Akero First To Show Benefit In Cirrhotic NASH Patients

Akero Therapeutics, Inc.’s Phase II FGF21 analog efruxifermin (EFX/AKR-001) demonstrated the ability to reduce fibrosis score by one stage or more in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis patients with cirrhosis after just 16 weeks of treatment, becoming the first NASH candidate to show a benefit in cirrhotic patients. The biotech noted on 22 March that the data derived from a 30-patient cohort of a Phase IIa study that was not powered to show statistical significance on histologic endpoints, but analysts called the data potentially groundbreaking all the same.