Gemphire sinks on Phase IIb gemcabene data in hypercholesterolemia

Gemphire Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:GEMP) plummeted $8.73 (47%) to $9.93 on Monday after it reported preliminary Phase IIb data for its lead candidate gemcabene (CI-1027) to treat hypercholesterolemia in which the "magnitude of LDL-C lowering was less than observed in certain prior studies of gemcabene."

The company said gemcabene met the primary endpoint in the Phase IIb ROYAL-1 trial. Specifically, gemcabene reduced mean LDL-C from baseline to week 12 by 17.2% vs. 5.5% for placebo (p=0.0057)...