The new kidney drug from Panion & BF Biotech Inc. (PBF) has expanded its sales territory again, with US license partner Akebia Therapeutics and Averoa SAS signing an exclusive license agreement for the EU region, and sales are expected to start at the end of the year.

In fact, PBF's EU license has been delayed for many years, but as its US license partner Akebia Therapeutics expands the global sales and development of its new kidney drug Nephoxil, it has signed an exclusive license agreement with Averoa SAS for the sale of the API ferric citrate in Europe ,Turkey, Switzerland and the UK, which will help boost operations at the same time.

PBF responds to the market demand of ferric citrate, the raw material drug of Nephoxil, in the US, China, Japan and other Asian regions in the future, especially in China, which will be launched this year as soon as possible. The customer demand is very strong, and the current annual production capacity of ferric citrate is only about More than 20 tons, it is difficult to meet the demand, so new equipment will be purchased first to increase the existing production capacity to 60 tons.

In addition to the existing production line, PBF is building a new plant. The new facility is expected to enter the plant in the second quarter of this year and start production in the third quarter, with a planned capacity of 100 tons by 2024.

It is expected the company will benefit from the profit contributed by Nephoxil this year and estimated that the annual revenue will increase by 2% to 3% through other strategic business units.