Akero Therapeutics Inc. shares
AKRO,
fell more than 60% premarket on Tuesday after the company released an update on its lead product candidate, a treatment for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, a form of fatty liver disease.
Only 22% to 24% of the patients with compensated cirrhosis due to NASH receiving the treatment, efruxifermin, had at least a one-stage improvement in liver fibrosis, the study’s primary endpoint, Akero said in a release. But roughly 60% of patients receiving the treatment had NASH resolution after 36 weeks, compared with 26% for placebo, “representing the highest response rates reported to date for NASH resolution in this patient population,” the company said.
“We set a high bar with the primary endpoint after only 36 weeks of treatment,” Dr. Andrew Cheng, Akero’s president and CEO, said in a statement. But looking at the overall data, including the fibrosis improvement trend and statistically significant rates of NASH resolution, Akero believes efruxifermin “has the potential to show additional improvements for patients after the long-term follow-up period is complete” at week 96, Cheng said.
Akero shares are down 11.4% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX
has gained 12.9%.
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