Item 2. | Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. |
The consolidated financial statements, included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and this Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations should be read together with our audited financial statements and accompanying notes for year ended December 31, 2022 and the related Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, both of which are included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition to historical information, this discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements of our plans, objectives, expectations and intentions. As disclosed in this report under “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors” sections contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022. Our operating results are not necessarily indicative of results that may occur for the full fiscal year or any other future period.
About Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Our Focus. We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pursuing novel therapeutics for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH. Our lead product candidate, resmetirom, is a proprietary, liver-directed, selective thyroid hormone receptor-ß, or THR-ß, agonist being developed as a once-daily oral pill for the treatment of NASH.
Our Patient Market Opportunity. NASH is a serious inflammatory form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD. NAFLD has become the most common liver disease in the United States and other developed countries and is characterized by an accumulation of fat in the liver with no other apparent causes. NASH can progress to cirrhosis or liver failure, require liver transplantation and can also result in liver cancer. Progression of NASH to end stage liver disease will soon surpass all other causes of liver failure requiring liver transplantation. Importantly, beyond these critical conditions, NASH and NAFLD patients additionally suffer heightened cardiovascular risk and, in fact, die more frequently from cardiovascular events than from liver disease. NASH and NAFLD have grown as a consequence of rising worldwide obesity-related disorders. In the United States, NAFLD is estimated to affect approximately 25% of the population, and approximately 25% of those will progress from NAFLD to NASH. Current estimates place NASH prevalence at approximately 22 million people in the United States by 2024, with similar prevalence in Europe and Asia. The prevalence of NASH is also increasing in developing regions due to the adoption of a more sedentary lifestyle and a diet consisting of processed foods with high fat and fructose content.
Our Completed Studies. For NASH, we enrolled 125 patients in a Phase 2 clinical trial with resmetirom. We achieved the 12-week primary endpoint for this Phase 2 clinical trial and reported the results in December 2017, and we reported positive topline 36-week results at the conclusion of the Phase 2 clinical trial in May 2018. We also completed a 36-week, open-label extension study in 31 participating NASH patients from our Phase 2 clinical trial, which included 14 patients who received placebo in the main study.
On December 18, 2019 the Company announced it had opened for enrollment MAESTRO-NAFLD-1, a 52-week, non-invasive, multi-center, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 clinical study of patients with biopsy-confirmed or presumed NASH recruited from sites in the U.S. Key endpoints are safety, including safety biomarkers. Secondary endpoints include LDL cholesterol, lipid biomarkers, MRI-PDFF, NASH and fibrosis biomarkers. Except for serial liver biopsies, the study protocol is similar to the MAESTRO-NASH study (discussed below under “—Our Ongoing and Planned Studies”), with resmetirom doses of 80 mg or 100 mg or placebo. Enrollment objectives for this study were exceeded, with approximately 1,300 patients enrolled overall. The MAESTRO-NAFLD-1 study will help support the adequacy of the safety database at the time of NDA submission for Subpart H approval for treatment of patients with NASH with fibrosis. In November of 2021, we reported data from the open label non-cirrhotic arm of MAESTRO-NAFLD-1, and in January 2022 we announced that we achieved primary and secondary endpoints for the double-blind portion of MAESTRO-NAFLD-1.
Our Ongoing and Planned Studies. On March 28, 2019, the Company announced that it had initiated MAESTRO-NASH, a Phase 3 trial in NASH with its once daily, oral thyroid hormone receptor beta selective agonist, resmetirom. This double-blind, placebo-controlled study is being conducted at more than 220 sites in the United States and the rest of the world. MAESTRO-NASH is a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 study of resmetirom in patients with liver biopsy-confirmed NASH and was initiated in March 2019. The subpart H portion of the study enrolled more than 1,000 patients with biopsy-proven NASH (at least half with F3 (advanced) fibrosis, the remainder F2 or F1B (moderate fibrosis) with a few earlier F1 patients), randomized 1:1:1 to receive once-daily resmetirom 80 mg, resmetirom 100 mg, or placebo. After 52 weeks of treatment, a second liver biopsy is performed. The dual primary surrogate endpoints on biopsy are NASH resolution with ≥2-point reduction in NAS (NAFLD Activity Score), and with no worsening of fibrosis OR a 1-point decrease in fibrosis with no worsening of NAS. Achievement of either primary endpoint is considered a successful trial outcome. A key secondary endpoint is lowering of LDL-C. All patients enrolled in the
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