| Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | |
| Type: | Public |
| Industry: | Pharmaceuticals |
| Traded As: | NASDAQ: Russell Microcap Index component |
| Successors: | --> |
| Founded: | 2000 in Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Founders: | --> |
| Hq Location City: | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Hq Location Country: | United States |
| Num Employees: | 426 |
| Num Employees Year: | 2016 |
Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a pharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. They specialize in developing drugs for the treatment of cancer.
Merrimack's first FDA-approved drug was approved in 2015; Onivyde, a liposome encapsulated version of irinotecan is used for treating pancreatic adenocarcinoma. It was approved for use in the European Union the following year.[1] [2]
Merrimack was founded by a group of scientists from MIT and Harvard University in 2000.[3]
In 2016, Merrimack had 426 full-time employees, 103 of which had an MD or PhD.[3]
In October 2016, CEO Robert Mulroy resigned and the company announced they would be laying off 20% of its employees.[4] In January 2017, interim CEO Gary Crocker resigned and the board of directors appointed Richard Peters to be president and CEO. Peters previously worked at Sanofi and was a faculty member at Harvard University.[5]
In January 2017, French pharmaceutical company Ipsen announced they would be purchasing Onivyde from Merrimack for approximately $1 billion.[6]
On November 13, 2018, the statistical programming director Songjiang Wang, received "six months in prison and one year supervised released" after a guilty verdict was handed down to Wang from a United States District Judge in July 2018 for securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.[7] Also on December 20, 2019, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission charged Wang with Insider trading.[8]
Merrimack has four drugs in clinical development.