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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: 001-40367
VACCITECH PLC
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
England and Wales Not Applicable
Unit 6-10, Zeus Building
Rutherford Avenue
Harwell
Didcot, OX11 0DF, United Kingdom
(Address of principle executive offices) (Zip Code)
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: +44 (0)1865 818 808
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered
American Depositary Shares* VACC The Nasdaq Global Market
Ordinary shares, nominal value £0.000025 per share**
*American Depositary Shares may be evidenced by American Depositary Receipts. Each American Depositary Share represents one (1) ordinary share.
**Not for trading, but only in connection with the listing of American Depositary Shares on The Nasdaq Global 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, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
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 Act). Yes ☐ No ☒
As of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the aggregate market value of the registrant’s ordinary shares, nominal value £0.000025 per share, in the form of American Depositary Shares, held by non-affiliates was approximately $165.6 million.
The number of shares outstanding of the registrant’s ordinary shares, nominal value £0.000025 per share, as of March 17, 2023: 38,338,764 shares.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission relative to the registrant’s 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders are incorporated by reference into Items 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
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VACCITECH PLC.
ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K
FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2022
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I
Item 1. Business 8
Item 1A. Risk Factors 54
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 120
Item 2. Properties 120
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 121
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 121
PART II
Item 6. [Reserved] 123
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 139
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 140
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 141
Item 9B. Other Information 143
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 144
Item 11. Executive Compensation 144
Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services 144
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules 145
SIGNATURES 148
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We own various trademark registrations and applications, and unregistered trademarks, including our name, our corporate logo and technologies acquired as part of our acquisition of Avidea Technologies, Inc. in December 2021. We own the Vaccitech registered trademark for the United Kingdom. All other trade names, trademarks and service marks of other companies appearing in this prospectus are the property of their respective holders. Solely for convenience, the trademarks and trade names in this prospectus may be referred to without the ® and TM symbols, but such references should not be construed as any indicator that their respective owners will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, their rights thereto. We do not intend to use or display other companies’ trademarks and trade names to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, any other companies.
From time to time, we may use our website, our Twitter account at @Vaccitechplc and our LinkedIn account at linkedin.com/company/Vaccitech-plc/to distribute material information. Our financial and other material information is routinely posted to and accessible on the Investors section of our website, available at www.vaccitech.co.uk. Investors are encouraged to review the Investors section of our website because we may post material information on that site that is not otherwise disseminated by us. Information that is contained in and can be accessed through our website, our Twitter posts and our LinkedIn posts are not incorporated into, and does not form a part of, this Annual Report.
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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report contains express or implied forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the words “may,” “might,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “objective,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “ongoing,” or the negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology intended to identify statements about the future. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. The forward- looking statements and opinions contained in this Annual Report are based upon information available to our management as of the date of this Annual Report and, while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. Forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report include, but are not limited to, statements about:
● our manufacturing, commercialization and marketing capabilities and strategy;
● regulatory developments in the United States and foreign countries;
● our ability to attract and retain key scientific or management personnel;
● our expectations about market trends;
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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. As a result of these factors, we cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements in this Annual Report will prove to be accurate. Furthermore, if our forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame, or at all. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. You should read this Annual Report and the documents that we reference in this Annual Report with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements in this Annual Report by these cautionary statements.
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SUMMARY OF THE MATERIAL RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH OUR BUSINESS
● We have not yet generated any material revenue from our product candidates.
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PART I
Item 1. Business
Overview
We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel immunotherapeutics and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases, cancer, and autoimmunity. We aim to treat and prevent infectious diseases and cancer by using our proprietary platforms to develop product candidates that stimulate powerful, targeted immune responses against pathogens, infected cells, and tumor cells. We design these product candidates to stimulate immune responses that are robust, highly specific, and are differentiated by the magnitude of the T cell populations induced, which exhibit critical functionality and durability. In the field of autoimmunity, we use our proprietary platform to develop product candidates that are designed to induce regulatory T cells to suppress specifically pathogenic autoimmune responses and prevent/reverse autoimmunity. We are focused on applying our platform capabilities and the expertise of our team to address significant unmet medical needs in two settings—the therapeutic setting, for the treatment of chronic infectious diseases, cancer, and autoimmunity; and the prophylactic setting, for the prevention of infectious diseases, based on our platform’s ability to respond rapidly to epidemic and pandemic threats.
We have a broad pipeline of both clinical and preclinical stage therapeutic and prophylactic programs. Our current therapeutic programs include VTP-300 for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B infection, or CHB, VTP-200 for the treatment of human papilloma virus infection, or HPV, VTP-850 for the treatment of prostate cancer, VTP-600 for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, VTP-1000 for treatment of celiac disease, and VTP-1100 for treatment of HPV-associated cancers. The latter two programs are designed to utilize our SNAPvaxTM platform. Our current prophylactic programs include VTP-400 for the prevention of herpes zoster, or shingles, and VTP-500 for the prevention of Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS. In addition, we co-invented a COVID-19 vaccine with the University of Oxford, the rights to which we assigned to Oxford University Innovation, or OUI, to facilitate the license of those rights by OUI to AstraZeneca UK Limited, or AstraZeneca. The vaccine, formerly referred to as AZD1222, is now authorized for use under the marketing name Vaxzevria in a number of countries. AstraZeneca has exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize Vaxzevria.
Scientists have successfully harnessed the immune system to prevent and treat diseases using a wide range of approaches over hundreds of years. In the prophylactic setting, vaccines aim to create long-lasting protective immunity, while in the therapeutic setting, immunotherapeutics aim to balance the body’s immune response either by strengthening it to enable clearance of pathogens and infected or cancerous cells, or by dampening it to limit inflammation and tissue damage due to autoimmune hyperactivity. A key element of the immune system is specialized white blood cells, or lymphocytes. B cells and T cells are the two main types of lymphocytes. B cells are responsible for generating antibodies while T cells assist in the clearance of acute and chronic infections, such as hepatitis B virus and HPV, and are involved in killing cells that become cancerous. Although designed to be protective, these immune cells can also be hyperactive and, when targeted against self, they are responsible for tissue-specific damage in many autoimmune conditions.
Over the past three decades, hundreds of trials have examined a wide variety of approaches that induce the production of cytotoxic, or CD8+, T cells against infected and cancerous cells. These trials have demonstrated that different approaches induce different breadths and magnitudes of immune response. While there have been many successes, certain diseases requiring a robust CD8+ T cell response have remained resistant to existing approaches. Infected or cancerous cells are recognized through specific molecules, or antigens, which induce an immune response in the human body. Our platforms are designed to stimulate the production of very high levels of T cells, in addition to antibodies, against such antigens. Our approach for the treatment or prevention of a disease with a known target antigen is to prime the immune system with an initial injection of a proprietary platform encoded with the target antigen. In the therapeutic setting, this is typically followed by a boost with a second, different, platform encoded with the same antigen. This is known as a heterologous prime-boost, or a mix and match approach. We employ unique antigen design strategies to optimize immune presentation and maximize the desired type of antibody and/or T cell immunogenicity that we are seeking to induce. This heterologous prime-boost approach has been shown to provide the highest magnitude and durable immunogenic CD8+ T cell response induced in humans to date. Our platforms are further differentiated by their flexibility, applicability across diseases in both the therapeutic and prophylactic setting, favorable tolerability profile and proven rapid production on a large scale.
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Autoimmunity develops when the tolerance checkpoints meant to maintain a state of unresponsiveness of our immune system towards self-antigens are lost. It results in abnormal immune reaction against our own tissues, causing tissue damage and disease. Although the past two decades have seen incredible progress in the treatment of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, current therapies still rely heavily on the use of non-specific immunosuppressive agents and supportive therapies. These may efficiently dampen inflammation and compensate organ dysfunction to some degree, but they require lifelong treatment and their lack of specificity for the pathogenic mechanism only can lead to several, sometimes life-threatening, side effects. A far less aggressive approach is to restore immune tolerance to self-antigens, in an antigen-specific manner, enabling to selectively blunt autoinflammation and control the disease without impairing protective immunity to pathogens and cancer. Our SNAPvax tolerizing platform is comprised of several self-antigens involved in the disease associated with a tolerizing immunomodulator. It is specifically designed to induce self-antigen-specific regulatory T cells, whose main function is to control immune responses by means of direct cell-cell contact, release of soluble factors, or indirectly via antigen-presenting cells, thereby controlling hyperactive autoreactive pathogenic T cells specifically.
In 2022, we achieved a number of strategic, operational, and financial objectives, which we believe positions us to deliver on our long-term plans:
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Our Platforms
Our proprietary platforms comprise several components that either 1) when combined, allow us to develop product candidates designed to induce high and durable levels of antigen-specific T cells and B cells to prevent and treat infectious diseases and cancer, or 2) induce regulatory T cells and/or decrease T cell activation to specifically control autoreactive immune cell hyperactivity.
The key elements of our first platform include our proprietary modified simian adenoviral vectors, known as ChAdOx1 and ChAdOx2, as well as the well-validated Modified Vaccinia Ankara, or MVA, boost vector, both with demonstrable tolerability profiles and an inability to replicate in humans. We believe both ChAdOx1 and MVA have favorable tolerability profiles, based on extensive clinical testing performed by us and others. MVA has also been administered in commercial use and in multiple clinical trials to over 130,000 people without significant safety issues, including 120,000 of whom received it as a next-generation smallpox vaccine in Germany. The combination of a ChAdOx prime with MVA boost has consistently generated significantly higher magnitudes of CD8+ T cells as compared to other technologies and approaches. We have also developed proprietary enhancements for both our ChAdOx and MVA vectors to increase T cell induction and response, and we employ unique antigen design strategies to optimize in vivo immune presentation and maximize the desired type of immunogenicity while maintaining an optimal tolerability profile. In addition, our understanding and expertise in manufacturing optimization has allowed us to manipulate adenovirus genomes to enable rapid generation of recombinant adenoviral vectors at Good Manufacturing Practice, or GMP, standards at exceptional speed and significant scale.
With the acquisition of Avidea Technologies, Inc. or Avidea, in December 2021, we have added SNAPvax to our proprietary platforms. SNAPvax is a modular immunotherapy platform that is designed to leverage self-assembling nanoparticles containing multiple targeted peptide antigens and immunomodulators to key immune cell populations for promoting T cell immunity. A recent article in Nature Biotechnology described SNAPvax as among the most effective immunotherapy platforms for inducing T cell immunity reported to date. Another article in Nature Biotechnology reported that SNAPvax enables repeated intravenous, or IV, administration to maximize efficacy.
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Within oncology, we are advancing assets based on the SNAPvax cancer immunotherapy platform, or SNAPvax CI, co-delivering tumor antigens and an immunostimulant (TLR7/8a) for use in heterologous prime-boost regimens for treating advanced cancers. SNAPvax CI is designed to provide a unique advantage as compared to other cancer immunotherapy candidates as it can be repeatedly administered to engage every stage of the cancer immunity cycle (T cell priming and expansion; tumor inflammation; T cell recruitment; and T cell licensing) to potentially maximize therapeutic benefit.
Outside oncology, we are advancing assets based on the SNAPvax tolerizing immunotherapy platform, or SNAPvax TI, to treat autoimmune diseases with known autoantigens. SNAPvax TI contains autoantigens and immunomodulators (e.g., mTOR inhibitors) to specifically induce regulatory T cells, crucial to maintaining tolerance to self-antigens. Its unique design allows for trafficking to lymphoid organs and local tissues, where Treg induction occurs and their activity is required to maximize therapeutic benefit.
We have several therapeutic programs in our pipeline focusing on infectious diseases, oncology and immune tolerance.
Our Pipeline
The chart below provides key information about our programs.
VTP-300: An Immunotherapeutic Targeting Chronic HBV Infection
In May 2022, we completed the last patient visit in our HBV001 Phase 1 clinical trial in the United Kingdom. Two types of participants were enrolled: healthy participants and participants with CHB whose infection has been suppressed with oral antiviral therapies. The primary objective of the HBV001 trial is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of different doses of a single vaccination of ChAdOx1-HBV. In addition, the secondary objectives are to determine the immunogenicity of ChAdOx1-HBV and to determine the effect of ChAdOx1-HBV on the level of HBsAg in the participants with chronic HBV infection. All cohorts of healthy volunteers and patients with chronic HBV infection have completed treatment and follow up. No serious adverse events have been reported as of the date of this report.
We have used genotype C HBV antigen sequences in our VTP-300 vectors to target the most prevalent CHB genotype. However, we believe VTP-300 may induce cross-reactive T cell responses with other prevalent genotypes. Therefore, we also aim to determine if the T cell responses induced by the ChAdOx1-HBV viral vector used in this trial can potentially cross-react with other common HBV genotypes. The criteria for CHB patients to be enrolled in this trial were (i) infection that has been suppressed with oral antiviral medication (HBV DNA < 40 copies/mL) and (ii) relatively low levels of cccDNA markers (HBsAg < 10,000 IU/ml). As higher levels of CD8+ T cell induction are likely to occur in healthy controls, these samples are utilized to map the responses induced by VTP-300, to assess cross-reactivity with peptides, representing consensus sequences from genotypes B and D, which are more common in both the United States and Europe.
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In addition, we are conducting a Phase 1b/2a clinical trial, HBV002, to evaluate the safety and reactogenicity of VTP-300 with or without a low-dose (0.3 m/kg) anti-PD-1 in CHB patients whose infection has been suppressed with oral antiviral medication. HBV002 enrollment was completed in May 2022.
In the HBV002 trial, we enrolled CHB patients in four treatment groups. The primary objective of this trial is to determine the safety and reactogenicity of the following in participants with chronic HBV infection and virally suppressed with oral antiviral medication: 1. MVA-HBV (prime-boost); 2. ChAdOx1-HBV and MVA-HBV (prime-boost); 3 and 4 ChAdOx1-HBV and MVA-HBV and nivolumab (prime-boost + anti-PD-1). The secondary objectives are to evaluate immunogenicity, PD-1 blockade timing, and the effect on the levels of hepatitis B markers, including HBsAg, hepatitis B surface antibody seroconversion, hepatitis B DNA, HBeAg, in CHB patients. The majority of the patients were recruited in Taiwan and South Korea and these territories were selected due to the high prevalence of HBV genotype C virus in Asia. Patients were also enrolled in the United Kingdom.
Since the participants are already infected with HBV, we thought it was possible that natural priming could eliminate the need for the prime-boost regimen. Hence, Group 1 of the HBV002 trial was designed to compare MVA-HBV given twice with the ChAdOx1-HBV plus MVA-HBV heterologous approach used in Group 2. We expected that the regimen given to Group 2 would be more immunogenic and planned to further explore this prime/boost regimen in Groups 3 and 4. The dosing regimen was ChAdOx1-HBV (day 0) and MVA-HBV and low-dose nivolumab (day 28) for Group 3 and ChAdOx1-HBV and low-dose nivolumab (day 0) and MVA-HBV and low-dose nivolumab (day 28) for Group 4.
In the cancer field, the use of an anti-PD-1 prior to vaccination has been reported to result in diminished T cell responses as compared to later administration. Whether the anti-PD-1 can be given simultaneously with the priming dose, or should follow it, is yet to be determined. Thus, in this protocol, we evaluated both regimens. Group 3 employed the low dose nivolumab given only at the boost, whereas Group 4 administered the nivolumab at both the prime and the boost dose. Nivolumab has been used in earlier immunotherapy trials at 1/10 the licensed dose for oncology indications and has been shown to give full peripheral blood T cell receptor occupancy for up to over one month.
An interim analysis of HBV002 was conducted in November 2021, after which the protocol was amended to stop enrollment in two cohorts: those receiving MVA prime and boost, Group 1, and those receiving VTP-300 with low dose nivolumab administered with both the ChAdOx1 prime and the MVA booster dose, Group 4. Enrollment continued in the cohort receiving VTP-300 as a monotherapy and the cohort receiving VTP-300 with a single low dose of nivolumab administered with the MVA booster dose.
We believe that the interim analysis from the HBV002 Phase 1b/2a suggests that VTP-300 could become part of a regimen that can attain a functional cure. In October 2022, we dosed our first patient in HBV003, a Phase 2b clinical trial to explore the optimal regimen. Although VTP-300 encodes genotype C antigens, many of these peptides are also expressed by other HBV genotypes. Our data indicate that VTP-300 is capable of inducing responses to non-genotype C HBVs, so we will aim to demonstrate activity against non-genotype C infected patients. We will also plan to evaluate additional combination regimens, such as next-generation modalities including RNA interference molecules, and may evaluate further potential collaboration partnerships. We may also evaluate VTP-300 in a trial in mainland China.
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EASL and AASLD Poster Update to Interim Analysis of Safety and Efficacy Data from HBV002 Study
On June 22, 2022, we announced an update to the interim analysis of safety and efficacy data from the HBV002 study (NCT04778904), which was presented as a poster at the 2022 EASL International Liver CongressTM. The updated analysis, which included 39 patients with three-months of follow up, showed that VTP-300 as a monotherapy or in combination with low-dose nivolumab was administered with no treatment-related serious adverse events and that two patients experienced mild, rapidly resolving transaminitis. Meaningful and durable reductions of HBsAg were seen in some patients who received VTP-300 as either a monotherapy or in combination with a single low dose of nivolumab at the time of booster dose. Declines were most prominent in patients with lower baseline HBsAg at the time of enrollment. In all patients who had a HBsAg decline greater than 0.5 log10, the reductions of HBsAg were durable until the last measurement (up to eight months after the last dose). A robust T cell response against all encoded antigens, measured by overnight stimulation, was observed following VTP-300 administration, notable for marked CD8+ T cell predominance. Enrollment in the HBV002 study is complete with 55 patients enrolled.
On November 7, 2022, we announced an update to the interim analysis of safety and efficacy data from the HBV002 study (NCT04778904), which was presented as a poster at the 2022 American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) - The Liver Meeting® by Dr. Young-Suk Lim, Professor of the Department of Gastroenterology and the Liver Center, Asian Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Korea. The updated analysis, which included 55 patients with three months of follow up, showed that VTP-300 induced meaningful, sustained reductions of HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) in people with chronic HBV. Declines were most prominent in patients with lower baseline HBsAg. HBsAg is a hallmark of chronic HBV infection. Fewer than 10% of patients on current standard-of-care HBV therapies achieve sustained HBsAg decrease or loss, a state associated with functional cure of the disease. Group 3 (N=18) patients received VTP-300 in combination with a single low dose of nivolumab at the time of the booster dose, and the mean log10 reduction in HBsAg was 0.8 (n=18) at 3 months, 0.9 (n=10) at 6 months, and 1.3 (n=7) at 9 months, with more prominent declines observed in patients with baseline HBsAg lower than 1,000 IU/mL. Five patients in this group had baseline HBsAg lower than 100 IU/mL, of which four had declines over 0.6 log10. Moreover, two of those patients developed non-detectable HBsAg at 3 months, and one of the patients, who has been evaluated at 6 and 9 months, continued to maintain non-detectable HBsAg.
Future Development
In October 2022, the Company dosed the first patient in HBV003, a Phase 2b clinical trial of VTP-300 (NCT05343481) to explore the impact of different regimens of low dose Nivolumab and additional doses of the MVA boost component of VTP-300. In addition, a trial that uses a lead-in of the Arbutus siRNA AB-729, followed by a blinded randomization to either placebo or VTP-300, is now underway under Arbutus sponsorship with a planned enrollment of 20 patients per arm (placebo vs VTP-300 after the 6 month siRNA lead-in). The trial also plans a prospective, well-defined, nucleotide discontinuation protocol for those patients who reach substantial reduction in the level of hepatitis B surface antigen. We expect to announce interim efficacy data from both the HBV003 study and the combination study with siRNA from Arbutus in the fourth quarter of 2023.
VTP-200: Developing a Potential Non-Invasive Treatment for Persistent High-Risk HPV
We are developing VTP-200 as a potential curative treatment for persistent high-risk HPV infection and associated pre-cancerous lesions. An estimated 291 million women worldwide are carriers of HPV DNA, which can progress to pre-cancerous cervical lesions if untreated. Enrollment in our Phase 1b/2 clinical trial of VTP-200, HPV001 (NCT04607850), was completed in December 2022.
Preclinical Studies
Extensive preclinical studies were conducted using VTP-200, with resulting data showing that:
● VTP-200 was well tolerated in preclinical toxicology studies; and
● VTP-200 was highly immunogenic in inbred and outbred mice.
Toxicology Studies
In a GLP-compliant toxicology study, outbred mice were dosed with ChAdOx1-HPV and MVA-HPV at dose levels approximating the maximum anticipated clinical dose. Dosing resulted in an immune response, but with no significant toxicology findings.
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Immunogenicity Studies
In preclinical immunogenicity studies, the HPV antigen was delivered by plasmid DNA, ChAdOx1 and MVA vectors in prime-boost regimens to inbred and outbred mice. ChAdOx1-HPV prime followed by MVA-HPV boost was shown to induce higher magnitude and more durable HPV-specific T cell responses than other regimens, as shown in the figure below. VTP-200-induced T cells were polyfunctional and persisted at high frequencies for at least six weeks.
In the preclinical immunogenicity studies, HPV-specific effector CD8+ T cells were detected in the cervix following systemic administration of ChAdOx1-HPV prime and followed by MVA-HPV boost. Finally, T cells specific for the HPV-encoded antigens were detected in women with current or past hrHPV infections, confirming the presence of immunogens relevant to natural immune control.
The MVA vector assessed in initial studies contains the HPV antigen at the thymidine kinase locus under the control of the p7.5 promoter. However, a more immunogenic MVA vector, which contains the HPV antigen under the control of the endogenous F11 promoter, was constructed. We determined that the T cell immunogenicity of the more immunogenic MVA promoter was superior to the MVA vector assessed in the initial preclinical studies and decided to use the next-generation vector in our clinical trials.
Clinical Development
Our HPV001 Phase 1b/2 clinical trial of VTP-200 was designed to assess the safety and efficacy of VTP-200 and determine the optimal immunotherapeutic dose regimen. We enrolled a total of 108 healthy women with low grade lesions who had persistent high-risk HPV, or hrHPV, for at least six months. Patients with high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, or HSIL, or early cancer were excluded. The trial was run in the United Kingdom and the European Union. We recently announced the topline initial interim immunogenicity and safety data of 58 patients in the main phase of the trial that reached their six-month evaluation timepoint. We expect to announce full data from this trial in the first quarter of 2024. The diagram below provides an overview of the Phase 1b/2 clinical trial design.
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The HPV001 Phase 1b/2 clinical trial was designed to identify an efficacious dose based on a joint response index of CD8+ T cell magnitude, CD4+T cell magnitude and CD4+ T cell avidity. The primary objective of the trial was to evaluate the safety and tolerability of ChAdOx1-HPV plus MVA-HPV when administered in a prime-boost regimen. The secondary objectives of the trial were to determine the optimal dose and to evaluate the efficacy of HPV001 on the clearance of hrHPV infection and on the cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, or CIN.
Future Development
Following the HPV001 Phase 1b/2 clinical trial, if successful, we intend to initiate further clinical trials of VTP-200. Our next trials would potentially be a Phase 2/3 trial in healthy women with early grade CIN (squamous intraepithelial lesions, or LSIL) and additional trials in patients with more advanced CIN, vulval intraepithelial neoplasia, or VIN, and anal intraepithelial neoplasia, or AIN.
We are also in the early stages of collaborating on an NIH-funded trial that would be conducted by the University of California San Francisco in more advanced CIN and AIN in human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, positive patients, to be recruited in Mexico and Puerto Rico.
VTP-850: Our Next-Generation Immunotherapeutic Candidate for Prostate Cancer
We are developing VTP-850, our next-generation prostate cancer product candidate, to improve upon VTP-800. Both VTP-800 and VTP-850 are composed of a heterologous prime-boost regimen with ChAdOx1 prime and MVA boost; however, VTP-800 encodes only one antigen, 5T4, while VTP-850 encodes four antigens, PSA, PAP, STEAP1 and 5T4. We designed VTP-850 to induce a broader immune response by encoding multiple antigens to reduce the ability of cancer cells to evade the immune response by mutating or losing expression of any one antigen. The antigens we encode in VTP-850 are expressed in most prostate cancers but have little or no expression on healthy tissues other than prostate.
Clinical Development
Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials of VTP-800 were sponsored and conducted by the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. VANCE was a first-in-human, open-label, randomized, Phase 1 clinical trial designed to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of heterologous prime-boost ChAdOx1-MVA administration as compared with homologous prime-boost with MVA alone, with and without low dose cyclophosphamide in localized prostate cancer. Thirty-nine patients with early stage localized, castration-sensitive prostate cancer were treated. Thirty-three patients received heterologous prime-boost with ChAdOx1-5T4 and MVA-5T4, while six patients received homologous prime-boost with MVA-5T4 alone. Patients received both regimens alone or with cyclophosphamide preconditioning. VTP-800 was generally well tolerated, with side effects of local injection site pain, fatigue, feverishness, and myalgia, which are consistent with those observed for these vectors in other clinical trials. There were no reported treatment-related serious adverse events.
It was also observed that 59% of participants had no detectable T cell response at baseline and developed a new 5T4-specific T cell response, as measured by an ex vivo gamma interferon ELISpot. Two patients had a baseline response, and the frequency of 5T4-specific T cells was increased following administration. The mean peak response of the 5T4-specific T cells in the responders was 198 cells per one million PBMCs, which is notable given that the 5T4 is a self-antigen. T cell infiltration into the resected prostate was also observed.
The figure below shows the 5T4-specific T cell responses to VTP-800 in the responding patients. The peak response, expressed as the number of 5T4-specific T cells secreting IFN-γ per one million PBMCs, in each patient who mounted a 5T4-specific T cell response following administration was compared to the 5T4 response detected prior to the first dose. The bars represent medians.
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T Cell Response in Patients
ADVANCE was an open-label, non-randomized Phase 2 clinical trial of VTP-800 in combination with anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor, nivolumab, in 23 patients with metastatic prostate cancer. The primary objectives of the ADVANCE trial were to assess the safety and response rate of VTP-800 when administered in combination with nivolumab. The secondary objectives were to assess the immune responses in peripheral blood and to evaluate radiographic progression-free survival and overall survival. Patients received ChAdOx1-5T4 prime and MVA-5T4 boost one month later. Nivolumab was administered at months one, two and three. In most patients, VTP-800 was also given at months three and four. All patients received 2.5 x 10˄10 vp of ChAdOx1-5T4, 2.0 x 10˄10 pfu of MVA-5T4 and 480mg of nivolumab.
VTP-800 was generally well tolerated. The most common treatment emergent adverse events were bone pain, injection site pain, muscle pain, stomatitis, and constipation, and most were mild and grade 1 or 2. The only grade 3 adverse event was a chest infection, which was not related to study drug. There were no grade 4 or 5 treatment-related adverse events. Three of eight patients with measurable disease had partial tumor responses. Five of 23, or 22%, of patients had greater than 50% reduction of prostate specific antigen, or PSA, at any timepoint, as shown in the figure below.
PSA Reduction in Patients
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Future Development
The FDA accepted our IND for VTP-850 to be evaluated in PCA001, a Phase 1/2 open-label clinical trial in patients with rising PSA after definitive local therapy for prostate cancer, commencing in the first quarter of 2023. We plan to conduct the trial in several countries, including the United States. The trial will involve a Phase 1 dose finding stage with boost dose administered either intramuscularly or intravenously to determine the Phase 2 recommended dose and route of administration, followed by a two-stage expansion phase to evaluate immunogenicity and anti-tumor activity of VTP-850.
VTP-1100: Our first product utilizing SNAPvax CI platform for HPV16+ cancers
VTP-1100 is our first product candidate leveraging the SNAPvax platform technology – brought into Vaccitech following the acquisition of Avidea in December 2021 – that will enter clinical testing.
VTP-1100 differs from VTP-200 in composition and patient population targeted: VTP-1100 will use a configuration of SNAPvax that is designed to elicit antigen-specific CD8+ T cells against HPV16+ cancers, either when administered alone or when used in a potent heterologous prime-boost regimen with the established ChAdOx1 platform. Preclinical studies in mice have shown that the SNAPvax-ChAdOx prime-boost induced superior T cell responses as compared with single or dual agent therapies (see figure below).
Status and Future Development
VTP-1100 is currently in the preclinical stage with GMP manufacturing and pivotal IND-enabling studies underway. We received pre-IND feedback from the FDA in July 2022, and based on the agency’s feedback expect to file an IND in the second half of 2023.
VTP-1000: Antigen-specific tolerizing immunotherapy candidate for celiac disease
Patients with celiac disease have an unwanted immune response against gluten proteins and can become severely ill following exposure to gluten found in various cereal grains, especially wheat.
VTP-1000 is a tolerizing immunotherapy that is designed to induce antigen-specific regulatory T cells (Tregs) that promote tolerance and suppress the unwanted immune response to gluten.
VTP-1000 is the second product candidate based on the SNAPvax platform, designed to leverage its plug-and-play modularity to induce an entirely different type of T cell compared to the configuration utilized in VTP-1100. VTP-1000 comprises multiple gluten antigens (representing the key epitopes linked to celiac disease) and an immunomodulator co-delivered in nanoparticles of precise size and composition that are optimized to target immune cells that prime and expand Tregs. While the SNAPvax tolerizing immunotherapy is based on the same platform technology as the SNAPvax cancer immunotherapy enabling VTP-1100, an important distinction is that the tolerance immunotherapy includes an immunosuppressive immunomodulator that drives Treg expansion and prevents proinflammatory responses.
Status and Future Development
VTP-1000 is currently in preclinical development. Preclinical lead optimization studies were recently completed and the product is entering engineering manufacturing, which we expect will enable us to enter first-in-human testing in a dose-escalation and challenge study by the end of 2023, pending submission and FDA clearance of an IND.
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Vaccitech plans to include pharmacodynamic analysis as part of the Phase 1 study to provide an indication that the immunotherapy is inducing Tregs. Importantly, Vaccitech also intends to include a controlled gluten challenge in the Phase 1 study (for example, see Goel G, et al. Science Advances (2019) Cytokine release and gastrointestinal symptoms after gluten challenge in celiac disease). This controlled gluten challenge is intended to provide an early biologic signal that VTP-1000 suppresses pathological response to gluten ingestion.
As VTP-1000 is our first product candidate directed towards the treatment of an inflammatory disease, we believe demonstration of Treg induction and/or suppression of unwanted immune responses to gluten would pave the way for other therapies based on the SNAPvax tolerizing immunotherapy platform, including those for allergies and other autoimmune indications.
VTP-600: Our Immunotherapeutic Candidate Targeting MAGE-A3 and NY-ESO1 Antigens
We are developing VTP-600, our immunotherapy candidate designed to encode the tumor-associated antigens MAGE-A3 and NY-ESO1 initially for the treatment of NSCLC in combination with standard of care treatment, chemotherapy and pembrolizumab. Lung cancer is the most common cancer diagnosis and cause of cancer death worldwide, with 85% of cases classified as NSCLC. About 25% to 30% of NSCLC patients have squamous histology and the remainder have non-squamous histology. MAGE-A3 is expressed in 48% of squamous NSCLC and 24% of non- squamous NSCLC. NY-ESO1 has been shown to have an expression rate of 27% across all NSCLC types. We initiated a first-in-human Phase 1/2a trial in the first quarter of 2022, in collaboration with Cancer Research UK, or CRUK, which is sponsoring and funding this study.
VTP-400: A Prophylactic Vaccine Product Candidate for Shingles
Beyond our therapeutic programs, we are also developing several prophylactic vaccine candidates. VTP-400 is our vaccine candidate in development to prevent shingles in adults aged 50 years and older. There are an estimated 140 million cases globally of shingles each year, which can result in significant post-infection pain, known as post-herpetic neuralgia, or even death. Our regional partner in China and Southeast Asia, CanSino, plans to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial of VTP-400 for shingles prevention.
VTP-500: A Prophylactic Vaccine Candidate to Prevent MERS
We are developing VTP-500 as a vaccine product candidate to prevent infection and subsequent disease caused by the MERS coronavirus. Although human-to-human transmission appears to be rare, MERS coronavirus has the potential to cause epidemics, infecting hundreds of thousands of people and causing significant morbidity and mortality in 34% of infected individuals. Clinical efficacy trials to prevent MERS are challenging to execute due to the sporadic nature of infection, however studies have demonstrated positive Phase 1 safety and immunogenicity infections data. In November 2021, VTP-500 results from the Saudi Arabia Phase 1 study were published in The Lancet Microbe. The Phase 1 data showed that VTP-500 was generally well tolerated in patients, and further development of the product candidate is planned by our non-exclusive licensee, the University of Oxford.
Vaxzevria: A Prophylactic Vaccine for the Prevention of COVID-19 Infection
We believe our platform also positions us to develop vaccines rapidly to address epidemic and pandemic threats, as demonstrated by the speed of the initiation of clinical trials of Vaxzevria (formerly VTP-900 and AZD1222) for the prevention of COVID-19, which entered the clinic within three months from initial antigen design. We co-invented our first-generation COVID-19 vaccine candidate VTP-900, now Vaxzevria, in partnership with the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute, which we assigned to OUI to facilitate the licensing of those rights by OUI to AstraZeneca. Vaxzevria, uses the ChAdOx1 vector, and encodes the SARS-CoV2 spike protein.
On June 28, 2021, a sub-analysis from the Oxford-led COV001 and COV002 trials showed that Vaxzevria induced strong immune responses following either a prolonged second dose interval of up to 45 weeks or following a third boosting dose. The results, published by the University of Oxford in The Lancet on September 1, 2021, demonstrated that antibody levels remain elevated from baseline for at least one year following a single dose. An extended interval between the first and second dose of Vaxzevria of up to 45 weeks, resulted in up to an 18-fold increase in antibody response, measured 28 days after the second dose. With a 45 week dosing interval between the first and second dose, antibody titres were four times higher than with a 12 week interval, demonstrating that a longer dosing interval is not detrimental but can derive stronger immunity. In addition, a third dose of Vaxzevria, given at least 6 months after a second dose, boosted antibody levels six-fold and maintained T cell response. A third dose also resulted in higher neutralising activity against the Alpha, Beta, and Delta variants.
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On January 13, 2022, AstraZeneca announced positive results from a preliminary analysis of an ongoing safety and immunogenicity trial which showed that Vaxzevria, when given as a third dose booster, increased the immune response to Beta, Delta, Alpha and Gamma SARS-CoV-2 variants, while a separate analysis of samples from the trial showed increased antibody response to the Omicron variant. The results were observed among individuals previously vaccinated with either Vaxzevria or an mRNA vaccine. AstraZeneca also announced that the vaccine has been granted a conditional marketing authorization or emergency use in more than 90 countries. It also has Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organization, which accelerates the pathway to access in up to 144 countries through the COVAX Facility.
As of November 1, 2022, more than 3 billion doses of Vaxzevria have been supplied across 180 countries globally. It has been estimated that over 6 million lives have been saved worldwide, and between 37.7 and 122.4 million hospitalizations were prevented. We are eligible to receive a share of royalties and other revenue received by OUI pursuant to its agreement with AstraZeneca for Vaxzevria.
Our History and Team
We were founded in May 2016 as a spin-out from a leading institution in the United Kingdom, the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, with the aim of developing and commercializing innovative immunotherapeutics and vaccines to treat and prevent infectious diseases and cancer. Our platform uses technologies that were developed at the Jenner Institute over 15 years and through clinical trials involving thousands of participants. Our scientific founders, Professor Adrian Hill KBE, FRCP, FRS and Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert DBE, are leaders in the fields of infectious diseases, immunology, vaccine development and viral vectors. Professor Hill is the founding Director of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford and is also the Lakshmi Mittal and Family Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Oxford. Professor Gilbert is Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Oxford and leads programs on the development of vaccines against multiple emerging viral pathogens as well as research into vaccine manufacturing. She was the Oxford Project Lead for the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine project.
We have assembled a management team with extensive expertise in building and operating biopharmaceutical organizations that have discovered, developed and delivered innovative medicines to patients. Our management team has broad experience and successful track records in biopharmaceutical research, clinical development, regulatory affairs, manufacturing and commercialization, as well as in business, operations, and finance. Our management team’s experience was gained at leading institutions that include Agalimmune, Akamis Bio, Altimmune, Aptiv Solutions, Ernst & Young, GenVec, IAVI, Kite Pharma, Pfizer, Merck-Serono, Novartis and Roche.
Our board of directors has extensive expertise in the fields of science, business and finance. Our scientific advisory board, or SAB, works with our management team in the planning and development of scientific, clinical, and research and development initiatives and strategies. The SAB is composed of scientific and clinical thought leaders in the fields of immunotherapy, vaccine development, immunology, infectious diseases, immunotolerance and oncology.
The Key Elements of Our Platform
Our proprietary platforms comprise several components that either 1) when combined, allow us to develop product candidates designed to induce high and durable levels of antigen-specific T cells and B cells to prevent and treat infectious diseases and, cancer or 2) in the case of SNAPvax, induce regulatory T cells and/or decrease T cell activation to specifically control autoreactive immune cell hyperactivity, while maintaining the desired tolerability profile. Our immunostimulatory platforms generate excellent immunogenicity in terms of B cell and T cell responses and are differentiated by their ability to induce very high numbers of functional and durable CD8+ T cells. Our tolerizing platform is designed to restore immune tolerance by a mechanism of action, which includes the induction of regulatory T cells. The key elements of our platforms are:
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Our Collaboration and License Agreements
2016 License Agreement with OUI
In March 2016, we entered into a license agreement, or the 2016 OUI License Agreement (as amended in January 2019 and April 2020), with OUI (previously known as Isis Innovation Limited) for the development and commercialization of vaccines for influenza, cancer (including therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines and including cancer associated with viral infections), varicella zoster and MERS. We refer to these areas together as the “Field.”
Pursuant to the 2016 OUI License Agreement, OUI granted us a worldwide license under certain patent rights of OUI, including rights related to the use of ChAdOx1, ChAdOx2, adenoviral and MVA promoters and influenza product candidates, among other rights, or the Licensed Technology, to develop, manufacture, use and commercialize licensed products. The rights are exclusive in certain fields and non-exclusive in others. Our license to certain patents and applications relating to certain adenoviral vectors encoding a pathogen or tumor antigen and certain pox virus expression systems is exclusive within the Field, non- exclusive in all other fields, and excludes veterinary applications. Our license to certain patents and applications relating to certain compositions and methods is exclusive in all fields and excludes veterinary applications. Our license for the use of the ChAdOx1 vector under certain patents and applications relating to certain simian adenovirus and hybrid adenoviral vectors is exclusive in the Field, non-exclusive in all other fields, and excludes veterinary applications (apart from MERS) and certain specified indications. Furthermore, our license with respect to the use of the ChAdOx2 vector under certain patents and applications relating to certain adenoviral vectors is exclusive in certain vaccine-related fields, non- exclusive in all other fields, and excludes all veterinary applications (apart from MERS) and certain other specified indications. In addition, we also obtained a license to certain clinical data generated from OUI projects and related confidential know-how to develop, manufacture, use and commercialize licensed products, and such license is exclusive in the Field, other than with respect to know-how related to ChAdOx2, which is licensed non-exclusively. The Licensed Technology is sublicensable subject to obtaining OUI’s prior written consent (such consent not to be unreasonably withheld, conditioned or delayed) and inclusion in any sublicense agreement of restrictions on further sub-licensing, among other terms and conditions.
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Pursuant to the 2016 OUI License Agreement, all intellectual property rights resulting from improvements made prior to the second anniversary of the agreement (i) to the licensed patent rights by the inventor belong to OUI, and (ii) to the Licensed Technology by us belong to us. OUI retains the right for the University of Oxford and any person who works or has worked on the Licensed Technology to use the Licensed Technology, as well as any improvements that we made to that technology during the first two years of the license, for education, research and limited clinical patient care. Furthermore, the University of Oxford may publish the Licensed Technology and those improvements without our consent provided that they have first given us advance notice and delayed the publication if necessary for us to obtain patent protection. In addition, OUI retains the right to grant academic and research licenses to any third parties under the Licensed Technology to encourage basic research for education and limited clinical patient care but may not grant licenses for commercialization of the Licensed Technology that is exclusively licensed to us, nor for development or marketing or products or services that are produced or supplied using the Licensed Technology.
Upon execution of the 2016 OUI License Agreement, we paid OUI a one-time upfront fee of £100,000. We are obligated to pay OUI a low single-digit royalty (that varies based on the indication) on net sales of any product or process produced by or using the Licensed Technology. If we sublicense the Licensed Technology, we will be required to pay OUI a mid-single-digit royalty on any royalties paid to us by the sublicensee and a high single-digit royalty on non-royalty sublicensing income (excluding milestone payment income overlapping with milestone payments paid to OUI and income used to fund research and development). In the event that the royalties (excluding the royalty on sublicensing income) owed to OUI do not amount to a specified minimum ranging from the mid five figures to low six figures based on the license year in each year following March 2020, we must also pay OUI the difference between the royalty paid and the applicable minimum sum payable. In March 2021 we therefore paid £38,750 to OUI, being the difference between royalties paid and the minimum sum payable. In addition, we are required to pay OUI milestone payments of up to an aggregate of £14.8 million upon the achievement of specified development, regulatory and commercial milestones.
Unless earlier terminated, the 2016 OUI License Agreement will continue until the later of the expiration of the last claim of a licensed patent or 20 years from the date of the agreement. The last patent under the 2016 OUI License Agreement, if granted, is expected to expire in November 2039, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments. Either party may terminate for the uncured breach of the other party. We may terminate the agreement at any time upon three months’ prior written notice. OUI may terminate the agreement upon us filing for bankruptcy or in the event of liquidation or receivership proceedings, or upon 30 days’ prior written notice upon the occurrence of certain other events. Upon termination of the 2016 OUI License Agreement, we are required to, among other things, grant to OUI an irrevocable, transferable, non-exclusive license to develop, make and use any improvements to the Licensed Technology which we made prior to the second anniversary of the date of the agreement.
2017 License Agreement with OUI
In September 2017, we entered into a further license agreement with OUI, or the 2017 OUI License Agreement, for the development and commercialization of immunotherapies for HBV and HPV.
Pursuant to the 2017 OUI License Agreement, we acquired a worldwide license under certain additional patent rights of OUI, including rights related to the use of HBV immunotherapy product candidates, HPV immunotherapy product candidates and shark invariant chain polypeptides, among other rights, or the 2017 Licensed Technology, to develop, manufacture, use and commercialize licensed products. The rights are exclusive in some fields and non-exclusive in others. Our license to certain patents and applications relating to certain HBV and HPV vaccines is exclusive in all fields. Our license to certain patents and applications relating to molecular adjuvants is non-exclusive in the field of HBV. Our license to certain patents and applications relating to certain simian and hybrid adenoviral vectors is exclusive in the fields of HPV associated diseases and HBV. Further, our license to certain patents and applications relating to certain other vectors is exclusive in the field of HBV.
Pursuant to the 2017 OUI License Agreement, we also obtained a non-exclusive license under related know- how to develop, manufacture, use and commercialize licensed products in all fields. The 2017 Licensed Technology is sublicensable subject to obtaining OUI’s prior written consent (such consent not to be unreasonably withheld, conditioned or delayed) and inclusion in any sublicense agreement of restrictions on further sub-licensing, among other terms.
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Pursuant to the 2017 OUI License Agreement, all intellectual property rights resulting from improvements made prior to the second anniversary of the agreement (i) to the licensed patent rights by the inventor belong to OUI, and (ii) to the 2017 Licensed Technology by us belong to us. OUI retains the right for the University of Oxford and any person who works or has worked on the 2017 Licensed Technology to use the 2017 Licensed Technology, as well as any improvements that we made to that technology during the first two years of the license, for education, research and limited clinical patient care. Furthermore, the University of Oxford may publish the 2017 Licensed Technology and those improvements without our consent provided that they have first given us advance notice and delayed the publication if necessary for us to obtain patent protection. In addition, OUI retains the right to grant academic and research licenses to any third parties under the 2017 Licensed Technology to encourage basic research for education and limited clinical patient care but may not grant licenses for commercialization of the 2017 Licensed Technology that is exclusively licensed to us, nor for development or marketing or products or services that are produced or supplied using the 2017 Licensed Technology.
Upon execution of the 2017 OUI License Agreement, we paid OUI a one-time upfront fee of £50,000. We are obligated to pay OUI a low single-digit royalty (that varies based on the indication) on net sales made by us or our sublicensees of any product or process produced by or using the 2017 Licensed Technology. In the event that such sales royalties owed to OUI do not amount to a specified minimum ranging from the mid five figures to low six figures based on the license year in each year following September 2020, we must also pay OUI the difference between the royalty paid and the applicable minimum sum payable. If we sublicense the 2017 Licensed Technology, we will be required to pay OUI a mid-single-digit royalty on non- royalty sublicensing income (excluding milestone payment income overlapping with milestone payments paid to OUI and income used to fund research and development). In addition, we are required to pay OUI milestone payments of up to an aggregate of £9.85 million upon the achievement of specified development, regulatory and commercial milestones.
Unless earlier terminated, the 2017 OUI License Agreement will continue until the later of the expiration of the last claim of a licensed patent or 20 years from the date of the agreement. The last patent under the 2017 OUI License Agreement, if granted, is expected to expire in August 2038, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments. Either party may terminate for the uncured breach of the other party. We may terminate the agreement at any time upon three months’ prior written notice. OUI may terminate the agreement upon us filing for bankruptcy or in the event of liquidation or receivership proceedings, or upon 30 days’ prior written notice upon the occurrence of certain other events. Upon termination of the 2017 OUI License Agreement, we are required to, among other things, grant to OUI an irrevocable, transferable, non-exclusive license to develop, make and use any improvements to the Licensed Technology which we made prior to the second anniversary of the date of the agreement.
2017 License Agreement with OUI (Vaccitech North America, Inc.)
In March 2017, Avidea Technologies Corporation (“Avidea”) entered into a license agreement with OUI for the development and commercialization of products comprising thermo-responsive adjuvant scaffolds for use in all indications. All of Avidea’s rights, duties and obligations under the 2017 OUI License Agreement were assumed by Vaccitech North America, Inc. (“Vaccitech NA”) following the acquisition of Avidea by Vaccitech plc. on December 10, 2021.
Pursuant to the 2017 OUI License Agreement, OUI granted us a worldwide license under certain patent rights of OUI related to the use of thermo-responsive adjuvant scaffolds, among other rights, or the Licensed Technology, to develop, manufacture, use and commercialize licensed products. The license to patent rights are exclusive in all fields, and the license to know how is non-exclusive. The Licensed Technology is sublicensable subject to obtaining OUI’s prior written consent (such consent not to be unreasonably withheld, conditioned or delayed) and inclusion in any sublicense agreement of restrictions on further sub-licensing, among other terms and conditions.
Pursuant to the 2017 OUI License Agreement, all intellectual property rights resulting from improvements made by us belong to us. OUI retains the right for the University of Oxford, the U.S. National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (“NIAID”), the Instutite of Macromolecular Chemistry of the Czech Republic (“IMC”) and any person who works or has worked on the Licensed Technology to use the Licensed Technology and any licensee improvements for non-commercial use. Furthermore, the University of Oxford, NIAID or IMC may publish the Licensed Technology and those improvements without our consent provided that they have first given us advance notice and delayed the publication if necessary for us to obtain patent protection. In addition, OUI retains the right to grant academic and research licenses to any third parties under the Licensed Technology to encourage basic research for education and limited clinical patient care but may not grant licenses for commercialization of the Licensed Technology that is exclusively licensed to us, nor for development or marketing or products or services that are produced or supplied using the Licensed Technology.
Upon execution of the 2017 OUI License Agreement, we paid OUI a one-time upfront fee of £3,000. We are obligated to pay OUI a low single-digit royalty on net sales of any product or process produced by or using the Licensed Technology. If we sublicense the
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Licensed Technology, we will be required to pay OUI a mid-single-digit royalty on any non-royalty sublicensing income. As of March 23, 2023, OUI has not been paid any royalties under the 2017 OUI License Agreement. In the event that the royalties (excluding the royalty on sublicensing income) owed to OUI do not amount to a specified minimum ranging from the low to mid five figures based on the license year in each year following March 2020, the licensee must also pay OUI the difference between the royalty paid and the applicable minimum sum payable. In March 2021 £10,000 was paid to OUI, being the difference between royalties paid and the minimum sum payable. In March 2023 £40,000 was paid to OUI, being the difference between royalties paid and the minimum sum payable. In addition, we are required to pay OUI milestone payments of up to an aggregate of £2.43 million upon the achievement of specified development, regulatory and commercial milestones.
Unless earlier terminated, the 2017 OUI License Agreement will continue for as long as anything within the definition of the licensed patent remains in effect or 20 years from the date of the agreement. The patent licensed under the 2017 OUI License Agreement, if granted, is expected to expire in October 2035, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments. Either party may terminate for the uncured breach of the other party. We may terminate the agreement at any time upon six months’ prior written notice. OUI may terminate the agreement upon us filing for bankruptcy or in the event of liquidation or receivership proceedings, or upon 30 days’ prior written notice upon the occurrence of certain other events. Upon termination of the 2017 OUI License Agreement, we are required to, among other things, grant to OUI an irrevocable, transferable, non-exclusive license to develop, make and use any improvements to the Licensed Technology which we made prior to the second anniversary of the date of the agreement.
2017 Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with NIH (Vaccitech North America, Inc.)
In February 2017, Avidea entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (“CRADA”) with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (“NIH”) to carry out collaborative research for the evaluation of Avidea’s synthetic, polymer-based vaccine technology, “Immunotherapeutic Nanoscaffolds” (IMNs) for infectious disease prevention and cancer treatment in animal models. Under this CRADA Avidea committed to providing scientific staff together with materials for use in experiments to evaluate their performance in various animal models of infectious disease and cancer. Under this CRADA NIH committed to evaluating Avidea materials in animal models and to perform comprehensive immune analysis. No funding was exchanged under this CRADA.
In October 2019, the CRADA was amended (“1st CRADA Amendment”) to expand the scope of the collaborative research to evaluate the therapeutic potential of Avidea’s polymer-based vaccine technology, “Immunotherapeutic Nanoscaffolds” (IMNs), including Star polymers and self-assembling nanoparticles based on amphiphilic polymers (SNAP), in preclinical animal models for cancer, infectious and inflammatory diseases. Under this 1st CRADA Amendment Avidea committed to increase its scientific staffing contribution and to provide funding of $22,500 by October 15, 2019 and a further $62,500 by October 15, 2020.
In October 2020, the CRADA was further amended (“2nd CRADA Amendment”) to defer payment of Avidea’s October 2020 funding contribution of the 1st CRADA Amendment to April 15, 2021.
In May 2021, the CRADA was further amended (“3rd CRADA Amendment”) to extend the term of the CRADA by 2 additional years and to defer payment of Avidea’s April 2021 funding contribution of the 2nd CRADA Amendment to October 31, 2021.
In November 2021, the CRADA was further amended (“4th CRADA Amendment”) to expand the scope of the collaborative research to evaluate the therapeutic potential of Avidea’s polymer-based vaccine technology, “Immunotherapeutic Nanoscaffolds” (IMNs), including Star polymers and self-assembling nanoparticles based on amphiphilic polymers (SNAP), in preclinical animal models for cancer, infectious and inflammatory diseases (e.g., induction of suppression and/or tolerance for treating or preventing allergies, autoimmunity, and transplant rejection).
In October 2022, the CRADA was further amended (“5th CRADA Amendment”) to acknowledge that all of Avidea’s rights, duties and obligations under the CRADA were assumed by Vaccitech North America, Inc. (“Vaccitech NA”) following the acquisition of Avidea by Vaccitech plc. on December 10, 2021.
Under the CRADA as amended we own inventions made solely by our staff, and we have an option to enter an exclusive or nonexclusive license to any inventions made solely by NIH staff or made jointly by our staff and NIH under the CRADA. NIH retains rights on behalf of the U.S. Government in the Licensed Technology as required by statute and NIH policy. We have an option to exclusively license any further inventions made under the CRADA.
Unless earlier terminated, the CRADA will expire on February 23, 2024. The parties may terminate the CRADA by mutual consent, or either party may unilaterally terminate the CRADA at any time upon 60 days’ prior written notice.
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2019 License Agreement with NIH (Vaccitech North America, Inc.)
In September 2019, Avidea entered into a license agreement with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (“NIH”) for the commercial development of products and processes for the prevention and/or treatment of cancer and infectious diseases within the scope of Licensed Patent rights that had been developed under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (“CRADA”) entered into by NIH and Avidea in February 2017 and amended in March 2019, December 2020, May 2021, November 2021 and October 2022. We are co-owners of all the Licensed Patents under this agreement, and we have an option to exclusively license NIH rights in all inventions made under this CRADA.
All of Avidea’s rights, duties and obligations under the 2019 License Agreement with NIH were assumed by Vaccitech North America, Inc. (“Vaccitech NA”) following the acquisition of Avidea by Vaccitech plc. on December 10, 2021. The 2019 License Agreement with NIH was amended in September 2022 to note Vaccitech NA’s rights, duties and obligations and also to include newly filed patents developed under the 2017 CRADA as amended.
Pursuant to the 2019 License Agreement with NIH, NIH granted us a worldwide exclusive license under certain patent rights co-owned by us and NIH related to the use of the SNAPvax and syntholytic technology platforms, among other rights, or the Licensed Technology, to develop, manufacture, use and commercialize licensed products. The license to patent rights are exclusive in all fields. The Licensed Technology is sublicensable subject to obtaining NIH’s prior written consent (such consent not to be unreasonably withheld) and inclusion of other customary provisions. NIH retains rights on behalf of the U.S. Government in the Licensed Technology as required by statute and NIH policy.
Upon execution of the 2019 License Agreement with NIH, we paid NIH a one-time upfront fee of $20,000. We are obligated to pay NIH a low single-digit royalty on net sales of any product or process produced by or using the Licensed Technology. If we sublicense the Licensed Technology, we will be required to pay NIH a low-single-digit royalty on any non-royalty sublicensing income. As of March 23, 2023, NIH has not been paid any royalties under the 2019 License Agreement with NIH. In the event that the royalties (excluding the royalty on sublicensing income) owed to NIH do not amount to a specified minimum ranging from the low to mid five figures based on the license year in each year following September 2019, the licensee must also pay NIH the difference between the royalty paid and the applicable minimum royalty payment. Within 60 days of execution of the 2019 License Agreement with NIH we paid $5,000 to NIH. Within 60 days of January 1, 2020 $5,000 was paid to NIH, being the difference between royalties paid and the minimum sum payable. Within 60 days of January 1, 2021 $5,000 was paid to NIH, being the difference between royalties paid and the minimum sum payable. Within 60 days of January 1, 2022 $10,000 was paid to NIH, being the difference between royalties paid and the minimum sum payable. Within 60 days of January 1, 2023 $10,000 was paid to NIH, being the difference between royalties paid and the minimum sum payable. In addition, we are required to pay NIH milestone payments of up to an aggregate of $3.24 million upon the achievement of specified development, regulatory and commercial milestones for each Licensed Product.
Unless earlier terminated, the 2019 License Agreement with NIH will continue until expiry of the last to expire Licensed Patent. 5 patent families licensed under the 2019 License Agreement with NIH that cover the SNAPvax platform, if granted, are expected to expire in April 2038, in May 2039, in October 2039, in February 2042 and in June 2042, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments. Two patent families licensed under the 2019 License Agreement with NIH that cover the syntholytic platform, if granted, are expected to expire in April 2040 and in October 2041, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments. Either party may terminate for the uncured breach of the other party. We may terminate the agreement at any time upon 60 days’ prior written notice. NIH may terminate the agreement upon the occurrence of certain events.
2017 Research Collaboration Agreement (“RCA”) with Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Prague (Vaccitech North America, Inc.)
In September 2017, Avidea entered into a Research Collaboration Agreement (“RCA”) with the Czech Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, (“IMC”) to carry out collaborative research for the development of polymer-based immunotherapies for cancer treatment, HIV prevention and recombinant protein delivery. Under this RCA Avidea committed to providing bioactive moecules and to developing and deploying animal models for evaluating immunotherapies. Under this RCA IMC committed to synthesizing various polymers and bioactive molecules and to linking such polymers and bioactive molecules for use in experiments to characterize their physicochemical properties. No funding was exchanged under this RCA. All of Avidea’s rights, duties and obligations under the 2017 RCA with IMC were assumed by Vaccitech North America, Inc. (“Vaccitech NA”) following the acquisition of Avidea by Vaccitech plc. on December 10, 2021.
Under the RCA we own inventions made solely by our staff, and we have an exclusive option to enter an exclusive or nonexclusive license to any inventions made solely by IMC staff or made jointly by our staff and IMC under the RCA. We have secured exclusive
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rights in two patent families that we co-own with IMC under the 2022 License Agreement with IMC as described below. We have an exclusive option to exclusively license any further inventions made under the RCA. The RCA expired on September 18, 2022. Our rights in inventions made under the RCA survive expiry of the RCA.
2022 License Agreement with IMC (Vaccitech North America, Inc.)
In April 2022, we entered into an exclusive license agreement with the Czech Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, (“IMC”) for the exploitation, development and commercialization of technologies and products within the scope of Licensed Patent rights that had been developed under a Research Collaboration Agreement (“RCA”) entered into by IMC and Avidea in September 2017. We are co-owners of all the Licensed Patents under this agreement, and we have an option to exclusively license IMC rights in all inventions made under this RCA.
Pursuant to the 2022 License Agreement with IMC, IMC granted us a worldwide, exclusive license under certain patent rights co-owned by us and IMC related to the use of polymer-based immunotherapies, among other rights, or the Licensed Technology, to develop, manufacture, use and commercialize licensed products. The license to patent rights is exclusive in all fields. The Licensed Technology is sublicensable.
We are obligated to pay IMC a low single-digit royalty on net sales of any product or process produced by or using the Licensed Technology. If we sublicense the Licensed Technology, we will be required to pay IMC a low-single-digit royalty on any non-royalty sublicensing income. As of March 23, 2023, IMC has not been paid any royalties under the 2022 License Agreement with IMC. In addition, we are required to pay IMC milestone payments of up to an aggregate of $820,000 upon the achievement of specified development, regulatory and commercial milestones for each Licensed Product.
Unless earlier terminated, the 2022 License Agreement with IMC will continue until expiry of the last valid claim of the Licensed Patents. One patent family licensed under the 2022 License Agreement with IMC that covers the SNAPvax platform, if granted, is expected to expire in September 2041, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments. One patent family licensed under the 2022 License Agreement with IMC that covers the syntholytic platform, if granted, is expected to expire in April 2040, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments. Either party may terminate for the uncured breach or insolvency of the other party. We may terminate the agreement at any time upon 3 months’ prior written notice.
2019 License Agreement with OUI
In January 2019, we entered into an additional license agreement with OUI, or the 2019 OUI License Agreement. Pursuant to the 2019 OUI License Agreement, OUI granted us a worldwide, license under an additional patent application of OUI related to the rapid production of recombinant adenovirus constructs, to be used as personalized cancer vaccines or emerging pathogen vaccines, and related confidential know-how, or the 2019 Licensed Technology, to develop, manufacture, use and commercialize licensed products. The license is exclusive in the field of personalized cancer vaccines for therapeutic use in humans, non- exclusive in in all other fields and excludes veterinary applications (apart from MERS) and certain other specified indications. The license is sublicensable subject to obtaining OUI’s prior written consent (such consent not to be unreasonably withheld, conditioned or delayed) and inclusion in any sublicense agreement of restrictions on further sub-licensing, among other terms.
Pursuant to the 2019 OUI License Agreement, all intellectual property rights resulting from improvements made prior to the second anniversary of the agreement (i) to the licensed patent rights by the inventor belong to OUI, and (ii) to the 2019 Licensed Technology by us belong to us. OUI retains the right for the University of Oxford and any person who works or has worked on the Licensed Technology to use the 2019 Licensed Technology, as well as any improvements that we make to that technology during the first two years of the license, for education, research and limited clinical patient care. Furthermore, the University of Oxford may publish the 2019 Licensed Technology and those improvements without our consent provided that they have first given us advance notice and delayed the publication if necessary for us to obtain patent protection. In addition, OUI retains the right to grant academic and research licenses to any third parties under the 2019 Licensed Technology to encourage basic research for education and limited clinical patient care but may not grant licenses for commercialization of the 2019 Licensed Technology that is exclusively licensed to us, nor for development or marketing or products or services that are produced or supplied using the 2019 Licensed Technology.
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Upon execution of the 2019 OUI License Agreement, we paid OUI a nominal upfront fee. We are required to pay OUI a variable low single-digit royalty on net sales of products we develop using the 2019 Licensed Technology, which varies depending on whether the sales are within or outside of the field of personalized cancer vaccines for therapeutic use in humans. While we are continuing to develop the 2019 Licensed Technology, no product candidate that we are currently developing incorporates this technology. If we sublicense the 2019 Licensed Technology, we will be required to pay OUI a 15% or 7% royalty (for licensed products within the field and outside the field respectively) on any royalties paid to us by the sublicensee and 15% or 7.5% of non-royalty sublicensing income (for sublicenses granted before or after three years after the date of the agreement respectively). In the event that the aforementioned royalties (excluding the royalty on non-royalty sublicensing income) owed to OUI do not amount to a specified minimum ranging from the mid five figures to low six figures based on the license year in each year following January 2022, we must also pay to OUI the difference between the royalty paid and the applicable minimum sum payable. In addition, if we develop at least two products in the Field, we are required to pay OUI milestone payments of up to an aggregate of £1.9 million upon the achievement of specified development, regulatory and commercial milestones.
Subject to earlier termination, the 2019 OUI License Agreement will continue until the later of the expiration of the last claim of a licensed patent or 20 years from the date of the agreement. The last patent under the 2019 OUI License Agreement, if granted, is expected to expire in August 2039, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments. Either party may terminate for the uncured breach of the other party. At any time after the third anniversary of the agreement, we may terminate the agreement at any time upon three months’ prior written notice. OUI may terminate the agreement upon us filing for bankruptcy or in the event of liquidation or receivership proceedings, or upon 30 days’ prior written notice upon the occurrence of certain other events. Upon termination of the 2019 OUI License Agreement, we are required to, among other things, grant to OUI an irrevocable, transferable, non- exclusive license to develop, make and use any improvements (to the technology embodied by the relevant licensed patent and know-how) which we made prior to the second anniversary of the date of the agreement.
2018 License Agreement with OUI and Oxford
In September 2018, we entered into a license agreement, or the 2018 License Agreement, with The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford, or Oxford, and OUI. Pursuant to the 2016 OUI License Agreement, OUI had granted us certain exclusive rights related to the Licensed Technology, as defined in the 2016 OUI License Agreement, in the field of diagnosis, prevention and treatment of MERS. The 2018 License Agreement enables Oxford to grant a further sublicense to CEPI in the field of MERS, or the Field, and to enable Oxford to conduct related activities.
Pursuant to the 2018 License Agreement, we agreed to grant to Oxford a fully-paid-up, worldwide, non- exclusive license under the Licensed Technology, as defined in the 2016 OUI License Agreement, and developments and improvements to such technology controlled by us during the term of the 2016 OUI License Agreement, or the MERS Technology, in the Field solely for the purpose of enabling Oxford to develop any product or process which uses or is within the scope of the MERS Technology, or Licensed Product. This license includes the right to generate investigational stockpiles, but excludes any commercial use or sale of Licensed Products and is sublicensable by Oxford solely to its collaborators under the framework agreement entered into on or about the same date as the 2018 License Agreement between Oxford, CEPI and Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V. Furthermore, we agreed that the rights retained by OUI under the 2016 OUI License Agreement include the right to allow Oxford to use the MERS Technology to carry out research activities (including in collaboration with other parties) up to and including the performance of Phase 1/2 clinical trials and related activities, and the generation of Licensed Product for research use (but excluding any commercial use or sale of such Licensed Product). We have been informed by Oxford that Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V. is no longer a party to that framework agreement.
In addition, we agreed to grant to Oxford a fully-paid-up, worldwide, non-exclusive license under the MERS Technology in the Field solely for the purpose of enabling Oxford to grant a sublicense to CEPI in order to address (i) circumstances in which CEPI determines there to be a heightened need for the Licensed Product and that steps should be taken to prepare for such need; and/or (ii) material increases in the number of cases of people infected with MERS in particular geographical areas that are declared a public health emergency. Oxford is permitted to grant CEPI a fully-paid-up, worldwide, non-exclusive sublicense under the MERS Technology to develop, manufacture and commercialize the Licensed Product in the Field anywhere in the world, provided that all end users (i) are in a relevant affected territory, or (ii) are healthcare workers going to an affected territory under the direction of one or more governments or recognized not-for-profit organizations, or Public Sector Agencies, in order to help address a public healthcare issue. However, the sublicense must exclude the right for CEPI to (i) apply for or obtain any marketing approval or conduct any post-marketing activities, (ii) sell Licensed Product other than to Public Sector Agencies on a “cost plus” basis, where “cost plus” means the cost of manufacturing and supply plus a margin of 10% percent on such cost, or (iii) further sublicense its rights other than to its affiliates and/or to Public Sector Agencies and their appointees for the sole purpose of accelerating epidemic preparedness for public health applications.
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Pursuant to the 2018 License Agreement, OUI agreed that, notwithstanding our payment obligations under the 2016 OUI License Agreement, we are not obligated to make any payment to OUI in connection with the 2018 License Agreement.
Unless earlier terminated, the 2018 License Agreement shall remain in full force until the expiry or termination of the 2016 OUI License Agreement. We may terminate the 2018 License Agreement immediately upon notice to Oxford in the event of Oxford’s uncured material breach. In the event of termination of the 2018 License Agreement, provided that CEPI is not in breach of the terms of its sublicense, we shall at CEPI’s request grant it a sublicense under the MERS Technology in the Field solely of the scope outlined above and on materially the same terms, to the extent that we are able to do so.
OUI License Agreement Amendment
In April 2020, we entered into an amendment, assignment and revenue share agreement, or the OUI License Agreement Amendment, with OUI to amend the 2016 OUI License Agreement. Pursuant to the 2016 OUI License Agreement and among other rights and obligations, OUI granted to us a non-exclusive license to certain patent applications relating to its ChAdOx1 and ChAdOx2 vaccine vectors and the adenovirus long promoter for use in certain fields, or the Field, including SARS-CoV2, which is the virus known to cause COVID-19. The OUI License Agreement Amendment was entered into to enable a single exclusive license agreement for a COVID-19 vaccine co-developed by us and the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute to be negotiated with a suitable pharmaceutical partner.
Under the OUI License Agreement Amendment, we agreed to exclude SARS-CoV2 from the Field and to cease use of the ChAdOx1 vector, ChAdOx2 vector and the adenovirus long promoter in SARS-CoV2. In addition, we assigned to OUI our rights to a jointly owned U.K. patent application relating to the composition of matter related to a ChAdOx1 vector-based or a ChAdOx2 vector-based vaccine to prevent COVID-19, or the Assigned Patent Application, as well as certain other intellectual property rights related to any ChAdOx1 vector-based or ChAdOx2 vector-based COVID-19 vaccine covered by the Assigned Patent Application and its manufacture, including rights to the variations, improvements and modifications thereof, whether existing at or arising after the date of the OUI License Agreement Amendment. In consideration of the rights granted by us, OUI agreed to pay us approximately 24% of payments, including royalties and milestones, received by OUI in connection with the commercialization of any ChAdOx1 vector-based or ChAdOx2 vector-based vaccine in the field of SARS-CoV2 covered by or disclosed in the assigned patent application. The last patent under the OUI License Agreement Amendment, which is owned by OUI, if granted, is expected to expire in March 2041, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments.
Impact of OUI’s Agreement with AstraZeneca
OUI has entered into an exclusive research collaboration and worldwide license agreement, or the AstraZeneca License Agreement, with AstraZeneca UK Limited, or AstraZeneca. The following description of the impact of AstraZeneca License Agreement with respect to our rights under the OUI License Agreement Amendment is based solely on an extract of the AstraZeneca License Agreement provided by the parties to that agreement. We are not a party to the AstraZeneca License Agreement and do not have access to a copy of that agreement to verify the accuracy of such extract. In addition, no party to the AstraZeneca License Agreement has confirmed that there are no material terms in that agreement that are not included in the description below that could adversely impact the economic and other terms of the AstraZeneca License Agreement described below. Moreover, there can be no assurance that the AstraZeneca License Agreement is an enforceable agreement, that the parties thereto will comply with their obligations under that agreement (including any obligations of AstraZeneca to make milestone or royalty payments to OUI), or that the terms of that agreement (including royalty rates and other economic terms) will not be modified by the parties in the future. Accordingly, these and other factors could cause amounts received by OUI pursuant to the AstraZeneca License Agreement to differ from those described below, and any such differences could be material.
The AstraZeneca License Agreement allows AstraZeneca to pursue, among other things, the commercialization of a vaccine product candidate for the prevention of COVID-19 containing one or more of the ChAdOx1 or ChAdOx2 vectors or their derivatives. AstraZeneca announced that as of January 13, 2022, the vaccine had been granted a conditional marketing authorization or emergency use in more than 90 countries. It also has Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organization, which accelerates the pathway to access in up to 144 countries through the COVAX Facility.
Pursuant to the OUI License Agreement Amendment, we received $2.4 million in July 2020 as our share of the upfront fee paid by AstraZeneca. We are also entitled to receive a share of certain regulatory and sales milestones and royalties on net sales of Vaxzevria, as well as a portion of any sublicensing income payable by AstraZeneca. Our share of the royalties on net sales of Vaxzevria is approximately 1.4%.
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Our understanding is that we were not entitled to receive any royalties or payments from sub-licensees from the commercialization of Vaxzevria until after the pandemic period, which was defined as a period that would end on July 1, 2021 (or such later date when AstraZeneca, in good faith, determines that the COVID-19 pandemic is over). However, our understanding is that we would be entitled to receive our share of any regulatory milestone payments during the pandemic period.
The royalty term for net sales of Vaxzevria commenced in 2022 and will continue, on a country-by-country basis, until the later of (i) the date upon which the vaccine is no longer subject to patent protection in such country, (ii) expiration of regulatory exclusivity for the vaccine in such country or (iii) ten years from the first commercial sale of the vaccine in such country.
Master Collaboration Agreement with CanSino Biologics Inc.
In September 2018, we entered into a master collaboration agreement, or the CanSino Agreement, with CanSino Biologics Inc., or CanSino. The CanSino Agreement provides a framework under which we can agree with CanSino (in separate project agreements) the details of one or more collaborative projects for the development and commercialization of certain products, and carry out those projects under the terms of the CanSino Agreement and the respective project agreements in our respective territories. Under the CanSino Agreement, the CanSino Territory includes China (including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao), Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, and the Philippines, while our territory, or the Vaccitech Territory, includes the rest of the world.
Under the CanSino Agreement, each party grants to the other party a royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use its relevant background intellectual property rights, or Background IPR, solely to perform the project in the other party’s territory, together with a right to sub-license to any agreed-upon subcontractor performing services for and on behalf of the other party. For any collaborative project, each party is obliged to provide to the other party all applicable materials specified in that project agreement and to grant to the other party a non-exclusive license to use such materials solely for the purpose of that project. In addition, each party grants to the other party a non-exclusive license to use its Background IPR and an exclusive license to any new intellectual property created in the course of activities performed by such party in relation to a project or otherwise under the CanSino Agreement, or New IPR, to the extent necessary to commercialize and exploit collaboration products in the other party’s territory. Such commercialization licenses are sublicensable (without further right to sub-license) and subject to the payment of royalties and milestones as set out in the relevant project agreement. CanSino is permitted to commercialize such products only in the CanSino Territory and we are entitled to commercialize such products in the Vaccitech Territory. Both parties are under obligations to use commercially reasonable efforts to maximize sales of products that are the subject of collaboration.
During the term of any project agreement entered into as contemplated by the CanSino Agreement and for three months thereafter, neither party is permitted to enter into discussions, collaborations or similar arrangements with any third parties regarding matters or products which are materially the same as set forth in the project agreement or related to the project that is the subject of the project agreement, unless such party reasonably believes such an arrangement with such third party would not be detrimental to the relevant project or project arrangement. Furthermore, unless agreed otherwise in a project agreement, for any product which we collaboratively develop, CanSino has the exclusive and sub-licensable right to manufacture and supply all master virus seed and clinical adenoviral material necessary for the development and sale of any products by either party in their respective territories. CanSino will supply any such material to be used by us for the manufacture of products to be sold by us (or our sub-licensees) at the price of 15% to 30% over cost of goods sold, or COGS. COGS is equal to the reasonable COGS for equivalent material manufactured by CanSino or its subcontractors for sale by CanSino or its sub-licensees.
Unless agreed otherwise in a project agreement: (i) any improvements of a party’s Background IPR will be owned by the party with rights to such Background IPR, and will be treated as Background IPR; and (ii) New IPR will be owned by one or both parties in accordance with the respective inventive contribution of each party as determined by the principles of United Kingdom patent law. Where any New IPR is wholly owned by a party, that party is obliged to endeavor to file patent applications to the extent required to provide reasonable protection for the relevant product. Where any New IPR is jointly owned by the parties, we are obliged to endeavor to file patent applications to the extent required to provide reasonable protection for the relevant product, in consultation with CanSino, with costs shared between the parties. Before we abandon a jointly-owned patent claiming any New IPR, we must give CanSino at least three months’ notice, and CanSino can request assignment of our rights on terms to be agreed. We are obliged to discuss with CanSino the enforcement of jointly owned patent rights but are entitled to enforce such patent rights outside the CanSino Territory.
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Unless earlier terminated, the CanSino Agreement will continue for ten years from the date of the agreement. Either party can terminate by written notice for the uncured material breach or persistent breaches of the other party. Either party may terminate by written notice if the other party cannot pay its debts, takes any step in connection with entering administration, liquidation, or other arrangement with creditors (other than a solvent arrangement), or suspends all or part of its business; or suffers a force majeure event that continues for 60 days. Furthermore, a project agreement entered into pursuant to the CanSino Agreement shall automatically terminate if the 2016 OUI License Agreement or the 2017 OUI License Agreement terminates or expires, Background IPR licensed from OUI is necessary under such project agreement and the parties are unable to agree to a modification of the project or relevant collaboration product that would not require use of such Background IPR.
2018 ChAdOx Zoster Project Agreement (under the CanSino Agreement)
Pursuant to the CanSino Agreement, we entered into a project agreement in September 2018 with CanSino, or the ChAdOx Zoster Project Agreement, with the goal of developing a Zoster vaccine to become a competitor to Shingrix.
Under the ChAdOx Zoster Project Agreement, we are responsible for funding and undertaking various development tasks, including (subject to availability of funding) conducting a Phase 1 clinical trial in the UK. CanSino is responsible for funding and undertaking various development tasks, including conducting a Phase 1 clinical trial in China. The parties’ rights and responsibilities in relation to Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials are pending, subject to further negotiation. In addition, the parties agreed to use all reasonable efforts to enter into a separate supply agreement pursuant to which CanSino will manufacture all product necessary for clinical trials and commercialization under the project agreement. If the parties cannot agree upon such supply agreement, they must follow a specified dispute resolution process set forth in the CanSino Agreement. For all products manufactured by CanSino under a supply agreement that we wish to sell in the Vaccitech Territory, we have agreed to pay the costs incurred by CanSino to manufacture the products plus 20% of such costs.
We received an upfront payment of £50,000 under this project agreement. We will also receive milestone payments of up to an aggregate of £1.125 million based on successful conduct of clinical trials and commercialization of the product. We will receive mid-single-digit royalties on the net sales of the product by or on behalf of CanSino or its sub-licensees in the CanSino Territory. If CanSino sublicense their rights in the product to a non-affiliate third party, we are also entitled to receive a mid-teens royalty on the transaction value (excluding royalties). We must pay to CanSino mid-single-digit royalties on the net sales of the product by or on behalf of us or our sub-licensees in the Vaccitech Territory. A party will benefit from a reduction of its royalties (in the low single digits) where it requires a license from a third party to sell the product in its territory.
Unless earlier terminated, the term of the ChAdOx Zoster Project Agreement will expire upon the later of expiry of all registered patents in the New IP developed under the project, or ten years from first commercial sale of the product. The last patent under the ChAdOx Zoster Project Agreement, if granted, is expected to expire in November 2039, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments. A party may terminate the ChAdOx Zoster Project Agreement by written notice if the other party unreasonably delays the performance of its obligations. Upon the expiration of the term, we agreed to grant CanSino a royalty-free, perpetual, sub-licensable, non-exclusive license to use our Background IPR and our New IPR used to develop, incorporated in, or referenced in any products that are the subject of the project agreement to the extent necessary for CanSino to undertake research, develop, manufacture and commercialize such products in the CanSino Territory. Pursuant to the CanSino Agreement, upon the expiration or earlier termination of the project agreement, except for termination by CanSino for our breach, CanSino agreed to grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, sub-licensable, non-exclusive license to use their Background IPR and New IPR used to develop, incorporated in, or referenced in any products that are the subject of the project agreement to the extent necessary for us to undertake research, develop, manufacture and commercialize such products in the Vaccitech Territory. Unless we terminate the project agreement early for CanSino’s breach, upon early termination after completion of a Phase 1 trial, we will continue to pay CanSino a low single-digit royalty on net sales of the product by us or our sub-licensees in the Vaccitech Territory, for the remainder of the Term. If such early termination is after completion of a Phase 2 trial, the royalty we must pay rises to mid-single digit.
Clinical Trial and Option Agreement with Cancer Research UK
In December 2019, Vaccitech Oncology Limited, or VOLT, entered into a clinical trial and option agreement, or the Clinical Trial Agreement, with CRUK and CRUK’s subsidiary, Cancer Research Technology Limited, or CRT, relating to the conduct of a Phase 1/2a clinical trial of VOLT’s VTP-600 immunotherapy product in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, or the Clinical Trial. The trial opened in the first quarter of 2022 across multiple clinical sites in the UK.
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VOLT is our oncology focused strategic collaboration with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, an international non-profit organization that conducts innovative cancer research and is looking to enable the clinical development of new treatments that induce and harness CD8+ T cells of the immune system to fight cancer. VOLT has a license to our proprietary CD8+ T cell induction platform and research by Benoit Van den Eynde’s group at the Ludwig Oxford Branch.
Pursuant to the Clinical Trial Agreement, CRUK is responsible for, among other things, designing, preparing, carrying out and sponsoring the Clinical Trial, at its cost, and VOLT has granted to CRUK a license under its intellectual property to enable CRUK to perform such activities. VOLT is responsible for supplying agreed quantities of its VTP-600 immunotherapy product. VOLT retains the right to continue the development of the product during the Clinical Trial, provided that the parties have first agreed appropriate terms for sharing of safety data. CRUK owns all results, including all intellectual property therein, generated in the performance of the Clinical Trial. Upon the completion of the Clinical Trial, VOLT has the option to obtain a license to use such results, or the VTP-600 License. The terms of the VTP-600 License have been pre-agreed and are set out in the Clinical Trial Agreement.
If VOLT exercises the option to take the VTP-600 License, CRT agrees to grant VOLT an exclusive license under the results of the Clinical Trial that exclusively relate to the VTP-600 immunotherapy product, or the Exclusive Results, and a non-exclusive license under any results that are not Exclusive Results, in each case, to develop and commercialize any product which makes use of the results of the Clinical Trial in an application for regulatory authorization, contains the relevant active ingredients, or is covered by the patent application PCT/EP2019/070555, or the Product. The rights under the VTP-600 License are sublicensable (except to a tobacco company). The exclusive rights granted under the VTP-600 License are subject to the right of certain third-party contributors associated with the Clinical Trial, CRUK and scientists funded or employed by CRUK to use the Exclusive Results for non-commercial scientific or clinical research purposes and to publish the Exclusive Results and the results of non-commercial research performed using the Exclusive Results (subject to the publication process set out in the Clinical Trial Agreement). Upon exercise of the option, VOLT is required to pay a one-time upfront fee of an amount in pounds Sterling in the high six-digits. VOLT is also obligated to make future milestone payments upon the achievement of development, regulatory and commercial milestones, with an aggregate total value of £40,750,000. VOLT is required to pay to CRT a low single-digit royalty on net sales of Products sold by VOLT or its sublicensees. If VOLT sublicenses the right to sell Products, VOLT will also be required to pay to CRT a royalty of between 5% and 20% on non-royalty amounts due to VOLT from a sublicensee, with the precise rate depending on the stage in development at which such sublicense was granted. VOLT is obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to meet certain development, regulatory and commercialization obligations, including commencement of a Phase 2 clinical trial of a Product in an oncology indication before the second anniversary of the date of the VTP-600 License. CRT may terminate the VTP-600 License in respect of any given Product if VOLT is not actively developing it or fails to launch it after receiving marketing authorization. CRT may also terminate the VTP-600 License as a whole if no Product is being actively developed or commercialized.
If VOLT does not exercise the option to take the VTP-600 License, or if the VTP-600 License or Clinical Trial Agreement is subsequently terminated by CRUK (as described below) VOLT will enter into a step-in agreement with CRT, or the Step-In Agreement. Pursuant to the Step-In Agreement, the terms of which have been pre-agreed and are set out in the Clinical Trial Agreement, VOLT will assign to CRT certain know- how and materials owned or controlled by VOLT. In addition, we agreed to grant to CRT an exclusive sub-license to a third-party patent family relating to viral vectors and methods for the prevention or treatment of cancer and non-exclusive sub-licenses to the HEK293 TetR Cell Line as well as certain third party patents and patent applications relating to certain adenovirus vectors and poxvirus expression systems, in each case, to develop and commercialize the Products on a revenue sharing basis. VOLT will receive a share of between 55% and 80% of the net revenue received by CRT for commercialization of the Product, with the precise share depending on the stage in development at which such Step-In Agreement is entered into.
The term of the Clinical Trial Agreement continues until it is otherwise terminated by the parties or, if the option is not exercised, upon the execution of the Step-In Agreement. The Clinical Trial Agreement can be terminated by either party upon an insolvency event in respect of the other party, for material breach of the other party, or upon a change of control of the other party (if the new controlling entity generates its revenue from the sale of tobacco products). If the Clinical Trial Agreement is terminated by CRUK for such causes prior to VOLT’s exercise of its option, VOLT will reimburse CRUK for all costs incurred or committed in connection with the Clinical Trial. In addition, CRUK may terminate the Clinical Trial Agreement at any time before the last cycle of treatment under the Clinical Trial is complete, in which case, upon VOLT’s request, CRT will grant the VTP-600 License to VOLT with appropriately reduced payments, to reflect the stage of the Clinical Trial at the date of termination. If the Clinical Trial Agreement is terminated for any reason after VOLT’s exercise of its option, VOLT may for three months following such termination continue to manufacture Products to the extent necessary to satisfy orders for Products accepted before such termination, and sell, use or otherwise dispose of Product inventory.
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VOLT License Agreement
In November 2018, we entered into a license agreement, or the VOLT License Agreement, with VOLT. Pursuant to the VOLT License Agreement, we granted to VOLT a non-exclusive worldwide license under certain patent rights, know-how and materials related to the use of ChAdOx1, ChAdOx2, adenoviral and MVA promoters, and the TR293 Tet-Repressed Cell Line, or the VOLT Licensed Technology, to manufacture, use and commercialize any product which uses or is within the scope of the VOLT Licensed Technology, or VOLT Licensed Product. In part, the rights granted are a sublicense of rights granted to us by OUI under the 2016 OUI License Agreement. The license is sublicensable subject to obtaining OUI’s prior consent with respect to sublicensing of any of the VOLT Licensed Technology licensed to us by OUI (with such consent not to be unreasonably withheld).
Pursuant to the VOLT License Agreement, we are required to make available to VOLT such further know- how relating to the manufacture of VOLT Licensed Products as we consider to be reasonably necessary or useful. We are also required to notify VOLT on a confidential basis of any improvements to the VOLT Licensed Technology that we develop or acquire rights in, and such improvements will be included within the scope of the license.
Unless earlier terminated, the VOLT License Agreement will continue until the later of the expiration of all patents included in the VOLT Licensed Technology or the know-how included in the VOLT Licensed Technology ceasing to be secret and substantial. The last patent under the VOLT License Agreement, if granted, is expected to expire in July 2039, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments. Either party may terminate for the uncured material breach or insolvency of the other party. In the event of termination of the 2016 OUI License Agreement, we may terminate the VOLT License Agreement in respect of any of the VOLT Licensed Technology that is licensed to us by OUI, and VOLT and OUI shall enter into a direct license containing the same obligations and liabilities as set forth in the VOLT License Agreement.
The VOLT License Agreement was subsequently amended in July 2019 by two separate agreements for the research, development, and commercialization of cancer immunotherapy targeting MAGE-A3 and NY-ESO-1 for the treatment of various forms of cancer under the VOLT Licensed Technology. Such amendments further elaborated on the parties’ respective rights and obligations, including with respect to VOLT’s payment obligations to us.
Intellectual Property
Our success depends, in part, on our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our product candidates, technology and know-how, to defend and enforce our intellectual property rights, in particular, our patent rights, to preserve the confidentiality of our know-how and trade secrets, and to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of others. We seek to protect our product candidates and technologies by, among other methods, filing U.S. and foreign patent applications related to our proprietary technology, inventions and improvements that are important to the development of our business. We also rely on trade secrets, know-how, continuing technological innovation and in-licensing of third-party intellectual property to develop and maintain our proprietary position. We, or our collaborators and licensors, file patent applications directed to our key product candidates in an effort to establish intellectual property positions to protect our product candidates as well as uses of our product candidates for the prevention and/or treatment of diseases.
As of March 23, 2023, we own a patent family relating to our novel regimens that includes two pending U.S. patent applications, two pending foreign patent applications and one pending Patent Cooperation Treaty, or PCT, patent application. In addition, we have in-licensed certain patent families relating to our key technology platforms and product candidates, including eight issued U.S. patents, eight pending U.S. patent applications, 16 issued foreign patents and 80 pending foreign patent applications. Following the acquisition of Avidea in December 2021 we control a further patent portfolio comprising in-licensed and co-owned patent families, including eight pending U.S. patent applications, (including two pending U.S. provisional patent applications), four issued foreign patents, 30 pending foreign patent applications and four pending PCT patent applications.
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Universal Vector Technology Platforms
ChAdOx-1 Expression Vector
As of March 23, 2023, with regard to our ChAdOx1 expression vector, we in-license from OUI a patent family that includes two issued U.S. patents with claims directed to the composition of matter of the ChAdOx1 adenovirus vector and methods of using such a vector, and 9 issued foreign patents granted in such jurisdictions as Australia, Canada, China, Europe (validated in 12 countries including Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Great Britain), India, Japan, Singapore and South Africa. A second granted European patent with further claims directed to the composition of matter of ChAdOx adenovirus vector is validated in France, Germany and Great Britain. This patent family also includes a pending U.S. patent application. The granted patents and pending applications, if issued, are expected to expire in 2032, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions and patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. Patent term extension applications are pending in Japan and 11 European Patent Convention countries including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, based on marketing authorisations received by AstraZeneca for Vaxzevria, and patent term extension has been granted in Australia.
Adenoviral Promoter
Certain of our ChAdOx1 vectors incorporate a proprietary adenoviral promoter, which is covered by a patent family that we in-license from OUI. As of March 23, 2023, the patent family includes two issued U.S. patents and one granted patent in Europe (validated in 7 countries including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Great Britain). The patents in this family are expected to expire in 2028, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions and patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees.
MVA-poxvirus Promoter
Our MVA vector incorporates a proprietary poxvirus promoter, or MVA-poxvirus promoter, which is covered by a patent family that we in-license from OUI. As of March 23, 2023, the patent family includes two issued U.S. patents and one granted European patent (validated in 9 countries including Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Great Britain) that are expected to expire in 2031, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions and patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees.
SNAPvaxTM
Our proprietary SNAPvax technology is covered by a patent portfolio that includes one patent family we own, 6 patent families that we co-own and one patent family that we in-license from OUI. As of March 23, 2023, we in-license a patent family from OUI that includes one pending U.S. patent application and one pending European patent application that are expected to expire in 2035, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions and patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. As of March 23, 2023, we own a patent family that includes four issued foreign patents that are expected to expire in 2030, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions and patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. As of March 23, 2023, we co-own a patent family that includes one pending U.S. patent application, one pending European patent application and a further 10 pending foreign patent applications that are expected to expire in 2038, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions and patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. We have exclusively licensed rights in this patent family, which resulted from work carried out under a Collaborative research and Development Agreement, or CRADA, between Avidea and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (“NIH”). As of March 23, 2023, we co-own a patent family that includes one pending U.S. patent application, one pending European patent application and a further 5 pending foreign patent applications that are expected to expire in 2039, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions and patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. We have exclusively licensed rights in this patent family, which resulted from work carried out under a CRADA between Avidea and the NIH. As of March 23, 2023, we co-own a patent family that includes one pending U.S. patent application, one pending European patent application and a further 2 pending foreign patent applications that are expected to expire in 2039, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions and patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. We have exclusive rights in this patent family, which resulted from work carried out under a CRADA between Avidea and the NIH. As of March 23, 2023, we co-own a patent family that includes one pending international PCT patent application that is expected to expire in 2042, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions and patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. We have exclusive rights in this patent family, which resulted from work
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carried out under a CRADA between Avidea and the NIH. As of March 23, 2023, we co-own a patent family that includes one pending international PCT patent application and one further pending foreign patent applications that are expected to expire in 2042, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions and patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. We have exclusive rights in this patent family, which resulted from work carried out under a CRADA between Avidea and the NIH. As of March 23, 2023, we co-own a patent family that includes one pending U.S. patent application, one pending foreign patent application and one pending international PCT patent application that are expected to expire in 2041, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions and patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. We have licensed exclusive rights in this patent family, which resulted from work carried out under a Research Collaboration Agreement, or RCA, between Avidea and the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Prague (“IMC”).
Syntholytic
Our proprietary Syntholytic technology is covered by a patent portfolio that includes one patent family we own, 2 patent families that we co-own and one patent family that we in-license from OUI. As of March 23, 2023, we in-license a patent family from OUI that includes one pending U.S. patent application and one pending European patent application that are expected to expire in 2035, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions and patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. As of March 23, 2023, we own a patent family that includes four issued foreign patents that are expected to expire in 2030, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions and patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. As of March 23, 2023, we co-own a patent family that includes one pending U.S. patent application, one pending European patent application and a further 6 pending foreign patent applications that are expected to expire in 2040, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions and patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. We have exclusively rights in this patent family, which resulted from work carried out under a CRADA between Avidea and the NIH, and we have licensed exclusive rights in this patent family, which resulted from work carried out under a RCA between Avidea and the IMC. As of March 23, 2023, we co-own a patent family that includes one pending international PCT patent application that is expected to expire in 2041, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions and patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. We have exclusively rights in this patent family, which resulted from work carried out under a CRADA between Avidea and the NIH.
Product Candidates
Our VTP-200 product candidate comprises a ChAdOx1HPV vector and a MVA-HPV vector, where each vector incorporates an engineered HPV antigen. We in-license from OUI a patent family directed to the HPV antigen with claims directed to a nucleic acid encoding a polypeptide comprising certain peptide sequences based on certain HPV proteins. As of March 23, 2023, the patent family includes one issued U.S. patent, one pending U.S. patent application and ten foreign patent applications pending in jurisdictions including Europe, Australia, Canada, China, and Japan. If patents were to issue from such patent applications, they would be expected to expire in 2038, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. In addition, we also rely on patent protection afforded by the patent family directed to the ChAdOx1 expression vector, which is expected to expire in 2032, and the patent family directed to our MVA-poxvirus promoter, which is expected to expire in 2031, as discussed above.
Our VTP-300 product candidate comprises a ChAdOx1HBV vector and a MVA-HBV vector, where each vector incorporates an engineered HBV antigen. As of March 23, 2023, we in-license from OUI a patent family with claims directed to a multi-HBV immunogen viral vector vaccine that includes one pending U.S. patent application and 17 foreign patent applications pending in jurisdictions including Europe, Australia, Canada, China, and Japan. If patents were to issue from such patent applications, they would be expected to expire in 2038, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. In addition, we also rely on patent protection afforded by the patent family directed to the ChAdOx1 expression vector, which is expected to expire in 2032, and the patent family directed to our MVA-poxvirus promoter, which is expected to expire in 2031, as discussed above.
Our VTP-600 product candidate comprises a ChAdOx1MAGE-NYESO vector, a MVA-MAGE vector, and a MVA-NYESO vector. We in-license from Ludwig Institute a patent family with claims directed to a chimpanzee adenovirus vector encapsulating a nucleic acid molecule encoding a MAGE antigen, a NY- ESO1 antigen or both a MAGE antigen and a NY-ESO1 antigen. As of March 23, 2023, the patent family includes one pending U.S. patent application and 8 foreign patent applications pending in jurisdictions including Europe, Australia, Canada, China, and Japan. If a patent were to issue from a patent application claiming the benefit of this PCT
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application, such a patent would be expected to expire in 2039, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. In addition, we also rely on patent protection afforded by the patent family directed to the ChAdOx1 expression vector, which is expected to expire in 2032, the patent family directed to our adenoviral promotor, which is expected to expire in 2028, and the patent family directed to our MVA-poxvirus promoter, which is expected to expire in 2031, as discussed above.
Our VTP-800 and VTP-850 product candidate comprises a ChAdOx15T4 vector and a MVA5T4 vector, where each vector incorporates an engineered 5T4 antigen in combination with additional antigens. We in-license from OUI a patent family with claims directed to a composition for inducing a T Cell response comprising a MVA vector expressing the 5T4 antigen polypeptide. As of March 23, 2023, the patent family includes one pending U.S. patent application and 11 foreign patent applications pending in jurisdictions including Europe, Australia, Canada, China, and Japan. If a patent were to issue from a patent application claiming the benefit of this PCT application, such a patent would be expected to expire in 2039, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. In addition, we also rely on patent protection afforded by the patent family directed to the ChAdOx1 expression vector, which is expected to expire in 2032, the patent family directed to our adenoviral promotor, which is expected to expire in 2028, and the patent family directed to our MVA-poxvirus promoter, which is expected to expire in 2031, as discussed above.
Our VTP-500 product candidate comprises a ChAdOx1MERS vector that incorporates an engineered MERS antigen. We rely on patent protection afforded by the patent family directed to the ChAdOx1 expression vector, which is expected to expire in 2032 and the patent family directed to our adenoviral promotor, which is expected to expire in 2028, as discussed above.
Our VTP-400 product candidate comprises a ChAdOx1VZVgE vector that incorporates an engineered VZVgE antigen. We in-license from OUI a patent family with claims directed to an adenoviral vector comprising a nucleic acid encoding the varicella-zoster virus antigen. As of March 23, 2023, the patent family includes one pending U.S. patent application and 13 foreign patent applications pending in jurisdictions including Europe, Australia, Canada, China, and Japan. If a patent were to issue from a patent application claiming the benefit of this PCT application, such a patent would be expected to expire in 2039, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. We also rely on patent protection afforded by the patent family directed to the ChAdOx1 expression vector, which is expected to expire in 2032 and the patent family directed to our adenoviral promotor, which is expected to expire in 2028, as discussed above.
Our VTP-1100 product candidate includes SNAPvax technology to target HPV16+ cancers. We co-own a patent family with claims directed to methods of treating cancers using SNAPvax compositions. As of March 23, 2023, the patent family includes one pending U.S. provisional patent application. If a patent were to issue from a patent application claiming the benefit of this U.S. provisional application, such a patent would be expected to expire in 2043, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. We have exclusive rights in this patent family, which resulted from work carried out under a CRADA between Vaccitech and the NIH. In addition, we rely on patent protection afforded by the patent families directed to the SNAPvax platform technology, which are expected to expire between 2030 and 2042, as discussed above.
Our VTP-1000 product candidate includes SNAPvax technology to provide tolerizing immunotherapy for celiac disease. We co-own a patent family with claims directed to compositions and methods for treating celiac disease. As of March 23, 2023, the patent family includes one pending U.S. provisional patent application. If a patent were to issue from a patent application claiming the benefit of this U.S. provisional application, such a patent would be expected to expire in 2043, without giving effect to any potential patent term extensions or patent term adjustments and assuming payment of all appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees. In addition, we rely on patent protection afforded by the patent families directed to the SNAPvax platform technology, which are expected to expire between 2030 and 2042, as discussed above.
Individual patents have terms for varying periods depending on the date of filing of the patent application or the date of patent issuance and the legal term of patents in the countries in which they are obtained. Generally, utility patents issued for applications filed in the United States are granted a term of 20 years from the earliest effective filing date of a non-provisional patent application. The duration of foreign patents varies in accordance with provisions of applicable local law, but typically is also 20 years from the earliest effective filing date. All taxes, annuities or maintenance fees for a patent, as required by the USPTO and certain foreign jurisdictions, must be timely paid in order for the patent to remain in force during this period of time.
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The actual protection afforded by a patent may vary on a product by product basis, from country to country and can depend upon many factors, including the type of patent, the scope of its coverage, the availability of regulatory-related extensions and the availability of legal remedies in a particular country and the validity and enforceability of the patent. Our patents and patent applications may be subject to procedural or legal challenges by others. We may be unable to obtain, maintain and protect the intellectual property rights necessary to conduct our business, and we may be subject to claims that we infringe or otherwise violate the intellectual property rights of others, which could materially harm our business. For more information about the risks associated with our efforts to obtain adequate intellectual property protection for our product candidates, and the enforcement of such intellectual property rights, as well as the risks associated with third party intellectual property rights, see the section titled “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property.” With regard to our VTP-300 product candidate, we are aware of third- party patents in the United States with claims which may be relevant to this product candidate. See “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Intellectual Property — The intellectual property landscape around immunotherapeutics and viral-vector based vaccines is crowded and dynamic, and third parties may initiate legal proceedings alleging that we are infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating their intellectual property rights and such claims may be costly and time-consuming and may prevent or delay our product discovery and development efforts.”
Government Regulation
In the United States, biological products are subject to regulation under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the “FD&C Act”), and the Public Health Service Act (the “PHS Act”), and other federal, state, local and foreign statutes and regulations. Both the FD&C Act and the PHS Act and their corresponding regulations govern, among other things, the research, development, clinical trial, testing, manufacturing, quality control, approval, safety, efficacy, labeling, packaging, storage, record keeping, distribution, reporting, marketing, promotion, export and import, advertising, post-approval monitoring, and post-approval reporting involving biological products. 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 and we may not be able to obtain the required regulatory approvals.
Further, even if we obtain the required regulatory approvals for our products, pharmaceutical companies are subject to myriad federal, state, and foreign healthcare laws, rules, and regulations governing all aspects of our operations, including, but not limited to, our relationships with healthcare professionals, healthcare institutions, distributors of our products, and sales and marketing personnel; governmental and other third- party payor coverage and reimbursement of our products; and data privacy and security. Such laws, rules, and regulations are complex, continuously evolving, and, in many cases, have not been subject to extensive interpretation by applicable regulatory agencies or the courts. We are required to invest significant time and financial resources in policies, procedures, processes, and systems to ensure compliance with these laws, rules, and regulations, and our failure to do so may result in the imposition of substantial monetary or other penalties by federal or state regulatory agencies, give rise to reputational harm, or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.
U.S. Biological Products Development Process
The process required by the FDA before a biological product may be marketed in the United States generally involves the following:
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Before testing any biological product candidate, in humans, the product candidate enters the preclinical testing stage. Preclinical tests, also referred to as nonclinical studies, include laboratory evaluations of the product’s biological characteristics, chemistry, toxicity and formulation, as well as animal studies to assess the potential safety and activity of the product candidate. The conduct of the preclinical tests must comply with federal regulations and requirements including GLPs.
Prior to commencing an initial clinical trial in humans with a product candidate in the United States, an IND must be submitted to the FDA and the FDA must allow the IND to proceed. An IND is an exemption from the FD&C Act that allows an unapproved product candidate to be shipped in interstate commerce for use in an investigational clinical trial and a request for FDA allowance that such investigational product may be administered to humans in connection with such trial. Such authorization must be secured prior to interstate shipment and administration. In support of a request for an IND, applicants must submit a protocol for each clinical trial and any subsequent protocol amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND. In addition, the results of the preclinical tests, together with manufacturing information, analytical data, any available clinical data or literature to support the use of the biological product and plans for clinical trials, among other things, must be submitted to the FDA as part of an IND. An IND must become effective before human clinical trials may begin. Once submitted, 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 or partial clinical hold and the IND sponsor and the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns or questions before clinical trials 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 biological product candidate to healthy volunteers or patients under the supervision of qualified investigators which generally are physicians not employed by, or under the control of, the trial sponsor. Clinical trials are conducted under written trial protocols detailing, among other things, the objectives of the clinical trial, dosing procedures, subject selection and exclusion criteria and the parameters and criteria to be used to monitor subject safety, including stopping rules that assure a clinical trial will be stopped if certain adverse events should occur.
An IRB representing each institution participating in the clinical trial must review and approve the plan for any clinical trial before it commences at that institution, and the IRB must conduct continuing review and reapprove the trial at least annually. The IRB must review and approve, among other things, the trial protocol and informed consent information to be provided to trial subjects. An IRB must operate in compliance with FDA regulations. An IRB can suspend or terminate approval of a clinical trial at its institution, or an institution it represents, if the clinical trial is not being conducted in accordance with the IRB’s requirements or if the product candidate has been associated with unexpected serious harm to patients.
Some trials are overseen by an independent group of qualified experts organized by the trial sponsor, known as a data safety monitoring board or committee. This group provides authorization as to whether or not a trial may move forward at designated check points based on access that only the group maintains to available data from the trial and may recommend halting the clinical trial if it determines that there is an unacceptable safety risk for subjects or other grounds, such as no demonstration of efficacy.
Certain information about certain clinical trials must also be submitted within specific timeframes to the NIH for public dissemination on its ClinicalTrials.gov website.
Human clinical trials are typically conducted in three sequential phases that may overlap or be combined:
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In some cases, FDA may require, or firms may voluntarily pursue, post-approval clinical trials, sometimes referred to as Phase 4 clinical trials, after initial marketing approval. These clinical trials are used to gain additional experience from the treatment of patients in the intended therapeutic indication, particularly for long-term safety follow-up. During all phases of clinical development, regulatory agencies require extensive monitoring and auditing of all clinical activities, clinical data, and clinical trial investigators. Annual progress reports detailing the results of the clinical trials must be submitted to the FDA. Written IND safety reports must be promptly submitted to the FDA and the investigators for serious and unexpected adverse events, any findings from other studies, tests in laboratory animals or in vitro testing that suggest a significant risk for human subjects, or any clinically important increase in the rate of a serious suspected adverse reaction over that listed in the protocol or investigator brochure. The sponsor must submit an IND safety report within 15 calendar days after the sponsor determines that the information qualifies for reporting. The sponsor also must notify the FDA of any unexpected fatal or life-threatening suspected adverse reaction within seven calendar days after the sponsor’s initial receipt of the information. Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials may not be completed successfully within any specified period, if at all. The FDA or the sponsor, acting on its own or based on a recommendation from the sponsor’s data safety monitoring board 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 biological product has been associated with unexpected serious harm to patients.
Concurrent with clinical trials, companies usually complete additional animal studies and also must develop additional information about the chemistry and physical characteristics of the biological product and finalize a process for manufacturing the product in commercial quantities in accordance with cGMP. To help reduce the risk of the introduction of adventitious agents with use of biological products, the PHS Act emphasizes the importance of manufacturing control for products whose attributes cannot be precisely defined. The manufacturing process must be capable of consistently producing quality batches of the product candidate and, among other things, the sponsor must develop methods for testing the identity, strength, quality, potency and purity of the final biological product. Additionally, appropriate packaging must be selected and tested and stability studies must be conducted to demonstrate that the biological product candidate does not undergo unacceptable deterioration over its shelf life.
U.S. Review and Approval Processes
Assuming successful completion of all required testing in accordance with all applicable regulatory requirements, the results of product development, nonclinical studies and clinical trials are submitted to the FDA as part of a BLA requesting approval to market the product for one or more indications. The BLA must include results of product development, laboratory and animal studies, human trials, information on the manufacture and composition of the product, proposed labeling and other relevant information.
Within 60 days following submission of the application, the FDA reviews a BLA submitted to determine if it is substantially complete before the FDA accepts it for filing. The FDA may refuse to file any BLA that it deems incomplete or not properly reviewable at the time of submission and may request additional information. In this event, the BLA must be resubmitted with the additional information. The resubmitted application also is subject to review to determine if it is substantially complete before the FDA accepts it for filing. In most cases, the submission of a BLA is subject to a substantial application user fee, although the fee may be waived under certain circumstances. Under the performance goals and policies implemented by the FDA under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, or PDUFA, for original BLAs, the FDA targets ten months from the filing date in which to complete its initial review of a standard application and respond to the applicant, and six months from the filing date for an application with priority review. The FDA does not always meet its PDUFA goal dates, and the review process is often significantly extended by FDA requests for additional information or clarification.
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Once the submission is accepted for filing, the FDA begins an in-depth substantive review of the BLA. The FDA reviews the BLA to determine, among other things, whether the proposed product is safe, pure and potent for its intended use, and whether the product is being manufactured in accordance with cGMP to ensure its continued safety, purity and potency. The FDA may refer applications for novel biological products or biological products that present difficult or novel questions of safety or efficacy to an advisory committee, typically a panel that includes clinicians and other experts, for review, evaluation and 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. During the biological product approval process, the FDA also will determine whether a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS, is necessary to assure the safe use of the biological product. If the FDA concludes a REMS is needed, the sponsor of the BLA must submit a proposed REMS; the FDA will not approve the BLA without a REMS, if required.
Before approving a BLA, the FDA typically will inspect the facilities at which the product is manufactured. The FDA will not approve the product unless it determines that the manufacturing processes and facilities are in compliance with cGMP requirements and adequate to assure consistent production of the product within required specifications. Additionally, before approving a BLA, the FDA will typically inspect one or more clinical sites to assure that the clinical trials were conducted in compliance with IND trial requirements and GCP requirements. To assure cGMP and GCP compliance, an applicant must incur significant expenditure of time, money and effort in the areas of training, record keeping, production and quality control.
Under the Pediatric Research Equity Act, or PREA, a BLA or supplement to a BLA for a novel product (e.g., new active ingredient, new indication, etc.) must contain data to assess the safety and effectiveness of the biological product for the claimed indications in all relevant pediatric subpopulations and to support dosing and administration for each pediatric subpopulation for which the product is safe and effective. The FDA may grant deferrals for submission of data or full or partial waivers. Unless otherwise required by regulation, PREA does not apply to any biological product for an indication for which orphan designation has been granted.