Crown Bioscience announced four new preclinical translational NASH models in development.
NASH is a degenerative liver disease that affects up to 12 percent of the adult population worldwide and without treatment is expected to become the leading cause for liver transplant by 2020. Today there are no approved drugs to treat NASH.
This dedicated investment will result in the availability of four new models over the next 12 months.
The models include:
- A chemically-enhanced murine model using carbon tetrachloride
- Modified diet models such as amylin, MCD or other choline deficient diets which more closely mimic a western diet and exacerbates fibrosis
- An accelerated diet-induced murine model
- An accelerated diet-induced NHP model
These models will join the existing CrownBio NASH platform which include the MS-NASH model (formerly known as FATZO), a next generation murine model of obesity, dysmetabolism and diabetes that exhibits accelerated and exacerbated liver fibrosis under administration of carbon tetrachloride, and a spontaneously obese, dysmetabolic, and diabetic NHP model, which develops NAFLD/NASH similarly to humans.
“We continue to demonstrate our deep commitment to developing new and relevant preclinical models of NASH,” said Jim Wang, senior vice president cardiovascular and metabolic disease research. “The addition of these new models will establish a market-leading platform to accelerate NASH drug discovery.”