Item 1A. Risk Factors
Item 1A. RISK FACTORS
For a discussion of our potential risks and uncertainties, see the information in Part I, "Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023. Other than the risk factor set forth below, there have been no material changes to the risk factors disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023.
Our current and future collaboration arrangements may not be successful, which could adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize future product candidates.
We have entered into a strategic collaboration and licensing agreement for topical roflumilast in Greater China and Southeast Asia with Hangzhou Zhongmei Huadong Pharmaceutical Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Huadong Medicine Co., Ltd., a strategic collaboration and licensing agreement for topical roflumilast in Japan with Sato Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and a co-promotion agreement with Kowa Pharmaceuticals America, Inc. to exclusively market and promote ZORYVE to primary care practitioners and pediatricians for all FDA approved indications in the United States. In the future, we may seek additional collaboration arrangements for the commercialization, or potentially for the development, of certain of our product candidates depending on the merits of retaining commercialization rights for ourselves as compared to entering into collaboration arrangements. We will face, to the extent that we decide to enter into future collaboration agreements, significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators. Moreover, collaboration arrangements are complex and time-consuming to negotiate, document, implement, and maintain. We may not be successful in our efforts to establish and implement collaborations or other alternative arrangements. The terms of any collaborations or other arrangements that we may establish may not be favorable to us. Our current and future collaborations may not be successful. The success of our collaboration arrangements will depend heavily on the efforts and activities of our collaborators. Collaborations are subject to numerous risks, which may include risks that:
• collaborators have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply to collaborations;
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• collaborators may not pursue development and commercialization of our product candidates or may elect not to continue or renew development or commercialization programs based on clinical trial results, changes in their strategic focus due to their acquisition of competitive products or their internal development of competitive products, availability of funding or other external factors, such as a business combination that diverts resources or creates competing priorities;
• collaborators may delay clinical trials, provide insufficient funding for a clinical trial program, stop a clinical trial, abandon a product candidate, repeat or conduct new clinical trials, or require a new formulation of a product candidate for clinical testing;
• collaborators could independently develop, or develop with third parties, products that compete directly or indirectly with our products or product candidates; a collaborator with sales, marketing, manufacturing, and distribution rights to one or more products may not commit sufficient resources to or otherwise not perform satisfactorily in carrying out these activities, including with respect to accessing primary care and pediatric practices; collaborators are or may in the future be entitled to fees, royalties, profit sharing, and other consideration, which may limit or otherwise negatively impact our profit and financial performance;
• we have and could in the future grant exclusive rights to our collaborators that prevent us from collaborating with others;
• collaborators may not properly maintain or defend our intellectual property rights or may use our intellectual property or proprietary information in a way that gives rise to actual or threatened litigation that could jeopardize or invalidate our intellectual property or proprietary information or expose us to potential liability;
• disputes may arise between us and a collaborator that causes the delay or termination of the research, development, or commercialization of our current or future product candidates or that results in costly litigation or arbitration that diverts management attention and resources;
• collaborations may be terminated, and, if terminated, this may result in a need for additional capital to pursue further development or commercialization of the applicable current or future product candidates;
• collaborators may own or co-own intellectual property covering products that result from our collaborating with them, and in such cases, we would not have the exclusive right to develop or commercialize such intellectual property;
• disputes may arise with respect to the ownership of any intellectual property developed pursuant to our collaborations; and
• a collaborator’s sales and marketing activities or other operations may not be in compliance with applicable laws resulting in civil or criminal proceedings.
Furthermore, we cannot assure you that any collaboration, or other strategic transaction, will achieve the expected synergies. For example, such transactions may require us to incur non-recurring or other charges, increase our near- and long-term expenditures, and pose significant integration or implementation challenges or disrupt our management or business. These transactions entail numerous operational and financial risks, including exposure to unknown liabilities, dependence upon the performance and discretion of counterparties that we do not control and that may underperform or fail, disruption of our business, and diversion of our management’s time and attention in order to manage a collaboration or develop acquired products, product candidates or technologies, incurrence of substantial debt or dilutive issuances of equity securities to pay transaction consideration or costs, higher than expected collaboration, acquisition or integration costs, write-downs of assets or goodwill or impairment charges, increased amortization expenses, difficulty and cost in facilitating the collaboration or combining the operations and personnel of any acquired business, impairment of relationships with key suppliers, manufacturers or customers of any acquired business due to changes in management and ownership and the inability to retain key employees of any acquired business.
The terms of our loan and security agreement require us to meet certain operating and financial covenants, including a minimum financing covenant, and place restrictions on our operating and financial flexibility. If we raise additional capital through debt financing, the terms of any new debt could further restrict our ability to operate our business.
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As of June 30, 2024, we had $200.0 million outstanding under our Loan Agreement. On August 9, we entered into a second amendment to the Loan Agreement, pursuant to which the terms were revised to, among others, permit an optional partial prepayment of term loans outstanding during the period commencing on October 7, 2024 and ending on December 15, 2024, subject to a 1.0% prepayment penalty (the “2024 Partial Prepayment”). We may make 2024 Partial Prepayments in either a single partial prepayment of $100.0 million or two partial prepayments comprising a $75.0 million initial prepayment and a $25.0 million second prepayment. To the extent that we elect to make two partial prepayments and make a $75.0 million initial prepayment, we are not obligated to make the $25.0 million second prepayment. In the event that we make a 2024 Partial Prepayment, and subject to us generating a minimum net product revenue for the trailing six (6) month period ending as of the month prior to the borrowing date, equal to 80% of our projected net product revenue as set forth in our annual plan for the respective period, we will be able to draw down a tranche C-1 term loan of up to $50.0 million and a tranche C-2 term loan of up to $50.0 million. The tranche C-1 term loan availability will expire on March 31, 2026 and the tranche C-2 term loan availability will expire on June 30, 2026. The amended Loan Agreement provides for term loans to us in an aggregate principal amount of up to $200.0 million. As security for the obligations under the Loan Agreement, we granted SLR, for the benefit of the lenders, a continuing security interest in substantially all of our assets, including our intellectual property, subject to certain exceptions.
The Loan Agreement contains a number of representations and warranties and affirmative and restrictive covenants, including financial covenants, and the terms may restrict our current and future operations, particularly our ability to respond to certain changes in our business or industry, or take future actions. The Loan Agreement includes a financial covenant whereby we must generate minimum net product revenue equal to 75% of our projected net product revenue as set forth in our annual plan for the respective period, tested on a trailing six month basis as of the end of each month. Each annual plan shall be approved by our board of directors and SLR, in its capacity as collateral agent, in its reasonable discretion. Any failure by us to deliver such annual plan on or before December 15 of the prior year would be an immediate event of default.
If the debt under the Loan Agreement were accelerated due to an event of default or otherwise, we may not have sufficient cash or be able to sell sufficient assets to repay this debt, which would harm our business and financial condition. If we do not have or are unable to generate sufficient cash to repay our debt obligations when they become due and payable, either upon maturity or in the event of a default, our assets could be foreclosed upon and we may not be able to obtain additional debt or equity financing on favorable terms, if at all, which may negatively impact our ability to operate and continue our business as a going concern. Moreover, regardless of a potential event of default, the debt under the Loan Agreement matures and is due on August 1, 2029, or if no 2024 Partial Prepayment is made, on January 1, 2027. As a result, we may need to refinance or secure separate financing in order to repay amounts outstanding when due, however, no assurance can be given that an extension will be granted, that we will be able to renegotiate the terms of the agreement with the lender, or that we will be able to secure separate debt or equity financing on favorable terms, if at all.
In order to service our indebtedness, we need to generate cash from our operating activities or additional equity or debt financings. Our ability to generate cash is subject, in part, to our ability to successfully execute our business strategy, as well as general economic, financial, competitive, regulatory and other factors beyond our control. We cannot assure you that our business will be able to generate sufficient cash flow from operations or that future borrowings or other financings will be available to us in an amount sufficient to enable us to service our indebtedness and fund our other liquidity needs. To the extent we are required to use cash from operations or the proceeds of any future financing to service our indebtedness instead of funding working capital, capital expenditures or other general corporate purposes, we will be less able to plan for, or react to, changes in our business, industry, and in the economy generally. This may place us at a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors that have less indebtedness.
Item 2. UNREGISTERED SALES OF EQUITY SECURITIES AND USE OF PROCEEDS
None.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
None.
Item 3. DEFAULTS UPON SENIOR SECURITIES
None.
Item 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
Not applicable.
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Text extracted from the filing as submitted to EDGAR. Formatting, tables and exhibits are simplified for reading; the original document is authoritative for anything you rely on.