Taking on Big Pharma-sized indications, tiny biotech claims early win in fat loss. Will it translate to diabetes, NASH and beyond?

As Big Pharma races to beef up their franchises in cardiometabolic diseases, a much smaller player wants to give them a run for their money,

And Rivus Pharmaceuticals, a tiny biotech with only seven full-time employees, says it has the preliminary data to suggest that its lead drug can play a big role in large indications like heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) — the last being a notorious wasteland for drug development efforts.