SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FibroGen, Inc., today announced that FibroGen and partner Astellas Pharma Inc. (“Astellas”) advanced FG-4592 (Astellas designation ASP1517), an investigational anemia therapy, to phase 2b development for treatment of anemia in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients on dialysis and not on dialysis. The advancement decision resulted in a payment of $40 million from Astellas to FibroGen in the fourth quarter of 2010 under Astellas’ license to rights for the European Union and certain other territories. FG-4592 is a novel, first-in-class hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor (PHI) that works through stabilization of HIF, a mechanism distinct from that of current anemia therapy using erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs).
