Risk Factors Dashboard

Once a year, publicly traded companies issue a comprehensive report of their business, called a 10-K. A component mandated in the 10-K is the ‘Risk Factors’ section, where companies disclose any major potential risks that they may face. This dashboard highlights all major changes and additions in new 10K reports, allowing investors to quickly identify new potential risks and opportunities.

Risk Factors - CDTX

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-Changes in blue
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Item 1A. “Risk Factors” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Cloudbreak Oncology Programs
We have expanded the Cloudbreak platform beyond infectious diseases, to discover and develop highly potent DFCs that can target single or multiple immune checkpoint pathways for the treatment of solid tumors.
Immune checkpoint antagonists have generated durable responses in cancers with improved side effect profiles compared to conventional chemotherapy. However, improved outcomes from existing therapies have been limited to a small subset of patients. To broaden the response rate to more patients, targeting additional mechanisms of tumor immune evasion will be critical.
Using Cloudbreak, we seek to develop a new generation of immunotherapies targeting the tumor microenvironment. Our lead oncology DFC candidate, CBO421, is a highly differentiated CD73 inhibitor that combines the strengths of small molecules and monoclonal antibodies targeting CD73. CBO421 targets CD73 in the adenosine pathway, which contributes to immune evasion in solid cancers by flooding the tumor microenvironment with adenosine, a potent immune cell suppressor. The CD73 pathway is clinically validated in early/mid-stage clinical studies to reduce tumor growth in combination with PD-1/ PD-L1 inhibitors in disease areas that do not historically respond to checkpoint inhibition alone, such as triple negative breast cancer, or TNBC, and other solid tumors. As a monotherapy and in combination with PD-1 inhibitors, CBO421 has demonstrated activity and formation of immunologic memory in multiple murine tumor models, along with differentiated activity in T-cell reactivation assays and tumor penetration compared with the most advanced CD73 antibody therapeutics in clinical development. CBO421 received IND clearance in July 2024.
Cloudbreak Oncology Pipeline:
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We do not plan to initiate clinical trials for any oncology product candidates at this time but continue business development discussions for our oncology DFC programs, including CBO421.
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OUR STRATEGY
Our objective is to become the leading biotechnology company in the discovery, development and commercialization of targeted therapies designed to save lives and improve the standard of care for patients facing serious diseases. Key elements of our strategy include:
Develop and commercialize our lead clinical-stage asset CD388, a DFC intended for influenza prophylaxis. On September 23, 2024, we announced the first subjects dosed in the CD388 Phase 2b NAVIGATE study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of CD388 for the pre-exposure prophylaxis of influenza during the 2024-25 flu season and on December 4, 2024, announced that the study had reached its full planned enrollment of at least 5,000 subjects. Topline data is expected in the third quarter of 2025. Given the severity of the 2024-25 flu season, we may consider a potential early analysis of efficacy data from the ongoing CD388 Phase 2b NAVIGATE study in the first half of 2025. If an analysis of the CD388 Phase 2b NAVIGATE study is completed in the first half of 2025, such results will be disclosed and we may consider initiating a Phase 3 study during the 2025-26 Northern Hemisphere influenza season. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, preliminary cumulative estimated flu disease burden for the 2024-25 flu season observed as of January 18, 2025, the seasonal flu virus was circulating at high levels, causing many illnesses and possibly deaths and was continuing to rise.
Continue business development discussions for our oncology DFC programs, including CBO421. Our lead oncology development candidate, CBO421, targets CD73 in the adenosine pathway. CBO421 received IND clearance in July 2024. We may fund these programs with grant or government contract funding or through new partnerships we may consider. We will also continue to establish intellectual property related to the Cloudbreak platform, its applications and development candidates.
CLOUDBREAK PLATFORM
We believe our Cloudbreak platform has the potential to offer a fundamentally new approach to treat and prevent serious diseases such as solid tumor cancers and viral infections, by developing product candidates designed to provide potent disease targeting activity and immune system engagement in a single long-acting molecule. Because serious disease often results when a pathogen or cancer cell evades or overcomes the host immune system, our Cloudbreak DFC candidates are designed to counter diseases in two ways: prevention of disease proliferation or immune evasion by directly targeting and, where applicable, by focusing the immune system on a pathogen or infected cell. We believe this is a potentially transformative approach, distinct from current therapies, including ADCs, monoclonal or multispecific antibodies and vaccines.
In addition, DFCs are designed to have several advantages, including:
Multivalent binding which has the potential to increase potency;
Ability to engage different targets to serve as a “drug cocktail” in a single molecule, which may improve response to treatment and prevention; and
Potential advantages over vaccines irrespective of the immune status of patients.
DFCs are fundamentally different from ADCs: DFCs are biologically stable drug-Fc conjugates designed to engage extracellular targets, while ADCs are designed to enter target cells to deliver and release cytotoxic small molecule drugs. In contrast to ADCs and monoclonal antibodies, DFCs are smaller, providing the potential for better tissue penetration and are designed to target multiple sites. Unlike small molecules, we believe DFC optimization can be focused primarily on potency.
The Cloudbreak platform has enabled us to expand the development of DFCs to target other life-threatening diseases. We have expanded the Cloudbreak platform beyond infectious diseases to discover and develop highly potent DFCs that can target multiple immune checkpoint pathways within a single DFC for oncologic indications.
Cloudbreak candidates targeting solid tumor cancers and viral infections are called DFCs, single molecules consisting of two distinct moieties with discrete, yet complementary mechanisms of action:
Targeting Moiety (TM): A highly potent small molecule and/or peptide that binds surface targets on the pathogen or host cell to directly inhibit viral proliferation.
Effector Moiety (EM): A proprietary composition that contains the fragment crystallizable, or Fc, region of human IgG1 antibodies, which was selected to extend half-life engagement and engage the human immune system via Fc-gamma receptors.
DFCs not only mediate pathogen clearance through a multimodal mechanism of action but also have potential for months of activity with a single dose.
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Cloudbreak DFC (drug-Fc conjugate) Program Overview
We are leveraging the Cloudbreak platform to address multiple diseases. Each DFC targets a serious disease, focused on solid tumor cancers and viral infections. Our DFC research and development programs include:
Influenza; and
Cancer (solid tumors).
DFCs provide direct, sustained antiviral activity as well as immune system engagement, for effective prevention and treatment of disease. This is a potentially transformative approach, distinct from current approaches. DFCs are not vaccines, small-molecule drugs, or monoclonal antibodies. DFCs are novel, Fc-conjugates designed for the following features:
Multimodal mechanism of action: Potent, direct antiviral activity and tunable immune system engagement.
Strong target binding: High affinity to essential, conserved targets on the virus surface and/or cell surface.
Long duration of action: Months of protection from disease with a single dose.
Rapid onset: Rapid distribution to site of infection for treatment of disease.
Cloudbreak Influenza Program and Our DFC Development Candidate CD388
Influenza is a respiratory infection caused by influenza viruses. The influenza virus can cause mild to severe illness, and at times can lead to death. Young children, adults older than 65 years, pregnant women and immunocompromised patients are more prone to infection, but even healthy people are at risk of infection with seasonal influenza. The primary preventive measure to protect against influenza is the seasonal vaccine, which remains the best mode to prevent influenza related illness, despite its limitations. However, the efficacy of the vaccine varies, with recent studies estimating that the influenza vaccine reduces the risk of influenza illness by between 38% and 62%, depending on the virus strain and age and health of the recipient, among other factors. While today’s influenza vaccines are credited with significant public health benefits and offer our current best defense, only 52% of Americans get an annual influenza vaccine. As a result, a large proportion of Americans are still at risk of getting influenza yearly. For example, during the 2018-19 influenza season, 71% did not respond to vaccination and 34,200 people died of influenza-related illness in the U.S. The estimated average annual total economic burden of influenza to the U.S. healthcare system and society is more than $11.2 billion. In years when the seasonal vaccine results in sub-optimal protection such as the 2018-19 influenza season when the CDC estimated vaccine effectiveness to be 29% in the U.S., more patients are at higher risk for serious complications resulting from influenza. Vulnerable patient populations must then rely upon therapeutic options.
Older antiviral medications, such as amantadine and rimantadine, are no longer recommended for use because of high levels of resistance. Currently, four antiviral drugs are recommended by the CDC for treating influenza:
oseltamivir phosphate (Tamiflu®);
zanamivir (Relenza®);
peramivir (Rapivab®); and
baloxavir marboxil (Xofluza™).
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The above list includes neuraminidase inhibitors and the recently approved cap-dependent endonuclease inhibitor, baloxavir. These molecules have one or more of the following limitations: short half-life; high susceptibility to resistance; multi-dose regimens; and dosing route limitations. The current therapies should be administered within 48 hours of symptom onset to be effective.
Potential Advantages of Cloudbreak DFCs for Influenza
Broad-Spectrum, Universal Coverage: Cloudbreak DFCs have demonstrated activity against pandemic and seasonal influenza A and B viruses, including resistant strains (e.g. oseltamivir-resistant H1N1, zanamivir-resistant influenza B) and strains with high pandemic potential (e.g. H5N1, H7N9).
Superior Resistance Profile: DFCs may be less prone to viral resistance, by virtue of the targeting mechanism and multivalent target engagement.
Protection for High-Risk Populations: Unlike vaccines, the potent intrinsic antiviral activity of the DFCs has demonstrated antiviral protection independent of immune system status in animal efficacy models.
Seasonal and Pandemic Readiness: DFCs are well-suited for immediate and robust response to influenza challenges by providing rapid onset of protection and coverage of strains that are frequently missed by the seasonal vaccine. Moreover, DFCs are not subject to the lengthy and unpredictable process of vaccine manufacturing.
Long Duration of Action: A single DFC dose may protect from influenza for an entire influenza season.
DFC Development Candidate for Influenza: CD388
Pre-Clinical Studies of CD388 for Influenza
We have developed a novel DFC that provides a direct and sustained antiviral effect and retains potent activity in immune compromised hosts. The results of multiple preclinical studies with CD388 indicate that it is effective in both the treatment and prevention of influenza infections. CD388 has been engineered to extend half-life and has the potential to extend the duration of protection in prophylactic applications.
In Vitro Studies Measuring CD388 Potency Against Multiple Influenza Strains
We evaluated CD388 in vitro for its ability to inhibit viral replication in cell-based assays versus broad panels of seasonal and pandemic Influenza A strains, including H1N1 pandemic strains, H3N2, high pathogenicity H5N1 and H7N9 strains, oseltamivir (Tamiflu)-resistant H1N1, and influenza B strains, including zanamivir (Relenza)-resistant influenza B. CD388 showed potent activity against all the strains tested, including influenza B, which is less sensitive to oseltamivir phosphate.
In Vivo Studies Measuring CD388 Potency Against Multiple Influenza Strains in Lethal Infection Models
We evaluated CD388 in vivo in lethal mouse models against multiple H1N1, H3N2 and influenza B strains. CD388 provided full protection against all strains tested with single, low doses.
In all studies, we measured the average body weights of the mice over time to support the survival data with CD388. The CD388 dosed mice maintained stable body weights over the 21-day course of the experiments demonstrating the potency of CD388 at low doses and the potency and tolerability of CD388 at high doses. In a quantitative lung burden model versus H1N1 influenza, single, low doses of CD388 demonstrated superior reduction in lung viral burden compared to oseltamivir (Tamiflu) administered daily at 10x its human equivalent dose. Unlike oseltamivir, which only minimally impacted viral burden in lung at all tested doses, viral burden in CD388 treated animals increased with dose.
In Vivo Study Evaluating CD388 as a Long-Acting Prophylactic Agent Against Influenza
We tested mean plasma concentrations of CD388 in mice and based on the long half-life we observed, we evaluated CD388 in vivo in a lethal mouse model of H1N1 by administering CD388 to the mice 7 days before lethal influenza challenge. CD388 provided 100% protection from mortality across a broad range of dose levels, demonstrating its potential suitability as a long-acting prophylactic agent for influenza prevention.
In Vitro Studies Measuring CD388 Potency Against Historical and Circulating High-Pathogenicity Influenza Strains
In cell-based microneutralization assays against historical and currently circulating high pathogenicity influenza strains, including recently identified H5N1 strains, CD388 demonstrated potent activity, superior to oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza).
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Cloudbreak Oncology Program and Our DFC Development Candidate CBO421
We have expanded the Cloudbreak platform beyond infectious diseases, to discover and develop highly potent DFCs that can target single or multiple immune checkpoint pathways for the treatment of solid tumors.
Immune checkpoint antagonists have generated durable responses in cancers with improved side effect profiles compared to conventional chemotherapy. However, improved outcomes from existing therapies have been limited to a small subset of patients. To broaden the response rate to more patients, targeting additional mechanisms of tumor immune evasion will be critical.
Using Cloudbreak, we seek to develop a new generation of immunotherapies targeting the tumor microenvironment. Our lead oncology DFC candidate, CBO421, is a highly differentiated CD73 inhibitor that combines the strengths of small molecules and monoclonal antibodies targeting CD73. CBO421 targets CD73 in the adenosine pathway, which contributes to immune evasion in solid cancers by flooding the tumor microenvironment with adenosine, a potent immune cell suppressor. The CD73 pathway is clinically validated in early/mid-stage clinical studies to reduce tumor growth in combination with PD-1/ PD-L1 inhibitors in disease areas that do not historically respond to checkpoint inhibition alone, such as triple negative breast cancer, or TNBC, and other solid tumors. As a monotherapy and in combination with PD-1 inhibitors, CBO421 has demonstrated activity and formation of immunologic memory in multiple murine tumor models, along with differentiated activity in T-cell reactivation assays and tumor penetration compared with the most advanced CD73 antibody therapeutics in clinical development. CBO421 received IND clearance in July 2024.
We do not plan to initiate clinical trials for any oncology product candidates at this time but continue business development discussions for our oncology DFC programs, including CBO421.
LICENSE AGREEMENTS
Janssen License Agreement
On April 23, 2024, we reacquired all rights to develop and commercialize CD388 when we entered into the Janssen License Agreement, which also effectively terminated the Janssen Collaboration Agreement, which we entered into in March 2021, including the license granted by us to Janssen.
Under the Janssen License Agreement, we assumed responsibility for further clinical development, manufacture, registration and commercialization of DFCs based on our Cloudbreak platform for the prevention and treatment of influenza, including CD388 and products or compounds containing CD388. Janssen granted us an exclusive, worldwide, fee-bearing royalty-free license for certain Janssen-controller technology to develop, manufacture, and commercialize compounds and products, including CD388. Janssen agreed to (i) transfer and disclose to us certain Janssen-controlled know-how related to CD388, including manufacturing know-how, data and documentation, (ii) transfer all existing quantities of CD388 clinical materials, and (iii) transfer the cell banks used by or on behalf of Janssen for the production of CD388.
We paid Janssen an upfront payment of $85.0 million on April 24, 2024. We are also obligated to pay Janssen up to $150.0 million in development and regulatory milestone payments with respect to CD388 and up to $455.0 million in commercialization milestone payments with respect to CD388. We have no obligation to pay any royalties to Janssen for future sales of any commercialized CD388 product.
MANUFACTURING
We do not own or operate, and currently have no plans to establish, any manufacturing facilities. We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to manufacture supplies of CD388, any other Cloudbreak development candidates, and any future product candidates. Our third-party contract manufacturers are currently producing, and will produce in the future, our product candidates for use in our preclinical studies and clinical trials and ultimately for commercial supply utilizing reliable and reproducible processes and common manufacturing techniques.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
The proprietary nature of, and protection for, CD388, CBO421, our other DFCs, our Cloudbreak platform, our processes and our know-how are important to our business. We seek to protect our proprietary position through patent protection in the U.S. and internationally where available and when appropriate. Our policy is to pursue, obtain, maintain and defend patent rights, developed internally and/or potentially licensed from third parties, and to protect the technology, inventions and improvements that are commercially important to the development of our business. We also rely on trade secrets that may be important to the development of our business. We cannot be sure that patents will be granted with respect to any of our pending patent applications or with respect to any patent applications filed by us in the future, nor can we be sure that any of our existing patents or any patents that may be granted to us in the future will be commercially useful in
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protecting our inventions, improvements and technology. For this and more comprehensive risks related to our intellectual property, please see “Risk Factors-Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property.
Our success will depend significantly on our ability to:
obtain and maintain patent and other proprietary protection for the technology, inventions and improvements we consider important to our business;
defend and enforce our current and potential future patents;
preserve the confidentiality of our trade secrets; and
operate our business without infringing the patents and proprietary rights of third parties.
We have established, and will continue to build, proprietary positions for CD388, CBO421, and other product candidates and technology in the U.S. and abroad. As of March 6, 2025, our patent portfolio included eight families of patents and patent applications related to various aspects of CD388, and four families of patent applications related to various aspects of CBO421.
With respect to CD388, we received the first U.S. patent in December 2022. The patent is projected to expire in 2039 plus any available patent term extension. The latest of the issued patents and any patents that result from our currently pending applications would be expected to expire in 2044, should they be issued, excluding any additional term for patent term adjustments or applicable patent term extensions.
With respect to CBO421, the latest of any patents that result from our currently pending applications would be expected to expire in 2045, should they be issued, excluding any additional term for patent term adjustments or applicable patent term extensions.
Market exclusivity is the exclusive marketing right granted by the FDA and certain foreign equivalents upon the approval of a drug if certain statutory requirements are met. When granted, the applicable regulatory authority will not approve another application to market the same drug for the same indication during the period of market exclusivity. The length of market exclusivity depends on the type of exclusivity granted. We intend to seek market exclusivity on our product candidates where appropriate.
Further, we seek trademark protection in the U.S. and internationally where available and when appropriate. We have filed for trademark protection in several countries for the Cidara trademark, which we use in connection with our pharmaceutical research and development services and our pharmaceutical compounds. We currently have registered trademarks for the Cidara mark in the U.S., the EU, Australia and Canada.
COMPETITION
The biopharmaceutical industry is characterized by intense and dynamic competition to develop new technologies and proprietary therapies. Any product candidates that we successfully develop and commercialize will have to compete with existing therapies and new therapies that may become available in the future. We believe that CD388 and any other Cloudbreak development candidates we pursue in the future, combined with our scientific and development expertise in the field of anti-infectives, provide us with competitive advantages over our peers. However, we face potential competition from various sources, including larger and better-funded pharmaceutical, specialty pharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies, as well as from generic drug manufacturers, academic institutions, governmental agencies and public and private research institutions.
For certain patient populations and approved indications, we expect that CD388 will be used in conjunction with approved vaccines for influenza in order to provide additional protection. For other patient populations and approved indications, we expect that CD388 may compete with approved vaccines for influenza and approved agents for the treatment of viral influenza infections, including neuraminidase inhibitors such as Tamiflu, Relenza, and Peramivir, and endonuclease inhibitors such as Xofluza.We expect that CD388 will compete against approved and investigational agents for the treatment or prevention of viral influenza infections, including influenza vaccines, neuraminidase inhibitors such as Tamiflu, Relenza and Peramivir, and endonuclease inhibitors such as Xofluza. We intend to develop other product candidates through our Cloudbreak platform for the prevention and treatment of other viral infections. We are aware of a number of approved and investigational vaccines and/or therapies in these areas. We are aware of a large number of approved and investigational therapies in these areas also. We expect that CBO421 would compete against approved anticancer therapeutics as well as investigational CD73-targeting small molecule drugs, including quemliclustat being developed by Arcus Biosciences, Inc. We expect that CBO421 will compete against approved anticancer therapeutics as well as investigational CD-73 targeting small molecule drugs, including Oric-533 being developed by Oric Pharmaceutical, Inc. and monoclonal antibodies, including oleclumab being developed by AstraZeneca PLC. as well as monoclonal antibodies, including oleclumab being developed by AstraZeneca PLC.
Many of our competitors, either alone or with their strategic partners, have substantially greater financial, technical and human resources than we do and significantly greater experience in the discovery and development of product candidates, obtaining FDA and other regulatory approvals of treatments and commercializing those treatments. These same competitors may invent technology that competes with our Cloudbreak platform. These same competitors may invent technology that competes with our rezafungin program, CD388, CBO421, or our Cloudbreak platform.
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Mergers and acquisitions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. These competitors also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical study sites and subject enrollment for clinical studies, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs.These third parties may compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and patient enrollment for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. Smaller and other early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies.
We expect any products that we develop and commercialize to compete on the basis of, among other things, efficacy, safety, convenience of administration and delivery, price, the level of generic competition and the availability of reimbursement from government and other third-party payors.
Our commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient or are less expensive than any products that we may develop. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market. Our competitors may also obtain marketing approval from the FDA or other regulatory authorities for their products sooner than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market. In addition, we expect that our products, if approved, will be priced at a significant premium over competitive generic products and our ability to compete may be affected in many cases by insurers or other third-party payors seeking to encourage the use of generic products.
GOVERNMENT REGULATION
Government authorities in the U.S., at the federal, state and local level and in other countries extensively regulate, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, including any manufacturing changes, packaging, storage, recordkeeping, labeling, advertising, promotion, distribution, marketing, post-approval monitoring and reporting, import and export of pharmaceutical products, such as those we are developing.
U.S. Drug Approval Process
In the U.S., the FDA regulates drugs under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or FDCA, and biologics under the Public Health Service, or PHS, Act and implementing regulations. The process of obtaining regulatory approvals and the subsequent compliance with appropriate federal, state, local and foreign statutes and regulations requires the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources. Failure to comply with the applicable U.S. requirements at any time during the product development process, approval process or after approval may subject an applicant to a variety of administrative or judicial sanctions, such as the FDA’s refusal to approve pending applications, withdrawal of an approval, imposition of a clinical hold, issuance of warning letters and untitled letters, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions, fines, refusals of government contracts, restitution, disgorgement of profits or civil or criminal penalties.
The process required by the FDA before a drug may be marketed in the U.S. generally involves the following:
manufacturing of clinical supplies in compliance with good manufacturing practice, or GMP, regulations;
completion of preclinical laboratory tests, animal studies and formulation studies in compliance with the FDA’s good laboratory practice, or GLP, regulations;
submission to the FDA of an IND, which must become effective before human clinical trials may begin;
approval by an independent institutional review board, or IRB, at each clinical site before each trial may be initiated;
performance of adequate and well-controlled human clinical trials in accordance with good clinical practices, or GCP, to establish the safety and efficacy of the proposed drug for each indication;
submission to the FDA of a Biologics License Application, or BLA;
satisfactory completion of an FDA inspection of the manufacturing facility or facilities at which the product is produced to assess compliance with current good manufacturing practices, or cGMP, requirements and to assure that the facilities, methods and controls are adequate to preserve the drug’s identity, strength, quality, purity, and potency; and
FDA review and approval of the BLA.
Preclinical Studies and IND
Preclinical studies include laboratory evaluation of product chemistry and formulation, as well as in vitro and animal studies to assess the potential for adverse events, and in some cases, to establish a rationale for therapeutic use. The conduct of preclinical studies is subject to federal regulations and requirements, including GLP regulations for safety/toxicology studies. An IND sponsor must submit the results of the preclinical tests, together with manufacturing
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information, analytical data, any available clinical data or literature and plans for clinical trials, among other things, to the FDA as part of an IND. Some long-term preclinical testing, including animal tests of reproductive adverse events and carcinogenicity, may continue after the IND is submitted. An IND automatically becomes effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA, unless before that time, the FDA raises safety concerns or questions related to safety to one or more proposed clinical trials and places the trial on clinical hold. In such a case, the IND sponsor and the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns before the clinical trial can begin. As a result, submission of an IND may not result in the FDA allowing clinical trials to commence.
Clinical Trials
Clinical trials involve the administration of the investigational new drug to human subjects under the supervision of qualified investigators in accordance with GCP requirements, which include, among other things, the requirement that all research subjects provide their informed consent in writing before their participation in any clinical trial. Clinical trials are conducted under written study protocols detailing, among other things, the objectives of the study, the parameters to be used in monitoring safety and/or the effectiveness criteria to be evaluated. A protocol for each clinical trial conducted in the U.S. and any subsequent protocol amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND. In addition, an IRB at each institution participating in the clinical trial must review and approve the plan for any clinical trial before it commences at that institution, and the IRB must conduct continuing review. The IRB must review and approve, among other things, the study protocol and informed consent information to be provided to study subjects. An IRB must operate in compliance with FDA regulations.
Information about certain clinical trials must be submitted within specific timeframes to the National Institutes of Health for public dissemination at www.clinicaltrials.gov. Human clinical trials are typically conducted in three sequential phases, which may overlap or be combined:
Phase 1: The drug is initially introduced into healthy human subjects or patients with the target disease or condition and tested for safety, dosage tolerance, absorption, metabolism, distribution, excretion and, if possible, to gain an early indication of its effectiveness.
Phase 2: The drug is administered to a limited patient population to identify possible adverse effects and safety risks, to preliminarily evaluate the efficacy of the product for specific targeted diseases and to determine dosage tolerance and optimal dosage.
Phase 3: The drug is administered to an expanded patient population in adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to generate sufficient data to statistically confirm the efficacy and safety of the product for approval, to establish the overall risk-benefit profile of the product and to provide adequate information for the labeling of the product.
Progress reports detailing the results of the clinical trials must be submitted at least annually to the FDA and, more frequently, if SAEs occur. Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials may not be completed successfully within any specified period, or at all. Furthermore, the FDA or the sponsor may suspend or terminate a clinical trial at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the research subjects are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk. Similarly, an IRB can suspend or terminate approval of a clinical trial at its institution if the clinical trial is not being conducted in accordance with the IRB’s requirements or if the drug has been associated with unexpected serious harm to patients.
Marketing Approval
Assuming successful completion of the required clinical testing, the results of the preclinical studies and clinical trials, together with detailed information relating to the product’s chemistry, manufacture, controls and proposed labeling, among other things, are submitted to the FDA as part of a BLA requesting approval to market the product for one or more indications. Under federal law, the submission of most BLAs and clinical BLA supplements are additionally subject to a substantial application fee, and the sponsor of an approved BLA is also subject to annual program fees, which are typically increased annually.
The FDA conducts a preliminary review of all BLAs within the first 60 days after submission before accepting them for filing to determine whether they are sufficiently complete to permit substantive review. The FDA may request additional information rather than accept a BLA for filing. In this event, the application must be resubmitted with the additional information. The resubmitted application is also subject to review before the FDA accepts it for filing. Once the submission is accepted for filing, the FDA begins an in-depth substantive review. The FDA has agreed to specified performance goals in the review of BLAs. Under these goals, the FDA has committed to review most such applications for non-priority products within ten months, and most applications for priority review products, that is, drugs that the FDA determines represent a significant improvement over existing therapy, within six months from filing. The review process may be extended by the FDA to consider certain information or clarification regarding information already provided in the submission. The FDA may also refer applications for novel drugs or products that present difficult questions of safety or efficacy to an advisory committee, typically a panel that includes clinicians and other experts, for review, evaluation and a
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recommendation as to whether the application should be approved. The FDA is not bound by the recommendations of an advisory committee, but it considers such recommendations carefully when making decisions.
The testing and approval process requires substantial time, effort and financial resources, and each may take many years to complete. Data obtained from clinical activities are not always conclusive and may be susceptible to varying interpretations, which could delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. The FDA may not grant approval on a timely basis, or at all. We may encounter difficulties or unanticipated costs in our efforts to develop our product candidates and secure necessary governmental approvals, which could delay or preclude us from marketing our products.
After the FDA’s evaluation of the BLA and inspection of the manufacturing facilities, the FDA may issue an approval letter or a complete response letter. An approval letter authorizes commercial marketing of the drug with specific prescribing information for specific indications. A complete response letter generally outlines the deficiencies in the submission and may require substantial additional testing or information in order for the FDA to reconsider the application. If and when those deficiencies have been addressed to the FDA’s satisfaction via additional information submitted to the FDA, the FDA will issue an approval letter. The FDA has committed to reviewing such resubmissions in two or six months depending on the type of information included. Even with submission of this additional information, the FDA ultimately may decide that the application does not satisfy the regulatory criteria for approval and refuse to approve the BLA. Even if the FDA approves a product, it may limit the approved indications for use of the product, require that contraindications, warnings or precautions be included in the product labeling, require that post-approval studies, including Phase 4 clinical trials, be conducted to further assess a drug’s safety after approval, require testing and surveillance programs to monitor the product after commercialization, or impose other conditions, including distribution restrictions or other risk management mechanisms, including Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies, or REMs, which can materially affect the potential market and profitability of the product. The FDA may prevent or limit further marketing of a product based on the results of post-market studies or surveillance programs. After approval, some types of changes to the approved product, such as adding new indications, manufacturing changes and additional labeling claims, are subject to further testing requirements and FDA review and approval.
Fast Track Designation
The FDA aims to facilitate the development and expedite the review of drugs that are intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening condition for which there is no effective treatment and which demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs for the condition. Under the Fast Track program, the sponsor of a new product candidate may request the FDA to designate the product for a specific indication as a Fast Track product concurrent with or after the submission of the IND for the product candidate. The FDA must determine if the product candidate qualifies for Fast Track designation within 60 days after receipt of the sponsor’s request.
In addition to other benefits, such as the ability of the sponsor to use surrogate endpoints in the evaluation of the pivotal clinical trials and have more frequent interactions with the FDA, the FDA may initiate review of sections of a Fast Track product’s BLA before the application is complete. This rolling review is available if the applicant provides and the FDA approves a schedule for the submission of the remaining information and the applicant pays applicable user fees. However, the FDA’s time period goal for reviewing a Fast Track application does not begin until the last section of the BLA is submitted. In addition, the Fast Track designation may be withdrawn by the FDA if the FDA believes that the designation is no longer supported by data emerging in the clinical trial process.
Priority Review
Under FDA policies, a product candidate may be eligible for priority review, or review generally within a six-month time frame from the time a complete application is accepted for review. Products regulated by the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, or CDER, are eligible for priority review if they provide a significant improvement compared to marketed products in the treatment, diagnosis or prevention of a disease. A Fast Track designated product candidate would ordinarily meet the FDA’s criteria for priority review.
Breakthrough Therapy Designation
A breakthrough therapy is defined as a drug that is intended, alone or in combination with one or more other drugs, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the product candidate may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. Drugs designated as breakthrough therapies are also eligible for accelerated approval. The FDA must take certain actions, such as holding timely meetings and providing advice, intended to expedite the development and review of an application for approval of a breakthrough therapy. The FDA closely regulates the post-approval marketing and promotion of drugs to ensure that they are marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling. Even if a product candidate qualifies for one or more of these programs, the FDA may later decide that the product candidate no longer meets the conditions for qualification or decide that the time period for FDA review or approval will not be shortened.
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Pediatric Exclusivity and Pediatric Use
Under the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act, certain drugs may obtain an additional six months of exclusivity if the sponsor submits information requested in writing by the FDA, or a Written Request, relating to the use of the active moiety of the drug in children. The FDA may issue a Written Request for studies on unapproved or approved indications, but it may not issue a Written Request where it determines that information relating to the use of a drug in a pediatric population, or part of the pediatric population, may not produce health benefits in that population.
In addition, the Pediatric Research Equity Act, or PREA, requires a sponsor to conduct pediatric studies for most drugs and biologics, for a new active ingredient, new indication, new dosage form, new dosing regimen or new route of administration. Under PREA, original NDAs, biologics license applications and supplements thereto, must contain a pediatric assessment unless the sponsor has received a deferral or waiver. Unless otherwise required by regulation, PREA does not apply to any drug for an indication for which an orphan drug designation has been granted. The required assessment must assess the safety and effectiveness of the product for the claimed indications in all relevant pediatric subpopulations and support dosing and administration for each pediatric subpopulation for which the product is safe and effective. The sponsor or FDA may request a deferral of pediatric studies for some or all of the pediatric subpopulations. A deferral may be granted for several reasons, including a finding that the drug or biologic is ready for approval for use in adults before pediatric studies are complete or that additional safety or effectiveness data needs to be collected before the pediatric studies begin.
Other Regulatory Requirements
Any drug manufactured or distributed by us pursuant to FDA approvals is subject to pervasive and continuing regulation by the FDA, including, among other things, requirements relating to recordkeeping, periodic reporting, product sampling and distribution, advertising and promotion and reporting of adverse experiences with the product. After approval, most changes to the approved product, such as adding new indications or other labeling claims are subject to prior FDA review and approval.
The FDA may impose a number of post-approval requirements, including REMS, as a condition of approval. For example, the FDA may require post-marketing testing, including Phase 4 clinical trials, and surveillance to further assess and monitor the product’s safety and effectiveness after commercialization.
In addition, drug manufacturers and other entities involved in the manufacture and distribution of approved drugs are required to register their establishments with the FDA and state agencies, and are subject to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA and these state agencies for compliance with cGMP requirements. Changes to the manufacturing process are strictly regulated and often require prior FDA approval before being implemented. FDA regulations also require investigation and correction of any deviations from cGMP and impose reporting and documentation requirements upon us and third-party manufacturers that we may decide to use. Accordingly, manufacturers must continue to expend time, money and effort in the areas of production and quality control to maintain cGMP compliance.
Once an approval is granted, the FDA may withdraw the approval if compliance with regulatory requirements and standards is not maintained or if problems occur after the product reaches the market. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in revisions to the approved labeling to add new safety information, imposition of post-market studies or clinical trials to assess new safety risks or imposition of distribution or other restrictions under a REMS program. Other potential consequences include, among other things:
restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of the product, complete withdrawal of the product from the market or product recalls;
fines, warning letters or holds on post-approval clinical trials;
refusal of the FDA to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications, or suspension or revocation of product license approvals;
product seizure or detention, or refusal to permit the import or export of products; or
consent decrees, injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.
The FDA strictly regulates marketing, labeling, advertising and promotion of products that are placed on the market. Drugs may be promoted only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved label. However, companies may share truthful and not misleading information that is otherwise consistent with the product’s FDA approved labeling. The FDA and other agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off label uses, and a company that is found to have improperly promoted off label uses may be subject to significant liability.
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Additional Health Care Laws
In addition to FDA restrictions on marketing of pharmaceutical products, several other types of state and federal laws restrict our business activities, including certain marketing practices. These laws include, without limitation, anti-kickback laws, false claims laws, data privacy and security laws, as well as transparency laws regarding payments or other items of value provided to healthcare providers.
The federal healthcare program anti-kickback statute prohibits, among other things, knowingly and willfully offering, paying, soliciting or receiving remuneration to induce or in return for purchasing, leasing, ordering or arranging for the purchase, lease or order of any healthcare item, good, facility or service reimbursable under Medicare, Medicaid or other federal healthcare programs. The term “remuneration” has been broadly interpreted to include anything of value. This statute has been interpreted to apply to arrangements between pharmaceutical manufacturers on the one hand and prescribers, purchasers and formulary managers on the other hand. Although there are a number of statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors protecting certain common activities from prosecution or other regulatory sanctions, but the exceptions and safe harbors are drawn narrowly and practices that involve remuneration that are alleged to be intended to induce prescribing, purchases or recommendations may be subject to scrutiny if they do not qualify for an exception or safe harbor. Failure to meet all of the requirements of a particular applicable statutory exception or regulatory safe harbor does not make the conduct per se illegal under the federal healthcare program anti-kickback statute. Instead, the legality of the arrangement will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis based on a cumulative review of all its facts and circumstances. Several courts have interpreted the statute’s intent requirement to mean that if any one purpose of an arrangement involving remuneration is to induce referrals of federal healthcare covered business, the federal healthcare program anti-kickback statute has been violated. Additionally, the intent standard under the federal healthcare program anti-kickback statute was amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, collectively the Affordable Care Act, to a stricter standard such that a person or entity no longer needs to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation. In addition, the Affordable Care Act codified case law that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal healthcare program anti-kickback statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the federal civil False Claims Act.
Federal false claims laws, including the federal civil False Claims Act, and civil monetary penalties laws, prohibit any person or entity from, among other things, knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, a false claim for payment to the federal government, or knowingly making, or causing to be made, a false statement to have a false claim paid. Pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies have been prosecuted under these laws for, among other things, allegedly inflating drug prices they report to pricing services, which in turn were used by the government to set Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates, and for allegedly providing free product to customers with the expectation that the customers would bill federal programs for the product. In addition, certain marketing practices, including off-label promotion, may also violate false claims laws.
The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, created additional federal civil and criminal statutes that prohibit among other actions, knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program, including private third-party payors, knowingly and willfully embezzling or stealing from a healthcare benefit program, willfully obstructing a criminal investigation of a healthcare offense, and knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact or making any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services. Like the federal healthcare program anti-kickback statute, the Affordable Care Act amended the intent standard for certain healthcare fraud under HIPAA such that a person or entity no longer needs to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation.
In addition, we may be subject to data privacy and security regulation by both the federal government and the states in which we conduct our business. HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH, imposes certain requirements on covered entities, which include certain healthcare providers, health plans and healthcare clearinghouses, and their business associates and covered subcontractors that receive or obtain protected health information in connection with providing a service on behalf of a covered entity relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information.
Additionally, the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act, created under the Affordable Care Act, and its implementing regulations, require certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologicals and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (with certain exceptions) to report annually information related to certain payments or other transfers of value provided to physicians (defined to include doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors), other health care professionals (such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners) and teaching hospitals, as well as information regarding ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members.
The majority of states also have statutes or regulations similar to the aforementioned federal fraud and abuse laws, some of which are broader in scope and apply to items and services reimbursed under Medicaid and other state programs, or, in
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several states, apply regardless of the payor. Further, some state laws require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government in addition to requiring drug manufacturers to report information related to payments or other transfers of value provided to physicians and other health care providers and entities, marketing expenditures, or drug pricing. Certain state and local laws also require the registration of pharmaceutical sales representatives.
If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the health regulatory laws described above or any other laws that apply to us, we may be subject to potentially significant criminal, civil and administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, 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, exclusion from participation in government healthcare programs, as well as contractual damages, reputational harm, administrative burdens, diminished profits and future earnings, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations.
Coverage and Reimbursement
Sales of pharmaceutical products depend in significant part on the availability of coverage and adequate reimbursement by third-party payors. Patients who are prescribed treatments for their conditions and providers performing the prescribed services generally rely on third-party payors to reimburse all or part of the associated healthcare costs. Patients and providers are unlikely to use our products unless coverage is provided and reimbursement is adequate to cover a significant portion of the cost of therapies in which our products are used.
There is significant uncertainty related to third-party payor coverage and reimbursement of newly approved products. In the U.S., for example, principal decisions about reimbursement for new products are typically made by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS. CMS decides whether and to what extent a new product will be covered and reimbursed under Medicare, and private third-party payors often follow CMS’s decisions regarding coverage and reimbursement to a substantial degree. In the U.S., no uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for products exists among third-party payors. Therefore, coverage and reimbursement for products can differ significantly from payor to payor. Decisions regarding the extent of coverage and amount of reimbursement to be provided for each of our product candidates will be made on a plan-by-plan basis. One payor’s determination to provide coverage for a product does not assure that other payors will also provide coverage, and adequate reimbursement, for the product. Coverage and reimbursement rates may vary according to the use of the drug and the medical circumstances under which it is used may be based on reimbursement levels already set for lower cost products or procedures or may be incorporated into existing payments for other services. Even if coverage is obtained for a given product, the resulting reimbursement payment rates may change. Additionally, the coverage determination process is often a time-consuming and costly process that will require us to provide scientific and clinical support for the use of our product candidates to each payor separately, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be obtained.If, in the future, we are unable to establish sales and marketing capabilities or to selectively enter into agreements with third parties to sell and market our product candidates, we may not be successful in commercializing our product candidates, if and when they are approved.
Increasingly, third-party payors are requiring that drug companies provide them with predetermined discounts from list prices and are challenging the prices charged for medical products. Increasingly, third-party payors are requiring that drug companies provide predetermined discounts from list prices and are challenging the prices charged for medical products. Further, such payors are increasingly challenging the price, examining the medical necessity and reviewing the cost effectiveness of medical product candidates. There may be especially significant delays in obtaining coverage and reimbursement for newly approved drugs. Third-party payors may limit coverage to specific product candidates on an approved list, known as a formulary, which might not include all FDA-approved drugs for a particular indication.
Outside the U.S., the commercialization of therapeutics is generally subject to extensive governmental price controls and other market regulations, and we believe the increasing emphasis on cost containment initiatives in Europe, Canada and other countries has, and will continue to, put pressure on the pricing and usage of therapeutics such as our product candidates.
Healthcare Reform
Current and future legislative proposals to further reform healthcare or reduce healthcare costs may result in lower reimbursement for our products. The cost containment measures that payors and providers are instituting and the effect of any healthcare reform initiative implemented in the future could significantly reduce our revenues from the sale of our products.
For example, implementation of the Affordable Care Act has substantially changed healthcare financing and delivery by both governmental and private insurers, and significantly impacted the pharmaceutical industry. There have been amendments to and executive judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act. There have been executive, judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act. For example, on August 16, 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, or IRA, was signed into law, which among other things, extends enhanced subsidies for individuals purchasing health insurance coverage in Affordable Care Act marketplaces through plan year 2025. The IRA also eliminates the “donut hole” under the Medicare Part D program beginning in 2025
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by significantly lowering the beneficiary maximum out-of-pocket cost and creating a new manufacturer discount program. It is unclear how any such challenges and the healthcare reform measures of the second Trump administration will impact Affordable Care Act. It is unclear how any additional healthcare reform measures of the Biden administration will impact the Affordable Care Act and our business.
In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the Affordable Care Act was enacted.Further, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. In August 2011, the President signed into law the Budget Control Act of 2011, which, among other things includes reductions to Medicare payments to providers of 2% per fiscal year, which went into effect in April 2013 and, due to subsequent legislative amendments, will remain in effect until 2032 unless additional Congressional action is taken. On March 11, 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was signed into law, which eliminates the statutory Medicaid drug rebate cap for single source and innovator multiple source drugs, effective January 1, 2024.
Further, there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products. At the federal level there have been several presidential executive orders and U.S. Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, reduce the cost of prescription drugs under Medicare, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drugs. The IRA, among other things (i) directs HHS to negotiate the price of certain high-expenditure, single-source drugs that have been on the market for at least seven years covered under Medicare, or the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, and (ii) imposes rebates under Medicare Part B and Medicare Part D to penalize price increases that outpace inflation. These provisions began to take effect progressively starting in fiscal year 2023. On August 15, 2024, HHS announced the agreed-upon reimbursement prices of the first 10 drugs that were subject to price negotiations, although the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program is currently subject to legal challenges. On January 17, 2025, HHS selected 15 additional products covered under Part D for price negotiation in 2025. Each year thereafter more Part B and Part D products will become subject to the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. Further, on December 7, 2023, an initiative to control the price of prescription drugs through the use of march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act was announced. Further, on December 7, 2023, the Biden administration announced an initiative to control the price of prescription drugs through the use of march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act. Further, on December 7, 2023, the Biden administration announced an initiative to control the price of prescription drugs through the use of march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act. On December 8, 2023, the National Institute of Standards and Technology published for comment a Draft Interagency Guidance Framework for Considering the Exercise of March-In Rights which for the first time includes the price of a product as one factor an agency can use when deciding to exercise march-in rights. While march-in rights have not previously been exercised, it is uncertain if that will continue under the new framework. At the state level, legislatures have increasingly passed legislation and implemented regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing.At the state level, legislatures have increasingly passed legislation and implemented regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. For example, on January 5, 2024, the FDA approved Florida’s Section 804 Importation Program, or SIP, proposal to import certain drugs from Canada for specific state healthcare programs. For example, on January 5, 2024, the FDA approved Florida’s Section 804 Importation Program (SIP) proposal to import certain drugs from Canada for specific state healthcare programs. For example, on January 5, 2024, the FDA approved Florida’s Section 804 Importation Program (SIP) proposal to import certain drugs from Canada for specific state healthcare programs. It is unclear how this program will be implemented, including which drugs will be chosen, and whether it will be subject to legal challenges in the United States or Canada. Other states have also submitted SIP proposals that are pending review by the FDA. Any such approved importation plans, when implemented, may result in lower drug prices for products covered by those programs.
Foreign Regulation
In order to market any product outside of the U.S., we would need to comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of other countries regarding safety and efficacy and governing, among other things, clinical trials, marketing authorization, commercial sales and distribution of our products. Whether or not we obtain FDA approval for a product, we would need to obtain the necessary approvals by the comparable regulatory authorities of foreign countries before we can commence clinical trials or marketing of the product in those countries. The approval process varies from country to country and can involve additional product testing and additional administrative review periods. The time required to obtain approval in other countries might differ from and be longer than that required to obtain FDA approval. Regulatory approval in one country does not ensure regulatory approval in another, but a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one country may negatively impact the regulatory process in others.
New Legislation and Regulations
From time to time, legislation is drafted, introduced and passed in Congress that could significantly change the statutory provisions governing the testing, approval, manufacturing and marketing of products regulated by the FDA. In addition to new legislation, FDA regulations and policies are often revised or interpreted by the agency in ways that may significantly affect our business and our products. It is impossible to predict whether further legislative changes will be enacted or whether FDA regulations, guidance, policies or interpretations changed or what the effect of such changes, if any, may be.
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EMPLOYEES
As of February 27, 2025, we had 38 total employees, 8 of whom hold Ph.D. or M.D. degrees, 20 of whom were engaged in research and development activities and 18 of whom were engaged in business development, finance, information systems, facilities, human resources, legal or administrative support. None of our employees are subject to a collective bargaining agreement. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good.
CORPORATE INFORMATION
We were incorporated in Delaware as K2 Therapeutics, Inc. in December 2012. In July 2014, we changed our name to Cidara Therapeutics, Inc. Our principal executive offices are located at 6310 Nancy Ridge Drive, Suite 101, San Diego, California 92121, and our telephone number is (858) 752-6170.
We formed wholly-owned subsidiaries, Cidara Therapeutics UK Limited in England, and Cidara Therapeutics (Ireland) Limited, in Ireland, in March 2016 and October 2018, respectively, for the purpose of developing our product candidates in Europe.
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
We make available free of charge on or through our internet website our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. We also regularly post copies of our press releases as well as copies of presentations and other updates about our business on our website. Our website address is www.cidara.com. The information contained in or that can be accessed through our website is not part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Information is also available through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at www.sec.gov.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Risk Factors
You should carefully consider the following risk factors, as well as the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, before deciding whether to purchase, hold or sell shares of our common stock. The occurrence of any of the following risks could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and/or growth prospects or cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements we have made in this report and those we may make from time to time. When evaluating our business, you should consider all of the factors described as well as the other information in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our financial statements and the related notes and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition, results of operations and future growth prospects would likely be materially and adversely affected. In these circumstances, the market price of our common stock would likely decline and you may lose all or part of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial also may impair our business operations.
Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Additional Capital
Due to the delayed filing with the SEC of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, we are not currently eligible to use a registration statement on Form S-3 to register the offer and sale or resale of securities, which may adversely affect our ability to raise future capital.
As a result of the late filing with the SEC of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, we will not be eligible to register the offer and sale of our securities using a registration statement on Form S-3 until we have timely filed all periodic reports required under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, for at least 12 calendar months (or through May 1, 2025), and there can be no assurance that we will be able to file all such reports in a timely manner in the future. Should we wish to register the offer and sale of additional securities to the public, our transaction costs and the amount of time required to complete the transaction could increase, making it more difficult to execute any such transaction successfully and potentially harming our business, strategic plan and financial condition.We intend to continue to rely on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and to conduct some aspects of our research and preclinical testing and those third parties may not perform satisfactorily, including failing to meet deadlines for the completion of such trials, research or testing.
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We need substantial additional funding to advance CD388 beyond Phase 2b, and to advance CBO421 and our other Cloudbreak programs.
Our ability to advance CD388 beyond Phase 2b, and to advance CBO421 and other product candidates from our other Cloudbreak programs is dependent on our ability to obtain additional funding. Our ability to advance CD388, CBO421 and other product candidates from our other Cloudbreak programs is also dependent on our ability to obtain additional funding.
There can be no assurance that additional funds will be available from any source or, if available, will be available on terms that are acceptable to us. There can also be no assurance that additional funds will be available to us without first obtaining the approval of our stockholders, which can be a difficult and lengthy process with an uncertain outcome.
Even if we raise additional capital, our expenses may increase in connection with our ongoing activities beyond what is currently expected. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:
the costs and timing to complete our CD388 trials through to Phase 2b;
the costs, timing and outcome of any regulatory review of CD388, CBO421 or future development candidates;
our ability to establish and maintain collaborations, when and if necessary, on favorable terms, if at all;
the costs and timing of commercialization activities, including manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution, for any future product candidates that receive marketing approval;
the costs of preparing, filing and prosecuting patent applications, maintaining and enforcing our intellectual property rights and defending intellectual property-related claims;
the scope, progress, results and costs of drug discovery, preclinical development, manufacturing development, laboratory testing and clinical trials for our product candidates, for the Cloudbreak platform; and
the extent to which we acquire or in-license other product candidates and technologies.
Identifying potential development candidates and conducting preclinical studies, manufacturing development and clinical trials are time consuming, expensive and uncertain processes that take years to complete, and we may never generate the necessary data or results required to obtain marketing approval and achieve product sales for any of our current or future product candidates. In addition, our product candidates, if approved, may not achieve commercial success. Our commercial revenue, if any, will be derived from sales of products that we do not expect to be commercially available for many years, if at all.
Accordingly, we will need substantial additional funding in connection with our continuing operations and to achieve our goals.Accordingly, we need substantial additional funding in connection with our continuing operations and to achieve our goals. As of December 31, 2024, we had cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash of $196.2 million. As of December 31, 2023, we had cash and cash equivalents of $35.8 million.
The global credit and financial markets have recently experienced extreme volatility and disruptions, including diminished liquidity and credit availability, declines in consumer confidence, declines in economic growth, increases in unemployment rates and uncertainty about economic stability. If the equity and credit markets continue to deteriorate, it may make any additional debt or equity financing more difficult, more costly and more dilutive. In addition, we may not be able to access a portion of our existing cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash due to market conditions such as potential future disruptions in access to bank deposits or lending commitments due to bank failures, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition. In addition, we may not be able to access a portion of our existing cash and cash equivalents due to market conditions such as recent and potential future disruptions in access to bank deposits or lending commitments due to bank failures, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition. In addition, if the financial market disruptions and economic slowdown deepen or persist, we may not be able to access additional capital on favorable terms, or at all, which could negatively affect our financial condition and our ability to pursue our business strategy.
If we are unable to raise additional capital on attractive terms or at all, we may be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our development programs, including CD388 or one or more of our other Cloudbreak DFC programs, or any future license or collaboration agreements, and/or be forced to make reductions in spending, extend payment terms with suppliers, and/or liquidate or grant rights to assets where possible. Any of these actions could materially harm our business, results of operations and future prospects.
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or product candidates.
Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenue, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of equity, debt or other financing structures, as well as potentially entering into collaborations, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties or receiving government and/or charitable grants or contracts.Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenue, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of equity, debt or other financing structures, receipt of payments under the Mundipharma Collaboration Agreement, the Janssen Collaboration Agreement and the Melinta License Agreement, as well as potentially entering into other collaborations, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties or receiving government and/or charitable grants or contracts.
In November 2018, we entered into a controlled equity offering sales agreement with Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., or the Sales Agreement. We will not be able to sell any additional shares of our common stock under the Sales Agreement until at least May 1, 2025, due to the loss of our Form S-3 eligibility for primary and secondary offerings.
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In April 2024, we entered into a securities purchase agreement with certain institutional and other accredited investors, pursuant to which we issued and sold, in a private placement, or the April 2024 Private Placement, 240,000 shares of Series A Convertible Voting Preferred Stock, for which we received total gross proceeds of $240.0 million. The proceeds from the April 2024 Private Placement were used to fund the upfront payment of $85.0 million under a license and technology transfer agreement with J&J Innovative Medicine, previously Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, or Janssen, and the remainder of the gross proceeds of $155.0 million are being utilized to develop CD388 as a universal preventative against seasonal and pandemic influenza A and B, beginning with the current CD388 Phase 2b NAVIGATE study that we initiated in September 2024. On July 19, 2024, we issued 2,469,250 shares of common stock upon the automatic conversion of 35,275 shares of such Series A Convertible Voting Preferred Stock.
In November 2024, we entered into a securities purchase agreement with certain institutional accredited investors, pursuant to which we issued and sold, in a private placement, or the November 2024 Private Placement, (i) an aggregate of 3,892,274 shares of our common stock, and (ii) in lieu of shares of common stock to certain investors, pre-funded warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 3,149,035 shares of common stock, for which we received total gross proceeds of $105.0 million.
To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, like our sale of Series A Convertible Voting Preferred Stock in the April 2024 Private Placement and our sale of common stock and pre-funded warrants in the November 2024 Private Placement, your ownership interest will be diluted and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a common stockholder. Debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends and may be secured by all or a portion of our assets. In addition, if the financial market disruptions and economic slowdown deepen or persist, we may not be able to access additional capital on favorable terms, or at all, which could negatively affect our financial condition and our ability to pursue our business strategy.
If we raise funds by entering into collaborations, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams, research programs or product candidates or to grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. We may need to enter into agreements with third parties for the development and commercialization of DFCs identified from our Cloudbreak program which may require that we relinquish valuable rights to these products.
If we raise funds through government grants and contracts, we may be subject to restrictions on our operations or certain unfavorable terms. U.S. government grants and contracts, if available, typically contain unfavorable termination provisions and are subject to audit and modification by the government at its sole discretion, which will subject us to additional risks. If we receive a U.S. government grant or contract, we would be required to comply with numerous laws and regulations relating to the formation, administration and performance of the grant or contract, which can make it more difficult for us to retain our rights under such grant or contract and result in increased costs.
If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity, debt or other financing structures, or through collaborations, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties, or through receiving government and/or charitable grants or contracts, we may be required to delay, reduce or terminate our advancement of the Cloudbreak program for non-influenza DFCs, or be forced to grant rights in the Cloudbreak program for non-influenza DFCs that we would otherwise prefer to retain for ourselves.If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity, debt or other financing structures, or through collaborations, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties, or through receiving government and/or charitable grants or contracts, we may be required to delay, reduce or terminate our rezafungin development program, including our ReSPECT Phase 3 clinical trial, be unable to meet our development obligations under the Mundipharma Collaboration Agreement and the Melinta License Agreement, and be unable to continue advancing the Cloudbreak program for non-influenza DFCs, or be forced to grant rights in the Cloudbreak program for non-influenza DFCs that we would otherwise prefer to retain for ourselves.
We have incurred significant operating losses since our inception, and we anticipate that we will continue to incur substantial operating losses for the foreseeable future. We may never achieve or maintain profitability.
Since our inception, we have incurred significant operating losses. We incurred a net loss of $169.8 million and $22.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. We had net loss of $22.9 million and $33.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. As of December 31, 2024, we had an accumulated deficit of $611.3 million. To date, we have financed our operations primarily through sale of our stock in public offerings and private placements, through borrowings under loan facilities, and through payments received in connection with our prior collaborations. To date, we have financed our operations primarily through sale of our stock in public offerings and private placements, through borrowings under loan facilities, and through payments received in connection with the Mundipharma Collaboration Agreement, the Janssen Collaboration Agreement and the Melinta License Agreement. We have completed Phase 1 and Phase 2a studies of CD388. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and increasing operating losses for the foreseeable future. Our net losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if and as we:
submit investigational new drug applications, or INDs, to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, and equivalent filings to other regulatory authorities, and seek approval of our clinical protocols by institutional review boards at clinical trial sites;
continue to advance CD388 through clinical development;
resume the preclinical development of CBO421 and other DFCs from our Cloudbreak platform or otherwise, and advance one or more of such product candidates into clinical trials;
seek marketing approvals for CD388, CBO421 and other product candidates;
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establish or contract for a sales, marketing and distribution infrastructure to commercialize any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval;
maintain, expand and enforce our intellectual property portfolio;
hire additional manufacturing, clinical, regulatory, quality assurance and scientific personnel;
add operational, financial and management systems and personnel, including personnel to support product development; and
acquire or in-license other product candidates and technologies.
To become and remain profitable, we must develop and eventually commercialize one or more products with significant market potential. This will require us to be successful in a range of challenging activities, including completing preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates, obtaining marketing approval for these product candidates, manufacturing, marketing and selling those product candidates for which we may obtain marketing approval, and satisfying any post-marketing requirements. We may never succeed in these activities and, even if we do, may never generate revenue that is significant or large enough to achieve profitability. Our failure to become and remain profitable would decrease our value and could impair our ability to raise capital, maintain our research and development, or R&D, efforts, expand our business or continue our operations. A decline in the value of our company could also cause you to lose all or part of your investment.
Unfavorable global economic conditions could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Our results of operations could be adversely affected by general conditions in the global economy and in the global financial markets. The recent global financial crisis caused extreme volatility and disruptions in the capital and credit markets. A severe or prolonged economic downturn, such as the recent global financial crisis, could result in a variety of risks to our business, including our ability to raise additional capital when needed on acceptable terms, if at all. This is particularly true in Europe, which is undergoing a continued severe economic crisis. A weak or declining economy could also strain our suppliers, possibly resulting in supply disruption. Any of the foregoing could harm our business and we cannot anticipate all of the ways in which the current economic climate and financial market conditions could adversely impact our business.
The global credit and financial markets have recently experienced extreme volatility and disruptions, including diminished liquidity and credit availability, declines in consumer confidence, declines in economic growth, rising inflation, bank failures, increases in unemployment rates and uncertainty about economic stability. If the equity and credit markets continue to deteriorate, it may make access to our liquidity within the U.S. banking system and any additional debt or equity financing more difficult, more costly and more dilutive.
The active conflicts in the Middle East and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could lead to disruption, instability and volatility in global markets and industries that could negatively impact our operations.The Israel-Hamas war and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could lead to disruption, instability and volatility in global markets and industries that could negatively impact our operations. For example, in connection with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the U.S. government and other governments in jurisdictions in which we operate have imposed severe sanctions and export controls against Russia and Belarus, as well as Belarusian and Russian interests, and threatened additional sanctions and controls. The impact of these measures, as well as potential responses to them by Russia or Belarus, is currently unknown and they could adversely affect our business, supply chain, partners or customers. The impact of these measures, as well as potential responses to them by Russia, is currently unknown and they could adversely affect our business, supply chain, partners or customers.
We have no history of commercializing pharmaceutical products, which may make it difficult for you to evaluate the prospect for our future viability.
We have not yet demonstrated an ability to conduct sales and marketing activities necessary for successful commercialization. Typically, it takes many years to develop one new product from the time it is discovered to when it is commercially available. Consequently, any predictions made about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history or if we had product candidates in advanced clinical trials.
In addition we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other known and unknown factors that may alter or delay our plans. We will need to continue to transition from a company with a research focus to a company capable of supporting late-stage development activities and, if a product candidate is approved, a company with commercial activities. We may not be successful in any step of such a transition.
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Risks Related to Drug Discovery, Development and Commercialization
We depend heavily on the success of CD388, which has completed Phase 2a clinical development, and we are very early in our efforts to develop other product candidates from our Cloudbreak program, none of which may be successful.
We received IND clearance for CD388, our DFC for prevention and treatment of influenza, from the FDA in March 2022 and have completed a Phase 1 clinical trial and a Phase 2a clinical trial of CD388 to evaluate the pre-exposure prophylactic activity of CD388 against influenza virus as well as a separate Phase 1 Japanese bridging study. In September 2024, we initiated the CD388 Phase 2b NAVIGATE trial to be conducted during the Northern Hemisphere influenza season and on December 4, 2024 we announced that enrollment in the trial was complete. We received IND clearance for CBO421 in July 2024. Our assumptions about why CD388 is worthy of continued development, as well as our assumptions about the market for CD388 or any other potential products from our Cloudbreak program, are based on data primarily collected by other companies. Our assumptions about why rezafungin and CD388 are worthy of continued development, as well as our assumptions about the markets for rezafungin, CD388, CBO421 or any other potential products from our Cloudbreak program, are based on data primarily collected by other companies. The timing and costs of our preclinical and clinical development programs, the likelihood of any marketing approval for CD388, and the regulatory paths for marketing approval for additional products from our Cloudbreak program remain uncertain. The timing and costs of our preclinical and clinical development programs, the likelihood of European marketing approval for rezafungin and any marketing approval for CD388, and the regulatory paths for marketing approval for additional products from our Cloudbreak program remain uncertain. Our ability to generate product revenue, which we do not expect will occur for many years, if ever, will depend heavily on the successful development and eventual commercialization of our product candidates. The success of CD388 and any other product candidates we may develop will depend on many factors, including the following:
our ability to secure adequate additional funding;
agreement with regulatory authorities on study designs and other requirements for study initiation;
successful completion of preclinical studies;
successful enrollment and completion of clinical trials;
demonstration of safety and efficacy;
receipt of marketing approvals from applicable regulatory authorities;
negotiation of favorable indications and other key elements of the product labeling;
establishing clinical and commercial manufacturing capabilities or making arrangements with third-party manufacturers;
obtaining and maintaining patent and trade secret protection and non-patent exclusivity for our product candidates and technologies;
launching commercial sales of the product candidates if and when approved;
acceptance of the product candidates, if and when approved, by patients, the medical community and third-party payors;
effectively competing with other therapies;
a continued acceptable safety profile of the products following approval; and
enforcing and defending intellectual property rights and claims.
If we do not accomplish one or more of any of the other goals in a timely manner, or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully complete the development of and commercialize our product candidates, which would harm our business. If we do not accomplish one or more of any of the other goals in a timely manner, or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully complete the development of and commercialize our product candidates, which would harm our business.
If we experience delays or difficulties in enrolling patients in our clinical trials our receipt of necessary regulatory approvals could be delayed or prevented.
We may not be able to complete the ongoing CD388 Phase 2b NAVIGATE trial or enroll a sufficient number of eligible subjects into one or more Phase 3 trials to support regulatory approval of CD388, as required by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside the U.S., or if we do not believe that the number of patients required by such regulatory authorities can be enrolled in a reasonable timeframe.
Our CD388 clinical development program is a global program and, as such, our ability to timely enroll the clinical trials may be affected by many different factors specific to those global localities, such as, delays in our receipt of approval to commence trials in a particular country from applicable regulatory authorities and ethics committees, timely completion of clinical trial site initiation within each country, delays in local importation and receipt of necessary clinical trial supplies, and our ongoing compliance with local regulations, which may change during the course of the clinical trial.Our rezafungin Phase 3 clinical development program is a global program and, as such, our ability to timely enroll the clinical trials may be affected by many different factors specific to those global localities, such as, delays in our receipt of approval to commence trials in a particular country from applicable regulatory authorities and ethics committees, timely completion of clinical trial site initiation within each country, delays in local importation and receipt of necessary clinical trial supplies, and our ongoing compliance with local regulations, which may change during the course of the clinical trial.
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In addition, we are heavily reliant on third-party contractors, including contractors that import clinical trial materials, and contract research organizations, or CROs, that conduct and monitor our clinical trials, and interact with regional or local regulators and ethics committees on our behalf.In addition, the rezafungin clinical trials are heavily reliant on third-party contractors, including contractors that import clinical trial materials, and contract research organizations, or CROs, that conduct and monitor our clinical trials, and interact with regional or local regulators and ethics committees on our behalf. If we experience significant difficulties with any of our key contractors such that we determine it is in the best interests of the clinical trials to replace a key contractor, this could result in a significant delay in enrollment.
In addition, some of our competitors may have ongoing or new clinical trials for product candidates that would treat the same indication as CD388, or be used in the same patients and, therefore, patients who would otherwise be eligible for our clinical trials may instead enroll in clinical trials of our competitors’ product candidates. In addition, some of our competitors may have ongoing or new clinical trials for product candidates that would treat the same indications as rezafungin, or be used in the same patients and, therefore, patients who would otherwise be eligible for our clinical trials may instead enroll in clinical trials of our competitors’ product candidates. Patient enrollment may also be affected by other factors, including:
eligibility criteria, including regional or local practices that place additional limitations on patient eligibility;
availability, safety and efficacy of approved medications or other investigational medications being studied clinically for the disease under investigation;
perceived risks and benefits of CD388;
efforts to facilitate timely enrollment in clinical trials;
reluctance of physicians to encourage patient participation in clinical trials;
the ability to monitor patients adequately during and after treatment;
the proximity and availability of clinical trial sites for prospective patients;
delays or failures in maintaining an adequate supply of quality drug product for use in clinical trials; and
changing treatment patterns that may reduce the burden of disease which CD388 addresses.
Our inability to enroll and retain a sufficient number of patients into Phase 3 clinical trials in a reasonable timeframe may require us to abandon the entire CD388 clinical development program.Our inability to enroll and retain a sufficient number of patients in a reasonable timeframe may require us to abandon the entire rezafungin Phase 3 clinical development program or terminate the ReSPECT trial. Any enrollment delays would result in increased development costs, which could cause the value of our company to decline and could limit our ability to obtain necessary additional financing. Enrollment delays have and will continue to result in increased development costs, which could cause the value of our company to decline and could limit our ability to obtain necessary additional financing.
If clinical trials for CD388 or any other product candidates are delayed, terminated or suspended, or fail to demonstrate safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of regulatory authorities, we may incur additional costs, or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of our product candidates.If clinical trials for rezafungin, CD388, CBO421 or any other product candidates are delayed, terminated or suspended, or fail to demonstrate safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of regulatory authorities, we may incur additional costs, or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of our product candidates.
Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of our product candidates, we must complete preclinical development and then conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our product candidates in humans. Clinical testing is expensive, difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete and is uncertain as to outcome. A delay in starting or completing our clinical trials would materially impact our timelines and our ability to complete development of our product candidates in a timely manner or at all.
A failure of one or more clinical trials could occur at any stage of testing. The outcome of preclinical testing and early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later clinical trials, and interim results of a particular clinical trial do not necessarily predict final results of that trial.
Moreover, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to multiple interpretations and analyses. Many companies that have believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their products. For example, the historically observed high rate of correlation for clinical efficacy for antivirals based on preclinical data may not apply for our current or future product candidates, and any of the potential benefits that we anticipate for human clinical use may not be realized. For example, the historically observed high rate of correlation for clinical efficacy for anti-infectives based on preclinical data may not apply for our current or future product candidates, and any of the potential benefits that we anticipate for human clinical use may not be realized.
We do not know whether clinical trials of CD388 will be completed on schedule. We may experience numerous unforeseen events that could delay or prevent our ability to commence or complete our clinical trials, which could then delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize CD388, including:
regulators or institutional review boards may not authorize us or our investigators to commence a clinical trial on our expected timeline, or at all, or conduct a clinical trial at a prospective trial site or in a given country;
regulators may disagree with our interpretation of preclinical data, which may impact our ability to commence our trials on our expected timeline or at all;
regulators may require that trials or studies be conducted, or sized or otherwise designed in ways, that were unforeseen in order to begin planned studies or to obtain marketing authorization;
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we may have delays in reaching or fail to reach agreement on acceptable clinical trial contracts or clinical trial protocols with prospective trial sites;
clinical trials of our product candidates may produce negative or inconclusive results, and we may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional clinical trials, modify planned clinical trial designs or abandon product development programs;
the number of patients required for clinical trials of our product candidates may be larger than we anticipate;
enrollment in these clinical trials may be slower than we anticipate, clinical sites may drop out of our clinical trials or participants may drop out of these clinical trials at a higher rate than we anticipate;
our third-party contractors may fail to comply with regulatory requirements or meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner, or at all;
regulators, institutional review boards or the data safety monitoring board assembled by us to oversee our clinical trials may require that we or our investigators suspend or terminate clinical research for various reasons, including noncompliance with regulatory requirements or a finding that the participants are being exposed to unacceptable health risks due to serious and unexpected side effects;
the cost of clinical trials of our product candidates may be greater than we anticipate;
the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities could require that we perform more studies than, or evaluate clinical endpoints other than, those that we currently expect;
the supply of our product candidates or other materials necessary to conduct clinical trials of our product candidates may be delayed or insufficient, or the quality of such materials may be inadequate; and
we may be required to delay or terminate studies due to financial constraints.
If we are required to conduct additional clinical trials, or other tests of our product candidates beyond those that we currently contemplate, if we are unable to complete clinical trials of our product candidates or other tests successfully or in a timely manner, if the results of these trials or tests are not positive or are only modestly positive or if there are safety concerns, we may:
be delayed in obtaining marketing approval for our product candidates;
not obtain marketing approval at all;
obtain approval for indications or patient populations that are not as broad as intended or desired;
obtain approval with labeling that includes significant use or distribution restrictions or safety warnings, including boxed warnings;
be subject to additional post-marketing testing requirements;
be subject to significant restrictions on reimbursement from public and/or private payors; or
have the product removed from the market after obtaining marketing approval.
Product development costs will also increase if we experience delays in testing or in receiving marketing approvals. We do not know whether any clinical trials will begin as planned, will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, or at all. Significant clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates, could allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, could increase competition from generics of the same class, and could impair our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates, any of which may harm our business and results of operations.
If serious adverse reactions or unexpected characteristics of our product candidates are identified during development, we may need to abandon or limit our development of some or all of our product candidates.
Because it is impossible to predict when or if any of our product candidates will prove effective or safe in humans or will receive marketing approval, the risk of each of our programs is high. If our product candidates are associated with undesirable side effects or have characteristics that are unexpected, we may need to abandon their development or limit development to certain uses or subpopulations in which the undesirable side effects or other characteristics are less prevalent, less severe or more acceptable from a risk-benefit perspective.
For our DFCs, the bispecific mechanism of action, including the use of the immune system, may lead to side effects that are not anticipated based on the preclinical work we have conducted to date. For our DFCs, the bispecific mechanism of action, including the use of the immune system, may lead to side effects that are not anticipated based on the preclinical work we have conducted to date.
In the biotechnology industry, many agents that initially show promise in early stage testing may later be found to cause side effects that prevent further development of the agents. In addition, infections can occur in patients with co-morbidities and weakened immune systems, and there may be adverse events and deaths in our clinical trials that are attributable to factors other than investigational use of our product candidates.
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Any of our product candidates that receive marketing approval may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, formulary committees, third-party payors and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.
Any of our product candidates that receive marketing approval may nonetheless fail to gain sufficient market acceptance by hospitals and hospital pharmacies, physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community for us to achieve commercial success. If our product candidates do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate sufficient product revenue to become profitable. The degree of market acceptance of our product candidates, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including:
the efficacy and potential advantages compared to alternative therapies;
the size of the markets in the countries in which approvals are obtained;
terms, limitations or warnings contained in any labeling approved by the FDA or other regulatory authority;
our ability to offer any approved products for sale at competitive prices;
convenience and ease of administration compared to alternative treatments;
the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies or dosing regimens;
the willingness of physicians to prescribe these therapies;
the strength of marketing and distribution support;
the success of competing products and the marketing efforts of our competitors;
sufficient third-party payor coverage and adequate reimbursement; and
the prevalence and severity of any side effects.
If, in the future, we are unable to establish sales and marketing capabilities or to selectively enter into agreements with third parties to sell and market our product candidates, we may not be successful in commercializing our product candidates, if and when they are approved. In addition, if we enter into agreements with third parties to sell and market our product candidates, such third parties may not be successful in commercializing our products.
We do not have a sales or marketing infrastructure. To achieve commercial success for any approved product, we must license the rights to third parties with such capabilities, develop a sales and marketing organization or outsource these functions to third parties.
There are risks involved both with establishing our own sales and marketing capabilities and with entering into arrangements with third parties to perform these services. For example, recruiting and training a sales force is expensive and time consuming and could delay any product launch. If the commercial launch of a product candidate for which we recruit a sales force and establish marketing capabilities is delayed or does not occur for any reason, we would have prematurely or unnecessarily incurred these commercialization expenses. This may be costly and our investment would be lost if we cannot reposition our sales and marketing personnel.
Factors that may inhibit our efforts to commercialize our product candidates on our own include:
our inability to recruit and retain adequate numbers of effective sales and marketing personnel;
the inability of sales personnel to obtain access to physicians or to achieve adequate numbers of prescriptions for any future products; and
costs and expenses associated with creating an independent sales and marketing organization.
If we enter into arrangements with third parties to perform sales, marketing and distribution services, our product revenue or the profitability of these product revenues to us may be lower than if we were to market and sell any products that we develop ourselves. In addition, we may not be successful in entering into arrangements with third parties to sell and market our product candidates or may be unable to do so on terms that are favorable to us. We may have little control over such third parties and any of them may fail to market and sell our products effectively, including by failing to devote the necessary resources and attention. If we do not establish 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.
If we do establish relationships with third parties to sell and market our product candidates, such third parties may not be successful in commercializing those products.
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We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing or commercializing products before or more successfully than we do.
The development and commercialization of new drug products is highly competitive. We face competition with respect to our current product candidates, and will face competition with respect to any product candidates that we may seek to develop or commercialize in the future from major pharmaceutical companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies worldwide. Regulatory incentives to develop drugs for treatment of infectious diseases have increased interest and activity in this area and will lead to increased competition for clinical investigators and clinical trial subjects, as well as for future prescriptions, if any of our product candidates are successfully developed and approved. There are a number of large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that currently market and sell products or are pursuing the development of products for the treatment of the indications on which we are focusing our product development efforts. Some of these competitive products and therapies are based on scientific approaches that are the same as or similar to our approach and others are based on entirely different approaches. Potential competitors also include academic institutions, government agencies and other public and private research organizations that conduct research, seek patent protection and establish collaborative arrangements for research, development, manufacturing and commercialization.
We expect that CD388 will compete against approved and investigational agents for the treatment or prevention of viral influenza infections, including influenza vaccines, monoclonal antibodies targeting hemagglutinin, and small molecule neuraminidase inhibitors such as Tamiflu, Relenza and Peramivir, and endonuclease inhibitors such as Xofluza.We expect that CD388 will compete against approved and investigational agents for the treatment or prevention of viral influenza infections, including influenza vaccines, neuraminidase inhibitors such as Tamiflu, Relenza and Peramivir, and endonuclease inhibitors such as Xofluza. We may develop other product candidates through our Cloudbreak platform for the treatment or prevention of other serious diseases, such as solid tumors and viral infections. We are aware of a large number of approved and investigational therapies in these areas also.
Our competitors may develop products that are more effective, safer, more convenient or less costly than any that we are developing or that would render our product candidates obsolete or non-competitive. Our competitors may also obtain marketing approval from the FDA or other regulatory authorities for their products sooner than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market.
Many of our competitors have significantly greater name recognition, financial resources and expertise in R&D, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals and marketing approved products than we do. Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller and other early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These same competitors may invent technology that competes with our CD388 or our Cloudbreak platform. These same competitors may invent technology that competes with our rezafungin program, CD388, CBO421, or our Cloudbreak platform.
These third parties may compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and patient enrollment for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs.
Interim, topline and preliminary data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.
From time to time, we publicly disclose interim, preliminary or topline data from our clinical studies, which is based on a preliminary analysis of then-available data, and the results and related findings and conclusions are subject to change following a more comprehensive review of the data related to the particular study or trial. We also make assumptions, estimations, calculations and conclusions as part of our analysis of data, and we may not have received or had the opportunity to fully and carefully evaluate all data. As a result, the topline results that we report may differ from future results of the same studies, or different conclusions or considerations may qualify such results, once additional data have been received and fully evaluated. Topline data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary data we previously published. As a result, topline data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. From time to time, we may also disclose interim data from our clinical studies. Interim data from clinical trials that we may complete are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as patient enrollment continues and more patient data become available. Adverse differences between preliminary or interim data and final data could significantly harm our business prospects.
Further, others, including regulatory authorities, may not accept or agree with our assumptions, estimates, calculations, conclusions or analyses or may interpret or weigh the importance of data differently, which could impact the value of the particular program, the approvability or commercialization of the particular product candidate or product and our company in general. In addition, the information we choose to publicly disclose regarding a particular study or clinical trial is based on what is typically extensive information, and you or others may not agree with what we determine is the material or otherwise appropriate information to include in our disclosure, and any information we determine not to
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disclose may ultimately be deemed significant with respect to future decisions, conclusions, views, activities or otherwise regarding a particular drug, drug candidate or our business. If the topline data that we report differ from actual results, or if others, including regulatory authorities, disagree with the conclusions reached, our ability to obtain approval for, and commercialize, our product candidates may be harmed, which could harm our business, operating results, prospects or financial condition.
Even if we are able to commercialize any product candidates, these products may become subject to unfavorable pricing regulations, third-party reimbursement practices or healthcare reform initiatives, which would harm our business.
The regulations that govern marketing approvals, pricing, coverage and reimbursement for new drugs vary widely from country to country. In the U.S., new and future legislation may significantly change the approval requirements in ways that could involve additional costs and cause delays in obtaining approvals. Some countries require approval of the sale price of a drug before it can be marketed. In many countries, the pricing review period begins after marketing or product-licensing approval is granted. In some foreign markets, prescription pharmaceutical pricing remains subject to continuing governmental control even after initial marketing approval is granted. As a result, we might obtain marketing approval for a drug in a particular country but then be subject to price regulations that delay its commercial launch, possibly for lengthy time periods, and negatively impact the revenue we are able to generate from the sale of the drug in that country. Adverse pricing limitations may hinder our ability to commercialize and generate revenue from one or more product candidates, even if our product candidates obtain marketing approval.
Our ability to commercialize any product candidates successfully also will depend in part on the extent to which coverage and adequate reimbursement for these products and related treatments will be available from government health programs, private health insurers, integrated delivery networks and other third-party payors. Third-party payors decide which medications they will pay for and establish reimbursement levels. A significant trend in the U.S. healthcare industry and elsewhere is cost containment. Government authorities and third-party payors have attempted to control costs by limiting coverage and the amount of payment for particular medications. Increasingly, third-party payors are requiring that drug companies provide predetermined discounts from list prices and are challenging the prices charged for medical products. Coverage and reimbursement may not be available for any product that we commercialize and, if reimbursement is available, the level of reimbursement may not be sufficient for commercial success. Coverage and reimbursement may impact the demand for, or the price of, any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval. If coverage and reimbursement is not available or is available only to limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval.
There may be significant delays in obtaining coverage and adequate reimbursement for newly approved products, and coverage may be more limited than the purposes for which the product is approved by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside the U.S. Moreover, eligibility for coverage and reimbursement does not imply that any product will be paid for in all cases or at a rate that covers our costs, including research, development, manufacture, sale and distribution. Interim reimbursement levels for new drugs, if applicable, may also not be sufficient to cover our costs and may not be made permanent. Coverage and reimbursement rates may vary according to the use of the drug and the medical circumstances under which it is used may be based on reimbursement levels already set for lower cost products or procedures or may be incorporated into existing payments for other services. Net prices for drugs may be reduced by mandatory discounts or rebates required by government healthcare programs or private payors and by any future relaxation of laws that presently restrict imports of drugs from countries where they may be sold at lower prices than in the U.S. Commercial third-party payors often rely upon Medicare coverage policies and payment limitations in setting their own reimbursement policies. Our inability to promptly obtain coverage and profitable payment rates from both government-funded programs and private payors for any approved products that we develop could have a material adverse effect on our operating results, our ability to raise capital needed to commercialize our approved products and our overall financial condition. Further, coverage policies and third-party payor reimbursement rates may change at any time. Therefore, even if favorable coverage and reimbursement status is attained, less favorable coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future.
Product liability lawsuits against us could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and could limit the commercialization of any product candidates we may develop.
We face an inherent risk of product liability exposure related to the testing of our product candidates in human clinical trials and we face an even greater risk for our products that receive marketing approval. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against claims that our product candidates and products caused injuries, we could incur substantial liabilities. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:
decreased demand for any product candidates that we may develop;
injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention;
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withdrawal of clinical trial participants;
significant costs and distraction of management to defend any related litigation;
the initiation of investigations by regulatory bodies;
substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;
loss of revenue;
product recalls, withdrawals or labeling, marketing or promotional restrictions; and
the inability to commercialize any products we may develop.
Although we have product liability insurance for our clinical trials, such insurance may not be adequate to cover all liabilities that we may incur. We anticipate that we will need to increase our insurance coverage as we continue or expand our clinical trials and if we successfully commercialize any products. Insurance coverage is increasingly expensive. We may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in an amount adequate to satisfy any liability that may arise.
If we fail to comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur costs that could harm our business.
We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures and the handling, use, storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological and radioactive materials. Our operations also produce hazardous waste products. We generally contract with third parties for the disposal of these materials and wastes. We cannot eliminate the risk of contamination or injury from these materials. In the event of contamination or injury resulting from our use of hazardous materials, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, and any liability could exceed our resources. We also could incur significant costs associated with civil or criminal fines and penalties.
Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees in our workplace, including those resulting from the use of hazardous materials, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. We do not maintain insurance for environmental liability or toxic tort claims that may be asserted against us in connection with our storage or disposal of biological, chemical, hazardous or radioactive materials.
In addition, we may incur substantial costs in order to comply with current or future environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. These current or future laws and regulations may impair our research, development or production efforts. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations also may result in substantial fines, penalties or other sanctions.
We may not be successful in our efforts to identify, discover, and develop potential product candidates through our Cloudbreak platform or otherwise.
Through our Cloudbreak platform, we are developing DFCs for the treatment and prevention of serious diseases, including influenza and various cancers. We have nominated the DFC CD388 as our lead development candidate for influenza, and we have nominated CBO421 as our lead oncology DFC candidate. We do not plan to initiate clinical trials for any oncology product candidates at this time but continue business development discussions for our oncology DFC programs, including CBO421. In applying our Cloudbreak platform, we may not be successful in identifying additional DFCs that could be developed as drug therapies. In addition, our Cloudbreak platform may initially show promise in identifying potential product candidates, yet fail to yield product candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons. In particular, our research methodology used may not be successful in identifying compounds with sufficient potency, bioavailability or efficacy to be potential product candidates. In addition, our potential product candidates may, on further study, be shown to have harmful side effects or other negative characteristics.
Research programs to identify new product candidates require substantial technical expertise and human resources. For example, we have limited experience with the use of the Cloudbreak platform applied to influenza and immuno-oncology targets. For example, we have limited experience with the use of the Cloudbreak platform applied to viral pathogens and oncology targets. A failure to optimize our expertise using the Cloudbreak platform for the development of our Cloudbreak program may limit our ability to successfully advance this program and identify future product candidates. Research programs to identify new product candidates also require substantial financial resources. We may choose to expend our financial resources on potential product candidates that ultimately prove to be unsuccessful. If we are unable to identify successful product candidates from our Cloudbreak platform for preclinical and clinical development, we will have spent financial resources on programs that did not yield viable products and therefore generate product revenue, which would harm our financial position and adversely impact our stock price.
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Risks Related to Our Dependence on Third Parties
We may seek to selectively establish collaborations and, if we are unable to establish them on commercially reasonable terms or at all, we may have to alter our research, clinical development and commercialization plans.
We may seek to collaborate with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to advance the Cloudbreak program for DFCs. We may also seek funding from government grants or contracts to advance the Cloudbreak program for DFCs. We may also seek funding from government grants or contracts to advance the Cloudbreak program for DFCs outside of the Janssen Collaboration Agreement. We cannot be certain that we will be successful in completing any such collaboration or obtaining any such government grants or contracts, or completing any of them on commercially reasonable terms.
We face significant competition in seeking appropriate pharmaceutical or biotech collaborators. Whether we reach a definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, on the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration and the proposed collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors.
Those factors may include:
the design or results of preclinical studies, chemistry, manufacturing and controls, or CMC, development activities or clinical trials;
the likelihood of approval by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside the U.S.;
the potential market for the product candidate in the territories that are the subject of the collaboration;
the costs and complexities of manufacturing and delivering such product candidate to patients;
the potential of competing products;
the existence of uncertainty with respect to our ownership of technology, which can exist if there is a challenge to such ownership without regard to the merits of the challenge; and
industry and market conditions generally.
The collaborator may also consider alternative product candidates for similar indications that may be available to collaborate on and whether such a collaboration could be more attractive than the one with us for our product candidate.
We also face significant competition for government grants and contracts for the Cloudbreak program, and there can be no assurances that such funding would be available to us if and when needed, or at all. For instance, government funding may be available only at certain phases of R&D, such as only after Phase 1 clinical trials have been completed. In order to advance the Cloudbreak program for DFCs, we will need to obtain significant funding to complete manufacturing development and Phase 1 clinical trials. In order to advance the Cloudbreak program for DFCs outside of the Janssen Collaboration Agreement, we will need to obtain significant funding to complete IND-enabling studies, manufacturing development and Phase 1 clinical trials. Government grants and contracts may not be available to fund our activities at this earlier phase of the R&D process.
We intend to continue to rely on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and to conduct some aspects of our research and preclinical testing and those third parties may not perform satisfactorily, including failing to meet deadlines for the completion of such trials, research or testing.
We currently rely and expect to continue to rely on third parties, such as CROs, contract manufacturers of clinical supplies, clinical data management organizations, medical institutions and clinical investigators, to conduct our clinical trials and to conduct some aspects of our research and preclinical testing. Many of these third parties may terminate their engagements with us at any time. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines or conduct our studies in accordance with regulatory requirements or our stated protocols, we will not be able to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, marketing approvals for our product candidates and will not be able to, or may be delayed in our efforts to, successfully commercialize our product candidates. Furthermore, these third parties may also have relationships with other entities, some of which may be our competitors. If we need to enter into alternative arrangements, it would delay our product development activities.
Our reliance on these third parties for R&D activities will reduce our control over these activities but will not relieve us of our responsibilities. For example, we will remain responsible for ensuring that each of our clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the general investigational plan and protocols for the trial. Moreover, the FDA and other international regulatory authorities require us to comply with standards, commonly referred to as Good Clinical Practices, for conducting, recording and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the rights, integrity and confidentiality of trial participants are protected. We also are required to register ongoing clinical trials and post the results of completed clinical trials on a government-sponsored database, available at www.clinicaltrials.gov, within certain timeframes. Failure to do so can result in fines, adverse publicity and civil and criminal sanctions.
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We have no experience manufacturing product candidates on a clinical or commercial scale and will be dependent on third parties for the manufacture of our product candidates. If we experience problems with any of these third parties, they could delay clinical development or marketing approval of our product candidates or our ability to sell any approved products.
We do not have any manufacturing facilities. We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third-party manufacturers for the manufacture of our product candidates for preclinical studies and clinical trials and for commercial supply of any of these product candidates should we obtain marketing approval.
We have established agreements with third-party manufacturers for production of our products for clinical and commercial use, and our reliance on these- manufacturers entails additional risks, including:
reliance on the third party for regulatory compliance and quality assurance;
the possible breach of the manufacturing agreement by the third party, including the inability to supply sufficient quantities or to meet quality standards or timelines; and
the possible termination or nonrenewal of the agreement by the third party at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us.
Third-party manufacturers may not be able to comply with current U.S. Good Manufacturing Practice requirements, or cGMPs, or similar regulatory requirements outside the U.S. Our failure, or the failure of our third-party manufacturers, to comply with cGMPs or other applicable regulations, even if such failures do not relate specifically to our product candidates or approved products, could result in sanctions being imposed on us or the manufacturers, including fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, seizures or recalls of product candidates, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could adversely affect supplies of our product candidates and harm our business and results of operations.
Any product that we develop may compete with other product candidates and products for access to these manufacturing facilities. There are a limited number of manufacturers that operate under cGMPs and that might be capable of manufacturing for us. Furthermore, some materials for our product candidates may be sourced from a single-source supplier, and we may be unable to identify an alternative supplier in the event any such single-source supplier is unable to perform.
Any performance failure on the part of our existing or future manufacturers or suppliers, including a failure that may not relate specifically to our product candidate or approved product, could delay clinical development or marketing approval or adversely impact our ability to generate commercial sales.Any performance failure on the part of our existing or future manufacturers, including a failure that may not relate specifically to our product candidate or approved product, could delay clinical development or marketing approval or adversely impact our ability to generate commercial sales. If any one of our current contract manufacturers cannot perform as agreed, we may be required to replace that manufacturer.
Some of our manufacturers and suppliers are located in China. Trade tensions and conflict between the United States and China have been escalating in recent years and, as such, we are exposed to the possibility of product supply disruption and increased costs and expenses in the event of changes to the laws, rules, regulations, and policies of the governments of the United States or China, or due to geopolitical unrest and unstable economic conditions. Certain Chinese biotechnology companies may become subject to trade restrictions, sanctions, other regulatory requirements, or proposed legislation by the U.S. Government, which could restrict or even prohibit our ability to work with such entities, thereby potentially disrupting their supply of material to us. Such disruption could have adverse effects on the development of our product candidates and our business operations. In addition, the House of Representatives of the prior Congress (the 118th Congress) passed the BIOSECURE Act which proposed targeting U.S. government contracts, grants and loans for entities that use biotechnology equipment or services from certain named Chinese biotechnology companies and potentially other biotechnology companies designated in the future. The language of the proposed BIOSECURE Act would, among other things, prohibit U.S. federal agencies from entering into or renewing any contract with any entity that uses biotechnology equipment or services produced or provided by a “biotechnology company of concern” to perform that contract. The version of the bill passed by the prior House of Representatives included a “grandfathering” provision which provided that the BIOSECURE Act’s prohibitions would not apply to pre-existing contracts and agreements entered into prior to the legislation’s effective date until January 1, 2032. The BIOSECURE Act did not become law in the 118th Congress. It is unclear whether the current Congress (the 119th Congress) will introduce the BIOSECURE Act or similar legislation in this current congressional session and, if so, how the scope, prohibitions, or designated biotechnology companies of concern may differ from the version of the BIOSECURE Act passed by the House in the prior 118th Congress. If these bills become law, or similar laws are passed, they would have the potential to severely restrict the ability of companies to contract with certain Chinese biotechnology companies of concern without losing the ability to contract with, or otherwise receive funding from, the U.S. government.
Our current and anticipated future dependence upon others for the manufacture of our product candidates or products may adversely affect our future profit margins and our ability to commercialize any product candidates that receive marketing approval on a timely and competitive basis.
We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to release, label, store and distribute drug supplies for our clinical trials. Any performance failure on the part of these third parties, including a failure that may not relate specifically to
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our product candidate or approved product, could delay or otherwise adversely impact clinical development or marketing approval of our product candidates or commercialization of our drugs, producing additional losses and depriving us of potential revenue.
Moreover, our manufacturers and suppliers may experience difficulties related to their overall businesses and financial stability, which could result in delays or interruptions of supply of our product candidates or approved products.
We do not have alternate manufacturing plans in place at this time. If we need to change to other manufacturers, the FDA and comparable foreign regulators may have to approve these manufacturers’ facilities and processes prior to our use, which would require new testing and compliance inspections. In addition, the new manufacturers would have to be educated in or independently develop the processes necessary for production. This would result in delays and costs, and in the case of approved products, the potential loss of revenue.
Risks Related to Regulatory Approval of Our Product Candidates and Other Legal Compliance Matters
If we are not able to obtain, or if there are delays in obtaining, required regulatory approvals, we will not be able to commercialize, or will be delayed in commercializing, our product candidates and our ability to generate revenue will be impaired.
Our product candidates and the activities associated with their development and commercialization, including their design, testing, manufacture, release, safety, efficacy, regulatory filings, recordkeeping, labeling, storage, approval, advertising, promotion, sale and distribution, are subject to comprehensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory authorities in the U.S. and by comparable authorities in other countries. For example, in order to commence clinical trials of our product candidates in the U.S., we must file an IND and obtain FDA agreement to proceed. The FDA may place our development program on clinical hold and require further preclinical testing prior to allowing our clinical trials to proceed.
We must obtain marketing approval in each jurisdiction in which we market our products. Failure to obtain marketing approval for a product candidate will prevent us from commercializing the product candidate. We have only limited experience in filing and supporting the applications necessary to gain marketing approvals and expect to rely on third-party CROs to assist us in this process. As a company we may not be able to prepare our contract manufacturers and clinical sites for inspection associated with NDA review, or appearing before an FDA advisory committee. We may receive a Complete Response Letter rather than approval. Securing regulatory approval requires the submission of extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to the various regulatory authorities for each indication to establish the product candidate’s safety and efficacy. Securing regulatory approval also requires the submission of information about the product manufacturing process, testing and release and inspection of manufacturing facilities and personnel by the relevant regulatory authority. Our product candidates may not be effective, may be only moderately effective or may prove to have undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities or other characteristics that may preclude our obtaining marketing approval or prevent or limit commercial use.
The process of obtaining marketing approvals, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, is expensive, may take many years and can vary substantially based upon a variety of factors, including the type, complexity and novelty of the product candidates involved. We cannot assure you that we will ever obtain any marketing approvals in any jurisdiction. Changes in marketing approval policies during the development period, changes in or the enactment of additional statutes or regulations or changes in regulatory review for each submitted product application may cause delays in the approval or rejection of an application. The FDA and comparable authorities in other countries have substantial discretion in the approval process and may refuse to accept any application or may decide that our data is insufficient for approval and require additional preclinical or other studies, changes in the manufacturing process or facilities or clinical trials. Moreover, approval by the FDA or an equivalent foreign authority does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in any other countries or jurisdictions, but a failure to obtain marketing approval in one jurisdiction may adversely impact the likelihood of approval in other jurisdictions. In addition, varying interpretations of the data obtained from preclinical testing, manufacturing and product testing and clinical trials could delay, limit or prevent marketing approval of a product candidate. Additionally, any marketing approval we ultimately obtain may be limited or subject to restrictions or post-approval commitments that render the approved product not commercially viable.
Any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval could be subject to marketing restrictions or withdrawal from the market and we may be subject to penalties if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or if we experience unanticipated problems with our products.
Any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval, along with the manufacturing processes and facilities, post-approval clinical data, labeling, advertising and promotional activities for such product, will be subject to continual requirements of and review by the FDA and other regulatory authorities. These requirements include submissions of promotional materials and safety and other post-marketing information and reports, registration and listing requirements, cGMP requirements for product facilities, quality assurance and corresponding maintenance of records and documents and requirements regarding the distribution of samples to physicians and related recordkeeping. Even if marketing
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approval of a product candidate is granted, the approval may be subject to limitations on the indicated uses for which the product may be marketed or to the conditions of approval or contain requirements for costly post-marketing testing and surveillance to monitor the safety or efficacy of the medicine. Even if marketing approval of a product candidate is granted, the approval may be subject to limitations on the indicated uses for which the product may be marketed or to the conditions of approval or contain requirements for costly post-marketing testing and surveillance to monitor the safety or efficacy of the medicine. The FDA closely regulates the post-approval marketing and promotion of drugs to ensure that they are marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling. However, companies may share truthful and not misleading information that is otherwise consistent with the product’s FDA approved labeling. The FDA imposes stringent restrictions on manufacturers’ communications regarding off-label use and if we do not comply with these restrictions, we may be subject to enforcement actions.
In addition, later discovery of previously unknown problems with our products, manufacturers or manufacturing processes and facilities or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in, among other things:
restrictions on such products, manufacturers or manufacturing processes or facilities;
restrictions on the labeling, marketing, distribution or use of a product;
requirements to conduct post-approval clinical trials, other studies or other post-approval commitments;
warning or untitled letters;
withdrawal of the products from the market;
refusal to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications that we submit;
recall of products;
fines, restitution or disgorgement of profits or revenue;
suspension or withdrawal of marketing approvals;
refusal to permit the import or export of our products;
product seizure; and
injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.
Our relationships with customers, health care professionals and third-party payors may be subject to applicable healthcare laws, which could expose us to penalties, including administrative, civil or criminal penalties, damages, fines, imprisonment, exclusion from participation in federal healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, reputational harm, the curtailment or restructuring of our operations and diminished future profits and earnings.
Healthcare professionals and third-party payors will play a primary role in the recommendation and prescription of any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. Our current and future arrangements with customers, healthcare professionals and third-party payors may expose us to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations that may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we conduct research, market, sell and distribute our medicines for which we obtain marketing approval.
Restrictions under applicable federal and state healthcare laws and regulations include the following, among others:
the federal healthcare anti-kickback statute, which prohibits persons and entities from, among other things, knowingly and willfully soliciting, offering, receiving or providing remuneration, directly or indirectly, in cash or in kind, to induce or reward either the referral of an individual for, or the purchase, lease, order or recommendation of, any good, facility, item or service, for which payment may be made under federal and state healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid;
the federal false claims laws, which impose criminal and civil penalties, including civil whistleblower or qui tam actions under the federal civil False Claims Act, against individuals or entities for, among other things, knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, to the federal government, claims for payment that are false or fraudulent or making a false statement to avoid, decrease or conceal an obligation to pay money to the federal government;
the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, created additional federal criminal statutes that prohibit, among other actions, knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program, including private third party payors, knowingly and willfully embezzling or stealing from a healthcare benefit program, willfully obstructing a criminal investigation of a healthcare offense, and knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact or making any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services. Similar to the U.S. federal anti-kickback statute, a person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation;
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HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009, or HITECH, also imposes criminal and civil liability for, among other things, executing a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program and also imposes obligations, including mandatory contractual terms, on covered entities, including certain healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses, and their respective business associates and their covered subcontractors that create, receive, maintain or transmit individually identifiable health information for or on behalf of a covered entity, with respect to safeguarding the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information;
the federal false statements statute, which prohibits knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact or making any materially false statement in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services;
the federal transparency requirements under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, or collectively, the Affordable Care Act, which require, among other things, certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologics and medical supplies to report annually to CMS information related to payments and other transfers of value to physicians (defined to include doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors), other health care professionals (such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners), and teaching hospitals, and information regarding ownership and investment interests, held by physicians and their immediate family members; and
analogous state and foreign laws and regulations, such as state anti-kickback and false claims laws, which may apply to our business activities, including sales or marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services including, in some states, those reimbursed by non-governmental third-party payors, including private insurers, some state laws which require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government in addition to requiring drug manufacturers to report information related to payments or other transfers of value provided to physicians and other health care providers and entities, marketing expenditures, or drug pricing, state and local laws that require the registration of pharmaceutical sales representatives, and state and foreign laws governing the privacy and security of health information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts.
Efforts to ensure that our business arrangements with third parties will comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations will involve substantial costs. Interpretations of standards of compliance under these laws and regulations are rapidly changing and subject to varying interpretations and it is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices may not comply with current or future statutes, regulations or case law involving applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these laws or any other laws that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, imprisonment, exclusion from government funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, reputational harm, 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 and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could diminish our future profits or earnings. If any of the physicians or other providers or entities with whom we expect to do business are found to be not in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from government funded healthcare programs.
If our information technology systems, or those of third parties with whom we work, or our data are or were compromised, we could experience adverse consequences resulting from such compromise, including, but not limited to, regulatory investigations or actions; litigation; fines and penalties; disruptions of our business operations; reputational harm; loss of revenue or profits; and other adverse consequences.If our information technology systems, or those of third parties upon which we rely, or our data are or were compromised, we could experience adverse consequences resulting from such compromise, including, but not limited to, regulatory investigations or actions; litigation; fines and penalties; disruptions of our business operations; reputational harm; loss of revenue or profits; and other adverse consequences.
In the ordinary course of our business, we and the third parties with whom we work, collect, store, use, transmit, receive, generate, transfer, disclose, make accessible, protect, secure, dispose of, process, and share (collectively, process) personal data and other sensitive information, including proprietary and confidential business data, trade secrets, intellectual property, data we collect about trial participants in connection with clinical trials, and sensitive third-party data (collectively, sensitive data).In the ordinary course of our business, we and the third parties upon which we rely, may collect, store, use, transmit, receive, generate, transfer, disclose, make accessible, protect, secure, dispose of, process, and share (collectively, process) personal data and other sensitive information, including proprietary and confidential business data, trade secrets, intellectual property, data we collect about trial participants in connection with clinical trials, and sensitive third-party data (collectively, sensitive data). As a result, we and the third parties with whom we work face a variety of evolving threats that could cause security incidents. As a result, we and the third parties upon which we rely face a variety of evolving threats that could cause security incidents.
Cyberattacks, malicious internet-based activity, online and offline fraud, and other similar activities threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our sensitive data and information technology systems, and those of the third parties with whom we work. Such threats are prevalent and continue to rise, are increasingly difficult to detect, and come from a variety of sources, including traditional computer “hackers,” threat actors, “hacktivists,” organized criminal threat actors, personnel (such as through theft or misuse), sophisticated nation states, and nation-state-supported actors.
Some actors now engage and are expected to continue to engage in cyberattacks, including without limitation nation-state actors for geopolitical reasons and in conjunction with military conflicts and defense activities. During times of war and
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other major conflicts, we and the third parties with whom we work may be vulnerable to a heightened risk of these attacks, including retaliatory cyberattacks that could materially disrupt our systems and operations, supply chain, and ability to produce, sell and distribute our products. During times of war and other major conflicts, we and the third parties upon which we rely may be vulnerable to a heightened risk of these attacks, including retaliatory cyberattacks that could materially disrupt our systems and operations, supply chain, and ability to produce, sell and distribute our products.
We and the third parties with whom we work are subject to a variety of evolving threats, including but not limited to, social-engineering attacks (including through deep fakes, which are increasingly more difficult to identify as fake, and phishing attacks), malicious code (such as viruses and worms), malware (including as a result of advanced persistent threat intrusions), denial-of-service attacks, credential stuffing, credential harvesting, personnel misconduct or error, ransomware attacks, supply-chain attacks, software bugs, server malfunctions, software or hardware failures, loss of data or other information technology assets, adware, telecommunications failures, earthquakes, fires, floods, attacks enhanced or facilitated by artificial intelligence, or AI, and other similar threats.
In particular, severe ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly prevalent and can lead to significant interruptions in our operations, ability to provide our products or services, loss of sensitive data and income, reputational harm, and diversion of funds. Extortion payments may alleviate the negative impact of a ransomware attack, but we may be unwilling or unable to make such payments due to, for example, applicable laws or regulations prohibiting such payments.
It may be difficult and/or costly to detect, investigate, mitigate, contain, and remediate a security incident. Our efforts to do so may not be successful. Actions taken by us or the third parties with whom we work to detect, investigate, mitigate, contain, and remediate a security incident could result in outages, data losses, and disruptions of our business. Threat actors may also gain access to other networks and systems after a compromise of our networks and systems.
Remote work has increased risks to our information technology systems and data, as more of our employees utilize network connections, computers, and devices outside our premises or network, including working at home, while in transit and in public locations.Remote work has become more common and has increased risks to our information technology systems and data, as more of our employees utilize network connections, computers, and devices outside our premises or network, including working at home, while in transit and in public locations. Additionally, future or past business transactions (such as acquisitions or integrations) could expose us to additional cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities, as our systems could be negatively affected by vulnerabilities present in acquired or integrated entities’ systems and technologies. Furthermore, we may discover security issues that were not found during due diligence of such acquired or integrated entities, and it may be difficult to integrate companies into our information technology environment and security program.
In addition, our reliance on third parties could introduce new cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities, including supply-chain attacks, and other threats to our business operations.In addition, our reliance on third-party service providers could introduce new cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities, including supply-chain attacks, and other threats to our business operations. We rely on third parties to operate critical business systems to process sensitive data in a variety of contexts, including, without limitation, CROs, contract manufacturers of clinical and commercial supplies, clinical data management organizations, medical institutions, clinical investigators, cloud-based infrastructure, data center facilities, encryption and authentication technology, employee email, and other functions. We rely on third-party service providers and technologies to operate critical business systems to process sensitive data in a variety of contexts, including, without limitation, CROs, contract manufacturers of clinical and commercial supplies, clinical data management organizations, medical institutions, clinical investigators, cloud-based infrastructure, data center facilities, encryption and authentication technology, employee email, and other functions. We also rely on third parties to provide other products, services, parts, or otherwise to operate our business. We also rely on third-party service providers to provide other products, services, parts, or otherwise to operate our business. Our ability to monitor these third parties’ information security practices is limited, and these third parties may not have adequate information security measures in place. If the third parties with whom we work experience a security incident or other interruption, we could experience adverse consequences. If our third-party service providers experience a security incident or other interruption, we could experience adverse consequences. While we may be entitled to damages if the third parties with whom we work fail to satisfy their privacy or security-related obligations to us, any award may be insufficient to cover our damages, or we may be unable to recover such award. While we may be entitled to damages if our third-party service providers fail to satisfy their privacy or security-related obligations to us, any award may be insufficient to cover our damages, or we may be unable to recover such award. In addition, supply-chain attacks have increased in frequency and severity, and we cannot guarantee that third parties’ infrastructure in our supply chain or that of the third parties with whom we work have not been compromised. In addition, supply-chain attacks have increased in frequency and severity, and we cannot guarantee that third parties’ infrastructure in our supply chain or our third-party partners’ supply chains have not been compromised.
While we have implemented security measures designed to protect against security incidents, there can be no assurance that these measures will be effective. We take steps designed to detect, mitigate and remediate vulnerabilities in our information systems (such as our hardware and/or software, including that of third parties with whom we work). We have not and may not in the future, however, detect and remediate all such vulnerabilities including on a timely basis. Further, we have (and may in the future) experienced delays in developing and deploying remedial measures and patches designed to address identified vulnerabilities. Further, we may experience delays in developing and deploying remedial measures and patches designed to address identified vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities could be exploited and result in a security incident.
Certain of the previously identified or similar threats have in the past and may in the future cause a security incident or other interruption that could result in unauthorized, unlawful, or accidental acquisition, modification, destruction, loss, alteration, encryption, disclosure of, or access to our sensitive data or our information technology systems, or those of the third parties with whom we work.Any of the previously identified or similar threats could cause a security incident or other interruption that could result in unauthorized, unlawful, or accidental acquisition, modification, destruction, loss, alteration, encryption, disclosure of, or access to our sensitive data or our information technology systems, or those of the third parties upon whom we rely. For example, in November 2020, Covington & Burling LLP, a law firm that has represented us, was the target of a cyberattack in which a sophisticated actor exploited a software vulnerability to access the firm’s network, including confidential client materials. Our files were not impacted by this data breach. A security incident or other interruption could disrupt our ability (and that of third parties with whom we work) to manufacture or deliver our products. A security incident or other interruption could disrupt our ability (and that of third parties upon whom we rely) to manufacture or deliver our products.
We may expend significant resources or modify our business activities (including our clinical trial activities) to try to protect against security incidents. Additionally, certain data privacy and security obligations have required us to implement and maintain specific security measures or industry-standard or reasonable security measures to protect our information technology systems and sensitive data.
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Applicable data privacy and security obligations may require us, or we may voluntarily choose, to notify relevant stakeholders, including affected individuals, customers, regulators, and investors, of security incidents, or take other action, such as providing credit monitoring and identity theft protection services. Such disclosures and related actions can be costly, and the disclosure or the failure to comply with such applicable requirements could lead to adverse consequences. Such disclosures are costly, and the disclosure or the failure to comply with such requirements could lead to adverse consequences.
If we (or a third party with whom we work) experience a security incident or are perceived to have experienced a security incident, we may experience material adverse consequences, such as government enforcement actions (for example, investigations, fines, penalties, audits, and inspections); additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; restrictions on processing sensitive data (including personal data); litigation (including class claims); indemnification obligations; negative publicity; reputational harm; monetary fund diversions; diversion of management attention; interruptions in our operations (including availability of data); financial loss; and other similar harms.If we (or a third party upon whom we rely) experience a security incident or are perceived to have experienced a security incident, we may experience adverse consequences, such as government enforcement actions (for example, investigations, fines, penalties, audits, and inspections); additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; restrictions on processing sensitive data (including personal data); litigation (including class claims); indemnification obligations; negative publicity; reputational harm; monetary fund diversions; diversion of management attention; interruptions in our operations (including availability of data); financial loss; and other similar harms. Security incidents and attendant material consequences may negatively impact our ability to grow and operate our business. Security incidents and attendant consequences may negatively impact our ability to grow and operate our business.
Our contracts may not contain limitations of liability, and even where they do, there can be no assurance that limitations of liability in our contracts are sufficient to protect us from liabilities, damages, or claims related to our data privacy and security obligations. We cannot be sure that our insurance coverage will be adequate or sufficient to protect us from or to mitigate liabilities arising out of our privacy and security practices, that such coverage will continue to be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or that such coverage will pay future claims.
In addition to experiencing a security incident, third parties may gather, collect, or infer sensitive data about us from public sources, data brokers, or other means that reveals competitively sensitive details about our organization and could be used to undermine our competitive advantage or market position. Additionally, our sensitive data could be leaked, disclosed, or revealed as a result of or in connection with our employee’s, personnel’s, or vendor’s use of generative artificial intelligence, or AI, technologies. Additionally, sensitive data of the Company could be leaked, disclosed, or revealed as a result of or in connection with our employee’s, personnel’s, or vendor’s use of generative artificial intelligence, or AI, technologies.
We and the third parties with whom we work are subject to stringent and evolving U.S. and foreign laws, regulations, and rules, contractual obligations, industry standards, policies and other obligations related to data privacy and security. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations (or such failure by the third parties with whom we work) could lead to regulatory investigations or actions; litigation (including class claims) and mass arbitration demands; fines and penalties; disruptions of our business operations; reputational harm; loss of revenue or profits; and other adverse business consequences. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could lead to regulatory investigations or actions; litigation (including class claims) and mass arbitration demands; fines and penalties; disruptions of our business operations; reputational harm; loss of revenue or profits; and other adverse business consequences.
In the ordinary course of business, we process sensitive data, and as a result, our data processing activities subject us to numerous data privacy and security obligations, such as various laws, regulations, guidance, industry standards, external and internal privacy and security policies, contractual requirements, and other obligations relating to data privacy and security.
In the U.S., federal, state, and local governments have enacted numerous data privacy and security laws, including data breach notification laws, personal data privacy laws, consumer protection laws (e.g., Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act), and other similar laws (e.g., wiretapping laws). For example, HIPAA, as amended by HITECH, and their respective implementing regulations, impose requirements relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information.
Numerous U.S. states have enacted comprehensive privacy laws that impose certain obligations on covered businesses, including providing specific disclosures in privacy notices and affording residents with certain rights concerning their personal data. As applicable, such rights may include the right to access, correct, or delete certain personal data, and to opt-out of certain data processing activities, such as targeted advertising, profiling, and automated decision-making. The exercise of these rights may impact our business and ability to provide our products and services. Certain states also impose stricter requirements for processing certain personal data, including sensitive information, such as conducting data privacy impact assessments. These state laws allow for statutory fines for noncompliance. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, or CCPA, applies to personal data of consumers, business representatives, and employees who are California residents, and requires businesses to provide specific disclosures in privacy notices and honor requests of such individuals to exercise certain privacy rights. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, or CPRA, collectively CCPA, applies to personal data of consumers, business representatives, and employees who are California residents, and requires businesses to provide specific disclosures in privacy notices and honor requests of such individuals to exercise certain privacy rights. The CCPA provides for fines for intentional violations and allows private litigants affected by certain data breaches to recover significant statutory damages. The CCPA provides for fines of up to $7,500 per intentional violation and allows private litigants affected by certain data breaches to recover significant statutory damages. Although the CCPA exempts some data processed in the context of clinical trials, the CCPA increases compliance costs and potential liability with respect to other personal data we maintain about California residents. The CCPA and certain other comprehensive U.S. state privacy laws exempt some data processed in the context of clinical trials, but these developments may further complicate compliance efforts, and increase legal risk and compliance costs for us and the third parties with whom we work. Similar laws are being considered in several other states, as well as at the federal and local levels, and we expect more states to pass similar laws in the future.
Outside the U.S., an increasing number of laws, regulations, and industry standards govern data privacy and security. For example, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or EU GDPR, the United Kingdom’s GDPR, or UK GDPR, and
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Brazil’s General Data Protection Law (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais, or LGPD) (Law No. 13,709/2018) impose strict requirements for processing personal data.
For example, under GDPR, companies may face temporary or definitive bans on data processing and other corrective actions; fines of up to 20 million Euros under the EU GDPR, 17.5 million pounds sterling under the UK GDPR or, in each case, 4% of annual global revenue, whichever is greater; or private litigation related to processing of personal data brought by classes of data subjects or consumer protection organizations authorized at law to represent their interests.
In addition, we may be unable to transfer personal data from Europe and other jurisdictions to the U.S. or other countries due to data localization requirements or limitations on cross-border data flows. Europe and other jurisdictions have enacted laws requiring data to be localized or limiting the transfer of personal data to other countries. Europe, China and other jurisdictions have enacted laws requiring data to be localized or limiting the transfer of personal data to other countries. In particular, the European Economic Area, or EEA, and the United Kingdom, or UK, have significantly restricted the transfer of personal data to the U.S. and other countries whose privacy laws it generally believes are inadequate. Other jurisdictions may or have already adopted similarly stringent data localization and cross-border data transfer laws. Other jurisdictions may adopt similarly stringent interpretations of their data localization and cross-border data transfer laws. Although there are currently various mechanisms that may be used to transfer personal data from the EEA and UK to the U.S. in compliance with law, such as the EEA and UK’s standard contractual clauses, the UK’s International Data Transfer Agreement/Addendum, and the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the UK extension thereto (which allows for transfers to relevant U.S.-based organizations who self-certify compliance and participate in the Framework), these mechanisms are subject to legal challenges, and there is no assurance that we can satisfy or rely on these measures to lawfully transfer personal data to the U.S. If there is no lawful manner for us to transfer personal data from the EEA, the UK, or other jurisdictions to the U.S., or if the requirements for a legally-compliant transfer are too onerous, we could face significant adverse consequences, including the interruption or degradation of our operations, the need to relocate part of or all of our business or data processing activities to other jurisdictions (such as Europe) at significant expense, increased exposure to regulatory actions, substantial fines and penalties, the inability to transfer data and work with partners, vendors and other third parties, and injunctions against our processing or transferring of personal data necessary to operate our business. Additionally, companies that transfer personal data out of the EEA and UK to other jurisdictions, particularly to the U.S., are subject to increased scrutiny from regulators, individual litigants, and activities groups. Some European regulators have ordered certain companies to suspend or permanently cease certain transfers of personal data out of Europe for allegedly violating the GDPR’s cross-border data transfer limitations. Regulators in the United States are also increasingly scrutinizing certain personal data transfers and have proposed and may enact certain personal data transfer and localization requirements.
In addition to data privacy and security laws, we are contractually subject to industry standards adopted by industry groups and we are or may become in the future subject to such obligations.In addition to data privacy and security laws, we may be contractually subject to industry standards adopted by industry groups and may become subject to such obligations in the future. We are also bound by other contractual obligations related to data privacy and security, and our efforts to comply with such obligations may not be successful.
Our employees and personnel use generative AI technologies to perform their work, and the disclosure and use of personal information in generative AI technologies is subject to various privacy laws and other privacy obligations.Our employees and personnel may use generative AI technologies to perform their work, and the disclosure and use of personal information in generative AI technologies is subject to various privacy laws and other privacy obligations. Governments have passed and are likely to pass additional laws regulating generative AI. Any use of this technology could result in additional compliance costs, regulatory investigations and actions, and consumer lawsuits. If we are unable to use generative AI, it could make our business less efficient and result in competitive disadvantages.
We use AI and machine learning, or ML, to assist us in making certain decisions, which is regulated by certain privacy laws. Due to inaccuracies or flaws in the inputs, outputs, or logic of the AI/ML, the model could be biased and could lead us to make decisions that could bias certain individuals (or classes of individuals), and adversely impact their rights, employment, and ability to obtain certain pricing, products, services, or benefits.
We publish privacy policies, marketing materials, and other statements, such as statements related to compliance with certain certifications or self-regulatory principles, concerning data privacy and security.We publish privacy policies, marketing materials, and other statements, such as compliance with certain certifications or self-regulatory principles, regarding data privacy and security. Regulators in the U.S. are increasingly scrutinizing these statements, and if these policies, materials or statements are found to be deficient, lacking in transparency, deceptive, unfair, misleading, or misrepresentative of our practices, we may be subject to investigation, enforcement actions by regulators, or other adverse consequences.
Obligations related to data privacy and security (and consumers’ data privacy expectations) are quickly changing, becoming increasingly stringent, and creating uncertainty. Additionally, these obligations may be subject to differing applications and interpretations, which may be inconsistent or conflict among jurisdictions. Preparing for and complying with these obligations requires us to devote significant resources and may necessitate changes to our services, information technologies, systems, and practices and to those of any third parties that process personal data on our behalf.
We may at times fail (or be perceived to have failed) in our efforts to comply with our data privacy and security obligations. Moreover, despite our efforts, our personnel or third parties with whom we work may fail to comply with such obligations, which could negatively impact our business operations. Moreover, despite our efforts, our personnel or third parties on whom we rely may fail to comply with such obligations, which could negatively impact our business operations. If we or the third parties with whom we work fail, or are perceived to have failed, to address or comply with applicable data privacy and security obligations, we could face significant consequences, including but not limited to: government enforcement actions (e. If we or the third parties on which we rely fail, or are perceived to have failed, to address or comply with applicable data privacy and security obligations, we could face significant consequences, including but not limited to: government enforcement actions (e. g., investigations, fines, penalties, audits,
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inspections, and similar); litigation (including class-action claims) and mass arbitration demands; additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; bans or restrictions on processing personal data; and orders to destroy or not use personal data., investigations, fines, penalties, audits, inspections, and similar); litigation (including class-action claims) and mass arbitration demands; additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; bans on processing personal data; and orders to destroy or not use personal data. In particular, plaintiffs have become increasingly more active in bringing privacy-related claims against companies, including class claims and mass arbitration demands. Some of these claims allow for the recovery of statutory damages on a per violation basis, and, if viable, carry the potential for monumental statutory damages, depending on the volume of data and the number of violations. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, or financial condition, including but not limited to: loss of customers; interruptions or stoppages in our business operations (including, as relevant, clinical trials); inability to process personal data or to operate in certain jurisdictions (including in relation to clinical trials); limited ability to develop or commercialize our products; expenditure of time and resources to defend any claim or inquiry; adverse publicity; or substantial changes to our business model or operations.
We are subject to U.S. and certain foreign export and import controls, sanctions, embargoes, anti-corruption laws and anti-money laundering laws and regulations. Compliance with these legal standards could impair our ability to compete in domestic and international markets. We can face criminal liability and other serious consequences for violations, which can harm our business.
We are subject to export control and import laws and regulations, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations, U.S. Customs regulations, various economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, or FCPA, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA PATRIOT Act and other state and national anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws in the countries in which we conduct activities. Anti-corruption laws are interpreted broadly and prohibit companies and their employees, agents, contractors, and other collaborators from authorizing, promising, offering or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or anything else of value to recipients in the public or private sector. The FCPA also requires public companies to make and keep books and records that accurately and fairly reflect the transactions of the corporation and to devise and maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls. We may engage third parties for clinical trials outside of the U.S., to sell our products abroad once we enter a commercialization phase and/or to obtain necessary permits, licenses, patent registrations, and other regulatory approvals. We have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or government-affiliated hospitals, universities and other organizations. We can be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of our employees, agents, contractors and other collaborators, even if we do not explicitly authorize or have actual knowledge of such activities. Any violations of the laws and regulations described above may result in substantial civil and criminal fines and penalties, imprisonment, the loss of export or import privileges, debarment, tax reassessments, breach of contract and fraud litigation, reputational harm and other consequences.
We are also subject to export control and import laws and regulations. Compliance with applicable regulatory requirements regarding the export of our products may create delays in the introduction of our products in international markets or, in some cases, prevent the export of our products to some countries altogether. Furthermore, U.S. export control laws and economic sanctions prohibit the provision of certain products and services to countries, governments and persons targeted by U.S. sanctions.
There is no certainty that all of our employees, agents, suppliers, manufacturers, contractors or collaborators, or those of our affiliates, will comply with all applicable anti-corruption, export and import control, and sanctions laws and regulations. Violations of these laws and regulations could result in fines, criminal sanctions against us, our officers, or our employees, the closing down of facilities, including those of our suppliers and manufacturers, requirements to obtain export licenses, cessation of business activities in sanctioned countries, implementation of compliance programs, and prohibitions on the conduct of our business. Any such violations could include prohibitions on our ability to offer our products in one or more countries as well as difficulties in manufacturing or continuing to develop our products, and could materially damage our reputation, our brand, our international expansion efforts, our ability to attract and retain employees, and our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition.
The pharmaceutical industry in China is highly regulated and such regulations are subject to change which may affect approval and commercialization of our drugs.
Currently, we are not conducting any clinical trials in China nor licensing any products in China but we may do so in the near future in respect of our development of CD388. The pharmaceutical industry in China is subject to comprehensive government regulation and supervision, encompassing the approval, registration, manufacturing, packaging, licensing and marketing of new drugs. For example, in order to conduct a clinical trial in China, sponsors must not only obtain the approval of the National Medical Product Administration of China, but also a separate approval from or filing with the Ministry of Science and Technology under the Administrative Regulations on Human Genetic Resources of the People’s Republic of China, or HGR Regulation, for clinical trials involving HGR Materials or Information. Any failure to comply with these requirements could cause any clinical trial to be suspended by governing authorities, may result in fines and also may constitute a breach under our agreements with third parties assisting us in the conduct of the trial in China, such as our CRO. Any failure to comply with these requirements could cause our ReSTORE trial to be suspended by governing authorities, may result in fines and also may constitute a breach under our agreements with third parties assisting us in the conduct of the trial in China, such as our CRO. In recent years, the regulatory framework in China regarding the pharmaceutical industry has undergone
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significant changes, and we expect that it will continue to undergo significant changes. Certain changes or amendments to policy or law may result in increased compliance costs on our business, or cause delays in the timely completion of any trial in China. Certain changes or amendments to policy or law may result in increased compliance costs on our business, or cause delays in the timely completion of the ReSTORE trial in China, or prevent the approval of rezafungin in China. Chinese authorities have become increasingly vigilant in enforcing laws in the pharmaceutical industry and any failure by us to maintain compliance with applicable laws and regulations or obtain and maintain required licenses and permits may result in the suspension or termination of any clinical activities in China.
Recently enacted and future legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain marketing approval of and commercialize our product candidates and affect the prices we may obtain.
In the U.S. and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system, including cost-containment measures, that could reduce or limit coverage and reimbursement for newly approved drugs, prevent or delay marketing approval of our product candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to profitably sell any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval.
For example, in March 2010, the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, a sweeping law intended to, among other things, broaden access to health insurance, reduce or constrain the growth of healthcare spending, enhance remedies against fraud and abuse, add new transparency requirements for health care and health insurance industries, impose new taxes and fees on the health industry and impose additional health policy reforms.For example, in March 2010, President Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act, a sweeping law intended to, among other things, broaden access to health insurance, reduce or constrain the growth of healthcare spending, enhance remedies against fraud and abuse, add new transparency requirements for health care and health insurance industries, impose new taxes and fees on the health industry and impose additional health policy reforms. The Affordable Care Act and subsequent regulations revised the definition of “average manufacturer price” for reporting purposes, which could increase the amount of Medicaid drug rebates to states. However, on March 11, 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was signed into law, which eliminates the statutory Medicaid drug rebate cap for single source and innovator multiple source drugs, effective January 1, 2024. Further, the Affordable Care Act imposed a significant annual fee on companies that manufacture or import branded prescription drug products. However, on March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 into law, which eliminates the statutory Medicaid drug rebate cap for single source and innovator multiple source drugs, beginning January 1, 2024. Further, the Affordable Care Act imposed a significant annual fee on companies that manufacture or import branded prescription drug products. Substantial new provisions affecting compliance were also enacted under the Affordable Care Act, which may affect our business practices with healthcare practitioners. There have been amendments to and executive, judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act. There have been executive, judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act. For example, on August 16, 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, or IRA, was signed into law, which among other things, extends enhanced subsidies for individuals purchasing health insurance coverage in Affordable Care Act marketplaces through plan year 2025. The IRA also eliminates the “donut hole” under the Medicare Part D program beginning in 2025 by significantly lowering the beneficiary maximum out-of-pocket cost and through a newly established manufacturer discount program. Further, on August 16, 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, or IRA, into law, which among other things, extends enhanced subsidies for individuals purchasing health insurance coverage in Affordable Care Act marketplaces through plan year 2025. The IRA also eliminates the “donut hole” under the Medicare Part D program beginning in 2025 by significantly lowering the beneficiary maximum out-of-pocket cost and through a newly established manufacturer discount program. It is possible that the Affordable Care Act will be subject to judicial or Congressional challenges in the future. It is unclear how any additional healthcare reform measures of the second Trump administration will impact the Affordable Care Act and our business. It is unclear how any additional healthcare reform measures of the Biden administration will impact the Affordable Care Act and our business.
In addition, legislative and regulatory proposals have been made to expand post-approval requirements and restrict sales and promotional activities for pharmaceutical products.
Other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the Affordable Care Act was enacted.Further, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. In August 2011, the President signed into law the Budget Control Act of 2011, which, among other things, created the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to recommend to Congress proposals in spending reductions. The Joint Select Committee did not achieve a targeted deficit reduction of at least $1.2 trillion for the years 2013 through 2021, triggering the legislation’s automatic reduction to several government programs. This includes reductions to Medicare payments to providers of 2% per fiscal year, which went into effect in April 2013 and, due to subsequent legislative amendments will remain in effect until 2032 unless additional Congressional action is taken.
In addition, there have been several recent Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drug products. The IRA, among other things, (1) directs the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, to negotiate the price of certain high-expenditure, single-source drugs that have been on the market for at least seven years covered under Medicare, or the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, and (2) imposes rebates under Medicare Part B and Medicare Part D to penalize price increases that outpace inflation. These provisions began to take effect progressively starting in fiscal year 2023. On August 15, 2024, HHS announced the agreed-upon reimbursement prices of the first 10 drugs that were subject to price negotiations, although the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program is currently subject to legal challenges. On January 17, 2025, HHS selected 15 additional products covered under Part D for price negotiation in 2025. Each year thereafter more Part B and Part D products will become subject to the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. Further, on December 7, 2023, an initiative to control the price of prescription drugs through the use of march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act was announced. Further, on December 7, 2023, the Biden administration announced an initiative to control the price of prescription drugs through the use of march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act. Further, on December 7, 2023, the Biden administration announced an initiative to control the price of prescription drugs through the use of march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act. On December 8, 2023, the National Institute of Standards and Technology published for comment a Draft Interagency Guidance Framework for Considering the Exercise of March-In Rights which for the first time includes the price of a product as one factor an agency can use when deciding to exercise march-in rights. While march-in rights have not previously been exercised, it is uncertain if that will continue under the new framework.
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At the state level, legislatures have increasingly passed legislation and implemented regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. For example, on January 5, 2024, the FDA approved Florida’s Section 804 Importation Program, or SIP, proposal to import certain drugs from Canada for specific state healthcare programs. For example, on January 5, 2024, the FDA approved Florida’s Section 804 Importation Program (SIP) proposal to import certain drugs from Canada for specific state healthcare programs. For example, on January 5, 2024, the FDA approved Florida’s Section 804 Importation Program (SIP) proposal to import certain drugs from Canada for specific state healthcare programs. It is unclear how this program will be implemented, including which drugs will be chosen, and whether it will be subject to legal challenges in the United States or Canada. Other states have also submitted SIP proposals that are pending review by the FDA. Any such approved importation plans, when implemented, may result in lower drug prices for products covered by those programs. We cannot be sure whether additional legislative changes will be enacted, or whether the FDA regulations, guidance or interpretations will be changed or what the impact of such changes on the marketing approvals of our product candidates, if any, may be. In addition, increased scrutiny by the U.S. Congress of the FDA’s approval process may significantly delay or prevent marketing approval, as well as subject us to more stringent product labeling and post-marketing testing and other requirements.
We expect that additional healthcare reform measures will be adopted within and outside the U.S. in the future, particularly in light of the 2024 U.S. Presidential and Congressional elections, any of which could add difficulty to the regulatory approval processes for our product candidates or limit the amounts that governments will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in reduced demand for our product candidates or additional pricing pressures. The continuing efforts of third-party payors to contain or reduce costs of healthcare may adversely affect the demand for any drug products for which we may obtain regulatory approval, our ability to set a price that we believe is fair for our products, our ability to obtain coverage and reimbursement approval for a product, our ability to generate revenues and achieve or maintain profitability and the level of taxes that we are required to pay.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
If our efforts to protect the proprietary nature of the intellectual property related to CD388, CBO421, our other Cloudbreak compounds or our other product candidates or compounds are not adequate, we may not be able to compete effectively in our markets.
We rely upon a combination of patents, trademarks, trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect the intellectual property related to CD388 and CBO421 and our other product candidates and compounds. Any involuntary disclosure to or misappropriation by third parties of our proprietary information could enable competitors to quickly duplicate or surpass our technological achievements, thus eroding our competitive position in our markets.
The strength of patents in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical field involves complex legal and scientific questions and can be uncertain and our commercial success will depend on our ability to obtain patents and maintain adequate protection for our DFCs and other compounds and product candidates in the U.S. and other countries. We currently hold issued U.S. utility and foreign patents and multiple pending U.S. utility patent applications, pending U.S. provisional patent applications and pending international, foreign national and regional counterpart patent applications covering various aspects of our DFCs. The patent applications may fail to result in issued patents in the U.S. or in foreign countries or jurisdictions. Even if the applications do successfully issue, third parties may challenge the patents.
Further, the existing and/or future patents, if any, may be too narrow to prevent third parties from developing or designing around these patents. If the sufficiency of the breadth or strength of protection provided by the patent and patent applications we own with respect to our DFCs or the patents we pursue related to any of our other product candidates or compounds is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to develop and threaten our ability to commercialize the product candidates or compounds. If the sufficiency of the breadth or strength of protection provided by the patent and patent applications we own with respect to rezafungin or our DFCs or the patents we pursue related to any of our other product candidates or compounds is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to develop and threaten our ability to commercialize the product candidates or compounds. Further, if we encounter delays in our clinical trials, the period of time during which we could market our product candidates under patent protection would be reduced, although a patent term extension or supplementary protection certificate having varied scope may be available in certain jurisdictions to compensate for some of the lost patent term. In addition, we do not know whether:
we were the first to make the inventions covered by each of our pending patent applications or our issued patents;
we were the first to file patent applications for these inventions;
others will independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies;
any of our pending patent applications will result in issued patents;
any of our patents, once issued, will be valid or enforceable or will issue with claims sufficient to protect our products, or will be challenged by third parties;
any patents issued to us will provide us with any competitive advantages;
we will develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable; or
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the patents of others will have an adverse effect on our business.
In addition, patent reform legislation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents. In September 2011, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or the Leahy-Smith Act, was signed into law. The Leahy-Smith Act includes a number of significant changes to U.S. patent law. These include provisions that affect the way patent applications are prosecuted and may also affect patent litigation. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, developed new regulations and procedures to govern administration of the Leahy-Smith Act and many of the substantive changes to patent law associated with the Leahy-Smith Act and, in particular, the first to file provisions, only became effective in March 2013. The Leahy-Smith Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and prospects.
In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we rely on trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect proprietary know-how that is not patentable in one or more jurisdictions, inventions for which patents are difficult to enforce and any other elements of our drug discovery program that involve proprietary know-how, information and technology that is not covered by patents. Although we require all of our employees, consultants, advisers and third parties who have access to our proprietary know-how, information and technology to enter into confidentiality agreements, we cannot be certain that this know-how, information and technology will not be disclosed or used in an unauthorized manner or that competitors will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or independently develop substantially equivalent information and techniques.
There also may be challenges or other disputes concerning the inventorship, ownership or right to use our intellectual property. For example, our consultants and advisors may have obligations to assign certain inventions and/or know-how that they develop to third-party entities in certain instances, and these third parties may challenge our ownership or other rights to our intellectual property, which would adversely affect our business.
An inability to obtain, enforce and defend patents covering our proprietary technologies would materially and adversely affect our business prospects and financial condition. Further, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the U.S. We may encounter significant problems in protecting, enforcing and defending our intellectual property both in the U.S. and abroad. If we are unable to prevent unauthorized material disclosure of the intellectual property related to our technologies to third parties or are otherwise unable to protect, enforce or defend our intellectual property, we will not be able to establish or, if established, maintain a competitive advantage in our markets, which could materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.
Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other governmental fees on patents and/or applications will be due to be paid to the USPTO and various foreign or jurisdictional governmental patent agencies in several stages over the lifetime of the patents and/or applications. We have systems in place to remind us to pay these fees, and we employ an outside firm to pay these fees due to foreign patent agencies. The USPTO and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process.
We employ reputable law firms and other professionals to help us comply, and in many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules. However, there are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. Noncompliance events that could result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application include, but are not limited to, failure to respond to official actions within prescribed time limits, non-payment of fees and failure to properly legalize and submit formal documents. Such noncompliance events are outside of our direct control for (1) non-U.S. patents and patent applications owned by us and, (2) if applicable in the future, patents and patent applications licensed to us by another entity. In such an event, our competitors might be able to enter the market, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.
Third-party claims of intellectual property infringement may prevent or delay our drug discovery and development efforts.
Our commercial success depends in part on our avoiding infringement of the patents and proprietary rights of third parties. Third parties may assert that we are employing their proprietary technology without authorization. There may be third-party patents with claims to materials, methods of manufacture or methods of treatment related to the use or manufacture of our DFCs and/or our other product candidates or compounds. If any third-party patents were held by a court of
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competent jurisdiction to cover the DFC manufacturing process, any molecules formed during these processes or the final products or any use thereof, the holders of any such patents may be able to block our ability to commercialize the product unless we obtained a license under the applicable patent or patents or until such patents expire. If any third-party patents were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover the rezafungin or DFC manufacturing process, any molecules formed during these processes or the final products or any use thereof, the holders of any such patents may be able to block our ability to commercialize the product unless we obtained a license under the applicable patent or patents or until such patents expire. These same issues and risks arise in connection with any other product candidates we develop as well. We cannot predict whether we would be able to obtain a license on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Any inability to obtain such a license under the applicable patents on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, would have a material adverse effect on our ability to commercialize the affected product until such patents expire.
In addition, third parties may obtain patents in the future and claim that our product candidates and/or the use of our technologies infringes upon these patents. Furthermore, parties making claims against us may obtain injunctive or other equitable relief, which could effectively block our ability to further develop and commercialize one or more of our product candidates. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of management and other employee resources from our business. In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may have to pay substantial damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees in the case of willful infringement, obtain one or more licenses from third parties, pay royalties and/or redesign our infringing products, which may be impossible and/or require substantial time and monetary expenditure. In addition, even in the absence of litigation, we may need to obtain licenses from third parties to advance our research or allow commercialization of one or more of our product candidates. We may fail to obtain any of these licenses at a reasonable cost or on reasonable terms, or at all. In that event, we would not be able to further develop and commercialize such product candidates, which could harm our business significantly.
We may be required to file lawsuits or take other actions to protect or enforce our patents, which could be expensive, time consuming and unsuccessful.
Competitors may infringe our current or future patents. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file infringement claims, which can be expensive and time-consuming. In addition, in an infringement proceeding, a court may decide that one or more of our asserted patents is not valid or is unenforceable or may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our patents do not cover the technology in question. An adverse result in any litigation or defense proceedings could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated, held unenforceable or interpreted narrowly and could put our patent applications at risk of not issuing. Pursuit of these claims would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of management and other employee resources from our business.
Interference proceedings or derivative proceedings provoked by third parties or brought by the USPTO may be necessary to determine the entitlement to patent protection with respect to our patents or patent applications. An unfavorable outcome could result in a loss of our patent rights and could require us to cease using the related technology or to attempt to license rights to it from the prevailing party. Our business could be harmed if the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Litigation or patent office proceedings may result in a decision adverse to our interests and, even if we are successful, may result in substantial costs and distract our management and other employees. We may not be able to prevent misappropriation of our trade secrets or confidential information, particularly in countries where the laws or legal process may not protect those rights as fully as in the U.S.
Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common stock.
Issued patents covering our product candidates and technologies could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged in court or the USPTO.
If we initiate legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering one of our product candidates or our technologies, the defendant could counterclaim that the patent covering our product candidate or our technology, as applicable, is invalid and/or unenforceable. In patent litigation in the U.S., defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity and/or unenforceability are commonplace and there are numerous grounds upon which a third party can assert invalidity or unenforceability of a patent. Third parties may also raise similar claims before administrative bodies in the U.S. or abroad, even outside the context of litigation. Such mechanisms include re-examination, post grant review, and equivalent proceedings in foreign jurisdictions (e.g., opposition proceedings). Such proceedings could result in revocation or amendment to our patents in such a way that they no longer cover our product candidates or our technologies. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and/or unenforceability is unpredictable. With respect to the validity question, for example, we cannot be certain that there is no invalidating prior art or that prior art that was cited during prosecution, but not relied on by the patent examiner, will not be revisited. If a defendant were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity and/or unenforceability, we would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the patent protection directed
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to our product candidates or technologies. Such a loss of patent rights could have a material adverse impact on our business.
Changes in U.S. patent law could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our products.
As is the case with other pharmaceutical companies, our success is heavily dependent on intellectual property, particularly patents. Obtaining and enforcing patents in the pharmaceutical industry involve both technological and legal complexity, and are therefore costly, time-consuming and inherently uncertain. In addition, the U.S. has implemented wide-ranging patent reform legislation, including patent office administrative proceedings that offer broad opportunities to third parties to challenge issued patents. Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have narrowed the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances and weakened the rights of patent owners in certain situations. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained. Depending on decisions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts, the USPTO and foreign governmental bodies and tribunals, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that would weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce our existing patents and patents that we might obtain in the future. For example, in Assoc. for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court held in 2013 that certain claims to DNA molecules are not patentable and lower courts have since been applying this case in the context of other types of biological subject matter. We cannot predict how future decisions by the courts, the U.S. Congress, the USPTO or foreign governmental bodies or tribunals may impact the value of our patent rights.
We have limited foreign intellectual property rights and may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.
We have limited intellectual property rights outside the U.S. Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the U.S. can be less extensive than those in the U.S. In addition, the laws and legal processes of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property to the same extent as federal and state laws in the U.S. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the U.S. or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into the U.S. or other jurisdictions. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patents to develop their own products and further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patents but enforcement is not as strong as that in the U.S. These products may compete with our products and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.
Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly China and certain other developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property, particularly those relating to pharmaceutical products, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put any of our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not issuing and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. The requirements for patentability may differ in certain countries, particularly developing countries. Furthermore, generic drug manufacturers or other competitors may challenge the scope, validity or enforceability of any of our current or future patents, requiring us to engage in complex, lengthy and costly litigation or other proceedings. Certain countries in Europe and developing countries, including China and India, have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties. In those countries, we may have limited remedies if any of our patents are infringed or if we are compelled to grant a license to a third party, which could materially diminish the value of those patents. This could limit our potential revenue opportunities. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.
If our trademarks and trade names are not adequately protected, we may not be able to build name recognition in our markets of interest and our business may be adversely affected.
Our trademarks or trade names may be challenged, infringed, circumvented or declared generic or determined to be infringing on other marks. We may not be able to protect our rights to these trademarks and trade names or may be forced to stop using these names, which we need for name recognition by potential partners or customers in our markets of interest. If we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks and trade names, we may not be able to compete effectively and our business may be adversely affected.
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We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties.
We have received confidential and proprietary information from third parties. In addition, we employ individuals who were previously employed at other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors, and academic or research institutions. We may be subject to claims that we or our employees, consultants or independent contractors have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed confidential information of these third parties or our employees’ former employers. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial cost and be a distraction to our management and employees.
Risks Related to U.S. Government Contracts and Grants
If we are unable to generate revenues from partnerships, government funding or other sources of funding, we may be unable to resume our preclinical Cloudbreak programs.
We have suspended research and development activities for our preclinical Cloudbreak programs. In order to resume work on our Cloudbreak programs for DFCs, we will need to seek funding from partnerships, the government or other sources of funding. There can be no assurances that we will be able to obtain funding from partnerships, or enter into new contracts with the U.S. government or obtain other sources of funding to support such programs. The process of completing a partnership or obtaining government contracts is lengthy and uncertain and we will have to compete with other companies and institutions in each instance. Further, with respect to government contracting, changes in government budgets and agendas may result in a decreased and de-prioritized emphasis on supporting the discovery and development of oncology products. If we cannot obtain or maintain government or other funding for our Cloudbreak programs for DFCs we may be forced to discontinue those programs. If we cannot obtain or maintain government or other funding for our Cloudbreak programs for DFCs outside the scope of the Janssen Collaboration Agreement, we may be forced to discontinue those programs.
Our use of government funding adds uncertainty to our research and commercialization efforts and may impose requirements that increase our costs.
Contracts funded by the U.S. government and its agencies include provisions that reflect the government’s substantial rights and remedies, many of which are not typically found in commercial contracts, including powers of the government to:
terminate agreements, in whole or in part, for any reason or no reason;
reduce or modify the government’s obligations under such agreements without the consent of the other party;
claim rights, including intellectual property rights, in products and data developed under such agreements;
audit contract-related costs and fees, including allocated indirect costs;
suspend the contractor from receiving new contracts pending resolution of alleged violations of procurement laws or regulations;
impose U.S. manufacturing requirements for products that embody inventions conceived or first reduced to practice under such agreements;
suspend or debar the contractor from doing future business with the government;
control and potentially prohibit the export of products; and
pursue criminal or civil remedies under the Federal Civil Monetary Penalties Act and the federal civil False Claims Act and similar remedy provisions specific to government agreements.
In addition, government contracts contain additional requirements that may increase our costs of doing business, reduce our profits and expose us to liability for failure to comply with these terms and conditions. These requirements include, for example:
specialized accounting systems unique to government contracts;
mandatory financial audits and potential liability for price adjustments or recoupment of government funds after such funds have been spent;
public disclosures of certain contract information, which may enable competitors to gain insights into our research program; and
mandatory socioeconomic compliance requirements, including labor standards, anti-human-trafficking, non-discrimination, and affirmative action programs and environmental compliance requirements.
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If we fail to maintain compliance with these requirements, we may be subject to potential liability and to termination of our contracts.
Changes in funding for the FDA, the SEC, and other government agencies could hinder their ability to hire and retain key leadership and other personnel, prevent new products from being developed or commercialized in a timely manner or otherwise prevent those agencies from performing normal functions on which the operation of our business may rely, which could negatively impact our business.Changes in funding for the FDA, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and other government agencies could hinder their ability to hire and retain key leadership and other personnel, prevent new products from being developed or commercialized in a timely manner or otherwise prevent those agencies from performing normal functions on which the operation of our business may rely, which could negatively impact our business.
The ability of the FDA to review and approve new products can be affected by a variety of factors, including government budget and funding levels, ability to hire and retain key personnel and accept payment of user fees, and statutory, regulatory, and policy changes. Average review times at the agency have fluctuated in recent years as a result. In addition, government funding of the SEC and other government agencies on which our operations may rely, including those that fund R&D activities is subject to the political process, which is inherently fluid and unpredictable.
Disruptions at the FDA and other agencies may also slow the time necessary for new drugs to be reviewed and/or approved by necessary government agencies, which would adversely affect our business. For example, over the last several years, including beginning on December 22, 2018 and ending on January 25, 2019, the U.S. government has shut down several times and certain regulatory authorities, such as the FDA and the SEC, have had to furlough critical FDA, SEC and other government employees and stop critical activities. If repeated or prolonged government shutdown occurs, it could significantly impact the ability of the FDA to timely review and process our regulatory submissions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Further, future government shutdowns could impact our ability to access the public markets and obtain necessary capital in order to properly capitalize and continue our operations.
Our business is subject to audit by the U.S. government and a negative audit could adversely affect our business.
U.S. government agencies routinely audit and investigate government contractors and recipients of Federal grants. These agencies review a contractor’s performance under its contracts, cost structure and compliance with applicable laws, regulations and standards.
Government agencies also review the adequacy of, and a contractor’s compliance with, its internal control systems and policies, including the contractor’s purchasing, property, estimating, compensation and management information systems. Any costs found to be improperly allocated to a specific contract will not be reimbursed, while such costs already reimbursed must be refunded.
If an audit uncovers improper or illegal activities, we may be subject to civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, including:
termination of contracts;
forfeiture of profits;
suspension of payments;
fines; and
suspension or prohibition from conducting business with the U.S. government.
In addition, we could suffer serious reputational harm if allegations of impropriety were made against us, which could cause our stock price to decrease.
Laws and regulations affecting government contracts make it more expensive and difficult for us to successfully conduct our business.
We must comply with numerous laws and regulations relating to the formation, administration and performance of government contracts, which can make it more difficult for us to retain our rights under our government grant contracts. These laws and regulations affect how we conduct business with government agencies. Among the most significant government contracting regulations that affect our business are:
the Federal Acquisition Regulations, or FAR, and agency-specific regulations supplemental to the FAR, which comprehensively regulate the procurement, formation, administration and performance of government contracts;
business ethics and public integrity obligations, which govern conflicts of interest and the hiring of former government employees, restrict the granting of gratuities and funding of lobbying activities and include other requirements such as the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act;
export and import control laws and regulations; and
laws, regulations and executive orders restricting the use and dissemination of information classified for national security purposes and the exportation of certain products and technical data.
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Any changes in applicable laws and regulations could restrict our ability to obtain new contracts, which could limit our ability to conduct our business and materially adversely affect our results of operations.
Risks Related to Employee Matters and Managing Growth
Our future success depends on our ability to retain our senior management team and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel.
We are highly dependent upon our senior management team, as well as the other principal members of our R&D teams. All of our executive officers are employed “at will,” meaning we or they may terminate the employment relationship at any time. We do not maintain “key person” insurance for any of our executives or employees. The loss of the services of any of these persons could impede the achievement of our research, development and commercialization objectives.
Recruiting and retaining qualified scientific, clinical, manufacturing, regulatory, quality assurance and sales and marketing personnel will also be critical to our success. We may not be able to attract and retain these personnel on acceptable terms given the competition among numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for similar personnel.
We also experience competition for the hiring of scientific and clinical personnel from universities and research institutions. In addition, we rely on consultants and advisers, including scientific, regulatory, quality assurance and clinical advisers, to assist us in formulating our R&D and commercialization strategy. Our consultants and advisers may be employed by employers other than us and may have commitments under consulting or advisory contracts with other entities that may limit their availability to us.
We expect to expand our operations, and may encounter difficulties in managing our growth, which could disrupt our business.
We expect to expand the scope of our operations, particularly in the areas of drug development, manufacturing, clinical, regulatory affairs, quality assurance and sales and marketing. To manage our anticipated future growth, we must continue to implement and improve our managerial, operational and financial systems, expand our facilities and continue to recruit and train additional qualified personnel. We may not be able to effectively manage the expected expansion of our operations or recruit and train additional qualified personnel. Moreover, the expected expansion of our operations may lead to significant costs and may divert our management and business development resources. Any inability to manage growth could delay the execution of our business plans or disrupt our operations.
Risks Related to Ownership of our Common Stock
The price of our stock may be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
The trading price of our common stock is highly volatile and subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control, including limited trading volume. In addition to the factors discussed in this “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this report, these factors include:
changes in the market valuations of similar companies;
the commencement, timing, enrollment or results of the current and planned clinical trials of our product candidates or any future clinical trials we may conduct, or changes in the development status of our product candidates;
any delay in our regulatory filings for our product candidates and any adverse development or perceived adverse development with respect to the applicable regulatory authority’s review of such filings, including without limitation the FDA’s issuance of a “refusal to file” letter, “complete response” letter, or a request for additional information;
adverse results, suspensions, terminations or delays in pre-clinical or clinical trials;
our decision to initiate a clinical trial, not to initiate a clinical trial, or to terminate an existing clinical trial or development program;
adverse regulatory decisions, including failure to receive regulatory approval of our product candidates;
changes in laws or regulations applicable to our products, including but not limited to requirements for approvals;
changes in the structure of healthcare payment systems or limitations on the ability of hospitals and outpatient treatment centers to receive adequate reimbursement for the purchase and use of our products;
adverse developments concerning our contract manufacturers;
our inability to obtain adequate product supply for any approved product or inability to do so at acceptable prices or acceptable quality;
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our inability to establish collaborations, if needed;
our failure to commercialize our product candidates successfully, or at all;
additions or departures of key scientific or management personnel;
unanticipated serious safety concerns related to the use of our product candidates;
the introduction of new products or services offered by us or our competitors;
announcements of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, government grants or contracts or capital commitments by us or our competitors;
our ability to effectively manage our growth;
the size and growth of our influenza or other target markets;
our ability to successfully enter new markets or develop additional product candidates;
actual or anticipated variations in quarterly operating results;
our cash position and our ability to raise additional capital and the manner and terms on which we raise it, and the expectation of future fundraising activities by us;
our failure to meet the estimates and projections of the investment community or that we may otherwise provide to the public;
publication of research reports or other media coverage about us or our industry or our therapeutic approaches in particular or positive or negative recommendations or withdrawal of research coverage by securities analysts;
overall performance of the equity markets;
sales of our common stock by us or our stockholders in the future or the expectation of such sales;
the trading volume of our common stock;
changes in accounting practices;
ineffectiveness of our internal controls;
disputes or other developments relating to proprietary rights, including patent rights, litigation matters and our ability to obtain patent protection for our technologies;
significant lawsuits, including patent or stockholder litigation;
general political and economic conditions including the military conflict in Ukraine and Russia, the active conflicts in the Middle East and bank failures; and
other events or factors, many of which are beyond our control.
In addition, the stock market in general, and The Nasdaq Capital Market, pharmaceutical companies have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that may or may not have been related or proportionate to the operating performance of these companies or their product potential.In addition, the stock market in general, and The Nasdaq Capital Market, pharmaceutical companies and companies in the anti-infective sector in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that may or may not have been related or proportionate to the operating performance of these companies or their product potential. Broad market and industry factors may negatively affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. You may not realize any return on your investment in us and may lose some or all of your investment. In the past, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities. This type of litigation, if instituted, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which would harm our business, operating results or financial condition.
Our principal stockholders and management own a significant percentage of our stock and are able to exert significant influence over matters subject to stockholder approval.
Our executive officers, directors and 5% stockholders and their affiliates currently beneficially own a significant percentage of our outstanding voting stock. These stockholders have the ability to significantly influence us through this ownership position. These stockholders have the ability to influence us through this ownership position. These stockholders may be able to significantly influence all matters requiring stockholder approval, including elections of directors, amendments of our organizational documents or approval of any merger, sale of assets or other major corporate transaction. This may prevent or discourage unsolicited acquisition proposals or offers for our common stock that you may feel are in your best interest as one of our stockholders.
If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis could be impaired and our public reporting may be unreliable.
Effective internal controls over financial reporting are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and, together with adequate disclosure controls and procedures, are designed to prevent fraud. Based on our evaluation of the
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effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2024, we determined that we had a material weakness as of September 30, 2024 because our control over the evaluation of applicable indirect taxes in local jurisdictions and assessment of indirect tax accrued liabilities was not appropriately designed, and as a result a material misstatement in our previously issued audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2021 and 2022 included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 was not detected. A material weakness, as defined in Rule 12b-2 under the Exchange Act, is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of a company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
During 2024, as part of the remediation process, we implemented various controls to address our exposure to indirect taxes, which included additional training to existing staff, enhanced use of indirect tax consultants and experts, review and analysis of our new contracts for possible indirect tax exposures, quarterly calculations of the legal liability for indirect taxes for all shipments during the preceding quarter, and quarterly reconciliation of our legal liability account including assessment of any additional interest due or possible reversals based on compliance remediation. Based on these additional procedures and control, our management has concluded this material weakness has been remediated as of December 31, 2024. The remediation actions are also being monitored by the Audit Committee of our Board of Directors. However, we cannot assure you that we will be able to maintain effective controls and procedures. If we are unable to successfully design or operate effective controls and procedures or identify any future material weaknesses, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be adversely affected, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports and we may experience a loss of public confidence, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and the market price of our common stock. If we are unable to successfully remediate this material weakness, design or operate effective controls and procedures, or identify any future material weaknesses, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be adversely affected, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports and we may experience a loss of public confidence, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and the market price of our common stock.
We are required to disclose changes made in our internal control procedures on a quarterly basis and our management is required to assess the effectiveness of these controls annually. However, for as long as we are a “non-accelerated filer,” our independent registered public accounting firm will not be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404. An independent assessment of the effectiveness of our internal controls could detect problems that our management’s assessment might not. Any additional undetected material weaknesses in our internal controls could lead to further financial statement restatements and require us to incur additional expenses of remediation. In addition, if we are unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, the market price of our securities could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by The Nasdaq Capital Market, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. In addition, if we are unable to remediate this material weakness, or if we are otherwise unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, the market price of our securities could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by The Nasdaq Capital Market, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. Failure to remedy any material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.
We do not intend to pay dividends on our common stock, so any returns will be limited to the value of our stock.
We currently anticipate that we will retain future earnings for the development, operation and expansion of our business and do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. Any return to stockholders will therefore be limited to the appreciation of their stock.
We incur significant costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management devotes substantial time to compliance initiatives.
As a public company, we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses. We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, which require, among other things, that we file with the SEC annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and financial condition. We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which require, among other things, that we file with the SEC annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and financial condition. In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as rules subsequently adopted by the SEC and The Nasdaq Capital Market to implement provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, impose significant requirements on public companies, including requiring establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and changes in corporate governance practices. Further, in July 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or the Dodd-Frank Act, was enacted. There are significant corporate governance and executive compensation related provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act that require the SEC to adopt additional rules and regulations in these areas such as “say on pay” and proxy access. Stockholder activism, the political environment and the level of government intervention and regulatory reform may lead to substantial new regulations and disclosure obligations, which may lead to additional compliance costs and impact the manner in which we operate our business in ways we cannot currently anticipate.
We expect the rules and regulations applicable to public companies to continue to result in substantial legal and financial compliance costs and to make some activities more time-consuming and costly. If these requirements divert the attention of our management and personnel from other business concerns, they could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. These costs could decrease our net income or increase our net loss and may require us to reduce costs in other areas of our business or increase the prices of our products or services. For example, these rules and regulations could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and
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officer liability insurance and we may be required to incur substantial costs to maintain the same or similar coverage. We cannot predict or estimate the amount or timing of additional costs we may incur to respond to these requirements. The impact of these requirements could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, our board committees or as executive officers.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock by our existing stockholders in the public market could cause our stock price to fall.
If our existing stockholders sell, or indicate an intention to sell, substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline. We had 10,946,635 shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2024. We are unable to predict the effect that sales may have on the prevailing market price of our common stock.
Sales of our common stock by current stockholders may make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-related securities in the future at a time and price that we deem reasonable or appropriate and may make it more difficult for you to sell shares of our common stock. In addition, shares of common stock that are either issuable upon the exercise of outstanding options, warrants or pre-funded warrants or reserved for future issuance under our employee benefit plans will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting schedules and Rule 144 and Rule 701 under the Securities Act of 1933 as amended, or Securities Act. In addition, shares of common stock that are either issuable upon the exercise of outstanding options or warrants or reserved for future issuance under our employee benefit plans will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting schedules and Rule 144 and Rule 701 under the Securities Act. If these additional shares of common stock are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold, in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline.
Certain holders of our securities are entitled to rights with respect to the registration of their shares under the Securities Act. Registration of these shares under the Securities Act would result in the shares becoming freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act, except for shares held by affiliates, as defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act. Any sales of securities by these stockholders could have a material adverse effect on the trading price of our common stock.
Future sales and issuances of our common stock or rights to purchase common stock, including pursuant to our equity incentive plans, through the conversion of our Series A Convertible Voting Preferred Stock and Series X Convertible Preferred Stock, or through exercise of warrants and pre-funded warrants, could result in additional dilution of the percentage ownership of our stockholders and could cause our stock price to fall.Future sales and issuances of our common stock or rights to purchase common stock, including pursuant to our equity incentive plans, could result in additional dilution of the percentage ownership of our stockholders and could cause our stock price to fall.
Significant additional capital will be needed to continue our operations as currently planned, including conducting clinical trials, commercialization efforts, expanded R&D activities and costs associated with operating as a public company. To raise capital, we may sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner we determine from time to time. If we sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities, new investors could gain rights, preferences and privileges senior to our existing stockholders and our existing stockholders may be materially diluted by such subsequent sales.
As of December 31, 2024, there were (i) 2,104,472 shares of Series X Convertible Preferred Stock outstanding, which are convertible into an aggregate of 1,052,236 shares of common stock, subject to the limitations on conversion set forth in the Certificate of Designation of Preferences, Rights and Limitations of Series X Convertible Preferred Stock, and (ii) 204,725 shares of Series A Convertible Voting Preferred Stock outstanding, which are convertible into an aggregate of 14,330,750 shares of common stock, subject to the limitations on conversion set forth in the Certificate of Designation of Preferences, Rights and Limitations of the Series A Convertible Voting Preferred Stock. Additionally, as of December 31, 2024, there were (i) warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 866 shares of common stock outstanding, each at an exercise price of $230.95 per share and (ii) pre-funded warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 3,149,035 shares of common stock outstanding, each at an exercise price of $0.0001 per pre-funded warrant share.
Pursuant to our 2024 Equity Incentive Plan, our management is authorized to grant equity awards to our employees, directors and consultants. Further, we may grant awards under our 2020 Inducement Incentive Plan, as amended, to certain eligible employees. Additionally, we may grant or provide for the grant of rights to purchase shares of our common stock pursuant to our 2015 Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Any future grants of equity awards, warrants, pre-funded warrants or other securities exercisable or convertible into our common stock, or the exercise or conversion of such shares, and any sales of such shares in the market, could have an adverse effect on the market price of our common stock.
We have broad discretion in the use of working capital and may not use it effectively.
Our management has broad discretion in the application of our working capital. Because of the number and variability of factors that determine our use of our working capital, its ultimate use may vary substantially from its currently intended use. Our management might not apply our working capital in ways that ultimately increase the value of your investment. We expect to use our working capital to fund R&D activities and general operating expenses. The failure by our
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management to apply this working capital effectively could harm our business. Pending its use, we may invest our working capital in short-term, investment-grade, interest-bearing securities. These investments may not yield a favorable return to our stockholders. If we do not invest or apply our working capital in ways that enhance stockholder value, we may fail to achieve expected financial results, which could cause our stock price to decline.
Anti-takeover provisions under our charter documents and Delaware law could delay or prevent a change of control which could limit the market price of our common stock and may prevent or frustrate attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that could delay or prevent a change of control of our company or changes in our board of directors that our stockholders might consider favorable. Some of these provisions include:
a board of directors divided into three classes serving staggered three-year terms, such that not all members of the board will be elected at one time;
a prohibition on stockholder action through written consent, which requires that all stockholder actions be taken at a meeting of our stockholders;
a requirement that special meetings of stockholders be called only by the chairman of the board of directors, the chief executive officer or by a majority of the total number of authorized directors;
advance notice requirements for stockholder proposals and nominations for election to our board of directors;
a requirement that no member of our board of directors may be removed from office by our stockholders except for cause and, in addition to any other vote required by law, upon the approval of not less than two-thirds of all outstanding shares of our voting stock then entitled to vote in the election of directors;
a requirement of approval of not less than two-thirds of all outstanding shares of our voting stock to amend any bylaws by stockholder action or to amend specific provisions of our certificate of incorporation; and
the authority of the board of directors to issue preferred stock on terms determined by the board of directors without stockholder approval and which preferred stock may include rights superior to the rights of the holders of common stock.
In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporate Law, which may prohibit certain business combinations with stockholders owning 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock. These anti-takeover provisions and other provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws could make it more difficult for stockholders or potential acquirers to obtain control of our board of directors or initiate actions that are opposed by the then-current board of directors and could also delay or impede a merger, tender offer or proxy contest involving our company. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for you and other stockholders to elect directors of your choosing or cause us to take other corporate actions you desire. Any delay or prevention of a change of control transaction or changes in our board of directors could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
Our amended and restated bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.
Our amended and restated bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for the following types of actions or proceedings under Delaware statutory or common law: any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty; any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws; or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. This choice of forum provision does not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act, or any claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Furthermore, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all such Securities Act actions. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. The choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our amended and restated bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur further significant additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, all of which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.
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While the Delaware courts have determined that exclusive choice of forum provisions are facially valid, a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring a claim in a venue other than those designated in the exclusive forum provisions. In such instance, we would expect to vigorously assert the validity and enforceability of the exclusive forum provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. This may require significant additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions and there can be no assurance that the provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of the analysts who covers us downgrades our stock or publishes inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price may decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of our company or fails to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which might cause our stock price and trading volume to decline.
Our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
Unused U.S. federal net operating losses generated in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, will not expire and may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such federal net operating loss carryforwards in a taxable year is limited to 80% of taxable income in such year. In addition, under Sections 382 and 383 of the IRC, 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 loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes to offset its post-change income or taxes may be limited. In addition, under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, 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 loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes to offset its post-change income or taxes may be limited. As a result of capital raising and other transactions that have occurred since our inception in 2012, we have identified several ownership changes that will impact our ability to utilize our net operating loss and credit carryforwards. We may also experience ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership. As of December 31, 2024, we had U.S. federal net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $202.8 million, portions of which will begin to expire in 2035, and which could be limited by reason of one or more ownership changes. In addition, at the state level, there may be periods during which the use of net operating loss carryforwards is suspended or otherwise limited. For example, California imposed limits on the usability of California state net operating losses to offset taxable income in tax years beginning after 2023 and before 2027. As a result, if we earn net taxable income, we may be unable to use all or a material portion of our net operating loss carryforwards and other tax attributes, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us and adversely affect our future cash flows.
Uncertainties in the interpretation and application of existing, new and proposed tax laws and regulations could materially affect our tax obligations and effective tax rate.
The tax regimes to which we are subject or under which we operate are unsettled and may be subject to significant change. The issuance of additional guidance related to existing or future tax laws, or changes to tax laws or regulations proposed or implemented by the current or a future U.S. presidential administration, Congress, or taxing authorities in other jurisdictions, including jurisdictions outside of the U.S., could materially affect our tax obligations and effective tax rate. To the extent that such changes have a negative impact on us, including as a result of related uncertainty, these changes may adversely impact our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.
The amount of taxes we pay in different jurisdictions depends on the application of the tax laws of various jurisdictions, including the U.S., to our international business activities, tax rates, new or revised tax laws, or interpretations of tax laws and policies, and our ability to operate our business in a manner consistent with our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements. The taxing authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our methodologies for pricing intercompany transactions pursuant to our intercompany arrangements or disagree with our determinations as to the income and expenses attributable to specific jurisdictions. If such a challenge or disagreement were to occur, and our position was not sustained, we could be required to pay additional taxes, interest, and penalties, which could result in one-time tax charges, higher effective tax rates, reduced cash flows, and lower overall profitability of our operations. Our financial statements could fail to reflect adequate reserves to cover such a contingency. Similarly, a taxing authority could assert that we are subject to tax in a jurisdiction where we believe we have not established a taxable connection, often referred to as a “permanent establishment” under international tax treaties, and such an assertion, if successful, could increase our expected tax liability in one or more jurisdictions.
The Tax Act eliminated the option to deduct R&D expenses for tax purposes in the year incurred and requires taxpayers to capitalize and subsequently amortize such expenses over five years for research activities conducted in the U.S. and over 15 years for research activities conducted outside the U.S. Although there have been legislative proposals to repeal or defer the capitalization requirement to later years, there can be no assurance that the provision will be repealed or
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otherwise modified. Future guidance from the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities with respect to such legislation may affect us, and certain aspects of such legislation could be repealed or modified in future legislation.
Our business and operations would suffer in the event of system failures.
Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems and those of our contractors and consultants are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. While we have not experienced any such system failure, accident or security breach to date, if such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our drug development programs. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or ongoing or planned clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and we may incur substantial costs to attempt to recover or reproduce the data. If any disruption or security breach resulted in a loss of or damage to our data or applications or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liability and/or the further development of our product candidates could be delayed.
Our operations are vulnerable to interruption by natural disasters, power loss, terrorist activity, public health crisis, pandemic diseases and other events beyond our control, the occurrence of which could materially harm our business.
Businesses located in California have, in the past, been subject to electrical blackouts as a result of a shortage of available electrical power and any future blackouts could disrupt our operations. We are also vulnerable to a major earthquake, wildfire, inclement weather and other natural and man-made disasters and public health crisis and pandemic diseases, and we have not undertaken a systematic analysis of the potential consequences to our business as a result of any such natural disaster, public health crisis or pandemic diseases and do not have an applicable recovery plan in place. We are also vulnerable to a major earthquake, wildfire, inclement weather and other natural and man-made disasters and public health crisis and pandemic diseases, such as coronavirus, and we have not undertaken a systematic analysis of the potential consequences to our business as a result of any such natural disaster, public health crisis or pandemic diseases and do not have an applicable recovery plan in place. In addition, if any of our third-party contract manufacturers are affected by natural disasters, such as earthquakes, power shortages or outages, floods, wildfire, public health crises, such as pandemics and epidemics, terrorism or other events outside of our control, our business and operating results could suffer. For example, as a result of global pandemics, we experienced significant disruptions in the conduct of our clinical trials and our general business operations as the result of various federal, state and local stay-at-home, shelter-in-place and quarantine measures. For example, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we experienced significant disruptions in the conduct of our clinical trials and our general business operations as the result of various federal, state and local stay-at-home, shelter-in-place and quarantine measures. We carry only limited business interruption insurance that would compensate us for actual losses from interruption of our business that may occur and any losses or damages incurred by us in excess of insured amounts could cause our business to materially suffer.
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Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.
Not applicable.
Item 1C. Cybersecurity.
Risk management and strategy
We recognize the importance of maintaining the trust and confidence of our customers, clients, business partners and employees. Cybersecurity represents an important component of our overall approach to risk management. We have implemented and maintain various information security processes designed to identify, assess, and manage material risks from cybersecurity threats to our critical computer networks, third party hosted services, communications systems, hardware and software, and our critical data, including intellectual property, confidential information that is proprietary, strategic or competitive in nature, and data related to our clinical trials, employees and contractors, or Information Systems and Data.
The Incident Response Team, or the IRT, is a functional and collaborative team consisting of the Chief Legal and Operating Officer, Chief Financial and Business Officer, Senior Vice President, People and Culture, and Director, Information Technology, or IT. The IRT, together with the wider IT, Legal, and Finance teams, as well as external cybersecurity consultants, help identify, assess, and manage our cybersecurity threats and risks.
The Director, IT plays a pivotal role in our cybersecurity framework, actively identifying and assessing risks from cybersecurity threats. This is achieved through a variety of methods, including but not limited to, extensive audits, detailed assessments, and the engagement of outside cybersecurity consultants. In addition to these existing strategies, we have implemented several processes to increase our ability to identify, monitor, and assess material cybersecurity threats.
We subscribe to specialized reports and services that identify emerging cybersecurity threats, thereby keeping our defenses informed and up-to-date. The IT department systematically analyzes such reports of threats and actors, providing us with a deeper understanding of potential risks. We also conduct regular scans of the threat environment, providing real-time insights into the security landscape.
Evaluating our own and our industry’s risk profile is an ongoing process, allowing us to continually tailor our cybersecurity measures to specific needs and vulnerabilities. We also coordinate with law enforcement agencies concerning threats, so that our approach benefits from broader insights and intelligence.
Conducting detailed threat assessments for both internal and external threats form a crucial part of our security strategy. Additionally, we leverage external intelligence feeds, integrating diverse sources of information to strengthen our overall cybersecurity posture. These concerted efforts are designed to achieve a comprehensive, dynamic, and proactive approach to managing and mitigating cybersecurity risks.
Our approach to cybersecurity is tailored to suit the specific environment in which we operate. We implement and maintain an array of technical, physical, and organizational measures, processes, standards, and policies, designed to manage and mitigate material risks arising from cybersecurity threats to our Information Systems and Data. This includes a comprehensive strategy featuring a dedicated cybersecurity staff and a regularly tested IT Security Incident Response Plan. Regular risk assessments, tabletop exercises, threat modeling, and vulnerability testing form the backbone of our technical measures.
Our assessment and management of material risks from cybersecurity threats are integrated into our overall risk management processes. This is exemplified in the way our IT Security Incident Response Plan forms an integral part of the broader risk management framework, so that cybersecurity risks are visible and treated as strategic business risks.
Detailing the integration of cyber risk into our risk management, cybersecurity risk is addressed as a crucial component of our enterprise risk management program. The IT department works in close collaboration with executive management to prioritize risk management processes, with a particular focus on mitigating cybersecurity threats that could have a significant impact on our business. Furthermore, team members from the IT department or a relevant executive committee evaluate material risks from cybersecurity threats in alignment with our overall business objectives. These evaluations are then communicated to the audit committee of the board of directors. The audit committee assesses these risks as part of our overall enterprise risk, ensuring that cybersecurity is given due consideration in line with our strategic goals and governance framework.
We use third-party service providers to assist us from time to time to identify, assess, and manage material risks from cybersecurity threats, including for example assessors, cybersecurity consultants, auditors, and outside legal counsel.
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We use third-party service providers to perform a variety of functions throughout our business, such as application providers and supply chain resources. We use third-party service providers to perform a variety of functions throughout our business, such as application providers and supply chain resources. We have a vendor management program to manage cybersecurity risks associated with our use of these providers. The program includes a risk assessment for each vendor, vulnerability scans related to the vendor, and imposition of information contractual obligations on the vendor. Depending on the nature of the services provided, the sensitivity of the Information Systems and Data at issue, and the identity of the provider, our vendor management process may involve different levels of assessment designed to help identify cybersecurity risks associated with a provider and impose contractual obligations related to cybersecurity on the provider.
For a description of the risks from cybersecurity threats that may materially affect us and how they may do so, see our risk factors under Part 1. Item 1A. Risk Factors in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Governance
Our board of directors addresses our cybersecurity risk management as part of its general oversight function. The board of directors’ and the IRT are responsible for overseeing our cybersecurity risk management processes, including oversight and mitigation of risks from cybersecurity threats.
Our cybersecurity risk assessment and management processes are implemented and maintained by certain members of management, including the Director, IT, Chief Legal and Operating Officer, and Chief Financial and Business Officer. The Chief Legal and Operating Officer and Chief Financial and Business Officer are responsible for providing information on materiality to the Director, IT and producing documentation of known and unknown facts about a cybersecurity incident and factors considered in the materiality assessment. Our Chief Legal and Operating Officer and Chief Financial and Business Officer hold degrees relevant to their areas of expertise and both have over 20 years of experience in their respective fields. The Director, IT is primarily responsible for assessing and managing material risks from cybersecurity threats; they have 23 years of experience in core infrastructure, data infrastructure and analytics, business platforms, and integrations.
The Director, IT is responsible for hiring appropriate personnel, helping to integrate cybersecurity risk considerations into our overall risk management strategy, and communicating key priorities to relevant personnel. The Director, IT is also responsible for approving budgets, helping prepare for cybersecurity incidents, approving cybersecurity processes, and reviewing security assessments and other security-related reports.
Our IT Security Incident Response Plan is designed to escalate certain cybersecurity incidents to members of management depending on the circumstances, including the IRT. The IRT works with the IT department and external cybersecurity experts to help us mitigate and remediate cybersecurity incidents. In addition, our IT Security Incident Response Plan includes reporting to the board of directors for certain cybersecurity incidents.
The audit committee receives quarterly updates from the IRT concerning our cybersecurity threats and risk and the processes we have implemented to address them. On an annual basis the board of directors receives a report from the IRT highlighting any significant cybersecurity threats.
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