THE ARISING · Longevity & Healthspan
DA-1726: Company Reports Liver-Fat Reduction in Small Early Trial
A once-weekly injection lowered liver fat by 68% compared with placebo after 16 weeks in an early trial, according to interim results released by the company MetaVia.
The drug is called DA-1726. It is an oxyntomodulin analog, a lab-made version of a natural gut hormone. It acts on two targets at once: the GLP-1 receptor, which semaglutide-type drugs also use, and the glucagon receptor. Glucagon signaling is involved in how the body handles fat in the liver.
The data, announced by MetaVia on November 5, 2026, come from Part 3B of a Phase 1 trial in otherwise healthy adults with obesity. The company reported a placebo-adjusted body-weight change of 13.5 percentage points over 16 weeks.
The liver result comes from an MRI substudy of 12 treated and four placebo participants. The reported 68% is a relative, placebo-adjusted geometric-mean comparison, not a 68-percentage-point fall in liver fat; the absolute MRI-PDFF difference was 6.4 percentage points. The company says 10 of the 12 treated participants cut their liver fat by at least 30% in relative terms. All five treated participants who began with fatty liver fell below 5% on the MRI fat measure (MRI-PDFF) by Day 109. That 5% mark is the usual line used to define fatty liver on this scan.
Blood sugar also moved. Among participants without diabetes, average HbA1c, a measure of blood sugar over recent months, fell from 5.79% to 5.33%. The company reported a placebo-adjusted difference of 0.24 percentage points.
Side effects were common. Nine of 15 treated participants had gastrointestinal adverse events, including vomiting in seven participants. One serious event of severe vomiting was judged possibly related to the drug. According to the company, no participant discontinued because of a gastrointestinal event, and no new gastrointestinal events were reported after Week 9 through Day 109.
Fatty liver is common and often silent, which is why a weekly treatment aimed at it draws interest. These figures are interim, come from a company press release, and rest on a very small group.
Full Part 3A and Part 3B data are expected in the first quarter of 2027. MetaVia plans a 48-week Phase 2 study in up to 150 patients, targeted to begin in the second half of 2027, to test whether the liver findings and tolerability hold up. The planned trial is not a completed result, and reduced MRI liver fat does not establish improved fibrosis or long-term liver outcomes.
Source: MetaVia company release, November 5, 2026.
DA-1726 remains an investigational drug. These interim results do not establish an approved obesity treatment or superiority to another medicine.