Description of Business

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2018

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Description of Business

DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

We are a commercial stage biopharmaceutical company focused on bringing innovative medicines to people with kidney disease. Our long-term vision is to build a multi-product kidney care company. Our marketed product, Auryxia (ferric citrate) tablets, is an orally available, absorbable, iron-based medicine. Auryxia is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, for two indications. Auryxia was originally approved in September 2014 for the control of serum phosphorus levels in patients with chronic kidney disease, or CKD, on dialysis. Additionally, in November 2017, the FDA approved Auryxia for the treatment of iron deficiency anemia in adults with CKD, not on dialysis. With two FDA-approved indications, we will leverage our U.S. clinical and commercial infrastructure to make Auryxia available to millions of people with CKD and either iron deficiency anemia or elevated levels of serum phosphorus, which is referred to as hyperphosphatemia. Ferric citrate is also approved in Japan under the trade name Riona and marketed by our Japanese partner, Japan Tobacco, Inc., or JT, and its subsidiary, Torii Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., or Torii, and approved in Europe as Fexeric. We use the brand name Auryxia when we refer to ferric citrate for use in the approved indications in the United States. We refer to the product as ferric citrate when referring to its investigational use. Our vision of building a multi-product kidney care company includes expansion of our product portfolio with other medicines that can help patients with kidney disease.

On June 28, 2018, we entered into an agreement and plan of merger with Akebia Therapeutics, Inc., or Akebia, a Delaware corporation, and Alpha Therapeutics Merger Sub Inc., a Delaware corporation and wholly-owned subsidiary of Akebia, or Merger Sub, pursuant to which we will combine our respective businesses through the merger of Merger Sub with and into us, with our company continuing after such merger as the surviving corporation and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Akebia, or the Merger. For additional details regarding the Merger, see Note 14 - Strategic Merger with Akebia Therapeutics, Inc.