By Chris Wack
Akero Therapeutics shares doubled to $55.64 in premarket trading after the company said it saw positive preliminary topline results from its Phase 2b study evaluating the efficacy and safety of its lead product candidate, efruxifermin.
The company said that efruxifermin is for use in patients with biopsy-confirmed compensated cirrhosis due to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.
Among patients with baseline and week 96 biopsies, 39% of patients treated with 50 milligrams experienced reversal of cirrhosis with no worsening of MASH, compared to 15% for placebo.
In a subgroup of patients with baseline and week 96 biopsies who were not taking GLP-1 at baseline, 45% in the 50 milligram efruxifermin group experienced reversal of cirrhosis with no worsening of MASH, compared to 17% for placebo, suggesting that the observed reversal of cirrhosis was not attributable to GLP-1 therapy.
Efruxifermin was reported to be generally well-tolerated. There were no deaths on efruxifermin, but one death in the placebo arm due to pneumonia. None of the serious adverse events were determined to be related to study drug.
Write to Chris Wack at chris.wack@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 27, 2025 06:59 ET (11:59 GMT)
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