Overview
We are a development and licensing biotechnology company focused on leveraging our proprietary protein production platform, Pfēnex Expression Technology®, to develop next generation and novel protein therapeutics to meaningfully improve existing therapies and create novel therapies for some of the biological targets linked to critical diseases still waiting to successfully be addressed. We have extensive experience in protein therapeutic development and our proven platform enables deliberate and rapid candidate selection, fast drug development, and potentially higher success rates for a wide range of complex modalities. We aim to leverage existing drug development successes into a broad pipeline that is diversified across multiple assets, including U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved, next generation and novel biopharmaceutical products.
In October 2019, the FDA approved the new drug application (NDA) for PF708 under the 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway, with Forteo® (teriparatide injection) as the reference drug. The FDA-approved PF708 product is indicated for the treatment of osteoporosis in certain patients at high risk for fracture. Marketing authorization applications are pending in other jurisdictions. This FDA-approved PF708 product will be commercialized and manufactured in the U.S. by our collaboration partner, Alvogen. In November of 2019, in accordance with the Development and License Agreement (US Alvogen Agreement), we transferred the NDA to Alvogen. Alvogen intends to launch the FDA-approved PF708 product in the U.S. upon an FDA decision on the therapeutic equivalence evaluation of the product.
Our other products and collaborations include PF743 (JZP-458), which we are developing in collaboration with Jazz Pharmaceuticals for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and which commenced a pivotal Phase 2/3 clinical study in December 2019. We also have collaborations based on CRM197, a diphtheria toxoid carrier protein used in prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine candidates with Merck & Co., Inc. (Merck) and Serum Institute of India Private Limited (SIIPL). Both Merck and SIIPL have licenses to the Pfēnex Expression Technology for the production of CRM197 for use in conjugate vaccine products. Merck’s V114, a 15-valent Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine is currently in 15 Phase 3 clinical trials, and SIIPL’s Pneumosil®, a 10-valent Pneumococcal vaccine designed for the developing world, recently achieved World Health Organization (WHO) Prequalification allowing the product to be procured by United Nations agencies and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. In addition, a Phase 3, randomized, double-blind study to evaluate the immunogenicity, safety and tolerability of Pneumosil in healthy Indian infants has been completed and SIIPL is currently in the process of submitting the data from the Phase 3 trial to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) in support of India marketing authorization.
In the third quarter of 2019 we added PF810, a peptide based next generation therapeutic, to our wholly owned pipeline. PF810 is currently in preclinical development. In addition, we have established a strategic collaboration with Arcellx, Inc. (Arcellx) to advance multiple proprietary sparX proteins that activate, silence and reprogram Antigen-Receptor Complex T cell based therapies based on the Arcellx product platform.
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Our FDA-Approved Product, Our Product Candidates and Collaborations
The following summarizes certain information about the FDA-approved product that we developed, our pipeline candidates, and collaborations:
Our FDA-Approved Product,
Product Candidates and Collaborations
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Branded
Reference Drug
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Program
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FDA-Approved PF708 Product
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Forteo®
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• Approved in the United States; licensed to Alvogen
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PF708
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Forteo®
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• Product candidate in EU, MENA, and Rest of World licensed to Alvogen (excluding areas licensed to NT Pharma)
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• Product candidate in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand licensed to NT Pharma
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Multiple Hematologic Oncology Product Candidates
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N/A
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• PF743 (JZP-458) – Recombinant Erwinia asparaginase
• PF745 (JZP-341) – Long-acting recombinant Erwinia asparaginase
• PF690* – pegaspargase
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Peptide based next generation therapeutic
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N/A
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• PF810
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Arcellx sparX programs
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N/A
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• PF753
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• PF754
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* Jazz retains an exclusive option to license this product pursuant to certain option triggers.
In pursuit of novel wholly-owned product candidates, we have also established a collaboration with a third-party technology platform company who is screening our selected, validated biological targets with its novel binding modality library in an effort to identify potential lead product candidates. Those candidates will be transferred to us and could become wholly owned product candidates developed by us.
The FDA-approved PF708 product, our other product candidates, and collaborations are enabled by our patented protein production platform, Pfēnex Expression Technology, which we believe confers several important competitive advantages compared to traditional techniques for protein production. The platform has demonstrated a high success rate for the production of complex proteins with higher titers of high quality protein purity, as well as speed and cost advantages. The development of proteins requires several competencies which represent both challenges and barriers to entry. Due to their inherent complexity, proteins require the use of living organisms to efficiently produce them at a large scale. Traditional techniques for protein production employ a trial and error approach to production organism, or strain, selection and process optimization, which is inherently inefficient and typically produces suboptimal results. This historically inefficient process provides barriers to creating or replicating complex proteins, adds significant time to market and results in the high cost of goods typical of biologic therapeutics. Together, these limitations pose significant hurdles for companies interested in entering the market with novel biologics, biosimilars and therapeutic equivalents. Our platform utilizes a proprietary high throughput robotically-enabled parallel approach, which allows the construction and testing of thousands of unique protein production strains in parallel, thereby allowing us to produce and characterize complex proteins while reducing the time and cost of development and long-term production.
Our Strategy
Our strategy is to leverage our Pfēnex Expression Technology® protein production platform and product development infrastructure to become a leading biotechnology company focused on developing a portfolio of wholly-owned and partnered novel and next generation therapeutics. Given the historical success rates of over 80% in expressing natural and engineered proteins and our demonstrated success in achieving regulatory approval for our lead product we believe our platform, team and infrastructure provides a competitive advantage in the development of novel peptide and protein based therapeutics.
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The key elements to execute on our strategy include three focus areas:
Advance Core Products and Partnerships:
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Maximize PF708’s commercial potential. We received US FDA marketing authorization in October 2019 and are requesting that the FDA designate the FDA-approved PF708 product as therapeutically equivalent (“A” rated) to Forteo, which would potentially permit the product to be automatically substituted for Forteo, depending on applicable laws and policies within each of the 50 states in the US. Alvogen intends to launch the FDA-approved PF708 product in the U.S. upon an FDA decision on the therapeutic equivalence evaluation of the product. In February 2019, we and Alvogen entered into additional agreements, extending Alvogen’s rights to commercialize and manufacture PF708 to include the European Union (EU), certain countries in the MENA and to the ROW territories (excluding certain Asian countries granted to NT Pharma). Alvogen has also been seeking marketing authorizations in certain other regions around the world.
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Advance the Jazz partnered programs. In July 2016, we entered into an agreement with Jazz Pharmaceuticals, which we amended in December 2017, to collaboratively develop hematologic oncology products, including PF743 (JZP-458), a recombinant Erwinia asparaginase, and PF745 (JZP-341), a long acting recombinant Erwinia asparaginase. PF743 (JZP-458) commenced a pivotal Phase 2/3 clinical study in December 2019, and we achieved a $15 million development milestone for the PF745 (JZP-341) program in December 2019.
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Expand our portfolio of license and supply relationships for our CRM197 vaccine carrier protein. We have both licenses and supply agreements in place with vaccine developers like Merck and Serum Institute of India (SIIPL) for the production and supply of CRM197, which is a non-toxic mutant of diphtheria toxin that serves as a carrier protein for therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines. Merck’s V114, a 15-valent Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine is currently in 15 Phase 3 clinical trials, and SIIPL’s Pneumosil®, a 10-valent Pneumococcal vaccine, recently achieved World Health Organization (WHO) Prequalification. With the first products moving closer to commercialization, we aim to continue to expand our portfolio of license and supply agreements for CRM 197.
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Selectively add wholly owned next generation therapeutics and partnerships where our platform is uniquely enabling:
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Add wholly owned next generation therapeutic programs. We believe our platform enables the development of next generation therapeutics to improve and/or enhance the performance of existing approved products. We have commenced the development of a next generation peptide based therapeutic candidate, PF810, which is currently in preclinical development.
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Establish additional product development partnerships. Given our history of expressing a broad range of protein types we believe that the Pfēnex Expression Technology presents a competitive advantage to the biopharmaceutical industry. We aim to further maximize value from the platform and internal capabilities through strategic collaborations where there is compatibility with third party platforms and/or products and our platform is uniquely enabling. An existing collaboration with Arcellx currently has two sparX proteins in development.
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Expand into the development of novel biologics based on targeting validated biological targets with novel modalities in select disease areas.
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Advance novel modalities via a third-party collaboration. Following a research effort, we have identified a set of high value, validated biological targets that we intend to pursue. The targets of interest are in disease areas of unmet medical need with a moderately sized patient population allowing us to independently develop the products through Phase 3 clinical studies. In the fourth quarter of 2019, we engaged a third-party collaborator to deploy their internal libraries of novel modalities to screen against our targets of interest in order to identify molecules that could potentially become our wholly owned novel products. We are currently in the process of target screening in an effort to isolate the first set of putative lead candidates. Those candidates, PF91X will be transferred to us and could become wholly owned product candidates developed by us.
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Our Approach
Our patented protein production platform, Pfēnex Expression Technology®, allows us to address hurdles to development and enable our product candidates and those being developed under collaborations. We believe our technology confers several important competitive advantages compared to traditional techniques for protein production, including the ability to produce complex proteins with higher accuracy and greater degree of protein purity, as well as speed and cost advantages. Our platform utilizes a proprietary high throughput robotically enabled parallel approach, which allows the construction and testing of thousands of unique protein production variables in parallel, thereby allowing us to produce and characterize complex proteins while reducing the time and cost of development and long-term production.
We have replaced the traditional, trial and error approach to protein production with a simultaneous, parallel processing model that allows the construction and testing of thousands of unique protein production variables in parallel. We believe our platform delivers a significant competitive advantage for protein production, including higher accuracy, greater degree of protein purity, speed and lower costs.
Pfēnex Expression Technology®
Protein Production Overview
Protein production is a fundamental activity necessary for biological drug development and manufacturing. The most common method of manufacturing therapeutic proteins involves the use of engineered microorganisms. Proteins produced using these organisms are referred to as recombinant proteins. Recombinant proteins are produced by inserting DNA, or a gene, that codes for the protein, into a cell which then acts as a protein production factory. Typically, this is accomplished by inserting a synthetic gene into an expression vector, which contains genetic control elements that can be used to turn the gene on and off. This vector is then transformed into a set of selected host strains each with a unique phenotype.
Our platform is based on automated high-throughput screening of large libraries of novel, genetically engineered P. fluorescens bacterial expression strains. The libraries contain thousands of expression strains which are constructed from a large inventory of expression vectors, or genetic elements, incorporated into engineered P. fluorescens host strains. We then employ automated, robotically enabled parallel high-throughput screening, incorporating extensive bioanalytical testing, in order to select strains from the library which express the protein of interest at optimal yields, purity and potency. Extensive fermentation scouting experiments on the selected strains allows for the identification of a final production strain with further improvements in the yield of the active therapeutic protein.
Our patented Pfēnex Expression Technology® illustrated in the diagram below utilizes a parallel, high throughput method for microbial strain development compared to the more traditional linear approach of trial and error.
Our Pfēnex Expression Technology® platform consists of three primary elements that, when combined, deliver a significant competitive advantage for protein production that differentiates us in the biopharmaceutical industry.
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The three elements include:
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Pseudomonas fluorescens, A Robust Protein Production Organism
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Extensive Library of Expression Vectors and Host Strain Phenotypes
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Robotically Enabled High Throughput Screening Capability
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Robust Protein Production Organism
P. fluorescens has been used industrially where it has efficiently produced complex proteins. We exploit certain attributes of the P. fluorescens bacterium that enables us to rapidly identify the optimal strain for a specific protein of interest. The favorable attributes of the P. fluorescens bacterium include:
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Secretion of soluble protein into the bacterial periplasm, the space between the inner and outer membrane in gram negative bacteria, resulting in increased recovery yields of properly folded protein
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P. fluorescens genome allows for modifications, including deleting protease genes, or nucleotides that provide instructions for synthesis of RNA into a specific protease, and inserting chaperone and/or disulfide bond isomerase genes, or nucleotides that provide instructions for synthesis of RNA into a specific chaperone or disulfide isomerase, which overall increase the quality and production of properly folded active full length proteins
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Selection of expression strains without the use of antibiotics
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High cell density fermentation due to its obligate aerobe growth nature, or bacterium that can only grow in the presence of oxygen, which improves the protein production for characterization, enables consistent scale-up and long-term low cost of goods
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Creation of Extensive Library of Protein Expression Strains
We have developed an extensive toolbox of engineered production strains and expression vectors that can be readily accessed for finding the best product strain for manufacturing of a specific protein. This toolbox is continuously growing due to our ongoing research and development efforts. We construct thousands of unique expression strains by combining engineered P. fluorescens host strains with proprietary expression vectors. The engineered P. fluorescens strains have reduced expression of protein degrading enzymes and/or increased levels of folding elements while the expression vectors consist of plasmids with engineered genetic elements including promoters, ribosome binding sites and secretion leaders. Determining which of these variants will improve production of any particular protein cannot be determined from the amino acid sequence of the protein of interest. As a result, we employ the automated high throughput screening of the engineered production strains in order to select the strain that produces the protein of interest at optimal purity, yield and potency.
Robotically Enabled High Throughput Screening
Our high-throughput automation supports simultaneous, parallel evaluation of thousands of unique protein production alternatives, enabling rapid identification of the optimal production strain for the protein of interest. Our protein production technology employs rapid construction of protein production strains and testing thousands of unique production strains evaluated through automated sample analysis to determine the titer, or quantity of the product per unit volume, of high quality protein each expression strain produces, which can then be analyzed through our high throughput analytical capacity. Our proprietary, robotically enabled automated high throughput screening process, along with our optimized production organism and toolbox of engineered strains and vectors, as well as our expertise in analytical characterization, expedites the development of an optimal protein production engine from approximately one year in a typical case for traditional approaches, if at all possible, to approximately twelve weeks with our Pfēnex Expression Technology®.
Our FDA-Approved Product, Our Product Candidates and Collaborations
The development of our own portfolio of product candidates and the candidates we have licensed to collaboration partners has been enabled by our successful history of meeting analytically rigorous product specifications for protein quality, yield and potency using our Pfēnex Expression Technology ®. Our pipeline includes product candidates and preclinical products under development in various stages of development. Details of our pipeline and collaborations are included below.
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FDA-Approved PF708 Product
In October 2019, the FDA approved the NDA for PF708 under the 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway, with Forteo® (teriparatide injection) as the reference drug. The FDA-approved PF708 product is indicated for the treatment of osteoporosis in certain patients at high risk for fracture. The FDA-approved PF708 product will be commercialized and manufactured in the U.S. by our collaboration partner, Alvogen. In November 2019 we transferred the NDA to Alvogen pursuant to our collaboration agreement. Forteo (marketed by Eli Lilly and Company) achieved $1.4 billion in global product sales in 2019. Almost half of these product sales came from the United States alone. Alvogen intends to launch the FDA-approved PF708 product in the U.S. upon an FDA decision on the therapeutic equivalence evaluation of the product.
The FDA approval of the FDA-approved PF708 product was supported by data from Study PF708-301, which compared the effect of PF708 and Forteo in osteoporosis patients. The PF708-301 study enrolled a total of 181 patients, with 90 patients receiving PF708 and 91 patients receiving Forteo. Eighty-two patients completed the study in the FDA-approved PF708 product treatment group, compared with 81 patients in the Forteo treatment group. The primary study endpoint was anti-drug antibody (ADA) incidence after 24 weeks of drug treatment. 2.2% (2/90) of patients who received PF708 and 2.2% (2/91) of patients who received Forteo had detectable antibodies to teriparatide, and one of the two patients who received PF708 developed neutralizing antibodies to teriparatide. The secondary study endpoints included mean percentage changes in lumbar-spine bone mineral density (BMD) and median percentage changes in bone turnover markers (BTM) after 24 weeks of drug treatment, as well as pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters for up to four hours after the first dose. Safety endpoints were incidences of adverse events (AE) and serious adverse events (SAE).
The PF708-301 study showed comparable overall profiles between PF708 and Forteo across multiple endpoints. These results from the PF708-301 study, along with bioequivalence findings from Study PF708-101 in healthy subjects, supported the PF708 NDA submitted in December 2018 pursuant to the 505(b)(2) pathway. On October 4, 2019 the NDA was approved by the FDA.
In addition to obtaining FDA approval of PF708, we have been continuing our efforts to obtain an “A” therapeutic equivalence designation for the product relative to its reference drug, Forteo. A determination of therapeutic equivalence (as shown by an “A” rating) may permit the FDA-approved PF708 product to be automatically substituted for Forteo, depending on applicable laws and policies within each of the 50 states in the U.S. Consistent with our interactions with the FDA and the agency’s draft guidance document on comparative use human factors studies for demonstrating the therapeutic equivalence of drug-device combination products, we successfully completed the PF708 comparative use human factors (HF) study and submitted the final study report to the FDA in October 2019. The study data demonstrate that the user interface of the FDA-approved PF708 product was noninferior to that of Forteo for each critical user task evaluated in the study based on a pre-specified statistical analysis of critical patient and caregiver tasks.
The comparative use HF study was a simulated use study intended to evaluate the effect of each product’s delivery device and user interface on critical task performance by untrained osteoporosis patients and caregivers. The study used a paired design of the FDA-approved PF708 and the Forteo products.
A total of 102 untrained participants, 52 osteoporosis patients and 50 caregivers, completed the study. For 67% (12 of 18) of critical tasks performed in the patient user group, and 83% (15 of 18) performed in the caregiver group, PF708 had fewer or equal user errors when compared to Forteo. Importantly, in each of the instances where PF708 had marginally higher user error rates 33% (6/18) of critical tasks performed in the patient user group, and 17% (3/18) of critical tasks performed in the caregiver user group, the magnitude of the differences (≤ 2 UEs and ≤ 3 UEs, respectively) did not exceed the predetermined maximum allowable difference in either user group. For these reasons, we believe the study data demonstrate that the user interface of the FDA-approved PF708 product is noninferior to that of Forteo based on pre-specified statistical analysis of critical patient and caregiver tasks. With submission of the final study report to FDA, we believe this completes the information package required by the FDA to evaluate the therapeutic equivalence of the PF708 product. For a discussion of certain significant risks relating to the FDA-approved PF708 product, please see the following Risk Factors: “The FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 and our other product candidates, if approved, face significant competition from the reference products and from therapeutic equivalent products of the reference products, and from other products. Our or our collaboration partners’ failure to effectively compete may prevent us from achieving significant market penetration and expansion.” and “If the FDA-approved PF708 product does not receive an “A” therapeutic equivalence designation from the FDA, our business may suffer.”
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In June 2018, we and Alvogen, entered into the US Alvogen Agreement pursuant to which Alvogen received the exclusive right to commercialize and manufacture PF708 in the United States. Alvogen intends to launch the FDA-approved PF708 product in the U.S. upon an FDA decision on the therapeutic equivalence evaluation of the product. In February 2019 we and Alvogen expanded our collaboration, granting Alvogen exclusive rights to commercialize and manufacture PF708 in the EU, certain countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and the rest of the world (ROW) territories (the latter defined as all countries outside of the EU, US and MENA, excluding Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand). We believe this collaboration leverages Alvogen’s established international experience and expertise in regulatory, IP and supply chain activities, as well as its established network of specialty pharmaceutical companies to conduct sales and marketing activities in these regions.
Alvogen submitted a centralized application to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for PF708 on May 6, 2019, and the filing was accepted by the EMA on May 23, 2019. We believe that PF708 could be approved in the EU as early as the second half of 2020, pending marketing authorization by the European Commission under the EU centralized procedure and other factors. In October 2019, Alvogen’s partner SAJA, submitted a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for PF708 to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA). Subject to applicable regulatory approvals, PF708 will be commercialized in Europe and other jurisdictions by Alvogen’s current and/or future commercialization partners and including Theramex in Europe, SAJA, a Tamer Group company in MENA, JAMP Pharma in Canada, Kamada Ltd. in Israel, and Pharmbio Korea, Inc. in South Korea. Alvogen is responsible for overseeing any clinical development, regulatory, litigation, commercial manufacturing or commercialization activities of its partners in these jurisdictions. We are eligible to receive additional upfront and milestone payments of $1.5 million for the EU, MENA and ROW agreements, and we may also be eligible to receive up to 60% of Alvogen’s gross profit derived from product sales, if approved, depending on geography and cost of goods sold. In connection with the October 2019 FDA approval of PF708, we earned a $2.5 million milestone payment under our collaboration with Alvogen payable upon Alvogen’s receipt of notice of NDA approval.
In April 2018, we and China NT Pharma Group Company Ltd. (NT Pharma) entered into a Development and License Agreement (NT Pharma Agreement), pursuant to which we granted an exclusive license to NT Pharma to commercialize PF708 in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and a non-exclusive license to conduct development activities in such territories with respect to PF708. In accordance with the agreement, we received a payment of $2.5 million upon signing the NT Pharma Agreement and may be eligible to receive additional payments of up to $22.5 million based on the achievement of certain development, regulatory, and sales-related milestones. We may also be eligible to receive double-digit royalties on net sales of PF708. NT Pharma is responsible for any further development required to achieve regulatory approval as well as commercialization activities in the applicable territories.
In accordance with regulatory requirements we provided notice of Paragraph IV certification (Notice Letter) to Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) on February 19, 2019 that PF708 does not infringe any valid claim of the ’334 patent. Under the Hatch-Waxman Act, Lilly had 45 days from the receipt of the Notice Letter to file a patent infringement lawsuit against us that would cause a 30-month litigation stay of approval for PF708. On April 11, 2019 we announced the expiration of the 45-day period for Lilly to file a lawsuit under the Hatch-Waxman Act and stay the approval of PF708 for 30 months. Lilly did not file a lawsuit within this time period, and there was no 30-month litigation stay that delayed approval of the FDA-approved PF708 product.
In May 2019, we entered into an agreement with Alvogen for us to provide PF708 drug substance batches and pen components in exchange for $2.3 million. This product sold to Alvogen was initially manufactured by our CMO for manufacturing process validation purposes as part of the PF708 NDA submission to the FDA for approval.
Jazz Collaboration – multiple hematologic oncology product candidates
In July 2016, we entered into a license and option agreement with Jazz, pursuant to which we and Jazz are developing hematologic oncology products, including PF743 (JZP-458), a recombinant Erwinia asparaginase, and PF745 (JZP-341), a long-acting recombinant Erwinia asparaginase, and Jazz will have the exclusive right to manufacture and commercialize such products throughout the world. In addition, pursuant to the agreement, we have granted Jazz certain other rights to negotiate the exclusive right to develop, manufacture and commercialize throughout the world other hematologic oncology products that are currently or in the future may be developed by us. Both PF743 (JZP-458) and PF745 (JZP-341) are being developed for the treatment of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and other hematological malignancies. In the third quarter of 2017, we achieved a process development milestone associated with this collaboration. In December 2017, we and Jazz signed an amended and restated agreement under which we will be eligible to receive an additional $43.5 million in amendment fee and development milestone payments as compared to the 2016 agreement, increasing the total value of upfront, option and amendment fee payments and potential payments for the achievement of development, regulatory and sales-related milestones associated with the collaboration to an aggregate of $224.5 million. We will also continue to be eligible to receive tiered royalties on worldwide sales of any products resulting from the collaboration at rates reduced from
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those under the 2016 agreement. In December 2017, as part of the amended and restated agreement, we received a total payment of $18.5 million, consisting of an upfront payment of $5.0 million and a payment of $13.5 million for development achievement. In the second quarter of 2018, we achieved two development milestones and received $0.8 million for successful achievement of process development milestones for PF745. In August 2019, Jazz reported that they completed a Phase 1 study for PF743 (JZP-458). After receiving Fast Track designation from the FDA in October 2019, Jazz announced the initiation of a Phase 2/3 pivotal study for PF743 (JZP-458) in December 2019 and recently announced their intent to submit a Biologics License Application (BLA) with the US FDA as early as the fourth quarter of 2020. In September 2019 and December 2019, we achieved a development milestone and received $11 million and $15 million, respectively, in connection with process development activities for PF745 (JZP-341).
CRM197
We have both licenses and supply agreements in place for CRM197, which is a non-toxic mutant of diphtheria toxin. It is a well-characterized protein and functions as a carrier for polysaccharides and haptens, making them immunogenic. We have developed unique CRM197 production strains based on our Pfēnex Expression Technology platform. As a result of our development efforts, we previously entered into commercial licenses for production strains capable of producing CRM197 with both Merck and SIIPL. Merck and SIIPL are using the CRM197 produced via the licensed production strain in multiple clinical and pre-clinical stage products. The clinical stage products currently include Merck’s 15-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, PCV-15 (V114), currently in several ongoing Phase 3 clinical studies, and SIIPL’s 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Pneumosil®, which achieved WHO Prequalification in December 2019, and a pentavalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine currently in a Phase 3 clinical study. The CRM197 production strains utilized by both Merck and SIIPL are unique and exclusively licensed to each party. The commercial license agreements with Merck and SIIPL contemplate potential maintenance and milestone fees as well as royalties on net sales. Additionally, as part of the SIIPL commercial license agreement, SIIPL supplies both reagent grade and cGMP CRM197 to Pfenex, which supplies the product to vaccine development-focused pharmaceutical partners.
Arcellx Development, Evaluation and License Agreement
We previously entered into a development, evaluation and license agreement with Arcellx which provides access to the Pfēnex Expression Technology platform to advance Arcellx’s proprietary sparX proteins that activate, silence and reprogram Antigen-Receptor Complex T cell-based therapies. Under the terms of the agreement, we are eligible to receive development funding in addition to development, regulatory and commercial milestones ranging from $2.6 million to $18 million for each product incorporating a sparX protein expressed using a production strain based on the Pfēnex Expression Technology, as well as royalties on worldwide sales of any such products. We have completed the development of both sparX-1 (PF753) and sparX-2 (PF754) and Arcellx has opted into the commercial license for both production strains. As of December 31, 2019, we have earned $2.4 million in development funding from Arcellx.
Other Pipeline Products
In the third quarter of 2019 we added PF810, a peptide based next generation therapeutic, to our wholly owned pipeline. PF810 is currently in preclinical development.
Collaborations, Joint Development and Licenses
PF708 & Jazz Pharmaceuticals
For a discussion of our collaborations relating to PF708 and our collaborations relating to Jazz Pharmaceuticals, please see “Business—Our FDA-Approved Product, Our Product Candidates and Collaborations—FDA-Approved PF708 Product” and “Business—Our FDA-Approved Product, Our Product Candidates and Collaborations—Jazz Collaboration—multiple hematologic oncology product candidates,” respectively.
The Dow Chemical Company
On November 30, 2009, we entered into a series of agreements with Dow Global Technologies LLC and/or The Dow Chemical Company, or collectively, Dow, including a technology assignment agreement, a technology licensing agreement, and a grant-back and technology license agreement. Under the technology assignment agreement, Dow assigned to us certain patents, know-how and trademarks relating to our Pfēnex Expression Technology®. Under the technology licensing agreement, Dow granted us exclusive licenses to exploit certain patents relating to RNA viruses and oral immunization methods (each of which were subsequently terminated), and certain amended recombinant cells, and a non-exclusive license to exploit certain patents relating to production and isolation techniques for peptides and proteins made using our Pfēnex Expression Technology®. Under the grant-back and technology license agreement, we granted to Dow exclusive and non-exclusive licenses under certain patents and know-how relating to our Pfēnex Expression Technology® to use certain biological materials to make, use and commercialize products in certain fields of use that do not include human therapeutics.
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
The development of Px563L and RPA563 is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through BARDA. In March 2019 the Company received a notice from BARDA advising it of BARDA’s decision not to exercise development options for cGMP manufacturing, preclinical studies and Phase 1/2b study readiness in connection with the Company’s Px563L and RPA563 novel anthrax vaccine program. Following the receipt of the notice from BARDA and pursuant to discussions with BARDA, the Company deprioritized this program in its portfolio.
Customers
As of December 31, 2019, we had generated revenue from government contracts, service agreements, collaboration agreements, and reagent protein product sales. Our total revenue was $50.3 million, $14.9 million and $28.8 million in 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. In 2019 and 2017, our achievement of certain development milestones related to our collaboration agreement with Jazz resulted in significant revenue. Our development and license agreement with Alvogen also resulted in significant revenue in 2019. The advanced development contract we have with BARDA provided additional revenue in 2019, 2018 and 2017.
For the year ended December 31, 2019, Jazz and Alvogen each accounted for more than 10% of our revenue. For the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, Jazz and BARDA each accounted for more than 10% of our revenue.
Government Regulation
Government authorities in the United States, at the federal, state and local level, and in the European Economic Area, at the European Union and national Member State level, extensively regulate, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacturing, labeling, packaging, promotion, advertising, storage, distribution, marketing, post-approval monitoring and reporting, and export and import of drugs and biologics such as those we are developing. We, along with third-party contractors, will be required to navigate the various preclinical, clinical and commercial approval requirements of the governing regulatory agencies of the countries in which we wish to conduct studies or seek approval or licensure of our product candidates. The process of obtaining regulatory approvals and the subsequent compliance with appropriate federal, state, local, and foreign statutes and regulations require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources.
United States Government Regulation
BLA/NDA Development and Approval Process
The process generally required by the FDA before a biologic or drug product candidate may be marketed in the United States involves the following:
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completion of preclinical laboratory tests and animal studies performed in accordance with the FDA’s current Good Laboratory Practice, or GLP, regulations;
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submission to the FDA of an investigational new drug, or IND, application which must become effective before human clinical trials may begin and must be updated annually;
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approval by an independent institutional review board, or IRB, or ethics committee at each clinical site before the trial is initiated;
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performance of adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to establish the safety and efficacy of the proposed drug for each indication;
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preparation of and submission to the FDA of a BLA or NDA after successful completion of all pivotal clinical trials;
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satisfactory completion of an FDA Advisory Committee review, if applicable;
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a determination by the FDA within 60 days of its receipt of an NDA or BLA to file the application for substantive review;
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satisfactory completion of an FDA pre-approval inspection of the manufacturing facility or facilities at which the proposed product is produced to assess compliance with cGMP and to assure that the facilities, methods and controls are adequate to preserve the biological product’s continued safety, purity and potency; and
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FDA review and approval of the BLA or NDA prior to any commercial marketing or sale of the biologic product in the United States.
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The preclinical and clinical testing and approval process requires substantial time, effort, and financial resources, and we cannot be certain that any approvals for our product candidates will be granted on a timely basis, if at all. An IND is a request for authorization from the FDA to administer an investigational new drug product to humans. The central focus of an IND submission is on the general investigational plan and the protocol(s) for human studies. The IND also includes results of animal and in vitro studies assessing the toxicology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology, and pharmacodynamic characteristics of the product; chemistry, manufacturing, and controls information; and any available human data or literature to support the use of the investigational product. An IND must become effective before human clinical trials may begin. An IND will automatically become effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA, unless before that time the FDA raises concerns or questions related to the proposed clinical studies. In such a case, the IND may be placed on clinical hold and the IND sponsor and the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns or questions before clinical studies can begin. Accordingly, submission of an IND may or may not result in the FDA allowing clinical studies to commence.
Clinical trials involve the administration of the investigational product to human subjects under the supervision of qualified investigators in accordance with current Good Clinical Practices (cGCPs), which include the requirement that all research subjects provide their informed consent for their participation in any clinical study. Clinical trials are conducted under protocols detailing, among other things, the objectives of the study, the parameters to be used in monitoring safety and the effectiveness criteria to be evaluated. Each clinical protocol and any subsequent protocol amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND, and an IRB for each site where the study is conducted must also approve the study. The IRB must monitor the study until completed. There are also requirements governing the registration of ongoing clinical studies and the reporting of clinical study results to public registries. Clinical trials typically are conducted in three or four sequential phases, but the phases may overlap or be combined.
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Phase 1. The investigational product is initially introduced into healthy human subjects or patients with the target disease or condition. These studies are designed to evaluate the safety, dosage tolerance, metabolism and pharmacologic actions of the investigational product in humans, the side effects associated with increasing doses, and, if possible, to gain early evidence on effectiveness.
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Phase 2. The investigational product is administered to a limited patient population to evaluate dosage tolerance and optimal dosage, identify possible adverse side effects and safety risks, and preliminarily evaluate efficacy.
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Phase 3. The investigational product is administered to an expanded patient population, generally at geographically dispersed clinical study sites, to generate enough data to evaluate, in a statistically rigorous manner, dosage, clinical effectiveness and safety, to establish the overall benefit-risk relationship of the investigational product, and to provide an adequate basis for product labeling and approval.
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Phase 4. In some cases, the FDA may condition approval of an NDA or BLA for a product candidate on the sponsor’s agreement to conduct additional clinical studies after approval. In other cases, a sponsor may voluntarily conduct additional clinical studies after approval to gain more information about the product. Such post-approval studies are typically referred to as Phase 4 clinical trials.
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A pivotal trial is a clinical study that is designed to generate substantial evidence of a product’s safety and efficacy that adequately meets regulatory agency requirements to justify the approval of the product. Generally, pivotal trials are Phase 3 trials, but the FDA may accept results from Phase 2 trials if the trial design provides a well-controlled and reliable assessment of clinical benefit, particularly in situations where there is an unmet medical need and the results are sufficiently robust.
Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials may not be completed successfully within a specified period, if at all, and there can be no assurance that the data collected will support FDA approval or licensure of the product. Furthermore, the FDA, the IRB, or the clinical study sponsor may suspend or terminate a clinical study at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the research subjects are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk. Additionally, some clinical studies are overseen by an independent group of qualified experts organized by the clinical study sponsor, known as a data safety monitoring board or data monitoring committee. Such a group recommends to the sponsor whether or not a trial should move forward at designated check points based on access to certain data from the trial. A sponsor may also suspend or terminate a clinical study based on evolving business objectives and/or competitive climate.
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Assuming successful completion of all required testing in accordance with all applicable regulatory requirements, detailed information regarding the investigational product is submitted to the FDA in the form of an NDA or BLA requesting approval to market the product for one or more indications. The NDA or BLA must include all relevant data available from pertinent preclinical and clinical trials, including negative or ambiguous results as well as positive findings, together with detailed information relating to the product’s chemistry, manufacturing, controls, and proposed labeling, among other things. Data can come from company-sponsored clinical studies intended to test the safety and effectiveness of a use of the product, or from a number of alternative sources, including studies initiated by investigators. Under federal law, the submission of most NDAs and BLAs is subject to an application user fee, and the sponsor of an approved NDA or BLA is also subject to annual program fees. These fees are typically increased annually. A waiver of user fees may be obtained under certain limited circumstances.
Once an NDA or BLA has been submitted, the FDA’s goal is to review the application within ten months after it accepts the application for filing, or, if the application has been granted priority review because the proposed drug addresses an unmet medical need in a serious or life-threatening indication, six months after the FDA accepts the application for filing. The review process is often extended by FDA requests for additional information or clarification. Generally, the FDA reviews an NDA or BLA to determine, among other things, whether the proposed product is safe and effective for its intended use, and whether the product is being manufactured in accordance with cGMP to assure and preserve the product’s quality and purity.
Before approving a BLA or NDA, the FDA typically will inspect the facility or facilities at which the product is manufactured. The FDA will not approve the application unless it determines that the manufacturing processes and facilities are in compliance with cGMP requirements and adequate to assure consistent production of the product within required specifications. Additionally, before approving a BLA or NDA, the FDA will typically inspect one or more clinical sites to assure compliance with cGCP. If the FDA determines that the application, clinical data, manufacturing process or manufacturing facilities are not acceptable, it will outline the deficiencies in the submission and often will request additional testing or information. Notwithstanding the submission of any requested additional information, the FDA ultimately may decide that the application does not satisfy the regulatory criteria for approval.
The FDA is required to refer an application for a product with active ingredients that have not been previously approved to an advisory committee or explain why such referral was not made. The FDA also can seek advice from an advisory committee at its own discretion when an NDA or BLA presents scientific, technical, or policy questions on which the agency believes it would benefit from the perspectives of outside experts. Typically, an advisory committee is a panel of independent experts, including clinicians and other scientific experts, that reviews, evaluates and provides a recommendation as to whether the application should be approved and under what conditions. The FDA is not bound by the recommendations of an advisory committee, but it considers such recommendations carefully when making decisions.
The development, testing and approval process requires substantial time, effort and financial resources, and each may take several years to complete. The FDA may not grant approval on a timely basis, or at all, and we and our partners may encounter difficulties or unanticipated costs in our efforts to secure necessary governmental approvals, which could delay or preclude us from marketing our products. After the FDA evaluates a BLA or NDA and conducts inspections of manufacturing facilities where the investigational product and/or its drug substance will be produced, the FDA may issue an approval letter or a Complete Response Letter. An approval letter authorizes commercial marketing of the product under the conditions of use described in the product’s prescribing information. A Complete Response Letter indicates that the review cycle of the application is complete, and the application is not ready for approval. A Complete Response Letter may require additional clinical data, an additional pivotal Phase 3 trial or trials, and/or other significant, expensive and time-consuming requirements related to clinical trials, preclinical trials or manufacturing. Even if such additional information is submitted, the FDA may ultimately decide that the BLA or NDA does not satisfy the criteria for approval. The FDA may also approve the BLA or NDA with a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS, to assure that the benefits of the drug outweigh its risks. A REMS could include medication guides, physician communication plans, or elements to assure safe use, such as restricted distribution methods, patient registries and other risk minimization tools. The FDA also may condition approval on, among other things, changes to proposed labeling, development of adequate controls and specifications, or a commitment to conduct one or more post-market studies or clinical trials. Such post-market testing may include Phase 4 trials and surveillance to further assess and monitor the product’s safety and effectiveness after commercialization. New government requirements, including those resulting from new legislation, may be established, or the FDA’s policies may change, which could delay or prevent regulatory approval.
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Drugs and biologics manufactured or distributed pursuant to FDA approvals are subject to extensive and continuing regulation by the FDA, including, among other things, requirements relating to recordkeeping, periodic reporting, product sampling and distribution, advertising and promotion and reporting of adverse experiences with the product. After approval, many changes to the approved product, such as adding new indications or other labeling claims, are subject to prior FDA review and approval. There also are continuing, annual user fee requirements for marketed products. Manufacturers are subject to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA and state agencies for compliance with cGMP requirements. Changes to the manufacturing process are strictly regulated, and, depending on the significance of the change, may require prior FDA approval before being implemented. FDA regulations also require investigation and correction of any deviations from cGMP and impose reporting and documentation requirements upon us and any third-party manufacturers that we may decide to use. Accordingly, manufacturers must continue to expend time, money and effort in the area of production and quality control to maintain compliance with cGMP and other aspects of regulatory compliance.
We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties for the production of clinical and commercial quantities of our product candidates and expect to rely in the future on third parties for the production of commercial quantities. Future FDA and state inspections may identify compliance issues at our facilities or at the facilities of our contract manufacturers that may disrupt production or distribution or require substantial resources to correct. In addition, discovery of previously unknown problems with a product or the failure to comply with applicable requirements may result in restrictions on a product, manufacturer or holder of an approved NDA or BLA, including withdrawal or recall of the product from the market or other voluntary, FDA-initiated or judicial action that could delay or prohibit further marketing. The FDA strictly regulates marketing, labeling, advertising, and promotion of products that are placed on the market. Drugs and biologics may be promoted only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved label. The FDA and other agencies enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of unapproved uses, and a company that is found to have improperly promoted unapproved uses may be subject to significant enforcement action and liability.
The FDA may withdraw or suspend approval if compliance with regulatory requirements and standards is not maintained or if problems occur after the product reaches the market. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in a variety of consequences, including revisions to the approved labeling to add new safety information, imposition of post-market studies or clinical studies to assess new safety risks, or imposition of distribution restrictions or other restrictions under a REMS program. Other potential consequences include, among other things:
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restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of the product, complete withdrawal of the product from the market or product recalls;
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adverse publicity, fines, untitled or warning letters or holds on post-approval clinical trials;
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refusal of the FDA to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications;
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product seizure or detention, or refusal to permit the import or export of products; or
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injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.
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505(b)(2) New Drug Applications
Under the Hatch-Waxman Act, a pharmaceutical manufacturer may file an abbreviated new drug application, or ANDA, seeking approval of a generic copy of an approved branded product by demonstrating the proposed generic product’s sameness to the approved drug. Additionally, a pharmaceutical manufacturer may, under Section 505(b)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), file a new drug application (NDA) that relies on studies not conducted by the applicant and for which the applicant has not obtained a right of reference as part of the data demonstrating the product’s safety and effectiveness. Often, this is done by relying on FDA’s previous approval of a product to which the proposed drug is similar (but for which there are differences that preclude an ANDA). Among other things, this kind of reliance avoids unnecessary duplication of studies performed on a previously approved (“reference” or “listed”) drug that can reasonably be extrapolated to the proposed product. We pursued a Section 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway for our FDA-approved PF708 product; the NDA references Forteo (teriparatide), which is marketed by Eli Lilly for the treatment of osteoporosis, as a listed drug.
An NDA sponsor must list with the FDA patents that claim the subject product (the drug substance or product formulation) or an FDA-approved method of using the product. Those patents are published in the Orange Book with the product listing. A 505(b)(2) NDA referencing a listed drug must contain one of the following certifications regarding each of the patents listed in the Orange Book with the referenced product: (1) that no such patent information has been listed in the Orange Book, referred to as a Paragraph I Certification; (2) that such patent has expired, referred to as a Paragraph II
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Certification; (3) the date on which such patent expires, referred to as a Paragraph III Certification; or (4) that such patent is invalid or will not be infringed by the manufacture, use or sale of the drug product for which the application is submitted, referred to as a Paragraph IV Certification. With regard to patents that claim a method of use, the applicant may instead submit a “section viii” statement certifying that the proposed labeling does not contain any language regarding the patented method of use; this typically reflects the sponsor having “carved out” any such labeling. A Paragraph III Certification conveys that the applicant will wait to obtain approval until the subject patent expires. A Paragraph IV Certification is a challenge to the ability of the subject patent to prevent approval of the proposed product. An applicant making a Paragraph IV Certification must provide notice of the patent challenge to the owner of the subject patent and to the reference product sponsor. If, with 45 days of the Paragraph IV notice, either of those entities files a lawsuit alleging patent infringement, the FDA is prohibited from approving the 505(b)(2) NDA for 30 months (or a shorter period if the patent expires or there are certain settlements or judicial decisions in the patent litigation).
Additionally, a 505(b)(2) NDA will not be approved until any applicable non-patent exclusivity listed in the Orange Book for the referenced drug has expired. These exclusivities include new chemical entity, or NCE, exclusivity, which is awarded to a product that contains an active moiety that has not previously been approved by the FDA. An “active moiety” is the molecule or ion responsible for the drug substance’s physiological or pharmacologic action. NCE exclusivity provides a five-year period during which the FDA cannot accept for filing any ANDA or 505(b)(2) NDA for a product containing the same active moiety. The five-year period is shortened to four years if the proposed application contains a Paragraph IV Certification. A drug may obtain a three-year period of exclusivity for a particular condition of approval, or change to a marketed product, such as a new formulation for a previously approved product, if one or more new clinical trials, other than bioavailability or bioequivalence studies, was essential to the approval of the application and was conducted or sponsored by the applicant. This exclusivity precludes the FDA granting final approval to any ANDA or 505(b)(2) NDA that references the product until three years after the product was approved. Unlike NCE exclusivity, however, three-year exclusivity does not prevent the FDA accepting and reviewing the ANDA or 505(b)(2) NDA.
Patent Term Restoration
Depending upon the timing, duration, and specifics of the FDA approval of our product candidates, the term of some of our U.S. patents may be eligible for limited extension under the Hatch-Waxman Act. For a product that represents the first permitted commercial marketing of an active ingredient, we may have the opportunity to extend the term of a patent that claims the drug or a method of using or manufacturing the drug. The extension cannot exceed five years or extend the patent term beyond fourteen years after approval, but it is calculated generally as half the time between the effective date of an IND and the submission date of the NDA or Biologics License Application, or BLA, plus the time between the submission date and approval of the application. Only one patent applicable to an approved product is eligible for the extension and the application for the extension must be submitted prior to the expiration of the patent. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in consultation with the FDA, reviews and approves the application for any patent term extension or restoration. In the future, we may apply for restoration of patent term for one of our currently owned or licensed patents to add patent life beyond its current expiration date, depending on the expected length of the clinical studies and other factors involved in the filing of the relevant NDA or BLA.
Abbreviated Licensure Pathway of Biological Products as Biosimilar or Interchangeable
The Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, or BPCIA, amended the PHSA and created an abbreviated approval pathway for biological products shown to be highly similar to an FDA-licensed reference biological product. Such a product, known as a “biosimilar,” is a biological product that is highly similar to a previously approved biological (the “reference product”), notwithstanding minor differences in clinically inactive components, and for which there are no clinically meaningful differences in safety, purity, and potency between the biosimilar and the reference product. The abbreviated approval pathway is intended to allow the biosimilar to be approved in part in reliance on what is known about the reference product. In addition, if certain additional conditions are shown, a biosimilar product can be designated as “interchangeable” with the reference product, meaning that the biosimilar may be substituted for the reference product without the intervention of the health care provider who prescribed the reference product. To date, the FDA has not approved any biosimilar product as being interchangeable to the reference product. FDA approval is required before a biosimilar may be marketed in the United States. Because of complexities associated with the large and intricate structures of biological products and the processes by which such products are manufactured, FDA has discretion over the kind and amount of scientific evidence—including laboratory, preclinical and/or clinical data—required to demonstrate biosimilarity to a licensed biological product. The FDA considers the totality of the evidence provided by a sponsor to support a demonstration of biosimilarity and recommends that sponsors use a stepwise approach in the development of their biosimilar products.
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The timing of final FDA approval of a biosimilar for commercial distribution depends on a variety of factors, including whether the manufacturer of the reference product is entitled to one or more statutory exclusivity periods, during which time the FDA is prohibited from approving any products that are biosimilar to the reference product. The FDA cannot approve a biosimilar application for twelve years from the date of first licensure of the reference product. Additionally, a biosimilar product sponsor may not submit an application for four years from the date of first licensure of the reference product. A reference product may also be entitled to other types of exclusivities, such as orphan drug exclusivity (which provides seven years of exclusivity against approval of the same drug intended to treat the same disease or condition) or pediatric exclusivity (which adds six months to existing exclusivities, among other things). The first biosimilar product determined to be interchangeable with a reference product for any condition of use is also entitled to a period of exclusivity, during which time the FDA may not determine that another product is interchangeable with the reference product for any condition of use.
In addition, the BPCIA includes a detailed framework for addressing potential patent disputes between the sponsors of a biosimilar product and the reference product.
While it may be possible for a biosimilar applicant and reference product sponsor to settle any patent disputes prior to approval, patent litigation may delay the ability of a biosimilar applicant to commercially launch its product.
We anticipate that the contours of the BPCIA will continue to be defined as the statute is implemented over a period of years. This likely will be accomplished by a variety of means, including decisions related to the statute by relevant federal courts, FDA issuance of guidance documents, and FDA decisions in the course of considering specific applications.
European Economic Area Regulation
In the European Economic Area, or EEA, comprising the European Union plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, the information that must be submitted to the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, or to the competent authorities in the relevant European Union Member States varies depending on whether the biological medicinal product is a new product, whose quality, safety and efficacy has not previously been demonstrated in humans or a product whose known biological active substance and certain other properties are similar to those of a previously authorized (reference) biological medicinal product. The European Directive 2001/83/EC as amended defines a medicinal product as any substance or combination of substances:
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presented as having properties for treating or preventing disease in human beings; or
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which may be used in or administered to human beings either with a view to restoring, correcting or modifying physiological functions by exerting a pharmacological, immunological or metabolic action, or to making a medical diagnosis.
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Directive 2001/83/EC as amended further defines the category of biological medicinal products as:
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a product, the active substance of which is a biological substance. A biological substance is a substance that is produced by or extracted from a biological source and that needs for its characterization and the determination of its quality a combination of physico-chemical-biological testing, together with the production process and its control.
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Examples of biological medicinal products include recombinant proteins, monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, and products derived from human blood or plasma.
Approval of New Biological Medicinal Products
In the EEA, all medicinal products (biological or not) can only be commercialized after obtaining a Marketing Authorization, or MA. There are two types of MA:
The Centralized MA, which is issued by the European Commission through the Centralized Procedure, based on the opinion of the CHMP of the EMA, is valid throughout the entire territory of the EEA. The Centralized Procedure is mandatory for certain types of products, such as medicinal products derived from certain biotechnology processes (including biotechnology-derived proteins such as the ones we make), orphan medicinal products, and medicinal products containing a new active substance indicated for the treatment of AIDS, cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, diabetes and auto-immune and viral diseases. The Centralized Procedure is optional for products containing a new active substance not yet authorized in the EEA, or for products that constitute a significant therapeutic, scientific or technical innovation or which are in the interest of public health in the European Union.
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National MAs, which are issued by the competent authorities of the Member States of the EEA and only cover their respective territory, are available for products not falling within the mandatory scope of the Centralized Procedure. Where a product has already been authorized for marketing in a Member State of the EEA, this National MA can be recognized in other Member States through the Mutual Recognition Procedure. If the product has not received a National MA in any Member State at the time of application, it can be approved simultaneously in various Member States through the Decentralized Procedure.
Under the above described procedures, before granting the MA, the EMA or the competent authorities of the Member States of the EEA make an assessment of the risk-benefit balance of the product on the basis of scientific criteria concerning its quality, safety and efficacy.
More concretely, the requirements for centralized marketing authorization of a new biological medicinal product in the EEA generally include but are not limited to:
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submission of the results of pharmaceutical (physico-chemical, biological or microbiological) tests and preclinical (toxicological and pharmacological) tests through laboratory tests and animal studies in compliance with Good Laboratory Practice, or GLP;
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submission of the results of adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to establish the quality, safety and efficacy of the product for each indication;
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a statement to the effect that clinical trials carried outside the European Union meet the ethical requirements of Directive 2001/20/EC;
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submission of an application for marketing authorization to the EMA or to the competent authorities of the relevant EU Member States;
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establishment of the applicant in the EEA;
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description of the qualitative and quantitative particulars of all constituents of the medicinal product;
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evaluation of the potential environmental risks posed by the medicinal product;
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description of the manufacturing method, description of the control measures employed by the manufacturer, and a document showing that the manufacturer is authorized in his own country to produce medicinal products;
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a summary of product characteristics, therapeutic indications, adverse reactions, dosage, pharmaceutical form, route of administration and expected shelf life;
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additional information for specific classes of medicinal products, such as a Vaccine Antigen Master File documentation for vaccine products;
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a summary of the pharmacovigilance system, the risk management plan describing the risk-management system, and proof that the applicant has the services of a qualified person responsible for pharmacovigilance as well as the necessary means for fulfilling the EU pharmacovigilance obligations including the notification of any adverse reaction suspected of occurring either in the EEA or in a third country; and
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review by EMA’s CHMP or the competent authorities in the relevant European Union Member States and approval of the marketing authorization application.
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Preclinical tests include laboratory evaluations of the product’s structure, purity and biological activity, as well as animal studies to determine toxicity and pharmacology. An Investigational Medicinal Product (IMP) sponsor must submit a Clinical Trial Application (CTA) to the competent authority prior to initiation of human clinical trials. The application process to perform a clinical trial in the EEA is governed on a country-by-country basis. A sponsor must apply in each country in which it intends to conduct any part of a human clinical trial. While the process is similar in most countries, additional materials may be required in certain instances. For example, in many, but not all European countries, a sponsor must submit a copy of the insurance coverage obtained to cover the clinical study. Australia and New Zealand adhere to EMA guidelines with respect to the regulation of IMPs and clinical trials.
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Assuming successful completion of the required clinical testing and having met all criteria set forth by Directive 2001/83/EC and Regulation (EC) No 726/2004, the applicant may choose to proceed with submission of marketing authorization application. If the application is accepted for review in the Centralized Procedure, within 210 days (excluding clock stops), the EMA’s CHMP will issue an opinion on whether the conditions for granting marketing authorization are satisfied. During the review period, the scientific committees will review the scientific data, may request for independent testing of the medicinal product, its starting materials, or other constituent materials, may request supplemental information from the applicant, may request for proof of cGMP compliance of the manufacturer, and may request for said manufacturing facilities to be inspected.
Accelerated Review
Under the Centralized Procedure in the European Union, the maximum timeframe for the evaluation of a marketing authorization application is 210 days (excluding clock stops, when additional written or oral information is to be provided by the applicant in response to questions asked by the EMA’s CHMP). Accelerated evaluation might be granted by the CHMP in exceptional cases, when a medicinal product is expected to be of a major public health interest, particularly from the point of view of therapeutic innovation. In this circumstance, EMA ensures that the opinion of the CHMP is given within 150 days, excluding clock stops.
Approval of Similar Biological Medicinal Products
Similar biological medicinal product applications of medicinal products authorized via the Centralized Procedure have automatic access to the Centralized Procedure. A similar biological medicinal product, also known as a biosimilar, is a product that is similar to a biological medicine that has already been authorized, the so-called “reference medicinal product”. The active substance of a similar biological medicinal product is a known biological active substance and similar to the one of the reference medicinal product. A similar biological medicinal product and its reference medicinal product are expected to have the same safety and efficacy profile and are generally used to treat the same conditions.
The similar nature of a biosimilar and a reference product is demonstrated by comprehensive comparability studies covering quality, biological activity, safety and efficacy. The minimum expectation of data supplied with the application will include pharmaceutical, chemical, and biological preclinical data, as well as bioequivalence and bioavailability (bodily distribution and concentration) clinical data. The type and amount of additional information, such as toxicological and other preclinical and clinical data, is determined on a case-by-case basis.
European Union legislation provides (with respect to reference products for which a marketing authorization was applied for after October 30, 2005 under the Decentralized, Mutual Recognition and national procedures, or after November 20, 2005, for products authorized under the Centralized Procedure) for an eight-year period of data protection and ten-year period of market exclusivity for medicinal products which received marketing authorization in accordance with, respectively, Directive 2001/83/EC as amended or Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 as amended. The provisions also state that if, during the first eight years of authorization, the holder obtains an authorization for one or more new therapeutic indications which are deemed to have significant clinical benefit as compared to existing therapies, the original market exclusivity can be extended to a maximum of 11 years. The data and market exclusivity periods start from the date of the initial authorization, which for reference medicinal products authorized through the Centralized Procedure is the date of notification of the marketing authorization decision to the marketing authorization holder of the reference product.
Post-Approval Requirements
Once granted, initial marketing authorization of a medicinal product is valid for five years. The authorization may be renewed after five years on the basis of a reevaluation of the risk-benefit balance. At that point, once renewed, the marketing authorization is valid indefinitely or, if justified on grounds of pharmacovigilance, may be restricted to an additional five-year authorization period.
Marketing authorization holders are required to maintain a pharmacovigilance system and to maintain detailed records of all suspected adverse reactions in the EEA or in a third country. Serious suspected adverse reactions are to be communicated to the appropriate EEA regulatory authorities no later than 15 days after receipt of the information. EEA regulations require periodic safety reporting leading up to and following marketing authorization, based on a defined schedule, for as long as the product is marketed, or when immediately requested by regulatory authorities. An increase in incidents of adverse events or any cause for a change in opinion by the EMA pertaining to the risk-benefit balance may lead to suspension, variation, or revocation of marketing authorization and would severely impact our business.
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EEA regulations also stipulate that regulators, such as the Competent Authorities of the EEA Member States, independently or coordinated by the EMA, may carry out repeated or unannounced inspections of the medicinal product manufacturer or at the premises of the marketing authorization holder, regarding compliance with cGMP principles and guidelines. Compliance issues identified at our facilities or at third-party manufacturers may disrupt clinical or commercial production or distribution or require substantial resources to correct. This may result in the delay of clinical trials or commercial product launch. Discovery or problems with the product or the failure to comply with applicable requirements may result in restrictions on a product, the manufacturer or the holder of a marketing authorization, including withdrawal or recall of the product from the market or other EMA or EEA Competent Authority initiated action that could delay or prohibit future marketing. Additionally, new government regulations may be established that could delay or prevent regulatory approval of our products under development.
Pharmaceutical Coverage, Pricing and Reimbursement
Significant uncertainty exists as to the coverage and reimbursement status of any products for which we obtain regulatory approval. In the United States and markets in other countries, sales of any products for which we receive regulatory approval for commercial sale will depend in part on the availability of coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors. Third-party payors include government authorities, managed care providers, private health insurers and other organizations. The process for determining whether a payor will provide coverage for a drug product may be separate from the process for setting the reimbursement rate that the payor will pay for the drug product. Third-party payors may limit coverage to specific drug products on an approved list, or formulary, which might not include all of the FDA-approved drugs for a particular indication. Moreover, a payor’s decision to provide coverage for a drug product does not imply that an adequate reimbursement rate will be approved. Adequate third-party reimbursement may not be available to enable us to maintain price levels sufficient to realize an appropriate return on our investment in product development.
Third-party payors are increasingly challenging the price and examining the medical necessity and cost-effectiveness of medical products and services, in addition to their safety and efficacy. In order to obtain coverage and reimbursement for any product that might be approved for sale, we may need to conduct expensive pharmacoeconomic studies in order to demonstrate the medical necessity and cost-effectiveness of our products, in addition to the costs required to obtain regulatory approvals. Our product candidates may not be considered medically necessary or cost-effective. If third-party payors do not consider a product to be cost-effective compared to other available therapies, they may not cover the product after approval as a benefit under their plans or, if they do, the level of payment may not be sufficient to allow a company to sell its products at a profit.
The United States government, state legislatures and foreign governments have shown significant interest in implementing cost containment programs to limit the growth of government-paid health care costs, including price controls, restrictions on reimbursement and requirements for substitution of therapeutic equivalent products for branded prescription drugs. The ACA contains provisions that may reduce the profitability of drug products, including, for example, increased the minimum rebates owed by manufacturers under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, extended the rebate program to individuals enrolled in Medicaid managed care plans, addressed a new methodology by which rebates owed by manufacturers under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program are calculated for drugs that are inhaled, infused, instilled, implanted or injected, established mandatory discounts for certain Medicare Part D beneficiaries and annual fees based on pharmaceutical companies’ share of sales to federal health care programs. Furthermore, the current presidential administration and Congress are expected to attempt changes to the current health care laws. We face uncertainties that might result from modification or repeal of any of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (collectively, the “Affordable Care Act” or the “ACA”), including as a result of current and future executive orders, legislative actions, and court cases. The impact of those changes on us is currently unknown. But, any changes to the ACA are likely to have an impact on our results of operations and may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. We cannot predict what other healthcare programs and regulations will ultimately be implemented at the federal or state level or the effect of any future legislation or regulations in the United States may have on our business.
In the European Union, governments influence the price of pharmaceutical products through their pricing and reimbursement rules and control of national health care systems that fund a large part of the cost of those products to consumers. Some jurisdictions operate positive and negative list systems under which products may only be marketed once a reimbursement price has been agreed to by the government. To obtain reimbursement or pricing approval, some of these countries may require the completion of clinical studies that compare the cost-effectiveness of a particular product candidate to currently available therapies. Other member states allow companies to fix their own prices for medicines but monitor and control company profits. The downward pressure on health care costs in general, particularly prescription drugs, has become very intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the entry of new products. In addition, in some countries, cross-border imports from low-priced markets exert a commercial pressure on pricing within a country.
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The marketability of any products for which we and our collaboration partner receive regulatory approval for commercial sale may suffer if the government and third-party payors fail to provide adequate coverage and reimbursement. In addition, an increasing emphasis on cost containment measures in the United States and other countries has increased and we expect will continue to increase the pressure on pharmaceutical pricing. Coverage policies and third-party reimbursement rates may change at any time. Even if favorable coverage and reimbursement status is attained for one or more products for which we receive regulatory approval, less favorable coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future.
Other Healthcare Laws and Compliance Requirements
If we and our collaboration partners obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates, we may be subject to various federal and state laws that may impact, among other things, our or our collaboration partners’ proposed sales, marketing and education programs. The laws that may affect our operations include:
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The U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, persons and entities from knowingly and willfully soliciting, receiving, offering or paying remuneration, directly or indirectly, to induce, or in return for, either the referral of an individual for, or the purchase or recommendation of any good or service for which payment may be made, in whole or in part, by federal healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid programs. This statute has been interpreted to apply to arrangements between pharmaceutical companies on one hand and prescribers, purchasers and formulary managers on the other. Liability under the Anti-Kickback Statute may be established without proving actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent, to violate it. In addition, the government may assert that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the federal civil False Claims Act;
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Federal civil False Claims Act, which prohibits, among other things, individuals or entities from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, a false or fraudulent claim for payment of government funds, or knowingly making, using or causing to be made or used a false record or statement material to an obligation pay money to the government or knowingly concealing or knowingly and improperly avoiding, decreasing or concealing an obligation to pay money to the federal government. Private individuals, commonly known as “whistleblowers,” can bring FCA qui tam actions on behalf of the government and such individuals and may share in amounts paid by the entity to the government in recovery or settlement. In addition, a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the federal civil False Claims Act. False Claims Act liability is potentially significant in the healthcare industry because the statute provides for treble damages and significant mandatory penalties per false claim or statement for violations. Criminal penalties, including imprisonment and criminal fines, are also possible for making or presenting a false, fictitious or fraudulent claim to the federal government;
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The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), imposes criminal and civil liability for, among other things executing a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program and knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services. We may obtain health information from third parties, such as research institutions, that are subject to privacy and security requirements under HIPAA. Although we are not directly subject to HIPAA, other than potentially with respect to providing certain employee benefits, we could potentially be subject to criminal penalties if we, our affiliates, or our agents knowingly obtain, use, or disclose individually identifiable health information maintained by a HIPAA covered entity in a manner that is not authorized or permitted by HIPAA;
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The federal Physician Payment Sunshine Act, implemented as the Open Payments Program, requires certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologics and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (with certain exceptions) to report annually to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, information related to payments and other transfers of value provided to physicians and teaching hospitals as well as ownership and investment interests held by such physicians and their immediate family members. Beginning in 2022, applicable manufacturers also will be required to report information regarding payments and transfers of value provided to physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified nurse anesthetists, and certified nurse-midwives; and
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State law equivalents of each of the above federal laws, such as anti-kickback and false claims laws which may apply to items or services reimbursed by any third-party payor, including commercial insurers; state laws that require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government, or otherwise restrict payments that may be made to healthcare providers and other potential referral sources; state laws that require drug manufacturers to report information related to payments and other transfers of value to physicians and other healthcare providers or marketing expenditures; and state laws governing the privacy and security of health information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and may not have the same effect, thus complicating compliance efforts.
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Because of the breadth of these laws and the narrowness of the statutory exceptions and safe harbors available, it is possible that some of our future business activities could be subject to challenge under one or more of such laws.
We and our collaboration partners also may be subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, which prohibits improper payments or offers of payments to foreign governments and their officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. Safeguards implemented to discourage improper payments or offers of payments by our or our collaboration partners’ employees, consultants, and others may be ineffective, and violations of the FCPA and similar laws may result in severe criminal or civil sanctions, or other liabilities or proceedings against us or our collaboration partners, any of which would likely harm our or our collaboration partners’ reputation, business, financial condition and result of operations.
If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other governmental regulations that apply to us, we may be subject to penalties, including civil and criminal penalties, exclusion from participation in government healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid and imprisonment, damages, fines and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations.
Hazardous Materials
Our research and development processes may involve the controlled use of hazardous materials and chemicals. We are subject to federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the use, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of hazardous materials and waste products. We cannot predict how changes in laws or development of new regulations will affect our business operations or the cost of compliance.
Competition
The development and commercialization of protein therapeutics is highly competitive. While we believe that our Pfēnex Expression Technology ®, knowledge, experience and scientific resources provide us with competitive advantages, we face potential competition from many different sources, including major pharmaceutical, generic pharmaceutical, specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. In the event that we and our collaboration partners were to market and sell any of our biopharmaceutical products, we would face competition from the companies producing branded reference drugs, as well as biosimilars, therapeutic equivalents, and other products that would compete with our product candidates, if approved. For example, PF708, our FDA approved product, may face competition from the reference product sponsor, Eli Lilly and Company, or other competition from companies like Teva and Gedeon Richter Plc., and from Amgen Inc. and Radius Health, Inc. as developers of novel products. For example, in April 2017, the FDA approved Radius Health’s TYMLOS®, and in April 2019 approved Amgen’s Evenity (romosozumab), each of which could potentially compete with PF708. Key competitive factors affecting the success of our product candidates, if approved, are likely to be price, the level of biosimilar, therapeutic equivalent and novel product competition and the availability of coverage and reimbursement from government and other third-party payors.
Similarly, our novel vaccine development programs face substantial competition from major pharmaceutical and other biotechnology companies that are actively working on improved and novel vaccines. We believe that our primary competitors include Emergent BioSolutions, Inc. and Altimmune, Inc. These companies are receiving funding from BARDA for the development of next generation anthrax vaccines. All of our novel vaccine efforts will face competition for limited government funding from other non-vaccine defensive measures as well, including medical countermeasures for biological, chemical and nuclear threats, diagnostic testing systems and other emergency preparedness countermeasures.
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Further, 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 we are 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 product candidates. For further discussion of risks related to government contracting, see the discussion in Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in this Form 10-K.
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.
Sales and Marketing
To date, PF708 is our only FDA-approved product under 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway, with Forteo as the reference drug. None of our other product candidates have received marketing authorization from any regulatory agency. For our product candidates, we generally seek to license rights regionally to commercially proficient partners. To the extent that we retain commercial rights to product candidates, we may use an internal sales force to commercialize products for which we may receive marketing approvals in territories in which we believe it is possible to access the market through a focused, specialty sales force.
In June 2018, we and Alvogen entered into a Development and License Agreement (US Alvogen Agreement) pursuant to which Alvogen has the exclusive right to commercialize and manufacture PF708 in the United States. Alvogen intends to launch the FDA-approved PF708 product in the U.S. upon an FDA decision on the therapeutic equivalence evaluation of the product. In February 2019 we and Alvogen expanded our collaboration, granting Alvogen exclusive rights to commercialize and manufacture PF708 in the EU, certain countries in the MENA, and the ROW territories (the latter defined as all countries outside of the EU, US and MENA, excluding Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand). We believe this collaboration leverages Alvogen’s established international experience and expertise in regulatory, IP and supply chain activities, as well as its established network of specialty pharmaceutical companies to conduct sales and marketing activities in these regions.
Alvogen submitted a centralized application to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for PF708 on May 6, 2019, and the filing was accepted by the EMA on May 23, 2019. We believe that PF708 could be approved in the EU as early as the second half of 2020, pending marketing authorization by the European Commission under the EU centralized procedure and other factors. In October 2019, Alvogen’s partner SAJA, submitted a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for PF708 to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA). Subject to applicable regulatory approvals, PF708 will be commercialized in Europe and other jurisdictions by Alvogen’s current and/or future commercialization partners including Theramex in Europe, SAJA, a Tamer Group company in MENA, JAMP Pharma in Canada, Kamada Ltd. in Israel, and Pharmbio Korea, Inc. in South Korea. Alvogen is responsible for overseeing any clinical development, regulatory, litigation, commercial manufacturing or commercialization activities of its partners in these jurisdictions. We are eligible to receive additional upfront and milestone payments of $1.5 million for the EU, MENA and ROW agreements, and we may also be eligible to receive up to 60% of Alvogen’s gross profit derived from product sales, if approved, depending on geography and cost of goods sold. In connection with the October 2019 FDA approval of PF708, we earned a $2.5 million milestone payment under our collaboration with Alvogen payable upon Alvogen’s receipt of notice of NDA approval.
In April 2018, we and China NT Pharma Group Company Ltd. (NT Pharma) entered into a Development and License Agreement (NT Pharma Agreement), pursuant to which we granted an exclusive license to NT Pharma to commercialize PF708 in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and a non-exclusive license to conduct development activities in such territories with respect to PF708. In accordance with the agreement, we received a payment of $2.5 million upon signing the NT Pharma Agreement and may be eligible to receive additional payments of up to $22.5 million based on the achievement of certain development, regulatory, and sales-related milestones. We may also be eligible to receive double-digit royalties on net sales of PF708. NT Pharma is responsible for any further development required to achieve regulatory approval as well as commercialization activities in the applicable territories.
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Upon marketing approval for products developed under our collaboration with Jazz, Jazz will assume responsibility for the manufacturing and commercialization of certain hematologic oncology products globally.
We have sales and marketing capabilities to support our commercial efforts for our platform partnership and CRM197 sales.
Intellectual Property
We strive to protect and enhance the proprietary technologies that we believe are important to our business and seek to obtain and maintain patents for any patentable aspects of our platform technology and our products or product candidates, their methods of use and any other inventions that are important to the development of our business. Our success depends substantially on our ability to obtain and maintain patent and other proprietary protection for our technology and product candidates, to defend and enforce our patents to prevent others from infringing our proprietary rights, maintain our licenses to use intellectual property owned by third parties, preserve the confidentiality of our trade secrets and to operate without infringing on the valid and enforceable patents and other proprietary rights of third parties. Our policy is to seek to protect our proprietary position by, among other methods, filing United States and foreign patent applications related to our proprietary technology and product candidates that are important to the development of our business. We also rely on trade secrets, know-how, continuing technological innovation and in-licensing opportunities to develop and maintain our proprietary position relating to our platform technology and product candidates.
We are the owner or licensee of a portfolio of patents and patent applications and possess substantial know-how and trade secrets which protect various aspects of our business. As of December 31, 2019, we are the sole owner of a patent portfolio that consisted of a total of 24 U.S. issued patents and six U.S. non-provisional patent applications that provide material coverage for our platform technology and our lead product candidates as well as foreign granted and pending patent applications which are counterparts to certain of the foregoing U.S. patents and patent applications. Our U.S. issued patents expire during the time period beginning in 2023 and ending in 2036. Our owned and exclusively licensed patent portfolio includes claims directed to:
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methods for bacterial protein production and methods for rapid screening of an array of expression systems
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P. fluorescens promoter sequences and secretion leader sequences
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auxotrophic marker systems for antibiotic free maintenance of expression plasmids in high cell density cultures,
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improved incorporation of non-natural amino acids
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expression of classes of proteins such as cytokines
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microbial toxins in P. fluorescens
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methods and expression strains for production and/or purification of soluble full length human cytokines, Interferon beta and G-CSF
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vaccine antigens recombinant anthrax protective antigen, microbial toxins and toxoids, and the malarial vaccine candidate antigen P. falciparum circumsporozoite protein (CSP)
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fusion partners for peptide production
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Pursuant to the technology licensing agreement, The Dow Chemical Company, or TDCC, and Dow Global Technologies LLC, or DGTI, also granted to us non-exclusive licenses to U.S. patents and applications and their foreign counterparts covering methods and technologies for recovery of proteins and peptides from P. fluorescens cells. In conjunction with the licenses granted by TDCC and DGTI to us under the technology licensing agreement, we also entered into a grant-back and technology license agreement, pursuant to which we granted to TDCC exclusive and non-exclusive licenses under certain patent rights and know-how relating to our Pfēnex Expression Technology® to use certain biological materials to make, use and commercialize products in certain fields of use that do not include human therapeutics. See “Business—Collaborations, Joint Development and Licenses” for a detailed description of our agreements with TDCC and DGTI.
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The patent positions of companies like ours are generally uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions. Our ability to obtain and maintain our proprietary position for our technology will depend on our success in obtaining issued claims that cover our technology and product candidates and being able to enforce those claims against our competitors once granted. We do not know whether any of our pending patent applications will result in the issuance of any patents. Moreover, even our issued patents do not guarantee us the right to practice the patented technology in relation to the commercialization of our product candidates. Third parties may have blocking patents that could be used to prevent us from commercializing our patented products and practicing our patented technology. Our issued patents and those that may be issued in the future may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented, which could limit our ability to stop competitors from marketing related products or the length of the term of patent protection that we may have for our products. In addition, the rights granted under any issued patents may not provide us with proprietary protection or competitive advantages against competitors with similar technology. Furthermore, our competitors may independently develop similar technologies. For these reasons, we may have competition for our products. Moreover, because of the extensive time required for development, testing and regulatory review of a potential product, it is possible that, before any of our products can be commercialized, any related patent may expire or remain in force for only a short period following commercialization, thereby reducing any advantage of the patent.
We may rely, in some circumstances, on trade secrets to protect our technology. However, trade secrets are difficult to protect. We seek to protect our technology and product candidates, in part, by entering into confidentiality agreements with those who have access to our confidential information, including our employees, consultants, advisors, contractors and collaborators. We also seek to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of our proprietary technology and processes by maintaining physical security of our premises and physical and electronic security of our information technology systems. While we have confidence in these individuals, organizations and systems, agreements or security measures may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any breach. In addition, our trade secrets may otherwise become known or be independently discovered by competitors. To the extent that our employees, consultants, advisors, contractors and collaborators use intellectual property owned by others in their work for us, disputes may arise as to the rights in related or resulting know-how and inventions. For this and more comprehensive risks related to our proprietary technology and processes, please see “Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Our Intellectual Property.”
Environmental Matters
Our research and development and manufacturing activities and our third-party manufacturers’ and suppliers’ activities involve the controlled storage, use and disposal of hazardous materials owned by us, including, small quantities of acetonitrile, methanol, ethanol, ethidium bromide and compressed gases, and other hazardous compounds. We and our manufacturers and suppliers are subject to laws and regulations governing the use, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of these hazardous materials. In some cases, these hazardous materials and various wastes resulting from their use are stored at our and our manufacturers’ facilities pending their use and disposal. We seek to comply with applicable laws regarding the handling and disposal of such materials. Given the small volume of such materials used or generated at our facilities, we do not expect our compliance efforts to have a material effect on our capital expenditures, earnings, and competitive position. However, we cannot eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or discharge and any resultant injury from these materials. We do not currently maintain separate environmental liability coverage and any such contamination or discharge could result in significant cost to us in penalties, damages, and suspension of our operations.
Suppliers
We currently rely on, and expect to continue to rely on, contract manufacturers to produce sufficient quantities of our product candidates for use in our clinical trials. With the exception of PF708 for which we have granted Alvogen the exclusive rights to commercialize for select territories, we intend to rely on third parties to manufacture any products that we may commercialize in the future. We have established an internal pharmaceutical development group to develop manufacturing methods for our product candidates, to optimize manufacturing processes, and to select and transfer these manufacturing technologies to our suppliers. We contract with multiple manufacturers to ensure adequate product supply and to mitigate risk.
There currently are a limited number of these manufacturers. Furthermore, some of the contract manufacturers that we have identified to date only have limited experience at manufacturing, formulating, analyzing and packaging our product candidates in quantities sufficient for conducting clinical trials or for commercialization. For further discussion of risks related to government contracting, see the discussion in Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in this Form 10-K.
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Manufacturing
We do not own or operate facilities for cGMP manufacturing of any products. We intend to rely on Alvogen for PF708 manufacturing. We have personnel with experience in the development of United States and European Union cGMP-compliant processes and management of Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs), to oversee the technology transfer to the manufacturers of PF708, and other product candidates that we may develop. Our manufacturing processes employ standard equipment common to CMOs. Our processes also use common and widely available materials, and our well-established manufacturing procedures are robust, scalable, and readily transferable to support our clinical development programs and commercialization of our products. We believe that there are alternate sources of supply that can satisfy our clinical and commercial requirements, although we cannot be certain that identifying and establishing relationships with such sources, if necessary, would not result in significant delay or material additional costs. For a discussion of risks related to our sources and availability of supplies, see “Risk Factors—Risks Relating to our Reliance on Third Parties—We rely on third-party suppliers, and in some instances a single third-party supplier, for the manufacture and supply of certain materials in our protein production services, and these suppliers could cease to manufacture the materials, go out of business or otherwise not perform as anticipated.”
In each of our agreements with contract manufacturers, we retain ownership of our intellectual property and generally own and/or are assigned ownership of processes, developments, data, results and other intellectual property generated during the course of the performance of each agreement that primarily relate to our products. Where applicable, we are granted non-exclusive licenses to certain contract manufacturer intellectual property for purposes of exploiting the products that are the subject of the agreement, and in a few instances, we grant non-exclusive licenses to the contract manufacturers for use outside of our product area. In each contract, we have the right to terminate for convenience. The agreements also contain typical provisions for both parties to terminate for material breach, and bankruptcy and insolvency.
Protein Production
Utilizing our Pfēnex Expression Technology®, we provide protein production and process development services to third parties on a fee for service basis in support of the development of novel biopharmaceuticals. Pursuant to a license agreement, the third-party licenses a production strain from us and then pays us an up-front payment, milestone payments based upon clinical progression and regulatory filings, and a royalty based on product net sales. Our protein production efforts enable us to maximize the utilization of our Pfēnex Expression Technology ®, expand our institutional knowledge and generate revenue.
Seasonality
Our revenues are not seasonal in nature.
U.S. Government Contracts
Revenue from U.S. Government Contracts varies by year. A portion of our government business is subject to renegotiation of profits or termination of contracts or subcontracts at the election of the U.S. Government. In addition to contract terms, we must comply with procurement laws and regulations relating to the formation, administration, and performance of U.S. Government contracts. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations could lead to the termination of contracts at the election of the government or the suspension or debarment from U.S. Government contracting or subcontracting. U.S. Government revenue as a percentage of our total revenue was approximately 3%, 32% and 20% for fiscal years 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. For further discussion of risks related to government contracting, see the discussion in Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in this Form 10-K.
Employees
We believe that our success will depend greatly on our ability to identify, attract and retain capable employees. As of December 31, 2019, we had 81 employees, including a total of 21 employees who hold Ph.D. or other doctoral degrees. Our employees are not represented by any collective bargaining unit, and we believe our relations with our employees are good.
Backlog
We have no material backlog of orders.
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Corporate Information
We were founded in November 2009 as a Delaware corporation spun out of The Dow Chemical Company. Our principal executive offices are located at 10790 Roselle St., San Diego, California 92121 and our telephone number is (858) 352-4400. Our website is www.pfenex.com. We make available on our website, free of charge, our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Our SEC reports can be accessed through the investor relations page of our website located at http://pfenex.investorroom.com.
We webcast our earnings calls and certain events we participate in or host with members of the investment community on our investor relations page of our website. Corporate governance information, including our board committee charters, code of ethics and conduct, and corporate governance principles, is also available on our investor relations page of our website located at http://pfenex.investorroom.com/corporate-governance. In addition, we use our website (http://www.pfenex.com), our investor relations website (http://pfenex.investorroom.com), press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls, corporate Twitter account (https://twitter.com/pfenex), Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Pfenex-Inc-105908276167776/timeline), and LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/company/pfenex-inc) in order to achieve broad, non-exclusionary distribution of information to the public. We encourage our investors and others to review the information we make public in these locations as such information could be deemed to be material information. Please note that this list may be updated from time to time.
The contents of our website and the information we post through social media are not a part of, and are not incorporated by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our website and social media sites are intended to be inactive textual references only.
Pfenex™, Pfenex Biopharmaceuticals™ the Pfenex Biopharmaceuticals logo, and Pfēnex Expression Technology® appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are trademarks of Pfenex and are the property of Pfenex Inc. Trade names, trademarks and service marks of other companies appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are the property of their respective holders.
Information about our Executive Officers
The following table identifies certain information about our executive officers as of March 2, 2020.
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Age
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Position
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Evert B. Schimmelpennink
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48
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Chief Executive Officer, President, Secretary and Chief Financial Officer
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Patrick K. Lucy
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52
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Chief Business Officer
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Dr. Shawn A. Scranton
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56
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Chief Operating Officer
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Dr. Martin B. Brenner
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49
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Chief Scientific Officer
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Evert B. Schimmelpennink has served as our Chief Executive Officer, President and Secretary since August 2017 and as our Chief Financial Officer since November 2019. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Schimmelpennink served as the Chief Executive Officer of Alvotech, a biosimilar development company from 2015 to July 2017. From September 2015 to November 2015, Mr. Schimmelpennink served as Vice President—Global Sterile Injectables of Pfizer Inc., a pharmaceutical company. Prior to that, Mr. Schimmelpennink served as Vice President—Global Generics from 2012 to 2015 and Director of Specialty Injectable Pharma Marketing EMEA & Director of Distributor Operations EMEA from 2011 to 2012 of Hospira, Inc., a pharmaceutical company. From 2002 to 2011, Mr. Schimmelpennink held various roles at Synthon BV, a generics medicine company, including Vice President Marketing and Sales from 2008 to 2011. From 1997 to 2002 he held various roles with Numico NV, a Dutch maker of baby foods and nutritional bars and shakes, including International Product Manager from 2000 to 2002 and Researcher Product Development from 1999 to 2000. Prior to Numico, Mr. Schimmelpennink served as a vaccine technologist at the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment from 1998 to 1999. Mr. Schimmelpennink received a master’s in bioprocess engineering from the Wageningen University in the Netherlands. The board of directors believes Mr. Schimmelpennink is qualified to serve as a director because of his extensive knowledge of our industry and his prior and current experience as a senior officer of healthcare companies.
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Patrick K. Lucy has served as our Senior Vice President, Chief Business Officer since 2014. Mr. Lucy also served as our Interim Chief Executive Officer, President and Secretary from January 2017 to August 2017, when Mr. Schimmelpennink was appointed to those roles. Mr. Lucy previously served as our Vice President of Business Development and Marketing between 2009 and 2014. Prior to joining us, Mr. Lucy held the position of Director of Business Development at DowPharma, a business within The Dow Chemical Company, a chemicals manufacturer, from 2002 to 2009. From 1999 to 2002, he held the position of Director of Business Development at Collaborative BioAlliance, Inc., a biotechnology company, which was acquired by The Dow Chemical Company. From 1998 to 1999, Mr. Lucy worked as a Validation Manager and Capital Project Manager and from 1996 to 1998, as a Quality Control Biochemistry Supervisor at Lonza Biologics Inc., a chemicals and biotechnology company. From 1991 to 1996, Mr. Lucy held various positions at Repligen Corporation, a life sciences company. Mr. Lucy currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Explorations in Global Health (ExGloH) a division within the Leidos Health Group. Mr. Lucy holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Villanova University.
Dr. Shawn A. Scranton has served as our Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer since October 2018. He previously served as Chief Scientific Consultant for Sentynl Therapeutics, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiarity of Zydus-Cadila, a pharmaceutical company, from 2017 to 2018. From 2015 to 2017, Dr. Scranton served as Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer at Sentynl Therapeutics, Inc., a pharmaceutical company. Prior to Sentynl, Dr. Scranton served as Consultant, Managing Director at Strategic Therapeutic Solutions, LLC, a pharmaceutical consulting company, and from 2007 to 2012, Dr. Scranton served as VP, Scientific Operations at Victory Pharma, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company. Dr. Scranton served as Sr. Director of Translational Medicine at Kalypsys, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, from 2005 to 2007, and as Director of Clinical Research/Program Director at Salmedix Corporation, a drug development company, from 2001 to 2005. From 1998 to 2000, Dr. Scranton served as Senior Clinical Research Scientist, Clinical Development at Dura Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical company. Dr. Scranton holds a Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of the Pacific School of Pharmacy (1994) and a B.A. in Animal Physiology from the University of California, San Diego (1988).
Dr. Martin B. Brenner has served as our Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer since March 2019. From 2017 to 2018, Dr. Brenner served as Chief Scientific Officer at Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company. From 2016 to 2017, Dr. Brenner served as Vice President and Head of Research and Early Development at Stoke Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company. From 2013 to 2016, Dr. Brenner served as Executive Director, Diabetes & NASH, and Chair of Diabetes & NASH Early Discovery Unit at Merck Research Laboratories of Merck & Co., Inc., a pharmaceutical company. From 2012 to 2013, Dr. Brenner served as Senior Director, Head of Bioscience, CVMD at AstraZeneca PLC, a pharmaceutical company. From 2009 to 2012, Dr. Brenner served as an Associate Research Fellow for the Diabetes Prevention and Remission Group at Pfizer Inc., a pharmaceutical company. From 2003 to 2009, Dr. Brenner served as Senior Research Scientist for the Diabetes Drug Hunting Team at Eli Lilly and Company, a pharmaceutical company. Dr. Brenner holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the Veterinary School of Hannover in Hannover, Germany and a DVM from Veterinary School of Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany.
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RISK FACTORS
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, before making an investment decision. The risks and uncertainties described below may not be the only ones we face. If any of the risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, operating results, cash flows and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the market price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.
Risks Relating to our Financial Condition and Need for Additional Capital
We have a limited operating history and expect to generate significant losses for the foreseeable future. If we or our collaboration partners are not successful in completing the development of our product candidates or in commercializing the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 or our other product candidates and generating significant revenue, we will not be profitable.
With the exception of three years, we have incurred annual net operating losses since inception, and to date have generated only limited revenue from government contracts, service agreements, collaboration agreements, and reagent protein product sales. We have recognized net income of $1.1 million and net loss of $39.6 million for years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. As of December 31, 2019, we had an accumulated deficit of $197.7 million and net working capital of $54.1 million. To date, we have funded our operations primarily through the sale and issuance of common stock in our public offerings, revenue from our collaboration agreements, government contracts, service agreements, and reagent protein product sales, our prior credit facility and the private placement of equity securities. As of December 31, 2019, we had capital resources consisting of cash and cash equivalents of $55.6 million. As we continue to develop and invest more resources into the development and commercialization of our product candidates, our net operating losses will continue over the next several years. For Pfenex to become profitable, Alvogen must successfully commercialize and manufacture the FDA-approved PF708 product and we must successfully develop and obtain regulatory approval for additional product candidates, and effectively manufacture and commercialize the additional product candidates we develop. In June 2018 and February 2019, we entered into agreements with Alvogen in which we granted Alvogen exclusive rights to commercialize PF708 in the United States, MENA, and ROW. In October 2019, we received FDA approval for PF708 and Alvogen is responsible for marketing the FDA-approved PF708 product in the United States. The loss for any reason of Alvogen as a key partner could have a significant and adverse impact on our business. If we are unable to retain Alvogen as a partner on commercially acceptable terms, PF708 may not be commercialized as planned and there could be delays in or suspension of the U.S. commercial launch of the FDA-approved PF708 product. In May 2019, Alvogen, our collaboration partner, submitted a centralized application to the EMA for PF708 and the application was accepted for review. In October 2019, Alvogen’s partner SAJA submitted a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for PF708 to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA).
With respect to the FDA-approved PF708 product, our future revenue will depend upon the performance of our collaboration partner, Alvogen, whether we obtain, in a timely manner or at all, an “A” therapeutic equivalence designation for the FDA-approved PF708 product that may allow such product to be automatically substituted for Forteo depending on applicable laws and policies within each of the 50 states, the size of any markets in which PF708 or such other product candidate may receive approval, and our and our collaboration partners’ ability to achieve sufficient market acceptance, pricing, reimbursement from third-party payors, and adequate market share for the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 and our other product candidates in those markets. We, Alvogen, and our other collaboration partners may never succeed in these activities and therefore may never generate revenue that is significant or large enough to achieve profitability. Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable could depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business, diversify our product offerings or continue our operations.
We will require substantial additional funds to seek and obtain regulatory approval and commercialize our current product candidates and, if additional capital is not available, we may need to limit, scale back or cease our operations.
Since our inception, a significant portion of our resources have been dedicated to the preclinical and clinical development of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708, and our other product candidates. We believe that we will continue to expend substantial resources for the foreseeable future for the preclinical and clinical development of our current product pipeline, and the development of any other indications and product candidates we may choose to pursue, either alone or with a strategic collaboration partner. These expenditures will include costs associated with research and development, conducting preclinical studies and clinical studies, and manufacturing and supply as well as marketing and selling any products that receive marketing authorization. Because the outcome of any clinical trial is highly uncertain and we are
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substantially dependent on third parties, including Alvogen, we cannot reasonably estimate the actual amounts necessary to successfully complete the development and commercialization of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708, and our other product candidates and preclinical products under development. We may also need to obtain substantial additional sources of funding to develop our other product candidates and our preclinical products under development as currently contemplated. If such additional funding is not available on favorable terms or at all, we may need to delay or reduce the scope of our product candidate development programs, or grant rights in the United States, as well as outside the United States, to our product candidates to one or more partners.
We believe that our available cash and cash equivalents, including the proceeds from any revenue from our government contracts, service agreements, collaboration agreements, and reagent protein product sales will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash needs for at least the next twelve months. However, changing circumstances and risks and uncertainties associated with our product development efforts may cause us to consume capital significantly faster than we currently anticipate, and we may need to spend more money than currently expected. Our future capital requirements may vary depending on the following:
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the timing and extent of spending on our research and development efforts;
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our ability to enter into and maintain collaboration, licensing, commercialization and other arrangements and the terms and timing of such arrangements;
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our ability to retain Alvogen as a collaboration partner for the FDA-approved PF708 product and PF708 on commercially acceptable terms;
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the cost of manufacturing and commercialization activities, if any;
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the receipt of any collaboration or milestone payments;
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the scope, rate of progress, results and FDA acceptance of the results, and cost of our clinical trials, preclinical testing and other related activities for our product candidates;
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the emergence of competing technologies or other adverse market developments;
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the time and costs involved in seeking and obtaining regulatory and marketing approvals in multiple jurisdictions for our product candidates that successfully complete clinical trials;
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whether we and Alvogen obtain, in a timely manner or at all, an “A” therapeutic equivalence designation for the FDA-approved PF708 product that may allow such product to be automatically substituted for Forteo depending on applicable laws and policies within each of the 50 states;
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the cost of preparing, filing, prosecuting, defending and enforcing any patent claims and other intellectual property rights;
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the introduction of new product candidates and the number and characteristics of product candidates that we pursue;
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the timing, receipt and amount of sales, profit sharing or royalties, if any, from the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708, and any other potential products;
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the degree and rate of market acceptance and coverage and reimbursement by payors of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 and any of our other product candidates launched by us or our collaboration partners;
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the potential expansion of our sales and marketing activities; and
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the potential acquisition and in-licensing of other technologies, products or assets.
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If we were to experience any delays or encounter issues with any of the above, including with respect to obtaining an “A” therapeutic equivalence designation for the FDA-approved PF708 product, Alvogen’s commercial launch of the FDA-approved PF708 product in the U.S., clinical holds, failed studies, inconclusive or hard-to-interpret results, safety or efficacy issues, or other regulatory challenges that require longer follow-up of existing studies, additional major studies, or additional supportive studies in order to pursue marketing approval, it could further increase the costs associated with the above and delay or suspend revenues.
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We may need to raise additional capital to fund our operations in the near future. If we seek additional funding in the future, additional funds may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. We may seek to raise additional funds through equity, equity-linked or debt financings. If we raise additional funds through the incurrence of indebtedness, such indebtedness would have rights that are senior to holders of our equity securities and could contain covenants that restrict our operations. Any additional equity financing may be dilutive to our stockholders. If we are unable to obtain funding on a timely basis, we may be required to significantly curtail the advancement of one or more of our product candidates. We also could be required to seek funds through arrangements with collaboration partners or others that may require us to relinquish rights to some of our technologies or product candidates which we would otherwise pursue on our own.
Our quarterly operating results may fluctuate significantly.
Our operating results are subject to quarterly fluctuations. Our operating results are and will be affected by numerous factors, including:
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variations in the level of expenses related to our development and any future commercialization programs;
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sales by Alvogen of the FDA-approved PF708 product;
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addition or termination of clinical trials;
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any intellectual property infringement lawsuit in which we may become involved;
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any disruptions to our and our collaboration partners’ manufacturers or suppliers due to the effect of exposure to infectious disease and epidemics, including the coronavirus outbreak;
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regulatory developments affecting any of our products; and
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our execution of any service, collaborative, licensing or similar arrangements, and the timing of payments we may make or receive under these arrangements.
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If our quarterly operating results fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, the market price of our common stock could decline substantially. Furthermore, any quarterly fluctuations in our operating results may, in turn, cause the market price of our stock to fluctuate substantially.
Risks Relating to our Business and our Industry
Our business operations are dependent upon our senior management team and the ability of our other employees to execute on our business strategy. If we fail to attract, integrate, and keep senior management and key scientific personnel, we may be unable to successfully develop our product candidates, conduct our clinical trials and commercialize any product candidates we develop.
Our success depends in part on our continued ability to attract, integrate, retain, and motivate highly qualified management, clinical and scientific personnel, including our ability to develop an effective working relationship among senior management. Our president and chief executive officer, Eef Schimmelpennink, joined us in August 2017; our senior vice president, chief operating officer, Dr. Shawn Scranton, joined us in October 2018; and our senior vice president, chief scientific officer, Dr. Martin Brenner, joined us in March 2019.
As new employees gain experience in their roles, we could experience inefficiencies or a lack of business continuity due to loss of historical knowledge and a lack of familiarity of new employees with business processes, operating requirements, policies and procedures, and we may experience additional costs as new employees gain necessary experience. It is important to our success that these key employees quickly adapt to and excel in their new roles. If they are unable to do so, our business and financial results could be materially adversely affected. In addition, the loss of the services of any member of our senior management or our scientific or technical support staff might significantly delay or prevent the development of our products or achievement of other business objectives by diverting management’s attention to transition matters and identification of suitable replacements, if any, and could have a material adverse effect on our business.
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We believe that our future success is highly dependent upon the contributions of our senior management, particularly our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Business Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Scientific Officer, as well as our senior scientists and other members of our senior management team. Employment agreements with our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Business Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Scientific Officer, as well as our offer letters with our senior scientists, all provide for “at-will” employment. The loss of services of any of these individuals could delay or prevent the successful development of our product pipeline, completion of our planned clinical trials or the commercialization of any product candidates we develop.
Competition for qualified personnel in the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals industry is intense due to the limited number of individuals who possess the skills and experience required. To help attract, retain, and motivate qualified employees, we use share-based incentive awards such as employee stock options. Other companies may provide more generous compensation and benefits, more diverse opportunities and better chances for career advancement than we do. Some of these advantages may be more appealing to high-quality candidates and employees than those we have to offer. In addition, any decline in our stock price could create additional challenges related to our ability to compete effectively with respect to equity compensation. We may need to hire additional personnel as we expand our clinical development and commercial activities. We may not be able to attract and retain quality personnel on acceptable terms, or at all, which may cause our business and operating results to suffer.
If an improved version of a reference product, such as Forteo, is developed, or if the market for a reference product significantly declines, sales or potential sales of the FDA-approved PF708 product or PF708 may suffer.
Reference product (“originator”) sponsor companies may develop improved versions as part of a life cycle extension strategy and may obtain regulatory approval of the improved version under a supplemental biologics license application (BLA) or NDA. If an originator sponsor company, such as Eli Lilly, succeeds in obtaining an approval of an improved product, such as for Forteo, it may capture a significant share of the collective market and significantly reduce the market for the reference product, and thereby reduce the size of the market for the FDA-approved PF708 product or PF708, if approved in other territories. The improved product also may be protected by additional patent rights.
Competition in the pharmaceutical market is intense. Reference products face competition on numerous fronts as technological advances are made that may offer patients a more convenient form of administration or increased efficacy, or as new products are introduced. As new products are approved that compete with the reference product for PF708, such as Forteo, sales may be significantly and adversely impacted and may render the originator obsolete. If the market for Forteo is impacted, we and Alvogen in turn may lose significant market share or market potential for the FDA-approved PF708 product and PF708. As a result, the value of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 and our product pipeline could be negatively impacted and our business, prospects and financial condition could suffer.
The FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 and our other product candidates, if approved, face significant competition from the reference products and from therapeutic equivalent products of the reference products, and from other products. Our or our collaboration partners’ failure to effectively compete may prevent us from achieving significant market penetration and expansion.
We and Alvogen face highly competitive pharmaceutical markets. With the FDA approval for PF708, Alvogen is responsible for commercializing and manufacturing the FDA-approved PF708 product in the U.S. Successful competitors in the pharmaceutical market have the ability to effectively discover, obtain patents, develop, test and obtain regulatory approvals for products, as well as the ability to effectively commercialize, market and promote approved products, including communicating the effectiveness, safety and value of products to consumers and medical professionals. Numerous companies, universities, and other research institutions are engaged in developing, patenting, manufacturing and marketing of products competitive with the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 and other product candidates we are developing. For example, in April 2017, the FDA approved Radius Health’s TYMLOS® (abaloparatide), and in April 2019, the FDA approved Evenity (romosozumab) a once monthly monoclonal antibody product developed by Amgen and UCB, each of which compete with the FDA-approved PF708 product. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. has filed an ANDA referencing Forteo that, if approved, could compete with the FDA-approved PF708 product. Apotex Corp. also has submitted an ANDA for a generic version of Forteo, and other generic drug manufacturers may have filed and/or in the future may file ANDAs referencing Forteo that, if approved, could compete with the FDA-approved PF708 product. Any such competition could also adversely affect the market size and opportunity for the FDA-approved PF708 product and PF708. Many of these potential competitors, such as Amgen Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, and Radius Health are large, experienced companies that enjoy significant competitive advantages, such as substantially greater financial, research and development, manufacturing, personnel and marketing resources. Recent and potential future merger and acquisition
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activity in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries is likely to result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. These companies also maintain greater brand recognition and more experience and expertise in undertaking preclinical testing and clinical trials of product candidates and obtaining the FDA and other regulatory approvals of products. Established pharmaceutical companies may also invest heavily to accelerate discovery and development of novel compounds that could make the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 and our other product candidates obsolete.
In addition, the FDA has approved PF708 pursuant to the 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway in the U.S. with Forteo as the reference product. Only if the FDA-approved PF708 product obtains an “A” therapeutic equivalence designation may the FDA-approved PF708 product be permitted to be automatically substituted for Forteo, depending on applicable laws and policies within each of the 50 states. In the case of Teva’s and Apotex’s competitive products, upon any approval of such competitor’s ANDA by the FDA, such competitor’s product would be permitted to be automatically substituted for Forteo, depending on applicable laws and policies within each of the 50 states, without the need to obtain an “A” therapeutic equivalence designation.
In addition, the FDA-approved PF708 product, and if approved, PF708 and our other product candidates, face competition from companies that develop and commercialize products that compete directly with our products. See “Risks Related to Government Regulation-If the FDA approves other therapeutic equivalent or generic products with Forteo as the reference drug and these drug products are successfully commercialized, the FDA-approved PF708 product may face additional competition and our business could suffer.”
If any competitor products are approved that compete with the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 or our other product candidates as described herein, our product revenue could suffer and it would have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
Use of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 or our other product candidates could be associated with side effects or adverse events.
Use of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 or our other product candidates could be associated with side effects or adverse events which can vary in severity (from minor reactions to death) and frequency (infrequent or prevalent). Side effects or adverse events associated with the use of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 or our other product candidates may be observed at any time, including in clinical trials or when a product is commercialized, and any such side effects or adverse events may negatively affect our and our collaboration partners’ ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval or market the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 or our product candidates. Side effects such as toxicity or other safety issues associated with the use of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 or our product candidates could require us, Alvogen, or our other collaboration partners to perform additional studies or halt development or sale of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 or these other product candidates or expose us, Alvogen, or our other collaboration partners to product liability lawsuits which would harm our business. We, Alvogen, or our other collaboration partners may be required by regulatory agencies to conduct additional animal or human studies regarding the safety and efficacy of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 or our other product candidates which were not planned or anticipated. We, Alvogen, or our other collaboration partners may also be required to change product labeling, including increasing the prominence and content of warnings and contraindications for our products. The FDA could require us or our collaboration partners to develop a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) for such product or, if a REMS is already in place, to incorporate additional requirements under the REMS, and foreign regulatory authorities may require similar risk management strategies. There can be no assurance that we or our collaboration partners will resolve any issues related to any product-related adverse events to the satisfaction of the FDA or any regulatory agency in a timely manner or ever, which could harm our business, prospects and financial condition.
In addition, if we, Alvogen, and our other collaboration partners are successful in commercializing the FDA-approved PF708 product, or if approved, PF708 outside the U.S., or any other product candidates, the FDA, European Medicines Agency (EMA), competent authorities of the Member States of the European Economic Area (EEA), and other foreign regulatory agency regulations require that the application holder timely report certain information about adverse medical events. We, Alvogen, or our other collaboration partners may fail to report adverse events we become aware of within the prescribed timeframe. We, Alvogen, or our other collaboration partners may also fail to appreciate that we or our collaboration partners have become aware of a reportable adverse event, especially if it is not reported to us as an adverse event or if it is an adverse event that is unexpected or delayed in time from the use of our products. If we or our collaboration partners fail to comply with our reporting obligations, the FDA, the EMA, competent authorities of the Member States of the EEA, or other foreign regulatory agencies could take action including criminal prosecution, the imposition of civil monetary penalties, seizure of our products, or delay in approval or clearance of our products.
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With the FDA approval of the PF708 product, we are substantially dependent on the commercial success of the FDA-approved PF708 product to be marketed by Alvogen in the U.S. In addition, we currently rely on a limited number of third parties for a substantial portion of our revenue. The loss of or a change in Alvogen or any of these third parties, including its creditworthiness, could materially reduce our revenue and adversely impact our financial position.
Alvogen’s ability to successfully commercialize the FDA-approved PF708 product, the first FDA-approved product that we developed, is critical to the execution of our business strategy. For a discussion of risks relating to the degree of market acceptance and commercial success of the PF708 product, please see the risk factors entitled: “The FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 and our other product candidates, if approved, face significant competition from the reference products and from therapeutic equivalent products of the reference products, and from other products. Our or our collaboration partners’ failure to effectively compete may prevent us from achieving significant market penetration and expansion;” “Although the FDA-approved PF708 product has obtained regulatory approval from the FDA, PF708 may not be approved by other regulatory authorities and even if PF708 or our other product candidates obtain additional regulatory approvals, they may never achieve market acceptance or commercial success.;” and “If the FDA-approved PF708 product does not receive an “A” therapeutic equivalence designation from the FDA, our business may suffer.” Alvogen may experience significant fluctuations in sales of the FDA-approved PF708 product from period to period and, ultimately, we may never generate sufficient revenue from our agreement with Alvogen to reach or maintain profitability or sustain anticipated levels of operation. Any inability on the part of Alvogen to successfully commercialize the FDA-approved PF708 product in the U.S. and to successfully commercialize PF708 in any significant international markets where PF708 may be subsequently approved, or any significant delay, could have a material effect on our financial condition and results of operations. We have also entered into an agreement with China NT Pharma Group Company Ltd. (NT Pharma) to develop and commercialize PF708 in certain territories. The prospects for the FDA-approved PF708 product and PF708 depend on the expertise, development and commercial skills, and financial strength of Alvogen and NT Pharma.
In addition to our reliance on the commercial success of the FDA-approved PF708 product and PF708, two third parties accounted for more than 10% of our 2019, 2018 and 2017 revenue. For the year ended December 31, 2019, Jazz and Alvogen each accounted for more than 10% of our revenue. Jazz and BARDA each accounted for more than 10% of our revenue in 2018 and 2017.
The loss of any key collaboration partner, especially Alvogen and/or Jazz, or any significant adverse change in the size or terms of a contract with a key third party could significantly reduce our revenue over the short term. Moreover, having our revenue concentrated among a limited number of entities creates a concentration of financial risk for us, and in the event that any significant third party is unable to fulfill its payment obligations to us, our operating results and cash position would suffer. See “Risks Relating to our Reliance on Third Parties—We are substantially dependent on the expertise of Alvogen, Jazz, and NT Pharma to develop and commercialize the FDA-approved PF708 product, and PF708 and certain other product candidates, if approved. If we fail to maintain our current strategic relationship with Alvogen, Jazz, NT Pharma, or with any future collaboration partner, our business, commercialization prospects and financial condition may be materially adversely affected.”
We may fail to select or capitalize on the most scientifically, clinically or commercially promising or profitable product candidates.
We continue to evaluate our business strategy and, as a result, may modify our strategy in the future. In this regard, we may, from time to time, focus our product development efforts on different product candidates or may delay, suspend or terminate the future development of a product candidate at any time for strategic, business, financial or other reasons. For example, in 2017 we decided to pause development activities on PF582 and PF529 and focus development efforts elsewhere within the product portfolio while we continue to engage potential strategic partners for PF582 and PF529 to advance the programs and maximize value. As a result of changes in our strategy, we have and may in the future change or refocus our existing product development, commercialization and manufacturing strategies. This could require changes in our facilities and our personnel. Any product development changes that we implement may not be successful. In particular, we may fail to select or capitalize on the most scientifically, clinically or commercially promising or profitable product candidates. Our decisions to allocate our research and development, management and financial resources toward particular product candidates may not lead to the development of viable commercial products and may divert resources from better opportunities. Similarly, our decisions to delay or terminate product development programs may also prove to be incorrect and could cause us to miss valuable opportunities.
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We currently have limited marketing capabilities and no sales organization.
We currently have limited sales and marketing capabilities. We have no prior experience in the marketing, sale and distribution of pharmaceutical products and there are significant risks involved in building and managing a sales organization, including our ability to hire, retain and incentivize qualified individuals, generate sufficient sales leads, provide adequate training to sales and marketing personnel and effectively manage a geographically dispersed sales and marketing team.
To commercialize and manufacture the FDA-approved PF708 product and PF708, we have entered into collaboration agreements with Alvogen and NT Pharma and the prospects for the FDA-approved PF708 product and PF708 depend on the expertise, development and commercial skills, and financial strength of Alvogen and NT Pharma. Under the Alvogen agreements, Alvogen has the exclusive right to commercialize and manufacture PF708 in the United States, European Union, Middle East, North Africa, and the rest of the world not covered by the NT Pharma territory. The loss for any reason of Alvogen as a key partner could have a significant and adverse impact on our business. If we are unable to retain Alvogen as a partner on commercially acceptable terms, we may not be able to commercialize the FDA-approved PF708 product and PF708, if approved, as planned and we could experience delays in or suspension of the U.S. commercial launch of the FDA-approved PF708 product. Under the NT Pharma agreement, we granted an exclusive license to NT Pharma to commercialize PF708 in certain Asian countries and a non-exclusive license to conduct development activities in such territories with respect to PF708. For our other product candidates, if approved, we will need to identify potential sales, marketing and distribution partners or establish our own internal sales force. In the future, we may choose to collaborate with other third parties that have direct sales forces and established distribution systems, either to augment our own sales force or in lieu of our own sales force. If we are unable to maintain and/or enter into such arrangements on acceptable terms or at all, we may not be able to successfully commercialize the FDA-approved PF708 product or our other product candidates. If we are not successful in commercializing the FDA-approved PF708 product, or PF708 or our other product candidates, if approved, either on our own or through collaborations with one or more third parties, our future product revenue will suffer and we would incur significant additional losses.
We enter into various contracts in the normal course of our business that periodically incorporate provisions whereby we indemnify the other party to the contract. In the event we would have to perform under these indemnification provisions, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position and results of operations.
In the normal course of business, we periodically enter into academic, commercial and consulting agreements that contain indemnification provisions. With respect to our academic agreements, we may be required to indemnify the institution and related parties from losses arising from claims relating to the products, processes or services made, used, sold or performed pursuant to the agreements for which we have secured licenses, and from claims arising from our or our sublicensees’ exercise of rights under the agreement. With respect to commercial agreements entered into with our protein production customers, we typically provide indemnification for claims from third parties arising out of any potential intellectual property infringement associated with our Pfēnex Expression Technology® in the course of performing our services. With respect to our commercial agreements, the bulk of which are with contract manufacturers, we indemnify our vendors from third-party product liability claims which result from the production, use or consumption of the product, as well as for certain alleged infringements of any patent or other intellectual property right by a third party. With respect to consultants, we indemnify them from claims arising from the good faith performance of their services. In all of the above cases, we do not indemnify the parties for claims resulting from the negligence or willful misconduct of the indemnified party.
In certain circumstances, we maintain insurance coverage which we believe may limit our obligations under certain of these indemnification provisions. However, we do not carry insurance for all risks that our business may encounter, including our obligations under certain indemnification provisions. To the extent we do not have insurance to cover certain indemnification obligations, we are denied insurance coverage, or our obligation under an indemnification provision exceeds applicable insurance coverage, any significant, uninsured liability may require us to pay substantial amounts, which would adversely affect our working capital and results of operations.
We may have difficulty expanding our operations successfully.
As we advance our product candidates through the development process, we will need to expand our development, regulatory, manufacturing, quality, sales and marketing capabilities or contract with other organizations to provide these capabilities for us. As our operations expand, we expect that we will need to manage additional relationships with various collaboration partners, suppliers and other organizations, including with respect to the commercialization of the FDA-approved PF708 product and PF708.
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As of December 31, 2019, we had 81 full-time employees, including a total of 21 employees who hold Ph.D. or other doctoral degrees. Our management and personnel, systems and facilities currently in place may not be adequate to support this future growth. Therefore, we will need to continue to expand our managerial, operational, finance and other resources to manage our operations and clinical trials, continue our development activities and potentially commercialize our current product candidates, if approved. In order to effectively execute our growth strategy, we will be required to:
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manage our clinical trials effectively;
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identify, recruit, retain, incentivize and integrate additional employees;
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establish and maintain collaborations with third parties for the development and commercialization of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 and our product candidates, or otherwise build and maintain a sales, marketing and distribution infrastructure to commercialize PF708 or any other products for which we may obtain marketing approval;
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manage our internal development efforts effectively while carrying out our contractual obligations to third parties; and
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continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls, reporting systems and procedures.
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Due to our limited financial resources and our limited experience in managing a company with such anticipated growth, we may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations or recruit and train additional qualified personnel. In addition, this expansion of our operations may lead to significant costs and may divert our management and business development resources. Any inability to manage growth could delay the execution of our development and strategic objectives, or disrupt our operations, which could materially impact our business, revenue, and operating results.
The U.S. government holds certain intellectual property rights related to our Anthrax vaccines, Px563L and RPA563.
Although we have intellectual property related to expression of recombinant protective antigen in P. fluorescens, the U.S. government holds certain patents related to the recombinant protective antigen in Px563L and RPA563, as well as certain license rights to intellectual property related to other Px563L components used to produce the final vaccine, which, if exercised, could materially impact our business, revenue and operating results. We have rights to utilize this intellectual property held by the U.S. government by virtue of the Authorization and Consent clauses of our contracts with the U.S. government.
Our contracts with the U.S. government, and our subcontracts with U.S. government contractors, require ongoing funding decisions by the U.S. government; reduced or discontinued funding of these contracts could cause our financial condition and operating results to suffer.
Development of our anthrax vaccines, Px563L and RPA563, is funded by BARDA. The funding for government programs is subject to Congressional appropriations, often made on a fiscal year basis, even for programs designed to continue for several years. These appropriations can be subject to political considerations and stringent budgetary constraints. For example, on March 29, 2019, we received notice from BARDA informing us of BARDA’s decision to not exercise development options for cGMP manufacturing and potential Phase 1/2b study readiness for Px563L and RPA563. Following the receipts of the notice from BARDA and pursuant to ongoing discussions with BARDA, we deprioritized this program in our portfolio. Additionally, our government-funded development contracts give the U.S. government the right, exercisable in its sole discretion, to extend this contract for successive options following a base period of performance. The value of the services to be performed during these options may constitute the majority of the total value of the underlying contract. If levels of government expenditures and authorizations for biodefense decrease or shift to programs in areas where we do not offer products or are not developing product candidates, or if the U.S. government otherwise declines to exercise its options under its contracts with us, our business, revenue and operating results would suffer.
Our current contract with BARDA is a cost-plus fixed fee contract and potential future contracts with the U.S. government may also be structured this way. Under our cost-plus fixed fee contracts, we are allowed to recover our approved costs plus a fixed fee. The total price on a cost-plus fixed fee contract is based primarily on allowable costs incurred, but generally is subject to contract funding limitations. U.S. government regulations require us to notify our customer of any cost overruns or underruns on a cost-plus fixed fee contract. If we incur costs in excess of the funding limitation specified in the contract, we may not be able to recover those cost overruns.
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Moreover, changes in U.S. government contracting policies could directly affect our financial performance. Factors that could materially adversely affect our U.S. government contracting business include:
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budgetary constraints affecting U.S. government spending generally, or specific departments or agencies in particular;
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changes in U.S. government fiscal policies or available funding;
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changes in U.S. government defense and homeland security priorities;
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changes in U.S. government programs or requirements;
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adoption of new laws or regulations;
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technological developments;
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U.S. government shutdowns, threatened shutdowns or budget delays;
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competition and consolidation in our industry; and
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general economic conditions.
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These or other factors could cause U.S. government departments or agencies to reduce their development funding or future purchases under contracts, to exercise their right to terminate contracts or fail to exercise their options to extend our contracts, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and ability to meet our financial obligations.
Unfavorable provisions in government contracts, some of which are customary, may subject our business to material limitations, restrictions and uncertainties and may have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and operating results.
Government contracts contain provisions that give the U.S. government substantial rights and remedies, many of which are not typically found in commercial contracts, including provisions that allow the U.S. government to:
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terminate existing contracts, in whole or in part, for any reason or no reason;
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unilaterally reduce or modify the government’s obligations under such contracts or subcontracts, without the contractor’s consent, including by imposing equitable price adjustments;
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audit contract-related costs and fees, including allocated indirect costs;
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claim rights, including intellectual property rights, in products and data developed under such agreements;
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under certain circumstances involving public health and safety, license inventions made under such agreements to third parties;
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suspend the contractor from receiving new contracts pending resolution of alleged violations of procurement laws or regulations;
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impose U.S. manufacturing requirements for products that embody inventions conceived or first reduced to practice under such contracts;
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suspend or debar the contractor from doing future business with the government;
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decline to exercise an option to continue a contract;
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exercise an option to purchase only the minimum amount, if any, specified in a contract;
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decline to exercise an option to purchase the maximum amount, if any, specified in a contract;
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claim rights to facilities or to products, including intellectual property, developed under the contract;
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require repayment of contract funds spent on construction of facilities in the event of contract default;
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take actions that result in a longer development timeline than expected;
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change the course of a development program in a manner that differs from the contract’s original terms or from our desired development plan, including decisions regarding our partners in the program;
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pursue civil or criminal remedies under the False Claims Act (FCA) and False Statements Act; and
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control or prohibit the export of products.
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Generally, government contracts, including our contract with BARDA, contain provisions permitting unilateral termination or modification, in whole or in part, at the U.S. government’s convenience. Under general principles of government contracting law, if the U.S. government terminates a contract for convenience, the government contractor may recover only its incurred or committed costs, settlement expenses and profit on work completed prior to the termination. If the U.S. government terminates a contract for default, the government contractor is entitled to recover costs incurred and associated profits on accepted items only and may be liable for excess costs incurred by the government in procuring undelivered items from another source. In addition, government contracts normally contain additional requirements that may increase our costs of doing business, reduce our profits, and expose us to liability for failure to comply with these terms and conditions. These requirements include, for example:
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specialized accounting systems unique to government contracts;
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mandatory financial audits and potential liability for price adjustments or recoupment of government funds after such funds have been spent;
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public disclosures of certain contract information, which may enable competitors to gain insights into our research program;
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mandatory internal control systems and policies; and
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mandatory socioeconomic compliance requirements, including labor standards, non-discrimination and affirmative action programs and environmental compliance requirements.
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If we fail to maintain compliance with these requirements, we may be subject to potential contract or FCA liability and to termination of our contracts.
Furthermore, we are required to enter into agreements and subcontracts with third parties, including suppliers, consultants and other third-party contractors in order to satisfy our contractual obligations pursuant to our agreements with the United States government. Negotiating and entering into such arrangements can be time-consuming and we may not be able to reach agreement with such third parties. Any such agreement must also be compliant with the terms of our government contract. Any delay or inability to enter into such arrangements or entering into such arrangements in a manner that is non-compliant with the terms of our contract, may result in violations of our contract.
We may not have the right to prohibit the U.S. government from using certain technologies developed by us, and we may not be able to prohibit third-party companies, including our competitors, from using those technologies in providing products and services to the U.S. government. The U.S. government generally takes the position that it has the right to royalty-free use of technologies that are developed under U.S. government contracts.
Most U.S. government contracts grant the U.S. government the right to use on a royalty free basis, for or on behalf of the U.S. government, any technologies developed and data first produced by the contractor under the government contract. If we were to develop technology under a contract with such a provision, we might not be able to prohibit third parties, including our competitors, from using that technology in providing products and services to the U.S. government.
Our business is subject to audit by the U.S. government and a negative audit could adversely affect our business.
U.S. government agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) routinely audit and investigate government contractors and recipients of federal grants and contracts. These agencies review a contractor’s performance under its contracts, cost structure and compliance with applicable laws, regulations and standards.
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The HHS and the DCAA also review the adequacy of, and a contractor’s compliance with, its internal control systems and policies, including the contractor’s accounting, purchasing, property, estimating, compensation and management information systems. Any costs found to be improperly allocated to a specific contract will not be reimbursed, while such costs already reimbursed must be refunded. If an audit uncovers improper or illegal activities, we may be subject to civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, including:
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termination of contracts;
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suspension of payments;
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suspension or prohibition from conducting business with the U.S. government.
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In addition, we could suffer serious reputational harm if allegations of impropriety were made against us, which could cause our stock price to decrease.
The United States government’s determination to award a future contract may be challenged by an interested party, such as another bidder, at the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) or in federal court. If such a challenge is successful, any future contract we may be awarded may be terminated.
The laws and regulations governing the procurement of goods and services by the U.S. government provide procedures by which other bidders and interested parties may challenge the award of a government contract. If we are awarded a government contract, such challenges or protests could be filed even if there are not any valid legal grounds on which to base the protest. If any such protests are filed, the government agency may decide to suspend our performance under the contract while such protests are being considered by the GAO or the applicable federal court, thus potentially delaying delivery of payment. In addition, we could be forced to expend considerable funds to defend any potential award. If a protest is successful, the government may be ordered to terminate the contract and resolicit proposals. The government agencies with which we have contracts could even be directed to award a potential contract to one of the other bidders.
Laws and regulations affecting government contracts make it more costly and difficult for us to successfully conduct our business.
We must comply with numerous laws and regulations relating to the formation, administration and performance of government contracts, which can make it more difficult for us to retain our rights under our government contracts, including our contract with BARDA. These laws and regulations affect how we conduct business with government agencies. Among the most significant government contracting regulations that affect our business are:
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the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and agency-specific regulations supplemental to the FAR, which comprehensively regulate the procurement, formation, administration and performance of government contracts;
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the Truth in Negotiations Act, which requires certification and disclosure of cost or pricing data in connection with contract negotiations;
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business ethics and public integrity obligations, which govern conflicts of interest and the hiring of former government employees, restrict the granting of gratuities and funding of lobbying activities and include other requirements such as the Anti-Kickback Statute and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act;
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export and import control laws and regulations; and
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laws, regulations and executive orders restricting the use and dissemination of information classified for national security purposes and the exportation of certain products and technical data.
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Any material changes in applicable laws and regulations could restrict our ability to maintain our existing BARDA contract and obtain new contracts, which could limit our ability to conduct our business and materially adversely affect our results of operations.
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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 products we develop.
We face a risk of product liability as a result of the clinical testing of our product candidates and may face an even greater risk in connection with the commercialization of the FDA-approved PF708 product in addition to any other of our products that may be approved. For example, we may incur liability if any product we develop allegedly causes injury or is found to be otherwise unsuitable during product 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 and 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 commercialization of our products. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:
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decreased demand for the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 or any other product candidates or products we develop;
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injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention;
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withdrawal of clinical trial participants or cancellation of clinical trials;
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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 trial participants or patients;
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regulatory investigations, product recalls, withdrawals or labeling, marketing or promotional restrictions;
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the inability to commercialize any products we develop.
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Our inability to obtain and maintain sufficient product liability insurance at an acceptable cost and scope of coverage to protect against potential product liability claims could impact the commercialization of PF708 and any other products we develop. We currently carry product liability insurance in the amount of $10.0 million in the aggregate. Although we maintain such insurance, any claim that may be brought against us could result in a court judgment or settlement that is in excess of the limits of our insurance coverage. Our insurance policies also have various exclusions and deductibles, and we may be subject to a product liability claim for which we have no coverage. We will have to pay any amounts awarded by a court or negotiated in a settlement that exceed our coverage limitations or that are not covered by our insurance, and we may not have, or be able to obtain, sufficient capital to pay such amounts. Moreover, in the future, we may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in sufficient amounts to protect us against losses. Since we have received FDA approval for the PF708 product in the United States and if we obtain approval for marketing any of our product candidates, we may expand our insurance coverage to include the sale of such products; however, we may be unable to obtain this liability insurance on commercially reasonable terms.
Our employees, independent contractors, principal investigators, CROs, CMOs, consultants and collaboration partners may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements and insider trading.
We are exposed to the risk that our employees, independent contractors, principal investigators, third-party clinical research organizations (CROs) and contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), consultants and collaboration partners may engage in fraudulent conduct or other illegal activity. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional, reckless and/or negligent conduct or unauthorized activities that violate: (1) regulations of the FDA and comparable foreign authorities, including those laws requiring the reporting of true, complete and accurate information to such authorities; (2) manufacturing standards; (3) federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations; or (4) laws that require the reporting of true and accurate financial information and data. In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, misconduct, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements. These activities also include the improper use of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation. We have adopted a Code of Ethics and Conduct, but it is not always possible to identify and deter misconduct by employees and other third parties, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations. If any
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such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business including the imposition of significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, monetary fines, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, and curtailment of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations.
Our cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments could be adversely affected if the financial institutions in which we hold our cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments fail.
We regularly maintain cash balances at third-party financial institutions in excess of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insurance limit. While we monitor the cash balances in our accounts and adjust the balances as appropriate, these balances could be impacted, and there could be a material adverse effect on our business, if one or more of the financial institutions with which we deposit fails or is subject to other adverse conditions in the financial or credit markets. To date, we have experienced no loss or lack of access to our invested cash or cash equivalents; however, we can provide no assurance that access to our invested cash and cash equivalents will not be impacted by adverse conditions in the financial and credit markets.
We may be subject to information technology failures, including data protection breaches and cyber-attacks, that could disrupt our operations, damage our reputation and adversely affect our business, operations, and financial results.
We rely on our information technology systems for the effective operation of our business and for the secure maintenance and storage of confidential data relating to our business and third-party businesses. Although we have implemented certain security controls to protect our information technology systems, experienced programmers or hackers may be able to penetrate our security controls, and develop and deploy viruses, worms and other malicious software programs that compromise our confidential information or that of third parties and cause a disruption or failure of our information technology systems. Any such compromise of our information technology systems could result in the unauthorized publication of our confidential business or proprietary information, result in the unauthorized release of customer, supplier or employee data, result in a violation of privacy or other laws, expose us to a risk of litigation, or damage our reputation. The cost and operational consequences of implementing further data protection measures either as a response to specific breaches or as a result of evolving risks, could be significant. In addition, our inability to use or access our information systems at critical points in time could adversely affect the timely and efficient operation of our business. Any delayed sales, significant costs or lost customers resulting from these technology failures could adversely affect our business, operations and financial results.
Third parties with which we conduct business have access to certain portions of our sensitive data. In the event that these third parties do not properly safeguard our data that they hold, security breaches could result and negatively impact our business, operations and financial results.
Our business involves the use of hazardous materials and we, our collaboration partners, and our third-party manufacturers and suppliers must comply with environmental laws and regulations, which can be expensive and restrict how we do business.
Our research and development and manufacturing activities and our third-party manufacturers’ and suppliers’ activities involve the controlled storage, use and disposal of hazardous materials owned by us, including small quantities of acetonitrile, methanol, ethanol, ethidium bromide and compressed gases, and other hazardous compounds. We and our collaboration partners, manufacturers and suppliers are subject to laws and regulations governing the use, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of these hazardous materials. In some cases, these hazardous materials and various wastes resulting from their use are stored at our and our manufacturers’ facilities pending their use and disposal. We cannot eliminate the risk of contamination, which could cause an interruption of our commercialization efforts, research and development efforts and business operations, environmental damage resulting in costly clean-up and liabilities under applicable laws and regulations governing the use, storage, handling and disposal of these materials and specified waste products.
Although we believe that the safety procedures utilized by us and our third-party manufacturers for handling and disposing of these materials generally comply with the standards prescribed by these laws and regulations, we cannot guarantee that this is the case or eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials. In such an event, we may be held liable for any resulting damages and such liability could exceed our resources and state or federal or other applicable authorities may curtail our use of certain materials and interrupt our business operations.
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We are also subject to numerous environmental, health and workplace safety laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures, and the handling of biohazardous materials. Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses, we may incur due to injuries to our employees resulting from the use of these materials, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. For claims not covered by workers’ compensation insurance, we also maintain an employer’s liability insurance policy in the amount of $1.0 million per occurrence and in the aggregate. We do not maintain insurance for environmental liability or toxic tort claims that may be asserted against us.
Environmental laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent. We cannot predict the impact of such changes and cannot be certain of our future compliance. Any inability to comply with environmental laws and regulations may adversely affect our business and operating results.
Changes in accounting principles, or interpretations thereof, could have a significant impact on our financial position and results of operations.
We prepare our consolidated financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, referred to as GAAP. These principles are subject to interpretation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and various bodies formed to interpret and create appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles can have a significant effect on our reported results and may even retroactively affect previously reported transactions. Additionally, the adoption of new or revised accounting principles may require that we make significant changes to our systems, processes and controls.
It is not clear if or when these potential changes in accounting principles may become effective, whether we have the proper systems and controls in place to accommodate such changes and the impact that any such changes may have on our financial position and results of operations.
Although the FDA-approved PF708 product has obtained regulatory approval from the FDA, PF708 may not be approved by other regulatory authorities and even if PF708 or our other product candidates obtain additional regulatory approvals, they may never achieve market acceptance or commercial success.
Although the FDA-approved PF708 product has obtained regulatory approval from the FDA, and even if we obtain other regulatory approvals, the FDA-approved PF708 product or any of our other product candidates, if approved, may not achieve market acceptance among physicians and patients and may not be commercially successful. The degree and rate of market acceptance of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708, or any of our other product candidates for which we receive approval depends on a number of factors, including:
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the performance of our collaboration partners, including Alvogen, Jazz, and NT Pharma;
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the safety and efficacy of the product as demonstrated in clinical trials;
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the clinical indications for which the product is approved;
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acceptance by physicians, major operators of clinics and patients of the product as a safe and effective treatment;
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whether we obtain an “A” therapeutic equivalence designation for the FDA-approved PF708 product, which may allow the product to be automatically substituted for Forteo, depending on applicable laws and policies within each of the 50 states;
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whether we or Alvogen are able to obtain timely and adequate coverage and reimbursement for our products by key payors, such as Medicare Part D for the FDA-approved PF708 product in the United States;
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proper training and administration of our products by physicians, medical staff, and patients;
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the potential and perceived advantages of our products over alternative treatments;
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the cost of treatment in relation to alternative treatments and willingness to pay for the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 and our other product candidates, if approved, on the part of physicians and patients;
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relative convenience and ease of administration;
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the prevalence and severity of adverse events; and
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the effectiveness of our sales and marketing efforts.
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Any failure by the FDA-approved PF708 product or product candidates that obtain regulatory approval to achieve market acceptance or commercial success would materially adversely affect our results of operations and delay, prevent or limit our ability to generate revenue and continue our business.
Risks Relating to our Reliance on Third Parties
We are substantially dependent on the expertise of Alvogen, Jazz, and NT Pharma to develop and commercialize the FDA-approved PF708 product, and PF708 and certain other product candidates, if approved. If we fail to maintain our current strategic relationship with Alvogen, Jazz, NT Pharma, or with any future collaboration partner, our business, commercialization prospects and financial condition may be materially adversely affected.
Because we have limited or no capabilities for commercial, manufacturing, sales, marketing and distribution, we have entered into alliances and may need to enter into additional alliances with other companies to develop and commercialize our products that we have developed and our product candidates. For example, to commercialize the FDA-approved PF708 product and PF708 if approved in other territories, we have entered into collaboration agreements with Alvogen and NT Pharma and the prospects for the FDA-approved PF708 product and PF708 if approved outside the U.S., depends in part on the expertise, commercial skills, and financial strength of Alvogen and NT Pharma. Under the Alvogen agreement, Alvogen has the exclusive right to commercialize and manufacture the FDA-approved PF708 product in the United States, and PF708 in the European Union, Middle East, North Africa, and the rest of the world not covered by the NT Pharma agreement. We may be unable to establish or maintain this relationship with Alvogen on a commercially reasonable basis, if at all. In addition, Alvogen may have similar or more established relationships with our competitors. Moreover, the loss for any reason of Alvogen as a key partner could have a significant and adverse impact on our business. If we are unable to retain Alvogen as a partner on commercially acceptable terms, the commercialization of PF708 may not occur as planned and there could be delays in or suspension of the commercial launch of the FDA-approved PF708 product in the U.S. Under the NT Pharma agreement, we granted an exclusive license to NT Pharma to commercialize PF708 in certain Asian countries, if approved, and a non-exclusive license to conduct development activities in such territories with respect to PF708. In addition, we entered into an agreement with Jazz, pursuant to which we have transferred the development, manufacturing and commercialization of certain product candidates.
In July 2016, we entered into a license and option agreement with Jazz, pursuant to which we and Jazz are collaboratively developing hematology/oncology products, including PF743 (JZP-458), a recombinant Erwinia asparaginase, and PF745 (JZP-341), a long-acting Erwinia asparaginase, and Jazz has the exclusive right to manufacture and commercialize such products throughout the world. In December 2017, we amended the agreement. As of December 31, 2019, we may be eligible to receive additional payments under the amended agreement of up to $162.5 million based on achievement of certain research and development, regulatory and sales-related milestones, bringing the total value of payments and potential payments associated with the collaboration to $224.5 million. In addition, we may be eligible to receive tiered royalties on worldwide sales of any products resulting from the collaboration at rates reduced from those under the 2016 agreement.
The prospects for the FDA-approved PF708 product, and PF708 and the other product candidates developed under these collaborations depend on the expertise, development and commercial skills, and financial strength of Alvogen, Jazz, and NT Pharma. Our collaborations with Alvogen, Jazz, NT Pharma or any future collaboration partner may not be successful, and we may not realize the expected benefits from such collaborations, due to a number of important factors, including but not limited to the following:
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Alvogen, Jazz, NT Pharma, or any future collaboration partner may terminate their agreements with us prior to completing development or commercialization of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 or the other product candidates under the collaboration, in whole or in part, adversely impacting the potential approval and our revenue from licensed products;
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the timing and amount of any payments we may receive under these agreements will depend on, among other things, the efforts, allocation of resources, and successful commercialization of the FDA-approved PF708 product and PF708 by Alvogen or the relevant product candidates by Jazz, NT Pharma, or any future collaboration partner, as applicable, under our agreements;
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the timing and amounts of expense reimbursement that we may receive are uncertain; or
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Alvogen, Jazz, NT Pharma, or any future collaboration partner may change the focus of their development or commercialization efforts or pursue or emphasize higher priority programs.
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A failure of Alvogen, Jazz, NT Pharma or any future collaboration partner to successfully develop our product candidates which are covered by the collaboration, or to commercialize the PF708 product, PF708 or such other product candidates, or the termination of our agreements with Alvogen, Jazz, NT Pharma, or any future collaboration partner, as applicable, may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We are dependent on Alvogen for the commercial manufacture and supply of the FDA-approved PF708 product. The manufacture of the FDA-approved PF708 product is complex and Alvogen may encounter difficulties in production, particularly with respect to scaling up Alvogen’s manufacturing capabilities of the FDA-approved PF708 product.
The process of manufacturing the FDA-approved PF708 product is complex, highly-regulated and subject to multiple risks. The manufacture of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708, and our product candidates involves complex processes and is subject to the risks more fully described in the risk factor entitled “We rely on our collaboration partners, and other third parties, and in some cases a single third party, to manufacture commercial, nonclinical and clinical supplies of our product candidates, supply key materials to manufacture our other product candidates, and to store critical components of our other product candidates for us. Our business could be harmed if those third parties fail to provide us with sufficient quantities of our other product candidates or fail to do so at acceptable quality levels or prices.”
We have transferred our manufacturing processes for the FDA-approved PF708 product to Alvogen. The transfer of process to Alvogen, or to CMOs selected by Alvogen, and the actual manufacture of the FDA-approved PF708 product by Alvogen or its selected CMOs, is subject to risk and may not ultimately be successful or may take longer to succeed than expected, which could delay or impair commercialization activities in the U.S., which would have an adverse effect on our business.
Reliance on Alvogen and third-party manufacturers entails risks to which we would not be subject if we manufactured the FDA-approved PF708 product ourselves, including reliance on Alvogen or the third-party for regulatory compliance and quality assurance, the possibility of breach of the manufacturing agreement by Alvogen or the third-party because of factors beyond our control, including a failure to manufacture the FDA-approved PF708 product in accordance with specifications, and the possibility of termination or nonrenewal of the agreement by Alvogen, based on its own business priorities, at a time that is costly or damaging to us. In addition, the FDA requires that the FDA-approved PF708 product be manufactured according to cGMP. Any failure by Alvogen to comply with cGMP or failure to scale up manufacturing processes, including any failure to deliver sufficient quantities of the FDA-approved PF708 product or PF708 in a timely manner, could lead to delay in, or failure to obtain, regulatory approval of PF708 in territories outside the U.S. In addition, failure to comply with cGMP could be the basis for the FDA to issue a warning letter, withdraw approvals previously granted to us or our collaboration partners, or take other regulatory or legal action, including recall or seizure of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 or other product candidate, total or partial suspension of production, suspension of on-going clinical trials, refusal to approve pending applications or supplemental applications, detention of product, refusal to permit the import or export of products, injunction, or imposing civil and criminal penalties.
Because we have received FDA approval for PF708, Alvogen is obligated to use diligent efforts to continue to develop, manufacture and commercialize the FDA-approved PF708 product at Alvogen’s cost and expense. We and Alvogen have not yet identified alternate suppliers for the FDA-approved PF708 product, nor have we identified alternate suppliers for any other product candidate, in the event the current CMOs we utilize are unable to scale to commercial production, pass required preapproval inspections, or if we otherwise experience any problems with them. Although we believe alternative third-party suppliers with the necessary manufacturing and regulatory expertise and facilities exist, it would be expensive and take a significant amount of time to arrange for, and qualify, alternative suppliers. Furthermore, if Alvogen is required to identify, qualify and contract with new manufacturing suppliers of the FDA-approved PF708 product or PF708, Alvogen would need to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the FDA in a bridging study that any new supply of the FDA-approved PF708 product is substantially the same as the previous supply of FDA-approved PF708 product. A bridging study may require further clinical testing, including testing in patients. We cannot assure you that we can arrange for alternative third-party manufacturing sources for the FDA-approved PF708 product on commercially reasonable terms or in a timely manner, or that such manufacturers or collaboration partners will be capable of manufacturing the FDA-approved PF708 product in compliance with cGMP and to FDA’s satisfaction.
Any significant disruption in our supplier relationships could harm our business. Any significant delay in the supply of a product candidate or its key materials for an ongoing clinical study could considerably delay completion of our clinical studies, product testing and potential regulatory approval of our product candidates. If Alvogen, our manufacturers or we are unable to purchase these key materials for the PF708 product, the commercial launch of the FDA-approved PF708 product could be delayed or there would be a shortage in supply, which would impair our ability to generate revenues from the sale of the FDA-approved PF708 product.
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We rely on our collaboration partners, and other third parties, and in some cases a single third party, to manufacture commercial, nonclinical and clinical supplies our product candidates, supply key materials to manufacture our other product candidates, and to store critical components of our other product candidates for us. Our business could be harmed if those third parties fail to provide us with sufficient quantities of our other product candidates or fail to do so at acceptable quality levels or prices.
We do not currently have the infrastructure or capability internally to manufacture supplies of our product candidates for use in clinical studies, and we lack the resources and the capability to manufacture any of our product candidates on a clinical or commercial scale. We rely on Alvogen, our collaboration partners, and other third-party manufacturers, including with respect to PF708, to manufacture PF708 or our product candidates for preclinical and clinical studies, and commercial supply. In addition, following FDA approval of PF708, Alvogen will also supply NT Pharma with PF708 if requested by NT Pharma. We have transferred the manufacturing techniques related to PF708 to Alvogen. Moreover, the market for contract manufacturing services for protein therapeutics is highly cyclical, with periods of relatively abundant capacity alternating with periods in which there is little available capacity. If our need for contract manufacturing services increases during a period of industry-wide production capacity shortage, we may not be able to produce our product candidates on a timely basis or on commercially viable terms. Although we generally do not begin a clinical study unless we believe we have a sufficient supply of a product or product candidate to complete such study, any significant delay or discontinuation in the supply of a product or product candidate for an ongoing clinical study due to the need to replace a third-party manufacturer could considerably delay completion of our clinical studies, product testing, and potential regulatory approval of our current product candidates, which could harm our business and results of operations.
Reliance on Alvogen, our collaboration partners, and other third-party manufacturers entails additional risks, including reliance on the third party for regulatory compliance and quality assurance, the possible breach of the manufacturing agreement by the third party, and the possible termination or nonrenewal of the agreement by the third party at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us. In addition, Alvogen, our collaboration partners, and other third-party manufacturers may not be able to comply with cGMP, or similar regulatory requirements outside the United States. Our failure, or the failure of Alvogen, our collaboration partners, or other third-party manufacturers, to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, seizures or recalls of products, operating restrictions, untitled or warning letters, suspension of ongoing clinical trials, refusal to approve pending applications or supplemental applications, and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect supplies of PF708 or any other product candidates or products that we may develop. Any failure or refusal to supply the components for PF708 or our other product candidates that are being developed could delay, prevent or impair clinical development or commercialization efforts. If our manufacturers were to breach or terminate their manufacturing arrangements with us, the development or commercialization of the affected products or product candidates could be delayed, which could have an adverse effect on our business. Any change in our manufacturers could be costly because the commercial terms of any new arrangement could be less favorable and because the expenses relating to the transfer of necessary technology and processes could be significant.
In order to produce the quantities of the FDA-approved PF708 product necessary to meet anticipated market demand, Alvogen or any manufacturer that we and our collaboration partners engage may need to increase manufacturing capacity. If we, Alvogen, our collaboration partners, or our manufacturers are unable to produce the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 for commercial sales or for clinical studies, or any of our product candidates in sufficient quantities to meet the requirements for the launch of these products or to meet future demand, our revenue and gross margins could be adversely affected. Although we currently believe that we, Alvogen, our collaboration partners, and our manufacturers will not have any material supply issues, we cannot be certain that we will be able to obtain long-term supply arrangements for PF708 or any of our other product candidates or materials used to produce such product candidate on acceptable terms, if at all. If we, Alvogen, or our collaboration partners are unable to arrange for manufacturing, either through a third party or Alvogen, or to do so on commercially reasonable terms, we may not be able to market the FDA-approved PF708 product or complete development of or market any of our other product candidates.
Any significant disruption in our supplier relationships could harm our business. We source key materials from third parties, either directly through agreements with suppliers or indirectly through our manufacturers who have agreements with suppliers. There are a small number of suppliers for certain capital equipment and key materials that are used to manufacture our product candidates. Such suppliers may not sell these key materials to our manufacturers at the times we need them or on commercially reasonable terms. We do not have any control over the process or timing of the acquisition of these key materials by our manufacturers. Any significant delay in the supply of a product candidate or its key materials for an ongoing clinical study could considerably delay completion of our clinical studies, product testing and potential regulatory approval of our product candidate. If Alvogen, our manufacturers, collaboration partners, or we are unable to purchase these key materials for PF708 our other product candidates after regulatory approval, the commercial launch of our product candidates, if approved, could be delayed or there could be a shortage in supply, which would impair our ability to generate revenues from their sale.
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We also rely on third parties to store master and working cell banks for PF708 and our other product candidates. We have master and working cell banks and believe we would have adequate backup should any cell bank be lost in a catastrophic event. However, it is possible that we could lose multiple cell banks and have our manufacturing severely impacted by the need to replace the cell banks, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our existing product development and/or commercialization arrangements, and any that we may enter into in the future, may not be successful, which could adversely affect our ability to generate revenues from the FDA-approved PF708 product and develop and commercialize PF708 and our other product candidates.
We are a party to collaboration arrangements with other pharmaceutical companies for the development and/or commercialization of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 and our current and future product candidates. In such alliances, we would expect our collaboration partners to provide substantial capabilities in clinical development, manufacturing, regulatory affairs, sales and marketing, both in the United States and internationally. For example, to commercialize the FDA-approved PF708 product and PF708, we have entered into collaboration agreements with Alvogen and NT Pharma and the prospects for the FDA-approved PF708 product and PF708 depend in part on the expertise, development and commercial skills, and financial strength of Alvogen and NT Pharma. Under the Alvogen agreement, Alvogen has the exclusive right to commercialize and manufacture PF708 in the United States, European Union, Middle East, North Africa, and the rest of the world not covered by the NT Pharma agreement. Under the NT Pharma agreement, we granted an exclusive license to NT Pharma to commercialize PF708 in certain Asian countries and a non-exclusive license to conduct development activities in such territories with respect to PF708.
To the extent that we decide to enter into additional collaboration agreements, we will face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaboration partners. Any failure to meet our clinical milestones with respect to an unpartnered product candidate would make finding a collaboration partner more difficult. Moreover, collaboration arrangements are complex and time consuming to negotiate, document and implement, and we cannot guarantee that we can successfully maintain such relationships or that the terms of such arrangements will be favorable to us. If we fail to maintain, establish and implement collaboration or other alternative arrangements, the value of our business and operating results will be adversely affected.
We may not be successful in our efforts to establish, implement and maintain collaborations or other alternative arrangements if we choose to enter into such arrangements. The terms of any collaboration or other arrangements that we may establish may not be favorable to us. The management of collaborations may take significant time and resources that distract our management from other matters. Our ability to successfully collaborate with any current or future collaboration partners may be impaired by multiple factors including:
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a collaboration partner may shift its priorities and resources away from our programs due to a change in business strategies, or a merger, acquisition, sale or downsizing of its company or business unit;
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a collaboration partner may cease development in therapeutic areas which are the subject of alliances with us;
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a collaboration partner may change the success criteria for a particular program or product candidate thereby delaying or ceasing development of such program or candidate;
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a significant delay in initiation of certain development activities by a collaboration partner will also delay payments tied to such activities, thereby impacting our ability to fund our own activities;
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a collaboration partner could develop a product that competes, either directly or indirectly, with our current or future products, if any;
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a collaboration partner with commercialization obligations may not commit sufficient financial or human resources to the marketing, distribution or sale of a product;
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a collaboration partner with manufacturing responsibilities may encounter regulatory, resource or quality issues and be unable to meet demand requirements;
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a collaboration partner may exercise its rights under the agreement to terminate our collaboration;
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a dispute may arise between us and a collaboration partner concerning the commercialization of the FDA-approved PF708 product or PF708 or the research, development, or commercialization of another product candidate resulting in a delay in milestones, royalty payments or termination of a program and possibly resulting in costly litigation or arbitration which may divert management attention and resources;
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the results of our clinical trials may not match our collaboration partners’ expectations, even if statistically significant;
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a collaboration partner may not adequately protect or enforce the intellectual property rights associated with a product or product candidate; and
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a collaboration partner may use our proprietary information or intellectual property in such a way as to invite litigation from a third party.
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Any such activities by our current or future collaboration partners could adversely affect us financially and could harm our business reputation.
In addition to product development and commercialization capabilities, we may depend on our alliances with other companies to provide substantial additional funding for development and commercialization of the FDA-approved PF708 product, and PF708 and other product candidates, if approved. We may not be able to obtain funding on favorable terms from these alliances, and if we are not successful in doing so, we may not have sufficient funds to develop a particular product candidate internally, or to bring product candidates to market. Failure to bring our product candidates to market will prevent us from generating sales revenue, and this may substantially harm our business. Furthermore, any delay in entering into these alliances could delay the development and commercialization of our product candidates and reduce their competitiveness even if they reach the market. As a result, our business and operating results may be adversely affected.
We rely on CROs to conduct and oversee our planned clinical trials for our product candidates and other clinical trials for product candidates we are developing or may develop in the future. If our CROs do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines, or otherwise conduct the trials as required or comply with regulatory requirements, or if our relationship with our CRO terminates, we and our collaboration partners may not be able to seek or obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidates when expected or at all, and our business could be substantially harmed.
We will continue to rely upon medical institutions, clinical investigators and contract laboratories to conduct our trials in accordance with our clinical protocols and in accordance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements. These third parties play a significant role in the conduct of these trials and the subsequent collection and analysis of data from the clinical trials. These third parties are not our employees, and except for remedies available to us under our agreements with such third parties, there is no guarantee that any such third party will devote adequate time and resources to our clinical trial. If our CRO or any other third parties upon which we rely for administration and conduct of our clinical trials 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, regulatory requirements, or for other reasons, or if they otherwise perform in a substandard manner, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed, suspended or terminated, and we may not be able to complete development of, seek or obtain regulatory approval for, or successfully commercialize our product candidates. We plan to rely heavily on these third parties for the execution of clinical trials for products we are developing or may develop in the future and will control only certain aspects of their activities. Nevertheless, we are responsible for ensuring that each of our clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol, legal, regulatory and scientific standards, and our reliance on our CRO does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities.
We, our CRO and our collaboration partners are required to comply with current Good Clinical Practice (cGCP), which are regulations and guidelines enforced by regulatory authorities around the world for products in clinical development. Regulatory authorities enforce these cGCP regulations through periodic inspections of clinical trial sponsors, principal investigators and clinical trial sites. If we, our CRO or our collaboration partners fail to comply with applicable cGCP regulations, the clinical data generated in clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and submission of marketing applications may be delayed or the regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before accepting our applications for review or approving marketing applications. We cannot assure that, upon inspection, a regulatory authority will determine that any of our clinical trials comply or complied with applicable cGCP regulations. In addition, clinical trials must be conducted with product produced under current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) regulations, which are enforced by regulatory authorities. Any failure to comply with these regulations may require us to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process. Moreover, our business may be implicated if our CRO violates federal or state fraud and abuse or false claims laws and regulations or healthcare privacy and security laws.
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Comparative clinical trials require a substantial number of patients that can form the basis for generating statistically significant results. Delays in site initiation or unexpectedly low patient enrollment rates may delay the results of the clinical trial. CROs may also generate higher costs than anticipated. As a result, our results of operations and the commercial prospects for our product candidates would be harmed, our costs could increase, and our ability to generate revenue could be delayed. Further, if our relationship with our CRO is terminated, we may be unable to enter into arrangements with an alternative CRO on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Switching or adding CROs can involve substantial cost and require extensive management time and focus. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new CRO commences work. As a result, delays may occur, which can materially impact our ability to meet our desired clinical development timelines. Although we carefully manage our relationship with our CROs, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter such challenges or delays in the future or that these delays or challenges will not have a material adverse impact on our business, prospects, financial condition or results of operations.
We rely on third-party suppliers, and in some instances a single third-party supplier, for the manufacture and supply of certain materials in our protein production services, and these suppliers could cease to manufacture the materials, go out of business or otherwise not perform as anticipated.
We rely on third-party suppliers for our protein production services and, in some instances, a single third-party supplier, for the manufacture and supply of certain materials. For example, we currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on a single-source supplier for the manufacture and supply of CRM197. To meet these demands, our supplier is in the process of increasing production capacity, and we also have established a repository in the United States that is capable of storing a safety stock of CRM197 and the CRM197 cell bank. Furthermore, we have taken steps to identify alternate sources of supply sufficient to support future needs and have several supply agreements in place with other vendors; however, there may be delays in switching to these alternative suppliers if our contract with primary sources are terminated without notice. Regardless of the foregoing alternative measures, we cannot guarantee that we will have an adequate supply of CRM197. If we are unable to secure adequate quantities of CRM197 from our primary supplier, from potential secondary suppliers or from our safety stock, we may be required to identify additional suppliers. If we are required to engage additional suppliers, we may not be able to enter into an alternative supply arrangement on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Even if we are able to identify additional suppliers and enter into agreements on commercially reasonable terms, we may incur delays associated with identifying and qualifying additional suppliers and negotiating the terms of any supply contracts. These delays could adversely impact our business and negatively affect profitability of our protein production services.
We have entered into collaborations with third parties in connection with the development of PF708 and certain of our other product candidates. Even if we believe that the development of our technology, PF708 and other product candidates is promising, our partners may choose not to proceed with such development.
Our existing agreements with our collaboration partners, Alvogen, Jazz, and NT Pharma, and any future collaboration agreements we may enter into, are generally subject to termination by the counterparty on short notice upon the occurrence of certain circumstances. Accordingly, even if we believe that the development of product candidates is worth pursuing, our partners may choose not to continue with such development. If any of our collaborations are terminated, such as the termination of our collaboration with Pfizer in August 2016, we may be required to devote additional resources to the development of our product candidates or seek a new collaboration partner on short notice, and the terms of any additional collaboration or other arrangements that we establish may not be favorable to us.
We are also at risk that our current and any potential collaborations or other arrangements may not be successful. Factors that may affect the success of our collaborations include the following:
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our collaboration partners may incur financial and cash flow difficulties that force them to limit or reduce their participation in our joint projects;
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our collaboration partners may be pursuing alternative technologies or developing alternative products that are competitive to our technology and products, either on their own or in partnership with others;
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our collaboration partners may terminate their collaboration with us, which could make it difficult for us to attract new partners or adversely affect perception of us in the business and financial communities; and
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our collaboration partners may pursue higher priority programs or change the focus of their development programs, which could affect their commitment to us.
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If we cannot maintain successful collaborations, our business, financial condition and operating results may be adversely affected.
If we are unable to maintain our commercial supply agreements with key customers purchasing CRM197, sales revenue could decline.
We primarily sell CRM197 directly to biopharmaceutical companies and currently have several supply agreements in place for supply of CRM197, although we currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on a single-source supplier for the manufacture and supply of CRM197. To establish and maintain relationships with customers, we believe we need to maintain adequate supplies of CRM197, remain price competitive, comply with regulatory regulations and provide high quality products. If we are unable to establish and maintain arrangements for the sale of CRM197, our revenue and profits would decline.
Risks Relating to Our Intellectual Property
Our collaboration partners and other third parties may assert ownership or commercial rights to inventions we develop from our use of the materials which they provide to us, or otherwise arising from our collaboration.
We collaborate with other companies and institutions with respect to research and development matters. Also, we rely on numerous third parties to provide us with materials that we use to develop our technology. If we cannot successfully negotiate sufficient ownership, licensing and/or commercial rights to any inventions that result from our use of any third-party collaborator’s materials, or if disputes arise with respect to the intellectual property developed with the use of a collaborator’s materials, or data developed in a collaborator’s study, our ability to capitalize on the market potential of these inventions or developments may be limited or precluded altogether.
If our efforts to protect our intellectual property related to our platform technology, PF708 and our current or future product candidates are not adequate, we may not be able to compete effectively in our market.
We rely upon a combination of patents, trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect the intellectual property related to PF708 and our current product candidates and our development programs. If we do not adequately protect our intellectual property, competitors may be able to use our technologies and erode or negate any competitive advantage we may have, which could harm our business and ability to achieve profitability. In particular, our success depends in large part on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection in the United States and other countries with respect to our platform, PF708 and product candidates. However, we may not be able to file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. We may also fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development before it is too late to obtain patent protection. Any disclosure to or misappropriation by third parties of our confidential proprietary information could enable competitors to quickly duplicate or surpass our technological achievements, eroding our competitive position in our market.
The patentability of inventions, and the validity, enforceability and scope of patents in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry involve complex legal and scientific questions and can be uncertain. This uncertainty includes changes to the patent laws through either legislative action to change statutory patent law or court action that may reinterpret existing law in ways affecting the scope or validity of issued patents. The patent applications that we own or license may fail to result in issued patents in the United States or foreign countries. There is a substantial amount of prior art in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields, including scientific publications, patents and patent applications. Our ability to obtain and maintain valid and enforceable patents depends on whether the differences between our technology and the prior art allow our technology to be patentable over the prior art. We may be unaware of certain prior art relating to our patent applications and patents, which could prevent a patent from issuing from a pending patent application or result in an issued patent being invalidated. Even if the patents do successfully issue, third parties may challenge the validity, enforceability or scope of such issued patents or any other issued patents we own or license, which may result in such patents being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable.
Patents granted by the European Patent Office may be opposed by any person within nine months from the publication of their grant and, in addition, may be challenged before national courts at any time. Furthermore, even if they are unchallenged, our patents and patent applications may not adequately protect our intellectual property or prevent others from designing around our claims. If the breadth or strength of protection provided by the patents and patent applications we hold, license or pursue with respect to our product candidates is threatened, it could threaten our ability to commercialize PF708 or our product candidates. In addition, recent changes to the patent laws of the United States provide additional procedures for third parties to challenge the validity of issued patents based on patent applications filed after March 15, 2013. If the breadth or strength of protection provided by the patents and patent applications we hold or pursue with respect to PF708, our current or future product candidates is challenged, then it could threaten our ability to commercialize PF708, our current or future
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product candidates and could threaten our ability to prevent competitive products from being marketed. Further, if we encounter delays in our clinical trials, the period of time during which we could market our current or future product candidates under patent protection would be reduced. Since patent applications in the United States and most other countries are confidential for a period of time after filing, we cannot be certain that we were the first to either (i) file any patent application related to our product candidates, or (ii) invent any of the inventions claimed in our patents or patent applications. Furthermore, for applications filed before March 16, 2013, or patents issuing from such applications, an interference proceeding can be provoked by a third party or instituted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), to determine who was the first to invent any of the subject matter covered by the patent claims of our applications and patents. As of March 16, 2013, the United States transitioned to a “first-to-file” system for deciding which party should be granted a patent when two or more patent applications are filed by different parties claiming the same invention. A third party that files a patent application in the USPTO before us could therefore be awarded a patent covering an invention of ours even if we had made the invention before it was made by the third party. The change to “first-to-file” from “first-to-invent” is one of the changes to the patent laws of the United States resulting from the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (Leahy-Smith Act) signed into law on September 16, 2011. Among some of the other significant changes to the patent laws are changes that limit where a patentee may file a patent infringement suit and provide opportunities for third parties to challenge any issued patent in the USPTO. It is not yet clear what, if any, impact the Leahy-Smith Act will have on the operation of our business. However, the Leahy-Smith Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
Even where laws provide protection, costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and the outcome of such litigation would be uncertain. Moreover, any actions we may bring to enforce our intellectual property against our competitors could provoke them to bring counterclaims against us, and some of our competitors have substantially greater intellectual property portfolios than we have.
Although the PF708 product has been approved by the FDA and even if PF708 is approved in the EU, we or our collaboration partner may be delayed in selling the FDA-approved PF708 product or PF708 due to direct or indirect legal challenges.
Although the PF708 product has received marketing approval in the U.S. and even if PF708 receives marketing approval in the EU, we may also be subject to direct legal challenges from Eli Lilly and Company, the manufacturer of Forteo, and we could be delayed or prevented from launching PF708 as a result of court orders, regulatory stays, or the time necessary to resolve such challenges. For instance, we are aware of at least two instances of a third party being subject to litigation initiated by Eli Lilly and Company on a product purporting to be a generic version of Eli Lilly’s Forteo (teriparatide [rDNA origin] injection) product. In accordance with regulatory requirements we provided notice of Paragraph IV certification (Notice Letter) to Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) on February 19, 2019 that PF708 does not infringe any valid claim of the ‘334 patent. Under the Hatch-Waxman Act, Lilly had 45 days from the receipt of the Notice Letter to file a patent infringement lawsuit against Pfenex that would cause a 30-month litigation stay of approval for PF708. On April 11, 2019 we announced the expiration of the 45-day period for Lilly to file a lawsuit under the Hatch-Waxman Act and stay the approval of PF708 for 30 months. Lilly did not file a lawsuit within this time period, and there was no 30-month litigation stay delaying FDA approval of PF708.
If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, the value of our technology could be materially adversely affected and our business would be harmed.
In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we also rely on trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect proprietary know-how that may not be patentable, processes for which patents may be difficult to obtain or enforce and any other elements of our product development processes that involve proprietary know-how, information or technology that is not covered by patents.
As part of our efforts to protect our trade secrets and other confidential information, we require our employees, consultants, collaborators and advisors to execute confidentiality agreements upon the commencement of their relationships with us. These agreements require that all confidential information developed by the individual or made known to the individual by us during the course of the individual’s relationship with us be kept confidential and not disclosed to third parties. These agreements, however, may not provide us with adequate protection against improper use or disclosure of confidential information, and these agreements may be breached. Adequate remedies may not exist in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information. We also note in this respect that trade secret protection in foreign countries may not provide protection to the same extent as federal and state laws in the United States. A breach of
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confidentiality could significantly affect our competitive position. In addition, in some situations, these agreements may conflict with, or be subject to, the rights of third parties with whom our employees, consultants, collaborators or advisors have previous employment or consulting relationships. To the extent that our employees, consultants or contractors use any intellectual property owned by others in their work for us, disputes may arise as to the rights in any related or resulting know-how and inventions. Also, third parties, including our competitors, may independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information and technologies or otherwise lawfully gain access to our trade secrets and other confidential information. In such a case, we would have no right to prevent such third parties from using such proprietary information or technologies to compete with us, which could harm our competitive position.
If we infringe or are alleged to infringe intellectual property rights of third parties, our business could be harmed.
Our research, development and commercialization activities may infringe or otherwise violate or be claimed to infringe or otherwise violate patents owned or controlled by other parties. Our competitors have developed large portfolios of patents and patent applications in fields relating to our business and it may not always be clear to industry participants, including us, which patents cover various types of products or methods of use. There may also be patent applications that have been filed but not published that, when issued as patents, could be asserted against us. The coverage of patents is subject to interpretation by the courts, and the interpretation is not always uniform. If we are sued for patent infringement, we would need to demonstrate that our product candidates, products or methods either do not infringe the patent claims of the relevant patent or that the patent claims are invalid, and we may not be able to do this. Proving that a patent is invalid is difficult. For example, in the United States, proving invalidity requires a showing of clear and convincing evidence to overcome the presumption of validity enjoyed by issued patents. Also, in proceedings before courts in Europe, the burden of proving invalidity of the patent usually rests on the party alleging invalidity. Third parties could bring claims against us that would cause us to incur substantial expenses and, if successful against us, could cause us to pay substantial damages. Further, if a patent infringement suit were brought against us, we could be forced to stop or delay research, development, manufacturing or sales of the product or product candidate that is the subject of the suit.
As a result of patent infringement claims, or to avoid potential claims, we may choose or be required to seek licenses from third parties. These licenses may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Even if we are able to obtain a license, the license would likely obligate us to pay license fees or royalties or both, and the rights granted to us might be nonexclusive, which could result in our competitors gaining access to the same intellectual property. Ultimately, we could be prevented from commercializing a product, or be forced to cease some aspect of our business operations, if, as a result of actual or threatened patent infringement claims, we are unable to enter into licenses on acceptable terms.
There has been substantial litigation and other proceedings regarding patent and other intellectual property rights in the pharmaceutical industry. In addition to infringement claims against us, we may become a party to other patent litigation and other proceedings, including interference, derivation or post-grant proceedings declared or granted by the USPTO and similar proceedings in foreign countries, regarding intellectual property rights with respect to our current or future products. For example, on May 6, 2019, Pfenex filed two petitions for inter partes review of U.S. Patent No. 9,422,345 (“the ‘345 patent”, entitled “Expression System”), which is owned by GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals S.A., with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The ‘345 patent relates to polynucleotides that express diphtheria toxins, including the diphtheria toxin mutant CRM197. These two petitions, IPR2019-01027 and IPR2019-01028, seek, inter alia, a determination that certain claims in the ‘345 patent are invalid. Institution decisions by the PTAB for IPR2019-01027 and IPR2019-01028 are expected within the 2019 calendar year, and final written decisions on the validity of the challenged claims of the ‘345 patent, if these two petitions are instituted by the PTAB, by the end of 2020. On August 9, 2019, Pfenex filed a third petition for inter partes review of the ‘345 patent with the PTAB of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The third petition, IPR2019-01478, seeks, inter alia, a determination that certain claims in the ‘345 patent are invalid. An institution decision by the PTAB for IPR2019-01478 is expected within the first quarter of 2020, and a final written decision on the validity of the challenged claims of the ‘345 patent, if the third petition is instituted by the PTAB, by the end of the first quarter of 2021. On November 14, 2019, the Board instituted trial on the invalidity grounds in IPR2019-01028, but exercised its discretion not to institute trial on IPR2019-01027 under its rules for multiple petitions. We cannot predict the ultimate outcome of our invalidity claims related to the ‘345 patent. If the claims of the ‘345 patent are upheld as valid and we are unable to enter into licenses on commercially acceptable terms, we could be prevented from commercializing a product or be forced to cease some aspects of our business operations. Third parties may submit applications for patent term extensions in the United States and/or supplementary protection certificates in the EU member States seeking to extend certain patent protection which, if approved, may interfere with or delay the launch of one or more of our biosimilar or vaccine products. The cost to us of any patent litigation or other proceeding, even if resolved in our favor, could be substantial. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their substantially greater financial resources. Patent litigation and other proceedings may also absorb significant management time. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could impair our ability to compete in the marketplace. The occurrence of any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. We may become involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our inventions, patents or other intellectual property or the patents of our licensors, which could be expensive and time consuming.
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Competitors may infringe our intellectual property, including our patents or the patents of our licensors. In addition, one or more of our third-party collaborators may have submitted, or may in the future submit, a patent application to the USPTO without naming a lawful inventor that developed the subject matter in whole or in part while under an obligation to execute an assignment of rights to us. As a result, we may be required to file infringement or inventorship claims to stop third-party infringement, unauthorized use, or to correct inventorship. This can be expensive, particularly for a company of our size, and time-consuming. Any claims that we assert against perceived infringers could also provoke these parties to assert counterclaims against us alleging that we infringe their intellectual property rights. In addition, in an infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent of ours is not valid or is unenforceable, or may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our patent claims do not cover its technology or that the factors necessary to grant an injunction against an infringer are not satisfied.
An adverse determination of any litigation or other proceedings could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated, held unenforceable or interpreted narrowly and could put our patent applications at risk of not issuing.
Interference, derivation or other proceedings brought at the USPTO or any foreign patent authority may be necessary to determine the priority or patentability of inventions with respect to our patent applications or those of our licensors or collaborators. Litigation or USPTO proceedings brought by us may fail. An unfavorable outcome in any such proceedings could require us to cease using the related technology or to attempt to license rights to it from the prevailing party or could cause us to lose valuable intellectual property rights. Our business could be harmed if the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms, if any license is offered at all. Even if we are successful, domestic or foreign litigation or USPTO or foreign patent office proceedings may result in substantial costs and distraction to our management. We may not be able, alone or with our licensors or collaborators, to prevent misappropriation of our trade secrets, confidential information or proprietary rights, particularly in countries where the laws may not protect such rights as fully as in the United States.
Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation or other proceedings, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation or proceedings. In addition, during the course of this kind of litigation or proceedings, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments or public access to related documents. If investors perceive these results to be negative, the market price for our common stock could be significantly harmed.
We may not be able to globally protect our intellectual property rights.
Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on products and product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States can be less extensive than those in the United States. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as federal and state laws in the United States and in some cases, may even force us to grant a compulsory license to competitors or other third parties. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States, or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into the United States or other jurisdictions. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. 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 rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biopharmaceuticals, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put 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. 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.
In addition, our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights may be adversely affected by unforeseen changes in domestic and foreign intellectual property laws.
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Obtaining and maintaining patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.
Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other governmental fees on patents and/or applications will be due to be paid to the USPTO and various governmental patent agencies outside of the United States in several stages over the lifetime of the patents and/or applications. The USPTO and various non-U.S. governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. In many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules. However, there are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. In such an event, our competitors might be able to use our technologies and this circumstance would have a material adverse effect on our business.
We may be subject to claims that our employees or consultants have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of former or other employers.
Many of our employees and consultants, including our senior management, have been employed or retained by other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Although we try to ensure that our employees and consultants do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that we or these employees or consultants have used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information, of any such employee’s or consultant’s former or other employer. We are not aware of any material threatened or pending claims related to these matters, but in the future litigation may be necessary to defend against such claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management.
Risks Related to Government Regulation
The approval processes of the FDA, EMA, and comparable foreign authorities are lengthy, time consuming and inherently unpredictable, and if we and our collaborators are ultimately unable to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates, our business will be substantially harmed.
The research, development, testing, manufacturing, labeling, packaging, approval, promotion, advertising, storage, marketing, distribution, post-approval monitoring and reporting, and export and import of drug and biologic products are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory authorities in the United States, by the EMA and Competent Authorities of the Member States of the EEA, and by other regulatory authorities in other countries, and regulations differ from country to country. Neither we nor any collaboration partner is permitted to market any product candidate in the United States until approval from the FDA is received, or in the EEA until we receive European Commission authorization or approval from one or more Competent Authorities of the Member States of the EEA, as applicable. The time required to obtain approval from regulatory authorities is unpredictable, typically takes many years following the commencement of clinical trials, and depends upon numerous factors, including the substantial discretion of such regulatory authorities. In addition, approval policies, regulations, or the type and amount of clinical data necessary to gain approval may change during the course of a product candidate’s clinical development and may vary among jurisdictions, which may cause delays in the filing of an application and/or the approval or the decision not to approve an application. In May 2019, Alvogen, our collaboration partner, submitted a centralized application to the EMA for PF708, and the application was accepted for review. In October 2019, Alvogen submitted a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA). We received approval from the FDA for the PF708 product in October 2019. Other than the PF708 product NDA and the applications submitted to the EMA and SFDA for PF708, we and our collaboration partners have not submitted any marketing applications to regulatory authorities and, other than receipt of regulatory approval from the FDA for the PF708 product, neither we nor our collaboration partners have obtained regulatory approval for any other product candidate and it is possible that none of our other existing product candidates or any product candidates we may seek to develop in the future will ever obtain regulatory approval.
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Applications for our product candidates could fail to receive regulatory approval or their regulatory approval could be delayed for many reasons, including but not limited to the following:
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the data collected from clinical studies of our product candidates may not be sufficient to support the submission of a Biologics License Application (BLA) under the section 351(a) pathway of the PHSA; an NDA under the section 505(b)(2) of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act; a BLA for a biosimilar product application under the section 351(k) pathway of the PHSA, a marketing authorization under Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No. 726/2004 and/or Article 8(3), 10(1), 10(3) or 10a of Directive 2001/83/EC in the EEA, a biosimilar marketing authorization under Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No. 726/2004 and/or Article 10(4) of Directive 2001/83/EC in the EEA, or other submission or to obtain regulatory approval in the United States, the EEA, or elsewhere;
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regulatory authorities may disagree with the design (including the duration) or implementation of our clinical trials and may, at any time, determine that the regulatory pathway that we have committed to for any product candidate is inappropriate;
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the population studied in the clinical program may not be sufficiently broad or representative to assure efficacy and safety in the full population for which we seek approval;
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regulatory authorities may disagree with our interpretation of data from preclinical studies or clinical trials;
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we may be unable to demonstrate to the satisfaction of regulatory authorities that a product candidate’s risk-benefit ratio for its proposed indication is acceptable;
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regulatory authorities may fail to approve the manufacturing processes, test procedures and specifications, or facilities of third-party manufacturers with whom we contract for clinical and commercial supplies; and
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the approval policies or regulations of regulatory authorities may significantly change in a manner that renders our clinical data insufficient for approval.
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This lengthy approval process as well as the unpredictability of future clinical trial results may result in our failing to seek or obtain regulatory approval to market any other product candidates, which would significantly harm our business, results of operations and prospects. Moreover, any delays in the commencement or completion of clinical testing could significantly impact our product development costs and could result in the need for additional financing.
In addition, even if we or our collaboration partners were to obtain approval, regulatory authorities may approve any of our product candidates for fewer or more limited indications than requested, may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly post-marketing clinical trials, or may approve a product candidate with a label that does not include the labeling claims necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of that product candidate. Any of the foregoing scenarios could materially harm the commercial prospects for our product candidates.
If we fail to obtain approval for our most advanced product candidates or if the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 or our most advanced product candidates are not commercially successful, we may have to curtail our product development programs and our business would be materially harmed.
We have invested a significant portion of our time, financial resources and efforts in the development of PF708 and our other product candidates. The clinical and commercial success of our product candidates and the commercial success of the FDA-approved PF708 product will depend on a number of factors, including our and our collaboration partners’ ability to assure the following:
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timely and successful completion of all necessary clinical trials, which may be significantly slower or cost more than we currently anticipate and will depend substantially upon the accurate and satisfactory performance of third-party contractors;
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whether we obtain an “A” therapeutic equivalence designation for the FDA-approved PF708 product, which may allow the product to be automatically substituted for Forteo, depending on applicable laws and policies within each of the 50 states;
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our ability to find suitable collaboration partners to develop our current product candidates or our ability to obtain substantial additional sources of funding to develop our current product candidates;
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timely receipt of necessary marketing approvals from the FDA, the European Commission, and similar foreign regulatory authorities;
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maintaining an acceptable safety and adverse event profile of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 and any other product candidates following approval;
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achieving and maintaining compliance with all regulatory requirements applicable to our product candidates, including PF708, and the FDA approved PF708 product, or any other approved products;
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making arrangements with third-party manufacturers for, or establishing, commercial manufacturing capabilities;
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commercial sales of the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 and our other product candidates, if and when approved, whether alone or in collaboration with others;
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whether we or our collaboration partners are able to obtain timely and adequate coverage and reimbursement for our newly approved products by key payors, such as Medicare Part D for the FDA-approved PF708 product in the United States;
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obtaining and maintaining patent and trade secret protection and regulatory exclusivity, where available, for our current product candidates;
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the availability, perceived advantages, relative cost, relative safety and relative efficacy of alternative and competing treatments;
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acceptance of the FDA-approved PF708 product, or our products candidates, if approved, by patients, the medical community and third-party payors; and
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the ability to raise additional capital on acceptable terms to achieve our goals.
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If we and our collaboration partners are unable to seek and obtain regulatory approval or adequate coverage and reimbursement for the FDA-approved PF708 product or of our product candidates in a timely manner or at all, we may never realize revenue from these products and we may have to curtail our other product development programs. As a result, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially harmed.
Clinical drug development involves a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome, and results of earlier studies and trials may not be predictive of future trial results.
Clinical testing is expensive and can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. Furthermore, we rely on our collaboration partners, CROs, and clinical trial sites to ensure the proper and timely conduct of our clinical trials for our product candidates. While we have agreements governing the committed activities of our collaboration partners and CROs, we have limited influence over their actual performance. A failure of one or more clinical trials can occur at any time during the trial process. The results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of our product candidates may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical trials. Product candidates that have shown promising results in early studies may still suffer significant setbacks in subsequent clinical studies. There is a high failure rate for drugs and biologics proceeding through clinical studies, and product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy despite having progressed through preclinical studies and initial clinical trials. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or adverse safety profiles, notwithstanding promising results in earlier clinical trials, and we cannot be certain that we will not face similar setbacks. Even if the clinical trials for our product candidates are completed, nonclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses, and the results may not be sufficient to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates.
We have in the past and may in the future experience delays in ongoing clinical trials for our product candidates, and we do not know whether future clinical trials, if any, will begin on time, need to be redesigned, enroll an adequate number of patients on time or be completed on schedule, if at all. The commencement or completion of clinical trials can be delayed or aborted for a variety of reasons, including delay or failure to:
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generate sufficient preclinical, toxicology, or other in vivo or in vitro data to support the initiation of human clinical studies;
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raise sufficient capital to fund a trial;
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obtain regulatory approval, or feedback on trial design, necessary to commence a trial;
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identify, recruit and train suitable clinical investigators;
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reach agreement on acceptable terms with prospective CROs and clinical trial sites, the terms of which can be subject to extensive negotiation and may vary significantly among different CROs and trial sites;
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obtain institutional review board (IRB) approval or Ethics Committee (EC) positive opinion, as applicable at each site;
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identify, recruit, and enroll suitable patients to participate in a trial;
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have patients complete a trial or return for post-treatment follow-up;
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ensure clinical sites observe trial protocol or continue to participate in a trial;
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address any patient safety concerns that arise during the course of a trial;
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address any conflicts with new or existing laws or regulations;
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add a sufficient number of clinical trial sites;
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manufacture sufficient quantities of product candidate for use in clinical trials; and
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avoid delays in manufacturing, testing, releasing, validating, or importing/exporting sufficient stable quantities of our product candidates for use in clinical studies, or the inability to do any of the foregoing.
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Patient enrollment is a significant factor in the completion of clinical trials and is affected by many factors, including the size and nature of the patient population, the proximity of patients to clinical sites, the eligibility criteria for the trial, the design of the clinical trial, competing clinical trials and clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions as to the potential advantages of the drug being studied in relation to other available therapies, including any new drugs or treatments that may be approved for the indications we are investigating.
We could also encounter delays if a clinical trial is suspended or terminated by us, by the IRBs or the ECs of the institutions in which such trials are being conducted, by the data safety monitoring board, for such trial or by the FDA or other regulatory authorities. Such authorities may suspend or terminate a clinical trial 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 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 drug, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial.
If we or our collaboration partners experience delays in the completion of, or termination of, any clinical trial of our product candidates, the commercial prospects of our product candidates may be harmed, and our ability to generate product revenue from any of these product candidates will be delayed. In addition, any delays in completing clinical trials for our product candidates will increase our costs, slow down our product candidate development and approval process and jeopardize our or our collaboration partners’ ability to commence product sales and generate revenue. Any of these occurrences may significantly harm our business, financial condition and prospects. In addition, many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates.
The development, manufacture and commercialization of therapeutic equivalent and vaccine products pose unique risks, and our failure to successfully introduce therapeutic equivalent and vaccine products could have a negative impact on our business and future operating results.
We are actively working to develop multiple therapeutic equivalent products and vaccines. The cost to develop each proposed therapeutic equivalent drug, and vaccine product candidate could vary significantly and is highly dependent on the specific compound and the amount and type of clinical work that will be necessary for regulatory approval. There can be no assurance that our clinical work will be successful, or that regulatory authorities will not require additional clinical development beyond that which we have planned. Additionally, we may enter into alliances and collaborations to fund biosimilar and therapeutic equivalent product research and development activities, and our ability to realize the benefits of such arrangements may depend on the success of any such biosimilar or therapeutic equivalent product program. Due to events beyond our control or the risks identified herein, we may be unable to fund all or some of our internal biosimilar, therapeutic equivalent, and vaccine product research and development initiatives, which would have an adverse impact on our strategy and growth initiatives.
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If the FDA approves other therapeutic equivalent or generic products with Forteo as the reference drug and these drug products are successfully commercialized, the FDA-approved PF708 product may face additional competition and our business could suffer.
Other companies may seek FDA approval to manufacture and market therapeutic equivalent or generic product versions of Forteo. In October 2017, the FDA issued a draft guidance document that identified standards by which chemically manufactured, or synthetic, versions of Forteo may be approved under the 505(j), or Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA), regulatory pathway, which would not require the conduct of a comparative clinical trial in patients for approval of the product. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. has filed an ANDA referencing Forteo that, if approved, could compete with the FDA-approved PF708 product. Apotex Corp. also has submitted an ANDA for a generic version of Forteo and other generic drug manufacturers may have filed and/or in the future may file ANDAs referencing Forteo. Products approved under the ANDA pathway are considered generic drugs, and generally are approved as therapeutic equivalents to the reference product, and therefore may be automatically substituted for the reference listed drug, depending on health care statutes and policies within each of the 50 states. The potential automatic substitution of these generic products may adversely affect our collaboration partner’s ability to generate revenue with the FDA-approved PF708 product. If other therapeutic equivalent or generic product versions of Forteo are approved and successfully commercialized, Alvogen may never achieve significant market share for the FDA-approved PF708 product, our revenue would be reduced and, as a result, our business, prospects and financial condition could suffer.
If the FDA-approved PF708 product does not receive an “A” therapeutic equivalence designation from the FDA, our business may suffer.
In addition to obtaining FDA approval of our PF708 NDA, we and Alvogen have been seeking an “A” therapeutic equivalence designation for the FDA-approved PF708 product relative to the reference drug Forteo, which may permit the FDA-approved PF708 product to be automatically substituted for Forteo, depending on applicable laws and policies within each of the 50 states. Consistent with our interactions with the FDA and its draft guidance document on demonstrating the therapeutic equivalence of drug-device combination products, we have completed a comparative human factors study comparing the FDA-approved PF708 product and Forteo. The human factors study was designed to further support a finding that the PF708 product is therapeutically equivalent to Forteo. On October 14, 2019, we announced the successful completion of our PF708 comparative use human factors study and our submission of the final study report to the FDA. The study data demonstrate that the user interface of the FDA-approved PF708 product was noninferior to that of Forteo® for each critical user task evaluated in the study based on a pre-specified statistical analysis of critical patient and caregiver tasks. We submitted the study results to the FDA in October 2019 for the FDA’s consideration of a therapeutic equivalence designation for the FDA-approved PF708 product. While we believe this submission completes the information package required by the FDA to evaluate the therapeutic equivalence of the FDA-approved PF708 product, we cannot assure you that FDA will grant an “A” therapeutic equivalence designation to the FDA-approved PF708 product relative to Forteo, or that the FDA will make a timely decision regarding therapeutic equivalence. In addition, if we do not receive an “A” therapeutic equivalence designation, this may significantly impact Alvogen’s ability to maximize revenues in the marketplace and could have a material adverse effect on our royalty revenues.
Changes in funding for the FDA and other government agencies could hinder their ability to hire and retain key leadership and other personnel, or otherwise prevent new products and services from being developed or commercialized in a timely manner, which could negatively impact our business.
The ability of the FDA to review and approve new products can be affected by a variety of factors, including government budget and funding levels, ability to hire and retain key personnel and accept the payment of user fees, and statutory, regulatory, and policy changes. Average review times at the Agency have fluctuated in recent years as a result. In addition, government funding of other government agencies that fund research and development activities is subject to the political process, which is inherently fluid and unpredictable.
Disruptions at the FDA and other agencies may also slow the time necessary for new drugs to be reviewed and/or approved by necessary government agencies, which would adversely affect our business. For example, over the last several years, including for 35 days beginning on December 22, 2018, the U.S. government has shut down several times and certain regulatory agencies, such as the FDA, have had to furlough critical FDA employees and stop critical activities. If a prolonged government shutdown occurs, it could significantly impact the ability of the FDA to timely review and process our regulatory submissions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
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Failure to obtain regulatory approval in each regulatory jurisdiction would prevent us and our collaboration partners from marketing our products to a larger patient population and reduce our commercial opportunities.
In order to market our products in the EU, the United States and other jurisdictions, we or our collaboration partners must obtain separate regulatory approvals and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements. For example, in the EU, the EMA is responsible for the assessment of centralized marketing authorization applications for human medicines. This procedure results in a single marketing authorization granted by the European Commission that is valid in all EU Member States, as well as in EEA States Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The time required to obtain approval abroad may differ from that required to obtain FDA approval. When a marketing authorization application is submitted to the EMA, a related scientific evaluation is conducted by the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), and a scientific opinion is prepared concerning the suitability of the product for authorization. This scientific opinion is sent to the European Commission which decides on the grant of marketing authorization. In accordance with the centralized procedure, the maximum timeframe for the evaluation of an MAA is 210 days. This excludes clock stops during which additional information or written or oral explanation is to be provided by the applicant in response to questions of the CHMP.
The foreign regulatory approval process may include all of the risks associated with obtaining FDA approval as well as additional or different risks and we or our collaboration partners may not obtain foreign regulatory approvals on a timely basis, if at all. Approval by the FDA does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries, and approval by one foreign regulatory authority does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other foreign countries or by the FDA. We or our collaboration partners may not be able to file for regulatory approvals and may not receive necessary approvals to commercialize our products within the United States or in any market outside the United States. Failure to obtain these approvals would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The United Kingdom's departure from the European Union results in uncertainty regarding regulatory requirements.
The United Kingdom left the EU on 31 January 2020, after which the UK has ceased to be an EU Member State. The EU and the UK have reached an agreement which will govern the UK's relation with the EU until the end of 2020. It is uncertain how the legal relation between the UK and the EU will be governed after 2020. The legal frameworks and regulatory requirements applicable to medicinal products may diverge and separate marketing authorizations and other regulatory approvals may be required to place medicinal products on the market and to manufacture, distribute, import and export medicinal products in the UK and in the EU.
The FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708, and any of our other product candidates, if approved, will be subject to ongoing regulatory review.
The FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 and any of our other product candidates, if approved, and any products we develop will be subject to ongoing regulatory review with respect to manufacturing, labeling, packaging, storage, advertising, promotion, sampling, record-keeping, conduct of post-marketing studies, and submission of safety, efficacy, and other post-market information, including both federal and state requirements in the United States and requirements of comparable foreign regulatory authorities. Manufacturers and manufacturers’ facilities are required to comply with extensive FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authority requirements, including ensuring that quality control and manufacturing procedures conform to cGMP. As such, we, our collaboration partners, and our contract manufacturers will be subject to continual and unannounced review and inspections by the regulatory authorities governing the markets in which we wish to sell our products. Accordingly, we, our collaboration partners and others with whom we work must continue to expend time, money, and effort in all areas of regulatory compliance, including manufacturing, production, and quality control.
The PF708 product NDA and any regulatory approvals that we and our collaboration partners may receive for PF708 or any of our other product candidates may be subject to limitations on the approved indicated uses for which the product may be marketed or on other conditions of approval, or contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing testing, including Phase 4 trials, and surveillance to monitor the safety and efficacy or the safety, purity, and potency of the product candidate. We and our collaboration partners will be required to promptly report any serious and unexpected adverse events and certain quality or production problems with our products to regulatory authorities, as well as submit other periodic reports. Any new legislation addressing drug or biologic product safety issues could result in delays in product development or commercialization, or increased costs to assure compliance. We and our collaboration partners will have to comply with requirements concerning advertising and promotion for our products. Promotional communications with respect to prescription drug and biologic products are subject to a variety of legal and regulatory restrictions and must be consistent with the information in the product’s approved labeling. As such, we will not be allowed to promote our products for indications or uses for which they do not have approval. The holder of an approved NDA, BLA, 351(k) application or marketing authorization application must submit new or supplemental applications and obtain prior approval for certain
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changes to the approved product, product labeling, or manufacturing process. We or our collaboration partners could also be asked to conduct post-marketing clinical studies to verify the safety and efficacy of our products in general or in specific patient subsets. An unsuccessful post-marketing study or failure to complete such a study could result in penalties or other adverse consequences, up to and including potential withdrawal of marketing approval.
If a regulatory agency discovers previously unknown problems with a product, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured or disagrees with the promotion, marketing or labeling of a product, or if we or our collaboration partners fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, such regulatory agency may impose restrictions on that product or us or our collaboration partners, including requiring withdrawal of the product from the market. If we or our collaboration partners fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, a regulatory agency or enforcement authority may subject us to administrative or judicially imposed sanctions or other actions, including, among other things:
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adverse publicity, fines or untitled or warning letters;
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mandated modifications to promotional materials or requirements to provide corrective information to healthcare practitioners;
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a consent decree, which can include imposition of various fines, reimbursements for inspection costs, required due dates for specific actions and penalties for noncompliance;
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civil or criminal penalties;
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suspending or withdrawing regulatory approval;
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suspending any of our ongoing clinical studies;
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refusing to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications submitted by us;
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imposing restrictions on our operations, including suspending or closing our contract manufacturers’ facilities; or
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seizing or detaining products or requiring a product recall.
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Any government investigation of alleged violations of law could require us or our collaboration partners to expend significant time and resources in response and could generate negative publicity. Any failure to comply with ongoing regulatory requirements may significantly and adversely affect our or our collaboration partners’ ability to commercialize and generate revenue from our products. If regulatory sanctions are applied or if regulatory approval is withdrawn, the value of our company and our operating results will be adversely affected.
We or our collaboration partners will also be subject to various health care fraud and abuse laws, including anti-kickback, false claims and fraud laws, and physician payment transparency laws, and any violations by us of such laws could result in fines or other penalties.
We received FDA approval for the FDA-approved PF708 product in October 2019. Because Alvogen is commercializing the FDA-approved PF708 product, Alvogen will be subject to healthcare regulation and enforcement by the U.S. federal government and the states related to the FDA-approved PF708 product. If we or our collaboration partners commercialize PF708 or our other product candidates, we or they will be subject to analogous healthcare regulation and enforcement in the applicable jurisdictions in which we or they commercialize our product candidates. These laws include anti-kickback, fraud and abuse, false claims, and physician sunshine laws and regulations. In the United States, for example, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) prohibits, among other things, knowing and willful solicitation, offer, receipt, or payment of remuneration, directly or indirectly, by persons and entities in exchange for or to induce either the referral of patients for, or the purchase, order, arrangement or recommendation of any good or service that would be paid for in whole or part by Medicare, Medicaid or other federal health care programs. Remuneration has been broadly defined to include anything of value, including cash, improper discounts, and free or reduced price items and services. Violations of the AKS may also result civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines and imprisonment, or exclusion from federal healthcare programs. Liability under the AKS may be established without proving actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it, and a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the AKS constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the federal civil False Claims Act. The federal civil False Claims Act (FCA) imposes liability on persons who, among other things, present or cause to be presented false or fraudulent claims for payment of government funds. Actions under the FCA may be brought by as qui tam actions by private individuals in the name of the government.
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Violations of the FCA can result in significant mandatory monetary penalties per false claim or statement, treble damages and exclusion from federal health care programs. The federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act requires, among other parties, certain manufacturers of drugs for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program to report annually to CMS information related to payments and other transfers of value made to physicians, and teaching hospitals, as well as ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members.
The shifting commercial compliance environment and the need to build and maintain robust and expandable systems to comply with different compliance and/or reporting requirements in multiple jurisdictions increase the possibility that a healthcare company may violate one or more of the requirements. If our or our collaborators’ operations are found to be in violation of any of such laws or any other governmental regulations that apply, we or our collaborators may be subject to penalties, including, without limitation, civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, the curtailment or restructuring of operations, and exclusion from participation in federal and state healthcare programs, any of which could adversely affect our business and our financial results. Although compliance programs can mitigate the risk of investigation and prosecution for violations of these laws, the risks cannot be entirely eliminated. Any action against us or our collaboration partners for violation of these laws, even if successfully defended against, could cause us or our collaboration partners to incur significant legal expenses and divert management’s attention from the operation of our business. Moreover, achieving and sustaining compliance with applicable federal and state privacy, security and fraud laws may prove costly.
Also, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar worldwide anti-bribery laws generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to non-U.S. officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. We cannot assure investors that our or our collaborators’ internal control policies and procedures will prevent violations of these laws, or allegations of such violations, which could result in fines, penalties or prosecution and/or otherwise have a negative impact on our business, results of operations and reputation.
We also may be subject to healthcare privacy and data privacy laws and regulations, and violations of these laws could result in government enforcement actions and create liability for us, private litigation and/or adverse publicity that could negatively affect our business.
We may be subject to laws and regulations covering data privacy and security of health information, and the collection, use, disclosure, and the protection of health-related and other personal information. The legislative and regulatory landscape for privacy and data protection continues to evolve, and there has been an increasing focus on privacy and data protection issues which may affect our business. Numerous federal and state laws and regulations, including state security breach notification laws, state health information privacy laws, state genetic privacy laws, and federal and state consumer protection and privacy laws (including, for example, Section 5 of the FTC Act and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)), govern the collection, use, disclosure, and protection of personal information. Compliance with these laws is difficult, constantly evolving, and time consuming. These laws may differ from each other in significant ways, thus complicating compliance efforts. Failure to comply with such laws and regulations could result in government enforcement actions and create liability for us (including the imposition of significant penalties), private litigation and/or adverse publicity that could negatively affect our business. Federal regulators, state attorneys general, and plaintiffs’ attorneys have been and will likely continue to be active in this space. In addition, healthcare providers who prescribe our products and research institutions we collaborate with are subject to privacy and security requirements under HIPAA. Although we are not directly subject to HIPAA other than potentially with respect to providing certain employee benefits, we potentially could be subject to criminal penalties if we, our affiliates, or our agents knowingly obtain, use, or disclose individually identifiable health information maintained by a HIPAA-covered entity in a manner that is not authorized or permitted by HIPAA.
In California, CCPA took effect on January 1, 2020. The CCPA establishes certain requirements for data use and sharing transparency and creates new data privacy rights for consumers. These laws and regulations are evolving and subject to interpretation, and may impose limitations on our activities or otherwise adversely affect our business. Similarly, there are a number of legislative proposals in the European Union, the United States, at both the federal and state level, as well as other jurisdictions that could impose new obligations or limitations in areas affecting our business. In addition, some countries are considering or have passed legislation implementing data protection requirements or requiring local storage and processing of data or similar requirements that could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our services and research activities. These laws and regulations, as well as any associated claims, inquiries, or investigations or any other government actions may lead to unfavorable outcomes including increased compliance costs, delays or impediments in the development of new products, negative publicity, increased operating costs, diversion of management time and attention, and remedies that harm our business, including fines or demands or orders that we modify or cease existing business practices.
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EU member states, Switzerland and other countries have also adopted data protection laws and regulations that impose significant compliance obligations. In the EU, the collection and use of personal health data is governed by the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR entered into application on 25 May 2018, repealing the Data Protection Directive and increasing our responsibility and liability in relation to the processing of personal data of EU subjects. The GDPR imposes strict obligations and restrictions on the ability to collect, analyze and transfer personal data, including health data from clinical trials and adverse event reporting.
These obligations and restrictions concern, in particular, the legal basis for processing personal data, which may include the consent of the individuals to whom the personal data relates, the information provided to the individuals, the transfer of personal data outside the EU, security breach notifications, security and confidentiality of the personal data, as well as substantial potential fines for breaches of the data protection obligations. Data protection authorities from the different EU member states may interpret the GDPR slightly differently, which adds to the complexity of processing personal data of EU subjects.
With respect to the transfer of personal data out of the EU, the GDPR provides that the transfer of personal data to countries that the European Commission does not consider to provide an adequate level of data protection, including the United States, is permitted only on specific legal bases.
Our failure to comply with these laws, or changes in the way in which these laws are implemented, could lead to government enforcement actions and significant penalties against us, and adversely impact our operating results.
Legislative or regulatory healthcare reforms in the United States may make it more difficult and costly for us or our collaboration partners to obtain regulatory approval of our product candidates and to produce, market, and distribute our products after approval is obtained, if any.
From time to time, legislation is drafted and introduced in Congress that could significantly change the statutory provisions governing the regulatory approval, manufacturing, and marketing of regulated products or the reimbursement thereof. In addition, FDA regulations and guidance may be revised or reinterpreted by the FDA in ways that may significantly affect our business and our products. Any new regulations or guidance, or revisions or reinterpretations of existing regulations or guidance, may impose additional costs or lengthen FDA review times for our product candidates. We cannot determine how changes in regulations, statutes, policies, or interpretations when and if issued, enacted or adopted, may affect our business in the future. Such changes could require substantial time and impose significant costs and could materially harm our business and our financial results. In addition, delays in receipt of or failure to receive regulatory clearances or approvals for any other products would harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
If efforts by manufacturers of reference products to delay or limit the use of therapeutic equivalent products are successful, sales of therapeutic equivalent products may suffer.
Many manufacturers of reference products have increasingly used legislative, regulatory and other means in attempts to delay regulatory approval of and competition from therapeutic equivalent products. If these or other efforts to delay or block competition are successful, we or our collaboration partners may be unable to sell our therapeutic equivalent product candidates, which could have a material adverse effect on our sales and profitability.
Our and our collaboration partners’ sales are dependent on the availability and level of coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors who continue to implement cost-cutting measures and more stringent reimbursement standards.
In the United States and internationally, our and our collaboration partners’ ability to generate revenue on sales of our products are dependent, in significant part, on the availability and level of coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors, such as state and federal governments and private insurance plans. Insurers have implemented cost-cutting measures and other initiatives to enforce more stringent reimbursement standards and likely will continue to do so in the future. These measures include the establishment of more restrictive formularies and increases in the out-of-pocket obligations of patients for such products. In addition, particularly in the U.S. and increasingly in other countries, we will be required to provide discounts and pay rebates to state and federal governments and agencies in connection with purchases of our products that are reimbursed by such entities.
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As Alvogen commercializes the FDA-approved PF708 product, a significant portion of the product’s revenue may be obtained through government payors, such as Medicare and Medicaid. For example, we expect that a substantial proportion of the U.S. market for the FDA-approved PF708 product could be subject to coverage and reimbursement under the federal healthcare program Medicare Part D. Any delay or failure by Alvogen to obtain adequate coverage for the FDA-approved PF708 product or to qualify for or receive adequate reimbursement under these programs could impact Alvogen’s ability to maximize revenues in the marketplace and could have a material adverse effect on revenues from such products.
In March 2010, the ACA was enacted with a goal of reducing the cost of healthcare, improving quality, and expanding access to care. The ACA has substantially changed the way healthcare is financed by both government and private insurers and has significantly affected the pharmaceutical industry. The ACA, among other things, implemented new price reporting requirements for drugs that are inhaled, infused, instilled, implanted or injected, increased the minimum Medicaid rebates owed by manufacturers under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program and extended the rebate program to individuals enrolled in Medicaid managed care organizations, added new entity types eligible for participation in the Public Health Service’s 340B drug pricing program, established annual fees and taxes on manufacturers of certain prescription drugs, and created a new Medicare Part D coverage gap discount program, in which manufacturers must agree to offer 70% point-of-sale discounts (as of January 1, 2019) off negotiated prices.
In addition, legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the U.S. since the ACA was enacted. For example, beginning April 1, 2013, Medicare payments for all items and services, including drugs and biologics, were reduced by 2% per fiscal year under the sequestration required by the Budget Control Act of 2011, as amended by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. Subsequent legislation extended the 2% reduction to 2029. On January 2, 2013, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 was signed into law, which, among other things, further reduced Medicare payments to several providers, including hospitals. We expect that additional healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that federal, state and foreign governments will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in reduced demand for the FDA-approved PF708 product or our product candidates, if approved, or additional pricing pressures. Certain provisions of the ACA have been subject to judicial challenges as well as efforts to repeal or replace them or to alter their interpretation and implementation. For example, bills affecting the implementation of certain taxes under the ACA have been signed into law. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or the Tax Act, included a provision repealing the tax-based shared responsibility payment imposed by the ACA on certain individuals who fail to maintain qualifying health coverage for all or part of a year, commonly referred to as the “individual mandate”. In December 2018, the District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled (i) that the “individual mandate” is unconstitutional as a result of the associated tax penalty being repealed by Congress as part of the Tax Act; and (ii) the individual mandate is not severable from the rest of the ACA, and as a result the entire ACA is invalid. In December 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision that the individual mandate is unconstitutional but remanded the case to the district court to reconsider the severability question. It is unclear how the ultimate decision in this case, which is now pending before the Supreme Court, or other efforts to repeal, replace, or invalidate the ACA or its implementing regulations, or portions thereof, will affect our business.
With the approval of the FDA-approved PF708 product, we anticipate that Alvogen will need to participate in the Medicaid Drug Rebate program. Participation is required for federal funds to be available for our covered outpatient drugs under Medicaid and, if applicable, Medicare Part B. Under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, we or our collaboration partners would be required to pay a rebate to each state Medicaid program for our covered outpatient drugs that are dispensed to Medicaid beneficiaries and paid for by a state Medicaid program as a condition of having federal funds being made available to the states for our drugs under Medicaid and, if applicable, Part B of the Medicare program.
Federal law requires that any company that participates in the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program also participate in the Public Health Service’s 340B drug pricing program in order for federal funds to be available for the manufacturer’s drugs under Medicaid and Medicare Part B. The 340B drug pricing program requires participating manufacturers to agree to charge statutorily-defined covered entities no more than the 340B “ceiling price” for the manufacturer’s covered outpatient drugs. These 340B covered entities include a variety of community health clinics and other entities that receive health services grants from the Public Health Service, as well as hospitals that serve a disproportionate share of low-income patients.
In addition, in order to be eligible to have its products paid for with federal funds under the Medicaid and Medicare Part B programs and purchased by certain federal agencies and grantees, a manufacturer also must participate in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA, Federal Supply Schedule, or FSS, pricing program. Under this program, the manufacturer is obligated to make its innovator and single source products available for procurement on an FSS contract and charge a price to four federal agencies, VA, U.S. Department of Defense, or DoD, Public Health Service and U.S. Coast Guard, that is no higher than the statutory Federal Ceiling Price. Moreover, pursuant to regulations issued by the DoD
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Defense Health Agency to implement Section 703 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, manufacturers are required to provide rebates on utilization of their innovator and single source products that are dispensed to TRICARE beneficiaries by TRICARE network retail pharmacies. The requirements under the Medicaid Drug Rebate, 340B, FSS, and TRICARE programs could reduce the revenue we or our collaboration partners may generate from any products that are commercialized in the future and could adversely affect our business and operating results.
If we or our collaboration partners successfully commercialize the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 or any of our product candidates and if we or our collaboration partners participate in the Medicaid drug rebate program or other governmental pricing programs, failure to comply with reporting and payment obligations under these programs could result in additional reimbursement requirements, penalties, sanctions, and fines which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
The Medicaid Drug Rebate Program and other governmental pricing programs require participating manufacturers to report pricing data to various government agencies. Pricing calculations vary among products and programs and include average manufacturer price and best price for the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, average sales price for certain categories of drugs that are paid under Part B of the Medicare program, and non-federal average manufacturer price for the VA FSS pricing program. If we or our collaborators successfully commercialize the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 or any of our other product candidates and participate in such governmental pricing programs, we or our collaboration partners will be liable for errors associated with submission of pricing data. That liability could be significant. For example, knowing submission of false average manufacturer price, average sales price, best price, or non-federal average manufacturer price information to the government, or failure to timely submit such information, could result in liability for significant civil monetary penalties. The foregoing also could be grounds for other sanctions, such as termination from the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program.
Foreign governments tend to impose strict price controls, which may adversely affect our revenue, if any.
In some foreign countries, the pricing of prescription pharmaceuticals is subject to governmental control. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after the receipt of marketing approval for a product. Our existing or future collaboration partners, if any, may elect to reduce the price of our products in order to increase the likelihood of obtaining reimbursement approvals which could adversely affect our revenues and profits. To obtain reimbursement or pricing approval in some countries, we or our collaboration partners may also be required to conduct a clinical trial that compares the cost-effectiveness of our product candidate to other available therapies. If reimbursement of our products is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels, our business could be adversely affected.
If in the future we and our collaboration partners are not able to demonstrate biosimilarity of our biosimilar product candidates to the satisfaction of regulatory authorities, those partners will not obtain regulatory approval for commercial sale of our biosimilar product candidates and our future results of operations would be adversely affected.
Our future results of operations depend on our future collaboration partners’ ability to obtain regulatory approval for and commercialize our proposed biosimilar products. To obtain regulatory approval for the commercial sale of these product candidates, those partners will be required to demonstrate to the satisfaction of regulatory authorities that, among other things, our proposed biosimilar products are highly similar to biological products already licensed by the FDA pursuant to BLAs, notwithstanding minor differences in clinically inactive components, and that they have no clinically meaningful differences as compared to the marketed biological products in terms of the safety, purity and potency of the products. In the EEA, the similar nature of a biosimilar and a reference product is demonstrated by comprehensive comparability studies covering quality, biological activity, safety and efficacy.
To make a final determination of biosimilarity or interchangeability, regulatory authorities may require additional confirmatory information beyond what our collaboration partners plan to initially submit in applications for approval, such as more in-depth analytical characterization, animal testing, or further clinical studies. Provision of sufficient information for approval may prove difficult and expensive. We cannot predict whether any of our biosimilar product candidates will meet regulatory authority requirements for approval as a biosimilar or interchangeable product. To date, the FDA has not approved a biosimilar product as being interchangeable to the reference drug.
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We and our collaboration partners intend to market our products outside of the United States, and we will be subject to the risks of doing business outside of the United States.
Because we and our collaboration partners intend to market PF708 and our product candidates, if approved, outside of the United States, our business is subject to risks associated with doing business outside of the United States. Accordingly, our business and financial results in the future could be adversely affected due to a variety of factors, including:
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changes in a specific country’s or region’s political and cultural climate or economic condition;
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unexpected changes in foreign laws and regulatory requirements;
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difficulty of effective enforcement of contractual provisions in local jurisdictions;
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inadequate intellectual property protection in foreign countries;
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trade-protection measures, import or export licensing requirements such as Export Administration Regulations promulgated by the U.S. Department of Commerce and fines, penalties or suspension or revocation of export privileges;
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efforts to develop an international sales, marketing and distribution organization may increase our expenses, divert our management’s attention from the acquisition or development of product candidates or cause us to forgo profitable licensing opportunities in these geographies;
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the effects of applicable foreign tax structures and potentially adverse tax consequences; and
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significant adverse changes in foreign currency exchange rates.
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Moreover, our partners and third-party contractors located outside the U.S. may have inadequate compliance programs or may fail to respect the laws and guidance of the territories in which they operate. Even if we are not determined to have violated these laws, government investigations into these issues typically require the expenditure of significant resources and generate negative publicity, which could also have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Risks Relating to Owning Our Common Stock
The market price of our stock may fluctuate significantly, and investors may have difficulty selling their shares.
Our stock is currently traded on NYSE American, but we can provide no assurance that we will be able to maintain an active trading market on NYSE American or any other exchange in the future. The trading volume of our stock tends to be low relative to our total outstanding shares, and we have several stockholders who hold substantial blocks of our stock. As of December 31, 2019, we had 32,266,708 shares of common stock outstanding, and stockholders holding at least 5% of our stock, individually or with affiliated persons or entities, collectively beneficially owned or controlled approximately 48% of such shares. Sales of large numbers of shares by any of our large stockholders could adversely affect our trading price, particularly given our relatively small historic trading volumes. If stockholders holding shares of our common stock sell, indicate an intention to sell, or if it is perceived that they will sell, substantial amounts of their common stock in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline.
Since shares of our common stock were sold in our initial public offering in July 2014 at a price of $6.00 per share, our stock price has ranged from $2.07 to $24.41 through December 31, 2019. In addition to the factors discussed in this “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this annual report on Form 10-K, factors that may cause volatility in our share price include:
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actual or anticipated quarterly variation in our results of operations or the results of our competitors;
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announcements by us or our competitors of new commercial products, significant contracts, commercial relationships or capital commitments;
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issuance of new or changed securities analysts’ reports or recommendations for our stock;
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developments or disputes concerning our intellectual property or other proprietary rights;
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changes to our organization and management;
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commencement of, or our involvement in, litigation;
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market conditions in the relevant market;
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reimbursement or legislative changes in the relevant market;
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failure to complete significant sales;
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regulatory developments that may impact the FDA-approved PF708 product, PF708 and our product candidates;
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any future sales of our common stock or other securities;
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any major change to the composition of our board of directors or management; and
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general economic conditions and slow or negative growth of our markets.
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The stock market in general and market prices for the securities of biopharmaceutical companies like ours in particular, have from time to time experienced volatility that often has been unrelated to the operating performance of the underlying companies. These broad market and industry fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock regardless of operating performance.
We may be subject to securities litigation, which is expensive and could divert management attention.
The market price of our common stock has been and will likely continue to be volatile, and in the past companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention from other business concerns, which could seriously harm our business.
If securities or industry analysts publish unfavorable research about our business or cease to cover our business, our stock price and/or trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock may rely, in part, on the research and reports that equity research analysts publish about us and our business. We do not have any control of the analysts or the content and opinions included in their reports. The price of our stock could decline if one or more equity research analysts downgrade our stock or issue other unfavorable commentary or research. If one or more equity research analysts cease coverage of our company or fails to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
If we sell shares of our common stock in future financings, stockholders may experience immediate dilution and, as a result, the market price of our common stock may decline.
We may from time to time issue additional shares of common stock at a discount from the current trading price of our common stock. As a result, our stockholders would experience immediate dilution upon the purchase of any shares of our common stock sold at such discount. Any such future issuance could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders and could cause our stock price to decline. In addition, as opportunities present themselves, we may enter into financing or similar arrangements in the future, including the issuance of debt securities, preferred stock or common stock. If we issue common stock or securities convertible into common stock, our common stockholders would experience additional dilution and, as a result, the market price of our common stock may decline.
Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public markets, or the perception that such sales might occur, could reduce the price that our common stock might otherwise attain and may dilute your voting power and your ownership interest in us.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that these sales might occur, could depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. We are unable to predict the effect that sales may have on the prevailing market price of our common stock. We also register the offer and sale of all shares of common stock that we may issue under our equity compensation plans.
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Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
The 2019 net operating loss carryforwards are available to offset future taxable income until such unused losses expire. Under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater than 50 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 carryforwards, or NOLs, and other pre-change tax attributes (such as research tax credits) to offset its post-change income or taxes may be limited. We may have experienced an ownership change in connection with sale of securities pursuant to a predecessor registration statement or otherwise and we may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of shifts in our stock ownership, including as a result of the sale of securities. As a result, if or when we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-change NOLs to offset such taxable income may 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 NOLs and other tax attributes, which could adversely affect our future cash flows.
We are incurring increased costs as a result of operating as a public company and our management is required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives and corporate governance practices including maintaining an effective system of internal control over financial reporting.
As a public company, we are incurring significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. We ceased to be an “emerging growth company” on December 31, 2019 and are no longer eligible for reduced disclosure requirements and exemptions applicable to “emerging growth companies.” As such, we will be required to hold a say-on-pay vote and a say-on-frequency vote at our 2020 annual meeting of stockholders. We expect that our loss of “emerging growth company” status will require additional attention from management and will result in increased costs to us, which could include higher legal fees, accounting fees and fees associated with investor relations activities, among others. In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and rules subsequently implemented by the SEC, and the NYSE American impose numerous requirements on public companies, including establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and corporate governance practices. Also, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act), as amended, requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and operating results. Our management and other personnel devote a substantial amount of time to comply with these laws and regulations. These requirements have increased and will continue to increase our legal, accounting, and financial compliance costs and have made and will continue to make some activities more time consuming and costly. For example, we expect these rules and regulations to make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to incur substantial costs to maintain the same or similar coverage. These rules and regulations could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or our board committees or as executive officers. These rules and regulations are often subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and changing governance practices.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting annually and the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures quarterly. In particular, Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires us to perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Section 404(b) of Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Section 404(b)) also requires our independent registered public accounting firm to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. As an “emerging growth company,” we availed ourselves of the exemption from the requirement that our independent registered public accounting firm attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b). However, we may no longer avail ourselves of this exemption since we ceased to be an “emerging growth company” on December 31, 2019. As a result, our independent registered public accounting firm is required to undertake an assessment of our internal control over financial reporting and the cost of our compliance with Section 404(b) will correspondingly increase. Our compliance with applicable provisions of Section 404 requires us and will continue to require us to incur substantial accounting expense and expend significant management time on compliance-related issues as we implement additional corporate governance practices and comply with reporting requirements.
Furthermore, investor perceptions of our company may suffer if deficiencies are found, and this could cause a decline in the market price of our stock. Irrespective of any required compliance with Section 404, any failure of our internal control over financial reporting could have a material adverse effect on our stated operating results and harm our reputation. If we are unable to implement these requirements effectively or efficiently, it could harm our operations, financial reporting, or financial results and could result in an adverse opinion on our internal controls from our independent registered public accounting firm.
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If we fail to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in the future, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be impaired, which could adversely affect our business and our stock price.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. In particular, we must perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Our testing may reveal deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses.
Our compliance with Section 404 requires that we incur substantial accounting expense and expend significant management time on compliance-related issues. We currently do not have an internal audit group, and we continue to evaluate our need for additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge. Moreover, if we do not comply with the requirements of Section 404, or if we or our independent registered public accounting firm identify deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, the market price of our stock could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the NYSE American, the SEC, or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources.
Our directors, executive officers and principal stockholders will continue to have substantial control over us and could limit investors’ ability to influence the outcome of key transactions, including transactions that would cause a change of control.
As of December 31, 2019, our executive officers, directors and stockholders who owned more than 5% of our outstanding common stock and their respective affiliates beneficially owned or controlled approximately 50% of the outstanding shares of our common stock. Accordingly, these executive officers, directors and stockholders and their respective affiliates, acting as a group, have substantial influence over the outcome of corporate actions requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors, any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets or any other significant corporate transactions. These stockholders may therefore delay or prevent a change of control of us, even if such a change of control would benefit our other stockholders. The significant concentration of stock ownership may adversely affect the trading price of our common stock due to investors’ perception that conflicts of interest may exist or arise.
Claims for indemnification by our directors and officers may reduce our available funds to satisfy successful third-party claims against us and may reduce the amount of money available to us.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws provide that we will indemnify our directors and officers, in each case to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. In addition, as permitted by Section 145 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated bylaws and our indemnification agreements that we have entered into with our directors and officers provide that:
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We will indemnify our directors and officers for serving us in those capacities, or for serving other business enterprises at our request, to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. Delaware law provides that a corporation may indemnify such person if such person acted in good faith and in a manner such person reasonably believed to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the registrant and, with respect to any criminal proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe such person’s conduct was unlawful.
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We may, in our discretion, indemnify employees and agents in those circumstances where indemnification is permitted by applicable law.
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We are required to advance expenses, as incurred, to our directors and officers in connection with defending a proceeding, except that such directors or officers shall undertake to repay such advances if it is ultimately determined that such person is not entitled to indemnification.
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We will not be obligated pursuant to our amended and restated bylaws to indemnify a person with respect to proceedings initiated by that person against us or our other indemnitees, except with respect to proceedings authorized by our board of directors or brought to enforce a right to indemnification.
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The rights conferred in our amended and restated bylaws are not exclusive, and we are authorized to enter into indemnification agreements with our directors, officers, employees and agents and to obtain insurance to indemnify such persons.
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We may not retroactively amend our amended and restated bylaw provisions to reduce our indemnification obligations to directors, officers, employees and agents.
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To the extent that a claim for indemnification is brought by any of our directors or officers, it would reduce the amount of funds available for use in our business.
Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of us, which may be beneficial to our stockholders, more difficult and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management and limit the market price of our common stock.
Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws include provisions that:
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authorize our board of directors to issue, without further action by the stockholders, up to 10,000,000 shares of undesignated preferred stock;
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require that any action to be taken by our stockholders be effected at a duly called annual or special meeting and not by written consent;
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specify that special meetings of our stockholders can be called only by our board of directors, the chairman of the board of directors, or the chief executive officer;
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establish an advance notice procedure for stockholder approvals to be brought before an annual meeting of our stockholders, including proposed nominations of persons for election to our board of directors;
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establish that our board of directors is divided into three classes, Class I, Class II and Class III, with each class serving staggered three-year terms;
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provide that our directors may be removed only for cause;
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provide that vacancies on our board of directors may be filled only by a majority of directors then in office, even though less than a quorum;
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specify that no stockholder is permitted to cumulate votes at any election of directors; and
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require a super-majority of votes to amend certain of the above-mentioned provisions.
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These provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which limits the ability of stockholders owning in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock to merge or combine with us.
We do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.
At the closing of our initial public offering, our board of directors issued shares of common stock to pay all accrued but unpaid dividends on our convertible preferred stock. With the exception of this dividend, we do not anticipate paying cash dividends on any classes of our capital stock in the foreseeable future. We currently intend to retain our future earnings for the foreseeable future to fund the development and growth of our business. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our common stock will be the sole source of gain on an investment in our common stock for the foreseeable future.
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