Boston Pharmaceuticals has linked its metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) prospect to improved outcomes in a midphase trial, positioning the biotech to advance the ex-Novartis candidate toward late-stage development in 2025.

Hard NASH endpoint results with 89Bio’s pegozafermin, released at the Easl meeting today, do not add much to what was toplined in March. A new cut of biomarker data are more interesting – not for what they show about 89Bio’s project, but for the light they shed on a mechanistically similar candidate from a private group: Boston Pharmaceuticals. 

Boston Pharmaceuticals has posted early evidence that its ex-Novartis candidate works in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). But with Akero Therapeutics and 89bio taking rival drugs to the cusp of phase 3, it's unclear whether the biotech can differentiate BOS-580 from more advanced candidates.

The US-based clinical stage biopharmaceutical company Boston Pharmaceuticals has announced the signing of a unique three-year out-license and option agreement with the UK-based GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

After building up its work on NASH, Novartis is handing over one of its candidates to Boston Pharmaceuticals.

The private biotech, which didn’t discuss terms, gets the newly dubbed BOS-580, an FGF21 drug. And they get to launch a clinical foray into a field marked by multiple setbacks over the last 2 years.

Boston Pharma went on a buying binge, licensing a slew of compounds from GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis in two separate deals.