Friday, October 24, 2008

Mersana takes $4M in new funding

By Mass High Tech Staff

Nanotech-focused drug company Mersana Therapeutics Inc. has raised $4 million in new funding from a convertible note placement, company officials said. Backers of the Cambridge-based oncology drug maker include Fidelity Biosciences, Harris & Harris Group, PureTech Ventures, ProQuest Investments and Rho Ventures.

With the new funding, Mersana has raised approximately $36 million in private investment. According to Peter Leone, COO of Mersana, the funding will be used to advance its current anti-cancer agent XMT-1001, which went into a Phase 1 trial in patients with solid tumors in May 2007. In addition, the company has a second oncology compound it is planning to put into trials next year, Leone said. That could lead to a possible staff expansion in its clinical department, he said.

In February Mersana named Timothy B. Lowinger as new chief scientific officer. Lowinger most recently served as vice president of chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences at Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Vancouver, Canada, where he managed a team focused on developing polymer-based pharmaceutical products.

From 1993 to 2007, Lowinger held a number of positions at Bayer Pharmaceuticals in the United States, Germany and Japan. He led the team that discovered and advanced Nexavar, an anti-cancer agent that is approved for indications including renal and hepatocellular cancer, with Phase III studies under way in non small-cell lung and other cancers.

Privately held Mersana is a venture-backed company, using its proprietary nanotechnology platform to transform existing and experimental anti-cancer agents into new, patentable drugs with better pharmaceutical properties.