MDRNA Down to $1.7M Cash

[Updated: 5:58 pm Pacific] MDRNA (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MRNA]]), the Bothell, WA-based developer of RNA interference drugs, said today in its fourth quarter financial report that it had just $1.7 million of cash and investments left in the bank heading into 2010. That’s about half as much as the company had at the same time a year earlier. The company, which has no marketed products generating revenue, reported a net loss of about $800,000 in the fourth quarter of 2009.

[Updated: 5:58 pm, with detail on January financing] Even though MDRNA raised $7.5 million in a January financing, MDRNA said its auditing firm, KPMG, is likely to issue an opinion in the company’s annual report that raises doubt about its ability to continue as a “going concern.” MDRNA said it has enough cash to operate “well into the second quarter of 2010.”

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.