In evaluating our business, you should carefully consider the following risks in addition to the other information in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. A manifestation of any of the following risks could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. We note these factors for investors as permitted by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. It is not possible to predict or identify all such factors and, therefore, you should not consider the following risks to be a complete statement of all the potential risks or uncertainties that we face.
A substantial portion of our revenues is derived from sales of products to treat HCV and HIV. If we are unable to increase HIV sales or if HCV sales decrease more than anticipated, then our results of operations may be adversely affected.
During the
nine months ended September 30, 2017
, sales of Harvoni, Epclusa, Sovaldi and Vosevi for the treatment of HCV accounted for approximately
39%
of our total product sales. The primary drivers of our HCV product revenues are patient starts, net pricing and market share. Since the second quarter of 2015, the number of new patient starts has diminished, and we expect patient starts to continue to decline relative to 2016 in all major markets, resulting in a decrease in our HCV product sales. Our HCV revenues have declined and are expected to further decline as a result of increased competition from new HCV products, which has further eroded net pricing and market share. We anticipate that this impact on pricing and market share will be more fully reflected beginning in the fourth quarter of 2017. Our HCV product sales could also be further impacted by a larger than anticipated shift in our payer mix to more highly discounted payer segments and geographic regions.
In addition, future sales of our HCV products are difficult to estimate because demand depends, in part, on the extent of reimbursement of our HCV products by private and government payers. In light of continued financial crises experienced by several countries in the European Union, some governments have announced or implemented measures to further reduce healthcare expenditures. We may continue to experience global pricing pressure which could result in larger discounts or rebates on our products or delayed reimbursement, which negatively impacts our product sales and results of operations. Also, private and public payers can choose to exclude our HCV products from their formulary coverage lists or limit the types of patients for whom coverage will be provided, which would negatively impact the demand for, and revenues of, our HCV products. Any change in the formulary coverage, reimbursement levels or discounts or rebates offered on our HCV products to payers may impact our anticipated revenues. We expect pricing pressure in the HCV market to continue. If we are unable to achieve our forecasted HCV sales, our stock price could experience significant volatility.
We receive a substantial portion of our revenue from sales of our products for the treatment of HIV infection, which include Genvoya, Truvada, Atripla, Descovy, Stribild, Odefsey and Complera/Eviplera. During the
nine months ended September 30, 2017
, sales of our HIV products accounted for approximately
52%
of our total product sales. Most of our HIV products contain tenofovir alafenamide (TAF), tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and/or emtricitabine, which belong to the nucleoside class of antiviral therapeutics. In addition, if the treatment paradigm for HIV changes, causing nucleoside-based therapeutics to fall out of favor, or if we are unable to maintain or increase our HIV product sales, our results of operations would likely suffer and we would likely need to scale back our operations, including our spending on research and development (R&D) efforts.
We may be unable to sustain or increase sales of our HCV or HIV products for any number of reasons including, but not limited to, the reasons discussed above and the following:
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As our HCV and HIV products are used over a longer period of time in many patients and in combination with other products, and additional studies are conducted, new issues with respect to safety, resistance and interactions with other drugs may arise, which could cause us to provide additional warnings or contraindications on our labels, narrow our approved indications or halt sales of a product, each of which could reduce our revenues.
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As our products mature, private insurers and government payers often reduce the amount they will reimburse patients for these products, which increases pressure on us to reduce prices.
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If physicians do not see the benefit of our HCV or HIV products, the sales of our HCV or HIV products will be limited.
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As new branded or generic products are introduced into major markets, our ability to maintain pricing and market share may be affected. For example, TDF, one of the active pharmaceutical ingredients in Stribild, Complera/Eviplera, Atripla and Truvada, and the main active pharmaceutical ingredient in Viread, now has generic competition in the European Union and is expected to face generic competition in the United States and other countries in late 2017. In addition, because emtricitabine, the other active pharmaceutical ingredient of Truvada, faced generic competition in
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the European Union in 2016, Truvada has started to face generic competition in the European Union and other countries outside of the United States in 2017. This has had a negative impact on our business and results of operations.
If we fail to commercialize new products or expand the indications for existing products, our prospects for future revenues may be adversely affected.
If we do not introduce new products or increase sales of our existing products, we will not be able to increase or maintain our total revenues nor continue to expand our R&D efforts. Drug development is inherently risky and many product candidates fail during the drug development process. For example, during 2016 we announced that we terminated our Phase 2 and 2b studies of simtuzumab for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and primary sclerosing cholangitis, our Phase 2 and 2/3 studies of GS-5745 for the treatment of Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis, our Phase 2 studies of selonsertib for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension and diabetic kidney disease and our studies of eleclazine for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. In addition, we may decide to terminate product development after expending significant resources and effort. For example, after completion of two Phase 3 studies of momelotinib for the treatment of myelofibrosis in 2016, we decided to terminate the development of momelotinib. In addition, if we are unable to obtain regulatory approval for product candidates from our recent acquisition of Kite Pharma, Inc. (Kite) and effectively commercialize Kite’s product candidates, we may not be able to realize the anticipated benefits from our acquisition of Kite, including any expected future revenues from Kite’s product candidates.
We have filed our new drug application (NDA) and marketing authorization application (MAA) in the United States and European Union, respectively, for the approval of a once-daily, single-tablet regimen containing bictegravir (50 mg) and emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide (200/25 mg) for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults. We have also filed a MAA in the European Union for the approval of axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) for the treatment of relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, transformed follicular lymphoma and primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma. These and any future marketing applications we file may not be approved by the regulatory authorities on a timely basis, or at all. Even if marketing approval is granted for these products, there may be significant limitations on their use. Further, we may be unable to file our marketing applications for new products.
Our inability to accurately predict demand for our products, uptake of new products or fluctuations in customer inventories makes it difficult for us to accurately forecast sales and may cause our forecasted revenues and earnings to fluctuate, which could adversely affect our financial results and our stock price.
We may be unable to accurately predict demand for our products, including the uptake of new products, as demand is dependent on a number of factors. For example, because our HCV products represent a cure and competitors’ HCV products have entered the market, revenues from our HCV products are difficult for us and investors to estimate. The primary drivers of our HCV product revenues are patient starts, net pricing and market share. In our experience, the number of patient starts is very difficult to accurately predict. In addition, demand for our HCV products will depend on the extent of reimbursement of our HCV products by private and public payers in the United States and other countries. Private and public payers can choose to exclude our HCV products from their formulary coverage lists or limit the types of patients for whom coverage will be provided, which would negatively impact the demand for and revenues of our HCV products. We continue to experience pricing pressure in the United States, the European Union and other countries. Any change in the formulary coverage, reimbursement levels or discounts or rebates offered on our HCV products to payers may negatively impact our anticipated revenues. In addition, because rebate claims for product discounts are made by payers one or two quarters in arrears, we estimate the rebates we will be required to pay in connection with sales during a particular quarter based on claims data from prior quarters. For example, in the first quarter of 2016, we received higher than expected prior quarter rebate claims. This had the effect of lowering our revenue for the quarter. Because HCV-related revenues are difficult to predict, investors may have widely varying expectations that may be materially higher or lower than our actual or anticipated revenues. To the extent our actual or anticipated HCV product revenues exceed or fall short of these expectations, our stock price may experience significant volatility.
During the
nine months ended September 30, 2017
, approximately
88%
of our product sales in the United States were to three wholesalers, McKesson Corp., AmerisourceBergen Corp. and Cardinal Health, Inc. The U.S. wholesalers with whom we have entered into inventory management agreements make estimates to determine end user demand and may not be completely effective in matching their inventory levels to actual end user demand. As a result, changes in inventory levels held by those wholesalers can cause our operating results to fluctuate unexpectedly if our sales to these wholesalers do not match end user demand. In addition, inventory is held at retail pharmacies and other non-wholesaler locations with whom we have no inventory management agreements and no control over buying patterns. Adverse changes in economic conditions or other factors may cause retail pharmacies to reduce their inventories of our products, which would reduce their orders from wholesalers and, consequently, the wholesalers’ orders from us, even if end user demand has not changed. For example, during the fourth quarter of 2016, strong wholesaler and sub-wholesaler purchases of our products resulted in inventory draw-down by wholesalers and sub-wholesalers in the first quarter of 2017. As inventory in the distribution channel fluctuates from quarter to quarter, we may continue to see fluctuations in our earnings and a mismatch between prescription demand for our products and our revenues.
In addition, the non-retail sector in the United States, which includes government institutions, including state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), correctional facilities and large health maintenance organizations, tends to be even less consistent in terms of buying patterns and often causes quarter-over-quarter fluctuations that do not necessarily mirror patient demand for our products. Federal and state budget pressures, including sequestration, as well as the annual grant cycles for federal and state funds, may cause purchasing patterns to not reflect patient demand of our products. For example, in the first quarters of certain prior years, we observed large non-retail purchases of our HIV products by a number of state ADAPs that exceeded patient demand. We believe such purchases were driven by the grant cycle for federal ADAP funds. Additionally, during the second half of 2016, we experienced fluctuations in VA new HCV patient starts and purchasing patterns due to VA funding. We expect to continue to experience fluctuations in the purchasing patterns of our non-retail customers which may result in fluctuations in our product sales, revenues and earnings in the future. In light of the global economic downturn and budget crises faced by many European countries, we have observed variations in purchasing patterns induced by cost containment measures in Europe. We believe these measures have caused some government agencies and other purchasers to reduce inventory of our products in the distribution channels, which has decreased our revenues and caused fluctuations in our product sales and earnings. We may continue to see this trend in the future.
Yescarta, a chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) therapy, represents a novel approach to cancer treatment that creates significant challenges for us.
Yescarta, a CAR T therapy, involves (i) harvesting T cells from the patient’s blood, (ii) engineering T cells to express cancer-specific receptors, (iii) increasing the number of engineered T cells and (iv) infusing the functional cancer-specific T cells back into the patient. Advancing this novel and personalized therapy creates significant challenges, including:
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educating and certifying medical personnel regarding the therapy procedures and the potential side effect profile of our therapy, such as the potential adverse side effects related to cytokine release syndrome and neurologic toxicities, in compliance with the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program required by FDA for Yescarta;
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using medicines to manage adverse side effects of our therapy, such as tocilizumab and corticosteroids, which may not be available in sufficient quantities, may not adequately control the side effects and/or may have a detrimental impact on the efficacy of the treatment;
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sourcing clinical and commercial supplies for the materials used to manufacture and process Yescarta;
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developing a robust and reliable process, while limiting contamination risks, for engineering a patient’s T cells ex vivo and infusing the engineered T cells back into the patient; and
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conditioning patients with chemotherapy in advance of administering our therapy, which may increase the risk of adverse side effects.
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The use of engineered T cells as a potential cancer treatment is a recent development and may not be broadly accepted by physicians, patients, hospitals, cancer treatment centers, payers and others in the medical community. We may not be able to establish or demonstrate in the medical community the safety and efficacy of Yescarta and the potential advantages and side effects compared to existing and future therapeutics. If we fail to overcome these significant challenges, our sales of Yescarta and our stock price could be adversely affected.
We may be required to pay significant damages to Merck as a result of a jury’s finding that we willfully infringed a patent owned by Merck’s Idenix subsidiary.
In December 2013, Idenix, Universita Degli Studi di Cagliari (UDSG), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and L’Université Montpellier II sued us in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware alleging that the commercialization of sofosbuvir will infringe Idenix’s U.S. Patent No. 7,608,600 (the ‘600 patent) and that an interference exists between the ‘600 patent and our U.S. Patent No. 8,415,322. Also in December 2013, Idenix and UDSG sued us in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts alleging that the commercialization of sofosbuvir will infringe U.S. Patent Nos. 6,914,054 (the ‘054 patent) and 7,608,597 (the ‘597 patent). In June 2014, the court transferred the Massachusetts litigation to the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Idenix was acquired by Merck in August 2014.
Prior to trial in December 2016, Idenix committed to give us a covenant not to sue with respect to any claims arising out of the ‘054 patent related to sofosbuvir and withdrew that patent from the trial. In addition, Idenix declined to litigate the ‘600 patent infringement action at trial in light of the appeal then pending at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) regarding who was the first to invent the subject matter claimed in the ‘600 patent. In January 2017, the District Court stayed Idenix’s infringement claim on the ‘600 patent pending the outcome of the appeal of the interference decision on that patent (the Second Idenix Interference), described above. Unless Idenix is successful in persuading the United States Supreme Court to consider a further appeal to challenge the Federal Circuit’s June 2017 decision in our favor in the Second Idenix Interference, we will ask for dismissal of, or for judgment to be entered against Idenix on, the ‘600 infringement and interference claims. A jury trial was held in December 2016 on the ‘597 patent. In December 2016, the jury found that we willfully infringed the asserted claims of
the ‘597 patent and awarded Idenix $2.54 billion in past damages. The parties have filed post-trial motions and briefings, and the district judge heard oral argument in September 2017. In September 2017, the judge denied Idenix’s motions for enhanced damages and attorney’s fees. We expect the judge to rule on outstanding motions in late 2017 or early 2018. Once the judge has issued these rulings, the case will move to the CAFC.
Although we cannot predict with certainty the ultimate outcome of this litigation, we believe the jury verdict to be in error, and that errors were also made by the court with respect to certain rulings before and during trial. We expect that our arguments in the pending post-trial motions and on appeal will focus on one or more of the arguments we made to the judge and jury, those being (i) when properly construed, we do not infringe the claims of the ‘597 patent, (ii) the patent is invalid for failure to properly describe the claimed invention and (iii) the patent is invalid because it does not enable one of skill in the art to practice the claimed invention.
If the jury’s verdict is upheld on appeal, our estimated potential loss as of September 30, 2017 would include (i) the
$2.54 billion
determined by the jury, which represents
10%
of our adjusted revenues from sofosbuvir-containing products from launch through August 2016, (ii) approximately
$269 million
, which represents
10%
of our adjusted revenues from sofosbuvir-containing products from September 2016 through January 25, 2017, (iii) pre- and post-judgment interest, and (iv) approximately $539 million, which represents going forward royalties yet to be assessed by the court, which we have estimated assuming
14%
of our adjusted revenues from sofosbuvir-containing products from January 26, 2017 through September 30, 2017 based on post-trial briefings filed by Idenix with the court, and which would be payable based on adjusted revenues from sofosbuvir-containing products for the period from January 26, 2017 through expiry of the Idenix patent in May 2021. Therefore, we estimate the range of possible loss through September 30, 2017 to be between zero and $3.6 billion. The parties agreed to stay consideration of going forward royalties until the appeal from the jury verdict and post-trial motions has been resolved. Idenix may appeal the court’s denial of enhanced damages.
If the jury’s verdict is upheld on appeal, the amount we could be required to pay could be material. The timing and magnitude of the amount of any such payment could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations and stock price.
Our results of operations may be adversely affected by current and potential future healthcare reforms.
Legislative and regulatory changes to government prescription drug procurement and reimbursement programs occur relatively frequently in the United States and foreign jurisdictions. In the United States, we, along with other pharmaceutical manufacturers of branded drug products, are required to pay a portion of an industry fee (also known as the branded prescription drug (BPD) fee), calculated based on select government sales during the year as a percentage of total industry government sales. The amount of the annual BPD fee imposed on the pharmaceutical industry as a whole is $4.0 billion in 2017, which will increase to a peak of $4.1 billion in 2018, and then decrease to $2.8 billion in 2019 and thereafter. Our BPD fee expenses were $270 million in 2016, $414 million in 2015 and $590 million in 2014. The BPD fee is not tax deductible.
There has been extensive discussion about a possible repeal or amendment of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the Affordable Care Act) as well as other government actions intended to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, any of which could negatively impact the use and/or reimbursement of our products. In October 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing federal agencies to review regulations applicable to association health plans and short-term health insurance, and announced that the administration would halt federal subsidies to insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act. Previously in January 2017, the new administration issued an Executive Order directing federal agencies with authorities and responsibilities under the Affordable Care Act to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation of any provision of the Affordable Care Act that would impose a fiscal burden on states or a cost, fee, tax, penalty or regulatory burden on individuals, healthcare providers, health insurers, or manufacturers of pharmaceuticals or medical devices. It is expected that Congress will continue to consider legislation to repeal and replace some or all elements of the Affordable Care Act.
In addition, many states have proposed legislation that seeks to indirectly or directly regulate pharmaceutical drug pricing by requiring biopharmaceutical manufacturers to publicly report proprietary pricing information or to place a maximum price ceiling on pharmaceutical products purchased by state agencies. If such proposed legislation is passed, we may experience additional pricing pressures on our products. For example, in October 2017, California’s governor signed a prescription drug price transparency state bill into law, requiring prescription drug manufacturers to provide advance notice and explanation for price increases of certain drugs that exceed a specified threshold. Similar bills have been previously introduced at the federal level and we expect that additional legislation may be introduced this year. The potential effect of health insurance market destabilization during ongoing repeal and replace discussions, as well as the impact of potential changes to the way the Medicaid program is financed, will likely affect patients’ sources of insurance and resultant drug coverage. Discussions continue at the federal level regarding policies that would either allow or require the U.S. government to directly negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers for Medicare patients, require manufacturers to pay higher rebates in Medicare Part D, give states more flexibility on drugs that are covered under the Medicaid program, and other policy proposals that could impact reimbursement for our products. Other discussions have centered on legislation that would permit the re-importation of prescription medications from Canada or other countries. It is difficult to predict the impact, if any, of any such legislation, executive actions or Medicaid flexibility on the use and reimbursement
of our products in the United States, including the potential for the importation of generic versions of our products.
Further, Yescarta is expected to be administered on an in-patient basis. It is possible that federal government reimbursement through programs like Medicare and Medicaid will be insufficient to cover the complete cost associated with the therapy. This could impact the willingness of some hospitals to offer the therapy and doctors to recommend the therapy and could lessen the attractiveness of our therapy to patients.
In addition, state Medicaid programs could request additional supplemental rebates on our products as a result of the increase in the federal base Medicaid rebate. Private insurers could also use the enactment of these increased rebates to exert pricing pressure on our products, and to the extent that private insurers or managed care programs follow Medicaid coverage and payment developments, the adverse effects may be magnified by private insurers adopting lower payment schedules.
Our existing products are subject to reimbursement from government agencies and other third parties. Pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement pressures may reduce profitability.
Successful commercialization of our products depends, in part, on the availability of governmental and third-party payer reimbursement for the cost of such products and related treatments in the markets where we sell our products. Government health authorities, private health insurers and other organizations generally provide reimbursement. In the United States, the European Union and other significant or potentially significant markets for our products and product candidates, government authorities and third-party payers are increasingly attempting to limit or regulate the price of medical products and services. A significant portion of our sales of the majority of our products are subject to significant discounts from list price. See also our risk factor “A substantial portion of our revenues is derived from sales of products to treat HCV and HIV. If we are unable to increase HIV sales or if HCV sales decrease more than anticipated, then our results of operations may be adversely affected.”
We face significant competition.
We face significant competition from global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, specialized pharmaceutical firms and generic drug manufacturers. Our products compete with other available products based primarily on efficacy, safety, tolerability, acceptance by doctors, ease of patient compliance, ease of use, price, insurance and other reimbursement coverage, distribution and marketing.
Our HCV products, Sovaldi, Harvoni, Epclusa and Vosevi, compete primarily with Mavyret (glecaprevir/pibrentasvir) marketed by AbbVie Inc. (AbbVie) and Zepatier (elbasvir and grazoprevir) marketed by Merck & Co. Inc. (Merck).
Our HIV products compete primarily with products from ViiV Healthcare (ViiV), which markets fixed-dose combination products that compete with Descovy, Odefsey, Genvoya, Stribild, Complera/Eviplera, Atripla and Truvada. For example, two products marketed by ViiV, Tivicay (dolutegravir), an integrase inhibitor, and Triumeq, a single-tablet triple-combination antiretroviral regimen, have adversely impacted sales of our HIV products. In addition, lamivudine, marketed by ViiV, competes with emtricitabine, the active pharmaceutical ingredient of Emtriva and a component of Genvoya, Stribild, Complera/Eviplera, Atripla and Truvada. For Tybost, we compete with ritonavir marketed by AbbVie.
We also face competition from generic HIV products. Generic versions of lamivudine and Combivir (lamivudine and zidovudine) are available in the United States and certain other countries. Generic versions of Sustiva (efavirenz), a component of Atripla, are now available in Canada and Europe and we anticipate competition from generic efavirenz in the United States in December 2017. We have observed some pricing pressure related to the Sustiva component of our Atripla sales. TDF, one of the active pharmaceutical ingredients in Stribild, Complera/Eviplera, Atripla and Truvada, and the main active pharmaceutical ingredient in Viread, now has generic competition in the European Union and is expected to face generic competition in the United States and other countries in late 2017. In addition, because emtricitabine, the other active pharmaceutical ingredient of Truvada, faced generic competition in the European Union in 2016, Truvada has started to face generic competition in the European Union and other countries outside of the United States in 2017.
Our HBV products, Vemlidy, Viread and Hepsera, face competition from Baraclude (entecavir) marketed by BMS as well as generic entecavir. Our HBV products also compete with Tyzeka/Sebivo (telbivudine) marketed by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (Novartis).
Yescarta will compete with other companies developing advanced T cell therapies for the treatment of relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, including Novartis and Juno Therapeutics, Inc. (Juno).
Letairis competes with Tracleer (bosentan) and Opsumit (macitentan) marketed by Actelion Pharmaceuticals US, Inc. and also with Adcirca (tadalafil) marketed by United Therapeutics Corporation and Pfizer Inc. (Pfizer).
Ranexa competes predominantly with generic compounds from three distinct classes of drugs for the treatment of chronic angina in the United States, including generic and/or branded beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers and long-acting nitrates.
AmBisome competes with Vfend (voriconazole) marketed by Pfizer and caspofungin, a product developed by Merck that is marketed as Cancidas in the United States and as Caspofungin elsewhere. In addition, we are aware of at least three lipid formulations
that claim similarity to AmBisome becoming available outside of the United States. These formulations may reduce market demand for AmBisome. Furthermore, the manufacture of lipid formulations of amphotericin B is very complex and if any of these formulations are found to be unsafe, sales of AmBisome may be negatively impacted by association.
In addition, a number of companies are pursuing the development of technologies which are competitive with our existing products or research programs. These competing companies include specialized pharmaceutical firms and large pharmaceutical companies acting either independently or together with other pharmaceutical companies. Furthermore, academic institutions, government agencies and other public and private organizations conducting research may seek patent protection and may establish collaborative arrangements for competitive products or programs. If any of these competitors gain market share on our products, it could adversely affect our results of operations and stock price.
Patient assistance programs for pharmaceutical products have come under increasing scrutiny by governments, legislative bodies and enforcement agencies. These activities may result in actions that have the effect of reducing prices or harming our business or reputation.
Recently, there has been enhanced scrutiny of company-sponsored patient assistance programs, including insurance premium and co-pay assistance programs and donations to third-party charities that provide such assistance. If we, or our vendors or donation recipients, are deemed to have failed to comply with relevant laws, regulations or government guidance in any of these areas, we could be subject to criminal and civil sanctions, including significant fines, civil monetary penalties and exclusion from participation in government healthcare programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, actions against executives overseeing our business, and burdensome remediation measures.
In February 2016, we received a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts requesting documents related to our support of 501(c)(3) organizations that provide financial assistance to patients and documents concerning our provision of financial assistance to patients for our HCV products. Other companies have disclosed similar inquiries. We are cooperating with this inquiry. In October 2017, we received a civil investigative demand from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts requesting documents related to our copay coupon program and Medicaid price reporting methodology. We intend to cooperate with this inquiry.
It is possible that any actions taken by the U.S. Department of Justice as a result of this inquiry or any future action taken by federal or local governments, legislative bodies and enforcement agencies could result in civil penalties or injunctive relief, negative publicity or other negative actions that could harm our reputation, reduce demand for our products and/or reduce coverage of our products, including by federal health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and state health care programs. If any or all of these events occur, our business and stock price could be materially and adversely affected.
Approximately
30%
of our product sales occur outside the United States, and currency fluctuations and hedging expenses may cause our earnings to fluctuate, which could adversely affect our stock price.
Because a significant percentage of our product sales are denominated in foreign currencies, primarily the Euro, we face exposure to adverse movements in foreign currency exchange rates. When the U.S. dollar strengthens against these foreign currencies, the relative value of sales made in the respective foreign currency decreases. Conversely, when the U.S. dollar weakens against these currencies, the relative value of such sales increases. Overall, we are a net receiver of foreign currencies and, therefore, benefit from a weaker U.S. dollar and are adversely affected by a stronger U.S. dollar.
We use foreign currency exchange forward and option contracts to hedge a percentage of our forecasted international sales, primarily those denominated in the Euro. We also hedge certain monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies, which reduces but does not eliminate our exposure to currency fluctuations between the date a transaction is recorded and the date cash is collected or paid. Foreign currency exchange, net of hedges, had
an unfavorable
impact on our product sales of
$147 million
for the
nine months ended September 30, 2017
, compared to the same period in
2016
.
We cannot predict future fluctuations in the foreign currency exchange rates of the U.S. dollar. If the U.S. dollar appreciates significantly against certain currencies and our hedging program does not sufficiently offset the effects of such appreciation, our results of operations will be adversely affected and our stock price may decline.
Additionally, the expenses that we recognize in relation to our hedging activities can also cause our earnings to fluctuate. The level of hedging expenses that we recognize in a particular period is impacted by the changes in interest rate spreads between the foreign currencies that we hedge and the U.S. dollar.
If significant safety issues arise for our marketed products or our product candidates, our future sales may be reduced, which would adversely affect our results of operations.
The data supporting the marketing approvals for our products and forming the basis for the safety warnings in our product labels were obtained in controlled clinical trials of limited duration and, in some cases, from post-approval use. As our products are used over longer periods of time by many patients with underlying health problems, taking numerous other medicines, we
expect to continue to find new issues such as safety, resistance or drug interaction issues, which may require us to provide additional warnings or contraindications on our labels or narrow our approved indications, each of which could reduce the market acceptance of these products.
Regulatory authorities have been moving towards more active and transparent pharmacovigilance and are making greater amounts of stand-alone safety information and clinical trial data directly available to the public through websites and other means, such as periodic safety update report summaries, risk management plan summaries and various adverse event data. Safety information, without the appropriate context and expertise, may be misinterpreted and lead to misperception or legal action which may potentially cause our product sales or stock price to decline.
For Yescarta, a novel CAR T therapy, treatment-related adverse effects may not be appropriately recognized and managed by the treating medical staff, as toxicities resulting from personalized T cell therapy are not typically encountered in the general patient population and by medical personnel. Common medicines that may be used at academic medical centers and hospitals to help manage adverse side effects of Yescarta, such as tocilizumab and corticosteroids, may not be available in sufficient quantities, may not adequately control such adverse side effects and/or may have a detrimental impact on the efficacy of the treatment. We have trained and expect to continue to train medical personnel to understand the side effect profile of Yescarta in compliance with the REMS program required by FDA for Yescarta, although we can give no assurances on the efficacy of our training efforts. Inadequate training in recognizing or managing the potential adverse effects of Yescarta, or the disregard or modification of our training by medical staff, could result in more severe or prolonged toxicities or even patient deaths.
Further, if serious safety, resistance or drug interaction issues arise with our marketed products, sales of these products could be limited or halted by us or by regulatory authorities and our results of operations would be adversely affected.
Our operations depend on compliance with complex FDA and comparable international regulations. Failure to obtain broad approvals on a timely basis or to maintain compliance could delay or halt commercialization of our products.
The products we develop must be approved for marketing and sale by regulatory authorities and, once approved, are subject to extensive regulation by FDA, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and comparable regulatory agencies in other countries. We are continuing clinical trials for many of our products for currently approved and additional uses. We anticipate that we will file for marketing approval in additional countries and for additional indications and products over the next several years. These products may fail to receive such marketing approvals on a timely basis, or at all.
Further, how we manufacture and sell our products is subject to extensive regulation and review. Discovery of previously unknown problems with our marketed products or problems with our manufacturing, safety reporting or promotional activities may result in restrictions on our products, including withdrawal of the products from the market. If we fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, including those related to promotion and manufacturing, we could be subject to penalties including fines, suspensions of regulatory approvals, product recalls, seizure of products and criminal prosecution.
For example, under FDA rules, we are often required to conduct post-approval clinical studies to assess a known serious risk, signals of serious risk or to identify an unexpected serious risk and implement a REMS for our products, which could include a medication guide, patient package insert, a communication plan to healthcare providers or other elements as FDA deems are necessary to assure safe use of the drug, which could include imposing certain restrictions on the distribution or use of a product. Failure to comply with these or other requirements imposed by FDA could result in significant civil monetary penalties and our operating results may be adversely affected.
The results and anticipated timelines of our clinical trials are uncertain and may not support continued development of a product candidate, which would adversely affect our prospects for future revenue growth.
We are required to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of products that we develop for each intended use through extensive preclinical studies and clinical trials. The results from preclinical and early clinical studies do not always accurately predict results in later, large-scale clinical trials. Even successfully completed large-scale clinical trials may not result in marketable products. For example, during 2016 we announced that we terminated our Phase 2 and 2b studies of simtuzumab for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, NASH and primary sclerosing cholangitis, our Phase 2 and 2/3 studies of GS-5745 for the treatment of Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis, our Phase 2 studies of selonsertib for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension and diabetic kidney disease, and our studies of eleclazine for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, after determining that study data showed insufficient evidence of treatment benefit. In addition, after completion of two Phase 3 studies of momelotinib for the treatment of myelofibrosis in 2016, we decided to terminate development of momelotinib. If any of our product candidates fails to achieve its primary endpoint in clinical trials, if safety issues arise or if the results from our clinical trials are otherwise inadequate to support regulatory approval of our product candidates, commercialization of that product candidate could be delayed or halted. In addition, we may also face challenges in clinical trial protocol design.
If the clinical trials for any of the product candidates in our pipeline are delayed or terminated, our prospects for future revenue growth would be adversely impacted. For example, we face numerous risks and uncertainties with our product candidates,
including Descovy for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP); selonsertib for the treatment of NASH; andecaliximab for the treatment of gastric cancer; and filgotinib for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, each currently in Phase 3 clinical trials, that could prevent completion of development of these product candidates. These risks include our ability to enroll patients in clinical trials, the possibility of unfavorable results of our clinical trials, the need to modify or delay our clinical trials or to perform additional trials and the risk of failing to obtain FDA and other regulatory body approvals. As a result, our product candidates may never be successfully commercialized. Further, we may make a strategic decision to discontinue development of our product candidates if, for example, we believe commercialization will be difficult relative to other opportunities in our pipeline. If these programs and others in our pipeline cannot be completed on a timely basis or at all, then our prospects for future revenue growth may be adversely impacted. In addition, clinical trials involving our commercial products could raise new safety issues for our existing products, which could in turn decrease our revenues and harm our business.
Due to our reliance on third-party contract research organizations to conduct our clinical trials, we are unable to directly control the timing, conduct, expense and quality of our clinical trials.
We extensively outsource our clinical trial activities and usually perform only a small portion of the start-up activities in-house. We rely on independent third-party contract research organizations (CROs) to perform most of our clinical studies, including document preparation, site identification, screening and preparation, pre-study visits, training, program management and bioanalytical analysis. Many important aspects of the services performed for us by the CROs are out of our direct control. If there is any dispute or disruption in our relationship with our CROs, our clinical trials may be delayed. Moreover, in our regulatory submissions, we rely on the quality and validity of the clinical work performed by third-party CROs. If any of our CROs’ processes, methodologies or results were determined to be invalid or inadequate, our own clinical data and results and related regulatory approvals could be adversely affected.
We depend on relationships with other companies for sales and marketing performance, technology, development, logistics and commercialization of product candidates and revenues. Failure to maintain these relationships, poor performance by these companies or disputes with these companies could negatively impact our business.
We rely on a number of significant collaborative relationships with major pharmaceutical companies for our sales and marketing performance in certain territories. These include collaborations with Janssen for Odefsey, Complera/Eviplera and Symtuza in Europe; BMS for Atripla in the United States, Europe and Canada; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. (together with Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., Roche) for Tamiflu worldwide; and GSK for ambrisentan in territories outside of the United States. In some countries, we rely on international distributors for sales of Truvada, Viread, Hepsera, Emtriva and AmBisome. Some of these relationships also involve the clinical development of these products by our partners. Reliance on collaborative relationships poses a number of risks, including the risk that:
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we are unable to control the resources our corporate partners devote to our programs or products;
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disputes may arise with respect to the ownership of rights to technology developed with our corporate partners;
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disagreements with our corporate partners could cause delays in, or termination of, the research, development or commercialization of product candidates or result in litigation or arbitration;
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contracts with our corporate partners may fail to provide significant protection or may fail to be effectively enforced if one of these partners fails to perform;
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our corporate partners have considerable discretion in electing whether to pursue the development of any additional products and may pursue alternative technologies or products either on their own or in collaboration with our competitors;
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our corporate partners with marketing rights may choose to pursue competing technologies or to devote fewer resources to the marketing of our products than they do to products of their own development; and
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our distributors and our corporate partners may be unable to pay us, particularly in light of current economic conditions.
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Given these risks, there is a great deal of uncertainty regarding the success of our current and future collaborative efforts. If these efforts fail, our product development or commercialization of new products could be delayed or revenues from products could decline.
Yescarta is available only through a REMS program, which is required by FDA to mitigate the potential risks of the product. Only hospitals and their associated clinics certified in the REMS program are permitted to dispense Yescarta. All relevant staff involved in the prescribing, dispensing or administering of Yescarta must be trained on the REMS program requirements and must successfully complete a REMS program knowledge assessment. Failure of hospitals and clinics to enroll in the Yescarta REMS program or to successfully complete and comply with the program requirements may result in regulatory action from FDA or decreased sales of Yescarta, which could harm our business and our reputation.
For Yescarta, we rely on technology partners to assist in the development and maintenance of the Kite Konnect platform. This platform is critical to ensure positive prescriber and patient experience as well as chain of identity and chain of custody of Yescarta. If the technology platform is incomplete, insufficiently maintained or develops technological issues, we may experience a disruption to the sales and logistics of our Yescarta business, which could extend for a significant period of time, and we may need to expend considerable resources and time to repair or improve the platform in cooperation with our partners. In addition, we rely on sites to collect patient white blood cells, known as apheresis centers, shippers, couriers, and hospitals for the logistical collection of patient’s white blood cells and ultimate delivery of Yescarta to patients. Any disruption or difficulties incurred by any of these vendors could result in product loss and regulatory action and harm our Yescarta business and our reputation.
In addition, to ensure that any apheresis center is prepared to ship cells to our manufacturing facilities, we plan to conduct quality certifications of each apheresis center. Accordingly, we plan to target 70-90 key transplant and lymphoma centers; however, apheresis centers may choose not to participate in the certification process or we may be unable to complete certification in a timely manner or at all, which could delay or restrain our manufacturing and commercialization efforts. As a result, our sales of Yescarta may be limited which could harm our results of operations.
Our success will depend to a significant degree on our ability to defend our patents and other intellectual property rights both domestically and internationally. We may not be able to obtain effective patents to protect our technologies from use by competitors and patents of other companies could require us to stop using or pay for the use of required technology.
Patents and other proprietary rights are very important to our business. Our success will depend to a significant degree on our ability to:
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obtain patents and licenses to patent rights;
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preserve trade secrets;
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defend against infringement and efforts to invalidate our patents; and
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operate without infringing on the intellectual property of others.
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If we have a properly drafted and enforceable patent, it can be more difficult for our competitors to use our technology to create competitive products and more difficult for our competitors to obtain a patent that prevents us from using technology we create. As part of our business strategy, we actively seek patent protection both in the United States and internationally and file additional patent applications, when appropriate, to cover improvements in our compounds, products and technology.
We have a number of U.S. and foreign patents, patent applications and rights to patents related to our compounds, products and technology, but we cannot be certain that issued patents will be enforceable or provide adequate protection or that pending patent applications will result in issued patents. Patent applications are confidential for a period of time before a patent is issued. As a result, we may not know if our competitors filed patent applications for technology covered by our pending applications or if we were the first to invent or first to file an application directed toward the technology that is the subject of our patent applications. Competitors may have filed patent applications or received patents and may obtain additional patents and proprietary rights that block or compete with our products. In addition, if competitors file patent applications covering our technology, we may have to participate in litigation, interference or other proceedings to determine the right to a patent. Litigation, interference or other proceedings are unpredictable and expensive, such that, even if we are ultimately successful, our results of operations may be adversely affected by such events.
For example, TDF, one of the active pharmaceutical ingredients in Stribild, Complera/Eviplera, Atripla and Truvada, and the main active pharmaceutical ingredient in Viread, now has generic competition in the European Union and is expected to face generic competition in the United States and other countries in late 2017. In addition, because emtricitabine, the other active pharmaceutical ingredient of Truvada, faced generic competition in the European Union in 2016, Truvada has started to face generic competition in the European Union and other countries outside of the United States in 2017. The entry of these generic products may lead to market share and price erosion and have a negative impact on our business and results of operations. In addition, patents do not cover the ranolazine compound, the active ingredient of Ranexa. Instead, when it was discovered that only a sustained-release formulation of ranolazine would achieve therapeutic plasma levels, patents were obtained on those formulations and the characteristic plasma levels they achieve. Patents do not cover the active ingredients in AmBisome.
We may obtain patents for certain products many years before marketing approval is obtained for those products. Because patents have a limited life, which may begin to run prior to the commercial sale of the related product, the commercial value of the patent may be limited. However, we may be able to apply for patent term extensions or supplementary protection certificates in some countries.
Generic manufacturers have sought, and may continue to seek, FDA approval to market generic versions of our products through an abbreviated new drug application (ANDA), the application form typically used by manufacturers seeking approval of a generic drug. See a description of our ANDA litigation in Note
9
, Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and risk factor entitled
“Litigation with generic manufacturers has increased our expenses which may continue to reduce our earnings. If we are unsuccessful in all or some of these lawsuits, some or all of our claims in the patents may be narrowed or invalidated and generic versions of our products could be launched prior to our patent expiry.” beginning on page 49.
Our success depends in large part on our ability to operate without infringing upon the patents or other proprietary rights of third parties.
If we infringe the valid patents of third parties, we may be prevented from commercializing products or may be required to obtain licenses from these third parties. We may not be able to obtain alternative technologies or any required license on reasonable terms or at all. If we fail to obtain these licenses or alternative technologies, we may be unable to develop or commercialize some or all of our products. For example, we are aware of patents and patent applications owned by other parties that may claim to cover the use of sofosbuvir and axi-cel. We are also aware of U.S. Patent Nos. 9,044,509 and 9,579,333 assigned to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that purports to claim a process of protecting a primate host from infection by an immunodeficiency retrovirus by administering a combination of emtricitabine and tenofovir or TDF prior to exposure of the host to the immunodeficiency retrovirus. We have been in contact with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services about the scope and relevance of the patents and have explained that we do not believe that these patents are valid because the patent office was not given the most relevant prior art and because physicians and patients were using the claimed methods years before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention filed the applications for the patents. See also a description of our litigation regarding sofosbuvir and axi-cel in Note
9
, Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and the risk factors entitled “If any party is successful in establishing exclusive rights to our HCV products, our revenues and earnings from the sale of those products could be adversely affected” beginning on page 45 and “If any party is successful in establishing exclusive rights to axi-cel, our anticipated revenues and earnings from the sale of that product could be adversely affected” beginning on page 47.
Furthermore, we also rely on unpatented trade secrets and improvements, unpatented internal know-how and technological innovation. For example, a great deal of our liposomal manufacturing expertise, which is a key component of our liposomal technology, is not covered by patents but is instead protected as a trade secret. We protect these rights mainly through confidentiality agreements with our corporate partners, employees, consultants and vendors. These agreements provide that all confidential information developed or made known to an individual during the course of their relationship with us will be kept confidential and will not be used or disclosed to third parties except in specified circumstances. In the case of employees, the agreements provide that all inventions made by an individual while employed by us will be our exclusive property. We cannot be certain that these parties will comply with these confidentiality agreements, that we have adequate remedies for any breach or that our trade secrets will not otherwise become known or be independently discovered by our competitors. Under some of our R&D agreements, inventions become jointly owned by us and our corporate partner and in other cases become the exclusive property of one party. In certain circumstances, it can be difficult to determine who owns a particular invention and disputes could arise regarding those inventions. If our trade secrets or confidential information become known or independently discovered by competitors or if we enter into disputes over ownership of inventions, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.
If any party is successful in establishing exclusive rights to our HCV products, our revenues and earnings from the sale of those products could be adversely affected.
We own patents and patent applications that claim sofosbuvir (Sovaldi) as a chemical entity and its metabolites and the fixed-dose combinations of ledipasvir and sofosbuvir (Harvoni), sofosbuvir and velpatasvir (Epclusa) and sofosbuvir, velpatasvir and voxilaprevir (Vosevi). Third parties may have, or may obtain rights to, patents that allegedly could be used to prevent or attempt to prevent us from commercializing our HCV products. For example, we are aware of patents and patent applications owned by other parties that may be alleged by such parties to cover the use of our HCV products. We cannot predict the ultimate outcome of intellectual property claims related to our HCV products, and we have spent, and will continue to spend, significant resources defending against these claims.
If third parties successfully obtain valid and enforceable patents, and successfully prove infringement of those patents by our HCV products, we could be prevented from selling sofosbuvir unless we were able to obtain a license under such patents. Such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.
Interference Proceedings and Litigation with Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Idenix), Universita Degli Studi di Cagliari (UDSG), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and L’Universite Montpellier II
In February 2012, we received notice that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) had declared Interference No. 105,871 (First Idenix Interference) between our U.S. Patent No. 7,429,572 (the ‘572 patent) and Idenix’s pending U.S. Patent Application No. 12/131,868 to determine who was the first to invent certain nucleoside compounds. In January 2014, the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) determined that Pharmasset and not Idenix was the first to invent the compounds. Idenix has appealed the PTAB’s decisions to the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, which has stayed that appeal pending
the outcome of the appeal of the interference involving Idenix’s U.S. Patent No. 7,608,600 (the ‘600 patent) as described below. In light of the decision in the Second Idenix Interference in our favor (as described below), we believe that the District Court will dismiss the First Idenix Interference with prejudice or enter judgment against Idenix and in our favor.
In December 2013, after receiving our request to do so, the USPTO declared Interference No. 105,981 (Second Idenix Interference) between our pending U.S. Patent Application No. 11/854,218 and Idenix’s ‘600 patent. The ‘600 patent includes claims directed to methods of treating HCV with nucleoside compounds. In March 2015, the PTAB determined that Pharmasset and not Idenix was the first to invent the claimed methods of treating HCV. Idenix appealed this decision in both the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware and the CAFC. The CAFC heard oral arguments in September 2016 and affirmed the PTAB decision in June 2017. In November 2017, the CAFC denied Idenix’s petition for a rehearing. Idenix may file further petitions in the United States Supreme Court. We filed a motion to dismiss the appeal in Delaware, which was granted. Idenix appealed the dismissal to the CAFC and that court had stayed this other appeal pending a decision in the Second Idenix Interference. We believe that the appeal from the Delaware dismissal should be dismissed in light of the recent decision of the CAFC affirming the PTAB’s prior decision in the Second Idenix Interference that Idenix is not entitled to its patent.
We believe that the Idenix claims involved in the First and Second Idenix Interferences, and similar U.S. and foreign patents claiming the same compounds, metabolites and uses thereof, are invalid. As a result, we filed an Impeachment Action in the Federal Court of Canada to invalidate Idenix Canadian Patent No. 2,490,191 (the ‘191 patent), which is the Canadian patent that corresponds to the ‘600 patent. Idenix asserted that the commercialization of Sovaldi in Canada will infringe its ‘191 patent and that our Canadian Patent No. 2,527,657, corresponding to our ‘572 patent, is invalid. In November 2015, the Canadian court held that Idenix’s patent is invalid and that our patent is valid. Idenix appealed the decision to the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal in November 2015. In July 2017, the Canadian Federal Appeal Court affirmed the lower court’s decision in our favor. In September 2017, Idenix appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.
We filed a similar legal action in Norway in the Oslo District Court seeking to invalidate Idenix’s Norwegian patent corresponding to the ‘600 patent. In September 2013, Idenix filed an invalidation action in the Norwegian proceedings against our Norwegian Patent No. 333700, which corresponds to the ‘572 patent. In March 2014, the Norwegian court found all claims in the Idenix Norwegian patent to be invalid and upheld the validity of all claims in our patent. Idenix appealed the decision to the Norwegian Court of Appeal. In April 2016, the Court of Appeal issued its decision invalidating the Idenix patent and upholding our patent. The decision revoking Idenix’s patent is now final.
In January 2013, we filed a legal action in the Federal Court of Australia seeking to invalidate Idenix’s Australian patent corresponding to the ‘600 patent. In April 2013, Idenix asserted that the commercialization of Sovaldi in Australia infringes its Australian patent corresponding to the ‘600 patent. In March 2016, the Australian court revoked Idenix’s Australian patent. Idenix has appealed this decision. The appeal hearing was held in November 2016 and we are awaiting the decision.
In March 2014, the European Patent Office (EPO) granted Idenix European Patent No. 1 523 489 (the ‘489 patent), which corresponds to the ‘600 patent. The same day that the ‘489 patent was granted, we filed an opposition with the EPO seeking to revoke the ‘489 patent. An opposition hearing was held in February 2016, and the EPO ruled in our favor and revoked the ‘489 patent. Idenix has appealed. In March 2014, Idenix also initiated infringement proceedings against us in the United Kingdom (UK), Germany and France alleging that the commercialization of Sovaldi would infringe the UK, German and French counterparts of the ‘489 patent. A trial was held in the UK in October 2014. In December 2014, the High Court of Justice of England and Wales (UK Court) invalidated all challenged claims of the ‘489 patent on multiple grounds. Idenix appealed. In November 2016, the appeals court affirmed the UK Court’s decision invalidating Idenix’s patent, and in April 2017, the UK Supreme Court refused Idenix’s application for permission to appeal. In March 2015, the German court in Düsseldorf determined that the Idenix patent was highly likely to be invalid and stayed the infringement proceedings pending the outcome of the opposition hearing held by the EPO in February 2016. Idenix has not appealed this decision of the German court staying the proceedings. Upon Idenix’s request, the French proceedings have been stayed.
See also our risk factor “We may be required to pay significant damages to Merck as a result of a jury’s finding that we willfully infringed a patent owned by Merck’s Idenix subsidiary.”
Idenix was acquired by Merck in August 2014, and Merck continues to pursue the Idenix claims described herein.
Litigation with Merck
In August 2013, Merck contacted us requesting that we pay royalties on the sales of sofosbuvir and obtain a license to U.S. Patent No. 7,105,499 (the ‘499 patent) and U.S. Patent No. 8,481,712 (the ‘712 patent), which it co-owns with Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The ‘499 and ‘712 patents cover compounds which do not include, but may relate to, sofosbuvir. We filed a lawsuit in August 2013 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California seeking a declaratory judgment that the Merck patents are invalid and not infringed. During patent prosecution, Merck amended its patent application in an attempt to cover compounds related to sofosbuvir. Initially, in March 2016, a jury determined that we had not established that Merck’s patents are invalid for lack of written description or lack of enablement and awarded Merck $200 million in damages. However, in June 2016, the court
ruled in our favor on our defense of unclean hands and determined that Merck may not recover any damages from us for the ‘499 and ‘712 patents. The judge has determined that Merck is required to pay our attorney’s fees due to the exceptional nature of this case. In July 2017, the court issued a decision setting the amount of attorney fees awarded to Gilead.
Merck has filed notices of appeal to the CAFC regarding the court’s decision on our defense of unclean hands and its award of attorney’s fees. We appealed the issue relating to the invalidity of Merck’s patent. If the decision on our defense of unclean hands is reversed on appeal and Merck’s patent is upheld, we may be required to pay damages and a royalty on sales of sofosbuvir-containing products following the appeal. In that event, the judge has indicated that she will determine the amount of the royalty, if necessary, at the conclusion of any appeal in this case.
Litigation with the University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota (the University) has obtained Patent No. 8,815,830 (‘830 patent), which purports to broadly cover nucleosides with antiviral and anticancer activity. In August 2016, the University filed a lawsuit against us in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, alleging that the commercialization of sofosbuvir-containing products infringes the ‘830 patent. We believe that the ‘830 patent is invalid and will not be infringed by the continued commercialization of sofosbuvir. In October 2017, the court granted our motion to transfer the case to California. We have also filed four petitions for
inter partes
review in the USPTO alleging that all asserted claims are invalid for anticipation and obviousness.
Petitions for Inter Partes Review filed by Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge
In October 2017, we received notice that Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK) submitted multiple petitions requesting
inter partes
review to the PTAB alleging that certain patents associated with sofosbuvir are invalid as either not novel or obvious. We strongly believe I-MAK’s petitions are without merit and that sofosbuvir, the only approved HCV drug of its kind, is both novel and not obvious. Accordingly, we will defend against these allegations. If the PTAB decides to initiate one or more
inter partes
reviews, a decision would be expected about a year later. Either party can appeal the PTAB’s decision to the CAFC.
European Patent Claims
In February 2015, several parties filed oppositions in the EPO requesting revocation of our granted European patent covering sofosbuvir that expires in 2028. In October 2016, the EPO upheld the validity of certain claims of our sofosbuvir patent. We anticipate that the challengers will appeal this decision in favor of our patent. We have appealed this decision, seeking to restore all of the original claims, and several of the original opposing parties have also appealed, requesting full revocation. The appeal process may take several years.
In April 2017, several parties filed oppositions in the EPO requesting revocation of our granted European patent relating to sofosbuvir that expires in 2024.
While we are confident in the strength of our patents, we cannot predict the ultimate outcome of these actions. If we are unsuccessful in defending these oppositions, some or all of our patent claims may be narrowed or revoked and the patent protection for sofosbuvir in Europe could be substantially shortened or eliminated entirely. If our patents are revoked, and no other European patents are granted covering these compounds, our exclusivity may be based entirely on regulatory exclusivity granted by EMA. Sovaldi has been granted regulatory exclusivity that will prevent generic sofosbuvir from entering the European Union for 10 years following approval of Sovaldi, or January 2024. If we lose patent protection for sofosbuvir prior to 2028, our revenues and results of operations could be negatively impacted for the years including and succeeding the year in which such exclusivity is lost, which may cause our stock price to decline.
If any party is successful in establishing exclusive rights to axi-cel, our anticipated revenues and earnings from the sale of that product could be adversely affected.
In October 2017, we acquired Kite, which is now our wholly-owned subsidiary. Through the acquisition, we acquired axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel), a CAR T therapy. In October 2017, we received approval from FDA for axi-cel, now known commercially as Yescarta.
We own patents and patent applications that claim axi-cel chimeric DNA segments. Third parties may have, or may obtain rights to, patents that allegedly could be used to prevent or attempt to prevent us from commercializing axi-cel or to require us to obtain a license in order to commercialize axi-cel. For example, we are aware that Juno has exclusively licensed Patent No. 7,446,190 (the ‘190 patent) which was issued to Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In September 2017, Juno and Sloan Kettering Cancer Center filed a lawsuit against Kite in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleging that the commercialization of axi-cel infringes the ‘190 patent.
In August 2015, Kite filed a petition for
inter partes
review in the USPTO alleging that the asserted claims of the ‘190 patent are invalid as obvious. In December 2016, the PTAB determined that the claims of the ‘190 patent are not invalid due to obviousness. In February 2017, Kite filed a Notice of Appeal to the CAFC. That appeal is currently pending.
We cannot predict the ultimate outcome of intellectual property claims related to axi-cel. If Juno’s patent is upheld as valid and Juno successfully proves infringement of that patent by axi-cel, we could be prevented from selling Yescarta unless we were able to obtain a license to this patent. Such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.
Manufacturing problems, including at our third-party manufacturers and corporate partners, could cause inventory shortages and delay product shipments and regulatory approvals, which may adversely affect our results of operations.
In order to generate revenue from our products, we must be able to produce sufficient quantities of our products to satisfy demand. Many of our products are the result of complex manufacturing processes. The manufacturing process for pharmaceutical products is also highly regulated and regulators may shut down manufacturing facilities that they believe do not comply with regulations.
Our products are either manufactured at our own facilities or by third-party manufacturers or corporate partners. We depend on third parties to perform manufacturing activities effectively and on a timely basis for the majority of our solid dose products. In addition, Roche, either by itself or through third parties, is responsible for manufacturing Tamiflu. We, our third-party manufacturers and our corporate partners are subject to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), which are extensive regulations governing manufacturing processes, stability testing, record keeping and quality standards as defined by FDA and EMA. Similar regulations are in effect in other countries.
Our third-party manufacturers and corporate partners are independent entities who are subject to their own unique operational and financial risks which are out of our control. If we or any of these third-party manufacturers or corporate partners fail to perform as required, this could impair our ability to deliver our products on a timely basis or receive royalties or cause delays in our clinical trials and applications for regulatory approval. Further, we may have to write-off the costs of manufacturing any batch that fails to pass quality inspection or meet regulatory approval. In addition, we, our third-party manufacturers and our corporate partners may only be able to produce some of our products at one or a limited number of facilities and, therefore, have limited manufacturing capacity for certain products. To the extent these risks materialize and affect their performance obligations to us, our financial results may be adversely affected.
Our manufacturing operations are subject to routine inspections by regulatory agencies. If we are unable to remedy any deficiencies cited by FDA in these inspections, our currently marketed products and the timing of regulatory approval of products in development could be adversely affected. Further, there is risk that regulatory agencies in other countries where marketing applications are pending will undertake similar additional reviews or apply a heightened standard of review, which could delay the regulatory approvals for products in those countries. If approval of any of our product candidates were delayed or if production of our marketed products was interrupted, our anticipated revenues and our stock price would be adversely affected.
We have limited experience managing the T cell engineering process, and our processes may be more difficult or more expensive than the approaches taken by our competitors. We cannot be sure that the manufacturing processes employed by us will result in engineered T cells that will be safe and effective. In addition, we may encounter difficulties in production, particularly in scaling up and validating initial production to meet patient demand and ensuring the absence of contamination. These problems could include difficulties with production costs and yields, quality control, including stability of the product, quality assurance testing, operator error, shortages of qualified personnel, as well as compliance with strictly enforced federal, state and foreign regulations. Further, if contaminants are discovered in our supply of Yescarta or in the manufacturing facilities, such manufacturing facilities may need to be closed for an extended period of time to investigate and remedy the contamination, which could require substantial resources and management attention. We cannot assure you that any stability or other issues relating to the manufacture of Yescarta will not occur in the future or that any such issues may be remedied on a timely basis or at all. In addition, we may fail to manage the logistics of collecting and shipping patient material to the manufacturing site and shipping Yescarta back to the patient. Logistical and shipment delays and problems caused by us, our vendors or other factors not in our control, such as weather and natural disasters, could prevent or delay the delivery of our products and product candidates to patients. Additionally, we are required to maintain a complex chain of identity and custody with respect to patient material as such material moves to the manufacturing facilities, through the manufacturing process, and back to the patient. Failure to maintain chain of identity and custody could result in patient death, loss of product or regulatory action, which could have an adverse effect on us, our reputation and our stock price.
We may not be able to obtain materials or supplies necessary to conduct clinical trials or to manufacture and sell our products, which would limit our ability to generate revenues.
We need access to certain supplies and products to conduct our clinical trials and to manufacture our products. If we are unable to purchase sufficient quantities of these materials or find suitable alternate materials in a timely manner, our development efforts for our product candidates may be delayed or our ability to manufacture our products would be limited, which would limit our ability to generate revenues.
Suppliers of key components and materials must be named in the NDA or MAA filed with FDA, EMA or other regulatory authority for any product candidate for which we are seeking marketing approval, and significant delays can occur if the qualification
of a new supplier is required. Even after a manufacturer is qualified by the regulatory authority, the manufacturer must continue to expend time, money and effort in the area of production and quality control to ensure full compliance with GMP. Manufacturers are subject to regular, periodic inspections by the regulatory authorities following initial approval. If, as a result of these inspections, a regulatory authority determines that the equipment, facilities, laboratories or processes do not comply with applicable regulations and conditions of product approval, the regulatory authority may suspend the manufacturing operations. If the manufacturing operations of any of the single suppliers for our products are suspended, we may be unable to generate sufficient quantities of commercial or clinical supplies of product to meet market demand, which would in turn decrease our revenues and harm our business. In addition, if delivery of material from our suppliers were interrupted for any reason, we may be unable to ship certain of our products for commercial supply or to supply our products in development for clinical trials. In addition, some of our products and the materials that we utilize in our operations are made at only one facility. For example, we manufacture certain drug product intermediates utilized in AmBisome exclusively at our facilities in San Dimas, California. In the event of a disaster, including an earthquake, equipment failure or other difficulty, we may be unable to replace this manufacturing capacity in a timely manner and may be unable to manufacture AmBisome to meet market needs.
In addition, we depend on a single supplier for amphotericin B, the active pharmaceutical ingredient of AmBisome, and high-quality cholesterol in the manufacture of AmBisome. We also rely on a single source for the active pharmaceutical ingredients found in Letairis and Cayston. Astellas US LLC, which markets Lexiscan in the United States, is responsible for the commercial manufacture and supply of product in the United States and is dependent on a single supplier for the active pharmaceutical ingredient of Lexiscan. Problems with any of the single suppliers we depend on may negatively impact our development and commercialization efforts.
A significant portion of the raw materials and intermediates used to manufacture our antiviral products are supplied by third-party manufacturers and corporate partners outside of the United States. As a result, any political or economic factors in a specific country or region, including any changes in or interpretations of trade regulations, compliance requirements or tax legislation, that would limit or prevent third parties outside of the United States from supplying these materials would adversely affect our ability to manufacture and supply our antiviral products to meet market needs and have a material and adverse effect on our operating results.
If we were to encounter any of these difficulties, our ability to provide our products and product candidates to patients would be jeopardized.
Litigation with generic manufacturers has increased our expenses which may continue to reduce our earnings. If we are unsuccessful in all or some of these lawsuits, some or all of our claims in the patents may be narrowed or invalidated and generic versions of our products could be launched prior to our patent expiry.
As part of the approval process for some of our products, FDA granted us a New Chemical Entity (NCE) exclusivity period during which other manufacturers’ applications for approval of generic versions of our product will not be approved. Generic manufacturers may challenge the patents protecting products that have been granted NCE exclusivity one year prior to the end of the NCE exclusivity period. Generic manufacturers have sought and may continue to seek FDA approval for a similar or identical drug through an ANDA, the application form typically used by manufacturers seeking approval of a generic drug. To seek approval for a generic version of a product having NCE status, a generic manufacturer may submit its ANDA to FDA four years after the branded product’s approval. For sofosbuvir, this date falls in December 2017. Consequently, it is possible that one or more generic manufacturers may file an ANDA for sofosbuvir in December 2017.
Current legal proceedings of significance with some of our generic manufacturers include:
Apotex
In June 2014, we received notice that Apotex Inc. (Apotex) submitted an abbreviated new drug submission (ANDS) to Health Canada requesting permission to manufacture and market a generic version of Truvada and a separate ANDS requesting permission to manufacture and market a generic version of Viread. In the notice, Apotex alleges that three of the patents associated with Truvada and two of the patents associated with Viread are invalid, unenforceable and/or will not be infringed by Apotex’s manufacture, use or sale of a generic version of Truvada or Viread. In August 2014, we filed lawsuits against Apotex in the Federal Court of Canada seeking orders of prohibition against approval of these ANDS. A hearing in those cases was held in April 2016. In July 2016, the court issued an order prohibiting Health Canada from approving Apotex’s generic version of our Viread product until the expiry of our patents in July 2017. The court declined to prohibit approval of Apotex’s generic version of our Truvada product. The court’s decision did not rule on the validity of the patents. The launch of Apotex’s generic version of our Truvada product would be at risk of infringement of our patents, including patents that we were unable to assert in the present lawsuit, and liability for our damages. Apotex has appealed the court’s decision.
Mylan
In February 2016, we received notice that Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Mylan) submitted an ANDA to FDA requesting permission to manufacture and market a generic version of Tybost (cobicistat). In the notice, Mylan alleges that the patent covering cobicistat is invalid as obvious and that Mylan’s generic product cannot infringe an invalid claim. In March 2016, we filed lawsuits against Mylan in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware and U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia. The trial in Delaware is scheduled for January 2018, and the parties have agreed to dismiss the action in West Virginia. The patent in suit that covers Tybost is also listed in the Orange Book for Stribild and Genvoya.
Amneal
In May 2017, we received notice that Amneal Pharmaceuticals LLC (Amneal) submitted an ANDA to FDA requesting permission to manufacture and market a generic version of Truvada at low dosage strengths. In the notice, Amneal alleges that two patents associated with emtricitabine are invalid, unenforceable and/or will not be infringed by Amneal’s manufacture, use or sale of generic versions of Truvada at low dosage strengths. In July 2017, we filed a lawsuit against Amneal in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware for infringement of our patents.
Macleods
In June 2017, we received notice that Macleods Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Macleods) submitted ANDAs to FDA requesting permission to manufacture and market generic versions of Truvada and Atripla. In the notices, Macleods alleges that two patents associated with emtricitabine, three patents associated with the emtricitabine and TDF fixed dose combination and three patents associated with the emtricitabine, TDF and efavirenz fixed dose combination are invalid, unenforceable and/or will not be infringed by Macleod’s manufacture, use or sale of generic versions of Truvada or Atripla. In July 2017, we filed a lawsuit against Macleods in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware for infringement of these patents.
We cannot predict the ultimate outcome of the foregoing actions and other litigation with generic manufacturers, and we may spend significant resources enforcing and defending these patents. If we are unsuccessful in these lawsuits, some or all of our original claims in the patents may be narrowed or invalidated and the patent protection for Truvada, Viread and Letairis in the United States and Atripla, Truvada and Viread in Canada could be substantially shortened. Further, if all of the patents covering one or more products are invalidated, FDA or Health Canada could approve the requests to manufacture a generic version of such products in the United States or Canada, respectively, prior to the expiration date of those patents. The sale of generic versions of these products earlier than their patent expiration would have a significant negative effect on our revenues and results of operations.
We face credit risks from our emerging market and Southern European customers that may adversely affect our results of operations.
We have exposure to customer credit risks in emerging markets and Southern Europe. Southern European product sales to government-owned or supported customers in Southern Europe, specifically Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece have historically been subject to significant payment delays due to government funding and reimbursement practices. This has resulted and may continue to result in days sales outstanding being significantly higher in these countries due to the average length of time that accounts receivable remain outstanding. As of
September 30, 2017
, our accounts receivable, net in Southern Europe, specifically Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, totaled approximately
$375 million
, of which
$121 million
were greater than 120 days past due, including
$59 million
greater than 365 days past due.
Historically, receivable balances with certain publicly-owned hospitals accumulate over a period of time and are then subsequently settled as lump sum payments. This pattern is also experienced by other pharmaceutical companies that sell directly to hospitals. If significant changes were to occur in the reimbursement practices of these European governments or if government funding becomes unavailable, we may not be able to collect on amounts due to us from these customers and our results of operations would be adversely affected.
Imports from countries where our products are available at lower prices and unapproved generic or counterfeit versions of our products could have a negative impact on our reputation and business.
Prices for our products are based on local market economics and competition and sometimes differ from country to country. Our sales in countries with relatively higher prices may be reduced if products can be imported into those or other countries from lower price markets. There have been cases in which other pharmaceutical products were sold at steeply discounted prices in the developing world and then re-exported to European countries where they could be re-sold at much higher prices. If this happens with our products, particularly Truvada and Viread, which we have agreed to make available at substantially reduced prices to more than 130 countries participating in our Gilead Access Program, or Atripla and Complera, which Merck and Janssen, respectively, distributes at substantially reduced prices to HIV-infected patients in developing countries, our revenues would be adversely affected. In addition, we have entered into voluntary licensing agreements with generic drug companies in India, South
Africa and China, as well as a licensing agreement with the Medicines Patent Pool, a United Nations-backed public health organization, which allows generic drug companies to manufacture generic versions of HIV products incorporating our licensed compounds, TDF, TAF, emtricitabine, cobicistat, elvitegravir and bictegravir (upon regulatory approval in the United States), for distribution in low- and middle-income countries. We have also entered into licensing agreements with India-based generic manufacturers to produce and distribute generic versions of our HCV products to developing countries. If generic versions of our HIV and HCV products under these licenses are then re-exported to the United States, Europe or other markets outside of these developing world countries, our revenues would be adversely affected. We also make our HCV products available in low- and middle-income countries at significantly discounted prices. If the discounted HCV products are re-exported from these low- and middle-income countries into the United States or other higher price markets, our revenues could be adversely affected.
In addition, purchases of our products in countries where our selling prices are relatively low for resale in countries in which our selling prices are relatively high may adversely impact our revenues and gross margin and may cause our sales to fluctuate from quarter to quarter. For example, in the European Union, we are required to permit products purchased in one country to be sold in another country. Purchases of our products in countries where our selling prices are relatively low for resale in countries in which our selling prices are relatively high can affect the inventory level held by our wholesalers and can cause the relative sales levels in the various countries to fluctuate from quarter to quarter and not reflect the actual consumer demand in any given quarter. These quarterly fluctuations may impact our earnings, which could adversely affect our stock price and harm our business.
We are also aware of the existence of various “Buyers Clubs” around the world that promote the personal importation of generic versions of our HCV products that have not been approved for use in the countries into which they are imported. As a result, patients may be at risk of taking unapproved medications which may not be what they purport to be, may not have the potency they claim to have or may contain harmful substances. To the extent patients take unapproved generic versions of one or more of our medications and are injured or not cured by these products, our brand or the commercial or scientific reputation of our HCV products could be harmed.
Further, third parties may illegally distribute and sell counterfeit versions of our products, which do not meet the rigorous quality standards of our manufacturing and supply chain. For example, in the first quarter of 2017, bottles of counterfeit drugs labeled under the Harvoni brand name were discovered at a retail pharmacy chain and pharmaceutical wholesalers in Japan. We investigated this matter and accelerated planned changes to our product packaging to make counterfeiting more difficult. We cooperated and continue to cooperate with the Japanese health ministry. Also, in the third quarter of 2017, bottles of counterfeit drugs labeled under the Sovaldi brand name were discovered at a retail pharmacy chain and pharmaceutical wholesalers in Germany. We investigated this matter and determined that a number of wholesalers had obtained Sovaldi from an unapproved source. We cooperated and continue to cooperate with the German regulatory authorities. We actively take actions to discourage counterfeits of our products around the world, including working with local regulatory and legal authorities to enforce laws against counterfeit drugs. Counterfeit drugs pose a serious risk to patient health and safety. Our reputation and business could suffer as a result of counterfeit drugs sold under our brand name.
Expensive litigation and government investigations have increased our expenses which may continue to reduce our earnings.
We are involved in a number of litigation, investigation and other dispute-related matters that require us to expend substantial internal and financial resources. We expect these matters will continue to require a high level of internal and financial resources for the foreseeable future. These matters have reduced and will continue to reduce our earnings. Please see a description of our litigation, investigation and other dispute-related matters in Note
9
, Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. The outcome of such lawsuits or any other lawsuits that may be brought against us, the investigations or any other investigations that may be initiated, are inherently uncertain, and adverse developments or outcomes can result in significant expenses, monetary damages, penalties or injunctive relief against us that could significantly reduce our earnings and cash flows and harm our business.
In some countries, we may be required to grant compulsory licenses for our products or our patents may not be enforced.
In a number of developing countries, government officials and other interested groups have suggested that pharmaceutical companies should make drugs for HCV or HIV infection available at low cost. Alternatively, governments in those developing countries could require that we grant compulsory licenses to allow competitors to manufacture and sell their own versions of our products, thereby reducing our product sales. For example, there is growing attention on the availability of HCV therapies and some activists are advocating for the increased availability of HCV therapies through other means including compulsory licenses. The government of Malaysia has exercised Government Rights under Section 84 of the Malaysian Patents Act to practice the patented invention of sofosbuvir for a period of three years for use only in government hospitals and clinics. We are challenging the Malaysian government’s actions. In the past, certain offices of the government of Brazil have expressed concern over the affordability of our HIV products and declared that they were considering issuing compulsory licenses to permit the manufacture of otherwise patented products for HIV infection, including Viread. In addition, concerns over the cost and availability of Tamiflu related to a potential avian flu pandemic and H1N1 influenza generated international discussions over compulsory licensing of
our Tamiflu patents. For example, the Canadian government considered allowing Canadian manufacturers to manufacture and export the active ingredient in Tamiflu to eligible developing and least developed countries under Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime. Furthermore, Roche issued voluntary licenses to permit third-party manufacturing of Tamiflu. For example, Roche granted a sublicense to Shanghai Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., Ltd. for China and a sublicense to India’s Hetero Drugs Limited for India and certain developing countries. If compulsory licenses permit generic manufacturing to override our product patents for our HCV, HIV or other products, or if we are required to grant compulsory licenses for these products, it could reduce our earnings and cash flows and harm our business.
In addition, certain countries do not permit enforcement of our patents, or permit our patents to issue, and third-party manufacturers are able to sell generic versions of our products in those countries. For example, in July 2009, the Brazilian patent authority rejected our patent application for tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, the active pharmaceutical ingredient in Viread. This was the highest level of appeal available to us within the Brazilian patent authority. Because we do not currently have a patent in Brazil, the Brazilian government now purchases its supply of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate from generic manufacturers. In the first quarter of 2017, the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency rejected our patent applications related to sofosbuvir and our HCV products. We successfully appealed those decisions, and those applications are now under examination at the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office. Sales of generic versions of our products could significantly reduce our sales and adversely affect our results of operations, particularly if generic versions of our products are imported into territories where we have existing commercial sales.
We may face significant liability resulting from our products that may not be covered by insurance and such liability could materially reduce our earnings.
The testing, manufacturing, marketing and use of our commercial products, as well as product candidates in development, involve substantial risk of product liability claims. These claims may be made directly by consumers, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies or others. We may not have sufficient insurance coverage for product liabilities that may arise. In addition, the cost to defend lawsuits or pay damages for product liability claims may exceed our insurance coverage. If we do not maintain adequate coverage or if claims exceed our coverage, our financial condition will be adversely affected. In addition, negative publicity associated with any claims, regardless of their merit, may decrease the future demand for our products and impair our financial condition.
Business disruptions from natural or man-made disasters may harm our future revenues.
Our worldwide operations could be subject to business interruptions stemming from natural or man-made disasters for which we may be uninsured or inadequately insured. Our corporate headquarters in Foster City and our Santa Monica location, which together house a majority of our R&D activities, and our San Dimas, La Verne, Oceanside and El Segundo manufacturing facilities are located in California, a seismically active region. As we may not carry adequate earthquake insurance and significant recovery time could be required to resume operations, our financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected in the event of a major earthquake. In addition, our Yescarta business is also reliant on our ability to manage the logistics of collecting and shipping patient material to our manufacturing facilities and shipping Yescarta back to the patient. Any logistical and shipment delays caused by such natural or man-made disasters could prevent or delay the delivery of our products to patients and could harm our Yescarta business.
We are dependent on information technology systems, infrastructure and data.
We are dependent upon information technology systems, infrastructure and data, including our new Kite Konnect platform. The multitude and complexity of our computer systems make them inherently vulnerable to service interruption or destruction, malicious intrusion and random attack. Likewise, data privacy or security breaches by employees or others may pose a risk that sensitive data, including our intellectual property, trade secrets or personal information of our employees, patients, customers or other business partners may be exposed to unauthorized persons or to the public. Cyberattacks
are increasing in their frequency, sophistication and intensity. Cyberattacks could include the deployment of harmful malware, denial-of-service, social engineering and other means to affect service reliability and threaten data confidentiality, integrity and availability. Our business and technology partners face similar risks and any security breach of their systems could adversely affect our security posture. While we have invested, and continue to invest, in the protection of our data and information technology infrastructure, there can be no assurance that our efforts, or the efforts of our partners and vendors, will prevent service interruptions, or identify breaches in our systems, that could adversely affect our business and operations and/or result in the loss of critical or sensitive information, which could result in financial, legal, business or reputational harm to us. In addition, our liability insurance may not be sufficient in type or amount to cover us against claims related to security breaches, cyberattacks and other related breaches.
Changes in our effective income tax rate could reduce our earnings.
We are subject to income taxes in the United States and various foreign jurisdictions including Ireland. Due to economic and political conditions, various countries are actively considering and have made changes to existing tax laws. We cannot predict the form or timing of potential legislative changes that could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations. In addition, significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes. Various factors may have favorable or unfavorable effects on our income tax rate including, but not limited to, changes in forecasted demand for our HCV products, our portion of the non-tax deductible annual BPD fee, the accounting for stock options and other share-based awards, mergers and acquisitions, the ability to manufacture product in our Cork, Ireland facility, the amortization of certain acquisition related intangibles for which we receive no tax benefit, future levels of R&D spending, changes in the mix of earnings in the various tax jurisdictions in which we operate, changes in overall levels of pre-tax earnings and resolution of federal, state and foreign income tax audits. The impact on our income tax provision resulting from the above mentioned factors may be significant and could have a negative impact on our consolidated results of operations.
Our income tax returns are subject to audit by federal, state and foreign tax authorities. We are currently under examination by the Internal Revenue Service for the tax years from 2010 - 2014 and by various state and foreign jurisdictions. There are differing interpretations of tax laws and regulations and, as a result, significant disputes may arise with these tax authorities involving issues of the timing and amount of deductions and allocations of income among various tax jurisdictions. Resolution of one or more of these exposures in any reporting period could have a material impact on the results of operations for that period.
If we fail to attract and retain highly qualified personnel, we may be unable to successfully develop new product candidates, conduct our clinical trials and commercialize our product candidates.
Our future success will depend in large part on our continued ability to attract and retain highly qualified scientific, technical and management personnel, as well as personnel with expertise in clinical testing, governmental regulation and commercialization. We face competition for personnel from other companies, universities, public and private research institutions, government entities and other organizations. Competition for qualified personnel in the biopharmaceutical field is intense, and there is a limited pool of qualified potential employees to recruit. We may not be able to attract and retain quality personnel on acceptable terms. If we are unsuccessful in our recruitment and retention efforts, our business may be harmed.
There can be no assurance that we will pay dividends or continue to repurchase stock.
Our Board of Directors authorized a dividend program under which we intend to pay quarterly dividends of $0.52 per share, subject to quarterly declarations by our Board of Directors. Our Board of Directors also approved the repurchase of up to $12.0 billion of our common stock, of which
$8.2 billion
is available for repurchase as of
September 30, 2017
. Any future declarations, amount and timing of any dividends and/or the amount and timing of such stock repurchases are subject to capital availability and determinations by our Board of Directors that cash dividends and/or stock repurchases are in the best interest of our stockholders and are in compliance with all respective laws and our agreements applicable to the declaration and payment of cash dividends and the repurchase of stock. Our ability to pay dividends and/or repurchase stock will depend upon, among other factors, our cash balances and potential future capital requirements for strategic transactions, including acquisitions, debt service requirements, results of operations, financial condition and other factors beyond our control that our Board of Directors may deem relevant. A reduction in or elimination of our dividend payments, our dividend program and/or stock repurchases could have a negative effect on our stock price.