AKRO - Akero adds over 100% rallying peers after NASH success

• Akero Therapeutics ( NASDAQ: AKRO ), a biotech focused on nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), has gained more than ~100% in the morning hours Tuesday lifting its peers after the company said Efruxifermin, its candidate for the liver disease, reached the main goal in a Phase 2 trial.
• AKRO’s rivals targeting NASH, 89bio, Inc. ( ETNB ) and CohBar, Inc. ( CWBR ), have both posted double-digit percentage gains in reaction.
• Efruxifermin, AKRO’s lead candidate, is an analog of fibroblast growth factor 21, designed to protect against cellular stress and regulate lipid metabolism.
• However, three other developers of NASH therapies Enanta Pharmaceuticals ( ENTA ), Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals ( ARWR ), and Intercept Pharmaceuticals ( ICPT ), are trading sharply lower.
• ARWR is developing an RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic for NASH, while ENTA is advancing two FXR agonists for NASH, EDP-305, and EDP-297, which it seeks to out-license.
• In July, ICPT announced it would resubmit a new drug application to the FDA for its NASH candidate obeticholic acid (OCA) after a recent interim analysis of a pivotal trial indicated promising results for the farnesoid X receptor agonist.

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