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Business and Organization
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2018
Business and Organization  
Business and Organization

Note 1.  Business and Organization

 

Business Overview

 

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Idera” or the “Company”), a Delaware corporation, 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 nucleic acid chemistry 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 nucleic acid chemistry technology, the Company is developing drug candidates to turn off the messenger RNA (“mRNA”) associated with disease causing genes.

 

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 has entered into and may explore additional collaborative alliances to support development and commercialization.

 

Agreement and Plan of Merger

 

As further described in Note 2, in January 2018, the Company entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger with BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and affiliated entities.  However, as the merger has not yet been completed, the Company has prepared these financial statements as if the Company will remain an independent reporting company, and accordingly, these financial statements do not include any of the potential accounting impacts that may result from the Agreement and Plan of Merger.

 

Liquidity and Financial Condition

 

As of March 31, 2018, the Company had an accumulated deficit of $624.6 million. The Company expects to incur substantial operating losses in future periods and will require additional capital as it seeks to advance its drug candidates through development to commercialization. The Company does not expect to generate product revenue, sales-based milestones or royalties until the Company successfully completes development and obtains marketing approval for the Company’s drug candidates, either alone or in collaboration 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, that its existing cash and cash equivalents will enable the Company to fund its operations into the third quarter of 2019. The Company has and plans to continue to evaluate available alternatives to extend its operations beyond the third quarter of 2019.