BRIEF—OvaScience and Millendo update on merger deal and financing

US companies OvaScience (Nasdaq: OVAS) and privately-held Millendo Therapeutics have updated the terms of their merger agreement –  first announced in August - and increased the size of the associated financing, strengthening the position of the combined company.

Great Point Partners has joined the previously-disclosed investor syndicate, which includes New Enterprise Associates, Frazier Healthcare Partners, and Roche Venture Fund, among others, bringing the total expected proceeds of the financing to around $50 million in the combined company, at the same valuation as the merger.

Together with the approximately $37 million in net cash expected from OvaScience at closing, the total proceeds of the merger and financing are expected to be about $87 million.

The proceeds will fund the further development of Millendo’s lead assets, livoletide and nevanimibe. The financing and merger are expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018.

“We are pleased to welcome this syndicate of high-quality investors, while ensuring that we have the resources in place to advance our first-in-class programs for the treatment of orphan endocrine diseases,” said Julia Owens, president and chief executive of Millendo.

“We look forward to providing an update on our clinical progress, beginning with the initiation of our pivotal Phase IIb/III study of livoletide in Prader-Willi syndrome, in the first quarter of 2019,” she added.