LONDON (Alliance News) - Mereo BioPharma Group PLC on Tuesday said its all-stock merger with OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Inc is now complete.
OncoMed's shareholders approved the deal on Thursday last week and Mereo has issued 24.8 million new shares, equivalent to 26% of its enlarged share capital. OncoMed, an oncology-focused pharma business, is now officially a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mereo.
Mereo is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical firm and two OncoMed directors, Michael Wyzga and Deepa Pakianathan, have now joined Mereo.
"We are pleased to have completed our merger with OncoMed which has broadened our asset base, strengthened our cash position and will enable us to further progress our two rare disease programmes. We are delighted to welcome both Michael and Deepa to our board," said Mereo Chief Executive Denise Scots-Knight.
"Partnering discussions for BCT-197 for severe exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are progressing following our successful end of phase 2 type b meeting with the [US Food & Drug Administration]. We also intend to initiate partnering discussions for navicixizumab, which has generated encouraging clinical data in ovarian cancer and for BGS-649 in hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism in parallel with the regulatory interactions to determine the next development steps. We look forward to updating our shareholders on the progress of our pipeline more comprehensively on the publication of our preliminary financial results for 2018 at the end of April," Knights-Scot added.
Mereo's 2018 results are due to be published on Monday next week.
Shares in Mereo were trading 3.0% higher at 170.00 pence on Tuesday afternoon.