ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described below, as well as the other information in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including our financial statements and the related notes and the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” The occurrence of any of the events or developments described below could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. In such an event, the market price of our common stock could decline and you may lose all or part of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial also may impair our business operations and the market price of our common stock.
Risk Factor Summary
This summary of risks provides an overview of the principal risks we are exposed to. These risks are more fully described below.
Risks Related to Our Business, Financial Condition and Capital Requirements
•We are a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company in the initial stages of commercializing our product AVLAYAH, which may make it difficult for investors to evaluate our business and prospects.
•We have incurred significant net losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur net losses for the foreseeable future.
•To the extent that AVLAYAH is not commercially successful, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially and adversely affected and the price of our common stock would decline.
•We may require substantial additional financing to achieve our goals, and a failure to obtain this necessary capital if or when needed on acceptable terms, or at all, could harm our business.
•We may expend our limited resources on programs that do not yield a successful product candidate and fail to capitalize on product candidates or indications that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success.
Risks Related to the Discovery, Development and Commercialization of Our Product and Product Candidates
•We are heavily dependent on the successful development of our TV platform and the programs currently in our pipeline. If we are unable to successfully and timely commercialize AVLAYAH or our other product candidates, our business could be harmed.
•Our estimated market opportunities are subject to numerous uncertainties and may prove to be inaccurate. If we have overestimated the size of our market opportunities, our future growth may be limited.
•We may encounter substantial delays in our clinical trials or difficulties enrolling patients, or may not be able to conduct or complete our clinical trials on the timelines we expect, if at all.
•Our clinical trials may reveal significant adverse events, toxicities, or other side effects and may fail to demonstrate substantial evidence of the safety and efficacy or potency of AVLAYAH or our product candidates, which would prevent, delay, or limit the scope of regulatory approval and commercialization.
•Interim, topline, and preliminary data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available, and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.
•We face significant competition in an environment of rapid technological and scientific change, and our operating results may suffer if we fail to compete effectively.
•We may fail to successfully manufacture our product candidates, operate our own manufacturing facility, or obtain regulatory approval to utilize or commercialize from our manufacturing facility.
•AVLAYAH and our other product candidates may not achieve adequate market acceptance necessary for commercial success.
•AVLAYAH and any other product candidates for which we receive approval may become subject to unfavorable pricing regulations, third-party reimbursement practices, or healthcare reform initiatives.
•Our biologic, or large molecule, product candidates for which we intend to seek approval may face competition sooner than anticipated.
•If any of our small molecule product candidates obtain regulatory approval, additional competitors could enter the market with generic versions of such drugs, which may result in a material decline in sales of affected products.
•If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of our product candidates.
Risks Related to Regulatory Approval and Other Legal Compliance Matters
•The regulatory approval processes of the FDA, European Medicines Agency ("EMA") and comparable foreign regulatory authorities are lengthy, time consuming, and inherently unpredictable. If we are ultimately unable to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates, we will be unable to generate product revenue.
•We currently conduct clinical trials outside the United States, and the FDA, EMA and applicable foreign regulatory authorities may not accept data from such trials.
•A significant portion of our international sales are made based on special access programs, and changes to these programs could adversely affect our product sales and revenues in these countries.
•Even if we obtain regulatory approval for a product candidate, our products will remain subject to extensive regulatory scrutiny.
•To the extent we seek orphan drug designation for any of our product candidates, we may be unable to obtain such designations or to maintain the benefits associated with orphan drug status.
•Healthcare legislative measures aimed at reducing healthcare costs may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
•If we or our employees, contractors, partners, and vendors fail to comply with healthcare laws or regulatory requirements, we could face substantial penalties and our business could be adversely affected.
•Our business is subject to complex and evolving U.S. and foreign laws and regulations, information security policies, and contractual obligations relating to privacy, data protection, and data security.
•If we or any contract manufacturers and suppliers we engage fail to comply with environmental, health, and safety laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur costs.
•Our business activities may be subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws, as well as U.S. and certain foreign export controls, trade sanctions, and import laws and regulations.
•Inadequate funding for the FDA, USPTO, SEC, and other government agencies could hinder or result in the suspension of their operations, which could negatively impact our business.
Risks Related to Our Reliance on Third Parties
•We depend on collaborations with third parties for the research, development and commercialization of certain product candidates. If any such collaborations are not successful, we may not be able to realize the market potential of those product candidates.
•We rely on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and some aspects of our research and preclinical testing, and those third parties may not perform satisfactorily.
•Our reliance on third parties for the manufacture of the significant majority of the materials for our research programs, preclinical studies, and clinical trials may increase the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of such materials or product candidates.
•We depend on third-party suppliers for key raw materials used in our manufacturing, and the loss of these suppliers or their inability to supply us with adequate raw materials could harm our business.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
•If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent protection for our product candidates or our TV technology, our competitors could develop and commercialize products or technology similar or identical to ours, and adversely affect our ability to commercialize any product candidates.
•If any of our owned or in-licensed patent applications do not issue as patents in any jurisdiction, we may not be able to compete effectively.
•If the scope of any patent protection we obtain is not sufficiently broad, or if we lose any of our patent protection, our ability to prevent our competitors from commercializing similar or identical technology and product candidates would be adversely affected.
•Our rights to develop and commercialize our TV technology and product candidates are subject, in part, to the terms of licenses granted to us by others or licenses granted by us to others.
•If we fail to comply with our obligations in the agreements under which we license intellectual property rights from third parties or otherwise experience disruptions to our business relationships with our licensors, we could lose license rights that are important to our business.
•We may not be able to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights throughout the world.
•Our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated if we are unable to comply with requirements imposed by government patent agencies.
•Changes in U.S. patent law could impair our ability to protect our products.
•Issued patents covering our TV technology, product candidates and other technologies could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged.
•Patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on our product candidates for an adequate amount of time.
•We may be subject to claims challenging the inventorship of our intellectual property.
•If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, our business would be harmed.
•We may not be successful in obtaining, through acquisitions, in-licenses, or otherwise, necessary rights to our TV platform, product candidates or other technologies.
•We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants, or advisors have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their current or former employers.
•Third-party intellectual property claims against us, our licensors or our collaborators may prevent or delay the development of our TV platform, product candidates and other technologies.
•We may become involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents and other intellectual property rights, which could be expensive, time consuming, and unsuccessful.
•If our trademarks and trade names are not adequately protected, then we may not be able to build name recognition in our markets of interest and our business may be adversely affected.
Risks Related to Our Operations
•If we are not successful in attracting, motivating and retaining highly qualified personnel, we may not be able to successfully implement our business strategy.
•We will need to grow the size and capabilities of our organization, and we may experience difficulties in managing this growth.
•We have engaged in and may in the future engage in acquisitions or strategic partnerships, which may increase our capital requirements, dilute our stockholders, or cause us to incur debt or assume contingent liabilities.
•Our internal computer systems, or those used by our collaborators, CROs or other contractors, may fail or suffer security breaches or incidents that could compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of such systems and data, expose us to liability, and affect our reputation.
•Business disruptions, including as a result of geopolitical events and global pandemics, could seriously harm our future revenue and financial condition and increase our costs and expenses.
•Our business is subject to economic, political, regulatory, and other risks associated with international operations.
•Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock
•The market price of our common stock has been and may continue to be volatile, which could result in substantial losses for investors.
•If securities analysts publish negative evaluations of our stock, or if they do not publish research or reports about our business; the price of our stock and trading volume could decline.
•Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public markets, or the perception that such sales might occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline significantly, even if our business is doing well.
•Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our existing stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or product candidates.
•Our principal stockholders and management own a significant percentage of our stock and will be able to exercise significant influence over matters subject to stockholder approval.
•If we are unable to maintain effective internal controls, our business, financial position and results of operations and growth prospects could be adversely affected.
•We do not expect to pay any dividends for the foreseeable future. Investors may never obtain a return on their investment.
•Delaware law and provisions in our charter documents might prevent a change in control of our company or changes in our management, depressing the trading price of our common stock.
•Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides exclusive forums for disputes between us and our stockholders, limiting their ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum.
Risks Related to Our Business, Financial Condition and Capital Requirements
We are a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company in the initial stages of commercializing our product AVLAYAHTM, which may make it difficult for investors to evaluate our current business and likelihood of success and viability.
We are a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history upon which you can evaluate our business and prospects. We commenced operations in May 2015 and received our first FDA product approval in March 2026 for AVLAYAH. We are continuing to transition from a company with a research and development focus to a company capable of supporting commercial activities and we may not be successful in such transition. We are still in the early stages of demonstrating our ability to arrange for a third party to manufacture at commercial scale, or conduct sales, marketing, and distribution activities necessary for successful product commercialization. Our limited operating history makes any assessment of our future success and viability subject to significant uncertainty. We will encounter risks and difficulties frequently experienced by biopharmaceutical companies in rapidly evolving fields and with recently approved therapies. If we do not address these risks and difficulties or successfully make a commercial transition, our business will suffer.
We may not become profitable and may need to obtain additional funding to continue operations. Revenue from the sale of any product candidate for which regulatory approval is obtained will be dependent, in part, upon the size of the markets in the territories for which we gain regulatory approval, the accepted price for the product, the ability to obtain reimbursement at any price, and whether we own the commercial rights for that territory. If the number of addressable patients is not as significant as we anticipate, the indication approved by regulatory authorities is narrower than we expect, or the reasonably accepted population for treatment is narrowed by competition, physician choice, or treatment guidelines, we may not generate significant revenue from product sales. Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis.
Our failure to become and remain profitable would decrease the value of our company and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business, maintain our research and development efforts, diversify our pipeline of product candidates, or continue our operations and cause a decline in the value of our common stock, all or any of which may adversely affect our viability.
We have incurred significant net losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur net losses for the foreseeable future.
We have incurred significant net losses since our inception. Our net losses were $128.4 million and $133.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, respectively. As of March 31, 2026, we had an accumulated deficit of $2.18 billion.
We have invested significant financial resources in research and development activities, including for our preclinical and clinical product candidates and our TV platform. Our operations to date include organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, identifying potential product candidates, establishing licensing arrangements, undertaking various research and nonclinical studies, conducting clinical trials, establishing manufacturing and supply operations, and preparing for and launching commercialization activities. The amount of our future net losses will depend, in part, on the level of our future expenditures and revenue.
We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and increasingly higher operating losses for the foreseeable future. Our prior losses and expected future losses have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our stockholders’ equity and working capital. Moreover, our net losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year, such that a period-to-period comparison of our results of operations may not be a good indication of our future performance. In any particular quarter or quarters, our operating results could be below the expectations of securities analysts or investors, which could cause our stock price to decline.
Our near-term revenues are highly dependent on the successful commercialization of AVLAYAH, which received marketing approval in March 2026 from the FDA. To the extent that AVLAYAH is not commercially successful, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially and adversely affected and the price of our common stock would decline.
Our future success is highly dependent on our ability to timely complete successful clinical trials, obtain marketing authorization for, and then successfully commercialize, AVLAYAH and our other product candidates. AVLAYAH is our only drug that has been approved for sale and it has only been approved for the treatment of neurologic manifestations in patients with Hunter syndrome (MPS II) when initiated in presymptomatic or symptomatic pediatric patients weighing at least 5 kg prior to advanced neurologic impairment. Prior to AVLAYAH, we had not, as an organization, launched or commercialized a product, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to successfully commercialize AVLAYAH. There are numerous examples of unsuccessful product launches and failures to meet high expectations of market potential. If the commercialization of AVLAYAH is unsuccessful or perceived as disappointing, our stock price could decline and the long-term success of the product and our company could be harmed.
The success of AVLAYAH will depend on several factors, including the following:
•making arrangements with third-party manufacturers for both clinical and commercial supplies of AVLAYAH and ensuring a resilient, effective supply chain that produces supply capable of meeting demand;
•implementing marketing, pricing and reimbursement strategies, as well as adequate demand forecasts for supply and sales planning;
•establishing sales, marketing and distribution capabilities for AVLAYAH, whether alone or in collaboration with others in a market where promotional sales approaches are rapidly moving to digital platforms and access of sales representatives to major institutions remains uncertain;
•acceptance of AVLAYAH by patients, physicians, the medical community and third-party payors underpinned by adequate health economic data and a meaningful value proposition;
•obtaining and maintaining third-party payor coverage and adequate reimbursement in both public and private payor spaces across multiple countries;
•effectively competing with other therapies, including those that have not yet entered the market;
•effectively competing with other companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, which are characterized by rapidly advancing technologies, intense competition and a strong emphasis on proprietary and novel products and product candidates;
•obtaining appropriate support from patient advocacy organizations;
•effectively shaping the market in the early years following launch to help providers understand a new approach to identifying and treating eligible patients;
•whether our patents will be sufficient to prevent generic competition for AVLAYAH after our orphan drug exclusivity expires;
•the successful completion of any required or committed post-marketing studies and available funding to perform any such post-marketing requirements or post-marketing commitments;
•maintaining a continued acceptable safety profile of the products following approval.
Many of these factors are beyond our control, and if we cannot address any of them in a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully commercialize AVLAYAH and our product candidates, which would materially harm our business.
Due to the ongoing commercialization of AVLAYAH and continued development of our product candidates, our capital requirements are difficult to predict and may change. We may require substantial additional financing to achieve our goals, and a failure to obtain this necessary capital if or when needed on acceptable terms, or at all, could harm our business.
We expect to continue to expend substantial resources in connection with our commercialization efforts, the development of our current product candidates, the maintenance and expansion of our business operations and capabilities, and the development or acquisition of additional product candidates.
Because the outcome of any nonclinical study or clinical trial is highly uncertain, we cannot reasonably estimate the actual amount of resources necessary to successfully complete the development and commercialization of any of our product candidates. Similarly, due to the complexities of our recent transition to a commercial-stage company, it is challenging to estimate the actual amounts necessary to successfully commercialize any products approved for sale. In addition to the uncertainties related to commercialization of AVLAYAH, our resource estimates will depend on a number of discovery- and development-related factors, including:
•our ability to successfully execute on our business plan and our internal projections and estimates of costs and execution timing;
•the scope, progress, results, and costs of developing product candidates and conducting nonclinical studies and clinical trials, including in connection with our current product candidates;
•suspensions or delays in enrollment of our ongoing and future clinical trials, issues with data collection, or changes to the number of subjects we decide to enroll in our clinical trials, including as a result of competing trials or otherwise;
•the number and scope of clinical programs we decide to pursue, and the number and characteristics of any product candidates we develop or acquire;
•the timing of, and the costs involved in, obtaining regulatory reviews and approvals for our product candidates;
•the cost of manufacturing any current and future products and product candidates and the costs associated with building out our supply chain;
•our ability to establish and maintain strategic collaborations, licensing, or other arrangements and the financial terms of any such agreements that we may enter into;
•the impact of any acquisitions or similar transactions or partnerships;
•the costs related to royalty payments due to Royalty Pharma, or any future collaboration or licensing partners upon the achievement of negotiated milestones;
•any product liability or other lawsuits related to our products;
•the expenses needed to attract and retain skilled personnel; and
•the costs involved in preparing, filing, prosecuting, maintaining, defending, and enforcing our intellectual property portfolio.
Our operations have required substantial amounts of cash since inception. We currently fund our operations primarily with the proceeds from our follow-on offerings completed in October 2022 and December 2025, payments received from our collaboration agreements with Biogen, Sanofi, Takeda, a strategic private offering transaction completed in February 2024, and a royalty financing agreement with Royalty Pharma that closed in March 2026. Developing our product candidates is expensive, and we expect to continue to spend substantial amounts as we fund our early-stage research projects and advance our programs through preclinical and clinical development and commercialization.
As of March 31, 2026, we had $1.05 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. We believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities will be sufficient to fund our projected operations through at least the next twelve months. Our estimate as to how long we expect our existing cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities to be available to fund our operations is based on assumptions that may be proven inaccurate, and we could use our available capital resources sooner than we currently expect. Changing circumstances, some of which may be beyond our control, such as geopolitical uncertainty, rising inflation or interest rates, the imposition of tariffs, risks associated with transactions denominated in foreign currency, or a perceived or actual economic downturn, may cause us to increase our spending significantly faster than we currently anticipate, and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned. We may also need to raise additional funds sooner than we anticipate if we choose to expand more rapidly than we presently anticipate.
We have no committed source of additional capital, and we cannot be certain that additional funding will be available when we need it, on terms acceptable to us or at all. If adequate capital is not available to us on a timely basis, we may be required to significantly delay, scale back, or discontinue our research and development programs or the commercialization of any product candidates, or be unable to continue or expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities, which could materially affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects and cause the price of our common stock to decline.
We may expend our limited resources on programs that do not yield a successful product candidate and fail to capitalize on product candidates or indications that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success.
Investment in biopharmaceutical product development involves significant risk that any product candidate will fail to demonstrate adequate efficacy, potency, or safety, obtain regulatory approval, or achieve commercial viability. To date, we have invested substantially all of our efforts and financial resources to identifying, acquiring intellectual property for, and developing our TV platform and our programs, including conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials, and providing general and administrative support for these operations. Our decisions concerning the allocation of research, development, collaboration, management, and financial resources toward particular product candidates or therapeutic areas may not lead to the development of any viable commercial product and may divert resources away from better opportunities. Similarly, our potential decisions to delay, terminate, divest, or collaborate with third parties in respect of certain programs may subsequently prove to be suboptimal and could cause us to miss valuable opportunities. If we make incorrect determinations regarding the viability, indication size, or market potential of any of our programs or product candidates or misread trends in the biopharmaceutical industry, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects could be materially adversely affected.
We have previously discontinued the development of certain molecules prior to completion of preclinical development because we did not believe they met our criteria for potential clinical success. Further, we cannot be certain that any of our product candidates will be successful in clinical trials. For instance, in January 2025, we announced that the Phase 2/3 HEALEY ALS Platform Trial evaluating DNL343 for ALS did not meet primary and key secondary endpoints. We may also advance product candidates into clinical trials and later terminate those trials before completion.
In addition, we may decide at any time to discontinue development or commercialization of any product or product candidate for a variety of reasons, including the emergence of new technologies that render a product obsolete, competition from other products, or changes in, or our inability to comply with, applicable regulatory requirements. If we terminate a program in which we have invested significant resources, we will not realize any return on that investment and may lose the opportunity to allocate those resources to potentially more productive uses.
Risks Related to the Discovery, Development, and Commercialization of Our Product and Product Candidates
Our estimated market opportunities are subject to numerous uncertainties and may prove to be inaccurate. If we have overestimated the size of our market opportunities, our future growth may be limited.
Our estimated markets and market opportunities for our approved product, AVLAYAH, and product candidates are based on a variety of inputs, including data published by third parties, our own market insights and internal market intelligence, and internally generated data and assumptions. Market opportunity estimates, whether obtained or derived from third-party sources or developed internally, are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not prove to be accurate. While we believe our market opportunity estimates are reasonable, such information is inherently imprecise. If this third-party or internally generated data prove to be inaccurate or we make
errors in our assumptions based on that data, our actual market may be more limited than our estimates. Particularly with respect to ultra-rare diseases, the size of potential markets is small and we must achieve significant market penetration of the product at a sufficient price to justify our product development costs. An error in estimating the market size could cause us to misallocate capital and other critical business resources, which could harm our business. The estimates of our market opportunities should not be taken as indicative of our ability to grow our business.
We may encounter substantial delays in our clinical trials or difficulties enrolling patients, or may not be able to conduct or complete our clinical trials on the timelines we expect, if at all.
Clinical testing is expensive, time consuming, and subject to uncertainty. We cannot guarantee that any clinical trials will be conducted as planned or completed on schedule, if at all. We cannot be sure that submission of an IND, or a clinical trial application ("CTA"), will result in the FDA or EMA, as applicable, allowing clinical trials to begin in a timely manner, if at all. Clinical testing is difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete and its ultimate outcome is uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial processes and for any number of reasons, and, because our product candidates are in earlier stages of development, there is a high risk of failure and we may never succeed in developing marketable products.
Events that may prevent successful or timely initiation or completion of clinical trials include:
•inability to generate sufficient preclinical, toxicology, or other in vivo or in vitro data to support the initiation or continuation of clinical trials;
•delays in confirming target engagement, patient selection, or other relevant biomarkers to be utilized in preclinical and clinical product candidate development;
•delays in reaching a consensus with regulatory agencies on trial design;
•delays involving our clinical trial sites, including delays in reaching agreement on acceptable terms with prospective CROs and clinical trial sites, delays in identifying, recruiting and training suitable clinical investigators, and delays in obtaining required IRB approval at each clinical trial site;
•imposition of a temporary or permanent clinical hold by regulatory agencies for a number of reasons, including after review of an IND or amendment, CTA or amendment, or equivalent application or amendment; as a result of a new safety finding that presents unreasonable risk to clinical trial participants; a negative finding from an inspection of our clinical trial operations or trial sites; developments in trials conducted by competitors for related technology that raise FDA or EMA concerns about risk to patients of the technology broadly; or if the FDA or EMA finds that the investigational protocol or plan is clearly deficient to meet its stated objectives;
•delays in identifying, recruiting and enrolling suitable patients to participate in our clinical trials;
•difficulty collaborating with patient groups and investigators;
•failure by our CROs, other third parties, or us to adhere to clinical trial requirements;
•failure to perform in accordance with the FDA’s or any other regulatory authority’s current good clinical practices ("cGCPs") requirements, or other regulatory guidelines in other countries;
•occurrence of adverse events associated with the product candidate that are viewed to outweigh its potential benefits;
•changes in regulatory requirements and guidance that require amending or submitting new clinical protocols;
•delays due to changes in the staffing, priorities, or leadership of the FDA or other regulatory authorities, or changes to regulatory approval policies or regulations;
•changes in the standard of care on which a clinical development plan was based, which may require new or additional trials;
•the cost of clinical trials of our product candidates being greater than we anticipate;
•clinical trials of our product candidates producing negative or inconclusive results, which may result in us or our collaborators deciding, or regulators requiring us, to conduct additional clinical trials or abandon product development programs;
•transfer of manufacturing processes from our academic collaborators to larger-scale facilities operated by a CDMO or by us, and delays or failure by our CDMOs or us to make any necessary changes to such manufacturing process;
•delays in manufacturing, testing, releasing, validating, or importing/exporting sufficient stable quantities of our product candidates for use in clinical trials or the inability to do any of the foregoing; and
•delays associated with a pandemic or other public health emergency.
Any inability to successfully initiate or complete clinical trials could result in additional costs to us or impair our ability to generate revenue. In addition, if we make manufacturing or formulation changes to our product candidates, we or our collaborators may be required to or elect to conduct additional studies to bridge our modified product candidates to earlier versions. Clinical trial delays could also shorten any periods during which our products have patent protection and may allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, which could impair our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and may harm our business and results of operations. In addition, many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates.
Our product candidates have been subject to clinical holds in the past and we cannot assure you that others will not be subject to new, partial, or full clinical holds in the future. For example, in December 2025, we announced that DNL952 was placed on clinical hold. Although protocol amendments were implemented for DNL952 and the program resumed, there could be safety findings or concerns that result in additional pauses, protocol modifications, or permanent discontinuation of development. Any clinical holds by the FDA, if not timely lifted, could impact our development plans.
We may be unable to obtain regulatory approval for an expansion of our product labels or approval of our product candidates under applicable regulatory requirements. The denial or delay of any such approval would prevent or delay commercialization of additional indications of our product candidates and adversely impact our business.
To gain approval to expand the label of our products or market our product candidates, we must provide the FDA and/or foreign regulatory authorities with nonclinical and clinical data that adequately demonstrate the safety and efficacy, or as applicable, the safety, purity, and potency of the product for the intended indication applied for in the applicable regulatory filing. There is significant regulatory risk involving our products and product candidates, and we cannot provide assurance that AVLAYAH or any future product candidates will gain an expanded label or that our product candidates will obtain regulatory approval for commercialization as expected, or at all. The research, testing, manufacturing, labeling, approval, sale, marketing, and distribution of drug products are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory authorities in the United States and other countries, and such regulations differ from country to country. We are not permitted to market expanded indications of our products or any product candidates in the United States or in any foreign countries until they receive the requisite approval from the applicable regulatory authorities of such jurisdictions, including pricing approval in the EU.
The FDA or foreign regulatory authorities may delay, limit, or deny approval of expanded labels for our products or product candidates for numerous reasons, including our inability to demonstrate safety, efficacy, purity, or potency to their satisfaction; disagreement with the design, size, conduct, or interpretation of our clinical trials or nonclinical studies; a determination that the clinical benefits do not outweigh safety risks or that trial results lack sufficient statistical significance or clinical meaningfulness; requirements for additional studies, post-marketing commitments, or a patient registry; deficiencies in our chemistry, manufacturing, and controls data or in the processes or facilities of our third-party manufacturers; advisory committee recommendations against approval or in favor of additional conditions such as labeling limitations or distribution restrictions; imposition of a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) or equivalent; non-approval of our formulation, dosing, labeling, or specifications; actions or protocol errors by the CROs we engage to conduct our trials; or changes in approval policies or regulations that render our existing clinical data insufficient for approval.
Our clinical trials may reveal significant adverse events, toxicities, or other side effects and may fail to demonstrate substantial evidence of the safety and efficacy or potency of AVLAYAH or our product candidates, which would prevent, delay, or limit the scope of regulatory approval and commercialization.
Clinical testing is expensive, time-consuming, and inherently uncertain, and failure can occur at any time during the development process. Results of preclinical studies may not be predictive of clinical trial outcomes, and results of early-stage trials may not be predictive of later-stage trials. Variability in safety or efficacy results across trials can arise from differences in patient populations, protocols, dosing adherence, and discontinuation rates. Any safety concerns observed in one clinical trial could lead to delays, termination, or limited regulatory prospects across our pipeline.
Even if clinical trials are completed successfully, the FDA or foreign regulatory authorities may require additional data or trials before or after submission, and any approval we receive may be narrower in scope than anticipated, limiting commercial potential. If we or our collaborators later identify undesirable side effects or adverse events following approval, regulatory authorities could withdraw approval, require a product recall, impose additional label warnings or post-approval studies, or restrict how the product is administered. Any such outcomes could harm our reputation, business, financial condition, and growth prospects.
AVLAYAH has been administered to only a limited number of patients in clinical studies, and while the FDA granted accelerated approval, real-world safety and effectiveness may differ from what was observed in those studies. Post-marketing data, adverse event reports, and ongoing clinical studies may cause regulatory authorities to withdraw approval of the product and require a recall, mandate additional label warnings, require changes to administration or additional clinical trials or post-approval studies, or require us to implement a REMS; in addition, we could be sued and held liable for patient harm, and our reputation could suffer.
Interim, topline, and preliminary data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available, and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.
From time to time, we may publicly disclose preliminary, interim, or topline data from our nonclinical studies and clinical trials, which are based on a preliminary analysis of then-available data, and the results and related findings and conclusions are subject to change following a more comprehensive review of the data related to the particular study or trial. We also make assumptions, estimations, calculations, and conclusions as part of our analyses of data, and we may not have received or had the opportunity to fully and carefully evaluate all data. As a result, the topline results that we report may differ from future results of the same studies, or different conclusions or considerations may qualify such results, once additional data have been received and fully evaluated. Topline data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary data we previously published. As a result, preliminary, interim, or topline data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. In addition, we may report interim analyses of only certain endpoints rather than all endpoints. Adverse changes between interim data and final data could significantly harm our business and prospects. Further, additional disclosure of interim data by us or by our competitors in the future could result in volatility in the price of our common stock.
Further, others, including our collaborators or regulatory agencies, may not accept or agree with our assumptions, estimates, calculations, conclusions, or analyses or may interpret or weigh the importance of data differently, which could impact the value of the particular program, the approval or commercialization of the particular product candidate and our company in general. In addition, the information we choose to publicly disclose regarding a particular study or clinical trial is typically selected from a more extensive amount of available information. You or others may not agree with what we determine is the material or otherwise appropriate information to include in our disclosure, and any information we determine not to disclose may ultimately be deemed significant with respect to future decisions, conclusions, views, activities or otherwise regarding a particular product candidate or our business. If the preliminary or topline data that we report differ from late, final, or actual results, or if others, including our collaborators or regulatory authorities, disagree with the conclusions reached, our ability to obtain approval for, and commercialize our product candidates may be harmed.
We face significant competition in an environment of rapid technological and scientific change, and our operating results may suffer if we fail to compete effectively.
The development and commercialization of new drug products is highly competitive. Moreover, the neurodegenerative and lysosomal storage fields are characterized by strong and increasing competition. Our potential competitors include pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, government agencies, and other public and private research organizations that conduct research. Our competitors, either alone or with collaborative partners, may succeed in developing, acquiring, or licensing on an exclusive basis drug or biologic products that are more effective, safer, more easily commercialized, or less costly than our product candidates or may develop proprietary technologies or secure patent protection that we may need for the development of our technologies and products.
A number of large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are developing products for the treatment of the neurodegenerative and lysosomal storage disease indications for which we have research programs, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Hunter syndrome, Sanfilippo syndrome, Pompe disease, and FTD-GRN. Companies that we are aware are developing therapeutics in the neurodegenerative and lysosomal storage disease areas include companies with significant financial resources, established presence in the market, and expertise in research, development, manufacturing, and commercialization. In addition to competition from other companies targeting neurodegenerative indications, any products we may develop may also face competition from other types of therapies, such as gene-editing therapies.
Mergers and acquisitions may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. Our 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. Our commercial opportunity could be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient, or are less expensive than any products that we may develop. Furthermore, currently approved products could be discovered to have application for treatment of neurodegenerative or lysosomal storage disease indications, which could give such products significant regulatory and market timing advantages over any of our product candidates. Our competitors also may obtain regulatory approval for their products more rapidly than we do, and may obtain orphan product exclusivity for indications our product candidates are targeting, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market. Additionally, products or technologies developed by our competitors may render our potential product candidates uneconomical or obsolete, and we may not be successful in marketing any product candidates we may develop against competitors.
We may fail to successfully manufacture our product candidates, operate our own manufacturing facility, or obtain regulatory approval to utilize or commercialize from our manufacturing facility, which could adversely affect our clinical trials and the commercial viability of our product candidates.
The processes involved in manufacturing our drug and biological product candidates, particularly those that utilize our TV platform, are complex, expensive, highly regulated and subject to multiple risks. Additionally, the manufacture of biologics involves complex processes, including developing cells or cell systems to produce the biologic, growing large quantities of such cells, and harvesting and purifying the biologic produced by them. As a result, the cost to manufacture a biologic is generally far higher than traditional small molecule chemical compounds, and the biologics manufacturing process is less reliable and is difficult to reproduce. Manufacturing biologics is highly susceptible to product loss due to contamination, equipment failure, improper installation or operation of equipment, vendor or operator error, inconsistency in yields, variability in product characteristics, and difficulties in scaling the production process. Even minor deviations from normal manufacturing processes could result in reduced production yields, product defects, and other supply disruptions. Further, as product candidates are developed through preclinical studies to late-stage clinical trials towards approval and commercialization, it is common that various aspects of the development program, such as manufacturing methods, are altered along the way in an effort to optimize processes and results. Such changes carry the risk that they will not achieve these intended objectives, and any of these changes could cause our product candidates to perform differently and affect the results of planned clinical trials or other future clinical trials.
In order to conduct clinical trials of our product candidates, or supply commercial products, we will need to manufacture them in small and large quantities. Our manufacturing partners may be unable to successfully increase the manufacturing capacity for any of our product candidates in a timely or cost-effective manner, or at all. In addition, quality issues may arise during scale-up activities. If our manufacturing partners are unable to successfully scale up the manufacture of our product candidates in sufficient quality and quantity, the development, testing, and clinical trials of that product candidate may be delayed or become infeasible, and regulatory approval or commercial launch of any resulting product may be delayed or not obtained, which could significantly harm our business. The same risks would apply to our internal manufacturing facilities and capabilities. Under a lease for approximately 60,000 rentable square feet of laboratory, office, and warehouse premises, we have completed the build-out of our Utah site and have begun to manufacture materials for toxicology studies and drug substance for human clinical studies. There can be no assurance that our current and future efforts to scale our internal manufacturing capabilities will succeed.
In addition, the manufacturing process, including any material modifications in the manufacturing process for any products that we may develop, is subject to regulatory authority approval processes and continuous oversight, and we will need to contract with manufacturers who can meet all applicable regulatory authority requirements, including complying with current good manufacturing practices ("cGMPs"), on an ongoing basis. If we or our third-party manufacturers are unable to reliably produce products to specifications acceptable to regulatory authorities, we may not obtain or maintain the approvals we need to commercialize such products. Even if we obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates, there is no assurance that either we or our CDMOs will be able to manufacture the approved product to specifications acceptable to the regulatory authorities, to produce it in sufficient quantities to meet the requirements for the potential launch of the product, or to meet potential future demand. Any of these challenges could delay completion of clinical trials, require bridging clinical trials or the repetition of one or more clinical trials, increase clinical trial costs, delay approval of our product candidate, impair commercialization efforts, increase our cost of goods, and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
Furthermore, if we receive commercial approval in the United States and intend to seek approval in other countries, we may rely on third-party distributors and other commercial partners outside the United States, such as local agents, wholesalers, importers and logistics providers, to market, distribute and support any potential commercial products, and our ability to enter and compete in non-U.S. markets may depend on the performance of these third parties. These partners are subject to complex and evolving foreign laws and regulatory regimes and may be required to obtain, maintain and renew various licenses, approvals and registrations and to comply with local requirements relating to importation, storage and handling, serialization and traceability, pharmacovigilance, recordkeeping and reporting, and promotional and marketing activities. If any such third party fails to obtain or maintain required authorizations, violates applicable laws or industry codes, engages in misconduct or misrepresentations, or otherwise performs poorly (including through inadequate forecasting, inventory management, product storage or handling, documentation, complaint management or recall support), we could experience delayed market entry, interruption of supply, product seizures, import holds or other enforcement actions, and we may incur significant costs to investigate, remediate or transition to alternative partners. In addition, we may have limited ability to monitor and control our foreign distributors’ activities, and we could be subject to regulatory scrutiny, civil or criminal penalties, reputational harm, reduced sales, or termination of our commercial agreements as a result of their acts or omissions.
AVLAYAH and our other product candidates may not achieve adequate market acceptance among physicians, healthcare professionals, patients or their families, healthcare payors and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.
Our approved product other product candidates may not achieve adequate market acceptance among physicians, healthcare professionals, patients or their families, healthcare payors and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success globally. The degree of market acceptance of any of our approved product candidates will depend on a number of factors, including:
•the efficacy or potency and safety of such product candidates as demonstrated in pivotal clinical trials and published in peer-reviewed journals;
•the potential and perceived advantages compared to alternative treatments;
•the ability to offer our products for sale at competitive prices;
•the ability to offer appropriate patient access programs, such as co-pay assistance;
•the extent to which physicians recommend our products to their patients;
•convenience and ease of dosing and administration compared to alternative treatments;
•the clinical indications for which the product candidate is approved by FDA, EMA, or other regulatory agencies;
•product labeling or product insert requirements of the FDA, EMA, or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities, including any limitations, contraindications or warnings contained in a product’s approved labeling;
•restrictions on how the product is distributed;
•the timing of market introduction of competitive products;
•publicity concerning our products or competing products and treatments;
•the strength of marketing and distribution support;
•sufficient third-party coverage or reimbursement; and
•the prevalence and severity of any side effects.
If AVLAYAH or any product candidates we develop do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenue, and we may not become profitable.
AVLAYAH and any other product candidates for which we receive approval may become subject to unfavorable pricing regulations, third-party 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, 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 approval is granted. As a result, we might obtain marketing approval for a product in a particular country, but then be subject to price regulations that delay our commercial launch of the product, possibly for lengthy time periods, and negatively impact the revenue we are able to generate from the sale of the product in that country. Adverse pricing limitations may hinder our ability to recoup our investment in AVLAYAH or any future product candidates that receive marketing approval.
Our ability to successfully commercialize AVLAYAH or any future product candidates for which we receive marketing approval also will depend in part on the extent to which reimbursement for these products and related treatments will be available from government health administration authorities, 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 primary 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 reimbursement for particular medications. Government authorities currently impose mandatory discounts for certain patient groups, such as Medicare, Medicaid and Veterans Affairs ("VA"), hospitals, and may seek to increase such discounts at any time. Future regulation may negatively impact the price of our products. 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. We cannot be sure that reimbursement will be available for any product candidate that we commercialize and, if reimbursement is available, the level of reimbursement. Reimbursement may impact the demand for, or the price of, AVLAYAH or any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval. In order to get reimbursement, physicians may need to show that patients have superior treatment outcomes with our products compared to standard of care drugs, including lower-priced generic versions of standard of care drugs. 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. In the United States, no uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for products exists among third-party payors and coverage and reimbursement levels for products can differ significantly from payor to payor. As a result, the coverage determination process is often a time consuming and costly process that may require us to provide scientific and clinical support for the use of our products to each payor separately, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be applied consistently or obtained in the first instance.
There may be significant delays in obtaining reimbursement for newly approved drugs, and coverage may be more limited than the purposes for which the medicine is approved by regulatory authorities. Moreover, eligibility for reimbursement does not imply that any drug 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. Reimbursement rates may vary according to the use of the drug and the clinical setting in which it is used, may be based on reimbursement levels already set for lower cost drugs and 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 policy and payment limitations in setting their own reimbursement policies. Our inability to promptly obtain coverage and profitable payment rates from both government-funded and private payors for any approved products we may develop could have a material adverse effect on our operating results, our ability to raise capital needed to commercialize product candidates, and our overall financial condition.
Our biologic, or large molecule, product candidates for which we intend to seek approval may face competition sooner than anticipated.
Even if we are successful in achieving regulatory approval to commercialize a product candidate faster than our competitors, our large molecule product candidates may face competition from biosimilar products. In the United States, our large molecule product candidates, are regulated by the FDA as biologic products. We sought and received approval for AVLAYAH pursuant to a BLA pathway and may do so for other large molecule product candidates in our pipeline. The Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (the "BPCIA"), created an abbreviated pathway for the approval of biosimilar and interchangeable biologic products. The abbreviated regulatory pathway establishes legal authority for the FDA to review and approve biosimilar biologics, including the possible designation of a biosimilar as “interchangeable” based on its similarity to an existing brand product. Under the BPCIA, an application for a biosimilar product cannot be approved by the FDA until 12 years after the original branded product was approved under a BLA. The law is complex and is still being interpreted and implemented by the FDA. As a result, its ultimate impact, implementation, and meaning are subject to uncertainty. While it is uncertain when such processes intended to implement BPCIA may be fully adopted by the FDA, any such processes could have a material adverse effect on the future commercial prospects for our large molecule product candidates.
We believe that any of our large molecule product candidates approved as a biologic product under a BLA should qualify for the 12-year period of exclusivity. However, there is a risk that this exclusivity could be shortened due to congressional action or otherwise, or that the FDA will not consider our product candidates to be reference products for competing products, potentially creating the opportunity for generic competition sooner than anticipated. Moreover, the extent to which a biosimilar product, once approved, will be substituted for any one of our reference products in a way that is similar to traditional generic substitution for non-biologic products is not yet clear, and will depend on a number of marketplace and regulatory factors that are still developing. In addition, a competitor could decide to forego the biosimilar approval path and submit a full BLA after completing its own preclinical studies and clinical trials. In such cases, any exclusivity to which we may be eligible under the BPCIA would not prevent the competitor from marketing its product as soon as it is approved.
In Europe, if competitors are able to obtain marketing approval for biosimilars referencing our large molecule product candidates, such products may become subject to competition from such biosimilars, with the attendant competitive pressure and potential adverse consequences. Such competitive products may be able to immediately compete with us in each indication for which our product candidates may have received approval.
If any of our small molecule product candidates obtain regulatory approval, additional competitors could enter the market with generic versions of such drugs, which may result in a material decline in sales of affected products.
If any of our small molecule product candidates obtain regulatory approval, competitors may file abbreviated new drug applications under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984 (the "Hatch-Waxman Act") seeking approval of generic versions, or submit 505(b)(2) new drug applications referencing our approved products. Although the Hatch-Waxman Act provides certain periods of regulatory exclusivity and we may obtain patent protection eligible for listing in the FDA's Orange Book, we cannot predict which patents, if any, will be eligible for listing, whether generic applicants will challenge those patents through Paragraph IV certifications, or the outcome of any resulting litigation. If any of our Orange Book-listed patents are successfully challenged, the affected product could immediately face generic competition and its sales would likely decline rapidly and materially, which could require us to write off a portion or all of the intangible assets associated with the affected product and could materially and adversely affect our results of operations and cash flows. See "Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property."
If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of our product candidates.
We face an inherent risk of product liability as a result of the clinical testing of our product candidates and will face an even greater risk with the sale of a commercial product. For example, we may be sued if AVLAYAH causes or is perceived to cause injury or is found to be otherwise unsuitable during clinical testing, manufacturing, marketing or sale. Any product liability claims may include allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a failure to warn of dangers inherent in the product, negligence, strict liability or a breach of warranties. Claims could also be asserted under state consumer protection acts. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we may incur substantial liabilities or be required to limit testing and commercialization of our product candidates. Even successful defense would require significant costs to defend litigation and a diversion of management's time and resources. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in a decreased or interrupted demand for our products, injury to our reputation, withdrawal of clinical trial participants and inability to continue clinical trials, and initiation of investigation by regulators. Any successful liability claims could result in substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients; product recalls, withdrawals, or labeling, marketing or promotional restrictions; loss of revenue; exhaustion of any available insurance and our capital resources; the inability to commercialize any product candidate; and a decline in our share price.
Our inability to obtain sufficient product liability insurance at an acceptable cost to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of products we develop, alone or with collaborators. Our insurance policies may have various exclusions, and we may be subject to a product liability claim for which we have no coverage. We may have to pay any amounts awarded by a court or negotiated in a settlement that exceed our coverage limitations or that are not covered by our insurance, and we may not have, or be able to obtain, sufficient capital to pay such amounts. Even if our agreements with any future corporate collaborators entitle us to indemnification against losses, such indemnification may not be available or adequate should any claim arise.
Risks Related to Regulatory Approval and Other Legal Compliance Matters
The regulatory approval processes of the FDA, EMA, and comparable foreign regulatory authorities are lengthy, time consuming, and inherently unpredictable. If we are ultimately unable to obtain regulatory approval for additional product candidates, we will be unable to generate sufficient product revenue and our business will be substantially harmed.
The time required to obtain approval by the FDA, EMA, and comparable foreign regulatory authorities is unpredictable, typically takes many years following the commencement of clinical trials, and depends upon numerous factors, including the type, complexity and novelty of the product candidates involved. In addition, approval policies, regulations, or the type and amount of clinical data necessary to gain approval may change during the course of a product candidate’s clinical development and may vary among jurisdictions, which may cause delays in the approval or the decision not to approve an application. In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the Chevron doctrine, which gives deference to regulatory agencies' statutory interpretations in litigation against federal government agencies, such as the FDA, where the law is ambiguous. This landmark Supreme Court decision may invite more companies and other stakeholders to bring lawsuits against the FDA to challenge longstanding decisions and policies of the FDA, including the FDA's statutory interpretations of market exclusivities and the "substantial evidence" requirements for drug approvals, which could undermine the FDA's authority, lead to uncertainties in the industry, and disrupt the FDA's normal operations, any of which could delay the FDA's review of our regulatory submissions.
Regulatory authorities have substantial discretion in the approval process and may refuse to accept any application or may decide that our data are insufficient for approval and require additional preclinical, clinical or other studies. Moreover, regulatory authorities may fail to approve companion diagnostics that we contemplate using with our therapeutic product candidates. It is possible that none of the product candidates in our development pipeline will ever obtain regulatory approval. Changes to the leadership and staffing at federal agencies may also impact our clinical development and timelines.
Applications for our product candidates could fail to receive regulatory approval in an initial or subsequent indication for many reasons, including but not limited to the following:
•regulatory authorities may disagree with the design, implementation, or results of our clinical trials;
•regulatory authorities may determine that our product candidates are not safe and effective, only moderately effective, or have undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities, or other characteristics that preclude our obtaining marketing approval or prevent or limit commercial use;
•the population studied in the clinical program may not be sufficiently broad or representative to assure efficacy or potency and safety in the full population for which we seek approval;
•regulatory authorities may disagree with our interpretation of data from preclinical studies or clinical trials;
•the data collected from clinical trials of our product candidates may not be sufficient to support the submission of an NDA, BLA, or other submission or to obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere;
•we may be unable to demonstrate to the regulatory authorities that a product candidate’s risk-benefit ratio for its proposed indication is acceptable;
•regulatory authorities may fail to approve our manufacturing processes, test procedures and specifications, or facilities or those of our third-party manufacturers; and
•the approval policies or regulations of the regulatory authorities may significantly change in a manner rendering our clinical data insufficient for approval.
This lengthy approval process, as well as the unpredictability of the results of clinical trials, may result in our failing to obtain regulatory approval to market any of our product candidates, which would significantly harm our business, results of operations, and prospects.
We currently and may in the future conduct clinical trials for our product candidates outside the United States, and the FDA, EMA, and applicable foreign regulatory authorities may not accept data from such trials.
We currently conduct clinical trials outside the United States, and may continue to do so in the future. The acceptance of data from clinical trials conducted outside the United States or another jurisdiction by the FDA, EMA, or applicable foreign regulatory authority may be subject to certain conditions. In cases where data from foreign clinical trials are intended to serve as the basis for marketing approval in the United States, the FDA will generally not approve the application on the basis of foreign data alone unless (i) the data are applicable to the United States population and United States medical practice; and (ii) the trials were performed by clinical investigators of recognized competence and pursuant to cGCP regulations. Additionally, the FDA’s clinical trial requirements, including sufficient size of patient populations and statistical powering, must be met. Many foreign regulatory bodies have similar approval requirements. In addition, such foreign trials would be subject to the applicable local laws of the foreign jurisdictions where the trials are conducted. There can be no assurance that the FDA, EMA, or any applicable foreign regulatory authority will accept data from trials conducted outside of the United States or the applicable jurisdiction. If the FDA, EMA, or any applicable foreign regulatory authority does not accept such data, it would result in the need for additional trials, which would be costly and time-consuming and delay aspects of our business plan, and which may result in our product candidates not receiving approval or clearance for commercialization in the applicable jurisdiction.
A significant portion of our international sales are made based on special access programs, and changes to these programs could adversely affect our product sales and revenues in these countries.
AVLAYAH is currently approved only in the United States, and we have no product approvals in other jurisdictions. If we fail to comply with regulatory requirements in any market we decide to enter, or to obtain and maintain required approvals, or if regulatory approvals in the relevant markets are delayed, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of our product candidates will be harmed. Marketing approval in one jurisdiction, such as in the United States, does not ensure marketing approval in another, but a failure or delay in obtaining marketing approval in one jurisdiction may have a negative effect on the regulatory process in others. Failure to obtain a marketing approval in countries in which we seek to market our products or any delay or setback in obtaining such approval would impair our ability to develop foreign markets for our product or product candidates.
Currently our initial international sales of AVLAYAH will be made through early access, special access, or named patient sales programs in markets that do not require prior regulatory approval to establish such programs. These programs vary by country and generally require special approval from national competent authorities and, in some cases, patient-by-patient approval, supported by evidence of medical need. These programs are subject to changes in requirements, funding by local governments, and disease classification, and governments may take unofficial measures to limit purchases, such as denying coverage, delaying orders, or withholding customs clearance. If these programs are curtailed, we would need to seek full regulatory approval or official reimbursement, which can be costly and time-consuming, and may be economically infeasible in countries with very small patient populations.
Even if we obtain regulatory approval for a product candidate, our products will remain subject to extensive regulatory scrutiny.
If any of our product candidates are approved, they will be subject to ongoing regulatory requirements, including both federal and state requirements in the United States and requirements of comparable foreign regulatory authorities.
While healthcare professionals are free to use and prescribe drug products for off-label uses, the FDA strictly regulates manufacturers’ promotional claims of drug products. In particular, a product may not be promoted for uses that are not approved by the FDA as reflected in the FDA-approved labeling. A company that is found to have improperly promoted off-label uses may be subject to large civil and criminal fines, penalties, and enforcement actions. If we cannot successfully manage the promotion of our approved product candidates, we could become subject to significant liability, which could materially adversely affect our business and financial condition.
Any regulatory approvals that we receive for our product candidates will be subject to limitations on the approved indicated uses for which the product may be marketed and promoted or to the conditions of approval (including the requirement to implement a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy) or contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing testing. We will be required to report certain adverse reactions and production problems, if any, to the FDA, EMA, and comparable foreign regulatory authorities. Any new legislation addressing drug safety issues could result in delays in product development or commercialization, or increased costs to assure compliance. The FDA and other agencies, including the Department of Justice, closely regulate and monitor the post-approval marketing and promotion of products to ensure that they are manufactured, marketed, and distributed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling. We will have to comply with requirements concerning advertising and promotion for our products. Promotional communications with respect to prescription drugs are subject to a variety of legal and regulatory restrictions and must be consistent with the information in the product’s approved label. In certain indications, regulatory approval may limit the market of a product candidate to target patient populations when patient selection biomarkers are used. In these indications, regulatory authorities may require us to run additional clinical trials prior to expanding the label for approval that includes a broader patient population. As such, we may not promote our products for indications or uses for which they do not have approval. The holder of an approved NDA, BLA, or MAA must submit new or supplemental applications and obtain approval for certain changes to the approved product, product labeling, or manufacturing process. We could also be asked to conduct post-marketing clinical trials to verify the safety and efficacy of our non-biologic products or safety, purity, and potency for our biologic products, in general or in specific patient subsets.
The FDA granted accelerated approval for AVLAYAH, while requiring us to conduct a confirmatory study to verify the predicted clinical benefit and safety profile. If this confirmatory study reveals previously unknown problems with AVLAYAH, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured, or if the FDA disagrees with the promotion, marketing, or labeling of AVLAYAH, it may impose restrictions on that product or us, including requiring withdrawal of the product from the market. If we fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, the FDA may, among other things, issue warning letters, impose penalties, suspend regulatory approvals, or require a product recall. Any of these actions by a regulatory agency could require us to expend significant time and resources, generate negative publicity, and adversely affect the value of our company.
To the extent we seek orphan drug designation for any of our product candidates, we may be unable to obtain such designations or to maintain the benefits associated with orphan drug status, including market exclusivity, which may cause our revenue, if any, to be reduced.
Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may grant orphan designation to a drug or biologic intended to treat a rare disease or condition where there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing and making available the drug or biologic in the United States will be recovered from sales in the United States for that drug or biologic. Once granted, orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives and certain exclusivity protections. In February 2019, the FDA granted orphan drug designation for tividenofusp alfa. However, the FDA can still approve other drugs that have a different active ingredient for use in treating the same indication or disease, and can waive orphan exclusivity if we are unable to manufacture sufficient supply of our product. We plan to seek orphan drug designations for some other product candidates, but we may be unable to obtain such designations.
Further, in response to Catalyst Pharms., Inc. v. Becerra, 14 F.4th 1299 (11th Cir. 2021), the FDA clarified in a January 2023 notice that the FDA intends to continue to apply its longstanding interpretation of the regulations to matters outside of the scope of the Catalyst order – that is, the agency will continue tying the scope of orphan-drug exclusivity to the uses or indications for which a drug is approved, which permits other sponsors to obtain approval of a drug for new uses or indications within the same orphan designated disease or condition that have not yet been approved. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026, signed into law in February 2026, codified this longstanding FDA interpretation of the Orphan Drug Act, allowing the FDA to approve multiple versions of the same orphan drug for different subindications and subpopulations.
Healthcare legislative measures aimed at reducing healthcare costs may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
We may face difficulties from changes to current regulations and future legislation. Current and future legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for us to commercialize our drugs, and affect the prices we may obtain, including changes in coverage and reimbursement policies in certain market segments for our product candidates, which could make it difficult for us to sell our product candidates profitably. Third-party payors, whether domestic or foreign, or governmental or commercial, are developing increasingly sophisticated methods of controlling healthcare costs.
In both the United States and certain foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes to the health care system that could impact our ability to sell our products profitably. These include the enactment of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (“ACA”), the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which will eliminate a statutory cap on Medicaid Drug Rebate Program rebates that manufacturers pay to state Medicaid programs, and the July 2021 executive order, "Promoting Competition in the American Economy," with multiple provisions aimed at increasing competition for prescription drugs. In August 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 ("IRA"), which includes prescription drug provisions that have significant implications for the pharmaceutical industry and Medicare beneficiaries, including allowing the federal government to negotiate a maximum fair price for certain high-priced single source Medicare drugs, imposing penalties and excise tax for manufacturers that fail to comply with the drug price negotiation requirements, requiring inflation rebates for all Medicare Part B and Part D drugs, with limited exceptions, if their drug prices increase faster than inflation, and redesigning Medicare Part D to reduce out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for beneficiaries, among other changes. Various industry stakeholders have initiated lawsuits against the federal government asserting that the price negotiation provisions of the IRA are unconstitutional. Further, the current administration has issued executive orders focused on decreasing prescription drug prices, including directing the Secretary of HHS to establish a mechanism through which American patients can buy drugs directly from manufacturers who sell at a most-favored-nation price and directing the U.S. Trade Representative and Secretary of Commerce to take action to ensure foreign countries are not engaged in practices that purposefully and unfairly undercut market prices and drive price hikes in the United States. In November 2025, CMS announced a voluntary initiative called the GENEROUS Model (GENErating cost Reductions fOr U.S. Medicaid Model) to introduce the option of most-favored-nation pricing to the Medicaid program, whereby a drug manufacturer may voluntarily offer supplemental rebates to participating state Medicaid programs for a manufacturer’s covered outpatient drugs. Government agreements with pharmaceutical companies and other government measures that use most-favored-nation pricing targets for prescription drugs, including the use of international pricing reference to set drug prices in the United States, or that increase generic and biosimilar drug entry sooner than expected can have a material adverse effect on our industry, ability to set adequate pricing for new drugs to recover research and development costs, ability to attract potential investors and potential buyers in the future. The impact of these legislative, executive, and administrative actions and any future healthcare measures and agency rules implemented by the government on us and the pharmaceutical industry as a whole is unclear. At the state level, a number of states are considering or have recently enacted state drug price transparency and reporting laws which could substantially increase our compliance burdens and expose us to greater liability under such state laws as we continue to commercialize AVLAYAH and any future approved products.
Since its enactment, there have been executive, judicial and congressional challenges to certain aspects of the ACA and IRA. It is unclear how future litigation or healthcare measures will impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Complying with any new legislation or changes in healthcare regulation could be time-intensive and expensive, resulting in material adverse effect on our business. We expect that the ACA and IRA, as well as other healthcare reform measures that may be adopted in the future, may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other healthcare funding, more rigorous coverage criteria, lower reimbursement, and new payment methodologies. This could lower the price that we receive for any approved product. Any denial in coverage or reduction in reimbursement from Medicare or other government-funded programs may result in a similar denial or reduction in payments from private payors, which may prevent us from being able to generate sufficient revenue, attain profitability or commercialize our product candidates. 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.
There have been, and likely will continue to be, legislative and regulatory proposals at the foreign, federal, and state levels directed at containing or lowering the cost of healthcare. We cannot predict the initiatives that may be adopted in the future. The continuing efforts of the government, insurance companies, managed care organizations, and other payors of healthcare services to contain or reduce costs of healthcare and/or impose price controls may adversely affect the demand for any product candidates that are approved, our ability to receive or set a price we believe is fair for our products, our ability to attract investment, our ability to generate revenue or achieve profitability, the level of taxes we are required to pay, and the availability of capital.
If we or our employees, independent contractors, consultants, commercial partners, and vendors fail to comply with healthcare laws or regulatory requirements, we could face substantial penalties and our business, operations, and financial conditions could be adversely affected.
We are exposed to the risk of fraud, misconduct, or other illegal activity by our employees, independent contractors, consultants, commercial partners, and vendors. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional, reckless, and negligent conduct that fails to: comply with the laws of the FDA, EMA, and other comparable foreign regulatory authorities; provide true, complete, and accurate information to regulatory authorities; comply with manufacturing standards we have established; comply with healthcare fraud and abuse laws in the United States and similar foreign fraudulent misconduct laws; or report financial information or data accurately or to disclose unauthorized activities to us. The laws that may impact our operations include the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, the False Claims Act, the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA"), as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 ("HITECH"), the federal Physician Payment Sunshine Act, federal consumer protection and unfair competition laws, and analogous state and foreign laws and regulations. Now that we have obtained FDA approval of AVLAYAH and have begun commercializing it in the United States, our potential exposure under such laws has increased significantly, and our costs associated with compliance with such laws are also likely to increase. In particular, the promotion, sales, and marketing of healthcare items and services is subject to extensive laws and regulations designed to prevent fraud, kickbacks, self-dealing, and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive, and other business arrangements. Activities subject to these laws also involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of patient recruitment for clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and cause serious harm to our reputation.
We have adopted a code of business conduct and ethics, but it is not always possible to identify and deter misconduct by employees and third parties, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws. Further, because of the breadth of these laws and the narrowness of the statutory exceptions and safe harbors available, it is possible that some of our business activities could, despite our efforts to comply, be subject to challenge under one or more of such laws. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of civil, criminal, and administrative penalties, damages, disgorgement, monetary fines, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal healthcare programs, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, and curtailment of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations. In addition, the approval and commercialization of any of our product candidates outside the United States will also likely subject us to foreign equivalents of the healthcare laws mentioned above, among other foreign laws.
Our business is subject to complex and evolving U.S. and foreign laws and regulations, information security policies, and contractual obligations relating to privacy and data protection and security, including the use, processing, and cross-border transfer of personal information. These laws and regulations are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, and could result in claims, changes to our business practices, or monetary penalties, and otherwise may harm our business.
We receive, generate, store, and otherwise process significant and increasing volumes of sensitive information and business-critical information, including employee and personal data (including protected health information), research and development information, commercial information, and business and financial information. We heavily rely on external security and infrastructure vendors to manage our information technology systems and data centers. We face a number of risks relative to protecting this critical information, including the loss of access, inappropriate use or disclosure, inappropriate modification, and the risk of our being unable to adequately monitor, audit, and modify our controls over our critical information. This risk extends to third-party vendors and subcontractors we use to manage this sensitive data.
A wide variety of provincial, state, national, and international laws and regulations apply to the collection, use, retention, protection, disclosure, transfer, and other processing of data relating to individuals. These laws and regulations are evolving and may result in ever-increasing regulatory and public scrutiny and escalating levels of enforcement and sanctions. For example, the collection and use of personal data in the EU are governed by the EU General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), which became fully effective on May 25, 2018. The GDPR imposes stringent data protection requirements, including, for example, more robust disclosures to individuals and a strengthened individual data rights regime, shortened timelines for data breach notifications, limitations on retention of information, increased requirements pertaining to special categories of data, such as health data, and additional obligations when we contract with third-party processors in connection with the processing of the personal data. The GDPR also imposes strict rules on the transfer of personal data out of the EU to the United States and other countries, and in the context of clinical trials we currently rely on patient informed consent as the legal basis for such transfers. In addition, the GDPR provides that EU member states may make their own further laws and regulations limiting the processing of personal data, including genetic, biometric or health data. The GDPR provides for penalties for noncompliance of up to the greater of €20 million or four percent of worldwide annual revenues. The GDPR applies extraterritorially, and we may be subject to the GDPR because of our data processing activities that involve the personal data of individuals located in the EU, such as in connection with any EU clinical trials. Additionally, the UK has implemented legislation that substantially implements the GDPR (the "UK GDPR"), with substantial penalties for noncompliance.
Further, various states, such as California, Massachusetts, and Washington have implemented privacy laws and regulations that impose restrictive requirements regulating the use and disclosure of health information and other personal information. Where state laws are more protective than HIPAA, we must comply with the stricter provisions. In addition to fines and penalties imposed upon violators, some of these state laws also afford private rights of action to individuals who believe their personal information has been misused. For example, California has enacted legislation, the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA"), which, among other things, requires covered companies to provide new disclosures to California consumers, and affords such consumers new abilities to opt-out of certain sales of personal information. The CCPA, as amended and expanded by the California Privacy Rights Act ("CPRA"), requires covered companies to provide new disclosures to individuals and consumers in California, and afford such individuals and consumers new data protection rights, including the ability to opt-out of certain sales of personal information. Numerous other states in the United States have proposed or enacted similar legislation. Further, some states have enacted more specific legislation, such as Washington's enactment of the My Health, My Data Act, which includes a private right of action. The U.S. federal government is also contemplating federal privacy legislation. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Justice recently implemented a final rule that places limitations, and in some cases prohibitions, on certain transfers of sensitive personal data to business partners located in China or with other specified links to China (and other designated countries). The GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA, CPRA, and many other federal, state, and foreign laws and regulations relating to privacy and data protection are still being tested in courts, and they are subject to new and differing interpretations by courts and regulatory officials. Additionally, the interplay of federal and state laws may be subject to varying interpretations by courts and government agencies, creating complex compliance issues for us and data we receive, use and share, potentially exposing us to additional expense, adverse publicity and liability.
It is possible that the GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA, CPRA, or other laws and regulations relating to privacy and data protection may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction or inconsistent with our current policies and practices. We cannot guarantee that we or our vendors are in compliance with all such applicable data protection laws and regulations and we cannot be sure how these regulations will be interpreted, enforced or applied to our operations. Furthermore, other jurisdictions outside the EU are similarly introducing or enhancing laws and regulations addressing privacy and data protection and security, which could increase our compliance costs and the risks associated with noncompliance. It is possible that these laws, regulations, or other actual or asserted obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our practices and our compliance efforts may be unsuccessful. Our ongoing efforts to comply with evolving laws and regulations may be costly and require ongoing modifications to our policies, procedures and systems. In addition, if we are unable to properly protect the privacy and security of protected health information, we could be alleged or found to have breached certain contractual obligations.
Our actual or perceived failure to adequately comply with applicable laws and regulations or other actual or asserted obligations relating to privacy and data protection and security, or to protect personal data and other data we process or maintain, could result in regulatory enforcement actions against us, including fines, imprisonment of company officials and public censure, claims for damages by affected individuals, other lawsuits or reputational damage, all of which could materially affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
If we or any contract manufacturers and suppliers we engage fail to comply with environmental, health, and safety laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur costs that could have a material adverse effect on the success of our business.
We and any contract manufacturers and suppliers we engage are subject to numerous federal, state, and local environmental, health, and safety laws, regulations, and permitting requirements, including those governing laboratory procedures; the generation, handling, use, storage, treatment, and disposal of hazardous and regulated materials and wastes; the emission and discharge of hazardous materials into the ground, air, and water; and employee health and safety. Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological and radioactive materials. Our operations also produce hazardous waste. 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. Under certain environmental laws, we could be held responsible for costs relating to any contamination at our current or past facilities and at third-party facilities. We also could incur significant costs associated with civil or criminal fines and penalties.
Compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations may be expensive, and current or future environmental laws and regulations may impair our research, product development, and manufacturing efforts. In addition, we cannot entirely eliminate the risk of accidental injury or contamination from these materials or wastes. Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees resulting from the use of hazardous materials, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. We do not carry specific biological or hazardous waste insurance coverage, and our property, casualty, and general liability insurance policies specifically exclude coverage for damages and fines arising from biological or hazardous waste exposure or contamination. Accordingly, in the event of contamination or injury, we could be held liable for damages or be penalized with fines in an amount exceeding our resources, and our clinical trials or regulatory approvals could be suspended, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
Our business activities may be subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws, as well as U.S. and certain foreign export controls, trade sanctions, and import laws and regulations.
Our business activities may be subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended (the "FCPA"), and similar anti-bribery or anti-corruption laws, regulations, or rules of other countries in which we operate, including the U.K. Bribery Act. The FCPA generally prohibits offering, promising, giving, or authorizing others to give anything of value, either directly or indirectly, to a non-U.S. government official in order to influence official action, or otherwise obtain or retain business. The FCPA also requires public companies to make and keep books and records that accurately and fairly reflect certain transactions of the corporation and to devise and maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls. Our business is heavily regulated and therefore involves significant interaction with public officials, including officials of non-U.S. governments. Additionally, in many other countries, the health care providers who prescribe pharmaceuticals are employed by their government, and the purchasers of pharmaceuticals are government entities; therefore, our dealings with these prescribers and purchasers are subject to regulation under the FCPA.
There is no certainty that all of our employees, agents, contractors, or collaborators, or those of our affiliates, will comply with all applicable laws and regulations, particularly given the high level of complexity of these laws. Violations of these laws and regulations could result in fines, criminal sanctions against us, our officers, or our employees, the closing down of our facilities, requirements to obtain export licenses, cessation of business activities in sanctioned countries, implementation of compliance programs, and prohibitions on the conduct of our business. Any such violations could include prohibitions on our ability to offer our products in one or more countries and could materially damage our reputation, business, operating results, financial condition and international expansion efforts.
In addition, our products may be subject to U.S. and foreign export controls, trade sanctions, and import laws and regulations. Governmental regulation of the import or export of our products, or our failure to obtain any required import or export authorization for our products, when applicable, could harm our international sales and adversely affect our revenue.
Inadequate funding for the FDA, USPTO, SEC, and other government agencies could hinder or result in the suspension of their operations, which could negatively impact our business.
The ability of the FDA to review and approve new products can be affected by a variety of factors, including government budget and funding levels, ability to hire and retain key personnel and accept the payment of user fees, shifting policy priorities, and statutory, regulatory, and policy changes. Average review times at the FDA have fluctuated in recent years as a result. In addition, government funding of the SEC, USPTO, and other government agencies on which our operations may rely, including those that fund research and development activities is subject to the political process, which is inherently fluid and unpredictable.
Disruptions at the FDA and other government agencies may also slow the time necessary for new drugs to be reviewed and/or approved by necessary government agencies, which would adversely affect our business. For example, over the last several years the U.S. government shut down several times and certain regulatory agencies, such as the FDA and the SEC, have had to furlough critical government employees and stop critical activities. Regulatory agency staffing changes may disrupt normal operations of federal agencies, including the FDA. If a prolonged government shutdown or other disruption occurs, it could significantly impact the ability of the FDA or other regulatory authorities to timely review and process our regulatory submissions, or to provide feedback on our clinical development plans, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Further, future government shutdowns or other disruptions to normal operations could impact our ability to access the public markets and obtain the funding necessary to properly capitalize and continue our operations.
Risks Related to Our Reliance on Third Parties
We depend on collaborations with third parties for the research, development, and commercialization of certain product candidates. If any such collaborations are not successful, we may not be able to realize the market potential of those product candidates.
We anticipate seeking third-party collaborators for the research, development, and commercialization of certain of the product candidates we may develop. For example, we have collaborations with F-star, Sanofi, Biogen, and others to further our development of product candidates and to enhance our research efforts directed to better understanding neurodegenerative and lysosomal storage diseases. Our likely collaborators for any other collaboration arrangements include large and mid-size pharmaceutical companies, regional and national pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, and academic institutions. If we enter into any such arrangements with any third parties, we will likely have shared or limited control over the amount and timing of resources that our collaborators dedicate to the development or potential commercialization of any product candidates we may seek to develop with them. Our ability to generate revenue from these arrangements with commercial entities will depend on our collaborators’ abilities to successfully perform the functions assigned to them in these arrangements. We cannot predict the success of any collaboration that we enter into.
Collaborations involving our research programs, or any product candidates we may develop, pose the following risks to us:
•collaborators generally have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply to these collaborations;
•collaborators may not properly obtain, maintain, enforce, or defend intellectual property or proprietary rights relating to our product candidates or research programs or may use our proprietary information in such a way as to expose us to potential litigation or other intellectual property related proceedings, including proceedings challenging the scope, ownership, validity and enforceability of our intellectual property;
•collaborators may own or co-own intellectual property covering our product candidates or research programs that results from our collaboration with them, and in such cases, we may not have the exclusive right to commercialize such intellectual property or such product candidates or research programs;
•we may need the cooperation of our collaborators to enforce or defend any intellectual property we contribute to or that arises out of our collaborations, which may not be provided to us;
•collaborators may control certain interactions with regulatory authorities, which may impact our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of our products candidates;
•disputes may arise between the collaborators and us that result in the delay or termination of the research, development, or commercialization of our product candidates or research programs or that result in costly litigation or arbitration that diverts management attention and resources;
•collaborators may decide to terminate or not pursue development and commercialization of any product candidates we develop or may elect not to continue or renew development or commercialization programs based on clinical trial results, changes in the collaborator’s strategic focus or available funding or external factors such as an acquisition that diverts resources or creates competing priorities;
•collaborators may delay clinical trials, provide insufficient funding for a clinical trial program, stop a clinical trial or abandon a product candidate, repeat or conduct new clinical trials, or require a new formulation of a product candidate for clinical testing;
•collaborators could independently develop, or develop with third parties, products that compete directly or indirectly with our product candidates or research programs if the collaborators believe that competitive products are more likely to be successfully developed or can be commercialized under terms that are more economically attractive than ours;
•collaborators may restrict us from researching, developing, or commercializing certain products or technologies without their involvement;
•collaborators with marketing and distribution rights to one or more product candidates may not commit sufficient resources to the marketing and distribution of such product candidates;
•we may lose certain valuable rights under circumstances identified in our agreements with our collaborators, including if we undergo a change of control;
•collaborators may grant sublicenses to our technology or product candidates or undergo a change of control and the sublicensees or new owners may decide to take the collaboration in a direction which is not in our best interest;
•collaborators may become bankrupt, which may significantly delay our research or development programs, or may cause us to lose access to valuable technology, know-how, or intellectual property of the collaborator relating to our products, product candidates, or research programs;
•key personnel at our collaborators may leave, which could negatively impact our ability to productively work with our collaborators;
•collaborations may require us to incur short and long-term expenditures, issue securities that dilute our stockholders, or disrupt our management and business;
•if our collaborators do not satisfy their obligations under our agreements with them, or if they terminate our collaborations with them, we may not be able to develop or commercialize product candidates as planned; and
•collaborations may require us to share in development and commercialization costs pursuant to budgets that we do not fully control and our failure to share in such costs could have a detrimental impact on the collaboration or our ability to share in revenue generated under the collaboration.
We may face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborations. Recent business combinations among biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies have resulted in a reduced number of potential collaborators. In addition, the negotiation process is time-consuming and complex, and 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 of 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 product candidates or bring them to market and generate product revenue.
If we enter into collaborations to develop and potentially commercialize any product candidates, we may not be able to realize the benefit of such transactions if we or our collaborator elects not to exercise the rights granted under the agreement or if we or our collaborator are unable to successfully integrate a product candidate into existing operations and company culture. The failure to develop and commercialize a product candidate pursuant to our agreements with our current or future collaborators could prevent us from receiving future payments under such agreements, which could negatively impact our revenues. In addition, if our agreement with any of our collaborators terminates, our access to technology and intellectual property licensed to us by that collaborator may be restricted or terminate entirely, which may delay our continued development of our product candidates utilizing the collaborator’s technology or intellectual property or require us to stop development of those product candidates completely. We may also find it more difficult to find a suitable replacement collaborator or attract new collaborators, and our development programs may be delayed or the perception of us in the business and financial communities could be adversely affected. Many of the risks relating to product development, regulatory approval, and commercialization described in this “Risk Factors” section also apply to the activities of our collaborators and any negative impact on our collaborators may adversely affect us.
We rely on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and some aspects of our research and preclinical testing, 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 CROs, clinical data management organizations, medical institutions, and clinical investigators, to conduct some aspects of our research and preclinical testing and our clinical trials. Any of these third parties may terminate their engagements with us or be unable to fulfill their contractual obligations. 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 reduces our control over these activities but does not relieve us of our responsibilities. For example, we remain responsible for ensuring that each of our clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the general investigational plan and protocols for the trial. Moreover, the FDA requires us to comply with cGCPs for conducting, recording, and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible, reproducible, and accurate and that the rights, integrity, and confidentiality of trial participants are protected. We also are required to register ongoing clinical trials and post the results of completed clinical trials on a government-sponsored database within certain time frames. Failure to do so can result in fines, adverse publicity, and civil and criminal sanctions.
Our third-party service providers are not our employees, and we are therefore unable to directly monitor whether or not they devote sufficient time and resources to our clinical and nonclinical programs. These third-party service providers may also have relationships with other commercial entities, including our competitors, for whom they may also be conducting clinical trials or other drug development activities that could harm our competitive position. 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 any product candidates we may develop and will not be able to, or may be delayed in our efforts to, successfully commercialize our medicines.
We also expect to rely on other third parties to store and distribute drug supplies for our clinical trials. Any performance failure on the part of our distributors, including with the shipment of any drug supplies, could delay clinical development or marketing approval of any product candidates we may develop or commercialization of our medicines, producing additional losses and depriving us of potential product revenue.
Our reliance on third parties for the manufacture of the majority of the materials for our research programs, preclinical studies, and clinical trials may increase the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of such materials, product candidates, or any medicines that we may develop and commercialize, or that such supply will not be available to us at an acceptable cost, which could delay, prevent, or impair our development or commercialization efforts.
Although we have begun to manufacture biologic therapeutics in our Utah site, we currently rely on third-party manufacturers for the manufacture of many of our materials for preclinical studies and clinical trials, and expect to continue to do so for the foreseeable future for a portion of our materials for preclinical studies, clinical trials, and commercial supply.
We may be unable to establish any further 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 the possible breach, termination, or non-renewal of the agreement by the third party, which may be costly or inconvenient, and the inability of the third party to produce the required volume in a timely manner. We may also be exposed to the risks of relying on the third party for regulatory compliance, quality assurance, safety, and pharmacovigilance and related reporting.
Third-party manufacturers may not be able to comply with U.S. export control regulations, cGMP regulations, or similar regulatory requirements outside the United States. Our failure, or the failure of our third-party manufacturers, to comply with applicable regulations could result in a need to replace current third-party manufacturers including the possibility of supply delays, clinical holds on our trials, sanctions being imposed on us, including fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocations, seizures or recalls of product candidates or medicines, operating restrictions, and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect supplies of our medicines and harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.
Any medicines that we may develop may compete with other product candidates and products for access to manufacturing facilities. There are a limited number of manufacturers that operate under cGMP regulations 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. If any one of our current contract manufacturers cannot perform as agreed, we may be required to replace that manufacturer and may incur added costs and delays in identifying and qualifying any such replacement. Furthermore, securing and reserving production capacity with contract manufacturers may result in significant costs.
Our current and anticipated future dependence upon third parties for the manufacture of our product candidates may adversely affect our future profit margins and our ability to commercialize any medicines that receive marketing approval on a timely and competitive basis.
We depend on third-party suppliers for key raw materials used in our manufacturing processes, and the loss of these third-party suppliers or their inability to supply us with adequate raw materials could harm our business.
We rely on third-party suppliers for the raw materials required for the production of our product candidates. Our dependence on these third-party suppliers and the challenges we may face in obtaining adequate supplies of raw materials involve several risks, including limited control over pricing, availability, quality, and delivery schedules. Unexpected changes in tariffs, trade barriers, price and exchange controls, and other regulatory requirements, including recently imposed tariffs which may impact certain of our key raw materials that we import, could impact our cost of goods for our product candidates. As a small company, our negotiation leverage is limited and we are likely to get lower priority than our larger competitors. We cannot be certain that our suppliers will continue to provide us with the quantities of these raw materials that we require or satisfy our anticipated specifications and quality requirements.
Further, we have in the past experienced and may in the future experience delayed shipments of raw materials due to interruptions relating to the aforementioned events. We do not currently have arrangements in place for redundant supply for certain components of our product candidates. We may be unable to find a sufficient alternative supply channel in a reasonable time or on commercially reasonable terms. Any performance failure on the part of our suppliers could delay the development and potential commercialization of our product candidates, including limiting supplies necessary for clinical trials and regulatory approvals, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent protection for any product candidates we develop or for our TV platform, our competitors could develop and commercialize products or technology similar or identical to ours, and our ability to successfully commercialize any product candidates we may develop, and our technology may be adversely affected.
Our success depends in large part on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection in the United States and other countries with respect to our TV platform and any proprietary product candidates and other technologies we may develop. We seek to protect our proprietary position by in-licensing intellectual property and filing patent applications in the United States and abroad relating to our TV platform, programs and product candidates, as well as other technologies that are important to our business. Our portfolio includes technology and product candidates that are in the early stages of development, and the corresponding intellectual property is also at an early stage. In addition, we cannot be certain that any patents we own or in-license in the United States adequately cover the Fc domain portion of our TV platform that binds to transferrin receptor, or adequately cover the antibodies, enzymes or proteins being developed in our TV-enabled programs. We have filed or intend to file patent applications on these aspects of our technology and product candidates; however, there can be no assurance that any such patent applications will issue as granted patents. Furthermore, in some cases, we have only filed provisional patent applications on certain aspects of our technology and product candidates and each of these provisional patent applications is not eligible to become an issued patent until, among other things, we file a non-provisional patent application within twelve months of the filing date of the applicable provisional patent application. Any failure to file a non-provisional patent application within this timeline could cause us to lose the ability to obtain patent protection for the inventions disclosed in the associated provisional patent applications. Furthermore, in some cases, we may not be able to obtain issued claims covering compositions relating to our TV platform, programs and product candidates, as well as other technologies that are important to our business, and instead may need to rely on filing patent applications with claims covering a method of use and/or method of manufacture for protection of such TV platform, programs, product candidates, and other technologies. There can be no assurance that any such patent applications will issue as granted patents, and even if they do issue, such patent claims may be insufficient to prevent third parties, such as our competitors, from utilizing our technology. Any failure to obtain or maintain patent protection with respect to our TV platform, programs and product candidates could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
If any of our owned or in-licensed patent applications do not issue as patents in any jurisdiction, we may not be able to compete effectively.
Changes in either the patent laws or their interpretation in the United States and other countries may diminish our ability to protect our inventions, obtain, maintain, and enforce our intellectual property rights and, more generally, could affect the value of our intellectual property or narrow the scope of our owned and licensed patents. With respect to both in-licensed and owned intellectual property, we cannot predict whether the patent applications we and our licensors are currently pursuing will issue as patents in any particular jurisdiction or whether the claims of any issued patents will provide sufficient protection from competitors or other third parties.
The patent prosecution process is expensive, time-consuming, and complex, and we may not be able to file, prosecute, maintain, enforce, or license all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner, including delays as a result of a global pandemic impacting our or our licensors' operations. It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output in time to obtain patent protection. Although we enter into nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to confidential or patentable aspects of our research and development output, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose such output before a patent application is filed, thereby jeopardizing our ability to seek patent protection. In addition, our ability to obtain and maintain valid and enforceable patents depends on whether the differences between our inventions and the prior art allow our inventions to be patentable over the prior art. Furthermore, publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. Therefore, we cannot be certain that we or our licensors were the first to make the inventions claimed in any of our owned or licensed patents or pending patent applications, or that we or our licensors were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions.
If the scope of any patent protection we obtain is not sufficiently broad, or if we lose any of our patent protection, our ability to prevent our competitors from commercializing similar or identical technology and product candidates would be adversely affected.
The patent position of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions, and has been the subject of much litigation in recent years. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability, and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain. Our owned or in-licensed pending and future patent applications may not result in patents being issued which protect our TV platform, product candidates or other technologies or which effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive technologies and product candidates.
Moreover, the coverage claimed in a patent application can be significantly reduced before the patent is issued, and its scope can be reinterpreted after issuance. Even if patent applications we license or own currently or in the future issue as patents, they may not issue in a form that will provide us with any meaningful protection, prevent competitors or other third parties from competing with us, or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. Any patents that we own or in-license may be challenged, narrowed, circumvented, or invalidated by third parties. Consequently, we do not know whether our TV platform, product candidates or other technologies will be protectable or remain protected by valid and enforceable patents. Our competitors or other third parties may be able to circumvent our patents by developing similar or alternative technologies or products in a non-infringing manner which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity, or enforceability, and our patents may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad. We or our licensors may be subject to a third-party preissuance submission of prior art to the USPTO, or become involved in opposition, derivation, revocation, reexamination, post-grant and inter partes review, or interference proceedings or other similar proceedings challenging our owned or licensed patent rights. An adverse determination in any such submission, proceeding or litigation could reduce the scope of, or invalidate or render unenforceable, our owned or in-licensed patent rights, allow third parties to commercialize our TV platform, product candidates or other technologies and compete directly with us, without payment to us, or result in our inability to manufacture or commercialize products without infringing third-party patent rights. Moreover, we, or one of our licensors, may have to participate in interference proceedings declared by the USPTO to determine priority of invention or in post-grant challenge proceedings, such as oppositions in a foreign patent office, that challenge our or our licensor’s priority of invention or other features of patentability with respect to our owned or in-licensed patents and patent applications. Such challenges may result in loss of patent rights, loss of exclusivity, or in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated, or held unenforceable, which could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our TV platform, product candidates and other technologies. Such proceedings also may result in substantial cost and require significant time from our scientists and management, even if the eventual outcome is favorable to us. If we or our collaborators are unsuccessful in any such proceeding or other priority or inventorship dispute, we may be required to obtain and maintain licenses from third parties, including parties involved in any such interference proceedings or other priority or inventorship disputes. Such licenses may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or may be non-exclusive. If we are unable to obtain and maintain such licenses, we may need to cease the development, manufacture, and commercialization of one or more of the product candidates we may develop. The loss of exclusivity or the narrowing of our owned and licensed patent claims could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products.
In addition, given the amount of time required for the development, testing, and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such product candidates might expire before or shortly after such product candidates are commercialized. As a result, our intellectual property may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours.
Some of our owned and in-licensed patents and patent applications are, and may in the future be, co-owned with third parties. For example, we currently, and may in the future, co-own certain patents and patent applications relating to our TV platform with F-star. In addition, certain of our licensors co-own the patents and patent applications we in-license with other third parties with whom we do not have a direct relationship. Our exclusive rights to certain of these patents and patent applications are dependent, in part, on inter-institutional or other operating agreements between the joint owners of such patents and patent applications, who are not parties to our license agreements. If our licensors do not have exclusive control of the grant of licenses under any such third-party co-owners’ interest in such patents or patent applications or we are otherwise unable to secure such exclusive rights, such co-owners may be able to license their rights to other third parties, including our competitors, and our competitors could market competing products and technology. In addition, we may need the cooperation of any such co-owners of our patents in order to enforce such patents against third parties, and such cooperation may not be provided to us. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial conditions, results of operations, and growth prospects.
Our rights to develop and commercialize our TV platform and product candidates are subject, in part, to the terms and conditions of licenses granted to us by others or licenses granted by us to others.
We are heavily reliant upon licenses to certain patent rights and proprietary technology from third parties that are important or necessary to the development of our TV platform and product candidates. For example, in June 2016, we entered into a license agreement with Genentech pursuant to which we received an exclusive license to certain of Genentech’s intellectual property relating to our LRRK2 program, including our BIIB122/DNL151 product candidate.
Our agreements with F-star and other license agreements may not provide exclusive rights to use certain licensed intellectual property and technology in all relevant fields of use and in all territories in which we may wish to develop or commercialize our technology and products in the future. For example, F-star retains the right to use itself, and to license to others, its modular antibody technology for any purpose other than the targets which we have agreed with F-star would or may be exclusively available to us. As a result, we may not be able to prevent competitors or other third parties from developing and commercializing competitive products that also utilizes technology that we have in-licensed.
In addition, subject to the terms of any such license agreements, we do not have the right to control the preparation, filing, prosecution and maintenance, and we may not have the right to control the enforcement, and defense of patents and patent applications covering the technology that we license from third parties. For example, under our agreements with F-star and Genentech, the licensors control prosecution and, in the case of F-star and in specified circumstances, enforcement of certain of the patents and patent applications licensed to us. Also, under our agreements with Takeda, Sanofi and Biogen, they control prosecution, and in specified circumstances, enforcement of certain of the patents and patent applications licensed to them. We cannot be certain that our in-licensed or out-licensed patents and patent applications that are controlled by our licensors or licensees will be prepared, filed, prosecuted, maintained, enforced, and defended in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. If our licensors or licensees fail to prosecute, maintain, enforce, and defend such patents, or lose rights to those patents or patent applications, the rights we have licensed may be reduced or eliminated, our right to develop and commercialize our TV platform and any of our product candidates that are subject of such licensed rights could be adversely affected, and we may not be able to prevent competitors from making, using and selling competing products. In addition, even where we have the right to control patent prosecution of patents and patent applications we have licensed to and from third parties, we may still be adversely affected or prejudiced by actions or inactions of our licensees, our licensors and their counsel that took place prior to the date upon which we assumed control over patent prosecution.
Furthermore, our owned and in-licensed patents may be subject to a reservation of rights by one or more third parties. For example, our license to certain intellectual property owned by Genentech is subject to certain research rights Genentech granted to third parties prior to our license agreement. In addition, certain of our in-licensed intellectual property relating to RIPK1 was funded in part by the U.S. government. As a result, the U.S. government may have certain rights to such intellectual property.
If we fail to comply with our obligations in the agreements under which we license intellectual property rights from third parties or otherwise experience disruptions to our business relationships with our licensors, we could lose license rights that are important to our business.
We have entered into license agreements with third parties and may need to obtain additional licenses from others to advance our research or allow commercialization of product candidates we may develop or our TV platform. It is possible that we may be unable to obtain additional licenses at a reasonable cost or on reasonable terms, if at all. In that event, we may be required to expend significant time and resources to redesign our technology, product candidates, or the methods for manufacturing them or to develop or license replacement technology, all of which may not be feasible on a technical or commercial basis. If we are unable to do so, we may be unable to develop or commercialize the affected product candidates or continue to utilize our existing TV platform, which could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects significantly. We cannot provide any assurances that third-party patents do not exist which might be enforced against our current technology, including our TV platform, manufacturing methods, product candidates, or future methods or products resulting in either an injunction prohibiting our manufacture or future sales, or, with respect to our future sales, an obligation on our part to pay royalties and/or other forms of compensation to third parties, which could be significant.
In addition, each of our current license agreements, and we expect our future agreements, will impose various development, diligence, commercialization, and other obligations on us. Certain of our license agreements also require us to meet development timelines, or to exercise commercially reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize licensed products, in order to maintain the licenses. In spite of our efforts, our licensors might conclude that we have materially breached our obligations under such license agreements and might therefore terminate the license agreements, thereby removing or limiting our ability to develop and commercialize products and technology covered by these license agreements. If these in-licenses are terminated, or if the underlying patents fail to provide the intended exclusivity, competitors or other third parties would have the freedom to seek regulatory approval of, and to market, products identical to ours and we may be required to cease our development and commercialization of certain of our product candidates or of our current TV platform. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial conditions, results of operations, and growth prospects.
Moreover, disputes may arise regarding intellectual property subject to a licensing agreement, including:
•the scope of rights granted under the license agreement and other interpretation-related issues;
•the extent to which our technology and processes infringe on intellectual property of the licensor that is not subject to the licensing agreement;
•the sublicensing of patent and other rights under our collaborative development relationships;
•our diligence obligations under the license agreement and what activities satisfy those diligence obligations;
•the inventorship and ownership of inventions and know-how resulting from the joint creation or use of intellectual property by our licensors and us and our partners; and
•the priority of invention of patented technology.
In addition, the agreements under which we currently license intellectual property or technology from third parties are complex, and certain provisions in such agreements may be susceptible to multiple interpretations. The resolution of any contract interpretation disagreement that may arise could narrow what we believe to be the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual property or technology, or increase what we believe to be our financial or other obligations under the relevant agreement, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. Moreover, if disputes over intellectual property that we have licensed prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current licensing arrangements on commercially acceptable terms, we may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize the affected product candidates, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial conditions, results of operations and growth prospects.
In addition, the United States federal government retains certain rights in inventions produced with its financial assistance under the Patent and Trademark Law Amendments Act, or the Bayh-Dole Act. The federal government retains a “nonexclusive, nontransferable, irrevocable, paid-up license” for its own benefit. The Bayh-Dole Act also provides federal agencies with “march-in rights.” March-in rights allow the government, in specified circumstances, to require the contractor or successors in title to the patent to grant a “nonexclusive, partially exclusive, or exclusive license” to a “responsible applicant or applicants.” If the patent owner refuses to do so, the government may grant the license itself. If, in the future, we co-own or license in technology which is critical to our business that is developed in whole or in part with federal funds subject to the Bayh-Dole Act, our ability to enforce or otherwise exploit patents covering such technology may be adversely affected.
We may not be able to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights throughout the world.
Filing, prosecuting, and defending patents on our TV platform, product candidates and other technologies in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. Further, our ability to pursue patents throughout the world may be delayed or affected due to a public health crisis such as the global pandemic. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States, or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into the United States or other jurisdictions. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our products, and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.
Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets, and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biotechnology products, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our intellectual property and proprietary rights generally. In Europe, as of June 1, 2023, the Unitary Patent Court ("UPC") has exclusive jurisdiction over Unitary Patents and offers a uniform and specialized framework for patent litigation at the European level. Furthermore, European applications have the option, upon grant of a patent, of becoming a Unitary Patent and therefore subject to UPC. This is a significant change in European patent practice. As the UPC is a new court system, there is limited precedent for the court, increasing the uncertainty. Proceedings to enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly, could put our patent applications at risk of not issuing, and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate, and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.
Geopolitical actions in the United States and in foreign countries could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution or maintenance of our patent applications or those of any current or future licensors and the maintenance, enforcement or defense of our issued patents or those of any current or future licensors. For example, the United States and foreign government actions related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine may limit or prevent filing, prosecution, and maintenance of patent applications in Russia. Government actions may also prevent maintenance of issued patents in Russia. These actions could result in abandonment or lapse of our patents or patent applications, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in Russia. If such an event were to occur, it could have a material adverse effect on our business. Accordingly, our competitive position may be impaired, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
Many countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, the patent owner may have limited remedies, which could materially diminish the value of such patent. If we or any of our licensors is forced to grant a license to third parties with respect to any patents relevant to our business, our competitive position may be impaired, and our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects may be adversely affected.
Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment, and other requirements imposed by government patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.
Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees, and various other government fees on patents and applications will be due to be paid to the USPTO and various government patent agencies outside of the United States over the lifetime of our owned or licensed patents and applications. In certain circumstances, we rely on our licensing partners to pay these fees due to U.S. and non-U.S. patent agencies. The USPTO and various non-U.S. government agencies require compliance with several procedural, documentary, fee payment, and other similar provisions during the patent application process. We are also dependent on our licensors to take the necessary action to comply with these requirements with respect to our licensed intellectual property. In some cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules. There are situations, however, in which non-compliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in a partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. In such an event, potential competitors might be able to enter the market with similar or identical products or technology, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
Geopolitical actions in the United States and in foreign countries could prevent us from continuing to make these periodic payments in certain locations. For example, the United States and foreign government actions related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine may limit our ability to make or prevent us from making these payments in Russia. These actions could result in abandonment or lapse of our patents or patent applications, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in Russia, which could adversely affect our business.
Changes in U.S. patent law could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our products.
Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of patent applications and the enforcement or defense of issued patents. Assuming that other requirements for patentability are met, prior to March 2013, in the United States, the first to invent the claimed invention was entitled to the patent, while outside the United States, the first to file a patent application was entitled to the patent. After March 2013, under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (the "America Invents Act"), enacted in September 2011, the United States transitioned to a first inventor to file system in which, assuming that other requirements for patentability are met, the first inventor to file a patent application will be entitled to the patent on an invention regardless of whether a third party was the first to invent the claimed invention. A third party that files a patent application in the USPTO after March 2013, but before us could therefore be awarded a patent covering an invention of ours even if we had made the invention before it was made by such third party. This will require us to be cognizant going forward of the time from invention to filing of a patent application. Since patent applications in the United States and most other countries are confidential for a period of time after filing or until issuance, we cannot be certain that we or our licensors were the first to either (i) file any patent application related to our TV platform, product candidates or other technologies or (ii) invent any of the inventions claimed in our or our licensor’s patents or patent applications. Further, changes in the leadership or staffing of the PTO and other federal agencies may lead to new policies and changes in the regulations that may impact the timelines of our patents applications.
The America Invents Act also includes a number of significant changes that affect the way patent applications will be prosecuted and also may affect patent litigation. These include allowing third-party submission of prior art to the USPTO during patent prosecution and additional procedures to attack the validity of a patent by USPTO administered post-grant proceedings, including post-grant review, inter partes review, and derivation proceedings. Because of a lower evidentiary standard in USPTO proceedings compared to the evidentiary standard in United States federal courts necessary to invalidate a patent claim, a third party could potentially provide evidence in a USPTO proceeding sufficient for the USPTO to hold a claim invalid even though the same evidence would be insufficient to invalidate the claim if first presented in a district court action. Accordingly, a third party may attempt to use the USPTO procedures to invalidate our patent claims that would not have been invalidated if first challenged by the third party as a defendant in a district court action. Therefore, the America Invents Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our owned or in-licensed patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our owned or in-licensed issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
In addition, the patent positions of companies in the development and commercialization of biologics and pharmaceuticals are particularly uncertain. Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have narrowed the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances and weakened the rights of patent owners in certain situations. For example, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Amgen v. Sanofi (2023) that a functionally claimed genus was invalid for failing to comply with the enablement requirement of the Patent Act. In addition, the Federal circuit recently issued a decision involving the interaction of patent term adjustment ("PTA"), terminal disclaimers, and obvious-type double patenting. This combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the validity and enforceability of patents, once obtained. Depending on future actions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts, and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that could have a material adverse effect on our existing patent portfolio and our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property in the future. For example, in Assoc. for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. (2013), the U.S. Supreme Court held that certain claims to DNA molecules are not patentable. While we do not believe that any of the patents owned or licensed by us will be found invalid based on this decision, we cannot predict how future decisions by the courts, the U.S. Congress or the USPTO may impact the value of our patents. For example, the IRA passed by Congress authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") to negotiate prices directly with participating manufacturers for selected medicines covered by Medicare even if these medicines are protected by an existing patent. For small molecule medicines, the process begins seven years after initial approval by the FDA. While we do not believe that the IRA or its effects will impact our ability to obtain patents in the near future, we cannot be certain whether it will affect our patent strategy in the long run.
Issued patents covering our TV platform, product candidates and other technologies could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged in court or before administrative bodies in the United States or abroad.
If we or one of our licensors initiated legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering our TV platform, product candidates or other technologies, the defendant could counterclaim that such patent is invalid or unenforceable or raise a defense to infringement. In patent litigation in the United States, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge could be an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including lack of subject matter eligibility for patenting, novelty, obviousness, or non-enablement. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could be an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant information from the USPTO, or made a misleading statement, during prosecution. Grounds for defenses to infringement include statutory exemptions to patent infringement for uses related to submitting information to regulatory authorities to seek certain regulatory approvals. Third parties may raise claims challenging the validity or enforceability of our owned or in-licensed patents before administrative bodies in the United States or abroad, even outside the context of litigation. Such mechanisms include re-examination, post-grant review, inter partes review, interference proceedings, derivation proceedings, and equivalent proceedings in foreign jurisdictions (e.g., opposition proceedings). Such proceedings could result in the revocation of, cancellation of, or amendment to our patents in such a way that they no longer cover our TV platform, product candidates or other technologies. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable. With respect to the validity question, for example, a judge or jury could find that our patent claims laws of nature or are otherwise ineligible for patenting, and we cannot be certain that there is no invalidating prior art, of which we or our licensing partners and the patent examiner were unaware during prosecution. If a third party were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity or unenforceability, we would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the patent protection on our TV platform, product candidates or other technologies. Such a loss of patent protection would have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
Patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on our product candidates for an adequate amount of time.
Patent rights are of limited duration. In the United States, if all maintenance fees are paid timely, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years after its first effective filing date. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such product candidates are commercialized. Even if patents covering our product candidates are obtained, once the patent life has expired for a product, we may be open to competition from biosimilar or generic products. As a result, our patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing product candidates similar or identical to ours. Upon issuance in the United States, the term of a patent can be increased by patent term adjustment, which is based on certain delays caused by the USPTO, but this increase can be reduced or eliminated based on certain delays caused by the patent applicant during patent prosecution. The term of a United States patent may also be shortened if the patent is terminally disclaimed over an earlier-filed patent. A patent term extension ("PTE") based on regulatory delay may be available in the United States. However, only a single patent can be extended for each marketing approval, and any patent can be extended only once, for a single product. Moreover, the scope of protection during the period of the PTE does not extend to the full scope of the claim, but instead only to the scope of the product as approved. Laws governing analogous PTEs in foreign jurisdictions vary widely, as do laws governing the ability to obtain multiple patents from a single patent family. Additionally, we may not receive an extension if we fail to exercise due diligence during the testing phase or regulatory review process, apply within applicable deadlines, fail to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents or otherwise fail to satisfy applicable requirements. If we are unable to obtain PTE or restoration, or the term of any such extension is less than we request, the period during which we will have the right to exclusively market our product will be shortened and our competitors may obtain approval of competing products following our patent expiration and may take advantage of our investment in development and clinical trials by referencing our clinical and nonclinical data to launch their product earlier than might otherwise be the case, and our revenue could be reduced, possibly materially.
We may be subject to claims challenging the inventorship of our patents and other intellectual property.
We or our licensors may be subject to claims that former employees, collaborators or other third parties have an interest in our owned or in-licensed patents, trade secrets, or other intellectual property as an inventor or co-inventor. For example, we or our licensors may have inventorship disputes arise from conflicting obligations of employees, consultants or others who are involved in developing our TV platform, product candidates, or other technologies. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these and other claims challenging inventorship or our or our licensors’ ownership of our owned or in-licensed patents, trade secrets, or other intellectual property. If we or our licensors fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights, such as exclusive ownership of, or right to use, intellectual property that is important to our TV platform, product candidates and other technologies. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and other employees. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.
If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, our business and competitive position would be harmed.
In addition to seeking patents for our TV platform, product candidates and other technologies, we also rely on trade secrets and confidentiality agreements to protect our unpatented know-how, technology, and other proprietary information and to maintain our competitive position. Trade secrets and know-how can be difficult to protect. We expect our trade secrets and know-how to over time be disseminated within the industry through independent development, the publication of journal articles describing the methodology, and the movement of personnel from academic to industry scientific positions.
We seek to protect these trade secrets and other proprietary technology, in part, by entering into nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to them, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators, CROs, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors, and other third parties. We also enter into confidentiality and invention or patent assignment agreements with our employees and consultants as well as train our employees not to bring or use proprietary information or technology from former employers to us or in their work, and remind former employees when they leave their employment of their confidentiality obligations. We cannot guarantee that we have entered into such agreements with each party that may have or have had access to our trade secrets or proprietary technology and processes. Despite our 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. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts inside and outside the United States are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor or other third party, we would have no right to prevent them from using that technology or information to compete with us. If any of our trade secrets were to be disclosed to or independently developed by a competitor or other third party, our competitive position would be materially and adversely harmed.
We may not be successful in obtaining, through acquisitions, in-licenses or otherwise, necessary rights to our TV platform, product candidates or other technologies.
We currently have rights to intellectual property, through licenses from third parties, to identify and develop our TV platform and product candidates. Many pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, and academic institutions are competing with us in the fields of neurodegenerative and lysosomal storage diseases and BBB technology and may have patents and have filed and plan to file patent applications potentially relevant to our business. In order to avoid infringing these third-party patents, we may find it necessary or prudent to obtain licenses to such patents from such third-party intellectual property holders. We may also require licenses from third parties for certain BBB technologies that we are evaluating for use with our current or future product candidates. In addition, with respect to any patents we co-own with third parties, we may require licenses to such co-owners’ interest to such patents. However, we may be unable to secure such licenses or otherwise acquire or in-license any compositions, methods of use, processes, or other intellectual property rights from third parties that we identify as necessary for our current or future product candidates and our TV platform. The licensing or acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and several more established companies may pursue strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider attractive or necessary. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, capital resources, and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. We also may be unable to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights on terms that would allow us to make an appropriate return on our investment or at all. If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to required third-party intellectual property rights or maintain the existing intellectual property rights we have, we may have to abandon development of the relevant program or product candidate, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.
We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants, or advisors have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their current or former employers or claims asserting ownership of what we regard as our own intellectual property.
Many of our employees, consultants, and advisors are currently or were previously employed at universities or other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our licensors, competitors, and potential competitors. Although we try to ensure that our employees, consultants, and advisors do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that we or these individuals have used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information, of any such individual’s current or former employer. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management.
In addition, while it is our policy to require our employees and contractors who may be involved in the conception or development of intellectual property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be unsuccessful in executing such an agreement with each party who, in fact, conceives or develops intellectual property that we regard as our own. The assignment of intellectual property rights may not be self-executing or the assignment agreements may be breached, and we may be forced to bring claims against third parties or defend claims that they may bring against us to determine the ownership of what we regard as our intellectual property. Such claims could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.
Third-party claims of intellectual property infringement, misappropriation, or other violation against us, our licensors, or our collaborators may prevent or delay the development and commercialization of our TV platform, product candidates, and other technologies.
The fields of discovering treatments for neurodegenerative and lysosomal storage diseases, especially using BBB technology, is highly competitive and dynamic. Due to the focused research and development that is taking place by several companies, including us and our competitors, in these fields, the intellectual property landscape is in flux, and it may remain uncertain in the future. As such, there may be significant intellectual property litigation and proceedings relating to our owned, in-licensed, and other third-party intellectual property and proprietary rights in the future.
Our commercial success depends in part on our, our licensors’ and our collaborators’ ability to avoid infringing, misappropriating, and otherwise violating the patents and other intellectual property rights of third parties. There is a substantial amount of complex litigation involving patents and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, as well as administrative proceedings for challenging patents, including interference, derivation, and reexamination proceedings before the USPTO or oppositions and other comparable proceedings in foreign jurisdictions. As discussed above, recently, due to changes in U.S. law referred to as patent reform, new procedures including inter partes review and post-grant review have been implemented. As stated above, this reform adds uncertainty to the possibility of challenge to our patents in the future.
Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications owned by third parties exist relating to BBB technology and in the fields in which we are developing our product candidates. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, the risk increases that our TV platform, product candidates, and other technologies may give rise to claims of infringement of the patent rights of others. We cannot assure you that our TV platform, product candidates, and other technologies that we have developed, are developing or may develop in the future will not infringe existing or future patents owned by third parties. We may not be aware of patents that have already been issued and that a third party, for example, a competitor in the fields in which we are developing our TV platform, product candidates, and other technologies might assert are infringed by our current or future TV platform, product candidates or other technologies, including claims to compositions, formulations, methods of manufacture or methods of use or treatment that cover our TV platform, product candidates, or other technologies. It is also possible that patents owned by third parties of which we are aware, but which we do not believe are relevant to our TV platform, product candidates, or other technologies, could be found to be infringed by our TV platform, product candidates, or other technologies. In addition, because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent applications that may later result in issued patents that our TV platform, product candidates, or other technologies may infringe. Generative artificial intelligence ("AI") resources that are publicly available may also present a risk that a company may inadvertently obtain, incorporate, or use a third party's intellectual property.
Third parties may have patents or obtain patents in the future and claim that the manufacture, use, or sale of our TV platform, product candidates, or other technologies infringes upon these patents. In the event that any third-party claims that we infringe their patents or that we are otherwise employing their proprietary technology without authorization and initiates litigation against us, even if we believe such claims are without merit, a court of competent jurisdiction could hold that such patents are valid, enforceable, and infringed by our TV platform, product candidates, or other technologies. In this case, the holders of such patents may be able to block our ability to commercialize the applicable product candidate or technology unless we obtain a license under the applicable patents, or until such patents expire or are finally determined to be held invalid or unenforceable. Such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable 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 might be nonexclusive, which could result in our competitors gaining access to the same intellectual property. If we are unable to obtain a necessary license to a third-party patent on commercially reasonable terms, we may be unable to commercialize our TV platform, product candidates, or other technologies, or such commercialization efforts may be significantly delayed, which could in turn significantly harm our business.
Defense of infringement claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of management and other employee resources from our business, and may impact our reputation. In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may be enjoined from further developing or commercializing our infringing TV platform, product candidates, or other technologies. In addition, we may have to pay substantial damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement, obtain one or more licenses from third parties, pay royalties, and/or redesign our infringing product candidates or technologies, which may be impossible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure. In that event, we would be unable to further develop and commercialize our TV platform, product candidates, or other technologies, which could harm our business significantly.
Engaging in litigation to defend against third parties alleging that we have infringed, misappropriated, or otherwise violated their patents or other intellectual property rights is very expensive, particularly for a company of our size, and time-consuming. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of litigation or administrative proceedings more effectively than we can because of 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 against us could impair our ability to compete in the marketplace. The occurrence of any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations or growth prospects.
We may become involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents and other intellectual property rights, which could be expensive, time consuming, and unsuccessful.
Competitors may infringe our patents or the patents of our licensing partners, or we may be required to defend against claims of infringement. In addition, our patents or the patents of our licensing partners also may become involved in inventorship, priority, or validity disputes. To counter or defend against such claims can be expensive and time consuming. In an infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent in which we have an interest is invalid or unenforceable, the other party’s use of our patented technology falls under the safe harbor to patent infringement under 35 U.S.C. §271(e)(1), or may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our owned and in-licensed patents do not cover the technology in question. An adverse result in any litigation proceeding could put one or more of our owned or in-licensed patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly. 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.
Even if resolved in our favor, litigation or other legal proceedings relating to intellectual property claims may cause us to incur significant expenses and could distract our personnel from their normal responsibilities. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions, or other interim proceedings or developments, and if securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common stock. Such litigation or proceedings could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce the resources available for development activities or any future sales, marketing, or distribution activities. We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to conduct such litigation or proceedings adequately. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources and more mature and developed intellectual property portfolios. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace.
If our trademarks and trade names are not adequately protected, then we may not be able to build name recognition in our markets of interest and our business may be adversely affected.
Our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names may be challenged, infringed, circumvented, declared generic, or determined to be infringing on other marks. We may not be able to protect our rights to these trademarks and trade names, which we need to build name recognition among potential partners or customers in our markets of interest. At times, competitors or other third parties may adopt trade names or trademarks similar to ours, thereby impeding our ability to build brand identity and possibly leading to market confusion. In addition, there could be potential trade name or trademark infringement claims brought by owners of other registered trademarks or trademarks that incorporate variations of our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names. 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 adversely affected. Our efforts to enforce or protect our proprietary rights related to trademarks, trade secrets, domain names, copyrights, or other intellectual property may be ineffective and could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.
Risks Related to Our Operations
We are highly dependent on our key personnel, and if we are not successful in attracting, motivating and retaining highly qualified personnel, we may not be able to successfully implement our business strategy.
Our ability to compete in the highly competitive biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries depends upon our ability to attract, motivate and retain highly qualified managerial, scientific, and medical personnel. We are highly dependent on our management, particularly our Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ryan Watts, and our scientific and medical personnel. The loss of the services provided by any of our executive officers, other key employees, and other scientific and medical advisors, and our inability to find suitable replacements, could harm our business.
The majority of our operations are conducted at our facility in South San Francisco, a region that is headquarters to many other biopharmaceutical companies and many academic and research institutions. Competition for skilled personnel is intense and the turnover rate can be high, which may limit our ability to hire and retain highly qualified personnel on acceptable terms or at all.
To induce valuable employees to remain at our company, in addition to salary and cash incentives, we have provided restricted stock and stock option grants that vest over time. The value to employees of these equity grants that vest over time may be significantly affected by movements in our stock price that are beyond our control, and may at any time be insufficient to counteract more lucrative offers from other companies. Our employment agreements provide for at-will employment, which means that any of our employees could leave our employment at any time, with or without notice. We do not maintain “key man” insurance policies on the lives of any of our employees. If we are unable to attract and incentivize quality personnel on acceptable terms, or at all, it may cause our business and operating results to suffer.
We will need to grow the size and capabilities of our organization, and we may experience difficulties in managing this growth.
As of March 31, 2026, we had approximately 507 employees, all of whom were full-time. As our development plans and strategies develop, we must add additional managerial, operational, financial, and other personnel. Future growth will impose significant added responsibilities on members of management, including recruiting, integrating, and retaining additional employees; managing our internal development efforts; and expanding our controls, reporting systems, and procedures.
Our future financial performance and our ability to continue to develop and commercialize AVLAYAH and any future product candidates will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth.
We currently rely, and for the foreseeable future will continue to rely, in substantial part on certain independent organizations, advisors, and consultants to provide certain services. There can be no assurance that the services of these independent organizations, advisors, and consultants will continue to be available to us on a timely basis when needed, or that we can find qualified replacements. In addition, we may be unable to effectively manage our outsourced activities or the quality or accuracy of the services provided by consultants may be compromised for any reason. If we are not able to effectively manage our growth, we may not be able to successfully implement the tasks necessary to further develop our product candidates and, accordingly, may not achieve our research, development, and commercialization goals.
We have engaged in and may in the future engage in acquisitions or strategic partnerships, which may increase our capital requirements, dilute our stockholders, cause us to incur debt or assume contingent liabilities, and subject us to other risks.
We have in the past engaged in acquisitions and strategic partnerships, and we may engage in various acquisitions and strategic partnerships in the future, including licensing or acquiring complementary products, intellectual property rights, technologies, or businesses as part of our business strategy. For example, we have collaboration agreements with Sanofi and Biogen, and issued stock in connection with entering into certain of those agreements in 2018 and 2020. Any such transaction may entail numerous risks, including:
•increased operating expenses and cash requirements;
•the assumption of indebtedness or contingent liabilities;
•the issuance of our equity securities which would result in dilution to our stockholders;
•assimilation of operations, intellectual property, products and product candidates of an acquired company, including difficulties associated with integrating new personnel;
•the diversion of our management’s attention from our existing product programs and initiatives in pursuing such an acquisition or strategic partnership;
•the loss of key employees, and uncertainties in our ability to maintain key business relationships;
•risks and uncertainties associated with the other party to such a transaction, including the prospects of that party and their existing products or product candidates and regulatory approvals; and
•our inability to generate revenue from acquired intellectual property, technology and/or products sufficient to meet our objectives or offset the associated transaction and maintenance costs.
In addition, if we undertake such a transaction, we may issue dilutive securities, assume or incur debt obligations, incur large one-time expenses and acquire intangible assets that could result in significant future amortization expense.
In December 2025, we entered into a synthetic royalty funding agreement with Royalty Pharma. This agreement makes available to us up to $275.0 million from two potential milestone payments. Upon achieving the first milestone of FDA accelerated approval of AVLAYAH, we received $200.0 million in gross proceeds; the remaining milestone payment will be subject to European Medicines Agency (EMA) approval of AVLAYAH by December 31, 2029. Should we not satisfy this condition by the applicable deadline, or if we fail to meet our obligations or default under this agreement, we may not receive any additional milestone payments, or the payments to us could be substantially less than the maximum amounts available under the agreement.
Our internal computer systems, or those used by our third-party research institution collaborators, CROs, or other contractors or consultants, may fail or suffer other breakdowns, cyberattacks, or information security breaches or incidents that could compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of such systems and data, expose us to liability, and affect our reputation.
We are increasingly dependent upon information technology systems, infrastructure, and data to operate our business. We also rely on third-party vendors and their information technology systems. Commercialization has required the implementation of computer systems that are increasingly complex to install, secure, and maintain. Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems and those of our collaborators, CROs, and other contractors and consultants may be vulnerable to damage, outages and interruptions resulting from computer viruses and other malicious code or unauthorized access, or breached, compromised, or otherwise subject to security incidents due to operator error, malfeasance, or other system disruptions. Geopolitical events, such as war and armed conflicts, may increase the risks of cyber-attacks, disruptions, and security breaches and incidents that we and these third parties face. Security threats can come from a variety of sources, ranging in sophistication from an individual hacker to a state-sponsored attack. Cyber threats may be broad-based or otherwise generic in nature, or they may be custom-crafted against our information systems or those of our collaborators, CROs, or other contractors or consultants.
As the cyber-threat landscape evolves, cyber-attacks have become more prevalent, intense, sophisticated, and much harder to detect and defend against. Such attacks could include the use of key loggers or other harmful and virulent malware, including ransomware or other denials of service, and can be deployed through malicious websites, the use of social engineering and/or other means. We and our collaborators, CROs, or other contractors and consultants may not be able to anticipate all types of security threats, and we may not be able to implement preventive measures effective against all such security threats. The techniques used by cyber criminals change frequently, may not be recognized until launched, and can originate from a wide variety of sources. Although to our knowledge we have not experienced any such material system failure or security breach or incident to date, if a breakdown, cyberattack or other information security breach or incident were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our development programs and our business operations, whether due to loss or misappropriation of trade secrets or loss of, or unauthorized modification, unavailability, disclosure, or other unauthorized processing of other proprietary information or other similar disruption and we could incur liability and reputational damage. For example, any corruption, loss, or other unavailability 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 our third-party research institution collaborators for research and development of our product candidates and other 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.
Cyber-attacks, breaches, interruptions, or other data security incidents could result in legal claims or proceedings by private parties or governmental authorities, liability under federal or state laws that protect the privacy of personal information, regulatory penalties, significant remediation costs, disrupt key business operations, and divert attention of management and key information technology resources. In the United States, notice of breaches must be made to affected individuals, the U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS"), and for extensive breaches, notice may need to be made to the media or U.S. state attorneys general. Such a notice could harm our reputation and our ability to compete. In addition, U.S. state attorneys general are authorized to bring civil actions seeking either injunctions or damages in response to violations that threaten the privacy of state residents. There can be no assurance that we, our collaborators, CROs, contractors, consultants, and any other business counterparties will be successful in efforts to detect, prevent, protect against, or fully recover systems or data from all break-downs, service interruptions, attacks, or security breaches or incidents. Although we maintain standalone cybersecurity insurance, the costs related to significant security breaches, incidents, or disruptions could be material and exceed the limits of any insurance coverage we have, and may result in increases in our insurance costs. Relevant insurance may in the future become unavailable to us on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Any disruption or security breach or incident that results in or is perceived to have resulted in a loss of, or damage to, our data or systems, or inappropriate disclosure, use, acquisition, transfer, modification, unavailability, or other processing of confidential or proprietary information, including data related to our personnel, could result in the loss, unauthorized modification, use, unavailability, disclosure or other unauthorized processing of critical or sensitive data, and could cause us to incur liability. Further, in any such event, the development and commercialization of our product candidates could be delayed and our business and operations could be adversely affected. Any of the foregoing could result in financial, legal, business, or reputational harm to us.
We are increasing our use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems to enhance productivity and efficiency; however, the use of AI presents operational, legal, regulatory, cybersecurity, and reputational risks. Many AI systems generate probabilistic outputs based on patterns in training data rather than deterministic rules, and they may produce results that are inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, biased, or not explainable, including “hallucinations,” and their performance may vary based on inputs, updates, or changes in underlying data. As a result, our use of AI could lead to inaccurate analyses, degraded data quality, improper actions or decisions, operational disruptions, or data loss. Our use of AI may also raise ethical and legal challenges, including outcomes that reflect or amplify bias or discrimination, lack of transparency or traceability, and evolving compliance obligations under data protection, intellectual property, and laws and regulations specifically governing the development, deployment, and use of AI. In addition, AI tools may increase the risk that confidential, proprietary, or personal data is exposed, misused, or inappropriately processed (including through training, retention, or sharing by third-party providers), and could increase cybersecurity threats such as unauthorized access, prompt-injection, data exfiltration, or other security incidents. We may also face claims or investigations related to the use of AI, including alleged infringement or misappropriation of third-party intellectual property, or allegations that AI-generated outputs were relied upon inappropriately. These risks could require additional expenditures, reduce the effectiveness of our operations, result in regulatory scrutiny, litigation, fines, contractual liability, or reputational harm, and could materially adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition, and stock price. If we do not adopt AI or other machine-learning technologies effectively or at an appropriate pace, we may also be less competitive relative to peers who do.
Business disruptions, including as a result of geopolitical events and global pandemics, could seriously harm our future revenue and financial condition and increase our costs and expenses.
Our operations, and those of our third-party research institution collaborators, CROs, CDMOs, suppliers, clinical trial sites, and other third-party partners, could be subject to earthquakes, power shortages, telecommunications failures, water shortages, floods, hurricanes, typhoons, fires, extreme weather conditions, public health crises, and other natural or man-made disasters or business interruptions, for which we are partly uninsured. In addition, we rely on our third-party research institution collaborators for conducting research and development of our product candidates, and they may be affected by bank failures or instability in the financial services sector, government shutdowns, or withdrawn funding. The occurrence of any of these business disruptions could seriously harm our operations and financial condition and increase our costs and expenses. Government responses to such events, such as to public health crises, may also result in disruption and delay of our business.
The majority of our operations are located in South San Francisco, California and Salt Lake City, Utah. Damage or extended periods of interruption to our corporate, development, research, or manufacturing facilities due to fire, extreme weather conditions or natural disaster, power loss, communications failure, unauthorized entry, or other events could cause us to cease or delay development of some or all of our product candidates. Although we maintain property damage and business interruption insurance coverage on these facilities, our insurance might not cover all losses under such circumstances and our business may be seriously harmed by such delays and interruption.
Our business is subject to economic, political, regulatory, and other risks associated with international operations.
Our business is subject to risks associated with conducting business internationally. In addition to a subsidiary located in Zurich, Switzerland, we have suppliers and collaborative relationships located outside the United States. Accordingly, our future results could be harmed by a variety of factors, including:
•economic weakness, including inflation, rising interest rates or political instability in certain non-U.S. economies and markets;
•differing and changing regulatory requirements in non-U.S. countries;
•potentially reduced protection for intellectual property rights;
•difficulties in compliance with non-U.S. laws and regulations;
•changes in non-U.S. regulations and customs, tariffs, and trade barriers;
•changes in non-U.S. currency exchange rates and currency controls;
•changes in a specific country’s or region’s political or economic environment;
•trade protection measures, import or export licensing requirements, or other restrictive government actions by U.S. or non-U.S. governments;
•differing reimbursement regimes, including price controls;
•negative consequences from changes in tax laws or tariffs;
•compliance with tax, employment, immigration, and labor laws for employees living or traveling abroad;
•workforce uncertainty in countries where labor unrest is more common than in the United States;
•difficulties associated with staffing and managing international operations, including differing labor relations;
•potential liability under the FCPA, UK Bribery Act, or comparable foreign laws;
•production shortages resulting from any events affecting raw material supply or manufacturing capabilities abroad;
•business interruptions resulting from geopolitical actions, including war and armed conflict, terrorism, natural disasters including earthquakes, typhoons, floods, and fires, or health epidemics; and
•cyberattacks, which are growing in frequency, sophistication and intensity, and are becoming increasingly difficult to detect.
In particular, there is currently significant uncertainty about the future relationship between the United States and various other countries, most significantly China, with respect to trade policies, treaties, tariffs, taxes, and other limitations on cross-border operations. The U.S. government has and continues to make significant additional changes in U.S. trade policy and may continue to take future actions that could negatively impact U.S. trade. For example, legislation has been introduced in Congress to limit certain U.S. biotechnology companies from using equipment or services produced or provided by select Chinese biotechnology companies, and others in Congress have advocated for the use of existing executive branch authorities to limit those Chinese service providers’ ability to engage in business in the U.S. We cannot predict what actions may ultimately be taken with respect to trade relations between the United States and China or other countries, what products and services may be subject to such actions or what actions may be taken by the other countries in retaliation. If we are unable to obtain or use services from existing service providers or become unable to export or, if approved, sell our products, our business, liquidity, financial condition, and/or results of operations would be materially and adversely affected.
These and other risks associated with our planned international operations may materially adversely affect our ability to attain profitable operations.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
As of December 31, 2025, we had federal net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $964.9 million, federal research and development tax credit carryforwards of approximately $73.8 million, and orphan tax credit carryforwards of approximately $75.0 million, some of which will begin to expire in 2034. Under Sections 382 and 383 of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, (the "Code"), if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change” (generally defined as a greater than 50-percentage-point cumulative change (by value) in the equity ownership of certain stockholders over a rolling three-year period), the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes to offset its post-change taxable income or taxes may be limited. We have experienced ownership changes in the past, and we may also experience ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership, including in connection with our October 2022 and December 2025 offerings, some of which are outside our control. Limitations may also apply under state law. For example, recently enacted California legislation limits the use of state net operating loss carryforwards for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2024 and before January 1, 2027. As a result of this legislation or other unforeseen reasons, we may not be able to utilize some or all of our net operating loss carryforwards, even if we attain profitability.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock
The market price of our common stock has been and may continue to be volatile, which could result in substantial losses for investors.
The trading price of our common stock has been and may continue to be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. In addition to the factors discussed in this "Risk Factors" section and elsewhere in this report, these factors include:
•the timing and results of clinical trials for our current product candidates and any future product candidates that we may develop;
•commencement or termination of collaborations for our product development and research programs;
•the timing and ability to obtain regulatory approval on our product candidates;
•failure to achieve development, regulatory, or commercialization milestones under our collaborations;
•failure or discontinuation of any of our product development and research programs;
•failure to successfully commercialize AVLAYAH or other product candidates;
•results of preclinical studies, clinical trials, or regulatory approvals of product candidates of our competitors, or announcements about new research programs, product candidates, or technologies of our competitors;
•regulatory or legal developments in the United States and other countries;
•developments or disputes concerning patent applications, issued patents, or other proprietary rights;
•the recruitment or departure of key personnel;
•the level of expenses related to any of our research programs, clinical development programs, or product candidates that we may develop;
•the results of our efforts to develop additional product candidates or products;
•actual or anticipated changes in estimates as to financial results, development timelines, or recommendations by securities analysts;
•announcement or expectation of additional financing efforts;
•sales of our common stock by us, our insiders, or other stockholders;
•variations in our financial results or those of companies that are perceived to be similar to us;
•changes in the structure of healthcare payment systems or in accounting standards;
•ineffectiveness of our internal controls;
•significant lawsuits, including patent or stockholder litigation;
•market conditions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors; and
•other events or factors affecting general economic, industry, and market conditions, including bank failures or instability in the financial services sector, geopolitical events such as war and armed conflict, natural disasters, and public health crises.
In recent years, the stock market in general, and the market for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in particular, has experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to changes in the operating performance of the companies whose stock is experiencing those price and volume fluctuations. Broad market and industry factors may seriously affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. In the past, when the market price of a stock has been volatile, holders of that stock have instituted securities class action litigation against the company that issued the stock. If any of our stockholders were to bring a lawsuit against us, the defense and disposition of any such lawsuits could be costly and divert the time and attention of our management and harm our operating results, regardless of the merits of such a claim.
If securities analysts publish negative evaluations of our stock, or if they do not publish research or reports about our business, the price of our stock and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock relies in part on the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of the analysts covering our business downgrade their evaluations of our stock, or if we fail to meet the expectations of analysts, the price of our stock could decline. If one or more of these analysts cease to cover our stock, we could lose visibility in the market for our stock, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public markets, or the perception that such sales might occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline significantly, even if our business is doing well.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that these sales might occur, could depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. We are unable to predict the effect that sales may have on the prevailing market price of our common stock.
Furthermore sales of our common stock by current stockholders may make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-related securities in the future at a time and price that we deem reasonable or appropriate, and make it more difficult for you to sell shares of our common stock. Certain holders of shares of our common stock have rights, subject to conditions, to require us to file registration statements covering their shares or to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or other stockholders. For example, on February 27, 2024, we entered into a Purchase Agreement with certain existing accredited investors in connection with a strategic private offering transaction. Pursuant to this transaction, we entered into an agreement granting an investor certain registration rights following such time that the investor may be deemed an affiliate of the Company. Any sales of securities by these stockholders, or the perception that sales will be made in the public market, could have a material adverse effect on the market price for our common stock.
We have registered on Form S-8 all shares of common stock that are issuable under our 2017 Equity Incentive Plan and 2017 Employee Stock Purchase Plan. As a consequence, these shares can be freely sold in the public market upon issuance, subject to volume limitations applicable to affiliates.
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our existing stockholders, restrict our operations, or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or product candidates.
We may seek additional capital through a combination of public and private equity offerings, debt financings, strategic partnerships and alliances, and licensing arrangements. For example, in December 2025, we sold 9,142,857 shares of common stock and pre-funded warrants to purchase 2,285,714 shares of our common stock in an underwritten public offering. In January 2026, in connection with the same offering, the underwriters exercised their option to purchase an additional 746,468 shares of common stock, on which date we received aggregate net proceeds of approximately $12.4 million. Our security holders may be further diluted by the exercise of the pre-funded warrants issued. We, and indirectly, our stockholders, will bear the cost of issuing and servicing all such securities. Additionally, collaborations we enter into with third parties may provide capital in the near term but limit our potential cash flow and revenue in the future. If we raise additional funds through strategic partnerships and alliances and licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies or product candidates, or grant licenses on terms unfavorable to us. In December 2025, for example, we announced a synthetic royalty funding agreement that, upon certain conditions including regulatory approval within specified timelines and payment of milestones, would entitle Royalty Pharma to 9.25% royalty on future net sales of AVLAYAH.
To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or debt securities, your ownership interest will be diluted, and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a stockholder. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed payment obligations and could involve restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, limitations on our ability to acquire, sell, or license intellectual property rights and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. In addition, any sales of our common stock or other securities under our shelf registration statement could put downward pressure on our stock price.
Our principal stockholders and management own a significant percentage of our stock and will be able to exercise significant influence over matters subject to stockholder approval.
Our directors, executive officers, holders of more than 5% of our outstanding stock, and their respective affiliates beneficially own a significant percentage of our outstanding common stock. As a result, these stockholders, if they act together, may significantly influence all matters requiring stockholder approval, including approval of significant corporate transactions and the election of directors, as with the recent board nomination and election of a director designated by Baker Brothers Life Sciences L.P. and 667, L.P. ("Baker Brothers") pursuant to a nominating agreement.
Any concentration of ownership may result in such holders exerting influence over us and may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control of our company that our other stockholders may believe is in their best interests. This in turn could have a material adverse effect on our stock price and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove the board of directors or management.
If we are unable to maintain effective internal controls, our business, financial position and results of operations and growth prospects could be adversely affected.
As a public company, we are subject to reporting and other obligations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, ("Exchange Act"), including the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which require annual management assessments of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting.
The rules governing the standards that must be met for management and our auditors to assess our internal control over financial reporting are complex and require significant documentation, testing, and possible remediation to meet the detailed standards under the rules. During the course of its testing, our management or auditors may identify material weaknesses or deficiencies which may not be remedied in time to meet the deadline imposed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. These reporting and other obligations place significant demands on our management and administrative and operational resources, including accounting resources.
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Our internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States ("U.S. GAAP"). Any failure to maintain effective internal controls could have an adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations, and growth prospects.
We believe that any disclosure controls and procedures or internal controls and procedures, no matter how well-conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of simple error or mistake or system failures. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people or by an unauthorized override of the controls. Accordingly, because of the inherent limitations in our control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.
We do not expect to pay any dividends for the foreseeable future. Investors may never obtain a return on their investment.
We have never paid cash dividends on our common stock and do not anticipate that we will pay any dividends in the foreseeable future. We currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, to maintain and expand our existing operations. If we do not pay dividends, our common stock may be less valuable because a return on your investment will only occur if our stock price appreciates, which may never occur.
Delaware law and provisions in our charter documents might discourage, delay, or prevent a change in control of our company or changes in our management and, therefore, depress the trading price of our common stock.
Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may discourage, delay, or prevent a merger, acquisition, or other change in control that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which you might otherwise receive a premium for your shares of our common stock. These provisions may also prevent or frustrate attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our management. Therefore, these provisions could adversely affect the price of our common stock. Among other things, our charter documents:
•establish that our board of directors is divided into three classes, Class I, Class II, and Class III, with each class serving staggered three-year terms;
•provide that vacancies on our board of directors may be filled only by a majority of directors then in office, even though less than a quorum;
•provide that our directors may only be removed for cause;
•eliminate cumulative voting in the election of directors;
•authorize our board of directors to issue shares of preferred stock and determine the price and other terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder approval;
•provide our board of directors with the exclusive right to elect a director to fill a vacancy or newly created directorship;
•permit stockholders to only take actions at a duly called annual or special meeting and not by written consent;
•prohibit stockholders from calling a special meeting of stockholders;
•require that stockholders give advance notice to nominate directors or submit proposals for consideration at stockholder meetings;
•authorize our board of directors, by a majority vote, to amend the bylaws; and
•require the affirmative vote of at least 66 2/3% or more of the outstanding shares of common stock to amend many of the provisions described above.
In addition, Section 203 of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, (the "DGCL"), prohibits a publicly-held Delaware corporation from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder, generally a person which together with its affiliates owns, or within the last three years has owned, 15.0% of our voting stock, for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person became an interested stockholder, unless the business combination is approved in a prescribed manner.
Any provision of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws, or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or preventing 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 provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable 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 claim of breach of fiduciary duty;
•any action asserting a claim against us arising under the DGCL, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, or our amended and restated bylaws; and
•any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal-affairs doctrine.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation further provides that 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.
These exclusive-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 either exclusive-forum provision in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action or we do not enforce such provision, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, which could seriously harm our business.