Inventiva announced a collaboration in the field of NASH biomarkers with Professor Jérôme Boursier, M.D., Ph.D, Professor of Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Angers University and renowned scientist in the area of non-invasive diagnosis of liver lesions in chronic liver diseases. The objective of the collaboration is to develop one or several biomarkers or a composite biomarker score to identify patients responding to lanifibranor with regards to NASH resolution and fibrosis improvement. More specifically, Professor Jérôme Boursier, M.D., Ph.D, and his team from the HIFIH Laboratory (UPRES EA3859, Angers University) will use a multivariate statistical approach to finding a biomarker signature of lanifibranor in NASH treatment. As part of this collaboration, the database from Inventiva’s NATIVE Phase IIb clinical trial evaluating lanifibranor for the treatment of NASH and containing a list of around 80 biomarkers will be used as a first validation dataset. The selected biomarker(s) or biomarker composite score would then be validated during the upcoming NATIV3 (NASH lanifibranor Phase III trial) Phase III clinical trial with lanifibranor in NASH, the initiation of which is planned for the first half of 2021. As a reminder, several analyses of biomarkers and other non-invasive tests based on the results from the NATIVE Phase IIb trial had shown promising treatment effects of lanifibranor versus placebo and were presented during a webcast event from The Liver Meeting Digital Experience™ 2020 on November 16, 2020.