TERN-101 showed a superior safety and tolerability profile for lipid levels and pruritis compared to other FXR agonists in a mid-stage study. Terns is now looking to a NASH combo study with its THR beta agonist.

In its third venture funding round, Terns adds backing from Deerfield in addition to Lilly’s investment. It licensed three non-alcoholic steatohepatitis candidates from the big pharma in 2018.

With still no approved therapy for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, Intercept, Madrigal, Inventiva and others used the liver meeting to build the cases for their NASH candidates.

Currently running a Phase IIb NASH trial with VK2809, Viking reported at EASL that 16-week data in a Phase II study of NAFLD patients showed sustained liver fat reduction after treatment ended.