Vancouver biotech is building a pipeline of candidates for rare, severe chronic kidney disease. It has an oral drug in Phase III and an antibody candidate in mid-stage development for IGA nephropathy.

Plus deals involving AbbVie/Mitokinin, Roivant/Silicon Therapeutics, CASI/Cleave Therapeutics, Tallac/ALX Oncology, AgeX/LyGenesis, Chinook/Evotec and more.

Initial public offerings by Norbert Bischofberger’s start-up as well as Spruce Biosciences and Shattuck Labs bring the US total to 64 in 2020. Also, the pipeline of health care SPACs is growing, Everest and Genor went public in Hong Kong, Idorsia leads recent follow-on offerings and Corbus cuts jobs.

Chinook launched less than two years ago to develop precision medicines for chronic kidney diseases and will have three drugs in the clinic in 2021, including a Phase III candidate for IgA nephropathy.