A gastroparesis biotech from the creator of CinCor Pharma, the hypertension biotech bought by AstraZeneca for $1.8 billion last year, has raised an additional $40 million to get through Phase 2 and prepare for late-stage testing.
The Series B extension for CinDome Pharma will go toward an ongoing Phase 2 of deudomperidone in adults with diabetic gastroparesis, a condition that impairs the stomach’s ability to empty itself.
Cincinnati-based CinRx Pharma contributed the funds alongside fellow existing investor Perceptive Advisors, the company told Endpoints News. The capital brings CinDome’s Series B total to $59 million and overall funding to about $86 million, CinRx CEO Jon Isaacsohn said in an interview.
CinRx, which employs a hub-and-spoke biotech creation model akin to BridgeBio Pharma, has formed additional drug development companies like CinCor and others working on treatments for obesity (by way of former Johnson & Johnson compounds), IBS, neurodegenerative diseases and other areas.
CinDome expects topline diabetic gastroparesis results next year for its ongoing Phase 2, Isaacsohn said. Following that, the biotech plans to seek a pharma partner or acquirer to bring deudomperidone into the final stages of testing, he said.
Deudomperidone, or CIN-102, is a new formulation of domperidone, a first-line therapy for gastroparesis, nausea and other indications outside of the US. J&J is one of the makers of domperidone, marketing it as Motilium.
Safety concerns, including irregular heartbeat, have dogged domperidone’s chances stateside. The FDA has issued warnings about using it for lactation. For gastrointestinal indications, the US health regulator has said it will consider expanded access requests.
CinDome said its candidate has a different profile with “significantly” reduced cardiac concerns. It’s been “well-tolerated” in previous trials, the company added.
Gastroparesis landscape
There are few drugs or experimental treatments in the works for the digestive-affecting condition. “This drug [deudomperidone] is really one of the last drugs still standing,” Isaacsohn said of the R&D landscape for gastroparesis treatments.
Evoke Pharma notched an FDA approval for its diabetic gastroparesis treatment Gimoti in June 2020, but relatively few people have received it. The nasal spray reeled in $5.2 million in net sales in 2023 and is expected to pull in $14 million this year, the California drugmaker has said.
In 2021, a small Boston-area biotech by the name of Neurogastrx raised a $60 million Series B for an investigational gastroparesis treatment dubbed NG101. The asset completed a Phase 2 study last February, according to an entry on the US federal trials database. The company has neither released results from the study nor issued an update since its Series B announcement.
“We completed a Ph 2 study and plan to meet with the FDA to discuss the results later this year,” Neurogastrx commercial chief Paul Rogers said in an email to Endpoints.
Allergan, now owned by AbbVie, had also explored a treatment for diabetic gastroparesis, paying about $200 million for clinical-stage Rhythm subsidiary Motus Therapeutics in 2016.