Conatus Pharmaceuticals Announces Three Accepted Abstracts for AASLD Annual Meeting

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNAT) announced today that two abstracts – one addressing clinical results with the company’s pan-caspase inhibitor, emricasan, and one addressing preclinical results with the company’s pan-caspase inhibitor, IDN-7314 – have been accepted for oral presentations; and one abstract addressing preclinical results with emricasan has been accepted for a poster presentation at The Liver Meeting^®, the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) in San Francisco November 9-13, 2018. Accepted abstracts were published yesterday on the Hepatology website¹.

Abstracts accepted for oral presentations included:

• “Multicenter, double-blind, randomized trial of emricasan in subjects post liver transplantation (LT) with recurrent hepatitis C virus (HCV) and liver fibrosis or cirrhosis despite achieving sustained virologic response (SVR),” (abstract #1226, originally accepted as poster, later accepted as oral presentation); and
  
  
  
  
• “Intestinal dysbiosis augments liver disease progression via NLRP3 in a murine model of primary sclerosing cholangitis,” (abstract #25);
  
  

and abstracts accepted for posters included:

• “Molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of emricasan in portal hypertension and chronic liver disease: the hepato-sinusoidal cross-talk matters,” (abstract #1344).
  
  

Abstract #25 is an AASLD Foundation Abstract Award Recipient and was accepted for presentation in the Presidential Plenary Session on Translational Science and Genomics.

“As we advance toward releasing top-line results over the next 15 months from our three ENCORE Phase 2b clinical trials in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), the body of preclinical and clinical data documenting the activity and effects of pan-caspase inhibitors continues to grow,” said Conatus co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer Steven J. Mento, Ph.D. “Thanks to the work of our principal investigators and our scientific collaborators, we have an ever-deepening understanding of the multiple mechanistic effects of caspase inhibitors on liver structure and function, as well as their disease-modifying potential. We are pleased with the recognition afforded to these latest developments at the upcoming AASLD meeting.”

About Conatus Pharmaceuticals

Conatus is a biotechnology company focused on the development of novel medicines to treat liver disease. In collaboration with Novartis, Conatus is developing its lead compound, emricasan, for the treatment of patients with chronic liver disease. Emricasan is a first-in-class, orally active pan-caspase inhibitor designed to reduce the activity of enzymes that mediate inflammation and apoptosis. Conatus believes that by reducing the activity of these enzymes, caspase inhibitors have the potential to interrupt the progression of a variety of diseases. For additional information, please visit .

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release are forward-looking statements, including statements regarding:  the timeline for results from the ENCORE trials; and caspase inhibitors’ potential to modify disease and interrupt the progression of a variety of diseases. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including: the risk that the preclinical results may not be predictive of future clinical trial results; and those risks described in the company’s prior press releases and in the periodic reports it files with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The events and circumstances reflected in the company’s forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Except as required by applicable law, the company does not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether as a result of any new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise.

¹   Hepatology 68:S1 (October 2018) .

CONTACT:  Alan Engbring

Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc.

(858) 376-2637