A. Sidney Barritt, MD: Finding Treatments for NASH

With no US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved treatments for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), more long-term studies on the liver diseases are warranted.

In recent years, researchers have begun a massive undertaking in learning how NASH patients are being cared for in the TARGET-NASH study.

TARGET-NASH is an observational study of participants with NAFLD and/or NASH in usual clinical practice and is part of a series of Target studies targeted several diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease and asthma.

One of the reasons researchers have not had much success in developing a treatment for NASH or NAFLD is the heterogenous nature of the conditions.

In an interview with HCPLive®, A. Sidney Barritt IV, MD, MSCR, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Director, UNC Liver Center, said a goal of the study will be to improve care for this patient population in an effort to develop suitable treatments.

Barritt said there are currently more than 5000 patients enrolled from both academic centers and community centers in the trial since enrollment began in 2016.

The goal of the ongoing study is to get an unbiased view of the disease moving forward.