S4-E17.7 - Discussing the Drug Development Landscape and Growing Community Education

Send us Fan MailSurfing the NASH Tsunami celebrates its 3rd anniversary since the debut episode posted on April 15, 2020. The Big Band of Stephen Harrison, Jörn Schattenberg, Louise Campbell and Roger Green get together to reflect on key moments from the podcast’s history as well as predict milestones that will make the highlights in a 6th anniversary special three years into the future.This conversation begins with Louise's perspective on what has played out to be either expected or unexpected in the liver space over the last three years. While aligned with the preceding responses of Stephen and Jörn, Louise raises her disappointment with the absence of an OCA approval from the FDA. She notes her belief that this experience has an important and positive influence on today's drug development landscape. In example, Louise points to increasing patient participation in clinical trials and improvements in trial design as positive major events. She then shifts to discuss nurse and allied provider education as a critical area experiencing growth. Her emphasis is on driving this trend forward given that these frontline professionals will be pivotal providers in patient education support when therapies become available. The group goes on to consider Roger's comments around how much richer collective knowledge has become over the time we've been doing this podcast. Roger also shares some favorite phrases of the co-Surfers that emerged in the podcast Drinking Game. Later, Stephen comments on the importance of NASH drugs in the entire constellation of metabolic diseases as well as extrahepatic cancers and obesogenic cancers. Finally, Jörn suggests that treatment will start slowly when drugs are approved, and that we will learn over time how to most effectively use the available tools and therapies.If you enjoy the special, have questions or interest around Fatty Liver disease, please let us know your ideas by writing to [email protected] and leaving a review wherever you download the discourse.Stay Safe and Surf On!