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The Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the first medicine developed specifically to treat the serious liver disease known as MASH as soon as this week.

The pill, called resmetirom, is made by Madrigal Pharmaceuticals.

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Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH and previously called NASH, is often associated with obesity. The accumulation of fat in the liver causes inflammation, which leads to fibrosis, or liver scarring, and can progress in more advanced stages to cirrhosis, cancer, and the need for a liver transplant.

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