NASH drug treatment development: challenges and lessons

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become the most common chronic liver disease worldwide. Although NAFLD is tightly linked to obesity and type 2 diabetes, this liver disease also affects individuals who do not have obesity. NAFLD increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and certain extrahepatic cancers. There is currently no licensed pharmacotherapy for NAFLD, despite numerous clinical trials in the past two decades. Currently, the reason so few drugs have been successful in the treatment of NAFLD in a trial setting is not fully understood. As cardiovascular disease is the predominant cause of mortality in people with NAFLD, future pharmacotherapies for NAFLD must consider associated cardiometabolic risk factors. The successful use of glucose-lowering drugs in the treatment of type 2 diabetes in patients with NAFLD indicates that this strategy is important, and worth developing further. Greater public awareness of NAFLD is needed because collaboration between all stakeholders is vital to enable a holistic approach to successful treatment.