Nature of Organization and Operations

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

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 impacted by kidney disease. The Company has one commercial product, Auryxia® (ferric citrate), which is 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 chronic kidney disease, or 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 IDA in adult patients for the improvement of hyperphosphatemia in such patients with DD-CKD and NDD-CKD under the trade name Riona (ferric citrate hydrate).

Vadadustat, the Company’s lead investigational product candidate, is an investigational oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase, or HIF-PH, inhibitor designed to mimic the physiologic effect of altitude on oxygen availability. On March 29, 2022, the Company received a complete response letter, or CRL, from the FDA. The CRL provided that the FDA had completed its review of the Company's new drug application, or NDA, for vadadustat for the treatment of anemia due to CKD in adult patients and had determined that it could not approve the NDA in its present form. The Company is discussing the details of the CRL with the Company's collaboration partners. The Company’s collaboration partner, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., or Otsuka, submitted a Marketing Authorization Application, or MAA, for vadadustat for the treatment of anemia due to CKD in adult patients with DD-CKD and NDD-CKD to the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, in October 2021. Vadadustat is approved in Japan as a treatment for anemia due to CKD in both DD-CKD and NDD-CKD patients under the trade name VafseoTM , and marketed and sold in Japan by Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, or MTPC.

In addition, the Company continues to explore additional development opportunities to expand its pipeline and portfolio of novel therapeutics.

Since inception, the Company has devoted most of its resources to research and development, including its preclinical and clinical development activities, commercializing Auryxia, 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 from the Company’s Japanese partners, Japan Tobacco, Inc. and its subsidiary Torii Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., collectively JT and Torii, in December 2018. Additionally, following regulatory approval of vadadustat in Japan, the Company began recognizing royalty revenues from MTPC from the sale of Vafseo in August 2020. In February 2021, the Company entered into a royalty interest acquisition agreement with HealthCare Royalty Partners IV, L.P., or HCR, or the Royalty Agreement, whereby the Company sold its right to receive royalties and sales milestones under its Collaboration Agreement with MTPC, or the MTPC Agreement, subject to certain caps and other terms and conditions (see Note 5 for additional information). The Company has not generated a profit to date and may never generate profits from product sales. Vadadustat and the Company’s other potential 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 vadadustat and its other potential product candidates. If the Company does not successfully commercialize Auryxia, vadadustat, if approved, or any other potential product candidate, it may be unable to achieve profitability.

Going Concern

The Company’s management completed its going concern assessment in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification, or ASC, 205-40, Disclosure of Uncertainties about an Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern, or ASC 205-40. Pursuant to the requirements of ASC 205-40, the Company’s management must evaluate whether there are conditions or events, considered in the aggregate, that raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date the financial statements are issued. This evaluation initially does not take into consideration the potential mitigating effect of management’s plans that have not been fully implemented as of the date the financial statements are issued.

When substantial doubt exists under this methodology, the Company’s management evaluates whether the mitigating effect of its plans sufficiently alleviates substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. The mitigating effect of the Company’s plans, however, is only considered if both (1) it is probable that the plans will be effectively implemented within one year after the date that the financial statements are issued and (2) it is probable that the plans, when implemented, will mitigate the relevant conditions or events that raise substantial doubt about the entity’s ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date that the financial statements are issued.

As of March 31, 2022, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $174.6 million. The Company believes that its cash resources will be sufficient to allow the Company to fund its current operating plan through at least the next twelve months from the filing of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. However, the Company's operating plan includes assumptions pertaining to cost avoidance measures and the reduction of overhead costs that would result from the planned amendment of certain contractual arrangements, including with certain supply and collaboration partners, and the reduction of certain infrastructure costs. Therefore, because these cost avoidance initiatives and certain other elements of the Company's operating plan are outside of its control, including the amendment of certain contractual arrangements, including with supply and collaboration partners, and the reduction of certain infrastructure costs, there is uncertainty as to whether the Company's cash resources will be adequate to support its operations for a period through at least the next twelve months from the date of issuance of these financial statements.

In addition, on February 18, 2022, the Company and BioPharma Credit PLC, or the Collateral Agent, BPCR Limited Partnership, as a Lender, and BioPharma Credit Investments V (Master) LP, as a Lender, entered into the First Amendment and Waiver, or the First Amendment and Waiver, which amends and waives certain provisions of the Loan Agreement, dated November 11, 2019 (see Note 10). Pursuant to the Loan Agreement, as amended, the Company’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarters ending June 30, 2022 and September 30, 2022, and its future Annual Reports on Form 10-K, must not be subject to any qualification as to going concern. If the Company does not satisfy the covenant as to going concern in any of these filings, the Company will be in default under the Loan Agreement. If an event of default occurs and is continuing under the Loan Agreement, the Collateral Agent is entitled to take enforcement action, including acceleration of amounts due under the Loan Agreement, which the Company may not have the available cash resources to repay at such time. There is also uncertainty as to whether or not the Company will meet its quarterly and annual debt covenants under the Loan Agreement.

These conditions raise substantial doubt regarding the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of one year after the date the financial statements are issued. Management’s plans to alleviate the conditions that raise substantial doubt through cost avoidance measures, including amending certain contractual arrangements, and deprioritizing and cancelling certain infrastructure activities for the Company to continue as a going concern for a period of twelve months from the date the financial statements are issued. However, the Company has concluded that the likelihood that its plan to extend its cash runway from one or more of these approaches will be successful, while reasonably possible, is less than probable. Accordingly, the Company has concluded that substantial doubt exists about our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from the date of issuance of these financial statements. If conditions that raise substantial doubt regarding the Company's ability to continue as a going concern still exist as of the filing of the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ending June 30, 2022, the Company will be in default under its Loan Agreement, as amended.

The accompanying financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis, which contemplates the realization of assets and satisfaction of liabilities in the ordinary course of business. The financial statements do not include any adjustments relating to the recoverability and classification of recorded asset amounts or the amounts and classification of liabilities, other than obligations under the Loan Agreement classified as current, that might result from the outcome of the uncertainties described above.