Response Pharmaceuticals Closes $8 Million Series A Financing
Falls Church, Virginia, November 21, 2022
Response Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is pleased to announce the successful closing of its Series A $8 million financing round.
Response Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage therapeutic development company focused on developing innovative treatments for weight management and metabolic disease. The company's lead drug candidate, RDX-002, a first-in-class inhibitor of enterocytic microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (eMTP) originally conceived and developed by the company’s CSO and Co-Founder, Paul Sweetnam, is being studied for Antipsychotic Induced Weight Gain (AIWG), a common and potentially harmful side effect of antipsychotic medication. eMTP is a protein believed to be a key driver of weight gain in patients on antipsychotic drugs. In prior clinical studies, RDX-002 has generated data in over 500 human subjects across 7 clinical trials to date.
“We are thrilled with the close of our first external financing round and incredibly appreciative of the support we have received from Collage Venture Partners and our new investors, many of whom have a deep understanding of our disease areas and the importance of developing new drugs to help control metabolic disease of all types,” said Eric Keller, CEO, and Co-Founder. “This funding will enable us to continue our mission of developing a novel treatment to help people taking antipsychotic medications for disabling mental illness combat the weight gain and metabolic dysregulation that is endemic with these treatments and which often leads to non-compliance and discontinuation from medications that are otherwise helping these patients in their battle with mental disease.”
Commenting on the clinical development program for RDX-002, Chief Medical Officer Bill Sasiela noted: “Intestinal MTP is an exciting therapeutic target with therapeutic potential in a wide range of metabolic indications. RDX-002 is a significantly derisked experimental therapeutic that has shown an excellent profile in past trials. We will shortly initiate our first clinical trial in subjects taking olanazapine, a very well proven and highly prescribed antipsychotic with a common and unfortunate side effect of significant and rapid weight gain for many patients."
"Response Pharmaceuticals is a promising company with a strong team and a clear vision," said Dexter Pearson, a partner at Collage Venture Partners. "We are excited to be a part of the company's growth and success and look forward to supporting them on their journey to bring an exciting new treatment to market."
The proceeds from the financing round will be used to fund an efficacy study for RDX-002 and support the company's ongoing development efforts.
About Response Pharmaceuticals
Response Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical stage biotechnology company developing RDX-002 as an adjunctive therapy for patients taking first-line antipsychotic therapy. RDX-002 is a first-in-class potent and selective inhibitor of intestinal MTP. The small-molecule compound has been in multiple Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials including over 500 volunteer and patient subjects dosed for up to 90 days. RDX-002 was well tolerated and resulted in a lowering of post-prandial triglyceride levels, lowering of circulating levels of LDLc, and reducing weight. By addressing treatment-limiting side effects of atypical antipsychotics, we believe (subject to completion of successful development and further clinical trials) that RDX-002 will allow for much more widespread use of clozapine and olanzapine, as well as other effective but underutilized antipsychotics while reducing the burdens of non-compliance, weight gain, and long-term metabolic disease. It remains our intent to explore the use of RDX-002 in other areas of unmet medical need in the near future. RDX-002 is being developed under an exclusive world-wide license from Sanofi S.A.
For more information please see www.responsepharmaceuticals.com
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