Nature of Business and Basis of Presentation

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Nature of Business and Basis of Presentation

Nature of Business and Basis of Presentation

Mersana Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) that offer a clinically meaningful benefit for cancer patients with significant unmet need. The Company has leveraged 20 years of industry learning in the ADC field to develop proprietary and differentiated technology platforms that enable it to design ADCs to have improved efficacy, safety and tolerability relative to existing ADC therapies. The Company’s innovative platforms, which include Dolaflexin and Dolasynthen, each delivering its DolaLock payload, as well as Immunosynthen, delivering a novel stimulator of interferon genes (STING) agonist, provide an efficient product engine that has enabled a robust discovery pipeline for the Company and its partners. The Company’s product candidates include upifitamab rilsodotin (UpRi, XMT-1536) and XMT-1592. The Company's early stage programs include a potentially first-in-class B7-H4-targeted DolaLock ADC, XMT-1660, as well as candidates leveraging the Immunosynthen platform, the most advanced of which is XMT-2056.

UpRi, an ADC utilizing the Company’s Dolaflexin platform and targeting NaPi2b, an antigen broadly expressed in ovarian cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) adenocarcinoma, is currently in the expansion portion of a Phase 1 study in patients with ovarian cancer and NSCLC adenocarcinoma. XMT-1592 uses one of the Company’s new platforms, Dolasynthen, and also targets NaPi2b. In the first half of 2020, the Company initiated the Phase 1 dose escalation study of XMT-1592 .

The Company is subject to risks common to companies in the biotechnology industry, including but not limited to, the need for additional capital, risks of failure of preclinical studies and clinical trials, the need to obtain marketing approval and reimbursement for any drug product candidate that it may identify and develop, the need to successfully commercialize and gain market acceptance of its product candidates, dependence on key personnel, protection of proprietary technology, compliance with government regulations, development of technological innovations by competitors, reliance on third party manufacturers and the ability to transition from pilot-scale production to large-scale manufacturing of products.

The Company has incurred net losses since inception. The Company’s net loss was $88,045, $28,208 and $64,257 for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. The Company expects to continue to incur operating losses for at least the next several years. As of December 31, 2020, the Company had an accumulated deficit of $280,419. The future success of the Company is dependent on, among other factors, its ability to identify and develop its product candidates and ultimately upon its ability to attain profitable operations. The Company has devoted substantially all of its financial resources and efforts to research and development and general and administrative expense to support such research and development. Net losses and negative operating cash flows have had, and will continue to have, an adverse effect on the Company’s stockholders’ equity and working capital.

In April 2020, the Company sold 10,900,599 shares of common stock and received net proceeds of $62,976. In addition, in June 2020, the Company sold 9,200,000 shares of common stock and received net proceeds of $163,990. The Company believes that its currently available funds will be sufficient to fund the Company’s operations through at least the next twelve months from the issuance of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Management’s belief with respect to its ability to fund operations is based on estimates that are subject to risks and uncertainties. If actual results are different from management’s estimates, the Company may need to seek additional funding.

The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (U.S. GAAP) and the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Any reference in these notes to applicable guidance is meant to refer to the authoritative U.S. GAAP as found in the Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) and Accounting Standards Updates (ASU) of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). All dollar amounts, except per share data in the text and tables herein, are stated in thousands unless otherwise indicated.