Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Investing in our securities involves risks. Before you make a decision to buy our securities, in addition to the risks and uncertainties discussed above under “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” you should carefully consider the specific risks set forth herein. If any of these risks actually occur, it may materially harm our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations. As a result, the market price of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. Additionally, the risks and uncertainties described in this Annual Report or our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) are not the only risks and uncertainties that we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial may become material and adversely affect our business.
Risks Related to Our Business
We depend heavily on the success of our lead product candidate, detalimogene voraplasmid, or detalimogene, formerly known as EG-70, which is currently in a clinical trial. Our clinical trial of detalimogene may not be successful. If we are unable to successfully develop, obtain regulatory approval for, and commercialize detalimogene, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.
We currently only have one product candidate, detalimogene, in clinical development. We invested and continue to invest a significant portion of our efforts and financial resources in the research and development of detalimogene. Our ability to generate revenues from the sale of drugs that treat bladder cancer and other diseases in humans, which may not occur for several years, if ever, will depend heavily on the successful clinical development, regulatory approval for, and eventual commercialization of detalimogene. This may make an investment in our Company riskier than similar companies that have multiple product candidates in active development and may be able to better sustain the delay or failure of a lead product candidate. The success of detalimogene will depend on several factors, including:
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successful initiation and enrollment of clinical trials and completion of clinical trials with favorable results;
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acceptance of regulatory submissions by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities for the conduct of clinical trials of detalimogene and of our proposed designs of planned clinical trials of detalimogene, including protocol amendments or other changes we may make to ongoing clinical trials;
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the frequency and severity of adverse events observed in clinical trials and preclinical studies;
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maintaining and establishing relationships with CROs and clinical sites for the clinical development of detalimogene, and the ability of such CROs and clinical sites to comply with clinical trial protocols, GCPs and other applicable requirements;
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demonstrating the safety, purity and potency (or efficacy) of detalimogene to the satisfaction of applicable regulatory authorities, including by establishing a safety database of a size satisfactory to regulatory authorities;
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receipt and maintenance of regulatory approvals from applicable regulatory authorities, including approvals of BLAs from the FDA;
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maintaining relationships with our third-party CMOs and the CMOs' ability to comply with cGMPs as well as entering into agreements with our third-party CMOs for, or establishing our own, commercial manufacturing capabilities at a cost and scale sufficient to support commercialization;
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establishing sales, marketing and distribution capabilities and launching commercial sales of detalimogene, if and when approved by the FDA, whether alone or in collaboration with others;
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obtaining, maintaining, protecting and enforcing patent and any potential trade secret protection or regulatory exclusivity for detalimogene;
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maintaining an acceptable safety profile of detalimogene following regulatory approval, if any;
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maintaining and growing an organization of people who can develop and, if approved, commercialize, market and sell detalimogene; and
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acceptance and coverage of our products, if approved, by patients, the medical community and federal healthcare programs and other third-party payors.
If we are unable to develop, obtain regulatory approval for, or if approved, successfully manufacture and commercialize detalimogene, or if we experience delays as a result of any of the above factors or otherwise, our business would be materially harmed.
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We expect to make significant investments in our continued research and development of detalimogene and other new product candidates and genetic medicines and services we may develop, which may not be successful, and if they are not successful, we may not be able to achieve or sustain profitability in the future. As an organization, we do not have experience in any such new lines of business, and failure to identify other product candidates and/or execute on the expansion of our business would adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Biotechnology product development is expensive, takes years to complete, and has uncertain outcomes. Failure can occur at any stage of product development. In addition, if we determine that any of our current or future products or services are unlikely to succeed, we may abandon them without any return on our investment. We expect to incur significant expenses to advance our genetic medicine development efforts, which may be unsuccessful. Developing new product candidates, such as detalimogene, is a speculative, risky and highly competitive endeavor. Product candidates that initially show promise may fail to achieve the desired results in development and clinical studies and may ultimately not prove to be safe and effective or meet expectations for clinical utility. We may be unable to establish clinical endpoints that applicable regulatory authorities would consider clinically meaningful, and a clinical trial can fail at any stage of testing. We may need to alter our offerings in development and repeat clinical studies before we develop a potentially successful product. If, after development, a product appears successful, we will still need to obtain FDA and other regulatory approvals before we can market it. The FDA’s approval pathways are likely to involve significant time, as well as additional research, development and clinical study expenditures. The FDA may not clear, authorize or approve any product we develop. Even if we develop a product that receives regulatory clearance, authorization or approval, we would need to commit substantial resources to commercialize, sell and market it before it could be profitable, and the product may never be commercially successful. Additionally, development of any product or service may be disrupted or made less viable by the development or announcement of competing products or services, which could occur at any time. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with developing product candidates, we are unable to predict whether or when our therapeutics business may successfully commercialize a product candidate.
We have incurred net losses in every year since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur net losses in the foreseeable future.
We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company and have incurred net losses in each reporting period since our inception, have not generated any revenue from product sales to date and have financed our operations principally through third-party investments in our debt and equity instruments. Our net losses were $117.3 million and $55.1 million for the fiscal years ended October 31, 2025 and October 31, 2024, respectively. As of October 31, 2025, we had an accumulated deficit of $372.0 million. Our lead product candidate, detalimogene, is in clinical trials. Our other programs are in preclinical research. Although we could potentially achieve our first commercial product as early as the second half of 2027, there is no guarantee we will do so, and delays or successful development efforts could prevent or significantly postpone commercialization. As a result, we may not generate revenue from product sales for some time, if at all. Even if we succeed in receiving marketing approval for and commercializing one or more of our product candidates, we expect that we will continue to incur substantial costs for commercialization as well as substantial research and development and other expenses in order to discover, develop and market additional potential products.
We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and increasing operating losses for the foreseeable future. The net losses we incur may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter such that a period-to-period comparison of our results of operations may not be a good indication of our future performance. The size of our future net losses will depend, in part, on the pace of our development activities and the rate of future growth of our expenses and our ability to generate revenue. Our prior losses and expected future losses have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our working capital, our ability to fund the development of our product candidates and our ability to achieve and maintain profitability and the performance of our Common Shares.
The estimates of market sizes and forecasts of market growth for the potential demand of detalimogene and any other product candidates we develop, as provided in this Annual Report and as may be provided in our future public filings and press releases are based on a number of assumptions and may prove to be inaccurate. The actual market may be smaller than we believe, which would adversely affect our business and results of operations.
We make estimates of total addressable markets and forecasts of market growth for detalimogene and any other product candidates we develop in this Annual Report, and we may also make such estimates and forecasts in future public filings and press releases. Our estimates, forecasts and key performance indicators are based on a number of complex assumptions, internal and third-party estimates in published literature, and other business data, including assumptions and estimates relating to our ability to manage operating expenses of, invest in, and develop and generate revenue from detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop in the future. While we believe our assumptions and the data underlying our estimates and key performance indicators are reasonable, there are inherent challenges in measuring or forecasting such information. As a result, these assumptions and estimates may not be correct and the conditions supporting our assumptions or estimates may change at any time, thereby reducing the predictive accuracy of these underlying factors and metrics. Consequently, our estimates of the total addressable markets and our forecasts of market growth may prove to be incorrect. For example, if the annual total addressable markets or the potential market growth is smaller than we have estimated or if the key business metrics we utilize to forecast commercial opportunities are inaccurate, it may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
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If our internal controls over financial reporting or our disclosure controls and procedures are not effective, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or file our periodic reports in a timely manner, which may cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and may lead to a decline in the trading price of our common stock.
As a public company, we are required to maintain internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and determine the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and provide a management report on our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of a company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Our management has performed an evaluation of our internal controls over financial reporting in accordance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, however, an independent registered public accounting firm has never performed an evaluation because no such evaluation is currently required. Had our independent registered public accounting firm performed an evaluation of our internal control over financial reporting in accordance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, material weaknesses may have been identified. If we identify one or more material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to certify that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, our consolidated financial statements may contain material misstatements and we could be required to revise or restate our financial results. This could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition, restrict our ability to access the capital markets, require us to expend significant resources to correct the material weakness, subject us to fines, penalties or judgments, harm our reputation, adversely affect the trading price of our common stock, or otherwise cause a decline in investor confidence. See “Item 9A. Controls and Procedures—Remediation Efforts to Address Material Weakness” of this Annual Report for information related to material weakness remediation and mitigation.
To date, we have not generated any product revenue, have a history of losses and will need to raise additional capital to fund our operations. If we fail to obtain necessary financing, we will not be able to complete the development and commercialization of detalimogene or our other product candidates.
The development of biopharmaceutical product candidates, including conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials, is a very time-consuming, capital-intensive and uncertain process. Our operations have consumed substantial amounts of cash since our inception. We expect to continue to spend substantial amounts to conduct further research and development and preclinical or nonclinical testing and studies and clinical trials of our current and future programs, to seek regulatory approvals for our product candidates and to prepare for potential launch and commercialization of any products for which we may receive regulatory approval. As of October 31, 2025, we had $50.2 million in cash and cash equivalents and $152.1 million in marketable securities. Although we have a detailed current operating plan, our future capital requirements and the period for which our existing resources will support our operations may vary significantly from what we expect. We will in any event require additional capital in order to complete clinical development of any of our current programs. Our monthly spending levels will vary based on new and ongoing development and corporate activities. Because the length of time and activities associated with development of our product candidates is highly uncertain, we are unable to estimate the actual funds we will require for product development and any approved marketing and commercialization activities. Our funding requirements, both near- and long-term, as well as the timing and amount of our operating expenditures, will depend largely on:
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the initiation, progress, scope, timing, costs and results of preclinical or nonclinical testing and studies and clinical trials for our product candidates;
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the clinical development plans we establish for these product candidates;
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the number and characteristics of product candidates that we develop or may in-license;
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the terms of any collaboration agreements we may choose to execute;
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the outcome, timing and cost of meeting regulatory requirements established by the FDA and other comparable regulatory authorities outside of the United States;
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the cost of filing, prosecuting, defending and enforcing our patent claims and other intellectual property rights;
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the cost of resolving intellectual property disputes, including any patent infringement actions that may be brought by third parties in the future against us or our product candidates;
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the effect of competing technological and market developments;
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the cost and timing of formulation development and manufacturing of our product candidates, including the completion of commercial-scale outsourced manufacturing activities;
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the cost of establishing sales, marketing and distribution capabilities for any product candidates for which we may receive regulatory approval in regions where we choose to commercialize our products on our own or with a partner; and
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the costs related to any domestic and/or international expansion.
We do not have any committed external source of funds or other support for our development efforts and we cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Until we can generate sufficient revenue to finance our cash requirements, which we may never do, we expect to finance our future cash needs through a combination of public or private equity
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offerings, debt financings, collaborations, strategic alliances, licensing arrangements, royalty revenues, sales or monetization of future revenue streams, marketing or distribution arrangements or other strategic transactions. If we raise additional funds through public or private equity offerings, the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect our shareholders’ rights. Further, to the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of our Common Shares or securities convertible or exchangeable into our Common Shares, your ownership interest will be diluted. We are party to the Amended Loan Agreement (as defined herein) with Hercules Capital, Inc. (“Hercules” or the “Lender”), as agent and lender, and several financial institutions. The Amended Loan Agreement subjects us to fixed payment obligation covenants that limit or restrict our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. For additional information, see “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Hercules Loan Agreement” and “Notes to the Financial Statements—Note 18, Subsequent Events”for additional information on the Hercules Loan Agreement. If we raise additional capital through debt financing, we may be subject to similar or more restrictive conditions than the conditions of the Amended Loan Agreement. If we raise additional capital through marketing and distribution arrangements or other collaborations, strategic alliances, licensing arrangements, royalty revenues, sales or monetization of future revenue streams, or strategic transactions with third parties, we may have to relinquish certain valuable rights to our product candidates, technologies, future revenue streams or research programs or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. We also could be required to seek collaborators for one or more of our current or future product candidates at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable or relinquish our rights to product candidates or technologies that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves. If we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue the development or commercialization of one or more of our products or product candidates or one or more of our other research or development initiatives. Any of the above events could significantly harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects and cause the price of our common shares to decline.
We face significant competition from other entities, including biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, which may result in our competitors discovering, developing or commercializing products before us or more successfully than we do. Our business and results of operations could be adversely affected if we fail to compete effectively.
The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including the development of non-viral genetic medicines for administration into mucosal tissues as well as the development of novel therapies for bladder cancer and non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, or “NMIBC,” specifically, are characterized by rapid growth, a dynamic landscape of competitive product candidates and a strong reliance on intellectual property. We face competition from a variety of organizations, including larger pharmaceutical companies, specialty biotechnology companies, specialty medical device companies, academic research institutions, governmental agencies, as well as public and private institutions. There are several companies that are currently developing gene-based therapeutics for use in a variety of indications, from cancer (including bladder cancer and NMIBC specifically) to rare disease, to regenerative medicine. There are also companies and institutions developing non-gene based therapies such as, but not limited to, drug/device combinations that may be effective in the clinical indications we choose to pursue and oncology drugs.
DDX is our proprietary carrier for genetic medicines to mucosal tissues and is the foundation for our nanoparticle formulations. We developed DDX and our patented non-viral genetic medicines to penetrate mucus barriers and to deliver genes to mucosal epithelial cells in a way that is re-dosable, scalable, and designed to integrate into existing clinical practice. Our genetic medicine platform’s leading program, detalimogene, is in the area of immuno-oncology. We believe that a significant number of products are currently under development, and may become commercially available in the future, for the treatment of indications for which we are developing detalimogene, including NMIBC. Competitors using genetic medicines for mucosal tissues include CG Oncology, Inc. and Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc, both of which are developing products that will compete directly with detalimogene, if approved. More generally, if detalimogene or any future product candidates that we develop are approved, they will compete with surgery, radiation, and drug therapy, including chemotherapy, BCG, hormone therapy, biologic therapy, such as monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, radiopharmaceuticals, immunotherapy, cell-based therapy, and targeted therapy, or a combination of any such methods, either approved or under development, which are intended to treat the same indications that we are targeting or may target, including through approaches that may prove to be more effective, have fewer side effects, be less costly to manufacture, be more convenient to administer or have other advantages over detalimogene and any future product candidates that we develop. To the extent Merck or another manufacturer increases the supply of BCG, there may be less demand for alternative treatments such as detalimogene, if approved, in earlier lines of treatment for NMIBC. There are numerous companies that have commercialized or are developing treatments for NMIBC that detalimogene will compete with, if approved, including Bristol Meyers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Inc., Hoffman-La Roche AG (Roche), CG Oncology, Inc., Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc., ImmunityBio Inc., Johnson & Johnson Inc., Merck, Protara Therapeutics, Inc., Pfizer, Inc., Aura Biosciences Inc., and UroGen Pharma, Inc.
In addition, many of our current or potential competitors, either alone or with their collaboration partners, have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials and marketing approved products than we do. Mergers and acquisitions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These competitors also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for and participation in clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs. Our commercial opportunities could be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer,
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more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient, are more shelf-stable or are less expensive than any products that we may develop. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market, if we successfully enter it at all. The key competitive factors affecting the success of all of our programs, including detalimogene, are likely to be their efficacy, safety, convenience and availability of reimbursement. Competing products could present superior treatment alternatives, including by being more effective, safer, more convenient, less expensive, or marketed and sold more effectively than any products we may develop. Competitive products may make detalimogene or any future product candidates we develop obsolete or noncompetitive before we generate sufficient revenue to recover the expense of their development and commercialization. If we are unable to compete effectively, our opportunity to generate revenue from the sale of detalimogene or any future product candidates we may develop, if approved, could be adversely affected.
If detalimogene or other product candidates that we may develop are approved for the indications for which we are currently conducting or planning clinical trials, they may compete with other products currently under development. We may not be aware of all competitive or potentially competitive products under development by other market participants, and information relating to such products may not be publicly accessible. Competition with other related products currently under development may include competition for clinical trial sites, patient recruitment and product sales. See “Item 1.Business—Competition” for additional information.
The genetic medicine field is relatively new and evolving rapidly. Because of our limited technical, financial and human resources, we are focusing our research and development efforts on detalimogene, as well as further development of our genetic medicine platform and other product candidates we may develop. As a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of other genetic medicine technologies or other therapeutic product candidates that provide significant advantages over our platform or product candidates, which could materially harm our business and results of operations.
Genetic medicine is an emerging field of product development with only a small number of genetic medicines having received FDA or EMA approval to date. Our genetic medicine research programs are still at an early stage, and there remain several areas of product development risk, which pose particular uncertainty for our programs given the relatively limited development history of, and our limited prior experience with, genetic medicines. Translational science, manufacturing materials and processes, safety concerns, regulatory pathway and clinical trial design and execution all pose particular risk to our product development activities. Furthermore, the medical community’s understanding of the causes of many diseases continues to evolve and further research may change the medical community’s views on what therapies and approaches are most effective for addressing certain diseases.
As an organization, we have limited experience conducting IND-enabling studies or clinical trials, including later stage or pivotal clinical trials. In pursuing our new technologies, we have begun to establish our own genetic medicine technical capabilities, but we will need to continue to expand those capabilities by either hiring internally or seeking assistance from outside service providers. Genetic medicine is an area of significant investment by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and there may be a scarcity of talent available to us in these areas. If we are not able to expand our genetic medicine capabilities, we may not be able to develop in the way we intend or desire any promising product candidates that emerge from our program, including detalimogene, which would limit our prospects for future growth. We may require more time and incur greater costs than our competitors and may not succeed in obtaining regulatory approvals of detalimogene or other product candidates that we may develop. We may also rely on third-party vendors or service providers, including CROs, among others who may fail to meet their commitments to us or deliver their products to us. We may also be forced to rely on a single such provider with no redundancy or alternative. Failure to commence or complete, or delays in our clinical trials, could prevent us from or delay us in commercializing detalimogene or other product candidates that we may develop.
Because we have limited financial and managerial resources, we focus on research programs and on genetic medicine technologies and product candidates that we identify for specific indications among many potential options, such as detalimogene in high-risk BCG-unresponsive NMBIC with CIS or other NMIBC indications. As a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential, or we may choose to focus our efforts and resources on a potential product candidate that ultimately proves to be unsuccessful. For example, in June 2024, we announced that, as a result of our prioritization of exploring potential bladder cancer indications for detalimogene, we deprioritized preclinical development of another product candidate, EG-i08 for cystic fibrosis. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future research and development programs and product candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable products. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular product candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that product candidate through collaboration, licensing or other arrangements in cases in which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights to such product candidate. Failure to pursue opportunities with greater commercial potential or relinquishing valuable rights to product candidates may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
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Detalimogene and our genetic medicine platform are based on novel technologies that are unproven, which makes it difficult to predict the time and cost of development and the probability or timing of subsequently obtaining regulatory approval.
We have concentrated our research and development efforts on our genetic medicine platform, and our future success depends on the successful development and maintenance of our platform.
However, the technologies that comprise our platform and detalimogene are new and largely unproven. These technologies have been neither extensively studied nor extensively clinically tested, and the scientific and clinical evidence to support the feasibility of developing product candidates based on those technologies in pursuit of regulatory approval and potential commercial viability and success may be considered preliminary and limited. Successful development of product candidates by us will require solving several issues, including proving the safety and efficacy of detalimogene for BCG-unresponsive NMIBC and expanding our mucosal tissue delivery system to treat patient tissues beyond the bladder, such as urogenital and gastrointestinal mucosal tissues. There can be no assurance we will be successful in solving any or all of these issues. We have concentrated our research efforts to date on developing the components of our genetic medicine platform, and our future success is highly dependent on the successful development of our proprietary carrier for genetic medicines to mucosal tissues, therapeutic applications of such technology and the advancement of additional programs focused on diseases of the urogenital and gastrointestinal mucosal tissues. We may decide to alter or abandon our initial programs as new data become available and we gain experience in developing our therapeutics. We cannot be sure that our technologies will yield satisfactory products that are safe and effective, scalable or profitable in any indication we pursue.
There can be no assurance that any development problems we experience in the future related to our genetic medicine platform will not cause significant delays or unanticipated costs, or that such development problems can be solved. We may also experience delays in developing sustainable, reproducible and scalable manufacturing processes or transferring such processes to any commercial partners, which may prevent us from initiating or conducting clinical trials or commercializing our products on a timely or profitable basis, if at all. We may also fail to build redundancy in these manufacturing processes, such that we will be vulnerable to third-party provider failures that may impair the supply of or manufacture of critical materials, products, or reagents. In addition, the clinical trial requirements of the FDA, the EMA and other regulatory agencies and the criteria these regulators use to determine the safety and efficacy of a product candidate vary substantially according to the type, complexity, novelty and intended use and market of the potential products. The regulatory approval process for novel product candidates can be more expensive and take longer than for other, better known or extensively studied pharmaceutical or other product candidates. FDA’s regulatory guidance documents, including those that may be applicable to our programs, may change, be cancelled or evolve. Only a small number of genetic medicines have successfully reached the clinical trial phase of development or beyond, limiting insight into the regulatory review process for this field of genetic medicine. As a result, it is difficult to determine how long it will take or how much it will cost to obtain regulatory approvals in either the United States or the European Union for any product candidates we may develop or how long it will take to commercialize any product candidate that receives marketing approval.
Development of new therapeutics involves a lengthy and expensive process, with an uncertain outcome. We may incur additional costs, fail to replicate the positive results from our earlier preclinical or clinical studies of our product candidates in later preclinical studies or clinical trials or experience delays in completing or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of any product candidates, including, but not limited to, detalimogene.
To obtain the requisite regulatory approvals to commercialize detalimogene or any other product candidate that we may develop, we must demonstrate through extensive preclinical studies and clinical trials that our products are safe and effective. Our product candidates are in preclinical development and clinical trial stages and thus their risk of failure is high. Before we can commence clinical trials for a product candidate, we must complete extensive preclinical studies that support our filed and planned INDs in the United States, or similar applications in other jurisdictions. We cannot be certain of the timely completion or outcome of our preclinical studies and cannot predict if the FDA or other regulatory authorities will accept our proposed clinical programs or if the outcome of our preclinical studies will ultimately support the further development of our product candidates. As a result, we cannot be sure that we will be able to submit INDs or similar applications for our preclinical programs on the timelines we expect, if at all, and we cannot be sure that submission of INDs or similar applications will result in the FDA or other regulatory authorities allowing clinical trials to begin.
Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of any product candidate, including detalimogene, we must conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of any of these product candidates in humans. Clinical trials are expensive, difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete, and their outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during, or even after, the clinical trial process and our ongoing and future clinical results may not be successful. We may be unable to establish clinical endpoints that applicable regulatory authorities would consider clinically meaningful and a clinical trial can fail at any stage of testing. Similarly, if regulatory authorities agree, implicitly or explicitly, that a certain set of clinical endpoints is clinically meaningful or adequate to demonstrate safety and efficacy, they may change their determination at a later date. The outcome of preclinical studies and early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later clinical trials and interim or preliminary results of a clinical trial do not necessarily predict final results. Differences in trial design between early-stage clinical trials and later-stage clinical trials make it difficult to extrapolate the results of earlier clinical trials to later clinical trials. Moreover, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses and many companies that have believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their products.
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Successful completion of clinical trials is a prerequisite to submitting a BLA to the FDA and similar marketing applications to other regulatory authorities, for each product candidate and, consequently, the ultimate approval and commercial marketing of any product candidates. We do not know whether any of our clinical trials will be completed on schedule, if at all.
We may experience delays in initiating or completing clinical trials and preclinical studies. We also may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, any ongoing and future clinical trials that we conduct that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize our product candidates, including that:
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we may be unable to generate sufficient preclinical, toxicology, in vivo, in vitro, or other data to support the initiation of clinical trials;
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we may experience delays in our discussions with the FDA and other regulatory authorities regarding trial design or other aspects of our trial and study;
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regulators or IRBs, or ethics committees may not authorize us or our investigators to commence a clinical trial or conduct a clinical trial at a prospective trial site;
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we may experience delays in reaching, or fail to reach, agreement on acceptable terms with prospective trial sites and prospective CROs, the terms of which can be subject to extensive negotiation and may vary significantly among different CROs and trial sites;
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positive results from our preclinical studies of our product candidates may not necessarily be predictive of the results from required later preclinical studies and clinical trials and positive results from such preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates may not be replicated in subsequent preclinical studies or clinical trial results;
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clinical trials of any product candidates may fail to show safety or efficacy, or produce negative or inconclusive results and we may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional preclinical studies or clinical trials or we may decide to abandon product development programs;
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the number of patients required for clinical trials of any product candidates may be larger than we anticipate, enrollment in these clinical trials may be slower than we anticipate or participants may drop out of these clinical trials or fail to return for post-treatment follow-up at a higher rate than we anticipate;
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the FDA or other regulatory authorities may require us to enroll more patients in clinical trials than we had planned, including if they determine that patients we have enrolled did not meet the eligibility criteria for the clinical trial or, in the case of detalimogene for BCG-unresponsive NMIBC with CIS, did not meet the requirements of the FDA’s 2018 Guidance Document entitled “Bacillus Calmette-Guérin-Unresponsive Nonmuscle Invasive Bladder Cancer: Developing Drugs and Biologics for Treatment Guidance for Industry” (the “Guidance Document”) and the FDA’s August 2024 update in draft form of the Guidance Document;
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we may need to add new or additional clinical trial sites; and
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our third-party contractors may fail to comply with regulatory requirements or meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner, or at all, or may deviate from the clinical trial.
We could also encounter delays if a clinical trial is suspended, placed on clinical hold or terminated by us, the IRBs of the institutions in which such trials are being conducted, or the FDA or other regulatory authorities or recommended for suspension or termination by the Data Safety Monitoring Board, for such trial. A suspension or termination may be imposed due to a number of factors, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements or our clinical protocols, inspection of the clinical trial operations or trial site by the FDA or other regulatory authorities resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold, unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a product or treatment, failure to establish or achieve clinically meaningful trial endpoints, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial. Many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates. Further, the FDA or other regulatory authorities may disagree with our clinical trial design and our interpretation of data from clinical trials, or may change the requirements for approval even after they have reviewed and commented on the design for our clinical trials. Moreover, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses and many companies that believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials nonetheless failed to obtain FDA approval.
Our product development costs will increase if we experience delays in clinical testing or marketing approvals, which will correspondingly increase our operating costs. Our preclinical studies or clinical trials may not begin as planned, may need to be restructured or may not be completed on schedule, or at all. Significant preclinical studies or clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates and may allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, potentially impairing our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and harming our business and results of operations. Any delays in our preclinical or clinical development programs may harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
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Interim top-line and preliminary data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time will change as more patient data become available and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.
From time to time, we may publish interim top-line or preliminary data from our clinical trials. Interim, topline and preliminary data from our clinical trials are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as participant enrollment continues, data is further analyzed, and more participant data become available. We also make assumptions, estimations, calculations, and conclusions as part of our analyses of data, and we may not have received or had the opportunity to fully evaluate all data. Preliminary, topline or interim results also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the data we have previously published. As a result, interim, topline and preliminary data should be expected to change as additional patient data become available and as such new data and/or existing data is audited and verified; all data should be viewed with caution until the final data and analyses are available. Adverse differences between preliminary, topline or interim data and final data could be material and could significantly harm our reputation and business prospects and may cause the trading price of our common shares to fluctuate significantly.
In addition, others, including regulatory authorities, may not accept or agree with our assumptions, estimates, calculations, conclusions or analyses or may interpret or weigh the importance of data differently, which could impact the value of the particular program (for example, detalimogene), the approvability or commercialization of the particular product candidate or product, and our Company in general. Moreover, the information we choose to publicly disclose regarding a particular study or clinical trial is based on what is typically extensive information, and you or others may not agree with what we determine is material or otherwise appropriate information to include in our disclosure, and any information we determine not to disclose may ultimately be deemed significant with respect to future decisions, conclusions, views, activities or otherwise regarding a particular drug, product candidate or our business. If the interim, topline or preliminary data that we report differ from actual results, or if others, including regulatory authorities, disagree with the conclusions we reached, our ability to obtain approval for, and commercialize detalimogene and any future product candidates we develop may be harmed, which could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
If we encounter difficulties enrolling patients in clinical trials, our clinical development activities could be delayed or otherwise adversely affected.
The timely completion of clinical trials in accordance with their protocols depends, among other things, on our ability to enroll a sufficient number of patients who remain in the trial until its conclusion. We have from time to time experienced and may in the future experience difficulties in patient enrollment in our clinical trials for a variety of reasons, including:
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the availability of a sizeable population of eligible patients;
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the proximity of patients to study sites;
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the design of the trial;
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our ability to recruit clinical trial investigators with the appropriate competencies and experience;
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competing clinical trials for similar therapies or other new therapeutics;
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clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions as to the potential advantages and side effects of our product candidate being studied in relation to other available therapies or surgical procedures;
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our ability to obtain and maintain patient consents;
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the failure of patients to complete a clinical trial;
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the availability of approved therapies that are similar in mechanism to our product candidates;
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the cost to, or lack of adequate compensation for, prospective patients; and
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the risk that patients enrolled in clinical trials will not complete such trials for any reason, including due to health crises, including pandemics, geopolitical conflicts, acts of terrorism, and/or “acts of God” that affect our contract manufacturing organizations (“CMOs”), suppliers, clinical investigator sites and governing regulatory bodies.
In addition, our clinical trials will compete with other clinical trials for product candidates that are in the same therapeutic areas as our product candidates, and this competition will reduce the number and types of patients available to us because some patients who might have opted to enroll in our trials may instead opt to enroll in a trial being conducted by one of our competitors. Because the number of qualified clinical investigators is limited, we may conduct some of our clinical trials at the same clinical trial sites that some of our competitors use, which would reduce the number of patients who are available for our clinical trials at such clinical trial sites.
Even if we are able to enroll a sufficient number of patients in our clinical trials, delays in patient enrollment may result in increased costs or may affect the timing or outcome of the planned clinical trials, which could prevent completion of these trials and adversely affect our ability to advance the development of our product candidates.
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Although we have conducted the Phase 1 portion of the LEGEND clinical study of detalimogene, we have not as an organization completed later-stage or pivotal clinical trials or submitted a BLA, and we may be unable to do so for detalimogene or any future product candidates in a timely manner or at all.
We will need to successfully complete later-stage and pivotal clinical trials in order to obtain FDA or comparable foreign regulatory approval to market detalimogene or any future product candidates we develop. Carrying out pivotal and later-stage clinical trials and the submission of a successful BLA or other comparable foreign regulatory submission are complicated processes. As an organization, we have conducted the Phase 1 portion of the combined Phase 1/2, open-label study of detalimogene referred to as the “LEGEND” study and are conducting the Phase 2 multi-cohort portion of the LEGEND study consisting of three cohorts, including the pivotal cohort evaluating detalimogene in patients with BCG-unresponsive NMIBC with CIS. We have not yet completed any later-stage or pivotal clinical trials for detalimogene or any other product candidate. We also have limited experience as a company in preparing and submitting marketing applications and have not previously submitted a BLA or other comparable foreign regulatory submission for any product candidate. In addition, we have had limited interactions with the FDA and cannot be certain how many additional clinical trials of detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop will be required or how such additional trials should be designed. Consequently, we may be unable to successfully and efficiently execute and complete necessary clinical trials in a way that leads to submission of a BLA and regulatory approval of detalimogene or any of the other product candidates we develop. We may require more time and incur greater costs than our competitors and may not succeed in obtaining regulatory approvals of detalimogene or any of other product candidates we develop. Failure to commence or complete, or delays in, our ongoing or future clinical trials could prevent us from or delay us in submitting BLAs or other comparable foreign regulatory submissions for and commercializing detalimogene or any of other product candidates we develop.
Use of our novel genetic medicine platform, detalimogene and other therapeutic product candidates we may develop could result in or be associated with harmful side effects, adverse events or other safety risks, which could cause us to delay, suspend or discontinue their clinical trials and/or development or abandon them, delay or prevent their regulatory approval, limit their commercial potential, if approved, or result in other significant negative consequences (including voluntary corrective actions or agency enforcement actions) that could severely harm our business and results of operations. In addition, these harmful side effects, adverse events or other safety risks may not be appropriately recognized or managed by our treating staff, which could result in litigation and reputational damage.
Detalimogene and other product candidates we may develop may be associated with harmful side effects, adverse events or other safety risks. Results of clinical trials could reveal severe or recurring side effects, toxicities or unexpected events, including death. There may also be delayed adverse events that may not be appropriately recognized or managed by our treating staff, which could result in litigation and reputational damage. We expect to have to train medical personnel using detalimogene or any other product candidates we may develop to understand the side effect profiles for our clinical trials and upon any commercialization of such product candidates. Inadequate training in recognizing or managing the potential side effects of such product candidates could result in patient injury or death.
If any such events occur, clinical trials or commercial distribution of detalimogene or any other product candidates or products we develop could be suspended or terminated, and our business and reputation may be substantially harmed. Treatment-related side effects could affect patient recruitment and the ability of enrolled patients to complete the trial or result in potential liability claims. Regulatory authorities could order us to cease further development of, deny approval of or require us to cease selling detalimogene or any other product candidates or products we develop for any or all targeted indications. If we elect, or are required, to delay, suspend or terminate any clinical trial or commercialization efforts, the commercial prospects of such product candidates or products may be harmed, and our ability to generate product revenues from them or other product candidates that we develop may be delayed or eliminated.
Additionally, if we successfully develop detalimogene or any other product candidate and it receives marketing approval, the FDA could require us to adopt a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (“REMS”) to ensure that the benefits of treatment with such product candidate outweigh the risks for each potential patient, which may include, among other things, a communication plan to health care practitioners, patient education, extensive patient monitoring or distribution systems and processes that are highly controlled, restrictive and more costly than what is typical for the industry. We may also be required to adopt a REMS or engage in similar actions, such as patient education, certification of health care professionals or specific monitoring, if we and others later identify undesirable side effects caused by any product that we develop. Such identification could also have several additional significant negative consequences, such as:
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regulatory authorities may suspend, withdraw or limit approvals of such product, or seek an injunction against its manufacture or distribution;
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regulatory authorities may require additional warnings on the label, including “boxed” warnings, or issue safety alerts, “Dear Healthcare Provider” letters, press releases or other communications containing warnings or other safety information about the product;
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we may be required to create a medication guide outlining the risks of such side effects for distribution to patients;
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we may be required to change the way a product is administered or conduct additional trials;
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the product may become less competitive;
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we may decide to remove the product from the marketplace;
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we may be subject to fines, injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties;
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we could be sued and be held liable for harm caused to patients; and
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our reputation could be harmed.
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Any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of any potential product.
Even if detalimogene or any other therapeutic product candidates that we develop receives regulatory approval, they may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors (including government health administration authorities and private health insurers) and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success, in which case we may not generate significant revenues and become profitable, which could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business and our results of operations.
The commercial success of detalimogene or any other product candidates that we develop will depend upon its degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors, and others in the medical community. Even if detalimogene or any other product candidates developed by us receives regulatory approval, they may nonetheless fail to gain sufficient market acceptance by physicians, patients, healthcare payors, and others in the medical community. The degree of market acceptance of detalimogene and any other product candidates we may develop, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including:
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the wider acceptance by patients of products derived from or involving RNA or DNA manufacturing processes;
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the efficacy and safety of such product candidates as demonstrated in pivotal clinical trials published in peer-reviewed journals or otherwise made available to the public (e.g., through FDA advisory committee meetings);
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the potential and perceived advantages compared to alternative treatments;
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the ability to offer our products for sale at competitive prices and to obtain coverage by third-party payors;
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the ability to offer appropriate patient access programs, such as co-pay assistance;
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the extent to which physicians recommend our products to their patients;
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convenience and ease of handling, dosing and administration compared to alternative treatments;
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the clinical indications for which the product candidate is approved by the FDA, EMA or other comparable non-U.S. regulatory agencies;
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product labeling or product insert requirements of the FDA, EMA or other comparable non-U.S. regulatory authorities, including any limitations, contraindications or warnings contained in a product’s approved labeling;
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restrictions on how the product is distributed;
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the timing of market introduction of competitive products;
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publicity concerning our products or competing products and treatments;
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the effectiveness of marketing and distribution efforts by us and other licenses and distributors;
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shortages or lack thereof of competitive or potentially competitive products, or products utilized in the standard-of-care for our patients, such as BCG;
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sufficient governmental third-party coverage or reimbursement; and
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the prevalence and severity of any side effects.
If detalimogene or any other product candidate developed by us does not achieve an adequate level of acceptance by physicians, healthcare payors, patients and the medical community, we will not be able to generate significant revenue and may not become or remain profitable. The failure of detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop to find market acceptance could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Independent of any actions taken by us, negative developments in the field of genetic medicine, intravesical or NMIBC therapeutic development could damage public perception of detalimogene and any other product candidates that we develop, which could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business and our results of operations, or to obtain and retain regulatory approvals for such product candidates.
Our novel genetic medicine platform and detalimogene are comprised of new and largely unproven technologies, and we have no gene therapeutic product candidates approved to date. Gene therapeutics may not gain the acceptance of the public or the medical community and/or they may not gain the acceptance of the public or medical community within our indications of interest or
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development areas. To date, several other efforts to leverage genetic medicine technologies have generally demonstrated an inability to generate predictable results or to manufacture products at suitable scale to treat more than a small number of patients.
Our success will depend on our ability to demonstrate that our genetic medicine platform, detalimogene and any other product candidates we develop and related services can overcome these challenges.
If detalimogene or any other product candidate that we develop is unable to successfully treat the intended organ or lesion and establish proof of concept in a certain disease, it may indicate that we will not be able to apply our genetic medicine platform to other diseases affecting the intended tissue area or other areas. This may also indicate a decrease in the probability of our success for other targets using the same modality in the same or different cell types, as well as our engineered approach and delivery approach, more generally. Such failures could negatively affect the public or medical community’s perception of our genetic medicine platform and gene therapeutics in general.
Additionally, our success will depend upon physicians who specialize in the treatment of diseases targeted by detalimogene or any other product candidates that we develop, if approved, prescribing treatments that involve the use of those product candidates, if approved, in lieu of, or in addition to, existing treatments with which they are more familiar and for which greater clinical data may be available. Adverse events in clinical trials of detalimogene or any other product candidates that we develop or in clinical trials of others developing similar products and the resulting publicity, as well as any other adverse events in the field of gene therapeutics, could result in a decrease in demand for detalimogene, if approved, or any other product that we may develop. These events could also result in the suspension, discontinuation, or clinical hold of, or modification to, our clinical trials. Any future negative developments in the field of genetic medicine could also result in greater governmental regulation, stricter labeling requirements and potential regulatory delays in the testing or approvals of our product candidates. Any increased scrutiny could delay or increase the costs of obtaining marketing approval for detalimogene or any other product candidates that we develop.
We may not be successful in our efforts to utilize our novel genetic medicine platform to identify and develop additional product candidates. Due to our limited technical, financial and human resources and access to capital, we may choose to prioritize development of certain product candidates, such as our initial focus on developing detalimogene, which may prove to be the wrong choice and may adversely affect our business and results of operations.
An important element of our strategy is utilizing our genetic medicine platform to generate multiple product candidates. Although we intend to develop numerous product candidates targeting various cell types and indications and carrying different biologically active drug molecules, in addition to detalimogene, we may fail to identify viable new product candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons. For example, while we believe our genetic therapy platform is capable of transfecting many different tissue types with varied genetic cargos, such as nucleic acid therapeutics (e.g., DNA), antisense oligonucleotides, siRNA, miRNA, mRNA, genetic medicine and gene editing mechanisms, we have not yet successfully advanced any proprietary enGene-developed drug candidate incorporating these cargoes into clinical trials beyond detalimogene, and we may not be successful in developing products to effectively employ these types of cargoes or molecules. If we fail to identify additional potential product candidates, our business could be materially harmed.
Research programs to pursue the development of our product candidates and using our genetic medicine platform to design and identify new product candidates and disease targets require substantial technical, financial and human resources whether or not they are ultimately successful. Our genetic medicine platform and research programs may initially show promise in identifying potential indications and/or product candidates, yet fail to yield results for clinical development for a number of reasons, including:
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the research methodology used may not be successful in identifying potential indications and/or product candidates;
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potential product candidates may, after further study, be shown to have harmful adverse effects or other characteristics that indicate they are unlikely to be effective drugs, or that make the product candidates impracticable to manufacture, unmarketable or unlikely to receive marketing approval; or
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it may take greater human and financial resources than we will possess to identify additional therapeutic opportunities for our product candidates or to develop suitable potential product candidates through internal research programs, thereby limiting our ability to develop, diversify and expand our product portfolio.
If any of these events occur, we may be forced to abandon our research or development efforts for a program or programs, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that we will ever be able to identify additional therapeutic opportunities for our product candidates or to develop suitable potential product candidates through internal research programs, which could materially adversely affect our future growth and prospects. We may focus our efforts and resources on potential product candidates or other potential programs that ultimately prove to be unsuccessful, which would be costly and time-consuming.
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Our use of third parties to manufacture, develop and test our therapeutic product candidates for preclinical studies and clinical trials increases the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of our product candidates or products, or necessary quantities of such materials on time or at an acceptable cost.
We do not currently have, nor do we plan to acquire, the infrastructure or capability internally to manufacture drug supplies for our ongoing clinical trials or any future clinical trials that we may conduct, and we lack the resources to internally manufacture detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop on a commercial scale. We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third-party manufacturers to produce detalimogene or other product candidates that we may identify for clinical trials, as well as for commercial manufacture if detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop receive marketing authorization and approval. We rely entirely on numerous third-party suppliers to provide us with various product components. We may not have alternative suppliers for certain of these product components. Any significant delay or discontinuity in the supply of a product candidate, or the raw material components thereof, for an ongoing clinical trial due to the need to replace a third-party manufacturer or testing laboratory could considerably delay the clinical development and potential regulatory authorization and commercial launch of such product candidate, which could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. We currently do not have relationships with alternate third-party contract manufacturers and testing laboratories for our critical raw materials and product candidates that could sustain our operations in the event we experience a disruption of service from our existing third-party contract manufacturers and testing laboratories. As a result, we are materially reliant on our existing contract manufacturers and testing laboratories and susceptible to material operational disruptions due to factors that may be unknown to us and unforeseeable. Our providers may also materially change the terms of our commercial arrangements for any reason or no reason, which could adversely affect our materials costs, ability to manufacture the drug at a sustainable cost, and profit margin on any sales.
We may be unable to identify and appropriately qualify third-party manufacturers and testing laboratories or establish agreements with third-party manufacturers and testing laboratories or do so on acceptable terms. Even if we are able to establish agreements with third-party manufacturers and testing laboratories, reliance on third-party manufacturers entails additional risks, including:
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reliance on the third-party for sourcing of raw materials, components, testing and such other goods as may be required for execution of our overall manufacturing process;
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risk of single sourced critical raw materials, drug substance and drug product, where secondary back-up vendors are not yet available;
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risk of increased and/or extended lead times for critical raw materials, reagents and equipment, thus requiring significant investment in building adequate inventory to avoid significant disruptions to manufacturing processes;
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reliance on third-party to ensure availability of adequate manufacturing capacity to meet product demand based on the needs of their other clients;
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reliance on the third-party for regulatory compliance and quality assurance for the manufacturing and/or testing activities each performs;
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reliance on third-party to adequately validate processes for timely approval of the BLA required for commercialization of product;
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the possible breach of the manufacturing and/or testing agreement by the third-party;
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the possible misappropriation of proprietary information, including trade secrets and know-how; and the possible termination or non-renewal of the agreement by the third-party at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us.
Furthermore, our contract manufacturing organizations (“CMOs”) and testing laboratories are engaged with other companies to supply and/or manufacture and/or test materials or products, which exposes our manufacturers and testing laboratories to regulatory risks for the production and testing of such materials and products. The facilities used by our CMOs to manufacture and/or test detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop are subject to review by the FDA and other non-U.S. authorities pursuant to inspections that will be conducted after we submit a BLA, or other marketing application to the FDA and other non-U.S. authorities. We do not directly conduct the manufacturing and testing of any material or products. Therefore, we are materially dependent on our CMO partners and contract testing laboratories to operate in compliance with the regulatory requirements, known as current good manufacturing practice (“cGMP”) requirements for manufacture of drug and device products or similar requirements outside the United States. If our CMOs and contract testing laboratories cannot successfully manufacture and/or test material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA or others, we will not be able to secure or maintain regulatory authorization for detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop that are manufactured at these manufacturing facilities, resulting in delay or failure in the clinical development and commercialization of our products, which would have a material adverse effect on us. In addition, we have limited control over the ability of our CMOs to maintain adequate quality control, quality assurance and qualified personnel. If the FDA or another non-U.S. regulatory agency does not approve these facilities for the manufacture and/or testing of detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop, if any agency withdraws its approval in the future, or if we identify material gaps in quality control and compliance at our selected CMOs, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which would negatively impact our ability to develop and deliver our products to markets around the world could delay product supply to patients in clinical studies or to commercial customers for any approved products, and may increase the overall cost of manufacturing our products.
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Detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop may compete with other product candidates and marketed products for access to manufacturing and/or testing facilities. Any performance failure on the part of our existing or future CMOs could delay clinical development, marketing approval or commercialization. Our current and anticipated future dependence upon others for the manufacturing of detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop may adversely affect our future profit margins and our ability to commercialize detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop that receive marketing approval on a timely and competitive basis.
Detalimogene is complex to manufacture, and the manufacturing process for any other product candidates we develop may be similarly complex or more complex, and we may encounter difficulties in production, particularly with respect to scaling our manufacturing capabilities. If we or any of our third-party manufacturers with whom we contract encounter these types of difficulties, our ability to supply detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop for clinical trials or as products for patients, if approved, could be constrained, delayed or stopped, or we may be unable to maintain a commercially viable cost structure.
The manufacturing processes used to produce detalimogene are complex and novel and have not been validated for clinical or commercial production. The manufacturing processes used to produce any future product candidates that we develop may be similarly or more complex and novel. As a result of these complexities, the cost to manufacture our product candidates is generally higher than traditional biopharmaceutical compounds and the manufacturing processes may prove to be less reliable and may be more difficult to reproduce. For example, for detalimogene we must separately manufacture a novel plasmid DNA drug substance (DS), a novel co-polymer excipient (DDX) and a novel block co-polymer excipient (PEG-b-PLE). We then combine those ingredients in the drug product manufacturing process. There are many points throughout this process, and the manufacturing processes of other product candidates we develop, that can lead to failure. Failure in the production of any of our product components or candidates could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Some examples of manufacturing challenges and potential failure we may encounter follow:
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As part of the manufacturing process of DS, bacterial cells are inoculated to a fermenter and expanded.
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These bacteria produce the plasmid DNA DS, which is purified from the cells by an extensive purification process. At any stage, any or all of these processes can fail, including the biological or purification processes, which would result in batch failure. These processes can fail due to contamination, inadequate purification or other reasons.
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The manufacture of DDX and PEG-b-PLE involves multiple complex chemical synthesis and purification steps to produce final products with target specifications and yield. At any stage, any or all of these processes can fail, including the chemical or purification processes.
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The manufacture of detalimogene requires careful and complex combination of DS with DDX and PEG-b-PLE followed by sterile filtration, filling and lyophilization to yield the drug product. At any stage, any or all of the processes involved can fail, including the mixing, sterilization, filling, lyophilization or storage processes.
Our manufacturing processes are also susceptible to product loss or failure due to logistical issues associated with multiple outsourced activities across the range of manufacturing, shipping of materials to analytical laboratories, cold chain distribution to where products will be administered to patients, interruptions in the manufacturing processes, contamination, equipment or reagent failure, improper installation or operation of equipment, vendor or operator error, and variability of product characteristics. Even minor deviations from normal manufacturing processes could result in reduced production yields, lot failures, product defects, product recalls, product liability claims and other supply disruptions. If microbial, viral or other contaminations are discovered in detalimogene or other product candidates we develop or in the manufacturing facilities in which detalimogene or those other product candidates are made, the manufacturing facilities may need to be closed for an extended period of time to investigate and remedy the contamination, which could result in our inability to timely produce or ship product. Further, as product candidates are developed through preclinical to later-stage clinical trials toward approval and commercialization, it is common that various aspects of the development program, such as manufacturing methods, are altered in an effort to optimize processes and results. If we make these types of changes, we may not achieve our intended objectives, and any of these changes could cause our product candidates to perform differently than we expect, potentially affecting the results of clinical trials.
Although we continue to optimize our manufacturing processes, doing so is difficult and uncertain. There are risks associated with scaling to the level required for advanced clinical trials or commercialization, including, among other things, cost overruns, production delays, potential problems with process scale-out, process reproducibility, stability issues, lot consistency and timely availability of reagents or raw materials. If we are unable to adequately validate or scale-up our manufacturing processes with our current manufacturing partners, we will need to transfer such processes to another manufacturing partner and complete the manufacturing validation process, which can be a lengthy process. We ultimately may not be successful completing the transfer of our manufacturing processes to one or more of the manufacturers on whom we rely. The manufacturers who become responsible for our processes may not have the necessary capabilities to complete the implementation and development processes to our specifications or standards. If we are able to adequately validate and scale-up a particular manufacturing process for detalimogene and other product candidates we develop with a contract manufacturer, we will still need to negotiate an agreement for commercial supply with that contract manufacturer and it is not certain we will be able to come to agreement on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. As a result, we may ultimately be unable
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to manage the cost of goods for detalimogene or other product candidates we develop to levels that will allow for an attractive return on investment if and when detalimogene or those other product candidates are approved and commercialized.
The manufacturing processes and facilities used for any products that we may develop are subject to the FDA and non-U.S. regulatory authority approval processes, and we will need to contract with manufacturers who we believe can meet applicable FDA and non-U.S. regulatory authority requirements on an ongoing basis. If we or our CMOs are unable to reliably produce products to specifications acceptable to the FDA or other regulatory authorities, or if the facilities used to manufacture our products are found to be non-compliant for any reason, we may not obtain or maintain the approvals we need to commercialize our products. Even if we obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates, there is no assurance that either we or our CMOs will be able to manufacture the approved product to specifications and under required good manufacturing practices acceptable to the FDA or other regulatory authorities, to produce it in sufficient quantities to meet the requirements for the potential launch of the product, or to meet potential future demand. Any of these challenges could delay completion of clinical trials, require bridging clinical trials or the repetition of one or more clinical trials, increase clinical trial costs, delay approval of our product candidates, impair commercialization efforts, increase our cost of goods and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Our future success depends on our ability to manufacture our products on a timely basis with acceptable manufacturing costs, while at the same time maintaining good quality control and complying with applicable regulatory requirements, and an inability to do so could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. In addition, we could incur higher manufacturing costs if manufacturing processes or standards change, and we could need to replace, modify, design or build and install equipment, all of which would require additional capital expenditures. Specifically, because our product candidates may have a higher cost of goods than conventional therapies, and may require long-term follow up evaluations, the risk that coverage and reimbursement rates may be inadequate for us to achieve profitability may be greater.
In addition, the FDA, the EMA and other non-U.S. regulatory authorities may require us to submit samples of any lot of any approved product, together with the protocols showing the results of applicable tests at any time. Under some circumstances, the FDA, the EMA or other non-U.S. regulatory authorities may require that we not distribute a lot until the relevant agency authorizes its release. Slight deviations in our manufacturing processes, including those affecting quality attributes and stability, may result in unacceptable changes in the product that could result in lot failures or product recalls. Lot failures or product recalls could cause us to delay product launches or clinical trials, which could be costly to us and otherwise harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Problems in our manufacturing processes could restrict our ability to meet market demand for our products.
Any problems in our manufacturing processes or facilities at our CMOs, or the perception of the possibility of problems in such processes or facilities, could make us a less attractive collaborator for potential partners, including larger pharmaceutical companies and academic research institutions, which could limit our access to additional attractive development programs.
We have no experience in developing a manufacturing facility for our biologic products and may never be successful in developing our own manufacturing facility or capability.
We expect to evaluate the possibility of establishing our own capabilities and infrastructure, including a manufacturing facility. If we choose to build our own manufacturing facility, we will need significant funding and will need to select an adequate location. We expect that development of our own manufacturing facility would provide us with enhanced control of material supply for both clinical trials and the commercial market, enable the more rapid implementation of process changes, and allow for better long-term margins. However, we have no experience in developing a manufacturing facility and may never be successful in developing our own manufacturing facility or capability. If we determine to establish our own manufacturing capabilities and infrastructure, we will also need to hire additional personnel to manage our operations and facilities and develop the necessary infrastructure to continue the research and development, and eventual commercialization, if approved, of our product candidates. If we fail to select the correct location, complete the construction in an efficient manner, recruit the required personnel and generally manage our growth effectively, the development and production of our product candidates could be curtailed or delayed. We may establish multiple manufacturing facilities as we expand our commercial footprint to multiple geographies, which may lead to regulatory delays or could prove costly. Even if we are successful, any manufacturing capabilities we develop could be affected by cost-overruns, unexpected delays, equipment failures, labor shortages, natural disasters, power failures and numerous other factors that could prevent us from realizing the intended benefits of our manufacturing strategy and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Changes in the manufacturing or formulation of detalimogene or any other product candidate we develop may result in additional costs or delay, which could adversely affect our business and results of operations.
As product candidates are developed through preclinical studies to later-stage clinical trials toward approval and commercialization, it is common that various aspects of the development program, such as manufacturing methods or formulation, are altered along the way in an effort to optimize processes and results. Any of these changes could cause detalimogene or any other product candidates that we develop to perform differently and affect the results of ongoing or planned clinical trials or other future clinical trials conducted with the altered materials. In addition, such changes and any other similar changes in the future may also require additional testing or notification to or approval by the FDA or other regulatory authorities. This could delay completion of clinical trials, require
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the conduct of bridging clinical trials or studies, require the repetition of one or more clinical trials, increase clinical trial costs, delay approval of detalimogene or any other product candidates that we develop and/or jeopardize our ability to commence product sales and generate revenue.
Detalimogene is, and any other product candidates we develop may be, complex to analyze and we may encounter difficulties in product release testing, particularly with respect to bioassay potency testing. If we or any of our contract testing laboratories encounter difficulties, our ability to provide supply of detalimogene or any other product candidates that we develop for clinical trials or our products for patients, if approved, could be delayed or stopped, or we may be unable to maintain a commercially viable cost structure.
The analytical methods used to test detalimogene are complex and many are novel and have not been validated for clinical or commercial production. The manufacturing processes used to produce any future product candidates that we develop may be similarly complex and novel. For example, in addition to several complex physio-chemical tests for detalimogene, drug substance (DS) and novel excipients, we also test detalimogene and the DS for biological potency using multiple unique cell-based assays. We rely on third-party laboratories to develop and conduct these assays. These assays may be subject to inherent variability and limitations such as, but not limited to, variations in assay conditions, reagents, equipment, or interpretation of results that could lead to inconsistent or inaccurate measurements of potency. Inaccurate potency assessments may affect our ability to demonstrate adequate control of the efficacy and safety of our drug product to regulatory authorities, potentially resulting in regulatory delays, additional testing requirements, or even rejection of our product. Furthermore, changes in regulatory guidelines or evolving scientific understanding may necessitate modifications to the biological potency assays, requiring additional validation studies and potential delays in the development or commercialization of detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop. It is important to note that despite our efforts to ensure the accuracy and reliability of these assays, there may be factors beyond our control that could impact their effectiveness, thereby affecting the overall success of our product candidates.
Although we continue to optimize our testing methods, doing so is a difficult and uncertain task, and there are risks associated with developing these methods to the level required for advanced clinical trials and commercialization, including, among other things, cost overruns, potential problems with reproducibility, stability issues, consistency and timely availability of reagents or raw materials needed to execute the testing. If we are unable to adequately validate testing methods with our current testing laboratories, we will need to transfer to another laboratory and repeat the analytical validation process, which can be a lengthy process. We ultimately may not be successful in transferring the analytical methods to contract testing laboratories and the selected contract laboratories may not have the necessary capabilities to complete the implementation and validation process for the assays. If we are able to adequately transfer and validate testing methods for detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop with a contract laboratory, we will still need to negotiate a service agreement with that contract laboratory and it is not certain we will be able to come to agreement on terms acceptable to us. As a result, we may ultimately be unable to manage the cost of goods for detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop to levels that will allow for an attractive return on investment if and when those product candidates are approved and commercialized.
The analytical testing methods for any products that we may develop are subject to the FDA and non-U.S. regulatory authority approval processes, and we will need to contract with laboratories we believe can meet applicable FDA and non-U.S. regulatory authority requirements on an ongoing basis. If we or our CMOs are unable to reliably test products in a manner acceptable to the FDA or other regulatory authorities, we may not obtain or maintain the approvals we need to commercialize our products. Even if we obtain regulatory approval for detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop, there is no assurance that either we or our CMOs will be able to test the approved product in a manner required by good manufacturing practices acceptable to the FDA or other regulatory authorities, to test products with sufficient throughput to meet the requirements for the potential launch of the product, or to meet potential future demand. Any of these challenges could delay completion of clinical trials, require bridging clinical trials or the repetition of one or more clinical trials, increase clinical trial costs, delay approval of detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop, impair commercialization efforts, increase our cost of goods and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Our future success depends on our ability to test our products on a timely basis with acceptable costs, while at the same time maintaining good quality control and complying with applicable regulatory requirements, and an inability to do so could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. In addition, we could incur higher testing costs if testing methods or standards change, and we could need to replace, modify, design or build and install equipment, all of which would require additional capital expenditure. Specifically, because detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop may have a higher testing requirement than conventional therapies, the risk that coverage and reimbursement rates may be inadequate for us to achieve profitability may be greater.
The market opportunities for detalimogene and any other product candidates we develop may be limited to a small group of patients who are ineligible for or have failed prior treatments and our estimates of the prevalence of our target patient populations may be inaccurate.
Cancer and other disease therapies are sometimes characterized as first-line, second-line or third-line and the FDA often approves new therapies initially only for third-line use. When cancers are detected they are treated with first-line of therapy with the intention of
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curing the cancer. This treatment generally consists of chemotherapy, radiation, antibody drugs, tumor-targeted small molecules, or a combination of these. If the patient’s cancer relapses, then the patient is given a second-line or third line therapy, which can consist of more chemotherapy, radiation, antibody drugs, tumor targeted small molecules, or a combination of these. Generally, the later the line of therapy, the lower the chance of a cure. With third or higher line, the goal of the therapy is to control the growth of the tumor and extend the life of the patient, as a cure is unlikely to happen. Patients are generally referred to clinical trials in these situations. Initial approvals for new cancer and other disease therapies are often restricted to later lines of therapy for patients with advanced or metastatic disease, limiting the number of patients who may be eligible for such new therapies, which may include our product candidates.
Our lead product candidate, detalimogene, is being developed to treat patients with BCG-unresponsive NMIBC with CIS with or without concomitant papillary disease. Our projections of both the number of people who have the disease we are targeting, as well as the subset of people with these diseases in a position to receive our therapies, if approved, are based on our beliefs, research and estimates. These estimates have been derived from a variety of sources, including scientific literature, input from key opinion leaders, patient foundations or secondary market research databases and may prove to be incorrect. Further, new studies may change the estimated incidence or prevalence of these diseases. The number of patients may turn out to be lower than expected. Additionally, the potentially addressable patient population for detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop may be limited or may not be amenable to treatment with such product candidates. Even if we obtain significant market share for detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop, because certain of the potential target populations may be small, we may never achieve profitability without obtaining regulatory approval for additional indications. If the market opportunities for detalimogene or any other product candidates we may develop are smaller than what we believe they are, our potential revenues may be lower than projected and our business may be harmed.
We depend on our executive team and key personnel, and if we lose one or more of our executive officers or key employees or are unable to attract and retain highly skilled employees, such events could harm our business.
Our success depends on the skills, experience and performance of members of our senior management team and key personnel as well as their continued service. The individual and collective efforts of our senior management team and key personnel are important as we continue to develop product candidates, establish strategic partnerships, build out our operations and prepare for potential regulatory approval and commercialization of detalimogene, if approved. In the past two years, we have had several transitions of our executive officers, including our Chief Executive Officer transition in July 2024, the departure of our Chief Medical Officer in June 2025 and the hiring of a new Chief Medical Officer in September 2025. If we are unable to effectively manage such transitions or if we have any future transition or loss of the services of any of our executives or highly skilled technical and managerial personnel, it could have a disruptive impact on our ability to implement our business strategy and to meet our financial and operational goals, and as a result our strategic plans and financial performance may be adversely impacted. The loss or incapacity of existing members of our executive management team and key personnel could adversely affect our operations if we experience difficulties in hiring qualified successors. If we are not successful in attracting and retaining highly qualified personnel, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be harmed.
Our research and development initiatives, manufacturing processes and business depend on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled scientists and other specialized individuals. We may not be able to attract or retain such qualified scientists and other specialized individuals in the future due to the competition for qualified personnel among life science and technology businesses.
Our research and development initiatives, laboratory operations and manufacturing processes depend on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled and experienced scientists, clinical personnel, technicians, engineers, quality-control and manufacturing personnel. We may not be able to attract or retain qualified scientists, clinical personnel, technicians or engineers in the future due to the competition for qualified personnel among life science and technology businesses. We also face competition from universities and public and private research institutions in recruiting and retaining highly qualified scientific personnel. Additionally, we may be unable to identify, hire and retain the experienced scientific, quality-control and manufacturing personnel needed to transfer our manufacturing processes and test methods to CMOs and external testing laboratories. Further, if we endeavor to conduct manufacturing processes internally, we may be unable to identify, hire or retain the personnel needed to conduct our manufacturing processes, which could result in delays in production or difficulties in maintaining compliance with applicable regulatory requirements. We may have difficulties locating, recruiting or retaining qualified personnel across functions that we deem critical to our success. Recruiting, training and retention difficulties can limit our ability to support our research and development and commercialization efforts. All of our employees are at-will, which means that either we or the employee may terminate their employment at any time.
In addition, we rely on consultants and advisors, including scientific and clinical advisors, to assist us in formulating our research and development, regulatory and commercialization strategy. Our consultants and advisors may provide services to other organizations and may have commitments under consulting or advisory contracts with other entities that may limit their availability to us. The loss of the services of one or more of our current consultants or advisors might impede the achievement of our research, development, regulatory and commercialization objectives.
We cannot assure you that we will be able to adequately address these additional risks. If we are unable to do so, our operations might suffer.
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We face risks related to epidemics and other outbreaks of communicable diseases which could significantly disrupt our operations, including our clinical trials and preclinical studies, and adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Public health crises could have an adverse effect our business. Quarantines, travel restrictions and other public health and safety measures implemented in response to a pandemic could adversely impact our operations, and the ultimate impact is highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence. Effects of a pandemic that may delay or otherwise adversely affect our ongoing and planned preclinical activities, our planned clinical trials as well as our business generally, include:
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delays related to disruptions at CROs and contract manufacturers, or in the supply chain;
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delays in receiving approval from regulatory authorities to initiate our planned clinical trials;
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delays or difficulties in clinical site initiation, including difficulties in recruiting clinical site investigators and clinical site staff who, as healthcare providers, may have heightened exposure;
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delays or difficulties in enrolling and retaining patients in clinical trials;
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delays in clinical sites receiving the supplies and materials needed to conduct our planned clinical trials;
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difficulties interpreting data from clinical trials;
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diversion of healthcare resources away from the conduct of clinical trials, including the diversion of hospitals serving as clinical trial sites and hospital staff supporting the conduct of clinical trials;
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interruption of key clinical trial activities, such as clinical trial site monitoring, due to limitations on travel imposed or recommended by federal or state governments, employers and others;
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interruption or delays in the operations of the FDA or other regulatory authorities, which may impact review and approval timelines; and interruptions, difficulties or delays arising in our existing operations and company culture as a result of many of our employees working remotely.
Any of these effects, and other effects of a pandemic could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Further, uncertainty around these and related issues could lead to adverse effects on the economy of the United States, Canada, and other economies, which could impact our ability to raise the necessary capital needed to develop and commercialize our programs and product candidates.
We or the third parties upon whom we depend may be adversely affected by risks beyond our control, such as natural disasters, political crises, acts of terrorism, epidemics and other outbreaks of communicable diseases, war or other catastrophic events and our business continuity and disaster recovery plans may not adequately protect us from the adverse effects of such events.
We, our suppliers and third-party service providers are vulnerable to damage from natural disasters, including but not limited to earthquakes, fires or floods, power loss, communications failures, public health crises, such as pandemics and epidemics, political crises, such as terrorism, war, political instability or other conflict and similar events. If any such disaster were to occur, our ability to operate our business at any of our or our third party facilities could be adversely affected.
If a natural disaster, power outage or other event occurred that prevented us from using all or a significant portion of our headquarters or other facilities, that damaged critical infrastructure, such as our enterprise financial systems or manufacturing resource planning and enterprise quality systems, or that otherwise disrupted operations, it may be difficult or, in certain cases, impossible, for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time.
For example, since February 2022, Russian military forces have continued their significant military invasion of Ukraine. Since October 2023, with the launch of the Israel-Hamas war, there has been increased hostilities in the Middle East. The impact to these countries and regions, as well as actions taken by other countries, including new and stricter sanctions by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union and other countries and organizations against certain officials, individuals, regions, and industries in the affected areas, and each country’s potential response to such sanctions, tensions, and military actions could continue to have a material adverse effect on the global economy and political situation.
As of the date of this Annual Report, we (i) are not conducting clinical or nonclinical studies in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, or the Middle East, (ii) are not relying upon service providers or vendors from any of these regions to advance our product development programs, (iii) do not source biomanufacturing critical raw materials, equipment, or other supplies directly from these regions, and (iv) are not aware nor have we received notification from our supply vendors that the sourcing of any general laboratory or manufacturing materials may be negatively impacted due to such conflict and related sanctions.
The disaster recovery and business continuity plans we have in place currently are limited and are unlikely to prove adequate in the event of a serious disaster or similar event. We may incur substantial expenses as a result of the limited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity plans, which, particularly when taken together with our lack of earthquake insurance, could have a material adverse effect on our business.
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Furthermore, integral parties in our supply chain are similarly vulnerable to natural disasters or other sudden, unforeseen and severe adverse events. If such an event were to affect our supply chain, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Regulatory Risks
Nearly all aspects of our activity and our products and services are subject to extensive regulation by various U.S. federal and state agencies and regulatory bodies in non-U.S. jurisdictions, and compliance with existing or future regulations could result in unanticipated expenses or limit our ability to offer our products and services. Once developed, detalimogene, and any future product candidates developed using our genetic medicine platform will require regulatory approval, which is a lengthy, expensive, and inherently unpredictable process with uncertain outcomes and cost and is subject to the potential for substantial delays. We cannot give any assurance whether or when detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop will receive regulatory approval, which is necessary before they can be commercialized.
Regulatory requirements governing gene and cell therapy products, and in particular any novel genetic medicine products we may develop, have changed frequently and may continue to change in the future. We are aware of a limited number of genetic medicine products that have received marketing authorization from the FDA and EMA. Even with respect to more established products in the genetic medicine field, the regulatory landscape is still developing. In 2016, the FDA established the Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies (“OTAT”) within its Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research to consolidate the review of genetic medicine and related products, and has established the Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee, among others, to advise this review. In September 2022, the FDA announced retitling of OTAT to the Office of Therapeutic Products (“OTP”) and elevation of OTP to a “Super Office” to meet its growing cell and genetic medicine workload. Genetic medicine clinical trials conducted at institutions that receive funding for recombinant DNA research from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (“NIH”), also are potentially subject to review by the Office of Biotechnology Activities’ Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (“RAC”); however, the NIH announced that the RAC will only publicly review clinical trials if the trials cannot be evaluated by standard oversight bodies and pose unusual risks.
The same applies in the European Union. The EMA’s Committee for Advanced Therapies (“CAT”), is responsible for assessing the quality, safety and efficacy of advanced-therapy medicinal products. The role of CAT is to prepare a draft opinion on an application for marketing authorization for a genetic medicine medicinal candidate that is submitted to the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (“CHMP”), before CHMP adopts its final opinion. In the European Union, the development and evaluation of a genetic medicine medicinal product must be considered in the context of the relevant European Union guidelines. The EMA may issue new guidelines concerning the development and marketing authorization for genetic medicine medicinal products and require that we comply with these new guidelines. As a result, the procedures and standards applied to genetic medicine products and cell therapy products may be applied to any product candidates we may develop, but that remains uncertain at this point.
These regulatory review committees and advisory groups and the new guidelines they promulgate may lengthen the regulatory review process, require us to perform additional studies, increase our development costs, lead to changes in regulatory positions and interpretations, delay or prevent approval and commercialization of detalimogene and any other product candidates we may develop, or lead to significant post-approval limitations or restrictions. As we advance detalimogene and any other product candidates we may develop, we will be required to consult with these regulatory and advisory groups and comply with applicable guidelines. If we fail to do so, we may be required to delay or discontinue development of these product candidates. Delay or failure to obtain, or unexpected costs in obtaining, the regulatory approval necessary to bring a potential product to market could decrease our ability to generate sufficient product revenue to maintain our business.
Although the FDA decides whether individual genetic medicine protocols may proceed, the RAC public review process, if undertaken, can delay the initiation of a clinical trial, even if the FDA has reviewed the trial design and details and approved its initiation. Conversely, the FDA can put an IND on a clinical hold even if the RAC has provided a favorable review or an exemption from in-depth, public review. If we were to engage an NIH-funded institution to conduct a clinical trial, now or in the future, that institution’s institutional biosafety committee, as well as its IRB would need to review the proposed clinical trial to assess the safety of the trial. In addition, adverse developments in clinical trials of genetic medicine products conducted by others may cause the FDA or other oversight bodies to change the requirements for approval of detalimogene or any other product candidates we may develop. Similarly, the EMA, FDA, and other regulatory bodies may issue new guidelines concerning the development and marketing authorization for genetic medicine products and require that we comply with these new guidelines.
As we are initially seeking to identify and develop product candidates to treat diseases using novel technologies, there is heightened risk that the FDA, the EMA or other regulatory authority may not consider the clinical trial endpoints that we propose to provide clinically meaningful results. Even if the endpoints are deemed clinically meaningful, we may not achieve these endpoints to a degree of statistical significance, particularly because many of the diseases we are targeting with our platform have small patient populations, making development of large and rigorous clinical trials more difficult.
Adverse developments in post-marketing experience or in clinical trials conducted by others of genetic medicine products or products developed or marketed for indications of interest to us, such as NMIBC, may cause the FDA, the EMA, and other regulatory bodies to revise the requirements for development or approval of detalimogene or any other product candidates we may develop or limit
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the use of products utilizing non-viral genetic medicine technologies, either of which could materially harm our business. In addition, the clinical trial requirements of the FDA, the EMA, and other regulatory authorities and the criteria these regulators use to determine the safety and efficacy of a product candidate vary substantially according to the type, complexity, novelty and intended use and market of the potential products. The regulatory approval process for novel product candidates such as detalimogene or other product candidates we may develop can be more expensive and take longer than for other, better known or more extensively studied pharmaceutical or other product candidates. Regulatory agencies administering existing or future regulations or legislation may not allow production and marketing of products utilizing non-viral genetic medicine technology in a timely manner or under technically or commercially feasible conditions. In addition, regulatory action or private litigation could result in expenses, delays or other impediments to our research programs or the commercialization of resulting products.
In addition, ethical, social and legal concerns about genetic medicine, genetic testing and genetic research could result in additional regulations or prohibiting the processes we may use. Federal and state agencies, congressional committees and non-U.S. governments have expressed their intentions to further regulate biotechnology. More restrictive regulations or claims that detalimogene and any other product candidates we may develop are unsafe or pose a hazard could prevent us from commercializing any products. New government requirements may be established that could delay or prevent regulatory approval of detalimogene and any other product candidates we may develop. It is impossible to predict whether legislative changes will be enacted, regulations, policies or guidance changed, or interpretations by agencies or courts changed, or what the impact of such changes, if any, may be.
As we advance detalimogene and any other product candidates we may develop through clinical development, we will be required to consult with these regulatory and advisory groups and comply with applicable guidelines. These regulatory review committees and advisory groups and any new guidelines they promulgate may lengthen the regulatory review process, require us to perform additional studies, increase our development costs, lead to changes in regulatory positions and interpretations, delay or prevent approval and commercialization of detalimogene and any other product candidates we may develop or lead to significant post-approval limitations or restrictions. Delay or failure to obtain, or unexpected costs in obtaining, the regulatory approval necessary to bring a potential product to market could decrease our ability to generate sufficient product revenue.
We have designed and are currently conducting the clinical trials for detalimogene in accordance with the Guidance Document. This document, which was updated in draft form in August 2024, sets forth guidance for patient selection and describes a potentially abbreviated regulatory path for approval provided certain recruitment, efficacy, and safety data are met. The FDA may review, revoke, or otherwise modify these guidelines at any time, for any reason, which would have a material adverse effect on our approval timelines or process. In addition, the Guidance Document is in draft form subsequent to FDA’s 2024 revisions, and it is possible that some or all of its key provisions may be modified prior to the document’s finalization. Furthermore, approval of other competitive products treating the same indication may reduce the agency’s propensity to support abbreviated approval pathways, which could cause our programs to be delayed in achieving regulatory approval or contribute to our failure to achieve approval at all.
We cannot predict whether or when we will obtain regulatory approval to commercialize detalimogene or any other product candidate we may develop in the United States or any other jurisdiction and any such approval may be for a narrower indication than we seek.
We cannot commercialize a product candidate until the appropriate regulatory authorities have reviewed and approved the product candidate and our application to commercialize it. Even if detalimogene or any other product candidates we may develop meet their safety and efficacy endpoints in clinical trials, regulatory authorities may not complete their review processes in a timely manner or we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval. Additional delays may result if an FDA panel of experts (“Advisory Committee”) or other regulatory authority recommends non-approval or restrictions on approval. In addition, we may experience delays or rejections based upon additional government regulation from future legislation or administrative action or changes in regulatory authority policy during the period of product development, clinical trials and the review process.
Regulatory authorities also may approve a product candidate for more limited indications than requested or they may impose significant limitations in the form of narrow indications, warnings or a REMS. These regulatory authorities may require labeling that includes precautions, boxed warnings or contra-indications with respect to conditions of use, or they may grant approval subject to the performance of costly post-marketing clinical trials.
In addition, regulatory authorities may not approve the labeling claims that are necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of detalimogene or any other product candidates we may develop. Any of the foregoing scenarios could materially harm the commercial prospects for detalimogene or any other product candidates we may develop and materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
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If we are not able to obtain or if there are delays in obtaining required regulatory approvals for detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develop, we will not be able to commercialize or will be delayed in commercializing detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develop and our ability to generate revenue will be adversely affected. Even if we eventually gain approval for detalimogene or any of other product candidates, we may be unable to commercialize them.
Our product candidates and the activities associated with their development and commercialization, including their design, testing, manufacture, safety, efficacy, recordkeeping, labeling, storage, approval, advertising, promotion, sale, distribution, import and export are subject to comprehensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory agencies in the United States and by comparable authorities in other countries. Before we can commercialize detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develops, we must obtain marketing approval. Detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develop in the future, require research and development, preclinical studies, nonclinical testing, and clinical trials prior to seeking regulatory approval, and commencing commercial sales. We have not received approval to market any of our product candidates from regulatory authorities in any jurisdiction and it is possible that neither detalimogene nor any other product candidates we may seek to develop in the future will ever obtain regulatory approval. In certain instances, we may need to rely on third-party CROs and/or regulatory consultants to assist us in this process, and we may have limited control over those third parties and their conduct with respect to our development programs and product candidates. To date, we have focused substantially all of our efforts and financial resources on identifying and developing our product candidates, including conducting lead optimization, nonclinical studies, preclinical studies and clinical trials, and providing general and administrative support for these operations. Securing regulatory approval requires the submission of extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to the various regulatory authorities for each therapeutic indication to establish the biologic product candidate’s safety, purity, efficacy and potency. Securing regulatory approval also requires the submission of information about the manufacturing processes for the biologic product candidate to, and inspection of manufacturing facilities by, the relevant regulatory authority. Manufacturing facilities must comply with cGMP regulations, which include requirements relating to organization of personnel, buildings and facilities, equipment, control of components and drug product containers and closures, production and process controls, packaging and labeling controls, holding and distribution, laboratory controls, records and reports. In addition, given the novelty of our therapeutics approach and technologies, detalimogene and any other product candidates that we may develop may not be effective, may be only moderately effective or may prove to have undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities or other characteristics that may preclude our obtaining marketing approval or prevent or limit commercial use of such products if approved.
The process of obtaining regulatory approvals, both in the United States and abroad, is expensive, may take many years if additional clinical trials are required, if approval is obtained at all, and can vary substantially based upon a variety of factors, including the type, complexity and novelty of the product candidates involved. FDA and other regulatory bodies may continually change the requirements for Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) and other aspects of product manufacturing such that the approval to continue a clinical trial and/or commercially sell a product may never occur. Changes in marketing approval policies during the development period, changes in or the enactment of additional statutes or regulations or changes in regulatory review for each submitted IND, BLA or equivalent application types, may cause delays in the approval or rejection of an application. The FDA and comparable authorities in other countries have substantial discretion in the approval process and may refuse to accept any application or may decide that our data are insufficient for approval and require additional preclinical, clinical or other studies. Detalimogene and any other product candidates that we may develop could be delayed in receiving or fail to receive regulatory approval for many reasons, including the following:
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the FDA or other regulatory authorities may disagree with the design or implementation of our clinical trials;
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we may be unable to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the FDA or other regulatory authorities that detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develop is safe and effective for its proposed indication or that a potential related companion diagnostic, should we develop one, is suitable to identify appropriate patient populations;
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the results of clinical trials may not meet the level of statistical significance or clinical significance required by the FDA or other regulatory authorities for biologic product approval or continued clinical development;
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we may be unable to demonstrate that a product candidate’s clinical and other benefits outweigh its safety risks;
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the FDA or other regulatory authorities may disagree with our interpretation of data from preclinical studies or clinical trials;
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the data collected from clinical trials of detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develop may not be sufficient to support the submission of a BLA or other submission or to obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere;
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the FDA or other authorities may fail to approve the manufacturing processes or facilities of third-party manufacturers with which we contract for clinical and commercial supplies; and
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the approval policies or regulations of the FDA or other regulatory authorities may significantly change in a manner rendering our clinical data insufficient for approval.
Of the large number of drugs and biologics in development, only a small percentage successfully complete the FDA or non-U.S. regulatory approval processes and are commercialized. The lengthy approval process as well as the unpredictability of clinical trial
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results may result in our failing to obtain regulatory approval to market detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develop, which would significantly harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We expect the novel nature of detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develop to create further challenges in obtaining regulatory approval. As a result, our ability to develop product candidates and obtain regulatory approval may be adversely affected.
For example, the general approach for FDA approval of a new biologic or drug is for sponsors to seek licensure or approval based on dispositive data from well-controlled, Phase 3 clinical trials of the relevant product candidate in the relevant patient population. Phase 3 clinical trials typically involve hundreds of patients, have significant costs and take years to complete. We believe that we may be able to utilize the requirements defined in the FDA’s guidance for industry on developing detalimogene or other product candidates for BCG-unresponsive high-risk NMIBC given the limited alternatives for treatments for cancer and other serious diseases, but the FDA may not agree with our plans or permit us to proceed under such alternative guidance.
The FDA may also require an Advisory Committee to deliberate on the adequacy of the safety and efficacy data to support BLA approval. The opinion of the Advisory Committee, although not binding, may have a significant impact on our ability to obtain approval of detalimogene or any other product candidates that we develop based on the completed clinical trials.
Moreover, approval of genetic or biomarker diagnostic tests may be necessary in order to advance some of our product candidates to clinical trials or potential commercialization. In the future, regulatory agencies may require the development and approval of such tests. Accordingly, the regulatory approval pathway for such product candidates may be uncertain, complex, expensive and lengthy and approval may not be obtained.
In addition, even if we were to obtain approval, regulatory authorities may approve detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develop for fewer or more limited indications than we request, may not approve the price we intend to charge for our products (where such regulatory approvals are required), may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly post-marketing clinical trials or may approve that product candidate with a label that does not include the labeling claims necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of that product candidate. Any of the foregoing scenarios could materially harm the commercial prospects for detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develop.
If we experience delays in obtaining approval or if we fail to obtain approval of detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develop, the commercial prospects for those product candidates may be harmed and our ability to generate revenues will be materially harmed.
We may not obtain or maintain regulatory approval in all jurisdictions in which such approval may be required or otherwise desirable or beneficial from a business perspective. Obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval of detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop in one jurisdiction does not mean that we will obtain and/or maintain regulatory approval of such product candidates in other jurisdictions, while a failure or delay in obtaining or maintaining regulatory approval of such product candidates in one jurisdiction may have a material adverse effect on the regulatory approval or maintenance process in other jurisdictions.
Obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval of detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develops in one jurisdiction does not guarantee that we will be able to obtain or maintain regulatory approval in any other jurisdiction, while a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one jurisdiction may have a negative effect on the regulatory approval process in others. For example, even if the FDA grants marketing approval of a product candidate, comparable regulatory authorities in non-U.S. jurisdictions must also approve the manufacturing, marketing and promotion of the product candidate in those countries. Approval procedures vary among jurisdictions and can involve requirements and administrative review periods different from, and greater than, those in the United States, including additional preclinical studies or clinical trials, as clinical trials conducted in one jurisdiction may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions. In many non-U.S. jurisdictions, a product candidate must be approved for reimbursement before it can be approved for sale in that jurisdiction. In some cases, the price that we intend to charge for our products is also subject to approval.
We may also submit marketing applications in other countries. Regulatory authorities in jurisdictions outside of the United States have requirements for approval of product candidates with which we must comply prior to marketing in those jurisdictions and such regulatory requirements can vary widely from country to country. Obtaining other regulatory approvals and compliance with other regulatory requirements could result in significant delays, difficulties and costs for us and could require additional preclinical studies or clinical trials, which could be costly and time-consuming and could delay or prevent the introduction of our products in certain countries. The non-U.S. regulatory approval process involves all of the risks associated with FDA approval, and may not offer certain potentially expedited development and approval pathways that exist in the United States. We do not have any product candidates approved for sale in any jurisdiction, including international markets, and we do not have experience in obtaining regulatory approval in international markets. If we fail to comply with the regulatory requirements in international markets and/or obtain and maintain applicable marketing
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approvals, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develop will be harmed.
Fast Track designation and Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy designation by the FDA for detalimogene and our participation in the FDA’s Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls Development and Readiness Pilot (“CDRP”) Program may not lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process, and does not increase the likelihood that detalimogene or any future product candidate that may receive these designations or is selected for the CDRP Program will receive regulatory approval.
The FDA has granted a Fast Track designation and Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (“RMAT”) designation for detalimogene for the treatment of BCG-unresponsive, high-risk NMIBC patients with CIS, and we may seek such designations for other indications or future product candidates. The Fast Track program is intended to expedite or facilitate the process for reviewing product candidates that meet certain criteria. Specifically, biologics are eligible for Fast Track designation if they are intended, alone or in combination with one or more drugs or biologics, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs for the disease or condition. Fast Track designation applies to the combination of the product candidate and the specific indication for which it is being studied. The sponsor of a Fast Track product candidate has opportunities for more frequent interactions with the applicable FDA review team during product development and, once a BLA is submitted, the application may be eligible for priority review. A BLA submitted for a Fast Track product candidate may also be eligible for rolling review, where the FDA may consider for review sections of the BLA on a rolling basis before the complete application is submitted, 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. Similarly, RMAT designation is a dedicated program designed to expedite the drug development and review processes for promising regenerative medicine products, including genetic therapies. A regenerative medicine advanced therapy is eligible for RMAT designation if it is intended to treat, modify, reverse, or cure a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the drug or therapy has the potential to address unmet medical needs for such disease or condition. Similar to breakthrough therapy designation, RMAT designation provides the benefits of intensive FDA guidance on efficient drug development, including the ability for early interactions with the FDA to discuss surrogate or intermediate endpoints, potential ways to support accelerated approval and satisfy post-approval requirements, potential priority review of a BLA, and other opportunities to expedite development and review. In addition, the LEGEND study has been selected for the FDA’s Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (“CMC”) Development and Readiness Pilot (“CDRP”) Program, a voluntary program designed to accelerate the development of certain drugs and biologics that have expedited clinical development pathways by increasing communication between the FDA and sponsors. The program’s stated goal is to align and derisk CMC strategies early in the process, which can lead to faster patient access to new treatments.
The FDA has broad discretion whether or not to grant these designations or select a development program for participation in the CDRP Program. Even if we believe a particular product candidate or development program is eligible for these designations or the CDRP Program, we cannot assure you that the FDA would decide to grant any of them. Although we have received Fast Track designation and RMAT designation for detalimogene for the treatment of BCG-unresponsive, high-risk NMIBC patients with CIS and the LEGEND study has been selected for the CDRP Program, and even if we receive additional Fast Track or RMAT designations or are selected for the CDRP Program for other indications or any future product candidates, such product candidates may not experience a faster development process, review or approval compared to conventional FDA procedures. The FDA may also withdraw Fast Track and RMAT designation if it believes that the designation is no longer supported by data from our clinical development program. The FDA may also decide that we are no longer eligible for the CDRP Program. Furthermore, these designations and the CDRP Program do not increase the likelihood that detalimogene or any future product candidate that may be granted Fast Track or RMAT designation or selected for the CDRP Program will receive marketing approval in the United States. Many product candidates that have received Fast Track designation and/or RMAT designation or other designations have ultimately failed to obtain approval.
We may seek priority review designation for detalimogene or any other product candidates we develop, but we might not receive such designation, and even if we do, such designation may not lead to a faster regulatory review or approval process.
If the FDA determines that a product candidate offers a treatment for a serious condition and, if approved, the product would provide a significant improvement in safety or effectiveness of the treatment, the FDA may designate the marketing application for that product candidate for priority review. A priority review designation is intended to direct overall attention and resources to the evaluation of such applications and to shorten the goal for the FDA to review an application to six months, rather than the standard review period of ten months. We may request priority review for one or more original BLAs for detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develop s in the future. The FDA has broad discretion with respect to whether or not to grant priority review status to a marketing application, so even if we believe an application for a particular product candidate is eligible for such designation or status, the FDA may decide not to grant it. Moreover, a priority review designation does not necessarily result in expedited regulatory review or approval process or necessarily confer any advantage with respect to approval compared to conventional FDA procedures. Receiving priority review from the FDA does not guarantee approval within the six-month review cycle, or at all. Many product candidates that have received priority review designation have ultimately failed to obtain approval.
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Even if we receive regulatory approval of detalimogene or any other product candidates or therapies that we may develop, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations, reporting requirements and continued regulatory review, which may result in significant additional expenses. If we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or experience unanticipated problems with our products or product candidates, we may be subject to substantial penalties, fines, delays, suspensions, refusals and withdrawals of approvals.
If detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develop are approved, they will be subject to ongoing regulatory requirements and reporting requirements for manufacturing, labeling, packaging, storage, advertising, promotion, sampling, recordkeeping, conduct of post-marketing studies and submission of safety, efficacy and other post-market information, including both federal and state requirements in the United States and requirements of comparable non-U.S. regulatory authorities. In addition, we will be subject to continued compliance with cGMP and GCP requirements for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval.
Facilities of CMOs and testing laboratories are required to comply with extensive FDA, and non-U.S. regulatory authority requirements, including ensuring that quality control and manufacturing procedures conform to cGMP, and in certain cases, current Good Tissue Practices (“cGTP”), regulations. As a result, we and our contract manufacturers will be subject to continual review and inspections to assess compliance with cGMP and adherence to commitments made in any BLA, other marketing application, and previous responses to inspection observations. Accordingly, we and others with whom we work with must continue to expend time, money and effort in all areas of regulatory compliance, including manufacturing, production and quality control.
Any regulatory approvals that we receive for detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develop may be subject to limitations on the approved indicated uses for which the product may be marketed or to the conditions of approval or contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing testing, including Phase 4 clinical trials and surveillance to monitor the safety and efficacy of the product candidate. The FDA may also require that we implement a REMS program as a condition of approval of our product candidates, which could entail requirements for long-term patient follow-up, a medication guide, physician communication plans or additional elements to ensure safe use, such as restricted distribution methods, patient registries and other risk minimization tools. In addition, if the FDA or a comparable non-U.S. regulatory authority approves detalimogene or any other product candidates that we may develop, we will have to comply with requirements including submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports and establishment registration.
The FDA may seek consent decrees or withdraw approval if compliance with regulatory requirements and standards is not maintained or if problems occur after the product reaches the market. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with our product candidates, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with our third-party manufacturers, manufacturing processes or testing laboratories, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in revisions to the approved labeling to add new safety information; imposition of post-market studies or clinical trials to assess new safety risks; or imposition of distribution restrictions or other restrictions under a REMS program. Other potential consequences include, among other things:
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restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of our products, withdrawal of the product from the market or voluntary or mandatory product recalls;
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fines, warning or untitled letters or holds on clinical trials;
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refusal by the FDA to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications filed by us or suspension or revocation of license approvals;
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product seizure or detention or refusal to permit the import or export of our product candidates; and
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injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.
The FDA strictly regulates marketing, labeling, advertising and promotion of products that are placed on the market. Products may be promoted only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved label. The FDA and other agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off-label uses and a company that is found to have improperly promoted off-label uses may be subject to significant liability. The policies of the FDA and of other regulatory authorities may change and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of our product candidates. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, either in the United States or abroad. If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing approval that we may have obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability.
Changes in regulatory requirements could result in delays or the discontinuation of development of detalimogene or other product candidates or therapies that we may develop, or unexpected costs in obtaining or maintaining regulatory approval, and thereby adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Government authorities in the United States at the federal, state and local level and in other countries regulate, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, quality control, approval, labeling, packaging, storage, recordkeeping, promotion, advertising, distribution, post-approval monitoring and reporting, marketing and export and import of drug and biological products.
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Generally, before a new drug or biologic can be marketed, considerable data demonstrating its quality, safety and efficacy and durability of effect must be obtained, organized into a format specific for each regulatory authority, submitted for review and approved by the regulatory authority.
Because we are developing novel genetic medicine product candidates, the regulatory requirements that we will be subject to are continually evolving and may not be clear. Even with respect to more established products that fit into the category of genetic medicines, the regulatory landscape is still developing. For example, regulatory requirements governing genetic medicine products have changed frequently and may continue to change in the future. Moreover, there is substantial, and sometimes uncoordinated, overlap in those responsible for regulation of existing cell therapy products.
Complex regulatory environments exist in other jurisdictions in which we might consider seeking regulatory approvals for our product candidates, further complicating the regulatory landscape. For example, in the European Union a special committee called the CAT was established within the EMA in accordance with Regulation (“EC”) No 1394/2007 on advanced-therapy medicinal products (“ATMPs”) to assess the quality, safety and efficacy of ATMPs, and to follow scientific developments in the field. ATMPs include genetic medicine products. These various regulatory review committees and advisory groups and new or revised guidelines that they promulgate from time to time may lengthen the regulatory review process, require us to perform additional studies, increase our development costs, lead to changes in regulatory positions and interpretations, delay or prevent approval and commercialization of our product candidates or lead to significant post-approval limitations or restrictions. Because the regulatory landscape for our genetic medicines and product candidates is new, we may face even more cumbersome and complex regulations than those emerging for cell therapy products.
Furthermore, even if detalimogene or other product candidates that we may develop obtain required regulatory approvals, such approvals may later be withdrawn as a result of changes in regulations or the interpretation of regulations by applicable regulatory agencies.
Delay or failure to obtain, or unexpected costs in obtaining, the regulatory approval necessary to bring a potential product to market could decrease our ability to generate sufficient product revenue to maintain our business.
Our contract manufacturers are subject to significant regulation with respect to the manufacturing of our current and future product candidates. The manufacturing facilities on which we rely may not meet or continue to meet regulatory requirements and/or may have limited capacity.
Contract manufacturers and their facilities are required to comply with extensive regulatory requirements, including ensuring that quality control and manufacturing procedures conform to cGMP requirements. These regulations cover all aspects of manufacturing relating to our product candidates and components used in clinical studies and commercial production. These regulations govern manufacturing processes and procedures (including record keeping) and the implementation and operation of quality systems to control and assure the quality of investigational product candidates and products approved for sale. Poor control of production processes can lead to the introduction of contaminants or to inadvertent changes in the properties or stability of our product candidates that may not be detectable in final product testing. We and our contract manufacturers must supply all necessary documentation in support of a BLA or Market Authorization Application (“MAA”) on a timely basis and must adhere to Good Laboratory Practices (“GLP”) and cGMP regulations enforced by the FDA and other regulatory authorities through their facilities inspection program. The facilities and quality systems of our third-party contractors must pass a pre-approval inspection for compliance with the applicable regulations as a condition of regulatory approval of our product candidates or any of our other potential product candidates.