A Swiss drugmaker is the latest to make a big bet on the future market for a liver disease that is rapidly growing worldwide and still has no approved therapies.

On Monday, Novartis and Boston-based private drugmaker IFM Therapeutics said Novartis would acquire a subsidiary of the latter, IFM Tre, for a potential total of $1.575 billion, including $310 million upfront and up to $1.265 billion in milestone payments.

IFM, which focuses on developing therapies that modulate novel targets in the innate immune system, launched IFM Tre in July 2018, for the purpose of developing drugs in a class known as NLRP3 antagonists.

The lead program in IFM Tre’s portfolio is IFM-2427, which is currently in Phase I development and will be developed for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH, a form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease that is rising in prevalence along with obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The drug is also being developed for chronic inflammatory disorders like atherosclerosis. The deal with Novartis also includes two preclinical programs, including a gut-directed molecule intended for development in inflammatory bowel disease and a central nervous system-penetrating drug.

“IFM Tre’s compounds have demonstrated that they can fine-tune the immune system, offering a potentially potent approach for treating a large variety of diseases associated with inflammation,” Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research President Jay Bradner said in a statement. “We look forward to applying our deep expertise in this field to advancing these medicines through the clinic and to patients who need them.”

As yet, there are currently no therapies that have Food and Drug Administration or other regulatory approval for NASH. Nevertheless, with the rapidly growing prevalence worldwide of Type 2 diabetes and obesity, the market for drugs to treat it is expected to explode in the coming years. According to one report, by ResearchAndMarkets.com, the value of that market could rise from $1.17 billion in 2017 to $21.47 billion by 2025. Another report, by GlobalData, found it would rise from $138.4 million to $18.3 billion between 2016 and 2026.

One early bird could be Intercept Pharmaceuticals, which in February announced positive results from a Phase III study of Ocaliva (obeticholic acid) that analysts said could propel it to FDA approval as early as the first half of next year. A potential runner-up is France-based Genfit, which has a drug, elafibranor, in Phase III development and closed its global share offering for a listing on the Nasdaq last week, raising $155.4 million.

Photo: Novartis