Ipsen fronts $136M to bag Gen­fit's once-failed NASH drug, bet­ting on its po­ten­tial in rare liv­er con­di­tion

Some­body be­lieves in elafi­bra­nor af­ter all.

The drug, which had been con­sid­ered a bright prospect in the fail­ure-prone but high­ly lu­cra­tive race to treat non-al­co­holic steato­hep­ati­tis, im­plod­ed af­ter it failed a close­ly watched tri­al, forc­ing its de­vel­op­er, Gen­fit, to throw in the tow­el. But af­ter a lone­ly year steer­ing past the wreck­age — chop­ping near­ly half of its work­force in a painful re­struc­tur­ing — Gen­fit has found a trust­ing part­ner in fel­low French drug­mak­er Ipsen.

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