Summary of significant accounting policies

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

Summary of significant accounting policies

Principles of Consolidation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include those of the Company and its wholly owned subsidiary, Mersana Securities Corp. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, expenses and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period. On an ongoing basis, the Company’s management evaluates its estimates which include, but are not limited to, management’s judgments with respect to the identification of performance obligations and standalone selling prices of those performance obligations within its revenue arrangements, accrued preclinical, manufacturing and clinical expenses, valuation of stock-based awards and income taxes. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Segment Information

Operating segments are defined as components of an enterprise about which separate discrete information is available for evaluation by the chief operating decision-maker, or decision making group, in deciding how to allocate resources and assess performance. The Company views its operations and manages its business as a single operating segment, which is the business of discovering and developing ADCs.

Summary of Accounting Policies

The significant accounting policies used in preparation of these condensed consolidated financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2022 are consistent with those discussed in Note 2, Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021.

Fair Value Measurements

Fair value is defined as the price that would be received upon sale of an asset or paid to transfer a liability between market participants at measurement dates. ASC 820, Fair Value Measurement, establishes a three-level valuation hierarchy for instruments measured at fair value. The hierarchy is based on the transparency of inputs to the valuation of an asset or liability as of the measurement date. The three levels are defined as follows:

Level 1—Inputs to the valuation methodology are quoted prices (unadjusted) for identical assets or liabilities in active markets.

Level 2—Inputs to the valuation methodology include quoted prices for similar assets and liabilities in active markets, and inputs that are observable for the asset or liability, either directly or indirectly, for substantially the full term of the financial instrument.

Level 3—Inputs to the valuation methodology are unobservable and significant to the fair value measurement.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

The Company considers all highly-liquid investments with an original maturity, or a remaining maturity at the time of purchase, of three months or less to be cash equivalents. The Company invests excess cash primarily in money market funds, commercial paper and government agency securities, which are highly liquid and have strong credit ratings. These investments are subject to minimal credit and market risks. Cash and cash equivalents are stated at cost, which approximates market value.


	Three Months Ended March 31, 2022				Three Months Ended March 31, 2021
(in thousands)	Beginning of period		End of period		Beginning of period		End of period
Cash and cash equivalents	$	177,947	$	230,057	$	255,094	$	228,430
Restricted cash included in other assets, noncurrent	478		478		321		321
Total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash per statement of cash flows	$	178,425	$	230,535	$	255,415	$	228,751

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements

From time to time, new accounting pronouncements are issued by the FASB or other standard setting bodies that the Company adopts as of the specified effective date. Unless otherwise discussed below, the Company does not believe that the adoption of recently issued standards have or may have a material impact on our condensed consolidated financial statements or disclosures.