Aligos Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapeutics to address unmet medical needs in viral and liver diseases, announced that the company has started dosing in the first cohort of healthy volunteers in Study ALG-055009-301 (NCT05090111). The clinical trial is evaluating Aligos’ thyroid hormone receptor beta (THR-b) agonist drug candidate, ALG-055009, for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

“There are no approved treatments for the millions of people in the United States and around the world who suffer from NASH and its serious complications,” said Lawrence Blatt, chairman and CEO of Aligos. “We believe the enhanced pharmacologic properties of ALG-055009 compared to other THR-b drug candidates in development, which have demonstrated promising pharmacodynamic and histologic improvements, bodes well for ALG-055009. We look forward to seeing the results from this important Phase 1 proof of concept study.”

Study ALG-055009-301 is a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of single and multiple oral doses of ALG-055009 in healthy volunteers and in subjects with hyperlipidemia, respectively. Dosing in subjects with mild hyperlipidemia is projected to begin in Q1 2022 with topline data in this population expected by Q3 2022.

Aligos Therapeuticsis focused on the development of targeted antiviral therapies for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and coronaviruses as well as leveraging its expertise in liver diseases to create targeted therapeutics for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Aligos’ strategy is to harness the deep expertise and decades of drug development experience its team has in liver disease, particularly viral hepatitis, to rapidly advance its pipeline of potentially best-in-class molecules.