Ascletis Pharma Inc

Sagimet Biosciences closed Thursday down about 5%, a day after its partner Ascletis Pharma released 52-week results from a phase 3 open-label extension trial conducted in China of denifanstat in patients with acne vulgaris. On Thursday, Sagimet separately announced it closed a common stock offering with gross proceeds of approximately $115.0M before commissions, discounts, and expenses, with the proceeds earmarked for denifanstat pre-launch activities, a phase 3 trial in the US, and other pipeline programs. In the trial, patients were first treated in the 12-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled ASC40-304 study, and those selected to roll into the open-label extension all received denifanstat for another 40 weeks. Results showed that patients who received denifanstat for the entire 52 weeks had a treatment success rate of 57.8%, compared to 55.6% for those who started on placebo, while mean percentage change in total lesion count was -73% in the deni/deni cohort and -70.7% in the deni/placebo group. Denifanstat, a fatty acid synthase inhibitor, is also under development for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH.