12:15 PM EDT, 06/24/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals ( ARWR ) on Monday reported "promising" preclinical results for its investigational RNAi-based medicine for the treatment of obesity and metabolic diseases, ARO-INHBE.

The treatment "substantially silenced" hepatic expression of the INHBE gene, a target for next-generation therapies to address obesity and metabolic diseases, the company said.

Reduced INHBE may potentially also result in suppressed body weight gain, loss of fat mass and preservation of lean mass, the company said.

"Our preclinical data... suggest that INHBE reduction with [small interfering RNA] is a promising new approach to address obesity and metabolic diseases and strongly support advancing ARO-INHBE into clinical trials," said James Hamilton, Arrowhead's chief of discovery and translational medicine.

The company said it intends to seek regulatory clearance in late 2024 to start clinical studies of ARO-INHBE.

Arrowhead shares were more than 6% higher in recent trading.

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