Gemin X Pharmaceuticals closes $16 million Series D financing

Apr 21 2010

Gemin X Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel, targeted cancer therapeutics, today announced the close of its $16 million Series D round of financing. Current investors Caxton Advantage Life Sciences Fund LP and Sanderling Venture Partners co-led the round. In addition, the Series D structure grants certain current investors the option to invest an additional $4 million in this financing round in the future.

“This continued support has enabled Gemin X to recently complete enrollment in our randomized controlled Phase 2b study of obatoclax in the first-line treatment of patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, and we look forward to announcing data from this trial later this quarter.”

"We appreciate the broad and ongoing investor commitment to Gemin X and this Series D financing. The financing is occurring on the heels of positive Phase 1b data for our lead product candidate, obatoclax, in patients with small cell lung cancer," said Michael Dixon, Chief Financial Officer of Gemin X. "This continued support has enabled Gemin X to recently complete enrollment in our randomized controlled Phase 2b study of obatoclax in the first-line treatment of patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, and we look forward to announcing data from this trial later this quarter."

Gemin X recently announced the completion of enrollment in its ongoing Phase 2b clinical trial of obatoclax (GX15-070) for the first-line treatment of extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The trial is designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of obatoclax, a novel pan Bcl-2 inhibitor, in combination with standard chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of patients with SCLC. It is being conducted at over 60 leading cancer centers, primarily in the United States and Europe. Full trial enrollment of 165 SCLC patients was achieved ahead of schedule and exceeded the study goal of 154 participants.

In this multi-center, randomized, controlled study, the clinical effect of a combination of carboplatin, etoposide and obatoclax (the "CEO" regimen) is being compared to a standard chemotherapeutic regimen of carboplatin and etoposide alone (the control arm). The primary endpoint of the study is comparison of overall response rate (ORR) for the CEO arm versus the control arm, based on RECIST criteria. Secondary endpoints include comparison of six-month rate of progression free survival (PFS) as well as overall PFS. Patients will also be followed for overall survival (OS), and safety.