10-K
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022
OR
Commission File Number 001-40335
Biomea Fusion, Inc.
(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its Charter)
900 Middlefield Road, 4th Floor Redwood City, California 94063
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (650) 980-9099
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class TradingSymbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, $0.0001 par value BMEA The Nasdaq Global Select Market
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐
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 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☒
The aggregate market value of the voting equity held by non-affiliates of the Registrant, based on the closing price of the shares of common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on June 30, 2022, was $255,911,000.
The number of shares of Registrant’s Common Stock outstanding as of March 21, 2023 was 29,608,622.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the Registrant’s definitive proxy statement to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, on or before the date 120 days after the conclusion of the Registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 pursuant to Regulation 14A in connection with the Registrant’s 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Table of Contents
Page
PART I
Item 1. Business 5
Item 1A. Risk Factors 50
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 105
Item 2. Properties 105
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 105
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 105
PART II
Item 6. Selected Financial Data 106
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 115
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 116
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 128
Item 9B. Other Information 129
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 129
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 130
Item 11. Executive Compensation 130
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 130
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules 131
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Special Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements about us and our industry that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including statements regarding our strategy, future financial condition, future operations, projected costs, prospects, plans, objectives of management and expected market growth, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “aim,” “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “design,” “due,” “estimate,” “expect,” “goal,” “intend,” “may,” “objective,” “plan,” “positioned,” “potential,” “predict,” “seek,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would” and other similar expressions that are predictions of or indicate future events and future trends, or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about:
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our financial performance;
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the sufficiency of our existing cash, cash equivalents and investments to fund our future operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements;
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our estimates regarding expenses, future revenue, capital requirements and needs for additional financing;
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our anticipated use of our existing cash, cash equivalents and investments;
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the implementation of our strategic plans for our business and product candidates;
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the size of the market opportunity for our product candidates and our ability to maximize those opportunities;
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the initiation, timing, progress and results of our research and development programs, preclinical studies, clinical trials and investigational new drug applications (INDs) and other regulatory submissions;
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the beneficial characteristics, safety, efficacy and therapeutic effects of our product candidates and the ability of our FUSIONTM System to generate additional product candidates with such characteristics;
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the timing, progress and focus of our ongoing and future clinical trials, and the reporting of data from those trials;
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the ability of our clinical trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy of our product candidates, and other favorable results;
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our plans relating to the clinical development of our product candidates, including the disease areas to be evaluated;
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our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of our product candidates;
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our plans relating to commercializing our product candidates, if approved;
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our estimates of the patient populations addressable by our product candidates, if approved, and the number of participants that will enroll in our ongoing and planned clinical trials;
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the expected benefits of potential future strategic collaborations with third parties and our ability to attract collaborators with development, regulatory and commercialization expertise;
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the success of competing therapies that are or may become available;
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the timing or likelihood of regulatory filings and approvals, including our expectation to seek special designations, such as orphan drug designation, for our product candidates;
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our plans relating to the further development and manufacturing of our product candidates, including for additional indications that we may pursue;
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existing regulations and regulatory developments in the United States and other jurisdictions;
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our plans and ability to obtain or protect intellectual property rights, including extensions of existing patent terms where available;
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our plan to rely on third parties to conduct and support preclinical and clinical development;
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our ability to retain the continued service of our key personnel and to identify, hire and then retain additional qualified personnel;
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the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic or other related disruptions on our business;
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unfavorable global economic conditions, including inflationary pressures, market volatility, acts of war and civil and political unrest; and
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our expectations regarding the period during which we will qualify as an emerging growth company under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, as amended.
We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, 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 at all. You should refer to the section titled “Risk Factors” for a discussion of important factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. Furthermore, if our forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. We qualify all of the forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K by these cautionary statements.
Summary Risk Factors
The following is a summary of the principal factors that make an investment in our common stock speculative or risky. This summary does not address every aspect of our risks factors, all of the risks that we face, or other factors not presently known to us or that we currently believe are immaterial. Additional discussion of the risks summarized in these summary risk factors, and other risks that we face, can be found under the heading “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and should be carefully considered, together with other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, before making investment decisions regarding our common stock.
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We have a limited operating history, have not completed any clinical trials, have no products approved for commercial sale, and have not generated any revenue, which may make it difficult for you to evaluate our current business and likelihood of success and viability.
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We will require substantial additional capital to finance our operations. If we are unable to raise such capital when needed, or on acceptable terms, we may be forced to delay, reduce and/or eliminate one or more of our research and product development programs or future commercialization efforts.
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Our discovery and preclinical development is focused on the development of novel covalent small-molecule therapies to treat patients with genetically-defined cancers and metabolic diseases, and the approach we are taking to discover and develop such binders is novel, may never lead to marketable products and may not ultimately represent a significant market.
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Our novel approach to the discovery and development of our current and future product candidates is unproven, and we may not be successful in our efforts to use and expand our FUSION System to build a pipeline of product candidates with commercial value.
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We are very early in our development efforts and are substantially dependent on our lead product candidate, BMF-219. If we are unable to advance BMF-219, BMF-500 or any of our future product candidates through clinical development, obtain regulatory approval and ultimately commercialize BMF-219, BMF-500 or any of our future product candidates, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business, financial condition and results of operations will be materially adversely affected.
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Preclinical and clinical drug development is a lengthy and expensive process, with an uncertain outcome. Our preclinical and clinical programs may experience delays or may never be initiated or completed, which would adversely affect our ability to obtain regulatory approvals or commercialize our product candidates on a timely basis or at all, which could have an adverse effect on our business.
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The results of preclinical testing and early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later clinical trials, and the results of our clinical trials may not satisfy the requirements of the FDA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities. Successful preclinical studies and clinical trials cannot provide assurance of successful commercialization.
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We have no experience as a company in conducting clinical trials.
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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and adverse global economic conditions, including supply chain issues and inflationary pressures, could materially adversely impact our business, results of operations, and financial condition, including our preclinical studies and clinical trials.
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The regulatory approval processes of the FDA and other comparable foreign regulatory authorities are lengthy, time consuming and inherently unpredictable. If we are not able to obtain, or if there are delays in obtaining, required regulatory approvals for our product candidates, we will not be able to commercialize, or will be delayed in commercializing, our product candidates, and our ability to generate revenue will be materially impaired.
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The price of our stock may be volatile, and you may not be able to resell shares of our common stock at or above the price you paid.
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PART I
Item 1. Business
Overview
We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of covalent small molecule drugs to treat patients with genetically defined cancers and metabolic diseases. A covalent small molecule drug is a synthetic compound that forms a permanent bond to its target protein and offers a number of potential advantages over conventional non-covalent drugs, including greater target selectivity, lower drug exposure, and the ability to drive a deeper, more durable response. Leveraging our extensive expertise in covalent binding chemistry and development, we built our proprietary FUSIONTM System discovery platform to advance a pipeline of novel covalent small molecule product candidates.
Our lead product candidate, BMF-219, is an orally bioavailable, potent and selective covalent inhibitor of menin, built from our FUSION System. We currently have clinical studies of BMF-219 underway in patients with liquid and solid tumors, as well as patients with type 2 diabetes. Menin is an important transcriptional regulator known to play a direct role in oncogenic signaling in multiple cancers and in beta cell homeostasis. Menin also serves as a checkpoint to prevent beta cell proliferation. Thus, we believe inhibiting menin via BMF-219 has the potential to enable the proliferation, preservation, and reactivation of healthy, function beta cells capable of producing insulin, thereby leading to long-term glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes.
In preclinical studies, administration of BMF-219 has resulted in robust anti-tumor responses across a range of liquid and solid tumor models and has been generally well-tolerated in animal studies. Additionally, administration of BMF-219 produced a pronounced effect in preclinical models of diabetes, normalizing glucose levels during treatment and even after drug washout. As of December 31, 2022, BMF-219 is being evaluated in up to eight liquid and solid tumor types and in type 2 diabetes across three ongoing clinical trials.
Beyond BMF-219, we are utilizing our novel FUSION System to pioneer covalent treatments against other high-value genetic drivers of disease. In May 2022, we announced the nomination of our second development candidate, BMF-500, a covalent inhibitor of FLT3, and presented preclinical data on this program in December 2022. We expect to file an Investigational New Drug application (IND) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to study BMF-500 in acute leukemias in the first half of 2023.
We are currently advancing additional preclinical covalent programs for the treatment of select diseases and expect to nominate our third development candidate in the first half of 2023. Our goal is to utilize our capabilities and FUSION System platform to become the leader in developing covalent small molecules to maximize the depth and durability of clinical benefit when treating various diseases.
After working closely together at Pharmacyclics, our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Thomas Butler, and Chief Operating Officer and President, Ramses Erdtmann, founded Biomea Fusion, Inc. (the “Company” or “Biomea”) in 2017 with the goal of developing targeted covalent therapies for patients suffering from diseases with a high unmet medical need. Our management team has significant experience in multiple disease areas, including precision oncology and in progressing products from early-stage research to clinical trials and ultimately to regulatory approval and commercialization. Together, they bring in-house expertise in medicinal chemistry, biology, translational medicine, computational biology, and chemistry, in vitro and in vivo pharmacology, biomarker development, and manufacturing. We have also established internal expertise in clinical development, clinical operations, pharmacovigilance, clinical pharmacology, regulatory, and quality. Our management team members have held various leadership roles at Genentech, Gilead Sciences, Pharmacyclics and Celera. We are supported by our board of directors and our scientific advisory board.
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Our Programs
We believe that covalent small molecules have the potential to address key limitations of existing reversible therapeutics and treat diseases where targeted therapies are not yet approved. While as an organization we have not yet obtained approval to commercialize any of our product candidates and our management team’s past experience, including developing IMBRUVICA® (ibrutinib), does not guarantee similar results or success for Biomea, we believe such experience of our management team positions us well to deliver this opportunity for novel covalent small molecules and is a key competitive advantage. The following table summarizes our wholly owned research and development pipeline:
Our current pipeline and potentially addressable patient population
Our lead product candidate, BMF-219, is designed to be an orally bioavailable, potent, and selective covalent inhibitor of menin, a ubiquitously expressed scaffold protein that functions in histone modification and epigenetic gene regulation to impact multiple cellular processes including cell cycle control, apoptosis, and DNA damage repair.
We are developing BMF-219 for the treatment of menin dependent diseases such as subtypes of acute leukemia, KRAS solid tumors, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Preclinical studies of BMF-219 have shown sustained potent abrogation of menin-dependent oncogenic signaling and pathway control in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo. BMF-219 demonstrated consistent on-target inhibition with a strong anti-proliferative effect on various menin-dependent acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines; diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) cell lines representing categories of double/triple hit lymphoma (DHL/THL) and double expressor lymphoma (DEL); chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) ex vivo models; and multiple myeloma (MM) cell lines harboring diverse mutational backgrounds, including MYC dysregulation. BMF-219 also exhibited high potency in in vitro and ex vivo KRAS-driven cancer cell models. MYC, which exerts much of its oncogenic activity through interaction with menin, is a major downstream effector of the KRAS pathway.
At medical conferences in 2021 and 2022, we presented several abstracts and posters on BMF-219’s observed ability to alter MYC gene expression and genomic function in acute leukemia cells. We presented the pronounced cell lethality we observed with BMF-219 in two MYC-dependent DHL/DLBCL cell lines at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting in 2021 and released additional preclinical data on the effect of BMF-219 in liquid and solid tumors in 2022 at American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and International Myeloma Society (IMS).
In January 2022, we announced that we had initiated dosing in COVALENT-101, a Phase 1 clinical trial to explore the safety and efficacy of BMF-219 in patients with relapsed/refractory AML and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), including those with MLL/KMT2A gene arrangements or NPM1 mutations. In 2022, we amended the IND to initiate additional cohorts in the COVALENT-101 study to explore the potential utility of BMF-219 across a range of menin-dependent hematologic malignancies including MM, DLBCL, and CLL.
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In October 2022, we announced the initiation of a Phase 1/1b clinical trial of BMF-219 (COVALENT-102) in patients with unresectable, locally advanced, or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), colorectal cancer (CRC) and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) with an activating KRAS mutation.
In January, June, and September of 2022 we released preclinical data on the observed effect of administration of BMF-219 in multiple animal models in diabetes. Loss of functional beta cell mass is a core component of the natural history in both types of diabetes — type 1 diabetes (mediated by autoimmune dysfunction) and type 2 diabetes (mediated by metabolic dysfunction). Beta cells are found in the pancreas and are responsible for the synthesis and secretion of insulin, a hormone that helps regulate the body’s capacity to absorb, metabolize, and convert glucose for energy. In patients with diabetes, beta cell mass and function are diminished, leading to insufficient insulin secretion and hyperglycemia. Menin is thought to act as a brake on beta cell turnover / beta cell growth, supporting the notion that inhibition of menin could lead to the regeneration of normal healthy beta cells. Based on these and other scientific findings, we are exploring the potential for menin inhibition as a possible therapeutic approach to improve beta cell health and mass, and thus potentially treat an underlying driver of diabetes. In October 2022, we announced completion of the Phase 1 portion of COVALENT-111, a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of BMF-219 in healthy volunteers and adults with type 2 diabetes in Canada. In December 2022, we announced FDA clearance of the IND for BMF-219 in type 2 diabetes, allowing us to expand the COVALENT-111 study to sites in the United States. In January 2023, we announced the dosing of the first patient with type 2 diabetes in the United States.
Beyond BMF-219, we are utilizing our novel FUSION System to pioneer covalent treatments against other high-value genetic drivers of disease. In May 2022, we announced the nomination of our second development candidate, BMF-500,
a third-generation covalent inhibitor of FLT3, which demonstrated picomolar IC50 values across key FLT3 isoforms,
potentially making it the most potent inhibitor of its class. Activating mutations of the FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3
(FLT3) are the most frequent genetic alteration in AML and are associated with poor prognosis. We expect to file an
IND to study BMF-500 in acute leukemias in the first half of 2023.
At the ASH Annual Meeting in December 2022, we presented BMF-500’s picomolar affinity to activating FLT3 mutations including FLT3 internal tandem duplications (FLT3-ITD) and various tyrosine kinase domain (TKD) mutations, multi-fold higher potency and increased cytotoxicity than commercially available non-covalent FLT3 inhibitor gilteritinib, and complete tumor regression at physiologically relevant doses in mouse models of FLT3-ITD AML and maintenance of effect without continued exposure. BMF-500 selectively killed AML cells harboring FLT3 activating mutations, including MV4-11 and MOLM-13, and engineered cells expressing FLT3-ITD and/or FLT3 TKD mutations. In ex vivo cultures, BMF-500 as a single agent induced potent growth inhibition of patient-derived AML cells harboring either FLT3-ITD or FLT3 non-ITD mutations.
We are currently advancing additional preclinical covalent small molecule programs for the treatment of select cancers and expect to nominate our third development candidate in the first half of 2023. These programs will pursue novel protein targets that should have single agent activity and also have the potential to achieve a synergistic anti-tumor effect when combined with BMF-219.
Our Strategy – We Aim to Cure
Our scientists have identified a series of molecular targets whose role in healthy individuals is to function quietly and efficiently, keeping this equilibrium largely undisturbed. In cancer, these proteins malfunction, thus disrupting their complex biochemical pathways, resulting in abnormal cell growth and division. When the body’s own defense mechanisms are unable to restore the healthy equilibrium, tumors and late-stage disease occur. In these tumors, the rogue proteins continue to be expressed above their normal levels. We recognize the value of precision, targeting the malfunctioning proteins through quick-acting inhibition.
Our scientists, with extensive backgrounds in structure-driven drug discovery and development, have taken aim at these molecular targets using covalent inhibition techniques. Most commercial drugs and clinical-stage drug candidates rely exclusively on keeping bloodstream levels at a sufficiently high amount to which the patient is constantly exposed. The patient is thus subject to unwanted side effects caused by the drug’s potentially indiscriminate activity against other targets that are not themselves out of equilibrium. In contrast, our approach specifically employs weak spots in the molecular target that can form a covalent or extremely tight bond with the drug, but in such a way that the inhibitor-protein complex is then taken out of action quickly. The only way then for the rogue protein to return is through de novo synthesis. This allows the drug to be dosed in short bursts, to do its job, and then disappear instead of having to be always present. While perhaps
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counterintuitive, we believe this approach affords an added degree of selectivity, since “innocent” targets are not exposed to the drug for any longer than necessary.
With a wealth of experience in delivering versatile, multibillion dollar covalent inhibitor drugs such as IMBRUVICA (ibrutinib), we believe our team is uniquely positioned to leverage this knowledge in wide variety of unmet medical needs.
Biomea aims to combine expertise in biology, chemistry, and medicine to create a suite of novel agents to improve and extend life for patients
The key elements of our business strategy include:
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Deploy our covalent platform against high-value oncogenic drivers of cancer. Leveraging our extensive experience developing covalent drugs and our structural biology and covalent binding chemistry expertise, we built our proprietary FUSION System to design and develop a pipeline of novel covalent small molecule product candidates. We believe covalent binders offer a number of potential advantages over conventional reversible drugs, including greater target selectivity and the ability to drive deeper, more durable responses with lower drug exposure. Our goal is to utilize our capabilities and platform to become a leader in developing covalent drugs.
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Continue toadvance our lead product candidate, BMF-219, through clinical development. BMF-219 is a covalent menin inhibitor being developed for the treatment of cancers that are highly dependent on menin, including leukemias containing the mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL) fusion protein. In January 2022, we announced that we had dosed the first patient in our first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial of BMF-219 (COVALENT-101) in patients with relapsed or refractory acute leukemia and have subsequently expanded the trial to enroll cohorts of patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) MM, DLBCL, and CLL. We are also studying BMF-219 across a range of menin dependent solid tumors including KRAS mutant lung, pancreatic, and colon tumors in the ongoing Phase 1/1b COVALENT-102 trial. Beyond cancer, we are exploring the potential of BMF-219, to treat type 2 diabetes in the ongoing Phase 1/2 COVALENT-111 trial.
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Continue to expand our portfolio of covalent small molecule product candidates. In addition to BMF-219, we are advancing two other preclinical covalent programs for the treatment of select cancers and announced our second development candidate, BMF-500, a covalent FLT3 inhibitor in May 2022. We expect to nominate our third development candidate in the first half of 2023. Both of these preclinical programs target clinically validated mechanisms of action and are complementary to the menin pathway.
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Evaluate opportunities to enhance the potential of our programs in collaboration with third parties. We own full worldwide development and commercialization rights to each of our programs. In the future, we may selectively enter into collaborations where we believe there is an opportunity to speed up clinical development or enhance the commercialization potential of our product candidates. We intend to commercialize our product candidates in key markets either alone or with partners in order to maximize the worldwide commercial potential of our programs.
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Maintain our entrepreneurial outlook, scientifically rigorous approach, and culture of tireless commitment to patients. We will continue to apply transformative science in the development of novel targeted therapies for
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patients suffering from cancers with limited therapeutic options. We intend to continue building our team of qualified individuals who share our commitment to collaboration and scientific rigor in the development of novel covalent product candidates that may have the potential to treat patients with genetically defined cancers and metabolic diseases.
Background on Covalent Inhibition
A covalent small molecule drug is a synthetic compound that forms a permanent bond to its target protein through a combination of non-covalent and covalent interactions and can either stimulate or inhibit target protein function. Reversible drugs, which make up the majority of approved drugs, exert their action by establishing an equilibrium between free drug, target protein, and drug-target complex. Therefore, a reversible inhibitor, by definition, can allow an inhibited drug-protein complex to convert back to free drug and active protein unless sufficient concentration of free drug is present in the local environment. This need for constant coverage typically requires continuous systemic exposure, which can pose safety and tolerability challenges.
Forming a covalent bond between a target protein and covalent drug can be described as a two-step process. First, the compound creates a reversible, non-covalent bond to the target protein that can enable a covalent bond by placing a reactive atom on the drug compound close to a complementary reactive atom on the target protein. The second step involves the formation of a specific and long-lived covalent bond between the complementary moieties, resulting in a complex that persists throughout the lifetime of the target protein and effectively permanently disables target protein function.
Key Advantages of Covalent Drugs
Since the discovery of aspirin in 1899, covalent drugs have shown the potential to offer a number of potential safety, tolerability, and efficacy advantages over conventional reversible drugs through multiple mechanisms.
Persistent site occupancy of a marketed, covalent inhibitor in the absence of sustained drug exposure
Beyond aspirin and ibrutinib, a number of covalent inhibitors have been approved by the FDA, including sofosbuvir (marketed as SOVALDI® for hepatitis C virus), tenofovir (marketed as VIREAD® for hepatitis B virus), osimertinib (marketed as TAGRISSO® for NSCLC), and bortezomib (marketed as VELCADE® for MM and mantle cell lymphoma).
Challenges in Developing Covalent Drugs
Despite the potential advantages of covalent drugs, the majority of approved drugs are reversible binders. The inherent challenges in creating covalent drugs present significant barriers to entry to discover and develop these molecules. The key challenges in developing covalent drugs include:
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Complexity. The discovery and development of covalent drugs requires significant structural knowledge and medicinal chemistry capabilities, including the ability to construct complex novel chemical scaffolds. In addition, not all disease-causing proteins have the properties necessary for the application of covalent binding. While advancements in structural knowledge of the proteome provides greater opportunity to identify potential targets for
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covalent binding, we believe the lack of specialized medicinal chemistry expertise needed to leverage this knowledge has impeded the development of covalent drugs.
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Safety and toxicity. While the covalent binding modality can provide a high degree of selectivity, poorly conceived molecules with promiscuous binding profiles can pose a risk of significant off-target interactions and safety concerns. Given this significant and long-standing challenge, without the structural biology and covalent binding chemistry expertise, drug developers have historically been discouraged from pursuing covalent binders.
At Biomea, we believe we are positioned to leverage the significant expertise, foundational knowledge, and capabilities that our management team first acquired while developing ibrutinib and that we have expanded and refined over the last three years to create our FUSION System discovery platform.
Our FUSIONTM System Discovery Platform
We believe that covalent small molecules have the potential to address the key limitations of existing reversible therapeutics and treat diseases where targeted therapies are not yet approved. Leveraging our extensive experience developing covalent drugs and covalent binding chemistry expertise, we built our proprietary FUSION System to enable the design and development of novel covalent small molecule product candidates against high-value oncogenic drivers of cancer. The system also has the capability to create a novel non-covalent inhibitor, which we may advance depending on the target. We have described some of the differences between the FUSION System and traditional small molecule drug discovery approaches below:
The FUSION System leverages AI/VR matching and custom synthesis to develop novel drugs
Our FUSION System discovery platform encompasses the following:
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Target Selection Validation and AI/VR Matching: We use our expertise in structural biology and covalent binding chemistry to identify both validated and novel targets that we believe may have a demonstrable and specific impact on disease and have particular structural characteristics that would be amenable to direct intervention with a covalent binder.
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Custom Scaffold Creation: We create novel chemical scaffolds using a computational platform to exploit the unique structural elements of a specific target protein. We then screen these scaffolds with in-house technologies to select the optimal candidates for further construction and design. This evaluation process is intended to increase the probability of having multiple targeted compounds that can advance through the discovery process and into the clinic.
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Molecule Optimization/Refinement: Using our proprietary suite of computational technologies, assays, analytical approaches, chemistry, and know-how we strive to maximize the potential selectivity, potency, safety, and convenience of our oral, covalent small molecule product candidates. We avoid compound library screening, which results in highly selective/specified scaffolds. This saves considerable time during the lead optimization step.
We aim to leverage our capabilities and platform to establish ourselves as a leader in developing covalent small molecules in order to maximize the depth and durability of clinical benefit for patients with various cancers and metabolic diseases.
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Our Initial Focus: Menin
Menin is a protein important to transcriptional regulation, impacting major processes such as cell cycle control, apoptosis and DNA damage repair. It plays an essential role in oncogenic signaling in subgroups of genetically defined leukemias, such as MLL-r, and other cancers dependent on menin. Inhibition of menin is a novel approach to cancer treatment.
The BROAD Institute elucidated the dependence of menin on various cancer types and has made this work available for public access via the DEPMAP portal. The dependence of various cancers on menin is shown in the figure below. Cell viability scores have shown that menin plays a key role in survival of multiple tumors. High menin dependency in liquid and solid tumors, beyond acute leukemias, provides rationale for further analysis in dependent tumor types. Biomea is clinically exploring the potential for covalent inhibition of menin in a variety of liquid and solid tumor types.
BROAD Institute DEPMAP highlights the dependency of various tumor types on menin (MEN1)
As shown above, DLBCL; MM; Hematopoietic and Lymphoid Tumors (including Acute Leukemias); and Solid Tumors (KRAS mutant) had the highest dependence on menin. We believe that disrupting the function of menin in these tumor types is a viable therapeutic approach. The menin complex plays a critical role in MYC-dependent oncogenic signaling, whereby menin enhances MYC-mediated transcription to promote cancer progression.
TF activity interference using chip-seq of differentially expressed genes in MOLM-13 cells incubated with 500 nM BMF-219 at 24 hours. Each bar represents a study in the GEO repository using the specified TF antibody
In MOLM-13 cells treated with BMF-219, the top transcription factors regulating gene expression were MYC and its cofactor MAX. IRF4, MYC, and MAX are known drivers for some forms of DLBCL, (addicted) multiple myeloma, and multiple additional tumors.
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Inhibition of menin is a novel approach to cancer treatment. The figure below highlights the menin complex partner / downstream effector that is associated with each of the respective indications that could benefit from treatment with a covalent menin inhibitor.
Depiction of target patient populations grouped based on the relevant menin
complex partner or downstream effector
Menin & MLL – Acute Leukemias (MLL-r and NPM1 Mutant)
MLL-r leukemias are characterized by MLL gene (encoded by the gene KMT2A) translocation abnormalities. These abnormalities result in the formation of fusion genes encoding fusion proteins comprised of MLL1 and a corresponding fusion partner domain. The interaction of these fusion proteins with menin drives the expression of downstream target genes such as HOXA9 and MEIS1, triggering leukemic cell proliferation.
Menin binds directly to the conserved N-terminus of MLL proteins, making it a promising target that could potentially be exploited consistently by a menin inhibitor therapeutic. Preventing the MLL proteins from binding to menin has been shown to abolish the oncogenic effects in vitro and in vivo as shown in the figure below.
Depiction of leukemic pathway associated with aberrant menin-MLL fusion complex
Approximately 20,000 and 6,000 patients in the United States are diagnosed annually with AML and ALL, respectively. MLL-r leukemia has limited therapeutic options and represents approximately 10% of acute leukemias in adults and approximately 70% of acute leukemias in infants. In addition to MLL-r, MLL signaling in some forms of MLL wild-type (MLL-wt) AML have also been implicated, including those bearing independent oncogenic mutations in nucleophosmin (NPM1), a molecular chaperone, and DNA-methyltransferase 3A (DNMT3A), a methyl transferase. These subpopulations together represent approximately 45% of AML cases.
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Patients with MLL rearrangements often suffer from failure of induction therapy or disease relapse, resulting in poor clinical outcomes. In pediatric AML, the five-year event-free survival rate on average is 44% but ranges between 11% and 92% depending on the MLL-translocation subtypes. In ALL, the five-year survival rate for people aged 20 and older is approximately 40% and for people under the age of 20 it is approximately 89%. However, pediatric MLL-r ALL patients fare much worse, with four-year survival rates as low as 10%, compared to 64% for those without MLL rearrangements.
A perhaps more dire area of unmet need is relapsed/refractory AML. Despite evolving insights into the pathogenesis of AML, over 11,000 patients with AML die each year from the disease in the United States. Relapse is the most common cause of treatment failure. The five-year overall survival (OS) for adult patients with AML after disease relapse is only approximately 10%. Furthermore, a published study showed that approximately 20% of patients demonstrated primary induction failure adding even more patients to this refractory category. Currently, allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is considered to be the only reliable option with curative potential, with OS estimated between 15% to 25% three to five years post-transplant. To improve overall quality of life for patients, physicians are favoring oral targeted agents and strategies that avoid intensive chemotherapy and prolonged inpatient admissions. Key in this effort is a focus on molecular testing to identify the potential for targeted therapies.
Given the involvement of MLL and NPM1 in a high percentage of acute leukemias, and the poor clinical outcomes provided by available treatments, we believe a new treatment that can inhibit the function of both targets by disrupting or preventing interactions with menin could address this unmet need.
Menin & MYC – DLBCL, MM, CLL and KRAS Solid Tumors (Lung, Pancreatic, and Colorectal)
MYC is a transcription factor that is implicated in oncogenesis and typically regulates genes associated with cell cycle, cellular proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. In fact, MYC is constitutively and aberrantly expressed in over 70% of human cancers. Notably, MYC appears to play a key role in the functioning of many cancer cells, including DLBCL, MM, and KRAS solid tumors (Colorectal, Pancreatic, and Lung). MYC is aberrantly expressed or translocated in relapsed / refractory DLBCL and MM and is a major downstream effector of KRAS mutant tumors. Menin has been shown to play an essential role in the MYC transcriptional complex, which leads to menin-mediated enhancement of MYC target gene expression in cancer cells. The figure below highlights the role of menin in mediating MYC target gene expression.
The role of menin in the MYC transcriptional complex, facilitating the expression of MYC target genes
DLBCL is the most common subtype of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. DLBCL starts in white blood cells called lymphocytes and it usually grows in lymph nodes. Every year, approximately 18,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with DLBCL. Following initial treatment with standard chemotherapy, approximately 70% of patients have a complete response and approximately 50% of patients are cured. There is a substantial unmet need for patients with relapsed or refractory DLBCL as median overall survival is between six and seven months in this group. Double Hit Lymphomas (DHL), Triple Hit Lymphomas (THL), and Double Expressor Lymphomas (DEL) are high grade B-cell lymphomas (HGBLs) that have high MYC and BCL2 or BCL6 dependency. Based on their aggressive nature, DHL, THL, and DEL represent a large portion of the relapsed or refractory DLBCL population.
MM is a cancer of plasma cells, which make antibodies (immunoglobulins) and are mainly located in the bone marrow. As cancerous cells migrate from the bone marrow, organ damage due to excess immunoglobulins in bones and blood and weakening of bones are common features. Approximately 35,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with MM each year and the five-year relative survival rate is approximately 56% (Source: NCI SEER Data). While many therapeutic options are available to patients, a subset of highly refractory patients exists. In these patients, overall survival is as low as 6 months. Additionally, it is estimated that more than 60% of MM patients have menin dependent genetic drivers (MYC addicted or driven) and that these drivers are more common in the relapsed or refractory setting.
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CLL is a chronic leukemia that progresses relatively slowly and typically impacts older adults. In the United States, approximately 20,000 patients are diagnosed with CLL each year. CLL is a disease of malignant B lymphocytes, for which standard-of-care agents are generally well tolerated; however, CLL patients with certain genetic backgrounds demonstrate inferior outcomes to these regimens. While the existing treatments options produce 5-year survival outcomes greater than 87%, there is an unmet need for patients that have high- or medium-risk cytogenetic profiles and those that are relapsed or refractory to existing treatments.
Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) is the most common form of lung cancer, representing approximately 84% of all lung cancer cases or approximately 200,000 cases in the U.S. each year. Additionally, the five-year survival rate of NSCLC is approximately 26%. While lung cancer is the third most common form of cancer in the U.S. based on incidence, lung cancer contributes to the highest number of annual cancer deaths in the U.S. KRAS is a key node in the RAS signaling pathway, which can be oncogenic. KRAS is the most frequent oncogene in NSCLC, occurring in approximately 30% of patients with NSCLC. Notably, RAS signaling is known to result in active MYC, which can facilitate pro-tumor transcriptional processes. KRAS-targeted inhibitors have shown efficacy in KRAS mutant NSCLC patients in clinical trials.
Pancreatic cancer is a relatively rare form of cancer in the U.S., representing approximately 60,000 cases in the U.S. each year. Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive cancer with a very low five-year survival rate of approximately 11%, indicating that there is a large unmet need. It is rarely diagnosed early, contributing to the low survival rate. Among patients with pancreatic cancer, RAS mutations (including KRAS) occur in up to approximately 98% of patients.
Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common form of cancer in the U.S., representing approximately 150,000 cases in the U.S. each year. These cancers start in the rectum or the colon and can be diagnosed/identified early, even potentially as noncancerous polyps. The five-year survival rate of CRC is approximately 65%. Among other mutations, KRAS mutations occur in approximately 40% of patients with CRC.
Menin & Beta-Cell Biology – Diabetes
Diabetes mellitus is characterized by a reduced ability to produce insulin and/or by a dysregulated response to insulin and affects approximately 37 million people in the U.S. (Source: CDC). Diabetes is one of the largest economic burdens on the U.S. health care system and the 7th leading cause of death in the U.S. According to the CDC, worldwide 537 million adults have diabetes. In the United States alone, 37.3 million Americans have diabetes, 11.3% of the population. 96 million adults (more than 1 in 3) in the U.S. have pre-diabetes. In the United States, $1 out of every $4 in U.S. health care costs is being spent on caring for people with diabetes. In 2021, the U.S. spent $380 billion to treat diabetes. Today, diabetes is an uncontrolled disease despite the availability of current medication. There is a significant need for the treatment and care of diabetes patients.
Diabetes is grouped into a few clinical categories based on etiology or timing of diagnosis according to the latest guidance from the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Accounting for 1.6 million diagnosed patients in the U.S., type 1 diabetes is due to autoimmune beta cell destruction, usually leading to absolute insulin deficiency, including latent autoimmune diabetes of adulthood. Type 2 diabetes has been diagnosed in approximately 25.3 million people in the U.S. and is due to a progressive loss of adequate beta cell insulin secretion frequently on the background of insulin resistance. The primary treatment goal is to achieve glycemic control by reducing HbA1c (A1c), a marker for the amount of sugar in the bloodstream, to 6.5% or lower. Glycemic control is a validated approach to delaying disease progression, which leads to significant and potentially fatal renal, cardiac, neurological, and ophthalmic comorbidities.
Loss of functional beta cell mass is a core component of the natural history in both types of diabetes — type 1 diabetes (mediated by autoimmune dysfunction) and type 2 diabetes (mediated by metabolic dysfunction). Beta cells are found in the pancreas and are responsible for the synthesis and secretion of insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps the body use glucose for energy and helps control blood glucose levels. In patients with diabetes, beta cell mass and function are diminished, leading to insufficient insulin secretion and hyperglycemia. Menin is thought to act as a brake on beta cell turnover / beta cell growth, supporting the notion that inhibition of menin could lead to the regeneration of normal healthy beta cells. Notably, it has previously been shown that knocking out the gene responsible for the creation of menin (MEN1) has been observed to produce profound glycemic control in diabetic animal models (see below). Based on these and other scientific findings, we are exploring the potential for menin inhibition as a viable therapeutic approach to permanently halt or reverse progression of type 2 diabetes.
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MEN1 knockdown led to profound glycemic control in a streptozotocin-induced
hyperglycemia mouse model
BMF-219 in Oncology
Our lead product candidate, BMF-219, is designed to be a potent, selective, orally bioavailable, covalent inhibitor of menin that disrupts the protein-protein interaction between menin and MLL. We are developing BMF-219 for the treatment of cancers that are highly dependent on menin, including leukemias containing the MLL fusion protein. In preclinical studies, administration of BMF-219 has resulted in robust anti-tumor responses across a range of liquid and solid tumor models, including MLL-r AML, NPM1 mutant AML, MYC driven/addicted liquid tumors (e.g., DLBCL and MM), and KRAS mutant colorectal, lung, and pancreatic tumors. Based on our preclinical findings, we believe our covalent approach may have significant advantages over reversible inhibitors, including selectivity, potency, durability, and safety.
Target Engagement Studies: Gene Expression
Published preclinical studies have shown that inhibition of the menin-MLL interaction leads to reduction in MEN1 (the gene that encodes menin) transcription, resulting in down regulation of MEIS1, HOXA9, and DMNT3A, which are common gene signatures for menin-MLL, and differentiation of leukemic cells into myeloid cells. Our lead product candidate, BMF-219, is intended to irreversibly inhibit the interaction between menin and wild type MLL and MLL fusions.
In preclinical studies, administration of BMF-219 has resulted in the inhibition of the menin-MLL interaction in multiple cancer cell models with known dependency on menin binding for survival. We characterized the molecular responses following treatment with BMF-219 across multiple model cell lines, including MOLM-13 cells in culture. MOLM-13 is an AML cell line with a KMT2A-MLLT3 (MLL-AF9) fusion.
As reflected in the figure below, in this model we observed substantial down regulation of MEN1 along with MEIS1, HOXA9, and DNMT3A, which are common gene signatures for menin-MLL and NPM1 altered leukemias. Published studies of reversible menin inhibitors have shown downregulation of signature genes after six days of inhibition. To evaluate target engagement and explore potential differences in onset of action for our reversible and covalent menin inhibitors, we evaluated expression levels at 6 and 24 hours following treatment. Our reversible inhibitor showed limited impact on signature genes over 24 hours, but we observed rapid down regulation of menin dependent genes for BMF-219 and observed up to approximately 80% reduction in readout genes by six hours and approximately 95% reduction at 24 hours compared to control.
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Reduction in menin dependent gene expression demonstrated BMF-219 target engagement
As reflected in the figure above, profiling of signature genes in menin-MLL and NPM1 altered leukemias showed rapid downregulation upon treatment with BMF-219, a covalent menin inhibitor. Treatment with BMF-05, a reversible menin inhibitor, showed limited impact on signature genes similar to dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) vehicle control at these time points, which is consistent with published findings for other reversible menin inhibitors. The Y-axis represents Transcripts Per Million (TPM).
Published preclinical studies have also shown that disruption of the menin-MLL interaction led to differentiation of leukemic cells to myeloid cells. As a result, we have tested reversible and covalent menin inhibitors in MOLM-13 cells to determine if treatment would promote differentiation, as exhibited by an increase in integrin subunit alpha M (ITGAM), which encodes CD11b, a surface marker associated with myeloid differentiation. As reflected in the figure below, at 24 hours following administration, we observed dose dependent elevation of myeloid marker gene expression with BMF-219 treatment. Meanwhile, comparable exposures of reversible menin inhibitors (BMF-05, BMF-13 and BMF-214, three of our proprietary reversible menin inhibitors) reflected no change from vehicle controls. However, the reversible inhibitors were able to upregulate ITGAM at a 10-fold increase in exposure. While we believe these results support our hypothesis regarding the role of the menin pathway, they also highlight the potential need for reversible inhibitors to have high clinical exposures in order to achieve sufficient menin suppression to affect disease.
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Responses of myeloid differentiation marker ITGAM at 24 hours demonstrated target engagement. Y-axis represents the Transcripts Per Million (TPM). Data are presented for DMSO vehicle control, proprietary reversible menin inhibitors (BMF-05, BMF-13, BMF-214), and BMF-219
We explored the impact of BMF-219 treatment on key oncogenic genes in MOLM-13 cells in preclinical models. Significant changes in gene expression of BCL-2, MYC, and HOXA9 were observed after 24 hours of treatment with BMF-219. The figure below compares gene expression data in MOLM-13 cells after 16 hours of treatment with KO-539, a reversible menin inhibitor, that was published at the ASH Annual Meeting in 2021.
Comparison of gene expression data for key genes in MOLM-13 cells. Data for BMF-219 was gathered after 24 hours of BMF-219 treatment at 500 nM and 1,000 nM concentrations and was generated by the Biomea team. Data for KO-539 was gathered after 16 hours of KO-539 treatment at 250 nM and 1,000 nM concentrations and was generated by a research group at MD Anderson and subsequently published at the ASH Annual Meeting in 2021
In-vitro Studies
To evaluate potential activity of the covalent menin inhibitor BMF-219 in leukemia models, we examined the impact of menin inhibition on metabolic activity and cell survival. As reflected in the figures below, treatment with BMF-219 demonstrated rapid shut down of metabolic activity, which was sustained over the 14-hour study duration. BMF-219
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responses were superior to tested reversible menin inhibitors (BMF-05 and MI-503) with respect to both onset and durability of metabolic suppression.
Metabolic activity in menin inhibitor treated leukemia cell lines reflected rapid and durable responses following administration of covalent menin inhibitor BMF-219 (560 nM exposure of all compounds). Y-axis represents fluorescence units measured as an output of ATP production, a measure of viable cells
Treatment with BMF-219 also led to apoptosis in menin driven leukemia models, resulting in a notable reduction in cell survival. Responses were observed for BMF-219 treatment at the lowest tested doses across all cell lines, while the reversible inhibitors showed limited responses at the lowest dose and were unable to eliminate tumor cells at any tested dose.
Cell survival assay across AML cell lines after seven days shows differentiated responses to covalent menin inhibitor BMF-219 relative to reversible inhibitors
We also conducted cell proliferation assays on a panel of well-characterized leukemia cell lines to evaluate the potency of BMF-219. The panel included: MLL-AF4 translocated, internal tandem FLT3 duplicated bi-phenotypic B-myelomonocytic leukemia (i.e. ALL/AML) cell line MV4;11; MLL-AF9 translocated, internal tandem FLT3 duplicated AML cell line MOLM-13; and NPM1-mutated AML cell line OCI-AML3. We are comparing in the figure below the cell killing ability of BMF-219 in leukemic cells to the cell killing of reversible inhibitors in similar experiments. The data for reversible inhibitors
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on the right of the figure was generated by a research group at MD Anderson and was published at the ASH Annual Meeting in 2021.
Cell killing effect of BMF-219 in acute leukemia cell lines compared against similar data from reversible menin inhibitors published at the ASH Annual Meeting in 2021
In addition to impacting leukemic cell lines, menin is a known dependency in other liquid tumors, including MM and DLBCL. Menin dependency has also been seen in multiple solid tumors including Ewing’s sarcoma and KRAS driven cancers. As part of our ongoing discovery efforts, we screened BMF-219 against a panel of tumor models and observed potent growth inhibition in multiple menin-dependent cancer cell lines, including MM.
Representative cell survival time course from a multiple myeloma model (KMS-20 cell line, 0.56μM doses) shows relative effect of the covalent inhibitor BMF-219 versus a reversible inhibitor BMF-05
We also explored the potential potency of BMF-219 in KRAS dependent tumors using a long-term proliferation assay. A representative cell survival time course from a G12C KRAS mutation driven pancreatic cancer line (MIA-PaCa-2, 0.56 μM doses) shows the effects of treatment with the covalent inhibitor BMF-219. A broader panel of these studies demonstrated potent growth inhibition in multiple models covering both G12C and G12D KRAS mutations.
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Representative cell survival time course from a KRAS mutant pancreatic cancer model (MIA-PaCa-2 cell line, 0.56μM doses) shows relative effect of the covalent inhibitor BMF-219 versus reversible inhibitors MI-503 and BMF-05
Single agent BMF-219 also showed strong and highly specific pan-KRAS anti-cancer activity as a single agent across KRAS G12C, G12D, G12V and G13D mutant cell lines including in NSCLC, CRC, and the most prevalent type of pancreatic cancer, PDAC. Across tested cell lines and KRAS mutations, BMF-219 produced higher growth inhibition compared to two approved KRAS G12C inhibitors as well as two clinical non-covalent menin inhibitors.
Growth inhibition effect of BMF-219 across KRAS G12C, G12D, G13D, and G12V mutant cell lines but not WT KRAS as presented at the AACR Annual Meeting in 2022, “Irreversible Menin Inhibitor, BMF-219, Exhibits Potent Cytotoxicity in KRAS-Mutated Solid Tumors” (Abstract 2665)
BMF-219 also demonstrated potent single agent activity across multiple preclinical models in DLBCL and MM. To measure cell killing, cells were cultured in the presence of menin inhibitor for 72 hours or 14 hours and viable cell count measure by CTG readout. The % cell killing relative to untreated cultures was measured at 72 hours and 14 hours. Data tabulated was averaged from two independent experiments.
BMF-219 at 1μM induced potent killing with 80-97% cell death following 72 hours drug treatment. In comparison, the reversible menin inhibitors MI-503 and a clinical reversible menin inhibitor induced much less potent killing (20-35% cell killing with 3μM MI-503).
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BMF-219 Exerted Potent Lethality Against Representative DLBCL (Toledo & U2932) & MM Cell Lines (SKMM1 & OPM2) as presented at the IMS Annual Meeting in 2022, “Anti-tumor Activity of Irreversible Menin Inhibitor, BMF-219, in High Grade B-Cell Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma Preclinical Models” (Poster P-107)
BMF-219 was observed in preclinical studies to reduce menin protein in MM and DLBCL cells. Quantitation of menin protein expression in SKMM1, OPM2, Toledo and U2932 cell line treated with BMF-219, clinical reversible menin inhibitor or preclinical reversible menin inhibitor, MI-503, for 14 hours. Average menin protein expression is of three independent experiments. WES blot is a representative from one single experiment. Cells were cultured in the presence of menin inhibitors for 72 hours or 14 hours. Average % cell killing treated at 72 hours and 14 hours are from two independent experiments.
BMF-219 exerted pronounced decrease in menin protein expression in MM and DLBCL cell lines as presented at the IMS Annual Meeting in 2022, “Anti-tumor Activity of Irreversible Menin Inhibitor, BMF-219, in High Grade B-Cell Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma Preclinical Models” (Poster P-107)
In summary, we have screened the effects of BMF-219 across a range of cancer cell lines and observed potent growth inhibition. These findings support our belief that BMF-219 has significant potential to address a broad range of cancers.
Ex-vivo Studies
Continuing our focus on the well-characterized menin dependency in leukemia, we investigated patient derived AML samples and the impact of reversible and covalent inhibition of the menin-MLL interaction on proliferation. As reflected in
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the figure below, covalent inhibition with BMF-219 and BMF-T2 (a derivative of BMF-219) led to significant growth inhibition and showed substantial advantages over the selected reversible inhibitors.
Treatment of patient derived AML cells with menin inhibitors showed potent inhibition of proliferation with covalent drugs (BMF-219 and BMF-T2) versus reversible drugs (BMF-5, BMF-13, MI-503) at 1μM exposure, six days
In comparison, to achieve similar levels of growth inhibition, the selected reversible inhibitors studied required dose concentrations approximately ten-fold greater than our respective IC90 values. We believe these findings support our hypothesis that a covalent inhibitor could potentially provide greater therapeutic benefit at lower exposure-levels versus reversible inhibitors.
Treatment of patient derived AML cells with reversible menin inhibitors at drug exposures 10-fold greater than IC90(10μM) showed robust inhibition of proliferation at six days
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Single agent BMF-219 also produced near complete inhibition of growth at 1.1μM in KRAS G12C and G12D ex-vivo patient samples.
Growth inhibition of ex-vivo KRAS mutant Cells from Patients (1.1 μM Exposure) as presented at the AACR Annual Meeting in 2022, “Irreversible Menin Inhibitor, BMF-219, Exhibits Potent Cytotoxicity in KRAS-Mutated Solid Tumors” (Abstract 2665)
BMF-219 also produced near complete growth inhibition in both THL and MYC amplified DLBCL ex vivo patient samples at approximately1μM exposure. These responses were also superior to clinical reversible (non-covalent) inhibitors with respect to cell growth inhibition at the concentrations tested.
BMF-219 exerted pronounced lethality in DLBCL patient derived models ex vivo as presented at the AACR Annual Meeting in 2022, “Anti-tumor Activity of Irreversible Menin Inhibitor, BMF-219, in High Grade B-Cell Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma Preclinical Models” (Abstract 2654)
BMF-219 demonstrated broad activity with over 98% cell lethality across ex vivo patient-derived CLL tumor models with varying cytogenetic risk profiles and Rai stages, including high- and intermediate-risk cytogenetic profiles which represent a significant unmet clinical need. BMF-219 showed consistently strong activity compared to venetoclax and significantly greater activity than a clinical reversible menin inhibitor. BMF-219 responses were superior to clinical reversible (non-covalent) inhibitors with respect to cell growth inhibition at the concentrations tested.
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Growth Inhibition of BMF-219 in patient-derived CLL ex vivo models grouped by genetic background and Rai Stages as presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting in 2022, “Preclinical Activity of irreversible menin inhibitor, BMF-219, in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia” (Abstract 7541)
Additionally, BMF-219 exhibited robust growth inhibition in patient samples that were less responsive to standard-of-care agents bendamustine and ibrutinib. Representative dose response curves for BMF-219 or clinical reversible menin inhibitor are shown for patient-derived samples from CLL patients displaying clinical profiles of progression after prior therapy with bendamustine (C) or ibrutinib (D), or ibrutinib pretreated and subsequently progressed on ibrutinib and venetoclax (E).
Clinical samples with progression after prior treatment with bendamustine or ibrutinib as presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting in 2022, “Preclinical Activity of irreversible menin inhibitor, BMF-219, in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia” (Abstract 7541)
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In-vivo Studies
A xenograft model using a MV4;11 leukemia cell line was used to evaluate the potency of BMF-219 as a single agent. We utilized a luciferase transduced MV4;11 model over sub-cutaneous models as we believe the disseminated model better reflects the normal etiology of leukemias, including homing of leukemic cells to the bone marrow and spleen. Also, the disseminated model offered the ability to frequently monitor disease progression through fluorescence imaging which provided a more detailed understanding of the kinetics of the observed response to therapy.
Disseminated MV4;11-luc models were run in female NSG mice. Mice were inoculated with xenograft cancer cells at high levels (1x107 MV4;11 cells) with greater than 90% viability via tail vein injection. BMF-219 or vehicle was administered (once daily) at various dose levels and via various routes (intravenously (IV), PO: 80-160 mg/kg, IP: 40-80 mg/kg).
As reflected in the figure below, the MV4;11-luc disseminated xenograft study showed substantial tumor reduction and survival benefit for BMF-219 treatment at both the 20 mg/kg and 40 mg/kg doses. Fluorescence imaging showed notable reductions in tumor burden between the control (vehicle treated) animals as compared to the BMF-219 treated animals. Both tested doses showed substantial reductions in tumor burden (-47% at 20 mg/kg; -63% at 40 mg/kg), which translated into survival benefit (over vehicle control) of 72% and 94% for the respective doses (calculated using total days of survival versus control).
Fluorescence imaging of the disseminated MV4;11-luc xenograft model treated for 14 days at 40mg/kg with BMF-219 vs. control. Pseudo-colored area and intensity indicates level of tumor burden
Mean body weight data from our xenograft studies provided an early assessment of safety and tolerability showing that BMF-219 treatment was generally well-tolerated at various doses in a rodent model system. BMF-219 was administered once daily at 20 mg/kg or 40 mg/kg via IV for 14 days and caused minimal changes in body weight from baseline or vehicle control.
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Body weight with BMF-219 treatment showed limited change from baseline and vehicle controls
We have also completed seven-day, non-GLP toxicology studies in rats and dogs where daily oral administration of BMF-219 showed that the compound was generally well-tolerated in both species. Additionally, our pharmacodynamic (PD) studies, which dosed daily up to 14 consecutive days, showed that BMF-219 was generally well-tolerated. We believe these results further support the advancement of BMF-219 into IND-enabling toxicology studies.
OncoPanel Screening
We examined the selectivity of BMF-219 for menin-dependent disease to assess potential off-target risk. We observed negligible impact of BMF-219 treatment on cell metabolism in leukemia and lymphoma cell lines that have wild type MLL, but no menin-linked mechanism for disease. We believe these findings were consistent with external studies showing that menin-MLL interaction was not generally cell-essential and only critical to survival in those cells that contain aberrant biology.
Screening of metabolic activity in BMF-219 treated cells with WT MLL, but no menin-driven disease mechanism showed negligible impact on viability. 0.25μM exposure. The cell lines BC-1, BCP-1, BV-173, K562, and U937 were composed of, respectively, cells that were hematopoietic (B lymphoblast), hematopoietic (B lymphoblast), leukemia (B-cell pre), hematopoietic (bone marrow), and hematopoietic (bone marrow)
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Kinase Screening
We have also conducted extensive in-house comparative 3D structural analysis of the protein, which has revealed that the binding pocket we seek to target on menin showed limited structural similarity to some tyrosine kinases known to be of functional relevance in hematological cancers. At a standard compound test concentration of 0.1 μM, BMF-219 displayed high selectivity and limited off-target kinase inhibition. Of the 169 kinases tested, only six showed any inhibition by any of our novel molecules tested. Furthermore, only two wild type kinases showed greater than 50% inhibition upon treatment with BMF-219. We believe this result supports the potential of our FUSION System to generate target-specific compounds.
Glutathione Reactivity
We have also employed the widely used glutathione (GSH) reactivity assay to investigate potential non-specific binding liabilities from electrophilic residues necessary to enable covalent binding. The assay measures the depletion of the tested drug as it forms non-specific complexes with the strong nucleophile GSH and returns drug half-life (t1/2) as a readout. Drugs with limited non-specific interactions have long half-lives, as the drug does not get consumed in a reaction with GSH. In such studies, BMF-219 showed negligible interaction with the strong nucleophile GSH and showed less reactivity than the approved covalent drugs omeprazole and neratinib. We believe this result, if replicated in humans, could lead to less non-specific binding and potential off-target effects for BMF-219. The table below shows GSH reactivity studies demonstrating limited non-specific binding liability of BMF compounds. 1μM of compound was incubated with 5 mM of glutathione (5,000 eq).
Glutathione reactivity of BMF-219 as compared to other drug and drug candidates
Safety Screen
In order to investigate the safety of BMF-219, we have assayed a selective group of compounds (including BMF-219) at 10 μM on the SafetyScreen 44 panel (CEREP/Eurofins Discovery). This panel was created from the collective experience of multiple large pharmaceutical companies. Our findings showed no meaningful impact (greater than 50% activation or inhibition) of BMF-219 across these key safety assays.
Drug Properties
We believe the results observed for BMF-219 in our preclinical studies suggest the potential for this compound to be evaluated as an oral, once-daily treatment for menin driven cancers. With limited formulation work, the compound showed favorable pharmacokinetic (PK) and PD results, and bioavailability that enabled sufficient exposure for us to conduct in vivo efficacy and safety studies with oral dosing in mouse, rat, and dog studies. We also tested the metabolic stability of BMF-219 in preclinical studies and have observed no cytochrome (CYP) inhibition to date.
BMF-219 – Clinical Development in Oncology
We are developing BMF-219 for the treatment of liquid and solid tumors that are highly dependent on menin, including leukemias containing the MLL fusion protein. In September 2021, we announced that the U.S. FDA had cleared our IND application to begin a Phase 1 trial of BMF-219 (COVALENT-101) in adult patients with R/R acute leukemia including those with an MLL/KMT2A (Mixed Lineage Leukemia/Lysine Methyl Transferase) gene rearrangement or nucleophosmin 1 (NPM1) mutation. In December 2021, we amended our IND to include subsets of MM and DLBCL patients. In January 2022, we announced the dosing of the first leukemia patient in our COVALENT-101 trial and in June 2022, we announced the dosing of the first patient in the MM cohort of COVALENT-101. In September 2022, we amended the IND to also
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include subsets of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and announced the dosing of the first patient in the CLL cohort in October 2022.
COVALENT-101 is an ongoing Phase 1 first-in-human dose-escalation and dose-expansion study of BMF-219 in adult patients with R/R hematologic malignancies (NCT05153330). The study is enrolling four cohorts: AML/ALL (Cohort 1), DLBCL (Cohort 2), MM (Cohort 3) and CLL (Cohort 4).
COVALENT-101 trial design (NCT05153330)
In October 2022, we announced FDA clearance of the IND application for BMF-219 in KRAS mutant solid tumors and the initiation of a Phase 1/1b clinical trial (COVALENT-102). COVALENT-102 is examining BMF-219 as a monotherapy in patients who have unresectable, locally advanced, or metastatic NSCLC, CRC or PDAC with a KRAS mutation. A targeted pan-KRAS inhibitor has the potential to treat the estimated 25-35% of NSCLC, 35-45% of CRC, and approximately 90% of PDAC patients with a KRAS mutation. In January 2023, we announced the dosing of the first patient in the COVALENT-102 study.
COVALENT-102 trial design (NCT05631574)
BMF-219 – in Diabetes
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BMF-219 Tested in Two Diabetes Animal Models
Loss of functional beta cell mass is a core component of the natural history in both types of diabetes — type 1 diabetes (mediated by autoimmune dysfunction) and type 2 diabetes (mediated by metabolic dysfunction). Beta cells are found in the pancreas and are responsible for the synthesis and secretion of insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps the body use glucose for energy and helps control blood glucose levels. In patients with diabetes, beta cell mass and function are diminished, leading to insufficient insulin secretion and hyperglycemia. Insulin resistance leads to an increase in beta cell workload, which ultimately leads to beta cell failure and death and the progression of type 2 diabetes. Type 1 and type 2 diabetes result in beta cell loss and reduction in beta cell mass.
Diabetes progression of type 1 and type 2 driven by beta cell loss
Menin is thought to act as a brake on beta cell turnover / beta cell growth, supporting the notion that inhibition of menin could lead to the regeneration of normal healthy beta cells. Notably, it has previously been shown that knocking out the gene responsible for the creation of menin (MEN1) produced profound glycemic control in diabetic animal models. Based on these and other scientific findings, Biomea explored the potential for menin inhibition with BMF-219 as a viable therapeutic approach to permanently halt or reverse progression of type 2 diabetes.
We conducted two diabetes animal experiments to measure the potential impact of BMF-219 for the treatment of type 2 diabetes; the Zucker Diabetic Fatty (ZDF) rat, a widely studied model of obesity and insulin resistance in rats, and the Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetes (STZ) induced rat, a widely studied model by which diabetes is induced using an antibiotic (STZ) that produces pancreatic islet β-cell destruction. In both models, we observed that BMF-219 worked to normalize glucose levels in the majority of animals after just two weeks of treatment. Notably, the majority of the effect was maintained despite complete washout of BMF-219 in ZDF rats.
Two diabetes preclinical models interrogating the therapeutic effect of BMF-219
We presented data from these experiments at the 2022 ADA Annual Meeting Scientific Sessions, which showed BMF-219’s strong, prolonged glycemic control, insulin sensitization, and HbA1c reduction in two preclinical rat models of diabetes. At the ADA, we featured results from preclinical studies testing BMF-219 in two separate Zucker Diabetic Fatty (ZDF) rat models against pioglitazone (a thiazolidinedione) and liraglutide (a Glucagon like Peptide-1 agonist) and also against
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pioglitazone in a streptozotocin (STZ)-induced rat model. Notably, BMF-219 was superior to pioglitazone in an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), an assessment of glucose metabolism and processing, in the STZ beta cell ablation model during the treatment period. In this model, BMF-219, but not the active comparator, pioglitazone, restored non-fasting glucose levels to near normal baseline by treatment day eight and significantly reduced blood glucose levels compared to vehicle and pioglitazone during an OGTT in STZ rats (mean AUC reduction of 41%, p<0.05) at day 17, suggesting that BMF-219 rapidly induced pancreatic beta cell regrowth and function.
BMF-219 demonstrated strong activity in beta cell loss animal model (STZ Rat) as presented at the ADA Annual Meeting in 2022, “Oral Long-Acting Menin Inhibitor Normalizes Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) in Two Rat Models”
BMF-219 also achieved glycemic control via similar assessments in both ZDF models at all timepoints, including superior glycemic control compared to pioglitazone after the washout period. In the ZDF model, BMF-219 and pioglitazone showed similar glycemic control during an OGTT while the drug was present (AUC reduction of 54%, p<0.001) but only BMF-219 treated rats saw weight loss while on the drug and maintained glycemic control two weeks after washout (AUC reduction of 40%, p<0.05), which indicated prolonged glycemic control.
ZDF rat preclinical trial experiment. Rats treated with BMF-219, pioglitazone or vehicle control for 16 days were monitored for blood glucose levels by OGTT on day 29, ~2 weeks after administration of the last dose, as presented at the ADA Annual Meeting in 2022, “Oral Long-Acting Menin Inhibitor Normalizes Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) in Two Rat Models”
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ZDF rats treated with BMF-219 showed ~2 weeks after administration of the last dose an AUC reduction of 40%, (p<0.05) as presented at the ADA Annual Meeting in 2022, “Oral Long-Acting Menin Inhibitor Normalizes Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) in Two Rat Models”
BMF-219 displayed durable glycemic control during drug washout and two weeks after the last doseas presented at the ADA Annual Meeting in 2022, “Oral Long-Acting Menin Inhibitor Normalizes Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) in Two Rat Models"
A four-week BMF-219 treatment in ZDF rats also resulted in a significant reduction in HbA1C at Day 21, which reached 3.5% absolute reduction versus vehicle, compared to liraglutide (1.7% at Day 29), and remained reduced throughout the entire study, including post-treatment. At all BMF-219 doses, this significant reduction in HbA1C in ZDF rats was maintained during the 15-day washout period after the last dose and significant reduction in HbA1c was maintained after drug washout by only BMF-219, while the lowering of HbA1c by liraglutide vs. control on Day 43 was not statistically significant. In addition to OGTT, blood glucose, insulin, C-peptide, HbA1c lipemic levels, and weight were also assessed.
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BMF-219 demonstrated strong activity in insulin resistant animal model (ZDF Rat) as presented at the ADA Annual Meeting in 2022, “BMF-219, displays a significant and durable reduction in HbA1c in a Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Rat Model”
In September 2022, we presented additional data in two oral abstracts (“Oral Menin Inhibitor, BMF-219, displays a significant and durable reduction in HbA1c in a Type 2 Diabetes Rat Model” and “Oral Long-Acting Menin Inhibitor, BMF-219, Normalizes Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Two Rat Models”) at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden. Treatment with BMF-219 led to an increase in beta cell mass in ex vivo experiments with human donor islets and displayed the ability to restore and preserve beta cell function in two animal models of type 2 diabetes. BMF-219 showed improved pancreatic beta cell function and beta cell area, insulin sensitivity, blood lipid levels, weight decline, and glycemic control in the rat models (ZDF and the STZ) during the dosing period, and importantly, glycemic control was maintained after the dosing period ended. BMF-219 treatment resulted in a sustained increase in beta cell area and function in the ZDF diabetic rats observed at the end of treatment and two weeks following succession of therapy, compared to rats treated with vehicle or active control pioglitazone, which showed a decline in beta cell area and function.
We believe BMF-219 is an innovative, investigational molecule with paradigm shifting potential for the treatment of diabetes. BMF-219 is being developed as an oral and transient treatment for the regeneration, preservation, and reactivation of beta cells with a durable effect after drug discontinuation. BMF-219 may be disease modifying via the restoration of beta cell homeostasis. BMF-219 may also be synergistic with GLP-1 based treatments while potentially insulin sparing. A potential utility for BMF-219 may be in the prevention of type 2 diabetes (as there are over 90 million prediabetic patients in the U.S.). The use of BMF-219 may also lead to the potential reduction in insulin dependence. We also believe BMF-219's mechanism of action and impact on beta cells may have a positive impact even on other related diseases, including nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), chronic kidney disease (CKD) and cardiovascular disease (CV).
BMF-219 – Clinical Development in Diabetes
In October 2022, we announced the completion of the Phase 1 portion of COVALENT-111 in healthy volunteers in Canada and the dosing of the first patient with type 2 diabetes in the Phase 2 portion of COVALENT-111, also in Canada. In the completed Phase 1 portion of the trial, healthy subjects were enrolled in single ascending dose cohorts to ensure safety at the prospective dosing levels for type 2 diabetic patients. BMF-219 was well tolerated and showed a favorable PK and PD profile.
In December 2022, we announced the clearance of the IND by the FDA for BMF-219 in type 2 diabetes to support the expansion of COVALENT-111 to sites in the U.S. The ongoing Phase 2 portion consists of multiple ascending dose cohorts and includes adult patients with type 2 diabetes uncontrolled by current therapies. It is designed to examine the capacity of BMF-219 to enable the proliferation, preservation, and reactivation of healthy, functional beta cells capable of producing
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insulin, thereby leading to long-term glycemic control. In January 2023, we announced the dosing of the first patient with type 2 diabetes in the United States.
COVALENT-111 trial design (NCT05731544)
On March 28, 2023, we reported topline initial clinical data from the Phase 2 portion of COVALENT-111. 40 subjects were enrolled in the first three cohorts of COVALENT-111, with the first cohort comprising 16 healthy volunteers (HVs) exposed to 100 mg BMF-219 once daily for two weeks. In Cohorts 2 and 3, subjects with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) (n=12 per cohort with 10 subjects treated with BMF-219 and 2 subjects on placebo) received BMF-219 once daily for four weeks with or without food, respectively. In the two diabetes cohorts, enrolled patients had T2DM diagnosed for ≤15 years, were ages 18 to 65, had a BMI ≥25 and ≤40 kg/m2, and had uncontrolled diabetes with HbA1c ≥7.0% and ≤10% despite being on up to three standard-of-care diabetes therapies. At baseline, patients enrolled in Cohorts 2 and 3 had a median A1c of 7.9% and 7.8%, respectively.
Active treatment Cohort 3 (BMF-219 without food) compared to Cohort 2 (BMF-219 with food) showed a positive dose-response pharmacokinetics relationship demonstrated by about a threefold median increase in Cmax(ng/ml) and AUC (ng x h/ml) when BMF-219 was administered without food. This increase in BMF-219 systemic exposure was in line with the differences seen in the response rates between the two cohorts. Specifically, the change in HbA1c at four weeks for Cohort 3 patients (n=9) on BMF-219 (100 mg, without food) showed a median A1c reduction of -1.0% and a 89% (8/9) response rate at four weeks, with 78% of subjects achieving a ≥0.5% reduction in A1c and 56% achieving a ≥1.0% reduction in A1c. Cohort 2 patients (n=10) on BMF-219 (100 mg, with food) showed a median A1c reduction of -0.3% and a 70% (7/10) response rate at four weeks, with 30% of subjects achieving a ≥0.5% to ≤1.0% reduction in A1c. Placebo patients (n=4) showed a median and mean A1c reduction between -0.1% and -0.15%.
We also reported on the tolerability profile of BMF-219 observed in Cohorts 1, 2, and 3 of COVALENT-111. During the HV portion of the study, in Cohort 1 (n=16), we observed minor Grade 1 Treatment Emergent Adverse Events (TEAEs) and no TEAEs were considered related to BMF-219. During the dosing of diabetes patients in Cohorts 2 and 3 all TEAEs observed were Grade 1, except for an asymptomatic laboratory finding of Grade 2 elevated lipase in a single subject that was considered unrelated to BMF-219. In summary, BMF-219 was generally well-tolerated.
Other Clinical and Preclinical Programs
Beyond BMF-219, we are utilizing our novel platform to develop covalent treatments against other high-value oncogenic drivers of cancer. In May 2022, we announced our second development candidate, BMF-500, a covalent inhibitor of FLT3. BMF-500 is being developed as a highly potent and selective, covalent, small molecule inhibitor of FLT3, that is designed to bind irreversibly to a reactive cysteine in the kinase active site.
BMF-500 is a third-generation covalent inhibitor of FLT3, which, in preclinical studies has demonstrated picomolar IC50 values across key FLT3 isoforms, potentially making it the most potent inhibitor of its class. Activating mutations of the FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) are the most frequent genetic alteration in AML and are associated with poor prognosis. Though several FLT3 inhibitors have entered clinical trials and reached commercialization, adverse events and dose-limiting
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toxicities often restrict the therapeutic window and limit their long-term use. Such limitations can impact the ability to achieve long-lasting response in patients and ultimately result in therapy-induced resistance.
At the ASH Annual Meeting in December 2022, we presented preclinical data supporting the potential of BMF-500 as a highly potent and selective FLT3 inhibitor. The presentation described BMF-500’s picomolar affinity to activating FLT3 mutations including FLT3 internal tandem duplications (FLT3-ITD) and various tyrosine kinase domain (TKD) mutations, multi-fold higher potency and increased cytotoxicity than commercially available non-covalent FLT3 inhibitor gilteritinib, and complete tumor regression at physiologically relevant doses in mouse models of FLT3-ITD AML and maintenance of effect without continued exposure. BMF-500 selectively killed AML cells harboring FLT3 activating mutations, including MV4-11 and MOLM-13, and engineered cells expressing FLT3-ITD and/or FLT3 TKD mutations. In ex vivo cultures, BMF-500 as a single agent induced potent growth inhibition of patient-derived AML cells harboring either FLT3-ITD or FLT3 non-ITD mutations.
The potent covalent inhibition of FLT3 by BMF-500 manifested durable cellular response that was improved over gilteritinib. A three-hour exposure followed by wash-out of BMF-500 outperformed four days of continuous exposure to gilteritinib, at all concentrations tested. In cells harboring FLT3 activating mutations, BMF-500 induced dose-dependent inhibition of FLT3 phosphorylation and downstream signaling, including phospho-STAT5 and phospho-ERK. A 1-hour pulse treatment with BMF-500 was sufficient to achieve deep and durable target inhibition for greater than 24 hours, an effect not observed with gilteritinib under similar conditions.
Potent FLT3 inhibition and high selectivity of BMF-500 translated to sustained tumor regression and improved survival in both subcutaneous and disseminated xenograft models of mutant FLT3-driven AML. Orally administered BMF-500 was well tolerated over four weeks of dosing. We believe BMF-500 is a novel FLT3 inhibitor, given its activity, durability, and selectivity in comparison to existing FLT3 inhibitors.
Potent and durable target inhibition leading to active cell killing in comparison to gilteritinib as presented at the ASH Annual Meeting in 2022, “BMF-500: An Orally Bioavailable Covalent Inhibitor of FLT3 with High Selectivity and Potent Antileukemic Activity in FLT3-Mutated AML” (Abstract 2756)
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Potent Cell-Based Activity in AML Cell Lines with FLT3 Mutations as presented at the ASH Annual Meeting in 2022, “BMF-500: An Orally Bioavailable Covalent Inhibitor of FLT3 with High Selectivity and Potent Antileukemic Activity in FLT3-Mutated AML” (Abstract 2756)
Potent coverage of FLT3 inhibitor resistant mutation as presented at the ASH Annual Meeting in 2022, “BMF-500: An Orally Bioavailable Covalent Inhibitor of FLT3 with High Selectivity and Potent Antileukemic Activity in FLT3-Mutated AML” (Abstract 2756)
Competition
The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are characterized by the rapid evolution of technologies and understanding of disease etiology, intense competition and a strong emphasis on intellectual property. We believe that our approach, strategy, scientific capabilities, know-how and experience provide us with competitive advantages. In addition, we believe we are currently the only company in the United States developing irreversible covalent binders specifically against menin. More broadly, we define ourselves as targeted oncology drug developers focused on irreversible covalent drugs and as such expect substantial competition from multiple sources, including major pharmaceutical, specialty pharmaceutical, and existing or emerging biotechnology companies, academic research institutions and governmental agencies and public and private research institutions worldwide. Many of our competitors, either alone or through collaborations, have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals and marketing approved products than we do. Smaller or early-stage companies may also
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prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These companies may be or may become interested in discovery and development of irreversible covalent binders that may compete with us against menin or related targets at scale and in an integrated way. Even if they do not advance programs with the same mechanism of action as ours, these companies could develop products or product candidates that are competitive with ours or that have a superior product profile, and may do so at a rapid pace. These competitors also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical trial sites and patient enrollment in clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs. As a result, our competitors may discover, develop, license or commercialize products before or more successfully than we do. We face competition from segments of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other related markets that pursue the development of therapies that target irreversible covalent binding against protein targets of interest to us.
To our knowledge, there are several programs that target menin in clinical development for acute leukemias at this time; we are aware of Kura Oncology’s KO-539 and Syndax Pharmaceuticals’ SNDX-5613, both of which target the menin-MLL1 interaction through the use of non-covalent inhibition. Both KO-539 and SNDX-5613 are in clinical development and have demonstrated Phase 1 results that support continued development into pivotal studies and validate menin as a therapeutic target. Other clinical programs have been reported by Daiichi Sankyo (DS-1594), Janssen Pharmaceuticals (JNJ-75276617) and Sumitomo Pharma Oncology (DSP-5336). Additionally, other preclinical programs have been reported by Bayer (BAY-155), Novartis, and the University of Michigan.
Our competitors will also include companies that are or will be developing other targeted therapies, including small molecule, antibody, or protein degraders for the same indications that we are targeting. We could see a reduction or elimination in our commercial opportunity if our competitors develop and commercialize drugs that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient to administer, are less expensive or with more favorable labeling than our product candidates. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory approval for their drugs more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market. The key competitive factors affecting the success of all of our product candidates, if approved, are likely to be their potency, selectivity, inactivation of the target, therapeutic window, safety, convenience, price, the level of generic competition, our ability to market and commercialize the product candidate, and the availability of reimbursement from government and other third-party payors.
Intellectual Property
We seek to protect the intellectual property and proprietary technology that we consider important to our business, including by pursuing patent applications that cover our product candidates and methods of using the same, as well as other relevant inventions and improvements that we believe to be commercially important to the development of our business. We also rely on trade secrets, know-how and continuing technological innovation to develop and maintain our proprietary and intellectual property position. Our commercial success depends, in part, on our ability to obtain, maintain, enforce and protect our intellectual property and other proprietary rights for the technology, inventions and improvements we consider important to our business, and to defend any patents we may own or in-license in the future, prevent others from infringing any patents we may own or in-license in the future, preserve the confidentiality of our trade secrets, and operate without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the valid and enforceable patents and proprietary rights of third parties. As with other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, our ability to maintain and solidify our proprietary and intellectual property position for our product candidates and technologies will depend on our success in obtaining effective patent claims and enforcing those claims if granted. However, our pending provisional and Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications, and any patent applications that we may in the future file or license from third parties, may not result in the issuance of patents and any issued patents we may obtain do not guarantee us the right to practice our technology or commercialize our product candidates. The PCT is a treaty with more than 150 contracting states that makes it possible to seek patent protection across multiple states by filing a single “international” application. We also cannot predict the breadth of claims that may be allowed or enforced in any patents we may own or in-license in the future. Any issued patents that we may own or in-license in the future may be challenged, invalidated, circumvented or have the scope of their claims narrowed. In addition, because of the extensive time required for clinical development and regulatory review of a product candidate we may develop, it is possible that, before any of our product candidates can be commercialized, any related patent may expire or remain in force for only a short period following commercialization, thereby limiting the protection such patent would afford the respective product and any competitive advantage such patent may provide.
The term of individual patents depends upon the date of filing of the patent application, the date of patent issuance and the legal term of patents in the countries in which they are obtained. In most countries, including the United States, the patent term is 20 years from the earliest filing date of a non-provisional patent application. In the United States, a patent’s term may be lengthened by patent term adjustment, which compensates a patentee for administrative delays by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in examining and granting a patent, or may be shortened if a patent is terminally disclaimed
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over an earlier filed patent. The term of a patent claiming a new drug product may also be eligible for a limited patent term extension when FDA approval is granted, provided statutory and regulatory requirements are met. The extension period granted on a patent covering a product is typically one-half the time between the effective date of a clinical investigation involving human beings is begun and the submission date of a new drug application, plus the time between the submission date of a new drug application and the ultimate approval date. The extension period cannot be longer than five years and the total patent term, including the extension period, must not exceed 14 years following FDA approval. Only one patent applicable to an approved product is eligible for the extension, and only those claims covering the approved product, a method for using it, or a method for manufacturing it may be extended. A patent that covers multiple products for which extension is sought can only be extended in connection with one of the approvals. The USPTO reviews the application for any patent term extension or restoration in consultation with the FDA. In the future, if any of our product candidates receive approval by the FDA, we expect to apply for a patent term extension on an issued patents covering the product, depending upon the length of the clinical studies for the product and other factors. Outside the U.S., similar applications for patent term extensions or supplementary protection certificates are available in a limited number of countries. We expect to apply for such coverage where available. There can be no assurance that the USPTO or any other patent office outside the U.S. will approve any of our applications for patent term extensions or supplementary protection certificates. There can be no assurance that patents will issue from our current or future pending patent applications, or that we will benefit from any patent term extension or favorable adjustments to the terms of any patents we may own or in-license in the future. In addition, the actual protection afforded by a patent varies on a product-by-product basis, from country-to-country, and depends upon many factors, including the type of patent, the scope of its coverage, the availability of regulatory-related extensions, the availability of legal remedies in a particular country and the validity and enforceability of the patent. Patent term may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on our products, if approved, for an adequate amount of time.
As of December 31, 2022, we owned two issued U.S. patents, more than fifty U.S. and outside U.S. pending patent applications, directed to compositions of matter, methods of treatment, and methods of making with respect to our product candidates, including BMF-219 and BMF-500.
Prosecution is a lengthy process, during which the scope of the claims initially submitted for examination by the USPTO or other foreign jurisdiction are often significantly narrowed by the time they issue, if they issue at all. Any of our pending PCT patent applications are not eligible to become issued patents until, among other things, we file national stage patent applications within 30 months in the countries in which we seek patent protection. If we do not timely file any national stage patent applications, we may lose our priority date with respect to our PCT patent applications and any patent protection on the inventions disclosed in such PCT patent applications. Our provisional patent applications may never result in issued patents and are not eligible to become issued patents until, among other things, we file a non-provisional and/or PCT patent application within 12 months of filing the related provisional patent application. If we do not timely file non-provisional or PCT patent applications, we may lose our priority date with respect to our provisional patent applications and any patent protection on the inventions disclosed in our provisional patent applications. While we intend to timely file non-provisional and PCT patent applications relating to our provisional patent applications, and we intend to timely file national stage patent applications relating to our PCT patent applications, we cannot predict whether any of our current or future patent applications related to BMF-219, or any of our other product candidates, will issue as patents. If we do not successfully obtain patent protection, or, even if we do obtain patent protection, if the scope of the patent protection we obtain our product candidates or technology is not sufficiently broad, we will be unable to prevent others from using our technology or from developing or commercializing technology and products similar or identical to ours or other competing products and technologies. Additionally, even if any of our patent applications issue as patents, the patents covering our proprietary technologies and our product candidates would be expected to expire between 2039 to 2042.
In addition to patent applications, we rely on unpatented trade secrets, know-how and continuing technological innovation to develop and maintain our competitive position. However, trade secrets and confidential know-how are difficult to protect. In particular, we consider various aspects of our irreversible binder discovery platform to constitute our trade secrets and know-how. We seek to protect our proprietary information, in part, by executing confidentiality agreements with our collaborators and scientific advisors and non-competition, non-solicitation, confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants. We cannot guarantee that we will have executed such agreements with all applicable employees and contractors, or that these agreements will afford us adequate protection of our intellectual property and proprietary information rights. In addition, our trade secrets and/or confidential know-how may become known or be independently developed by a third party or misused by any person to whom we disclose such information. These agreements may also be breached, and we may not have an adequate remedy for any such breach. Despite any measures taken to protect our intellectual property, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our products or to obtain or use information that we regard as proprietary. Although we take steps to protect our product candidates or any future proprietary information, third parties may independently develop the same or similar proprietary information or may otherwise gain access to our proprietary information. As a result, we may be unable to meaningfully protect our trade secrets and proprietary information.
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For more information regarding the risks related to our intellectual property, please see “Risk Factors—Risks related to our intellectual property.”
License and Partnership Agreements
As of December 31, 2022, we do not have any license or partnership agreements related to any of our programs. As these programs and our business evolves we may consider entering into a potential license or partnership. A potential partnership could provide non-dilutive funding and access to additional capabilities and expertise that a partner could provide to enhance the overall probability of program success.
Manufacturing
We do not have any manufacturing facilities or personnel. We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties for the manufacture of our product candidates undergoing preclinical studies, as well as for our clinical trials. This arrangement is also expected for commercial manufacturing if our product candidates receive marketing approval. Certain of our suppliers of ingredients, raw materials, components and materials are single source suppliers. All of our product candidates are small molecules and are manufactured in synthetic processes from available starting materials. We expect to continue to develop product candidates that can be produced cost-effectively at contract manufacturing facilities.
Commercialization
Subject to receiving marketing approvals, we expect to commence commercialization activities by building a focused sales and marketing organization in the United States to sell our products. We believe that such an organization will be able to address the community of oncologists who are the key specialists in treating the patient populations for which our product candidates are being developed. Outside the United States, we expect to enter into distribution and other marketing arrangements with third parties for any of our product candidates that obtain marketing approval. We also plan to build a marketing and sales management organization to create and implement marketing strategies for any products that we market through our own sales organization and to oversee and support our sales force. The responsibilities of the marketing organization would include developing educational initiatives with respect to approved products and establishing relationships with researchers and practitioners in relevant fields of medicine.
Government Regulation
Government authorities in the United States, at the federal, state and local level, and other countries extensively regulate, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, quality control, approval, labeling, packaging, storage, record-keeping, promotion, advertising, distribution, marketing, and export and import of drug products. A new drug must be approved by the FDA through the New Drug Application (NDA) process before it may be legally marketed in the United States. We, along with any third-party contractors, will be required to navigate the various preclinical, clinical and commercial approval requirements of the governing regulatory agencies of the countries in which we wish to conduct studies or seek approval of our products and product candidates. The process of obtaining regulatory approvals and the subsequent compliance with applicable federal, state, local and foreign statutes and regulations requires the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources.
U.S. Drug Development Process
In the United States, the FDA regulates drugs under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) and its implementing regulations. The process of obtaining regulatory approvals and the subsequent compliance with appropriate federal, state, local and foreign statutes and regulations require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources. The process required by the FDA before a drug may be marketed in the United States generally involves the following:
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completion of preclinical laboratory studies, animal studies and formulation studies in accordance with the FDA’s good laboratory practice (GLP) requirements and other applicable regulations;
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submission to the FDA of an IND, which must become effective before human clinical trials may begin;
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approval by an independent Institutional Review Board (IRB), or ethics committee at each clinical site before each trial may be initiated;
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performance of adequate and well-controlled human clinical trials in accordance with good clinical practices (GCPs), to establish the safety and efficacy of the proposed drug for its intended use;
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preparation of and submission to the FDA of an NDA after completion of all pivotal trials;
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a determination by the FDA within 60 days of its receipt of an NDA to file the application for review
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satisfactory completion of an FDA advisory committee review, if applicable;
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satisfactory completion of an FDA inspection of the manufacturing facilities at which the drug is produced to assess compliance with current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) requirements to ensure that the facilities, methods and controls are adequate to preserve the drug’s identity, strength, quality and purity, and of selected clinical investigation sites to assess compliance with GCPs; and
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FDA review and approval of the NDA to permit commercial marketing of the product for particular indications for use in the United States.
Prior to beginning the first clinical trial with a product candidate in the United States, a sponsor must submit an IND to the FDA. An IND is a request for authorization from the FDA to administer an investigational new drug product to humans. The central focus of an IND submission is on the general investigational plan and the protocol(s) for clinical studies. The IND also includes results of animal and in vitro studies assessing the toxicology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology, and pharmacodynamic characteristics of the product; chemistry, manufacturing, and controls information; and any available human data or literature to support the use of the investigational product. An IND must become effective before human clinical trials may begin. The IND automatically becomes effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA, unless the FDA, within the 30-day time period, raises safety concerns or questions about the proposed clinical trial. In such a case, the IND may be placed on clinical hold and the IND sponsor and the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns or questions before the clinical trial can begin. Submission of an IND therefore may or may not result in FDA authorization to begin a clinical trial.
Clinical trials involve the administration of the investigational product to human subjects under the supervision of qualified investigators in accordance with GCPs, which include the requirement that all research subjects provide their informed consent for their participation in any clinical study. Clinical trials are conducted under protocols detailing, among other things, the objectives of the study, the parameters to be used in monitoring safety and the effectiveness criteria to be evaluated. A separate submission to the existing IND must be made for each successive clinical trial conducted during product development and for any subsequent protocol amendments. Furthermore, an independent IRB for each site proposing to conduct the clinical trial must review and approve the plan for any clinical trial and its informed consent form before the clinical trial begins at that site and must monitor the study until completed. Some studies also include oversight by an independent group of qualified experts organized by the clinical study sponsor, known as a data safety monitoring board, which provides authorization for whether or not a study may move forward at designated check points based on access to certain data from the study and may halt the clinical trial if it determines that there is an unacceptable safety risk for subjects or other grounds, such as no demonstration of efficacy. Depending on its charter, this group may determine whether a trial may move forward at designated check points based on access to certain data from the trial. The FDA or the sponsor may suspend a clinical trial at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the research subjects or patients are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk.
Similarly, an IRB can suspend or terminate approval of a clinical trial at its institution if the clinical trial is not being conducted in accordance with the IRB’s requirements or if the drug has been associated with unexpected serious harm to patients. There are also requirements governing the reporting of ongoing clinical studies and clinical study results to public registries.
Human clinical trials are typically conducted in three sequential phases that may overlap or be combined:
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Phase 1: The product candidate is initially introduced into healthy human subjects or patients with the target disease or condition. These studies are designed to test the safety, dosage tolerance, absorption, metabolism and distribution of the investigational product in humans, the side effects associated with increasing doses, and, if possible, to gain early evidence on effectiveness.
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Phase 2: The product candidate is administered to a limited patient population with a specified disease or condition to evaluate the preliminary efficacy, optimal dosages and dosing schedule and to identify possible adverse side effects and safety risks. Multiple Phase 2 clinical trials may be conducted to obtain information prior to beginning larger and more expensive Phase 3 clinical trials.
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Phase 3: The product candidate is administered to an expanded patient population to further evaluate dosage, to provide statistically significant evidence of clinical efficacy and to further test for safety, generally at multiple geographically dispersed clinical trial sites. These clinical trials are intended to establish the overall risk/benefit ratio of the investigational product and to provide an adequate basis for product approval.
In some cases, the FDA may require, or sponsors may voluntarily pursue, additional clinical trials after a product is approved to gain more information about the product. These so-called Phase 4 studies, may be conducted after initial marketing
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approval, and may be used to gain additional experience from the treatment of patients in the intended therapeutic indication. In certain instances, the FDA may mandate the performance of Phase 4 clinical trials as a condition of approval of an NDA.
In March 2022, the FDA released a final guidance entitled “Expansion Cohorts: Use in First-In-Human Clinical Trials to Expedite Development of Oncology Drugs and Biologics,” which outlines how drug developers can utilize an adaptive trial design commonly referred to as a seamless trial design in early stages of oncology drug development (i.e., the first-in-human clinical trial) to compress the traditional three phases of trials into one continuous trial called an expansion cohort trial. Information to support the design of individual expansion cohorts are included in IND applications and assessed by the FDA. Expansion cohort trials can potentially bring efficiency to drug development and reduce developmental costs and time.
Concurrent with clinical trials, companies usually complete additional animal studies and must also develop additional information about the chemistry and physical characteristics of the drug and finalize a process for manufacturing the product in commercial quantities in accordance with cGMP requirements. The manufacturing process must be capable of consistently producing quality batches of the product candidate and, among other things, the manufacturer must develop methods for testing the identity, strength, quality and purity of the final drug. In addition, appropriate packaging must be selected and tested, and stability studies must be conducted to demonstrate that the product candidate does not undergo unacceptable deterioration over its shelf life.
While the IND is active and before approval, progress reports summarizing the results of the clinical trials and nonclinical studies performed since the last progress report must be submitted at least annually to the FDA, and written IND safety reports must be submitted to the FDA and investigators for serious and unexpected suspected adverse events, findings from other studies suggesting a significant risk to humans exposed to the same or similar drugs, findings from animal or in vitro testing suggesting a significant risk to humans, and any clinically important increased incidence of a serious suspected adverse reaction compared to that listed in the protocol or investigator brochure.
In addition, during the development of a new drug, sponsors are given opportunities to meet with the FDA at certain points. These points may be prior to submission of an IND, at the end of Phase 2, and before an NDA is submitted. Meetings at other times may be requested. These meetings can provide an opportunity for the sponsor to share information about the data gathered to date, for the FDA to provide advice, and for the sponsor and the FDA to reach agreement on the next phase of development. Sponsors typically use the meetings at the end of the Phase 2 trial to discuss Phase 2 clinical results and present plans for the pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials that they believe will support approval of the new drug.
U.S. Review and Approval Process
Assuming successful completion of all required testing in accordance with all applicable regulatory requirements, the results of product development, preclinical and other non-clinical studies and clinical trials, along with descriptions of the manufacturing process, analytical tests conducted on the chemistry of the drug, proposed labeling and other relevant information are submitted to the FDA as part of an NDA requesting approval to market the product. Data can come from company-sponsored clinical studies intended to test the safety and effectiveness of a use of the product, or from a number of alternative sources, including studies initiated by independent investigators. The submission of an NDA is subject to the payment of substantial user fees; a waiver of such fees may be obtained under certain limited circumstances. Additionally, no user fees are assessed on NDAs for products designated as orphan drugs, unless the product also includes a non-orphan indication.
The FDA conducts a preliminary review of all NDAs within the first 60 days after submission, before accepting them for filing, to determine whether they are sufficiently complete to permit substantive review The FDA may request additional information rather than accept an NDA for filing. In this event, the NDA must be resubmitted with the additional information. The resubmitted application also is subject to review before the FDA accepts it for filing. Once filed, the FDA reviews an NDA to determine, among other things, whether a product is safe and effective for its intended use and whether its manufacturing is cGMP-compliant to assure and preserve the product’s identity, strength, quality and purity. Under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) guidelines that are currently in effect, the FDA has a goal of ten months from the filing date to complete a standard review of an NDA for a drug that is a new molecular entity. This review typically takes twelve months from the date the NDA is submitted to FDA because the FDA has approximately two months to make a “filing” decision after it the application is submitted.
The FDA may refer an application for a novel drug to an advisory committee. An advisory committee is a panel of independent experts, including clinicians and other scientific experts, that reviews, evaluates and provides a recommendation as to whether the application should be approved and under what conditions. The FDA is not bound by the recommendations of an advisory committee, but it considers such recommendations carefully when making decisions.
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Before approving an NDA, the FDA will typically inspect the facility or facilities where the product is manufactured. The FDA will not approve an application unless it determines that the manufacturing processes and facilities are in compliance with cGMP and adequate to assure consistent production of the product within required specifications. Additionally, before approving a NDA, the FDA will typically inspect one or more clinical sites to assure compliance with GCPs. If the FDA determines that the application, manufacturing process or manufacturing facilities are not acceptable, it will outline the deficiencies in the submission and often will request additional testing or information. Notwithstanding the submission of any requested additional information, the FDA ultimately may decide that the application does not satisfy the regulatory criteria for approval.
After the FDA evaluates an NDA and conducts inspections of manufacturing facilities where the investigational product and/or its drug substance will be produced, the FDA may issue an approval letter or a Complete Response Letter (CRL). An approval letter authorizes commercial marketing of the product with specific prescribing information for specific indications. A CRL will describe all of the deficiencies that the FDA has identified in the NDA, except that where the FDA determines that the data supporting the application are inadequate to support approval, the FDA may issue the CRL without first conducting required inspections and/or reviewing proposed labeling. In issuing the CRL, the FDA may recommend actions that the applicant might take to place the NDA in condition for approval, including requests for additional information or clarification. The FDA may delay or refuse approval of an NDA if applicable regulatory criteria are not satisfied, require additional testing or information and/or require post-marketing testing and surveillance to monitor safety or efficacy of a product.
If regulatory approval of a product is granted, such approval will be granted for particular indications and may entail limitations on the indicated uses for which such product may be marketed. For example, the FDA may approve the NDA with a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS) to ensure the benefits of the product outweigh its risks. A REMS is a safety strategy to manage a known or potential serious risk associated with a medicine and to enable patients to have continued access to such medicines by managing their safe use, and could include medication guides, physician communication plans, or elements to assure safe use (ETASU), such as restricted distribution methods, patient registries, and other risk minimization tools. If the FDA concludes a REMS is needed, the sponsor of the NDA must submit a proposed REMS; the FDA will not approve the NDA without a REMS, if required. The FDA also may condition approval on, among other things, changes to proposed labeling or the development of adequate controls and specifications. The FDA may also require one or more Phase 4 post-market studies and surveillance to further assess and monitor the product’s safety and effectiveness after commercialization, and may limit further marketing of the product based on the results of these post-marketing studies.
In addition, the Pediatric Research Equity Act (PREA) requires a sponsor to conduct pediatric clinical trials for most drugs, for a new active ingredient, new indication, new dosage form, new dosing regimen or new route of administration. Under PREA, original NDAs and supplements must contain a pediatric assessment unless the sponsor has received a deferral or waiver. The required assessment must evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the product for the claimed indications in all relevant pediatric subpopulations and support dosing and administration for each pediatric subpopulation for which the product is safe and effective. The sponsor or FDA may request a deferral of pediatric clinical trials for some or all of the pediatric subpopulations. A deferral may be granted for several reasons, including a finding that the drug is ready for approval for use in adults before pediatric clinical trials are complete or that additional safety or effectiveness data needs to be collected before the pediatric clinical trials begin. The FDA must send a non-compliance letter to any sponsor that fails to submit the required assessment, fails to keep a deferral current or fails to submit a request for approval of a pediatric formulation.
Expedited Development and Review Programs
The FDA offers a number of expedited development and review programs for qualifying product candidates. For example, the Fast Track program is intended to expedite or facilitate the process for reviewing new products that are intended to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs for the disease or condition. Fast Track designation applies to the combination of the product and the specific indication for which it is being studied. The sponsor of a Fast Track product has opportunities for more frequent interactions with the applicable FDA review team during product development and, once an NDA is submitted, the product candidate may be eligible for priority review. A Fast Track product may also be eligible for rolling review, where the FDA may consider for review sections of the NDA on a rolling basis before the complete application is submitted, if the sponsor provides a schedule for the submission of the sections of the NDA, the FDA agrees to accept sections of the NDA and determines that the schedule is acceptable, and the sponsor pays any required user fees upon submission of the first section of the NDA.
A product candidate intended to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition may also be eligible for Breakthrough Therapy designation to expedite its development and review. A product candidate can receive Breakthrough Therapy designation if preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the product candidate, alone or in combination with one or more other drugs or biologics, may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically
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significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. The designation includes all of the Fast Track program features, as well as more intensive FDA interaction and guidance beginning as early as Phase 1 and an organizational commitment to expedite the development and review of the product candidate, including involvement of senior managers.
Any marketing application for a drug submitted to the FDA for approval, including a product candidate with a Fast Track designation and/or Breakthrough Therapy designation, may be eligible for other types of FDA programs intended to expedite the FDA review and approval process, such as priority review and accelerated approval. A product candidate is eligible for priority review if it is designed to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and if approved, would provide a significant improvement in safety or effectiveness compared to available alternatives for such disease or condition. For new-molecular-entity NDAs, priority review designation means the FDA’s goal is to take action on the marketing application within six months of the 60-day filing date.
Additionally, product candidates studied for their safety and effectiveness in treating serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions may receive accelerated approval upon a determination that the product has an effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit, or on a clinical endpoint that can be measured earlier than irreversible morbidity or mortality, that is reasonably likely to predict an effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality or other clinical benefit, taking into account the severity, rarity, or prevalence of the condition and the availability or lack of alternative treatments. As a condition of accelerated approval, the FDA will generally require the sponsor to perform adequate and well-controlled post-marketing clinical studies to verify and describe the anticipated effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality or other clinical benefit. Under the Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act of 2022 (“FDORA”), the FDA is now permitted to require, as appropriate, that such trials be underway prior to approval or within a specific time period after the date of approval for a product granted accelerated approval. Under FDORA, the FDA has increased authority for expedited procedures to withdraw approval of a drug or indication approved under accelerated approval if, for example, the confirmatory trial fails to verify the predicted clinical benefit of the product. In addition, for products being considered for accelerated approval, the FDA generally requires, unless otherwise informed by the agency, that all advertising and promotional materials intended for dissemination or publication within 120 days of marketing approval be submitted to the agency for review during the pre-approval review period.
Fast Track designation, Breakthrough Therapy designation, priority review, and accelerated approval do not change the standards for approval, but may expedite the development or approval process. Even if a product candidate qualifies for one or more of these programs, the FDA may later decide that the product no longer meets the conditions for qualification or decide that the time period for FDA review or approval will not be shortened.
Orphan Drug Designation and Exclusivity
Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may grant orphan designation to a drug intended to treat a rare disease or condition, defined as a disease or condition with a patient population of fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States, or a patient population of 200,000 or more individuals in the United States and when there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing and making available the drug in the United States will be recovered from sales in the United States for that drug. Orphan drug designation must be requested before submitting an NDA. After the FDA grants orphan drug designation, the generic identity of the therapeutic agent and its potential orphan use are disclosed publicly by the FDA.
If a product that has orphan drug designation subsequently receives the first FDA approval for the disease or condition for which it has such designation, the product is entitled to orphan product exclusivity, which means that the FDA may not approve any other applications, including a full NDA, to market the same drug for the same indication for seven years, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority to the product with orphan drug exclusivity or in instances of drug supply issues. Orphan drug exclusivity does not prevent the FDA from approving a different drug for the same disease or condition, or the same drug for a different disease or condition. Among the other potential benefits of orphan drug designation are tax credits for certain research and a waiver of the NDA application user fee.
A designated orphan drug may not receive orphan drug exclusivity if it is approved for a use that is broader than the indication for which it received orphan designation. In addition, orphan drug exclusive marketing rights in the United States may be lost if the FDA later determines that the request for designation was materially defective or, as noted above, if a second applicant demonstrates that its product is clinically superior to the approved product with orphan exclusivity or the manufacturer of the approved product is unable to assure sufficient quantities of the product to meet the needs of patients with the rare disease or condition.
Post-approval Requirements
Drug products manufactured or distributed pursuant to FDA approvals are subject to pervasive and continuing regulation by the FDA, including, among other things, requirements relating to record-keeping, reporting of adverse experiences, periodic
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reporting, product sampling and distribution, and advertising and promotion of the product. After approval, most changes to the approved product, such as adding new indications or other labeling claims, are subject to prior FDA review and approval. There also are continuing, annual program fees for any marketed products. Drug manufacturers and their subcontractors and those supplying products, ingredients, and components are required to register their establishments with the FDA and certain state agencies, and are subject to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA and certain state agencies for compliance with cGMP, which impose certain procedural and documentation requirements upon us and our third-party manufacturers. Changes to the manufacturing process are strictly regulated, and, depending on the significance of the change, may require prior FDA approval before being implemented. FDA regulations also require investigation and correction of any deviations from cGMP and impose reporting requirements. Manufacturers and other parties involved in the drug supply chain for prescription drug products must also comply with product tracking and tracing requirements and for notifying the FDA of counterfeit, diverted, stolen and intentionally adulterated products or products that are otherwise unfit for distribution in the United States. Accordingly, manufacturers must continue to expend time, money and effort in the area of production and quality control to maintain compliance with cGMP and other aspects of regulatory compliance.
The FDA may withdraw approval if compliance with regulatory requirements and standards is not maintained or if problems occur after the product reaches the market. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in revisions to the approved labeling to add new safety information; imposition of post-market studies or clinical studies to assess new safety risks; or imposition of distribution restrictions or other restrictions under a REMS program. Other potential consequences include, among other things:
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restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of the product, complete withdrawal of the product from the market or product recalls;
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fines, warning letters, or untitled letters;
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clinical holds on clinical studies;
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refusal of the FDA to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications, or suspension or revocation of product approvals;
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product seizure or detention, or refusal to permit the import or export of products;
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consent decrees, corporate integrity agreements, debarment or exclusion from federal healthcare programs;
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mandated modification of promotional materials and labeling and the issuance of corrective information;
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the issuance of safety alerts, Dear Healthcare Provider letters, press releases and other communications containing warnings or other safety information about the product; or
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injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.
The FDA closely regulates the marketing, labeling, advertising and promotion of drug products. A company can make only those claims relating to safety and efficacy, purity and potency that are approved by the FDA and in accordance with the provisions of the approved label. The FDA and other agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off-label uses. Failure to comply with these requirements can result in, among other things, adverse publicity, warning letters, corrective advertising and potential civil and criminal penalties. Physicians may prescribe, in their independent professional medical judgment, legally available products for uses that are not described in the product’s labeling and that differ from those tested by us and approved by the FDA. Physicians may believe that such off-label uses are the best treatment for many patients in varied circumstances. The FDA does not regulate the behavior of physicians in their choice of treatments. The FDA does, however, restrict manufacturer’s communications on the subject of off-label use of their products. However, companies may share truthful and not misleading information that is otherwise consistent with a product’s FDA-approved labelling.
Other United States Regulatory Matters
Manufacturing, sales, promotion and other activities of product candidates following product approval, where applicable, or commercialization are also subject to regulation by numerous regulatory authorities in the United States in addition to the FDA, which may include the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), other divisions of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Justice, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Consumer Product Safety
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Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and state and local governments and governmental agencies.
United States Patent Term Restoration and Marketing Exclusivity
Depending upon the timing, duration and specifics of FDA approval of our future product candidates, some of our United States patents may be eligible for limited patent term extension under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984, commonly referred to as the Hatch-Waxman Amendments. The Hatch-Waxman Amendments permit restoration of the patent term of up to five years as compensation for patent term lost during the FDA regulatory review process. Patent-term restoration, however, cannot extend the remaining term of a patent beyond a total of 14 years from the product’s approval date and only those claims covering such approved drug product, a method for using it or a method for manufacturing it may be extended. The patent-term restoration period is generally one-half the time between the effective date of an IND and the submission date of an NDA plus the time between the submission date of an NDA and the approval of that application, except that the review period is reduced by any time during which the applicant failed to exercise due diligence. Only one patent applicable to an approved drug is eligible for the extension and the application for the extension must be submitted prior to the expiration of the patent. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in consultation with the FDA, reviews and approves the application for any patent term extension or restoration.
Regulatory exclusivity provisions under the FDCA also can delay the submission or the approval of certain applications. The FDCA provides a five-year period of non-patent marketing exclusivity within the United States to the first applicant to gain approval of an NDA for a new chemical entity. A drug is a new chemical entity if the FDA has not previously approved any other new drug containing the same active moiety, which is the molecule or ion responsible for the action of the drug substance. During the exclusivity period, the FDA may not accept for review an abbreviated NDA (ANDA), or a 505(b)(2) NDA submitted by another company for another version of such drug where the applicant does not own or have a legal right of reference to all the data required for approval. However, an application may be submitted after four years if it contains a certification of patent invalidity or non-infringement.
The FDCA also provides three years of exclusivity for an NDA, 505(b)(2) NDA or supplement to an existing NDA if new clinical investigations, other than bioavailability studies, that were conducted or sponsored by the applicant are deemed by the FDA to be essential to the approval of the application, for example, new indications, dosages or strengths of an existing drug. This three-year exclusivity covers only the conditions of use associated with the new clinical investigations and does not prohibit the FDA from approving ANDAs for drugs containing the original active agent for other conditions of use. Five-year and three-year exclusivity will not delay the submission or approval of a full NDA. However, an applicant submitting a full NDA would be required to conduct or obtain a right of reference to all of the preclinical studies and adequate and well-controlled clinical trials necessary to demonstrate safety and effectiveness.
In addition, drugs can also obtain pediatric exclusivity in the United States. Pediatric exclusivity, if granted, adds six months to existing exclusivity periods and patent terms. This six-month exclusivity, which runs from the end of other exclusivity protection or patent term, may be granted based on the voluntary completion of a pediatric study in accordance with an FDA-issued “Written Request” for such a study.
Other Healthcare Laws
Our business operations and current and future arrangements with investigators, healthcare professionals, consultants, third-party payors, patient organizations and customers may expose us to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations. These laws may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we conduct our operations, including how we research, market, sell and distribute our product candidates, if approved. The laws that may affect our ability to operate include, but are not limited to:
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the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, persons from knowingly and willfully soliciting, receiving, offering or paying any remuneration (including any kickback, bribe, or rebate), directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in cash or in kind, to induce, or in return for, either the referral of an individual, or the purchase, lease, order or recommendation of any good, facility, item or service for which payment may be made, in whole or in part, under a federal healthcare program, such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs. 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. Violations are subject to civil and criminal fines and penalties for each violation, plus up to three times the remuneration involved, imprisonment, and exclusion from government healthcare programs;
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federal civil and criminal false claims laws, including the False Claims Act (FCA), which can be enforced through civil “qui tam” or “whistleblower” actions, and civil monetary penalty laws, which impose criminal and civil penalties against individuals or entities for, among other things, knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, claims for payment or approval from Medicare, Medicaid or other federal health care programs that are false or fraudulent; knowingly making or
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causing a false statement material to a false or fraudulent claim or an obligation to pay money to the federal government; or knowingly concealing or knowingly and improperly avoiding or decreasing such an obligation. Manufacturers can be held liable under the FCA even when they do not submit claims directly to government payors if they are deemed to “cause” the submission of false or fraudulent claims. In addition, the government may assert that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the FCA. The FCA also permits a private individual acting as a “whistleblower” to bring actions on behalf of the federal government alleging violations of the FCA and to share in any monetary recovery;
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the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which created new federal criminal statutes that prohibit 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 of the money or property owned by, or under the custody or control of, any healthcare benefit program, regardless of the payor (e.g., public or private) and knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up by any trick or device a material fact or making any materially false statements in connection with the delivery of, or payment for, healthcare benefits, items or services relating to healthcare matters. Similar to the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, a person or entity can be found guilty of violating these statutes without actual knowledge of the statutes or specific intent to violate them in order to have committed a violation;
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HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH), imposes requirements on certain covered healthcare providers, health plans and healthcare clearinghouses as well as their respective business associates that perform services for them that involve the use, or disclosure of, individually identifiable health information, relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information without appropriate authorization. HITECH also created new tiers of civil monetary penalties, amended HIPAA to make civil and criminal penalties directly applicable to business associates, and gave state attorneys general new authority to file civil actions for damages or injunctions in federal courts to enforce the federal HIPAA laws and seek attorneys’ fees and costs associated with pursuing federal civil actions. Even when HIPAA does not apply, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), failing to take appropriate steps to keep consumers’ personal information secure constitutes unfair acts or practices in or affecting commerce in violation of Section 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a). The FTC expects a company’s data security measures to be reasonable and appropriate in light of the sensitivity and volume of consumer information it holds, the size and complexity of its business and the cost of available tools to improve security and reduce vulnerabilities. Individually identifiable health information is considered sensitive data that merits stronger safeguards;
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the federal Physician Payment Sunshine Act, created under the ACA and its implementing regulations, which requires manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologicals and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (with certain exceptions) to report annually to HHS information related to payments or other transfers of value made to physicians (defined to include doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors) and teaching hospitals, as well as ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members. Effective January 1, 2022, these reporting obligations extended to include payments and transfers of value made to physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, anesthesiologist assistants, certified registered nurse anesthetists, and certified nurse midwives during the previous year;
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California’s California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which went into effect on January 1, 2020, which affords consumers expanded privacy protections. For example, the CCPA gives California residents expanded rights to access and require deletion of their personal information, opt-out of certain personal information sharing, and receive detailed information about how their personal information is used. The CCPA also provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that may increase our risk to data breach class action litigation. The CCPA was expanded substantially on January 1, 2023, when the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA) became fully operative. The CPRA, among other things, gives California residents the ability to limit use of certain sensitive personal information, further restrict the use of cross-contextual advertising, establish restrictions on the retention of personal information, expand the types of data breaches subject to the CCPA’s private right of action, provide for increased penalties for CPRA violations concerning California residents under the age of 16, and establish a new California Privacy Protection Agency to implement and enforce the new law;
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federal government price reporting laws, which require us to calculate and report complex pricing metrics in an accurate and timely manner to government programs;
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federal consumer protection and unfair competition laws, which broadly regulate marketplace activities and activities that potentially harm consumers; and
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