By Colin KellaherHepion Pharmaceuticals shares surged in premarket trading Monday ahead of a planned update from the clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company on a Phase 2 study of its lead drug candidate rencofilstat in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, a chronic liver condition commonly known as NASH. Shares of the Edison, N.J., company, which closed Friday at $8.87, were recently up nearly 53% to $13.56 in premarket trading. Hepion late Friday said it plans to release topline results from the study, which was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of rencofilstat on hepatic function and numerous NASH biomarkers after four months of dosing, before the market opens Monday. There are currently no FDA-approved products for NASH, a progressive disease that is a leading cause of liver transplant. Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

Source: Wall Street Journal May 22, 2023 10:57 UTC