Nature of Organization and Operations

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Nature of Organization and Operations

Nature of Organization and Operations

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc., referred to as Akebia or the Company, was incorporated in the State of Delaware in 2007. Akebia is a biopharmaceutical company with the purpose of bettering the lives of people living with kidney disease. Akebia’s lead investigational product candidate, vadadustat, is an oral therapy in Phase 3 development for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease, or CKD. Vadadustat is an oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor, or HIF-PHI, designed to mimic the physiologic effect of altitude on oxygen availability. At higher altitudes, the body responds to lower oxygen availability with stabilization of hypoxia-inducible factor, or HIF, which can lead to red blood cell, or RBC, production and improved oxygen delivery to tissues.Vadadustat is approved and marketed in Japan as a treatment for anemia due to CKD in both dialysis-dependent and non-dialysis dependent adult patients under the trade name VAFSEO. In addition, the Company has a commercial product, Auryxia® (ferric citrate), which is currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, and marketed for two indications in the United States: the control of serum phosphorus levels in adult patients with CKD on dialysis, or DD-CKD, and the treatment of iron deficiency anemia, or IDA, in adult patients with CKD not on dialysis, or NDD-CKD. Ferric citrate is also approved and marketed in Japan as an oral treatment for the improvement of hyperphosphatemia in patients with DD-CKD and NDD-CKD under the trade name Riona® (ferric citrate hydrate).

Since inception, the Company has devoted most of its resources to research and development, including its preclinical and clinical development activities, and providing general and administrative support for these operations. The Company began recording revenue from the U.S. sales of Auryxia and revenue from sublicensing rights to Auryxia in Japan to the Company’s Japanese partners Japan Tobacco, Inc. and its subsidiary Torii Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., collectively, JT and Torii, on December 12, 2018 following the consummation of a merger with Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., or Keryx, or the Merger. Additionally, following regulatory approval of vadadustat in Japan, the Company began recognizing royalty revenues from Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, or MTPC, from the sale of VAFSEO since August 2020. The Company has not generated a profit to date and may never generate profits from product sales. The Company’s product candidates are subject to long development cycles, and the Company may be unsuccessful in its efforts to develop, obtain marketing approval for or market its product candidates. If the Company does not successfully commercialize any of its products or product candidates, it may be unable to achieve profitability.

The Company’s management completed its going concern assessment in accordance with ASC 205-40, Disclosure of Uncertainties about an Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern, or ASC 205-40. The Company believes that its cash resources will be sufficient to allow the Company to fund its current operating plan beyond the next twelve months from the filing of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, as required by ASC 205-40. There can be no assurance, however, that the current operating plan will be achieved in the time frame anticipated by the Company, or that its cash resources will fund the Company’s operating plan for the period anticipated by the Company or that additional funding will be available on terms acceptable to the Company, or at all. The Company will require additional capital to pursue development and commercial activities related to expanded indications for current products and any additional products and product candidates. The Company expects to finance future cash needs through product revenue, public or private equity or debt transactions, payments from its collaborators, royalty transactions, strategic transactions, or a combination of these approaches. However, adequate additional financing may not be available to the Company on acceptable terms, or at all. If the Company is unable to raise capital in sufficient amounts when needed or on attractive terms, it may not be able to pursue development and commercial activities related to expanded indications for current products and any additional products and product candidates.