After Gilead’s (GILD) Hepatitis-C franchise met with phenomenal success and equally phenomenal decline, focus shifted to a new area in the liver space; non-alcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH as it is more commonly known now. NASH is the next stage of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD and is charactercized by liver damage and inflammation. NASH, if left untreated, eventually leads to advanced fibrosis, cirrhosis of the liver and ultimately hepatocellular carcinoma or HCC. The diagram below gives the different stages of the disease.
Source: Autophagy in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), Kwanten et