Botanix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:BOT) has successfully completed an oversubscribed $15 million placement to institutional and sophisticated investors at $0.11 per share.
The funds raised will be used to accelerate clinical development of its lead acne product, BTX 1503, and progress other key pipeline products.
BTX 1503 uses a synthetic form of a widely studied natural product, cannabidiol.
Advanced clinical programs in acne and atopic dermatitis
Botanix’s primary use of funds is to advance BTX 1503 into a phase II acne clinical study.
The remaining funds will be utilised to develop BTX 1204 (atopic dermatitis), BTX 1308 (psoriasis) and explore further the commercial potential of its proprietary drug delivery system, Permetrex.
Significantly, Botanix recently completed a phase 1b study in patients with acne, which met all the designated endpoints.
READ: Botanix Pharmaceuticals’ shares ride higher following successful acne study
Botanix’s study was conducted at four of the leading acne investigative sites in Australia and enrolled 21 subjects with moderate to severe acne, with 18 subjects completing the study.
Top line data indicated that BTX 1503 is effective at reducing the number of inflammatory and non-inflammatory acne lesions after 4 weeks of treatment.
It is worth noting that the reduction is greater than any other FDA approved topical acne product, for which data is available after 4 weeks of treatment.
Targeting the multi-billion dollar prescription markets for acne
Botanix is targeting the multi-billion dollar prescription markets for acne (with no new products approved in the last 20 years) and atopic dermatitis.
In 2016, the global acne prescription market was worth circa US$4.9 billion, with the potential to grow to circa US$7.3 billion by 2025.