nvcr-20201231
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
______________________________________________________________________
FORM 10-K
______________________________________________________________________
(Mark One)
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020
or
For the transition period from to
Commission File Number 001-37565
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NovoCure Limited
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)
______________________________________________________________________
No. 4 The Forum
Grenville Street
St. Helier, JerseyJE2 4UF
(Address of Principal Executive Offices, including zip code)
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: +44(0) 153475 6700
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered
Ordinary shares, no par value per share NVCR NASDAQ Global Select Market
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
None
(Title of Class)
______________________________________________________________________
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 the 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 outstanding common equity of the registrant held by non-affiliates as of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter was $2,773,948,801.
The number of shares of the registrant’s ordinary shares outstanding as of February 22, 2021 was 102,411,738.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for its 2020 annual meeting of shareholders are incorporated by reference into Items 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 of Part III of this Form 10-K. Such definitive proxy statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward‐Looking Statements ii
Summary of Risk Factors iv
PART I
Item 1. Business 1
Item 1A. Risk Factors 20
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 45
Item 2. Properties 45
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 46
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 46
PART II
Item 6. Selected Financial Data 49
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 62
Item 8. Financial Statements 63
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 101
Item 9B. Other Information 101
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 102
Item 11. Executive Compensation 102
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 102
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 103
i
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
In addition to historical facts or statements of current condition, this report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements contained in this report are based on our current plans, expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies concerning future developments and their impact on us. Forward-looking statements contained in this report constitute our expectations or forecasts of future events as of the date this report was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are not statements of historical fact. You can identify these statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. Such statements may include words such as "anticipate," "will," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "should," "plan," "believe," "hope," and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of, among other things, future operating or financial performance, strategic initiatives and business strategies, regulatory or competitive environments, our intellectual property and research and development related to our Tumor Treating Fields ("TTFields") delivery systems marketed under various brand names, including "Optune," "Optune Lua," and software, tools and other items to support and optimize the delivery of TTFields (collectively, the "Products"). In particular, these forward-looking statements include, among others, statements about:
•our research and development, clinical trial and commercialization activities and projected expenditures;
•the further commercialization of our Products for current and future indications;
•our business strategies and the expansion of our sales and marketing efforts in the United States ("U.S.") and in other countries;
•the market acceptance of our Products for current and future indications by patients, physicians, third-party payers and others in the healthcare and scientific community;
•our plans to pursue the use of our Products for the treatment of indications other than glioblastoma ("GBM") and malignant pleural mesothelioma ("MPM");
•our estimates regarding revenues, expenses, capital requirements and needs for additional financing;
•our ability to obtain regulatory approvals for the use of our Products in indications other than GBM and MPM;
•our ability to acquire from third-party suppliers the supplies needed to manufacture our Products;
•our ability to manufacture adequate supply;
•our ability to secure and maintain adequate coverage from third-party payers to reimburse us for our Products for current and future indications;
•our ability to receive payment from third-party payers for use of our Products for current and future indications;
•our ability to maintain and develop our intellectual property position;
•our ability to manage the risks associated with business disruptions caused by natural disasters, extreme weather events, pandemics such as the COVID-19 (coronavirus) or international conflict or other disruptions outside of our control;
•our cash needs; and
•our prospects, financial condition and results of operations.
These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from
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those projected in these forward-looking statements. Factors which may cause such differences to occur include those risks and uncertainties set forth under Part I, Item IA, Risk Factors, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as other risks and uncertainties set forth from time to time in the reports we file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission the ("SEC"). We do not intend to update publicly any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
iii
Summary of Risk Factors
The following is a summary of some of the risks and uncertainties that could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. You should read this summary together with the more detailed description of each risk factor contained below.
Risks relating to the manufacturing, marketing and sales of our products
•We currently have only two products approved for use for specific indications. Our ability to expand our product line and their uses requires regulatory approval, which is costly and requires significant time and effort to obtain.
•To date, we have generated only limited operating profits, and we have a history of incurring substantial operating losses. As we expand, we may experience difficulties managing our growth.
•To obtain approvals for new products and indications and to continue to market our existing products, we are required to conduct preclinical and clinical trials and other testing. Our clinical trials could be delayed or otherwise adversely affected by many factors, including difficulties in enrolling patients and problems with third-party providers. Continued testing of our products may not yield successful results and could reveal currently unknown safety hazards associated with our products.We may choose to, or may be required to, suspend, repeat or terminate our clinical trials if they are not conducted in accordance with regulatory requirements, the results are negative or inconclusive or the trials are not well designed.
•Our products do not have a significant history in the marketplace, as a result we may have difficulty:
◦developing an adequate sales and marketing organization or contracting with third parties to assist us in doing so;
◦achieving market acceptance of our products by healthcare professionals, patients and/or third-party payers; and
◦securing and maintaining adequate coverage and reimbursement from third-party payers, including governmental agencies in the countries where we market our products.
•We depend on single-source suppliers for some of our components, the loss of which could prevent or delay shipments of our products to customers or delay our clinical trials.
•Quality control problems with respect to materials supplied by third-party suppliers could prevent or delay shipments of our products to customers or delay our clinical trials.
•We face competition from numerous competitors.
•Because of the specialized nature of our business, the termination of relationships with our key employees, consultants and advisors may be detrimental to our business.
•Product liability suits, whether or not meritorious, could be brought against us and result in expensive and time-consuming litigation, payment of substantial damages and/or expenses and an increase in our insurance rates.
•Other future litigation and regulatory actions could have a material adverse impact on the Company.
•We are subject to fluctuations in global economic, political, environmental, and industry conditions, some of which may be unfavorable, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
•Our products and infrastructure face certain risks, including from cyber security breaches and data leakage. We are also subject to privacy and data security laws.
Risks relating to the regulation of our business
•Legislative and regulatory changes in the U.S. and in other countries regarding healthcare and government-sponsored programs may adversely affect us.
•We are subject to extensive post-marketing regulation by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration ("FDA") and comparable authorities in other jurisdictions, which could cause us to incur significant costs to maintain compliance.
•Modifications to our products may require regulatory approvals and our regulators may not agree with our conclusions regarding whether new approvals are required. Regulatory authorities may require us to cease promoting or to recall the modified versions of our products until such approvals are obtained.
•In addition to FDA requirements, we will spend considerable time and money complying with other federal, state, local and foreign rules, regulations and guidance.
•If we, our collaborative partners, our contract manufacturers, or our component suppliers fail to comply with regulations, the manufacturing and distribution of our products could be interrupted.
•Our products could be subject to recalls that could harm our reputation and financial results.
•If our products cause or contribute to a death or a serious injury, or malfunction in certain ways, we will be subject to medical device reporting regulations, which can result in voluntary corrective actions or agency enforcement actions.
•We are not permitted to promote the use of our products for unapproved or off-label uses.
•The United Kingdom’s exit from the EU could adversely impact our business.
•Changes in tax or other laws, regulations or treaties, or adverse determinations by governmental authorities could increase our tax burden or subject our shareholders to additional taxes.
•We are affected by and subject to environmental laws and regulations that could be costly to comply with or that may result in costly liabilities.
•Safety issues concerning lithium-ion batteries could have a material adverse impact on our business.
Risks relating to intellectual property
•If we fail to protect, sustain, further build and enforce our intellectual property rights, competitors may be able to develop competing therapies.
•Intellectual property litigation and disputes may cause us to incur substantial costs, divert attention from the management of our business, harm our reputation, or require us to remove certain products from the market.
•Changes in U.S. patent law could impair our ability to protect our delivery systems.
Risks relating to our ordinary shares and capital structure
•The market price for our ordinary shares may be volatile, which could result in substantial losses.
•Our ordinary shares are issued under the laws of Jersey, which may not provide the level of legal certainty and transparency afforded by incorporation in a U.S. state.
•U.S. shareholders may not be able to enforce civil liabilities against us.
•We have borrowed a significant amount of debt and have the ability to borrow additional debt in the future.
•Transactions relating to our convertible notes may dilute the ownership interest of existing shareholders, or may otherwise depress the price of our ordinary shares.
PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Overview
We are a global oncology company with a proprietary platform technology called Tumor Treating Fields ("TTFields"), which are electric fields tuned to specific frequencies that disrupt cancer cell division. Our key priorities are to drive commercial adoption of Optune and Optune Lua, our commercial TTFields delivery systems, and to advance clinical and product development programs intended to extend overall survival in some of the most aggressive forms of cancer.
Optune is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") under the Premarket Approval ("PMA") pathway for the treatment of adult patients with newly diagnosed gioblastoma ("GBM") in combination with temozolomide, a chemotherapy drug, and for adult patients with GBM following confirmed recurrence after chemotherapy as monotherapy treatment. We also have approval or a CE certificate to market Optune for the treatment of GBM in the European Union ("EU"), Japan and certain other countries. We market Optune in the U.S., Austria, Germany, Israel, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland, which we refer to as our "active markets." With respect to GBM, our sales and marketing efforts are principally focused on driving adoption with both neuro-oncologists and radiation oncologists. We are expanding our commercial operations into France with an initial focus on developing key opinion leader relationships in GBM and establishing a path to reimbursement for our Products.
Optune Lua is approved by the FDA under the Humanitarian Device Exemption ("HDE") pathway to treat malignant pleural mesothelioma ("MPM") in combination with standard chemotherapies. We have received CE certification to market Optune Lua (under the name "NovoTTF-100L") in the EU and Switzerland. We currently market Optune Lua in the U.S., and are evaluating plans to expand access to our therapy for MPM patients in other markets. With respect to MPM, our commercial efforts are principally focused on generating awareness and on establishing a dialogue with third-party payers around access to Optune Lua.
We believe the mechanism of action behind TTFields therapy may be broadly applicable to solid tumor cancers. Currently, we are conducting phase 3 pivotal trials evaluating the use of TTFields in brain metastases from non-small cell lung cancer ("brain metastases"), non-small cell lung cancer ("NSCLC"), ovarian cancer and pancreatic cancer. In 2020, we enrolled our first patient in our global phase 4 TRIDENT trial to test the potential survival benefit of initiating Optune concurrent with radiation therapy versus following radiation therapy in patients with newly diagnosed GBM. We are also conducting phase 2 pilot trials evaluating the use of TTFields in liver cancer and gastric cancer, as well as testing the potential incremental survival benefit of TTFields delivered using high-intensity arrays versus standard arrays. We anticipate expanding our clinical pipeline over time to study the safety and efficacy of TTFields for additional solid tumor indications and combinations with other cancer treatment modalities. In the second quarter of 2021, we plan to launch the KEYNOTE B36 trial ("KEYNOTE B36"), a phase 2 pilot trial to study TTFields with pembrolizumab in first-line NSCLC through our clinical trial collaboration with MSD (a tradename of Merck & Co., Inc.).
Our therapy is delivered through a medical device and we continue to advance our Products with the intention to extend survival and maintain quality of life for patients. We have several product development programs underway that prioritize impact on both TTFields dose and patient ease of use. Our intellectual property portfolio contains over 185 issued patents and numerous patent applications pending worldwide. We believe we own global commercialization rights to our Products in oncology and are well-positioned to extend those rights into the future as we continue to find innovative ways to improve our Products.
In 2018, we granted Zai Lab (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. ("Zai") a license to commercialize Optune in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan ("Greater China") under a License and Collaboration Agreement (the "Zai Agreement"). The Zai Agreement also establishes a development partnership intended to accelerate the development of TTFields in multiple solid tumor cancer indications. For additional information, see Note 12 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.
Our ordinary shares are quoted on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "NVCR." We were incorporated in the Bailiwick of Jersey in 2000. Our principal operations are located in Switzerland, the U.S. and Israel.
Our therapy
When cancer develops, rapid and uncontrolled division of unhealthy cells occurs. Electrically charged proteins within the cell are critical for cell division, making the rapidly dividing cancer cells vulnerable to electrical
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interference. TTFields therapy is a cancer treatment that uses electric fields tuned to specific frequencies to disrupt cancer cell division.
All cells are surrounded by a bilipid membrane, which separates the interior of the cell, or cytoplasm, from the space around it. This membrane prevents low frequency electric fields from entering the cell. TTFields, however, have a unique frequency range, between 100 to 500 kHz, enabling the electric fields to penetrate the cancer cell membrane. As healthy cells differ from cancer cells in their division rate, geometry and electric properties, the frequency of TTFields can be tuned to specifically affect the cancer cells while leaving healthy cells mostly unaffected.
Whether cells are healthy or cancerous, cell division, or mitosis, is the same. When mitosis starts, charged proteins within the cell, or microtubules, form the mitotic spindle. The spindle is built on electric interaction between its building blocks. During division, the mitotic spindle segregates the chromosomes, pulling them in opposite directions. As the daughter cells begin to form, electrically polarized molecules migrate towards the midline to make up the mitotic cleavage furrow. The furrow contracts and the two daughter cells separate. TTFields can interfere with these conditions. When TTFields are present in a dividing cancer cell, they cause the electrically charged proteins to align with the directional forces applied by the field, thus preventing the mitotic spindle from forming. Electrical forces also interrupt the migration of key proteins to the cell midline, disrupting the formation of the mitotic cleavage furrow. Interfering with these key processes disrupts mitosis and can lead to cell death.
Our track record of fundamental scientific research extends across two decades and, in all of our preclinical research to date, TTFields has demonstrated a consistent anti-mitotic effect. Research is ongoing to further refine our understanding of the multi-pronged mechanism of action of TTFields. In addition to its anti-mitotic effect, TTFields has been shown to inhibit DNA damage repair, to induce autophagy, to reduce cell migration and invasion, to increase cell membrane permeability and disrupt the blood-brain barrier, and to induce immunogenic cell death. Beyond our internal research efforts, we provide independent researchers with preclinical laboratory bench systems, known as inovitroTM and inovivoTM, and we grant funding to support basic and translational research on TTFields. We also support independent research through our Investigator-Sponsored Trials and Preclinical Material Transfer Agreement programs in order to enhance our understanding of the optimal use of TTFields.
TTFields is intended principally for use in combination with other standard-of-care cancer treatments. There is a growing body of evidence that supports TTFields' broad applicability with certain other cancer therapies, including radiation therapy, certain chemotherapies and certain immunotherapies. In our clinical research and commercial experience to date, TTFields has exhibited no systemic toxicity, with mild to moderate skin irritation being the most common side effect.
Our technology
TTFields therapy is delivered through a portable medical device. The complete delivery system, called Optune or Optune Lua, includes a portable electric field generator, arrays, rechargeable batteries and accessories. Sterile, single-use arrays are placed directly on the skin in the region surrounding the tumor and connected to the electric field generator to deliver therapy. Arrays are changed when hair growth or the hydrogel reduces array adhesion to the skin. The therapy is designed to be delivered continuously throughout the day and night, and efficacy is strongly correlated to time on therapy. When the device is turned on, TTFields are continuously generated within the specific region of the body covered by the arrays. Healthy tissues located outside of this region remain unaffected by the therapy. The electric field generator can be run from a standard power outlet or carried with a battery in a specially designed bag that we provide to patients.
We plan to use the same field generator technology across all indications for which our Products are approved. We plan to specifically target individual solid tumor types by optimizing field generator parameters such as frequency and power output. Our arrays have been developed and are in use, either commercially or clinically, for application on the head, chest and abdomen.
Through engineering efforts, we plan to continue to advance our Products to optimize TTFields therapy for patients. We have several product development programs underway intended to extend survival and maintain quality of life. Our development programs will prioritize impact on both TTFields dose and patient ease of use and are primarily focused on enhancements to the field generator, arrays and software applications. We are developing a third generation device to optimize the use of electric fields to treat tumors, next generation arrays to be more flexible and deliver higher intensities, next generation array layout planning software, and patient-centered software to support larger patient populations in multiple indications. Over time, we may have the opportunity to optimize the energy delivered to individual patients, potentially improving efficacy. Any enhancements will be subject to applicable regulatory reviews and approvals.
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Our commercial business
Optune is currently marketed in our active markets for the treatment of GBM, the most common form of primary brain cancer and an aggressive disease for which there are few effective treatment options. Optune Lua is currently marketed in the U.S. for the treatment of MPM, a rare cancer that has been strongly linked to asbestos exposure. Our first commercial priority in each active market is to generate awareness of our Products and our clinical trial data.
Treatment of newly diagnosed GBM
In 2015, we received FDA approval to market Optune for the treatment of adult patients with newly diagnosed supratentorial GBM in combination with temozolomide. The FDA approved Optune for newly diagnosed GBM based on the EF-14 trial ("EF-14"), which was a randomized, phase 3 pivotal clinical trial which compared, post radiation, Optune plus temozolomide versus temozolomide alone for the treatment of newly diagnosed GBM. The primary endpoint of the trial was progression-free survival and a powered secondary endpoint was overall survival.
In EF-14, Optune plus temozolomide demonstrated unprecedented five-year survival results. Median overall survival was extended by nearly five months (median overall survival of 20.9 months versus 16.0 months for temozolomide alone). Median progression-free survival was extended by 2.7 months to 6.7 months for Optune plus temozolomide from 4.0 months for temozolomide alone. The final EF-14 data were published in JAMA in 2017.
The following graph presents the overall survival data in the intent-to-treat population from our five-year analysis:
The extension of progression-free and overall survival in patients receiving Optune in combination with temozolomide in EF-14 was not specific to any prognostic subgroup or tumor genetic marker and was consistent regardless of MGMT methylation status, extent of resection, age, performance status or gender. Optune was safely combined with temozolomide with no significant increase in serious adverse events compared with temozolomide alone. The most common side effect related to Optune was mild to moderate skin irritation.
Quality of life data from a pre-specified analysis of EF-14 demonstrated that patients treated with Optune and temozolomide maintained quality of life over time and across predefined daily-functioning domains. Both healthcare professionals and patients reported stable quality of life evaluation scores up to one year of Optune use. Physical, role, social, emotional and cognitive functioning for patients treated with Optune and temozolomide all remained stable and comparable with patients treated with temozolomide alone.
In 2018, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology® (NCCN Guidelines®) for Central Nervous Systems Cancers were updated to include alternating electric fields therapy (Optune) in combination with temozolomide following standard brain radiation therapy with concurrent temozolomide as a Category 1 recommended postoperative adjuvant treatment option for patients with newly diagnosed supratentorial GBM.
A post-hoc analysis of EF-14 showed that more time on Optune predicted increased survival in GBM patients. An Optune monthly usage threshold as low as 50 percent correlated with significantly improved outcomes in patients
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treated with Optune together with temozolomide compared to patients treated with temozolomide alone. The greater the patients’ monthly usage of Optune, the better their outcomes. Patients who used Optune more than 90 percent of the time (n=43) had the greatest chance of survival: a median survival of 24.9 months from randomization and a five-year probability of survival of 29.3 percent.
In 2019, a separate post-hoc analysis of EF-14 showed that higher intensities at the tumor bed were associated with increased survival in GBM patients. Patients treated with Optune at higher intensities (greater than or equal to 1.06 V/cm; n=119) had a median overall survival of 24.3 months compared to a median overall survival of 21.6 months for patients treated with Optune at lower intensities (less than 1.06 V/cm; n=221).
In these analyses, both time on therapy and higher levels of energy (power loss density) were associated with improved overall survival, independent of each other. In addition, patients who used Optune at least 18 hours per day at higher energy levels (n=78) had a median overall survival of 25.1 months (95% CI 20.8-39.4).
Treatment of recurrent GBM
We initially received FDA approval for Optune in 2011 for use as a monotherapy treatment for adult patients with GBM, following confirmed recurrence after chemotherapy. The FDA approved Optune based on the EF-11 trial ("EF-11"), a randomized, phase 3 pivotal clinical trial.
EF-11 was a multi-center, active controlled clinical trial of 237 adults with recurrent GBM. Participants received either Optune as a monotherapy (n=120) or the physician’s choice of chemotherapy (n=117). Chemotherapies chosen for the active control arm included mainly bevacizumab, nitrosoureas and temozolomide. The primary endpoint was superiority in overall survival. Overall survival for patients treated with Optune alone and active chemotherapy was 6.6 months and 6.0 months, respectively (p=0.27: HR = 0.86). The trial demonstrated that Optune provided clinically comparable survival with an overall better quality of life.
More objective radiological responses were observed in the Optune group than in the active control chemotherapy group (14 patients versus 7 patients). Three patients in the Optune alone arm had a complete response versus no patients in the active chemotherapy arm.
In 2020, the FDA-mandated EF-19 post-approval registry trial confirmed the effectiveness and safety of Optune as monotherapy and further strengthened Optune's clinical profile in recurrent GBM. The EF-19 trial studied Optune as a monotherapy for the treatment of recurrent GBM in 192 patients compared to the 117 recurrent GBM patients who received best standard of care chemotherapy in Novocure’s EF-11 registration trial. Optune as monotherapy reduced the risk of death with fewer adverse events compared to best standard of care chemotherapy. For patients who received at least one course of therapy, Optune prolonged survival by a median 1.7 months. No new safety signals were noted.
Treatment of MPM
In 2019, we received FDA approval via the HDE pathway to market Optune Lua (then known as NovoTTF-100L) for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic MPM concurrent with pemetrexed and platinum-based chemotherapy. The FDA approved Optune Lua for MPM based on the STELLAR trial ("STELLAR"). STELLAR was a single-arm, open-label, multi-center trial designed to test the safety and efficacy of Optune in combination with pemetrexed combined with cisplatin or carboplatin in patients with unresectable, previously untreated MPM. The trial was powered to prospectively determine the overall survival in patients treated with Optune Lua plus chemotherapy. Secondary endpoints included overall response rate (per mRECIST criteria), progression-free survival and safety.
STELLAR investigated safety and efficacy among 80 patients treated with Optune Lua plus standard of care chemotherapy. In STELLAR, the median overall survival was 18.2 months (95% CI, 12.1-25.8 months) across all patients treated with Optune Lua plus chemotherapy. The median overall survival was 21.2 months for patients with epithelioid MPM (n=53) and 12.1 months for patients with non-epithelioid MPM (n=27). 62% of patients enrolled in STELLAR who used Optune Lua plus chemotherapy were still alive at one year, with 42% of patients alive at two years. The disease control rate in patients with at least one follow-up CT scan performed (n=72) was 97%. 40% of patients had a partial response, 57% had stable disease, and 3% had progressive disease. The median progression-free survival was 7.6 months (95% CI, 6.7-8.6 months).
There was no increase in serious systemic adverse events when Optune Lua was added to chemotherapy. Mild-to-moderate skin irritation was the only device-related side effect with Optune Lua. The STELLAR data were published in The Lancet Oncology in 2019.
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Our commercial markets
We have built a commercial organization and market Optune for the treatment of GBM in the U.S., Austria, Germany, Israel, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland, which we refer to as our active markets. We have also built a commercial organization to market Optune Lua for the treatment of MPM in the U.S.
In 2021, we estimate that approximately:
•15,000 people will be diagnosed with GBM or tumors that typically progress to GBM in the U.S. Of this population, we estimate that approximately 11,200 patients are candidates for treatment with Optune based upon the rate of disease progression and medical eligibility. We estimate that approximately 8,200 of eligible patients will actively seek treatment.
•4,600 people will be diagnosed with GBM or tumors that typically progress to GBM in Germany. Of this population, we estimate that approximately 3,400 patients are candidates for treatment with Optune based upon the rate of disease progression and medical eligibility. We estimate that approximately 2,500 of eligible patients will actively seek treatment.
•2,200 people will be diagnosed with GBM or tumors that typically progress to GBM in Japan. Of this population, we estimate that approximately 1,600 patients are candidates for treatment with Optune based upon the rate of disease progression and medical eligibility. We estimate that approximately 1,200 of eligible patients will actively seek treatment.
•1,600 people will be diagnosed with GBM or tumors that typically progress to GBM in our other active markets: Austria, Israel, Sweden and Switzerland. Of this population, we estimate that approximately 1,200 patients are candidates for treatment with Optune based upon the rate of disease progression and medical eligibility. We estimate that approximately 900 of eligible patients will actively seek treatment.
In 2021, we estimate that approximately 3,000 people are diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma in the U.S. each year. Of this population, we estimate that approximately 1,600 patients are candidates for treatment with Optune Lua based upon the rate of disease progression and medical eligibility.
We believe there are many more patients who could benefit from treatment with TTFields than are currently on therapy. We continue to focus on increasing penetration for GBM in our active markets and on successfully expanding our MPM business in the U.S. In the future, we anticipate strategically expanding into additional geographic markets and additional indications, pending regulatory approval.
Commercial execution
As of December 31, 2020, we had 84 sales force colleagues globally. Healthcare providers must undergo a certification training in order to prescribe our Products.
As of December 31, 2020, we trained more than 3,700 GBM prescribers in our active markets. With respect to the treatment of GBM, our sales and marketing efforts are principally focused on driving adoption with both neuro-oncologists and radiation oncologists. In certain countries, neurosurgeons and medical oncologists also drive adoption. We continue to focus on driving key academic center engagement in our active markets.
As of December 31, 2020, we trained more than 130 MPM prescribers in the U.S. With respect to the treatment of MPM, our sales and marketing efforts are principally focused on certification training, supporting the required Institutional Review Board approval process, and driving awareness among radiation oncologists and thoracic oncologists. We believe the benefit of our education efforts will extend beyond MPM to future indications treated by the same prescribers and that radiation oncologists will continue to play an increasingly important role in driving adoption of our Products in both current and future indications.
We currently operate as a direct-to-patient distributor of our Products in all active markets except for Japan. In Japan, we distribute Optune through hospitals and provide patient support services under a contractual arrangement with the hospital. Once an eligible patient is identified by a certified prescriber, the healthcare provider’s office submits a prescription order form and supporting documentation to us. We employ a team of Device Support Specialists who provide technical training to the patient and any caregivers. Once treatment is initiated, we provide 24/7 technical support for patients and caregivers as well as assistance with insurance reimbursement. We also provide the healthcare provider and the patient with a usage report for monitoring patient
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time on therapy. We believe we have the experience, expertise and infrastructure to scale our sales and marketing efforts in our active markets. In addition to our commercial organization, we believe we have established a scalable supply chain.
Billing and reimbursement
We provide our Products directly to patients following receipt of a prescription order and a signed patient service agreement (except in Japan as described above). The number of active patients on therapy and the amount of net revenue recognized per active patient are our principal revenue drivers. An active patient is a patient who is receiving treatment under a commercial prescription order as of the measurement date, including patients who may be on a temporary break from treatment and who plan to resume treatment in less than 60 days. Growth in the number of active patients is a factor of both new patient starts and treatment duration. Median treatment duration differs based upon the patient's clinical diagnosis.
We bill payers a single monthly fee for a month of therapy and we bear the financial risk of securing payment from third-party payers and patients in all markets except for Japan. We distribute our Products through hospitals in Japan with the hospitals receiving reimbursement from the government-mandated insurance program and in turn contracting with us for the equipment, supplies and services necessary to treat patients with our Product.
Currently, the monthly list price for our therapy in the U.S. is $21,000 and we have set list prices in our other active markets that are approximately equivalent to this price, subject to currency fluctuations. We typically negotiate discounts from our list price with healthcare payers, and in certain cases we accept government-mandated discounts from our list prices in order to secure reimbursement for our Products.
We continue to work with payers to expand access to Optune for patients with GBM. As of December 31, 2020, we have received national reimbursement for Optune in Austria, Germany, Israel, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland, where coverage becomes effective on April 1, 2021.
In the U.S., a substantial majority of Americans with private health insurance had coverage of Optune for newly diagnosed GBM and/or recurrent GBM as of December 31, 2020. As of September 2019, Americans who are beneficiaries of the Medicare fee-for-service program also have coverage of Optune for newly diagnosed GBM. Our team is focused on working through the typical administrative ramp-up with Medicare to ensure that we realize the full financial benefit as soon as possible. We are actively appealing Medicare fee-for-service coverage denials up to and including the Administrative Law Judge ("ALJ") process with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS").
We are engaged in an initial dialogue with certain payers regarding access to Optune Lua for patients with MPM. We anticipate that MPM claims during initial commercialization will go through an appeal process with payers, similar to our early experience with GBM. We anticipate that our ability to gain meaningful coverage for Optune Lua will be dependent on inclusion in the relevant clinical guidelines for MPM.
Our development pipeline
Based on the results of our preclinical research, we have developed a pipeline strategy to advance TTFields through phase 2 pilot, phase 3 pivotal trials and phase 4 post-marketing studies across multiple solid tumor types. We anticipate expanding our clinical pipeline over time to include additional solid tumor cancer indications.
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Current Development Pipeline
The solid tumor cancers subject to our phase 2 pilot, phase 3 pivotal, and phase 4 post-marketing trials, as well as the trials themselves, are described in greater detail below.
Glioblastoma
We continue to conduct research in our approved indications to further advance the scientific evidence supporting the use of TTFields in GBM and to gather additional information about our therapy's optimal use.
EF-33 phase 2 pilot trial
In 2020, we enrolled the first patient in our EF-33 trial, an open-label, single-arm phase 2 pilot clinical trial to study if Optune delivered at 200 kHz to the brain using high-intensity arrays in the treatment of recurrent GBM significantly improves the clinical outcomes of patients compared to using standard transducer arrays. The primary endpoint is progression-free survival. Secondary endpoints include overall survival, progression-free survival rate at six months, overall survival rate at one year and two years, overall radiological response, and severity and frequency of adverse events. All comparisons will be made against historical control data from the EF-11 study. EF-33 is expected to enroll 25 patients and we anticipate data will be available in 2022.
TRIDENT phase 4 post-marketing trial
In 2020, we enrolled the first patient in our TRIDENT trial ("TRIDENT"), a phase 4 post-marketing trial testing the potential survival benefit of initiating Optune concurrent with radiation therapy in patients with newly diagnosed GBM. The primary endpoint is overall survival. Secondary endpoints include progression-free survival, survival rates at one and two years, overall radiological response, severity and frequency of adverse effects, pathological changes in resected GBM tumors post treatment, quality of life, and correlation of overall survival to TTFields dose. TRIDENT is designed to accrue 950 patients with 24 months minimum follow-up after the last patient enrolled.
Brain metastases
Metastatic cancer is cancer that has spread from the place where it first started to another place in the body. In metastasis, cancer cells break away from where they first formed (the primary cancer), travel through the blood or lymph system, and form new tumors (the metastatic tumors) in other parts of the body. The exact incidence of brain metastases is unknown because no national cancer registry documents brain metastases, and estimates from scientific literature vary greatly based on the study methodology applied. It is estimated that between 100,000 and
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240,000 new cases are diagnosed in the U.S. each year with brain metastases estimated to occur in between 10% to 40% of all cancer patients.
Brain metastases are commonly treated with a combination of surgery and radiation. Chemotherapy is often given for the primary tumor, but many chemotherapy agents do not cross the blood brain barrier and are thus ineffective in the treatment of brain metastases. When brain metastases appear, they are either surgically removed or treated with radiation using stereotactic radiosurgery ("SRS") when possible. Whole brain radiation therapy, although effective in delaying progression or recurrence of brain metastases when given either before or after SRS, is associated with neurotoxicity with a significant decline in cognitive functioning. Thus, whole brain radiation therapy is often delayed until later in the disease course and is often used as a last resort. This practice results in a window of unmet need after localized surgery and SRS are used and before whole brain radiation therapy is administered to delay or prevent the additional spread of brain metastases.
METIS phase 3 pivotal trial
In 2016, we enrolled the first patient in our METIS trial ("METIS"), a phase 3 pivotal trial testing the effectiveness of SRS plus TTFields compared to SRS alone in patients with brain metastases resulting from NSCLC. It is estimated that between 20 to 40% of patients with NSCLC develop brain metastases, with an estimated 38,000 to 77,000 patients diagnosed each year in the U.S. with brain metastases resulting from NSCLC. The primary endpoint of METIS is time to first intracranial progression. Secondary endpoints include, among others, time to neurocognitive failure, overall survival and radiological response rate following study treatments. The study is designed to accrue 270 patients with data analyzed 12 months after the last patient in. We anticipate data will be available in 2022.
Non-small cell lung cancer
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide, and NSCLC accounts for approximately 85% of all lung cancers. It is estimated that approximately 193,000 patients are diagnosed with NSCLC each year in the U.S.
Physicians use different combinations of surgery, radiation and pharmacological therapies to treat NSCLC, depending on the stage of the disease. Surgery, which may be curative in a subset of patients, is usually used in early stages of the disease. Since 1991, radiation with a combination of platinum-based chemotherapy drugs has been the first line standard of care for locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC. Certain immune checkpoint inhibitors have recently been approved for the first line treatment of NSCLC and the standard of care in this setting appears to be evolving rapidly. The standard of care for second line treatment is also evolving and may include platinum-based chemotherapy for patients who received immune checkpoint inhibitors as their first line regimen, pemetrexed, docetaxel or immune checkpoint inhibitors.
EF-15 phase 2 pilot trial
In 2013, we published the results of our phase 2 pilot trial, the EF-15 trial ("EF-15"), evaluating the safety and efficacy of TTFields in the treatment of advanced NSCLC. EF-15 focused on the effects of treatment with TTFields in combination with standard of care pemetrexed chemotherapy. Results of the pemetrexed Phase 3 FDA registration trial were used as a historical control in this trial.
A total of 42 patients were recruited to the study with a minimum follow-up of six months. Efficacy results based on 41 evaluable patients showed both progression-free survival and overall survival for patients receiving TTFields in combination with pemetrexed increased compared to historical control data for pemetrexed alone. Median time to in-field progression in the TTFields-treated group was 6.5 months (compared to 2.9 months in the historical control) and median overall survival was 13.8 months (compared to 8.3 months in the historical control). Adverse events reported in this combination study were comparable to those reported with pemetrexed alone, suggesting minimal added toxicities due to TTFields.
KEYNOTE B36 phase 2 pilot trial
In July 2020, we entered into a clinical trial collaboration with MSD, a trade name of Merck & Co., Inc. through a subsidiary, to develop TTFields together with MSD’s anti-PD-1 therapy pembrolizumab for treatment of first-line NSCLC, expanding our research in the lung cancer space. We plan to conduct a phase 2 pilot study. KEYNOTE B36, evaluating TTFields concomitant with pembrolizumab for first-line treatment of intrathoracic advanced or
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metastatic, PD-L1 positive NSCLC. KEYNOTE B36 is expected to enroll its first patient in the second quarter of 2021.
LUNAR phase 3 pivotal trial
In 2017, we enrolled the first patient in our LUNAR trial ("LUNAR"), a phase 3 pivotal trial testing the effectiveness of TTFields in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors or docetaxel versus immune checkpoint inhibitors or docetaxel alone for patients with stage 4 NSCLC who progressed during or after platinum-based therapy. It is estimated that approximately 46,000 patients receive second-line treatment for stage 4 NSCLC each year in the U.S. The primary endpoint is superior overall survival of patients treated with TTFields plus immune checkpoint inhibitors or docetaxel versus immune checkpoint inhibitors or docetaxel alone. We believe our protocol incorporates the evolving standard of care for second-line treatment of NSCLC. TTFields is intended principally for use in combination with other standard-of-care treatments, and LUNAR was designed to generate data that contemplates multiple outcomes, all of which we believe will be clinically meaningful.
LUNAR is designed to enroll 534 patients with data analyzed 18 months after the last patient in. We anticipate final data will be available in 2023. The protocol specifies an enrollment-driven interim analysis at 432 patients, which we anticipate will occur in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Liver cancer
Liver cancer is a leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide and is the sixth leading cause of cancer deaths annually in the U.S. The incidence of liver cancer is approximately 42,000 new cases annually in the U.S. The five-year survival rate with existing standards of care is less than 20%.
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most widespread type of cancer that originates from the liver. Advanced liver cancer has spread either to the lymph nodes or to other organs and, because these cancers are widespread, they cannot be treated with surgery. The current common standard treatment for patients with advanced disease and those who progressed on loco-regional therapy is systemic therapy with sorafenib, lenvatinib, or atezolizumab plus bevacizumab.
HEPANOVA phase 2 pilot trial
In 2018, we opened our HEPANOVA trial, a single-arm, phase 2 pilot clinical trial in liver cancer testing the safety and efficacy of TTFields in combination with sorafenib for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular cancer that are not eligible for standard local therapies or surgery. The primary endpoint is overall response rate, and secondary endpoints include progression-free and overall survival at one year. We have completed enrollment of 25 patients at multiple centers across Europe and anticipate data will be available in the second quarter of 2021.
Gastric cancer
Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide and the third leading cause of cancer deaths in China. The incidence of gastric cancer is approximately 478,500 new cases annually in China, and approximately 26,000 new cases annually in the U.S. The five-year overall survival rate of gastric cancer is approximately 36%.
Current therapies include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and targeted therapy. A commonly used chemotherapy regimen in treating gastric cancer is XELOX, a combination of oxaliplatin and capecitabine. In patients diagnosed with advanced gastric cancer that is no longer operable, combination chemotherapy extends progression-free survival and overall survival to 3-6 months and 8-14 months, respectively.
EF-31 phase 2 pilot trial
In 2020, we opened our EF-31 trial, a single-arm, phase 2 pilot clinical trial in gastric cancer in partnership with Zai testing the safety and efficacy of TTFields and XELOX chemotherapy as first-line treatment for patients with unresectable gastric adenocarcinoma or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. The primary endpoint is investigator-assessed objective response rate, and secondary endpoints include progression-free and overall survival. The trial is expected to enroll a total of 28 patients in multiple centers across Greater China, and we anticipate data will be available in 2022.
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Ovarian cancer
In the U.S., ovarian cancer ranks fifth in cancer deaths among women, with approximately 24,000 women diagnosed each year. Ovarian cancer incidence increases with age, and the median age at time of diagnosis is 63 years old.
Physicians use different combinations of surgery and pharmacological therapies to treat ovarian cancer, depending on the stage of the disease. Surgery is usually used in early stages of the disease and is usually combined with chemotherapy, including paclitaxel and platinum-based chemotherapy. Unfortunately, the majority of patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage when the cancer has spread outside of the ovaries to include regional tissue involvement and/or metastases. Platinum-based chemotherapy remains part of the standard of care in advanced ovarian cancer, but most patients with advanced ovarian cancer will have tumor progression or, more commonly, recurrence. Almost all patients with recurrent disease ultimately develop platinum resistance, and the prognosis for this population remains poor.
INNOVATE phase 2 pilot trial
In 2018, we published the results of our phase 2 pilot trial in recurrent ovarian cancer, the INNOVATE trial ("INNOVATE"), examining TTFields in combination with standard of care chemotherapy. INNOVATE was a multi-center, non-randomized, open-label trial designed to test the feasibility, safety and preliminary efficacy of TTFields in combination with weekly paclitaxel. The paclitaxel control arm from the bevacizumab phase 3 FDA registration trial was used as a historical control in this trial.
A total of 31 patients were recruited to the study with a minimum follow-up of six months. Safety results suggested that TTFields in combination with weekly paclitaxel may be tolerable and safe as second-line treatment for patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. Median progression-free survival in the TTFields-treated group was 8.9 months (compared to 3.9 months in the paclitaxel-alone historical control), and median overall survival was not yet reached. The one-year survival rate was 61%. Efficacy results based on the 31 evaluable patients suggested more than doubling of the progression-free survival and an improvement in overall survival among patients who received TTFields therapy with paclitaxel compared to paclitaxel alone.
INNOVATE-3 phase 3 pivotal trial
In 2019, we enrolled the first patient in our INNOVATE-3 trial ("INNOVATE-3"), a phase 3 pivotal trial testing the effectiveness of TTFields with paclitaxel in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. It is estimated that approximately 16,000 patients are diagnosed with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer each year in the U.S. The primary endpoint of INNOVATE-3 is overall survival. Secondary endpoints include progression-free survival, objective response rate, severity and frequency of adverse events, time to undisputable deterioration in health-related quality of life or death, and quality of life. The study is designed to accrue 540 patients with data analyzed 18 months after the last patient in. We anticipate final data in 2023. The protocol specifies an enrollment-driven interim analysis at last patient in, which we anticipate will occur in the third quarter of 2021.
The European Network for Gynaecological Oncological Trial groups ("ENGOT") and The GOG Foundation, Inc. ("GOG"), third-party clinical trial networks, are collaborating with us on the trial. ENGOT and GOG were involved in the development of the trial, and the collaborations are intended to facilitate enrollment of INNOVATE-3 at leading cancer centers in Europe and the United States.
Pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal cancers and is the third most frequent cause of death from cancer in the U.S. While overall cancer incidence and death rates are remaining stable or declining, the incidence and death rates for pancreatic cancer are increasing. It is estimated that approximately 53,000 patients are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year in the U.S. Pancreatic cancer has a five-year relative survival rate in the single digits, at just 10 percent.
Physicians use different combinations of surgery, radiation and pharmacological therapies to treat pancreatic cancer, depending on the stage of the disease. For patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer involving encasement of arteries but no extra-pancreatic disease, the standard of care is surgery followed by chemotherapy with or without radiation. Unfortunately, the majority of locally advanced cases are diagnosed once the cancer is no longer operable, generally leaving chemotherapy with or without radiation as the only treatment option.
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PANOVA phase 2 pilot trial
In 2018, we published the results of our phase 2 pilot trial in advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma, the PANOVA trial ("PANOVA"), examining TTFields in combination with standard of care chemotherapy.
PANOVA was a multicenter, non-randomized, open-label trial. The trial included 40 patients with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer whose tumors could not be removed surgically and who had not received chemotherapy or radiation therapy prior to the clinical trial. Patients were enrolled between 2014 and 2016 in two cohorts: The first cohort of 20 patients received TTFields with standard doses of gemcitabine alone. The second cohort of 20 patients received TTFields with standard doses of nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine.
In the first cohort, efficacy results showed that progression-free survival and overall survival of patients treated with TTFields combined with gemcitabine were more than double those of gemcitabine-treated historical controls. Median progression-free survival in the TTFields-treated group was 8.3 months (compared to 3.7 months in the gemcitabine historical control), with locally advanced patients reaching a median progression-free survival of 10.3 months and patients with metastatic disease reaching a median progression-free survival of 5.7 months. The median overall survival for all patients was 14.9 months (compared to 6.7 months in the gemcitabine historical control). Median overall survival was not reached in locally advanced patients and 86% of patients were alive at end of follow up. Patients with metastatic disease experienced a median overall survival of 8.3 months. One-year survival was 55% (compared to 22% in the gemcitabine historical control). Of 11 patients with available CT scans, 5 (45%) had a partial response (compared to 7% with gemcitabine alone), 5 (45%) had stable disease, which means that the cancer is neither decreasing nor increasing in extent or severity, and 1 (10%) had progressive disease.
In the second cohort, efficacy results showed that progression-free survival and overall survival of patients treated with TTFields combined with nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine were more than double those of nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine-treated historical controls. Median progression-free survival in the TTFields-treated group was 12.7 months (compared to 5.5 months in the nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine historical control) and median overall survival was not yet reached. The one-year survival rate was 72% (compared to 35% in nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine historical control). Of the 15 patients with available CT scans, 6 (40%) had a partial response (compared to 23% with the nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine alone), 7 (47%) had stable disease and 2 (13%) had progressive disease.
Safety results from both cohorts suggested that TTFields plus first-line chemotherapies nab-paclitaxel and/or gemcitabine may be tolerable and safe in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Patients reported no serious adverse events related to TTFields.
PANOVA-3 phase 3 pivotal trial
In 2018, we enrolled the first patient in our PANOVA-3 trial ("PANOVA-3"), a phase 3 pivotal trial testing the effectiveness of TTFields with nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine versus nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine alone as a front-line treatment for unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer. It is estimated that approximately 43,000 patients are diagnosed with unresectable pancreatic cancer each year in the U.S. The primary endpoint of PANOVA-3 is overall survival. Secondary endpoints include progression-free survival, local progression-free survival, objective response rate, one-year survival rate, quality of life, pain-free survival, resectability rate and toxicity.
The study is designed to accrue 556 patients with data analyzed 18 months after the last patient in. We anticipate final data will be available in 2023. The protocol specifies an enrollment-driven interim analysis at last patient in, which we now anticipate will occur in 2022.
Zai License and Collaboration Agreement
In 2018, we announced a strategic collaboration with Zai. The collaboration agreement grants Zai a license to commercialize our Products in Greater China and establishes a development partnership intended to accelerate the development of TTFields in multiple solid tumor cancer indications. Zai has launched Optune for the treatment of newly diagnosed GBM in Hong Kong and for the treatment of newly diagnosed and recurrent GBM in mainland China. Zai has also launched Optune Lua for the treatment of MPM in Hong Kong and intends to file a Marketing Authorization Application in mainland China in 2021. For additional information, see Note 12 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.
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Manufacturing and supply chain
We outsource production of all of our system components to qualified partners. Disposable array manufacturing, the dominant activity in our manufacturing supply chain, includes several specialized processes. Production of the durable system components follows standard electronic medical device methodologies.
We have supply agreements in place with our third-party manufacturing partners. While we currently obtain some critical materials for use in certain jurisdictions from single source suppliers, we have developed or are in the process of developing and obtaining regulatory approval for second sources for critical materials in all jurisdictions. We hold safety stocks of single source components in quantities that we believe are sufficient to protect against possible supply chain disruptions. We anticipate that the diversification of our supply chain will both ensure a continuity of supply and reduce costs.
Intellectual property
We believe we own global commercialization rights to our Products in oncology and are well-positioned to extend those rights into the future as we continue to find innovative ways to improve our Products. Our robust global patent and intellectual property portfolio consists of over 185 issued patents covering various aspects of TTFields and our Products. In the U.S., our patents have expected expiration dates between 2021 and 2037. We have also filed over 125 additional patent applications worldwide, including 45 new U.S. patent applications in 2020, that, if issued, may protect aspects of our platform beyond the current last-to-expire patent in the relevant market. These pending applications cover innovations relating to our arrays, field generators and software platform, in addition to other topics related to TTFields. Our reliance on intellectual property involves certain risks, as described under the heading "Risk factors—Risks relating to intellectual property."
In addition to our patent portfolio, we further protect our intellectual property by maintaining the confidentiality of our trade secrets, know-how and other confidential information. Given the length of time and expense associated with bringing delivery systems candidates through development and regulatory approval to the market place, the healthcare industry has traditionally placed considerable importance on obtaining patent protection and maintaining trade secrets, know-how and other confidential information for significant new technologies, products and processes.
Our policy is to require each of our employees, consultants and advisors to execute a confidentiality agreement before beginning their employment, consulting or advisory relationship with us. These agreements generally provide that the individual must keep confidential and not disclose to other parties any confidential information developed or learned by the individual during the course of their relationship with us except in limited circumstances. These agreements also generally provide that we own, or the individual is required to assign to us, all inventions conceived by the individual in the course of rendering services to us. Despite measures taken to protect our intellectual property, unauthorized parties may copy certain aspects of our products or obtain and use information that we believe is proprietary.
Pursuant to our strategic collaboration with Zai, we granted Zai a license to commercialize TTFields in Greater China. For additional information, see Note 12 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.
In 2015, we entered into a settlement agreement with the Technion Research and Development Foundation to resolve certain potential disputes regarding intellectual property developed by our founder and previously assigned to us.
In 2005, we granted an exclusive license to a third party, NovoBiotic LLC, to certain of our key intellectual property for use outside the field of oncology. In December 2020, we entered into an agreement with Novobiotic LLC that terminated all pre-existing agreements between the parties, including any restrictions on our use of intellectual property outside the field of oncology.
Competition
The market for cancer treatments is intensely competitive, subject to rapid change and significantly affected by new product and treatment introductions and other activities of industry participants. The general bases of competition are overall effectiveness, side effect profile, cost, availability of reimbursement and general market acceptance of a product as a suitable cancer treatment.
Our intellectual property portfolio is continuously expanding as we find new and unique ways to improve TTFields therapy.We believe these intellectual property rights would provide an obstacle to the introduction of state of the art
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TTFields delivery systems by a competitor. However, competitors may be able to offer less sophisticated TTFields delivery systems that utilize technology described in expired patents and/or choose to market their system(s) in countries where we have limited or no enforceable intellectual property rights. Competitors could also pursue alternative technologies for the application of TTFields into a patient that we did not foresee or protect. We are aware of a few third parties in the United States and China developing devices and filing for intellectual property protection related to TTFields.
Even after the expiration of our U.S. patents, we believe that potential U.S. market entrants applying low-intensity, alternating electric fields to solid tumors in the U.S. will have to undertake their own clinical trials and regulatory submissions to prove equivalence to our Products, a necessary step in receiving regulatory approvals for a competing product.
Presently, the traditional biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical technology industries expend significant resources in developing novel and proprietary therapies for the treatment of solid tumors, including GBM, MPM and other indications that we are currently investigating. As we work to increase market acceptance of our Products, we compete with companies commercializing or investigating other anti-cancer therapies, some of which are in clinical trials for GBM or MPM that currently specifically exclude patients who have been or are being treated with our Products. The introduction of competing therapies could materially impact our business and financial results.
Government regulation
In the U.S., our Products and our operations are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act ("FDCA"). In the EU member states where we market our Products and operate, we are currently subject to, inter alia, the Medical Device Directive ("MDD") as implemented into national legislation by the EU member states. From May 26, 2021, the MDD will be replaced and repealed by the Medical Device Regulation ("MDR"), which will apply directly in all EU member states. In Switzerland, our Products and operations are subject to, inter alia, the Medical Devices Ordinance, which implements the MDD into Swiss law (See "Foreign approvals and CE mark" below). In Japan, our Products and operations are subject to regulation by the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Device Agency ("PMDA") under the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act ("PMD Act"). In addition, our Products must meet the requirements of a large and growing body of national, regional and international standards that govern the preclinical and clinical testing, manufacturing, labeling, certification, storage, recordkeeping, advertising, promotion, export and marketing and distribution, among other things, of our Products for current and future indications.
In the U.S., advertising and promotion of medical devices, in addition to being regulated by the FDA, is also regulated by the Federal Trade Commission and by state regulatory and enforcement authorities. In the EU, advertising and promotion is subject to not only the general provisions of the MDD or MDR, but also general EU advertising rules on misleading and comparative advertising and unfair commercial practices, as implemented at the EU member state level, such as the Heilmittelwerbegesetz in Germany. Promotional activities for FDA-regulated products of other companies have been the subject of government enforcement actions brought under healthcare laws and consumer protection statutes. In addition, we are required to meet analogous regulatory requirements in countries outside the U.S., which can change rapidly with relatively short notice. Competitors can also initiate litigation alleging false advertising for our promotional efforts under the Lanham Act, or under similar state laws.
Our research, development and clinical programs, as well as our manufacturing and marketing operations, are also subject to extensive regulation.
Failure by us or by our suppliers to comply with applicable regulatory requirements can result in enforcement action by the FDA or other regulatory authorities, which may result in any number of regulatory enforcement actions, or civil or criminal liability.
Food and Drug Administration
The FDA regulates the development, testing, manufacturing, labeling, storage, recordkeeping, promotion, marketing, distribution and service of medical devices in the U.S. to ensure that medical products distributed domestically are safe and effective for their intended uses. In addition, the FDA regulates the export of medical devices manufactured in the U.S. to international markets and the importation of medical devices manufactured abroad. The FDA has broad post-market and regulatory enforcement powers to ensure compliance with the FDCA.
The FDA governs the following activities that we perform or that are performed on our behalf:
•product design, development and manufacture;
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•product safety, testing, labeling and storage;
•record keeping procedures;
•product marketing, sales and distribution; and
•post-marketing surveillance, complaint handling, medical device reporting, reporting of deaths, serious injuries or device malfunctions and repair or recall of products.
We have registered three of our facilities with the FDA. We are subject to announced and unannounced inspections by the FDA to determine our compliance with the Quality System Regulation ("QSR") and other regulations and these inspections include the manufacturing facilities of our suppliers.
FDA’s premarket clearance and approval requirements
Unless an exemption applies, before we can commercially distribute medical devices in the U.S., we must obtain, depending on the type of device, either prior 510(k) clearance or premarket approval ("PMA") from the FDA. The FDA classifies medical devices into one of three classes. Devices deemed to pose lower risks are placed in either class I or II, which typically requires the manufacturer to submit to the FDA a premarket notification requesting permission to commercially distribute the device. This process is generally known as 510(k) clearance. Some low-risk devices are exempted from this requirement. Devices deemed by the FDA to pose the greatest risks, such as life-sustaining, life-supporting or implantable devices, or devices deemed not substantially equivalent to a previously cleared 510(k) device, are placed in class III, generally requiring PMA.
Premarket approval (PMA) pathway
Optune and Optune Lua are classified as Class III devices as they are deemed to be life-sustaining devices. Accordingly, we were required to receive PMA for Optune, which the FDA granted in April 2011 and October 2015 for the treatment of recurrent and newly diagnosed supratentorial GBM, respectively, in adult patients. We expect that we will be required to receive PMA for the use of our Products for future indications.
A PMA must be supported by extensive data, including from technical tests, preclinical studies and clinical trials, manufacturing information and intended labeling to demonstrate, to the FDA’s satisfaction, the safety and effectiveness of a medical device for its intended use. During the PMA review period, the FDA will typically request additional information or clarification of the information already provided. Also, an advisory panel of experts from outside the FDA may be convened to review and evaluate the application and provide recommendations to the FDA as to the approvability of the device. The FDA may or may not accept the panel’s recommendation. In addition, the FDA will generally conduct a pre-approval inspection of the manufacturing facility or facilities to ensure compliance with the QSR. Prior to approval of the Optune PMA for the treatment of recurrent GBM, we and our critical component suppliers were each inspected by the FDA.
New PMAs or PMA supplements are required for modifications that affect the safety or effectiveness of our delivery systems, including, for example, certain types of modifications to a delivery system’s indication for use, manufacturing process, labeling and design. PMA supplements often require submission of the same type of information as a PMA, except that the supplement is limited to information needed to support any changes from the device covered by the original PMA and may not require any or as extensive clinical data as the original PMA required, or the convening of an advisory panel. The FDA requires a company to make the determination as to whether a new PMA or PMA supplement application is to be filed. If a company determines that neither a new PMA nor a PMA supplement application is required for modifications, it must nevertheless notify the FDA of these modifications in its PMA Annual Report. The FDA may review a company’s decisions when reviewing the PMA Annual Report and require the filing of an application.
As is typical with medical device companies, we have received approval for a number of post-approval PMA supplements for GBM, including for modifications to Optune’s electric field generator, arrays, software, manufacturing processes and labeling. Future modifications may be considered by us as the need arises, some of which we may deem to require a PMA supplement application and others to require reporting in our PMA Annual Report.
For class III devices intended to treat disease affecting 8,000 individuals or less per year in the U.S., called Humanitarian Use Devices ("HUD"), the FDA has a separate marketing authorization pathway called the HDE.
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Approval basis for an HDE is a "reasonable assurance of safety" and that the probable benefit to health outweighs risk of injury from its use, which means a traditional phase 3 pivotal trial usually is not required to support approval.
In 2019, the FDA approved Optune Lua (then known as "NovoTTF-100L") for the treatment of MPM under the HDE pathway. Devices approved through an HDE application are subject to certain requirements, including specific labeling restrictions and the requirement that a facility’s institutional review board ("IRB") or Local Committee approve the use of the device before it can be distributed in that facility. In addition, there is a general prohibition on profiting from sales of devices approved under the HDE standard. As part of the approval process, we applied for an exemption from this limitation, which the FDA granted. Otherwise, HDE approved devices are generally required to follow the same requirements as PMA approved devices.
Clinical trials
Clinical trials are generally required to support approval of a PMA or HDE. Such trials generally require an Investigational Device Exemption ("IDE") approval from the FDA for a specified number of patients and study sites, unless the product is deemed a non-significant risk device eligible for more abbreviated IDE requirements. Clinical trials are subject to extensive monitoring, recordkeeping and reporting requirements. Clinical trials must be conducted under the oversight of an IRB for the relevant clinical trial sites and must comply with FDA regulations, including those relating to current Good Clinical Practices ("cGCPs"). To conduct a clinical trial, we also are required to obtain the patients’ informed consent in form and substance that complies with both FDA requirements and state and federal privacy and human subject protection regulations. We, the FDA or the respective IRB could suspend a clinical trial at any time for various reasons, including a belief that the risks to study subjects outweigh the anticipated benefits. Even if a trial is completed, the results of clinical testing may not adequately demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the device or may otherwise not be sufficient to obtain FDA approval to market the product in the U.S.
Post-approval studies are also typically required as a condition of PMA to reinforce the reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness. Such studies are conducted in the post-market setting with the approved device, often to address the long-term use of the device or other discrete questions that may have been raised based on the clinical data from the IDE clinical study. The FDA required a post-approval registry study as a condition of approval for Optune for recurrent GBM. We have completed this study and the study data have been submitted for presentation at an upcoming medical conference.
Foreign approvals and CE mark
Market access, sales and marketing of medical devices outside of the U.S. are subject to foreign regulatory requirements that vary widely from country to country. In the European Economic Area (“EEA”), for Novocure’s devices these include the requirement to obtain a CE Certificate and to affix a CE mark to our Products. In the EEA, whether or not we have obtained FDA approval, our delivery systems must be subject to conformity assessment procedure involving an EEA notified body, a private organization accredited by an EEA member state to conduct conformity assessment procedures under the MDD/MDR. Apart from low risk medical devices (Class I with no measuring function and which are not sterile), where the manufacturer can issue a declaration of conformity based on a self-assessment of the conformity of its products with the MDD’s Essential Requirements or the MDR’s General Safety and Performance Requirements, a conformity assessment procedure requires the intervention of a notified body. The notified body typically audits and examines the device’s technical documentation, including the clinical evaluation, and the quality system for the manufacture, design and final inspection of our devices before issuing a CE Certificate demonstrating compliance with the relevant requirements or the quality system requirements laid down in the relevant Annexes to the MDD/MDR. Following the issuance of this CE Certificate, we can draw up a declaration of conformity and affix the CE mark to the delivery systems covered by this CE Certificate. The time required to CE mark our delivery systems or to obtain approval from other non-U.S. authorities may be longer or shorter than that required for FDA approval. Moreover, the MDR, which becomes applicable on May 26, 2021, imposes new stricter requirements that we must comply with in order to renew the CE Certificates for our Products when these expire or May 25, 2025, whichever comes first. In Switzerland, pursuant to the Mutual Recognition Agreement ("MRA") in place between the EEA and Switzerland, our Products bearing a CE mark may currently be exported from the EEA to Switzerland. However, this MRA is only valid until May 25, 2021 and if no new MRA has been agreed to by then, Switzerland will be considered a third country with respect to medical devises. In the EEA, before carrying out a clinical investigation with a device to assess its safety or performance when in accordance with its intend use, the sponsor must receive a positive opinion from the local ethics committee and approval from the national competent authority in the relevant EEA member states in which the clinical investigation will be conducted. When a CE marked medical device is used in a clinical study in accordance with its intended use,
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the approval of the national competent authorities is not required for the use of such medical device in the study. In Japan, we must obtain approvals from the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare ("MHLW") to market our delivery systems. Each regulatory approval process outside of the U.S. includes all the risks associated with FDA regulation, as well as country-specific regulations.
Pervasive and continuing regulation
After a device is placed on the market, numerous regulatory requirements apply depending upon the country in which the device is being marketed. These may include:
•product listing and establishment registration, which helps facilitate FDA inspections and other regulatory action;
•QSR, which requires manufacturers, including third-party manufacturers, to follow stringent design, testing, control, documentation and other quality assurance procedures during all aspects of the manufacturing process for products marketed in the U.S.;
•labeling regulations and FDA and equivalent competent authority in other jurisdictions requiring promotion be truthful and non-misleading and prohibiting the promotion of products for uncleared, unapproved or off-label uses;
•approval of product modifications that affect the safety or effectiveness of one of our delivery systems that has been approved or is the subject of a CE Certificate;
•Medical Device Reporting regulations of the FDCA and medical device vigilance, which require that manufacturers comply with FDA or equivalent competent authority requirements in other jurisdictions to report if their device may have caused or contributed to a death or serious injury, or has malfunctioned in a way that would likely cause or contribute to a death or serious injury if the malfunction of the device or a similar device were to recur;
•post-approval restrictions or conditions, including post-approval study commitments;
•post-market surveillance regulations, which apply when necessary to protect the public health or to provide additional safety and effectiveness data for the device;
•the FDA’s and equivalent competent authority’s recall authority, whereby they can ask, or under certain conditions order, device manufacturers to recall from the market a product that is in violation of governing laws and regulations;
•regulations pertaining to voluntary recalls; and
•notices of corrections or removals.
Our delivery systems could be subject to voluntary recall if we, the FDA or another applicable regulatory authority determine, for any reason, that our delivery systems pose a risk of injury or are otherwise defective. Moreover, the FDA and other applicable regulatory authorities can order a mandatory recall if there is a reasonable probability that our delivery system would cause serious adverse health consequences or death.
The FDA has broad post-market and regulatory enforcement powers. We are subject to unannounced inspections by the FDA to determine our compliance with the QSR and other regulations and these inspections include the manufacturing facilities of our subcontractors. We are also subject to FDA’s broad regulatory enforcement power around promotional activities. Failure by us or by our suppliers to comply with applicable regulatory requirements can result in enforcement action by the FDA or other applicable regulatory authorities, which may result in sanctions, including, but not limited to:
•untitled letters, warning letters, fines, injunctions, consent decrees and civil penalties;
•unanticipated expenditures to address or defend such actions;
•customer notifications for repair, replacement and/or refunds;
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•recall, detention or seizure of our delivery systems;
•operating restrictions or partial suspension or total shutdown of production;
•refusing or delaying our requests for approval of delivery system candidates or a modified version of Optune;
•withdrawal of PMA/HDE approvals or suspension, variation or withdrawal of CE Certificates that have already been granted;
•refusal to grant export approval for our delivery systems; or
•civil and/or criminal prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice or other enforcement authorities outside of the U.S.
To date, our facility and those of our critical suppliers have been inspected by the FDA in order to obtain FDA approval of our Products. No inspectional observations were identified and no FDA Form 483s were issued following these inspections.
DME accreditation and licensing and other requirements
In the U.S., we are subject to accreditation and licensing requirements as a DME supplier in most states and must meet the supplier standards of Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs. Certain states require that DME providers maintain an in-state location. Although we believe we are in compliance with all applicable federal and state regulations regarding accreditation and licensure requirements and similar requirements in other jurisdictions, if we are found to be noncompliant, we could lose our accreditation or licensure in such states or our supplier rights under such federal healthcare programs, which could prohibit us from selling our current or future delivery systems to patients in such state or to that federal healthcare program.
Healthcare regulatory matters
In addition to FDA restrictions on the marketing of medical devices, several other U.S. federal and state laws have been applied to restrict certain business practices in the healthcare industry and penalize unlawful conduct. These laws include the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, the federal prohibition on physician self-referrals (commonly known as the "Stark Law") and the federal False Claims Act.
The U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute is a criminal, intent-based statute that prohibits, among other things, knowingly and willfully offering, paying, soliciting or receiving any remuneration to induce or in return for purchasing, leasing, ordering, recommending or arranging for the purchase, lease, order or recommendation of any healthcare item or service that may be paid for, in whole or in part, by Medicare, Medicaid or another federal healthcare program. Among other arrangements, this statute has been interpreted to apply to financial arrangements between medical device manufacturers on one hand and prescribers and purchasers on the other. Although there are a number of statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors that protect certain common activities from prosecution under the law, the exceptions and safe harbors are drawn narrowly and practices that involve the provision of remuneration intended to induce ordering, purchasing, leasing or recommending of a medical device may be subject to scrutiny if they do not qualify for an exception or safe harbor. In some cases, our practices may not meet all of the technical elements for protection under a federal Anti-Kickback Statute exception or safe harbor. Similarly, as a supplier, we are also subject to the federal beneficiary anti-inducement statute, which prohibits us from offering any remuneration to a beneficiary of Medicare or Medicaid that is likely to influence that beneficiary’s choice of therapy, unless an exception applies. This can include, but is not limited to, the provision of inappropriate financial assistance to purchase our Products. Recent government investigations and enforcement actions have focused on the provision of financial assistance to patients by providers and suppliers. As noted, there are established exceptions from liability, but we cannot guarantee that all of our practices will fall squarely within those exceptions.
As a DME supplier, we also are subject to the Stark law, which is a strict liability law that prohibits Medicare payments for certain "designated health services" ("DHS") including DME ordered by physicians who, personally or through an immediate family member, have an ownership interest in or a compensation arrangement with the furnishing DHS entity. The Stark law contains a number of specific exceptions that, if met, permit physicians who have certain financial relationships with a DHS entity to make referrals to that entity and for that entity to bill Medicare for such services.
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The False Claims Act prohibits any person from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, a false claim for payment to the federal government, or knowingly making, or causing to be made, a false statement to get a false claim paid. The government has pursued numerous cases under the False Claims Act in connection with the off-label promotion of medical products and various other health care law violations. Notably, the government may assert that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the federal civil False Claims Act.
The majority of states also have statutes or regulations similar to the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, Stark Law and False Claims Act laws, which apply to items and services reimbursed under Medicaid and other state programs, or, in several states, that apply regardless of the payer (e.g., including private/commercial payors or cash-pay scenarios).
Numerous federal and state laws and regulations, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act ("HITECH" and collectively "HIPAA"), govern the collection, dissemination, use, security and privacy of individually identifiable health information. We believe we are in substantial compliance with such applicable laws and regulations, including HIPAA.
HIPAA also includes a number of federal criminal provisions, including for healthcare fraud and for false statements relating to healthcare matters. The healthcare fraud provision prohibits knowingly and willfully executing a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program, including private third-party payers. The false statements provision prohibits knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact or making any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services. Many states have similar healthcare fraud laws or insurance fraud laws that apply to claims for healthcare reimbursement.
Sanctions under these federal and state laws may include civil monetary penalties, exclusion of a manufacturer’s products from reimbursement under government programs, criminal fines and imprisonment.
Legislation similar to the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, the Stark Law and False Claims Act has been adopted in foreign countries, including a number of EU member states.
In the EU, the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") has applied since May 25, 2018. The GDPR harmonizes data privacy laws and rules for the processing of personal data, including patient and employee data, across the EU and repeals and replaces Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of October 24, 1995, and applicable national laws. The GDPR has added a number of strict data protection and security requirements for companies processing personal data of EU residents, including when such data is transferred outside the EU.
In the U.S., the federal Physician Payment Sunshine Act ("Sunshine Act") requires certain manufacturers of drugs, medical devices, biologicals or medical supplies that participate in U.S. federal health care programs to track and then report certain payments and transfers of value given to "Covered Recipients." The term "Covered Recipients" currently includes U.S.-licensed physicians and teaching hospitals, and, for reports submitted on or after January 1, 2022, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified nurse anesthetists, and certified nurse-midwives. The Sunshine Act requires that manufacturers collect this information on a yearly basis and then report it to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services by the 90th day of each subsequent year. We have adopted policies and codes of conduct regarding our interactions with Covered Recipients and believe we are in material compliance with the Sunshine Act. However, our failure to adhere to these requirements could materially adversely impact our business and financial results. Additionally, a number of states have transparency reporting requirements similar to (and in some cases broader than) the Sunshine Act, and regulations similar to the Sunshine Act have been adopted in foreign countries including a number of EU member states.
In addition, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") prohibits corporations and individuals from engaging in certain activities to obtain or retain business outside the U.S. or to influence a person working in an official capacity in a foreign country. It is illegal to pay, offer to pay or authorize the payment of anything of value to any official of another country, government staff member, political party or political candidate in an attempt to obtain or retain business or to otherwise influence a person working in that capacity. Legislation similar to the FCPA has been adopted in foreign countries, including a number of EU member states.
Human Capital Resources
As of December 31, 2020, we had 1,023 employees, compared to 782 employees as of December 31, 2019. We believe relations with our employees are good.
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To achieve commercial success for our Products, we believe we must continue to develop and grow our sales and marketing, patient support and research and development teams, along with the necessary staff to support it. This need accounts for the significant increase in the number of employees in 2020. Developing and managing a growing organization is a difficult, expensive and time consuming process. To be successful we must:
•recruit and retain adequate numbers of effective and experienced sales and marketing, patient support and research and development personnel;
•effectively train our personnel on the benefits and risks of our Products and healthcare compliance;
•establish and maintain successful and compliant education programs that educate health care providers so they can appropriately inform their patients about our Products; and
•manage geographically disbursed business operations.
We compete with other medical device, pharmaceutical and life sciences companies to recruit, hire, train and retain the personnel that we anticipate we will need. Because our current Products require, and we anticipate our future Products will require, physician training and education, we expect that our sales and marketing and patient support teams will continue to grow substantially as we expand our approved indications and markets.
Available information
Our corporate website address is www.novocure.com. Our website is an inactive textual reference and nothing on our website is incorporated by reference in this Annual Report. Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to reports filed pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, are available free of charge on our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. These filings are also available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.
We may use our website as a means of disclosing material information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation Fair Disclosure promulgated by the SEC. Accordingly, investors should monitor our website, in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls, webcasts and our social media accounts.
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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
An investment in our ordinary shares involves a high degree of risk. Investors and prospective investors should carefully consider all of the information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the risks and uncertainties described below. Any of the following risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. In any such case, the trading price of our ordinary shares could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. In assessing these risks, you should also refer to the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto.
Risks relating to our business and our Products
Our business and prospects depend heavily on Optune, which is currently approved only for the treatment of GBM, and Optune Lua, which is currently approved only for the treatment of MPM. If we are unable to increase sales of our Products, obtain further regulatory approvals and commercialize our Products for the treatment of additional indications, or are significantly delayed or limited in doing so, our business and prospects will be materially harmed.
To date we have received FDA regulatory approval under the PMA pathway and certain approvals in other jurisdictions for the use of Optune for the treatment of adult patients with newly diagnosed GBM in combination with temozolomide (a form of chemotherapy) and for the treatment of adult patients with recurrent GBM as monotherapy. Optune is CE Certified according to Council Directive 93/42/EEC concerning medical devices ("MDD"), and has a CE mark affixed for the treatment of GBM in the EU. We have also received FDA approval under the HDE pathway to market Optune Lua for unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic, MPM in combination with standard chemotherapies. Optune Lua is also CE Certified for the same indication in the EU and Switzerland under the name “NovoTTF-100L” (references in this Annual Report to Optune Lua includes NovoTTF-100L in the appropriate EU and Swiss contexts). However, such approvals and maintaining the CE Certificates of Conformity, and related CE marking, of our Products, as applicable, do not guarantee future revenues for these indications. Further, until we receive FDA and analogous approval in other jurisdictions for the use of our Products for other indications, almost all of our revenues will derive from sales and royalties from sales of Optune for the treatment of newly diagnosed and recurrent GBM and Optune Lua for MPM. The commercial success of our Products and our ability to generate and maintain revenues from the sale of our Products will depend on a number of factors, including:
•our ability to develop and obtain additional regulatory approvals and further commercialize our Products for additional indications;
•the acceptance of our Products by patients and the healthcare community, including physicians and third-party payers (both private and governmental), as therapeutically effective and safe;
•the accomplishment of various scientific, engineering, clinical, regulatory and other goals, which we sometimes refer to as milestones, on our anticipated timeline;
•the relative cost, safety and efficacy of alternative therapies;
•our ability to obtain and maintain sufficient coverage or reimbursement by private and governmental third-party payers and to comply with applicable health care laws and regulations;
•the ability of our third-party manufacturers to manufacture our Products in sufficient quantities with acceptable quality;
•our ability to provide marketing, distribution and customer support for our Products;
•the presence of competitive products in our active indications;
•results of future clinical studies relating to our Products or other competitor products for similar indications;
•compliance with applicable laws and regulatory requirements, in particular in the EU;
•the maintenance of our existing regulatory approvals; and
•the consequences of any reportable adverse events involving our Products.
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In addition, the promotion of our Products is limited to approved indications, which vary by geography, and the label for Optune is limited in certain respects (for example, it is not approved for use in the brain stem, is not approved for use as monotherapy in newly diagnosed GBM and is limited for use by adults ages 22 and older), which may reduce the number of patients to whom it may be prescribed. Similarly, the label for Optune Lua also contains certain limitations that may adversely affect adoption, including the requirement in the United States to display on all marketing materials that the efficacy of the product has not been established, a limitation of use by adults ages 22 and older only, and the absence of Phase 3 clinical data.
Our ability to generate future revenues will also depend on achieving regulatory approval of, and eventual commercialization of, our Products for additional indications, which is not guaranteed. Our near-term prospects are substantially dependent on our ability to obtain regulatory approvals on the timetable we have anticipated, and thereafter to further successfully commercialize our Products for additional indications. Regulatory changes or actions in areas in which we operate or propose to operate may further affect our ability to obtain regulatory approvals on our anticipated timetable. If we are not able to receive such approvals, meet other anticipated milestones, or further commercialize our Products, or are significantly delayed or limited in doing so, our business and prospects will be materially harmed and we may need to reduce expenses by delaying, reducing or curtailing the development of our Products and we may need to raise additional capital to fund our operations, which we may not be able to obtain on favorable terms, if at all.
To date, we have generated only limited operating profits, and we have a history of incurring substantial operating losses.
We were founded in 2000 and have only recently started generating limited operating profits. We have otherwise had a history of incurring substantial operating losses. We anticipate continuing to incur significant costs associated with commercializing our Products for approved indications including product sales, marketing, manufacturing, and distribution expenses. We expect our research, development, and clinical trial expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing activities and as additional indications enter late-stage clinical development and as we advance our product development. Our expenses could increase beyond expectations if, for example, we are required by the FDA, or other regulatory agencies or similar governing bodies, to change manufacturing processes for our Products or to perform clinical, nonclinical or other types of studies in addition to those that we currently anticipate. Our revenues are dependent, in part, upon the size of the markets in the jurisdictions in which we receive regulatory approval, the accepted price for our Products and the ability to obtain reimbursement at the accepted applicable price. If the number of addressable patients is not as significant as we estimate, the indications approved by regulatory authorities are narrower than we expect or the eligible population for treatment is narrowed by competition, regulatory approvals, physician choice or treatment guidelines, we may not generate significant revenues. If we are not able to generate significant revenues, we may never be sustainably profitable.
Our clinical trials could be delayed or otherwise adversely affected by many factors, including difficulties in enrolling patients.
Clinical testing can be costly and take many years, and the outcome is uncertain and susceptible to varying interpretations. Moreover, success in preclinical and early clinical trials does not ensure that large-scale trials will be successful or predict final results. Acceptable results in early trials may not be replicable in later trials. A number of companies in the oncology industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials, even after promising results in earlier trials. Negative or inconclusive results or adverse events or incidents during a clinical trial could cause the clinical trial to be redone or terminated. In addition, failure to construct appropriate clinical trial protocols could result in the test or control group experiencing a disproportionate number of adverse events or incidents and could cause a clinical trial to be suspended, redone or terminated.
The timely completion of clinical trials depends, among other things, on our ability to enroll a sufficient number of patients who remain in the trial until its conclusion. We may experience difficulties in patient enrollment in our clinical trials for a variety of reasons, including:
•the severity of the disease under investigation;
•the limited size and nature of the patient population;
•the patient eligibility criteria defined in our protocol and other clinical trial protocols;
•the nature of the trial protocol, including the attractiveness of, or the discomforts and risks associated with, the treatments received by enrolled subjects;
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•difficulties and delays in clinical trials that may occur as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic;
•the ability to obtain IRB approval at clinical trial locations;
•clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions as to the potential advantages, disadvantages and side effects of our Products in relation to other available therapies, including any new drugs or treatments that may be approved for the indications we are pursuing;
•availability of other clinical trials that exclude use of our Products;
•the possibility or perception that enrolling in a Product’s clinical trial may limit the patient’s ability to enroll in future clinical trials for other therapies due to protocol restrictions;
•the possibility or perception that our software is not secure enough to maintain patient privacy;
•patient referral practices of physicians;
•the ability to monitor patients adequately during and after treatment;
•the availability of appropriate clinical trial investigators, support staff and proximity of patients to clinical sites;
•physicians’ or our ability to obtain and maintain patient consents; and
•the risk that patients enrolled in clinical trials will choose to withdraw from or otherwise not be able to complete a clinical trial.
If we have difficulty enrolling and retaining a sufficient number or diversity of patients to conduct our clinical trials as planned, or encounter other difficulties, we may need to delay, terminate or modify ongoing or planned clinical trials, any of which would have an adverse effect on our business.
If we are unable to continue the development of an adequate sales and marketing organization or contract with third parties to assist us, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our Products for current and future indications.
To achieve commercial success for our Products, we must continue to compliantly develop and grow our sales and marketing organization and, as necessary, enter into sales and distribution relationships with third parties to market and sell our Products. Developing and managing a sales and marketing organization is a difficult, expensive and time consuming process. We may not be able to successfully develop adequate sales and marketing capabilities to achieve our growth objectives. We compete with other medical device, pharmaceutical and life sciences companies to recruit, hire, train and retain the sales and marketing personnel that we anticipate we will need, and the nature of our Products may make it more difficult to compete for sales and marketing personnel. In addition, because our current Products require, and we anticipate our future Products will require, physician training and education, our sales and marketing organization must grow substantially as we expand our approved indications and markets. As a consequence, our expenses associated with building up and maintaining our sales force and marketing capabilities may be disproportionate to the revenues we may be able to generate on sales of our Products.
If we are unable to establish adequate sales and marketing capabilities or successful sales and distribution relationships, we may fail to realize the full revenue potential of our Products for current and future indications, and we may not be able to achieve the necessary growth in a cost-effective manner or realize a positive return on our investment. In our current and future sales and distribution agreements with other companies, we generally do not and may not have control over the resources or degree of effort that any of these third parties may devote to our Products, and if they fail to devote sufficient time and resources to the marketing of our Products, or if their performance is substandard, our revenues may be adversely affected.
The success of our business may be dependent on the actions of our collaborative partners.
Our global business strategy includes, in part, the consummation of collaborative arrangements with companies who will support the development and commercialization of our products and technology. For example, we have exclusively licensed rights to commercialize our Products in the field of oncology in Greater China to Zai pursuant to an agreement that also establishes a development partnership for Tumor Treating Fields (“TTFields”) in multiple
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solid tumor indications. Zai is responsible for the development and commercialization of our Products in Greater China at its sole cost with certain assistance from us.
When we collaborate with a third party for development and commercialization of a Product in a particular territory, we can expect to relinquish some or all of the control over the future success of that Product to the third party in that territory. In addition, our collaborative partners may have the right to abandon research or development projects and terminate applicable agreements, including payment obligations, prior to or upon the expiration of the agreed-upon terms. We may not be successful in establishing or maintaining collaborative arrangements on acceptable terms or at all, collaborative partners may terminate funding before completion of projects, our Products may not achieve the criteria for milestone payments, our collaborative arrangements may not result in successful product commercialization, our Products may not receive acceptable pricing and we may not derive any revenue from such arrangements. Additionally, our collaborators may not perform their obligations as expected or in compliance with applicable laws and acts or omissions by collaborators may create liability for us in the jurisdictions in which we operate. Any disagreements with collaborators, including disagreements over proprietary rights, contract interpretation or the preferred course of development or commercialization, might cause delays or termination of the research, development or commercialization of Products, might lead to additional responsibilities for us with respect to developing or commercializing Products, or might result in litigation or arbitration, any of which would be time-consuming and expensive. To the extent that we are not able to develop and maintain collaborative arrangements, we would need to devote substantial capital to undertake development and commercialization activities on our own in order to further expand our global reach, and we may be forced to limit the territories in which we commercialize our Products.
We may not be successful in achieving market acceptance of our Products by healthcare professionals, patients and/or third-party payers in the timeframes we anticipate, or at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.
Our business model is predicated on achieving market acceptance of our Products as a monotherapy or in combination with well-established cancer treatment modalities like surgery, radiation and pharmacological therapies. We may not achieve market acceptance of our Products for current or future indications within the timeframes we have anticipated, or at all, for a number of different reasons, including the following factors:
•it may be difficult to gain broad acceptance of our Products because they are new technologies and involve a novel mechanism of action and, as such, physicians may be reluctant to prescribe our Products without prior experience or additional data or training;
•physicians may be reluctant to prescribe our Products due to their perception that the clinical trials are not appropriately designed as they are, for example, unblinded;
•physicians at large academic universities and medical centers may prefer to enroll patients into clinical trials instead of prescribing our Products;
•it may be difficult to gain broad acceptance at community hospitals where the number of patients seeking treatment may be more limited than at larger medical centers, and such community hospitals may not be willing to invest in the resources necessary for their physicians to become trained to use our Products, which could lead to reluctance to prescribe our Products;
•patients may be reluctant to elect to use our Products for various reasons, including a perception that the treatment is untested or difficult to use (for example, they will need to shave the areas on their bodies where the arrays are applied) or a perception that our software is not secure;
•our Products may have side effects (for example, dermatitis where the arrays are placed) and our Products cannot be worn in all circumstances (for example, they cannot get wet and are difficult to wear in high temperatures); and
•the price of our Products includes a monthly fee for use of the delivery system and therefore, as the duration of the treatment course increases, the overall price will increase correspondingly and, when used in combination with other treatments, the overall cost of treatment will be greater than using a single type of treatment.
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In particular, our Products may not achieve market acceptance for current or future indications because of the following additional factors:
•achieving patient acceptance could be difficult because we are targeting devastating diseases with poor prognoses, and not all patients with potentially short lifespans are willing to comply with requirements of treatment with our Products, such as the need to use our Products for at least 18 hours per day, carrying around a device and shaving the area where the arrays are worn, and other patients may forego our Products for financial, privacy, cosmetic, visibility or mobility reasons;
•achieving patient compliance is difficult because the recommended average daily use of our currently marketed Products is at least 18 hours a day, requiring patients to wear the delivery system nearly continuously, which to some extent restricts physical mobility because the battery must be frequently exchanged and recharged, and the patient or a caregiver must ensure that it remains continuously operable and this may also impact the pool of patients to whom physicians may be willing to prescribe our Products;
•certain patients are contraindicated to using our Products due to a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, those who have an active implanted medical device, those who have a skull defect, and those who are sensitive to conductive hydrogels;
•there are certain perceived limitations to our study designs or data obtained from our clinical trials;
•efficacy may also be limited in instances where patients take a break from the delivery system when experiencing skin rashes, while bathing or swimming (because our Products should not get wet), or while traveling; and
•certain adverse events reported in clinical trials by patients treated with our Products as monotherapy include medical device site reaction, headache, malaise, muscle twitching, fall and skin ulcer; additional adverse events reported in clinical trials by patients treated with our Products in combination with chemotherapies in addition to the above, were thrombocytopenia, nausea, constipation, vomiting, fatigue and other side effects consistent with treatment with chemotherapies.
In addition, even if we are successful in achieving market acceptance of our Products for GBM or MPM, we may be unsuccessful in achieving market acceptance of our Products for other indications, such as brain metastases, NSCLC, pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer and other solid tumor cancers, because certain radiation, chemotherapies and/or systemic medical therapies may become or remain the preferred standard of care for these indications.
There may be other factors that are presently unknown to us that also may negatively impact our ability to achieve market acceptance of our Products. If we do not achieve market acceptance of our Products in the timeframes we anticipate, or are unable to achieve market acceptance at all, our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
Failure to secure and maintain adequate coverage and reimbursement from third-party payers could adversely affect acceptance of our Products and reduce our revenues.
We expect that the vast majority of our revenues will come from third-party payers either directly to us in markets where we provide our Products or plan to provide our delivery system candidates to patients or indirectly via payments made to hospitals or other entities providing our Products or which may in the future provide our delivery system candidates to patients.
In the U.S., private payers cover the largest segment of the population, with the remainder either uninsured or covered by governmental payers. The majority of the third-party payers outside the U.S. are government agencies, government sponsored entities or other payers operating under significant regulatory requirements from national or regional governments.
Third-party payers may decline to cover and reimburse certain procedures, supplies or services. Additionally, some third-party payers may decline to cover and reimburse our Products for a particular patient even if the payer has a favorable coverage policy addressing our Products or previously approved reimbursement for our Products. Additionally, private and government payers may consider the cost of a treatment in approving coverage or in setting reimbursement for the treatment.
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Private and government payers around the world are increasingly challenging the prices charged for medical products and services. Additionally, the containment of healthcare costs has become a priority of governments around the world. Adoption of additional price controls and cost-containment measures, and adoption of more restrictive policies in jurisdictions with existing controls and measures, could further limit our revenues and operating results. If third-party payers do not consider our Products or the combination of our Products with additional treatments to be cost-justified under a required cost-testing model, they may not cover our Products for their populations or, if they do, the level of reimbursement may not be sufficient to allow us to sell our Products on a profitable basis.
Reimbursement for the treatment of patients with medical devices around the world is governed by complex mechanisms established on a national or sub-national level in each country. These mechanisms vary widely among countries and evolve constantly, reflecting the efforts of these countries to reduce public spending on healthcare. As a result, obtaining and maintaining reimbursement for the treatment of patients with medical devices has become more challenging globally. We cannot guarantee that the use of our Products will receive reimbursement approvals and cannot guarantee that our existing reimbursement approvals will be maintained in any country.
We provide financial assistance to certain patients in certain markets who qualify based on established financial and other criteria. Primarily, we provide financial assistance to patients where we have or are actively pursuing coverage and reimbursement. This financial assistance is intended to defray out-of-pocket costs for our Products for patients who begin treatment but who are unable to pay for the costs of their treatment not covered by insurance. Our costs associated with this program could increase if payers increase the cost-sharing burden of patients or we do not obtain coverage and reimbursement and we elect to continue providing financial assistance in those markets. Additionally we provide charitable donations to foundations that can then provide financial assistance to those receiving health care coverage from federal or state funded programs. Enforcement actions and changes to government regulations related to manufacturer-sponsored and independent charitable patient assistance programs could reduce our ability to support patients financially in the future.
Our failure to secure or maintain adequate coverage or reimbursement for our Products by third-party payers in the U.S. or in the other jurisdictions in which we market our Products could have a material adverse effect on our business, revenues and results of operations and cause our stock price to decline.
We may not be successful in securing and maintaining reimbursement codes necessary to facilitate accurate and timely billing for our Products or physician services attendant to our Products.
Third-party payers, healthcare systems, government agencies or other groups often issue reimbursement codes to facilitate billing for products and physician services used in the delivery of healthcare. Within the U.S., the billing codes most directly related to our Products are contained in the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System ("HCPCS code set"). The HCPCS code set contains Level I codes that describe physician services, also known as Common Procedural Terminology codes ("CPT codes") and Level II codes that primarily describe products. CMS is responsible for issuing the HCPCS Level II codes. The American Medical Association issues HCPCS Level I codes.
We have secured unique HCPCS Level II codes that describe Optune and we are able to use these codes in the U.S. to bill third-party payers. Loss of these codes or any alteration in the reimbursement amounts attached to these codes would materially impact our operating results. We do not have a unique HCPCS Level II code for Optune Lua at this time.
No CPT codes currently exist to describe physician services related to the delivery of therapy using our Products. We may not be able to secure CPT codes for physician services related to our Products based on the relatively low incidence of GBM. Our future revenues and results may be affected by the absence of CPT codes, as physicians may be less likely to prescribe the therapy when there is no certainty that adequate reimbursement will be available for the time, effort, skill, practice expense and malpractice costs required to provide the therapy to patients.
Outside the U.S., but excluding Germany, we have not secured codes to describe our Products or to document physician services related to the delivery of therapy using our Products. The failure to obtain and maintain these codes could affect the future growth of our business.
There is no assurance that Medicare or the Medicare Administrative Contractors will provide, or continue to provide, coverage or adequate payment rates for our Products.
We anticipate that a significant portion of patients using our Products will be beneficiaries under the Medicare fee-for-service program. Failure to secure or maintain coverage or maintain adequate reimbursement from Medicare
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would reduce our revenues and may also affect the coverage and reimbursement decisions of other third-party payers in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Medicare classifies Optune as durable medical equipment ("DME"). Medicare has the authority to issue national coverage determinations or to defer coverage decisions to its regional Medicare Administrative Contractors ("MACs"). The fact that only two MACs administer the entire DME program may negatively affect our ability to petition individual medical policy decision-makers at the MACs for coverage. The absence of a positive coverage determination or a future restriction to existing coverage from Medicare or the DME MACs would materially affect our future revenues.
Additionally, Medicare has the authority to publish the reimbursement amounts for DME products. Medicare has published a reimbursement amount for Optune that falls below the median reimbursement that we have established with non-Medicare payers. Medicare may in the future publish reimbursement amounts for our Products that do not reflect then-current prices for our Products or Medicare may decrease existing reimbursement amounts published for our Products. Medicare fee schedules are frequently referenced by private payers in the U.S. and around the world. Medicare's publication of reimbursement amounts for our Products that are below our Products’ established prices could materially reduce our revenues and operating results with respect to non-Medicare payers in the U.S. and our other active markets.
Medicare has assigned the billing codes describing Optune to the DME category for products that require frequent and substantial servicing. DME items in this billing category are billed monthly and payment is not capped after a time period. If Medicare revises its payment category classifications for our Products, this action could materially reduce our revenues and operating results.
CMS requires prior authorization for certain DME items. Claims for such items that did not receive prior authorization before they were furnished to a beneficiary will be automatically denied. In the event Medicare adds one of our Products to the list of items requiring prior authorization, our ability to bill and secure reimbursement for patients who would otherwise be covered to use our Product under the Medicare fee-for-service program may be reduced.
CMS has recently issued a new final rule (Medicare Coverage of Innovative Technology (CMS-3372-F) (“MCIT”) that further revises reimbursement coverage criteria for newly approved medical devices. Under the MCIT rule, Medicare will require MACs to provide coverage for medical devices for four years after FDA approval, provided that the device has received an FDA “breakthrough” designation. We are assessing the potential impact of this rule on our business and cannot provide any assurance that we can access this expanded coverage for our future products.
The Medicare fee-for-service program has denied coverage for all claims prior to the September 1, 2019 effective date for the DME MAC LCD, which provides coverage for Optune for the treatment of newly diagnosed GBM subject to certain conditions and restrictions. We expect that Medicare will continue to deny essentially all claims that do not meet the coverage policy terms. Although we are actively appealing these coverage denials, we are unable to bill the vast majority of our existing Medicare fee-for-service patients for amounts not paid by Medicare. Therefore, we are absorbing and may continue to absorb the costs of treatment for amounts not paid by Medicare.
We appeal Medicare coverage denials through the Medicare appeals process: redetermination by a MAC, reconsideration by a Qualified Independent Contractor, hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) at the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals, review by the Medicare Appeals Council, and judicial review in U.S. District Court. Currently, there is a considerable backlog of appeals at the ALJ level and there are significant delays in the assignment of ALJ cases. We cannot provide any assurance that our outstanding ALJ appeals will be favorably decided. Further, we anticipate that, even if we are successful in winning our appeals, we will experience a significant delay in securing reimbursement for Medicare patients when Medicare’s DME MACs deny coverage for patients who start therapy.
We depend on single-source suppliers for some of our components. The loss of these suppliers could prevent or delay shipments of our Products, delay our clinical trials or otherwise adversely affect our business.
In certain jurisdictions, we source some of the components of our Products from only a single vendor. If any one of these single-source suppliers were to fail to continue to provide components to us on a timely basis, or at all, our business and reputation could be harmed. Our policy is to seek and maintain second-source suppliers, but we can provide no assurance that we will secure or maintain such suppliers. We have developed or are in the process of developing and obtaining regulatory approval for second sources for components in all jurisdictions. Various steps must be taken before securing these suppliers, including qualifying these suppliers in accordance with regulatory requirements, but we may never receive such approvals. The risks associated with the failure of our suppliers to
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comply with strictly enforced regulatory requirements as described below are exacerbated by our dependence on single-source suppliers.
If we experience any deficiency in the quality of, delay in or loss of availability of any components supplied to us by third-party suppliers, or if we switch suppliers or components, we may face additional regulatory delays and the manufacture and delivery of our Products would be interrupted for an extended period of time, which could materially adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. If we are required to obtain prior regulatory approval from the FDA or regulatory authorities or similar governing bodies in other jurisdictions or to conduct a new conformity assessment procedure and obtain new CE Certificates of Conformity in the EU to use different suppliers or components for our Products, regulatory approval or the CE Certificates of Conformity for our Products may not be received on a timely basis, or at all, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.
Quality control problems with respect to delivery systems and components supplied by third-party suppliers could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, our clinical trials or the commercialization of our Products and, as a result, a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.
Our Products, which are manufactured by third parties, are highly technical and are required to meet exacting specifications. Any quality control problems that we experience with respect to the delivery systems and components supplied by third-party suppliers could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, our attempts to complete our clinical trials, our operating expenses or the commercialization of our Products. The failure of our suppliers to comply with strictly enforced regulatory requirements could expose us to regulatory action, including warning letters, product recalls, suspension or termination of distribution, product seizures or civil penalties. If we experience any delay in the receipt or deficiency in the quality of products supplied to us by third-party suppliers, or if we have to switch to replacement suppliers, we may face additional regulatory delays and the manufacture and delivery of our Products would be interrupted for an extended period of time, which would materially adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.
If the third parties on which we rely to conduct our preclinical and clinical trials and to assist us with research and development do not perform as contractually required or expected, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approvals for or commercialize our Products.
We do not have the ability to independently conduct certain of our preclinical and development activities or any of our clinical trials for our Products; therefore, we must rely on third parties, such as contract research organizations, medical institutions, clinical investigators, contract laboratories and collaborative partners, to conduct such trials. We and these third parties are required to comply with current good clinical practices ("cGCPs"), which are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA under the medical device Quality System Regulation ("QSR") and comparable regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions for clinical development. We and these third parties are also required to comply with current good laboratory practices ("cGLPs"), which are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA and comparable regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions for nonclinical laboratory studies. If we or any of these third parties fail to comply with applicable cGLP and cGCP regulations, the data generated in our nonclinical studies and clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA or regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions may require us to perform additional nonclinical or clinical trials before approving our applications. We cannot be certain that, upon inspection or review of our data, such regulatory authorities will determine that any of our nonclinical studies or clinical trials comply with the applicable cGLP or cGCP regulations.
Additionally, any third parties conducting our preclinical, clinical and other development programs are not and will not be our employees and, except for remedies available to us under our agreements with such third parties, we cannot control whether or not they devote sufficient time and resources to our ongoing preclinical, clinical and other development programs. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or regulatory obligations or meet expected deadlines, if these third parties need to be replaced or if the quality or accuracy of the data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or regulatory requirements or for other reasons, our development activities or clinical trials may be extended, delayed, suspended or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for our Products or successfully commercialize our Products on a timely basis, if at all, and our business, prospects and results of operations may be adversely affected.
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Continued testing of our Products may not yield successful results and could reveal currently unknown safety hazards associated with our Products.
Our research and development programs are designed to test the safety and efficacy of our Products and TTFields through extensive preclinical and clinical testing. Even if our ongoing and future preclinical and clinical trials are completed as planned, we cannot be certain that their results will support our claims or that the FDA and other regulatory authorities will agree with our conclusions. Success in preclinical studies and early clinical trials does not ensure that later clinical trials will be successful, and we cannot be sure that the later trials will replicate the results of prior trials and preclinical studies. The clinical trial process may fail to demonstrate that our delivery system candidates are safe and effective for the proposed indicated uses, which could cause us to abandon a delivery system candidate and may delay development of others. It is also possible that patients enrolled in clinical trials will experience adverse side effects that have not been previously observed. In addition, our preclinical studies and clinical trials for our delivery system candidates involve a relatively small patient population and, as a result, these studies and trials may not be indicative of future results.
We may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, the testing process that could delay or prevent further commercialization of our Products, including the following:
•Preclinical and clinical testing for our Products may not produce the desired effect, may be inconclusive or may not be predictive of safety or efficacy results obtained in future clinical trials, following long-term use or in much larger populations;
•unanticipated adverse events or other side effects that are not currently known may occur during our clinical trials that may preclude additional regulatory approval or result in additional limitations to commercial use if approved; and
•the data collected from our clinical trials may not reach statistical significance or otherwise not be sufficient to support FDA or other regulatory approval.
If unacceptable side effects arise in the development of our Products for future indications, we could suspend or terminate our clinical trials or the FDA or other regulatory authorities could order us to cease clinical trials or deny approval of our delivery system candidates for any or all targeted indications, narrow the approved indications for use or otherwise require restrictive product labeling or marketing or require further clinical trials, which may be time-consuming and expensive and may not produce results supporting FDA or other regulatory approval of our Products in a specific indication. Treatment-related side effects could also affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled patients to complete the trial or result in potential product liability claims. In addition, these side effects may not be appropriately recognized or managed by the treating medical staff. We expect to have a need to train medical personnel using our delivery system candidates to understand the side effect profiles for our clinical trials and upon any commercialization of our Products for future indications. Inadequate training in recognizing or managing the potential side effects of our Products could result in patient injury or death. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, prospects and financial condition significantly.
Any delay or termination of our clinical trials will delay the filing of submissions for regulatory approvals of our Products and ultimately our ability to commercialize our Products and generate revenues. Furthermore, we may abandon our Products for indications that we previously believed to be promising. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations and cause our stock price to decline.
We face competition from numerous competitors, which may make it more difficult for us to achieve significant market penetration and which may allow our competitors to develop additional oncology treatments to compete with our Products.
The oncology market is intensely competitive, subject to rapid change and significantly affected by new product introductions and other market activities of industry participants. Our Products primarily compete with radiation and pharmacological therapies. We may face additional competition as advancements are made in the field of anti-cancer therapies and as we enter additional oncological markets. To date, we have conducted clinical trials where our Products are used in combination with a certain subset of other anti-cancer therapies. Many of our competitors are large, well-capitalized companies with significantly greater market share and resources than we have. As a consequence, they are able to spend more aggressively on product development, marketing, sales and other initiatives than we can. Many of these competitors could have:
•significantly greater name recognition and experience;
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•established distribution networks and/or relationships with government agencies, healthcare professionals, patients and third-party payers;
•additional product lines, and the ability to offer rebates or bundle products to offer higher discounts or more competitive pricing or other incentives to gain a competitive advantage; and
•greater financial and human resources for research and development, sales and marketing, patent litigation and/or acquisitions.
Although we believe our Products represent a treatment modality that can be used in combination with other cancer treatment modalities, our current and future competitors may at any time develop additional drugs or devices for the treatment of GBM, MPM, or other solid tumors that could be more effective from a therapeutic or cost-basis perspective than using our Products. In our currently-approved indications, if current or future competitors develop a product that proves to be superior or comparable to our Products, our revenues may decline. In addition, some of our competitors may compete by lowering the price of their cancer treatments. If these competitors’ products were to gain acceptance by healthcare professionals, patients or third-party payers, a downward pressure on prices could result. If prices were to fall, we may not be able to improve our gross margins or sales growth sufficiently to be sustainably profitable. For future indications, other companies could view us as a competitor and attempt to block our market entry or otherwise hinder our Product growth in a market. We are aware of a few third parties in the United States and China developing devices and filing for intellectual property protection related to TTFields. Competitors could also pursue alternative technologies for the application of TTFields into a patient that we did not foresee or protect.
As we expand, we may experience difficulties managing our growth.
Our anticipated growth will place a significant strain on our management and on our operational and financial resources and systems. We could face challenges inherent in efficiently managing a more complex business with an increased number of employees over large geographic distances, including the need to implement appropriate systems, policies, benefits and compliance programs. Failure to manage our growth effectively could materially adversely affect our business. Additionally, our anticipated growth will increase the demands placed on our third-party suppliers, resulting in an increased need to carefully monitor the available supply of components and services and to scale up our quality assurance programs. There is no guarantee that our suppliers will be able to support our anticipated growth. Any failure by us to manage our growth effectively could have an adverse effect on our ability to achieve our development and commercialization goals.
Because of the specialized nature of our business, the termination of relationships with our key employees, consultants and advisors may prevent us from successfully operating our business, including developing our Products, conducting clinical trials, commercializing our Products and obtaining any necessary financing.
We are highly dependent on the members of our executive team, the loss of whose services may adversely impact the achievement of our objectives. While we have entered into employment agreements with each of our key executives, any of them could leave our employment at any time. We do not have "key person" insurance on any of our employees. The loss of the services of one or more of our current employees might impede the achievement of our business objectives.
The competition for qualified personnel in the oncology and medical device fields is intense, and we rely heavily on our ability to attract and retain qualified scientific, technical and managerial personnel. Our future success depends upon our ability to attract, retain and motivate highly skilled employees. In order to commercialize our Products successfully, we will be required to expand our workforce, particularly in the areas of research and development and clinical trials, sales and marketing and supply chain management. These activities will require the addition of new personnel and the development of additional expertise by existing management personnel. We face intense competition for qualified individuals from numerous pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as academic and other research institutions. We may not be able to attract and retain these individuals on acceptable terms or at all. Failure to do so could materially harm our business.
Product liability suits, whether or not meritorious, could be brought against us due to alleged defective delivery systems or for the misuse of our Products, which could result in expensive and time-consuming litigation, payment of substantial damages and/or expenses and an increase in our insurance rates.
If our current or future delivery systems are defectively designed or manufactured, contain defective components or are misused, or if someone claims any of the foregoing, whether or not meritorious, we may become subject to
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substantial and costly litigation. For example, we may be sued if our Products cause or are perceived to cause injury or are found to be otherwise unsuitable during clinical testing, manufacturing, marketing or sale. This may occur if our Products are misused or damaged, have a sudden failure or malfunction (including with respect to safety features) or are otherwise impaired due to wear and tear. Even absent a product liability suit, malfunctions of our Products or misuse by physicians or patients would need to be remedied swiftly in order to maintain continuous use and ensure efficacy of our Products.
Any product liability claims may include allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a failure to warn of dangers inherent in the delivery system, negligence, strict liability or a breach of warranties. Claims could also be asserted under state consumer protection acts. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we may incur substantial liabilities or be required to limit commercialization of our Products. Even successful defense may require significant financial and management resources. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:
•decreased demand for our Products;
•injury to our reputation;
•withdrawal of clinical trial participants and inability to continue clinical trials;
•initiation of investigations by regulators;
•costs to prepare for and defend the related litigation;
•a diversion of management’s time and our resources;
•substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;
•product recalls, withdrawals or labeling, marketing or promotional restrictions;
•loss of revenues;
•exhaustion of any available insurance and our capital resources;
•the inability to commercialize any delivery system candidate; and
•a decline in our share price.