XML 16 R7.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT v3.8.0.1
B. OPERATIONS AND FINANCING
3 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2016
Notes to Financial Statements  
B. OPERATIONS AND FINANCING

The Company has incurred significant costs since its inception in connection with the acquisition of certain patented and unpatented proprietary technology and know-how relating to the human immunological defense system, patent applications, research and development, administrative costs, construction of laboratory facilities, and clinical trials.  The Company has funded such costs with proceeds from loans and the public and private sale of its common stock.  The Company will be required to raise additional capital or find additional long-term financing in order to continue with its research efforts.  Currently, the partial clinical hold has had a significant impact on the Company’s market capital, and as such, may impact the Company’s ability to attract new capital. To date, the Company has not generated any revenue from product sales.  The ability of the Company to complete the necessary clinical trials and obtain US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the sale of products to be developed on a commercial basis is uncertain. Ultimately, the Company must complete the development of its products, obtain the appropriate regulatory approvals and obtain sufficient revenues to support its cost structure.

 

The Company is currently running a large multi-national Phase 3 clinical trial for head and neck cancer with its partners TEVA Pharmaceuticals and Orient Europharma. During the three months ended December 31, 2016, the Company raised approximately $3.7 million net proceeds from a public offering. To finance the study beyond the next twelve months, the Company plans to raise additional capital in the form of corporate partnerships, debt and/or equity financings. The Company believes that it will be able to obtain additional financing because it has done so consistently in the past and because Multikine is a product in the Phase 3 clinical trial stage. However, there can be no assurance that the Company will be successful in raising additional funds on a timely basis or that the funds will be available to the Company on acceptable terms or at all.  If the Company does not raise the necessary amounts of money, it will either have to slow or delay the Phase 3 clinical trial or even significantly curtail its operations until such time as it is able to raise the required funding. The Phase 3 study is currently on partial clinical hold by the FDA. The financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern, but due to recurring losses from operations and future liquidity needs, there is substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.

 

Since the Company launched its Phase 3 clinical trial for Multikine, the Company has spent approximately $36.0 million as of December 31, 2016 on direct costs for the Phase 3 clinical trial.  The total remaining cash cost of the clinical trial is estimated to be approximately $13.5 million.  It should be noted that this estimate is based only on the information currently available in the Company’s contracts with the Clinical Research Organizations responsible for managing the Phase 3 clinical trial and does not include other related costs, e.g. the manufacturing of the drug.  This number can be affected by the speed of enrollment, foreign currency exchange rates and many other factors, some of which cannot be foreseen.  The Company has filed an amendment to the original Phase 3 protocol for it head and neck cancer study with the FDA to allow for this expansion in patient enrollment. Should the FDA allow the amended protocol filed with them to proceed, the remaining cost of the Phase 3 clinical trial will be higher. It is therefore possible that the cost of the Phase 3 clinical trial will be higher than currently estimated.

 

As of December 31, 2016, the Phase 3 clinical trial for Multikine was on a partial clinical hold.

 

If the partial clinical hold is not lifted, the Phase 3 study will not be able to be completed to its prespecified endpoints in a timely manner, if at all, and, if the Phase 3 study cannot be completed to its prespecified endpoints, the study would not be able to be used as the pivotal study supporting a marketing application in the United States, and at least one entirely new Phase 3 pivotal study would need to be conducted to provide the pivotal study supporting a marketing application in the United States. Even if the partial clinical hold is lifted, if it is not lifted in a timely fashion, the nature and duration of the partial clinical hold could irreparably harm the data from the Phase 3 study such that it may no longer be able to be used as the pivotal study supporting a marketing application in the United States. Even if the partial clinical hold is lifted in a timely fashion, it remains possible that the regulatory authorities could determine that the Phase 3 study is not sufficient to be used as a single pivotal study supporting a marketing application in the United States.