Syros Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (the "Company"), a Delaware corporation formed in November 2011, is a biopharmaceutical company seeking an understanding of the non-coding region of the genome to advance new medicines to control the expression of disease-driving genes. The Company has built a proprietary platform designed to analyze this unexploited region of DNA in human disease tissue to identify and drug novel targets linked to genomically defined patient populations.
The Company is subject to a number of risks similar to those of other early stage companies, including dependence on key individuals; risks inherent in the development and commercialization of medicines to treat human disease; competition from other companies, many of which are larger and better capitalized; risks relating to obtaining and maintaining necessary intellectual property protection; and the need to obtain adequate additional financing to fund the development of its product candidates and discovery activities. If the Company is unable to raise capital when needed or on favorable terms, it would be forced to delay, reduce, eliminate or out-license certain of its research and development programs or future commercialization rights to its drug candidates.
On July 6, 2016, the Company completed an initial public offering, in which the Company issued and sold 4,600,000 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $12.50 per share, including 600,000 shares of common stock sold pursuant to the underwriters’ exercise of their option to purchase additional shares of common stock, for aggregate gross proceeds of $57.5 million (the “IPO”). The Company received approximately $49.9 million in net proceeds after deducting $7.6 million of underwriting discounts and commissions and offering costs. Upon the closing of the IPO, all of the outstanding shares of the Company’s convertible preferred stock automatically converted into 15,988,800 shares of common stock at the applicable conversion ratio then in effect. Subsequent to the closing of the IPO, there were no shares of preferred stock outstanding. In connection with the IPO, the Company amended and restated its Fourth Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation to change the authorized capital stock to 200,000,000 shares designated as common stock, and 10,000,000 shares designated as preferred stock, all with a par value of $0.001 per share. The significant increase in common stock outstanding in July 2016 relating to the IPO and conversion of convertible preferred stock is expected to impact the year-over-year comparability of the Company’s net loss per share calculations over the next year.
The Company has incurred significant annual net operating losses in every year since its inception. It expects to continue to incur significant and increasing net operating losses for at least the next several years. The Company’s net losses were $47.7 million, $29.8 million and $13.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively. As of December 31, 2016, the Company had an accumulated deficit of $101.3 million. The Company has not generated any revenues from product sales, has not completed the development of any product candidate and may never have a product candidate approved for commercialization. The Company has financed its operations to date primarily through private placements of its preferred stock and the sale of common stock in the IPO. The Company has devoted substantially all of its financial resources and efforts to research and development and general and administrative expense to support such research and development. The Company’s net losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year. Net losses and negative cash flows have had, and will continue to have, an adverse effect on the Company’s stockholders' (deficit) equity and working capital. The Company believes that its cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities of $83.6 million as of December 31, 2016 will be sufficient to allow the Company to fund its current operating plan and capital expenditure requirements into mid-2018.