The Liver Meeting 2024

Section snippets

Semaglutide for MASH

Semaglutide 2·4 mg once a week demonstrated significantly greater improvements in histology and fibrosis than did placebo in participants with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) with F2–F3 fibrosis, according to data from the phase 3 ESSENCE trial. Although the trial is ongoing, Phil Newsome (London, UK) presented data from the prespecified interim analysis at week 72 of the first 800 participants, of whom 534 had been randomly assigned to receive semaglutide and 266 had

Optimising steroid use in severe alcohol-associated hepatitis

Tapering the dose of corticosteroids is safer and just as efficacious as conventional fixed-dose corticosteroids for severe alcohol-associated hepatitis, according to results from the STASH trial, presented by Anand Kulkarni (Hyderabad, India). Patients with severe alcohol-associated hepatitis were randomly assigned to receive either a fixed-dose or tapering regimen. Patients in each group initially received 40 mg prednisolone a day for 7 days. Patients in the fixed dose group with a Lille

CM-101 in primary sclerosing cholangitis

CM-101, an anti-CCL24 monoclonal antibody, exhibited promising activity in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis and had a safety profile similar to placebo, according to data from the phase 2 SPRING study. In this placebo-controlled trial, presented by Christopher Bowlus (Davis, CA, USA), patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis were randomly assigned to receive either CM-101 at 10 mg/kg (n=25), CM-101 at 20 mg/kg (n=31), or placebo (n=21) every 3 weeks for 15 weeks.

VK2809 for steatotic liver disease

The phase 2b VOYAGE trial examined the use of VK2809, a small molecule thyroid hormone receptor beta agonist prodrug that is selectively cleaved in hepatic tissue by cytochrome P450 3A4 to release a pharmacologically active metabolite, in individuals with biopsy-confirmed non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and fibrosis. Participants were randomly assigned to receive placebo or VK2809 at 1 mg/day, 2·5 mg/day, 5 mg/day, or 10 mg/day. Percentage change in MRI-PDFF at 3 months was –56·7% in the