This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are “forward-looking statements” for purposes of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. These forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, business strategy, market size, potential growth opportunities, timing and results of preclinical and clinical development activities, and potential regulatory approval and commercialization of product candidates. In some cases, forward looking-statements may be identified by terminology such as “believe,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “predict,” “goal,” “strategy,” “potentially,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “would,” “project,” “plan,” “expect,” “seek” and similar expressions and variations thereof. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short-term and long-term business operations and objectives and financial needs. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in the “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment, and new risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this report may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements.
You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this report to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations, except as required by law.
As used in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the terms “KalVista,” “the Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to KalVista Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and, where appropriate, its consolidated subsidiary, unless the context indicates otherwise.
Item 1. Business.
Overview
We are a clinical stage pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of small molecule protease inhibitors. Our first product candidates are inhibitors of plasma kallikrein being developed for two indications: hereditary angioedema (“HAE”) and diabetic macular edema (“DME”). We apply our insights into the chemistry of proteases and, with our current programs, the biology of the plasma kallikrein system, to develop molecules with properties such as selectivity, potency and bioavailability that we believe will make them successful treatments for disease.
There is good evidence that inhibition of plasma kallikrein is able to treat HAE. Currently marketed therapies are all administered by injection and we anticipate considerable potential for orally delivered, small molecule treatments. In the case of DME, we are initially developing a plasma kallikrein inhibitor which is administered directly into the eye but anticipate ultimate development of orally delivered drugs. To achieve these aims we are advancing several proprietary product candidates into clinical trials. We began a first-in-human clinical trial of our first oral HAE candidate, KVD818, in the third calendar quarter of 2016 and plan to advance our lead DME candidate for intravitreal injection, KVD001, to Phase 2 trials later this year. We are currently progressing additional oral HAE candidates through preclinical studies and plan to take at least one of those into the clinic in 2017 and an additional program in 2018, in keeping with our strategy of developing a portfolio of molecules to yield a best-in-class therapy.
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HAE is a rare and potentially life-threatening condition with symptoms that incl
ude episodes of debilitating and often painful swelling in the skin, gastrointestinal tract or airways. Prior clinical studie
s, including those
for
an
other currently marketed therap
y
have shown that inhibition of plasma kallikrein is a proven target in the
treatment of HAE. A conveniently administered oral product could provide an opportunity to capture a significant portion of the current market and expand it to patients with less frequent HAE attacks.
We believe that HAE is a clinical indication and market that can be served by a focused commercial organization because there are a limited number of primary prescribers and active patient-focused disease organizations for this rare disease, which has a prevalence of between approximately 1 in 50,000 and 1 in 65,000 people. We intend to develop a portfolio of orally-delivered molecules, with the goal of providing a best-in-class therapeutic for this indication. For this reason, we anticipate advancing multiple molecules to early stage clinical trials, only selecting those that will be advanced further once we have sufficient data to allow comparisons of the molecules based upon a matrix of key criteria that we believe best reflect the unmet needs of patients with this disease.
DME is the leading cause of moderate vision loss in most developed countries and diabetes, the underlying cause of DME, is the leading cause of blindness among adults aged 20 to 74 years old, according to 2014 statistics published by the Center for Disease and Prevention. Our DME program is initially focused on the development of an intravitreally administered small molecule plasma kallikrein inhibitor. We believe intravitreal plasma kallikrein inhibitors may be an effective complementary therapy to vascular endothelial growth factor (“VEGF“) inhibitors and further improve visual acuity and decrease macular thickening. Preclinical pharmacokinetic studies have shown that direct injection into the eye delivers a high drug concentration at the desired site of action. The drug concentration is maintained for a prolonged period with a low systemic exposure, potentially supporting an extended dosing schedule. With our most advanced compound, KVD001, we have successfully completed a first-in-human trial in patients with DME and are planning for a multiple injection Phase 2 trial that we intend to commence later in 2017. In addition to KVD001, we also plan to develop an oral plasma kallikrein inhibitor to treat DME. An oral treatment may provide the opportunity to reduce treatment burden, treat patients earlier in disease development, and provide a convenient and readily accessible treatment option for DME.
Strategy
Key elements of our strategy include:
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Apply our deep scientific expertise in the area of serine proteases to develop novel oral therapies for indications with high unmet need.
Our core scientific team has decades of experience working on protease inhibitors and developing compounds with high potency, selectivity and bioavailability. We have assembled a team of chemists and biologists who have demonstrated the ability to design and formulate multiple drug candidate programs from a broad variety of chemical classes, as indicated by our extensive intellectual property portfolio. Our initial focus is specifically on development of plasma kallikrein inhibitors for HAE and DME; however, we believe our scientific capabilities also can be applied to other proteases to develop therapies for diseases with high unmet need and orphan indications.
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Advance multiple HAE product candidates into clinical development.
We intend to develop a best-in-class oral therapy for HAE and, to accomplish that goal, we plan to bring multiple drug candidates into clinical trials and compare their performance before determining which program, or programs, to advance to late stage development. Our first oral candidate, KVD818, is currently in Phase 1 clinical trials. We are conducting preclinical development of multiple additional drug candidates and plan to continue to advance those that meet our strict internal development criteria. We anticipate bringing one additional candidate into clinical development this year and at least one additional candidate in 2018.
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Continue to advance our intravitreal DME program and develop an oral therapy.
KVD001, our first product candidate to treat DME, has already been advanced into clinical trials and is anticipated to begin a Phase 2 trial later in 2017. We also intend to develop an oral therapy for this indication, which we believe could dramatically improve the standard of care for patients, since all current therapies are currently delivered by injection into the eye.
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2
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•
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Grow
our
capabilities internally as well as through strategic partnerships.
We intend to retain ownership and control of our pipeline programs to key milestones. For certai
n indications that can be addressed by a focused organization, such as HAE, we may determine to keep all program rights and develop capabilities such as sales and marketing capabilities. For programs that address larger markets or require greater infrastru
cture or resources, such as DME, we may seek a partner that can provide those capabilities. Decisions on whether, and when, to engage in partnerships or collaborations will be based upon our evaluations of the relative risks and rewards of those collaborat
ions at each point in the development cycle.
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Plasma Kallikrein in HAE and DME
Plasma kallikrein is a serine protease enzyme that is a key early mediator of inflammation and edema or swelling. The body modulates the inflammatory effects of plasma kallikrein through a circulating inhibitor protein called C1-esterase inhibitor (“C1-INH”). Patients with HAE have genetic mutations that lead to either a deficiency or non-functioning of C1-INH, which results in an inability to control activated plasma kallikrein in affected tissues. This excessive activation leads to inflammation, edema, and pain.
Published laboratory work has shown that the eye is also a site of increased plasma kallikrein in DME. In diabetic patients, the retina is one of a few tissues in which edema develops. Under normal circumstances the eye is protected from the diffusion of plasma proteins by an effective barrier. In diabetes this barrier becomes less effective and allows plasma kallikrein to enter the eye. While C1-INH will also be able to enter by the same route, animal models of DME have shown that the concentration of C1-INH in the vitreous fluid is insufficient to fully suppress the effects of plasma kallikrein on retinal edema. Over time, this edema leads to retinal damage that causes blindness.
Hereditary Angioedema
Disease Overview
HAE is a rare and potentially life-threatening genetic condition that occurs in between about 1 in 50,000 to 1 in 65,000 people, according to multiple population-based epidemiological investigations. Excessive plasma kallikrein activation not sufficiently controlled by C1 inhibition leads to the typical HAE attack. HAE attacks include episodes of intense swelling or edema usually in the skin, gastrointestinal tract or airways. They often lead to temporary disfiguration of various body parts including the hands, feet, face, body trunk, and genitals. In addition, patients often have bouts of excruciating abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting that is caused by swelling in the intestinal wall. Airway swelling is particularly dangerous and can lead to death by asphyxiation.
Most attacks occur spontaneously, with no apparent reason. However, anxiety, stress, minor trauma, surgery, or illnesses such as colds are often cited as prodromal events. Trauma to the oral cavity caused by dental procedures makes HAE patients particularly vulnerable to airway attacks. The frequency of HAE attacks is highly variable, with some patients having attacks several times per week and others very infrequently. Although life-threatening airway swelling is rare, at least half of HAE patients have experienced at least one such attack and airway attacks remain a major cause of mortality in HAE patients. The severity of attacks is unpredictable and not related to their underlying frequency. A patient with only one attack per year can nevertheless be at risk of suffering a laryngeal attack.
HAE is caused primarily by genetic defects or mutations in the gene that regulates C1inhibition and is an autosomal dominant disease meaning that a defect in only one copy of the gene leads to symptoms and that it occurs at similar rates in both males and females. While HAE can result through inheritance of a defective C1-INH gene from a parent, a number of cases also arise from novel mutations.
C1-INH is a natural plasma-borne peptide that functions as an inhibitor of multiple serine proteases in both the complement and kallikrein kinin systems. C1-INH is the predominant physiological inhibitor of plasma kallikrein, and thereby suppresses the generation of bradykinin, a potent hormone produced by plasma kallikrein, that activates its receptors on blood vessels to increase vascular leakage. Uncontrolled plasma kallikrein activity leads to the tissue inflammation and edema that are the hallmarks of HAE. As such, plasma kallikrein is a clinically validated target for HAE and previous studies have demonstrated that plasma kallikrein inhibition can both treat and prevent HAE attacks.
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Current Treatments and Market opportu
nities
There are a number of marketed therapeutics for HAE which provide evidence that inhibition of plasma kallikrein activity will give therapeutic benefit in HAE. Most relevant is ecallantide (Kalbitor®) which is a small protein inhibitor of plasma kallikrein that is approved for acute attacks of HAE. While effective, ecallantide has been associated with cases of anaphylaxis and its approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) includes a black box warning limiting its administration to healthcare professionals. Other therapies employ C1-INH replacement to control plasma kallikrein levels. Cinryze® and Berinert® are purified from human plasma, whereas Ruconest® is a recombinant product. Icatibant (Firazyr®) is a synthetic peptide-based antagonist that blocks the activity of bradykinin. All of these products are administered by injection, which is typically less convenient for patients and has the potential to reduce to compliance. We believe that a safe and effective oral agent has the potential to transform treatment for this disease. We also believe that opportunities exist for both acute and prophylaxis treatments, and intend to consider all of our programs as potential therapies in both segments of the market. For this reason, we plan to evaluate multiple formulations and profiles of our programs as part of our clinical development strategy.
Our Portfolio of HAE Programs
KVD818 is the first of our portfolio of orally available plasma kallikrein inhibitors to progress to clinical testing. In common with other candidates it is a potent and selective inhibitor of human plasma kallikrein that displays properties which we believe support its investigation in early clinical trials to assess its suitability to progress to trials in HAE patients. We are currently studying KVD818 in a first-in-human study in the UK that has explored multiple doses and formulations. To date, we have demonstrated that KVD818 achieves exposures in subjects and has been generally well-tolerated. We plan to continue to explore the properties of KVD818 to support decisions on further development as well as to enhance our knowledge of HAE therapy and inform our portfolio strategy.
We are developing additional program candidates in order to expand the universe of properties and increase the likelihood of delivery of a best-in-class treatment for HAE. The first of these additional product candidates is KVD900. Consistent with our strategy of progressing multiple candidates, we are preparing this molecule for clinical testing and plan to have enabled the first-in-human study before the end of the year. KVD900 is a potent inhibitor of plasma kallikrein displaying 50% inhibition with a concentration of 6nM, and shows very high selectivity against related proteases as shown in Table 1 below. Of particular note is that it is >6000 fold selective against tissue kallikrein (also called tissue kallikrein 1 or KLK1). This enzyme shares the same substrate as plasma kallikren and has been linked to effects on cardiac safety, making selectivity against it an important element of our design process.
Enzyme (Human)
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Fold selectivity
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Tissue Kallikrein
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>6000
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Factor XIa
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>6000
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Factor XIIa
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>6000
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Plasmin
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>6000
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Thrombin
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>6000
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Trypsin
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>6000
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Table 1: Selectivity of KVD900 against human proteases related to plasma kallikrein.
In ongoing preclinical safety studies, KVD900 is rapidly and highly absorbed. In rats, plasma concentrations up to 30,000-fold IC50 have been obtained within one hour following dosing and maintained well above IC50 for at least 24 hours. In addition, in non-animal safety studies to date, KVD900 has shown a profile consistent with progression to clinical studies. For example, the potential for a compound to affect, or be affected by, the dosing of another drug (drug-drug interaction), can be investigated by looking at its impact on the enzymes responsible for metabolizing drugs. In these assays against cytochrome P450 enzymes, KVD900 is >1000 fold less potent than it is against plasma kallikrein.
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Manufacture of KVD900 has been completed at the multi-kilogram scale to support preclinical and clinical testing and multiple formulations have been developed, manufactured and dosed to primates establishing the feasibility
of manufacture of clinically acceptable dose forms. These dose forms are designed to enable variable dosing regimens.
In parallel with progression of KVD900, we are not only focused on expansion of our proprietary compound portfolio but also our profiling techniques to enable a collection of molecules differentiated by both chemical structure and properties, maximizing the chance of discovering and progressing best-in-class treatments for HAE. Our scientific team has demonstrated the ability to consistently generate new candidate molecules, enabling a rigorous selection process that only advances programs that meet strict internal criteria. As part of this effort, we have developed assays that provide proprietary insights into inhibition of plasma kallikrein, supporting selection of product candidates at an earlier stage that may have a higher likelihood of demonstrating clinical success. A number of these earlier candidates are being profiled for progression to scale-up manufacture and entry into formal safety studies.
Diabetic Macular Edema
Disease Overview
DME occurs as a result of diabetes and is caused by the breakdown of the endothelial barrier function in the retina, resulting in the accumulation of fluid in the macula. This leads to edematous thickening of the macula region of the retina and loss of visual acuity, potentially leading to blindness. DME is a major complication associated with diabetes, affecting an estimated 26% of type 1 diabetic patients after 14 years of the disease, and an estimated 29% within their lifetime; 17% of type 1 diabetic patients were estimated to develop clinically significant macular edema within their lifetime. Approximately 900,000 patients in the United States have active DME and are at serious risk of vision loss, according to a study published in 2015.
The current standard of care for DME in the United States is therapy directed against VEGF, a hypoxia-induced protein that stimulates the growth of blood vessels in the retina. FDA approved anti-VEGF therapies for DME are ranibizumab (Lucentis
®
) and aflibercept (Eylea
®
). Both of these products are administered via intravitreal injection at roughly monthly intervals. In addition to these two products, a large fraction of patients is treated with bevacizumab (Avastin
®
), another therapy that works through the same mechanism of binding to VEGF but has not been approved for ophthalmic use. Bevacizumab is priced based on its application in oncology and off-label use by retinal specialists typically results in treatment at a fraction of the cost seen with both ranibizumab and aflibercept. Patients are also treated with laser therapy in some circumstances.
A number of other drug therapies are used to treat DME, including corticosteroid anti-inflammatories such as triamcinolone acetonide, fluocinolone, and dexamethasone. These drugs also are administered via intravitreal injection. Sustained release versions of fluocinolone (Illuvien
®
) and dexamethasone (Ozurdex
®
) have recently been approved for use in DME, substantially reducing the number of injections required to obtain and maintain clinical responses. These novel corticosteroid formulations led to 15-letter improvements in visual acuity in approximately 20-30% of patients. Corticosteroid treatment, however, is associated with a dramatic increase in cataract formation and a rise in intraocular pressure, reducing the attractiveness of these agents as potential therapies in many patients.
In a recent large, multi-center clinical trial in DME patients, anti-VEGF therapy led to approximately 20% of patients improving their visual acuity by 15 letters or more after a median of 9 or 10 intravitreal injections, leaving a significant portion of the patients with inadequate control of their disease. Further, in one study conducted for an approved VEGF inhibitor, 40% of patients displayed no visual improvement following anti-VEGF therapy after months of treatment. Unfortunately, even for those patients that do initially respond well to anti-VEGF therapy, their disease recurs within several months of treatment cessation, thus requiring extended rounds of intravitreal injections to achieve and maintain a clinical response.
Research into the biology underlying DME led by our scientific team has identified plasma kallikrein as a potential novel target for this indication. They found that plasma kallikrein levels were higher in vitreous fluid from DME patients compared to patients without diabetic retinopathy. They further found that targeted disruption of the gene for plasma prekallikrein or the administration of a small molecule plasma kallikrein inhibitor led to decreases
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in retinal thickening in animal retinopathy models. We believe that inhibition of plasma kallikrein provides an opportunity to address DME through a novel me
chanism that is independent of the current pathways targeted by anti-VEGF and steroid therapies.
Our DME Development Activities
Our first potential DME therapy is KVD001. KVD001 is a potent inhibitor of human plasma kallikrein with an IC50 of approximately 10nM and a high degree of selectivity against a broad range of other proteases. We have developed KVD001 for intravitreal injection because trials using this delivery modality will provide a relatively early and direct proof of concept for its product candidate since the molecule is delivered directly to the site of edema. Since other products such as anti-VEGF therapies are also delivered intravitreally, we believe this will be accepted by both physicians and patients and will not lead to any competitive disadvantages. Another inherent advantage of intravitreal administration is that there is very limited systemic exposure, thus reducing potential systemic safety concerns.
We have completed an open-label single ascending dose Phase 1 trial of KVD001 in 14 DME patients, all of whom had previously received anti-VEGF treatment. This trial investigated three doses of KVD001: 1, 3, and 10 µg/eye. While this trial was not powered to show statistically significant improvements in visual acuity, a pooled analysis of all patients and all doses demonstrates a trend toward improvement over time, with the mean change in visual acuity following a single dose of KDV001 of approximately four letters at 84 days following treatment. No adverse events were considered related to study drug at the low (n=3 patients) or high (n=8 patients) doses. At the mid-dose (n=3 patients) two adverse events were considered related to the study drug although both events were also considered related to study procedures. Those study procedures consist of intravitreal injection, which includes inherent risks such as intraocular inflammation, sterile and culture positive endophthalmitis, corneal decomposition, retinal detachment, and retinal tear. The first of these adverse events was a case of eye inflammation considered of mild intensity and possibly related to study drug and study procedure. The second was a case of increased intraocular pressure considered of severe intensity and related to study procedure and probably related to study drug. These results represent the first investigation of clinical application of plasma kallikrein inhibitors in DME and are an encouraging sign of the potential of KVD001, and plasma kallikrein inhibitors in general, in this indication.
Following this study, we conducted further preclinical testing to enable multiple monthly injections of KVD001, as well as allow concurrent treatment with both KVD001 and anti-VEGF therapies. We believe the ability to provide patients with multiple injections and longer duration of treatment may further enhance efficacy beyond that observed in the single dose Phase 1 trial. We are currently planning a Phase 2 trial of KVD001 administered by intravitreal injection in DME patients that will consist of four injections over a period of three months, and will include a control group. We intend to select patients who have previously been treated with anti-VEGF therapies but have experienced insufficient response. The primary outcome will be an increase in visual acuity following the final injection. We anticipate this trial will last approximately 12 months and currently plan to launch the trial later in 2017.
Potential for Systemic Delivery
In parallel with the clinical development of its intravitreal product candidate KVD001, we intend to identify and advance plasma kallikrein inhibitors as oral therapies for DME. We believe that a safe and effective oral therapy has the potential to transform the treatment of DME which to-date has been dominated by drug therapies that must be injected intravitreally. Future trials in DME with oral kallikrein inhibitors may focus on the treatment of earlier stage disease, a stage at which intravitreal injections are not a desirable solution due to their inherently invasive nature and consequent risk of adverse reactions.
Competition
In HAE, we expect to face competition from several FDA-approved therapeutics, including Cinryze, marketed by Shire in the United States and Europe for the prevention of angioedema attacks in adults and adolescents; Firazyr, marketed by Shire in the United States, Europe and certain other geographic territories for the treatment of acute angioedema attacks in adult patients; Kalbitor, an injectable plasma kallikrein inhibitor marketed by Shire for the resolution of acute attacks in adolescent and adult HAE patients; Berinert and Haegarda, marketed by CSL Behring
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for the prophylaxis and treatment of acute abdominal, facial or laryngeal attacks of HAE in adults and adolescents; and Rucon
est, marketed by Pharming Group
fo
r the treatment of acute angioedema attacks in adult patients. We are also aware of companies that are engaged in the clinical development of other product candidates, including a plasma kallikrein monoclonal antibody (SHP643, from Shire) and
an
o
ral plasm
a kallikrein inhibitor
(BCX7353, from Biocryst Pharmaceuticals ) for the treatment of HAE patients.
In DME, we expect to face competition from several FDA-approved therapeutics, including anti-VEGF therapies Lucentis, marketed by Roche and Novartis, Eylea, marketed by Regeneron, and off label use of Avastin from Roche. We also face competition from various corticoid steroids including extended release formulations lluvien, marketed by Alimera, and Ozurdex, marketed by Allergan. We further expect to compete with generic corticosteroids such as acetonide, fluocinolone, and dexamethasone and we are aware of a number of other companies that have product candidates in early clinical trials, including Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche, Regeneron, Ohr Pharmaceutical, Aerpio Therapeutics, Verseon, Thrombogenics and Allegro Ophthalmics. Verseon and Thrombogenics are also developing plasma kallikrein inhibitors for the treatment of DME by either topical administration (Verseon) or intravitreal injection (Thrombogenics).
Intellectual Property
Our success substantially depends on our ability to obtain and maintain patents and other forms of intellectual property rights for our product candidates, methods used to manufacture our product candidates and methods for treating patients using our product candidates, as well as our ability to preserve our trade secrets, to prevent third parties from infringing upon our proprietary rights and to operate without infringing upon the proprietary rights of others. As of April 30, 2017, we are the owner of five U.S. patents expiring between 2023 and 2034, absent any extensions, as well as four pending U.S. patent applications and five pending U.S. provisional applications. Any patents issuing from the foregoing owned or licensed U.S. applications are expected to expire in 2034, absent any adjustments or extensions. As of April 30, 2017, we owned a total of 89 pending foreign applications and 89 patents in multiple jurisdictions. Any issued patents, or those issuing from these foreign patent applications, are expected to expire between 2023 and 2037, absent any adjustments or extensions. As of April 30, 2017, we also controlled three pending international applications that, if issued, are expected to expire in 2035, absent any adjustments or extensions. The chemical structures of KVD001 and KVD818 are included in composition of matter applications.
KVD001 is covered by U.S. patents and patent applications covering composition of matter, methods of treatment, solid form and clinical formulations. The anticipated expiration dates of these patents, or patents arising from applications, range from 2032 to 2034, absent any adjustments or extensions.
Our portfolio of oral plasma kallikrein inhibitors, including KVD818 and KVD900, is covered by U.S. patent applications and pending international applications covering composition of matter and methods of treatment and any patents arising from those applications are expected to expire between 2034 to 2035, absent any adjustments or extensions. New U.S. provisional applications directed to solid forms and further compositions of matter were filed in 2016 and 2017.
In addition, we own a portfolio of patents and patent applications not related to the former Carbylan Therapeutics product candidates following the share purchase transaction with KalVista Pharmaceuticals Limited. As of April 30, 2017, this included seven granted U.S. patents expiring between 2028 and 2032, as well as three pending U.S. patent applications which would be expected to expire between 2030 and 2034. Also as of April 30, 2017, this portfolio included 22 pending foreign applications and 31 foreign granted patents.
Patents extend for varying periods according to the date of patent filing or grant and the legal term of patents in various countries where patent protection is obtained. The actual protection afforded by a patent, which can vary from country to country, depends on the type of patent, the scope of its coverage and the availability of legal remedies in the country.
We also use other forms of protection, such as trademark, copyright and trade secret protection for our intellectual property, particularly where we do not believe patent protection is appropriate or obtainable. We require our employees, consultants, contractors and other advisors to execute nondisclosure and assignment of invention
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agreements upon commencement of their respective employment or engagement. In addition, we also require confidentiality or service agreements from third partie
s that receive confidential information or materials.
Government Regulation and Product Approval
Government authorities in the United States, at the federal, state and local level, and in other countries and jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and European Union, extensively regulate, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, quality control, approval, packaging, storage, recordkeeping, labeling, advertising, promotion, distribution, marketing, post-approval monitoring and reporting, and import and export of pharmaceutical products. The processes for obtaining regulatory approvals in the United States and in foreign countries and jurisdictions, along with subsequent compliance with applicable statutes and regulations and other regulatory authorities, require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources.
FDA approval process
In the United States, pharmaceutical products are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and other federal and state statutes and regulations, govern, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, storage, recordkeeping, approval, labeling, promotion and marketing, distribution, post-approval monitoring and reporting, sampling, and import and export of pharmaceutical products. Failure to comply with applicable U.S. requirements may subject a company to a variety of administrative or judicial sanctions, such as clinical hold, FDA refusal to approve pending new drug applications (“NDA”), warning or untitled letters, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions, fines, civil penalties, and criminal prosecution.
Pharmaceutical product development for a new product or certain changes to an approved product in the United States typically involves preclinical laboratory and animal tests, the submission to the FDA of an Investigational New Drug (“IND”), which must become effective before clinical testing may commence in the United States, and adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to establish the safety and effectiveness of the drug for each indication for which FDA approval is sought. Satisfaction of FDA approval requirements prior to marketing a pharmaceutical product typically takes many years and the actual time required may vary substantially based upon the type, complexity, and novelty of the product or disease.
Preclinical studies include evaluation of product chemistry, formulation and manufacturing process, as well as toxicity studies in animals to assess the characteristics and potential safety and efficacy of the product. The conduct of the preclinical tests must comply with federal regulations and requirements, including good laboratory practices and good manufacturing practice (“cGMP”). The results of preclinical testing are submitted to the FDA as part of an IND along with the information on product chemistry, manufacturing and controls, and a proposed clinical trial protocol. Long term preclinical tests, such as animal tests of reproductive toxicity and carcinogenicity, may continue after the initial IND is “opened” (i.e. effective). For the initial IND submission, a 30-day waiting period after the submission of the IND is required prior to the commencement of the clinical trial in humans. If the FDA has neither commented on nor questioned the IND within this 30-day period, the clinical trial proposed in the IND may begin. For subsequent clinical trial protocols submitted to the IND, there is no mandated review time for FDA. Clinical trials involve the administration of the investigational drug to healthy volunteers or patients under the supervision of a qualified investigator. Clinical trials must be conducted: (i) in compliance with federal regulations; (ii) in compliance with good clinical practice (“GCP”), an international standard designed to protect the rights, safety and well-being of trial subjects and to ensure the integrity of the clinical trial data generated; as well as (iii) under protocols detailing the objectives of the trial, the parameters to be used in monitoring safety, and the effectiveness criteria to be evaluated. Each protocol involving testing on U.S. patients and subsequent protocol amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND.
The FDA may order the temporary, or permanent, discontinuation of a clinical trial at any time, or impose other sanctions if it believes that the clinical trial either is not being conducted in accordance with FDA requirements or presents an unacceptable risk to the clinical trial patients. The trial protocol and informed consent information for patients in clinical trials must also be submitted to an institutional review board (“IRB”), for approval prior to the start of the clinical trial. An IRB may also order the clinical trial at the site to be halted, either temporarily or permanently, for failure to comply with the IRB’s requirements, or may impose other conditions.
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Clinical trials to su
pport NDAs for marketing approval are typically conducted in three sequential phases, but the phases may overlap. In Phase 1, the initial introduction of the drug into healthy human subjects or patients, the product is tested to assess metabolism, pharmaco
kinetics, pharmacological actions, side effects associated with increasing doses, and, if possible, early evidence on effectiveness. Phase 2 usually involves trials in a limited patient population to determine the effectiveness of the drug for a particular
indication, optimization of the dose, and to identify common adverse effects and safety risks. If a compound demonstrates evidence of effectiveness and an acceptable safety profile in Phase 2 evaluations, Phase 3 trials are undertaken to obtain the additi
onal information about clinical efficacy and safety in a larger number of patients, typically at geographically dispersed clinical trial sites, to permit the FDA to evaluate the overall benefit risk relationship of the drug and to provide adequate informat
ion for the labeling of the product. In most cases, the FDA requires two adequate and well-controlled Phase 3 clinical trials to demonstrate the efficacy of the drug. A single Phase 3 trial with other confirmatory evidence may be sufficient in rare instanc
es where the trial is a large multicenter trial demonstrating internal consistency and a statistically persuasive finding of a clinically meaningful effect on mortality, irreversible morbidity or prevention of a disease with a potentially serious outcome a
nd confirmation of the result in a second trial would be practically or ethically impossible.
After completion of the required clinical testing, an NDA is prepared and submitted to the FDA. FDA approval of the NDA is required before marketing of the product may begin in the United States. The NDA must include the results of all preclinical and clinical data, including pharmacology and toxicology results, and the results of other testing and a compilation of data relating to the product’s chemistry, manufacture, and controls. The cost of preparing and submitting a NDA is substantial. The submission of most NDAs is additionally subject to a substantial application user fee, and once approved, the NDA is also subject to annual product and establishment user fees. These fees are typically increased annually. The FDA has 60 days from its receipt of an NDA to determine whether the application will be accepted for filing based on the agency’s threshold determination that it is sufficiently complete to permit substantive review. Once the submission is accepted for filing, the FDA begins an in-depth review. The FDA has agreed to certain performance goals in the review of NDAs. Most such applications for standard review drug products are reviewed within ten months of the date the FDA files the NDA; most applications for priority review drugs are reviewed within six months of the date the FDA files the NDA. Priority review can be applied to a drug that the FDA determines has the potential to treat a serious or life-threatening condition and, if approved, would be a significant improvement in safety or effectiveness compared to available therapies. The review process for both standard and priority review may be extended by the FDA for three additional months to consider certain late-submitted information, or information intended to clarify information already provided in the submission.
After the FDA evaluates the NDA and the manufacturing facilities, it issues either an approval letter or a complete response letter. 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, or when, those deficiencies have been addressed to the FDA’s satisfaction, the FDA will issue an approval letter. The FDA has committed to reviewing such additional data in two or six months depending on the type of information included. An approval letter authorizes commercial marketing of the drug with specific prescribing information for the indication being supported. As a condition of NDA approval, the FDA may require a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (“REMS”) if it is considered that additional measures are needed to ensure that the benefits of the drug outweigh the potential risks. REMS can include the use of medication guides and communication plans for healthcare professionals, and elements to assure safe use (“ETASU”). ETASU can include, but are not limited to, special training or certification for prescribing or dispensing, dispensing only under certain circumstances, special monitoring, and the use of patient registries. The requirement for a REMS can materially affect the potential market and profitability of the product. Moreover, a condition of the NDA approval may require substantial post-approval testing and surveillance to monitor the product’s safety or efficacy.
Once granted, product approvals may be withdrawn if compliance with regulatory standards is not maintained or problems are identified following initial marketing. Changes to some of the conditions established in an approved application, including changes in indications, labeling, or manufacturing processes or facilities, require submission and FDA approval of a new NDA or NDA supplement before the change can be implemented. An NDA supplement for a new indication typically requires clinical data similar to that in the original application, and the FDA uses the same procedures and actions in reviewing NDA supplements as it does in reviewing NDAs.
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Foreign cl
inical studies to support an NDA
The FDA will accept as support for marketing approval of a product (NDA) well-designed, well-conducted, clinical studies conducted outside of the United States if the studies have been conducted in accordance with the exact same standards of GCP, as required in the United States, and the protocol was submitted to the IND. FDA may validate the data from the study through an onsite inspection, if necessary. Clinical studies conducted outside the United States are subject to the same rigorous regulatory controls as the United States (see “— Europe / rest of world government regulation” below).
A sponsor or applicant who wishes to rely on a non-IND foreign clinical study to support an IND must submit the following supporting information to the FDA to demonstrate that the study conformed to GCP:
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the investigator
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s qualifications;
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a description of the research facilities;
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a detailed summary of the protocol and study results and, if requested, case records or additional background data;
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a description of the drug substance and drug product, including the components, formulation, specifications, and, if available, the bioavailability of the drug product;
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information showing that the study is adequate and well controlled;
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the name and address of the independent ethics committee that reviewed the study and a statement that the independent ethics committee meets the required definition;
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a summary of the independent ethics committee
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s decision to approve or modify and approve the study, or to provide a favorable opinion;
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a description of how informed consent was obtained;
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a description of what incentives, if any, were provided to subjects to participate;
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a description of how the sponsors monitored the study and ensured that the study was consistent with the protocol;
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a description of how investigators were trained to comply with GCP and to conduct the study in accordance with the study protocol; and
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a statement on whether written commitments by investigators to comply with GCP and the protocol were obtained.
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Orphan drug designation
Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may grant orphan drug designation to drug products intended to treat a rare disease or condition. This is defined as a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States, or if it affects more than 200,000 individuals in the United States, there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing and making a product available in the United States for such disease or condition will be recovered from sales of the product.
A request for orphan drug designation must be submitted and approved prior to submitting an NDA. After the FDA grants orphan drug designation, the generic identity of the drug product and its potential orphan use are disclosed publicly by the FDA. Orphan drug designation does not convey any advantage in, or shorten the duration of, the regulatory review and approval process of an NDA. The first NDA applicant to receive FDA approval for a drug product containing a particular active moiety to treat a particular disease with FDA orphan drug designation is entitled to a seven-year exclusive marketing period in the United States for that product for that indication. During the seven-year exclusivity period, the FDA may not approve any other applications to market a drug product containing the same active moiety for the same disease, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority to the product with orphan drug exclusivity. A product is clinically superior if it is safer, more effective or makes a major contribution to patient care. Orphan drug exclusivity does not prevent the FDA from
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approving a drug product containing a different
active moiety for the same disease or condition, or the same drug product for a different disease or condition. Among the other benefits of orphan drug designation are tax credits for certain research and a waiver of the NDA user fee.
Disclosure of clinical trial information
Sponsors of clinical trials of FDA-regulated products, including drugs, are required to register and disclose certain clinical trial information. Information related to the product, patient population, phase of investigation, trial sites and investigators, and other aspects of the clinical trial is then made public as part of the registration. Disclosure of the results of these trials can be delayed until the new product or new indication being studied has been approved. Competitors may use this publicly available information to gain knowledge regarding the progress of development programs.
Pediatric information
Under the Pediatric Research Equity Act (“PREA”) NDAs or supplements to NDAs must contain data to assess the safety and effectiveness of the drug for the claimed indications in all relevant pediatric subpopulations and to support dosing and administration for each pediatric subpopulation for which the drug product is safe and effective. A Pediatric Submission Plan (“PSP”) must be submitted to FDA for review at the latest 60 days following the End of Phase 2 meeting. The PSP will include a full pediatric clinical development plan, or a request for full or partial waiver, or a deferral, for conducting pediatric clinical trial data. The FDA reviews and approves the PSP, or will request amendments to the plan. Unless otherwise required by regulation, PREA does not apply to any drug product for an indication for which orphan designation has been granted.
Post-approval requirements
Once an NDA is approved, a product will be subject to certain post-approval requirements. For instance, the FDA closely regulates the post-approval marketing and promotion of drugs, including standards and regulations for direct-to-consumer advertising, off-label promotion, industry-sponsored scientific and educational activities and promotional activities involving the internet. Drugs may be marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling.
Adverse event reporting and submission of periodic reports is required following FDA approval of an NDA. The FDA also may require post-marketing testing, known as Phase 4 testing, REMS, and surveillance to monitor the effects of an approved product, or the FDA may place conditions on an approval that could restrict the distribution or use of the product. In addition, quality control, drug product manufacture, packaging, and labeling procedures must continue to conform to cGMPs after approval. Drug manufacturers and certain of their subcontractors are required to register their establishments with the FDA and certain state agencies. Registration with the FDA subjects entities to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA, during which the agency inspects manufacturing facilities to assess compliance with cGMPs. Accordingly, manufacturers must continue to expend time, money, and effort in the areas of production and quality-control to maintain compliance with cGMPs. Regulatory authorities may withdraw product approvals or request product recalls if a company fails to comply with regulatory standards, if we encounter problems following initial marketing, or if previously unrecognized problems are subsequently discovered.
Other U.S. healthcare laws and compliance requirements
In the United States, our activities are potentially subject to regulation by various federal, state and local authorities in addition to the FDA, including but not limited to, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”), other divisions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (such as the Office of Inspector General), the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), and individual U.S. Attorney offices within the DOJ, and state and local governments. For example, sales, marketing and scientific/educational grant programs may have to comply with the anti-fraud and abuse provisions of the Social Security Act, the false claims laws, the privacy and security provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”), and similar state laws, each as amended, as applicable.
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The federal Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits, among other things, any person or entity, from knowingly and willfully offering, paying, soliciting or receiving any remuneration, directly or indirectl
y, overtly or covertly, in cash or in kind, to induce or in return for purchasing, leasing, ordering or arranging for the purchase, lease or order of any item or service reimbursable under Medicare, Medicaid or other federal healthcare programs. The term r
emuneration has been interpreted broadly to include anything of value. The Anti-Kickback Statute has been interpreted to apply to arrangements between pharmaceutical manufacturers on one hand and prescribers, purchasers, and formulary managers on the other
. There are a number of statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors protecting some common activities from prosecution. The exceptions and safe harbors are drawn narrowly and practices that involve remuneration that may be alleged to be intended to in
duce prescribing, purchasing or recommending 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 t
he conduct per se illegal under the 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 of its facts and circumstances.
Our
practices may not in all cases meet all of
the criteria for protection under a statutory exception or regulatory safe harbor.
Additionally, the intent standard under the Anti-Kickback Statute was amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, (“ACA”), 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 ACA codified case law that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal Anti- Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the federal False Claims Act (discussed below).
The civil monetary penalties statute imposes penalties against any person or entity that, among other things, is determined to have presented or caused to be presented a claim to a federal health program that the person knows or should know is for an item or service that was not provided as claimed or is false or fraudulent.
Federal false claims and false statement laws, including the federal False Claims Act, prohibit, among other things, any person or entity from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, a false or fraudulent claim for payment to, or approval by, the federal healthcare programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, or knowingly making, using, or causing to be made or used a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim to the federal government. As a result of a modification made by the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009, a claim includes “any request or demand” for money or property presented to the U.S. government. Recently, several pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies have been prosecuted under these laws for allegedly providing free product to customers with the expectation that the customers would bill federal programs for the product. Other companies have been prosecuted for causing false claims to be submitted because of the companies’ marketing of the product for unapproved, and thus generally non-reimbursable, uses.
HIPAA created additional federal criminal statutes that prohibit, among other things, knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme to defraud or to obtain, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises, any money or property owned by, or under the control or custody of, any healthcare benefit program, including private third-party payors, willfully obstructing a criminal investigation of a healthcare offense, and knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up by trick, scheme or device, 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 Anti-Kickback Statute, the ACA amended the intent standard for certain healthcare fraud statutes 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.
Also, many states have similar fraud and abuse statutes or regulations that apply to items and services reimbursed under Medicaid and other state programs, or, in several states, apply regardless of the payor. Additionally, to the extent that any of our products are sold in a foreign country, we may be subject to similar foreign laws.
We may be subject to data privacy and security regulations by both the federal government and the states in which it conducts business. HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, (“HITECH”), and its implementing regulations, imposes requirements relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information. Among other things, HITECH makes HIPAA’s privacy and security standards directly applicable to business associates, independent contractors or agents of
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covered entities that receive or obtain protected health information in connection with providing a service on behalf of a covered entity.
HITECH also created four new tiers of civil monetary penalties, amended HIPAA to make civil and criminal penalties directly applicable to business associates, and gave state attorneys general new authority to file civil actions for damages or injunctions i
n federal courts to enforce HIPAA and seek attorneys’ fees and costs associated with pursuing federal civil actions. In addition, many state laws govern the privacy and security of health information in specified circumstances, many of which differ from ea
ch other in significant ways and may not have the same effect, thus complicating compliance efforts.
Additionally, the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act within the ACA, and its implementing regulations, require that certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biological and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (with certain exceptions) report annually to CMS information related to certain payments or other transfers of value made or distributed to physicians and teaching hospitals, or to entities or individuals at the request of, or designated on behalf of, the physicians and teaching hospitals and to report annually certain ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members. Moreover, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act imposes new obligations on manufacturers of pharmaceutical products related to product tracking and tracing. Legislative and regulatory proposals have been made to expand post-approval requirements and restrict sales and promotional activities for pharmaceutical products.
In order to distribute products commercially, we must comply with state laws that require the registration of manufacturers and wholesale distributors of drug products in a state, including, in certain states, manufacturers and distributors who ship products into the state even if such manufacturers or distributors have no place of business within the state. Some states also impose requirements on manufacturers and distributors to establish the pedigree of product in the chain of distribution, including some states that require manufacturers and others to adopt new technology capable of tracking and tracing product as it moves through the distribution chain. Several states have enacted legislation requiring pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to establish marketing compliance programs, file periodic reports with the state, make periodic public disclosures on sales, marketing, pricing, clinical trials and other activities, and/or register their sales representatives, as well as to prohibit pharmacies and other healthcare entities from providing certain physician prescribing data to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for use in sales and marketing, and to prohibit certain other sales and marketing practices. All of our activities are potentially subject to federal and state consumer protection and unfair competition laws.
If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the federal and state healthcare laws described above or any other governmental regulations that apply to us, we may be subject to penalties, including without limitation, civil, criminal and/or administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, exclusion from participation in government programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, injunctions, private “qui tam” actions brought by individual whistleblowers in the name of the government, or refusal to allow us to enter into government contracts, 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, pricing and reimbursement
Significant uncertainty exists as to the coverage and reimbursement status of any product candidates for which we obtain regulatory approval. In the United States and markets in other countries, sales of any products for which it receives regulatory approval for commercial sale will depend, in part, on the extent to which third-party payors provide coverage, and establish adequate reimbursement levels for such products. In the United States, third-party payors include federal and state healthcare programs, private managed care providers, health insurers and other organizations. The process for determining whether a third-party payor will provide coverage for a product may be separate from the process for setting the price of a product or for establishing the reimbursement rate that such a payor will pay for the product. Third-party payors may limit coverage to specific products on an approved list, also known as a formulary, which might not include all of the FDA-approved products for a particular indication. Third-party payors are increasingly challenging the price, examining the medical necessity and reviewing the cost-effectiveness of medical products, therapies and services, in addition to questioning their safety and efficacy. We may need to conduct expensive pharmacoeconomic studies in order to demonstrate the medical necessity and cost-effectiveness of its products, in addition to the costs required to obtain the FDA approvals. Our product candidates
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may not be considered medically necessar
y or cost-effective. A payor’s decision to provide coverage for a product does not imply that an adequate reimbursement rate will be approved. Further, one payor’s determination to provide coverage for a product does not assure that other payors will also
provide coverage for the product. Adequate third-party reimbursement may not be available to enable us to maintain price levels sufficient to realize an appropriate return on its investment in product development.
Different pricing and reimbursement schemes exist in other countries. In the EU, governments influence the price of pharmaceutical products through their pricing and reimbursement rules and control of national health care systems that fund a large part of the cost of those products to consumers. Some jurisdictions operate positive and negative list systems under which products may only be marketed once a reimbursement price has been agreed. To obtain reimbursement or pricing approval, some of these countries may require the completion of clinical trials that compare the cost effectiveness of a particular product candidate to currently available therapies. Other member states allow companies to fix their own prices for medicines, but monitor and control company profits. The downward pressure on health care costs has become intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the entry of new products. In addition, in some countries, cross-border imports from low-priced markets exert a commercial pressure on pricing within a country.
The marketability of any product candidates for which we receive regulatory approval for commercial sale may suffer if the government and third-party payors fail to provide adequate coverage and reimbursement. In addition, emphasis on managed care in the United States has increased and it expects will continue to increase the pressure on healthcare pricing. Coverage policies and third-party reimbursement rates may change at any time. Even if favorable coverage and reimbursement status is attained for one or more products for which we receive regulatory approval, less favorable coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future.
Healthcare reform
In March 2010, President Obama enacted the ACA, which has the potential to substantially change healthcare financing and delivery by both governmental and private insurers, and significantly impact the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.
Among the ACA provisions of importance to the pharmaceutical industries, in addition to those otherwise described above, are the following:
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an annual, nondeductible fee on any entity that manufactures or imports certain specified branded prescription drugs apportioned among these entities according to their market share in some government healthcare programs that began in 2011;
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an increase in the statutory minimum rebates a manufacturer must pay under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, retroactive to January 1, 2010, to 23.1% and 13% of the average manufacturer price for most branded and generic drugs, respectively and capped the total rebate amount for innovator drugs at 100% of the Average Manufacturer Price;
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a new Medicare Part D coverage gap discount program, in which manufacturers must agree to offer 50% point-of-sale discounts off negotiated prices of applicable brand drugs to eligible beneficiaries during their coverage gap period, as a condition for the manufacturers
’
outpatient drugs to be covered under Medicare Part D;
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extension of manufacturers
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Medicaid rebate liability to covered drugs dispensed to individuals who are enrolled in Medicaid managed care organizations;
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expansion of eligibility criteria for Medicaid programs by, among other things, allowing states to offer Medicaid coverage to additional individuals beginning in 2014 and by adding new mandatory eligibility categories for individuals with income at or below 133% of the federal poverty level, thereby potentially increasing manufacturers
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Medicaid rebate liability;
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expansion of the entities eligible for discounts under the Public Health Service pharmaceutical pricing program;
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a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to oversee, identify priorities in, and conduct comparative clinical effectiveness research, along with funding for such research;
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expansion of healthcare fraud and abuse laws, including the False Claims Act and the Anti-Kickback Statute, new government investigative powers, and enhanced penalties for noncompliance;
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a new methodology by which rebates owed by manufacturers under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program are calculated for drugs that are inhaled, infused, instilled, implanted, or injected;
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requirements to report certain financial arrangements with physicians and teaching hospitals; and
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a requirement to annually report certain information regarding drug samples that manufacturers and distributors provide to physicians.
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Some of the provisions of the ACA have yet to be implemented, and there have been judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the ACA. In addition, the current administration and Congress will likely continue to seek legislative and regulatory changes, including repeal and replacement of certain provisions of the ACA. In January 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing federal agencies with authorities and responsibilities under the ACA to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation of any provision of the ACA that would impose a fiscal or regulatory burden on states, individuals, healthcare providers, health insurers, or manufacturers of pharmaceuticals or medical devices. In March 2017, following the passage of the budget resolution for fiscal year 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation known as the American Health Care Act, which, if enacted, would have amended or repealed significant portions of the ACA. We believe the U.S. Senate is unlikely to adopt the American Health Care Act as passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. However, the U.S. Senate could adopt the American Health Care Act as passed by the U.S. House of Representatives or other legislation to amend or replace elements of the ACA. It is uncertain whether the American Health Care Act will become law. We continue to evaluate the effect that the ACA and its possible repeal and replacement has on our business.
In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the United States since the ACA was enacted.
For example, 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 on Deficit Reduction did not achieve a targeted deficit reduction of at least $1.2 trillion for fiscal years 2012 through 2021, triggering the legislation’s automatic reduction to several government programs. This includes aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year, which went into effect beginning on April 1, 2013 and will stay in effect through 2025 unless additional Congressional action is taken. Additionally, in January 2013, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 was signed into law, which, among other things, reduced Medicare payments to several providers, including hospitals and imaging centers. These new laws may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other healthcare funding, which could have a material adverse effect on customers for our products, if approved, and, accordingly, our financial operations.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) prohibits any U.S. individual or business from paying, offering, or authorizing payment or offering of anything of value, directly or indirectly, to any foreign official, political party or candidate for the purpose of influencing any act or decision of the foreign entity in order to assist the individual or business in obtaining or retaining business. The FCPA also obligates companies whose securities are listed in the United States to comply with accounting provisions requiring us to maintain books and records that accurately and fairly reflect all transactions of the corporation, including international subsidiaries, and to devise and maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls for international operations.
Additional regulation
In addition to the foregoing, state and federal laws regarding environmental protection and hazardous substances, including the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Resource Conservancy and Recovery Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act, affect our business. These and other laws govern the use, handling and disposal of
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various biological, chemical and radioactive substances used in, and wastes generated by, our operations. If our operations result in contamination of
the environment or expose individ
uals to hazardous substances, we
could be liable for damages and governmen
tal fines. We believe that we are
in material compliance with applicable environmental laws and that continued compliance therewith will not have a m
aterial adverse effect on our
business. We cannot predict, however, how chan
ges in these laws may affect our
future operations.
Europe / rest of world government regulation
In addition to regulations in the United States, we will be subject to a variety of regulations in other jurisdictions governing, among other things, clinical trials and any commercial sales and distribution of its products. Whether or not we obtain FDA approval of a product, we must obtain the requisite approvals from regulatory authorities in foreign countries prior to the commencement of clinical trials or marketing of the product in those countries. Certain countries outside of the United States have a similar process that requires the submission of a clinical trial application much like the IND prior to the commencement of human clinical trials. In the European Union (“EU”), for example, a clinical trial application must be submitted to each country’s national health authority and an independent ethics committee, much like the FDA and IRB, respectively. Once the clinical trial application is approved in accordance with a country’s requirements, clinical trial development may proceed. The requirements and process governing the conduct of clinical trials, product licensing, pricing and reimbursement vary from country to country. In all cases, the clinical trials are conducted in accordance with GCP and the applicable regulatory requirements and the ethical principles that have their origin in the Declaration of Helsinki.
To obtain regulatory approval of an investigational drug product under EU regulatory systems, we must submit a marketing authorization application. The application used to file the NDA in the United States is similar to that required in the EU, with the exception of, among other things, country-specific document requirements. For other countries outside of the EU, such as countries in Eastern Europe, Latin America or Asia, the requirements governing the conduct of clinical trials, product licensing, pricing and reimbursement vary from country to country. In all cases, again, the clinical trials are conducted in accordance with GCP and the applicable regulatory requirements and the ethical principles that have their origin in the Declaration of Helsinki.
If we or our potential collaborators fail to comply with applicable foreign regulatory requirements, we may be subject to, among other things, fines, suspension or withdrawal of regulatory approvals, product recalls, seizure of products, operating restrictions and criminal prosecution.
Other regulations
We are subject to numerous federal, state and local laws relating to such matters as safe working conditions, manufacturing practices, environmental protection, fire hazard control, and disposal of hazardous or potentially hazardous substances. We may incur significant costs to comply with such laws and regulations now or in the future.
Employees
As of April 30, 2017, we had a total of 28 full-time employees, of whom 10 were located in the United States and 18 were located in the United Kingdom. None of our employees are represented by a labor union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement. We have not experienced any work stoppages, and consider our relations with employees to be good.
Corporate Information
We were incorporated in the State of Delaware on March 26, 2004 as Sentrx Surgical, Inc. We changed our name to Carbylan Biosurgery, Inc. on December 14, 2005 and to Carbylan Therapeutics, Inc. on March 7, 2014. In June 2016, we entered into a definitive share purchase agreement, with KalVista Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (“KalVista Limited”), a private company limited by shares incorporated and registered in England and Wales and the shareholders of KalVista Limited, pursuant to which the shareholders of KalVista Limited became the majority owners of the company. We changed our name to KalVista Pharmaceuticals, Inc. on November 21, 2016 in connection with the completion of the share purchase transaction. Our principal executive offices are located at One
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Kendall Square, Bld 200, Ste 2203, Cambridge, MA 02139, and our telephone number is (857) 999-0075. Our website address is www.kalvista.com. The information
contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not a part of this
report
. We have included our website address in this
report
solely as an inactive textual reference.
Financial Information
We manage our operations and allocate resources as a single reporting segment. Financial information regarding our operations, assets and liabilities, including our net loss for the years ended April 30, 2017, 2016 and 2015 and our total assets as of April 30, 2017 and 2016, is included in our Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report.
Available Information
We file annual, quarterly, and current reports, proxy statements, and other documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), which are available on our corporate website at www.kalvista.com. The public may read and copy any materials that we file with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. The public may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. Also, the SEC maintains an Internet website that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers, including us, that file electronically with the SEC. The public can obtain any documents that we file with the SEC at www.sec.gov. The information posted on or accessible through these websites are not incorporated into this filing.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the consolidated financial statements, the notes thereto and the section entitled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K before deciding whether to invest in shares of our common stock. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of or that we deem immaterial may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the market price of our stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.
We have incurred significant losses since our inception. We expect to incur losses over the next several years and may never achieve or maintain profitability.
Since inception, we have incurred significant operating losses as we focused on our discovery efforts and developing our product candidates. We have recently initiated clinical development of our lead product candidates, KVD818, for the treatment of HAE, and KVD001, for the treatment of DME, and expect that it will be many years, if ever, before we have a product candidate ready for commercialization. To date, we have financed our operations primarily through private placements of our preferred stock and through the share purchase transaction with Carbylan Therapeutics. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and increasing operating losses for the foreseeable future. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if and as we:
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continue clinical development of our product candidates;
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seek to identify additional product candidates;
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acquire or in-license other products and technologies or enter into collaboration arrangements with regards to product discovery;
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initiate clinical trials for our product candidates;
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seek marketing approvals for our product candidates that successfully complete clinical trials;
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establish
a sales, marketing and distribution infrastructure to commerc
ialize any products for which we
may obtain marketing approval;
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maintain, expand and protect our intellectual property portfolio;
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hire additional personnel;
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add operational, financial and management information systems and personnel, including personnel to support our product development and planned future commercialization efforts; and
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incur increased costs as a result of operating as a public company.
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To become and remain profitable, we must develop and eventually commercialize a product or products with significant market potential. This will require us to be successful in a range of challenging activities, including completing clinical trials of our product candidates, obtaining marketing approval for these product candidates and manufacturing, marketing and selling those products for which we may obtain marketing approval. We may never succeed in these activities and, even if we do, we may never generate
revenues that are significant or large enough to achieve profitability. If we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable would decrease the value of our business and could impair our ability to raise capital, maintain our discovery and preclinical development efforts, expand our business or continue our operations and may require us to raise additional capital that may dilute the ownership interest of common stockholders. A decline in the value of our business could also cause stockholders to lose all or part of their investment.
Our short operating history may make it difficult to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability.
We are an early stage clinical development company and our operations to date have been limited to organizing and staffing, business planning, raising capital, acquiring and developing the technology, identifying potential product candidates, undertaking preclinical studies and early stage clinical studies of our most advanced product candidates, KVD001, which we are planning to advance into Phase 2 clinical trials, and KVD818, for which we initiated a Phase 1 clinical trial in 2016. We have not yet demonstrated our ability to successfully complete large-scale, pivotal clinical trials, obtain marketing approvals, manufacture a commercial scale product or arrange for a third party to do so on our behalf, or conduct sales and marketing activities necessary for successful product commercialization. It takes an average of about 10 to 15 years to develop one new medicine from the time it is discovered to when it is available for treating patients. Consequently, any predictions made about our future success or viability based on our short operating history to date may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history.
In addition, as a new business, we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other known and unknown factors. We will need to transition from a company with a research focus to a company capable of supporting commercial activities. We may not be successful in such a transition.
We will need substantial additional funding. If we are unable to raise capital when needed, we may need to delay, reduce or eliminate our product development programs or commercialization efforts.
We expect our expenses to increase in parallel with our ongoing activities, particularly as we continue our discovery and preclinical development collaborations to identify new clinical candidates and initiate clinical trials of, and seek marketing approval for, our product candidates. In addition, if we obtain marketing approval for any of our product candidates, we expect to incur significant commercialization expenses related to product sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution. Accordingly, we will need to obtain substantial additional funding for our continuing operations. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on attractive terms, we may be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our discovery and preclinical development programs or any future commercialization efforts.
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Rai
sing 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 revenues, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of equity offerings and debt financings. We do not have any committed external source of funds.
To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of common stockholders will be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of common stockholders. Debt financing and preferred equity 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.
We cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to raise additional funds when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development or future commercialization efforts.
Risks Related to the Discovery and Development of Our Product Candidates
We are very early in our development efforts and have only two drug candidates, KVD001 and KVD818, in clinical development. If we or our collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize KVD001 or KVD818, or one of our related compounds, or if we experience significant delays in doing so, the business will be materially harmed.
We currently do not have any products that have gained regulatory approval. We have invested substantially all of our efforts and financial resources in identifying potential drug candidates and funding our preclinical and clinical studies. Our ability to generate product revenues, which we do not expect will occur for many years, if ever, will depend heavily on the successful development and eventual commercialization of KVD001, KVD818 and additional similar product candidates. As a result, the business is substantially dependent on our ability to complete the development of and obtain regulatory approval for KVD001 and KVD818.
We have not yet demonstrated an ability to successfully overcome many of the risks and uncertainties frequently encountered by companies in new and rapidly evolving fields, particularly in the biopharmaceutical area. For example, to execute our business plan, we will need to successfully:
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execute KVD001 and KVD818 development activities;
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move other product candidates into development;
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obtain required regulatory approvals for the development and commercialization of KVD001, KVD818 or other product candidates;
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maintain, leverage and expand our intellectual property portfolio;
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build and maintain robust sales, distribution and marketing capabilities, either on our own or in collaboration with strategic partners;
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gain market acceptance for KVD001, KVD818 and other product candidates;
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develop and maintain any strategic relationships we elect to enter into; and
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manage our spending as costs and expenses increase due to drug discovery, preclinical development, clinical trials, regulatory approvals and commercialization.
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If we are unsuccessful in accomplishing these objectives, we may not be able to successfully develop and commercialize KVD001, KVD818 or other product candidates, and our business will suffer.
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Clinical drug development involves a lengthy and expensive process, with an uncertain outcome.
We
may incur additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the developm
ent and commercialization of our
product candidates.
We have only recently commenced clinical development of our lead product candidates KVD001 and KVD818 and the risk of failure for all of our product candidates is high. Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of any product candidate, we must complete preclinical development and then conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of its product candidates in humans. Clinical testing is expensive, difficult to design and implement and can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. Further, the results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of its product candidates may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical trials, and interim results of a clinical trial do not necessarily predict final results. Moreover, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses, and 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. It is impossible to predict when or if any of our product candidates will prove effective or safe in humans or will receive regulatory approval.
We may experience delays in our clinical trials and we do not know whether planned clinical trials will begin or enroll subjects on time, need to be redesigned or be completed on schedule, if at all. There can be no assurance that the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (the “MHRA”), the U.K. regulatory authority, or U.S. Food and Drug Administration (the “FDA”) will not put any of our product candidates on clinical hold in the future. We may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, clinical trials that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize our product candidates. Clinical trials may be delayed, suspended or prematurely terminated for a variety of reasons, such as:
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delay or failure in reaching agreement with the MHRA, FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority on a trial design that we want to execute;
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delay or failure in obtaining authorization to commence a trial or inability to comply with conditions imposed by a regulatory authority regarding the scope or design of a clinical study;
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delays in reaching, or failure to reach, agreement on acceptable clinical trial contracts or clinical trial protocols with prospective trial sites;
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inability, delay, or failure in identifying and maintaining a sufficient number of trial sites, many of which may already be engaged in other clinical programs;
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delay or failure in recruiting and enrolling suitable subjects to participate in a trial;
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delay or failure in having subjects complete a trial or return for post-treatment follow-up;
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clinical sites and investigators deviating from trial protocol, failing to conduct the trial in accordance with regulatory requirements, or dropping out of a trial;
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lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial, including the incurrence of unforeseen costs due to enrollment delays, requirements to conduct additional clinical studies and increased expenses associated with the services of its clinical research organizations (“CROs”) and other third parties;
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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 or abandon product development programs;
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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 or participants may drop out of these clinical trials at a higher rate than we anticipate;
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we may experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment of patients that our product candidates are designed to target;
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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;
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we may have difficulty partnering with experienced CROs that can identify patients that our product candidates are designed to target and run o
ur clinical trials effectively;
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regulators or institutional review boards (“IRBs”) 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;
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the cost of clinical trials of our product candidates may be greater than we anticipate;
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the supply or quality of our product candidates or other materials necessary to conduct clinical trials of our product candidates may be insufficient or inadequate; or
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there may be changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions.
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If we are required to conduct additional clinical trials or other testing of our product candidates beyond those that we currently contemplate, if we are unable to successfully complete clinical trials of our product candidates or other testing, if the results of these trials or tests are not positive or are only modestly positive or if there are safety concerns, we may:
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be delayed in obtaining marketing approval for our product candidates;
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not obtain marketing approval at all;
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obtain approval for indications or patient populations that are not as broad as intended or desired;
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obtain approval with labeling that includes significant use or distribution restrictions or safety warnings that would reduce the potential market for our products or inhibit our ability to successfully commercialize our products;
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be subject to additional post-marketing restrictions and/or testing requirements; or
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have the product removed from the market after obtaining marketing approval.
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Our product development costs will also increase if we experience delays in testing or marketing approvals. We do not know whether any of our preclinical studies or clinical trials will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, or at all. Significant preclinical or clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates or allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do and impair our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and may harm our business and results of operations.
If we experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment of patients in clinical trials, our receipt of necessary regulatory approvals could be delayed or prevented and expenses for development of our product candidates could increase.
We may not be able to initiate or continue clinical trials for our product candidates if we are unable to locate and enroll a sufficient number of eligible patients to participate in these trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy. We have initiated clinical trials of KVD001 and KVD818, and we do not know whether planned or ongoing clinical trials will enroll subjects in a timely fashion, require redesign of essential trial elements or be completed on our projected schedule. In particular, because we are focused on patients with HAE, which is a rare disease, our ability to enroll eligible patients in trials may be limited or may result in slower enrollment than we anticipate. In addition, competitors have ongoing clinical trials for product candidates that treat the same indications as our product candidates, and patients who would otherwise be eligible for our clinical trials may instead enroll in clinical trials of our competitors’ product candidates. Our inability to enroll a sufficient number of patients for our clinical trials would result in significant delays and could require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether.
Patient enrollment is affected by other factors including:
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the eligibility criteria for the study in question;
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the perceived risks and benefits of the product candidate under study;
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the efforts to facilitate timely enrollment in clinical trials;
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the inability to identify and maintain a sufficient number of trial sites, many of which may already be engaged in other clinical trial programs, including some that may be for the same disease indication;
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the patient referral practices of physicians;
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the proximity and availability of clinical trial sites for prospective patients;
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ambiguous or negative interim results of our clinical trials, or results that are inconsistent with earlier results;
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feedback from the MHRA, FDA, IRBs, data safety monitoring boards, or a comparable foreign regulatory authority, or results from earlier stage or concurrent preclinical and clinical studies, that might require modifications to the protocol;
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decisions by the MHRA, FDA, IRBs, a comparable foreign regulatory authority or us, or recommendations by data safety monitoring boards, to suspend or terminate clinical trials at any time for safety issues or for any other reason; and
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unacceptable risk-benefit profile or unforeseen safety issues or adverse effects.
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Enrollment delays in our clinical trials may result in increased development costs for our product candidates, which would cause the value of the company to decline and limit our ability to obtain additional financing.
If serious adverse events or unacceptable side effects are identified during the development of our product candidates, we may need to abandon or limit the development of some of our product candidates.
If our product candidates are associated with undesirable effects in preclinical or clinical trials or have characteristics that are unexpected, we may need to interrupt, delay or abandon their development or limit development to more narrow 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. There are risks inherent in the intravitreal administration of drugs like KVD001 which can cause injury to the eye and other complications. For example, two drug-related adverse events were reported in the Phase 1 clinical trial of KVD001 and both events were also considered related to study procedures. The first of these was a case of eye inflammation considered of mild intensity and possibly related to study drug and study procedure. The second was a case of increased intraocular pressure considered of severe intensity and related to study procedure and probably related to study drug. However, additional or more severe side effects may be identified through further clinical studies. These or other drug-related side effects could affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled subjects to complete the trial or result in potential product liability claims. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly.
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 our product candidates, and our ability to generate revenue will be materially impaired.
Our product candidates must be approved by the FDA pursuant to a new drug application (“NDA”) in the United States and by the European Medicines Agency (the “EMA”) and similar regulatory authorities outside the United States prior to commercialization. The process of obtaining marketing approvals, both in the United States and abroad, is expensive and takes many years, if approval is obtained at all, and can vary substantially based upon a variety of factors, including the type, complexity and novelty of the product candidates involved. Failure to obtain marketing approval for a product candidate will prevent us from commercializing the product candidate. We have not received approval to market any of our product candidates from regulatory authorities in any jurisdiction. We have no 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. Securing marketing approval requires the submission of extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to regulatory authorities for each therapeutic indication to establish the product candidate’s safety and efficacy. Securing marketing approval also requires the submission of information about the product manufacturing process to, and inspection of manufacturing facilities
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by, the
regulatory authorities.
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
us from
obtaining marketing approval o
r prevent or limit commercial use. Regulatory authorities have substantial discretion in the approval process and may refuse to accept any ap
plication or may decide that our
data are insufficient for approval and require additional preclinical, clinical or
other studies. In addition, varying interpretations of the data obtained from preclinical and clinical testing could delay, limit or prevent marketing approval of a product candidate. Changes in marketing approval policies during the development period, c
hanges in or the enactment of additional statutes or regulations, or changes in regulatory review for each submitted product application, may also cause delays in or prevent the approval of an application.
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.
If we experience delays in obtaining approval or if we fail to obtain approval of our product candidates, the commercial prospects for our product candidates may be harmed and our ability to generate revenues will be materially impaired.
We may seek orphan drug exclusivity for some of our product candidates, and we may be unsuccessful.
Regulatory authorities in some jurisdictions, including the United States and Europe, may designate drugs for relatively small patient populations as orphan drugs. Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may designate a product as an orphan drug if it is a drug intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is generally defined as a disease with a patient population of fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States.
Generally, if a product with an orphan drug designation subsequently receives the first marketing approval for the indication for which it has such designation, the product is entitled to a period of marketing exclusivity, which precludes the EMA or the FDA from approving another marketing application for the same drug for the same indication during the period of exclusivity. The applicable period is seven years in the United States and ten years in Europe. The European exclusivity period can be reduced to six years if a drug no longer meets the criteria for orphan drug designation or if the drug is sufficiently profitable so that market exclusivity is no longer justified. Orphan drug exclusivity may be lost if the FDA or EMA determines that the request for designation was materially defective, if the manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient quantity of the drug to meet the needs of patients with the rare disease or condition.
Even if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for a product candidate, that exclusivity may not effectively protect the product candidate from competition because different drugs can be approved for the same condition. Even after an orphan drug is approved, the FDA can subsequently approve a different drug for the same condition if the FDA concludes that the later drug is clinically superior in that it is shown to be safer, more effective or makes a major contribution to patient care.
A fast track designation by the FDA, even if granted for any of our product candidates, may not lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process and does not increase the likelihood that our product candidates will receive marketing approval.
We do not currently have fast track designation for any of our product candidates but may seek such designation. If a drug is intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening condition and the drug demonstrates the potential to address unmet medical needs for this condition, the drug sponsor may apply for FDA fast track designation. The FDA has broad discretion whether or not to grant this designation. Even if we believe a particular product candidate is eligible for this designation, we cannot assure that the FDA would decide to grant it. Even if it does receive fast track designation, we may not experience a faster development process, review or approval compared to conventional FDA procedures. The FDA may withdraw fast track designation if it believes that the designation is no longer supported by data from our clinical development program. Many drugs that have received fast track designation have failed to obtain drug approval.
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A breakthrough therapy designation by th
e FDA
, even if granted for any of our
product candidates, may not lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process, and does not
increase the likelihood that our
product candidates will receive marketing approval.
We do not currently have breakthrough therapy designation for any of our product candidates but may seek such 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 drug may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. For drugs that have been designated as breakthrough therapies, interaction and communication between the FDA and the sponsor can help to identify the most efficient path for development.
Designation as a breakthrough therapy is within the discretion of the FDA. Accordingly, even if we believe, after completing early clinical trials, that one of our product candidates meets the criteria for designation
as a breakthrough therapy, the FDA may disagree and instead determine not to make such designation. In any event, the receipt of a breakthrough therapy designation for a product candidate may not result in a faster development process, review or approval compared to drugs considered for approval under conventional FDA procedures and does not assure ultimate approval by the FDA. In addition, even if one or more of our product candidates qualify as breakthrough therapies, the FDA may later decide that such product candidates no longer meet the conditions for qualification.
Failure to obtain marketing approval in international jurisdictions would prevent our product candidates from being marketed abroad.
In order to market and sell our products in the European Union and many other jurisdictions, we or our third party collaborators must obtain separate marketing approvals and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements. The approval procedure varies among countries and can involve additional testing. The time required to obtain approval may differ substantially from that required to obtain MHRA or FDA approval. The regulatory approval process outside the United Kingdom and United States generally includes all of the risks associated with obtaining, respectively, MHRA or FDA approval. In addition, in many countries outside the United States, it is required that the product be approved for reimbursement before the product can be approved for sale in that country. We, or these third parties, may not obtain approvals from regulatory authorities outside the United States on a timely basis, if at all. Approval by the MHRA or FDA does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions, and approval by one regulatory authority outside the United States does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions or by the FDA. We may not be able to file for marketing approvals and may not receive necessary approvals to commercialize our products in any market.
Any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval will be subject to extensive post-marketing regulatory requirements and could be subject to post-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, when and if any of them are approved.
Our product candidates and the activities associated with their development and commercialization, including their testing, manufacture, recordkeeping, labeling, storage, approval, advertising, promotion, sale and distribution, are subject to comprehensive regulation by the MHRA, FDA and other regulatory authorities. In the United States, these requirements include submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, registration and listing requirements, current good manufacturing practices (“cGMP”) requirements relating to manufacturing, quality control, quality assurance and corresponding maintenance of records and documents, including periodic inspections by the FDA and other regulatory authority, requirements regarding the distribution of samples to physicians and recordkeeping.
The FDA, or other regulatory authorities, may also impose requirements for costly post-marketing studies or clinical trials and surveillance to monitor the safety or efficacy of the product. The FDA closely regulates the post-approval marketing and promotion of drugs to ensure drugs are marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling. The FDA imposes stringent restrictions on manufacturers’ communications regarding use of their products and if we promote our products beyond their approved indications,
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we
may be subject to enforcement action for off-label promotion. Violations of the Federal
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act relating to the promotion of prescription drugs may lead to investigations alleging violations of federal and state health care fraud and abuse laws, as well as state consumer protection laws.
In addition, later discovery of previously unknown adverse events or other problems with our products, manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may yield various results, including:
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restrictions on such products, manufacturers or manufacturing processes;
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restrictions on the labeling or marketing of a product;
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restrictions on product distribution or use;
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requirements to conduct post-marketing studies or clinical trials;
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warning or untitled letters;
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withdrawal of the products from the market;
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refusal to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications that we submit;
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fines, restitution or disgorgement of profits or revenues;
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suspension or withdrawal of marketing approvals;
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refusal to permit the import or export of our products;
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injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.
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Non-compliance with European Union requirements regarding safety monitoring or pharmacovigilance, and with requirements related to the development of products for the pediatric population, can also result in significant financial penalties. Similarly, failure to comply with the European Union’s requirements regarding the protection of personal information can also lead to significant penalties and sanctions.
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 United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could prevent or delay 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 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act, (collectively, the “ACA”). Among the provisions of the ACA of importance to its potential product candidates are the following:
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an annual, nondeductible fee on any entity that manufactures or imports specified branded prescription drugs and biologic agents;
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an increase in the statutory minimum rebates a manufacturer must pay under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program;
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expansion of healthcare fraud and abuse laws, including the False Claims Act and the Anti-Kickback Statute, new government investigative powers, and enhanced penalties for noncompliance;
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a new Medicare Part D coverage gap discount program, in which manufacturers must agree to offer 50% point-of-sale discounts off negotiated prices;
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extension of manufacturers’ Medicaid rebate liability;
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expansion of eligibility criteria for Medicaid programs;
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expansion of the entities eligible for discounts under the Public Health Service pharmaceutical pricing program;
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new requirements to report financial arrangements with physicians and teaching hospitals;
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a new requirement to annually report drug samples that manufacturers and distributors provide to physicians; and
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a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to oversee, identify priorities in, and conduct comparative clinical effectiveness research, along with funding for such research.
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Some of the provisions of the ACA have yet to be implemented, and there have been judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the ACA. In addition, the current administration and Congress will likely continue to seek legislative and regulatory changes, including repeal and replacement of certain provisions of the ACA. In January 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing federal agencies with authorities and responsibilities under the ACA to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation of any provision of the ACA that would impose a fiscal or regulatory burden on states, individuals, healthcare providers, health insurers, or manufacturers of pharmaceuticals or medical devices. In March 2017, following the passage of the budget resolution for fiscal year 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation known as the American Health Care Act, which, if enacted, would have amended or repealed significant portions of the ACA. It is uncertain whether the American Health Care Act will become law. We continue to evaluate the effect that the ACA and its possible repeal and replacement has on our business. We anticipate that the ACA will result in additional downward pressure on coverage and the pricing of approved products, and could seriously harm our business. The implementation of cost containment measures or other healthcare reforms may prevent us from being able to generate revenue, attain profitability, or commercialize our products. Such reforms could have an adverse effect on anticipated revenues from product candidates that we may successfully develop and for which we may obtain regulatory approval and may affect our overall financial condition and ability to develop product candidates. In addition, it is possible that there will be further legislation or regulation that could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the ACA was enacted. These changes included aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year, starting in 2013. In January 2013, President Obama signed into law the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which, among other things, reduced Medicare payments to several providers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years. These new laws may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other healthcare funding.
We expect that the ACA, as well as other healthcare reform measures that may be adopted in the future, may result in more rigorous coverage criteria and in additional downward pressure on the price that we receive for any approved product. Any reduction in reimbursement from Medicare or other government programs may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors. The implementation of cost containment measures or other healthcare reforms may prevent us from being able to generate revenue, attain profitability, or commercialize our products.
Legislative and regulatory proposals have been made to expand post-approval requirements and restrict sales and promotional activities for pharmaceutical products. 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.
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Governments outside the United States tend to impose strict price control
s, which may adversely affect our
revenues, i
f any.
In some countries, particularly the countries of the European Union, the pricing of prescription pharmaceuticals is subject to governmental control. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after the receipt of marketing approval for a product. To obtain reimbursement or pricing approval in some countries, we may be required to conduct a clinical trial that compares the cost-effectiveness of our product candidate to other available therapies. If reimbursement of our products is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels, our business could be materially harmed.
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 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 its use of hazardous materials, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, and any liability could exceed its resources. We also could incur significant costs associated with civil or criminal fines and penalties for failure to comply with such laws and regulations.
Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees 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 the storage or disposal of biological, 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 discovery, preclinical development or production efforts. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations also may result in substantial fines, penalties or other sanctions.
Risks Related to the Commercialization of Our Product Candidates
Even if any of our product candidates receives marketing approval, we may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, third party payors and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.
If any of our product candidates receives marketing approval, we may nonetheless fail to gain sufficient market acceptance by physicians, patients, third party payors and others in the medical community. In addition, physicians, patients and third party payors may prefer other novel products to ours. If our product candidates do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenues and we may not become profitable. The degree of market acceptance of our product candidates, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including:
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the efficacy and safety and potential advantages and disadvantages compared to alternative treatments;
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the ability to offer our products for sale at competitive prices;
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the convenience and ease of administration compared to alternative treatments;
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the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies and of physicians to prescribe these therapies;
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the strength of our marketing and distribution support;
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the availability of third party coverage and adequate reimbursement, including patient cost-sharing programs such as copays and deductibles;
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the ability to develop or partner with third-party collaborators to develop companion diagnostics;
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the prevalence and severity of any side effects; and
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any restrictions on the use of our products together with other medications.
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We currently have no marketing and sales force. If we are unable to establish effective marketing and sales capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to market and sell our product candidates, we may not be able to effectively market and sell our product candidates, if approved, or generate product revenues.
We currently do not have a marketing or sales team for the marketing, sales and distribution of any of our product candidates that are able to obtain regulatory approval. In order to commercialize any product candidates, we must build marketing, sales, distribution, managerial and other non-technical capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services, and we may not be successful in doing so. If our product candidates receive regulatory approval, we intend to establish an internal sales and marketing team with technical expertise and supporting distribution capabilities to commercialize our product candidates, which will be expensive and time consuming and will require significant attention of our executive officers to manage. Any failure or delay in the development of internal sales, marketing and distribution capabilities would adversely impact the commercialization of any of our products that we obtain approval to market. With respect to the commercialization of all or certain of our product candidates, we may choose to collaborate, either globally or on a territory-by-territory basis, with third parties that have direct sales forces and established distribution systems, either to augment our own sales force and distribution systems or in lieu of our own sales force and distribution systems. If we are unable to enter into such arrangements when needed on acceptable terms or at all, we may not be able to successfully commercialize any of our product candidates that receive regulatory approval or any such commercialization may experience delays or limitations. If we are not successful in commercializing our product candidates, either on our own or through collaborations with one or more third parties, our future product revenue will suffer and we may incur significant additional losses.
We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing or commercializing competing 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. 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 disease indications for which we are developing our product candidates. 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.
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. In addition, 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. Generic products are expected to become available over the coming years, potentially creating pricing pressure. If our product candidates achieve marketing approval, we expect that they will be priced at a significant premium over competitive generic products.
Many of the companies against which we are competing against which we may compete in the future have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, 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
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prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These third parties compete with
us
in recruiting and retaining qu
alified scientific and management personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for,
our
programs.
The insurance coverage and reimbursement status of newly-approved products is uncertain. Failure to obtain or maintain adequate coverage and reimbursement for new or current products could limit our ability to market those products and decrease our ability to generate revenue.
The availability and extent of reimbursement by governmental and private payors is essential for most patients to be able to afford expensive treatments. Sales of our product candidates will depend substantially, both domestically and abroad, on the extent to which the costs of our product candidates will be paid by health maintenance, managed care, pharmacy benefit and similar healthcare management organizations, or reimbursed by government health administration authorities, private health coverage insurers and other third-party payors. If reimbursement is not available, or is available only to limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our product candidates. Even if coverage is provided, the approved reimbursement amount may not be high enough to allow us to establish or maintain pricing sufficient to realize a sufficient return on our investment.
There is significant uncertainty related to the insurance coverage and reimbursement of newly approved products. In the United States, the principal decisions about reimbursement for new medicines are typically made by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as CMS decides whether and to what extent a new medicine will be covered and reimbursed under Medicare. Private payors tend to follow CMS to a substantial degree. It is difficult to predict what CMS will decide with respect to reimbursement for fundamentally novel products such as ours, as there is no body of established practices and precedents for these new products. Reimbursement agencies in Europe may be more conservative than CMS. Outside the United States, international operations are 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 our product candidates. In many countries, the prices of medical products are subject to varying price control mechanisms as part of national health systems. In general, the prices of medicines under such systems are substantially lower than in the United States. Other countries allow companies to fix their own prices for medicines, but monitor and control company profits. Additional foreign price controls or other changes in pricing regulation could restrict the amount that we are able to charge for our product candidates. Accordingly, in markets outside the United States, the reimbursement for our products may be reduced compared with the United States and may be insufficient to generate commercially reasonable revenues and profits.
Moreover, increasing efforts by governmental and third-party payors, in the United States and abroad, to cap or reduce healthcare costs may cause such organizations to limit both coverage and level of reimbursement for new products approved and, as a result, they may not cover or provide adequate payment for our product candidates. We expect to experience pricing pressures in connection with the sale of any of our product candidates, due to the trend toward managed healthcare, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations and additional legislative changes. The downward pressure on healthcare costs in general, particularly prescription drugs and surgical procedures and other treatments, has become very intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the entry of new products into the healthcare market.
In addition, many private payors contract with commercial vendors who sell software that provide guidelines that attempt to limit utilization of, and therefore reimbursement for, certain products deemed to provide limited benefit to existing alternatives. Such organizations may set guidelines that limit reimbursement or utilization of our products.
Product liability lawsuits against us could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and to limit commercialization of any products that 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 will face an even greater risk if we commercially sell any products that we may develop. If we
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cannot s
uccessfull
y defend against claims that our
product candidates
or products caused injuries, we
will incur substantial liabilities. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:
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decreased demand for any product candidates or products that we may develop;
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injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention;
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withdrawal of clinical trial participants;
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significant costs to defend the related litigation;
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substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;
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reduced resources of our management to pursue our business strategy; and
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the inability to commercialize any products that we may develop.
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We currently hold $8,000,000 in product liability insurance coverage in the aggregate, with a per incident limit of $8,000,000, which may not be adequate to cover all liabilities that we may incur. We may need to increase our insurance coverage as we expand our clinical trials or if we commence commercialization of our product candidates. 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.
Risks Related to Our Dependence on Third Parties
Future discovery and development collaborations may be important to us. If we are unable to maintain these collaborations, or if these collaborations are not successful, our business could be adversely affected.
For some of our product candidates, we may in the future determine to collaborate with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for development of products. We face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators. Our ability to reach a definitive agreement for any collaboration will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of 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. If we are unable to reach agreements with suitable collaborators on a timely basis, on acceptable terms, or at all, we may have to curtail the development of a product candidate, reduce or delay our development program or one or more of our other development programs, delay our potential development schedule or reduce the scope of research activities, or increase our expenditures and undertake discovery or preclinical development activities at our own expense. If we fail to enter into collaborations and do not have sufficient funds or expertise to undertake the necessary development activities, we may not be able to further develop our product candidates or continue to develop our product candidates and our business may be materially and adversely affected.
Future collaborations we may enter into may involve the following risks:
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collaborators may have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply to these collaborations;
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collaborators may not perform their obligations as expected;
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changes in the collaborators’ strategic focus or available funding, or external factors, such as an acquisition, may divert resources or create competing priorities;
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collaborators may delay discovery and preclinical development, provide insufficient funding for product development of targets selected by us, stop or abandon discovery and preclinical development for a product candidate, repeat or conduct new discovery and preclinical development for a product candidate;
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collaborators could independently develop, or develop with third parties, products that compete directly or indirectly with our products or product candidates if the collaborators believe that competitive products are more likely to be successfully developed than our products;
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product candidates discovered in collaboration with
us
may be viewed by
our
collaborators as competitive with their own product candidates or products, which may cause collaborators to cease to devote resources to the
development of its product candidates;
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disagreements with collaborators, including disagreements over proprietary rights, contract interpretation or the preferred course of development, might cause delays or termination of the discovery, preclinical development or commercialization of product candidates, might lead to additional responsibilities for us with respect to product candidates, or might result in litigation or arbitration, any of which would be time-consuming and expensive;
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collaborators may not properly maintain or defend its intellectual property rights or intellectual property rights licensed to us or may use its proprietary information in such a way as to invite litigation that could jeopardize or invalidate its intellectual property or proprietary information or expose us to potential litigation;
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collaborators may infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties, which may expose us to litigation and potential liability; and
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collaborations may be terminated for the convenience of the collaborator and, if terminated, we could be required to raise additional capital to pursue further development or commercialization of the applicable product candidates.
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Additionally, subject to its contractual obligations to us, if a collaborator is involved in a business combination, the collaborator might deemphasize or terminate the development of any of our product candidates. If one of our collaborators terminates its agreement with us, they may find it more difficult to attract new collaborators and the perception of us in the business and financial communities could be adversely affected.
If our collaborations do not result in the successful development of products or product candidates, product candidates could be delayed and we may need additional resources to develop product candidates. All of the risks relating to product development, regulatory approval and commercialization described in this proxy statement also apply to the activities of our collaborators.
We contract with third parties for the manufacture of our product candidates for preclinical and clinical testing and we expect to continue to do so for commercialization. This reliance on third parties increases the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of our product candidates or products at an acceptable cost and quality, which could delay, prevent or impair our development or commercialization efforts.
We do not own or operate facilities for the manufacture of our product candidates, and we do not have any manufacturing personnel. We currently have no plans to build our own clinical or commercial scale manufacturing capabilities. We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties for the manufacture of our product candidates for preclinical and clinical testing. We will rely on third parties as well for commercial manufacture if any of our product candidates receive marketing approval. We review the manufacturing process for each of our candidates and assess the risk to supply and, as appropriate, establish multiple manufacturers and/or establish stock levels to support future activities and do not believe we are currently substantially dependent on any one third party. Despite the drug substance and product risk management, this reliance on third parties presents a risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of our product candidates or products or such quantities at an acceptable cost or quality, which could delay, prevent or impair our development or commercialization efforts.
Any performance failure on the part of our existing or future manufacturers of drug substance or drug products could delay clinical development or marketing approval. We do not currently have arrangements in place for redundant supply. If current suppliers cannot supply us with our Phase 2 requirements as agreed, we may be required to identify alternative manufacturers, which would lead us to incur added costs and delays in identifying and qualifying any such replacement.
The formulation used in early studies frequently is not a final formulation for commercialization. Additional changes may be required by the FDA or other regulatory authorities on specifications and storage conditions. These may require additional studies, and may delay our clinical trials.
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We expect
to rely on third party manufacturers or third party collaborators for the manufacture of commercial supply of any other
product candidates for which our
collaborat
ors or we ob
tain,
marketing approval.
We also expect to rely on other third parties to store and distribute drug supplies for our clinical trials. Any performance failure on the part of our distributors could delay clinical development or marketing approval of our product candidates or commercialization of our products, producing additional losses and depriving us of potential product revenue.
We may be unable to establish any agreements with third party manufacturers or to do so on acceptable terms. Even if we are able to establish agreements with third party manufacturers, reliance on third party manufacturers entails additional risks, including:
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reliance on the third party for regulatory compliance and quality assurance;
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the possible breach of the manufacturing agreement by the third party;
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the possible misappropriation of our proprietary information, including trade secrets and know-how; and
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the possible termination or nonrenewal of the agreement by the third party at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us.
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Third party manufacturers may not be able to comply with cGMP, regulations or similar regulatory requirements outside the United States. Our failure, or the failure of our third party manufacturers, to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including clinical holds, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, seizures or recalls of product candidates or products, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect supplies of our products.
Our product candidates and any products that we may develop may compete with other product candidates and products for access to manufacturing facilities. There are a limited number of manufacturers that operate under cGMP regulations and that might be capable of manufacturing for us.
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 products that receive marketing approval on a timely and competitive basis.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
If we are unable to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our technology and products or if the scope of the intellectual property protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize technology and products similar or identical to ours, and our ability to successfully commercialize our technology and products may be impaired.
Our success depends in large part on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection in the European Union, the United States and other countries with respect to our proprietary technology and products. We seek to protect our proprietary position by filing patent applications in the United States and abroad related to our novel technologies and product candidates. This patent portfolio includes issued patents and pending patent applications covering compositions of matter and methods of use.
The patent prosecution process is expensive and time-consuming, and we may not be able to file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. We may choose not to seek patent protection for certain innovations and may choose not to pursue patent protection in certain jurisdictions, and under the laws of certain jurisdictions, patents or other intellectual property rights may be unavailable or limited in scope. It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our discovery and preclinical development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection. Moreover, in some circumstances, we may not have the right to control the preparation, filing and prosecution of patent applications, or to maintain the
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patents, covering technology that
we license
from third parties. Therefore, these patents and applications may not be prosecuted and enforced in a man
ner consisten
t with the best interests of our
business.
The patent position of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions, and has in recent years been the subject of much litigation. In addition, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. For example, India and China do not allow patents for methods of treating the human body. Publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. Therefore, we cannot know with certainty whether we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our owned or licensed patents or pending patent applications, or that we were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain. Our pending and future patent applications may not result in patents being issued which protect our technology or products, in whole or in part, or which effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive technologies and products. Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the European Union, the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our patents or narrow the scope of our patent protection.
Recent 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. On September 16, 2011, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (the “Leahy-Smith Act”), was signed into law. The Leahy-Smith Act includes a number of significant changes to United States patent law. These include provisions that affect the way patent applications are prosecuted and may also affect patent litigation. The 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 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 and financial condition.
Moreover, we may be subject to a third party preissuance submission of prior art to the USPTO, or become involved in opposition, derivation, reexamination, inter partes review, post-grant review or interference proceedings challenging our patent rights or the patent rights of others. An adverse determination in any such submission, proceeding or litigation could reduce the scope of, or invalidate, our patent rights, allow third parties to commercialize our technology or products and compete directly with us, without payment to us, or result in our inability to manufacture or commercialize products without infringing third party patent rights. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications is threatened, we could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop or commercialize current or future product candidates.
Even if our owned and licensed patent applications issue as patents, they may not issue in a form that will provide us with any meaningful protection, prevent competitors from competing with it or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. Our competitors may be able to circumvent our owned or licensed patents by developing similar or alternative technologies or products in a non-infringing manner.
The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability, and our owned and licensed patents may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad. Such challenges may result in loss of exclusivity or freedom to operate or in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, in whole or in part, which could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our technology and products. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. As a result, our owned and licensed patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours.
The risks described elsewhere pertaining to our patents and other intellectual property rights also apply to the intellectual property rights that we license, and any failure to obtain, maintain and enforce these rights could have a material adverse effect on our business. In some cases we may not have control over the prosecution, maintenance or enforcement of the patents that we license, and our licensors may fail to take the steps that we believe are
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necessary or desirable in order to obtain, maintain and enforce the licensed patents. Any inability on
our part to protect adequately our
intellectual property may have a material adverse eff
ect on our
business, operating results and fina
ncial position.
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 governmental patent agencies outside of the United States 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 and rely on our outside counsel to pay these fees due to non-U.S. patent agencies. The USPTO and various non-U.S. 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 non-compliance 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. In such an event, our competitors might be able to enter the market and this circumstance would have a material adverse effect on our business.
We may become involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or other intellectual property, which could be expensive, time consuming and unsuccessful.
Because competition in our industry is intense, competitors may infringe or otherwise violate our issued patents, patents of our licensors or other intellectual property. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file infringement claims, which can be expensive and time consuming. Any claims we assert against perceived infringers could provoke these parties to assert counterclaims against us alleging that we infringed their patents. In addition, in a patent infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent of ours is invalid or unenforceable, in whole or in part, construe the patent’s claims narrowly or 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 proceeding could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly. We may also elect to enter into license agreements in order to settle patent infringement claims or to resolve disputes prior to litigation, and any such license agreements may require us to pay royalties and other fees that could be significant. 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.
We may need to license certain intellectual property from third parties, and such licenses may not be available or may not be available on commercially reasonable terms.
A third party may hold intellectual property, including patent rights that are important or necessary to the development of our products. It may be necessary for us to use the patented or proprietary technology of third parties to commercialize our products, in which case we would be required to obtain a license from these third parties on commercially reasonable terms, or our business could be harmed, possibly materially. Although we believe that licenses to these patents are available from these third parties on commercially reasonable terms, if we were not able to obtain a license, or were not able to obtain a license on commercially reasonable terms, our business could be harmed, possibly materially.
Third parties may initiate legal proceedings alleging that we are infringing their intellectual property rights, the outcome of which would be uncertain and could have a material adverse effect on the success of our business.
Our commercial success depends upon our ability, and the ability of our collaborators, to develop, manufacture, market and sell our product candidates and use our proprietary technologies without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties. There is considerable intellectual property litigation in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. We may become party to, or threatened with, future adversarial proceedings or litigation regarding intellectual property rights with respect to our products and technology, including interference or
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derivation proceedings before the USPTO. Third parti
es may assert infringement claims against
us
based on existing patents or patents that may be granted in the future.
If we are found to infringe a third party’s intellectual property rights, we could be required to obtain a license from such third party to continue developing and marketing our products and technology. However, we may not be able to obtain any required license on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Even if we were able to obtain a license, it could be non-exclusive, thereby giving our competitors access to the same technologies licensed to us. We could be forced, including by court order, to cease commercializing the infringing technology or product. In addition, we could be found liable for monetary damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees if we are found to have willfully infringed a patent. A finding of infringement could prevent us from commercializing our product candidates or force us to cease some of our business operations, which could materially harm our business. Claims that we have misappropriated the confidential information or trade secrets of third parties could have a similar negative impact on our business.
If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, our business and competitive position would be harmed.
In addition to seeking patents for some of our technology and product candidates, we also rely on trade secrets, including unpatented know-how, technology and other proprietary information, to maintain our competitive position. We seek to protect these trade secrets, in part, by entering into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to them, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors and other third parties. We seek to protect our confidential proprietary information, in part, by entering into confidentiality and invention or patent assignment agreements with our employees and consultants, however, we cannot be certain that such agreements have been entered into with all relevant parties. Moreover, to the extent we enter into such agreements, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information, including our trade secrets, and we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for such breaches. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts inside and outside the United States are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, we would have no right to prevent them, or those to whom they communicate them, from using that technology or information to compete with us. If any of our trade secrets were to be disclosed to or independently developed by a competitor, our competitive position would be harmed.
Risks Related to Employee Matters, Facilities, Managing Growth and Macroeconomic Conditions
Our future success depends on our ability to retain key executives and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel.
We are highly dependent on the research and development, clinical and business development expertise of the principal members of our management, scientific and clinical team. Although we have entered into employment letter agreements with our executive officers, each of them may terminate their employment with us at any time. We do not maintain “key person” insurance for any of our executives or other employees.
Recruiting and retaining qualified scientific, clinical, manufacturing, sales and marketing personnel will also be critical to our success. The loss of the services of our executive officers or other key employees could impede the achievement of our research, development and commercialization objectives and seriously harm our ability to successfully implement our business strategy. Furthermore, replacing executive officers and key employees may be difficult and may take an extended period of time because of the limited number of individuals in our industry with the breadth of skills and experience required to successfully develop, gain regulatory approval of and commercialize products. Competition to hire from this limited pool is intense, and we may be unable to hire, train, retain or motivate these key 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 advisors, including scientific and clinical advisors, to assist us in formulating our discovery and preclinical development and commercialization strategy. Our consultants and advisors may be employed by employers other than us and may
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have commitments under consulting or
advisory contracts with other entities that may limit their availability to provide services to
us
. If
we are
unable to continue to attract and re
tain high quality personnel, our ability to pursue our
growth strategy will be limited.
We may face operational disruptions due to lack of adequate facilities.
We are highly dependent upon our U.K. facilities to conduct our scientific research, and we may face disruptions due to our expiring lease on those facilities. We currently operate our U.K. operations in spaces upon which the lease expires in November 2017. We are negotiating for new spaces that we expect to occupy early in 2018. However, we have not executed a lease for those spaces and though we anticipate we will be able to continue to operate in our existing spaces until the move, we currently have no legal right to occupancy beyond the lease expiration date. If we are forced to vacate our current spaces in advance of our move to a new facility, or if we are unable to obtain a new facility, it could cause a severe disruption to our scientific activities that could materially endanger our business and future prospects.
We expect to expand our development and regulatory capabilities and potentially implement sales, marketing and distribution capabilities, and as a result, we may encounter difficulties in managing our growth, which could disrupt our operations.
We expect to experience significant growth in the number of our employees and the scope of our operations, particularly in the areas of drug development, regulatory affairs and, if any of our product candidates receive marketing approval, sales, marketing and distribution. 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. Due to our limited financial resources and the limited experience of our management team in managing a company with such anticipated growth, we may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations or recruit and train additional qualified personnel. The 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.
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. 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, where the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union has created additional economic uncertainty that could last for years. The majority of our scientific operations are based in the United Kingdom and we have received significant funding through U.K. government sources and tax credits. We cannot anticipate all of the ways in which any changes in the economic climate and financial market conditions could adversely impact our business.
Our business and operations would suffer in the event of system failures.
Our internal computer systems and those of our CROs, collaborators and third-parties on whom we rely are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. Furthermore, we have little or no control over the security measures and computer systems of our third-party collaborators. While we and, to our knowledge, our third party collaborators 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 or our third party collaborators, it could result in a material disruption of our drug development programs. For example, the loss of research data could delay development of our product candidates and 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.
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Risks Related to Ownership of O
ur Common Stock
Our stock price is volatile and our stockholders may not be able to resell shares of our common stock at or above the price they paid.
The trading price of our common stock is highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, many of which are beyond our control. These factors include those discussed in this “Risk Factors” section of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and others such as:
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announcement of a strategic transaction, including the acquisition of our company or its assets;
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our decision to initiate a clinical trial or not to initiate a clinical trial;
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announcements of significant changes in our business or operations, including the decision not to pursue drug development programs;
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additions or departures of key personnel;
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adverse results or delays in clinical trials;
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changes in reimbursement or third-party coverage of treatments for HAE or DME, or changes to treatment recommendations or guidelines applicable to the treatment of HAE or DME;
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announcements relating to collaboration partnerships or other strategic transactions undertaken by us;
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announcements of therapeutic innovations or new products by us or our competitors;
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adverse actions taken by regulatory agencies with respect to our clinical trials, manufacturing supply chain or sales and marketing activities;
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changes or developments in laws or regulations applicable to any of our product candidates;
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any adverse changes to our relationship with any manufacturers or suppliers;
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the success of our testing and clinical trials;
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the success of our efforts to acquire or license or discover additional product candidates;
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any intellectual property infringement actions in which we may become involved;
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announcements concerning our competitors or the pharmaceutical industry in general;
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achievement of expected product sales and profitability;
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manufacture, supply or distribution shortages;
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actual or anticipated fluctuations in our operating results;
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FDA or other regulatory actions affecting us or our industry or other healthcare reform measures in the United States or the United Kingdom;
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changes in financial estimates or recommendations by securities analysts;
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trading volume of our common stock;
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sales of our common stock by us, our executive officers and directors or our stockholders in the future; and
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general economic and market conditions and overall fluctuations in the United States equity markets.
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In addition, the stock markets in general, and the markets for pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and biotechnology stocks in particular, have experienced extreme volatility that may have been unrelated to the operating performance of the issuer. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the trading price or liquidity of our common stock. In the past, when the market price of a stock has been volatile, holders of that stock have sometimes instituted securities class action litigation against the issuer. If any of our stockholders were to bring such a lawsuit against us, we could incur substantial costs defending the lawsuit and the attention of our
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management would be diverted from the operation of our business, which could seriously harm our financial position. Any adverse determination in litigation could also subject us to significant liabilities.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or if they issue an adverse opinion regarding our stock, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts publish about us or our business. If any analysts who cover us issue an adverse regarding us, our business model, our intellectual property or our stock performance, or if our clinical trials and operating results fail to meet the expectations of analysts, our stock price would likely decline. If any of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
We incur significant costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management devotes substantial time to compliance initiatives. We may fail to comply with the rules that apply to public companies, including Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which could result in sanctions or other penalties that would harm our business.
We incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses as a public company, including costs resulting from public company reporting obligations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, and regulations regarding corporate governance practices. The listing requirements of The NASDAQ Global Market require that we satisfy certain corporate governance requirements relating to director independence, distributing annual and interim reports, stockholder meetings, approvals and voting, soliciting proxies, conflicts of interest and a code of conduct. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to ensure that we comply with all of these requirements, and we will likely need to hire additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company reporting experience and technical accounting knowledge. Moreover, the reporting requirements, rules and regulations increase our legal and financial compliance costs and make some activities more time consuming and costly. Any changes we make to comply with these obligations may not be sufficient to allow us to satisfy our obligations as a public company on a timely basis, or at all. These reporting requirements, rules and regulations, coupled with the increase in potential litigation exposure associated with being a public company, could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or board committees or to serve as executive officers, or to obtain certain types of insurance, including directors’ and officers’ insurance, on acceptable terms.
We are subject to Section 404 of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Section 404, and the related rules of the SEC which generally require our management and independent registered public accounting firm to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Beginning with the annual report that we will be required to file with the SEC for the year ending April 30, 2018, Section 404 requires an annual management assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. However, for so long as we remain an emerging growth company as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or JOBS Act, we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404.
To date, we have never conducted a review of our internal control for the purpose of providing the reports required by these rules. During the course of our review and testing, we may identify deficiencies and be unable to remediate them before we must provide the required reports. Furthermore, if we have a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, we may not detect errors on a timely basis and our financial statements may be materially misstated. We or our independent registered public accounting firm may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting, which could harm our operating results, cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and cause the trading price of our stock to fall. In addition, as a public company we are required to file accurate and timely quarterly and annual reports with the SEC under the Exchange Act. Any failure to report our financial results on an accurate and timely basis could result in sanctions, lawsuits, delisting of our shares from The NASDAQ Global Market or other adverse consequences that would materially harm our business.
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If we fail to
establish or
maintain proper internal controls, our ability to produce accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations
could be impaired.
Pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, beginning in the year ending April 30, 2018, our management will be required annually to deliver a report that assesses the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and, subject to exemptions allowed as an “emerging growth company,” our independent registered public accounting firm will be required annually to deliver an attestation report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. If we are unable to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to produce accurate financial statements, and investors may therefore lose confidence in our operating results, our stock price could decline and we may be subject to litigation or regulatory enforcement actions.
Provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could discourage a takeover that stockholders may consider favorable and may lead to entrenchment of management.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that could significantly reduce the value of our shares to a potential acquirer or delay or prevent changes in control or changes in our management without the consent of our board of directors. The provisions in our charter documents include the following:
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a classified board of directors with three-year staggered terms, which may delay the ability of stockholders to change the membership of a majority of our board of directors;
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no cumulative voting in the election of directors, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates;
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the exclusive right of our board of directors to elect a director to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of the board of directors or the resignation, death or removal of a director, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our board of directors;
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the required approval of at least 66 2/3% of the shares entitled to vote to remove a director for cause, and the prohibition on removal of directors without cause;
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the ability of our board of directors to authorize the issuance of shares of preferred stock and to determine the price and other terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder approval, which could be used to significantly dilute the ownership of a hostile acquirer;
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the ability of our board of directors to alter our bylaws without obtaining stockholder approval;
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the required approval of at least 66 2/3% of the shares entitled to vote at an election of directors to adopt, amend or repeal certain provisions of our bylaws and our amended and restated certificate of incorporation regarding the election and removal of directors;
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a prohibition on stockholder action by written consent, which forces stockholder action to be taken at an annual or special meeting of our stockholders;
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the requirement that a special meeting of stockholders may be called only by or at the direction of our board of directors pursuant to a resolution adopted by a majority of the total number of directors that our board of directors would have if there were no vacancies, which may delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or to take action, including the removal of directors; and
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advance notice procedures that stockholders must comply with in order to nominate candidates to our board of directors or to propose matters to be acted upon at a stockholders’ meeting, which may discourage or deter a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirer’s own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us. In addition, these provisions would apply even if we were to receive an offer that some stockholders may consider beneficial.
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We are also subject to the anti-takeover provisions contained in Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. Under Section 203, a corporation may not, in general, engage in a business combination with any
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holder of 15% or more of its capital
stock unless the holder has held the stock for three years or, among other exceptions, the board of directors has approved the transaction.
Claims for indemnification by our directors and officers may reduce our available funds to satisfy successful third-party claims against us and may reduce the amount of money available to us.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws provide that we will indemnify our directors and officers, in each case to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law.
In addition, as permitted by Section 145 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated bylaws and our indemnification agreements that we have entered into with our directors and officers provide that:
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We will indemnify our directors and officers for serving us in those capacities or for serving other business enterprises at our request, to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. Delaware law provides that a corporation may indemnify such person if such person acted in good faith and in a manner such person reasonably believed to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the registrant and, with respect to any criminal proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe such person’s conduct was unlawful.
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We may, in our discretion, indemnify employees and agents in those circumstances where indemnification is permitted by applicable law.
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We are required to advance expenses, as incurred, to our directors and officers in connection with defending a proceeding, except that such directors or officers shall undertake to repay such advances if it is ultimately determined that such person is not entitled to indemnification.
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We will not be obligated pursuant to our amended and restated bylaws to indemnify a person with respect to proceedings initiated by that person against us or our other indemnitees, except with respect to proceedings authorized by our board of directors or brought to enforce a right to indemnification.
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The rights conferred in our amended and restated bylaws are not exclusive, and we are authorized to enter into indemnification agreements with our directors, officers, employees and agents and to obtain insurance to indemnify such persons.
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We may not retroactively amend our amended and restated bylaw provisions to reduce our indemnification obligations to directors, officers, employees and agents.
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Our ability to use our net operating losses to offset future taxable income, if any, may be subject to certain limitations.
In general, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” (generally defined as a greater than 50-percentage-point cumulative change (by value) in the equity ownership of certain stockholders over a rolling three-year period) is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change net operating losses, or NOLs, to offset future taxable income.
We experienced an ownership change in November 2016 that substantially limited our use of the NOLs available to us for U.S. federal income tax purposes.
If we undergo additional ownership changes (some of which changes may be outside our control), our ability to utilize our NOLs could be further limited by Section 382 of the Code. Our NOLs may also be impaired under state law. Accordingly, we may not be able to utilize a material portion of our NOLs. Furthermore, our ability to utilize our NOLs is conditioned upon our attaining profitability and generating U.S. federal taxable income. We have incurred net losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future; thus, we do not know whether or when we will generate the U.S. federal taxable income necessary to utilize our NOLs. See the risk factors described above under “-Risks Related to Our Limited Operating History, Financial Condition and Capital Requirements.”
We do not currently intend to pay dividends on our common stock, and, consequently, our stockholders’ ability to achieve a return on their investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our common stock.
We do not currently intend to pay any cash dividends on our common stock for the foreseeable future. We currently intend to invest our future earnings, if any, to fund our growth. Therefore, our stockholders are not likely
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to receive any dividends on their
common stock for the foreseeable future. Since we do not intend to pay dividends, our stockholders’ ability to receive a return on their investment will depend on any future appreciation in the market value of our common stock. There is no guarantee that
our common stock will appreciate or even maintain the price at which our holders have purchased it.