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Jason Mast is a general assignment reporter at STAT focused on the science behind new medicines and the systems and people that decide whether that science ever reaches patients. You can reach Jason on Signal at JasonMast.05.

Vertex said Monday that a drug it secured as part of a $4.9 billion acquisition successfully reduced by half a key marker of a kidney disease known as IgA nephropathy.

The results, from a Phase 3 trial, match data from a study of Otsuka’s recently approved Voyxact and are numerically superior to data released last year by Vera Therapeutics.

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All three companies have been racing to treat a disease that affects 330,000 people across the U.S. and Europe, according to Vertex’s estimates, putting many at risk of developing end-stage renal disease. Analysts have projected Vertex’s drug could eventually bring in $4 billion or more in annual sales. 

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