21 May 2013 - 21 May 2013 - US biopharmaceutical company Intercept (NASDAQ: ICPT) announced positive data from its Obadiah Phase IIA trial of obeticholic acid (OCA) treatment in patients with primary bile acid diarrhea (PBAD).

Intercept is specializing in the development of novel therapeutics for chronic liver diseases treatment.

The data shows that the treatment with obeticholic acid has increased the levels of the fibroblast growth factor 19 (FGF19) and improved the clinical symptoms in patients with the disease. Patients with PBAD have low levels of FGF19, a hormone which prevent the over production of bile acids. The excess bile acids produce diarrhea when they spill into the intestines.

Obadiah is an open label Phase IIA study, investigating whether obeticholic acid can stimulate the release of FGF19. It is an investigator-initiated and sponsored study carried out at the Imperial College of London in the UK.

The disease is a chonic diarrheal condition affecting around 1% of the population and one third of patients with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D).

The final results from all the three trials will be available in the second half of 2013.