ANN ARBOR – Gemphire Therapeutics Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced that it has closed on the sale of 1.3 million shares of stock to a select group of accredited investors that will raise about $12.5 million, providing cash flow through 2018. 

Gemphire Therapeutics will use the money to fund development costs, the company said in a press release, including the planned Phase 2 clinical trial of gemcabene in NASH patients, to fund manufacturing related activities for gemcabene and for general corporate purposes.

Also on Wednesday, Gemphire Therapeutics released its fourth quarter and fiscal year results through Dec. 31. In an SEC 8K filing, the company said its net loss was $7.2 million and $15 million, respectively, compared to $3.8 million and $13 million for the three months and full year ended December 31, 2015.

“Since our IPO in 2016, we continue to advance our clinical programs to validate the therapeutic potential of gemcabene as a first-in-class, once-daily, oral drug candidate for the treatment of dyslipidemia and NASH,” said Mina Sooch, President and CEO of Gemphire.  “Our experienced team that has been involved in the development of Lipitor® and other cardiometabolic drugs has successfully launched a comprehensive clinical program evaluating gemcabene in the broad dyslipidemia indications of HeFH/ASCVD and SHTG, as well as in the orphan HoFH population.  With the close of the recent financing, we are expanding our Phase 2 clinical program with a fourth planned trial evaluating gemcabene in NASH.”

Added Sooch:  “Our target market opportunity is over 20 million cardiovascular and NASH patients in the US that need additional cost-effective, complementary new therapies to reduce the risk of cardiovascular and liver diseases. It is an exciting time to develop a late stage asset in the cardiovascular and NASH space given the recent positive industry developments with Amgen’s positive PCSK9 inhibitor outcomes study further strengthening the LDL-C hypothesis relevant for our ROYAL program and Intercept’s encouraging FDA guidance on acceptable surrogate endpoints for Phase 3 trials, providing a more efficient development path for the NASH indication with no approved therapies.  We look forward to a transformational year in 2017 with data readouts expected from all three of our Phase 2b trials in dyslipidemia patients.”

For more information, click on http://gemphire.com/