Staff Writer

With a new CEO at its helm, Gemin X Pharmaceuticals Inc. raised $38 million in Series C financing to support ongoing and planned clinical trials with obatoclax and other anticancer compounds.

The company received the first half of the tranched investment last June and the second half this month. The latest round brings Gemin X's fundraising total to well over $100 million, including $50 million raised in 2005, $15.3 million in 2002, $12 million in 2001 and a small initial round. (See BioWorld Today, May 20, 2005.)

That money should be enough to get Gemin X "to the next value inflection point," according to President and CEO Glenn Gormley.

Gormley joined Gemin X just a few weeks ago after spending more than 20 years with big pharmas like Novartis AG, AstraZeneca plc and Merck & Co. Inc. He told BioWorld Today that although he had looked at a number of biotech opportunities over the years, he left the big pharma fold for Gemin X because of its unique people, sustainable pipeline and potential "to become a major player in oncology" while delivering value to both patients and investors.

Most of the company's value hinges on lead drug obatoclax (GX15-070), a small-molecule pan-inhibitor of the Bcl-2 family of proteins. The drug is in Phase II trials in combination with chemotherapy for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and as a single agent for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Gormley said Gemin X anticipates completing the NSCLC trial in late 2008 or early 2009 and the AML trial in mid to late 2009, depending on enrollment.

Gemin X also plans to begin a Phase IIb trial later this year to evaluate obatoclax in combination with Velcade (bortezomib, Takeda Pharmaceuticals Inc.) for mantel cell lymphoma (MCL). Preclinical studies have indicated that obatoclax sensitizes MCL cells to lower doses of Velcade, and a Phase I study combining the two drugs showed efficacy.

A small-molecule inhibitor of Bcl-2 is "one of the Holy Grails of cancer therapy," said Eric Roberts, managing director of Caxton Advantage Venture Partners, the lead investor in the financing. That's because the Bcl-2 protein family regulates apoptosis, or cell death, which is inhibited in cancer.

Genta Inc., of Berkeley Heights, N.J., has long pursued Bcl-2 using the antisense drug Genasense (oblimersen sodium), but the approach thus far has failed to impress the FDA. A handful of companies are starting to make progress with small-molecule Bcl-2 inhibitors, among them Ascenta Therapeutics Inc., which is in Phase II, and Genentech Inc., which licensed its program from Abbott. (See BioWorld Today, March 18, 2008.)

Roberts noted that Gemin X is the first in the field to demonstrate clinical efficacy.

Behind obatoclax, Gemin X is conducting a Phase I cancer trial with GMX1777, a small-molecule nicotinamide phosphoribosyl transferase inhibitor licensed from Ballerup, Denmark-based LEO Pharma A/S. The company also has several early stage research programs including a technology that induces apoptosis by disrupting the capped telomere structures in cancer cells.

None of Gemin X's programs are partnered - a fact that is somewhat unique today's M&A filled environment. Yet Gormley said Gemin X is "interested in establishing partnerships where they make sense."

In addition to Caxton Advantage, all of Gemin X's existing investors participated in the financing, including Sanderling Ventures, H.I.G. Ventures, CDP Capital/Vantage Point Venture Partners, ProQuest Investments, Merlin BioMed Group, HBM BioVentures AG, Canadian Medical Discoveries Fund Inc., Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, SoftBank Life Science, Business Development Bank of Canada, Solidarity Fund QFL and Pinnacle Bioventures.

Gemin X is based in Malvern, Pa., and Montreal.