Merida Biosciences, a biotechnology company advancing a new class of precision therapeutics designed to selectively and durably eliminate the pathogenic antibody drivers of multiple serious autoimmune and allergic diseases, launched today with $121 million in Series A financing. The funding was co-led by Bain Capital Life Sciences, BVF Partners, and Third Rock Ventures, joined by GV and Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Funds (PXV Funds).
Merida has created a novel platform to precisely target the pathogenic antibodies that underpin a wide array of autoimmune and allergic diseases. And Merida is developing antibody-like therapeutics with the potential to drive deep and durable depletion of pathogenic antibodies, without the broad immunosuppression and resulting toxicities that accompany currently approved therapies. The company also currently has programs targeting Graves’ disease, allergy and primary membranous nephropathy, a chronic autoimmune disease that impacts the kidneys.
Graves’ disease is caused by pathologic autoantibodies that bind thyroid-stimulating hormone receptors (TSHR) in the thyroid gland. This causes overproduction of thyroid hormone and accelerated metabolic activity. Merida is developing a potentially first-in-class and best-in-class treatment to precisely target, neutralize, and eliminate these disease drivers to restore healthy thyroid hormone activity.
Merida’s protein engineering platform generates unique Fc therapeutics designed to identify and bind specific antibodies selectively and target them for rapid and complete elimination by utilizing the body’s natural mechanism for clearing antibody complexes. And these therapeutics are designed to eliminate only the pathogenic antibodies while sparing healthy immune components. This novel approach also targets the B cells producing pathogenic antibodies to eliminate their source. Merida’s therapeutics are built to exhibit antibody-like characteristics and to provide sustained pharmacology, which is expected to enable convenient dosing schedules compared to competing approaches and easier routes of administration.
Merida was seeded in 2022 by Third Rock Ventures while Dr. Gutierrez was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Townsend was appointed Chief Executive Officer in March 2025, bringing over 20 years of global biopharmaceutical experience in commercial operations and corporate development, most recently as Chief Operating Officer at Apellis Pharmaceuticals. The two are joined in leadership by Chief Operating Officer Dodzie Sogah, Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer Matthew Leoni, M.D., MBA, Interim Chief People Officer Tara Reagan, MBA and Senior Vice President, Process and Product Development Michael Naill, Ph.D.
Merida’s Board of Directors brings industry-leading experience across the full spectrum of drug discovery and development:
– Reid Huber, Ph.D., Partner, Third Rock Ventures, Board Chair
– Abbie Celniker, Ph.D. Partner, Third Rock Ventures
– Andrew Hack, M.D., Ph.D., Partner, Bain Capital Life Sciences
– Rich Levy, M.D., Former Chief Drug Development and Medical Officer, Incyte Corporation
– John Maraganore, Ph.D., Former Founding CEO, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
– Amol Punjabi, Director, BVF Partners
– Adam Townsend, President and Chief Executive Officer, Merida
KEY QUOTES:
“We are driven by the opportunity to fundamentally transform the treatment of a wide range of severe autoimmune and allergic diseases. For the first time, we have the potential to precisely target the clear pathogenic drivers of an intractable set of diseases with absolute selectivity and a degree of completeness and durability that has not been achievable through any approach to date.”
- Adam Townsend, Chief Executive Officer of Merida
“At the heart of Merida is understanding the mechanisms behind antibody-driven diseases like Graves’ at the molecular level, and leveraging these insights to develop precision therapeutics that have thus far evaded the field. Our highly differentiated approach has the potential to yield best-in-class treatments by going after the root causes of these devastating diseases, which we believe can help patients lead healthier lives.”
- Merida co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Dario Gutierrez, Ph.D.
“We are excited to partner with Merida in unlocking the broad clinical impact of this revolutionary therapeutic approach. We believe Merida is on the cusp of delivering on a long-recognized need and opportunity for impact – a new class of medicines that can drive deeper, more selective and more durable depletion of pathogenic antibodies than is possible today.”
- Reid Huber, Ph.D., Board Director of Merida and Partner at Third Rock Ventures
“By leveraging significant, recent advances in protein engineering and immunology, Merida is pioneering an exciting and welcome advancement for the field. The company’s selective and durable approach holds immense potential to help a large group of patients in need of better therapies.”
- Andrew Hack, M.D., Ph.D., Partner at Bain Capital Life Sciences
