Terns Pharmaceuticals Announces Initiation of Patient Dosing in the LIFT Study, a Phase 2a Clinical Trial of TERN-101 in Development for NASH

Terns Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a global biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative therapies to treat non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and cancer, today announced that it has dosed the first patient in the LIFT study, a Phase 2a clinical trial of TERN-101, a liver-selective farnesoid X receptor (FXR) agonist, the company's lead development candidate for the treatment NASH.

“TERN-101 is a potent and highly selective FXR agonist that has demonstrated significant suppression of 7α-C4, a liver FXR activation biomarker, as well as a favorable safety profile, and we believe it can become the backbone of a combination therapy that can meaningfully benefit patients living with NASH,” said Erin Quirk, M.D., President and Chief Medical Officer of Terns. “We look forward to LIFT study data next year for TERN-101 monotherapy in NASH and subsequently to testing TERN-101 in combination with our potentially best-in-class THR- β agonist TERN-501, which is on track to enter clinical trials later this year.”

Initiation of screening in the 12-week Phase 2a LIFT study was announced in June 2020, and the first patient was dosed on July 21, 2020. “I am extremely proud of our team for collaborating with our investigator sites and vendors to safely initiate this study during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,“ said Weidong Zhong, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Terns. ”We will continue to monitor the situation to minimize study disruption while maintaining the safety of the patients and site staff."