Intercept rockets on positive liver disease drug trial

10 January 2014

Shares of USA-based Intercept Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: UCPT) tripled to $275.87 by close of trading on January 9, when the company revealed that a clinical study with obeticholic acid (OCA) for liver disease had been halted on positive results, based on the recommendation of the Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB).

The company announced that the FLINT trial of OCA for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) has been stopped early for efficacy based on a planned interim analysis showing that the primary endpoint of the trial has been met.

What makes OCA so enticing is that it has an orphan drug designation, and is in late-stage trials for primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), but its success today came from treating non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), say David Williamson writing on The Motley Fool blog. This much more common disease is one of the leading causes for liver failure, but it has no approved treatments. An estimated 20 million Americans suffer from it, he noted.

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