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ARTICLE | Clinical News

Emricasan: Phase II data

January 11, 2016 8:00 AM UTC

A double-blind, U.S. Phase II trial in 86 patients with liver cirrhosis showed that twice-daily 25 mg oral emricasan significantly reduced cleaved CK18 levels from baseline to 3 months vs. placebo (reduction of 4.6% vs. an increase of 9.3%, p=0.04). Emricasan also significantly reduced caspase-3 ( CASP3; CPP32)/ caspase-7 ( CASP7; MCH3) (p<0.0001); full-length CK18 (p=0.005); alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (p=0.03); and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (p=0.08) levels from baseline to 3 months vs. placebo. Conatus said emricasan showed a trend for improving MELD score vs. placebo (reduction of 0.1 points vs. an increase of 0.1 points, p=0.5). Emricasan did not significantly improve Child-Pugh score (p=0.1); total bilirubin levels (p=0.19); international normalized ratio (INR) (p=0.12); or albumin levels (p=0.38) from baseline to 3 months vs. placebo. ...