Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below together with all of the other information contained in this Annual Report, including our financial statements and the related notes included in this Annual Report, before deciding to invest in our common stock. These risks, some of which have occurred and any of which may occur in the future, can have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition. In such event, the trading price of our common stock could decline and you might lose all or part of your investment. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we presently deem less significant may also impair our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition. In addition, references to past events are provided by way of example only and are not intended to be a complete listing or a representation as to whether or not such factors have occurred in the past or their likelihood of occurring in the future.
Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Additional Capital
We have incurred significant losses since our inception. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and operating losses for the foreseeable future, and may never achieve or maintain profitability.
Since inception, we have incurred significant operating losses. Our net losses were $43.4 million and $69.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. As of December 31, 2025, we had cash, cash equivalents and short-term marketable securities of $118.0 million and an accumulated deficit of $160.0 million.
We do not have any products approved for sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales or otherwise. To date, we have funded our operations primarily from sales of redeemable convertible preferred stock, issuances of convertible promissory notes and a SAFE, cash and cash equivalents of AlloVir received in the Merger and proceeds from sales of our common stock and pre-funded warrants in a private placement for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $50.0 million in December 2025 (the “2025 Private Placement”). We have devoted substantially all of our resources to organizing and staffing, business planning, raising capital, acquiring our technology, establishing our intellectual property portfolio and performing research and development of our product candidate. We are in the early stages of development of our lead product candidate, TH103. We received investigational new drug (“IND”) clearance for TH103 for the treatment of patients with neovascular, or wet, age-related macular degeneration (“nAMD”), in June 2024 and, in August 2024, we treated the first patient in our Phase 1a open-label clinical trial to investigate the safety, tolerability, dose range and pharmacokinetic profile or intravitreal injection of TH103 in patients with nAMD. We announced positive initial data from our Phase 1a SAD trial of TH103 in December 2025. We are also conducting a Phase 1b/2 multiple ascending dose, dose-finding study intended to assess safety and efficacy in patients with nAMD receiving four initial monthly loading doses of TH103, which is intended to build upon our ongoing Phase 1a clinical trial and to inform the optimal dose and regimen for potential Phase 3 development. The Phase 1b/2 dose-finding trial is designed to evaluate multiple dose levels of TH103 in approximately 60 to 80 nAMD patients.
We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and operating losses for the foreseeable future, including costs associated with operating as a public company. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if and as we:
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conduct our ongoing Phase 1a and Phase 1b/2 clinical trials of TH103 in patients with nAMD;
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continue to progress the development of TH103 in future preclinical studies and clinical trials;
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advance any future product candidate that we may develop into preclinical and clinical development;
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maintain, expand, enforce and protect our intellectual property portfolio;
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seek regulatory and marketing approvals for TH103 and any other product candidate that successfully completes clinical trials;
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seek to identify and maintain additional collaborations and license agreements, and the success of those collaborations and license agreements;
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make any payments under our existing or future strategic collaboration agreements, licensing agreements or sponsored research agreements, including with the University of California, San Diego (“UCSD”);
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ultimately establish a sales, marketing and distribution infrastructure to commercialize any product candidate for which we may obtain marketing approval;
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generate revenue from commercial sales of product candidates that may receive marketing approval;
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hire additional clinical, regulatory, manufacturing, quality control, development and scientific personnel;
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in-license or acquire additional technologies or product candidates;
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establish a commercial manufacturing source and secure supply chain capacity sufficient to provide commercial quantities of any product candidates we may develop for which we obtain regulatory approval; and
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add operational, financial and management information systems and personnel, including personnel to support our product development and planned future commercialization efforts and our operations as a public company.
Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with pharmaceutical product development, we are unable to accurately predict the timing or amount of increased expenses or when, or if, we will be able to achieve or maintain profitability.
Our expenses could increase beyond our expectations, if, among other things:
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we are required by regulatory authorities in the United States, Europe, or other jurisdictions to perform trials or studies in addition to, or different than, those that we currently expect;
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there are any delays in establishing appropriate manufacturing arrangements for or completing the development of TH103 or any other product candidate we may develop; or
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there are any third-party challenges to our intellectual property or we need to defend against any intellectual property-related claim.
Even if we obtain marketing approval for and are successful in commercializing one or more product candidates, we expect to incur substantial additional product development and other expenditures to develop and market additional product candidates or to expand the approved indications of any marketed product. We may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other known or unknown factors that may adversely affect our business. The size of our future net losses will depend, in part, on the rate of future growth of our expenses and our ability to generate revenue.
We have never generated revenue from product sales and may never achieve or maintain profitability.
We initiated clinical development of our lead product candidate, TH103, in June 2024, and expect that it will be many years, if ever, before we have a product candidate ready for commercialization. To become and remain profitable, we must succeed in completing development of, obtaining marketing approval for and eventually commercializing, one or more products that generate significant revenue. The ability to achieve this success will require us to be effective in a range of challenging activities, including:
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completing preclinical and clinical trials;
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identifying additional product candidates;
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obtaining marketing approval for these product candidates;
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manufacturing, marketing and selling any products for which we may obtain marketing approval; and
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achieving market acceptance of products for which we may obtain marketing approval as viable treatment options.
We may never succeed in these activities and, even if we do, we may never generate revenues that are significant enough to achieve profitability. Even if we achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable would depress the value of our company and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business, maintain our product development efforts, diversify our pipeline or even continue our operations.
We are heavily dependent on the success of our lead product candidate, TH103, which will require significant clinical testing before we can seek marketing approval and potentially generate commercial sales. If TH103 does not receive marketing approval or is not successfully commercialized, or if there is significant delay in doing so, our business will be harmed.
We only recently initiated our first clinical trial, have no products that are approved for commercial sale and may never be able to develop marketable products. We expect that a substantial portion of our efforts and expenditures for the foreseeable future will be devoted to TH103. Our business currently depends heavily on the successful development, marketing approval and commercialization of TH103. We cannot be certain that TH103 will achieve success in ongoing or future clinical trials, receive marketing approval or be successfully commercialized.
If we were required to discontinue development of TH103, or if TH103 does not receive marketing approval for one or more of the indications we pursue, fails to achieve significant market acceptance, or fails to receive adequate reimbursement, we may be delayed by many years in our ability to achieve profitability, if ever, and may not be able to generate sufficient revenue to continue our business.
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We will need substantial additional funding for our continuing operations. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on acceptable terms, we could be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our product development programs or commercialization efforts.
We expect to devote substantial financial resources to our ongoing and planned activities, particularly as we conduct our ongoing clinical trials of TH103; prepare for future preclinical studies and clinical trials of TH103; prepare for, initiate and conduct preclinical studies and clinical trials of other product candidates we may develop; and potentially seek marketing approval for any of the product candidates we may develop. We expect our expenses to increase substantially over time in connection with our ongoing and planned activities, particularly as we advance our preclinical activities and our ongoing and planned clinical trials. In addition, if we obtain marketing approval for TH103 or any other product candidate we may develop, we expect to incur significant commercialization expenses related to product manufacturing, sales, marketing and distribution. Furthermore, we expect to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company. Accordingly, we will need to obtain substantial additional funding in connection with our continuing operations. If we are unable to raise additional capital or obtain adequate funds when needed or on acceptable terms, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development programs or any future commercialization efforts or grant rights to develop and market product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves. In addition, attempting to secure additional financing may divert the time and attention of our management from day-to-day activities and distract from our product development efforts.
Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:
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the progress, costs and results of our ongoing Phase 1a and Phase 1b/2 clinical trials of TH103 and future preclinical studies and clinical trials of TH103;
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the scope, progress, costs and results of preclinical and clinical development for any product candidates we may develop;
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the success of any collaborations with third parties;
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our ability to scale up our manufacturing processes and capabilities to support clinical trials of TH103 and other product candidates we may develop;
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the costs, timing and outcome of regulatory review of TH103 and other product candidates we may develop;
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potential changes in the regulatory environment and enforcement rules;
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our ability to establish and maintain strategic collaborations, licensing or other arrangements and the financial terms of such arrangements;
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the payment of license fees and other costs of our technology license arrangements;
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the costs and timing of future commercialization activities, including product manufacturing, sales, marketing and distribution, for TH103 and other product candidates we may develop for which we may receive marketing approval;
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our ability to obtain and maintain acceptance of any approved products by patients, the medical community and third-party payors;
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the amount and timing of revenue, if any, received from commercial sales of TH103 and any other product candidates we may develop for which we receive marketing approval;
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potential changes in pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement infrastructure;
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the availability of raw materials for use in production of our product candidates;
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the costs and timing of preparing, filing and prosecuting patent applications, maintaining and enforcing our intellectual property and proprietary rights and defending any intellectual property-related claims; and
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the extent to which we in-license or acquire additional technologies or product candidates.
As of December 31, 2025, we had cash, cash equivalents and short-term marketable securities of $118.0 million. Based on our current operating plans, our management expects that our cash, cash equivalents and short-term marketable securities as of December 31, 2025 will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into the fourth quarter of 2027. However, we have based these estimates on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and our operating plans may change as a result of many factors currently unknown to us. In addition, changing circumstances could cause us to consume capital significantly faster than we currently anticipate, and we may need to spend more than currently expected because of circumstances beyond our control. As a result, we could deplete our capital resources sooner than we currently expect. In addition, because the successful development of TH103 or other product candidates that we may pursue is highly uncertain, at this time we cannot reasonably estimate or know the nature, timing and costs of the efforts that will be necessary to complete the development of any product candidate.
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Identifying potential product candidates and conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials is a time-consuming, expensive and uncertain process that takes years to complete, and we may never generate the necessary data or results required to obtain marketing approval and achieve product sales. In addition, our product candidates, if approved, may not achieve commercial success. We will not generate commercial revenues unless and until we can achieve sales of products, which we do not anticipate for a number of years, if at all. Accordingly, we will need to obtain substantial additional financing to achieve our business objectives. Adequate additional financing may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all, and we may be impacted by the economic climate and market conditions. For example, market volatility resulting from general United States or global economic or market conditions, including related to any health epidemics, pandemics or other contagious outbreaks could also adversely impact our ability to access capital as and when needed. Alternatively, we may seek additional capital due to favorable market conditions or strategic considerations, even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans.
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or product candidates.
Until such time, if ever, as we can generate significant revenues from product sales, we expect to finance our operations through a combination of public or private equity offerings or debt financings, or potentially other capital sources, such as collaboration or licensing arrangements with third parties or other strategic transactions. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of our stockholders could be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our stockholders’. Any debt financing and preferred equity financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, selling or licensing our assets, making capital expenditures, declaring dividends or encumbering our assets to secure future indebtedness.
If we raise additional funds through collaborations, strategic alliances or marketing, distribution or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams, product candidates or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings or other arrangements when needed or on terms acceptable to us, we would be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development or future commercialization efforts or grant rights to develop and market product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves.
Our limited operating history may make it difficult for you to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability.
Legacy Kalaris was incorporated and commenced operations in 2019. We are a clinical stage company with a limited operating history. Our operations to date have been limited to organizing and staffing, business planning, raising capital, acquiring our technology, establishing our intellectual property portfolio and performing research and development of our product candidate. Our prospects must be considered in light of the uncertainties, risks, expenses and difficulties frequently encountered by companies in their early-stages of operations. We have not yet demonstrated our ability to successfully develop any product candidate, obtain marketing approvals, manufacture a commercial scale product or arrange for a third party to do so on our behalf, or conduct sales, marketing and distribution activities necessary for successful product commercialization. Consequently, any predictions you make about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history or a history of successfully developing, obtaining marketing approval for and commercializing products.
In addition, as our business grows, we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other known and unknown obstacles. We will need to transition at some point from a company with a research and development focus to a company capable of supporting commercial activities. We may not be successful in such a transition. As we continue to build our business, we expect our financial condition and operating results to fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. Accordingly, you should not rely upon the results of any quarterly or annual periods as indications of future operating performance.
We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and we may identify additional material weaknesses in the future or fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, which may result in material misstatements of our financial statements.
We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024 which remain unremediated as of December 31, 2025. 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 the annual or interim financial statements would not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
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We did not fully maintain components of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission framework, including elements of the control environment, risk assessment, monitoring activities, information and communication, and control activities components, relating to: (i) our commitment to attract, develop, and retain competent individuals; (ii) identifying, assessing, and communicating appropriate objectives, (iii) identifying and analyzing risks to achieve these objectives; (iv) selecting, developing, and performing ongoing evaluations to ascertain whether the components of internal controls are present and functioning; (v) communicating accurate information internally and externally, including providing information pursuant to objectives, responsibilities, and functions of internal control; (vi) selecting and developing control activities that contribute to the mitigation of risks and support achievement of objectives and (vii) deploying control activities through policies that establish what is expected and procedures that put policies into action.
These material weaknesses could result in a misstatement of substantially all of our accounts or disclosures that would result in a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements that would not be prevented or detected. We have begun taking measures, and plan to continue to take measures, to remediate these material weaknesses. We actively recruited additional accounting personnel with appropriate experience, certification, education and training. For example, following the closing of the Merger, AlloVir’s Chief Accounting Officer serves as our Chief Accounting Officer, and AlloVir’s Controller serves as our Controller. In addition, in April 2025, we appointed a new member to our board of directors, who was also appointed as chair of the audit committee of the board of directors and was deemed to be an audit committee financial expert by our board of directors. Additionally, in October 2025, we hired our Chief Financial Officer. We are in the process of implementing additional measures and risk assessment procedures designed to improve our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting to address the underlying causes of these material weaknesses, including the implementation of appropriate segregation of duties, formalization of accounting policies and controls, and implementation of accounting systems to automate manual processes. We have engaged financial consultants to assist with the implementation of internal controls over financial reporting. To the extent that we are not able to hire and retain such individuals or are unable to successfully design and implement such controls, the material weaknesses identified may not be remediated and management may be required to record additional adjustments to our financial statements in the future or otherwise not be able to produce timely or accurate financial statements. The material weaknesses will not be considered remediated until management completes the design and implementation of the measures described above, the controls operate for a sufficient period of time, and management has concluded, through testing, that these controls are effective. These remediation measures will be time-consuming and require financial and operational resources. If our management concludes that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective, such a determination could adversely affect investor confidence in us and the valuation of our common stock.
While we are implementing measures to remediate the material weaknesses, we cannot predict the success of such measures or the outcome of our assessment of these measures at this time. We can give no assurance that these measures will remediate the deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting or that additional material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting will not be identified in the future. Our failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could result in errors in our financial statements that may lead to a restatement of our financial statements or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards (“NOLs”) and research and development tax credit carryforwards to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.
We have a history of cumulative losses and we anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses in the foreseeable future. As a result, we do not know whether or when we will generate taxable income necessary to utilize our NOLs or research and development tax credit carryforwards. As of December 31, 2025, Kalaris had federal and state NOLs of $83.9 million and $27.4 million, respectively, and federal and state research and development tax credit carryforwards totaling $1.7 million and $0.9 million, respectively.
In general, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended and corresponding provisions of state law, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater than 50 percentage point change (by value) in its equity ownership by certain stockholders over a three-year period, is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change NOLs and research and development tax credit carryforwards to offset future taxable income. Legacy Kalaris experienced an ownership change in March 2022 related to a redeemable convertible preferred stock financing. Net operating loss of $3.6 million generated prior to the 2022 change in ownership will be permanently limited for California tax purposes. Net federal operating losses are not limited as they can be carried forward indefinitely. We may experience ownership changes in the future (which may be outside our control). As a result, if and to the extent we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-change NOLs and research and development tax credit carryforwards to offset such taxable income may be subject to limitations.
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Risks Related to Research and Development of Our Product Candidates
We are early in our development efforts. If we are unable to commercialize TH103 or any product candidate we may develop or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.
We are early in our development efforts. We received IND clearance for TH103 for the treatment of patients with nAMD in June 2024 and, in August 2024, we treated the first patient in our Phase 1a clinical trial of TH103 for patients with nAMD. In December 2025, we announced positive initial data from our Phase 1a SAD trial of TH103. Our ability to generate revenues from product sales, which we do not expect will occur for many years, if ever, will depend heavily on the successful development, marketing approval and eventual commercialization of TH103 or one or more other product candidates, which may never occur. The success of TH103 and any other product candidate we may develop will depend on many factors, including the following:
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successfully completing preclinical studies;
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successfully enrolling patients in our clinical trials of TH103 and completing the clinical trials;
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successfully initiating and completing future clinical trials;
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scaling up manufacturing processes and capabilities to support clinical trials of TH103 and any other product candidate we may develop;
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applying for and receiving marketing approvals from applicable regulatory authorities;
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obtaining and maintaining intellectual property protection and regulatory exclusivity for TH103 and any other product candidates we may develop;
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making arrangements with third-party manufacturers, or establishing commercial manufacturing capabilities, for both clinical and commercial supplies of our product candidates;
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establishing sales, marketing and distribution capabilities and launching commercial sales of our products, if and when approved, whether alone or in collaboration with others;
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acceptance of TH103 and any other product candidate we may develop, if and when approved, by patients, the medical community and third-party payors;
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effectively competing with other therapies;
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obtaining and maintaining coverage, adequate pricing and adequate reimbursement from third-party payors, including government payors;
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maintaining, enforcing, defending and protecting our rights in our intellectual property portfolio;
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not infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating others’ intellectual property or proprietary rights; and
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maintaining a continued acceptable safety profile of our products following receipt of any marketing approvals.
If we do not achieve one or more of these factors in a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully develop and commercialize TH103 and any other product candidate we may develop, which would materially harm our business. As a company, we have limited experience in clinical development. Any predictions about the future success or viability of TH103 or any product candidates we may develop in the future may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a history of conducting clinical trials.
Drug development involves a lengthy and expensive process, with an uncertain outcome. The results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials may not be predictive of future results. We may incur additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of TH103 or any other product candidate we may develop.
The risk of failure for TH103 and any other product candidate we may develop is high. It is impossible to predict when or if TH103 or any other product candidate we may develop will prove effective or safe in humans or will receive marketing approval. Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of a product candidate, we must complete preclinical development and then conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of such product candidate in humans. Clinical trials may fail to demonstrate that TH103 or any of our other product candidates are safe for humans and effective for indicated uses. Even if the clinical trials are successful, changes in marketing approval policies during the development period, changes in or the enactment or promulgation of additional statutes, regulations or guidance or changes in regulatory review for each submitted product application may cause delays in the approval or rejection of an application for marketing approval.
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Before we can commence clinical trials for any product candidate we may develop other than TH103, we must complete extensive preclinical testing and studies, manufacturing process development studies, and analytical development studies that support our planned INDs and other applications to regulatory authorities in the United States or similar applications in other jurisdictions. We cannot be certain of the timely completion or outcome of our preclinical testing and studies and cannot predict if the outcome of our preclinical testing and studies will ultimately support the further development of our current or future product candidates or whether regulatory authorities will accept our proposed clinical programs. In addition, before we can commence clinical trials of TH103 for Diabetic Macular Edema, diabetic retinopathy, and Retinal Vein Occlusion, or any other intraocular indication, we must submit and clear INDs for the applicable indications in the United States or similar applications in other jurisdictions. As a result, we may not be able to submit applications to initiate clinical development of product candidates on the timelines we expect, if at all, and the submission of these applications may not result in regulatory authorities allowing clinical trials to begin. Furthermore, product candidates are subject to continued preclinical safety studies, which may be conducted concurrently with our clinical testing. The outcomes of these safety studies may delay the launch of or enrollment in future clinical trials and could impact our ability to continue to conduct our clinical trials.
Clinical testing is expensive, difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete and is uncertain as to the outcome. We cannot guarantee that any of our clinical trials will be conducted as planned or completed on schedule, or at all. A failure of one or more clinical trials can occur at any stage of testing, which may result from a multitude of factors, including, among other things, flaws in study design, dose selection issues, placebo effects, patient enrollment criteria and failure to demonstrate favorable safety or efficacy traits.
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. Furthermore, the failure of TH103 or any other product candidate we may develop to demonstrate safety and efficacy in any clinical trial could negatively impact the perception of our other product candidates or cause regulatory authorities to require additional testing before approving any of our product candidates.
We may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, clinical trials that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize any product candidates, including:
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regulators or institutional review boards (“IRBs”) may not authorize us or our investigators to commence a clinical trial or conduct a clinical trial at a prospective trial site or at all;
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we may experience delays in reaching, or fail to reach, agreement on acceptable clinical trial contracts or clinical trial protocols with prospective trial sites;
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regulators may determine that the planned design of our clinical trials is flawed or inadequate;
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clinical trials of our product candidates may produce negative or inconclusive results, and we may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional clinical trials or abandon product development programs;
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we may be unable to establish clinical endpoints that applicable regulatory authorities consider clinically meaningful;
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preclinical testing may produce results based on which we may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional preclinical studies before we proceed with certain clinical trials, limit the scope of our clinical trials, halt ongoing clinical trials or abandon product development programs;
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the number of patients required for clinical trials of our 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 at a higher rate than we anticipate;
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third-party contractors may fail to comply with regulatory requirements or meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner, or at all;
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we may decide, or regulators or IRBs may require us, to suspend or terminate clinical trials of our product candidates for various reasons, including noncompliance with regulatory requirements or a finding that the participants are being exposed to unacceptable health risks;
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regulators or IRBs may require us to perform additional or unanticipated clinical trials to obtain approval or we may be subject to additional post-marketing testing requirements to maintain marketing approval;
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regulators may revise the requirements for approving our product candidates, or such requirements may not be as we anticipate;
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the cost of clinical trials of our product candidates may be greater than we anticipate;
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the supply or quality of our product candidates or other materials necessary to conduct clinical trials of our product candidates may be insufficient or inadequate;
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our product candidates may have undesirable side effects or other unexpected characteristics, causing us or our clinical investigators, regulators or IRBs to suspend or terminate the trials;
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regulators may withdraw their approval of a product or impose restrictions on our distribution; and
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business interruptions resulting from any health epidemics, pandemics or other contagious outbreaks may result in adverse effects on our business and operations.
If we are required to conduct additional clinical trials or other testing of our product candidates beyond those that we currently contemplate, if we are unable to successfully complete clinical trials of our product candidates or other testing, if the results of these trials or tests are not positive or are only modestly positive, if there are safety concerns or if we determine that the observed safety or efficacy profile would not be competitive in the marketplace, we may:
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incur unplanned costs;
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be delayed in obtaining marketing approval;
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not obtain marketing approval at all;
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obtain marketing approval in some countries and not in others;
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obtain approval for indications or patient populations that are not as broad as intended or desired;
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obtain approval with labeling that includes significant use or distribution restrictions or safety warnings;
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be subject to additional post-marketing testing requirements; or
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have the product removed from the market after obtaining marketing approval.
Our product development costs will also increase if we experience delays in preclinical studies or clinical trials or in obtaining marketing or other regulatory approvals. We do not know whether any of our preclinical studies or clinical trials will begin as planned, will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, or at all. We may also determine to change the design or protocol of one or more of our clinical trials, including to add additional patients or arms, which could result in increased costs and expenses or delays. Significant preclinical study or clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates or allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do and impair our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and may harm our business and results of operations.
We may conduct clinical trials at sites outside the United States. The Food and Drug Administration (the “FDA”) may not accept data from trials conducted in such locations, and the conduct of trials outside the United States could subject us to additional delays and expense.
We may conduct one or more clinical trials at trial sites that are located outside the United States. The acceptance by the FDA or other regulatory authorities of study data from clinical trials conducted outside their jurisdiction may be subject to certain conditions or may not be accepted at all. In cases where data from foreign clinical trials are intended to serve as the sole basis for marketing approval in the United States, the FDA will generally not approve the application on the basis of foreign data alone unless (1) the data are applicable to the United States population and United States medical practice; (2) the trials were performed by clinical investigators of recognized competence and pursuant to Good Clinical Practices (“GCP”) regulations; and (3) the data may be considered valid without the need for an on-site inspection by the FDA, or if the FDA considers such inspection to be necessary, the FDA is able to validate the data through an on-site inspection or other appropriate means.
In addition, even where the foreign study data are not intended to serve as the sole basis for approval, the FDA will not accept the data as support for an application for marketing approval unless the study is well-designed and well-conducted in accordance with GCP requirements and the FDA is able to validate the data from the study through an onsite inspection if deemed necessary. Many foreign regulatory authorities have similar approval requirements. In addition, such foreign trials would be subject to the applicable local laws of the foreign jurisdictions where the trials are conducted. There can be no assurance that the FDA or any comparable foreign regulatory authority will accept data from trials conducted outside of the United States or the applicable jurisdiction. If the FDA or any comparable foreign regulatory authority does not accept such data, it would result in the need for additional trials, which could be costly and time-consuming, and which may result in TH103 or any other product candidate we may develop not receiving approval for commercialization in the applicable jurisdiction.
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Conducting clinical trials outside the United States also exposes us to additional risks, including risks associated with:
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additional foreign regulatory requirements;
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foreign exchange fluctuations;
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compliance with foreign manufacturing, customs, shipment and storage requirements;
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cultural differences in medical practice and clinical research;
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diminished protection of intellectual property in some countries; and
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interruptions or delays in our trials resulting from geopolitical events, such as war or terrorism.
The results of early-stage clinical trials and preclinical studies may not be predictive of future results. Initial success in clinical trials may not be indicative of results obtained when these trials are completed or in later stage trials.
The outcome of preclinical testing and early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later clinical trials, and preliminary or interim results of a clinical trial do not necessarily predict final results. In addition, initial success in clinical trials may not be indicative of results obtained when such trials are completed. In particular, the small number of patients in our ongoing or future early clinical trials may make the results of these trials less predictive of the outcome of later clinical trials. For example, even if successful, the results of our Phase 1b/2 clinical trial of TH103 may not be predictive of the results of further clinical trials of TH103 or any other product candidate we may develop. Our product candidates may also fail to show the desired safety and efficacy in clinical development despite positive results in preclinical studies or having successfully advanced through initial 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. Our current or future clinical trials may not ultimately be successful or support further clinical development of any of our product candidates and we cannot assure you that any clinical trials that we may conduct will demonstrate consistent or adequate efficacy and safety to support marketing approval. There is a high failure rate for product candidates proceeding through clinical trials. Many companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in late-stage clinical trials even after achieving promising results in preclinical testing and earlier-stage clinical trials, and we cannot be certain that we will not face similar setbacks. Any such setbacks in our clinical development could materially harm our business and results of operations.
Interim and preliminary results from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more participant data becomes available and are subject to audit and verification procedures, which could result in material changes in the final data.
From time to time, we may announce or publish interim or preliminary results from our clinical trials. Interim results from clinical trials that we may complete are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as participant enrollment continues 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 or interim results also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary data we previously published. As a result, interim and preliminary data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. Adverse differences between preliminary or interim data and final data could be material and could significantly harm our reputation and business prospects.
If we experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment of patients in our clinical trials for TH103 or any other product candidate we develop, our receipt of necessary marketing approvals could be delayed or prevented.
Identifying and qualifying patients to participate in our Phase 1a and Phase 1b/2 clinical trials for TH103 and any other product candidate we may develop is critical to our success. Successful and timely completion of clinical trials will require that we enroll a sufficient number of patients who remain in the trial until its conclusion. We may not be able to initiate or continue clinical trials for our product candidates if we are unable to locate and enroll a sufficient number of eligible patients to participate in these trials as required by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside of the United States. In addition, some of our competitors have ongoing clinical trials for product candidates that treat the same indications as TH103, and patients who would otherwise be eligible for our clinical trials may instead enroll in clinical trials of our competitors’ product candidates. We cannot predict how successful we will be at enrolling subjects in future clinical trials. Patient enrollment is affected by a variety of other factors, including:
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the prevalence and severity of the disease under investigation;
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the eligibility criteria for the trial in question;
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the perceived risks and benefits of the product candidate under trial;
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the requirements of the trial protocols;
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the availability of existing FDA approved or off-label treatments for the indications for which we are conducting clinical trials;
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the ability to recruit clinical trial investigators with the appropriate competencies and experience;
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the efforts to facilitate timely enrollment in clinical trials;
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the patient referral practices of physicians;
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the ability to monitor patients adequately during and after treatment;
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our ability to obtain and maintain patient consents;
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the proximity and availability of clinical trial sites for prospective patients;
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the conduct of clinical trials by competitors for product candidates that treat the same indications or address the same patient populations as our product candidates;
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the cost to, or lack of adequate compensation for, prospective patients; and
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the impact of any health epidemics, pandemics or other contagious outbreaks
Our inability to locate and enroll a sufficient number of patients for our clinical trials would result in significant delays, could require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether and could delay or prevent our receipt of necessary marketing approvals. Enrollment delays in our clinical trials may result in increased development costs for our product candidates, which could cause the value of our business to decline and limit our ability to obtain additional financing.
If dose limiting toxicities, serious adverse events, undesirable side effects or unexpected characteristics are identified during the development of TH103 or any other product candidate we may develop, we may need to abandon or limit our further clinical development of those product candidates.
If TH103 or any other product candidate we may develop is associated with dose limiting toxicities, serious adverse events or undesirable side effects in clinical trials or have characteristics that are unexpected in clinical trials or preclinical testing, we may need to abandon development of such product candidate or limit development to more narrow uses or subpopulations in which the dose limiting toxicities, serious adverse events, undesirable side effects or unexpected characteristics are less prevalent, less severe or more acceptable from a risk-benefit perspective. We have observed cases of intraocular inflammation (“IOI”) in our Phase 1a and Phase 1b/2 clinical trials of TH103. While these cases were generally mild-to-moderate, were not considered dose-limiting, resolved or were resolving following the administration of topical and/or oral steroids, and were believed to be related to retained impurities that are a byproduct of our biologic manufacturing process, if we are unable to refine our manufacturing process or otherwise reduce the cases of IOI experienced by patients who receive TH103, the clinical development and commercial potential of TH103 may be adversely impacted. In pharmaceutical development, many compounds that initially showed promise in early-stage or clinical testing are later found to cause side effects that delay or prevent further development of the compound or decrease the size of the patient population for whom the compound could ultimately be prescribed.
Additionally, if the results of our clinical trials reveal undesirable side effects, we, regulatory authorities or the IRBs at the institutions in which our trials are conducted could suspend or terminate our clinical trials, regulatory authorities could order us to cease clinical trials or deny approval of our product candidates for any or all targeted indications or we could be forced to materially modify the design of our clinical trials. Treatment-related side effects could also affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled patients to complete any of our clinical trials or result in potential liability claims. In addition, these side effects may not be appropriately recognized or managed by the treating medical staff. If we elect or are forced to suspend or terminate any clinical trial of our product candidates, the commercial prospects of such product candidate will be harmed, and our ability to generate revenues from sales of such product candidate will be delayed or eliminated. Any of these occurrences could materially harm our business.
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If TH103 or any other product candidate we may develop receives marketing approval and we, or others, later discover that the drug is less effective than previously believed or causes undesirable side effects that were not previously identified, our ability to market the drug could be compromised.
We are currently conducting a Phase 1b/2 clinical trials of TH103 for nAMD. Clinical trials will be conducted in carefully defined subsets of patients who have agreed to enter into clinical trials. Consequently, it is possible that our clinical trials may indicate an apparent positive effect of TH103 that is greater than the actual positive effect, if any, or alternatively fail to identify undesirable side effects. If TH103 or any other product candidate we may develop receives marketing approval, and we, or others, later discover that they are less effective than previously believed, or cause undesirable side effects, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including:
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withdrawal or limitation by regulatory authorities of approvals of such product;
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seizure of the product by regulatory authorities;
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recall of the product;
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restrictions on the marketing of the product or the manufacturing process for any component thereof;
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requirement by regulatory authorities of additional warnings on the label;
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requirement that we implement a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy or create a medication guide outlining the risks of such side effects for distribution to patients;
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commitment to expensive post-marketing studies as a prerequisite of approval by regulatory authorities of such product;
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the product may become less competitive;
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initiation of regulatory investigations and government enforcement actions;
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initiation of legal action against us to hold it liable for harm caused to patients; and
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harm to our reputation and resulting harm to physician or patient acceptance of our products.
In particular, we are developing TH103 to be a best-in-class anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (“VEGF”) therapeutic for common retinal neovascular and exudative diseases. Even if TH103 were to receive marketing approval for any such indication, it may fail to demonstrate longer acting and increased VEGF activity that results in improved real-world outcomes for patients. Any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of a particular product candidate, if approved, and could significantly harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We may expend our limited resources to pursue a particular product candidate or indication and fail to capitalize on product candidates or indications that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success.
Because we have limited financial and managerial resources, we focus on product candidates that we identify for specific indications. As a result, we may forego or delay the pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential. We may curtail, pause, delay or cease development of product candidates at any stage of preclinical or clinical development based on a variety of factors, including our judgments regarding costs or timing of further development, probability of success of clinical development, regulatory requirements, commercial potential, relative benefits and costs and our overall corporate strategy. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on product 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 royalty 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 allocate resources or capitalize on strategies in a successful manner will have an adverse impact on our business.
Risks Related to the Commercialization of Our Product Candidates
Even if TH103 or any other product candidate we may develop receives marketing approval, we may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success, and the market opportunity for any of our product candidates, if approved, may be smaller than we estimate.
Even if TH103 or any other product candidate we may develop receives marketing approval, we may nonetheless fail to gain sufficient market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community. There is already a large and well-established market for anti-VEGF therapies for retinal diseases, and patients may continue to rely on existing FDA approved
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or off-label therapies. Efforts to educate the medical community and third-party payors on the benefits of our product candidates may require significant resources and may not be successful. If our product candidates do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant revenues from product sales and we may not become profitable. The degree of market acceptance of our product candidates, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including:
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the efficacy and potential advantages of our product candidates compared to the advantages and relative risks of alternative treatments;
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the effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts;
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our ability to offer our products, if approved, for sale at competitive prices;
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the clinical indications for which the product is approved;
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the cost of treatment in relation to alternative treatments;
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the convenience and ease of administration compared to alternative treatments;
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the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies and of physicians to prescribe these therapies;
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the strength of marketing and distribution support;
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the timing of market introduction of competitive products;
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the availability of third-party coverage and adequate reimbursement, and patients’ willingness to pay out of pocket for required co-payments or in the absence of third-party coverage or adequate reimbursement;
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product labeling or product insert requirements of the FDA, the European Medical Agency (the “EMA”) or other regulatory authorities, including any limitations or warnings contained in a product’s approved labeling;
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the prevalence and severity of any side effects;
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support from patient advocacy groups; and
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any restrictions on the use of our products, if approved, together with other medications.
Our assessment of the potential market opportunity for our product candidates is based on industry and market data it obtained from industry publications, research, surveys and studies conducted by third parties and our analysis of these data, research, surveys and studies. Industry publications and third-party research, surveys and studies generally indicate that their information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, although they do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of such information. While we believe these industry publications and third-party research, surveys and studies are reliable, we have not independently verified such data. Our estimates of the potential market opportunities for our product candidates include a number of key assumptions based on our industry knowledge, industry publications and third-party research, surveys and studies, which may be based on a small sample size and fail to accurately reflect market opportunities. While we believe that our internal assumptions are reasonable, no independent source has verified such assumptions. If any of our assumptions or estimates, or these publications, research, surveys or studies prove to be inaccurate, then the actual market for any of our product candidates may be smaller than we expect, and as a result our revenues from product sales may be limited and it may be more difficult for us to achieve or maintain profitability.
If we are unable to establish sales, marketing and distribution capabilities or enter into sales, marketing and distribution agreements with third parties, we may not be successful in commercializing our product candidates if and when they are approved.
We do not have a sales or marketing infrastructure and have no experience as a company in the sale, marketing or distribution of biopharmaceutical products. To achieve commercial success for any product for which we may obtain marketing approval, we will need to establish a sales, marketing and distribution organization, either ourselves or through collaborations or other arrangements with third parties.
We intend to commercialize TH103, if approved, with our own specialty salesforce. There are risks involved with us establishing our own sales, marketing and distribution capabilities. For example, recruiting and training a sales force is expensive and time-consuming and could delay any product launch. If the commercial launch of a product candidate for which we recruit a sales force and establish marketing capabilities is delayed or does not occur for any reason, we would have prematurely or unnecessarily incurred these commercialization expenses. These efforts may be costly, and our investment would be lost if we cannot retain or reposition our sales and marketing personnel. In general, the cost of establishing and maintaining a sales and marketing organization may exceed the cost-effectiveness of doing so.
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Factors that may inhibit our efforts to commercialize our products on our own include:
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our inability to recruit, train and retain adequate numbers of effective sales, marketing, market access, distribution, customer service, medical affairs and other support personnel;
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our inability to equip sales personnel with effective materials;
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our inability to effectively manage a geographically dispersed sales and marketing team;
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the inability of sales personnel to obtain access to physicians or persuade adequate numbers of physicians to prescribe any future products;
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the inability of reimbursement professionals to negotiate arrangements for formulary access, reimbursement and other acceptance by payors;
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the inability to price our products at a sufficient price point to ensure an adequate and attractive level of profitability;
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restricted or closed distribution channels that make it difficult to distribute our products to segments of the patient population;
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the lack of complementary products to be offered by sales personnel, which may put us at a competitive disadvantage relative to companies with more extensive product lines; and
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unforeseen costs and expenses associated with creating an independent sales and marketing organization.
If we are unable to establish our own sales, marketing and distribution capabilities and we enter into arrangements with third parties to perform these services, our revenues from product sales and our profitability, if any, are likely to be lower than if we were to market, sell and distribute any products that we develop ourselves. In addition, we may not be successful in entering into arrangements with third parties to sell, market and distribute our product candidates or may be unable to do so on terms that are acceptable to us. We likely will have little control over such third parties, and any of them may fail to devote the necessary resources and attention to sell and market our products effectively. If we do not establish sales, marketing and distribution capabilities successfully, either on our own or in collaboration with third parties, we will not be successful in commercializing our product candidates.
We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing or commercializing products before or more successfully than we do, thus rendering our products non-competitive, obsolete or reducing the size of the market for our products.
The biopharmaceutical industry, and in particular the market for products treating retinal diseases, is characterized by intense investment and competition aimed at rapidly advancing new technologies. Our product candidates are expected to face substantial competition from multiple sources, including large and specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic research institutions and governmental agencies and public and private research institutions. Any product candidates that we successfully develop and commercialize will compete with existing therapies and new therapies that may emerge in the future within the field of ophthalmology and, furthermore, within the treatment of retinal disease.
We are aware of a number of companies generally pursuing products to treat retinal diseases, including large pharmaceutical companies that have commercialized or are developing treatments for nAMD include Novartis AG (“Novartis”), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Regeneron”), AbbVie Inc. (“AbbVie”) and F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG (“Roche”). Novartis has received FDA approval for brolucizumab; Regeneron has received FDA approval for aflibercept and aflibercept HD; and Roche has received FDA approval for faricimab, ranibizumab and bevacizumab, though bevacizumab is not approved specifically for nAMD. AbbVie is currently collaborating with RegenexBio Inc. (“RegenexBio”) to develop ABBV-RGX-314 as a potential treatment for nAMD. Outlook Therapeutics, Inc. is developing bevacizumab-vikg, an investigational ophthalmic formulation of bevacizumab as a potential treatment for nAMD.
Several companies have received FDA approval for biosimilars to treat nAMD, including: Samsung Bioepis Co., Ltd. and Biogen Inc., which received approval for Byooviz (ranibizumab-nuna), a ranibizumab biosimilar, in September 2021 and Opuviz (aflibercept-yszy) in May 2024; Coherus BioSciences, Inc., which obtained approval for Cimerli (ranibizumab-eqrn), a ranibizumab biosimilar, in August 2022; Formycon AG, which received approval for Ahzantive (aflibercept-mrbb) in June 2024; Sandoz Group AG, which received approval for Enzeevu (aflibercept-abzv) in August 2024; Mylan Laboratories Inc. and Biocon Biologics Limited, which received approval for Yesafili (afliberceptjbvf), an aflibercept biosimilar, in May 2024; and Amgen Inc., which received approval for Pavblu (aflibercept-ayyh) in August 2024. As these biosimilars enter the market they may provide new, cost-effective options for the treatment of nAMD, as well as other retinal conditions mediated by VEGF.
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Emerging biopharmaceutical companies advancing therapeutic candidates through clinical trials to treat nAMD include 4D Molecular Therapeutics, Inc. (“4D Molecular Therapeutics”), Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc. (“Adverum”), RegenexBio, Eyepoint Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Eyepoint Pharmaceuticals”) and Ocular Therapeutix, Inc. (“Ocular Therapeutix”) among others. 4D Molecular Therapeutics, Adverum and RegenexBio are each advancing anti-VEGF gene therapy candidates to treat nAMD. 4D Molecular Therapeutics’ product candidate is in an ongoing Phase 3 trial for nAMD and a Phase 1 trial for DME, Adverum’s product candidate is in an ongoing Phase 3 trial and RegenexBio’s product candidate is in a pivotal clinical trial for nAMD and a Phase 2 trial for a potential DR treatment. Eyepoint Pharmaceuticals is developing a sustained release, small molecule pan-VEGF inhibitor, which is currently under evaluation in ongoing Phase 3 trials for nAMD and two ongoing Phase 3 trials for DME. Ocular Therapeutix is currently conducting Phase 3 trials of axitinib intravitreal implant, a small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor to treat nAMD, which is also being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 trial for DR.
Many of the companies against which we are competing or against which we may compete in the future, either alone or in combination with their respective strategic partners, have significantly greater financial, technical and human resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, the regulatory approval process, and marketing than we do. These same competitors also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our development programs. Our commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient or are less expensive than any products that we may develop. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other marketing approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain approval for our products, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market. In addition, our ability to compete may be affected in many cases by insurers or other third-party payors seeking to encourage the use of generic and/or biosimilar products. There are biosimilar products currently on the market for certain of the indications that we are pursuing, and additional products are expected to become available on a generic basis over the coming years. If our product candidates are approved, we expect that they will be priced at a significant premium over competitive generic products.
Technology in the biopharmaceutical industry has undergone rapid and significant change, and we expect that it will continue to do so. Any products or processes that we develop may become obsolete or uneconomical before we recover any expenses incurred in connection with their development.
Mergers and acquisition activity in the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and biotechnology sector is likely to result in greater resource concentration among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller and other early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through sizeable collaborative arrangements with established companies. These third parties compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our business.
We have pursued and may in the future pursue the in-license or acquisition of rights to complementary technologies and product candidates on an opportunistic basis. However, we may be unable to in-license or acquire any additional technologies or product candidates from third parties. The acquisition and licensing of technologies and product candidates is a competitive area, and a number of more established companies also have similar strategies to in-license or acquire technologies and product candidates that we may consider attractive. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, cash resources and greater development and commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to it. We also may be unable to in-license or acquire the relevant technology or product candidate on terms that would allow us to make an appropriate return on our investment.
Clinical trial and product liability lawsuits against us could divert our resources and could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and to limit commercialization of any products that we may develop.
We face an inherent risk of clinical trial and product liability exposure related to the testing of our product candidates in human clinical trials and will face an even greater risk if we commercially sell any products that we may develop. While we currently have no products that have been approved for commercial sale, the ongoing, planned and future use of product candidates by us in clinical trials, and the sale of any approved products in the future, may expose us to liability claims. These claims might be made by patients that use the product, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies or others selling such products. On occasion, large judgments have been awarded in class action lawsuits based on products that had unanticipated adverse effects. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against claims that our product candidates or products caused injuries, we will incur substantial liabilities. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:
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decreased demand for any product candidates or products that we may develop;
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termination of clinical trials;
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withdrawal of marketing approval, recall, restriction on the approval or a “black box” warning or contraindication for an approved drug;
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withdrawal of clinical trial participants;
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significant costs to defend any related litigation;
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substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;
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loss of revenue;
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injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention;
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reduced resources of our management to pursue our business strategy;
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distraction of management’s attention from our primary business; and
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the inability to commercialize any products that we may develop.
We may need to increase our insurance coverage as we expands our clinical trials or if we commence commercialization of our product candidates. Insurance coverage is increasingly expensive. We may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in an amount adequate to satisfy any liability that may arise. If a successful clinical trial or product liability claim or series of claims is brought against us for uninsured liabilities or in excess of insured liabilities, our assets may not be sufficient to cover such claims and our business operations could be impaired.
Risks Related to Our Dependence on Third Parties
We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct our clinical trials, and those third parties may not perform satisfactorily, including failing to meet deadlines for the completion of such trials, which may prevent or delay our ability to seek or obtain marketing approval for or commercialize our product candidates or otherwise harm our business. If we are not able to maintain these third-party relationships or if these arrangements are terminated, we may have to alter our development and commercialization plans and our business could be adversely affected.
We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third-party clinical research organizations, in addition to other third parties such as research collaboratives, clinical data management organizations, medical institutions and clinical investigators, to conduct our Phase 1a and Phase 1b/2 clinical trials of TH103 and any other clinical trials we conduct. We currently have no plans to independently conduct clinical trials of TH103 or any other product candidate that we may develop. These contract research organizations (“CROs”) and other third parties play a significant role in the conduct and timing of these trials and subsequent collection and analysis of data. These third-party arrangements might terminate for a variety of reasons, including a failure to perform by the third parties. If we need to enter into alternative arrangements, our product development activities might be delayed.
Our reliance on these third parties for product development activities reduces our control over these activities but does not relieve us of our responsibilities. For example, we will remain responsible for ensuring that each of our clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the general investigational plan and protocols for the trial. Moreover, the FDA requires us to comply with good clinical practices (“GCPs”) for conducting, recording and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the rights, integrity and confidentiality of trial participants are protected. Regulatory authorities in Europe and other jurisdictions have similar requirements. Regulatory authorities enforce these GCPs through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and trial sites. If we or any of our CROs or trial sites fail to comply with applicable GCPs, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable, and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. We are also required to register ongoing clinical trials and post the results of completed clinical trials on a government-sponsored database, ClinicalTrials.gov, within specified timeframes. Failure to do so can result in fines, adverse publicity and civil and criminal sanctions.
If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines or conduct our clinical trials in accordance with regulatory requirements or our stated protocols, we will not be able to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, marketing approvals for our product candidates and will not be able to, or may be delayed in our efforts to, successfully develop and commercialize our product candidates. Furthermore, these third parties may also have relationships with other entities, some of which may be our competitors. In addition, principal investigators for our clinical trials may serve as scientific advisors or consultants to us from time to time and may receive cash or equity compensation in connection with such services. If these relationships and any related compensation result in perceived or actual conflicts of interest, or the FDA concludes that the financial relationship may have affected the interpretation of the trial, the integrity of the data generated at the applicable clinical trial site may be questioned, and the utility of the clinical trial itself may be jeopardized, which could result in the delay or rejection of any marketing application we submit to the FDA. Any such delay or rejection could prevent us from commercializing our product candidates.
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If any of our relationships with these third parties terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative third parties or do so on commercially reasonable terms. Switching or adding more CROs, investigators and other third parties involves additional cost and requires management time and focus. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new CRO commences work. As a result, delays can occur, which could materially impact our ability to meet our desired clinical development timelines. Although we plan to carefully manage our relationships with our CROs, investigators and other third parties, we may nonetheless encounter challenges or delays in the future, which could have a material and adverse impact on our business, financial condition and prospects.
Manufacturing biologics is complex, and we may experience manufacturing problems that result in delays in our development or future commercialization programs.
The manufacturing of biologics is complex and difficult and we may experience production issues or interruptions for TH103 or any other product candidate it may develop, including raw material or starting material variability in terms of quality, cell line viability, productivity or stability issues, shortages of any kind, shipping, distribution, storage and supply chain failures, growth media contamination, equipment malfunctions, operator errors, facility contamination, labor problems, natural disasters, disruption in utility services, terrorist activities, or acts of god that are beyond our control or the control of our contract development and manufacturing organizations (“CDMOs”).
Given the nature of biologics manufacturing, there is a risk of contamination during manufacturing. Any contamination could materially harm our or our CDMOs’ ability to produce TH103 or any other product candidate it may develop on schedule and could harm our results of operations and cause reputational damage. Some of the raw materials that we require in our manufacturing process are derived from biologic sources. Such raw materials may be difficult to procure and may be subject to contamination or recall.
Problems with the manufacturing process, even minor deviations from the normal process, could result in product defects or manufacturing failures that result in lot failures, product recalls, product liability claims, insufficient inventory or potentially delay progression of our clinical development of TH103 and any other product candidate it may develop. For example, we have observed cases of IOI in our Phase 1a and Phase 1b/2 clinical trials of TH103 that are believed to be related to retained host cell protein impurities that are a byproduct of our biologic manufacturing process. Although we believe we have made progress in reducing the level of host cell protein in our manufactured drug product and were already at levels acceptable to the FDA for an investigational product, we may never succeed in our goal of reducing host cell protein to below levels of detection or in reducing host cell protein to a level that does not result in cases of IOI at clinically relevant dose levels. Moreover, our efforts to improve our manufacturing process to remove host cell proteins has in the past, and may in the future, cause delays in our clinical development program. We have also experienced performance failures at our third-party manufacturers that have resulted in lower drug product production yields than expected, as well as delays.
If we successfully develop TH103 and any other product candidate, we may encounter problems achieving adequate quantities and quality that meet FDA, EMA or other comparable applicable foreign standards or specifications with consistent and acceptable production yields and costs. The ability to scale our manufacturing and maintain the manufacturing process at the same levels of quality and efficiency is yet to be tested. If we or our third-party CDMOs are unable to scale our manufacturing at the same levels of quality and efficiency, we may not be able to supply the required number of doses for clinical trials or commercial supply. A material shortage, contamination or manufacturing failure in the manufacture of TH103 and any other product candidate we may develop or other adverse impact or disruption in the commercial manufacturing or the production of clinical material could materially harm our development timelines and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We rely on third-party CDMOs for the manufacture of both drug substance and finished drug product of our product candidates for preclinical and clinical testing and expect to continue to do so for commercialization. This reliance on third parties increases the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of our product candidates or products or such quantities at an acceptable cost or quality, which could delay, prevent or impair our development or commercialization efforts.
We do not own or operate, and currently have no plans to establish, any manufacturing facilities. We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third-party CDMOs for both drug substance and finished drug product, as well as for commercial manufacture of any of our product candidates receive marketing approval. This reliance on third parties increases the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of our product candidates or products or such quantities at an acceptable cost or quality, which could delay, prevent or impair our development or commercialization efforts. We may be unable to establish any agreements with third-party manufacturers or to do so on acceptable terms. Even if we are able to establish agreements with third-party manufacturers, reliance on third-party manufacturers entails additional risks, including:
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reliance on the third party for regulatory compliance and quality assurance;
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the possible breach of the manufacturing agreement by the third party;
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the potential failure to manufacture our product candidate or product according to our specifications;
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the potential failure to manufacture our product candidate or product according to our schedule or at all;
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the possible misappropriation of our proprietary information, including our trade secrets and know-how; and
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the possible termination or nonrenewal of the agreement by the third party at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us.
We or our third-party manufacturers may encounter shortages in the manufacturing of supplies, raw materials or active pharmaceutical ingredients necessary to produce our product candidates in the quantities needed for our clinical trials or, if our product candidates are approved, in sufficient quantities for commercialization or to meet an increase in demand, as a result of capacity constraints or delays or disruptions in the market for the raw materials or active pharmaceutical ingredients, including shortages caused by the purchase of such raw materials or active pharmaceutical ingredients by our competitors or others. We and our third-party manufacturers’ failure to obtain the raw materials or active pharmaceutical ingredients necessary to manufacture sufficient quantities of our product candidates may have a material adverse effect on our business.
Our third-party manufacturers are subject to inspection and approval by regulatory authorities before we can commence the manufacture and sale of any of our product candidates, and thereafter subject to ongoing inspection from time to time. Third-party manufacturers may not be able to comply with current good manufacturing practices (“cGMP”) regulations or similar regulatory requirements outside of the United States. Our failure, or the failure of our third-party manufacturers, to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including clinical holds, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, seizures or recalls of product candidates or products, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect supplies of our products.
Our product candidates and any products that we may develop may compete with other product candidates and products for access to manufacturing facilities. As a result, we may not obtain access to these facilities on a priority basis or at all. There are a limited number of manufacturers that operate under cGMP regulations and that might be capable of manufacturing for us. Any performance failure on the part of our existing or future manufacturers could delay clinical development or marketing approval. If any of our current contract manufacturers cannot perform as agreed, we may be required to replace such manufacturers. Although we believe that there are several potential alternative manufacturers who could manufacture our product candidates, we may incur added costs and delays in identifying and qualifying any such replacement or be unable to reach agreement with an alternative manufacturer.
Our current and anticipated future dependence upon others for the manufacture of our product candidates or products may adversely affect our future profit margins and our ability to commercialize any products that receive marketing approval on a timely and competitive basis.
We currently rely, and may in the future rely, on single-source suppliers for certain materials and components used in the manufacturing of our product candidates.
We currently rely, and may in the future rely, on single-source suppliers for certain materials and components used in the manufacturing of our product candidates. There are, for certain of these materials and components, few, if any, alternative sources of supply and there is limited need for multiple suppliers at this stage of our business. We cannot ensure that these suppliers will remain in business, have sufficient capacity or supply to meet our needs, be able to supply materials to us at costs that are acceptable to us, or that they will not be purchased by one of our competitors or another company that is not interested in continuing to work with us. Our use of single-source suppliers of certain materials and components exposes it to several risks, including disruptions in supply, price increases or late deliveries. Our suppliers may be unable or unwilling to meet our future demands for our clinical trials. Establishing additional or replacement suppliers for these materials and components could take a substantial amount of time and it may be difficult to establish replacement suppliers who meet regulatory requirements. Any disruption in supply from these single-source suppliers could lead to supply delays or interruptions which would materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may enter into collaborations with third parties for the research, development and commercialization of certain of our product candidates. If our collaborations are not successful, we may not be able to capitalize on the market potential of these product candidates and our business could be adversely affected.
We may enter into third-party collaborators for the research, development and commercialization of certain of our product candidates. Our likely collaborators include large and mid-size pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies. Any such arrangements with third parties will likely limit our control over the amount and timing of resources that our collaborators dedicate to the development or commercialization of our product candidates we may seek to develop with them. Our ability to generate revenues
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from these arrangements will depend on our collaborators’ abilities and efforts to successfully perform the functions assigned to them in these arrangements. We cannot predict the success of any collaboration that we enter into.
Collaborations involving our product candidates we may develop pose the following risks to us:
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collaborators have significant discretion in determining the amount and timing of efforts and resources that they will apply to these collaborations;
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collaborators may not perform their obligations as expected;
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collaborators may not pursue development of our product candidates or may elect not to continue or renew development programs based on results of clinical trials or other studies, changes in the collaborators’ strategic focus or available funding, or external factors, such as an acquisition or business combination, that divert resources or create competing priorities;
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collaborators may not pursue development and commercialization of any product candidates that achieve marketing approval or may elect not to continue or renew commercialization programs based on results of clinical trials or other studies, changes in the collaborators’ strategic focus or available funding, or external factors, such as an acquisition or business combination, that may divert resources or create competing priorities;
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collaborators may delay clinical trials, provide insufficient funding for a clinical trial program, stop a clinical trial or abandon a product candidate, repeat or conduct new clinical trials or require a new formulation of a product candidate for clinical testing;
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we may not have access to, or may be restricted from disclosing, certain information regarding product candidates being developed or commercialized under a collaboration and, consequently, may have limited ability to inform our stockholders about the status of such product candidates on a discretionary basis;
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collaborators could independently develop, or develop with third parties, products that compete directly or indirectly with our product candidates and products if the collaborators believe that the competitive products are more likely to be successfully developed or can be commercialized under terms that are more economically attractive than ours;
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product candidates discovered in collaboration with us may be viewed by our collaborators as competitive with their own product candidates or products, which may cause collaborators to cease to devote resources to the commercialization of our product candidates;
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a collaborator may fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements regarding the development, manufacture, distribution or marketing of a product candidate or product;
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a collaborator may seek to renegotiate or terminate their relationship with us due to unsatisfactory clinical results, manufacturing issues, a change in business strategy, a change of control or other reasons;
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a collaborator with marketing and distribution rights to one or more of our product candidates that achieve marketing approval may not commit sufficient resources to the marketing and distribution of such product or products;
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disagreements with collaborators, including disagreements over intellectual property or proprietary rights, contract interpretation or the preferred course of development, might cause delays or terminations of the research, development or commercialization of product candidates, might lead to additional responsibilities for us with respect to product candidates, or might result in litigation or arbitration, any of which would be time-consuming and expensive;
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we may lose certain valuable rights under circumstances identified in our collaborations, including if we undergo a change of control;
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collaborators may not properly obtain, maintain, enforce, defend or protect our intellectual property or proprietary rights or may use our proprietary information in such a way as to potentially lead to disputes or legal proceedings that could jeopardize or invalidate our intellectual property or proprietary information or expose us to potential litigation;
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disputes may arise with respect to the ownership of intellectual property developed pursuant to our collaborations;
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collaborators may infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate the intellectual property or proprietary rights of third parties, which may expose us to litigation and potential liability;
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collaborations may be terminated, and, if terminated, we could be required to raise additional capital to pursue further development or commercialization of the applicable product candidates; and
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collaboration agreements may not lead to development or commercialization of product candidates in the most efficient manner, or at all. If a present or future collaborator of ours was to be involved in a business combination, the continued pursuit and emphasis on our product development or commercialization program under such collaboration could be delayed, diminished or terminated.
If any collaborations that we enter into do not result in the successful development and commercialization of products or if one of our collaborators terminates its agreement with us, we may not receive any future research funding or milestone or royalty payments under the collaboration. If we do not receive the funding we expect under these agreements, or do not receive it in the timeframe in which we expect to receive it, the development of our product candidates could be delayed, and we may need additional resources to develop our product candidates. All of the risks relating to product development, marketing approval and commercialization described herein also apply to the activities of our collaborators.
We may in the future decide to collaborate with biopharmaceutical companies for the development and potential commercialization of any product candidates we may develop. These relationships, or those like them, may require us to incur non-recurring and other charges, increase our near- and long-term expenditures, issue securities that dilute our existing stockholders, or disrupt our management and business. In addition, we could face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators, and the negotiation process is time-consuming and complex. Our ability to reach a definitive collaboration agreement will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration, and the proposed collaborator’s evaluation of several factors. If we license rights to any product candidates we or our collaborators may develop, we may not be able to realize the benefit of such transactions if it is unable to successfully integrate them with our existing operations and company culture.
We may seek to establish additional collaborations. If we are not able to establish or maintain additional collaborations, on commercially reasonable terms, we may have to alter our development and commercialization plans and our business could be adversely affected.
We plan to selectively pursue collaborations with leading biopharmaceutical companies with particular experience, including development and commercial expertise and capabilities. We face significant competition in attracting appropriate collaborators, and a number of more established companies may also be pursuing strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we consider attractive. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, financial resources and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. Whether we reach a definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration and the proposed collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors. Those factors may include the design or results of clinical trials, the likelihood of approval by the FDA or other regulatory authorities, the potential market for the subject product candidate, the costs and complexities of manufacturing and delivering such product candidate to patients, the potential of competing products, the existence of uncertainty with respect to our ownership of technology, which can exist if there is a challenge to such ownership without regard to the merits of the challenge, the terms of any existing collaboration agreements, and industry and market conditions generally. The collaborator may also consider alternative product candidates or technologies for similar indications that may be available to collaborate on and whether such a collaboration could be more attractive than the one with us for our product candidate. We may also be restricted under future license agreements from entering into agreements on certain terms with potential collaborators. Collaborations are complex and time-consuming to negotiate, document and execute. In addition, there have been a significant number of recent business combinations among large biopharmaceutical companies that have resulted in a reduced number of potential future collaborators. Any collaboration we may enter into may limit our ability to enter into future agreements on particular terms or covering similar target indications with other potential collaborators.
If we are unable to reach agreements with suitable collaborators on a timely basis, on acceptable terms or at all, we may have to curtail the development of a product candidate, reduce or delay our development program or one or more of our other development programs, delay our potential commercialization or reduce the scope of any sales or marketing activities, or increase our expenditures and undertake development or commercialization activities at our own expense. If we expect to fund and undertake development or commercialization activities on our own, we may need to obtain additional expertise and additional capital, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. If we fail to enter into collaborations and do not have sufficient funds or expertise to undertake the necessary development and commercialization activities, we may not be able to further develop our product candidates or bring them to market and generate revenue from product sales, which could have an adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.
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Any acquisitions or in-license transactions that we complete could disrupt our business, cause dilution to our stockholders or reduce our financial resources.
We may enter into transactions to in-license or acquire other businesses, intellectual property, technologies, product candidates or products. If we determine to pursue a particular transaction, we may not be able to complete the transaction on favorable terms, or at all. Any in-licenses or acquisitions we complete may not strengthen our competitive position, and these transactions may be viewed negatively by investors. We may decide to incur debt in connection with an in-license or acquisition or issue our common stock or other equity securities to the stockholders of the target company, which would reduce the percentage ownership of our existing stockholders. We could incur losses resulting from undiscovered liabilities that are not covered by the indemnification it may obtain from the seller. In addition, we may not be able to successfully integrate the acquired personnel, technologies and operations into our existing business in an effective, timely and nondisruptive manner. In-license and acquisition transactions may also divert management attention from day-to-day responsibilities, increase our expenses and reduce our cash available for operations and other uses. We cannot predict the number, timing or size of additional future in-licenses or acquisitions or the effect that any such transactions might have on our operating results.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
If we are unable to obtain and maintain sufficient intellectual property protection for our technology, our product candidates, and product candidates we may develop, or if the scope of the intellectual property protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, our competitors or other third parties could develop and commercialize products similar or identical to ours, and our ability to successfully develop and, if approved, commercialize our product candidates may be adversely affected.
We rely upon a combination of patents, trademarks, trade secret protection, and confidentiality agreements to protect the intellectual property related to our development programs and product candidates. Our success depends in part on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection in the United States and other countries with respect to TH103 or our other current or future product candidates. If we are unable to obtain or maintain patent protection with respect to TH103 or our other current or future product candidates, and their uses, our business, financial condition, resultant operations and prospects could be materially harmed.
We generally seek to protect our proprietary position by filing patent applications in the United States and abroad related to our development programs, product candidates and novel discoveries that are important to our business, as appropriate. Our pending and future patent applications cannot be enforced against third parties practicing the technology claimed in such applications unless, and until, patents issue from such applications, and then only to the extent the issued claims cover the technology. There can be no assurance that our patent applications will result in patents being issued or that issued patents will afford sufficient protection against competitors with similar technology, nor can there be any assurance that the patents issued will not be infringed, designed around or invalidated by third parties, including generics. The patent prosecution process is expensive and time-consuming, and we may not be able to file, prosecute, enforce or license all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner.
Our patents and patent applications may fail to result in issued patents with claims that adequately protect TH103 and our other current or future product candidates in the United States or in other foreign countries. There is no assurance that all of the potentially relevant prior art relating to our patents and patent applications has been found, which can prevent a patent from issuing from a pending patent application, or be used to invalidate a patent. Even if patents do successfully issue and even if such patents cover TH103 or our other current or future product candidates, third parties may challenge their validity, enforceability or scope, which may result in such patents being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable. Any successful opposition to these patents or any other patents owned by or licensed to us could deprive us of rights necessary for the successful commercialization of any product candidates that we may develop. Further, the scope and coverage of such patents may be so narrow that a third party could successfully design around our patents without materially impacting the therapeutic effectiveness of the resulting drug product. Further, if we encounter delays in regulatory approvals, the period of time during which we could market a product candidate under patent protection could be reduced.
The patent application process is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that we or any of our potential future collaborators will be successful in protecting our product candidates by obtaining and defending patents. These risks and uncertainties include the following:
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the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other provisions during the patent process, the noncompliance with which can result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application, and partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction;
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the USPTO requires us to disclose all material references to the Patent Examiner during prosecution of our patent applications at the USPTO, and failure to do so could result in a third party successfully challenging our ability to enforce a patent against an infringer;
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patent applications may not result in any patents being issued;
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granted patents may not have a claim scope that covers TH103 or our other current or future product candidates;
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patents may be challenged, invalidated, modified, revoked, circumvented, found to be unenforceable or otherwise may not provide any competitive advantage;
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our competitors, many of whom have substantially greater resources than we do and many of whom have made significant investments in competing technologies, may seek or may have already obtained patents that will limit, interfere with or block our ability to make, use and sell our product candidates;
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there may be significant pressure on the United States government and international governmental bodies to limit the scope of patent protection both inside and outside the United States for treatments of diseases or conditions that prove successful, as a matter of public policy regarding worldwide health concerns; and
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countries other than the United States may have patent laws less favorable to patentees than those upheld by United States courts, allowing foreign competitors a better opportunity to create, develop and market competing products.
The patent prosecution process is also expensive and time-consuming, and we may not be able to file, prosecute, maintain, enforce or license all necessary or desirable patent applications or maintain and/or enforce patents that may issue based on our patent applications, at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner or in all jurisdictions where protection may be commercially advantageous. Additionally, recent reforms and changes at government agencies of the United States and those of non-U.S. jurisdictions could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution or maintenance of our patent applications, and the maintenance, enforcement, or defense of our issued patents. For example, the ability of the USPTO and other applicable patent authorities to properly administer their functions is highly dependent on the levels of funding available to the agency and their ability to retain key personnel and fill key leadership appointments, among various factors. Termination of employees or delays in replacing or hiring for key positions could significantly impact the ability of the USPTO and other applicable patent authorities to fulfill their functions and could greatly impact our ability to timely and adequately prosecute or maintain our patent applications, and our ability to timely and adequately maintain, enforce, or defend our issued patents. We may not be able to obtain or maintain patent applications and patents due to the subject matter claimed in such patent applications and patents being in disclosures in the public domain. It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection. Moreover, for patent rights that we have or will in license from third parties, we may not have the right to control the preparation, filing, and prosecution of such patent applications, or to maintain the patents, directed to technology that we license from those third parties. We may also require the cooperation of our licensor(s) in order to enforce the licensed patent rights, and such cooperation may not be provided. Therefore, any licensed patents and applications may not be prosecuted and enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. We cannot be certain that patent prosecution and maintenance activities by any of our current or future licensors have been or will be conducted in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, which may affect the validity and enforceability of such patents or any patents that may issue from such applications. If they fail to do so, this could cause us to lose rights in any applicable intellectual property that we in-license, and as a result, our ability to develop and commercialize products or product candidates may be adversely affected and we may be unable to prevent competitors from making, using and selling competing products.
If the patent applications we hold or in-license (or will hold or in-license) with respect to our development programs and product candidates fail to issue, if their breadth or strength of protection is threatened, or if they fail to provide meaningful exclusivity for TH103 or our other current or future product candidates, it could dissuade other companies from collaborating with us to develop product candidates, and threaten our ability to commercialize TH103 and our other current or future product candidates. Any such outcome could have a materially adverse effect on our business.
The patent position of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions, and has been and will continue to be the subject of litigation and new legislation, resulting in court decisions, including Supreme Court decisions, which have increased uncertainties as to the ability to enforce patent rights in the future. In addition, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. For example, many countries restrict the patentability of methods of treatment of the human body. Publications in scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. Therefore, we cannot know with certainty whether we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our own patents or pending patent applications, or that we were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions. As a result of these and other factors, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability, and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain. Our pending and future patent applications may not result in patents being issued which protect our technology or products, in whole or in part, or which effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive technologies and products.
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Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our patents or narrow the scope of our patent protection. For example, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act created new administrative post-grant proceedings, including post-grant review, inter partes review, and derivation proceedings that allow third parties to challenge the validity of issued patents. Because of a lower evidentiary standard in USPTO proceedings compared to the evidentiary standard in United States federal courts necessary to invalidate a patent claim, a third party could potentially provide evidence in a USPTO proceeding sufficient for the USPTO to hold a claim invalid even though the same evidence would be insufficient to invalidate the claim if first presented in a district court action. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained. Depending on decisions by the United States Congress, the federal courts, and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that could weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce our existing patents and patents that we might obtain in the future.
Moreover, we may be subject to a third-party pre-issuance submission of prior art to the USPTO or become involved in opposition, derivation, reexamination, inter partes review, post-grant review or interference proceedings challenging our patent rights or the patent rights of others. The costs of defending patents or enforcing proprietary rights in post-issuance administrative proceedings and litigation can be substantial and the outcome can be uncertain. An adverse determination in any such submission, proceeding or litigation could reduce the scope of, or invalidate, our patent rights, allow third parties to commercialize our technology or products and compete directly with us, without payment to us, or result in our inability to manufacture or commercialize products without infringing third-party patent rights. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop or commercialize current or future product candidates.
The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to inventorship, scope, validity, or enforceability, and our owned and licensed patents and patent applications may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad. Even issued patents may later be found invalid or unenforceable or may be modified or revoked in proceedings instituted by third parties before various patent offices or in courts. An adverse decision in any such challenges may result in loss of exclusivity or in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, in whole or in part, which could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our technology and products. Generally, issued patents are granted a term of 20 years from the earliest claimed non-provisional filing date. In certain instances, patent term can be adjusted to recapture a portion of delay incurred by the USPTO in examining the patent application (patent term adjustment). The scope of patent protection may also be limited.
If we are unable to secure adequate patent protection for our current or future product candidates, we may be open to competition from generic versions of such products. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing, and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. As a result, our patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours.
We cannot be certain that the claims in patents or our pending patent applications directed to TH103 and our other current or future product candidates will be considered patentable by the USPTO, by patent offices in foreign countries, by the courts, or by other relevant authority. One aspect of the determination of patentability of our inventions depends on the scope and content of the “prior art,” information that was or is deemed available to a person of skill in the relevant art prior to the priority date of the claimed invention. There may be prior art of which we are not aware that may affect the patentability of our patent claims or, if issued, affect the validity or enforceability of a patent claim relevant to our business. There is no assurance that there is not prior art of which we are aware, but which we do not believe is relevant to our business, which may, nonetheless, ultimately be found to limit our ability to make, use, sell, offer for sale or import our products that may be approved in the future, or impair our competitive position. Even if the patents do issue based on the patent applications we solely own, co-own, or exclusively license, third parties may challenge the validity, enforceability or scope thereof, which may result in such patents being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable. Furthermore, even if they are unchallenged, patents in our portfolio may not adequately exclude third parties from practicing relevant technology or prevent others from designing around our claims. If the breadth or strength of our intellectual property position with respect to our product candidates is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to develop, and threaten our ability to commercialize, our product candidates. In the event of litigation or administrative proceedings, we cannot be certain that the claims in any of our issued patents will be considered valid by courts in the United States or foreign countries.
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Patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on our product candidates for an adequate amount of time.
We rely on patent, trademark, trade secret and other intellectual property protection in the development, manufacturing and sale of TH103 and our other current and any future product candidates. In particular, patent protection is important in the development and eventual commercialization of TH103 and our other current or any future product candidates. Patents covering TH103 and our other current or any future product candidates normally provide market exclusivity, which is important in order for TH103 and our other current or any future product candidates to become profitable.
Patent rights are of limited duration. In the United States, if all maintenance fees are paid timely, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years after the filing date of the first non-provisional patent application in the patent family. Various extensions may be available, but the life of a patent, and the protection it affords is limited. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing, and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such product candidates are commercialized. Even if patents covering our product candidates are obtained, once the patent life has expired for a product, we may be open to competition from generic products. As a result, our patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing product candidates similar or identical to ours. Upon issuance in the United States, the term of a patent can be increased by patent term adjustment, which is based on certain delays caused by the USPTO, but this increase can be reduced or eliminated based on certain delays caused by the patent applicant during patent prosecution. The term of a U.S. patent may also be shortened if the patent is terminally disclaimed over an earlier-filed patent.
Depending upon the timing, duration and specifics of FDA marketing approval of TH103 and our other current and future product candidates, one or more of our U.S. patents may be eligible for limited patent term restoration under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984, referred to as the Hatch-Waxman Amendments. The Hatch-Waxman Amendments permit a patent restoration term of up to five years beyond the normal expiration of the patent as compensation for patent term lost during drug development and the FDA regulatory review process, which is limited to the approved indication (or any additional indications approved during the period of extension). This extension is based on the first approved use of a product and is limited to only one patent that covers the approved product, the approved use of the product, or a method of manufacturing the product. Such patent term extension cannot extend the remaining term of a patent beyond a total of 14 years from the date of product approval. However, the applicable authorities, including the FDA and the USPTO in the United States, and any equivalent regulatory authority in other countries, may not agree with our assessment of whether such extensions are available, and may refuse to grant extensions to our patents, or may grant more limited extensions than we request. We may not be granted an extension because of, for example, failing to apply within applicable deadlines, failing to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents or otherwise failing to satisfy applicable requirements. Moreover, the applicable time-period or the scope of patent protection afforded could be less than we project or request. If we are unable to extend the expiration date of our existing patents or obtain new patents with longer expiry dates, our competitors may be able to take advantage of our investment in development and clinical trials by referencing our clinical and preclinical data to obtain approval of competing products following our patent expiration and launch their product earlier than might otherwise be the case.
Laws governing analogous patent term extension (“PTE”) in foreign jurisdictions vary widely, as do laws governing the ability to obtain multiple patents from a single patent family. Additionally, we may not receive an extension if we fail to exercise due diligence during the testing phase or regulatory review process, fail to apply within applicable deadlines, fail to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents or otherwise fail to satisfy applicable requirements. If we are unable to obtain PTE or restoration, or the term of any such extension is less than we project or request, the period during which we will have the right to exclusively market our product will be shortened and our competitors may obtain approval of competing products following our patent expiration and may take advantage of our investment in development and clinical trials by referencing our clinical and preclinical data to launch their product earlier than might otherwise be the case, and our revenue could be reduced, possibly materially.
Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment, and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for noncompliance with these requirements.
Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other government fees on patents and/or patent applications will be due to be paid to the USPTO and other foreign patent agencies in several stages over the lifetime of our patents and patent applications. The USPTO and various foreign national or international patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment, and other similar provisions during the patent application process. While an inadvertent lapse can in many cases be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules, there are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. Noncompliance events that could result in abandonment or lapse of patent rights include, but are not limited to, failure to timely file national and regional stage patent applications based on our international patent application, failure to respond to official actions within prescribed time limits, non-payment of fees, and failure to properly legalize and submit
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formal documents. We employ reputable law firms and other professionals to help us comply with these provisions. In many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules. However, there are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. If such an event were to occur, it could have a material adverse effect on our business. If we or any of our licensors fail to maintain the patents and patent applications covering TH103 and our other current or any future product candidates, our competitors may be able to enter the market, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial conditions, results of operations and growth prospects. We do not have granted patents in certain markets and cannot guarantee that we will obtain patent coverage in such markets that cover TH103 and our other current or any future product candidates.
We may not identify relevant third-party patents or may incorrectly interpret the relevance, scope or expiration of a third-party patent, which might adversely affect our ability to develop and market our products.
TH103 and our other current or any future product candidates may be subject to claims of infringement of the patent rights of third parties. There can be no assurance that our operations do not, or will not in the future, infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate existing or future third-party patents or other intellectual property rights. Identification of third-party patent rights that may be relevant to our operations is difficult because patent searching is imperfect due to differences in terminology among patents, incomplete databases and the difficulty in assessing the meaning of patent claims. We cannot provide any assurances that third-party patents do not exist which might be enforced against our existing products or current technology, including our research programs, TH103 and our other current or future product candidates, their respective methods of use, and manufacture thereof, and could result in either an injunction prohibiting our manufacture or future sales, or, with respect to our future sales, an obligation on our part to pay royalties and/or other forms of compensation to third parties, which could be significant. We cannot guarantee that any of our patent searches or analyses, including the identification of relevant patents, the scope of patent claims or the expiration of relevant patents, are complete or thorough, nor can we be certain that we have identified each and every third-party patent and pending application in the United States and abroad that is relevant to or necessary for the commercialization of our current and future product candidates in any jurisdiction.
Numerous U.S. and foreign patents and pending patent applications exist in our market that are owned by third parties. Our competitors in both the United States and abroad, many of which have substantially greater resources and have made substantial investments in patent portfolios and competing technologies, may have applied for or obtained or may in the future apply for and obtain, patents that will prevent, limit or otherwise interfere with our ability to make, use and sell our product candidates. We do not always conduct independent reviews of pending patent applications and patents issued to third parties. Patent applications in the United States and elsewhere are typically published approximately 18 months after the earliest filing for which priority is claimed, with such earliest filing date being commonly referred to as the priority date. Certain U.S. applications that will not be filed outside the United States can remain confidential until patents issue. In addition, patent applications in the United States and elsewhere can be pending for many years before issuance, or unintentionally abandoned patents or applications can be revived. Furthermore, pending patent applications that have been published can, subject to certain limitations, be later amended in a manner that could cover our product candidates or the use of our product candidates. As such, there may be applications of others now pending or recently revived patents of which we are unaware. These patent applications may later result in issued patents, or the revival of previously abandoned patents, that may be infringed by the manufacture, use or sale of our product candidates or will prevent, limit or otherwise interfere with our ability to make, use or sell our product candidates.
The scope of a patent claim is determined by an interpretation of the law, the written disclosure in a patent and the patent’s prosecution history. Our interpretation of the relevance or the scope of a patent or a pending application may be incorrect, which may negatively impact our ability to market our products. For example, we may incorrectly determine that our product candidates are not covered by a third-party patent or may incorrectly predict whether a third party’s pending application will issue with claims of relevant scope. Our determination of the expiration date of any patent in the United States or abroad that we consider relevant may be incorrect, and our failure to identify and correctly interpret relevant patents may negatively impact our ability to develop and market our products.
We may become involved in third-party claims of intellectual property infringement, which may delay or prevent the development and commercialization of our current and any future product candidates.
Our commercial success depends in part on our ability to develop, manufacture, market and sell TH103 and our other current and any future product candidates, while avoiding infringement and other violations of the patents and proprietary rights of third parties. There is a substantial amount of litigation, both within and outside the United States, involving patent and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including patent infringement lawsuits, interferences, derivation, and administrative law proceedings, inter partes review, and post-grant review before the USPTO, as well as oppositions and similar processes in foreign jurisdictions. We may be exposed to, or threatened with, future litigation by third parties having patent or other intellectual property rights who allege that our product candidates, uses and/or other proprietary technologies infringe their intellectual
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property rights. Numerous United States and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications, which are owned by third parties, exist in the fields in which we and our collaborators are developing product candidates. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, and as we gain greater visibility and market exposure as a public company, the risk increases that our product candidates or other business activities may be subject to claims of infringement of the patent and other proprietary rights of third parties. Third parties may assert that we are infringing their patents or employing their proprietary technology without authorization.
Litigation or other legal proceedings relating to intellectual property claims, with or without merit, is unpredictable and generally expensive and time consuming and, even if resolved in our favor, is likely to divert significant resources from our core business, including distracting our technical and management personnel from their normal responsibilities. Such litigation or proceedings could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce the resources available for development activities or any future sales, marketing or distribution activities. We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to adequately conduct such litigation or proceedings. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources and more mature and developed intellectual property portfolios. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace.
Also, there may be third-party patents or patent applications with claims to materials, formulations, methods of manufacture or methods for treatment related to the use or manufacture of our current and future product candidates. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent applications which may later result in issued patents that our current or future product candidates may infringe.
In addition, third parties may obtain patent rights in the future and claim that use of our technologies infringes upon their rights. If any third-party patents were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover the manufacturing process of any of our product candidates, any products formed during the manufacturing process, methods of treating certain diseases or conditions that we are pursuing with our product candidates, our formulations including combination therapies, or any final product itself, the holders of any such patents may be able to block our ability to commercialize such product candidate unless we obtained a license under the applicable patents, or until such patents expire. Such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all. In addition, we may be subject to claims that it is infringing other intellectual property rights, such as trademarks or copyrights, or misappropriating the trade secrets of others, and to the extent that our employees, consultants or contractors use intellectual property or proprietary information owned by others in their work for us, disputes may arise as to the rights in related or resulting know-how and inventions.
Parties making claims against us may obtain injunctive or other equitable relief, which could effectively block our ability to further develop and commercialize one or more of our current and future product candidates. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of employee resources from our business. In the event of a successful infringement or other intellectual property claim against us, we may have to pay substantial damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement, obtain one or more licenses from third parties, pay royalties or redesign our affected products, which may be impossible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure. We cannot predict whether any such license would be available at all or whether it would be available on commercially reasonable terms. Furthermore, even in the absence of litigation, we may need to obtain licenses from third parties to advance our research or allow commercialization of our product candidates, and we have done so from time to time. We may fail to obtain any of these licenses at a reasonable cost or on reasonable terms, if at all. In that event, we would be unable to further develop and commercialize one or more of our product candidates, which could harm our business significantly. We cannot provide any assurances that third-party patents do not exist which might be enforced against our product candidates, resulting in either an injunction prohibiting our sales, or, with respect to our sales, an obligation on our part to pay royalties or other forms of compensation to third parties.
During the course of any intellectual property litigation, there could be public announcements of the initiation of the litigation as well as results of hearings, rulings on motions, and other interim proceedings in the litigation. If securities analysts or investors regard these announcements as negative, the perceived value of our existing products, programs or intellectual property could be diminished. Accordingly, the market price of shares of our common stock may decline. Such announcements could also harm our reputation or the market for our future products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
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We may become involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or other intellectual property rights, or the patents or other intellectual property rights of any licensors, which could be expensive, time consuming, and unsuccessful, and could result in a court or administrative body finding our patents to be invalid or unenforceable.
Competitors may challenge, infringe, or otherwise violate our patents, the patents of our licensors, or our other intellectual property rights. To counter challenges, infringement, or unauthorized use or misappropriations, we or any licensors may be required to file or defend legal claims, which can be expensive and time-consuming. In addition, in such a proceeding, a court may decide that one or more patents of ours or any of our current or future licensors is not valid or is unenforceable, or may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our patents do not cover the technology in question. An adverse result in any litigation or defense proceeding could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and could put our patent applications at risk of not issuing. The initiation of a claim against a third party may also cause the third party to bring counter claims against us such as claims asserting that our patents are invalid or unenforceable. In patent litigation in the United States, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity and/or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge could be an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including lack of novelty, obviousness (inventive step), non-enablement, insufficient written description, or failure to claim patent-eligible subject matter. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could be an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant material information from the USPTO, or made a materially misleading statement, during prosecution. Third parties may also raise similar validity claims before the USPTO in post-grant proceedings such as ex parte reexaminations, inter partes review, or post-grant review, or oppositions or similar proceedings outside the United States, in parallel with litigation or even outside the context of litigation. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable. Additionally, we may be subject to claims of patent infringement during those proceedings, and delays caused by the federal agencies may increase the time period that we are subject to such claims. For example, administrative changes, including reduced staff and budgets experienced by the Patent and Trial Appeal Board, could further delay our ability to timely challenge any such patents. In any patent infringement proceeding, there is a risk that a court will decide that a patent of ours (or of our licensor(s)) is invalid or unenforceable, in whole or in part, and that we do not have the right to stop the other party from using the invention at issue. There is also a risk that, even if the validity of such patents is upheld, the court will construe the patent’s claims narrowly or decide that we do not have the right to stop the other party from using the invention at issue on the grounds that our (or any licensors’) patent claims do not cover the invention, or decide that the other party’s use of ours (or any licensors’) patented technology falls under the safe harbor to patent infringement under 35 U.S.C. §271(e)(1). An adverse outcome in a litigation or proceeding involving our or any licensors’ patents could limit our ability to assert our own or any licensors’ patents against those parties or other competitors and may curtail or preclude our ability to exclude third parties from making and selling similar or competitive products. Any of these occurrences could adversely affect our competitive position, and our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. Similarly, if we assert trademark infringement claims, a court may determine that the marks we have asserted are invalid or unenforceable, or that the party against whom we have asserted trademark infringement has superior rights to the marks in question. In this case, we could ultimately be forced to cease use of such trademarks.
We cannot be certain that there is no invalidating prior art, of which we and the patent examiner were unaware during prosecution. For any patents and patent applications that we may license from third parties in the future, we may have limited or no right to participate in the defense of such licensed patents against challenge by a third party. If a defendant were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity or unenforceability, we would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the patent protection on our current or future product candidates. Such a loss of patent protection could harm our business.
We may not be able to prevent misappropriation of our intellectual property rights, particularly in countries where the laws may not protect those rights as fully as in the United States. Our business could be harmed if in litigation the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms. Any litigation or other proceedings to enforce our intellectual property rights may fail, and even if successful, may result in substantial costs and distract our management and other employees.
Even if we establish infringement, the court may decide not to grant an injunction against further infringing activity and instead award only monetary damages, which may or may not be an adequate remedy. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. There could also be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have an adverse effect on the price of our common stock. Moreover, we cannot assure you that it will have sufficient financial or other resources to file and pursue such infringement claims, which typically last for years before they are concluded. Even if we ultimately prevail in such claims, the monetary cost of such litigation and the diversion of the attention of our management and scientific personnel could outweigh any benefit we receive as a result of the proceedings.
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Because of the expense and uncertainty of litigation, we may not be in a position to enforce our intellectual property rights against third parties.
Because of the expense and uncertainty of litigation, we may conclude that even if a third party is infringing our patents, any patents that may be issued as a result of our future patent applications, or other intellectual property rights, the risk-adjusted cost of bringing and enforcing such a claim or action may be too high or not in the best interest of our company or our stockholders. In such cases, we may decide that the more prudent course of action is to simply monitor the situation or initiate or seek some other non-litigious action or solution.
Changes in United States patent law or the patent law of other countries or jurisdictions could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our products.
As is the case with other biopharmaceutical companies, our success is heavily dependent on intellectual property, particularly patents relating to TH103 and our other current and any future product candidates. Obtaining, defending, maintaining and enforcing patents in the biopharmaceutical industry involves both technological and legal complexity and is therefore costly, time consuming and inherently uncertain. Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of patent applications and the enforcement or defense of issued patents, and may diminish our ability to protect our inventions, obtain, maintain, enforce and protect our intellectual property rights and, more generally, could affect the value of our intellectual property or narrow the scope of our future owned and licensed patents. The United States has enacted and implemented wide-ranging patent reform legislation. The United States Supreme Court has ruled on several patent cases in recent years, either narrowing the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances or weakening the rights of patent owners in certain situations. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained. Depending on actions by Congress, the federal courts, and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that would weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce patents that we have licensed or that we might obtain in the future. Similarly, changes in patent law and regulations in other countries or jurisdictions or changes in the governmental bodies that enforce them or changes in how the relevant governmental authority enforces patent laws or regulations may weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce patents that we have licensed or that we may obtain in the future. For example, the complexity and uncertainty of European patent laws have also increased in recent years. In Europe, a new unitary patent system took effect June 1, 2023, which significantly impacts European patents, including those granted before the introduction of such a system. Under the unitary patent system, European applications have the option, upon grant of a patent, of becoming a Unitary Patent subject to the jurisdiction of the Unitary Patent Court (“UPC”). As the UPC is a relatively new court system, there is limited precedent for the court, increasing the uncertainty of any litigation. Patents granted before the implementation of the UPC have the option of opting out of the jurisdiction of the UPC over the first seven years of the court’s existence and remaining as national patents in the UPC countries. Patents that remain under the jurisdiction of the UPC will be potentially vulnerable to a single UPC-based revocation challenge that, if successful, could invalidate the patent in all countries who are signatories to the UPC. We cannot predict with certainty the long-term effects of any potential changes. We may decide to opt out our future European patents from the UPC, but doing so may preclude us from realizing the benefits of the UPC. Moreover, if we do not meet all of the formalities and requirements for opt-out under the UPC, our future European patents could remain under the jurisdiction of the UPC. The UPC provides our competitors with a new forum to centrally revoke our European patents and allow for the possibility of a competitor to obtain a pan-European injunction. Such a loss of patent protection could have a material adverse impact on our business and our ability to commercialize our technology and product candidates due to increased competition and, resultantly, on our business, financial condition, prospects and results of operations.
We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world, which could impair our business.