CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Mersana, a privately-held cancer therapeutics company announced today that it has completed an oversubscribed $21 million financing. Fidelity Biosciences and ProQuest Investments led the round, with Rho Ventures and the company’s previous investors participating, including PureTech Ventures, Cape Family Fund LLC, Harris & Harris Group, Inc., and Lansing Brown Investments LLC.
“We are pleased to announce this major round of financing from a top-tier syndicate of venture capital firms,” said Julie Olson, Ph.D., President and CEO of Mersana. “We look forward to bringing new and effective cancer therapeutics to patients and the market,” she concluded. Dr. Olson was Vice President of Licensing in Research and Development at Pfizer prior to joining the company. During her 18-year career at Pfizer, she played a variety of roles that included leading high throughput screening and chemistry, a therapeutic area research team, and licensing groups for both technology and clinical compounds.
With completion of the financing, Jay Moorin and Joyce Tsang, Partners at ProQuest Investments, Jason Rhodes, Principal, at Fidelity Biosciences, and Martin Vogelbaum, Partner, at Rho Ventures will join existing members Julie Olson and Charles Harris of Harris & Harris Group, Inc. on the Board of Directors.
About Mersana Therapeutics, Inc.
Mersana, a privately-held, venture-backed company, is focused on developing novel oncology agents based on the breakthrough discovery of Dr. Mikhail Papisov of Massachusetts General Hospital, who devised a ‘stealth’ material called Fleximer(R) that enhances the pharmacokinetics and safety of drugs. Mersana, formerly Nanopharma Corp., was co-founded by Dr. Papisov and PureTech Ventures, a life science venture creation fund. The Fleximer patents and six related patent families are licensed from the Massachusetts General Hospital. Mersana’s pipeline includes compounds with activity against multiple tumor types and human proof-of-concept that are improved by its proprietary technologies.
For further information, contact Julie Olson or Pete Leone (Mersana COO) at 617-498-0020.
Mersana Therapeutics, Inc.
CONTACT: Julie Olson or Pete Leone, both of Mersana Therapeutics, Inc.,+1-617-498-0020