As confidentially submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 12, 2022
This draft Amendment No. 2 to the registration statement has not been publicly filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and all information herein remains strictly confidential.
Registration No. 333-
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM S-1
REGISTRATION STATEMENT
Under
The Securities Act of 1933
THIRD HARMONIC BIO, INC.
(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware | 2834 | 83-4553503 | ||
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) |
(Primary Standard Industrial Classification Code Number) |
(I.R.S. Employer Identification Number) |
300 Technology Square, 8th Floor
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
(617) 915-6680
(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrants principal executive offices)
Natalie Holles
Chief Executive Officer
Third Harmonic Bio, Inc.
300 Technology Square, 8th Floor
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
(617) 915-6680
(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)
Copies to:
Effie Toshav, Esq. Robert A. Freedman, Esq. Ryan Mitteness, Esq. Fenwick & West LLP 555 California Street San Francisco, California 94104 (415) 875-2300 |
Charles S. Kim, Esq. Kristin VanderPas, Esq. Denny Won, Esq. Dave Peinsipp, Esq. Cooley LLP 4401 Eastgate Mall San Diego, California 92121 (858) 550-6000 |
Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public:
As soon as practicable after the effective date of this registration statement.
If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933 check the following box. ☐
If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of large accelerated filer, accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, and emerging growth company in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer | ☐ | Accelerated filer | ☐ | |||
Non-accelerated filer | ☒ | Smaller reporting company | ☒ | |||
Emerging growth company | ☒ |
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ☐
Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as maybe necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.
The information in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. These securities may not be sold until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell nor does it seek an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.
PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS (Subject to Completion)
Issued , 2022
Shares
Common Stock
Third Harmonic Bio, Inc. is offering shares of its common stock. This is our initial public offering of shares of common stock, and no public market currently exists for our common stock. We anticipate that the initial public offering price will be between $ and $ per share.
We intend to apply to list our common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market, or Nasdaq, under the symbol THRD. We believe that upon the completion of this offering, we will meet the standards for listing on Nasdaq, and the closing of this offering is contingent upon such listing.
We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company as defined under the federal securities laws and, as such, we have elected to comply with certain reduced reporting requirements for this prospectus and may elect to do so in future filings. Investing in our common stock involves risks. See Risk Factors beginning on page 14.
PRICE $ A SHARE
Price to Public |
Underwriting Discounts and Commissions(1) |
Proceeds to Third Harmonic |
||||||||||
Per Share |
$ | $ | $ | |||||||||
Total |
$ | $ | $ |
(1) | See Underwriters for a description of the compensation payable to the underwriters. |
We have granted the underwriters the right to purchase up to an additional shares of our common stock solely to cover over-allotments, if any.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and state regulators have not approved or disapproved of these securities, or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
The underwriters expect to deliver the shares of common stock to purchasers on , 2022.
MORGAN STANLEY | JEFFERIES | COWEN |
LIFESCI CAPITAL |
, 2022
PROSPECTUS
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MANAGEMENTS DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS |
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MATERIAL U.S. FEDERAL INCOME TAX CONSEQUENCES TO NON-U.S. HOLDERS |
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F-1 |
Through and including , 2022 (the 25th day after the date of this prospectus), all dealers effecting transactions in these securities, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This delivery requirement is in addition to a dealers obligation to deliver a prospectus when acting as an underwriter and with respect to an unsold allotment or subscription.
Neither we nor the underwriters have authorized anyone to provide any information or to make any representations other than those contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectuses we have prepared. We and the underwriters take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. This prospectus is an offer to sell only the shares offered hereby, but only under circumstances and in jurisdictions where it is lawful to do so. The information contained in this prospectus or in any applicable free writing prospectus is current only as of its date, regardless of its time of delivery or the time of any sale of shares of our common stock.
For investors outside of the United States: Neither we nor any of the underwriters have done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than the United States. Persons outside of the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the shares of our common stock and the distribution of this prospectus outside of the United States.
This summary highlights selected information contained elsewhere in this prospectus and does not contain all of the information that you should consider in making your investment decision. Before investing in our common stock, you should carefully read this entire prospectus, including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and the information set forth under the sections titled Risk Factors and Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, in each case included in this prospectus. Some of the statements in this prospectus constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. See the section titled Special Note Regarding ForwardLooking Statements for additional information. Unless the context otherwise requires, we use the terms Third Harmonic Bio, the Company, we, us and our in this prospectus to refer to the consolidated operations of Third Harmonic Bio, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, THB MS, Inc.
THIRD HARMONIC BIO, INC.
Overview
We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of the next wave of medicine for the treatment of allergic and inflammatory diseases. Our lead product candidate, THB001, is a highly selective, oral small molecule inhibitor of KIT, a cell surface receptor that acts as the master survival and functional regulator of mast cells. Mast cells are a part of the immune system, and dysfunctional mast cell activity has been implicated in the pathophysiology of a broad range of allergic and other inflammatory disorders including urticaria, asthma and gastrointestinal disorders, among others. KIT inhibition has shown positive clinical responses in mast cell mediated diseases such as asthma and chronic urticaria. In our recently completed Phase 1a clinical trial, THB001 demonstrated dose-dependent reductions of serum tryptase, a key biomarker of mast cell activity which has been shown to correlate with clinical benefit in chronic urticaria patients. We submitted a clinical trial application, or CTA, in Europe for our dose escalation Phase 1b proof-of-concept trial in chronic inducible urticaria in May 2022, and expect to initiate the trial in the second half of 2022. We also intend to submit a CTA to support initiation of a Phase 1b trial in asthma in the first half of 2023. We intend to submit both a CTA in Europe and an investigational new drug application, or IND, in the United States to support initiation of a Phase 2 trial in chronic spontaneous urticaria in the first half of 2024. We are also exploring development opportunities across a range of other indications where THB001 may provide benefit to patients suffering from mast cell driven inflammation to demonstrate the pipeline-in-a-product potential of THB001.
Mast cells are a main driver of allergic inflammatory responses. They are present throughout the body in connective and vascularized tissues, most prominently along surface boundaries with exposure to the external environment: in the skin, the respiratory tract and the gastrointestinal tract. For many patients suffering from allergic conditions, inhibition of mast cell derived mediators, including histamines, leukotrienes, and prostaglandins, has demonstrated insufficient therapeutic value to-date given that many mast cell-driven disorders involve multiple pro-inflammatory mediators. As a result, we believe that targeting mast cells directly through highly selective inhibition of KIT is key to achieving the clinical efficacy needed for broad symptomatic relief across a range of allergic and other inflammatory disorders.
Since KIT is a cell surface receptor that acts as the master regulator of mast cell function and survival, our approach impacts mast cells directly and provides what we believe to be a favorable point of intervention. Furthermore, significant clinical and nonclinical data has been generated internally and by third parties that demonstrate that KIT is a potential target for broad and potentially clinically differentiated inhibition of mast cells. For example, an anti-KIT antibody demonstrated compelling clinical responses in chronic inducible urticaria patients in a third-party Phase 1 trial.
Our lead product candidate THB001 is a potent and highly selective, oral small molecule wild-type KIT inhibitor in development for the treatment of mast cell mediated inflammatory diseases. In nonclinical studies, THB001 demonstrated what we believe to be evidence of highly selective KIT inhibition and mast cell depletion in skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal tissues with a potent therapeutic profile. We believe that chronic inducible urticaria represents an attractive initial clinical indication for THB001 as a precursor for chronic
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spontaneous urticaria, given the ability to efficiently evaluate clinical activity outcomes through provocation testing, in concert with biomarker measures of mast cell activity and safety data. Our goal is to be a leader in the oral KIT inhibitor space, and we continue to invest in formulation and discovery for next generation molecules. In addition to initially developing THB001 for treatment of chronic urticaria, we are exploring THB001 as a potential treatment for other indications where mast cell dysfunction plays a key role.
In our recently completed Phase 1a trial in healthy volunteers, we have observed dose dependent increases in THB001 serum concentration levels above the KIT cellular IC50 value. As signs of the potential efficacy of THB001, we observed that dose levels of 200 mg once daily, or QD, 200 mg twice daily, or BID, and 400 mg BID resulted in dose dependent declines in serum tryptase. The twice daily dose at the 400 mg level of THB001 resulted in a decreased mean serum tryptase level that was at the lower limit of quantification. Reductions in serum tryptase have been associated with a robust clinical response in a clinical trial of an anti-KIT antibody in chronic inducible urticaria patients conducted by a third party. Furthermore, THB001 was well-tolerated, with no serious adverse events, or SAEs, in the trial to-date.
We submitted a CTA in Europe for our dose escalation Phase 1b proof-of-concept trial in chronic inducible urticaria in May 2022, and expect to initiate the trial in the second half of 2022. We also intend to submit a CTA to support initiation of a Phase 1b trial in asthma in the first half of 2023. We intend to submit both a CTA in Europe and an IND in the United States to support initiation of a Phase 2 trial in chronic spontaneous urticaria in the first half of 2024.
There remains a large unmet need in chronic urticaria. Epidemiological studies indicate that up to 25% of the population suffers from urticaria at some point in their lifetime, with 0.5-1% of the population suffering from the disease at any point in time, suggesting a point prevalence of over 1.5 million patients in the United States. Approximately 70% to 80% of patients with urticaria are women. Many patients are first provided H1 antihistamine therapy when diagnosed with urticaria; however, there remains a large unmet need. Approximately 50% of chronic spontaneous urticaria patients continue to experience itch and hives despite H1 antihistamine treatment at FDA-approved doses. There have been no new approved therapies to treat chronic urticaria in eight years, and the most recently approved treatment, the injectable biologic Xolair, provided complete hive and itch symptom relief to approximately 36% of patients in clinical trials. We believe Xolair is currently addressing less than 20% of eligible patients whose symptoms have failed to be controlled by H1 antihistamine therapy. There is a clear unmet need for chronic urticaria treatments that provide higher levels of complete hive and itch symptom relief, while also providing improved patient comfort and convenience via an oral route of administration. We believe an oral therapy offers clear advantages over an injectable therapy, and an oral therapy with the potential to improve upon the results of the existing standard of care offers a significant opportunity to address a large unmet need. While the potential market opportunity within urticaria alone is vast, dysfunctional mast cell activity has also been implicated in the pathophysiology of a broad range of allergic and other inflammatory disorders, including respiratory and gastrointestinal disorders. Furthermore, in nonclinical studies, THB001 has demonstrated the ability to deplete mast cells across different tissue types, which we believe supports its ability to potentially treat a range of mast cell mediated skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal conditions supporting our ultimate goal of THB001 achieving its potential as a pipeline-in-a-product. The table below reflects our initial targeted indications for THB001.
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Our Team and Investors
Founded by Atlas Venture in 2019, we are led by a strong management team with diverse backgrounds and significant experience in drug discovery, development and company building, as well as a demonstrated track record of delivering breakthrough therapeutic approaches for patients. Our management team are industry veterans with extensive experience at biopharmaceutical companies such as Audentes, Cadent Therapeutics, Genentech/Roche, Gilead Sciences, Morphic Therapeutic and Pfizer. Together, our team has a proven track record in the discovery, development and commercialization of numerous approved therapeutics.
Since our inception, we have been supported by and have raised approximately $155 million of capital from a group of premier life science investors including Atlas Venture, OrbiMed, BVF Partners L.P., General Atlantic, RA Capital, RTW Investments, Boxer Capital, Deep Track Capital, Commodore Capital and Ajax Health|Zeus.
Mast Cells and Their Role in Immunity
Mast cells derive from KIT-positive hematopoietic progenitors in the bone marrow and are present throughout the body in connective and vascularized tissues, most prominently along surface boundaries with exposure to the external environment such as the skin, the respiratory tract and the gastrointestinal tract. Their numerous physiological functions include regulation of inflammation, vasodilation, vascular homeostasis and angiogenesis as well as involvement in the control of other elements of the immune response. Dysfunctional mast cell activity has been implicated in the pathophysiology of a broad range of allergic and other inflammatory disorders, including urticaria, asthma and gastrointestinal disorders, among others.
The cytoplasm of mast cells stores inflammatory mediators including histamine, the proteolytic enzyme tryptase and various cytokines, such as interleukins IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13, and Tumor Necrosis Factor-a, or TNF-a. Mast cells express multiple cell-surface receptors, one of which is FceR that has particularly high affinity for immunoglobin E, or IgE, antibodies. As shown in the figure below, upon the stimulation of IgE, change of temperature, or pressure, a signaling cascade leads to activation of the mast cell and its degranulation resulting in the release of tryptase, histamine and other inflammatory mediators. In addition to IgE dependent activation, other IgE independent stimuli can also trigger mast cell activation. The release of inflammatory mediators can manifest into a broad range of allergic or inflammatory diseases. Moreover, mast cell activation and degranulation lead to the recruitment of other progenitor cells to the specific tissue site and the propagation of the inflammatory response.
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Mast cells mediate multiple pro-inflammatory activities
The receptor tyrosine kinase KIT, also known as CD117, is recognized as a master regulator of mast cell activity. Under normal physiological conditions, mast cell progenitors circulate in an immature form and only fully develop into mature mast cells upon migration to a specific tissue type. Mature mast cells remain localized to a designated destination. Stem cell factor, or SCF, which is also referred as the c-kit ligand, binds to KIT on the surface of the mast cell, enables signal transduction into the mast cell and activates the KIT-mediated signaling cascade critical to mast cell survival, propagation and differentiation via pathways such as PLCg, JAK2/STAT, PI3K/AKT and RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK. As the master regulator of mast cell function and survival, we believe that the KIT-SCF signaling axis is the optimal intervention point to treat many mast cell mediated diseases. Inhibition of KIT drives both mast cell inactivation and depletion, independent of mast cell activation status.
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Our Solution: The KIT Inhibitor THB001
THB001 is a highly potent and selective, small molecule wild-type KIT inhibitor in development for the treatment of mast cell mediated inflammatory diseases. THB001 is designed to offer attractive drug-like properties, including high potency and oral bioavailability, and high selectivity for the wild-type KIT receptor. Based on nonclinical and available clinical data to date, we believe THB001 differentiates from other KIT-targeting therapeutics in the following designed aspects:
| The small molecule modality is anticipated to provide more refined dose titration capabilities than anti-KIT mAbs. |
| Oral administration offers improved patient convenience while avoiding mAb-related injection events. |
| Higher selectivity for wild-type KIT relative to other small molecule inhibitors. |
| THB001 binds intracellularly to an inactive conformation of KIT, avoiding the risk of paradoxical mast cell activation that can result from a KIT mAb binding to the extracellular portion of the KIT receptor. |
In our recently completed Phase 1a clinical trial in healthy volunteers, THB001 demonstrated dose-dependent reductions of serum tryptase, a key biomarker of mast cell activity which has been shown to correlate with clinical benefit in chronic urticaria.
As reflected in the chart presented below, which shows absolute serum tryptase levels in patients over time, twice daily dosing of the higher 400 mg level of THB001 resulted in mean serum tryptase which was at the lower limit of quantitation.
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The higher 400 mg BID dose resulted in a serum tryptase level at the lower limit of quantitation.
Pipeline-in-a-Product Potential of THB001
Dysfunctional mast cell activity has been implicated in the pathophysiology of a broad range of allergic and other inflammatory disorders that impact the skin, respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tract. Given KIT is the master regulator of mast cell function and survival, we believe that KIT inhibition is the optimal approach to treat many of these mast cell mediated diseases. As such, we believe THB001 represents a pipeline-in-a-product opportunity.
Our Strategy
Our goal is to develop the next wave of medicine for the treatment of allergic and inflammatory diseases. The key components of our strategy are to:
| Continue to advance THB001 through clinical development in chronic urticaria. |
| Continue to advance THB001 into our second indication in asthma. |
| Develop THB001 in a broad range of indications across therapeutic areas where mast cell driven inflammation can benefit from THB001s product profile, including in the skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. |
| Continue to innovate and potentially expand the pipeline through our internal discovery efforts and selectively evaluate strategic collaborations. |
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Risk Factors Summary
Our business is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those highlighted in the section titled Risk Factors immediately following this prospectus summary. These risks include, among others, the following:
| We have a limited operating history, have not completed any clinical trials beyond Phase 1, and none of THB001 or any future product candidates have been approved for commercial sale. We have a history of significant net losses since our inception and expect to continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future. |
| Even if we complete this offering, we will need substantial additional funds to pursue our business objectives, which may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Failure to obtain this necessary capital when needed may force us to delay, limit or terminate our product development programs, commercialization efforts or other operations. |
| We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. If we do not remediate the material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or if we fail to establish and maintain effective internal control, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or file our periodic reports in a timely manner, which may cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and may lead to a decline in the market price of our common stock. |
| Our future performance is substantially dependent on the success of our lead product candidate, THB001, which is currently in clinical development and which has not completed a pivotal trial. |
| Drug development is a lengthy and expensive process, and the outcome of clinical testing is inherently uncertain, and results of earlier studies and trials may not be predictive of future trial results. We may incur additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of THB001 or any future product candidates. |
| Our future clinical trials may reveal significant adverse events not seen in our nonclinical studies and may result in a safety profile that could inhibit regulatory approval or market acceptance of any of our product candidates. |
| The COVID-19 pandemic could adversely impact our business, including the conduct of our clinical trials. |
| We face competition from entities that have made substantial investments into the rapid development of novel treatments for allergic and inflammatory diseases, including large and specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies developing novel treatments and technology platforms. If these companies develop technologies or product candidates more rapidly than we do or their technologies are more effective, our ability to develop and successfully commercialize, if approved, product candidates may be adversely affected. |
| We rely, and intend to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and perform all of our research and nonclinical studies. If these third parties do not satisfactorily carry out their contractual duties, fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements or do not meet expected deadlines, our development programs may be delayed or subject to increased costs or we may be unable to obtain regulatory approval, each of which may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. |
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| If we are not able to obtain, maintain and enforce patent protection for our technologies or product candidates, development and commercialization, if approved, of our product candidates may be adversely affected. |
| The regulatory approval process is highly uncertain, and we may be unable to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, U.S. or foreign regulatory approval and, as a result, unable to commercialize our product candidates. Even if we believe our current, or planned clinical trials are successful, regulatory authorities may not agree that they provide adequate data on safety or efficacy. |
If we are unable to adequately address these and other risks we face, our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects may be harmed.
Corporate and Other Information
We were incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware on April 25, 2019, originally under the name Project Ige, Inc. We changed our name on June 28, 2019 to Third Harmonic Bio, Inc.
Our principal executive offices are located at 300 Technology Square, 8th Floor, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, and our telephone number is (617) 915-6680. Our website address is www.thirdharmonicbio.com. The information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not part of, and is not incorporated by reference into, this prospectus. We have included our website in this prospectus solely as a textual reference. Investors should not rely on any such information in deciding whether to purchase our common stock.
The mark Third Harmonic Bio is our registered or common law trademarks. All other service marks, trademarks and trade names appearing in this prospectus are the property of their respective owners. Solely for convenience, the trademarks and tradenames referred to in this prospectus appear without the ® and symbols, but those references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights, or the right of the applicable licensor to these trademarks and tradenames.
Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company and a Smaller Reporting Company
As a company with less than $1.07 billion in revenue during our last fiscal year, we qualify as an emerging growth company as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act. An emerging growth company may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies. These provisions include, but are not limited to:
| being permitted to present only two years of consolidated financial statements and only two years of related Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations disclosure in this prospectus; |
| not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as amended, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting; |
| reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation arrangements; and |
| exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. |
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest to occur of: (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have more than $1.07 billion in annual revenue; (ii) the date we qualify as a large accelerated filer,
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with at least $700.0 million of equity securities held by non-affiliates; (iii) the date on which we have issued, in any three-year period, more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities; and (iv) the last day of the fiscal year ending after the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering.
We have elected to take advantage of certain of the reduced disclosure obligations for emerging growth companies in the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part and may elect to take advantage of other reduced reporting requirements in future filings. As a result, the information that we provide to our stockholders may be different than you might receive from other public reporting companies in which you hold equity interests.
The JOBS Act provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of an extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards, until those standards apply to private companies. We have elected to use this extended transition period to enable us to comply with new or revised accounting standards that have different effective dates for public and private companies until the earlier of the date we (i) are no longer an emerging growth company or (ii) affirmatively and irrevocably opt out of the extended transition period provided in the JOBS Act. As a result, our consolidated financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with such new or revised accounting standards. Until the date that we are no longer an emerging growth company or affirmatively and irrevocably opt out of the exemption provided by Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, upon issuance of a new or revised accounting standard that applies to our consolidated financial statements and that has a different effective date for public and private companies, we will disclose the date on which adoption is required for non-emerging growth companies and the date on which we will adopt the recently issued accounting standard.
We are also a smaller reporting company, meaning that the market value of our capital stock held by non-affiliates plus the proposed aggregate amount of gross proceeds to us as a result of this offering is less than $700.0 million and our annual revenue is less than $100.0 million during the most recently completed fiscal year. We may continue to be a smaller reporting company after this offering if either (i) the market value of our capital stock held by non-affiliates is less than $250.0 million or (ii) our annual revenue is less than $100.0 million during the most recently completed fiscal year and the market value of our capital stock held by non-affiliates is less than $700.0 million. If we are a smaller reporting company at the time we cease to be an emerging growth company, we may continue to rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements that are available to smaller reporting companies. Specifically, as a smaller reporting company we may choose to present only the two most recent fiscal years of audited consolidated financial statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, we are not required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and, similar to emerging growth companies, smaller reporting companies have reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation.
For certain risks related to our status as an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company, see the section titled Risk FactorsRisks Related to Our Common Stock and This OfferingWe are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company and we cannot be certain if the reduced reporting requirements applicable to emerging growth companies or smaller reporting companies will make our common stock less attractive to investors.
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Common stock offered by us |
shares |
Underwriters over-allotment option of common stock offered by us |
shares |
Common stock to be outstanding immediately after this offering |
shares (or shares, if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full) |
Use of proceeds |
We estimate that the net proceeds from this offering will be approximately $ million (or approximately $ million if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full), based upon the assumed initial public offering price of $ per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. |
We currently intend to use the net proceeds from this offering, together with our existing cash and cash equivalents, to advance the continued clinical development of THB001 for the treatment of urticaria, including our Phase 1b clinical trial for chronic inducible urticaria and our Phase 2 clinical trial for chronic spontaneous urticaria; to advance the continued clinical development of THB001 in a Phase 1b clinical trial for asthma and to fund further development or acquisition of future programs through nonclinical and clinical development; and the remainder for potential expansion of our pipeline and other research and development activities, as well as for working capital and other general corporate purposes. |
See the section titled Use of Proceeds for additional information. |
Risk factors |
You should read the section titled Risk Factors in this prospectus for a discussion of factors to consider carefully before deciding to invest in shares of our common stock. |
Proposed Nasdaq trading symbol |
We intend to apply to list our common stock on Nasdaq under the symbol THRD. The closing of this offering is contingent upon such listing. |
The number of shares of our common stock to be outstanding after this offering is based on 62,786,536 shares of our common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2022 (including (i) 3,186,288 shares of unvested restricted common stock subject to repurchase and (ii) after giving effect to the automatic conversion of all of our shares of convertible preferred stock outstanding as of June 30, 2022 into an aggregate of 49,624,187 shares of our common stock immediately prior to the completion of this offering), and excludes:
| 4,073,209 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options outstanding as of June 30, 2022 under our 2019 Stock Incentive Plan, or the 2019 Plan, at a weighted-average exercise price of $3.32 per share; |
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| shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of options to purchase shares of our common stock granted after June 30, 2022 under our 2019 Plan, with a weighted-average exercise price of $ per share; and |
| shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans, consisting of: |
| 641,123 shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our 2019 Plan as of August 11, 2022, |
| shares of our common stock to be reserved for future issuance under our 2022 Equity Incentive Plan, or the 2022 Plan, which will become effective immediately prior to the date of the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, and |
| shares of our common stock to be reserved for future issuance under our 2022 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or the ESPP, which will become effective immediately prior to the date of the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. |
Our 2022 Plan and our ESPP provide for automatic annual increases in the number of shares of our common stock reserved thereunder, and our 2022 Plan provides for increases to the number of shares that may be granted thereunder based on shares under our 2019 Plan that expire, are tendered to or withheld by us for payment of an exercise price or for satisfying tax withholding obligations or are forfeited or otherwise repurchased by us. Upon completion of this offering, any remaining shares of our common stock available for issuance under our 2019 Plan will be added to the shares reserved under our 2022 Plan and we will cease granting awards under our 2019 Plan. See the section titled Executive CompensationEquity Compensation Plans and Other Benefit Plans for additional information.
Except as otherwise indicated, all information in this prospectus assumes or gives effect to the following:
| the automatic conversion of all outstanding shares of our convertible preferred stock as of June 30, 2022 into an aggregate of shares of our common stock immediately prior to the completion of this offering; |
| a 1-for- reverse stock split of our outstanding common stock, which was effected on , 2022; |
| the filing, and effectiveness of our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws, each of which will occur immediately prior to the completion of this offering; |
| no exercise of outstanding options referred to above; and |
| no exercise by the underwriters of their over-allotment option. |
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SUMMARY CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA
The following tables set forth our summary consolidated statements of operations and consolidated balance sheet data. The summary consolidated statement of operations data presented below for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2021 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. We have derived the summary consolidated statement of operations data for the six months ended June 30, 2021 and 2022, and the consolidated balance sheet data as of June 30, 2022, from our unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. The unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared on the same basis as our annual audited summary consolidated financial statements and, in the opinion of management, reflect all adjustments, which include only normal, recurring adjustments that are necessary to present fairly the unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements. The following summary consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with the section titled Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in any future period and results for the six months ended June 30, 2022 are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for the full year ending December 31, 2022 or any other period. The summary consolidated financial data in this section are not intended to replace our consolidated financial statements and are qualified in their entirety by the consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.
Year Ended December 31, | Six Months Ended June 30, | |||||||||||||||
(in thousands, except share and per share amounts) | 2020 | 2021 | 2021 | 2022 | ||||||||||||
(unaudited) | ||||||||||||||||
Consolidated Statements of Operations Data: |
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Operating expenses: |
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Research and development |
$ | 9,953 | $ | 15,748 | $ | 6,546 | $ | 10,393 | ||||||||
General and administrative |
1,166 | 3,256 | 1,010 | 5,177 | ||||||||||||
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Total operating expenses |
11,119 | 19,004 | 7,556 | 15,570 | ||||||||||||
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Loss from operations |
11,119 | 19,004 | 7,556 | 15,570 | ||||||||||||
Total other (income) expense, net |
1,688 | 10,605 | (1,110 | ) | (110 | ) | ||||||||||
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Net loss |
$ | 12,807 | $ | 29,609 | $ | 6,446 | $ | 15,460 | ||||||||
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Per share information: |
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Net loss per share of common stock, basic and diluted(1) |
$ | 1.55 | $ | 3.24 | $ | 0.72 | $ | 1.58 | ||||||||
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Weighted-average common shares outstanding, basic and diluted(1) |
8,286,202 | 9,134,180 | 8,899,793 | 9,761,916 | ||||||||||||
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Pro forma net loss per share of common stock, basic and diluted (unaudited)(2) |
$ | 0.77 | $ | 0.26 | ||||||||||||
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Pro forma weighted-average shares outstanding, basic and diluted (unaudited)(2) |
38,653,889 | 59,386,103 | ||||||||||||||
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(1) See Note 10 to our audited consolidated financial statements and our unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus for further details on the calculation of historical net loss per share and the weighted-average number of shares of common stock used in the computation of the per share amounts.
(2) The unaudited pro forma basic and diluted net loss per share attributable to common stockholders for the year ended December 31, 2021 and for the six months ended June 30, 2022 was computed using the weighted-average number of shares of common stock outstanding, including the pro forma effect of the automatic conversion of all outstanding shares of our convertible preferred stock into shares of our common stock on the later of January 1, 2021 or the date the shares were issued.
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As of June 30, 2022 | ||||||||||||
(in thousands) | Actual | Pro Forma(1) | Pro Forma As Adjusted(2) |
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(unaudited) |
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Consolidated Balance Sheet Data: |
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Cash and cash equivalents |
$ | 112,731 | $ | 112,731 | $ | |||||||
Working capital(3) |
108,537 | 108,537 | ||||||||||
Total assets |
114,431 | 114,431 | ||||||||||
Total convertible preferred stock |
170,184 | | ||||||||||
Total stockholders (deficit) equity |
(60,557 | ) | 109,627 |
(1) Pro forma amounts give effect to the automatic conversion of all outstanding shares of our convertible preferred stock as of June 30, 2022 into an aggregate of 49,624,187 shares of our common stock immediately prior to the completion of this offering.
(2) Pro forma as adjusted amounts reflect pro forma adjustments described in footnote (1) above as well as the sale of shares of our common stock in this offering, based upon the assumed initial public offering price of $ per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. The pro forma as adjusted information is illustrative only and will change based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing. A $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of $ per share would increase or decrease, as applicable, the pro forma as adjusted amount of each of our cash and cash equivalents, working capital, total assets and total stockholders equity by $ million, assuming that the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions. Similarly, each increase or decrease of 1.0 million in the number of shares offered by us in this offering would increase or decrease, as applicable, the pro forma as adjusted amount of each of our cash and cash equivalents, working capital, total assets and total stockholders equity by $ million, assuming the assumed initial offering price remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions.
(3) We define working capital as current assets less current liabilities. See our audited consolidated financial statements and our unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto included elsewhere in this prospectus for further details regarding our current assets and current liabilities.
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Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. Before making your decision to invest in shares of our common stock, you should carefully consider the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this prospectus, including in the section titled Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and in our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. We cannot assure you that any of the events discussed below will not occur. These events could have a material and adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. If that were to happen, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
Risks Related to Our Financial Position, Limited Operating History and Need for Additional Capital
We have a limited operating history, have not completed any clinical trials beyond Phase 1, and none of THB001 or any future product candidates have been approved for commercial sale. We have a history of significant net losses since our inception and expect to continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future.
We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history on which to base your investment decision. We commenced operations in 2019, and none of THB001 or any future product candidates have completed clinical trials beyond Phase 1 or have been approved for commercial sale. Biopharmaceutical product development is a highly speculative undertaking because it entails substantial upfront capital expenditures and significant risk that any potential product candidate will fail to demonstrate adequate effect or an acceptable safety profile, gain regulatory approval or become commercially viable.
Since our inception, we have focused substantially all of our efforts and financial resources on the development of our lead product candidate, THB001. We have not yet demonstrated an ability to successfully complete any late-stage trials, obtain marketing approvals, manufacture a commercial-scale product or arrange for a third party to do so on our behalf, or conduct sales and marketing activities necessary for successful product commercialization. As a result, it may be more difficult for you to accurately evaluate the performance of our business to date or to predict our viability than it would be if we had a longer operating history.
We have incurred significant net losses in each reporting period since our inception, have not generated any revenue to date and have financed our operations principally through private placements of our preferred stock. Our net losses were $12.8 million and $29.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2021, respectively, and $6.4 million and $15.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021 and 2022, respectively. As of June 30, 2022, we had an accumulated deficit of $63.7 million. Substantially all of our losses have resulted from expenses incurred in connection with our research and development programs and from general and administrative costs associated with our operations. We expect to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future, and we expect these losses to increase as we continue our research and development of THB001 and any future product candidates. The net losses we incur may fluctuate significantly from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year, such that a period-to-period comparison of our results of operations may not be a good indication of our future performance.
We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if, and as, we:
| advance THB001 and any future product candidates through clinical development for chronic inducible urticaria, chronic spontaneous urticaria, and asthma; |
| conduct additional nonclinical studies and clinical trials for THB001 in additional potential indications; |
| discover and develop new product candidates; |
| obtain, expand, maintain, defend and enforce our intellectual property portfolio; |
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| manufacture, or have manufactured, nonclinical, clinical and potentially commercial supplies of THB001 and any future product candidates; |
| seek regulatory approvals for THB001 or any future product candidates; |
| establish a sales, marketing and distribution infrastructure to commercialize THB001 or any future product candidates, if approved; |
| identify additional compounds or product candidates and acquire rights from third parties to those compounds or product candidates through licenses; |
| hire additional clinical, scientific and management personnel, as well as administrative staff to support the growth of our business; |
| add operational, financial and management information systems and personnel; |
| incur additional legal, accounting and other costs associated with operating as a public company following the completion of this offering; |
| experience delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and in other countries in which we have planned or have active clinical trial sites and where our third-party contract development and manufacturing organizations, or CDMOs operate; and |
| establish licenses, collaborations or strategic partnerships. |
Even if we succeed in commercializing one or more product candidates, we may continue to incur substantial research and development expenses and other expenditures to develop and market additional product candidates. We may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other unknown factors that may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. The size of our future losses will depend, in part, on the rate of future growth of our expenses and our ability to generate revenue, if any. Our prior losses and expected future losses have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our stockholders equity and working capital.
We have never generated revenue, may never generate any revenue from product sales and may never be profitable.
Our ability to become and remain profitable depends on our ability to generate revenue. We do not expect to generate significant revenue, if any, unless and until we, either alone or with a collaborator, are able to obtain regulatory approval for, and successfully commercialize, THB001, or any other future product candidates we may develop. Successful commercialization will require achievement of many key milestones, including demonstrating safety and efficacy in clinical trials, obtaining regulatory, including marketing, approval for these product candidates, manufacturing, marketing and selling those products for which we, or any future collaborators, may obtain regulatory approval, satisfying any post-marketing requirements and obtaining reimbursement for THB001 or any future product candidates from private insurance or government payors. Because of the uncertainties and risks associated with these activities, we are unable to accurately and precisely predict the timing and amount of revenue, if any, the extent of any further losses or if or when we might achieve profitability. We and any future collaborators may never succeed in these activities and, even if we do, or any future collaborators do, we may never generate revenue in an amount sufficient for us 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. Additionally, our expenses could increase if we are required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, European Medicines Agency, or EMA, or any comparable foreign regulatory authority to perform clinical trials in addition to those currently expected, or if there are any delays in completing our clinical trials or the development of THB001 or any future product candidates.
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Our failure to become and remain profitable would decrease the value of our Company and depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business or continue our operations. If we continue to suffer losses as we have in the past, investors may not receive any return on their investment and may lose their entire investment.
Even if we complete this offering, we will need substantial additional funds to pursue our business objectives, which may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Failure to obtain this necessary capital when needed may force us to delay, limit or terminate our product development programs, commercialization efforts or other operations.
Identifying and developing potential product candidates and conducting nonclinical and clinical studies is a time consuming, capital-intensive and uncertain process that takes years to complete. If THB001 or any future product candidates enter and advance through nonclinical studies and clinical trials, as applicable, we will need substantial additional funds to expand or create our development, regulatory, manufacturing, marketing and sales capabilities. We have used substantial amounts of cash since inception to develop THB001 and will require significant funds to conduct further research and development and nonclinical testing and clinical trials of THB001 and any future product candidates, to seek regulatory approvals for THB001 or any future product candidates and to manufacture and market products, if any, which are approved for commercial sale. In addition, upon the completion of this offering, we expect to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company. Accordingly, we will need to obtain substantial additional funding in connection with our continuing operations.
Nonclinical studies and clinical trials for THB001 and any future product candidates, as applicable, will require substantial funds to complete. As of June 30, 2022, we had $112.7 million in cash and cash equivalents. Based on our current operating plan, we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, together with the net proceeds from this offering, will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into . However, our future capital requirements and the period for which we expect our existing resources to support our operations, fund continued growth of our operations, research and development of product candidates, or otherwise respond to competitive pressures, may vary significantly from what we expect and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned. In addition, we may seek additional capital due to favorable market conditions or strategic considerations even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans. Our monthly spending levels vary based on new and ongoing research and development and other corporate activities. Because the length of time and activities associated with successful research and development of THB001 or any future product candidates is highly uncertain, we are unable to estimate the actual funds we will require for development and any marketing and commercialization activities for approved products. Our future funding requirements for THB001, any future product candidates and our ongoing operations, both near and long-term, will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:
| the timing, cost and progress of nonclinical and clinical development activities; |
| the cost of regulatory submissions and timing of regulatory approvals; |
| the number and scope of nonclinical and clinical programs we decide to pursue; |
| the progress of the development efforts of parties with whom we may in the future enter into collaborations and/or research and development agreements; |
| the timing and amount of milestone and other payments we are obligated to make under our Novartis Agreement or any future license agreements; |
| the cash requirements of any future acquisitions or discovery of product candidates; |
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| our ability to establish and maintain collaborations, strategic partnerships or marketing, distribution, licensing or other strategic arrangements with third parties on favorable terms, if at all; |
| our ability to achieve sufficient market acceptance, adequate coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors and adequate market share and revenue for any approved product candidates; |
| the costs involved in prosecuting and enforcing patent and other intellectual property claims; |
| the costs of manufacturing product candidates by third parties; |
| the cost of commercialization activities if THB001 or any future product candidates are approved for sale, including marketing, sales and distribution costs; |
| our efforts to enhance operational systems and hire additional personnel, including personnel to support development of product candidates; |
| the continued effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business; and |
| our need to implement additional internal systems and infrastructure, including financial and reporting systems to satisfy our obligations as a public company. |
If we are unable to obtain funding on a timely basis or on acceptable terms, we may have to delay, reduce or terminate our research and development programs and nonclinical studies or clinical trials, limit strategic opportunities or undergo reductions in our workforce or other corporate restructuring activities. We do not expect to realize revenue from sales of commercial products or royalties from licensed products in the foreseeable future, if at all, and, in no event, before THB001 and any future product candidates are clinically tested, approved for commercialization and successfully marketed, if ever.
We will be required to seek additional funding in the future and currently intend to do so through public or private equity offerings or debt financings, credit or loan facilities, additional licensing agreements and/or collaborations, or a combination of one or more of these funding sources. If we raise additional funds by issuing equity securities, our stockholders will suffer dilution and the terms of any financing may adversely affect the rights of our stockholders. In addition, as a condition to providing additional funds to us, future investors may demand, and may be granted, rights superior to those of existing stockholders. Our future debt financings, if available, are likely to involve restrictive covenants limiting our flexibility in conducting future business activities, and, in the event of insolvency, debt holders would be repaid before holders of our equity securities receive any distribution of our corporate assets. If we raise additional funds through licensing or collaboration arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to THB001 or any future product candidates, or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us. We also could be required to seek collaborators for product candidates at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable or relinquish our rights to product candidates or technologies that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves. Failure to obtain capital when needed on acceptable terms, or at all, may force us to delay, limit or terminate our product development and commercialization of our current or future product candidates, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. If we do not remediate the material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or if we fail to establish and maintain effective internal control, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or file our periodic reports in a timely manner, which may cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and may lead to a decline in the market price of our common stock.
Effective internal control over financial reporting is necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports in a timely manner. In connection with the preparation of our financial statements for the year ended December 31,
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2021, we concluded that there was a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a significant deficiency, or a combination of significant deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that it is reasonably possible that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. The material weakness that we identified related to the lack of segregation of duties, certain system limitations in our accounting software and the overall control environment as we had insufficient internal resources with appropriate accounting and finance knowledge and expertise to design, implement, document and operate effective internal controls around our financial reporting process.
We are implementing measures designed to improve our internal control over financial reporting to remediate this material weakness, including formalizing our processes and internal control documentation and strengthening supervisory reviews by our financial management; hiring additional qualified accounting and finance personnel and engaging financial consultants to enable the implementation of internal control over financial reporting and segregating duties amongst accounting and finance personnel. In addition, we are in the process of implementing an accounting software system with the design and functionality to segregate incompatible accounting duties, which we currently expect will be fully implemented in our 2023 fiscal year.
While we are implementing these measures, we cannot assure you that these efforts will remediate our material weaknesses and significant deficiencies in a timely manner, or at all, or prevent restatements of our financial statements in the future. In particular, we do not currently expect that our material weakness related to our certain system limitations in our accounting software will be fully remediated for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 as we expect to implement new software in 2023. If we are unable to successfully remediate our material weaknesses, or identify any future significant deficiencies or material weaknesses, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be adversely affected, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports, and the market price of our common stock may decline as a result.
Ensuring that we have adequate internal financial and accounting controls and procedures in place so that we can produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis is a costly and time-consuming effort that needs to be re-evaluated frequently. We expect to incur additional costs to remediate these control deficiencies, though there can be no assurance that our efforts will be successful or avoid potential future material weaknesses. Our internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. If we are unable to successfully remediate our existing or any future material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, or if we identify any additional material weaknesses, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be adversely affected, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports in addition to applicable stock exchange listing requirements, investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting, and our stock price may decline as a result. We also could become subject to investigations by Nasdaq, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, or other regulatory authorities. Failure to remedy any material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets. In addition, investors perceptions that our internal controls are inadequate or that we are unable to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis may harm our stock price and make it more difficult for us to effectively market and sell our products to new and existing customers.
Risks Related to Discovery, Development and Commercialization
Our future performance is substantially dependent on the success of our lead product candidate, THB001, which is currently in clinical development and which has not completed a pivotal trial.
Our future performance is substantially dependent on our ability to timely complete successful clinical trials, obtain regulatory approval for, and then successfully commercialize THB001 and any future product
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candidates. We are early in our development efforts and our lead product candidate, THB001, recently completed a Phase 1a clinical trial in healthy volunteers. While we are devoting significant resources to research and development activities, we have not yet identified additional product candidates. We currently have no products that are approved for sale in any jurisdiction. There can be no assurance that THB001 or any future product candidates we develop will achieve success in their clinical trials or obtain regulatory approval.
We plan to seek regulatory approval to commercialize THB001 or any future product candidates in the United States, the European Union and in selected foreign countries, including the United Kingdom and Japan. In order to obtain separate regulatory approvals in other countries, we must comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of such countries regarding safety and efficacy. Other countries also have their own regulations governing, among other things, clinical trials and commercial sales, as well as pricing and distribution of THB001 or any future product candidates, and we will be required to expend significant resources to obtain regulatory approval, which may not be successful, and to comply with ongoing regulations in these jurisdictions.
Our ability to generate product revenue, which we do not expect will occur for many years, if ever, will depend heavily on the successful development and commercialization of THB001. The success of THB001 will depend on several factors, including the following:
| successful completion of necessary nonclinical studies to enable the initiation of clinical trials; |
| acceptance of INDs by the FDA or other similar clinical trial applications from foreign regulatory authorities for our future clinical trials for our pipeline product candidates; |
| enrollment of patients in, and the completion of, our clinical trials; |
| completion of successful clinical trials with positive risk/benefit profiles; |
| receiving required regulatory authorizations for the development and obtaining approvals for the commercialization of THB001 or any future product candidates; |
| establishing and maintaining arrangements with third-party manufacturers; |
| ability to perform drug manufacturing and maintain consistent supply of drugs which meets specifications across various jurisdictions; |
| obtaining and maintaining patent and trade secret protection and non-patent exclusivity for THB001 or any future product candidates and their components and related filings; |
| enforcing and defending our intellectual property rights and claims; |
| achieving desirable therapeutic properties for THB001 or any future product candidates intended indications; |
| launching commercial sales of THB001 or any future product candidates, if approved, whether alone or in collaboration with third parties; |
| acceptance of THB001 or any future product candidates, if approved, by patients, the medical community and third-party payors; |
| addressing any delays in our clinical trials resulting from factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic or other major natural disaster or significant political event; |
| effectively competing with other therapies; and |
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| maintaining an acceptable safety profile of THB001 or any future product candidates through clinical trials and following regulatory approval. |
Many of these factors are beyond our control, and it is possible that none of THB001 or any future product candidates will ever obtain regulatory approval even if we expend substantial time and resources seeking such approval. If we do not achieve one or more of these factors in a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully commercialize THB001 or any future product candidates, which would materially harm our business.
If we do not achieve our projected development goals in the time frames we announce and expect, the commercialization of THB001 or any future product candidates may be delayed and, as a result, our stock price may decline and you may lose all or part of your investment.
From time to time, we estimate the timing of the anticipated accomplishment of various scientific, clinical, regulatory and other product development goals, which we sometimes refer to as milestones. These milestones may include the commencement or completion of scientific studies and clinical trials and the submission of regulatory filings. From time to time, we may publicly announce the expected timing of some of these milestones. All of these milestones are and will be based on numerous assumptions. The actual timing of these milestones can vary dramatically compared to our estimates, in some cases for reasons beyond our control. If we do not meet these milestones as publicly announced, or at all, the commercialization of THB001 or any future product candidates may be delayed or never achieved and, as a result, our stock price may decline. A decline in our stock price and in the value of our Company could cause you to lose all or part of your investment.
Drug development is a lengthy and expensive process, and the outcome of clinical testing is inherently uncertain, and results of earlier studies and trials may not be predictive of future trial results. We may incur additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of THB001 or any future product candidates.
We currently have only one product candidate, THB001, which is in Phase 1 clinical development in Europe and the risk of failure is high. Additionally, we have not submitted an IND for THB001 in the United States for any indication. It is impossible to predict when or if THB001 or any future product candidate will prove effective and safe in humans or will receive regulatory approval. While certain treatments have been approved for chronic spontaneous urticaria, to date no products have been approved specifically for the treatment of chronic inducible urticaria, our first indication. To obtain the requisite regulatory approvals to commercialize any product candidate, we must demonstrate through extensive nonclinical studies and lengthy, complex and expensive clinical trials that our product candidate is safe and effective in humans. Clinical testing can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. The results of nonclinical studies and early clinical trials of THB001 or any future product candidates may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical trials. We may be unable to establish clinical endpoints that applicable regulatory authorities would consider clinically meaningful, and a clinical trial can fail at any stage of testing. Differences in trial design between early-stage clinical trials and later-stage clinical trials make it difficult to extrapolate the results of earlier clinical trials to later clinical trials. Moreover, clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses, and many companies that have believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their products. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or to unfavorable safety profiles, notwithstanding promising results in earlier trials. There is typically a high rate of failure of product candidates proceeding through clinical trials. Most product candidates that commence clinical trials are never approved as products and there can be no assurance that any of our future clinical trials will ultimately be successful or support clinical development of THB001 or any future product candidates.
We or any future collaborators may experience delays in initiating or completing clinical trials. We or any future collaborators also may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, any future clinical
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trials that we could conduct that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize THB001 or any future product candidates, including:
| regulators or institutional review boards, or IRBs, the FDA or ethics committees may not authorize us or our investigators to commence a clinical trial or conduct a clinical trial at a prospective trial site, or may halt or suspend an ongoing clinical trial; |
| we may experience delays in reaching, or fail to reach, agreement on acceptable terms with prospective trial sites and prospective contract research organizations, or CROs, the terms of which can be subject to extensive negotiation and may vary significantly among different CROs and trial sites; |
| clinical trial sites deviating from trial protocol or dropping out of a trial; |
| clinical trials of any product candidates may fail to show safety or efficacy, produce negative or inconclusive results and we may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional nonclinical studies or clinical trials or we may decide to abandon product development programs; |
| the number of subjects required for clinical trials of any product candidates may be larger than we anticipate, enrollment in these clinical trials may be slower than we anticipate or subjects may drop out of these clinical trials or fail to return for post-treatment follow-up at a higher rate than we anticipate; |
| our third-party contractors may fail to comply with regulatory requirements or meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner, or at all, or may deviate from the clinical trial protocol or drop out of the trial, which may require that we add new clinical trial sites or investigators; |
| we may elect to, or regulators, IRBs, or ethics committees may require that we or our investigators, suspend or terminate clinical research or trials for various reasons, including noncompliance with regulatory requirements or a finding that the participants in our trials are being exposed to unacceptable health risks; |
| the cost of clinical trials of any of THB001 or any future product candidates may be greater than we anticipate; |
| the quality of THB001 or any future product candidates or other materials necessary to conduct clinical trials of THB001 or any future product candidates may be inadequate to initiate or complete a given clinical trial; |
| our inability to manufacture sufficient quantities of THB001 or any future product candidates for use in clinical trials; |
| our inability to meet drug specifications suitable for use in clinical trials and commercial applications; |
| reports from clinical testing of other therapies may raise safety or efficacy concerns about THB001 or any future product candidates; |
| our failure to establish an appropriate safety profile for a product candidate based on clinical or nonclinical data for such product candidate as well as data emerging from other molecules in the same class as THB001 or any future product candidate; and |
| the FDA, EMA or other regulatory authorities may require us to submit additional data such as long-term toxicology studies or impose other requirements before permitting us to initiate a clinical trial. |
Patient enrollment, a significant factor in the timing of clinical trials, is affected by many factors including the size and nature of the patient population, the number and location of clinical sites we enroll, the proximity of
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patients to clinical sites, the eligibility and exclusion criteria for the trial, the design of the clinical trial, the inability to obtain and maintain patient consents, the risk that enrolled participants will drop out before completion, competing clinical trials and clinicians and patients perceptions as to the potential advantages of the product candidate being studied in relation to other available therapies, including any new drugs or therapeutic biologics that may be approved for the indications being investigated by us. Furthermore, we may in the future rely on collaborators, CROs and clinical trial sites to ensure the proper and timely conduct of our future clinical trials, including the patient enrollment process, and we have limited influence over their performance. Additionally, we could encounter delays if treating physicians encounter unresolved ethical issues associated with enrolling patients in future clinical trials of THB001 or any future product candidates in lieu of prescribing existing treatments that have established safety and efficacy profiles.
We could also encounter delays if a clinical trial is suspended or terminated by us, the IRBs of the institutions in which such trials are being conducted, or the FDA, EMA or other regulatory authorities, or if a clinical trial is recommended for suspension or termination by the Data Safety Monitoring Board, or the DSMB, for such trial. A suspension or termination may be imposed 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, EMA or other regulatory authorities resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold, unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a product or treatment, failure to establish or achieve clinically meaningful trial endpoints, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial. Clinical studies may also be delayed or terminated as a result of ambiguous or negative interim results. 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 THB001 or any future product candidates. Further, the FDA, EMA or other regulatory authorities may disagree with our clinical trial design and our interpretation of data from clinical trials, or may change the requirements for approval even after they have reviewed and commented on the design for our clinical trials.
Our product development costs will increase if we experience delays in clinical testing or marketing approvals. We do not know whether any of our clinical trials will begin as planned, will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, or at all. Significant clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize THB001 or any future product candidates and may allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, potentially impairing our ability to successfully commercialize THB001 or any future product candidates and harming our business and results of operations. Any delays in our clinical development programs may harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects significantly.
Results of nonclinical studies and early clinical trials may not be predictive of results of future clinical trials.
The outcome of nonclinical studies and early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later clinical trials, and interim results of clinical trials. Many companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in late-stage clinical trials after achieving positive results in earlier development, and we could face similar setbacks. The design of a clinical trial can determine whether its results will support approval of a product and flaws in the design of a clinical trial may not become apparent until the clinical trial is well advanced. We have limited experience in designing clinical trials and may be unable to design and execute a clinical trial to support marketing approval. In addition, nonclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses. Many companies that believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in nonclinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval for the product candidates. Even if we believe that the results of clinical trials for THB001 or any future product candidates warrant marketing approval, the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree and may not grant marketing approval of THB001 or any future product candidates.
In some instances, there can be significant variability in safety or efficacy results between different clinical trials of the same product candidate due to numerous factors, including changes in trial procedures set forth in
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protocols, differences in the size and type of the patient populations, changes in and adherence to the dosing regimen and other clinical trial protocols and the rate of dropout among clinical trial patients. If we fail to receive positive results in clinical trials of THB001 or any future product candidates, the development timeline and regulatory approval and commercialization prospects for such product candidates, and, correspondingly, our business and financial prospects would be negatively impacted.
Preliminary, topline or interim data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.
From time to time, we may publish preliminary or topline data or data from planned interim analyses of our clinical trials. Preliminary or topline data remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary or topline data that we previously published. Data from planned interim analyses of our clinical trials that we may complete are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as patient enrollment continues and more patient data become available. As a result, preliminary data and interim analyses should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. Adverse differences between preliminary, topline or interim data and final data could significantly harm our reputation and business prospects.
Our future clinical trials may reveal significant adverse events not seen in our nonclinical studies and may result in a safety profile that could inhibit regulatory approval or market acceptance of THB001 or any future product candidates.
If significant adverse events or other side effects are observed in any of our clinical trials, we may have difficulty recruiting patients to our clinical trials, patients may drop out of our trials, or we may be required to abandon the trials or our development efforts of one or more product candidates altogether. For example, KIT inhibition is known to produce certain on-target side effects, including inhibition of spermatogenesis, effects on hematopoietic progenitor cells resulting in reductions in neutrophils, reticulocytes, red blood cells and white blood cells, changes in taste (salt in particular) and reduced hair pigmentation (generally in small areas). In our Phase 1a trial in healthy volunteers, one moderate adverse effect, or AE, determined to be likely related to THB001 was low neutrophil levels, which resolved after discontinuation in the trial. While we believe that such side effects will be reversible following discontinuation of THB001 with sufficient recovery periods, we will need to monitor the severity and duration of side effects in our clinical trials. If such effects are more severe, less reversible than we expect or not reversible at all, we may decide or be required to perform additional nonclinical studies or to halt or delay further clinical development of THB001, which could result in the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA or other regulatory authorities. We also expect that, similar to other approved KIT inhibitor drugs, THB001 will be teratogenic as KIT mutations are embryo lethal and, if approved, THB001 will require the concomitant use of appropriate birth control measures. We have not yet tested THB001 on non-vasectomized male subjects in multiple doses, so we have not yet been able to evaluate the effect on spermatogenesis. AEs and serious adverse events, or SAEs, that emerge during clinical investigation of or treatment with THB001 or any future product candidates or other compounds acting through similar biological pathways may be deemed to be related to THB001 or any future product candidate. This may require longer and more extensive Phase 3 clinical development, or regulatory authorities may increase the amount of data and information required to approve, market, or maintain THB001 or any future product candidates and could result in warnings and precautions in our product labeling or a restrictive risk evaluation and mitigation strategy, or REMS. This may also result in an inability to obtain approval of THB001 or any future product candidates. We, the FDA, EMA or other applicable regulatory authorities, or an IRB may suspend clinical trials of a product candidate at any time for various reasons, including a belief that subjects or patients in such trials are being exposed to unacceptable health risks or adverse side effects. Some potential therapeutics developed in the biotechnology industry that initially showed therapeutic promise in early-stage trials have later been found to cause side effects that prevented their further development. Even if the side effects do not preclude the product candidate from obtaining or maintaining marketing approval, undesirable side effects, including the potential
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effects on fertility, may inhibit market acceptance of the approved product due to its tolerability versus other therapies. Any of these developments could materially harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Clinical trials of THB001 or any future our product candidates may not uncover all possible AEs that patients may experience.
Clinical trials are conducted in representative samples of healthy volunteers and the potential patient population, which may have significant variability. By design, clinical trials are based on a limited number of subjects and are of limited duration of exposure to the product, to determine whether the product candidate demonstrates the substantial evidence of efficacy and safety necessary to obtain regulatory approval. As with the results of any statistical sampling, we cannot be sure that all side effects of THB001 or any future product candidates may be uncovered. It may be the case that only with a significantly larger number of patients exposed to the product candidate for a longer duration may a more complete safety profile be identified. Further, even larger clinical trials may not identify rare SAEs, and the duration of such studies may not be sufficient to identify when those events may occur. Other products have been approved by the regulatory authorities for which safety concerns have been uncovered following approval. Such safety concerns have led to labeling changes, restrictions on distribution through use of a REMS, or withdrawal of products from the market, and THB001 or any future product candidates may be subject to similar risks.
In our Phase 1a trial in healthy volunteers to date, we have observed no SAEs, three moderate AEs and the remaining AEs categorized as mild. Although to date we have not seen evidence of significant safety concerns in our Phase 1a clinical trial with THB001, patients treated with our products, if approved, may experience previously unreported adverse reactions, and it is possible that the FDA or other regulatory authorities may ask for additional safety data as a condition of, or in connection with, our efforts to obtain approval of THB001 or any future product candidates. If safety problems occur or are identified after THB001 or any future product candidates, if any, reach the market, we may make the decision or be required by regulatory authorities to amend the labeling of our products, recall our products, or even withdraw approval for our products.
The COVID-19 pandemic could adversely impact our business, including the conduct of our clinical trials.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic could cause significant disruptions that could severely impact our business, including:
| delays or difficulties in screening, enrolling and maintaining patients in our clinical trials; |
| delays or difficulties in clinical site initiation, including difficulties in recruiting clinical site investigators and clinical site staff; |
| diversion of healthcare resources away from the conduct of clinical trials, including the diversion of hospitals serving as our clinical trial sites and hospital staff supporting the conduct of our clinical trials; |
| inability or unwillingness of subjects to travel to the clinical trial sites; |
| delays, difficulties or incompleteness in data collection and analysis and other related activities; |
| decreased implementation of protocol required clinical trial activities and quality of source data verification at clinical trial sites; |
| interruption of key clinical trial activities, such as clinical trial site monitoring, due to limitations on travel imposed or recommended by federal or state governments, employers and others; |
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| limitations in employee resources that would otherwise be focused on the conduct of our clinical trials and our other research and development activities, including because of sickness of employees or their families or mitigation measures such as lock-downs and social distancing; |
| delays due to production shortages resulting from any events affecting raw material supply or manufacturing capabilities domestically and abroad; |
| delays in receiving approval from local regulatory authorities to initiate our planned clinical trials; |
| delays in clinical sites receiving the supplies and materials needed to conduct our clinical trials; |
| interruption in global and domestic shipping that may affect the transport of clinical trial materials, such as investigational drug products used in our clinical trials; |
| changes in local regulations as part of a response to the COVID-19 pandemic which may require us to change the ways in which our clinical trials are conducted, which may result in unexpected costs, delays or require us to discontinue the clinical trials altogether; |
| delays in necessary interactions with local regulators, ethics committees and other important agencies and contractors due to limitations in employee resources or forced furlough of government employees; |
| refusal of regulatory authorities such as FDA or EMA, to accept data from clinical trials in affected geographies; and |
| adverse impacts on global economic conditions which could have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition, including impairing our ability to raise capital when needed. |
Such disruptions could impede, delay, limit or prevent completion of our ongoing clinical trials and nonclinical studies or commencement of new clinical trials and ultimately lead to the delay or denial of regulatory approval of THB001 or any future product candidates, which would increase our costs and expenses and seriously harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Furthermore, if either we or any third party in the supply chain for materials used in the production of THB001 are adversely impacted by restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, our supply chain may be disrupted, limiting our ability to manufacture product candidates for our clinical trials. We are in close contact with our clinical research organizations, or CROs, our CDMOs and clinical sites as we seek to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our current timelines. Measures we have taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic include, where feasible, conducting remote clinical trial site activations and data monitoring. However, despite these efforts, we have experienced delays in trial site initiations, patient participation and patient enrollment in our clinical trial and we may continue to experience some delays in our clinical trials and nonclinical studies and delays in data collection and analysis.
These delays so far have had a limited impact on our development prospects for THB001, but the negative impacts could be exacerbated as the COVID-19 pandemic and the response to it continue to evolve. The COVID-19 pandemic could also affect the business of the FDA, EMA or other health authorities, which could result in delays in meetings related to planned or completed clinical trials and ultimately of reviews and approvals of THB001. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacts our business and clinical trials will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, such as the success of mass vaccination efforts globally, travel restrictions and social distancing in the United States and other countries, the impact of new COVID-19 variants, business closures or business disruptions and the effectiveness of actions taken by governmental authorities to contain and address the challenges posed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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If we experience delays or difficulties in enrolling patients in our ongoing or planned clinical trials, our receipt of necessary regulatory approval could be delayed or prevented.
Patient enrollment, a significant factor in the timing of clinical trials, is affected by many factors including the size and nature of the patient population, the number and location of clinical sites we enroll, the proximity of patients to clinical sites, the eligibility and exclusion criteria for the trial, the design of the clinical trial, the inability to obtain and maintain patient consents, the risk that enrolled participants will drop out before completion, competing clinical trials, and clinicians and patients perceptions as to the potential advantages of the product candidate being studied in relation to other available therapies, including any new drugs or therapeutic biologics that may be approved for the indications being investigated by us. In addition, some of our competitors currently have ongoing clinical trials for product candidates that would treat the same patients as THB001, our lead clinical product candidate, and patients who would otherwise be eligible for our clinical trials may instead enroll in clinical trials of our competitors product candidates. The COVID-19 pandemic may also delay clinical trials if there are inadequate clinical resources for sites to safely conduct clinical research. Furthermore, we expect to rely on our collaborators, CROs, and clinical trial sites to ensure the proper and timely conduct of our future clinical trials, including the patient enrollment process, and we have limited influence over their performance. Additionally, we could encounter delays if treating physicians encounter unresolved ethical issues associated with enrolling patients in future clinical trials of THB001 or any future product candidates in lieu of prescribing existing treatments that have established safety and efficacy profiles.
If we are unable to enroll a sufficient number of patients for our clinical trials, it would result in significant delays or might require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether. Enrollment delays in our clinical trials may result in increased development costs for THB001 or any future product candidates, slow down or halt our product candidate development and approval process and jeopardize our ability to seek and obtain the marketing approval required to commence product sales and to generate revenue, which would cause the value of our Company to decline and limit our ability to obtain additional financing if needed.
We face competition from entities that have made substantial investments into the rapid development of novel treatments for allergic and inflammatory diseases, including large and specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies developing novel treatments and technology platforms. If these companies develop technologies or product candidates more rapidly than we do or their technologies are more effective, our ability to develop and successfully commercialize, if approved, product candidates may be adversely affected.
The development and commercialization of drugs is highly competitive. Our lead product candidate, THB001, if approved, will face significant competition and our failure to effectively compete may prevent us from achieving significant market penetration. Most of our competitors have significantly greater resources than we do and we may not be able to successfully compete. We face substantial competition from multiple sources, including large and specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic research institutions and governmental agencies and public and private research institutions. Our competitors compete with us on the level of the technologies employed, or on the level of development of product candidates. In addition, many small biotechnology companies have formed collaborations with large, established companies to (i) obtain support for their research, development and commercialization of products or (ii) combine several treatment approaches to develop longer lasting or more efficacious treatments that may potentially directly compete with our current or future product candidates. We anticipate that we will continue to face increasing competition as new therapies and combinations thereof, technologies, and data emerge within the field of immunology and, furthermore, within the treatment of allergies and inflammatory conditions.
Our likelihood of success will depend partially on our ability to develop and commercialize therapeutics that are safer and more effective than competing products. Our commercial opportunity and likelihood of success will be reduced or eliminated if competing products are safer, more effective, or less expensive than the therapeutics we are trying, or may try, to develop.
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Our competitors have developed, are developing or will develop product candidates and processes competitive with our lead product candidate, and any future product candidates, and processes. therapeutic treatments include those that have already been approved and accepted by the medical community and any new treatments, including those based on novel technology platforms that enter the market. THB001, our lead product candidate, initially under development for treatment of chronic inducible urticaria, if approved, would face competition from existing approved urticaria treatments. In addition to the current standard of care treatments for patients with allergies and inflammatory diseases, numerous commercial and academic nonclinical studies and clinical trials are being undertaken by a large number of parties to assess novel technologies and product candidates. There are numerous other competitive approaches, including inhibitors of activators of mast cells such as IgE antibodies like omalizumab, inhibitors of mediators such as anti-histamines and anti-IL-4 /IL-13 therapies, other small molecule approaches such as Brutons tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and other small molecule and biologic KIT inhibitors such as Celldexs CDX-0159 or monoclonal antibody KIT inhibitor, among others.
Many of these competitors have significantly greater financial, technical, manufacturing, marketing, sales and supply resources or experience than we have. If we obtain regulatory approval for any product candidate, we will face competition based on many different factors, including the safety and effectiveness of THB001 or any future product candidates, the ease with which THB001 or any future product candidates can be administered and the extent to which patients accept relatively new routes of administration, the timing and scope of regulatory approvals for these products, the availability and cost of manufacturing, marketing and sales capabilities, price, reimbursement coverage and patent position. Competing products could present superior treatment alternatives, including by being more effective, safer, less expensive or marketed and sold more effectively than any products we may develop. Competitive products may make any products we develop obsolete or noncompetitive before we recover the expense of developing and commercializing THB001 or any future product candidates. Such competitors could also recruit our employees, which could negatively impact our level of expertise and our ability to execute our business plan.
THB001 or any future product candidates may not achieve adequate market acceptance among physicians, patients, healthcare third-party payors and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success, if approved, and we may not generate any future revenue from the sale or licensing of product candidates.
Even if regulatory approval is obtained for a product candidate, we may not generate or sustain revenue from sales of the product due to factors such as whether the product can be sold at a competitive cost and whether it will otherwise be accepted in the market. Market participants with significant influence over acceptance of new treatments, such as physicians and third-party payors, may not adopt THB001 or any future product candidates, and we may not be able to convince the medical community and third-party payors to accept and use, or to provide favorable reimbursement for, any product candidates developed by us or future collaborators. Market acceptance of THB001 or any future product candidates, if approved, will depend on, among other factors:
| the timing of our receipt of any marketing and commercialization approvals; |
| the terms of any approvals and the countries in which approvals are obtained; |
| the safety and efficacy of THB001 or any future product candidates as demonstrated in clinical trials; |
| the prevalence and severity of any adverse side effects associated with THB001 or any future product candidates; |
| limitations or warnings contained in any labeling approved by the FDA, EMA or other regulatory authority; |
| relative convenience and ease of administration of THB001 or any future product candidates; |
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| the willingness of patients to accept any new methods of administration; |
| unfavorable publicity relating to our current product candidates or any future product candidates; |
| the success of our physician education programs; |
| the effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts; |
| the availability of coverage and adequate reimbursement from government and third-party payors; |
| the pricing of THB001 or any future product candidates, particularly as compared to alternative treatments; and |
| the availability of alternative effective treatments for the disease indications THB001 or any future product candidates are intended to treat and the relative risks, benefits and costs of those treatments. |
Sales of medical products also depend on the willingness of physicians to prescribe the treatment, which is likely to be based on a determination by these physicians that the products are safe, therapeutically effective and cost effective. In addition, the inclusion or exclusion of products from treatment guidelines established by various physician groups and the viewpoints of influential physicians can affect the willingness of other physicians to prescribe the treatment. We cannot predict whether physicians, physicians organizations, hospitals, other healthcare providers, government agencies or private insurers will determine that our product, if approved, is safe, therapeutically effective and cost effective as compared with competing treatments. If any product candidate is approved but does not achieve an adequate level of acceptance by such parties, we may not generate or derive sufficient revenue from that product candidate and may not become or remain profitable.
The market opportunities for THB001 or any of our future product candidates, if approved, may be limited to certain smaller patient subsets and may be smaller than we estimate them to be.
Our projections of both the number of people who have chronic urticaria as well as other mast cell-mediated allergic and inflammatory diseases we are targeting, and who have the potential to benefit from treatment with THB001 or any of our future product candidates, are based on our beliefs and estimates. These estimates have been derived from a variety of sources, including scientific literature, surveys of clinics, patient foundations or market research, and may prove to be incorrect. Further, new studies may change the estimated incidence or prevalence of the indications that we are targeting. The potentially addressable patient population for THB001 or any of our future product candidates may be more limited that we currently estimate or may not be amenable to treatment with such product candidates. For example, women are nearly twice as likely as men to experience urticaria, and the expected requirement of concomitant use of appropriate birth control measures may result in a lower addressable patient population than we expect. Consequently, even if THB001 or any of our future product candidates are approved, the number of patients that may be eligible for treatment, or willing to be treated, with THB001 or any future product candidates may turn out to be much lower than expected. Even if we obtain significant market share for THB001 or any future product candidates, if approved, if the potential target populations are small, we may never achieve profitability without obtaining regulatory approval for additional indications.
If in the future we are unable to establish U.S. or global sales and marketing capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to sell and market THB001 or any future our product candidates, we may not be successful in commercializing our product candidates if they are approved and we may not be able to generate any revenue.
We currently do not have a marketing or sales team for the marketing, sales and distribution of THB001 or any future product candidates, if any of them ever obtain regulatory approval. To commercialize any product
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candidates after approval, we must build on a territory-by-territory basis marketing, sales, distribution, managerial and other non-technical capabilities or arrange with third parties to perform these services, and we may not be successful in doing so. If THB001 or any future product candidates receive regulatory approval, we may decide to establish an internal sales or marketing team with technical expertise and supporting distribution capabilities to commercialize THB001 or any future product candidates, which will be expensive and time consuming and will require significant attention of our executive officers to manage. For example, some state and local jurisdictions have licensing and continuing education requirements for pharmaceutical sales representatives, which requires time and financial resources. Any failure or delay in the development of our internal sales, marketing and distribution capabilities would adversely impact the commercialization of any of THB001 or any future product candidates if we obtain approval to market.
With respect to the commercialization of all or certain of THB001 or any future product candidates, if approved, we may choose to collaborate, either globally or on a territory-by-territory basis, with third parties that have direct sales forces and established distribution systems, either to augment any future sales force and distribution systems of our own or in lieu of our own sales force and distribution systems. If we are unable to enter into such arrangements when needed on acceptable terms, or at all, we may not be able to successfully commercialize any of THB001 or any future product candidates if any receive regulatory approval or any such commercialization may experience delays or limitations. If we are not successful in commercializing THB001 or any future product candidates, if approved, either on our own or through collaborations with one or more third parties, any future product revenue will suffer and we may incur significant additional losses.
If any of THB001 or any future our product candidates receives marketing approval and we or others later identify undesirable side effects caused by the product candidate, our ability to market and derive revenue from the product candidates could be compromised.
Undesirable side effects caused by THB001 or any future product candidates could cause regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials and could result in more restrictive labeling or the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA, EMA, or other regulatory authorities. Results of future clinical trials could reveal a high and unacceptable severity and prevalence of side effects. In such an event, our future clinical trials could be suspended or terminated and the FDA, EMA, or comparable foreign regulatory authorities could order us to cease further development of or deny approval of THB001 or any future product candidates for any or all targeted indications. Such side effects could also affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled patients to initiate or complete the clinical trial or result in potential product liability claims. Any of these occurrences may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Further, clinical trials by their nature utilize a sample of the potential patient population. With a limited number of patients and limited duration of exposure, rare and severe side effects of THB001 or any future product candidates may only be uncovered with a significantly larger number of patients exposed to the product candidate.
In the event that any of THB001 or any future product candidates receive regulatory approval and we or others identify undesirable side effects caused by such product, any of the following adverse events could occur:
| regulatory authorities may withdraw their approval of the product or seize the product; |
| we may be required to recall the product or change the way the product is administered to patients; |
| additional restrictions may be imposed on the marketing of the particular product or the manufacturing processes for the product or any component thereof; |
| we may be subject to fines, injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties; |
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| regulatory authorities may require the addition of labeling statements, such as a boxed warning or a contraindication; |
| we may be required to create a Medication Guide outlining the risks of such side effects for distribution to patients; |
| we could be sued and held liable for harm caused to patients; |
| the product may become less competitive; and |
| our reputation may suffer. |
Any of these occurrences could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Risks Related to Our Business and Operations
We expect to significantly expand our development, clinical and regulatory capabilities and operations as we grow our Company, and as a result, we may encounter difficulties in managing our growth, which could disrupt our operations.
As of June 30, 2022, we had 16 full-time employees. We expect to increase the number of our employees and the scope of our operations, particularly in the areas of clinical development, clinical operations, manufacturing, late-stage regulatory affairs, finance, accounting, business operations, public company compliance, communications and other corporate development functions, and, if THB001 or any of our future product candidates receive regulatory and marketing approval, sales, marketing and distribution capabilities. If we acquire additional product candidates or enter into future collaborations, we may have to further expand our employee base beyond our current projections, which may include further nonclinical research and development or later-stage regulatory operations. To manage our anticipated future growth, we must continue to implement and improve our managerial, operational and financial systems, expand our facilities and continue to recruit and train additional qualified personnel. Due to our limited financial resources and the limited experience of our management team in managing a company with such anticipated growth and with developing sales, marketing and distribution infrastructure, we may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations or recruit and train additional qualified personnel. The expansion of our operations may lead to significant costs and may divert our management and business development resources.
Further, we currently rely, and for the foreseeable future will continue to rely, in substantial part on certain third-party contract organizations, advisors and consultants to provide certain services, including assuming substantial responsibilities for the conduct of our clinical trials and the manufacturing of THB001 or any future product candidates. We cannot assure you that the services of such third-party contract organizations, advisors and consultants will continue to be available to us on a timely basis when needed, or that we can find qualified replacements. In addition, if we are unable to effectively manage our outsourced activities or if the quality or accuracy of the services provided by our third-party contract organizations, advisors or consultants is compromised for any reason, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain marketing approval of THB001 or any future product candidates or otherwise advance our business. We cannot assure you that we will be able to properly manage our existing third-party contract organizations, advisors or consultants or find other competent outside third-party contract organizations, advisors and consultants on economically reasonable terms, or at all.
If we are not able to effectively manage growth and expand our Company, we may not be able to successfully implement the tasks necessary to further develop and commercialize, if approved, THB001 or any future product candidates and, accordingly, we may not achieve our research, development and commercialization goals.
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Our future performance depends on our ability to retain key employees and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel and manage our human capital.
Our ability to compete in the highly competitive biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries largely depends upon our ability to attract, motivate and retain highly qualified managerial, scientific and medical personnel. We are highly dependent on the development and management expertise of our executive officer team. We currently do not maintain key person insurance on these individuals. The loss of one or more members of our management team or other key employees or advisors could delay our research and development programs and have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. The relationships that our key managers have cultivated within our industry make us particularly dependent upon their continued employment with us. We are dependent on the continued service of our technical personnel, because of the highly technical nature of THB001 or any future product candidates and technologies, and the specialized nature of the regulatory approval process. Because our management team and key employees are not obligated to provide us with continued service, they could terminate their employment with us at any time without penalty.
We primarily conduct our operations at our facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This region is headquarters to many other biopharmaceutical companies and many academic and research institutions. Competition for skilled personnel in our market, and nationally, is intense and may limit our ability to hire and retain highly qualified personnel on acceptable terms or at all. We also face competition for personnel from other companies, universities, public and private research institutions, government entities and other organizations. Our future performance will depend in large part on our continued ability to attract and retain highly qualified scientific, technical and management personnel, as well as personnel with expertise in clinical testing, manufacturing, governmental regulation and commercialization. If we are unable to continue to attract and retain high-quality personnel, the rate and success at which we can discover and develop product candidates will be limited, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Our future growth may depend, in part, on our ability to operate in foreign markets, where we would be subject to additional regulatory burdens and other risks and uncertainties.
Our future growth may depend, in part, on our ability to develop and commercialize THB001, if approved, and any future product candidates in foreign markets for which we may rely on collaboration with third parties. We are not permitted to market or promote THB001 or any future product candidates before we receive regulatory approval from the applicable regulatory authority in that foreign market and may never receive such regulatory approval for THB001 or any future product candidates. To obtain separate regulatory approval in many other countries, we must comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of such countries regarding safety and efficacy and governing, among other things, clinical trials and commercial sales, pricing and distribution of THB001 or any future product candidates, and we cannot predict success in these jurisdictions. If we fail to comply with the regulatory requirements in international markets and receive applicable marketing approvals, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of THB001 or any future product candidates will be harmed and our business will be adversely affected. We may not obtain foreign regulatory approvals on a timely basis, if at all. Our failure to obtain approval of any of THB001 or any future product candidates by regulatory authorities in another country may significantly diminish the commercial prospects of that product candidate and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. Moreover, even if we obtain approval of THB001 or any future product candidates and ultimately commercialize THB001 or any future product candidates in foreign markets, we would be subject to the risks and uncertainties, including the burden of complying with complex and changing foreign regulatory, tax, accounting and legal requirements and reduced protection of intellectual property rights in some foreign countries.
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Our business depends on the efficient and uninterrupted operation of our information technology systems and those of our third-party CROs, CDMOs, or other vendors, contractors or consultants, may fail or suffer security breaches, cyber-attacks, loss or leakage of data and other disruptions, which could result in a material disruption of our development programs, compromise sensitive information related to our business or prevent us from accessing critical information, potentially exposing us to liability or otherwise adversely affecting our business.
Our business success depends on the security and efficient and uninterrupted operation of our information technology systems and we may be unable to adequately protect our information technology systems from cyber- attacks, which could result in the disclosure of confidential information, damage our reputation, and subject us to significant financial and legal exposure. We are increasingly dependent upon information technology systems, infrastructure and data to operate our business. In the ordinary course of business, we collect, store and transmit confidential information (including but not limited to intellectual property, proprietary business information and sensitive personal information). It is critical that we do so in a secure manner to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of such confidential information. We also have outsourced elements of our operations to third parties, and as a result we manage a number of third-party CROs, CDMOs, vendors and other contractors and consultants who have access to our confidential information. System failures or outages, including any potential disruptions due to significantly increased global demand on certain cloud-based systems during the remote work environment resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, could compromise our ability to perform these functions in a timely manner, which could harm our ability to conduct business or delay our financial reporting.
Despite the implementation of security measures, given their size and complexity and the increasing amounts of confidential information that they maintain, our internal information technology systems and those of our third-party CROs, CDMOs, vendors and other contractors and consultants are potentially vulnerable to breakdown or other damage or interruption from service interruptions, system malfunction, accidents by our employees or third party service providers, natural disasters, terrorism, war, global pandemics, and telecommunication and electrical failures, as well as security breaches from inadvertent or intentional actions by our employees, third-party CROs, CDMOs, vendors, contractors, consultants, business partners and/or other third parties, or from cyber-attacks or supply chain attacks by malicious third parties (including the deployment of harmful malware, ransomware, denial-of-service attacks, social engineering and other means to affect service reliability and threaten the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information), which may compromise our system infrastructure, or that of our third-party CROs, CDMOs, vendors and other contractors and consultants, or lead to data leakage. The risk of a security breach or disruption, particularly through cyber-attacks or cyber intrusion, including by computer hackers, foreign governments and cyber terrorists, has generally increased as the number, intensity, and sophistication of attempted attacks and intrusions from around the world have increased. The COVID-19 pandemic is generally increasing the attack surface available for exploitation, as more companies and individuals work online and remotely, and as such, the risk of a cybersecurity incident occurring, and our investment in risk mitigations against such an incident, are increasing. For example, there has been an increase in phishing and spam email attacks as well as social engineering attempts from hackers hoping to use the recent COVID-19 pandemic to their advantage. We may not be able to anticipate all types of security threats, nor implement preventive measures effective against all such security threats. The techniques used by cyber criminals change frequently, may not be recognized until launched and can originate from a wide variety of sources, including outside groups such as external service providers, organized crime affiliates, terrorist organizations, or hostile foreign governments or agencies. Any breach, loss or compromise of clinical trial participant personal data may also subject us to civil fines and penalties, including under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, and other relevant state and federal privacy laws in the United States. If the information technology systems of our third-party CROs, CDMOs, vendors and other contractors and consultants become subject to disruptions or security breaches, we may have insufficient recourse against such third parties and we may have to expend significant resources to mitigate the impact of such an event, and to develop and implement protections to prevent future events of this nature from occurring.
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While we have not experienced any such system failure, accident or security breach to date, we cannot assure you that our data protection efforts and our investment in information technology will prevent significant breakdowns, data leakages, breaches in our systems, or those of our third-party CROs, CDMOs, vendors and other contractors and consultants, or other cyber incidents that could have a material adverse effect upon our reputation, business, operations, or financial condition. For example, if such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, or those of our third-party CROs, CDMOs, vendors and other contractors and consultants, it could result in a material disruption of our programs and the development of our lead product candidate could be delayed. In addition, the loss of clinical trial data for THB001 or any other future product candidates could result in delays in our marketing approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. Furthermore, significant disruptions of our internal information technology systems or those of our third-party CROs, CDMOs, vendors and other contractors and consultants, or security breaches could result in the loss, misappropriation and/or unauthorized access, use, or disclosure of, or the prevention of access to, confidential information (including trade secrets or other intellectual property, proprietary business information and sensitive personal information), which could result in financial, legal, business and reputational harm to us.
A security breach could lead to claims by our counterparties that we have failed to comply with such legal or contractual obligations. As a result, we could be subject to legal action or our counterparties could end their relationships with us. There can be no assurance that the limitations of liability in our contracts would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from liabilities or damages.
In addition, litigation resulting from security breaches may adversely affect our business. Unauthorized access to our platform, systems, networks, or physical facilities could result in litigation with our counterparties. These proceedings could force us to spend money in defense or settlement, divert managements time and attention, increase our costs of doing business, or adversely affect our reputation. We could be required to fundamentally change our business activities and practices or modify our solutions and/or platform capabilities in response to such litigation, which could have an adverse effect on our business. If a security breach were to occur and the confidentiality, integrity or availability of our data or the data of our partners, patients or our counterparties was disrupted, we could incur significant liability, or our platform, systems or networks may be perceived as less desirable, which could negatively affect our business and damage our reputation.
We may not have adequate insurance coverage with respect to security breaches or disruptions. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceeds our available insurance coverage, or results in changes to our insurance policies (including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements), could have an adverse effect on our business. In addition, we cannot be sure that our existing insurance coverage and coverage for errors and omissions will continue to be available on acceptable terms or that our insurers will not deny coverage as to any future claim.
Our business entails a significant risk of product liability and our ability to obtain sufficient insurance coverage could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
When we conduct clinical trials of our product candidates, we may be exposed to significant product liability risks inherent in the development, testing, manufacturing and marketing of therapeutic treatments. Product liability claims could delay or prevent completion of our development programs. If we succeed in marketing products, if approved, such claims could result in an FDA investigation of the safety and effectiveness of our products, our manufacturing processes and facilities or our marketing programs and potentially a recall of our products or more serious enforcement action, limitations on the approved indications for which they may be used or suspension or withdrawal of approvals. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may also result in decreased demand for our products, termination of clinical trial sites or entire trial programs, withdrawal of clinical trial participants, injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention, significant costs to defend the related litigation, a diversion of managements time and our resources from our
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business operations, substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients, loss of revenue, the inability to commercialize any products that we may develop, and a decline in our stock price. We currently maintain general liability insurance. We may, however, need to obtain higher levels of product liability insurance for later stages of clinical development or marketing any of our product candidates. Any insurance we have or may obtain may not provide sufficient coverage against potential liabilities. Furthermore, clinical trial and product liability insurance is becoming increasingly expensive. As a result, we may be unable to obtain sufficient insurance at a reasonable cost to protect us against losses caused by product liability claims that could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Our employees, independent contractors, consultants, commercial partners and vendors may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements.
We are exposed to the risk of employee fraud or other illegal activity by our employees, independent contractors, consultants, commercial partners and vendors. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional, reckless and/or negligent conduct that fails to comply with FDA regulations, provide true, complete and accurate information to the FDA, EMA and other similar foreign regulatory bodies, comply with manufacturing standards we may establish, comply with healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations, report financial information or data accurately or disclose unauthorized activities to us. If we obtain FDA approval of THB001 or any future product candidates and begin commercializing those products in the United States, our potential exposure under these laws will increase significantly, and our costs associated with compliance with these laws will likely increase. In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, 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. Employee misconduct could also involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation. Additionally, we are subject to the risk that a person could allege such fraud or other misconduct, even if none occurred. It is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, 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 comply with such laws or regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, including the imposition of significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, imprisonment, the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, loss of eligibility to obtain approvals from the FDA, EMA, or other foreign regulatory body exclusion from participation in government contracting, healthcare reimbursement or other government programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, integrity oversight and reporting obligations, or reputational harm.
If we do not comply with laws regulating the protection of the environment and health and human safety, our business could be affected adversely.
Our research and development activities involve the use of hazardous chemicals and materials, including radioactive materials. We are subject to federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the use, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of these hazardous chemicals and materials. We believe our procedures for storing, handling and disposing these materials in our facilities comply with the relevant guidelines of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Although we believe that our safety procedures for handling and disposing of these materials comply with the standards mandated by applicable regulations, the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials cannot be eliminated. If an accident occurs, we could be held liable for resulting damages, which could be substantial. We are also subject to numerous environmental, health and workplace safety laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures, exposure to blood-borne pathogens and the handling of animals and biohazardous materials. Although we maintain workers
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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. We may incur substantial costs to comply with, and substantial fines or penalties if we violate, any of these laws or regulations.
We or the third parties on whom we depend may be adversely affected by natural disasters and our business continuity and disaster recovery plans may not adequately protect us from a serious disaster.
Any unplanned event, such as flood, fire, explosion, earthquake, extreme weather condition, medical epidemic, power shortage, telecommunication failure or other natural or manmade accidents or incidents that result in us being unable to fully utilize our facilities, or the manufacturing facilities of our CDMOs, may have a material and adverse effect on our ability to operate our business, particularly on a daily basis, and have significant negative consequences on our financial and operating conditions. Extreme weather conditions or other natural disasters could further disrupt our operations and have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. If a natural disaster, power outage or other event occurred that prevented us from using all or a significant portion of our headquarters, that damaged critical infrastructure, such as our research facilities or the manufacturing facilities of our CDMOs, or that otherwise disrupted operations, it may be difficult or, in certain cases, impossible, for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time, if at all.
Our employees often conduct business outside of any facilities leased by us. These locations may be subject to additional security and other risk factors due to the limited control of our employees. The disaster recovery and business continuity plans we have in place may prove inadequate in the event of a serious disaster or similar event. We may incur substantial expenses as a result of the limited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity plans, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. As part of our risk management policy, we maintain insurance coverage at levels that we believe are appropriate for our business. However, in the event of an accident or incident at these facilities, we cannot assure you that the amounts of insurance will be sufficient to satisfy any damages and losses. If our facilities, or the manufacturing facilities of our CDMOs, are unable to operate because of an accident or incident or for any other reason, even for a short period of time, any or all of our research and development programs may be harmed. Any business interruption could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Changes in tax laws or regulations that are applied adversely to us may have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition or results of operations.
New income, sales, use or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be enacted at any time, which could adversely affect our business operations and financial performance. Further, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified or applied adversely to us. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, enacted many significant changes to the U.S. tax laws. Future guidance from the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities with respect to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may affect us, and certain aspects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act could be repealed or modified under proposed legislation. In addition, it is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the CARES Act, or any other newly enacted federal tax legislation. Changes in corporate tax rates, the realization of net deferred tax assets relating to our operations, the taxation of foreign earnings, and the deductibility of expenses under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the CARES Act or future reform legislation could have a material impact on the value of our deferred tax assets, could result in significant one-time charges, and could increase our future U.S. tax expense.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
We have incurred substantial losses during our history and do not expect to become profitable in the near future, and we may never achieve profitability. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, as modified by the CARES
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Act, unused U.S. federal net operating losses generated in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, will not expire and may be carried forward indefinitely but the deductibility of such federal net operating losses for any year is limited to no more than 80% of the excess, if any, of current year taxable income (without regard to certain deductions) over the amount of federal net operating losses generated in tax years beginning before January 1, 2018 that are deducted in the current year. It is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act or the CARES Act. In addition, both our current and our future unused losses and other tax attributes may be subject to limitation under Sections 382 and 383 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, if we undergo, or have undergone, an ownership change, generally defined as a greater than 50 percentage point change (by value) in our equity ownership by certain stockholders over a three-year period. We have not completed a Section 382 study to assess whether an ownership change has occurred or whether there have been multiple ownership changes since our formation due to the complexity and cost associated with such a study and the fact that there may be additional ownership changes in the future. As a result, if we undergo an ownership change, our ability to use all of our pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes (such as research tax credits) to offset our post-change income or taxes may be limited. Similar provisions of state tax law may also apply to limit our use of accumulated state tax attributes. In addition, at the state level, there may be periods during which the use of net operating losses is suspended or otherwise limited, which could accelerate or permanently increase state taxes owed. As a result, even if we attain profitability, we may be unable to use all or a material portion of our net operating losses and other tax attributes, which could adversely affect our future cash flows.
Risks Related to Our Reliance on Third Parties
We rely, and intend to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and perform all of our research and nonclinical studies. If these third parties do not satisfactorily carry out their contractual duties, fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements or do not meet expected deadlines, our development programs may be delayed or subject to increased costs or we may be unable to obtain regulatory approval, each of which may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We do not have the ability to independently conduct all aspects of our nonclinical testing or clinical trials ourselves. As a result, we are dependent on third parties to conduct our ongoing and planned nonclinical studies and clinical trials of our future product candidates. The timing of the initiation and completion of these trials will therefore be partially controlled by such third parties and may result in delays to our development programs. Specifically, we expect CROs, clinical investigators and consultants to play a significant role in the conduct of these trials and the subsequent collection and analysis of data. However, these CROs and other third parties are not our employees, and we will not be able to control all aspects of their activities. Nevertheless, we are responsible for ensuring that each clinical trial is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol and legal, regulatory and scientific standards, and our reliance on the CROs and other third parties does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities. We and our CROs are required to comply with good clinical practices, or GCP, requirements, which are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA for product candidates in clinical development. Regulatory authorities enforce these GCP requirements through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, clinical trial investigators and clinical trial sites. If we or any of our CROs or clinical trial sites fail to comply with applicable GCP requirements, the data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable, and the FDA may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. We cannot assure you that, upon inspection, the FDA will determine that our clinical trials comply with GCPs. In addition, our clinical trials must be conducted with product produced under cGMP regulations. Our failure, or the failure of third parties on whom we rely, to comply with these regulations may require us to stop and/or repeat clinical trials, which would delay the marketing approval process.
There is no guarantee that any such CROs, clinical trial investigators or other third parties on which we rely will devote adequate time and resources to our development activities or perform as contractually required. If any of these third parties fail to meet expected deadlines, adhere to our clinical protocols or meet regulatory
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requirements, otherwise perform in a substandard manner, or terminate their engagements with us, the timelines for our development programs may be extended or delayed or our development activities may be suspended or terminated. If our clinical trial site terminates for any reason, we may experience the loss of follow-up information on subjects enrolled in such clinical trial unless we are able to transfer those subjects to another qualified clinical trial site, which may be difficult or impossible.
Furthermore, these third parties may also have relationships with other entities, some of which may be our competitors, for whom they may also be conducting clinical trials or other product development activities that could harm our competitive position. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines or conduct our clinical trials in accordance with regulatory requirements or our stated protocols, we will not be able to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, marketing approvals for THB001 or any other future product candidates and will not be able to, or may be delayed in our efforts to, commercialize our products, if approved.
We may, in the future, enter into collaborations with third parties for the discovery, development and commercialization of product candidates, if approved. If those collaborations are not successful, we may not be able to capitalize on the market potential of THB001 and any future product candidates.
We may seek third-party collaborators for the development and commercialization of THB001 or any future product candidates, if approved, on a select basis, including potentially in specific foreign jurisdictions. We have not entered into any collaborations to date. Our likely collaborators for any future collaboration arrangements include large and mid-size pharmaceutical companies, regional and national pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies. We will face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators. Our ability to reach a definitive agreement for a future collaboration will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of the future collaborators resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration and the proposed collaborators evaluation of our business.
If we do enter into any such arrangements with any third parties, we will likely have limited control over the amount and timing of resources that our future collaborators dedicate to the development or commercialization of THB001 or any future product candidates. Our ability to generate revenues from these arrangements will depend on our future collaborators abilities and efforts to successfully perform the functions assigned to them in these arrangements. Collaborations with future collaborators involving THB001 or any future product candidates would pose numerous risks to us, including the following:
| collaborators have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply to these collaborations and may not perform their obligations as expected; |
| collaborators may de-emphasize or not pursue development and commercialization of THB001 or any future product candidates or may elect not to continue or renew development or commercialization programs based on clinical trial results, changes in the collaborators strategic focus, including as a result of a sale or disposition of a business unit or development function, or available funding or external factors such as an acquisition that diverts resources or creates competing priorities; |
| collaborators may delay clinical trials, provide insufficient funding for a clinical trial program, stop a clinical trial or abandon a product candidate, repeat or conduct new clinical trials or require a new formulation of a product candidate for clinical testing; |
| collaborators could independently develop, or develop with third parties, products that compete directly or indirectly with THB001 or any future product candidates if the collaborators believe that competitive products are more likely to be successfully developed or can be commercialized under terms that are more economically attractive than ours; |
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| a collaborator with marketing and distribution rights to multiple products may not commit sufficient resources to the marketing and distribution of our product, if approved, relative to other products; |
| collaborators may not properly obtain, maintain, defend or enforce our intellectual property rights or may use our proprietary information and intellectual property in such a way as to invite litigation or other intellectual property related proceedings that could jeopardize or invalidate our proprietary information and intellectual property or expose us to potential litigation or other intellectual property related proceedings; |
| disputes may arise between the collaborators and us that result in the delay or termination of the research, development or, if approved, commercialization of THB001 or any future product candidates or that result in costly litigation or arbitration that diverts management attention and resources; |
| collaborations may be terminated and, if terminated, may result in a need for additional capital to pursue further development or, if approved, commercialization of the applicable product candidates; |
| collaboration agreements may not lead to development or, if approved, commercialization of product candidates in the most efficient manner or at all; and |
| if a future collaborator of ours were to be involved in a business combination, the continued pursuit and emphasis on our product development or, if approved, commercialization program could be delayed, diminished or terminated. |
If we establish one or more collaborations, all of the risks relating to product development, regulatory approval and, if approved, commercialization described above would also apply to the activities of any such future collaborators.
We rely on third-party manufacturers and suppliers to supply components of THB001 or any future product candidates. The loss of our third-party manufacturers or suppliers, or our or their failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements or to supply sufficient quantities at acceptable quality levels or prices, or at all, would materially and adversely affect our business.
We do not own or operate facilities for drug manufacturing, storage, distribution or quality testing. We currently rely, and may continue to rely, on CDMOs, including in the United States, China and Europe, to manufacture bulk drug substances, drug products, raw materials, samples, components, or other materials and reports. Reliance on CDMOs may expose us to different risks than if we were to manufacture product candidates ourselves. There can be no assurance that our nonclinical and clinical development product supplies will not be limited, interrupted, terminated or of satisfactory quality or continue to be available at acceptable prices. In particular, any replacement of our CDMOs could require significant effort and expertise because there may be a limited number of qualified replacements.
The manufacturing process for a product candidate is subject to FDA, EMA and other foreign regulatory authority review. We, and our suppliers and manufacturers, must meet applicable manufacturing requirements and undergo rigorous facility and process validation tests required by regulatory authorities in order to comply with regulatory standards, such as current Good Manufacturing Practices, or cGMPs. Securing marketing approval also requires the submission of information about the product manufacturing process to, and inspection of manufacturing facilities by, the FDA, EMA and other foreign regulatory authorities. If our contract manufacturers are unable to maintain a compliance status acceptable to the FDA, EMA and other foreign regulatory authorities, THB001 or any future product candidates may not be approved. If our contract manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, we may not be able to rely on their manufacturing facilities for the manufacture of components of THB001 or any future product
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candidates. Moreover, although we do not control the manufacturing process at our contract manufacturers and are completely dependent on them for compliance with current regulatory requirements, we are nonetheless responsible for ensuring that THB001 or any future product candidates are manufactured in accordance with applicable laws and regulatory requirements. In the event that any of our manufacturers fails to comply with such requirements or to perform its obligations in relation to quality, timing or otherwise, or if our supply of components or other materials becomes limited or interrupted for other reasons, we may be forced to enter into an agreement with another third party, which we may not be able to do on reasonable terms, if at all. In some cases, the technical skills or technology required to manufacture THB001 or any future product candidates may be unique or proprietary to the original contract manufacturer and we may have difficulty transferring the manufacturing of THB001 or any future product candidates to another third party. These factors would increase our reliance on such manufacturer or require us to obtain a license from such manufacturer in order to enable us, or to have another third party, manufacture THB001 or any future product candidates. If we are required to change manufacturers for any reason, we will be required to verify that the new manufacturer maintains facilities and procedures that comply with quality standards and with all applicable regulations and guidelines, and we may be required to repeat some of the development program. The delays associated with the verification of a new manufacturer could negatively affect our ability to develop product candidates in a timely manner or within budget.
We expect to continue to rely on CDMOs if we receive regulatory approval for any product candidate. To the extent that we have existing, or enter into future, manufacturing arrangements with third parties, we will depend on these third parties to perform their obligations in a timely manner consistent with contractual and regulatory requirements, including those related to quality control and assurance. Any manufacturing facilities used to produce THB001 or any future product candidates will be subject to periodic review and inspection by the FDA, EMA and other foreign regulatory authorities, including for continued compliance with cGMP requirements, quality control, quality assurance and corresponding maintenance of records and documents. If we are unable to obtain or maintain third-party manufacturing for product candidates, or to do so on commercially reasonable terms, we may not be able to develop and commercialize THB001 or any future product candidates, if approves. Our or a third partys failure to execute on our manufacturing requirements, to comply with cGMPs or to maintain a compliance status acceptable to the FDA, EMA or other foreign regulatory authorities could adversely affect our business in a number of ways, including:
| an inability to initiate or continue clinical trials of product candidates under development; |
| delay in submitting regulatory applications, or receiving regulatory approvals, if any, for product candidates; |
| loss of the cooperation of future collaborators; |
| subjecting third-party manufacturing facilities to additional inspections by regulatory authorities; |
| requirements to cease distribution or to recall batches of THB001 or any future product candidates; and |
| in the event of approval to market and commercialize a product candidate, an inability to meet commercial demands for our products. |
Additionally, our contract manufacturers may experience manufacturing difficulties due to resource constraints or as a result of labor disputes or unstable political environments. If our contract manufacturers were to encounter any of these difficulties, our ability to provide THB001 or any future product candidates to patients in nonclinical and clinical trials, or to provide products for treatment of patients, if approved and commercialized, would be jeopardized.
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Risks Related to Intellectual Property
If we are not able to obtain, maintain and enforce patent protection for our technologies or product candidates, development and commercialization, if approved, of THB001 or any future product candidates may be adversely affected.
Our success depends in part on our ability to obtain and maintain patents and other forms of intellectual property rights, including in-licenses of intellectual property rights of others, for THB001 and any future product candidates, as well as our ability to preserve our trade secrets, to prevent third parties from infringing upon our proprietary rights and to operate without infringing upon the proprietary rights of others. Currently, our intellectual property protection includes patent applications owned by us and patents and patent applications that we have in-licensed from Novartis Pharma AG., or Novartis, under the Novartis License Agreement. We may not be able to apply for patents on certain aspects of THB001 or any future product candidates in a timely fashion or at all. Further, we may not be able to prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications, or maintain, enforce and license any patents that may issue from such patent applications, at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection.
There may be circumstances where we may not have the right to control the preparation, filing and prosecution of all patent applications that we license from third parties, or to maintain and/or enforce the rights to patents licensed from third parties, in which case, we will be dependent on our licensors to obtain, maintain and enforce patent protection for our licensed intellectual property. Our licensors may not successfully prosecute the patent applications that are licensed to us and even if patents are issued in respect of these patent applications, our licensors may fail to maintain these patents or may determine not to pursue litigation against other companies that are infringing these patents. In other words, such licensed patents and patent applications may not be prosecuted and enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. Further, we cannot be certain that such activities related to the preparation, filing, prosecution, maintenance and/or enforcement of the licensed patent rights by licensors have been or will be conducted in compliance with applicable laws and regulations or will result in valid and enforceable patent rights. We may have limited control over the manner in which our licensors initiate an infringement proceeding against a third-party infringer of the licensed patent rights, or defend certain of the licensed patent rights. It is possible that the licensors infringement proceeding or defense activities with respect to the licensed patent rights may be less vigorous than had we conducted them ourselves. In the event our licensors fail to adequately pursue and maintain patent protection for the licensed patents and patent applications they control, and to timely cede control of such prosecution and/or enforcement to us, our competitors might be able to enter the market, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.
Future patents we obtain may not be sufficiently broad to prevent others from using our technology or from developing competing products and technology. There is no guarantee that any of our pending patent applications will result in issued or granted patents, that any of our future issued or granted patents will not later be found to be invalid or unenforceable or that any future issued or granted patents will include claims that are sufficiently broad to cover THB001 or any future product candidates or to provide meaningful protection from our competitors. Moreover, the patent position of biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies can be highly uncertain because it involves complex legal and factual questions. We will be able to protect our proprietary rights from unauthorized use by third parties only to the extent that our current and future proprietary technology and product candidates are covered by valid and enforceable patents, or are effectively maintained as trade secrets. If third parties disclose or misappropriate our proprietary rights, it may materially and adversely affect our position in the market.
Our pending patent applications cannot be enforced against third parties practicing the technology claimed in such applications unless and until a patent issues from such applications. Assuming the other requirements for patentability are met, currently, the first to file a patent application is generally entitled to the patent. However,
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prior to March 16, 2013, in the United States, the first to invent was entitled to the patent. Publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. Therefore, we cannot be certain that we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our patents or pending patent applications, or that we were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with a large number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other provisions during the patent process. There are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. In such an event, competitors might be able to enter the market earlier than would otherwise have been the case. The standards applied by the USPTO and foreign patent offices in granting patents are not always applied uniformly or predictably. For example, there is no uniform worldwide policy regarding patentable subject matter or the scope of claims allowable in biotechnology and biopharmaceutical patents. As such, we do not know the degree of future protection that we will have on our proprietary products and technology. The process of obtaining patents is time consuming, expensive and sometimes unpredictable.
Once granted, for a given period after allowance or grant patents may remain open to opposition, interference, re-examination, post-grant review, inter partes review, nullification, or derivation action in court or before patent offices or similar proceedings, during which time third parties can raise objections against such initial grant. Such proceedings may continue for a protracted period of time and an adverse determination in any such proceedings could reduce the scope of the allowed or granted claims thus attacked, or could result in our patents being invalidated in whole or in part, or being held unenforceable, which could allow third parties to commercialize THB001 or any future product candidates and compete directly with us without payment to us. In addition, there can be no assurance that:
| others will not or may not be able to make, use or sell compounds that are the same as or similar to THB001 or any future product candidates but that are not covered by the claims of the patents that we own or license; |
| we or our licensors, or our existing or future collaborators are the first to make the inventions covered by each of our issued patents and pending patent applications that we own or license; |
| we or our licensors, or our existing or future collaborators are the first to file patent applications covering certain aspects of our inventions; |
| others will not independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies without infringing our intellectual property rights; |
| a third party may not challenge our patents and, if challenged, a court would hold that our patents are valid, enforceable and infringed; |
| any issued patents that we own or have licensed or that we may license in the future will provide us with any competitive advantages, or will not be challenged by third parties; |
| we may develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable; |
| the patents of others will not have a material or adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects; and |
| our competitors do not conduct research and development activities in countries where we do not have enforceable patent rights and then use the information learned from such activities to develop competitive products for sale in our major commercial markets. |
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If we or our licensors fail to maintain the patents and patent applications covering THB001 or any future product candidates, our competitors might be able to enter the market, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications is threatened, regardless of the outcome, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop or commercialize current or future product candidates.
If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, our business and competitive position would be harmed.
In addition to seeking patent protection for certain aspects of THB001 or any future product candidates, we also consider trade secrets, including confidential and unpatented know-how, important to the maintenance of our competitive position. Our reliance on third parties requires us to share our trade secrets, which increases the possibility that a competitor will discover them or that our trade secrets will be misappropriated or disclosed. We seek to protect trade secrets and confidential and unpatented know-how, in part, by entering into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to such knowledge, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators, CROs, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors and other third parties. We also enter into confidentiality and invention or patent assignment agreements with our employees and consultants that obligate them to maintain confidentiality and assign their inventions to us. Despite these efforts, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information, including our trade secrets, and we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for such breaches. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts in the United States and certain foreign jurisdictions are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, we would have no right to prevent them from using that technology or information to compete with us. If any of our trade secrets were to be disclosed to or independently developed by a competitor, our competitive position would be harmed which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
If we breach our license agreements it could have a material adverse effect on our commercialization efforts for THB001 or any future product candidates.
We are party to a license agreement, the Novartis Agreement, that enable us to utilize third-party intellectual property in the development of our lead product candidate, THB001, and we may in the future enter into more such license agreements with third parties under which we license the use, development and commercialization rights to THB001 or any future product candidates or technology from third parties.
These intellectual property license agreements may require us to comply with various obligations, including diligence obligations such as development and commercialization obligations, as well as potential royalty and milestone payments and other obligations. If we fail to comply with our obligations under any of these license agreements, use the licensed intellectual property in an unauthorized manner, we are subject to bankruptcy-related proceedings or otherwise materially breach any of these license agreements, the terms of the license granted may be materially modified, such as by rendering currently exclusive licenses non-exclusive, or it may give our licensors the right to terminate the applicable license agreement, in whole or in part. Generally, the loss of or termination of our rights under the Novartis Agreement, or any other licenses we may acquire in the future, could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We may also, in the future, enter into license agreements with third parties under which we are a sublicensee. If our sublicensor fails to comply with its obligations under its upstream license agreement with its licensor, the licensor may have the right to terminate the upstream license, which may result in termination of our sublicense. If this were to occur, we would no longer have rights to the applicable intellectual property unless we are able to secure our own direct license with the owner of the relevant rights, which we may not be able to do on
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reasonable terms, or at all, which may impact our ability to continue to develop and commercialize THB001 or any future product candidates incorporating the relevant intellectual property.
Licensing of intellectual property is of critical importance to our business and involves complex legal, business and scientific issues. Disputes may arise between us and our licensors regarding intellectual property subject to a license agreement, including:
| the scope of rights granted under the license agreement and other interpretation-related issues; |
| whether and the extent to which our technology and processes infringe on intellectual property of the licensor that is not subject to the licensing agreement; |
| our right to sublicense patent and other intellectual property rights to third parties under collaborative development relationships; |
| our diligence obligations with respect to the use of the licensed technology in relation to our development and commercialization of THB001 or any future product candidates, and what activities satisfy those diligence obligations; |
| our right to transfer or assign the license; |
| the ownership of inventions and know-how resulting from the joint creation or use of intellectual property by our licensors and us and our partners; and |
| whether and the extent to which inventors are able to contest the assignment of their rights to our licensors. |
If disputes over intellectual property that we have licensed or license in the future prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current licensing arrangements on acceptable terms or at all, we may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize the affected product candidates, which could have material adverse effect on our business. In addition, if disputes arise as to ownership of licensed intellectual property, our ability to pursue or enforce the licensed patent rights may be jeopardized. If we or our licensors fail to adequately protect this intellectual property, our ability to commercialize our products could suffer. Further, certain of our future license agreements with third parties may limit or delay our ability to consummate certain transactions, may impact the value of those transactions or may limit our ability to pursue certain activities (e.g., we may in the future enter into license agreements that are not assignable or transferable, or that require the licensors express consent in order for an assignment or transfer to take place).
Our intellectual property licensed from various third parties may be subject to retained rights.
Licensors often retain certain rights under license agreements, including the right to use the underlying licensed intellectual property for non-commercial academic and research use, to publish general scientific findings from research related to the licensed intellectual property, and to make customary scientific and scholarly disclosures of information relating to the licensed intellectual property. It is difficult to monitor whether licensors limit their use of the licensed intellectual property to these uses, and we could incur substantial expenses to enforce our rights to our licensed intellectual property in the event of misuse.
In addition, the United States federal government retains certain rights in inventions produced with its financial assistance under the Patent and Trademark Law Amendments Act, or the Bayh-Dole Act. The federal government retains a nonexclusive, nontransferable, irrevocable, paid-up license for its own benefit. The Bayh Dole Act also provides federal agencies with march-in rights. March-in rights allow the government, in specified circumstances, to require the contractor or successors in title to the patent to grant a nonexclusive,
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partially exclusive, or exclusive license to a responsible applicant or applicants. If the patent owner refuses to do so, the government may grant the license itself. In the future, we may need to collaborate with academic institutions to accelerate our research or development with respect to THB001 or any future product candidates. While we try to avoid engaging our university partners in projects in which there is a risk that federal funds may be commingled, we cannot guarantee that any co-developed intellectual property will be free from government rights pursuant to the Bayh-Dole Act. If, in the future, we co-own or license intellectual property which is critical to our business that is developed in whole or in part with federal funds subject to the Bayh Dole Act, our ability to enforce or otherwise exploit such licensed intellectual property may be adversely affected.
Our strategy of obtaining rights to key technologies through in-licenses may not be successful.
We may seek to expand our product candidate pipeline in part by in-licensing the rights to key technologies. The future growth of our business will depend in part on our ability to in-license or otherwise acquire the rights to additional product candidates or technologies. We cannot assure you that we will be able to in-license or acquire the rights to any product candidates or technologies from third parties on acceptable terms or at all. Even if we are able to obtain a license, it may be non-exclusive, thereby giving our competitors access to the same technologies licensed to us. In that event, we may be required to expend significant time and resources to develop or license replacement technology.
The in-licensing and acquisition of these technologies is a competitive area, and a number of more established companies are also pursuing strategies to license or acquire product candidates or technologies that we may consider attractive. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, cash resources and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to license rights to us. Furthermore, we may be unable to identify suitable product candidates or technologies within our area of focus. If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to suitable product candidates or technologies, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could suffer.
Other companies or organizations may challenge our or our licensors patent rights or may assert patent rights that prevent us from developing and commercializing our products.
Oral KIT inhibitor therapies for the treatment of mast cell-mediated allergic and inflammatory disease are a relatively new scientific field. In addition to patent applications that we own or in-license to KIT inhibitor therapies, there are pending patent applications by others in the United States and in key markets around the world that claim many different methods, compositions and processes relating to the discovery, development and manufacture of small-molecule KIT inhibitor-based and other therapeutics.
As the field of small-molecule KIT inhibitor-based therapeutics continues to mature, patent applications are being processed by national patent offices around the world. There is uncertainty about which patents will issue and, if they do, as to when, to whom, and with what claims. In addition, third parties may attempt to invalidate our intellectual property rights. Even if our rights are not directly challenged, disputes could lead to the weakening of our intellectual property rights. Our defense against any attempt by third parties to circumvent or invalidate our intellectual property rights could be costly to us, could require significant time and attention of our management and could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects or our ability to successfully compete. If we are found to infringe a third partys intellectual property rights, we could be forced, including by court order, to cease developing, manufacturing or commercializing the infringing product candidate or product.
We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.
Filing, prosecuting, defending and enforcing patents covering our technology in the United States and in other jurisdictions worldwide would be extremely costly, and our or our licensors or collaborators intellectual
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property rights may not exist in some countries outside the United States or may be less extensive in some countries than in the United States. In jurisdictions where we or our licensors or collaborators have not obtained patent protection, competitors may seek to use our or our licensors or collaborators technology to develop competing products and further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but where it is more difficult to enforce a patent as compared to the United States. Competitor products may compete with our future products in jurisdictions where we do not have issued or granted patents or where our or our licensors or collaborators issued or granted patent claims or other intellectual property rights are not sufficient to prevent competitor activities in these jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, make it difficult to enforce patents and such countries may not recognize other types of intellectual property protection, particularly relating to pharmaceuticals or biopharmaceuticals. This could make it difficult for us or our licensors or collaborators to prevent the infringement of our or their patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our or their proprietary rights generally in certain jurisdictions. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial cost and divert our and our licensors or collaborators efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our and our licensors or collaborators patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our and our licensors or collaborators patent applications at risk of not issuing and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us or our licensors or collaborators. We or our licensors or collaborators may not prevail in any lawsuits that we or our licensors or collaborators initiate, and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful.
When we elect to pursue patent protection on an invention, we generally first file a U.S. provisional patent application (a priority filing) at the USPTO. An international patent application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, or PCT, is then usually filed within twelve months after the priority filing. Based on the PCT filing, national and regional patent applications may be filed in the United States, the European Patent Office and, depending on the individual case, also in any or all of, inter alia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Eurasia, South Africa, South Korea and other jurisdictions. We have thus far not filed for patent protection in all national and regional jurisdictions where such protection may be available. In addition, we may decide to abandon national and regional patent applications before grant. Finally, the grant proceeding of each national or regional patent office is an independent proceeding which may lead to situations in which applications might in some jurisdictions be refused by the relevant registration authorities, while granted by others. It is also quite common that, depending on the country, various scopes of patent protection may be granted on the same product candidate or technology.
The laws of some jurisdictions do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws in the United States, and many companies have encountered significant difficulties in protecting and defending such rights in such jurisdictions. If we or our licensors or collaborators encounter difficulties in protecting, or are otherwise precluded from effectively protecting, the intellectual property rights important for our business in such jurisdictions, the value of these rights may be diminished and we may face additional competition from others in those jurisdictions. Many countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, the patent owner may have limited remedies, which could materially diminish the value of such a patent. If we or any of our licensors or collaborators are forced to grant a license to third parties with respect to any patents relevant to our business, our competitive position in the relevant jurisdiction may be impaired and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
We, our licensors or collaborators, or any future strategic partners may need to resort to litigation to protect or enforce our patents, if and when granted, or other proprietary rights, all of which could be costly, time consuming, delay or prevent the development and commercialization of THB001 or any future product candidates, or put our patents, if and when granted, and other proprietary rights at risk.
Competitors may infringe our patents, if and when granted, or other intellectual property. If we were to initiate legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering one of our products or our technology,
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the defendant could counterclaim that our patent is invalid or unenforceable. In patent litigation in the United States, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge could be an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, for example, lack of novelty, lack of adequate written description, obviousness or non-enablement. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could be an allegation that an individual connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant information from the USPTO, or made a misleading statement, during prosecution. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity or unenforceability during patent litigation is unpredictable. With respect to the validity question, for example, we cannot be certain that there is no invalidating prior art, of which we and the patent examiner were unaware during prosecution. If a defendant were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity or unenforceability, we would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the patent protection on one or more of our products or certain aspects of our platform technology. Such a loss of patent protection could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Interference or derivation proceedings provoked by third parties or brought by us or declared by the USPTO may be necessary to determine the inventorship or priority of inventions with respect to our patents or patent applications. An unfavorable outcome could require us to cease using the related technology or to attempt to license rights to it from the prevailing party. Our business could be harmed if the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or if a non-exclusive license is offered and our competitors gain access to the same technology. In addition, the uncertainties associated with litigation could have a material adverse effect on our ability to raise the funds necessary to continue our clinical trials, continue our research programs, license necessary technology from third parties, or enter into development partnerships that would help us bring THB001 or any future product candidates to market. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. There could also be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions, or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a material adverse effect on the price of our common stock. Patents and other intellectual property rights will not protect our technology if competitors design around our protected technology without legally infringing our patents or other intellectual property rights.
Intellectual property rights of third parties could adversely affect our ability to commercialize THB001 or any future product candidates, and we, our licensors or collaborators, or any future strategic partners may become subject to third party claims or litigation alleging infringement of patents or other proprietary rights or seeking to invalidate patents or other proprietary rights. We might be required to litigate or obtain licenses from third parties in order to develop or market THB001 or any future product candidates. Such litigation or licenses could be costly or not available on commercially reasonable terms.
We, our licensors or collaborators, or any future strategic partners, may be subject to third-party claims for infringement or misappropriation of patent or other proprietary rights. There is a substantial amount of litigation, both within and outside the United States, involving patent and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries, including patent infringement lawsuits, interferences, derivations, post-grant reviews, oppositions and inter partes review proceedings before the USPTO, and corresponding foreign patent offices. There may be issued patents and pending patent applications that claim aspects of our targets or THB001 or any future product candidates and modifications that we may need to apply to THB001 or any future product candidates. There may be issued patents that claim KIT inhibitors which may be relevant to the products we wish to develop. Thus, it is possible that one or more organizations will hold patent rights to which we will need a license. If those organizations refuse to grant us a license to such patent rights on reasonable terms, we may not be able to market products or perform research and development or other activities covered by these patents, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. If we, our licensors or collaborators, or any future strategic partners are found to infringe a third-party patent or other intellectual property rights, we could be required to pay damages, potentially including treble damages and attorneys fees if we or they are found to have infringed willfully. In addition, we, our licensors or collaborators, or any future strategic partners may choose to seek, or be required to seek, a license from a third party, which may not be available on acceptable terms, if at all. Even if
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a license can be obtained on acceptable terms, the rights may be non-exclusive, which could give our competitors access to the same technology or intellectual property rights licensed to us. If we fail to obtain a required license, we or our existing or future collaborators may be unable to effectively market product candidates based on our technology, which could limit our ability to generate revenue or achieve profitability and possibly prevent us from generating revenue sufficient to sustain our operations. In addition, we may find it necessary to pursue claims or initiate lawsuits to protect or enforce our patent or other intellectual property rights. The cost to us in defending or initiating any litigation or other proceeding relating to patent or other proprietary rights, even if resolved in our favor, could be substantial, and litigation could divert our managements attention. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of complex patent litigation more effectively than we can because they have substantially greater resources. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could delay our research and development efforts and limit our ability to continue our operations.
Our competitive position may suffer if patents issued to third parties or other third-party intellectual property rights cover our products or product candidates or elements thereof, or our manufacture or uses relevant to our development plans. In such cases, we may not be in a position to develop or commercialize products or product candidates until such patents expire or unless we successfully pursue litigation to nullify or invalidate the third-party intellectual property right concerned, or enter into a license agreement with the intellectual property right holder, if available on commercially reasonable terms. There may be issued patents of which we are not aware, held by third parties that, if found to be valid and enforceable, could be alleged to be infringed by THB001 or any future product candidates. There also may be pending patent applications of which we are not aware that may result in issued patents, which could be alleged to be infringed by THB001 or any future product candidates. If such an infringement claim should be brought and be successful, we may be required to pay substantial damages, including potentially treble damages and attorneys fees for willful infringement, and we may be forced to abandon THB001 or any future product candidates or seek a license from any patent holders. No assurances can be given that a license will be available on commercially reasonable terms, if at all.
It is also possible that we have failed to identify relevant third-party patents or applications. For example, in certain situations, a U.S. patent application can remain confidential until the patent application issues as a U.S. patent. International patent applications and parallel patent applications in the United States and elsewhere are published approximately 18 months after the earliest filing for which priority is claimed, with such earliest filing date being commonly referred to as the priority date. Therefore, patent applications covering our products could have been filed by others without our knowledge. Additionally, pending patent applications that have been published can, subject to certain limitations, be later amended in a manner that could cover our products or the use of our products. Third-party intellectual property right holders may also actively bring infringement claims against us. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to successfully settle or otherwise resolve such infringement claims. If we are unable to successfully settle future claims on terms acceptable to us, we may be required to engage in or continue costly, unpredictable and time-consuming litigation and may be prevented from or experience substantial delays in marketing our products. Parties making claims against us may be able to sustain the costs of complex patent litigation more effectively than we can because they have substantially greater resources. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation or administrative proceedings, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure. In addition, any uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of any litigation could have material adverse effect on our ability to raise additional funds or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. If we fail in any such dispute, in addition to being forced to pay damages, we may be temporarily or permanently prohibited from commercializing any of THB001 or any future product candidates that are held to be infringing. We might, if possible, also be forced to redesign product candidates so that we no longer infringe the third-party intellectual property rights. Any of these events, even if we were ultimately to prevail, could require us to divert substantial financial and management resources that we would otherwise be able to devote to our business and could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
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Intellectual property litigation could cause us to spend substantial resources and distract our personnel from their normal responsibilities.
Litigation and other legal proceedings relating to intellectual property claims, with or without merit, are unpredictable and generally expensive and time consuming and are likely to divert significant resources from our core business, including distracting our technical and management personnel from their normal responsibilities. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments and if securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common stock. Moreover, such litigation or proceedings could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce the resources available for development activities or any future sales, marketing or distribution activities.
We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to adequately conduct such litigation or proceedings. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources and more mature and developed intellectual property portfolios. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating or from successfully challenging our intellectual property rights. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace.
We may be subject to claims that we or our employees or consultants have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of our employees or consultants former employers or their clients. These claims may be costly to defend and if we do not successfully do so, we may be required to pay monetary damages and may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel.
Many of our employees, including our management, were previously employed at biotechnology or biopharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Some of these employees executed proprietary rights, non-disclosure and non-competition agreements in connection with such previous employment. Although no claims against us are currently pending, we may be subject to claims that these employees or we have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other proprietary information of their former employers. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel. A loss of key research personnel or their work product could hamper our ability to develop and ultimately commercialize, or prevent us from developing and commercializing, THB001 or any future product candidates, which could severely harm our business. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management.
Patent terms may be insufficient to protect our competitive position on THB001 or any future product candidates for an adequate amount of time.
Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, if all maintenance fees are timely paid, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years from its earliest U.S. non-provisional filing date. Various patent term adjustments or extensions may be available, but the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Even if patents covering THB001 or any future product candidates are obtained, once the patent life has expired, we may be open to competition from competitive products, including generics or biosimilars. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. As a result, our owned and licensed patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours.
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Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.
Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other governmental fees on patents and/or applications will be due to be paid to the USPTO and various governmental patent agencies outside of the United States in several stages over the lifetime of the patents and/or applications. We have systems in place to remind us to pay these fees, and we employ an outside firm and/or rely on our outside counsel to pay these fees due to the USPTO and non-U.S. governmental patent agencies. The USPTO and various non-U.S. governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. We employ reputable law firms and other professionals to help us comply, and in many cases an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules. However, there are situations in which non-compliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. In such an event, our competitors might be able to enter the market and this circumstance would have a material adverse effect on our business.
If we do not obtain patent term extension and data exclusivity for any product candidates we may develop, our business may be harmed.
Depending upon the timing, duration and specifics of any FDA marketing approval of any product candidates we may develop and our technology, our U.S. patent or one or more U.S. patents that may issue in the future based on a patent application that we license or may own may be eligible for limited patent term extension under Hatch-Waxman Amendments. The Hatch-Waxman Amendments permit a patent extension term of up to five years as compensation for patent term lost during the FDA regulatory review process. A patent term extension cannot extend the remaining term of a patent beyond a total of 14 years from the date of product approval, only one patent may be extended and only those claims covering the approved product, a method for using it or a method for manufacturing it may be extended. The application for the extension must be submitted prior to the expiration of the patent for which extension is sought and within 60 days of FDA approval. A patent that covers multiple products for which approval is sought can only be extended in connection with one of the approvals. However, we may not be granted an extension because of, for example, failing to exercise due diligence during the testing phase or regulatory review process, failing to apply within applicable deadlines, failing to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents or otherwise failing to satisfy applicable requirements. Moreover, the applicable time period or the scope of patent protection afforded could be less than we request. In addition, to the extent we wish to pursue patent term extension based on a patent that we in-license from a third party, we would need the cooperation of that third party. If we are unable to obtain patent term extension or the term of any such extension is less than we request, our competitors may obtain approval of competing products following our patent expiration, and our revenue could be reduced. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Changes in U.S. patent and ex-U.S. patent laws could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our products.
Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States or in other jurisdictions could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of patent applications and the enforcement or defense of issued patents. In the United States, numerous recent changes to the patent laws and proposed changes to the rules of the USPTO may have a significant impact on our ability to protect our technology and enforce our intellectual property rights. For example, the America Invents Act, involved significant changes in patent legislation. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on several patent cases in recent years, some of which cases either narrow the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances or weaken the rights of patent owners in certain situations. For example, the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. precludes a claim to a nucleic acid having a stated
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nucleotide sequence that is identical to a sequence found in nature and unmodified. Moreover, in 2012, the USPTO issued a guidance memo to patent examiners indicating that process claims directed to a law of nature, a natural phenomenon or a naturally occurring relation or correlation that do not include additional elements or steps that integrate the natural principle into the claimed invention such that the natural principle is practically applied and the claim amounts to significantly more than the natural principle itself should be rejected as directed to patent-ineligible subject matter. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once granted. Depending on decisions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts and the USPTO, and similar legislative and regulatory bodies in other countries in which may pursue patent protection, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways, particularly with respect to pharmaceutical patent protection, that would weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce our existing patents and patents that we might obtain in the future.
Risks Related to Government Regulation
The regulatory approval process is highly uncertain, and we may be unable to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, U.S. or foreign regulatory approval and, as a result, unable to commercialize THB001 or any future product candidates. Even if we believe our current, or planned clinical trials are successful, regulatory authorities may not agree that they provide adequate data on safety or efficacy.
THB001 and any future product candidates are subject to extensive governmental regulations relating to, among other things, research, testing, development, manufacturing, approval, recordkeeping, reporting, labeling, storage, packaging, advertising and promotion, pricing, post-approval monitoring, marketing and distribution of drugs. Rigorous nonclinical testing and clinical trials and an extensive regulatory approval process are required to be completed successfully in the United States and in many foreign jurisdictions before a new drug can be marketed. Satisfaction of these and other regulatory requirements is costly, time consuming, uncertain and subject to unanticipated delays. It is possible that none of the product candidates we may develop will obtain the regulatory approvals necessary for us to begin selling them.
We have no prior experience in conducting and managing the clinical trials necessary to obtain regulatory approvals, including approval by the FDA. The time required to obtain FDA and other approvals is unpredictable but typically takes many years following the commencement of clinical trials, depending upon the type, complexity and novelty of the product candidate. The standards that the FDA and its foreign counterparts use when regulating us require judgment and can change, which makes it difficult to predict with certainty their application. Any analysis we perform of data from nonclinical and clinical activities is subject to confirmation and interpretation by regulatory authorities, which could delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. We may also encounter unexpected delays or increased costs due to new government regulations, for example, from future legislation or administrative action, or from changes in FDA policy during the period of product development, clinical trials and FDA regulatory review. Further, infections and deaths related to COVID-19 are disrupting certain healthcare and healthcare regulatory systems globally. Such disruptions could divert healthcare resources away from, or materially delay review by, the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory agencies. It is unknown how long these disruptions could continue, were they to occur. Any elongation or de-prioritization of nonclinical studies or clinical trials or delay in regulatory review resulting from such disruptions could materially affect the development and study of THB001 or any future product candidates. It is impossible to predict whether additional legislative changes will be enacted, or whether FDA or foreign regulations, guidance or interpretations will be changed, or the impact of such changes, if any.
Further, the FDA and its foreign counterparts may respond to any NDA that we may submit by defining requirements that we do not anticipate. Such responses could delay clinical development of THB001 or any future product candidates.
Any delay or failure in obtaining required approvals could have a material and adverse effect on our ability to generate revenues from the particular product candidate for which we are seeking approval. Furthermore, any
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regulatory approval to market a product may be subject to limitations on the approved uses for which we may market the product or on the labeling or other restrictions.
We are also subject to or may in the future become subject to numerous foreign regulatory requirements governing, among other things, the conduct of clinical trials, manufacturing and marketing authorization, pricing and third-party reimbursement. The foreign regulatory approval process varies among countries and may include all of the risks associated with the FDA approval process described above, as well as risks attributable to the satisfaction of local regulations in foreign jurisdictions. Moreover, the time required to obtain approval may differ from that required to obtain FDA approval. FDA approval does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities outside the United States and vice versa. Any delay or failure to obtain U.S. or foreign regulatory approval for a product candidate could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Even if we receive regulatory approval for THB001 or any of THB001 or any future product candidates, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and continued regulatory review, which may result in significant additional expense. Additionally, THB001 or any future product candidates, if approved, could be subject to labeling and other restrictions and market withdrawal. We may also be subject to penalties if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or experience unanticipated problems with our products.
Any regulatory approvals that we obtain for THB001 or any of our future product candidates may also be subject to limitations on the approved indicated uses for which a product may be marketed or to the conditions of approval, or contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing testing and surveillance to monitor the safety and efficacy of the product candidate.
In addition, if the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority approves any of THB001 or any of our future product candidates, the manufacturing processes, labeling, packaging, distribution, post-approval monitoring and adverse event reporting, storage, import, export, advertising, promotion and recordkeeping for the product will be subject to extensive and ongoing regulatory requirements. The FDA has significant post-market authority, including the authority to require labeling changes based on new safety information and to require post-market studies or clinical trials to evaluate safety risks related to the use of a product or to require withdrawal of the product from the market. The FDA also has the authority to require a REMS after approval, which may impose further requirements or restrictions on the distribution or use of an approved drug. The manufacturing facilities we use to make a future product, if any, will also be subject to periodic review and inspection by the FDA and other regulatory agencies, including for continued compliance with cGMP requirements. The discovery of any new or previously unknown problems with our CDMOs, manufacturing processes or facilities may result in restrictions on the product, manufacturer or facility, including withdrawal of the product from the market. If we rely on CDMOs, we will not have control over compliance with applicable rules and regulations by such manufacturers. Any product promotion and advertising will also be subject to regulatory requirements and continuing regulatory review. The FDA imposes stringent restrictions on manufacturers communications regarding use of their products. If we promote THB001 or any of our future product candidates in a manner inconsistent with FDA-approved labeling or otherwise not in compliance with FDA regulations, we may be subject to enforcement action. Moreover, while we believe that THB001 or any future product candidates may provide better safety or effectiveness as compared to approved products, if we do not study THB001 or any future product candidates in head-to-head trials with those products, we will not be able to make comparative claims for our products, if approved. If we or our, manufacturers or service providers fail to comply with applicable continuing regulatory requirements in the United States or foreign jurisdictions in which we seek to market our products, we or they may be subject to, among other things, fines, warning letters, holds on clinical trials, delay of approval or refusal by the FDA or similar foreign regulatory bodies to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications, suspension or withdrawal of regulatory approval, product recalls and seizures, administrative detention of products, refusal to permit the import or export of products, operating restrictions, injunction, civil penalties and criminal prosecution.
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Subsequent discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with our CDMOs or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in, among other things:
| restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of the product, withdrawal of the product from the market or voluntary or mandatory product recalls; |
| fines, warning or untitled letters or holds on clinical trials; |
| refusal by the FDA to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications filed by us or our strategic partners; |
| suspension or revocation of product license approvals; |
| product seizure or detention or refusal to permit the import or export of products; and |
| injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties. |
The FDA policies may change, and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of THB001 or any of our future product candidates. If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing approval that we may have obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability, which would adversely affect our business.
We also cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative or executive action, either in the United States or abroad. Changes in FDA staffing could result in delays in the FDAs responsiveness or in its ability to review submissions or applications, issue regulations or guidance, or implement or enforce regulatory requirements in a timely fashion or at all. Similar consequences would also result in the event of another significant shutdown of the federal government such as the one that occurred from December 22, 2018 through January 25, 2019. It is difficult to predict how these requirements will be implemented, and the extent to which they will impact the FDAs ability to exercise its regulatory authority. If any legislation, executive orders, or lapses in agency funding impose constraints on the FDAs ability to engage in oversight and implementation activities in the normal course, our business may be negatively impacted.
Our operations and relationships with healthcare providers, healthcare organizations, customers and third-party payors will be subject to applicable anti-bribery, anti-kickback, fraud and abuse, transparency and other healthcare and privacy laws and regulations, which could expose us to, among other things, enforcement actions, criminal sanctions, civil penalties, contractual damages, reputational harm, administrative burdens and diminished profits and future earnings.
Our current and future arrangements with healthcare providers, healthcare organizations, third-party payors and customers expose us to broadly applicable anti-bribery, fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations that may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we research as well as market, sell and distribute THB001 or any of our future product candidates. In addition, we may be subject to patient data privacy and security regulation by the U.S. federal government and the states and the foreign governments in which we conduct our business. Restrictions under applicable federal and state anti-bribery and healthcare laws and regulations, include the following:
| the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, individuals and entities from knowingly and willfully soliciting, offering, receiving or providing remuneration, directly or indirectly, in cash or in kind, to induce or reward, or in return for, either the referral of an individual for, or the |
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purchase, order or recommendation of, any good or service, for which payment may be made under a federal and state healthcare program such as Medicare and Medicaid. A person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation; |
| the federal criminal and civil false claims and civil monetary penalties laws, including the federal False Claims Act, which can be enforced through civil whistleblower or qui tam actions against individuals or entities, prohibits, among other things, knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, to the federal government, claims for payment that are false or fraudulent,. knowingly making, using or causing to be made or used, a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim, or from knowingly making a false statement to avoid, decrease or conceal an obligation to pay money to the federal government. In addition, certain marketing practices, including off-label promotion, may also violate false claims laws. Moreover, the government may assert that a claim including items and services resulting from a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the federal False Claims Act; |
| HIPAA, which prohibits, among other things, knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program, or knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact or making any materially false statement in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services; similar to the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, a person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation; |
| HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH, and their respective implementing regulations, which impose obligations on certain healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses, known as covered entities, as well as their business associates and their covered subcontractors that perform certain services involving the storage, use or disclosure of individually identifiable health information, including mandatory contractual terms, with respect to safeguarding the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information, and require notification to affected individuals and regulatory authorities of certain breaches of security of individually identifiable health information; |
| the federal legislation commonly referred to as Physician Payments Sunshine Act, enacted as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, or collectively, the ACA, and its implementing regulations, which requires certain manufacturers of covered drugs, devices, biologics and medical supplies that are reimbursable under Medicare, Medicaid, or the Childrens Health Insurance Program, with certain exceptions, to report annually to CMS information related to certain payments and other transfers of value to physicians (defined to include doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors), certain other health care professionals (such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners), and teaching hospitals, as well as ownership and investment interests held by the physicians described above and their immediate family members, with the information made publicly available on a searchable website; |
| analogous state and foreign laws and regulations, such as state anti-kickback and false claims laws, that may apply to sales or marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by non-governmental third-party payors, including private insurers; and |
| certain state laws that require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industrys voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government in addition to requiring drug manufacturers to report information related to payments to physicians and other healthcare providers or marketing expenditures and drug pricing information, |
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state and local laws that require the registration of pharmaceutical sales representatives, 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 often are not preempted by HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts. |
Efforts to ensure that our current and future business arrangements with third parties comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations could involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices do not comply with current or future statutes, regulations, agency guidance or case law involving applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If our operations are found to be in violation of any such requirements, we may be subject to significant penalties, including civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, imprisonment, the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, loss of eligibility to obtain approvals from the FDA, exclusion from participation in government contracting, healthcare reimbursement or other government programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, integrity oversight and reporting obligations, or reputational harm, any of which could adversely affect our financial results.
These risks cannot be entirely eliminated. Any action against us for an alleged or suspected violation could cause us to incur significant legal expenses and could divert our managements attention from the operation of our business, even if our defense is successful. In addition, achieving and sustaining compliance with applicable laws and regulations may be costly to us in terms of money, time and resources.
We are subject to stringent and changing obligations related to data privacy and security. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could lead to regulatory investigations or actions; litigation; fines and penalties; disruptions of our business operations; reputational harm; loss of revenue or profits; loss of customers or sales; and other adverse business consequences.
In the ordinary course of business, we process personal data and other sensitive information, including our proprietary and confidential business data, trade secrets, intellectual property, data we collect about trial participants in connection with clinical trials, and other sensitive data. Our data processing activities subject us to numerous data privacy and security obligations, such as various laws, regulations, guidance, industry standards, external and internal privacy and security policies, contracts and other obligations that govern the processing of personal data by us and on our behalf.
In the United States, federal, state and local governments have enacted numerous data privacy and security laws, including data breach notification laws, personal data privacy laws and consumer protection laws. For example, the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH, imposes specific requirements relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information. At the state level, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, or CCPA, imposes obligations on businesses to which it applies. These obligations include, but are not limited to, providing specific disclosures in privacy notices and affording California residents certain rights related to their personal data. Although the CCPA exempts some data processed in the context of clinical trials, the CCPA could increase compliance costs and potential liability. In addition, it is anticipated that the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, or CPRA, effective January 1, 2023, will expand the CCPA. Other states have also enacted or proposed data privacy laws, which could further complicate compliance efforts.
Outside the United States, the European Unions General Data Protection Regulation, or EU GDPR, and the United Kingdoms GDPR, or UK GDPR, impose strict requirements for processing the personal data of individuals. For example, under the EU GDPR, government regulators may impose temporary or definitive bans on data processing, as well as fines of up to 20 million euros or 4% of annual global revenue, whichever is greater. Further, individuals may initiate litigation related to our processing of their personal data. Certain foreign jurisdictions have enacted data localization laws and cross-border personal data transfer laws, which could make
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it more difficult to transfer information across jurisdictions (such as transferring or receiving personal data that originates in the EU).
Although we endeavor to comply with all applicable data privacy and security obligations, these obligations are quickly changing, creating some uncertainty as to how to comply. Further, we may at times fail (or be perceived to have failed) to have complied and could face significant consequences. These consequences may include, but are not limited to, government enforcement actions (e.g., investigations, fines, penalties, audits, inspections and similar); litigation (including class-related claims); additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; bans on processing personal data; orders to destroy or not use personal data; and imprisonment of company officials.
Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, or financial condition, including but not limited to: loss of customers; interruptions or stoppages in our business operations (including our clinical trials); interruptions or stoppages of data collection needed to train our algorithms; inability to process personal data or to operate in certain jurisdictions; limited ability to develop or commercialize our products; expenditure of time and resources to defend any claim or inquiry; adverse publicity; or revision or restructuring of our operations.
We may face difficulties from healthcare legislative reform measures.
Existing regulatory policies may change and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of THB001 or any of our future product candidates. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, either in the United States or abroad. If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing approval that we may have obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability.
In the United States, there have been and continue to be a number of legislative initiatives to contain healthcare costs. Among other things, the ACA increased manufacturers rebate liability under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, imposed a significant annual fee on companies that manufacture or import branded prescription drug products and required manufacturers to provide a discount off the negotiated price of prescriptions filled by beneficiaries in the Medicare Part D coverage gap, referred to as the donut hole, which is now 70% of the negotiated price.
There have been legislative and judicial efforts to modify, repeal, or otherwise invalidate all, or certain provisions of, the ACA, including measures taken during the Trump administration. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or the Tax Reform Act, among other things, included a provision that repealed, effective January 1, 2019, 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 that is commonly referred to as the individual mandate. On June 17, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a challenge on procedural grounds that argued the ACA is unconstitutional in its entirety because the individual mandate was repealed by Congress. Thus, the ACA will remain in effect in its current form.
In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the United States since the ACA was enacted to reduce healthcare expenditures. On August 2, 2011, the Budget Control Act of 2011 among other things, created measures for spending reductions by Congress. A Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, tasked with recommending a targeted deficit reduction of at least $1.2 trillion for the years 2013 through 2021, was unable to reach required goals, thereby triggering the legislations automatic reduction to several government programs. This includes aggregate reductions of Medicare payments to providers of 2% per fiscal year, which went into effect on April 1, 2013 and will remain in effect through 2030 unless additional Congressional action is taken. These Medicare sequester reductions were suspended from May 1, 2020 through March 31, 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under current legislation, the actual reduction in Medicare
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payments will vary from 1% in 2022 to up to 3% in the final fiscal year of this sequester. Moreover, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 among other things, further reduced Medicare payments to several types of providers, including hospitals, imaging centers and cancer treatment centers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years. If federal spending is further reduced, anticipated budgetary shortfalls may also impact the ability of relevant agencies, such as the FDA or the National Institutes of Health to continue to function at current levels. Amounts allocated to federal grants and contracts may be reduced or eliminated. These reductions may also impact the ability of relevant agencies to timely review and approve research and development, manufacturing and marketing activities, which may delay our ability to develop, market and sell any products we may develop.
Recently there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in several presidential executive orders, Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to product pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, reduce the costs of drugs under Medicare, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drug products. For example, in July 2021, President Biden issued an executive order pertaining to drug pricing, which expressed support for legislation allowing direct negotiation in Medicare Part D and inflationary rebates and directed various executive branch agencies to take actions to lower drug prices and promote generic competition. In response to Bidens executive order, on September 9, 2021, HHS released a Comprehensive Plan for Addressing High Drug Prices that outlines principles for drug pricing reform and sets out a variety of potential legislative policies that Congress could pursue as well as potential administrative actions HHS can take to advance these principles. No legislation or administrative actions have been finalized to implement these principles. It is unclear whether these or similar policy initiatives will be implemented in the future.
At the state level, legislatures are increasingly passing legislation and implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. We expect that additional state and federal healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that federal and state governments will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in reduced demand for THB001 or any future product candidates or companion diagnostics or additional pricing pressures.
We expect that other healthcare reform measures that may be adopted in the future may result in more rigorous coverage criteria and in additional downward pressure on the price that we receive for any approved product. The implementation of cost containment measures or other healthcare reforms may prevent us from being able to generate revenue, attain profitability, or commercialize our products.
Even if we are able to commercialize THB001 or any of our future product candidates, such product candidate may become subject to unfavorable pricing regulations or third-party coverage and reimbursement policies, which would harm our business.
The regulations that govern regulatory approvals, pricing and reimbursement for new drugs vary widely from country to country. Some countries require approval of the sale price of a drug before it can be marketed. In many countries, the pricing review period begins after marketing approval is granted. In some foreign markets, prescription biopharmaceutical pricing remains subject to continuing governmental control even after initial approval is granted. As a result, we might obtain regulatory approval for a product in a particular country, but then be subject to price regulations that delay our commercial launch of the product, possibly for lengthy time periods and negatively impact the revenues we are able to generate from the sale of the product in that country. Adverse pricing limitations may hinder our ability to recoup our investment in one or more product candidates, even if THB001 or any of our future product candidates obtain regulatory approval.
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Our ability to commercialize any products successfully also will depend in part on the extent to which coverage and adequate reimbursement for these products and related treatments will be available from third-party payors including government authorities, such as Medicare and Medicaid, private health insurers and other organizations. Patients who are provided medical treatment for their conditions generally rely on third-party payors to reimburse all or part of the costs associated with their treatment. Coverage and adequate reimbursement from third-party payors are critical to new product acceptance. Even if we succeed in bringing one or more products to the market, these products may not be considered cost-effective, and the amount reimbursed for any products may be insufficient to allow us to sell our products on a competitive basis. Because our programs are in the early stages of development, we are unable at this time to determine their cost effectiveness or the likely level or method of coverage and reimbursement. Increasingly, the third-party payors who reimburse patients or healthcare providers, such as government and private insurance plans, are requiring that drug companies provide them with predetermined discounts from list prices, and are seeking to reduce the prices charged or the amounts reimbursed for biopharmaceutical products. If the price we are able to charge for any products we develop, or the coverage and reimbursement provided for such products, is inadequate in light of our development and other costs, our return on investment could be affected adversely.
There may be significant delays in obtaining reimbursement for newly approved drugs, and coverage may be more limited than the purposes for which the drug is approved by the FDA or similar foreign regulatory authorities. Moreover, eligibility for reimbursement does not imply that any drug or therapeutic biologic will be reimbursed in all cases or at a rate that covers our costs, including research, development, manufacture, sale and distribution.
Interim reimbursement levels for new drugs, if applicable, may also be insufficient to cover our costs and may not be made permanent. Reimbursement rates may be based on payments allowed for lower cost drugs that are already reimbursed, may be incorporated into existing payments for other services and may reflect budgetary constraints or imperfections in Medicare data.
Net prices for drugs may be reduced by mandatory discounts or rebates required by government healthcare programs or private payors and by any future relaxation of laws that presently restrict imports of drugs from countries where they may be sold at lower prices than in the United States. Further, no uniform policy for coverage and reimbursement exists in the United States, and coverage and reimbursement can differ significantly from payor to payor. As a result, obtaining coverage and reimbursement approval of a product from a third-party payor is a time consuming and costly process that could require us to provide to each payor supporting scientific, clinical and cost effectiveness data for the use of our products on a payor-by-payor basis, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be obtained. There is significant uncertainty related to the insurance coverage and reimbursement of newly approved products. Third-party payors often rely upon Medicare coverage policy and payment limitations in setting their own reimbursement rates, but also have their own methods and approval process apart from Medicare determinations. Our inability to promptly obtain coverage and adequate reimbursement rates from both government-funded and private payors for new drugs that we develop and for which we obtain regulatory approval could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We are subject to U.S. and certain foreign export and import controls, sanctions, embargoes, anti-corruption laws and anti-money laundering laws and regulations. Compliance with these legal standards could impair our ability to compete in domestic and international markets. We can face criminal liability and other serious consequences for violations, which can harm our business.
We are subject to export control and import laws and regulations, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations, U.S. Customs regulations, various economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Controls, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, or FCPA, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, and other state and national anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws in the countries in
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which we conduct activities. Export controls and trade sanctions laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit altogether the provision, sale, or supply of THB001 or any future product candidates to certain governments, persons, entities, countries and territories, including those that are the target of comprehensive sanctions or an embargo. Anti-corruption laws are interpreted broadly and prohibit companies and their employees, agents and contractors, from authorizing, promising, offering, or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or anything else of value to recipients in the public or private sector. We may engage third parties to sell our products outside the United States, to conduct clinical trials, and/or to obtain necessary permits, licenses, patent registrations and other regulatory approvals. We have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or government-affiliated hospitals, universities and other organizations. We can be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of our employees, agents, contractors, or other partners even if we do not explicitly authorize or have actual knowledge of such activities. Any violations of the laws and regulations described above may result in substantial civil and criminal fines and penalties, imprisonment, the loss of export or import privileges, debarment, tax reassessments, breach of contract and fraud litigation, reputational harm and other consequences.
Governments outside the United States tend to impose strict price controls, which may adversely affect our revenue, if any.
In some countries, particularly member states of the European Union, or EU, the pricing of prescription drugs is subject to governmental control. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after receipt of marketing approval for a product. In addition, there can be considerable pressure by governments and other stakeholders on prices and reimbursement levels, including as part of cost containment measures. Political, economic and regulatory developments may further complicate pricing negotiations, and pricing negotiations may continue after reimbursement has been obtained. Reference pricing used by various EU member states and parallel distribution, or arbitrage between low-priced and high-priced member states, can further reduce prices. To obtain coverage and reimbursement or pricing approvals in some countries, we may be required to conduct a clinical trial or other studies that compare the cost-effectiveness of THB001 or any future product candidates to other available therapies in order to obtain or maintain reimbursement or pricing approval. Publication of discounts by third-party payors or authorities may lead to further pressure on the prices or reimbursement levels within the country of publication and other countries. If reimbursement of any product candidate approved for marketing is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels, our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects could be materially and adversely affected.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock and This Offering
An active and liquid trading market for our common stock may not develop and you may not be able to resell your shares of common stock at or above the public offering price, if at all.
Prior to this offering, no market for shares of our common stock existed. As a condition to consummating this offering, our common stock offered in this prospectus must be listed on Nasdaq or another national securities exchange. Accordingly, we intend to apply to list our common stock on Nasdaq under the symbol THRD. Assuming that our common stock is listed and after the consummation of this offering, an active trading market for our shares may never develop or be sustained following this offering. The initial public offering price for our common stock was determined through negotiations with the underwriters and the negotiated price may not be indicative of the market price of our common stock after this offering. The market value of our common stock may decrease from the initial public offering price. As a result of these and other factors, you may be unable to resell your shares of our common stock at or above the initial public offering price, if at all. The lack of an active market may impair your ability to sell your shares at the time you wish to sell them or at a price that you consider reasonable. The lack of an active market may also reduce the fair market value of your shares. Furthermore, an inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital by selling shares of our common stock and may impair our ability to enter into strategic collaborations or acquire companies or products by using our shares of common stock as consideration.
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Our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate significantly or may fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, each of which may cause our stock price to fluctuate or decline.
We expect our operating results to be subject to quarterly fluctuations. Our net loss and other operating results will be affected by numerous factors, including:
| variations in the level of expense related to the ongoing development of THB001, our lead product candidate or any future development programs; |
| results of nonclinical and future clinical trials, or the addition or termination of future clinical trials or funding support by us, or existing or future collaborators or licensing partners; |
| our execution of any additional collaboration, licensing or similar arrangements, and the timing of payments we may make or receive under existing or future arrangements or the termination or modification of any such existing or future arrangements; |
| any intellectual property infringement lawsuit or opposition, interference or cancellation proceeding in which we may become involved; |
| additions and departures of key personnel; |
| strategic decisions by us or our competitors, such as acquisitions, divestitures, spin-offs, joint ventures, strategic investments or changes in business strategy; |
| if any of THB001 or any future product candidates receives regulatory approval, the terms of such approval and market acceptance and demand for such product candidates; |
| the continuing effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and operations; |
| regulatory developments affecting THB001 or any future product candidates or those of our competitors; and |
| changes in general market and economic conditions. |
If our quarterly or annual operating results fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. Furthermore, any quarterly or annual fluctuations in our operating results may, in turn, cause the price of our common stock to fluctuate substantially. We believe that quarterly comparisons of our financial results are not necessarily meaningful and should not be relied upon as an indication of our future performance.
The market price of our common stock may be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
The trading price of our common stock following this offering is likely to be highly volatile and subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which we cannot control, including without limitation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of this volatility, investors may not be able to sell their common stock at or above the initial public offering price. The market price for our common stock may be influenced by many factors, including the other risks described in this Risk Factors section and the following:
| results of nonclinical studies and future clinical trials of THB001 or any future product candidates, or those of our competitors or our existing or future collaborators; |
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| regulatory or legal developments in the United States or other countries, especially changes in laws or regulations applicable to THB001 or any future product candidates; |
| the success or failure of competitive products or technologies; |
| introductions and announcements of new product candidates by us, any future commercialization partners, or our competitors, and the timing of these introductions or announcements; |
| actions taken by regulatory agencies with respect to THB001 or any future product candidates, clinical studies, and, if approved, manufacturing process or sales and marketing terms; |
| actual or anticipated variations in our financial results or those of companies that are perceived to be similar to us; |
| the success of our efforts to acquire or in-license additional technologies or product candidates; |
| developments concerning any future collaborations, including but not limited to those with development and commercialization partners if THB001 or any future product candidates are approved; |
| market conditions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors; |
| announcements by us or our competitors of significant acquisitions, strategic collaborations, joint ventures or capital commitments; |
| developments or disputes concerning patents or other proprietary rights, including patents, litigation matters and our ability to obtain patent protection for THB001 or any future product candidates; |
| our ability or inability to raise additional capital and the terms on which we are able to raise it, if at all; |
| the recruitment or departure of key personnel; |
| changes in the structure of healthcare payment systems; |
| actual or anticipated changes in earnings estimates, development timelines or changes in stock market analyst recommendations regarding our common stock, other comparable companies or our industry generally; |
| our failure or the failure of our competitors to meet analysts projections or guidance that we or our competitors may give to the market; |
| fluctuations in the valuation of companies perceived by investors to be comparable to us; |
| announcement and expectation of additional financing efforts; |
| speculation in the press or investment community; |
| fluctuations of trading volume of our common stock; |
| sales of our common stock by us, insiders or our stockholders; |
| the concentrated ownership of our common stock; |
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| expiration of market stand-off or lock-up agreements; |
| changes in accounting principles; |
| actions instituted by activist shareholders or others; |
| terrorist acts, acts of war or periods of widespread civil unrest; |
| natural disasters and other calamities, including global pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic; and |
| general economic, industry and market conditions, including rising interest rates and inflation. |
In addition, the stock market in general, and the markets for pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and biotechnology stocks in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have been often unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of the issuer. These broad market and industry factors may seriously harm the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. The realization of any of the above risks or any of a broad range of other risks, including those described in this Risk Factors section, could have a dramatic and adverse impact on the market price of our common stock.
You will experience immediate and substantial dilution as a result of this offering and may experience additional dilution in the future.
You will suffer immediate and substantial dilution with respect to the common stock you purchase in this offering. If you purchase common stock in this offering, assuming an initial public offering price of $ per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and assuming that the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and that the underwriters do not exercise their over-allotment option to purchase additional common stock in this offering, you will incur immediate dilution of $ per share, representing the difference between the initial public offering price of $ per share and our pro forma net tangible book value per share as of June 30, 2022, after giving effect to this offering and the conversion of all outstanding shares of our convertible preferred stock to common stock upon the completion of this offering.
For a further description of the dilution you will experience immediately after this offering, see the section titled Dilution.
A sale of a substantial number of shares of our common stock may cause the price of our common stock to decline.
Based on shares outstanding as of June 30, 2022, upon completion of this offering, we will have outstanding a total of shares of common stock. Of these shares, only shares of common stock sold in this offering, or shares if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full, will be freely tradable, without restriction, in the public market immediately after this offering. Each of our officers, directors and holders of substantially all of our outstanding equity securities have entered into lock-up agreements with the underwriters that restrict their ability to sell or transfer their shares. The lock-up agreements pertaining to this offering will expire 180 days from the date of this prospectus. However, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Jefferies LLC and Cowen and Company, LLC may, in their sole discretion, permit our officers, directors and other current stockholders who are subject to the contractual lock-up to sell shares prior to the expiration of the lock-up agreements. After the lock-up agreements expire, based on shares outstanding as of June 30, 2022, the shares of common stock subject to these lock-up agreements will be eligible for sale in the public market, unless held by our officers, directors and their affiliated entities, in which case such shares will be subject to volume limitations under Rule 144 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act.
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After this offering, the holders of an aggregate of shares of our outstanding common stock as of June 30, 2022, will have rights, subject to some conditions, to require us to file registration statements covering their shares or to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or our stockholders. We also intend to register shares of common stock that we may issue under our equity incentive plans. Once we register these shares, they will be able to be sold freely in the public market upon issuance, subject to the 180-day lock-up period under the lock-up agreements described above and in the section titled Underwriters.
We cannot predict what effect, if any, sales of our shares in the public market or the availability of shares for sale will have on the market price of our common stock. However, future sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, including shares issued upon exercise of our outstanding options, or the perception that such sales may occur, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
We also expect that significant additional capital may be needed in the future to continue our planned operations. To raise capital, we may sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner we determine from time to time. To the extent that additional capital is raised through the sale and issuance of shares of common stock or other securities convertible into shares of common stock, our stockholders will be diluted. These sales, or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell shares of common stock, could reduce the market price of our common stock.
Our principal stockholders and management own a significant percentage of our common stock and will be able to control matters subject to stockholder approval.
Based on the beneficial ownership of our common stock as of June 30, 2022, prior to this offering, our executive officers, directors, holders of 5% or more of our capital stock and their respective affiliates beneficially owned approximately 87.7% of our voting stock and, upon the completion of this offering, that same group will hold approximately % of our outstanding voting stock (assuming no exercise of the underwriters over-allotment option, no exercise of our outstanding options and no purchases of shares of common stock in this offering by anyone of this group). The interests of these stockholders may not be the same as or may even conflict with your interests. For example, these stockholders could delay or prevent a change of control of our Company, even if such a change of control would benefit our other stockholders, which could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their common stock as part of a sale of our Company or our assets and might affect the prevailing market price of our common stock. 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.
We are an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company and we cannot be certain if the reduced reporting requirements applicable to emerging growth companies or smaller reporting companies will make our common stock less attractive to investors.
We are an emerging growth company as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (JOBS Act). For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including (i) not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, (ii) reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in this prospectus and our periodic reports and proxy statements and (iii) exemptions from the requirements of holding nonbinding advisory stockholder votes on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not approved previously. In addition, as an emerging growth company, we are only required to provide two years of audited financial statements and two years of selected financial data in this prospectus.
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We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years following the completion of this offering, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which occurs when the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates equals or exceeds $700.0 million as of the prior June 30, or if we have total annual gross revenue of $1.07 billion or more during any fiscal year before that time, in which cases we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following December 31, or if we issue more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during any three-year period before that time, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company immediately.
Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can also delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have elected to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period. Our financial statements may therefore not be comparable to those of companies that comply with such new or revised accounting standards. Until the date that we are no longer an emerging growth company or affirmatively and irrevocably opt out of the exemption provided by Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act, upon issuance of a new or revised accounting standard that applies to our financial statements and that has a different effective date for public and private companies, we will disclose the date on which adoption is required for non-emerging growth companies and the date on which we will adopt the recently issued accounting standard.
We are also a smaller reporting company, meaning that the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates plus the proposed aggregate amount of gross proceeds to us as a result of this offering is less than $700.0 million and our annual revenue is less than $100.0 million during the most recently completed fiscal year. We may continue to be a smaller reporting company after this offering if either (i) the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates is less than $250.0 million or (ii) our annual revenue is less than $100.0 million during the most recently completed fiscal year and the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates is less than $700.0 million. If we are a smaller reporting company at the time we cease to be an emerging growth company, we may continue to rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements that are available to smaller reporting companies. Specifically, as a smaller reporting company we may choose to present only the two most recent fiscal years of audited financial statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, we are not required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and, similar to emerging growth companies, smaller reporting companies have reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation.
If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls over financial reporting our ability to produce accurate and timely financial statements could be impaired.
Pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, our management will be required to report upon the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting beginning with annual report for our fiscal year ending December 31, 2023. This assessment will need to include the disclosure of any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting identified by our management or our independent registered public accounting firm. When we become an accelerated filer or a large accelerated filer, our independent registered public accounting firm will be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. The rules governing the standards that must be met for management to assess our internal control over financial reporting are complex and require significant documentation, testing, and possible remediation. To achieve compliance with Section 404 within the prescribed period, we will be engaged in a process to document and evaluate our internal control over financial reporting, which is both costly and challenging. In this regard, we will need to continue to dedicate internal resources, potentially engage outside consultants and adopt a detailed work plan to assess and document the adequacy of internal control over financial reporting, continue steps to improve control processes as appropriate, validate through testing that controls are functioning as documented and implement a continuous reporting and improvement process for internal control over financial reporting. This process will be time-consuming, costly and complicated.
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In connection with the preparation of our financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2021, we concluded that there was a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. See the section titled Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Additional CapitalWe have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. If we do not remediate the material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or if we fail to establish and maintain effective internal control, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or file our periodic reports in a timely manner, which may cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and may lead to a decline in the market price of our common stock. Any failure to maintain internal control over financial reporting could severely inhibit our ability to accurately report our financial condition, results of operations, or cash flows. If we are unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm determines we have a material weakness or significant deficiency in our internal control over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, the market price of our common stock could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC, or other regulatory authorities. Failure to remedy any material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.
Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could prevent or delay an acquisition of us, which may be beneficial to our stockholders, and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management.
Our restated certificate of incorporation and our restated bylaws that will be in effect upon completion of this offering contain provisions that could delay or prevent a change in control of our Company. These provisions could also make it difficult for stockholders to elect directors who are not nominated by current members of our board of directors or take other corporate actions, including effecting changes in our management. These provisions:
| establish a classified board of directors so that not all members of our board are elected at one time; |
| permit only the board of directors to establish the number of directors and fill vacancies on the board; |
| provide that directors may only be removed for cause and only with the approval of two-thirds of our stockholders; |
| require super-majority voting to amend some provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws; |
| authorize the issuance of blank check preferred stock that our board of directors could use to implement a stockholder rights plan; |
| eliminate the ability of our stockholders to call special meetings of stockholders; |
| prohibit stockholder action by written consent, which requires all stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of our stockholders; |
| prohibit cumulative voting; and |
| establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to our board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at annual stockholder meetings. |
In addition, Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, or DGCL, may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our Company. Section 203 imposes certain restrictions on mergers, business combinations and other transactions between us and holders of 15% or more of our common stock.
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The exclusive forum provisions in our organizational documents may limit a stockholders ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, or employees, or the underwriters of any offering giving rise to such claim, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims.
Our restated certificate of incorporation that will be in effect upon completion of this offering, to the fullest extent permitted by law, will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for: any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty; any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the DGCL, our restated certificate of incorporation, or our restated bylaws; or any action asserting a claim that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. This exclusive forum provision does not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or Exchange Act. It could apply, however, to a suit that falls within one or more of the categories enumerated in the exclusive forum provision.
This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholders ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, or other employees, or the underwriters of any offering giving rise to such claims, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provisions contained in our restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all claims brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. Our restated bylaws will provide that the federal district courts of the United States of America will, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act, or the Federal Forum Provision, including for all causes of action asserted against any defendant named in such complaint. For the avoidance of doubt, this provision is intended to benefit and may be enforced by us, our officers and directors, the underwriters to any offering giving rise to such complaint, and any other professional entity whose profession gives authority to a statement made by that person or entity and who has prepared or certified any part of the documents underlying the offering. Our decision to adopt a Federal Forum Provision followed a decision by the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware holding that such provisions are facially valid under Delaware law. While federal or other state courts may not follow the holding of the Delaware Supreme Court or may determine that the Federal Forum Provision should be enforced in a particular case, application of the Federal Forum Provision means that suits brought by our stockholders to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act must be brought in federal court and cannot be brought in state court, and our stockholders cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all claims brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. In addition, neither the exclusive forum provision nor the Federal Forum Provision applies to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act. Accordingly, actions by our stockholders to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder must be brought in federal court, and our stockholders cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.
Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring or holding any interest in any of our securities shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to our exclusive forum provisions, including the Federal Forum Provision. These provisions may limit a stockholders ability to bring a claim, and may result in increased costs for a stockholder to bring such a claim, in a judicial forum of their choosing for disputes with us or our directors, officers, other employees or agents, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, other employees or agents.
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Because we do not anticipate paying any dividends on our capital stock for the foreseeable future, capital appreciation, if any, will be your sole source of gain and you may never obtain a return on your investment.
We have never declared or paid dividends on our capital stock. We currently intend to retain all of our future earnings, if any, to finance the growth and development, operation and expansion of our business and do not anticipate declaring or paying any dividends for the foreseeable future, if at all. In addition, any future debt financings may contain terms prohibiting or limiting the amount of dividends that may be declared or paid on our common stock. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our common stock will be your sole source of gain for the foreseeable future and you may never obtain a return on your investment. As a result, investors seeking cash dividends should not purchase our common stock.
General Risk Factors
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or if they issue an adverse or misleading opinion regarding our stock, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts publish about us or our business. We do not have any control over the industry or securities analysts, or the content and opinions included in their reports. We do not currently have and may never obtain research coverage by securities and industry analysts. If no or few securities or industry analysts commence coverage of us, the trading price for our common stock could be impacted negatively. In the event we obtain securities or industry analyst coverage, if any of the analysts who cover us issue an adverse or misleading opinion regarding us, our business model, our intellectual property or our stock performance, or if our nonclinical studies and clinical trials and operating results fail to meet the expectations of analysts, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of such analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause a decline in our stock price or trading volume.
We will incur increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives and corporate governance practices.
As a public company, and particularly after we are no longer an emerging growth company or smaller reporting company, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the listing requirements of Nasdaq and other applicable securities rules and regulations impose various requirements on public companies, including establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and corporate governance practices. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, we expect these rules and regulations to substantially increase our legal and financial compliance costs and to make some activities more time consuming and costly. For example, we expect that these rules and regulations may 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 sufficient coverage. We cannot predict or estimate the amount or timing of additional costs we may incur to respond to these requirements. The impact of these requirements could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, our board committees or as executive officers. The increased costs may require us to reduce costs in other areas of our business. Moreover, 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 governance practices.
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Our disclosure controls and procedures may not prevent or detect all errors or acts of fraud.
Upon the completion of this offering, we will become subject to the periodic reporting requirements of the Exchange Act. We designed our disclosure controls and procedures to reasonably assure that information we must disclose in reports we file or submit under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to management, and recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the rules and forms of the SEC. We believe that any disclosure controls and procedures or internal controls and procedures, no matter how well-conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met.
These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of simple error or mistake. For example, our directors or executive officers could inadvertently fail to disclose a new relationship or arrangement causing us to fail to make any related party transaction disclosures. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people or by an unauthorized override of the controls. Accordingly, because of the inherent limitations in our control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected. In addition, we do not have a formal risk management program for identifying and addressing risks to our business in other areas.
We may be subject to securities litigation, which is expensive and could divert management attention.
The market price of our common stock is likely to be volatile. The stock market in general, and Nasdaq and biopharmaceutical companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies. 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 managements attention from other business concerns, which could seriously harm our business.
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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This prospectus, including the sections titled Prospectus Summary, Risk Factors, Use of Proceeds, Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, and Business, contains forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as believe, may, will, potentially, estimate, continue, anticipate, intend, could, would, project, plan, expect and similar expressions that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in the section titled Risk Factors and elsewhere in this prospectus. Moreover, we operate in a competitive and rapidly changing environment, and new risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this prospectus may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements.
The forward-looking statements in this prospectus include, among other things, statements about:
| our plans to develop and commercialize THB001 for the treatment of chronic inducible urticaria and our plans to further develop THB001 for the treatment of chronic spontaneous urticaria, asthma and additional indications; |
| the timing to complete our clinical trials for THB001; |
| our ability to develop and obtain regulatory approval for THB001 for the treatment of chronic inducible urticaria, as well as in additional indications and any other future product candidates; |
| our ability to obtain funding for our operations, including funding necessary to complete further discovery, development and commercialization of THB001 and our future product candidates; |
| estimates of the addressable urticaria market and market growth; |
| our expectations regarding demand for, and market acceptance of, our product candidates; |
| our ability to compete effectively with existing competitors and new market entrants; |
| the potential effects of extensive government regulations relating to our industry; |
| our ability to obtain, maintain and protect and enforce intellectual property and proprietary rights; |
| our ability to operate our business without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the intellectual property rights and proprietary technology of third parties; |
| our ability to expand our pipeline of product candidates; |
| our ability to attract and retain key management and technical personnel; |
| the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on any of the above or any other aspect of our business operations; |
| general economic, industry and market conditions, including rising interest rates and inflation; |
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| our expectations regarding expenses, future revenue, capital requirements and our needs for additional financing; and |
| our expected use of the net proceeds from this offering and our existing cash and cash equivalents. |
The forward-looking statements made in this prospectus relate only to events or information as of the date on which the statements are made in this prospectus. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this prospectus to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations, except as required by law.
You should read this prospectus and the documents that we reference in this prospectus and have filed with the SEC as exhibits to the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part with the understanding that our actual future results, levels of activity, performance and events and circumstances may be materially different from what we expect.
In addition, statements that we believe and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this prospectus, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and you are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements.
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This prospectus contains estimates and other statistical data made by independent parties and by us relating to our industry and the markets in which we operate, including our general expectations and market position, market opportunity, the incidence of certain medical conditions and other industry data. In some cases, we do not
expressly refer to the sources from which these data are derived. These data, to the extent they contain estimates or projections, involve a number of assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to such estimates or projections. Industry publications and other reports we have obtained from independent parties generally state that the data contained in these publications or other reports have been obtained in good faith or from sources considered to be reliable, but they do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of such data. The industry in which we operate is subject to risks and uncertainties due to a variety of factors, including those described in the section titled Risk Factors. These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in these publications and reports.
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We estimate that the net proceeds from this offering will be approximately $ million, or approximately $ million if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full, assuming an initial public offering price of $ per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
Each $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of $ per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase or decrease, as applicable, the net proceeds to us from this offering by $ million, assuming the number of shares offered, as set forth on the cover of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions. Similarly, each increase or decrease of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares of our common stock offered would increase or decrease, as applicable, the net proceeds that we receive from this offering by $ million, assuming that the assumed initial public offering price remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions.
We currently intend to use the net proceeds we receive from this offering, together with our existing cash and cash equivalents, as follows:
| approximately $ million to advance the continued clinical development of THB001 for the treatment of urticaria, including in a Phase 1b clinical trial for chronic inducible urticaria and in a Phase 2 clinical trial for chronic spontaneous urticaria; |
| approximately $ million to advance the continued clinical development of THB001 in additional indications, including a Phase 1b clinical trial for asthma and to fund further development or acquisition of future programs to advance through nonclinical and clinical development; and |
| the remainder for potential expansion of our pipeline and other research and development activities, as well as for working capital and other general corporate purposes. |
We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, together with the net proceeds from this offering, will be sufficient for us to fund our operations and capital expenses into . We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could use our available capital resources sooner than we expect. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with research, development and commercialization of pharmaceutical drugs, we are unable to estimate the exact amount of our working capital requirements. Following this offering, we will need substantial additional capital to complete clinical development of THB001 in any of its initial indications, to seek regulatory approval of THB001 and to commercialize THB001, if approved.
The expected use of the net proceeds from this offering represents our intentions based upon our current plans and business conditions, which could change in the future as our plans and business conditions evolve. The amounts we actually expend in these areas, and the timing thereof, may vary significantly from our current intentions and will depend on a number of factors, including the success of research and development efforts, the results and timing of any future nonclinical studies and clinical trials, the product approval process with the FDA and other regulatory agencies, any new collaborations or licenses we may enter into, cash generated from future operations, actual expenses to operate our business and the other factors described under Risk Factors in this prospectus. We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, however, and we could use our cash resources sooner than we expect. Additionally, the process of advancing early-stage product candidates and testing product candidates in clinical trials is costly and the timing of progress in these clinical trials is uncertain. In addition, we might decide to postpone or not pursue nonclinical studies or clinical trials or if the net proceeds from this offering and any other sources of cash are less than expected. We may also use a portion of
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the net proceeds of this offering to in-license, acquire or invest in complementary businesses, products, assets, or technologies, or to obtain the right to use such complementary technologies. We have no commitments with respect to any acquisition or investment.
Pending the uses described above, we intend to invest the net proceeds from this offering in short term, investment-grade interest-bearing securities such as money market accounts, certificates of deposit, commercial paper and guaranteed obligations of the U.S. government.
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We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our common stock. We currently intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings for use in the operation of our business and do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to declare dividends will be made at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on our financial condition, operating results, capital requirements, general business conditions and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant.
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The following table sets forth our cash and cash equivalents and capitalization as of June 30, 2022:
| on an actual basis; |
| on a pro forma basis, giving effect to (i) the automatic conversion of all outstanding shares of our convertible preferred stock as of June 30, 2022 into an aggregate of 49,624,187 shares of our common stock immediately prior to the completion of this offering, and (ii) the filing and effectiveness of our restated certificate of incorporation in connection with the completion of this offering; and |
| on a pro forma as adjusted basis giving effect to (i) the pro forma adjustments described above, and (ii) the sale and issuance by us of shares of our common stock in this offering at the assumed initial public offering price of $ per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. |
The pro forma as adjusted information set forth below is illustrative only and will be adjusted based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing.
You should read this table together with the sections titled Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and our consolidated financial statements and the related notes, each included elsewhere in this prospectus.
As of June 30, 2022 | ||||||||||||
Actual | Pro Forma | Pro Forma As Adjusted |
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(unaudited) |
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(in thousands, except share and per share amounts) | ||||||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents |
$ | 112,731 | $ | 112,731 | $ | |||||||
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Convertible preferred stock, par value $0.0001 per share; |
170,184 | | ||||||||||
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Stockholders equity (deficit): |
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Preferred stock, par value $0.0001 per share; no shares authorized, issued and outstanding, actual; shares authorized, no shares issued and outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted |
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Common stock, par value $0.0001 per share; 72,731,000 |
1 | 6 | ||||||||||
Additional paid-in capital |
3,143 | 173,322 | ||||||||||
Accumulated deficit |
(63,701 | ) | (63,701 | ) | ||||||||
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Total stockholders equity (deficit) |
(60,557 | ) | 109,627 | |||||||||
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Total capitalization |
$ | 109,627 | $ | 109,627 | $ | |||||||
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If the underwriters over-allotment option is exercised in full, our pro forma as adjusted cash and cash equivalents, additional paid-in capital, total stockholders equity (deficit) and total capitalization as of June 30, 2022, would be $ million, $ million, $ million, and $ million, respectively.
Each $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of $ per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase or decrease, as applicable, each of our pro forma as adjusted cash and cash equivalents, additional paid-in-capital, total stockholders equity (deficit) and total capitalization by approximately $ million, assuming that the number of shares offered remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions. Similarly, each increase or decrease of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares of common stock offered would increase or decrease, as applicable, each of our pro forma as adjusted cash and cash equivalents, additional paid-in-capital, total stockholders equity (deficit) and total capitalization by approximately $ million, assuming the assumed initial public offering price remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions.
The number of shares of our common stock to be outstanding after this offering on a pro forma and pro forma as adjusted basis is based on 62,786,536 shares of common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2022 (including (i) 3,186,288 shares of unvested restricted common stock subject to repurchase and (ii) after giving effect to the automatic conversion of all of our shares of convertible preferred stock outstanding as of June 30, 2022 into an aggregate of 49,624,187 shares of our common stock immediately prior to the completion of this offering) and excludes:
| 4,073,209 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options outstanding as of June 30, 2022 under our 2019 Plan, at a weighted-average exercise price of $3.32 per share; |
| shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of options to purchase shares of our common shares of our common stock granted after June 30, 2022 under our 2019 Plan, with a weighted-average exercise price of $ per share; and |
| shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans, consisting of: |
| 641,123 shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our 2019 Plan as of August 11, 2022, |
| shares of our common stock to be reserved for future issuance under our 2022 Plan, which will become effective immediately prior to the date of the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, and |
| shares of our common stock to be reserved for future issuance under our ESPP, which will become effective immediately prior to the date of the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. |
Our 2022 Plan and our ESPP provide for automatic annual increases in the number of shares of our common stock reserved thereunder, and our 2022 Plan provides for increases to the number of shares that may be granted thereunder based on shares under our 2019 Plan that expire, are tendered to or withheld by us for payment of an exercise price or for satisfying tax withholding obligations or are forfeited or otherwise repurchased by us. See the section titled Executive CompensationEquity Compensation Plans and Other Benefit Plans for additional information.
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If you invest in our common stock in this offering, your ownership interest will be immediately diluted to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price per share of our common stock in this offering and the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock immediately after this offering.
Net tangible book deficit per share is determined by dividing our total tangible assets (which excludes deferred offering costs) less our total liabilities and convertible preferred stock by the number of shares of our common stock outstanding. Our historical net tangible book deficit as of June 30, 2022 was $61.6 million, or $6.18 per share, based on 9,976,061 shares of our common stock outstanding as of that date.
Our pro forma net tangible book value as of June 30, 2022 was $108.5 million, or $1.82 per share of our common stock. Our pro forma net tangible book value per share represents the amount of our total tangible assets (which excludes deferred offering costs) less our total liabilities and divided by the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2022, after giving effect to the automatic conversion of all outstanding shares of our convertible preferred stock into an aggregate of 49,624,187 shares of our common stock immediately prior to the completion of this offering.
Dilution per share to new investors in this offering represents the difference between the initial public offering price per shares of our common stock and the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock immediately after completion of this offering. After giving effect to (i) the pro forma adjustments set forth above and (ii) our sale in this offering of shares of our common stock at the assumed initial public offering price of $ per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of June 30, 2022 would have been approximately $ million, or $ per share of our common stock. This represents an immediate increase in pro forma net tangible book value of $ per share to our existing stockholders and an immediate dilution of $ per share to investors in this offering, as illustrated in the following table:
Assumed initial public offering price per share |
$ | |||||||
Historical net tangible book deficit per share as of June 30, 2022 |
$ | (6.18 | ) | |||||
Increase attributable to pro forma adjustments |
8.00 | |||||||
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Pro forma net tangible book value per share as of June 30, 2022 |
1.82 | |||||||
Increase in pro forma net tangible book value per share attributable to new |
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Pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering |
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Dilution per share to new investors in this offering |
$ | |||||||
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Each $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of $ per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase or decrease, as applicable, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value by $ million, or $ per share and the dilution in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share to new investors in this offering by $ per share, assuming the number of shares offered, as set forth on the cover of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions. Similarly, each increase of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares of our common stock offered in this offering would increase our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value by approximately $ million, or approximately $ per share, and would decrease dilution per share to new investors in this offering by approximately $ per share and each decrease of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares of our common stock offered in this
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offering would decrease our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value by approximately $ million, or approximately $ per share, and would increase dilution per share to new investors in this offering by approximately $ per share, assuming the assumed initial public offering price per share remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions. The pro forma as adjusted information is illustrative only, and we will adjust this information based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing.
If the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full, the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering would be $ per share, the increase in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share to existing stockholders would be $ per share and the dilution to new investors in this offering would be $ per share.
The following table shows, as of June 30, 2022, on a pro forma as adjusted basis described above, the differences between the existing stockholders and the new investors purchasing shares in this offering with respect to the number of shares purchased from us, the total consideration paid, which includes net proceeds received from the issuance of common and convertible preferred stock, cash received from the exercise of stock options, and the value of any stock issued for services and the weighted-average price paid per share (in thousands, except share and per share amounts, and percentages):
Shares Purchased | Total Consideration | Weighted- Average Price Per Share |
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Number | Percent | Amount | Percent | |||||||||||||||||
Existing stockholders |
% | $ | % | $ | ||||||||||||||||
New investors |
$ | |||||||||||||||||||
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Total |
100.0 | % | $ | 100.0 | % | |||||||||||||||
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Each $1.00 increase decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of $ per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase or decrease, as applicable, total consideration paid by new investors and total consideration paid by all stockholders by approximately $ million, assuming that the number of shares offered, as set forth on the cover of this prospectus, remains the same. Similarly, each increase or decrease of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares of our common stock offered in this offering would increase or decrease, as applicable, total consideration paid by new investors and total consideration paid by all stockholders by approximately $ million, assuming the assumed initial public offering price remains the same.
In addition, to the extent that any outstanding options are exercised, investors in this offering will experience further dilution.
Except as otherwise indicated, the above discussion and tables assume no exercise of the underwriters over-allotment option. If the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full, our existing stockholders would own % and our new investors would own % of the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding upon the completion of this offering.
The foregoing tables and calculations (other than historical net tangible book value) are based on 62,786,536 shares of common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2022 (including (i) 3,186,288 shares of unvested restricted common stock subject to repurchase and (ii) after giving effect to the automatic conversion of all of our shares of convertible preferred stock outstanding as of June 30, 2022 into an aggregate of 49,624,187 shares of our common stock immediately prior to the completion of this offering), and excludes:
| 4,073,209 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options outstanding as of June 30, 2022 under our 2019 Plan, at a weighted-average exercise price of $3.32 per share; |
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| shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of options to purchase shares of our common stock granted after June 30, 2022 under our 2019 Plan, with a weighted-average exercise price of $ per share; and |
| shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans, consisting of: |
| 641,123 shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our 2019 Plan as of August 11, 2022, |
| shares of our common stock to be reserved for future issuance under our 2022 Plan, which will become effective immediately prior to the date of the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, and |
| shares of our common stock to be reserved for future issuance under our ESPP, which will become effective immediately prior to the date of the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part. |
Our 2022 Plan and ESPP provide for automatic annual increases in the number of shares of our common stock reserved thereunder, and our 2022 Plan provides for increases to the number of shares that may be granted thereunder based on shares under our 2019 Plan that expire, are tendered to or withheld by us for payment of an exercise price or for satisfying tax withholding obligations or are forfeited or otherwise repurchased by us. See the section titled Executive CompensationEquity Compensation Plans and Other Benefit Plans for additional information.
To the extent that these outstanding stock options are exercised, new stock options are issued or we issue additional shares of our common stock in the future, there will be further dilution to new investors. In addition, we may choose to raise additional capital because of market conditions or strategic considerations, even if we believe that we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans. If we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the issuance of these securities could result in further dilution to our stockholders.
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MANAGEMENTS DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION
AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and other financial information included elsewhere in this prospectus. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this prospectus, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business and related financing, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. See the sections titled Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors for a discussion of forward-looking statements and important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results described in or implied by these forward-looking statements.
Overview
We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of the next wave of medicine for the treatment of allergic and inflammatory diseases. Our lead product candidate, THB001, is a highly selective, oral small molecule inhibitor of KIT, a cell surface receptor that acts as the master survival and functional regulator of mast cells. Mast cells are a part of the immune system, and dysfunctional mast cell activity has been implicated in the pathophysiology of a broad range of allergic and other inflammatory disorders including urticaria, asthma and gastrointestinal disorders, among others. KIT inhibition has shown positive clinical responses in mast cell mediated diseases such as asthma and chronic urticaria. In our recently completed Phase 1a clinical trial, THB001 demonstrated dose-dependent reductions of serum tryptase, a key biomarker of mast cell activity which has been shown to correlate with clinical benefit in chronic urticaria patients. We submitted a CTA in Europe for our dose escalation Phase 1b proof-of-concept trial in chronic inducible urticaria in May 2022, and expect to initiate the trial in the second half of 2022. We also intend to submit a CTA to support initiation of a Phase 1b trial in asthma in the first half of 2023. We intend to submit both a CTA in Europe and an IND in the United States to support initiation of a Phase 2 trial in chronic spontaneous urticaria in the first half of 2024. We are also exploring development opportunities across a range of other indications where THB001 may provide benefit to patients suffering from mast cell driven inflammation to demonstrate the pipeline-in-a-product potential of THB001.
Since our inception in 2019, we have devoted substantially all of our efforts to organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, establishing our intellectual property portfolio, acquiring or discovering product candidates, research and development activities for THB001 and other compounds, establishing arrangements with third parties for the manufacture of our product candidates and component materials, and providing general and administrative support for these operations. We do not have any products approved for sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales. To date, we have financed our operations primarily with proceeds from sales of shares of our preferred stock. From inception, we have raised aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $155.0 million through the sale and issuance of our preferred stock. Our primary uses of capital are, and we expect will continue to be, research and development services, compensation and related expenses, and general overhead costs.
We have incurred significant operating losses since inception. Our ability to generate product revenue sufficient to achieve profitability will depend heavily on the successful development and eventual commercialization of THB001 and any future product candidates. Our net losses were $12.8 million and $29.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2021, respectively, and $6.4 million and $15.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021 and 2022, respectively. As of June 30, 2022, we had an accumulated deficit of $63.7 million. We expect to continue to incur net operating losses for at least the next several years, and we expect our research and development expenses, general and administrative expenses, and capital expenditures will increase substantially in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly if, and as, we:
| advance THB001 through clinical development for chronic inducible urticaria, chronic spontaneous urticaria and asthma; |
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| conduct additional nonclinical studies and clinical trials for THB001 in additional potential indications; |
| discover and develop new product candidates; |
| obtain, expand, maintain, defend and enforce our intellectual property portfolio; |
| manufacture, or have manufactured, nonclinical, clinical and potentially commercial supplies of THB001 and any future product candidates; |
| seek regulatory approvals for THB001 or any future product candidates; |
| establish a sales, marketing and distribution infrastructure to commercialize THB001 or any future product candidates, if approved; |
| identify additional compounds or product candidates and acquire rights from third parties to those compounds or product candidates through licenses; |
| hire additional clinical, scientific and management personnel, as well as administrative staff to support the growth of our business; |
| add operational, financial and management information systems and personnel; |
| incur additional legal, accounting and other costs associated with operating as a public company following the completion of this offering; |
| experience delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and in other countries in which we have planned or have active clinical trial sites and where our third-party CDMOs operate; and |
| establish licenses, collaborations or strategic partnerships. |
Our net losses may fluctuate significantly from period to period, depending on the timing of expenditures related to our research and development activities.
We will not generate revenue from product sales unless and until we successfully complete clinical development and obtain regulatory approval for a product candidate. In addition, if we obtain regulatory approval for a product candidate and do not enter into a third-party commercialization partnership, we expect to incur significant expenses related to developing our commercialization capability to support product sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution activities.
As a result, we will need substantial additional funding to support our continuing operations and pursue our growth strategy. Until such time as we can generate significant revenue from product sales, if ever, we expect to finance our operations through equity offerings, debt financings or other capital sources, which could include collaborations, strategic alliances or additional licensing arrangements. We may be unable to raise additional funds or enter into such arrangements when needed, on favorable terms, or at all. Our failure to raise capital or enter into such agreements as, and when, needed, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition, including requiring us to have to delay, reduce or eliminate product development or future commercialization efforts. The amount and timing of our future funding requirements will depend on many factors including the successful advancement of THB001 or any future product candidates. Our ability to raise additional funds may also be adversely impacted by potential worsening global economic conditions and disruptions to and volatility in the credit and financial markets in the United States and worldwide, such as those resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the hostilities in Ukraine, and increasing interest rates and rates of inflation.
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Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with development of treatment of allergic and inflammatory diseases, we are unable to predict the timing or amount of increased expenses or when or if we will be able to achieve or maintain profitability. Even if we are able to generate product sales, we may not become profitable. If we fail to become profitable or are unable to sustain profitability on a continuing basis, then we may be unable to continue our operations at planned levels and be forced to reduce or terminate our operations.
We oversee and manage third party Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations, or CDMOs, to support development and manufacture of THB001 for our clinical trials. We currently use two geographically-distributed CDMOs to supply our GMP drug substance. The manufacturing process has readily-sourced available raw materials and straightforward scalability. We use three geographically-distributed CDMOs for drug product manufacturing. The THB001 drug product is a cost-effective and readily scaled solid oral dosage form in standard gelatin capsules. We expect to enter into commercial supply agreements with commercial manufacturers prior to any potential regulatory approval of THB001. We continue to develop a commercial route for THB001 manufacture in alignment with our program timeline. We believe our current manufacturers are able to supply the upcoming clinical trials and additional CDMOs may be on-boarded at later stages of clinical and commercial development.
As of June 30, 2022, we had $112.7 million in cash and cash equivalents. We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, together with the net proceeds from this offering, will be sufficient to fund our operations and capital expenses into . We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could exhaust our available capital resources sooner than we expect. See the subsection titled Liquidity and Capital Resources.
License Agreement with Novartis International Pharmaceutical Ltd.
On June 28, 2019, we entered into a license agreement with Novartis International Pharmaceutical Ltd. (which subsequently merged into the company Novartis Pharma AG), or Novartis, as amended, or the Novartis Agreement. Pursuant to the Novartis Agreement, Novartis granted us an exclusive, worldwide, sublicensable (subject to certain requirements therein) license under specified patent rights and know-how related to three licensed compounds to develop, make, use and sell certain products incorporating or comprising a licensed compound, including THB001, or the Licensed Products. Under the Novartis Agreement, we are solely responsible for all research, development, regulatory and commercialization activities related to the Licensed Products. We are required to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and seek regulatory approval for, and commercialize, at least one Licensed Product in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
Pursuant to the Novartis Agreement, we made a one-time payment of $0.4 million to Novartis and agreed to issue shares of preferred stock pursuant to that certain Investment Letter dated as of June 27, 2019, or the Novartis Investment Letter. Pursuant to the Novartis Investment Letter, we have issued Novartis 5,970,000 shares of Series A-1 Preferred Stock. Further, we are obligated to pay Novartis up to an aggregate of: (i) $31.7 million upon the achievement of certain specified development milestones for the Licensed Products and (ii) $200.0 million upon the achievement of certain specified sales and commercialization milestones with respect to the Licensed Products. We are also required to pay Novartis, on a Licensed Product-by-Licensed Product and country-by-country basis, tiered royalties in the single-digit percentage range on annual net sales of Licensed Products, subject to reduction and offset upon certain specified events. The foregoing royalty payment obligations will expire on the latest to occur of: (a) expiration of the last valid claim of the licensed patent rights that covers such Licensed Product in such country; (b) the expiration of any regulatory exclusivity for such Licensed Product in such country; and (c) ten years following the first commercial sale of such Licensed Product in such country. Upon the expiration of such royalty term in a particular country for a particular Licensed Product, the license granted to us with respect to such Licensed Product in such country will become fully paid-up, royalty-free, transferable, perpetual and irrevocable.
For a more detailed description of this agreement, see the section titled BusinessLicenses, Partnerships and Collaborations and Note 5 to our consolidated financial statements and our unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus.
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Impact of COVID-19 on Our Business
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, and we will continue to monitor any developments. The extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, operations and development timelines and plans remains uncertain, and will depend on certain developments, including the duration and spread of the outbreak and its impact on our CDMOs, contract research organizations, or CROs, and other third parties with whom we do business, as well as its impact on regulatory authorities and our key scientific and management personnel. The ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or a similar health epidemic is highly uncertain and subject to change. To the extent possible, we are conducting business as usual, though it is possible we may take further actions that alter our operations, including those that may be required by federal, state or local authorities, or that we determine are in the best interests of our employees and other third parties with whom we do business. Measures we have taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic include, where feasible, conducting remote clinical trial site activations and data monitoring. However, despite these efforts, we have experienced delays in trial site initiations, patient participation and patient enrollment in our clinical trial and we may continue to experience some delays in our clinical trials and nonclinical studies and delays in data collection and analysis. At this point, the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic may affect our business, operations and development timelines and plans, including the resulting impact on our expenditures and capital needs, remains uncertain and is subject to change. For additional details regarding the COVID-19 pandemics impact and potential impact on our business, operations and prospects, see the section titled Risk FactorsRisks Related to Discovery, Development and CommercializationThe COVID-19 pandemic could adversely impact our business, including the conduct of our clinical trials.
Components of Our Results of Operations
Revenue
We have not generated any revenue since our inception and do not expect to generate any revenue from the sale of products or from other sources in the near future, if at all. If our development efforts for our current product candidate, THB001, or additional product candidates that we may develop in the future are successful and result in marketing approval or if we enter into collaboration or license agreements with third parties, we may generate revenue in the future from a combination of product sales or payments from such collaboration or license agreements.
Operating Expenses
Research and Development
Research and development expenses account for a significant portion of our operating expenses and consist primarily of costs incurred in connection with the discovery, nonclinical development, clinical development and manufacturing of THB001 and potential future product candidates, and include:
Direct Costs:
| expenses incurred under agreements with CROs that are primarily engaged in the oversight and conduct of our clinical trials; CDMOs that are primarily engaged to provide drug substance and product for our clinical trials, research and development programs, as well as investigative sites and consultants that conduct our clinical trials, nonclinical studies and other scientific development services; |
| the cost of acquiring and manufacturing nonclinical and clinical trial materials, including manufacturing registration and validation batches; |
| costs of outside consultants, including their fees, stock-based compensation and related travel expenses; |
| costs related to compliance with quality and regulatory requirements; and |
| payments made under third-party licensing agreements. |
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Indirect Costs:
| personnel-related expenses including, salaries, benefits, stock-based compensation and other related costs for individuals involved in research and development activities; and |
| facilities and other expenses not directly tied to a program. |
We expense research and development costs as incurred. We recognize direct development costs based on an evaluation of the progress to completion of specific tasks using information provided to us by our vendors or our estimate of the level of service that has been performed at each reporting date. Payments for these development activities are based on the terms of the individual agreements, which may differ from the pattern of costs incurred, and are reflected in our financial statements as prepaid expenses or accrued expenses.
A significant portion of our research and development costs to date have been third-party costs, which we track on an individual product candidate basis after a clinical product candidate has been identified. Currently, our sole clinical product candidate is THB001. Our indirect research and development costs are primarily personnel-related costs and facilities and other costs. Employees and infrastructure are not directly tied to any one program and are deployed across our programs. As such, we do not track these costs on a specific program basis. We utilize third party contractors for our research and development activities and CDMOs for our manufacturing activities and we do not have our own laboratory or manufacturing facilities.
Research and development activities are central to our business model. We expect that our research and development expenses will continue to increase for the foreseeable future as we advance THB001 into multiple Phase 1b clinical trials, continue to discover and develop additional product candidates, expand our headcount and maintain, expand and enforce our intellectual property portfolio. If THB001 or any future product candidates enter into later stages of clinical development, they will generally have higher development costs than those in earlier stages of clinical development, primarily due to the increased size and duration of later-stage clinical trials. There are numerous factors associated with the successful development and commercialization of any product candidates we may develop in the future, including future trial design and various regulatory requirements, many of which cannot be determined with accuracy at this time based on our stage of development. Additionally, future commercial and regulatory factors beyond our control will impact our clinical development program and plans.
Our research and development expenses may vary significantly in the future based on factors, such as:
| the number and scope of nonclinical and IND-enabling studies; |
| per patient trial costs; |
| the number of trials required for approval; |
| the number of sites included in the trials; |
| the countries in which the trials are conducted; |
| the length of time required to enroll eligible patients; |
| the number of patients that participate in the trials; |
| the drop-out or discontinuation rates of patients; |
| potential additional safety monitoring requested by regulatory agencies; |
| the duration of patient participation in the trials and follow-up; |
| the cost and timing of manufacturing our product candidates; |
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| the phase of development of our product candidates; |
| the efficacy and safety profile of our product candidates; |
| the extent to which we establish additional collaboration or license agreements; and |
| whether we choose to partner any of our product candidates and the terms of such partnership. |
Any changes in the outcome of any of these variables with respect to the development of THB001 or any future product candidates in nonclinical and clinical development could mean a significant change in the costs and timing associated with the development of these product candidates. For example, if the FDA, EMA or another regulatory authority were to delay our planned start of clinical trials or require us to conduct clinical trials or other testing beyond those that we currently expect, or if we experience significant delays in enrollment in any clinical trials following the applicable regulatory authoritys acceptance and clearance, we could be required to expend significant additional financial resources and time to complete clinical development than we currently expect. We may never obtain regulatory approval for any product candidates that we develop.
The successful development of THB001, or any product candidates we may develop in the future is highly uncertain. Therefore, we cannot reasonably estimate or know the nature, timing and estimated costs of the efforts that will be necessary to complete the development and commercialization of THB001 and any other product candidates we may develop. We are also unable to predict when, if ever, material net cash inflows will commence from the sale of THB001 or any future product candidate, if approved. This is due to the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with product development.
General and Administrative
General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel-related expenses, including salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation expenses for personnel in executive and other administrative functions. Other significant general and administrative expenses include legal fees relating to patent, intellectual property and corporate matters, and fees paid for accounting, consulting and other professional services, and expenses for rent, insurance and other operating costs.
We expect that our general and administrative expenses will continue to increase in the foreseeable future as our business expands to support our continued research and development activities, including any future clinical trials. These increases will likely include increased costs related to the hiring of additional personnel and fees to outside consultants, among other expenses. We also anticipate increased expenses associated with being a public company, including costs for audit, legal, regulatory and tax-related services related to compliance with the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, listing standards applicable to companies listed on a national securities exchange, director and officer insurance premiums and investor relations costs. In addition, if we obtain regulatory approval for our current product candidate or any product candidates we may develop in the future and do not enter into a third-party commercialization collaboration, we expect to incur significant expenses related to building a sales and marketing team to support product sales, marketing and distribution activities.
Total Other (Income) Expense, Net
Change in Fair Value of Anti-Dilution Right Liability
We classified the anti-dilution right liability under the Novartis Agreement, as a liability on our consolidated balance sheets as the anti-dilution right liability represented a freestanding financial instrument that required us to transfer equity instruments upon future equity closings. The anti-dilution right liability was initially recorded at fair value upon the date of issuance and was subsequently remeasured to fair value at each reporting date. The issuance date fair value of the derivative liability was recognized as a research and development expense upon entering into the agreement with Novartis. Changes in the fair value of the anti-dilution right liability were recognized as a component of other expense in our consolidated statements of operations. Changes in the fair value of the anti-dilution right liability were recognized until the anti-dilution rights liability was satisfied in the first quarter of 2021.
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In February 2021, in connection with our issuance and sale of the second tranche of Series A-2 Preferred Stock, we satisfied our anti-dilution right liability under the Novartis Agreement by issuing 5,970,000 total shares of Series A-1 Preferred Stock to Novartis for a total value of $6.0 million. We remeasured the fair value of the anti-dilution right liability on the date of settlement, and recorded a charge of $0.7 million, in other (income) expense, net.
Change in Fair Value of Preferred Stock Tranche Liability
In connection with the issuance of our Series A Preferred Stock, we granted investors future tranche rights to purchase the Preferred Stock. We classified the preferred stock tranche liability for the future purchase and option to purchase Series A Preferred Stock as a liability on our consolidated balance sheets as the preferred stock tranche liability is a freestanding financial instrument that will require us to transfer equity instruments upon future closings of the Series A Preferred Stock. The preferred stock tranche liability was initially recorded at fair value upon the date of issuance and is subsequently remeasured to fair value at each reporting date. Changes in the fair value of the preferred stock tranche liability are recognized as a component in other (income) expense, net in the consolidated statements of operations. Changes in the fair value of the preferred stock tranche liability were recognized until the tranche liability were fulfilled or otherwise extinguished in the fourth quarter of 2021.
In November 2021, in connection with our issuance and sale of Series A-3 Tranche 2, we satisfied our liability to issue additional shares under the second tranche closing and accordingly reclassified the carrying value of the preferred stock tranche liability associated with the future purchase obligation, equal to the then current value of $16.3 million, to the carrying value of the Series A-3 Preferred Stock.
Other Income
Other income primarily consists of interest income generated from interest bearing money market accounts.
Income Taxes
Since our inception, we have not recorded any income tax benefits for the net losses we have incurred in each period or for our earned research and development tax credits, as we believe, based upon the weight of available evidence, that it is more likely than not that all of our net operating loss carryforwards and tax credits will not be realized. As of December 31, 2021, we had U.S. federal and state net operating loss carryforwards of $29.8 million and $26.7 million, respectively, which may be available to offset future income tax liabilities and expire at various dates beginning in 2039. As of the six months ended June 30, 2021 and 2022, and the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2021, we have recorded a full valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets.
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Results of Operations
Comparison of the Six Months Ended June 30, 2021 and 2022
The following table summarizes our results of operations for each of the periods presented (in thousands, except percentages):
Six Months Ended June 30, |
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2021 | 2022 | $ Change | % Change | |||||||||||||
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Operating expenses: |
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Research and development |
$ | 6,546 | $ | 10,393 | $ | 3,847 | 59 | % | ||||||||
General and administrative |
1,010 | 5,177 | 4,167 | 413 | ||||||||||||
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Total operating expenses |
7,556 | 15,570 | 8,014 | 106 | ||||||||||||
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Loss from operations |
7,556 | 15,570 | 8,014 | 106 | ||||||||||||
Other (income) expense, net: |
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Change in fair value of anti-dilution right liability |
682 | | (682 | ) | (100 | ) | ||||||||||
Change in fair value of preferred stock tranche liability |
(1,790 | ) | | 1,790 | (100 | ) | ||||||||||
Other income |
(2 | ) | (110 | ) | (108 | ) | 5,400 | |||||||||
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Total other (income) expense, net |
(1,110 | ) | (110 | ) | 1,000 | (90 | ) | |||||||||
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Net loss |
$ | 6,446 | $ | 15,460 | $ | 9,014 | 140 | % | ||||||||
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Research and Development Expenses
The following table summarizes our research and development expenses for each of the periods presented (in thousands, except percentages):
Six Months Ended June 30, |
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2021 | 2022 | $ Change | % Change | |||||||||||||
(unaudited) | ||||||||||||||||
Direct costs: |
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THB001 |
$ | 4,629 | $ | 6,169 | $ | 1,540 | 33 | % | ||||||||
Other discovery and development |
1,074 | 1,975 | 901 | 84 | ||||||||||||
Indirect costs: |
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Personnel-related |
843 | 2,248 | 1,405 | 167 | ||||||||||||
Facilities and other |
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Total research and development expenses |
$ | 6,546 | $ | 10,393 | $ | 3,847 | 59 | % | ||||||||
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Research and development expenses increased by $3.8 million from $6.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021 to $10.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2022. This increase was primarily attributable to the following:
| a $1.5 million increase in costs related to the clinical development of THB001 as part of the Phase 1a clinical trial phase; |
| a $0.9 million increase in other discovery and development costs, primarily relating to the research and nonclinical development of discovery compounds and other programs; and |
| a $1.4 million increase in personnel-related costs, including $0.3 million in stock-based compensation expense, primarily due to an increase in headcount in 2022 to support the advancement of our development efforts. |
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General and Administrative Expenses
The following table summarizes our general and administrative expenses for each of the periods presented (in thousands, except percentages):
Six Months Ended June 30, |
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2021 | 2022 | $ Change | % Change | |||||||||||||
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Personnel-related expenses |
$ | 681 | $ | 2,851 | $ | 2,170 | 319 | % | ||||||||
Professional fees |
233 | 1,772 | 1.539 | 660 | ||||||||||||
Other expenses |
96 | 554 | 458 | 476 | ||||||||||||
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Total general and administrative expenses |
$ | 1,010 | $ | 5,177 | $ | 4,167 | 412 | % | ||||||||
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General and administrative expenses increased by $4.2 million from $1.0 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021 to $5.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2022. This increase was primarily attributable to the following:
| a $2.2 million increase in personnel-related costs, including $1.2 million in stock-based compensation expense, primarily due to an increase in headcount in 2022 to support the advancement of our development efforts; |
| a $1.5 million increase in professional fees, driven by a $1.0 million increase to accounting and audit fees related to the preparation of this offering, $0.3 million increase in legal fees related to intellectual property-related matters, and $0.2 million increase in website and graphic fees; and |
| a $0.5 million increase in other expenses primarily driven by an increased investment in professional development and education and computer and software-related expenses in preparation of this offering and operating as a public company. |
We anticipate that our general and administrative expenses will increase in the future as we incur increased accounting, audit, legal, tax, regulatory, compliance, and director and officer insurance costs, as well as investor and public relations expenses associated with maintaining compliance with Nasdaq-exchange listing and SEC requirements.
Total Other (Income) Expense, Net
Total other (income) expense, net decreased by approximately $1.0 million from $1.1 million of income for the six months ended June 30, 2021 to $0.1 million of income for the six months ended June 30, 2022. This decrease was primarily attributable to $1.8 million in other income due to the remeasurement of the fair value of the preferred stock tranche liability that was recognized in the six months ended June 30, 2021.
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Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2020 and 2021
The following table summarizes our results of operations for each of the periods presented (in thousands, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||||||
2020 | 2021 | $ Change | % Change | |||||||||||||
Operating expenses: |
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Research and development |
$ | 9,953 | $ | 15,748 | $ | 5,795 | 58 | % | ||||||||
General and administrative |
1,166 | 3,256 | 2,090 | 179 | ||||||||||||
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Total operating expenses |
11,119 | 19,004 | 7,885 | 71 | ||||||||||||
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Loss from operations |
11,119 | 19,004 | 7,885 | 71 | ||||||||||||
Other (income) expense, net: |
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Change in fair value of anti-dilution right liability |
607 | 682 | 75 | 12 | ||||||||||||
Change in fair value of preferred stock tranche liability |
1,081 | 9,928 | 8,847 | 818 | ||||||||||||
Other income |
| (5 | ) | (5 | ) | 100 | ||||||||||
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Total other (income) expense, net |
1,688 | 10,605 | 8,917 | 528 | ||||||||||||
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Net loss |
$ | 12,807 | $ | 29,609 | $ | 16,802 | 131 | % | ||||||||
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Research and Development Expenses
The following table summarizes our research and development expenses for each of the periods presented (in thousands, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||||||
2020 | 2021 | $ Change | % Change | |||||||||||||
Direct costs: |
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THB001 |
$ | 7,212 | $ | 11,062 | $ | 3,850 | 53 | % | ||||||||
Other discovery and development |
979 | 2,105 | 1,127 | 115 | ||||||||||||
Indirect costs: |
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Personnel-related |
1,763 | 2,569 | 806 | 46 | ||||||||||||
Facilities and other |
| 12 | 12 | | ||||||||||||
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Total research and development expenses |
$ | 9,953 | $ | 15,748 | $ | 5,795 | 58 | % | ||||||||
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Research and development expenses increased by $5.8 million from $9.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 to $15.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. This increase was primarily attributable to the following:
| a $3.9 million increase in costs related to the nonclinical development of THB001 as it progressed into the Phase 1a clinical trial phase; |
| a $1.1 million increase in other discovery and development costs, primarily relating to the research and nonclinical development of discovery compounds and other programs; and |
| a $0.8 million increase in personnel-related expenses, relating to the increase in headcount in 2021 to support the advancement of our development efforts. |
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General and Administrative Expenses
The following table summarizes our general and administrative expenses for each of the periods presented (in thousands, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31, |
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2020 | 2021 | $ Change | % Change | |||||||||||||
Personnel-related expenses |
$ | 468 | $ | 2,045 | $ | 1,577 | 337 | % | ||||||||
Professional fees |
582 | 893 | 311 | 53 | ||||||||||||
Other expenses |
117 | 318 | 202 | 173 | ||||||||||||
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Total general and administrative expenses |
$ | 1,166 | $ | 3,256 | $ | 2,090 | 179 | % | ||||||||
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General and administrative expenses increased by $2.1 million from $1.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 to $3.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. This increase was primarily attributable to the following:
| a $1.6 million increase in costs related to personnel-related expenses; |
| a $0.3 million increase in professional fees related to legal, accounting and IT consulting costs; and |
| a $0.2 million increase in other expenses primarily driven by rent and business insurance costs. |
Total Other (Income) Expense, Net
Total other (income) expense, net increased by approximately $8.9 million from $1.7 million of expense for the year ended December 31, 2020 to $10.6 million of expense for the year ended December 31, 2021. This increase is primarily attributable to a $8.8 million increase in the expense due to the remeasurement of the fair value of the preferred stock tranche liability.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Sources of Liquidity
Since our inception, we have incurred significant losses in each period and on an aggregate basis. We have not yet commercialized any product candidates, and we do not expect to generate revenue from sales of any product candidates or from other sources for several years, if at all. As of June 30, 2022, we had $112.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, and we had an accumulated deficit of $63.7 million. We have funded our operations primarily with gross proceeds of $155.0 million from sales of our preferred stock.
Cash Flows
The following table provides information regarding our cash flows for each of the periods presented (in thousands):
Year Ended December 31, | Six Months Ended June 30, |
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2020 | 2021 | 2021 | 2022 | |||||||||||||
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Net cash used in operating activities |
$ | (9,187 | ) | $ | (15,746 | ) | $ | (7,251 | ) | $ | (14,852 | ) | ||||
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Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities |
10,825 | 135,749 | 15,921 | (697 | ) | |||||||||||
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Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents |
$ | 1,638 | $ | 120,003 | $ | 8,670 | $ | (15,549 | ) | |||||||
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Net Cash Used in Operating Activities
Net cash used in operating activities for the year ended December 31, 2020 was $9.2 million, and was primarily due to our net loss of $12.8 million, which included a non-cash charge of $1.7 million related to the changes in fair value of the preferred stock tranche liability and anti-dilution right liability, and changes of working capital consisting of a $1.9 million increase in accrued expenses and other current liabilities and accounts payable.
Net cash used in operating activities for the year ended December 31, 2021 was $15.7 million, and was primarily due to our net loss of $29.6 million, which included a non-cash charge of $10.6 million related to the changes in fair value of the preferred stock tranche liability and anti-dilution right liability, and changes of working capital consisting of a $3.5 million increase in accrued expenses and other liabilities, and $0.5 million in stock-based compensation expense, partially offset by $0.7 million decrease in prepaid expenses and other current assets.
Net cash used in operating activities for the six months ended June 30, 2021 was $7.3 million, and was primarily due to our net loss of $6.4 million, which included a non-cash gain of $1.8 million related to the change in fair value of the preferred stock tranche liability and a non-cash charge of $0.7 million related to the change in fair value of the anti-dilution right liability, and changes of working capital consisting of a $0.4 million increase in accrued expenses and other current liabilities and accounts payable.
Net cash used in operating activities for the six months ended June 30, 2022 was $14.8 million, and was primarily due to our net loss of $15.5 million, and changes in working capital consisting of an increase of $0.3 million in prepaid expenses, a $1.6 million stock-based compensation expense, and an increase of $0.4 million in accounts payable, partially offset by a $1.6 million decrease in accrued expenses and other current liabilities.
Net Cash Provided by (Used in) Investing Activities
We had no investing activities for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2021 and the six months ended June 30, 2021 and 2022.
Net Cash Provided by Financing Activities
Net cash provided by financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2020 was $10.8 million, resulting entirely from proceeds received from the issuance and sale of shares of our Series A Preferred Stock, net of issuance costs.
Net cash provided by financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2021 was $135.7 million, resulting from proceeds of $30.9 million received from the issuance and sale of shares of our Series A Preferred Stock, net of issuance costs, and $104.8 million received from the issuance and sale of shares of our Series B Preferred Stock, net of issuance costs.
Net cash provided by financing activities for the six months ended June 30, 2021 was $15.9 million, resulting entirely from proceeds received from the issuance and sale of shares of our Series A Preferred Stock, net of issuance costs.
Net cash used in financing activities for the six months ended June 30, 2022 was $0.7 million, resulting from costs incurred in preparation of this offering.
Funding Requirements
Our primary uses of capital are, and we expect will continue to be, research and development services, compensation and related expenses and general overhead costs. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and operating losses for the foreseeable future. In addition, upon the closing of this offering, we expect to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company. We anticipate that our expenses will increase significantly in connection with our ongoing activities.
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Based on our current operating plan, we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, without taking into consideration the net proceeds from this offering, will be sufficient to fund our operations and capital expenses through at least the next 12 months from the date of this prospectus. In addition, we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, together with the net proceeds from this offering, will be sufficient to fund our operations and capital expenses into . However, we have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could exhaust our capital resources sooner than we expect.
Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with research, development and commercialization of product candidates, we are unable to estimate the exact amount of our working capital requirements. Our future funding requirements will depend on, and could increase significantly as a result of, many factors, including:
| the timing, cost and progress of nonclinical and clinical development activities; |
| the cost of regulatory submissions and timing of regulatory approvals; |
| the number and scope of nonclinical and clinical programs we decide to pursue; |
| the progress of the development efforts of parties with whom we may in the future enter into collaborations and/or research and development agreements; |
| the timing and amount of milestone and other payments we are obligated to make under our Novartis Agreement or any future license agreements; |
| the cash requirements of any future acquisitions or discovery of product candidates; |
| our ability to establish and maintain collaborations, strategic partnerships or marketing, distribution, licensing or other strategic arrangements with third parties on favorable terms, if at all; |
| the costs involved in prosecuting and enforcing patent and other intellectual property claims; |
| the costs of manufacturing our product candidates by third parties; |
| the cost of commercialization activities if THB001 or any future product candidates are approved for sale, including marketing, sales and distribution costs; |
| our efforts to enhance operational systems and hire additional personnel, including personnel to support development of our product candidates; and |
| our need to implement additional internal systems and infrastructure, including financial and reporting systems to satisfy our obligations as a public company. |
A change in the outcome of any of these or other variables with respect to the development of our THB001 or any product or development candidate we may develop in the future could significantly change the costs and timing associated with our development plans. Further, our operating plans may change in the future, and we may need additional funds to meet operational needs and capital requirements associated with such operating plans.
Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenues, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings or other capital sources, which could include collaborations, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements. We currently have no credit facility or committed sources of capital. Adequate additional funds may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. To the
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extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interests of our existing stockholders may be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that could adversely affect the rights of such stockholders. Debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include restrictive covenants that limit our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends, that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. If we raise additional funds through collaborations, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams, research program or product candidates, or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development or future commercialization efforts or grant rights to develop and market product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves. Our ability to raise additional funds may be adversely impacted by potential worsening global economic conditions and disruptions to and volatility in the credit and financial markets in the United States and worldwide resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with product development, there is no assurance that we will ever be profitable or generate positive cash flow from operating activities.
Contractual Obligations and Other Commitments
Novartis Agreement
We may incur contingent royalty payments that we are required to make under the Novartis Agreement. Due to the uncertainty of the achievement and timing of the events requiring payment under our license agreement with Novartis, the amounts to be paid by us are not fixed or determinable at this time. We are required to pay Novartis royalties on all sales of licensed products, with such royalty percentages in the mid-single digits of sales. We have not paid any royalties to date as we have no products commercially approved for sale. For additional information regarding the license agreement and royalties payable to Novartis, see the subsection titled License Agreement with Novartis International Pharmaceutical Ltd., the section titled BusinessLicenses, Partnerships and Collaborations and Note 5 to our audited consolidated financial statements and our unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus.
Lease Obligations
Our leases are comprised of month-to-month office space leases entered into with Atlas for various office suites located at 300 Technology Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with us acting as a subtenant.
Purchase and Other Obligations
We enter into contracts in the normal course of business with CROs, CDMOs and other third-party vendors for nonclinical research studies and testing, clinical trials and testing and manufacturing services. Most contracts do not contain minimum purchase commitments and are cancellable by us upon written notice. Payments due upon cancellation consist of payments for services provided or expenses incurred, including non-cancelable obligations of our service provided up to one year after the date of cancellation.
Critical Accounting Policies
This managements discussion and analysis is based on our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. The preparation of our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures requires us to make judgments and estimates that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities and expenses, as well as related disclosures during the reported periods. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events, and various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different
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assumptions or conditions. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our judgments and estimates in light of changes in circumstances, facts and experience. The effects of material revisions in estimates, if any, will be reflected in the financial statements prospectively from the date of change in estimates.
While our accounting policies are described in more detail in the notes to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus, we believe the following accounting policies used in the preparation of our financial statements require the most significant judgments and estimates.
Accrued and Prepaid Research and Development Expenses
As part of the process of preparing our financial statements, we are required to estimate our accrued and prepaid third-party research and development expenses as of each balance sheet date. This process involves reviewing open contracts and purchase orders, communicating with our personnel to identify services that have been performed on our behalf, and estimating the level of service performed and the associated cost incurred for the service when we have not yet been invoiced or otherwise notified of the actual cost. The majority of our service providers invoice us monthly in arrears for services performed or when contractual milestones are met. We make estimates of our accrued and prepaid expenses as of each balance sheet date based on facts and circumstances known to us at that time. We periodically confirm the accuracy of our estimates with the service providers and make adjustments if necessary. The significant estimates in our accrued and prepaid research and development expenses include the costs incurred for services performed by our vendors in connection with research and development activities for which we have not yet been invoiced.
We base our expenses related to research and development activities on our estimates of the services received and efforts expended pursuant to quotes and contracts with vendors that conduct research and development activities on our behalf. The financial terms of these agreements are subject to negotiation, vary from contract to contract and may result in uneven payment flows. There may be instances in which payments made to our vendors will exceed the level of services provided and result in a prepayment of the research and development expense. In accruing service fees, we estimate the time period over which services will be performed and the level of effort to be expended in each period. If the actual timing of the performance of services or the level of effort varies from our estimate, we adjust the accrual or prepaid balance accordingly. Non-refundable advance payments for goods and services that will be used in future research and development activities are expensed when the activity has been performed or when the goods have been received rather than when the payment is made.
Although we do not expect our estimates to be materially different from amounts incurred, if our estimates of the status and timing of services performed differ from the actual status and timing of services performed, it could result in us reporting amounts that are too high or too low in any particular period. To date, there have been no material differences between our estimates of such expenses and the amounts incurred.
Preferred Stock Tranche Liability
The fair value of the preferred stock tranche liability recognized in connection with our Series A-1 Preferred Stock financing in July 2019, Series A-2 Preferred Stock financing in July 2020, and Series A-3 Preferred Stock financing in February 2021, was determined based on significant inputs not observable in the market, which represent Level 3 measurements within the fair value hierarchy. The fair value of the preferred stock tranche liabilities were estimated based on results of a third party valuation performed in connection with each redeemable convertible preferred stock issuance.
A change in the assumptions related to the valuation of the tranche liability could have a significant impact on the value of the liability. The tranche liability was valued as a forward contract. The value was determined using an option pricing model, in which fair value was determined using the Black-Scholes option pricing model. In determining the fair value of the tranche liability, estimates and assumptions impacting the fair value included
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the estimated future values of the Companys Preferred Stock, discount rates, estimated time to tranche closing, and probability of each tranche closing. We remeasured the preferred stock tranche liabilities at each reporting period and prior to settlement.
Anti-Dilution Right Liability
The initial fair value of the anti-dilution right liability issued to Novartis in June 2019 was determined based on significant inputs not observable in the market, which represents a Level 3 measurement within the fair value hierarchy. The fair value was estimated using a Monte Carlo analysis to simulate the fair value of the preferred stock to be issued to maintain the fully diluted ownership percentages based on the expected financing dates. Changes in the estimated fair value and the probability of achieving different financing scenarios can have a significant impact on the fair value of the anti-dilution right liability. We remeasured the anti-dilution right at each reporting period and prior to settlement.
Stock-Based Compensation
We measure stock-based payment awards granted to employees and non-employees as stock-based compensation expense at fair value, based on the date of the grant, and recognizes compensation expense for those awards over the requisite service period, which is generally the vesting period of the respective award. Our stock-based payments include stock options and grants of restricted stock awards. For stock-based awards with service-based vesting conditions, we recognize compensation expense using the straight-line method. For awards with both performance and service-based vesting conditions, we record expense using an accelerated attribution method, once the performance conditions are considered probable of being achieved, using our best estimates.
At inception of the 2019 Stock Incentive Plan, we adopted the guidance of Accounting Standards Update, or ASU, No. 2018-07, CompensationStock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Nonemployee Share-Based Payment Accounting, or ASU No. 2018-07, prior to the issuance of any stock option grants. The measurement date for non-employee awards is the date of grant without changes in the fair value of the award. Stock-based compensation costs for non-employees are recognized as expense over the vesting period on a straight-line basis.
We classify stock-based compensation expense in our statements of operations in the same manner in which the award recipients salary and related costs are classified or in which the award recipients service payments are classified.
The fair value of each stock option is estimated on the grant date using the Black-Scholes option pricing model, which requires inputs based on certain subjective assumptions, including:
| Fair Value of Common StockSee the subsection titled Common Stock Valuations below. |
| Expected TermThe expected term represents the period that the stock-based awards are expected to be outstanding. We use the simplified method to determine the expected term, which is based on the average of the time-to-vesting and the contractual life of the options. |
| Expected VolatilityBecause we have been privately held and do not have any trading history for our common stock, the expected volatility was estimated based on the average volatility for comparable publicly traded biotechnology companies over a period equal to the expected term of the stock option grants. The comparable companies were chosen based on the similar size, stage in life cycle or area of specialty. We will continue to apply this process until a sufficient amount of historical information regarding the volatility of our own stock price becomes available. |
| Risk-Free Interest RateThe risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury zero coupon issues in effect at the time of grant for periods corresponding with the expected term of the awards. |
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| Expected Dividend YieldWe have never paid dividends on our common stock and have no plans to pay dividends on our common stock. Therefore, we used an expected dividend yield of zero. |
The fair value of each restricted common stock award is estimated on the date of grant based on the fair value of our common stock on that same date. See Note 8 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus for information concerning certain of the specific assumptions we used in applying the Black-Scholes option pricing model to determine the estimated fair value of our stock options granted in the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2021.
We recorded stock-based compensation expense of $0.1 million and $1.6 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021 and 2022, respectively. As of June 30, 2022, there was $9.1 million of unrecognized stock-based compensation expense related to unvested stock options, to be recognized over a weighted-average period of 0.38 years. In future periods, we expect our stock-based compensation expense to increase, due in part to our existing unrecognized stock-based compensation expense and as we grant additional stock-based awards to continue to attract and retain our employees.
Based on an assumed initial public offering price of $ per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, the aggregate intrinsic value of vested and unvested stock options outstanding as of June 30, 2022 was $ million and $ million, respectively.
Common Stock Valuations
Historically, for all periods prior to this offering, as there has been no public market for our common stock to date, the estimated fair value of our common stock has been determined by our board of directors, with input from management, as of the date of each award grant, considering our most recently available independent third-party valuations of common stock and any additional objective and subjective factors that we believed were relevant and which may have changed from the date of the most recent valuation through the date of each award grant. The independent third-party valuations were performed in accordance with the guidance outlined in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Accounting and Valuation Guide, Valuation of Privately-Held-Company Equity Securities Issued as Compensation. We determined that based on our stage of development and other relevant factors, it was most appropriate to prepare our common stock valuations using the option-pricing method, or OPM, which used a market approach to estimate our enterprise value. The OPM treats common stock and preferred stock as call options on the total equity value of a company, with exercise prices based on the value thresholds at which the allocation among the various holders of a companys securities changes. Under this method, the common stock has value only if the funds available for distribution to stockholders exceeded the value of the preferred stock liquidation preferences at the time of the liquidity event, such as a strategic sale or a merger. A discount for lack of marketability of the common stock is then applied to arrive at an indication of value for the common stock. In the course of preparing for this offering, we performed retrospective fair value assessments of all options granted during the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2022 and the six months ended June 30, 2022 solely for accounting purposes. We applied the fair values of our common stock from our retrospective fair value assessments to determine the fair value of these awards and calculate stock-based compensation expense solely for accounting purposes. These reassessed values were based, in part, upon third-party valuations of our common stock prepared as of each grant date on a retrospective basis. The third-party valuations were prepared using the hybrid method and used market approaches to determine our enterprise value. The hybrid method also uses a market approach to estimate our enterprise value. It is a probability-weighted expected return method, or PWERM, where the equity value in one or more scenarios is calculated using an OPM. The PWERM is a scenario-based methodology that estimates the fair value of our common stock based upon an analysis of our future values, assuming various outcomes. The common stock value is based on the probability-weighted present value of expected future investment returns considering each of the possible outcomes available as well as the rights of each class of stock. The future value of the common stock under each outcome is discounted back to the valuation date at an appropriate risk-adjusted discount rate and probability weighted to arrive at an indication of value for the common stock.
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The assumptions underlying these valuations were highly complex and subjective and represented managements best estimates, which involved inherent uncertainties and the application of managements judgment. As a result, if we had used significantly different assumptions or estimates, the fair value of our common stock and our stock-based compensation expense could be materially different.
Given the absence of a public trading market, our board of directors with input from management considered numerous objective and subjective factors to determine the fair value of common stock. The factors included, but were not limited to:
| contemporaneous valuations performed by an independent third-party valuation firm; |
| our stage of development and material risks related to our business; |
| the progress of our research and development programs, including the status and results of nonclinical studies and clinical trials; |
| our business conditions and projections; |
| sales of our preferred stock; |
| the rights, preferences and privileges of our preferred stock relative to those of our common stock; |
| lack of marketability of our common and preferred stock as a private company; |
| our operating results and financial performance; |
| the likelihood of achieving a liquidity event, such as an initial public offering or sale of our company, in light of prevailing market conditions; |
| the trends, developments and conditions in the life sciences and biopharmaceutical industry sectors; |
| analysis of initial public offerings and the market performance and stock price volatility of similar public companies in the life sciences and biopharmaceutical sectors; and |
| the economy in general. |
Once a public trading market for our common stock has been established in connection with the completion of this offering, it will no longer be necessary for our board of directors to estimate the fair value of our common stock in connection with our accounting for granted stock options and other such awards we may grant, as the fair value of our common stock will be determined based on the quoted market price of our common stock.
Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting
A companys internal control over financial reporting is a process designed by, or under the supervision of, a companys principal executive and principal financial officers, or persons performing similar functions, and effected by a companys board of directors, management and other personnel to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A material weakness is a significant deficiency, or a combination of significant deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that it is reasonably possible that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
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In preparing our financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2021, management identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. The material weakness we identified related to the lack of segregation of duties, certain system limitations in our accounting software and the overall control environment as we had insufficient internal resources with appropriate accounting and finance knowledge and expertise to design, implement, document and operate effective internal controls around our financial reporting process.
We are implementing measures designed to improve our internal control over financial reporting to remediate this material weakness, including formalizing our processes and internal control documentation and strengthening supervisory reviews by our financial management; hiring additional qualified accounting and finance personnel and engaging financial consultants to enable the implementation of internal control over financial reporting and segregating duties amongst accounting and finance personnel. In addition, we are in the process of selecting and implementing an accounting software system with the design and functionality to segregate incompatible accounting duties, which we currently expect will be fully implemented in our 2023 fiscal year.
While we are implementing these measures, we cannot assure you that these efforts will remediate our material weakness and significant deficiencies in a timely manner, or at all, or prevent restatements of our financial statements in the future. In particular, we do not currently expect that our material weakness related to our accounting software will be fully remediated for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 as we expect to implement new software in 2023. If we are unable to successfully remediate our material weakness, or identify any future significant deficiencies or material weaknesses, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be adversely affected, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports, and the market price of our common stock may decline as a result.
Emerging Growth Company and Smaller Reporting Company Status
Under Section 107(b) of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act, an emerging growth company can delay the adoption of new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards would apply to private companies. We have elected this exemption to delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. Where allowable we have early adopted certain standards as described in Note 2 of our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. As a result, our consolidated financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with the new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates. We will continue to remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of the following: (i) the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the completion of this offering; (ii) the last day of the fiscal year in which our total annual gross revenue is equal to or more than $1.07 billion; (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1 billion in nonconvertible debt during the previous three years; or (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer under the rules of the SEC.
We are also a smaller reporting company, meaning that the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates plus the proposed aggregate amount of gross proceeds to us as a result of this offering is less than $700.0 million and our annual revenue is less than $100.0 million during the most recently completed fiscal year. We may continue to be a smaller reporting company after this offering if either (i) the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates is less than $250.0 million or (ii) our annual revenue is less than $100.0 million during the most recently completed fiscal year and the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates is less than $700.0 million.
If we are a smaller reporting company at the time we cease to be an emerging growth company, we may continue to rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements that are available to smaller reporting companies. Specifically, as a smaller reporting company we may choose to present only the two most recent fiscal years of audited financial statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and, similar to emerging growth companies, smaller reporting companies have reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation.
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Recent Accounting Pronouncements
We have reviewed all recently issued accounting pronouncements and have determined that, other than as disclosed in Note 2 to our condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus, such standards do not have a material impact on our financial statements or do not otherwise apply to our operations.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We did not have during the periods presented, and we do not currently have, any off-balance sheet arrangements, as defined in the rules and regulations of the SEC.
Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Interest Rate Risk
Our primary exposure to market risk is interest rate sensitivity, which is affected by changes in the general level of U.S. interest rates, particularly because our cash equivalents are in the form of standard checking accounts and amounts held in money market funds that are invested in U.S. Treasury securities. Interest income is sensitive to changes in the general level of interest rates. However, due to the short-term maturities of our cash equivalents, we believe a hypothetical 100 basis point increase or decrease in interest rates during any of the periods presented would not have had a material impact on our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus.
As of June 30, 2022, we had no debt outstanding and therefore were not exposed to related interest rate risk.
Foreign Currency Exchange Risk
All of our employees and our operations are currently located in the United States and our expenses are generally denominated in U.S. dollars. We therefore are not currently exposed to significant market risk related to changes in foreign currency exchange rates. However, we have contracted with and may continue to contract with non-U.S. vendors who we may pay in local currency. Our operations may be subject to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates in the future. To date, foreign currency transaction gains and losses have not been material to our financial statements, and we have not had a formal hedging program with respect to foreign currency. We believe a hypothetical 100 basis point increase or decrease in exchange rates during any of the periods presented would not have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus.
Effects of Inflation
Inflation generally affects us by increasing our cost of labor and clinical trial costs. Although we do not believe that inflation has had a material impact on our financial position or results of operations to date, we may experience some effect in the near future (especially if inflation rates continue to rise) due to an impact on the costs to conduct clinical trials, labor costs we incur to attract and retain qualified personnel, and other operational costs. Inflationary costs could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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Overview
We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of the next wave of medicine for the treatment of allergic and inflammatory diseases. Our lead product candidate, THB001, is a highly selective, oral small molecule inhibitor of KIT, a cell surface receptor that acts as the master survival and functional regulator of mast cells. Mast cells are a part of the immune system, and dysfunctional mast cell activity has been implicated in the pathophysiology of a broad range of allergic and other inflammatory disorders including urticaria, asthma and gastrointestinal disorders, among others. KIT inhibition has shown positive clinical responses in mast cell mediated diseases such as asthma and chronic urticaria. In our recently completed Phase 1a clinical trial, THB001 demonstrated dose-dependent reductions of serum tryptase, a key biomarker of mast cell activity which has been shown to correlate with clinical benefit in chronic urticaria patients. We submitted a CTA in Europe for our dose escalation Phase 1b proof-of-concept trial in chronic inducible urticaria in May 2022, and expect to initiate the trial in the second half of 2022. We also intend to submit a CTA to support initiation of a Phase 1b trial in asthma in the first half of 2023. We intend to submit both a CTA in Europe and an IND in the United States to support initiation of a Phase 2 trial in chronic spontaneous urticaria in the first half of 2024. We are also exploring development opportunities across a range of other indications where THB001 may provide benefit to patients suffering from mast cell driven inflammation to demonstrate the pipeline-in-a-product potential of THB001. There is no guarantee that any CTA that we submit will be approved, and even if a CTA were to be approved, there is no guarantee that our trials will begin within our anticipated timeframe.
Mast cells are a main driver of allergic inflammatory responses. They are present throughout the body in connective and vascularized tissues, most prominently along surface boundaries with exposure to the external environment: in the skin, the respiratory tract and the gastrointestinal tract. For many patients suffering from allergic conditions, inhibition of mast cell derived mediators, including histamines, leukotrienes and prostaglandins, has demonstrated insufficient therapeutic value to date given that many mast cell-driven disorders involve multiple pro-inflammatory mediators. As a result, we believe that targeting mast cells directly through highly selective inhibition of KIT is key to achieving the clinical efficacy needed for broad symptomatic relief across a range of allergic and other inflammatory disorders.
Since KIT is a cell surface receptor that acts as the master regulator of mast cell function and survival, our approach impacts mast cells directly and provides what we believe to be a favorable point of intervention. Furthermore, significant clinical and nonclinical data has been generated internally and by third parties that demonstrate that KIT is a potential target for broad and potentially clinically differentiated inhibition of mast cells. For example, an anti-KIT antibody demonstrated positive clinical responses in chronic inducible urticaria patients in a third-party Phase 1 trial.
Our lead product candidate THB001 is a potent and highly selective, oral small molecule wild-type KIT inhibitor in development for the treatment of mast cell mediated inflammatory diseases. In nonclinical studies, THB001 demonstrated what we believe to be evidence of highly selective KIT inhibition and mast cell depletion in skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal tissues with a potent therapeutic profile. We believe that chronic inducible urticaria represents an attractive initial clinical indication for THB001 as a precursor for chronic spontaneous urticaria, given the ability to efficiently evaluate clinical activity outcomes through provocation testing, in concert with biomarker measures of mast cell activity and safety data. Our goal is to be a leader in the oral KIT inhibitor space, and we continue to invest in formulation and discovery for next generation molecules. In addition to initially developing THB001 for treatment of chronic urticaria, we are exploring THB001 as a potential treatment for other indications where mast cell dysfunction plays a key role.
In our recently completed Phase 1a trial in healthy volunteers, we have observed dose dependent increases in THB001 serum concentration levels above the KIT cellular IC50 value. As positive signs of the potential efficacy of THB001, we observed that dose levels of 200 mg once daily, or QD, 200 mg twice daily, or BID, and 400 mg BID resulted in dose dependent declines in serum tryptase. The twice daily dose at the 400 mg level of
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THB001 resulted in mean serum tryptase that was at the lower limit of quantification. Reductions in serum tryptase have been associated with a robust clinical response in a clinical trial of an anti-KIT antibody in chronic inducible urticaria patients conducted by a third party. Furthermore, THB001 was well-tolerated, with no serious adverse events, or SAEs, one moderate adverse event that led to discontinutation and one mild adverse event that led to discontinuation, but was deemed not related to the drug, in the trial to date.
We submitted a CTA in Europe for our dose escalation Phase 1b proof-of-concept trial in chronic inducible urticaria in May 2022, and expect to initiate the trial in the second half of 2022. We also intend to submit a CTA to support initiation of a Phase 1b trial in asthma in the first half of 2023. We intend to submit both a CTA in Europe and an IND in the United States to support initiation of a Phase 2 trial in chronic spontaneous urticaria in the first half of 2024.
There remains a large unmet need in chronic urticaria. Epidemiological studies indicate that up to 25% of the population suffers from urticaria at some point in their lifetime, with 0.5-1% of the population suffering from the disease at any point in time, suggesting a point prevalence of over 1.5 million patients in the United States. Approximately 70% to 80% of patients with urticaria are women. Many patients are first provided H1 antihistamine therapy when diagnosed with urticaria; however, there remains a large unmet need. Approximately 50% of chronic spontaneous urticaria patients continue to experience itch and hives despite H1 antihistamine treatment at FDA-approved doses. There have been no new approved therapies to treat chronic urticaria in eight years, and the most recently approved treatment, the injectable biologic Xolair, provided complete hive and itch symptom relief to approximately 36% of patients in clinical trials. We believe Xolair is currently addressing less than 20% of eligible patients whose symptoms have failed to be controlled by H1 antihistamine therapy. There is a clear unmet need for chronic urticaria treatments that provide higher levels of complete hive and itch symptom relief, while also providing improved patient comfort and convenience via an oral route of administration. We believe an oral therapy offers clear advantages over an injectable therapy, and an oral therapy with the potential to improve upon the results of the existing standard of care offers a significant opportunity to address a large unmet need. While the potential market opportunity within urticaria alone is vast, dysfunctional mast cell activity has also been implicated in the pathophysiology of a broad range of allergic and other inflammatory disorders, including respiratory and gastrointestinal disorders. Furthermore, in nonclinical studies, THB001 has demonstrated the ability to deplete mast cells across different tissue types, which we believe supports its ability to potentially treat a range of mast cell mediated skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal conditions supporting our ultimate goal of THB001 achieving its potential as a pipeline-in-a-product. The table below reflects our initial targeted indications for THB001.
Our Team and Investors
Founded by Atlas Venture in 2019, we are led by a strong management team with diverse backgrounds and significant experience in drug discovery, development and company building, as well as a demonstrated track record of delivering breakthrough therapeutic approaches for patients. Our management team are industry veterans with extensive experience at biopharmaceutical companies such as Audentes, Cadent Therapeutics, Genentech/Roche, Gilead Sciences, Morphic Therapeutic and Pfizer. Together, our team has a proven track record in the discovery, development and commercialization of numerous approved therapeutics.
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Since our inception, we are supported by and have raised approximately $155 million of capital from a group of premier life science investors including Atlas Venture, OrbiMed, BVF Partners L.P., General Atlantic, RA Capital, RTW Investments, Boxer Capital, Deep Track Capital, Commodore Capital and Ajax Health|Zeus.
Our Strategy
Our goal is to develop the next wave of medicine for the treatment of allergic and inflammatory diseases. The key components of our strategy are to:
| Continue to advance THB001 through clinical development in chronic urticaria. Chronic urticaria represents a significant unmet need as there is a large patient population who remain poorly controlled or elect not to take the standard of care injectable biologic therapy prescribed for antihistamine refractory patients. We believe that a highly selective, convenient, oral small molecule KIT inhibitor that targets mast cells directly provides a potentially new compelling treatment option. We believe THB001s potency, selectivity, tolerability profile and oral bioavailability offers a promising therapeutic profile for the substantial chronic urticaria market. We submitted a CTA in Europe for our dose escalation Phase 1b proof-of-concept trial in chronic inducible urticaria in May 2022, and expect to initiate the trial in the second half of 2022. |
| Continue to advance THB001 into our second indication in asthma. Given the prior clinical validation of small molecule KIT inhibition for the treatment of asthma, we believe asthma is a potential second indication for THB001. In clinical results by a third party published in The New England Journal of Medicine, imatinib, a multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor that has demonstrated KIT inhibitory activity, achieved a 43% reduction in plasma levels of serum tryptase, a biomarker used to assess mast cell activation, for patients with severe refractory asthma, which resulted in a statistically significant decrease in airway hyperresponsiveness at 24 weeks. We believe these results provide compelling clinical proof-of-concept that mast cell reduction may drive meaningful symptomatic relief. In addition, in nonclinical studies, THB001 produced statistically significant airway improvements in a rat model of allergic asthma. We intend to submit a CTA to support initiation of a Phase 1b trial in asthma in the first half of 2023. |
| Develop THB001 in a broad range of indications across therapeutic areas where mast cell driven inflammation can benefit from THB001s product profile, including in the skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. We believe that KIT inhibition may find wide therapeutic utility across a range of inflammatory indications as mast cells are present in numerous tissue types. There are multiple skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal conditions such as atopic dermatitis, prurigo nodularis, chronic rhinusitis, allergic conjunctivitis, eosinophilic esophagitis and irritable bowel syndrome, where we believe mast cells maintain a vital role in driving the pathophysiology of the disease. We believe these potential extension opportunities represent attractive markets with clinical unmet need and established development and regulatory pathways. In our nonclinical studies, THB001 has demonstrated the ability to potently deplete mast cells across a variety of tissue types tested in rats and dogs. |
| Continue to innovate and potentially expand the pipeline through our internal discovery efforts and selectively evaluate strategic collaborations. Our team brings invaluable experience from all aspects of drug discovery, clinical development, business development and commercialization. We will continue to invest in research and development and evaluate potential selective collaboration opportunities to build upon our deep know-how around oral small molecule KIT inhibition to potentially advance next-generation compounds and expand our pipeline in allergic and inflammatory diseases. |
Overview of Mast Cells and KIT
Mast Cells and Their Role in Immunity
Mast cells derive from KIT-positive hematopoietic progenitors in the bone marrow and are present throughout the body in connective and vascularized tissues, most prominently along surface boundaries with
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exposure to the external environment such as the skin, the respiratory tract and the gastrointestinal tract. Their numerous physiological functions include regulation of inflammation, vasodilation, vascular homeostasis and angiogenesis as well as involvement in the control of other elements of the immune response. Dysfunctional mast cell activity has been implicated in the pathophysiology of a broad range of allergic and other inflammatory disorders, including urticaria, asthma and gastrointestinal disorders, among others.
The cytoplasm of mast cells stores inflammatory mediators including histamine, the proteolytic enzyme tryptase, and various cytokines including interleukins IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13, and Tumor Necrosis Factor-a, or TNF-a. Mast cells express multiple cell-surface receptors, one of which is FceR that has particularly high affinity for immunoglobin E, or IgE, antibodies. As shown in the figure below, upon the stimulation of IgE, change of temperature, or pressure, a signaling cascade leads to activation of the mast cell and its degranulation resulting in the release of tryptase, histamine and other inflammatory mediators. In addition to IgE dependent activation, other IgE independent stimuli can also trigger mast cell activation. The release of inflammatory mediators can manifest into a broad range of allergic or inflammatory diseases. Moreover, mast cell activation and degranulation lead to the recruitment of other progenitor cells to the specific tissue site and the propagation of the inflammatory response.
Mast cells mediate multiple pro-inflammatory activities
In the skin, antigens activate mast cells in the deep layers of connective tissue triggering the release of histamine and other vasoactive molecules, and causing allergic reactions, including urticaria. In chronic urticaria, patients will develop wheals, together with the sensations of pain and itch. If antigens activate mast cells deeper in the tissue this can lead to angioedema. Another chronic skin disorder involving mast cells is atopic dermatitis, or eczema.
In the respiratory tract, mucosal mast cells in the nasal epithelium are activated by inhaled antigens, eliciting an immune response and resulting in airway constriction, increased mucous production and cough. Mast cells also play a role in the pathophysiology of asthma which is caused by an inflammatory response in the airways due to inhaled antigens that get into the lower respiratory tract and cause mast cell degranulation and local inflammation. This leads to symptoms characteristic of asthma including increased vascular permeability, fluid accumulation, edema, bronchial constriction and obstruction of airways.
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In the gastrointestinal tract, dietary proteins can act as antigens and activate the immune system in affected individuals. Antigens permeate the epithelial layer of the mucosa of the gut and bind to IgE antibodies on mucosal mast cells. Elevated numbers of activated mast cells have been observed in allergic eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders, including eosinophilic esophagitis, gastritis and duodenitis. Mast cells are also involved in the pathophysiology of irritable bowel syndrome and, inflammatory bowel disease, including driving symptomology via their close interaction with nerves.
KIT Signaling in Mast Cells is a Central Node for Therapeutic Intervention
The receptor tyrosine kinase KIT, also known as CD117, is recognized as a master regulator of mast cell activity. Under normal physiological conditions, mast cell progenitors circulate in an immature form and only fully develop into mature mast cells upon migration to a specific tissue type. Mature mast cells remain localized to a designated destination. The figure below shows the KIT structure on the mast cell membrane. As shown below, stem cell factor, or SCF, which is also referred as the c-kit ligand, binds to KIT on the surface of the mast cell, enables signal transduction into the mast cell and activates the KIT-mediated signaling cascade critical to mast cell survival, propagation and differentiation via pathways such as PLCg, JAK2/STAT, PI3K/AKT and RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK.
KIT (CD117) is the master regulator of mast cell function and survival
As the master regulator of mast cell function and survival, we believe that the KIT-SCF signaling axis is the optimal intervention point to treat many mast cell mediated diseases. Inhibition of KIT drives both mast cell inactivation and depletion, independent of mast cell activation status.
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In a rat model of allergic asthma, THB001 achieved statistically significant reduction in early airway response, correlating with the depletion of mast cells. Consistent with our nonclinical findings, significant clinical and nonclinical data that have been generated by us and by third-party organizations support KIT as an attractive therapeutic target for mast cell regulation. The multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib, which is sold under the brand name Gleevec, has been approved by the FDA to treat chronic myelogenous leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome, among other indications. In clinical results by a third party published in The New England Journal of Medicine, daily imatinib, which has demonstrated KIT inhibitory activity, achieved a 43% reduction in plasma levels of serum tryptase, a biomarker used to assess mast cell activation, for patients with severe refractory asthma, which resulted in statistically significant improvement in airway hyperresponsiveness at 24 weeks. We believe these results provide compelling clinical proof-of-concept that mast cell reduction may drive meaningful symptomatic relief. Furthermore, an anti-KIT antibody demonstrated compelling clinical responses in patients with chronic inducible urticaria in a Phase 1 clinical trial conducted by a third party.
Therapeutic Modulation of the Allergic Response
There are several approved therapeutics used to treat allergy and related inflammatory conditions by targeting specific mediators released by mast cells upon degranulation, including histamines, leukotrienes, cytokines, such as IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, and TNF-a. However, we believe targeting the mast cell directly provides a broader approach to addressing mast cell mediated diseases over only targeting an individual mediator. Due to the involvement of multiple pro-inflammatory mediators, mast cell mediator inhibitors often require use in combination with another treatment modality. As a result, single agent inhibition of individual mast cell mediators, such as the H1 antihistamine, do not provide adequate symptomatic relief to a large proportion of the patient population.
Under current standard of care, patients whose disease does not respond to mediator inhibition, are often candidates for anti-IgE monoclonal antibodies, or mAbs, designed to inhibit IgE-driven mast cell activation. While IgE blockade has demonstrated some clinical benefit in the treatment of a range of mast cell mediated inflammatory disorders, anti-IgE therapy does not fully remedy symptoms for most patients, potentially in part because it does not address IgE-independent pathways of mast cell activation. Omalizumab, the anti-IgE mAb sold under the brand name Xolair, is approved for the treatment of persistent allergic asthma, nasal polyps and chronic spontaneous urticaria. Omalizumab generated an estimated $3.5 billion in 2021 sales worldwide.
Despite current treatment options, there remains a significant unmet need. The targeting of the mast cell directly represents a novel therapeutic approach to address inflammatory diseases. While this approach benefits from clinical validation, advancing the development of therapeutics designed to directly reduce mast cell activity has been thwarted by the potential risk of off-target adverse effects. We believe THB001 has the potential to address this unmet need and enable us to exploit the advantages of mast cell inhibition.
Overview of Urticaria
Urticaria, which is also referred to as hives, is a common inflammatory disorder that has a lifetime prevalence of up to 25% with females twice as likely to experience the condition as men. Onset peaks between the ages of 20 and 40 years old. It is not a single disease but a reaction pattern that represents cutaneous mast cell degranulation. Mast cell degranulation and the release of vasoactive mediators, primarily histamine, results in extravasation of plasma into the dermis, forming the characteristic hives and edematous pruritic pink wheals of various shape and size.
While the majority of urticaria cases involve acute episodes which are self-limiting and of a short duration, patients with chronic urticaria experience constant or frequently recurring lesions for six or more weeks regularly over months if not years. Chronic urticaria has a negative impact on patients quality of life, particularly as the occurrence of angioedema often leads to significant discomfort. Patients have reported an impact on facets of
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everyday life that include lack of quality sleep, recreation and social interaction, mobility, rest and work. As such, patients with chronic urticaria frequently exhibit psychiatric comorbidities such as anxiety and depression. At any time, 0.5-1% of the population suffers from chronic urticaria, suggesting a point prevalence of over 1.5 million patients in the United States. Approximately 70% to 80% of patients with urticaria are women. The duration of the disease is generally 1-5 years but is likely to be longer in more severe cases.
Chronic urticaria is comprised of two distinct disease types, inducible urticaria and spontaneous urticaria, which was previously referred to as idiopathic urticaria. Chronic inducible urticaria is caused by exposure to specific triggers, which include excessive cold or heat, the application of pressure and exercise. No underlying cause or underlying disease process has been identified in the majority of patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria. In patients with no identified trigger, the rate of spontaneous remission at 1 year is approximately 20% to 50%, while 30% of moderate to severe patients suffer from chronic urticaria for more than 5 years.
Current Treatments for Chronic Urticaria
Current chronic urticaria treatment guidelines recommend first line treatment with second generation H1 antihistamines to provide hive and itch symptom control. For those patients whose symptoms remain uncontrolled following first line therapy, second line treatment is initiated with either elevated doses (up to fourfold) of second generation H1 antihistamines or the addition of another class of agent including first generation H1 antihistamines. For the approximately 50% of chronic spontaneous urticaria patients who remain uncontrolled following second line therapy, Xolair is approved as third line therapy. In clinical trials, Xolair reported complete response rates of approximately 36% in chronic spontaneous urticaria and is estimated to address less than 20% of eligible patients whose symptoms have failed to be controlled by H1 antihistamine therapy. As such, there remains a large population of patients that have unmet need.
Our Solution: The KIT Inhibitor THB001
Summary
THB001 is a highly potent and selective, small molecule wild-type KIT inhibitor in development for the treatment of mast cell mediated inflammatory diseases. THB001 is designed to offer attractive drug-like properties, including high potency and oral bioavailability, and high selectivity for the wild-type KIT receptor. Based on nonclinical and available clinical data to date, we believe THB001 differentiates from other KIT-targeting therapeutics in the following designed aspects:
| The small molecule modality is anticipated to provide more refined dose titration capabilities than anti-KIT mAbs. |
| Oral administration offers improved patient convenience while avoiding mAb-related injection events. |
| Higher selectivity for wild-type KIT relative to other small molecule inhibitors. The most potent THB001 off-target effect was against the tyrosine kinase receptor colony stimulating factor 1 with approximately 48-fold selectivity versus KIT when evaluated in a cell-based Ba/F3 assay. Selectivity against platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR)-a and PDGFR-b was 198- and 106-fold, respectively, in cell-based assays. |
| THB001 binds intracellularly to an inactive conformation of KIT, avoiding the risk of paradoxical mast cell activation that can result from a KIT mAb binding to the extracellular portion of the KIT receptor. |
In our recently completed Phase 1a clinical trial, THB001 demonstrated dose-dependent reductions of serum tryptase, a key biomarker of mast cell activity which has been shown to correlate with clinical benefit in chronic urticaria patients. We submitted a CTA in Europe for our dose escalation Phase 1b proof-of-concept trial in chronic inducible urticaria in May 2022, and expect to initiate the trial in the second half of 2022. We also intend to submit
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a CTA to support initiation of a Phase 1b trial in asthma in the first half of 2023. We intend to submit both a CTA in Europe and an IND in the United States to support initiation of a Phase 2 trial in chronic spontaneous urticaria in the first half of 2024. We are also exploring development opportunities across a range of other indications where THB001 may provide benefit to patients suffering from mast cell driven inflammation to demonstrate the pipeline-in-a-product potential of THB001.
In addition, we are continuing to optimize the formulation of THB001 from our free base formulation for clinical entry toward a commercial formulation which achieves our target product profile. We have identified a micronized THB001·HCl salt formulation that has demonstrated more favorable solubility, dissolution, manufacturability, and dog pharmacokinetics, or PK, performance over the free base formulation in nonclinical studies. Interim PK data of our THB001·HCl salt formulation in normal healthy volunteers indicates improved exposure per unit dose. We anticipate this improved THB001·HCl salt formulation will enable a QD dosing regimen in future clinical trials.
Phase 1a Healthy Volunteer Trial Design
We recently conducted a three-part, 84 subject, Phase 1a clinical trial of THB001 in healthy adult volunteers between the ages of 18 and 65. The primary objective is to evaluate safety and tolerability. Secondary objectives include characterizing pharmacokinetics, including in the presence or absence of food to inform further clinical and drug product formulation development and to measure the pharmacodynamic effect by serum tryptase. The first part of this trial was a single-ascending dose, or SAD, involving five cohorts of up to ten participants assigned to receive a single dose of THB001 or placebo in a 3:1 ratio. Doses ranged from 10 mg to 600 mg across the five cohorts. The second part of the trial was designed to evaluate the effect of food on the pharmacokinetics, or PK, profile of 200 mg THB001. A single 200 mg dose was administered to one cohort of ten participants, half of which received THB001 along with a standardized high-fat breakfast, while the other half received THB001 in a fasted state. Following a washout period of at least 7 days, each participant crossed over to receive THB001 in the alternate fed or fasted state. Safety and tolerability of THB001, together with its PK profile was evaluated during this portion of the trial. Upon completion of this second part of the Phase 1a trial, a sixth SAD cohort was added enabling the evaluation of a 400 mg THB001 dose when administered together with food. The third part of the Phase 1a trial was a multiple ascending dose, or MAD, format of four eight-subject cohorts, administered THB001 over 14 consecutive days. The first cohort received 200 mg of THB001 QD, the second cohort received 200 mg of THB001 BID, the third cohort received 400 mg THB001 BID, and the fourth cohort received 500 mg QD administered with a standardized non-high fat breakfast to further characterize the effect of food on the PK of THB001. A schema of our Phase 1a trial is presented below.
Schema of our Phase 1a trial in healthy volunteers.
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Phase 1a Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, and Biomarker Data in Healthy Volunteers
In the SAD portion of the Phase 1a trial, we observed approximately dose proportional increases in serum concentration of THB001 between the 10 mg and 300 mg doses. As reflected in the chart below at 300 mg and higher dosing levels, THB001 concentration exceeded 100 ng/ml through 24 hours, which is the level needed to achieve a KIT half-maximal inhibitory concentration, or IC50, between daily doses. This is consistent with the observed mean half-life of THB001 of approximately 24 hours. Administration of THB001 in combination with food was also noted to enhance exposure approximately three-fold.
SAD pharmacokinetics in doses up to 600 mg
In the MAD portion of the trial, the increase in THB001 dosage from 200 mg BID to 400 mg BID was observed to generate approximately dose proportional increases in THB001 serum concentration levels which provided a trough value difference between unbound THB001 and the KIT IC50 of approximately 20-fold, which provides evidence of attractive therapeutic exposure. Administration of 500 mg QD with a standardized non-high fat breakfast produced a PK profile that was similar to the 200 mg BID dose administered in the fasted state, confirming the positive effect of food on THB001 exposure.
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200/400 mg BID and 500 mg QD dosing of THB001 generated through serum concentrations which exceeded the IC50
Dose levels of 200 mg per day or greater, given QD or BID, were observed to result in dose dependent declines in serum tryptase concentrations, a key biomarker of mast cell activity which has been demonstrated to correlate with clinical benefit in chronic urticaria, as compared to placebo, or PBO, as reflected in the graph below.
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Twice-daily administration of THB001 resulted in a dose-dependent decrease in serum tryptase levels.
As reflected in the chart presented below, which shows absolute serum tryptase levels in patients over time, twice daily dosing of the higher 400 mg level of THB001 resulted in mean serum tryptase which was at the lower limit of quantification.
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The higher 400 mg BID dose resulted in a serum tryptase level at the lower limit of quantitation.
Phase 1a Safety Data in Healthy Volunteers
THB001 was well-tolerated at all dose levels administered in the SAD and MAD cohorts in this Phase 1a trial.
In the SAD cohort, no SAEs were observed. Among the AEs recorded, one was categorized as moderate due to a rash and the remaining were characterized as mild in intensity and included headache, fatigue, myalgia and dizziness. Adverse events did not result in any early terminations or subject discontinuation from participation in this portion of the trial. No trial stopping criteria were met and no significant changes or trends in hematology, blood chemistries, vital signs or electrocardiogram, or ECG, measurements were noted. The following table shows all treatment emergent adverse events that were reported by more than two patients.
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In the MAD portion of the Phase 1a trial, no SAEs were observed. Among the AEs recorded, three were categorized as moderate and the remaining categorized as mild. Among the three AEs characterized as moderate, two AEs were determined to have been unlikely to be related to or unrelated to THB001. The treatment related moderate AE was low neutrophil levels, which resolved after discontinuation in the trial. This subject was subsequently determined to have a neutrophil count below the lower range limit prior to entering the trial. AEs reported as mild included change in hair color, headache, nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, COVID-19, gastric reflux, nasopharyngitis and skin irritation, and one subject experiencing a mild AE discontinued the Phase 1a trial on day twelve due to anxiety. As in the SAD portion of the trial, no trial stop criteria were encountered and no clinically relevant changes or trends in hematology, blood chemistries, vital signs or ECG measurements were observed. The following table shows all treatment emergent adverse events that were reported by more than two patients.
As reflected in the charts below, neutrophil declines were initially observed, but stabilized, and the average values remained above the lower limit of normal through day 14. In addition, declines in reticulocytes were observed, a pre-cursor cell to red blood cells; however, these declines did not manifest into any clinically meaningful adverse events and did translate into hemoglobin levels below the lower limit of normal, which is a key clinical measure given hemoglobin is a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to tissues throughout the body. We believe compensatory mechanisms, such as erythropoietin signaling, mitigate the effects of KIT inhibition.
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Nonclinical Safety Pharmacology and Toxicology
A standard battery of nonclinical central nervous system, cardiovascular and respiratory safety pharmacology studies have been completed with THB001 with no findings anticipated to be of clinical relevance. Genotoxicity assessments conducted according to International Conference on Harmonization, or ICH, guidance were negative as were tests for photoirradiation potential.
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The nonclinical toxicology profile of THB001 has been demonstrated to be on-target with evidence of reversibility. Repeat dose GLP toxicology studies of up to 13 weeks of continuous dosing or 14 weeks of episodic dosing have been completed with THB001 in both rats and dogs. As expected and consistent with KIT function, dose related on-target histopathologic observations were noted in spermatogenesis, hematology and hair pigmentation. Either partial or complete reversibility was established during the recovery periods for these findings consistent with the growth kinetics of affected cells. We believe these effects will be completely reversible with sufficient recovery periods.
Species difference in the hematologic effects of inhibition or genetic loss of function of KIT have been reported with rodents and dogs being relatively more sensitive than monkeys and humans. For example, the disproportionate sensitivity of mice relative to humans has been mechanistically attributed to the lack the compensatory expression of the receptor tyrosine kinase FLT3 in mice during different stages of hematopoietic stem cell differentiation.
In nonclinical animal models of allergic disease, THB001 showed dose-dependent reductions in tissue mast cells correlating with efficacy in rat models of dermal anaphylaxis (28 day passive cutaneous anaphylaxis) and asthma (9 day ovalbumin induced early airway response). Trough levels of THB001 in these studies were consistent with levels achieved during our Phase 1a healthy volunteer trial.
As expected based on the role of KIT in fetal development, an initial embryo fetal development study of THB001 in rats has shown evidence for teratogenicity. We have initiated a development and reproductive toxicology, or DART, program and intend to conduct genotoxicity assessments in accordance with ICH guidelines. We believe that the administration of THB001 in women of childbearing potential will require the concomitant use of appropriate birth control measures.
We believe these studies support the planned Phase 1b trial in CIndU, regulatory filing for asthma and further clinical development of THB001. We have initiated the chronic toxicology of 26 weeks in rats and 39 weeks in dogs required to continue dosing beyond 13 weeks in Phase 2.
Our Planned Phase 1b Trial in Chronic Inducible Urticaria
We submitted a CTA in Europe for our dose escalation Phase 1b proof-of-concept trial in chronic inducible urticaria in May 2022, and expect to initiate the trial in the second half of 2022. Chronic inducible urticaria is caused by exposure to excessive cold or heat, the application of pressure and exercise, among other triggers. Accordingly, there is an inherent ability to induce the disease state in the clinical setting, similar to real world triggering situations, in a predictable and controlled manner through provocation testing. We believe that chronic inducible urticaria represents an attractive initial clinical indication for THB001 as a precursor for chronic spontaneous urticaria, given the ability to efficiently evaluate clinical activity outcomes through provocation testing, in concert with biomarker measures of mast activity and safety data.
We plan to seek regulatory approval to commercialize THB001 or any future product candidates in the United States, the European Union and in selected foreign countries, including the United Kingdom and Japan.
Pipeline-in-a-Product Potential of THB001
Dysfunctional mast cell activity has been implicated in the pathophysiology of a broad range of allergic and other inflammatory disorders that impact the skin, eye, respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tract. Given KIT is the master regulator of mast cell function and survival, we believe that KIT inhibition is the optimal approach to treat many of these mast cell mediated diseases. As such, we believe THB001 represents a pipeline-in-a-product opportunity.
Related to the skin and eye, potential indications addressable with KIT inhibition include chronic urticaria, systemic sclerosis, atopic dermatitis and allergic conjunctivitis. We submitted a CTA in Europe for our dose escalation Phase 1b proof-of-concept trial in chronic inducible urticaria in May 2022, and expect to initiate the
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trial in the second half of 2022. We also intend to submit both a CTA in Europe and an IND in the United States to support initiation of a Phase 2 trial in chronic spontaneous urticaria in the first half of 2024.
In the respiratory tract, potential indications addressable with KIT inhibition include asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis, or CRSwNP. We intend to submit for regulatory clearance to initiate a Phase 1b trial for asthma in the first half of 2023.
In the gastrointestinal tract, potential indications addressable with KIT inhibition include irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, eosinophilic esophagitis and food allergy.
Examples of selected mast cell mediated diseases potentially addressable with KIT inhibition
THB001s Therapeutic Potential in Other Mast Cell Driven Inflammatory and Allergic Diseases
Nonclinical studies of THB001 provide evidence of its ability to deplete and inhibit mast cell activity in multiple species and tissue types. Significant therapeutic improvement has also been observed in animal disease models.
In a 14-day repeat dose study of THB001 conducted in dogs, samples were collected from the skin both before and after administration of the drug candidate and evaluated for mast cell counts. As is reflected in the results presented below, we observed a dose-dependent decline in mean skin mast cell count in every treated animal. Statistical significance is important and when used herein is denoted by p-values. The p-value is the probability that the reported result was achieved purely by chance (for example, a p-value < 0.001 means that there is a less than 0.1% chance that the observed change was purely due to chance). Generally, a p-value less than 0.05 is considered to be statistically significant.
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THB001 generated dose-dependent mast cell depletion in a 14-day repeat dose study in dogs.
In a rat model of allergic asthma conducted by Novartis, THB001 also demonstrated robust in vivo activity, with improvements in early airway response, or EAR, and reduction in the lung mast cell specific gene signature by approximately 50% or greater. The degranulation of mast cells is the main contributor in the early phase allergic response upon antigen exposure and accordingly, inhibition of mast cell survival and function by prevention of KIT activation is expected to result in the improvement of allergic symptoms.
In this study, animals received OVA antigen to stimulate allergic reaction in the lung with the exception of one cohort receiving saline. The OVA antigen treated animals were administered either a 3 mg/kg, or mpk, 5 mpk or 10 mpk dose of THB001 twice daily for seven days and compared to animals administered vehicle alone. As is reflected in the experimental results presented in the chart below, THB001 produced a dose dependent, statistically significant therapeutic response, with measures of lung function enhanced pause, or Penh, used to assess changes in the shape of airflow pattern entering and leaving the animal, displaying notable improvement with increased KIT inhibition. Moreover, at the lowest level administered to the animals, 3 mg/kg BID, the unbound serum concentration of THB001 exceeded the in vitro KIT IC50 over the dosing period, providing evidence of adequate sustained suppression of KIT-mediated signaling activity.
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The use of THB001 produced statistically significant airway improvements in a rat model of allergic asthma.
Gene expression profiles provided further support of THB001s inhibition of mast cell activity. Expression patterns for mast cell associated genes were evaluated after administration of the various dose levels of THB001 relative to expression levels observed after dosing with vehicle. These expression profiles revealed that at approximately one-half the expression levels seen after administration of vehicle, which was achieved at the lower dosing level of 3 mpk, the animals began to benefit from significant airway improvement. These results suggest that modulation to some intermediate inhibitory level that is less than complete inhibition of mast cell activity may provide meaningful clinical benefit. The analysis of the gene expression profiles is outlined in the chart below.
Mast cell-associated gene expression is suppressed in the presence of THB001.
Percentage of Vehicle Response
Treatment | Challenge | Cpa3 | FceR1a | Mcpt2 | Mcpt9 | |||||
None |
Saline | 68 | 80 | 55 | 76 | |||||
Vehicle |
OVA | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | |||||
3 mg/kg THB001 (BID) |
OVA | 44 | 38 | 46 | 50 | |||||
5 mg/kg THB001 (BID) |
OVA | 41 | 38 | 47 | 54 | |||||
10 mg/kg THB001 (BID) |
OVA | 24 | 21 | 28 | 29 |
Abbreviations: BID=twice daily; Cpa3=carboxypeptidase 3; FceR1a=Fc epsilon receptor 1 alpha chain; Mcpt2=Mast cell tryptase 2; Mcpt9=Mast cell tryptase 9; OVA=ovalbumin.
The Therapeutic Benefit of THB001 May Extend to a Range of Tissues
We are also exploring development opportunities across a range of other indications where THB001 may provide benefit to patients suffering from mast cell driven inflammation. We believe that KIT inhibition may provide wide therapeutic utility across other indications as mast cells are present in numerous tissue types with external exposures. In addition to skin, where chronic urticaria represents our initial clinical indication, there are multiple respiratory and gastrointestinal conditions including eosinophilic esophagitis and asthma, where we believe mast cells maintain a vital role in driving the pathophysiology of the disease. We believe these potential additional opportunities represent attractive markets with established development and regulatory pathways, for which there remains a large unmet need.
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For example, approximately five to ten percent of asthma patients suffer from severe asthma, or an estimated 750,000 to one million patients in the United States alone.
In a nine-day repeat dose rat pharmacology study, THB001 demonstrated the ability to potently deplete mast cells across all tissues tested. As is noted in the chart below, in tissue taken from the oral cavity (tongue tissue) and the small intestine (ileum and jejunum tissue), there was statistically significant mast cell suppression following administration of THB001.
THB001 demonstrated mass cell depletion across a range of tissue types.
Licenses, Partnerships and Collaborations
License Agreement with Novartis International Pharmaceutical Ltd.
On June 28, 2019, we entered into a license agreement with Novartis International Pharmaceutical Ltd. (which subsequently merged into the company Novartis Pharma AG), or Novartis, as amended, or the Novartis Agreement. Pursuant to the Novartis Agreement, Novartis granted us an exclusive, worldwide, sublicensable (subject to certain requirements therein) license under specified patent rights and know-how related to three licensed compounds to develop, make, use and sell certain products incorporating or comprising a licensed compound, including THB001, or the Licensed Products. Under the Novartis Agreement, we are solely responsible for all research, development, regulatory and commercialization activities related to the Licensed Products. We are required to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and seek regulatory approval for, and commercialize, at least one Licensed Product in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan.
Pursuant to the Novartis Agreement, we made a one-time payment of $350,000 to Novartis and agreed to issue shares of preferred stock pursuant to that certain Investment Letter dated as of June 27, 2019, or the Novartis Investment Letter. Pursuant to the Novartis Investment Letter, we have issued Novartis 5,970,000 shares of Series A-1 Preferred Stock, consisting of shares issued as part of entering into the agreement and shares issued subsequently under the anti-dilution right included within the license agreement. As of June 30, 2022 all of the Companys obligations under the anti-dilution right have been fulfilled. Further, we are obligated to pay Novartis up to an aggregate of (a) $31.7 million upon the achievement of certain specified development milestones for the Licensed Products and (b) $200.0 million upon the achievement of certain specified sales and commercialization milestones with respect to the Licensed Products. We are also required to pay Novartis, on a Licensed Product-by-Licensed Product and country-by-country basis, tiered royalties in the single-digit percentage range on annual net sales of Licensed Products, subject to reduction and offset upon certain specified events. The foregoing royalty payment obligations will expire on the latest to occur of: (i) expiration of the last valid claim of the licensed patent rights that covers such Licensed Product in such country; (ii) the expiration of any regulatory exclusivity for such Licensed Product in such country; and (iii) ten years following the first
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commercial sale of such Licensed Product in such country. Upon the expiration of such royalty term in a particular country for a particular Licensed Product, the license granted to us with respect to such Licensed Product in such country will become fully paid-up, royalty-free, transferable, perpetual and irrevocable.
The Novartis Agreement will expire (a) on a Licensed Product-by-Licensed Product and country-by-country basis, upon expiration of the royalty term for such Licensed Product in such country and (b) in its entirety upon the expiration of the royalty term with respect to the last Licensed Product being developed, manufactured or commercialized worldwide. Each party may terminate the Novartis Agreement for uncured material breach by the other party or in the case of the other partys insolvency. Additionally, we have the right to terminate the Novartis Agreement for convenience upon 90 days prior written notice to Novartis. Upon termination of the Novartis Agreement by us for convenience or by Novartis for our uncured material breach or insolvency, the license granted to us by Novartis will terminate and we will be obligated to, (i) grant to Novartis an exclusive, worldwide, reversion license under certain patent rights and know-how with respect to the terminated Licensed Products, (ii) transfer to Novartis certain know-how and regulatory documentation with respect to the terminated Licensed Products and (iii) to the extent applicable, use commercially reasonable efforts to transfer agreements between us and third parties that are solely related to the terminated licensed compounds and Licensed Products.
Manufacturing
We oversee and manage third party Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations, or CDMOs, to support development and manufacture of THB001 for our clinical trials.
We currently use two geographically-distributed CDMOs to supply our GMP drug substance. The manufacturing process is robust with readily-sourced commercially available raw materials and straightforward scalability. The drug substance demonstrates excellent room temperature stability, and all batch releases have met all phase-appropriate specifications.
We use three geographically-distributed CDMOs for drug product manufacturing. The THB001 drug product is a cost-effective and readily scaled solid oral dosage form in standard gelatin capsules. More than 100,000 capsules have been produced to date, which meet all release specifications. Excellent room temperature stability has been established for the THB001 drug product.
We expect to enter into commercial supply agreements with commercial manufacturers prior to any potential approval of THB001. We continue to develop a commercial route for THB001 manufacture in alignment with our program timeline. We believe our current manufacturers are able to supply the upcoming clinical trials and additional CDMOs may be on-boarded at later stages of clinical and commercial development.
Competition
We face substantial competition from multiple sources, including large and specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic research institutions and governmental agencies and public and private research institutions. Our competitors compete with us on the level of the technologies employed, or on the level of development of product candidates. In addition, many small biotechnology companies have formed collaborations with large, established companies to (i) obtain support for their research, development and commercialization of products or (ii) combine several treatment approaches to develop longer lasting or more efficacious treatments that may potentially directly compete with our current or future product candidates. We anticipate that we will continue to face increasing competition as new therapies and combinations thereof, technologies, and data emerge within the field of immunology and, furthermore, within the treatment of allergic and inflammatory conditions.
In addition to the current standard of care treatments for patients with allergic and inflammatory diseases, numerous commercial and academic nonclinical studies and clinical trials are being undertaken by a large number of parties to assess novel technologies and product candidates. There are numerous other competitive
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approaches, including inhibitors of activators of mast cells such as IgE antibodies like omalizumab, inhibitors of mediators such as anti-histamines and anti-IL-4 /IL-13 therapies, other small molecule approaches such as Brutons tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and other small molecule and biologic KIT inhibitors, including Celldexs CDX-0159, a monoclonal antibody KIT inhibitor, among others.
Many of our competitors, either alone or in combination with their respective strategic partners, have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, the regulatory approval process, and marketing than we do. Mergers and acquisition activity in the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and biotechnology sector is likely to result in greater resource concentration among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through sizeable collaborative arrangements with established companies. These competitors also compete with us in recruiting and retain qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs.
Our commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if one or more of our competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more effective, better tolerated, or of greater convenience or economic benefit than our proposed product offering. Our competitors also may be in a position to obtain FDA or other regulatory approval for their products more rapidly, resulting in a stronger or dominant market position before we are able to enter the market. The key competitive factors affecting the success of all of our programs are likely to be product safety, efficacy, convenience and treatment cost.
Intellectual Property
Intellectual property is of vital importance in our field and in biotechnology generally. We seek to protect and enhance proprietary technology, inventions and improvements that are commercially important to the development of our business by seeking, maintaining, and defending patent rights, whether developed internally or licensed from third parties. We also rely on trade secrets, know-how and continuing technological innovation to develop and maintain our proprietary and intellectual property position. We will also seek to rely on regulatory protection afforded through inclusion in expedited development and review, data exclusivity, market exclusivity and patent term extensions where available.
As with other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, our commercial success will depend in part on obtaining and maintaining patent protection of our current and future product candidates and the methods used to develop and manufacture them, as well as successfully defending any such patents against third-party challenges and operating without infringing on the proprietary rights of others. Our ability to stop third parties from making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing our product candidates will depend on the extent to which we have rights under valid and enforceable patents or trade secrets that cover these activities. We cannot be sure that patents will be granted with respect to any of our pending patent applications or with respect to any patent applications filed by us in the future, nor can we be sure that any patents that may be granted to us in the future will be commercially useful in protecting our product candidates, discovery programs and processes. For this and more comprehensive risks related to our intellectual property, see the section titled Risk FactorsRisks Related to Our Intellectual Property.
The terms of individual patents depend upon the legal term of the patents in the countries in which they are obtained. In most countries in which we file, including the United States, the patent term is 20 years from the earliest date of filing a non-provisional patent application. In the United States, a patents term may be lengthened by patent term adjustment, which compensates a patentee for administrative delays by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, in examining and granting a patent, or may be shortened if a patent is terminally disclaimed over an earlier filed patent. In the United States, the term of a patent that covers an FDA-approved drug may also be eligible for extension, which permits patent term restoration as compensation
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for the patent term lost during the FDA regulatory review process. The Hatch-Waxman Act permits a patent term extension of up to five years beyond the expiration of the patent. The length of the patent term extension is related to the length of time the subject drug candidate is under regulatory review. Patent term extension cannot extend the remaining term of a patent beyond a total of 14 years from the date of product approval, only one patent applicable to an approved drug may be extended and only those claims covering the approved drug, a method for using it, or a method for manufacturing it may be extended. Similar provisions to extend the term of a patent that covers an approved drug are available in Europe and other foreign jurisdictions. In the future, if and when our products receive FDA approval, we expect to apply for patent term extensions on patents covering those products. We plan to seek patent term extensions to any issued patents we may obtain in any jurisdiction where such patent term extensions are available, however there is no guarantee that the applicable authorities, including the FDA in the United States, will agree with our assessment that such extensions should be granted, and if granted, the length of such extensions. For more information regarding the risks related to our intellectual property, see the section titled Risk FactorsRisks Related to Our Intellectual Property.
In some instances, we have submitted and expect to submit patent applications directly to the USPTO as provisional patent applications. Corresponding non-provisional patent applications must be filed not later than 12 months after the provisional application filing date. While we intend to timely file non-provisional patent applications relating to our provisional patent applications, we cannot predict whether any such patent applications will result in the issuance of patents that provide us with any competitive advantage.
We file U.S. non-provisional applications and Patent Cooperation Treaty, or PCT, applications that claim the benefit of the priority date of earlier filed provisional applications, when applicable. The PCT system allows a single application to be filed within 12 months of the original priority date of the patent application, and to designate all of the PCT member states in which national patent applications can later be pursued based on the international patent application filed under the PCT. The PCT searching authority performs a patentability search and issues a non-binding patentability opinion which can be used to evaluate the chances of success for the national applications in foreign countries prior to having to incur the filing fees. Although a PCT application does not issue as a patent, it allows the applicant to seek protection in any of the member states through national-phase applications. At the end of the period of two and a half years from the first priority date of the patent application, separate patent applications can be pursued in any of the PCT member states either by direct national filing or, in some cases by filing through a regional patent organization, such as the European Patent Office. The PCT system delays expenses, allows a limited evaluation of the chances of success for national/regional patent applications and enables substantial savings where applications are abandoned within the first two and a half years of filing.
For all patent applications, we determine claiming strategy on a case-by-case basis. Advice of counsel and our business model and needs are always considered. We seek to file patents containing claims for protection of useful applications of our proprietary technologies and any products, as well as all new applications and/or uses we discover for existing technologies and products, assuming these are strategically valuable. We continuously reassess the number and type of patent applications, as well as the pending and issued patent claims to pursue maximum coverage and value for our processes, and compositions, given existing patent office rules and regulations. Further, claims may be modified during patent prosecution to meet our intellectual property and business needs.
The ability to obtain patent protection and the degree of such protection depends on a number of factors, including the extent of the prior art, the novelty and non-obviousness of the invention, and the ability to satisfy the enablement requirement of the patent laws. In addition, the coverage claimed in a patent application can be significantly reduced before the patent is issued, and its scope can be reinterpreted or further altered even after patent issuance. Consequently, we may not obtain or maintain adequate patent protection for any of our future product candidates or for our technology platform. We cannot predict whether the patent applications we are currently pursuing will issue as patents in any particular jurisdiction or whether the claims of any issued patents will provide sufficient proprietary protection from competitors. Any patents that we hold may be challenged, circumvented or invalidated by third parties.
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In addition to patent protection, we also rely on trademark registration, trade secrets, know how, other proprietary information and continuing technological innovation to develop and maintain our competitive position. We seek to protect and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary information to protect aspects of our business that are not amenable to, or that we do not consider appropriate for, patent protection. Although we take steps to protect our proprietary information and trade secrets, including through contractual means with our employees and consultants, third parties may independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information and techniques or otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or disclose our technology. Thus, we may not be able to meaningfully protect our trade secrets. It is our policy to require our employees, consultants, outside scientific collaborators, sponsored researchers and other advisors to execute confidentiality agreements upon the commencement of employment or consulting relationships with us. These agreements provide that all confidential information concerning our business or financial affairs developed or made known to the individual during the course of the individuals relationship with us is to be kept confidential and not disclosed to third parties except in specific circumstances. Our agreements with employees also provide that all inventions conceived by the employee in the course of employment with us or from the employees use of our confidential information are our exclusive property. However, such confidentiality agreements and invention assignment agreements can be breached and we may not have adequate remedies for any such breach. In addition, our trade secrets may otherwise become known or be independently discovered by competitors. To the extent that our consultants, contractors or collaborators use intellectual property owned by others in their work for us, disputes may arise as to the rights in related or resulting trade secrets, know-how and inventions. For more information regarding the risks related to our intellectual property, see the section titled Risk FactorsRisks Related to Intellectual Property.
The patent positions of biotechnology companies like ours are generally uncertain and involve complex legal, scientific and factual questions. Our commercial success will also depend in part on not infringing upon the proprietary rights of third parties. Third-party patents could require us to alter our development or commercial strategies, or our products or processes, obtain licenses or cease certain activities. Our breach of any license agreements or our failure to obtain a license to proprietary rights required to develop or commercialize our future products may have a material adverse impact on us. If third parties prepare and file patent applications in the United States that also claim technology to which we have rights, we may have to participate in interference or derivation proceedings in the USPTO to determine priority of invention. For more information, see the section titled Risk FactorsRisks Related to Intellectual Property.
When available to expand market exclusivity, our strategy is to obtain, or license additional intellectual property related to current or contemplated development platforms, core elements of technology and/or clinical candidates.
As of June 30, 2022, our overall patent portfolio contained eight patent families that collectively contain issued patents, pending provisional and non-provisional U.S. patent applications, PCT international patent applications, and pending patent applications in foreign jurisdictions. The patents and patent applications have claims relating to our current product candidate THB001, pharmaceutical compositions, methods of use, as well as claims directed to other KIT inhibitor compounds.
THB001
As of June 30, 2022, we exclusively licensed from Novartis a first patent family to THB001 containing patents and patent applications directed to compositions of matter and methods of use. This first patent family contains one patent in the United States, 67 patents, collectively, in Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada, China, Mexico and other foreign countries, as well as over six patent applications pending, collectively, in India, Thailand and other foreign countries. These U.S. and foreign patents, and any further foreign patents that may issue from these pending foreign patent applications, if granted and all appropriate maintenance fees paid, are expected to expire in 2032, not including any patent term adjustment, patent term extension, or SPC.
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As of June 30, 2022, we exclusively licensed from Novartis one patent family and solely own another patent family, each directed to certain physical forms of THB001 and having patent applications to compositions of matter and methods of use. The patent family that we exclusively license to certain physical forms of THB001 contains 16 patent applications, collectively, in the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada, China, Mexico and other foreign countries. Any U.S. or foreign patents that issue from these exclusively licensed patent applications, if granted and all appropriate maintenance fees paid, are expected to expire in year 2040, not including any patent term adjustment, patent term extension, or SPC. Our solely owned patent family directed to certain physical forms of THB001 contains one pending international patent application and one pending U.S. patent application. Any U.S. or foreign patents that issue from these solely owned patent applications, if granted and all appropriate maintenance fees paid, are expected to expire in year 2041, not including any patent term adjustment, patent term extension, or SPC.
As of June 30, 2022, we exclusively licensed from Novartis one patent family and solely own another patent family, each directed to certain pharmaceutical compositions containing THB001 and having patent applications to compositions of matter and methods of use. The patent family that we exclusively license to certain pharmaceutical compositions containing THB001 contains one pending international patent application, one pending U.S. patent application, and one pending patent application in Taiwan, whereby any U.S. or foreign patents that issue based on these exclusively licensed patent applications, if granted and all appropriate maintenance fees paid, are expected to expire in year 2041, not including any patent term adjustment, patent term extension, or SPC. Our solely owned patent family directed to pharmaceutical compositions containing THB001 contains one pending international patent application, one pending U.S. patent application, and one pending patent application in Taiwan, whereby any U.S. or foreign patents that issue based on these solely owned patent applications, if granted and all appropriate maintenance fees paid, are expected to expire in year 2041, not including any patent term adjustment, patent term extension, or SPC.
As of June 30, 2022, we solely owned one pending international patent application directed to methods of treatment using THB001 according to particular dosing protocols. Any U.S. or foreign patents that issue from a national phase patent application filed based on this international application, if granted and all appropriate maintenance fees paid, are expected to expire in year 2042, not including any patent term adjustment, patent term extension, or SPC. Additionally, as of June 30, 2022, we solely owned one pending U.S. provisional application directed to methods of treating certain indications using THB001. Any U.S. or foreign patents that issue from an application claiming priority to this provisional application, if granted and all appropriate maintenance fees paid, are expected to expire in the year 2043, not including any patent term adjustment, patent term extension, or SPC.
Additional KIT Inhibitor Compounds
As of June 30, 2022, we exclusively licensed one patent family from Novartis to additional KIT inhibitor compounds containing patents and patent applications directed to compositions of matter and methods of use. This patent family contains three patents in the United States, 21 patents, collectively, in Europe, Japan, Canada, China, Mexico and other foreign countries, as well as one patent application pending in India and two patent applications pending in Brazil. These U.S. and foreign patents, and any further foreign patents that may issue from these pending foreign patent applications, if granted and all appropriate maintenance fees paid, are expected to expire in 2032, not including any patent term adjustment, patent term extension, or SPC.
Government Regulation
Regulation Within the United States
Government authorities in the United States, at the federal, state and local level, and in other countries and jurisdictions extensively regulate, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, quality control, approval, packaging, storage, recordkeeping, labeling, advertising, promotion, distribution, marketing, post-approval monitoring and reporting, and import and export of pharmaceutical products. The processes for
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obtaining regulatory approvals in the United States and in foreign countries and jurisdictions, along with subsequent compliance with applicable statutes and regulations and other regulatory authorities, require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources.
FDA Approval Process
In the United States, pharmaceutical products are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or FDC Act, and other federal and state statutes and regulations govern, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, storage, recordkeeping, approval, labeling, promotion and marketing, distribution, post-approval monitoring and reporting, sampling and import and export of pharmaceutical products. Failure to comply with applicable U.S. requirements may subject a company to a variety of administrative or judicial sanctions, such as FDA refusal to approve pending new drug applications, or NDAs, warning or untitled letters, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions, fines, civil penalties and criminal prosecution.
Pharmaceutical product development for a new product or certain changes to an approved product in the U.S. typically involves nonclinical laboratory and animal tests, the submission to the FDA of an IND, which must become effective before clinical testing may commence, and adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to establish the safety and effectiveness of the drug for each indication for which FDA approval is sought. Satisfaction of FDA pre-market approval requirements typically takes many years and the actual time required may vary substantially based upon the type, complexity and novelty of the product or disease.
Nonclinical tests include laboratory evaluation of product chemistry, formulation and toxicity, as well as animal trials to assess the characteristics and potential safety and efficacy of the product. The conduct of the nonclinical tests must comply with federal regulations and requirements, including good laboratory practices. The results of nonclinical testing are submitted to the FDA as part of an IND along with other information, including information about product chemistry, manufacturing and controls, and a proposed clinical trial protocol. Long-term nonclinical tests, such as animal tests of reproductive toxicity and carcinogenicity, may continue after the IND is submitted. A 30-day waiting period after the submission of each IND is required prior to the commencement of clinical testing in humans. If the FDA has neither commented on nor questioned the IND within this 30-day period, the clinical trial proposed in the IND may begin. Clinical trials involve the administration of the investigational new drug to healthy volunteers or patients under the supervision of a qualified investigator. Clinical trials must be conducted: (i) in compliance with federal regulations; (ii) in compliance with good clinical practice, or GCP, an international standard meant to protect the rights and health of patients and to define the roles of clinical trial sponsors, administrators and monitors; as well as (iii) under protocols detailing the objectives of the trial, the parameters to be used in monitoring safety and the effectiveness criteria to be evaluated. Each protocol involving testing on U.S. patients and subsequent protocol amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND.
The FDA may order the temporary, or permanent, discontinuation of a clinical trial at any time, or impose other sanctions, if it believes that the clinical trial either is not being conducted in accordance with FDA requirements or presents an unacceptable risk to the clinical trial patients. The study protocol and informed consent information for patients in clinical trials must also be submitted to an institutional review board, or IRB, and ethics committee for approval. An IRB may also require the clinical trial at the site to be halted, either temporarily or permanently, for failure to comply with the IRBs requirements, or may impose other conditions.
Clinical trials to support NDAs for marketing approval are typically conducted in three sequential phases, but the phases may overlap. In Phase 1a, the initial introduction of the drug into healthy human subjects or patients, the drug is tested to assess metabolism, pharmacokinetics, pharmacological actions, side effects associated with increasing doses, and, if possible, early evidence of effectiveness. Phase 2 usually involves trials in a limited patient population to determine the effectiveness of the drug for a particular indication, dosage tolerance and optimum dosage, and to identify common adverse effects and safety risks. If a drug demonstrates
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evidence of effectiveness and an acceptable safety profile in Phase 2 evaluations, Phase 3 trials are undertaken to obtain the additional information about clinical efficacy and safety in a larger number of patients, typically at geographically dispersed clinical trial sites, to permit FDA to evaluate the overall benefit-risk relationship of the drug and to provide adequate information for the labeling of the drug. In most cases, the FDA requires two adequate and well-controlled Phase 3 clinical trials to demonstrate the efficacy of the drug. A single Phase 3 trial may be sufficient in rare instances, including: (i) where the study is a large multicenter trial demonstrating internal consistency and a statistically very persuasive finding of a clinically meaningful effect on mortality, irreversible morbidity or prevention of a disease with a potentially serious outcome and confirmation of the result in a second trial would be practically or ethically impossible; or (ii) when in conjunction with other confirmatory evidence.
The manufacturer of an investigational drug in a Phase 2 or 3 clinical trial for a serious or life-threatening disease is required to make available, such as by posting on its website, its policy on evaluating and responding to requests for expanded access.
After completion of the required clinical testing, an NDA is prepared and submitted to the FDA. FDA approval of the NDA is required before marketing of the product may begin in the U.S. The NDA must include the results of all nonclinical, clinical and other testing and a compilation of data relating to the products pharmacology, chemistry, manufacture and controls. The cost of preparing and submitting an NDA is substantial. The submission of most NDAs is additionally subject to a substantial application user fee, and the applicant under an approved NDA is also subject to an annual program fees for each prescription product. These fees are typically increased annually.
The FDA has 60 days from its receipt of an NDA to determine whether the application will be filed based on the agencys threshold determination that it is sufficiently complete to permit substantive review. Once the submission is filed, the FDA begins an in-depth review. FDA has agreed to certain performance goals in the review of NDAs to encourage timeliness. Most applications for standard review drug products are reviewed within ten to twelve months of the date of submission of the NDA to the FDA; most applications for priority review drugs are reviewed in six to eight months of the date of submission of the NDA to the FDA. Priority review can be applied to drugs that the FDA determines offer major advances in treatment or provide a treatment where no adequate therapy exists. The review process for both standard and priority review may be extended by the FDA for three additional months to consider certain late-submitted information, or information intended to clarify information already provided in the submission.
The FDA may also refer applications for novel drug products, or drug products that present difficult questions of safety or efficacy, to an outside advisory committeetypically a panel that includes clinicians and other expertsfor review, evaluation and a recommendation as to whether the application should be approved. The FDA is not bound by the recommendation of an advisory committee, but it generally follows such recommendations.
Before approving an NDA, the FDA will typically inspect one or more clinical sites to assure compliance with GCP. Additionally, the FDA will inspect the facility or the facilities at which the drug is manufactured. The FDA will not approve the product unless compliance with current good manufacturing practices, or cGMPs, is satisfactory and the NDA contains data that provide substantial evidence that the drug is safe and effective in the indication studied.
After the FDA evaluates the NDA and the manufacturing facilities, it issues either an approval letter or a complete response letter. A complete response letter generally outlines the deficiencies in the submission and may require substantial additional testing, or information, in order for the FDA to reconsider the application. If, or when, those deficiencies have been addressed to the FDAs satisfaction in a resubmission of the NDA, the FDA will issue an approval letter. The FDA has committed to reviewing such resubmissions in two or six months depending on the type of information included. An approval letter authorizes commercial marketing of the drug
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with specific prescribing information for specific indications. As a condition of NDA approval, the FDA may require a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy, or REMS, to help ensure that the benefits of the drug outweigh the potential risks. REMS can include medication guides, communication plans for healthcare professionals, and elements to assure safe use, or ETASU. ETASU can include, but are not limited to, special training or certification for prescribing or dispensing, dispensing only under certain circumstances, special monitoring and the use of patient registries. The requirement for a REMS can materially affect the potential market and profitability of the drug. Moreover, product approval may require substantial post-approval testing and surveillance to monitor the drugs safety or efficacy. Once granted, product approvals may be withdrawn if compliance with regulatory standards is not maintained or problems are identified following initial marketing.
Changes to some of the conditions established in an approved application, including changes in indications, labeling, or manufacturing processes or facilities, require submission and FDA approval of a new NDA or NDA supplement before the change can be implemented. An NDA supplement for a new indication typically requires clinical data similar to that in the original application, and the FDA uses the same procedures and actions in reviewing NDA supplements as it does in reviewing NDAs.
Disclosure of Clinical Trial Information
Sponsors of clinical trials of FDA regulated products, including drugs, are required to register and disclose certain clinical trial information. Information related to the product, patient population, phase of investigation, study sites and investigators and other aspects of the clinical trial is then made public as part of the registration. Sponsors are also obligated to discuss the results of their clinical trials after completion. Disclosure of the results of these trials can be delayed in certain circumstances for up to two years after the date of completion of the trial. Competitors may use this publicly available information to gain knowledge regarding the progress of development programs.
Pediatric Information
Under the Pediatric Research Equity Act, or PREA, NDAs or supplements to NDAs must contain data to assess the safety and effectiveness of the drug for the claimed indications in all relevant pediatric subpopulations and to support dosing and administration for each pediatric subpopulation for which the drug is safe and effective. FDA may grant full or partial waivers, or deferrals, for submission of data. With certain exceptions, PREA does not apply to any drug for an indication for which orphan designation has been granted.
The Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act, or BPCA, provides NDA holders a six-month extension of any exclusivitypatent or nonpatentfor a drug if certain conditions are met. Conditions for exclusivity include FDAs determination that information relating to the use of a new drug in the pediatric population may produce health benefits in that population, FDA making a written request for pediatric studies, and the applicant agreeing to perform, and reporting on, the requested studies within the statutory timeframe. Applications under the BPCA are treated as priority applications, with all of the benefits that designation confers.
Post-Approval Requirements
Once an NDA is approved, a product will be subject to certain post-approval requirements. For instance, the FDA closely regulates the post-approval marketing and promotion of drugs, including standards and regulations for direct-to-consumer advertising, off-label promotion, industry-sponsored scientific and educational activities and promotional activities involving the internet. Drugs may be marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling.
Adverse event reporting and submission of periodic reports are required following FDA approval of an NDA. The FDA also may require post-marketing testing, known as Phase 4 testing, REMS and surveillance to monitor the effects of an approved product, or FDA may place conditions on an approval that could restrict the
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distribution or use of the product. In addition, quality control, drug manufacture, packaging and labeling procedures must continue to conform to cGMPs after approval. Drug manufacturers and certain of their subcontractors are required to register their establishments with FDA and certain state agencies. Registration with the FDA subjects entities to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA, during which the FDA inspects manufacturing facilities to assess compliance with cGMPs. Accordingly, manufacturers must continue to expend time, money and effort in the areas of production and quality-control to maintain compliance with cGMPs. Regulatory authorities may withdraw product approvals or request product recalls if a company fails to comply with regulatory standards, if it encounters problems following initial marketing, or if previously unrecognized problems are subsequently discovered.
The Hatch-Waxman Amendments
Orange Book Listing
In seeking approval for a drug through an NDA, applicants are required to list with the FDA each patent whose claims cover the applicants product. Upon approval of a drug, each of the patents listed in the application for the drug is then published in the FDAs Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations, commonly known as the Orange Book. Drugs listed in the Orange Book can, in turn, be cited by potential generic competitors in support of approval of an abbreviated new drug application, or ANDA. An ANDA provides for marketing of a drug product that has the same active ingredients in the same strengths and dosage form as the listed drug and has been shown through bioequivalence testing to be therapeutically equivalent to the listed drug. Other than the requirement for bioequivalence testing, ANDA applicants are not required to conduct, or submit results of, nonclinical or clinical tests to prove the safety or effectiveness of their drug product. Drugs approved in this way are commonly referred to as generic equivalents to the listed drug and can often be substituted by pharmacists under prescriptions written for the original listed drug pursuant to each states laws on drug substitution.
The ANDA applicant is required to certify to the FDA concerning any patents listed for the approved product in the FDAs Orange Book. Specifically, the applicant must certify that (i) the required patent information has not been filed; (ii) the listed patent has expired; (iii) the listed patent has not expired but will expire on a particular date and approval is sought after patent expiration; or (iv) the listed patent is invalid or will not be infringed by the new product. The ANDA applicant may also elect to submit a section viii statement certifying that its proposed ANDA label does not contain (or carve out) any language regarding the patented method-of-use rather than certify to a listed method-of-use patent. If the applicant does not challenge the listed patents, the ANDA application will not be approved until all the listed patents claiming the referenced product have expired. A certification that the new product will not infringe the already approved products listed patents, or that such patents are invalid, is called a Paragraph IV certification. If the ANDA applicant has provided a Paragraph IV certification to the FDA, the applicant must also send notice of the Paragraph IV certification to the NDA and patent holders once the ANDA has been accepted for filing by the FDA. The NDA and patent holders may then initiate a patent infringement lawsuit in response to the notice of the Paragraph IV certification. The filing of a patent infringement lawsuit within 45 days of the receipt of a Paragraph IV certification automatically prevents the FDA from approving the ANDA until the earlier of 30 months, expiration of the patent, settlement of the lawsuit, or a decision in the infringement case that is favorable to the ANDA applicant.
The ANDA application also will not be approved until any applicable non-patent exclusivity listed in the Orange Book for the referenced product has expired.
Exclusivity
Upon NDA approval of a new chemical entity, or NCE, which is a drug that contains no active moiety that has been approved by FDA in any other NDA, that drug receives five years of marketing exclusivity during which FDA cannot receive any ANDA seeking approval of a generic version of that drug. An ANDA may be submitted one year before NCE exclusivity expires if a Paragraph IV certification is filed. If there is no listed
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patent in the Orange Book, there may not be a Paragraph IV certification, and, thus, no ANDA may be filed before the expiration of the exclusivity period. Certain changes to a drug, such as the addition of a new indication to the package insert, can be the subject of a three-year period of exclusivity if the application contains reports of new clinical investigations (other than bioavailability studies) conducted or sponsored by the sponsor that were essential to the approval of the application. The FDA cannot approve an ANDA for a generic drug that includes the change during the exclusivity period.
Patent Term Extension
After NDA approval, owners of relevant drug patents may apply for up to a five-year patent extension. The allowable patent term extension is calculated as half of the drugs testing phase (the time between IND application and NDA submission) and all of the review phase (the time between NDA submission and approval up to a maximum of five years). The time can be shortened if the FDA determines that the applicant did not pursue approval with due diligence. The total patent term after the extension may not exceed 14 years, and only one patent can be extended. For patents that might expire during the application phase, the patent owner may request an interim patent extension. An interim patent extension increases the patent term by one year and may be renewed up to four times. For each interim patent extension granted, the post-approval patent extension is reduced by one year. The director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office must determine that approval of the drug covered by the patent for which a patent extension is being sought is likely. Interim patent extensions are not available for a drug for which an NDA has not been submitted.
Regulation Outside of the United States
In addition to regulations in the United States, we are subject to a variety of regulations in other jurisdictions governing clinical trials, commercial sales, and distribution of our products. Most countries outside of the United States require that clinical trial applications be submitted to and approved by the local regulatory authority for each clinical study. In addition, whether or not we obtain FDA approval for a product, we must obtain approval of a product by the comparable regulatory authorities of countries outside the United States before we can commence clinical trials or marketing of the product in those countries. The approval process and requirements vary from country to country, so the number and type of nonclinical, clinical, and manufacturing studies needed may differ, and the time may be longer or shorter than that required for FDA approval.
Non-Clinical Studies and Clinical Trials
Similarly to the United States, the various phases of non-clinical and clinical research in the EU are subject to significant regulatory controls.
Non-clinical studies are performed to demonstrate the health or environmental safety of new chemical or biological substances. Non-clinical studies must be conducted in compliance with the principles of good laboratory practice, or GLP, as set forth in EU Directive 2004/10/EC. In particular, non-clinical studies, both in vitro and in vivo, must be planned, performed, monitored, recorded, reported and archived in accordance with the GLP principles, which define a set of rules and criteria for a quality system for the organizational process and the conditions for non-clinical studies. These GLP standards reflect the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development requirements. Clinical trials of medicinal products in the EU must be conducted in accordance with EU and national regulations and the ICH guidelines on GCP as well as the applicable regulatory requirements and the ethical principles that have their origin in the Declaration of Helsinki. Additional GCP guidelines from the European Commission, focusing in particular on traceability, apply to clinical trials of advanced therapy medicinal products, or ATMPs. If the sponsor of the clinical trial is not established within the EU, it must appoint an EU entity to act as its legal representative. The sponsor must take out a clinical trial insurance policy, and in most EU countries member states, the sponsor is liable to provide no fault compensation to any study subject injured in the clinical trial.
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Marketing Authorization
To obtain marketing approval of a product under the EU regulatory system, we are mandated to submit a Marketing Authorization Application, or MAA. The process for doing this depends, among other things, on the nature of the medicinal product. The centralized procedure, which came into operation in 1995, allows applicants to obtain a marketing authorization that is valid throughout the EU. It is compulsory for medicinal products derived from biotechnological processes, designated orphan medicinal products, ATMPs such as gene therapy, somatic cell-therapy or tissue-engineered medicines and medicinal products containing a new active substance which was not authorized in the EU before May 20, 2004 (date of entry into force of Regulation (EC) No. 726/2004) and which are intended for the treatment of AIDS, cancer, neurodegenerative disorder, diabetes, auto immune and other immune dysfunctions and viral diseases. The centralized procedure is optional for any other products containing new active substances not authorized in the EU before May 20, 2004 or for products which constitute a significant therapeutic, scientific, or technical innovation or for which the granting of authorization is in the interests of patients at the EU level. The Committee for Advanced Therapies, or CAT, is responsible in conjunction with the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, or CHMP, for the evaluation of ATMPs. The CAT is primarily responsible for the scientific evaluation of ATMPs and prepares a draft opinion on the quality, safety and efficacy of each ATMP for which a MAA is submitted. The CATs opinion is then taken into account by the CHMP when giving its final recommendation regarding the authorization of a product in view of the balance of benefits and risks identified. Although the CATs draft opinion is submitted to the CHMP for final approval, the CHMP may depart from the draft opinion, if it provides detailed scientific justification. The CHMP and CAT are also responsible for providing guidelines on ATMPs and have published numerous guidelines, including specific guidelines on gene therapies and cell therapies. These guidelines provide additional guidance on the factors that the EMA will consider in relation to the development and evaluation of ATMPs and include, among other things, the preclinical studies required to characterize ATMPs; the manufacturing and control information that should be submitted in a MAA; and post-approval measures required to monitor patients and evaluate the long term efficacy and potential adverse reactions of ATMPs.
When a company wishes to place on the market a medicinal product that is eligible for the centralized procedure, it sends an application directly to the EMA to be assessed by the CHMP. The CHMP is responsible for conducting the assessment of whether a medicine meets the required quality, safety, and efficacy requirements, and whether the product has a positive risk/benefit profile. The centralized procedure, as described below, culminates with a decision by the European Commission, which is valid in all EU member states. Centrally authorized products may be marketed in all member states.
Full copies of the MAAs are sent to a rapporteur and a co-rapporteur designated by the competent EMA scientific committee. They coordinate the EMAs scientific assessment of the medicinal product and prepare draft reports. Once the draft reports are prepared (other experts might be called upon for this purpose), they are sent to the CHMP, whose comments or objections are communicated to the applicant. The rapporteur is therefore the privileged interlocutor of the applicant and continues to play this role, even after the MAA has been granted.
The rapporteur and co-rapporteur then assess the applicants replies, submit them for discussion to the CHMP, and taking into account the conclusions of this debate, prepare a final assessment report. Once the evaluation is completed, the CHMP gives a favorable or unfavorable opinion as to whether to grant the authorization. When the opinion is favorable, it will include the draft summary of the products characteristics, the package leaflet, and the texts proposed for the various packaging materials. The time limit for the evaluation of a MAA by the EMA is 210 days (excluding clock stops). The EMA has fifteen days to forward its opinion to the European Commission. This is the start of the second phase of the procedure: the decision-making process. The EMA sends to the European Commission its opinion and assessment report, together with annexes containing: the SmPC (Annex 1); the particulars of the MAH responsible for batch release, the particulars of the manufacturer of the active substance, and the conditions of the marketing authorization (Annex 2); and the labelling and the package leaflet (Annex 3). The annexes are translated into the 22 other official languages of the EU. During the decision-making process, the European Commission services verify that the marketing
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authorization complies with EU law. The European Commission has fifteen days to prepare a draft decision. The medicinal product is assigned an EU registration number, which will be placed on its packaging if the marketing authorization is granted. During this period, various European Commission directorates-general are consulted on the draft marketing authorization decision.
The draft decision is then sent to the Standing Committee on Medicinal Products for Human Use, (member states have one representative in the Standing Committees on Medicinal Products for Human Use) for its opinions. The Centralized Procedure provides for the grant of a single marketing authorization that is valid for all EU member states. The Decentralized Procedure provides for approval by one or more other, or concerned, member states of an assessment of an application performed by one-member state, known as the reference member state. Under this procedure, an applicant submits an application, or dossier, and related materials including a draft summary of product characteristics, and draft labeling and package leaflet, to the reference member state and concerned member states. The reference member state prepares a draft assessment and drafts of the related materials within 120 days after receipt of a valid application. Within 90 days of receiving the reference member states assessment report, each concerned member state must decide whether to approve the assessment report and related materials. If a member state cannot approve the assessment report and related materials on the grounds of potential serious risk to the public health, the disputed points may eventually be referred to the European Commission, whose decision is binding on all member states.
MAAs have an initial duration of five years. After these five years, the authorization may be renewed for an unlimited period on the basis of a reevaluation of the risk-benefit balance.
Under the Centralized Procedure and in exceptional cases, the CHMP might perform an accelerated review of a MAA in no more than 150 days (not including clock stops).
Data and Marketing Exclusivity
The EU also provides opportunities for market exclusivity. Upon receiving a MAA, reference product candidates generally receive eight years of data exclusivity and an additional two years of market exclusivity. If granted, the data exclusivity period prevents generic or biosimilar applicants from relying on the pre-clinical and clinical trial data contained in the dossier of the reference product when applying for a generic or biosimilar MAA in the EU during a period of eight years from the date on which the reference product was first authorized in the EU. The market exclusivity period prevents a successful generic or biosimilar applicant from commercializing its product in the EU until 10 years have elapsed from the initial MAA of the reference product in the EU. The overall 10-year market exclusivity period can be extended to a maximum of eleven years if, during the first eight years of those 10 years, the MAA holder obtains an authorization for one or more new therapeutic indications which, during the scientific evaluation prior to their authorization, are held to bring a significant clinical benefit in comparison with existing therapies. However, there is no guarantee that a product will be considered by the EUs regulatory authorities to be a new chemical entity, and products may not qualify for data exclusivity.
In the EU, there is a special regime for biosimilars, or biological medicinal products that are similar to a reference medicinal product but that do not meet the definition of a generic medicinal product, for example, because of differences in raw materials or manufacturing processes. For such products, the results of appropriate preclinical or clinical trials must be provided, and guidelines from the EMA detail the type of quantity of supplementary data to be provided for different types of biological product. There are no such guidelines for complex biological products, such as gene or cell therapy medicinal products, and so it is unlikely that biosimilars of those products will currently be approved in the EU. However, guidance from the EMA states that they will be considered in the future in light of the scientific knowledge and regulatory experience gained at the time.
Pediatric Development
A Pediatric Investigation Plan, or PIP, in the EU is aimed at ensuring that the necessary data are obtained to support the authorization of a medicine for children, through studies in children. All MAAs for new medicines have to include the results of studies as described in an agreed PIP, unless the medicine is exempt because of a
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deferral or waiver. This requirement also applies when a marketing-authorization holder wants to add a new indication, pharmaceutical form, or route of administration for a medicine that is already authorized and covered by intellectual property rights. Several rewards and incentives for the development of pediatric medicines are available in the EU. Medicines authorized across the EU with the results of studies from a PIP included in the product information are eligible for an extension of their supplementary protection certificate by six months (if any is in effect at the time of authorization). This is the case even when the studies results are negative. For orphan medicines, the incentive is an additional two years of market exclusivity. Scientific advice and protocol assistance at the EMA are free of charge for questions relating to the development of pediatric medicines. Medicines developed specifically for children that are already authorized but are not protected by a patent or supplementary protection certificate are eligible for a pediatric-use marketing authorization, or PUMA. If a PUMA is granted, the product will benefit from ten years of market protection as an incentive.
In March 2016, the EMA launched an initiative, The Priority Medicines (PRIME) scheme, to facilitate development of product candidates that target an unmet medical need and are expected to be of major public health interest. Product developers that benefit from PRIME designation can expect to be eligible for accelerated assessment but this is not guaranteed. Many benefits accrue to sponsors of product candidates with PRIME designation, including but not limited to, early and proactive regulatory dialogue with the EMA, frequent discussions on clinical trial designs and other development program elements, and accelerated MAA assessment once a dossier has been submitted. Importantly, a dedicated contact and rapporteur from the CHMP is appointed early in the PRIME scheme facilitating increased understanding of the product at EMAs committee level. An initial meeting initiates these relationships and includes a team of multidisciplinary experts at the EMA to provide guidance on the overall development and regulatory strategies.
Post-Approval Requirements
Similar to the United States, both MAA holders and manufacturers of medicinal products are subject to comprehensive regulatory oversight by the EMA, the European Commission and/or the competent regulatory authorities of the member states. The holder of a MAA must establish and maintain a pharmacovigilance system and appoint an individual qualified person for pharmacovigilance who is responsible for oversight of that system. Key obligations include expedited reporting of suspected serious adverse reactions and submission of periodic safety update reports, or PSURs.
All new MAA must include a risk management plan, or RMP, describing the risk management system that the company will put in place and documenting measures to prevent or minimize the risks associated with the product. The regulatory authorities may also impose specific obligations as a condition of the MA. Such risk- minimization measures or post-authorization obligations may include additional safety monitoring, more frequent submission of PSURs, or the conduct of additional clinical trials or post-authorization safety studies.
The advertising and promotion of medicinal products is also subject to laws concerning promotion of medicinal products, interactions with physicians, misleading and comparative advertising and unfair commercial practices. All advertising and promotional activities for the product must be consistent with the approved summary of product characteristics, and therefore all off-label promotion is prohibited. Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines is also prohibited in the EU. Although general requirements for advertising and promotion of medicinal products are established under EU directives, the details are governed by regulations in each Member State and can differ from one country to another.
Brexit and the Regulatory Framework in the United Kingdom
The UK left the EU on January 31, 2020, following which existing EU medicinal product legislation continued to apply in the UK during the transition period under the terms of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement. The transition period, which ended on December 31, 2020, maintained access to the EU single market and to the global trade deals negotiated by the EU on behalf of its members. The transition period provided time for the UK and EU to negotiate a framework for partnership for the future, which was then crystallized in the Trade and
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Cooperation Agreement, or TCA, and became effective on the January 1, 2021. The TCA includes specific provisions concerning pharmaceuticals, which include the mutual recognition of GMP inspections of manufacturing facilities for medicinal products and GMP documents issued, but does not foresee wholesale mutual recognition of UK and EU pharmaceutical regulations.
EU laws which have been transposed into UK law through secondary legislation continue to be applicable as retained EU law. However, new legislation such as the EU CTR will not be applicable. The UK government has passed a new Medicines and Medical Devices Act 2021, which introduces delegated powers in favor of the Secretary of State or an appropriate authority to amend or supplement existing regulations in the area of medicinal products and medical devices. This allows new rules to be introduced in the future by way of secondary legislation, which aims to allow flexibility in addressing regulatory gaps and future changes in the fields of human medicines, clinical trials and medical devices.
As of January 1, 2021, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, or MHRA, is the UKs standalone medicines and medical devices regulator. As a result of the Northern Ireland protocol, different rules will apply in Northern Ireland than in England, Wales, and Scotland, together, Great Britain, or GB. Broadly, Northern Ireland will continue to follow the EU regulatory regime, but its national competent authority will remain the MHRA. The MHRA has published a guidance on how various aspects of the UK regulatory regime for medicines will operate in GB and in Northern Ireland following the expiry of the Brexit transition period on December 31, 2020. The guidance includes clinical trials, importing, exporting, and pharmacovigilance and is relevant to any business involved in the research, development, or commercialization of medicines in the UK. The new guidance was given effect via the Human Medicines Regulations (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, or the Exit Regulations. The MHRA has introduced changes to national licensing procedures, including procedures to prioritize access to new medicines that will benefit patients, including a 150-day assessment and a rolling review procedure. All existing EU MAAs for centrally authorized products were automatically converted or grandfathered into UK MAs, effective in GB (only), free of charge on January 1, 2021, unless the MAA holder chooses to opt-out. In order to use the centralized procedure to obtain a MAA that will be valid throughout the EEA, companies must be established in the EEA. Therefore after Brexit, companies established in the UK can no longer use the EU centralized procedure and instead an EEA entity must hold any centralized MAAs. In order to obtain a UK MAA to commercialize products in the UK, an applicant must be established in the UK and must follow one of the UK national authorization procedures or one of the remaining post-Brexit international cooperation procedures to obtain a MAA to commercialize products in the UK. The MHRA may rely on a decision taken by the European Commission on the approval of a new (centralized procedure) MAA when determining an application for a GB authorization or use the MHRAs decentralized or mutual recognition procedures which enable MAAs approved in EU member states (or Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) to be granted in GB.
Other Healthcare Laws
In addition to FDA restrictions on marketing of pharmaceutical products, several other types of state and federal laws have been applied to restrict certain general business and marketing practices in the pharmaceutical industry. These laws include anti-kickback, false claims, transparency and health information privacy laws and other healthcare laws and regulations.
The federal Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits, among other things, knowingly and willfully offering, paying, soliciting or receiving remuneration to induce, or in return for, purchasing, leasing, ordering or arranging for the purchase, lease or order of any healthcare item or service reimbursable under Medicare, Medicaid, or other federally financed healthcare programs. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, or ACA, amended the intent element of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute so that a person or entity no longer needs to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to commit a violation. This statute has been interpreted to apply to arrangements between pharmaceutical manufacturers on the one hand and prescribers, purchasers and formulary managers,
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among others, on the other. Although there are a number of statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors protecting certain common activities from prosecution or other regulatory sanctions, the exceptions and safe harbors are drawn narrowly, and practices that involve remuneration intended to induce prescribing, purchases or recommendations may be subject to scrutiny if they do not qualify for an exception or safe harbor. Additionally, the ACA amended the federal Anti-Kickback Statute such that a violation of that statute can serve as a basis for liability under the federal civil False Claims Act.
Federal civil and criminal false claims laws, including the federal civil False Claims Act, prohibit any person or entity from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, a false claim for payment to the federal government, or knowingly making, or causing to be made, a false statement to have a false claim paid. This includes claims made to programs where the federal government reimburses, such as Medicare and Medicaid, as well as programs where the federal government is a direct purchaser, such as when it purchases off the Federal Supply Schedule. Pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies have been prosecuted under these laws for, among other things, allegedly inflating drug prices they report to pricing services, which in turn were used by the government to set Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates, and for allegedly providing free product to customers with the expectation that the customers would bill federal programs for the product. In addition, certain marketing practices, including off-label promotion, may also violate false claims laws. Most states also have statutes or regulations similar to the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and civil False Claims Act, which apply to items and services reimbursed under Medicaid and other state programs, or, in several states, apply regardless of the payor.
Other federal statutes pertaining to healthcare fraud and abuse include the Civil Monetary Penalties Law statute, which prohibits, among other things, the offer or payment of remuneration to a Medicaid or Medicare beneficiary that the offeror or payor knows or should know is likely to influence the beneficiary to order or receive a reimbursable item or service from a particular supplier, and the additional federal criminal statutes created by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, which prohibit, among other things, knowingly and willfully executing or attempting to execute a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program or obtain by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises any money or property owned by or under the control of any healthcare benefit program in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services.
In addition, HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009, or HITECH, and their respective implementing regulations, including the Final Omnibus Rule published on January 25, 2013, impose obligations on certain healthcare providers, health plans and healthcare clearinghouses, known as covered entities, as well as their business associates and their subcontractors that perform certain services involving the storage, use or disclosure of individually identifiable health information, including mandatory contractual terms, with respect to safeguarding the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information, and require notification to affected individuals and regulatory authorities of certain breaches of security of individually identifiable health information. HITECH increased the civil and criminal penalties that may be imposed against covered entities, business associates, their covered subcontractors and possibly other persons, and gave state attorneys general new authority to file civil actions for damages or injunctions in federal courts to enforce the federal HIPAA laws and seek attorneys fees and costs associated with pursuing federal civil actions. In addition, many state laws govern the privacy and security of health information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and may not have the same effect, and often are not pre-empted by HIPAA.
Further, pursuant to the ACA, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, issued a final rule that requires certain manufacturers of prescription drugs to collect and annually report information on certain payments or transfers of value to physicians (defined to include doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors), physician assistants, certain types of advance practice nurses and teaching hospitals, as well as ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members. The reported data are made available in searchable form on a public website on an annual basis. Failure to submit required information may result in civil monetary penalties.
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Analogous state and foreign anti-kickback and false claims laws that may apply to sales or marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by non- governmental third-party payors, including private insurers, or that apply regardless of payor. In addition, several states now require prescription drug companies to report certain expenses relating to the marketing and promotion of drug products and to report gifts and payments to individual healthcare practitioners in these states. Other states prohibit various marketing-related activities, such as the provision of certain kinds of gifts or meals. Further, certain states require the posting of information relating to clinical trials and their outcomes. Some states require the reporting of certain drug pricing information, including information pertaining to and justifying price increases. In addition, certain states require pharmaceutical companies to implement compliance programs and/or marketing codes. Several additional states are considering similar proposals. Certain states and local jurisdictions also require the registration of pharmaceutical sales representatives. Additionally, we may also be subject to state and foreign laws governing the privacy and security of health information in some circumstances, such as Californias CCPA or Europes General Data Protection Regulation, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts.