By Anne Steele
Published June 23, 2017

The next frontier for multibillion-dollar drug therapies is a silent disease many people don’t know they have.

Dozens of pharmaceutical companies including Gilead Sciences Inc., Allergan PLC and Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc. have joined the fray to bring a treatment for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis — a common but often undetected fatty-liver disease — to market. Interest in the disease, known as NASH, has spurred at least six deals over two years valued at $3.52 billion or more.

Overall, more than 40 drugs in mid- and late-stage trials are targeting various aspects of the complex metabolic disorder.

NASH is the progressive form of nonalcoholic fatty-liver disease. Fat buildup causes inflammation, cell damage and eventually fibrosis.

 


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