Merrion Pharma Looks to Wind Up Operations, Announces Liquidation Plans
August 23, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
DUBLIN – Following the 2015 sales of some of its intellectual property assets to Novo Nordisk , former Irish drugmaker Merrion Pharma is calling it quits. The company said it plans to liquidate its accounts and distribute those funds to company shareholders.
On Monday the company, which was founded in 2003, announced its board of directors has completed a “Declaration of Solvency” with the intent of redistributing about €4.5 million to shareholders. The company said it intends to delist itself from the Irish Stock Exchange. Additionally, John Fox, the company’s chief executive officer, announced his decision to resign from the company. He will remain as chairman of the board of directors and “enter into a short term consultancy arrangement to assist in the liquidation process,” the company said.
Since its 2015 deal with Novo Nordisk, Merrion Pharma has been primarily operating as an investor in the healthcare sector, rather than a drugmaker. On Monday the company board of directors issued a statement saying that a review of its investment proposals revealed that none were deemed “sufficiently compelling to recommend to shareholders.”
As a pharmaceutical company, Merrion was focused on the development pf oral drugs for patients who did not respond well to injectables. The company used its Gipet technology to adapt medications from injectable to oral format. Merrion worked with various companies on such adaptations, but Novo Nordisk was its biggest partner. Merrion and Novo Nordisk had two licensing agreements, including an insulin tablet for diabetic patients. However, in 2012, the company began to refocus Merrion’s priorities and the company began to dispose of its Dublin manufacturing facility and staff. The 2015 deal for intellectual property finalized Merrion’s transition from a pharmaceutical company to an investment company.
Since 2012, Merrion had been dependent on milestone payments from Novo Nordisk in order to “provide the necessary cash flow to fund ongoing costs and expenses relating to the business,” according to company information on its website.
When the company sold its final intellectual property assets to Novo Nordisk in 2015, Merrion’s announcement included the point that developing oral treatments for diabetic patients is complex and risky. The company noted that Novo Nordisk was hedging its bets by using other delivery mechanisms licensed from other companies as well as Merrion’s property. If Novo Nordisk were successful in developing an orally-approved insulin tablet with another delivery system, that would damage any payments to Merrion, the company said at the time.
Last year, Novo Nordisk announced it was moving the long-acting GLP-1 analogue semaglutide, for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, into a Phase III trial. The oral treatment will be given to approximately 8,000 patients in the trial, the company said. Semaglutide sailed through Phase II trials. If approved, this would be the first GLP-1 analogue approved in oral form.