10-K
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021
For the transition period from to
Commission File Number 001-37766
INTELLIA THERAPEUTICS, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
(857) 285-6200
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each Class Trade Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share NTLA The Nasdaq Global Market
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes☒No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer”, “smaller reporting company”, and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer ☒ Accelerated filer ☐
Non-accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☐
Emerging growth company ☐
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☒
The aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $10,925,830,738 as of June 30, 2021 (based on a closing price of $161.91per share as quoted by the Nasdaq Global Market as of such date). In determining the market value of non-affiliate common stock, shares of the registrant’s common stock beneficially owned by officers, directors and affiliates have been excluded. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.
The registrant had 74,672,427 shares of Common Stock, $0.0001 par value per share, outstanding as of February 17, 2022.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K incorporates by reference certain information from the registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement for its 2022 annual meeting of shareholders, which the registrant intends to file pursuant to Regulation 14A with the Securities and Exchange Commission not later than 120 days after the registrant’s fiscal year end of December 31, 2021. Except with respect to information specifically incorporated by reference in this Form 10-K, the Proxy Statement is not deemed to be filed as part of this Form 10-K.
Intellia Therapeutics, Inc.
Annual Report on Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2021
Table of Contents
Item No. PART I Page
Item 1. Business 6
Item 1A. Risk Factors 46
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 95
Item 2. Properties 96
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 96
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 97
PART II
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk 109
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 110
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 110
Item 9B. Other Information 113
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 113
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 114
Item 11. Executive Compensation 114
Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services 114
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules 115
Signatures
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Forward-looking Information
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). These statements may be identified by such forward-looking terminology as “may,” “should,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential,” “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Our forward-looking statements are based on a series of expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about our company, are not guarantees of future results or performance and involve substantial risks and uncertainty. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements. Our business and our forward-looking statements involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties inherent in our statements regarding:
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our ability to execute our clinical study strategy for NTLA-2001, our program for the treatment of transthyretin (“ATTR”) amyloidosis, including the ability to successfully complete our Phase 1 study and determine a recommended dose in our ongoing Phase 1 study that can be advanced into later-stage studies, or the success of such program;
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our ability to execute our clinical study strategy for NTLA-5001, our program for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (“AML”), including the ability to successfully complete our Phase 1/2a study and determine a recommended dose in our ongoing Phase 1 study that can be advanced into later-stage studies, or the success of such program;
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our ability to execute our clinical study strategy for NTLA-2002, our program for the treatment of hereditary angioedema (“HAE”), including the ability to successfully complete our Phase 1/2 study and determine a recommended dose in our ongoing Phase 1/2 study that can be advanced into later-stage studies, or the success of such program;
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the anticipated timing of our Investigational New Drug (“IND”) or IND-equivalent filing for NTLA-3001, our program for the treatment of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (“AATD”)-associated lung disease, or the success of such program;
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our ability to use a modular platform capability or other strategies to efficiently discover and develop product candidates, including by applying learnings from one program to other programs;
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our ability to research, develop or maintain a pipeline of product candidates, including in vivo and ex vivo product candidates, including allogeneic ex vivo product candidates;
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our ability to manufacture or obtain materials for our preclinical and clinical studies, and our product candidates;
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our ability to advance any product candidates into, and successfully complete, clinical studies, including clinical studies necessary for regulatory approval and commercialization, and to demonstrate to the regulators that the product candidates are safe, effective, pure and potent and that their benefits outweigh known and potential risks for the intended patient population;
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our ability to advance our genome editing and therapeutic delivery capabilities;
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the scope of protection we are able to develop, establish and maintain for intellectual property rights, including patents and license rights, covering our product candidates and technology;
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our ability to operate, including commercializing products, without infringing or breaching the proprietary or contractual rights of others;
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the issuance or enforcement of, and compliance with, regulatory requirements and guidance regarding preclinical and clinical studies relevant to genome editing and our product candidates;
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the market acceptance, pricing and reimbursement of our product candidates, if approved;
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estimates of our expenses, future revenues, capital requirements and our needs for additional financing;
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the potential benefits of strategic agreements, such as collaborations, co-development and co-commercialization, acquisitions, dispositions, mergers, joint ventures, and investment agreements, and our ability to establish and maintain strategic arrangements under favorable terms;
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our ability to acquire and maintain relevant intellectual property licenses and rights, and the scope and terms of such rights;
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developments relating to our licensors, licensees, third parties and ventures from which we derive or license rights, as well as collaborators, competitors and our industry;
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the effect of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including mitigation efforts and economic effects, on any of the foregoing or other aspects of our business operations; and
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other risks and uncertainties, including those listed under the caption “Risk Factors.”
All of our express or implied forward-looking statements are as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K only. In each case, actual results may differ materially from such forward-looking information. We can give no assurance that such expectations or forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. An occurrence of or any material adverse change in one or more of the risk factors or risks and uncertainties referred to in this Annual Report on Form 10-K or included in our other public disclosures or our other periodic reports or other documents or filings filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) could materially and adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. Except as required by law, we do not undertake or plan to update or revise any such forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changes in plans, assumptions, estimates or projections or other circumstances affecting such forward-looking statements occurring after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, even if such results, changes or circumstances make it clear that any forward-looking information will not be realized. Any public statements or disclosures by us following this Annual Report on Form 10-K that modify or impact any of the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K will be deemed to modify or supersede such statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Summary of the Material Risks Associated with Our Business
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CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology has limited clinical validation and has not been approved for human therapeutic use. The approaches we are taking to discover and develop novel therapeutics using CRISPR/Cas9 systems are unproven and may never lead to marketable products. If we are unable to develop viable product candidates, achieve regulatory approval for any such product candidate or market and sell any product candidates, we may never achieve profitability.
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Results, including data from our preclinical studies and clinical trials, that we announce from time to time, such as the interim data from our ongoing Phase 1 study of NTLA-2001, are not necessarily predictive of our other ongoing and future preclinical and clinical studies, and they do not guarantee or indicate the likelihood of approval of any potential product candidate by the United States Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) or any other regulatory agency. If we cannot replicate the positive results from any of our preclinical or clinical studies, we may be unable to successfully develop, obtain regulatory approval for and commercialize any potential product candidate.
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In vivo genome editing products and ex vivo engineered cell therapies based on CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology are novel and may be complex and difficult to manufacture. We could experience manufacturing problems or regulatory requirements that result in delays in the development, approval or commercialization of our product candidates or otherwise harm our business.
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Clinical development involves a lengthy and expensive process, with an uncertain outcome. We may incur additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of any product candidates.
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If we experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment of patients in clinical trials, our ability to complete clinical trials or our receipt of necessary regulatory approvals could be delayed or prevented.
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Even if we obtain regulatory approval of any product candidates, such candidates may not gain market acceptance among physicians, patients, hospitals, third party payors and others in the medical community.
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Business interruptions resulting from the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) outbreak or similar public health crises could cause a disruption of the development of our product candidates and adversely impact our business.
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We face significant competition in an environment of rapid technological change. The possibility that our competitors may achieve regulatory approval before we do or develop therapies that are more advanced or effective than ours may harm our business and financial condition or our ability to successfully market or commercialize our product candidates.
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Our ability to generate revenue from product sales and become profitable is dependent on the success of our application of CRISPR/Cas9 technology for human therapeutic use, which is at an early stage of development and will require significant additional discovery efforts, preclinical testing and clinical studies and manufacturing capabilities, as well as applicable regulatory guidance regarding preclinical testing and clinical studies from the FDA and other similar regulatory authorities, before we can seek regulatory approval and begin commercial sales of any potential product candidates.
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Negative public opinion and increased regulatory scrutiny of CRISPR/Cas9 use, genome editing or gene therapy generally may damage public perception of the safety of any product candidates that we develop and adversely affect our ability to conduct our business or obtain regulatory approvals for such product candidates.
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Our internal computer systems, or those of our collaborators or other contractors or consultants, may fail or suffer security breaches, which could result in a material disruption of our operations and development efforts.
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Our technological advancements and any potential for revenue may be derived in part from our collaborations, including, for example, with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Regeneron”) and AvenCell Therapeutics, Inc., (“AvenCell”), and if the collaboration or co-development agreements related to a material collaboration were to be terminated or materially altered in an adverse manner, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects would be harmed.
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Under our license agreement with Caribou Biosciences, Inc. (“Caribou”), we sublicense a patent family from the Regents of the University of California and the University of Vienna that is co-owned by Dr. Emmanuel Charpentier. The outcome of on-going legal proceedings, as well as potential future proceedings, related to this patent family may affect our ability to utilize certain intellectual property sublicensed under our license agreement with Caribou.
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We could be unsuccessful in obtaining or maintaining adequate patent protection for one or more of our products or product candidates, or asserting and defending our intellectual property rights that protect our products and technologies.
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We could be unable to avoid, obtain or invalidate patent rights from third parties necessary to develop, manufacture or commercialize our product candidates in one or more jurisdictions.
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We have incurred net losses in each period since our inception, anticipate that we will continue to incur net losses in the future and may never achieve profitability.
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The price of our common stock historically has been volatile, which may affect the price at which you could sell any shares of our common stock.
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PART I
Item 1. Business
Overview
We are a leading clinical-stage genome editing company, focused on developing novel, potentially curative therapeutics using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. CRISPR/Cas9, an acronym for Clustered, Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (“CRISPR”)/CRISPR associated 9 (“Cas9”), is a technology for genome editing, the process of altering selected sequences of genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (“DNA”). To realize the transformative potential of CRISPR/Cas9-based technologies, we are building a full-spectrum genome editing company, by leveraging our modular platform, to advance in vivo and ex vivo therapies for diseases with high unmet need. For our in vivo programs to address genetic diseases, we use intravenously administered CRISPR as the therapy, in which our proprietary delivery technology enables highly precise editing of disease-causing genes directly within specific target tissues. For our ex vivo programs to address immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases, we use CRISPR to create the therapy by engineering cells outside of the body. Our deep scientific, technical and clinical development experience, along with our robust intellectual property (“IP”) portfolio, enables us to unlock broad therapeutic applications of CRISPR/Cas9 and related technologies to create new classes of genetic medicine.
Treating—and potentially curing—a broad range of severe diseases will require multiple gene editing approaches. With proprietary CRISPR/Cas9-based technology at the core of our platform, we continue to add new capabilities to expand our current solutions for addressing a multitude of life-threatening diseases. These additions include our proprietary base editor, as well as novel CRISPR enzymes, which provide us with the capabilities to achieve multiple editing strategies.
We continue to advance our platform’s modular solutions and research efforts on genome editing technologies as well as delivery and cell engineering capabilities to generate additional development candidates.
Our mission is to transform the lives of people with severe diseases by developing curative genome editing treatments. We believe we can deliver on our mission and provide long-term benefits for all of our stakeholders by focusing on four key elements:
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Develop curative CRISPR/Cas9-based medicines;
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Advance our science;
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Be the best place to make therapies; and
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Focus on long-term sustainability.
Our lead in vivo candidate, NTLA-2001 for the treatment of transthyretin (“ATTR”) amyloidosis, as well as NTLA-2002 for the treatment of hereditary angioedema (“HAE”) are the first CRISPR/Cas9-based therapy candidates to be administered systemically, via intravenous infusion, for precision editing of a gene in a target tissue in humans. In parallel, we are developing ex vivo applications to address immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases, where CRISPR/Cas9 is the tool that creates the engineered cell therapy. Our most advanced ex vivo programs include a wholly owned T cell receptor (“TCR”)-T cell candidate, NTLA-5001 for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (“AML”), and a program with Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc. (“Novartis”) to engineer hematopoietic stem cells (“HSCs”) for the treatment of sickle cell disease.
CRISPR/Cas9 Technology
The Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR/Cas9 system developed by one of our scientific co-founders, Dr. Jennifer Doudna, and her collaborators, offers a revolutionary approach for therapeutic development due to its broad ability to precisely edit the genome. This system can be used to make three general types of edits: knockouts, repairs and insertions. Each of these editing strategies takes advantage of the Cas9 endonuclease, an enzyme which can be programmed to edit double-stranded DNA at specific locations using a ribonucleic acid (“RNA”) molecule, called a guide RNA (“gRNA”). The desired edits result from naturally-occurring biological mechanisms that effect particular types of genetic alterations. CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing has the potential to make permanent, precisely targeted changes in a patient’s chromosomes and repair the underlying genetic mutation, whereas more traditional gene therapy typically
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involves introducing a non-permanent copy of a gene into a patient’s cells. These attributes of CRISPR/Cas9 provide a significant therapeutic edge over other gene therapy and costly earlier-generation genome editing technologies.
Strategy
Our goal is to build a full spectrum, fully integrated, product-driven biotechnology company, focused on developing and commercializing curative CRISPR/Cas9-based therapeutics. Our approach to advancing the broad potential of genome editing includes:
Focusing on Indications that Enable Us to Fully Develop the Potential of the CRISPR/Cas9 System. To maximize our opportunity to rapidly develop clinically successful products, we have applied a risk-mitigated approach to selecting indications with significant unmet medical needs based on four primary criteria:
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the type of edit: knockout, repair or insertion;
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the delivery modality for in vivo and ex vivo applications;
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the existence of efficient regulatory pathways to approval; and
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the potential for the CRISPR/Cas9 system to provide improved therapeutic benefits over existing therapeutic options.
We believe these selection criteria position us to build a diversified pipeline, in which we are not reliant on any single delivery technology or editing approach for success. This approach has the potential to increase the probabilities of success in our initial indications, and generate insights that will accelerate the development of additional therapeutic products. Specifically, we believe we can apply the learnings from our current programs to inform our selection of additional indications and targets of interest.
Aggressively Pursuing In Vivo Liver Indications to Develop Therapeutics Rapidly with Our Proprietary Delivery System. For our in vivo indications, we select well-validated targets in diseases with significant unmet medical needs where there are predictive biomarkers, or measurable indicators of a biological condition or state, with strong disease correlation and where the CRISPR/Cas9 technology and our proprietary delivery tools can be applied towards developing novel therapeutics. Our current in vivo pipeline targets diseases of the liver, including ATTR amyloidosis and HAE as a gene knockout approach to remove unwanted protein, all of which we believe we can address using our proprietary lipid nanoparticle (“LNP”) delivery system. In addition, we are exploring the use of our insertion platform to restore native protein including the treatment of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (“AATD”), hemophilia A, hemophilia B, and additional disease indications.
Actively Developing and Expanding Ex Vivo Therapeutic Programs. We are independently researching and developing proprietary engineered cell therapies to treat various cancers and autoimmune diseases. Our initial focus is on TCR-engineered T cells for immuno-oncology applications, which could be used to treat various types of blood cancers and solid tumors. Our current ex vivo pipeline includes engineered cell therapies to treat cancers, such as AML.
Continuing to Leverage Strategic Partnerships to Accelerate Clinical Development. We view strategic partnerships as important drivers for accelerating the achievement of our goal of rapidly developing curative therapies. The potential application of CRISPR/Cas9 and derivative technologies is extremely broad, and we plan to continue to identify partners who can contribute meaningful resources and technical expertise to our programs and allow us to more rapidly bring scientific innovation to a broader patient population. Our ongoing partnership on in vivo programs for genetic diseases with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Regeneron”), a leader in genetics-driven drug discovery and development, and our collaborations with AvenCell Therapeutics, Inc. (“AvenCell”), a newly formed corporation with a world-leading clinical-stage universal chimeric antigen receptor T (“CAR-T”) platform; SparingVision SAS (“SparingVision”), a genomic medicine company developing vision saving treatments for ocular diseases; Kyverna Therapeutics, Inc. (“Kyverna”), a cell therapy company engineering a new class of therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases; and ONK Therapeutics, Ltd. (“ONK”), a cell therapy company engineering a new class of natural killer (“NK”) cell therapies to treat cancer, exemplify this strategy.
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Growing Our Leadership Position in the Field of Genome Editing. We are committed to broadening our capabilities to remain at the cutting edge of genome editing research. We will continue to invest internally in developing our platform capabilities, including innovative genome editing, delivery and cell engineering technologies to advance our therapeutic programs. We will also continue to explore accessing external technologies or opportunities to enhance our leadership position in developing innovative therapeutics.
Our Pipeline
The following table summarizes the status of our most advanced programs:
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In Vivo Programs
Our selection criteria include identifying diseases that originate in the liver; have well-defined mutations that can be addressed by a knockout or insertion approach; have readily measurable therapeutic endpoints with observable clinical responses; and for which effective treatments are absent, limited or unduly burdensome. Our initial in vivo indications target genetic liver diseases, including our ATTR amyloidosis, HAE and AATD development programs. Our current efforts on in vivo delivery focus on the use of LNPs for delivery of the CRISPR/Cas9 complex to the liver.
Transthyretin (“ATTR”) Amyloidosis Program
Background
ATTR amyloidosis is a progressive and fatal disorder resulting from deposition of insoluble amyloid fibrils into multiple organs and tissues leading to systemic failure. Blood-borne transthyretin (“TTR”) protein is produced by hepatocytes and normally circulates as a soluble homotetramer that facilitates transport of vitamin A, via retinol binding protein, as well as the thyroid hormone, thyroxine. Mutations in the TTR gene lead to the production of TTR proteins that are destabilized in their tetramer form. These tetramers more readily dissociate into the monomeric form, and thence to an aggregative form that results in amyloid deposits in tissues. These deposits cause damage in those tissues, resulting in a disorder known as hereditary ATTR amyloidosis (“ATTRv”). Over 120 different genetic mutations are currently known to cause ATTRv.
Deposits of TTR amyloid in the heart, nerves and/or other tissues can lead to diverse disease manifestations, including two main hereditary forms – ATTRv with polyneuropathy (“ATTRv-PN”), and ATTRv with cardiomyopathy (“ATTRv-CM”). Typical onset of disease symptoms is during adulthood and can be fatal within two to 15 years. Estimates suggest that approximately 50,000 patients suffer from ATTRv worldwide.
In addition to the hereditary forms described above, ATTR amyloidosis can also develop spontaneously in the absence of any TTR gene mutation. This wild-type ATTR (“ATTRwt”) is increasingly being recognized as a significant and often undiagnosed cause of heart failure in the elderly and is the subject of active investigation. Recent estimates suggest that, globally, between 200,000 and 500,000 people may suffer from ATTRwt with cardiomyopathy (“ATTRwt-CM”).
Limitations of Current Treatment Options
Currently, there are two therapies for the treatment of ATTRv-PN approved in the United States (“U.S.”), and three approved in most major markets outside of the U.S. While these therapies have shown the potential to slow or halt the progression of neuropathic symptoms, and in some patients lead to an improvement in symptoms, their approved prescribing instructions require them to be administered chronically for the life of the patient in order to sustain benefit. Additionally, patient response to these therapies varies. While some patients may experience symptomatic improvement after being treated with these therapies, the disease continues to progress in many of the treated patients, which highlights the continued need for efficacious and potentially curative therapies. At present, there is only one therapy approved for ATTR-CM (including both ATTRv-CM and ATTRwt-CM) which has shown the ability to improve patient outcomes, though most patients still appear to have the progressive disease. As with the treatments for ATTRv-PN, chronic, lifetime dosing is required to sustain the therapeutic effects.
Our Approach
NTLA-2001 is designed as an in vivo liver gene knockout approach for the treatment of ATTR amyloidosis. We believe that by disabling the TTR gene in the liver with CRISPR/Cas9 technology, we have the potential to cure ATTR amyloidosis. We expect this approach to greatly reduce the production of circulating TTR protein levels, which should slow or stop the accumulation of undesired TTR protein in the nerves and the heart, thereby halting and potentially reversing disease progression. Using this approach, we aim to address both forms of the disease - ATTRv and ATTRwt. Current treatments and ongoing clinical trials in ATTRv-PN have shown a significant correlation between TTR protein reduction and clinical benefit. Additionally, these studies suggest that loss of TTR gene expression from the liver would be well-tolerated in adult humans. We believe our approach may improve patient outcomes by potentially eliminating defective TTR protein in a single dose, as opposed to life-long therapy. We have assessed delivery of gRNAs directed at the TTR gene together with Cas9 messenger RNA (“mRNA”) via LNPs and have
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achieved high levels of liver cell editing in vitro and in vivo, as well as reduction of serum TTR protein in multiple animal models.
In non-human primate (“NHP”) studies, we have demonstrated our ability to reduce circulating TTR protein to estimated therapeutically relevant levels after a single systemic administration of LNPs containing our CRISPR/Cas9 complex. In December 2019, we completed a year-long durability study of our lead LNP formulation, maintaining an average reduction of more than 95% of serum TTR protein after a single dose in NHPs. The data from our various NHP studies has shown that following editing, our proprietary modular LNP delivery system is rapidly cleared from circulation, such that exposure to components is transient and all CRISPR/Cas9 complex is undetectable in blood within 14 days of administration.
About the NTLA-2001 Clinical Program
Our global Phase 1 study is an open-label, multi-center, two-part study of NTLA-2001 in adults with ATTRv-PN or ATTR-CM. The trial’s primary objectives are to assess the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of NTLA-2001. Patients receive a single dose of NTLA-2001 via intravenous administration. The study will enroll up to 38 ATTRv-PN participants (ages 18-80 years) and up to 36 ATTR-CM participants (ages 18-90 years) and consists of a single-ascending dose phase in Part 1 and, following the identification of a recommended dose, an expansion phase in Part 2. The ongoing first-in-human study is currently being conducted in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”), New Zealand and Sweden. NTLA-2001 has received orphan drug designation for the treatment of ATTR amyloidosis by both the European Commission (“EC”) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”).
On June 26, 2021, at the Peripheral Nerve Society (“PNS”) Annual Meeting and in the New England Journal of Medicine, we publicly disclosed positive interim data from our ongoing Phase 1 study of NTLA-2001. The interim data cover the first six ATTRv-PN patients across two single-ascending dose cohorts of the Phase 1 study. Single doses of either 0.1 mg/kg or 0.3 mg/kg of NTLA-2001 were administered systemically. Reductions in serum TTR levels were measured from baseline to day 28. Treatment with NTLA-2001 led to dose-dependent reductions in serum TTR, with mean reductions of 52% among the three patients in the 0.1 mg/kg dose group, and 87% among the three patients in the 0.3 mg/kg dose group, including one patient with a 96% reduction. At both dose levels, NTLA-2001 was generally well-tolerated by the six ATTRv-PN patients included in the interim analysis, with no serious adverse events or abnormal coagulation or liver findings by day 28.
NTLA-2001 is completing the dose-escalation portion of the study, to determine the recommended dose for evaluation in Part 2 of the study, a single-dose expansion cohort. For the third cohort in the dose-escalation portion, we will be evaluating NTLA-2001 at the 1 mg/kg dose level. During the third quarter, to more fully elucidate the dose-response relationship, we began dosing subjects in Cohort 4, evaluating NTLA-2001 in patients with ATTRv-PN at the 0.7 mg/kg dose level. We plan to present interim data from all four cohorts in the single-ascending dose phase in Part 1 at a company-sponsored event and to initiate Part 2, a single-cohort expansion, in the first quarter of 2022. Data to be presented will include safety and serum TTR knockdown for Cohorts 3 and 4 as well as an early look at durability across all cohorts.
We also accelerated the development of NTLA-2001 for the treatment of patients with ATTR-CM. In November 2021, we announced that the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (“MHRA”) had approved a protocol amendment for our ongoing Phase 1 study of NTLA-2001 to include patients with either ATTRv-CM or ATTRwt-CM. The study of NTLA-2001 in patients with cardiomyopathy will be enrolled in new dose-escalation and expansion cohorts. In December 2021, the first patient in the cardiomyopathy arm of the Phase 1 study was treated with NTLA-2001. We expect to complete enrollment of the Phase 1 study for both ATTRv-PN and ATTR-CM subjects in 2022.
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NTLA-2001 is part of a co-development and co-promotion (“Co/Co”) agreement directed to our first collaboration target with Regeneron, ATTR (the “ATTR Co/Co”), for which we are the clinical and commercial lead party and Regeneron is the participating party. Regeneron shares in approximately 25% of worldwide development costs and commercial profits for the ATTR program. For more information regarding our collaboration with Regeneron, see the section below entitled “Collaborations - Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.”
Hereditary Angioedema (“HAE”) Program
Background
HAE is a rare genetic disorder characterized by recurrent, painful and unpredictable episodes of severe swelling. The most common areas of the body to develop swelling are the limbs, face, intestinal tract and airway. Minor trauma or stress may trigger an attack but swelling often occurs without a known trigger. Episodes involving the intestinal tract cause severe abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Swelling in the airway can restrict breathing and lead to life-threatening obstruction of the airway. The disease is caused by increased levels of bradykinin, a protein which leads to swelling. Most patients with HAE have a deficiency of C1 esterase inhibitor (“C1-INH”) protein, which normally prevents the unregulated release and buildup of bradykinin. HAE is estimated to affect 1 in 50,000 people, with an estimated 11,000 to 21,500 diagnosed HAE patients in the U.S. and Europe.
Limitations of Current Treatment Options
Currently, there are multiple therapies approved to treat HAE, including acute and prophylactic approaches. Acute treatments are used to treat patients who are experiencing an attack. Prophylactic treatments are used to reduce the number of attacks that a patient may experience. Prophylactic treatments have proven to be effective in reducing the number of attacks for most patients, though some patients still experience breakthrough attacks and such treatment options require regular injections that can be associated with significant treatment burden and impact on quality of life.
Our Approach
Using our modular LNP delivery system, we aim to knock out the kallikrein B1 (“KLKB1”) gene with a single dose to permanently reduce the plasma kallikrein activity and thereby ameliorate the frequency and intensity of HAE attacks. We expect our approach should eliminate the current, significant treatment burden for people living with HAE and minimize the risk of breakthrough attacks with extensive and continuous reduction in plasma kallikrein activity. We believe KLKB1 knockout to be safe, as humans with prekallikrein deficiency appear to have no known health effects. In addition, inhibition of kallikrein activity has proven to be clinically effective as a prophylactic treatment for HAE.
On May 7, 2020, we announced NTLA-2002 as our wholly owned development candidate for the treatment of HAE. We have completed an NHP durability study of our lead LNP formulation in support of NTLA-2002, which resulted in a 24 month-long therapeutically relevant reduction of serum kallikrein protein levels and activity following a single dose.
About the NTLA-2002 Clinical Program
The multi-national Phase 1/2 study will evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of NTLA-2002 in adults with Type I or Type II HAE. This includes the measurement of kallikrein protein levels and activity as determined by HAE attack rate measures. The Phase 1 portion of the study is an open-label, single-ascending dose design used to identify up to two dose levels of NTLA-2002 that will be further evaluated in the randomized, placebo-controlled Phase 2 portion of the study. This Phase 1/2 study is intended to identify the dose of NTLA-2002 for use in future studies. In December 2021, we announced that the first patient was dosed with NTLA-2002. The first-in-human study is expected to evaluate the safety, tolerability and activity of NTLA-2001 in adults with Type I or Type II HAE. We expect to present interim data from the Phase 1/2 study in the second half of 2022. These data are expected to characterize the emerging safety and activity profile of NTLA-2002, and to potentially demonstrate preliminary proof-of-concept.
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Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (“AATD”) Program
Background
AATD is a genetic disorder that results in increased risk for lung and/or liver disease. Alpha-1 antitrypsin (“A1AT”), which is encoded by the SERPINA1 gene, is a serine protease inhibitor that is primarily produced in the liver and has a wide range of biological functions, one of which is to inhibit neutrophil elastase. Patients with AATD have genetic variants of A1AT which cause the enzyme to accumulate in the liver, reducing the amount of functioning A1AT in the bloodstream. This has two prominent potential downstream clinical manifestations. The first is an increased risk for progressive liver disease, resulting from an accumulation of mutant A1AT enzyme in the liver. The second, and more common, effect is enhanced risk for emphysema resulting from reduced inhibition of neutrophil elastase in the lungs. Both clinical manifestations are progressive and potentially fatal.
It is estimated that there are approximately 250,000 individuals globally and 60,000 in the U.S. with the ZZ genotype, the genotype most associated with AATD and the downstream clinical manifestations. There are another 1.25 million individuals globally estimated to have the SZ genotype, who are also at enhanced risk of developing AATD. While augmentation therapy is available for the treatment of AATD, the effect on pulmonary exacerbations and on the progression of emphysema in AATD has not been conclusively demonstrated in randomized, controlled clinical trials. Also, at present, there are no therapies that have been approved for the treatment of liver disease resulting from AATD.
Limitations of Current Treatment Options
There are multiple therapies approved by the FDA to treat patients with emphysema caused by hereditary AAT deficiency. All marketed therapies are alpha-1 proteinase inhibitors (alpha-1 antitrypsin) given through intravenous infusion, with the goal of augmenting naturally-occurring low levels of A1AT. To maintain benefit, current therapies are usually given weekly for the duration of a patient’s lifetime. Currently marketed therapies may slow the progression of disease and lung dysfunction, but there remains high unmet need for more effective, and less burdensome, therapies that can further slow, halt, or even reverse disease progression.
Our Approaches
NTLA-3001
In October 2021, we announced the nomination of NTLA-3001, our development candidate for the treatment of AATD-associated lung disease. NTLA-3001 is our first wholly owned CRISPR/Cas9-mediated in vivo gene insertion development candidate. It is designed with the aim to precisely insert a functional SERPINA1 gene, which encodes the A1AT protein in the liver, with the potential to permanently restore expression of functional A1AT protein levels after a single dose. This approach aims to address AATD-associated lung disease and eliminate the need for sub-optimal weekly IV infusions of A1AT augmentation therapy or transplant in severe cases.
In October 2021, we presented data showing that insertion of a healthy form of the SERPINA1 gene led to normal human A1AT levels in NHPs which were durable through 52 weeks in an ongoing study. We are conducting Investigational New Drug (“IND”)-enabling activities for NTLA-3001 with plans to file an IND application or IND-equivalent application in 2023.
NTLA-2003
In February 2022 we announced NTLA-2003, a wholly owned in vivo knockout development candidate for the treatment of AATD-associated liver disease. It is designed to inactivate the SERPINA1 gene responsible for the production of abnormal A1AT protein in the liver. This approach aims to halt the progression of liver disease and eliminate the need for liver transplant in severe cases.
We have presented data showing that knockout of the SERPINA1 gene led to reduction of the abnormal A1AT, the endogenous disease-associated protein, in NHPs. We are advancing towards IND-enabling activities for this program.
In Vivo Research Programs
We continue to work on various liver-focused programs, such as hemophilia A and hemophilia B, which we are co-developing with Regeneron, primary hyperoxaluria type 1, as well as other liver targets, which are worked on both
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independently and in partnership with Regeneron, which leverage our capabilities to knockout, insert and make consecutive edits to the genome.
In the third quarter of 2021, we and Regeneron, the lead party for this program, nominated a Factor 9 (“F9”) gene insertion development candidate for our Hemophilia B (“Hem B”) program, leveraging our jointly developed targeted transgene insertion capabilities to insert F9. F9 is a gene that encodes for Factor IX (“FIX”), a blood-clotting protein that is missing or defective in Hem B patients. In preclinical studies, we and Regeneron demonstrated the first CRISPR/Cas9-mediated targeted transgene insertion in the liver of NHPs, which resulted in circulating FIX levels at or above those found in normal human plasma. At the 2019 American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Annual Meeting, we presented data demonstrating the first CRISPR/Cas9-mediated, targeted transgene insertion in the liver of NHPs, using F9 as a model gene. Following a single dose to NHPs of the hybrid LNP-adeno-associated virus (“AAV”) delivery system containing an F9 DNA template, we demonstrated that the circulating human FIX protein levels achieved in NHPs were at or above normal levels. Additionally, the NHP data expands on the durability of clinically relevant human FIX protein levels achieved in mice for over 12 months.
In September 2020, we presented data that showed the persistence of in vivo CRISPR/Cas9 edits in regenerated liver tissue, both knockout and insertion, and corresponding durability of effect following a partial hepatectomy (“PHx”) and liver regrowth in a murine model. Unlike traditional gene therapy, for which a significant loss (over 80%) in transgene expression was observed in the insertion PHx model, our targeted gene insertion approach yielded durable edits, with no significant loss in expression.
We are further investigating delivery strategies that target tissues outside of the liver. For example, at the Keystone eSymposium: Precision Engineering of the Genome, Epigenome and Transcriptome in March 2021, we presented preclinical data establishing proof-of-concept for non-viral genome editing of bone marrow and HSCs in mice. This represented our first demonstration of systemic in vivo genome editing in bone marrow using our proprietary non-viral delivery platform. We believe these results extend our modular in vivo capabilities to treat inherited blood disorders such as sickle cell disease. In addition, we announced a collaboration with SparingVision to develop novel genomic medicines utilizing CRISPR/Cas9 technology for the treatment of ocular diseases.
Following the nomination of NTLA-2003, we plan to advance at least one new in vivo development candidate by the end of 2022.
Ex Vivo Programs
We are independently researching and developing proprietary engineered cell therapies to treat various oncological and other disease indications, for example TCR-engineered T cells and CAR-T cells for immuno-oncology applications and engineered regulatory T cells for autoimmune disorders. Our diverse product strategy includes multiple elements. In particular:
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We are developing TCR-engineered T cells as immuno-oncological therapies. For example, in our existing collaboration with Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, a leading European research-university hospital, we have identified optimized TCRs that recognize a tumor target, Wilms’ Tumor 1 (“WT1”), that could be used to treat a variety of blood cancers and solid tumors; and
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We are developing allogeneic cellular therapies, which are those derived from unmatched donors and modified outside of the human body to allow them to be administered to an unrelated patient. These allogeneic cellular therapies could be used to treat both oncological and immunological diseases.
In addition, we strategically partner with others who possess complementary capabilities or technologies to bring forth innovative engineered cell therapies outside of our core areas of focus. This includes collaborations with AvenCell and Kyverna, who will be leveraging our ex vivo genome editing platform to develop novel cell therapies for a variety of therapeutic indications, as well as ONK to advance CRISPR-edited NK cell therapies. Further, our partner Novartis is developing therapies directed to selected targets using CAR-T cells for oncology indications, as well as HSC and ocular stem cell (“OSC”)-based therapies.
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Acute Myeloid Leukemia (“AML”)
Background
AML includes a heterogeneous group of blood cancers arising from the malignant expansion of hematopoietic cells of the myeloid lineage. AML is associated with weakness, fatigue and bleeding resulting from the depletion of healthy myeloid cells, and is typically rapidly progressive and fatal without immediate treatment. AML is an aggressive and hard-to-treat cancer, resulting in less than 30% of patients living more than five years after diagnosis. AML is the most common acute leukemia in adults and is associated with the largest number of annual deaths from leukemia in the U.S. It is estimated that there were over 11,000 deaths due to AML, as well as nearly 20,000 new AML cases in the U.S. in 2020. While AML can occur at any age, the prevalence of the disease increases with age, resulting in a median age at diagnosis of 68 years.
Limitations of Current Treatment Options
Induction chemotherapy, most commonly with cytarabine and anthracycline, represents the standard first-line treatment option for patients who can tolerate an intensive treatment regimen. Patients who achieve remission with induction typically receive additional chemotherapy or an HSC transplant as consolidation therapy. While this treatment approach has the potential to lead to sustained remission or even cure patients, the intensity of these treatments is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Patients who are older, who represent a significant proportion of the patient population, are often unable to be treated with an intensive regimen and are commonly treated with BCL-2 inhibitors, lower intensity chemotherapy or hypomethylating agents. While these therapies offer the potential to prolong survival and address some of the clinical symptomatology associated with AML, they are not generally considered to be potentially curative treatments. Even among patients who are considered fit enough to receive an intensive regimen, a significant proportion of patients are refractory (i.e., do not achieve a complete remission). Further, relapse is common even among those patients who achieve a remission.
Over the past several years, new treatments have emerged for AML with different mechanisms of action. While these treatments have led to improvements in response rates and in some cases increased overall survival, the outcomes demonstrated thus far have been incremental in nature and long-term outcomes in AML continue to be extremely poor.
Our Approach
NTLA-5001 is our engineered T cell therapy development candidate for the treatment of AML, utilizing our TCR-directed approach to target the WT1 intracellular antigen and restricted to the HLA-A*02:01 allele. As WT1 is overexpressed in >90% of AML blasts, we are developing NTLA-5001 as a broadly applicable treatment for AML, regardless of mutational subtypes of a patient’s leukemia. This approach employs CRISPR/Cas9 complexes to knock out and replace the patient’s endogenous TCR with a natural, high avidity therapeutic TCR. The resulting cells are engineered to be capable of specific and potent killing of AML blasts without bone marrow cell toxicity. In December 2020, we presented data on NTLA-5001 highlighting the high anti-tumor activity observed in proof-of-concept mouse models of acute leukemias and the faster expansion and superior function of T cells manufactured by our proprietary approach, compared to T cells engineered with a standard genome editing process.
About the NTLA-5001 Clinical Program
In September 2021, we announced that the FDA had accepted the IND application for NTLA-5001. This first-in-human Phase 1/2a study will evaluate the safety, tolerability, cell kinetics and anti-tumor activity of a single dose of NTLA-5001 in adults who have detectable AML after having received standard first-line therapies. The study will contain a dose escalation and expansion phase, with up to 54 participants. The dose-escalation phase of the study will include two independent arms of up to three cohorts: Arm 1 will consist of adults with AML with lower disease burden, defined as those with less than 5% blasts in bone marrow, while Arm 2 will consist of adults with AML with higher disease burden, defined as those greater than or equal to 5% blasts in bone marrow. Once a dose is identified in each arm, two expansion cohorts will be opened for further assessment of safety and activity in patients with persistent or recurrent AML who have previously received first-line therapies.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, we initiated screening of patients in the Phase 1/2a study of NTLA-5001 for patients with AML. We have begun enrolling patients and we expect to dose our first patient in the coming weeks. Later this
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year, we plan to provide guidance around timing of the first expected data readout, with the goal of demonstrating clinical proof-of-concept for its TCR-based platform.
Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
Background
Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is a lymphoma that arises typically from B lymphocytes and spreads through the lymphatic system, a component of the immune system. Hodgkin’s Lymphoma usually affects younger individuals, with a median age of diagnosis less than 40-years-old. In the U.S. alone, almost 9,000 individuals are diagnosed annually with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Limitations of Current Treatment Options
Current treatments are associated with significant toxicity and require treatment cycles over the course of several months. Additionally, individuals that relapse after initial therapy and are not eligible for transplants typically have poorer prognoses, with little opportunity for a curative therapy.
Other CD30+ Lymphomas
Background
CD30+ lymphomas (other than Hodgkin’s Lymphoma) include various peripheral T-cell lymphomas (“PTCL”), cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (“CTCL”), and other T- and NK-cell lymphomas. These are a heterogeneous group of lymphomas that are typically diagnosed in patients over 60 years of age, and have 5-year overall survivals that typically range from 20 – 50%, but may be as high as 70 – 90% for select subtypes. It is estimated in the U.S. that there are over 3,000 individuals diagnosed with a CD30+ lymphoma every year.
Limitations of Current Treatment Options
Current treatment options mainly consist of chemotherapy regimens, which generally have poor outcomes. Additionally, given the heterogeneity of CD30+ lymphomas, clinically-validated treatment options across CD30+ lymphomas are limited.
Our Approach
NTLA-6001 is our wholly owned allogeneic CAR-T development candidate targeting CD30 for the treatment of CD30-expressing hematologic cancers including relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (“cHL”). NTLA-6001 is developed using our proprietary allogeneic cell engineering platform, which leverages a novel combination of sequential gene edits. Preclinical data presented on its differentiated allogeneic engineering platform showed allogeneic T cells were shielded from immune rejection, both host T and NK cell attack. We are advancing NTLA-6001 towards IND-enabling activities and plan to present preclinical data in support of NTLA-6001 at an upcoming scientific conference this year.
Ex Vivo Research Programs
We are developing engineered cell therapies to treat a range of hematological and solid tumors. We are pursuing modalities, such as TCR, with broad potential in multiple indications. We continue to advance efforts to move from autologous to allogeneic therapies and from liquid to solid tumors. Our researchers are developing and improving cell-engineering manufacturing and delivery processes that, we believe, may allow us to deliver T cell therapies with high levels of editing, robust levels of cell expansion, desirable memory phenotypes, improved function and no translocations above background levels.
Our proprietary T cell engineering process using LNPs to engineer cell therapies enables multiple, sequential gene edits. We have shared preclinical data demonstrating that our LNP-based engineering technology is a significant improvement over electroporation, the standard engineering process used, to introduce proteins and nucleic acids into cells. The resulting T cells engineered with LNPs had improved cell properties and performance both in vitro and in vivo as compared to electroporation. The data support the ability of our platform to be used for a variety of targeting
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modalities, including CAR and TCRs, and to support both autologous and allogeneic T cell candidates. The LNP-based approach is already being used for NTLA-5001.
In March 2021, we presented our first preclinical data set on our novel, proprietary cytosine deaminase base editor technology. We demonstrated the technology’s potential for enhanced cell engineering, with multiple simultaneous gene knockouts achieving >90% T cell editing efficiency and no detectable increase in translocation above background levels.
Novartis-Led Sickle Cell Disease and Other Research Programs
In December 2019, the research term under our collaboration agreement with Novartis entered into in 2014 (the “2014 Novartis Agreement”) ended, although the 2014 Novartis Agreement remains in effect. Under the 2014 Novartis Agreement, Novartis has selected particular CAR-T cell, HSC and OSC targets for continued development. Novartis has initiated clinical studies for OTQ923 and HIX763, two therapeutic candidates, based on CRISPR/Cas9 editing of HSCs that resulted from our research collaboration with Novartis. Novartis is currently recruiting patients for its Phase 1/2 study of these investigational candidates for treatment of sickle cell diseases. Novartis is developing several other product candidates arising from the 2014 Novartis Agreement. For more information regarding our collaboration with Novartis, see the section below entitled“Collaborations - Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc.”
Our Genome-Editing Platform
Our robust genome-editing platform forms the foundation of our full-spectrum therapeutic product pipeline based on CRISPR/Cas9 and derivative technologies. Our modular platform is based on our proprietary components that can serve both in vivo and ex vivo programs, as well as our delivery technologies that can be used in either program type. In addition to the components described below, we have developed robust, high volume (high throughput) capabilities centering around enabling strategic target identification and validation that we believe will provide us with a competitive advantage in creating successful therapeutic products.
We are committed to staying at the forefront of the genome editing revolution and will continue to advance our technology platform through a mix of both internal research and development and external opportunities in order to potentially serve more patients across a broad set of diseases. With proprietary CRISPR/Cas9-based technology at the core of our platform, we continue to add new capabilities to expand our current solutions for therapeutic application. These additions include our proprietary base editor, as well as novel CRISPR-derivative enzymes, which provide us with the capabilities to achieve multiple editing strategies. Consistent with our ambitions to build the broadest genome editing toolbox, in February 2022, we announced the acquisition of Rewrite Therapeutics, Inc. (“Rewrite”), a private biotechnology company focused on advancing novel DNA writing technologies. Rewrite has developed promising new tools for genome editing, including DNA writing via CRISPR/Cas9-guided polymerases. These new tools may enable targeted corrections, insertions, deletions, and the full range of single-nucleotide changes, which could provide new ways to edit disease-causing genes and broaden the therapeutic potential for genomic medicines.
Informatics
We have built a high throughput, scalable data processing and analysis, or informatics, infrastructure to support various aspects of our platform, including gRNA selection and evaluation of on- and off-target editing in cells. Depending on the desired editing strategy, we use proprietary bioinformatics methods to design candidate guides and select those that we believe are both highly specific and have high cutting efficiency. As we grow our experimental data set, we continue to incorporate gRNA performance into our algorithms to improve their predictive power.
Guide RNA qualification
As part of the process to identify gRNAs for potential development candidates, we screen numerous gRNAs for their ability to generate the required edit at the genomic site of interest, called on-target activity, as well as any potential propensity to generate unwanted events at other sites in the genome, also known as off-target activity. To evaluate on-target activity, we use high throughput sequencing methods to analyze the genomes of edited cells, allowing us to assess overall editing efficiency and to examine the nature of the editing events, such as specific insertions or deletions.
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For gRNAs selected through our primary on-target screens, we perform a variety of analyses to look for possible off-target editing events, including bioinformatic evaluations and experimental methods. Part of our approach involves identifying candidates with no or few off-target sites based on experimental measurements of genome-wide DNA breaks, as well as targeted sequencing of such candidate sites to evaluate actual off-target editing events in relevant cell types. We continue to optimize our gRNA qualification capability over time by increasing our throughput, improving our off-target activity detection accuracy and increasing our bioinformatics predictive accuracy.
Guide RNA format
CRISPR/Cas9 systems can function with gRNAs having a variety of modifications, such as changes to the gRNA sequence or chemical modifications of nucleotides. As part of our development of CRISPR/Cas9 therapeutics, we have engineered modified gRNAs to, for example, improve editing efficiency, specificity and stability inside cells, as well as to reduce the likelihood of an immune response. We believe our work in this area will allow us to develop the most appropriate gRNAs for therapeutic applications.
Nuclease
Our current preferred Cas9 protein is derived from a species of bacteria called S. pyogenes (“Spy”), which is the Cas9 used in the vast majority of published CRISPR/Cas9 literature to date. We are exploring other naturally occurring Cas9 proteins and nucleases from other bacteria, which may differ from Spy Cas9 in aspects such as specificity, size or mechanism of DNA recognition, binding and cutting. We are pursuing these alternative Cas9 forms and other nucleases through ongoing internal work, collaborations with our existing partners and scientific founders, and in-licensing opportunities. We also are investigating targeted modifications of Cas9 that can modulate DNA activity by mechanisms other than cleavage. We believe that different therapeutic applications may be best addressed using different forms of Cas9 or other nucleases, depending on the target cell or tissue of interest, the delivery method and the desired type of edit.
Cas9 Edit Type
Knockout
The CRISPR/Cas9 system, by itself, primarily functions to cut DNA, while the resulting desired therapeutic editing events are performed by the cell, subsequent to the cut, as the cell seeks to rejoin the cut ends. One type of edit is caused by a DNA repair mechanism that is prone to losing or adding short lengths of DNA around the cut site. The resulting changes in the DNA impair the function of any encoded protein, causing a knockout edit. Using a combination of our informatics, gRNA qualification and format, and nuclease platform capabilities, we have developed an efficient process to identify gRNAs that create this kind of edit at high frequency while possessing high specificity for the on-target site and no substantial off-target effects.
Based on both NHP and rodent disease models, we have demonstrated the ability to knockout multiple targets in the liver, including TTR, KLKB1, SERPINA1, hydroxyacid oxidase 1 (“HAO1”) and lactate dehydrogenase A (“LDHA”). We believe these data demonstrate the modular nature of our proprietary LNP delivery system.
Gene Insertion
While knockout edits can be made using solely a Cas9 protein and gRNA, other kinds of editing, involving repair and insertion, additionally require a template DNA that contains a desired genomic sequence that may be inserted or used to correct a patient’s original sequence. For ex vivo applications, in addition to delivering a Cas9-gRNA complex to cleave the cellular DNA sequence at the desired location, the desired DNA template may be delivered by physical means such as LNP in combination with a Cas9-gRNA complex, or by other means such as viral vectors or chemical means. For in vivo applications, we have developed combination approaches for delivering the editing machinery by LNP, and the repair and insertion templates by AAV vectors. We are currently working closely with Regeneron to advance insertion programs for the treatment of hemophilia A and hemophilia B and are also independently evaluating the hybrid LNP-AAV delivery system for targeted insertion across several other transgenes of interest in an in vivo setting.
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Consecutive Editing
Consecutive editing is any combination of knockout and insertion strategies. At the 2021 European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Annual Meeting, we reported the first demonstration of a consecutive in vivo gene insertion and knockout in an NHP model of AATD. The consecutive edits led to durable production of normal human A1AT protein levels and reduction of endogenous disease-associated protein in the ongoing NHP study.
In Vivo Delivery
We are focusing our initial in vivo applications in the liver, where we deliver the CRISPR/Cas9 therapy intravenously to patients using our proprietary LNP platform.
Our proprietary LNPs encapsulate the therapeutic cargo, providing it with stability, selective delivery, improved pharmacologic properties and controlled circulation time. Our therapeutic cargo is designed to degrade relatively quickly, resulting in transient expression of Cas9. We see multiple advantages of using LNPs as an in vivo delivery vehicle, particularly as optimized by us for delivery of the CRISPR/Cas9 system or its components. First, LNPs have been clinically validated as an effective delivery vehicle of therapeutic nucleic acids to the liver after intravenous administration. For example, Onpattro is an LNP-based, approved drug for delivery of small interfering RNA (“siRNA”). Clinical data also supports the use of LNP for delivery of mRNA for protein expression. LNPs have shown to have favorable tolerability in humans, with toxicities being dose-dependent, monitorable and reversible. Additionally, LNPs are chemically well-defined and have a completely synthetic route of manufacture, which permits greater scalability, product quality and controls. LNPs are tunable, do not exhibit cargo size limitations and can co-formulate different nucleic acid components, such as mRNA and gRNAs. There is no pre-existing immunity to the LNP or limiting de novo immunity after dosing, allowing for repeat dosing as required by the therapeutic approach. We are currently advancing our programs using our proprietary LNP delivery system, which uses a set of biodegradable, well-tolerated lipids, based on lipids originally developed by Novartis and in-licensed by us for use with all genome editing technologies, including CRISPR/Cas9 products. To date, we have successfully demonstrated well-tolerated in vivo editing in various animal models, including in mouse, rat and NHP livers, with a single dose of systemically delivered LNPs. In addition, we have moved into early-stage human clinical trials using LNPs as the delivery mechanism. Based on interim data reported from the first-in-human study of NTLA-2001, we have also successfully demonstrated LNP delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 is well-tolerated in humans.
We plan to continue to further improve on our LNP system to optimize delivery of a variety of CRISPR/Cas9 therapeutic components, including templates for repair and insertion edits. In parallel, we are exploring additional delivery vehicles, including synthetic particles and viral vectors. We also are developing delivery strategies that we believe will allow us to target other tissues.
Ex Vivo Delivery
Cellular therapies are based on the administration of engineered human cells that are modified to provide or restore necessary functions in the cells of patients, or to target and eliminate cells with harmful attributes, such as cancer cells. The cells to be modified ex vivo can come from the individual patient (autologous source) or from another individual (allogeneic source). The CRISPR/Cas9 system can be used to modify cells outside the body using clinically proven delivery methods, such as electroporation. We are exploring these standard methods in parallel with our own newly-developed proprietary ex vivo delivery methods, which may provide advantages such as increased delivery efficiency and cell viability.
Ex Vivo Allogeneic Platform
In October 2021, we shared the first preclinical data highlighting our proprietary allogeneic cell engineering platform, demonstrating its potential to prevent immune rejection of allogeneic T cells for application in TCR-T and CAR-T cell therapy. Our proprietary approach leverages a novel combination of sequential gene edits and does not rely on long-term, aggressive immune suppression of patients, or the selective knock out of class I proteins, approaches currently employed by others to address the challenge of host rejection of the adoptive cell therapy.
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Collaborations and Other Arrangements
To accelerate the development and commercialization of CRISPR/Cas9-based products in multiple therapeutic areas, we have formed, and intend to seek other opportunities to form, strategic alliances with collaborators who can augment our leadership in CRISPR/Cas9 therapeutic development.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Regeneron”)
In April 2016, we entered into a license and collaboration agreement with Regeneron (the “2016 Regeneron Agreement”). The 2016 Regeneron Agreement has two principal components: (i) a product development component under which the parties will research, develop and commercialize CRISPR/Cas-based therapeutic products primarily focused on genome editing in the liver; and (ii) a technology collaboration component, pursuant to which the parties will engage in research and development activities aimed at discovering and developing novel technologies and improvements to CRISPR/Cas technology to enhance our genome editing platform. We may also access the Regeneron Genetics Center and proprietary mouse models to be provided by Regeneron for a limited number of our liver programs. At the inception of the 2016 Regeneron Agreement, Regeneron selected the first of its 10 targets, ATTR, which is subject to a co-development and co-promotion agreement between us and Regeneron (the “ATTR Co/Co”).
On May 30, 2020, we entered into (i) amendment no. 1 (the “2020 Regeneron Amendment”) to the 2016 Regeneron Agreement, (ii) co-development and co-funding agreements for the treatment of hemophilia A and hemophilia B (the “Hemophilia Co/Co”) agreements and (iii) a stock purchase agreement. The collaboration expansion builds upon the jointly developed targeted transgene insertion capabilities designed to durably restore missing therapeutic protein, and to overcome the limitations of traditional gene therapy. The collaboration was extended until April 2024, at which point Regeneron has an option to renew for an additional two years. The 2020 Regeneron Amendment also grants Regeneron exclusive rights to develop products for five additional in vivo CRISPR/Cas-based therapeutic liver targets and non-exclusive rights to independently develop and commercialize up to 10 ex vivo gene edited products made using certain defined cell types. Refer to Note 9 to our consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a detailed description of the terms related to the 2016 Regeneron Agreement and the 2020 Regeneron Amendment.
AvenCell Therapeutics, Inc. (“AvenCell”)
On July 30, 2021, we finalized a transaction in which we, Cellex Cell Professionals GmbH (“Cellex”) and funds managed by Blackstone Life Sciences Advisors L.L.C. (“BXLS”) established a new universal CAR-T cell therapy company, AvenCell, and entered into two agreements with AvenCell: (i) a license and collaboration agreement (the “LCA”), under which we will collaborate to develop allogeneic universal CAR-T cell therapies and granted AvenCell a license to develop and commercialize genome edited universal CAR-T cell therapies (limited to its use with their switchable, universal CAR-T cell UniCAR and RevCAR platforms); and (ii) a co-development and co-funding agreement (the “AvenCell Co/Co”) under which we will co-develop and co-commercialize allogeneic universal CAR-T cell products for an immuno-oncology indication.
In addition to the license, we will collaborate with AvenCell on at least seven universal CAR-T cell products that combine our allogeneic T cell technology with AvenCell's switchable, universal CAR-T cell technology, referred to as the (“Allo Collaboration”). Additionally, AvenCell will pay us to provide supply and manufacturing services for them, including supplying good manufacturing practice (“GMP”) CRISPR reagents to support the research and development of all CRISPR Products (as defined in the LCA) under the Allo Collaboration until the completion of the first Pivotal Trial (as defined in the LCA) of the first such CRISPR Product. We will also have one additional option to enter into a second co-development and co-funding agreement from selected allogeneic universal CAR-T cell therapy products that the parties intend to develop under the Allo Collaboration for a payment of $30.0 million to AvenCell.
In exchange for the license, we received a 33.33% equity interest in AvenCell at the time of the initial closing. Refer to Notes 9 and 10 to our consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information related to the terms of the agreements between us and AvenCell.
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SparingVision SAS (“SparingVision”)
In October 2021, we and SparingVision, a genomic medicine company developing vision saving treatments for ocular diseases, entered into a license and collaboration agreement (the “LCA”), to develop novel genomic medicines utilizing CRISPR/Cas9 technology for the treatment of ocular diseases. We will grant SparingVision exclusive rights to our proprietary in vivo CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing technology for up to three ocular targets addressing diseases with significant unmet medical need. In addition, the parties will research and develop novel self-inactivating AAV vectors and LNP-based approaches to address delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing reagents to the retina. SparingVision will lead and fund the preclinical and clinical development for the genome editing product candidates pursued under the collaboration.
In exchange for the license, we received an 11% equity ownership in SparingVision as of the closing date as well as three warrants attached to each share received for the right to purchase additional shares at designated prices that are subject to certain vesting conditions. We will also be eligible to receive certain research, development and commercial milestone payments (up to approximately $200 million per product) as well as royalties on potential future sales of products arising from the collaboration. We will have an option to obtain exclusiveU.S. commercialization rights for product candidates arising from two of three collaboration targets. For product candidates we choose to option, we will pay an opt-in fee between $10.0 million and $20.0 million depending on the stage of development of the target, reimburse certain costs, share in 50% of development costs and pay royalties to SparingVision on U.S. sales. Refer to Notes 9 and 10 to our consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information related to the terms of the agreement between us and SparingVision.
Kyverna Therapeutics, Inc. (“Kyverna”)
In December 2021, we entered into a licensing and collaboration agreement with Kyverna, a cell therapy company engineering a new class of therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, for the development of an allogeneic CD19 CAR-T cell therapy for the treatment of a variety of B cell-mediated autoimmune diseases. We granted Kyverna rights to our proprietary ex vivo CRISPR/Cas9-based allogeneic platform for the development of KYV-201, an allogeneic CD19 CAR-T cell investigational candidate for the treatment of select autoimmune diseases. This is a novel approach aimed at targeting CD19 for inflammatory diseases as compared to traditional oncology indications. Kyverna will lead and fund preclinical and clinical development for KYV-201 and we will be eligible to receive certain development and commercial milestone payments, as well as low-to-mid-single-digit royalties on potential future sales. We may also exercise an option to lead U.S. commercialization for KYV-201 under a co-development and co-commercialization agreement. If we choose to co-develop and co-commercialize KYV-201, we will pay an opt-in fee of $5.0 million and share in 50% of development costs and future net profit and/or loss arising from commercializing KYV-201 in the U.S. Kyverna retains all rights outside of the U.S., and we will receive low-to-mid-single-digit royalties on net sales generated outside of the U.S.
In exchange for the license, we received an equity ownership of preferred stock in Kyverna. We separately made an additional investment in Kyverna, purchasing incremental shares of Kyverna's preferred stock in exchange for $3.0 million in cash, bringing our investment to approximately 7% ownership in Kyverna at the time of closing. Refer to Notes 9 and 10 to our consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information related to the terms of the agreement between us and Kyverna.
ONK Therapeutics, Ltd (“ONK”)
In February 2022, we announced a license, collaboration and option agreement with ONK for the development of engineered NK cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. The agreement grants ONK a non-exclusive license to our proprietary ex vivo CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing platform and its LNP-based delivery technologies for development of up to five allogeneic NK cell therapies. ONK will be responsible for preclinical and clinical development for the engineered NK cell therapies enabled by the agreement. We will be eligible to receive up to $184 million per product in development and commercial milestone payments, as well as up to mid-single digit royalties on potential future sales. In addition, the agreement grants us options to co-develop and co-commercialize up to two products worldwide with rights to lead commercialization in the U.S.
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IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele (“OSR”), Milan
In June 2017, we entered into a collaboration and license option agreement with Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan (the “OSR Agreement”). The research collaboration between the parties involves research related to novel WT1 TCRs, and modification of the same with CRISPR/Cas9 to treat cancers, particularly AML and solid tumors. We have the exclusive right to use the IP developed under the collaboration to develop therapeutic products. Discoveries from this collaboration are included in our first ex vivo product candidate directed to AML, which we refer to as NTLA-5001. The OSR Agreement also granted us an option to obtain an exclusive license to certain patent families of OSR and IP developed in the collaboration to research, develop and commercialize engineered WT1 TCR T cells comprising the WT1 TCRs identified by OSR in the collaboration. In December 2019, we exercised this option.
Under the OSR Agreement, we will owe OSR a royalty below 1% on net sales of licensed products sold by us and a share in the low- to mid-single digit percentage of sublicense revenue that we receive if we sublicense our rights under the OSR Agreement to a third party. In June 2021, the research collaboration agreement was amended to add certain research activities and extend the research term through November 2022. The OSR Agreement will continue until the date when no royalty or other payment obligations are due, unless earlier terminated in accordance with the terms of the agreement.
Rewrite Therapeutics Inc. (“Rewrite”)
In February 2022, we entered into an agreement to acquire Rewrite, a private biotechnology company focused on advancing novel DNA writing technologies. Rewrite has developed potentially promising novel tools for genome editing, including DNA writing via CRISPR/Cas9-guided polymerases. These tools may allow for targeted corrections, insertions, deletions, and the full range of single-nucleotide changes, which could provide new ways to edit disease-causing genes and broaden the therapeutic potential for genomic medicines. Rewrite also has developed an approach that could improve the efficiency of genome editing in non-dividing cell types, a key challenge for some existing editing platforms. We believe Rewrite’s technology could likely be delivered using our LNP technology and AAV vectors.
Under this agreement, we paid Rewrite’s former stockholders and optionholders (the “Rewrite Holders”) upfront consideration in an aggregate amount of approximately $45.0 million payable in cash, excluding customary purchase price adjustments. In addition, the Rewrite Holders will be eligible to receive up to an additional $155.0 million in milestone payments upon the achievement of certain pre-specified research and regulatory approval milestones, payable through a mixture of $130.0 million in cash and $25.0 million in shares of common stock.
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc. (“Novartis”)
In December 2014, we entered into a license and collaboration agreement with Novartis (the “2014 Novartis Agreement”), primarily focused on the research of new ex vivo CRISPR/Cas9-edited therapies using CAR-T cells and HSCs. The agreement was amended in December 2018 to also include research on OSCs. In December 2019, per the terms of the 2014 Novartis Agreement, the research term ended, although the 2014 Novartis Agreement remains in effect, for which we will be eligible to receive milestone and royalty payments in the future. In June 2021, we entered into Amendment No. 3 (the “Amendment”) to the 2014 Novartis Agreement. The Amendment amends Novartis’ rights with respect to all of the CAR-T Therapeutic Targets (as defined in the 2014 Novartis Agreement) that Novartis selected under the 2014 Novartis Agreement, including (a) making Novartis’ license non-exclusive for such CAR-T Therapeutic Targets, (b) removing Novartis’ diligence and related reporting obligations for such CAR-T Therapeutic Targets, and (c) refining the scope of Novartis’ sublicense rights for such CAR-T Therapeutic Targets. We made a one-time payment to Novartis of $10.0 million within 30 days after the effective date of the Amendment, which was recorded as research and development expense in the consolidated statement of operations and comprehensive loss for the year ended December 31, 2021. Since December 31, 2020, there have been no other material changes to the key terms of the 2014 Novartis Agreement and the Novartis Amendment. For further information on the terms and
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conditions of these agreements, refer to Note 9 to our consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Potential Future Collaborations
We view strategic partnerships as important drivers for helping accelerate our goal of rapidly treating patients. The potential application of CRISPR/Cas9 is extremely broad, and we plan to continue to identify partners who can contribute meaningful resources and insights to our programs and allow us to more rapidly bring scientific innovation to a broader patient population.
Intellectual Property
We believe we are well positioned in terms of our IP because we:
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have built, and intend to expand, a broad worldwide portfolio of IP, including patents and patent applications, in areas relevant to the development and commercialization of human therapeutic products using CRISPR/Cas9 technology;
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protect our IP by maintaining trade secrets relating to our proprietary technology innovations and know-how; and
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intend to take additional steps, where appropriate, to further protect our IP rights, including, for example, through the use of copyright protection, trademark and regulatory protections available via orphan drug designations, data exclusivity, market exclusivity and patent term extensions.
Our licensed patent portfolio encompasses foundational filings on the use of CRISPR/Cas9 systems for genome editing, improvement modifications of these CRISPR systems, LNP technologies, TCRs for specific targets, and cell expansion technology relevant to stem cell-based therapies. We access these patent estates from licensors, including Caribou, Novartis and OSR. We also actively apply for, maintain, and plan to defend and enforce, as needed, our internally developed and externally licensed patent rights. Furthermore, we continue to search for and evaluate opportunities to in-license IP relevant to our targeted therapeutic programs and platforms and to develop and acquire new IP in collaboration with third parties.
In addition to our in-licensed IP, our IP portfolio includes over 40 patent families filed since 2015 covering solely or jointly owned technologies that we have developed independently or through our collaborations with Novartis, Regeneron and OSR. The patent families claim inventions relating to CRISPR/Cas9 improvements, methods for delivering CRISPR/Cas9 complexes, methods of treating diseases using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, and methods for analyzing editing events, among others. Patents resulting from our internal portfolio, if issued, would expire no earlier than 2036.
We actively apply for, maintain, and plan to defend and enforce, as needed, our internally developed and externally licensed patent rights. Furthermore, we continue to search for and evaluate opportunities to in-license IP relevant to our targeted therapeutic programs and platforms and to develop and acquire new IP in collaboration with third parties.
Caribou Biosciences In-Licensed Intellectual Property (“Caribou”)
In July 2014, we entered into a license agreement with Caribou (the “Caribou License”), as subsequently amended and supplemented, for an exclusive, worldwide license for human therapeutic, prophylactic, and palliative uses, except for anti-fungal and anti-microbial uses, defined in the license agreement as our field of use, of any CRISPR/Cas9-related patents and applications owned, controlled or licensed by Caribou as well as companion diagnostics to our product or product candidates. The license agreement also included exclusive rights in our field of use to any CRISPR/Cas9-related IP developed by Caribou after July 16, 2014 and through a cut-off date of January 30, 2018. The agreement further includes a non-exclusive research license to conduct research and development on product candidates and products.
The licensed Caribou patent portfolio includes several U.S. and foreign patents and patent applications owned or licensed by Caribou. Through January 30, 2018, Caribou had filed over 50 patent applications in the U.S. and internationally, which relate to the CRISPR/Cas platform, including modified and improved CRISPR/Cas9 systems or components, and methods of use that are part of our license. In addition, the licensed Caribou patent portfolio
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includes an exclusive sublicense in our field of use to the Regents of the University of California (“UC”) and University of Vienna’s (“Vienna”) rights in U.S. and foreign patent and patent applications covering the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, which they co-own with Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively, the “UC/Vienna/Charpentier IP”). In July 2015, we exercised our option to include in the licensed Caribou patent portfolio the U.S. and foreign patent and patent applications owned or controlled by Pioneer Hi-Bred International (“Pioneer”) and its affiliates. We have the right to grant sublicenses to the licensed Caribou patent portfolio to third parties in our field of use. Caribou retains the right to practice the licensed IP in all other fields, including for its own specific therapeutic product candidates outside our field of use. The UC/Vienna/Charpentier IP and Pioneer IP, and our rights to the same, are further described below.
We have agreed to pay 30.0% of Caribou’s patent prosecution, filing and maintenance costs for the IP included in the license agreement, which has amounted to a total of $7.8million incurred through December 31, 2021. Any patents that grant or have granted from these applications will expire in or after 2034, assuming payment of necessary maintenance fees. We also granted Caribou an exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license, with the right to sublicense, to any CRISPR/Cas9 patents, patent applications and know-how in Caribou’s retained fields of use owned or developed by us between July 16, 2014 and January 30, 2018. Caribou, which is obligated to pay a portion of our patent filing, prosecution and maintenance costs for any such licensed IP, also has an option to sublicense any CRISPR/Cas9 IP in-licensed by us for uses and activities in its retained field of use.
The Caribou License terminates on the expiration of the last-to-expire patent right that is licensed to either party. We must use commercially reasonable and diligent efforts to research, develop, manufacture and commercialize at least one product covered by the licensed IP. Either party may terminate the agreement in the event of the other party’s uncured material breach, bankruptcy or insolvency-related events, or breach of its obligations with respect to the included in-licenses.
On October 17, 2018, we initiated an arbitration proceeding against Caribou asserting that Caribou violated the terms and conditions of the Caribou License, as well as other contractual and legal obligations to us, by using and seeking to license to third parties two patent families relating to specific structural or chemical modifications of gRNAs, that were invented or controlled by Caribou, in our exclusive human therapeutic field, before January 30, 2018. Caribou has asserted that the two families of IP are outside the scope of our license. In the arbitration, we seek a declaration that the disputed IP is included within the scope of our exclusive license, an award of compensatory, consequential and punitive damages based on Caribou’s conduct, and an injunction prohibiting Caribou from licensing or using this IP in our exclusive human therapeutics field, among other claims.
On September 26, 2019, we announced that the arbitration panel issued an interim award concluding that both the structural and chemical gRNA modification technologies were exclusively licensed to us by Caribou pursuant to the Caribou License. Nevertheless, the arbitration panel, solely with respect to the clinically modified gRNAs, stated that it will declare that Caribou has an equitable “leaseback”, which it described as exclusive, perpetual and worldwide (the “Caribou Award”). The Caribou Award does not include the structural guide modifications IP also at issue in the arbitration, any other IP exclusively licensed or sublicensed by Caribou to us under the Caribou License (including but not limited to the UC/Vienna/Charpentier IP), or any other of our IP. On February 6, 2020, the panel clarified that the Caribou Award is limited to a particular on-going Caribou program, which seeks to develop a CAR-T cell product directed at CD19.
On June 16, 2021, we executed a Leaseback Agreement (“Leaseback”) with Caribou, which settled the ongoing arbitration. Under the Leaseback negotiated by the parties, in exchange for an upfront payment, potential future regulatory and sales milestones, and single-digit royalties payable by Caribou, we have agreed to leaseback or sublicense certain CRISPR/Cas9 IP, including our chemical gRNA modification technology and foundational CRISPR/Cas9 IP, to Caribou so that it can develop and commercialize CB-010. Caribou also will be responsible for any payments required in respect of our in-licensed IP. We recorded $1.0 million within “Collaboration Revenue” in the second quarter of 2021 on the condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss for an upfront payment related to the Leaseback and received the payment in the third quarter of 2021. After the execution of the Leaseback Agreement, the arbitration concluded.
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The Regents of the University of California and the University of Vienna Intellectual Property
The UC/Vienna/Charpentier IP covers methods of use and compositions relating to engineered CRISPR/Cas9 systems for, among other things, cleaving or editing DNA and altering gene product expression in various organisms, including humans. The earliest claimed priority date for the patents in the UC/Vienna/Charpentier IP is May 25, 2012. As of December 31, 2021, this family includes over 40 issued patents in the U.S. and over 40 granted patents outside the U.S., including for example the U.K., Australia, China, Japan, Israel, Mexico and the approximately 40 countries that are members of the European Patent Convention. Applications continue to be prosecuted in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) and other patent agencies across the world. Patents issued from this family will expire in or after 2033, if successfully maintained.
In April 2013, Caribou entered into an exclusive, worldwide license in all fields, with the right to sublicense, for this patent family with UC/Vienna solely under UC/Vienna ownership rights. Caribou’s license remains in effect for the life of the last-to-expire patent or last-to-be-abandoned patent application licensed, whichever is later. Through our license agreement with Caribou, we have an exclusive sublicense to UC/Vienna’s interest in this foundational CRISPR/Cas9 patent family for use in human therapeutics, except for anti-fungal and anti-microbial uses as defined in the license agreement as our field of use. For therapeutic products covered by this license and their companion diagnostics, we will owe mid-single-digit royalties on net sales. In addition, we may be subject to milestone payments of $0.1 million upon the first filing of an IND application, a total of $0.5 million for Phase II and Phase III clinical trials, $0.5 million to $1.0 million for each of the first three approved new drug applications or biologics license applications in the U.S., and $0.2 million for each of the first three approved indications in Europe. Caribou has the right to terminate its agreement with UC/Vienna at any time or the agreement may be terminated by UC/Vienna due to an uncured material breach. We cannot guarantee that Caribou will maintain the UC/Vienna license for its full term. Should the license between Caribou and UC/Vienna be terminated for any reason, any compliant Caribou sublicenses as of the termination date will remain in effect and will be assigned to UC/Vienna in place of Caribou. Specifically, if we are in compliance with our obligations under our sublicense and Caribou and UC/Vienna terminate their agreement, UC/Vienna would replace Caribou as our licensor.
On April 13, 2015, UC/Vienna/Charpentier jointly filed a request with the USPTO asking that an interference be declared between a UC/Vienna/Charpentier patent application and certain patents issued to the Broad Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the President and Fellows of Harvard College (collectively, the “Broad Institute patent family” or the “Broad”), which claim aspects of CRISPR/Cas9 systems and methods to edit genes in eukaryotic cells, including human cells. An interference is an adversarial proceeding conducted by the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (the “PTAB”) to determine the initial inventor of a particular invention claimed in U.S. patents and patent applications owned by different parties. On January 11, 2016, the PTAB declared an interference involving one UC/Vienna/Charpentier application, 12 Broad issued patents and a Broad patent application. In the order declaring the interference, the PTAB designated UC/Vienna/Charpentier the “Senior Party” and the Broad the “Junior Party”. In March 2016, the PTAB re-declared the interference to add an additional U.S. patent application owned by the Broad. On February 15, 2017, the PTAB dismissed the proceeding finding that the parties’ respective patent claims involved in the interference were distinct such that they did not meet the legal requirement to proceed with the interference. Specifically, the PTAB concluded that the Broad’s claims were directed to the use of CRISPR/Cas9 only in eukaryotic cells and, thus were patently distinct from UC/Vienna/Charpentier’s claims, which were directed to the use of CRISPR/Cas9 in all settings. As a result of this proceeding’s dismissal, the PTAB did not make a decision regarding which party actually first invented the use of CRISPR/Cas9 systems and methods to edit genes in eukaryotic cells. After considering UC/Vienna/Charpentier’s appeal, on September 10, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s decision to terminate the interference proceeding. The time for UC/Vienna/Charpentier to ask for a rehearing by the Federal Circuit or permission from the U.S. Supreme Court to appeal has expired. Accordingly, the Federal Circuit returned the UC/Vienna/Charpentier patent application at issue in the terminated interference to the USPTO. On April 23, 2019, the USPTO issued to UC/Vienna/Charpentier the patent, which covers generally the use of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology using a single RNA guide in any setting, including cellular settings.
On June 25, 2019, the PTAB declared another interference between the UC/Vienna/Charpentier and the Broad, which specifically involves their respective eukaryotic patent families, to determine which research group first invented the use of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology in eukaryotic cells and, therefore, is entitled to the patents covering the invention. On August 26, 2019, the PTAB redeclared the interference to include additional UC/Vienna/Charpentier patent applications covering the invention that had also been found allowable by the USPTO. As of December 31, 2020, the
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interference involves 14 allowable patent applications from the UC/Vienna/Charpentier eukaryotic patent family and 13 patents and one patent application from the Broad Institute patent family. The PTAB held a hearing in this interference on February 4, 2022.
On December 14, 2020, the PTAB declared an additional interference between the same 14 allowable patent applications in the UC/Vienna/Charpentier portfolio, and one patent application owned by ToolGen, Inc. (“ToolGen”), that also purports to cover the use of CRISPR/Cas9 for gene editing in eukaryotic cells.
If either the Broad or ToolGen were to succeed in their respective interference, the prevailing party or parties could seek to assert its issued patents against us based on our CRISPR/Cas9-based activities, including product commercialization. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense, would be a substantial diversion of management and other employee resources from our business and may impact our reputation. In the event of a successful claim of infringement 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 infringing products, which may not be feasible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure. In that event, we could be unable to further develop and commercialize our product candidates, which could harm our business significantly.
Pioneer Hi-Bred International (DuPont Company) Intellectual Property
Pioneer Hi-Bred International and its affiliates, including the DuPont Company, have licensed to Caribou on a worldwide basis, various patent families relating to CRISPR/Cas systems, components and methods of use generally and CRISPR/Cas9 specifically in certain fields, which include Intellia’s field of use under our license agreement with Caribou. In July 2015, we exercised our option under the license agreement with Caribou to sublicense these Pioneer patent families in our field of use. The license from Pioneer to Caribou will expire upon the expiration, abandonment or invalidation of the last patent or patent application licensed from Pioneer to Caribou.
The licensed Pioneer portfolio includes a family of applications filed by Vilnius University that discloses the components of a CRISPR/Cas9 system required for gene editing in non-bacterial organisms. The USPTO has issued patents to Vilnius University with claims covering the in vitro assembly and use of a recombinant CRISPR/Cas9 complex to modify DNA. Patents obtained from this patent family will expire in or after 2033, assuming payment of necessary maintenance fees. We cannot ensure that these additional applications in this family will lead to issued claims that cover our products or activities.
Invention Management Agreement
On December 15, 2016, we entered into a Consent to Assignments, Licensing and Common Ownership and Invention Management Agreement (the “Invention Management Agreement”), with UC, Vienna, Dr. Charpentier, Caribou, CRISPR Therapeutics AG, ERS Genomics Ltd. and TRACR Hematology Ltd. Under the Invention Management Agreement, Dr. Charpentier retroactively consented to UC/Vienna’s CRISPR/Cas9 license to Caribou as well as Caribou’s sublicensing to Intellia certain of its rights to the UC/Vienna/Charpentier CRISPR/Cas9 IP, subject to the restrictions of our license from Caribou. Under the agreement, the parties commit to maintain and coordinate the prosecution, defense and enforcement of the CRISPR/Cas9 foundational patent portfolio worldwide, and each of the co-owners of the IP grants cross-consents to all existing and future licenses and sublicenses based on the rights of another co-owner. The Invention Management Agreement also includes retroactive approval by certain parties of certain prior assignments of interests in patent rights to other parties, and provides for, among other things, (i) good faith cooperation among the parties regarding patent maintenance, defense and prosecution, (ii) cost-sharing arrangements, and (iii) notice of and coordination in the event of third-party infringement of the subject patents. Unless earlier terminated by the parties, the Invention Management Agreement will continue in effect until the later of the last expiration date of the UC/Vienna/Charpentier patents underlying the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, or the date on which the last underlying patent application is abandoned.
Novartis In-Licensed Intellectual Property
The 2014 Novartis Agreement grants us worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free rights to a portfolio of 14 Novartis patent families containing granted patents and pending applications in the U.S. and internationally relating to LNP compositions, methods of use and modified nucleic acids. The license under the 2014 Novartis Agreement permits us
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to use the Novartis LNPs to develop therapeutic, prophylactic, and palliative CRISPR-based in vivo products. Under a December 2018 amendment to the 2014 Novartis Agreement, we obtained rights to use these LNPs both in vivo and ex vivofor any genome editing product. The licensed patent will expire by or after December 2030. The term of the license continues until the expiration of the last-to-expire patent right that is licensed to either party. If we attempt to challenge any of the patents in the licensed families, Novartis may terminate the license on a patent-by-patent basis. We cannot guarantee that our products or delivery methods will be covered by issued claims in these families.
In addition, under the 2014 Novartis Agreement, Novartis has also granted us rights to use its proprietary small molecule for HSC expansion. Our rights to this technology are subject to a single-digit royalty based on whether we develop and commercialize the relevant product solely or in collaboration with another third party.
Under the 2014 Novartis Agreement, any platform IP developed as part of the collaboration is owned solely by us, while all other IP developed within the collaboration, including product-based IP, is jointly owned by us and Novartis. We cannot guarantee that IP filed based on collaboration data will result in issued claims covering our products or delivery methods. Under our agreement with Novartis, as amended, we have also granted Novartis a sublicense to the IP we license under our agreement with Caribou for the Novartis-selected HSC, CAR-T and OSC products, with such sublicense being exclusive as long as Novartis uses commercially reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize those products.
Manufacturing
We have entered into certain manufacturing and supply arrangements with third-party suppliers to support production of our product candidates and their components. We plan to continue to rely on these qualified third-party organizations and our own capabilities to produce or process bulk compounds, formulated compounds, viral vectors or engineered cells for IND-supporting activities and to supply materials for clinical trials. We expect that clinical and commercial quantities of any in vivo product or engineered cells that we may seek to develop will be manufactured in GMP compliant facilities and by processes that comply with FDA and other regulatory agency requirements. At the appropriate time in the product development process, we will determine whether to establish manufacturing facilities or continue to rely on third parties to manufacture commercial quantities of any products that we may successfully develop. In certain instances, we may consider building our own commercial infrastructure.
Competition
The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are extremely competitive in the race to develop new products. While we believe we have significant competitive advantages with our industry-leading expertise in genome editing, clinical development expertise and dominant IP position, we currently face and will continue to face competition for our development programs from companies that use genome editing or gene therapy development platforms and from companies focused on more traditional therapeutic modalities such as small molecules and antibodies. The competition is likely to come from multiple sources, including large and specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic research institutions, government agencies and public and private research institutions. Many of these competitors may have access to greater capital and resources than us. For any products that we may ultimately commercialize, not only will we compete with any existing therapies and those therapies currently in development, but we will also have to compete with new therapies that may become available in the future.
Competitors in our efforts to provide genetic therapies to patients can be grouped into at least three sets based on their product discovery platforms:
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Our platform and product foci are on the development of therapies using CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology. Genome editing companies focused on CRISPR based technologies include: Beam Therapeutics Inc., Caribou Biosciences, Inc., CRISPR Therapeutics AG, Editas Medicine, Inc., Verve Therapeutics Inc. and ToolGen, Inc.
There are also companies developing therapies using additional gene-editing technologies, which include Allogene Therapeutics, Inc., bluebird bio, Inc., Cellectis S.A., Precision Biosciences, Inc., Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc., Homology Medicines, Inc., Poseida Therapeutics, Inc. and Prime Medicine, Inc.
We are also aware of companies developing therapies in various areas related to our specific research and development programs. In ex vivo, these companies include Allogene Therapeutics, Inc., Precision BioSciences, Inc., CRISPR Therapeutics AG, Cellectis S.A. and Editas Medicine, Inc. In in vivo, these companies include Editas Medicine, Inc., CRISPR Therapeutics AG, Locus Biosciences, Inc., Excision Biotherapeutics, Inc. and Precision Biosciences, Inc.
Specific to our NTLA-2001 program, we are aware of other companies that are currently commercializing or developing products used to treat ATTR amyloidosis, including Pfizer, Inc., Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., BridgeBio Pharma Inc. and Novo Nordisk A/S.
Specific to our NTLA-2002 program, we are aware of other companies that are currently commercializing or developing products used to treat HAE including Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc., Pharming Group N.V., and CSL Limited.
Our competitors will also include companies that are or will be developing other genome editing methods as well as small molecules, biologics, in vivo gene therapies, engineeredcell therapies (both autologous and allogeneic) and nucleic acid-based therapies for the same indications that we are targeting with our CRISPR/Cas9-based therapeutics.
Government Regulation and Product Approval
As a biopharmaceutical company, we are subject to extensive legal and regulatory requirements. For example, we need approval from regulatory agencies for our clinical studies, development, manufacturing, distribution, exportation and importation, commercialization, marketing and reimbursement relating to our products and product candidates. Relevant regulatory authorities include, but are not limited to, the FDA, the European Medicines Agency (“EMA”), the Commission of the European Union, EU member state agencies, such as Germany’s Federal Institute for Drugs and Medicinal Devices (“BfArM”), and other countries’ similar agencies, such as the MHRA, as well as agencies responsible for market access and pricing, such as the U.K. National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (“NICE”).
We expect our future in vivo and ex vivo product candidates to be regulated as biologics. Biological products are subject to regulation under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic (“FD&C”) Act and the Public Health Service Act (“PHS Act”), and other federal, state, local and foreign statutes and regulations. Both the FD&C Act and the PHS Act and their corresponding regulations govern, among other things, the testing, manufacturing, safety, efficacy, labeling, packaging, storage, record keeping, distribution, reporting, advertising and other promotional practices involving drug and biological products. As is the case for all investigational products, before clinical testing of biological products in the U.S. may begin, we must submit an IND application to the FDA, which reviews the clinical protocol and other information, and the IND application must become effective before clinical trials may begin. Prior to initiating clinical trials in foreign countries, clinical trial applications (“CTAs”) or other equivalent applications, similar to IND applications, must be approved.
Biologic products must be approved by the FDA before they may be legally marketed in the U.S. and by the appropriate foreign regulatory agencies before they may be legally marketed in foreign countries. The process of obtaining regulatory approvals and the subsequent compliance with appropriate federal, state, local and foreign statutes and regulations require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources and we may not be able to obtain the required regulatory approvals.
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Within the FDA, the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (“CBER”) regulates biological products, including gene and cell therapies. CBER’s Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies (“OTAT”) is responsible for oversight of gene therapy and related products, and the Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee (“CTGTAC”) advises CBER on its reviews. Human gene therapy products are defined as all products that mediate their effects by transcription or translation of transferred genetic material or by specifically altering host (human) genetic sequences. Some examples of gene therapy products include nucleic acids, genetically modified microorganisms (e.g., viruses, bacteria, fungi), engineered site-specific nucleases used for human genome editing, and ex vivo genetically modified human cells. FDA has published guidance documents related to, among other things, gene therapy products in general and their preclinical assessment, potency or other quality testing, and chemistry, manufacturing and control information in gene therapy IND applications, and long-term adverse event monitoring of clinical trial subjects; all of which are intended to facilitate industry’s development of these products. More recently and as part of the implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act, FDA has issued a number of guidances pertaining to regenerative medicine advanced therapies, which include cell therapy, therapeutic tissue engineering products, human cell and tissue products and combination products using any such therapies or products. Additionally, gene therapies, including genetically modified cells, that lead to a durable modification of cells or tissues may meet the definition of a regenerative medicine therapy. A number of guidances have been revised to reflect the growing knowledge and incorporation of newer technology, including certain considerations for genome editing. A small, but growing number of gene therapy products have been approved by regulatory agencies. In 2012, the EMA authorized the marketing of the first gene therapy product approved by regulatory authorities anywhere in the Western world. And in the U.S., in 2017, the FDA approved the first two cell-based, gene therapy products as well as a gene therapy product. Additional gene therapies have been approved in the U.S. since then.
U.S. Gene and Cell Therapy Products Development Process
The FDA approves biologics, including gene and cellular therapy products, through the Biologics License Application (“BLA”) process before they may be legally marketed in the U.S. This process generally involves the following:
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completion of extensive nonclinical, sometimes referred to as preclinical laboratory tests, and preclinical animal studies and formulation studies in accordance with applicable regulations, including good laboratory practice (“GLP”) and applicable requirements for the humane use of laboratory animals;
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submission to the FDA of an IND application, which must become effective before human clinical trials may begin;
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performance of adequate and well-controlled human clinical trials, according to the FDA’s regulations commonly referred to as good clinical practice (“GCP”) and any additional requirements for the protection of human research subjects and their health information, to establish the safety and efficacy of the proposed product for its intended use;
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submission to the FDA of a BLA for marketing approval that includes substantial evidence of safety, efficacy, and purity and potency, from nonclinical and in vitro testing and clinical trials;
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satisfactory completion of an FDA inspection of the manufacturing facility or facilities where the product is produced to assess compliance with current good manufacturing practice (“cGMP”) to assure that the facilities, methods and controls are adequate to preserve the product’s identity, strength, quality and purity and, if applicable, the FDA’s current good tissue practice (“cGTP”) requirements for the use of human cellular and tissue products;
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positive results from potential FDA audit of the nonclinical study and clinical trial sites that generated the data in support of the BLA;
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review of the proposed product by an FDA advisory committee, where appropriate and if applicable;
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payment of user fees for FDA review of the BLA (unless a fee waiver applies); and
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FDA review and approval, or licensure, of the BLA.
Before testing any drug or biological product candidate, including gene and cellular therapy product candidates, in humans, the product candidate is evaluated through preclinical testing. Preclinical tests, also referred to as nonclinical studies, include laboratory evaluations of product chemistry, toxicity and formulation, as well as animal studies to
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assess the potential safety and activity of the product candidate. The conduct of the preclinical tests must comply with applicable federal regulations and requirements, including GLP.
The clinical trial sponsor must submit the results of the preclinical tests, together with manufacturing information, analytical data, any available clinical data or literature, and a proposed clinical protocol, to the FDA as part of the IND. Some preclinical testing may continue even after the IND application is submitted. The IND application automatically becomes effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA, unless the FDA places the clinical trial on a clinical hold within that 30-day time period. In such a case, the clinical trial sponsor and the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns before the clinical trial can begin. The FDA may also impose clinical holds on a biological product candidate at any time before or during clinical trials due to, among other reasons, safety concerns or non-compliance with regulatory requirements. If the FDA imposes a clinical hold, trials may not proceed without FDA authorization and then only under authorized terms. Accordingly, we cannot be sure that submission of an IND application will result in the FDA allowing clinical trials to begin, or that, once begun, issues will not arise that result in the suspension or termination of such trials.
Clinical trials involve the administration of the product candidate to healthy volunteers or patients under the supervision of qualified investigators, generally physicians not employed by or under the study sponsor’s control. Clinical trials are conducted under protocols detailing, among other things, the objectives of the clinical trial, dosing procedures, subject selection and exclusion criteria, and the parameters to be used to monitor subject safety, including stopping rules that assure a clinical trial will be stopped if certain adverse events should occur. Each protocol and its amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND. Clinical trials must be conducted and monitored in accordance with the FDA’s regulations comprising the GCP requirements, including the requirement that all research subjects provide informed consent. Further, each clinical trial must be reviewed and approved by an independent institutional review board (“IRB”) at or servicing each institution at which the clinical trial will be conducted. An IRB is charged with protecting the welfare and rights of study participants and considers such items as whether the risks to individuals participating in the clinical trials are minimized and are reasonable in relation to anticipated benefits. The IRB also approves the form and content of the informed consent that must be signed by each clinical trial subject or his or her legal representative and must monitor the clinical trial until completed.
In addition to the submission of an IND to the FDA before initiation of a clinical trial in the U.S., certain human clinical trials involving recombinant or synthetic nucleic acid molecules are subject to oversight of institutional biosafety committees, (“IBCs”), as set forth in the National Institutes for Health (“NIH”) Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant or Synthetic Nucleic Acid Molecules (“NIH Guidelines”). Under the NIH Guidelines, recombinant and synthetic nucleic acids are defined as: (i) molecules that are constructed by joining nucleic acid molecules and that can replicate in a living cell (i.e., recombinant nucleic acids); (ii) nucleic acid molecules that are chemically or by other means synthesized or amplified, including those that are chemically or otherwise modified but can base pair with naturally occurring nucleic acid molecules (i.e., synthetic nucleic acids); or (iii) molecules that result from the replication of those described in (i) or (ii). Specifically, under the NIH Guidelines, supervision of human gene transfer trials includes evaluation and assessment by an IBC, a local institutional committee that reviews and oversees research utilizing recombinant or synthetic nucleic acid molecules at that institution. The IBC assesses the safety of the research and identifies any potential risk to public health or the environment, and such review may result in some delay before initiation of a clinical trial. While the NIH Guidelines are not mandatory unless the research in question is being conducted at or sponsored by institutions receiving NIH funding of recombinant or synthetic nucleic acid molecule research, many companies and other institutions not otherwise subject to the NIH Guidelines voluntarily follow them.
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Human clinical trials are typically conducted in three sequential phases that may overlap or be combined:
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Phase 1. The product candidate is initially introduced into healthy human subjects and tested for safety. In the case of some products for severe or life-threatening diseases, especially when the product may be too inherently toxic to ethically administer to healthy volunteers, the initial human testing is often conducted in patients.
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Phase 2. The product candidate is evaluated in a limited patient population to identify possible adverse effects and safety risks, to preliminarily evaluate the efficacy of the product for specific targeted diseases and to determine dosage tolerance, optimal dosage and dosing schedule.
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Phase 3. Clinical trials are undertaken to further evaluate dosage, clinical efficacy, potency (for BLA products), and safety in an expanded patient population at dispersed clinical trial sites. These clinical trials are intended to establish the overall risk/benefit ratio of the product, including as compared to current standard treatments, and provide an adequate basis for product approval and labeling.
Post-approval clinical trials, sometimes referred to as Phase 4 clinical trials, may be conducted after initial marketing approval. These clinical trials are used to gain additional evidence about the treatment of patients in the intended therapeutic indication, particularly for long-term safety follow-up. The FDA typically advises that sponsors observe subjects for potential gene therapy-related delayed adverse events for up to a 15-year period, including a minimum of five years of annual examinations followed by ten years of annual queries, either in person or by questionnaire.
During all phases of clinical development, regulatory agencies require extensive monitoring and auditing of all clinical activities, clinical data, and clinical trial investigators. Annual progress reports detailing the status of the clinical trials must be submitted to the FDA. Written IND safety reports must be promptly submitted to the FDA and the investigators for serious and unexpected adverse events, any findings from other trials, tests in laboratory animals or in vitro testing that suggest a significant risk for human subjects, or any clinically important increase in the rate of a serious suspected adverse reaction over that listed in the protocol or investigator brochure. The sponsor must submit an IND safety report within 15 calendar days after the sponsor determines that the information qualifies for reporting. The sponsor also must notify the FDA of any unexpected fatal or life-threatening suspected adverse reaction within seven calendar days after the sponsor’s initial receipt of the information.
Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials may not be completed successfully within any specified period, if at all. The FDA or the sponsor or its data safety monitoring board may suspend a clinical trial at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the research subjects or patients are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk. Similarly, an IRB can suspend or terminate approval of a clinical trial at its institution if the clinical trial is not being conducted in accordance with the IRB’s requirements or if the product candidate has been associated with unexpected serious harm to patients.
There also are requirements governing the reporting of ongoing clinical trials and completed clinical trial results to public registries. Sponsors of certain clinical trials of FDA-regulated products, including biologics such as gene and cellular therapy products, are required to register and disclose certain clinical trial information to NIH. Information related to the product, patient population, phase of investigation, study sites and investigators, and other aspects of the clinical trial is then made publicly available as part of the registration at www.clinicaltrials.gov. Sponsors also are obligated to disclose the results of their clinical trials after completion. Disclosure of the results of these trials can be delayed until the new product or new indication being studied has been approved, up to a maximum of two years.
Human therapeutic products based on genome editing technology are a relatively new category of therapeutics. Because this is a relatively new and expanding area of novel therapeutic interventions, there can be no assurance as to the length of the study period, the number of patients the FDA will require to be enrolled in the trials in order to establish the safety, purity and potency for human gene editing therapeutics, or that the data generated in these trials will be acceptable to the FDA to support marketing approval.
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Concurrent with clinical trials, companies usually complete additional animal trials and must also develop additional information about the physical characteristics of the product candidate, as well as finalize a process for manufacturing the product in commercial quantities in accordance with cGMP, and in certain cases, cGTP, requirements. To help reduce the risk of the introduction of adventitious agents with use of biological products, the PHS Act emphasizes the importance of manufacturing control for products whose attributes cannot be precisely defined. The manufacturing process must be capable of consistently producing quality batches of the product candidate and, among other things, the sponsor must develop methods for testing the identity, strength, quality, potency and purity of the final product to support a BLA. Additionally, appropriate packaging must be selected and tested, and stability studies must be conducted to demonstrate that the product candidate does not undergo unacceptable deterioration over its shelf life.
U.S. Review and Approval Processes
FDA approval of a BLA must be obtained before commercial marketing of the product. The BLA must include results of product development, laboratory and animal trials, human trials, information on the manufacture and composition of the product, proposed labeling and other relevant information. In addition, under the Pediatric Research Equity Act (“PREA”), a BLA or supplement to a BLA, for a product candidate with certain novel characteristics must contain data to assess the safety and effectiveness of the product candidate for the claimed indications in all relevant pediatric subpopulations and to support dosing and administration for each pediatric subpopulation for which the product is safe and effective. The Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act of 2012 (“FDASIA”) requires that a sponsor who is planning to submit a marketing application for a biological product that includes a new active ingredient, new indication, new dosage form, new dosing regimen or new route of administration submit an initial Pediatric Study Plan (“PSP”) within sixty days after an end-of-Phase 2 meeting or as may be agreed between the sponsor and FDA, unless exempt due to orphan drug designation. The initial PSP must include, among other things, an outline of the pediatric study or studies that the sponsor plans to conduct, including, to the extent practicable, study objectives and design, age groups, relevant endpoints and statistical approach, or a justification for not including such detailed information, and any request for a deferral of pediatric assessments or a full or partial waiver of the requirement to provide data from pediatric studies along with supporting information, along with any other information specified in FDA regulations. The FDA and the sponsor must reach agreement on the PSP. A sponsor can submit amendments to an agreed-upon initial PSP at any time if changes to the pediatric plan need to be considered based on data collected from nonclinical studies, early phase clinical trials, or other clinical development programs. The FDA may grant deferrals for submission of data or full or partial waivers. Unless otherwise required by regulation, PREA does not apply to any biological product for an indication for which orphan drug designation has been granted. The testing and approval processes require substantial time and effort and there can be no assurance that the FDA will accept the BLA for filing and, even if filed, that any approval will be granted on a timely basis, if at all.
Under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (“PDUFA”), as amended, each BLA must be accompanied by a user fee. The FDA adjusts the PDUFA user fees on an annual basis. Fee waivers or reductions are available in certain circumstances, including a waiver of the application fee for the first application filed by a small business. Additionally, no user fees are assessed on BLAs for products designated as orphan drugs, unless the product also includes a non-orphan indication.
Within 60 days following submission of the application, the FDA reviews the BLA to determine if it is substantially complete before the agency accepts it for filing. The FDA may refuse to file any BLA that it deems incomplete or not properly reviewable at the time of submission, including for failure to pay required fees, and may request additional information. In this event, the application must be resubmitted with the additional information. The resubmitted application also is subject to review before the FDA accepts it for filing. Once the submission is accepted for filing, the FDA begins an in-depth substantive review of the BLA. The FDA reviews the application to determine, among other things, whether the proposed product is safe and effective (or, in the case of biological products, safe, pure and potent), and whether the product is being manufactured in accordance with cGMP, and in certain cases, cGTP, requirements to ensure and preserve the product’s identity, safety, strength, quality, potency and purity. The FDA may refer applications for novel products or products that present difficult questions of safety or efficacy to an advisory committee, typically a panel that includes clinicians and other experts, for review, evaluation and a recommendation as to whether the application should be approved and under what conditions. The FDA is not bound by the recommendations of an advisory committee, but it considers such recommendations carefully when making decisions. During the FDA review and approval process, the FDA also will determine whether a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (“REMS”) is necessary to assure the safe use of the biological product candidate. If the FDA concludes a
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REMS is needed, the sponsor of the BLA must submit a proposed REMS; the FDA will not approve the application without a REMS, if required.
Before approving a BLA, the FDA will inspect the facilities at which the product is manufactured. The FDA will not approve the product unless it determines that the manufacturing processes and facilities are in compliance with cGMP and, if applicable, cGTP requirements are adequate to assure consistent production of the product within required specifications. Additionally, before approving a BLA, the FDA will typically inspect one or more clinical sites to assure that the clinical trials were conducted in compliance with IND study requirements and GCP requirements. To assure cGMP, cGTP and GCP compliance, an applicant must incur significant expenditure of time, money and effort in the areas of training, record keeping, production, and quality control.
Notwithstanding the submission of relevant data and information, the FDA may ultimately decide that the BLA does not satisfy its regulatory criteria for approval and deny approval. Data obtained from clinical trials are not always conclusive and the FDA may interpret data differently than we interpret the same data. If the agency decides not to approve the BLA in its present form, the FDA will issue a complete response letter that usually describes all of the specific deficiencies in the application identified by the FDA. Addressing the deficiencies identified may require significant development work, such as product reformulation or additional clinical trials. The complete response letter may include recommended actions that the applicant might take to place the application in a condition for approval. If a complete response letter is issued, the applicant may either resubmit the application, addressing all of the deficiencies identified in the letter, challenge the determination set forth in the letter by requesting a hearing or withdraw the application.
If a product receives regulatory approval, the approval may be significantly limited to specific diseases, dosages or patient subgroups or the indications for use may otherwise be limited, which could restrict the commercial value of the product. Further, the FDA may require that certain contraindications, warnings, precautions or adverse events be included in the product labeling. The FDA may impose restrictions and conditions on product distribution, prescribing, or dispensing in the form of a REMS, or otherwise limit the scope of any approval. In addition, the FDA may require post marketing clinical trials, sometimes referred to as Phase IV clinical trials, designed to further assess a product’s safety and effectiveness, and testing and surveillance programs to monitor the safety of approved products that have been commercialized.
One of the performance goals agreed to by the FDA under the PDUFA VI (Fiscal Years 2018-2022) is to review 90% of BLAs in 10 months from the 60-day filing date, and 90% of priority BLAs in six months from the 60-day filing date, whereupon a review decision is to be made. The FDA does not always meet its PDUFA goal dates for standard and priority BLAs, and its review goals are subject to change with PDUFA reauthorization. The review process and the PDUFA goal date may be extended by three months if the FDA requests or the BLA sponsor otherwise provides additional information or clarification regarding information already provided in the submission, also known as a Major Amendment, within the last three months before the PDUFA goal date.
Orphan Drug Designation
The FDA may grant orphan drug designation to biological products, including cellular and gene therapy products, intended to treat a rare disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the U.S., or, if it affects more than 200,000 individuals in the U.S., when there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing and marketing the product for this type of disease or condition will be recovered from sales in the U.S. Orphan drug designation must be requested before submission of BLA. After the FDA grants orphan drug designation, the identity of the therapeutic agent and its potential orphan use are disclosed publicly by the FDA. Orphan drug designation does not convey any advantage in or shorten the duration of the regulatory review and approval process.
In the U.S., orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives such as opportunities for grant funding towards clinical trial costs, tax advantages and user-fee waivers. In addition, if a product receives the first FDA approval for the indication for which it has orphan designation, the product is entitled to orphan drug exclusivity, which means the FDA may not approve any other application to market the same drug for the same orphan indication for a period of seven years, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority over the product with orphan exclusivity or where the manufacturer with orphan exclusivity is unable to assure sufficient quantities of the approved orphan designated product. Competitors, however, may receive approval of different products for the
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indication for which the orphan product has exclusivity or obtain approval for the same product but for a different indication for which the orphan product has exclusivity, which may permit off-label use for the orphan indication. Orphan product exclusivity also could block the approval of one of our products for seven years if a competitor obtains approval of the same drug or biological product as defined by the FDA for the same orphan indication or if our product candidate is determined to be contained within the competitor’s product for the same indication or disease. If a drug or biological product designated as an orphan product receives marketing approval for an indication broader than what is designated, it may not be entitled to orphan product exclusivity.
Expedited Development and Review Programs
In the U.S. and the EU, as well as in other countries, there are a number of programs to expedite development, review and approval of products for serious or life-threatening disease or condition that address an unmet medical need in the relevant regulatory jurisdiction. In the U.S., these FDA programs include Fast Track Designation, priority review, accelerated approval and Breakthrough Therapy designation. Similar programs in the EU include accelerated assessment, conditional approval and PRIME, which stands for priority medicines.
The FDA’s Fast Track program intends to expedite or facilitate the process for reviewing new drug and biological products that meet certain criteria. Specifically, new biological products are eligible for Fast Track designation if they are intended to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs for the disease or condition. Fast Track designation applies to the combination of the product and the specific indication for which it is being studied. The sponsor of a new biologic, including gene and cellular therapy products, may request that the FDA designate the product as a Fast Track product at any time during the product’s clinical development, but ideally not later than the pre-BLA meeting. The FDA may consider for review sections of the marketing application for a Fast Track product on a rolling basis before the complete application is submitted, if the sponsor provides a schedule for the submission of the sections of the application, the FDA agrees to accept sections of the application and determines that the schedule is acceptable, and the sponsor pays any required user fees upon submission of the first section of the application.
In the U.S., any product is eligible for priority review if it treats a serious condition and, if approved, would provide a significant improvement in safety or effectiveness of the treatment, prevention, or diagnosis of that condition. The FDA will attempt to direct additional resources to the evaluation of an application for a new drug or biological product designated for priority review in an effort to facilitate the review. Additionally, a product may be eligible for accelerated approval. Biological products studied for their safety and effectiveness in treating serious or life-threatening illnesses and that provide meaningful therapeutic benefit over existing treatments may be eligible for accelerated approval, which means that they may be approved on the basis of adequate and well-controlled clinical trials establishing that the product has an effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict a clinical benefit, or on the basis of an effect on a clinical endpoint other than survival or irreversible morbidity or mortality or other clinical benefit, taking into account the severity, rarity or prevalence of the condition and the availability or lack of alternative treatments. As a condition of approval, the FDA may require that a sponsor of a product subject to accelerated approval perform adequate and well-controlled, post-marketing clinical trials. In addition, the FDA currently requires as a condition for accelerated approval pre-approval of promotional materials, which could adversely impact the timing of the commercial launch of the product.
FDA's Breakthrough Therapy designation program is intended to expedite the development and review of products that treat serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions. A breakthrough therapy is defined as a drug or biological product that is intended, alone or in combination with one or more other drugs, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the drug may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. The designation includes all of the features of Fast Track designation, as well as more intensive FDA interaction and guidance. The Breakthrough Therapy designation is a distinct status from both accelerated approval and priority review, but these can also be granted to the same product candidate if the relevant criteria are met. The FDA must take certain actions, such as holding timely meetings and providing advice, intended to expedite the development and review of an application for approval of a breakthrough therapy. All requests for Breakthrough Therapy designation will be reviewed within 60 days of receipt, and FDA will either grant or deny the request.
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Orphan designation, Fast Track designation, priority review, accelerated approval and Breakthrough Therapy designation do not change the standards for approval but may expedite the development or approval process. Where applicable, we plan to request Fast Track and Breakthrough Therapy designation for our product candidates. Even if we receive one or both of these designations for our product candidates, the FDA may later decide that our product candidates no longer meet the conditions for qualification. In addition, these designations may not provide us with a material commercial advantage.
Regenerative medicine advanced therapies (“RMAT”) designation
As part of the 21st Century Cures Act, the FD&C Act was amended to facilitate an efficient development program for, and expedite review of regenerative advanced therapies, which include cell and gene therapies, therapeutic tissue engineering products, human cell and tissue products, and combination products using any such therapies or products. Gene therapies, including genetically modified cells, that lead to a durable modification of cells or tissues may meet the definition of a regenerative medicine therapy. This program is intended to facilitate efficient development and expedite review of regenerative medicine therapies, which are intended to treat, modify, reverse, or cure a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and qualify for RMAT designation. A drug sponsor may request that FDA designate a drug as a RMAT concurrently with or at any time after submission of an IND. FDA has 60 calendar days to determine whether the drug meets the criteria, including whether there is preliminary clinical evidence indicating that the drug has the potential to address unmet medical needs for a serious or life-threatening disease or condition. A BLA for a regenerative medicine therapy that has received RMAT designation may be eligible for priority review or accelerated approval through use of surrogate or intermediate endpoints reasonably likely to predict long-term clinical benefit, or reliance upon data obtained from a meaningful number of sites. Benefits of RMAT designation also include early interactions with FDA and, for those granted accelerated approval, post-approval requirements may be fulfilled through the submission of clinical evidence from clinical studies, patient registries, or other sources of real-world evidence, such as electronic health records; the collection of larger confirmatory data sets; or post-approval monitoring of all patients treated with such therapy prior to its approval. Like the FDA’s other expedited development programs, RMAT designation does not change the standards for approval but may expedite the development or approval process.
Post-Approval Requirements
Maintaining substantial compliance with applicable federal, state, and local statutes and regulations and, as applicable, their counterparts in other jurisdictions, requires the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources. Rigorous and extensive FDA regulation of biological products, including gene and cellular therapy products, continues after approval, particularly with respect to cGMP requirements. We will rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties for the production of clinical and commercial quantities of certain components of products that we may commercialize. Manufacturers of our products are required to comply with applicable requirements in the cGMP regulations, including quality control, quality assurance and maintenance of records and documentation. Other post-approval requirements applicable to biological products include reporting of cGMP deviations that may affect the identity, potency, purity and overall safety of a distributed product, record-keeping requirements, reporting of adverse effects, reporting updated safety and efficacy information, and complying with electronic record and signature requirements. After a BLA is approved, the product also may be subject to official lot release. As part of the manufacturing process, the manufacturer is required to perform certain tests on each lot of the product before it is released for distribution. If the product is subject to official release by the FDA, the manufacturer submits samples of each lot of product to the FDA together with a release protocol showing a summary of the history of manufacture of the lot and the results of all of the manufacturer’s tests performed on the lot. The FDA also may perform certain confirmatory tests on lots of some products, such as viral vaccines, before releasing the lots for distribution by the manufacturer. In addition, the FDA conducts laboratory research related to the regulatory standards on the safety, purity, potency, and effectiveness of biological products, including gene and cellular therapy products.
We also would have to comply with the FDA’s advertising and promotion requirements, such as those related to direct-to-consumer advertising, the prohibition on promoting products for uses or in patient populations that are not described in the product’s approved labeling (known as “off-label use”), industry-sponsored scientific and educational activities, and promotional activities involving the internet and social media platforms. Discovery of previously unknown problems or the failure to comply with the applicable regulatory requirements may result in restrictions on the labeling or marketing of a product, imposition of a REMS or post-market study requirement or withdrawal of the product from the market as well as possible civil or criminal sanctions. Failure to comply with the applicable U.S. requirements at any time during the product development process, approval process or after approval, may subject an
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applicant or manufacturer to administrative or judicial civil or criminal sanctions and adverse publicity. FDA sanctions could include refusal to approve pending applications, withdrawal of an approval, clinical hold, warning or untitled letters, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions, fines, refusals of government contracts, mandated corrective advertising or communications with doctors, debarment, restitution, disgorgement of profits, or civil or criminal penalties. Any agency or judicial enforcement action could have a material adverse effect on us.