cdxs-20221231

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended:December 31, 2022

For the transition period from to .

Commission File No.: 001-34705

Codexis, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

200 Penobscot Drive, Redwood City, California 94063

(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (650) 421-8100

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(b) of the A:

Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share CDXS The Nasdaq Global Select Market

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Large accelerated filer ☐ Accelerated filer ☒

Non-accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☐

Emerging growth company ☐

The aggregate market value of voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates of Codexis as of June 30, 2022 was approximately $383.8 million based upon the closing price reported for such date on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

As of February 22, 2023, there were 65,946,807 shares of the registrant’s Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share, outstanding.

______________________________________

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s Definitive Proxy Statement to be filed with the Commission pursuant to Regulation 14A in connection with the registrant’s 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the "Proxy Statement"), to be filed subsequent to the date hereof, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Report. Such Definitive Proxy Statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission not later than 120 days after the conclusion of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2022. Except with respect to information specifically incorporated by reference in this Form 10-K, the Proxy Statement is not deemed to be filed as part of this Form 10-K.

Codexis, Inc.

Annual Report on Form 10-K

For The Year Ended December 31, 2022

INDEX

PART I

Item 1 Business 4

Item 1A Risk Factors 24

Item 1B Unresolved Staff Comments 60

Item 2 Properties 60

Item 3 Legal Proceedings 60

Item 4 Mine Safety Disclosures 60

PART II

Item 6 [Reserved] 62

Item 7A Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 78

Item 8 Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 79

Item 9A Controls and Procedures 123

Item 9B Other Information 124

Item 9C Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 124

PART III

Item 10 Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 124

Item 11 Executive Compensation 124

Item 14 Principal Accounting Fees and Services 125

PART IV

Item 15 Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 126

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with our audited Consolidated Financial Statements and the related Notes that appear elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended ("the Exchange Act"), particularly in Part I, Item 1: "Business," Part I, Item 1A: "Risk Factors" and Part 2, Item 7: "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations." These statements are often identified by the use of words such as "may," "will," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "could," "should," "estimate" or "continue," and similar expressions or variations. All statements other than statements of historical fact could be deemed forward-looking, including, but not limited to: any projections of financial information or performance; any statements about historical results that may suggest trends for our business; any statements of the plans, strategies, and objectives of management for future operations; any statements of expectation or belief regarding future events, technology developments, our products and product candidates, product sales, revenues, expenses, liquidity, cash flow, market growth rates or enforceability of our intellectual property rights and related litigation expenses; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results and the timing of certain events to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, we caution you not to place undue reliance on these statements. For a discussion of some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements, see the discussion on risk factors that appear in Part I, Item 1A: "Risk Factors" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and other risks and uncertainties detailed in this and our other reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). The forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K represent our views as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. However, while we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we have no current intention of doing so except to the extent required by applicable law. You should, therefore, not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

PART I

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

COMPANY OVERVIEW

We are a leading enzyme engineering company leveraging our proprietary CodeEvolver® technology platform to discover, develop and enhance novel, high performance enzymes and other classes of proteins. Enzymes are naturally occurring biological molecules critical to almost all biochemical reactions that sustain life. They can be precisely engineered and optimized for specific functions, and to have particular characteristics, such as an ability to survive environments in which natural enzymes cannot, or to perform (bio)chemical transformations different than those for which they naturally evolved. The capacity to enhance the properties and performance of enzymes has led to pivotal improvements across three healthcare industry pillars: pharmaceutical manufacturing, life sciences, and biotherapeutics. The enzymes we produce solve for real-world challenges associated with small molecule pharmaceuticals manufacturing, nucleic acid synthesis and genomic sequencing, and – as biotherapeutic candidates – they have the potential to treat challenging diseases. Our unique enzymes drive improvements such as higher yields, reduced energy usage and waste generation, improved efficiency in manufacturing, greater sensitivity in genomic and diagnostic applications, and potentially more efficacious therapeutics.

Our novel biotherapeutics business includes a diverse pipeline of product candidates in clinical and preclinical development. Our initial biotherapeutic product candidates include enzymes that are orally administered for function in the gastrointestinal tract (“GI”), such as our partnered product candidates CDX-7108 for the treatment of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency and CDX-6114 for the treatment of phenylketonuria, which are both in Phase 1 clinical trials. We have also engineered a series of transgenes that code for enzymes that may be used as gene therapies to treat rare lysosomal storage disorders with our partner Takeda, such as Fabry Disease and Pompe Disease, as well as a blood factor disorder.

Our performance enzymes business consists primarily of two focus areas: i) biocatalysts for the sustainable manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and ii) enzymes for life science applications, including genomic sequencing and nucleic acid synthesis. In our pharmaceutical manufacturing business, we utilize our CodeEvolver® platform to develop optimized enzymes that are used by some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to reduce their costs and improve the efficiency and productivity of their manufacturing processes for some small molecule therapeutics. In life science markets, we use our platform technology to develop enzymes for customers using next generation sequencing (“NGS”), a parallel sequencing technology used to identify genomic information in the study of biological systems, and PCR/qPCR for in vitro molecular diagnostic and molecular biology research applications, as well as for synthesis of nucleic acids such as DNA/RNA.

History and Core Technology

We are a pioneer in harnessing computational technologies to drive biology advancements. Since 2002, we have made substantial investments in the development of our proprietary CodeEvolver® technology platform, the primary source of our competitive advantage for both our performance enzymes and biotherapeutics businesses. The CodeEvolver® platform has the power to transform the performance of an enzyme, tailoring it for a specific application and/or process. Using powerful machine learning tools and sophisticated molecular, cellular, and bioanalytical workflows, we design and screen libraries of thousands of variants in high throughput every two to four weeks on each project, sequencing every variant and correlating its sequence with its performance in a highly application-relevant screen. Content-rich libraries screened under real-world conditions can yield dense and valuable datasets, when data-mined effectively, and multiple parameters can be optimized in parallel. The resulting evolved variants often have a combination of enhanced properties, such as increased activity, specificity, and stability under desired conditions, or improved expression in the production host. These enhanced properties provide differentiated technical performance in the target application and can provide our customers increased value in the commercial deployment of their products.

Novel Biotherapeutics

We are developing a diverse pipeline of product candidates in our novel biotherapeutics business. These product candidates, which are in clinical and preclinical development, range from orally delivered enzymes to engineered transgenes for delivery as gene therapies that have the potential to address a range of diseases with high unmet patient need. Each of our product candidates is discovered utilizing our proprietary CodeEvolver® protein engineering platform.

Our Partnered Oral Enzyme Programs

CDX-7108 for the treatment of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency

Under a Strategic Collaboration Agreement with Nestlé Health Science (“Nestlé SCA”), we have collaboratively developed CDX-7108, a potent lipase intended for use as a pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (“PERT”).PERT is used to treat pancreatic exocrine insufficiency. There are multiple causes of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency including chronic pancreatitis, cystic fibrosis and pancreatic cancer. We estimate there are approximately 190,000 patients in the United States and the market for current therapies is greater than $2.5 billion globally.Although existing therapies are reasonably effective at delivering amylase and protease activity, achieving adequate levels of lipase activity is challenging due to patient compliance and pill burden often leading patients to experience continued symptoms associated with fat malabsorption. CDX-7108 has been specifically engineered for increased potency as a lipase and also to remain stable in acidic conditions such as those encountered in the stomach. The goal is to study whether this combination of properties will deliver adequate lipase activity with a less burdensome dosing schedule.Under the Nestlé SCA, we and Nestlé Health Science are also working on the development of engineered amylase and protease enzymes for possible use with CDX-7108. Nestlé Health Science is currently dosing patients in a Phase 1b three-party study. The first two parts of the study evaluated the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics (“PK”) of escalating single and multiple oral doses of CDX-7108 in 48 healthy adult subjects, with no safety issues noted. The third part of the study is evaluating the pharmacodynamics of a single dose of oral CDX-7108 in six enrolled patients with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (“EPI”). An interim analysis conducted in January 2023 of five patients who had completed the study at the time showed a clear indication of improved lipid absorption when patients are administered CDX-7108 versus placebo, which we believe supports a path forward together with Nestlé Health Science to further develop CDX-7108, with the potential for the initiation of a Phase 2 study in early 2024.

CDX-6114 for the treatment of phenylketonuria

We internally developed CDX-6114, an enzyme we engineered to be orally administrated for the treatment of phenylketonuria (“PKU”) in humans.PKU, one of the most common inborn errors of metabolism (“IEMs”), is a metabolic disorder in which the enzyme that converts the essential amino acid phenylalanine into tyrosine is deficient. As a result, phenylalanine accumulates to toxic levels in the brain, causing serious neurological problems including intellectual disability, seizures and cognitive and behavioral problems. To avoid toxic levels of phenylalanine in their blood, individuals with PKU must follow a strict, life-long diet that is low in phenylalanine and supplement their diet with a synthetic phenylalanine-free protein supplements to provide them with sufficient nutrients. Maintaining a strict, life-long diet can be challenging for individuals with PKU. There are an estimated 50,000 patients with PKU in the developed world.

We have partnered with Nestlé Health Science under a Global Development, Option and License Agreement (“Nestlé License Agreement”) to further develop CDX-6114. In February 2019, Nestlé Health Science exercised its option under the Nestlé License Agreement to obtain an exclusive license to develop and commercialize CDX-6114. Nestlé Health Science is currently optimizing the formulation of CDX-6114 to improve performance and we expect Nestlé Health Science to announce an IND filing and clinical trial initiation in 2023. If this collaboration can successfully demonstrate benefit in PKU patients with CDX-6114, this will inform our decisions around the oral enzyme approach to several other IEMs.

Our Wholly-owned Oral Enzyme Programs

In the past we have also worked on internal programs to develop orally administrable enzyme substitution therapy candidates for the treatment of homocystinuria (“HCU”) and Maple Syrup Urine Disease (“MSUD”), that we are now considering partnering options for pursuing further development. In addition, we have a program to develop orally administrable enzyme substitution therapy candidates for the treatment of Celiac Disease (“CD”).

Gene Therapy

We have also used CodeEvolver® to engineer transgenes that encode for enzymes which may improve targeting and expression within the body when administered as gene therapies, offering potentially improved therapeutic benefit as compared to current options.

Our Partnered Gene Therapy Programs

Our first significant program involving engineered transgenes commenced in March 2020 when we entered into a Strategic Collaboration and License Agreement (“Takeda Agreement”) with Shire Human Genetic Therapies, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (“Takeda”) pursuant to which we are collaborating to research and develop transgenes for use in gene therapy delivery technology for rare lysosomal storage disorders such as Fabry Disease, Pompe Disease, a blood factor disorder, and another lysosomal storage disorder. In March 2020, we received a one-time, non-refundable cash payment of $8.5 million. Of these programs, the Fabry disease program is the most advanced, with a lead candidate identified in investigational new drug ("IND") enabling activities. We have also provided sequences to Takeda for the Pompe program and await updates on preclinical testing and potential IND enabling activities. In May 2021, Takeda elected to exercise their option to initiate an additional program for a certain undisclosed rare genetic disorder and we received the option exercise fee during the third quarter of 2021.

In addition to our partnered gene therapy programs, we continue to explore the possible application of our CodeEvolver® technology to develop therapeutic options for devastating diseases as well as to develop and test our own proprietary gene therapy delivery mechanisms.

Performance Enzymes

Our performance enzymes business consists primarily of two focus areas, pharmaceutical manufacturing and life science products.

Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

We believe the pharmaceutical industry represents a significant market opportunity for our performance enzymes as pharmaceutical companies are in constant search of new drugs to offer to their customers and are under significant competitive pressure both to reduce costs and to increase the speed to market for their products. To address these pressures, pharmaceutical companies are driven to identify reliable, cost effective and sustainable manufacturing processes to produce both their new drug candidates and their existing products, while not impacting drug safety and efficacy. Cost reduction is increasingly important to drug developers (known as innovators) closer to their product launch and during the commercial stage of the product, which can last a decade or more. In addition, cost pressures further intensify as innovators lose their patent exclusivities and begin to experience competition from manufacturers of generic versions of their products.

Our pharmaceutical manufacturing customers, which include many large global pharmaceutical companies, partner with us to develop optimized enzymes for use as biocatalysts, meeting precisely defined criteria, with the goal of lowering costs and improving the efficiency, productivity and sustainability of their manufacturing processes by: improving productivity, yield and purity; using water as a primary solvent; eliminating hazardous inputs; enabling the use of simple equipment and reducing the need for capital expenditure; reducing energy requirements; reducing the generation of chemical byproducts or waste; and reducing the need for late-stage purifications.

As of December 31, 2022, we are selling biocatalysts to pharmaceutical manufacturers for 18 therapeutic drugs that are currently approved for commercial sales.

Of particular note for 2022, in July 2022 we announced that we and Pfizer had entered into an agreement to supply Pfizer with CDX-616, a proprietary high performance enzyme used to manufacture a critical intermediate for nirmatrelvir, an active pharmaceutical ingredient in PAXLOVIDTM, Pfizer’s antiviral therapeutic, which is currently authorized for emergency use by the FDA for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in people at high risk of progression to severe illness and authorized or approved by other regulatory authorities across the globe. While we have generated significant revenue from supplying CDX-616 to Pfizer, there is no future binding commitment for them to purchase any particular quantity or quantities of CDX-616 from us.

We regularly sell biocatalysts, at multi-kilograms to metric tons per annum scale, that have already been engineered, scaled up, and installed in a customer’s commercial process. For example, in addition to Pfizer, we sell biocatalysts to Merck for their manufacture of sitagliptin, the active ingredient in JANUVIA®, to Urovant and Kyorin for the manufacture of vibregon, the active ingredient in Urovant’s GEMTESATM and Kyorin’s BEOVA®, products for the treatment of overactive bladder, as well as supporting other products and customers for which public disclosures have not been made.

In addition to these larger volumes of biocatalysts that are sold for our customers’ ongoing commercial requirements, we also sell lesser quantities of enzymes for use in a customer’s developmental, qualification or regulatory approval operations. As of December 31, 2022, 18 drug candidates currently in Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials use enzymes engineered using CodeEvolver® technology (either by Codexis or by our platform licensing partners) in their chemistry, manufacturing and control processes. This pipeline of potential approvals reinforces our confidence in our ability to continue to grow this business over time.

Finally, we also sell even smaller quantities of enzymes (typically grams to multi-kilograms scale) to customers for experimental, testing and qualification purposes, or as part of an enzyme engineering project.

In addition to the sale of biocatalysts, we also offer research and development partnerships to our customers. These research and development activities are typically governed by collaboration agreements, which often contain research fee payments and intellectual property provisions, under which we screen and/or engineer biocatalysts for customers in connection with their process development efforts. In these collaborations, we typically receive consideration in the form of one or more of the following: upfront payments, milestone payments, payments for screening and engineering, with other exclusive supply of enzyme or licensing fees and royalties as the customer’s product commercializes.

We also have licensed our CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering technology platform to pharmaceutical companies to help them develop custom-designed enzymes that are highly optimized for efficient manufacturing processes. To date, we have entered into platform technology licensing agreements with each of GlaxoSmithKline Intellectual Property Development Limited, a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline plc ("GSK"), Merck, Sharp & Dohme ("Merck") and Novartis Pharma AG ("Novartis").

Life Sciences

We also apply our CodeEvolver® technology to develop enzymes for customers using NGS and PCR/qPCR for in vitro molecular diagnostic and molecular biology research applications, as well DNA/RNA synthesis applications. We view these as attractive markets in which Codexis’ technology and products can deliver a strong competitive advantage – in part because manipulation of nucleic acids by enzymes (be it “reading” or “writing”) is at the core of these markets and our technology has the proven ability to create enzymes which are stable to the workflow and/or supply chain demands or – importantly – which are less biased in the nucleic acids they are able to sequence or synthesis, which can be of significant benefit in various applications.

In December 2019, we entered into a license agreement to provide Roche Sequencing Solutions, Inc. ("Roche") with an improved DNA ligase (EvoT4TM DNA ligase) for NGS library prep, which continues to progress towards commercialization in new NGS kits.

In June 2020, we entered into a co-marketing and enzyme supply collaboration agreement with Alphazyme LLC for the production and co-marketing of enzymes for life science applications. Since then, this collaboration has enabled the commercialization of Codex® HiFi DNA Polymerase, Codex® HiFi Hot Start DNA Polymerase, Codex® HiFi Hot Start 2X NGS Mix, Codex® HiCap RNA Polymerase, Codex® HiFi UL DNA Polymerase, and Codex® HiTemp Reverse Transcriptase. Development of other novel enzymes for life science applications continues.

Also, in June 2020, we entered into a Master Collaboration and Research Agreement with Molecular Assemblies, Inc. ("MAI") (the “MAI Agreement”) pursuant to which we are leveraging our CodeEvolver® platform technology to improve the DNA polymerase enzymes that are critical for enzymatic DNA synthesis. At that time, we purchased $1.0 million in MAI’s Series A financing and John Nicols, the Codexis’ then President and CEO, and current director, joined MAI’s board of directors. In April 2021, Codexis invested an additional $0.6 million in MAI’s Series A financing and, in September 2021, Codexis invested an additional $7.0 million in MAI’s Series B financing. As of December 31, 2022, we currently hold 5,443,734 shares of MAI Series A preferred stock and 12,848,635 shares of MAI Series B preferred stock. In April 2022, we and MAI announced that, using our CodeEvolver® platform technology, we had developed a novel, engineered terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (“TdT”) enzyme which would enable MAI’s Fully Enzymatic SynthesisTM (“FESTM”) technology that produces highly pure, sequence-specific DNA on demand. In August 2022, we and MAI announced that we had entered into a Commercial License and Enzyme Supply Agreement with MAI (the “MAI Supply Agreement”) under which Codexis shall manufacture and sell the TdT enzyme to MAI for use in native DNA synthesis. In connection with the execution of the MAI Supply Agreement, we received a milestone payment of $1.0 million in the form of an additional 1,587,049shares of Series B preferred stock pursuant to the MAI Agreement.

In March 2022, we announced the initiation of a strategic partnership with seqWell Inc., a developer of transformative library preparation products for demanding genomics plan application, which included an investment to accelerate the commercialization of seqWell’s genomics workflow solutions. Codexis and seqWell plan to collaborate on using our CodeEvolver® platform technology for enzyme optimization with seqWell’s growing portfolio of genomics workflow and library preparation products. As part of this partnership, we led seqWell’s Series C financing with a $5.0 million investment.

OUR STRATEGY

Our strategy is to grow our revenues, profits, and stockholder value by leveraging our CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering technology platform in the following ways:

•Creating and advancing novel biotherapeutic drug candidates. We intend to continue to pursue opportunities to apply our protein engineering capabilities to the creation and development of novel biotherapeutic drug candidates. In addition, we intend to extend our biotherapeutics pipeline by developing, with our partner Takeda and developing internally, novel gene therapies and transgene products.

•Growing our pharmaceutical manufacturing business. We intend to continue to pursue opportunities in the pharmaceutical market to use our enzymes to reduce the costs for manufacturing small molecule drugs. We intend to increase the number of pharmaceutical customers and processes that utilize and benefit from our novel, cost-saving enzyme biocatalyst solutions.

•Developing high-performance enzymes for use in life science applications and nucleic acid synthesis. We intend to offer high-performance enzymes to customers using NGS and PCR/qPCR for in vitro molecular diagnostic applications and to enable the future of enzymatic nucleic acid synthesis.

Strategic Collaborations

Biotherapeutics

Nestlé Health Science

In October 2017, we entered into the Nestlé License Agreement with Nestlé Health Science pursuant to which we granted to Nestlé Health Science, under certain of our patent rights and know-how: (i) an option to obtain an exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing, sublicensable license to develop and commercialize certain products (each, a “Product”) based on CDX-6114 and our other therapeutic enzyme product candidates covered by specified patent applications for the treatment of hyperphenylalaninaemia (“HPA”) (also referred to as PKU), and (ii) an exclusive right of first negotiation (the “Right of First Negotiation”) for a period of five years to obtain an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize up to two enzymes discovered by us for use in the field of the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of inborn errors of amino acid metabolism. We are not under any obligation to undertake any research and development activities relating to inborn errors of amino acid metabolism. HPA is a medical condition characterized by elevated concentrations of the amino acid phenylalanine in the blood. PKU can result in severe HPA.

In February 2019, Nestlé Health Science exercised its option to obtain an exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing, sub-licensable license for the global development and commercialization of CDX-6114 for the management of PKU. Upon exercising its option, Nestlé Health Science assumed all responsibilities for future clinical development and commercialization of CDX-6114, with the exception of the completion of an extension study, CDX-6114-004, which was substantially completed in the fourth quarter of 2019. The parties established a patent committee to discuss strategies and coordinate activities for the patents related to CDX-6114 and product containing CDX-6114, and we will jointly own all inventions and information that result from each party’s activities performed under the Nestlé License Agreement. The Nestlé License Agreement also contains customary representations and warranties by the parties, intellectual property protection provisions, certain indemnification rights in favor of each party and customary confidentiality provisions and limitations of liability.

We are also eligible to receive payments from Nestlé Health Science under the Nestlé License Agreement that include (i) development and approval milestones of up to $85.0 million, (ii) sales-based milestones of up to $250.0 million in the aggregate, which aggregate amount is achievable if net sales exceed $1.0 billion in a single year, and (iii) tiered royalties, at percentages ranging from the mid-single digits to low double-digits, of net sales of products.

In October 2017, we entered into the Nestlé SCA pursuant to which we and Nestlé Health Science are collaborating to leverage the CodeEvolver® enzyme engineeringtechnology platform to develop novel enzymes for Nestlé Health Science’s established Consumer Care and Medical Nutrition business areas. The term of the Nestlé SCA has been extended through December 2023 with automatic renewal through December 2024.

In January 2020, we entered into the Nestlé development agreement (the “Nestlé DA”) pursuant to which we and Nestlé Health Science are collaborating to advance CDX-7108 into preclinical and early clinical studies. CDX-7108 is the lead candidate discovered under the Nestlé SCA targeting exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. The term of the Nestlé DA has been extended through December 2023 with automatic renewal through December 2024.

Shire Human Genetic Therapies/Takeda Pharmaceutical

In March 2020, we entered into the Takeda Agreement with Takeda pursuant to which we are collaborating to research and develop protein sequences for use in gene therapy products for certain diseases (each, a “Field”) in accordance with each applicable program plan (each, a “Program Plan”). On execution of the Takeda Agreement, we received an upfront nonrefundable cash payment of $8.5 million and we initiated activities under three Program Plans for Fabry Disease, Pompe Disease, and an unnamed blood factor disorder, respectively (the “Initial Programs”). We are primarily responsible for the research and development of protein sequences under the Program Plans (the “Protein Sequences”) and we are eligible to earn up to$10.5 million of research and development fees and preclinical milestone payments for the Initial Programs. We will own all rights to the protein sequences and corresponding nucleic acid sequences and related intellectual property rights and Takeda will own all rights to products and related intellectual property rights. In May 2021, Takeda elected to exercise their option to initiate an additional (fourth) program for a certain undisclosed rare genetic disorder; as a result, we received the option exercise fee during the third quarter of 2021. We are also eligible to receive up to $3.4 million of research and development fees and preclinical milestone payments for the fourth program under the Takeda Agreement.

We granted to Takeda an exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing, sublicensable license to use the protein sequences and their corresponding nucleic acid sequences to develop, manufacture and commercialize the applicable products in the applicable Field. We also granted to Takeda a limited non-exclusive, worldwide, sublicensable license (a) to research the protein sequences within or outside the applicable Fields and (b) to research the products outside of the applicable Fields, which such rights exclude Takeda's right to perform any IND-enabling activities. The licenses to research the Protein Sequences expire after a pre-determined period of time.

The term of the Takeda Agreement begins on the effective date of the Takeda Agreement and continues on a product-by-product and country-by-country basis, until the expiration of Takeda’s obligation to pay royalties to the Company with respect to that product in that country. The Takeda Agreement expires in its entirety upon the expiration of Takeda’s obligation to pay royalties to the Company with respect to the products in all countries worldwide. Subject to the terms of the Takeda Agreement, and after the first anniversary of the Effective Date with respect to the Initial Programs or after the first anniversary of confirmation of the applicable Program Plan by the parties with respect to the Additional/Option Programs, Takeda may terminate a Program upon specified prior written notice to the Company. Subject to the terms of the Takeda Agreement, Takeda may terminate the Takeda Agreement, at will, on a product-by-product basis upon specified prior written notice to the Company and the Takeda Agreement in its entirety upon specified prior written notice to the Company. Subject to the terms of the Takeda Agreement, Takeda may terminate the Takeda Agreement on a product-by-product basis for safety reasons upon specified prior written notice to the Company. Either party may terminate the Takeda Agreement for an uncured material breach by the other party, or the other party’s insolvency or bankruptcy. Pursuant to the Takeda Agreement, we are eligible to receive other payments that include (i) clinical development and commercialization-based milestones, per target gene, of up to $104.0 million and (ii) tiered royalty payments based on net sales of applicable products at percentages ranging from the mid-single digits to low single-digits.

Licensing Our CodeEvolver® Enzyme Engineering Technology Platform

GlaxoSmithKline

We entered into our first CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering Platform Technology Transfer, Collaboration and License Agreement (“GSK CodeEvolver® Agreement”) in July 2014 with GlaxoSmithKline Intellectual Property Development Limited, a subsidiary of GSK, pursuant to which we granted GSK a non-exclusive, worldwide license to use our CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering technology platform in the field of human healthcare for its internal development purposes.

Under the GSK CodeEvolver® Agreement, we licensed and transferred our certain patents, patent applications and know-how from our CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering technology platform to GSK, completing the transfer in April 2016. Under this agreement, we have the potential to receive contingent payments that range from $5.75 million to $38.5 million per project based on GSK's successful application of the licensed technology. We are also eligible to receive royalties based on net sales, if any, of a limited set of products developed by GSK using our CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering technology platform.

The term of the GSK CodeEvolver® Agreement continues, unless earlier terminated, until the expiration of all payment obligations under the GSK CodeEvolver® Agreement. GSK can terminate the GSK CodeEvolver® Agreement by providing 90 days written notice to us.

In 2019, we received a $2.0 million milestone payment on the advancement of an enzyme developed by GSK using our CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering platform technology. In 2021, we received two additional milestone payments from GSK under the GSK CodeEvolver® Agreement.

Merck

In August 2015, we entered into a CodeEvolver® Platform Technology Transfer and License Agreement (the “Merck CodeEvolver® Agreement”) with Merck. The Merck CodeEvolver® Agreement allows Merck to use our proprietary CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering platform technology in the field of human and animal healthcare.

Under the terms of the Merck CodeEvolver® Agreement, we granted to Merck an exclusive license under certain patents, patent applications and know-how from our CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering technology platform for the research, development and manufacture of novel enzymes for use by Merck in the chemical synthesis of therapeutic products owned or controlled by Merck ("Merck Exclusive Field") and a non-exclusive worldwide license to use the CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering technology platform to research, develop and manufacture novel enzymes for use by Merck in its internal research programs (“Merck Non-Exclusive Field”).

Under the terms of the Merck CodeEvolver® Agreement, Merck paid us upfront technology transfer and license fees and milestone payments over the technology transfer period of 15 months from August 2015. We also have the potential to receive product-related payments of up to $15.0 million for each active pharmaceutical ingredient (“API”) that is manufactured by Merck using one or more enzymes that have been developed or are in development using the CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering technology platform during the 10-year period that begins on the conclusion of the 15-month technology transfer period. These product-related payments, if any, will be paid by Merck to us for each quarter that Merck manufactures API using a CodeEvolver®-developed enzyme. The payments will be based on the total volume of API produced using the CodeEvolver®-developed enzyme.

In September 2016, we completed the full transfer of the engineering platform technology. In October 2018, we entered into an amendment to the Merck CodeEvolver® Agreement whereby we amended certain licensing provisions and one exhibit. In January 2019, we entered into an amendment to the Merck CodeEvolver® Agreement whereby we installed certain CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering technology upgrades into Merck’s platform license installation. We maintained those upgrades for a multi-year term that expired in January 2022.

Novartis

In May 2019, we entered into a Platform Technology Transfer and License Agreement (the “Novartis CodeEvolver® Agreement”) with Novartis. The Novartis CodeEvolver® Agreement allows Novartis to use our proprietary CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering platform technology in the field of human healthcare.

Under the terms of the Novartis CodeEvolver® Agreement, Codexis granted to Novartis a worldwide license to use certain patents, patent applications and know-how from our CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering technology platform to research, develop and manufacture novel enzymes for use by or on behalf of Novartis as biocatalysts in the chemical synthesis of small molecule and bioconjugate APIs. The license is exclusive for the research, development and manufacture of novel enzymes for use by Novartis as biocatalysts in the chemical synthesis of API owned or controlled by Novartis (“Novartis Exclusive Field”) and non-exclusive license for the research, development and manufacture of novel enzymes for use by Novartis in the chemical synthesis of API not owned or controlled by Novartis or any third party (“Novartis Non-Exclusive Field”).

In July 2021, we announced the completion of the technology transfer period during which we transferred our proprietary CodeEvolver® platform technology to Novartis (the “Technology Transfer Period”).

Pursuant to the Novartis CodeEvolver® Agreement, we received an upfront payment of $5.0 million shortly after the effective date. We completed the second technology milestone transfer under the agreement and received a milestone payment of $4.0 million in 2020. We have also received an aggregate of $5.0 million for the completion of the third technology transfer milestone in 2021.

In consideration for the continued disclosure and license of improvements to the technology and materials during a multi-year period that began on the conclusion of the Technology Transfer Period (“Improvements Term”), Novartis will pay us annual payments over four years which amount to an additional $8.0 million in aggregate. We also have the potential to receive quantity-dependent, usage payments for each API that is manufactured by Novartis using one or more enzymes that have been developed or are in development using the CodeEvolver® platform technology during the period that began on the conclusion of the Technology Transfer Period and ends on the expiration date of the last to expire licensed patent. These product-related usage payments, if any, will be paid by Novartis to Codexis for each quarter that Novartis manufactures API using a CodeEvolver ®-developed enzyme.

The licenses to Novartis are granted under patents, patent applications and know-how that Codexis owns or controls as of the effective date and that cover the CodeEvolver® platform technology. Any improvements to the CodeEvolver® platform technology during the Technology Transfer Period will also be included in the license grants from Codexis to Novartis.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Our success depends in large part on our ability to protect our proprietary technology, products and services under patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws. We also rely heavily on confidentiality and non-disclosure and other contractual agreements for further protection of our proprietary technology, products and services. Protection of our proprietary rights, titles and interests is important for us to offer our customers and partners proprietary technology, products and services that are not available from our competitors, and to exclude our competitors from practicing technology that we have developed or exclusively licensed from other parties. For example, our ability to successfully supply innovator pharmaceutical manufacturers as customers depends on our ability to supply proprietary enzymes or methods for making pharmaceutical intermediates or APIs that are not available from our competitors. Likewise, in the generic pharmaceutical area, protection of our proprietary technology, products and services directed to our enzymes and methods of producing pharmaceutical products, through patent or trade secret laws or other legal protections is important for us and our customers to maintain a lower cost production advantage over competitors.

As of December 31, 2022, we owned or controlled approximately 2,090 issued patents and pending patent applications in the United States and in various foreign jurisdictions, many of which are directed to our enabling technologies and specific methods and products that support our business in the pharmaceutical markets. In addition, our portfolio includes patents and pending patent applications that support our businesses in the biotherapeutics, molecular diagnostics, food and other markets. Our patents and pending patent applications, if issued, have terms that expire between 2023 and approximately 2043. Our United States ("U.S.") patents and pending patent applications directed to the CodeEvolver® proprietary enabling technology platform developed internally by us have terms that expire between 2029 and approximately 2034. It is possible that some U.S. patents and patent applications (if issued) may be entitled to patent term extensions and/or patent term adjustments, which would extend the protection beyond these expiration dates. It is also possible that some patents and patent applications (if issued) in other jurisdictions will be entitled to additional patent term. Our current intellectual property rights also include patents, trademarks, copyrights, software and certain assumed contracts that we acquired from Maxygen, Inc. (“Maxygen”) in October 2010, which are associated with directed evolution technology, known as the MolecularBreedingTM technology platform developed by Maxygen. The intellectual property rights and other related assets that we acquired from Maxygen continue to be subject to existing exclusive and non-exclusive license rights granted by Maxygen to third parties. We continue to file new patent applications, for which terms generally extend 20 years from the non-provisional filing date in the United States.

As of December 31, 2022, we owned approximately 100 trademark registrations in the United States and foreign jurisdictions, as well as many common law trademarks. These include, but are not limited to: Codexis®, Codex®, CodeEvolver®, Mosaic®, Sage®, Microcyp®, MCYP®, ProSAR®, Unlock the Power of Proteins®, the Codexis Protein Engineering Experts® logo, Strategist®, Continuity®, Ameli®, Forager®, Analogene®, Harvester®, Atoms®, Riptide®, APS® and a Codexis design mark (i.e., the stylized Codexis logo).

COMPETITION

We face differing forms of competition in the biotherapeutics, pharmaceutical manufacturing and life sciences markets, as set forth below.

Biotherapeutics

There are other companies that participate in the biotherapeutics market generally and the PKU market specifically. Many of these companies are large, successful and well-capitalized. BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (“BioMarin”) and Daiichi Sankyo Company market Kuvan® in the United States, Europe and Japan for the treatment of a certain type of PKU. In addition, BioMarin had gained FDA approval in May 2018 and began the commercial sales of Palynziq®, an injectable enzyme substitution therapy to address different options for care in the treatment of PKU. Subsequently in May 2019, BioMarin obtained marketing authorization for Palynziq® from the European Commission. Several companies, including Synlogic, Homology Medicines and Rubius have reported clinical efforts to develop biotherapeutic candidates for PKU. Beyond targeting PKU, Takeda, Genzyme / Sanofi S.A., BioMarin, and other companies market or are actively developing enzyme therapeutics. There are numerous companies that are developing other forms of therapeutics, such as small molecules, gene therapy, as well as therapies based on gene editing, which could compete with biotherapeutics.

There are several companies developing or marketing pancreatic enzyme replacement therapies (PERTs) for the treatment of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). Approved products derived from porcine pancreas and taken orally with meals include: Creon® (marketed by Abbvie in the US, and by Abbott in the EU, China, Taiwan, Japan, and India), Zenpep® (marketed by Nestlé in the US and EU), Pancreaze® (marketed by Vivus in the US), and Pertzye® (marketed by Chiesi in the US). There are also companies developing recombinant PERTs for treating EPI. First Wave Biopharma is presently testing a recombinant lipase enzyme, adrulipase, in Phase 2 clinical trials. There are also therapies in pre-clinical development for EPI treatment, including SNSP003 (developed by Synspira Therapeutics), a combination of purified lipase, amylase, and protease, in collaboration with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Current marketed PERT therapies as well as potential future PERT therapies in development could compete with CDX-7108.

Performance Enzyme

Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

We market our biocatalyst products and services to manufacturers of small molecule pharmaceutical intermediates and APIs. Our primary competitors in that market are companies marketing either conventional, non-enzymatic catalysts or alternative biocatalyst products and services, or from full service contract development and manufacturing service providers (“CDMOs”) offering conventional chemistry approaches to the production of APIs. We also sometimes face competition from existing in-house technologies (both biocatalysts and conventional chemistries) within our client and potential client companies. The principal methods of competition and competitive differentiation in this market are price, product quality and performance, including manufacturing yield, safety and environmental benefits and speed of delivery of product. Pharmaceutical manufacturers that use biocatalytic processes can face competition from manufacturers that use more conventional processes and/or manufacturers that are based in regions (such as India and China) with lower regulatory, safety and environmental costs.

We also compete with companies developing and marketing conventional catalysts including, for example, Solvias AG, BASF, Johnson-Matthey and Takasago International Corporation.

The market for supplying enzymes for use in pharmaceutical manufacturing is quite fragmented. There is competition from large industrial enzyme companies, as well as subsidiaries of larger contract research/contract manufacturing organizations, such as Royal DSM N.V. (“DSM”), Cambrex Corporation, Lonza, WuXi STA and Almac Group Ltd. Some fermentation pathway design companies, such as Zymergen, which was acquired by Gingko BioWorks, and Amyris, whose traditional focus has been to design microorganisms that express small molecule chemicals, could extend into designing organisms that express enzymes. There is also competition in the enzyme customization and optimization area from several smaller companies, such as BRAIN AG, Arzeda, c-LEcta GmbH and evoxx technologies GmbH.

The market for the manufacture and supply of APIs and intermediates is large, with many established companies. These companies include many of our large innovator and generic pharmaceutical customers, such as Merck, GSK, Novartis, Pfizer Inc. ("Pfizer"), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company ("Bristol-Myers"), KYORIN Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. ("Kyorin"), Urovant Sciences GmbH ("Urovant"), and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited ("Teva"), which have significant internal research and development efforts directed at developing processes to manufacture APIs and intermediates for use in their drug product manufacturing. There is also a large network of contract (development &) manufacturing organizations (“C(D)MOs”) servicing the innovator companies with supply of APIs and/or intermediates, These C(D)MOs include Cambrex Corporation, Lonza, WuXi STA and Almac Group Ltd, among many others. The processes used by these companies (both C(D)MOs and innovators) include classical organic chemistry reactions, chemo-catalytic reactions, biocatalytic reactions or combinations thereof. Our biocatalyst-based manufacturing processes must compete effectively on cost and efficiency with these internally developed routes.

We believe that our principal advantage is our ability to rapidly deliver customized biocatalysts for existing and new intermediates and APIs in the pharmaceutical manufacturing market. This capability has allowed us to create a breadth of biocatalysts with improved performance characteristics including, for example, better activity, stability, and activity on a range of substrates, compared to traditional chemistry-based manufacturing processes and naturally occurring (and thus not optimized) biocatalysts. We believe that our CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering platform technology provides substantially superior results, in shorter time frames, than companies offering competing biocatalyst development services.

Life Sciences

Our Life Sciences business is focused in two key areas, nucleic acid manufacturing and genomics. We supply engineered enzymes and custom services to manufacturers of messenger RNA (“mRNA”), small interfering RNA (“RNAi”), antisense oligonucleotides (“ASOs”), and other RNA-based molecules as well as manufacturers of next generation sequencing (“NGS”) workflows and kits, in vitro diagnostics (“IVD”), and molecular diagnostic assays. Several of our competitors, such as ThermoFisher Scientific, Roche Diagnostics (a division of Roche Holding AG), New England Biolabs (“NEB”), and QIAGEN group offer a wide diversity of products across the life sciences market, including products that support multiple applications in RNA manufacturing and genomics. We also compete with companies that are more focused on offering products and services for RNA manufacturing, such as Aldevron (a Danaher company) as well as companies focused on providing enzymes and services to genomic sequencing applications, such as Promega Corporation and Watchmaker Genomics. The life science industry has seen great technological leaps since the introduction of enzymes into laboratory and clinical workflows and we recognize the importance of enzymes in this market and the need for purpose-fit, robust, and highly active enzymes that are made possible with our core technology.

Other

Core Technology

We are a leader in the field of enzyme engineering to create novel enzymes. Each of our segments rely on our core technology. We are aware that other companies, organizations and persons have developed technologies that appear to have some similarities to our patented proprietary technologies. For example, we are aware that other companies, including Zymergen, which was acquired by Gingko Bioworks, Amyris, Absci and Amicus Therapeutics have alternative methods for obtaining and generating genetic diversity or use mutagenesis techniques to produce genetic diversity. In addition, academic institutions such as the California Institute of Technology, the Max Planck Institute and the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology are also working in this field. This field is highly competitive with companies and academic and research institutions actively seeking to develop technologies that could be competitive with our technologies.

Technological developments by others may result in our products and technologies, as well as products manufactured by our customers using our biocatalysts, becoming obsolete. We monitor publications and patents that relate to directed molecular evolution to be aware of developments in the field and evaluate appropriate courses of action in relation to these developments.

Many of our competitors have substantially greater manufacturing, financial, research and development, personnel and marketing resources than we do. As a result, our competitors may be able to develop competing and/or superior technologies and processes, and compete more aggressively and sustain that competition over a longer period of time than we could. Our technologies and products may be rendered obsolete or uneconomical by technological advances or entirely different approaches developed by one or more of our competitors.

We initially commercialized our CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering technology platform and products in the manufacture of small molecule pharmaceuticals, which remains a primary business focus. Our customers, which include many large, global pharmaceutical companies, use our technology, products and services in their process development and in manufacturing. Additionally, we have licensed our proprietary CodeEvolver® enzyme engineering technology platform to global pharmaceutical companies enabling them to use this technology, in house, to engineer enzymes for their own businesses.

OPERATIONS

Our corporate headquarters are located in Redwood City, California and provide general administrative support to our business and are the center of our research, development and business operations. We have limited internal manufacturing capacity at our headquarters in Redwood City. We expect to rely on third-party manufacturers for commercial production of our biocatalysts for the foreseeable future. Our in-house manufacturing is dedicated to producing both Codex® biocatalyst panels and kits and enzymes for use by our customers in pilot scale and clinical production. We also supply initial commercial quantities of biocatalysts for use by our collaborators to produce pharmaceutical intermediates and manufacture biocatalysts that we sell. In the first quarter of 2021, we entered into an arrangement to lease a facility in San Carlos, California to serve as an additional office and research and development laboratory space which we occupied beginning December 2021. Please see Note 15, “Segment, Geographical and Other Revenue Information” in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements set forth in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a description of our revenues and long-lived assets both within and outside of the United States, and with respect to the San Carlos facility, please see Note 13, “Commitments and Contingencies” in the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements set forth in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Our research and development operations include efforts directed towards engineering biocatalysts, bioprocess development, cellular engineering, biocatalyst screening, metabolites, strain improvement, fermentation development and process engineering. We conduct enzyme evolution, enzyme production development, microbial bioprocess development, cellular engineering, microbial evolution and process engineering evaluations and design primarily at our headquarters in Redwood City, California. Manufacturing of our enzymes is conducted primarily in four locations, at our in-house facility in Redwood City, California and at third-party contract manufacturing organizations, Lactosan GmbH & Co. KG (“Lactosan”) in Kapfenberg, Austria, ACS Dobfar S.p.A. ("ACSD") (formerly known as DPhar S.p.A.) in Anagni, Italy, and Alphazyme LLC ("Alphazyme") in Florida, United States. Generally, we perform smaller scale manufacturing in-house and outsource the larger scale manufacturing, representing a large percentage of our production of novel enzymes, to contract manufacturing organizations.

GOVERNMENT REGULATION

In the United States, the FDA extensively regulates, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, quality control, import, export, safety, effectiveness, labeling, packaging, storage, distribution, record keeping, approval, advertising, promotion, marketing, post-approval monitoring, and post-approval reporting of drug and biologic products under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, its implementing regulations and other laws, including, in the case of biologics, the Public Health Service Act. Our biotherapeutic product candidates are subject to regulation by the FDA as biologics. Biologics require the submission of a biologics license application (“BLA”) and licensure, which constitutes approval, by the FDA before being marketed in the United States. We, along with third-party contractors and our collaborators, will be required to navigate the various preclinical, clinical and commercial approval requirements of the governing regulatory agencies of the countries in which we wish to conduct studies or seek approval or licensure of our product candidates. The process of obtaining regulatory approvals and the subsequent compliance with applicable federal, state, local and foreign statutes and regulations require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources.

The process required by the FDA before a biologic product may be marketed in the United States generally involves the following:

•completion of preclinical laboratory tests and animal studies performed in accordance with the FDA’s good laboratory practice (“GLP”) regulations;

•submission to the FDA of an IND, which must become effective before clinical trials in the United States may begin;

•approval by an institutional review board (“IRB”), or ethics committee at each clinical site before the trial is commenced;

•performance of adequate and well-controlled human clinical trials to establish the safety and potency of the product candidate for each proposed indication, conducted in accordance with the FDA’s good clinical practice (“GCP”) regulations;

•preparation and submission to the FDA of a BLA after completion of all pivotal clinical trials:

•satisfactory completion of an FDA Advisory Committee review, if applicable;

•a determination by the FDA within 60 days of its receipt of a BLA to file the application for review;

•satisfactory completion of an FDA inspection of the manufacturing facility or facilities at which the product is produced to assess compliance with current good manufacturing practice (“cGMP”) regulations and to assure that the facilities, methods and controls are adequate to preserve the biological product’s continued safety, purity and potency, and of selected clinical investigation sites to assess compliance with Good Clinical Practices, or GCPs; and

•FDA review and approval of the BLA prior to any commercial marketing, sale or distribution of the product.

Preclinical and Clinical Trials

Once a product candidate is identified for development, it enters the preclinical testing stage. Preclinical studies include laboratory evaluations of drug chemistry, formulation and stability, as well as studies to evaluate toxicity in animals, which must be conducted in accordance with GLP requirements. The results of preclinical studies, together with manufacturing information and analytical data, are submitted to the FDA as part of an IND. An IND is a request for authorization from the FDA to administer an investigational new drug to humans. The central focus of an IND submission is on the general investigational plan and the protocol(s) for clinical studies. The IND automatically becomes effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA, unless the FDA, within the 30-day time period, raises concerns or questions about the conduct of the clinical trial, including concerns that human research subjects will be exposed to unreasonable health risks, and imposes a clinical hold. In such a case, the IND sponsor and the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns before the clinical trial can begin.

A separate submission to an existing IND must also be made for each successive clinical trial conducted during product development, and the FDA must grant permission, either explicitly or implicitly by not objecting, before each clinical trial can begin. Progress reports detailing the results of the clinical trials, among other information, must be submitted at least annually to the FDA and written IND safety reports must be submitted to the FDA and the investigators for serious and unexpected suspected adverse events, findings from other studies or animal or in vitro testing that suggest a significant risk for human subjects and any clinically important increase in the rate of a serious suspected adverse reaction over that listed in the protocol or investigator brochure.

Clinical trials involve the administration of the product candidate to human subjects under the supervision of qualified investigators in accordance with GCPs, which include the requirement that all research subjects provide their informed consent for their participation in any clinical study. Clinical trials are conducted under protocols detailing, among other things, the objectives of the clinical trial and the parameters and criteria to be used in monitoring safety and evaluating effectiveness. Each protocol must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND. An independent IRB for each investigator site proposing to participate in a clinical trial must also review and approve the clinical trial and its informed consent form before it can begin at that site, and the IRB must monitor the clinical trial until it is completed. The FDA, the IRB, or the sponsor may suspend or discontinue a clinical trial at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the subjects are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk or that the trial is unlikely to meet its stated objectives. Some studies also include oversight by an independent group of qualified experts organized by the clinical study sponsor, known as a data safety monitoring board, which provides authorization for whether or not a study may move forward at designated check points based on access to certain data from the study and may halt the clinical trial if it determines that there is an unacceptable safety risk for subjects or other grounds, such as no demonstration of efficacy. There are also requirements governing the reporting of ongoing clinical studies and clinical study results to public registries.

For purposes of BLA approval, clinical trials are typically conducted in three sequential phases, which may overlap or be combined.

•Phase 1 - Phase 1 clinical trials involve initial introduction of the investigational product into healthy human subjects or patients with the target disease or condition. These studies are typically designed to test the safety, dosage tolerance, absorption, metabolism and distribution of the investigational product in humans, the side effects associated with increasing doses, and, if possible, to gain early evidence of effectiveness.

•Phase 2 - Phase 2 clinical trials typically involve administration of the investigational product to a limited patient population with a specified disease or condition to evaluate the preliminary efficacy, optimal dosage and dosing schedule and to identify possible adverse side effects and safety risks.

•Phase 3 - Phase 3 clinical trials typically involve administration of the investigational product to an expanded patient population to further evaluate dosage, to provide statistically significant evidence of clinical efficacy and to further test for safety, generally at multiple geographically dispersed clinical trial sites. These clinical trials are intended to establish the overall risk/benefit ratio of the investigational product and to provide an adequate basis for product approval and physician labeling.

In some cases, the FDA may condition approval of a BLA on the sponsor’s agreement to conduct additional clinical trials to further assess the biologic’s safety and effectiveness after BLA approval. Such post-approval clinical trials are typically referred to as Phase 4 clinical trials. Concurrent with clinical trials, companies usually complete additional animal studies and must also develop additional information about the chemistry and physical characteristics of the biologic and finalize a process for manufacturing the biologic in commercial quantities in accordance with cGMP requirements. The manufacturing process must be capable of consistently producing quality batches of the product candidate and manufacturers must develop, among other things, methods for testing the identity, strength, quality 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 product candidate does not undergo unacceptable deterioration over its shelf life.

Although most clinical research performed in the United States in support of a BLA must be authorized in advance by the FDA, under the IND regulations and procedures described above, there are certain circumstances under which clinical trials can be conducted without submission of an IND. For example, a sponsor who wishes to conduct a clinical trial outside the United States may, but need not, obtain FDA authorization to conduct the clinical trial under an IND.

BLA Submission and FDA Review

Assuming successful completion of all required testing in accordance with all applicable regulatory requirements, the results of preclinical studies and clinical trials, together with other detailed information, including extensive manufacturing information and information on the composition of the biologic, are submitted to the FDA in the form of a BLA requesting approval to market the biologic for one or more specified indications. The BLA must include all relevant data available from preclinical and clinical studies, including negative or ambiguous results as well as positive findings, together with detailed information relating to the product’s chemistry, manufacturing, controls, and proposed labeling, among other things. Data can come from company-sponsored clinical studies intended to test the safety and effectiveness of a use of the product, or from a number of alternative sources, including studies initiated by investigators. The submission of a BLA requires payment of a substantial user fee unless a waiver is granted. Each BLA submitted to the FDA is reviewed for administrative completeness and reviewability within 60 days of the FDA’s receipt of the application. If the BLA is found to be complete, the FDA will file the BLA, triggering a full substantive review of the application. The FDA may refuse to file any BLA that it deems incomplete or not properly reviewable at the time of submission.

Once a BLA has been accepted for filing under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, the FDA has a goal of reviewing BLAs within ten months of the 60-day filing date for BLAs designated for standard review or six months for priority review, but the overall timeframe is often extended by FDA requests for additional information or clarification. The FDA reviews a BLA to determine, among other things, whether the biological product is safe, pure and potent and whether the facility or facilities in which it is manufactured meet standards designed to assure the product’s continued safety, purity and potency. The FDA may refer the application to an advisory committee for review, evaluation and recommendation as to whether the application should be approved. The FDA is not bound by the recommendation of an advisory committee, but it generally follows such recommendations.

Before approving a BLA, the FDA will inspect the facility or the facilities at which the biologic product is manufactured, and will not license the product unless cGMP compliance is satisfactory. The FDA may also inspect the sites at which the clinical trials were conducted to assess their compliance with GCP requirements, and will not license the biologic unless compliance with such requirements is satisfactory. If the FDA determines that the application, manufacturing process or manufacturing facilities are not acceptable, it will outline the deficiencies in the submission and often will request additional testing or information. Notwithstanding the submission of any requested additional information, the FDA ultimately may decide that the application does not satisfy the regulatory criteria for approval.

After the FDA evaluates a BLA and conducts inspections of manufacturing facilities where the investigational product and/or its drug substance will be produced, the FDA may issue an approval letter or a Complete Response Letter (“CRL”). An approval letter authorizes commercial marketing of the product with specific prescribing information for specific indications. A CRL will describe all of the deficiencies that the FDA has identified in the BLA, except that where the FDA determines that the data supporting the application are inadequate to support approval, the FDA may issue the CRL without first conducting required inspections, testing submitted product lots, and/or reviewing proposed labeling. In issuing the CRL, the FDA may recommend actions that the applicant might take to place the BLA in condition for approval, including requests for additional information or clarification. The FDA may delay or refuse approval of a BLA if applicable regulatory criteria are not satisfied, require additional testing or information and/or require post-marketing testing and surveillance to monitor safety or efficacy of a product.

If regulatory approval of a product is granted, such approval will be granted for particular indications and may entail limitations on the indicated uses for which such product may be marketed. For example, the FDA may approve the BLA with a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (“REMS”), to ensure the benefits of the product outweigh its risks. A REMS is a safety strategy implemented to manage a known or potential serious risk associated with a product and to enable patients to have continued access to such medicines by managing their safe use, and could include medication guides, physician communication plans, or elements to assure safe use, such as restricted distribution methods, patient registries and other risk minimization tools. The FDA also may condition approval on, among other things, changes to proposed labeling or the development of adequate controls and specifications. Once approved, the FDA may withdraw the product approval if compliance with pre- and post-marketing requirements is not maintained or if problems occur after the product reaches the marketplace. The FDA may require one or more Phase 4 post-market studies and surveillance to further assess and monitor the product’s safety and effectiveness after commercialization, and may limit further marketing of the product based on the results of these post-marketing studies.

Expedited Development and Review Programs

The FDA maintains several programs intended to facilitate and expedite development and review of new drugs and biologics designed to address unmet medical needs in the treatment of serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions.

For example, a product candidate is eligible for Fast Track designation if it is intended to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and demonstrates the potential to address unmet medical needs for such disease or condition. Fast Track designation applies to the combination of the product candidate and the specific indication for which it is being studied. Fast Track designation provides increased opportunities for sponsor meetings with the FDA during preclinical and clinical development, in addition to the potential for rolling review once a marketing application is filed, meaning that the FDA may review portions of the marketing application before the sponsor submits the complete application, if the sponsor provides a schedule for the submission of the sections of the BLA, the FDA agrees to accept sections of the BLA and determines that the schedule is acceptable, and the sponsor pays any required user fees upon submission of the first section of the BLA.

In addition, a product candidate may be eligible for Breakthrough Therapy designation if it is intended to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the product candidate may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. Breakthrough Therapy designation provides all the features of Fast Track designation in addition to intensive guidance on an efficient development program beginning as early as Phase 1, and FDA organizational commitment to expedited development, including involvement of senior managers and experienced review staff in a cross-disciplinary review, where appropriate.

Any product candidate submitted to the FDA for approval, including a product candidate with Fast Track or Breakthrough Therapy designation, may also be eligible for additional FDA programs intended to expedite the review process, including Priority Review designation and Accelerated Approval. A BLA is eligible for Priority Review if the product candidate is designed to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and if approved, would provide a significant improvement in safety or effectiveness in the treatment, diagnosis or prevention of a serious disease or condition.

Additionally, product candidates studied for their safety and effectiveness in treating serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions may receive Accelerated Approval if they can be shown to have an effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit, or an effect on a clinical endpoint that can be measured earlier than an effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality which is reasonably likely to predict an effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality or other clinical benefit, taking into account the severity, rarity, or prevalence of the condition and the availability or lack of alternative treatments. As a condition of accelerated approval, the FDA will generally require the sponsor to perform adequate and well-controlled post-marketing clinical studies to verify and describe the anticipated effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality or other clinical benefit. Products receiving accelerated approval may be subject to expedited withdrawal procedures if the sponsor fails to conduct the required post-marketing studies or if such studies fail to verify the predicted clinical benefit. In addition, the FDA currently requires as a condition for accelerated approval pre-approval of promotional materials, which could adversely impact the timing of the commercial launch of the product.

Fast Track designation, Breakthrough Therapy designation, Priority Review designation and Accelerated Approval do not change the standards for approval but may expedite the development or review process. Even if a product qualifies for one or more of these programs, the FDA may later decide that the product no longer meets the conditions for qualification or decide that the time period for FDA review or approval will not be shortened.

Orphan Drug Designation and Exclusivity

Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may grant orphan designation to a drug or biologic intended to treat a rare disease or condition, defined as a disease or condition with a patient population of fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States, or a patient population greater than 200,000 individuals in the United States and when there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing and making available the drug or biologic in the United States will be recovered from sales in the United States for that drug or biologic. Orphan drug designation must be requested before submitting a BLA. After the FDA grants orphan drug designation, the generic identity of the therapeutic agent and its potential orphan use are disclosed publicly by the FDA.

If a product candidate that has orphan drug designation subsequently receives the first FDA approval for a particular active ingredient for the disease for which it has such designation, the product is entitled to orphan product exclusivity, which means that the FDA may not approve any other applications, including a full BLA, to market the same biologic for the same disease or condition for seven years, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority to the product with orphan drug exclusivity or if the FDA finds that the holder of the orphan drug exclusivity has not shown that it can assure the availability of sufficient quantities of the orphan drug to meet the needs of patients with the disease or condition for which the drug was designated. Orphan drug exclusivity does not prevent the FDA from approving a different drug or biologic for the same disease or condition, or the same drug or biologic for a different disease or condition. Among the other benefits of orphan drug designation are tax credits for certain research and a waiver of the BLA application user fee.

A designated orphan drug many not receive orphan drug exclusivity if it is approved for a use that is broader than the disease or condition for which it received orphan designation. In addition, orphan drug exclusive marketing rights in the United States may be lost if the FDA later determines that the request for designation was materially defective or, as noted above, if a second applicant demonstrates that its product is clinically superior to the approved product with orphan exclusivity or the manufacturer of the approved product is unable to assure sufficient quantities of the product to meet the needs of patients with the rare disease or condition.

Emergency Use Authorization

The Commissioner of the FDA, under delegated authority from the Secretary of HHS may, under certain circumstances in connection with a declared public health emergency, allow for the marketing of a product that does not otherwise comply with FDA regulations by issuing an EUA for such product. Before an EUA may be issued by HHS, the Secretary must declare an emergency based a determination that public health emergency exists that effects or has the significant potential to affect, national security, and that involves a specified biological, chemical, radiological, or nuclear agent or agents (“CBRN”), or a specified disease or condition that may be attributable to such CBRN. On February 4, 2020, the HHS Secretary determined that there is such a public health emergency that involves the virus now known as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 infection.Once the determination of the threat or emergency has been made, the Secretary of HHS must then declare that an emergency exists justifying the issuance of EUAs for certain types of products (referred to as EUA declarations).On March 27, 2020, the Secretary of HHS declared – on the basis of his determination of a public health emergency that has the potential to affect national security or the health and security of U.S. citizens living abroad that involves SARS-CoV-2 – that circumstances exist justifying authorization of drugs and biologics during the COVID-19 pandemic, subject to the terms of any EUA that is issued.

Once an EUA declaration has been issued, the FDA can issue EUAs for products that fall within the scope of that declaration.To issue an EUA, the FDA Commissioner must conclude that (1) the CBRN that is referred to in the EUA declaration can cause serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions; (2) based on the totality of scientific evidence available, it is reasonable to believe that the product may be effective in diagnosing, treating, or preventing the disease or condition attributable to the CBRN and that the product’s known and potential benefits outweigh its known and potential risks; and (3) there is no adequate, approved, and available alternative to the product. Products subject to an EUA must still comply with the conditions of the EUA, including labeling and marketing requirements. Moreover, the authorization to market products under an EUA is limited to the period of time the EUA declaration is in effect, and the FDA can revoke an EUA in certain circumstances.

Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Voucher Program

In 2012, Congress authorized the FDA to award priority review vouchers to sponsors of certain rare pediatric disease product applications. This program is designed to encourage development of new drug and biological products for prevention and treatment of certain rare pediatric diseases. Specifically, under this program, a sponsor who receives an approval for a drug or biologic for a “rare pediatric disease” may qualify for a voucher that can be redeemed to receive a priority review of a subsequent marketing application for a different product. The sponsor of a rare pediatric disease drug product receiving a priority review voucher may transfer (including by sale) the voucher to another sponsor. The voucher may be further transferred any number of times before the voucher is used, as long as the sponsor making the transfer has not yet submitted the application. The FDA may also revoke any priority review voucher if the rare pediatric disease drug for which the voucher was awarded is not marketed in the U.S. within one year following the date of approval.

For purposes of this program, a “rare pediatric disease” is a (a) serious or life-threatening disease in which the serious or life-threatening manifestations primarily affect individuals aged from birth to 18 years, including age groups often called neonates, infants, children, and adolescents; and (b) rare diseases or conditions within the meaning of the Orphan Drug Act. On December 27, 2020, the Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Voucher Program was extended. Under the current statutory sunset provisions, after September 30, 2024, FDA may only award a voucher for an approved rare pediatric disease product application if the sponsor has rare pediatric disease designation for the drug, and that designation was granted by September 30, 2024. After September 30, 2026, FDA may not award any Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Voucher.

Post-Approval Requirements

Licensed biologics that are manufactured and distributed in the United States are subject to pervasive and continuing regulation by the FDA, including, among other things, requirements relating to recordkeeping, periodic reporting, product distribution, advertising and promotion and reporting of adverse experiences with the product. There is also a continuing, annual prescription drug program user fee.

Any biologics manufactured or distributed pursuant to FDA approvals remain subject to ongoing regulation by the FDA. Manufacturers and their subcontractors are required to register their establishments with the FDA and certain state agencies, and are subject to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA and certain state agencies for compliance with ongoing regulatory requirements, including cGMP, which impose extensive procedural and documentation requirements. Failure to comply with statutory and regulatory requirements can subject a manufacturer to possible legal or regulatory action, such as warning letters, suspension of manufacturing, product seizures, injunctions, civil penalties or criminal prosecution.

Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in revisions to the approved labeling to add new safety information, requirements for post-market studies or clinical trials to assess new safety risks, imposition of distribution or other restrictions under a REMS. Other potential consequences include, among other things:

•restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of the product, complete withdrawal of the product from the market or product recalls;

•fines, warning letters, untitled letters, or holds on post-approval clinical trials;

•refusal of the FDA to approve applications or supplements to approved applications, or suspension or revocation of product approvals;

•product seizure or detention, or refusal to permit the import or export of products;

•mandated modification of promotional materials and labeling and the issuance of corrective information;

•the issuance of safety alerts, Dear Healthcare Provider letters, press releases and other communications containing warnings or other safety information about the product; or

•injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.

The FDA closely regulates the post-approval marketing and promotion of biologics, including standards and regulations for direct-to-consumer advertising, off-label promotion, industry-sponsored scientific and educational activities, and promotional activities involving the internet and social media. A company can make only those claims relating to safety and efficacy that are approved by the FDA. Physicians may prescribe legally available biologics for uses that are not described in the product’s labeling and that differ from those tested by us and approved by the FDA. Such off-label uses are common across medical specialties. Physicians may believe that such off-label uses are the best treatment for many patients in varied circumstances.

The FDA does not regulate the behavior of physicians in their choice of treatments. The FDA does, however, impose stringent restrictions on manufacturers’ communications regarding off-label use. Failure to comply with these requirements can result in adverse publicity, warning letters, corrective advertising and potential civil and criminal penalties.

Biosimilars and Regulatory Exclusivity

As part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act enacted in 2010, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (“BPCIA”) established an abbreviated pathway for the approval of biosimilar and interchangeable biological products. The abbreviated regulatory pathway provides legal authority for the FDA to review and approve biosimilar biologics based on their similarity to an existing brand product, referred to as a reference product, including the possible designation of a biosimilar as interchangeable with a brand product.

Biosimilarity, which requires that there be no clinically meaningful differences between the biological product and the reference product in terms of safety, purity, and potency, can be shown through analytical studies, animal studies, and a clinical study or studies. Interchangeability requires that a product is biosimilar to the reference product and the product must demonstrate that it can be expected to produce the same clinical results as the reference product in any given patient and, for products that are administered multiple times to an individual, the biologic and the reference biologic may be alternated or switched after one has been previously administered without increasing safety risks or risks of diminished efficacy relative to exclusive use of the reference biologic.

Under the BPCIA, the approval of a biosimilar product may not be made effective by the FDA until 12 years from the date on which the reference product was first licensed by the FDA. In addition, the licensure of a biosimilar product may not be made effective by the FDA until 12 years from the date on which the reference product was first licensed. During this 12-year period of exclusivity, another company may still market a competing version of the reference product if the FDA approves a full BLA for the competing product containing that applicant’s own preclinical data and data from adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to demonstrate the safety, purity and potency of its product. The BPCIA also created certain exclusivity periods for biosimilars approved as interchangeable products. At this juncture, it is unclear whether products deemed “interchangeable” by the FDA will, in fact, be readily substituted by pharmacies, which are governed by state pharmacy law. In addition, the period of exclusivity provided by the BPCIA only operates against third parties seeking approval via the abbreviated pathway, but would not prevent third parties from pursuing approval via the traditional BLA approval pathway.

In addition, a biological product can also obtain pediatric market exclusivity in the United States. Pediatric exclusivity, if granted, adds six months to existing exclusivity periods and patent terms. This six-month exclusivity, which runs from the end of other exclusivity protection or patent term, may be granted based on the voluntary completion of a pediatric study in accordance with an FDA-issued “Written Request” for such a study.

Other Healthcare Laws

Pharmaceutical companies are subject to additional healthcare regulation and enforcement by the federal government and by authorities in the states and foreign jurisdictions in which they conduct their business and may constrain the financial arrangements and relationships through which we and our partners research, sell, market and distribute any products for which we obtain marketing approval. Such laws include, without limitation, state and federal anti-kickback, fraud and abuse, false claims and transparency laws regarding drug pricing and payments and other transfer of value to physicians and other healthcare providers. If their operations are found to be in violation of any of such laws or any other governmental regulations that apply, they may be subject to penalties, including, without limitation, administrative, civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, the curtailment or restructuring of operations, integrity oversight and reporting obligations, exclusion from participation in federal and state healthcare programs and individual imprisonment.

Coverage and Reimbursement

Sales of any product depend, in part, on the extent to which such product will be covered by third-party payors, such as federal, state, and foreign government healthcare programs, commercial insurance and managed healthcare organizations, and the level of reimbursement for such product by third-party payors. Decisions regarding the extent of coverage and amount of reimbursement to be provided are made on a plan-by-plan basis. These third-party payors are increasingly reducing reimbursements for medical products, drugs and services. In addition, the U.S. government, state legislatures and foreign governments have continued implementing cost-containment programs, including price controls, restrictions on coverage and reimbursement and requirements for substitution of generic products. Adoption of price controls and cost-containment measures, and adoption of more restrictive policies in jurisdictions with existing controls and measures, could further limit sales of any product. Decreases in third-party reimbursement for any product or a decision by a third-party payor not to cover a product could reduce physician usage and patient demand for the product and also have a material adverse effect on sales.

Healthcare Reform

In March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, each as amended (collectively known as the “ACA”), was enacted, which substantially changed the way healthcare is financed by both governmental and private insurers, and significantly affected the pharmaceutical industry. The ACA contained a number of provisions, including those governing enrollment in federal healthcare programs, reimbursement adjustments and changes to fraud and abuse laws. For example, the ACA:

•increased the minimum level of Medicaid rebates payable by manufacturers of brand name drugs from 15.1% to 23.1% of the average manufacturer price;

•required collection of rebates for drugs paid by Medicaid managed care organizations;

•required manufacturers to participate in a coverage gap discount program, under which they must agree to offer 70 percent point-of-sale discounts off negotiated prices of applicable brand drugs to eligible beneficiaries during their coverage gap period, as a condition for the manufacturer’s outpatient drugs to be covered under Medicare Part D; and

•imposed a non-deductible annual fee on pharmaceutical manufacturers or importers who sell “branded prescription drugs” to specified federal government programs.

Since its enactment, there have been judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the ACA.

On June 17, 2021, the U.S Supreme Court dismissed the most recent judicial challenge to the ACA brought by several states without specifically ruling on the constitutionality of the ACA.Thus, the ACA will remain in effect in its current form.

Other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the ACA was enacted. In March 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was signed into law, which eliminates the statutory cap on the Medicaid drug rebate, currently set at 100% of a drug’s AMP, beginning January 1, 2024. Moreover, there has recently been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in several Congressional inquiries, proposed and enacted legislation and executive orders issued by the President designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to product pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drug products. Most recently, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, or IRA, included a number of significant drug pricing reforms, which include the establishment of a drug price negotiation program within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS (beginning in 2026) that requires manufacturers to charge a negotiated “maximum fair price” for certain selected drugs or pay an excise tax for noncompliance, the establishment of rebate payment requirements on manufacturers under Medicare Parts B and D to penalize price increases that outpace inflation (first due in 2023), and a redesign of the Part D benefit, as part of which manufacturers are required to provide discounts on Part D drugs (beginning in 2025). The IRA permits the HHS Secretary to implement many of these provisions through guidance, as opposed to regulation, for the initial years. Additional drug pricing proposals could appear in future legislation. Individual states in the United States have also become increasingly active in implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing.

Data Privacy and Security Laws

Numerous state, federal and foreign laws, including consumer protection laws and regulations, govern the collection, dissemination, use, access to, confidentiality, and security of personal information, including health-related information. In the United States, numerous federal and state laws and regulations, including data breach notification laws, health information privacy and security laws, and federal and state consumer protection laws and regulations (e.g., Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act) that govern the collection, use, disclosure, and protection of health-related and other personal information could apply to our operations or the operations of our partners. In addition, certain foreign laws govern the privacy and security of personal data, including health-related data. Failure to comply with these laws, were applicable, can result in the imposition of significant civil and /or criminal penalties and private litigation. Privacy and security laws, regulations, and other obligations are constantly evolving, may conflict with each other to make compliance efforts more challenging, and can result in investigations, proceedings, or actions that lead to significant penalties and restrictions on data processing.

Cybersecurity

In the normal course of business, we may collect and store personal information and other sensitive information, including proprietary and confidential business information, trade secrets, intellectual property, information regarding trial participants in connection with clinical trials, sensitive third-party information and employee information.To protect this information, our existing cybersecurity policies require continuous monitoring and detection programs, network security precautions, and in depth security assessment of technology vendors. We maintain various protections designed to safeguard against cyberattacks, including firewalls and virus detection software. We have established and regularly test our disaster recovery plan and we protect against business interruption by backing up our major systems. In addition, we periodically scan our environment for any vulnerabilities, perform penetration testing and engage third parties to assess effectiveness of our data security practices. A third party security consultant conducts regular network security reviews, scans and audits. In addition, we maintain insurance that includes cybersecurity coverage.

The program incorporates industry-standard frameworks, policies and practices designed to protect the privacy and security of our sensitive information.

Despite the implementation of our cybersecurity program, our security measures cannot guarantee that a significant cyberattack will not occur. A successful attack on our information technology systems could have significant consequences to the business. While we devote resources to our security measures to protect our systems and information, these measures cannot provide absolute security. See “Risk Factors – General Risk Factors” for additional information about the risks to our business associated with a breach or compromise to our information technology systems.

HUMAN CAPITAL RESOURCES

As of December 31, 2022, we had 248 full-time employees and part-time employees worldwide. Of these employees, 139 were engaged in research and development, 39 were engaged in operations and quality control and 70 were engaged in selling, general and administrative activities. None of our employees is represented by a labor union. Supported by our annual employee survey, we believe our relationship with our employees to be generally good. Our scientists, bioinformatics experts and other professionals work collaboratively as interdisciplinary teams to unlock and advance technological innovation.

Compensation, benefits and development

Our goal is to attract, motivate and retain talent with a focus on encouraging performance, promoting accountability and adhering to our company values. We offer competitive compensation and benefit programs including a company-matched 401(k) Plan, stock options for eligible employees, health savings and flexible spending accounts, paid time off, education and training programs, and employee assistance programs. We believe it is important to help build community and enabling our employees actively participate in community service projects and in company-sponsored philanthropic activities.

Diversity, inclusion and belonging

We are committed to our continued efforts to increase diversity and foster an inclusive work environment that supports the global workforce and the communities we serve. We recruit the best people for the job regardless of gender, ethnicity or other protected traits and it is our policy to fully comply with all laws applicable to discrimination in the workplace. Our diversity, equity and inclusion principles are also reflected in our employee training and policies. We continue to enhance our diversity, equity and inclusion policies which are guided by our executive leadership team.

Health and safety

We are committed to maintain a safe and healthy workplace for our employees. Our policies and practices are intended to protect our employees and surrounding communities in which we operate.

In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented safety protocols and new procedures to protect our employees. These protocols include complying with social distancing and other health and safety standards as required by state and local government agencies, taking into consideration guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health authorities. In addition, we modified the way we conduct many aspects of our business including the practice of social distancing, wearing face coverings mandated by state and local regulations, and maintaining a quarantine for employees determined to be in close contact with a COVID-19 case. For example, we implemented day-time shift hours in our R&D and manufacturing at our Redwood City pilot plant to minimize the number of employees in close proximity to each other and we have significantly expanded the use of virtual interaction whenever possible in our business. For a detailed discussion of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our human capital resources, see “Risk Factors" Item 1A of this Form 10-K.

We previously launched the Employee-Requested Work from Home Policy in late 2020. This policy establishes the process and criteria to enable Redwood City employees to request permission to work from home on a regular basis.

CORPORATE & AVAILABLE INFORMATION

We were incorporated in Delaware in January 2002 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Maxygen, Inc. We commenced independent operations in March 2002, after licensing core enabling technology from Maxygen, Inc. Our principal corporate offices are located at 200 Penobscot Drive, Redwood City, California 94063 and our telephone number is (650) 421-8100. Our internet address is www.codexis.com. The information on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other filings we make with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).

We make available on or through our website certain reports and amendments to those reports that we file with, or furnish to, the SEC in accordance with the Exchange Act. These include our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act. We make this information available on or through our website free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file the information with, or furnish it to, the SEC. Copies of this information may be obtained at the SEC website at www.sec.gov. The contents of these websites are not incorporated into this filing. Further, the references to website URLs are intended to be inactive textual references only.

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

You should carefully consider the risks described below together with the other information set forth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which could materially affect our business, financial condition or future results. The risks described below are not the only risks facing our company. Risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial also may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and/or operating results.

RISK FACTORS SUMMARY

The following is a summary of the principal factors that cause an investment in the company to be speculative or risky:

•We have a history of net losses and we may not achieve or maintain profitability.

•We are dependent on our collaborators, and our failure to successfully manage these relationships could prevent us from developing and commercializing many of our products.

•Our biotherapeutic programs are early stage, highly regulated and expensive.

•If either Nestlé Health Science or Takeda terminate their development programs under their respective license agreements with us, any potential revenue from those license agreements will be significantly reduced or non-existent.

•We may need additional capital in the future in order to expand our business.

•We are dependent on a limited number of customers.

•Our product supply agreements with customers have finite duration and may not be extended or renewed.

•With respect to customers purchasing our products for the manufacture of API, the termination or expiration of such patent protection may materially and adversely affect our revenues, financial condition or results of operations.

•We are dependent on a limited number of contract manufacturers for large scale production of substantially all of our enzymes, including CDX-616.

•If we are unable to develop and commercialize new products for the target markets, our business and prospects will be harmed.

•Competitors and potential competitors who have greater resources and experience than we do may develop products and technologies that make ours obsolete.

•The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected and may continue in the future to, directly or indirectly, adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

•Revenues in in future years from our sales of CDX-616 to Pfizer are subject to a number of factors which are outside of our control and may not materialize.

•We have investments in non-marketable securities, which may subject us to significant impairment charges.

•Ethical, legal and social concerns about genetically engineered products and processes could limit or prevent the use of our products, processes, and technologies and limit our revenues.

•We use hazardous materials in our business and we must comply with environmental laws and regulations.

•Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.

•As a public reporting company, we are subject to rules and regulations established from time to time by the SEC and Nasdaq regarding our internal controls over financial reporting. We may not complete needed improvements to our internal controls over financial reporting in a timely manner, or these internal controls may not be determined to be effective, which may adversely affect investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of our common stock and your investment.

•If we engage in any acquisitions, we will incur a variety of costs and may potentially face numerous risks that could adversely affect our business and operations.

•We or our customers may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for the use of our products in food and food ingredients, if required.

•Our ongoing efforts to deploy our technology in the life science tools market may fail.

•The regulatory approval processes of the FDA and comparable foreign authorities are lengthy, time consuming and inherently unpredictable, and we may be unable to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates.

•Clinical trials are difficult to design and implement, expensive, time-consuming and involve an uncertain outcome.

•Results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of product candidates may not be predictive of results of later studies or trials.

•We may not be able to maintain orphan drug designations for certain of our product candidates, and may be unable to maintain the benefits associated with orphan drug designation, including the potential for market exclusivity.

•We have obtained rare pediatric disease designation for CDX-6512 and CDX-6210, however, there is no guarantee that such designation will result in approval of CDX-6512 or CDX-6210, and even if we obtain approval of CDX-6512 or CDX-6210 for the indication for which we have been awarded rare pediatric disease designation, there is no guarantee that such approval will result in an aware of a rare pediatric disease priority review voucher.

•Disruptions at the FDA and other government agencies caused by funding shortages or global health concerns could hinder their ability to hire, retain, or deploy key leadership and other personnel, or otherwise prevent new or modified products from being developed, approved, or commercialized in a timely manner, or at all, which could negatively impact our business.

•Even if we obtain regulatory approval for any products that we develop alone or with collaborators, such products will remain subject to ongoing regulatory requirements.

•Our business operations and future relationships with investigators, healthcare professionals, consultants, third-party payors, patient organizations and customers will be subject to applicable healthcare regulatory laws, which could expose us to penalties.

•The successful commercialization of product candidates developed by us or our partners will depend in part on the extent to which governmental authorities and health insurers establish adequate coverage, reimbursement levels and pricing policies.

•Recently enacted legislation, future legislation and healthcare reform measures may increase the difficulty and cost for our partners to obtain marketing approval for and commercialize product candidates developed by us.

•Compliance with European Union chemical regulations could be costly and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

•We rely on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and perform some of our research and preclinical studies, which if not satisfactorily carried out or fail to meet expected deadlines, may have an adverse effect on our business and prospects.

•We contract with third parties for the manufacturing and supply of product candidates, which supply may become limited or interrupted or may not be of satisfactory quality and quantity.

•Our efforts to prosecute, maintain, protect and/or defend our intellectual property rights may not be successful.

•Our ability to compete may decline if we do not adequately prosecute, maintain, protect and/or defend our proprietary technology, products or services or our intellectual property rights.

•Third parties may claim that we are infringing, violating or misappropriating their intellectual property rights, which may subject us to costly and time-consuming litigation and prevent us from developing or commercializing our technology, products or services.

•We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, which could be expensive, time-consuming and unsuccessful.

•We may not be able to enforce our intellectual property rights throughout the world.

•If our biocatalysts are stolen, misappropriated or reverse engineered, others could use these biocatalysts to produce competing products.

•Confidentiality and non-use agreements with employees, consultants, advisors, and other third parties may not adequately prevent disclosures and non-use of trade secrets and other proprietary information.

•We are subject to anti-takeover provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and under Delaware law that could delay or prevent an acquisition of our company.

•Our quarterly or annual operating results may fluctuate in the future.

•We do not intend to pay cash dividends for the foreseeable future.

•If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or publish negative reports about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

•We face risks associated with our international business.

•Market and economic conditions may negatively impact our business, financial condition, and share price.

•Business interruptions resulting from disasters or other disturbances could delay us in the process of developing our products and could disrupt our sales.

•We are dependent on information technology systems, infrastructure and data, and any failure of these systems could harm our business.

•Actual or perceived failures to comply with applicable data protection, privacy and security laws, regulations, standards and other requirements could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

•Evolving expectations around environmental, social and governance matters may expose us to reputational and other risks.

Risks Relating to Our Business and Strategy

We have a history of net losses and we may not achieve or maintain profitability.

We have incurred net losses since our inception, including losses of $33.6 million in 2022, $21.3 million in 2021 and $24.0 million in 2020. As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $421.3 million and $387.7 million, respectively. If we are unable to expand our business, through new or expanded collaborations, development of new products or services, or increased sales of existing products and services, our net losses may increase and we may never achieve profitability. In addition, some of our collaboration agreements, including our collaboration with Nestlé Health Science and Takeda, and our performance enzyme agreements, including the agreements with GSK, Merck and Novartis, provide for milestone payments, usage payments, and/or future royalty payments, which we will only receive if we and our collaborators develop and commercialize products. We also may fund development of additional proprietary performance enzymes and/or biotherapeutic products. There can be no assurance that any of these products will become commercially viable or that we will ever achieve profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. If we fail to achieve profitability, or if the time required to achieve profitability is longer than we anticipate, we may not be able to continue our business. Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis.

We are dependent on our collaborators, and our failure to successfully manage these relationships could prevent us from developing and commercializing many of our products and achieving or sustaining profitability, and could lead to disagreements with our current or former collaborators.

Our ability to maintain and manage collaborations in our markets is fundamental to the success of our business. We currently have license agreements, research and development agreements, supply agreements and/or distribution agreements with various collaborators. For example, we have ongoing collaborations and agreements with GSK, Merck, Novartis, Nestlé Health Science and Takeda that are important to our business and financial results. We may have limited or no control over the amount or timing of resources that any collaborator is able or willing to devote to our partnered products or collaborative efforts. Any of our collaborators may fail to perform its obligations. These collaborators may breach or terminate their agreements with us or otherwise fail to conduct their collaborative activities successfully and in a timely manner. Further, our collaborators may not develop products arising out of our collaborative arrangements or devote sufficient resources to the development, manufacture, marketing or sale of these products. Moreover, disagreements with a collaborator could develop, and any conflict with a collaborator could lead to litigation and could reduce our ability to enter into future collaboration agreements and negatively impact our relationships with one or more existing collaborators. If any of these events occur, especially if they occur in our collaborations with GSK, Merck, Novartis, Nestlé Health Science or Takeda, or if we fail to maintain our agreements with our collaborators, we may not be able to commercialize our existing and potential products or grow our business or generate sufficient revenues to support our operations, we may not receive contemplated milestone payments and royalties under the collaboration, and we may be involved in litigation. Our collaboration opportunities could be harmed and our financial condition and results of operations could be negatively affected if:

•we do not achieve our research and development objectives under our collaboration agreements in a timely manner or at all;

•we develop products and processes or enter into additional collaborations that conflict with the business objectives of our other collaborators;

•we, our collaborators and/or our contract manufacturers do not receive the required regulatory and other approvals necessary for the commercialization of the applicable product;

•we disagree with our collaborators as to rights to intellectual property that are developed during the collaboration, or their research programs or commercialization activities;

•we are unable to manage multiple simultaneous collaborations;

•our collaborators or licensees are unable or unwilling to implement or use the technology or products that we provide or license to them;

•our collaborators become competitors of ours or enter into agreements with our competitors;

•our collaborators become unable or less willing to expend their resources on research and development or commercialization efforts due to general market conditions, their financial condition or other circumstances beyond our control; or

•our collaborators experience business difficulties, which could eliminate or impair their ability to effectively perform under our agreements.

Even after collaboration relationships expire or terminate, some elements of the collaboration may survive. For instance, certain rights, licenses and obligations of each party with respect to intellectual property and program materials may survive the expiration or termination of the collaboration. Disagreements or conflicts between and among the parties could develop even though the collaboration has ended. These disagreements or conflicts could result in expensive arbitration or litigation, which may not be resolved in our favor.

Finally, our business could be negatively affected if any of our collaborators or suppliers undergoes a change of control or were to otherwise assign the rights or obligations under any of our agreements.

Our biotherapeutic programs are early stage, highly regulated and expensive. Our ability to obtain additional development partners or additional funding for the programs, to advance our product candidates to clinical trials and to ultimately receive regulatory approvals is highly uncertain.

We are developing and have developed novel biotherapeutic candidates, including CDX-6114, the novel oral enzyme product candidate for the treatment of PKU that we licensed to Nestlé Health Science. We are also developing protein sequences for use in gene therapy products for Fabry Disease, Pompe Disease, an undisclosed blood factor deficiency and a certain undisclosed rare genetic disorder for Takeda. The successful development of biotherapeutic candidates involves many risks and uncertainties, requires long timelines and may lead to uncertain results. In addition, drug development is highly regulated and requires areas of expertise and capital resources we do not currently possess. In order to market a biologic product in the United States, we or our collaborators must undergo the following process required by the FDA:

•completion of extensive preclinical laboratory tests and preclinical animal studies, all performed in accordance with GLP requirements;

•submission to the FDA of an IND, which must become effective before human clinical studies may begin in the United States;

•approval by an independent IRB representing each clinical site before the clinical study may be initiated at the site;

•performance of adequate and well-controlled human clinical studies (generally divided into three phases) in accordance with GCP requirements to establish the safety, purity and potency (or efficacy) of the product candidate for each proposed indication;

•preparation of and submission to the FDA of a BLA after completion of all clinical studies;

•potential review of the product candidate by an FDA advisory committee;

•satisfactory completion of an FDA pre-approval inspection of the manufacturing facilities where the product candidate is produced to assess compliance with cGMP requirements; and

•FDA review and approval of a BLA prior to any commercial marketing or sale of the product in the United States.

If we fail to comply with applicable FDA or other regulatory requirements at any time during the drug development process, clinical testing, the approval process or after approval, we may become subject to administrative or judicial penalties, including the FDA’s refusal to approve a pending application, withdrawal of an approval, warning letters, product recalls and additional enforcement actions.

Our efforts to advance our biotherapeutic candidates that we develop are subject to numerous risks, including the following:

•The regulatory approval processes of the FDA and comparable foreign authorities are lengthy, time consuming and the results are inherently unpredictable. If we are ultimately unable to obtain regulatory approval for biotherapeutic product candidates, our business will be harmed. To obtain regulatory approval to market any product candidate, preclinical studies and costly and lengthy clinical trials are required, and the results of the studies and trials are highly uncertain. A failure of one or more preclinical or clinical trials can occur at any stage, and many companies that have believed their drug candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical and clinical testing have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their product candidates.

•We may find it difficult to enroll patients in our clinical trials for product candidates. Any enrollment difficulties could delay clinical trials and any potential product approval.

•We may experience difficulty or delay in obtaining the FDA’s acceptance of an IND for product candidates we may seek to enter into clinical development, which would delay initiation of Phase 1 clinical testing. Delays in the commencement or completion of clinical testing could significantly affect our product development costs or the product development costs of our present and any future collaborators. We do not know whether planned clinical trials will begin on time or be completed on schedule, if at all. The commencement and completion of clinical trials can be delayed for a number of reasons. For example, a clinical trial may be suspended or terminated by us, by the IRB of the institution in which such trial is being conducted, or by the FDA due to a number of factors, including unforeseen safety issues, changes in governmental regulations or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial.

•We have limited experience in drug development or regulatory matters related to drug development. As a result, we rely or will rely on third parties to conduct our preclinical and clinical studies, assist us with drug manufacturing and formulation and perform other tasks for us. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their responsibilities or comply with regulatory requirements, we may receive lower quality products or services, suffer reputational harm and not be able to obtain regulatory approval for product candidates.

•Our efforts to use CodeEvolver® protein engineering technology platform to generate new lead biotherapeutic candidates, whether under our collaborations with Nestlé Health Science, Takeda or otherwise, may not be successful in creating candidates of value.

•We will be exposed to potential product liability risks through the testing of experimental therapeutics in humans, which may expose us to substantial uninsured liabilities.

•Third parties may develop intellectual property that could limit our ability to develop, market and commercialize product candidates.

•Changes in methods of treatment of disease, such as gene therapy, could cause us to stop development of our product candidates or reduce or eliminate potential demand for CDX-6114, if approved, or any other product candidates that we may develop in the future.

If either Nestlé Health Science or Takeda terminate their development programs under their respective license agreements with us, any potential revenue from those license agreements will be significantly reduced or non-existent, and our results of operations and financial condition will be materially and adversely affected.

We have invested significant time and financial resources in the development of CDX-6114 and other product candidates for the treatment of hyperphenylalaninemia now included in the Nestlé License Agreement as well as in the development of candidates for the treatment of Fabry disease and Pompe disease which are now included in the Takeda Agreement.

Under the Nestlé License Agreement, we are eligible to receive payments from Nestlé Health Science that include (i) development and approval milestones of up to $85.0 million, (ii) sales-based milestones of up to $250.0 million in the aggregate, which aggregate amount is achievable if net sales exceed $1.0 billion in a single year, and (iii) tiered royalties, at percentages ranging from the mid-single digits to low double-digits, of net sales of product. Under the Takeda Agreement, we are eligible to earn potential payments that include (i) reimbursement of research and development fees and preclinical development milestone payments for the three initial programs of $10.5 million, in aggregate, and $3.4 million for the fourth program, (ii) clinical development and commercialization-based milestone, per target gene, of up to $104.0 million, and (iii) tiered royalty payments based on net sales of applicable products at percentages ranging from the mid-single digits to low single-digits. While we have received milestone payments under the Nestlé License Agreement to date there is no guarantee that we will receive further milestone payments under the Nestlé Agreement or Takeda Agreement in the future.

Under the Nestle Agreement and the Takeda Agreement, either Nestlé Health Science and Takeda, as applicable, may each terminate the entire agreement or specified programs thereunder at will under certain circumstances as described in more detail under “Item 1. Business--Our Market Opportunities--Pharmaceutical Market--Our Solutions for the Pharmaceutical Market--Biotherapeutic Product Discovery and Development” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

If Nestlé Health Science terminates its rights and obligations with respect to the Nestlé License Agreement and/or Takeda terminates its rights and obligations with respect to the Takeda Agreement, then depending on the timing of such event:

•the development of our product candidates subject to the respective agreements may be terminated or significantly delayed;

•our cash expenditures could increase significantly if it is necessary for us to hire additional employees and allocate scarce resources to the development and commercialization of product candidates;

•we would bear all of the risks and costs related to the further development and commercialization of product candidates that were previously the subject of the respective agreements, including the reimbursement of third parties; and

•in order to fund further development and commercialization of new product candidates or programs, we may need to seek out and establish alternative collaboration arrangements with third-party partners; this may not be possible, or we may not be able to do so on terms which are acceptable to us, in which case it may be necessary for us to limit the size or scope of one or more of our programs or increase our expenditures and seek additional funding by other means.

We may need additional capital in the future in order to expand our business.

Our future capital requirements may be substantial, particularly as we continue to develop our business. Although we believe that, based on our current level of operations, our existing cash, cash equivalents and equity securities will provide adequate funds for ongoing operations, planned capital expenditures and working capital requirements for at least the next 12 months, we may need additional capital if our current plans and assumptions change. Our need for additional capital will depend on many factors, including the financial success of our performance enzyme business, our spending to develop and commercialize new and existing products and the amount of collaboration funding we may receive to help cover the cost of such expenditures, the effect of any acquisitions of other businesses, technologies or facilities that we may make or develop in the future, our spending on new market opportunities, including opportunities in the biotherapeutics markets, and the filing, prosecution, enforcement and defense of patent claims. If our capital resources are insufficient to meet our capital requirements, and we are unable to enter into or maintain collaborations with partners that are able or willing to fund our development efforts or commercialize any products that we develop or enable, we will have to raise additional funds to continue the development of our technology and products and complete the commercialization of products, if any, resulting from our technologies.

In addition, we may choose to raise additional capital due to market conditions or strategic considerations, such as funding investments in our biotherapeutics business, even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans. We may seek to obtain such additional capital through equity offerings, debt financings, credit facilities and/or strategic collaborations. If future financings involve the issuance of equity securities, our existing stockholders would suffer dilution. If we raise debt financing or enter into credit facilities, we may be subject to restrictive covenants that limit our ability to conduct our business. Strategic collaborations may also place restrictions on our business. We may not be able to raise sufficient additional funds on terms that are favorable to us, if at all. If we fail to raise sufficient funds and fail to generate sufficient revenues to achieve planned gross margins and to control operating costs, our ability to fund our operations, take advantage of strategic opportunities, develop products or technologies, or otherwise respond to competitive pressures could be significantly limited. If this happens, we may be forced to delay or terminate research or development programs or the commercialization of products resulting from our technologies, curtail or cease operations or obtain funds through collaborative and licensing arrangements that may require us to relinquish commercial rights, or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us. If adequate funds are not available, we will not be able to successfully execute our business plan or continue our business.

We are dependent on a limited number of customers.

Our current revenues are derived from a limited number of key customers. For the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, customers that each individually contributed 10% or more of our total revenue accounted for 56% and 44% of our total revenues in 2022 and 2021, respectively. We expect a limited number of customers to continue to account for a significant portion of our revenues for the foreseeable future. This customer concentration increases the risk of quarterly fluctuations in our revenues and operating results. The loss or reduction of business from one or a combination of our significant customers could, materially adversely affect our revenues, financial condition and results of operations.

Our product supply agreements with customers have finite duration, may not be extended or renewed and generally do not require the customer to purchase any particular quantity or quantities of our products.

Our product supply agreements with customers generally have a finite duration, may not be extended or renewed and generally do not require the customer to purchase any particular quantity or quantities of our products. While our products are not considered commodities and may not be easily substituted for by our customers, particularly when our products are used in the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients, our customers may nevertheless terminate or fail to renew their product supply agreements with us or significantly curtail their purchases thereunder under certain circumstances. Any such termination or reduction could materially adversely affect our revenues, financial condition and results of operations. For the year ended December 31, 2022, we derived a majority of our product revenue from these product supply agreements.

With respect to customers purchasing our products for the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (“API”) for which they have exclusivity due to patent protection, the termination or expiration of such patent protection and any resulting generic competition may materially and adversely affect our revenues, financial condition or results of operations.

With respect to customers purchasing our products for the manufacture of API, or lead to the manufacture of API, for which exclusivity due to patent protection has or is about to expire, we can expect that the quantity of our products sold to such customers for such products may decline as generic competition for the API increases. While we anticipate that we may, in some cases, also be able to sell products to these generic competitors for the manufacture of these APIs, or lead to the manufacture of these APIs, the overall effect on our revenues, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adverse.

We are dependent on a limited number of contract manufacturers for large scale production of substantially all of our enzymes, including CDX-616. We are working to qualify new contract manufacturers to produce certain of our enzymes, including CDX-616, however those efforts may not be successful and therefore we may experience limitations on our ability to supply our enzymes to customers.

Manufacturing of our enzymes is conducted primarily in four locations: our in-house facility in Redwood City, California, and at three third-party contract manufacturing organizations, Lactosan GmbH & Co. KG (“Lactosan”), in Kapfenberg, Austria, ACS Dobfar S.p.A. (“ACSD”) (formerly known as DPhar S.p.A.), in Anagni, Italy, and Alphazyme LLC in Florida, United States. Generally, we perform smaller scale manufacturing in-house and outsource the larger scale manufacturing to these contract manufacturers. We have limited internal capacity to manufacture enzymes. As a result, we are dependent upon the performance and capacity of third-party manufacturers for the larger scale manufacturing of the enzymes used in our pharmaceutical and life sciences businesses.

Accordingly, we face risks of difficulties with, and interruptions in, performance by third party manufacturers, the occurrence of which could adversely impact the availability, launch and/or sales of our enzymes in the future. Enzyme manufacturing capacity limitations at our third-party manufacturers and manufacturing delays could negatively affect our business, reputation, results of operations and financial condition. The failure of any contract manufacturer to supply us our required volumes of enzyme on a timely basis, or to manufacture our enzymes in compliance with our specifications or applicable quality requirements or in volumes sufficient to meet demand, would adversely affect our ability to sell pharmaceutical and fine and complex chemicals products, could harm our relationships with our collaborators or customers and could negatively affect our revenues and operating results. We may be forced to secure alternative sources of supply, which may be unavailable on commercially acceptable terms, and could cause delays in our ability to deliver products to our customers, increase our costs and decrease our profit margins.

We currently have supply agreements in place with Lactosan, ACSD and Alphazyme. In the absence of a supply agreement, a contract manufacturer will be under no obligation to manufacture our enzymes and could elect to discontinue their manufacture at any time. If we require additional manufacturing capacity and are unable to obtain it in sufficient quantity, we may not be able to increase our product sales, or we may be required to make substantial capital investments to build that capacity or to contract with other manufacturers on terms that may be less favorable than the terms we currently have with our suppliers. If we choose to build our own additional manufacturing facility, it could take two years or longer before our facility is able to produce commercial volumes of our enzymes. Any resources we expend on acquiring or building internal manufacturing capabilities could be at the expense of other potentially more profitable opportunities. In addition, if we contract with other manufacturers, we may experience delays of several months in qualifying them, which could harm our relationships with our collaborators or customers and could negatively affect our revenues or operating results.

If we are unable to develop and commercialize new products for the pharmaceutical, biotherapeutics, diagnostics and life science tools markets, our business and prospects will be harmed.

We plan to launch new products for the pharmaceutical, biotherapeutics, diagnostics and other life science tools markets. These efforts are subject to numerous risks, including the following:

•customers in these markets may be reluctant to adopt new manufacturing processes that use our enzymes;

•we may be unable to successfully develop the enzymes or manufacturing processes for our products in a timely and cost-effective manner, if at all;

•we may face difficulties in transferring the developed technologies to our customers and the contract manufacturers that we may use for commercial scale production of intermediates and enzymes in these markets;

•the contract manufacturers that we may use may be unable to scale their manufacturing operations to meet the demand for these products and we may be unable to secure additional manufacturing capacity;

•customers may not be willing to purchase these products for these markets from us on favorable terms, if at all;

•we may face product liability litigation, unexpected safety or efficacy concerns and product recalls or withdrawals;

•our customers’ products may experience adverse events or face competition from new products, which would reduce demand for our products;

•we may face pressure from existing or new competitive products; and

•we may face pricing pressures from existing or new competitors, some of which may benefit from government subsidies or other incentives.

Competitors and potential competitors who have greater resources and experience than we do may develop products and technologies that make ours obsolete or may use their greater resources to gain market share at our expense.

The biocatalysis industry and each of our target markets are characterized by rapid technological change. Our future success will depend on our ability to maintain a competitive position with respect to technological advances. In addition, as we enter new markets, we will face new competition and will need to adapt to competitive factors that may be different from those we face today.

We are aware that other companies, including Royal DSM, N.V. (“DSM”), BASF, Bayer and Novozymes have alternative methods for obtaining and generating genetic diversity or use mutagenesis techniques to produce genetic diversity. Academic institutions such as the California Institute of Technology, the Max Planck Institute and the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology are also working in this field. Technological development by others may result in our technology, products and services, as well as products developed by our customers using our biocatalysts, becoming obsolete.

Our primary competitors in the performance enzymes for pharmaceutical productsare companies marketing either conventional, non-enzymatic processes or biocatalytic enzymes to manufacturers of pharmaceutical intermediates and APIs, and also existing in-house technologies (both biocatalysts and conventional catalysts) within our client and potential client companies. The principal methods of competition and competitive differentiation in this market are price, product quality and performance, including manufacturing yield, safety and environmental benefits, and speed of delivery of product. Pharmaceutical manufacturers that use biocatalytic processes can face increased competition from manufacturers that use more conventional processes and/or manufacturers that are based in regions (such as India and China) with lower regulatory, safety and environmental costs.

The market for the manufacture and supply of APIs and intermediates is large with many established companies. These companies include many of our large innovator and generic pharmaceutical customers, such as Merck, GSK, Novartis, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers, Kyorin, Urovant and Teva which have significant internal research and development efforts directed at developing processes to manufacture APIs and intermediates. The processes used by these companies include classical conventional organic chemistry reactions, chemo catalytic reactions, biocatalytic reactions or combinations thereof. Our biocatalytic based manufacturing processes must compete with these internally developed routes. Additionally, we also face competition from companies developing and marketing conventional catalysts such as Solvias Inc., BASF and Takasago International Corporation.

The market for supplying enzymes for use in pharmaceutical manufacturing is quite fragmented. There is competition from large industrial enzyme companies, such as Novozymes and DuPont, as well as subsidiaries of larger contract research/contract manufacturing organizations, such as DSM, Cambrex Corporation, Lonza, WuXi STA and Almac Group Ltd. Some fermentation pathway design companies, like Ginkgo Bioworks (who recently acquired Zymergen), whose traditional focus has been to design microorganisms that express small molecule chemicals, could extend into designing organisms that express enzymes. There is also competition in the enzyme customization and optimization area from several smaller companies, such as BRAIN AG, Arzeda, c-LEcta GmbH and Evocatal GmbH.

We entered the fine chemicals market in 2013, by applying our protein engineering technology in the food market. We face similar forms of competition in this market as in the pharmaceutical markets with the exception that the risk of losing opportunities to larger competitors in fine chemicals is greater given the larger scale of opportunities available in the fine chemicals market compared to the pharmaceutical market. Our significant competitors in the fine chemicals markets include companies that have been in these marketplaces for many years, such as DuPont Industrial Biosciences (“DuPont Genencor”), DSM, Novozymes and A.B. Enzymes. These companies have greater resources in these markets than we do and have long-term supply arrangements already in place with customers. Our ability to compete in these markets may be limited by our relatively late entrance. We also face competition in both the fine chemicals and pharmaceutical markets from emerging companies offering whole cell metabolic pathway approaches to these markets.

There are numerous companies that participate in the biotherapeutics market generally and the PKU market specifically. Many of these companies are large, successful and well-capitalized. BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (“BioMarin”) and Daiichi Sankyo Company market Kuvan® in the United States, Europe and Japan for the treatment of a certain type of PKU. In addition, BioMarin gained US FDA approval in 2018 and began commercial sales of PalynziqTM as an injectable enzyme substitution therapy for the potential treatment of PKU. Several companies, i.e., Synlogic, Homology Medicines and Rubius have reported clinical efforts to develop biotherapeutic candidates for PKU. Beyond targeting PKU, Takeda (who acquired Shire Plc in 2019), Genzyme / Sanofi S.A., BioMarin and other companies market or are actively developing new enzyme therapeutics. There are numerous companies that are developing other forms of therapeutics, such as small molecules, gene therapies, as well as therapies based on gene editing, which could compete with biotherapeutics.

Our ability to compete successfully in any of these markets will depend on our ability to develop proprietary products that reach the market in a timely manner and are technologically superior to and/or are less expensive than other products on the market. Many of our competitors have substantially greater production, financial, research and development, personnel and marketing resources than we do. They also started developing products earlier than we did, which may allow them to establish blocking intellectual property positions or bring products to market before we can. In addition, certain of our competitors may also benefit from local government subsidies and other incentives that are not available to us. As a result, our competitors may be able to develop competing and/or superior technologies and processes, and compete more aggressively and sustain that competition over a longer period of time than we could. Our technologies and products may be rendered obsolete or uneconomical by technological advances or entirely different approaches developed by one or more of our competitors. We cannot be certain that any products we develop in the future will compare favorably to products offered by our competitors or that our existing or future products will compare favorably to any new products that are developed by our competitors. As more companies develop new intellectual property in our markets, the possibility of a competitor acquiring patent or other rights that may limit our products or potential products increases, which could lead to litigation.

Our limited resources relative to many of our competitors may cause us to fail to anticipate or respond adequately to new developments and other competitive pressures. This failure could reduce our competitiveness and market share, adversely affect our results of operations and financial position, and prevent us from obtaining or maintaining profitability.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected and may continue in the future to, directly or indirectly, adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had, and continues to have, a significant impact globally, prompting governments and businesses to take unprecedented measures in response. In the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic has and may continue in the future to, directly or indirectly, adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition, including as a result of compliance with governmental orders governing the operation of businesses during the pandemic, the temporary closure of our Redwood City, California facilities from mid-March 2020 through the end of April 2020 and disruption of our research and development operations.

CDXS US Equity

CDXS · 10-K · period ended 2022-12-31

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

CDXS US Equity☆

CDXS · 10-K · period ended 2022-12-31

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

CDXS US Equity