Antaros Medical is proud to have contributed to a new publication describing the results from a phase 1b/2a study in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH; previously called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH) patients was published earlier this week in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology. The study, sponsored by 89bio, involved 12 weeks of treatment with an FGF1 analogue or placebo, in patients with either biopsy-confirmed MASH with fibrosis or metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD; previously called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD) deemed at high-risk of developing MASH (referred to as phenotypic MASH). Lars Johansson (Chief Scientific Officer at Antaros Medical) was a co-author of the publication, offering insights drawn from the non-invasive imaging methods of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and MRI proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF).
There is a large unmet need for disease-modifying treatment for MASH; lifestyle modification is currently the recommended disease management strategy and there are, to date, no approved pharmacological interventions available. Improving fibrosis is an important goal for MASH treatment, as fibrosis progression has been shown to be a strong predictor of both mortality and liver-related morbidity.
Antaros Medical delivered the imaging part of the study, utilising MRI-PDFF to measure absolute and percentage changes from baseline in hepatic fat fraction, and MRI to measure absolute and percentage changes in hepatic volume. These methods can be extremely useful for sensitively detecting changes in smaller sample sizes and with short treatment durations. You can read more about Antaros Medical’s whole liver assessment of liver MRI-PDFF and liver volume here.
Title: Safety, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of pegozafermin in patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 1b/2a multiple-ascending-dose study
Authors: Loomba R, Lawitz EJ, Frias JP, Ortiz-Lasanta G, Johansson L, Boggess Franey B, Morrow L, Rosenstock M, Hartsfield CL, Chen C-Y, Tseng L, Charlton RW, Mansbach H, Margalit M
Find the publication here.