Resonance Health (ASX:RHT) has been contracted to provide liver-fat quantification services for Invictus Ops, a wholly-owned subsidiary of VGI Health Technology, for its clinical study of a potential new treatment for Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH).
The company said its involvement in the study is expected to span 18 months and involve approximately 100 trial participants.
Resonance Health’s HepaFatAI medical device will be used for the first time in a clinical study environment to measure, grade, and quantify the liver fat of the trial participants at two-three timepoints over the 18-month period.
"This is the first time HepaFat-AI will be used in a third-party NASH clinical trial, which validates the efficacy of the device in a clinical trial context and establishes a precedent for other clinical trial procurement efforts in the prolific and growing fatty-liver space," said the company in a statement.
Fatty liver disease is emerging as a major global health issue. It is estimated that 24 to 30 per cent of the global population suffers from Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). Of these, it is estimated that 20 per cent, or 0.5 billion people, will also develop NASH, a severe form of NAFLD that can cause liver damage including fibrosis and cirrhosis.
Resonance Health managing director Mitchell Wells said, “We are delighted to assist Invictus with its NASH Phase II clinical study through the provision of HepaFat-AI and we applaud Invictus for their efforts to find treatments for NASH.
"Fatty liver diseases are on the rise and Resonance Health can help combat this global epidemic with its products and services that quantify and measure fat in the liver, including HepaFat-AI, HepaFat-Scan and LiverSmart."
The CEO and managing director of VGI Health Technology, Dr Glenn Tong, added, “NASH is an unmet need which has presented great challenges to many drug development groups. Our NASH drug candidate, IVB001, targets multiple parts of the disease pathway including the steatosis (the accumulation of fat in the liver) which causes oxidative stress which in turn causes inflammation which results in fibrosis (the production of collagen and scarring of the liver). The partnership with Resonance Health will vastly improve the efficiency with which we measure key endpoints for this clinical study which is due to commence recruitment of patients shortly.”