Gemphire Therapeutics Appoints Lee Golden, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer

NORTHVILLE, Mich., Oct. 06, 2016 -- Gemphire Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq:GEMP), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing therapies for the treatment of dyslipidemia, a serious medical condition that increases the risk of life-threatening cardiovascular disease, and NAFLD/NASH (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease), today announced the appointment of Lee Golden, M.D. as Chief Medical Officer, effective October 5, 2016.  In this newly-created role, Dr. Golden will be responsible for advancing the global clinical development of gemcabene, Gemphire’s product candidate.

“We are fortunate to have Lee join our team at this important time for Gemphire, and we look forward to leveraging his 15 years of industry experience in the cardiovascular space as we continue to advance gemcabene, our novel, once-daily, oral therapy, for patients who are unable to achieve normal levels of LDL-C or triglycerides with currently approved therapies,” said Mina Sooch, M.B.A., President and Chief Executive Officer of Gemphire.  “Lee’s stewardship will be invaluable as we build upon the extensive clinical experience with gemcabene and execute three Phase 2b clinical trials for the treatment of dyslipidemia.”

Dr. Golden began his industry career at Pfizer as a Medical Director on the global Lipitor team, where his responsibilities included overseeing multinational cardiovascular trials.  While at Pfizer, he also served as the Medical Team Lead for filing and launch of eplerenone (Inspra) for Congestive Heart Failure and sildenafil (Revatio) for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.  He has served in various senior leadership roles at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., Elan Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Actelion Pharmaceuticals US, Inc.  He also worked as Global Therapeutic Head for Cardiovascular and Hematology at Eisai Inc., where he managed multiple development programs including atopaxar.  Most recently, Dr. Golden was Senior Vice President and Therapeutic Area Head at Mesoblast Inc., where he developed and implemented global strategies from the pre-clinical to registration stages across cardiovascular, CNS and pulmonary therapeutic areas for Mesoblast’s proprietary cell therapy, rexlemestrocel-L.  Dr. Golden received his M.D. from the New York University School of Medicine and his B.S. from the University of Michigan.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Gemphire team to advance the clinical development of gemcabene in dyslipidemia and NAFLD/NASH,” said Dr. Golden.  “Dyslipidemia remains an urgent public health concern since it increases the risk of life-threatening cardiovascular disease.  Gemcabene has demonstrated promising evidence of efficacy, safety and tolerability and I look forward to leading this candidate’s development through clinical trials to patients in need.”

About Gemphire
Gemphire is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing therapies for the treatment of dyslipidemia, a serious medical condition that increases the risk of life threatening cardiovascular disease, and NAFLD/NASH (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease). Please visit www.gemphire.com for more information.

Forward Looking Statements
Any statements in this press release about Gemphire’s future expectations, plans and prospects, including statements about Gemphire’s financial prospects, future operations and sufficiency of funds for future operations, clinical development of Gemphire’s product candidate, expectations regarding future clinical trials and future expectations and plans and prospects for Gemphire and other statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "projects," "targets," "may," "potential," "will," "would," "could," "should," "continue," and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: the success and timing of Gemphire’s regulatory submissions and pre-clinical and clinical trials; regulatory developments; changes to Gemphire’s clinical trial designs and regulatory pathways; changes in Gemphire’s capital resource requirements; Gemphire’s ability to obtain additional financing; Gemphire’s ability to successfully market and distribute its product candidate, if approved; Gemphire’s ability to obtain and maintain its intellectual property protection; and other factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of Gemphire’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2016,  and in other filings Gemphire makes with the SEC from time to time. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent Gemphire’s views as of the date hereof. Gemphire anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Gemphire’s views to change. However, while Gemphire may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Gemphire specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Gemphire’s views as of any date subsequent to the date hereof.

Contact:

Andrew McDonald, Ph.D.
LifeSci Advisors, LLC
(646) 597-6987

Jeff Mathiesen, CFO
Gemphire Therapeutics
(734)-245-1700