rtrx-20211231
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
____________________________________
FORM 10-K
____________________________________
For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2021
Commission File Number: 001-36257
TRAVERE THERAPEUTICS, INC.
(Exact Name of Registrant as specified in its Charter)
3611 Valley Centre Drive, Suite 300
San Diego, CA92130
(Address of Principal Executive Offices)
888-969-7879
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share TVTX The Nasdaq Global Market
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. ☑Yes☐No
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. ☐ Yes ☑No
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. ☑Yes☐ No
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). ☑Yes☐ No
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).
Large Accelerated Filer ☑ Accelerated Filer ☐
Non-Accelerated Filer ☐ Smaller Reporting Company ☐
Emerging growth Company ☐
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☑
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). ☐ Yes ☑ No
State the aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates computed by reference to the price at which the common equity was last sold, or the average bid and asked price of such common equity, as of the last business day of the registrant's most recently completed second fiscal quarter. $879,383,041.
The number of shares of outstanding common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, of the registrant as of February 22, 2022 was 63,211,565.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE: Portions of the Proxy Statement for the registrant’s 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, to be filed within 120 days after the conclusion of the registrant's fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
FORM 10-K REPORT INDEX
Page
PART I
Item 1. Business 6
Item 1A. Risk Factors 26
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 54
Item 2. Properties 54
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 54
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 54
PART II
Item 6. Reserved 56
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 69
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 70
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 70
Item 9B. Other Information 73
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 73
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers, and Corporate Governance 74
Item 11. Executive Compensation 74
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 74
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules 75
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CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K of Travere Therapeutics, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the “Company”) include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The statements herein which are not historical reflect our current expectations and projections about the Company’s future results, performance, liquidity, financial condition, prospects and opportunities and are based upon information currently available to the Company's management and is subject to its interpretation of what are believed to be significant factors affecting the Company's business, including many assumptions regarding future events. Such forward-looking statements include statements regarding, among other things:
•our ability to produce, sustain and expand sales of our products;
•our ability to develop, acquire and/or introduce new products;
•our projected future sales, profitability and other financial metrics;
•our future financing plans;
•our anticipated needs for working capital;
•the anticipated trends in our industry;
•acquisitions of other companies or assets that we might undertake in the future;
•our operations in the United States and abroad, and the domestic and foreign regulatory, economic and political conditions; and
•competition existing today or that will likely arise in the future.
Forward-looking statements, which involve assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies and expectations, are generally identifiable by use of the words “may,” “should,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “believe,” “intend,” “seek,” or “project” or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Actual results, performance, liquidity, financial condition and results of operations, prospects and opportunities could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements as a result of various risks, uncertainties and other factors, including the ability to raise sufficient capital to continue the Company’s operations. Actual events or results may differ materially from those discussed in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, without limitation, the risks outlined under “Risk Factors” and matters described in this Annual Report generally. In addition, statements that "we believe" and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and you are cautioned to not unduly rely upon these statements.
In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report will in fact occur. Potential investors should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Except as expressly required by the federal securities laws, there is no undertaking to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changed circumstances or any other reason.
The specific discussions in this Annual Report about the Company include financial projections and future estimates and expectations about the Company’s business. The projections, estimates and expectations are presented in this Annual Report only as a guide about future possibilities and do not represent actual amounts or assured events. All the projections and estimates are based exclusively on the Company management’s own assessment of the business, the industry in which it works and the economy at large and other operational factors, including capital resources and liquidity, financial condition, fulfillment of contracts and opportunities. The actual results may differ significantly from the projections.
Potential investors should not make an investment decision based solely on the Company’s projections, estimates or expectations.
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Risk Factor Summary
Below is a summary of material factors that make an investment in our common stock speculative or risky. This summary does not address all of the risks that we face. Additional discussion of the risks summarized in this risk factor summary, and other risks that we face, can be found under the heading “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of Part I of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and should be carefully considered, together with other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the SEC before making investment decisions regarding our common stock.
•Our clinical trials may fail to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our product candidates, including sparsentan and pegtibatinase (TVT-058), which could prevent or significantly delay their regulatory approval.
•The planned eGFR data cut from the DUPLEX Study may not support accelerated approval submissions in the U.S. and/or Europe.
•Success in preclinical testing and early clinical trials does not ensure that later clinical trials will be successful.
•An extended delay in the rate of enrollment in our ongoing Phase 1/2 Study of pegtibatinase (TVT-058), as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, may delay our timelines for analyzing future data from the study.
•Interim, topline and preliminary data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.
•The commercial success of Chenodal, Cholbam and Thiola depends on them being considered to be effective drugs with advantages over other therapies.
•We are subject to generic competition, and recent developments relating to generic competition for pharmaceutical products could cause our product sales and business to be negatively impacted.
•Changes in reimbursement practices of third-party payers, or patients' access to insurance coverage, could affect the demand for our products and/or the prices at which they are sold.
•We are dependent on third parties to manufacture and distribute our pharmaceutical products who may not fulfill their obligations.
•If we are unable to maintain an effective and specialized sales force, we will not be able to commercialize our products in the United States successfully.
•Our products may not achieve or maintain expected levels of market acceptance or commercial success.
•If the market opportunities for our products and product candidates are smaller than we believe they are, our revenues may be adversely affected and our business may suffer.
•Our product candidates may cause undesirable side effects or have other properties that could delay or prevent their regulatory approval or commercialization.
•We do not currently have patent protection for our commercial products. If we are unable to obtain and maintain protection for the intellectual property relating to our technology and products, the value of our technology and products will be adversely affected.
•We expect to rely on orphan drug status to develop and commercialize certain of our product candidates, but our orphan drug designations may not confer marketing exclusivity or other expected commercial benefits.
•Any drugs we develop may become subject to unfavorable pricing regulations, third-party reimbursement practices or healthcare reform initiatives, thereby harming our business.
•We face potential product liability exposure far in excess of our limited insurance coverage.
•We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing or commercializing products before or more successfully than we do. Our operating results will suffer if we fail to compete effectively.
•The COVID-19 pandemic could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
•Our limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects, and our profitability in the future is uncertain.
•We depend on a highly experienced and skilled workforce to grow and operate our business. If we are unable to attract, retain and engage our employees, we may not be able to grow effectively.
•We will likely experience fluctuations in operating results and could incur substantial losses.
•Negative publicity regarding any of our products could impair our ability to market any such product and may require us to spend time and money to address these issues.
•We may need substantial funding and may be unable to raise capital when needed, which would force us to delay, reduce or eliminate our product development programs or commercialization efforts.
•The market price for shares of our common stock may be volatile and purchasers of our common stock could incur substantial losses.
•We may be unable to successfully integrate new products or businesses we may acquire.
•We may become involved in certain litigation matters, any of which could result in substantial costs, divert management's attention and otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition.
•We are subject to significant ongoing regulatory obligations and oversight, which may result in significant additional expense and may limit our commercial success.
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•We are subject to stringent and changing obligations related to data privacy and security. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations may result in adverse business consequences.
•Our ability to use net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes to offset future taxable income and taxes may be subject to limitations.
•We are dependent on information technology systems, infrastructure and data, which exposes us to data security risks.
•Business disruptions could seriously harm our future revenue and financial condition and increase our costs and expenses.
•Our indebtedness could adversely affect our financial condition.
•We may be unable to raise the funds necessary to repurchase the $276.0 million aggregate principal amount of 2.50% Convertible Senior Notes due 2025 ("2025 Notes") for cash following a fundamental change, or to pay any cash amounts due upon conversion, and our future indebtedness may limit our ability to repurchase the 2025 Notes or pay cash upon their conversion.
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PART I
In this Annual Report on Form 10-K, unless the context requires otherwise, the terms “we”, “our”, “us”, “Travere” and the “Company” refer to Travere Therapeutics, Inc., a Delaware corporation, as well as our direct and indirect subsidiaries.
We own or have rights to various trademarks used in our business, including those referenced in the subsection of Item 1 below titled “Trademarks”. Our logos and trademarks are the property of Travere Therapeutics, Inc. All other brand names or trademarks appearing in this report are the property of their respective holders.
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Those statements in the following discussion that are not historical in nature should be considered forward-looking statements that are inherently uncertain. Actual results and the timing of the events may differ materially from those contained in these forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including those discussed in the “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors” set forth elsewhere in this Annual Report.
Overview
We are a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in San Diego, California, focused on identifying, developing and delivering life-changing therapies to people living with rare kidney, liver, and metabolic diseases. Our approach centers on our innovative pipeline with multiple late-stage clinical programs targeting rare diseases with significant unmet medical needs. Our lead pipeline candidate, sparsentan, is an investigational product candidate in late-stage development for focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and IgA nephropathy (IgAN) – rare kidney disorders that often lead to end-stage kidney disease. We are also developing pegtibatinase (TVT-058) for the treatment of classical homocystinuria, a genetic disorder caused by a deficiency in a pivotal enzyme essential to the body. Our early research efforts include partnering with patient advocacy groups and government researchers to identify potential therapeutics for NGLY1 deficiency and Alagille syndrome, conditions with no approved treatment options. In addition, we continue to evaluate potential opportunities to expand our pipeline and approved products through licenses and acquisitions of products in areas that will serve rare patients with serious unmet medical need and that we believe offer attractive growth characteristics. Our research and development efforts are at the forefront of our mission to address the unmet needs of patients and we support this innovation by reinvesting revenues from our commercialized products, Chenodal®, Cholbam®, Thiola® and Thiola EC®. We are committed to ensuring broad access, educational and diagnostic support for patients.
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Our Pipeline and Approved Products
We have a diversified pipeline designed to address areas of high unmet need in rare kidney, liver, and metabolic diseases. We invest revenues from our commercial portfolio into our pipeline with the goal of delivering new treatments for diseases with no approved or limited therapies.
The following table summarizes the status of our clinical programs, preclinical programs and approved products, each of which is described in further detail below.
* Pegtibatinase (TVT-058) is currently in a Phase 1/2 clinical study.
Clinical Programs:
Sparsentan
Sparsentan, a Dual Endothelin Angiotensin Receptor Antagonist (DEARA), is a novel investigational product candidate. Pre-clinical data have shown that blockade of both endothelin type A and angiotensin II type 1 pathways in forms of rare chronic kidney disease, reduces proteinuria, protects podocytes and prevents glomerulosclerosis and mesangial cell proliferation. Sparsentan has been granted Orphan Drug Designation for the treatment of FSGS and IgAN in the U.S. and Europe. Sparsentan is currently being evaluated in two pivotal Phase 3 clinical studies in rare kidney diseases, including:
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•Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis ("FSGS") is a leading cause of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) and nephrotic syndrome. There are currently no United States Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") approved pharmacologic treatments for FSGS and there remains a high unmet need for patients living with FSGS as off-label treatments such as ACE/ARBs, steroids, and immunosuppressant agents are effective in only a subset of patients and use of some of these off-label treatments may be further inhibited by their safety profiles. Every year approximately 5,400 patients are diagnosed with FSGS and we estimate that there are more than 40,000 FSGS patients in the United States and a similar number in Europe with approximately half of them being candidates for sparsentan. In 2016, we generated positive data from our Phase 2 DUET study in FSGS. In 2018, we announced the initiation of the Phase 3 DUPLEX study of sparsentan in FSGS. The DUPLEX Study is a global, randomized, multicenter, double-blind, parallel-arm, active-controlled clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of sparsentan in 371 patients. The DUPLEX Study protocol provided for an unblinded analysis of at least 190 patients to be performed after 36 weeks of treatment to evaluate the interim efficacy endpoint - the proportion of patients achieving a FSGS partial remission of proteinuria endpoint (FPRE), which is defined as urine protein-to-creatinine ratio (Up/C) ≤1.5 g/g and a >40% reduction in Up/C from baseline, at week 36. In February 2021, we announced that the ongoing Phase 3 DUPLEX Study achieved its pre-specified interim FSGS partial remission of proteinuria endpoint following the 36-week interim period. After 36 weeks of treatment, 42.0 percent of patients receiving sparsentan achieved FPRE, compared to 26.0 percent of irbesartan-treated patients (p=0.0094). A preliminary review of the results from the interim analysis suggest that to date in the study, sparsentan has been generally well-tolerated and the overall safety results in the study to date have been generally comparable between treatment groups. The confirmatory primary endpoint of the DUPLEX Study to support full regulatory approval is the rate of change in eGFR over 108 weeks of treatment. As of the time of the interim analyses, available long-term eGFR data for the confirmatory endpoint were limited. Consistent with the DUPLEX Study protocol, patients will continue in a blinded manner to assess the treatment effect on eGFR slope over 108 weeks in the confirmatory endpoint analysis. The DUPLEX Study is fully enrolled and topline results from the confirmatory endpoint are expected in the first half of 2023.
In May 2021, we provided a regulatory update regarding the sparsentan FSGS program, including feedback from the FDA that additional data would be needed to potentially support a submission for accelerated approval under subpart H. At a subsequent Type A meeting, we and the FDA reached alignment on a pathway for us to proceed with a submission for accelerated approval, pending additional supportive eGFR data. We intend to provide the FDA with additional eGFR data from the ongoing DUPLEX Study in the first half of 2022, and if such data are supportive, submit an application for accelerated approval in the United States in mid-2022.
In mid-2022, we and Vifor (International) Ltd. ("Vifor Pharma"), with whom we entered into a license and collaboration agreement ("License Agreement") in September 2021, plan to submit an application for conditional marketing authorization ("CMA") of sparsentan for the treatment of FSGS and IgAN in Europe. If sparsentan receives marketing authorization in any of the licensed territories, Vifor Pharma will be responsible for all commercialization activities in such licensed territories. We remain responsible for the clinical development of sparsentan and will retain all rights to sparsentan in the United States and rest of world outside of the licensed territories, provided that Vifor Pharma has a right of negotiation to expand the licensed territories into Canada, China, Brazil and/or Mexico.
•Immunoglobulin A nephropathy ("IgAN") is characterized by hematuria, proteinuria, and variable rates of progressive renal failure. With an estimated prevalence of more than 100,000 people in the United States and greater numbers in Europe and Asia, IgAN is the most common primary glomerular disease. Most patients are diagnosed between the ages of 16 and 35, with up to 40% progressing to end stage kidney disease within 15 years. There are currently no non-immunosuppressive treatments for IgAN approved by the FDA. The current standard of care is renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system ("RAAS") blockade with immunosuppression also being commonly used for patients with significant proteinuria or rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis. In 2018, we announced that the first patient had been dosed in the PROTECT Study, a global, randomized, multicenter, double-blind, parallel-arm, active-controlled pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of sparsentan in 404 patients with IgAN.
The PROTECT Study protocol provided for an unblinded analysis of at least 280 patients to be performed after 36 weeks of treatment to evaluate the primary efficacy endpoint - the change in proteinuria (urine protein-to-creatinine ratio) at week 36 from baseline. Secondary efficacy endpoints include the rate of change in eGFR following the initiation of randomized treatment over 58-week and 110-week periods, as well as the rate of change in eGFR over 52-week and 104-week periods following the first six weeks of randomized treatment in approximately 380 patients. In August 2021, we announced positive topline interim results from the ongoing Phase 3 PROTECT Study. The PROTECT Study met its pre-specified interim primary efficacy endpoint with statistical significance. After 36 weeks of treatment, patients receiving sparsentan achieved a mean reduction in proteinuria from baseline of 49.8 percent, compared to a mean reduction in proteinuria from baseline of 15.1 percent for irbesartan-treated patients (p<0.0001). We believe that preliminary eGFR data available at the time of the interim analysis are indicative of a potential clinically meaningful treatment effect after two years of treatment. Preliminary results at the time of the interim assessment suggested that sparsentan had been generally well-tolerated to date in the study and consistent with its overall observed safety profile. The PROTECT Study is fully enrolled and is scheduled to continue as planned on a blinded basis to assess the treatment effect on eGFR slope over 110 weeks in the confirmatory endpoint analysis. Topline results from the confirmatory endpoint analysis are expected in the second half of 2023.
Subsequent to the announcement of the interim results from the PROTECT Study, we conducted pre-NDA interactions with the FDA, during which we confirmed alignment with our plan to submit in the first quarter of 2022 an NDA for accelerated approval of sparsentan for IgAN.
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In mid-2022, we and Vifor Pharma plan to submit a combined application for conditional marketing authorization ("CMA") of sparsentan for the treatment of FSGS and IgAN in Europe.
Pegtibatinase (TVT-058)
Pegtibatinase (TVT-058) is a novel investigational human enzyme replacement candidate being evaluated for the treatment of classical homocystinuria (HCU). Classical HCU is a rare metabolic disorder characterized by elevated levels of plasma homocysteine that can lead to vision, skeletal, circulatory and central nervous system complications. It is estimated that there are at least 3,500 people living with HCU in the United States with similar numbers in Europe. Pegtibatinase has been granted Rare Pediatric Disease and Fast Track designations by the FDA, as well as orphan drug designation in the United States and European Union. Pegtibatinase is currently being evaluated in the Phase 1/2 COMPOSE Study, a double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled dose escalation study to assess its safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and clinical effects in patients with classical HCU.
In December 2021, we announced positive topline results from the Phase 1/2 COMPOSE Study. Pegtibatinase demonstrated dose-dependent reductions in total homocysteine (tHcy) during the 12 weeks of treatment, and in the highest dose cohort to date evaluating 1.5mg/kg of pegtibatinase twice weekly (BIW), treatment with pegtibatinase resulted in rapid and sustained reductions in total homocysteine (tHcy) through 12 weeks of treatment, including a 55.1% mean relative reduction in tHcy from baseline as well as maintenance of tHcy below a clinically meaningful threshold of 100 μmol. Additionally, in a dose-dependent manner in the study to date, methionine levels were substantially reduced and cystathionine levels were substantially elevated following treatment with pegtibatinase, suggesting that pegtibatinase acts in a manner similar to the native CBS enzyme. To date in the study, pegtibatinase has been generally well-tolerated, with no discontinuations due to treatment-related adverse events.
Based on these results, the Company is in the process of engaging with regulators to establish next steps for a pivotal development program to ultimately support potential approvals of pegtibatinase for the treatment of HCU. In parallel, the Company has initiated one additional cohort in the COMPOSE Study to inform and refine formulation work for future development and commercial purposes and to further evaluate the dose response curve for pegtibatinase.
We acquired pegtibatinase as part of the November 2020 acquisition of Orphan Technologies Limited ("Orphan").
Chenodal
Chenodal (chenodeoxycholic acid or CDCA) is a naturally occurring bile acid that is approved for the treatment of people with radiolucent stones in the gallbladder. While indicated for radiolucent stones in the gallbladder, Chenodal has been recognized as the standard of care for cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis (CTX) for more than three decades, although it is not currently labeled for this indication. CTX is a rare, progressive and underdiagnosed bile acid synthesis disorder affecting many parts of the body. In January 2020, we randomized the first patients in our Phase 3 RESTORE Study to evaluate the effects of Chenodal in adult and pediatric patients with CTX, and the study enrollment remains open. The pivotal study is intended to support an NDA submission for marketing authorization of Chenodal for CTX in the United States.
Preclinical Programs:
We are a participant in two Cooperative Research and Development Agreements ("CRADAs"), which form a multi-stakeholder approach to pool resources with leading experts, and incorporate the patient perspective early in the therapeutic identification and development process. We have partnered with the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences ("NCATS") and leading patient advocacy organizations, CDG Care and Alagille Syndrome Alliance, aimed at the identification of potential small molecule therapeutics for NGLY1 deficiency and Alagille syndrome ("ALGS"), respectively. There are no treatment options currently approved for these diseases.
Approved Products:
Thiola and Thiola EC (tiopronin)
Thiola and Thiola EC are approved by the FDA for the treatment of cystinuria, a rare genetic cystine transport disorder that causes high cystine levels in the urine and the formation of recurring kidney stones. Due to the larger stone size, cystine stones may be more difficult to pass, often requiring surgical procedures to remove. More than 80 percent of people with cystinuria develop their first stone by the age of 20. More than 25 percent will develop cystine stones by the age of 10. Recurring stone formation can cause loss of kidney function in addition to substantial pain and loss of productivity associated with renal colic and stone passage. While a portion of people living with the disease are able to manage symptoms through diet and fluid intake, the prevalence of cystinuria in the US is estimated to be 10,000 to 12,000, indicating that there may be as many as 4,000 to 5,000 affected individuals with cystinuria in the US that would be candidates for Thiola or Thiola EC.
In June 2019 we announced that the FDA approved 100 mg and 300 mg tablets of Thiola EC, an enteric-coated formulation of Thiola, to be used for the treatment of cystinuria. Thiola EC offers the potential for administration with or without food, and the ability to reduce the number of tablets necessary to manage cystinuria. Thiola EC became available to patients in July 2019.
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In May 2021, a generic option for the 100 mg version of the original formulation of Thiola (tiopronin tablets) became available. While the impact to our business has been minimal to date, we are not able to estimate any future impact, including the impact of additional generic entrants, if any.
Cholbam (cholic acid)
The FDA approved Cholbam (cholic acid capsules) in March 2015, the first FDA-approved treatment for pediatric and adult patients with bile acid synthesis disorders due to single enzyme defects, and for adjunctive treatment of patients with peroxisome biogenesis disorder-Zellweger spectrum disorder. The effectiveness of Cholbam has been demonstrated in clinical trials for bile acid synthesis disorders and the adjunctive treatment of peroxisomal disorders. An estimated 200 to 300 patients are current candidates for therapy.
Chenodal (chenodiol)
Chenodal is a synthetic oral form of chenodeoxycholic acid ("CDCA"), a naturally occurring primary bile acid synthesized from cholesterol in the liver. The FDA approved Chenodal for the treatment of people with radiolucent stones in the gallbladder. In 2010, Chenodal was granted orphan drug designation for the treatment of cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis ("CTX"), a rare autosomal recessive lipid storage disease. We acquired Chenodal in March 2014.
While Chenodal is not labeled for CTX, it received a medical necessity determination in the US by the FDA and has been used as the standard of care for more than three decades. We are working to obtain FDA approval of Chenodal for the treatment of CTX and initiated a Phase 3 clinical trial for this indication in January 2020. The prevalence of CTX is estimated in the literature to be as high as 1 in 70,000 in the overall population. Pathogenesis of CTX involves deficiency of the enzyme 27-hydroxylase (encoded by the gene CYP27A1), a rate-limiting enzyme in the synthesis of primary bile acids, including CDCA, from cholesterol. The disruption of primary bile acid synthesis in CTX leads to toxic accumulation of cholesterol and cholestanol in most tissues. Patients may present with intractable diarrhea, premature cataracts, tendon xanthomas, atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular disease in childhood and adolescence. Neurological manifestations of the disease, including dementia and cognitive and cerebellar deficiencies, emerge during late adolescence and adulthood. The types, combinations and severity of symptoms can be different from person to person, and making diagnosis challenging and often delayed. Oral administration of CDCA has been shown to normalize primary bile acid synthesis in patients with CTX.
Our Strategy
Our vision is to become a leading biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the delivery of innovation and hope to patients in the global rare disease community. In order to achieve our vision, we intend to:
•Focus on developing products to treat rare diseases characterized by severe unmet medical needs. We believe that our research, development, and commercialization capabilities in rare disease represent distinct competitive advantages. We leverage our development capabilities in rare disease to focus on advancing therapeutic candidates with life-changing potential. Given these capabilities, the well-established regulatory model and the ability to demonstrate clinical effects in small clinical studies, we believe that we can successfully bring new therapies to patients living with severe unmet medical needs.
•Develop a sustainable pipeline by employing disciplined decision criteria in the evaluation of potential in-licensing candidates. We seek to build a sustainable product pipeline by employing multiple therapeutic approaches and by developing or acquiring orphan drug candidates. We seek to augment our internally developed pipeline projects by selectively and strategically acquiring pipeline assets that will add value to the portfolio. We continue to evaluate potential in-licensing, out-licensing and other potential relationships with other pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies. We intend to mitigate risk by employing rigorous decision criteria, favoring drug candidates that have undergone at least some clinical study. Our decision to acquire rights to a drug candidate also depends on the scientific merits of the available clinical data; the identifiable orphan patient population; the economic terms of any proposed acquisition of rights; the projected amount of capital required to develop the drug candidate; and the economic potential of the drug candidate, should it be commercialized. We believe this strategy minimizes our clinical development risk and allows us to accelerate the development and potential commercialization of current and future drug candidates.
•Leverage our commercialization expertise to effectively deliver the therapies we develop. As we move our drug candidates through development toward regulatory approval, we intend to build upon and strengthen our existing commercialization infrastructure and expertise needed to successfully support rare disease patients. Our approach may vary depending on the product and will be based on a number of factors including capital necessary to execute on each option, size of the market and terms of potential collaboration and/or licensing offers from other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with respect to jurisdictions outside the United States.
•Listen to patients. Leadership in rare disease demands attention beyond innovative medicines. By listening to patients and leaders in the rare disease community, including those who have traditionally been underserved, we are focusing on barriers that prevent some patients from accessing the incredible innovation that our industry is delivering, including access to clinical trials and rare disease specialists.
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•Support earlier diagnosis. We support efforts in furtherance of enabling earlier diagnosis. For example, we provide a cholestasis gene panel to help families gain understanding of their infant's condition. The growth of our commercial business reflects the strong capabilities of our commercial and medical teams to work across multiple medical specialties to help patients find a diagnosis.
Competition
The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are intensely competitive and subject to rapid and significant technological change. Many of our competitors are larger than our company and have substantially greater financial, marketing and technical resources than we have.
The development and commercialization of new products to treat rare diseases is highly competitive, and we expect considerable competition from major pharmaceutical, biotechnology and specialty pharmaceutical companies. As a result, there are, and will likely continue to be, extensive research and substantial financial resources invested in the discovery and development of new orphan drug products.
Our competition will be determined in part by the potential indications for which drugs are developed and ultimately approved by regulatory authorities. The speed with which we can develop products, complete preclinical testing, clinical trials, approval processes, and supply commercial quantities to market are expected to be important competitive factors. We expect that competition among products approved for sale will be based on various factors, including product efficacy, safety, reliability, availability, price, reimbursement, patent position, and regulatory exclusivity.
Chenodal
There are other approved chenodeoxycholic acid products available outside of the United States. Furthermore, Chenodal is subject to immediate competition from compounded and generic entrants, as the Abbreviated New Drug Application ("ANDA") for this drug has no remaining patent or non-patent exclusivity.
Cholbam
There are currently no FDA-approved treatments in the United States that compete with Cholbam. In mid-March 2022, Cholbam will have no remaining regulatory exclusivity and could be subject to generic competition.
Pegtibatinase
Current treatment options for homocystinuria (HCU) are limited to protein-restricted diet and supplemental use of vitamin B6 and betaine.
According to public sources, Aeglea BioTherapeutics, Inc. (AGLE-177) and Codexis, Inc. (CDX-6512) are developing enzyme replacement therapies for the treatment of HCU. Additionally, Synlogic Inc. / Gingko Bioworks Holdings, Inc. are developing a microbiome therapy, SYNB1353, for the management of HCU.
There are other pre-clinical development programs in HCU that may enter the clinic.
Thiola
In May 2021, Teva Pharmaceuticals, a U.S. affiliate of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. announced its launch of the first available generic version, in the United States of THIOLA® (tiopronin) tablets. Thiola and Thiola EC are subject to further competition from compounded and generic entrants, if any.
Penicillamine agents, including Cuprimine and Depen are FDA approved for the treatment of cystinuria, as well as Wilson’s disease. Additional generic versions of penicillamine have been approved by the FDA and some have entered the market.
Captopril is not FDA approved for the treatment of cystinuria but has been prescribed for patients with cystinuria.
Advicenne Pharma is developing ADV-7103, a microtablet formulation containing potassium citrate monohydrate and potassium bicarbonate, for the potential oral treatment of cystinuria.
Based on public sources, there are other preclinical assets in development that may enter the clinic for the treatment of cystinuria.
Sparsentan
There are currently no non-immunosuppressive pharmacological treatments approved by the FDA or the EMA for FSGS or IgAN in the US or Europe.
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For FSGS, the current standard of care includes steroids, ACE/ARBs, calcineurin inhibitors, dialysis, and renal transplant.
Based on public sources, Chinook Therapeutics, Dimerix Bioscience, Goldfinch Bio, Horizon Therapeutics, Pfizer Inc., Reata Pharmaceuticals and Vertex Pharmaceuticals may have programs in clinical development for the treatment of FSGS or related conditions.
Additionally, there are several Phase 1 assets in development and other pre-clinical programs that may enter the clinic for the treatment of FSGS or related conditions.
For IgAN, the current standard of care is renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) blockade with immunosuppression. RAAS blockage is also commonly used in patients with significant proteinuria or rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis.
In December 2021, the FDA approved Calliditas’ budesonide delayed release capsules to reduce proteinuria in adults with primary IgAN at risk of rapid disease progression, generally at urine protein-to-creatinine ratio (UPCR) ≥1.5 g/g. Although there are currently no pharmacological treatments approved by the EMA for IgAN in Europe (or the UK), public sources indicate that Calliditas (along with EU/UK licensee, Stada Arzneimittel) submitted their MAA dossier for budesonide delayed release capsules in 2021.
Based on public sources, AstraZeneca (Alexion Pharmaceuticals), Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals,, Calliditas Therapeutics / Stada / Everest, Chinook Therapeutics / SanReno Therapeutics, DiaMedica Therapeutics, Eledon Pharmaceuticals, Ionis Pharmaceuticals / Roche, MorphoSys, Novartis, Omeros Corporation, Otsuka (Visterra), Reata Pharmaceuticals, RemeGen, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and Vera Therapeutics may have programs in clinical development for the treatment of IgAN.
Additionally, there are several Phase 1 assets in development and other pre-clinical programs that may enter the clinic for the treatment of IgAN or related conditions.
In 2021, there were global (including United States, European Union, United Kingdom and Japan) regulatory label expansions of Farxiga/Forxiga in chronic kidney disease, which could potentially be competitive with or complementary to sparsentan for the treatment of IgAN and/or FSGS. There are additional marketed SGLT2 inhibitors which may also expand their current labels to include non-diabetic chronic kidney disease.
Licenses and Royalties
Ligand License Agreement
In 2012, we entered into a license agreement with Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Ligand"), granting us a worldwide license for the development, manufacture and commercialization of sparsentan, which we are developing for the treatment of FSGS and IgAN. Under the license agreement, Ligand granted us a sublicense under certain of its patents and other intellectual property in connection with the development and commercialization of sparsentan. Under the license agreement, Ligand is obligated to transfer to us certain information, records, regulatory filings, materials and inventory controlled by Ligand and relating to or useful for developing sparsentan. We must use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize sparsentan in specified major market countries and other countries in which we believe it is commercially reasonable to develop and commercialize such products.
As consideration for the license, we are required to make payments upon the achievement of certain milestones, totaling up to $114.1 million. Should we commercialize sparsentan or any products containing any of the licensed compounds, we will be obligated to pay Ligand an escalating annual royalty between 15% and 17% of net sales of all such products. Through 2021, we have made aggregate milestone payments to Ligand of $7.2 million under the terms of the license agreement.
Under the terms of the license agreement, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company ("BMS") has a right of first negotiation and Ligand has a right of second negotiation with respect to any license arrangement for a licensed compound except to the extent such rights may be waived.
Absent early termination, the license agreement will continue until neither party has any further payment obligations under the agreement and is expected to continue for approximately 10 to 20 years from the effective date. Ligand may terminate the license agreement due to (i) our insolvency, (ii) our material uncured breach of the agreement, (iii) our failure to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize sparsentan as described above or (iv) certain other conditions. We may terminate the license agreement due to a material uncured breach of the agreement by Ligand.
Thiola License Agreement
In 2014, we entered into a license agreement with Mission Pharmacal Company ("Mission"), pursuant to which we obtained an exclusive, royalty-bearing license to market, sell and commercialize Thiola (tiopronin) in the United States and Canada, and a non-exclusive license to use know-how relating to Thiola to the extent necessary to market Thiola. We paid Mission an up-front license fee of $3.0 million and through May 28, 2024 will pay guaranteed minimum royalties during each calendar year the greater of $2.0 million or 20% of our net sales of Thiola in the United States and Canada.
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In October 2015, the license agreement was amended to allow for us to secure enough active pharmaceutical ingredient ("API") to ensure an adequate level of safety stock to prevent an interruption in the supply of Thiola and to prepare for a reformulation development project. In March 2016, the license agreement was amended to, among other things, include a new formulation development project for tiopronin tablets. In November 2017, the license agreement was amended to extend the license term, at a minimum, through May 2029. In November 2018, the license agreement was amended to remove all territorial restrictions on our license rights and provide that we will pay guaranteed minimum royalties equaling the greater of $0.1 million or 20% of our Thiola net sales generated outside of the United States during each calendar year.
Intellectual Property
The proprietary nature of, and protection for, our product candidates and our discovery programs, processes and know-how are important to our business. We have sought patent protection in the United States and certain other jurisdictions for sparsentan, where available and when appropriate. Our policy is to pursue, maintain and defend patent rights, whether developed internally or licensed from third parties, and to protect the technology, inventions and improvements that are commercially important to the development of our business.
Our commercial success will depend in part on obtaining and maintaining patent protection and for our current and future product candidates, their use in treating particular diseases, and the methods used to develop and manufacture them, as well as successfully defending these patents against third-party challenges. Our ability to stop third parties from making, using, selling, offering to sell, or importing our products depends on the extent to which we have rights under valid and enforceable patents that cover these activities. We cannot be sure that patents will be granted with respect to any of our pending patent applications or with respect to any patent applications filed by us in the future, nor can we be sure that any of our existing patents or any patents that may be granted to us in the future will be commercially useful in protecting our product candidates, discovery programs and processes.
Sparsentan
As of December 31, 2021, our patent portfolio for sparsentan was comprised of five distinct patent families, one of which is exclusively licensed from Ligand (the “Ligand patent family”). The other four patent families are owned by Travere (the "Travere patent families"). We previously had one additional licensed patent family related to sparsentan that was owned by BMS, exclusively licensed to Ligand and sub-licensed to us by Ligand. However, as of December 31, 2019, the BMS patent family is expired and therefore no longer in force.
The Ligand patent family is directed to methods of using sparsentan in the treatment of various diseases, including glomerulosclerosis and IgAN. As of December 31, 2021, this patent family included two US patents (US Patent No. 9,662,312, which we refer to herein as the ‘312 patent, and US Patent No. 9,993,461, which we refer to herein as the ‘461 patent), a pending US application (Application Serial No. 17/368,239, filed July 6, 2021), two European patents (European Patent No. EP2732818, which we refer to herein as the European ‘818 patent, and European Patent No. EP3222277, which we refer to herein as the European ‘277 patent), a pending European application, and two granted Hong Kong patents. The ‘312 patent and the European ‘818 patent claim the use of sparsentan for treating glomerulosclerosis. The ‘461 patent and the European '277 patent each claim both the use of sparsentan for treating glomerulosclerosis and the use of sparsentan for treating IgAN. We expect the US and foreign patents in this patent family to expire in March 2030. In November 2020, a third party filed an opposition to the European ‘277 patent and we are vigorously defending the European '277 against the opposition. If we were to be unsuccessful in doing so, we would expect to rely on the data and/or marketing exclusivity that we expect to be available in Europe, as described below under “Regulatory Exclusivity.”
The first Travere patent family is directed to methods of using sparsentan in the treatment of various kidney diseases, including focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and IgAN, by achieving a specified urine protein to creatinine ratio. As of December 31, 2021, this patent family was comprised of a granted U.S. patent (U.S. Patent No. 10,864,197, which we refer to herein as the ‘197 patent) and pending patent applications in the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Patent Office, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and South Africa. The ‘197 patent claims use of sparsentan for treating Alport syndrome.
The second Travere patent family is directed to methods of using sparsentan for treating hearing loss associated with Alport syndrome. As of December 31, 2021, this patent family was comprised of a granted U.S. patent (U.S. Patent No. 11,207,299) and pending patent applications in the US, Australia Brazil, Canada, China, the European Patent Office, Israel, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and South Africa.
The third Travere patent family is directed to an amorphous form of sparsentan. As of December 31, 2021, this patent family was comprised of pending patent applications in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Patent Office, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia and South Africa.
The fourth Travere patent family is comprised of a series of U.S. provisional patent applications.
It is possible, assuming that sparsentan achieves regulatory approval and depending upon the date of any such approval, that the term of either the ‘312 patent or the ‘461 patent may be extended under the provisions of the Hatch-Waxman Act. Patent term extension also may be available in certain foreign jurisdictions upon regulatory approval. Likewise, it is possible, assuming that sparsentan achieves regulatory approval in Europe and depending upon the date of any such approval, that the term of either the European ‘818 patent or the European '277 patent may be extended in various European countries under the provisions governing Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs).
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Pegtibatinase
As of December 31, 2021, our patent portfolio for pegtibatinase was comprised of six distinct patent families, which we obtained upon our acquisition of Orphan Technologies Limited (now Travere Therapeutics Switzerland GmbH). Orphan Technologies obtained the rights to the first five patent families under an exclusive license agreement with the University of Colorado, while the sixth patent family was owned by Orphan Technologies. The first three patent families are owned by the University of Colorado and exclusively licensed to Travere Therapeutics Switzerland GmbH (the “CU patent families”). The first CU patent family is directed to human cystathionine β-synthase variants and methods for their production, the second CU patent family is directed to methods of purifying human cystathionine β-synthase variants, and the third CU patent family is directed to compositions comprising human cystathionine β-synthase variants and methods of treating homocystinuria. The next two families are co-owned by the University of Colorado and Travere Therapeutics Switzerland GmbH, with the University of Colorado’s interest exclusively licensed to Travere Therapeutics Switzerland GmbH (the “co-owned patent families”). The first co-owned patent family is directed to methods of pegylating human cystathionine β-synthase variants, while the second co-owned patent family is directed to pharmaceutical formulations comprising pegylated human cystathionine β-synthase variants and their use in treating homocystinuria. Lastly, the sixth patent family is owned by Travere Therapeutics Switzerland GmbH (the “Travere patent family”). The Travere patent family is directed to methods for treating human cystathionine β-synthase deficiency in patients with elevated homocysteine levels.
Thiola
Our patent portfolio for Thiola is comprised of a patent family which is exclusively licensed from Mission Pharmacal (the “Mission patent family”). The Mission patent family is directed to a new formulation of Thiola, known as Thiola EC. As of December 31, 2021, this patent family included a US patent application filed in 2018.
Regulatory Exclusivity
If we obtain marketing approval for sparsentan in the United States or in certain jurisdictions outside of the United States, we may be eligible for regulatory exclusivity for the approved drug. For example, in the United States, an FDA-approved drug product may be eligible to receive five years of new chemical entity ("NCE") exclusivity or, for drugs granted an orphan designation by the FDA, seven years of orphan drug exclusivity ("ODE"). In addition, both the five-year NCE period and the seven-year ODE period may be extended by six months upon submission of satisfactory written reports to the FDA of clinical studies conducted in pediatric populations.
Likewise, if we obtain marketing approval for pegtibatinase in the United States or in certain jurisdictions outside of the United States, we may be eligible for regulatory exclusivity for the approved product. Pegtibatinase is a biologic product and therefore its application for approval would be via a biologic license application (“BLA”) (vs. an NDA). In the United States, an FDA-approved biologic product may be eligible to receive twelve years of regulatory exclusivity. In addition, the twelve-year BLA exclusivity period may be extended by six months upon submission of satisfactory written reports to the FDA of clinical studies conducted in pediatric populations.
In the European Union and European Free Trade Association ("EFTA") member states, a new drug product approved by the EMA may receive eight years of data exclusivity and 10 years of marketing exclusivity. The 10-year period of marketing exclusivity may extend to 11 years if, during the eight-year period of data exclusivity, the product receives marketing authorization for a second therapeutic that provides a significant clinical benefit in comparison to existing therapies. Additionally, upon approval by the EMA, orphan drugs may receive 10 years of market exclusivity or, in the case of orphan drugs for which a pediatric investigational plan (PIP) has been completed, 12 years of market exclusivity. The new drug exclusivity and the orphan drug exclusivity run concurrently from the date of EMA approval. There can be no assurance that we will qualify for any such regulatory exclusivity, or that any such exclusivity will prevent competitors from seeking approval solely on the basis of their own studies. See “Government Regulation” below.
Chenodal
Chenodal received orphan drug designation in the United States for the treatment of CTX in 2010. Consequently, if Chenodal is the first chenodeoxycholic acid product to gain FDA approval for the treatment of CTX, we expect it will be granted seven years of marketing exclusivity in the US for that indication. Currently Chenodal does not have regulatory exclusivity in the US.
Cholbam
Upon approval in March 2015, Cholbam received seven years of orphan drug exclusivity in the United States for the treatment for pediatric and adult patients with bile acid synthesis disorders due to single enzyme defects and for patients with peroxisomal disorders. This marketing exclusivity in the US expires in March 2022.
Thiola
Thiola does not have regulatory exclusivity in the United States.
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Trademarks
Our trademark portfolio includes both Travere-owned and Travere-licensed trademarks and is comprised of various US and foreign registered trademarks and pending trademark applications relating to our company name, our commercial products (Thiola, Thiola EC, Chenodal and Cholbam), and our product candidates (i.e. sparsentan).
More specifically, as of December 31, 2021, our trademark portfolio included an allowed US trademark application and foreign registered trademark and trademark applications for the mark “Travere Therapeutics”, US and foreign trademark applications and foreign registered trademarks relating to sparsentan, one registered US trademark and one registered Canadian trademark for the mark “CHENODAL”, one allowed US trademark application directed to the Chenodal logo, one registered US trademark for the mark “MANCHESTER PHARMACEUTICALS”, one registered US trademark for the mark “KEEP IT BELOW THE LINE”, registered US and foreign trademarks for the mark “CHOLBAM”, a registered European Community trademark for the mark “KOLBAM”, a registered US trademark for the mark “TOTAL CARE HUB”, a registered US trademark for the Total Care Hub logo, and a registered US trademark for a leaves logo. In addition, under our license agreement with Mission we have an exclusive license to use Mission’s trademarks related to Thiola and Thiola EC, including three registered US trademarks and one registered Canadian trademark for the mark “THIOLA”, and one registered US trademark for the mark "Thiola EC".
Trade Secrets
In addition to patents, we rely on trade secrets and know-how to develop and maintain our competitive position. We seek to protect our proprietary data and processes, in part, by confidentiality agreements and invention assignment agreements with our employees, consultants, scientific advisors, contractors, and partners. These agreements are designed to protect our proprietary information. We also seek to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of our data, trade secrets and know-how by maintaining physical security of our premises and physical and electronic security of our information technology systems. Trade secrets and know-how can be difficult to protect. Consequently, we anticipate that trade secrets and know-how will, over time, be disseminated within the industry through independent development, the publication of journal articles, and the movement of personnel skilled in the art from academic to industry scientific positions.
Manufacturing
Nexgen Pharma, which was acquired by LGM Pharma in 2020, manufactures Chenodal, New Zealand Pharma manufactures the active pharmaceutical ingredient for Cholbam, Patheon Inc. formulates and packages Cholbam, and Mission manufactures Thiola and Thiola EC.
We intend to continue to use our financial resources to accelerate development of our drug candidates rather than establishing our own manufacturing facilities. We intend to meet our preclinical and clinical trial manufacturing requirements by establishing relationships with third-party manufacturers and other service providers to perform these services for us.
Should any of our drug candidates obtain marketing approval, we anticipate establishing relationships with third-party manufacturers and other service providers in connection with the commercial production of our products. We have some flexibility in securing other manufacturers to produce our drug candidates; however, our alternatives may be limited due to proprietary technologies or methods used in the manufacture of some of our drug candidates.
Sales, Marketing and Distribution
During fiscal 2021, we continued to utilize our specialty sales force to market our FDA-approved products in the US. In order to commercialize our clinical drug candidates if and when they are approved for sale in the US or elsewhere, we will need to increase our marketing, sales and distribution capabilities. In February 2021, we entered into a limited co-promotion arrangement with Albireo Pharma, Inc. (“Albireo”), whereby our Cholbam dedicated sales representatives will dedicate a portion of their efforts to promoting Albireo’s product, Bylvay (odevixibat), in the Unites States. The initial term of the arrangement is two years from the July 2021 launch of Bylvay, terminable at will by either party after one year following launch.
Commercialization
Through deep understanding of patient and healthcare provider needs, we believe we are able to:
•serve patients living with rare disease that have limited treatment options;
•drive optimum performance of our marketed products;
•educate and train healthcare providers about our products and the diseases for which they are approved to treat;
•support access to and reimbursement coverage for our products without significant restrictions; and
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•minimize the number of patients who discontinue treatment or have low compliance with our products by providing patients with support services and disease education, to the extent and in the manner permitted under applicable laws, to help them utilize our products in a manner consistent with the label and maximize the benefits of treatment.
Our US commercial initiatives are designed to support patients living with rare diseases and clinicians treating these patients. We believe that it is possible to commercialize our products in the United States with a relatively small specialty sales force. The primary call points for Thiola and Thiola EC include urologists and nephrologists. The primary call points for Cholbam are gastroenterologists, hepatologists, and metabolic specialists. We do not promote Chenodal.
Our sales force is differentiated by its high level of experience, averaging more than 15 years in pharmaceutical sales including over five years of experience in rare disease. Our commercial management and operations team has an average of more than 15 years of pharmaceutical experience focused on specialty and rare disease.
Our small marketing team, supported by third-party agencies with rare disease experience, drives our commercialization and disease awareness efforts in the United States. Specifically, we implement a variety of industry accepted programs to educate physicians, including direct-to-physician contact by sales representatives, peer-to-peer educational programs, and participation in targeted medical convention programs.
We distribute our products through one direct to patient pharmacy, Eversana (formerly Dohmen Life Science Services), who also provides our comprehensive patient support services (i.e., the Total Care Hub). This patient support program (for all US commercial products) includes a case-managed approach to patient education, insurance verification and reimbursement support, co-pay and other financial assistance for eligible patients, monitoring and support of adherence, and 24/7 access to pharmacist counseling.
We are also in the expansion planning phases to coordinate similar marketing efforts in other countries where our products may be approved or available through named patient sales. Outside the US, including Europe, we plan to continue to partner with local distributors and certain field-based personnel as necessary to conduct permitted commercial activities.
In September 2021, we entered into a license and collaboration agreement ("License Agreement") with Vifor (International) Ltd. ("Vifor Pharma"). In mid-2022, we and Vifor Pharma plan to submit an application for conditional marketing authorization ("CMA") of sparsentan for the treatment of FSGS and IgAN in Europe. If sparsentan receives marketing authorization in any of the licensed territories, Vifor Pharma will be responsible for all commercialization activities in such licensed territories. We remain responsible for the clinical development of sparsentan and will retain all rights to sparsentan in the United States and rest of world outside of the licensed territories, provided that Vifor Pharma has a right of negotiation to expand the licensed territories into Canada, China, Brazil and/or Mexico.
Medical Affairs
We have a global medical affairs team located in the United States and Europe which supports data dissemination, education, external stakeholder engagement and data generation in therapeutic areas relevant to our pipeline and commercial assets. The responsibilities of medical affairs personnel include execution of real-world evidence studies, medical communication through scientific publications and presentations at medical congresses, providing medical information support to HCPs and patients related to our pipeline and our post-approval clinical commitments, organize medical advisory boards to obtain input from experts and practitioners, and support independent medical education programs via grants on medical topics relevant to our products and diseases.
Government Regulation
Regulation by government authorities in the United States and foreign countries is a significant factor in the development, manufacture and marketing of our proposed products and in our ongoing research and product development activities. All of our pipeline products will require regulatory approval by government agencies prior to commercialization. In particular, human therapeutic products are subject to rigorous preclinical studies and clinical trials and other approval procedures of the FDA and similar regulatory authorities in foreign countries. Various federal and state statutes and regulations also govern or influence testing, manufacturing, safety, labeling, storage and record-keeping related to such products and their marketing. The process of obtaining these approvals and the subsequent compliance with appropriate federal and state statutes and regulations require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources.
FDA Drug Approval Process
In the United States, pharmaceutical products are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and other federal and state statutes and regulations, govern, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, storage, recordkeeping, approval, labeling, promotion and marketing, distribution, post-approval monitoring and reporting, sampling and import and export of pharmaceutical products. Failure to comply with applicable US requirements may subject a company to a variety of administrative or judicial sanctions, such as FDA refusal to approve pending new drug applications, or NDAs, warning or untitled letters, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions, fines, civil penalties and criminal prosecution.
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We cannot market a drug product candidate in the United States until the drug has received FDA approval. The steps required before a drug may be marketed in the United States generally include the following:
•completion of extensive preclinical laboratory tests, animal studies, and formulation studies in accordance with the FDA’s GLP regulations;
•submission to the FDA of an IND for human clinical testing, which must become effective before human clinical trials may begin;
•performance of adequate and well-controlled human clinical trials in accordance with Good Clinical Practices ("GCP") requirements to establish the safety and efficacy of the drug for each proposed indication;
•submission to the FDA of an NDA after completion of all pivotal clinical trials;
•satisfactory completion of an FDA pre-approval inspection of the manufacturing facility or facilities at which the active pharmaceutical ingredient, or API, and finished drug product are produced and tested to assess compliance with current Good Manufacturing Practices ("cGMPs"); and
•FDA review and approval of the NDA prior to any commercial marketing or sale of the drug in the United States.
Satisfaction of FDA pre-market approval requirements typically takes many years and the actual time required may vary substantially based upon the type, complexity and novelty of the product or disease.
Preclinical tests include laboratory evaluation of product chemistry, formulation and toxicity, as well as animal trials to assess the characteristics and potential safety and efficacy of the product. The conduct of the preclinical tests must comply with federal regulations and requirements, including good laboratory practices. The results of preclinical testing are submitted to the FDA as part of an IND along with other information, including information about product chemistry, manufacturing and controls and a proposed clinical trial protocol. Long-term preclinical tests, such as animal tests of reproductive toxicity and carcinogenicity, may continue after the IND is submitted.
A 30-day waiting period after the submission of each IND is required prior to the commencement of clinical testing in humans. If the FDA has neither commented on nor questioned the IND within this 30-day period, the clinical trial proposed in the IND may begin. If the FDA raises concerns or questions about the conduct of the trial, such as whether human research subjects will be exposed to an unreasonable health risk, the IND sponsor must resolve any outstanding FDA concerns or questions before clinical trials can proceed.
Clinical trials involve the administration of the investigational new drug to healthy volunteers or patients under the supervision of a qualified investigator. Clinical trials must be conducted in compliance with federal regulations, including GCP requirements, as well as under protocols detailing the objectives of the trial, the parameters to be used in monitoring safety and the effectiveness criteria to be evaluated. Each protocol and subsequent protocol amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND.
The FDA may order the temporary, or permanent, discontinuation of a clinical trial at any time, or impose other sanctions, if it believes that the clinical trial either is not being conducted in accordance with FDA requirements or presents an unacceptable risk to the clinical trial patients. The study protocol and informed consent information for patients in clinical trials also must be submitted for approval to an institutional review board, or IRB, for approval at each site at which the clinical trial will be conducted. An IRB also may require the clinical trial at its site to be halted, either temporarily or permanently, for failure to comply with the IRB’s requirements, or may impose other conditions.
Clinical trials to support NDAs for marketing approval are typically conducted in three sequential phases, but the phases may overlap. In Phase 1, the initial administration of the drug to healthy human subjects or patients, the drug is tested to assess pharmacological actions, side effects associated with increasing doses and, if possible, early evidence on effectiveness. Phase 2 usually involves trials in a limited patient population to determine metabolism, pharmacokinetics, the effectiveness of the drug for a particular indication, dosage tolerance and optimum dosage, and to identify common adverse effects and safety risks. If a drug demonstrates evidence of effectiveness and an acceptable safety profile in Phase 2 evaluations, Phase 3 clinical trials, also called pivotal trials, are undertaken to obtain the additional information about clinical efficacy and safety in a larger number of patients, typically at geographically dispersed clinical trial sites, to permit the FDA to evaluate the overall benefit-risk relationship of the drug and to provide adequate information for the labeling of the drug. In most cases the FDA requires two adequate and well controlled Phase 3 clinical trials to demonstrate the efficacy of the drug. A single Phase 3 clinical trial with other confirmatory evidence may be sufficient in rare instances where the study is a large multicenter trial demonstrating internal consistency and a statistically very persuasive finding of a clinically meaningful effect on mortality, irreversible morbidity or prevention of a disease with a potentially serious outcome and where confirmation of the result in a second Phase 3 trial would be impractical or unethical. A sponsor may choose to pursue a Special Protocol Assessment, or SPA, agreement with FDA for the design of a Phase 3 trial. A SPA agreement is intended to provide assurance that if the agreed upon clinical trial protocols are followed and the clinical trial endpoints are achieved, the data may serve as the primary basis for an efficacy claim in support of an NDA. A SPA agreement is not binding on the FDA if previously unrecognized public health concerns arise during the performance of the clinical trial, if other new scientific concerns regarding product candidate safety or efficacy arise or if the sponsoring company fails to comply with the agreed upon clinical trial protocols.
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After completion of the required clinical testing, an NDA is prepared and submitted to the FDA. FDA approval of the NDA is required before marketing of the product in the United States may begin. The NDA must include the results of all preclinical, clinical and other testing and a compilation of data relating to the product’s pharmacology, chemistry, manufacture and controls. The cost of preparing and submitting an NDA is substantial. The submission of most NDAs is additionally subject to a substantial application user fee, and the sponsor of an approved NDA is also subject to an annual program user fee. These fees typically are increased annually.
The FDA has 60 days from its receipt of an NDA to determine whether the application will be accepted for filing based on the agency’s threshold determination that it is sufficiently complete to permit substantive review. Once the submission is accepted for filing, the FDA begins an in-depth review. The FDA has agreed to certain performance goals in the review of NDAs. Most such applications for standard review drug products are reviewed within 10 months of filing; most applications for priority review drugs are reviewed within six months of filing. Priority review can be applied to drugs to treat serious conditions that the FDA determines offer significant improvement in safety or effectiveness. The review process for both standard and priority review may be extended by the FDA for three additional months to consider certain late-submitted information, or information intended to clarify information already provided in the submission.
The FDA also may refer applications for novel drug products, or drug products that present difficult questions of safety or efficacy, to an advisory committee—typically a panel that includes clinicians and other experts—for review, evaluation and a recommendation as to whether the application should be approved. The FDA is not bound by the recommendation of an advisory committee, but it generally follows such recommendations. Before approving an NDA, the FDA typically will inspect one or more clinical sites to assure compliance with GCPs. Additionally, the FDA will inspect the facility or the facilities at which the drug is manufactured. The FDA will not approve the product unless compliance with cGMPs is satisfactory and the NDA contains data that provide substantial evidence that the drug is safe and effective in the indication studied.
After the FDA evaluates the NDA and the manufacturing facilities, it issues either an approval letter or a complete response letter. A complete response letter generally outlines the deficiencies in the submission and may require substantial additional testing, or information, in order for the FDA to reconsider the application. If, or when, those deficiencies have been addressed to the FDA’s satisfaction in a resubmission of the NDA, the FDA will issue an approval letter. The FDA has committed to reviewing such resubmissions in two or six months depending on the type of information included.
An approval letter authorizes commercial marketing of the drug with specific prescribing information for specific indications. As a condition of NDA approval, the FDA may require risk evaluation and mitigation strategies ("REMS") to ensure that the benefits of the drug outweigh the potential risks. REMS can include a medication guide, a communication plan for healthcare professionals and elements to assure safe use, such as special training and certification requirements for individuals who prescribe or dispense the drug, requirements that patients enroll in a registry and other measures that the FDA deems necessary to assure the safe use of the drug. The requirement for REMS can materially affect the potential market and profitability of the drug. Moreover, product approval may require substantial post-approval testing and surveillance to monitor the drug’s safety or efficacy. Once granted, product approvals may be withdrawn if compliance with regulatory standards is not maintained or problems are identified following initial marketing.
Changes to some of the conditions established in an approved application, including changes in indications, labeling, or manufacturing processes or facilities, require submission and FDA approval of a new NDA or NDA supplement before the change can be implemented. An NDA supplement for a new indication typically requires clinical data similar to that in the original application, and the FDA uses the same procedures and actions in reviewing NDA supplements as it does in reviewing NDAs. Such supplements typically are reviewed within 10 months of receipt.
Orphan Drugs
Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may grant orphan drug designation to drugs intended to treat a rare disease or condition—generally a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the US orphan drug designation must be requested before submitting an NDA. After the FDA confers orphan drug status, the generic identity of the drug and its potential orphan indication are disclosed publicly by the FDA. Orphan drug designation in and of itself does not convey any advantage in, or shorten the duration of, the regulatory review and approval process. The first NDA applicant to receive FDA approval for a particular active ingredient to treat a particular indication with FDA orphan drug designation is entitled to a seven-year exclusive marketing period in the US for that product, for that indication. During the seven-year exclusivity period, the FDA may not approve any other applications to market the same drug for the same disease, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority to the product with orphan drug exclusivity. Orphan drug exclusivity does not prevent FDA from approving a different drug for the same disease or condition, or the same drug for a different disease or condition. Prior to FDA approval, orphan designation provides incentives for sponsors including tax credits for clinical research expenses, the opportunity to obtain government grant funding to support clinical research, and an exemption from FDA user fees.
Fast Track Designation
Fast track is a process designed by the FDA to facilitate the development of drugs to treat serious conditions through expediting their review. The purpose is to get important new drugs to patients earlier. Fast Track addresses a broad range of serious conditions. Determining whether a condition is serious is a matter of judgment, but generally is based on whether the drug will have an impact on such factors as survival, day-to-day functioning, or the likelihood that the condition, if left untreated, will progress from a less severe condition to a more serious one.
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A drug that receives Fast Track designation is eligible for some or all of the following:
•more frequent meetings with FDA to discuss the drug's development plan and ensure collection of appropriate data needed to support drug approval;
•more frequent written communication from FDA about such things as the design of the proposed clinical trials and use of biomarkers;
•eligibility for Accelerated Approval and Priority Review, if relevant criteria are met; and
•rolling Review, which means that a drug company can submit completed sections of its Biologic License Application (BLA) or NDA for review by FDA, rather than waiting until every section is completed before the entire application can be reviewed. BLA or NDA review usually does not begin until the drug company has submitted the entire application to the FDA.
Once a drug receives Fast Track designation, early and frequent communication between the FDA and a drug company is encouraged throughout the entire drug development and review process. The frequency of communication assures that questions and issues are resolved quickly, often leading to earlier drug approval and access by patients.
Accelerated Approval
Under the FDA’s Subpart H accelerated approval regulations, FDA may approve a drug for a serious or life-threatening illness that provides meaningful therapeutic benefit to patients over existing treatments based upon a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit, or on a clinical endpoint that can be measured earlier than irreversible morbidity or mortality, that is reasonably likely to predict an effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality or other clinical benefit, taking into account the severity, rarity, or prevalence of the condition and the availability or lack of alternative treatments.
In clinical trials, a surrogate endpoint is a measurement of laboratory or clinical signs of a disease or condition that substitutes for a direct measurement of how a patient feels, functions, or survives. Surrogate endpoints can often be measured more easily or more rapidly than clinical endpoints. A drug candidate approved on this basis is subject to rigorous post-marketing compliance requirements, including the completion of Phase 4 or post-approval clinical trials to confirm the effect on the clinical endpoint. Failure to conduct required post-approval studies, or confirm a clinical benefit during post-marketing studies, will allow FDA to withdraw the drug from the market on an expedited basis. All promotional materials for drug candidates approved under accelerated regulations are subject to prior review by FDA.
The Hatch-Waxman Amendments: Orange Book Listing
In seeking approval for a drug through an NDA, applicants are required to list with the FDA each patent whose claims cover the applicant’s product or its use for the relevant application. Upon approval of a drug, each of the patents listed in the application for the drug is then published in the FDA’s Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations, commonly known as the Orange Book. Drugs listed in the Orange Book can, in turn, be cited by potential generic competitors in support of approval of an ANDA. An ANDA provides for marketing of a drug product that has the same active ingredients in the same strengths and dosage form as the listed drug and has been shown through bioequivalence testing to be therapeutically equivalent to the listed drug. Other than the requirement for bioequivalence testing, ANDA applicants are not required to conduct, or submit results of, preclinical or clinical tests to prove the safety or effectiveness of their drug product. Drugs approved in this way are commonly referred to as “generic equivalents” to the listed drug, and can often be substituted by pharmacists under prescriptions written for the original listed drug.
The ANDA applicant is required to certify to the FDA concerning all patents listed for the approved product in the FDA’s Orange Book. Specifically, the applicant must certify that: (i) the required patent information has not been filed; (ii) the listed patent has expired; (iii) the listed patent has not expired, but will expire on a particular date and approval is sought after patent expiration; or (iv) the listed patent is invalid or will not be infringed by the new product. The ANDA applicant may also elect to submit a section viii statement certifying that its proposed ANDA label does not contain (or carves out) any language regarding the patented method-of-use rather than certify to a listed method-of-use patent. If the applicant does not challenge the listed patents, the ANDA application will not be approved until all the listed patents claiming the referenced product have expired.
A certification that the new product will not infringe the already approved product’s listed patents, or that such patents are invalid, is called a Paragraph IV certification. If the ANDA applicant has provided a Paragraph IV certification to the FDA, the applicant must also send notice of the Paragraph IV certification to the NDA and patent holders once the ANDA has been accepted for filing by the FDA. The NDA and patent holders may then initiate a patent infringement lawsuit in response to the notice of the Paragraph IV certification. The filing of a patent infringement lawsuit within 45 days of the receipt of a Paragraph IV certification automatically prevents the FDA from approving the ANDA until the earlier of 30 months, expiration of the patent, settlement of the lawsuit, or a decision in the infringement case that is favorable to the ANDA applicant.
The ANDA application also will not be approved until any applicable non-patent exclusivity listed in the Orange Book for the referenced product has expired.
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Post-Approval Requirements
Once an NDA is approved, a product will be subject to certain post-approval requirements. For instance, the FDA closely regulates the post-approval marketing and promotion of drugs, including standards and regulations for direct-to-consumer advertising, off-label promotion, industry-sponsored scientific and educational activities and promotional activities involving the internet and social media. Drugs may be marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling.
Adverse event reporting and submission of periodic reports is required following FDA approval of an NDA. The FDA also may require post-marketing testing, known as Phase 4 testing, REMS, surveillance to monitor the effects of an approved product, or restrictions on the distribution or use of the product. In addition, quality-control, drug manufacturing, packaging and labeling procedures must continue to conform to cGMPs after approval. Drug manufacturers and certain of their subcontractors are required to register their establishments with the FDA and certain state agencies. Registration with the FDA subjects entities to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA, during which the agency inspects manufacturing facilities to assess compliance with cGMPs. Accordingly, manufacturers must continue to expend time, money and effort in the areas of production and quality-control to maintain compliance with cGMPs. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in, among other things:
•restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of the product, complete withdrawal of the product from the market and/or product recalls;
•fines, warning letters or holds on post-approval clinical trials;
•refusal of the FDA to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications, or suspension or revocation of product approvals;
•product seizure or detention, or refusal to permit the import or export of products; or
•injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.
Pricing and Reimbursement
A portion of our end-user demand for our approved drugs comes from patients covered under Medicaid, Medicare and other federal and state government-related programs such as TRICARE and the Department of Veterans Affairs, or the VA. As required by Federal regulations, we provide rebates and discounts in connection with these programs.
Our commercial success depends in significant part on the extent to which coverage and adequate reimbursement for these products will be available from third-party payers, including government health administration authorities, private health insurers and other organizations. Third-party payers determine which medications they will cover and establish reimbursement levels. Even if a third-party payer covers a particular product, the resulting reimbursement payment rates may not be adequate or may require co-payments that patients find unacceptably high. Patients who are prescribed medications for the treatment of their conditions, and their prescribing physicians, generally rely on third-party payers to reimburse all or part of the costs associated with prescription drugs. Patients are unlikely to use our products unless coverage is provided and reimbursement is adequate to cover all or a significant portion of the cost of our products. Therefore, coverage and adequate reimbursement is critical to product acceptance. Further, coverage policies and third-party payer reimbursement rates may change at any time. Even if favorable coverage and reimbursement status is attained, less favorable coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future.
Government authorities and other third-party payers are developing increasingly sophisticated methods of controlling healthcare costs, such as by limiting coverage and the amount of reimbursement for particular medications. Increasingly, third-party payers are requiring that drug companies provide them with predetermined discounts from list prices as a condition of coverage, are using restrictive formularies and preferred drug lists to leverage greater discounts in competitive classes, and are challenging the prices charged for medical products. Third party payers also are carefully evaluating the medical necessity and cost-effectiveness of medical products and services, in addition to a product's safety and efficacy, which may require us to conduct expensive pharmacoeconomic studies in order to demonstrate the medical necessity and cost-effectiveness of our products. Further, no uniform policy requirement for coverage and reimbursement for drug products exists among third-party payers in the United States. Therefore, coverage and reimbursement for drug products can differ significantly from payer to payer. As a result, the coverage determination process is often a time-consuming and costly process that will require us to provide scientific and clinical support for the use of our products to each payer separately, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be applied consistently or obtained in the first instance.
In addition, it is possible that future legislation in the US and other jurisdictions could be enacted which could potentially influence the coverage and reimbursement rates for our products and also could further impact the levels of discounts and rebates paid to federal and state government entities. Any legislation that influences these areas could impact, in a significant way, our ability to generate revenues from sales of products that, if successfully developed, we bring to market.
There have been a number of enacted or proposed legislative and regulatory changes affecting the healthcare system and pharmaceutical industry that could affect our commercial success. For example, in March 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
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Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, (collectively, the “PPACA”) a law intended to, among other things, broaden access to health insurance, reduce or constrain the growth of healthcare spending, enhance remedies against healthcare fraud and abuse, add new transparency requirements for healthcare and health insurance industries, impose new taxes and fees on pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers and impose additional health policy reforms. Specifically, by way of example, the PPACA revised the definition of “average manufacturer price” for reporting purposes, which could increase the amount of Medicaid drug rebates to states. PPACA also increased the mandated Medicaid rebate from 15.1% to 23.1% of the average manufacturer price, expanded the rebate to Medicaid managed care utilization and increased the types of entities eligible for the federal 340B drug discount program. There have been executive, judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the PPACA. For example, President Trump signed several Executive Orders and other directives designed to delay the implementation of certain provisions of the PPACA or otherwise circumvent some of the requirements for health insurance mandated by the PPACA. Concurrently, Congress considered legislation to repeal or repeal and replace all or part of the PPACA. While Congress has not passed comprehensive repeal legislation, several bills affecting the implementation of certain taxes under the PPACA have been signed into law. Legislation enacted in 2017, informally titled the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“Tax Act”), includes a provision which repealed, effective January 1, 2019, the tax-based shared responsibility payment imposed by the PPACA on certain individuals who fail to maintain qualifying health coverage for all or part of a year that is commonly referred to as the “individual mandate”. In addition, the 2020 federal spending package permanently eliminates, effective January 1, 2020, the PPACA-mandated “Cadillac” tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health coverage and medical device tax and, effective January 1, 2021, also eliminates the health insurer tax. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, or the BBA, among other things, amended the PPACA, effective January 1,2019, to increase the discount that is owed by pharmaceutical manufacturers who participate in Medicare Part D from 50% to 70%, and close the coverage gap in most Medicare drug plans, commonly referred to as the “donut hole.” On June 17, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a challenge on procedural grounds that argued the PPACA is unconstitutional in its entirety because the "individual mandate" was repealed by Congress. Thus, the PPACA will remain in effect in its current form. Prior to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, on January 28, 2021, President Biden issued an executive order that initiated a special enrollment period for purposes of obtaining health insurance coverage through the PPACA marketplace. The executive order also instructed certain governmental agencies to review and reconsider their existing policies and rules that limit access to healthcare, including among others, reexamining Medicaid demonstration projects and waiver programs that include work requirements, and policies that create unnecessary barriers to obtaining access to health insurance coverage through Medicaid or the PPACA. It is possible that the PPACA will be subject to judicial or Congressional challenges in the future. It is unclear how such challenges and the healthcare reform measures of the Biden administration will impact the PPACA and our business.
In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the PPACA was enacted. For example, in August 2011, the President signed into law the Budget Control Act of 2011, which, among other things, created the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to recommend to Congress proposals in spending reductions. The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction did not achieve a targeted deficit reduction of at least $1.2 trillion for fiscal years 2012 through 2021, triggering the legislation’s automatic reduction to several government programs. This includes aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year, which went into effect beginning on April 1, 2013 and, due to subsequent legislative amendments, including the BBA, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will stay in effect through 2031, except for a temporary suspension from May 1, 2020 through March 31, 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, unless additional Congressional action is taken. Under current legislation the actual reduction in Medicare payments will vary from 1% in 2022 to up to 3% in the final fiscal year of this sequester. Additionally, in January 2013, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 was signed into law, which, among other things, reduced Medicare payments to several providers, including hospitals and imaging centers.
Moreover, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act imposes additional obligations on manufacturers of pharmaceutical products related to product tracking and tracing. Legislative and regulatory proposals have been made to expand post-approval requirements and restrict sales and promotional activities for pharmaceutical products.
There has been increasing legislative and enforcement interest in the United States with respect to drug pricing practices. Specifically, there have been several recent US Congressional inquiries and numerous proposed and enacted legislation at both the state and federal levels designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, reduce the cost of prescription drugs under Medicare, expedite generic competition, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, institute drug re-importation, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drugs. At the federal level, the Trump administration used several means to propose or implement drug pricing reform, including through federal budget proposals, executive orders and policy initiatives. For example, on July 24, 2020 and September 13, 2020, the Trump administration announced several executive orders related to prescription drug pricing that attempt to implement several of the administration’s proposals. The FDA concurrently released a final rule and guidance in September, 2020, implementing a portion of the importation executive order providing pathways for states to build and submit importation plans for drugs from Canada. Further, on November 20, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, finalized a regulation removing safe harbor protection for price reductions from pharmaceutical manufacturers to plan sponsors under Part D, either directly or through pharmacy benefit managers, unless the price reduction is required by law. The implementation of the rule has been delayed by the Biden administration from January 1, 2022 to January 1, 2023 in response to ongoing litigation. The rule also creates a new safe harbor for price reductions reflected at the point-of-sale, as well as a new safe harbor for certain fixed fee arrangements between pharmacy benefit managers and manufacturers, the implementation of which have also been delayed until January 1, 2023. On November 20, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, issued an interim final rule implementing President Trump’s Most Favored Nation executive order, which would tie Medicare Part B payments for certain physician-administered drugs to the lowest price paid in other economically advanced countries, effective January 1, 2021. As a result of litigation challenging the Most Favored Nation model, on December 27, 2021, CMS published a final rule that rescinded the Most Favored Nation model interim final rule. In July 2021, the Biden administration released an executive order, “Promoting Competition in the American Economy,” with multiple provisions aimed at prescription drugs. In response to Biden’s
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executive order, on September 9, 2021, HHS released a Comprehensive Plan for Addressing High Drug Prices that outlines principles for drug pricing reform and sets out a variety of potential legislative policies that Congress could pursue as well as potential administrative actions HHS can take to advance these principles. No legislation or administrative actions have been finalized to implement these principles. It is unclear whether these or similar policy initiatives will be implemented in the future. At the state level, legislatures are increasingly passing legislation and implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing.
We expect that the PPACA, as well as other federal and state healthcare reform measures that have been and may be adopted in the future, may result in more rigorous coverage criteria and in additional downward pressure on the price that we receive for any of our products, and could seriously harm our future revenues. In addition, it is possible that future legislation in the United States and other jurisdictions could be enacted which could potentially impact the reimbursement rates for the products we are developing and may develop in the future and also could further impact the levels of discounts and rebates paid to federal and state government entities. Any legislation that impacts these areas could impact, in a significant way, our ability to generate revenues from sales of products that, if successfully developed, we bring to market. For example, the U.S. government is considering targeted price controls and reference pricing based on foreign single-payer country access policies which may adversely affect our revenues. Further, it is possible that additional governmental action is taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Health Care Regulatory Laws
In addition to FDA marketing restrictions and regulation of pharmaceutical products, several other types of state and federal laws have been applied to restrict and regulate certain business practices in the pharmaceutical industry in recent years. These laws include, without limitation, anti-kickback statutes and false claims laws, data privacy and security laws, and transparency laws regarding payments or other items of value provided to healthcare providers.
The federal healthcare program anti-kickback statute prohibits, among other things, knowingly and willfully offering, paying, soliciting or receiving remuneration to induce; or in return for; purchasing, leasing, ordering or arranging for the purchase, lease or order of any healthcare item or service reimbursable under Medicare, Medicaid, or other federally financed healthcare programs. This statute has been interpreted broadly to apply to arrangements between pharmaceutical manufacturers on the one hand and prescribers, purchasers, and formulary managers, among others, on the other. Although there are a number of statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors protecting certain common activities from prosecution or other regulatory sanctions, the exceptions and safe harbors are drawn narrowly, and practices that involve remuneration that may induce prescribing, purchases, or recommendations may be subject to scrutiny if they do not qualify for an exemption or safe harbor. Failure to meet all of the requirements of a particular applicable statutory exception or regulatory safe harbor does not make the conduct per se illegal under the anti-kickback statute. Instead, the legality of the arrangement will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis based on a cumulative review of all its facts and circumstances. Several courts have interpreted the statute’s intent requirement to mean that if any one purpose of an arrangement involving remuneration is to induce referrals of federal healthcare covered business, the federal anti-kickback statute has been violated. Additionally, the PPACA amended the federal anti-kickback statute to a stricter standard such that a person or entity no longer needs to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation. In addition, the PPACA codified case law that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal anti-kickback statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the federal civil False Claims Act.
Federal false claims laws, including the civil False Claims Act, prohibit any person or entity from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, a false claim for payment to the federal government, or knowingly making, or causing to be made, a false statement to have a false claim paid. This includes claims made to programs where the federal government reimburses, such as Medicaid, as well as programs where the federal government is a direct purchaser, such as when it purchases off the Federal Supply Schedule. The False Claims Act contains qui tam provisions, which allow a private individual, or relator, to bring a civil action on behalf of the federal government alleging that the defendant submitted a false claim to the federal government, and to share in any monetary recovery. In recent years, the number of suits brought by private individuals has increased dramatically. For example, pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies have been prosecuted under these laws for allegedly inflating drug prices they report to pricing services, which in turn were used by the government to set Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates, and for allegedly providing free product to customers with the expectation that the customers would bill federal programs for the product. In addition, certain marketing practices, including off-label promotion, may also violate federal false claims laws.
Also, many states have similar fraud and abuse statutes or regulations, including state anti-kickback and false claims laws, that apply to items and services reimbursed under Medicaid and other state programs, or, in several states, apply regardless of the payer.
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and similar worldwide anti-bribery laws generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to government officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. Our policies mandate compliance with these anti-bribery laws. We operate in parts of the world that have experienced governmental corruption to some degree and in certain circumstances, strict compliance with anti-bribery laws may conflict with local customs and practices or may require us to interact with doctors and hospitals, some of which may be state controlled, in a manner that is different than in the United States. We cannot assure you that our internal control policies and procedures will protect us from reckless or criminal acts committed by our employees or agents. Violations of these laws, or allegations of such
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violations, could disrupt our business and result in criminal or civil penalties or remedial measures, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations and could cause the market value of our common stock to decline.
In addition, we may be subject to data privacy and security regulation by both the federal government and the states in which we conduct our business. HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH, and their respective implementing regulations, imposes specified requirements relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information. Among other things, HITECH, through its implementing regulations, makes certain of HIPAA’s privacy and security standards directly applicable to business associates, defined as a person or organization, other than a member of a covered entity’s workforce, that creates, receives, maintains or transmits protected health information for or on behalf of a covered entity for a function or activity regulated by HIPAA and their covered subcontractors.
Additionally, the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act within the PPACA, and its implementing regulations, require that certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologicals and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (with certain exceptions) to annually report information related to certain payments or other transfers of value made or distributed to physicians and teaching hospitals, or to entities or individuals at the request of, or designated on behalf of, physicians (defined to include to include doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors), other healthcare professionals (such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners), and teaching hospitals and to report annually certain ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members.
Further, certain states require implementation of commercial compliance programs and marketing codes, compliance with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines, and compliance with the applicable compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government. Other various state level requirements include restricting payments or the provision of other items of value that may be made to healthcare providers and other potential referral sources; restricting various marketing practices; requiring prescription drug companies to report expenses relating to the marketing and promotion of drug products; requiring the posting of information relating to clinical studies and their outcomes; requiring the registration of sales representatives; requiring the reporting of certain information related to drug pricing; and requiring drug manufacturers to track and report information related to payments, gifts, compensation, and other items of value to physicians and other healthcare providers. Additionally, states that have not implemented these types of regulations are considering similar proposals. Compliance with these laws is difficult and time consuming, and companies that do not comply with these state laws face civil penalties.
If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the health regulatory laws described above or any other laws that apply to us, we may be subject to significant penalties, including imprisonment, criminal fines, civil monetary penalties, administrative penalties, disgorgement, exclusion from participation in federal healthcare programs, contractual damages, injunctions, recall or seizure of products, total or partial suspension of production, reputational harm, administrative burdens, additional oversight and reporting obligations if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or similar agreement to resolve allegation of non-compliance with these laws, diminished profits and future earnings, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations.
Foreign Regulation
In addition to regulations in the United States, we are subject to a variety of foreign regulations governing clinical trials and commercial sales and distribution of our products. Whether or not we obtain FDA approval for a product, we must obtain approval by the comparable regulatory authorities of foreign countries before we can commence clinical trials and approval of foreign countries or economic areas, such as the European Union, before we may market products in those countries or areas. The approval process and requirements governing the conduct of clinical trials, product licensing, pricing and reimbursement vary greatly from place to place, and the time may be longer or shorter than that required for FDA approval.
Clinical Trials and Marketing Authorization in the European Union
In Europe, a clinical trial application (“CTA”) must currently be submitted to the competent national regulatory authority and to an independent ethics committee in each country in which we intend to conduct clinical trials. Once the CTA is approved in accordance with that country’s requirements, clinical trial development may proceed in that country. Under the new Regulation on Clinical Trials, which took effect in January 2022, there will be a centralized application procedure where one national authority takes the lead in reviewing the application and the other national authorities have more limited involvement. Any substantial changes to the trial protocol or other information submitted with the clinical trial applications must be notified to or approved by the relevant competent authorities and ethics committees. In all cases, the clinical trials must be conducted in accordance with good clinical practices and other applicable regulatory requirements and medicines used in clinical trials must be manufactured in accordance with good manufacturing practices. A clinical trial may only be undertaken subject to certain conditions. The relevant ethics committee must give its opinion, before a clinical trial commences, on any issue requested. Clinical trials information must be entered into a European database. There are strict requirements in relation to the labeling and packaging of our product candidates, the verification of compliance with the provisions on good clinical and manufacturing practice and the notification of adverse events and serious adverse reactions.
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Under European Union regulatory systems, a company may not market a medicinal product without a marketing authorization.
There are four procedures for submitting a Marketing Authorization Application (“MAA”) in Europe: (i) the national procedure, (ii) the mutual recognition procedure (“MRP”); (iii) the decentralized procedure (“DCP”) and (iv) the centralized procedure (“CP”). The submission strategy for a given product will depend on the nature of the product, the target indication(s), the history of the product, and the marketing plan. The centralized procedure is compulsory for certain medicinal products which are produced by biotechnology processes, advanced therapy medicinal products and for those which are designated as orphan medicinal products. Besides the products falling under the mandatory scope, the centralized procedure is also optional for medicinal products that constitute a significant therapeutic, scientific or technical innovation i.e. new active substances or other medicinal products that constitute a significant therapeutic, scientific or technical innovation, that contain an active substance not authorized in the European Union before May 20, 2004 or for which a centralized procedure would be in the interest of patients.
The centralized procedure leads to approval of the product in all 27 EU member states and in Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, collectively referred to herein as the EEA. Submission of one MAA thus leads to one assessment process and one authorization that allows access to the market of the entire EEA. The process of the centralized procedure is triggered when the applicant submits an MAA to the EMA. The letter of intent also initiates the assignment of the Rapporteur and Co-Rapporteur, who are the appointed members of the Committee for Human Medicinal Products (“CHMP”) representing two EU member states. Under the centralized procedure, the maximum timeframe for the evaluation of an MAA by the EMA is 210 days. This excludes so-called clock stops, during which additional written or oral information is to be provided by the applicant in response to questions asked by the CHMP. At the end of the review period, the CHMP provides an opinion to the European Commission. If this is opinion favorable, the Commission may then adopt a decision to grant a marketing authorization. In exceptional cases, the CHMP might perform an accelerated review of an MAA in no more than 150 days. This is usually when the product is of major interest from the point of view of public health and, in particular, from the viewpoint of therapeutic innovation.
When using the MRP or DCP, the applicant must select which EU member states in which to seek approval. In the case of an MRP, the applicant must initially receive national approval in one EU member state. This will be the so-called reference member state (“RMS”) for the MRP. Then, the applicant seeks approval for the product in other EU member states, the so-called concerned member states, in a second step: the mutual recognition process. For the DCP, the applicant will approach all chosen member states at the same time. To do so, the applicant will identify the RMS that will assess the submitted MAA and provide the other selected member states with the conclusions and results of the assessment.
An innovator company enjoys a period of “data exclusivity” during which their pre-clinical and clinical trials data may not be referenced in the regulatory filings of another company (typically a generic company) for the same drug substance.
Data exclusivity in Europe is eight years from the date of first authorization in Europe with an additional period of two years of “market exclusivity.” This is the period of time during which a generic company may not market an equivalent generic version of the originator’s pharmaceutical product. An additional one year of market exclusivity may be obtained where the innovator company is granted a marketing authorization within the above eight-year period for a significant new indication for the relevant medicinal product.
Additionally, medicines that meet the criteria for orphan designation benefit from ten years of market exclusivity once they are approved for marketing in the EU. This protects them from market competition by similar medicines for the same therapeutic indication. Specifically, the competent regulatory authorities will not for a period of ten years following approval of an orphan designated product accept another application for marketing authorization, grant a marketing authorization, or accept an application to extend an existing marketing authorization for the same therapeutic indication, in respect of a similar medicinal product. Each orphan designation carries the potential for a market exclusivity for the particular indication. Thus, a medicine that has several separate orphan designations for different indications can have a separate orphan marketing exclusivity for each orphan indication.
The Paediatric Regulation provides that an application for a new marketing authorization must include the results of all trials performed and details of all information collected in compliance with an agreed pediatric investigation plan (PIP), unless a deferral or waiver applies on the basis that pediatric use is not relevant. This requirement can also be deferred by agreement. Further, each ten-year period of marketing exclusivity based upon an orphan designation is extended by two years for products that have complied with an agreed PIP for that orphan designation.
When the application for marketing authorization is made, the competent authority responsible for granting a marketing authorization must verify whether the application complies with the relevant requirements, including compliance with the agreed PIP. Assuming it does, the marketing authorization may be granted and the relevant results are included in the summary of product characteristics (“SmPC”) for the product, along with a statement indicating compliance with the agreed PIP. In the case of non-orphan products, the applicant then receives the six-month extension to the SPC (the “pediatric extension”). However, the six-month pediatric extension to SPC is not available for orphan designated products, or where the product has received an additional one year of marketing exclusivity by obtaining approval for a second marketing authorization for a significant new indication within the first eight years following the first marketing authorization. Where the six-month pediatric extension is available, it is not necessary for the product to actually be indicated for use in the pediatric population (for example, if the results show that that would not be appropriate).
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Other Laws and Regulatory Processes
We are subject to a variety of financial disclosure and securities trading regulations as a public company in the United States, including laws relating to the oversight activities of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), and Nasdaq rules under which our stock is listed. In addition, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”), the SEC, and other bodies that have jurisdiction over the form and content of our accounts, our financial statements and other public disclosures are constantly considering and interpreting proposals and existing pronouncements designed to ensure that companies best display relevant and transparent information relating to their respective businesses.
Our present and future business has been and will continue to be subject to various other laws and regulations. Various laws, regulations and recommendations relating to safe working conditions, laboratory practices, the experimental use of animals, and the purchase, storage, movement, import and export and use and disposal of hazardous or potentially hazardous substances used in connection with our research work are or may be applicable to our activities. Certain agreements entered into by us involving exclusive license rights or acquisitions may be subject to national antitrust regulatory control, the effect of which cannot be predicted. The extent of government regulation which might result from future legislation or administrative action, also cannot be predicted with accuracy.
Employees and Human Capital Management
As of January 31, 2022, we had 310 full-time employees, with most of those based in the United States and a small number outside of the United States. We consider the intellectual capital of our employees to be an important driver of our business and key to our future success. The biopharmaceutical industry is very competitive and we believe that our future success largely depends upon our continued ability to attract and retain highly skilled employees. Our workforce primarily consists of college-educated workers with experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, many of whom have advanced degrees. Our employees primarily focus on our drug development and commercialization efforts, including sales and general and administrative operational support of those functions. Currently, we rely on third-party contract manufacturers and conduct our discovery research efforts via collaborations and/or contracted third-party engagements. None of our employees in the United States are represented by a labor union or covered by collective bargaining agreements.
We are committed to creating a multigenerational, multiracial, and multicultural workforce by welcoming each member’s unique experiences, backgrounds and talents and empowering them to reach their highest potential. We desire to have our organization be representative of the communities we aim to serve, and we are placing an increased focus on ways in which we can gain greater ethnic and racial diversity within our workforce, as well as increase gender and ethnic/racial diversity in leadership roles. We have an internal diversity council that is open to all employees of our organization, and has a focus on a number of initiatives that directly impact our human capital, including efforts to further diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives within our recruitment, retention and developmental programs, and increase cultural awareness and engagement.
We strive to provide compensation, benefits and support services that help meet the varying needs of our employees. In the United States, our total compensation package includes competitive pay, including opportunities for performance-based bonuses; comprehensive healthcare benefits; paid time off and paid holidays, and the opportunity for equity ownership through our equity incentive plan and our employee stock purchase plan. We also sponsor a 401(k) plan that includes a discretionary matching contribution. A similar package of benefits are provided to our employees outside of the United States, subject to regional differences. In 2021, we further enhanced and expanded our employee benefits in response to the continued impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as we identified additional ways in which we could further support our workforce, as well as attract new talent as we seek to grow our organization in the current tight labor market, and high competition for skilled employees within our industry. For example, we continued to provide resources to enable employees to work more efficiently and effectively from home and expanded our focus on well-being.
By focusing on employee retention, engagement and development opportunities, we believe we also improve our ability to support our clinical trials, our pipeline, our business and operations. Our success also depends on our ability to respond to the needs of employees and we do this by listening to our employees through many avenues, for example, through formal engagement initiatives, such as surveys, as well as informal listening sessions hosted by senior leaders, including our CEO and our human resources department. Also, during 2021 we convened a team of mid and senior level managers focused on culture who meet regularly to discuss the specifics of how to maximize a healthy, inclusive, and recognition-based company culture. As we continue to navigate through these challenging times during a global pandemic, we take pride in the role we play in helping to ensure our employees are as productive and engaged as possible and their physical and emotional health and well-being remains a key priority.
Available Information
We were incorporated in the state of Delaware in February 2011. Our website address is travere.com. We post links on our website to the following filings as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC: annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements, and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All such filings are available through our website free of charge. The SEC also maintains an internet site at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.
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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Our business, as well as an investment in our common stock, is highly speculative in nature and involves a high degree of risk. Our securities should be purchased only by persons who can afford to lose their entire investment. Carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below together with all of the other information included herein, including the financial statements and related notes, before deciding to invest in our common stock. If any of the following risks actually occur, they could adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. In such event(s), the market price of our common stock could decline and result in a loss of part or all of your investment. Accordingly, prospective investors should carefully consider, along with other matters referred to herein, the following risk factors in evaluating our business before purchasing any shares of our common stock.
Risks Related to the Development of our Product Candidates
Our clinical trials may fail to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our product candidates, including sparsentan and pegtibatinase (TVT-058), which could prevent or significantly delay their regulatory approval.
Before obtaining regulatory approval for the sale of any of our current or future product candidates, including sparsentan and pegtibatinase (TVT-058), we must subject these product candidates to extensive preclinical and clinical testing to demonstrate their safety and efficacy for humans. Clinical trials are expensive, time-consuming and may take years to complete.
We may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, preclinical or nonclinical testing and the clinical trial process that could delay or prevent our ability to obtain regulatory approval or commercialize our product candidates, including:
•our preclinical or nonclinical tests or clinical trials may produce negative or inconclusive results, and we may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional preclinical testing or clinical trials or we may abandon projects that we expect to be promising;
•regulators may require us to conduct studies of the long-term effects associated with the use of our product candidates;
•regulators or institutional review boards may not authorize us to commence a clinical trial or conduct a clinical trial at a prospective trial site;
•the FDA or any non-United States regulatory authority may impose conditions on us regarding the scope or design of our clinical trials or may require us to resubmit our clinical trial protocols to institutional review boards for re-inspection due to changes in the regulatory environment;
•the number of patients required for our clinical trials may be larger than we anticipate or participants may drop out of our clinical trials at a higher rate than we anticipate;
•our third-party contractors or clinical investigators may fail to comply with regulatory requirements or fail to meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner;
•we might have to suspend or terminate one or more of our clinical trials if we, regulators or institutional review boards determine that the participants are being exposed to unacceptable health risks;
•regulators or institutional review boards may require that we hold, suspend or terminate clinical research for various reasons, including noncompliance with regulatory requirements;
•the cost of our clinical trials may be greater than we anticipate;
•the supply or quality of our product candidates or other materials necessary to conduct our clinical trials may be insufficient or inadequate or we may not be able to reach agreements on acceptable terms with prospective clinical research organizations; and
•the effects of our product candidates may not be the desired effects or may include undesirable side effects or the product candidates may have other unexpected characteristics.
These risks and uncertainties impact all of our clinical programs that we pursue and have been amplified by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as described below. We will only obtain regulatory approval to commercialize a product candidate if we can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the FDA, and in the case of foreign commercialization, to the applicable foreign regulatory authorities, in well-designed and conducted clinical trials, that our product candidates are safe and effective and otherwise meet the appropriate standards required for approval for a particular indication.
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Our product development costs will also increase if we experience delays in testing or approvals. We do not know whether any preclinical tests or clinical trials will be initiated as planned, will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, if at all. Significant preclinical or clinical trial delays also could shorten the patent protection period during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates. Such delays could allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do and impair our ability to commercialize our products or product candidates.
If we are required to conduct additional clinical trials or other testing of our product candidates beyond those that we currently contemplate, if we are unable to successfully complete our clinical trials or other testing, if the results of these trials or tests are not positive or are only modestly positive or if there are safety concerns, we may:
•be delayed in obtaining, or may not be able to obtain, marketing approval for one or more of our product candidates;
•obtain approval for indications that are not as broad as intended or entirely different than those indications for which we sought approval; and
•have the product removed from the market after obtaining marketing approval.
In February 2021, we announced that our ongoing pivotal Phase 3 DUPLEX Study of sparsentan in focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (“FSGS”) achieved its pre-specified interim FSGS partial remission of proteinuria endpoint (“FPRE”) after 36 weeks of treatment and in August 2021, we announced that our ongoing pivotal Phase 3 PROTECT Study of sparsentan in IGA Nephropathy (“IgAN”) achieved its pre-specified primary efficacy endpoint after 36 weeks of treatment. Pursuant to the DUPLEX and PROTECT Study protocols, patients are to continue in a blinded manner to assess the treatment effect on eGFR slope over two years in the confirmatory endpoint analyses of the studies. Given that interim results from the studies have been publicly announced, it is possible that we may see a higher than anticipated attrition rate in one or both of these studies. To the extent that an insufficient number of patients choose to remain in either study for the full two years, it could jeopardize our ability to complete the studies and submit for full regulatory approval for sparsentan in FSGS and/or IgAN.
We may not be able to initiate or continue clinical trials in the rare diseases in which we are focused if we are unable to locate a sufficient number of eligible patients willing and able to participate in the clinical trials required by the FDA or foreign regulatory agencies. In addition, as other companies and researchers may be concurrently developing therapies for the same or similar indications that we are focused on, we could face competition for a limited number of patients, investigators and clinical trial sites willing to participate in clinical trials. Our inability to enroll and maintain a sufficient number of patients for any of our current or future clinical trials would result in significant delays or may require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether.
In January 2020, we randomized the first patients in a Phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate the effects of Chenodal in adult and pediatric patients with CTX. The pivotal study, known as the RESTORE study, is intended to support an NDA submission for marketing authorization of Chenodal for CTX in the United States. While Chenodal has been used as the standard of care for CTX for over three decades, it is not labeled for CTX and as such we cannot market this drug candidate for the treatment of CTX unless and until it receives FDA approval for this indication. If we experience delays in obtaining approval or if we fail to obtain approval of Chenodal for the treatment of CTX, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
The planned eGFR data cut from the DUPLEX Study may not support accelerated approval submissions in the U.S. and/or Europe.
In February 2021, we announced that our ongoing pivotal Phase 3 DUPLEX Study of sparsentan in FSGS achieved its pre-specified interim FSGS partial remission of proteinuria endpoint (“FPRE”) after 36 weeks of treatment. The confirmatory primary endpoint of the DUPLEX Study to support full regulatory approval is the rate of change in eGFR over 108 weeks of treatment. As of the time of the interim analyses, available long-term eGFR data for the confirmatory endpoint were limited. In May 2021, we provided a regulatory update regarding the sparsentan FSGS program, including feedback from the FDA that the available data from the previously announced interim assessment of the DUPLEX Study would not be adequate to support an accelerated approval in the U.S. at this time. At a subsequent Type A meeting, we and the FDA reached alignment on a pathway for us to proceed with a submission for accelerated approval, pending additional supportive eGFR data. While we intend to provide the FDA with additional eGFR data from the ongoing DUPLEX Study in the first half of 2022, and if such data are supportive, submit an application for accelerated approval in the U.S. in mid-2022, there is no guarantee that such eGFR data will be supportive, or that the FDA will agree with our assessment as to whether it, together with the data from the previously announced interim assessment of the DUPLEX Study will be adequate to support an accelerated approval in the U.S. Similarly, we intend to provide such data to the EMA via a submission of sparsentan for FSGS, and there is no guarantee that the data will support such a submission.
Success in preclinical testing and early clinical trials does not ensure that later clinical trials will be successful.
Success in preclinical testing and early clinical trials does not ensure that later clinical trials will be successful.For example, although we observed favorable responses with the physician-initiated treatment of fosmetpantotenate in PKAN patients outside the United States, the Phase 3 FORT Study evaluating the safety and efficacy of fosmetpantotenate compared to placebo in patients with PKAN did not meet its primary endpoint, did not demonstrate a difference between treatment groups, and did not meet its secondary endpoint. In addition, there can be no assurance that the
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positive eGFR results from the open-label portion of the DUET study of sparsentan in FSGS will be repeated in the Phase 3 clinical trial. Similarly, the positive pre-clinical data we have seen from pegtibatinase (TVT-058) being tested in a mouse model of homocystinuria and the positive topline results we reported in December 2021 from the ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial of pegtibatinase (TVT-058) may not be replicated in future studies. We cannot assure that any current or future clinical trials of sparsentan or pegtibatinase (TVT-058) will ultimately be successful.
Before obtaining regulatory approval to conduct clinical trials of our product candidates, we must conduct extensive preclinical tests to demonstrate the safety of our product candidates in animals. Preclinical testing is expensive, difficult to design and implement, and can take many years to complete. In addition, during the clinical development process, additional nonclinical toxicology studies are routinely conducted concurrently with the clinical development of a product candidate. If any of our product candidates show unexpected findings in concurrent toxicology studies, we could experience potentially significant delays in, or be required to abandon, development of that product candidate. A failure of one or more of our nonclinical studies can occur at any stage of testing.
Communications and/or feedback from the FDA or EMA related to our current or planned future clinical trials does not guarantee any particular outcome from regulatory review for such clinical trials.
Communications and/or feedback from the FDA or EMA related to our current or future clinical trials does not guarantee any particular outcome from regulatory review for such clinical trials.
In 2018 we initiated the following Phase 3 clinical trials of sparsentan: 1) a single Phase 3 clinical trial designed to serve as the basis for an NDA and MAA filing for sparsentan for the treatment of FSGS (the “DUPLEX Study”), and 2) a single Phase 3 clinical trial designed to serve as the basis for an NDA and MAA filing for sparsentan for the treatment of IgAN (the “PROTECT Study”). We are conducting the DUPLEX Study and the PROTECT Study under the Subpart H pathway for potential accelerated approval in the United States, and in Europe we plan to pursue potential Conditional Marketing Authorization, in both jurisdictions based on change in proteinuria. Recognition of change in proteinuria as a surrogate endpoint in kidney disease is a relatively new regulatory development, and, as the field continues to evolve, new learnings may impact regulatory viewpoints. For example, in the DUPLEX Study in conjunction with ongoing FDA dialogue to enable submission for potential approval on the subpart H pathway, in November 2020 we adopted an eGFR measurement over a 108-week period following randomized treatment, to support full approval. However, in May 2021, we received feedback from the FDA that the available data from the previously announced interim assessment of the DUPLEX Study would not be adequate to support an accelerated approval in the U.S. at this time. While we believe that we and the FDA have reached alignment on a pathway for us to proceed with a submission for accelerated approval, pending additional supportive eGFR data, additional data from the DUPLEX Study may not be sufficient to support an NDA under Subpart H for accelerated approval. For both indications, there is no guarantee that the FDA will accept the NDA for filing, as the FDA has the authority to refuse to file NDAs for a variety of reasons. Further, even if the FDA accepts the NDAs for filing, there is no guarantee that either NDA will be granted priority review during the application review process. If the application is not granted priority review, the review and potential approval timeline will extend beyond our current stated timing assumptions.
If the FDA or EMA agree to review our regulatory submissions for accelerated approval/conditional marketing authorization, we expect that the FDA’s and EMA’s determination as to whether the sufficiency of the data from the DUPLEX and PROTECT Studies supports an accelerated approval/conditional marketing authorization in either jurisdiction will be made during the application review process based on the totality of the data, including eGFR data available for review from the respective studies. There can be no assurance that the FDA or EMA will deem our achievement of any interim endpoint or measurement in the DUPLEX or PROTECT Studies to be sufficient to grant accelerated approval or Conditional Marketing Authorization for sparsentan for the treatment of FSGS or IgAN, respectively.
There can be no guarantee that the data generated from the DUPLEX Study will be sufficient to serve as the basis for an NDA filing, or that additional data from the DUPLEX Study will be sufficient to support an NDA under Subpart H for accelerated approval. In addition, our statistical modeling that supports proceeding with the DUPLEX Study on the Subpart H pathway is based on data from other FSGS studies. To the extent that the model population is not representative of the DUPLEX Study population, the FDA may not agree that the new results continue to support a Subpart H pathway. Furthermore, even if sparsentan is granted accelerated approval for FSGS, there can be no assurance that the post-marketing confirmatory data will support full approval of sparsentan as a treatment for FSGS.
Although we have announced that our ongoing pivotal Phase 3 PROTECT Study of sparsentan in IgAN achieved its pre-specified primary efficacy endpoint after 36 weeks of treatment and we have reached alignment with the FDA on proceeding with a submission for accelerated approval of sparsentan for IgAN, there can be no assurance that the study will proceed as planned and there can be no guarantee that the data generated from the study will be sufficient to serve as the basis for an NDA filing, including an NDA under Subpart H for accelerated approval or support Conditional Marketing Authorization in the EU. Furthermore, even if sparsentan is granted accelerated approval for IgAN, there can be no assurance that the post-marketing confirmatory data will support full approval of sparsentan as a treatment for IgAN.
In addition, because both the DUPLEX Study and PROTECT Study are evaluating the same compound for the treatment of chronic kidney diseases and utilizing similar endpoints, the risk of success or failure for the two studies may, depending on the outcomes of the studies, end up being correlated.
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An extended delay in the rate of enrollment or data collection in our ongoing Phase 1/2 Study of pegtibatinase (TVT-058), as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, may delay our timelines for analyzing future data from the study.
While we have recently completed enrollment of the initially planned dose cohorts, we are currently enrolling an additional patient cohort in the clinical trial of pegtibatinase (TVT-058) for homocystinuria, a rare disease. Given that this development candidate is still undergoing required testing, we may not be able to initiate or continue clinical trials if we are unable to locate a sufficient number of eligible patients willing and able to participate in the clinical trial required by the FDA or foreign regulatory agencies. In addition, as other companies and researchers may be concurrently developing therapies for the same or similar indications that we are focused on, we could face competition for a limited number of patients, investigators and clinical trial sites willing to participate in clinical trials. Our inability to enroll and maintain a sufficient number of patients for any of our current or future clinical trials would result in significant delays or may require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether.
If the rate of enrollment in the ongoing Phase 1/2 Study of pegtibatinase (TVT-058) is slower than we anticipate, due to the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, or if there are barriers to data collection or monitoring activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our timelines for analyzing results from the Phase 1/2 Study of pegtibatinase (TVT-058) could be delayed.
Interim, topline and preliminary data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.