A pressing need exists for drugs to treat metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD, previously referred to as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease). Now, three phase II clinical trials have reported encouraging findings on three different hormone receptor agonist drugs for MASLD.

Over the past few years, great progress has been made in treating type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), obesity and related complications with incretin hormone-based therapeutics. These pharmacological therapies, which include agonist drugs targeting glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP1R), or GLP1R and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor (GIPR), induce weight loss by reducing appetite and slowing gastric emptying. Early trials also indicated that these drugs might be effective in lowering liver fat in patients with MASLD. The addition of glucagon receptor agonism to incretin agonist drugs also seemingly increased liver fat reduction in preclinical studies and early clinical trials in patients with MASLD.