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.