Gemphire Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq:GEMP) announced today that Mina
Sooch, President, CEO, and Director of the Company has resigned for
personal reasons effective May 23, 2017. Dr. Steven Gullans,
a member of the Gemphire Therapeutics Board of Directors, has been
named Interim President and Chief Executive Officer until a search
for his replacement is completed.
“On behalf of the Board of Directors of Gemphire Therapeutics,
we thank Mina for her outstanding leadership and tireless efforts
in helping to bring Gemphire to where we are today,” said Dr.
Gullans. “Mina is an extraordinarily talented individual who
was responsible for building out the management team, securing
several rounds of financing since 2014, taking the company public,
and successfully advancing its clinical stage pipeline. We
wish her much success in her future endeavors. Moving
forward, this transition is expected to build on the positive
momentum of our late stage dyslipidemia clinical trials, for which
we expect important data read outs starting in late June of
2017.”
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.”
Steven Gullans, Ph.D. has served as a member of the Gemphire
Board since April 2016. He is a Managing Director at Excel
Venture Management, LLC, which owns more than 5% of Gemphire’s
outstanding common stock.
Excel is a Boston-based venture capital firm which he co-founded
and where he has been employed since February 2008. At Excel,
he focuses on investing in life science technology companies with a
particular interest in disruptive platforms that can impact
multiple industries. Prior to Excel, Dr. Gullans co-founded
RxGen, Inc., a pharmaceutical services company where he served as
chief executive officer from January 2004 to February 2008.
Dr. Gullans is currently a director at Molecular Templates, Inc., a
clinical stage biotechnology company; Cleveland HeartLab, Inc., a
cardiovascular diagnostics company that spun out of the Cleveland
Clinic; N-of-One, Inc., an oncology diagnostics company; and
Orionis Biosciences LLC, a drug development company. He was
previously a board member of Activate Networks, Inc. (acquired by
Decision Resource Group), BioTrove, Inc. (acquired by Life
Technologies Corporation), Biocius Life Sciences, Inc. (acquired by
Agilent Technologies Inc.), nanoMR Inc. (acquired by DNA
Electronics Ltd) and Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which went
public in 2013. Previously Dr. Gullans was a faculty member
at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital for
almost 20 years where he co-authored more than 100 scientific
publications. He is a Fellow of the American Heart
Association (FAHA) and a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (FAAAS).
About GemcabeneGemphire’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 SMC Laboratories in Tokyo,
Japan. Gemcabene has been tested as monotherapy and in
combination with statins and other drugs in 895 subjects across 18
Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials and has demonstrated promising
evidence of efficacy, safety and tolerability.
About GemphireGemphire 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 December 31, 2016, Gemphire’s
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2017,
and in other filings Gemphire makes with the SEC from time to
time. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in
this press release represent Gemphire’s views as of the date
hereof. Gemphire anticipates that subsequent events and
developments will cause Gemphire’s views to change. However,
while Gemphire may elect to update these forward-looking statements
at some point in the future, Gemphire specifically disclaims any
obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should
not be relied upon as representing Gemphire’s views as of any date
subsequent to the date hereof.
Contact:
Andrew McDonald, Ph.D.
LifeSci Advisors, LLC
(646) 597-6987
Jeff Mathiesen, CFO
Gemphire Therapeutics Inc.
(734)-245-1700
Gemphire Therapeutics (NASDAQ:GEMP)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Gemphire Therapeutics (NASDAQ:GEMP)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024