Gemphire Therapeutics Announces Departure of Its Chief Executive Officer Mina Sooch
“On behalf of the Board of Directors of
Ms. Sooch said, “I am extremely proud of the milestones we have accomplished towards our vision of becoming a leading cardiometabolic biopharmaceutical company. I am very grateful to my Gemphire colleagues who assisted in building this success, as well as our advisors, partners, and investors. This is an exciting time for the Company and I am a true believer in gemcabene’s unique drug profile to address the large unmet need in cardiovascular disease. I have great confidence in the Gemphire team and look forward to the upcoming readouts of the Phase 2b trials. I anticipate taking some time off to spend with my family and then pursuing new entrepreneurial opportunities.”
Excel is a
About Gemcabene
Gemphire’s product candidate, gemcabene (CI-1027), is a first-in-class, once-daily, oral therapy that may be suitable for patients who are unable to achieve normal levels of LDL-C or triglycerides with currently approved therapies, primarily statins. Gemcabene's mechanism of action enhances the clearance of very low-density lipoproteins (VLDLs) in the plasma and inhibition of the production of cholesterol and triglycerides in the liver. The combined effect for these mechanisms has been clinically observed to result in a reduction of plasma VLDL-C, LDL-C, and triglycerides. In addition, gemcabene has been shown to markedly lower C-reactive protein and improve insulin sensitization. Gemcabene is liver-directed and reduces apoC-III mRNA and plasma levels. Gemcabene also reduces acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC1) and CCR2/CCR5 receptor mRNA levels, which may have applications in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)/non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Gemcabene has demonstrated proof of concept efficacy in the STAM™ model for NASH developed at
About Gemphire
Gemphire is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that is committed to helping patients with cardiometabolic disorders, including dyslipidemia and NASH. The Company is focused on providing new treatment options for cardiometabolic diseases through its complementary, convenient, cost-effective product candidate gemcabene as add-on to the standard of care especially statins that will benefit patients, physicians, and payors. Gemphire has initiated 3 clinical trials for homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH), heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HeFH)/atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), and severe hypertriglyceridemia (SHTG) under NCT02722408, NCT02634151, and NCT02944383, respectively with a fourth planned trial in NASH to initiate in second half of 2017. Please visit www.gemphire.com for more information.
Forward Looking Statements
Any statements in this press release about Gemphire’s future expectations, plans and prospects, including statements about Gemphire’s financial prospects, future operations and sufficiency of funds for future operations, clinical development of Gemphire’s product candidate, expectations regarding future clinical trials and future expectations and plans and prospects for Gemphire, expectations regarding operating expenses and cash used in operations, and other statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "projects," "targets," "may," "potential," "will," "would," "could," "should," "continue," “scheduled” and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: the success and timing of Gemphire’s regulatory submissions and pre-clinical and clinical trials; regulatory requirements or developments; changes to Gemphire’s clinical trial designs and regulatory pathways; changes in Gemphire’s capital resource requirements; Gemphire’s ability to obtain additional financing; Gemphire’s ability to successfully market and distribute its product candidate, if approved; Gemphire’s ability to obtain and maintain its intellectual property protection; and other factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of Gemphire’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
Contact:Andrew McDonald , Ph.D.LifeSci Advisors, LLC (646) 597-6987Jeff Mathiesen , CFOGemphire Therapeutics Inc. (734)-245-1700