S6.13.3 - Major Issues in MASH-ville: US Government Chaos and Scanning Market Dynamism

This discussion on ways to improve MASH patient management comes from the early July roundtable on "Major Issues of the First Six Months of 2025." As a reminder, that roundtable included the three co-hosts (Louise, Jörn Schattenberg and Roger Green) 

Roger drives this conversation, focusing on two very different, yet very important issues: the first is the increasing dynamism of the in-office scanning market, with leader Echosens developing new products and services, while companies like e-Scopics, Sonic Incytes, and Mindray (Hepatus) are introducing new devices with competing profiles. Roger discusses the idea that some scanners keep all data resident in the machine, while others send it immediately to the cloud. Louise suggests that while we should welcome any reliable scanning device to the market, Echosens has a significant advantage in terms of data richness and depth when compared to all competitors. (NOTE: This benefit became clearer when Echosens submitted a Letter of Intent to the FDA to qualify liver stiffness measurement (LSM) using VCTE, as found in FibroScan, as a reasonably likely surrogate endpoint in clinical trials for MASH.

Separately, he lists some concerns about how the Trump Administration's focus on cutting services to the poor, coupled with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s distrust of pharmaceuticals and mainstream health research, might limit the number of Americans with access to healthcare and the kinds of care they can access. 

At the end of this conversation, Roger asks Jörn and Louise what they consider major issues for the next six months.