Cincera: developing a first-in-class drug to treat NASH

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01 March 2022

Cincera Board of Directors and Management Team (L to R). Top row: Dr Michael Bettess (Chair), Dr Melissa McBurnie (Director), Dr Katherine Nielsen (Director), A/Prof. Bernard Flynn (CEO); Bottom row: Prof. Stuart Pitson (CSO), Dr Giang Le (Head of Medicinal Chemistry), Dr Melissa Pitman (Senior Scientist), Dr Cassandra Yong (Operations Manager). Credit: Supplied by Cincera

In our latest case study, we reveal how biotech company Cincera, bolstered by MTPConnect's Biomedical Translation Bridge (BTB) program, is developing a drug to treat severe and life-threatening liver diseases.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) account for a significant proportion of liver disease burden globally, affecting 34 percent and 12 percent of the US and Australian populations respectively. 

These diseases are characterised by fibrosis, or accumulation of scar tissue in the liver following an injury or inflammatory insult, such as in obesity and other metabolic disorders. NAFLD can progress irreversibly to NASH, which in turn can lead to serious liver damage, including cirrhosis, liver failure, hepatocellular carcinoma, and ultimately death. 

Currently, there are no treatments for NASH; it remains a major unmet medical need in our society and a leading trigger for liver transplant surgery and liver cancer.

Aiming to bridge this gap, biotech company Cincera Therapeutics Pty Ltd (Cincera) is developing a new NASH treatment that, if successful, would significantly improve quality of life for millions of patients; it could also potentially save the lives of many NASH patients and reduce the economic liability of these diseases.

Cincera, which has operations in Melbourne and Adelaide, was incorporated in January 2018 with the purpose of developing new small molecule medicines for difficult-to-treat inflammatory and fibrotic conditions associated with obesity and metabolic disorders, with potential applications in many other disease areas, including cancer.

In September 2020, Cincera was awarded $1 million in matched funding through Round 2 of MTPConnect's Biomedical Translation Bridge (BTB) program; the company was also paired with BTB venture partner BioCurate for mentoring and commercialisation support. 

Read on to find out more about Cincera's journey to create a first-in-class drug treatment for chronic diseases like liver and heart failure.