Travere taps Grammy-winning producer to create anthem for kidney disease patients

Travere Therapeutics has turned music mogul, bringing together a singer-songwriter and Grammy-winning producer to create an anthem for the focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) community.

The track, “Feel So Good Song,” was composed and performed by David Rush and Brian Kennedy. Rush is a singer-songwriter, and Kennedy is a producer with credits on hits by stars like Rihanna and Kelly Clarkson. Both men have FSGS, a disorder that causes scarring of kidney tissue. 

Travere has filed for FDA approval of its Filspari in FSGS, and with the FDA set to rule on the filing by mid-January 2026, the company has launched a campaign on the first-ever FSGS Awareness Day, June 10. The “Play It Forward” awareness campaign centers on the song by Rush and Kennedy, alongside testimonial videos from both artists and a call for other people with FSGS to use the song while sharing their own stories on social media. 

Filmmaker Destyn Fuller Hope, who is also living with FSGS, directed a short film documenting the creation of the song. The three-minute film shows Rush and Kennedy working on the track in the studio and discussing how FSGS has affected their lives. Rush says he assumed his life was over when he received the diagnosis; in one year, the singer “spent about 180 days or so in a dialysis chair and about 600 hours doing treatment.” 

His new track with Kennedy is meant to uplift and bring together the FSGS community.

“Anybody out there watching this, we would like you guys to make this anthem your anthem,” Rush says in the video. “Whatever it is that makes you uniquely you, we want you to add to this anthem: dancing, singing, rapping, painting. We need you to play it forward.”

The “Play It Forward” campaign is part of Travere's broader preparations for the launch of Filspari in FSGS. Talking on an earnings call last month, Chief Commercial Officer Peter Heerma said the company was in the early stages of expanding its commercial team and building on infrastructure that it has already established for Filspari in IgA nephropathy, which it expects will support a fast launch if the drug is approved in FSGS.

“We have already very strong brand awareness with basically the same prescriber base for FSGS as for IgA nephropathy. I think that allows for a much more rapid uptake,” Heerma said. “Filspari is already well established in payer plans and formulary, so all the heavy lifting that you do normally in the first 12 to 18 months, we have done that already for IgA nephropathy.”

Travere may be on track to win the first FDA approval for an FSGS treatment, but a competitor is giving chase: Last month, Amicus Therapeutics paid Dimerix $30 million for U.S. rights to its phase 3 FSGS prospect DMX-200.