Conatus completes enrollment in mid-stage NASH cirrhosis study

Conatus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CNAT) has completed enrollment in its Phase 2b clinical trial, ENCORE-LF, evaluating lead drug emricasan in patients with stable decompensated NASH cirrhosis.

The primary endpoint is event-free survival, a composite of all-cause mortality, new decompensation events or progression of at least four points in a liver disease scale called MELD.

Topline data should be available mid-year.

Fast Track-tagged emricasan inhibits a family of enzymes that modulate essential cellular functions called caspases. The functions include those involved in apoptosis (cell death) and inflammation. Caspases 3 and 7 are major players in apoptosis. These enzymes cleave a key protein called CK18 (cytokeratin-18), part of which is the small fragment cCK18, which correlates to the magnitude of hepatocyte apoptosis. Emricasan inhibits apoptosis regardless of the stimuli that causes it.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3432063-conatus-completes-enrollment-mid-stage-study-emricasan-nash-cirrhosis