In 2003, Ancile Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was acquired by Mera Pharmaceuticals - a firm focused on drug development from natural sources. Ancile Pharmaceuticals, Inc. had been a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of prescription botanical drugs for major chronic disease conditions. A botanical drug is a pharmaceutical of plant origin, typically a multi-component composition derived from an herbal medicine. Ancile had been capitalizing on recent changes in the U.S. and European regulatory environment to obtain botanical drug approvals several years more quickly and at much less cost than conventional drugs based upon new chemical entities
