Vivoryon Therapeutics has regained the China rights to its kidney disease prospect as the German biotech’s cash reserves begin to dry up.
The Munich-based biotech received an undisclosed upfront payment from Simcere Pharmaceuticals back in 2021 as part of a regional licensing partnership to develop and commercialize medicines targeting the neurotoxic amyloid species N3pE to treat Alzheimer’s disease in Greater China. That deal put Vivoryon in line for up to $565 million in milestone payments.
By the end of 2024, a pair of phase 2 fails led Vivoryon to abandon its hopes for treating Alzheimer’s with the resulting therapy from that collaboration, a glutaminyl cyclase inhibitor called varoglutamstat. But by that point, the biotech had spied potential in the drug’s ability to improve kidney function.
Vivoryon has since maintained that varoglutamstat could be a treatment for diabetic kidney disease, pointing to a positive phase 2 trial analysis last year. But with cash reserves having dwindled to just 1.7 million euros ($1.9 million), the biotech is searching for fresh funding or partners to launch a hoped-for phase 2b test.
“The company continues negotiations with different parties towards securing a partnership or financing for the development of varoglutamstat in kidney disease,” Vivoryon explained in its third-quarter earnings release. “In parallel, Vivoryon is assessing alternative strategic and financing options, including a potential sale of the company or a sale of assets.”
The biotech can’t even hold out hope for those milestones from Simcere to eventually come good. In the release, Vivoryon revealed that it had agreed with the Chinese biopharma that it would return the rights for varoglutamstat as well as those to a related preclinical N3pE-antibody dubbed PBD-C06. Vivoryon won’t receive any cash from the deal, and will instead be liable to make certain milestone payments to Simcere should varoglutamstat eventually get approved in China.
“We remain engaged in negotiations with different parties regarding a partnership or financing for the development of varoglutamstat in kidney disease,” Vivoryon CEO Frank Weber, M.D., said in the release.
“The agreement with Simcere consolidates worldwide rights to varoglutamstat, simplifying the rights structure for potential partners, while additional cost-saving measures extend our operating runway into the second half of December 2026,” Weber added.
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