UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM
(Mark One)
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended
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TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 FOR THE TRANSITION PERIOD FROM TO |
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Securities registered pursuant to section 12(g) of the Act: None
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If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
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Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). YES ☐ NO
The aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter was approximately $
The number of shares of Registrant’s Common Stock outstanding as of March 25, 2022, was
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
The Registrant’s Definitive Proxy Statement relating to the 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K and portions of such are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Table of Contents
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PART I |
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Item 1. |
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3 |
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Item 1A. |
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22 |
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Item 1B. |
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53 |
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Item 2. |
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Item 3. |
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Item 4. |
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PART II |
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Item 5. |
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Item 6. |
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Item 7. |
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Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations |
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Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure |
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Item 9B. |
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Item 9C |
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Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections |
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PART III |
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Item 11. |
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Item 12. |
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Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters |
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Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence |
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PART IV |
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Item 16. |
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1
CAUTIONARY INFORMATION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, which are subject to the “safe harbor” created by those sections, concerning our business, operations, and financial performance and condition as well as our plans, objectives, and expectations for business operations and financial performance and condition. Any statements contained herein that are not of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. You can identify these statements by words such as “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “should,” “will,” “would,” and other similar expressions that are predictions of or indicate future events and future trends. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about our business and the industry in which we operate and management's beliefs and assumptions and are not guarantees of future performance or development and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that are in some cases beyond our control. As a result, any or all of our forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K may turn out to be inaccurate. Factors that could materially affect our business operations and financial performance and condition include, but are not limited to, those risks and uncertainties described herein under “Item 1A - Risk Factors.” You are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are based on information available to us as of the filing date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Unless required by law, we do not intend to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information or future events or otherwise. You should, however, review the factors and risks we describe in the reports we will file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
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PART I
Item 1. Business.
Overview
We are a fully-integrated, clinical stage precision oncology biopharmaceutical company developing targeted therapies to redefine treatment for biomarker-specific patient populations. Driven by a commitment to rigorous science and a passion for improving the lives of people impacted by cancer and other life-threatening diseases, we are advancing a robust pipeline of investigational, small molecule oncology compounds with a biomarker-driven approach that targets genetic vulnerabilities in cancer cells to deliver new therapies for patients suffering from aggressive hematologic and solid tumor cancers for which there are currently limited treatment options. While we are primarily focused on oncology, we are opportunistically developing therapeutics outside of oncology where we can leverage our existing expertise in immune cell metabolism to treat diseases with unmet needs, as is the case in cystic fibrosis.
Targeted, Biomarker-Defined Small Molecules
In October 2021, we entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement, or APA, with Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., or Millennium, a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, or Takeda, to acquire two clinical-stage compounds, both of which have demonstrated single-agent clinical activity in biomarker-defined cancer patient populations. The compounds are the TORC1/2 inhibitor sapanisertib (CB-228, formerly TAK-228) and the spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) inhibitor mivavotinib (CB-659, formerly TAK-659), both of which significantly strengthen our precision oncology pipeline. This was a transformative transaction that aligns with Calithera’s focus and deep expertise in targeted, small-molecule cancer therapies. Our near-term clinical development plans leverage our expertise in conducting biomarker focused clinical trials by developing sapanisertib in NRF2 (also known as NFE2L2)-mutated squamous non-small cell lung cancer, and mivavotinib in activated B-cell (ABC) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) with and without MYD88/CD79b mutations. By focusing on well-characterized genetic vulnerabilities with molecules that have already shown single-agent activity, we will be able to generate phase 2 data with targeted, efficient study designs. We intend to announce data from these studies by the first quarter of 2023.
Mivavotinib
Mivavotinib is a SYK inhibitor that targets the constitutively activated B-cell receptor (BCR) pathway in DLBCL and other non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs). In completed Phase 1/2 clinical trials mivavotinib showed promising single-agent responses with deep and durable activity in unselected patients with DLBCL and other NHLs that had a median of 3 prior lines of therapy (range of prior lines 1-11). Mivavotinib demonstrated higher clinical response rates than other SYK inhibitors evaluated in relapsed/refractory DLBCL patients. The overall safety profile of mivavotinib appears favorable for further development as a single agent and in combination with standard of care therapies.
SYK is known to activate multiple cell-signaling pathways in activated B-cell like (ABC) DLBCL: NF-kB and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathways, compared to germinal center B-cell like (GCB) DLBCL, where it primarily activates the PI3K pathway. We conducted a retrospective analysis of completed clinical trials of mivavotinib monotherapy in relapsed/refractory (R/R) DLBCL, looking at overall response rate (ORR) by DLBCL cell of origin in patients treated at the recommended phase 2 dose (RP2D). Mivavotinib showed a substantially higher response rate in ABC (53%) compared to GCB (22%) DLBCL. In addition, recent preclinical studies have shown enhanced SYK activity and sensitivity to SYK inhibition in DLBCL and other NHLs harboring mutations in MyD88 and/or CD79, which comprise a distinct genetic subset of ABC DLBCL known to have poor outcomes with standard of care therapy. The compelling single agent ORR in ABC DLBCL, and potential for further enrichment of single agent activity in a genetically-defined subset of ABC DLBCL with MyD88/CD79 mutations provide a well-defined, efficient development path to a potential single agent accelerated approval in these populations.
We plan to initiate a Phase 2 study of mivavotinib in the first half of 2022 for the treatment of patients with non-GCB (ABC) DLBCL with and without mutations in MyD88 and CD79. Data generated from this study could position the company to initiate a study with registrational intent in biomarker-specific populations in DLBCL. We intend to announce data from this study by the first quarter of 2023.
DLBCL represents the most common subtype of NHL and represents approximately 30% of all NHL cases. Twenty-four thousand people are diagnosed in the US each year with an approximately 60% 5-year survival rate. MyD88 mutations occur in approximately 30%, and CD79 mutations occur in 10-15%, of all DLBCL cases. Approximately 50% of all ABC DLBCL tumors have one or both of these mutations.
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Beyond DLBCL, both preclinical and clinical data support expansion across additional NHL subtypes and other hematologic malignancies as part of long-term plans. Additional development plans may include generating data in Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia (WM) and other NHLs with MyD88/CD79 mutations, and exploring combinations with standard of care agents such as ibrutinib, venetoclax, and anti-CD20 in various subtypes of NHL.
Sapanisertib
Sapanisertib is a dual target of rapamycin kinase C I/II (TORC1/2) inhibitor that targets a key survival mechanism in KEAP1/NRF2-mutated tumor cells. These mutations are found in a considerable subpopulation of patients across multiple solid tumor types. In squamous non-small cell lung cancer (sqNSCLC), NRF2 mutations occur in approximately 15% of patients, and KEAP1 mutations occur in approximately 12% of patients. Sapanisertib has demonstrated promising single-agent activity in patients with R/R NRF2-mutated sqNSCLC and exhibits differential antitumor activity compared to rapalog inhibitors of TORC1 in NRF2-mutant sqNSCLC xenograft models. Sapanisertib has a well-characterized clinical safety profile and was well tolerated in R/R non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.
Of the greater than 235,000 people diagnosed with NSCLC in the US each year, approximately 25-30% of those are sqNSCLC. Actionable mutations are only found in 1-5% of sqNSCLC patients, leaving few options after PD-1 inhibitors and chemotherapy. The standard of care chemotherapy options in R/R sqNSCLC have a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 3-4.5 months. Because NRF2/KEAP1 mutations confer a poorer prognosis for NSCLC patients, sapanisertib has the potential to address a substantial underserved patient population.
A Phase 2 study planned to begin in the first half of 2022 will strengthen the existing data on sapanisertib as a monotherapy in patients with squamous NSCLC harboring a NRF2 mutation and also evaluate its activity NRF2 WT sqNSCLC. Data generated from this study could position the company to initiate a registrational study in sqNSCLC. We intend to announce data from this study by the first quarter of 2023. Additional development plans may include exploring the potential of sapanisertib in KEAP1 mutant tumors in NSCLC and KEAP1/NRF2 mutant tumor types beyond NSCLC.
Pursuant to the APA, in October 2021, we paid Millennium an upfront payment of $10.0 million in cash and issued to Millennium 1,000,000 shares of our Series A convertible preferred stock that is initially convertible at the option of the holder into approximately 17.2 shares of common stock based on the $2.04 per share closing stock price of our common stock on October 15, 2021. We will make tiered earn-out payments of high single-digits to low teens on net sales of CB-228 products and CB-659 products, subject to certain customary reductions. Millennium will be eligible to receive up to an aggregate of $470.0 million in clinical development, regulatory and sales milestone payments across both programs.
Synthetic Lethality Preclinical Pipeline
In June 2021, we became a member of the Broad Institute’s Cancer Dependency Map (DepMap) Consortium. The goal of the DepMap initiative at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard is to discover new targets and biomarkers for precision cancer medicines. Membership in the Consortium is an opportunity for us to generate novel data for discovery programs and forge deeper collaborations with Broad Institute’s data and computational scientists in order to enable translational decisions for our programs. We plan to utilize this partnership with the Broad Institute to continue to explore biomarkers for our clinical programs, as well as identify biomarker-defined subpopulations of cancer patients for undisclosed pipeline programs.
VPS4A Inhibitors
In addition, Calithera continues to leverage its discovery engine to build a preclinical pipeline of synthetic lethality targets with a focus on paralog genes. We will present data describing novel VPS4A inhibitors discovered by Calithera at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2022 Annual Meeting. The accepted poster will detail Calithera’s discovery of a novel series of VPS4A inhibitors that are currently advancing through lead optimization. VPS4A and VPS4B are paralog ATPases essential for remodeling intracellular organelle membranes. Loss of function of both paralogs is lethal. Both homozygous and heterozygous loss of VPS4B in cancer cells makes them vulnerable to VPS4A inhibition. VPS4B is lost in a heterozygous fashion in the majority of colorectal carcinomas (CRC), pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), ovarian, esophageal and head and neck cancers and is deleted in large numbers of other tumor types. The preclinical data demonstrate that VPS4A inhibition in cell lines with loss of VPS4B preferentially showed profound cell kill response.
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Additional Small Molecule Programs
Arginase Inhibitor CB-280 for Cystic Fibrosis
Our product candidate, CB-280, which is solely owned by Calithera, is a novel oral inhibitor of arginase being developed for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, or CF. In October 2020, we were awarded up to $2.4 million from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to support development of CB-280. Arginase is secreted by infiltrating neutrophils in the lungs of CF patients and depletes the amino acid arginine. Arginine is critical for the generation of sufficient nitric oxide, or NO, to maintain anti-microbial effects and bronchodilation in the lungs of CF patients. We completed a Phase 1 Single Ascending Dose trial to evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic profile of oral CB-280 in healthy volunteers. In July 2020, we initiated a Phase 1b clinical trial in adult patients with CF who are on a stable regimen of CF therapies and have chronic airway infection. The randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled, dose escalation trial is evaluating multiple ascending doses of CB-280, dosed orally twice daily (BID) for 14 days, compared to placebo in up to 32 adult CF patients to determine a safe dose range for CB-280. In November 2021, we presented interim data from the Phase 1b trial at the North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference (NACFC) on the first 24 subjects (18 treated with CB-280, 6 with placebo) participating in the trial. Data were presented for 50mg BID, 100mg BID and 200mg BID dose levels and showed that CB-280 was well tolerated across dose levels, and all 18 patients receiving CB-280 completed treatment without treatment interruptions or premature discontinuations. CB-280 demonstrated linear pharmacokinetics (PK), as well as complete and continuous target inhibition in plasma at doses at or above 100mg. CB-280 also demonstrated robust pharmacodynamic (PD) effects, with rapid and significant dose-proportional increases in plasma arginine, the key driver of NO production. Enrollment of cohort 4 (300mg BID) and analysis is complete. No new safety signals were seen and plasma arginine, fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) and FEV1 showed trends consistent with previous cohorts. Evaluation of next steps is ongoing. We plan on publishing the Ph1b data in the future.
IL4I1 Inhibitor CB-668
We have also discovered CB-668, a first-in-class, potent, orally administered inhibitor of the immune-suppressive enzyme IL4I1. IL4I1 is an enzyme that is expressed by tumor cells and antigen presenting cells that metabolizes phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan to produce hydrogen peroxide, an inhibitor of T-cell function. In particular, IL4I1 can metabolize tryptophan to kynurenic acid and other metabolites that lead to immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment. Preclinical data were presented at the 2020 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting. In syngeneic mouse models CB-668 exhibited immune mediated, single agent activity and augmented activity in combination with checkpoint inhibitors. IL4I1 expression has been correlated with poor clinical outcomes and expression is elevated in multiple tumor types including ovarian and B-cell tumors.
Glutaminase Inhibitor Telaglenastat (CB-839)
In November 2021, we announced the discontinuation of the phase 2 telaglenastat KEAPSAKE clinical trial in patients with non-squamous NSCLC with genetic mutations in KEAP1/NRF2 based on a lack of clinical benefit observed in patients treated with telaglenastat in an interim analysis. The phase 2 randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind KEAPSAKE study was designed to evaluate the safety and anti-tumor activity of telaglenastat plus standard-of-care chemoimmunotherapy as front-line therapy among patients with stage IV non-squamous NSCLC whose tumors have a KEAP1 or NRF2 mutation. At the time of unblinding on October 27, 2021, there were 40 patients randomized. The available efficacy data at unblinding, including investigator-assessed PFS, did not demonstrate clinical benefit, and analysis of the data led to the conclusion that there was a very low probability for the study to achieve a positive result. No difference in safety profile was seen between the two arms. Calithera has no plans to continue the development of telaglenastat at this time.
Partnered Programs
Arginase Inhibitor INCB001158 for Oncology
An additional arginase inhibitor, INCB001158, was discovered by Calithera and is being developed by Incyte Corporation, or Incyte, for oncology and hematology indications, and is currently being evaluated in Phase 1/2 trials in combination with other anti-cancer agents. In January 2017, we entered into a collaboration and license agreement, or the Incyte Collaboration Agreement, with Incyte. Under the terms of the Incyte Collaboration Agreement, we granted Incyte an exclusive, worldwide license to co-develop and co-commercialize our small molecule arginase inhibitors for hematology and oncology indications. In September 2021, we entered into a Settlement Agreement and Release with Incyte. Concurrently, the parties also filed a dismissal of the complaint we filed against Incyte for breach of contract in the Superior Court of California. Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement and Release, which resolves all claims in the complaint without any admission of liability or fault, Incyte agreed to pay us a negotiated settlement amount of $6.75 million and the parties exchanged mutual releases. In September 2021, we received and recognized the $6.75 million as milestone revenues. Effective September 30, 2020, we opted out of our co-development obligations as permitted under the terms of the Incyte Collaboration Agreement. As a result of our decision to opt out, Incyte will pay all costs to develop INCB001158 or any other licensed products. Incyte will pay us tiered royalties ranging from the low double digits to mid-teens on net sales of licensed products and total remaining potential development, regulatory and commercialization milestones of $720.0 million.
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CD73 Inhibitor CB-708 (ATG037) for Oncology
Another area of research interest has been immune-modulatory enzymes. We have developed CB-708, a highly potent, selective, orally-bioavailable small molecule inhibitor of CD73. Preclinical data were presented at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting and the 2019 SITC meeting demonstrating that CB-708 has immune-mediated, single agent activity in syngeneic mouse tumor models. In pre-clinical studies CB-708 was well tolerated and shows enhanced anti-tumor activity when combined with either an anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy or with chemotherapeutic agents, such as oxaliplatin or doxorubicin. In May 2021, we entered into a license agreement with Antengene Investment Limited, or Antengene, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Antengene Corporation, where we granted Antengene an exclusive, worldwide license to develop and commercialize CB-708 (now ATG-037). Under the terms of the license agreement, we received an upfront payment of $3.0 million in May 2021 and may receive potential development, regulatory and sales milestone of up to $252.0 million. Additionally, we are eligible to receive tiered royalties on sales of licensed product up to low double-digits. In February 2022, Antengene announced the approval of ATG-037 by the Bellberry Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) in Australia to initiate the Phase I STAMINA trial, a first-in-human study of ATG-037 in patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors.
Our Strategy
Our goal is to advance investigational, small molecule oncology compounds with a biomarker-driven approach that targets genetic vulnerabilities in cancer cells to deliver new therapies for patients suffering from aggressive hematologic and solid tumor cancers for which there are currently limited treatment option. Biomarker-driven approaches are mitigating some of the clinical development risks inherent in drug development. They are also evolving cancer care for both hematologic malignancies and solid tumors by accelerating delivery of new therapies that provide clinical benefit to patients, with potentially fewer side effects. These are our key strategic initiatives:
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Our Research and Development Programs
The following table summarizes our wholly-owned and partnered programs. We also intend to develop additional product candidates from our research and discovery efforts in these fields.
The Evolution of Cancer Therapeutic Agents
Cancer is characterized by the uncontrolled growth of aberrant cells in the body, leading to the invasion of essential organs and often death. Unlike normal cells, which grow only in response to carefully regulated signals from the body, cancer cells are able to proliferate largely without external signals. Cancer cells have gained this ability as the result of genetic alterations that change protein expression or function. Invasive tumors, also known as metastatic tumors, which are the greatest threat to patients, typically have multiple mutations, deletions or amplifications of genes encoding key proteins that regulate cell growth. These alterations allow the cancer cell to grow, invade other tissues, and avoid recognition and destruction by the body’s immune system.
Initially, the pharmacological treatment of cancer utilized non-specific cytotoxic agents that targeted all rapidly dividing cells, including normal cells. These non-specific cytotoxic agents have anti-tumor effects but their use is often limited by severe toxicities. As the understanding of the proteins and pathways that enable cancer cells to thrive has evolved, newer more targeted agents have been developed that block specific proteins that are activated in cancer cells.
As cancer cells evolve, they acquire genetic vulnerabilities that normal cells do not have. These vulnerabilities create a unique pathway for precisely targeting treatments. These genetic vulnerabilities are readily measurable and can often act as biomarkers, allowing the identification of patients who may derive the most benefit from targeted therapies. Biomarker-driven approaches are mitigating some of the clinical development risks inherent in drug development. They are also evolving cancer care for both hematologic malignancies and solid tumors by accelerating delivery of new therapies that provide clinical benefit to patients, with potentially fewer side effects.
Calithera is advancing a robust pipeline of investigational, small molecule oncology compounds with a biomarker-driven approach that targets genetic vulnerabilities in cancer cells to deliver new therapies for patients suffering from aggressive hematologic and solid tumor cancers for which there are currently limited treatment options.
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Our Programs
Targeted, Biomarker-Defined Small Molecules
SYK Inhibitor Mivavotinib (CB-659)
DLBCL is the most common form of lymphoma, representing ~30% of all NHL diagnoses. Approximately 24,000 people are diagnosed with DLBCL in the US each year, with a ~60% 5-year survival rate. DLBCL treatments are the same for all patients, despite the fact that it is a biologically heterogeneous disease with different cell-of-origin: ~40% GCB, ~50% ABC and ~10% unclassified. DLBCL cell-of-origin is routinely collected at the time of initial diagnosis, using an immunohistochemistry (IHC) assay called the Hans algorithm, which classifies tumors as GCB or non-GCB. Currently, R-CHOP (rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) is the standard of care for newly diagnosed DLBCL patients. While a fraction of patients will go into remission following R-CHOP, a fraction of patients also relapse or are refractory to R-CHOP. For those patients, the options are salvage chemotherapy, stem cell transplant, and more recent entrants to the treatment landscape such as chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy (CAR-T), antibody drug conjugates like polatuzumab and loncastuximab, and other drugs like tafasitamab and Selinexor. However, high unmet need remains for patients who are ineligible for, or relapse after, CAR-T or transplant. Currently, there are no defined patient strategies to optimize therapy for patients in the relapsed or refractory setting. Patients with ABC DLBCL have a poorer prognosis than others; they have fewer curative responses to R-CHOP and shorter median overall survival (OS). Currently there are no approved treatments specifically for non-GCB (ABC) DLBCL patients.
Preclinical studies have demonstrated that chronic activation of the BCR signaling pathway is a key driver of ABC DLBLC survival. SYK controls key activation pathways in ABC DLBCL, activating NF-kB and PI3K pathways, driving proliferation and survival. In contrast, in GCB DLBCL SYK activates the PI3K pathway. Pathway biology predicts SYK inhibitors to be active in both ABC and GCB, with higher activity in ABC as it controls multiple activation pathways in ABC DLBCL.
Mivavotinib is an orally dosed, potent and selective SYK kinase inhibitor that targets the constitutively activated BCR pathway in DLBCL and other NHLs. In completed Phase 1/2 clinical NHL trials, mivavotinib showed promising single-agent responses with deep and durable activity in unselected patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and other NHLs that had a median of 3 prior lines of therapy (range of prior lines 1-11). In a pooled analysis of two completed trials (Takeda C34001 and C34004) of mivavotinib monotherapy in unselected R/R DLBCL patients, mivavotinib showed an ORR of 33% with a CR rate of 16% in 81 response evaluable patients treated at the recommended phase 2 dose (RP2D) of 100mg once daily. Responses were durable over several months, with median duration of response (DOR) not reached.
Based on the increased reliance on SYK and BCR pathway signaling in ABC DLBCL, we conducted a retrospective analysis of ORR by cell of origin using Hans algorithm in the completed Takeda studies. In response evaluable patients with available cell-of-origin data who were treated at the RP2D with, ORR was 53% (8/15) in non-GCB (ABC) compared to 22% (10/45) in GCB patients, consistent with predictions based on pathway biology. Patients with unknown cell-of-origin were excluded from this analysis. In addition, recent preclinical studies have shown enhanced SYK activity and sensitivity to SYK inhibition in DLBCL and other NHLs harboring mutations in MyD88 and/or CD79, which comprise a distinct genetic subset of ABC DLBCL known to have poor outcomes with standard-of-care therapy. Specifically, SYK phosphorylation and activation were seen to be the highest in ABC DLBCL cell lines harboring MYD88 and CD79 mutations, and SYK was seen to drive signaling through both the BCR pathway and the toll-like receptor (TLR)/MYD88 pathway in the setting of activating mutations in MYD88 and CD79. We estimate that ~50% of non-GCB (ABC) DLBCL tumors harbor a MyD88 and/or CD79b mutation. The hyperactivation of SYK in the context of MYD88 and/or CD79 mutations suggests potential for further enrichment of single agent activity in this genetically-defined subset of non-GCB (ABC) DLBCL, exceeding the 53% ORR seen in non-GCB (ABC) patients. In a retrospective analysis of NHL patients, 2 out of 3 patients with available CD79b mutational data had complete responses (CR), 1 with DLBCL and 1 with follicular lymphoma (FL). Furthermore, while Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors block BCR pathway signaling and are active in CD79b-mutated DLBCL, they are not active in MyD88-mutated tumors that are CD79 wild-type, which constitute 70% of all MYD88 mutated DLBCL. The compelling single agent ORR in non-GCB (ABC) DLBCL, and potential for further enrichment in MyD88/CD79-mutated non-GCB (ABC) DLBCL, provides a well-defined, efficient development path to a potential single agent accelerated approval in these biomarker-defined populations of DLBCL. Additionally, an oral drug with enriched efficacy in a subset of DLBCL with high unmet need would address an important therapeutic gap in the current treatment landscape.
The safety profile of mivavotinib is favorable for development as a monotherapy or in combination with other drugs. Over 300 patients with hematologic malignancies have been treated with mivavotinib with a favorable safety profile. The most common adverse events were asymptomatic and reversible laboratory abnormalities. Mivavotinib is also combinable with bendamustine-rituximab, ibrutinib, and R-CHOP, as demonstrated by prior studies.
Clinical data show mivavotinib is differentiated from other SYK inhibitors, as it showed substantially higher single agent response rates than other SYK inhibitors, which had monotherapy response rates of less than 10 percent in similar DLBLC patient
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populations. In separate preclinical experiments, mivavotinib showed high tissue distribution, a large volume of distribution, and high tumor:plasma exposure ratio. Therefore, the greater clinical activity seen with mivavotinib than in other SYK inhibitors could be due to higher tissue penetration and duration of target engagement.
Based on the combined clinical and preclinical data, we designed a two-part phase 2 trial of mivavotinib in relapsed or refractory non-GCB (ABC) DLBCL with enrichment of MYD88/CD79b mutated tumors using liquid NGS testing. The phase 2a portion of the study will confirm activity in the biomarker-defined subsets and further refine dose/schedule. The trial will enroll non-GCB (ABC) DLBCL patients based on Hans algorithm, and MyD88 and CD79 mutation status will be collected using ctDNA based liquid NGS to accrue a pre-specified number of patients harboring MyD88 or CD79b mutations. Patients will be randomized to either a standard dosing schedule (100mg QD) or an induction dosing schedule (120mg QD x 14 days, followed by 80mg QD). First patient in (FPI) is anticipated to be in the first half of 2022. Data from this study could position the company to initiate a registrational study. We intend to announce data from this study by the first quarter of 2023. Phase 2b could be registration-enabling and would potentially enroll expansion cohorts comprised of non-GCB (ABC) DLBCL and MyD88 and/or CD79m DLBCL, with a primary endpoint of ORR to target accelerated approval as a single agent in these biomarker-defined subsets.
While the single agent biomarker-defined phase 2 may provide an initial indication in R/R non-GCB (ABC) DLBCL, we plan to rapidly pursue combination strategies with novel and/or standard-of-care therapies to expand development in earlier lines of therapy in DLBCL. Additional paths for monotherapy and combination development include Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia (which has a 95% prevalence of MYD88 mutation), a biomarker-defined subset of GCB DLBCL, and other indolent lymphomas where mivavotinib has shown compelling single agent responses in completed trials. Lastly, based on its dual SYK and FLT3 inhibition profile, and encouraging single agent response rate in relapsed/refractory AML, we are also interested in exploring its activity in biomarker-defined subsets of AML where SYK inhibition has been shown to be particularly effective.
mTORC1/2 Inhibitor Sapanisertib
A total of 50,000-60,000 sqNSCLC patients are diagnosed in the US each year, comprising 25-30% of all NSCLC. Only 1-5% of tumors have actionable mutations, such as EGFR, KRAS, etc. The 5-year metastatic survival rate among sqNSCLC patients is 7%. Standard-of-care for 1L therapy consists of an anti-PD-1 agent and chemotherapy. For 2L therapy, standard of care is salvage chemotherapy, which is associated with a median PFS of 3 to 4.5 months. NRF2 mutations occur in approximately 15% of patients, and KEAP mutations occur in approximately 12% of patients. Patients with tumors harboring the NRF2 or KEAP1 mutation are known to have significantly poorer outcomes compared to wild-type NRF2/KEAP1 tumors. Therefore, NRF2 mutated sqNSCLC represents an especially high unmet need subpopulation of lung cancer for which there are currently no effective therapies.
Sapanisertib is a potent and selective, dual TORC1/2 inhibitor that targets a key survival mechanism in NRF2/KEAP1-mutated tumor cells. By targeting such tumor types, sapanisertib has the potential to address a substantial underserved patient population. Activating mutations in NRF2 or inactivating mutations in KEAP1 lead to constitutive activation of the oxidative stress pathway, enhancing tumor growth and survival. NRF2 activation has been shown to upregulate the mTOR pathway.
In preclinical studies evaluating the anti-tumor activity of sapanisertib across a panel of NSCLC cell lines, the most potent antitumor activity was seen in NRF2 mutant sqNSCLC, while it was not active in NRF2 wild-type cell lines. Additionally, it showed moderate activity in KEAP1 mutant cell lines and was inactive in KEAP1 WT cells. In a NRF2 mutated mouse xenograft model, sapanisertib was the only inhibitor to have strong single agent efficacy, while TORC1 inhibitors everolimus and deferolimus were inactive, supporting the need for dual TORC1/2 inhibition in NRF2 mutated sqNSCLC.
In a recent Phase 2 trial, sapanisertib demonstrated durable single agent activity (27% [3/11] ORR) in a subset of heavily pretreated NRF2-mutated sqNSCLC patients. Responses in NRF2-mutated sqNSCLC patients were durable, with a median PFS of 8.9 months (95% CI: 7 mo, not reached). In comparison, ORR was 17% [1/6] in KEAP1-mutated sqNSCLC and 0% [0/5] in patients with KEAP1-mutated/KRAS-mutated adenocarcinoma subtype of NSCLC.
Sapanisertib has a well established and manageable safety profile. In 3 separate trials in patients with NSCLC and other R/R solid tumors, sapanisertib (3-5mg QD) was well tolerated, with treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAE) being predominantly Grade 1/2. The most commonly observed TEAE was hyperglycemia, which was well controlled with oral hypoglycemic therapy and home glucose monitoring. Out of 93 patients treated across these 5 studies, only one patient discontinued for hyperglycemia at evaluated QD doses. The most common Grade ³3 TEAE was hyperglycemia (25%; 23/93), followed by rash macular and fatigue (8% each), and hypophosphatemia, abdominal pain, and hyponatremia (4% each).
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We are initiating a two-part Phase 2 study of sapanisertib monotherapy in NRF2-mutated sqNSCLC patients, comprised of a population-defining part (phase 2a) and a potentially registration-enabling part (phase 2b). The phase 2a part of the study will evaluate sapanisertib 2 mg BID or 3 mg QD in patients with sqNSCLC harboring either WT or mutated NRF2, as detected by NGS. The objectives of phase 2a are dose refinement and confirmation of the selective activity in NRF2-mutated tumors compared to WT tumors to validate NRF2 mutation as the selection biomarker. Enrollment is expected to begin in the first half of 2022. Data generated from this study could position the company to initiate a registrational study in NRF2-mutated squamous NSCLC. The phase 2b part of the study is planned to be a single-arm expansion study evaluating sapanisertib in NRF2-mutated sqNSCLC patients at the selected dose, and/or a randomized study comparing sapanisertib vs. standard of care.
Subsequent development in sqNSCLC could involve monotherapy and/or combinations with standard of care therapies in earlier lines of therapy within the biomarker defined populations. NRF2- and KEAP1-mutations have been detected across several tumor types at frequencies up to 27%, providing additional indications for development of sapanisertib as a monotherapy and in combination beyond sqNSCLC.
NRF2-mutated sqNSCLC presents a market opportunity for an indication with unmet medical need. SqNSCLC is expected to be a $4.5B market by 2026. Sapanisertib has therapeutic potential, having demonstrated single agent activity with durable responses in NRF2-mutated sqNSCLC, as well as a favorable safety profile for development as monotherapy and/or in combination with other agents. Sapanisertib has potential both as a first-in-class treatment for NRF2-mutated sqNSCLC patients, as well as for expansion into NRF2-mutant populations in other cancers.
Synthetic Lethality Preclinical Pipeline
Calithera continues to leverage its discovery engine to build a robust preclinical pipeline of synthetic lethality targets with a focus on paralog genes. Paralog pairs are homologous genes with overlapping cellular functions that when lost as a pair are lethal. Gene paralog pairs represent a promising class of synthetic lethal cancer targets. When a tumor cell loses one paralog, the cell is dependent on the second paralog to carry out an essential cellular process, since loss of both paralogs leads to tumor cell death.
VPS4 Inhibitors
In March, we announced that the first data from our preclinical synthetic lethality pipeline was accepted for presentation at the AACR Annual Meeting, being held April 8-13, 2022. The accepted poster will detail Calithera’s discovery of a novel series of VPS4A inhibitors that are currently advancing through lead optimization. VPS4A and VPS4B are paralog ATPases essential for remodeling intracellular organelle membranes. Membrane remodeling is an essential cellular function and loss of function of both VPS4 paralogs is lethal to cells. The preclinical data demonstrate that VPS4A genetic inhibition in cell lines with loss of VPS4B preferentially showed profound death in cancer cells. Calithera researchers have confirmed VPS4A and VPS4B as synthetic lethal paralog pairs, defined as genes with overlapping functions that when lost as a pair, lead to cell death. Due to the proximity of VPS4B to neighboring tumor suppressor genes, both homozygous and heterozygous loss of VPS4B can occur in cancer cells, making them vulnerable to VPS4A inhibition. VPS4B is lost in a heterozygous fashion in the majority of CRC, PDAC, ovarian, esophageal and head and neck cancers and is deleted in large numbers of other tumor types. At AACR 2022, Calithera will report the discovery of a series of novel, small-molecule VPS4A inhibitors which have potential in the treatment of VPS4B-deleted tumors.
Arginase Inhibitor CB-280
Our product candidate, CB-280, is a novel oral inhibitor of arginase being developed for the treatment of CF.
Arginase has been proposed to be critical in the pathophysiology of several non-oncology diseases, including CF. CF patients have a mutation in the gene that encodes the cystic fibrosis transmembrane-conductance regulator, or CFTR, making them particularly susceptible to progressive loss in lung function. Airway disease in CF has a complex pathophysiology and, despite recent advances in developing therapies for CF, there still remains an unmet need. CB-280 is a potent and selective oral inhibitor of arginase. Neutrophils accumulate in the lungs of CF patients and secrete arginase. Sputum from patients with CF has elevated arginase activity leading to diminished arginine levels. Reduced arginine is thought to exacerbate pulmonary disease in CF by impairing production of nitric oxide, leading to a diminished anti-microbial response and impaired airway function. It is known that airways of patients with CF have lower than normal nitric oxide, or NO, production, and lower NO levels directly correlate with worsened lung function and increased colonization with pathogens, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Research in CF patients has demonstrated that increasing arginine levels can increase the production of nitric oxide and improve lung function. In addition, published preclinical data also demonstrated that arginine-dependent NO-based signaling is associated with increased function of the CFTR.
We, along with our preclinical collaborators, have validated arginase inhibitors in mouse models of CF and showed that CB-280 significantly improved lung function and reduced Pseudomonas aeruginosa colony-forming units in CFTR knockout mice infected
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with Pseudomonas. We believe that arginase inhibition can lead to reduced infection and improved lung function in CF patients and that these data support the clinical development of CB-280 in CF.
In February 2019, we initiated a Phase 1 trial conducted under an Investigational New Drug (IND) application. The first-in-human Phase 1 Single Ascending Dose trial evaluated the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic profile of oral CB-280 in healthy volunteers. A Phase 1b clinical study in CF patients was initiated in July 2020, evaluating multiple doses of CB-280 compared to placebo in 32 adult CF patients to determine a maximum tolerated dose, or MTD, range for CB-280 in CF patients.
In November 2021, we presented interim data from the Phase 1b trial at the North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference (NACFC). Data were presented on the first 24 subjects (18 treated with CB-280, 6 with placebo) participating in the ongoing, Phase 1b dose-escalation trial in adults with CF. Key eligibility criteria for patients included chronic lung infection and current treatment with a stable CF medication regimen including CFTR modulators. Each dose cohort consisted of eight subjects randomized 3:1 to CB-280 or placebo dosed twice daily for 14 days. At the completion of each dose cohort, unblinded data were reviewed by an Independent Data Safety Monitoring Committee convened by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Data were presented for 50mg BID, 100mg BID and 200mg BID dose levels. The study enrolled subjects with a broad spectrum of CFTR genotypes, including nonsense mutations. Notably, 91% of subjects were already on CFTR modulator therapy with Trikafta® (elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor) or Kalydeco® (ivacaftor). CB-280 had a well-tolerated safety profile across all three dose levels, and all 18 subjects receiving CB-280 completed treatment without treatment interruptions or premature discontinuations. CB-280 demonstrated linear pharmacokinetics with plasma exposure increasing proportionally with dose. Complete and continuous target inhibition in plasma was achieved at the 100 mg dose and above. CB-280 also demonstrated robust pharmacodynamic effects, with rapid and significant dose-proportional increases in plasma arginine, the key driver of NO production. Increased airway NO production was reflected by a trend showing an increase in fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) in subjects treated with CB-280. Sweat chloride, a marker of CFTR function, showed a trend towards decreasing in CB-280 treated subjects, in line with previously reported preclinical data showing that arginase inhibition enhances CFTR function in human bronchial epithelial cells. Together, these biomarker trends further substantiate the proposed mechanism of action as a rational approach to treating CF. Changes in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1)were assessed as a safety endpoint. A pooled analysis of treatment vs. placebo showed a positive trend in FEV1 compared to placebo. Enrollment of cohort 4 (300mg BID) and analysis is complete. No new safety signals were seen and plasma arginine, FeNO and FEV1 showed trends consistent with previous cohorts. Evaluation of next steps is ongoing. We plan on publishing the Ph1b data in the future.
Under our collaboration agreement with Incyte, we retained the sole right to develop and commercialize CB-280 in specific non-oncology rare disease indications, including CF. Arginase is also thought to play an important pathophysiologic role in several other diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and other fibrotic diseases, primary pulmonary hypertension, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and others.
In October 2020, we were awarded up to $2.4 million from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to support development of CB-280.
Immuno-Oncology Preclinical IL4I1 Inhibitor CB-668
We have also identified CB-668, an investigational first-in-class, potent, orally administered IL4I1 inhibitor as a novel immuno-oncology approach to cancer. CB-668 is an inhibitor of the enzyme IL4I1, an enzyme that is expressed by tumor cells and antigen presenting cells, metabolizes phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan to produce hydrogen peroxide, an inhibitor of T-cell function. In particular, IL4I1 can metabolize tryptophan to kynurenic acid and other metabolites that lead to immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment. Preclinical data were presented at the 2020 SITC Annual Meeting. In syngeneic mouse models CB-668 exhibited immune mediated, single agent activity and augmented activity in combination with checkpoint inhibitors. IL4I1 expression has been correlated with poor clinical outcomes and expression is elevated in multiple tumor types including ovarian and B-cell tumors.
Partnered Programs
Arginase Inhibitor INCB001158
Immune surveillance is the process whereby the body identifies pathogens as well as abnormal cells that are either infected with viruses or have become cancerous. Upon recognition of foreign or abnormal cells, a number of immune processes are activated to allow the body to attack and clear cells. However, excessive or inappropriate activation of the immune system can have negative consequences such as autoimmune disease, inflammation, or maternal-fetal rejection. Compensatory mechanisms have evolved to control excessive inflammatory activity by dampening the immune stimulation. Cancerous cells that successfully evade immune surveillance do so, in part, by blocking or reducing immune-stimulatory and/or enhancing immune-inhibitory activities. Immuno-oncology therapies interfere with mechanisms that tumors have used to dampen the immune response.
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Tumors have evolved a number of strategies to avoid recognition and destruction by the immune system. One key mechanism is through suppression of cytotoxic T-cells that would otherwise attack and kill the cancer cells. Arginine is an amino acid that is fundamental to the function of cytotoxic T-cells. Without arginine, tumor specific cytotoxic T-cells and natural killer (NK) cells fail to activate, proliferate, and mount an effective anti-tumor response.
In response to tumor-secreted factors, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, or MDSCs, and neutrophils accumulate in the tumor and secrete the enzyme arginase, resulting in depletion of arginine from the tumor microenvironment. Significant infiltration by arginase-expressing myeloid cells has been reported in many solid tumor types including lung cancer, colorectal, esophageal, bladder, head and neck, kidney cancer, and other tumor types. We have confirmed that arginase-expressing MDSCs are found by immunohistochemistry, or IHC, in a wide range of tumor types including non-small cell lung (both adenocarcinoma and squamous types), gastrointestinal cancers and bladder cancers. Arginase enzyme levels are elevated in the plasma of cancer patients across a wide range of malignancies. We believe that arginase inhibitors can promote an anti-tumor immune response by restoring arginine levels, thereby allowing activation of the body’s cytotoxic T-cells and NK cells.
INCB001158, a potent and selective orally bioavailable arginase inhibitor was discovered by Calithera and is being developed by Incyte. INCB001158 entered clinical trials in September 2016 and is currently being tested in three ongoing clinical trials. The first Phase 1b/2 trial (NCT02903914) is designed to evaluate the safety and recommended Phase 2 dose of INCB001158 as a monotherapy and in combination with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab. Initial data from this study was reported as an oral presentation at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) on September 28, 2019.
A second clinical trial (NCT03314935) designed to evaluate INCB001158 in combination with chemotherapy opened for enrollment in November 2017. The Phase 1/2 trial in patients with solid tumors (including metastatic microsatellite stable colorectal cancer, biliary tract cancer (BTC), gastroesophageal cancer, endometrial cancer or ovarian cancer), is evaluating INCB001158 administered orally twice daily with either FOLFOX, gemcitabine/cisplatin or paclitaxel. Primary endpoints include safety and objective response rate. Preliminary safety and efficacy data of INCB001158 plus chemotherapy in patients with advanced biliary tract cancers was presented in a virtual poster session at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2021 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium January 15-17, 2021.
One additional Phase 1/2 trial is ongoing, evaluating the safety and anti-tumor activity of INCB001158 in combination with daratumumab compared to daratumumab alone in refractory multiple myeloma patients (NCT03837509). In January 2017, we entered into a collaboration and license agreement, or the Incyte Collaboration Agreement, with Incyte. Under the terms of the Incyte Collaboration Agreement, we granted Incyte an exclusive, worldwide license to co-develop and co-commercialize our small molecule arginase inhibitors for hematology and oncology indications. In September 2021, we entered into a Settlement Agreement and Release with Incyte. Concurrently, the parties also filed a dismissal of the complaint we filed against Incyte for breach of contract in the Superior Court of California. Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement and Release, which resolves all claims in the complaint without any admission of liability or fault, Incyte agreed to pay us a negotiated settlement amount of $6.75 million and the parties exchanged mutual releases. In September 2021, we received and recognized the $6.75 million as milestone revenues. Effective September 30, 2020, we opted out of our co-development obligations as permitted under the terms of the Incyte Collaboration Agreement. As a result of our decision to opt out, Incyte will pay all costs to develop INCB001158 or any other licensed products. Incyte will pay us tiered royalties ranging from the low double digits to mid-teens on net sales of licensed products and total remaining potential development, regulatory and commercialization milestones of $720.0 million.
In December 2014, we entered into an exclusive license agreement, or the Arginase License Agreement, with Mars, Inc., by and through its Mars Symbioscience division, or Symbioscience, under which we have been granted the exclusive, worldwide license rights to develop and commercialize Symbioscience’s portfolio of arginase inhibitors for use in human healthcare. Under the Arginase License Agreement, we are responsible for the worldwide development and commercialization of the licensed products at our cost, are required to use commercially reasonable efforts with respect to such development and commercialization activities, and must meet certain general diligence obligations. We hold the first right to prosecute and to enforce all licensed rights under the Arginase License Agreement throughout the world, and Symbioscience will retain certain step-in enforcement rights. Under the exclusivity provisions of the Arginase License Agreement, each party agrees not to develop any other arginase inhibitors for use in human healthcare outside of the scope of the Arginase License Agreement
CD73 inhibitor CB-708 (now ATG-037)
CD73 is an enzyme that produces adenosine, a powerful inhibitor of immune function in tumors. CD73 is expressed across a wide range of tumors and tumor infiltrating leukocytes, and often correlates with poor prognosis. Blockade of adenosine production by CD73 inhibition is expected to reverse immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment and enhance the immune system’s ability to fight the cancer. We have developed an orally-bioavailable small molecule inhibitor of CD73, CB-708, that has anti-tumor activity
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in mouse syngeneic models both as monotherapy and in combination with checkpoint inhibitors as well as chemotherapy. Preclinical data were presented at the 2019 AACR annual meeting in April and the SITC meeting in November demonstrating that CB-708 is a potent and selective inhibitor of CD73 that has immune-mediated, single agent activity in syngeneic mouse tumor models. In pre-clinical studies CB-708 was well-tolerated and shows enhanced antitumor activity when combined with either an anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy or with chemotherapeutic agents, such as oxaliplatin or doxorubicin. In May 2021, we entered into a license agreement with Antengene Investment Limited, or Antengene, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Antengene Corporation, where we granted Antengene an exclusive, worldwide license to develop and commercialize CB-708 (now ATG-037). Under the terms of the license agreement, we received an upfront payment of $3.0 million in May 2021 and may receive potential development, regulatory and sales milestone of up to $252.0 million. Additionally, we are eligible to receive tiered royalties on sales of licensed product up to low double-digits. In February 2022, Antengene announced approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) in Australia to initiate the Phase I STAMINA trial, a first-in-human study of ATG-037 in patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors (NCT05205109).
Intellectual Property
Our commercial success depends in large part on our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our product candidates, including CB-228 (sapanisertib), CB-659 (mivavotinib), INCB001158, CB-280, our preclinical compounds, and our core technologies. Our policy is to seek to protect our intellectual property position by, among other methods, filing U.S. and foreign patent applications related to the technology, inventions and improvements that are important to the development and implementation of our business strategy. We also rely on trade secrets, know-how and continuing technological innovation to develop and maintain our proprietary position.
We file patent applications directed to our product candidates, preclinical compounds, and related technologies to establish intellectual property positions on these compounds and their uses in treating disease. As of December 31, 2021, we owned 23 issued U.S. patents, 150 issued foreign patents, and approximately 157 pending U.S. and foreign patent applications in the following foreign jurisdictions: Algeria, ARIPO, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, the Eurasian Patent Organization, Egypt, Europe, Georgia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, and Vietnam. We expect that these patents and patent applications, if issued, would expire between November 2025 and October 2041.
Our dual TORC 1/2 inhibitor patent portfolio includes patents and applications owned by us and patents and applications exclusively licensed from The Regents of the University of California. As of December 31, 2021, it included nine issued U.S. patents. These patents claim compositions of matter for, methods of treating cancer with, and methods of synthesizing CB-228 and related compounds. They also claim methods of treating certain cancers using CB-228 at particular dosages, and methods of combining CB-228 with other compounds to treat certain cancers. In the U.S., the composition of matter patents are expected to expire between April 2027 and April 2031. We also have 63 issued foreign patents, three pending U.S. patent applications and five pending foreign patent applications directed to compositions of matter for CB-228 and related compounds, as well as methods of using these compounds. We expect that the claims to composition of matter within these patents and patent applications, if issued, would expire between November 2025 and August 2032.
Our SYK inhibitor intellectual property portfolio is wholly owned by us and as of December 31, 2021, included four issued U.S. patents and two U.S. patent applications covering the composition for and methods of using CB-659 and related compounds. The U.S. patents relating to the composition of matter for CB-659 are expected to expire between March 2031 and April 2036. We also own 56 related foreign patents and 30 related foreign pending patent applications. We expect that these foreign patents and patent applications, if issued, would be expected to expire between December 2030 and December 2035.
The intellectual property portfolio for our arginase inhibitor program, which includes INCB001158 and CB-280, includes issued patents and pending patent applications that we have exclusively licensed from Symbioscience as well as issued patents and pending patent applications that we own. This portfolio includes 20 issued U.S. patents, five pending U.S. patent applications, 113 corresponding pending foreign patent applications, and 85 issued foreign patents directed to various arginase inhibitors, therapeutic methods of using the compounds, methods of making the compounds, and intermediates useful in preparing the compounds. We expect that these patents and patent applications, if issued, would expire between April 2031 and May 2038.
Manufacturing
We do not own or operate, and currently have no plans to establish, any manufacturing facilities. We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to manufacture clinical supplies of mivavotinib and sapanisertib. Mivavotinib and sapanisertib are organic compounds of low molecular weight. Our third-party contract manufacturers are currently producing clinical supplies for use
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in our clinical trials utilizing reliable and reproducible synthetic processes and common manufacturing techniques. We obtain our supplies from manufacturers on a purchase order basis and do not have any long-term arrangements. In addition, we do not currently have arrangements in place for bulk drug substance or drug product services of any of our clinical supplies. We intend to identify and qualify additional manufacturers to provide bulk drug substance and drug product services prior to submission of a new drug application to the FDA if necessary to ensure sufficient commercial quantities of mivavotinib and sapanisertib. Incyte Corporation and Antengene Corporation have responsibility for manufacturing of INCB001158 and ATG-037 drug substance and drug product, respectively.
Research and Development
In the ordinary course of business, we enter into agreements with third parties, such as contract research organizations, medical institutions, clinical investigators and contract laboratories, to conduct our clinical trials and aspects of our research and preclinical testing. These third parties provide project management and monitoring services and regulatory consulting and investigative services.
Coverage and Reimbursement
Significant uncertainty exists as to the coverage and reimbursement status of any drugs for which we may obtain regulatory approval. In the United States and markets in other countries, sales of any drugs for which we receive regulatory approval for commercial sale will depend in part on the availability of coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors. Third-party payors include government authorities, managed care plans, private health insurers and other organizations. The process for determining whether a third-party payor will provide coverage for a drug may be separate from the process for setting the reimbursement rate that the payor will pay for the drug. One third-party payor’s decision to cover a particular drug does not ensure that other payors will also provide coverage for the drug, or will provide coverage at an adequate reimbursement rate. Adequate third-party reimbursement may not be available to enable us to maintain price levels sufficient to realize an appropriate return on our investment in drug development.
Competition
The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are characterized by rapidly advancing technologies, intense competition and a strong emphasis on proprietary products. While we believe that our technology, development experience and scientific knowledge provide us with competitive advantages, we face potential competition from many different sources, including major pharmaceutical, specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic institutions and governmental agencies and public and private research institutions. Any product candidates that we successfully develop and commercialize will compete with existing therapies and new therapies that may become available in the future.
Our primary competitors or product candidates in clinical development in either NRF2-mutated cancers, or with similar mechanism to an mTORC1/2 inhibitor are Antengene Corporation, AstraZeneca plc, and Celcuity, Inc. Our primary competitors or product candidates in clinical development for ABC or MyD88/CD79-mutated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma are AstraZeneca, Curis, Inc., HutchMed (China) Limited, and Kymera Therapeutics. Potential competitors with a mechanism similar to a SYK inhibitor, or for relapsed/refractory DLBCL in general also include ADC Therapeutics SA, Genentech, Inc., Karyopharm Therapeutics, and MorphoSys AG. Our primary competitors in the field of Cystic Fibrosis include AbbVie, Inc., Beyond Air Inc., Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc., Novartis AG, Novoteris, LLC, Proteostatis Therapeutics, Inc., Translate Bio, Inc., and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
The most common methods of treating patients with cancer are surgery, radiation and drug therapy, including chemotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted drug therapy, and immunotherapy. There are a variety of available drug therapies marketed for cancer. In many cases, these drugs are administered in combination to enhance efficacy. Any product candidates we develop will compete with many existing drug and other therapies. To the extent they are ultimately used in combination with or as an adjunct to these therapies, our product candidates may not be competitive with them. Some of the currently approved drug therapies are branded and subject to patent protection, and others are available on a generic basis. Many of these approved drugs are well established therapies and are widely accepted by physicians, patients and third-party payors. In general, although there has been considerable progress over the past few decades in the treatment of cancer and the currently marketed therapies provide benefits to many patients, these therapies all are limited to some extent in their efficacy and frequency of adverse events, and none are successful in treating all patients. As a result, the level of morbidity and mortality from cancer remains high.
In addition to currently marketed therapies, there are also a number of therapeutics in late-stage clinical development to treat cancer. These therapeutics in development may provide efficacy, safety, convenience and other benefits that are not provided by currently marketed therapies. As a result, they may provide significant competition for any product candidate for which we may obtain market approval.
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Many of our competitors may have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals and marketing approved therapeutics than we do. Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostic industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. These competitors also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies.
The key competitive factors affecting the success of mivavotinib, sapanisertib, CB-280, INCB001158, ATG-037 and any future product candidates we develop, if approved, are likely to be their efficacy, safety, synergy with other approved therapies, convenience, price and the availability of reimbursement from government and other third-party payors.
Our competitors may develop and commercialize therapeutics that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient or are less expensive than any therapeutics that we may develop. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory approval for their therapeutics more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market. In addition, our ability to compete may be affected in many cases by insurers or other third-party and government programs seeking to control healthcare costs.
Government Regulation
Government authorities in the United States, at the federal, state and local level, and in other countries extensively regulate, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, including any manufacturing changes, packaging, storage, recordkeeping, labeling, advertising, promotion, distribution, marketing, post-approval monitoring and reporting, import and export of pharmaceutical products, such as those we are developing.
United States Drug Approval Process
In the United States, the FDA regulates drugs under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or FDCA, and implements regulations. The process of obtaining regulatory approvals and the subsequent compliance with appropriate federal, state, local and foreign statutes and regulations requires the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources. Failure to comply with the applicable United States requirements at any time during the product development process, approval process or after approval, may subject an applicant to a variety of administrative or judicial sanctions, such as the FDA’s refusal to approve pending applications, withdrawal of an approval, imposition of a clinical hold, issuance of warning letters and untitled letters, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution injunctions, fines, refusals of government contracts, restitution, disgorgement of profits or civil or criminal penalties.
The process required by the FDA before a drug may be marketed in the United States generally involves the following:
Preclinical Studies and IND
Preclinical studies include laboratory evaluation of product chemistry and formulation, as well as in vitro and animal studies to assess the potential for adverse events, and in some cases, to establish a rationale for therapeutic use. The conduct of preclinical
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studies is subject to federal regulations and requirements, including GLP regulations for safety/toxicology studies. An IND sponsor must submit the results of the preclinical tests, together with manufacturing information, analytical data, any available clinical data or literature and plans for clinical trials, among other things, to the FDA as part of an IND. Some long-term preclinical testing, such as animal tests of reproductive adverse events and carcinogenicity, may continue after the IND is submitted. An IND automatically becomes effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA, unless before that time, the FDA raises concerns or questions related to one or more proposed clinical trials and places the trial on clinical hold. In such a case, the IND sponsor and the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns before the clinical trial can begin. As a result, submission of an IND may not result in the FDA allowing clinical trials to commence.
Clinical Trials
Clinical trials involve the administration of the investigational new drug to human subjects under the supervision of qualified investigators in accordance with GCP requirements, which include, among other things, the requirement that all research subjects provide their informed consent in writing before their participation in any clinical trial. Clinical trials are conducted under written study protocols detailing, among other things, the objectives of the study, the parameters to be used in monitoring safety and the effectiveness criteria to be evaluated. A protocol for each clinical trial and any subsequent protocol amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND. In addition, an IRB at each institution participating in the clinical trial must review and approve the plan for any clinical trial before it commences at that institution, and the IRB must conduct continuing review. The IRB must review and approve, among other things, the study protocol and informed consent information to be provided to study subjects. An IRB must operate in compliance with FDA regulations. Information about certain clinical trials must be submitted within specific timeframes to the National Institutes of Health for public dissemination at www.clinicaltrials.gov. Human clinical trials are typically conducted in three sequential phases, which may overlap or be combined:
Progress reports detailing the results of the clinical trials must be submitted at least annually to the FDA and, more frequently, if serious adverse events occur. Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials may not be completed successfully within any specified period, or at all. Furthermore, the FDA or the sponsor may suspend or terminate a clinical trial at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the research subjects are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk. Similarly, an IRB can suspend or terminate approval of a clinical trial at its institution if the clinical trial is not being conducted in accordance with the IRB’s requirements or if the drug has been associated with unexpected serious harm to patients.
Marketing Approval
Assuming successful completion of the required clinical testing, the results of the preclinical studies and clinical trials, together with detailed information relating to the product’s chemistry, manufacture, controls and proposed labeling, among other things, are submitted to the FDA as part of an NDA requesting approval to market the product for one or more indications. Under federal law, 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 annual product and establishment user fees, which fees are typically increased annually.
The FDA conducts a preliminary review of all NDAs within the first 60 days after submission before accepting them for filing to determine whether they are sufficiently complete to permit substantive review. The FDA may request additional information rather than accept an NDA for filing. In this event, the application must be resubmitted with the additional information. The resubmitted application is also subject to review before the FDA accepts it for filing. Once the submission is accepted for filing, the FDA begins an in-depth substantive review. The FDA has agreed to specified performance goals in the review of NDAs. Under these goals, the FDA has committed to review most such applications for non-priority products within 10 months, and most applications for priority review products, that is, drugs that the FDA determines represent a significant improvement over existing therapy, within six months. The review process may be extended by the FDA for three additional months to consider certain information or clarification regarding information already provided in the submission. The FDA may also refer applications for novel drugs or products that present difficult questions of safety or efficacy to an advisory committee, typically a panel that includes clinicians and other experts, for review,
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evaluation and a recommendation as to whether the application should be approved. The FDA is not bound by the recommendations of an advisory committee, but it considers such recommendations carefully when making decisions.
Before approving an NDA, the FDA typically will inspect the facility or facilities where the product is manufactured. The FDA will not approve an application unless it determines that the manufacturing processes and facilities are in compliance with cGMP requirements and adequate to assure consistent production of the product within required specifications. In addition, before approving an NDA, the FDA will typically inspect one or more clinical sites to assure compliance with GCP and integrity of the clinical data submitted.
The testing and approval process requires substantial time, effort and financial resources, and each may take many years to complete. Data obtained from clinical activities are not always conclusive and may be susceptible to varying interpretations, which could delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. The FDA may not grant approval on a timely basis, or at all. We may encounter difficulties or unanticipated costs in our efforts to develop our product candidates and secure necessary governmental approvals, which could delay or preclude us from marketing our products.
After the FDA’s evaluation of the NDA and inspection of the manufacturing facilities, the FDA may issue an approval letter or a complete response letter. An approval letter authorizes commercial marketing of the drug with specific prescribing information for specific indications. 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 and 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. Even with submission of this additional information, the FDA ultimately may decide that the application does not satisfy the regulatory criteria for approval and refuse to approve the NDA. Even if the FDA approves a product, it may limit the approved indications for use for the product, require that contraindications, warnings or precautions be included in the product labeling, require that post-approval studies, including phase 4 clinical trials, be conducted to further assess a drug’s safety after approval, require testing and surveillance programs to monitor the product after commercialization, or impose other conditions, including distribution restrictions or other risk management mechanisms, including Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies, or REMs, which can materially affect the potential market and profitability of the product. The FDA may prevent or limit further marketing of a product based on the results of post-market studies or surveillance programs. After approval, some types of changes to the approved product, such as adding new indications, manufacturing changes and additional labeling claims, are subject to further testing requirements and FDA review and approval.
Fast Track Designation
The FDA is required to facilitate the development and expedite the review of drugs that are intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening condition for which there is no effective treatment and which demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs for the condition. Under the Fast Track program, the sponsor of a new product candidate may request the FDA to designate the product for a specific indication as a Fast Track product concurrent with or after the submission of the IND for the product candidate. The FDA must determine if the product candidate qualifies for Fast Track designation within 60 days after receipt of the sponsor’s request.
In addition to other benefits, such as the ability of the sponsor to have more frequent interactions with the FDA, the FDA may initiate review of sections of a Fast Track product’s NDA before the application is complete. This rolling review is available if the applicant provides and the FDA approves a schedule for the submission of the remaining information and the applicant pays applicable user fees. However, the FDA’s time period goal for reviewing a Fast Track application does not begin until the last section of the NDA is submitted. In addition, the Fast Track designation may be withdrawn by the FDA if the FDA believes that the designation is no longer supported by data emerging in the clinical trial process.
Priority Review
Under FDA policies, a product candidate may be eligible for Priority Review, or review generally within a six-month time frame from the time a complete application is accepted for filing. Products regulated by the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, or CDER, are eligible for Priority Review if they provide a significant improvement compared to marketed products in the treatment, diagnosis or prevention of a disease. A Fast Track designated product candidate would ordinarily meet the FDA’s criteria for Priority Review.
Accelerated Approval
Under the FDA’s accelerated approval regulations, the 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
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to predict clinical benefit. 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 product 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 trials, or confirm a clinical benefit during post-marketing studies, would allow the 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 the FDA.
Breakthrough Therapy Designation
A sponsor can request designation of a product candidate as a “breakthrough therapy.” A breakthrough therapy is defined as a drug that is intended, alone or in combination with one or more other drugs, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the product candidate may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. The FDA must take certain actions, such as holding timely meetings and providing advice, intended to expedite the development and review of an application for approval of a breakthrough therapy. The FDA may later decide that the product candidate no longer meets the conditions for breakthrough therapy designation.
Orphan Drugs
Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may grant orphan drug designation to drugs intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is generally defined as a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States. Orphan drug designation must be requested before submitting an NDA. After the FDA grants orphan drug designation, the generic identity of the drug and its potential orphan use are disclosed publicly by the FDA. Orphan drug designation does not convey any advantage in, or shorten the duration of, the regulatory review and approval process. The first NDA applicant to receive FDA approval for a particular active ingredient to treat a particular disease with FDA orphan drug designation is entitled to a seven-year exclusive marketing period in the United States 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 orphan indication, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority to the product with orphan drug exclusivity in that it is shown to be safer, more effective or makes a major contribution to patient care. Orphan drug exclusivity does not prevent the FDA from approving a different drug for the same disease or condition, or the same drug for a different disease or condition. Among the other benefits of orphan drug designation are tax credits for certain research and a waiver of the NDA application user fee.
Pediatric Exclusivity and Pediatric Use
Under the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act, or BPCA, certain drugs may obtain an additional six months of exclusivity, if the sponsor submits information requested in writing by the FDA (a Written Request), relating to the use of the active moiety of the drug in children. The FDA may not issue a Written Request for studies on unapproved or approved indications or where it determines that information relating to the use of a drug in a pediatric population, or part of the pediatric population, may not produce health benefits in that population.
In addition, the Pediatric Research Equity Act, or PREA, requires a sponsor to conduct pediatric studies for most drugs and biologics, for a new active ingredient, new indication, new dosage form, new dosing regimen or new route of administration. Under PREA, original NDAs, biologics license application and supplements thereto, must contain a pediatric assessment unless the sponsor has received a deferral or waiver. Unless otherwise required by regulation, PREA does not apply to any drug for an indication where orphan designation has been granted. The required assessment must assess the safety and effectiveness of the product for the claimed indications in all relevant pediatric subpopulations and support dosing and administration for each pediatric subpopulation for which the product is safe and effective. The sponsor or FDA may request a deferral of pediatric studies for some or all of the pediatric subpopulations. A deferral may be granted for several reasons, including a finding that the drug or biologic is ready for approval for use in adults before pediatric studies are complete or that additional safety or effectiveness data needs to be collected before the pediatric studies begin. The FDA must send a non-compliance letter to any sponsor that fails to submit the required assessment, keep a deferral current or fails to submit a request for approval of a pediatric formulation.
Overview of FDA Regulation of Companion Diagnostics
We may seek to develop in vitro companion diagnostics for use in selecting the patients that we believe will respond to our therapeutics. In August 2014, the FDA issued a guidance document that states that if safe and effective use of a therapeutic product depends on an in vitro diagnostic, then the FDA generally will require approval or clearance of the diagnostic at the same time that the FDA approves the therapeutic product. The guidance addresses issues critical to developing and obtaining approval or clearance for companion diagnostics and provides guidance as to when the FDA will require that the in vitro diagnostic, which is regulated as a
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medical device, and the drug be approved simultaneously. The FDA requires in vitro companion diagnostics intended to select the patients who will respond to cancer treatment to obtain approval simultaneously with approval of the drug.
Other Regulatory Requirements
Any drug manufactured or distributed by us pursuant to FDA approvals are subject to pervasive and continuing regulation by the FDA, including, among other things, requirements relating to recordkeeping, periodic reporting, product sampling and distribution, advertising and promotion and reporting of adverse experiences with the product. After approval, most changes to the approved product, such as adding new indications or other labeling claims are subject to prior FDA review and approval.
The FDA may impose a number of post-approval requirements, including REMs, as a condition of approval of an NDA. For example, the FDA may require post-marketing testing, including phase four clinical trials, and surveillance to further assess and monitor the product’s safety and effectiveness after commercialization. Regulatory approval of oncology products often requires that patients in clinical trials be followed for long periods to determine the overall survival benefit of the drug.
In addition, drug manufacturers and other entities involved in the manufacture and distribution of approved drugs are required to register their establishments with the FDA and state agencies, and are subject to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA and these state agencies for compliance with cGMP requirements. Changes to the manufacturing process are strictly regulated and often require prior FDA approval before being implemented. FDA regulations also require investigation and correction of any deviations from cGMP and impose reporting and documentation requirements upon us and any third-party manufacturers that we may decide to use. Accordingly, manufacturers must continue to expend time, money and effort in the areas of production and quality control to maintain cGMP compliance.
Once an approval is granted, the FDA may withdraw the approval if compliance with regulatory requirements and standards is not maintained or if problems occur after the product reaches the market. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in revisions to the approved labeling to add new safety information, imposition of post-market studies or clinical trials to assess new safety risks or imposition of distribution or other restrictions under a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy program. Other potential consequences include, among other things:
The FDA strictly regulates marketing, labeling, advertising and promotion of products that are placed on the market. Drugs may be promoted only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved label. Physicians, on the other hand, may prescribe products for off label uses. Although the FDA and other regulatory agencies do not regulate a physician’s choice of drug treatment made in the physician’s independent medical judgment, they do restrict promotional communications from companies or their sales force with respect to off label uses of products for which marketing clearance has not been issued. Companies may only share truthful and not misleading information that is otherwise consistent with a product’s FDA approved labeling. The FDA and other agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off label uses, and a company that is found to have improperly promoted off label uses may be subject to significant liability.
Additional U.S. Healthcare Regulations
In addition to FDA restrictions on marketing of pharmaceutical products, several other types of state and federal laws have been applied to restrict certain marketing practices in the pharmaceutical industry in recent years. These laws include, among others, anti-kickback statutes and false claims statutes. 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 to apply to arrangements between pharmaceutical manufacturers on the one hand and prescribers, purchasers and formulary managers on the other. Although there are a number of statutory exemptions and regulatory safe harbors protecting certain common activities from prosecution or other regulatory sanctions,
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the exemptions and safe harbors are drawn narrowly, and practices that involve remuneration intended to induce prescribing, purchases or recommendations may be subject to scrutiny if they do not qualify for an exemption or safe harbor.
Federal false claims laws prohibit any person from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, a false claim for payment to the federal government, or knowingly making, or causing to be made, a false statement to have a false claim paid. Recently, several 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 false claims laws. Violations of the anti-kickback statute and false claims laws are punishable by imprisonment, criminal fines, civil monetary penalties, possible exclusion from participation in federal healthcare programs and integrity oversight and reporting obligations to resolve allegations of non-compliance with this law. The majority of states also have statutes or regulations similar to the federal anti-kickback law and false claims laws, which apply to items and services reimbursed under Medicaid and other state programs, or, in several states, apply regardless of the payor.
We may also be subject to additional federal and state laws related to physician transparency, data privacy and security, and pharmaceutical manufacturer compliance guidelines, including the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and the Physician Payments Sunshine Act.
If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other government regulations that apply to us, we may be subject to penalties, including significant administrative, civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, additional reporting requirements and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or similar agreement to resolve allegations of noncompliance with these laws, exclusion from participation in government health care programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, disgorgement, imprisonment, contractual damages, reputational harm and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could harm our ability to operate our business and our results of operations.
Foreign Regulation
In order to market any product outside of the United States, we would need to comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of other countries regarding safety and efficacy and governing, among other things, clinical trials, marketing authorization, commercial sales and distribution of our products. Whether or not we obtain FDA approval for a product, we would need to obtain the necessary approvals by the comparable regulatory authorities of foreign countries before we can commence clinical trials or marketing of the product in those countries. The approval process varies from country to country and can involve additional product testing and additional administrative review periods. The time required to obtain approval in other countries might differ from and be longer than that required to obtain FDA approval. Regulatory approval in one country does not ensure regulatory approval in another, but a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one country may negatively impact the regulatory process in others.
New Legislation and Regulations
From time to time, legislation is drafted, introduced and passed in Congress that could significantly change the statutory provisions governing the testing, approval, manufacturing and marketing of products regulated by the FDA. In addition to new legislation, FDA regulations and policies are often revised or interpreted by the agency in ways that may significantly affect our business and our products. It is impossible to predict whether further legislative changes will be enacted or whether FDA regulations, guidance, policies or interpretations changed or what the effect of such changes, if any, may be.
Human Capital Resources
As of December 31, 2021, we had 63 employees, all of which were full-time employees, including 23 employees with Ph.D., Pharm.D. or M.D. degrees. Of these full-time employees, 41 employees are engaged in research and development activities. None of our employees are represented by a labor union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Our human capital resources objectives include, as applicable, identifying, recruiting, retaining, incentivizing and integrating our existing and additional employees. The principal purposes of our equity incentive plans are to attract, retain and motivate selected employees and directors through the granting of stock-based compensation awards.
Facilities
We occupy approximately 34,000 square feet of office and laboratory space in South San Francisco, California. Our lease term is through January 2024, with an option to extend another two years to January 2026. We believe that our facility is sufficient to meet our current needs and that suitable additional space will be available as and when needed.
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Legal Proceedings
From time to time, we may become involved in litigation relating to claims arising from the ordinary course of business. Our management believes that there are currently no claims or actions pending against us, the ultimate disposition of which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.
Available Information
We were incorporated in the State of Delaware on March 9, 2010. Our website address is www.calithera.com. Information found on, or accessible through, our website is not a part of, and is not incorporated into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
We file electronically with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. We make available on our website at www.calithera.com, free of charge, copies of these reports as soon as reasonably practicable after filing these reports with, or furnishing them to, the SEC.
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Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Our business involves significant risks, some of which are described below. You should carefully consider these risks, in addition to the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes and the section of this report titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” The occurrence of any of the events or developments described in the following risk factors and the risks described elsewhere in this report could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, the trading price of our common stock and our growth prospects. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations. This report on Form 10-K also contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of factors that are described in the following risk factors and the risks described elsewhere in this report.
Summary Risk Factors
Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those highlighted in the section titled “Risk Factors” immediately following this summary. These risks include, among others, the following:
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Risk Factors
Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need For Additional Capital
We have incurred significant operating losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur substantial operating losses for the foreseeable future. We may never achieve or maintain profitability.
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We have never generated any revenue from product sales and may never be profitable. To become and remain profitable, we and/or our collaborators must develop and eventually commercialize one or more products with significant market potential. This will require us to be successful in a range of challenging activities, including completing preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates, obtaining marketing approval for these product candidates, manufacturing, marketing and selling those product candidates for which we may obtain marketing approval, and satisfying any post-marketing requirements. We may never succeed in these activities and, even if we do, may never generate revenue that is significant or large enough to achieve profitability. Our failure to become and remain profitable would decrease the value of the company and could impair our ability to raise capital, maintain our research and development efforts, expand our business or continue our operations. A decline in the value of our company could also cause you to lose all or part of your investment.
There is substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern. We will need substantial additional funding, which may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Failure to obtain this necessary capital when needed may force us to delay, limit or terminate our product development efforts or other operations.
As of December 31, 2021, our cash and cash equivalents were $59.5 million. Based on our current business plan, there is substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of one year after the date that our financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2021 are issued. We expect our expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we continue the research and development of, continue and initiate clinical trials of, potentially prepare for commercial launch of, and seek marketing approval for our product candidates, specifically sapanisertib, mivavotinib, and CB-280, and as we become obligated to make milestone payments pursuant to our outstanding license and asset purchase agreements. In addition, if we obtain marketing approval for any of our product candidates, we expect to incur significant commercialization expenses related to product sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution of the approved product.
Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:
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Identifying potential product candidates and conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials are time consuming, expensive and uncertain processes that take years to complete, and we may never generate the necessary data or results required to obtain marketing approval and achieve product sales for any of our current or future product candidates. In addition, our product candidates, if approved, may not achieve commercial success. Our commercial revenue, if any, will be derived from sales of products that may not be commercially available for many years, if at all.
We do not have any material committed external source of funds or other support for our development efforts other than the Incyte Collaboration Agreement for the development and commercialization of small molecule arginase inhibitors in hematology and oncology indications, including INCB001158, which agreement is terminable by Incyte for convenience or following our uncured breach. If the Incyte Collaboration Agreement is terminated, we would need to obtain substantial additional sources of funding to develop INCB001158 as currently contemplated. If such additional funding is not available on favorable terms or at all, we may need to delay or reduce the scope of our INCB001158 development program or dedicate resources allocated to other programs to fund INCB001158. We may also need to grant rights in the United States, as well as outside the United States, to INCB001158 to one or more partners.
Accordingly, we will need substantial additional funding in connection with our continuing operations and to achieve our goals. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on attractive terms, we would be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our research and development programs or future commercialization efforts. Adequate additional financing may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. In addition, we may seek additional financing due to favorable market conditions or strategic considerations, even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our operating plans.
Moreover, the terms of any financing may adversely affect the holdings or the rights of our stockholders and the issuance of additional securities, by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our shares to decline. The sale of additional equity or convertible securities would dilute all of our stockholders. We could also be required to seek funds through arrangements with collaborative partners or otherwise at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable and we may be required to relinquish rights to some of our technologies or product candidates or otherwise agree to terms unfavorable to us, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and prospects.
If we are unable to obtain funding on a timely basis, we may be required to further revise our business plan and strategy, which may result in us significantly curtailing, delaying or discontinuing one or more of our research or development programs or may result in our being unable to expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities. As a result, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially affected.
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or product candidates.
Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenue, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of equity and debt financings, as well as entering into new collaborations, strategic alliances and licensing arrangements. We do not have any committed external source of funds, other than our collaborations, which are limited in scope and duration. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, your ownership interest will be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a common stockholder. Debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends, and may be secured by all or a portion of our assets. If we raise funds by entering into new collaborations, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements in the future with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams, research programs or product candidates or to grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity or
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debt financings or through collaborations, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development or future commercialization efforts or grant rights to develop and market product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves.
Our short operating history may make it difficult for you to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability.
We were founded in March 2010 and our operations to date have been limited to organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, developing our technology, identifying potential product candidates, undertaking preclinical studies and commencing Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials of our product candidates. CB-280, sapanisertib, mivavotinib are currently being or will be evaluated by us in Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials, respectively. All of our other programs are in research and preclinical development. We have not yet demonstrated our ability to successfully complete any clinical trials, including large-scale, pivotal clinical trials required for regulatory approval of our product candidates, obtain marketing approvals, manufacture a commercial scale product, or arrange for a third party to do so on our behalf, or conduct sales and marketing activities necessary for successful commercialization. Typically, it takes many years to develop one new product from the time it is discovered to when it is commercially available. Consequently, any predictions made about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history or if we had product candidates in advanced clinical trials.
In addition, we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other known and unknown factors that may alter or delay our plans. If a product candidate is approved, we will need to transition from a company with a research and development focus to a company capable of supporting successful commercial activities. We may not be successful in any step in such a transition.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
Sections 382 and 383 place a limitation on the amount of taxable income which can be offset by carryforward tax attributes, such as net operating losses or tax credits, after a change in control. Generally, after a change in control, a loss corporation cannot deduct carryforward tax attributes in excess of the limitation prescribed by Section 382 and 383. Therefore, certain of our carryforward tax attributes may be subject to an annual limitation regarding their utilization against taxable income in future periods. As a result of our IPO in 2014, we triggered an "ownership change" as defined in Internal Revenue Code Section 382 and related provisions. Additionally, due to stock acquired by investors and reported under Section 13(g), we believe that an “ownership change” occurred during 2018, as well. Subsequent ownership changes since 2018 may subject us to annual limitations of our net operating loss and credit carryforwards. Such annual limitation could result in the expiration of the net operating loss and credit carryforwards before utilization.
Furthermore, our ability to use our net operating losses and other tax attributes to offset potential future taxable income and related income taxes that would otherwise be due is dependent upon our generation of future taxable income before the expiration dates of the net operating losses, and we cannot predict with certainty when, or whether, we will generate sufficient taxable income to use all of our net operating losses. Federal net operating losses generated prior to 2018 will continue to be governed by the net operating loss tax rules as they existed prior to the adoption of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or Tax Act, which means that generally they will expire 20 years after they were generated if not used prior thereto. Under the Tax Act, as modified by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, signed into law on March 27, 2020, federal net operating losses incurred in 2018 and in future years may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such federal net operating losses will be limited to 80% of current year taxable income.
Our effective tax rate may fluctuate, and tax authorities may disagree with our positions and conclusions regarding certain tax positions, resulting in unanticipated costs, taxes or non-realization of expected benefits.
Our effective tax rate may be different than experienced in the past due to numerous factors, including passage of the newly enacted federal income tax law, changes in the mix of our profitability between jurisdictions in which we are or may become subject to tax, the results of examinations and audits of our tax filings, our inability to secure or sustain acceptable agreements with tax authorities, changes in accounting for income taxes and changes in tax laws. Any of these factors could cause us to experience an effective tax rate significantly different from previous periods or our current expectations and may result in tax obligations in excess of amounts accrued in our financial statements.
A tax authority may disagree with tax positions that we have taken, which could result in increased tax liabilities. For example, a tax authority could assert that we are subject to tax in a jurisdiction where we believe we have not established a taxable nexus, often referred to as a “permanent establishment” under international tax treaties, and such an assertion, if successful, could increase our expected tax liability in one or more jurisdictions. A tax authority may take the position that material income tax liabilities, interest
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and penalties are payable by us, in which case, we expect that we might contest such assessment. Contesting such an assessment may be lengthy and costly and if we were unsuccessful in disputing the assessment, the implications could increase our anticipated effective tax rate, where applicable.
Risks Related to Drug Discovery, Development and Commercialization
Our business, operations and clinical development plans and timelines are currently adversely affected by and could be adversely affected in the future by the effects of health epidemics, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic, on the manufacturing, clinical trial and other business activities performed by us or by third parties with whom we conduct business, including our contract manufacturers, Clinical Research Organizations, or CROs, shippers and others.
Our business could be adversely affected in the future by health epidemics wherever we have clinical trial sites or other business operations. In addition, health epidemics could cause significant disruption in the operations of third-party manufacturers, CROs and other third parties upon whom we rely. For example, in December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, causing a disease referred to as COVID-19, was reported to have surfaced in Wuhan, China. Since then, COVID-19 has spread to multiple countries worldwide, including the United States. In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, and the U.S. government imposed travel restrictions on travel between the United States, Europe and certain other countries. Further, the President of the United States declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency and invoked powers under the Stafford Act, the legislation that directs federal emergency disaster response, and under the Defense Production Act, the legislation that facilitates the production of goods and services necessary for national security and for other purposes. Similarly, the State of California declared a state of emergency related to the spread of COVID-19, and the Governor of California and other health officials in California have announced aggressive orders, health directives and recommendations to reduce the spread of the disease. On March 16, 2020, the Health Officer of San Mateo County, the county in which our headquarters is located, issued a “Shelter in Place” Order requiring, among other things, the closure of all non-essential businesses. Further, the Governor of California issued an executive order directing that all non-essential businesses close their physical operations and implement work-from-home schedules, effective as of March 19, 2020. We have implemented work-from-home policies for all employees. The effects of the executive order and our work-from-home policies may continue to negatively impact productivity, disrupt our business and delay our clinical programs and timelines, the magnitude of which will depend, in part, on the length and severity of the restrictions and other limitations on our ability to conduct our business in the ordinary course. For example, the CANTATA trial was fully enrolled in October 2019, and we previously advised that we planned to report top-line efficacy and safety data from the trial in the late third quarter or fourth quarter of 2020. In light of delays associated with COVID-19, top-line data was announced in early first quarter 2021. These and similar, and perhaps more severe, disruptions in our operations could negatively impact our business, operating results and financial condition.
We depend on a worldwide supply chain to manufacture products used in our preclinical studies and clinical trials. Quarantines, shelter-in-place and similar government orders, or the expectation that such orders, shutdowns or other restrictions could occur, whether related to COVID-19 or other infectious diseases, could impact personnel at third-party manufacturing facilities in the United States and other countries, or the availability or cost of materials, which could disrupt our supply chain.
If our relationships with our suppliers or other vendors are terminated or scaled back as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic or other health epidemics, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative suppliers or vendors or do so on commercially reasonable terms or in a timely manner. Switching or adding additional suppliers or vendors involves substantial cost and requires management time and focus. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new supplier or vendor commences work. As a result, delays may occur, which could adversely impact our ability to meet our desired clinical development and any future commercialization timelines. Although we carefully manage our relationships with our suppliers and vendors, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter challenges or delays in the future or that these delays or challenges will not harm our business.
In addition, our preclinical studies and clinical trials have been and may continue to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical site initiation, patient enrollment and activities that require visits to clinical sites, including data monitoring, have been and may continue to be delayed due to prioritization of hospital resources toward the COVID-19 pandemic or concerns among patients about participating in clinical trials during a pandemic. Some patients may have difficulty following certain aspects of clinical trial protocols if quarantines impede patient movement or interrupt healthcare services. Similarly, if we are unable to successfully recruit and retain patients and principal investigators and site staff who, as healthcare providers, may have heightened exposure to COVID-19 or experience additional restrictions by their institutions, city, or state our clinical trial operations could be adversely impacted.
The spread of COVID-19, which has caused a broad impact globally, may materially affect us economically. While the potential economic impact brought by, and the duration of, COVID-19 may be difficult to assess or predict, a widespread pandemic could result in significant disruption of global financial markets, reducing our ability to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity. In addition, a recession or market correction resulting from the spread of COVID-19 could materially affect our business and the value of our common stock.
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The global pandemic of COVID-19 continues to evolve rapidly. The ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or a similar health epidemic is highly uncertain and subject to change. We do not yet know the full extent of potential delays or impacts on our business, our clinical trials, healthcare systems or the global economy as a whole. However, these effects could have a material impact on our operations, and we continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely.
We may not realize the anticipated benefits from our acquisition of the Takeda assets.
In October 2021, we acquired and licensed from Millennium certain technology, intellectual property and other assets related to the Takeda Programs, including certain patents and know-how solely related to the Takeda Programs and necessary for the exploitation of products containing the CB-228 and CB-659 compounds, as well as specified regulatory materials, agreements, materials and inventory related to the Takeda Programs. This transaction may require us to incur non-recurring and other charges, increase our near and long-term expenditures, impair relationships with key suppliers, upstream licensors or other licensees, pose significant integration challenges, require additional expertise, result in dilution to our existing stakeholders and disrupt our management and business, which could harm our operations and financial results. Under the agreement with Millennium, we are required to pursue commercially reasonable efforts to develop, and subsequently to commercialize, at least one CB-228 product and one CB-659 product in each of the United States, Japan and certain European countries. If we fail to properly exercise such efforts to develop and commercialize the Takeda Programs as specified in the asset purchase agreement, or otherwise breach the asset purchase agreement, we may be subject to various claims by Millennium and parties affiliated with Millennium, including claims that could result in the termination of the asset purchase agreement and the licenses and other rights granted to us thereunder. In addition, the development of the Takeda Programs and the other products and technologies acquired or licensed may not be successful or they may require significantly greater resources and investments than originally anticipated. Conversely, the liabilities assumed in the transaction could be greater than originally anticipated. As a result, the anticipated benefits of the acquisition may not be realized fully within the expected timeframe or at all or may take longer to realize or cost more than expected, which could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
Further, while we seek to mitigate risks and liabilities of the acquisition and in-licensing transaction, and other potential acquisitions and in-licensing transactions, through, among other things, due diligence, there may be risks and liabilities that such due diligence efforts fail to discover, that are not disclosed to us, or that we inadequately assess. If we breach, or have assumed liability for a breach of, any license agreement or other contract assigned to us pursuant to the asset purchase agreement, including a breach of the diligence or payment obligations under such contracts, we may be subject to various claims by the counterparties to such contracts, including claims that could result in the termination of such contracts or the loss of the licenses and other rights granted to us thereunder. Any failure in identifying and managing these risks, liabilities and uncertainties effectively, could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
If it is determined that companion diagnostics are needed for the Takeda Programs, we may be unable to successfully develop companion diagnostics for biomarkers that enable patient selection, or experience significant delays in doing so, we may not realize the full commercial potential of the Takeda Programs.
If not already commercially available, we may be required to seek collaborations with diagnostic companies for the development of diagnostics for biomarkers associated with the Takeda Programs. We may have difficulty in establishing or maintaining such development relationships, and we will face competition from other companies in establishing these collaborations. Furthermore, even if a diagnostic is commercially available, we may not be able to obtain reimbursement for its use without obtaining regulatory approval.
The development of companion diagnostic products requires a significant investment of working capital, and may not result in any future income. This could require us to raise additional funds, which could dilute our current investors or impact our ability to continue our operations in the future.
There are also risks associated with diagnostics that are commercially available, including that we may not have access to reliable supply for such diagnostics. Market acceptance of the companion diagnostic may be low as a result of the cost and complexity of utilizing such companion diagnostic. Furthermore, if commercial tumor profiling panels are not able to be updated to include additional tumor-associated genes, or if clinical oncologists do not incorporate molecular or genetic sequencing into their clinical practice, we may not be successful in developing or commercializing the Takeda Programs.
We may attempt to secure approval from the FDA through the use of accelerated approval pathways for the Takeda Programs. If we are unable to obtain such approval, we may be required to conduct additional clinical trials beyond those that we contemplate, which could increase the expense of obtaining, and delay the receipt of, necessary marketing approvals. Even if we receive accelerated approval from the FDA, if our confirmatory trials do not verify clinical benefit, or if we do not comply with rigorous post-marketing requirements, the FDA may seek to withdraw accelerated approval.
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We may in the future seek accelerated approval for our one or more of our product candidates, including the Takeda Programs. Under the accelerated approval program, the FDA may grant accelerated approval to a product candidate designed to treat a serious or life-threatening condition that provides meaningful therapeutic benefit over available therapies upon a determination that the product candidate has an effect on a surrogate endpoint or intermediate clinical endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit. The FDA considers a clinical benefit to be a positive therapeutic effect that is clinically meaningful in the context of a given disease, such as irreversible morbidity or mortality. For the purposes of accelerated approval, a surrogate endpoint is a marker, such as a laboratory measurement, radiographic image, physical sign, or other measure that is thought to predict clinical benefit, but is not itself a measure of clinical benefit. An intermediate clinical endpoint is a clinical endpoint that can be measured earlier than an effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality that is reasonably likely to predict an effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality or other clinical benefit. The accelerated approval pathway may be used in cases in which the advantage of a new drug over available therapy may not be a direct therapeutic advantage, but is a clinically important improvement from a patient and public health perspective. If granted, accelerated approval is usually contingent on the sponsor’s agreement to conduct, in a diligent manner, additional post-approval confirmatory studies to verity and describe the drug’s clinical benefit. If such post-approval studies fail to confirm the drug’s clinical benefit, the FDA may withdraw its approval of the drug. In addition, the FDA currently requires pre-approval of promotional materials for accelerated approval products, once approved.
If we decide to submit an application for accelerated approval for our product candidates, there can be no assurance that such submission or application will be accepted or that any expedited development, review or approval will be granted on a timely basis, or at all. The FDA could require us to conduct further studies prior to considering our application or granting approval of any type. A failure to obtain accelerated approval or any other form of expedited development, review or approval for our product candidates would result in a longer time period to commercialization of such product candidate, if any, could increase the cost of development of such product candidate and could harm our competitive position in the marketplace.
Our approach to the discovery and development of product candidates that target tumor metabolism and tumor immunology is unproven and may never lead to marketable products.
Our scientific approach focuses on using our understanding of cellular metabolic pathways and the role of glutaminase in these pathways, as well as the role of arginase in the anti-tumor immune response, to identify molecules that are potentially promising as therapies for cancer indications. Any product candidates we develop may not effectively modulate metabolic or immunology pathways. The scientific evidence to support the feasibility of developing product candidates based on inhibiting tumor metabolism or impacting the anti-tumor immune response are both preliminary and limited. Although preclinical studies suggest that inhibiting glutaminase can suppress the growth of certain cancer cells, to date no company has translated this mechanism into a drug that has received marketing approval. Even if we are able to develop a product candidate in preclinical studies, we may not succeed in demonstrating the safety and efficacy of the product candidate in human clinical trials. Our expertise in cellular metabolic pathways, the role of glutaminase in these pathways, and the role of arginase in the anti-tumor immune response may not result in the discovery and development of commercially viable products to treat cancer.
Our drug discovery and development efforts might not generate successful product candidates.
We have invested a significant portion of our efforts and financial resources in the identification or asset acquisition of our most advanced product candidates, sapanisertib, mivavotinib, INCB001158 and CB-280, which are being or will be evaluated in Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials. We have entered into the Incyte Collaboration Agreement for the development and commercialization of INCB001158. Pursuant to the agreement, we and Incyte collaborated on the development of the licensed products for hematology and oncology indications, including INCB001158. Effective September 30, 2020, we have opted out of our co-development obligations and as a result, Incyte will solely develop INCB001158 or any other licensed products. All of our other programs are in research and preclinical development. INCB001158 will be developed for use in combination with other approved therapies, and as such, we will be dependent upon the continued marketing availability of the drugs that are used in combination with them. As a result, the timing and costs of the regulatory paths we will follow and marketing approvals remain uncertain. Our ability to generate product revenue, which may not occur for many years, if ever, will depend heavily on the successful development and eventual commercialization of sapanisertib, mivavotinib, INCB001158 and CB-280. The success of sapanisertib, mivavotinib, INCB001158, CB-280 and any other product candidates we may develop will depend on many factors, including the following:
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If we do not accomplish one or more of these goals in a timely manner, or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully commercialize our product candidates, which would harm our business.
We may not be successful in our efforts to identify or discover potential product candidates for clinical development.
Our drug discovery efforts may not be successful in identifying compounds that are useful in treating cancer. Our research programs may initially show promise in identifying potential product candidates, yet fail to yield product candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons. In particular, our research methodology used may not be successful in identifying compounds with sufficient potency or bioavailability to be potential product candidates. In addition, our potential product candidates may, on further study, be shown to have harmful side effects or other negative characteristics.
Research programs to identify new product candidates require substantial technical, financial and human resources. We may choose to focus our efforts and resources on potential product candidates that ultimately prove to be unsuccessful. If we are unable to identify suitable compounds for preclinical and clinical development, we will not be able to generate product revenue, which would harm our financial position and adversely impact our stock price.
If clinical trials of our product candidates fail to demonstrate safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of regulatory authorities or do not otherwise produce positive results, we may incur additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of our product candidates.
Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of our product candidates, we must complete preclinical development and then conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our product candidates in humans. Clinical testing is expensive, difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete and is uncertain as to outcome. A failure of one or more clinical trials could occur at any stage of testing. The outcome of preclinical testing and early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later clinical trials, and interim results of a particular clinical trial do not necessarily predict final results of that trial. For example, our CANTATA trial of telaglenastat in RCC did not meet the primary endpoint of PFS despite earlier encouraging results in this indication in a Phase 1b trial.
Moreover, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to multiple interpretations and analyses. Many companies that have believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their products.
We may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, preclinical testing or clinical trials that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize our product candidates, including that:
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Product development costs will also increase if we experience delays in testing or in receiving marketing approvals. We do not know whether any clinical trials will begin as planned, will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, or at all. Significant clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates, could allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, and could impair our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates, any of which may harm our business and results of operations.
If we experience delays or difficulties in enrolling patients in clinical trials, our receipt of necessary regulatory approvals could be delayed or prevented.
We may not be able to initiate or continue clinical trials for our product candidates if we are unable to identify and enroll a sufficient number of eligible patients to participate in these trials as required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, or analogous regulatory authorities outside the United States. In addition, some of our competitors may have ongoing clinical trials for product candidates that would treat the same indications as our product candidates, and patients who would otherwise be eligible for our clinical trials may instead enroll in clinical trials of our competitors’ product candidates. Patient enrollment is also affected by other factors, including:
Our inability to enroll a sufficient number of patients for our clinical trials would result in significant delays or may require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether. Enrollment delays in our clinical trials may result in increased development costs for our product candidates, which would cause the value of our company to decline and limit our ability to obtain additional financing.
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If serious adverse effects or unexpected characteristics of our product candidates are identified during development, we may need to abandon or limit our development of some or all of our product candidates.
We or our collaborators are currently evaluating or plan to evaluate sapanisertib, mivavotinib, INCB001158 and CB-280 in Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials. All our other programs are in research and preclinical development and their risk of failure is high. It is impossible to predict when or if any of our product candidates will prove effective or safe in humans or will receive marketing approval. Adverse events or undesirable side effects caused by, or other unexpected properties of, our product candidates could cause us, any current or future collaborators, an institutional review board or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials of one or more of our product candidates and could result in a more restrictive label, or the delay or denial of marketing approval by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities. If adverse effects were to arise in patients being treated with any of our product candidates, it could require us to halt, delay or interrupt clinical trials of such product candidate or adversely affect our ability to obtain requisite approvals to advance the development and commercialization of such product candidate. If our product candidates are associated with undesirable side effects or have characteristics that are unexpected, we may need to abandon their development or limit development to certain uses or subpopulations in which the undesirable side effects or other characteristics are less prevalent, less severe or more acceptable from a risk-benefit perspective. Many agents that initially showed promise in early stage testing for treating cancer or other diseases have later been found to cause side effects that prevented further development of the agent.
We are in early clinical trials and we have seen several adverse events, or AEs, deemed possibly or probably related to study drug in each of those programs. For example, in our evaluation of telaglenastat with nivolumab, during the dose escalation of the combination therapy, there was one report of dose limiting Grade 3 ALT increase. We have treated an insufficient number of patients to fully assess the safety of telaglenastat and INCB001158 and, as these trials progress, we may experience frequent or severe adverse events. Our ongoing and planned trials for sapanisertib, mivavotinib and CB-280 and Incyte’s ongoing and planned trials for INCB001158 may fail due to safety issues, and we may need to abandon development of product candidates from these programs. Our other research programs may fail due to preclinical or clinical safety issues, causing us to abandon or delay the development of a product candidate from these programs.
Results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials may not be predictive of results of future clinical trials.
The outcome of preclinical studies and early clinical trials may not be predictive of the success of later clinical trials, and interim results of clinical trials do not necessarily predict success in future clinical trials. Many companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in late-stage clinical trials after achieving positive results in earlier development, and we could face similar setbacks. The design of a clinical trial can determine whether its results will support approval of a product and flaws in the design of a clinical trial may not become apparent until the clinical trial is well advanced. We may experience delays in designing and executing clinical trials to support marketing approval. In addition, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses. Many companies that believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval for the product candidates. Even if we, or our current and future collaborators, believe that the results of clinical trials for our product candidates warrant marketing approval, the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree and may not grant marketing approval of our product candidates.
In some instances, there can be significant variability in safety or efficacy results between different clinical trials of the same product candidate due to numerous factors, including changes in trial procedures set forth in protocols, differences in the size and type of the patient populations, changes in and adherence to the dosing regimen and other clinical trial protocols and the rate of dropout among clinical trial participants. If we fail to receive positive results in clinical trials of our product candidates, the development timeline and regulatory approval and commercialization prospects for our most advanced product candidates, and, correspondingly, our business and financial prospects would be negatively impacted.
We may expend our limited resources to pursue a particular product candidate or indication and fail to capitalize on product candidates or indications that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success.
We have limited financial and managerial resources. As a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future research and development programs and product candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable products. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular product candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that product candidate through collaboration, licensing or other royalty arrangements, including our agreement with Incyte, in cases in which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights to such product candidate. In addition, under our agreement with Incyte, Incyte has the right to commercialize INCB001158 in hematology and oncology indications. If Incyte does not successfully commercialize INCB001158, we may be unable to realize the full value from our collaboration with Incyte.
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Even if any of our product candidates receives marketing approval, we or others may later discover that the product is less effective than previously believed or causes undesirable side effects that were not previously identified, which could compromise our ability, or that of any future collaborators, to market the product.
Clinical trials of our product candidates are conducted in carefully defined sets of patients who have agreed to enter into clinical trials. Consequently, it is possible that our clinical trials, or those of any future collaborator, may indicate an apparent positive effect of a product candidate that is greater than the actual positive effect, if any, or alternatively fail to identify undesirable side effects. If, following approval of a product candidate, we, or others, discover that the product is less effective than previously believed or causes undesirable side effects that were not previously identified, any of the following adverse events could occur:
Even if any of our product candidates receive marketing approval, they may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by health care professionals, patients, third party payors and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.
If any of our product candidates receive marketing approval, they may nonetheless fail to gain sufficient market acceptance by health care professionals, patients, third party payors and others in the medical community for us to achieve commercial success. For example, current cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy for certain diseases and conditions are well established in the medical community, and doctors may continue to rely on these treatments. If our product candidates do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenue to become profitable. The degree of market acceptance of our product candidates, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including:
If, in the future, we are unable to establish adequate sales and marketing capabilities or to selectively enter into agreements with third parties to sell and market our product candidates, we may not be successful in commercializing our product candidates if and when they are approved.
We do not have a sales and marketing infrastructure to support any future commercialization efforts. To achieve commercial success for any approved product for which we retain sales and marketing responsibilities, we must either develop a robust sales and marketing organization and/or outsource these functions to other third parties. For our small molecule arginase inhibitors in hematology and oncology indications, including INCB001158, we will be dependent on Incyte’s sales and marketing infrastructure to effectively commercialize these products. In the future, we may choose to build a focused sales and marketing infrastructure to sell some of our product candidates, if and when they are approved, excluding INCB001158.
There are risks involved both with establishing our own sales and marketing capabilities and with entering into arrangements with third parties to perform these services. For example, recruiting and training a sales force is expensive and time consuming and
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could delay any product launch. If the commercial launch of a product candidate for which we recruit a sales force and establish marketing capabilities is delayed or does not occur for any reason, we would have prematurely or unnecessarily incurred these commercialization expenses. This may be costly, and our investment would be lost if we cannot retain or reposition our sales and marketing personnel.
Factors that may inhibit our efforts to commercialize our product candidates on our own include:
If we enter into arrangements with third parties to perform sales, marketing and distribution services, our product revenue or the profitability of these product revenue to us may be lower than if we were to market and sell any products that we develop ourselves. In addition, we may not be successful in entering into arrangements with third parties to sell and market our product candidates or may be unable to do so on terms that are favorable to us. We may have little control over such third parties, and any of them may fail to devote the necessary resources and attention to sell and market our products effectively. If we do not establish sales and marketing capabilities successfully, either on our own or in collaboration with third parties, we will not be successful in commercializing our product candidates.
We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing or commercializing products before or more successfully than we do.
The development and commercialization of new drug products is highly competitive. Research and discoveries by others may result in breakthroughs which may render our products obsolete even before they generate any revenue. We face competition with respect to our current product candidates, and will face competition with respect to any product candidates that we may seek to develop or commercialize in the future, from major pharmaceutical companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies worldwide. There are a number of large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that currently market and sell products or are pursuing the development of products for the treatment of the cancer indications for which we are focusing our product development efforts. Some of these competitive products and therapies are based on scientific approaches that are the same as or similar to our approach and others are based on entirely different approaches. Potential competitors also include academic institutions, government agencies and other public and private research organizations that conduct research, seek patent protection and establish collaborative arrangements for research, development, manufacturing and commercialization.
We are developing our product candidates for the treatment of various cancers. There are a variety of available drug therapies marketed for cancer. In many cases, these drugs are administered in combination to enhance efficacy. Some of the currently approved drug therapies are branded and subject to patent protection, and others are available on a generic basis. Many of these approved drugs are well-established therapies and are widely accepted by health care professionals, patients and third-party payors. Insurers and other third-party payors may also encourage the use of generic products. We expect that if our product candidates are approved, they will be priced at a significant premium over competitive generic products. This may make it difficult for us to achieve our business strategy of using our product candidates in combination with existing therapies or replacing existing therapies with our product candidates.
Our primary competitors or product candidates in clinical development in either NRF2-mutated cancers, or with similar mechanism to an mTORC1/2 inhibitor are Antengene Corporation, Celcuity, Inc. Our primary competitors or product candidates in clinical development for biomarker-defined diffuse large B-cell lymphoma or with a similar mechanism to a SYK inhibitor are Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Curis, Inc., Genentech, Inc., HutchMed (China) Limited, Karyopharm Therapeutics, MorphoSys AG. Our primary competitors in the field of Cystic Fibrosis include AbbVie, Inc., Beyond Air Inc., Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc., Novartis AG, Novoteris, LLC, Proteostatis Therapeutics, Inc., Translate Bio, Inc., and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Our competitors may develop products that are more effective, safer, more convenient or less costly than any that we are developing or that would render our product candidates obsolete or non-competitive. In addition, our competitors may discover biomarkers that more efficiently measure metabolic pathways than our methods, which may give them a competitive advantage in developing potential products. Our competitors may also obtain marketing approval from the FDA or other regulatory authorities for their products sooner than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market. Many of our competitors have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals and marketing approved products than we do. Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller and other early-stage companies may also prove to
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be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These third parties may compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs.
Even if we are able to commercialize any product candidates, these products may become subject to unfavorable pricing regulations, third-party coverage and reimbursement practices or healthcare reform initiatives, which would harm our business.
The regulations that govern marketing approvals, pricing and reimbursement for new drugs vary widely from country to country. In the United States, new and future legislation may significantly change the approval requirements in ways that could involve additional costs and cause delays in obtaining approvals. Some countries require approval of the sale price of a drug before it can be marketed. In many countries, the pricing review period begins after marketing or product-licensing approval is granted. In some foreign markets, prescription pharmaceutical pricing remains subject to continuing governmental control even after initial marketing approval is granted. As a result, we might obtain marketing approval for a drug in a particular country, but then be subject to price regulations that delay its commercial launch, possibly for lengthy time periods, and negatively impact the revenue we are able to generate from the sale of the drug in that country. Adverse pricing limitations may hinder our ability to commercialize and generate revenue from one or more product candidates, even if our product candidates obtain marketing approval.
Our ability to commercialize any product candidates successfully also will depend in part on the extent to which coverage and adequate reimbursement for these products and related treatments will be available from government health programs, private health insurers and other organizations. Government authorities and third-party payors, such as private health insurers and health maintenance organizations, decide which medications they will pay for and establish reimbursement levels. A significant trend in the U.S. healthcare industry and elsewhere is cost containment. Government authorities and third-party payors have attempted to control costs by limiting coverage and the amount of payment for particular medications. Increasingly, third-party payors are requiring that drug companies provide them with predetermined discounts from list prices and are challenging the prices charged for medical products. Coverage may not be available for any product that we commercialize and, if coverage is available, the level of reimbursement may not be sufficient. Reimbursement may impact the demand for, or the price of, any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval. If reimbursement is not available or is available only to limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval.
There may be significant delays in obtaining reimbursement for newly approved products, and coverage may be more limited than the purposes for which the product is approved by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside the United States. Moreover, eligibility for coverage does not imply that any product will be paid for in all cases or at a rate that covers our costs, including research, development, manufacture, sale and distribution. Interim reimbursement levels for new drugs, if applicable, may also not be sufficient to cover our costs and may not be made permanent. Coverage and reimbursement rates may vary according to the use of the drug and the medical circumstances under which it is used, may be based on reimbursement levels already set for lower cost products or procedures or may be incorporated into existing payments for other services. Net prices for drugs may be reduced by mandatory discounts or rebates required by government healthcare programs or private payors and by any future relaxation of laws that presently restrict imports of drugs from countries where they may be sold at lower prices than in the United States. Third-party payors often rely upon Medicare coverage policies and payment limitations in setting their own reimbursement policies. Our inability to promptly obtain coverage and profitable payment rates from both government-funded programs and private payors for any approved products that we develop could have a material adverse effect on our operating results, our ability to raise capital needed to commercialize our approved products and our overall financial condition.
In addition, there has been heightened governmental scrutiny of pharmaceutical pricing practices in light of the rising cost of prescription drugs and biologics. Such scrutiny has resulted in several recent congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to product pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drug products. We expect additional healthcare reform initiatives to be adopted in the future, particularly in light of the new presidential administration. We continue to monitor and evaluate the potential impact of these legislative actions and their effect on our business and operations.
Product liability lawsuits against us could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and could limit the commercialization of any product candidates we may develop.
We face an inherent risk of product liability exposure related to the testing of our product candidates in human clinical trials and will face an even greater risk if we commercially sell any products that we may develop after approval. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against claims that our product candidates caused injuries, we could incur substantial liabilities. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:
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Although we maintain product liability insurance coverage in the amount of up to $10.0 million per claim and in the aggregate, it may not be adequate to cover all liabilities that we may incur. We anticipate that we will need to increase our insurance coverage as we continue clinical trials and if we successfully commercialize any products. Insurance coverage is increasingly expensive. We may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in an amount adequate to satisfy any liability that may arise.
If we fail to comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur costs that could harm our business.
We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures and the handling, use, storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological and radioactive materials. Our operations also produce hazardous waste products. We generally contract with third parties for the disposal of these materials and wastes. We cannot eliminate the risk of contamination or injury from these materials. In the event of contamination or injury resulting from our use of hazardous materials, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, and any liability could exceed our resources. We also could incur significant costs associated with civil or criminal fines and penalties.
Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees in our workplace, including those resulting from the use of hazardous materials, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. We do not maintain insurance for environmental liability or toxic tort claims that may be asserted against us in connection with our storage or disposal of biological, chemical, hazardous or radioactive materials.
In addition, we may incur substantial costs in order to comply with current or future environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. These current or future laws and regulations may impair our research, development or production efforts. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations also may result in substantial fines, penalties or other sanctions.
Risks Related to Our Dependence on Third Parties
We rely on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and some aspects of our research and preclinical testing and manufacture our product candidates, and those third parties may not perform satisfactorily, including failing to meet deadlines for the completion of such trials, research or testing.
We currently rely and expect to continue to rely on third parties, such as our collaborators, contract research organizations, clinical data management organizations, medical institutions and clinical investigators, to conduct our clinical trials and to conduct some aspects of our research and preclinical testing. Any of these third parties may terminate their engagements with us at any time. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected deadlines or conduct our clinical trials in accordance with regulatory requirements or our stated protocols, we will not be able to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, marketing approvals for our product candidates and will not be able to, or may be delayed in our efforts to, successfully commercialize our product candidates. Furthermore, these third parties may also have relationships with other entities, some of which may be our competitors. If we need to enter into alternative arrangements, it would delay our product development activities.
Our reliance on these third parties for research and development activities, including our reliance on Millennium and Takeda for prior preclinical and clinical research and development activities relating to the Takeda Programs, will reduce our control over these activities but will not relieve us of our responsibilities. For example, we will remain responsible for ensuring that each of our clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the general investigational plan and protocols for the trial, and that all clinical trial activities conducted by our contract research organizations follow applicable laws and regulations, and are conducted in an ethical and compliant manner. Moreover, the FDA requires us to comply with standards, commonly referred to as Good Clinical Practices, for conducting, recording and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the rights, integrity and confidentiality of trial participants are protected. We also are required to register ongoing clinical trials and post the results of completed clinical trials on a government sponsored database, available at www.clinicaltrials.gov, within
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certain timeframes. Failure by us, or any of the third parties working on our behalf, to do the above can result in fines, adverse publicity and civil and criminal sanctions.
We do not have any manufacturing facilities. We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third party manufacturers for the manufacture of our product candidates for preclinical studies and clinical trials and for commercial supply of any of these product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. To date, we have obtained or plan to obtain materials for sapanisertib, mivavotinib, INCB001158 and CB-280 for our current and planned clinical trials from third-party manufacturers. We have engaged third party manufacturers to obtain the active ingredient for INCB001158 and CB-280 for pre-clinical testing and clinical trials. We do not have a long-term supply agreement with any third-party manufacturers, and we purchase our required drug supply on a purchase order basis.
We may be unable to establish agreements with third-party manufacturers or to do so on acceptable terms. Even if we are able to establish agreements with third-party manufacturers, reliance on third-party manufacturers entails additional risks, including:
Third-party manufacturers may not be able to comply with current U.S. Good Manufacturing Practice requirements, or cGMPs, or similar legal and regulatory requirements outside the United States. Our failure, or the failure of our third-party manufacturers, to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, seizures or recalls of product candidates, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could adversely affect supplies of our product candidates and harm our business and results of operations.
Any product that we may develop may compete with other product candidates and products for access to these manufacturing facilities. There are a limited number of manufacturers that operate under cGMPs and that might be capable of manufacturing for us.
Any performance failure on the part of our existing or future manufacturers could delay clinical development or marketing approval. We do not currently have arrangements in place for redundant supply for bulk drug substances. If any one of our current contract manufacturers cannot perform as agreed, we may be required to replace that manufacturer. Although we believe that there are several potential alternative manufacturers who could manufacture our product candidates, we may incur added costs and delays in identifying and qualifying any such replacement.
Our current and anticipated future dependence upon others for the manufacture of our product candidates or products may adversely affect our future profit margins and our ability to commercialize any product candidates that receive marketing approval on a timely and competitive basis.
We also currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to store and distribute drug supplies for our clinical trials. Any performance failure on the part of these third parties could delay clinical development or marketing approval of our product candidates or commercialization of our drugs, producing additional losses and depriving us of potential revenue. Although we believe that there are several potential alternative third parties who could store and distribute drug supplies for our clinical trials, we may incur added costs and delays in identifying and qualifying any such replacement.
Our arginase inhibitors program in hematology and oncology indications, including INCB001158, is reliant in part on Incyte for the successful development and commercialization in a timely manner. If Incyte does not devote sufficient resources to INCB001158’s development, is unsuccessful in its efforts, or chooses to terminate its agreement with us, our business, operating results and financial condition will be harmed.
In January 2017, we and Incyte Corporation entered into the Incyte Collaboration Agreement. Pursuant to the Incyte Collaboration Agreement, we granted Incyte an exclusive, worldwide license to develop and commercialize small molecule arginase inhibitors, including INCB001158, for hematology and oncology indications. We retained rights to certain arginase inhibitors that are not part of the collaboration for specific orphan indications outside of hematology and oncology, including cystic fibrosis. Pursuant to the Incyte Collaboration Agreement, we and Incyte collaborated on, and co-funded the development of, the licensed products for hematology and oncology indications, including INCB001158, with Incyte bearing 70% and Calithera bearing 30% of global
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development costs. Effective September 30, 2020, we opted out of our co-development obligations and as a result, Incyte will pay all costs and solely develop INCB001158 or any other licensed products.
The Incyte collaboration may not be clinically or commercially successful due to a number of important factors, including the following:
In April 2020, we filed a complaint against Incyte in Superior Court of California, San Francisco County, asserting claims for breach of contract arising out of Incyte’s failure to pay two milestone payments we believe are due under the Incyte Collaboration Agreement. On September 14, 2021, we entered into a Settlement Agreement and Release with Incyte, or the Settlement Agreement. Pursuant to the Settlement Agreement, which resolves all claims in the complaint without any admission of liability or fault, Incyte will pay us a negotiated settlement amount and the parties have exchanged mutual releases. Concurrently, the parties also filed a dismissal of the action in the Superior Court of California.
If we were to terminate our agreement with Incyte due to Incyte’s breach, or if Incyte were to terminate the agreement without cause, there could be a delay in the return of our rights to INCB001158 and the development and commercialization of INCB001158 would be delayed, curtailed or terminated because we may not have sufficient financial resources or capabilities to continue development and commercialization on our own.
Incyte may enter into one or more transactions with third parties, including a merger, consolidation, reorganization, sale of substantial assets, sale of substantial stock or other change in control, which could divert the attention of its management and adversely affect Incyte’s ability to retain and motivate key personnel who are important to the continued development of the small molecule arginase inhibitor program. In addition, the third party to any such transaction could reprioritize Incyte’s development programs which could delay the development of our programs or cause Incyte to terminate the agreement.
We have in the past and may seek in the future to selectively establish collaborations, and, if we are unable to establish them on commercially reasonable terms, we may have to alter our development and commercialization plans.
Our drug development programs and the potential commercialization of our product candidates will require substantial additional cash to fund expenses. In addition to our collaboration with Incyte, for some of our product candidates, we may decide to collaborate with additional pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for the development and potential commercialization of those product candidates.
We may also be restricted under existing license agreements from engaging in research and development activities or entering into future agreements on certain terms with potential collaborators. For example, pursuant to our license agreement with Symbioscience, we have agreed not to develop any other arginase inhibitors for use in human healthcare outside of the scope of that agreement. In addition, under our agreement with Incyte, we are not allowed to develop any retained arginase inhibitors (small molecule arginase inhibitors, other than INCB001158, retained by us for research and development in non-hematology/oncology indications) for any indication except specific orphan indications outside of hematology and oncology.
We face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators. Whether we reach a definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of the collaborator’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration and the proposed collaborator’s evaluation of a number of factors. Those factors may include the design or results of clinical trials, the likelihood of approval by the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside the United States,
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the potential market for the subject product candidate, the costs and complexities of manufacturing and delivering such product candidate to patients, the potential of competing products, the existence of uncertainty with respect to our ownership of technology, which can exist if there is a challenge to such ownership without regard to the merits of the challenge and industry and market conditions generally. The collaborator may also consider alternative product candidates for similar indications that may be available to collaborate on and whether such a collaboration could be more attractive than the one with us for our product candidate.
Collaborations are complex and time-consuming to negotiate and document. In addition, there have been a significant number of recent business combinations among large pharmaceutical companies that have resulted in a reduced number of potential future collaborators.
If we decide to collaborate with any other third parties in connection with any of our development programs or product candidates, we may not be able to negotiate collaborations on a timely basis, on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to do so, we may have to curtail the development program or the product candidate for which we are seeking to collaborate, reduce or delay its development program or one or more of our other development programs, delay its potential commercialization or reduce the scope of any sales or marketing activities, or increase our expenditures and undertake development or commercialization activities at our own expense. If we elect to increase our expenditures to fund development or commercialization activities on our own, we may need to obtain additional capital, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. If we do not have sufficient funds, we may not be able to further develop our product candidates or bring them to market and generate product revenue.
To the extent we enter into any other collaborations, we may depend on such collaborations for the development and commercialization of our product candidates. If those collaborations are not successful, we may not be able to capitalize on the market potential of our product candidates.
We may selectively seek additional third-party collaborators for the development and commercialization of our product candidates. Our current and any future collaborators for any collaboration arrangements include large and mid-size pharmaceutical companies, regional and national pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies. Pursuant to these arrangements and any potential future arrangements, we will have limited control over the amount and timing of resources that our collaborators dedicate to the development or commercialization of our product candidates. Our ability to generate revenue from these arrangements will depend on our collaborators’ abilities to successfully perform the functions assigned to them in these arrangements.
Collaborations involving our product candidates, including our collaboration with Incyte, pose many risks to us, including that:
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Our internal computer systems, or those used by our Clinical Research Organizations or other contractors or consultants, may fail or suffer security breaches.
Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems, and those of our Clinical Research Organizations and other third parties on which we rely, are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses and unauthorized access, malware, natural disasters, fire, terrorism, war and telecommunication, electrical failures, cyber-attacks or cyber-intrusions over the Internet, attachments to emails, persons inside our organization, or persons with access to systems inside our organization. The risk of a security breach or disruption, particularly through cyber-attacks or cyber intrusion, including by computer hackers, foreign governments, and cyber terrorists, has generally increased as the number, intensity and sophistication of attempted attacks and intrusions from around the world have increased. While we have not experienced any such material system failure or security breach to our knowledge to date, if such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our development programs and our business operations. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed, ongoing or future clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. Likewise, we rely on third parties for the manufacture of our product candidates and to conduct clinical trials, and similar events relating to their computer systems could also have a material adverse effect on our business. To the extent that any disruption or security breach were to result in a loss of, or damage to, our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liability and the further development and commercialization of our future product candidates could be delayed.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
Recent laws and rulings by U.S. courts make it difficult to predict how patents will be issued or enforced in our industry.
Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States and other countries may have a significant impact on our ability to protect our technology and enforce our intellectual property rights. There have been numerous recent changes to the patent laws and to the rules of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or the USPTO, which may have a significant impact on our ability to protect our technology and enforce our intellectual property rights. For example, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, which was signed into law in 2011, includes a transition from a “first-to-invent” system to a “first-to-file” system, and changes the way issued patents are challenged. Certain changes, such as the institution of inter partes review proceedings, came into effect on September 16, 2012. Substantive changes to patent law associated with the America Invents Act may affect our ability to obtain patents, and, if obtained, to enforce or defend them in litigation or post-grant proceedings, all of which could harm our business.
Furthermore, the patent positions of companies engaged in the development and commercialization of biologics and pharmaceuticals are particularly uncertain. Two cases involving diagnostic method claims and “gene patents” have recently been decided by the Supreme Court. On March 20, 2012, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., or Prometheus, a case involving patent claims directed to measuring a metabolic product in a patient to optimize a drug dosage amount for the patient. According to the Supreme Court, the addition of well-understood, routine or conventional activity such as “administering” or “determining” steps was not enough to transform an otherwise patent ineligible natural phenomenon into patent eligible subject matter. On July 3, 2012, the USPTO issued guidance indicating that process claims directed to a law of nature, a natural phenomenon or an abstract idea that do not include additional elements or steps that integrate the natural principle into the claimed invention such that the natural principle is practically applied and the claim amounts to significantly more than the natural principle itself should be rejected as directed to non-statutory subject matter. On June 13, 2013, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., or Myriad, a case involving patent claims held by Myriad Genetics, Inc. relating to the breast cancer susceptibility genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. Myriad held that isolated segments of naturally occurring DNA, such as the DNA constituting the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, is not patent eligible subject matter, but that complementary DNA, which is an artificial construct that may be created from RNA transcripts of genes, may be patent eligible.
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We cannot assure you that our efforts to seek patent protection for our technology and products will not be negatively impacted by the decisions described above, rulings in other cases or changes in guidance or procedures issued by the USPTO. We cannot fully predict what impact the Supreme Court’s decisions in Prometheus and Myriad may have on the ability of life science companies to obtain or enforce patents relating to their products and technologies in the future.
Moreover, although the Supreme Court has held in Myriad that isolated segments of naturally occurring DNA are not patent-eligible subject matter, certain third parties could allege that activities that we may undertake infringe other gene-related patent claims, and we may deem it necessary to defend ourselves against these claims by asserting non-infringement and/or invalidity positions, or pay to obtain a license to these claims. In any of the foregoing or in other situations involving third-party intellectual property rights, if we are unsuccessful in defending against claims of patent infringement, we could be forced to pay damages or be subjected to an injunction that would prevent us from utilizing the patented subject matter. Such outcomes could harm our business.
If we are alleged to infringe intellectual property rights of third parties, our business could be harmed.
Our research, development and commercialization activities may be alleged to infringe patents, trademarks or other intellectual property rights owned by other parties. Certain of our competitors and other companies in the industry have substantial patent portfolios and may attempt to use patent litigation as a means to obtain a competitive advantage. We may be a target for such litigation. Even if our pending patent applications issue, they may relate to our competitors’ activities and may therefore not deter litigation against us. The risks of being involved in such litigation may also increase as we become more visible as a public company and move into new markets and applications for our product candidates. There may also be patents and patent applications that are relevant to our technologies or product candidates that are unknown to us. For example, certain relevant patent applications may have been filed but not published. If such patents exist, or if a patent issues on any of such patent applications, that patent could be asserted against us. Third parties could bring claims against us that would cause us to incur substantial expenses and, if the claims against us are successful, could cause us to pay substantial damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement. The defense of such a suit could also divert the attention of our management and technical personnel. Further, if an intellectual property infringement suit were brought against us, we could be forced to stop or delay research, development or sales of the product that is the subject of the suit.
As a result of infringement claims, or to avoid potential claims, we may choose or be compelled to seek intellectual property licenses from third parties. These licenses may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Even if we are able to obtain a license, the license would likely obligate us to pay license fees or royalties or both, and the rights granted to us likely would be nonexclusive, which would mean that our competitors also could obtain licenses to the same intellectual property. Ultimately, we could be prevented from commercializing a product candidate and/or technology or be forced to cease some aspect of our business operations if, as a result of actual or threatened infringement claims, we are unable to enter into licenses of the relevant intellectual property on acceptable terms. Further, if we attempt to modify a product candidate and/or technology or to develop alternative methods or products in response to infringement claims or to avoid potential claims, we could incur substantial costs, encounter delays in product introductions or interruptions in sales.
We may become involved in other lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or other intellectual property, which could be expensive and time-consuming, and an unfavorable outcome could harm our business.
In addition to the possibility of litigation relating to infringement claims asserted against us, we may become a party to other patent litigation and other proceedings, including inter partes review proceedings, post-grant review proceedings, derivation proceedings declared by the USPTO and similar proceedings in foreign countries, regarding intellectual property rights with respect to our current or future technologies or product candidates or products. The cost to us of any patent litigation or other proceeding, even if resolved in our favor, could be substantial. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their substantially greater financial resources. Patent litigation and other proceedings may also absorb significant management time. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could impair our ability to compete in the marketplace.
Competitors may infringe or otherwise violate our intellectual property, including patents that may issue to or be licensed by us. As a result, we may be required to file claims in an effort to stop third-party infringement or unauthorized use. Any such claims could provoke these parties to assert counterclaims against us, including claims alleging that we infringe their patents or other intellectual property rights. This can be expensive, particularly for a company of our size, and time-consuming, and even if we are successful, any award of monetary damages or other remedy we may receive may not be commercially valuable. In addition, in an infringement proceeding, a court may decide that our asserted intellectual property is not valid or is unenforceable, or may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our intellectual property does not cover its technology. An adverse determination in any litigation or defense proceedings could put our intellectual property at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and could put our patent applications at risk of not issuing.
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If the breadth or strength of our patent or other intellectual property rights is compromised or threatened, it could allow third parties to commercialize our technology or products or result in our inability to commercialize our technology and products without infringing third-party intellectual property rights. Further, third parties may be dissuaded from collaborating with us.
Interference or derivation proceedings brought by the USPTO or its foreign counterparts may be necessary to determine the priority of inventions with respect to our patent applications, and we may also become involved in other proceedings, such as re-examination proceedings, before the USPTO or its foreign counterparts. Due to the substantial competition in the pharmaceutical space, the number of such proceedings may increase. This could delay the prosecution of our pending patent applications or impact the validity and enforceability of any future patents that we may obtain. In addition, any such litigation, submission or proceeding may be resolved adversely to us and, even if successful, may result in substantial costs and distraction to our management.
Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. Moreover, intellectual property law relating to the fields in which we operate is still evolving and, consequently, patent and other intellectual property positions in our industry are subject to change and are often uncertain. We may not prevail in any of these suits or other efforts to protect our technology, and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially valuable. During the course of this type of litigation, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, the market price for our common stock could be significantly harmed.
We may not be able to protect, or fully exploit, our intellectual property rights throughout the world, which could impair our competitive position.
Filing, prosecuting, defending and enforcing patents on all of our technologies, product candidates and products throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive. As a result, we seek to protect our proprietary position by filing patent applications in the United States and in select foreign jurisdictions and cannot guarantee that we will obtain the patent protection necessary to protect our competitive position in all major markets. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export infringing products to territories where we may obtain patent protection but where enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our current and future products in jurisdictions where we do not have any issued patents, and our patent claims or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from so competing.
Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or the marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. The legal systems of certain countries make it difficult or impossible to obtain patent protection for pharmaceutical products and services. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and could divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business.
Even if we do secure patents in foreign jurisdictions, the legal systems in certain of those countries might require us, as examples, to do business through an entity that is partially owned by a local investor, or to grant license rights to local partners in a manner not required by the jurisdictions in which we currently operate. Requirements such as the foregoing could limit our ability to fully exploit and in the future monetize our product candidates and patents, as well as placing potential additional difficulties on our enforcement efforts in those jurisdictions.
If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, our business and competitive position could be harmed.
In addition to seeking patents for some of our technologies and product candidates, we also rely on trade secrets, including unpatented know-how, technology and other proprietary information, to maintain our competitive position. We seek to protect these trade secrets, in part, by entering into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to them, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors and other third parties. We also enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants that obligate them to assign to us any inventions developed in the course of their work for us. However, we cannot guarantee that we have executed these agreements with each party that may have or have had access to our trade secrets or that the agreements we have executed will provide adequate protection. Despite these efforts, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information, including our trade secrets, and we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for such breaches. As a result, we may be forced to bring claims against third parties, or defend claims that they bring against us, to determine ownership of what we regard as our intellectual property. Monitoring unauthorized disclosure is difficult and we do not know whether the procedures we have followed to prevent such disclosure have been or will be adequate. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade
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secret is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts inside and outside the United States may be less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. If any of the technology or information that we protect as trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, we would have no right to prevent them from using that technology or information to compete with us. If any of our trade secrets were to be disclosed to, or independently developed by, a competitor, our competitive position would be harmed.
If our trademarks and trade names are not adequately protected, we may not be able to build name recognition in our markets of interest, and our business may be harmed.
Our trademarks or trade names may be challenged, infringed, circumvented, declared generic or determined to be infringing on other marks. As a means to enforce our trademark rights and prevent infringement, we may be required to file trademark claims against third parties or initiate trademark opposition proceedings. This can be expensive and time-consuming, particularly for a company of our size. In addition, in an infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a trademark of ours is not valid or is unenforceable, or may refuse to stop the other party from using the trademark at issue. We may not be able to protect our rights to these and other trademarks and trade names which we need to build name recognition by potential partners or customers in our markets of interest. We do not currently have any registered trademarks in the United States. Any trademark applications in the United States and in other foreign jurisdictions where we may file may not be allowed or may subsequently be opposed. In addition, other companies in the biopharmaceutical space may be using trademarks that are similar to ours and may in the future allege that our use of the trademark infringes or otherwise violates their trademarks. Over the long term, if we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks and trade names, then we may not be able to compete effectively and our business may be harmed.
Third parties may assert ownership or commercial rights to inventions we develop.
Third parties may in the future make claims challenging the inventorship or ownership of our intellectual property. We have written agreements with collaborators that provide for the ownership of intellectual property arising from our collaborations. In some instances, there may not be adequate written provisions to address clearly the resolution of intellectual property rights that may arise from a collaboration. If we cannot successfully negotiate sufficient ownership and commercial rights to the inventions that result from our collaborations, or if disputes otherwise arise with respect to the intellectual property developed in the course of a collaboration, we may be limited in our ability to capitalize on the market potential of these inventions.
In addition, we may face claims by third parties that our agreements with employees, contractors or consultants obligating them to assign intellectual property to us are ineffective or are in conflict with prior or competing contractual obligations of assignment, which could result in ownership disputes regarding intellectual property we have developed or will develop and interfere with our ability to capture the commercial value of such inventions. Litigation may be necessary to resolve an ownership dispute, and if we are not successful, we may be precluded from using certain intellectual property, or may lose our exclusive rights in that intellectual property. Either outcome could have an adverse impact on our business.
Risks Related to Regulatory Approval of Our Product Candidates and Other Legal Compliance Matters
Even if we complete the necessary preclinical studies and clinical trials, the marketing approval process is expensive, time-consuming and uncertain and may prevent us from obtaining approvals for the commercialization of some or all of our product candidates. If we or our collaborators are not able to obtain, or if there are delays in obtaining, required regulatory approvals, we will not be able to commercialize, or will be delayed in commercializing, our product candidates, and our ability to generate revenue will be impaired.
Our product candidates and the activities associated with their development and commercialization, including their design, testing, manufacture, safety, efficacy, recordkeeping, labeling, storage, approval, advertising, promotion, sale and distribution, are subject to comprehensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory agencies in the United States and by comparable authorities in other countries. Failure to obtain marketing approval for a product candidate will prevent us from commercializing the product candidate. We have not received approval to market any of our product candidates from regulatory authorities in any jurisdiction. We have only limited experience in filing and supporting the applications necessary to gain marketing approvals and expect to rely on third-party contract research organizations to assist us in this process. Securing regulatory approval requires the submission of extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to the various regulatory authorities for each therapeutic indication to establish the product candidate’s safety and efficacy. Securing regulatory approval also requires the submission of information about the product manufacturing process to, and inspection of manufacturing facilities by, the relevant regulatory authority. Our product candidates may not be effective, may be only moderately effective or may prove to have undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities or other characteristics that may preclude our obtaining marketing approval or prevent or limit commercial use.
The process of obtaining marketing approvals, both in the United States and elsewhere, is expensive, may take many years and can vary substantially based upon a variety of factors, including the type, complexity and novelty of the product candidates involved.
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We cannot assure you that we will ever obtain any marketing approvals in any jurisdiction. Changes in marketing approval policies during the development period, changes in or the enactment of additional statutes or regulations or changes in regulatory review for each submitted product application may cause delays in the approval or rejection of an application. The FDA and comparable authorities in other countries have substantial discretion in the approval process and may refuse to accept any application or may decide that our data is insufficient for approval and require additional preclinical or other studies, and clinical trials. In addition, varying interpretations of the data obtained from preclinical testing and clinical trials could delay, limit or prevent marketing approval of a product candidate. Additionally, any marketing approval we ultimately obtain may be limited or subject to restrictions or post-approval commitments that render the approved product not commercially viable.
Any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval could be subject to marketing restrictions or withdrawal from the market, and we may be subject to penalties if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or if we experience unanticipated problems with our products.
Any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval, along with the manufacturing processes, post-approval clinical data, labeling, advertising and promotional activities for such product, will be subject to continual requirements of and review by the FDA and other regulatory authorities. These requirements include submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, registration and listing requirements, cGMP requirements, quality assurance and corresponding maintenance of records and documents and requirements regarding the distribution of samples to health care professionals and recordkeeping. Even if marketing approval of a product candidate is granted, the approval may be subject to limitations on the indicated uses for which the product may be marketed or to the conditions of approval, or contain requirements for costly post-marketing testing and surveillance to monitor the safety or efficacy of the medicine. The FDA closely regulates the post approval marketing and promotion of drugs to ensure that they are marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling. The FDA imposes stringent restrictions on manufacturers’ communications regarding off-label use and if we do not market our products for their approved indications, we may be subject to enforcement action for off-label marketing. Physicians, on the other hand, may prescribe products for off-label uses. Although the FDA and other regulatory agencies do not regulate a physician’s choice of drug treatment made in the physician’s independent medical judgment, they do restrict promotional communications from companies or their sales force with respect to off-label uses of products for which marketing clearance has not been issued. Companies may only share truthful and not misleading information that is otherwise consistent with a product’s FDA approved labeling.
In addition, later discovery of previously unknown problems with our products, manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in, among other things:
Our relationships with healthcare providers, customers and third-party payors will be subject to applicable anti-kickback, fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations, which could expose us to criminal sanctions, civil penalties, contractual damages, reputational harm and diminished profits and future earnings.
Healthcare providers, customers and third-party payors play a primary role in the recommendation and prescription of any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. Our current and future arrangements with healthcare providers, customers and third-party payors may expose us to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations that may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we research, as well as market, sell and distribute our
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medicines for which we obtain marketing approval. Restrictions under applicable federal and state healthcare laws and regulations include the following:
Efforts to ensure that our business arrangements with third parties will comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations will involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices may not comply with current or future statutes, regulations or case law involving applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these laws or any other governmental regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, possible exclusion from government funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, disgorgement, imprisonment, integrity oversight and reporting obligations to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. If any of the health care professionals or other providers or entities with whom we expect to do business are found to be not in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to significant criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from government funded healthcare programs.
Recently enacted and future legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain marketing approval of and commercialize our product candidates and affect the prices we may obtain.
In the United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could prevent or delay marketing approval of our product candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to profitably sell any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval.
Additionally, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, or collectively the PPACA, enacted in 2010, made a number of substantial changes in the way healthcare is financed by both
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governmental and private insurers. There have been executive, judicial, and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the PPACA. While Congress has not passed comprehensive repeal legislation, several bills affecting the implementation of certain taxes under PPACA have been signed into law. The Tax Act included a provision which repealed, effective January 1, 2019, the tax-based shared responsibility payment imposed by 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”. 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. Further, 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, which began on February 15, 2021 and remained open through August 15, 2021. 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. We continue to evaluate the potential impact of PPACA and its possible repeal or replacement on our business.
Policy changes, including potential modification or repeal of all or parts of the PPACA or the implementation of new health care legislation could result in significant changes to the health care system, which may prevent us from being able to generate revenue, attain profitability or commercialize our drugs. We expect that additional state and federal healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that federal and state governments will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in reduced demand or lower pricing for our product candidates, or additional pricing pressures.
Further, there has been heightened governmental scrutiny of pharmaceutical pricing practices in light of the rising cost of prescription drugs and biologics. Such scrutiny has resulted in several recent congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to product pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drug products. 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 seek to implement several of the administration’s proposals. As a result, the FDA released a final rule on September 24, 2020, effective November 30, 2020, providing guidance for states to build and submit importation plans for drugs from Canada. Further, on November 20, 2020, HHS finalized a regulation removing safe harbor protection for price reductions from pharmaceutical manufacturers to plan sponsors under Medicare 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, CMS issued an interim final rule implementing the Trump administration’s Most Favored Nation, or MFN, 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 MFN model, on August 10, 2021, CMS published a proposed rule that seeks to rescind the MFN 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 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. In addition, Congress is considering drug pricing as part of the budget reconciliation process.
In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the PPACA was enacted. On August 2, 2011, the Budget Control Act of 2011 was signed into law, which includes reductions to Medicare payments to providers of 2% per fiscal year, which went into effect on April 1, 2013 and, due to subsequent legislative amendments to the statute will remain in effect through 2030 unless additional Congressional action is taken. However, COVID-19 relief legislation suspended the 2% Medicare sequester from May 1, 2020 through December 31, 2021. It is possible that additional governmental action will be taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect that healthcare reform measures may be adopted in the future, particularly in light of the new presidential administration, which could have a material adverse effect on our industry generally and on our ability to maintain or increase sales of any of our product candidates that we successfully commercialize.
Legislative and regulatory proposals have been made to expand post-approval requirements and restrict sales and promotional activities for pharmaceutical products. We cannot be sure whether additional legislative changes will be enacted, or whether the FDA regulations, guidance or interpretations will be changed, or what the impact of such changes on the marketing approvals of our product
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candidates, if any, may be. In addition, increased scrutiny by the U.S. Congress of the FDA’s approval process may significantly delay or prevent marketing approval, as well as subject us to more stringent product labeling and post-marketing testing and other requirements.
Risks Related to Employee Matters and Managing Growth
Our future success depends on our ability to retain our senior management team and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel.
We are highly dependent upon our senior management team, as well as the other principal members of our research and development teams. All of our executive officers are employed “at will,” meaning we or they may terminate the employment relationship at any time. We do not maintain “key person” insurance for any of our executives or other employees. The loss of the services of any of these persons could impede the achievement of our research, development and commercialization objectives.
Recruiting and retaining qualified scientific, clinical, manufacturing and sales and marketing personnel will also be critical to our success. We may not be able to attract and retain these personnel on acceptable terms given the competition among numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for similar personnel. We also experience competition for the hiring of scientific and clinical personnel from universities and research institutions. In addition, we rely on consultants and advisors, including scientific and clinical advisors, to assist us in formulating our research and development and commercialization strategy. Our consultants and advisors may be employed by employers other than us and may have commitments under consulting or advisory contracts with other entities that may limit their availability to us.
We may need to expand our operations, and may encounter difficulties in managing our growth, which could disrupt our business.
In the future, we may need to expand the scope of our operations, particularly in the areas of drug development, regulatory affairs and sales and marketing. To manage our future growth, we may need to implement and improve our managerial, operational and financial systems, expand our facilities and continue to recruit and train additional qualified personnel. We may not be able to effectively manage an expansion of our operations or recruit and train additional qualified personnel. Moreover, an expansion of our operations may lead to significant costs and may divert our management and business development resources. For example, our facilities expenses may increase, or decrease, which will vary depending on the time and terms of any facility lease or sublease we may enter into from time to time. Any inability to manage growth could delay the execution of our business plans or disrupt our operations.
We may engage in acquisitions that could disrupt our business, cause dilution to our stockholders or reduce our financial resources.
In the future, we may enter into transactions to acquire other businesses, products or technologies. Because we have not made any acquisitions to date, our ability to do so successfully is unproven. If we do identify suitable candidates, we may not be able to make such acquisitions on favorable terms, or at all. Any acquisitions we make may fail to strengthen our competitive position, and these transactions may be viewed negatively by customers or investors. We may decide to incur debt in connection with an acquisition or issue our common stock or other equity securities to the stockholders of the acquired company, which would reduce the percentage ownership of our existing stockholders. We could incur losses resulting from undiscovered liabilities of the acquired business that are not covered by the indemnification we may obtain from the seller. In addition, we may not be able to successfully integrate the acquired personnel, technologies and operations into our existing business in an effective, timely and non-disruptive manner. Acquisitions may also divert management attention from day-to-day responsibilities, increase our expenses and reduce our cash available for operations and other uses. We cannot predict the number, timing or size of future acquisitions or the effect that any such transactions might have on our operating results.
International expansion of our business exposes us to business, regulatory, political, operational, financial and economic risks associated with doing business in various jurisdictions globally.
Our business strategy incorporates international expansion, including establishing and maintaining relationships with service providers, distributors and manufacturers globally. Doing business internationally involves a number of risks, including:
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The UK’s withdrawal from the EU, commonly referred to as Brexit, may have a negative effect on global economic conditions, financial markets and our business.
Following the result of a referendum in 2016, the United Kingdom left the European Union on January 31, 2020, commonly referred to as Brexit. Pursuant to the formal withdrawal arrangements agreed between the United Kingdom and the European Union, the United Kingdom was subject to the Transition Period through December 31, 2020 during which European Union rules continued to apply. Negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union are expected to continue in relation to the customs and trading relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union following the expiry of the Transition Period.
The lack of clarity over which EU laws and regulations will continue to be implemented in the United Kingdom after the Transition Period (including financial laws and regulations, tax and free trade agreements, intellectual property rights, data protection laws, supply chain logistics, environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, immigration laws and employment laws) may negatively impact foreign direct investment in the United Kingdom, increase costs, depress economic activity and restrict access to capital. The uncertainty concerning the United Kingdom’s legal, political and economic relationship with the European Union after the Transition Period may be a source of instability in the international markets, create significant currency fluctuations, and/or otherwise adversely affect trading agreements or similar cross-border co-operation arrangements (whether economic, tax, fiscal, legal, regulatory or otherwise).
These developments, or the perception that any of them could occur, have had, and may continue to have, a significant adverse effect on global economic conditions and the stability of global financial markets, and could significantly reduce global market liquidity and limit the ability of key market participants to operate in certain financial markets. In particular, it could also lead to a period of considerable uncertainty in relation to the United Kingdom’s financial and banking markets, as well as on the regulatory process in Europe. Asset valuations, currency exchange rates and credit ratings may also be subject to increased market volatility.
If the United Kingdom and the European Union are unable to negotiate acceptable withdrawal terms or if other EU Member States pursue withdrawal, barrier-free access between the United Kingdom and other EU Member States or among the European Economic Area, or EEA, overall could be diminished or eliminated. The long-term effects of Brexit will depend on any agreements (or lack thereof) between the United Kingdom and the European Union and, in particular, any arrangements for the United Kingdom to retain access to EU markets after the Transition Period.
Such a withdrawal from the European Union is unprecedented, and it is unclear how the United Kingdom’s access to the European single market for goods, capital, services and labor within the European Union, or single market, and the wider commercial, legal and regulatory environment, will impact us.
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Risks Related to Our Securities
The price of our common stock currently does not meet the requirements for continued listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. If we fail to maintain or regain compliance with the minimum listing requirements, our common stock will be subject to delisting. Our ability to publicly or privately sell equity securities and the liquidity of our common stock could be adversely affected if our common stock is delisted.
The continued listing standards of the Nasdaq Global Select Market, or Nasdaq, require, among other things, that the minimum price of a listed company’s stock be at or above $1.00. If the minimum bid price is below $1.00 for a period of more than 30 consecutive trading days, the listed company will fail to be in compliance with Nasdaq’s listing rules and, if it does not regain compliance within the grace period, will be subject to delisting. The bid price of our common stock has recently closed below the minimum $1.00 per share requirement and on December 30, 2021 we received a notification of noncompliance from Nasdaq. In accordance with Nasdaq’s listing rules, we will be afforded 180 calendar days to regain compliance with the bid price requirement. In order to regain compliance, the bid price of our common stock must close at a price of at least $1.00 per share for a minimum of 10 consecutive trading days.
In such circumstance, if we fail to regain compliance, our common stock will be subject to delisting. Delisting from Nasdaq could adversely affect our ability to raise additional financing through the public or private sale of equity securities, would significantly affect the ability of investors to trade our securities and would negatively affect the value and liquidity of our common stock. Delisting could also have other negative results, including the potential loss of confidence by employees, the loss of institutional investor interest and fewer business development opportunities.
Unless our common stock continues to be listed on a national securities exchange it will become subject to the so-called “penny stock” rules that impose restrictive sales practice requirements.
If we are unable to maintain the listing of our common stock on Nasdaq or another national securities exchange, our common stock could become subject to the so-called “penny stock” rules if the shares have a market value of less than $5.00 per share. The SEC has adopted regulations that define a penny stock to include any stock that has a market price of less than $5.00 per share, subject to certain exceptions, including an exception for stock traded on a national securities exchange. The SEC regulations impose restrictive sales practice requirements on broker-dealers who sell penny stocks to persons other than established customers and accredited investors. An accredited investor generally is a person whose individual annual income exceeded $200,000, or whose joint annual income with a spouse exceeded $300,000 during the past two years and who expects their annual income to exceed the applicable level during the current year, or a person with net worth in excess of $1.0 million, not including the value of the investor’s principal residence and excluding mortgage debt secured by the investor’s principal residence up to the estimated fair market value of the home, except that any mortgage debt incurred by the investor within 60 days prior to the date of the transaction shall not be excluded from the determination of the investor’s net worth unless the mortgage debt was incurred to acquire the residence. For transactions covered by this rule, the broker-dealer must make a special suitability determination for the purchaser and must have received the purchaser’s written consent to the transaction prior to sale. This means that if we are unable maintain the listing of our common stock on a national securities exchange, the ability of stockholders to sell their common stock in the secondary market could be adversely affected. If a transaction involving a penny stock is not exempt from the SEC’s rule, a broker-dealer must deliver a disclosure schedule relating to the penny stock market to each investor prior to a transaction. The broker-dealer also must disclose the commissions payable to both the broker-dealer and its registered representative, current quotations for the penny stock, and, if the broker-dealer is the sole market-maker, the broker-dealer must disclose this fact and the broker-dealer’s presumed control over the market. Finally, monthly statements must be sent disclosing recent price information for the penny stock held in the customer’s account and information on the limited market in penny stocks.
The holders of our Series A preferred stock have liquidation and other rights that are senior to the rights of the holders of shares of our common stock.
In the event of a merger, acquisition, liquidation, dissolution, or winding up of Calithera whether voluntary or involuntary, the holders of our Series A preferred stock will be entitled to have set apart for them, or to be paid, out of our assets available for distribution to stockholders after provision for payment of all of our debts and liabilities in accordance with the Delaware General Corporation Law, before any distribution or payment is made with respect to any shares of junior securities, including shares of our common stock, an amount per share equal to the greater of (i) $35.00, being the issuance price per share of Series A preferred stock, and (ii) such amount as would have been payable on the number of shares of common stock into which the shares of Series A preferred stock could have been converted immediately prior to such event. If applicable, this preference would reduce the amount of our assets, if any, available to distribute to holders of our common stock.
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We may be required to issue a significant number of additional shares of common stock for no additional consideration to the holders of our Series A preferred stock pursuant to certain price-based anti-dilution provisions.
We may be required to issue a significant number of shares of common stock for no additional consideration to the holders of our Series A preferred stock, subject to certain beneficial ownership limitations described in the certificate of designations defining the rights of the holders of the Series A preferred stock. The terms of the Series A preferred stock provide that such shares will automatically convert into common stock on the earlier of: (i) the 18-month anniversary of the date of issuance, or the Mandatory Pricing Date, into 17,156,863 shares of common stock, subject to adjustment into additional shares of common stock if the volume weighted-average price of our common stock for the thirty trading days prior to the Mandatory Pricing Date is lower than $2.04 per share, and (ii) a qualified financing that results in net proceeds to us of at least $40.0 million, excluding any conversion of the Series A preferred stock, subject to adjustment into additional shares of common stock if the weighted-average price per paid by investors in such qualified financing is lower than $2.04 per share. The holders of Series A preferred stock also have the option, at any time prior to the Mandatory Pricing Date or such qualified financing to convert the Series A preferred stock into shares of common stock, subject to adjustment into additional shares of common stock if the volume weighted-average sales price of certain shares of common stock are sold from the issuance date of the Series A preferred stock through the date of the written election at an effective price less than $2.04 per share.
Stockholders will incur dilution of their percentage ownership interest in our common stock to the extent we issue additional shares of common stock to the holders of the Series A preferred stock. Any issuance or potential issuance of additional shares of common stock could adversely affect our stock price, make it more difficult for us to raise capital on favorable terms, or at all, and harm our business, results of operations and financial condition
We cannot take certain actions without the consent of the holders of Series A preferred stock.
Certain matters require the approval of the Series A preferred stock, voting as a separate class, including to:
The interests of Millennium, the sole holder of our Series A preferred stock and those of the holders of common stock may be inconsistent, which may result in our inability to obtain the consent of the holders of Series A preferred stock to matters that may be in the best interests of the common stockholders.
We may be required to make significant cash payments to the holders of Series A preferred stock if we do not receive requisite stockholder approval to allow the conversion of the Series A preferred stock to common stock, which may limit our working capital liquidity.
As part of our acquisition of the Takeda Programs, if we are unable to obtain stockholder approval in accordance with the rules of The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC for the conversion of all of the shares of Series A preferred stock to common stock, and as a result Millennium is unable to convert any portion of the Series A preferred stock to common stock, we will be obligated under our purchase agreement with Millennium to negotiate in good faith as to the timing and form of consideration to compensate Millennium for such inability to convert. We are unable to estimate the actual amount or form of consideration we will be required to make at this time but we may become obligated to make significant cash payments to Millennium after three years following the purchase agreement date, which could limit our working capital liquidity. In addition, we may not have sufficient funds available to meet our obligations to Millennium, which may result in Millennium pursuing remedies under the purchase agreement that could adversely affect our operations.
We have granted Millennium registration rights with respect to the shares of common stock into which our Series A preferred stock is convertible. If these additional shares are sold, or it is perceived that they will be sold, the market price of our common stock could decline.
Millennium has the right, subject to some conditions, to require us to file a registration statement covering the resale of the shares of common stock issuable upon conversion of the Series A preferred stock. If we were to register the resale of these shares, they could be freely sold in the public market without limitation. If these additional shares are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold, in the public market, the market price of our common stock could decline.
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The trading price of our common stock is likely to be volatile, and purchasers of our common stock could incur substantial losses.
Our stock price has fluctuated in the past and is likely to be volatile in the future. The stock market in general and the market for biotechnology companies in particular have experienced extreme volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. As a result of this volatility, investors may experience losses on their investment in our common stock. The market price for our common stock may be influenced by many factors, including:
In addition, in the past, stockholders have initiated class action lawsuits against companies following periods of volatility in the market prices of these companies’ stock. Such litigation, if instituted against us, could cause us to incur substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources.
Concentration of ownership of our capital stock may prevent new investors from influencing significant corporate decisions.
Our executive officers, directors and current beneficial owners of 5% or more of our common stock, in the aggregate, beneficially own a significant percentage of our outstanding common stock. These persons, acting together, will be able to significantly influence all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election and removal of directors and any merger or other significant corporate transactions. The interests of this group of stockholders may not coincide with the interests of other stockholders.
Takeda, through its affiliate Millennium, beneficially owns a significant percentage of our total outstanding capital stock, which is initially convertible into 17,156,863 shares of our common stock, subject to price-based anti-dilution adjustments that if triggered would result in the issuance of additional shares of common stock. In no event will Takeda be entitled to cast votes in excess of, as of any date, 19.99% of our outstanding common stock. Takeda may be able to significantly influence all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election and removal of directors and any merger or other significant corporate transactions. The interests of Takeda may not coincide with the interests of other stockholders.
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If securities or industry analysts do not publish research, or publish unfavorable research, about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business, our market and our competitors. We do not have any control over these analysts. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our shares or change their opinion of our shares, our share price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our share price or trading volume to decline.
We have and will incur costs and demands upon management as a result of complying with the laws and regulations affecting public companies in the United States, which may harm our operating results.
As a public company listed in the United States, we have and will continue to incur significant additional legal, accounting and other expenses. In addition, changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including regulations implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and the Nasdaq Global Select Market, may increase legal and financial compliance costs and make some activities more time-consuming. These laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, and as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. If, notwithstanding our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations and standards, we fail to comply, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us, and our business may be harmed.
Further, failure to comply with these laws, regulations and standards might also make it more difficult for us to obtain certain types of insurance, including director and officer liability insurance, and we might be forced to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. The impact of these events could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our Board of Directors, on committees of our Board of Directors or as members of senior management.
We do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common stock so any returns will be limited to changes in the value of our common stock.
We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our common stock. We currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, to fund the development and growth of our business. In addition, the terms of any existing or future credit facility may restrict our ability to pay dividends. Any return to stockholders will therefore be limited to the increase, if any, of our stock price.
If we are unable to maintain proper and effective internal controls over financial reporting, the accuracy and timeliness of our financial reporting and the market price of our common stock may be adversely affected.
Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and to protect from fraudulent, illegal or unauthorized transactions. If we cannot provide effective controls and reliable financial reports, our business and operating results could be harmed. We have in the past discovered, and may in the future discover, areas of our internal controls that need improvement. We are required, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to furnish a report by management on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. In the future, our independent registered public accounting firm may also need to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting.
If material weaknesses or control deficiencies occur in the future, we are unable to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner, we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion as to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, we may be unable to report our financial results accurately on a timely basis, which could cause our reported financial results to be materially misstated and result in the loss of investor confidence and cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
Provisions in our corporate charter documents and under Delaware law may prevent or frustrate attempts by our stockholders to change our management or hinder efforts to acquire a controlling interest in us, and the market price of our common stock may be lower as a result.
There are provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws that may make it difficult for a third party to acquire, or attempt to acquire, control of our company, even if a change in control was considered favorable by our stockholders.
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Our charter documents also contain other provisions that could have an anti-takeover effect, such as:
Moreover, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which prohibit a person who owns 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock from merging or combining with us for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person acquired in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock, unless the merger or combination is approved in a prescribed manner. Any provision in our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our common stock.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation designates the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and our amended and restated bylaws designate the federal district courts of the United States of America as the exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which will restrict our stockholders' ability to choose the judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty; any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our bylaws; or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine.
The provisions would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the U.S. federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Furthermore, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all such Securities Act actions. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. Our stockholders cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. To prevent having to litigate claims in multiple jurisdictions and the threat of inconsistent or contrary rulings by different courts, among other considerations, our amended and restated bylaws provide that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. While the Delaware courts have determined that such choice of forum provisions are facially valid, a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring a claim in a venue other than those designated in the exclusive forum provisions. In such instance, we would expect to vigorously assert the validity and enforceability of the exclusive forum provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. This may require significant additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions and there can be no assurance that the provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions.
These exclusive choice of forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, and other employees. If a court were to find such exclusive-forum provisions to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur further significant additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, all of which could harm our business.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.
None.
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Item 2. Properties.
Our headquarters are located at 343 Oyster Point Blvd., Suite 200, South San Francisco, California 94080 under a lease that expires in January 2024, with an option to extend another two years to January 2026. We believe that our existing facilities are adequate for our current needs.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings.
From time to time, we may become involved in legal proceedings relating to claims arising from the ordinary course of business. Our management believes that there are currently no claims or actions pending against us, the ultimate disposition of which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.
Not applicable.
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PART II
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.
Market Information
Our common stock commenced trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "CALA" on October 2, 2014.
Holders of Record
As of March 25, 2022, there were approximately 20 holders of record of our common stock.
Dividend Policy
We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock. We intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings, if any, to fund the development and expansion of our business and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination related to dividend policy will be made at the discretion of our Board of Directors.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
None.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
None.
Item 6. [Reserved].
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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes included in Part II, Item 8 of this report.
This discussion and analysis generally covers our financial condition and results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2021, including year-over-year comparisons versus the year ended December 31, 2020. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, filed with the SEC on March 16, 2021, and available free of charge on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov and at our investor relations website www.calithera.com, includes a discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2019 in Item 7 of Part II, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. Forward-looking statements are identified by words such as “believe,” “will,” “may,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “should,” “plan,” “expect,” “predict,” “could,” “potentially” or the negative of these terms or similar expressions. You should read these statements carefully because they discuss future expectations, contain projections of future results of operations or financial condition, or state other “forward-looking” information. These statements relate to our future plans, objectives, expectations, intentions and financial performance and the assumptions that underlie these statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to, those discussed in this report in Part I, Item 1A — “Risk Factors,” and elsewhere in this report. Forward-looking statements are based on our management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. These statements, like all statements in this report, speak only as of their date, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise these statements in light of future developments. We caution investors that our business and financial performance are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. While we believe that information provides a reasonable basis for these statements, that information may be limited or incomplete. Our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into or review of, all relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely on these statements.
Overview
We are a fully-integrated, clinical stage precision oncology biopharmaceutical company. Driven by a commitment to rigorous science and a passion for improving the lives of people impacted by cancer and other life-threatening diseases, we are advancing a pipeline of investigational, small molecule oncology compounds with a biomarker-driven approach. While we are primarily focused on oncology, we are opportunistically developing therapeutics outside of oncology where we can leverage our existing expertise in immune cell metabolism to treat diseases with unmet needs, as is the case in cystic fibrosis.
Targeted, Biomarker-Defined Small Molecules
Our core expertise is in oncology, discovering and developing novel small molecule enzyme inhibitors. We are well-versed and nimble in conducting biomarker-driven early and late stage clinical trials, and are leveraging this expertise by developing the mid-stage clinical assets we have recently added to our precision oncology pipeline. We acquired mivavotinib, a spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) inhibitor, and sapanisertib, a dual mTORC1/2 inhibitor, and wholly own development and commercial rights to these programs. Our expertise has allowed us to develop biomarker-driven strategies, and design potential paths for rapid approval for mivavotinib and sapanisertib in genetically-defined patient populations.
Mivavotinib is a SYK inhibitor that targets the constitutively activated B-cell receptor (BCR) pathway in DLBCL and other non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs) and has durable single agent responses in unselected relapsed/refractory DLBCL. Mivavotinib is differentiated from other SYK inhibitors, as demonstrated by higher clinical response rates than other SYK inhibitors evaluated in relapsed/refractory DLBCL patients in separate studies and this may be due to higher tissue penetration and duration of target engagement of mivavotinib as compared to others. The overall safety profile appears favorable and should allow for development as a single agent or in combination.
SYK is known to activate multiple cell-signaling pathways in activated B-cell like (ABC) DLBCL: NF-kB and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathways, compared to germinal center B-cell like (GCB) DLBCL, where it primarily activates the PI3K pathway. We conducted a retrospective analysis and found a substantially higher response rate in ABC (53%) compared to GCB (22%) DLBCL. In addition, recent preclinical studies have shown enhanced SYK activity, and sensitivity to SYK inhibition in DLBCL with
56
mutations in MyD88 and/or CD79, and this subset of ABC patients are known to have poorer outcomes to standard of care therapies. The compelling single agent ORR in ABC DLBCL, and potential for further enrichment of in a genetically-defined subset of ABC DLBCL with MyD88/CD79 mutations provide a well-defined, efficient development path.
Sapanisertib is a potent and selective, dual mTORC1/2 inhibitor that targets a key survival mechanism in KEAP1/NRF2-mutated tumor cells. Activating mutations in NRF2 or inactivating mutations in KEAP1 lead to constitutive activation of the oxidative stress pathway, enhancing tumor growth and survival. NRF2 activation has been shown to upregulate the mTOR pathway. Squamous non-small cell lung cancer (sqNSCLC) is 25-30% of all non-small cell lung cancer, and 15% of those patients have tumors with a NRF2-mutation. NRF2/KEAP1 mutations confer a poorer prognosis for NSCLC, and sapanisertib has the potential to benefit this underserved patient population. Sapanisertib has demonstrated promising single-agent clinical activity in patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) NRF2-mutated sqNSCLC and exhibits differential antitumor activity compared to rapalog inhibitors of TORC1 in NRF2-mutant sqNSCLC xenograft models. Sapanisertib has a well-characterized clinical safety profile and was well tolerated in R/R NSCLC patients. The responses seen in a recent phase 2 trial (27% [3/11]) were durable, with a median PFS of 8.9 months. In comparison, historic standard of care treatment with salvage chemotherapy has a median PFS of 3-4.5 months. These promising data and high unmet need led us to design a two-part phase 2 study of relapsed/refractory sqNSCLC patients with or without NRF2-mutations as detected by next generation sequencing (NGS).
Our near-term clinical development plans are to initiate phase 2 trials in the first half of 2022 for mivavotinib monotherapy in relapsed/refractory activated B-cell (ABC) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) with and without MyD88/CD79b mutations and for sapanisertib monotherapy in relapsed/refractory NRF2 (NFE2L2)-mutated squamous non-small cell lung cancer. By focusing on well-characterized genetic vulnerabilities with molecules that have already shown durable single agent activity, we will be able to generate phase 2 data with these efficient study designs. We plan to share data from these studies by the first quarter of 2023.
Synthetic Lethality Preclinical Pipeline
Calithera continues to leverage its discovery engine to build a preclinical pipeline of synthetic lethality targets with a focus on paralog genes. We will present data describing novel VPS4A inhibitors discovered by Calithera at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2022 Annual Meeting. The accepted poster will detail Calithera’s discovery of a novel series of VPS4A inhibitors that are currently advancing through lead optimization.
Additional Small Molecule Programs
Our product candidate, CB-280, which is solely owned by Calithera, is a novel oral inhibitor of arginase being developed for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, or CF. In 2020, we were awarded up to $2.4 million from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to support development of CB-280 and in 2021 we presented interim data from the Phase 1b trial at the North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference (NACFC). CB-280 was well tolerated, demonstrated linear pharmacokinetics (PK), and showed complete and continuous target inhibition in plasma at doses at or above 100mg. CB-280 also demonstrated robust pharmacodynamic (PD) effects, with rapid and significant dose-proportional increases in plasma arginine, the key driver of NO production. Enrollment and analysis of all four cohorts is now complete and evaluation of next steps is ongoing.
Partnered Programs
Arginase Inhibitor INCB001158
An additional arginase inhibitor, INCB001158, was discovered by Calithera and is being developed by Incyte Corporation, or Incyte, for oncology and hematology indications, and is currently being evaluated in Phase 1/2 trials in combination with other anti-cancer agents.
CD73 Inhibitor CB-708 (ATG037) for Oncology
A highly potent, selective, orally-bioavailable small molecule inhibitor of CD73, CB-708 (now ATG037) was discovered by Calithera. Preclinical data were presented at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting and the 2019 SITC meeting demonstrating that CB-708 has immune-mediated, single agent activity in syngeneic mouse tumor models. In May 2021, we entered into a license agreement with Antengene Investment Limited, or Antengene, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Antengene Corporation, where we granted Antengene an exclusive, worldwide license to develop and commercialize CB-708 (now ATG-037). In February 2022, Antengene announced the approval of a first-in-human study of ATG-037 in patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors.
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Critical Accounting Polices and Estimates
Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles, or U.S. GAAP. The preparation of these consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements, as well as the reported expenses incurred during the reporting periods. Our estimates are based on our historical experience and on various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. We believe that the accounting policies discussed below are critical to understanding our historical and future performance, as these policies relate to the more significant areas involving management’s judgments and estimates about matters that are uncertain and are likely to have a material impact on our financial condition and results of operations, as well as the specific manner in which we apply those principles.
Revenue Recognition
We recognize revenue under Accounting Standards Codification, or ASC No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), or ASC 606. Under ASC 606, an entity recognizes revenue when its customer obtains control of promised goods or services, in an amount that reflects the consideration that the entity expects to receive in exchange for those goods or services. To determine revenue recognition for arrangements that an entity determines are within the scope of ASC 606, the entity performs the following five steps: (i) identify the contract(s) with a customer; (ii) identify the performance obligations in the contract; (iii) determine the transaction price; (iv) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (v) recognize revenue when (or as) the entity satisfies a performance obligation. We only apply the five-step model to contracts when it is probable that we will collect the consideration we are entitled to in exchange for the goods or services we transfer to the customer. At contract inception, once the contract is determined to be within the scope of ASC 606, we assess the goods or services promised within each contract and determine those that are performance obligations, and assess whether each promised good or service is distinct. We then recognize as revenue the amount of the transaction price that is allocated to the respective performance obligation when (or as) the performance obligation is satisfied.
We have a collaboration and license agreement with Incyte, the Incyte Collaboration Agreement, and a license agreement with Antengene, the Antengene License Agreement, that are within the scope of ASC 606, under which we license certain rights to our product candidates. The terms of these arrangements include payment to the Company of non-refundable, upfront license fees, and potential development, regulatory and sales milestones, and sales royalties. Each of these payments results in collaboration or license revenue, except for revenues from royalties on net sales of licensed products, which would be classified as royalty revenues.
In determining the appropriate amount of revenue to be recognized as we fulfill our obligations under our agreement, we perform the following steps: (i) identification of the promised goods or services in the contract; (ii) determination of whether the promised goods or services are performance obligations including whether they are distinct in the context of the contract; (iii) measurement of the transaction price, including the constraint on variable consideration; (iv) allocation of the transaction price to the performance obligations; and (v) recognition of revenue when (or as) we satisfy each performance obligation. As part of the accounting for these arrangements, we must develop assumptions that require judgment to determine the stand-alone selling price for each performance obligation identified in the contract.
Licenses of Intellectual Property: If the license to our intellectual property is determined to be distinct from the other performance obligations identified in the arrangement, we recognize revenues from non-refundable, upfront fees allocated to the license when the license is transferred to the licensee and the licensee is able to use and benefit from the license. For licenses that are bundled with other promised goods or services, we utilize judgment to assess the nature of the combined performance obligation to determine whether the combined performance obligation is satisfied over time or at a point in time and, if over time, the appropriate method of measuring progress for purposes of recognizing revenue from non-refundable, upfront fees. We evaluate the measure of progress each reporting period and, if necessary, adjust the measure of performance and related revenue recognition.
Milestone Payments: At the inception of each arrangement that includes development, regulatory or commercial milestone payments, we evaluate whether the milestones are considered probable of being reached and estimate the amount to be included in the transaction price. If it is probable that a significant reversal of cumulative revenue would not occur, the associated milestone value is included in the transaction price. Milestone payments that are not within our control or the licensees’ control, such as regulatory approvals, are not considered probable of being achieved until those approvals are received or the underlying activity has been completed. The transaction price is then allocated to each performance obligation on a relative stand-alone selling price basis, for which we recognize revenue as or when the performance obligations under the contract are satisfied. At the end of each subsequent reporting period, we re-evaluate the probability of achievement of such development milestones and any related constraint, and if
58
necessary, adjust our estimate of the overall transaction price. Any such adjustments are recorded on a cumulative catch-up basis, which would affect collaboration revenue in the period of adjustment.
Royalties: For arrangements that include sales-based royalties, including milestone payments based on the level of sales, and the license is deemed to be the predominant item to which the royalties relate, we recognize revenue at the later of (i) when the related sales occur, or (ii) when the performance obligation to which some or all of the royalty has been allocated has been satisfied (or partially satisfied). To date, we have not recognized any royalty revenue resulting from any of our licensing arrangements.
Contract Balances
Upfront payments and fees are recorded as deferred revenue upon receipt or when due, and may require deferral of revenue recognition to a future period until we perform our obligations under these arrangements. Amounts payable to us are recorded as accounts receivable when our right to consideration is unconditional.
Upfront payments and fees from Incyte are recorded as deferred revenue upon receipt or when due, and may require deferral of revenue recognition to a future period until we perform our obligations under these arrangements. Amounts are recorded as accounts receivable when our right to consideration is unconditional. We do not assess whether a contract has a significant financing component if the expectation at contract inception is such that the period between payment by the licensees and the transfer of the promised goods or services to the licensees will be one year or less.
Accrued Research and Development Costs
We record accrued liabilities for estimated costs of our research and development activities conducted by third-party service providers, which include the conduct of preclinical and clinical studies, and contract manufacturing activities. We record the estimated costs of research and development activities based upon the estimated amount of services provided but not yet invoiced, and include these costs in accrued liabilities in the balance sheets and within research and development expense in the statements of operations. These costs are a significant component of our research and development expenses. We accrue for these costs based on factors such as estimates of the work completed and in accordance with agreements established with our third-party service providers under the service agreements.
We have not experienced any material differences between accrued costs and actual costs incurred. However, the status and timing of actual services performed, number of patients enrolled, and the rate of patient enrollments may vary from our estimates, resulting in adjustments to expense in future periods. Changes in these estimates that result in material changes to our accruals could materially affect our results of operations.
Financial Overview
Our Ability to Continue as a Going Concern
We had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $59.5 million as of December 31, 2021. In accordance with Accounting Standards Codification, or ASC, 205-40, Going Concern, we evaluated whether there are conditions and events, considered in the aggregate, that raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date that the consolidated financial statements are issued on March 31, 2022. This evaluation initially does not take into consideration the potential mitigating effect of our plans that have not been fully implemented as of the date the financial statements are issued. When substantial doubt exists under this methodology, we evaluate whether the mitigating effect of our plans sufficiently alleviate substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. The mitigating effect of our plans, however, is only considered if both (1) it is probable that the plans will be effectively implemented within one year after the date that the financial statements are issued, and (2) it is probable that the plans, when implemented, will mitigate the relevant conditions or events that raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date that the financial statements are issued. In performing this analysis, we excluded certain elements of our operating plan that cannot be considered probable. Under ASC 205-40, the future receipt of potential funding from future sales of shares of our capital stock, if received, including proceeds from our $10.0 million public offering which priced on March 29, 2022 and is expected to close on April 1, 2022, cannot be considered probable at this time because none of the plans are entirely within our control and, with the exception of our recent offering, have not been approved by our board of directors as of the date of the financial statements. Therefore, our expectation to generate operating losses and negative operating cash flows in the future and our need for additional funding to support our planned operations raise substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of one year after the date that these financial statements are issued.
The accompanying financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis, which contemplates the realization of assets and satisfaction of liabilities in the ordinary course of business. The financial statements do not include any adjustments relating
59
to the recoverability and classification of recorded asset amounts or the amounts and classification of liabilities that might result from the outcome of the uncertainties described above.
License Revenue
License revenue in the year ended December 31, 2021 represents the milestone payment received in September 2021 from the Incyte Collaboration Agreement and the recognition of the upfront payment received in May 2021 from our Antengene License Agreement.
Research and Development Expenses
Research and development expenses represent costs incurred to conduct research, such as the discovery and development of our product candidates. We recognize all research and development costs as they are incurred. Costs associated with co-development activities performed under our collaboration agreements and award are included in research and development expenses, with any reimbursement of costs reflected as a reduction of such expenses.
Research and development expenses consist primarily of the following:
The largest component of our total operating expenses has historically been our investment in research and development activities including the clinical development of our product candidates. We allocate to research and development expenses the salaries, benefits, stock-based compensation expense, and indirect costs of our clinical and preclinical programs on a program-specific basis, and we include these costs in the program-specific expenses.
The following table shows our research and development expenses for 2021 and 2020:
|
Year Ended December 31, |
|
|||||
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
||
|
(in thousands) |
|
|||||
Development candidate: |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Sapanisertib (CB-228) |
$ |
1,553 |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
Mivavotinib (CB-659) |
|
1,151 |
|
|
|
— |
|
Telaglenastat (CB-839) |
|
35,234 |
|
|
|
53,776 |
|
CB-280 |
|
6,755 |
|
|
|
5,998 |
|
INCB001158 |
|
— |
|
|
|
4,133 |
|
Research and development related |
|
50,875 |
|
|
|
— |
|
Total development |
|
95,568 |
|
|
|
63,907 |
|
Preclinical and research: |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Preclinical and research |
|
8,762 |
|
|
|
7,108 |
|
Total |
$ |
104,330 |
|
|
$ |
71,015 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Excluding the in-process research and development charge associated with our acquisition of sapanisertib and mivavotinib, we expect our research and development expenses will increase during the next few years as we advance our product candidates into and
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through clinical trials, and pursue regulatory approval of our product candidates. The process of conducting clinical trials necessary to obtain regulatory approval is costly and time consuming. We may never succeed in achieving marketing approval for our product candidates. The probability of success of our product candidates may be affected by numerous factors, including clinical data, competition, manufacturing capability and commercial viability. As a result, we are unable to determine the duration and completion costs of our research and development projects or when and to what extent we will generate revenue from the commercialization and sale of any of our product candidates.
General and Administrative Expenses
General and administrative expenses consist of personnel costs, allocated expenses and other expenses for outside professional services, including legal, audit and accounting services, insurance, investor relations and other expenses associated with being a public company. Personnel costs consist of salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation. Allocated expenses consist of facilities and other allocated expenses, which include direct and allocated expenses for rent and maintenance of facilities, depreciation expense and other supplies. We have incurred and expect to continue to incur additional expenses as a result of operating as a public company, including costs to comply with the rules and regulations applicable to companies listed on a national securities exchange, costs related to compliance and reporting obligations pursuant to the rules and regulations of the SEC and other governing bodies and, potentially, the costs related to increases in our administrative functions to support the growth of our business as we advance our product candidates.
Results of Operations
Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2021 and 2020
|
|
Years Ended |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
December 31, |
|
|
Change |
|||||||||
|
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
|
$ |
|
|
% |
|||
|
|
(in thousands, except percentages) |
||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Revenue: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
License revenue |
|
$ |
9,750 |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
9,750 |
|
|
NM |
Total revenue |
|
|
9,750 |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
9,750 |
|
|
NM |
Operating expenses: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Research and development |
|
|
53,455 |
|
|
|
71,015 |
|
|
|
(17,560 |
) |
|
-25% |
Research and development related |
|
|
50,875 |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
50,875 |
|
|
NM |
General and administrative |
|
|
20,853 |
|
|
|
20,372 |
|
|
|
481 |
|
|
2% |
Total operating expenses |
|
|
125,183 |
|
|
|
91,387 |
|
|
|
33,796 |
|
|
37% |
Loss from operations |
|
|
(115,433 |
) |
|
|
(91,387 |
) |
|
|
(24,046 |
) |
|
26% |
Interest and other income, net |
|
|
345 |
|
|
|
1,250 |
|
|
|
(905 |
) |
|
-72% |
Net loss |
|
$ |
(115,088 |
) |
|
$ |
(90,137 |
) |
|
$ |
(24,951 |
) |
|
28% |
NM: Not Meaningful
License Revenue. License revenue increased from $0 for 2020 to $9.8 million for 2021, and is comprised of the $6.75 million milestone payment received in September 2021 under our Incyte Collaboration Agreement and the recognition of the $3.0 million upfront payment received in May 2021 from our Antengene License Agreement.
Research and Development. Research and development expenses decreased $17.6 million, or 25%, from $71.0 million for 2020 to $53.4 million for 2021. The decrease was due to an $18.5 million decrease in the telaglenastat program and a $4.1 million decrease in the INCB001158 program, partially offset by a $1.5 million increase due to the sapanisertib program, a $1.1 million increase due to the mivavotinib program, a $1.6 million increase in our early stage research and a $0.8 million increase in the CB-280 program.
Research and Development Related to Asset Acquisition. The increase of $50.9 million in research and development related to our asset acquisition of sapanisertib and mivavotinib in the fourth quarter of 2021, and comprised of an upfront payment of $10.0 million in cash and $40.9 million attributed to the value of the Series A convertible preferred stock on the date issued, estimated using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model.
General and Administrative. General and administrative expenses increased $0.5 million, or 2%, from $20.4 million for 2020 to $20.9 million for 2021. The increase was due to a $1.0 million increase in personnel-related costs, primarily from increases in
61
stock-based compensation expense, and a $0.7 million increase in professional services, primarily in legal expenses related to our Settlement Agreement and Release with Incyte and our Asset Purchase Agreement with Takeda, and higher directors and officers liability insurance, partially offset by a $1.2 million decrease in rent expense related to the amendment of our facility lease in March 2021.
Interest and Other Income, net. Interest and other income, net decreased $0.9 million, from $1.2 million for 2020 to $0.3 million for 2021. The decrease of $0.9 million was primarily due to lower interest income generated from lower returns and lower balances on our investments, partially offset by a $0.4 million gain related to the remeasurement of our lease liability.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
As of December 31, 2021, we had cash and cash equivalents totaling $59.5 million. Our operations have been financed by net proceeds from the sale of shares of our capital stock and payments from our collaboration and licensing agreements.
March 2022 Public Offering
On March 29, 2022, we priced an underwritten public offering of 18,518,519 shares of our common stock at a price to the public of $0.54 per share. Each share of common stock is accompanied by a warrant to purchase one share of common stock at an exercise price of $0.54 per share, which is immediately exercisable and will expire 18 months from the date of issuance, or a short-term warrant, and a warrant to purchase one share of common stock at an exercise price of $0.54 per share, which is immediately exercisable and will expire 5 years from the date of issuance, or a long-term warrant. The gross proceeds to us from the offering are expected to be approximately $10.0 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses. The offering is expected to close on April 1, 2022, subject to customary closing conditions.
Millennium Asset Purchase Agreement
On October 18, 2021, we entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement, or APA, with Millennium. In accordance with the APA, we entered into a Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement pursuant to which we agreed to issue to Millennium 1,000,000 shares of our Series A convertible preferred stock, or the Series A preferred stock. The Series A preferred stock is initially convertible at the option of the holder into approximately 17.2 shares of common stock, based on our $2.04 per share closing stock price from October 15, 2021. The conversion rate of the Series A preferred stock is subject to anti-dilution adjustments that if triggered would result in the issuance of additional shares of common stock upon conversion. We intend to seek stockholder approval at our next regular stockholder meeting for the issuance of the shares of common stock above 20% in accordance with the rules of The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, including additional shares that may become issuable as a result of any price-based anti-dilution adjustments. The Series A preferred stock has the preferences, rights and limitations set forth in the Certificate of Designations, as filed with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware. If we are unable to obtain stockholder approval in accordance with the rules of The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC for the conversion of all of the shares of Series A preferred stock to common stock, and as a result Millennium is unable to convert any portion of the Series A preferred stock to common stock, then we and Millennium will negotiate in good faith the timing and amount per share to be paid to compensate Millennium for such inability to convert. If we are able to obtain stockholder approval in accordance with the rules of The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC for the conversion of all of the shares of Series A preferred stock to common stock but Millennium is unable to convert as a result of the Accounting Cap (defined as 19.99% of the outstanding common stock of the Company on any date) any portion of the Series A preferred stock to common stock by the five year anniversary of the issue date, then on each yearly anniversary thereafter, any shares of Series A preferred stock that remain outstanding shall automatically be converted into common stock at the applicable conversion ratio, in each case subject to the Accounting Cap, until such point in time as all shares of Series A preferred stock have been converted.
Shelf Registration Statement
In August 2020, we filed a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, which permits the offering, issuance and sale by us of up to a maximum aggregate offering price of $250 million of our common stock. As of December 31, 2021, $238.6 million of our common stock remained available for sale, of which $63.6 million may be issued and sold pursuant to an "at-the-market" offering program, or ATM program, for sales of our common stock under a sales agreement with Jefferies LLC, subject to certain conditions as specified in the sales agreement. From January 1, 2022 through March 31, 2022, we sold an additional 1,233,875 shares of common stock under the ATM program, at an average price of $0.57 per share, for gross and net proceeds of $0.7 million, after deducting commissions and other offering expenses payable by us. As of March 31, 2022, we had $62.9 million of common stock remaining and available to be sold under the ATM program, subject to certain conditions as specified in the agreement. Our ability to sell securities under the shelf registration statement and the ATM program will be limited until we are no longer subject to the SEC's "baby shelf" limitations.
62
Our primary uses of cash are to fund operating expenses, primarily research and development expenditures. Cash used to fund operating expenses is impacted by the timing of when we pay these expenses, as reflected in the change in our outstanding accounts payable and accrued expenses.
Our expectation to generate operating losses and negative operating cash flows in the future and the need for additional funding to support our planned operations raise substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of one year after the date that these consolidated financial statements are issued on March 31, 2022. However, we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2021, together with proceeds from our $10.0 million public offering expected to close on April 1, 2022, will be sufficient for us to meet our current operating plan through the second quarter of 2023. However, our forecast of the period of time through which our financial resources will be adequate to support our operations is a forward-looking statement that involves risks and uncertainties, and actual results could vary materially based on a number of factors including the extent and magnitude of the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular the challenges associated with opening new and enrolling existing clinical studies. Based on current planning assumptions, we intend to announce data from our sapanisertib and mivavotinib Phase 2 studies by the first quarter of 2023. If data from these trials are not available until after the end of the second quarter of 2023, we will require additional capital to release these data. In addition, in order to complete the process of obtaining regulatory approval for our product candidates and to build the sales, marketing and distribution infrastructure that we believe will be necessary to commercialize our product candidates, if approved, we will require substantial additional funding.
We have based our projections of operating capital requirements on assumptions that may prove to be incorrect and we may use all of our available capital resources sooner than we expect. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with research, development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products, we are unable to estimate the exact amount of our operating capital requirements. Our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:
We plan to continue to fund our operations and capital funding needs through equity and/or debt financing. We may also consider further collaborations or selectively partnering for clinical development and commercialization. The sale of additional equity would result in additional dilution to our stockholders. The incurrence of debt financing would result in debt service obligations and the instruments governing such debt could provide for operating and financing covenants that would restrict our operations. If we are not able to secure adequate additional funding we may be forced to make reductions in spending, extend payment terms with suppliers, liquidate assets where possible, and/or suspend or curtail planned programs. The continued spread of COVID-19 and uncertain market conditions may limit our ability to access capital. Any of these actions could harm our business, results of operations and future prospects.
Contractual Obligations
We have entered into arrangements that contractually obligate us to make payments that will affect our liquidity and cash flows in future periods. Our contractual obligations primarily consist of our obligation under our non-cancellable operating lease. The aggregate amount of future operating lease payments over the term of our lease is $3.3 million as of December 31, 2021. For additional information on our lease and timing of future payments, see Note 5 on Operating Leases in Notes to Financial Statements of this annual report on Form 10‑K.
In the normal course of business, we enter into agreements with clinical research organizations for clinical trials and clinical manufacturing organizations for clinical supply manufacturing and with other vendors for preclinical research studies, investigator-led trials and other services and products for operating purposes. We have not considered these payments to be contractual obligations since the contracts are generally cancelable at any time by us upon less than 180 days’ prior written notice. We also have certain
63
in-license agreements that require us to pay milestones to such third parties upon achievement of certain development, regulatory or commercial milestones. Amounts related to contingent milestone payments are not considered contractual obligations as they are contingent on the successful achievement of certain development, regulatory approval and commercial milestones, which may not be achieved.
Cash Flows
The following table summarizes our cash flows for the periods indicated:
|
|
Year Ended December 31, |
|
|||||
|
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
||
|
|
(in thousands) |
|
|||||
Cash used in operating activities |
|
$ |
(66,300 |
) |
|
$ |
(84,312 |
) |
Cash provided by investing activities |
|
$ |
7,853 |
|
|
$ |
88,960 |
|
Cash provided by financing activities |
|
$ |
10,668 |
|
|
$ |
42,061 |
|
Cash used in operations was $66.3 million for 2021, compared to $84.3 million for 2020. The decrease of $18.0 million in cash used in operating activities was primarily associated with a decrease in research and development costs related to our telaglenastat and INCB001158 programs, partially offset by an increase of $10 million in cash paid as an upfront payment for our asset acquisition of sapanisertib and mivavotinib in October 2021.
Cash provided by investing activities was $7.9 million and $89.0 million in 2021 and 2020, respectively, and was related to proceeds from the sale and maturity of investments of $8.0 million and $146.1 million, respectively, partially offset by purchases of investments of $57.1 million in 2020. For each of 2021 and 2020, the Company also purchased $0.1 million in property and equipment.
Cash provided by financing activities was $10.7 million and $42.1 million in 2021 and 2020, respectively. For 2021, we received $10.7 million in net proceeds from the sale and issuance of common stock related to our at-the-market offering program and $0.2 million in proceeds from the issuance of common stock upon the exercise of stock options and employee stock purchase plan purchases, partially offset by preferred stock issuance costs of $0.2 million. For 2020, we received $33.5 million in net proceeds from the sale and issuance of common stock related to our public offering, $7.4 million in net proceeds from the issuance of common stock through our at-the-market offering program, and $1.2 million from the issuance of common stock upon the exercise of stock options and from employee stock plan purchases.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
Please refer to Note 2 to our audited consolidated financial statements appearing under Part II, Item 8 for a discussion of recent accounting pronouncements.
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.
Not required.
64
Item 8. Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.
CALITHERA BIOSCIENCES, INC.
INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
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Page |
Report of Ernst & Young LLP, Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID: |
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66 |
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68 |
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69 |
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70 |
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71 |
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72 |
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73 |
65
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of Calithera Biosciences, Inc.
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Calithera Biosciences, Inc. (the Company) as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive loss, stockholders' equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2021, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2021, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
The Company's Ability to Continue as a Going Concern
The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. As discussed in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company has suffered recurring losses, and has stated that substantial doubt exists about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Management’s evaluation of the events and conditions and management’s plans regarding these matters are also described in Note 1. The consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audits we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.
Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Critical Audit Matters
The critical audit matters communicated below are matters arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matters or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.
66
|
|
Accrued research and development expenses |
Description of the Matter |
|
As of December 31, 2021, the Company accrued $5.1 million of clinical and contract manufacturing expenses. As described in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company records accrued liabilities for estimated costs of research and development activities based upon the estimated amount of services provided but not yet invoiced. The Company accrues for these costs based on factors such as estimates of the work completed under service agreements established with its third-party service providers. Auditing management’s accounting for accrued research and development expenses was especially challenging because the analysis is dependent upon data exchanged between internal clinical personnel and third-party service providers. The determination of the accrual when the Company has either not been invoiced or has not received information regarding actual costs incurred requires evaluation of the status and timing of actual services performed, number of patients enrolled, and the rates charged for patient enrollments, which is tracked in spreadsheets and other end user computing programs. |
How We Addressed the Matter in Our Audit |
|
To test the Company’s accrued clinical and contract manufacturing expenses, our audit procedures included, among others, testing the completeness and accuracy of management’s calculations of activities performed for significant clinical trials. We investigated significant fluctuations or the absence of expected fluctuations in the accrual balances and agreed amounts underlying the accrual balances to supporting agreements, change orders, assessments of the level of effort incurred, estimated timelines, invoices and payment documentation. We met with clinical personnel outside of the accounting department to discuss the basis of significant accruals. Further, we tested a sample of actual invoices paid to third parties both before and after the balance sheet date to determine whether services performed had been properly recorded. |
|
|
Accounting for Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement |
Description of the Matter |
|
In connection with the Company’s Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement entered into in October 2021, the Company issued Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, 1,000,000 shares of the Company’s Series A convertible preferred stock. As described in Note 6 to the consolidated financial statements, each share of Series A convertible preferred stock is initially convertible at the option of the holder into approximately 17.2 shares of the Company’s common stock. The conversion rate of the Series A convertible preferred stock is subject to anti-dilution adjustments that if triggered would result in the issuance of additional shares of the Company’s common stock upon conversion. The Company presents the Series A convertible preferred stock as temporary equity in the December 31, 2021 consolidated balance sheet. Auditing management’s accounting for the Series A convertible preferred stock was especially challenging due to the high degree of auditor judgment involved in assessing the accounting for and estimation of the fair value of the Series A convertible preferred stock. Specifically, it was challenging to assess the interpretation and application of the accounting literature to the transaction and also required professionals with specialized skills and knowledge to assess the methodology and key inputs used by the Company to estimate the fair value of the Series A convertible preferred stock. |
How We Addressed the Matter in Our Audit |
|
Our testing of the company's accounting for and disclosures related to the Series A convertible preferred stock included, among others, reading the terms of the Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement, evaluating provisions related to the anti-dilution adjustments and contingent redemption feature, and evaluating the Company’s application of the technical accounting literature regarding classifying the Series A convertible preferred stock as temporary equity. In addition, we involved valuation professionals with specialized skills and knowledge, who assisted in performing an independent assessment of the valuation methodology applied and concluded fair value of the Series A convertible preferred stock recorded by the Company. |
/s/
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2014.
March 31, 2022
67
Calithera Biosciences, Inc.
Consolidated Balance Sheets
(in thousands, except per share amounts)
|
December 31, |
|
|||||
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
||
Assets |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Current assets: |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Cash and cash equivalents |
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
||
Short-term investments |
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
Receivables from collaborations |
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
Prepaid expenses and other current assets |
|
|
|
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|
||
Total current assets |
|
|
|
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|
||
Restricted cash |
|
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|
||
Property and equipment, net |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Operating lease right-of-use asset |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Total assets |
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
||
Liabilities, Convertible Preferred Stock and Stockholders’ Equity |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Current liabilities: |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Accounts payable |
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
||
Accrued and other liabilities |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Total current liabilities |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Noncurrent operating lease liability |
|
|
|
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|
||
Total liabilities |
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Convertible preferred stock; $ |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
Stockholders’ equity: |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Common stock, $ |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Additional paid-in capital |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Accumulated deficit |
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Accumulated other comprehensive income |
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
Total stockholders’ equity |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Total liabilities, convertible preferred stock and stockholders’ equity |
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
See accompanying notes.
68
Calithera Biosciences, Inc.
Consolidated Statements of Operations
(in thousands, except per share amounts)
|
Year Ended December 31, |
|
|||||||||
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
|||
Revenue: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
$ |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
||
Total revenue |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
Operating expenses: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Research and development |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Research and development related |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
General and administrative |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Total operating expenses |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Loss from operations |
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Interest and other income, net |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Net loss |
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
( |
) |
Net loss per share, basic and diluted |
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
( |
) |
Weighted average common shares used to compute |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
See accompanying notes.
69
Calithera Biosciences, Inc.
Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss
(in thousands)
|
Year Ended December 31, |
|
|||||||||
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
|||
Net loss |
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
( |
) |
Other comprehensive income (loss): |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Net unrealized gain (loss) on available-for-sale securities |
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
Total comprehensive loss |
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
( |
) |
See accompanying notes.
70
Calithera Biosciences, Inc.
Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity
(in thousands)
|
|
Convertible Preferred Stock |
|
|
|
Common Stock |
|
|
Additional Paid-In Capital |
|
|
Accumulated Deficit |
|
|
Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (Loss) |
|
|
Total Stockholders' Equity |
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
Shares |
|
|
Amount |
|
|
|
Shares |
|
|
Amount |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||
Balance at December 31, 2018 |
|
|
— |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
|
||||
Issuance of common stock in |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
||||
Issuance of common stock in |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
||||
Issuance of common stock pursuant |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|||
Stock-based compensation expense |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
||
Cumulative-effect adjustment from |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
Net loss |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
Unrealized gain on |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
Balance at December 31, 2019 |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
Issuance of common stock in |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
||||
Issuance of common stock in |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|||
Issuance of common stock pursuant |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|||
Stock-based compensation expense |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
||
Net loss |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
Unrealized loss on |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Balance at December 31, 2020 |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
Issuance of Series A convertible |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
||
Issuance of common stock in |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
||||
Issuance of common stock pursuant |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|||
Stock-based compensation expense |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
||
Net loss |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
Unrealized loss on |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Balance at December 31, 2021 |
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
See accompanying notes.
71
Calithera Biosciences, Inc.
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
(in thousands)
|
Year Ended December 31, |
|
|||||||||
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
|||
Cash Flows Used in Operating Activities |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Net loss |
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
( |
) |
Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Depreciation |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Accretion (amortization) of premiums and discounts on investments |
|
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
|
Stock-based compensation |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Gain on remeasurement of the lease liability |
|
( |
) |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
Non-cash lease expense |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Series A convertible preferred stock issued for research |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
Changes in operating assets and liabilities: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Receivables from collaborations |
|
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
||
Prepaid expenses and other current assets |
|
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
|
Other assets |
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
Accounts payable |
|
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
||
Accrued liabilities |
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
Lease liability |
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Net cash used in operating activities |
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Cash Flows Provided by (Used in) Investing Activities |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Purchases of investments |
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Proceeds from the sale and maturity of investments |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Purchase of property and equipment |
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
( |
) |
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Cash Flows Provided by Financing Activities |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Proceeds from issuance of common stock upon public offering, net |
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
Proceeds from issuance of common stock through at-the-market offerings, net |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Issuance costs related to the issuance of convertible preferred stock |
|
( |
) |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
Proceeds from stock option exercises and employee stock plan purchases |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Net cash provided by financing activities |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Net (decrease) increase in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash |
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash at beginning of period |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash at end of period |
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
See accompanying notes.
72
Calithera Biosciences, Inc.
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
1. Organization and Basis of Presentation
Organization
Calithera Biosciences, Inc., or the Company, was incorporated in the State of
Presentation
The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Calithera Biosciences UK Limited and Calithera Biosciences Ireland Limited. All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated from the consolidated financial statements.
The Company's Ability to Continue as a Going Concern
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of $
In accordance with Accounting Standards Codification, or ASC, 205-40, Going Concern, the Company evaluated whether there are conditions and events, considered in the aggregate, that raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date that these consolidated financial statements are issued on March 31, 2022. This evaluation initially does not take into consideration the potential mitigating effect of management’s plans that have not been fully implemented as of the date the financial statements are issued. When substantial doubt exists under this methodology, management evaluates whether the mitigating effect of its plans sufficiently alleviates substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. The mitigating effect of management’s plans, however, is only considered if both (1) it is probable that the plans will be effectively implemented within one year after the date that the financial statements are issued, and (2) it is probable that the plans, when implemented, will mitigate the relevant conditions or events that raise substantial doubt about the entity’s ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date that these consolidated financial statements are issued. In performing its analysis, management excluded certain elements of its operating plan that cannot be considered probable. Under ASC 205-40, the future receipt of potential funding from future equity or debt issuances, including proceeds from our $
The Company's expectation to generate operating losses and negative operating cash flows in the future and the need for additional funding to support its planned operations raise substantial doubt regarding the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of one year after the date that these consolidated financial statements are issued on March 31, 2022. Management's plans to alleviate the conditions that raise substantial doubt include the pursuit of additional cash resources through sales of shares of its capital stock, including proceeds from its $
73
The accompanying financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis, which contemplates the realization of assets and satisfaction of liabilities in the ordinary course of business. The financial statements do not include any adjustments relating to the recoverability and classification of recorded asset amounts or the amounts and classification of liabilities that might result from the outcome of the uncertainties described above.
2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Use of Estimates
The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities as of the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. On an ongoing basis, management evaluates its estimates, including those related to clinical trial accrued liabilities, revenue recognition, fair value of marketable securities, income taxes, and stock-based compensation. Management bases its estimates on historical experience and on various other market specific and relevant assumptions that management believes to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results could differ from those estimates.
Cash and Cash Equivalents
The Company considers all highly liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less at the date of purchase to be cash equivalents. Cash equivalents, which consist primarily of amounts invested in money market accounts, are stated at fair value.
Investments
All investments have been classified as “available-for-sale” and are carried at estimated fair value as determined based upon quoted market prices or pricing models for similar securities. Management determines the appropriate classification of its investments at the time of purchase and reevaluates such designation as of each balance sheet date. As of each balance sheet date, the Company classifies available-for-sale securities with remaining contractual maturities of
Receivables from Collaborations
Receivables from collaborations represent amounts due under the terms of the Company’s collaboration agreements and awards, primarily its collaboration agreement with Incyte Corporation, or Incyte, as described in Note 12, Collaboration and Licensing Agreements - Incyte Collaboration and License Agreement, for reimbursements of certain costs. Based on its evaluation of credit worthiness and historical payment patterns, the Company did
Restricted Cash
Restricted cash consists of money market funds held by the Company’s financial institution as collateral for the Company’s obligations under its facility lease for the Company’s corporate headquarters in South San Francisco, California.
Concentration of Credit Risk
Financial instruments that potentially subject the Company to a concentration of credit risk consist of cash, cash equivalents, investments and restricted cash. The Company invests in a variety of financial instruments and, by its policy, limits these financial instruments to high credit quality securities issued by the U.S. government, U.S. government-sponsored agencies and highly rated banks and corporations, subject to certain concentration limits. The Company’s cash, cash equivalents, investments and restricted cash are held by financial institutions in the United States that management believes are of high credit quality. Amounts on deposit may at times exceed federally insured limits.
Property and Equipment
Property and equipment are stated at cost, less accumulated depreciation. Depreciation is computed using the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the respective assets. Depreciation begins at the time the asset is placed in service.
74
Maintenance and repairs are charged to operations as incurred. Upon sale or retirement of assets, the cost and related accumulated depreciation is removed from the balance sheet and the resulting gain or loss is reflected in operations.
The useful lives of property and equipment are as follows:
Research and development equipment |
|
|
|
Furniture and office equipment |
|
|
|
Computer equipment |
|
|
|
Software |
|
|
|
Leasehold improvements |
|
|
Impairment of Long-Lived Assets
The Company evaluates its long-lived assets, including property and equipment, for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of these assets may not be recoverable. Recoverability of these assets is measured by comparison of the carrying amount of each asset to the future undiscounted cash flows the asset is expected to generate over its remaining life. If the asset is considered to be impaired, the amount of any impairment is measured as the difference between the carrying value and the fair value of the impaired asset. The Company has not recorded impairment of any long-lived assets during any of the periods presented.
Revenue Recognition
The Company records revenue in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification, or ASC No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), or ASC 606. Under ASC 606, an entity recognizes revenue when its customer obtains control of promised goods or services, in an amount that reflects the consideration that the entity expects to receive in exchange for those goods or services. To determine revenue recognition for arrangements that an entity determines are within the scope of ASC 606, the entity performs the following five steps: (i) identify the contract(s) with a customer; (ii) identify the performance obligations in the contract; (iii) determine the transaction price; (iv) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (v) recognize revenue when (or as) the entity satisfies a performance obligation. The Company only applies the five-step model to contracts when it is probable that the entity will collect the consideration it is entitled to in exchange for the goods or services it transfers to the customer. At contract inception, once the contract is determined to be within the scope of ASC 606, the Company assesses the goods or services promised within each contract and determines those that are performance obligations, and assesses whether each promised good or service is distinct. The Company then recognizes as revenue the amount of the transaction price that is allocated to the respective performance obligation when (or as) the performance obligation is satisfied.
The Company has a collaboration and license agreement with Incyte, the Incyte Collaboration Agreement, and a license agreement with Antengene, the Antengene License Agreement, that are within the scope of ASC 606, under which the Company licenses certain rights to its product candidates. The terms of these arrangements include payment to the Company of non-refundable, upfront license fees, and potential development, regulatory and sales milestones, and sales royalties. Each of these payments results in collaboration or license revenue, except for revenues from royalties on net sales of licensed products, which would be classified as royalty revenues.
In determining the appropriate amount of revenue to be recognized as it fulfills its obligations under its agreement, the Company performs the following steps: (i) identification of the promised goods or services in the contract; (ii) determination of whether the promised goods or services are performance obligations including whether they are distinct in the context of the contract; (iii) measurement of the transaction price, including the constraint on variable consideration; (iv) allocation of the transaction price to the performance obligations; and (v) recognition of revenue when (or as) the Company satisfies each performance obligation. As part of the accounting for these arrangements, the Company must develop assumptions that require judgment to determine the stand-alone selling price for each performance obligation identified in the contract.
Licenses of Intellectual Property: If the license to the Company’s intellectual property is determined to be distinct from the other performance obligations identified in the arrangement, the Company recognizes revenues from non-refundable, upfront fees allocated to the license when the license is transferred to the licensee and the licensee is able to use and benefit from the license. For licenses that are bundled with other promised goods or services, the Company utilizes judgment to assess the nature of the combined performance obligation to determine whether the combined performance obligation is satisfied over time or at a point in time and, if over time, the appropriate method of measuring progress for purposes of recognizing revenue from non-refundable, upfront fees. The Company evaluates the measure of progress each reporting period and, if necessary, adjusts the measure of performance and related revenue recognition.
75
Milestone Payments: At the inception of each arrangement that includes development, regulatory or commercial milestone payments, the Company evaluates whether the milestones are considered probable of being reached and estimates the amount to be included in the transaction price. If it is probable that a significant reversal of cumulative revenue would not occur, the associated milestone value is included in the transaction price. Milestone payments that are not within the control of the Company or the licensee, such as regulatory approvals, are not considered probable of being achieved until those approvals are received or the underlying activity has been completed. The transaction price is then allocated to each performance obligation on a relative stand-alone selling price basis, for which the Company recognizes revenue as or when the performance obligations under the contract are satisfied. At the end of each subsequent reporting period, the Company re-evaluates the probability of achievement of such development milestones and any related constraint, and if necessary, adjusts its estimate of the overall transaction price. Any such adjustments are recorded on a cumulative catch-up basis, which would affect collaboration revenue in the period of adjustment.
Royalties: For arrangements that include sales-based royalties, including milestone payments based on the level of sales, and the license is deemed to be the predominant item to which the royalties relate, the Company recognizes revenue at the later of (i) when the related sales occur, or (ii) when the performance obligation to which some or all of the royalty that has been allocated has been satisfied (or partially satisfied). To date, the Company has not recognized any royalty revenue resulting from any of its licensing arrangements.
Contract Balances
Upfront payments and fees are recorded as deferred revenue upon receipt or when due, and may require deferral of revenue recognition to a future period until the Company performs its obligations under these arrangements. Amounts payable to the Company are recorded as accounts receivable when the Company’s right to consideration is unconditional.
The Company does not assess whether a contract has a significant financing component if the expectation at contract inception is such that the period between payment by the licensees and the transfer of the promised goods or services to the licensees will be one year or less.
The Company had
Awards
The Company assesses at the inception of award agreements whether the agreement is a liability. If the Company is obligated to repay funds received regardless of the outcome of the related research and development activities, then the Company is required to estimate and recognize a liability for this obligation. Alternatively, if the Company is not required to repay the funds, then payments received are recorded as contra research and development expense in the consolidated statement of operations as expenses are incurred. If payment criteria has been met and allowable expenses have been incurred, but not received at the balance sheet date, the amount of the receivable is included in receivables from collaborations in the consolidated balance sheet.
Accrued Research and Development Costs
76
Research and Development Costs
Research and development costs are expensed as incurred and consist of salaries and benefits, stock-based compensation expense, laboratory supplies, manufacturing costs, and allocated facility costs, as well as fees paid to third parties that conduct certain research and development activities on the Company’s behalf. Costs associated with development activities performed under the collaboration agreements and awards are included in research and development expenses, with any reimbursement of costs reflected as a reduction of such expenses. Nonrefundable advance payments for goods or services to be rendered in the future for use in research and development activities are deferred and capitalized. The capitalized amounts are expensed as the related goods are delivered or the services are performed.
Leases
The Company accounts for its leases under ASC No. 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842), or ASC 842. Operating lease right-of-use, or ROU, assets and lease liabilities are recognized at commencement and are recorded for leases with durations greater than 12 months.
ROU assets represent the Company’s right to use an underlying asset during the lease term, and lease liabilities represent the Company’s obligation to make lease payments arising from the lease. The Company’s lease terms may include options to extend or terminate the lease when it is reasonably certain that it will exercise that option. Operating lease ROU assets and liabilities are recognized at commencement date based on the present value of lease payments over the lease term. The Company estimates an incremental borrowing rate based on the information available at commencement date, in determining the present value of lease payments. The operating lease ROU asset also includes lease incentives. Lease expense is recognized on a straight-line basis over the lease term. The Company elected to not separate lease components and non-lease components for its long-term facility lease. Variable lease payments include lease operating expenses.
Stock-Based Compensation
Income Taxes
The Company uses the liability method of accounting for income taxes. Under this method, deferred tax assets and liabilities are determined based on the differences between the financial reporting and the tax bases of assets and liabilities and are measured using the enacted tax rates and laws that will be in effect when the differences are expected to reverse. The Company must then assess the likelihood that the resulting deferred tax assets will be realized. A valuation allowance is provided when it is more likely than not that some portion or all of a deferred tax asset will not be realized. Since realization of the Company’s deferred tax assets is dependent upon the Company generating future taxable income, the timing and amount of which are uncertain, the net deferred tax assets have been fully offset by a valuation allowance.
The Company recognizes benefits of uncertain tax positions if it is more likely than not that such positions will be sustained upon examination based solely on their technical merits, as the largest amount of benefit that is more likely than not to be realized upon the ultimate settlement. The Company’s policy is to recognize interest and penalties related to the underpayment of income taxes as a component of income tax expense or benefit. To date, there have been
Net Loss per Share
Basic net loss per share is calculated by dividing the net loss by the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding during the period without consideration of common stock equivalents. Since the Company was in a loss position for all
77
periods presented, basic net loss per share is the same as diluted net loss per share for all periods as the inclusion of all potential common shares outstanding would have been anti-dilutive.
Acquisitions
The Company evaluates acquisitions of assets and other similar transactions to assess whether or not the transactions should be accounted for as a business combination or asset acquisition by first applying a screen test to determine if substantially all of the fair value of the gross assets acquired is concentrated in a single identifiable asset or group of similar identifiable assets. If the screen is met, the transaction is accounted for as an asset acquisition. If the screen test is not met, further determination is required as to whether or not the Company has acquired inputs and processes that have the ability to create outputs which would meet the requirements of a business in which case the transaction is accounted for using the acquisition method of accounting, which requires, among other things, that assets acquired and liabilities assumed be recognized at their estimated fair values as of the acquisition date, and that the fair value of acquired intangibles be recorded on the balance sheet. If the transaction is accounted for under the acquisition method of accounting, the Company expenses the transaction costs as incurred, and any excess of the purchase price over the assigned fair value of the net assets acquired is recorded as goodwill. In connection with acquisitions, contingent consideration can be earned by the sellers upon completion of certain future performance milestones. In these cases, a liability is recorded on the acquisition date, as a component of accrued liabilities and/or other long-term liabilities, for an estimate of the acquisition date fair value of the contingent consideration.
The Company accounts for an asset acquisition under ASC, Business Combinations Topic 805, which requires the acquiring entity in an asset acquisition to recognize net assets based on the cost to the acquiring entity on a relative fair value basis, which includes transaction costs in addition to consideration paid. Goodwill is not recognized in an asset acquisition, and excess consideration transferred over the fair value of the net assets acquired is allocated to the non-monetary identifiable assets based on relative fair values. Acquired in-process research and development expense, or IPR&D, is expensed on the acquisition date if there is no alternative future use. Contingent consideration payments in asset acquisitions are recognized when the contingency is resolved and the consideration is paid or becomes payable (unless the contingent consideration meets the definition of a derivative, in which case the amount becomes part of the basis in the asset acquired). Upon recognition of the contingent consideration payment, the amount is included in the cost of the acquired asset or group of assets.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
Recently Adopted Accounting Guidance
In August 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, issued Accounting Standards Update, or ASU, No.
In December 2019, the FASB issued ASU No.
Accounting Guidance Not Yet Adopted
In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-13, Financial Instruments-Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments, or ASU 2016-13. The updated accounting guidance requires changes to the recognition of credit losses on financial instruments not accounted for at fair value through net income. In May 2019, the FASB issued ASU No. 2019-05, Targeted Transition Relief, which provides transition guidance to entities that elect the fair value option for eligible instruments. In November 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-10 which extends the effective date of the standards for smaller reporting companies to interim and annual periods beginning after December 15, 2022. These standards require using a modified retrospective approach with the cumulative effect recognized as an adjustment to retained earnings. A prospective transition approach is required for debt securities that have recognized an other-than-temporary impairment prior to the effective date. For the Company’s receivables from collaborations and certain other financial instruments, the Company will be required to use a forward-looking “expected” credit loss model instead of the existing “incurred” credit loss model, which will generally result in earlier recognition of allowances for credit
78
losses. The Company plans to adopt this standard effective January 1, 2023. The Company is currently evaluating the effect the guidance will have on its financial statements or disclosures.
3. Fair Value Measurements
Fair value accounting is applied for all financial assets and liabilities that are recognized or disclosed at fair value in the consolidated financial statements on a recurring basis (at least annually). Financial instruments include cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments, receivables from collaborations, accounts payable, accrued liabilities and the current portion of deferred revenue that approximate fair value due to their relatively short maturities.
Assets and liabilities recorded at fair value on a recurring basis in the consolidated balance sheets are categorized based upon the level of judgment associated with the inputs used to measure their fair values. Fair value is defined as the exchange price that would be received for an asset or an exit price that would be paid to transfer a liability in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability in an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. The authoritative guidance on fair value measurements establishes a three tier fair value hierarchy for disclosure of fair value measurements as follows:
Level 1—Inputs are unadjusted, quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities at the measurement date;
Level 2—Inputs are observable, unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for similar assets or liabilities, unadjusted quoted prices for identical or similar assets or liabilities in markets that are not active, or other inputs that are observable or can be corroborated by observable market data for substantially the full term of the related assets or liabilities; and
Level 3—Unobservable inputs that are significant to the measurement of the fair value of the assets or liabilities that are supported by little or no market data.
A financial instrument’s categorization within the valuation hierarchy is based upon the lowest level of input that is significant to the fair value measurement. Where quoted prices are available in an active market, securities are classified as Level 1. The Company classifies money market funds as Level 1. When quoted market prices are not available for the specific security, then the Company estimates fair value by using quoted prices for identical or similar instruments in markets that are not active and model-based valuation techniques for which all significant inputs are observable in the market or can be corroborated by observable market data for substantially the full term of the assets. Where applicable, these models project future cash flows and discount the future amounts to a present value using market-based observable inputs obtained from various third party data providers, including but not limited to, benchmark yields, interest rate curves, reported trades, broker/dealer quotes and market reference data. The Company classifies its corporate notes and commercial paper, U.S. treasury securities, and U.S. government agency securities as Level 2. Level 2 inputs for the valuations are limited to quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities in active markets and inputs other than quoted prices that are observable for the asset or liability. There were
The following table sets forth the fair value of the Company’s financial assets and liabilities, allocated into Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3, that was measured on a recurring basis (in thousands):
|
|
December 31, 2021 |
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
Level 1 |
|
|
Level 2 |
|
|
Level 3 |
|
|
Total |
|
||||
Financial Assets: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
Money market funds |
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
|
||
Total financial assets |
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
December 31, 2020 |
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
Level 1 |
|
|
Level 2 |
|
|
Level 3 |
|
|
Total |
|
||||
Financial Assets: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
Money market funds |
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
|
||
Corporate notes and commercial paper |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
||
U.S. government agency securities |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
||
Total financial assets |
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
79
4. Balance Sheet Components
Financial Instruments
Cash equivalents and investments, all of which are classified as available-for-sale securities, and restricted cash consisted of the following (in thousands):
|
December 31, 2021 |
|
|
December 31, 2020 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Cost |
|
|
Unrealized Gain |
|
|
Unrealized (Loss) |
|
|
Estimated Fair Value |
|
|
Cost |
|
|
Unrealized Gain |
|
|
Unrealized (Loss) |
|
|
Estimated Fair Value |
|
||||||||
Money market funds |
$ |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
|
||||
Corporate notes and commercial paper |
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|||
U.S. government agency securities |
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|||
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
|
|||||
Classified as: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||
Cash equivalents |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
||||||||
Short-term investments |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
Restricted cash |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||
Total cash equivalents, |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
At December 31, 2021, there have been
Property and Equipment, Net
Property and equipment, net consist of the following (in thousands):
|
December 31, |
|
|||||
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
||
Research and development equipment |
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
||
Furniture and office equipment |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Computer equipment |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Software |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Leasehold improvements |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Total property and equipment |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Less: accumulated depreciation |
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Property and equipment, net |
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
Property and equipment depreciation expense for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019 was $
Accrued and Other Liabilities
Accrued and other liabilities consist of the following (in thousands):
|
December 31, |
|
|||||
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
||
Accrued clinical and manufacturing expenses |
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
||
Accrued payroll and related expenses |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Current portion of lease liability |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Other |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Total accrued and other liabilities |
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
80
5. Commitments and Contingencies
Facilities Lease
On March 8, 2021, the Company amended its lease to reduce its rentable area from approximately
The components of net operating lease costs included in the consolidated statement of operations for the year December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, were as follows (in thousands):
|
|
Year Ended December 31, |
|
|||||||||
Operating Lease Costs: |
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
|||
Straight-line rent expense related to |
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|||
Variable rent expense related to |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Sublease income |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Variable sublease income |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Net operating lease costs |
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cash paid for amounts included in the measurement of the lease liabilities for the year ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, was $
Supplemental balance sheet information related to the Company’s operating lease were as follows as of December 31 (in thousands):
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
December 31, |
|
|||||
Operating Lease Liability: |
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
||
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|||
Noncurrent operating lease liability |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
Total operating lease liability |
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
81
The maturities of the Company’s lease liability as of December 31, 2021, were as follows (in thousands):
Year ending December 31: |
|
|
|
|
2022 |
|
|
|
|
2023 |
|
|
|
|
2024 |
|
|
|
|
Total lease payments |
|
|
|
|
Less: interest |
|
|
( |
) |
Present value of lease liability |
|
$ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Company had an existing letter of credit of $
Indemnifications
6. Takeda Asset Purchase and Stock Purchase Agreements
Takeda Asset Purchase Agreement
On October 18, 2021, the Company entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement, or APA, with Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. or Millennium, a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, or Takeda, pursuant to which the Company acquired and licensed from Millennium certain technology, intellectual property and other assets related to Takeda’s small molecule programs sapanisertib (CB-228, formerly known as TAK-228) and mivavotinib (CB-659, formerly known as TAK-659), or the Takeda Programs.
Under the APA, Millennium assigned or caused to be assigned to the Company certain patents and know-how solely related to the Takeda Programs and necessary for the exploitation of products containing the CB-228 and CB-659 compounds, as well as specified regulatory materials, agreements, materials and inventory related to the Takeda Programs. Takeda also granted to the Company a license under certain other intellectual property necessary for the exploitation of such products. The Company granted to Millennium a license under the intellectual property assigned by Takeda to the Company (including intellectual property controlled by the Company via the assigned contracts) in order for Millennium to perform its obligations under the APA, ancillary agreements executed in connection with the APA and other retained agreements and for Millennium’s internal research use.
The Company must use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize at least one CB-228 product and one CB-659 product in each of the United States, Japan and certain European countries.
82
Pursuant to the APA, in October 2021, the Company paid Millennium an upfront payment of $
|
|
Description |
Credit spread |
Allowance for counterparty credit risk of the Company given the liquidation preference and obligation to issue more shares as the stock price decreases |
|
Probability of a Qualified |
As determined upon issuance date |
|
Expected timing of a |
As determined upon issuance date |
|
Expected term |
Weighted average of time to a Qualified Financing and time to the Mandatory Pricing Date, as determined upon issuance date |
|
Volatility |
Based on the Company’s trading history for its common stock over the estimated term to the mandatory pricing date |
|
Risk-free interest rate |
Based on the U.S. constant maturity treasury yield curve at the time of issuance over the expected term |
|
Common stock price |
$ |
The Company's closing common stock price on October 15, 2021 |
Total consideration transferred was $
The Company will make tiered earn-out payments of high single-digits to low teens on net sales of CB-228 products and CB-659 products, subject to certain customary reductions. Millennium will be eligible to receive up to an aggregate of $
The term of the APA will continue until the expiration of the Company's obligations to make earn-out payments, unless earlier terminated. Either party may terminate the APA in the event of an uncured material breach of the other party or in the case of insolvency of the other party.
Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement
On October 18, 2021, in accordance with the APA, the Company entered into a Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement, or the Purchase Agreement, with Millennium, pursuant to which it agreed to issue
The holder of the Series A preferred stock has the following rights, preferences and privileges:
Voting Rights
The holder of Series A preferred stock will be entitled to cast the number of votes equal to the number of whole shares of common stock into which the shares of Series A preferred stock are convertible on any matter presented to the stockholders of the Company or at any meeting of stockholders, subject to certain beneficial ownership limitations.
Additionally, certain matters require the approval of the Series A preferred stock, voting as a separate class, including to (i) amend the Company’s organizational documents in a way that has an adverse effect on the Series A preferred stock, (ii) create or authorize the creation of any new security, or reclassify or amend any existing security, of the Company that are senior to, or equal in priority with, the Series A preferred stock, including any shares of Series A preferred stock, with respect to the distribution of assets on the liquidation, dissolution or winding up of the Company, the payment of dividends and rights of redemption or (iii) purchase or
83
redeem, or pay or declare, any dividend or make any distribution on, any shares of capital stock of the Company, subject to certain exceptions.
Mandatory Conversion
The Series A preferred stock will automatically convert, subject to certain beneficial ownership limitations, on the earlier of (i) the 18-month anniversary of the date of issuance, or the Mandatory Pricing Date, into
Optional Conversion
The Series A preferred stock is convertible, subject to certain beneficial ownership limitations, at the option of the holder thereof, at any time prior to the Mandatory Pricing Date or a Qualified Financing into common stock into
Dividends
The Series A preferred stock will be entitled to dividends or distributions on shares of Series A preferred stock equal to and in the same form as dividends or distributions actually paid on shares of the common stock when, as and if such dividends or distributions are paid.
Liquidation Preference
The Series A preferred stock will have preference over the common stock with respect to distribution of assets or available proceeds, as applicable, in the event of any voluntary or involuntary liquidation, dissolution or winding up of the Company or any other deemed liquidation event, and will be entitled to a liquidation preference equal to the greater of the original issuance price of the Series A preferred stock and the payment such holder would have received had the Series A preferred stock been converted into shares of common stock immediately prior to such liquidation event.
Redemption Rights
The holders of the Series A preferred stock have
The Company has recorded the Series A preferred stock at an estimated fair value at the time of issuance of $
If the Company does not receive the Requisite Stockholder Approval, then the Company may be required to compensate the holder, upon occurrence of a Redemption Event. At the end of each reporting period, the Company will adjust the Series A preferred stock carrying value to the greater of the issuance date fair value of $
7. Stockholders’ Equity
Public Offering
In June 2019, the Company entered into an underwriting agreement with SVB Leerink LLC, Wells Fargo Securities LLC, and William Blair & Company LLC (collectively, the 2019 Underwriters), pursuant to which the Company issued and sold
84
purchase additional shares. The price to the public in the offering was $
In April 2020, the Company entered into an underwriting agreement with Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., or the Underwriter, pursuant to which the Company issued and sold
At-the-Market Offerings
In August 2017, the Company entered into a sales agreement with Cowen and Company LLC, or Cowen, as sales agent and underwriter, pursuant to which the Company could issue and sell shares of its common stock with an aggregate maximum offering price of $
In December 2019, the Company entered into a sales agreement with Jefferies LLC, or Jefferies, as sales agent and underwriter, pursuant to which the Company could issue and sell shares of its common stock with an aggregate maximum offering price of $
During the year ended December 31, 2019, the Company sold an aggregate of
During the three months ended March 31, 2020, the Company sold an aggregate of
In August 2020, in connection with its S-3 filing, the Company entered into a sales agreement with Jefferies for $
8. Equity Incentive Plans
2010 Plan
In 2010, the Company adopted the 2010 Equity Incentive Plan, or the 2010 Plan. Under the 2010 Plan, shares of the Company’s common stock have been reserved for the issuance of stock options to employees, directors, and consultants under terms and provisions established by the Board of Directors. Under the terms of the 2010 Plan, options were granted at an exercise price not less than fair market value. For employees holding more than
2014 Plan
In September 2014, the Company’s Board of Directors and stockholders approved the 2014 Equity Incentive Plan, or the 2014 Plan, which became effective in October 2014, at which time the 2010 Plan was terminated. The 2014 Plan provides for the grant of stock options, other forms of equity compensation, and performance cash awards. The number of shares of common stock reserved for
85
issuance under the 2014 Plan will automatically increase on January 1 of each year, beginning on January 1, 2015 and ending on and including January 1, 2024, by
As of December 31, 2021, approximately
2018 Inducement Plan
In January 2018, the Company’s Board of Directors approved the 2018 Inducement Plan, a non-stockholder approved stock plan, in order to award nonstatutory options and restricted stock unit awards to persons not previously an employee or director of the Company, or following a bona fide period of non-employment, as an inducement material to such persons entering into employment with the Company. As of December 31, 2021, there were
Stock Options
The following summarizes option activity (in thousands, except price per option data):
|
|
Options Outstanding |
|
|||||||||
|
|
Number of Options |
|
|
Weighted-Average Exercise Price per Option |
|
|
Aggregate |
|
|||
Outstanding — December 31, 2020 |
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
|
|||
Options granted |
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
|
|||
Options exercised |
|
|
( |
) |
|
$ |
|
|
|
|
||
Options cancelled |
|
|
( |
) |
|
$ |
|
|
|
|
||
Outstanding — December 31, 2021 |
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
||
Exercisable — December 31, 2021 |
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
||
Vested and expected to vest — December 31, 2021 |
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
The aggregate intrinsic values of options outstanding, exercisable, vested and expected to vest were calculated as the difference between the exercise price of the options and the fair value of the Company’s common stock of $
The weighted-average fair value per share of employee options granted during the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019 were $
As of December 31, 2021, the weighted-average remaining contractual life was
Stock Awards
During the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company issued
On January 20, 2021, the Company granted
86
3, 2022. The Company monitored the probability of achievement of the goals each reporting period and adjusted its estimates accordingly. During the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company recorded $
A summary of restricted stock unit activity was as follows (in thousands, except weighted-average grant-date fair value and contractual term amounts):
|
Stock Awards (PSUs and RSUs) |
|
|||||||||||||
|
Shares |
|
|
Weighted- |
|
|
Weighted- |
|
|
Aggregate |
|
||||
Outstanding — December 31, 2020 |
|
— |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
PSUs and RSUs — Awarded |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
PSUs and RSUs — Vested |
|
( |
) |
|
$ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
PSUs and RSUs — Cancelled |
|
( |
) |
|
$ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Outstanding — December 31, 2021 |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The total fair value of restricted stock unit awards that vested during the year ended December 31, 2021 was $
Stock-Based Compensation Expense
Total stock-based compensation recognized related to the 2010 Plan, 2014 Plan and 2018 Inducement Plan was as follows (in thousands):
|
|
Year Ended December, 31 |
|
|||||||||
|
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
|||
Research and development |
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|||
General and administrative |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Total stock-based compensation |
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
As of December 31, 2021, the total unrecognized compensation expense related to unvested awards was $
In each of the periods presented, the exercise price per share for each stock option was the same as the fair value of the Company’s common stock on the date of grant.
Stock options are recorded at fair value as of the grant date using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model and assumptions discussed below. Each of these inputs is subjective and generally requires significant judgment to determine. Restricted stock awards are measured at grant date fair value, at the market price of the Company’s common stock on the grant date.
Expected Term—The Company’s expected term represents the period that the Company’s stock-based awards are expected to be outstanding and is determined using the simplified method (based on the midpoint between the vesting date and the end of the contractual term).
Expected Volatility—The expected volatility was estimated based on a weighted volatility using both the Company’s trading history for its common stock and the average volatility for comparable publicly traded biopharmaceutical companies over a period equal to the expected term of the stock option grants. The comparable companies were chosen based on their similar size, stage in the life cycle, or area of specialty.
Risk-Free Interest Rate—The risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury zero coupon issues in effect at the time of grant for periods corresponding with the expected term of option.
87
Expected Dividend—The Company has never paid dividends on its common stock and has no plans to pay dividends on its common stock. Therefore, the Company used an expected dividend yield of zero.
The fair value of stock option awards was estimated using a Black-Scholes option-pricing model with the following assumptions:
|
Year Ended December 31, |
||||
|
2021 |
|
2020 |
|
2019 |
Expected term |
|
|
|||
Volatility |
|
|
|||
Risk-free interest rate |
|
|
|||
Expected dividend rate |
─% |
|
─% |
|
─% |
ESPP
In September 2014, the Company’s Board of Directors and stockholders approved the 2014 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or the ESPP, which became effective in October 2014. The number of shares of common stock reserved for issuance under the ESPP will increase automatically each year, beginning on January 1, 2015 and continuing through and including January 1, 2024, by the lesser of (1)
The ESPP allows eligible employees to purchase shares of the Company's common stock at a discount through payroll deductions of up to
Total stock-based compensation expense recognized related to the ESPP was as follows (in thousands):
|
|
Year Ended December 31, |
|
||||||||||||
|
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
||||||
Research and development |
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|||
General and administrative |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Total stock-based compensation |
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Company used the following assumptions to estimate the fair value of stock offered under the ESPP for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019:
|
Year Ended December 31, |
||||
|
2021 |
|
2020 |
|
2019 |
Expected term |
|
|
|||
Volatility |
|
|
|||
Risk-free interest rate |
|
|
|||
Expected dividend rate |
─% |
|
─% |
|
─% |
9. Employee Benefit Plan
The Company has an employee benefit plan under Section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code. The plan allows employees to contribute a portion of their compensation, subject to certain limitations. The Company may make contributions to this plan at its discretion. For the year ended December, 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, the Company matched a portion of the employees’ contributions up to a defined maximum, and recognized expense of approximately $
88
10. Income Taxes
The domestic and foreign components of loss before provision for income tax are as follows (in thousands):
|
|
Year Ended December 31, |
|
|||||||||
|
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
|||
Domestic |
|
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
( |
) |
Foreign |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
Total |
|
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
( |
) |
The effective tax rate of the provision for income taxes differs from the federal statutory rate as follows:
|
Year Ended December, 31 |
|
|||||||||
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
|||
Federal statutory income tax rate |
|
% |
|
|
% |
|
|
% |
|||
State income taxes, net of federal benefit |
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
Federal and state tax credits, net of reserves |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Stock-based compensation |
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Other permanent differences |
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Change in valuation allowance |
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
% |
|
|
% |
|
|
% |
The components of the deferred tax assets and liability are as follows (in thousands):
|
Year Ended December 31, |
|
|||||
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
||
Deferred tax assets: |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Net operating loss carryforwards |
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
||
Tax credits, net of reserves |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Accrued liabilities |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Stock-based compensation |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Operating lease liability |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Fixed and intangible assets |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Gross deferred tax assets |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Valuation allowance |
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Total deferred tax assets |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Deferred tax liability: |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Operating lease right-of-use asset |
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Total deferred tax liability |
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Net deferred tax assets (liability) |
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Realization of the Company’s deferred tax assets is dependent upon the Company generating future taxable income, the timing and amount of which are uncertain. Accordingly, the deferred tax assets have been fully offset by a valuation allowance as of December 31, 2021 and 2020. The valuation allowance increased by $
As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, the Company had approximately $
89
to reduce future taxable income. Of the federal net operating loss carryforwards, $
As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, the Company also had research and development tax credit carryforwards of approximately $
Sections 382 and 383 place a limitation on the amount of taxable income which can be offset by carryforward tax attributes, such as net operating losses or tax credits, after a change in control. Generally, after a change in control, a loss corporation cannot deduct carryforward tax attributes in excess of the limitation prescribed by Section 382 and 383. Therefore, certain of the Company's carryforward tax attributes may be subject to an annual limitation regarding their utilization against taxable income in future periods. As a result of the Company's IPO in 2014, the Company triggered an "ownership change" as defined in Internal Revenue Code Section 382 and related provisions. Additionally, due to stock acquired by investors and reported under Section 13(g), the Company believes that an “ownership change” occurred during 2018, as well. The Company believes that some of its net operating losses and credit carryforwards may be limited by these ownership changes but that any limitation would not have a significant impact to the financial statements since there is no utilization of the net operating losses and credit carryforwards and a full valuation allowance exists against the net operating losses and credit carryforwards for U.S. tax purposes. Subsequent ownership changes since 2018 may subject the Company to annual limitations of its net operating loss and credit carryforwards. Such annual limitation could result in the expiration of the net operating loss and credit carryforwards before utilization.
U.S. tax law subjects a U.S. shareholder to current tax on global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI) earned by certain foreign subsidiaries. The FASB Staff Q&A, Topic 740 No. 5, Accounting for Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income, states that an entity can make an accounting policy election to either recognize deferred taxes for temporary differences expected to reverse as GILTI in future years or provide for the tax expense related to GILTI in the year the tax is incurred. The Company has elected to recognize the tax on GILTI as a period expense in the period the tax is incurred. As a result of no activity in the Company’s dormant foreign subsidiaries, the Company has no GILTI inclusion for the year ended 2021, 2020 and 2019.
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the novel strain of coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic and recommended containment and mitigation measures worldwide. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) was enacted in the US on March 27, 2020, which contains several provisions, including, but not limited to, changes to the rules governing net operating losses (NOLs) and technical corrections to certain provisions in the 2017 tax law (“Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”). Since the Company has historical tax losses and records a full valuation allowance against its US deferred tax assets, the impact of these changes was limited to the timing of the availability of its NOLs.
Uncertain Tax Positions
As of December 31, 2021, the Company’s total unrecognized tax benefit was $
|
Year Ended December 31, |
|
|||||||||
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
|||
Balance at beginning of year |
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|||
Decreases related to prior year tax positions |
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
( |
) |
Additions based on tax positions related to current year |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Balance at end of year |
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|
$ |
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The unrecognized tax benefits, if recognized and in the absence of a full valuation allowance, would increase the Company’s credit carryforwards and hence deferred tax assets. The Company does not expect the unrecognized tax benefits to change significantly over the next 12 months.
Interest and penalties are
90
periods since inception are subject to examination by U.S. federal, California and other state tax jurisdictions, none of which are currently under examination.
11. Net Loss per Common Share
Since the Company was in a loss position for all periods presented, diluted net loss per share is the same as basic net loss per share for all periods as the inclusion of all potential common shares outstanding would have been anti-dilutive.
Potentially dilutive securities that were not included in the diluted per share calculations because they would be anti-dilutive were as follows (in thousands):
|
December 31, |
|
|||||||||
|
2021 |
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
|||
Options to purchase common stock |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Employee stock plan purchases |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Employee restricted stock units |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
Conversion of Series A preferred |
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
Total |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12. Licensing and Collaboration Agreements
Incyte Collaboration and License Agreement
On January 27, 2017, the Company entered into a collaboration and license agreement with Incyte, or the Incyte Collaboration Agreement. Under the terms of the Incyte Collaboration Agreement, the Company granted Incyte an exclusive, worldwide license to develop and commercialize its small molecule arginase inhibitors for hematology and oncology indications. Through September 30, 2020, the parties collaborated on and co-funded the development of the licensed products, with Incyte bearing
The Incyte Collaboration Agreement also provides that the Company may choose to opt out of its co-funding obligations at any time. On August 28, 2020, the Company delivered written notice to Incyte of its decision to opt out of its co-development rights effective September 30, 2020. As a result of the Company’s decision to opt out, Incyte will pay all costs to develop INCB001158 or any other licensed products. In addition, the Company’s rights to U.S. profit sharing will no longer be in effect, and instead Incyte will pay Calithera tiered royalties ranging from the low double digits to mid-teens on net sales of licensed products in the U.S., an incremental
Under the Incyte Collaboration Agreement, the Company received an upfront payment of $
The Incyte Collaboration Agreement is considered to be under the scope of ASC Topic 808, Collaborative Arrangements. The Company has concluded that the research and development co-funding activities were not representative of a customer relationship and this unit of account is accounted for as an increase to or reduction of research and development expenses, rather than as revenue. In addition, the Company has analogized to ASC 606 for other aspects of the arrangement. The performance obligations under the Incyte Collaboration Agreement consist of intellectual property licenses and the performance of certain manufacturing and manufacturing technology transfer services. The Company determined that the license is not distinct from the associated manufacturing and technology transfer services to be performed under the agreement. Specifically, the Company believes the license
91
is not capable of being distinct, as Incyte did not have the know-how to manufacture the collaboration product without Calithera’s assistance until completion of the manufacturing technology transfer process, and no other third parties could perform such assistance due to the early stage nature of the licensed intellectual property as well as Calithera’s propriety knowledge with respect to the licensed intellectual property.
In accordance with ASC 606, the Company determined the transaction price to be $
Net costs associated with co-development activities performed under the Incyte Collaboration Agreement are included in research and development expenses in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations, with any reimbursement of costs by Incyte reflected as a reduction of such expenses. For the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019, net costs payable to (reimbursable by) Incyte were $
Antengene License Agreement
On May 16, 2021, the Company entered into a license agreement, or the Antengene License Agreement, with Antengene Investment, Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Antengene Corporation. Under the terms of the Antengene License Agreement, the Company granted Antengene an exclusive, worldwide license to develop and commercialize CB-708, the Company’s small molecule inhibitor of CD73. The Company received an upfront payment of $
The Antengene License Agreement is considered to be under the scope of ASC 606. In accordance with ASC 606, the Company determined the transaction price to be the $
Pfizer Collaboration Agreement
In October 2018, the Company entered into a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Pfizer to evaluate Pfizer’s PARP inhibitor talazoparib (Talzenna) and CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib (Ibrance), each in combination with telaglenastat.
Under the terms of the clinical collaboration, Pfizer provided reimbursement of certain development costs. Costs associated with development activities performed under the clinical collaboration are included in research and development expenses in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations, with any reimbursements of costs reflected as a reduction of such expenses. For the year ended December 31, 2020, net costs from Pfizer recognized as a reduction to research and development expenses were $
Symbioscience License Agreement
In December 2014, the Company entered into an exclusive license agreement with Mars, Inc., by and through its Mars Symbioscience division, or Symbioscience, under which the Company has been granted the exclusive, worldwide license rights to develop and commercialize Symbioscience’s portfolio of arginase inhibitors for use in human healthcare, or the Symbioscience License Agreement.
The Company may make future payments of up to $23.6 million contingent upon attainment of various development and regulatory milestones and $95.0 million contingent upon attainment of various sales milestones. Additionally, the Company will pay royalties on sales of the licensed product, if such product sales are ever achieved. If the Company develops additional licensed
92
products, after achieving regulatory approval of the first licensed product, the Company would owe additional regulatory milestone payments and additional royalty payments based on sales of such additional licensed products.
13. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Development Award
In October 2020, the Company was awarded $
The award contains provisions where the Company must repay up to two times the award if it ceases to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop CB-280. Upon commercialization, the Company will owe certain royalty payments to the CFF up to a royalty cap. The Company may also be obligated to make a payment to CFF if the Company transfers, sells or licenses a product in the cystic fibrosis field, or if the Company enters into a change of control transaction.
14. Reduction in Workforce
On January 4, 2021, the Company announced a plan to reduce its workforce by approximately
A summary of activity in the accrued liability associated with the Company’s reduction in workforce for the year ended December 31, 2021 was as follows (in thousands):
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Severance Costs Related to Reduction in Workforce |
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Accrued balance as of January 1, 2021 |
$ |
— |
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Charges |
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Cash payments |
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( |
) |
Accrued balance as of December 31, 2021 |
$ |
— |
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15. Subsequent Event
Public Offering
On March 29, 2022, the Company priced an underwritten public offering of
93
Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure.
None.
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures.
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
As of December 31, 2021, management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, performed an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the Exchange Act. Our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in the reports we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosures.
Any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objective and management necessarily applies its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. Based on this evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer concluded that, as of December 31, 2021, the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at a reasonable assurance level.
Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as such term is defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f). Our management conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021 based on the criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.
Based on the results of its evaluation, management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2021.
Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls and Procedures and Internal Control over Financial Reporting
In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. In addition, the design of disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and that management is required to apply judgment in evaluating the benefits of possible controls and procedures relative to their costs.
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There was no change in our internal control over financial reporting during the three months ended December 31, 2021 that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
Item 9B. Other Information.
None.
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections.
Not Applicable.
94
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance.
Information required by this item will be contained in our definitive proxy statement to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Schedule 14A in connection with our 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders or the Proxy Statement, which is expected to be filed not later than 120 days after the end of our year ended December 31, 2021, under the headings “Executive Officers,” “Election of Directors,” and “Information Regarding the Board of Directors and Corporate Governance,” and is incorporated herein by reference.
We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics that applies to our officers, directors and employees, which is available on our website at www.calithera.com. The Code of Business Conduct and Ethics is intended to qualify as a “code of ethics” within the meaning of Section 406 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and Item 406 of Regulation S-K. In addition, we intend to promptly disclose (1) the nature of any amendment to our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics that applies to our principal executive officer, principal financial officer, principal accounting officer or controller or persons performing similar functions and (2) the nature of any waiver, including an implicit waiver, from a provision of our code of ethics that is granted to one of these specified officers, the name of such person who is granted the waiver and the date of the waiver on our website in the future.
Item 11. Executive Compensation.
The information required by this item regarding executive compensation is incorporated by reference to the information set forth in the section titled “Executive Compensation” in our Proxy Statement.
Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters.
The information required by this item regarding security ownership of certain beneficial owners and management is incorporated by reference to the information set forth in the section titled “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management” in our Proxy Statement.
Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence.
The information required by this item regarding certain relationships and related transactions and director independence is incorporated by reference to the information set forth in the sections titled “Transactions with Related Parties” and “Election of Directors – Independence of the Board of Directors,” respectively, in our Proxy Statement.
Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services.
The information required by this item regarding principal accountant fees and services is incorporated by reference to the information set forth in the section titled “Principal Accountant Fees and Services” in our Proxy Statement.
95
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules.
(a) The following documents are filed as part of this report:
1. Financial Statements
See Index to Consolidated Financial Statements at Item 8 herein.
2. Financial Statement Schedules
All schedules are omitted because they are not applicable or the required information is shown in the financial statements or notes thereto.
3. Exhibits
96
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Incorporation By Reference |
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Exhibit Number |
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Exhibit Description |
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Form |
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SEC File No. |
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Exhibit |
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Filing Date |
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Filed Herewith |
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3.1 |
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Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of the Registrant. |
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8-K |
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001-36644 |
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3.1 |
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10/07/2014 |
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3.2 |
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10-Q |
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001-36644 |
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3.2 |
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8/10/2020 |
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3.3 |
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8-K |
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001-36644 |
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3.1 |
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10/19/2021 |
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4.1 |
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Reference is made to Exhibits 3.1 through 3.2. |
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4.2 |
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S-1 |
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333-198355 |
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4.1 |
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9/25/2014 |
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4.3 |
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10-K |
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001-36644 |
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4.3 |
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3/11/2020 |
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10.1 |
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S-1 |
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333-198355 |
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10.1 |
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8/25/2014 |
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10.2 |
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8-K |
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001-36644 |
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99.1 |
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1/26/2021 |
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10.3 |
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S-1 |
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333-198355 |
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10.5 |
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9/25/2014 |
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10.4 |
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S-1 |
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333-198355 |
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10.6 |
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9/25/2014 |
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10.5 |
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S-1 |
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333-198355 |
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10.13 |
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9/19/2014 |
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10.6 |
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Lease between Are-Technology Center SSF, LLC and the Registrant, dated February 14, 2013. |
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S-1 |
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333-198355 |
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10.14 |
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8/25/2014 |
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10.7 |
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S-1 |
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333-198355 |
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10.15 |
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8/25/2014 |
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10.8 |
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10-K |
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001-36644 |
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10.16 |
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3/27/2015 |
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10.9 |
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10-Q |
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001-36644 |
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10.18 |
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5/10/2016 |
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10.10 |
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10-Q |
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001-36644 |
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10.1 |
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5/09/2017 |
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10.11 |
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10-Q |
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001-36644 |
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10.2 |
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5/09/2017 |
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10.12 |
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Calithera Biosciences Inc. Amended and Restated Severance Benefit Plan. |
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10-Q |
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001-36644 |
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10.1 |
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11/09/2021 |
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10.13 |
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S-8 |
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333-223533 |
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99.4 |
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03/08/2018 |
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10.14 |
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S-8 |
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333-223533 |
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99.5 |
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03/08/2018 |
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10.15 |
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10-Q |
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001-36644 |
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10.1 |
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11/05/2020 |
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10.16^ |
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8-K |
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001-36644 |
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10.1 |
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10/19/2021 |
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10.17# |
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10-Q |
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001-36644 |
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10.3 |
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11/09/2021 |
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10.18 |
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S-3 |
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333-243731 |
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1.2 |
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8/10/2020 |
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10.19 |
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10-Q |
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001-36644 |
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10.1 |
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05/06/2021 |
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23.1 |
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24.1 |
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Power of Attorney (included on signature page to this Annual Report on Form 10-K). |
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Certification of Principal Executive Officer pursuant to Rule 13a-14(a). |
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Certification of Principal Financial and Accounting Officer pursuant to Rule 13a-14(a). |
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32.1* |
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101.INS** |
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Inline XBRL Instance Document – the instance document does not appear in the Interactive Data File because its XBRL tags are embedded within the Inline XBRL document. |
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Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document. |
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Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document. |
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Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document. |
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Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document. |
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101.PRE** |
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Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document. |
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104 |
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The cover page from the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, has been formatted in Inline XBRL. |
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* The certifications attached as Exhibit 32.1 and 32.2 that accompany this Annual Report on Form 10-K are not deemed filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are not to be incorporated by reference into any filing of Calithera Biosciences, Inc. under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, whether made before or after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, irrespective of any general incorporation language contained in such filing.
** Attached as Exhibit 101 to this Annual Report on Form 10-K formatted in XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language): (i) Consolidated Balance Sheets, (ii) Consolidated Statements of Operations, (iii) Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss, (iv) Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows, (v) Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity; and (vi) Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, tagged as blocks of text and including detailed tags.
Pursuant to a request for confidential treatment, portions of this Exhibit have been redacted from the publicly filed document and have been furnished separately to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
# Certain portions of this agreement have been omitted pursuant to Item 601(b)(2) of Regulation S-K.
^ Certain portions of this agreement have been omitted pursuant to Item 601(a)(5) of Regulation S-K.
Item 16. Form 10-K Summary.
None.
99
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the Registrant has duly caused this Report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
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Calithera Biosciences, Inc. |
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Date: March 31, 2022 |
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By: |
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/s/ Susan M. Molineaux |
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Susan M. Molineaux, Ph.D. |
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President and Chief Executive Officer |
POWER OF ATTORNEY
Each person whose individual signature appears below hereby authorizes and appoints Susan M. Molineaux and Stephanie Wong, and each of them, with full power of substitution and resubstitution and full power to act without the other, as his or her true and lawful attorney-in-fact and agent to act in his or her name, place and stead and to execute in the name and on behalf of each person, individually and in each capacity stated below, and to file any and all amendments to this Annual Report on Form 10-K and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto, and other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, granting unto said attorneys-in-fact and agents, and each of them, full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing, ratifying and confirming all that said attorneys-in-fact and agents or any of them or their or his or her substitute or substitutes may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue thereof.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, this Report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the Registrant in the capacities and on the dates indicated.
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/s/ Susan M. Molineaux |
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President, Chief Executive Officer and Director |
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March 31, 2022 |
Susan M. Molineaux, Ph.D. |
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(Principal Executive Officer) |
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/s/ Stephanie Wong |
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Chief Financial Officer and Secretary |
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March 31, 2022 |
Stephanie Wong |
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(Principal Financial and Accounting Officer) |
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/s/ Sunil Agarwal |
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Director |
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March 31, 2022 |
Sunil Agarwal, M.D. |
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/s/ Jonathan G. Drachman |
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Director |
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March 31, 2022 |
Jonathan G. Drachman, M.D. |
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/s/ Scott Garland |
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Director |
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March 31, 2022 |
Scott Garland |
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/s/ Suzy Jones |
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Director |
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March 31, 2022 |
Suzy Jones |
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/s/ Keith Orford |
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Director |
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March 31, 2022 |
Keith Orford, M.D., Ph.D. |
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/s/ Deepa R. Pakianathan |
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Director |
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March 31, 2022 |
Deepa R. Pakianathan, Ph.D. |
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/s/ Blake Wise |
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Director |
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March 31, 2022 |
Blake Wise |
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/s/ H. Ward Wolff |
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Director |
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March 31, 2022 |
H. Ward Wolff |
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100