MetaVia has linked its GLP-1/glucagon receptor agonist to reductions in liver fat and body weight in a phase 1 trial. Encouraged by the data, MetaVia plans to start a phase 2 trial in alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) next year.
The data come from part of a phase 1 study that tested DA-1726 in 15 otherwise healthy adults with obesity against four who received placebo. After 16 weeks of once-weekly dosing, MetaVia reported a 68% placebo-adjusted reduction in liver fat.
Patients on the drug lost 13.5% of their body weight, adjusted for placebo. No participant discontinued the study because of a gastrointestinal adverse event, the biotech noted.
“These are the most compelling clinical data we have generated to date supporting DA-1726's potential as a liver-focused cardiometabolic therapy,” MetaVia CEO Hyung Heon Kim said in a statement.
The liver fat data, plus improvements in the five patients with liver steatosis, provide “a strong clinical rationale for expanding DA-1726 into liver disease,” Kim added. In the second half of 2027, MetaVia aims to start a 48-week, non-biopsy phase 2 study in up to 150 subjects with ALD, with or without metabolic dysfunction (MetALD).
Targeting ALD moves MetaVia into a relatively uncongested corner of the highly competitive GLP-1 space. Altimmune, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly and Merck & Co. are all developing GLP-1/glucagon drugs in liver diseases, including metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.
While MetaVia’s data raise doubts about whether DA-1726 has an efficacy edge over its rivals—many of which are more advanced—relatively few of those molecules are in development for ALD. However, Altimmune expects to report top-line data on pemvidutide in ALD in the second half of 2027, while the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is testing Lilly’s tirzepatide—the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound—in MetALD.
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