Mereo to develop Etigilimab (Anti-TIGIT) alongside rare disease product portfolio after completing $70M private placement
June 4, 2020Mereo BioPharma on Thursday announced the completion of a $70 million (£56 million) private placement (the “Fundraising”) with a number of new and existing U.S based institutional and accredited investors.
OrbiMed led the Fundraising with participants including Vivo Capital, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), Pontifax Venture Capital, Samsara BioCapital, Commodore Capital, and funds managed by Janus Henderson Investors alongside existing investors Boxer Capital of Tavistock Group and Aspire Capital Fund, LLC.
Mereo also announced plans to advance etigilimab (Anti-TIGIT) into a Phase 1b study in Q4 2020 alongside progressing its rare disease product portfolio. This is based on the Mereo’s existing promising clinical data with etigilimab as well as the increasing interest in TIGIT as an immuno-oncology target, the company said. Mereo said it intends to complete a strategic partnership for setrusumab for the treatment of osteogenesis imperfecta (“OI”) prior to initiation of the pivotal Phase 3 study and to complete the ongoing Phase 2 study of alvelestat for the treatment of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (“AATD”), with topline data currently expected in 2H 2021.
Dr. Denise Scots-Knight, Chief Executive Officer of Mereo, said: “We are delighted to have attracted the support of such a broad range of high-quality institutional investors. We are pleased to also be announcing today that we plan to progress etigilimab into a Phase 1b study and believe etigilimab has the potential to target a significant unmet need in oncology. We look forward to progressing etigilimab, setrusumab and alvelestat further and believe this Fundraising leaves Mereo extremely well placed to progress on our strategy.”