Hepion pharmaceuticals announces publication of data highlighting crv431’s potential as a treatment for chronic liver diseases

Hepion pharmaceuticals, inc. announced that the peer-reviewed journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics has published hepion’s research article entitled, “a pan-cyclophilin inhibitor, crv431, decreases fibrosis and tumor development in chronic liver disease models.” the study presents findings on crv431 that highlight its potential as a drug candidate for chronic liver diseases: in an in vitro cyclophilin isomerase assay, crv431 potently inhibited all cyclophilin isoforms tested, suggesting multiple disease mechanisms in the liver could be targeted. daily oral crv431 dosing in mice and rats, across a wide range of dosing levels, led to up to a 15-fold accumulation of crv431 in the liver compared to the blood, suggesting crv431’s pharmacokinetics favor hepatic delivery, which is optimal for the treatment of liver diseases. in a six-week carbon tetrachloride mouse model of fibrosis, crv431 significantly decreased liver fibrosis by 43% compared to control, whereas obeticholic acid — a compound in development as a nash treatment that was included as a comparator — had no statistically significant direct effect on fibrosis. three studies were conducted in a streptozotocin, high-fat diet mouse model of nash with crv431 doses of only 50 mg/kg administered orally each day. fibrosis significantly decreased by approximately 50%, compared to the control group. in a late-stage nash model where mice developed liver tumors, 10 weeks of oral crv431 treatment significantly decreased tumor burden (size and number of tumors) by about 50%.
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