Telomir Pharmaceuticals has announced an approximately USD 5.6 million Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) financing through the issuance of common stock, without any accompanying investor warrants or convertible securities.

The financing includes an additional USD 1 million investment from billionaire entrepreneur and existing significant shareholder John Paul DeJoria, Co-Founder, John Paul Mitchell Systems and Patrón Spirits. Other existing shareholders and new investors also participated in the financing.

DeJoria most recently reported beneficial ownership of approximately 3.55 million shares, representing approximately 5 percent of Telomir’s outstanding common stock. His additional USD 1 million investment further increases his investment in Telomir as the company advances its lead program into clinical development.

DeJoria said, “I have always looked for opportunities that can do the greatest good for the greatest number of people, and that is part of what attracted me to Telomir. Cancer continues to take an enormous toll on patients and families, and there remains a need for new approaches that can potentially improve the way we treat this disease. Telomir is pursuing a different scientific approach, and with the company now moving into human clinical trials, I am pleased to increase my investment and support the team as they work to determine what Telomir-Zn may be able to do for patients.”

Under the terms of the financing, Telomir issued 4,843,300 shares of common stock at a purchase price of USD 1.16 per share, representing a 5 percent discount to the applicable 10-day Volume-Weighted Average Price (VWAP). The financing resulted in aggregate gross proceeds to the company of approximately USD 5.6 million, before deducting placement agent fees and other offering expenses.

Investors in the financing purchased common stock at a fixed price, with no accompanying investor warrants, convertible securities, or variable-price or reset features.

The securities were issued in a private placement. Telomir has agreed to file a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission covering the resale of the shares issued in the financing, subject to the terms of the Registration Rights Agreement.

The company intends to use the net proceeds primarily to support the clinical development of Telomir-Zn, including its phase 1/2 clinical program in advanced or metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Erez Aminov, Chairman and CEO, Telomir, said, “We have been very deliberate about how and when we access the capital markets. Our strategy is to raise capital around meaningful milestones, deploy it toward value-driving objectives and progressively de-risk the program, while remaining mindful of our existing shareholders. As Telomir enters clinical development, our focus is on execution: deploying this capital efficiently to advance Telomir-Zn through its phase 1/2 clinical program, generate meaningful human data and position the company strongly for the milestones ahead.”

The financing comes as Telomir advances Telomir-Zn, its lead investigational oral small molecule, into human clinical evaluation. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared Telomir’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application for Telomir-Zn, enabling the company to proceed with its first-in-human phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with advanced or metastatic TNBC.

TNBC is an aggressive form of breast cancer defined by the absence of 3 common therapeutic targets, estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, and HER2, limiting the applicability of many targeted treatments used in other forms of breast cancer. Patients with advanced or metastatic disease continue to face a significant need for additional treatment options.

The multicenter, open-label phase 1/2 study is designed to move Telomir-Zn from initial human dosing through dose selection and into an efficacy-focused expansion. The phase 1 portion will evaluate safety, tolerability, and dose selection while also assessing pharmacodynamic biomarkers and preliminary signals of antitumor activity. The phase 2 expansion is designed to build on those findings with a greater focus on efficacy, providing an initial clinical proof-of-concept assessment of Telomir-Zn in advanced or metastatic TNBC.

Telomir-Zn is being developed as a potentially first-in-class oral epigenetic therapy designed to modulate intracellular metal homeostasis, particularly iron and copper, and influence gene-control pathways implicated in cancer. Preclinical studies have demonstrated inhibition of multiple iron-dependent histone demethylases (KDMs), supporting the company’s hypothesis that Telomir-Zn may help restore more normal epigenetic regulation and potentially reactivate tumor-suppressor pathways that cancer has silenced.