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Organization

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Idera” or the “Company”) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel oligonucleotide therapeutics for oncology and rare diseases. The Company uses two distinct proprietary drug discovery technology platforms to design and develop drug candidates: its Toll-like receptor (“TLR”) targeting technology and its third-generation antisense (“3GA”) technology. The Company developed these platforms based on its scientific expertise and pioneering work with synthetic oligonucleotides as therapeutic agents. Using its TLR targeting technology, the Company designs synthetic oligonucleotide-based drug candidates to modulate the activity of specific TLRs. In addition, using its 3GA technology, the Company is developing drug candidates to turn off the messenger RNA (“mRNA”) associated with disease causing genes. The Company believes that its 3GA technology may potentially reduce the immunotoxicity and increase the potency of earlier generation antisense and RNA interference (“RNAi”) technologies.

Idera is focused on the clinical development of drug candidates for oncology and rare diseases characterized by small, well-defined patient populations with serious unmet medical needs. The Company believes it can develop and commercialize these targeted therapies on its own. To the extent the Company seeks to develop drug candidates for broader disease indications, it may explore potential collaborative alliances to support development and commercialization.

The Company’s pipeline of drug candidates includes IMO-2125, IMO-8400 and IDRA-008.

TLRs are key receptors of the immune system and play a role in innate and adaptive immunity. As a result, the Company believes TLRs are potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of a broad range of diseases. Using its chemistry-based platform, the Company has designed TLR agonists and antagonists to act by modulating the activity of targeted TLRs. A TLR agonist is a compound that stimulates an immune response through the targeted TLR. A TLR antagonist is a compound that inhibits an immune response by blocking the targeted TLR.

The Company’s TLR agonist lead drug candidate IMO-2125 is an agonist of TLR9. The Company is evaluating IMO-2125 for the treatment by intra-tumoral injection of multiple oncology indications both in combination with checkpoint inhibitors and as monotherapy. The Company is initially developing IMO-2125 for use in combination with checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of patients with anti-PD1 refractory metastatic melanoma.

The Company’s TLR antagonist lead drug candidate IMO-8400 is an antagonist of TLR7, TLR8 and TLR9. The Company is developing IMO-8400 for the treatment of a rare disease called dermatomyositis. The Company selected this indication for development based on the reported increase in TLR expression in this disease state, expression of cytokines indicative of key TLR-mediated pathways and the presence of auto-antibodies that can induce TLR-mediated immune responses.

The Company is developing its 3GA technology to “turn off” the mRNA associated with disease causing genes. The Company designed 3GA oligonucleotides to specifically address challenges associated with earlier generation antisense and RNAi technologies. Although currently used technologies to silence RNA have demonstrated the ability to inhibit the expression of disease-associated proteins, the Company believes that to reach their full therapeutic potential, gene silencing technologies need to achieve an improved therapeutic index with efficient systemic delivery, reduced immunotoxicity and increased potency. The Company has designed its 3GA oligonucleotides to provide these attributes.

In January 2017, the Company announced that we had selected its first 3GA candidate to enter clinical development. The Company is planning to develop IDRA-008 for a well-established liver target with available pre-clinical animal models and well-known clinical endpoints. IDRA-008 has potential for both broad and rare disease applications.

As of March 31, 2017 the Company had an accumulated deficit of $553.6 million. The Company expects to incur substantial operating losses in future periods. The Company does not expect to generate significant product revenue, sales-based milestones or royalties until the Company successfully completes development and obtains marketing approval for drug candidates, either alone or in collaborations with third parties, which the Company expects will take a number of years. In order to commercialize its drug candidates, the Company needs to complete clinical development and comply with comprehensive regulatory requirements.

The Company is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties similar to those of other companies of the same size within the biotechnology industry, such as uncertainty of clinical trial outcomes, uncertainty of additional funding, and history of operating losses.

The Company believes, based on its current operating plan, its existing cash, cash equivalents and investments will enable the Company to fund its operations into the second quarter of 2018. The Company has and will continue to evaluate available alternatives to extend its operations beyond the second quarter of 2018.