Surfing the MASH Tsunami

Send us Fan Mail Guests Ian Rowe, Joern Schattenberg and Wayne Eskridge join the Surfers to discuss key lessons learned in 2020 about Patient Treatment and Perspectives. Ian Rowe, Joern Schattenberg and Wayne Eskridge join the Surfers to explore some of the key lessons learned and issues uncovered in 2020. Ian Rowe discusses what population-level research in Leeds, UK, tells us about the benefits...

Send us Fan Mail Roger Green discusses why despite widespread concerns, FDA's Complete Response Letter to Intercept did not cripple progress in NASH drug development. Observers feared that after Intercept received its CRL, investment into NASH drug development would dry up and knowledge would slow. Instead, Roger Green describes how drugs that had reached Phase 2 development maintained suffic...

Send us Fan Mail Stephen Harrison summarizes a year of progress in improving the tests and analyses used to derive clinical endpoints necessary to initial drug approvals. Despite reports earlier in the year, Stephen Harrison discusses the "aggressive, conscientious effort" an array of stakeholders is making to improve on the clinical endpoints that shape the decision to approve a Fatty L...

Send us Fan Mail Mazen Noureddin describes a year in which biopsy's shortcomings are revealed at the same time as non-invasive testing becomes better and produces more robust data. Mazen Noureddin discusses the simultaneous loss of faith in biopsy as the clinical "Gold Standard" and the emergence of non-invasive tests that can become the standard and replace biopsy for three pivotal...

Send us Fan Mail Vlad Ratziu discusses a "boiling hot" field of emerging NASH drugs and "particularly rich" data coming from no-invasive diagnostic testing. Despite elafibranor failing, obeticholic acid not securing FDA approval and COVID-19 related limitations in the conduct of clinical trials, "this was a very good year actually for NASH clinical trials," with &quot...

Send us Fan Mail The Surfers and guests Vlad Ratziu and Mazen Noureddin discuss key lessons learned in 2020 about Drugs and Diagnostics. Vlad Ratziu and Mazen Noureddin join the Surfers to explore some of the key lessons learned and issues uncovered in 2020. Vlad Ratziu provides a 10-minute overview of a fast-paced year of successes (and occasional failures) in clinical trials and novel diagnostic...

Send us Fan Mail Donna Cryer and Global Liver Institute Director of Policy Andrew Scott return to discuss their 2021 US NASH Action Plan, garnering support for the new COVID-19 vaccines and the importance of aligning stakeholders with Stephen, Louise and Roger. The Surfers end the year on an optimistic note by talking with sometime-surfer Donna Cryer and GLI Director of Policy Andrew Scott about G...

Send us Fan Mail Donna Cryer and Global Liver Institute Director of Policy Andrew Scott join Stephen, Louise and Roger to discuss the policy progress liver disease and NASH have made in the last four years. This is the first of two epiodes discussing Public Policy questions that affect how stakeholders view NAFLD andNASH as a disease as well as the process by which related drugs and diagnostics ar...

Send us Fan Mail Dr Ian Rowe and Prof. Dr. Jörn M. Schattenberg joins the Surfers to explore the relationship between NAFLD and CVD in light of recent work questioning the strength of links between the two This episode asks how to reconcile results from a presentation at EASL suggesting that the primary cause of death from NAFLD patients is liver disease and the low level of CVD events in the STEL...

Send us Fan Mail Guest Ian Rowe and Dr. Kris Kowdley join the Surfers to discuss how the 2nd COVID wave and arrival of the vaccine are likely to affect patient treatment and clinical development. In Episode 39, hepatologists Ian Rowe and Kris Kowdley, who divide their time more or less evenly between patient clinics and clinical trials, join the Surfers to discuss how the Second Wave of COVID-19 w...

Send us Fan Mail Prof.  Vlad Ratziu, MD, and Prof. Dr. Jörn M. Schattenberg join the Surfers to wrap up our conversation about this year's AASLD meeting. Prof. Dr. Jörn M. Schattenberg erg and Prof.  Vlad Ratziu, MD join the Surfers for our wrap-up episode for TLMdX 2020. Joern focuses on a diabetes poster demonstrating the path of drug efficacy over a three-year period, while Vlad focuses on...

Send us Fan Mail The Surfers spend the final day of AASLD 2020 looking at two very different sets of issues. Issue 1: challenges proving efficacy in F2 populations, particularly in terms of fibrosis. Issue 2: social burdens of poor dietary choices around the world, particularly given how developing PNAFLD (pediatric non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) can create a metabolic burden that can last a l...

Send us Fan Mail Reviews of Phase 2 drug trials and diagnostic strategies reveal that NASH is close to multiple breakthroughs. Naim Alkhouri and Mazen Noureddin join Louise and Roger to review highlights from Sunday at The Digital Liver Meeting. Naim, Mazen and Roger review results from drug trials that reveal that multiple drugs (monotherapies and combinations) with potent effects on liver fat re...

Send us Fan Mail Manal Abdelmalek joins the Surfers to review some of Saturday's most exciting presentations and posters from AASLD 2020, followed by a discussion of an exciting new hand-held diagnostic. Manal Abdelmalek joins the Surfers in a free-flowing discussion of Saturday's key papers and posters. Much of the talk focused on Lean NASH -- what it is some of the new diagnostic analy...

Send us Fan Mail Prof. Dr. Jörn M. Schattenberg joins the Surfers to discuss his recent article in Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs dissecting recent drug trial failures. Prof. Dr. Jörn M. Schattenberg joins Stephen, Donna, Louise and Roger to discuss his recent article "The Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) drug development graveyard: established hurdles and planning for future succ...

Send us Fan Mail Stephen Harrison, Roger Green and our guest Surfer, Dr. Manal Abdelmalek, identify pivotally important presentations and posters from The Digital Liver Meeting 2020 SurfingNASH continues our AASLD coverage by asking Stephen Harrison, Roger Green, and guest Surfer Dr. Manal Abdelmalek to identify and review abstracts they consider important or uniquely interesting. The abstracts th...

Send us Fan Mail Louise Campbell, Donna Cryer, and Naim Alkhouri identify pivotally important presentations and posters from The Digital Liver Meeting 2020. SurfingNASH kicks off its AASLD coverage by announcing four of our seven KOL guest Surfers. One of them, Dr. Naim Alkhouri, participates via interview. Naim, Louise Campbell, and Donna Cryer identify abstracts they consider important or unique...

Send us Fan Mail Guest Surfer and regular listener Dr. Ian Rowe joins the Surfers to discuss how everyday patient treatment in the clinic once was and how COVID-19 and the news we discuss weekly on SurfingNASH have changed practice. This week's Guest Surfer, Dr. Ian Rowe, devotes roughly half his time to treating patients in his Hepatology practice in Leeds, UK, and the other half on research...

Send us Fan Mail On the six-month anniversary of SurfingNASH's first episode, the Surfers stop to consider how much has changed for NASH stakeholders since April Thursday marks the six-month anniversary of SurfingNASH's first episode. The last six months have seen both setbacks and large steps forward in drug development, major advances in disease knowledge and increased breadth and dept...

Send us Fan Mail Matt Kelly, Chief Innovation Officer at Perspectum, Ltd., joins the Surfers to discuss early findings from the COVERSCAN study which looks at the relationship between COVID-19 infection and major end-organ systems. Matt Kelly, Chief Innovation Officer at Perspectum, Ltd. joins the Surfers to discuss two studies that look at the relationship between COVID-19 and the liver. In the C...

Send us Fan Mail Stephen Harrison leads the Surfers through a review of FGF-21s and other exciting drug development news. Stephen Harrison starts this week's discussion reviewing the recent announcement of a promising Phase 1b/2a study for 89bio-100 (link to slide deck below), an FGF-21 agent that demonstrated significant reductions on liver fat and had positive effects on other metabolic mea...

Send us Fan Mail The Surfers discuss four issues that are likely to affect how our thinking about NASH diagnosis, education, and treatment might evolve over the next three months. Naim Alkhouri joins the Surfers to discuss some key NASH-related questions. The four key sections address upcoming clinical trials, steps forward in patient advocacy, the UK NCD report and need for patient education, and...

Send us Fan Mail The Surfers discuss the Global Liver Institute's campaign to educate and motivate key stakeholder groups on the value of non-invasive liver testing. Donna Cryer, President and CEO of the Global Liver Institute, discusses GLI's "Beyond the Biopsy" campaign while Stephen Harrison, Louise Campbell, and Roger Green join in with education, messages, and ideas. The &...

Send us Fan Mail The Surfers and guest Joern Schattenberg consider the implications of a Digital ILC presentation stating that the liver, not cardiovascular disease, is the leading cause of death for NAFLD patients. The Surfers considered the implication of a Digital ILC presentation by James Paik et al. titled "Causes of death in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD): data...

Send us Fan Mail Professors Joern Shcattenberg and Vlad Ratziu join the Surfers to discuss the lessons and findings we can take away from Digital ILC 2020. What happens when seven people with diverse and divergent perspectives consider the implications of last week's Digital ILC meeting? Professors Vlad Ratziu and Joern Schattenberg join the Surfers to reflect on many insights, some leading t...