Is hepatology a pharma graveyard or a promising blockbuster opportunity?

A feature analyzing recent pharma activity in the hepatology field and why NASH remains unchartered territory.

The hepatology arena has attracted significant investment, including Akero Therapeutics (Nasdaq: AKRO), AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN), Boston Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY), Genfit (Euronext: GNFT), Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD), Intercept Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ICPT), Madrigal Pharmaceutical (Nasdaq: MDGL), Novo Nordisk (NOV: N), Resolution Therapeutics, and Zydus Cadila, (a part of Cadila Healthcare (BOM: 532321), due to the lack of therapies approved by regulators.

Over the last decade, companies have targeted hard-to-treat common conditions such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) as well as rare genetic disorders such as primary biliary cholangitis (PBC). NASH in particular, has attracted a lot of attention in the last few years and this has fuelled significant activity in mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances as well as financing activity in the seven major markets - the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and Japan (Figure 1).