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Akebia Therapeutics Inc (AKBA)
Q3Â 2019 Earnings Call
Nov 12, 2019, 9:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Akebia Therapeutics Third Quarter Financial Results and Business Highlights Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]
I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Ms. Kristen Sheppard. Please go ahead ma'am.
Kristen K. Sheppard -- Vice President of Investor Relations
Thank you, Catherine, and good morning. My name is Kristen Sheppard, Vice President of Investor Relations with Akebia. Thank you for joining us to discuss Akebia's third quarter 2019 financial results and our recent business highlights. The press release contained in the Company's financial results for the third quarter was issued earlier this morning, and is also available on our Investor Relations website. For your convenience, an audio replay of today's call will also be available on our website shortly after we conclude today's webcast.
Joining our call today are John Butler, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Jason Amello, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this conference call includes forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement contained in this call is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these statements. Additional information regarding these factors is described in the Risk Factors and Management's Discussion and Analysis sections of our most recent quarterly and annual reports filed with the SEC. The forward-looking statements on this call speak only as of the original date of this call, and we do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any of these statements.
With that, I'd like to turn the call over to our CEO, John Butler. John?
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Kristen. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Akebia is now within two quarters of the first readout of our global Phase 3 studies of vadadustat, our investigational HIF-PHI being developed for the treatment of anemia due to CKD, with top line data from INNOVATE expected in Q2 of '20 followed by PROTECT top line data expected in mid-2020, subject to the accrual of MACE.
It's incredibly energizing to all of us at Akebia to consider how close we are to the data readout and to the potential introduction of vadadustat into our renal-focused commercial engine. Anemia due to CKD is a disease that affects 5.7 million people in the US. Essentially every organ in the body is affected by this disease, most notably the kidneys and heart. There are limitations to the current standard of care in treating and managing this disease, including the risk of cardiovascular events, providing a new oral treatment option upon regulatory approval to patients and physicians. One with the potential to help address their unmet needs and possibly better their lives would represent an incredible opportunity to advance patient care. And that's exactly what we've set out to achieve.
It's been a busy and exciting few months. First, we achieved a primary objective by strengthening our balance sheet with $80 million in non-dilutive funding on very competitive terms to further support our clinical development program and other strategic goals. This loan, which will close later this month, along with our ability to draw down an additional $20 million by the end of 2020 meaningfully extends our cash runway into 2021, well past the expected top line data readouts of our global Phase 3 clinical studies. Importantly, Auryxia revenue allows us to service this debt. Vadadustat is the cornerstone of our future growth.
So let's turn to the highlights of our global Phase 3 clinical development program. With both INNO2VATE and PRO2TECT fully enrolled, we remain on track to report top line data for vadadustat in Q2 of 2020 and mid-2020 respectively. In total, we enrolled over 7,000 patients across these studies, which is about 1,700 more than our initial targets and speaks to the unmet need for patients with CKD. This is an exciting time for Akebia. There has been great interest in growing excitement among the renal community in the opportunity the HIF product candidates represent for patient care. Especially, following the announcement that the Nobel Prize has been awarded to the three HIF scientists whose discovery has led to the development of vadadustat and other drugs, targeting this oxygen sensing mechanism. We're both honored and excited to be at the forefront of this Nobel Prize winning science with vadadustat expected to be the first drug of the HIF class to deliver clear data that directly compares its MACE outcomes for the current standard of care in both dialysis and non-dialysis patients for the treatment of anemia in chronic kidney disease.
We're equally excited to be contributing to the growing body of evidence in support of HIFs and vadadustat more specifically. Just last week at the American Society of Nephrology meeting, new 52-week efficacy and safety data for vadadustat from two pivotal Phase 3 studies of vadadustat in Japanese patients with anemia due to CKD were presented by MTPC, our collaboration partner in Japan. The details of these data were provided in our press release on Saturday, but I'll briefly highlight the key takeaways.
MTPC is positive top line 52-week data show that vadadustat's effect on hemoglobin was sustained through to 52 weeks in each study. We had previously announced in March that each of these studies, one in non-dialysis CKD patients and one in dialysis-dependent CKD patients, met its primary endpoint based on mean hemoglobin levels at weeks 20 and 24. As correcting and maintaining hemoglobin levels within a target range is paramount in the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease, these new data are highly encouraging and are another proof point in our belief in vadadustat's potential to make a difference in the lives of people impacted by anemia due to CKD subject to FDA approval.
It's worth to remind you that MTPC submitted a JNDA with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan this past July for marketing approval of vadadustat as a treatment for anemia due to CKD. If approved in Japan, this is expected to lead to the first launch of vadadustat worldwide next year and Akebia thinks [Phonetic] the benefit from this launch with tiered double-digit royalties up to 20% of sales in Japan upon approval. So, this is a very exciting program in multiple levels. And we believe all of this sets up an incredibly important period in the Akebia story, the expected top line data readouts from our global Phase 3 program.
We continued to have a tremendous amount of confidence in our clinical development program. The headline for our global Phase 3 program is that we believe it has been designed for clinical, regulatory and commercial success. Very importantly, we expect clear data readouts for efficacy and safety. First, both INNO2VATE and PRO2TECT are designed to assess non-inferiority for efficacy and cardiovascular safety for vadadustat using an active control, darbepoetin alfa, an injectable ESA, which is the current standard of care. We believe this will enable a straightforward collection and analysis of MACE across the relevant studies and ultimately a clear and understandable data readout on both efficacy and safety, sending us further apart from our competition.
Importantly, our program includes multiple secondary efficacy and safety endpoints to assess other clinically and hence commercially important areas of differentiation to ESAs, including incidents of thromboembolic events, hospitalization for heart failure, and effects on blood pressure and in non-dialysis CKD subjects, progression of kidney disease.
Going a little deeper into what differentiates vadadustat, if successful with these studies. We expect vadadustat to be the first drug of this class in US and European markets with clear data directly comparing its outcomes to the current standard of care in both dialysis and non-dialysis patients. Moreover, this is another example of our leadership as we believe these data will be highly informative for physicians, patients and payers as they make important decisions about patient care and a key consideration when differentiating between HIFs in the class.
Because our non-dialysis study was designed with an active control, patients in this population that progressed to dialysis during the study will be able to stay on the study drug. As a result, we expect to be able to compare how these new-to-dialysis patients on either the controlled drug or vadadustat do as they transition to dialysis and moving forward. Recall incident dialysis is important because the event rate in the first year of dialysis is generally much higher. Data will give us tremendous insight into our ability to treat this population. And again, this also makes our MACE analysis much more straightforward.
Next, we designed these studies after extensive dialog with the FDA and European regulators. We have prospectively defined and agreed to non-inferiority margins with the FDA and EMA, and we also agreed with the FDA on the key components of our statistical analysis plan.
Lastly, in October, our independent Data Monitoring Committee reviewed unblinded safety and efficacy data from Akebia's global Phase 3 studies of vadadustat, as planned, and recommended continuation of the studies without modification. We are very focused on bringing vadadustat to markets around the world upon approval. We started with the JNDA submission in Japan this past July by MTPC. As we advance our global Phase 3 program, we're keying in on NDA and MAA related activities and commercial plans. It's important to recognize that the most significant investment for a new product launch is building the commercial organization.
We believe we are well positioned for a very strong vadadustat launch upon approval, with Otsuka sharing in their launch costs; a distribution agreement with Vifor Pharma that allows access to up to 60% of the dialysis market; and a strong, experienced commercial organization supporting Auryxia, our FDA approved commercial product. We're also working to build on our leadership in the renal space and leveraging our medical affairs team to deepen our relationships with patient communities and increase awareness of the significant burden of kidney disease. We're excited about these programs and are proud to be doing this all under a new corporate brand that amplifies our commitment to bettering the lives of people impacted by kidney disease.
Also, as you know, in mid-October, we filed suit against CMS and HHS, challenging their decision to rescind Part D coverage of Auryxia when used for the treatment of iron deficiency anemia our IDA and the related prior authorization requirement when used for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia. Patients have been harmed by CMS' decision. And after nearly a year of working to restore coverage, we believe we had no other choice than to pursue litigation. We believe CMS has a legal obligation to cover Auryxia, and we remain confident in the strength of our legal position.
We've received a tremendous amount of support from key stakeholders, including the National Kidney Foundation, the American Kidney Fund, Dialysis Patient Citizens, and a nationally renowned nephrologist who submitted declaration supporting our lawsuit. We're working through the litigation process toward an outcome in the best interest of patients, Akebia, and our shareholders.
To that end, on October 29th, we filed for a preliminary injunction and in the alternative summary judgment to restore coverage. We remain confident in the market opportunity for Auryxia within its hyperphosphatemia indication. We believe this is a great product with a competitive profile that offers proven clinical benefits to patients and is supported by real-world data, showing its lower pill burden versus other binders.
As you know, the CMS' decision and the prior authorization has a -- had a fundamental impact on the Auryxia business and our outlook. As we are in litigation, my comments regarding Auryxia are limited to a few updates. We're pleased to have signed a new multi-year agreement with Fresenius Medical Care Rx effective this quarter, which is designed to expand access to Auryxia's proven benefits for treating hyperphosphatemia in dialysis-dependent CKD patients.
Although we expect that it will take a number of quarters to grow our market share with FMC, we are very confident in the long-term opportunity this represents for the business. To date, we've not provided guidance for Auryxia. And over the near term, given the pending litigation and the fundamental impact that CMS and the PA continues to have on our business, we're obviously going to continue with this approach and be cautious in our planning for revenue in Q4 and into 2020. We encourage you to do the same. Over the longer term, we remain optimistic about our growth prospects.
So to wrap up, we continue to believe that vadadustat is our biggest near-term value driver. We're making great progress toward our goal of bringing a new oral treatment for anemia due to CKD upon FDA approval to patients and physicians, one that with the potential to address their unmet needs and possibly better their lives. We are pleased that we have meaningfully enhanced our capital position, and we're extremely excited with the milestones achieved to this point. We look forward to the data readouts expected in 2020.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Jason.
Jason Amello -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, John, and good morning. As John mentioned, we are making significant progress on our commercialization and development efforts, while at the same time strengthening our liquidity position. Looking at the components of the P&L for the quarter, total revenue for the third quarter of 2019 was $92 million compared to $53.2 million for the pre-merger third quarter of 2018.
Net product revenue from the sales of Auryxia for the third quarter of 2019 increased 13% to $30 million compared to $26.6 million as reported by Keryx pre-merger during the same period in 2018. Cost of goods sold associated with the manufacturer of Auryxia was $11.2 million for the third quarter of 2019. To that, we add about $27.1 million for the non-cash purchase accounting effects of the Keryx merger, including an inventory step-up charge of $18 million and $9.1 million of amortization of intangibles, bringing our total reported GAAP cost of sales to $38.3 million.
As you know, our collaboration agreements are both highly strategic and important elements of our financial strength. Collaboration and license revenue continues to be a significant source of revenue for us, reflecting the value we are creating as we continue to execute and advance our programs. For the third quarter, we recognized $62 million of collaboration and license revenue compared with $53.2 million in the third quarter of 2018, of which the majority for both periods relates to our Otsuka agreements [Phonetic]. Historically, Otsuka has funded 52.5% of our Phase 3 development cost of vadadustat. And starting in Q2 2019, Otsuka begin funding 80% of these costs. With continued progress, future collaboration revenue loss come in the form of additional milestones and royalties.
Moving to research and development expenses. R&D expenses were $74.5 million for the third quarter of 2019 compared to $70.6 million for the third quarter of 2018. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in headcount and other costs to support continued advancement of the PRO2TECT and INNO2VATE Phase 3 study of vadadustat in clinical and preclinical activities. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in external costs related to protecting INNO2VATE Phase 3 studies as they advance toward readout. It is important to keep in mind that 80% of our Phase 3 costs are reimbursed by Otsuka, which has recorded as collaboration revenue as I mentioned earlier.
Selling, general and administrative expenses were $34.2 million for the third quarter of 2019, compared to $10.4 million for the third quarter of 2018. The increase was primarily attributable to commercialization related costs associated with Auryxia, as there were no comparable commercialization related costs in the pre-merger third quarter of 2018.
As a result of the foregoing operating results, the Company reported a net loss for the third quarter of 2019 of $54.6 million as compared to a net loss of $26 million for the third quarter of 2018. Again, I want to point out that the net loss for the third quarter of 2019 includes the impact of non-cash charges of $27.1 million related to the application of purchase accounting for the merger with Keryx that I mentioned earlier, offset by an income tax benefit of $1.3 million.
Turning to our capital position. We ended the quarter with cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale securities of $145.6 million. Subsequent to the end of the quarter, we further strengthened our balance sheet and extending our operating cash runway with our very recent non-dilutive tranched debt facility for $80 million, up to $100 million. Upon closing, we believe this facility, coupled with the committed research and development funding from our collaborators and the receipt of a regulatory milestone from MTPC, assuming approval of vadadustat in Japan, is expected to provide us with the cash resources to fund our current operating plan into Q1 of 2021. And lastly, we ended the quarter with approximately 119 million shares outstanding.
With that, we'll open the lines for questions. Operator?
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Chris Raymond with Piper Jaffray. Your line is open.
Chris Raymond -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
Hey guys. Thanks. Just a couple of questions. So, John, I'm kind of struck by the statement in your press release and you kind of said this as well in your prepared remarks about essentially being the only potentially -- the only HIF approved comparing outcomes to current standard of care in both dialysis and non-dialysis. So I mean, John, you know this space pretty well. And even last night, your competitor made a statement I think that about -- only about 15% or so of patients who started dialysis have gotten in the ESA, which actually is the first time I think I've heard and acknowledge the meaningful ESA use, but I mean, there's a lot of data out there that says that rate is much higher. So maybe just clear up for us. Again, you know the space well, John. I get this from investors a lot. ESA use in the pre-dialysis or non-dialysis setting, how prevalent is it from your perspective, and how many patients starting dialysis are on an ESA?
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Chris. Thanks for the question. It is certainly more frequent than 15%. I mean, you have to break it down a couple of different ways. You have patients who are chronically treated within ESA, which actually quite common outside of the US. But in the US, it's much more frequently dosed in a -- as a rescue therapy because of the significant risk associated with the ESA use and the fact that you're bringing patients in four injections, frequently having them go to infusion centers, etc.
So I do think that there is significant work that will need to be done to continue to educate physicians on the need to treat those patients, which is one of the reasons why we have a commercial organization that's talking about anemia today with Auryxia. So, but if you talk to nephrologists, they don't -- it's not in their mind that they are not treating these patients. This is very commonly they would much prefer to see a comparison to what they're used to using, which is in the ESA than to placebo, which really means nothing to them.
Chris Raymond -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
Okay. And then, just -- I know we've kind of gone around on this issue a decent amount with respect to your trial and your design and I know you differ from your competitor and that you haven't really talked about your non-inferiority margin. Is there any -- and just maybe more directly, I guess why not provide that non-inferiority margin to investors, especially since you have an agreement with the FDA.
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
So, I think you can appreciate Chris that it's a very competitive situation. And given that we have agreement with the FDA and EMA, we will hold that for us and how we progress, I don't think it's our job to inform others of our negotiations.
Chris Raymond -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
Fair enough. Okay. And then one final question maybe on this trial. So the way you guys are looking at MACE, John, you guys have stressed that the MACE components are an additional non-primary endpoint in your clinical program for vadadustat. When we saw the Auryxia data, there was a pretty decent imbalance in MI and stroke. And so, I guess the question is, maybe sort of talk a little bit about -- do you feel like that's an advantage for you guys once you finally have those readouts, or maybe just talk about the value of having those individual components of MACE.
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Right. So, Chris, when you look at the data that was presented, it's really not surprising to us that there are significant questions around the components and other areas. And from where we're sitting, kind of most of that really revolves around design issues and regulatory interaction. And again, when I talk to KOLs and nephrologists about this when I was at the sessions at ASN, there were a lot of excitement about the data. And I think that bodes well for us in the class, but it's our design that really makes the difference.
It is the -- it's the active control, particularly in non-dialysis, the data you're referencing was in non-dialysis patients. We have direct comparison with ESAs. That's what sets us up from a clinical perspective and from a regulatory perspective ultimately from a commercial perspective. But all of those differences that we're seeing are -- we really think of as design or FDA interaction differences and we think we've done the right thing on both with the active control and those agreements with FDA and EMA on key statistical elements before -- frankly, on most of them, before we started the study.
Chris Raymond -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
Okay. Great. Thank you very much.
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Chris.
Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from Eric Joseph with JPMorgan. Your line is open.
Eric Joseph -- JPMorgan -- Analyst
Hey guys. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe just to pick up on that last question. In your discussions with regulators, have there -- has there been specific discussion on sub-components within MACE? And I guess their utility or is the focus when it comes to non-inferiority strictly on the composite MACE score. A couple of follow-ups.
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
I think regulators look at the totality of the data. So, clearly there is an agreement on the primary efficacy and safety endpoints, and those are MACE as we've described, but I mean, what I know about the FDA and EMA is, you had them the data and they analyze it kind of however they want. What you want is a data set that is not complex and not statistically challenging, so that you understand the data that you're handing to them and they look at it in its totality. And again, I mean that is the study that we've designed with an active control in both dialysis and non-dialysis.
Eric Joseph -- JPMorgan -- Analyst
Okay. And just picking up on some of your prepared remarks discussing some of the secondary endpoints and potential benefits with vadadustat, particularly progression of CKD, can you talk a little bit about I guess mechanistically how treatment of anemia with HIFs might impact CKD progression, and what baseline expectation is with ESAs on that -- on progression, and what might be viewed as a clinically meaningful improvement?
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. So, the HIFs have shown in pre-clinical models that they have been able to impact kidney or organ health kind of better oxygen flow to an organ kind of suggests that it can protect that organ. I think it's important to recognize again that in our study in non-dialysis, we're comparing directly to an ESA. So what's known of course is that anemia itself has an impact on progression on GFR, you make -- you correct anemia, correct congestive heart failure, and you're improving potentially GFR, not necessarily progression. So there truly is a difference. You really want to explore that versus the standard of care, which is an ESA, and that's what we will -- that's the answer we will have in our study.
Eric Joseph -- JPMorgan -- Analyst
Got it. And just one on Auryxia, if I could. I appreciating that you're in a -- in the midst of a legal dispute when it comes to the IDA opportunity, but just within hyperphosphatemia, I'm wondering as we turn the corner here, 2020, whether next year, we'd be in a position to talk about guidance within that segment? Thanks.
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
So, again, I mean, where we are today, we have a tremendous amount of excitement about hyperphosphatemia as an opportunity for us. But given the issues around IDA and CMS, it just doesn't make sense for us to guide you in that area. I mean this is -- we really believe that CMS has a legal obligation to cover the drug, but at this point, I think it's really about being cautious in how we approach revenue expectations for Auryxia. I really encourage you to do the same, Eric.
Eric Joseph -- JPMorgan -- Analyst
All right. Appreciate it. Thanks for taking my questions.
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from David Lebowitz with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
David Lebowitz -- Morgan Stanley -- Anlayst
Thanks a lot for taking my question. One question. On the IDA, could you give us, I guess, an example of historic precedent of a scenario that might be similar? It seems somewhat unique in which you had -- have a single drug, two indications, one reimbursed, one not, and being put in this kind of legal scenario. Is there some scenario we can look at, I guess, to gain some perspective?
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, there certainly is, there's actually multiple. One I was involved in myself was with Vitamin D and Part D. Again, same patient population. It wasn't the same and that there were two indications. But it was indicated for the treatment of CKD patients, their hyperparathyroidism. And again, I mean the initial read by CMS was that this was a vitamin. And therefore, there was an exclusion for it, but they recognized with our help that this was being used to treat a disease that was not an excluded disease. And therefore, it should be covered and was, which is why we really believe that we had a clear path forward. Today, we feel the same about Auryxia. This is a product that's being reimbursed for hyperphosphatemia. And therefore, it's not kind of being seen by CMS as a mineral in that case and it's iron deficiency anemia is an not excluded indication. So, we feel that they have a legal obligation to reimburse the drug and that's what the lawsuit is about.
David Lebowitz -- Morgan Stanley -- Anlayst
Thanks for taking the question.
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Difei Yang with Mizuho Securities. Your line is open.
Difei Yang -- Mizuho Securities -- Analyst
Hi, good morning, and thanks for taking my question. So, John, just a couple. From a JFDA, so Japanese FDA perspective, why wouldn't they need the MACE? Maybe you could help us with their rationale.
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Well, we basically follow the guidance that regulators give us. And now the PMDA, and as you know Japan is always a generally conservative country, doesn't require MACE data. I mean certainly like every regulatory authority you provide them all the data that exists for the drug, but they don't have the expectation that you provide MACE data, they haven't seen in a Japanese population the impact on outcomes. And they frankly target higher hemoglobin levels in Japanese patients. Importantly, and our partner MTPC is really encouraged by the data as are we. And as you know, it's an active review process. And if we stay on expected timelines, we'd be talking about a July approval for vadadustat.
Difei Yang -- Mizuho Securities -- Analyst
Yeah, thank you for that additional color. Then on the very high level from nephrologist perspective NDD setting. Do you think -- where do you think the market needs is? Are the nephrologists are looking for something as safe as a placebo or they're looking for something for as long as that something is safer than EPO, you think that market will expand?
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
So from a nephrologist perspective, I think they are much more interested in seeing a comparison to the drug that they use. And again, I mean to the Chris's question earlier, I mean they use on a regular basis. And that's, and again, from a commercial perspective, a much stronger package to go in and speak to physicians about because you can make direct comparisons, which you can't do in a placebo-controlled trial.
Difei Yang -- Mizuho Securities -- Analyst
Yeah. Thank you. And then, finally on GFR. So, what is clinically relevant if I see -- how much of the improvement in GFR that could be signaling that is slowing the progression of CKD?
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
I think what's clinically relevant is seeing a slower progression, not seeing just a change in GFR, but actually seeing a difference in the time it takes for a patient to get onto dialysis. And I think that's really what will move physicians, not a change in GFR. We are measuring that in our Phase 3 study.
Difei Yang -- Mizuho Securities -- Analyst
Yeah. So for the design, do you think you have the power to get significant -- to get the statistical significance on the [Speech Overlap]
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, no, it's a great question, Difei. And of course you don't know whether you have the power unless you know kind of what the treatment effect is. And we don't have that. We don't have anything to base that on. I don't want to oversell our expectations on showing a delayed progression, and let's just see kind of where the data leads us.
Difei Yang -- Mizuho Securities -- Analyst
Okay, great. And John, while we're on this topic, could you help us with how this portion of the trial was designed? What would you be measuring? Are you using the staging to decide how long does it take for a patient to go from stage three to four to five and or there are finer measurements you are trying to discern?
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Difei, that's a level of detail on the protocol that I don't have at my fingertips here, so we'll have to -- we'll have to come back to you on that.
Difei Yang -- Mizuho Securities -- Analyst
Great. Thank you.
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
It's a good question. It's a good question. I just don't -- and I haven't looked at the protocol in a long time. So, but it's a good question.
Difei Yang -- Mizuho Securities -- Analyst
No worries. And thank you so much for clarifying or providing clarifying thoughts on the program. Thanks.
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Difei.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Ed Arce with H.C. Wainwright. Your line is open.
Ed Arce -- H.C. Wainwright -- Analyst
Hi, John. Thanks for taking my questions. Perhaps, I could ask one on the commercial infrastructure and readiness, given the high level of confidence you mentioned earlier in your remarks. As you think about approval and launch likely late '21 or early '22, what are the key factors, the dynamics of the competitive environment that you're looking at and how are you thinking about addressing those?
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
So, this is really where the merger we completed last year. That's the strategic value of that really starts to pay off. I mean, I mentioned earlier that communicating on the need to treat patients with chronic kidney disease for anemia chronically versus episodically as physicians do today, it's -- that's an important communication point and one that we can start today talking about iron deficiency anemia and certainly our medical affairs group can talk more broadly about kind of treating that disease area, the importance of that. That is absolutely critical. The other critical component of success here is the relationship we have with Vifor Pharma, and the fact that we have access to 60% of the dialysis population with vadadustat right from launch. Again, I'll use the Mircera example, where in nine months, 90% of the patients changed. The TDAPA rule that's been finalized by CMS gives us great opportunity to move patients quickly.
And just to remind you that Vifor relationship is an exclusive one. Vadadustat is the only product -- HIF product that they can sell into their joint venture with Fresenius. Fresenius alone accounts for 40% of the market. So, those are kind of a number of things that we've done to really be prepared for commercial launch. The things that we think are kind of have that -- will have the biggest impact. And I should also add that we have our partner Otsuka who is providing 50% of the commercial muscle for the product as well.
So when I look at the competitive environment, I'm really very encouraged by where we are. And unlike a company with a single asset looking to launch themselves where you have a significant capital raise needed to finance that, because of all of those pieces we put in place, it's much more modest, the investments that we need to make.
Ed Arce -- H.C. Wainwright -- Analyst
Okay. Thanks, John. That's a nice summary. One -- perhaps one other question on your ongoing suit with CMS regarding IDA. And I appreciate that there is certainly some things you really wouldn't want to discuss, given the ongoing litigation. But you had mentioned even more recently beyond the initial suit, I think you mentioned an injunction, just maybe -- could you perhaps review again what's the latest status with the overall effort? Thank you.
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. Thanks for the question. And so, yes, as we mentioned, we filed a -- for a preliminary injunction, which would obviously because of the significant harm that we're experiencing with not just with the lack of reimbursement for iron deficiency anemia, but also because of the prior auths that are required for hyperphosphatemia patients. We filed that with the court. We are waiting to hear on that. I don't know the timing.
Ed Arce -- H.C. Wainwright -- Analyst
Great. Thank you so much.
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Ed.
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Kennen Mackay with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Justin Burns -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
This is Justin on for Kennen. Thanks for taking my question, and congrats on the progress this quarter. Just a quick question from us, as you sort of think about the landscape. Given the higher event rate in year one for patients on dialysis already receiving standard of care, do you have any sort of clinician feedback on their willingness to switch over well controlled patients to a new therapy?
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
That's an interesting question. I think that one thing that you need to recognize about dialysis treatment is that it's very protocol-driven, particularly when you think about for Fresenius and DaVita. And they really do a quite a bit of work to optimize treatment for patients and switch everyone as quickly as they can to have consistency. I mean, I think we're encouraged by the data we've seen in incident patients from roxadustat, and we're obviously looking at that population also. And remember, as you treat more patients on non-dialysis and those patients start dialysis on a particular product, that will be a great desire to continue to maintain them, if they're being maintained well. So, I do think that the incident market is one that will be very interesting for vadadustat.
Justin Burns -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
Okay, great. And then, just a quick one on Auryxia, if you're able to, it looks like sales were a little flattish on this quarter than the last quarter. I was wondering if you can go into some of the details behind the slowdown in growth that you saw there.
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
So, Q3 is always a quarter where you see more of a flattening in the summer month. And we had a little bit of a softening on the average selling price as well. And -- but fundamentally, the ability to grow in the iron deficiency anemia market has really been impacted by the CMS decision and the prior auths. So, we're continuing to focus on hyperphosphatemia. We have a lot of excitement around that, but I do encourage you to be cautious, as you think about growth in the fourth quarter and into 2020.
Justin Burns -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
Okay, thank you very much.
Operator
Thank you. And that's all the questions we have. I'd like to turn the call back to Mr. John Butler, CEO, for any closing remarks.
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Catherine, and thanks everyone for attending again. We look forward to continuing to update you in the future on the progress we make in the business. Have a great day.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]
Duration: 44 minutes
Call participants:
Kristen K. Sheppard -- Vice President of Investor Relations
John Butler -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Jason Amello -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Chris Raymond -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst
Eric Joseph -- JPMorgan -- Analyst
David Lebowitz -- Morgan Stanley -- Anlayst
Difei Yang -- Mizuho Securities -- Analyst
Ed Arce -- H.C. Wainwright -- Analyst
Justin Burns -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
