WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. & PALO ALTO, Calif.– ProKidney LP (“ProKidney”), a leading clinical-stage cellular therapeutics company focused on chronic kidney disease (“CKD”), has entered into a definitive agreement to become a publicly traded company via a business combination with Social Capital Suvretta Holdings Corp. III (“SCS”) (Nasdaq: DNAC), a special purpose acquisition company. Upon closing, the transaction will accelerate ProKidney’s mission to change the lives of tens of millions of CKD patients through a first-of-its-kind disease-modifying autologous cellular therapy.
Chronic Kidney Disease: One of the Most Prevalent and Expensive Medical Conditions
CKD leading to kidney failure is one of the most prevalent and expensive medical conditions to treat. Today, more than one in seven U.S. adults – or approximately 15% of U.S. adults – suffer from some form of CKD. If left untreated, many CKD patients progress to end-stage renal disease (“ESRD”) or kidney failure and require dialysis or kidney transplant.
With no known disease-modifying therapies targeting CKD leading to kidney failure, current treatment options are limited to drugs, such as ACEs/ARBs, SGLT2’s, DPP-IV’s, or GLP-1’s, that incrementally slow the loss of kidney function and onset of ESRD and dialysis. These treatments can cause a great economic and emotional burden on patients and their families because they require adjusting many aspects of everyday living.
In 2018, annual Medicare spend on CKD and ESRD was approximately $130 billion. Combined with spend from private health payers, total annual costs to treat CKD and ESRD reached up to $500 billion in the United States alone. This huge economic burden is compounded by a surging number of CKD patients around the world, with prevalence in the United States and the European Union projected to grow by 22% between 2020 and 2040 – expanding to more than 90 million people – underscoring the dire need for a more effective treatment option that can also address the economic burdens associated with treating this disease.
ProKidney Offers a Transformative Therapy to the CKD Challenge
ProKidney’s lead product candidate, REACT® (Renal Autologous Cell Therapy), has the potential to not only slow the progression of CKD, but in some cases drive meaningful improvement in kidney function – a groundbreaking first in CKD therapies.
A cell therapy product produced from a patient’s own kidney cells, REACT® comprises a proprietary mixture of progenitor cells that have been grown and purified, so they can be placed back into the patient’s kidney. This minimally invasive procedure, starting with a standard biopsy, provides the cells that harness the body’s intrinsic ability to repair and restore damaged kidney tissue. The reinjection procedure has been shown to be safer than contemporary biopsy and renal failure treatment options, such as dialysis and organ transplant.
REACT® is the outcome of almost 20 years of development by ProKidney and its predecessors, including working on the basic science and mechanism of action, the proprietary cell admix and manufacturing process, the minimally invasive outpatient injection procedure and, most recently, running Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials. ProKidney’s patented REACT® therapy is part of its broad-based intellectual property (“IP”) strategy. The company has filed more than 200 patents worldwide for its product, cell admix, and manufacturing process.
