Merus closes €21.7M second round and agrees option with Novartis Option Fund

Funding | Licensing

Merus NV of Utrecht, the Netherlands, has closed a €21.7 million second financing round led by new investors the Novartis Option Fund, Pfizer Inc., Bay City Capital, and Life Sciences Partners. Merus’ seed investor Aglaia Oncology Fund followed on.

The money will be used to advance development of Merus’ antibody-based drugs for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and infectious diseases.

At the same time, the company granted the Novartis Option Fund the option to an exclusive license to one of Merus’ oncology programmes. The agreement includes upfront and potential milestones payments totalling over S200 million, plus royalties.

“We are very pleased by the high quality of the new investor syndicate,” said Ton Logtenberg, Merus CEO. “The mix of renowned financial and corporate US and European VCs is a validation of the perceived high value of Merus’ technologies.“

The proceeds will enable Merus to demonstrate its bispecific antibodies can target diseases that cannot be treated with single monoclonal antibodies. “The agreement with Novartis Option Fund further underscores that big pharma recognises the potential of our innovative antibody therapeutics,” Logtenberg said.

Lionel Carnot, an investment partner with Bay City Capital, said Merus’ technology, “Is a very ingenious solution to the key issues that have hindered the development of poly- and oligoclonal therapeutics.”