Item 1A. Risk Factors.
You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other public filings with the SEC, before making investment decisions regarding our common stock. The risks described below are not the only risks we face. The occurrence of any of the following risks, or of additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial, could cause our business, prospects, operating results, and financial condition to be materially and adversely affected.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR LIMITED OPERATING HISTORY, FINANCIAL POSITION, AND NEED FOR ADDITIONAL CAPITAL
We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company with a limited operating history and no products approved by regulators for commercial sale, which may make it difficult to evaluate our current and future business prospects.
Since our inception in November 2013, we have focused substantially all of our efforts and financial resources on building our drug discovery platform and developing our initial drug candidates. All of our drug candidates are still in the discovery, preclinical development, or clinical stages. Before we can commercialize our drug candidates, they require, among other steps, clinical success; development of internal or external manufacturing capacity and marketing expertise; and regulatory approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other applicable jurisdictions. We have no products approved for commercial sale and we can provide no assurance that we will obtain regulatory approvals to market and sell any drug products in the future. We therefore have never generated any revenue from drug product sales, and we do not expect to generate any revenue from drug product sales in the foreseeable future. Until we successfully develop and commercialize drug candidates, which may never occur, we expect to finance our operations through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, and strategic collaborations or similar arrangements. Biopharmaceutical product development is a highly speculative undertaking and involves a substantial degree of risk. For these and other reasons discussed elsewhere in this Risk Factors section, it may be difficult to evaluate our current business and our future prospects.
We have incurred significant operating losses since our inception and anticipate that we will incur continued losses for the foreseeable future.
We have incurred net losses in each year since our inception. We had an accumulated deficit of $967.6 million as of December 31, 2023. Substantially all of our operating losses have resulted from costs incurred in connection with research and development efforts, including clinical studies, and from general and administrative costs associated with our operations. We expect our operating expenses to significantly increase as we continue to invest in research and development efforts and the commencement and continuation of clinical trials of our existing and future drug candidates. We also continue to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company. As a result, we expect to continue to incur substantial and increasing operating losses for the foreseeable future. Our prior losses, combined with expected future losses, have had, and will continue to have, an adverse effect on our stockholders’ deficit and working capital. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with developing pharmaceutical products and new technologies, we are unable to predict the extent of any future losses or when we will become profitable, if at all. Even if we do become profitable, we may not be able to sustain or increase our profitability on a quarterly or annual basis.
We will need to raise substantial additional funding. If we are unable to raise capital when needed, we would be forced to delay, reduce, or eliminate at least some of our product development programs, business development plans, strategic investments, and potential commercialization efforts, and to possibly cease operations.
Our mission, decoding biology to radically improve lives, is broad, expensive to achieve, and will require substantial additional capital in the future. We have programs throughout the stages of development including clinical, preclinical, late discovery and early discovery. We expect our expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing activities as we continue the research and development of, initiate clinical trials of, and potentially seek marketing approval for, our current drug candidates, and as we add to our pipeline what we believe will be an accelerating number of additional programs. Preclinical and clinical testing is expensive and can take many years, so we will need supplemental funding to complete these undertakings. If our drug candidates are eventually
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approved by regulators, we will require significant additional funding in order to launch and commercialize our products.
Our future capital requirements will depend on, and could increase significantly as a result of, many factors, including but not limited to the following:
•the number of drug candidates that we pursue and their development requirements;
•the scope, progress, results, and costs of our current and future preclinical and clinical trials;
•the costs, timing, and outcome of regulatory review of our drug candidates;
•if we obtain marketing approval for any current or future drug candidates, expenses related to product sales, marketing, manufacturing, and distribution;
•our ability to establish and maintain collaborations, licensing, and other strategic arrangements on favorable terms, and the success of such collaborations, licensing, and strategic arrangements;
•the impact of any business interruptions to our operations or to the operations of our manufacturers, suppliers, or other vendors, including the timing and enrollment of participants in our planned clinical trials, resulting from global supply chain issues or other force majeure events;
•the extent to which we acquire or invest in businesses, products, and technologies;
•the costs of preparing, filing, and prosecuting patent and other applications covering our intellectual property; maintaining, protecting, and enforcing our intellectual property rights; and defending intellectual property-related claims of third parties;
•our headcount growth and associated costs as we expand our business operations and our research and development activities, including into new geographies and through acquisitions;
•the increase in salaries and wages and the extension of benefits required to retain, attract and motivate qualified personnel;
•the increases in costs of components necessary for our business;
•inflation;
•the costs of any commitments to become carbon neutral by 2030 and other environmental, social and governance goals; and
•the costs of operating as a public company.
We historically have financed our operations primarily through private placements of our capital stock, through the net proceeds from our initial public offering and from our “at-the market” offerings under our Open Market Sales Agreement (the “Sales Agreement”) with Jefferies LLC (the “Sales Agent”), that provides for the offering, issuance and sale of up to an aggregate amount of $300.0 million of our Class A common stock from time to time in. We expect that our existing cash position and short-term investments as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditures for at least the next 12 months. However, identifying potential drug candidates and conducting preclinical development testing and clinical trials is a time-consuming, expensive, and uncertain process that takes years to complete, and we may never generate the necessary data or results required to obtain marketing approval and achieve product sales. In addition, our drug candidates, even if approved, may not achieve commercial success. We do not anticipate that our commercial revenues, if any, will be derived from sales of products for at least several years. Accordingly, we will need to continue to rely on additional financing to achieve our business objectives, and we may need to raise substantial additional funds sooner than expected.
Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial revenues, we expect to finance our cash needs potentially through a combination of private and public equity offerings and debt financings, as well as strategic collaborations, partnerships, and licensing arrangements. We do not have any committed external source of funds other than amounts payable by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda), by Bayer AG (Bayer) under and by Genentech, Inc. and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (together, Roche Genentech), under collaboration agreements. Disruptions in the financial markets in general, due to the COVID-19 or other potential pandemics, U.S. debt ceiling and budget deficit concerns, and other geo-political issues such as the Ukraine/Russia conflict, the Israel-Hamas war, and political and trade uncertainties in the greater China region, may make equity and debt financing more difficult to obtain. We cannot be certain that future financing will be available in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings, or strategic collaborations or similar arrangements, on a timely basis and satisfactory terms, we may be required to significantly curtail, delay, or discontinue one or more of our research and development programs or the future commercialization of any drug candidate, or we may be unable to expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on
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our business opportunities as desired. Any of these circumstances could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operationsand may cause us to cease operations.
Raising additional capital and issuing additional securities may cause dilution to our stockholders, restrict our operations, require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or drug candidates, and divert management’s attention from our core business.
The terms of any financing we obtain may adversely affect the holdings or rights of our stockholders, and the issuance of additional securities, whether equity or debt, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our shares to decline. To the extent that we raise additional capital or otherwise issue additional securities through the sale of Class A common stock or securities convertible or exchangeable into Class A common stock, our stockholders’ ownership interests will be diluted.
For example, in October 2022, we issued 15.3 million shares of our Class A common stock for gross proceeds of $150 million and in July 2023, we issued 7.7 million shares of our Class A common stock for gross proceeds of $50 million. Additionally, in August 2023, we entered into the Sales Agreement to provide for the offering, issuance and sale of up to an aggregate amount of $300.0 million of our Class A common stock from time to time in “at-the-market” offerings. In addition to capital raising issuances, in connection with the acquisitions of Cyclica Inc. (Cyclica) and Valence Discovery Inc. (Valence) in May 2023, we issued 12.4 million shares of our Class A common stock or securities convertible or exchangeable into Class A common stock and we issued 3.2 million shares of our Class A common stock in November 2023 to Tempus Labs, Inc. (Tempus) in payment for the initial license fee under the terms of that certain Master Agreement entered into by and between us and Tempus (the Tempus Agreement) and may issue additional shares in the future under the Tempus Agreement. Sales of a substantial number of shares of our outstanding Class A common stock in the public market could occur at any time. These sales, or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares of our Class A common stock intend to sell shares, could reduce the market price of our common stock.
Moreover, as a condition to providing additional funds to us, future investors may demand, and may be granted, favorable terms that may include liquidation, preferences, dividend payments, voting rights or other preferences that materially and adversely affect the rights of common stockholders. Debt financing, if available, would result in increased fixed payment obligations. In addition, we may be required to agree to certain restrictive covenants, which could adversely impact our ability to make capital expenditures, declare dividends, or otherwise conduct our business. We also may need to raise funds through additional strategic collaborations, partnerships, or licensing arrangements with third parties at an earlier stage than would be desirable. Such arrangements could require us to relinquish rights to some of our technologies or drug candidates, future revenue streams, or research programs, or otherwise agree to terms unfavorable to us. Fundraising efforts have the potential to divert our management’s attention from our core business or create competing priorities, which may adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize our drug candidates and technologies.
We are engaged in strategic collaborations and we intend to seek to establish additional collaborations, including for the clinical development or commercialization of our drug candidates. If we are unable to establish collaborations on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or if current and future collaborations are not successful, we may have to alter our development and commercialization plans.
Our product development programs and the potential commercialization of our drug candidates will require substantial additional cash to fund expenses. To date our operating revenue has primarily been generated through funded research and development agreements with Roche Genentech, Takeda, and Bayer. For example, in December 2021, we entered into a Collaboration and License Agreement with Roche Genentech (the Roche Genentech Agreement) for discovery of small molecule drug candidates with the potential to treat key areas of neuroscience and an oncology indication, under which we received a non-refundable upfront payment of $150.0 million in January 2022 and an option fee for a single molecule validation program in oncology of $3M in October 2023. We intend to seek additional strategic collaborations, partnerships, and licensing arrangements with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. In the near term, the value of our company will depend in part on the number and quality of the collaborations and similar arrangements that we negotiate. Whether we reach a definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, on our assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration, and the potential collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors. Those factors may include, among others, (i) our technologies and capabilities; (ii) our intellectual property position with respect to the
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subject drug candidate; (iii) the design or results of clinical trials; (iv) the likelihood of approval by the FDA and similar regulatory authorities outside the U.S.; (v) the potential market for the subject drug candidate; (vi) potential competing products; and (vii) industry and market conditions generally. In addition, the significant number of business combinations among large pharmaceutical companies has reduced the number of potential future collaborators with whom we can partner.
Collaborations and similar arrangements are complex and time-consuming to negotiate and document. We may have to relinquish valuable rights to our product candidates, intellectual property, or future revenue streams, or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us or in instances where it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights. We may be restricted under collaboration agreements from entering into future agreements on certain terms with other potential collaborators. In addition, management of our relationships with collaborators requires (i) significant time and effort from our management team; (ii) coordination of our marketing and research and development programs with the marketing and research and development priorities of our collaborators; and (iii) effective allocation of our resources across multiple projects.
Collaborations and similar arrangements may never result in the successful development or commercialization of drug candidates or the generation of sales revenue. The success of these arrangements will depend heavily on the efforts and activities of our collaborators. Collaborators generally have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply to these collaborations, and they may not pursue or prioritize the development and commercialization of partnered drug candidates in a manner that is in our best interests. Product revenues arising from collaborations are likely to be lower than if we directly marketed and sold products. Disagreements with collaborators regarding clinical development or commercialization matters can lead to delays in the development process or commercialization of the applicable drug candidate and, in some cases, the termination of the collaboration arrangement. These disagreements can be difficult to resolve if neither of the parties has final decision-making authority. Collaboration agreements are typically terminable by the collaborator, and any such termination or expiration would adversely affect us financially and could harm our business reputation. If we were to become involved in arbitration or litigation with any of our collaborators, it would consume time and divert management resources away from operations, damage our reputation, impact our ability to enter into future collaboration agreements, and may further result in substantial payments from us to our collaborators to settle those disputes.
We may not be able to establish additional strategic collaborations and similar arrangements on a timely basis, on acceptable terms, or at all, and to maintain and successfully conclude them. Collaborative relationships with third parties could cause us to expend significant resources and incur substantial business risk with no assurance of financial return. If we are unable to establish or maintain strategic collaborations and similar arrangements on terms favorable to us and realize the intended benefits of those partnering arrangements, our research and development efforts and potential to generate revenue may be limited and our business and operating results could be materially and adversely impacted.
We have no products approved for commercial sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales. We or our current and future collaborators may never successfully develop and commercialize our drug candidates, which would negatively affect our results of operation and our ability to continue our business operations.
Our ability to become profitable depends upon our ability to generate substantial revenue in an amount necessary to offset our expenses. As of December 31, 2023, we have not generated any revenue from our drug candidates or technologies, other than limited grant revenues, as well as payments under collaboration agreements, including the Roche Genentech Agreement. We expect to continue to derive most of our revenue in the near future from collaborations. We do not expect to generate significant revenue unless and until we progress our drug candidates through clinical trials and obtain marketing approval of, and begin to sell, one or more of our drug candidates, or we otherwise receive substantial licensing or other payments under our collaborations. Even if we obtain market approval for our drug candidates, one or more of them may not achieve commercial success.
Commercialization of our drug candidates depends on a number of factors, including but not limited to our ability to:
•successfully complete preclinical studies;
•obtain approval of Investigational New Drug (IND) applications by the FDA and similar regulatory approvals outside the U.S., allowing us to commence clinical trials;
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•successfully enroll subjects in, and complete, clinical trials;
•receive regulatory approvals from applicable regulatory authorities;
•establish commercial manufacturing capabilities or make arrangements with third-party manufacturers for clinical supply and commercial manufacturing;
•obtain patent and trade secret protection or regulatory exclusivity for our drug candidates, and maintain, protect, defend, and enforce such intellectual property rights;
•launch commercial sales of our drug products, whether alone or in collaboration with other parties;
•obtain and maintain acceptance of our drug products by patients, the medical community, and third-party payors, and effectively compete with other therapies;
•obtain and maintain coverage of and adequate reimbursement for our drug products, if and when approved, by medical insurance providers; and
•demonstrate a continued acceptable safety profile of drug products following marketing approval.
If we do not achieve one or more of these factors in a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully commercialize our drug candidates, which would materially harm our business.
Our current or future collaborators would similarly need to be effective in the above activities as they pertain to the collaborators in order to successfully develop drug candidates. We and they may never succeed in developing and commercializing drug candidates. And even if we do, we may never generate revenues that are significant enough to achieve profitability; or even if our collaborators do, we may not receive option fees, milestone payments, or royalties from them that are significant enough for us to achieve profitability. Even if we achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable would eventually depress our value and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business, maintain our research and development efforts, develop a pipeline of drug candidates, enter into collaborations, or even continue our operations.
Our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate significantly due to a variety of factors and could fall below our expectations or the expectations of investors or securities analysts, which may cause our stock price to fluctuate or decline.
The amount of our future losses, and when we might achieve profitability, is uncertain, and our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate significantly for various reasons, including, but not limited to, the following:
•the timing of, and our levels of investment in, research and development activities relating to our drug candidates;
•the timing of, and status of staffing and enrollment for, clinical trials;
•the results of clinical trials for our drug candidates, including whether there are any unexpected health or safety concerns with our drug candidates and whether we receive marketing approval for them;
•commercialization of competing drug candidates or any other change in the competitive landscape of our industry, including consolidation among our competitors or partners;
•the timing and cost of manufacturing our drug candidates;
•additions and departures of key personnel;
•the level of demand for our drug candidates should they receive approval, which may vary significantly;
•changes in the regulatory environment or market or general economic conditions;
•the increase in salaries and wages and the extension of benefits required to retain, attract and motivate qualified personnel;
•the increases in costs of components necessary for our business; and
•inflation.
The occurrence of one or more of these or other factors could result in large fluctuations and unpredictability in our quarterly and annual operating results. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failing to meet any forecasts we provide to the market, or the expectations of industry or financial analysts or investors, for any period. If one or more of these events occur, the price of our Class A common stock could decline substantially.
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If we engage in future acquisitions or strategic partnerships, this may increase our capital requirements, dilute our stockholders’ equity, cause us to incur debt or assume contingent liabilities, and subject us to other risks.
We have engaged and may in the future engage in acquisitions and strategic partnerships, including by licensing or acquiring complementary products, intellectual property rights, technologies, or businesses. Any acquisition or strategic partnership may entail numerous risks, including but not limited to the following:
•increased operating expenses and cash requirements;
•the assumption of indebtedness or contingent liabilities;
•the issuance of our equity securities, which would result in dilution to our stockholders’ equity;
•difficulties in assimilating operations, intellectual property, products, and drug candidates of an acquired company, and with integrating new personnel;
•the diversion of our management’s attention from our existing product programs and initiatives, even if we are unable to complete such proposed transaction;
•our ability to retain key employees and maintain key business relationships;
•uncertainties associated with the other party to such a transaction, including the prospects of that party and their existing products or drug candidates and ability to obtain regulatory approvals; and
•our inability to generate revenue from acquired intellectual property, technology, and/or products sufficient to meet our objectives or even to offset the associated transaction and maintenance costs.
In addition, if we undertake such a transaction, we may assume or incur debt obligations, incur a large one-time expense, or acquire intangible assets, which could result in significant future amortization expenses and adversely impact our results of operations.
Costs of materials necessary for our business increasing more rapidly could increase our net losses.
The costs of materials necessary for our business have risen in recent years and will likely continue to increase given stringency of demands. Competition and fixed price contracts may limit our ability to maintain existing operating margins. Costs increasing more rapidly than market prices may increase our net losses and may have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations.
RISKS RELATED TO THE DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT OF DRUG CANDIDATES
Our approach to drug discovery is unique and may not lead to successful drug products for various reasons, including, but not limited to, challenges identifying mechanisms of action for our candidates.
We image cells and use cell morphology to understand how a diseased cell responds to drugs and if or when it appears normal. If studying the shape, structure, form, and size of cells does not prove to be an accurate way to better understand diseases or does not lead to the biological insights or viable drug candidates we anticipate, our drug discovery platform may not be useful or may not lead to successful drug products, or we may have to move to a new business model, any of which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and results of operations. If the mechanism of action of a drug candidate is unknown, it may be more difficult to choose the best lead to optimize from an efficacy standpoint and to avoid potential off-target side effects that could affect safety. Such uncertainty could make it more difficult to form partnerships with larger pharmaceutical companies, as the expenses involved in late-phase clinical trials increase the level of risk related to potential efficacy and/or safety concerns and may pose challenges to IND and/or New Drug Application (NDA) approval by the FDA or other regulatory agencies.
Our drug candidates are in preclinical or clinical development, which are lengthy and expensive processes with uncertain outcomes and the potential for substantial delays.
Our current drug candidates are in preclinical or clinical development. Before we can bring any drug candidate to market, we must, among other things, successfully complete preclinical studies, have the candidate manufactured to appropriate specifications, conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy in humans, and obtain marketing approval from the FDA and other appropriate regulatory authorities, which we have not yet demonstrated our ability to do. Clinical testing is expensive, difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete, and is uncertain as to outcome. A failure of a clinical trial can occur at any stage of testing. The outcome of preclinical development testing and early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later
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clinical trials, and interim results of a clinical trial do not necessarily predict final results. We may accelerate development from cell models in our drug discovery platform directly to patients without validating results through animal studies or validate results in animal studies at the same time as we conduct Phase 1 clinical trials. This approach could pose additional risks to our success if the effect of certain of our drug candidates on diseases has not been tested in animals prior to testing in humans.
We have several clinical-stage drug candidates and we anticipate filing IND applications with the FDA or other regulators for Phase 1 or Phase 2 studies, as applicable, for these drug candidates. We may not be able to file such INDs, or INDs for any other drug candidates, and begin such studies, on the timelines we expect, if at all, and any such delays could impact any additional product development timelines. Moreover, we cannot be sure that submission of an IND will result in the FDA or other regulators allowing further clinical trials to begin or that, once begun, issues will not arise that require us to suspend or terminate these trials. Commencing each of these clinical trials is subject to finalizing the trial design based on discussions with the FDA and other regulatory authorities. The requirements imposed by these regulatory authorities, or their governing statutes, could change at any time, which may result in stricter approval conditions than we currently expect and/or necessitate completion of additional or longer clinical trials. Successful completion of our clinical trials is a prerequisite to submitting NDAs to the FDA, as well as Marketing Authorization Applications (MAAs) to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for each drug candidate and, consequently, to the ultimate approval and commercial marketing of each drug candidate. We do not know whether any of our future clinical trials will begin on time or be completed on schedule, if at all.
We have experience, and may in the future experience delays in completing our preclinical studies and initiating or completing clinical trials, or numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, any clinical trials, that could require us to incur additional costs or delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or to commercialize our drug candidates, including but not limited to those related to one or more of the following:
•regulators, Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), or ethics committees may not authorize us or our investigators to commence a clinical trial or to conduct a clinical trial at prospective trial sites;
•we may have difficulty reaching, or fail to reach, agreement on acceptable terms with prospective trial sites and prospective Contract Research Organizations (CROs), the terms of which can be subject to extensive negotiation and may vary significantly among different CROs and trial sites;
•the number of participants required for clinical trials of our drug candidates may be larger than we anticipate, enrollment in these clinical trials may be slower than we anticipate, or participants may drop out of clinical trials or fail to return for post-treatment follow-up at a higher rate than we anticipate;
•we or our third-party contractors may fail to comply with regulatory requirements, fail to meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner or at all, deviate from the clinical trial protocol, or drop out of a trial, which may require that we add new clinical trial sites or investigators;
•the supply or quality of our drug candidates or the other materials necessary to conduct clinical trials of our drug candidates may be insufficient, delayed, or inadequate;
•the occurrence of delays in the manufacturing of our drug candidates;
•reports may arise from preclinical or clinical testing of other therapies that raise safety, efficacy, or other concerns about our drug candidates; and
•clinical trials may produce inconclusive, mixed, or negative results about our drug candidates, including determinations that candidates have undesirable side effects or other unexpected characteristics, in which event, we may decide – or our investigators or regulators, IRBs, or ethics committees may require us — to suspend or terminate the trials.
From time to time as we move through the stages of development, we have published and expect in the future to publish interim top-line or preliminary data from our clinical trials. Interim data from clinical trials are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as enrollment of participants continues and more data become available. Preliminary or top-line data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary data we previously published. As a result, interim and preliminary data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. Adverse differences between preliminary or interim data and final data could significantly harm our business prospects.
Our product development costs will increase if we experience delays in testing or regulatory approvals. We do not know whether any of our future clinical trials will begin as planned, or whether any of our current or future clinical trials will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, if at all. If we decide or are
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required to suspend or terminate a clinical trial, we may elect to abandon product development for that program. Significant preclinical study or clinical trial delays could also shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our drug candidates or could allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do and impair our ability to successfully commercialize our drug candidates. Any delays in or unfavorable outcomes from our preclinical or clinical development programs may significantly harm our business, operating results, and prospects.
If we experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment of patients in clinical trials, our receipt of necessary regulatory approvals could be delayed or prevented.
We may not be able to initiate, continue, and complete clinical trials for current or future drug candidates if we are unable to locate and timely enroll a sufficient number of eligible participants in these trials as required by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside the United States. The process of finding potential participants may prove more costly than currently expected and our ability to enroll eligible participants may be limited or may result in slower enrollment than we anticipate due to a number of factors, including but not limited to the following:
•the severity of the disease under investigation;
•the eligibility criteria for the clinical trial in question, such as requirements that participants have specific characteristics or diseases;
•the availability of an appropriate genomic screening test;
•the perceived risks and benefits of the drug candidate under study;
•difficulties in identifying, recruiting, and enrolling a sufficient number of participants to complete our clinical studies;
•our ability to recruit clinical trial investigators with the appropriate competencies and experience;
•the referral practices of physicians;
•whether competitors are conducting clinical trials for drug candidates that treat the same indications as ours, and the availability and efficacy of competing therapies;
•our ability to monitor participants adequately during and after the trial and to maintain participant informed consent and privacy;
•the proximity and availability of clinical trial sites for prospective participants;
•pandemics or other public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, global political instability, warfare, or other external events that may limit the availability of participants, principal investigators, study staff, or clinical sites; and
•the risk that enrolled participants will not complete a clinical trial.
If individuals are unwilling to participate in or complete our studies for any reason, or we experience other difficulties with enrollment or participation, the timeline for recruiting participants, conducting studies, and obtaining regulatory approval of potential products may be delayed.
Our planned clinical trials, or those of our current and potential future collaborators, may not be successful or may reveal significant adverse events not seen in our preclinical or nonclinical studies, which may result in a safety profile that could inhibit regulatory approval or market acceptance of any of our drug candidates.
Before obtaining regulatory approvals for the commercial sale of any products, we must demonstrate through preclinical studies and clinical trials that our drug candidates are both safe and effective for use in each target indication. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. The results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of our drug candidates may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical trials, and initial success in clinical trials may not be indicative of results that will be obtained when such trials are completed. An extremely high rate of drug candidates fail as they proceed through clinical trials. Drug candidates in later stages of clinical trials also may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy profile despite having progressed through nonclinical studies and initial clinical trials. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or unacceptable safety issues, notwithstanding promising results in earlier trials. Most drug candidates that commence clinical trials are never approved for marketing, and there can be no assurance that any of our current or future clinical trials will ultimately be successful or support further clinical development of any of our drug candidates.
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As is the case with many treatments for rare diseases and other conditions, there have been, and it is likely that in the future there may be, side effects associated with the use of our drug candidates. If significant adverse events or other side effects are observed in any of our current or future drug candidates, we may have difficulty recruiting participants in our clinical trials, they may drop out of our trials, or we may be required to abandon the trials or our development efforts of one or more drug candidates altogether. Moreover, if we develop drug candidates in combination with one or more disease therapies, it may be more difficult to accurately predict side effects. We, the FDA, other applicable regulatory authorities, or an IRB may suspend or terminate clinical trials of a drug candidate at any time for various reasons, including a belief that subjects in such trials are being exposed to unacceptable health risks or adverse side effects. Some potential therapeutics developed in the biotechnology industry that initially showed therapeutic promise in early-stage trials were later found to cause side effects that prevented their further development. Even if the side effects do not preclude the product from obtaining or maintaining marketing approval, undesirable side effects may inhibit market acceptance of the approved product due to its tolerability versus other therapies. Any of these developments could materially harm our business, operating results, and prospects.
We conduct clinical trials for our drug candidates outside the United States, and the FDA and similar foreign regulatory authorities may not accept data from such trials.
We have conducted clinical trials outside the United States, including in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and may in the future choose to conduct additional clinical trials outside the United States in locations that may include Australia, Europe, Asia, or other jurisdictions. FDA acceptance of trial data from clinical trials conducted outside the United States requires that all of FDA’s clinical trial requirements be met. In addition, in cases where data from clinical trials conducted outside the United States are intended to serve as the sole basis for marketing approval in the United States, the FDA will generally not approve the application on the basis of foreign data alone unless (i) the data are applicable to the United States population and United States medical practice; (ii) the trials are performed by clinical investigators of recognized competence; and (iii) the data may be considered valid without the need for an on-site inspection by the FDA or, if the FDA considers such an inspection to be necessary, the FDA is able to validate the data through an on-site inspection or other appropriate means. Many foreign regulatory bodies have similar approval requirements, and such foreign trials would be subject to the applicable local laws of the foreign jurisdictions where the trials are conducted. There can be no assurance that the FDA or any similar foreign regulatory authority will accept data from trials conducted outside of the United States or the applicable jurisdiction. If the FDA or any similar foreign regulatory authority does not accept such data, it would result in the need for additional trials, which would be costly and time-consuming and delay aspects of our business plan, and which may result in our drug candidates not receiving approval or clearance for commercialization in the applicable jurisdiction.
Following the United Kingdom’s departure from the EU (referred to as Brexit) on January 31, 2020, and the end of the “transition period” on December 31, 2020, the EU and the United Kingdom entered into a trade and cooperation agreement that governs certain aspects of their future relationship, including the assurance of tariff-free trade for certain goods and services. As the regulatory framework for pharmaceutical products in the United Kingdom is derived from EU directives and regulations, Brexit will materially impact the future regulatory regime that applies to products and the approval of drug candidates in the United Kingdom. Longer term, the United Kingdom is likely to develop its own legislation that diverges from that in the EU, which may delay or preclude marketing approval for our drug candidates in one or both jurisdictions.
It is difficult to establish with precision the incidence and prevalence for target patient populations of our drug candidates. If the market opportunities for our drug candidates are smaller than we estimate, or if any approval that we obtain is based on a narrower definition of the patient population, our revenue and ability to achieve profitability will be adversely affected, possibly materially.
Even if approved for commercial sale, the total addressable market for our drug candidates will ultimately depend upon, among other things, (i) the indications and diagnostic criteria included in the final label; (ii) acceptance by the medical community; and (iii) patient access, product pricing, and reimbursement by third-party payors. The number of patients targeted by our drug candidates may turn out to be lower than expected, patients may not be amenable to treatment with our products, or new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or access, all of which would adversely affect our results of operations and our business. Due to our limited resources and access to capital or for other reasons, we must prioritize development of certain drug candidates, which may prove to be the wrong choices and may adversely affect our business.
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Although we intend to explore other therapeutic opportunities in addition to the drug candidates that we are currently developing, we may fail to identify viable new drug candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons.
Research programs to pursue the development of our existing and planned drug candidates for additional indications, and to identify new drug candidates and disease targets, require substantial technical, financial, and human resources whether or not they are ultimately successful. For example, under the Roche Genentech Agreement, we are collaborating with Roche Genentech to develop various projects related to the discovery of small molecule drug candidates with the potential to treat “key areas” of neuroscience and an oncology indication. There can be no assurance that we will find potential targets using this approach, that the conditions targeted will be tractable, or that clinical trials will be successful. Our research programs may initially show promise in identifying potential indications and/or drug candidates, yet fail to yield results for clinical development for a number of reasons, including but not limited to the following:
•the research methodology used may not be successful in identifying potential indications and/or drug candidates, including as a result of the limited patient sample represented in our databases and the validity of extrapolating based on insights from a particular cellular context that may not apply to other, more relevant cellular contexts;
•potential drug candidates may, after further study, be shown to have harmful side effects or other characteristics that indicate they are unlikely to be effective products; or
•it may take greater human and financial resources than we can allocate to identify additional therapeutic opportunities for our drug candidates or to develop suitable potential drug candidates through internal research programs, thereby limiting our ability to develop, diversify, and expand our product portfolio.
Because we have limited financial and human resources, we will have to prioritize and focus on certain research programs, drug candidates, and target indications while forgoing others. As a result, we may forgo or delay pursuit of opportunities with other drug candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential or a greater likelihood of success. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities.
Accordingly, there can be no assurance that we will ever be able to identify additional therapeutic opportunities for our drug candidates or to develop suitable potential drug candidates through internal research programs, which could materially adversely affect our future growth and prospects.
If we are unable to obtain, or if there are delays in obtaining, required regulatory approvals for our drug candidates in the U.S. or other jurisdictions, or if approval is subject to limitations, we will be unable to commercialize, or will be delayed or limited in commercializing, the drug candidates in such jurisdiction and our ability to generate revenue may be materially impaired.
Our drug candidates and the activities associated with their development and commercialization — including their design, testing, manufacture, safety, efficacy, recordkeeping, labeling, storage, approval, advertising, promotion, sale, distribution, import, and export — are subject to comprehensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory agencies in the United States and by comparable authorities in other countries. Before we can commercialize any of our drug candidates, we must obtain marketing approval. As of December 31, 2023, all of our drug candidates are in development, and we have not received approval to market any of our drug candidates from regulatory authorities in any jurisdiction. It is possible that our current and future drug candidates will never obtain regulatory and marketing approval.
We have only limited experience in filing and supporting applications to regulatory authorities and expect to rely on CROs and/or regulatory consultants to assist us in this process. Securing regulatory approval requires the submission of extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to the various regulatory authorities for each therapeutic indication to establish the drug candidate’s safety and efficacy. It also requires the submission of information about the product manufacturing process to, and inspection of manufacturing facilities by, the relevant regulatory authority. Given our novel approach to drug discovery that uses our platform to generate data, regulatory authorities may not approve any of our drug candidates derived from our platform. They may also elect to inspect our platform and facilities and manufacturing and research practices, which may uncover regulatory deficiencies that must be addressed and remedied before research or market authorizations may occur.
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The process of obtaining regulatory approvals, both in the United States and abroad, is expensive and often takes many years. If the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority requires that we perform additional preclinical or clinical trials, then approval may be delayed, if obtained at all. The FDA and comparable regulatory authorities in other countries have substantial discretion in the approval process and may refuse to accept any application, or they may decide that our data are insufficient for approval and require additional preclinical, clinical, or other studies. Our drug candidates could be delayed in receiving, or fail to receive, regulatory approval for many reasons, including but not limited to the following:
•the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with the design or implementation of our clinical trials;
•we may not be able to enroll a sufficient number of patients in our clinical studies;
•we may be unable to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities that a drug candidate is safe and effective for its proposed indication or that a related companion diagnostic is suitable to identify appropriate patient populations;
•a drug candidate may be only moderately effective or may have undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities, or other characteristics;
•the results of clinical trials may not meet the level of statistical significance required by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities for approval;
•we may be unable to demonstrate that a drug candidate’s clinical and other benefits outweigh its safety risks;
•the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with our interpretation of data from preclinical studies or clinical trials;
•the data collected from clinical trials of our drug candidates may not be sufficient or of sufficient quality to support the submission of an NDA or other submission or to obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere;
•the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may find deficiencies with, or fail to approve, our manufacturing processes or facilities, or those of third-party manufacturers with which we contract, for clinical and commercial supplies; and
•the approval policies or regulations of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may significantly change such that our clinical or manufacturing data are insufficient for approval.
Even if we obtain approval, regulatory authorities may approve any of our drug candidates for fewer or more limited indications than we request, thereby narrowing the commercial potential of the drug candidate. In addition, regulatory authorities may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly post-marketing clinical trials or may approve a drug candidate with a label that does not include the labeling claims necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of that drug candidate.
If we are unable to obtain, or experience delays in obtaining, approval of our current and future drug candidates in the U.S. or other jurisdictions, or if approval is subject to limitations, the commercial prospects for the drug candidates may be harmed, and our reputation and ability to generate revenues may be materially impaired.
We may never realize a return on our investment of resources and cash in our drug discovery collaborations.
We conduct drug discovery activities for or with collaborators who are also engaged in drug discovery and development, which include pre-commercial biotechnology companies and large pharmaceutical companies. Under these collaborations, we typically provide, among other resources, the benefit of our drug discovery platform and platform experts who identify molecules that have activity against one or more specified targets. In consideration, we have received, and expect to receive in the future, (i) equity investments; (ii) upfront fees; and/or (iii) the right to receive option fees, cash milestone payments upon the achievement of specified development, regulatory, or commercial sales milestones for the drug discovery targets, and potential royalties. Our ability to receive fees and payments and realize returns from our drug discovery collaborations in a timely manner, or at all, is subject to a number of risks, including but not limited to the following:
•our collaborators may incur unanticipated costs or experience delays in completing, or may be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of any drug candidates;
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•collaborators have significant discretion in determining the amount and timing of efforts and resources that they will apply to our collaborations and may not perform their obligations as currently expected;
•collaborators may decide not to pursue development or commercialization of drug candidates for various reasons, including results of clinical trials or other studies, changes in the collaborator’s strategic focus or available funding, their desire to develop products that compete directly or indirectly with our drug candidates, or external factors (such as an acquisition or industry slowdown) that divert resources or create competing priorities;
•existing collaborators and potential future collaborators may begin to perceive us to be a competitor more generally, particularly as we advance our internal drug discovery programs, and therefore may be unwilling to continue existing collaborations, or enter into new collaborations, with us;
•a collaborator may fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements regarding the development, manufacture, distribution, or marketing of a drug candidate or product;
•disagreements with collaborators, including disagreements over intellectual property or proprietary rights, contract interpretation, or the preferred course of development, might cause delays or terminations of the research, development, or commercialization of drug candidates, or might result in litigation or arbitration;
•collaborators may not properly obtain, maintain, enforce, defend, or protect our intellectual property or proprietary rights, or they may use our proprietary information in such a way as to potentially lead to disputes or legal proceedings that could jeopardize or invalidate our or their intellectual property or proprietary rights;
•collaborators may infringe, misappropriate, or otherwise violate the intellectual property or proprietary rights of third parties, which may expose us to litigation and potential liability; and
•drug discovery collaborations may be terminated prior to our receipt of any significant value.
In addition, we may be over-reliant on our partners to provide information for molecules that we in-license, or such molecules may no longer be well-protected because the composition of matter patents that once protected them become expired. Moreover, we may have difficulty obtaining the quality and quantity of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for use in drug candidates, or we may be unable to ensure the stability of the molecule, all of which is needed to conduct clinical trials or bring a drug candidate to market. For those molecules that we are attempting to repurpose for other indications, our collaboration partners may not have sufficient data, may have poor quality data, or may not be able to help us interpret data, any of which could cause our collaboration to fail.
If any drug discovery collaborations that we enter into do not result in the successful development and commercialization of drug products that result in option fees, milestone payments, royalties, or other payments to us as expected, we may not receive an adequate return on the resources we have invested in such collaborations, which would have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and prospects. Further, we may not have access to, or may be restricted from disclosing, certain information regarding development and commercialization of our collaborators’ drug candidates and, consequently, may have limited ability to inform our stockholders about the status of, and likelihood of achieving, option fees, milestone payments or royalties under such collaborations.
We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing, or commercializing products before, or more successfully than, we do.
The development and commercialization of new products in the biopharmaceutical and related industries is highly competitive. There are other companies focusing on technology-enabled drug discovery to identify and develop new chemical entities (NCEs) that have not previously been investigated in clinical trials and/or known chemical entities (KCEs) that have been previously investigated. Some of these competitive companies are employing scientific approaches that are the same as or similar to our approach, and others are using entirely different approaches. These companies include large pharmaceutical companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies, and biotechnology companies of various sizes worldwide. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large, established companies. Potential competitors also include academic institutions, government agencies, and other public and private research organizations. Many of the companies that we compete against, or which we may compete against in the future, have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals, and marketing approval of products than we do. They may also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, in establishing clinical trial sites and patient recruitment for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, developing our programs.
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Within the field of technology-enabled drug discovery, we believe that our approach utilizing a combination of wet-lab biology to generate our proprietary dataset, and the in silico tools in our closed-loop system, sets us apart and affords us a competitive advantage in initiating and advancing drug development programs. We further believe that the principal competitive factors to our business include (i) the accuracy of our computations and predictions; (ii) the ability to integrate experimental and computational capabilities; (iii) the ability to successfully transition research programs into clinical development; (iv) the ability to raise capital; and (v) the scalability of our platform, pipeline, and business.
Any drug candidates that we successfully develop and commercialize will compete with currently-approved therapies, and new therapies that may become available in the future, from segments of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and other related industries. The key competitive factors affecting the success of all of our drug candidates, if approved, are likely to be (i) their efficacy, safety, convenience, and price; (ii) the level of non-generic and generic competition; and (iii) the availability and amount of reimbursement from government healthcare programs, commercial insurance plans, and other third-party payors. Our commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if competing products are more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient, or are less expensive than products that we or our collaborators may develop, or if competitors obtain FDA or other regulatory approval more rapidly than us and are able to establish a strong market position before we or our collaborators are able to enter the market.
If our proprietary tools and technology and other competitive advantages do not remain in place and evolve appropriately as barriers to entry in the future, or if we and our collaboration partners are not otherwise able to effectively compete against existing and potential competitors, our business and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
Because we have multiple programs and drug candidates in our development pipeline and are pursuing a variety of target indications and treatment modalities, we may expend our limited resources to pursue a particular drug candidate and fail to capitalize on development opportunities or drug candidates that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success.
We currently focus on the development of drug candidates regardless of the treatment modality or the particular target indication. Because we have limited financial and personnel resources, we may forgo or delay pursuit of opportunities with potential target indications or drug candidates that later prove to have greater commercial potential than our current and planned development programs and drug candidates. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future research and development programs and other future drug candidates for specific indications may not yield any future drug candidates that are commercially viable.
We and our collaborators may not achieve projected discovery and development milestones and other anticipated key events in the time frames that we or they announce, which could have an adverse impact on our business and could cause our stock price to decline.
From time to time we have made, and in the future are likely to make, public statements regarding the expected timing of certain milestones and key events, such as the commencement and completion of preclinical and clinical studies in our internal drug discovery programs as well as developments and milestones under our collaborations. Our collaborators, such as Roche Genentech, have also made public statements regarding expectations for the development of programs under collaborations with us and may in the future make additional statements about their goals and expectations for collaborations with us. The actual timing of these events can vary dramatically due to a number of factors, such as (i) delays or failures in our, or our current and future collaborators’, drug discovery and development programs; (ii) the amount of time, effort, and resources committed by us and our current and future collaborators; and (iii) the numerous uncertainties inherent in the development of drugs. As a result, there can be no assurance that our, or our current and future collaborators’, programs will advance or be completed in the time frames we or they announce or expect. If we or any collaborators fail to achieve one or more of these milestones or other key events as planned and announced, our business and reputation could be materially adversely affected.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR PLATFORM AND DATA
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We have invested, and expect to continue to invest, in research and development efforts to further enhance our drug discovery platform, which is central to our mission. If the return on these investments is lower or develops more slowly than we expect, our business and operating results may suffer.
Our drug discovery platform is central to our mission to decode biology by integrating technological innovations across biology, chemistry, automation, data science, and engineering. The platform includes the Recursion Operating System, which combines an advanced infrastructure layer to generate proprietary biological and chemical datasets, and the Recursion Map, a suite of custom software, algorithms, and machine learning tools. Our platform depends upon the continuous, effective, and reliable operation of our software, hardware, databases, and related tools and functions, as well as the integrity of our data. Our ability to develop drug candidates and increase revenue depends in large part on our ability to enhance and improve our platform. The success of any enhancement to our platform depends on several factors, including (i) innovation in hardware solutions; (ii) increased computational storage and processing capacity; (iii) development of more advanced algorithms; and (iv) generation of additional biological and chemical data, such as that which is necessary to our ability to identify important and emerging use cases and quickly develop new and effective innovations to address those use cases.
We have invested, and expect to continue to invest, in research and development efforts, acquisitions, and licensing agreements that further enhance our platform. These investments may involve significant time, risks, and uncertainties, including the risks that any new software or hardware enhancement or the integration of software or hardware from an acquired company or third party licensor may not be introduced in a timely or cost-effective manner; may not keep pace with technological developments; or may not achieve the functionality necessary to generate significant revenues.
Our proprietary software tools, hardware, and data sets are inherently complex. We have from time to time found defects, vulnerabilities, or other errors in our software and hardware that produce the data sets we use to discover new drug candidates, and new errors with our software and hardware may be detected in the future. The risk of errors is particularly significant when new software or hardware is first introduced or when new versions or enhancements of existing software or hardware are implemented. Errors may also result from the interface of our proprietary software and hardware tools with our data or with third-party systems and data.
If we are unable to successfully enhance our drug discovery platform, or if there are any defects or disruptions in our platform that are not timely resolved, our ability to develop new innovations and ultimately gain market acceptance of our products and discoveries could be materially and adversely impacted, and our reputation, business, operating results and prospects could be materially harmed.
Our information technology systems and infrastructure may fail or experience security breaches and incidents that could adversely impact our business and operations and subject us to liability.
We have experienced significant growth in the complexity of our data and the software tools that our hardware infrastructure supports. We rely significantly upon information technology systems and infrastructure owned and maintained by us or by third party providers to generate, collect, store, and transmit confidential and proprietary information and data (including but not limited to intellectual property, proprietary business information, and personal information) and to operate our business. We also outsource elements of our operations to, and obtain products and services from, third parties and engage in collaborations for drug discovery with third parties, each of which has or could have access to our confidential or proprietary information.
We deploy and operate an array of technical and procedural controls to reduce the risks to our information technology systems, infrastructure and data and to work to maintain the availability, confidentiality and integrity of our data, and we expect to continue to incur significant costs on such detection and prevention efforts. Despite these measures, our information technology and other internal infrastructure systems face the risk of failures, interruptions, security breaches and incidents, or other harm from various causes or sources, and third parties with whom we share confidential or proprietary information face similar risks and may experience similar events that materially impact us. These causes or sources include but are not limited to the following:
•service interruptions;
•system malfunctions;
•computer viruses and other malicious code;
•natural disasters;
•global political instability;
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•warfare;
•telecommunication and electrical failures;
•inadvertent or intentional actions by our employees or third-party providers; and
•cyber-attacks by malicious third parties, including the deployment of ransomware and malware, denial-of-service attacks, social engineering, and other means to affect service reliability and threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information.
With respect to cyber-attacks, the techniques used by cyber criminals change frequently, may not be recognized until launched, and can originate from a wide variety of sources, including outside groups and individuals with a range of motives (including industrial espionage) and expertise, such as organized crime affiliates, terrorist organizations, or hostile foreign governments or agencies. These risks may be heightened in connection with geopolitical events such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The costs to us to investigate and mitigate actual and suspected cybersecurity breaches and incidents could be significant. We may not be able to anticipate all types of security threats and implement preventive measures effective against all such threats. In addition, an increased amount of work is occurring remotely, including through the use of mobile devices. This could increase our cybersecurity risk, create data accessibility concerns, and make us more susceptible to communication disruptions.
We have experienced, and may continue to experience, cyber-attacks, security breaches and incidents, and other system failures, although to our knowledge we have not experienced any material interruption or incident as of December 31, 2023. The loss, corruption, unavailability of, or damage to our data would interfere with and undermine the insights we draw from our platform and could impair the integrity of our clinical trial data, leading to regulatory delays or the inability to get our drug candidates approved. If we do not accurately predict and identify our infrastructure requirements and failures and timely enhance our infrastructure, or if our remediation efforts are not successful, it could result in a material disruption of our business operations and development programs, including the loss or unauthorized disclosure of our trade secrets, individuals’ personal information, or other proprietary or sensitive data. A security breach or incident that leads to unauthorized acquisition, disclosure, or other processing of our intellectual property or other proprietary information could also affect our intellectual property rights and enable competitors to compete with us more effectively. Likewise, as we rely on third parties for the manufacture of our drug candidates and to conduct clinical trials, similar events relating to their systems and operations could also have a material adverse effect on our business and lead to regulatory agency actions.
Moreover, any security breach or other event that leads to loss of, unauthorized access to, disclosure of, or other processing of personal information, including personal information regarding clinical trial subjects, contractors, directors, or employees, or the perception any of these has occurred, could harm our reputation, compel us to comply with federal and/or state notification laws and foreign law equivalents, subject us to mandatory corrective action, and otherwise subject us to liability under laws and regulations that protect the privacy and security of personal information. For more information see “Risk Factors— We are subject to U.S. and foreign laws regarding privacy, data protection, and data security that could entail substantial compliance costs, while the failure to comply could subject us to significant liability” set forth below.
Failures, disruptions, security breaches and incidents, cyber-attacks, and other harmful events impacting data processed or maintained in our business, or information technology systems or infrastructure used in our business, including those resulting in a loss of or damage to our information technology systems or infrastructure, or the loss of or inappropriate acquisition, disclosure, or other processing of confidential, proprietary, or personal information, or the perception any of these has occurred, could expose us to a risk of loss, enforcement measures, regulatory agency investigations, proceedings, and other actions, penalties, fines, indemnification claims, litigation, potential civil or criminal liability, collaborators’ loss of confidence, damage to our reputation, and other consequences, which could materially adversely affect our business and results of operations. While we maintain insurance coverage for certain expenses and liabilities related to failures or breaches of our information technology systems, it may not be adequate to cover all losses associated with such events. In addition, such insurance may not be available to us in the future on satisfactory terms or at all. Furthermore, if the information technology systems of third parties with whom we do business become subject to disruptions or security breaches or incidents, we may have insufficient recourse against them.
Interruptions in the availability of server systems or communications with internet or cloud-based services, or failure to maintain the security, confidentiality, accessibility, or integrity of data stored on such systems, could harm our business.
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We rely on third-party data centers and telecommunications solutions, including cloud infrastructure services such as Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, to host substantial portions of our technology platforms and to support our business operations. We have no control over these cloud-based service or other third-party providers, although we attempt to reduce risk by minimizing reliance on any single third party or its operations. We have experienced, and expect we may in the future again experience, system interruptions, outages, or delays due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, website hosting disruptions, and capacity constraints. A prolonged service disruption affecting our cloud-based solutions could damage our reputation or otherwise materially harm our business.
Further, if the security measures of our third-party data center or cloud infrastructure providers are breached by cyber-attacks or other means and unauthorized access to our information technology systems or data occurs, it could result in interruptions to our operations and the loss of proprietary or confidential information, which could damage our reputation, cause us to incur substantial costs, divert our resources from other tasks, and subject us to significant legal and financial exposure and liabilities, any one of which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and prospects. Such third-party providers may also be subject to natural disasters, global political instability, warfare, power losses, telecommunications failures, or other disruptive events that could negatively affect our business and require us to incur significant costs to secure alternate cloud-based solutions. In addition, any changes in our third-party providers’ service levels or features that we utilize or a termination of our agreements could also adversely affect our business.
Our solutions utilize third-party open source software (OSS), which presents risks that could adversely affect our business and subject us to possible litigation.
Our solutions include software that is licensed from third parties under open source licenses, and we expect to continue to incorporate such OSS in our solutions in the future. We cannot ensure that we have effectively monitored our use of OSS, validated the quality or source of such software, or are in compliance with the terms of the applicable open source licenses or our policies and procedures. Use of OSS may entail greater risks than use of third-party commercial software because open source licensors generally do not provide support, updates, or warranties or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code. OSS may also be more susceptible to security vulnerabilities. Third-party OSS providers could experience service outages, data loss, privacy breaches, cyber-attacks, and other events relating to the applications and services they provide, which could diminish the utility of these services and harm our business. We also could be subject to lawsuits by third parties claiming that what we believe to be licensed OSS infringes such parties’ intellectual property rights, which could be costly for us to defend and require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our solutions.
Issues relating to the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in our offerings could adversely affect our business and operating results.
We incorporate artificial intelligence and machine learning (“AI”) solutions into our platform, in applications that are important to our operations and our drug discovery processes. There are significant risks involved in utilizing AI. Issues relating to the use of new and evolving technologies such as AI and machine learning may cause us to experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, legal liability, and new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny, and we may incur additional costs to resolve such issues. Known risks of AI currently include inaccuracy, bias, toxicity, intellectual property infringement or misappropriation, data privacy and cybersecurity issues, and data provenance disputes. Perceived or actual technical, legal, compliance, privacy, security, ethical or other issues relating to the use of AI may cause public confidence in AI to be undermined, which could slow our customers’ adoption of our products and services that use AI. In addition, litigation or government regulation related to the use of AI may also adversely impact our and others’ abilities to develop and offer products that use AI, as well as increase the cost and complexity of doing so. See the section titled “—Regulatory and legislative developments related to the use of AI could adversely affect our use of such technologies in our products, services, and business.” Developing, testing and deploying AI systems may also increase the cost profile of our product offerings due to the nature of the computing costs involved in such systems, which could impact our project margin and adversely affect our business and operating results. In addition, AI may have or produce errors or inadequacies that are not easily detectable. If the data used to train AI or the content, analyses, or recommendations that AI applications assist in producing are or are alleged to be deficient, inaccurate, incomplete, overbroad or biased, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected. The legal landscape and subsequent legal protection for the use of AI remains uncertain, and development of the law in this area could impact our ability to enforce our proprietary rights or protect against infringing uses. If we do not have sufficient rights to collect or use
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the data on which our AI relies or to the outputs produced by AI applications, we may incur liability through the alleged violation of certain laws, third-party privacy rights, online terms of service, or other contracts to which we or our data providers are a party. Our use of AI applications may also, in the future, result in cybersecurity incidents that implicate the personal data of customers or patients. Any such cybersecurity incidents related to our use of AI applications could adversely affect our reputation and results of operations.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR OPERATIONS/COMMERCIALIZATION
Even if any drug candidates we develop receive marketing approval, they may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, healthcare payors, and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.
The commercial success of our drug candidates that receive marketing approval will depend upon their degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors, and others in the medical community. The degree of market acceptance will depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to the following:
•their efficacy and safety as demonstrated in pivotal clinical trials and published in peer-reviewed journals;
•their potential and perceived advantages compared to alternative treatments, including any similar generic treatments;
•the prevalence and severity of any side effects or adverse events;
•our ability to offer these products for sale at competitive prices;
•our ability to offer appropriate patient access programs, such as co-pay assistance;
•their convenience and ease of dosing and administration compared to alternative treatments;
•the clinical indications for which the drug candidate is approved by the FDA or comparable regulatory authorities;
•product labeling or product insert requirements of the FDA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities, including any limitations, contraindications, or warnings;
•restrictions on how the product is distributed;
•the timing of market introduction of competitive products;
•publicity concerning these products or competing products and treatments;
•the strength of marketing and distribution support; and
•favorable third-party coverage and sufficient reimbursement.
Sales of medical products also depend on the willingness of physicians to prescribe treatment with our drug products, which is likely to be based on a determination by these physicians that the products are safe, therapeutically effective, and cost effective. In addition, the inclusion or exclusion of products from treatment guidelines established by various physician groups, as well as the viewpoints of influential physicians, can affect the willingness of other physicians to prescribe treatment with our drug products. We cannot predict whether physicians, physicians’ organizations, hospitals, other healthcare providers, government agencies, or private insurers will determine that any product we may develop is safe, therapeutically effective and cost effective as compared with competing treatments. If any drug candidates we develop do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenue, and we may not become profitable.
If we are unable to establish sales and marketing capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to sell and market any drug candidates we may develop, we may not be successful in commercializing those drug candidates, if and when they are approved.
We do not have a sales or marketing infrastructure and have little experience in the sale, marketing, or distribution of pharmaceutical products. To achieve commercial success for any approved product for which we retain sales and marketing responsibilities, we must either develop a sales and marketing organization, develop sales and marketing software solutions, or outsource these functions to third parties. In the future, we may choose to build a focused sales, marketing, and commercial support infrastructure to market and sell our drug candidates, if and when they are approved. We may also elect to enter into collaborations or strategic partnerships with third parties to engage in commercialization activities with respect to selected drug candidates, indications, or geographic territories, including territories outside the United States, although there is no guarantee we will be able to enter into these arrangements.
There are risks involved with both establishing our own commercial capabilities and entering into arrangements with third parties to perform these services. For example, recruiting and training a sales force or reimbursement
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specialists is expensive and time-consuming and could delay any product launch. If the commercial launch of a drug candidate for which we recruit a sales force and establish marketing and other commercialization capabilities is delayed or does not occur for any reason, we would have prematurely or unnecessarily incurred these commercialization expenses. This may be costly, and our investment would be lost if we cannot retain or reposition commercialization personnel. Factors that may inhibit our efforts to commercialize any approved product on our own include but are not limited to the following:
•the inability to recruit and retain adequate numbers of effective sales, marketing, reimbursement, customer service, medical affairs, and other support personnel;
•the inability of sales personnel or software tools to obtain access to physicians or persuade adequate numbers of physicians to prescribe any future approved products;
•the inability of reimbursement professionals to negotiate arrangements for formulary access, reimbursement, and other acceptance by payors;
•the inability to price products at a sufficient price point to enable an adequate and attractive level of profitability;
•restricted or closed distribution channels that make it difficult to distribute our products to segments of the patient population;
•the lack of complementary products to be offered by sales personnel, which may put us at a competitive disadvantage relative to companies with more extensive product lines; and
•unforeseen costs and expenses associated with creating an independent commercialization organization.
If we enter into arrangements with third parties to perform sales, marketing, commercial support, and distribution services, they may also experience many of the above challenges. In addition, our product revenue or the profitability of product revenue may be lower than if we were to market and sell any products we may develop internally. We may not be successful in entering into such arrangements, or we may be unable to do so on terms that are favorable to us or them. We also may have little control over such third parties, and any of them may fail to devote the necessary resources and attention to sell and market our products effectively, or they may expose us to legal and regulatory risk by not adhering to regulatory requirements and restrictions governing the sale and promotion of prescription drug products, including those restricting off-label promotion. If we do not establish commercialization capabilities successfully, either on our own or in collaboration with third parties, we will not be successful in commercializing any future approved drug candidates.
We are subject to regulatory and operational risks associated with the physical and digital infrastructure at both our internal facilities and those of our external service providers.
Our facilities in Salt Lake City, Utah have not been reviewed or pre-approved by any regulatory agency, such as the FDA. An inspection by the FDA could disrupt our ability to generate data and develop drug candidates. Our laboratory facilities are designed to incorporate a significant level of automation of equipment, with integration of several digital systems to improve efficiency of research operations. We have attempted to achieve a high level of digitization for a research operation relative to industry standards. While this is meant to improve operational efficiency, this may pose additional risk of equipment malfunction and even overall system failure or shutdown due to internal or external factors including, but not limited to, design issues, system compatibility, or potential cybersecurity breaches. This may lead to delay in potential drug candidate identification or a shutdown of our facility. Any disruption in our data generation capabilities could cause delays in advancing new drug candidates into our pipeline, advancing existing programs, or enhancing the capabilities of our platform, including expanding our data, the occurrence of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
In the future, we may manufacture drug substances or products at our facilities for preclinical and clinical use, and we may face risks arising from our limited prior manufacturing capability and experience.
We do not currently have the infrastructure or capability internally to manufacture drug substances or products for preclinical, clinical, or commercial use. If, in the future, we decide to produce drug substances or products for preclinical and clinical use, the costs of developing suitable facilities and infrastructure and implementing appropriate manufacturing processes may be greater than expected. We may also have difficulty implementing the full operational state of the facility, causing delays to preclinical or clinical supply or the need to rely on third-party service providers, resulting in unplanned expenses.
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Recursion, or the third parties upon whom we depend, may be adversely affected by natural disasters, and our business continuity plans and insurance coverage may not be adequate.
Our current operations are located in Salt Lake City, Utah; Milpitas, California; and Montreal, Canada. A natural disaster or other serious unplanned event, such as flood, fire, explosion, earthquake, extreme weather condition, pandemic (including COVID-19), power shortage, telecommunications failure, global political instability, warfare, or man-made incident, could result in us being unable to fully utilize our facilities, delays in the development of our drug candidates, interruption of our business operations, or unexpected increased costs, which may have a material and adverse effect on our business. Our collaboration partners, as well as suppliers to us or our collaboration partners, and our third-party service providers and vendors, are similarly subject to some or all of these events. If a natural disaster, power outage, or other event occurs that (i) prevents us from using all or a significant portion of our headquarters or our datacenters; (ii) damages critical infrastructure or our equipment, such as our research facilities or the manufacturing facilities of our third-party contract manufacturers; or (iii) otherwise significantly disrupts operations, it may be difficult, or in certain cases impossible, for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time.
Furthermore, the disaster recovery and business continuity plans we have in place may prove inadequate in the event of a serious disaster or similar event. We may incur substantial expenses, business interruptions, and harm to our research and development programs as a result of the limited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity plans. As part of our risk management policy, we maintain insurance coverage at levels that we believe are appropriate for our business to the extent it is available on commercially reasonable terms. However, in the event of an accident or incident at these facilities, the amounts of insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our damages and losses.
In addition, our facilities in Salt Lake City, Utah are located in a busy downtown area. Although we believe we have taken the necessary steps to ensure our operations are safe to the surrounding area, there could be a risk to the public if we were to conduct hazardous material research, including use of flammable chemicals and materials, at our facilities. If the surrounding community perceives our facility as unsafe, it could have a material and adverse effect on our reputation, operations, and prospects.
If we fail to comply with environmental, health and safety, or other laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines, penalties, or personal injury or property damages.
We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety, and other laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures and the handling, use, storage, treatment, and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological and radioactive materials. Our operations also produce hazardous waste products. We generally contract with third parties for the disposal of these materials and wastes. We cannot eliminate the risk of contamination or injury from these materials. In the event of contamination or injury resulting from our use of hazardous materials, we could be held liable for significant damages for harm to persons or property, as well as civil or criminal fines and penalties. Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance to cover costs and expenses arising from injuries to our employees resulting from the use of hazardous materials, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against all such potential liabilities.
Our insurance policies are expensive and protect us only from some business risks, which leaves us exposed to significant uninsured liabilities.
We do not carry insurance for all categories of risk that our business may encounter and insurance coverage is becoming increasingly expensive. We do not know if we will be able to maintain existing insurance with adequate levels of coverage in the future, and any liability insurance coverage we acquire in the future may not be sufficient to reimburse us for any expenses or losses we may suffer. If we obtain marketing approval for any drug candidates that we or our collaborators may develop, we intend to acquire insurance coverage to include the sale of commercial products, but we may be unable to obtain such insurance on commercially reasonable terms or in adequate amounts. The coverage or coverage limits currently maintained under our insurance policies may not be adequate. If our losses exceed our insurance coverage, our financial condition would be adversely affected. Clinical trials or regulatory approvals for any of our drug candidates could be suspended, which could adversely affect our results of operations and business, including by preventing or limiting the development and commercialization of any drug candidates that we or our collaborators may identify. Additionally, operating as a public company has made
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it more expensive for us to obtain directors and officers liability insurance. If we do not maintain adequate levels of directors and officers liability insurance, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified individuals to serve on our board of directors and in our executive team.
Our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
We have substantial federal net operating loss (NOL) carryforwards. To the extent that we continue to generate taxable losses as expected, unused losses will carry forward to offset future taxable income, if any, until such unused losses expire, except the federal NOLs generated during and after fiscal year 2018 are carried forward indefinitely. Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” its ability to use pre-change NOL carryforwards and certain other pre-change tax attributes (such as research tax credits) to offset its post-change income could be subject to an annual limitation. An “ownership change” is generally defined as a greater than 50% change by value in the ownership of the corporation’s equity by one or more 5% shareholders over a three-year period. Such annual limitation could result in the expiration of a portion of our NOL carryforwards before full utilization thereof. We may have experienced ownership changes within the meaning of Section 382 in the past and we may experience some ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership, such as a result of our follow-on offerings or subsequent shifts in our stock ownership (some of which shifts are outside our control). We have not yet conducted a study to assess whether an ownership change has occurred. Future legislative or regulatory changes could also negatively impact our ability to utilize our NOL carryforwards or other tax attributes. Provisions of state tax law may also suspend or otherwise limit our ability to use NOLs and accumulated state tax attributes. As a result, if we attain profitability, we may be unable to use all or a material portion of our NOL carryforwards and other tax attributes for federal and state tax purposes, which could result in increased tax liability and adversely affect our future cash flows.
Changes in tax laws or regulations that are applied adversely to us may have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition or results of operations.
New income, sales, use or other tax laws or regulations could be enacted at any time, which could affect our tax profile and our business and financial performance. Further, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified or applied adversely to us. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) eliminated the option to deduct research and development expenditures currently and requires taxpayers to capitalize and amortize them over five or fifteen years pursuant to Code Section 174, beginning in 2022. Further, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), among other changes, imposes a one-percent excise tax on stock repurchases made on or after January 1, 2023. Any further changes in tax laws or regulations that are applied adversely to us could have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition or results of operations.
If our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies prove to be incorrect, or financial reporting standards or interpretations change, our results of operations could be adversely affected.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (U.S. GAAP) requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events, and various other factors that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Use of Estimates.” The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant assumptions and estimates used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include stock-based compensation and valuation of our equity investments in early-stage biotechnology companies. Our results of operations may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions.
Additionally, we regularly monitor our compliance with applicable financial reporting standards and review new pronouncements and drafts thereof that are relevant to us. As a result of new standards, changes to existing standards, or changes in their interpretation, we might be required to change our accounting policies, alter our operational policies, and implement new or enhanced systems so that they reflect new or amended financial
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reporting standards, or we may be required to restate our published financial statements, which may have an adverse effect on our financial position and reputation.
Product liability lawsuits could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and could limit commercialization of any drug candidates that we may develop.
We face an inherent risk of product liability exposure related to the testing of drug candidates in human clinical trials, and we will face an even greater risk if we commercially sell any medicines that we may develop. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against claims that our drug candidates or medicines caused injuries, we could incur substantial damages or settlement liability. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, liability claims may also result in adverse effects including but not limited to the following:
•decreased demand for any drug candidates or therapeutics that we may develop;
•injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention;
•withdrawal of clinical trial participants;
•significant costs to defend the litigation;
•substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;
•loss of revenue; and
•the inability to commercialize our drug candidates.
Although we maintain product liability insurance, including coverage for clinical trials that we sponsor, it may not be adequate to cover all liabilities that we may incur. We anticipate that we will need to increase our insurance coverage as we commence additional clinical trials and if we successfully commercialize any drug candidates. The market for insurance coverage can be challenging, and the costs of insurance coverage will increase as our clinical programs increase in size. We may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost and with adequate limits to satisfy any and all liability that may arise.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR RELIANCE ON THIRD PARTIES
Third parties that perform some of our research and preclinical testing or conduct our clinical trials may not perform satisfactorily or their agreements may be terminated.
We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct some aspects of research and preclinical testing and clinical trials. The third parties include CROs, clinical data management organizations, medical institutions, and principal investigators. Any of these third parties may fail to fulfill their contractual obligations, including by not meeting deadlines for the completion of research, testing, or trials, or we or they may terminate their engagements with us. If any of our relationships with these third parties terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative third parties on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. If we need to enter into alternative arrangements, such negotiations could delay product development activities.
Our reliance on third parties for research and development activities reduces our control over these activities, but does not relieve us of our responsibilities. For example, we remain responsible for ensuring that each of our respective clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the general investigational plan and protocols for the trial, as well as applicable legal, regulatory, and scientific standards. We also are required to register ongoing clinical trials and post the results of completed clinical trials on a government-sponsored database within certain timeframes. In addition, the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities require compliance with good clinical practices (GCP) guidelines for conducting, recording, and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible, reproducible, and accurate, and that the rights, integrity, and confidentiality of trial participants are protected. Regulatory authorities enforce GCP compliance through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators, and trial sites.
If we or any of the third parties fail to comply with applicable GCP regulations, some or all of the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable, and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional nonclinical or clinical trials or to enroll additional patients before approving our marketing applications. In addition, if we or the third parties fail to comply with our stated protocols or applicable laws and regulations during the conduct of clinical trials, we or the third parties could be subject to warning letters or enforcement actions by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities, which could result in civil penalties or criminal prosecution, as well as adverse publicity that harms our business.
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We also will not be able to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, marketing approvals for any drug candidates we may develop if these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines, or conduct clinical trials in accordance with our stated protocols or regulatory requirements. As a result, we may be delayed or unable to successfully commercialize our drug candidates.
Third parties that manufacture our drug candidates for preclinical development, clinical testing, and future commercialization may not provide sufficient quantities of our drug candidates or products at an acceptable cost, which could delay, impair, or prevent our development or commercialization efforts.
We do not currently own or operate any manufacturing facilities and have no manufacturing personnel. We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties for drug supplies for our clinical trials, the manufacture of many of our drug candidates for preclinical development and clinical testing, as well as the commercial manufacture of our products if any of our drug candidates receive marketing approval. We may be unable to establish necessary agreements with third-party manufacturers or to do so on acceptable terms. This reliance on third parties increases the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of our drug candidates or products, or will not have sufficient quantities at an acceptable cost or quality, which could delay, impair, or prevent our development or commercialization efforts.
In addition, the facilities used by our contract manufacturers to manufacture our drug candidates must be inspected by the FDA pursuant to pre-approval inspections that will be conducted after we submit our marketing applications to the FDA. We do not expect to control the manufacturing process of, and will be completely dependent on, our contract manufacturers for compliance with current good manufacturing practice guidelines (cGMP) in connection with the manufacture of our drug candidates in the near to intermediate term, or possibly the long term. If our contract manufacturers cannot maintain adequate quality control and qualified personnel to successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA or others, including cGMP guidelines, they will not be able to pass regulatory inspections and/or maintain regulatory compliance for their manufacturing facilities.
If the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority finds deficiencies with, does not approve, or withdraws approval of these facilities for the manufacture of our drug candidates, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which would significantly impact our timelines and ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for, or market our drug candidates, if approved. There are a limited number of manufacturers that operate under cGMP regulations and that might be capable of manufacturing for us. Our drug candidates and any other products that we may develop may compete with the drug candidates and approved products of other companies for access to manufacturing facilities or capacity, which may further restrict our ability to secure alternative manufacturing sites.
Further, our failure, or the failure of our third-party manufacturers, to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including clinical holds, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, seizures or recalls of drug candidates or products that may be approved, operating restrictions, and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect our business, supplies of our drug candidates, and prospects.
Even if we are able to establish agreements with third-party manufacturers, reliance on third-party manufacturers entails additional risks, including but not limited to the following:
• reliance on the third party for regulatory compliance and quality assurance;
•the possible breach of the manufacturing agreement by the third party;
•the possible misappropriation of our proprietary information, including our trade secrets and know-how; and
•the possible termination or nonrenewal of the agreement by the third party at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us.
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Any performance failure on the part of our existing or future third-party manufacturers could delay clinical development or marketing approval. If it is necessary to replace any such third-party manufacturer, we may incur added costs and delays in identifying and qualifying any a replacement. In addition, any performance failure on the part of our distributors could delay clinical development or marketing approval of any drug candidates we may develop or seek to commercialize, producing additional losses and depriving us of product revenue.
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Our current and anticipated future dependence upon others for the manufacture and distribution of our drug candidates or products may adversely affect our future profit margins and our ability to commercialize any products that receive marketing approval on a timely and competitive basis, if at all.
If we are unable to adequately source clinical and commercial supplies, equipment, and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) from third party vendors as our drug development pipeline matures, our business could be significantly harmed.
We procure raw materials, components, parts, consumables, reagents, and equipment used in the development and operation of our platform and the development of our drug candidates from third party vendors. We also rely on third party vendors to perform quality testing. Particular risks to our platform include reliance on third-party equipment and instrument suppliers and consumable and reagent suppliers. As we increase development of drug products and commence clinical testing and commercialization, we will require expanded capacity across our supply chain. We face risks regarding our sourcing of products and quality-testing services, including but not limited to the following:
•the inability of suppliers and service providers to grow their capacity to meet demand, whether from us or other drug manufacturers, particularly if the field of technology-enabled drug discovery continues to expand;
•termination or non-renewal of supply and service agreements with third parties in a manner or at a time that is costly or damaging to us;
•disruptions to the operations of these suppliers and service providers caused by conditions unrelated to our business or operations, including the bankruptcy of the supplier or service provider or force majeure events, such as public health crises, global political instability, natural disasters, supply chain issues, or warfare; and
•inspections of third-party facilities by regulatory authorities that could have a negative outcome and result in delays in, or termination of, their ability to meet our requirements.
Moreover, certain of our specialized equipment, as well as the API used in our drug candidates, are obtained from single-source suppliers. Our ability to successfully develop our drug candidates, and to ultimately supply our commercial products in quantities sufficient to meet the market demand, depends in part on our ability to obtain equipment and the API for these products in accordance with regulatory requirements and in sufficient quantities for clinical testing and commercialization. We do not currently have arrangements in place for a redundant or second-source supply of any such equipment or ingredients in the event any of our current suppliers fails or is unable to meet our requirements. While our single-source suppliers have generally met our demand for their products on a timely basis in the past, we are not certain that they will be able to meet our future demand, whether due to any of the above factors, the nature of our agreements with those suppliers, our limited experience with those suppliers, our relative importance as a customer, or any other reason. For all of our drug candidates, we intend to identify and qualify additional vendors and manufacturers, as available, to provide such equipment and API prior to our submission of an NDA to the FDA and/or an MAA to the EMA, which may require additional regulatory inspection or approval and result in further delay.
Any interruption or delay in the supply of components, materials, specialized equipment, API, and quality-testing sources at acceptable prices and in a timely manner could impede, delay, limit, or prevent our development efforts, which could harm our business, results of operations, and prospects.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Our success significantly depends on our ability to obtain and maintain patents of adequate scope covering our proprietary technology and drug candidate products. Obtaining and maintaining patent assets is inherently challenging, and our pending and future patent applications may not issue with the scope we need, if at all.
Our commercial success depends in significant part on our ability and the ability of our licensors and collaborators to obtain and maintain patent protection and other intellectual property rights in the United States and other countries relating to our drug product candidates and our core proprietary technologies important to the development and implementation of our business.
Patent prosecution is a complex, expensive, and lengthy process, with no guarantee that a patent will issue in a timely fashion or at all, or with sufficiently broad claims to protect our drug product candidates and proprietary technologies. Further, the laws and regulations for obtaining and maintaining patents are subject to change by legislative or judicial action in the relevant jurisdictions. The patent positions of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and
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other life sciences companies in particular can be highly uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions for which important legal principles remain unresolved. No consistent policy regarding the breadth of claims allowed in biotechnology patents has emerged to date in the U.S., and tests used for determining the patentability of patent claims in all technologies are in flux. The pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and other life sciences patent laws and regulations outside the U.S. can be even more uncertain. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and patent offices in other jurisdictions have often required that patent applications concerning pharmaceutical and/or biotechnology-related inventions be limited or narrowed substantially to cover only the specific innovations exemplified in the patent application, thereby limiting the scope of protection against competitive challenges.
The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity, or enforceability, and our owned and licensed patents may be challenged in the patent offices and courts in the United States and abroad. Third parties may invent, publish, or file patents of their own in ways which overlap or conflict with our patent rights. Moreover, even if unchallenged, our owned patent portfolio and any patent portfolio we license may not provide us with any meaningful protection or prevent competitors from designing around our patent claims to circumvent our owned or licensed patents by developing similar or alternative technologies or products in a non-infringing manner. For example, a third party may develop a competitive product that provides benefits similar to one or more of our drug candidates, but that has a different composition that falls outside the scope of our patent protection. In addition, patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years after its first effective, non-provisional filing date, and patents protecting drug candidates might expire before or shortly after the candidates are commercialized given the amount of time required for development, testing, and regulatory review. The various governmental patent agencies also require compliance with extensive rules and fee obligations. Failure to do so can, under certain circumstances, result in the abandonment of a patent application or the termination of patent rights. Non-compliance events that could result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application include a failure to respond to official actions within prescribed time limits, non-payment of fees, and failure to properly legalize and submit formal documents.
We have patent applications pending before the USPTO and other patent offices, and we plan to file new applications in the future. Patent offices may require us to significantly narrow our claims based upon prior art discovered by the USPTO or through third-party submissions. Moreover, we do not always have the right to control the preparation, filing, prosecution, and maintenance of licensed patents and applications under arrangements with collaborators or licensors. We may become involved in procedural challenges, including inter partes review, which could result in the narrowing or elimination of our patent rights or those of our licensors. This could limit our ability to stop others from freely using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection covering our technology and drug candidates. Such challenges may also result in our inability to manufacture or commercialize our drug candidates without infringing third-party patent rights. Further, inadvertent or intentional public disclosures of our inventions prior to the filing of a patent application have precluded us, and in the future may preclude us, from obtaining patent protection in certain jurisdictions. We also could fail to identify patentable aspects of our technology and research and development output in time to obtain patent protection.
We also currently own a number of U.S. provisional patent applications. These provisional applications are not eligible to become issued patents until, among other things, we file a non-provisional patent application within 12 months of filing one or more of our related provisional patent applications. If we do not timely file any non-provisional patent applications, we may lose our priority dates with respect to our provisional patent applications and any patent protection on the inventions disclosed in such applications.
Our current patent portfolio contains a limited number of patents and patent applications, some of which are in-licensed from third parties, related to our drug product candidates and methods of their use. We do not currently own or license any issued U.S. composition of matter patents for REC-994 or REC-3964. While we license composition of matter patents for REC-4881 and REC-2282, we expect these patents to expire prior to commercial launch. We cannot be certain that any non-provisional patent applications we or our licensors may file will result in issued patent claims covering the composition of matter of REC-994, REC-2282, REC-4881, and REC-3964.
We cannot provide any assurances that any of our or our licensors’ pending or future patent applications will issue, or that any pending or future patent applications that mature into issued patents will include claims with a scope sufficient to protect our drug candidates from competition. If we fail to obtain and maintain adequate intellectual property protection covering any technology, invention, or improvement that is important to our business, or if the scope of the patent protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, we may not be able to prevent third parties from
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launching generic versions of our products, from using our proprietary technologies, or from marketing products that are very similar or identical to ours. If the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications are threatened, it could also dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop, or commercialize current or future drug candidates. This could have a material, adverse effect on our ability to successfully commercialize our technology and products, and on our business, results of operations, and prospects.
Our current proprietary position for certain drug product candidates depends upon our owned or in-licensed patent filings covering components of such drug product candidates, manufacturing-related methods, formulations, and/or methods of use, which may not adequately prevent a competitor or other third party from using the same drug candidate for the same or a different use.
Composition of matter patent protection is generally considered to be desirable for drug products because it provides protection without regard to any particular method of use or manufacturing, or formulation. For some of the molecules that we in-license from our collaboration partners, we cannot rely on composition of matter patent protection as the term on those patents has already expired or is close to expiring.
Method of use patents protect the use of a product for the specified method and formulation patents cover formulations to deliver therapeutics. While we file applications covering method of use for our programs at appropriate times in the development process, we cannot be certain that claims in any future patents issuing from these applications will cover all commercially-relevant applications of molecules in competing uses. These types of patents do not prevent a competitor or other third party from developing, marketing, or commercializing a similar or identical product for an indication that is outside the scope of the patented method, or from developing a different formulation that is outside the scope of the patented formulation. Moreover, with respect to method of use patents, even if competitors or other third parties do not actively promote their product for our targeted indications or uses for which we may obtain patents, physicians may recommend that patients use these products off-label, or patients may do so themselves. Although off-label use may infringe or contribute to the infringement of method of use patents, the practice is common and this type of infringement is difficult to prevent or enforce. Additionally, some commercially-relevant jurisdictions do not allow for patents covering a new method of use of an otherwise-known molecule. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in the United States or abroad, which may have a material adverse effect on our business.
We may not be able to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights throughout the world.
Filing, prosecuting, maintaining, and defending patents related to our drug product candidates or other proprietary technologies we may develop in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States, or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into the United States or other jurisdictions. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our products, and our patent rights or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.
Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, such as certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biotechnology products, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patent rights or marketing of competing products in violation of our intellectual property and proprietary rights generally. In addition, some jurisdictions, such as Europe, Japan and China, may have a higher standard for patentability than in the United States, including, for example, the requirement of claims having literal support in the original patent filing and the limitation on using supporting data that is not in the original patent filing. Under those heightened patentability requirements, we may not be able to obtain sufficient patent protection in certain jurisdictions even though the same or similar patent protection can be secured in the U.S. and other jurisdictions.
Proceedings to enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patent rights at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly, could put our owned or in-licensed patent applications at risk of not issuing and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate, and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our
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efforts to enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.
Many countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, the patent owner may have limited remedies, which could materially diminish the value of such patent. If we or any of our licensors are forced to grant a license to third parties with respect to any patents relevant to our business, our competitive position may be impaired, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
In 2012, the European Patent Package, or EU Patent Package, regulations were passed with the goal of providing a single pan-European Unitary Patent and a new European Unified Patent Court, or UPC, for litigation involving European patents. Implementation of the EU Patent Package began in June 2023, when the UPC opened for business. Under the UPC, all European patents, including those issued prior to ratification of the European Patent Package, will by default automatically fall under the jurisdiction of the UPC. The UPC provides our competitors with a new forum to centrally revoke our European patents and allow for the possibility of a competitor to obtain pan-European injunctions. It will be several years before we will understand the scope of patent rights that will be recognized and the strength of patent remedies that will be provided by the UPC. Under the EU Patent Package, we have the right to opt our patents out of the UPC over the first seven years of the court’s existence, but doing so may preclude us from realizing the benefits of the new unified court.
If we do not obtain patent term extension and data exclusivity for any drug product candidates we may develop, our business may be materially harmed.
Depending upon the timing, duration, and specifics of any FDA marketing approval of any drug candidates we may develop, one or more of our U.S. patents may be eligible for limited patent term extension under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Action of 1984, referred to as the Hatch-Waxman Amendments. The Hatch-Waxman Amendments permit a patent extension term of up to five years as compensation for patent term lost during the FDA regulatory review process. A patent term extension cannot extend the remaining term of a patent beyond 14 years from the date of product approval. Only one patent may be extended and only those claims covering the approved drug, a method for using it, or a method for manufacturing it may be extended. However, we may not be granted an extension because of, for example, failing to exercise due diligence during the testing phase or regulatory review process, failing to apply within applicable deadlines, failing to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents, or otherwise failing to satisfy applicable requirements. Moreover, the applicable time period or the scope of patent protection afforded could be less than we request. If we are unable to obtain patent term extension or the term of any such extension is less than we request, our competitors may obtain approval of competing products following our patent expiration, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially harmed.
We may need to license certain intellectual property from third parties, and such licenses may not be available or may not be available on commercially reasonable terms.
The growth of our business may depend in part on our ability to acquire, in-license or use third-party intellectual property and proprietary rights. A third party may hold intellectual property that is important or necessary to the development of our products. It may be necessary for us to use the patented or proprietary technology of third parties to commercialize our products, in which case we would be required to obtain a license from these third. For example, when we explore repurposing molecules owned by our collaboration partners or other third parties, we in-license the rights to use those molecules for our use. In addition, our drug product candidates may require specific formulations to work effectively and efficiently, we may develop product candidates containing our compounds and pre-existing pharmaceutical compounds, or we may be required by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities to provide a companion diagnostic test or tests with our product candidates, any of which could require us to obtain rights to use intellectual property held by third parties. In addition, with respect to any patent or other intellectual property rights we may co-own with third parties, we may require licenses to such co-owners’ interest to such patent or other intellectual property rights. We may be unable to acquire or in-license any compositions, methods of use, processes or other third-party intellectual property rights from third parties that we identify as necessary or important to our business operations. In addition, we may fail to obtain any of these licenses at a reasonable cost or on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. Were that to happen, we may need to cease use of the compositions or methods covered by those third-party intellectual property rights, and may need to seek to develop alternative approaches that do not infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate those intellectual property rights, which may entail additional costs and development delays, even if we were able to develop such
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alternatives, which may not be feasible. Even if we are able to obtain a license, it may be non-exclusive, which means that our competitors may also receive access to the same technologies licensed to us. In that event, we may be required to expend significant time and resources to develop or license replacement technology.
If we are not able to obtain a license, or to obtain one on commercially reasonable terms and with sufficient breadth to cover the intended use of third-party intellectual property, our business could be materially harmed.
The licensing and acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and companies that may be more established or have greater resources than we do may also be pursuing strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider necessary or attractive in order to commercialize our product candidates. More established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, resources and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. There can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully complete these types of negotiations and ultimately acquire the rights to the intellectual property related to the products or product candidates that we may seek to develop or market. If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to required third-party intellectual property or to maintain the existing intellectual property rights we have, we may have to abandon development of certain programs and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could suffer.
Changes in U.S. patent law could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our products.
Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of patent applications and the enforcement or defense of issued patents. Assuming that other requirements for patentability are met, prior to March 2013, in the United States, the first to invent the claimed invention was entitled to the patent, while outside the United States, the first to file a patent application was entitled to the patent. After March 2013, under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (the America Invents Act) enacted in September 2011, the United States transitioned to a first inventor to file system in which, assuming that other requirements for patentability are met, the first inventor to file a patent application will be entitled to the patent on an invention regardless of whether a third party was the first to invent the claimed invention. A third party that files a patent application in the USPTO after March 2013, but before us could therefore be awarded a patent covering an invention of ours even if we had made the invention before it was made by such third party. This will require us to be cognizant going forward of the time from invention to filing of a patent application. Since patent applications in the United States and most other countries are typically not published until 18 months after filing or until issuance, or in some cases not at all, we cannot be certain that we were the first to either (i) file any patent application related to our therapeutic and diagnostic programs and other proprietary technologies we may develop or (ii) invent any of the inventions claimed in our owned or in-licensed patent applications.
The America Invents Act also includes a number of significant changes that affect the way patent applications will be prosecuted and also may affect patent litigation. These include allowing third party submission of prior art to the USPTO during patent prosecution and additional procedures to attack the validity of a patent by USPTO administered post-grant proceedings, including post-grant review, inter partes review and derivation proceedings. Because of a lower evidentiary standard in USPTO proceedings compared to the evidentiary standard in United States federal courts necessary to invalidate a patent claim, a third party could potentially provide evidence in a USPTO proceeding sufficient for the USPTO to hold a claim invalid even though the same evidence would be insufficient to invalidate the claim if first presented in a district court action. Accordingly, a third party may attempt to use the USPTO procedures to invalidate our patent claims that would not have been invalidated if first challenged by the third party as a defendant in a district court action. Therefore, the America Invents Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our owned or in-licensed patent applications and the enforcement or defense of patents issuing from those patent applications, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
In addition, the patent positions of companies in the development and commercialization of pharmaceuticals are particularly uncertain. Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have narrowed the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances and weakened the rights of patent owners in certain situations. For example, U.S. Supreme Court rulings, such as Amgen Inc. v. Sanofi, 598 U.S. 594, 143 S. Ct. 1243 (2023), may limit the breadth of certain genus patent claims covering composition of matter of pharmaceutical products if enough compounds with shared claimed features are not provided. As such, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to obtain patents covering our
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drug product candidates. These cases and others like them have created uncertainty with respect to the validity and enforceability of patents, once obtained. Depending on future actions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways. In addition, the complexity and uncertainty of European patent laws have also increased in recent years. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our owned and in-licensed patent portfolio and our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property in the future.
Issued patents covering our drug product candidates and proprietary technology that we have developed or may develop in the future could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged in court or before administrative bodies in the United States or abroad.
Our patent rights may be subject to priority, validity, inventorship and enforceability disputes. Legal proceedings relating to intellectual property claims, with or without merit, are unpredictable and generally expensive and time-consuming and likely to divert significant resources from our core business, including distracting our management and scientific personnel from their normal responsibilities and generally harm our business. If we or our licensors are unsuccessful in any of these proceedings, such patents and patent applications may be narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, we may be required to obtain licenses from third parties, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or we may be required to cease the development, manufacture or commercialization of our product candidates. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
If we or one of our licensors initiated legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering our drug product candidates or methods of their use, or other proprietary technologies, we may develop, the defendant could counterclaim that such patent is invalid or unenforceable. In patent litigation in the United States, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge could be an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including lack of novelty, obviousness or non-enablement. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could be an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant information from the USPTO, or made a misleading statement, during prosecution. Third parties may raise claims challenging the validity or enforceability of a patent before administrative bodies in the United States or abroad, even outside the context of litigation. Such mechanisms include re-examination, post-grant review, inter partes review, derivation proceedings, and equivalent proceedings in foreign jurisdictions (e.g., opposition proceedings). Such proceedings could result in the revocation of, cancellation of or amendment to our patent rights in such a way that they no longer cover our drug product candidates or methods of their use, and other proprietary technologies we may develop. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable. With respect to the validity question, for example, we cannot be certain that there is no invalidating prior art, of which we or our licensing partners and the patent examiner were unaware during prosecution. If a third party were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity or unenforceability, we would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the patent protection on our drug product candidates or methods of their use, or other proprietary technologies, that we may develop. Such a loss of patent protection would have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We may be subject to claims challenging the inventorship of our owned or in-licensed patent rights and other intellectual property.
We may be subject to claims that former employees, collaborators or other third parties have an interest in our patent rights, trade secrets, or other intellectual property as an inventor or co-inventor. For example, we may have inventorship disputes arise from conflicting obligations of consultants or others who are involved in developing our therapeutic and diagnostic programs and other proprietary technologies we may develop. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these and other claims challenging inventorship or our patent rights, trade secrets or other intellectual property. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights, such as exclusive ownership of, or right to use, intellectual property that is important to our therapeutic and diagnostic programs and other proprietary technologies we may develop. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to our management and other employees. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats.
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The degree of future protection afforded by our intellectual property rights, and particularly those arising from patents, is uncertain because these rights have limitations and may not adequately protect our business or permit us to maintain our competitive advantage. Examples where our intellectual property rights may not further our competitive advantage include but are not limited to the following:
•others may be able to duplicate or utilize similar technology in a manner that infringes our patents but is undetectable or done in a jurisdiction where we have not secured, or cannot secure or enforce, patent rights;
•we, or our licensing partners or collaborators, might not have been the first to make the inventions covered by our owned or licensed current or future patent applications;
•we, or our licensing partners or collaborators, might not have been the first to file patent applications covering our or their inventions;
•others may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies without infringing our owned or licensed intellectual property rights;
•it is possible that our owned or licensed current or future patent applications will not lead to issued patents;
•any patent issuing from our owned or licensed current or future patent applications may be held invalid or unenforceable, including as a result of legal challenges by our competitors or other third parties, or may not provide us with any competitive advantages;
•our competitors or other third parties might conduct research and development activities in countries where we do not have patent rights and then use the information learned from such activities to develop competitive products for sale in our major commercial markets;
•it is possible that there are prior public disclosures that could invalidate our or our licensors’ patents;
•we may not develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable;
•the patents or pending or future patent applications of others, if issued, may harm our business; and
•we may choose not to file a patent in order to maintain certain trade secrets or know-how, and a third party may subsequently file a patent covering such intellectual property.
Should any of these events occur, they could have a material, adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and prospects.
If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets and know-how, our business and competitive position may be harmed.
In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we rely on trade secret protection and contractual arrangements to protect proprietary know-how, information, and technology that is not covered by our patents. With respect to curating our data and our library of small molecules generally, we consider trade secrets and know-how to be our primary intellectual property. Unpatented proprietary rights, including trade secrets and know-how, can be difficult to protect and may lose their value if their secrecy is lost or if they are independently developed by a third party.
We seek to protect our proprietary technology and processes, in part, by entering into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties that have access to them, including our collaborators, scientific advisors, employees, and consultants. We cannot guarantee that we have entered into such agreements with each party that may have or have had access to our trade secrets or proprietary technology and processes. Our agreements with our employees and consultants also require them to acknowledge ownership by us of inventions they may conceive as a result of their work for us and to perfect such ownership by assignment. However, we may not be able to prevent the unauthorized disclosure or use of our trade secrets or other confidential information through these agreements or other preventative measures. In addition, third parties, including our competitors, could independently develop and lawfully use the same or substantially equivalent trade secrets and know-how. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts inside and outside the United States are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor or other third party, we would have no right to prevent them from using that technology or information to compete with us. Any loss of trade secret protection or other unpatented proprietary rights could harm our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.