Ohr Pharmaceutical says it has funds to complete PhIII eye drug trial

10-Apr-2017 - Last updated on 11-Apr-2017 at 11:56 GMT

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Ohr Pharmaceutical has raised enough money to complete a Phase III trial of its AMD drug - Squalamine – just days after NASDAQ officials gave it 180 days to regain the exchange’s minimum listing price.

The US eye drug and delivery technology developer announced the completion of a public offering yesterday, explaining that gross proceeds from the sale of the shares were approximately $14.1m (€13.2m)

Ohr said it is now “funded into 2018, including the completion of our ongoing clinical trial and data readout by the end of calendar 2017 or early 2018.”

Finances

In February, Ohr reported a $7m loss for its fiscal first quarter ended December 31, 2016, up from the $6.1m deficit it posted in the equivalent period in fiscal 2016.

Ohr attributed the deepening deficit to an increase in costs associated with the Phase III Squalamine trial – known as MAKO - which is assessing the drug as a treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

At the time the firm said it had “paused” enrolment and that it planned to amend the study (details of which were provided in a separate announcement today.)

Lab closure

Also in February, Ohr announced it had shut down a San Diego, California laboratory where research on its sustained release delivery technology – SKS - was carried out.

The SKS system – on which Squalamine depends – uses customizable hydrogel microparticles to deliver sensitive APIs and large molecule. Ohr claims the particles have higher loading capacities than other delivery technologies.