In its second wind as a company, Esperion Therapeutics (once owned by Pfizer) has just collected $33 million to continue with clinical trials of its cholesterol-lowering drug.
Plymouth, Michigan-based Esperion is in phase 2 trials of ETC-1002, a once-daily oral drug designed to regulate abnormal lipid and carbohydrate metabolism without many of the side effects associated with other cholesterol-lowering drugs. It’s intended for use in patients with high levels of LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, who are intolerant or resistant to statins, the company says.
Esperion disclosed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it had raised at least $17 million in equity but announced publicly a $33 million raise led by Longitude Capital. Aisling Capital, Alta Partners, Domain Associates, Arboretum Ventures and Asset Management also participated.
So far, the company says, the drug has demonstrated LDL cholesterol reductions as high as 43 percent with no adverse side effects reported.
The original company was founded in 1998 by Roger Newton, who was part of the team that developed Pfizer’s Lipitor. At the time, Esperion was focused on developing a drug to increase HDL, or “good” cholesterol. The company went public and was acquired by Pfizer in 2008, but as part of its cuts to its Michigan operations in 2007, Pfizer apparently discontinued development of the drug shortly thereafter. Newton, however, wasn’t ready to give up. He licensed back some of the intellectual property and revived the small molecule drug ETC-1002–a different lead candidate than the one the company was previously working on–in 2008.
