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Nature of Business
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2020
Nature of Business  
Nature of Business

1. Nature of Business

Editas Medicine, Inc. (the “Company”) is a leading, clinical stage genome editing company dedicated to developing potentially transformative genomic medicines to treat a broad range of serious diseases. The Company was incorporated in the state of Delaware in September 2013. Its principal offices are in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Since its inception, the Company has devoted substantially all of its efforts to business planning, research and development, recruiting management and technical staff, and raising capital. The Company has primarily financed its operations through various equity financings, payments received under a research collaboration with Juno Therapeutics, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (“Juno Therapeutics”), and payments received under a strategic alliance with Allergan Pharmaceuticals International Limited (which was acquired by AbbVie, Inc. in May 2020 and is referred to together with its affiliates as “Allergan”). In August 2020, the collaboration with Allergan was terminated. See Note 11, “Subsequent Events”.

The Company is subject to risks common to companies in the biotechnology industry, including but not limited to, risks of failure of preclinical studies and clinical trials, the need to obtain marketing approval for any drug product candidate that it may identify and develop, the need to successfully commercialize and gain market acceptance of its product candidates, dependence on key personnel, protection of proprietary technology, compliance with government regulations, development by competitors of technological innovations and ability to transition from pilot-scale manufacturing to large-scale production of products.

Liquidity

In May 2020, the Company entered into a sales agreement with Cowen and Company, LLC (“Cowen”), under which the Company from time to time can issue and sell shares of its common stock through Cowen in at-the-market offerings for aggregate gross sale proceeds of up to $150.0 million ( the “ATM Facility”). As of June 30, 2020, the Company has not sold any shares of its common stock under the ATM Facility. In June 2020, the Company completed a public offering whereby the Company sold 6,900,000 shares of its common stock, inclusive of 900,000 shares of common stock sold by the Company pursuant to the full exercise of an option granted to the underwriters in connection with the offering and received net proceeds of approximately $203.7 million. As of June 30, 2020, the Company has raised an aggregate of $648.7 million in net proceeds through the sale of shares of its common stock in public offerings and at-the-market offerings.

The Company has incurred annual net operating losses in every year since its inception. The Company expects that its existing cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities at June 30, 2020 and anticipated interest income will enable it to fund its operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into 2023. The Company had an accumulated deficit of $610.5 million at June 30, 2020, and will require substantial additional capital to fund its operations. The Company has never generated any product revenue. There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to obtain additional debt or equity financing or generate product revenue or revenues from collaborative partners, on terms acceptable to the Company, on a timely basis or at all. The failure of the Company to obtain sufficient funds on acceptable terms when needed could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, results of operations, and financial condition.