The UK-based clinical stage pharmaceutical company that is focused on the treatment of cancer cachexia and other muscle wasting disorders, today (August 22) announced it has raised a further the extension to its recent series A financing round which was completed in June this year.
The company says the extension of the series A round follows strong interest from its existing major investors, including Mankind Pharma. This brings total proceeds from the round to £9.75m ($12.4 million), providing the company with a cash runway through 2024.
Robin Bhattacherjee, chief executive officer of Actimed Therapeutics said: “In this challenging financing environment, we are very pleased with the desire and willingness of our shareholders to support the company’s continued progress with this additional funding committed as an extension of our recently over-subscribed series A round.
Cachexia - highly prevalent condition
“Our resulting strong financial runway will allow us to complete the important preparations for our planned Phase 2b/3 IMPACT programme in cancer cachexia which we plan to initiate in the first half of next year. If successful, this could provide the pathway to the first globally approved product to treat this highly prevalent condition, for which there remains a huge unmet need”.
These proceeds, Actimed says, will be used to fund the continued development of the company and will ensure that preparations remain on track for the global phase 2b/3 Impact clinical development programme evaluating its lead asset, small molecule, S-pindolol benzoate in treating cachexia associated with non-small cell lung cancer and colorectal cancer.
Significant unmet need
According to the company’s research, despite advances in the treatment of cancer itself, cancer cachexia is a major global health challenge and a significant unmet medical need. Actimed says a recent meta-analysis demonstrated that cachexia was associated with an 82% higher relative risk of mortality in patients with NSCLC versus no cachexia.
S-pindolol has demonstrated promising results in an exploratory phase 2a, proof of concept trial, the Act-One trial, and Actimed has successfully completed a phase 1 pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) study with S-pindolol benzoate that met all pre-defined objectives. The company aims to dose the first patient in the Impact phase 2b/3 clinical programme in 2024.
Earlier this year, Actimed began the preparations to formally launch a series B financing round which is designed to fund the Impact clinical programme to completion. WG Partners, a London-based life sciences specialist advisory firm, is assisting Actimed in the series B financing which is now well advanced.