Item 1A. Risk Factors
Item 1A. Risk Factors
In evaluating our business, you should carefully consider the following risks, as well as the other information contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. These risk factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements we have made in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and those we may make from time to time. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition and operating results could be harmed. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones facing us. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us, or that we currently see as immaterial, may also harm our business.
We have marked with an asterisk (*) those risk factors below that reflect a substantive change from the risk factors included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 2, 2021.
Risk Factor Summary
● Our prospects are highly dependent on our first commercial product, TAVALISSE (fostamatinib disodium hexahydrate). To the extent that the commercial success of TAVALISSE or fostamatinib in the United States and respective territories outside of the United States is diminished or is not commercially successful, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected, and the price of our common stock may decline.
● Our business is currently adversely affected and could be materially and adversely affected in the future by the evolving effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of the current and potential future impacts on our sales force and commercialization efforts, supply chain, regulatory, clinical development and corporate development activities and other business operations, in addition to the impact of a global economic slowdown.
● Even if we, or any of our collaborative partners, are able to continue to commercialize TAVALISSE or any product candidate that we, or they, develop, the product may become subject to unfavorable pricing regulations, third-party payor reimbursement practices or labeling restrictions, all of which may vary from country to country and any of which could harm our business.
● If we are unable to successfully market and distribute TAVALISSE and retain experienced sales force, our business will be substantially harmed.
● We are subject to stringent and evolving privacy and information security laws, regulations, rules, policies and contractual obligations, and changes in such laws, regulations, rules, policies, contractual obligations and our actual or perceived failure to comply with such requirements could subject us to significant investigations, fines, penalties, and claims, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects.
● If manufacturers obtain approval for generic versions of TAVALISSE, or of products with which we compete, our business may be harmed.
● Unforeseen safety issues could emerge with TAVALISSE that could require us to change the prescribing information to add warnings, limit use of the product, and/or result in litigation. Any of these events could have a negative impact on our business.
● We rely and may continue to rely on two distribution facilities for the sale of TAVALISSE and potential sale of any of our product candidates.
● We may not be able to obtain Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for fostamatinib for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19, and, even if we do, absent supplemental NDA approval for that indication, such EUA would be revoked when the COVID-19 emergency terminates.
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● We lack the capability to manufacture compounds for clinical development and we intend to rely on third parties for commercial supply, manufacturing and distribution if any of our product candidates which receive regulatory approval and we may be unable to obtain required material or product in a timely manner, at an acceptable cost or at a quality level required to receive regulatory approval.
● We might not be able to successfully develop or commercialize our product candidates if problems arise in the clinical testing and approval process. There is a high risk that drug discovery and development efforts might not generate successful product candidates.
● Any product for which we have obtained regulatory approval, or for which we obtain approval in the future, is subject to, or will be subject to, extensive ongoing regulatory requirements by the FDA, EMA and other comparable regulatory authorities, and if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or if we experience unanticipated problems with our products, we may be subject to penalties, we will be unable to generate revenue from the sale of such products, our potential for generating positive cash flow will be diminished, and the capital necessary to fund our operations will be increased.
● If our corporate collaborations or license agreements are unsuccessful, or if we fail to form new corporate collaborations or license agreements, our research and development efforts could be delayed.
● Our success is dependent on intellectual property rights held by us and third parties, and our interest in such rights is complex and uncertain.
● If a dispute arises regarding the infringement or misappropriation of the proprietary rights of others, such dispute could be costly and result in delays in our research and development activities and partnering.
● If our competitors develop technologies that are more effective than ours, our commercial opportunity will be reduced or eliminated.
● If product liability lawsuits are successfully brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of our products.
Risks Related to Our Business and Our Industry
If the market opportunities for TAVALISSE and product candidates are smaller than we believe they are, our revenues may be adversely affected, and our business may suffer.
Certain of the diseases that TAVALISSE and our other product candidates being developed to address are in underserved and underdiagnosed populations. Our projections of both the number of people who have these diseases, as well as the subset of people with these diseases who will seek treatment utilizing our products or product candidates, may not be accurate. If our estimates of the prevalence or number of patients potentially on therapy prove to be inaccurate, the market opportunities for fostamatinib and our other product candidates may be smaller than what we believe they are, our prospects for generating expected revenue may be adversely affected and our business may suffer. For example, complications due to COVID-19 may be prevented or well-addressed by others entering the market with vaccines or therapeutics to prevent or treat COVID-19, thereby affecting projections of the market for our product candidate negatively, and adversely affecting our business.
We may need to continue to increase the size of our organization and we may encounter difficulties with managing our growth, which could adversely affect our business and results of operations.*
Although we have recently substantially increased the size of our organization, we may need to add additional qualified personnel and resources to support our commercial sales force. Our current infrastructure may be inadequate to support our development and commercialization efforts and expected growth. Future growth will impose significant added responsibilities on members of management, including the need to identify, recruit, maintain and integrate additional employees, and may take time away from running other aspects of our business, including commercialization of TAVALISSE and development of our other product candidates.
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Our future financial performance and our ability to sustain successful commercialization of TAVALISSE and our ability to commercialize other product candidates that may receive regulatory approval will depend, in part, on our ability to manage any future growth effectively. In particular, as we continue to commercialize TAVALISSE, we will need to support the training and ongoing activities of our sales force and will likely need to continue to expand the size of our employee base for managerial, operational, financial and other resources. To that end, we must be able to successfully:
● manage our development efforts effectively;
● integrate additional management, administrative and manufacturing personnel;
● further develop our marketing and sales organization; and
● maintain sufficient administrative, accounting and management information systems and controls.
We may not be able to accomplish these tasks or successfully manage our operations and, accordingly, may not achieve our research, development, and commercialization goals. Our failure to accomplish any of these goals, including as a result of business or other interruptions resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, could adversely affect our business and operations.
There is a high risk that drug discovery and development efforts might not generate successful product candidates.*
At the present time, a significant portion of our operations are focused on various stages of drug identification and development. We currently have various product candidates in the clinical testing stage. In our industry, it is statistically unlikely that the limited number of compounds that we have identified as potential product candidates will actually lead to successful product development efforts. We have invested a significant portion of our efforts and financial resources into the development of fostamatinib. Our ability to generate product revenue, which will not occur until after regulatory approval, if ever, will depend on the successful development, regulatory approval and eventual commercialization of one of our product candidates.
Our compounds in clinical trials and our future leads for potential drug compounds are subject to the risks and failures inherent in the development of pharmaceutical products. These risks include, but are not limited to, the inherent difficulty in selecting the right drug and drug target and avoiding unwanted side effects, as well as unanticipated problems relating to product development, testing, enrollment, obtaining regulatory approvals, maintaining regulatory compliance, manufacturing, competition and costs and expenses that may exceed current estimates. In future clinical trials, we or our partners may discover additional side effects and/or higher frequency of side effects than those observed in previously completed clinical trials. The results of preliminary and mid-stage clinical trials do not necessarily predict clinical or commercial success, and larger later-stage clinical trials may fail to confirm the results observed in the previous clinical trials. Similarly, a clinical trial may show that a product candidate is safe and effective for certain patient populations in a particular indication, but other clinical trials may fail to confirm those results in a subset of that population or in a different patient population, which may limit the potential market for that product candidate. With respect to our own compounds in development, we have established anticipated timelines with respect to the initiation of clinical trials based on existing knowledge of the compounds. However, we cannot provide assurance that we will meet any of these timelines for clinical development. Additionally, the initial results of a completed earlier clinical trial of a product candidate do not necessarily predict final results and the results may not be repeated in later clinical trials.
Because of the uncertainty of whether the accumulated preclinical evidence (PK, pharmacodynamic, safety and/or other factors) or early clinical results will be observed in later clinical trials, we can make no assurances regarding the likely results from our future clinical trials or the impact of those results on our business. For example, if our Phase 3 clinical trial in wAIHA or Phase 3 clinical trial to further evaluate fostamatinib in hospitalized patients with COVID-19, or any of our clinical trials fail to meet the primary efficacy endpoints, the commercial prospects of our business may be harmed, our ability to generate product revenues may be delayed or eliminated or we may be forced to undertake other strategic alternatives that are in our shareholders’ best interests, including cost reduction measures. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or engage in a strategic transaction on commercially reasonable terms or at all, we may be required to implement further cost reduction strategies which could significantly impact activities related to our commercial efforts and/or research and development of our future product candidates, and could significantly harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, these cost reduction strategies could cause us to further curtail our operations or take other actions that would adversely impact our shareholders.
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We may be subject, directly or indirectly, to federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws, false claims laws and other federal and state healthcare laws, and the failure to comply with such laws could result in substantial penalties. Our employees, independent contractors, consultants, principal investigators, CROs, commercial partners and vendors may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements.
Our business operations and current and future arrangements with investigators, healthcare professionals, consultants, third-party payers and customers, may expose us to broadly applicable federal, state and foreign fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations including anti-kickback and false claims laws, data privacy and security laws, and transparency reporting laws. These laws may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we conduct our operations, including how we research, market, sell and distribute any product for which we have obtained regulatory approval, or for which we obtain regulatory approval in the future. In particular, the promotion, sales and marketing of healthcare items and services, as well as certain business arrangements in the healthcare industry, are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, misconduct, bribery kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive or inappropriate practices. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, including promoting off-label uses of our products, commission compensation, certain customer incentive programs, certain patient support offerings, and other business arrangements generally. Activities subject to these laws also involve the improper use or misrepresentation of information obtained in the course of patient recruitment for clinical trials, creating fraudulent data in our preclinical studies or clinical trials or illegal misappropriation of drug product, which could result in regulatory sanctions and cause serious harm to our reputation. See “Business – Government Regulation – Healthcare and Privacy Law and Regulation” in Part I, Item 1 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 2, 2021 for more information on the healthcare laws and regulations that may affect our ability to operate.
We are also exposed to the risk of fraud, misconduct or other illegal activity by our employees, independent contractors, consultants, principal investigators, CROs, commercial partners and vendors. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional, reckless and/or negligent conduct that fails to: comply with the laws of the FDA and other similar foreign regulatory bodies; provide true, complete and accurate information to the FDA and other similar foreign regulatory bodies; comply with manufacturing standards we have established; comply with federal and state data privacy, security, fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations in the United States and similar foreign fraudulent misconduct laws; or report financial information or data accurately or to disclose unauthorized activities to us. It is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent inappropriate conduct may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations.
We are also subject to the risk that a person or government could allege such fraud or other misconduct, even if none occurred. Efforts to ensure that our business arrangements will comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations will involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental and enforcement authorities will conclude that our business practices may not comply with current or future statutes, regulations or case law interpreting applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, disgorgement, monetary fines, imprisonment, additional reporting obligations and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or other agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, and curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations.
We are subject to stringent and evolving privacy and information security laws, regulations, rules, policies, and contractual obligations, and changes in such laws, regulations, rules, policies, contractual obligations and our actual or perceived failure to comply with such requirements could subject us to significant investigations, fines, penalties and claims, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects.*
We are subject to, or affected by, various federal, state and foreign laws, rules, directives, and regulations, as well as regulatory guidance, policies and contractual obligations relating to privacy and information security, governing
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the collection, access, acquisition, use, disclosure, processing, modification, retention, storage, transfer, destruction, protection, and security (collectively, “processing”) of personal information and other sensitive information about individuals. The global privacy and information security landscape is evolving rapidly, and implementation standards and enforcement practices are likely to continue to develop for the foreseeable future and may result in conflicting or inconsistent compliance obligations. Legislators and regulators are increasingly adopting or revising privacy and information security laws, rules, directives, and regulations that may create uncertainty in our business, affect our or our collaborators’, service providers’ and contractors’ ability to operate in certain jurisdictions or to process personal information, transfer data internationally, necessitate the acceptance of more onerous obligations in our contracts, result in enforcement actions, litigation or other liability or impose additional costs on us. The cost of compliance with these laws, regulations and standards is high and is likely to increase in the future. Any failure or perceived failure by us or our collaborators, service providers and contractors to comply with federal, state or foreign laws or regulations, our internal policies and procedures or our contracts governing the processing of personal information could result in negative publicity, diversion of management time and effort and proceedings against us by governmental entities or others. In many jurisdictions, enforcement actions, litigation, and other consequences for noncompliance with privacy and information security laws and regulations are rising. Compliance with applicable privacy and information security laws and regulations, as well as regulatory guidance, policies and contractual obligations, is a rigorous and time-intensive process, and we may be required to put in place additional mechanisms to ensure compliance with the new privacy and information security requirements. If we fail to comply with any such obligations, we may face significant investigations, fines, penalties and claims that could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, ability to process personal information, and could reduce income from certain business initiatives.
In the U.S., these include various federal, state, and local statutes, rules, and regulations relating to privacy and data security. The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act to regulate unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices, and has used this authority to initiate enforcement actions against companies that implement inadequate controls around privacy and information security in violation of their externally facing policies. The U.S. federal government has also enacted statutes to address privacy and information security issues impacting particular industries or activities, including the following laws and regulations: the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the CAN-SPAM Act, and other laws and regulations. In addition, state legislatures have enacted statutes to address privacy and information security issues, including the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, or the CCPA, and similar state laws such as Virginia’s Consumer Data Protection Act and the Colorado Privacy Act. For example, the CCPA establishes a privacy framework applicable to for-profit entities that are doing business in California, including an expansive definition of personal information and data privacy rights for California residents. The CCPA, among other things, authorizes the imposition of potentially severe statutory damages and created a private right of action for data security breaches. The CCPA also requires businesses subject to the law to provide new disclosures to California residents and to provide them with expanded rights with respect to their personal information, including the right to opt- out of the sale of such information. Although there are limited exemptions for clinical trial and other research-related data under the CCPA, the CCPA and other similar laws could impact our business depending on how the CCPA will be interpreted by the new California Privacy Protection Agency. As we expand our operations, the CCPA may increase our compliance costs and potential liability. In addition, in November 2020, California voters approved the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, or CPRA, that goes into effect on January 1, 2023. The CPRA will, among other things, give California residents the ability to limit the use of their sensitive information, opt- out of certain types of profiling and automated processing activities, provide for penalties for CPRA violations concerning California residents under the age of 16, and establish a new California Privacy Protection Agency to implement and enforce the law. Additionally, Colorado and Virginia both signed privacy legislation earlier this year, each of which go into effect in 2023, and multiple other states as well as the federal government are considering enacting similar legislation. Many states also have in place data security laws requiring companies to maintain certain safeguards with respect to the processing of personal information, and all states require companies to notify individuals or government regulators in the event of a data breach impacting such information. New privacy laws add additional complexity, requirements, restrictions and potential legal risk. Accordingly, compliance programs may require additional investment in resources, and could impact availability of previously useful data.
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Internationally, our operations abroad may also be subject to increased scrutiny or attention from foreign data protection authorities. For example, our clinical trial programs and research collaborations outside the United States may implicate foreign data protection laws, including in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and/or the UK (collectively, “Europe”). Many jurisdictions have established or are in the process of establishing privacy and data security legal frameworks with which we, our collaborators, service providers, including our CROs, and contractors must comply. For example, European data protection laws, including, without limitation, the EU General Data Protection Regulation, or the EU GDPR, impose strict requirements for processing personal information (i.e., data which identifies an individual or from which an individual is identifiable), including clinical trial data and grant individuals various data protection rights (e.g., the right to erasure of personal information). In turn, the EU GDPR and similar laws increase our obligations with respect to clinical trials conducted in Europe by expanding the definition of personal information to include also coded data and requiring (i) changes to informed consent practices and more detailed notices for clinical trial participants and investigators, (ii) us to consider data protection as any new products or services are developed and to limit the amount of personal information processed; and (iii) us to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to safeguard personal information and to report certain personal data breaches to the supervisory authority without undue delay (for the EU GDPR no later than 72 hours where feasible). In the event of non-compliance, the EU GDPR provides for robust regulatory enforcement and fines of up to €20 million or 4% of the annual global revenue, whichever is greater. In addition, the EU GDPR confers a private right of action on data subjects and consumer associations to lodge complaints with supervisory authorities, seek judicial remedies and obtain compensation for damages resulting from violations of the EU GDPR.
European data protection laws, including the EU GDPR, generally also prohibits the transfer of personal information from Europe to the United States and most other countries that are not recognized as having “adequate” data protection laws by the European Commission unless the parties to the transfer have implemented specific safeguards to protect the transferred personal information. One of the primary safeguards allowing U.S. companies to import personal information from Europe has been certification to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield frameworks administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce. However, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a decision in July 2020 invalidating the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework ( Schrems II ) and imposing further restrictions on the use of standard contractual clauses (SCCs) including, a requirement for companies to carry out a transfer privacy impact assessment, which among other things, assesses laws governing access to personal information in the recipient country and considers whether supplementary measures that provide privacy protections additional to those provided under the SCCs will need to be implemented to ensure an essentially equivalent level of data protection to that afforded in Europe. Following that decision, the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) took a similar view and considered that data transfers based on the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield framework are no longer lawful (despite the fact that Schrems II is not directly applicable in Switzerland (unless the Swiss based company is subject to the EU GDPR) and the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield has not been officially invalidated). Further, the European Commission recently published new EU SCCs, which place onerous obligations on the contracting parties. At present, there are few, if any, viable alternatives to the SCCs. As such, any transfers by us or our third-party vendors, collaborators of others of personal information from Europe to the United States or elsewhere may not comply with European data protection laws; may increase our exposure to European data protection laws’ heightened sanctions for cross-border data transfer restrictions; may restrict our clinical trial activities in Europe; and limit our ability to collaborate with CROs, service providers, contractors and other companies subject to European data protection laws. Loss of our ability to transfer personal information from Europe may also require us to increase our data processing capabilities in those jurisdictions at significant expense.
Following the UK’s departure from the EU (Brexit), the EU GDPR’s data protection obligations continue to apply to the UK in substantially unvaried form under the so-called “UK GDPR” (i.e., the EU GDPR as it continues to form part of law in the UK by virtue of section 3 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended (including by the various Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations)). The UK GDPR exists alongside the UK Data Protection Act 2018 that implements certain derogations in the UK GDPR into UK law. Under the UK GDPR, companies not established in the UK but who process personal information in relation to the offering of goods or services to individuals in the UK, or to monitor their behavior will be subject to the UK GDPR – the requirements of which are (at this time) largely aligned with those under the EU GDPR and as such, may lead to similar compliance and operational costs with potential fines of up to £17.5 million or 4% of global turnover. As a result, we are potentially exposed to two parallel data protection regimes, each of which authorizes fines and the potential for divergent enforcement actions. It should also be noted that the new EU SCCs do not automatically apply in the UK since Brexit, and the UK Government has not yet formally acknowledged the new EU SCCs, i.e. , as a valid data transfer
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mechanism under the UK GDPR. Indeed, on August 11, 2021, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) launched a public consultation on its draft international data transfer agreement and guidance. This included the publication of a draft UK addendum that can be used with the new EU SCCs – however this is unlikely to be finalized before the end of 2021 and as such, for the time being transfers from the UK to a third country should continue to be made in reliance on the “old” SCCs.
Additionally, other countries outside of Europe have enacted or are considering enacting similar cross-border data transfer restrictions and laws requiring local data residency, and strict requirements and limitations for processing personal information, which could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our services and operating our business. For example, Brazil enacted the General Data Protection Law, New Zealand enacted the New Zealand Privacy Act, China released its Personal Information Protection Law, which went into effect November 1, 2021, and Canada introduced the Digital Charter Implementation Act. As with the EU GDPR, these laws are broad and may increase our compliance burdens, including by mandating potentially burdensome documentation requirements and granting certain rights to individuals to control how we collect, use, disclose, retain, and process personal information about them.
We publish privacy policies and other documentation regarding our collection, processing, use and disclosure of personal information and/or other confidential information. Although we endeavor to comply with our published policies and other documentation, we may at times fail to do so or may be perceived to have failed to do so. Moreover, despite our efforts, we may not be successful in achieving compliance if our employees, collaborators, contractors, service providers or vendors fail to act in accordance with our published policies and documentation. Such failures can subject us to potential foreign, local, state and federal action if they are found to be deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative of our actual practices. Moreover, trial participants or research subjects about whom we or our partners obtain information, as well as the providers who share this information with us, may contractually limit our ability to use and disclose the information, or exercise rights to do so under applicable privacy legislation. Claims that we have violated individuals’ privacy rights or failed to comply with data protection laws or applicable privacy policies and documentation, even if we are not found liable, could be expensive and time-consuming to defend and could result in adverse publicity that could harm our business.
In addition to data privacy requirements, many jurisdictions have mandatory clinical trial information obligations on sponsors. In the EU this is under the Transparency Regulation No 1049/ 2001, EMA Policy 0043, EMA Policy 0070, as well as the Clinical Trials Regulation No 536/2014, all of which impose on sponsors the obligation to make publicly available certain information stemming from clinical studies. In the EU, the transparency framework provides for a wide right for (EU-based at the moment) interested parties to submit an access to documents request to the EMA for information included in the marketing authorization application dossier for approved medicinal products. Only very limited information is exempted from disclosure, i.e. commercially confidential information (which is construed increasingly narrowly) and protected personal data. It is possible for competitors to access and use this data in their own research and development programs anywhere in the world, once this data is in the public domain.
Enhanced governmental and public scrutiny over, or investigations or litigation involving, pharmaceutical manufacturer donations to patient assistance programs may require us to modify our programs and could negatively impact our business practices, harm our reputation, divert the attention of management and increase our expenses.*
To help patients afford our products, we have a patient assistance program that helps financially needy patients. This type of program has become the subject of scrutiny. Some pharmaceutical manufacturers were named in class action lawsuits challenging the legality of their patient assistance programs under a variety of federal and state laws. Our patient assistance program could become the target of similar litigation. In addition, certain state and federal enforcement authorities and members of Congress have initiated inquiries about manufacturer-sponsored patient assistance programs, including, for example, manufacturer-sponsored patient assistance programs, co-pay assistance programs, and manufacturer contributions to independent charitable patient assistance programs. Some state legislatures have also been considering proposals that would restrict or ban co-pay coupons.
If we are deemed not to have complied with laws or regulations in the operation of, or our interactions with, these programs, we could be subject to damages, fines, penalties or other criminal, civil or administrative sanctions or enforcement actions. Further, numerous organizations, including pharmaceutical manufacturers, have been subject to ongoing litigation, enforcement activities and settlements related to their patient assistance programs and support, and certain of these organizations have entered into, or have otherwise agreed to, significant civil settlements with applicable
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enforcement authorities. It is possible that future legislation may propose establishing requirements with respect to these programs and/or support that affect pharmaceutical manufacturers. We cannot ensure that our compliance controls, policies and procedures will be sufficient to protect against acts of our employees, business partners or vendors that may violate the laws or regulations of the jurisdictions in which we operate. A government investigation could negatively impact our business practices, harm our reputation, divert the attention of management and increase our expenses.
If manufacturers obtain approval for generic versions of TAVALISSE, or of products with which we compete, our business may be harmed.
Under the U.S. Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), the FDA can approve an abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) for a generic version of a branded drug without the ANDA applicant undertaking the clinical testing necessary to obtain approval to market a new drug. Generally, in place of such clinical studies, an ANDA applicant usually needs only to submit data demonstrating that its product has the same active ingredient(s), strength, dosage form, route of administration and that it is bioequivalent to the branded product. In September 2019, the FDA published product-specific bioequivalence guidance on fostamatinib disodium to let potential ANDA applicants understand the data FDA would expect to see for approval of a generic version of TAVALISSE.
The FDCA requires that an applicant for approval of a generic form of a branded drug certify either that its generic product does not infringe any of the patents listed by the owner of the branded drug in the Orange Book or that those patents are not enforceable. This process is known as a paragraph IV challenge. Upon notice of a paragraph IV challenge, a patent owner has 45 days to bring a patent infringement suit in federal district court against the company seeking ANDA approval of a product covered by one of the owner’s patents. If this type of suit is commenced, the FDCA provides a 30-month stay on the FDA’s approval of the competitor’s application. If the litigation is resolved in favor of the ANDA applicant or the challenged patent expires during the 30-month stay period, the stay is lifted, and the FDA may thereafter approve the application based on the standards for approval of ANDAs. Once an ANDA is approved by the FDA, the generic manufacturer may market and sell the generic form of the branded drug in competition with the branded medicine.
The ANDA process can result in generic competition if the patents at issue are not upheld or if the generic competitor is found not to infringe the owner’s patents. If this were to occur with respect to TAVALISSE or products with which it competes, our business would be harmed. We have a number of patents listed in the Orange Book, the last of which is expected to expire in July 2032.
Unforeseen safety issues could emerge with TAVALISSE that could require us to change the prescribing information to add warnings, limit use of the product, and/or result in litigation. Any of these events could have a negative impact on our business.
Discovery of unforeseen safety problems or increased focus on a known problem could impact our ability to commercialize TAVALISSE and could result in restrictions on its permissible uses, including withdrawal of the medicine from the market.
If we or others identify additional undesirable side effects caused by TAVALISSE after approval:
● regulatory authorities may require the addition of labeling statements, specific warnings, contraindications, or field alerts to physicians and pharmacies;
● regulatory authorities may withdraw their approval of the product and require us to take our approved drugs off the market;
● we may be required to change the way the product is administered, conduct additional clinical trials, change the labeling of the product, or implement a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS;
● we may have limitations on how we promote our drugs;
● third-party payers may limit coverage or reimbursement for TAVALISSE;
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● sales of TAVALISSE may decrease significantly;
● we may be subject to litigation or product liability claims; and
● our reputation may suffer.
Any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of TAVALISSE and could substantially increase our operating costs and expenses, which in turn could delay or prevent us from generating significant revenue from sale of TAVALISSE.
If a safety issue emerges post-approval, we may become subject to costly product liability litigation by our customers, their patients or payers. Product liability claims could divert management’s attention from our core business, be expensive to defend, and result in sizable damage awards against us that may not be covered by insurance. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against claims that TAVALISSE caused injuries, we will incur substantial liabilities. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:
● decreased demand for any product candidates or products that we may develop;
● the inability to commercialize any products that we may develop;
● injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention;
● withdrawal of patients from clinical studies or cancellation of studies;
● significant costs to defend the related litigation;
● substantial monetary awards to patients; and
● loss of revenue.
We currently hold $10.0 million in product liability insurance coverage, which may not be adequate to cover all liabilities that we may incur. Insurance coverage is increasingly expensive. We may not be able to obtain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in amounts adequate to satisfy any liability or associated costs that may arise in the future. These events could harm our business and results of operations and cause our stock price to decline.
If we fail to comply with our reporting and payment obligations under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program or other governmental pricing programs in the United States, we could be subject to additional reimbursement requirements, fines, sanctions and exposure under other laws which could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We participate in the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, as administered by the CMS, and other federal and state government pricing programs in the United States, and we may participate in additional government pricing programs in the future. These programs generally require us to pay rebates or otherwise provide discounts to government payers in connection with drugs that are dispensed to beneficiaries/recipients of these programs. In some cases, such as with the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, the rebates are based on pricing that we report on a monthly and quarterly basis to the government agencies that administer the programs. Pricing requirements and rebate/discount calculations are complex, vary among products and programs, and are often subject to interpretation by governmental or regulatory agencies and the courts. The requirements of these programs, including, by way of example, their respective terms and scope, change frequently. Responding to current and future changes may increase our costs, and the complexity of compliance will be time consuming. Invoicing for rebates is provided in arrears, and there is frequently a time lag of up to several months between the sales to which rebate notices relate and our receipt of those notices, which further complicates our ability to accurately estimate and accrue for rebates related to the Medicaid program as implemented by individual states. Thus, there can be no assurance that we will be able to identify all factors that may cause our discount and rebate payment obligations to vary from period to period, and our actual results may differ significantly from our estimated allowances for discounts and rebates. Changes in estimates and assumptions may have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
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In addition, the Office of Inspector General of HHS and other Congressional enforcement and administrative bodies have recently increased their focus on pricing requirements for products, including, but not limited to the methodologies used by manufacturers to calculate average manufacturer price (AMP) and best price (BP) for compliance with reporting requirements under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. We are liable for errors associated with our submission of pricing data and for any overcharging of government payers. Failure to make necessary disclosures and/or to identify overpayments could result in allegations against us under the federal False Claims Act and other laws and regulations. Any required refunds to the U.S. government or responding to a government investigation or enforcement action would be expensive and time consuming and could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, in the event that CMS were to terminate our rebate agreement, no federal payments would be available under Medicaid for our covered outpatient drugs or under Medicare Part B for any of our products that may be reimbursed under Part B.
Even for those product candidates that have or may receive regulatory approval, they may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, healthcare payors and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success, in which case we may not generate significant revenues or become profitable.
For our product candidates that have or may receive regulatory approval, they may nonetheless fail to gain sufficient market acceptance by physicians, hospital administrators, patients, healthcare payors and others in the medical community. The degree of market acceptance of our product candidates, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including the following:
● relative convenience and ease of administration;
● the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies and of physicians to prescribe these therapies;
● the willingness of physicians to change their current treatment practices;
● the willingness of hospitals and hospital systems to include our product candidates as treatment options;
● demonstration of efficacy and safety in clinical trials;
● the prevalence and severity of any side effects;
● the ability to offer product candidates for sale at competitive prices;
● the price we charge for our product candidates;
● the strength of marketing and distribution support; and
● the availability of third-party coverage and adequate reimbursement and the willingness of patients to pay out-of-pocket in the absence of such coverage and adequate reimbursement.
Efforts to educate the physicians, patients, healthcare payors and others in the medical community on the benefits of our product candidates may require significant resources and may not be successful. If any of our product candidates are approved, if at all, but do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenue and we may not become profitable on a sustained basis.
We will need additional capital in the future to sufficiently fund our operations and research.*
We have consumed substantial amounts of capital to date as we continue our research and development activities, including preclinical studies and clinical trials and for the commercial launch of TAVALISSE. We may seek another collaborator or licensee in the future for further clinical development and commercialization of fostamatinib, as well as our other clinical programs, which we may not be able to obtain on commercially reasonable terms or at all. We believe that our existing capital resources will be sufficient to support our current and projected funding requirements, including the continued commercial launch of TAVALISSE in the U.S., through at least the next 12 months. We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could utilize our available capital resources sooner than we currently expect. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with commercial launch,
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the development of our product candidates and other research and development activities, we are unable to estimate with certainty our future product revenues, our revenues from our current and future collaborative partners, the amounts of increased capital outlays and operating expenditures associated with our current and anticipated clinical trials and other research and development activities.
We will continue to need additional capital and the amount of future capital needed will depend largely on the success of our commercial launch of TAVALISSE and the success of our internally developed programs as they proceed in later and more expensive clinical trials, including any additional clinical trials that we may decide to conduct with respect to fostamatinib. While we intend to opportunistically seek access to additional funds through public or private equity offerings or debt financings, we do not know whether additional financing will be available when needed, or that, if available, we will obtain financing on reasonable terms. Our ability to raise additional capital, including our ability to secure new collaborations and continue to support existing collaboration efforts with our partners, may also be adversely impacted by potential worsening global economic conditions and the recent disruptions to, and volatility in, the credit and financial markets in the U.S. and worldwide resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Unless and until we are able to generate a sufficient amount of product, royalty or milestone revenue, which may never occur, we expect to finance future cash needs through public and/or private offerings of equity securities, debt financings or collaboration and licensing arrangements, as well as through proceeds from exercise of stock options and interest income earned on the investment of our cash balances and short-term investments. To the extent we raise additional capital by issuing equity securities in the future, our stockholders could at that time experience substantial dilution. In addition, we have a significant number of stock options outstanding. To the extent that outstanding stock options have been or may be exercised or other shares issued, our stockholders may experience further dilution. Further, we may choose to raise additional capital due to market conditions or strategic considerations even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans. Our credit facility with MidCap involves certain covenants and any other debt financing that we are able to obtain in the future may involve operating covenants that restrict our business. To the extent that we raise additional funds through any new collaboration and licensing arrangements, we may be required to refund certain payments made to us, relinquish some rights to our technologies or product candidates or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us.
We have indebtedness in the form of a term loan pursuant to the Credit Agreement with MidCap, which could adversely affect our financial condition and our ability to respond to changes in our business. Further, if we are unable to satisfy certain conditions of the Credit Agreement, we will be unable to draw down the remainder of the facility.
In September 2019, we entered into the Credit Agreement with MidCap. Under the Credit Agreement, we are required to repay amounts due when there is an event of default for the term loans that results in the principal, premium, if any, and interest, if any, becoming due prior to the maturity date for the term loans. The Credit Agreement also contains a number of other affirmative and restrictive covenants. Please see Note 13 to our “Notes to Condensed Financial Statements” contained in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for additional details of the Credit Agreement. These and other terms in the Credit Agreement have to be monitored closely for compliance and could restrict our ability to grow our business or enter into transactions that we believe would be beneficial to our business. Our business may not generate cash flow from operations in the future sufficient to service our debt and support our growth strategies. If we are unable to generate such cash flow, we may be required to adopt one or more alternatives, such as restructuring our debt or obtaining additional equity capital on terms that may be onerous or highly dilutive. Our ability to refinance our indebtedness will depend on the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. We may not be able to engage in any of these activities or engage in these activities on desirable terms, which could result in a default on our current debt obligations. In addition, we cannot be sure that additional financing will be available when required or, if available, will be on terms satisfactory to us. Further, even if we are able to obtain additional financing, we may be required to use such proceeds to repay a portion of our debt.
Our indebtedness may have other adverse effects, such as:
● our vulnerability to adverse general economic conditions and heightened competitive pressures;
● dedication of a portion of our cash flow from operations to interest payments, limiting the availability of cash for other operational purposes;
● limited flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and industry; and
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● our inability to obtain additional financing in the future.
Our Credit Agreement with MidCap contains a mandatory prepayment provision that gives MidCap and/or its Agent the right to demand payment of the outstanding principal and additional interest and fees in the event of default. We may not have enough available cash or be able to obtain financing at the time we are required to repay the term loan with additional interest and fees prior to maturity.
At closing, $10.0 million was funded to us in an initial tranche. The Credit Agreement also gave us the ability to access an additional $50.0 million at our option, of which $40.0 million may be drawn in two tranches subject to the achievement of certain customary conditions. In May 2020, our second tranche of $10.0 million was funded by MidCap. If we are unable to satisfy these or other required conditions, we would not be able to draw down the remaining tranches of financing and may not be able to obtain alternative financing on commercially reasonable terms or at all, which could adversely impact our business.
We rely and may continue to rely on two distribution facilities for the sale of TAVALISSE and potential sale of any of our product candidates.
Our distribution operations for the sale of TAVALISSE is currently concentrated in two distribution centers owned by a third-party logistics provider. Additionally, our distribution operations, if and when we launch any of our product candidates in the future, may also be concentrated in such distribution centers owned by a third-party logistics provider. Any errors in inventory level management and unforeseen inventory shortage could adversely affect our business. In addition, any significant disruption in the operation of the facility due to natural disaster or severe weather, or events such as fire, accidents, power outages, system failures, or other unforeseen causes, could devalue or damage a significant portion of our inventories and could adversely affect our product distribution and sales until such time as we could secure an alternative facility. If we encounter difficulties with any of our distribution facilities, whether due to the impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (including as a result of disruptions of global shipping and the transport of products) or otherwise, or other problems or disasters arise, we cannot ensure that critical systems and operations will be restored in a timely manner or at all, and this would have an adverse effect on our business. In addition, growth could require us to further expand our current facility, which could affect us adversely in ways that we cannot predict.
Forecasting potential sales for any of our product candidates will be difficult, and if our projections are inaccurate, our business may be harmed, and our stock price may be adversely affected.
Our business planning requires us to forecast or make assumptions regarding product demand and revenues for any of our product candidates if they are approved despite numerous uncertainties. These uncertainties may be increased if we rely on our collaborators or other third parties to conduct commercial activities in certain geographies and provide us with accurate and timely information. Actual results may differ materially from projected results for various reasons, including the following, as well as risks identified in other risk factors:
● the efficacy and safety of any of our product candidates, including as relative to marketed products and product candidates in development by third parties;
● pricing (including discounting or other promotions), reimbursement, product returns or recalls, competition, labeling, adverse events and other items that impact commercialization;
● the rate of adoption in the particular market, including fluctuations in demand for various reasons;
● impacts due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic;
● lack of patient and physician familiarity with the drug;
● lack of patient use and physician prescribing history;
● lack of commercialization experience with the drug;
● actual sales to patients may significantly differ from expectations based on sales to wholesalers; and
● uncertainty relating to when the drug may become commercially available to patients and rate of adoption
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in other territories.
We expect that our revenues from sales of any of our product candidates will continue to be based in part on estimates, judgment and accounting policies. Any incorrect estimates or disagreements with regulators or others regarding such estimates or accounting policies may result in changes to our guidance, projections or previously reported results. Expected and actual product sales and quarterly and other results may greatly fluctuate, including in the near-term, and such fluctuations can adversely affect the price of our common stock, perceptions of our ability to forecast demand and revenues, and our ability to maintain and fund our operations.
We do not and will not have access to all information regarding fostamatinib and product candidates we licensed to Lilly, Kissei, Grifols and Medison.*
We do not and will not have access to all information regarding fostamatinib and other product candidates, including potentially material information about commercialization plans, medical information strategies, clinical trial design and execution, safety reports from clinical trials, safety reports, regulatory affairs, process development, manufacturing and other areas known by Lilly, Kissei, Grifols and Medison. In addition, we have confidentiality obligations under our respective agreements with Lilly, Kissei, Grifols and Medison. Thus, our ability to keep our shareholders informed about the status of fostamatinib and other product candidates will be limited by the degree to which Lilly, Kissei, Grifols and/or Medison keep us informed and allows us to disclose such information to the public. If Lilly, Kissei, Grifols and/or Medison fail to keep us informed about commercialization efforts related to fostamatinib, or the status of the clinical development or regulatory approval pathway of other product candidates licensed to them, we may make operational and/or investment decisions that we would not have made had we been fully informed, which may adversely affect our business and operations.
Our future funding requirements will depend on many uncertain factors.
Our future funding requirements will depend upon many factors, many of which are beyond our control, including, but not limited to:
● the costs to commercialize fostamatinib for the treatment of ITP in the United States, or any other future product candidates, if any such candidate receives regulatory approval for commercial sale;
● the progress and success of our clinical trials and preclinical activities (including studies and manufacture of materials) of our product candidates conducted by us;
● any current and future impacts of the ongoing and evolving COVID-19 pandemic;
● the costs and timing of regulatory filings and approvals by us and our collaborators;
● the progress of research and development programs carried out by us and our collaborative partners;
● any changes in the breadth of our research and development programs;
● the ability to achieve the events identified in our collaborative agreements that may trigger payments to us from our collaboration partners;
● our ability to acquire or license other technologies or compounds that we may seek to pursue;
● our ability to manage our growth;
● competing technological and market developments;
● the costs and timing of obtaining, enforcing and defending our patent and other intellectual property rights; and
● expenses associated with any unforeseen litigation, including any arbitration and securities class action lawsuits.
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Insufficient funds may require us to delay, scale back or eliminate some or all of our commercial efforts and/or research and development programs, to reduce personnel and operating expenses, to lose rights under existing licenses or to relinquish greater or all rights to product candidates at an earlier stage of development or on less favorable terms than we would otherwise choose or may adversely affect our ability to operate as a going concern.
Our success as a company is uncertain due to our history of operating losses and the uncertainty of any future profitability. *
We recognized an income from operations of approximately $8.9 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2021 primarily due to the timing of recognition of revenue from the Lilly Agreement and grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, partly offset by cost and expenses incurred. We historically incurred losses from operations each year since we were incorporated in June 1996 other than in fiscal year 2010, due in large part to the significant research and development expenditures required to identify and validate new product candidates and pursue our development efforts, and the costs of our ongoing commercial efforts for TAVALISSE. We expect to continue to incur losses from operations, at least in the next 12 months, and there can be no assurance that we will generate annual operating income in the foreseeable future. Currently, our potential sources of revenues are our sales of TAVALISSE, upfront payments, research and development contingent payments and royalty payments pursuant to our collaboration arrangements, which may never materialize if our collaborators do not achieve certain events or generate net sales to which these contingent payments are dependent on. If our future drug candidates fail or do not gain regulatory approval, or if our drugs do not achieve sustainable market acceptance, we may not be profitable. As of September 30, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $1.3 billion. The extent of our future losses or profitability, if any, especially due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, is highly uncertain.
If our corporate collaborations or license agreements are unsuccessful, or if we fail to form new corporate collaborations or license agreements, our research and development efforts could be delayed.
Our strategy depends upon the formation and sustainability of multiple collaborative arrangements and license agreements with third parties now and in the future. We rely on these arrangements for not only financial resources, but also for expertise we need now and in the future relating to clinical trials, manufacturing, sales and marketing, and for licenses to technology rights. To date, we have entered into several such arrangements with corporate collaborators; however, we do not know if these collaborations or additional collaborations with third parties, if any, will dedicate sufficient resources or if any development or commercialization efforts by third parties will be successful. In addition, our corporate collaborators may delay clinical trials, provide insufficient funding for a clinical trial program, stop a clinical trial or abandon a drug candidate or development program. Should a collaborative partner fail to develop or commercialize a compound or product to which it has rights from us for any reason, including corporate restructuring, such failure might delay our ongoing research and development efforts, because we might not receive any future payments, and we would not receive any royalties associated with such compound or product. We are conducting a Phase 3 clinical program to study fostamatinib in wAIHA on our own. We may seek another collaborator or licensee in the future for clinical development and commercialization of fostamatinib, as well as our other clinical programs, which we may not be able to obtain on commercially reasonable terms or at all. If we are unable to form new collaborations or enter into new license agreements, our research and development efforts could be delayed. In addition, the continuation of some of our partnered drug discovery and development programs may be dependent on the periodic renewal of our corporate collaborations.
Each of our collaborations could be terminated by the other party at any time, and we may not be able to renew these collaborations on acceptable terms, if at all, or negotiate additional corporate collaborations on acceptable terms, if at all. If these collaborations terminate or are not renewed, any resultant loss of revenues from these collaborations or loss of the resources and expertise of our collaborative partners could adversely affect our business.
Conflicts also might arise with collaborative partners concerning proprietary rights to particular compounds. While our existing collaborative agreements typically provide that we retain milestone payments, royalty rights and/or revenue sharing with respect to drugs developed from certain compounds or derivative compounds, any such payments or royalty rights may be at reduced rates, and disputes may arise over the application of payment provisions or derivative payment provisions to such drugs, and we may not be successful in such disputes. For example, in September 2018, BerGenBio served us with a notice of arbitration seeking declaratory relief related to the interpretation of provisions under our June 2011 license agreement, particularly as they relate to the rights and obligations of the parties in the event of the license or sale of a product in the program by BerGenBio and/or the sale of BerGenBio to a third party. The
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arbitration panel dismissed four of the six declarations sought by BerGenBio, and we thereafter consented to one of the remaining declarations requested by BerGenBio. On February 27, 2019, the arbitration panel issued a determination granting the declaration sought by BerGenBio on the remaining issue, and held that in the event of a sale of shares by BerGenBio’s shareholders where there is no monetary benefit to BerGenBio, we would not be entitled to a portion of the proceeds from such a sale. In this circumstance where the revenue share provision is not triggered, the milestone and royalty payment provisions remain in effect. While we do not believe that the determination will have an adverse effect on our operations, cash flows or financial condition, we can make no assurance regarding any such impact. Additionally, the management teams of our collaborators may change for various reasons including due to being acquired. Different management teams or an acquiring company of our collaborators may have different priorities which may have adverse results on the collaboration with us.
We are also a party to various license agreements that give us rights to use specified technologies in our research and development processes. The agreements pursuant to which we have in-licensed technology permit our licensors to terminate the agreements under certain circumstances. If we are not able to continue to license these and future technologies on commercially reasonable terms, our product development and research may be delayed or otherwise adversely affected.
If conflicts arise between our collaborators or advisors and us, any of them may act in their self-interest, which may be adverse to our stockholders’ interests.
If conflicts arise between us and our corporate collaborators or scientific advisors, the other party may act in its self-interest and not in the interest of our stockholders. Some of our corporate collaborators are conducting multiple product development efforts within each disease area that is the subject of the collaboration with us or may be acquired or merged with a company having a competing program. In some of our collaborations, we have agreed not to conduct, independently or with any third party, any research that is competitive with the research conducted under our collaborations. Our collaborators, however, may develop, either alone or with others, products in related fields that are competitive with the products or potential products that are the subject of these collaborations. Competing products, either developed by our collaborators or to which our collaborators have rights, may result in their withdrawal of support for our product candidates.
If any of our corporate collaborators were to breach or terminate its agreement with us or otherwise fail to conduct the collaborative activities successfully and in a timely manner, the preclinical or clinical development or commercialization of the affected product candidates or research programs could be delayed or terminated. We generally do not control the amount and timing of resources that our corporate collaborators devote to our programs or potential products. We do not know whether current or future collaborative partners, if any, might pursue alternative technologies or develop alternative products either on their own or in collaboration with others, including our competitors, as a means for developing treatments for the diseases targeted by collaborative arrangements with us.
Our success is dependent on intellectual property rights held by us and third parties, and our interest in such rights is complex and uncertain.
Our success will depend to a large part on our own, our licensees’ and our licensors’ ability to obtain and defend patents for each party’s respective technologies and the compounds and other products, if any, resulting from the application of such technologies. For example, fostamatinib is covered as a composition of matter in a U.S. issued patent that has an expected expiration date of September 2031, after taking into account patent term adjustment and extension rules.
In the future, our patent position might be highly uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions. For example, we may be involved in post-grant proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Post-grant proceedings are complex and expensive legal proceedings and there is no assurance we will be successful in any such proceedings. A post-grant proceeding could result in our losing our patent rights and/or our freedom to operate and/or require us to pay significant royalties. Additionally, third parties may challenge the validity, enforceability or scope of our issued patents, which may result in such patents being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable through interference, opposition or invalidity proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office or non-U.S. patent offices. Any successful opposition to our patents could deprive us of exclusive rights necessary for the successful commercialization of fostamatinib or our other product candidates. Oppositions could also be filed to complementary patents, such as formulations, methods of manufacture and methods of use, that are intended to extend the patent life of
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the overall portfolio beyond the patent life covering the composition of matter. A successful opposition to any such complementary patent could impact our ability to extend the life of the overall portfolio beyond that of the related composition of matter patent.
Additional uncertainty may result because no consistent policy regarding the breadth of legal claims allowed in biotechnology patents has emerged to date. Accordingly, we cannot predict the breadth of claims allowed in our or other companies’ patents.
Because the degree of future protection for our proprietary rights is uncertain, we cannot assure you that:
● we were the first to make the inventions covered by each of our pending;
● we were the first to file patent applications for these inventions;
● others will not independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies;
● any of our pending patent applications will result in issued patents;
● any patents issued to us or our collaborators will provide a basis for commercially viable products or will provide us with any competitive advantages or will not be challenged by third parties;
● we will develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable; or
● the patents of others will not have a negative effect on our ability to do business.
We rely on trade secrets to protect technology where we believe patent protection is not appropriate or obtainable; however, trade secrets are difficult to protect. While we require employees, collaborators and consultants to enter into confidentiality agreements, we may not be able to adequately protect our trade secrets or other proprietary information in the event of any unauthorized use or disclosure or the lawful development by others of such information.
We are a party to certain in-license agreements that are important to our business, and we generally do not control the prosecution of in-licensed technology. Accordingly, we are unable to exercise the same degree of control over this intellectual property as we exercise over our internally developed technology. Moreover, some of our academic institution licensors, research collaborators and scientific advisors have rights to publish data and information in which we have rights. If we cannot maintain the confidentiality of our technology and other confidential information in connection with our collaborations, our ability to receive patent protection or protect our proprietary information may otherwise be impaired. In addition, some of the technology we have licensed relies on patented inventions developed using U.S. government resources.
The U.S. government retains certain rights, as defined by law, in such patents, and may choose to exercise such rights. Certain of our in-licenses may be terminated if we fail to meet specified obligations. If we fail to meet such obligations and any of our licensors exercise their termination rights, we could lose our rights under those agreements. If we lose any of our rights, it may adversely affect the way we conduct our business. In addition, because certain of our licenses are sublicenses, the actions of our licensors may affect our rights under those licenses.
If a dispute arises regarding the infringement or misappropriation of the proprietary rights of others, such dispute could be costly and result in delays in our research and development activities and partnering.
Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to operate without infringing or misappropriating the proprietary rights of others. There are many issued patents and patent applications filed by third parties relating to products or processes that are similar or identical to our licensors or ours, and others may be filed in the future. There may also be copyrights or trademarks that third parties hold. There can be no assurance that our activities, or those of our licensors, will not violate intellectual property rights of others. We believe that there may be significant litigation in the industry regarding patent and other intellectual property rights, and we do not know if our collaborators or we would be successful in any such litigation. Any legal action against our collaborators or us claiming damages or seeking to enjoin commercial activities relating to the affected products, our methods or processes could:
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● require our collaborators or us to obtain a license to continue to use, manufacture or market the affected products, methods or processes, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, if at all;
● prevent us from using the subject matter claimed in the patents held by others;
● subject us to potential liability for damages;
● consume a substantial portion of our managerial and financial resources; and
● result in litigation or administrative proceedings that may be costly, whether we win or lose.
Our effective tax rate may fluctuate, and we may incur obligations in tax jurisdictions in excess of accrued amounts.
We are subject to taxation in numerous U.S. states and territories. As a result, our effective tax rate is derived from a combination of applicable tax rates in the various places that we operate. In preparing our financial statements, we estimate the amount of tax that will become payable in each of such places. Nevertheless, our effective tax rate may be different than experienced in the past due to numerous factors, including passage of the newly enacted federal income tax law, changes in the mix of our profitability from state to state, the results of examinations and audits of our tax filings, our inability to secure or sustain acceptable agreements with tax authorities, changes in accounting for income taxes and changes in tax laws. Any of these factors could cause us to experience an effective tax rate significantly different from previous periods or our current expectations and may result in tax obligations in excess of amounts accrued in our financial statements.
Our ability to use net operating losses and certain other tax attributes is uncertain and may be limited.
Our ability to use our federal and state NOLs to offset potential future taxable income and related income taxes that would otherwise be due is dependent upon our generation of future taxable income before the expiration dates of the NOLs, and we cannot predict with certainty when, or whether, we will generate sufficient taxable income to use all of our NOLs. Federal NOLs generated prior to 2018 will continue to be governed by the NOL carryforward rules as they existed prior to the adoption of the Tax Act, which means that generally they will expire 20 years after they were generated if not used prior thereto. Many states have similar laws. Accordingly, our federal and state NOLs could expire unused and be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities. Under the Tax Act as modified by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), federal NOLs incurred in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017 and before January 1, 2021 may be carried back to each of the five tax years preceding such loss, and NOLs arising in tax years beginning after December 31, 2020 may not be carried back. Moreover, federal net operating losses generated in tax years ending after December 31, 2017 may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such federal NOLs may be limited to 80% of current year taxable income for tax years beginning after January 1, 2021. Under A.B. 85, the Company’s California net operating loss carryforwards are suspended for tax years 2020, 2021, and 2022, but the period to use these carryovers was extended.
In addition, utilization of net operating losses to offset potential future taxable income and related income taxes that would otherwise be due is subject to annual limitations under the “ownership change” provisions of Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (Code) and similar state provisions, which may result in the expiration of net operating losses before future utilization. In general, under the Code, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater than 50% change (by value) in its equity ownership over a three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating losses and other pre-change tax attributes (such as research and development credit carryforwards) to offset its post-change taxable income or taxes may be limited. Our equity offerings and other changes in our stock ownership, some of which are outside of our control, may have resulted or could in the future result in an ownership change. Although we have completed studies to provide reasonable assurance that an ownership change limitation would not apply, we cannot be certain that a taxing authority would reach the same conclusion. If, after a review or audit, an ownership change limitation were to apply, utilization of our domestic net operating losses and tax credit carryforwards could be limited in future periods and a portion of the carryforwards could expire before being available to reduce future income tax liabilities. Moreover, our ability to utilize our net operating losses is conditioned upon us achieving profitability and generating U.S. federal taxable income.
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Because we expect to be dependent upon collaborative and license agreements, we might not meet our strategic objectives.
Our ability to generate revenue in the near term depends on the timing of recognition of certain upfront payments, achievement of certain payment triggering events with our existing collaboration agreements and our ability to enter into additional collaborative agreements with third parties. Our ability to enter into new collaborations and the revenue, if any, that may be recognized under these collaborations is highly uncertain. If we are unable to enter into one or more new collaborations, our business prospects could be harmed, which could have an immediate adverse effect on our ability to continue to develop our compounds and on the trading price of our stock. Our ability to enter into a collaboration may be dependent on many factors, such as the results of our clinical trials, competitive factors and the fit of one of our programs with another company’s risk tolerance, including toward regulatory issues, patent portfolio, clinical pipeline, the stage of the available data, particularly if it is early, overall corporate goals and financial position.
To date, a portion of our revenues have been related to the research or transition phase of each of our collaborative agreements. Such revenues are for specified periods, and the impact of such revenues on our results of operations is at least partially offset by corresponding research costs. Following the completion of the research or transition phase of each collaborative agreement, additional revenues may come only from payments triggered by milestones and/or the achievement of other contingent events, and royalties, which may not be paid, if at all, until certain conditions are met. This risk is heightened due to the fact that unsuccessful research efforts may preclude us from receiving any contingent payments under these agreements. Our receipt of revenues from collaborative arrangements is also significantly affected by the timing of efforts expended by us and our collaborators and the timing of lead compound identification. We have received payments from our collaborations with Lilly, Grifols, Kissei, Medison, Aclaris, Celgene, BMS, AZ, BerGenBio, Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V., a division of Johnson & Johnson, Novartis Pharma A.G., Daiichi, Merck & Co., Inc., Merck Serono and Pfizer. Under many agreements, future payments may not be earned until the collaborator has advanced product candidates into clinical testing, which may never occur or may not occur until sometime well into the future. If we are not able to generate revenue under our collaborations when and in accordance with our expectations or the expectations of industry analysts, this failure could harm our business and have an immediate adverse effect on the trading price of our common stock.
Our business requires us to generate meaningful revenue from royalties and licensing agreements. To date, we have not received any revenue from royalties for the commercial sale of drugs, and we do not know when we will receive any such revenue, if at all.
Securities class action lawsuits or other litigation could result in substantial damages and may divert management’s time and attention from our business.
We have been subject to class action lawsuits in the past and we may be subject to lawsuits in the future, such as those that might occur if there was to be a change in our corporate strategy. These and other lawsuits are subject to inherent uncertainties, and the actual costs to be incurred relating to the lawsuit will depend upon many unknown factors. The outcome of litigation is necessarily uncertain, and we could be forced to expend significant resources in the defense of such suits, and we may not prevail. Monitoring and defending against legal actions is time-consuming for our management and detracts from our ability to fully focus our internal resources on our business activities. In addition, we may incur substantial legal fees and costs in connection with any such litigation. We have not established any reserves for any potential liability relating to any such potential lawsuits. It is possible that we could, in the future, incur judgments or enter into settlements of claims for monetary damages. A decision adverse to our interests on any such actions could result in the payment of substantial damages, or possibly fines, and could have an adverse effect on our cash flow, results of operations and financial position.
If our competitors develop technologies that are more effective than ours, our commercial opportunity will be reduced or eliminated.*
The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are intensely competitive and subject to rapid and significant technological change. Many of the drugs that we are attempting to discover will be competing with existing therapies. In addition, a number of companies are pursuing the development of pharmaceuticals that target the same diseases and conditions that we are targeting. For example, the commercialization of new pharmaceutical products is highly competitive, and we face substantial competition with respect to TAVALISSE in which there are existing therapies and
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drug candidates in development for the treatment of ITP that may be alternative therapies to TAVALISSE. Many of our competitors, including a number of large pharmaceutical companies that compete directly with us, have significantly greater financial resources and expertise commercializing approved products than we do. Also, many of our competitors are large pharmaceutical companies that will have a greater ability to reduce prices for their competing drugs in an effort to gain market share and undermine the value proposition that we might otherwise be able to offer to payers. We face, and will continue to face, intense competition from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as from academic and research institutions and government agencies, both in the United States and abroad. Some of these competitors are pursuing the development of pharmaceuticals that target the same diseases and conditions as our research programs. Our competitors including fully integrated pharmaceutical companies have extensive drug discovery efforts and are developing novel small-molecule pharmaceuticals. We also face significant competition from organizations that are pursuing the same or similar technologies, including the discovery of targets that are useful in compound screening, as the technologies used by us in our drug discovery efforts.
Competition may also arise from:
● new or better methods of target identification or validation;
● generic version of TAVALISSE or of products with which we compete;
● other drug development technologies and methods of preventing or reducing the incidence of disease;
● new small molecules; or
● other classes of therapeutic agents.
Our competitors or their collaborative partners may utilize discovery technologies and techniques or partner with collaborators in order to develop products more rapidly or successfully than we or our collaborators are able to do. Many of our competitors, particularly large pharmaceutical companies, have substantially greater financial, technical and human resources and larger research and development staffs than we do. In addition, academic institutions, government agencies and other public and private organizations conducting research may seek patent protection with respect to potentially competitive products or technologies and may establish exclusive collaborative or licensing relationships with our competitors.
We believe that our ability to compete is dependent, in part, upon our ability to create, maintain and license scientifically-advanced technology and upon our and our collaborators’ ability to develop and commercialize pharmaceutical products based on this technology, as well as our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel, obtain patent protection or otherwise develop proprietary technology or processes, secure effective market access by ensuring competitive pricing and reimbursement in territories of interest, and secure sufficient capital resources for the expected substantial time period between technological conception and commercial sales of products based upon our technology. The failure by any of our collaborators or us in any of those areas may prevent the successful commercialization of our potential drug targets.
Many of our competitors, either alone or together with their collaborative partners, have significantly greater experience than we do in:
● identifying and validating targets;
● screening compounds against targets; and
● undertaking preclinical testing and clinical trials.
Accordingly, our competitors may succeed in obtaining patent protection, identifying or validating new targets or discovering new drug compounds before we do.
Our competitors might develop technologies and drugs that are more effective or less costly than any that are being developed by us or that would render our technology and product candidates obsolete and noncompetitive. In addition, our competitors may succeed in obtaining the approval of the FDA or other regulatory agencies for product candidates more rapidly. Companies that complete clinical trials, obtain required regulatory agency approvals and
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commence commercial sale of their drugs before us may achieve a significant competitive advantage, including certain patent and FDA marketing exclusivity rights that would delay or prevent our ability to market certain products. Any drugs resulting from our research and development efforts, or from our joint efforts with our existing or future collaborative partners, might not be able to compete successfully with competitors’ existing or future products or obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere.
We face and will continue to face intense competition from other companies for collaborative arrangements with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, for establishing relationships with academic and research institutions and for licenses to additional technologies. These competitors, either alone or with their collaborative partners, may succeed in developing technologies or products that are more effective than ours.
Our ability to compete successfully will depend, in part, on our ability to:
● identify and validate targets;
● discover candidate drug compounds that interact with the targets we identify in a safe and efficacious way;
● attract and retain scientific and product development personnel;
● recruit subjects into our clinical trials;
● obtain and maintain required regulatory approvals;
● obtain patent or other proprietary protection for our new drug compounds and technologies; and
● enter commercialization agreements for our new drug compounds.
Our stock price may be volatile, and our stockholders’ investment in our common stock could decline in value.
The market prices for our common stock and the securities of other biotechnology companies have been highly volatile and may continue to be highly volatile in the future. The following factors, in addition to other risk factors described in this section, may have a significant impact on the market price of our common stock:
● the progress and success of our clinical trials and preclinical activities (including studies and manufacture of materials) of our product candidates conducted by us;
● our ability to continue to sell TAVALISSE in the United States;
● our ability to enter into partnering opportunities across our pipeline;
● the receipt or failure to receive the additional funding necessary to conduct our business;
● selling of our common stock by large stockholders;
● presentations of detailed clinical trial data at medical and scientific conferences and investor perception thereof;
● announcements of technological innovations or new commercial products by our competitors or us;
● developments concerning proprietary rights, including patents;
● developments concerning our collaborations;
● publicity regarding actual or potential medical results relating to products under development by our competitors or us;
● regulatory developments in the United States and foreign countries;
● changes in the structure of healthcare payment systems;
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● litigation or arbitration;
● economic and other external factors or other disaster or crisis; and
● period-to-period fluctuations in financial results.
The withdrawal of the UK from the EU may adversely impact our ability to obtain regulatory approvals of our product candidates in the UK and the EU, result in restrictions or imposition of taxes and duties for importing our product candidates into the UK and the EU, and may require us to incur additional expenses in order to develop, manufacture and commercialize our product candidates in the UK and the EU
Following the result of a referendum in 2016, the UK left the EU on January 31, 2020, commonly referred to as Brexit. Pursuant to the formal withdrawal arrangements agreed between the UK and the EU, the UK was subject to a transition period until December 31, 2020, or the Transition Period, during which EU rules continued to apply. A trade and cooperation agreement, (Trade Agreement), that outlines the future trading relationship between the UK and the EU was agreed in December 2020 and has been approved by each EU member state and the UK.
Since a significant proportion of the regulatory framework in the UK applicable to our business and our product candidates is derived from EU directives and regulations, Brexit has had, and will continue to have, a material impact upon the regulatory regime with respect to the development, manufacture, importation, approval and commercialization of our product candidates in the UK or the EU Great Britain (made up of England, Scotland, and Wales) is no longer covered by the EEA’s procedures for the grant of marketing authorizations (Northern Ireland will be covered by such procedures). A separate marketing authorization will be required to market drugs in Great Britain. It is currently unclear whether the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, or MHRA, in the UK is sufficiently prepared to handle the increased volume of marketing authorization applications that it is likely to receive. Any delay in obtaining, or an inability to obtain, any marketing approvals, would delay or prevent us from commercializing our product candidates in the UK or the EU and restrict our ability to generate revenue and achieve and sustain profitability.
While the Trade Agreement provides for the tariff-free trade of medicinal products between the UK and the EU there may be additional non-tariff costs to such trade which did not exist prior to the end of the Transition Period. Further, should the UK diverge from the EU from a regulatory perspective in relation to medicinal products, tariffs could be put into place in the future. We could therefore, both now and in the future, face significant additional expenses (when compared to the position prior to the end of the Transition Period) to operate our business, which could significantly and materially harm or delay our ability to generate revenues or achieve profitability of our business. Any further changes in international trade, tariff and import/export regulations as a result of Brexit or otherwise may impose unexpected duty costs or other non-tariff barriers on us. These developments, or the perception that any of them could occur, may significantly reduce global trade and, in particular, trade between the impacted nations and the UK It is also possible that Brexit may negatively affect our ability to attract and retain employees, particularly those from the EU.
Orphan designation in Great Britain following Brexit is granted on an essentially identical basis to in the EU but is based on the prevalence of the condition in Great Britain. It is therefore possible that conditions that are currently designated as orphan conditions in Great Britain will no longer be and that conditions that are not currently designated as orphan conditions in the EU will be designated as such in Great Britain.
If product liability lawsuits are successfully brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of our products.
The testing and marketing of medical products and the sale of any products for which we obtain marketing approval exposes us to the risk of product liability claims. Product liability claims might be brought against us by consumers, health care providers, pharmaceutical companies or others selling or otherwise coming into contact with our products. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we may incur substantial liabilities or be required to limit commercialization of our products. We carry product liability insurance that is limited in scope and amount and may not be adequate to fully protect us against product liability claims. If and when we obtain marketing approval for our product candidates, we intend to expand our insurance coverage to include the sale of commercial products; however, we may be unable to obtain product liability insurance on commercially reasonable terms or in adequate amounts. Our inability to obtain sufficient product liability insurance at an acceptable cost to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of pharmaceutical products we
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develop, alone or with corporate collaborators. We, or our corporate collaborators, might not be able to obtain insurance at a reasonable cost, if at all. While under various circumstances we are entitled to be indemnified against losses by our corporate collaborators, indemnification may not be available or adequate should any claim arise.
We depend on various scientific consultants and advisors for the success and continuation of our research and development efforts.
We work extensively with various scientific consultants and advisors. The potential success of our drug discovery and development programs depends, in part, on continued collaborations with certain of these consultants and advisors. We, and various members of our management and research staff, rely on certain of these consultants and advisors for expertise in our research, regulatory and clinical efforts. Our scientific advisors are not our employees and may have commitments to, or consulting or advisory contracts with, other entities that may limit their availability to us. We do not know if we will be able to maintain such consulting agreements or that such scientific advisors will not enter into consulting arrangements, exclusive or otherwise, with competing pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies, any of which would have a detrimental impact on our research objectives and could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we use biological and hazardous materials in a manner that causes injury or violates laws, we may be liable for damages, penalties or fines.
Our research and development activities involve the controlled use of potentially harmful biological materials as well as hazardous materials, chemicals, animals, and various radioactive compounds. We cannot completely eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from the use, storage, handling or disposal of these animals and materials. In the event of contamination or injury, we could be held liable for damages that result or for penalties or fines that may be imposed, and such liability could exceed our resources. We are also subject to federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the use, storage, handling and disposal of these materials and specified waste products. The cost of compliance with, or any potential violation of, these laws and regulations could be significant.
Our information technology systems, or those used by our CROs or other contractors or consultants, may fail or suffer other breakdowns, cyber-attacks, or information security breaches.*
We are increasingly dependent upon information technology systems, infrastructure, and data to operate our business, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also rely on third party vendors and their information technology systems. Despite the implementation of security measures, our recovery systems, security protocols, network protection mechanisms and other security measures and those of our CROs and other contractors and consultants are vulnerable to compromise from natural disasters; terrorism; war; telecommunication and electric failures; traditional computer hackers; malicious code (such as computer viruses or worms); employee error, theft or misuse; denial-of-service attacks; cyber-attacks by sophisticated nation-state and nation-state supported actors including ransomware; or other system disruptions. We receive, generate and store significant and increasing volumes of personal (including health), confidential and proprietary information. There can be no assurance that we, or our collaborators, CROs, third-party vendors, contractors and consultants, will be successful in efforts to detect, prevent, protect against or fully recover systems or data from all break-downs, service interruptions, attacks or breaches. Any breakdown, cyber-attack or information security breach could result in a disruption of our drug development programs or other aspects of our business. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or ongoing clinical trials for a product candidate could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. To the extent that any disruption or security breach were to result in a loss of or damage to our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of personal, confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liability, incur significant remediation or litigation costs, result in product development delays, disrupt key business operations, cause loss of revenue and divert attention of management and key information technology resources.
Hackers and data thieves are increasingly sophisticated and operating large-scale and complex automated attacks, including on companies within the healthcare industry. As the cyber-threat landscape evolves, these threats will likely grow in frequency, sophistication and intensity and may become increasingly difficult to detect. The costs of maintaining or upgrading our cyber-security systems at the level necessary to keep up with our expanding operations and prevent against potential attacks are increasing. Cyber threats may be generic, or they may be targeted against our information systems. Our network and storage applications and those of our contract manufacturing organizations,
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collaborators, contractors, CROs or vendors may be subject to unauthorized access or processing by hackers or breached due to operator or other human error, theft, malfeasance or other system disruptions. We may be unable to anticipate or immediately detect information security incidents and the damage caused by such incidents. These data breaches and any unauthorized access, processing or disclosure of our information or intellectual property could compromise our intellectual property and expose our sensitive business information. Because our services involve the processing of personal information and other sensitive information about individuals we are subject to various laws, regulations, industry standards, and contractual requirements related to such processing. Any event that leads to unauthorized access, processing or disclosure of personal information, including personal information regarding our clinical study participants or employees, could harm our reputation and business, compel us to comply with federal and/or state breach notification laws and foreign law equivalents, subject us to investigations and mandatory corrective action, and otherwise subject us to liability under laws, regulations or contracts that protect the privacy and security of personal information, which could disrupt our business, damage our reputation with our stakeholders, result in increased costs or loss of revenue, lead to negative publicity or result in significant financial exposure. The CCPA, in particular, includes a private right of action for California consumers whose personal information is impacted by a data security incident resulting from a company’s failure to maintain reasonable security procedures, and hence may result in civil litigation in the event of a security breach impacting such information. In addition, legislators and regulators in the U.S. have enacted and are proposing new and more robust privacy and cybersecurity laws and regulations in response to increasing broad-based cyberattacks, including the CCPA and New York SHIELD Act. New data security laws add additional complexity, requirements, restrictions and potential legal risk and compliance programs may require additional investment in resources, and could impact strategies and availability of previously useful data.
The costs to respond to a security breach and/or to mitigate any identified security vulnerabilities could be significant, our efforts to address these issues may not be successful, and these issues could result in interruptions, delays, negative publicity, loss of customer trust, and other harms to our business and competitive position. Remediation of any potential security breach may involve significant time, resources, and expenses. We could be required to fundamentally change our business activities and practices in response to a security breach and our systems or networks may be perceived as less desirable, which could negatively affect our business and damage our reputation.
A security breach may cause us to breach our contracts with third parties. Our agreements with relevant stakeholders such as collaborators may require us to use legally required, industry-standard or reasonable measures to safeguard personal information. A security breach could lead to claims by relevant stakeholders that we have failed to comply with such contractual obligations, or require us to cooperate with these stakeholders in their own compliance efforts related to the security breach. In addition, any non-compliance with our data privacy obligations in our contracts or our inability to flow down such obligations from relevant stakeholders to our vendors may cause us to breach our contracts. As a result, we could be subject to legal action or the relevant stakeholders could end their relationships with us. There can be no assurance that the limitations of liability in our contracts would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from liabilities or damages.
We may not have adequate insurance coverage for security incidents or breaches. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceeds our available insurance coverage, or results in changes to our insurance policies (including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements), could have an adverse effect on our business. In addition, we cannot be sure that its existing insurance coverage will continue to be available on acceptable terms or that our insurers will not deny coverage as to any future claim.
Future equity issuances or a sale of a substantial number of shares of our common stock may cause the price of our common stock to decline.*
Because we will continue to need additional capital in the future to continue to expand our business and our research and development activities, among other things, we may conduct additional equity offerings. For example, we filed a universal shelf registration statement in March 2018 that was declared effective by the SEC in April 2018, and expired in April 2021, under which we sold 18,400,000 shares of common stock at a weighted-average price of $3.90 per share for net proceeds of $67.2 million, after deducting sale commissions. On August 3, 2021, we filed a new automatic shelf registration statement to register an additional $100.0 million of shares of our common stock for sale under our Open Market Sale Agreement with Jefferies. We may also in the future enter into underwriting or sales agreements with financial institutions for the offer and sale of any combination of common stock, preferred stock, debt securities and
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warrants in one or more offerings. If we or our stockholders sell, or if it is perceived that we or they will sell, substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, the market price of our common stock could fall. A decline in the market price of our common stock could make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-related securities in the future at a time and price that we deem appropriate. In addition, future sales by us of our common stock may be dilutive to existing stockholders. Furthermore, if we obtain funds through a credit facility or through the issuance of debt or preferred securities, these securities would likely have rights senior to the rights of our common stockholders, which could impair the value of our common stock.
Risks Related to Clinical Development and Regulatory Approval
Enacted or future legislation, and/or potentially unfavorable pricing regulations or other healthcare reform initiatives, may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain regulatory approval of our product candidates and/or commercialize fostamatinib or our product candidates, once approved, and affect the prices we may set or obtain.*
The regulations that govern, among other things, regulatory approvals, coverage, pricing and reimbursement for new drug products vary widely from country to country. In the United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could prevent or delay regulatory approval of our product candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to successfully sell fostamatinib or any product candidates for which we obtain regulatory approval in the future. In particular, in March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, collectively, the Affordable Care Act, was enacted, which substantially changed the way health care is financed by both governmental and private insurers, and continues to significantly impact the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. On June 17, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the most recent judicial challenge to the Affordable Care Act brought by several states without specifically ruling on the constitutionality of the law. Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision, President Biden issued an executive order to initiate a special enrollment for purposes of obtaining health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, which began on February 15, 2021 and remained open through August 15, 2021. The executive order instructed certain governmental agencies to review and reconsider their existing policies and rules that limit access to healthcare, including among others, reexamining Medicaid demonstration projects and waiver programs that include work requirements, and policies that create unnecessary barriers to obtaining access to health insurance coverage through Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act. It is unclear how the Supreme Court ruling, other such litigation, and the healthcare reform measures of the Biden administration will impact the Affordable Care Act and our business.
There have been, and likely will continue to be, legislative and regulatory proposals at the foreign, federal and state levels directed at broadening the availability of healthcare and containing or lowering the cost of healthcare. We cannot predict the initiatives that may be adopted in the future. The continuing efforts of the government, insurance companies, managed care organizations and other payors of healthcare services to contain or reduce costs of healthcare and/or impose price controls may adversely affect, for example:
● the demand for fostamatinib or our product candidates, if we obtain regulatory approval;
● our ability to set a price that we believe is fair for our products;
● our ability to generate revenue and achieve or maintain profitability;
● the level of taxes that we are required to pay; and
● the availability of capital.
Additionally, any reduction in reimbursement from Medicare or other government programs may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors, which may adversely affect our future profitability.
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In the United States, the EU and other potentially significant markets for our current and future products, government authorities and third-party payors are increasingly attempting to limit or regulate the price of medical products and services, particularly for new and innovative products and therapies, which has resulted in lower average selling prices. In the United States, there have been several recent Congressional inquiries and federal legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer-sponsored patient assistance programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drugs . The Trump administration used several means to propose or implement drug pricing reform, including through federal budget proposals, executive orders and policy initiatives. The FDA also released a final rule, effective November 30, 2020, implementing a portion of the importation executive order providing guidance for states to build and submit importation plans for drugs from Canada. Further, on November 20, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalized a regulation removing safe harbor protection under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute for price reductions from pharmaceutical manufacturers to plan sponsors under Part D, either directly or through pharmacy benefit managers, unless the price reduction is required by law. The implementation of the rule has been delayed by the Biden administration from January 1, 2022 to January 1, 2023 in response to ongoing litigation. The rule also creates a new safe harbor manufacturer for price reductions reflected at the point-of-sale, as well as a new safe harbor for certain fixed fee arrangements between pharmacy benefit managers and manufacturers, the implementation of which have also been delayed until January 1, 2023. Most recently, the bipartisan infrastructure legislation passed by the U.S. Senate in August 2021 included a moratorium on implementation of the safe harbor reforms before January 1, 2026; however it is unclear whether or when such legislation will be enacted. On November 20, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) also issued an interim final rule implementing President Trump’s Most Favored Nation executive order, which would tie Medicare Part B payments for certain physician-administered drugs to the lowest price paid in other economically advanced countries, effective January 1, 2021. On December 28, 2020, the United States District Court in Northern California issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against implementation of the interim final rule. Additionally, on March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 into law, which, among other changes, eliminates the statutory Medicaid drug rebate cap, currently set at 100% of a drug’s average manufacture price, for single source and innovator multiple source drugs, beginning January 1, 2024. The Biden administration has begun taking executive actions to address drug pricing and other healthcare policy changes, including reversing certain measures by the Trump administration. For example, on July 9, 2021, President Biden signed an executive order to promote competition in the U.S. economy that included several initiatives addressing prescription drugs. Among other provisions, the executive order directed the Secretary of HHS to issue a report to the White House within 45 days that includes a plan to, among other things, reduce prices for prescription drugs, including prices paid by the federal government for such drugs. Additionally, on August 10, 2021, CMS issued a proposed rule proposing to rescind the Most Favored Nation model interim final rule.
Furthermore, the increased emphasis on managed healthcare in the United States and on country and regional pricing and reimbursement controls in the EU will put additional pressure on product pricing, reimbursement and usage, which may adversely affect our sales and results of operations. These pressures can arise from rules and practices of managed care groups, judicial decisions and governmental laws and regulations related to Medicare, Medicaid and healthcare reform, pharmaceutical reimbursement policies and pricing in general. Legislative and regulatory proposals have been made to expand post-approval requirements and restrict sales and promotional activities for pharmaceutical products. It is also possible that additional governmental action is taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We cannot predict the likelihood, nature, or extent of health reform initiatives that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, particularly as a result of the new presidential administration. However, we expect these initiatives to increase pressure on drug pricing. Further, certain broader legislation that is not targeted to the health care industry may nonetheless adversely affect our profitability. If we or any third parties we may engage are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we or such third parties are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, our product candidates may lose any regulatory approval that may have been obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability.
See section titled “Business – Government Regulation – Healthcare Reform” in Part I, Item 1 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 2, 2021 for more information on healthcare reform activities.
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Regulatory approval for any approved product is limited by the FDA, the European Commission and other regulators to those specific indications and conditions for which clinical safety and efficacy have been demonstrated, and we may incur significant liability if it is determined that we are promoting the “off-label” use of TAVALISSE or any of our future product candidates if approved.
Any regulatory approval is limited to those specific diseases, indications and patient populations for which a product is deemed to be safe and effective by the FDA, the European Commission and other regulators. For example, the FDA-approved label for TAVALISSE is only approved for use in adults with ITP who have had an insufficient response to other treatments. In addition to the FDA approval required for new formulations, any new indication for an approved product also requires FDA approval. If we are not able to obtain FDA approval for any desired future indications for our products and product candidates, our ability to effectively market and sell our products may be reduced and our business may be adversely affected.
While physicians may choose to prescribe drugs for uses that are not described in the product’s labeling and for uses that differ from those tested in clinical studies and approved by the regulatory authorities, our ability to promote the products is limited to those indications and patient populations that are specifically approved by the FDA. These “off-label” uses are common across medical specialties and may constitute an appropriate treatment for some patients in varied circumstances. We have implemented compliance and monitoring policies and procedures, including a process for internal review of promotional materials, to deter the promotion of TAVALISSE for off-label uses. We cannot guarantee that these compliance activities will prevent or timely detect off-label promotion by sales representatives or other personnel in their communications with health care professionals, patients and others, particularly if these activities are concealed from the Company. Regulatory authorities in the United States generally do not regulate the behavior of physicians in their choice of treatments. Regulatory authorities do, however, restrict communications by pharmaceutical companies on the subject of off-label use. If our promotional activities fail to comply with the FDA’s or other competent national authority’s regulations or guidelines, we may be subject to warnings from, or enforcement action by, these regulatory authorities. In addition, our failure to follow FDA rules and guidelines relating to promotion and advertising may cause the FDA to issue warning letters or untitled letters, suspend or withdraw an approved product from the market, require a recall or institute fines, which could result in the disgorgement of money, operating restrictions, injunctions or civil or criminal enforcement, and other consequences, any of which could harm our business.
Notwithstanding the regulatory restrictions on off-label promotion, the FDA and other regulatory authorities allow companies to engage in truthful, non-misleading and non-promotional scientific exchange concerning their products. We engage in medical education activities and communicate with investigators and potential investigators regarding our clinical trials. If the FDA or other regulatory or enforcement authorities determine that our communications regarding our marketed product are not in compliance with the relevant regulatory requirements and that we have improperly promoted off-label uses, or that our communications regarding our investigational products are not in compliance with the relevant regulatory requirements and that we have improperly engaged in pre-approval promotion, we may be subject to significant liability, including civil and administrative remedies as well as criminal sanctions.
Delays in clinical testing could result in increased costs to us.*
We may not be able to initiate or continue clinical studies or trials for our product candidates if we are unable to locate and enroll a sufficient number of eligible patients to participate in these clinical trials as required by the FDA or other regulatory authorities, whether due to the impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise. Even if we are able to enroll a sufficient number of patients in our clinical trials, if the pace of enrollment is slower than we expect, the development costs for our product candidates may increase and the completion of our clinical trials may be delayed, or our clinical trials could become too expensive to complete. For example, for our Phase 3 clinical trial to further evaluate fostamatinib in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 is currently enrolling but may experience delays. Significant delays in clinical testing could negatively impact our product development costs and timing. Our estimates regarding timing are based on a number of assumptions, including assumptions based on past experience with our other clinical programs. If we are unable to enroll the patients in these trials at the projected rate, the completion of the clinical program could be delayed and the costs of conducting the program could increase, either of which could harm our business.
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Clinical trials can be delayed for a variety of reasons, including delays in obtaining regulatory approval to commence a study, delays from scaling up of a study, delays in reaching agreement on acceptable clinical trial agreement terms with prospective clinical sites, delays in obtaining institutional review board approval to conduct a study at a prospective clinical site or delays in recruiting subjects to participate in a study. In addition, we typically rely on third-party clinical investigators to conduct our clinical trials and other third-party organizations to oversee the operations of such trials and to perform data collection and analysis. The clinical investigators are not our employees, and we cannot control the amount or timing of resources that they devote to our programs. Failure of the third-party organizations to meet their obligations, whether due to the impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, could adversely affect clinical development of our products. As a result, we may face additional delaying factors outside our control if these parties do not perform their obligations in a timely fashion. For example, any number of those issues could arise with our clinical trials causing a delay. Delays of this sort could occur for the reasons identified above or other reasons. If we have delays in conducting the clinical trials or obtaining regulatory approvals, our product development costs will increase. For example, we may need to make additional payments to third-party investigators and organizations to retain their services or we may need to pay recruitment incentives. If the delays are significant, our financial results and the commercial prospects for our product candidates will be harmed, and our ability to become profitable will be delayed. Moreover, these third-party investigators and organizations may also have relationships with other commercial entities, some of which may compete with us. If these third-party investigators and organizations assist our competitors at our expense, it could harm our competitive position.
Due to the evolving effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, for several of our development programs, we are experiencing a disruption or delay in our ability to enroll and assess patients, maintain patient enrollment, supply study drug, report trial results, or interact with regulators, ethics committees or other important agencies due to limitations in employee resources or otherwise. In addition, some patients may not be able or willing to comply with clinical trial protocols if quarantines impede patient movement or interrupt healthcare services. Similarly, our ability to recruit and retain patients and principal investigators and site staff who, as healthcare providers, may have heightened exposure to COVID-19 and adversely impact our clinical trial operations. In light of the evolving effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have taken, and will continue to take, measures to implement remote and virtual approaches to clinical development, including remote patient monitoring where possible, and if the COVID-19 pandemic continues and persists for an extended period of time, we could experience significant disruptions to our clinical development timelines, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
We may not be able to obtain Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for fostamatinib for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19, and, even if we do, absent supplemental NDA approval for that indication, such EUA would be revoked when the COVID-19 emergency terminates.*
Based on the results of the NIH/NHLBI-sponsored Phase 2 trial, in May 2021, we filed an EUA for the use of fostamatinib for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. In August 2021, the FDA informed us that the clinical data submitted from the NIH/NHLBI-sponsored Phase 2 trial of fostamatinib to treat hospitalized patients suffering from COVID-19 was insufficient for EUA. We continue to focus on enrolling on our Rigel-led Phase 3 clinical trial, and we anticipate providing further safety and efficacy data from this larger trial of fostamatinib in COVID-19 patients. If this trial meets its endpoints, we plan to resubmit our EUA application with this additional data.
Section 564 of the FDCA allows the FDA to authorize the shipment of drugs, biological products, or medical devices that either lack required approval, licensure, or clearance (unapproved products), or are approved but are to be used for unapproved ways to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious diseases or conditions in the event of an emergency declaration by the HHS Secretary.
On February 4, 2020, then-HHS Secretary Alex M. Azar II declared a public health emergency for COVID-19, under 21 U.S.C. § 360bbb-3(b)(1), justifying the authorization of emergency use of unapproved therapeutic products, or unapproved uses of approved or cleared therapeutic products, to treat COVID-19. This determination was published in the Federal Register on February 7, 2020.
While this emergency declaration is effective, the FDA may authorize the use of an unapproved product or an unapproved use of an approved product if it concludes that:
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an agent referred to in the emergency declaration could cause a serious or life-threatening disease or condition;
•
it is reasonable to believe that the authorized product may be effective in diagnosing, treating, or preventing that disease or condition or a serious or life-threatening disease or condition caused by an approved product or a product marketed under an EUA;
•
the known and potential benefits of the authorized product, when used for that disease or condition, outweigh known and potential risks, taking into consideration the material threat of agents identified in the emergency declaration;
•
there is no adequate, approved, and available alternative to the authorized product for diagnosing, preventing, or treating the relevant disease or condition;
•
any other criteria prescribed by the FDA is satisfied.
Medical products that are granted an EUA are only permitted to commercialize their products under the terms and conditions provided in the authorization. The FDCA authorizes FDA to impose such conditions on an EUA as may be necessary to protect the public health. Consequently, postmarketing requirements will vary across EUAs. In addition, FDA has, on occasion, waived requirements for drugs marketed under an EUA.
Generally, EUAs for unapproved products or unapproved uses of approved products require that manufacturers distribute factsheets for healthcare providers, addressing significant known and potential benefits and risk, and the extent to which benefits and risks are unknown, and the fact that FDA has authorized emergency use; and, distribution of factsheets for recipients of the product, addressing significant known and potential benefits and risk, and the extent to which benefits and risks are unknown, the option to accept or refuse the product, the consequences of refusing, available alternatives, and the fact that FDA has authorized emergency use.
Generally, EUAs for unapproved products and, per FDA’s discretion, EUAs for unapproved uses of approved products, include requirements for adverse event monitoring and reporting, and other recordkeeping and reporting requirements. Note, however, that approved products are already subject to equivalent requirements.
In addition, FDA may include various requirements in an EUA as a matter of discretion as deemed necessary to protect the public health, including restrictions on which entities may distribute the product, and how to perform distribution (including requiring that distribution be limited to government entities), restrictions on who may administer the product, requirements for collection and analysis of safety and effectiveness data, waivers of cGMP, and restrictions applicable to prescription drugs or restricted devices (including advertising and promotion restrictions).
The FDA may revoke an EUA when it is determined that the underlying health emergency no longer exists or warrants such authorization, if the conditions for the issuance of the EUA are no longer met, or if other circumstances make revocation appropriate to protect the public health or safety. We cannot predict how long, if ever, an EUA would remain in place.
We cannot predict with certainty whether the Phase 3 study will meet its primary endpoint, and we therefore cannot guarantee that we will submit a second application for an EUA for fostamatinib. Even if the Phase 3 study does meet its primary endpoint, we cannot predict whether FDA will grant an EUA for fostamatinib based on the study data. We also cannot predict how long, if ever, an EUA would remain in place.
Our COVID-19 product candidate may not be successfully protect against variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.*
As the pandemic has continued, the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to evolve, and new strains of the virus or those that are already in circulation may prove more transmissible or cause more severe forms of COVID-19 disease than the predominant strains to date. There is a risk that any product candidates we develop will not be as effective against variant strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus expressing variants of the spike protein, particularly strains with mutations in the receptor binding domain and N-terminal domain. Such failure could lead to significant reputational harm, in addition to adversely affecting our financial results.
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Public perceptions of the risk-benefit balance for our COVID-19 product candidates may be affected by adverse events in clinical trials involving our product candidate or other COVID-19 treatments*
Negative perception of the efficacy, safety, or tolerability of any investigational medicines that we develop, or of other products similar to products we are developing, such as fostamatinib for the treatment of COVID-19, could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business, advance our investigational medicines, or obtain regulatory approvals.
Adverse events in clinical trials of our investigational medicines or in clinical trials of others developing similar products, including other COVID-19 treatments, could result in a decrease in the perceived benefit of one or more of our programs, increased regulatory scrutiny, decreased confidence by patients and clinical trial collaborators in our investigational medicines, and less demand for any product that we may develop. If and when they are used in clinical trials, our developmental candidates and investigational medicines could result in a greater quantity of reportable adverse events, including suspected unexpected serious adverse reactions, other reportable negative clinical outcomes, manufacturing reportable events or material clinical events that could lead to clinical delay or hold by the FDA or applicable regulatory authority or other clinical delays, any of which could negatively impact the perception of one or more of our programs, as well as our business as a whole. In addition, responses by U.S., state, or foreign governments to negative public perception may result in new legislation or regulations that could limit our ability to develop any investigational medicines or commercialize any approved products, obtain or maintain regulatory approval, or otherwise achieve profitability. More restrictive statutory regimes, government regulations, or negative public opinion would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects and may delay or impair the development of our investigational medicines and commercialization of any approved products or demand for any products we may develop.
We lack the capability to manufacture compounds for clinical development and we intend to rely on third parties for commercial supply, manufacturing and distribution if any of our product candidates which receive regulatory approval and we may be unable to obtain required material or product in a timely manner, at an acceptable cost or at a quality level required to receive regulatory approval.*
We currently do not have the manufacturing capabilities or experience necessary to produce TAVALISSE or any product candidates for clinical trials, including fostamatinib in AIHA, our IRAK inhibitor program and our RIP1 inhibitor program. We currently use one manufacturer of fostamatinib. We do not currently have, nor do we plan to acquire the infrastructure or capability to supply, manufacture or distribute preclinical, clinical or commercial quantities of drug substances or products. For each clinical trial of our unpartnered product candidates, we rely on third-party manufacturers for the active pharmaceutical ingredients, as well as various manufacturers to manufacture starting components, excipients and formulated drug products. Our ability to develop our product candidates, and our ability to commercially supply our products will depend, in part, on our ability to successfully obtain the APIs and other substances and materials used in our product candidates from third parties and to have finished products manufactured by third parties in accordance with regulatory requirements and in sufficient quantities for preclinical and clinical testing and commercialization. If we fail to develop and maintain supply relationships with these third parties, we may be unable to continue to develop or commercialize our product candidates.
We rely and will continue to rely on certain third parties, including those located outside the U.S., as our limited source of the materials they supply or the finished products they manufacture. The drug substances and other materials used in our product candidates are currently available only from one or a limited number of suppliers or manufacturers and certain of our finished product candidates are manufactured by one or a limited number of contract manufacturers. Any of these existing suppliers or manufacturers may:
● fail to supply us with product on a timely basis or in the requested amount due to unexpected damage to or destruction of facilities or equipment or otherwise;
● fail to increase manufacturing capacity and produce drug product and components in larger quantities and at higher yields in a timely or cost-effective manner, or at all, to sufficiently meet our commercial needs;
● be unable to meet our production demands due to issues related to their reliance on sole-source suppliers and manufacturers;
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● supply us with product that fails to meet regulatory requirements;
● become unavailable through business interruption or financial insolvency;
● lose regulatory status as an approved source;
● be unable or unwilling to renew current supply agreements when such agreements expire on a timely basis, on acceptable terms or at all; or
● discontinue production or manufacturing of necessary drug substances or products.
Our current and anticipated future dependence upon these third-party manufacturers may adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize product candidates on a timely and competitive basis, which could have an adverse effect on sales, results of operations and financial condition. If we were required to transfer manufacturing processes to other third-party manufacturers and we were able to identify an alternative manufacturer, we would still need to satisfy various regulatory requirements. Satisfaction of these requirements could cause us to experience significant delays in receiving an adequate supply of our products and products in development and could be costly. Moreover, we may not be able to transfer processes that are proprietary to the manufacturer, if any. These manufacturers may not be able to produce material on a timely basis or manufacture material at the quality level or in the quantity required to meet our development timelines and applicable regulatory requirements and may also experience a shortage in qualified personnel, including due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. We may not be able to maintain or renew our existing third-party manufacturing arrangements, or enter into new arrangements, on acceptable terms, or at all. Our third-party manufacturers could terminate or decline to renew our manufacturing arrangements based on their own business priorities, at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us. If we are unable to contract for the production of materials in sufficient quantity and of sufficient quality on acceptable terms, our planned clinical trials may be significantly delayed. Manufacturing delays could postpone the filing of our IND applications and/or the initiation or completion of clinical trials that we have currently planned or may plan in the future.
Drug manufacturers are subject to ongoing periodic unannounced inspection by the FDA, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the European Medicines Agency, national competent authorities in the EU and UK and other federal and state government and regulatory agencies to ensure strict compliance with cGMP and other government regulations and corresponding foreign standards. We do not have control over third-party manufacturers’ compliance with these regulations and standards and they may not be able to comply. Switching manufacturers may be difficult because the number of potential manufacturers is limited. It may be difficult or impossible for us to find a replacement manufacturer quickly on acceptable terms, or at all. Additionally, if we are required to enter into new supply arrangements, we may not be able to obtain approval from the FDA of any alternate supplier in a timely manner, or at all, which could delay or prevent the clinical development and commercialization of any related product candidates. Failure of our third-party manufacturers or us to comply with applicable regulations, whether due to the impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including fines, civil penalties, delays in or failure to grant marketing approval of our product candidates, injunctions, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, seizures or recalls of products and compounds, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, warning or similar letters or civil, criminal or administrative sanctions against the company, any of which could adversely affect our business.
Any product for which we have obtained regulatory approval, or for which we obtain approval in the future, is subject to, or will be subject to, extensive ongoing regulatory requirements by the FDA, EMA and other comparable regulatory authorities, and if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or if we experience unanticipated problems with our products, we may be subject to penalties, we will be unable to generate revenue from the sale of such products, our potential for generating positive cash flow will be diminished, and the capital necessary to fund our operations will be increased.
In April 2018, the FDA had approved TAVALISSE for the treatment of adult patients with chronic ITP who have had insufficient response to previous treatment. We launched fostamatinib in the United States on our own in late May 2018. In January 2019, we entered into an exclusive commercialization license agreement with Grifols to commercialize fostamatinib for the treatment, palliation, or prevention of human diseases, including chronic or persistent immune ITP, AIHA, and IgAN in Europe and Turkey and in October 2018, we entered into an exclusive license and supply agreement with Kissei for the development and commercialization of fostamatinib in all indications in Japan,
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China, Taiwan, and the Republic of Korea. In October 2019, we also entered into two exclusive license agreements with Medison to commercialize fostamatinib in all potential indications in Canada and Israel. Any product for which we have obtained regulatory approval, or for which we obtain regulatory approval in the future, along with the manufacturing processes and practices, post-approval clinical research, product labeling, advertising and promotional activities for such product, are subject to continual requirements of, and review by, the FDA, the EMA and other comparable international regulatory authorities. These requirements include submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, registration and listing requirements, current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) requirements relating to manufacturing, quality control, quality assurance and corresponding maintenance of records and documents, requirements regarding the distribution of samples to physicians, import and export requirements and recordkeeping. If we or our suppliers encounter manufacturing, quality or compliance difficulties with respect to TAVALISSE or any of our product candidates, when and if approved, whether due to the impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (including as a result of disruptions of global shipping and the transport of products) or otherwise, we may be unable to obtain or maintain regulatory approval or meet commercial demand for such products, which could adversely affect our business, financial conditions, results of operations and growth prospects.
Promotional communications with respect to prescription drugs are subject to a variety of legal and regulatory restrictions and must be consistent with the information in the product's approved labeling. Thus, we will not be able to promote any products we develop for indications or uses for which they are not approved.
In addition, the FDA often requires post-marketing testing and surveillance to monitor the effects of products. The FDA, the EMA and other comparable international regulatory agencies may condition approval of our product candidates on the completion of such post-marketing clinical studies. These post-marketing studies may suggest that a product causes undesirable side effects or may present a risk to the patient. Additionally, the FDA may require Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) to help ensure that the benefits of the drug outweigh its risks. A REMS may be required to include various elements, such as a medication guide or patient package insert, a communication plan to educate healthcare providers of the drug’s risks, limitations on who may prescribe or dispense the drug, requirements that patients enroll in a registry or undergo certain health evaluations or other measures that the FDA deems necessary to ensure the safe use of the drug.
Discovery after approval of previously unknown problems with any of our products, manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in actions such as:
● restrictions on our ability to conduct clinical trials, including full or partial clinical holds on ongoing or planned trials;
● restrictions on product manufacturing processes;
● restrictions on the marketing of a product;
● restrictions on product distribution;
● requirements to conduct post-marketing clinical trials;
● untitled or warning letters or other adverse publicity;
● withdrawal of products from the market;
● refusal to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications that we submit;
● recall of products;
● refusal to permit the import or export of our products;
● product seizure;
● fines, restitution or disgorgement of profits or revenue;
● refusal to allow us to enter into supply contracts, including government contracts;
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● injunctions; or
● imposition of civil or criminal penalties.
If such regulatory actions are taken, the value of our company and our operating results will be adversely affected. Additionally, if the FDA, the EMA or any other comparable international regulatory agency withdraws its approval of a product that is or may be approved, we will be unable to generate revenue from the sale of that product in the relevant jurisdiction, our potential for generating positive cash flow will be diminished and the capital necessary to fund our operations will be increased. Accordingly, we continue to expend significant time, money and effort in all areas of regulatory compliance, including manufacturing, production, product surveillance, post-marketing studies and quality control.
If any of our third-party contractors fail to perform their responsibilities to comply with FDA rules and regulations, the marketing and sales of our products could be delayed and we may be subject to enforcement action, which could decrease our revenues.*
Conducting our business requires us to manage relationships with third-party contractors. As a result, our success depends partially on the success of these third parties in performing their responsibilities to comply with FDA rules and regulations. Although we pre-qualify our contractors and we believe that they are fully capable of performing their contractual obligations, we cannot directly control the adequacy and timeliness of the resources and expertise that they apply to these activities.
If any of our partners or contractors fail to perform their obligations in an adequate and timely manner, or fail to comply with the FDA’s rules and regulations, then the marketing and sales of our products could be delayed. FDA may also take enforcement actions against us based on compliance issues identified with our contractors. If any of these events occur, we may incur significant liabilities, which could decrease our revenues. For example, sales and medical science liaison or MSL personnel, including contractors, must comply with FDA requirements for the advertisement and promotion of products.
Fast track designation by the FDA may not actually lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process and does not assure FDA approval of our product candidates.*
If a product candidate is intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening condition and the product candidate demonstrates the potential to address unmet medical need for this condition, the sponsor may apply for FDA fast track designation. Fast track designation applies to the combination of the product and the specific indication for which it is being studied. The sponsor of a fast track product has opportunities for more frequent interactions with the review team during product development, and the FDA may consider for review sections of the NDA on a rolling basis before the complete application is submitted, if the sponsor provides a schedule for the submission of the sections of the NDA, the FDA agrees to accept sections of the NDA and determines that the schedule is acceptable, and the sponsor pays any required user fees upon submission of the first section of the NDA.
However, fast track designation does not change the standards for approval and does not ensure that the product candidate will receive marketing approval or that approval will be granted within any particular timeframe. As a result, while the FDA has granted fast track designation to TAVALISSE for the treatment of warm AIHA and/or we may seek and receive fast track designation for our future product candidates, we may not experience a faster development process, review or approval compared to conventional FDA procedures. In addition, the FDA may withdraw fast track designation if it believes that the designation is no longer supported by data from our clinical development program. Fast track designation alone does not guarantee qualification for the FDA’s priority review procedures.
If we are unable to obtain regulatory approval to market products in the United States and foreign jurisdictions, we will not be permitted to commercialize products we or our collaborative partners may develop.
We cannot predict whether regulatory clearance will be obtained for any product that we, or our collaborative partners, hope to develop. Satisfaction of regulatory requirements typically takes many years, is dependent upon the type, complexity and novelty of the product and requires the expenditure of substantial resources. Of particular significance to us are the requirements relating to research and development and testing.
Before commencing clinical trials in humans in the United States, we, or our collaborative partners, will need to
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submit and receive approval from the FDA of an IND application. Clinical trials are subject to oversight by institutional review boards and the FDA and:
● must be conducted in conformance with the FDA’s good clinical practices and other applicable regulations;
● must meet requirements for institutional review board oversight;
● must meet requirements for informed consent;
● are subject to continuing FDA and regulatory oversight;
● may require large numbers of test subjects; and
● may be suspended by us, our collaborators or the FDA at any time if it is believed that the subjects participating in these trials are being exposed to unacceptable health risks or if the FDA finds deficiencies in the IND or the conduct of these trials.
While we have stated that we intend to file additional INDs for future product candidates, this is only a statement of intent, and we may not be able to do so because we may not be able to identify potential product candidates. In addition, the FDA may not approve any IND we or our collaborative partners may submit in a timely manner, or at all.
Before receiving FDA approval to market a product, we must demonstrate with substantial clinical evidence that the product is safe and effective in the patient population and the indication that will be treated. Data obtained from preclinical and clinical activities are susceptible to varying interpretations that could delay, limit or prevent regulatory approvals. In addition, delays or rejections may be encountered based upon additional government regulation from future legislation or administrative action or changes in FDA policy during the period of product development, clinical trials and FDA regulatory review. Failure to comply with applicable FDA or other applicable regulatory requirements may result in criminal prosecution, civil penalties, recall or seizure of products, total or partial suspension of production or injunction, adverse publicity, as well as other regulatory action against our potential products or us. Additionally, we have limited experience in conducting and managing the clinical trials necessary to obtain regulatory approval.
If regulatory approval of a product is granted, this approval will be limited to those indications or disease states and conditions for which the product is demonstrated through clinical trials to be safe and efficacious. We cannot assure you that any compound developed by us, alone or with others, will prove to be safe and efficacious in clinical trials and will meet all of the applicable regulatory requirements needed to receive marketing approval.
Outside the United States, our ability, or that of our collaborative partners, to market a product is contingent upon receiving a marketing authorization from the appropriate regulatory authorities. This foreign regulatory approval process typically includes all of the risks and costs associated with FDA approval described above and may also include additional risks and costs, such as the risk that such foreign regulatory authorities, which often have different regulatory and clinical trial requirements, interpretations and guidance from the FDA, may require additional clinical trials or results for approval of a product candidate, any of which could result in delays, significant additional costs or failure to obtain such regulatory approval. There can be no assurance, however, that we or our collaborative partners will not have to provide additional information or analysis, or conduct additional clinical trials, before receiving approval to market product candidates.
We may be unable to expand our product pipeline, which could limit our growth and revenue potential.
Our business is focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel small molecule drugs that significantly improve the lives of patients with hematologic disorders, cancer and rare immune diseases. In this regard, we are pursuing internal drug discovery efforts with the goal of identifying new product candidates to advance into clinical trials. Internal discovery efforts to identify new product candidates require substantial technical, financial and human resources. These internal discovery efforts may initially show promise in identifying potential product candidates, yet ultimately fail to yield product candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons. For example, potential product candidates may, on later stage clinical study, be shown to have inadequate efficacy, harmful side effects, suboptimal pharmaceutical profiles or other characteristics suggesting that they are unlikely to be commercially
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viable products.
Apart from our internal discovery efforts, our strategy to expand our development pipeline is also dependent on our ability to successfully identify and acquire or in-license relevant product candidates. However, the in-licensing and acquisition of product candidates is a highly competitive area, and many other companies are pursuing the same or similar product candidates to those that we may consider attractive. In particular, larger companies with more well-established and diverse revenue streams may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, financial resources and more extensive clinical development and commercialization capabilities. Furthermore, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. We may also be unable to in-license or acquire additional relevant product candidates on acceptable terms that would allow us to realize an appropriate return on our investment. If we are unable to develop suitable product candidates through internal discovery efforts, whether due to the impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, or if we are unable to successfully obtain rights to additional suitable product candidates, our business and prospects for growth could suffer. Even if we succeed in our efforts to obtain rights to suitable product candidates, the competitive business environment may result in higher acquisition or licensing costs, and our investment in these potential products will remain subject to the inherent risks associated with the development and commercialization of new medicines. In certain circumstances, we may also be reliant on the licensor for the continued development of the in-licensed technology and their efforts to safeguard their underlying intellectual property.
With respect to acquisitions, we may not be able to integrate the target company successfully into our existing business, maintain the key business relationships of the target, or retain key personnel of an acquired business. Furthermore, we could assume unknown or contingent liabilities or incur unanticipated expenses. Any acquisitions or investments made by us also could result in our spending significant amounts, issuing dilutive securities, assuming or incurring significant debt obligations and contingent liabilities, incurring large one-time expenses and acquiring intangible assets that could result in significant future amortization expense and significant write-offs, any of which could harm our operating results.
We have obtained orphan drug designation from the FDA for fostamatinib for the treatment of ITP and wAIHA, but we may not be able to obtain or maintain orphan drug designation or exclusivity for fostamatinib for the treatment of ITP, wAIHA or our other product candidates, or we may be unable to maintain the benefits associated with orphan drug designation, including the potential for market exclusivity.
We have obtained orphan drug designation in the United States for fostamatinib for the treatment of ITP and wAIHA. We may seek orphan drug designation for other product candidates in the future. Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may grant orphan drug designation to a drug or biologic intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is defined as one occurring in a patient population of fewer than 200,000 in the United States, or a patient population greater than 200,000 in the United States where there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing the drug will be recovered from sales in the United States. In the United States, orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives such as opportunities for grant funding towards clinical trial costs, tax advantages and user-fee waivers. In addition, if a product that has orphan drug designation subsequently receives the first FDA approval for the disease for which it has such designation, the product is entitled to orphan drug exclusivity, which means that the FDA may not approve any other applications, including a full NDA, to market the same drug for the same indication for seven years, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority to the product with orphan drug exclusivity or where the manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient product quantity. At this time, we do not have nor will we seek to apply for orphan drug designation in the EU or the UK in the foreseeable future.
We cannot assure you that any future application for orphan drug designation with respect to any other product candidate will be granted. If we are unable to obtain orphan drug designation with respect to other product candidates in the United States, we will not be eligible to obtain the period of market exclusivity that could result from orphan drug designation or be afforded the financial incentives associated with orphan drug designation. Even though we have received orphan drug designation for fostamatinib for the treatment of ITP and wAIHA, we may not be the first to obtain marketing approval for the orphan-designated indication due to the uncertainties associated with developing pharmaceutical products. In addition, exclusive marketing rights in the United States for fostamatinib for the treatment of ITP, wAIHA or any future product candidate may be limited if we seek approval for an indication broader than the orphan-designated indication or may be lost if the FDA later determines that the request for designation was materially
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defective or if the manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient quantities of the product to meet the needs of patients with the rare disease or condition. Further, even if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for a product, that exclusivity may not effectively protect the product from competition because different drugs with different active moieties can be approved for the same condition. Even after an orphan product is approved, the FDA can subsequently approve the same drug with the same active moiety for the same condition if the FDA concludes that the later drug is safer, more effective, or makes a major contribution to patient care. Orphan drug designation neither shortens the development time or regulatory review time of a drug nor gives the drug any advantage in the regulatory review or approval process.
Risks Related to Commercialization
Our prospects are highly dependent on our first commercial product, TAVALISSE. To the extent that the commercial success of TAVALISSE in the United States is diminished or is not commercially successful, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected, and the price of our common stock may decline. *
TAVALISSE is our only drug that has been approved for sale in the United States and Europe for patients with chronic ITP. We are focusing a significant portion of our activities and resources on fostamatinib, and we believe our prospects are highly dependent on, and a significant portion of the value of our company relates to, our ability to sustain successful commercialization of TAVALISSE in the United States. We have entered into an exclusive commercialization agreement with Grifols to commercialize fostamatinib in Europe.
Sustained successful commercialization of TAVALISSE is subject to many risks and uncertainties, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the successful commercialization in the United States, as well as the successful commercialization efforts for TAVLESSE in Europe through our partner, Grifols. Prior to TAVALISSE, we have never, as an organization, launched or commercialized a product, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to continue to do so successfully with fostamatinib for its approved indication. In addition, our partner, Grifols, is responsible for the commercial launch of TAVLESSE in Europe. Although Grifols launched TAVLESSE in Germany and the UK in July 2020, and began commercializing TAVLESSE in France, Italy and Spain in September 2021, we cannot be certain if Grifols will be successful in launching TAVLESSE in additional territories in Europe that it may pursue, or continue to be successful in commercializing and marketing in any such regions. There are numerous examples of unsuccessful product launches and failures to meet high expectations of market potential, including by pharmaceutical companies with more experience and resources than us.
As we continue to build out our commercial team, there are many factors that could cause the commercialization of TAVALISSE to be unsuccessful, including a number of factors that are outside our control. The commercial success of TAVALISSE depends on the extent to which patients and physicians accept and adopt TAVALISSE for patients with chronic ITP who have had an insufficient response to a previous treatment. We also do not know how physicians, patients and payors will respond to our future price increases of TAVALISSE. Physicians may not prescribe TAVALISSE and patients may be unwilling to use TAVALISSE if coverage is not provided or reimbursement is inadequate to cover a significant portion of the cost. TAVALISSE competes, and may in the future compete, with currently existing therapies, including generic drugs, and products currently under development. Our competitors, particularly large pharmaceutical companies, may deploy more resources to market, sell and distribute their products. If our efforts are not appropriately resourced to adequately promote our products, the commercial potential of our sales may be diminished. Additionally, any negative development for fostamatinib in clinical development in additional indications, such as in the clinical trials of fostamatinib in COVID-19 patients, may adversely impact the commercial results and potential of fostamatinib. Thus, significant uncertainty remains regarding the commercial potential of fostamatinib.
Market acceptance of fostamatinib will depend on a number of factors, including:
● the timing of market introduction of the product as well as competitive products;
● the clinical indications for which the product is approved;
● acceptance by physicians, the medical community and patients of the product as a safe and effective treatment;
● impacts due to the evolving effects of the COVID-19 pandemic;
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● the ability to distinguish safety and efficacy from existing, less expensive generic alternative therapies, if any;
● the convenience of prescribing, administrating and initiating patients on the product and the length of time the patient is on the product;
● the potential and perceived value and advantages of the product over alternative treatments;
● the cost of treatment in relation to alternative treatments, including any similar generic treatments;
● pricing and the availability of coverage and adequate reimbursement by third-party payors and government authorities;
● the prevalence and severity of adverse side effects; and
● the effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts.
If we are unable to sustain anticipated level of sales growth from TAVALISSE, or if we fail to achieve anticipated product royalties and collaboration milestones, we may need to reduce our operating expenses, access other sources of cash or otherwise modify our business plans, which could have a negative impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, during the first quarter of 2021, we experienced lower than anticipated sales of TAVALISSE due to continuing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the typical first quarter reimbursement issues such as the resetting of co-pays and the Medicare donut hole, along with physician and patient access issues created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Incrementally, our net product sales were negatively impacted by the decrease in level of inventories remaining at our distribution channels.
We also may not be successful entering into arrangements with third parties to sell and market one or more of our product candidates or may be unable to do so on terms that are favorable to us. We likely will have little control over such third parties, including Kissei’s development and commercialization of fostamatinib in all indications in Japan, China, Taiwan, and the Republic of Korea, Grifols’ commercialization of fostamatinib in Europe and Turkey and Medison for future commercialization of fostamatinib in Canada and Israel. As a consequence of our license agreements with Kissei, Grifols and Medison, we rely heavily upon their regulatory, commercial, medical affairs, market access and other expertise and resources for commercialization of fostamatinib in their respective territories outside of the United States. We cannot control the amount of resources that our partners dedicate to the commercialization of fostamatinib, and our ability to generate revenues from the commercialization of fostamatinib by our partners depends on their ability to achieve market acceptance of fostamatinib in its approved indications in their respective territories.
Furthermore, foreign sales of fostamatinib by our partners could be adversely affected by the imposition of governmental controls, political and economic instability, outbreaks of pandemic diseases, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, trade restrictions or barriers and changes in tariffs, and escalating global trade and political tensions. For example, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increased travel restrictions and extended shutdowns of certain businesses in the U.S. and around the world. If our collaborators are unable to successfully complete clinical trials, delay commercialization of fostamatinib or do not invest the resources necessary to successfully commercialize fostamatinib in international territories where it has been approved, this could reduce the amount of revenue we are due to receive under these license agreements, resulting in harm to our business and operations. If we do not establish and maintain sales and marketing capabilities successfully, either on our own or in collaboration with third parties, we will not be successful in commercializing our product candidates.
Even if we, or any of our collaborative partners, are able to continue to commercialize TAVALISSE or any product candidate that we, or they, develop, the product may become subject to unfavorable pricing regulations, third-party payor reimbursement practices or labeling restrictions, all of which may vary from country to country and any of which could harm our business.*
The commercial success of any product for which we have obtained regulatory approval, or for which we obtain regulatory approval in the future will depend substantially on the extent to which the costs of our product or product candidates are or will be paid by third-party payors, including government health care programs and private health insurers. There is a significant trend in the health care industry by public and private payers to contain or reduce their
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costs, including by taking the following steps, among others: decreasing the portion of costs payers will cover, ceasing to provide full payment for certain products depending on outcomes or not covering certain products at all. If payers implement any of the foregoing with respect to our products, it would have an adverse impact on our revenue and results of operations. If coverage is not available, or reimbursement is limited, we, or any of our collaborative partners, may not be able to successfully commercialize TAVALISSE or any of our product candidates in some jurisdictions. Even if coverage is provided, the approved reimbursement amount may not be high enough to allow us, or any of our collaborative partners, to establish or maintain pricing sufficient to realize an adequate return on our or their investments. In the United States, no uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for products exists among third-party payors; therefore, coverage and reimbursement levels for products can differ significantly from payor to payor. As a result, the coverage determination process is often a time consuming and costly process that may require us to provide scientific, clinical or other support for the use of our products to each payor separately, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be applied consistently or obtained in the first instance.
There is significant uncertainty related to third-party payor coverage and reimbursement of newly approved drugs. Marketing approvals, pricing and reimbursement for new drug products vary widely from country to country. Some countries require approval of the sale price of a drug before it can be marketed, which could delay market entry (or, if pricing is not approved, we may be unable to sell at all in a country where we have received regulatory approval for a product. In many countries, the pricing review period begins after marketing or product licensing approval is granted. In some countries, the proposed pricing for a drug must be approved before it may be lawfully marketed ). In addition, authorities in some countries impose additional obligations, such as health technology assessments (HTAs), which assess the performance of a drug in comparison with its cost. The outcome of HTA assessments is judged on a national basis and some payers may not reimburse the use of our products or may reduce the rate of reimbursement for our products and as a result, revenue from such products may decrease.
In some foreign markets, prescription pharmaceutical pricing remains subject to continuing governmental control even after initial approval is granted. As a result, we, or any of our collaborative partners, might obtain marketing approval for a product in a particular country, but then be subject to price regulations that delay commercial launch of the product, possibly for lengthy time periods, which may negatively impact the revenues we are able to generate from the sale of the product in that country. In particular, we cannot predict to what extent the evolving effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, depending on its scale and duration, may continue to disrupt global healthcare systems and access to our products or result in a widespread loss of individual health insurance coverage due to unemployment, a shift from commercial payor coverage to government payor coverage, or an increase in demand for patient assistance and/or free drug programs, any of which would adversely affect access to and demand for our products and our net sales. Adverse pricing limitations may also hinder our ability or the ability of any future collaborators to recoup our or their investment in one or more product candidates, even if our product candidates obtain marketing approval. Further, even if favorable coverage and reimbursement status is attained for one or more products for which we or our collaborative partners receive regulatory approval, less favorable coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future.
Patients who are provided medical treatment for their conditions generally rely on third-party payors to reimburse all or part of the costs associated with their treatment. Therefore, our ability, and the ability of any of our collaborative partners, to successfully commercialize TAVALISSE or any of our product candidates will depend in part on the extent to which coverage and adequate reimbursement for these products and related treatments will be available from third-party payors.
Additionally, the labeling ultimately approved for any of our product candidates for which we have or may obtain regulatory approval may include restrictions on their uses and may be subject to ongoing FDA or international regulatory authority requirements governing the labeling, packaging, storage, distribution, safety surveillance, advertising, promotion, record-keeping and reporting of safety and other post-market information. If we or any of our collaborative partners do not timely obtain or comply with the labeling approval by the FDA or international regulatory authorities on any of our product candidates, it may delay or inhibit our ability to successfully commercialize our products and generate revenues.
If we are unable to successfully market and distribute TAVALISSE and retain experienced sales force, our business will be substantially harmed.*
We currently have limited experience in marketing and selling pharmaceutical products. As a result, we will be required to expend significant time and resources and continuously train our sales force to be credible, persuasive and
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compliant with applicable laws in marketing TAVALISSE for patients with chronic ITP who have had an insufficient response to a previous treatment. In addition, we must continually train our sales force to ensure that an appropriate and compliant message about TAVALISSE is being delivered. If we are unable to effectively train our sales force and equip them with compliant and effective materials, including medical and sales literature to help them appropriately inform and educate health care providers regarding the potential benefits and proper administration of TAVALISSE, our efforts to successfully commercialize TAVALISSE could be put in jeopardy, which would negatively impact our ability to generate product revenues.
We have established our distribution, sales, marketing and market access capabilities, all of which will be necessary to successfully commercialize TAVALISSE. As a result, we will be required to expend significant time and resources to market, sell, and distribute TAVALISSE to hematologists and hematologists-oncologists. There is no guarantee that the marketing strategies including our virtual strategies in response to the restrictions and limitations resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, or the distribution, sales, marketing and market access capabilities that we have developed will be successful. Particularly, we are dependent on third-party logistics, specialty pharmacies and distribution partners in the distribution of TAVALISSE. If they are unable to perform effectively or if they do not provide efficient distribution of the medicine to patients, our business may be harmed. In addition, we actively participate in medical conferences and exhibits, such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition that are significant opportunities for us to educate physicians and key opinion leaders about TAVALISSE. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ASCO was held virtually in 2021 and it is uncertain if the other key conferences will be held virtually, postponed or cancelled. Such disruptions may prevent us from effectively educating the prescribing physicians and key opinion leaders about TAVALISSE which would negatively impact utilization of TAVALISSE and our results of operations and growth prospects could be adversely affected.
Maintaining our sales, marketing, market access and product distribution capabilities requires significant resources, and there are numerous risks involved with managing our commercial team, including our potential inability to successfully train, retain and incentivize adequate numbers of qualified and effective sales and marketing personnel. We are also competing for talent with numerous commercial and pre-commercial-stage oncology-focused biotechnology companies seeking to build out their commercial organizations, as well as other large pharmaceutical organizations that have extensive, well-funded and more experienced sales and marketing operations, and we may be unable to maintain or adequately scale our commercial organization as a result of such competition. If we cannot maintain effective sales, marketing, market access and product distribution capabilities, whether as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, we may be unable to maximize the commercial potential of TAVALISSE. Also, to the extent that the commercial opportunities for TAVALISSE grow over time, we may not properly judge the requisite size and experience of our current commercialization teams or the level of distribution necessary to market and sell TAVALISSE, which could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We might not be able to successfully develop or commercialize our product candidates if problems arise in the clinical testing and approval process.*
The activities associated with the research, development and commercialization of fostamatinib and other product candidates in our pipeline must undergo extensive clinical trials, which can take many years and require substantial expenditures, subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory agencies in the U.S. and by comparable authorities in other countries. The process of obtaining regulatory approvals in the U.S. and other foreign jurisdictions is expensive, and lengthy, if approval is obtained at all.
Our clinical trials may fail to produce results satisfactory to the FDA or regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions. The regulatory process also requires preclinical testing, and data obtained from preclinical and clinical activities are susceptible to varying interpretations. The FDA has substantial discretion in the approval process and may refuse to approve any NDA or sNDA and decide that our data is insufficient for approval and require additional preclinical, clinical or other studies. Varying interpretations of the data obtained from preclinical and clinical testing could delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval of fostamatinib for any individual, additional indications.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is also possible that we could experience delays in the timing of our interactions with regulatory authorities due to absenteeism by governmental employees or the diversion of regulatory authority efforts and attention to approval of other therapeutics or other activities related to COVID-19, which could delay or limit our ability to make planned regulatory submissions or develop and commercialize our product candidates on anticipated timelines.
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In addition, delays or rejections may be encountered based upon changes in regulatory policy for product approval during the period of product development and regulatory agency review, which may cause delays in the approval or rejection of an application for fostamatinib or for our other product candidates.
Commercialization of our product candidates depends upon successful completion of extensive preclinical studies and clinical trials to demonstrate their safety and efficacy for humans. Preclinical testing and clinical development are long, expensive and uncertain processes.
In connection with clinical trials of our product candidates, we may face the following risks among others:
● the product candidate may not prove to be effective;
● the product candidate may cause harmful side effects;
● the clinical results may not replicate the results of earlier, smaller trials;
● we or third parties with whom we collaborate, may be significantly impacted by the evolving impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic;
● we, or the FDA or similar foreign regulatory authorities, may delay, terminate or suspend the trials;
● our results may not be statistically significant;
● patient recruitment and enrollment may be slower than expected;
● patients may drop out of the trials or otherwise not enroll; and
● regulatory and clinical trial requirements, interpretations or guidance may change.
We do not know whether we will be permitted to undertake clinical trials of potential products beyond the trials already concluded and the trials currently in process. It will take us, or our collaborative partners several years to complete any such testing, and failure can occur at any stage of testing. Interim results of trials do not necessarily predict final results, and acceptable results in early trials may not be repeated in later trials. A number of companies in the pharmaceutical industry, including biotechnology companies, have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials, even after achieving promising results in earlier trials.
General Risks
Our business is currently adversely affected and could be materially and adversely affected in the future by the evolving effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of the current and potential future impacts on our sales force and commercialization efforts, supply chain, regulatory, clinical development and corporate development activities and other business operations, in addition to the impact of a global economic slowdown.*
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in extended travel and other restrictions in order to reduce the spread of the disease. Several states and counties across the country including California and the San Francisco Bay Area issued orders and restrictions, including directing individuals to shelter in place, prohibiting certain non-essential gatherings, directing businesses and governmental agencies to cease non-essential operations at physical locations and advising against non-essential travel. In response to these public health directives and orders, we previously implemented work-from-home policies for certain employees and closed our office in South San Francisco requiring most of our personnel, including our administrative employees, to work remotely, and restricted on-site access to only those personnel performing essential activities. Although we have recently initiated the first phase of our return-to-work initiatives, majority of our employees continue to work remotely. Our continued reliance on personnel working from home may negatively impact productivity, disrupt, delay, or otherwise adversely impact our business. In addition, with most of our employees continuing to work remotely, our exposure to cybersecurity risk has increased. This also creates data accessibility concerns and make us more susceptible to communication disruptions. Although most states and counties have since eased restrictions as the number of COVID-19 cases declined, the resurgence of COVID-19 cases, including the highly infectious Delta variant of the virus, could force states and counties to reinstate more severe restrictions to reduce the spread of the disease. The evolving effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and government measures taken in
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response have had a significant impact, both direct and indirect, on businesses and commerce, as significant reductions in business related activities have occurred, supply chains have been disrupted, and manufacturing and clinical development activities have been curtailed or suspended.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, we continued to observe reduced patient-doctor interactions and our representatives have had fewer visits with health care providers, which negatively affected our product sales and may continue to negatively affect our product sales in the future. Physicians with practices severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and who currently prescribe TAVALISSE, may eventually decide to close their independent practices and join a larger medical organization with a practice that does not prescribe TAVALISSE. Additionally, commercial related activities, such as our marketing programs, speaker bureaus, and market access initiatives have been conducted virtually, delayed or cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Resources have been deployed to enable our field-based employees to continue to engage virtually with health care providers. Although these virtual engagements have enabled our field team to support existing prescribers, as well as partner with new prescribers to identify appropriate patients for TAVALISSE, we cannot rule out the future impact on our business if the pandemic continues for an extended period of time.
With respect to clinical development, we have taken, and continue to take, measures to implement remote and virtual approaches, including remote patient monitoring where possible per recent FDA guidance and working with our investigators for appropriate care of these patients in a safe manner consistent with agency guidelines. We have a number of ongoing clinical trials, one of which is a global Phase 3 clinical study in wAIHA. A number of our clinical trial investigators have paused, postponed or delayed new patient enrollment and restricted site visits of existing patients enrolled. Although some sites have resumed patient screening, the progress is slow, and we continue to experience delays in new patient enrollment. We are continuing to make decisions country-by-country to minimize risk to the patients and clinical trial sites. We also rely heavily on our clinical trial investigators to inform us of the best course of action with respect to resuming enrollment/screening, considering the ability of sites to ensure patient safety or data integrity. Patients already enrolled in our studies continue to receive study drug, and we remain focused on supporting our sites in providing care for these patients and providing continued investigational drug supply. We continue to experience slower than anticipated enrollment in some of our clinical trials, and at this time we cannot currently fully forecast the scope of impact that the COVID-19 pandemic may have overall on clinical study results, including the timing thereof, or our ability to continue to treat patients enrolled in our trials, enroll and assess new patients, supply study drug and obtain complete data points in accordance with study protocol . In addition, our partner, Kissei, is currently conducting a Phase 3 clinical trial for fostamatinib in ITP in Japan the timing and completion of which could be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The delays may potentially delay future royalties on sales, as well as, receipt of future potential milestones. At this time, however, we cannot fully forecast the scope of impact that the COVID-19 pandemic may have on our partnership with Kissei.
With respect to our supply chain, we currently do not anticipate significant disruption in the supply chain for our commercial product, TAVALISSE. However, we do not know the full extent of the impact on our supply chain if the COVID-19 pandemic continues and persists for an extended period of time . We currently rely on third parties to, among other things, manufacture and ship our commercial product, raw materials and product supply for our clinical trials, perform quality testing and supply other goods and services to help manage our commercial activities, our clinical trials and our operations in the ordinary course of business. We have engaged actively with various elements of our supply chain and distribution channel, including our customers, contract manufacturers, and logistics and transportation provider, to meet demand for TAVALISSE and to remain informed of any challenges within our supply chain. We continue to monitor demand, and intend to adapt our plans as needed to continue to drive our business and meet our obligations during the evolving COVID-19 pandemic. However, if the COVID-19 pandemic continues and persists for an extended period of time, we may face continued disruptions to our supply chain and operations, and associated delays in the manufacturing and supply of TAVALISSE. Such supply disruptions would adversely impact our ability to generate sales of and revenues from TAVALISSE and our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects could be adversely affected.
The COVID-19 pandemic has similarly affected our collaboration and licensing partners for the commercialization of fostamatinib globally, as well as our ability to advance our various clinical stage programs. We do not yet know the full impact of s uch disruptions on our partners’ ability to advance commercialization of fostamatinib in the market and the timing of enrollment and completion of various clinical trials being conducted by our collaboration
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partners.
Health regulatory agencies globally may experience prolonged disruptions in their operations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, on March 10, 2020, the FDA announced its intention to postpone most inspections of foreign manufacturing facilities and products inspections of domestic manufacturing facilities through April 2020. On March 18, 2020, the FDA announced its intention to temporarily postpone routine surveillance inspections of domestic manufacturing facilities and provided guidance regarding the conduct of clinical trials. On July 10, 2020, the FDA announced that it is working toward the goal of restarting on-site inspections it deems to be “mission critical.” On August 19, 2020, the FDA published guidance clarifying how it intends to conduct inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic, including how it plans to determine which inspections are “mission critical.” The Agency recently published an updated form of this guidance on May 17, 2021. Additionally, on April 14, 2021, the FDA issued a guidance document in which the FDA described its plans to conduct voluntary remote interactive evaluations of certain drug manufacturing facilities and clinical research sites. According to the guidance, the FDA intends to request such remote interactive evaluations in situations where an in-person inspection would not be prioritized, deemed mission-critical, or where direct inspection is otherwise limited by travel restrictions, but where the FDA determines that remote evaluation would still be appropriate. It is unclear how FDA’s policies and guidance will impact any inspections of our facilities, including our clinical trial sites. Regulatory authorities outside the United States may adopt similar restrictions or other policy measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unknown how long these disruptions could continue. Any de-prioritization of our clinical trials or delay in regulatory review resulting from such disruptions could materially affect the completion of our clinical trials.
In addition, the evolving effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has already resulted in a significant disruption of global financial markets. If the disruption persists and deepens, we could experience an inability to access additional capital or we may not be able to meet the requirements under our credit facility with MidCap in order for us to draw Tranche 3 and /or Tranche 4, each of which is $20.0 million. We could also experience an impact on liquidity, which could in the future negatively affect our capacity for certain corporate development transactions or our ability to make other important, opportunistic investments. In addition, a recession or market correction resulting from the impact of the evolving effects of COVID-19 could materially affect our business and the value of our common stock. While we expect the evolving effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to adversely affect our business operations and financial results, the extent of the impact on our ability to generate sales of and revenues from our approved products, our ability to continue to secure new collaborations and support existing collaboration efforts with our partners, our clinical development and regulatory efforts, our corporate development objectives and the value of and market for our common stock , will depend on future developments that are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence at this time, such as the ultimate duration and severity of the pandemic, travel restrictions, quarantines, social distancing and business closure requirements in the U.S. and other countries, and the effectiveness of actions taken globally to contain and treat the disease. For example, if remote work policies for certain portions of our business, or that of our business partners, are continuously extended and become more restrictive, we may need to reassess our priorities and our corporate objectives. Given the global economic slowdown, the risks and uncertainties associated with the pandemic could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects in the future periods. These evolving effects could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects, as further described in the risks and uncertainties described elsewhere in this ‘Risk Factors’ section.
To the extent the evolving effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to adversely affect our business and results of operations, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks and uncertainties described elsewhere in this ‘Risk Factors’ section.
Shareholder activism could cause material disruption to our business.
Publicly traded companies have increasingly become subject to campaigns by activist investors advocating corporate actions such as actions related to environment, social and governance (ESG) matters, financial restructuring, increased borrowing, dividends, share repurchases or even sales of assets or the entire company. Responding to proxy contests and other actions by such activist investors or others in the future could be costly and time-consuming, disrupt our operations and divert the attention of our Board of Directors and senior management from the pursuit of our business strategies, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.
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Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law may make an acquisition of us, which may be beneficial to our stockholders, more difficult.
Provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws, as well as provisions of Delaware law, could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if doing so would benefit our stockholders. These provisions:
● establish that members of the board of directors may be removed only for cause upon the affirmative vote of stockholders owning a majority of our capital stock;
● authorize the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock that could be issued by our board of directors to increase the number of outstanding shares and thwart a takeover attempt;
● limit who may call a special meeting of stockholders;
● prohibit stockholder action by written consent, thereby requiring all stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of our stockholders;
● establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to the board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon at stockholder meetings;
● provide for a board of directors with staggered terms; and
● provide that the authorized number of directors may be changed only by a resolution of our board of directors.
In addition, Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which imposes certain restrictions relating to transactions with major stockholders, may discourage, delay or prevent a third party from acquiring us.
Increasing use of social media could give rise to liability and may harm our business.
We and our employees are increasingly utilizing social media tools and our website as a means of communication. Despite our efforts to monitor evolving social media communication guidelines and comply with applicable laws and regulations, there is risk that the unauthorized use of social media by us or our employees to communicate about our products or business, sharing of publications in unintended audiences in other jurisdictions, or any inadvertent promotional activity or disclosure of material, nonpublic information through these means, may cause us to be found in violation of applicable laws and regulations, which may give rise to liability and result in harm to our business. In addition, there is also risk of inappropriate disclosure of sensitive information, which could result in significant legal and financial exposure and reputational damages that could potentially have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Furthermore, negative posts or comments about us or our products on social media could seriously damage our reputation, brand image and goodwill.
Our research and development efforts will be seriously jeopardized if we are unable to attract and retain key employees and relationships.
Our success depends on the continued contributions of our principal management and scientific personnel and on our ability to develop and maintain important relationships with leading academic institutions, scientists and companies in the face of intense competition for such personnel. In particular, our research programs depend on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled chemists, other scientists, and development, regulatory and clinical personnel. If we lose the services of any of our key personnel, our research and development efforts could be seriously and adversely affected. Our employees can terminate their employment with us at any time.
Global economic conditions could adversely impact our business.
The U.S. government has indicated its intent to alter its approach to international trade policy and in some cases to renegotiate, or potentially terminate, certain existing bilateral or multi-lateral trade agreements and treaties with foreign countries. In addition, the U.S. government has initiated or is considering imposing tariffs on certain foreign goods. Related to this action, certain foreign governments, including China, have instituted or are considering imposing
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tariffs on certain U.S. goods. It remains unclear what the U.S. Administration or foreign governments will or will not do with respect to tariffs or other international trade agreements and policies. A trade war or other governmental action related to tariffs or international trade agreements or policies has the potential to disrupt our research activities, affect our suppliers and/or the U.S. economy or certain sectors thereof and, thus, could adversely impact our businesses.
The transition away from the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) could affect the value of certain short-term investments, outstanding debt from our existing credit facility as well as our ability to draw additional funds from our credit facility.
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates LIBOR, has announced plans to phase out the use of LIBOR by the end of 2021. We have certain short-term investments which includes financial instruments, as well an existing debt facility subject to LIBOR. There remains uncertainty regarding the future utilization of LIBOR and the nature of any replacement rate, and any potential effects of the transition away from LIBOR on certain instruments into which we may enter in the future are not known. The transition process may involve, among other things, increased volatility or illiquidity in markets for instruments that currently rely on LIBOR. The transition may also result in reductions in the value of certain instruments or the effectiveness of related transactions such as hedges, increased borrowing costs, uncertainty under applicable documentation, or difficult and costly consent processes. Any such effects of the transition away from LIBOR, as well as other unforeseen effects, result in expenses, difficulties, complications or delays in connection with future financing efforts, which could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our facilities are located near known earthquake fault zones, and the occurrence of an earthquake or other catastrophic disaster could cause damage to our facilities and equipment, which could require us to cease or curtail operations.
Our facilities are located in the San Francisco Bay Area near known earthquake fault zones and are vulnerable to significant damage from earthquakes. We are also vulnerable to damage from other types of disasters, including fires, floods, power loss, communications failures and similar events. If any disaster were to occur, our ability to operate our business at our facilities would be seriously, or potentially completely, impaired, and our research could be lost or destroyed. In addition, the unique nature of our research activities and of much of our equipment could make it difficult for us to recover from a disaster. The insurance we maintain may not be adequate to cover our losses resulting from disasters or other business interruptions.
Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds
None.
Item 3. Defaults Upon Senior Securities
None.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
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.