STAT+: Akero drug reverses liver scarring in study of severe MASH patients

Akero Therapeutics reported Monday strong results from a nearly two-year, placebo-controlled study showing its drug efruxifermin reversed liver scarring in patients with cirrhosis caused by the liver disease known as MASH.

After 96 weeks, 39% of patients offered a 50-mg dose of efruxifermin showed a clinically meaningful reduction in liver fibrosis, or scarring, without other symptoms of MASH getting worse, compared to 15% of participants randomized to a placebo. 

Patients with cirrhosis due to MASH have a severe form of the disease with few treatment options outside of a liver transplant. Once MASH progresses to cirrhosis, median survival is about five years, three times shorter than for patients with moderate, or mid-stage, MASH.

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