As
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 7,
2021
Registration
No. 333-______________
UNITED
STATES
SECURITIES
AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington,
D.C. 20549
FORM
S- 8
REGISTRATION
STATEMENT UNDER THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933
Anixa
Biosciences, Inc.
(Exact
name of registrant as specified in charter)
Delaware |
|
11-2622630 |
(State
or Other Jurisdiction of
Incorporation or Organization) |
|
(IRS
Employer
Identification
No.)
|
3150
Almaden Expressway, Suite 250
San
Jose, CA
|
|
95118 |
(Address
of Principal Executive Offices) |
|
(Zip
Code) |
2018
Share Incentive Plan
Employee
Stock Purchase Plan
2010
Share Incentive Plan
Non-Plan
Time Based Stock Option Agreements
Non-Plan
Performance Based Stock Option Agreements
|
(Full
Title of the Plan) |
Dr.
Amit Kumar
President
and Chief Executive Officer
Anixa
Biosciences, Inc.
3150
Almaden Expressway, Suite 250
San Jose, California 95118
(Name
and Address of Agent For Service)
(408) 708-9808
Telephone
Number, Including Area Code of Agent For Service.
Copy
to:
Barry
I. Grossman, Esq.
David
Selengut, Esq.
Matthew
Bernstein, Esq.
Ellenoff
Grossman & Schole LLP
1345
Avenue of the Americas, 11th Floor
New
York, New York 10105
Telephone:
(212) 370-1300
Facsimile:
(212) 370-7889
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer,
an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting
company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of
“large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting
company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the
Exchange Act. (Check one):
|
Large
accelerated filer |
[ ] |
|
Accelerated
filer |
[ ] |
|
Non-accelerated
filer |
[ ] |
|
Smaller
reporting company |
[X] |
|
(Do
not check if a smaller reporting company) |
|
Emerging
growth company |
[ ] |
If an
emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant
has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying
with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided
pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act.
[ ]
CALCULATION
OF REGISTRATION FEE
Title of securities to be registered |
|
Amount to be registered (1) |
|
|
Proposed
maximum
offering
price
per
share (2)
|
|
|
Proposed
maximum aggregate
offering
price (2)
|
|
|
Amount of registration fee |
|
Common Stock, $0.01 par
value per share, issuable pursuant to the 2018 Share Incentive
Plan |
|
|
3,564,000 |
(3) |
|
$ |
3.20 |
|
|
$ |
11,404,800.00 |
|
|
$ |
1,244.26 |
|
Common Stock, $0.01 par value per
share, issuable pursuant to the 2010 Share Incentive Plan |
|
|
508,606 |
(3) |
|
$ |
3.20 |
|
|
$ |
1,627,539.20 |
|
|
$ |
177.56 |
|
Common Stock, $0.01 par value per
share, issued or issuable pursuant to (i) the 2018 Share Incentive
Plan, (ii) the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (iii) the 2010 Share
Incentive Plan, (iv) Non-Plan Time Based Stock Option Agreements
and (v) Non-Plan Performance Based Stock Option Agreements |
|
|
10,804,598 |
|
|
|
Not
applicable |
(4) |
|
|
Not
applicable |
(4) |
|
|
Not
applicable |
(4) |
Total |
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
$ |
13,032,339.20 |
|
|
$ |
1,421.83 |
|
(1)
Pursuant to Rule 416 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended
(the “Securities Act”), this Registration Statement on Form S-8
(this “Registration Statement”) filed by Anixa Biosciences, Inc., a
Delaware corporation (the “Registrant”, “Company”, “us”, “our” or
“we”), shall also cover additional shares of common stock which may
become issuable by reason of any stock split, stock dividend,
recapitalization or other similar transactions effected without
consideration which results in an increase in the number of the
Registrant’s shares of outstanding common stock. Also pursuant to
Rule 416 under the Securities Act, this Registration Statement
covers an indeterminate amount of interests to be offered or sold
pursuant to the 2018 Share Incentive Plan (the “2018 Plan”) and
2010 Share Incentive Plan, as amended (the “2010 Plan”). In
addition, this Registration Statement covers the resale by certain
Selling Stockholders named in the prospectus included in and filed
with this Form S-8 of certain of the shares of Registrant’s common
stock subject to this Registration Statement, for which no
additional registration fee is required pursuant to Rule
457(h)(3).
(2)
Estimated pursuant to Rule 457(c) under the Securities Act solely
for the purposes of calculating the amount of the registration fee
based on the average of the high and low prices reported in the
consolidated reporting system within 5 business days prior to the
date of filing the Registration Statement.
(3)
Shares of common stock represents the number of additional shares
available for issuance under the 2018 Plan and the 2010 Plan
pursuant to the evergreen provisions of such plans for the fiscal
years 2019, 2020 and 2021.
(4)
Pursuant to Rule 429 under the Securities Act, this Registration
Statement is deemed to be a post-effective amendment to (A) the
Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-8 (File No.
333-223040) filed on February 14, 2018, for which the Registrant
paid a registration fee of $424.63 to register 1,205,199 shares of
common stock for issuance under the 2010 Plan, (B) the Registrant’s
Registration Statement on Form S-8 (File No. 333-202473) filed on
March 3, 2015, for which the Registrant paid a registration fee of
$411.04 to register 1,489,399 shares of common stock for issuance
under the 2010 Plan and Time Based Stock Option Agreements with
Kent B. Williams, Lewis H. Titterton, Jr. and Bruce F. Johnson; (C)
the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-8 (File No.
333-184410) filed on October 12, 2012, for which the Registrant
paid a registration fee of $1,942.34 to register 1,780,000 shares
of common stock for issuance under the 2010 Plan, Time Based Stock
Option Agreements with Robert A. Berman, John Roop, Dr. Amit Kumar,
Lewis H. Titterton Jr. and Kent B. Williams and Performance Based
Stock Option Agreements with Robert A. Berman, John Roop and Dr.
Amit Kumar; (D) the Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-8
(File No. 333-175392) filed on July 7, 2011, for which the
Registrant paid a registration fee of $501.55 to register 480,000
shares of common stock for issuance under the 2010 Plan; (E) the
Registrant’s Registration Statement on Form S-8 (File No.
333-168223) filed on July 20, 2010, for which the Registrant paid a
registration fee of $283.42 to register 600,000 shares of common
stock for issuance under the 2010 Plan; and (F) the Registrant’s
Registration Statement on Form S-8 (File No. 333-227653) filed on
October 1, 2018, for which the Registrant paid a registration fee
of $3,009.70 to register 5,250,000 shares of common stock for
issuance under the 2018 Share Incentive Plan and the Employee Stock
Purchase Plan.
Explanatory
Note
This
Registration Statement is being filed by the Registrant relating to
4,072,606 shares of our common stock which may be offered and sold
pursuant to our 2018 Plan and 2010 Plan in connection with
increases in the number of shares available for issuance under each
of the plans in 2019, 2020 and 2021 pursuant to the evergreen
provisions included therein.
This
Registration Statement includes, pursuant to General Instruction E
to Form S-8 and Rule 429 of the Securities Act, a re-offer
prospectus in Part I (the “Reoffer Prospectus”). The Reoffer
Prospectus may be utilized for reofferings and resales by certain
executive officers and directors listed in the Reoffer Prospectus
who may be deemed “affiliates” of the Company on a continuous or a
delayed basis in the future of up to 10,510,713 shares of Common
Stock. These shares constitute “control securities” or “restricted
securities” which have been issued prior to or issuable after the
filing of this Registration Statement. The Reoffer Prospectus does
not contain all of the information included in the Registration
Statement, certain items of which are contained in schedules and
exhibits to the Registration Statement, as permitted by the rules
and regulations of the SEC. Statements contained in this Reoffer
Prospectus as to the contents of any agreement, instrument or other
document referred to are not necessarily complete. With respect to
each such agreement, instrument or other document filed as an
exhibit to the Registration Statement, we refer you to the exhibit
for a more complete description of the matter involved, and each
such statement shall be deemed qualified in its entirety by this
reference.
PART
I
INFORMATION
REQUIRED IN THE SECTION 10(a) PROSPECTUS
Anixa
Biosciences, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the “Company”, “us”,
“our” or “we”), has prepared this Registration Statement on Form
S-8 (the “Registration Statement”) in accordance with the
requirements of Form S-8 under the Securities Act of 1933, as
amended (the “Securities Act”), to register 4,072,606 shares of our
common stock, par value $0.01 per share (the “Common Stock”), which
may be offered and sold pursuant to the 2018 Share Incentive Plan
(the “2018 Plan”) and 2010 Share Incentive Plan, as amended (the
“2010 Plan”), in connection with increases in the number of shares
available for issuance under each of the plans in 2019, 2020 and
2021 pursuant to the evergreen provisions included therein and to
file a prospectus, prepared in accordance with the requirements of
Part I of Form S-3 and, pursuant to General Instruction C of Form
S-8, to be used for reoffers and resales of Common Stock acquired
by persons to be named therein upon the exercise of options and
restricted stock awards granted under the 2018 Plan, the 2010 Plan,
certain Non-Plan Time Based Stock Option Agreements and certain
Non-Plan Performance Based Stock Option Agreements and the purchase
of shares pursuant to our Employee Stock Purchase Plan (the
“ESPP”).
Pursuant
to the Note to Part I on Form S-8, the documents containing the
information specified in Part I of this Registration Statement will
be sent or given to plan participants (including to all employees
eligible to participate in the ESPP) as specified by Rule 428(b)(1)
of the Securities Act. Such documents are not required to be filed,
and are not filed, with the United States Securities and Exchange
Commission either as part of this Registration Statement or as
prospectuses or prospectus supplements pursuant to Rule 424 of the
Securities Act. These documents and the documents incorporated by
reference in this Registration Statement pursuant to Item 3 of Part
II of this Form S-8, taken together, constitute a prospectus that
meets the requirements of Section 10(a) of the Securities
Act.
REOFFER
PROSPECTUS
Anixa
Biosciences, Inc.
Up
to 10,510,713 shares of Common Stock under the 2018 Share Incentive
Plan, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, 2010 Share Incentive Plan, as
amended, certain Non-Plan Time Based Stock Option Agreements and
certain Non-Plan Performance Based Stock Option
Agreements
This
prospectus relates to the resale of up to 10,510,713 shares (the
“Shares”) of common stock, par value $0.01 per share (the “Common
Stock”), of Anixa Biosciences, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the
“Company”, “us”, “our” or “we”), which may be offered and sold from
time to time by certain stockholders of the Company (the “Selling
Stockholders”) who have acquired or will acquire such Shares in
connection with the exercise of stock options granted, and with
stock or other awards made, and with the purchase of stock under,
the Company’s 2018 Share Incentive Plan (the “2018 Plan”), the
Company’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan (the “ESPP”), the Company’s
2010 Share Incentive Plan, as amended (the “2010 Plan”), as well as
certain Non-Plan Time Based Stock Option Agreements between the
Company and certain Selling Stockholders (each a “Time Based Stock
Option Agreement”) and certain Non-Plan Performance Based Stock
Option Agreements between the Company and certain Selling
Stockholders ( each a “Performance Based Stock Option Agreement”
and together with each of the Time Based Option Agreements, the
“Option Agreements”). The 2018 Plan, ESPP, 2010 Plan and Option
Agreements are intended to provide incentives which will attract,
retain, and motivate highly competent persons such as officers,
employees, directors, and consultants to our Company by providing
them opportunities to acquire shares of our Common Stock.
Additionally, the 2018 Plan, ESPP, 2010 Plan and Option Agreements
are intended to assist in further aligning the interests of our
officers, employees, directors and consultants to those of the
Company’s other stockholders.
The
persons who are issued such Shares may include our directors,
officers, employees and consultants, certain of whom may be
considered our “affiliates”. Such persons may, but are not required
to, sell the Shares they acquire pursuant to this prospectus. If
any additional awards are issued to or shares are purchased by
affiliates under the 2018 Plan, ESPP or 2010 Plan, we will file
with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) an
update to this prospectus naming such person as a selling
shareholder and indicating the number of shares such person is
offering pursuant to the prospectus. See “Selling Stockholders” on
page 28 of this prospectus. Our Common Stock is listed on The
NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol “ANIX.” On January 6, 2021,
the closing price of the Common Stock on The NASDAQ Capital Market
was $3.36 per share.
We
will not receive any of the proceeds from sales of the Shares by
any of the Selling Stockholders. The Shares may be offered from
time to time by any or all of the Selling Stockholders through
ordinary brokerage transactions, in negotiated transactions or in
other transactions, at such prices as such Selling Stockholder may
determine, which may relate to market prices prevailing at the time
of sale or be a negotiated price. See “Plan of Distribution.” Sales
may be made through brokers or to dealers, who are expected to
receive customary commissions or discounts. We are paying all
expenses of registration incurred in connection with this offering
but the Selling Stockholders will pay all brokerage commissions and
other selling expenses.
The
Selling Stockholders and participating brokers and dealers may be
deemed to be “underwriters” within the meaning of the Securities
Act, in which event any profit on the sale of shares of those
Selling Stockholders and any commissions or discounts received by
those brokers or dealers may be deemed to be underwriting
compensation under the Securities Act.
SEE
“RISK FACTORS” BEGINNING ON PAGE 12 OF THIS PROSPECTUS FOR A
DISCUSSION OF CERTAIN RISKS AND OTHER FACTORS THAT YOU SHOULD
CONSIDER BEFORE PURCHASING OUR COMMON STOCK.
Neither
the Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or
disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is
truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a
criminal offense.
The
date of this prospectus is January 7, 2021.
You
should rely only on the information contained in or incorporated by
reference into this prospectus or any prospectus supplement. We
have not authorized any person to give any information or to make
any representations other than those contained or incorporated by
reference in this prospectus, and, if given or made, you must not
rely upon such information or representations as having been
authorized. This prospectus does not constitute an offer to sell or
the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities other than our
shares of common stock described in this prospectus or an offer to
sell or the solicitation to buy such securities in any
circumstances in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. You
should not assume that the information we have included in this
prospectus is accurate as of any date other than the date of this
prospectus or that any information we have incorporated by
reference is accurate as of any date other than the date of the
document incorporated by reference regardless of the time of
delivery of this prospectus or of any securities registered
hereunder
WHERE YOU CAN
FIND MORE INFORMATION
The
Company is subject to the information requirements of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”),
and, in accordance therewith, files reports, proxy statements and
other information with the Commission. We are required to file
electronic versions of those materials with the Commission through
the Commission’s EDGAR system. The Commission maintains an Internet
site at http://www.sec.gov, which contains reports, proxy and
information statements and other information regarding registrants
that file electronically with the Commission. You can read and copy
the reports, proxy statements and other information filed by the
Company with the Commission at such Internet site.
This
prospectus constitutes part of a Registration Statement on Form S-8
filed on the date hereof (herein, together with all amendments and
exhibits, referred to as the “Registration Statement”) by the
Company with the Commission under the Securities Act. This
prospectus does not contain all of the information set forth in the
Registration Statement, certain parts of which we have omitted, in
accordance with the rules and regulations of the Commission. You
should refer to the full Registration Statement for further
information with respect to the Company and our Common
Stock.
Statements
contained herein concerning the provisions of any contract,
agreement or other document are not necessarily complete, and in
each instance reference is made to the copy of such contract,
agreement or other document filed as an exhibit to the Registration
Statement or otherwise filed with the Commission. Each such
statement is qualified in its entirety by such reference. Copies of
the Registration Statement together with exhibits may be inspected
at the offices of the Commission as indicated above without charge
and copies thereof may be obtained therefrom upon payment of a
prescribed fee.
No
person is authorized to give any information or to make any
representations, other than those contained in this prospectus, in
connection with the offering described herein, and, if given or
made, such information or representations must not be relied upon
as having been authorized by the Company or any Selling
Stockholder. This prospectus does not constitute an offer to sell,
or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale
of these securities by any person in any jurisdiction in which it
is unlawful for such person to make such offer, solicitation or
sale. Neither the delivery of this prospectus nor any sale made
hereunder shall under any circumstances create an implication that
the information contained herein is correct as of any time
subsequent to the date hereto.
INCORPORATION OF CERTAIN DOCUMENTS BY
REFERENCE
We
are “incorporating by reference” in this prospectus certain
documents we file with the Commission, which means that we can
disclose important information to you by referring you to those
documents. The information in the documents incorporated by
reference is considered to be part of this prospectus. Statements
contained in documents that we file with the Commission and that
are incorporated by reference in this prospectus will automatically
update and supersede information contained in this prospectus,
including information in previously filed documents or reports that
have been incorporated by reference in this prospectus, to the
extent the new information differs from or is inconsistent with the
old information. We have filed or may file the following documents
with the Commission and they are incorporated herein by reference
as of their respective dates of filing.
|
(i) |
our
Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31,
2020; |
|
|
|
|
(ii) |
our
Current Report on Form 8-K dated December 1, 2020; |
|
|
|
|
(iii) |
our
Definitive Proxy Statements on Schedule 14A filed on July 2, 2020;
and |
|
|
|
|
(iv) |
the
description of our Common Stock contained in our Current Report on
Form 8-K filed on March 31, 2014 and as it may further be amended
from time to time. |
All
documents that we filed with the Commission pursuant to Sections
13(a), 13(c), 14, and 15(d) of the Exchange Act subsequent to the
date of this prospectus that indicates that all securities offered
under this prospectus have been sold, or that deregisters all
securities then remaining unsold, will be deemed to be incorporated
in this prospectus by reference and to be a part hereof from the
date of filing of such documents.
Any
statement contained in a document incorporated or deemed to be
incorporated by reference in this prospectus shall be deemed
modified, superseded or replaced for purposes of this prospectus to
the extent that a statement contained in this prospectus, or in any
subsequently filed document that also is deemed to be incorporated
by reference in this prospectus, modifies, supersedes or replaces
such statement. Any statement so modified, superseded or replaced
shall not be deemed, except as so modified, superseded or replaced,
to constitute a part of this prospectus. None of the information
that we disclose under Items 2.02 or 7.01 of any Current Report on
Form 8-K or any corresponding information, either furnished under
Item 9.01 or included as an exhibit therein, that we may from time
to time furnish to the Commission will be incorporated by reference
into, or otherwise included in, this prospectus, except as
otherwise expressly set forth in the relevant document. Subject to
the foregoing, all information appearing in this prospectus is
qualified in its entirety by the information appearing in the
documents incorporated by reference.
You
may request, orally or in writing, a copy of these documents, which
will be provided to you at no cost (other than exhibits, unless
such exhibits are specifically incorporated by reference), by
contacting Dr. Amit Kumar, c/o Anixa Biosciences, Inc., at 3150
Almaden Expressway, Suite 250, San Jose, CA 95118. Our telephone
number is (408) 708-9808. Information about us is also available at
our website at http://www.anixa.com. However, the information in
our website is not a part of this prospectus and is not
incorporated by reference.
NOTE ON FORWARD LOOKING
STATEMENTS
This
prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference herein may
contain forward looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical
fact contained in this prospectus and the documents incorporated by
reference herein, including statements regarding future events, our
future financial performance, business strategy, and plans and
objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking
statements. We have attempted to identify forward-looking
statements by terminology including “anticipates,” “believes,”
“can,” “continue,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,”
“may,” “plans,” “potential,” “predicts,” “should,” or “will” or the
negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Although
we do not make forward looking statements unless we believe we have
a reasonable basis for doing so, we cannot guarantee their
accuracy. These statements are only predictions and involve known
and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including the
risks outlined under “Risk Factors” or elsewhere in this prospectus
and the documents incorporated by reference herein, which may cause
our or our industry’s actual results, levels of activity,
performance or achievements expressed or implied by these
forward-looking statements. Moreover, we operate in a highly
regulated, very competitive, and rapidly changing environment. New
risks emerge from time to time and it is not possible for us to
predict all risk factors, nor can we address the impact of all
factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or
combination of factors, may cause our actual results to differ
materially from those contained in any forward-looking
statements.
We
have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current
expectations and projections about future events and financial
trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results
of operations, business strategy, short term and long term business
operations, and financial needs. These forward-looking statements
are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause our
actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the
forward looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute
to such differences include, but are not limited to, those
discussed in this prospectus, and in particular, the risks
discussed below and under the heading “Risk Factors” and those
discussed in other documents we file with the Commission. The
following discussion should be read in conjunction with the
consolidated financial statements for the fiscal years ended
October 31, 2020 and 2019 and notes incorporated by reference
herein. We undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release
the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements,
except as required by law. In light of these risks, uncertainties
and assumptions, the forward-looking events and circumstances
discussed in this prospectus may not occur and actual results could
differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied
in the forward-looking statement.
You
should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement,
each of which applies only as of the date of this prospectus.
Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or
revise publicly any of the forward-looking statements after the
date of this prospectus to conform our statements to actual results
or changed expectations.
Any
forward-looking statement you read in this prospectus or any
document incorporated by reference reflects our current views with
respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks,
uncertainties and assumptions relating to our operations, operating
results, growth strategy and liquidity. You should not place undue
reliance on these forward-looking statements because such
statements speak only as to the date when made. We assume no
obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking
statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results
could differ materially from those anticipated in these
forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes
available in the future, except as otherwise required by applicable
law. You are advised, however, to consult any further disclosures
we make on related subjects in our reports on Forms 10-Q, 8-K and
10-K filed with the Commission. You should understand that it is
not possible to predict or identify all risk factors. Consequently,
you should not consider any such list to be a complete set of all
potential risks or uncertainties.
THE COMPANY
Overview
Anixa
Biosciences, Inc., incorporated on November 5, 1982 under the laws
of the State of Delaware, is a biotechnology company developing
therapies and vaccines that are focused on critical unmet needs in
oncology and infectious disease. Our therapeutics programs include
the development of a chimeric endocrine receptor T-cell technology,
a novel form of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (“CAR-T”)
technology, initially focused on treating ovarian cancer, and the
discovery and ultimately development of anti-viral drug candidates
for the treatment of COVID-19 focused on inhibiting certain viral
protein functions of the virus. Our vaccine programs include the
development of a vaccine against triple negative breast cancer
(“TNBC”), the most lethal form of breast cancer, and a vaccine
against ovarian cancer.
Our
subsidiary, Certainty Therapeutics, Inc. (“Certainty”), is
developing immuno-therapy drugs against cancer. Certainty holds an
exclusive worldwide, royalty-bearing license to use certain
intellectual property owned or controlled by The Wistar Institute
(“Wistar”), the nation’s first independent biomedical research
institute and a leading National Cancer Institute designated cancer
research center, relating to Wistar’s chimeric endocrine receptor
targeted therapy technology. We have initially focused on the
development of a treatment for ovarian cancer, but we also may
pursue future applications of the technology for the development of
treatments for additional solid tumors. The license agreement
requires Certainty to make certain cash and equity payments to
Wistar upon achievement of specific development milestones. With
respect to Certainty’s equity obligations to Wistar, Certainty
issued to Wistar shares of its common stock equal to five percent
(5%) of the common stock of Certainty.
Certainty,
in collaboration with the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research
Institute, Inc. (“Moffitt”), is advancing toward human clinical
testing the CAR-T technology licensed by Certainty from Wistar
aimed initially at treating ovarian cancer. Certainty is working
with researchers at Moffitt to complete and submit an
Investigational New Drug (“IND”) application with the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (“FDA”) and to perform human clinical trials.
In collaboration with researchers at Moffitt, Certainty is
currently performing tests on the clinical materials and assuming
successful and timely completion of those tests, we anticipate an
IND application will be submitted with the FDA during the first
calendar quarter of 2021.
In
April 2020, we entered into a collaboration with OntoChem GmbH
(“OntoChem”) to discover and ultimately develop anti-viral drug
candidates against COVID-19. Through this collaboration, we
utilized advanced computational methods, machine learning, and
molecular modeling techniques to perform in silico screening
of over 1.2 billion compounds in chemical libraries (including
publicly available compounds and OntoChem’s proprietary libraries)
to evaluate if any of these compounds could disrupt one of two key
enzymes of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease
COVID-19.
The
screening process resulted in identifiying over 30 potentially
effective compounds that could disrupt either the function of a
viral enzyme called an endoribonuclease, known as Non-Structural
Protein-15 (“NSP-15”), or the main protease (“Mpro”) of
the virus. Our in silico molecular modeling indicates that
any of the NSP-15 or Mpro inhibitors might disrupt the
virus’ ability to replicate in humans. Several of the most
promising compounds have been synthesized and in vitro
biological assays of the compounds are ongoing. If the biological
activity of any of these compounds is verified, they will be tested
in animal studies to further evaluate their candidacy as COVID-19
therapeutics.
While
a number of preventative vaccines have recently been or will soon
be approved for emergency use by the FDA, we believe that there is
and will continue to be a need for effective treatments for
COVID-19. There are a number of factors that may limit the
effectiveness, both in the near and long term, of the vaccines
currently in use, including, but not limited to, vaccine
persistence, viral escape and long-term safety. Furthermore, all
current treatments require administration in a hospital setting,
thus potentially continuing to overburden the healthcare system,
while we anticipate our treatment to use an oral formulation and to
be available at pharmacies.
We
hold an exclusive worldwide, royalty-bearing license to use certain
intellectual property owned or controlled by The Cleveland Clinic
Foundation (“Cleveland Clinic”) relating to certain breast cancer
vaccine technology developed at Cleveland Clinic. This technology
pertains to the use of vaccines for the treatment or prevention of
TNBC and other breast cancers which express the α-lactalbumin
protein. The α-lactalbumin protein is only expressed during
lactation in healthy women, but may also be expressed in
individuals with certain breast cancers, most notably
TNBC.
Working
with researchers at Cleveland Clinic, in November 2020, we
submitted an IND application with the FDA to begin human clinical
trials of the vaccine. In December 2020, we received authorization
from the FDA to commence enrollment and treatment of patients in a
Phase 1a clinical trial. We have commenced activities necessary to
prepare for treatment of patients in the Phase 1a trial, and we
anticipate being prepared to treat the first enrolled patient in
the spring of 2021.
In
November 2020, we executed a license agreement with Cleveland
Clinic pursuant to which the Company was granted an exclusive
worldwide, royalty-bearing license to use certain intellectual
property owned or controlled by Cleveland Clinic relating to
certain ovarian cancer vaccine technology. This technology pertains
to among other things, the use of vaccines for the treatment or
prevention of ovarian cancers which express the anti-Mullerian
hormone receptor 2 protein containing an extracellular domain
(“AMHR2-ED”). In healthy tissue, this protein regulates growth and
development of egg-containing follicles in the ovary. While
expression of AMHR2-ED naturally and markedly declines after
menopause, this protein is expressed at high levels in the ovaries
of postmenopausal women with ovarian cancer. Researchers at
Cleveland Clinic believe that a vaccine targeting AMHR2-ED could
prevent the occurrence of ovarian cancer.
On
July 2, 2020, we implemented a strategic realignment of our
business and redirected resources to exclusively focus on the
development of therapeutics and vaccines. Accordingly, we suspended
operations of our subsidiary, Anixa Diagnostics Corporation, and
the development of the Cchek™ artificial intelligence driven
platform of non-invasive blood tests for the early detection of
cancer.
Over
the next several quarters, we expect the development of our breast
and ovarian cancer vaccines, our COVID-19 therapeutic discovery
program and Certainty’s CAR-T technology to be the primary focus of
the Company. As part of our legacy operations, the Company remains
engaged in limited patent licensing activities regarding the Cchek™
liquid biopsy platform, as well as in the area of encrypted
audio/video conference calling. We do not expect these activities
to be a significant part of the Company’s ongoing operations nor do
we expect these activities to require material financial resources
or attention of senior management.
Over
the past several years, our revenue was derived from technology
licensing and the sale of patented technologies, including revenue
from the settlement of litigation. We have not generated any
revenue to date from our therapeutics or vaccine programs. In
addition, while we pursue our therapeutics and vaccine programs, we
may also make investments in and form new companies to develop
additional emerging technologies. We do not expect to begin
generating revenue with respect to any of our current therapy or
vaccine programs in the near term. We hope to achieve a profitable
outcome by eventually licensing our technologies to large
pharmaceutical companies that have the resources and infrastructure
in place to manufacture, market and sell our technologies as
therapeutics or vaccines. The eventual licensing of any of our
technologies may take several years, if it is to occur at all, and
may depend on positive results from human clinical
trials.
CAR-T therapeutics
Certainty
was formed to develop immuno-therapy drugs against cancer, and in
November 2017, we entered into a license with Wistar whereby we
obtained rights to certain intellectual property surrounding
Wistar’s chimeric endocrine receptor targeted therapy
technology.
CAR-T
therapeutics have demonstrated positive results in B-cell cancers,
but very little progress has been made on solid tumors. Our CAR-T
technology is initially focused on ovarian cancer and is based on
engineering killer T-cells with the Follicle Stimulating Hormone
(“FSH”) to target ovarian cells that express the FSH-Receptor. Data
on this technology, including the animal studies showing efficacy,
was published in January 2017 in the journal, Clinical Cancer
Research. The FSH-Receptor has been shown to be a very exclusive
protein found on a large percentage of ovarian cancer cells, but
not on a significant number of non-ovarian healthy tissues in adult
females.
Studies
have shown that the FSH-Receptor is also expressed in endothelial
cells of the vasculature of neoplasias We anticipate performing
further studies to evaluate the ability of our CAR-T to disrupt the
vasculature of other cancers, after we commence clinical trials of
this technology against ovarian cancer.
We
are working with researchers at Moffitt to complete studies
necessary to submit an IND application with the FDA. We then
anticipate taking this therapy into human clinical testing for
patients suffering from ovarian cancer. Moffitt is one of the top
cancer centers in the country with pre-clinical and clinical
expertise with CAR-T technology. Moffitt has conducted many of the
highest profile CAR-T trials in the world.
We
have performed numerous studies in preparation for an IND
application. In those studies, several groups of tumor free, female
mice were intra-peritoneally infused with increasing concentrations
of the murine CAR-T construct and their health status was monitored
for up to five months. The following summarizes the results of
these studies:
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No
treated mice showed any signs of pain/stress, difficulty breathing
or increased respiratory rate, reduced movement, reduced grooming
or feeding, dehydration, anorexia or any other sign of distress.
Control mice also did not show any distress. |
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The
treated mice did not show any weight loss. Control mice also did
not show any weight loss. |
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One
cohort of treated mice also had blood drawn periodically for
measurement of markers for liver function (AST-Aspartate
transaminase/ALT-Alanine transaminase), kidney function
(creatinine), and metabolic function (glucose). No abnormal values
were observed, as was the case for control mice. |
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Serum
IL-6 (interleukin-6) increased in the treated mice, as well as mice
treated with control T-cells. This indicated that the T-cells were
inducing the expected inflammatory response. |
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Histological
analysis of the ovaries showed that 60% of the treated mice had
significant reduction in ovarian mass, while the control mice
exhibited no reduction. This observation confirms that the CAR-T
was successfully attacking the ovaries, as we hoped and
expected. |
While
these results are positive, there are many uncertainties in drug
development, and most drugs fail to reach commercialization. In the
future, we hope to achieve a profitable outcome by eventually
licensing our technology to a large pharmaceutical company that has
the resources and infrastructure in place to manufacture, market
and sell our technology as a cancer treatment.
In
October 2018, we attended a pre-IND meeting with the FDA to discuss
numerous aspects of the planned clinical trial of our CAR-T therapy
for ovarian cancer. The FDA answered a number of questions,
providing a good understanding of the design for the clinical trial
in our IND application.
We
have completed the manufacturing of the clinical grade vector and
are in the process of testing the materials and completing the IND
application. We anticipate filing the IND in the first calendar
quarter of 2021. The IND application, after review and approval by
the FDA, will enable us to begin testing our therapy in ovarian
cancer patients. Assuming the FDA approves our IND application, we
anticipate beginning the human clinical trial as early as
mid-2021.
The
Market
We
believe that our CAR-T technology may be used as an effective
treatment against multiple solid tumor types, however, we have
initially focused on ovarian cancer. According to American Cancer
Society statistics, ovarian cancer accounts for just 2.4% of all
female cancer cases, but 5% of cancer deaths in women due to the
disease’s low survival rate. It is estimated that in 2020, 22,000
new cases of ovarian cancer will be diagnosed and 14,000 American
women will die from this disease. Despite continuous advances made
in the field of cancer research every year, there remains a
significant unmet medical need, as the overall five-year relative
survival rate for ovarian cancer patients is 48%. However, ovarian
cancer survival varies substantially by age, with the overall
five-year survival rate for women 65 and older of only
31%.
Competition
The
biopharmaceutical industry is characterized by intense and dynamic
competition to develop new technologies and proprietary therapies.
Any product candidates that we successfully develop and
commercialize will have to compete with existing therapies and new
therapies that may become available in the future. While we believe
that our proprietary FSH-Receptor targeted immuno-therapy platform
for treating solid tumors and scientific expertise in the field of
cell therapy provide us with competitive advantages, we face
potential competition from various sources, including larger and
better-funded pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well
as from academic institutions, governmental agencies and public and
private research institutions.
Many
of our competitors, either alone or with their strategic partners,
have substantially greater financial, technical and human resources
than we do and significantly greater experience in the discovery
and development of product candidates, obtaining FDA and other
regulatory approvals of treatments and commercializing those
treatments. Accordingly, our competitors may be more successful
than us in obtaining approval for treatments and achieving
widespread market acceptance. Our competitors’ treatments may be
more effective, or more effectively marketed and sold, than any
treatment we may commercialize and may render our treatments
obsolete or non-competitive before we can recover the expenses of
developing and commercializing any of our treatments.
Mergers
and acquisitions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries
may result in even more resources being concentrated among a
smaller number of our competitors. These competitors also compete
with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and
management personnel and establishing clinical study sites and
subject registration for clinical studies, as well as in acquiring
technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our program.
Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant
competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with
large and established companies.
We
anticipate that we will face intense and increasing competition as
new drugs enter the market and advanced technologies become
available. We expect any treatments that we develop and
commercialize to compete on the basis of, among other things,
efficacy, safety, convenience of administration and delivery, price
and the availability of reimbursement from government and other
third-party payers.
Our
commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if our
competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more
effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more
convenient or are less expensive than any products that we may
develop. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory
approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain
approval for ours, which could result in our competitors
establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter
the market.
COVID-19 therapeutics
Coronavirus
disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) is an infectious disease caused by the
severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (“SARS-CoV-2”). The
disease was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, the capital
of China’s Hubei province, and has since spread globally, resulting
in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 is highly
infectious, and while in the majority of cases results in mild
symptoms, in many cases the symptoms progress to viral pneumonia
and multi-organ failure.
There
are currently no proven broadly effective treatments. Further, all
treatments that are currently being employed require administration
in a hospital setting, thus continuing to overburden the healthcare
system. In addition, nearly all treatments currently in clinical
trials were originally developed for other indications, and were
not designed specifically against SARS-CoV-2, and therefore may
have limited effectiveness. We believe that newly designed drugs
that are purposefully developed to specifically target SARS-CoV-2,
enabled by recent studies of the molecular biology of the virus,
will have the potential to be far more effective than repurposing
existing drugs.
In
April 2020, we entered into a collaboration agreement with OntoChem
for the purpose of discovering and ultimately developing anti-viral
drug candidates for COVID-19. Our collaboration has focused on two
specific proteins of the coronavirus. The first protein is the main
protease (“Mpro”), which is an enzyme of the virus that
severs a large poly-peptide into functional proteins that enable
the virus to replicate in a human host. Our program will attempt to
identify molecules that inhibit the function of this enzyme, and
potentially stop or slow the virus’ ability to replicate and cause
disease. Since this protease does not have human analogs, potential
inhibitors may not affect any human proteins and therefore toxic
side effects may be minimized.
The
second target is an endoribonuclease, Non-Structural Protein-15
(“NSP-15”), which plays a role in breaking up the ribonucleic acid,
or the genetic content, of the virus. Recent studies have
demonstrated that the endoribonuclease of many viruses, including
the SARS virus of 2003 and, it is believed the SARS-CoV-2, binds to
a human host protein. This protein-protein interaction appears to
dramatically increase the infectivity of the virus. Because this
interaction between a viral protein and a human protein appears to
be common to many viruses, compounds that are able to effectively
disrupt this interaction, could function as broad spectrum
anti-virals in addition to addressing COVID-19.
Through
our collaboration, we utilized advanced computational methods,
machine learning and molecular modeling techniques to perform in
silico screening of over 1.2 billion compounds in OntoChem’s
chemistry and gene ontology database (including publicly available
compounds and OntoChem’s proprietary libraries) to evaluate if any
of these compounds could disrupt Mpro or NSP-15 and to
evaluate the molecules’ potential side effects, as well as their
drug-like characteristics. This screening process resulted in
identifying a large number of compounds that could potentially be
safe and effective against COVID-19.
We
selected the ten most promising compounds for synthesis and
biological analysis. Biological testing of these compounds requires
use of live virus, which limits the laboratories qualified to
perform the necessary assays to Biosafety Level 3 (“BSL-3”) or
Biosafety Level 4 labs. While availability of these labs is
limited, we successfully established a relationship with a BSL-3
government lab in Europe, where biological assays, including
binding assays, cellular assays, and viral activity assays, are
currently being performed. Further, this lab has animal facilities
and upon completion of the biological testing, will be prepared to
test the compounds in animals to determine which compound may be
appropriate for clinical evaluation.
The
Market
According
to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) data, as
of the date of this prospectus, in the U.S., there have been over
20 million cases of COVID-19 and over 350,000 deaths. According to
World Health Organization (“WHO”) data, globally, there have been
over 85 million cases and approximately 1.9 million people have
died. Furthermore, over the last three months, infections and
deaths have increased.
Currently,
there are no broadly effective treatments for COVID-19. Further,
the treatments that are currently being employed, such as
Remdesivir and various steroid and antibody treatments, are all
in-patient therapeutics and require hospitalization, adding to the
burden on the healthcare system. A better approach, which we are
employing, would be a therapeutic that can be formulated as a pill
and taken as soon as there is a positive test for
COVID-19.
The
market for an orally delivered COVID-19 treatment that would
dramatically reduce hospitalization rates would be significant
given the current infection rates. The most recent CDC predictions
indicate that in the U.S. alone new infections will remain at over
1.3 million cases per week and deaths will be nearly 20,000 per
week through January 2021.
Competition
Competition
in the COVID-19 treatment and prevention market is fierce, with
hundreds of therapies and vaccines currently in development.
Recently, a number of preventative vaccines have received
regulatory approvals in the U.S. and Europe. There are still many
questions about these vaccines, such as persistence and viral
escape, and it will take time before it is known how well and for
how long they will provide protection from infection. Any product
candidates that we successfully develop and commercialize will have
to compete with existing therapies and vaccines and new therapies
and vaccines that may become available in the future. While we
believe that our proprietary compounds for treating COVID-19 and
scientific expertise in the field of synthetic chemistry provide us
with competitive advantages, we face potential competition from
various sources, including larger and better-funded pharmaceutical
and biotechnology companies, as well as from academic institutions,
governmental agencies and public and private research
institutions.
Many
of our competitors, either alone or with their strategic partners,
have substantially greater financial, technical and human resources
than we do and significantly greater experience in the discovery
and development of product candidates, obtaining FDA and other
regulatory approvals of treatments and commercializing those
treatments. Accordingly, our competitors may be more successful
than us in obtaining approval for treatments and achieving
widespread market acceptance. Our competitors’ treatments may be
more effective, or more effectively marketed and sold, than any
treatment we may commercialize and may render our treatments
obsolete or non-competitive before we can recover the expenses of
developing and commercializing any of our treatments.
Mergers
and acquisitions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries
may result in even more resources being concentrated among a
smaller number of our competitors. These competitors also compete
with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and
management personnel and establishing clinical study sites and
subject registration for clinical studies, as well as in acquiring
technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our program.
Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant
competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with
large and established companies.
We
anticipate that we will face intense and increasing competition as
new drugs enter the market and advanced technologies become
available. We expect any treatments that we develop and
commercialize to compete on the basis of, among other things,
efficacy, safety, convenience of administration and delivery, price
and the availability of reimbursement from government and other
third-party payers.
Our
commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if our
competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more
effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more
convenient or are less expensive than any products that we may
develop. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory
approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain
approval for ours, which could result in our competitors
establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter
the market.
Breast and Ovarian Cancer vaccines
We
licensed certain technology from Cleveland Clinic to develop
vaccines for the treatment or prevention of TNBC and other breast
cancers which express the α-lactalbumin protein. This protein is
only expressed during lactation in healthy women, but may also be
expressed in individuals with certain breast cancers, most notably
TNBC, the most lethal form of breast cancer. Further, we have
licensed certain technology from Cleveland Clinic to develop
vaccines for the treatment or prevention of ovarian cancers which
express AMHR2-ED. This protein regulates growth and development of
egg-containing follicles in the ovary and its expression naturally
and markedly declines after menopause. However, AMHR2-ED is
expressed at high levels in the ovaries of postmenopausal women
with ovarian cancer.
Typically,
vaccines harness the immune system to protect people from
infectious diseases. Broad-based vaccination programs have
essentially eliminated some of the most deadly and debilitating
diseases in history, small pox and polio among them. However, there
has been little success developing a preventative (prophylactic)
vaccine against cancer.
Vaccines
work by exposing a benign form of a disease agent to an
individual’s immune system. The immune system identifies the agent
and learns to attack and destroy it, retaining a memory of the
agent so the immune system knows to react quickly if an individual
is exposed to the disease agent months or years later.
Most
vaccines attack pathogens, such as viruses and bacteria. The immune
system is better able to assail these agents because they come from
outside the body. Cancer, however, is caused by aberrant cells that
arise out of our resident cells, which can make it difficult for
our immune system to find the diseased cells, especially as
advancing age weakens our immune system. Once these aberrant cells
gain critical mass, they become cancer.
Despite
the lack of success with cancer vaccines, recently gained knowledge
about the human immune system has led to the development, approval
and commercialization of revolutionary immuno-therapy drugs. These
drugs do not attack cancer directly, but rather modulate the immune
system in ways that enable it to destroy or dramatically impair
cancer cells.
The
breast cancer vaccine technology licensed from Cleveland Clinic has
identified a protein, alpha-lactalbumin, that is present in healthy
breast tissue only when a woman is lactating and disappears when
she stops nursing her child. Alpha-lactalbumin is never present on
any other cell in the body. However, it does show up in many types
of breast cancer, including TNBC, an aggressive and deadly form of
the disease. By developing a vaccine that targets
alpha-lactalbumin, we feel the immune system can destroy these
breast cancer cells as they arise and ultimately prevent breast
tumors from forming.
Cleveland
Clinic researchers have demonstrated in animal studies that
vaccination against alpha-lactalbumin completely prevented breast
cancer in mice that were specifically bred to develop breast
cancer. Data on this technology, including the animal studies
showing efficacy, was published in March 2016 in the journal,
Cancers.
The
ovarian cancer vaccine technology licensed from Cleveland Clinic
has identified the AMHR2-ED protein, the expression of which is
involved in egg production in the ovaries and is no longer
expressed after menopause. AMHR2-ED is not meaningfully present on
any other cell in the body. However, it does appear in nearly all
cases of ovarian epithelial cancers, the most common type of
ovarian cancer. By developing a vaccine that targets AMHR2-ED, we
feel the immune system can destroy these ovarian cancer cells as
they arise and ultimately prevent tumors from forming. Data on this
technology, including animal studies showing efficacy, was
published in November 2017 in the journal, Cancer Prevention
Research.
While
the data thus far for both of our cancer vaccines has been
positive, there are many uncertainties in drug development, and
most drugs fail to reach commercialization.
We
have been working with researchers at Cleveland Clinic to advance
the breast cancer vaccine technology toward human clinical testing,
and recently submitted an IND application to the FDA. In December
2020, we received authorization from the FDA to commence enrollment
and treatment of patients in a Phase 1a clinical trial.
The
Breast Cancer Market
According
to American Cancer Society statistics, breast cancer accounts for
30% of all female cancer cases, and 15% of cancer deaths in women.
It is estimated that in 2020, 276,000 new cases of breast cancer
will be diagnosed in the U.S. and 42,000 women will die from this
disease. Despite continuous advances made in the field of cancer
research every year, there has been little change in breast cancer
incidence rate over the last ten years.
The
market for prophylactic cancer vaccines is sizable—bigger in fact
than the market for any type of cancer therapeutic. After all,
doctors administer cancer drugs only after a patient has been
diagnosed, while a prophylactic vaccine may be administered to all
people who have a possibility of developing the disease.
While
in the U.S., 276,000 women are estimated to be diagnosed with
breast cancer this year, there are approximately 80 million women
over the age of 40—the time in life when women face an increased
risk of developing breast cancer. Worldwide, the number is
dramatically larger.
The
Ovarian Cancer Market
According
to American Cancer Society statistics, ovarian cancer accounts for
just 2.4% of all female cancer cases, but 5% of cancer deaths in
women due to the disease’s low survival rate. It is estimated that
in 2020, 22,000 new cases of ovarian cancer will be diagnosed and
14,000 American women will die from this disease. Despite
continuous advances made in the field of cancer research every
year, there remains a significant unmet medical need, as the
overall five-year relative survival rate for ovarian cancer
patients is 48%. However, ovarian cancer survival varies
substantially by age, with the overall five-year survival rate for
women 65 and older of only 31%.
The
market for prophylactic cancer vaccines is sizable—bigger in fact
than the market for any type of cancer therapeutic. While in the
U.S., 22,000 women are estimated to be diagnosed with ovarian
cancer this year, there are approximately 40 million women over the
age of 60—the time in life when women face an increased risk of
developing ovarian cancer. Worldwide, the number is dramatically
larger.
Competition
The
biopharmaceutical industry is characterized by intense and dynamic
competition to develop new technologies and proprietary therapies.
Any product candidates that we successfully develop and
commercialize will have to compete with existing therapies and new
therapies that may become available in the future. While we believe
that our proprietary breast and ovarian cancer vaccine technologies
and scientific expertise in the field of cell therapy provide us
with competitive advantages, we face potential competition from
various sources, including larger and better-funded pharmaceutical
and biotechnology companies, as well as from academic institutions,
governmental agencies and public and private research
institutions.
Many
of our competitors, either alone or with their strategic partners,
have substantially greater financial, technical and human resources
than we do and significantly greater experience in the discovery
and development of product candidates, obtaining FDA and other
regulatory approvals of vaccines and commercializing those
vaccines. Accordingly, our competitors may be more successful than
us in obtaining approval for vaccines and achieving widespread
market acceptance. Our competitors’ vaccines may be more effective,
or more effectively marketed and sold, than any vaccine we may
commercialize and may render our vaccines obsolete or
non-competitive before we can recover the expenses of developing
and commercializing any of our vaccines.
Mergers
and acquisitions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries
may result in even more resources being concentrated among a
smaller number of our competitors. These competitors also compete
with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and
management personnel and establishing clinical study sites and
subject registration for clinical studies, as well as in acquiring
technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs.
Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant
competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with
large and established companies.
We
anticipate that we will face intense and increasing competition as
new drugs and vaccines enter the market and advanced technologies
become available. We expect any vaccines that we develop and
commercialize to compete on the basis of, among other things,
efficacy, safety, convenience of administration and delivery, price
and the availability of reimbursement from government and other
third-party payers.
Our
commercial opportunities could be reduced or eliminated if our
competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more
effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more
convenient or are less expensive than any products that we may
develop. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory
approvals for their products more rapidly than we may obtain
approvals for ours, which could result in our competitors
establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter
the market.
Employees
As of
October 31, 2020, we had four employees, three full-time and one
part time, working for our Company and subsidiaries.
Summary Risk Factors
The
risk factors described below are a summary of the principal risk
factors associated with an investment in us. These are not the only
risks we face. You should carefully consider these risk factors,
together with the risk factors set forth herein and the other
reports and documents filed by us with the SEC.
Risks
Relating to Our Financial Condition and Operations
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We
have a history of losses and may incur additional losses in the
future. |
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We
will need additional funding in the future which may not be
available on acceptable terms, or at all, and, if available, may
result in dilution to our stockholders. |
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We
may have difficulty in raising capital and may consume resources
faster than expected. |
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Our
business activities are expected to be adversely affected by the
global COVID-19 pandemic. |
Risks
Related to our Research & Development, Clinical and
Commercialization Activities
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Our
therapeutic and vaccine programs are pre-revenue, and subject to
the risks of an early stage biotechnology company. |
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Our
current business model relies on strategic collaborations with
commercial partners to provide the resources and infrastructure to
manufacture and ultimately market and/or sell our technologies. We
may have difficulty in timing the establishment of these
partnerships to achieve the greatest economic benefit for the
Company, or in establishing these partnerships at all. |
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If
product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur
substantial liabilities and may be required to limit
commercialization of our product candidates. |
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We
have never generated any revenue from biotechnology and
pharmaceutical product sales and our biotechnology and
pharmaceutical products may never be profitable. |
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The
therapeutics and vaccines that we are developing are novel and
present significant challenges to successfully reaching
market. |
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While
pre-clinical testing of our product candidates has been positive,
we may experience unfavorable results once we commence human
clinical trials. |
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We
are dependent on third parties to conduct our pre-clinical and
clinical trials. |
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If we
encounter difficulties enrolling patients in our clinical trials,
our clinical development activities could be delayed or otherwise
adversely affected. |
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We
face significant competition from other biotechnology and
pharmaceutical companies, and our operating results will suffer if
we fail to compete effectively. |
Risks
Related to our Intellectual Property
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We
rely on licenses from Wistar for our CAR-T technology and Cleveland
Clinic for our breast and ovarian cancer vaccine technologies, and
if we lose any of these licenses we may be subjected to future
litigation. |
Risks
Related to our Common Stock
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The
issuance or sale of shares in the future to raise money or for
strategic purposes, including through our current ATM program,
could reduce the market price of our common stock. |
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We
have issued a significant number of securities pursuant to our
incentive plans and may continue to do so in the future. The
vesting and, if applicable, exercise of these securities and the
sale of the shares of common stock issuable thereunder may dilute
your percentage ownership interest and may also result in downward
pressure on the price of our common stock. |
Other
Our
principal executive offices are located at 3150 Almaden Expressway,
San Jose, California 95118, our telephone number is (408) 708-9808
and our Internet website address is www.anixa.com. We make
available free of charge on or through our Internet website our
annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current
reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements on Schedule 14A, and
amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section
13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably
practicable after we electronically file such materials with, or
furnish them to, the Commission. Alternatively, you may also access
our reports at the Commission’s website at www.sec.gov.
RISK FACTORS
Our
business involves a high degree of risk and uncertainty, including
the following risks and uncertainties:
Risks Related to Our Financial Condition and
Operations
We have a history of losses and may incur additional losses in the
future.
On a
cumulative basis we have sustained substantial losses and negative
cash flows from operations since our inception. As of October 31,
2020, our accumulated deficit was approximately $191,836,000. As of
October 31, 2020, we had approximately $9,057,000 in cash, cash
equivalents and short-term investments, and working capital of
approximately $8,180,000. In fiscal year 2020, we incurred losses
of approximately $10,092,000 and we experienced negative cash flows
from operations of approximately $6,176,000. We expect to continue
incurring material research and development and general and
administrative expenses in connection with our operations. As a
result, we anticipate that we will incur losses in the
future.
We will need additional funding in the future which may not be
available on acceptable terms, or at all, and, if available, may
result in dilution to our stockholders.
Based
on currently available information as of January 7, 2021, we
believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents, short-term
investments and expected cash flows will be sufficient to fund our
activities for the next 12 months. However, our projections of
future cash needs and cash flows may differ from actual results. If
current cash on hand, cash equivalents, short term investments and
cash that may be generated from our business operations are
insufficient to continue to operate our business, or if we elect to
invest in or acquire a company or companies that are synergistic
with or complementary to our technologies, we may be required to
obtain more working capital. We may seek to obtain working capital
through sales of our equity securities or through bank credit
facilities or public or private debt from various financial
institutions where possible. We cannot be certain that additional
funding will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. If we do
identify sources for additional funding, the sale of additional
equity securities or convertible debt could result in dilution to
our stockholders. Additionally, the sale of equity securities or
issuance of debt securities may be subject to certain security
holder approvals or may result in the downward adjustment of the
exercise or conversion price of our outstanding securities. We can
give no assurance that we will generate sufficient cash flows in
the future to satisfy our liquidity requirements or sustain future
operations, or that other sources of funding, such as sales of
equity or debt, would be available or would be approved by our
security holders, if needed, on favorable terms or at all. If we
fail to obtain additional working capital as and when needed, such
failure could have a material adverse impact on our business,
results of operations and financial condition. Furthermore, such
lack of funds may inhibit our ability to respond to competitive
pressures or unanticipated capital needs, or may force us to reduce
operating expenses, which would significantly harm the business and
development of operations.
We may have difficulty in raising capital and may consume resources
faster than expected.
We
currently do not generate any revenue from our therapeutics or
vaccines nor do we generate any other recurring revenues and as of
October 31, 2020, the Company only had approximately $9,057,000 in
cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. Therefore, we
have a limited source of cash to meet our future capital
requirements, which may include the expensive process of obtaining
FDA approvals for our CAR-T ovarian cancer therapeutic, our breast
and ovarian cancer vaccines and our COVID-19 therapy. We do not
expect to generate significant revenues for the foreseeable future,
and we may not be able to raise funds in the future, which would
leave us without resources to continue our operations and force us
to resort to raising additional capital in the form of equity or
debt financings, which may not be available to us. We may have
difficulty raising needed capital in the near or longer term as a
result of, among other factors, the very early stage of our
therapeutics and vaccine businesses and our lack of revenues as
well as the inherent business risks associated with an early stage,
biotechnology company and present and future market conditions.
Also, we may consume available resources more rapidly than
currently anticipated, resulting in the need for additional funding
sooner than anticipated. Our inability to raise funds could lead to
decreases in the price of our common stock and the failure of our
cancer diagnostic and therapeutics businesses which would have a
material adverse effect on the Company.
Failure to effectively manage our potential growth could place
strains on our managerial, operational and financial resources and
could adversely affect our business and operating
results.
Our
business strategy and potential growth may place a strain on
managerial, operational and financial resources and systems.
Although we may not grow as we expect, if we fail to manage our
growth effectively or to develop and expand our managerial,
operational and financial resources and systems, our business and
financial results will be materially harmed.
We may use our financial and human resources to pursue a particular
research program or product candidate and fail to capitalize on
programs or product candidates that may be more profitable or for
which there is a greater likelihood of success.
Because
we have limited resources, we may forego or delay pursuit of
opportunities with certain programs or product candidates or for
indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential.
Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to
capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market
opportunities. Our spending on current and future research and
development programs for product candidates may not yield any
commercially viable products. If we do not accurately evaluate the
commercial potential or target market for a particular product
candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that product
candidate through strategic collaboration, licensing or other
royalty arrangements in cases in which it would have been more
advantageous for us to retain sole development and
commercialization rights to such product candidate, or we may
allocate internal resources to a product candidate which it would
have been more advantageous to enter into a partnering
arrangement.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain
other tax attributes may be limited.
We
have incurred net losses since our inception and we may never
achieve or sustain profitability. Generally, losses incurred will
carry forward until such losses expire (for losses generated prior
to January 1, 2018) or are used to offset future taxable income, if
any. Under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of
1986, as amended (the “Internal Revenue Code”), if a corporation
undergoes an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater
than 50 percentage point change (by value) in its equity ownership
by certain stockholders over a three-year period, the corporation’s
ability to use its pre-change net operating loss, or NOL,
carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes (such as research
tax credits) to offset its post-change income or taxes may be
limited. We have not completed a study to assess whether an
ownership change for purposes of Section 382 or 383 has occurred,
or whether there have been multiple ownership changes since our
inception. We may have experienced ownership changes in the past
and may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of
shifts in our stock ownership (some of which shifts are outside our
control). As a result, if we earn net taxable income, our ability
to use our pre-change NOL carryforwards to offset such taxable
income will be subject to limitations. Similar provisions of state
tax law may also apply to limit our use of accumulated state tax
attributes. As a result, even if we attain profitability, we may be
unable to use a material portion of our NOL carryforwards and other
tax attributes, which could adversely affect our future cash
flows.
Risks Related to our Research & Development, Clinical and
Commercialization Activities
Our therapeutic and vaccine programs are pre-revenue, and subject
to the risks of an early stage biotechnology
company.
Since
the Company’s primary focus for the foreseeable future will likely
be our therapeutics and vaccine businesses, shareholders should
understand that we are primarily an early stage biotechnology
company with no history of revenue-generating operations, and our
only assets consist of our proprietary and licensed technologies
and the know-how of our officers and employees. Therefore we are
subject to all the risks and uncertainties inherent in a new
business, in particular new businesses engaged in CAR-T cancer
therapeutics, cancer vaccines and anti-viral therapeutics. Our
CAR-T ovarian cancer therapeutic, our breast and ovarian cancer
vaccines and our COVID-19 treatment are in their early stages of
development, and we still must establish and implement many
important functions necessary to commercialize the
technologies.
Accordingly,
you should consider the Company’s prospects in light of the costs,
uncertainties, delays and difficulties frequently encountered by
companies in their pre-revenue generating stages, particularly
those in the biotechnology field. Shareholders should carefully
consider the risks and uncertainties that a business with no
operating history will face. In particular, shareholders should
consider that there is a significant risk that we will not be able
to:
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complete
studies that successfully identify one or more clinical candidates
to treat COVID-19; |
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successfully
complete animal studies necessary to submit an IND application to
the FDA for our COVID-19 treatment; |
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successfully
complete testing of clinical materials necessary to submit an IND
application to the FDA for our CAR-T ovarian cancer
therapeutic; |
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obtain
FDA approval to commence human clinical trials of our CAR-T ovarian
cancer therapeutic; |
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successfully
enroll sufficient numbers of qualified patients to participate in
our clinical trials; |
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obtain
sufficient quantity and quality of materials manufactured for use
in our clinical trials; |
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successfully
meet the primary endpoints in our clinical trials; |
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implement
or execute our current business plan, or that our current business
plan is sound; |
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raise
sufficient funds in the capital markets or otherwise to fully
effectuate our business plan; |
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maintain
our management team, including the members of our scientific
advisory board; |
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determine
that the processes and technologies that we have developed or will
develop are commercially viable; and/or |
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attract,
enter into or maintain contracts with potential commercial partners
such as licensors of technology and suppliers or licensees of our
technologies. |
Any
of the foregoing risks may adversely affect the Company and result
in the failure of our business. In addition, we expect to encounter
unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other
known and unknown factors. Over the next several quarters, we will
need to transition from a company with a research and development
focus to a company capable of supporting clinical trials and
commercial activities. We may not be able to reach such
achievements, which would have a material adverse effect on our
Company.
Our current business model relies on strategic collaborations with
commercial partners to provide the resources and infrastructure to
manufacture and ultimately market and/or sell our technologies. We
may have difficulty in timing the establishment of these
partnerships to achieve the greatest economic benefit for the
Company, or in establishing these partnerships at
all.
We do
not currently have the resources and infrastructure to manufacture,
market or sell our products or technologies. While our technologies
have generated interest from multiple potential strategic partners,
due to the early stage of development of our technologies, we can
give no assurance that we will be able to successfully establish
any strategic partnerships. Further, even if we elect to engage
with a potential strategic partner, development of these
partnerships can take an extended period of time in which
significant analysis is performed by the potential strategic
partner on our technologies and our intellectual property, as well
as on the market opportunities and how well our technologies may
fit strategically with the partner’s existing business.
Accordingly, it will be difficult for us to time the establishment
of a strategic partnership to achieve the greatest economic benefit
for the Company.
If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur
substantial liabilities and may be required to limit
commercialization of our product candidates.
We
will face an inherent risk of product liability as a result of the
upcoming human clinical testing and commercialization of our
product candidates. For example, we may be sued if our product
candidates cause or are perceived to cause injury or are found to
be otherwise unsuitable during clinical testing, manufacturing,
marketing or sale. Any such product liability claims may include
allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a
failure to warn of dangers inherent in the product, negligence,
strict liability or a breach of warranties. Claims could also be
asserted under state consumer protection acts. If we cannot
successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we
may incur substantial liabilities or be required to limit or cease
commercialization of our product candidates. Even successful
defense would require significant financial and management
resources. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability
claims may result in:
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decreased
demand for our product candidates; |
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injury
to our reputation; |
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withdrawal
of clinical trial participants; |
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initiation
of investigations by regulators; |
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costs
to defend the related litigation; |
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a
diversion of management’s time and our resources; |
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substantial
monetary awards to clinical trial participants or
patients; |
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product
recalls, withdrawals or labeling, marketing or promotional
restrictions; |
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loss
of revenue; |
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exhaustion
of any available insurance and our capital resources; |
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the
inability to commercialize any product candidate; and |
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decline in our share price. |
We do
not currently carry product liability insurance, but intend to
obtain such coverage prior to commencement of our clinical trials.
Our inability to obtain sufficient product liability insurance at
an acceptable cost to protect against potential product liability
claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of any
products we develop, alone or with corporate
collaborators.
If we cannot license rights to use technologies on reasonable
terms, we may not be able to commercialize new products in the
future.
In
the future, we may identify third-party technology we need,
including to develop or commercialize new products or services. In
return for the use of a third party’s technology, we may agree to
pay the licensor royalties based on sales of our products or
services. Royalties are a component of cost of products or services
and affect the margins on our products or services. We may also
need to negotiate licenses to patents or patent applications before
or after introducing a commercial product. We may not be able to
obtain necessary licenses to patents or patent applications, and
our business may suffer if we are unable to enter into the
necessary licenses on acceptable terms or at all, if any necessary
licenses are subsequently terminated, if the licensors fail to
abide by the terms of the licenses or fail to prevent infringement
by third parties, or if the licensed patents or other rights are
found to be invalid or unenforceable.
Biotechnology and pharmaceutical product development is a highly
speculative undertaking and involves a substantial degree of
uncertainty. We have never generated any revenue from biotechnology
and pharmaceutical product sales and our biotechnology and
pharmaceutical products may never be profitable.
We
are in the discovery stage of developing our COVID-19 treatment and
our ovarian cancer vaccine technology, in the pre-clinical stage of
developing our CAR-T therapeutic technology and about to enter the
clinical stage with our breast cancer vaccine technology. Our
ability to generate revenue depends in large part on our ability,
alone or with partners, to successfully complete the development
of, obtain the necessary regulatory approvals for, and
commercialize, product candidates. We do not anticipate generating
revenues from sales of such products for the foreseeable future.
Our ability to generate future revenues from product sales of our
technologies depends heavily on our success in:
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progressing
our discovery stage programs into pre-clinical testing; |
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progressing
our pre-clinical programs into human clinical trials; |
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completing
requisite clinical trials through all phases of clinical
development of our product candidates; |
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seeking
and obtaining marketing approvals for our product candidates that
successfully complete clinical trials, if any; |
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launching
and commercializing our product candidates for which we obtain
marketing approval, if any, with a partner or, if launched
independently, successfully establishing a manufacturing, sales
force, marketing and distribution infrastructure; |
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identifying
and developing new product candidates; |
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establishing
and maintaining supply and manufacturing relationships with third
parties; |
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maintaining,
protecting, expanding and enforcing our intellectual property;
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attracting,
hiring and retaining qualified personnel. |
Because
of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with biologic
and pharmaceutical product development, we are unable to predict
the likelihood or timing for when we may receive regulatory
approval of our product candidates or when we will be able to
achieve or maintain profitability, if ever. If we are unable to
establish a development and or commercialization partnership, or do
not receive regulatory approvals, our business, prospects,
financial condition and results of operations will be adversely
affected. Even if we or a partner obtain the regulatory approvals
to market and sell one or more of our product candidates, we may
never generate significant revenues from any commercial sales for
several reasons, including because the market for our products may
be smaller than we anticipate, or products may not be adopted by
physicians and payors or because our products may not be as
efficacious or safe as other treatment options. If we fail to
successfully commercialize one or more products, by ourselves or
through a partner, we may be unable to generate sufficient revenues
to sustain and grow our business and our business, prospects,
financial condition and results of operations will be adversely
affected.
Cancer vaccines are novel and present significant
challenges.
The
development of preventive and therapeutic cancer vaccines is
difficult, with very few cancer vaccines successfully reaching the
market. The only vaccines shown to be effective in preventing
cancer have been vaccines against cancer causing agents, not the
cancer itself. Vaccines work by exposing a benign form of a disease
agent to an individual’s immune system. The immune system
identifies the agent and learns to attack and destroy it, retaining
a memory of the agent so the immune system knows to react quickly
if an individual is exposed to the disease agent months or years
later. Most vaccines attack pathogens, such as viruses and
bacteria. The immune system is better able to assail these agents
because they come from outside the body. Cancer, however, is caused
by aberrant cells that arise out of our resident cells, which can
make it difficult for our immune system to find the diseased cells,
especially as advancing age weakens our immune system. Once these
aberrant cells gain critical mass, they become cancer.
CAR-T cell therapies are novel and present significant
challenges.
CAR-T
product candidates represent a relatively new field of cellular
immunotherapy. Advancing this novel and personalized therapy
creates significant challenges for us, or a partner,
including:
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obtaining
regulatory approval, as the FDA and other regulatory authorities
have limited experience with commercial development of T-cell
therapies for cancer; |
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sourcing
clinical and, if approved, commercial supplies for the materials
used to manufacture and process our product candidates; |
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developing
a consistent and reliable process, while limiting contamination
risks, for engineering and manufacturing T cells ex vivo and
infusing the engineered T cells into the patient; |
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educating
medical personnel regarding the potential safety benefits, as well
as the challenges, of incorporating our product candidates into
their treatment regimens; |
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establishing
sales and marketing capabilities upon obtaining any regulatory
approval to gain market acceptance of a novel therapy;
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the
availability of coverage and adequate reimbursement from
third-party payors for our novel and personalized
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Our
inability to successfully develop CAR-T cell therapies or develop
processes related to the manufacture, sales and marketing of these
therapies would adversely affect our business, results of
operations and prospects.
While CAR-T technology has shown positive results in B-cell cancers
by others, its safety and efficacy has not been seen in solid
tumors and we cannot guarantee our CAR-T technology will be safe or
effective in ovarian or other cancers.
CAR-T
therapies function through the binding of a genetically engineered
killer T-cell to a cancer cell. However, these engineered T-cells
destroy the cell they are bound to whether it is a cancer cell or a
healthy cell. Therefore, the engineered T-cells must be designed to
only bind to either cancer cells or other target cells to minimize
toxicity. Our CAR-T technology relies on the natural affinity of
FSH to FSH-Receptor. Research by others has shown that in women the
FSH-Receptor protein is found on ovary cells and generally in no
other healthy tissue, and therefore, we engineer our T-cells with
FSH. However, as the research in this field is still new, we cannot
guarantee that there is no FSH-Receptor on any other healthy tissue
in the human body.
While our CAR-T technology has shown favorable results from
in-vitro and in-vivo testing, including in large numbers of animals
under the Good Laboratory Practice (“GLP”) conditions necessary for
inclusion in an IND application, we cannot guarantee that these
results will be sufficient for the FDA to allow us to commence
human clinical trials.
While
studies on our CAR-T ovarian cancer therapeutic have generated
promising results in large numbers of mice under GLP conditions,
and toxicity studies have been performed and have had favorable
results, there can be no assurance that the FDA will find these
results sufficient to allow us to commence testing of our ovarian
cancer therapy in human patients. If we are unable to commence
human clinical trials for our product candidate, or if commencement
of such trial is significantly delayed, we may be required to
expend significant additional resources, which may not be available
to us, and our business, prospects, financial condition and results
of operations may be adversely affected.
There is no guarantee that our collaboration with OntoChem will
produce a successful anti-viral drug for
COVID-19.
On
April 14, 2020, we entered into a collaboration agreement with
OntoChem for the purpose of discovering and ultimately developing
anti-viral drug candidates for COVID-19. Through this
collaboration, we utilized advanced computational methods, machine
learning and molecular modeling techniques to perform in
silico screening of over 1.2 billion compounds in OntoChem’s
chemistry and gene ontology database (including publicly available
compounds and OntoChem’s proprietary libraries) to evaluate if any
of these compounds could disrupt one of two key enzymes of
COVID-19. While, to date, we have synthesized several potential
COVID-19 compounds and are in the process of performing biological
assays, there is no guarantee that any of these compounds (or any
other future compounds that we may identify) will demonstrate
sufficient potency as predicted by the molecular modeling
algorithms. Further, even if these compounds do demonstrate
sufficient potency, there is no guarantee that the compounds will
be effective in animal or human testing and that they will
ultimately be effective anti-viral drugs for COVID-19. In addition,
based on the current stage of development, while considering the
streamlined regulatory processes for COVID-19 therapies, it may
take up to two or more years before we could obtain Emergency Use
Authorization from the FDA.
There is significant competition in the search for a treatment for
COVID-19.
There
is significant competition, including from other companies and
governmental organizations, to find treatments for COVID-19. Many
of these entities have substantially greater resources (including
capital and personnel) than we do and many of these entities are
much further ahead in pursuit of a treatment than we are. Even if
we are successful in identifying a compound that may act as an
effective treatment for COVID-19, there is no guarantee that we
will have the only effective treatment for COVID-19 or that we will
be able to get our treatment to market prior to our
competitors.
A successful preventative vaccine will likely limit the market for
a COVID-19 treatment.
A
number of preventative vaccines have recently been approved for use
in human populations by regulatory agencies in the U.S. and Europe.
The anticipated effectiveness of these vaccines will likely limit
the spread of COVID-19 and potentially reduce the market size for a
COVID-19 treatment.
While pre-clinical testing of our product candidates have been
positive, we may experience unfavorable results once we commence
human clinical trials.
We
have not initiated clinical trials for any of our product
candidates and we may not be able to commence clinical trials on
the time frames we expect. As these product candidates have only
been tested in animals, we face significant uncertainty regarding
how effective and safe they will be in human patients and the
results from preclinical studies may not be indicative of the
results of clinical trials. Preclinical and clinical data are often
susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses, and many
companies that have believed their product candidates performed
satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have
nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval for their
products.
Even
if clinical trials are successfully completed, the FDA or foreign
regulatory authorities may not interpret the results as we do, and
more clinical trials could be required before we submit our product
candidates for approval. To the extent that the results of our
clinical trials are not satisfactory to the FDA or foreign
regulatory authorities for support of a marketing application,
approval of our product candidates may be significantly delayed, or
we may be required to expend significant additional resources,
which may not be available to us, to conduct additional clinical
trials in support of potential approval of our product
candidates.
We are dependent on third parties to conduct our pre-clinical and
clinical trials.
We
depend and will continue to depend upon independent investigators
and collaborators, such as universities, medical institutions, and
strategic partners such as Moffitt for our CAR-T therapy, Cleveland
Clinic for our breast and ovarian cancer vaccines and OntoChem, as
well as other European partners, for our COVID-19 therapy to
conduct our preclinical and clinical trials under agreements with
us. Negotiations of budgets and contracts with study sites may
result in delays to our development timelines and increased costs.
We will rely heavily on these third parties over the course of our
clinical trials, and we control only certain aspects of their
activities. Nevertheless, we are responsible for ensuring that each
of our studies is conducted in accordance with applicable protocol,
legal, regulatory and scientific standards, and our reliance on
third parties does not relieve us of our regulatory
responsibilities. We and these third parties are required to comply
with current good clinical practices, or cGCPs, which are
regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA and comparable
foreign regulatory authorities for product candidates in clinical
development. Regulatory authorities enforce these cGCPs through
periodic inspections of clinical trial sponsors, principal
investigators and clinical trial sites. If we or any of these third
parties fail to comply with applicable cGCP regulations, the
clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed
unreliable and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities
could require us to perform additional clinical trials before
approving our marketing applications. It is possible that, upon
inspection, such regulatory authorities could determine that any of
our clinical trials fail to comply with the cGCP regulations. In
addition, our clinical trials must be conducted with biologic
product produced under current good manufacturing practices, or
cGMPs, and will require a large number of test patients. Our
failure or any failure by these third parties to comply with these
regulations or to recruit a sufficient number of patients may
require us to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the
regulatory approval process. Moreover, our business may be
implicated if any of these third parties violates federal or state
fraud and abuse or false claims laws and regulations or healthcare
privacy and security laws.
Any
third parties conducting our clinical trials are not and will not
be our employees and, except for remedies available to us under our
agreements with these third parties, we cannot control whether they
devote sufficient time and resources to our ongoing preclinical,
clinical and nonclinical programs. These third parties may also
have relationships with other commercial entities, including our
competitors, for whom they may also be conducting clinical trials
or other drug development activities, which could affect their
performance on our behalf. If these third parties do not
successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations or
meet expected deadlines, if they need to be replaced or if the
quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised
due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or
regulatory requirements or for other reasons, our clinical trials
may be extended, delayed or terminated and we may not be able to
complete development of, obtain regulatory approval of or
successfully commercialize our product candidates. As a result, our
financial results and the commercial prospects for our product
candidates would be harmed, our costs could increase and our
ability to generate revenue could be delayed.
Switching
or adding third parties to conduct our clinical trials involves
substantial cost and requires extensive management time and focus.
In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new third
party commences work. As a result, delays occur, which can
materially impact our ability to meet our desired clinical
development timelines.
If we encounter difficulties enrolling patients in our clinical
trials, our clinical development activities could be delayed or
otherwise adversely affected.
Even
if we are permitted to conduct clinical trials for our product
candidates, we may experience difficulties in patient enrollment in
our clinical trials for a variety of reasons. The timely completion
of clinical trials in accordance with their protocols depends,
among other things, on our ability to enroll a sufficient number of
patients who remain in the study until its conclusion. The
enrollment of patients depends on many factors,
including:
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the
patient eligibility criteria defined in the clinical trial
protocol; |
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the
size of the patient population required for analysis of the trial’s
primary endpoints; |
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the
proximity of patients to the study site; |
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the
design of the clinical trial; |
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our
ability to retain clinical trial investigators with the appropriate
competencies and experience; |
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our
ability to obtain and maintain patient consents; |
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the
risk that patients enrolled in clinical trials will drop out of the
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competing
clinical trials and approved therapies available for
patients. |
In
particular, our CAR-T ovarian cancer clinical trial will look to
enroll patients with late stage ovarian cancer who have failed
conventional treatment, and are willing and able to be treated at
Moffitt. Our first breast cancer vaccine clinical trial will look
to enroll patients who have undergone standard of care treatment
for TNBC. Our second breast cancer vaccine clinical trial will look
to enroll healthy women who, as a result of testing positive for
the BRCA1 gene mutation which is a leading predictor of future
incidence of breast cancer, have elected to have prophylactic
mastectomies. These potential trial participants have to be willing
and able to undergo treatment at the Cleveland Clinic.
Our
clinical trials will compete with other companies’ clinical trials
for product candidates that are in the same therapeutic areas as
our product candidates, and this competition will reduce the number
and types of patients available to us, because some patients who
might have opted to enroll in our clinical trials may instead opt
to enroll in a trial being conducted by one of our competitors. We
expect to conduct our clinical trials at the same clinical trial
sites that some of our competitors may use, which will reduce the
number of patients who are available for our clinical trial in
these clinical trial sites. Moreover, because our product
candidates represent a departure from more commonly used methods
for cancer treatment, potential patients and their doctors may be
inclined to use experimental therapies that use conventional
technologies, such as chemotherapy and antibody therapy, rather
than enroll patients in our future clinical trials. Patients may
also be unwilling to participate in our clinical trials because of
negative publicity from adverse events in the biotechnology or gene
therapy industries.
Additionally,
due to the design of our breast cancer vaccine trials it is
unlikely that any of the trial participants will experience a
positive therapeutic effect which may further reduce the number of
patients who may enroll in our trials.
Delays
in patient enrollment may result in increased costs or may affect
the timing or outcome of our planned clinical trials, which could
prevent completion of the clinical trials and adversely affect our
ability to advance the development of our ovarian cancer CAR-T
therapy and our breast cancer vaccine.
Any adverse developments that occur during any clinical trials
conducted by academic investigators, our collaborators or other
entities conducting clinical trials under independent INDs may
negatively affect the conduct of our clinical trials or our ability
to obtain regulatory approvals or commercialize our product
candidates.
CAR-T,
vaccines and other immuno-therapy technologies are being used by
third parties in clinical trials for which we are collaborating or
in clinical trials which are completely independent of our
development programs. We have little to no control over the conduct
of those clinical trials. If serious adverse events occur during
these or any other clinical trials using technologies similar to
ours, the FDA and other regulatory authorities may delay our
clinical trial, or could delay, limit or deny approval of our
product candidates or require us to conduct additional clinical
trials as a condition to marketing approval, which would increase
our costs. If we receive regulatory approval for any product
candidate and a new and serious safety issue is identified in
connection with clinical trials conducted by third parties, the
applicable regulatory authorities may withdraw their approval of
our products or otherwise restrict our ability to market and sell
our products. In addition, treating physicians may be less willing
to administer our products due to concerns over such adverse
events, which would limit our ability to commercialize our
products.
Adverse side effects or other safety risks associated with our
product candidates could cause us to suspend or discontinue
clinical trials or delay or preclude approval.
In
third party clinical trials involving CAR-T cell therapies, the
most prominent acute toxicities included symptoms thought to be
associated with the release of cytokines, such as fever, low blood
pressure and kidney dysfunction. Some patients also experienced
toxicity of the central nervous system, such as confusion, cranial
nerve dysfunction and speech impairment. Adverse side effects
attributed to CAR-T therapies were severe and life-threatening in
some patients. The life-threatening events were related to kidney
dysfunction and toxicities of the central nervous system or other
organ failure. Severe and life-threatening toxicities occurred
primarily in the first two weeks after cell infusion and generally
resolved within three weeks. In the past, several patients have
also died in clinical trials by others involving CAR-T
cells.
Side
effects of our breast cancer vaccine may include mild effects such
as injection site pain or irritation, or more severe side effects
such as fever, inflammation, organ failure or other adverse
effects.
Undesirable
side effects observed in our clinical trials, whether or not they
are caused by our product candidates, could result in the delay,
suspension or termination of clinical trials, by the FDA or other
regulatory authorities or us for a number of reasons. In addition,
because the patients who will be enrolled in our clinical trials
may be suffering from a life-threatening disease and may often be
suffering from multiple complicating conditions it may be difficult
to accurately assess the relationship between our product candidate
and adverse events experienced by very ill patients. If we elect or
are required to delay, suspend or terminate any of our clinical
trials, the commercial prospects of such therapy will be harmed and
our ability to generate product revenues from such therapy will be
delayed or eliminated. In addition, serious adverse events observed
in clinical trials could hinder or prevent market acceptance of the
product candidate at issue. Any of these occurrences may harm our
business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations
significantly.
Clinical trials are expensive, time-consuming and difficult to
design and implement.
Human
clinical trials are expensive and difficult to design and
implement, in part because they are subject to rigorous regulatory
requirements. Because our CAR-T ovarian cancer therapy is based on
relatively new technology and engineered on a patient-by-patient
basis, we expect that it will require extensive research and
development and have substantial manufacturing and processing
costs. In addition, costs to treat patients with
relapsed/refractory cancer and to treat potential side effects that
may result from therapies such as our current and future product
candidates can be significant. Accordingly, our clinical trial
costs are likely to be significantly higher than for more
conventional therapeutic technologies or drug products. In
addition, our proposed personalized product candidates involve
several complex and costly manufacturing and processing steps, the
costs of which will be borne by us.
In
one of our planned breast cancer vaccine clinical trials, we will
treat healthy women who, as a result of testing positive for the
BRCA1 gene mutation, have elected to have prophylactic
mastectomies. Delivering an experimental treatment to a healthy
individual is more complex and subject to more rigorous regulatory
requirements and is more difficult to design and implement. In
addition, in future clinical trials we will need to determine
efficacy of the breast cancer vaccine as a cancer prevention which
will be a considerably more complex clinical trial and will have
significantly greater costs.
The
costs of our clinical trials may increase if the FDA does not agree
with our clinical development plans or requires us to conduct
additional clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy
of our product candidates.
We face significant competition from other biotechnology and
pharmaceutical companies, and our operating results will suffer if
we fail to compete effectively.
The
biopharmaceutical industry is characterized by intense competition
and rapid innovation. Our competitors may be able to develop other
compounds or drugs that are able to achieve similar or better
results. Our potential competitors include major multinational
pharmaceutical companies, established biotechnology companies,
specialty pharmaceutical companies and universities and other
research institutions. Many of our competitors have substantially
greater financial, technical and other resources, such as larger
research and development staff and experienced marketing and
manufacturing organizations and well-established sales forces.
Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant
competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with
large, established companies. Mergers and acquisitions in the
biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries may result in even more
resources being concentrated in our competitors. Competition may
increase further as a result of advances in the commercial
applicability of technologies and greater availability of capital
for investment in these industries. Our competitors, either alone
or with collaborative partners, may succeed in developing,
acquiring or licensing on an exclusive basis drug or biologic
products that are more effective, safer, more easily commercialized
or less costly than our product candidates or may develop
proprietary technologies or secure patent protection that we may
need for the development of our technologies and
products.
Cell-based therapies rely on the availability of specialty raw
materials, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms or
at all.
Gene-modified
cell therapy manufacture requires many specialty raw materials,
some of which are manufactured by small companies with limited
resources and experience to support a commercial product. Some
suppliers typically support biomedical researchers or blood-based
hospital businesses and may not have the capacity to support
commercial products manufactured under cGMP by biopharmaceutical
firms. The suppliers may be ill-equipped to support our needs,
especially in non-routine circumstances like a FDA inspection or
medical crisis, such as widespread contamination. We also do not
have commercial supply arrangements with many of these suppliers,
and may not be able to contract with them on acceptable terms or at
all. Accordingly, we may experience delays in receiving key raw
materials to support clinical or commercial
manufacturing.
In
addition, some raw materials are currently available from a single
supplier, or a small number of suppliers. We cannot be sure that
these suppliers will remain in business, or that they will not be
purchased by one of our competitors or another company that is not
interested in continuing to produce these materials for our
intended purpose.
We may form or seek strategic alliances or enter into additional
licensing arrangements in the future, and we may not realize the
benefits of such alliances or licensing
arrangements.
We
may form or seek strategic alliances, create joint ventures or
collaborations and enter into additional licensing arrangements
with third parties that we believe will complement or augment our
development and commercialization efforts with respect to our
product candidates and any future product candidates that we may
develop. Any of these relationships may require us to incur
non-recurring and other charges, increase our near and long-term
expenditures, issue securities that dilute our existing
stockholders or disrupt our management and business. In addition,
we face significant competition in seeking appropriate strategic
partners and the negotiation process is time-consuming and complex.
Moreover, we may not be successful in our efforts to establish a
strategic partnership or other alternative arrangements for our
product candidates because they may be deemed to be at too early of
a stage of development for collaborative effort and third parties
may not view our product candidates as having the requisite
potential to demonstrate safety and efficacy. If we license
products or businesses, we may not be able to realize the benefit
of such transactions if we are unable to successfully integrate
them with our existing operations and company culture. It is
possible that, following a strategic transaction or license, we may
not achieve the revenue or specific net income that justifies such
transaction. Any delays in entering into new strategic partnership
agreements related to our product candidates could delay the
development and commercialization of our product candidates in
certain geographies for certain indications, which would harm our
business prospects, financial condition and results of
operations.
The FDA regulatory approval process is lengthy and time-consuming,
and we may experience significant delays in the clinical
development and regulatory approval of our product
candidates.
We
have not previously submitted a Biologics License Application
(“BLA”) or a New Drug Application (“NDA”) to the FDA, or similar
approval filings to other foreign authorities. A BLA or NDA must
include extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting
information to establish the product candidate’s safety, purity and
potency for each desired indication. It must also include
significant information regarding the chemistry, manufacturing and
controls for the product. We expect the novel nature of our product
candidates to create further challenges in obtaining regulatory
approval. For example, the FDA has limited experience with
commercial development of T-cell therapies and vaccines for cancer.
The regulatory approval pathway for our product candidates may be
uncertain, complex, expensive and lengthy, and approval may not be
obtained.
We
may also experience delays in completing planned clinical trials
for a variety of reasons, including delays related to:
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the
availability of financial resources to commence and complete our
planned clinical trials; |
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reaching
agreement on acceptable terms with prospective clinical trial
sites, the terms of which can be subject to extensive negotiation
and may vary significantly among different clinical trial
sites; |
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recruiting
suitable patients to participate in a clinical trial; |
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having
patients complete a clinical trial or return for post-treatment
follow-up; |
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clinical
trial sites deviating from clinical trial protocol, failing to
follow GCPs, or dropping out of a clinical trial; |
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new clinical trial sites; or |
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manufacturing
sufficient quantities of qualified materials under cGMPs and
applying them on a subject by subject basis for use in clinical
trials. |
Also,
before a clinical trial can begin at an NIH-funded institution,
that institution’s independent institutional review board, or IRB,
and its Institutional Biosafety Committee must review the proposed
clinical trial to assess the safety of the trial. In addition,
adverse developments in clinical trials of gene therapy products
conducted by others may cause the FDA or other regulatory bodies to
change the requirements for approval of any of our product
candidates.
We
could also encounter delays if physicians encounter unresolved
ethical issues associated with enrolling patients in clinical
trials of our product candidates in lieu of prescribing existing
treatments that have established safety and efficacy profiles.
Further, a clinical trial may be suspended or terminated by us, the
IRBs for the institutions in which such clinical trials are being
conducted, the Data Monitoring Committee for such clinical trial,
or by the FDA or other regulatory authorities due to a number of
factors, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in
accordance with regulatory requirements or our clinical protocols,
inspection of the clinical trial operations or clinical trial site
by the FDA or other regulatory authorities resulting in the
imposition of a clinical hold, unforeseen safety issues or adverse
side effects, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a product
candidate, changes in governmental regulations or administrative
actions or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial.
If we experience termination of, or delays in the completion of,
any clinical trial of our product candidates, the commercial
prospects for our product candidates will be harmed, and our
ability to generate product revenue will be delayed. In addition,
any delays in completing our clinical trials will increase our
costs, slow down our product development and approval process and
jeopardize our ability to commence product sales and generate
revenue.
Many
of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement
or completion of clinical trials may ultimately lead to the denial
of regulatory approval of our product candidates.
Even if we obtain regulatory approval of our product candidates,
the products may not gain market acceptance among physicians,
patients, hospitals, cancer treatment centers, third-party payors
and others in the medical community.
The
use of engineered T-cells as a potential cancer treatment and the
use of therapeutic and prophylactic cancer vaccines are recently
developed technologies and may not become broadly accepted by
physicians, patients, hospitals, cancer treatment centers,
third-party payors and others in the medical community. Many
factors will influence whether our product candidates are accepted
in the market, including:
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the
clinical indications for which our product candidates are
approved; |
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physicians,
hospitals, cancer treatment centers and patients considering our
product candidates as a safe and effective treatment; |
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the
potential and perceived advantages of our product candidates over
alternative treatments; |
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the
prevalence and severity of any side effects; |
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product
labeling or product insert requirements of the FDA or other
regulatory authorities; |
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limitations
or warnings contained in the labeling approved by the FDA or other
regulatory authorities; |
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the
extent and quality of the clinical evidence supporting the efficacy
and safety of our product candidates; |
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the
timing of market introduction of our product candidates as well as
competitive products; |
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the
cost of treatment in relation to alternative
treatments; |
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the
availability of adequate reimbursement and pricing by third-party
payors and government authorities; |
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the
willingness and ability of patients to pay out-of-pocket in the
absence of coverage by third-party payors, including government
authorities; |
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relative
convenience and ease of administration, including as compared to
alternative treatments and competitive therapies; and |
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the
effectiveness of our or any of our strategic partners’ sales and
marketing efforts. |
If
our product candidates are approved but fail to achieve market
acceptance among physicians, patients, hospitals, cancer treatment
centers or others in the medical community, we will not be able to
generate significant revenue. Even if our products achieve market
acceptance, we may not be able to maintain that market acceptance
over time if new products or technologies are introduced that are
more favorably received than our products, are more cost effective
or render our products obsolete.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
If we are unable to obtain and maintain intellectual property
protection, our competitive position will be
harmed.
Our
ability to compete and to achieve sustained profitability will be
impacted by our ability to protect our CAR-T cancer therapeutics
technologies, our breast cancer vaccine technologies, our ovarian
cancer vaccine technologies, our COVID-19 therapeutic technologies
and other proprietary discoveries and technologies. We expect to
rely on a combination of patent protection, copyrights, trademarks,
trade secrets, know-how, and regulatory approvals to protect our
technologies. Our intellectual property strategy is intended to
help develop and maintain our competitive position. While we have
been granted multiple patents related to our technologies, there is
no assurance that we will be able to obtain further patent
protection for our technologies or any other technologies, nor can
we be certain that the steps we will have taken will prevent the
misappropriation and unauthorized use of our technologies. If we
are not able to obtain and maintain patent protection our
competitive position may be harmed.
Third parties may initiate legal proceedings alleging that we are
infringing their intellectual property rights, the outcome of which
would be uncertain and could have a material adverse effect on the
success of our business.
Our
commercial success depends upon our ability to develop,
manufacture, market and sell our CAR-T therapeutics, our breast
cancer vaccine, our ovarian cancer vaccine, our COVID-19 treatment
and other proprietary discoveries and technologies without
infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the proprietary
rights or intellectual property of third parties. We may become
party to, or be threatened with, future adversarial proceedings or
litigation regarding intellectual property rights with respect to
our CAR-T therapeutics, our breast cancer vaccine, our ovarian
cancer vaccine, our COVID-19 treatment and other proprietary
discoveries and technologies. Third parties may assert infringement
claims against us based on existing patents or patents that may be
granted in the future. If we are found to infringe a third-party’s
intellectual property rights, we could be required to obtain a
license from such third-party to continue developing our CAR-T
therapeutics, our breast cancer vaccine, our ovarian cancer
vaccine, our COVID-19 treatment and other proprietary discoveries
and technologies. However, we may not be able to obtain any
required license on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Even
if we were able to obtain a license, it could be non-exclusive,
thereby giving our competitors access to the same technologies
licensed to us. We could be forced, including by court order, to
cease developing the infringing technology or product. In addition,
we could be found liable for monetary damages. Claims that we have
misappropriated the confidential information or trade secrets of
third parties can have a similar negative impact on our
business.
We rely on licenses from Wistar for our CAR-T technology and
Cleveland Clinic for our breast and ovarian cancer vaccine
technologies, and if we lose any of these licenses we may be
subjected to future litigation.
We
are party to royalty-bearing license agreements that grant us
rights to use certain intellectual property, including patents and
patent applications. We may need to obtain additional licenses from
others to advance our research, development and commercialization
activities. Our license agreement imposes, and we expect that
future license agreements if necessary will impose, various
development, diligence, commercialization and other obligations on
us.
In
spite of our efforts, our licensors might conclude that we have
materially breached our obligations under such license agreements
and might therefore terminate the license agreements, thereby
removing or limiting our ability to develop and commercialize
products and technology covered by these license agreements. If
these in-licenses are terminated, or if the underlying patents fail
to provide the intended exclusivity, competitors or other third
parties might have the freedom to seek regulatory approval of, and
to market, products identical to ours and we may be required to
cease our development and commercialization activities. Any of the
foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our competitive
position, business, financial conditions, results of operations and
prospects.
Moreover,
disputes may arise with respect to any one of our licensing
agreements, including:
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the
scope of rights granted under the license agreement and other
interpretation-related issues; |
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the
extent to which our product candidates, technology and processes
infringe on intellectual property of the licensor that is not
subject to the licensing agreement; |
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the
sublicensing of patent and other rights under the licensing
agreement and our collaborative development
relationships; |
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our
diligence obligations under the license agreement and what
activities satisfy those diligence obligations; |
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the
inventorship and ownership of inventions and know-how resulting
from the joint creation or use of intellectual property by our
licensors and us and our partners; and |
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the
priority of invention of patented technology. |
If we
do not prevail in such disputes, we may lose any of such license
agreements.
In
addition, the agreements under which we currently license
intellectual property or technology from third parties are complex,
and certain provisions in such agreements may be susceptible to
multiple interpretations. The resolution of any contract
interpretation disagreement that may arise could narrow what we
believe to be the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual
property or technology, or increase what we believe to be our
financial or other obligations under the relevant agreement, either
of which could have a material adverse effect on our business,
financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Moreover,
if disputes over intellectual property that we have licensed
prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current licensing
arrangements on commercially acceptable terms, we may be unable to
successfully develop and commercialize the affected product
candidates, which could have a material adverse effect on our
business, financial conditions, results of operations and
prospects.
Our
failure to maintain such licenses could have a material adverse
effect on our business, financial condition and results of
operations. Any of these licenses could be terminated, such as if
either party fails to abide by the terms of the license, or if the
licensor fails to prevent infringement by third parties or if the
licensed patents or other rights are found to be invalid or
unenforceable. Absent the license agreements, we may infringe
patents subject to those agreements, and if the license agreements
are terminated, we may be subject to litigation by the licensor.
Litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction
to management. If we do not prevail, we may be required to pay
damages, including treble damages, attorneys’ fees, costs and
expenses, royalties or, be enjoined from selling our products,
which could adversely affect our ability to offer products, our
ability to continue operations and our financial
condition.
If our efforts to protect the proprietary nature of our
technologies are not adequate, we may not be able to compete
effectively in our market.
Any
disclosure to or misappropriation by third parties of our
confidential proprietary information could enable competitors to
quickly duplicate or surpass our technological achievements, thus
eroding our competitive position in our markets. Certain
intellectual property which is covered by our in-license agreements
has been developed at academic institutions which have retained
non-commercial rights to such intellectual property.
There
are several pending U.S. and foreign patent applications in our
portfolio, and we anticipate additional patent applications will be
filed both in the U.S. and in other countries, as appropriate.
However, we cannot predict:
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if
and when patents will issue; |
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the
degree and range of protection any issued patents will afford us
against competitors including whether third parties will find ways
to invalidate or otherwise circumvent our patents; |
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whether
or not others will obtain patents claiming aspects similar to those
covered by our patents and patent applications; or |
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whether
we will need to initiate litigation or administrative proceedings
which may be costly whether we win or lose. |
Composition
of matter patents for biological and pharmaceutical products are
generally considered to be the strongest form of intellectual
property. We cannot be certain that the claims in our pending
patent applications directed to compositions of matter for our
product candidates will be considered patentable by the U.S. Patent
and Trademark Office (the “USPTO”) or by patent offices in foreign
countries, or that the claims in any of our issued patents will be
considered valid by courts in the U.S. or foreign countries. Method
of use patents have claims directed to the use of a product for the
specified method. This type of patent does not prevent a competitor
from making and marketing a product that is identical to our
product for an indication that is outside the scope of the patented
method. Moreover, even if competitors do not actively promote their
product for our targeted indications, physicians may prescribe
these products “off-label.” Although off-label prescriptions may
infringe or contribute to the infringement of method of use
patents, the practice is common and such infringement is difficult
to prevent or prosecute.
The
strength of patents in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical field
involves complex legal and scientific questions and can be
uncertain. The patent applications that we own or in-license may
fail to result in issued patents with claims that cover our product
candidates or uses thereof in the U.S. or in other foreign
countries. Even if the patents do successfully issue, third parties
may challenge the validity, enforceability or scope thereof, which
may result in such patents being narrowed, invalidated or held
unenforceable. Furthermore, even if they are unchallenged, patents
in our portfolio may not adequately exclude third parties from
practicing relevant technology or prevent others from designing
around our claims. If the breadth or strength of our intellectual
property position with respect to our product candidates is
threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us
to develop, and threaten our ability to commercialize, our product
candidates. Further, if we encounter delays in our clinical trials,
the period of time during which we could market our product
candidates under patent protection would be reduced. Since patent
applications in the U.S. and most other countries are confidential
for a period of time after filing, it is possible that patent
applications in our portfolio may not be the first filed patent
applications related to our product candidates. Furthermore, for
U.S. applications in which all claims are entitled to a priority
date before March 16, 2013, an interference proceeding can be
provoked by a third-party or instituted by the USPTO, to determine
who was the first to invent any of the subject matter covered by
the patent claims of our applications. For U.S. applications
containing a claim not entitled to priority before March 16, 2013,
there is a greater level of uncertainty in the patent law with the
passage of the America Invents Act (2012) which brings into effect
significant changes to the U.S. patent laws that are yet untried
and untested, and which introduces new procedures for challenging
pending patent applications and issued patents. A primary change
under this reform is the creation of a “first to file” system in
the U.S. This will require us to be cognizant going forward of the
time from invention to filing of a patent application.
Obtaining and maintaining our patents depends on compliance with
various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other
requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our
patent position could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance
with these requirements.
Periodic
maintenance fees on any issued patent are due to be paid to the
USPTO and foreign patent agencies in several stages over the
lifetime of the patent. The USPTO and various foreign governmental
patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural,
documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the
patent application process. While an inadvertent lapse can in many
cases be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in
accordance with the applicable rules, there are situations in which
noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or
patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent
rights in the relevant jurisdiction. Noncompliance events that
could result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent
application include, but are not limited to, failure to respond to
official actions within prescribed time limits, non-payment of fees
and failure to properly legalize and submit formal documents. Such
noncompliance events are outside of our direct control for (1)
non-U.S. patents and patent applications owned by us, and (2)
patents and patent applications licensed to us by another entity.
In such an event, our competitors might be able to enter the
market, which would have a material adverse effect on our
business.
Issued patents covering our product candidates could be found
invalid or unenforceable if challenged in court or the
USPTO.
If we
or one of our licensing partners initiate legal proceedings against
a third party to enforce a patent covering one of our product
candidates, the defendant could counterclaim that the patent
covering our product candidate, as applicable, is invalid and/or
unenforceable. In patent litigation in the U.S., defendant
counterclaims alleging invalidity and/or unenforceability are
commonplace, and there are numerous grounds upon which a third
party can assert invalidity or unenforceability of a patent. Third
parties may also raise similar claims before administrative bodies
in the U.S. or abroad, even outside the context of litigation. Such
mechanisms include re-examination, post grant review, and
equivalent proceedings in foreign jurisdictions, for example,
opposition proceedings. Any such proceedings could result in
revocation or amendment to our patents in such a way that they no
longer cover our product candidates. The outcome following legal
assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable.
With respect to the validity question, for example, we cannot be
certain that there is no invalidating prior art and that prior art
that was cited during prosecution, but not relied on by the patent
examiner, will not be revisited. If a defendant were to prevail on
a legal assertion of invalidity and/or unenforceability, we would
lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the patents directed to our
product candidates. A loss of patent rights could have a material
adverse impact on our business.
Changes in U.S. patent law could diminish the value of patents in
general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our
products.
As is
the case with other biopharmaceutical companies, our success is
heavily dependent on intellectual property, particularly patents.
Obtaining and enforcing patents in the biopharmaceutical industry
involve both technological and legal complexity, and is therefore
costly, time-consuming and inherently uncertain. In addition, the
U.S. has recently enacted and is currently implementing
wide-ranging patent reform legislation. Recent U.S. Supreme Court
rulings have narrowed the scope of patent protection available in
certain circumstances and weakened the rights of patent owners in
certain situations. In addition to increasing uncertainty with
regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this
combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the
value of patents, once obtained. Depending on decisions by the U.S.
Congress, the federal courts, and the USPTO, the laws and
regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways
that would weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce
our existing patents and patents that we might obtain in the
future. For example, in the case, Assoc. for Molecular Pathology v.
Myriad Genetics, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court held that certain
claims to DNA molecules are not patentable. While we do not believe
that any of the patents owned or licensed by us will be found
invalid based on this decision, we cannot predict how future
decisions by the courts, the U.S. Congress or the USPTO may impact
the value of our patents.
We have limited foreign intellectual property rights and may not be
able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the
world.
We
have limited intellectual property rights outside the U.S. Filing,
prosecuting and defending patents on product candidates in all
countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive,
and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the
U.S. can be less extensive than those in the U.S. In addition, the
laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property
to the same extent as federal and state laws in the U.S.
Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from
practicing our inventions in all countries outside the U.S., or
from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and
into the U.S. or other jurisdictions. Competitors may use our
technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patents to
develop their own products and further, may export otherwise
infringing products to territories where we have patents, but
enforcement is not as strong as that in the U.S. These products may
compete with our products and our patents or other intellectual
property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them
from competing.
Many
companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and
defending intellectual property in foreign jurisdictions. The legal
systems of certain countries, particularly China and certain other
developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents,
trade secrets and other intellectual property, particularly those
relating to biopharmaceutical products, which could make it
difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or
marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary
rights generally. To date, we have not sought to enforce any issued
patents in these foreign jurisdictions. Proceedings to enforce our
patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial
costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of
our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or
interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not
issuing and could provoke third parties to assert claims against
us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate, and the
damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially
meaningful. The requirements for patentability may differ in
certain countries, particularly developing countries. Furthermore,
generic drug manufacturers or other competitors may challenge the
scope, validity or enforceability of our or our licensors’ patents,
requiring us or our licensors to engage in complex, lengthy and
costly litigation or other proceedings. Certain countries in Europe
and developing countries, including China and India, have
compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be
compelled to grant licenses to third parties. In those countries,
we and our licensors may have limited remedies if patents are
infringed or if we or our licensors are compelled to grant a
license to a third party, which could materially diminish the value
of those patents. This could limit our potential revenue
opportunities. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual
property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a
significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property
that we develop or license.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
The issuance or sale of shares in the future to raise money or for
strategic purposes could reduce the market price of our common
stock.
In
the future, we may issue securities to raise cash for operations,
to pay down then existing indebtedness, as consideration for the
acquisition of assets, as consideration for receipt of goods or
services, to pay for the development of our CAR-T cancer
therapeutics, to pay for the development of our breast cancer
vaccine, to pay for the development of our ovarian cancer vaccine,
to pay for the development of our COVID-19 therapeutic and for
acquisitions of companies. We have an at-the-market equity offering
under which, as of January 7, 2021 we may issue up to approximately
$35 million of common stock, which is currently effective and under
which we commenced selling shares in November 2019, and which may
remain available to us in the future. We have and in the future may
issue securities convertible into our common stock. Any of these
events may dilute stockholders’ ownership interests in our company
and have an adverse impact on the price of our common
stock.
In
addition, sales of a substantial amount of our common stock in the
public market, or the perception that these sales may occur, could
reduce the market price of our common stock. This could also impair
our ability to raise additional capital through the sale of our
securities.
Any
actual or anticipated sales of shares by our stockholders may cause
the trading price of our common stock to decline. The sale of a
substantial number of shares of our common stock by our
stockholders, or anticipation of such sales, could make it more
difficult for us to sell equity or equity-related securities in the
future at a time and at a price that we might otherwise wish to
effect sales.
We may fail to meet market expectations because of fluctuations in
quarterly operating results, which could cause the price of our
common stock to decline.
Our
reported revenues and operating results have fluctuated in the past
and may continue to fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter
in the future, specifically as we continue to devote our resources
towards our CAR-T cancer therapeutics, our breast and ovarian
cancer vaccines and our COVID-19 therapeutic. It is possible that
in future periods, we will have no revenue or, in any event,
revenues could fall below the expectations of securities analysts
or investors, which could cause the market price of our common
stock to decline. The following are among the factors that could
cause our operating results to fluctuate significantly from period
to period:
|
● |
patient
enrollment rates for our clinical trials; |
|
|
|
|
● |
delays
with respect to our clinical trials; |
|
|
|
|
● |
clinical
trial results relating to our CAR-T cancer
therapeutics; |
|
|
|
|
● |
clinical
trial results relating to our breast cancer vaccine; |
|
|
|
|
● |
progress
with regulatory authorities towards the certification/approval of
our CAR-T cancer therapeutics, our breast cancer vaccine, our
ovarian cancer vaccine or our COVID-19 therapeutic; |
|
|
|
|
● |
costs
related to acquisitions, alliances and licenses. |
Biotechnology company stock prices are especially volatile, and
this volatility may depress the price of our common
stock.
The
stock market has experienced significant price and volume
fluctuations, and the market prices of biotechnology companies have
been highly volatile. We believe that various factors may cause the
market price of our common stock to fluctuate, perhaps
substantially, including, among others, the following:
|
● |
announcements
of developments in the fields of CAR-T therapeutics, cancer
vaccines or COVID-19 treatments; |
|
|
|
|
● |
developments
in relationships with third party vendors and
laboratories; |
|
|
|
|
● |
developments
or disputes concerning our patents and other intellectual
property; |
|
|
|
|
● |
our
or our competitors’ technological innovations; |
|
|
|
|
● |
variations
in our quarterly operating results; |
|
|
|
|
● |
our
failure to meet or exceed securities analysts’ expectations of our
financial results; |
|
|
|
|
● |
a
change in financial estimates or securities analysts’
recommendations; |
|
|
|
|
● |
changes
in management’s or securities analysts’ estimates of our financial
performance; |
|
|
|
|
● |
announcements
by us or our competitors of significant contracts, acquisitions,
strategic partnerships, joint ventures, capital commitments, new
technologies, or patents; and |
|
|
|
|
● |
the
timing of or our failure to complete significant
transactions. |
In
addition, we believe that fluctuations in our stock price during
applicable periods can also be impacted by changes in governmental
regulations in the drug development industry and/or court rulings
and/or other developments in our remaining patent licensing and
enforcement actions.
In
the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market
price of their stock have been the objects of securities class
action litigation. If our common stock was the object of securities
class action litigation due to volatility in the market price of
our stock, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of
management’s attention and resources, which could materially harm
our business and financial results.
Our common stock is currently listed on NASDAQ Capital Market,
however if our common stock is delisted for any reason, it will
become subject to the Commission’s penny stock rules which may make
our shares more difficult to sell.
If
our common stock is delisted from NASDAQ Capital Market, our common
stock will then fit the definition of a penny stock and therefore
would be subject to the rules adopted by the Commission regulating
broker-dealer practices in connection with transactions in penny
stocks. The Commission rules may have the effect of reducing
trading activity in our common stock making it more difficult for
investors to sell their shares. The Commission’s rules require a
broker or dealer proposing to effect a transaction in a penny stock
to deliver the customer a risk disclosure document that provides
certain information prescribed by the SEC, including, but not
limited to, the nature and level of risks in the penny stock
market. The broker or dealer must also disclose the aggregate
amount of any compensation received or receivable by him in
connection with such transaction prior to consummating the
transaction. In addition, the Commission’s rules also require a
broker or dealer to make a special written determination that the
penny stock is a suitable investment for the purchaser and receive
the purchaser’s written agreement to the transaction before
completion of the transaction. The existence of the Commission’s
rules may result in a lower trading volume of our common stock and
lower trading prices.
We have issued a significant number of securities pursuant to our
incentive plans and may continue to do so in the future. The
vesting and, if applicable, exercise of these securities and the
sale of the shares of common stock issuable thereunder may dilute
your percentage ownership interest and may also result in downward
pressure on the price of our common stock.
As of
the date of this prospectus, we have issued and outstanding options
to purchase 8,641,254 shares of our common stock with a weighted
average exercise price of $3.16 and 1,500,000 restricted stock
awards (including options to purchase 1,500,000 shares of our
common stock and a restricted stock award of 1,500,000 shares of
our common stock that vest based upon achievement of certain stock
price based milestones issued to Dr. Kumar in May 2018). Further,
as of the date of this prospectus, our Board of Directors and
Compensation Committee have the authority to issue awards totaling
an additional 2,000,000 shares of our common stock. Additionally,
we have registered for resale all of the shares of common stock
issuable under our incentive plans. Because the market for our
common stock is thinly traded, the sales and/or the perception that
those sales may occur, could adversely affect the market price of
our common stock. Furthermore, the mere existence of a significant
number of shares of common stock issuable upon vesting and, if
applicable, exercise of these securities may be perceived by the
market as having a potential dilutive effect, which could lead to a
decrease in the price of our common stock.
We are a smaller reporting company and the reduced reporting
requirements applicable to smaller reporting companies may make our
common stock less attractive to investors.
We
are a smaller reporting company (“SRC”) and a non-accelerated
filer, which allows us to take advantage of exemptions from various
reporting requirements that are applicable to other public
companies that are not SRCs or non-accelerated filers, including
not being required to comply with the auditor attestation
requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as
amended, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive
compensation in our Annual Report and our periodic reports and
proxy statements and providing only two years of audited financial
statements in our Annual Report and our periodic reports. We will
remain an SRC until (a) the aggregate market value of our
outstanding common stock held by non-affiliates as of the last
business day our most recently completed second fiscal quarter
exceeds $250 million or (b) (1) we have over $100 million in annual
revenues and (2) the aggregate market value of our outstanding
common stock held by non-affiliates as of the last business day our
most recently completed second fiscal quarter exceeds $700 million.
We cannot predict whether investors will find our common stock less
attractive if we rely on certain or all of these exemptions. If
some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result,
there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and
our stock price may be more volatile and may decline.
Changes in accounting rules, assumptions and/or judgments could
materially and adversely affect us.
Accounting
rules and interpretations for certain aspects of our operations are
highly complex and involve significant assumptions and judgment.
These complexities could lead to a delay in the preparation and
dissemination of our financial statements. Furthermore, changes in
accounting rules and interpretations or in our accounting
assumptions and/or judgments, such as asset impairments, could
significantly impact our financial statements. In some cases, we
could be required to apply a new or revised standard retroactively,
resulting in restating prior period financial statements. Any of
these circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our
business, prospects, liquidity, financial condition and results of
operations.
We do not anticipate declaring any cash dividends on our common
stock which may adversely impact the market price of our
stock.
We
have never declared or paid cash dividends on our common stock and
do not plan to pay any cash dividends in the near future. Our
current policy is to retain all funds and any earnings for use in
the operation and expansion of our business. If we do not pay
dividends, our stock may be less valuable to you because a return
on your investment will only occur if our stock price
appreciates.
Risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic
Our business activities are expected to be adversely affected by
the global COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19
has spread globally and the World Health Organization (WHO) has
declared it a pandemic. While still evolving, the COVID-19 pandemic
has caused significant worldwide economic and financial turmoil,
and has fueled concerns that it will lead to a global recession. On
March 13, 2020, the United States declared a national emergency
with respect to COVID-19 and the majority of states and U.S.
territories, including the State of California, have since issued
orders requiring the closure of non-essential businesses and/or
requiring residents to stay at home. As the pandemic has evolved
since March 2020, some restriction have eased, however, with the
recent surge of infection and hospitalization rates, more severe
restrictions are being implemented by local government agencies.
The Company is following the recommendations of local health
authorities to minimize exposure risk for its team members and
visitors, including requiring its employees to work from home. The
continued and prolonged implementation of restrictions by federal,
state and local authorities to slow the spread of COVID-19 have
disrupted and, we expect, will continue to disrupt, our business
and operations.
Specifically,
the pandemic has caused periodic shutdowns of the laboratories and
other service providers that we rely on to develop our programs,
and those laboratories and service providers that have been
operating or that have begun operating recently have been doing so
with limited capacity due to social distancing requirements. As a
result, our progress has been slowed and there is no assurance that
we will be able to meet our previously announced timelines
regarding the development of our programs.
The
extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacts our business,
operations and financial results will depend on numerous evolving
factors that we may not be able to accurately predict, including:
the duration and scope of the pandemic; governmental, business and
individuals’ actions that have been and continue to be taken in
response to the pandemic; the impact of the pandemic on economic
activity and actions taken in response; our ability to continue
daily operations, including as a result of travel restrictions and
people working from home; and any closures of our and our business
partners’ offices and facilities.
While
the Company is currently implementing solutions designed to reduce
the potential impact of COVID-19, there can be no assurance that
our efforts will adequately mitigate the risks of business
disruptions and interruptions. Further, events such as natural
disasters and public health emergencies divert our attention away
from normal operations and limited resources. Our inability to
timely resume normal operations following the pandemic disruption
could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results
of operations in a material manner.
Any
of these events could materially adversely affect our business,
financial condition, results of operations and/or stock
price.
SELLING STOCKHOLDERS
The
following table sets forth (a) the name and position or positions
with the Company of each Selling Stockholder; (b) the aggregate of
(i) the number of shares of Common Stock held by each Selling
Stockholder as of the date of this prospectus (including shares
purchased pursuant to the ESPP) and (ii) the number of shares
issuable upon exercise of options granted to each Selling
Stockholder under the 2018 Plan, the 2010 Plan and the Option
Agreements that are being registered pursuant to this Registration
Statement for resale by each Selling Stockholder as of the date of
this prospectus; (c) the number of shares of Common Stock that each
Selling Stockholder may offer for sale from time to time pursuant
to this prospectus, whether or not such Selling Stockholder has a
present intention to do so; and (d) the number of shares of Common
Stock to be beneficially owned by each Selling Stockholder
following the sale of all shares that may be so offered pursuant to
this prospectus, assuming no other change in ownership of Common
Stock by such Selling Stockholder after the date of this
prospectus. Unless otherwise indicated, beneficial ownership is
direct and the person indicated has sole voting and investment
power.
To
our knowledge, none of our officers and directors have a present
intention to offer shares of Common stock for sale, although they
retain the right to do so.
Inclusion
of an individual’s name in the table below does not constitute an
admission that such individual is an “affiliate” of the
Company.
Selling Stockholder |
|
Principal Position with the Company (1) |
|
Shares Owned Prior to Resale (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7) |
|
|
Number of Shares Offered for Resale |
|
|
Shares Beneficially Owned After Resale (7) |
|
|
|
|
|
Number |
|
|
Percent |
|
|
|
|
|
Number |
|
|
Percent |
|
Dr.
Amit Kumar |
|
President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board |
|
|
6,262,000 |
|
|
|
20.48 |
% |
|
|
6,000,000 |
|
|
|
262,000 |
|
|
|
* |
|
Michael J.
Catelani |
|
Chief Financial
Officer and Chief Operating Officer |
|
|
957,749 |
|
|
|
3.54 |
% |
|
|
955,499 |
|
|
|
2,250 |
|
|
|
* |
|
Lewis H.
Titterton, Jr. |
|
Director |
|
|
1,705,326 |
|
|
|
6.37 |
% |
|
|
737,400 |
|
|
|
967,926 |
|
|
|
3.62 |
% |
Dr. John
Monahan |
|
Director |
|
|
238,900 |
|
|
|
* |
|
|
|
238,000 |
|
|
|
900 |
|
|
|
* |
|
Dr. Arnold
Baskies |
|
Director |
|
|
199,000 |
|
|
|
* |
|
|
|
158,000 |
|
|
|
41,000 |
|
|
|
* |
|
David
Cavalier |
|
Director |
|
|
122,000 |
|
|
|
* |
|
|
|
120,000 |
|
|
|
2,000 |
|
|
|
* |
|
Emily
Gottschalk |
|
Director |
|
|
75,000 |
|
|
|
* |
|
|
|
75,000 |
|
|
|
– |
|
|
|
* |
|
*
Less than 1%.
|
(1) |
All
positions described are with the Company, unless otherwise
indicated. |
|
|
|
|
(2) |
The
number of shares owned prior to resale by each Selling Stockholder
includes (i) shares of Common Stock (inclusive of shares purchased
pursuant to the ESPP and restricted shares granted under the 2018
Plan) and (ii) shares issuable upon exercise of options granted to
such Selling Stockholders under the 2018 Plan, the 2010 Plan and
the Option Agreements that are being registered pursuant to this
prospectus for resale. Some of these shares may have been sold
prior to the date of this prospectus. |
|
|
|
|
(3) |
Includes
1,500,000 restricted shares of Common Stock awarded to Dr. Amit
Kumar pursuant to the 2018 Plan for which Dr. Kumar has voting
rights but that vest only if during any 20 trading day period on or
before May 31, 2021 in which Dr. Kumar is employed by the Company,
the average closing stock price of the issuer’s common stock is at
least $11.00. |
|
|
|
|
(4) |
Includes
3,620,000 shares, 700,000 shares, 75,000 shares, 75,000 shares,
75,000 shares, 75,000 shares, 75,000 shares and 4,695,000 shares
which Dr. Amit Kumar, Michael J. Catelani, Lewis H. Titterton, Jr.,
Dr. John Monahan, Dr. Arnold Baskies, David Cavalier, Emily
Gottschalk and all directors and executive officers as a group,
respectively, have the right to acquire upon exercise of options
granted pursuant to the 2018 Plan. |
|
|
|
|
(5) |
Includes
240,000 shares, 250,000 shares, 524,000 shares, 113,000 shares,
83,000 shares, 45,000 shares and 1,255,000 shares which Dr. Amit
Kumar, Michael J. Catelani, Lewis H. Titterton, Jr., Dr. John
Monahan, Dr. Arnold Baskies, David Cavalier and all directors and
executive officers as a group, respectively, have the right to
acquire upon exercise of options granted pursuant to the 2010
Plan. |
|
|
|
|
(6) |
Includes
640,000 shares, 86,000 shares, and 726,000 shares which Dr. Amit
Kumar, Lewis H. Titterton, Jr. and all directors and executive
officers as a group, respectively, have the right to acquire
pursuant to the Option Agreements with the Company. |
|
|
|
|
(7) |
Percentage
is computed with reference to 26,076,819 shares of our Common Stock
outstanding as of January 7, 2021 and assumes for each Selling
Stockholder the sale of all shares offered by that particular
Selling Stockholder under this prospectus. |
The
Company may supplement this prospectus from time to time as
required by the rules of the Commission to include certain
information concerning the security ownership of the Selling
Stockholders or any new Selling Stockholders, the number of
securities offered for resale and the position, office or other
material relationship which a Selling Stockholder has had within
the past three years with the Company or any of its predecessors or
affiliates.
USE OF PROCEEDS
We
will not receive any proceeds from the resale of our Common Stock
by the Selling Stockholders pursuant to this prospectus. However,
we will receive the exercise price of any Common Stock issued to
the Selling Stockholders upon cash exercise by them of their
options. We would expect to use these proceeds, if any, for general
working capital purposes. We have agreed to pay the expenses of
registration of these shares.
PLAN OF DISTRIBUTION
In
this section of the prospectus, the term “Selling Stockholder”
means and includes:
|
● |
the
persons identified in the table above as the Selling
Stockholders;
|
|
● |
those
persons whose identities are not known as of the date hereof but
may in the future be eligible to receive options under the 2018
Plan, and 2010 Plan or be eligible to purchase shares under the
ESPP; and
|
|
|
|
|
● |
any
of the donees, pledgees, distributees, transferees or other
successors in interest of those persons referenced above who may:
(a) receive any of the shares of our common stock offered hereby
after the date of this prospectus and (b) offer or sell those
shares hereunder. |
The
shares of our Common Stock offered by this prospectus may be sold
from time to time directly by the Selling Stockholders.
Alternatively, the Selling Stockholders may from time to time offer
such shares through underwriters, brokers, dealers, agents or other
intermediaries. The Selling Stockholders as of the date of this
prospectus have advised us that there were no underwriting or
distribution arrangements entered into with respect to the Common
Stock offered hereby. The distribution of the Common Stock by the
Selling Stockholders may be effected: in one or more transactions
that may take place on The NASDAQ Capital Market (including one or
more block transaction) through customary brokerage channels,
either through brokers acting as agents for the Selling
Stockholders, or through market makers, dealers or underwriters
acting as principals who may resell these shares on The NASDAQ
Capital Market; in privately-negotiated sales; by a combination of
such methods; or by other means. These transactions may be effected
at market prices prevailing at the time of sale, at prices related
to such prevailing market prices or at other negotiated prices.
Usual and customary or specifically negotiated brokerage fees or
commissions may be paid by the Selling Stockholders in connection
with sales of our Common Stock.
The
Selling Stockholders may enter into hedging transactions with
broker-dealers in connection with distributions of the shares or
otherwise. In such transactions, broker-dealers may engage in short
sales of the shares of our Common Stock in the course of hedging
the positions they assume with the Selling Stockholders. The
Selling Stockholders also may sell shares short and redeliver the
shares to close out such short positions. The Selling Stockholders
may enter into option or other transactions with broker-dealers
which require the delivery to the broker-dealer of shares of our
Common Stock. The broker-dealer may then resell or otherwise
transfer such shares of Common Stock pursuant to this
prospectus.
The
Selling Stockholders also may lend or pledge shares of our Common
Stock to a broker-dealer. The broker-dealer may sell the shares of
Common Stock so lent, or upon a default the broker-dealer may sell
the pledged shares of Common Stock pursuant to this prospectus. Any
securities covered by this prospectus which qualify for sale
pursuant to Rule 144 may be sold under Rule 144 rather than
pursuant to this prospectus.
The
Selling Stockholders have advised us that they have not entered
into any agreements, understandings or arrangements with any
underwriters or broker-dealers regarding the sale of their
securities. There is no underwriter or coordinating broker acting
in connection with the proposed sale of shares of Common Stock the
Selling Stockholders.
Although
the shares of Common Stock covered by this prospectus are not
currently being underwritten, the Selling Stockholders or their
underwriters, brokers, dealers or other agents or other
intermediaries, if any, that may participate with the selling
security holders in any offering or distribution of Common Stock
may be deemed “underwriters” within the meaning of the Securities
Act and any profits realized or commissions received by them may be
deemed underwriting compensation thereunder.
Under
applicable rules and regulations under the Exchange Act, any person
engaged in a distribution of shares of the Common Stock offered
hereby may not simultaneously engage in market making activities
with respect to the Common Stock for a period of up to five days
preceding such distribution. The Selling Stockholders will be
subject to the applicable provisions of the Exchange Act and the
rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, including without
limitation Regulation M, which provisions may limit the timing of
purchases and sales by the Selling Stockholders.
In
order to comply with certain state securities or blue sky laws and
regulations, if applicable, the Common Stock offered hereby will be
sold in such jurisdictions only through registered or licensed
brokers or dealers. In certain states, the Common Stock may not be
sold unless they are registered or qualified for sale in such
state, or unless an exemption from registration or qualification is
available and is obtained.
We
will bear all costs, expenses and fees in connection with the
registration of the Common Stock offered hereby. However, the
Selling Stockholders will bear any brokerage or underwriting
commissions and similar selling expenses, if any, attributable to
the sale of the shares of Common Stock offered pursuant to this
prospectus. We have agreed to indemnify the Selling Stockholders
against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the
Securities Act, or to contribute to payments to which any of those
security holders may be required to make in respect
thereof.
There
can be no assurance that the Selling Stockholders will sell any or
all of the securities offered by them hereby.
LEGAL MATTERS
The
validity of the securities being offered herein has been passed
upon for us by Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP, New York, New
York.
EXPERTS
The
consolidated financial statements of Anixa Biosciences, Inc. and
subsidiaries as of October 31, 2020 and 2019, and for each of the
years in the two-year period ended October 31, 2020, have been
included in the registration statement in reliance upon the report
of Haskell & White LLP, independent registered public
accounting firm, and upon the authority of said firm as experts in
accounting and auditing.
DISCLOSURE
OF COMMISSION POSITION ON
INDEMNIFICATION
FOR SECURITIES LAWS VIOLATIONS
Section
145 of the DGCL inter alia, empowers a Delaware corporation to
indemnify any person who was or is a party or is threatened to be
made a party to any threatened, pending or completed action, suit
or proceeding (other than an action by or in the right of the
corporation) by reason of the fact that such person is or was a
director, officer, employee or agent of the corporation, or is or
was serving at the request of the corporation as a director,
officer, employee or agent of another corporation or other
enterprise, against expenses (including attorneys’ fees),
judgments, fines and amounts paid in settlement actually and
reasonably incurred by him in connection with such action, suit or
proceeding if he acted in good faith and in a manner he reasonably
believed to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the
corporation, and, with respect to any criminal action or
proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe his conduct was
unlawful. Similar indemnity is authorized for such persons against
expenses (including attorneys’ fees) actually and reasonably
incurred in connection with the defense or settlement of any such
threatened, pending or completed action or suit if such person
acted in good faith and in a manner he reasonably believed to be in
or not opposed to the best interests of the corporation, and
provided further that (unless a court of competent jurisdiction
otherwise provides) such person shall not have been adjudged liable
to the corporation. Any such indemnification may be made only as
authorized in each specific case upon a determination by the
stockholders or disinterested directors or by independent legal
counsel in a written opinion that indemnification is proper because
the indemnitee has met the applicable standard of
conduct.
Section
145 further authorizes a corporation to purchase and maintain
insurance on behalf of any person who is or was a director,
officer, employee or agent of the corporation, or is or was serving
at the request of the corporation as a director, officer, employee
or agent of another corporation or enterprise, against any
liability asserted against him and incurred by him in any such
capacity, or arising out of his status as such, whether or not the
corporation would otherwise have the power to indemnify him under
Section 145. We maintain policies insuring our officers and
directors against certain liabilities for actions taken in such
capacities, including liabilities under the Securities
Act.
Section
102(b)(7) of the DGCL permits a corporation to include in its
certificate of incorporation a provision eliminating or limiting
the personal liability of a director to the corporation or its
shareholders for monetary damages for breach of fiduciary duty as a
director, provided that such provision shall not eliminate or limit
the liability of a director (i) for any breach of the director’s
duty of loyalty to the corporation or its stockholders, (ii) for
acts or omissions not in good faith or which involve intentional
misconduct or a knowing violation of law, (iii) under Section 174
of the DGCL (relating to unlawful payment of dividends and unlawful
stock purchase or redemption) or (iv) for any transaction from
which the director derived an improper personal benefit.
Article
10 of the bylaws of the Company contains provisions which are
designed to provide mandatory indemnification of directors and
officers of the Company to the full extent permitted by law, as now
in effect or later amended. The bylaws further provide that, if and
to the extent required by the DGCL, an advance payment of expenses
to a director or officer of the Company that is entitled to
indemnification will only be made upon delivery to the Company of
an undertaking, by or on behalf of the director or officer, to
repay all amounts so advanced if it is ultimately determined that
such director is not entitled to indemnification.
You
should rely only on the information contained in this document. We
have not authorized anyone to provide you with information that is
different. This document may only be used where it is legal to sell
these securities. The information in this document may only be
accurate on the date of this document.
Additional
risks and uncertainties not presently known or that are currently
deemed immaterial may also impair our business operations. The
risks and uncertainties described in this document and other risks
and uncertainties which we may face in the future will have a
greater impact on those who purchase our common stock. These
purchasers will purchase our common stock at the market price or at
a privately negotiated price and will run the risk of losing their
entire investment.
ANIXA
BIOSCIENCES, INC.
10,510,713
Shares of
Common
Stock
PROSPECTUS
January
7, 2021
PART
II
INFORMATION
NOT REQUIRED IN PROSPECTUS
Item
3. |
Incorporation
of Documents by Reference |
We
are “incorporating by reference” in this prospectus certain
documents we file with the Commission, which means that we can
disclose important information to you by referring you to those
documents. The information in the documents incorporated by
reference is considered to be part of this prospectus. Statements
contained in documents that we file with the Commission and that
are incorporated by reference in this prospectus will automatically
update and supersede information contained in this prospectus,
including information in previously filed documents or reports that
have been incorporated by reference in this prospectus, to the
extent the new information differs from or is inconsistent with the
old information. We have filed or may file the following documents
with the Commission and they are incorporated herein by reference
as of their respective dates of filing.
|
(i) |
our
Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31,
2020; |
|
|
|
|
(ii) |
our
Current Report on Form 8-K dated December 1, 2020; |
|
|
|
|
(iii) |
our
Definitive Proxy Statements on Schedule 14A filed on July 2, 2020;
and |
|
|
|
|
(iv) |
the
description of our Common Stock contained in our Current Report on
Form 8-K filed on March 31, 2014 and as it may further be amended
from time to time. |
All
documents that we filed with the Commission pursuant to Sections
13(a), 13(c), 14, and 15(d) of the Exchange Act subsequent to the
date of this prospectus that indicates that all securities offered
under this prospectus have been sold, or that deregisters all
securities then remaining unsold, will be deemed to be incorporated
in this prospectus by reference and to be a part hereof from the
date of filing of such documents.
Any
statement contained in a document incorporated or deemed to be
incorporated by reference in this prospectus shall be deemed
modified, superseded or replaced for purposes of this prospectus to
the extent that a statement contained in this prospectus, or in any
subsequently filed document that also is deemed to be incorporated
by reference in this prospectus, modifies, supersedes or replaces
such statement. Any statement so modified, superseded or replaced
shall not be deemed, except as so modified, superseded or replaced,
to constitute a part of this prospectus. None of the information
that we disclose under Items 2.02 or 7.01 of any Current Report on
Form 8-K or any corresponding information, either furnished under
Item 9.01 or included as an exhibit therein, that we may from time
to time furnish to the Commission will be incorporated by reference
into, or otherwise included in, this prospectus, except as
otherwise expressly set forth in the relevant document. Subject to
the foregoing, all information appearing in this prospectus is
qualified in its entirety by the information appearing in the
documents incorporated by reference.
You
may request, orally or in writing, a copy of these documents, which
will be provided to you at no cost (other than exhibits, unless
such exhibits are specifically incorporated by reference), by
contacting Dr. Amit Kumar, c/o Anixa Biosciences, Inc., at 3150
Almaden Expressway, Suite 250, San Jose, CA 95118. Our telephone
number is (408) 708-9808. Information about us is also available at
our website at http://www.anixa.com. However, the
information in our website is not a part of this prospectus and is
not incorporated by reference.
Item
4. |
Description
of Securities |
Not
applicable.
Item
5. |
Interests
of Named Experts and Counsel |
Not
applicable.
Item
6. |
Indemnification
of Officers and Directors |
Section
145 of the DGCL inter alia, empowers a Delaware corporation to
indemnify any person who was or is a party or is threatened to be
made a party to any threatened, pending or completed action, suit
or proceeding (other than an action by or in the right of the
corporation) by reason of the fact that such person is or was a
director, officer, employee or agent of the corporation, or is or
was serving at the request of the corporation as a director,
officer, employee or agent of another corporation or other
enterprise, against expenses (including attorneys’ fees),
judgments, fines and amounts paid in settlement actually and
reasonably incurred by him in connection with such action, suit or
proceeding if he acted in good faith and in a manner he reasonably
believed to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the
corporation, and, with respect to any criminal action or
proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe his conduct was
unlawful. Similar indemnity is authorized for such persons against
expenses (including attorneys’ fees) actually and reasonably
incurred in connection with the defense or settlement of any such
threatened, pending or completed action or suit if such person
acted in good faith and in a manner he reasonably believed to be in
or not opposed to the best interests of the corporation, and
provided further that (unless a court of competent jurisdiction
otherwise provides) such person shall not have been adjudged liable
to the corporation. Any such indemnification may be made only as
authorized in each specific case upon a determination by the
stockholders or disinterested directors or by independent legal
counsel in a written opinion that indemnification is proper because
the indemnitee has met the applicable standard of
conduct.
Section
145 further authorizes a corporation to purchase and maintain
insurance on behalf of any person who is or was a director,
officer, employee or agent of the corporation, or is or was serving
at the request of the corporation as a director, officer, employee
or agent of another corporation or enterprise, against any
liability asserted against him and incurred by him in any such
capacity, or arising out of his status as such, whether or not the
corporation would otherwise have the power to indemnify him under
Section 145. We maintain policies insuring our officers and
directors against certain liabilities for actions taken in such
capacities, including liabilities under the Securities
Act.
Section
102(b)(7) of the DGCL permits a corporation to include in its
certificate of incorporation a provision eliminating or limiting
the personal liability of a director to the corporation or its
shareholders for monetary damages for breach of fiduciary duty as a
director, provided that such provision shall not eliminate or limit
the liability of a director (i) for any breach of the director’s
duty of loyalty to the corporation or its stockholders, (ii) for
acts or omissions not in good faith or which involve intentional
misconduct or a knowing violation of law, (iii) under Section 174
of the DGCL (relating to unlawful payment of dividends and unlawful
stock purchase or redemption) or (iv) for any transaction from
which the director derived an improper personal benefit.
Article
10 of the bylaws of the Company contains provisions which are
designed to provide mandatory indemnification of directors and
officers of the Company to the full extent permitted by law, as now
in effect or later amended. The bylaws further provide that, if and
to the extent required by the DGCL, an advance payment of expenses
to a director or officer of the Company that is entitled to
indemnification will only be made upon delivery to the Company of
an undertaking, by or on behalf of the director or officer, to
repay all amounts so advanced if it is ultimately determined that
such director is not entitled to indemnification.
Item
7. |
Exemption
from Registration Claimed |
Not
applicable.
The
following exhibits are filed with this Registration
Statement.
Number |
|
Description |
|
|
|
4.1 |
|
2010 Share Incentive Plan.
(Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to our Form 8-K, dated
July 20, 2010.) |
|
|
|
4.2 |
|
Amendment No. 1 to the 2010 Share
Incentive Plan. (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to our
Form 8-K, dated July 7, 2011.) |
|
|
|
4.3 |
|
Amendment No. 2 to the 2010 Share
Incentive Plan. (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to our
Form 8-K, dated September 5, 2012.) |
|
|
|
4.4 |
|
Amendment
No. 3 to the 2010 Share Incentive Plan (Incorporated by reference
to Exhibit 10.1 to our Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended
January 31, 2014.) |
|
|
|
4.5 |
|
Form of Time Based Stock Option Award
Agreement (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.13 to our Form
S-8 dated October 12, 2012.) |
|
|
|
4.6 |
|
Form of Time Based Stock Option Award
Agreement (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.14 to our Form
S-8 dated October 12, 2012.) |
|
|
|
4.7 |
|
Form
of Performance Based Stock Option Award Agreement (Portions of
Section 12 of this exhibit have been redacted and filed separately
with the Commission in accordance with a request for confidential
treatment, dated October 12, 2012, pursuant to Rule 406 under the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended.) (Incorporated by reference to
Exhibit 4.15 to our Form S-8 dated October 12,
2012.) |
4.8 |
|
Form
of Stock Option Agreement under the 2010 Share Incentive Plan (time
based vesting for employee participants). (Incorporated by
reference to Exhibit 4.16 to our Form S-8 dated October 12,
2012.) |
|
|
|
4.9 |
|
Form
of Stock Option Agreement under the 2010 Share Incentive Plan (for
employee participants). (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2
to our Form 8-K dated July 20, 2010.) |
|
|
|
4.10 |
|
Form
of Stock Option Agreement under the 2010 Share Incentive Plan (for
director participants). (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.3
to our Form 8-K dated July 20, 2010.) |
|
|
|
4.11 |
|
Form
of Stock Award Agreement under the 2010 Share Incentive Plan.
(Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.4 to our Form 8-K dated
July 20, 2010.) |
|
|
|
4.12 |
|
Form of Time Based Stock Option Award
Agreement (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.21 to our Form
S-8 dated March 3, 2015.) |
|
|
|
4.13 |
|
2018
Share Incentive Plan (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.13 of
our Registration Statement on Form S-8 filed on October 1,
2018.)
|
|
|
|
4.14 |
|
Form
of Stock Option Agreement (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit
4.14 of our Registration Statement on Form S-8 filed on October 1,
2018.)
|
|
|
|
4.15 |
|
Form
of Restricted Stock Award (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit
4.15 of our Registration Statement on Form S-8 filed on October 1,
2018.)
|
|
|
|
4.16 |
|
Employee
Stock Purchase Plan (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.16 of
our Registration Statement on Form S-8 filed on October 1,
2018.)
|
|
|
|
5.1 |
|
Opinion
of Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP (Filed
herewith) |
|
|
|
5.2 |
|
Opinion
of Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP (Incorporated by reference to
Exhibit 5.1 of our Registration Statement on Form S-8 filed on
October 1, 2018.)
|
|
|
|
5.3 |
|
Opinion
of Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP (Incorporated by reference to
Exhibit 5.1 of our Registration Statement on Form S-8 filed on
February 14, 2018.)
|
|
|
|
5.4 |
|
Opinion
of Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP (Incorporated by reference to
Exhibit 5.1 of our Registration Statement on Form S-8 filed on
March 3, 2015.)
|
|
|
|
5.5 |
|
Opinion
of Duane Morris LLP (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 5.1 of
our Registration Statement on Form S-8 filed on October 12,
2012.)
|
|
|
|
5.6 |
|
Opinion
of Duane Morris LLP (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 5.1 of
our Registration Statement on Form S-8 filed on July 7,
2011.)
|
|
|
|
5.7 |
|
Opinion
of Duane Morris LLP (Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 5.1 of
our Registration Statement on Form S-8 filed on July 20,
2010.)
|
|
|
|
23.1 |
|
Consent
of Haskell & White LLP. (Filed herewith.) |
|
|
|
23.2 |
|
Consent
of Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP (included in Exhibit
5.1) |
|
|
|
24 |
|
Powers
of Attorney (included on signature page) |
(a)
The undersigned registrant hereby undertakes:
(1)
To file, during any period in which offers or sales are being made,
a post-effective amendment to this registration
statement
(i)
To include any material information with respect to the plan of
distribution not previously disclosed in the registration statement
or any material change to such information in the registration
statement.
(2)
That, for the purpose of determining any liability under the
Securities Act of 1933, each such post-effective amendment shall be
deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the
securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at
that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering
thereof.
(3)
To remove from registration by means of a post-effective amendment
any of the securities being registered which remain unsold at the
termination of the offering.
(4)
That prior to any public reoffering of the securities registered
hereunder through use of a prospectus which is a part of this
registration statement, by any person or party who is deemed to be
an underwriter within the meaning of Rule 145(c), such reoffering
prospectus will contain the information called for by the
applicable registration form with respect to reofferings by persons
who may be deemed underwriters, in addition to the information
called for by the other items of the applicable form.
(5)
That every prospectus (i) that is filed pursuant to paragraph (4)
immediately preceding, or (ii) that purports to meet the
requirements of Section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act of 1933 and
is used in connection with an offering of securities subject to
Rule 415, will be filed as a part of an amendment to the
registration statement and will not be used until such amendment is
effective, and that, for purposes of determining any liability
under the Securities Act of 1933, each such post-effective
amendment shall be deemed to be a new registration statement
relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of
such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona
fide offering thereof.
(6)
That, for purposes of determining any liability under the
Securities Act of 1933, each filing of the registrant’s annual
report pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934 (and, where applicable, each filing of an
employee benefit plan’s annual report pursuant to Section 15(d) of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) that is incorporated by
reference in the registration statement shall be deemed to be a new
registration statement relating to the securities offered therein,
and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to
be the initial bona fide offering thereof.
(7)
To respond to requests for information that is incorporated by
reference into the joint proxy statement/prospectus pursuant to
Item 4, 10(b), 11 or 13 of this form, within one business day of
receipt of such request, and to send the incorporated documents by
first class mail or other equally prompt means. This includes
information contained in documents filed subsequent to the
effective date of the registration statement through the date of
responding to the request.
(8)
To supply by means of a post-effective amendment all information
concerning a transaction, and the company being acquired involved
therein, that was not the subject of and included in the
registration statement when it became effective.
(b)
Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the
Securities Act of 1933 may be permitted to directors, officers and
controlling persons of the registrant pursuant to the foregoing
provisions, or otherwise, the registrant has been advised that in
the opinion of the Securities and Exchange Commission such
indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the
Securities Act and is, therefore, unenforceable. In the event that
a claim for indemnification against such liabilities (other than
the payment by the registrant of expenses incurred or paid by a
director, officer or controlling person of the registrant in the
successful defense of any action, suit or proceeding) is asserted
by such director, officer or controlling person in connection with
the securities being registered, the registrant will, unless in the
opinion of its counsel the matter has been settled by controlling
precedent, submit to a court of appropriate jurisdiction the
question whether such indemnification by it is against public
policy as expressed in the Securities Act and will be governed by
the final adjudication of such issue.
(c)
The undersigned registrant hereby undertakes that, for purposes of
determining any liability under the Securities Act of 1933, each
filing of the registrant’s annual report pursuant to section 13(a)
or section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (and, where
applicable, each filing of an employee benefit plan’s annual report
pursuant to section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934)
that is incorporated by reference in the registration statement
shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the
securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at
that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering
thereof.
SIGNATURES
Pursuant
to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, the
registrant certifies that it has reasonable grounds to believe that
it meets all of the requirements for filing on Form S-8 and has
duly caused this registration statement to be signed on its behalf
by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, on January 7,
2021.
|
ANIXA
BIOSCIENCES, INC. |
|
|
|
|
By: |
/s/
Dr. Amit Kumar |
|
|
Dr.
Amit Kumar |
|
|
President
and Chief Executive Officer |
POWER OF ATTORNEY
KNOW
ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears
below constitutes and appoints Dr. Amit Kumar his true and lawful
attorney-in-fact, with full power of substitution and
resubstitution for him and in his name, place and stead, in any and
all capacities to sign any and all amendments including
post-effective amendments to this registration statement, and to
file the same, with all exhibits thereto, and other documents in
connection therewith, with the Commission, hereby ratifying and
confirming all that said attorney-in-fact or his substitute, each
acting alone, may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue
thereof.
Pursuant
to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, this
Registration Statement has been signed by the following persons in
the capacities and on the dates indicated.
By: |
/s/
Dr. Amit Kumar |
|
January
7, 2021 |
|
Dr.
Amit Kumar |
|
|
|
President,
Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board |
|
|
|
(Principal
Executive Officer) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
By: |
/s/
Michael J. Catelani |
|
January
7, 2021 |
|
Michael
J. Catelani |
|
|
|
Chief
Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer |
|
|
|
(Principal
Financial and Accounting Officer) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
By: |
/s/
Lewis H. Titterton Jr. |
|
January
7, 2021 |
|
Lewis
H. Titterton Jr. |
|
|
|
Director |
|
|
|
|
|
|
By: |
/s/
Dr. John Monahan |
|
January
7, 2021 |
|
Dr.
John Monahan |
|
|
|
Director |
|
|
|
|
|
|
By: |
/s/
Dr. Arnold Baskies |
|
January
7, 2021 |
|
Dr.
Arnold Baskies |
|
|
|
Director |
|
|
|
|
|
|
By: |
/s/
David Cavalier |
|
January
7, 2021 |
|
David
Cavalier |
|
|
|
Director |
|
|
|
|
|
|
By: |
/s/
Emily Gottschalk |
|
January
7, 2021 |
|
Emily
Gottschalk |
|
|
|
Director |
|
|