Daix (France), Long Island City (New York, United States), October 20, 2021 - Inventiva (Euronext Paris and Nasdaq: IVA), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of oral small molecule therapies for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) and other diseases with significant unmet medical needs, announced the publication of the results from its NATIVE (NAsh Trial to Validate IVA337 Efficacy) Phase IIb clinical trial evaluating lanifibranor for the treatment of NASH in the prestigious, peer-reviewed medical journal The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
In the 24-week clinical trial, lanifibranor, an orally-available small molecule and the only pan-PPAR agonist currently in clinical development for the treatment of NASH, at 1200mg/day met the primary endpoint with a statistically significant reduction of the Steatosis Activity Fibrosis score (SAF), which combines assessments of hepatocellular inflammation and ballooning, with no worsening of fibrosis in the Intention To Treat (ITT2 ) and the Per Protocol populations (PP3 ).
Lanifibranor also met key secondary endpoints, including NASH resolution with no worsening of fibrosis4 and improvement of liver fibrosis with no worsening of NASH5 in both ITT and PP populations, as well as the composite endpoint of NASH resolution and improvement of liver fibrosis. With these latter results, lanifibranor is the first orally available drug candidate to achieve statistically significant results on the two U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicine Agency (EMA) primary endpoints relevant for seeking U.S. accelerated approval and EU conditional approval during Phase III clinical development.
The results of NATIVE were reported in June 2020 in accordance with the study protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan design using a single imputation method of missing data, a conservative method that consider missing end-of-study biopsy data as non-responders. The data presented in The New England Journal of Medicine showed additional analyses presented in accordance with the journal requirements using a multiple imputation method of missing end-of-study biopsy data.
About lanifibranor
Lanifibranor, Inventiva's lead product candidate, is an orally-available small molecule that acts to induce antifibrotic, anti-inflammatory and beneficial vascular and metabolic changes in the body by activating all three peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) isoforms, which are well-characterized nuclear receptor proteins that regulate gene expression. Lanifibranor is a PPAR agonist that is designed to target all three PPAR isoforms in a moderately potent manner, with a well-balanced activation of PPAR? and PPAR, and a partial activation of PPAR. While there are other PPAR agonists that target only one or two PPAR isoforms for activation, lanifibranor is the only pan-PPAR agonist in clinical development. Inventiva believes that lanifibranor's moderate and balanced pan-PPAR binding profile contributes to the favorable tolerability profile that has been observed in clinical trials and pre-clinical studies to date. The FDA has granted Breakthrough Therapy and Fast Track designation to lanifibranor for the treatment of NASH.
About NASH
Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a serious liver disease characterized by excessive fat accumulation in the liver, chronic inflammation and tissue injury (hepatitis), resulting in progressive fibrosis that can lead to cirrhosis, and subsequently portal hypertension, liver insufficiency and potential liver cancer. The prevalence of NASH is rapidly increasing globally in parallel with the growing epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes; correspondingly, the proportion and number of liver transplants attributable to NASH has expand continuously in past years. To date, there are still no drug therapies approved for the treatment of NASH.
About the NATIVE Phase IIb trial
The NATIVE (NAsh Trial to Validate IVA337 Efficacy) clinical trial was a 24-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase IIb clinical trial evaluating lanifibranor for the treatment of patients with NASH. The main purpose of the trial was to assess the efficacy of lanifibranor in improving liver inflammation and ballooning, the two histological markers included in the definition of the regulatory endpoint of NASH resolution. To be considered for inclusion, patients were required to have: a diagnosis of NASH confirmed by liver biopsy; a cumulative score of inflammation and ballooning (as measured using the SAF scoring system) of three or four out of four, indicating the presence of moderate to severe inflammation and ballooning; a steatosis score greater than or equal to one, indicating the presence of moderate to severe steatosis; and a fibrosis score less than four, indicating the absence of cirrhosis. The primary endpoint of the trial was a reduction in the combined inflammation and ballooning score of two points compared to baseline, with no worsening fibrosis, as measured by the SAF score. Secondary endpoints included NASH resolution, improvements in each of the steatosis, inflammation, ballooning and fibrosis scores from baseline as measured using the SAF score, improvements in various other fibrosis measures, improvements in several metabolic markers, improvements in steatosis, inflammation and ballooning as measured using the NAS score (NAFLD activity score), and safety. The trial randomized 247 patients with NASH in 71 sites in Australia, Canada, Europe, Mauritius and the United States
About Inventiva
Inventiva is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of oral small molecule therapies for the treatment of NASH, MPS and other diseases with significant unmet medical need. Leveraging its expertise and experience in the domain of compounds targeting nuclear receptors, transcription factors and epigenetic modulation, Inventiva is currently advancing two clinical candidates, as well as a deep pipeline of earlier stage programs.
Lanifibranor, its lead product candidate, is being developed for the treatment of patients with NASH, a common and progressive chronic liver disease for which there are currently no approved therapies. Inventiva recently announced positive topline data from its Phase IIb clinical trial evaluating lanifibranor for the treatment of patients with NASH and obtained Breakthrough Therapy and Fast Track designation for lanifibranor in the treatment of NASH. Inventiva is also developing odiparcil, a second clinical stage asset, for the treatment of patients with subtypes of MPS, a group of rare genetic disorders. Inventiva announced positive topline data from its Phase IIa clinical trial evaluating odiparcil for the treatment of adult MPS VI patients at the end of 2019 and received FDA Fast Track designation in MPS VI for odiparcil in October 2020.
In parallel, Inventiva is in the process of selecting an oncology development candidate for its Hippo signalling pathway program. Furthermore, the Company has established a strategic collaboration with AbbVie in the area of autoimmune diseases. AbbVie has started the clinical development of ABBV-157, a drug candidate for the treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis resulting from its collaboration with Inventiva. This collaboration enables Inventiva to receive milestone payments upon the achievement of pre-clinical, clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, in addition to royalties on any approved products resulting from the collaboration. The Company has a scientific team of approximately 70 people with deep expertise in the fields of biology, medicinal and computational chemistry, pharmacokinetics and pharmacology, as well as in clinical development. It also owns an extensive library of approximately 240,000 pharmacologically relevant molecules, approximately 60% of which are proprietary, as well as a wholly-owned research and development facility.
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