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Life After NASH For CymaBay: An Interview With CEO Sujal Shah

 
• By Joseph Haas

With up to $100m from Abingworth and a recent $75m FOPO, CymaBay has runway to await pivotal data in primary biliary cholangitis in 2023 for seladelpar, after the candidate failed in NASH. It sees a significant market opportunity in the second-line setting cornered by Intercept.

Sujal Shah of CymaBay Pharmaceuticals.
CymaBay CEO Sujal Shah

Having shelved its PPAR delta agonist seladelpar for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in late 2019 due to safety issues, CymaBay Therapeutics, Inc. followed a familiar route for NASH failures by focusing development on second-line therapy for primary biliary cholangitis. Although the indication has been pursued by multiple companies in the NASH field, including Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc.and Genfit SA, CymaBay believes seladelpar has a chance to grow the market – and it has a low-risk financing agreement with Abingworth that will help it explore PBC and perhaps other liver indications with seladelpar.

CymaBay initiated the global Phase III RESPONSE trial of seladelpar in PBC in 2021, CEO Sujal Shah told Scrip in...

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