan and CCX140, to registration and pay us royalties upon sales in international markets, while we develop our own commercial infrastructure to sell directly in the United States.
To help communicate the breadth of our drug discovery platform, we have segmented our pipeline into early stage and late stage drug candidates.
Late Stage Drug Candidates
We have chosen to focus initially on orphan indications, where drug candidates tend to enjoy a faster path to market and better reimbursement. Our leading drug candidates address areas of clear unmet need, where the current standard of care, or SOC, is insufficient to halt progression of the disease and/or where today’s treatment options come with serious side effects, such as those which accompany the prolonged use of steroids:
Avacopan (CCX168) – Complement Inhibition in Orphan Diseases
Avacopan (formerly CCX168) is an orally-administered complement inhibitor targeting the C5a receptor, or C5aR, and is being developed for orphan diseases, including (i) anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic auto-antibody associated vasculitis, or AAV, a devastating autoimmune disease that damages blood vessels and can lead to kidney failure; (ii) complement 3 glomerulopathy, or C3G, a debilitating disease that can lead to kidney failure; and (iii) hidradenitis suppurativa, or HS, a chronic, inflammatory, debilitating skin disease characterized by recurrent, painful, nodules and abscesses, ultimately leading to the formation of draining fistulas (also known as sinus tracts) as well as scarring.
Avacopan has been granted orphan drug designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, for the treatment of AAV and C3G and by the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, for the treatment of C3G and microscopic polyangiitis and granulomatosis with polyangiitis, both forms of AAV. Additionally, avacopan has been granted PRIority MEdicines, or PRIME, designation from the EMA, to expedite its clinical development, and to potentially accelerate its marketing authorization.
Following completion of two Phase II clinical trials in patients with AAV, in which avacopan was well-tolerated and provided effective steroid-free control of the disease, we launched the Phase III ADVOCATE trial in December 2016. The FDA and the EMA concurred with the design of the study. ADVOCATE is a randomized, double-blindtwo-arm study which enrolled 316 patients at approximately 200 sites in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Patient enrollment of the Phase III ADVOCATE trial was completed in July 2018 and we expect to report topline data from this study in the fourth quarter of 2019. Additionally, we launched a registration-supporting clinical trial to study avacopan for the treatment of patients with C3G and plan to initiate a large placebo-controlled Phase II clinical study for the treatment of patients with HS in late 2018.
CCX140 – Chronic and Orphan Kidney Diseases
CCX140, an orally-administered inhibitor of the chemokine receptor known as CCR2, has been in development for diabetic nephropathy, or DN, a form of chronic kidney disease, or CKD, and is now being developed for focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, or FSGS, a rare renal disease characterized by progressive proteinuria, excess protein in the urine, and impaired renal function. CCX140 has been granted orphan drug designation by the FDA for the treatment of FSGS.
A global Phase II clinical trial of CCX140 in patients with DN met its primary endpoint by demonstrating that CCX140 given orally once daily added to a SOC renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitor treatment resulted in a statistically significant reduction in proteinuria, beyond that achieved with SOC alone, with the most pronounced effect shown in the highest proteinuric patients. Based on the safety and efficacy data related to reduction in proteinuria observed in the Phase II trial in DN, we launched our clinical development program of CCX140 for the treatment of patients with primary FSGS, for which there are currently noFDA-approved treatments.
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