Men­lo bags $119M IPO on promise of ex-Mer­ck drug

That IPO win­dow ap­pears to re­main propped open. Men­lo Ther­a­peu­tics, a low-pro­file biotech with a sin­gle as­set picked up from Mer­ck for $1 mil­lion up­front, just pulled off an up­sized IPO rais­ing $119 mil­lion.

The Red­wood City biotech snagged rights back in 2012 to a drug called ser­lop­i­tant, which Mer­ck was study­ing in al­co­hol de­pen­dence and over­ac­tive blad­der.

Men­lo, how­ev­er, thinks the drug could take on se­vere itch­ing and chron­ic cough­ing. Ser­lop­i­tant is an NK-1 re­cep­tor ag­o­nist, which Men­lo sus­pects is a key play­er in the urge to scratch or cough. Con­trol the urge, and the drug may help peo­ple with a va­ri­ety of con­di­tions tied to se­vere itch­ing (pru­ri­tus) and cough­ing. Men­lo is test­ing the drug in der­ma­to­log­ic con­di­tions such as atopic der­mati­tis, pso­ri­a­sis and pruri­go nodu­laris.

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