Conatus Pharmaceuticals has received a $7 million payment from Novartis under its exclusive license for the global development and commercialization of emricasan. Conatus’ orally-active pan-caspase inhibitor, emricasan, has demonstrated activity across a broad spectrum of liver diseases, and is currently being evaluated in four Phase IIb trials as a potential treatment for liver cirrhosis and fibrosis caused by nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. With the...