Protara Therapeutics, Inc 10-Q for FY2022 Q1
Protara Therapeutics, Inc. (TARA)
About this 10-Q
Protara Therapeutics, Inc filed this 10-Q on May 5, 2022, covering the quarter ended March 31, 2022 (FY2022 Q1).
Headline figures
Quarter ended March 31, 2022, as reported in this filing, compared with the same period a year earlier where the filing states it.
- Net loss
- $10.76M
- compared with a net loss of $13.47M a year earlier
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, DC 20549
FORM
(Mark One)
For the quarterly period ended
or
For the transition period from to
Commission
File Number:
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
(Address of principal executive offices)
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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant
(1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months
(or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements
for the past 90 days.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant
has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405
of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
| Large accelerated filer ☐ | Accelerated filer ☐ | |
| Smaller reporting company | ||
| Emerging growth company |
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant
is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
| Title of each class | Trading Symbol(s) | Name of each exchange on which registered | ||
| The |
As of May 2, 2022 there were
TABLE OF CONTENTS
i
CAUTIONARY NOTE CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q contains forward-looking statements, which reflect our current views with respect to, among other things, our operations and financial performance. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify these forward-looking statements by terminology such as “believes,” “expects,” “potential,” “continues,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “seek,” “approximately,” “predict,” “intend,” “plans,” “estimates,” “anticipates” or the negative version of these terms or other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, there are or will be important factors that could cause actual outcomes or results to differ materially from those indicated in these statements.
These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about:
| ● | the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and operations as well as the business or operations of our manufacturers, contract research organizations, study sites or other clinical partners and other third parties with whom we conduct business and regulatory agencies, and the extent and duration thereof; |
| ● | estimates regarding our financial performance, including future revenues, expenses and capital requirements; |
| ● | our expected cash position and ability to obtain financing in the future on satisfactory terms or at all; |
| ● | expectations regarding our plans to research, develop and commercialize our current and future product candidates, including TARA-002, and Intravenous, or IV, Choline Chloride; |
| ● | expectations regarding the safety and efficacy of our product candidates; |
| ● | expectations regarding the timing, costs and outcomes of our clinical trials; |
| ● | expectations regarding potential market size; |
| ● | expectations regarding the timing of the availability of data from our clinical trials; |
| ● | expectations regarding the clinical utility, potential benefits and market acceptance of our product candidates; |
| ● | expectations regarding our commercialization, marketing and manufacturing capabilities and strategy; |
| ● | the implementation of our business model, strategic plans for our business, product candidates and technology; |
| ● | expectations regarding our ability to identify additional products or product candidates with significant commercial potential; |
| ● | developments and projections relating to our competitors and industry; |
| ● | our ability to acquire, license and invest in businesses, technologies, product candidates and products; |
ii
| ● | our ability to remain listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market, or Nasdaq; |
| ● | the impact of government laws and regulations; |
| ● | costs and outcomes relating to any disputes, governmental inquiries or investigations, regulatory proceedings, legal proceedings or litigation; |
| ● | our ability to attract and retain key personnel to manage our business effectively; |
| ● | our ability to prevent system failures, data breaches or violations of data protection laws; |
| ● | the timing or likelihood of regulatory filings and approvals; |
| ● | our ability to protect our intellectual property position; and |
| ● | the impact of general U.S. and foreign economic, industry, market, regulatory or political conditions. |
All forward-looking statements in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, the risk factors set forth below in Part II, Item 1A, Risk Factors, and elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and the risk factors set forth in Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors, within our Form 10-K filed on March 9, 2022. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available in the future.
This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q also contains estimates, projections and other information concerning our industry, our business, and the markets for certain medical conditions, including data regarding the estimated size of those markets, and the incidence and prevalence of certain medical conditions. Information that is based on estimates, forecasts, projections, market research or similar methodologies is inherently subject to uncertainties and actual events or circumstances may differ materially from events and circumstances reflected in this information. Unless otherwise expressly stated, we obtained this industry, business, market and other data from reports, research surveys, studies and similar data prepared by market research firms and other third parties, industry, medical and general publications, government data and similar sources.
iii
SUMMARY OF RISKS AFFECTING OUR BUSINESS
Below is a summary of the principal factors that make an investment in our securities speculative or risky. This summary does not address all of the risks that we face. Additional discussion of the risks and uncertainties summarized in this risk factor summary, and other risks and uncertainties that we face, are set forth in Part II, Item 1A, Risk Factors, and should be carefully considered, together with other information in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and our other filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, before making investment decisions regarding our securities.
| ● | We have a limited operating history and have never generated any revenues. |
| ● | We expect to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future and may never achieve or maintain profitability. |
| ● | The COVID-19 pandemic could materially and adversely impact our business, including our clinical development plans and non-clinical research. |
| ● | We will need to raise additional financing in the future to fund our operations, which may not be available to us on favorable terms or at all. |
| ● | Our business depends on the successful clinical development, regulatory approval and commercialization of TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride. |
| ● | We have never made a biologics license application, or BLA, or new drug application, or NDA, submission or completed a clinical trial and may be unable to successfully do so for TARA-002 or IV Choline Chloride. |
| ● | TARA-002 is an immunopotentiator, and one indication that we plan to pursue is the treatment of lymphatic malformations, or LMs. There are no therapies for the treatment of LMs approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA. It is difficult to predict the timing and costs of clinical development for TARA-002 with respect to LMs. |
| ● | Even if a product candidate obtains regulatory approval, it may fail to achieve the broad degree of physician and patient adoption and use necessary for commercial success. |
| ● | Our product candidates, if approved, will face significant competition and their failure to compete effectively may prevent them from achieving significant market penetration. |
| ● | We currently have limited marketing capabilities and no sales organization. If we are unable to grow our sales and marketing capabilities on our own or through third parties, we will be unable to successfully commercialize our product candidates, if approved, or generate product revenue. |
| ● | Certain stockholders have the ability to control or significantly influence certain matters submitted to our stockholders for approval. |
| ● | We are subject to stringent and changing obligations related to data privacy and security. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could lead to regulatory investigations or actions; litigation; fines and penalties; a disruption of our business operations, including our clinical trials; harm to our reputation; and other adverse effects on our business or prospects. |
| ● | We may not be able to obtain, maintain or enforce global patent rights or other intellectual property rights that cover our product candidates and technologies that are of sufficient breadth to prevent third parties from competing against us. |
iv
PART I - FINANCIAL INFORMATION
Item 1. Financial Statements
PROTARA THERAPEUTICS, INC.
Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets
(in thousands, except share and per share data)
| As of | ||||||||
| March 31, 2022 | December 31, 2021 | |||||||
| Assets | ||||||||
| Current assets: | ||||||||
| Cash and cash equivalents | $ | $ | ||||||
| Marketable debt securities | ||||||||
| Prepaid expenses and other current assets | ||||||||
| Total current assets | ||||||||
| Restricted cash, non-current | ||||||||
| Marketable debt securities, non-current | ||||||||
| Property and equipment, net | ||||||||
| Operating lease right-of-use asset | ||||||||
| Goodwill | ||||||||
| Other assets | ||||||||
| Total assets | $ | $ | ||||||
| Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity | ||||||||
| Current liabilities: | ||||||||
| Accounts payable | $ | $ | ||||||
| Accrued expenses | ||||||||
| Operating lease liability | ||||||||
| Total current liabilities | ||||||||
| Operating lease liability, non-current | ||||||||
| Total liabilities | ||||||||
| Commitments and contingencies (Note 8) | ||||||||
| Stockholders’ Equity: | ||||||||
| Preferred stock, $ Series 1 Convertible Preferred Stock, | ||||||||
| Common stock, $ Common stock, | ||||||||
| Additional paid-in capital | ||||||||
| Accumulated deficit | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Total stockholders’ equity | ||||||||
| Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity | $ | $ | ||||||
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.
1
PROTARA THERAPEUTICS, INC.
Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss
(in thousands, except share and per share data)
| For the Three Months Ended March 31, | ||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||||
| Operating expenses: | ||||||||
| Research and development | $ | $ | ||||||
| General and administrative | ||||||||
| Total operating expenses | ||||||||
| Loss from operations | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Other income (expense), net: | ||||||||
| Interest and investment income | ||||||||
| Other income (expense), net | ||||||||
| Net loss | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted | $ | ( | ) | $ | ( | ) | ||
| Weighted-average shares outstanding, basic and diluted | ||||||||
| Other comprehensive income (loss): | ||||||||
| Net unrealized (loss) gain on marketable debt securities | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Other comprehensive income (loss) | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Comprehensive Loss | $ | ( | ) | $ | ( | ) | ||
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.
2
PROTARA THERAPEUTICS, INC.
Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Changes in Stockholders’ Equity
(in thousands, except share and per share data)
| Series 1 Convertible Preferred Stock | Common Stock | Additional Paid-in | Accumulated | Accumulated Other Comprehensive | Total Stockholders’ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shares | Amount | Shares | Amount | Capital | Deficit | Income (Loss) | Equity | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Balance at December 31, 2020 | $ | $ | $ | $ | ( | ) | $ | $ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Settlement of restricted stock units | - | ( | ) | ( | ) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation - restricted stock units | - | - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation - stock options | - | - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unrealized (loss) gain on marketable debt securities | - | - | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Net loss | - | - | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Balance at March 31, 2021 | $ | $ | $ | $ | ( | ) | $ | ( | ) | $ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Balance at December 31, 2021 | $ | $ | $ | $ | ( | ) | $ | ( | ) | $ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Settlement of restricted stock units | - | ( | ) | ( | ) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation - restricted stock units | - | - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation - stock options | - | - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unrealized (loss) gain on marketable debt securities | - | - | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Net loss | - | - | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Balance at March 31, 2022 | $ | $ | $ | $ | ( | ) | $ | ( | ) | $ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.
3
PROTARA THERAPEUTICS, INC.
Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
(in thousands)
| For the Three Months Ended March 31, | ||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||||
| Cash flows used in operating activities: | ||||||||
| Net loss | $ | ( | ) | $ | ( | ) | ||
| Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities: | ||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | ||||||||
| Operating lease right-of-use asset | ||||||||
| Depreciation | ||||||||
| Amortization of premium on marketable debt securities | ||||||||
| Changes in operating assets and liabilities: | ||||||||
| Prepaid expenses and other current assets | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Other assets | ||||||||
| Accounts payable | ( | ) | ||||||
| Accrued expenses | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Operating lease liabilities | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Net cash used in operating activities | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Cash flows from investing activities: | ||||||||
| Purchase of marketable debt securities | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Proceeds from maturity and redemption of marketable debt securities | ||||||||
| Purchase of property and equipment | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Net cash provided by/(used in) investing activities | ( | ) | ||||||
| Cash flows from financing activities: | ||||||||
| Repurchase of shares in connection with settlement of RSUs | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Net cash used in financing activities | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash - beginning of year | ||||||||
| Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash - end of period | $ | $ | ||||||
| Reconciliation of cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash to the condensed consolidated balance sheets: | ||||||||
| Cash and cash equivalents | $ | $ | ||||||
| Restricted cash | - | |||||||
| Restricted cash, non-current | ||||||||
| Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash | $ | $ | ||||||
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.
4
Protara Therapeutics, Inc. and Consolidated Subsidiaries
Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
(amounts in thousands, except share and per share data)
| 1. | Organization and Nature of the Business |
Overview
Protara Therapeutics, Inc., and its consolidated subsidiaries (“Protara” or the “Company”), is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to identifying and advancing transformative therapies for the treatment of cancer and rare diseases. Protara’s portfolio includes two development programs utilizing TARA-002, an investigational cell therapy in development for the treatment of lymphatic malformations, or LMs and non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, or NMIBC. The third program in the portfolio is Intravenous, or IV, Choline Chloride, an investigational phospholipid substrate replacement therapy initially in development for patients receiving parenteral nutrition, or PN who have intestinal failure associated liver disease, or IFALD.
Liquidity, Capital Resources and Management Plans
The Company is in the business of developing biopharmaceuticals and has no current or near-term revenues. The Company has incurred substantial clinical and other costs in its drug development efforts. The Company will need to raise additional capital in order to fully realize management’s plans.
The Company believes that its current financial resources are sufficient to satisfy the Company’s estimated liquidity needs for at least twelve months from the date of issuance of these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
The ultimate impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic is highly uncertain and subject to change. The Company has experienced delays and may experience additional future delays that impact the business, research and development activities, the healthcare systems in which the Company operates and the global economy as a whole. Due to the continued evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global responses to curb its spread, the Company is not able to estimate the ongoing effects on the Company’s results of operations, financial condition, or liquidity. The Company will continue to monitor the COVID-19 public health crisis closely including whether the effects would have a material impact on the Company’s operations, liquidity and capital resources.
5
Protara Therapeutics, Inc. and Consolidated Subsidiaries
Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
(amounts in thousands, except share and per share data)
| 2. | Summary of Significant Accounting Policies |
The Company’s significant accounting policies are disclosed in the audited consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, on March 9, 2022. Except as reflected below, there were no changes to the Company’s significant accounting policies as described in the Annual Report on Form 10-K. Reflected in this note are updates to accounting policies, including the impact of the adoption of new policies.
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements and the related disclosures as of March 31, 2022 and for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021 are unaudited and have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, or U.S. GAAP, and the rules and regulations of the SEC for interim financial statements. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by U.S. GAAP for complete financial statements. These interim condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the 2021 and 2020 audited consolidated financial statements and notes included in the Annual Report on Form 10-K. The December 31, 2021 consolidated balance sheet included herein was derived from the audited financial statements as of that date but does not include all disclosures including notes required by U.S. GAAP for complete financial statements. In the opinion of management, the condensed consolidated financial statements reflect all adjustments, consisting of normal and recurring adjustments, necessary for the fair presentation of the Company’s financial position and results of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021. The results of operations for the interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the year ending December 31, 2022 or any other interim period or future year or period.
Principles of Consolidation
The condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly owned subsidiaries. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the condensed consolidated financial statements. Significant items subject to such estimates include but are not limited to income taxes, the valuation of deferred tax assets, recoverability of goodwill, and contingencies.
On an ongoing basis, the Company’s management evaluates its estimates based on historical and anticipated results, trends, and various other assumptions believed to be reasonable. Actual results could differ from those estimates. The results of any changes in accounting estimates are reflected in the financial statements of the period in which the change becomes evident.
Concentrations of Credit Risk
Financial instruments, which potentially subject the Company to concentrations of credit risk, consists principally of cash, cash equivalents and investments in marketable debt securities.
The Company currently invests its excess cash primarily in money market funds and high quality investment grade marketable debt securities of corporations. The Company has adopted an investment policy that includes guidelines relative to credit quality, diversification and maturities to preserve principal and liquidity.
6
Protara Therapeutics, Inc. and Consolidated Subsidiaries
Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
(amounts in thousands, except share and per share data)
Recent Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted
In June 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or the FASB, issued ASU 2016-13 - Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Statements. The new standard requires that expected credit losses relating to financial assets measured on an amortized cost basis and available-for-sale debt securities be recorded through an allowance for credit losses. It also limits the amount of credit losses to be recognized for available-for-sale debt securities to the amount by which carrying value exceeds fair value and also requires the reversal of previously recognized credit losses if fair value increases. In November 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-10 – Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (Topic 326), Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815), and Leases (Topic 842): Effective Dates, which amended the effective date for certain companies. The standard is effective for public companies eligible to be smaller reporting companies for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2022. Early adoption is available. The Company is currently evaluating the potential impact ASU 2016-13, and related updates, will have on its consolidated financial statements and disclosures.
The Company has evaluated other recently issued accounting pronouncements and has concluded that the impact of recently issued standards that are not yet effective will not have a material impact on the Company’s financial position or results of operations upon adoption.
Subsequent Events
The Company evaluated subsequent events and transactions that occurred after the balance sheet date up to the date that the financial statements were available to be issued. The Company did not identify any subsequent events that would have required adjustment or disclosure in the financial statements.
| 3. | Fair Value of Financial Instruments |
The Company measures certain financial assets and liabilities at fair value. Fair value is determined based upon the exit price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants, as determined by either the principal market or the most advantageous market.
Inputs used in the valuation techniques to derive fair values are classified based on a three-level hierarchy, as follows:
| ● | Level 1 Inputs: Unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities accessible to the reporting entity at the measurement date. | |
| ● | Level 2 Inputs: Other than quoted prices included in Level 1 inputs that are observable for the asset or liability, either directly or indirectly, for substantially the full term of the asset or liability. | |
| ● | Level 3 Inputs: Unobservable inputs for the asset or liability used to measure fair value to the extent that observable inputs are not available, thereby allowing for situations in which there is little, if any, market activity for the asset or liability at measurement date. |
7
Protara Therapeutics, Inc. and Consolidated Subsidiaries
Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
(amounts in thousands, except share and per share data)
The following tables present the Company’s financial assets and liabilities that are measured and carried at fair value and indicate the level within the fair value hierarchy of valuation techniques it utilizes to determine such fair value:
| March 31, 2022 | ||||||||||||||||
| Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Total | |||||||||||||
| Cash equivalents: | ||||||||||||||||
| Money market funds | $ | $ | $ | $ | ||||||||||||
| Restricted cash, non-current: | ||||||||||||||||
| Money market funds | ||||||||||||||||
| Marketable debt securities | ||||||||||||||||
| Corporate bonds | ||||||||||||||||
| Total | $ | $ | $ | $ | ||||||||||||
| December 31, 2021 | ||||||||||||||||
| Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Total | |||||||||||||
| Cash equivalents: | ||||||||||||||||
| Money market funds | $ | $ | $ | $ | ||||||||||||
| Restricted cash, non-current: | ||||||||||||||||
| Money market funds | ||||||||||||||||
| Marketable debt securities | ||||||||||||||||
| Corporate bonds | ||||||||||||||||
| Total | $ | $ | $ | $ | ||||||||||||
Money market funds are classified as Level 1 within the fair value hierarchy, because they are valued using quoted prices in active markets. Corporate debt securities classified as Level 2 within the fair value hierarchy are valued on the basis of prices from an orderly transaction between market participants provided by reputable dealers or pricing services. Prices of these securities are obtained through independent, third-party pricing services and include market quotations that may include both observable and unobservable inputs. In determining the value of a particular investment, pricing services may use certain information with respect to transactions in such investments, quotations from dealers, pricing matrices and market transactions in comparable investments and various relationships between investments. There were no transfers of financial instruments among Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 during the period presented.
Cash equivalents, prepaid expenses and other current assets, accounts payable and accrued expenses at Mach 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021 are carried at amounts that approximate fair value due to their short-term maturities.
| 4. | Marketable Debt Securities |
Marketable debt securities, all of which were classified as available-for-sale, consist of the following:
| March 31, 2022 | ||||||||||||||||
| Amortized Cost | Unrealized Gains | Unrealized Losses | Estimated Fair Value | |||||||||||||
| Corporate bonds - presented in marketable debt securities | $ | | $ | $ | ( | ) | $ | |||||||||
| Corporate bonds - presented in marketable debt securities, non-current | ( | ) | ||||||||||||||
| Total | $ | $ | $ | ( | ) | $ | ||||||||||
| December 31, 2021 | ||||||||||||||||
| Amortized Cost | Unrealized Gains | Unrealized Losses | Estimated | |||||||||||||
| Corporate Bonds - presented in marketable debt securities | $ | | $ | $ | ( | ) | $ | |||||||||
| Corporate Bonds - presented in marketable debt securities, non-current | ( | ) | ||||||||||||||
| Total | $ | $ | $ | ( | ) | $ | ||||||||||
8
Protara Therapeutics, Inc. and Consolidated Subsidiaries
Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
(amounts in thousands, except share and per share data)
The Company has recorded the securities at fair value in its condensed consolidated balance sheets and unrealized gains and losses are reported as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss). The amount of realized gains and losses reclassified into earnings are based on the specific identification of the securities sold or securities that reached maturity date. The amount of realized gains and losses reclassified into earnings have not been material to the Company’s condensed consolidated statements of operations.
At the time of purchase, the Company determines the appropriate classification of investments based upon its intent with regard to such investments. The Company classifies investments in marketable debt securities with remaining maturities when purchased of greater than three months as available-for-sale. Investments with a remaining maturity date greater than one year are classified as non-current. The contractual maturities of all securities held at March 31, 2022 was 21 months or less. There were no sales of securities in the periods presented.
Of the 42 securities in a loss position held by the Company, there
were five securities in a continuous unrealized loss position for greater than twelve months at March 31, 2022. The total unrealized loss
related to these securities was $
Investment Income
Investment income consists of the following:
| March 31, | ||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||||
| Interest income | $ | | $ | | ||||
| Accretion/(amortization) of discount/premium, net | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
| Total interest and investment income | $ | $ | ||||||
| 5. | Prepaid Expenses and Other Current Assets |
Included in the Company’s prepaid expenses and other current assets within the condensed consolidated balance sheets are:
| As of | ||||||||
| March 31, 2022 | December 31, 2021 | |||||||
| Prepaid insurance | $ | $ | ||||||
| Prepaid research and development | ||||||||
| Prepaid software | ||||||||
| Accrued interest on marketable debt securities | ||||||||
| Other prepaid expenses | ||||||||
| Other current assets | ||||||||
| Total | $ | $ | ||||||
9
Protara Therapeutics, Inc. and Consolidated Subsidiaries
Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
(amounts in thousands, except share and per share data)
| 6. | Accrued Expenses |
Included in the Company’s accrued expenses within the condensed consolidated balance sheets are:
| As of | ||||||||
| March 31, 2022 | December 31, 2021 | |||||||
| Payroll | $ | $ | ||||||
| Taxes | ||||||||
| Legal fees | ||||||||
| Research and development costs | ||||||||
| Other expenses | ||||||||
| Total | $ | $ | ||||||
| 7. | Leases |
Operating leases
Leases classified as operating
leases are included in operating lease right-of use, or ROU, assets, operating lease liabilities and operating lease liabilities, non-current,
in the Company’s consolidated balance sheets. Cash paid for operating lease liabilities was $
The components of lease expense were as follows:
Three
Months Ended | ||||||||
| Lease cost | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||
| Operating lease cost | $ | $ | ||||||
| Short-term lease cost | ||||||||
| Total | $ | $ | ||||||
Variable lease expense for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively, was not material.
The weighted-average remaining lease term and the weighted average discount rate for operating leases were:
As
of | ||||
| Weighted-average discount rate | % | |||
| Weighted-average remaining lease term – operating lease (in months) | ||||
As of March 31, 2022, the expected annual minimum lease payments of the Company’s operating lease liabilities were as follows:
| For Years Ending December 31, | Operating Lease Payments | |||
| 2022 (excluding the three months ended March 31, 2022) | $ | |||
| 2023 | ||||
| 2024 | ||||
| 2025 | ||||
| 2026 | ||||
| Thereafter | ||||
| Total operating lease payments | ||||
| Less: imputed interest | ||||
| Present value of future minimum lease payments | $ | |||
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Protara Therapeutics, Inc. and Consolidated Subsidiaries
Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
(amounts in thousands, except share and per share data)
| 8. | Commitments and Contingencies |
Commitments
The Company has commitments under certain license and collaboration agreements, lease agreements, and employment agreements. Commitments under certain license agreements primarily include annual payments, payments upon the achievement of certain milestones, and royalty payments based on net sales of licensed products. Commitments under lease agreements consist of future minimum lease payments for operating leases which are further described in Note 7 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
Contingencies
From time to time, the Company may be subject to various legal proceedings and claims that arise in the ordinary course of its business activities. Management is of the opinion that the ultimate outcome of these matters would not have a material adverse impact on the financial position of the Company or the results of its operations.
In the normal course of business, the Company enters into contracts in which it makes representations and warranties regarding the performance of its services and that its services will not infringe on third-party intellectual rights. There have been no significant events related to such representations and warranties in which the Company believes the outcome could result in losses or penalties in the future.
| 9. | Stockholders’ Equity |
Common Stock
As of March 31, 2022 and
December 31, 2021, the Company has
The holders of the Company’s common stock are entitled to one vote per share.
Preferred Stock
As of March 31, 2022 and
December 31, 2021, the Company has
The holders of Series 1 Convertible Preferred Stock are not entitled to vote.
| 10. | Stock-Based Compensation |
2020 Inducement Plan
On March 26, 2020, the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors (the “Compensation Committee”) approved the 2020 Inducement Plan in order to award nonstatutory stock options, restricted stock awards, restricted stock unit awards and other stock-based awards to persons not previously an employee or director of the Company, or following a bona fide period of non-employment, as an inducement material to such persons entering into employment with the Company.
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Protara Therapeutics, Inc. and Consolidated Subsidiaries
Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
(amounts in thousands, except share and per share data)
The 2020 Inducement Plan
provides for a total of
As of March 31, 2022,
2017 Equity Incentive Plan
On August 10, 2017, Private ArTara (a predecessor entity of the Company), its Board of Directors and its stockholders approved the ArTara Therapeutics, Inc. 2017 Equity Incentive Plan to enable Private ArTara and its affiliates to recruit and retain highly qualified personnel and to incentivize personnel for productivity and growth.
The 2017 Equity Incentive
Plan provided for the grant of a total of
2014 Equity Incentive Plan
On October 3, 2014, the stockholders approved the 2014 Equity Incentive Plan. On June 20, 2017, the Company’s Board of Directors amended the 2014 Equity Incentive Plan, or the Amended 2014 Plan. On July 31, 2017, the stockholders approved this amendment. On January 1, 2020, Protara Therapeutics, Inc. amended its Amended and Restated 2014 Equity Incentive Plan.
The Amended and Restated 2014 Plan, as amended provides for the grant of incentive and non-statutory stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock and stock unit awards, performance units, stock grants and qualified performance-based awards. The Amended and Restated 2014 Plan, as amended provides that the number of shares reserved and available for issuance will automatically increase each January 1, by four percent of the Company’s common stock on the immediately preceding December 31, adjusted for the number of shares of the Company’s common stock issuable upon conversion of any security that the Company may issue that is convertible into or exchangeable for the Company’s common stock, or such lesser number of shares as determined by the Company’s Board of Directors.
On January 1, 2022, pursuant
to the Amended and Restated 2014 Plan, as amended annual evergreen feature, the number of shares authorized under the Amended and Restated
2014 Plan, as amended was increased by
Terms of the stock awards, including vesting requirements, are determined by the Board of Directors, subject to the provisions of the plans. Certain awards provide for accelerated vesting if there is a change in control as defined in the plan.
2014 Employee Stock Purchase Plan
On October 3, 2014, the stockholders
approved the 2014 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or the 2014 ESPP. The 2014 ESPP initially authorized the issuance of up to
On January 1, 2022, pursuant
to the increase per the 2014 ESPP, the number of shares authorized under the 2014 ESPP was increased by
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Protara Therapeutics, Inc. and Consolidated Subsidiaries
Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
(amounts in thousands, except share and per share data)
Restricted Stock Units
The following table summarizes restricted stock unit, or RSU, activities for the three months ended March 31, 2022:
Restricted | Weighted | |||||||
| Non-vested as of December 31, 2021 | $ | |||||||
| Granted | ||||||||
| Forfeited | ( | ) | ||||||
| Vested | ( | ) | ||||||
| Non-vested as of March 31, 2022 | $ | |||||||
The fair value
of RSUs is amortized on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period of the respective awards. As of March 31, 2022, the unamortized
value of RSUs was $
During the three months
ended March 31, 2022, the Company issued
Stock Options
The following table summarizes stock option activities for the three months ended March 31, 2022:
| Options | Weighted Average Exercise Price | Weighted Average Remaining Contractual Term (years) | Aggregate Intrinsic Value (1) | |||||||||||||
| Outstanding as of December 31, 2021 | $ | $ | | |||||||||||||
| Granted | ||||||||||||||||
| Exercised | ||||||||||||||||
| Forfeited | ( | ) | ||||||||||||||
| Expired | ( | ) | ||||||||||||||
| Outstanding as of March 31, 2022 | $ | $ | ||||||||||||||
| Exercisable as of March 31, 2022 | $ | $ | ||||||||||||||
| (1) |
The weighted average
grant date fair value per share of the options granted during the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021 was $
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Protara Therapeutics, Inc. and Consolidated Subsidiaries
Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
(amounts in thousands, except share and per share data)
Summary of Stock-Based Compensation Expense
The following tables summarize total stock-based compensation costs recognized:
Three Months Ended March 31, | ||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||||
| Restricted stock units | $ | $ | ||||||
| Stock options | ||||||||
| Total | $ | $ | ||||||
Stock-based compensation expense was reflected within the condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss as:
Three Months Ended March 31, | ||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||||
| Research and development | $ | $ | ||||||
| General and administrative | ||||||||
| Total | $ | $ | ||||||
| 11. | Net Loss per Common Share |
The following table sets forth the computation of the net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted:
| As of March 31, | ||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||||
| Numerator: | ||||||||
| Net loss attributable to common stockholders | $ | $ | ||||||
| Denominator: | ||||||||
| Weighted-average shares of common stock outstanding, basic and diluted | $ | $ | ||||||
| Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted | $ | ( | ) | $ | ( | ) | ||
Since the Company was in a net loss position for all periods presented, net loss per share attributable to common stockholders was the same on a basic and diluted basis, as the inclusion of all potential common equivalent shares outstanding would have been anti-dilutive. The Company excluded the following potential shares of common stock, presented based on amounts outstanding at each period end, from the computation of diluted net loss per share attributable to common stockholders for the periods indicated because including them would have had an anti-dilutive effect:
| As of March 31, | ||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||||
| Stock options issued and outstanding | ||||||||
| Restricted stock units issued and outstanding | ||||||||
| Conversion of Series 1 Convertible Preferred Stock | ||||||||
| Total potentially dilutive shares | ||||||||
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Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
Our actual results and timing of certain events may differ materially from the results discussed, projected, anticipated, or indicated in any forward-looking statements. We caution you that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that our actual results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and the development of the industry in which we operate may differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. In addition, even if our results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and the development of the industry in which we operate are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, they may not be predictive of results or developments in future periods.
Overview
We are a New York City based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to identifying and advancing transformative therapies for the treatment of cancer and rare diseases. We were founded on the principle of applying modern scientific, regulatory or manufacturing advancements to established mechanisms in order to create new development opportunities. We prioritize creativity, diverse perspectives, integrity and tenacity to expedite our goal of bringing life-changing therapies to people with limited treatment options.
Our portfolio includes two development programs utilizing TARA-002, an investigational cell therapy based on the broad immunopotentiator, OK-432, which was originally granted marketing approval by the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare as an immunopotentiating cancer therapeutic agent. This cell therapy is currently approved in Japan and Taiwan for LMs, and multiple oncologic indications. We have secured worldwide rights to the asset excluding Japan and Taiwan and have begun to explore its use in oncology and rare disease indications. TARA-002 was developed from the same master cell bank of genetically distinct group A Streptococcus pyogenes as OK-432 (marketed as Picibanil® in Japan and Taiwan by Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., or Chugai Pharmaceutical). We are currently developing TARA-002 in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, or NMIBC, and in LMs.
Our lead oncology program is TARA-002 in NMIBC, which is cancer found in the tissue that lines the inner surface of the bladder that has not spread into the bladder muscle. Bladder cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the United States, with NMIBC representing approximately 80% of bladder cancer diagnoses. Approximately 65,000 patients are diagnosed with NMIBC in the United States each year. Very few new therapeutics have been approved for NMIBC since the 1990s and the current standard of care for NMIBC includes intravesical Bacillus Calmette–Guérin, or BCG. The mechanism of TARA-002 is similar to BCG. TARA-002 and BCG are intravesically administered and elicit both a Th1 type immune response and locally activated generally similar array of cytokines and immune cells.
In March 2022 we announced that we dosed the first patient in our Phase 1 dose-finding, open-label clinical trial to evaluate TARA-002 in treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced NMIBC patients with high-grade carcinoma in situ, or CIS, and high-grade papillary tumors (Ta). In the initial dose escalation phase of the trial, patients will receive six weekly intravesical doses of TARA-002. The primary objective of the trial is to evaluate the safety, tolerability and preliminary signs of anti-tumor activity of TARA-002, with the goal of establishing a recommended dose for a future Phase 2 clinical trial. Enrollment of patients in the trial is ongoing.
We are also pursuing TARA-002 in LMs, which are rare, non-malignant cysts of the lymphatic vascular system that primarily form in the head and neck region of children before the age of two. In July 2020, the FDA granted Rare Pediatric Disease designation for TARA-002 for the treatment of LMs. OK-432, the originator therapy to TARA-002, has been the standard of care in LMs in Japan for over 20 years. In addition to the clinical experience in Japan, we have secured the rights to a dataset from one of the largest ever conducted Phase 2 trials in LMs, in which OK-432 was administered via a compassionate use program led by the University of Iowa to over 500 pediatric and adult patients. We have an IND for LMs with the Vaccines and Related Products Division of the FDA, or Vaccines Division. The FDA has provided us with preliminary guidance regarding a potential development path for TARA-002 in LMs and we are planning to initiate a Phase 2 clinical trial of TARA-002 in this indication subject to alignment with the FDA on a clinical trial protocol.
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The third development program in our portfolio is intravenous, or IV, Choline Chloride, an investigational phospholipid substrate replacement therapy initially in development for patients receiving parenteral nutrition, or PN, who have intestinal failure associated liver disease, or IFALD. IV Choline Chloride has been granted Orphan Drug Designation by the FDA for this indication and has also been granted Fast Track Designation for the treatment of IFALD. Following a positive end of Phase 2 meeting with the FDA, we received feedback on the design of the studies necessary to complete a registration package for IV Choline Chloride for the treatment of IFALD, including a Phase 1 pharmacokinetic, or PK, trial and a Phase 3 clinical trial. Prior to initiating these clinical trials, we are conducting a prevalence study to enhance understanding of the PN patient population and we plan to use this information to determine the next steps for the development program. In September 2021, we reported results of the retrospective part of the prevalence study, which supported the significant unmet medical need in patients dependent on PN who have IFALD. We are currently conducting the prospective part of the study, which is a multi-center, cross-sectional observational study that will assess the prevalence of choline deficiency, as well as cholestasis and steatosis, in patients dependent on PN.
We had been pursuing an additional program, Vonapanitase, a recombinant human elastase. Following a review of the research, preclinical, and clinical data of Vonapanitase, we have determined to cease further development of this product candidate at this time.
We have devoted substantial efforts to the development of these programs and do not have any approved products and have not generated any revenue from product sales. TARA-002 has not yet been approved for use for treatment of NMIBC, LMs or any other indications. We do not expect to generate revenues in the near-term, if ever. To finance our current strategic plans, including the conduct of ongoing and future clinical trials and further research and development costs, we will need to raise additional capital.
Since inception, we have incurred significant operating losses. As of March 31, 2022, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $104.8 million. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and increasing operating losses for at least the next few years as we continue our development of, and seek marketing approvals for, our product candidates, prepare for and begin the commercialization of any approved products, and add infrastructure and personnel to support our product development efforts and operations as a public company in the United States.
As a clinical-stage company, our expenses and results of operations are likely to fluctuate significantly from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year. We believe that our period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations should not be relied upon as indicative of our future performance.
As of March 31, 2022, we had approximately $118.5 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable debt securities.
COVID-19
The ultimate impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic is highly uncertain and subject to change. We have experienced delays and may experience additional future delays that impact our business, our research and development activities, the healthcare systems in which we operate and the global economy as a whole. We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic closely including whether the effects would have a material impact on our operations, liquidity and capital resources.
In response to the initial outbreak of COVID-19 and the prevalence of new variants and additional waves of infections throughout the pandemic, we have from time to time implemented work-from-home policies for our employees and at times have temporarily modified our operations to comply with applicable safety recommendations. Similar health and safety measures have affected or may affect third parties with whom we do business, including the third parties that we have contracted with to conduct studies for TARA-002, our study sites or other clinical partners, laboratories through which we conduct non-clinical studies, our third-party manufacturers and other parties with whom we conduct business and regulatory agencies. These measures, to the extent they remain in place or are reinstituted in the future, and our related adjustments to our business may negatively impact productivity, disrupt our business and delay our timelines, the magnitude of which will depend, in part, on the length, severity and geographic scope of the pandemic as it continues and any associated health and safety measures and other limitations on our ability to conduct our business in the ordinary course.
Severe and/or long-term disruptions in our operations as a result of COVID-19, including in response to the prevalence of new variants of the virus, additional waves of infections and the associated health and safety measures, will negatively impact our business, operating results and financial condition. Specifically, to the extent that the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we anticipate that the stress on healthcare systems around the globe will negatively impact our ability to conduct clinical trials in the near-term primarily due to the lack of resources at clinical trial sites and the resulting inability to timely enroll patients in the trials. We also anticipate that any continued effect of COVID-19 will negatively impact our ability to conduct non-clinical studies due primarily to laboratory closures and limited availability of personnel. In addition, the potential economic impact brought by, and the duration of, COVID-19 may be difficult to assess or predict, and it may limit our ability to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity. A recession or market correction resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and related effects on the economy such as supply chain disruptions and inflation could materially affect our business and the value of our common stock.
16
Financial Overview
Research and Development
Research and development expenses consist primarily of costs incurred for the development of TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride, which include employee-related expenses, including salaries, benefits, travel and stock-based compensation expense, expenses incurred under agreements with clinical research organizations, or CROs, contract development and manufacturing organizations, or CDMOs, the cost of acquiring, developing and manufacturing clinical trial materials, clinical and non-clinical related costs, costs associated with regulatory operations and facilities, depreciation and other expenses, which include expenses for rent and maintenance of facilities and other supplies.
General and Administrative
General and administrative expenses consist principally of employee-related expenses, including salaries, benefits, travel and stock-based compensation expense, in executive and other administrative functions. Other general and administrative expenses also include professional fees for legal, patent review, consulting and accounting services, facility related costs, as well as expenses related to audit, legal, regulatory and tax-related services associated with maintaining compliance with our Nasdaq listing and SEC requirements, director and officer liability insurance premiums and investor relations costs associated with being a public company.
Other Income (Expense), net
Interest and investment income consists of interest income on our cash, cash equivalents and marketable debt securities and amortization of investment premiums.
Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates
Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial position and results of operations is based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, or U.S. GAAP. The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and accompanying notes. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate estimates, which include estimates related to reported amounts of assets, liabilities, and expenses during the reported period. We base our estimates on historical experience and other market-specific or other relevant assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from those estimates or assumptions.
Our critical accounting policies are recoverability of goodwill, income taxes, and the valuation of deferred tax assets. It is important that the discussion of our operating results that follow be read in conjunction with these critical accounting policies which have been disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 9, 2022.
17
Results of Operations
Comparison of the Three Months Ended March 31, 2022 and 2021
The following table summarizes our results of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021 (in thousands):
| Three Months Ended March 31, |
Period-to-Period | |||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | Change | ||||||||||
| Operating expenses: | ||||||||||||
| Research and development | $ | 5,269 | $ | 7,040 | $ | (1,771 | ) | |||||
| General and administrative | 5,605 | 6,540 | (935 | ) | ||||||||
| Total operating expenses | 10,874 | 13,580 | (2,706 | ) | ||||||||
| Loss from operations | (10,874 | ) | (13,580 | ) | 2,706 | |||||||
| Other income (expense), net: | ||||||||||||
| Interest and investment income | 119 | 115 | 4 | |||||||||
| Other income (expense), net | 119 | 115 | 4 | |||||||||
| Net Loss | $ | (10,755 | ) | $ | (13,465 | ) | $ | 2,710 | ||||
Research and Development Expenses. During the three months ended March 31, 2022, our research and development expenses were approximately $5.3 million which represented a decrease of approximately $1.8 million as compared to the three months ended March 31, 2021. This decrease was primarily due to a decrease of $1.3 million for manufacturing activities associated with TARA-002 and a decrease of $0.9 million of non-clinical expenses associated with TARA-002, offset by an increase of $0.2 million in compensation, benefits and other employee-related expenses.
General and Administrative Expenses. During the three months ended March 31, 2022, our general and administrative expenses were approximately $5.6 million which represented a decrease of approximately $0.9 million as compared to the three months ended March 31, 2021. This decrease was primarily due to a decrease of $1.0 million in stock-based compensation expense.
Other Income (Expense), Net. During the three months ended March 31, 2022, interest and investment income was approximately $0.1 million which is consistent with the three months ended March 31, 2021.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Overview
As of March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, our cash, cash equivalents, and marketable debt securities were $118.5 million and $130.7 million, respectively. We have not generated revenues since our inception and have incurred net losses of approximately $10.8 million and $13.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. As of March 31, 2022, we had working capital of approximately $87.8 million and stockholder’s equity of approximately $152.2 million. During the three months ended March 31, 2022, cash flows used in operating activities were approximately $11.0 million, consisting primarily of a net loss of approximately $10.8 million, which includes non-cash stock-based compensation charges of approximately $1.9 million. Since inception, we have met our liquidity requirements principally through the sale of our common stock and preferred stock in private placements and underwritten offerings.
We are in the business of developing biopharmaceuticals and have no current or near-term revenues. We have incurred substantial clinical and other costs in our drug development efforts. We will need to raise additional capital in order to fully realize management’s plans.
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We believe that our current financial resources, as of the date of the issuance of our condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, are sufficient to satisfy our estimated liquidity needs for at least twelve months.
As a result of economic conditions, general global economic uncertainty, political change, global pandemics, and other factors, we do not know whether additional capital will be available when needed, or that, if available, we will be able to obtain additional capital on reasonable terms. If we are unable to raise additional capital due to the volatile global financial markets, general economic uncertainty or other factors, we may need to curtail planned development activities. Specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted global financial markets, and may limit our ability to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity. A recession or market correction resulting from the spread of COVID-19 could materially affect our business and the value of our common stock.
Cash Flows
The following table summarizes our sources and uses of cash for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021 (in thousands):
| Three Months Ended March 31, |
Period-to-Period | |||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | Change | ||||||||||
| Net cash used in operating activities | $ | (10,961 | ) | $ | (11,920 | ) | $ | 959 | ||||
| Net cash provided by/(used in) investing activities | 745 | (98,249 | ) | 98,994 | ||||||||
| Net cash used in financing activities | (72 | ) | (228 | ) | 156 | |||||||
| Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash | $ | (10,288 | ) | $ | (110,397 | ) | $ | 100,109 | ||||
Comparison of the Three Months Ended March 31, 2022 and 2021
Net cash used in operating activities was $11.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2022 compared to $11.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021. The decrease of $1.0 million in cash used in operating activities was primarily driven by a decreased net loss of $2.7 million, which was partially offset by a $0.4 million decrease in non-cash items including stock-based compensation, ROU asset, and amortization of premium on marketable debt securities. There was a decrease in working capital of $1.3 million, primarily related to changes in prepaid expenses and other current assets, accounts payable, and accrued expenses resulting from the timing of payments to our service providers.
Net cash provided by investing activities was $0.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2022 compared to net cash used in investing activities of $98.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021. The change of $99.0 million resulted primarily from purchases of marketable debt securities of $12.4 million during the three months ended March 31, 2022 as compared to $98.0 million during the three months ended March 31, 2021. This was offset by the proceeds from maturity and redemption of marketable debt securities of $13.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2022. There were no maturities or redemptions for the three months ended March 31, 2021.
Net cash used in financing activities was approximately $0.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2022 compared to $0.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021. The decrease of approximately $0.2 million was driven by a reduced number of shares repurchased in connection with the settlement of restricted stock units during the three months ended March 31, 2022.
Contractual and Other Obligations
Operating lease obligations
Our operating lease obligations primarily consist of lease payments on our corporate headquarters in New York, New York, as well as lease payments for our development laboratory, a manufacturing facility and an additional manufacturing space, all located in North America which are described in further detail in Note 7 of our condensed consolidated financial statements included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
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Other obligations
From time to time, we enter into certain types of contracts that contingently require us to indemnify parties against third-party claims, supply agreements, and agreements with directors and officers. The terms of such obligations vary by contract and in most instances a maximum dollar amount is not explicitly stated therein. Generally, amounts under these contracts cannot be reasonably estimated until a specific claim is asserted, thus no liabilities have been recorded for these obligations on our condensed consolidated balance sheet for the periods presented.
We enter into contracts in the normal course of business with CROs and clinical sites for the conduct of clinical trials, non-clinical research studies, professional consultants for expert advice and other vendors for clinical supply manufacturing or other services. These contracts generally provide for termination on notice, and therefore are cancelable contracts.
Certain of these agreements require us to pay milestones to such third parties upon achievement of certain development, regulatory or commercial milestones as further described in Note 8 of our condensed consolidated financial statements included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Amounts related to contingent milestone payments are not considered contractual obligations as they are contingent on the successful achievement of certain development, regulatory approval and commercial milestones, which may not be achieved.
We also have obligations to make future payments to third parties that become due and payable on the achievement of certain milestones, including future payments to third parties with whom we have entered into research, development and commercialization agreements. We have not included these commitments on our condensed consolidated balance sheet for the periods presented because the achievement and timing of these milestones is not fixed and determinable.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We did not have, during the periods presented, and we do not currently have, any off-balance sheet arrangements, as defined under the applicable regulations of the SEC.
Item 3. Qualitative and Quantitative Disclosures about Market Risk
Not applicable.
Item 4. Controls and Procedures
Management’s Evaluation of our Disclosure Controls and Procedures
We maintain disclosure controls and procedures, as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) or 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, or Exchange Act, that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in the reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is (1) recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms and (2) accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
As of March 31, 2022, our management, with the participation of our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Our management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives, and management necessarily applies its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. Our principal executive officer and principal financial officer have concluded based upon the evaluation described above that, as of March 31, 2022, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level.
We continue to review and document our disclosure controls and procedures, including our internal controls and procedures for financial reporting, and may from time to time make changes aimed at enhancing their effectiveness and to ensure that our systems evolve with our business.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
During the three months ended March 31, 2022, there were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting, as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15(d)-15(f) promulgated under the Exchange Act, that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
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PART II – OTHER INFORMATION
Item 1. Legal Proceedings
From time to time, we may be subject to various legal proceedings and claims that arise in the ordinary course of our business activities. We are not currently a party to any legal proceedings that, in the opinion of our management, are likely to have a material adverse effect on our business. Regardless of outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
You should consider carefully the following information about the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and in our other public filings, in evaluating our business. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and future growth prospects would likely be materially and adversely affected. In these circumstances, the market price of our common stock would likely decline.
Risks Related to Our Financial Condition
We have a limited operating history and have never generated any revenues.
We are a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history that may make it difficult to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability. Our operations have been limited to organizing and staffing the company, business planning, raising capital, developing our pipeline assets (TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride), identifying product candidates, and other research and development. Although our employees have made regulatory submissions and conducted successful clinical trials in the past across many therapeutic areas while employed at other companies, we have not yet demonstrated an ability to successfully complete any clinical trials and have never completed the development of any product candidate, nor have we ever generated any revenue from product sales or otherwise. Consequently, we have no meaningful operations upon which to evaluate our business, and predictions about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history or a history of successfully developing and commercializing biopharmaceutical products.
We expect to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future and may never achieve or maintain profitability.
Investment in biopharmaceutical product development is highly speculative because it entails substantial upfront capital and significant risk that a product candidate will fail to gain regulatory approval or become commercially viable. We have never generated any revenues, and cannot estimate with precision the extent of our future losses. We expect to incur increasing levels of operating losses for the foreseeable future as we execute on the plan to continue research and development activities, including the ongoing and planned clinical development of our product candidates, potentially acquire new products and/or product candidates, seek regulatory approvals of and potentially commercialize any approved product candidates, hire additional personnel, protect our intellectual property, and incur the additional costs of operating as a public company. We expect to continue to incur significant and increasing operating losses and negative cash flows for the foreseeable future. These losses have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our financial position and working capital.
To become and remain profitable, we must develop or acquire and eventually commercialize a product with significant market potential. This will require us to be successful in a range of challenging activities, including completing preclinical studies and clinical trials, obtaining marketing approval, manufacturing, marketing and selling any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval, and satisfying post-marketing requirements, if any. We may never succeed in these activities and, even if we succeed in obtaining approval for and commercializing one or more products, we may never generate revenues that are significant enough to achieve profitability. In addition, as a young business, we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other known and unknown challenges. Furthermore, because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with biopharmaceutical product development, we are unable to accurately predict the timing or amount of increased expenses or when, or if, we will be able to achieve profitability. If we achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis and may continue to incur substantial research and development and other expenditures to develop and market additional product candidates. Our failure to become and remain profitable would decrease the value of us and could impair our ability to raise capital, maintain our research and development efforts, expand the business or continue operations. A decline in the value of us could also cause you to lose all or part of your investment.
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The COVID-19 pandemic could materially and adversely impact our business, including our clinical development plans and non-clinical research.
As the COVID-19 pandemic and associated health and safety measures imposed from time to time to contain this pandemic continue in the United States and around the world, we may experience disruptions that could severely impact our business, including:
| ● | interruption of key manufacturing, research and clinical development and other activities, due to limitations on work and travel imposed or recommended by federal or state governments, employers and others (for example, following the emergence of the omicron variant of COVID-19 in late 2021, we reinstituted a temporary work-from-home policy and scaled back in-person meetings and business travel to industry conferences); |
| ● | delays or difficulties in the enrollment, scheduling and retention of patients in our clinical trials; |
| ● | delays or difficulties in clinical trial site operations, including in recruiting and retaining clinical site investigators and clinical site staff and in key clinical trial activities such as clinical trial site monitoring and inspections (for example, we have experienced delays in clinical trial site activations as potential sites faced reduced staffing and resources following the spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19 in late 2021 and early 2022); |
| ● | redeployment of healthcare resources, including clinical site investigators and clinical site staff supporting the conduct of our clinical trial to assist in the treatment of COVID-19 patients; |
| ● | interruption of key business activities due to illness and/or quarantine of key individuals and delays associated with recruiting, hiring and training new temporary or permanent replacements for such key individuals, both internally and at our third-party service providers; |
| ● | delays in research and clinical trial sites receiving the supplies and materials needed to conduct preclinical studies and clinical trials, due to work stoppages, travel and shipping interruptions or restrictions or other reasons; |
| ● | delays or difficulties conducting and completing non-clinical studies due to limitations in employee resources or laboratory closures or limited availability of laboratory personnel; |
| ● | difficulties in raising additional capital needed to pursue the development of our programs due to near-term and/or long-term negative effects of the pandemic on the financial, banking and capital markets; |
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| ● | changes in federal, state and local regulations or guidance as part of a response to the COVID-19 pandemic which may require us to change the ways in which research, including clinical development, is conducted, which may result in unexpected costs; and |
| ● | delays in necessary interactions with regulators, institutional review boards, ethics committees and other important agencies and contractors due to limitations in employee resources, travel restrictions or forced furlough of government employees. |
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, as new variants emerge and additional waves of infections occur. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic may impact our business will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, such as the ultimate geographic spread of the disease, the duration of the pandemic, travel restrictions and social distancing and other health and safety measures and mandates in the United States and other countries, business closures or business disruptions and the effectiveness of actions taken in the United States and other countries to contain and treat the virus. The duration and extent of the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic depend on future developments that cannot be accurately predicted at this time, such as the severity and transmission rate of the virus, the emergence of new variants of the virus, the extent and effectiveness of preventative measures, containment actions and treatments and the impact of these and other factors on our operations, employees, partners and vendors. If we are not able to respond to and manage the impact of such events effectively, our business will be harmed.
In addition, the potential economic impact brought by, and the duration of, COVID-19 may be difficult to assess or predict, and may limit our ability to access additional capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity. A recession or market correction resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and related effects on the economy such as supply chain disruptions and inflation could materially affect our business and the value of our common stock.
To the extent the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects our business and results of operations, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks and uncertainties described elsewhere in this “Risk Factors” section.
We will need to raise additional financing in the future to fund our operations, which may not be available to us on favorable terms or at all.
We will require substantial additional funds to conduct the costly and time-consuming clinical trials necessary to pursue regulatory approval of each potential product candidate and to continue the development of TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride in new indications or uses. Our future capital requirements will depend upon a number of factors, including: the number and timing of future product candidates in the pipeline; progress with and results from preclinical testing and clinical trials; the ability to manufacture sufficient drug supplies to complete preclinical and clinical trials; the costs involved in preparing, filing, acquiring, prosecuting, maintaining and enforcing patent and other intellectual property claims; and the time and costs involved in obtaining regulatory approvals and favorable reimbursement or formulary acceptance. Raising additional capital may be costly or difficult to obtain and could significantly dilute stockholders’ ownership interests or inhibit our ability to achieve our business objectives. As a result of economic conditions, general global economic uncertainty, U.S. and foreign political conditions, and other factors, including uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, we do not know whether additional capital will be available when needed, or that, if available, we will be able to obtain additional capital on reasonable terms. Specifically, because the COVID-19 pandemic has at times significantly disrupted financial markets, it may limit our ability to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity.
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If we raise additional funds through public or private equity offerings, the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our common stockholders. Further, to the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of common stock or securities convertible or exchangeable into common stock, the ownership interests of our common stockholders will be diluted. In addition, any debt financing may subject us to fixed payment obligations and covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. If we raise additional capital through marketing and distribution arrangements or other collaborations, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish certain valuable intellectual property or other rights to our product candidates, technologies, future revenue streams or research programs or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. Even if we were to obtain sufficient funding, there can be no assurance that it will be available on terms acceptable to us or our stockholders.
Clinical drug development is very expensive, time-consuming and uncertain.
Clinical development for our product candidates is very expensive, time-consuming, difficult to design and implement, and the outcomes are inherently uncertain. Most product candidates that commence clinical trials are never approved by regulatory authorities for commercialization and of those that are approved many do not cover their costs of development. In addition, we, any partner with which we may in the future collaborate, the FDA, an IRB, or other regulatory authorities, including state and local agencies and counterpart agencies in foreign countries, may suspend, delay, require modifications to or terminate our clinical trials at any time.
Risks Related to Drug/Biologics Development and Commercialization
Our business depends on the successful clinical development, regulatory approval and commercialization of TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride.
The success of our business, including our ability to finance our operations and generate revenue in the future, primarily depends on the successful development, regulatory approval and commercialization of TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride. The clinical and commercial success of TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride depends on a number of factors, including the following:
| ● | the alignment with the FDA on a development plan for TARA-002 in LMs; |
| ● | the timely and successful completion of planned and ongoing preclinical studies and clinical trials, including our ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial of TARA-002 in NMIBC, which may be significantly slower or costlier than we currently anticipate and/or produce results that do not achieve the endpoints of the trials; |
| ● | the results of our prevalence study and our enhanced understanding of the PN patient population as part of our IV Choline Chloride program; |
| ● | whether we are required by the FDA or similar foreign regulatory agencies to conduct additional studies beyond those planned to support the approval and commercialization of TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride; |
| ● | achieving and maintaining, and, where applicable, ensuring that our third-party contractors achieve and maintain compliance with their contractual obligations and with all regulatory requirements applicable to TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride; |
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| ● | the ability of third parties with whom we contract to manufacture adequate clinical trial and commercial supplies of TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride, to remain in good standing with regulatory agencies and to develop, validate and maintain commercially viable manufacturing processes that are compliant with current good manufacturing practices, or cGMP; |
| ● | a continued acceptable safety profile during clinical development and following approval of TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride; |
| ● | the ability to obtain favorable labeling for TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride through regulators that allows for successful commercialization, given the drugs may be marketed only to the extent approved by these regulatory authorities (unlike with most other industries); |
| ● | the ability to successfully commercialize TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride in the United States and internationally, if approved for marketing, sale and distribution in such countries and territories, whether alone or in collaboration with others; |
| ● | the acceptance by physicians, insurers and payors, and patients of the quality, benefits, safety and efficacy of TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride, if either is approved, including relative to alternative and competing treatments; |
| ● | the existence of a regulatory environment conducive to the successful development and commercialization of TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride; |
| ● | the ability to price TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride to recover our development costs and achieve commercial success; and |
| ● | our ability and our partners’ ability to establish and enforce intellectual property rights in and to TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride. |
If any one of these factors is not present, many of which are beyond our control, we could experience significant delays or an inability to obtain regulatory approval of, or commercialize, TARA-002 or IV Choline Chloride. Even if regulatory approvals are obtained, we may never be able to successfully commercialize TARA-002 or IV Choline Chloride, or the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require labeling changes or impose significant restrictions on a product’s indicated uses or marketing or impose ongoing requirements for potentially costly post-approval studies or post-market surveillance. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that we will be able to generate sufficient revenue through the sale of TARA-002 or IV Choline Chloride to continue our business.
The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting our business and the business of the third parties with which we contract for key services related to our clinical development plans. If the pandemic persists, it is likely to have a significant delay in our development timelines and result in additional and unexpected costs. Presently, to the extent that the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we anticipate that the stress on healthcare systems around the globe will negatively impact our ability to conduct clinical trials in the near-term due primarily to the lack of resources at clinical trial sites and the resulting inability to enroll patients in these trials. We also anticipate that any continued effect of COVID-19 will negatively impact our ability to conduct non-clinical studies due primarily to laboratory closures and limited availability of personnel. In addition, it is possible that the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic on regulatory agencies may make it more difficult to collaborate with, and receive guidance from, such agencies, which could delay our development timelines and negatively impact our business.
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We have never made a BLA or NDA submission or completed a clinical trial and may be unable to successfully do so for TARA-002 or IV Choline Chloride.
The conduct of a clinical trial is a long, expensive, complicated and highly regulated process. Although our employees have made regulatory submissions and conducted successful clinical trials in the past across many therapeutic areas while employed at other companies, we, as a company, have not completed any clinical trials, or submitted a BLA or NDA and as a result may require more time and incur greater costs than we anticipate. Failure to commence or complete, or delays in, our planned regulatory submissions or clinical trials would prevent us from, or delay us, in obtaining regulatory approval of and commercializing TARA-002 or IV Choline Chloride, which would adversely impact our financial performance.
TARA-002 is an immunopotentiator, and one indication that we plan to pursue is the treatment of LMs. There are no FDA-approved therapies for the treatment of LMs. It is difficult to predict the timing and costs of clinical development for TARA-002 for LMs.
To date, there are no FDA-approved therapies for the treatment of LMs. The regulatory approval process for novel product candidates such as TARA-002 can be more expensive and take longer than for other, better known or extensively studied therapeutic approaches. It may take considerable time to reach alignment with the FDA on a development plan in LMs to support approval of TARA-002. Delay or failure to obtain, or unexpected costs in obtaining, the regulatory approval necessary to bring TARA-002 to market could decrease our ability to generate sufficient revenue to maintain our business.
Our product candidates may cause undesirable side effects or have other unexpected properties that could delay or prevent their regulatory approval, limit the commercial profile of an approved label, or result in post-approval regulatory action.
Unforeseen side effects from TARA-002 or IV Choline Chloride could arise either during clinical development or, if approved, after it has been marketed. Undesirable side effects could cause us, any partners with which we may collaborate, or regulatory authorities to interrupt, extend, modify, delay or halt clinical trials and could result in a more restrictive or narrower label or the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA or comparable foreign authorities.
Results of clinical trials could reveal a high and unacceptable severity and prevalence of side effects. In such an event, trials could be suspended or terminated, and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities could order us to cease further development of or deny approval of a product candidate for any or all targeted indications. Any side effects could affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled patients to complete the trial or result in product liability claims. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.
Additionally, if we or others identify undesirable side effects, or other previously unknown problems, in connection with a product after obtaining U.S. or foreign regulatory approval, a number of potentially negative consequences could result, which could prevent us or our potential partners from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the product and could substantially increase the costs of commercializing such product.
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A fast track designation by the FDA may not actually lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process for IV Choline Chloride for the treatment of IFALD.
The FDA has granted fast track designation to IV Choline Chloride for the treatment of IFALD. If a drug is intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening condition and the drug demonstrates the potential to address unmet medical needs for this condition, the drug sponsor may apply for fast track designation. Even though we have received fast track designation for IV Choline Chloride for the treatment of IFALD, we may not experience a faster development process, review or approval. The FDA may withdraw fast track designation if it believes that the designation is no longer supported by data from our clinical development program.
Although the FDA has granted Rare Pediatric Disease Designation for TARA-002 for the treatment of LMs, a BLA for TARA-002, if approved, may not meet the eligibility criteria for a priority review voucher.
Rare Pediatric Disease Designation has been granted for TARA-002 for the treatment of LMs. In 2012, Congress authorized the FDA to award priority review vouchers to sponsors of certain rare pediatric disease product applications. This provision is designed to encourage development of new drug and biological products for prevention and treatment of certain rare pediatric diseases. Specifically, under this program, a sponsor who receives an approval for a drug or biologic for a “rare pediatric disease” may qualify for a voucher that can be redeemed to receive a priority review of a subsequent marketing application for a different product. The sponsor of a rare pediatric disease drug product receiving a priority review voucher may transfer (including by sale) the voucher to another sponsor. The voucher may be further transferred any number of times before the voucher is used, as long as the sponsor making the transfer has not yet submitted the application. The FDA may also revoke any priority review voucher if the rare pediatric disease drug for which the voucher was awarded is not marketed in the U.S. within one year following the date of approval.
For the purposes of this program, a “rare pediatric disease” is a (a) serious or life-threatening disease in which the serious or life-threatening manifestations primarily affect individuals aged from birth to 18 years, including age groups often called neonates, infants, children, and adolescents; and (b) rare disease or conditions within the meaning of the Orphan Drug Act. Congress has only authorized the Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Voucher program until September 30, 2024. However, if a drug candidate received Rare Pediatric Disease Designation before September 30, 2024, it is eligible to receive a voucher if it is approved before September 30, 2026.
TARA-002 for the treatment of LMs may not be approved by that date, or at all, and, therefore, we may not be in a position to obtain a priority review voucher prior to expiration of the program, unless Congress further reauthorizes the program. Additionally, designation of a drug for a rare pediatric disease does not guarantee that a BLA will meet the eligibility criteria for a rare pediatric disease priority review voucher at the time the application is approved. Finally, a Rare Pediatric Disease Designation does not lead to faster development or regulatory review of the product or increase the likelihood that it will receive marketing approval. We may or may not realize any benefit from receiving a voucher.
Even if a product candidate obtains regulatory approval, it may fail to achieve the broad degree of physician and patient adoption and use necessary for commercial success.
The commercial success of both TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride, if approved, will depend significantly on the broad adoption and use of them by physicians and patients for approved indications, and neither may be commercially successful even though the product is shown to be safe and effective. The degree and rate of physician and patient adoption of a product, if approved, will depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to:
| ● | patient demand for approved products that treat the indication for which a product is approved; |
| ● | the effectiveness of the product compared to other available therapies; |
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| ● | the availability of coverage and adequate reimbursement from managed care plans and other healthcare payors; |
| ● | the cost of treatment in relation to alternative treatments and willingness to pay on the part of patients; |
| ● | in the case of TARA-002 for LMs, overcoming physician or patient biases toward alternative treatments for LMs; |
| ● | insurers’ willingness to see the applicable indication as a disease worth treating; |
| ● | proper administration; |
| ● | patient satisfaction with the results, administration and overall treatment experience; |
| ● | limitations or contraindications, warnings, precautions or approved indications for use different than those sought by us that are contained in the final FDA-approved labeling for the applicable product; |
| ● | any FDA requirement to undertake a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy; |
| ● | the effectiveness of our sales, marketing, pricing, reimbursement and access, government affairs, and distribution efforts; |
| ● | adverse publicity about a product or favorable publicity about competitive products; |
| ● | new government regulations and programs, including price controls and/or limits or prohibitions on ways to commercialize drugs, such as increased scrutiny on direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals; and |
| ● | potential product liability claims or other product-related litigation. |
If either TARA-002 or IV Choline Chloride is approved for use but fails to achieve the broad degree of physician and patient adoption necessary for commercial success, our operating results and financial condition will be adversely affected, which may delay, prevent or limit our ability to generate revenue and continue our business.
Any adverse developments that occur in patients undergoing treatment with OK-432 / Picibanil or in patients participating in clinical trials conducted by third parties may affect our ability to obtain regulatory approval or commercialize TARA-002.
Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., or Chugai, over which we have no control, has the rights to commercialize TARA-002 and the originator therapy to TARA-002, OK-432, which is currently marketed in Japan and Taiwan, under the name Picibanil, for various indications. In addition, clinical trials using Picibanil are currently ongoing in various countries around the world. If SAEs occur with patients using Picibanil or during any clinical trials of Picibanil conducted by third parties, the FDA may delay, limit or deny approval of TARA-002 or require us to conduct additional clinical trials as a condition to marketing approval, which would increase our costs. If we receive FDA approval for TARA-002 and a new and serious safety issue is identified in connection with use of Picibanil or in clinical trials of Picibanil conducted by third parties, the FDA may withdraw the approval of the product or otherwise restrict our ability to market and sell TARA-002. In addition, treating physicians may be less willing to administer TARA-002 due to concerns over such adverse events, which would limit our ability to commercialize TARA-002.
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We may in the future conduct clinical trials for our product candidates outside the United States, and the FDA and applicable foreign regulatory authorities may not accept data from such trials.
We may in the future choose to conduct one or more of our clinical trials outside of the United States. Although the FDA or applicable foreign regulatory authority may accept data from clinical trials conducted outside the United States or the applicable jurisdiction, acceptance of such study data by the FDA or applicable foreign regulatory authority may be subject to certain conditions or exclusion. Where data from foreign clinical trials are intended to serve as the basis for marketing approval in the United States, the FDA will not approve the application on the basis of foreign data alone unless such data are applicable to the U.S. population and U.S. medical practice; the studies were performed by clinical investigators of recognized competence; and the data are considered valid without the need for an on-site inspection by the FDA or, if the FDA considers such an inspection to be necessary, the FDA is able to validate the data through an on-site inspection or other appropriate means. Many foreign regulatory bodies have similar requirements. In addition, such foreign studies would be subject to the applicable local laws of the foreign jurisdictions where the studies are conducted. There can be no assurance the FDA or applicable foreign regulatory authority will accept data from trials conducted outside of the United States or the applicable home country. If the FDA or applicable foreign regulatory authority does not accept such data, it would likely result in the need for additional trials, which would be costly and time-consuming and delay aspects of our business plan.
We may choose not to continue developing or commercializing any of our product candidates at any time during development or after approval, which would reduce or eliminate the potential return on investment for those product candidates.
At any time, we may decide to discontinue the development of any of our product candidates for a variety of reasons, including the appearance of new technologies that make our product obsolete, competition from a competing product or changes in or failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements. For example, following our review of the research and preclinical and clinical data of Vonapanitase, we have determined to cease further development of this product candidate at this time.
If we terminate a program in which we have invested significant resources, we will not receive any return on our investment and we will have missed the opportunity to have allocated those resources to potentially more productive uses.
Our or our third-party’s clinical trials may fail to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our product candidates, or serious adverse or unacceptable side effects may be identified during their development, which could prevent or delay marketing approval and commercialization, increase our costs or necessitate the abandonment or limitation of the development of the product candidate.
Before obtaining marketing approvals for the commercial sale of any product candidate, we must demonstrate through lengthy, complex and expensive preclinical testing and clinical trials that such product candidate is both safe and effective for use in the applicable indication, and failures can occur at any stage of testing. Clinical trials often fail to demonstrate safety and are associated with side effects or have characteristics that are unexpected. Based on the safety profile seen in clinical testing, we may need to abandon development or limit development to more narrow uses in which the side effects or other characteristics are less prevalent, less severe or more tolerable from a risk-benefit perspective. The FDA or an IRB may also require that we suspend, discontinue, or limit clinical trials based on safety information. Such findings could further result in regulatory authorities failing to provide marketing authorization for the product candidate. Many pharmaceutical candidates that initially showed promise in early stage testing and which were efficacious have later been found to cause side effects that prevented further development of the drug candidate and, in extreme cases, the side effects were not seen until after the drug was marketed, causing regulators to remove the drug from the market post-approval.
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Other Risks Related to Our Business
Our product candidates, if approved, will face significant competition and their failure to compete effectively may prevent them from achieving significant market penetration.
The pharmaceutical industry is characterized by rapidly advancing technologies, intense competition, uncertain and complex patent terms, and a strong emphasis on developing newer, fast-to-market proprietary therapeutics. Numerous companies are engaged in the development, patenting, manufacturing and marketing of healthcare products competitive with those that we are developing, including TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride. We will face competition from a number of sources, such as pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, generic drug companies, consumer products companies and academic and research institutions, many of which have greater financial resources, marketing capabilities, sales forces, manufacturing capabilities, research and development capabilities, regulatory expertise, clinical trial expertise, intellectual property portfolios, international reach, experience in obtaining patents and regulatory approvals for product candidates and other resources than we have. Some of the companies that offer competing products also have a broad range of other product offerings, large direct sales forces and long-term customer relationships with our target physicians, which could inhibit our market penetration efforts.
With respect to our lead product candidate, TARA-002, for the treatment of NMIBC and LMs, the active ingredient in TARA-002 is a genetically distinct strain of Streptococcus pyogenes (group A, type 3) Su strain. TARA-002 is produced through a proprietary manufacturing process. We anticipate that, if approved by the FDA, TARA-002 will be protected by 12 years of biologic exclusivity. There are no approved pharmacotherapies currently available for the treatment of LMs and the current treatment options include a high-risk surgical procedure and off-label use of sclerosants, including doxycycline, bleomycin, ethanol and sodium tetradecyl sulfate. There are a number of drug development companies and academic researchers exploring oral formulations of various agents including macrolides, phosphodiesterase inhibitors, and calcineurin/mTOR inhibitors. These are in early development. TARA-002, if approved for the treatment of NMIBC, would be subject to competition from existing treatment methods of surgery, chemotherapy and immunomodulatory therapy. For example, the current standard of care for NMIBC includes intravesical BCG. Other products approved for the treatment of NMIBC include Merck & Co., Inc.’s Keytruda and Endo International plc’s Valstar. Additional product candidates in development include Japanese BCG Laboratory’s BCG Tokyo, Pfizer Inc.’s sasanlimab in combination with BCG, ImmunityBio, Inc.’s VesAnktiva in combination with BCG, CG Oncology Inc.’s CG0070, FerGene’s instiladrin, Sesen Bio, Inc.’s vicineum, and enGene Inc.’s, EG-70. Additional pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with product candidates in development for the treatment of NMIBC include AstraZeneca PLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Roche Group and Seagen Inc.
There are no treatments currently available for IFALD. With respect to IV Choline Chloride for the treatment of IFALD, IV Choline Chloride is the only sterile injectable form of choline chloride that can be combined with parenteral nutrition. Further, if approved, IV Choline Chloride will be protected by Orphan Drug Designation exclusivity for seven years.
TARA-002 and any future product candidates for which we intend to seek approval as biologic products may face competition sooner than anticipated.
The Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, or BPCIA, created an abbreviated approval pathway for biological products that are biosimilar to or interchangeable with a FDA-licensed reference biological product. Under the BPCIA, an application for a biosimilar product may not be submitted to the FDA until four years following the date that the reference product was first licensed by the FDA. In addition, the approval of a biosimilar product may not be made effective by the FDA until 12 years from the date on which the reference product was first licensed. During this 12-year period of exclusivity, another company may still market a competing version of the reference product if the FDA approves a full BLA for the competing product containing the sponsor’s own preclinical data and data from adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to demonstrate the safety, purity and potency of their product. 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 are intended to be implemented, the BPCIA may be fully adopted by the FDA, and any such processes could have a material adverse effect on the future commercial prospects for our biological products.
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We believe that any of our product candidates approved as a biological 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 biosimilar competition sooner than anticipated. Other aspects of the BPCIA, some of which may impact the BPCIA exclusivity provisions, have also been the subject of recent litigation. Moreover, the extent to which a biosimilar, once approved, will be substituted for any one of our reference products in a way that is similar to traditional generic substitution for non-biological products is not yet clear, and will depend on a number of marketplace and regulatory factors that are still developing.
We rely and expect to continue to rely on third-party CROs and other third parties to conduct and oversee our clinical trials. If these third parties do not meet our requirements or otherwise conduct the trials as required, we may not be able to satisfy our contractual obligations or obtain regulatory approval for, or commercialize, our product candidates.
We rely and expect to continue to rely on third-party CRO to conduct and oversee our TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride clinical trials and other aspects of product development. We also rely on various medical institutions, clinical investigators and contract laboratories to conduct our trials in accordance with our clinical protocols and all applicable regulatory requirements, including the FDA’s regulations and current Good Clinical Practices, or cGCP, requirements, which are an international standard meant to protect the rights and health of patients and to define the roles of clinical trial sponsors, administrators and monitors, and state regulations governing the handling, storage, security and record-keeping for drug and biologic products. These CROs and other third parties will play a significant role in the conduct of these trials and the subsequent collection and analysis of data from the clinical trials. We will rely heavily on these parties for the execution of our clinical trials and preclinical studies and will control only certain aspects of their activities. We and our CROs and other third-party contractors will be required to comply with cGCP and current Good Laboratory Practices, or cGLP, requirements, which are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities. Regulatory authorities enforce these cGCP and cGLP requirements through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and trial sites. If we or any of these third parties fail to comply with applicable cGCP and cGLP requirements, or reveal non-compliance from an audit or inspection, including due to COVID-19 and related health and safety measures and business closures and disruptions, or if the same prevents the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities from conducting inspections or other regulatory activities, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA or other regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our or our partners’ marketing applications. We cannot assure that upon inspection by a given regulatory authority, such regulatory authority will determine that any of our clinical or preclinical trials comply with applicable cGCP and cGLP requirements. In addition, our clinical trials generally must be conducted with product produced under cGMP regulations. Our failure to comply with these regulations and policies may require us to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process.
If any of our CROs or clinical trial sites fail to comply with their contractual commitments or terminate their involvement in one of our clinical trials for any reason, including due to COVID-19 and related health and safety measures and business closures and disruptions, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative CROs or clinical trial sites or do so on commercially reasonable terms. In addition, if our relationship with clinical trial sites is terminated, we may experience the loss of follow-up information on patients enrolled in our clinical trials unless we are able to transfer the care of those patients to another qualified clinical trial site. In addition, principal investigators for our clinical trials may serve as scientific advisors or consultants to us from time to time and could receive cash or equity compensation in connection with such services. If these relationships and any related compensation result in perceived or actual conflicts of interest, the integrity of the data generated at the applicable clinical trial site may be questioned by the FDA.
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Interim, topline and preliminary data from our clinical trials 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 preclinical studies and clinical trials, which is based on a preliminary analysis of then-available data, and the results and related findings and conclusions are subject to change as patient enrollment and treatment continues and more patient data become available. Adverse differences between previous preliminary or interim data and future interim or final data could significantly harm our business prospects. We may also announce topline data following the completion of a preclinical study or clinical trial, which may be 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 interim, topline or preliminary 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. Preliminary, interim, or topline data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the data we previously published. As a result, preliminary, interim, and topline data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available.
Further, others, including 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 approvability or commercialization of the particular product candidate or product and our company in general. In addition, the information we choose to publicly disclose regarding a particular study or clinical trial is based on what is typically extensive information, and you or others may not agree with what we determine to be material or otherwise appropriate information to include in our disclosure.
We currently have limited marketing capabilities and no sales organization. If we are unable to grow our sales and marketing capabilities on our own or through third parties, we will be unable to successfully commercialize our product candidates, if approved, or generate product revenue.
We currently have limited marketing capabilities and no sales organization. To commercialize our product candidates, if approved, in the United States, Canada, the European Union, Latin America and other jurisdictions we may seek to enter, we must build our marketing, sales, distribution, managerial and other non-technical capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services, and we may not be successful in doing so. Although our employees have experience in the marketing, sale and distribution of pharmaceutical products, and business development activities involving external alliances, from prior employment at other companies, we, as a company, have no prior experience in the marketing, sale and distribution of pharmaceutical products, and there are significant risks involved in building and managing a sales organization, including our ability to hire, retain and incentivize qualified individuals, generate sufficient sales leads, provide adequate training to sales and marketing personnel, and effectively manage a geographically dispersed sales and marketing team. Any failure or delay in the development of our internal sales, marketing, distribution and pricing/reimbursement/access capabilities would impact adversely the commercialization of these products.
We have only received the exclusive rights to the materials required to commercialize TARA-002 in territories other than Japan and Taiwan until June 17, 2030, or an earlier date if Chugai terminates the agreement with us for any number of reasons, following which such rights become non-exclusive.
Pursuant to an agreement with Chugai Pharmaceutical dated June 17, 2019, as amended on July 14, 2020 (effective as of June 30, 2020), Chugai agreed to provide us with exclusive access to the starting material necessary to manufacture TARA-002 as well as technical support necessary for us to develop and commercialize TARA-002 anywhere in the world other than Japan and Taiwan. However, this agreement does not prevent Chugai from providing such materials and support to any third-party for medical, compassionate use and/or non-commercial research purposes and this agreement is exclusive only through June 17, 2030 or the earlier termination of the agreement by either party. Once our rights to the materials and technology necessary to manufacture, develop and commercialize TARA-002 are not exclusive, third parties, including those with greater expertise and greater resources, could obtain such materials and technology and develop a competing therapy, which would adversely affect our ability to generate revenue and achieve or maintain profitability.
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We currently have no products approved for sale, and we may never obtain regulatory approval to commercialize any of our product candidates.
The research, testing, manufacturing, safety surveillance, efficacy, quality control, recordkeeping, labeling, packaging, storage, approval, sale, marketing, distribution, import, export and reporting of safety and other post-market information related to our biopharmaceutical product candidates are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory authorities in the United States and in foreign countries, and such regulations differ from country to country and frequently are revised.
Even after we achieve U.S. regulatory approval for a product candidate, if any, we will be subject to continued regulatory review and compliance obligations. For example, with respect to our product candidates, the FDA may impose significant restrictions on the approved indicated uses for which the product may be marketed or on the conditions of approval. A product candidate’s approval may contain requirements for potentially costly post-approval studies and surveillance, including Phase 4 clinical trials, to monitor the safety and efficacy of the product. We will also be subject to ongoing FDA obligations and continued regulatory review with respect to, among other things, the manufacturing, processing, labeling, packaging, distribution, pharmacovigilance and adverse event reporting, storage, advertising, promotion and recordkeeping for our product candidates.
These requirements include submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, registration, continued compliance with cGMP requirements and with the FDA’s cGCP requirements and cGLP requirements, which are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA for all of our product candidates in clinical and preclinical development, and for any clinical trials that it conducts post-approval, as well as continued compliance with the FDA’s laws governing commercialization of the approved product, including but not limited to the FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion, regulation of promotional activities, fraud and abuse, product sampling, scientific speaker engagements and activities, formulary interactions as well as interactions with healthcare practitioners. To the extent that a product candidate is approved for sale in other countries, we may be subject to similar or more onerous restrictions and requirements imposed by laws and government regulators in those countries (for example, a prohibition on direct-to-consumer advertising that does not exist in the United States).
In addition, manufacturers of drug and biologic products and their facilities are subject to continual review and periodic inspections by the FDA and other regulatory authorities for compliance with cGMP regulations. If we or a regulatory agency discovers previously unknown problems with a product, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the manufacturing, processing, distribution or storage facility where, or processes by which, the product is made, a regulatory agency may impose restrictions on that product or us, including requesting that we initiate a product recall, or requiring notice to physicians or the public, withdrawal of the product from the market, or suspension of manufacturing.
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If we, our product candidates or the manufacturing facilities for our product candidates fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, a regulatory agency may:
| ● | impose restrictions on the sale, marketing or manufacturing of the product, amend, suspend or withdraw product approvals or revoke necessary licenses; |
| ● | mandate modifications to promotional and other product-specific materials or require us to provide corrective information to healthcare practitioners or in our advertising; |
| ● | require us or our partners to enter into a consent decree, which can include imposition of various fines, reimbursements for inspection costs, required due dates for specific actions, penalties for non-compliance and, in extreme cases, require an independent compliance monitor to oversee our activities; |
| ● | issue warning letters, bring enforcement actions, initiate surprise inspections, issue show cause notices or untitled letters describing alleged violations, which may be publicly available; |
| ● | commence criminal investigations and prosecutions; |
| ● | impose injunctions, suspensions or revocations of necessary approvals or other licenses; |
| ● | impose other civil or criminal penalties; |
| ● | suspend any ongoing clinical trials; |
| ● | place restrictions on the kind of promotional activities that can be done; |
| ● | delay or refuse to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications filed by us or our potential partners; |
| ● | refuse to permit drugs or precursor chemicals to be imported or exported to or from the United States; |
| ● | suspend or impose restrictions on operations, including costly new manufacturing requirements; or |
| ● | seize or detain products or require us or our partners to initiate a product recall. |
The regulations, policies or guidance of the FDA and other applicable government agencies may change, and new or additional statutes or government regulations may be enacted, including at the state and local levels, which can differ by geography and could prevent or delay regulatory approval of our product candidates or further restrict or regulate post-approval activities. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of adverse government regulations that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, either in the United States or abroad. If we are not able to achieve and maintain regulatory compliance, we may not be permitted to commercialize our product candidates, which would adversely affect our ability to generate revenue and achieve or maintain profitability.
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We may face product liability exposure, and if successful claims are brought against us, we may incur substantial liability if our insurance coverage for those claims is inadequate.
We face an inherent risk of product liability or similar causes of action as a result of the clinical testing of our product candidates and will face an even greater risk if we commercialize any products. This risk exists even if a product is approved for commercial sale by the FDA and manufactured in facilities licensed and regulated by the FDA or an applicable foreign regulatory authority and notwithstanding that we comply with applicable laws on promotional activity. Our products and product candidates are designed to affect important bodily functions and processes. Any side effects, manufacturing defects, misuse or abuse associated with our product candidates could result in injury to a patient or potentially even death. We cannot offer any assurance that we will not face product liability suits in the future, nor can we assure you that our insurance coverage will be sufficient to cover our liability under any such cases.
In addition, a liability claim may be brought against us even if our product candidates merely appear to have caused an injury. Product liability claims may be brought against us by consumers, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies or others selling or otherwise coming into contact with our product candidates, among others, and under some circumstances even government agencies. If we cannot successfully defend ourself against product liability or similar claims, we will incur substantial liabilities, reputational harm and possibly injunctions and punitive actions. In addition, regardless of merit or eventual outcome, product liability claims may result in:
| ● | withdrawal or delay of recruitment or decreased enrollment rates of clinical trial participants; |
| ● | termination or increased government regulation of clinical trial sites or entire trial programs; |
| ● | the inability to commercialize our product candidates; |
| ● | decreased demand for our product candidates; |
| ● | impairment of our business reputation; |
| ● | product recall or withdrawal from the market or labeling, marketing or promotional restrictions; |
| ● | substantial costs of any related litigation or similar disputes; |
| ● | distraction of management’s attention and other resources from our primary business; |
| ● | significant delay in product launch; |
| ● | substantial monetary awards to patients or other claimants against us that may not be covered by insurance; |
| ● | withdrawal of reimbursement or formulary inclusion; or |
| ● | loss of revenue. |
We have obtained product liability insurance coverage for our clinical trials. Large judgments have been awarded in class action or individual lawsuits based on drugs that had unanticipated side effects. Our insurance coverage may not be sufficient to cover all of our product liability-related expenses or losses and may not cover us for any expenses or losses we may suffer. Moreover, insurance coverage is becoming increasingly expensive, restrictive and narrow, and, in the future, we may not be able to maintain adequate insurance coverage at a reasonable cost, in sufficient amounts or upon adequate terms to protect us against losses due to product liability or other similar legal actions. We will need to increase our product liability coverage if any of our product candidates receive regulatory approval, which will be costly, and we may be unable to obtain this increased product liability insurance on commercially reasonable terms or at all and for all geographies in which we wish to launch. A successful product liability claim or series of claims brought against us, if judgments exceed our insurance coverage, could decrease our cash and harm our business, financial condition, operating results and future prospects.
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Our employees, independent contractors, principal investigators, other clinical trial staff, consultants, vendors, CROs and any partners with whom we may collaborate may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including non-compliance with regulatory standards and requirements.
We are exposed to the risk that our employees, independent contractors, principal investigators, other clinical trial staff, consultants, vendors, CROs and any partners with which we may collaborate may engage in fraudulent or other illegal activity. Misconduct by these persons could include intentional, reckless, gross or negligent misconduct or unauthorized activity that violates: laws or regulations, including those laws requiring the reporting of true, complete and accurate information to the FDA or foreign regulatory authorities; manufacturing standards; federal, state and foreign healthcare fraud and abuse laws and data privacy; anticorruption laws, anti-kickback and Medicare/Medicaid rules, or laws that require the true, complete and accurate reporting of financial information or data, books and records. If any such or similar actions are instituted against us and we are not successful in defending ourself or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of significant civil, criminal and administrative and punitive penalties, damages, monetary fines, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs, debarments, contractual damages, imprisonment, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, injunctions, and curtailment or cessation of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our operating results.
We may be subject to risks related to off-label use of our product candidates, if approved.
The FDA strictly regulates the advertising and promotion of drug products, and drug products may only be marketed or promoted for their FDA approved uses, consistent with the product’s approved labeling. Advertising and promotion of any product candidate that obtains approval in the United States will be heavily scrutinized by the FDA, the Department of Justice, the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, state attorneys general, members of Congress and the public. For example, the FDA and other agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off-label uses, and a company that is found to have improperly promoted off-label uses may be subject to significant liability. Although physicians may prescribe products for off-label uses as the FDA and other regulatory agencies do not regulate a physician’s choice of drug treatment made in the physician’s independent medical judgment, they do restrict promotional communications from companies or their sales force with respect to off-label uses of products for which marketing clearance has not been issued. Companies may only share truthful and not misleading information that is otherwise consistent with a product’s FDA approved labeling. Violations, including promotion of our products for unapproved or off-label uses, are subject to enforcement letters, inquiries and investigations, and civil, criminal and/or administrative sanctions by the FDA. Additionally, advertising and promotion of any product candidate that obtains approval outside of the United States will be heavily scrutinized by relevant foreign regulatory authorities.
In the United States, engaging in impermissible promotion of our product candidates for off-label uses can also subject us to false claims litigation under federal and state statutes, which can lead to significant civil, criminal and/or administrative penalties and fines and agreements, such as a corporate integrity agreement, that materially restrict the manner in which we promote or distribute our product candidates. If we do not lawfully promote our products once they have received regulatory approval, we may become subject to such litigation and, if we are not successful in defending against such actions, those actions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results and even result in having an independent compliance monitor assigned to audit our ongoing operations for a lengthy period of time.
If we or any partners with which we may collaborate are unable to achieve and maintain coverage and adequate levels of reimbursement for TARA-002 or IV Choline Chloride following regulatory approval, their commercial success may be hindered severely.
If TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride only becomes available by prescription, successful sales by us or by any partners with which we may collaborate depend on the availability of coverage and adequate reimbursement from third-party payors. Patients who are prescribed medicine for the treatment of their conditions generally rely on third-party payors to reimburse most or part of the costs associated with their prescription drugs. The availability of coverage and adequate reimbursement from governmental healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid in the United States, and private third-party payors is often critical to new product acceptance. Coverage decisions may depend on clinical and economic standards that disfavor new drug products when more established or lower-cost therapeutic alternatives are already available or subsequently become available, or may be affected by the budgets and demands on the various entities responsible for providing health insurance to patients who will use TARA-002 and IV Choline Chloride. Even if we obtain coverage for our products, the resulting reimbursement payment rates might not be adequate or may require co-payments that patients find unacceptably high. Patients are unlikely to use a product unless coverage is provided, and reimbursement is adequate to cover a significant portion of the cost.
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In addition, the market for our products will depend significantly on access to third-party payors’ drug formularies or lists of medications for which third-party payors provide coverage and reimbursement. The industry competition to be included in such formularies often leads to downward pricing pressures on pharmaceutical companies and there may be time limitations on when a new drug may even apply for formulary inclusion. Also, third-party payors may refuse to include products in their formularies or otherwise restrict patient access to such products when a less costly biosimilar or generic equivalent or other treatment alternative is available in the discretion of the formulary.
Third-party payors, whether foreign or domestic, or governmental or commercial, are developing increasingly sophisticated methods of controlling healthcare costs. In addition, in the United States, although private third-party payors tend to follow Medicare practices, no uniform or consistent policy of coverage and reimbursement for drug products exists among third-party payors. Therefore, coverage and reimbursement for drug products can differ significantly from payor to payor as well as from state to state. Consequently, the coverage determination process is often a time-consuming and costly process that must be played out across many jurisdictions and different entities and that will require us to provide scientific, clinical and health economics support for the use of our products compared to current alternatives and do so to each payor separately, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be obtained and in what time frame.
Further, we believe that future coverage and reimbursement likely will be subject to increased restrictions both in the United States and in international markets. Third-party coverage and reimbursement for our products may not be available or adequate in either the United States or international markets, which could harm our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects. Further, coverage policies and third-party reimbursement rates may change at any time. Therefore, even if favorable coverage and reimbursement status is attained, less favorable coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future.
Healthcare reform measures could hinder or prevent the commercial success of our product candidates.
Existing regulatory policies may change, and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of any future product candidates we may develop. For example, the Trump administration and certain members of the U.S. Congress sought to repeal all or part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, or collectively, the Affordable Care Act, and implement a replacement program. In another example, the so-called “individual mandate” was repealed as part of tax reform legislation adopted in December 2017, informally titled the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or Tax Act, such that the shared responsibility payment for individuals who fail to maintain minimum essential coverage under section 5000A of the Internal Revenue Code was eliminated beginning in 2019. Additionally, on June 17, 2021 the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a challenge on procedural grounds that argued the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional in its entirety because the individual mandate was repealed by Congress. Thus, the Affordable Care Act will remain in effect in its current form. Further, prior to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, on January 28, 2021, President Biden issued an executive order that initiated a special enrollment period for purposes of obtaining health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. The executive order also instructed certain governmental agencies to review and reconsider their existing policies and rules that limit access to healthcare, including among others, reexamining Medicaid demonstration projects and waiver programs that include work requirements, and policies that create barriers to obtaining access to health insurance coverage through Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act. It is possible that the Affordable Care Act will be subject to judicial or Congressional challenges in the future. It is unclear how such challenges and the healthcare reform measures of the Biden administration will impact the Affordable Care Act and our business.
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Additionally, there has been increasing legislative and enforcement interest in the United States with respect to drug pricing practices. For example, the Trump administration used several means to propose or implement drug pricing reform, including through federal budget proposals, executive orders and policy initiatives. For example, on July 24, 2020 and September 13, 2020, the Trump administration announced several executive orders related to prescription drug pricing that attempted to implement several of the administration’s proposals. The FDA also released a final rule and guidance implementing a portion of the importation executive order providing pathways for states to build and submit importation plans for drugs from Canada. Further, on November 20, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, finalized a regulation removing safe harbor protection for price reductions from pharmaceutical manufacturers to plan sponsors under Part D, either directly or through pharmacy benefit managers, unless the price reduction is required by law. The rule also creates a new safe harbor for price reductions reflected at the point-of-sale, as well as a new safe harbor for certain fixed fee arrangements between pharmacy benefit managers and manufacturers. The implementation of the rule has been delayed until January 1, 2026. On November 20, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, issued an interim final rule implementing former President Trump’s Most Favored Nation, or MFN, executive order, which would tie Medicare Part B payments for certain physician-administered drugs to the lowest price paid in other economically advanced countries, effective January 1, 2021. As a result of litigation challenging the MFN model, on December 27, 2021, CMS published a final rule that rescinded the MFN model interim final rule. Further, in July 2021, the Biden administration released an executive order that included multiple provisions aimed at prescription drugs. In response to Biden’s executive order, on September 9, 2021, HHS released a Comprehensive Plan for Addressing High Drug Prices that outlines principles for drug pricing reform. The plan sets out a variety of potential legislative policies that Congress could pursue as well as potential administrative actions HHS could take to advance these principles. No legislation or administrative actions have been finalized to implement these principles. In addition, Congress is considering drug pricing as part of other reform initiatives. We expect that additional state and federal healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that federal and state governments will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in reduced demand for our product candidates if approved or additional pricing pressures.
There are also calls to place additional restrictions on or to ban direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals, which would limit our ability to market our product candidates. The United States is in a minority of jurisdictions that allow this kind of advertising and its removal could limit the potential reach of a marketing campaign. Further, it is possible that additional government action is taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We may also be subject to strict healthcare laws, regulation and enforcement, and our failure to comply with those laws could adversely affect our business, operations and financial condition.
Certain federal and state healthcare laws and regulations pertaining to fraud and abuse, privacy, transparency, and patients’ rights are and will be applicable to our business. We are subject to regulation by both the federal government and the states in which we or our partners conduct business. The healthcare laws and regulations that may affect our ability to operate include but are not limited to: the federal Anti-Kickback Statute; federal civil and criminal false claims laws and civil monetary penalty laws; the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act; the Prescription Drug Marketing Act (for sampling of drug product among other things); the federal physician sunshine requirements under the Affordable Care Act; the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as it applies to activities outside of the United States; the federal Right-to-Try legislation; and similar state laws of such federal laws, which may be broader in scope.
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 be subject to challenge under one or more of such laws. In addition, recent healthcare reform legislation has strengthened these laws. For example, the Affordable Care Act, among other things, amended the intent requirement of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and certain criminal healthcare fraud statutes. A person or entity no longer needs to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it. In addition, the Affordable Care Act provided that the government may assert that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the federal civil False Claims Act.
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Achieving and sustaining compliance with these laws may prove costly. In addition, any action against us for violation of these laws, even if we successfully defend against it, could cause us to incur significant legal expenses and divert management’s attention from the operation of our business and result in reputational damage. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other governmental laws or regulations that apply to us, we may be subject to significant penalties, including administrative, civil and criminal penalties, damages, including punitive damages, fines, disgorgement, the exclusion from participation in federal and state healthcare programs, imprisonment, additional oversight and reporting obligations, or the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, and injunctions, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and financial results.
We may in-license and acquire product candidates and may engage in other strategic transactions, which could impact our liquidity, increase our expenses and present significant distractions to our management.
Part of our strategy is to in-license and acquire product candidates and we may engage in other strategic transactions. Additional potential transactions that we may consider include a variety of different business arrangements, including spin-offs, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, restructurings, divestitures, business combinations and investments. Any such transaction may require us to incur non-recurring or other charges, may increase our near- and long-term expenditures and may pose significant integration challenges or disrupt our management or business, which could adversely affect our operations and financial results. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that we will undertake or successfully complete any transactions of the nature described above, and any transaction that we do complete could harm our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.
Our failure to successfully in-license, acquire, develop and market additional product candidates or approved products would impair our ability to grow our business.
We may in-license, acquire, develop and market additional products and product candidates. Because our internal research and development capabilities are limited, we may be dependent on pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic or government scientists and other researchers to sell or license products or technology to us. The success of this strategy depends partly on our ability to identify and select promising pharmaceutical and biologic product candidates and products, negotiate licensing or acquisition agreements with their current owners, and finance these arrangements.
The process of proposing, negotiating and implementing a license or acquisition of a product candidate or approved product is lengthy and complex. Other companies, including some with substantially greater financial, marketing, sales and other resources, may compete with us for the license or acquisition of product candidates and approved products. We have limited resources to identify and execute the acquisition or in-licensing of third-party products, businesses and technologies and integrate them into our current infrastructure. Moreover, we may devote resources to potential acquisitions or licensing opportunities that are never completed, or we may fail to realize the anticipated benefits of such efforts. We may not be able to acquire the rights to additional product candidates on terms that we find acceptable or at all.
Further, any product candidate that we acquire may require additional development efforts prior to commercial sale, including preclinical or clinical testing and approval by the FDA and applicable foreign regulatory authorities. All product candidates are prone to risks of failure typical of pharmaceutical product development, including the possibility that a product candidate will not be shown to be sufficiently safe and effective for approval by regulatory authorities. In addition, we cannot provide assurance that any approved products that we acquire will be manufactured or sold profitably or achieve market acceptance.
We expect to rely on collaborations with third parties for the successful development and commercialization of our product candidates.
We expect to rely upon the efforts of third parties for the successful development and commercialization of our current and future product candidates. The clinical and commercial success of our product candidates may depend upon maintaining successful relationships with third-party partners which are subject to a number of significant risks, including the following:
| ● | our partners’ ability to execute their responsibilities in a timely, cost-efficient and compliant manner; |
| ● | reduced control over delivery and manufacturing schedules; |
| ● | price increases and product reliability; |
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| ● | manufacturing deviations from internal or regulatory specifications; |
| ● | quality incidents; |
| ● | the failure of partners to perform their obligations for technical, market or other reasons; |
| ● | misappropriation of our current or future product candidates; and |
| ● | other risks in potentially meeting our current and future anticipated commercialization schedule for product candidates or satisfying the requirements of our end-users. |
We cannot assure you that we will be able to establish or maintain third-party relationships in order to successfully develop and commercialize our product candidates.
We rely completely on third-party contractors to supply, manufacture and distribute clinical drug supplies for our product candidates, which may include sole-source suppliers and manufacturers; we intend to rely on third parties for commercial supply, manufacturing and distribution if any of our product candidates receive regulatory approval; and we expect to rely on third parties for supply, manufacturing and distribution of preclinical, clinical and commercial supplies of any future product candidates.
We do not currently have, nor do we plan to acquire, the infrastructure or capability to supply, store, manufacture or distribute preclinical, clinical or commercial quantities of drug substances or products. Additionally, we have not entered into a long-term commercial supply agreement to provide us with such drug substances or products. As a result, our ability to develop our product candidates is dependent, and our ability to supply our products commercially will depend, in part, on our ability to obtain active pharmaceutical ingredient, or API, and other substances and materials used in our product candidates successfully from third parties and to have finished products manufactured by third parties in accordance with regulatory requirements and in sufficient quantities for preclinical and clinical testing and commercialization. If we fail to develop and maintain supply and other technical relationships with these third parties, we may be unable to continue to develop or commercialize our products and product candidates.
We do not have direct control over whether our contract suppliers and manufacturers will maintain current pricing terms, be willing to continue supplying us with API and finished products or maintain adequate capacity and capabilities to serve our needs, including quality control, quality assurance and qualified personnel. We are dependent on our contract suppliers and manufacturers for day-to-day compliance with applicable laws and cGMP for production of both API and finished products. If the safety or quality of any product or product candidate or component is compromised due to a failure to adhere to applicable laws or for other reasons, we may not be able to commercialize or obtain regulatory approval for the affected product or product candidate successfully, and we may be held liable for injuries sustained as a result.
In order to conduct larger or late-stage clinical trials for our product candidates and supply sufficient commercial quantities of any of our products, if approved, our contract manufacturers and suppliers will need to produce our API and other substances and materials used in our product candidates in larger quantities, more cost-effectively and, in certain cases, at higher yields than they currently achieve. If our third-party contractors are unable to scale up the manufacture of any of our product candidates successfully in sufficient quality and quantity and at commercially reasonable prices, or are shut down or put on clinical hold by government regulators, and we are unable to find one or more replacement suppliers or manufacturers capable of production at a substantially equivalent cost in substantially equivalent volumes and quality, and we are unable to transfer the processes successfully on a timely basis, the development of that product candidate and regulatory approval or commercial launch for any resulting products may be delayed, or there may be a shortage in supply, either of which could significantly harm our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.
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We expect to continue to depend on third-party contract suppliers and manufacturers for the foreseeable future. Our supply and manufacturing agreements, if any, do not guarantee that a contract supplier or manufacturer will provide services adequate for our needs. Additionally, any damage to or destruction of our third-party manufacturers’ or suppliers’ facilities or equipment, even by force majeure, may significantly impair our ability to have our products and product candidates manufactured on a timely basis. Our reliance on contract manufacturers and suppliers further exposes us to the possibility that they, or third parties with access to their facilities, will have access to and may misappropriate our trade secrets or other proprietary information. In addition, the manufacturing facilities of certain of our suppliers may be located outside of the United States. This may give rise to difficulties in importing our products or product candidates or their components into the United States or other countries.
In addition, we cannot be certain that any prolonged, intensified or worsened effect of the COVID-19 pandemic would not impact our supply chain.
The manufacture of biologics is complex and our third-party manufacturers may encounter difficulties in production. If our CDMO encounters such difficulties, the ability to provide supply of TARA-002 for clinical trials, our ability to obtain marketing approval, or our ability to obtain commercial supply of TARA-002, if approved, could be delayed or stopped.
We have no experience in biologic manufacturing and do not own or operate, and we do not expect to own or operate, facilities for product manufacturing, storage and distribution, or testing. We are completely dependent on CDMOs to fulfill our clinical and commercial supply of TARA-002. The process of manufacturing biologics is complex, highly regulated and subject to multiple risks. 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 and higher costs. If microbial, viral or other contaminations are discovered at the facilities of our manufacturer, such facilities may need to be closed for an extended period of time to investigate and remedy the contamination, which could delay clinical trials, result in higher costs of drug product and adversely harm our business. Moreover, if the FDA determines that our manufacturer is not in compliance with FDA laws and regulations, including those governing cGMPs, the FDA may deny BLA approval until the deficiencies are corrected or we replace the manufacturer in our BLA with a manufacturer that is in compliance.
In addition, there are risks associated with large scale manufacturing for clinical trials or commercial scale including, among others, cost overruns, potential problems with process scale-up, process reproducibility, stability issues, compliance with cGMPs, lot consistency and timely availability of raw materials. Even if we obtain regulatory approval for TARA-002 or any future product candidates, there is no assurance that our manufacturers will be able to manufacture the approved product to specifications acceptable to the FDA or other 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. If our manufacturers are unable to produce sufficient quantities for clinical trials or for commercialization, commercialization efforts would be impaired, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. Scaling up a biologic manufacturing process is a difficult and uncertain task, and any CDMO we contract may not have the necessary capabilities to complete the implementation and development process of further scaling up production, transferring production to other sites, or managing its production capacity to timely meet product demand.
We expect our stock price to be highly volatile.
The market price of our shares could be subject to significant fluctuations. Market prices for securities of biotechnology and other life sciences companies historically have been particularly volatile, even subject to large daily price swings. For example, the closing price of our common stock from the period January 1, 2022 to May 2, 2022 has ranged from a low of $3.60 to a high of $6.90. Some of the factors that may cause the market price of our shares to fluctuate include, but are not limited to:
| ● | the results of current and any future clinical trials of TARA-002 or IV Choline Chloride and any clinical trial failure, including any failure resulting from difficulties or delays in identifying patients, enrolling patients, retaining patients, meeting specific trial endpoints or completing and timely reporting the results of any trial; |
| ● | our ability to obtain regulatory approvals for TARA-002, IV Choline Chloride or future product candidates, and delays of, or failures to obtain, such approvals; |
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| ● | the failure of TARA-002 or IV Choline Chloride or future product candidates, if approved, to achieve commercial success; |
| ● | the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; |
| ● | potential side effects associated with TARA-002 or IV Choline Chloride or future product candidates; |
| ● | issues in manufacturing, or the inability to obtain adequate supply of, TARA-002, IV Choline Chloride or future product candidates; |
| ● | the entry into, or termination of, or breach by partners of key agreements, including key commercial partner agreements; |
| ● | the initiation of, material developments in, or conclusion of, any litigation to enforce or defend any intellectual property rights or defend against the intellectual property rights of others; |
| ● | announcements of any dilutive equity financings; |
| ● | inability to obtain additional funding; |
| ● | announcements by commercial partners or competitors of new commercial products, clinical progress or the lack thereof, significant contracts, commercial relationships or capital commitments; |
| ● | failure to elicit meaningful stock analyst coverage and downgrades of our stock by analysts; |
| ● | the loss of key employees; |
| ● | changes in laws or regulations application to TARA-002 or IV Choline Chloride or future product candidates; and |
| ● | sales of our common stock by us, our insiders or our other stockholders. |
Moreover, the stock markets in general have experienced substantial volatility in our industry that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of individual companies or a certain industry segment. These broad market fluctuations may also adversely affect the trading price of our shares.
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In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, stockholders have often instituted class action securities litigation against those companies. Such litigation, if instituted, could result in substantial costs and diversion of management attention and resources, which could significantly harm our profitability and reputation. In addition, such securities litigation often has ensued after a reverse merger or other merger and acquisition activity. Such litigation if brought could impact negatively our business.
We incur costs and demands upon management as a result of complying with the laws and regulations affecting public companies.
As a public company, we have incurred, and will continue to incur, significant legal, accounting and other expenses, including costs associated with public company reporting and other SEC requirements. We have also incurred, and will continue to incur, costs associated with corporate governance requirements, including requirements under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as rules implemented by the SEC and Nasdaq.
We expect the rules and regulations applicable to public companies will continue to substantially increase our legal and financial compliance costs and to make some activities more time-consuming and costly. Our executive officers and other personnel will need to continue to devote substantial time to gaining expertise regarding operations as a public company and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. These rules and regulations may also make it expensive for us to operate our business.
We are able to take advantage of reduced disclosure and governance requirements applicable to smaller reporting companies, which could result in our common stock being less attractive to investors.
We qualify as a smaller reporting company under the rules of the SEC. As a smaller reporting company, we are able to take advantage of reduced disclosure requirements, such as simplified executive compensation disclosures and reduced financial statement disclosure requirements in our SEC filings. Decreased disclosures in our SEC filings due to our status as a smaller reporting company may make it harder for our investors to analyze our results of operations and financial prospects. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive due to our reliance on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile. We may take advantage of the reporting exemptions applicable to a smaller reporting company until we are no longer a smaller reporting company, which status would end once we have a public float greater than $250 million. In that event, we could still be a smaller reporting company if our annual revenues were below $100 million and we have a public float of less than $700 million.
If we fail to attract and retain management and other key personnel, we may be unable to continue to successfully develop or commercialize our product candidates or otherwise implement our business plan.
Our ability to compete in the highly competitive pharmaceuticals industry depends on our ability to attract and retain highly qualified managerial, scientific, medical, legal, sales and marketing and other personnel. We are highly dependent on our management and scientific personnel. The loss of the services of any of these individuals could impede, delay or prevent the successful development of our product pipeline, completion of our planned clinical trials, commercialization of our product candidates or in-licensing or acquisition of new assets and could impact negatively our ability to implement successfully our business plan. If we lose the services of any of these individuals, we might not be able to find suitable replacements on a timely basis or at all, and our business could be harmed as a result. We might not be able to attract or retain qualified management and other key personnel in the future due to the intense competition for qualified personnel among biotechnology, pharmaceutical and other businesses.
In addition, the United States is currently experiencing a decrease in unemployment rates and an increasingly competitive labor market, which may result in difficulties in hiring or retaining sufficient qualified personnel to maintain and grow our business. We are uncertain as to the employment environment in the future, or how that environment will impact our workforce, including our ability to retain qualified management and other key personnel.
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We do not anticipate paying any dividends in the foreseeable future.
The current expectation is that we will retain our future earnings to fund the development and growth of our business. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of your shares of us will be your sole source of gain, if any, for the foreseeable future.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes to offset future taxable income or taxes may be limited.
Under current law, federal net operating losses incurred in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such federal net operating losses in tax years beginning after December 31, 2020, is limited to 80% of taxable income. It is uncertain if and to what extent various states and localities will conform to federal tax laws. In addition, under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and corresponding provisions of state law, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change” which is generally defined as a greater than 50% change in its equity ownership value over a 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 income or taxes may be limited. We have experienced ownership changes in the past and we may also experience additional ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership, some of which may be outside of our control. If an ownership change occurs and our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards is materially limited, it would harm our future operating results by effectively increasing our future tax obligations. In addition, at the state level, there may be periods during which the use of net operating loss carryforwards is suspended or otherwise limited, which could accelerate or permanently increase state taxes owed. As a result, if we earn net taxable income, we may be unable to use all or a material portion of our net operating loss carryforwards and other tax attributes, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us and adversely affect our future cash flows.
We may be adversely affected by natural disasters, pandemics and other catastrophic events and by man-made problems such as terrorism that could disrupt our business operations, and our business continuity and disaster recovery plans may not adequately protect us from a serious disaster.
Our office is located in New York, New York. If a disaster, power outage, computer hacking, or other event occurred that prevented us from using all or a significant portion of an office, that damaged critical infrastructure, such as enterprise financial systems, IT systems, manufacturing resource planning or enterprise quality systems, or that otherwise disrupted operations, it may be difficult or, in certain cases, impossible for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time. As an example, New York City has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and, due to health and safety considerations for our employees and various government restrictions, from time to time we have instituted work-from-home policies and as a result have not used our facilities there for extended periods of time. Our contract manufacturers and suppliers’ facilities and our clinical trial sites are located in locations where there have been similar working restrictions in place for the COVID-19 pandemic and where other natural disasters or similar events, such as tornadoes, fires, explosions or large-scale accidents or power outages, or IT threats, pandemic, acts of terrorism, wars and other geopolitical unrest, could severely disrupt our operations and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects. All of the aforementioned risks may be further increased if we do not implement a disaster recovery plan or our partners’ or manufacturers’ disaster recovery plans prove to be inadequate. To the extent that any of the above should result in delays in the research, development, regulatory approval, manufacture, distribution or commercialization of TARA-002 or IV Choline Chloride, our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects would suffer.
Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of us more difficult and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove management.
Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may delay or prevent an acquisition or a change in management. In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, or DGCL, which prohibits stockholders owning in excess of 15% of the outstanding voting stock from merging or combining with us. These provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove then current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of the board of directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of management.
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Our certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for certain 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 other employees.
Our certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the sole and exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers or other employees to us or our stockholders, any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to any provisions of the DGCL, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws, or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. The choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for certain disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. If a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in the certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions.
Certain stockholders have the ability to control or significantly influence certain matters submitted to our stockholders for approval.
Certain stockholders have consent rights over certain significant matters of our business. These include decisions to effect a merger or other similar transaction, changes to our principal business, and the sale or other transfer of TARA-002 or other assets with an aggregate value of more than $2,500,000. As a result, these stockholders, have significant influence over certain matters that require approval by our stockholders.
If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis could be impaired.
We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the rules and regulations of Nasdaq. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We must perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filing for that year, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This will require that we incur substantial professional fees and internal costs to expand our accounting and finance functions and that we expend significant management efforts. We may experience difficulty in meeting these reporting requirements in a timely manner.
We may discover weaknesses in our system of internal financial and accounting controls and procedures that could result in a material misstatement of our financial statements. Our internal control over financial reporting will not prevent or detect all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud will be detected.
If we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or if we are unable to maintain proper and effective internal controls, we may not be able to produce timely and accurate financial statements. If that were to happen, the market price of our common stock could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities or by Nasdaq.
We are subject to stringent and changing obligations related to data privacy and security. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could lead to regulatory investigations or actions; litigation; fines and penalties; a disruption of our business operations, including our clinical trials; harm to our reputation; and other adverse effects on our business or prospects.
In the ordinary course of business, we collect, receive, store, process, use, generate, transfer, disclose, make accessible, protect, secure, dispose of, transmit, and share, or collectively, Process or Processing of, personal data and other sensitive and confidential information, including information we collect about patients in connection with clinical trials, sensitive third-party data or, as necessary to operate our business, for legal and marketing purposes, and for other business-related purposes.
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Accordingly, we are, or may become, subject to numerous federal, state, local and international data privacy and security laws, regulations, guidance and industry standards as well as external and internal privacy and security policies, contracts and other obligations that apply to the Processing of personal data by us and on our behalf, collectively, Data Protection Requirements. The number and scope of Data Protection Requirements are changing, subject to differing applications and interpretations, and may be inconsistent between jurisdictions or in conflict with each other. If we fail, or are perceived to have failed, to address or comply with Data Protection Requirements, we could face significant consequences. These consequences may include, but are not limited to, government enforcement actions against us that could include investigations, fines, penalties, audits and inspections, additional reporting requirements and/or oversight, temporary or permanent bans on all or some Processing of personal data, orders to destroy or not use personal data, and imprisonment of company officials (for example, under HIPAA). Further, individuals or other relevant stakeholders could bring a variety of claims against us for our actual or perceived failure to comply with the Data Protection Requirements. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, or financial condition, and could lead to a loss of actual or prospective customers, collaborators or partners; interrupt or stop clinical trials; result in an inability to Process personal data or to operate in certain jurisdictions; limit our ability to develop or commercialize our products; or require us to revise or restructure our operations, or each, a material adverse impact.
We are, or may become, subject to U.S. privacy laws. For example, in the United States, there are a broad variety of data protection laws and regulations that may apply to our activities such as state data breach notification laws, state personal data privacy laws (for example, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, or CCPA), state health information privacy laws, and federal and state consumer protection laws.
The CCPA requires covered businesses that process personal data of California residents to disclose their data collection, use and sharing practices. Further, the CCPA provides California residents with new data privacy rights (including the ability to opt out of the sale of personal data), imposes new operational requirements for covered businesses, provides for civil penalties for violations (up to $7,500 per violation), as well as a private right of action for certain data breaches (that is expected to increase data breach class action litigation and result in significant exposure to costly legal judgements and settlements). Aspects of the CCPA and its interpretation and enforcement remain uncertain. Further, the new California Privacy Rights Act, or CPRA, substantially expands the CCPA’s requirements effective January 1, 2023. The CPRA will, among other things, give California residents the ability to limit use of certain sensitive personal data, establish restrictions on the retention of personal data, expand the types of data breaches subject to the CCPA’s private right of action, and establish a new California Privacy Protection Agency to implement and enforce the new law. Although there are limited exemptions for clinical trial data under the CCPA and the CPRA, the CCPA and the CPRA may increase compliance costs and potential liability with respect to other personal data we maintain about California residents. Other states have enacted data privacy laws. For example, Virginia passed its Consumer Data Protection Act, and Colorado passed the Colorado Privacy Act, both of which differ from the CPRA and become effective in 2023. The federal government is also considering comprehensive privacy legislation.
Outside the United States, an increasing number of laws, regulations, and industry standards apply to data privacy and security. For example, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, or EU GDPR, the United Kingdom’s GDPR, or UK GDPR, and Brazil’s General Data Protection Law (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais, or LGPD) (Law No. 13,709/2018) impose strict requirements for processing personal data. For example, under the EU GDPR, government regulators may impose temporary or definitive bans on data processing, as well as fines of up to 20 million euros or 4% of annual global revenue, whichever is greater. Further, individuals may initiate litigation related to processing of their personal data.
European data protection laws (including the EU GDPR and UK GDRP) are wide-ranging in scope and impose numerous, significant and complex compliance burdens in relation to the Processing of personal data, such as: limiting permitted Processing of personal data to only that which is necessary for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes; requiring the establishment of a legal basis for Processing personal data; broadening the definition of personal data; creating obligations for controllers and processors to appoint data protection officers in certain circumstances; increasing transparency obligations to data subjects; introducing the obligation to carry out data protection impact assessments in certain circumstances; establishing limitations on the collection and retention of personal data through ‘data minimization’ and ’storage limitation’ principles; introducing obligations to honor increased rights for data subjects; formalizing a heightened standard to obtain data subject consent; establishing obligations to implement certain technical and organizational safeguards to protect the security and confidentiality of personal data; introducing the obligation to provide notice of certain significant personal data breaches to the relevant supervisory authority(ies) and affected individuals; and mandating the appointment of representatives in the UK and/or EU in certain circumstances. In particular, the Processing of “special categor[ies] [of] personal data” (such as personal data related to health and genetic information), which could be relevant to our operations in the context of our clinical trials, imposes heightened compliance burdens under European data protection laws and is a topic of active interest among relevant regulators.
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Certain jurisdictions have enacted data localization laws and cross-border personal data transfer laws, which could make it more difficult to transfer information across jurisdictions (such as transferring or receiving personal data that originates in the EU or in other foreign jurisdictions). Existing mechanisms that facilitate cross-border personal data transfers may change or be invalidated. For example, absent appropriate safeguards or other circumstances, the EU GDPR generally restricts the transfer of personal data to countries outside of the European Economic Area, or EEA, that the European Commission does not consider to provide an adequate level of data privacy and security, such as the United States. The European Commission released a set of “Standard Contractual Clauses,” or SCCs, that are designed to be a valid mechanism to facilitate personal data transfers out of the EEA to these jurisdictions. Currently, these SCCs are a valid mechanism to transfer personal data outside of the EEA, but there exists some uncertainty regarding whether the SCCs will remain a valid mechanism. Additionally, the SCCs impose additional compliance burdens, such as conducting transfer impact assessments to determine whether additional security measures are necessary to protect the at-issue personal data.
In addition, Switzerland and the UK similarly restrict personal data transfers outside of those jurisdictions to countries that they do not consider to provide an adequate level of personal data protection, such as the United States, and certain countries outside Europe (e.g. Brazil) have also passed or are considering laws requiring local data residency or otherwise impeding the transfer of personal data across borders, any of which could increase the cost and complexity of doing business.
If we cannot implement a valid compliance mechanism for cross-border data transfers, we may face increased exposure to regulatory actions, substantial fines, and injunctions against processing or transferring personal data from Europe or other foreign jurisdictions. Inability to import personal data to the United States may significantly and negatively impact our business operations, including by limiting our ability to conduct clinical trial activities in Europe and elsewhere; limiting our ability to collaborate with parties subject to European and other data protection laws or requiring us to increase our personal data processing capabilities in Europe and/or elsewhere at significant expense.
These laws exemplify the vulnerability of our business to the evolving regulatory environment related to personal data and may require us to modify our Processing practices at substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply. Given the breadth and evolving nature of Data Protection Requirements, preparing for and complying with these requirements is rigorous, time-intensive and requires significant resources and a review of our technologies, systems and practices, as well as those of any third-party collaborators, service providers, contractors or consultants that Process personal data on our behalf.
We may publish privacy policies and other documentation regarding our Processing of personal data and/or other confidential, proprietary or sensitive information. Although we endeavor to comply with our published policies and other documentation, we may at times fail to do so or may be perceived to have failed to do so. Moreover, despite our efforts, we may not be successful in achieving compliance if our employees, third-party collaborators, service providers, contractors or consultants fail to comply with our policies and documentation. Such failures can subject us to potential regulatory action if they are found to be deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative of our actual practices. Moreover, subjects about whom we or our partners obtain information, as well as the providers who share this information with us, may contractually limit our ability to use and disclose the information. Claims that we have violated individuals’ privacy rights or failed to comply with data protection laws or applicable privacy notices even if we are not found liable, could be expensive and time-consuming to defend and could result in adverse publicity that could harm our business or have other material adverse impacts.
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Risks Related to Intellectual Property Rights
We may not be able to obtain, maintain or enforce global patent rights or other intellectual property rights that cover our product candidates and technologies that are of sufficient breadth to prevent third parties from competing against us.
Our success with respect to our product candidates will depend, in part, on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection in both the United States and other countries, to preserve our trade secrets and to prevent third parties from infringing on our proprietary rights. Our ability to protect our product candidates from unauthorized or infringing use by third parties depends in substantial part on our ability to obtain and maintain valid and enforceable patents around the world.
The patent application process, also known as patent prosecution, is expensive and time-consuming, and we and our current or future licensors and licensees may not be able to prepare, file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner in all the countries that are desirable. It is also possible that we or our current licensors, or any future licensors or licensees, will fail to identify patentable aspects of inventions made in the course of development and commercialization activities before it is too late to obtain patent protection on them. Therefore, these and any of our patents and applications may not be prosecuted and enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. Moreover, our competitors independently may develop equivalent knowledge, methods and know-how or discover workarounds to our patents that would not constitute infringement. Any of these outcomes could impair our ability to enforce the exclusivity of our patents effectively, which may have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and operating results.
Due to legal standards relating to patentability, validity, enforceability and claim scope of patents covering pharmaceutical inventions, our ability to obtain, maintain and enforce patents is uncertain and involves complex legal and factual questions especially across countries. Accordingly, rights under any existing patents or any patents we might obtain or license may not cover our product candidates or may not provide us with sufficient protection for our product candidates to afford a sustainable commercial advantage against competitive products or processes, including those from branded, generic and over-the-counter pharmaceutical companies. In addition, we cannot guarantee that any patents or other intellectual property rights will issue from any pending or future patent or other similar applications owned by or licensed to us. Even if patents or other intellectual property rights have issued or will issue, we cannot guarantee that the claims of these patents and other rights are or will be held valid or enforceable by the courts, through injunction or otherwise, or will provide us with any significant protection against competitive products or otherwise be commercially valuable to us in every country of commercial significance that we may target.
Competitors in the field of immunology and oncology therapeutics have created a substantial amount of prior art, including scientific publications, posters, presentations, patents and patent applications and other public disclosures including on the Internet. Our ability to obtain and maintain valid and enforceable patents depends on whether the differences between our technology and the prior art allow our technology to be patentable over the prior art. We do not have outstanding issued patents covering all of the recent developments in our technology and are unsure of the patent protection that we will be successful in obtaining, if any. Even if the patents do successfully issue, third parties may design around or challenge the validity, enforceability or scope of such issued patents or any other issued patents we own or license, which may result in such patents being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable. If the breadth or strength of protection provided by the patents we hold or pursue with respect to our product candidates is challenged, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to develop or threaten our ability to commercialize or finance our product candidates.
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The laws of some foreign jurisdictions do not provide intellectual property rights to the same extent or duration as in the United States, and many companies have encountered significant difficulties in acquiring, maintaining, protecting, defending and especially enforcing such rights in foreign jurisdictions. If we encounter such difficulties in protecting, or are otherwise precluded from effectively protecting, our intellectual property in foreign jurisdictions, our business prospects could be substantially harmed, especially internationally.
Proprietary trade secrets and unpatented know-how are also very important to our business. Although we have taken steps to protect our trade secrets and unpatented know-how by entering into confidentiality agreements with third parties, and intellectual property protection agreements with officers, directors, employees, and certain consultants and advisors, there can be no assurance that binding agreements will not be breached or will be enforced by courts, that we would have adequate remedies for any breach, including injunctive and other equitable relief, or that our trade secrets and unpatented know-how will not otherwise become known, inadvertently disclosed by us or our agents and representatives, or be independently discovered by our competitors. If trade secrets are independently discovered, we would not be able to prevent their use and if we and our agents or representatives inadvertently disclose trade secrets and/or unpatented know-how, we may not be allowed to retrieve this and maintain the exclusivity we previously enjoyed.
We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.
Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on our product candidates does not guarantee exclusivity. The requirements for patentability differ in certain countries, particularly developing countries. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as laws in the United States, especially when it comes to granting use and other kinds of patents and what kind of enforcement rights will be allowed, especially injunctive relief in a civil infringement proceeding. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States and even in launching an identical version of our product notwithstanding we have a valid patent in that country. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products, or produce copy products, and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection but enforcement on infringing activities is inadequate or where we have no patents. 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 and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to pharmaceuticals, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our global patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our global 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 or infringement actions brought against us, and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful when we are the plaintiff. When we are the defendant we may be required to post large bonds to stay in the market while we defend ourselves from an infringement action.
In addition, certain countries in Europe and certain developing countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties, especially if the patent owner does not enforce or use its patents over a protracted period of time. In some cases, the courts will force compulsory licenses on the patent holder even when finding the patent holder’s patents are valid if the court believes it is in the best interests of the country to have widespread access to an essential product covered by the patent. In these situations, the royalty the court requires to be paid by the license holder receiving the compulsory license is not calculated at fair market value and can be inconsequential, thereby adversely affecting the patent holder’s business. In these countries, we may have limited remedies if our patents are infringed or if we are compelled to grant a license to our patents to a third-party, which could also materially diminish the value of those patents. This would limit our potential revenue opportunities. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we own or license, especially in comparison to what we enjoy from enforcing our intellectual property rights in the Unites States. Finally, our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights may be adversely affected by unforeseen changes in both U.S. and foreign intellectual property laws, or changes to the policies in various government agencies in these countries, including but not limited to the patent office issuing patents and the health agency issuing pharmaceutical product approvals for example, in Brazil, pharmaceutical patents require initial approval of the Brazilian health agency (ANVISA). Finally, many countries have large backlogs in patent prosecution, and in some countries in Latin America it can take years, even decades, just to get a pharmaceutical patent application reviewed notwithstanding the merits of the application.
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Obtaining and maintaining patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment, and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.
Periodic maintenance and annuity fees on any issued patent are due to be paid to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or the USPTO, and foreign patent agencies in several stages over the lifetime of the patent. The USPTO and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. While an inadvertent lapse can, in many cases, be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules, there are situations in which non-compliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction just for failure to know about and/or timely pay a prosecution fee. Non-compliance events that could result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application include failure to respond to official actions within prescribed time limits, non-payment of fees in prescribed time periods, and failure to properly legalize and submit formal documents in the format and style the country requires. If we or our licensors fail to maintain the patents and patent applications covering our product candidates for any reason, our competitors might be able to enter the market, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.
If we fail to comply with our obligations under our intellectual property license agreements, we could lose license rights that are important to our business. Additionally, these agreements may be subject to disagreement over contract interpretation, which could narrow the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual property or technology or increase our financial or other obligations to our licensors.
We have entered into in-license arrangements with respect to certain of our product candidates. These license agreements impose various diligence, milestone, royalty, insurance and other obligations on us. If we fail to comply with these obligations, the respective licensors may have the right to terminate the license, in which event we may not be able to develop or market the affected product candidate. The loss of such rights could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.
If we are sued for infringing intellectual property rights of third parties, such litigation could be costly and time consuming and could prevent or delay us from developing or commercializing our product candidates.
Our commercial success depends on our ability to develop, manufacture, market and sell our product candidates and use our proprietary technologies without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties. We cannot assure that marketing and selling such candidates and using such technologies will not infringe existing or future patents. Numerous U.S.- and foreign-issued patents and pending patent applications owned by third parties exist in the fields relating to our product candidates. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, the risk increases that others may assert that our product candidates, technologies or methods of delivery or use infringe their patent rights. Moreover, it is not always clear to industry participants, including us, which patents and other intellectual property rights cover various drugs, biologics, drug delivery systems or their methods of use, and which of these patents may be valid and enforceable. Thus, because of the large number of patents issued and patent applications filed in our fields across many countries, there may be a risk that third parties may allege they have patent rights encompassing our product candidates, technologies or methods.
In addition, there may be issued patents of third parties that are infringed or are alleged to be infringed by our product candidates or proprietary technologies notwithstanding patents we may possess. Because some patent applications in the United States may be maintained in secrecy until the patents are issued, because patent applications in the United States and many foreign jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing and because publications in the scientific literature often lag behind actual discoveries, we cannot be certain that others have not filed patent applications for technology covered by our own and in-licensed issued patents or our pending applications. Our competitors may have filed, and may in the future file, patent applications covering our product candidates or technology similar to our technology. Any such patent application may have priority over our own and in-licensed patent applications or patents, which could further require us to obtain rights to issued patents covering such technologies, which may mean paying significant licensing fees or the like. If another party has filed a U.S. patent application on inventions similar to those owned or in-licensed to us, or, in the case of in-licensed technology, the licensor may have to participate, in the United States, in an interference proceeding to determine priority of invention.
We may be exposed to, or threatened with, future litigation by third parties having patent or other intellectual property rights alleging that our product candidates or proprietary technologies infringe such third parties’ intellectual property rights, including litigation resulting from filing under Paragraph IV of the Hatch-Waxman Act or other countries’ laws similar to the Hatch-Waxman Act. These lawsuits could claim that there are existing patent rights for such drug, and this type of litigation can be costly and could adversely affect our operating results and divert the attention of managerial and technical personnel, even if we do not infringe such patents or the patents asserted against us are ultimately established as invalid. There is a risk that a court would decide that we are infringing the third-party’s patents and would order us to stop the activities covered by the patents. In addition, there is a risk that a court would order us to pay the other party significant damages for having violated the other party’s patents.
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Because we rely on certain third-party licensors and partners and will continue to do so in the future, if one of our licensors or partners is sued for infringing a third-party’s intellectual property rights, our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects could suffer in the same manner as if we were sued directly. In addition to facing litigation risks, we have agreed to indemnify certain third-party licensors and partners against claims of infringement caused by our proprietary technologies, and we have entered or may enter into cost-sharing agreements with some our licensors and partners that could require us to pay some of the costs of patent litigation brought against those third parties whether or not the alleged infringement is caused by our proprietary technologies. In certain instances, these cost-sharing agreements could also require us to assume greater responsibility for infringement damages than would be assumed just on the basis of our technology.
The occurrence of any of the foregoing could adversely affect our business, financial condition or operating results.
We may be subject to claims that our officers, directors, employees, consultants or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed to us alleged trade secrets of their former employers or their former or current customers.
As is common in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, certain of our employees were formerly employed by other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Moreover, we engage the services of consultants to assist us in the development of our products and product candidates, many of whom were previously employed at, or may have previously been or are currently providing consulting services to, other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. We may be subject to claims that these employees and consultants or we have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other proprietary information of their former employers or their former or current customers. Although we have no knowledge of any such claims being alleged to date, if such claims were to arise, litigation may be necessary to defend against any such claims. Even if we are successful in defending against any such claims, any such litigation could be protracted, expensive, a distraction to our management team, not viewed favorably by investors and other third parties, and may potentially result in an unfavorable outcome.
General Risk Factors
If our information technology systems or data, or those of third parties upon which we rely, are or were compromised, we could experience adverse consequences resulting from such compromise, including, but not limited to, regulatory investigations or actions; litigation; fines and penalties; disruptions of our business operations; loss of revenue or profits; interruptions to our operations such as our clinical trials; harm to our reputation; loss of customers or sales; and other adverse consequences.
In the ordinary course of our business, we may Process (as defined above) proprietary, confidential and sensitive information, including personal data (including, key-coded data, health information and other special categories of personal data), intellectual property, trade secrets, and proprietary business information owned or controlled by ourselves or other parties, or collectively, Sensitive Information.
We may use third-party service providers and subprocessors to help us operate critical business systems to Process Sensitive Information on our behalf in a variety of contexts, including without limitation, encryption and authentication technology, employee email, and other functions. Our ability to monitor these third parties’ information security practices is limited, and these third parties may not have adequate information security measures in place. We may share or receive Sensitive Information with or from third parties.
If we, our service providers, partners or other relevant third parties have experienced, or in the future experience, any security incident(s) that result in, any data loss; deletion or destruction; unauthorized access to; loss, unauthorized acquisition, disclosure, or exposure of, Sensitive Information, or compromise related to the security, confidentiality, integrity or availability of our (or their) information technology, software, services, communications or data, or collectively, a Security Incident, it may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects, including the diversion of funds to address the breach, and interruptions, delays, or outages in our operations and development programs. In the first quarter of 2020, our email server was compromised in a cyber-attack. We quickly isolated the incident and have, since, implemented additional risk prevention measures.
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Cyberattacks, malicious internet-based activity and online and offline fraud are prevalent and continue to increase. These threats are becoming increasingly difficult to detect. These threats come from a variety of sources, including traditional computer “hackers”, threat actors, employee error, theft or misuse, sophisticated nation-states, and nation-state supported actors. We and the third parties upon which we rely may be subject to a variety of evolving threats, including but not limited to social-engineering attacks (including through phishing attacks); software bugs; malicious code (such as viruses and worms); denial-of-service attacks (such as credential stuffing); malware (including as a result of advanced persistent threat intrusions); supply-chain attacks, server malfunctions, software and hardware failures; loss of data or other information technology assets; adware; natural disasters; terrorism; war; telecommunication and electrical failures; ransomware attacks; and other similar threats.
Ransomware attacks, including those from organized criminal threat actors, nation-states and nation-state supported actors, are becoming increasingly prevalent and severe and can lead to significant interruptions, delays, or outages in our operations, loss of data, loss of income, significant extra expenses to restore data or systems, reputational loss and the diversion of funds. To alleviate the financial, operational and reputational impact of a ransomware attack, it may be preferable to make extortion payments, but we may be unwilling or unable to do so (including, for example, if applicable laws or regulations prohibit such payments).
Similarly, supply chain attacks have increased in frequency and severity, and we cannot guarantee that third parties and infrastructure in our supply chain have not been compromised or that they do not contain exploitable defects or bugs that could result in a breach of or disruption to our systems and networks or the systems and networks of third parties that support us and our services. We may also be the subject of server malfunction, software or hardware failures, loss of data or other computer assets, and other similar issues. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant portion of our workforce and third-party partners have worked remotely from time to time, and reliance on remote working technologies and the prevalent use of mobile devices that access confidential and personal data information increase the risk of Security Incidents, which could lead to the loss confidential information, personal data, trade secrets or other intellectual property.
We may be required to expend additional, significant resources, fundamentally change our business activities and practices, or modify our operations, including our clinical trial activities, or information technology in an effort to protect against Security Incidents and to mitigate, detect, and remediate actual and potential vulnerabilities. Certain data privacy and security obligations may require us to implement specific security measures or use industry-standard or reasonable measures to protect our information technology systems and Sensitive Information. Even if we were to take and have taken security measures designed to protect against Security Incidents, there can be no assurance that such security measures or those of our service providers, partners and other third parties will be effective in protecting against all Security Incidents and material adverse impacts that may arise from such Security Incidents. We may be unable in the future to detect vulnerabilities in our information technology systems because such threats and techniques change frequently, are often sophisticated in nature, and may not be detected until after a Security Incident has occurred. Despite our efforts to identify and remediate vulnerabilities, if any, in our information technology systems, our efforts may not be successful. Further, we may experience delays in developing and deploying remedial measures designed to address any such identified vulnerabilities.
If we (or a third-party upon whom we rely) experience a Security Incident or are perceived to have experienced a Security Incident, we may experience adverse consequences. These consequences may include: government enforcement actions (for example, investigations, fines, penalties, audits, and inspections); additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; restrictions on processing sensitive information (including personal data); litigation (including class claims); indemnification obligations; negative publicity; reputational harm; monetary fund diversions; interruptions in our operations (including availability of data); financial loss; and other similar harms. In addition, our actual or prospective customers, collaborators, partners and/or clinical trial participants may stop using our product candidates or working with us. This discontinuance, or failure to meet the expectations of such third parties, could result in material harm to our operations, financial performance or reputation and affect our ability to grow and operate our business.
Failures or significant downtime of our information technology or telecommunication systems or those used by our third-party service providers could cause significant interruptions in our operations and adversely impact the confidentiality, integrity and availability of Sensitive Information, including preventing us from conducting clinical trials, tests or research and development activities and prevent us from managing the administrative aspects of our business.
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Applicable Data Protection Requirements may require us to notify relevant stakeholders of Security Incidents, including affected individuals, partners, collaborators, customers, regulators, law enforcement agencies, credit reporting agencies and others. Such disclosures are costly, and the disclosures or the failure to comply with such requirements could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.
Our contracts may not contain limitations of liability, and even where they do, there can be no assurance that any limitations or exclusions of liability in our contracts would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from liabilities or damages if we fail to comply with Data Protection Requirements related to information security or Security Incidents.
We cannot be sure that our insurance coverage, if any, will be adequate or otherwise protect us from or adequately mitigate liabilities or damages with respect to claims, costs, expenses, litigation, fines, penalties, business loss, data loss, regulatory actions or material adverse impacts arising out of our Processing operations, privacy and security practices, or Security Incidents we may experience. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceeds our available insurance coverage, or results in changes to our insurance policies (including premium increases or the imposition of large excess or deductible or co-insurance requirements), could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.
If equity research analysts do not publish research or reports, or publish unfavorable research or reports, about us, our business or our market, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock is influenced by the research and reports that equity research analysts publish about us and our business. Equity research analysts may elect not to provide research coverage of our common stock, and such lack of research coverage may adversely affect the market price of our common stock. In the event we do have equity research analyst coverage, we will not have any control over the analysts or the content and opinions included in their reports. The price of our common stock could decline if one or more equity research analysts downgrade our stock or issue other unfavorable commentary or research. If one or more equity research analysts ceases coverage of us or fails to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our common stock could decrease, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds
None.
Item 3. Defaults Upon Senior Securities
None.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
None.
Item 5. Other Information
None.
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Item 6. Exhibits
The exhibits filed as part of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q are set forth on the Exhibit Index, which Exhibit Index is incorporated herein by reference.
EXHIBIT INDEX
| * | Exhibits filed herewith. |
| ** | Exhibits furnished herewith. |
| † | Indicates management contract or compensatory plan or arrangement. |
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SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.
| PROTARA THERAPEUTICS, INC. | ||
| Date: May 5, 2022 | By: | /s/ Jesse Shefferman |
Jesse Shefferman Chief Executive Officer | ||
| (Principal Executive Officer) | ||
| Date: May 5, 2022 | By: | /s/ Blaine Davis |
Blaine Davis Chief Financial Officer | ||
| (Principal Financial and Accounting Officer) | ||
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