Conatus Pharma Reports Late Breaker Oral Presentation at EASL Details Phase 2 Liver Cirrhosis Trial Three-Month Data

Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. CNAT announced today the delivery of a late breaker oral presentation at The International Liver Congress™ 2016, the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) in Barcelona, Spain, April 13-17, 2016. The presentation (#LBO5) entitled, "Emricasan (IDN-6556) orally for three months in patients with cirrhosis and MELD scores 11-18 improves clinical parameters of cirrhosis in patients with baseline MELD score ≥15," was delivered on Saturday, April 16, at 5:00 p.m. CET, by Catherine Frenette, M.D., Medical Director of Liver Transplantation at Scripps Clinic, La Jolla, CA, and a principal investigator in the company's multicenter Phase 2 Liver Cirrhosis clinical trial of emricasan. The presentation visuals are available in the Clinical Data section of the Conatus website at www.conatuspharma.com. The results featured in the Conatus late-breaker presentation were included among the notable developments in cirrhosis by Jaime Bosch, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Medicine, Liver Unit, Hospital Clínic-IDIBAPS, University of Barcelona; and Guest Professor at Inselspital, Bern University, Switzerland, in his address at the closing general session of The International Liver Congress™ 2016 on Sunday. "The results from the first stage of this trial in patients with cirrhosis and elevated MELD score showed that after only three months, emricasan treatment improved measures of liver function and prognosis [Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) and Child Pugh scores] in patients with baseline MELD scores of 15 or higher," said Dr. Frenette, "with a reassuring safety profile that was generally balanced compared to placebo. The importance of these results is reflected in their selection for a late breaker oral presentation at The International Liver Congress™ 2016, and in their recognition by Dr. Bosch. I am pleased to represent the investigators in presenting these data and am excited about the potential of this therapy to provide clinical benefit for patients with cirrhosis who have few options besides liver transplant, which is a major procedure with its own risks and challenges." Conatus co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer Steven J. Mento, Ph.D., said, "We are encouraged by the results from the first stage of our Liver Cirrhosis clinical trial, as detailed in Dr. Frenette's late breaker oral presentation, and eager to evaluate the results after an additional three months of treatment in the second stage of the trial. Our commitment to the continued development of emricasan, a potentially disease-modifying drug candidate, is driven by the high unmet medical need in liver cirrhosis, especially among patients who have reached the transplant eligibility threshold of 15 or greater in MELD score."