Endocrine disease therapy developer Millendo, spun out of University of Michigan, will merge with publicly-listed OvaScience, raising a further $30m in the process.
US-listed fertility treatment provider OvaScience has agreed to merge with Millendo Therapeutics, a US-based endocrine disease drug spinout of University of Michigan.
The unified company will take Millendo’s name and OvaScience’s stock listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market. Millendo’s investors will own 80% of the combined company and Ovascience shareholders 20%.
The all-stock deal will be boosted with $30m from investors including spinout-focused investment firm Osage University Partners.
Roche subsidiary Roche Venture Fund, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Altitude Life Science Ventures, Adams Street Partners, Frazier Healthcare Partners and Longwood Fund, all of which are Millendo investors, are also backing the round, as is Innobio, managed by French state-owned investment firm BPIfrance.
Founded in 2012 as Atterocor, Millendo is working on therapeutics to treat diseases of the endocrine system, the hormone-based messenger system that includes the thyroid and adrenal glands.
The company’s lead drug candidate, a treatment for a rare genetic…
