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NATURE OF OPERATIONS
 6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2022
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
NATURE OF OPERATIONS NATURE OF OPERATIONS
VYNE Therapeutics Inc. ("VYNE" or the "Company") is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing proprietary, innovative and differentiated therapies for the treatment of immuno-inflammatory conditions. The Company is in the preclinical stages of developing products containing bromodomain and extra-terminal domain ("BET") inhibitor compounds. The Company's initial BET inhibitor candidate in development is VYN201, a locally administered pan-BET inhibitor, which the Company is exploring in various immuno-inflammatory diseases, including skin diseases. On August 10, 2022, the Company announced that its Phase 2a clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of FMX114 for mild-to-moderate atopic dermatitis (“AD”) did not meet its primary endpoint. As a result, management and the board of directors will evaluate the Company's pipeline and prioritization of activities. The Company is a Delaware corporation, has its principal executive offices in Bridgewater, New Jersey and operates as one business segment.

Strategic Business Review and Sale of the MST Franchise

Beginning in the second quarter of 2021, the Company conducted a review of its commercial and research and development portfolio to determine how to optimally deploy capital and drive shareholder value. During the course of this review, the Company carefully considered the revenues received from the commercialization of AMZEEQ and ZILXI and the associated costs to drive those revenues, the protracted negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic during the commercial launches of both AMZEEQ and ZILXI, the payor landscape, as well as the costs to develop each of its pipeline products. During this process, the Company evaluated several strategic options including the acquisition of marketed assets, out-licensing its approved products outside of the United States, and possible partnering or co-development relationships with interested parties. Following its review, the Company determined to initiate a process to explore a possible sale or license of its topical minocycline franchise, including AMZEEQ, ZILXI, FCD105 (the Company’s former Phase 3 proprietary novel topical combination foam formulation of minocycline and adapalene for the treatment of moderate-to-severe acne vulgaris) and the underlying Molecule Stabilizing Technology ("MST") platform.

On January 12, 2022, the Company entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”) with Journey Medical Corporation ("Journey") pursuant to which the Company sold its MST franchise, including AMZEEQ, ZILXI, and FCD105 (the “MST Franchise”), to Journey. The assets include certain contracts, including the license agreement with Cutia Therapeutics (HK) Limited, inventory and intellectual property related to the MST Franchise (together, the “Assets”). Pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, Journey assumed certain liabilities of the MST Franchise including, among others, those arising from the Company's patent infringement suit initiated against Padagis Israel Pharmaceuticals Ltd. There were no current or long-term liabilities recorded by the Company which were transferred to Journey.

Pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, the Company received an upfront payment of $20.0 million at the closing of the sale and will receive an additional $5.0 million on the one-year anniversary of the closing of the transaction. The Company is also eligible to receive sales milestone payments of up to $450.0 million in the aggregate upon the achievement of specified levels of net sales on a product-by-product basis, beginning with annual net sales exceeding $100.0 million (with products covered in three categories (1) AMZEEQ (and certain modifications), (2) ZILXI (and certain modifications), and (3) FCD105 and other products covered by the patents being transferred, including certain modifications). In addition, the Company is entitled to receive certain payments from any licensing or sublicensing of the assets by Journey outside of the United States. See "Note 3 - Discontinued Operations" for additional discussion of the disposition.

In addition, on August 12, 2021, the Company announced a transaction with In4Derm Limited, a company incorporated and registered in Scotland (“In4Derm”). In4Derm is a spin-out of the University of Dundee’s School of Life Sciences which has discovered and is developing proprietary BET inhibitors for the treatment of immunology and oncology conditions. On April 30, 2021, the parties entered into an Evaluation and Option Agreement (the “Option Agreement”) pursuant to which In4Derm granted the Company an exclusive option to obtain exclusive worldwide rights to research, develop and commercialize products containing In4Derm’s BET inhibitor compounds, which are new chemical entities for treatments in all fields for any disease, disorder or condition in humans.

On August 6, 2021, the Company exercised its option with respect to certain of In4Derm's pan-BD Inhibitor Compounds ("Topical Option"). Upon exercise of the Topical Option, the parties entered into a License Agreement granting the Company a worldwide, exclusive license that is sublicensable through multiple tiers to exploit certain of In4Derm’s pan-BD BET inhibitor compounds in all fields. The Company paid a $1.0 million cash payment to In4Derm upon the execution of the Option
Agreement and $0.5 million in connection with entering into the License Agreement. These payments were recorded as a research and development expense in the period paid. Pursuant to the License Agreement, the Company has agreed to make cash payments to In4Derm upon the achievement of specified clinical development and regulatory approval milestones with respect to each licensed topical product in the United States of up to $15.75 million for all indications. The License agreement provides for tiered royalty payments of up to 10% of annual net sales on the licensed product.

In addition, the Company currently expects to exercise its option (the "Oral BETi Option") for the oral BET inhibitor compounds (the "Oral BETi Compounds") following the selection of a lead candidate for the program. Under the terms of the initial agreement, the Oral BETi Option was to expire upon the earlier of (i) 14 days following the delivery of an agreed data package and selection of a lead new chemical entity ("NCE") candidate by In4Derm or (ii) June 30, 2022 (the "Option Term"). On June 15, 2022, the parties entered into a Letter Agreement (the “Letter Agreement”) to extend the Option Term to February 28, 2023. Pursuant to the terms of the Letter Agreement, the Company paid and recorded a related research and development expense of $386,366 USD (£300,000) on June 28, 2022, to In4Derm. In addition, a second payment of £850,000 will be due upon discovery of at least two potential preclinical candidates. If the second payment is not received by the time In4Derm delivers this data on or around August 31, 2022, the Option Term shall automatically be deemed expired without any further action on the part of either Party.

Upon exercise of the exclusive Oral BETi Option, the parties will sign a license agreement (the “Oral License Agreement”), and the Company will be required to pay In4Derm a $4.0 million cash payment. The Oral License Agreement will include cash payments of up to $43.75 million payable to In4Derm upon the achievement of specified clinical development and regulatory approval milestones with respect to each licensed oral product in the United States for all indications. The license agreements also provide for tiered royalty payments of up to 10% of net annual sales across licensed BET inhibitor products by the Company. In4Derm is entitled to additional milestones upon the achievement of regulatory approvals in certain jurisdictions outside the United States.

As the Company transitioned from a commercial organization to one focused on research and development, the Company streamlined operations by eliminating the vast majority of planned expenditures supporting its commercial operations Furthermore, following its decision to divest the MST Franchise, the Company reduced its workforce to approximately 28 employees by the completion of the sale of the MST Franchise. The Company does not expect to incur any material expenses in 2022 as a result of the restructuring plan.
Reverse stock split and recasting of per-share amounts
On February 10, 2021, the Company's Board of Directors approved a one-for-four reverse stock split of its outstanding shares of common stock. The reverse stock split was effected on February 12, 2021, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. At the effective time, every four issued and outstanding shares of the Company's common stock were converted into one share of common stock. No fractional shares were issued in connection with the reverse stock split, and in lieu thereof, each stockholder holding fractional shares was entitled to receive a cash payment (without interest or deduction) from the Company's transfer agent in an amount equal to such stockholder's respective pro rata shares of the total net proceeds from the Company's transfer agent sale of all fractional shares at the then-prevailing prices on the open market. In connection with the reverse stock split, the number of authorized shares of the Company's common stock was also reduced on a one-for-four basis, from 300 million shares to 75 million shares. The par value of each share of common stock remained unchanged. A proportionate adjustment was also made to the maximum number of shares issuable under the Company's 2019 Equity Incentive Plan, 2019 Employee Share Purchase Plan and 2018 Omnibus Incentive Plan.
Unless otherwise noted, all common shares and per share amounts contained in the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been retroactively adjusted to reflect the reverse stock split.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Since inception, the Company has funded operations primarily through private and public placements of its equity, debt and warrants and through fees, cost reimbursements and payments received from its licensees. The Company commenced generating product revenues related to sales of AMZEEQ and ZILXI in January 2020 and October 2020, respectively. AMZEEQ and ZILXI were sold as part of the sale of the MST Franchise on January 12, 2022 and, as such, the Company no longer generates revenue from the sale of these products. The Company has incurred losses from continuing operations and experienced negative operating cash flows since its inception and anticipates that it will continue to incur losses until such a time when its product candidates, if approved, are commercially successful, if at all. The Company will not generate any revenue from any current or future product candidates unless and until it obtains regulatory approval and commercializes such products. For the six months ended June 30, 2022, the Company generated a net loss of $3.8 million and used $18.2 million of cash in operations. Net loss was the result of income from discontinued operations of $13.1 million and loss from continuing operations of $16.9 million
As of June 30, 2022, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of $42.8 million and an accumulated deficit of $643.3 million. The Company received gross proceeds of $20.0 million from the sale of the MST Franchise in January 2022 and will receive an additional payment of $5.0 million on the one-year anniversary of the sale. The Company had no outstanding debt as of June 30, 2022.
The Company has taken a number of actions to support its operations and meet its liquidity needs. Beginning in the second quarter of 2021, the Company conducted a review of its commercial and research and development portfolio to determine how to optimally deploy capital and drive shareholder value. Following its review, the Company initiated a process to explore a possible sale or license of its MST Franchise, including AMZEEQ, ZILXI, FCD105 and the underlying Molecule Stabilizing Technology platform and refocus its resources on its immuno-inflammatory development programs. As a result of this decision, the Company restructured its operations and reduced its workforce, which lowered operating costs. In January 2022, the Company sold its MST Franchise.
In March 2022, the Company entered into an equity purchase agreement (the “Equity Purchase Agreement”) with Lincoln Park Capital Fund, LLC (“Lincoln Park”) which provides that, upon the terms and subject to the conditions and limitations set forth therein, the Company may sell to Lincoln Park up to $30.0 million of shares of its common stock over the 36-month term of the Equity Purchase Agreement. The Company has not made any sales pursuant to the Equity Purchase Agreement to date.
As described above, the Company refocused its limited resources on its immuno-inflammatory pipeline. Continued research and development activities for these programs, including preclinical and clinical testing of the Company's product candidates, will require significant additional financing. The future viability of the Company and its ability to continue as a going concern is dependent on its ability to raise sufficient working capital through either debt or equity financings to fund its operations and successfully develop commercially viable product candidates. There is no assurance the Company will be able to achieve these objectives under acceptable terms or at all.

In accordance with Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2014-15, Disclosure of Uncertainties about an Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern (Subtopic 205-40), the Company has 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 its unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements are issued. The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern and contemplate the realization of assets and the satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business. The Company's ability to continue as a going concern is expected to be impacted by the outcome of the plans outlined above, including the Company's ability to raise additional capital to fund its operations and the development and results from clinical trials for the BET inhibitor programs. Based on its current plans and assumptions, the Company believes that absent sufficient proceeds received from financing transactions or business development transactions, the Company will not have sufficient cash and cash equivalents to fund its operations beyond one year from the issuance of these financial statements. This assumption does not include proceeds that can be drawn from Lincoln Park. Accordingly, the Company will, over the course of the next twelve months, require significant additional financing to continue its operations, including potentially selling a significant amount of shares pursuant to the Equity Purchase Agreement. In addition, the amount of proceeds the Company may be able to raise pursuant to its existing shelf registration statement on Form S-3 may be limited. As of the filing of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, the Company is subject to the general instructions of Form S-3 known as the "baby shelf rules." Under these instructions, the amount of funds the Company can raise through primary public offerings of securities in any 12-month period using its registration statement on Form S-3 is limited to one-third of the aggregate market value of the shares of its common stock held by non-affiliates of the Company. Therefore, the Company will be limited in the amount of proceeds it is able to raise by selling shares of its common stock using its Form S-3 until such time as its public float exceeds $75.0 million. These factors raise substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern. Failure to successfully receive additional financing will require the Company to delay, scale back or otherwise modify its business and its research and development activities and other operations. The accompanying financial statements do not include any adjustments related to the recoverability and classification of assets or the amounts and classification of liabilities or any other adjustments that might be necessary should the Company be unable to continue as a going concern.