Our portfolio company Merus, based in Utrecht, the Netherlands, got listed today on NASDAQ, successfully raising $ 55 million in an initial public offering (IPO). LSP co-led the Series B financing of Merus in 2010 and actively supported the company in further financings in subsequent years. We are very proud that Merus succeeded in the current challenging market conditions to raise significant capital from a very strong group of leading investors and is one of the few European biotech companies that successfully achieved a listing on NASDAQ.  

 

We are looking forward to keeping you informed about further news.

 

Dr John de Koning, Partner LSP

+31 (0)20 664 5500; wqrxbavat@yfcip.pbz; www.lspvc.com

 

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LSP’s portfolio company Merus listed on NASDAQ

 

Amsterdam, The Netherlands – 19 May 2016 – It is with great pleasure that LSP – the specialist European healthcare investment firm – announces that its portfolio company Merus was successfully listed today on the NASDAQ stock exchange after the pricing of 5.5 million new shares at $ 10.00 per share. In addition, Merus granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 825,000 common shares at the initial public offering (IPO) price. The shares started trading today on The NASDAQ Global Market under the ticker symbol “MRUS”.

 

LSP financed and actively supported Merus since 2010, when LSP co-led the company’s Series B financing round. Since that investment, Merus has transformed from a unique technology platform company into a clinical-stage product company, focused on discovering and developing next-generation cancer immunotherapies. The company’s product candidates are being developed in the field of immuno-oncology, which represents an innovative approach to cancer treatment that seeks to harness the body's own immune defenses to fight tumor cells. The company’s pipeline consists of innovative full-length human bispecific antibody candidates (called “Biclonics”). By binding to two different antigens or targets, Biclonics can be designed to simultaneously block receptors that drive tumor cell growth and survival and to mobilize the patient’s immune response by activating various killer cells to eradicate tumors.

 

The Merus investment further validates LSP’s long-term approach of identifying breakthrough technologies, building companies around them and playing an active role all along. John de Koning has represented LSP on the company’s Board and has worked closely with management and other Board members over the past years to steer Merus towards this important event in the history of the company.

 

About LSP

LSP (Life Sciences Partners) is a leading independent European investment firm, providing financing for private and public life-science companies. Since the late 1980s, LSP’s management has invested in a large number of highly innovative enterprises, many of which have grown to become leaders of the global life-science industry. With over EUR 1 billion of investment capital raised to date and offices in Amsterdam, Munich and Boston, LSP is one of Europe’s largest and most experienced specialist life-science investors. For more information, please visit www.lspvc.com.