Biopharmaceutical firm Mereo BioPharma is set to join the AIM market on 9 June with the ticker MPH.

It has raised £14.8 million through the placing of shares at 221p and an investment by its 19.5% shareholder, Swiss industry giant Novartis, in the form of a convertible loan. The shareholder register also includes City fund managers Invesco and Woodford.

The company develops medicines that aim to address unmet medical needs in rare and specialty disease areas and improve patients’ quality of life.

Mereo wants to acquire clinical-stage product candidates and further develop them to key value inflection points or for commercialisation.

In July 2015, the firm raised £20 million in a private placing, with a further £56.5 million committed, and acquired three products from Novartis.

BPS-804 is being developed to prevent fractures resulting from osteogenesis imperfect (also known as brittle bone disease), while BCT-197 aims to treat inflammation in patients with an acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Mereo is also working on BGS-649, a once weekly pill to restore normal testosterone levels.

The company has started two Phase II clinical studies and plans to commence registration studies with product candidate BPS-804 during the second half of 2016.

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Issue Date: 06 Jun 2016