Photo by LON HORWEDEL Mina Sooch

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Originally Published: January 04, 2015 8:00 AM Modified: January 07, 2015 11:40 AM

Mina SoochCEO, Gemphire Therapeutics Inc., NorthvilleBy Tom Henderson

Mina Sooch established herself in 2014 as a superstar in local entrepreneurial circles.

In January, she raised $12.5 million in venture capital for what had been a struggling pharmaceutical company that she joined in 2012 as president and CEO, Plymouth Township-based ProNAi Therapeutics Inc.

Then in April, she raised an additional $59.5 million for the company, the largest single round of venture capital in state history.

Both of those were based on results that ProNAi presented at a major oncology convention in New Orleans in December 2013 on how its lead product improved the conditions of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma who had been resistant to other treatments.

The results and the fundraising set the stage for the company's initial public offering in 2015.

In September, it was time for ProNAi to bring in a CEO who had experience leading public companies — Nick Glover. Sooch joined another small cardiovascular drug company, Northville-based Gemphire Therapeutics Inc., and began raising a round of $25 million for human trials.

Gemphire's lead drug, gemcabene, lowers the levels in the blood of LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol. Sooch plans a first market application of targeting patients with a rare genetic condition that results in extremely high LDL levels.

In June, Crain's named Sooch — an immigrant from India who has an engineering degree from Wayne State University and an MBA from Harvard University — to its 2014 class of American Dreamers.

In December, the second funding round for ProNAi was named by the Ann Arbor-based Michigan Venture Capital Association as the financing deal of the year at its annual award dinner.

Mina Sooch - Crain's Detroit Business

7/21/2015http://www.crainsdetroit.com/print/article/20150104/AWARDS09/301049974/mina-so...