Conatus' emricasan meets Phase II endpoint

Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:CNAT) jumped $1 (17%) to $6.76 on Thursday after it said pan-caspase inhibitor emricasan met the primary endpoint of a Phase II trial to treat non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

In the 38-patient trial, which included a subset of patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), emricasan reduced alanine amino transferase (ALT) levels by 39% at day 28 vs. 14% in the placebo arm (p<0.05). Conatus said the compound also significantly reduced the levels of three serum biomarkers that were elevated at baseline: caspase-cleaved cytokeratin 18 ( CK18; KRT18), full-length CK18 and caspase 3/7. ...