Good read18 Jul 2024 12:51
Https://www.biotechconnection-sg.org/2024-historic-year-fatty-liver-disease/
According to GlobalData, the global MASH market is expected to reach $28.4 billion by 2032, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.6% from 2022 to 2032. However, not all large pharmaceutical companies are interested in gaining a slice of the market. AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Merck, GSK, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Gilead Sciences are the only few sponsoring at least one active clinical trial in MASH. They also face immediate competition from small biotech companies with pipeline drugs in active phase 3 trials such as Akero Therapeutics, Inventiva, and 89bio (Table 1). Interestingly, while all three small biotechs are developing small molecule or protein drugs, 4 out of these 7 large pharmas also have oligonucleotides on their clinical MASH pipeline. Boehringer Ingelheim is keen to join them, inking two recent deals potentially worth more than $3 billion in total with biotech companies to develop oligonucleotide-based MASH treatments.[17],[18] Different from the MoAs described above, antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) can target genetic variants associated with MASH at the RNA level, paving the way to personalised medicine. The large pharmas’ bet seems to be paying off. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, a leader in antisense technology, announced right before the FDA’s approval of resmetirom that its ION224 achieved the primary endpoint of liver histologic improvement and the key secondary endpoint of MASH resolution at 51 weeks in a phase 2 study.[19] ION224 is an investigational ASO designed to reduce the production of diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 (DGAT2), a key enzyme in triglyceride synthesis in the liver.
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