Mereo Biopharma

Mereo is based in London and was founded in March 2015 to fund and develop novel, innovative specialist focused products from large pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies. Pharmaceutical companies face increasingly difficult choices in the allocation of internal resources to their drug development programs. With significant P&L constraints and rich pipelines it has become increasingly difficult for many companies to fully fund and advance development all of their drug candidates, especially beyond Phase 2. Mereo has been formed to take advantage of the global pharmaceutical industry's drive for creative ways to progress their clinical development pipelines. Mereo has acquired an initial mid-late stage portfolio of three exceptionally well characterised novel products for the treatment of diseases with considerable unmet medical need from Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Each of these programmes has a comprehensive dataset for both pre-clinical and proof-of-concept clinical studies. Additional product opportunities are under evaluation. Mereo's focus is the development of innovative medicines that have the potential to significantly transform the lives of patients suffering from rare and other specialised conditions around the world. To do this, the Company depends on the combination of its team's expertise in selecting and acquiring product opportunities, creating value in the development pipeline and structuring creative transactions. Mereo's internal expertise is complemented by a unique partnership with a leading global CRO, ICON. Mereo combines the operational discipline and efficiency of a small company with the financial resources to conduct comprehensive clinical studies. Mereo will rapidly progress each of the products through further value inflection points before partnering or divesting its products. The Company also has the option to directly commercialise products, for example in orphan disease indications.