Relypsa falls on Veltassa warning label
Relypsa Inc. (NASDAQ:RLYP) sank $4.39 (27%) to $11.76 on Thursday, a day after FDA approved Veltassa patiromer ( RLY5016) to treat hyperkalemia. The high-capacity oral potassium binder's label includes a black box warning against taking the treatment within six hours of other oral medications (see BioCentury Extra, Oct. 21).
On a conference call Thursday, SVP and CMO Lance Berman said the drug's warning label was based on in vitro drug binding studies that showed moderate to strong binding between Veltassa and "about half" of 28 tested medications. President and CEO John Orwin said the company is conducting Phase I drug-drug interaction studies to evaluate the feasibility of shortening the separation window to three hours. Berman said the company expects results from the study early next year. ...