Mereo BioPharma Enters into a $5 Million Convertible Equity Financing with Novartis and Announces a Securities Purchase Agreement with Aspire Capital Fund, LLC for up to $28 Million

LONDON and REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Feb. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mereo BioPharma Group plc (NASDAQ: MREO, AIM: MPH), "Mereo" or the "Company," a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on rare diseases, today announced that it has entered into a $5 million convertible equity financing with Novartis Pharma (AG) (“Novartis”) and concurrently entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement to issue up to $28 million of the Company’s ordinary shares exchangeable for American Depositary Shares (“ADSs”), including a $3 million initial purchase, with Aspire Capital Fund, LLC (“Aspire Capital”), a Chicago-based institutional investor. Proceeds from these transactions are intended to be used by Mereo for general corporate purposes, including clinical trial activity and working capital.

“These transactions provide us with an efficient and flexible source of capital as we continue to prepare for our upcoming Type B End-of-Phase 2 meeting with the FDA to discuss the positive data from our recently-completed Phase 2b ASTEROID study with setrusumab in adult patients with osteogenesis imperfecta (“OI”), as well as our proposed pivotal study design in pediatric OI patients. The EMA supports the initiation of the planned pivotal pediatric Phase 3 study in Europe on the basis of the previously approved pediatric investigational plan (PIP),” said Dr. Denise Scots-Knight, Chief Executive Officer of Mereo. “We are very pleased to have secured financing from both Novartis and Aspire, and we look forward to the continued advancement of our pipeline in 2020.”

About the Novartis Convertible Equity Financing
Under the terms of the convertible equity financing, Novartis will purchase $5 million in a convertible loan note (the “Loan Note”). The Loan Note is convertible at any time at a fixed price of £0.265 per ordinary share. The maturity of the Loan Note is three years from issuance, and it bears an interest rate of 6% per annum. In connection with the Loan Note issuance, the Company also issued a warrant instrument to Novartis to purchase up to 1,449,614 of the Company’s ordinary shares, which are exercisable at an exercise price of £0.265 per ordinary share at any time before the close of business on February 10, 2025. The Loan Note will be subordinate to Mereo’s outstanding loan agreement with Silicon Valley Bank and Kreos Capital.