Novo Nordisk in-licences potential NASH candidate from Japan

7 November 2019

Danish diabetes care giant Novo Nordisk (NOV: N) is extending its position into the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), acquiring rights to a potential product candidate under development in Japan.

Although there are no currently approved treatments for NASH, some analysts have forecast that the market for therapeutics in this area could be worth up to $30 billion by 2025. A number of other leading drugmakers are also trialling potential therapies, but there have been some notable failures.

Novo Nordisk has obtained an exclusive worldwide licence to UBE Industries’ (TYO: 4208) pre-clinical asset UD-014, a selective semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase/vascular adhesion protein-1 (SSAO/VAP-1) inhibitor small molecule, which has shown promising efficacy in preclinical studies for its anti-inflammatory mechanism of action and antioxidative effect on endothelial cells, and can potentially be used for the treatment of NASH.

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