Corporate History
General
Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in the State of Nevada in May 2013 under the name “Marika Inc.”. Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. began operating the business of Pieris Pharmaceuticals GmbH, or Pieris GmbH, through a reverse acquisition on December 17, 2014. Pieris GmbH (formerly Pieris AG, a German company which was founded in 2001) continues as an operating subsidiary of the Company.
Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is the sole stockholder of Pieris GmbH with its corporate headquarters located at 255 State Street, 9th Floor, Boston, Massachusetts 02109. The research facilities of Pieris GmbH are located in Freising, Germany. Pieris Australia Pty Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Pieris GmbH, was formed on February 14, 2014 to conduct research and development in Australia. Pieris Pharmaceuticals Securities Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was formed on December 14, 2016 to buy, sell, deal in, or hold securities on its own behalf and not as a broker, and will engage in its activities exclusively for investment purposes.
Business Overview
We are a clinical stage biotechnology company that discovers and develops Anticalin-based drugs to target validated disease pathways in a unique and transformative way. Our clinical pipeline includes an immuno-oncology (IO) bispecific targeting HER2 and 4-1BB, an inhaled IL-4 receptor alpha antagonist Anticalin protein to treat uncontrolled asthma and a half-life-optimized, hepcidin antagonizing Anticalin protein to treat anemia. Our proprietary Anticalin proteins are a novel class of therapeutics validated in the clinic and by partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies.
Anticalin proteins are a class of low molecular-weight therapeutic proteins derived from lipocalins, which are naturally occurring proteins typically found in human blood plasma and other bodily fluids. Anticalin-branded proteins function similarly to monoclonal antibodies, or mAbs, by binding tightly and specifically to a diverse range of targets. An antibody is a large protein used by the immune system that recognizes a unique part of a foreign target molecule, called an antigen. We believe Anticalin proteins possess numerous advantages over antibodies in certain applications. For example, Anticalin proteins are small in size and are monomeric, meaning they are comprised of a single protein units rather than a multi-protein complex. Therefore, we believe Anticalin proteins are generally more stable biophysically than tetrameric monoclonal antibodies, composed of four protein subunits, potentially enabling unique routes of drug administration such as pulmonary delivery. Higher-molecular-weight entities, such as antibodies, are often too large to be delivered effectively through these methods. Our Anticalin technology is modular, which allows us to design Anticalin proteins to bind with specificity to one or multiple targets at the same time. This multispecificity offers advantages in biological settings where binding to multiple targets can enhance the ability of a drug to achieve its desired effects, such as killing cancer cells. Moreover, unlike antibodies, the pharmacokinetic, or PK, profile of Anticalin proteins can be adjusted to potentially enable program-specific optimal drug exposure. Such differentiating characteristics suggest that Anticalin proteins have the potential, in certain cases, to become first-in-class drugs.
We have access to intellectual property rights directed to various aspects of our Anticalin technology platform, allowing for development and advancement of our platform and drug candidates. We believe our ownership and/or license of our Anticalin platform provides us with a strong intellectual property position, particularly where we are seeking to address targets and diseases in a novel way and for which there is existing monoclonal antibody intellectual property.
Our core Anticalin technology and platform were developed in Germany, and we have collaboration arrangements with major multi-national pharmaceutical companies headquartered in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. We also established a collaboration with Les Laboratoires Servier and Institut de Recherches Internationales Servier, or Servier, in January 2017 and entered into an exclusive license agreement with Aska Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., or Aska, in February 2017. In May 2017, we entered into a License and Collaboration Agreement, and a Non-Exclusive Anticalin Platform Technology License Agreement with AstraZeneca AB, or AstraZeneca. In February 2018 we entered into a collaboration and license agreement with Seattle Genetics Inc. ("Seattle Genetics"). We have also in-licensed different antibodies to drive the advancement of our multispecific immuno-oncology pipeline. These include existing agreements with Sanofi Group, or Sanofi, and F.Hoffmann—La Roche Ltd. and Hoffmann—La Roche Inc., or Roche.
In connection with our efforts to develop multispecific Anticalin-based proteins designed to engage immunomodulatory targets, during the second quarter of 2017, the Company entered into a License and Transfer Agreement with Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (“Kelun”). Under that Agreement, Kelun has granted to us a non-exclusive worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) under certain intellectual property owned or controlled by Kelun to research, develop, manufacture, and commercialize bi- and multi- specific fusion proteins that include a monoclonal antibody developed by Kelun specific for an undisclosed target and one or more Anticalin proteins. We believe that the drug-like properties of the Anticalin drug class were demonstrated in various clinical trials with different Anticalin-based drug candidates, including PRS-080, PRS-060 and others.
Our current development plans focus on two core pillars, immuno-oncology, or IO, and respiratory diseases. In addition, we are developing PRS-080, a non-core asset, for the treatment of functional iron deficiency anemia.
The first bispecific Anticalin-based drug candidate in our IO pipeline, PRS-343, was designed to target the immune receptor 4-1BB and the tumor target HER2. PRS-343 is the result of a genetic fusion of a variant of the HER2-targeting antibody trastuzumab with an Anticalin protein specific for 4-1BB. The mode of action of this 4-1BB/ HER2 bispecific is to promote 4-1BB clustering by bridging 4-1BB-positive T cells with HER2-positive tumor cells, and to thereby provide a potent costimulatory signal to tumor antigen-specific T cells. PRS-343 is intended to localize 4-1BB activation in the tumor, and to thereby both increase efficacy and reduce systemic toxicity compared to 4-1BB-targeting antibodies being developed by third parties in clinical trials. Patient dosing in a multicenter, open-label, Phase I dose escalation study that will include expansion cohorts, commenced in September 2017. The study is designed to determine the safety, tolerability, and potential anti-cancer activity of PRS-343 in patients with advanced or metastatic HER2-positive solid tumors for which standard treatment options are not available, are no longer effective, are not tolerated, or the patient has refused standard therapy. Elevated HER2 expression is associated with multiple cancers, including gastroesophageal, bladder, breast, and a range of other tumor types.
In January 2017 Pieris initiated a strategic collaboration with Servier to discover and develop five Anticalin-based bispecific therapeutics in immuno-oncology. Three programs are currently undergoing preclinical evaluation together with Servier.
Pieris continues to explore opportunities to develop additional differentiated Anticalin-based multispecific therapeutics in IO. To this end, discovery campaigns are ongoing to generate functionally active Anticalin proteins against immunomodulatory targets. We are carrying out proof of concept and proof of mechanism studies will be carried out on several additional fully proprietary programs to support drug candidate nomination.
The second Anticalin drug candidate, PRS-060, binds to the IL-4 receptor alpha-chain (IL-4Ra), thereby inhibiting the actions of IL-4 and IL-13, two cytokines (small proteins mediating signaling between cells within the human body) known to be key mediators in the inflammatory cascade that causes asthma and other inflammatory diseases. The small size and biophysical stability of PRS-060 could enable direct delivery to the lungs, through the use of an inhaler, which we believe may enable high pulmonary concentrations of the drug candidate to be achieved at lower doses than would be reached with antibodies that are systemically delivered. Further, an inhaled drug may be expected to be substantially better tolerated than systemically administered antibodies. We initiated a single ascending dose study of PRS-060 in December 2017.
PRS-060 is being developed in partnership with AstraZeneca under our strategic alliance initiated in May 2017. Pieris is sponsoring the Phase I clinical study for PRS-060, after which AstraZeneca will be responsible for further clinical development. Pieris has the right to opt-into further co-development and co-commercialization of PRS-060 with AstraZeneca after completion of the Phase IIa clinical study.
The third Anticalin drug candidate, PRS-080, is a polyethylene glycol (PEG)-conjugated Anticalin protein that binds to hepcidin, a natural regulator of iron levels in the blood. An excess amount of hepcidin can cause functional iron deficiency, or FID, which often cannot be treated adequately with iron supplements and can lead to anemia. PRS-080 has been designed to target hepcidin for the treatment of FID in anemic patients with chronic kidney disease, or CKD, particularly in end-stage renal disease patients requiring dialysis. We believe that by blocking the actions of hepcidin, PRS-080 may serve to address anemia by mobilizing iron from the endogenous iron stores in the body for incorporation into red blood cells. With a serum half-life of several days, PRS-080 was designed to inhibit hepcidin sufficiently to mobilize functional serum iron for erythropoiesis, followed by recovery of blood hepcidin levels to prevent iron overload.
PRS-080 has been investigated in two single-ascending dose Phase I/Ib trials, first in healthy subjects, then in stage 5 CKD patients requiring hemodialysis, both under governance by the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte, or BfArM). Single intravenous PRS-080 administrations were safe and well tolerated up to the tested dose of 16 mg/kg in healthy volunteers and up to the tested dose of 8 mg/kg in end-stage CKD patients. The studies were completed in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Both trials demonstrated dose proportional elevations in both serum iron and transferrin saturation. Based on the Phase I results, a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-
controlled, multiple ascending dose (two cohorts of 4mg/kg and 8 mg/kg, respectively) pilot Phase IIa study in anemic hemodialysis dependent CKD patients commenced in the third quarter of 2017. This study is intended primarily to obtain initial results on the safety, tolerability, and pharmacological activity of 5 once weekly doses of PRS-080, and secondarily to evaluate the effect of repeated PRS-080 administration on hemoglobin levels in this patient population. Completion of dosing of all patients is expected in mid-2018.
Strategy
Our goal is to become a fully integrated biotechnology company by discovering and developing Anticalin-based therapeutics to target validated disease pathways in a unique and transformative way, and later developing and commercializing our products. We intend to engage with partners for many of our programs in a combination of geographic and indication-based arrangements to maximize our business opportunities. We also intend to retain certain development and commercial rights on selected products as our experience in drug development grows. Key elements of our strategy include:
|
|
•
|
Advancing PRS-343 through Phase I dose escalation first-in-patient trial followed by expansion studies and combination regimens in selected HER2 positive tumor patient populations with major unmet needs.
|
A multicenter Phase I study with PRS-343 commenced in September 2017. The study will aim to assess safety and tolerability of PRS-343.
|
|
•
|
Advancing PRS-060 through first-in-human trial.
Our first-in-human clinical trial for PRS-060 commenced in December 2017 and we intend to start a follow up study that demonstrates Proof of Mechanism for PRS-060 in the second half of 2018.
|
|
|
•
|
Advancing PRS-332 to development candidate nomination and initiate IND-enabling activities.
PRS-332 is currently undergoing preclinical evaluation together with Servier.
|
|
|
•
|
Advancing PRS-080 through a multi-ascending dose study
|
In the fourth quarter of 2017 we initiated a Phase IIa study of PRS-080 in anemic hemodialysis dependent CKD patients. This study is intended primarily to obtain initial results on the safety, tolerability, and pharmacological activity of 5 once weekly doses of PRS-080, and secondarily to evaluate the effect of repeated PRS-080 administration on hemoglobin levels in this patient population. Completion of dosing of all patients is expected in the second half of 2018.
|
|
•
|
Continuing to build our platform by entering into new partnerships and license and collaborative arrangements and advancing our currently partnered programs.
We have entered into partnership and collaborative arrangements with pharmaceutical companies in a diverse range of therapeutic areas and geographies. We have active partnerships with global pharmaceutical companies, such as Servier, AstraZeneca, Seattle Genetics, Sanofi, Roche, and Aska. Together with our partners, we intend to advance multiple drug candidates through preclinical studies and to select further drug candidates for clinical development in the future. We will also continue to seek to engage with new pharmaceutical partners that can contribute funding, experience and marketing ability for the successful development and commercialization of our current and future drug candidates.
|
|
|
•
|
Pursuing additional opportunities for our Anticalin technology.
We intend to continue to identify, vet and pursue opportunities to develop novel Anticalin therapeutics for oncology, respiratory diseases, and additional diseases, as we continue to improve on the Anticalin platform technology.
|
Anticalin platform technology
Our platform technology focuses on low molecular-weight Anticalin proteins that bind tightly and specifically to a diverse range of targets. Anticalin proteins are derived from human proteins called lipocalins, which are naturally occurring low-molecular weight human proteins of approximately 18 to 20kDA molecular mass typically found in blood plasma and other bodily fluids. The lipocalin class of proteins defines a group of extracellular specific-binding proteins that, collectively, exhibit extremely high structural homology, yet have an uncharacteristically low amino acid sequence identity (less than 20%), making them attractive “templates” for amino acid diversification. Lipocalins naturally bind to, store and transport a wide spectrum of molecules. The defining attributes of the 12-member human lipocalin class and, by extension, Anticalin proteins, engineered from the lipocalin class of proteins, are a four-loop variable region and a rigidly conserved beta-barrel backbone, which, together, form a cup-like binding pocket. The graphic below shows both tear (left) and NGAL (right) lipocalins.
We currently develop our Anticalin proteins from either tear lipocalin, found primarily in human tear fluid as well as the lung epithelium, or neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), a protein involved in the innate immune system, by making discreet mutations in the genetic code for the binding regions. These mutations have the potential to lead to highly specific, high-affinity binding for both small and large molecular targets. Random mutations are introduced at pre-defined positions involved in endogenous ligand engagement, creating exponentially diverse pools of Anticalin proteins, the most potent and well behaved of which are selected and optimized in a customized manner through
in vitro
selection. Using techniques such as phage display, a successful technique in antibody-based drug discovery, to build and refine antibody libraries, the ability to introduce diversity and then select for the best binders among a large pool of Anticalin proteins gives us the opportunity to select Anticalin proteins for a wide variety of targets. The flexibility inherent in the Anticalin proteins’ cup-like structure allows us to choose both small-molecule targets that fit inside the ‘cup’ as well as larger protein targets that can be bound by the Anticalin proteins’ outward-facing arms. Our Phase Ia trial for PRS-080, our prior Phase I study of PRS-050 as well as Daiichi's Phase I study of a PCSK9-specific Anticalin protein indicates that these proteins may be non-immunogenic and thereby have the potential to exhibit a favorable safety profile.
The below graphic demonstrates Anticalin drug candidates binding to a small molecule (left), a small protein target (hepcidin, center) and a large protein target (CTLA4, right):
To obtain a specific Anticalin protein, we take advantage of the breadth of our proprietary Anticalin libraries, generated through our protein engineering expertise. We have created, and will continue to create, proprietary Anticalin libraries by rationally diversifying the lipocalin regions that are responsible for ligand binding, applying different libraries to different types of targets. By utilizing bacterial production from the earliest stages of drug discovery through Current Good Manufacturing Practice, or cGMP, manufacturing, we have created a seamless platform that improves the quality, yield and cost-effectiveness of our drug candidates. However, Anticalin protein manufacturing is not limited to bacterial systems, with the underlying expression system being driven on a program-by-program basis. See “—Manufacturing” below.
As targeted, protein-based molecules, Anticalin proteins also function similarly to monoclonal antibodies, thereby offering many of the same favorable qualities, including:
|
|
•
|
High specificity to their targets
. Like monoclonal antibodies, Anticalin proteins can bind their targets without binding other molecules, even molecules with very similar chemical structures or amino acid sequences, allowing for more effective treatments through, for example, minimizing off-target effects.
|
|
|
•
|
Tight binding and effective biological activity at their targets
. Like monoclonal antibodies, Anticalin proteins are able to bind their targets at subnanomolar affinities. Anticalin proteins can potentially achieve desirable biological effects by inhibiting an undesired or inducing a desired cell activity by binding to cell-surface receptors or their ligands.
|
|
|
•
|
Human origin
. Like many monoclonal antibodies in development and marketed today, Anticalin proteins are derived from a natural class of circulating human proteins. Their human origin increases the likelihood that Anticalin proteins will not be recognized as foreign by the immune system and subsequently rejected.
|
|
|
•
|
Scalability for large-scale production
. Like monoclonal antibodies, Anticalin proteins lend themselves to large-scale production, yet can also be produced in a range of expression systems ranging from prokaryotic (bacterial) to eukaryotic (animal, plant, fungal) cells. Anticalin proteins can take advantage of several well-understood and widely
|
practiced methods of protein production both in small amounts for preclinical testing and at larger scale for clinical trials and commercial production.
While often compared to monoclonal antibodies, Anticalin proteins, we believe, offer several advantages over antibodies, including:
|
|
•
|
Small size and biophysical stability
. Anticalin proteins are small in size and are monomeric. Therefore, we believe Anticalin proteins are generally more stable biophysically than tetrameric monoclonal antibodies, which will potentially enable unique routes of administration to target diseases, such as pulmonary delivery. Higher-molecular-weight entities such as antibodies are often too large to be delivered effectively through these methods. We believe Anticalin proteins will also be less expensive to manufacture than antibodies due to their lower molecular weight and less bulky structure as well as the ability to use the prokaryotic-based manufacturing systems, a less costly manufacturing system than mammalian cell-based manufacturing systems, to create them.
|
|
|
•
|
Optimization of half-life
. Anticalin proteins can be engineered to have a half-life that is optimal for the indication area and a desired dosing schedule. Antibodies typically have half-lives of two weeks or longer, whereas Anticalin proteins can be engineered to have half-lives from hours to weeks, depending on the half-life extension technology employed, if any. This optionality allows us to exert greater control over the amount of circulating Anticalin protein in the blood and the amount of time such Anticalin proteins circulate in the blood, depending on the underlying biology we are trying to address.
|
|
|
•
|
Modular platform for higher-order multispecificity and avoidance of cross-linking
. Our Anticalin technology is modular, allowing for monovalent or multivalent target engagement, including multispecificity within a single protein. We believe that a monovalent “backbone” is an advantage in situations where pure antagonism of certain cellular receptors is desired. The dual-binding nature of monoclonal antibodies, which have two “arms,” can be a disadvantage in cases when the antibodies bind to and cross-link cell-surface receptors. Such cross-linking often leads to undesirable activation of the cells bearing those receptors. Single-action (monovalent) Anticalin proteins have only a single binding site and are thus not subject to cross-linking. Further, when it is called for by the biology we are addressing, we can create multispecific Anticalin proteins that can simultaneously bind (i) two or more different targets or (ii) different epitopes, the specific piece of an antigen to which an antibody binds, on the same target by genetically linking Anticalin proteins with distinct specificities on a common cDNA strand. We believe this multispecificity offers advantages in biological settings where binding to multiple targets can enhance the ability of a drug to achieve its desired effects, such as killing cancer cells. Unique Anticalin proteins can be pieced together and undergo simultaneous target engagement as a single fusion protein, without generally compromising on manufacturability.
|
|
|
•
|
Flexible formatting facilitates selection of potent T cell engagers
. The molecular architecture of Anticalin proteins as a single polypeptide chain that folds into a stable eight-stranded β-barrel with exposed N- and C-termini, both not part of the binding site, makes them ideal building blocks to generate bispecific and even multispecific fusion proteins offering novel therapeutic modalities. Multispecific Anticalin-based fusion proteins can be used to pursue innovative therapeutic strategies in IO, particularly by addressing the “immunological synapse” that forms at the interface upon contact between an immune cell and a cancer cell. This can drive an efficient activation of tumor-specific T cells in the vicinity of the tumor, thereby avoiding some of the toxicities observed with peripheral T cell activation in healthy tissues. Generally, the formatting flexibility of Anticalin-based biologics offers the ability of modulating valency and geometry of the multispecific compound according to biological needs. For example, Anticalin proteins can be genetically fused to either the N- or C-terminus of the antibody heavy or light chain, thereby resulting in different geometries of the fusion protein with the antibody as well as Anticalin binding sites covering a range of distances with regard to the T cell target on the one hand and the tumor antigen on the other.
|
Implementation of our Anticalin Platform Technology: Our Drug Candidates
Pipeline
Each of our drug candidates is in the early stage of development, and we anticipate that it will likely be several years before any of our drug candidates could be commercialized. The following table summarizes the status of our current drug candidates and programs:
PRS-343 targeting 4-1BB (CD-137) in oncology
PRS-343 is a bispecific protein targeting the immune receptor 4-1BB and the tumor target HER2. It is generated by genetic fusion of an Anticalin protein specific for 4-1BB to each heavy chain of a variant of the HER2-targeting antibody trastuzumab. The mode of action of this 4-1BB/HER2 bispecific is to promote 4-1BB clustering by bridging 4-1BB-positive T cells with HER2-positive tumor cells, and to thereby provide a potent costimulatory signal to tumor antigen-specific T cells. PRS-343 is intended to localize 4-1BB activation in the tumor, and to thereby both increase efficacy and reduce systemic toxicity compared to 4-1BB-targeting antibodies being developed by third parties in clinical trials. We initiated a Phase I dose-escalation study of PRS-343 in HER2 positive patients in September 2017.
Biology of the costimulatory immune receptor 4-1BB
4-1BB, is a co-stimulatory immune receptor and a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor, or TNFR, super-family. It is mainly expressed on activated CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, activated B cells, and natural killer, or NK, cells. 4-1BB plays an important role in the regulation of immune responses and thus is a target for cancer immunotherapy. 4-1BB ligand (4-1BBL) is the only known natural ligand of 4-1BB, and is constitutively expressed on several types of antigen-presenting cells, or APC. 4-1BB-positive T cells are activated by engaging a 4-1BBL-positive cell. The induced 4-1BB clustering leads to activation of the receptor and downstream signaling. Note that the trimeric 4-1BBL as a soluble molecule is not an effective 4-1BB agonist, providing evidence that larger scale clustering is required for activation. In a T cell pre-stimulated by the T cell receptor binding to a cognate Major histocompatibility complex, or MHC, target, costimulation via 4-1BB leads to further enhanced activation, survival and proliferation, as well as the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and an improved capacity to kill.
Validation of 4-1BB as a therapeutic target in cancer
The benefit of 4-1BB costimulation for the elimination of cancerous tumors has been demonstrated in a number of in vivo models in the mouse. The forced expression of 4-1BBL on a tumor, for example, leads to tumor rejection. Likewise, the forced expression of an anti-4-1BB single chain antibody fragment (scFv) on a tumor leads to a CD4+ T cell and NK-cell dependent elimination of the tumor. A systemically administered anti-4-1BB antibody has also been demonstrated to lead to retardation of tumor growth.
Human ex vivo data support the extraordinary potential of 4-1BB as a costimulatory receptor in cancer therapy: It has been reported that for T cells isolated from human tumors, 4-1BB is an effective marker for those that are tumor-reactive. Based on this observation, we believe anti-4-1BB antibodies can be utilized to improve adoptive T cell therapy (ACT) by augmenting the expansion and activity of CD8+ melanoma tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes.
Finally, the potential of 4-1BB targeting has also been shown in nonclinical combination therapy studies, where an additional benefit was demonstrated by combination of 4-1BB agonism with checkpoint blockade or NK cell-targeting antibodies.
Current approaches to clinical 4-1BB targeting
The preclinical demonstration of the potential therapeutic benefit of 4-1BB costimulation has spurred the development of therapeutic antibodies targeting 4-1BB, PF-05082566 (22, 23) and BMS-663513, which are currently in early phase clinical trials.
PF-05082566 is a fully humanized IgG2 monoclonal antibody that binds 4-1BB in a manner that blocks the binding of endogenous 4-1BBL to 4-1BB, and that according to publicly available data is well tolerated as a monotherapy and in combination with rituximab.
BMS-663513 is an IgG4 monoclonal antibody that, in contrast to PF-05082566, binds 4-1BB in a manner that does not interfere with the 4-1BB / 4-1BBL interaction. While an initial trial reported manageable toxicity with doses up to 10mg/kg, a follow-up monotherapy Phase II trial was reported to have been stopped due to an “unusually high incidence of grade 4 hepatitis”. Current clinical trials with BMS-663513 are focusing on safety and efficacy at lower doses as monotherapy or in combination e.g. with Rituximab (NCT01775631).
Rationale for bispecific targeting of 4-1BB
We believe that the natural mode of activation of 4-1BB, which requires receptor clustering, demonstrates that an ideal 4-1BB-targeting agent should firstly lead to clustering of 4-1BB, and secondly do so in a tumor-localized fashion on tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes or TILs. The antibodies currently in clinical development are not ideal in that respect, as 4-1BB clustering can only be induced by binding to Fcg receptor-positive cells, which are not selectively tumor-localized but distributed throughout the body for Fcg-dependence of TNFR targeting. The toxicity data of BMS-663513 indicates that such a non-selective activation leads to unacceptable toxicity, potentially making it impossible to find a therapeutic window for such 4-1BB-targeting antibodies.
We therefore hypothesized that to obtain an ideal 4-1BB-targeting agent, a bispecific molecule should be designed that targets 4-1BB on one end and a differentially expressed tumor target on the other end. A visualization of the general concept is provided in Figure 1, below. HER2/4-1BB bispecific is envisioned to promote 4-1BB clustering by bridging T cells with HER2-positive tumor cells, and to thereby provide a potent costimulatory signal to tumor antigen-specific T cells, further enhancing its T cell receptor, or TCR, -mediated activity and leading to tumor destruction.
|
|
|
Figure 1
|
Concept of costimulatory T cell engagement. (A) The elements of the system are a target-positive tumor cell, a T cell with a TCR that is specific for an HLA/peptide combination on the tumor, and a costimulatory bispecific. (B) Within a patient´s tumor, tumor-specific T cells are bridged with tumor cells by a costimulatory bispecific. The resulting clustering of the costimulatory T cell receptor provides a local co-activating signal to the T cell, further enhancing its TCR-mediated activity and leading to tumor destruction. (C) Toxic side effects are expected to be manageable, as target-negative cells do not lead to costimulation of T cells due to a lack of target-mediated receptor clustering, and healthy tissue is spared by tumor-costimulated T cells due to the absence of a primary, TCR-mediated signal. Design and Generation of HER2/4-1BB bispecific PRS-343
|
To obtain a molecule that would work by the mode of action of costimulatory T cell engagement, we generated the HER2/4-1BB bispecific PRS-343. The molecule consists of two different building blocks binding to the two targets HER2 and 4-1BB. To generate the 4-1BB-specific building block of PRS-343, we utilized Anticalin technology. A 4-1BB-binding Anticalin protein was generated based on a re-design of the natural binding pocket of NGAL using mutant Anticalin libraries and a selection and screening process. The lead 4-1BB-binding Anticalin Protein binds human 4-1BB with an affinity of 2 nM as determined by SPR, and is capable of costimulating human T cells when immobilized on a plastic dish together with an anti-CD3 antibody.
To generate the bivalent HER2/4-1BB bispecific PRS-343, we constructed a genetic fusion of a 4-1BB-specific Anticalin protein to the C-terminus of each heavy chain of the trastuzumab IgG4 variant, connected by a flexible, non-immunogenic 15 amino acid linker sequence.
We utilized a Sandwich ELISA experiment to investigate whether PRS-343 can bind both targets at the same time, which is a necessary prerequisite for the envisioned mode of action of PRS-343. Figure below shows that a sigmoid binding curve results from this titration, proving that both targets can indeed be engaged at the same time, fulfilling the key requirement for simultaneous costimulatory engagement of T cells by HER2-positive target cells.
|
|
|
Figure 2
|
PRS-343 simultaneous binding to targets HER2 and 4-1BB. Recombinant Her2 was coated on a microtiter plate, followed by titration of PRS-343. Subsequently, a constant concentration of biotinylated human 4-1BB was added, which was detected via a peroxidase-conjugated avidin variant, ExtrAvidin®.
|
Mode of action – costimulatory T cell activation
We developed a novel T cell activation assay format to investigate whether PRS-343 is capable of costimulating T cells that have received a basic stimulus via the TCR. The assay, visualized in Figure 3 below, is based upon providing the T cell receptor stimulus via an anti-CD3 antibody coated onto the plastic culture dish, while 4-1BB costimulation is achieved by tumor-target dependent clustering of 4-1BB on purified T cells.
|
|
|
Figure 3
|
Visualization of costimulatory T cell activation assay. HER2-positive tumor cells are grown overnight on cell culture plates that have been precoated with low amounts of an anti-CD3 antibody to provide a limited primary activation of T cells via the T cell receptor. T cells are added to the wells together with the titrated 4-1BB/HER2 bispecific PRS-343, leading to clustering of the costimulatory 4-1BB receptor, which in turn results in T cell costimulation. T cell costimulation is detected by increased supernatant IL-2 and IFN-g levels in the culture supernatants after continued culture.
|
There is a clear induction of IL-2 (Figure A) and IFN-γ (Figure C) with increasing concentrations of PRS-343. The fitted EC50 of this effect is similar for both proinflammatory cytokines, with 0.7 nM for IL-2 induction and 0.3 nM for IFN-
ã
induction, respectively. That T cell costimulation is indeed, due to the bispecific engagement of T cells and SKBR3 cells, shown by two observations: firstly, the monospecific antibody trastuzumab does not lead to enhanced T cell activation (average shown as dotted line in Figure A and Figure C), and secondly, disrupting the bispecific interaction with an excess of trastuzumab abolishes the effect of IL-2 and INF-g induction almost completely, except at the highest concentrations of PRS-343 employed (Figure B and Figure D).
|
|
|
Figure 4
|
Experimental result of costimulatory T cell activation assay. HER2-positive SKBR3 tumor cells were grown overnight on 96-well plates that had been precoated with 0.25 µg/mL anti-CD3 antibody for 1 h at 37°C. The next day, T cells purified from healthy donor PBMC were added to the wells together with the titrated 4-1BB/HER2 bispecific PRS-343 (filled circle) or trastuzumab as a control (dotted line). After three days in culture, IL-2 (A) and IFN-g, levels in the culture supernatants were measured by an Electrochemoluminescence immunoassay. In parallel, the experiment was performed in the presence of an excess of trastuzumab (340 nM) to inhibit the binding of PRS-343 to the SKBR3 cells, and IL-2 (C) and IFN-g (D) levels were measured.
|
In vivo proof of concept data utilizing a humanized SK-OV-3 mouse model demonstrated dose-dependent tumor growth inhibition compared to treatment with the isotype control (Figure 5). It is anticipated that the TGI in this model is predominantly caused by the anti-HER2. The anti-tumor response observed with PRS-343 was accompanied by a significantly higher tumor infiltration with human lymphocytes (hCD45+). Interestingly, the anti-4-1BB benchmark neither displayed tumor growth inhibition nor enhanced lymphocyte infiltration into tumors compared to isotype. The tras-IgG4 control was also devoid of lymphocyte infiltration into the tumor, but displayed a tumor growth inhibition comparable to PRS-343. Taken together, these data show that PRS-343 provided dual activity by both increasing the frequency of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes by bispecific targeting of CD137 and HER2 as well as mediating direct tumor growth inhibition by the direct, monospecific targeting of HER2.
|
|
|
Figure 5
|
PRS-343 activity in NOG mice engrafted with HER2-positive SK-OV-3 cell line and human PBMC. (A) Median of tumor growth. (B) Frequency of CD45+ cells determined by immunohistochemistry of tumors after study end.
|
PRS-332 targeting an undisclosed checkpoint target
PRS-332 is a bispecific Anticalin-antibody fusion protein comprising an anti-PD-1 antibody genetically fused to an Anticalin molecule targeting an undisclosed checkpoint target. Other drug candidates targeting the checkpoint molecule PD-1 include nivolumab, marketed by Bristol Myers Squibb (trade name Opdivo), and pembrolizumab, marketed by Merck, (trade name Keytruda). There are currently a number of approved PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors approve in the US. Anti-PD-1 antibodies have demonstrated great clinical benefit in several cancers, including melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, renal cell carcinoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, head and neck carcinomas, bladder cancer and others. However, there are many patients who do not respond, relapse or acquire resistance to PD-1 treatment. In order to improve on existing PD-1 therapies, Pieris in collaboration with Servier is developing PRS-332 with the intent to simultaneously block PD-1 and another immune checkpoint co-expressed on exhausted T cells.
Pipeline products: 300 Series
Current antibody-based therapies targeting tumor cell destruction or immune activation are hampered by, among other factors, low response rates and the induction of immune-related adverse events. The 300-Series Anticalin proteins are designed to target checkpoint proteins or, like PRS-343, immune-stimulatory proteins and consist of a variety of multifunctional biotherapeutics that can combine, via a genetic fusion, antibodies with Anticalin proteins or two or more Anticalin proteins to each other. These combined molecules have the potential to build upon current therapies through the capability of modifying or regulating one or more immune functions on a single fusion protein, thereby having the potential to elevate immune responses within a tumor microenvironment. We believe that a tethered Anticalin protein directed at checkpoint or co-stimulatory targets can preferentially activate the immune system at the site of the tumor microenvironment thus providing efficacy with enhanced therapeutic index. We believe that the 300-Series Anticalin proteins represent a “platform within a product” opportunity in IO since it may be possible to apply a single combined Anticalin-antibody molecule in a number of different cancers. This is based
on the shared underlying biology such as checkpoint and costimulatory biology found within tumors arising in different organs. Pieris intends to expand and accelerate its IO pipeline, including anticipated IND filings in 2019.
AstraZeneca Collaboration:
PRS-060 targeting IL-4Rα in asthma
PRS-060 is an Anticalin drug candidate targeting IL-4Rα, a cell surface receptor expressed on immune cells in the lung epithelium and sub-mucosal layer. IL-4Rα is specific to the circulating cytokine IL-4 and the closely related cytokine IL-13, both key drivers of the immune system. PRS-060 is derived from human tear lipocalin, has picomolar affinity for human IL-4Rα (20 pM) and has a favorable stability profile. We showed
in vitro
that PRS-060 can inhibit the activity of both IL-4 and IL-13. We have developed a bioprocess that has generated GMP material for use in preclinical safety studies and first in human clinical studies; demonstrated that PRS-060 is sufficiently safe and well tolerated in preclinical safety studies to allow progression to first-in-human-clinical evaluation and that PRS-060 can be formulated for pulmonary delivery by inhalation. Our first-in-human clinical trial for PRS-060 was initiated in December 2017. We believe PRS-060 represents a first in class inhaled biologic targeting IL-4Rα for the treatment of asthma.
Asthma market
Asthma is a very common chronic airway disorder affecting approximately 300 million people worldwide according to the Global Initiative for Asthma and approximately 26 million Americans according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Of these 26 million, about 7 million are children. Asthma is responsible for 13 million physician visits a year including about 2 million emergency visits in the United States, according to the American Lung Association. In the United States between 2008-2013, asthma was responsible for $3 billion in losses from missed work and school days, $29 billion from asthma-related mortality, and $50.3 billion in medical costs. This resulted in a total cost of asthma in the U.S. of $81.9 billion in 2013 (Nurmagambetov, Kuwahara and Garbe, 2018, Annals of the American Thoracic Society,
http://www.atsjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1513/AnnalsATS.201703-259OC
, In Press).
Challenges in using conventional therapy
According to a 2016 Artisan Health Care Consulting analysis, asthma affects approximately 80 million people in the U.S. and Europe. The analysis determined that approximately 15%, or 12 million, of the group studied were considered >12 years old and have moderate to severe uncontrolled asthma.
The current standard of care for persistent, moderate to severe allergic asthma is high dose inhaled corticosteroids or ICS often in combination with inhaled long-acting beta-adrenergic agonists, or LABA. In very severe allergic asthma, omalizumab (Xolair from Roche) is given to patients in addition to ICS/LABA combinations. Omalizumab (Xolar®) was approved for this condition in the United States in 2003. Outside of the United States, omalizumab is approved for severe asthma. Omalizumab works by binding to the immune mediator immunoglobulin E, or IgE, and inhibiting IgE-mediated activation of mast cells and basophils, types of white blood cells. It has also been shown to impact some diseases, such as asthma, that are driven by eosinophils, another important class of immune cells. However, patient response to omalizumab has been shown to be inconsistent, as reported in a publication by McNicholl and Heaney in 2008 in the journal
Core Evidence
, which explained that in only some studies did omalizumab improve lung function. Furthermore, general asthma symptoms are also typically unaffected by omalizumab. Finally, in 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, issued a black box warning for omalizumab due to reported cases of anaphylaxis, a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction suffered by some patients who had taken the drug. Despite these shortcomings worldwide sales of omalizumab in 2015 were, according to a report by Datamonitor Healthcare published on September 19, 2016, $1.9 billion.
The next generation of therapies beyond omalizumab targets a broader range than just IgE mediated mechanisms. These approaches target other immune mediators, including IL-5, IL-4, IL-13, thymic stromal lymphopoietin, or TSLP, IL-33 (which act in concert on eosinophils, B cells, epithelial cells, goblet cells and others) and PGD2 (through stimulation of CRTH2 receptors). Asthma is associated with high levels of eosinophils, immune cells that play a role in protecting the body against infection. The creation of eosinophils can be interrupted at the early stages, while the cells are still maturing. Multiple products are approved that target eosinophils through IL-5 or its receptor IL-5RA. GlaxoSmithKline’s, or GSK's, mepolizumab (Nucala) which targets IL-5 was approved for severe eosinophilic asthma in adults and children older than 12 in 2015. Teva’s Cinqair also targeting IL-5 was approved in 2016 and more recently AstraZeneca’s Fansera, which targets the IL-5RA, was approved in November 2017. However, eosinophils are only one of many cell types and immune system components that are involved with the body’s exaggerated inflammation response in asthma. Mast cells, basophils, goblet cells and other cells also play a role. These cells can be seen infiltrating the airways along with eosinophils, leading to the conclusion that more cell types are
involved in asthma pathogenesis. We believe that targeting just one of these components unlikely to be as effective in treating severe asthma as an approach that targets the broader Th2 (cell-mediated) pathway.
In 2017, Regeneron and its partner Sanofi reported that they had successfully completed a phase 3 study for dupilumab in severe, steroid-dependent asthma. Dupilumab (Dupixent), is a monoclonal antibody that targets IL-4Rα that is delivered subcutaneously and was approved for the treatment of moderate to severe atopic dermatitis in March 2017. In a 2013 paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, Wenzel et al. reported that dupilumab showed a benefit on the asthma control questionnaire 5 (ACQ5) symptom score, a widely accepted measure for classifying the ability of a medication to control asthma. Patients dosed with dupilumab had fewer asthma attacks compared to placebo-treated patients when standard therapies, such as long-acting beta-agonists and inhaled glucocorticoids, were withdrawn, demonstrating the efficacy of dupilumab. Patients also showed improved lung function and reduced levels of Th2-associated inflammatory markers. Dupilumab is administered systemically through injection. In November 2014, Regeneron and Sanofi announced that in a Phase IIb study, dupilumab also demonstrated improved lung function and reduced exacerbations when administered together with standard of care. These effects were observed in both unselected severe asthma patients and selected patients presenting elevated Th2 responses. In their October 2017 press release Regeneron and Sanofi announced that dupilumab had met its primary endpoint and key secondary endpoints the Liberty Asthma Venture phase 3 study in adults and adolescents with severe, steroid dependent asthma. In the overall population, dupilumab reduced the use of oral corticosteroids (OCS) by 70% compared to 42% for patients on placebo. For patients with a high baseline eosinophilia (300 or greater eosinophilic cells/microliter) the reduction in OCS use was 80% compared to 43% for placebo. Dupilumab also reduced the number of exacerbations in the overall population by 59% and this reduction was greater (71%) in patients with high eosinophil counts. In addition, dupilumab compared to placebo also improved lung function, Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 Second (FEV1), by 220ml in the overall population and 320ml in patients with high eosinophils. This data has not yet been published in a peer reviewed journal. The Liberty Asthma Quest phase 3 study showed that dupilumab, when added to the standard of care, reduced severe asthma attacks (exacerbations) by 46 percent in the overall population and 67 percent in patients with high eosinophils (300 or greater eosinophilic cells/microliter. The companies submitted a Supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for dupilumab, for the treatment of asthma in patients 12 and over, to the FDA during the fourth quarter of 2017.
Advantages to inhalation as a route of administration for PRS-060
We have demonstrated that PRS-060 is sufficiently safe and well tolerated in inhalation toxicology studies in mice to allow progression to first-in-human-clinical evaluations, and we believe that overall it may have a better tolerability profile than systemically administered monoclonal antibodies. Furthermore, we believe that PRS-060 could be produced at a lower cost of goods than mAbs because we will use manufacturing procedures that employ bacterial expression systems, which generally provides a cost advantage over mammalian production systems, typically used for mAbs. Since dosing by inhalation is a common route of administration in asthma patients, it could represent a more convenient dosage regimen for patients than dosing of antibodies by injection. PRS-060 could therefore be self-administered using a standard device rather than requiring a visit to a physician for the drug to be given.
Preclinical data
In
in vitro
assays, PRS-060 specifically bound to immobilized targets such as human IL-4Rα in a concentration-dependent manner. We tested the binding of PRS-060 to various targets in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, (ELISA) a standard
in vitro
assay platform. In these tests, PRS-060 bound to IL-4Rα with subnanomolar affinity and it did not bind to three other human cell-surface interleukin receptors (IL-6R, IL-18RA, IL-23RA). Furthermore, the activity of IL-4 and IL-13 was inhibited by PRS-060 in a dose-dependent manner. The below charts show the inhibition of IL-4 (left) or IL-13 (right) induced proliferation in human TF-1 cells
in vitro
by PRS-060.
In
in vivo
assays in mice genetically altered to express human IL-4Rα, human IL-4 and IL-13, low doses of PRS-060 inhibited the induction of eotaxin protein, a marker of airway inflammation, in lung tissue following pulmonary delivery. We observed this inhibition at both the RNA and protein levels compared both to buffer and to wild type tear lipocalin (control).
The below chart shows the duration of PRS-060-mediated inhibition of eotaxin gene expression, a marker of airway inflammation, in lung tissue by a single pulmonary dose in mice:
When we administered IL-13 into the lung of humanized mice (that express human IL-4, IL-13 and IL-4RA), inflammation was induced as determined by eotaxin expression, which was not inhibited when phosphate buffered saline, (PBS) or human wild type lipocalin was administered into the lung. In contrast to the PBS administration, increases in eotaxin expression were prevented when PRS-060 was administered into the lung before IL-13. As demonstrated in the above chart, the model showed the inhibitory potential lasts for up to 24 hours after PRS-060 administration. We have also demonstrated that PRS-060 reduces the inflammation associated with antigen challenge in a mouse asthma model. The chart below shows that pre-treatment with PRS-060 reduces the lung levels of the key inflammatory cells eosinophils and lymphocytes, a profile that supports the hypothesis that lung delivery of an IL-4Rα antagonist to asthmatics may be viable approach to the treatment of asthma.
PRS-080 targeting hepcidin in CKD-related FID-anemia
PRS-080 is an Anticalin drug candidate targeting hepcidin, a peptide mediator that is an important negative regulator of iron absorption and storage, derived from the naturally occurring human lipocalin known as NGAL. The normal function of hepcidin is to maintain equilibrium in iron supply for red blood cell production by binding to ferroportin, the protein that transports iron from the inside of a cell to the outside, inducing its internalization and subsequent degradation. The binding of hepcidin to ferroportin reduces the iron uptake from the intestine into the body and inhibits iron mobilization from cellular stores into red blood cells. An excess amount of hepcidin can cause functional iron deficiency (FID), which often cannot be treated adequately with iron supplements and can lead to anemia. According to a 2009 publication by Young and Zaritsky in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, lowering hepcidin levels or antagonizing its actions would reverse the negative effects of inflammation on red blood cell formation by allowing mobilization of stored iron and improved iron absorption.
PRS-080 has been designed to target hepcidin for the treatment of FID in anemic patients with CKD, particularly in end-stage renal disease patients requiring dialysis, to allow them to mobilize iron that is trapped in iron storage cells for use in the creation of red blood cells. We have also engineered PRS-080 to have a half-life of less than a week, so that following administration, it is expected to clear from the human body in a much shorter timeframe than antibodies, which typically have a
half-life of two weeks or greater. This half-life was achieved by covalently linking PRS-080 to a specific polyethylene glycol, or PEG, in order to extend the serum half-life of the combined molecule to desirable levels. Since hepcidin is constantly produced by the body, we believe that a frequent, e.g. once per week, dosing interval will be optimally suited to interfere with hepcidin function. A shorter half-life than mAbs may be more compatible with this dosing schedule. A longer mAb-like residence time is not seen as advantageous, but rather could lead to the accumulation of both the drug and the target beyond the typical residence time of hepcidin, resulting in large quantities of hepcidin bound to mAbs. We completed a Phase Ia single-ascending dose clinical trial with PRS-080 in healthy volunteers in 2015. The trial was conducted in accordance with German law at a clinical site in Neu-Ulm, Germany, that belongs to Nuvisan GmbH, our contract research organization, or CRO. Results from this trial were presented at the 2015 Annual Conference of the American Society of Hematology (http://www.bloodjournal.org/content/126/23/536). Based on the data obtained. we initiated a Phase Ib clinical study in CKD 5 patients requiring hemodialysis which we completed in February 2017. The company initiated a multi-dose clinical study in CKD patients requiring hemodialysis in the third quarter of 2017, which is assessing the safety and tolerability of multi-dose administration of PRS-080, as well as a secondary assessment of repeated doses of PRS-080 on hemoglobin levels over a period of approximately one month.
Anemia and functional iron deficiency in the CKD population
Anemia is a serious medical condition in which blood is deficient in red blood cells, and hemoglobin, leading to inadequate oxygen delivery to tissues and cells throughout the body. Anemia is generally said to exist when hemoglobin is less than 13 g/dL in men and 12 g/dL in women. Anemia has a number of potential causes, including nutritional deficiencies, iron deficiency, bone marrow disease, medications, and abnormalities in production of or sensitivity to erythropoietin, a hormone that controls red blood cell production. Anemia is a frequent and severe consequence of CKD. In addition, within the CKD population, anemia may be caused by FID. FID exists when, despite adequate stores, iron cannot be mobilized for erythropoiesis. In this case, despite treatment with exogenous erythropoietin and iron supplements, “functional” iron is still deficient. FID-anemic patients can be identified and selected for therapy using marketed laboratory tests for iron metabolism. According to the results of a 2017 research analysis conducted for us by Artisan Healthcare Consulting, there were an estimated 505,000 individuals with ESRD that were on hemodialysis in the US in 2017 and approximately 90% of these patients are treated with ESA. Up to 50% of the ESRD patients on hemodialysis that are currently treated with ESA have FID. Approximately 15% of the FID patients are still anemic despite ESA treatment. Based on the estimated 505,000 individuals with ESRD on hemodialysis, we believe that approximately 34,000 individuals are FID-anemic despite ESA treatment in the US.
Challenges in using conventional therapy
We believe CKD patients with FID-anemia are especially poorly served. These patients have adequate stores of iron but this iron is not efficiently incorporated into red blood cell precursors through rESAs and iron supplements. According to the 2009 publication by Young and Zaritsky in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, this imbalance in iron metabolism is a result of a high level of circulating hepcidin in the blood stream. We believe existing therapies are limited in that they do not have an impact on hepcidin or, in the case of rESAs, patients often become resistant to the therapy.
Our potential solution: binding hepcidin with PRS-080
We have engineered PRS-080 so that it binds to hepcidin and reduces the impact of hepcidin’s negative regulation on iron mobilization. We believe that by blocking the actions of hepcidin, PRS-080 will serve to address anemia by mobilizing iron for incorporation into red blood cells.
In patients suffering from anemia of CKD, and specifically in patients with FID, hepcidin is chronically produced by the body in abnormally large amounts. Therefore, we believe that the best way to inhibit its function is to administer an inhibitor on a repeated basis, such as once a week. Our approach will use PRS-080 in connection with a conjugated PEG30 molecule, a well-known half-life extender, in order to allow the drug sufficient residence time in the body. Once coupled to PEG30, PRS-080 is intended to have a half-life that will be optimally suited for dosing anemic patients with CKD. In contrast, antibodies typically have a half-life of two to three weeks. Such a long half-life renders antibodies unsuitable for frequent administration and elimination of a circulating target protein like hepcidin because such antibodies tend to accumulate the target after binding due to their own long residence time in the body with the associated risk of bound hepcidin being released by antibodies that are still circulating in the blood.
Preclinical data
Hepcidin binds to ferroportin and induces its internalization and subsequent degradation, thus disabling iron mobilization from cells. PRS-080 binds strongly to hepcidin and inhibits its activity in a dose dependent manner as shown in
in vitro
potency assays. PRS-080 is able to completely inhibit the internalization of FPN above a concentration of 20 nM.
Our preclinical studies targeted the cynomolgus monkey orthologue of hepcidin, which has a high degree of similarity (96% identity) with human hepcidin. PRS-080 was found to bind with high affinity to the cynomolgus monkey version of hepcidin.
We performed a dose finding study in cynomolgus monkeys, testing intravenous 30-minute infusions as well as subcutaneous injections of PRS-080 to study PK properties of PRS-080 and the functional consequences of hepcidin inhibition on iron mobilization. A dose of 1 mg/kg PRS-080 produced a robust, transient and reversible increase in total iron levels from approximately 36 µM at baseline to 52 µM after 8 hours. Doses higher than 1 mg/kg elevated serum iron concentrations to comparable levels and, in a dose-dependent manner, prolonged the response. A linear correlation was observed over time between the PRS-080 dose and increase of serum iron concentrations. The PK properties of PRS-080 were investigated after a single administration at doses ranging from 20 mg/kg to 150 mg/kg. The concentration over time profiles of PRS-080 showed standard drug-like properties, as the kinetics were dose proportional and there was a low volume of distribution. Elimination of PRS-080 occurred with a terminal half-life of about 2 days, which can be extrapolated to translate to 3 days in humans.
We also carried out a 4-week repeated dose toxicology study with intravenous infusions of PRS-080 for 30 minutes every other day. Our work included toxicokinetic and ADA measurements. During the study, safety pharmacology parameters on the cardiovascular system and respiration were monitored and all safety endpoints were met. Our preclinical studies also examined a different NGAL-derived Anticalin, or surrogate molecule, which targets rat hepcidin in a rat model of inflammation-induced anemia. In these studies, administration of the surrogate molecule once per day or every other day inhibited the manifestation of anemia in the rats over the course of a three-week period.
The 4-week repeated PRS-080 dosing to cynomolgus monkeys was well tolerated up to the highest tested dose of 120 mg/kg. This dose was classified as producing no adverse events: routine laboratory tests and blood cell examinations did not demonstrate any adverse findings and safety pharmacology investigations were also without adverse events. As a result of the hepcidin inhibition, the study showed increased iron uptake and storage, for example in the liver, and mobilization.
The functional consequence of PRS-080 treatment on bone marrow activity and red blood cell production, or hematopoiesis, by means of hemoglobin (an oxygen transporting protein contained in red blood cells) concentration in reticulocytes, a precursor of red blood cells, was investigated in cynomolgus monkeys following repeated administration. As shown in the below chart, after administration of PRS-080 either intravenously (i.v. 150 mg/kg) or subcutaneously (s.c. 20 mg/kg), elevated hemoglobin concentrations in reticulocytes (Retic CH) were observed on day 30 compared to pre-treatment (pre-dose).
Phase I trial design and results
The Phase Ia trial of PRS-080 was conducted in healthy volunteers at a clinical site in Neu-Ulm, Germany by Nuvisan GmbH, a CRO. The study was a single dose escalating, blinded, placebo controlled study at a dose range from 0.2 to 40 mg/kg (equivalent to 0.08 to 16.0 mg/kg based on protein content). Forty-eight subjects were dosed with PRS-080 or a placebo. This study was governed and approved by the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte, or BfArM) and the local Ethics Committee. Treatment of subjects began at the end of 2014 and was completed in June 2015, followed by evaluation of the data.
PRS-080 was well tolerated. All treatment emergent Adverse Events, or AEs, were either mild or moderate and no Serious AEs were observed. No association of AEs to specific organs and no apparent dose dependency or difference between placebo and active treatment was observed. Notably, no hypersensitivity or infusion reactions were noted and vital signs, body temperature and electrocardiograms were unchanged. Pharmacokinetics of PRS-080 were dose-proportional with a half-life of approximately 3 days. PRS-080 administration resulted in an immediate decrease in plasma hepcidin concentration, which was followed by an increase in serum iron concentration and transferrin saturation. As shown in the figure below, the duration of
this response in iron and transferrin saturation increased dose-dependently from about 25 hours at the lower dose to about 185 hours at the highest dose.
Phase Ib trial in anemic CKD 5 patient
Based on this positive safety and pharmacological activity we initiated a Phase lb study in CKD 5 patients undergoing hemodialysis and suffering from FID-anemia earlier in 2016. This study was governed and approved by the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte, or BfArM). It was a multi-center, randomized and double blinded Phase Ib trial studying single PRS-080 administrations at 3 dose levels, 2, 4, and 8 mg/kg bw. This study was completed in the first quarter of 2017. In each dose group 6 patients were treated with PRS-080 and 2 patients with placebo. PRS-080 was well tolerated and shown to be safe in all dose groups. There was only one SAE (worsening of dry gangrene in a patient with long standing diabetic foot syndrome) Vital signs, physical examination, and electrocardiograms were not affected by the treatment with PRS-080. No differences in the safety analysis were observed between placebo and drug. There was no evidence of immunogenicity in the single ascending dose study.
Pharmacokinetics shows a dose-proportional increase for free and total PRS-080 with a dose peak plasma concentration at 1 hour (tmax) and a rapid decrease over the following 19 hours.
The magnitude of iron mobilization by PRS-080 was dose-dependent with increases in both serum iron concentration and transferrin saturation (TSAT) following treatment. The maximal concentrations (Cmax) of iron and TSAT were reached within 19 hours in all three dose groups. A return to baseline values were reached after 2, 3, and 5 days after the end of infusions of 2, 4, and 8 mg/kg PRS-080, respectively.
The figure below shows mean serum concentration of iron during the study:
The figure below shows mean TSAT during the study:
Subsequently and due to the good safety profile and iron mobilization of PRS-080, a multi-center, placebo controlled ascending dose pilot Phase IIa trial has been initiated to study the safety, pharmacokinetics and effects of hepcidin inhibition on iron mobilization by 5 weekly doses of PRS-080 in 4 and 8 mg/kg patient cohorts. In addition first results on hemoglobin levels in CKD patients will be examined as a secondary outcome measure. In total 12 patients will be included; in each group 4 patients will be treated with PRS-080 and 2 patients with placebo. This Phase IIa study started in September 2017 and is ongoing in clinical centers in Germany and Czech Republic. The German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte, or BfArM) and the Czech State Institute of Drug Control (SUKL) approve and govern the study. First results should be available in the second half of 2018.
Competition
The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are characterized by rapidly advancing technologies, intense competition and a strong emphasis on proprietary products. While we believe that our technology, development experience, scientific knowledge and strategies provide us with competitive advantages, we face and will continue to face intense competition from many different sources, including major pharmaceutical, specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic institutions and governmental agencies and public and private research institutions, both in the United States and abroad.
We compete, or will compete, with existing and new therapies that may become available in the future. Some of these competitors are pursuing the development of pharmaceuticals that target the same diseases and conditions that our drug candidates target. Any drug candidates that we are able to develop and commercialize will compete with existing and new drugs being developed by our competitors. Our competitors may develop or market products or other novel technologies that are more effective, safer, more convenient or less costly than any that may be commercialized by us, or may obtain regulatory approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours.
The acquisition or licensing of pharmaceutical products is also very competitive, and a number of more established companies, some of which have acknowledged strategies to license or acquire products and many of which are bigger than us and have more institutional experience and greater cash flows than we have, may have competitive advantages over us, as may other emerging companies taking similar or different approaches to product licenses and/or acquisitions. In addition, a number of established research-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies may acquire products in late stages of development to augment their internal product lines, which may provide those companies with an even greater competitive advantage.
There are a number of other companies presently working to develop therapies for anemia, asthma, and oncology, including divisions of large pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies of various sizes. There are also a variety of available drug therapies marketed for these diseases. Our drug candidates, if any are approved, may compete with these existing drug and other therapies, and to the extent they are ultimately used in combination with or as an adjunct to these therapies, our drug candidates may not be competitive with them. Some of the currently approved drug therapies are branded and subject to patent protection, and others are available on a generic basis. Many of these approved drugs are well established therapies and are widely accepted by physicians, patients and third-party payors. As a result, market acceptance of, and a significant share of the market for, any of our drug candidates that we successfully introduce to the market will pose challenges.
In addition to currently marketed therapies, there are also a number of drugs in clinical development to treat anemia, asthma, or cancer. These medicines in development may provide efficacy, safety, convenience, and other benefits that are not provided by currently marketed therapies and may not be provided by any of our current or future product candidates. As a result, they may provide significant competition for any of our product candidates.
Many of our competitors will have substantially greater financial, technical and human resources than we have. Additional mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry may result in even more resources being concentrated in some of our competitors. Competition may increase further as a result of advances made in the commercial applicability of technologies and greater availability of capital for investment in these fields. Our success will be based in part on our ability to build, obtain regulatory approval for and market acceptance of, and actively manage a portfolio of drugs that addresses unmet medical needs and creates value in patient therapy.
In addition, our competitors may have a variety of drugs in development or awaiting market approval that could reach the market and become established before we have a product to sell. Our competitors may also develop alternative therapies that could further limit the market for any drugs that we may develop. Many of our competitors are using technologies or methods different or similar to ours to identify and validate drug targets and to discover novel small molecule drugs. Many of our competitors and their collaborators have significantly greater experience than we do in the following:
|
|
•
|
identifying and validating targets;
|
|
|
•
|
screening compounds against targets;
|
|
|
•
|
preclinical and clinical trials of potential pharmaceutical products; and
|
|
|
•
|
obtaining regulatory clearances.
|
In addition, many of our competitors and their collaborators have substantially greater advantages in the following areas:
|
|
•
|
research and development resources;
|
|
|
•
|
manufacturing capabilities; and
|
Smaller companies also may prove to be significant competitors, particularly through proprietary research discoveries and collaborative arrangements with large pharmaceutical and established biotechnology companies. Many of our competitors have products that have been approved by the FDA, or its foreign counterparts, or are in advanced development. We face competition from other companies, academic institutions, governmental agencies, and other public and private research organizations for collaborative arrangements with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, in recruiting and retaining highly qualified scientific and management personnel and for licenses to additional technologies. Developments by others may render our product candidates or our technologies obsolete. Our failure to compete effectively could have a material adverse effect on our business.
PRS-300 series
Under the 300-series, Pieris is developing multispecific immuno-oncology drug candidates. This includes tumor-targeted co-stimulatory molecules, such as PRS-343, and multispecific checkpoint inhibitors, such as PRS-332.
The rationale behind the multispecific tumor-targeted co-stimulatory molecules is to activate the immune system in the tumor microenvironment. Other companies that also develop multispecific drug candidates designed to activate the immune system in a tumor dependent manner by targeting a co-stimulatory receptor, such as 4-1BB, include Roche, Molecular Partners, Alligator Biosciences, and Aptevo Therapeutics. Additionally, there are multiple of drug candidates in clinical trials solely targeting a co-stimulatory receptors including 4-1BB, OX40, GITR, and CD27.
The first checkpoint inhibitor, Ipilimumab, targeting CTLA-4 was approved for the treatment of melanoma patients in 2011 and is being marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Nivolumab from Bristol-Myers Squibb was approved for the treatment of melanoma in 2014 as the first PD-1 inhibitor. Pembrolizumab from Merck & Co was the second PD-1 inhibitor to be approved and the first one in the US. In addition to Nivolumab and Prembrolizumab there are multiple approved checkpoint inhibitors targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway e.g. from Roche, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Merck KGaA.
There are also drug candidates in preclinical or clinical testing for other checkpoint targets such as LAG3, TIM3 and B7-H3. Companies developing either dual-checkpoint inhibitors or combinations of two or more monospecific checkpoint inhibitors includes Xencor, F-star, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merus, Tesaro, Novartis, Merck & Co among others.
Additionally, a number of other companies, such as Amgen, Affimed, Macrogenics, F-Star Molecular Partners, Xencor, Immunocore and Zymeworks, also pursue other multispecific approaches in oncology, which therapies are in clinical or preclinical development.
PRS-343
PRS-343 is bispecific Anticalin-antibody fusion protein targeting 4-1BB and HER2. The mode of action of PRS-343 is to promote 4-1BB clustering by bridging 4-1BB-positive T cells with HER2-positive tumor cells, and to thereby provide a potent costimulatory signal to tumor antigen-specific T cells. Other drug candidates targeting the co-stimulatory receptor 4-1BB include urelumab, which is being developed by Bristol Myers Squibb, and Utomilumab (PF-05082566), which is being developed by Pfizer, both of which are currently in clinical development (Sitetrove, January 13, 2018). In the HER2-positive space, several companies are active with approved, clinical and preclinical drugs candidates. The most prominent company is Roche, having three approved drugs on the market through its subsidiary Genentech. The first drug from Roche targeting HER2 is Trastuzumab, which has been marketed for treatment of breast cancer patients since 1998 and for gastric cancer patients since 2010. The two other drugs are Pertuzumab and Ado-trastuzumab Emtansine which both are marketed for breast cancer patients. In addition to PRS-343, there are also other HER2 targeting drug candidates in clinical development designed to induce an immune response by bridging HER2-postive tumor cell with immune cells e.g. GBR 1302, a bispecific antibody targeting HER2 and CD3, from Glenmark (Pharmaprojects, January 13, 2018).
One company has publicly disclosed a competitor program to PRS-343. MacroGenics presented data on a HER2 and 4-1BB (41BB) bispecific during their R&D day on December 13th, 2016. In addition to MacroGenics other companies have also disclosed 4-1BB-based bispecific drug candidates. Roche and Molecular Partners have both presented data on bispecific drug candidates targeting Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) and 4-1BB. Alligator Bioscience together with Aptevo Therapeutics have disclosed a 4-1BB-based bispecific drug candidate targeting 5T4. However, the 4-1BB-based bispecific drug candidates targeting FAP or 5T4 does not constitute direct competition to PRS-343 since they are targeting a different tumor target and will, thus, likely be developed in different indications or patient populations.
Additionally, other companies such as AstraZeneca, Novartis, Merck, Agenus, Five Prime Therapeutics, Seattle Genetics, GlaxoSmithKline and Celldex have preclinical and clinical development programs focusing on other co-stimulatory targets which include OX40, CD40, GITR, CD27 and ICOS.
PRS-332
PRS-332 is a bispecific Anticalin-antibody fusion protein comprising an anti-PD-1 antibody genetically fused to an Anticalin protein targeting an undisclosed checkpoint target. Other drug candidates targeting the checkpoint molecule PD-1 include Nivolumab, marketed by Bristol Myers Squibb, and Pembrolizumab, marketed by Merck & Co. Anti-PD-1 antibodies have demonstrated great clinical benefit in several cancers, including melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, renal cell carcinoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, head and neck carcinomas. However, there are many patients who do not respond, relapse or acquire resistance to PD-1 treatment. In order to improve on existing PD-1 therapies, Pieris is developing PRS-332 with the intent to simultaneously block PD-1 and another immune checkpoint co-expressed on exhausted T cells.
Additionally, other companies such as Merck & Co, Bristol-Meyer Squibb, Xencor, Tesaro, and Novartis are developing drugs targeting PD-1 or PD-L1 an additionally checkpoint target either as a combination product or as a bispecific dual checkpoint inhibitor. The other checkpoint target in such approaches include CTLA-4, LAG-3 and TIM-3.
PRS-060
Like PRS-060, new developments for the treatment of uncontrolled moderate to severe asthma patients mainly include drug candidates targeting the Th2 pathway by interfering with IL-4/IL-13, IL-5 actions or thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP). Such agents include dupilumab (Sanofi/Regeneron, IL-4RA), mepolizumab (Nucala) (GSK, IL-5), reslizumab (Cinqair) (Teva, IL-5), benralizumab (Fasenra) (Astra Zeneca, IL-5RA) and tezepelumab (Amgen/AstraZeneca, TSLP),). These drugs are in later clinical development (Phase II) than PRS-060, or have been approved (mepolizumab, reslizumab, benralizumab) for severe eosinophilic asthma; the mAb omalizumab, directed against IgE, is also approved and marketed for the treatment of uncontrolled, moderate to severe asthma patients. However, in contrast to PRS-060, these mAbs are given to patients through injection and distribute systemically through the blood stream. CSJ117 (Novartis), an inhaled fAb fragment that targets TSLP, is currently in Phase I clinical development. There are a number of other companies presently marketing or developing other therapies for asthmatic patients.
PRS-080
There are very few other drug candidates in development that interfere with hepcidin function or expression. Nucleic acid based approaches that were in preclinical development by IONIS/Xenon and Alnylam have been suspended for unknown reasons. Noxxon’s RNA aptamer NOX-H94 has completed Phase II clinical studies in cancer and ESRD patients. While an increase of Hb values was seen in cancer patients, no such effect could be confirmed in the ESRD population. We are not aware of any ongoing development for NOX-H94. PRS-080 is significantly more potent and has a longer half-life than NOX-H94. We therefore believe that Noxxon’s results are not predictive for efficacy of PRS-080. Lilly has been developing a mAb against hepcidin in cancer as well as chronic kidney disease patients as well as a mAb against the ferroportin transporter. The latter has been suspended for unknown reasons and there has been no update on the anti-hepcidin mAb from Lilly since 2015. Ferrumax develops a soluble form of hemojuvelin, a protein that regulates hepcidin expression and iron metabolism that aims to suppress the production rate of hepcidin.
There are also a number of companies which are focused on treating anemia in CKD patients under alternative approaches. Fibrogen (in partnership with Astellas and AstraZeneca), Akebia Therapeutics (in partnership with Mitsubishi Tanabe and Otsuka), GSK, Bayer, Daiichi Sankyo, Zydus Cadila and Japan Tobacco have hypoxia-inducible-factor prolyl hydroxylase (HIF-PH) inhibitors in clinical development that target stimulation of bone marrow activity. Fibrogen reported positive topline results from phase 3 trials in China with its HIF-PH inhibitor Roxadustat (in January 2017). Akebia recently reported positive results from a Phase II trial in Asia with its HIF-PH inhibitor Vadadustat (January 2018). Multiple phase 3 trials are currently ongoing with different HIF-PH inhibitors in both dialysis-dependent as well as dialysis-independent CKD patients. Acceleron is targeting the sequestration of Activin A, a natural inhibitor of hematopoiesis, is in a Phase II clinical study. Auryxia by Keryx, which is an oral, absorbable, iron-based phosphate binder, completed a phase 3 in non-dialysis dependent CKD 3-5 patients in 2016 and announced topline results showing that the study met the primary and all pre-specified secondary endpoints including change in Hb values. Keryx filed a New Drug Application, or NDA for the CKD indication with the FDA in November 2017. There are also various companies conducting late-stage development of erythropoietin biosimilars.
Manufacturing
We do not own or operate, and currently have no plans to establish, any manufacturing facilities. We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely on third-party contract manufacturers, or CMOs, for the manufacture of our drug candidates for larger scale preclinical and clinical testing, as well as for commercial quantities of any drug candidates that are approved.
We currently rely on multiple CMOs for all of our clinical supplies, including active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), drug substances and finished drug products, and label & packaging for our preclinical research and clinical trials, including the Phase IIa trial for PRS-080, the Phase I trial for PRS-343 and the Phase I trial for PRS-060
We believe that we will be able to contract with other CMOs to obtain APIs if our existing sources of APIs were no longer available or sufficient, but there is no assurance that APIs would be available from other third-party manufacturers on acceptable terms, on the timeframe that our business would require, or at all. We do not have supply commitments or other arrangements in place with our existing CMOs. We also do not currently have arrangements in place for redundant supply of bulk drug substance.
We do not have any current contractual relationships for the manufacture of commercial supplies of any of our drug candidates if they are approved, and we intend to enter into agreements with a third-party contract manufacturer and one or more back-up manufacturers for the commercial production of our product candidates as they near potential approval.
Any drug products to be used in clinical trials and any approved product that we may commercialize will need to be manufactured in facilities, and by processes, that comply with the FDA’s current good manufacturing practice requirements and comparable requirements of the regulatory agencies of other jurisdictions in which we are seeking approval. We currently employ internal resources to manage our manufacturing contractors.
We believe that PRS-080, PRS-060, and PRS 343 and our other Anticalin
®
-branded drug candidates can be manufactured in reliable and reproducible biologic processes from readily available starting materials. PRS-080 and PRS-060 are produced using bacterial expression systems similar to those that have been used in the past for the production of other proteins and which systems are widely used in the industry. PRS-343 is produced using a mammalian expression system similar to those systems which are widely used in the industry for the production of antibodies. We believe that the manufacturing process is amenable to scale-up and will not require unusual or expensive equipment. We expect to continue to develop, on our own or with our collaborators, drug candidates that can be produced cost-effectively at contract manufacturing facilities.
Intellectual Property and Exclusivity
Our commercial success depends in part on our ability to obtain and maintain exclusivity of our proprietary Anticalin technologies through intellectual property protection for our drug candidates, libraries of different protein scaffolds and consensus sequences, and the fundamental Anticalin platform technology, including novel therapeutic and diagnostic discoveries, as well as other proprietary know-how, and to operate without infringing on the intellectual property rights of others.
We seek to protect our exclusive position of Anticalin technologies by, among other means, prosecuting our own international, U.S., and foreign patent applications related to our proprietary technology, inventions, and improvements that are important to the development and implementation of our business. We have established intellectual property protection in relation to our Anticalin technologies in key global markets, including in North America, Europe and Asia. We believe we have patent exclusivity relating to drug candidates derived from lipocalin proteins that runs until at least 2018 in the United States. We also rely on trade secrets for confidential know-how, which we generally seek to protect through contractual (e.g. confidentiality) agreements with employees and third parties.
We have protected the goodwill of our Company and our drug candidates, created through innovation and development, by putting in place trademark registrations of the Pieris and Anticalin marks as well as several defensive registrations.
We currently, and expect that we will continue to, file patent applications and maintain granted patents directed to our key drug candidates in an effort to establish intellectual property positions relating to new compositions of matter for these drug candidates, as well as novel medical applications of these compounds in the treatment, prevention or diagnosis of various indications. We also intend to seek patent protection, if available, with respect to biomarkers that may contribute to selecting the right patient population for use of any of our drug candidates, or with respect to pharmaceutical formulations that may be useful to produce final medicinal products.
We own or are the exclusive licensee of a patent portfolio consisting of several issued U.S. patents, and their respective counterparts in a number of foreign jurisdictions, several pending applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, multiple pending U.S. patent applications and corresponding pending patent applications in a number of foreign jurisdictions as well as three pending provisional patent applications, as described in further detail below.
In applicable jurisdictions, we will seek patent term extensions for certain patents of ours, including the patent term adjustment period in the United States. If we obtain marketing approval for our drug candidates in the United States or in certain jurisdictions outside of the United States, we may be eligible for regulatory protection, such as twelve years of data exclusivity for new biological entities in the United States and as mentioned below, up to five years of patent term extension potentially available in the United States, eight to eleven years of data and marketing exclusivity potentially available for new drugs in the European Union, up to five years of patent extension in Europe (supplemental protection certificate), and eight years of data exclusivity potentially available in Japan. There can be no assurance that we will qualify for any such regulatory exclusivity, or that any such exclusivity will prevent competitors from seeking approval solely on the basis of their own studies. See “—Government Regulation.”
Certain patents we own are directed to the basic Anticalin protein concept and platform technology (i.e. antagonist or agonist compounds derived from a natural lipocalin protein) and are expected to expire in 2018, subject to any patent term adjustments and terminal disclaimers in the United States. In addition, we hold issued patents and patent applications in the United States and other foreign jurisdictions, which patents are related to libraries of different scaffolds and consensus sequences such as human apolipoprotein D, human neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin, or hNGAL, and human tear lipocalin, and are expected to expire between 2020 and 2030, subject to any patent term adjustments and terminal disclaimers in the United States. We also own a number of patents and patent applications at various stages of prosecution directed towards compositions of mater and in some cases, formulations or methods of use, of our preclinical and clinical drug candidates. Where possible, we will pursue patent term adjustments in the United States and any applicable foreign jurisdictions.
As a result of research efforts to date under the Research and License Agreement with Technische Universität München, or TUM, we hold a worldwide exclusive license to multiple patents and patent applications. These patents and patent applications relate to Anticalin proteins specific for the T cell co-receptor CD4and hNGAL lipocalin muteins and/or a library of an hNGAL scaffold of a certain consensus sequence, which patent is expected to expire in 2029, subject to any patent term adjustments or terminal disclaimers in the United States. We also hold an exclusive license to patents or patent applications related to bacterial lipocalin muteins.
As of the date of this report, a significant portion of our pending U.S. patent applications and pending patent applications in foreign jurisdictions were directed to newly-discovered or improved scaffold libraries of lipocalin muteins, compounds derived therefrom (i.e., specific drug candidates), or the uses of such compounds to treat, prevent and mitigate certain diseases and conditions whose pathological development involve the targets of interest as well as to diagnose, prognose and select treatments for the diseases and conditions. We would expect that any patents that may issue from the pending U.S. patent applications would likely expire between 2029 and 2038 without taking into account possible patent term adjustments or other extensions, however, any and all of these patent applications may not result in issued patents, and not all issued patents may be maintained in force for their entire term. We are actively pursuing intellectual property protection for our immuno-oncology drug candidates in key global markets that, if granted, could expire as late as 2038 or later depending on the date of the filing of such patent applications.
In addition to patents, we hold trademarks in the United States for the Anticalin and Pieris marks. Similarly, we hold their respective counterparts, either as registered trademarks or as pending applications, in a number of foreign jurisdictions. We expect that we will continue to look for trademark protection for the goodwill associated with our Company and our drug candidates in the countries or regions where we will have investment, research and development, sales or other activities.
We also rely upon unpatented trade secrets and know-how and continuing technological innovation to develop and maintain our competitive advantage. We strive to protect our proprietary information, in part, by using confidentiality agreements and/or invention assignment agreements with our collaborators, scientific advisors, employees and consultants. The confidentiality agreements are designed to protect our proprietary information and, in the case of agreements requiring invention assignment, to grant us ownership of technologies that are developed through a relationship with a third party. We also actively manage our publication and patent applications in that we only disclose information necessary to stir scientific interest or demonstrate patentability without materially compromising the secrecy of our valuable trade secrets and know-how. While we consider trade secrets and know-how to be a critical component of our intellectual property, trade secrets and know-how can be difficult to protect. In particular, with respect to our technology platform, we anticipate that these trade secrets and know-how will, over the course of time, be disseminated within the industry through independent development, the publication of journal articles describing the methodology and the movement of personnel skilled in the technology from academic to industry positions and
vice versa. As a result, those proprietary trade secrets and know-how may lose their value to us over a period of time, and we may lose any competitive advantage afforded by them, as they become public knowledge.
Strategic Partnerships and Other License Agreements
Since 2007, we have entered into several strategic partnerships and other license or option agreements to complement our drug discovery and development. Specifically, we have entered into strategic partnerships with Servier, AstraZeneca and Seattle Genetics (collectively, the "Strategic Partnerships") and other, non-strategic license or option agreements with Aska, Roche, Sanofi, Allergan Sales, LLC, Allergan, Inc., and Allergan Pharmaceuticals Holdings (Ireland) Unlimited Company, or (collectively) Allergan, Cadila Healthcare Limited, or Zydus, and Strides Arcolab Limited, or Stelis (collectively, the "Other License Agreements"), Under the Strategic Partnerships and License Agreements, we have developed and conducted or will develop and conduct selection and screening of drug candidates, as well as
in vitro
potency and efficacy testing, using our Anticalin
®
-brand drug discovery platform, our Anticalin libraries, and other proprietary methods to generate, identify, and characterize drug candidates against certain biological targets associated with several diseases. The Strategic Partnerships and License Agreements have provided us with approximately €60.1 million ($67.4 million) in revenue to date. With respect to discontinued agreements, we have no ongoing performance obligations, and do not expect to receive any significant additional consideration pursuant to those agreements.
Our Strategic Partnerships and License Agreements are ongoing and, under which, our partners are obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize drug candidates identified in the course of the collaboration. We are entitled to receive from our partners’ research, development and regulatory milestone payments and, in some cases, including the Servier and AstraZeneca collaborations, royalties on net sales for products developed and commercialized under these collaborations. With respect to our Strategic Partnerships, we have commercial rights, including the option to co-develop or co-commercialize one or more therapeutic programs with the applicable partners. We plan to continue to actively seek out additional collaboration partners that fit within our corporate development strategy.
The Strategic Partnerships represent the Company's cornerstone collaborations in its key therapeutic areas of immuno-oncology and respiratory diseases and include co-development and co-commercialization options. Certain terms and conditions of these Strategic Partnerships are summarized below:
Our collaboration with Servier
On January 4, 2017, we, along with Pieris GmbH, entered into a License and Collaboration Agreement and a Non-Exclusive Platform License Agreement with Servier. Pursuant to the terms of the agreements, we, along with Servier, will initially pursue five bispecific therapeutic programs, including our PRS-332 program. We will jointly develop PRS-332 and split commercial rights geographically, with Pieris retaining all commercial rights in the U.S. and Servier having commercial rights in the rest of the world. The four additional committed programs, which have been defined, may combine antibodies from the Servier portfolio with one or more Anticalin proteins based on our proprietary platform to generate innovative IO bispecific drug candidates. The collaboration may be expanded by up to three additional therapeutic programs. We also have the option to co-develop and retain commercial rights in the U.S. for up to three programs beyond PRS-332, while Servier will be responsible for development and commercialization of the other programs worldwide.
Under the agreements, we received an upfront payment of €30 million (approximately $32.0 million). We may also receive funding for full time staff for specific projects, as well as development-dependent and commercial milestone payments for PRS-332 and each additional program. The total development, regulatory and sales-based milestone payments to us could exceed €1.7 billion (approximately $1.8 billion) over the life of the collaboration and are dependent on the final number of projects pursued and the number of co-development options exercised by us. We will share preclinical and clinical development costs for each co-developed program with Servier. In addition, we will be entitled to receive tiered royalties up to low double digits on the sales of commercialized products in the Servier territories.
The term of each agreement ends upon the expiration of all of Servier’s payment obligations under such agreement. The agreements may be terminated by Servier for convenience beginning 12 months after their effective date upon 180 days’ notice. The agreements may also be terminated by either of us for material breach upon 90 days’ or 120 days’ notice of a material breach, with respect to the collaboration agreement and license agreement, respectively, provided that the applicable party has not cured such breach by the applicable 90-day or 120-day permitted cure period, and dispute resolution procedures specified in the applicable Agreement have been followed. The agreements may also be terminated due to the other party’s insolvency or for a safety issue and may in certain instances be terminated on a product-by-product and/or country-by-country basis. The license agreement will terminate upon termination of the collaboration agreement, on a product-by-product and/or country-by-country basis.
Our Collaboration with AstraZeneca
On May 2, 2017, we entered into a License and Collaboration Agreement, and a Non-Exclusive Anticalin Platform Technology License Agreement with AstraZeneca (the "AstraZeneca Agreements"), which became effective on June 10, 2017, following expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976. Under the AstraZeneca Agreements the parties will advance several novel inhaled Anticalin proteins.
Under the AstraZeneca Agreements, we received an upfront, non-refundable payment of $45.0 million. In addition, we have initiated a Phase I trial for the AstraZeneca Lead Product PRS-060 (AZD1402) for which we will receive a $12.5 million upfront payment. We are also eligible to receive research, development, commercial, sales milestone payments, and royalty payments. The total potential milestones are categorized as follows: research, development, and commercial milestones - up to $1.1 billion; and sales milestones - up to $1.0 billion. We may receive tiered royalties on sales of potential products commercialized by AstraZeneca and for co-developed products, gross margin share on worldwide sales equal dependent on our level of committed investment.
The term of the AstraZeneca Agreements ends upon the expiration of all of AstraZeneca’s payment obligations under such AstraZeneca Agreements. The AstraZeneca Collaboration Agreement may be terminated by AstraZeneca in its entirety for convenience beginning 12 months after its effective date upon 90 days’ notice or, if we have obtained marketing approval for the marketing and sale of a product, a 180 days’ notice. Each program may be terminated at AstraZeneca’s option; if any program is terminated by AstraZeneca, we will have full rights to such program. The AstraZeneca Collaboration Agreement may also be terminated by AstraZeneca or us for material breach upon 180 days’ notice of a material breach (or 30 days with respect to payment breach), provided that the applicable party has not cured such breach by the permitted cure period (including an additional 180 days if the breach is not susceptible to cure during the initial 180-day period) and dispute resolution procedures specified in the applicable AstraZeneca Agreement have been followed. The AstraZeneca Collaboration Agreement may also be terminated due to the other party’s insolvency and may in certain instances be terminated on a product-by-product and/or country-by-country basis. Each party may also terminate the agreement if the other party challenges the validity of patents related to certain intellectual property licensed under the AstraZeneca Agreement, subject to certain exceptions for infringement suits, acquisitions and newly-acquired licenses. The License Agreement will terminate upon termination of the AstraZeneca Collaboration Agreement, on a product-by-product and/or country-by-country basis.
Our Collaboration with Seattle Genetics
On February 8, 2018, we entered into a License and Collaboration Agreement and a Non-Exclusive Anticalin® Platform Technology License Agreement (collectively the “Seattle Genetics Agreements”) with Seattle Genetics, pursuant to which the parties will develop multiple targeted bispecific immuno-oncology treatments for solid tumors and blood cancers.
Under the terms of the Seattle Genetics Agreements, Seattle Genetics paid us a $30 million upfront fee, tiered royalties on net sales up to the low double-digits, and will pay us up to $1.2 billion in total success-based payments across three product candidates. The companies will pursue multiple antibody-Anticalin fusion proteins during a research phase, and Seattle Genetics has the option to select up to three therapeutic programs for further development. Prior to the initiation of a pivotal trial, we may opt into global co-development and U.S. commercialization of the second program and share in global costs and profits on a 50/50 basis. Seattle Genetics will solely develop, fund and commercialize the other two programs. Seattle Genetics may also decide to select additional candidates from the initial research phase for further development in return for the payment to us of additional fees, milestone payments, and royalties.
The term of each of the Seattle Genetics Agreements ends upon the expiration of all of Seattle Genetics’ payment obligations under such Agreement. The License and Collaboration Agreement may be terminated by Seattle Genetics in its entirety for convenience beginning 12 months after its effective date upon 90 days’ notice or, for any program where a pivotal study has been initiated, upon 180 days’ notice. Any program may be terminated at Seattle Genetics’ option. If any program is terminated by Seattle Genetics after a pre-defined pre-clinical stage, we will have full rights to continue such program. If any program is terminated by Seattle Genetics prior to such pre-defined pre-clinical stage, we will have the right to continue to develop such program, but will be obligated to offer a co-development option to Seattle Genetics for such program. The License and Collaboration Agreement may also be terminated by Seattle Genetics or us for an uncured material breach by the other party upon 90 days’ notice, subject to extension for an additional 90 days if the material breach relates to diligence obligations and subject, in all cases, to dispute resolution procedures. The License and Collaboration Agreement may also be terminated due to the other party’s insolvency and may in certain instances, including for reasons of safety, be terminated on a product-by-product basis. Each party may also terminate the Agreements if the other party challenges the validity of any patents licensed under the Agreements, subject to certain exceptions. The Non-Exclusive Anticalin® Platform Technology License Agreement will
terminate upon termination of the License and Collaboration Agreement, whether in its entirety or on a product-by-product basis.
Our License Agreements are older than our Strategic Partnerships and relate to non-strategic therapeutic areas, or do not provide us with co-development and co-commercialization rights. A brief summary of certain terms of selected License Agreements are provided below:
Our option agreement with Aska
On February 27, 2017, we entered into an Exclusive Option Agreement with Aska, granting Aska an exclusive option to license development and commercial rights to Pieris’ anemia drug, PRS-080, in Japan, South Korea and certain other Asian markets following completion of a multi-dose Phase IIa study to be conducted by Pieris in dialysis-dependent anemia patients.
Under the terms of the option agreement, we received an option payment of $2.75 million from Aska. Following an analysis period after the completion of the ongoing Phase IIa study conducted by us, Aska may exercise its option to obtain an exclusive license to develop and commercialize PRS-080 in Japan, South Korea and certain other Asian markets (excluding China). Should Aska exercise the option, we would be eligible for more than $80 million in combined option exercise fee and milestones associated with development and commercialization of PRS-080 in the first indication in Japan. We may receive further development milestones in additional indications, as well as in other countries within the Aska territory. We may also receive double-digit royalties on net sales of PRS-080 up to the mid- to high-teens.
The term of the Exclusive Option Agreement, including the option rights granted therein, ends on the earlier of (i) Aska’s written notice to us of Aska’s decision not to exercise the option rights granted under the Exclusive Option Agreement, (ii) Aska’s failure to exercise its option rights within sixty (60) days after the final results of the Phase IIa study are made available to Aska, (iii) three (3) months from date on which we deliver to Aska the final results of the Phase IIa study in the European Union, or (iv) our and Aska’s execution of the definitive agreements granting Aska licenses to develop and commercialize PRS-080 in Japan, South Korea and certain other Asian countries (excluding China) as contemplated under the Exclusive Option Agreement.
Our collaboration with Roche
In December 2015, we entered into a Research Collaboration and License Agreement with Roche, in cancer immune therapy for the research, development, and commercialization of Anticalin-based drug candidates against a predefined, undisclosed target selected by Roche. The parties will jointly pursue a preclinical research program with respect to the identification and generation of Anticalin proteins and during an extendable research term, Roche will fund the work to be performed by us pursuant to the research plan. Following the research program, Roche will be responsible for subsequent pre-clinical and clinical development of any product and will have worldwide commercialization rights.
On February 28, 2018, pursuant to Pieris' license agreement with Roche, as amended, Roche provided notice to Pieris of its extension of the research term of the Research Collaboration and License Agreement to continue until August 31, 2018.
Our collaboration with Sanofi
In September 2010, we entered into a collaboration and license agreement with Sanofi, which was subsequently amended in February 2013. Under the terms of the agreement, we have agreed to use our proprietary Anticalin technologies to identify drug candidates against certain targets, with further development and commercialization activities conducted by Sanofi. The collaboration started with two targets under two separate collaboration projects and was extended by an additional multispecific Anticalin program in 2013. Sanofi has terminated two of the three programs (one program was terminated for internal strategic reasons and the other program was terminated following
in vivo
studies, as
in vitro
functionality did not fully translate into
in vivo
functionality for this first in class program), and we have the right to develop and commercialize drug candidates of the terminated programs on a royalty-free basis. The remaining active collaboration project was handed over to Sanofi for further development in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Our agreement with Allergan
In August 2009, we entered into an agreement with Allergan, under which we provided drug candidates for the treatment of ocular diseases, and Allergan is responsible for the further development and commercialization of products based on those candidates and bearing related costs.
Our collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo
Daiichi Sankyo Company Limited (“Daiichi Sankyo” or "Daiichi") partnered with Pieris to research, develop and commercialize two Anticalin therapeutics pursuant to a May 31, 2011 Collaboration Research and Technology Licensing Agreement (the “DS Collaboration Agreement”).
On May 8, 2017, Daiichi Sankyo discontinued the development of one of those two therapeutics, a PSCK9 program (DS-9001), after having advanced this program to first-in-human studies for strategic reasons. Consequentially, this Anticalin program, including respective intellectual property rights, were transferred back to Pieris.
The second of these two therapeutic programs pursued under the DS Collaboration Agreement is an Anticalin protein directed to calcitonin gene-related peptide (“CGRP”) for therapeutic use in the treatment of migraine headaches. The CGRP program is in the IND-enabling stage and Pieris previously reported Daiichi Sankyo’s decision to initiate a GLP toxicity study in connection with this program.
Due to Daiichi Sankyo’s strategic prioritization and commercial reasons related to competing CGRP inhibitors in advanced stages of development, Daiichi Sankyo provided notice to Pieris on March 1, 2018 of its termination of the CGRP program. Pre-clinical data regarding this CGRP antagonizing Anticalin protein indicate that it has good drug-like properties, including strong target affinity, the ability to neutralize the biological activity of CGRP
in vitro
, and the ability to inhibit vasodilation, a cause of migraine pain, in rat skin following subcutaneous administration of the antagonist. In connection with the termination of the development of the CGRP program, and under the terms of the DS Collaboration Agreement, Daiichi Sankyo is obligated to carry out certain activities to facilitate transfer of activities, regulatory filings, materials, data, agreements and other matters to Pieris in connection with the return to Pieris of the development program related to the CGRP program. Pieris intends to diligently review the data associated with the program and consider its strategic options thereafter.
The foregoing summary of the terms relating to the DS Collaboration Agreement, including with respect to Daiichi Sankyo’s termination of such Agreement with respect to the CGRP program, is qualified in its entirety by the terms of the DS Collaboration Agreement, which were filed with the SEC as exhibit 10.7 to the Form 10-K filed on March 30, 2017. The contents of such exhibit are hereby incorporated by reference.
TUM License Agreement
On July 4, 2003, we entered into a Research and Licensing agreement with TUM, which was subsequently renewed and amended, on July 26, 2007. The agreement established a joint research effort led by Prof. Arne Skerra, Chair of Biological Chemistry of TUM, to optimize Anticalin technologies for use in therapeutic, prophylactic and diagnostic applications and as research reagents, and to gain fundamental insights in lipocalin scaffolds. We provided certain funding for TUM research efforts performed under the agreement. The research phase of this collaboration ended on February 28, 2013.
Under the terms of the agreement, TUM assigned to us certain materials and records resulting from the research. We retained rights to inventions made by our employees, and TUM assigned to us all inventions made under the agreement jointly by our employees and TUM personnel, provided that our employees made certain inventive contributions. With respect to all other inventions made in the course of the research, TUM granted to us worldwide exclusive license rights under patents and patent applications claiming such inventions. TUM retained rights to practice these inventions for research and teaching purposes.
As a result of research efforts to date under the agreement, we hold a worldwide exclusive license under our license agreement with TUM to multiple patents and patent applications. In the United States, we hold an exclusive license to an issued U.S. patent No. 8,598,317 for the composition of matter of mutein of human tear lipocalin binding to the extracellular region of the T cell co-receptor CD4 with detectable affinity, which patent will expire in 2027 (subject to a patent term adjustment period which is expected to be at least 742 days), as well as to its counterpart in the European Union. We also hold an exclusive license to an issued U.S. patent No. 8,420,051 directed to library of hNGAL scaffold of certain consensus sequence, which patent is expected to expire in 2029 (subject to a patent term adjustment period of 109 days), as well as to its counterparts in the European Union and in a number of foreign jurisdictions. Moreover, we hold an exclusive license to an issued U.S. patent No. 8,987,415 claiming isolated crystalline form of monomeric bacterial lipocalin. We bear the costs of filing, prosecution and maintenance of patents assigned or licensed to us under the agreement.
As consideration for the assignments and licenses, we are obliged to pay to TUM license payments on development of our proprietary products claimed by patents assigned or licensed to us by TUM. For each of such proprietary products developed by us, we could be required to pay up to an aggregate of approximately €0.2 million ($0.2 million) in license payments to TUM under the agreement.
We also are obliged to pay low single digit royalties, including annual minimum royalties, on sales of such products. Should we grant licenses or sublicenses to those patents to third parties, we are obliged to share a percentage of resulting revenue with TUM, which percentage of resulting revenue is creditable against our annual license payments to TUM. Our payment obligations are reduced by our proportionate contribution to a joint invention. Payment obligations terminate on expiration or annulment of the last patent covered by the agreement.
We can terminate the licenses to any or all licensed patents upon specified advance notice to TUM. TUM may terminate the license provisions of the agreement only for cause. Termination of the agreement does not terminate our rights in patents assigned to us.
Enumeral License Agreement
On April 18, 2016, we entered into a License Agreement with Enumeral Biomedical Holdings, Inc., or Enumeral, pursuant to which we acquired a non-exclusive (except in the exclusive field described below) worldwide license to use specified patent rights and know-how owned by Enumeral to research, develop and market fusion proteins consisting of PD-1 antibodies linked to one or more Anticalin proteins for use in the oncology area. Enumeral also agreed not to practice or assist third parties in practicing in the exclusive field, consisting of licensed antibodies fused to Anticalin proteins in the oncology area.
On June 6, 2016, we entered into a Definitive License Agreement to fully set forth the terms of Enumeral’s license of PD-1 antibodies and grant of options to license additional antibodies to us. Under the Definitive License and Transfer Agreement, we in-licensed intellectual property related to an Enumeral-generated antibody against PD-1 and an option to in-license up to two additional antibodies against undisclosed targets. Under the terms of the agreement, we acquired a non-exclusive worldwide license under the applicable Enumeral patents and know-how to research, develop and commercialize fusion proteins incorporating Enumeral’s PD-1 antibody and one or more Anticalin proteins, or the Subsequent Options, which was an expansion of the scope of the original License Agreement.
The Subsequent Options expired on May 31, 2017. We are also obliged to pay to Enumeral development and sales milestones on development of products incorporating the Enumeral antibody, as well as low to lower-middle single-digit royalties as a percentage of net sales depending on the amount of net sales in the applicable years. In the event that we are required to pay a license fee or royalty to any third party related to the licensed products, our royalty payment obligations to Enumeral are reduced by the amount of such third-party fees or payments, up to 50% of the royalty payment for each calendar year due to Enumeral. Payment obligations terminate on a product-by-product and country-by-country basis on the later of ten years from the first commercial sale of a product incorporating the Enumeral antibody or the last to expire, lapse or be abandoned of a claim from the licensed Enumeral patents filed as of the effective date of the agreement that cover the manufacture, use, offer for sale, sale or import of a product incorporating the Enumeral antibody.
The term of the Definitive License Agreement ends upon the expiration of the last to expire patent covered under the license. The Agreement may be terminated by us on 30 days’ notice and by Enumeral upon 60 days’ notice of a material breach by us (or 30 days with respect to a breach of payment obligations by us), provided that we have not cured such breach and dispute resolution procedures specified in the Definitive License Agreement have been followed.
On January 29, 2018, Enumeral filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts (the “Bankruptcy Court”). Enumeral continues to operate its business as a debtor in possession under the jurisdiction of the Bankruptcy Court.
The Bankruptcy Court has approved a process pursuant to which Enumeral will solicit higher or better offers for the PD-1 Assets and conduct an auction process to determine the ultimate purchaser. The process contemplates that the winning bidder will purchase the PD-1 Assets, including the Definitive License Agreement, with the sale contemplated to close in early April 2018. We will have an opportunity to vet the proposed purchaser to ensure that they (i) can continue to perform Enumeral’s obligations under the Definitive License Agreement, and (ii) will not interfere with our use of the rights we currently enjoy under the Definitive License Agreement.
Kelun License Agreement
In connection with our efforts to develop multispecific Anticalin-based proteins designed to engage immunomodulatory targets, during the second quarter of 2017, the Company entered into a License and Transfer Agreement with Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (“Kelun”). Under that Agreement, Kelun has granted to the Company a non-exclusive worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) under certain intellectual property owned or controlled by Kelun to research, develop,
manufacture, and commercialize bi- and multi- specific fusion proteins that include a monoclonal antibody developed by Kelun specific for an undisclosed target and one or more Anticalin proteins. We believe that the drug-like properties of the Anticalin drug class were demonstrated in various clinical trials with different Anticalin-based drug candidates, including PRS-080, PRS-060 and others.
Government Regulation
United States – FDA Process
The research, development, testing, manufacture, quality control, approval, labeling, packaging, storage, record-keeping, promotion, advertising, distribution, marketing, among other things, of drug products are extensively regulated by governmental authorities in the United States and other countries.
U.S. Drug Development Process
In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, regulates drugs under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or FDCA, and in the case of biologics, also under the Public Health Service Act, or PHSA, and implementing regulations. Failure to comply with the applicable U.S. requirements may subject us to administrative or judicial sanctions, such as FDA refusal to approve pending NDAs, or their issuance of warning
letters, or the imposition of fines, civil penalties, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions and/or criminal prosecution. The process required by the FDA before a drug or biologic may be marketed in the U.S. generally involves the following:
|
|
•
|
completion of preclinical laboratory tests, animal studies and formulation studies according to Good Laboratory Practices or other applicable regulations;
|
|
|
•
|
submission to the FDA of an Investigational New Drug application, or IND which must become effective before human clinical trials may begin;
|
|
|
•
|
performance of adequate and well-controlled human clinical trials according to Good Clinical Practices to establish the safety and efficacy of the proposed drug for its intended use;
|
|
|
•
|
submission to the FDA of an New Drug Application, NDA or Biologic License Application, or BLA;
|
|
|
•
|
satisfactory completion of an FDA inspection of the manufacturing facility or facilities at which the drug is produced to assess compliance with current good manufacturing practice, or cGMP, to assure that the facilities, methods and controls are adequate to preserve the drug’s identity, strength, quality and purity; and
|
|
|
•
|
FDA review and approval of the NDA or BLA.
|
Once a pharmaceutical candidate is identified for development, it enters the preclinical testing stage. Preclinical tests include laboratory evaluations of product chemistry, toxicity and formulation, as well as animal studies. An IND sponsor must submit the results of the preclinical tests, together with manufacturing information and analytical data, to the FDA as part of the IND, which must become effective before human clinical trials may begin. An IND automatically becomes effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA, unless the FDA, within the 30-day time period, places the clinical trial on a clinical hold. In such a case, the IND sponsor and the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns before the clinical trial can begin. Clinical holds also may be imposed by the FDA at any time before or during studies due to safety concerns or non-compliance.
All clinical trials must be conducted under the supervision of qualified investigators. Clinical trials are conducted under protocols detailing the objectives of the study, the parameters to be used in monitoring the safety and effectiveness criteria to be evaluated. Each protocol must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND. Further, an Institutional Review Board, or IRB, for each medical center proposing to conduct the clinical trial must review and approve the study protocol and informed consent information for study subjects for any clinical trial before it commences at that center, and the IRB must monitor the study until it is completed. Study subjects must sign an informed consent form before participating in a clinical trial. There are also requirements governing the reporting of on-going clinical trials and clinical trial results to public registries.
Human clinical trials are typically conducted in three sequential phases that may overlap or be combined:
|
|
•
|
Phase I:
The product candidate is initially introduced into healthy human subjects and tested for safety, dosage tolerance, absorption, metabolism, distribution and excretion. In the case of some products for severe or life-
|
threatening diseases, such as cancer, especially when the product may be too inherently toxic to ethically administer to healthy volunteers, the initial human testing is often conducted in patients.
|
|
•
|
Phase II:
This phase involves studies in a limited patient population to identify possible adverse effects and safety risks, to preliminarily evaluate the efficacy of the product for specific targeted diseases and to determine dosage tolerance and optimal dosage.
|
|
|
•
|
Phase 3:
Clinical trials are undertaken to further evaluate dosage, clinical efficacy and safety in an expanded patient population at geographically dispersed clinical study sites. These studies are intended to establish the overall risk-benefit ratio of the product candidate and provide, if appropriate, an adequate basis for product labeling.
|
The FDA or an IRB may suspend clinical trials at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the research subjects or patients are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk. The FDA may approve an NDA for a product candidate, but require that the sponsor conduct additional clinical trials to further assess the drug after NDA approval under a post-approval commitment. Post-approval trials are typically referred to as Phase 4 clinical trials. Similarly, an IRB can suspend or terminate approval of a clinical trial at its institution if the clinical trial is not being conducted in accordance with the IRB’s requirements or if the drug has been associated with unexpected serious harm to patients.
During the development of a new drug, sponsors are given opportunities to meet with the FDA at certain points. Including prior to submission of an IND, at the end of Phase II, and before an NDA or BLA is submitted. These meetings can provide an opportunity for the sponsor to share information about the data gathered to date, for the FDA to provide advice, and for the sponsor and the FDA to reach agreement on the next phase of development. Sponsors typically use the end of Phase II meeting to discuss their Phase II clinical results and present their plans for the pivotal phase 3 clinical trial that they believe will support approval of the new drug.
Concurrent with clinical trials, companies usually complete additional animal studies and must also develop additional information about the chemistry and physical characteristics of the drug and finalize a process for manufacturing the product in commercial quantities in accordance with cGMP requirements. The manufacturing process must be capable of consistently producing quality batches of the product candidate and, among other things, the manufacturer must develop methods for testing the identity, strength, quality and purity of the final drug. Additionally, appropriate packaging must be selected and tested, and stability studies must be conducted to demonstrate that the product candidate does not undergo unacceptable deterioration over its shelf life.
U.S. Review and Approval Processes
The results of product development, preclinical studies and clinical trials, along with descriptions of the manufacturing process, analytical tests conducted on the chemistry of the drug, proposed labeling, and other relevant information are submitted to the FDA as part of an NDA or BLA requesting approval to market the product. The submission of an NDA or BLA is subject to the payment of user fees; a waiver of such fees may be obtained under certain limited circumstances. The FDA reviews all NDAs and BLAs submitted to ensure that they are sufficiently complete for substantive review before it accepts them for filing. The FDA may request additional information rather than accept an NDA or BLA for filing. Once the submission is accepted for filing, the FDA begins an in-depth substantive review. The FDA may refer the NDA or BLA to an advisory committee for review, evaluation and recommendation as to whether the application should be approved and under what conditions. The FDA is not bound by the recommendation of an advisory committee, but it generally follows such recommendations. The approval process is lengthy and often difficult, and the FDA may refuse to approve an NDA or BLA if the applicable regulatory criteria are not satisfied or may require additional clinical or other data and information. The FDA may issue a complete response letter, which may require additional clinical or other data or impose other conditions that must be met in order to secure final approval of the NDA or BLA, or an approved letter following satisfactory completion of all aspects of the review process. The FDA reviews an NDA to determine, among other things, whether a product is safe and effective for its intended use and whether its manufacturing is cGMP-compliant to assure and preserve the product’s identity, strength, quality and purity. The FDA reviews a BLA to determine, among other things whether the product is safe, pure and potent and the facility in which it is manufactured, processed, packed or held meets standards designed to assure the product’s continued safety, purity and potency.
NDAs or BLAs receive either standard or priority review. A drug representing a significant improvement in treatment, prevention or diagnosis of disease may receive priority review. Priority review for an NDA for a new molecular entity and original BLAs will be six months from the date that the NDA or BLA is filed. In addition, products studied for their safety and effectiveness in treating serious or life-threatening illnesses and that provide meaningful therapeutic benefit over existing treatments may receive accelerated approval and may be approved on the basis of adequate and well-controlled clinical trials establishing that the drug product has an effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit or on
the basis of an effect on a clinical endpoint other than survival or irreversible morbidity. As a condition of approval, the FDA may require that a sponsor of a drug receiving accelerated approval perform adequate and well-controlled post-marketing clinical trials. Priority review and accelerated approval do not change the standards for approval, but may expedite the approval process.
If a product receives regulatory approval, the approval may be significantly limited to specific diseases and dosages or the indications for use may otherwise be limited, which could restrict the commercial value of the product. In addition, the FDA may require a sponsor to conduct Phase IV testing which involves clinical trials designed to further assess a drug’s safety and effectiveness after NDA or BLA approval, and may require testing and surveillance programs to monitor the safety of approved products which have been commercialized.
The Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act, or FDASIA, enacted in 2012, made permanent the Pediatric Research Equity Act, or PREA, which requires a sponsor to conduct pediatric studies for most drugs and biologicals, for a new active ingredient, new indication, new dosage form, new dosing regimen or new route of administration. Under PREA, original NDAs, BLAs and supplements thereto, must contain a pediatric assessment unless the sponsor has received a deferral or waiver. The required assessment must assess the safety and effectiveness of the product for the claimed indications in all relevant pediatric subpopulations and support dosing and administration for each pediatric subpopulation for which the product is safe and effective.
Patent Term Restoration and Marketing Exclusivity
Depending upon the timing, duration and specifics of FDA approval of our drugs, some of our U.S. patents may be eligible for limited patent term extension. These patent term extensions permit a patent restoration term of up to five years as compensation for any patent term lost during product development and the FDA regulatory review process. However, patent term restoration cannot extend the remaining term of a patent beyond a total of fourteen years from the product’s approval date. The patent term restoration period is generally one-half the time between the effective date of an IND, and the submission date of an NDA or BLA, plus the time between the submission date of an NDA or BLA and the approval of that application. Only one patent applicable to an approved drug is eligible for the extension, and the extension must be applied for prior to expiration of the patent. The United States Patent and Trademark Office, in consultation with the FDA, reviews and approves the application for any patent term extension or restoration.
Pediatric exclusivity is another type of marketing exclusivity available in the U.S. The FDASIA made permanent the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act, or BPCA, which provides for an additional six months of marketing exclusivity if a sponsor conducts clinical trials in children in response to a written request from the FDA, or a Written Request. If a Written Request does not include studies in neonates, the FDA is required to include its rationale for not requesting those studies. The FDA may request studies on approved or unapproved indications in separate Written Requests. The issuance of a Written Request does not require the sponsor to undertake the described studies.
Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009
In March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was enacted in the U.S. and included the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, or BPCIA. The BPCIA amended the Public Health Service Act, or PHSA, to create an abbreviated approval pathway for two types of “generic” biologics—biosimilars and interchangeable biologic products, and provides for a twelve-year exclusivity period for the first approved biological product, or reference product, against which a biosimilar or interchangeable application is evaluated; however if pediatric studies are performed and accepted by the FDA, the twelve-year exclusivity period will be extended for an additional six months A biosimilar product is defined as one that is highly similar to a reference product notwithstanding minor differences in clinically inactive components and for which there are no clinically meaningful differences between the biological product and the reference product in terms of the safety, purity and potency of the product. An interchangeable product is a biosimilar product that may be substituted for the reference product without the intervention of the health care provider who prescribed the reference product.
The biosimilar applicant must demonstrate that the product is biosimilar based on data from (1) analytical studies showing that the biosimilar product is highly similar to the reference product; (2) animal studies (including toxicity); and (3) one or more clinical studies to demonstrate safety, purity and potency in one or more appropriate conditions of use for which the reference product is approved. In addition, the applicant must show that the biosimilar and reference products have the same mechanism of action for the conditions of use on the label, route of administration, dosage and strength, and the production facility must meet standards designed to assure product safety, purity and potency.
An application for a biosimilar product may not be submitted until four years after the date on which the reference product was first approved. The first approved interchangeable biologic product will be granted an exclusivity period of up to one year after it is first commercially marketed, but the exclusivity period may be shortened under certain circumstances.
Orphan Drug Designation
Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may grant orphan drug designation to a drug intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is generally a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the U.S., or more than 200,000 individuals in the U.S. and for which there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing and making available in the U.S. a drug for this type of disease or condition will be recovered from sales in the U.S. for that drug. Orphan drug designation must be requested before submitting an NDA or BLA. After the FDA grants orphan drug designation, the identity of the therapeutic agent and its potential orphan use are disclosed publicly by the FDA. Orphan drug designation does not convey any advantage in or shorten the duration of the regulatory review and approval process. If a product that has orphan drug designation subsequently receives the first FDA approval for the disease for which it has such designation, the product is entitled to orphan product exclusivity, which means that the FDA may not approve any other applications to market the same drug for the same indication, except in very limited circumstances, for seven years. Orphan drug exclusivity, however, also could block the approval of one of our products for seven years if a competitor obtains approval of the same drug as defined by the FDA or if our product candidate is determined to be contained within the competitor’s product for the same indication or disease.
The FDA also administers a clinical research grants program, whereby researchers may compete for funding to conduct clinical trials to support the approval of drugs, biologics, medical devices, and medical foods for rare diseases and conditions. A product does not have to be designated as an orphan drug to be eligible for the grant program. An application for an orphan grant should propose one discrete clinical study to facilitate FDA approval of the product for a rare disease or condition. The study may address an unapproved new product or an unapproved new use for a product already on the market.
Fast Track Designation and Accelerated Approval
The FDA is required to facilitate the development, and expedite the review, of drugs that are intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening disease or condition for which there is no effective treatment and which demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs for the condition. Under the fast track program, the sponsor of a new drug candidate may request that the FDA designate the drug candidate for a specific indication as a fast track drug concurrent with, or after, the filing of the IND for the drug candidate. The FDA must determine if the drug candidate qualifies for fast track designation within 60 days of receipt of the sponsor’s request.
Under the fast track program and the FDA’s accelerated approval regulations, the FDA may approve a drug for a serious or life-threatening illness that provides meaningful therapeutic benefit to patients over existing treatments based upon a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit, or on a clinical endpoint that can be measured earlier than irreversible morbidity or mortality, that is reasonably likely to predict an effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality or other clinical benefit, taking into account the severity, rarity, or prevalence of the condition and the availability or lack of alternative treatments. In clinical trials, a surrogate endpoint is a measurement of laboratory or clinical signs of a disease or condition that substitutes for a direct measurement of how a patient feels, functions, or survives. A drug candidate approved on this basis is subject to rigorous post-marketing compliance requirements, including the completion of Phase 4 or post- approval clinical trials to confirm the effect on the clinical endpoint. Failure to conduct required post-approval studies, or confirm a clinical benefit during post-marketing studies, will allow the FDA to withdraw the drug from the market on an expedited basis. All promotional materials for drug candidates approved under accelerated regulations are subject to prior review by the FDA.
In addition to other benefits such as the ability to use surrogate endpoints and engage in more frequent interactions with the FDA, the FDA may initiate review of sections of a fast track drug’s BLA before the application is complete. This rolling review is available if the applicant provides, and the FDA approves, a schedule for the submission of the remaining information and the applicant pays applicable user fees. However, the fast track designation may be withdrawn by the FDA if the FDA believes that the designation is no longer supported by data emerging in the clinical trial process.
Post-Approval Requirements
Once an approval is granted, the FDA may withdraw the approval if compliance with regulatory standards is not maintained or if problems occur after the product reaches the market. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product may result in restrictions on the product or even complete withdrawal of the product from the market. After approval, some types of changes to the approved product, such as adding new indications, manufacturing changes and additional labeling claims, are
subject to further FDA review and approval. Drug manufacturers and other entities involved in the manufacture and distribution of approved drugs are required to register their establishments with the FDA and certain state agencies, and are subject to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA and certain state agencies for compliance with cGMP and other laws and regulations. We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties for the production of clinical and commercial quantities of our products. Future inspections by the FDA and other regulatory agencies may identify compliance issues at the facilities of our contract manufacturers that may disrupt production or distribution, or require substantial resources to correct.
Any drug products manufactured or distributed by us pursuant to FDA approvals are subject to continuing regulation by the FDA, including, among other things, record-keeping requirements, reporting of adverse experiences with the drug, providing the FDA with updated safety and efficacy information, drug sampling and distribution requirements, complying with certain electronic records and signature requirements, and complying with FDA promotion and advertising requirements. The FDA strictly regulates labeling, advertising, promotion and other types of information on products that are placed on the market. Drugs may be promoted only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved label.
From time to time, new legislation and regulations may be implemented that could significantly change the statutory provisions governing the approval, manufacturing and marketing of products regulated by the FDA. It is impossible to predict whether further legislative or regulatory changes will be enacted, or FDA regulations, guidance or interpretations changed or what the impact of such changes, if any, may be.
Foreign Regulation
In addition to regulations in the United States, we will be subject to a variety of foreign regulations governing clinical trials and commercial sales and distribution of our products. Whether or not we obtain FDA approval for a product, we must obtain approval by the comparable regulatory authorities of foreign countries or economic areas, such as the 28-member European Union, before we may commence clinical trials or market products in those countries or areas. The approval process and requirements governing the conduct of clinical trials, product licensing, pricing and reimbursement vary greatly from place to place, and the time may be longer or shorter than that required for FDA approval.
Under European Union regulatory systems, a company may submit marketing authorization applications either under a centralized or decentralized procedure. The centralized procedure, which is compulsory for medicinal products produced by biotechnology or those medicinal products containing new active substances for specific indications such as the treatment of AIDS, cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, diabetes, viral diseases and designated orphan medicines, and optional for other medicines which are highly innovative. Under the centralized procedure, a marketing application is submitted to the European Medicines Agency where it will be evaluated by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use and a favorable opinion typically results in the grant by the European Commission of a single marketing authorization that is valid for all European Union member states. The initial marketing authorization is valid for five years, but once renewed is usually valid for an unlimited period.
When conducting clinical trials in the EU, we must adhere to the provisions of the EU Clinical Trials Directive and the laws and regulations of the EU Member States implementing them. These provisions require, among other things, that the prior authorization of an Ethics Committee and the submission and approval of a clinical trial authorization application be obtained in each Member State be obtained before commencing a clinical trial in that Member State.
As in the United States, it may be possible in foreign countries to obtain a period of market and/or data exclusivity that would have the effect of postponing the entry into the marketplace of a competitor’s generic product. As in the United States, a sponsor may apply for designation of a product as an orphan drug for the treatment of a specific indication in the EU before the application for marketing authorization is made. Orphan drugs in Europe enjoy economic and marketing benefits, including up to 10 years of market exclusivity for the approved indication unless another applicant can show that its product is safer, more effective or otherwise clinically superior to the orphan-designated product.
Reimbursement
Sales of pharmaceutical products depend in significant part on the availability of third-party reimbursement. Third-party payors include government healthcare programs, managed care providers, private health insurers and other organizations. These third-party payors are increasingly challenging the price and examining the cost-effectiveness of medical products and services. In addition, significant uncertainty exists as to the reimbursement status of newly approved healthcare products. We may need to conduct expensive pharmacoeconomic studies in order to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of our products. Our product candidates may not be considered cost-effective. It is time consuming and expensive to seek reimbursement from third-party payors. Reimbursement may not be available or sufficient to allow us to sell our products on a competitive and profitable basis.
In addition, in some foreign countries, the proposed pricing for a drug must be approved before it may be lawfully marketed. The requirements governing drug pricing vary widely from country to country. For example, the European Union provides options for its member states to restrict the range of medicinal products for which their national health insurance systems provide reimbursement and to control the prices of medicinal products for human use. A member state may approve a specific price for the medicinal product or it may instead adopt a system of direct or indirect controls on the profitability of the company placing the medicinal product on the market. There can be no assurance that any country that has price controls or reimbursement limitations for pharmaceutical products will allow favorable reimbursement and pricing arrangements for any of our products. Historically, products launched in the European Union do not follow price structures of the United States and generally tend to by significantly lower.
Description of the Acquisition
On December 17, 2014, Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Pieris GmbH and the former stockholders of Pieris GmbH entered into an Acquisition Agreement, or the Acquisition Agreement. Pursuant to the Acquisition Agreement, the stockholders of Pieris GmbH contributed all of their equity interests in Pieris GmbH to Pieris in exchange for shares of Pieris common stock, which resulted in Pieris GmbH becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Pieris, which we refer to as the Acquisition. Prior to the Acquisition, as defined below, Pieris pursued a business of an errand concierge service online marketplace.
Prior to the closing of the Acquisition, on December 5, 2014, Pieris completed a 2.272727-for-1 forward split of its common stock in the form of a share dividend, with the result that 6,100,000 shares of common stock outstanding immediately prior to the stock split became 13,863,647 shares of common stock outstanding immediately thereafter. On December 16, 2014, Pieris amended and restated its Articles of Incorporation to, among other things, change its name from Marika Inc. to “Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,” and increase its authorized capital stock from 75,000,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.001 per share, to 300,000,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.001 per share, and 10,000,000 shares of “blank check” preferred stock, par value $0.001 per share.
On December 17, 2014, Pieris, Pieris GmbH and the former stockholders of Pieris GmbH entered into an Acquisition Agreement, or the Acquisition Agreement. Pursuant to the Acquisition Agreement, the stockholders of Pieris GmbH contributed all of their equity interests in Pieris GmbH to Pieris in exchange for shares of Pieris common stock, which resulted in Pieris GmbH becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Pieris, which we refer to as the Acquisition. The Acquisition closed on December 17, 2014.
In connection with the Acquisition and pursuant to a Split-Off Agreement, dated December 17, 2014 among Pieris, Marika Enterprises Inc. and Aleksandrs Sviks, or the Split-Off Agreement, and a general release agreement, Pieris transferred its pre-Acquisition assets and liabilities to its former majority stockholder, Aleksandrs Sviks, in exchange for the surrender by him and cancellation of 11,363,635 shares of Pieris common stock, or the Split-Off. Upon the closing of the Acquisition and the Split-Off, Pieris discontinued its pre-Acquisition business plans and is now pursuing only the business of Pieris GmbH.
Upon the closing of the Acquisition, Pieris ceased to be a “shell company” under applicable rules of the SEC. On December 17, 2014, in connection with the Acquisition, our Board of Directors changed our fiscal year from a fiscal year ending on June 30 to one ending on December 31 of each year, which was the fiscal year of Pieris GmbH.
Emerging Growth Company and Smaller Reporting Company Status
The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act, establishes a class of company called an “emerging growth company,” which generally is a company whose initial public offering was completed after December 8, 2011 and had total annual gross revenues of less than $1 billion during its most recently completed fiscal year. Additionally, Section 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, establishes a class of company called a “smaller reporting company,” which generally is a company with a public float of less than $75 million as of the last business day of its most recently completed second fiscal quarter or, if such public float is $0, had annual revenues of less than $50 million during the most recently completed fiscal year for which audited financial statements are available. For the year ended December 31, 2017, we qualify as both an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company.
As an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company, we are eligible to take advantage of certain extended accounting standards and exemptions from various reporting requirements that are not available to public reporting companies that do not qualify for those classifications, including without limitation the following:
|
|
•
|
An emerging growth company can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, for complying with new or revised accounting standards.
|
This allows an emerging growth company to delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We have elected to avail ourselves of this extended transition period and, as a result, we will not be required to adopt new or revised accounting standards on the dates on which adoption of such standards is required for other public reporting companies.
|
|
•
|
An emerging growth company is exempt from any requirement that may be adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s report providing additional information about the audit and financial statements, commonly known as an “auditor discussion and analysis.”
|
|
|
•
|
An emerging growth company is not required to hold nonbinding advisory stockholder votes on executive compensation or any “golden parachute” payments not previously approved by stockholders.
|
|
|
•
|
Neither an emerging growth company nor a smaller reporting company is required to comply with the requirement of auditor attestation of internal controls over financial reporting, which is required for other public reporting companies by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
|
|
|
•
|
A company that is either an emerging growth company or a smaller reporting company is eligible for reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in its periodic and annual reports, including without limitation exemption from the requirement to provide a compensation discussion and analysis describing compensation practices and procedures.
|
|
|
•
|
A company that is either an emerging growth company or a smaller reporting company is eligible for reduced financial statement disclosure in its registration statements, which must include two years of audited financial statements rather than the three years of audited financial statements that are required for other public reporting companies. Smaller reporting companies are also eligible to provide such reduced financial statement disclosure in annual reports on Form 10-K.
|
For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company and/or a smaller reporting company, we expect that we will take advantage of the reduced disclosure obligations available to us as a result of those respective classifications. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (i) December 31, 2019, the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the first sale of our common stock pursuant to an effective registration statement under the Securities Act; (ii) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenues of $1 billion or more; (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1 billion in nonconvertible debt during the previous three years; or (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer under applicable SEC rules. We expect that we will remain an emerging growth company for the foreseeable future, but cannot retain our emerging growth company status indefinitely and will no longer qualify as an emerging growth company on or before December 31, 2019.
In accordance with Section 12b-2 of the Exchange Act, we are no longer a smaller reporting company as of December 31, 2017. However, under Item 10(f)(2)(i) of Regulation S-K, we are permitted to avail ourselves of the scaled disclosure requirements available to smaller reporting companies in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Having ceased to be a smaller reporting company, we will no longer be able to avail ourselves of scaled disclosure beginning with our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ending March 31, 2018.
Employees
As of December 31, 2017, we had 68 full-time employees. None of our employees is represented by a labor union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good. In order to successfully develop our drug candidates, we must be able to attract and retain highly skilled personnel. We anticipate hiring additional employees for research and development, clinical and regulatory affairs and general and administrative activities over the next few years. We also utilize the services of consultants, clinical research organizations, and other third parties on a regular basis.
Available Information
Our internet address is www.pieris.com. Copies of our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and all amendments to those reports, are available to you free of charge through the Investors section of our website as soon as reasonably practicable after such materials have been electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. The information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We have included our website address in this Annual Report solely as an inactive textual reference.
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this prospectus, including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes, before making any decision to invest in shares of our common stock. This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements. If any of the events discussed in the risk factors below occurs, our business, prospects, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows could be materially harmed. If that were to happen, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks not currently known to us or other factors not perceived by us to present significant risks to our business at this time also may impair our business operations.
Risks Related to Our Business, Financial Position and Capital Requirements
We have incurred significant losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future. We currently have no product revenues and no approved products, and will need to raise additional capital to operate our business.
We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. To date, we have not generated any commercial sales revenue and are not profitable, and have incurred losses since our inception in August 2000. For the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 we reported net loss of
$17.6 million
and
$22.8 million
, respectively. As of December 31, 2017, we had an accumulated deficit of
$120.3 million
. We expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future, and we expect these losses to increase as we continue our development of, and seek regulatory approvals for, our drug candidates and the commercialization of approved products, if any.
We are currently focused primarily on the development of our lead drug candidates and programs, our immuno-oncology programs including PRS-343, currently in Phase I trials, and our preclinical immuno-oncology programs and drug candidates, our respiratory drug candidate PRS-060, currently in Phase I trials in partnership with AstraZeneca and our hepcidin antagonist, PRS-080, currently in Phase IIa trials, as well as our other programs, including additional partnered programs with AstraZeneca and Servier , which we believe will result in our continued incurrence of significant research, development and other expenses and resources related to those programs. If our research and development efforts, including preclinical studies or the clinical trials for any of our drug candidates fail or produce unsuccessful results and those drug candidates do not gain regulatory approval, or if any of our drug candidates, if approved, fail to achieve market acceptance, we may never become profitable. In addition, the failure of one drug candidate or program may have an adverse impact on other drug candidates and programs that include our class of Anticalin therapeutic proteins. Even if we achieve profitability in the future, we may not be able to sustain profitability in subsequent periods. Our prior losses, combined with expected future losses, have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our stockholders’ equity and working capital.
We will need substantial additional funding to continue our operations, which could result in significant dilution or restrictions on our business activities. We may not be able to raise capital when needed, if at all, or on terms acceptable to us, which would force us to delay, reduce or eliminate our product development programs or commercialization efforts and could cause our business to fail.
Our operations have consumed substantial amounts of cash since inception. We expect to need substantial additional funding to pursue the preclinical and clinical development of our drug candidates, launch, and commercialize any drug candidates for which we receive regulatory approval.
We will require additional capital for the further development and commercialization of our drug candidates and programs and may need to raise additional funds sooner than we currently anticipate if we choose to and are able to expand more rapidly than we currently anticipate. Further, we expect our expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we advance additional programs through preclinical development and into the clinic and monitor the performance and continue to advance and expand our clinical programs particularly PRS-343 as well as PRS-080 and PRS-060. In addition, if we obtain regulatory approval for any of our drug candidates, we expect to incur significant commercialization expenses related to regulatory requirements, product manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution.
Furthermore, we expect to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company. We may also encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other unknown factors that may increase our capital needs and/or cause us to spend our cash resources faster than we expect.
To date, we have financed our operations through a mix of equity investments from private and public investors, the incurrence of debt, grant funding, and revenues from our various collaboration agreements, and we expect to continue to finance our operations through equity investments from public investors for the foreseeable future. Additional funding from those or other sources may not be available when or in the amounts needed, on acceptable terms, or at all.
If we raise capital through the sale of equity, or securities convertible into equity, it would result in dilution to our then existing stockholders, which could be significant depending on the price at which we may be able to sell our securities. If we raise additional capital through the incurrence of indebtedness, we would likely become subject to covenants restricting our business activities, and holders of debt instruments may have rights and privileges senior to those of our equity investors. In addition, servicing the interest and principal repayment obligations under debt facilities could divert funds that would otherwise be available to support research and development, clinical or commercialization activities.
If we obtain capital through collaborative arrangements, these arrangements could require us to relinquish rights to our Anticalin
®
-brand technology or drug candidates and could result in our receipt of only a portion of the revenues associated with the partnered drug.
If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on attractive terms, we could be forced to delay, reduce, or eliminate our research and development for our drug candidates or any future commercialization efforts. Any of these events could significantly harm our business, financial condition, and prospects.
Our limited operating history as a clinical stage company may hinder our ability to successfully meet our objectives.
We were formed in August 2000 and since that time our focus has been on discovery of Anticalin
®
-brand drug candidates. We are currently conducting clinical development of PRS-343, PRS-080 and, in partnership with AstraZeneca, PRS-060, and are also advancing other drug candidates through preclinical development with the intention of initiating additional clinical-stage programs. In addition to our focus in immuno-oncology and respiratory diseases, we are also exploring additional indications that may be suitable for Anticalin-brand drug therapeutics. Our drug candidates are in early stages of development, have not obtained marketing approval, have never generated any revenue from sales, and will require extensive testing before commercialization. We have limited experience with respect to clinical-stage operations, including manufacturing required to support clinical activities and have not yet demonstrated an ability to successfully overcome many of the risks and uncertainties frequently encountered by companies in new and rapidly evolving fields, particularly in the biopharmaceutical area. In addition, the early-stage nature of our drug discovery and development operations can only provide limited operating results upon which investors can evaluate our business and prospects.
Our limited operating history may adversely affect our ability to implement our business strategy and achieve our business goals, which include, among others, the following activities:
|
|
•
|
developing our drug candidates using unproven technologies;
|
|
|
•
|
undertaking preclinical development and clinical trials as well as formulating and manufacturing products;
|
|
|
•
|
obtaining the human, financial and other resources necessary to develop, test, manufacture, commercialize and market our drug candidates;
|
|
|
•
|
engaging corporate partners to assist in developing, testing, manufacturing and marketing our drug candidates;
|
|
|
•
|
continuing to build and maintain an intellectual property portfolio covering our technology and our drug candidates;
|
|
|
•
|
satisfying the requirements of clinical trial protocols, including patient enrollment, establishing and demonstrating the clinical safety and efficacy of our drug candidates and obtaining necessary regulatory approvals;
|
|
|
•
|
achieving acceptance and use by the medical community of our Anticalin platform and drug candidates after they receive regulatory approvals;
|
|
|
•
|
maintaining, growing and managing our internal teams as and to the extent we increase our operations and develop new segments of our business;
|
|
|
•
|
developing and maintaining successful collaboration, strategic and other relationships for the development and commercialization of our drug candidates that receive regulatory approvals with existing and new partners; and
|
|
|
•
|
managing our cash flows and any growth we may experience in an environment where costs and expenses relating to clinical trials, regulatory approvals and commercialization continue to increase.
|
If we are unsuccessful in accomplishing these objectives, we may not be able to develop drug candidates, raise capital, expand our business or continue our operations.
Our global operations subject us to various risks, and our failure to manage these risks could adversely affect our results of operations.
Our business is subject to certain risks associated with doing business globally. One of our growth strategies is to pursue opportunities for our business in several areas of the world, including the United States, Europe (including Germany) and Australia, any or all of which could be adversely affected by the risks set forth below. Accordingly, we face significant operational risks as a result of doing business internationally, such as:
|
|
•
|
fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates;
|
|
|
•
|
potentially adverse tax consequences and changes in tax laws;
|
|
|
•
|
challenges in providing solutions across a significant distance, in different languages and among different cultures;
|
|
|
•
|
different, complex and changing laws governing intellectual property rights, sometimes affording reduced protection of intellectual property rights in certain countries;
|
|
|
•
|
difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations, particularly in new geographic locations;
|
|
|
•
|
restrictions imposed by local labor practices and laws on our business and operations;
|
|
|
•
|
rapid changes in government, economic and political policies and conditions, political or civil unrest or instability, terrorism or epidemics and other similar outbreaks or events;
|
|
|
•
|
compliance with a wide variety of complex foreign laws, treaties and regulations;
|
|
|
•
|
tariffs, trade barriers and other regulatory or contractual limitations on our ability to develop or sell our products in certain foreign markets; and
|
|
|
•
|
becoming subject to the laws, regulations and court systems of multiple jurisdictions.
|
Our failure to manage the market and operational risks associated with our international operations effectively could limit the future growth of our business and adversely affect our results of operations.
Our international operations pose currency risks, which may adversely affect our operating results and net income.
Our operating results may be affected by volatility in currency exchange rates and our ability to effectively manage our currency transaction risks. Our reporting currency is the U.S. dollar, however, 65% of our operating expenses and all of our revenues come from operations outside of the United States. As such, the financial statements are translated for reporting purposes as follows: (1) asset and liability accounts at year-end rates, (2) income statement accounts at weighted average exchange rates for the year and (3) stockholders’ equity accounts at historical rates. Corresponding translation gains or losses are recorded in stockholders’ equity.
As we realize our strategy to expand in the United States, Germany, Australia and further internationally, our exposure to currency risks will increase. We do not manage our foreign currency exposure in a manner that would eliminate the effects of changes in foreign exchange rates. Therefore, changes in exchange rates between these foreign currencies and the U.S. dollar will affect our revenues and expenses and could result in exchange losses in any given reporting period.
We incur currency transaction risks whenever we enter into either a purchase or a sale transaction using a currency other than the U.S. dollar, our functional currency, in particular our arrangements for the purchase of supplies or licensing and collaboration agreements with partners outside of the United States. In such cases, we may suffer an exchange loss because we do not currently engage in currency swaps or other currency hedging strategies to address this risk.
Given the volatility of exchange rates, we can give no assurance that we will be able to effectively manage our currency transaction risks or that any volatility in currency exchange rates will not have an adverse effect on our results of operations.
If we fail to comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations that apply to us, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur costs that could harm our business.
We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures and the handling, use, storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological materials. Our operations also produce hazardous waste products. We generally contract with third parties for the disposal of any hazardous materials we use and wastes we produce. The use of these materials in our business could result in contamination or injury, which could cause damage for which we may be responsible but may not have sufficient resources to pay. We also could incur significant costs associated with civil or criminal fines and penalties for failure to comply with these laws and regulations, which we may not be able to afford.
Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance for our operations in Germany to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees resulting from the use of hazardous materials, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. We do not maintain insurance for environmental liability or toxic tort claims that may be asserted against us in connection with our storage or disposal of biological, hazardous or radioactive materials.
In addition, we may incur substantial costs in order to comply with current or future environmental, health and safety laws and regulations applicable to us. These current or future laws and regulations may impair our research, development or production efforts or impact the research activities we pursue, particularly with respect to research involving human subjects or animal testing. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations also may result in substantial fines, penalties or other sanctions, which could cause our financial condition to suffer.
Health and safety regulations in the United States, Germany, and Australia and in the countries where our technology and potential products are developed, licensed or sold may prevent the sale or use of our technology or products in the future.
We are subject to a variety of regulations regarding worker health and safety in the United States, European Union (Germany), Australia, and in the countries where our technology and potential products are licensed or sold. Because our technology and potential products may frequently involve the manufacture or use of certain chemical or biological compounds, we are required to certify their safety for industrial use and development in a variety of countries and contexts. As there has not been sufficient testing to determine the long-term health and environmental risks of our Anticalin drug candidates and the materials used in the production of such drug candidates and any future products, future regulations may ban the use of our products due to the potential risk they pose to workers or may limit the use of our drug candidates in research and commercial settings. Any such regulations may have a substantial negative impact on our business and revenues, and may cause our business to fail. Because we cannot guarantee the long-term safety of use or exposure to materials used during development or manufacture of our products, we may face liability for health risks or harms caused as a result of developing, manufacturing or other processes that use such materials. Any such claims may have a negative impact on our revenues and may prove substantially disruptive to our business in the future.
In addition, under the European Union regulation on classification, labeling and packaging of substances and mixtures, or CLP, and under other regulations in the United States or other countries related to the clinical development of our drug candidates (including, for example, submissions to regulatory authorities such as the FDA and EMA as well as submissions related to obtaining a non-proprietary (INN and USAN) name for our clinical drug candidates to the World Health Organization (WHO) and United States Adopted Name Council (USAN Council), we may be required to publicly disclose the composition of our proprietary products or substances, which may facilitate infringement or avoidance of our intellectual property by third parties and may potentially reduce the margin we are able to charge for our products by allowing competitors to more accurately determine our production costs. Future development of these regulations may have a further negative impact our revenues and a substantial negative impact on our business.
We may be limited in our use of our net operating loss carryforwards
.
As of December 31, 2017, the Company had net operating loss carryforwards for United States federal income tax purposes of
$24.5 million
and net operating loss carryforwards for state income tax purposes of
$21.3 million
. These tax loss carryforwards expire through 2037. In the United States, utilization of the NOL carryforwards may be subject to a substantial annual limitation under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and similar state provisions due to ownership change limitations that have occurred previously or that could occur in the future. These ownership changes may limit the amount of
NOL carryforwards that can be utilized annually to offset future taxable income and tax, respectively. If we were to lose the benefits of these loss carryforwards, our future earnings and cash resources would be materially and adversely affected. The Company has not currently completed a study to assess whether an ownership change has occurred, or whether there have been multiple ownership changes since the Acquisition.
As of December 31, 2017, the Company had German corporate income tax and trade tax net operating loss carryforwards of approximately
$46.1 million
and
$45.6 million
, respectively, which may be used to reduce our future taxable income in our German jurisdiction. Under current German laws, tax loss carryforwards may only be used to offset any relevant later assessment period (calendar year) $1.2 million plus 60% of the exceeding taxable income and trade profit of such period. In addition, certain transactions, including transfers of shares or interest in the loss holding entity, may result in the partial or total forfeiture of tax losses existing at that date. Partial or total forfeiture of tax losses may further occur in corporate reorganizations of the loss holding entity.
Our business and operations would suffer in the event of system failures, and our operations are vulnerable to interruption by natural disasters, terrorist activity, power loss and other events beyond our control, the occurrence of which could materially harm our business.
Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems and those of our contractors and consultants are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, hacking, ransomware, cyber-attacks, unauthorized access as well as telecommunication and electrical failures. While we have not experienced any such system failure, accident or security breach to date, if such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our drug development programs. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed, ongoing, or planned clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and we may incur substantial costs to attempt to recover or reproduce the data. If any disruption or security breach resulted in a loss of or damage to our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liability and/or the further development of our drug candidates could be delayed.
We are also vulnerable to accidents, electrical blackouts, labor strikes, terrorist activities, war and natural disasters and other events beyond our control, and we have not undertaken a systematic analysis of the potential consequences to our business as a result of any such events and do not have an applicable recovery plan in place. Except for our operations in Germany, where we have business interruption insurance against losses or damages resulting from fire, we do not carry other business interruption insurance that would compensate us for actual losses from interruptions of our business that may occur, and any losses or damages incurred by us could cause our business to materially suffer.
Our failure to comply with data protection laws and regulations could lead to government enforcement actions, private litigation and/or adverse publicity and could negatively affect our operating results and business.
We are subject to data protection laws and regulations that address privacy and data security. The legislative and regulatory landscape for data protection continues to evolve, and in recent years there has been an increasing focus on privacy and data security issues. In the United States, numerous federal and state laws and regulations, including state data breach notification laws, state health information privacy laws and federal and state consumer protection laws govern the collection, use, disclosure and protection of health-related and other personal information. Failure to comply with data protection laws and regulations could result in government enforcement actions, which could include civil or criminal penalties, private litigation and/or adverse publicity and could negatively affect our operating results and business. In addition, in May 2016, the European Union Parliament adopted the comprehensive General Data Privacy Regulation (the “GDPR”) to, among other things, impose more stringent data protection requirements and provide for greater penalties for noncompliance. The GDPR will become fully effective in May 2018. Complying with the enhanced obligations imposed by the GDPR and other regulations may result in significant costs to our business and require us to amend certain of our business practices. Further, enforcement actions and investigations by regulatory authorities related to data security incidents and privacy violations continue to increase. The future enactment of more restrictive laws, rules or regulations and/or future enforcement actions or investigations could have a materially adverse impact on us through increased costs or restrictions on our businesses, and noncompliance could result in regulatory penalties and significant legal liability.
Significant disruptions of information technology systems or security breaches could adversely affect our business.
We are increasingly dependent upon information technology systems, infrastructure and data to operate our business. In the ordinary course of business, we collect, store and transmit large amounts of confidential information (including, among other things, trade secrets or other intellectual property, proprietary business information and personal information). It is critical that we do so in a secure manner to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of such confidential information. We also have
outsourced elements of our operations to third parties, and as a result we manage a number of third-party vendors who may or could have access to our confidential information. The size and complexity of our information technology systems, and those of third-party vendors with whom we contract, and the large amounts of confidential information stored on those systems, make such systems vulnerable to service interruptions or to security breaches from inadvertent or intentional actions by our employees, third-party vendors, and/or business partners, or from cyber-attacks by malicious third parties. Cyber-attacks are increasing in their frequency, sophistication and intensity, and have become increasingly difficult to detect. Cyber-attacks could include the deployment of harmful malware, ransomware, denial-of-service attacks, social engineering and other means to affect service reliability and threaten the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information.
Significant disruptions of our information technology systems, or those of our third-party vendors, or security breaches could adversely affect our business operations and/or result in the loss, misappropriation and/or unauthorized access, use or disclosure of, or the prevention of access to, confidential information, including, among other things, trade secrets or other intellectual property, proprietary business information and personal information, and could result in financial, legal, business and reputational harm to us. For example, any such event that leads to unauthorized access, use or disclosure of personal information, including personal information regarding our patients or employees, could harm our reputation, require us to comply with federal and/or state breach notification laws and foreign law equivalents, and otherwise subject us to liability under laws and regulations that protect the privacy and security of personal information. Security breaches and other inappropriate access can be difficult to detect, and any delay in identifying them may lead to increased harm of the type described above. While we have implemented security measures to protect our information technology systems and infrastructure, there can be no assurance that such measures will prevent service interruptions or security breaches that could adversely affect our business.
The recently passed tax reform bill in the United States could adversely affect our business and financial condition.
On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed into law the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” or TCJA, which significantly reforms the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code. The TCJA, among other things, includes changes to U.S. federal tax rates, imposes significant additional limitations on the deductibility of interest and net operating loss carryforwards, allows for the expensing of capital expenditures, and puts into effect the migration from a “worldwide” system of taxation to a territorial system. Our net deferred tax assets and liabilities will be revalued at the newly enacted U.S. corporate rate, and the impact, if any, will be recognized in our tax expense in the year of enactment.
We continue to examine the impact this tax reform legislation may have on our business. Notwithstanding the reduction in the corporate income tax rate, the overall impact of the TCJA is uncertain and our business and financial condition could be adversely affected. The impact of this tax reform on holders of our securities is also uncertain and could be adverse. This annual report does not discuss any such tax legislation or the manner in which it might affect us or purchasers of our securities. We urge our investors to consult with their legal and tax advisors with respect to such legislation and the potential tax consequences of investing in our securities.
There could be an adverse change or increase in the laws and/or regulations governing our business.
We are subject to various laws and regulations in different jurisdictions, and the interpretation and enforcement of laws and regulations are subject to change. We are also subject to different tax regulations in each of the jurisdictions where we conduct our business or where our management is located. We expect the scope and extent of regulation in the jurisdictions in which we conduct our business, or where our management is located, as well as regulatory oversight and supervision, to generally continue to increase. There can be no assurance that future regulatory, judicial and legislative changes in any jurisdiction will not have a material adverse effect on us or hinder us in the operation of its business.
Risks Related to the Discovery and Development of Our Drug Candidates
We are heavily dependent on the successful development of our drug candidates and programs and we cannot be certain that we will receive regulatory approvals or be able to successfully commercialize our products even if we receive regulatory approvals.
We currently have no products that are approved for commercial sale. We expect that a substantial portion of our efforts and expenditures over the next few years will be devoted to our immuno-oncology programs, particularly PRS-343, our partnered programs with Servier, and other drug candidates, as well as our respiratory programs including PRS-060, our partnered program with AstraZeneca, PRS-080, our hepcidin antagonist, as well as our other programs. We completed dosing of healthy volunteers in a Phase Ia clinical trial with PRS-080 in June 2015, initiated a Phase Ib clinical trial in the first quarter of 2016 (which was completed) and a Phase IIa in the last quarter of 2017. For PRS-343 a Phase I trial was initiated in the second
quarter of 2017. In partnership with AstraZeneca, PRS-060 is in clinical development with Phase I trials initiated in the last quarter of 2017. We are engaged in research and development activities with respect to a number of additional drug candidates and programs. All of our other drug candidates are in the discovery or early preclinical to IND-enabling stage. Accordingly, our business is currently substantially dependent on the successful development, clinical testing, regulatory approval and commercialization of PRS-343, PRS-060, PRS-080 and our other immuno-oncology programs, which may never occur.
Before we can generate any revenues from sales of our lead drug candidates, we must complete the following activities for each of them, any one of which we may not be able to successfully complete:
|
|
•
|
conduct additional preclinical and clinical development;
|
|
|
•
|
manage preclinical, manufacturing and clinical activities;
|
|
|
•
|
obtain regulatory approval;
|
|
|
•
|
establish manufacturing relationships for the clinical and post-approval supply of the applicable drug candidate;
|
|
|
•
|
build a commercial sales and marketing team, either internally or by contract with third parties;
|
|
|
•
|
develop and implement marketing strategies; and
|
|
|
•
|
invest significant additional cash in each of the above activities.
|
Clinical testing of PRS-060 and PRS-343 were initiated in 2017 and clinical testing of PRS-080 is ongoing, while clinical testing for other programs including our immuno-oncology programs, have not yet commenced, and the results of any future clinical trials or preclinical studies of these programs, if unsuccessful, could lead to our abandonment of the development of those drug candidates. If studies of these drug candidates produce unsuccessful results and we are forced or elect to cease their development, our business and prospects would be substantially harmed.
Preclinical and clinical testing of our drug candidates that have been conducted to date or will be conducted in future may not have been or may not be performed in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, which could lead to increased costs or material delays for their further development.
Given the complexity as well as the uncertainty inherent in biopharmaceutical preclinical studies and clinical trials, and because of our limited operating experience, we may discover that our own development activities have not been or are not in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements or have otherwise been or are deficient, and, therefore, advancement of the development of the drug candidates on the basis of those trials and studies is not warranted or will be delayed.
We have also entered into license, partnership, and option arrangements, such as with Allergan, Sanofi, Zydus, Roche, Servier, Aska, AstraZeneca, and Seattle Genetics, relating to certain of our drug candidates, and may continue to do so in the future. Under certain of such arrangements, the development of those drug candidates has been, or in the future may be, conducted wholly by such partners or any third parties with which the partners contract. As a result, we have not been or may not be closely involved with or have any control over those development activities. Although certain of such partners have provided information regarding those drug candidates and the related preclinical studies conducted to date, including certain data that is included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we have not received and do not yet have access to comprehensive information regarding those development activities, including the raw data from the studies that have been conducted, information regarding the design, procedural implementation and structure and information regarding the manufacture of the drug candidates used in the studies. Because we have had no input on the development to date of these drug candidates, we may discover that all or certain elements of the trials and studies our partners have performed have not been, or may not in the future be, in compliance with applicable regulatory standards or have otherwise been or may be deficient, and that advancement of the development of these drug candidates on the basis of those trials and studies is not warranted.
Further, the majority of our development activities for each of our drug candidates to date, including our Phase I and Phase II clinical trials with PRS-080, which is being conducted in Germany, our Phase I clinical trials with PRS-060, which is being conducted in Australia, and our Phase I clinical trial with PRS-343, which is currently being conducted in the United States, and our anticipated future clinical trials, have been, are being, or may in the future be conducted in or outside the United States, including in Europe or Australia, and we may conduct some of our future development activities in other countries or regions. As a result, although those studies may meet the standards of certain applicable foreign regulatory bodies, the structure and design of those clinical trials and preclinical studies may not meet applicable U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA,
requirements and also may not meet the requirements of the applicable regulatory authorities in foreign countries in which we desire to pursue marketing approval for these drug candidates.
If the studies conducted by us or our partners or collaborators do not comply with applicable regulatory requirements or are otherwise not eligible for continued development in the United States, then we or our partners may be forced to conduct new studies in order to progress the development of our drug candidates. We, or our partners, may not have the funding or other resources to conduct or complete these additional studies, which would severely delay or prevent the development plans for these drug candidates and their commercialization. Any such deficiency and delay in the development of these drug candidates would significantly harm our business plans, product revenues and prospects.
Our research and development is based on a rapidly evolving area of science, and our approach to drug discovery and development is novel and may never lead to marketable products.
Biopharmaceutical product development is generally a highly speculative undertaking and by its nature involves a substantial degree of risk. Our specific line of business, the discovery of Anticalin-brand drug therapeutics for patients with a variety of diseases and conditions, such as anemia, asthma and cancer, is an emerging field, and the scientific discoveries that form the basis for our efforts to develop drug candidates are relatively new. Further, the scientific evidence to support the feasibility of developing drug candidates based on those discoveries is both preliminary and limited. In contrast to companies who focus on more traditional drug classes, such as antibodies and small molecules, we believe we are the first, if not the only company, to work with Anticalin-brand drug therapeutics and work to advance these to a clinical stage of development. We are not aware of any company that has successfully developed and obtained approval for a drug based on Anticalin proteins. As a result, identifying drug targets based in part on their suitability with Anticalin-brand drug therapeutics, which is a fundamental aspect of our business approach, may not lead to the discovery or development of any drugs that successfully treat patients with the diseases and conditions we intend to target. Moreover, the lack of successful precedents in the development of Anticalin proteins could result in added complexities or delays in our development efforts. The failure of the scientific underpinnings of our business model to produce viable drug candidates would substantially harm our operations and prospects.
We may not be successful in our efforts to build a pipeline of drug candidates.
A key element of our strategy is to use and expand our Anticalin drug platform to build a pipeline of drug candidates to address different targets, and progress those drug candidates through clinical development for the treatment of a variety of different types of diseases. Although our research efforts to date have resulted in identification of a series of targets, we may not be able to develop drug candidates that have good drug-like properties (target affinity, stability, half-life, etc.) and are safe and effective inhibitors or promoters of all or any of these targets. Even if we are successful in building a product pipeline, the potential drug candidates that we identify may not be suitable for clinical development for a number of reasons, including causing harmful side effects or demonstrating other characteristics that indicate a low likelihood of receiving marketing approval or achieving market acceptance. If our methods of identifying potential drug candidates fail to produce a pipeline of potentially viable drug candidates, then our success as a business will be dependent on the success of fewer potential drug candidates, which introduces risks to our business model and potential limitations to any success we may achieve.
Clinical drug development involves a lengthy and expensive process with uncertain outcomes, is very difficult to design and implement, and any of our clinical trials could produce unsuccessful results or fail at any stage in the process.
Clinical trials conducted on humans are expensive and can take many years to complete, and outcomes are inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. Additionally, any positive results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of a drug candidate may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical trials, such that drug candidates may reach later stages of clinical trials and fail to show the desired safety and efficacy traits despite having shown indications of those traits in preclinical studies and initial clinical trials. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or adverse safety profiles, notwithstanding promising results in earlier phases of the trials. Therefore, the results of any ongoing or future clinical trials we conduct may not be successful.
We initiated Phase I clinical trials for PRS-060 and PRS-343 in 2017. In addition, we completed dosing of healthy volunteers in the clinical Phase Ia trial for PRS-080 in 2015 and initiated a Phase Ib trial in the first quarter of 2016 (which has been completed) and initiated a Phase IIa trial in 2017. We may however experience delays in pursuing those or any other clinical trials, and any planned clinical trials may not begin on time, may require redesign, may not enroll sufficient healthy volunteers or patients in a timely manner, and may not be completed on schedule, if at all.
Clinical trials may be delayed for a variety of reasons, including delays related to:
|
|
•
|
obtaining regulatory approval to commence a trial;
|
|
|
•
|
reaching agreement on acceptable terms with prospective contract research organizations, or CROs, and clinical trial sites, the terms of which can be subject to extensive negotiation and may vary significantly among different CROs and trial sites;
|
|
|
•
|
obtaining institutional review board, or IRB, approval at each trial site;
|
|
|
•
|
enrolling suitable volunteers or patients to participate in a trial;
|
|
|
•
|
developing and validating companion diagnostics, if they are deemed necessary, on a timely basis;
|
|
|
•
|
changes in dosing or administration regimens;
|
|
|
•
|
failure of patients to complete a trial or return for post-treatment follow-up;
|
|
|
•
|
inability to monitor patients adequately during or after treatment;
|
|
|
•
|
clinical investigators deviating from trial protocols or dropping out of a trial;
|
|
|
•
|
regulators instituting a clinical hold due to observed safety findings or other reasons;
|
|
|
•
|
adding new clinical trial sites; and
|
|
|
•
|
manufacturing sufficient quantities of drug candidate of acceptable quality for use in clinical trials.
|
We rely and plan to continue to rely on CROs, CMOs and clinical trial sites to ensure the proper and timely conduct of our clinical trials. Although we have and expect that we will have agreements in place with CROs and CMOs governing their contracted activities and conduct, we will have limited influence over their actual performance. As a result, we ultimately do not and will not have control over a CRO or CMO’s compliance with the terms of any agreement it may have with us, its compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, or its adherence to agreed upon time schedules and deadlines, and a future CRO or CMO’s failure to perform those obligations could subject any of our clinical trials to delays or failure.
Further, we may also encounter delays if a clinical trial is suspended or terminated by us, by any IRB or Ethics Committee at an institution in which such trials are being conducted, by the Data Safety Monitoring Board, or DSMB, for the trial, if applicable, or by the FDA, the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, or other regulatory authorities. Such authorities may impose such a suspension or termination due to a number of factors, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements, inspection of the clinical trial operations or trial site by the FDA, EMA or other regulatory authorities resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold, exposing participants to health risks caused by unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects, development of previously unseen safety issues, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a drug candidate, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial. Therefore, we cannot predict with any certainty the schedule for commencement or completion of any currently ongoing, planned or future clinical trials.
If we experience delays in the commencement or completion of, or suspension or termination of, any clinical trial for our drug candidates, the commercial prospects of the drug candidate could be harmed, and our ability to generate product revenues from the drug candidate may be delayed or eliminated. In addition, any delays in completing our clinical trials will increase our costs, slow down our drug candidate development and approval process and jeopardize regulatory approval of our drug candidates and our ability to commence sales and generate revenues. The occurrence of any of these events could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects significantly.
If we experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment of research subjects in clinical trials, those clinical trials could take longer than expected to complete and our receipt of necessary regulatory approvals could be delayed or prevented.
We may not be able to initiate or continue clinical trials for our drug candidates if we are unable to locate and enroll a sufficient number of research subjects to participate in these trials. In particular, for some diseases and conditions we are or will be focused on, our pool of suitable patients may be smaller and more selective and our ability to enroll a sufficient number of suitable patients may be limited or take longer than anticipated. In addition, some of our competitors have ongoing clinical
trials for drug candidates that treat the same indications as our drug candidates, and volunteers or patients who would otherwise be eligible for our clinical trials may instead enroll in clinical trials of our competitors’ drug candidates.
Patient enrollment for any of our clinical trials may also be affected by other factors, including without limitation:
|
|
•
|
the severity of the disease under investigation;
|
|
|
•
|
the frequency of the molecular alteration we are seeking to target in the applicable trial;
|
|
|
•
|
the eligibility criteria for the clinical trial in question;
|
|
|
•
|
the perceived risks and benefits of the drug candidate under the clinical trial;
|
|
|
•
|
the extent of the efforts to facilitate timely enrollment in clinical trials;
|
|
|
•
|
the patient referral practices of physicians;
|
|
|
•
|
the ability to monitor volunteers or patients adequately during and after treatment;
|
|
|
•
|
the presence of other drug candidates in clinical development for the same indication or against the same target; and
|
|
|
•
|
the proximity and availability of clinical trial sites.
|
Our inability to enroll a sufficient number of patients for our clinical trials would result in significant delays and could require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether. Enrollment delays in our clinical trials may result in increased development costs for our drug candidates, and we may not have or be able to obtain sufficient cash to fund such increased costs when needed, which could result in the further delay or termination of the trial.
The review processes of regulatory authorities are lengthy, time consuming, expensive and inherently unpredictable. If we are unable to obtain approval for our drug candidates from applicable regulatory authorities, we will not be able to market and sell those drug candidates in those countries or regions and our business could be substantially harmed.
The research, testing, manufacturing, labeling, approval, sale, marketing and distribution of drug products are, and will remain, subject to extensive regulation by the FDA in the United States and by the respective regulatory authorities in other countries, which regulations differ from country to country. We are not permitted to market our drug candidates in the United States until we receive the respective approval of a biologics license application, or BLA, from the FDA, or in any foreign countries until we receive the requisite approval from the respective regulatory authorities in such countries. The time required to obtain approval, if any, by the FDA, EMA and comparable foreign authorities is unpredictable, but typically takes many years following the commencement of clinical trials and depends upon numerous factors, including the substantial discretion of the regulatory authorities. We have not submitted a marketing application such as a BLA to the FDA, a marketing authorization application, or MAA, to the EMA or any similar application to any other jurisdiction. Moreover, we have not obtained regulatory approval for any drug candidate in any jurisdiction and it is possible that none of our existing drug candidates or any drug candidates we may seek to develop in the future will ever obtain regulatory approval.
Our drug candidates could fail to receive regulatory approval for many reasons, including any one or more of the following:
|
|
•
|
the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with the design or implementation of our clinical trials;
|
|
|
•
|
we may be unable to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities that a drug candidate is safe and effective for its proposed indication;
|
|
|
•
|
the results of clinical trials may not meet the level of statistical significance required by the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities for approval;
|
|
|
•
|
we may be unable to demonstrate that a drug candidate’s clinical and other benefits outweigh its safety risks;
|
|
|
•
|
the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with our interpretation of data from preclinical studies or clinical trials;
|
|
|
•
|
the data collected from clinical trials of our drug candidates may not be sufficient to support the submission of a BLA or other submission or to obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere;
|
|
|
•
|
the manufacturing processes or facilities of third-party manufacturers with which we contract for clinical and commercial supplies may fail to meet the requirements of the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities;
|
|
|
•
|
the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may fail to approve the companion diagnostics we contemplate developing internally or with partners; and
|
|
|
•
|
the change of the standard of care or approval policies or regulations of the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may significantly change in a manner rendering our clinical data insufficient for approval.
|
The time and expense of the approval process, as well as the unpredictability of future clinical trial results and other contributing factors, may result in our failure to obtain regulatory approval to market, in one or more jurisdictions, PRS-343, PRS-060, PRS-080, our other IO programs, our discovery stage programs, or any other drug candidates we are developing or may seek to develop in the future, which would significantly harm our business, results of operations and prospects. In such case, we may also not have the resources to conduct new clinical trials and/or we may determine that further clinical development of any such drug candidate is not justified and may discontinue any such programs.
In order to market and sell our products in any jurisdiction, we or our third-party collaborators must obtain separate marketing approvals in that jurisdiction and comply with its regulatory requirements. The review and approval procedures can vary drastically among jurisdictions, and each jurisdiction may impose different testing and other requirements to obtain and maintain marketing approval. Further, the time required to obtain those approvals, if any, may differ substantially among jurisdictions. In addition, in many countries or regions outside the United States, it is required that the product be approved for reimbursement before the product can be approved for sale in that country or region. Moreover, approval by the FDA or an equivalent foreign authority does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in any other countries or regions. As a result, the ability to market and sell a drug candidate in more than one jurisdiction can involve significant additional time, expense and effort, and would subject us and our collaborators to the numerous and varying post-approval requirements of each jurisdiction governing commercial sales, manufacturing, pricing and distribution of our drug candidates. We or any third parties with whom we may collaborate may not have the resources to pursue those approvals, and we or they may not be able to obtain any approvals that are pursued. The failure to obtain marketing approval for our drug candidates in foreign jurisdictions could severely limit their potential market and ability to generate revenue.
In addition, even if we were to obtain regulatory approval in one or more jurisdictions, regulatory authorities may approve any of our drug candidates for fewer or more limited indications than we request, may not approve prices we may propose to charge for our products, may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly post-marketing clinical trials, or may approve a drug candidate with a label that does not include the labeling claims necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of that drug candidate. Any of the foregoing circumstances could materially harm the commercial prospects for our drug candidates.
We may expend our limited resources to pursue a particular drug candidate or indication that does not produce any commercially viable products and may fail to capitalize on drug candidates or indications that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success.
Because we have limited financial and managerial resources, we must focus our efforts on particular research programs and drug candidates for specific indications. As a result, we may forgo or delay pursuit of opportunities with other drug candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential. Further, our resource allocation decisions may result in our use of funds for research and development programs and drug candidates for specific indications that may not yield any commercially viable products.
If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular drug candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that drug candidate through collaboration, licensing or other royalty arrangements in cases in which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights to such drug candidate. Any such failure to improperly assess potential drug candidates could result in missed opportunities and/or our focus on drug candidates with low market potential, which would harm our business and financial condition.
Risks Related to Our Dependence on Third Parties
We rely on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and preclinical studies. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for our drug candidates and our business could be substantially harmed.
We depend upon independent investigators and contractors, such as CROs, universities and medical institutions, to conduct our clinical trials and preclinical studies. We rely upon, and plan to continue to rely upon, such third-party entities to execute our clinical trials and preclinical studies and to monitor and manage data produced by and relating to those studies and trials. However, we may not be able to in the future establish arrangements with CROs when needed or on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all, which could negatively affect our development efforts with respect to our drug candidates and materially harm our business, operations and prospects. As a result of the use of third-party contractors, we will have only limited control over certain aspects of their activities. Nevertheless, we are responsible for ensuring that each of our studies, including each of our clinical trials, is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol, legal and regulatory requirements as well as scientific standards, and our reliance on any third-party entity will not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities.
Based on our present expectations, we and our third-party contractors will be required to comply with current Good Clinical Practice, or cGCP, for all of our drug candidates in clinical development. Regulatory authorities enforce cGCP through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, clinical investigators and trial sites. If we or any of our contractors fail to comply with applicable cGCP, the clinical data generated in the applicable trial may be deemed unreliable and the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving a drug candidate for marketing, which we may not have sufficient cash or other resources to support and which would delay our ability to generate revenue from any sales of such drug candidate. Any agreements governing our relationships with outside contractors such as CROs, or CROs or other contractors we may engage in the future, may provide those outside contractors with certain rights to terminate a clinical trial under specified circumstances. If such an outside contractor terminates its relationship with us during the performance of a clinical trial, we would be forced to seek an engagement with a substitute contractor, which we may not be able to do on a timely basis or on commercially reasonable terms, if at all, and the applicable clinical trial would experience delays or may not be completed.
If our contractors do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations or meet expected deadlines, if they need to be replaced or if the quality or accuracy of the data they obtain is compromised due to a failure to adhere to our clinical protocols, legal and regulatory requirements or for other reasons, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for, or successfully commercialize, the affected drug candidates. In addition, we will be unable to control whether or not they devote sufficient time and resources to our preclinical and clinical programs. These outside contractors may not assign as great a priority to our programs or pursue them as diligently as we would if we were undertaking such programs ourselves. As a result, our operations and the commercial prospects for the effected drug candidates would be harmed, our costs could increase and our ability to generate revenues could be delayed. These contractors may also have relationships with other commercial entities, some of whom may compete with us. If our contractors assist our competitors to our detriment, our competitive position would be harmed.
We rely and expect to continue to rely completely on third parties to formulate and manufacture our preclinical, clinical trial and post-approval drug supplies. The development and commercialization of any of our drug candidates could be stopped, delayed or made less profitable if those third parties fail to provide us with sufficient quantities of such drug supplies or fail to do so at acceptable quality levels, including in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements or contractual obligations, and our operations could be harmed as a result.
We have no experience in drug formulation or manufacturing. We do not currently have, nor do we plan to acquire, the infrastructure or capability internally, such as our own manufacturing facilities, to manufacture our preclinical and clinical drug supplies for use in the conduct of our clinical trials and preclinical studies or commercial quantities of any drug candidates that may obtain regulatory approval. Therefore, we lack the resources and expertise to formulate or manufacture our own drug candidates. We have entered into agreements with third-party contract manufacturers, or CMOs, for the clinical-stage manufacture of certain of our drug candidates, including PRS-343, PRS-080 and others. We plan to enter into agreements with one or more manufacturers to manufacture, supply, store, and distribute drug supplies for our current and future clinical trials and/or commercial sales. We intend to establish or continue those relationships for the supply of our drug candidates, however, there can be no assurance that we will be able to retain those relationships on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. If we are unable to maintain those relationships, we could experience delays in our development efforts as we locate and qualify new CMOs. If any of our current drug candidates or any drug candidates we may develop or acquire in the future receive regulatory approval, we will rely on one or more CMOs to manufacture the commercial supply of such drugs.
Our reliance on a limited number of CMOs exposes us to the following risks:
|
|
•
|
We may be unable to identify manufacturers on acceptable terms, or at all, because the number of potential manufacturers is limited Following BLA approval, a change in the manufacturing site could require additional approval from the FDA. This approval would require new testing and compliance inspections. In addition, a new manufacturer would have to be educated in, or develop substantially equivalent processes for the production of our products after their receipt of FDA approval, if any.
|
|
|
•
|
Our third-party manufacturers might be unable to formulate and manufacture our drugs in the volume and of the quality required to meet our clinical needs and commercial needs, if any.
|
|
|
•
|
Our future contract manufacturers may not perform as contractually agreed or may not remain in the contract manufacturing business for the time required to supply our clinical trials or to successfully produce, store and distribute our products.
|
|
|
•
|
Drug manufacturers are subject to ongoing periodic unannounced inspection by the FDA, and corresponding state agencies to ensure strict compliance with current good manufacturing practices, or cGMP, regulations and other government regulations and corresponding foreign standards. We do not have control over third-party manufacturers’ compliance with these regulations and standards.
|
|
|
•
|
If any third-party manufacturer makes improvements in the manufacturing process for our products, we may not own, or may have to share, the intellectual property rights to the innovation.
|
Each of these risks could delay our clinical trials, the approval, if any, of our drug candidates by the FDA or the commercialization of our drug candidates or result in higher costs or deprive us of potential product revenues.
Although our agreements with our CMOs require them to perform according to certain cGMP standards such as those relating to quality control, quality assurance and qualified personnel, we cannot control the ability of our contract manufacturers to implement and maintain these standards. If any of our contract manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA, EMA or other comparable foreign authorities, we would be prevented from obtaining regulatory approval for our drug candidates unless and until we engage a substitute contract manufacturer that can comply with such requirements, which we may not be able to do. Any such failure by any of our contract manufacturers would significantly impact our ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for or market our drug candidates, if approved.
Further, we plan to rely on our manufacturers to purchase from third-party suppliers the materials necessary to produce our drug candidates for our clinical trials. We do not have, nor do we expect to enter into, any agreements for the commercial production of these raw materials, and we do not expect to have any control over the process or timing of our contract manufacturers’ acquisition of raw materials needed to produce our drug candidates. Any significant delay in the supply of a drug candidate or the raw material components thereof for an ongoing clinical trial due to a manufacturer’s need to replace a third-party supplier of raw materials could considerably delay completion of our clinical trials, product testing and potential regulatory approval of our drug candidates. Additionally, if our future manufacturers or we are unable to purchase these raw materials to commercially produce any of our drug candidates that gains regulatory approvals, the commercial launch of our drug candidates would be delayed or there would be a shortage in supply, which would impair our ability to generate revenues from the sale of our drug candidates.
Disagreements with respect to the commercial terms of our sales, licensing, purchase or manufacturing agreements may limit our commercial success.
The rights and obligations of the partners to which we may license our Anticalin technology are governed by the licensing and collaboration agreements we enter into with those partners. In addition, our relationships with CROs and CMOs are governed by the service agreements between us and each manufacturer. Although we attempt to address the full range of possible events that may occur during the development or the manufacturing of Anticalin drug candidates and products, unanticipated or extraordinary events may occur beyond those contemplated by said agreements. Furthermore, our business relationships with our product manufacturers and our collaborators may include assumptions, understandings or agreements that are not included in our agreements with them, or that are inaccurately or incompletely represented by their terms. In addition, key terms in such agreements may be misunderstood or contested, even when both we and the other party previously believed that we had a mutual understanding of our obligations.
Any differences in interpretation or misunderstandings between us and other parties may result in substantial costs and delays with respect to the development, manufacturing or sale of Anticalin drugs, and may negatively impact our revenues and
operating results. Product manufacturers may fail to produce the products and partners may fail to develop the drug candidates with the diligence or under the timeline or in the manner we anticipated, and results may differ from the terms upon which we had agreed. As a result, we may be unable to supply drugs of the quality or in the quantity demanded or required. We may suffer harm to our reputation in the market from missed development goals or deadlines, and may be unable to capitalize upon market opportunities as a result. Resolution of these problems may entail costly and lengthy litigation or dispute resolution procedures. In addition, there is no guarantee that we will prevail in any such dispute or, if we do prevail, that any remedy we receive, whether legal or otherwise, will adequately redress the harm we have suffered. The delays and costs associated with such disputes may themselves harm our business and reputation and limit our ability to successfully compete in the market going forward.
We depend on third parties and intend to continue to license or collaborate with third parties, and events involving these strategic partners or any future collaboration could delay or prevent us from developing or commercializing products.
Our business strategy and our short- and long-term operating results depend in part on our ability to execute on existing strategic collaborations and to license or partner with new strategic partners. We have entered into and expect in the future to enter into collaborative arrangements with established pharmaceutical companies, which will lead, finance or otherwise collaborate or assist in the development, manufacture and marketing of drug products. We believe collaborations allow us to leverage our resources and technologies and we anticipate deriving some revenues from research and development fees, license fees, milestone payments, and royalties from collaborative partners.
Our prospects, therefore, may depend to some extent upon our ability to attract and retain collaborative partners and to develop technologies and products that meet the requirements of current or prospective collaborative partners. We have limited control over the amount and timing of resources that our current collaborators or any future collaborators devote to our collaborations or potential products. These collaborators may breach or terminate their agreements with us or otherwise fail to conduct their collaborative activities successfully and in a timely manner. Further, our collaborators may not develop or commercialize products that arise out of our collaborative arrangements or devote sufficient resources to the development, manufacture, marketing or sale of these products. In addition, our collaborative partners may have the right to abandon research projects, guide strategy regarding prosecution of relevant patent applications and terminate applicable agreements, including funding obligations, prior to or upon the expiration of the agreed-upon research terms. By entering into such collaborations, we may preclude opportunities to collaborate with other third parties who do not wish to associate with our existing third-party strategic partners. In the event of termination of a collaboration agreement, termination negotiations may result in less favorable terms.
There can be no assurance that we will be successful in establishing collaborative arrangements on acceptable terms or at all, that collaborative partners will not terminate funding before completion of projects, that our collaborative arrangements will result in successful product commercialization, or that we will derive any revenues from such arrangements. Potential collaborators may reject collaborations based upon their assessment of our financial, regulatory or intellectual property position and our internal capabilities. Additionally, the negotiation, documentation and implementation of collaborative arrangements are complex and time-consuming. Our discussions with potential collaborators may not lead to the establishment of new collaborations on favorable terms and may have the potential to provide collaborators with access to our key intellectual property filings.
Our success depends in part on the efforts of our current and possible future collaborators, who will likely have substantial control and discretion over the continued development and commercialization of drug candidates that are the subject of our collaborations.
Our current collaborators and future collaborators will have significant discretion in determining the efforts and amount of resources that they dedicate to our collaborations. Our collaborators may determine not to proceed with clinical development or commercialization of a particular drug candidate for a number of reasons that are beyond our control, even under circumstances where we might have continued such a program. In addition, our rights to receive milestone payments and royalties from our collaborators will depend in part on our collaborators’ abilities to establish the safety and efficacy of our drug candidates, obtain regulatory approvals and achieve market acceptance of products developed from our drug candidates. We may also depend on our collaborators to manufacture clinical scale quantities of some of our drug candidates and, possibly, for commercial scale manufacture, distribution and sales. Our collaborators may not be successful in manufacturing our drug candidates or successfully commercializing them.
We face additional risks in connection with our existing and future collaborations, including the following:
|
|
•
|
our collaborators may develop and commercialize, either alone or with others, products that are similar to or competitive with the products that are the subject of the collaboration with us;
|
|
|
•
|
our collaborators may underfund, not commit sufficient resources to, or conduct in an unsatisfactory manner the development, testing, marketing, distribution or sale of our drug candidates;
|
|
|
•
|
our collaborators may not properly maintain or defend our intellectual property rights or they may utilize our proprietary information in such a way as to invite litigation that could jeopardize or potentially invalidate our intellectual property or proprietary information or expose us to potential liability;
|
|
|
•
|
our collaborators may encounter conflicts of interest, changes in business strategy or other business issues which could adversely affect their willingness or ability to fulfill their obligations to us (for example, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies historically have re-evaluated their priorities following mergers and consolidations, which have been common in recent years in these industries);
|
|
|
•
|
disputes may arise between us and our collaborators delaying or terminating the research, development, manufacture or commercialization of our drug candidates, resulting in significant litigation or arbitration that could be time-consuming and expensive, or causing collaborators to act in their own self-interest and not in the interest of our stockholders;
|
|
|
•
|
we might not have the financial or human resources to meet our obligations or take advantage of our rights under the terms of our existing and future collaborations; and
|
|
|
•
|
our existing collaborators may exercise their respective rights to terminate without cause their collaborations with us, in which event, we might not be able to complete development and commercialization of our drug candidates on our own.
|
Our collaborative relationships may not produce the financial benefits that we are anticipating, which could cause our business to suffer.
Part of our strategy is to partner with, or out-license selective products to, other pharmaceutical companies in order to mitigate the cost of developing a drug through clinical trials to commercialization. Our option agreement with ASKA Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., or Aska, is an example of this strategy. Following an analysis period after the completion of the planned Phase IIa study conducted by Pieris, Aska may exercise its option to obtain an exclusive license to develop and commercialize PRS-080 in Japan, South Korea and certain other Asian markets. Should Aska exercise the option, Pieris would be eligible for more than $80 million in combined option exercise fee and milestones associated with development and commercialization of PRS-080 in the first indication in Japan. We may receive further development milestones in additional indications, as well as in other countries within the Aska territory. Even if we successfully complete our Phase IIa study and such study yields favorable results, we cannot guarantee that Aska will exercise its option with respect to PRS-080. If Aska chooses not to exercise its option, we may or may not continue to develop PRS-080 on our own, but the post-option exercise developmental and sales milestone payments described in the agreement, plus additional royalty revenues, will never be realized. Alternatively, if Aska chooses not to exercise its option, we may choose not to continue with the PRS-080 program. If our collaboration with Aska or other similar partners is not successful, and if we cannot earn revenue from collaborative arrangements such as this agreement, our future revenues and business will be harmed.
We may not receive any further milestone, royalty or license payments under our current collaborations.
Although we have received upfront, milestone and other payments to date under our current drug development collaborations, we may not receive any royalty payments or additional license and milestone fees under such agreements. In general, our receipt of milestone, royalty or license payments depends on many factors, including whether our collaborators want and are able to continue to pursue potential drug candidates, intellectual property issues, unforeseen complications in the development or commercialization process, and the ultimate commercial success of the drugs.
Risks Related to the Commercialization of Our Drug Candidates
Even if we receive regulatory approval for any of our drug candidates, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and review. Maintaining compliance with ongoing regulatory requirements may result in significant additional expense to us, and any failure to maintain such compliance could subject us to penalties and cause our business to suffer.
Any regulatory approvals that we receive for our drug candidates may be subject to limitations on the approved indicated uses for which the products may be marketed, or contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing testing, including Phase
IV clinical trials. In addition, if the FDA, EMA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority approves any of our drug candidates, the manufacturing processes, labeling, packaging, distribution, adverse event reporting, storage, advertising, promotion and record keeping for the products will be subject to extensive and ongoing regulatory requirements. These requirements include submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, registration, as well as continued compliance with cGMP. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with our third-party manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in, among other things:
|
|
•
|
restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of the product, complete withdrawal of the product from the market or product recalls;
|
|
|
•
|
fines or warning letters;
|
|
|
•
|
refusal of the FDA or other applicable regulatory authority to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications;
|
|
|
•
|
product seizure or detention, or refusal to permit the import or export of products; and
|
|
|
•
|
consent decrees, injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.
|
In addition, regulatory authorities’ policies (such as those of the FDA or EMA) may change and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of our drug candidates. If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are otherwise not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing approval that we may have obtained, which would adversely affect our business, prospects and ability to achieve or sustain profitability.
Our commercial success depends upon attaining significant market acceptance of our drug candidates, if approved, among physicians, patients, healthcare payors and other members of the medical community.
Even if we obtain regulatory approval for our drug candidates, the products may not gain market acceptance among physicians, health care payors, patients and other members of the medical community, which is critical to commercial success. Market acceptance of any drug candidate for which we receive approval depends on a number of factors, including:
|
|
•
|
perceptions by the medical community, physicians, and patients, regarding the safety and effectiveness of our products;
|
|
|
•
|
the size of the markets for the drug candidate, based on the size of the patient subsets that we are targeting, in the territories for which we gain regulatory approval and have commercial rights;
|
|
|
•
|
the potential and perceived advantages of the drug candidate over alternative treatments;
|
|
|
•
|
the safety of the drug candidate as demonstrated through broad commercial distribution;
|
|
|
•
|
the availability of adequate reimbursement and pricing for our products from governmental health programs and other third-party payors;
|
|
|
•
|
relative convenience and ease of administration;
|
|
|
•
|
cost-effectiveness of our product relative to competing products;
|
|
|
•
|
the prevalence and severity of adverse effects; and
|
|
|
•
|
the effectiveness of sales, marketing and distribution efforts by us and our licensees and distributors, if any.
|
If our drug candidates are approved but fail to achieve an adequate level of acceptance by key market participants, we will not be able to generate significant revenues, and we may not become or remain profitable, which may require us to seek additional financing.
Our product candidates have never been manufactured on a commercial scale, and there are risks associated with scaling up manufacturing to commercial scale.
Our product candidates have never been manufactured on a commercial scale, and there are risks associated with scaling up manufacturing to commercial scale including, among others, cost overruns, potential problems with process scale-up, process reproducibility, stability issues, lot consistency and timely availability of raw materials. There is no assurance that our manufacturers will be successful in establishing a larger-scale commercial manufacturing process for PRS-343, PRS-060, PRS-080 or other product candidates that achieves our objectives for manufacturing capacity and cost of goods. Even if we could otherwise obtain regulatory approval for any product candidate, 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 of the approved product for commercialization, our commercialization efforts would be impaired, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
Reimbursement may be limited or unavailable in certain market segments for our drug candidates, which could make it difficult for us to sell on a profitable basis any products for which we obtain marketing approvals.
There is significant uncertainty related to the third-party coverage and reimbursement of newly approved drugs. Market acceptance and successful commercialization of any of our drug candidates that obtain regulatory approval in domestic or international markets will depend significantly on the availability of adequate coverage and reimbursement from governmental authorities, private health insurers, and other third-party payors for any of our drug candidates, and may be affected by existing and future healthcare reform measures.
Pricing and reimbursement for any of our drug candidates that obtain regulatory approval is uncertain. Government authorities, private health insurers and other third-party payors decide which drugs they will cover and establish reimbursement levels for them, and obtaining coverage and reimbursement approval for a product from any such third-party payors is a time consuming and costly process. Third-party payers are also increasingly challenging the effectiveness of and prices charged for medical products and services. As a result, any denial of private or government payor coverage or inadequate reimbursement for our drug candidates, if any are commercialized, could harm our business and reduce our prospects for generating revenue.
Further, there have been, and may continue to be, legislative and regulatory proposals at the U.S. federal and state levels and in foreign jurisdictions directed at broadening the availability and containing or lowering the cost of healthcare. Existing legislation aimed at patient affordability in the U.S. may be repealed or replaced. The continuing efforts of the government, insurance companies, managed care organizations and other third-party payors to contain or reduce costs of healthcare may adversely affect our ability to set prices for our products that would allow us to achieve or sustain profitability. In addition, governments may impose price controls on any of our products that obtain marketing approval, which may adversely affect our future profitability.
In some foreign countries, particularly in the European Union, the pricing of prescription pharmaceuticals is subject to governmental control. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can be a long and expensive process after the receipt of marketing approval for a drug candidate. To obtain reimbursement or pricing approval in some countries, we may be required to conduct additional clinical trials that compare the cost-effectiveness of our drug candidates to other available therapies. If reimbursement of our drug candidates is unavailable or limited in scope or amount in a particular country, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels, we may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability for sales of any of our drug candidates that are approved for marketing in that country.
We have no experience selling, marketing or distributing products and currently have no internal marketing and sales force. If we are unable to establish effective marketing and sales capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to market and sell our drug candidates, we may not be able to effectively market and sell our drug candidates, if approved, or generate product revenues.
We currently have no sales, marketing or distribution capabilities and there can be no assurance that we will be able to market and sell our products in the United States or overseas. In order to commercialize any drug candidates, we must build on a territory-by-territory basis 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. Therefore, with respect to the commercialization of all or certain of our drug candidates, we may choose to collaborate, either globally or on a territory-by-territory basis, with third parties that have direct sales forces and established distribution systems, either to augment our own sales force and distribution systems or in lieu of our own sales force and distribution systems. If so, our success will depend, in
part, on our ability to enter into and maintain collaborative relationships for such capabilities, such collaborator’s strategic interest in the products under development and such collaborator’s ability to successfully market and sell any such products.
If we are unable to enter into such arrangements when needed on acceptable terms or at all, we may not be able to successfully commercialize any of our drug candidates that receive regulatory approval or any such commercialization may experience delays or limitations. Further, to the extent that we depend on third parties for marketing and distribution, any revenues we receive will depend upon the efforts of such third parties, and there can be no assurance that such efforts will be successful.
To the extent that we decide not to, or are unable to, enter into collaborative arrangements with respect to the sales and marketing of our products, we may in the future need to establish an internal sales and marketing team with technical expertise and supporting distribution capabilities to commercialize our drug candidates, which could be expensive and time consuming and which would require significant attention of our executive officers to manage. Further, may not have sufficient resources to allocate to the sales and marketing of our products.
Any failure or delay in the development of sales, marketing and distribution capabilities, through collaboration with one or more third parties or through internal efforts, would adversely impact the commercialization of any of our products that we obtain approval to market. As a result, our future product revenue will suffer and we may incur significant additional losses.
We face significant competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and our operating results will suffer if we fail to compete effectively.
The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are intensely competitive and subject to rapid and significant technological advances. In addition, the competition in the anemia, asthma and cancer markets is intense. We have competitors both in the United States and internationally, including major multinational pharmaceutical companies, fully integrated pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, smaller companies that are collaborating with larger pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and other public and private research organizations.
There are several third-party drug candidates that could be competitive with drug candidates in our pipeline.
Drug candidates interfering with hepcidin function and thus competing with PRS-080 include those that are being developed by Lilly (LY-2928057), Ferrumax (FMX-8) and Ionis/Xenon (XEN701). In addition, drug candidates being develop for anemia associated with chronic kidney disease targeting other pathways than hepcidin also competes with PRS-080, this include HIF-PH inhibitors such as FibroGen/AstraZeneca/Astella’s Roxadustat and Akebia/Mitsubishi/Otsuka’s Vadadustat. Drug candidates interfering with the function of type 2 helper T cells, or Th2, the biological pathway for PRS-060, and thus competing with PRS-060, include those that are being developed by Sanofi/Regnereron (dupilumab), GSK (mepolizumab/Nucala), Teva (reslizumab/Cinqair) and Amgen/AstraZeneca (tezepelumab). Drugs targeting immunomodulatory targets and thus competing with our 300-Series programs include those that are currently marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb (Yervoy/ipilimumab, Opdivo/nivolumab), Merck & Co (Keytruda/pembrolizumab), Roche (Tecentriq/atezolizumab), Merck Serono/Pfizer (Bavencio/Avelumab) and AstraZeneca (Imfinzi/durvalumab) and drug candidates being developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb (e.g. urelumab/anti-CD137 and relatlimab/anti-LAG3), Pfizer (e.g. utomilumab /anti-CD137 and PF-04518600/anti-OX40) and others clinical stage drug candidates also competes with our 300-Series. Additionally, a number of other companies, such as Amgen, Affimed, Macrogenics, F-Star Molecular Partners, Xencor, Immunocore and Zymeworks, also pursue multispecific approaches in oncology, which therapies are in clinical or preclinical development. For additional information about our third-party drug candidates which could be competitive with the drug candidates in our pipeline, see “Business-Competition.”
These existing or future competing products may provide therapeutic convenience or clinical or other benefits for a specific indication greater than our products, or may offer comparable performance at a lower cost. If our products fail to capture and maintain market share, we may not achieve sufficient product revenue and our business will suffer.
Many of our competitors have substantially greater financial, technical and other resources than we do, such as larger research and development staff and experienced marketing and manufacturing organizations, as well as significantly greater experience in:
|
|
•
|
undertaking preclinical testing and clinical trials;
|
|
|
•
|
obtaining FDA and other regulatory approvals of drugs;
|
|
|
•
|
prosecuting and enforcing intellectual property rights;
|
|
|
•
|
formulating and manufacturing drugs; and
|
|
|
•
|
launching, marketing and selling drugs.
|
Established pharmaceutical companies may invest heavily to accelerate discovery and development of or in-license novel compounds that could make our drug candidates less competitive. In addition, any new product that competes with an approved product must demonstrate compelling advantages in efficacy, convenience, tolerability and safety in order to overcome price competition and to be commercially successful. Accordingly, our competitors may succeed in obtaining patent protection, receiving FDA, EMA or other regulatory approval, or discovering, developing and commercializing medicines before we do, which would have a material adverse effect on our business and ability to achieve profitability from future sales of our approved drug candidates, if any. For additional information about our competitors, please see “Business—Competition.”
We could be subject to product liability lawsuits based on the use of our drug candidates in clinical testing or, if obtained, following marketing approval and commercialization. If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to cease clinical testing or limit commercialization of our drug candidates.
We could be subject to product liability lawsuits if any drug candidate we develop allegedly causes injury or is found to be otherwise unsuitable for human use during product testing, manufacturing, marketing or sale. Any such product liability claims may include allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a failure to warn of dangers inherent in the product, negligence, strict liability and a breach of warranties. Claims could also be asserted under state consumer protection acts.
Our inability to obtain and retain sufficient product liability insurance at an acceptable cost to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the clinical testing and commercialization of products we develop on our own or with collaborators. We do not currently carry general product liability insurance. We have put in place several applicable product liability insurance covering us as sponsor and the investigators involved in clinical trials. For our PRS-080 Phase IIa study in healthy volunteers we have one liability insurance in Germany, in an amount of up to the lesser of $0.6 million per enrolled subject or $12.0 million for the Phase IIa clinical trial in its entirety and one liability insurance in the Czech Republic, in an amount of $0.3 million per enrolled subject or $2.8 million for the Phase IIa clinical trial in its entirety. For our PRS-060 Phase Ia study in healthy volunteers we have one liability insurance in an amount of up to AUD 20.0 million ($15.6 million) per enrolled subject and in the annual aggregate. For our PRS-343 Phase Ia study in healthy volunteers we have one liability insurance in an amount of up to $3.0 million per enrolled subject and in the annual aggregate. In the future, we will seek to obtain appropriate insurance coverage with respect to any future clinical trials of our other drug candidates, but we may not be able to obtain the levels of coverage desired on acceptable terms, or at all. If we do secure product liability insurance, we may subsequently determine that additional amounts of coverage would be desirable at later stages of clinical development of our drug candidates or upon commencing commercialization of any drug candidate that obtains required approvals, but we may not be able to obtain such additional coverage amounts when needed on acceptable terms, or at all. Unless and until we obtain such insurance, we would be solely responsible for any product liability claims relating to our preclinical and clinical development activities. Further, even after any such insurance coverage is obtained, any claim that may be brought against us could result in a court judgment or settlement in an amount that is not covered, in whole or in part, by any insurance policies we may then have or that is in excess of the limits of our insurance coverage. We would be required to pay any amounts awarded by a court or negotiated in a settlement that exceed the coverage limitations or that are not covered by any product liability insurance we may obtain, and we may not have, or be able to obtain, sufficient capital to pay such amounts.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
If we breach any of the agreements under which we license from third parties the intellectual property rights or commercialization rights to our drug candidates, particularly our license agreements with TUM and Enumeral, we could lose license rights that are important to our business and our operations could be materially harmed.
Under the TUM License Agreement, we in-license significant intellectual property related to our Anticalin
®
platforms from Technische Universität München, or TUM. Under the terms of the agreement, TUM assigns to us certain materials and records resulting from the research. We retain rights to inventions made by our employees, and TUM assigns to us all inventions made under the agreement jointly by our employees and TUM personnel, provided that our employees have made a certain inventive contribution. With respect to all other inventions made in the course of the research, TUM grants to us worldwide exclusive license rights under patents and patent applications claiming such inventions. TUM retains rights to practice these inventions
for research and teaching purposes. We bear the costs of filing, prosecution and maintenance of patents assigned or licensed to us under the agreement.
As consideration for the assignments and licenses, we are obliged to pay to TUM milestone payments on development of our proprietary products claimed by patents assigned or licensed to us by TUM. We also are obliged to pay low single-digit royalties, including annual minimum royalties, on sales of such products. Should we grant licenses or sublicenses to those patents to third parties, we are obliged to pay to TUM certain undisclosed fees as a function of out-licensing revenues in connection with those patents, or Out-License Fees, where such Out-License Fees are creditable against annual license payments to TUM. Our payment obligations are reduced by our proportionate contribution to a joint invention. Payment obligations terminate on expiration or annulment of the last patent covered by the TUM License Agreement that covers a proprietary product or is sublicensed, as applicable.
Under the Definitive License and Transfer Agreement with Enumeral Biomedical Holdings, Inc. or Enumeral, we in-licensed intellectual property related to an Enumeral-generated antibody against PD-1 and an option to in-license up to two additional antibodies against undisclosed targets. Under the terms of the agreement, we acquired a non-exclusive worldwide license under the applicable Enumeral patents and know-how to research, develop and commercialize fusion proteins incorporating Enumeral’s PD-1 antibody and one or more Anticalin proteins.
As consideration, we are obliged to pay to Enumeral development and sales milestones on development of products incorporating the Enumeral antibody. We are also obliged to pay low to lower-middle single-digit royalties as a percentage of net sales depending on the amount of net sales in the applicable years. In the event that we are required to pay a license fee or royalty to any third party related to the licensed products, our royalty payment obligations to Enumeral are reduced by the amount of such third-party fees or payments, up to 50% of the royalty payment for each calendar year due to Enumeral. Payment obligations terminate on a product-by-product and country-by-country basis on the later of ten years from the first commercial sale of a product incorporating the Enumeral antibody or the last to expire, lapse or be abandoned of a claim from the licensed Enumeral patents filed as of the effective date of the agreement that cover the manufacture, use, offer for sale, sale or import of a product incorporating the Enumeral antibody.
In addition to the TUM License Agreement and the Definitive License and Transfer Agreement with Enumeral, or the Enumeral License Agreement, we have other in-license agreements (such as with Kelun) and may seek to enter into additional agreements with other third parties in the future granting similar license rights with respect to other potential drug candidates. If we fail to comply with any of the conditions or obligations or otherwise breach the terms of the TUM License Agreement or the Enumeral License Agreement, the Kelun License Agreement, or any future license agreement we may enter on which our business or drug candidates are dependent, TUM or Enumeral or other licensors may have the right to terminate the applicable agreement in whole or in part and thereby extinguish our rights to the licensed technology and intellectual property and/or any rights we have acquired to develop and commercialize certain drug candidates, including, with respect to the TUM License Agreement and Enumeral License Agreement, our Anticalin drug therapies. Under the TUM License Agreement, we can terminate the licenses to any or all licensed patents upon specified advance notice to TUM. TUM may terminate the license provisions of the agreement only for cause. Termination of the agreement does not terminate our rights in patents assigned to us but would terminate our rights to patents licensed to us under the agreement. Under the Enumeral License Agreement, we can terminate the agreement upon 30 days’ notice to Enumeral. Enumeral may terminate the Enumeral License Agreement only upon a material breach by us that is not cured. The loss of the rights licensed to us under our license agreement with TUM or Enumeral, or any future license agreement that we may enter granting us rights on which our business or drug candidates are dependent, would eliminate our ability to further develop the applicable drug candidates and would materially harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.
Risks Related to Managing Any Growth We May Experience
We will need to grow the size of our organization, and we may not successfully manage any growth we may achieve.
Our success will depend upon the expansion of our operations and our ability to successfully manage our growth. Our future growth, if any, may place a significant strain on our management and on our administrative, operational, and financial resources requiring us to implement and improve our operational, financial, and management systems.
In addition, our ability to manage our growth effectively will hinge upon our ability to expand, train, manage, and motivate our employees. As of December 31, 2017, we have 68 full-time employees. As our development and commercialization plans and strategies develop, these demands may also require the hiring of additional research, development, managerial, operational, sales, marketing, financial, accounting, legal, and other personnel.
Moreover, future growth could require the development of additional expertise by management and impose significant added responsibilities on members of management, including:
|
|
•
|
effectively managing our clinical trials and submissions to regulatory authorities for marketing approvals;
|
|
|
•
|
effectively managing our internal research and development efforts such as discovery research and preclinical development;
|
|
|
•
|
identifying, recruiting, maintaining, motivating and integrating additional employees;
|
|
|
•
|
effectively managing our internal and external business development efforts with current or future partners, such as entering into additional collaboration arrangements and increasing out-licensing revenues;
|
|
|
•
|
establishing relationships with third parties essential to our business and ensuring compliance with our contractual obligations to such third parties;
|
|
|
•
|
developing and managing new divisions of our internal business, including any sales and marketing segment we elect to establish;
|
|
|
•
|
maintaining our compliance with public company reporting and other obligations, including establishing and maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures; and
|
|
|
•
|
improving our managerial, development, operational and finance systems.
|
We may not be able to accomplish any of those tasks, and our failure to do so could prevent us from effectively managing future growth, if any, and successfully growing our company.
Any increase in resources devoted to research and product development without a corresponding increase in our operational, financial, and management systems could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may make future acquisitions that could disrupt our business, cause dilution to our stockholders and harm our financial condition and operating results.
We may, in the future, make acquisitions of, or investments in, companies that we believe have products or capabilities that are a strategic or commercial fit with our current business or otherwise offer opportunities for our company. In connection with these acquisitions or investments, we may:
|
|
•
|
issue common stock or other forms of equity that would dilute our existing stockholders’ percentage of ownership;
|
|
|
•
|
incur debt and assume liabilities; and
|
|
|
•
|
incur amortization expenses related to intangible assets or incur large and immediate write-offs.
|
We may not be able to complete acquisitions on favorable terms, if at all. If we do complete an acquisition, we cannot assure you that it will ultimately strengthen our competitive position or that it will be viewed positively by customers, financial markets or investors. Furthermore, future acquisitions could pose numerous additional risks to our operations, including:
|
|
•
|
problems integrating the purchased business, products or technologies;
|
|
|
•
|
challenges in achieving strategic objectives, cost savings and other anticipated benefits;
|
|
|
•
|
increases to our expenses;
|
|
|
•
|
the assumption of significant liabilities that exceed the limitations of any applicable indemnification provisions or the financial resources of any indemnifying party;
|
|
|
•
|
inability to maintain relationships with key customers, vendors and other business partners of the acquired businesses;
|
|
|
•
|
diversion of management’s attention from their day-to-day responsibilities;
|
|
|
•
|
difficulty in maintaining controls, procedures and policies during the transition and integration;
|
|
|
•
|
entrance into marketplaces where we have no or limited prior experience and where competitors have stronger marketplace positions;
|
|
|
•
|
potential loss of key employees, particularly those of the acquired entity; and
|
|
|
•
|
that historical financial information may not be representative or indicative of our results as a combined company.
|
If our efforts to protect the proprietary nature of the intellectual property related to our technologies are not adequate, we may not be able to compete effectively and our business would be harmed.
We rely upon a combination of patents, trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect the intellectual property related to our technologies. Any disclosure to, or misappropriation by, third parties of our proprietary information could enable competitors to quickly duplicate or surpass our technological achievements, thus eroding any competitive advantage we may derive from the proprietary information.
The strength of patents in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields can be uncertain and involve complex legal and scientific questions. No consistent policy regarding the breadth of claims allowed in patents has emerged to date in the United States. Accordingly, we cannot predict the breadth of claims that may be allowed or enforced, or that the scope of any patent rights could provide a sufficient degree of protection that could permit us to gain or keep our competitive advantage with respect to these products and technologies. For example, we cannot predict:
|
|
•
|
the degree and range of protection any patents will afford us against competitors, including whether third parties will find ways to make, use, sell, offer to sell or import competitive products without infringing our patents;
|
|
|
•
|
if and when patents will be issued;
|
|
|
•
|
whether or not others will obtain patents claiming inventions similar to those covered by our patents and patent applications; or
|
|
|
•
|
whether we will need to initiate litigation or administrative proceedings (e.g. at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or the USPTO, or the European Patent Office, or the EPO) in connection with patent rights, which may be costly whether we win or lose.
|
As a result, the patent applications we own or license may fail to result in issued patents in the United States or in foreign countries. Third parties may challenge the validity, enforceability or scope of any issued patents we own or license or any applications that may issue as patents in the future, which may result in those patents being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable. Even if they are unchallenged, our patents and patent applications may not adequately protect our intellectual property or prevent others from developing similar products that do not fall within the scope of our patents. If the breadth or strength of protection provided by the patents we hold or pursue is threatened, our ability to commercialize any drug candidates with technology protected by those patents could be threatened. Further, if we encounter delays in our clinical trials, the period of time during which we would have patent protection for any covered drug candidates that obtain regulatory approval would be reduced. Since patent applications in the United States and most other countries are confidential for a period of time after filing, we cannot be certain at the time of filing that we are the first to file any patent application related to our drug candidates.
While patent term extensions under the Hatch-Waxman Act in the United States and under supplementary protection certificates in Europe may be available to extend our patent exclusivity for our drug candidates, the applicable patents may not meet the specified conditions for eligibility for any such term extension and, even if eligible, we may not be able to obtain any such term extension. Further, because filing, prosecuting, defending and enforcing patents in multiple jurisdictions can be expensive, we may elect to pursue patent protection relating to our drug candidates in only certain jurisdictions. As a result, competitors would be permitted to use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products, any of which could compete with our drug candidates.
In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we seek to rely on trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect proprietary know-how that is not patentable, processes for which patents are difficult to enforce and any other elements of our discovery platform and drug development processes that involve proprietary know-how, information or technology that is not covered by patents or not amenable to patent protection. Although we require all of our employees and certain
consultants and advisors to assign inventions to us, and require all of our employees, consultants, advisors and any third parties who have access to our proprietary know-how, information or technology to enter into confidentiality agreements, our trade secrets and other proprietary information may be disclosed or competitors may otherwise gain access to such information or independently develop substantially equivalent information. Further, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent or in the same manner as the laws of the United States. As a result, we may encounter significant difficulty in protecting and defending our intellectual property both in the United States and abroad. If we are unable to prevent material disclosure of the trade secrets and other intellectual property related to our technologies to third parties, we may not be able to establish or maintain the competitive advantage that we believe is provided by such intellectual property, which could adversely affect our market position and business and operational results.
Claims that we infringe the intellectual property rights of others may prevent or delay our drug discovery and development efforts.
Our research, development and commercialization activities, as well as any drug candidates or products resulting from those activities, may infringe or be accused of infringing a patent or other form of intellectual property under which we do not hold a license or other rights. Third parties may assert that we are employing their proprietary technology without authorization.
There may be third-party patents of which we are currently unaware with claims that cover the use or manufacture of our drug candidates or the practice of our related methods. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent applications that may later result in issued patents that our drug candidates may infringe. In addition, third parties may obtain patents in the future and claim that use of our drug candidates infringes upon one or more claims of these patents. If our activities or drug candidates infringe the patents or other intellectual property rights of third parties, the holders of such intellectual property rights may be able to block our ability to commercialize such drug candidates or practice our methods unless we obtain a license under the intellectual property rights or until any applicable patents expire or are determined to be invalid or unenforceable.
Defense of any intellectual property infringement claims against us, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a significant diversion of resources from our business. In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may have to pay substantial damages, obtain one or more licenses from third parties, limit our business to avoid the infringing activities, pay royalties and/or redesign our infringing drug candidates or alter related formulations, processes, methods or other technologies, any or all of which may be impossible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure. Further, if we were to seek a license from the third-party holder of any applicable intellectual property rights, we may not be able to obtain the applicable license rights when needed or on reasonable terms, or at all. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of complex patent litigation or proceeding more effectively than us due to their substantially greater resources. The occurrence of any of the above events could prevent us from continuing to develop and commercialize one or more of our drug candidates and our business could materially suffer.
We may desire to, or be forced to, seek additional licenses to use intellectual property owned by third parties, and such licenses may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.
Third parties may also hold intellectual property, including patent rights that are important or necessary to the development of our drug candidates, in which case we would need to obtain a license from that third party or develop a different formulation of the product that does not infringe upon the applicable intellectual property, which may not be possible. Additionally, we may identify drug candidates that we believe are promising and whose development and other intellectual property rights are held by third parties. In such a case, we may desire to seek a license to pursue the development of those drug candidates. Any license that we may desire to obtain or that we may be forced to pursue may not be available when needed on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Any inability to secure a license that we need or desire could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and prospects.
The patent protection covering some of our drug candidates may be dependent on third parties, who may not effectively maintain that protection.
While we expect the right to fully prosecute any patents covering drug candidates we may in-license from third-party owners, there may be instances when the prosecution and maintenance of issued patents and pending patent applications that cover our drug candidates remain controlled by our licensors. Similarly, some of our future licensing partners may retain the right, or may seek the rights, to prosecute patents covering the drug candidates we license to them and we may grant such rights to those partners for business reasons. If such third parties fail to appropriately maintain that patent protection, we may not be able to prevent competitors from developing and selling competing products or practicing competing methods and our ability to generate revenue from any commercialization of the affected drug candidates may suffer.
Certain technologies and patents have been developed with partners and we may face restrictions on this jointly developed intellectual property.
We have entered into agreements with a number of commercial partners, including university partners, which cover intellectual property. We have, in some cases individually and in other cases along with our partners, filed for patent protection for a number of technologies developed under these agreements and may in the future file for further intellectual property protection and/or seek to commercialize such technologies. Under some of these agreements, certain intellectual property developed by us and the relevant partner may be subject to joint ownership by us and the partner and our commercial use of such intellectual property may be restricted, or may require written consent from, or a separate agreement with, the partner. In other cases, we may not have any rights to use intellectual property solely developed and owned by the partner. If we cannot obtain commercial use rights for such jointly owned intellectual property or partner-owned intellectual property, our future product development and commercialization plans may be adversely affected.
We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or the patents of our licensors, which could be expensive, time-consuming and unsuccessful.
Competitors may infringe our patents or the patents of our current or potential licensors. To attempt to stop infringement or unauthorized use, we may need to enforce one or more of our patents, which can be expensive and time-consuming and distract management. If we pursue any litigation, a court may decide that a patent of ours or any of our licensors’ is not valid or is unenforceable, or may refuse to stop the other party from using the relevant technology on the grounds that our patents do not cover the technology in question. Further, the legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, which could reduce the likelihood of success of, or the amount of damages that could be awarded resulting from, any infringement proceeding we pursue in any such jurisdiction. An adverse result in any infringement litigation or defense proceedings could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated, held unenforceable, or interpreted narrowly and could put our patent applications at risk of not issuing, which could limit our ability to exclude competitors from directly competing with us in those jurisdictions.
Interference proceedings provoked by third parties or brought by the USPTO or at its foreign counterparts (such as the EPO) to determine the priority of inventions with respect to our patents or patent applications or those of our licensors. An unfavorable outcome could require us to cease using the related technology or to attempt to license rights to use it from the prevailing party. Our business could be harmed if the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms, or at all.
Litigation or interference proceedings may fail and, even if successful, may result in substantial costs and distract our management and other employees.
If we are unsuccessful in obtaining or maintaining patent protection for intellectual property in development, our business and competitive position would be harmed.
We are seeking patent protection of our technology and for our drug candidates. Patent prosecution is a challenging process and is not assured of success. If we are unable to secure patent protection for our technology and drug candidates, our business may be adversely impacted.
In addition, issued patents and pending applications require regular maintenance. Failure to maintain our portfolio may result in loss of rights that may adversely impact our intellectual property rights, for example by rendering issued patents unenforceable or by prematurely terminating pending applications.
If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, our business and competitive position would be harmed.
In addition to seeking patents for our Anticalin-brand technology and some of our drug candidates, we also rely on trade secrets, including unpatented know-how, technology and other proprietary information, to maintain our competitive position. We currently, and expect in the future to continue to, seek to protect these trade secrets, in part by entering into confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to them, such as our employees, collaborators, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors, investigators and other third parties. We also enter into confidentiality and invention or patent assignment agreements with our employees and consultants. Despite these efforts, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information, including our trade secrets, and we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for any such disclosure. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts inside and outside the United States are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, we would have no right to prevent them, or those to whom they disclose the trade secrets, from using that
technology or information to compete with us. If any of our trade secrets were to be disclosed to or independently developed by a competitor, our competitive position would be harmed.
If we fail to protect our trademark rights, competitors may be able to take advantage of our goodwill, which would weaken our competitive position, reduce our revenues and increase our costs.
We believe that the protection of our trademark rights is an important factor in product recognition, maintaining goodwill, and maintaining or increasing market share. We may expend substantial cost and effort in an attempt to register, maintain and enforce our trademark rights. If we do not adequately protect our rights in our trademarks from infringement, any goodwill that we have developed in those trademarks could be lost or impaired.
Third parties may claim that the sale or promotion of our products, when and if we have any, may infringe on the trademark rights of others. Trademark infringement problems occur frequently in connection with the sale and marketing of pharmaceutical products. If we become involved in any dispute regarding our trademark rights, regardless of whether we prevail, we could be required to engage in costly, distracting and time-consuming litigation that could harm our business. If the trademarks we use are found to infringe upon the trademark of another company, we could be liable for damages and be forced to stop using those trademarks, and as result, we could lose all the goodwill that has been developed in those trademarks.
Certain of our employees and their inventions are subject to German law.
Many of our employees work in Germany and are subject to German employment law. Ideas, developments, discoveries and inventions made by such employees and consultants are subject to the provisions of the German Act on Employees’ Inventions (
Gesetz über Arbeitnehmererfindungen
), which regulates the ownership of, and compensation for, inventions made by employees. We face the risk that disputes can occur between us and such employees or ex-employees pertaining to alleged non-adherence to the provisions of this act that may be costly to defend and take up our management’s time and efforts whether we prevail or fail in such dispute. In addition, under the German Act on Employees’ Inventions, certain employees retained rights to patents they invented or co-invented prior to 2009. Although most of these employees have subsequently assigned their interest in these patents to us, there is a risk that the compensation we provide to them may be deemed insufficient and we may be required under German law to increase the compensation due to such employees for the use of the patents. In those cases where employees have not assigned their interests to us, we may need to pay compensation for the use of those patents. If we are required to pay additional compensation or face other disputes under the German Act on Employees’ Inventions, our results of operations could be adversely affected.
The future growth of our business may expose our intellectual property to a high risk of counterfeiting or unauthorized use.
As part of our business strategy, we intend to license our Anticalin technology and sell our potential products, if any, in many different countries. As a result, we may do business with third parties in countries where intellectual property rights have been or are routinely disregarded, and the future growth of our business may expose our intellectual property to a high risk of counterfeiting or unauthorized use. Although we attempt to obtain broad international intellectual property rights for our Anticalin technology and proteins, we cannot guarantee that such rights, to the extent we can obtain them, will be enforceable in a timely fashion or at all in any particular country or jurisdiction, or that if enforced, will offer us adequate commercial protection or adequate redress for any harm suffered. Counterfeiting or unauthorized use of our technologies or products may also expose our business to harm for which no adequate monetary redress exists, and to the extent we are unable to stop such use, may cause us to lose rights with respect to intellectual property that is crucial to our business. Any such misuse of our intellectual property may have a substantial negative impact on our business and revenues, and may cause our business to fail.
Risks Related to our Employees
If we are not able to attract and retain highly qualified personnel, we may not be able to successfully implement our business strategy.
Our ability to compete in the highly competitive biotechnology and pharmaceuticals industries depends upon our ability to attract and retain highly qualified personnel. We are highly dependent on our management, scientific and medical personnel, especially Stephen S. Yoder, our Chief Executive Officer and President, whose services are critical to the successful implementation of our drug candidate development, our business development and partnerships, and our regulatory and commercialization strategies. Further, as our approach is built upon the drug discovery and development experience of our drug development team, which we believe is a significant contributor to our competitive advantage, we are dependent on the maintenance and growth of that team with qualified members containing high levels of expertise in specific scientific fields. We may in the future hire additional employees for research and development or general and administrative activities.
We are not aware of any present intention of any of our executive officers or other members of our senior management team to leave our company, but our industry tends to experience a high rate of turnover of management personnel and our employees are generally able to terminate their relationships with us on short notice. Pursuant to German employment law, our employment arrangements with employees of Pieris GmbH are governed by employment contracts, which provide certain defined terms for either party to terminate the employment relationship.
The loss of the services of any of our executive officers, in particular Mr. Yoder, or other key employees and our inability to find suitable replacements could potentially harm our business, financial condition and prospects. Our success also depends on our ability to continue to attract, retain and motivate highly skilled junior and mid-level managers as well as junior and mid-level scientific and medical personnel.
Moreover, there is intense competition for a limited number of qualified personnel among biopharmaceutical, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and other related businesses. Many of the other companies against which we compete for qualified personnel have greater financial and other resources, different risk profiles, longer histories in the industry and greater ability to provide valuable cash or stock incentives to potential recruits than we do. They also may provide more diverse opportunities and better chances for career advancement. Some of these characteristics may be more appealing to high quality candidates than what we are able to offer as an early stage company. If we are unable to continue to attract and retain high quality personnel, the rate and success at which we can develop and commercialize drug candidates will be limited.
We may be subject to labor claims brought by our employees against us.
In the United States, an employment relationship with no specified duration is presumed to be employment “at-will” and the employer or employee may terminate the employment relationship at any time, with or without cause, except for public policy reasons including discrimination, participating in union activity, or refusing to carry out an activity that violates the law.
In contrast, in Germany, there is no analogous doctrine of “employment at will”. By law, German employees must have written employment contracts that reflect the key aspects of the employment relationship. Our relations between German employers and employees are extensively regulated under German labor and employment laws and regulations. German employees have special protection against dismissals provided the employee has been employed by a company for more than six months and such company employs more than ten employees.
German employment termination law is regulated by various codes, in particular the
Kündigungsschutzgesetz
(German Termination Protection Act) and is intended to give the employee maximum protection against unfair dismissal, including among other things:
|
|
•
|
the employer must observe the applicable notice period, which is ordinarily determined by law (between four weeks and seven months, depending upon the length of employment), if a longer period is not otherwise agreed by the parties, and has to deliver a written notice of termination to the employee;
|
|
|
•
|
for companies with more than ten employees, the German Termination Protection Act generally restricts termination of employment if the employee has been employed for more than six months, wherein the employee may be terminated only for a particular reason, including certain behavioral or personal reasons relating to the employee or certain developments relating to the business of the employer, such as a business restructuring which reduces the number of employee positions;
|
|
|
•
|
special termination protection against unlawful dismissal applies to several other groups of employees, such as an employee that is an officially acknowledged handicapped person, an employee who was appointed as a company’s data protection officer or as a member of the works council of a company, if any, an employee on three years’ maternity leave or a pregnant employee; in these cases, approval of various German authorities is required prior to termination but usually very difficult to obtain; and
|
|
|
•
|
if a company engages in a mass layoff, which is deemed to occur when the employer intends to dismiss a large percentage of its employees during a one-month period, prior written notification to the German employment office is required.
|
In this regard, if we downsize for any reason and fail to adhere to the complex requirements articulated by the employee protection law, we could face legal actions brought by affected employees or former employees, and, as a result, we may incur operational or financial losses and the attention of our executive officers may be distracted from managing our business.
We may be subject to claims by third parties asserting that our employees or we have misappropriated their intellectual property, or claiming ownership of what we regard as our own intellectual property.
Many of our employees were previously employed at universities or other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. We may be subject to claims that these employees or we have used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information, of any such employee’s former employers. Litigation may be necessary to defend against any such claims.
In addition, while it is our policy to require our employees and contractors, who may be involved in the development of intellectual property, to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be unsuccessful in executing such an agreement with each party who in fact contributes to the development of intellectual property that we regard as our own. Further, the terms of such assignment agreements may be breached and we may not be able to successfully enforce their terms, which may force us to bring claims against third parties, or defend claims they may bring against us, to determine the ownership of intellectual property rights we may regard and treat as our own.
Our employees may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements, which could cause our business to suffer.
We are exposed to the risk of employee fraud or other misconduct. Misconduct by employees could include intentional failures to comply with FDA or EMA regulations, provide accurate information to the FDA or EMA, comply with manufacturing standards we have established, comply with federal, state and international healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations as they may become applicable to our operations, report financial information or data accurately or disclose unauthorized activities to us. Employee misconduct could also involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation. It is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and the precautions and procedures we currently take or may establish in the future as our operations and employee base expand to detect and prevent this type of activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure by our employees to comply with such laws or regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business and results of operations, including the imposition of significant fines or other sanctions.
Risks Related to the Ownership of our Common Stock
Our share price is expected to be volatile and may be influenced by numerous factors, some of which are beyond our control.
Market prices for shares of biotechnology companies such as ours are often volatile, and the quoted price of our common stock is therefore likely to be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. In addition to the factors discussed in this “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, these factors include:
|
|
•
|
the drug candidates we seek to pursue, and our ability to obtain rights to develop, commercialize and market those drug candidates;
|
|
|
•
|
our decision to initiate a clinical trial, not to initiate a clinical trial or to terminate an existing clinical trial;
|
|
|
•
|
actual or anticipated adverse results or delays in our clinical trials;
|
|
|
•
|
our failure to commercialize our drug candidates, if approved;
|
|
|
•
|
unanticipated serious safety concerns related to the use of any of our drug candidates;
|
|
|
•
|
adverse regulatory decisions;
|
|
|
•
|
additions or departures of key scientific or management personnel;
|
|
|
•
|
changes in laws or regulations applicable to our drug candidates, including without limitation clinical trial requirements for approvals;
|
|
|
•
|
disputes or other developments relating to patents and other proprietary rights and our ability to obtain patent protection for our drug candidates;
|
|
|
•
|
our dependence on third parties, including CROs and CMOs as well as our current and potential partners that produce companion diagnostic products;
|
|
|
•
|
failure to meet or exceed any financial guidance or expectations regarding development milestones that we may provide to the public;
|
|
|
•
|
actual or anticipated variations in quarterly operating results;
|
|
|
•
|
failure to meet or exceed the estimates and projections of the investment community;
|
|
|
•
|
overall performance of the equity markets and other factors that may be unrelated to our operating performance or the operating performance of our competitors, including changes in market valuations of similar companies;
|
|
|
•
|
conditions or trends in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries;
|
|
|
•
|
introduction of new products offered by us or our competitors;
|
|
|
•
|
announcements of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments by us or our competitors;
|
|
|
•
|
our ability to maintain an adequate rate of growth and manage such growth;
|
|
|
•
|
issuances of debt or equity securities;
|
|
|
•
|
sales of our common stock by us or our stockholders in the future, or the perception that such sales could occur;
|
|
|
•
|
trading volume of our common stock;
|
|
|
•
|
ineffectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting or disclosure controls and procedures;
|
|
|
•
|
general political and economic conditions;
|
|
|
•
|
effects of natural or man-made catastrophic events; and
|
|
|
•
|
other events or factors, many of which are beyond our control.
|
In addition, the stock market in general, and the stocks of biotechnology companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies. Broad market and industry factors may negatively affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. In addition, other biotechnology companies or our competitors’ programs could have positive or negative results that impact their stock prices and their results or stock fluctuations could have a positive or negative impact on our stock price regardless of whether such impact is direct or not. The realization of any of the above risks or any of a broad range of other risks, including those described in these “Risk Factors,” could have a dramatic and material adverse impact on the market price of our common stock.
We have broad discretion in how we use our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, including the net proceeds from our collaborations, public and private securities offerings, and may not use these financial resources effectively, which could affect our results of operations and cause our stock price to decline.
Our management has considerable discretion in the application of our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, including the fees and milestone payments from our collaborations and the net proceeds of our securities offerings. We intend to use the cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities to advance our product candidates and for working capital and other general corporate purposes, which will include the hiring of additional personnel and capital expenditures. As a result, investors will be relying upon management's judgment with only limited information about our specific intentions for the use of the cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. We may use the cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities for purposes that
do not yield a significant return or any return at all for our stockholders. In addition, pending their use, we may invest the financial resources from our collaborations and securities offerings in a manner that does not produce income or that loses value.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish, or cease publishing, research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock adversely, our stock price and any trading volume could decline.
Any trading market for our common stock that may develop will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business, markets or competitors. Securities and industry analysts do not currently, and may never, publish research on us or our business. If no securities or industry analysts commence coverage of our company, the trading price for our stock would be negatively affected. If securities or industry analysts initiate coverage, and one or more of those analysts downgrade our stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business or our market, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which might cause our stock price and any trading volume to decline.
We currently have and have had in the past material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting in the past. If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce accurate and timely financial statements could be impaired, which could harm our operating results, our ability to operate our business and investors’ views of us.
We are required to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as amended, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, subject to certain exceptions. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires public companies to conduct an annual review and evaluation of their internal controls and to obtain attestations of the effectiveness of internal controls by independent auditors. However, as discussed in detail below, as an emerging growth company, we are not required to obtain an auditor attestation.
Under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act, issuers that qualify as “emerging growth companies” under the JOBS Act will not be required to provide an auditor’s attestation report on internal controls for so long as the issuer qualifies as an emerging growth company. We currently qualify as an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act, and we may choose not to provide an auditor’s attestation report on internal controls. However, if we cannot favorably assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, or if we require an attestation report from our independent registered public accounting firm in the future and that firm is unable to provide an unqualified attestation report on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting, investor confidence and, in turn, our stock price could be materially adversely affected.
Ensuring that we have adequate internal financial and accounting controls and procedures in place so that we can produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis is a costly and time-consuming effort that will need to be evaluated frequently. Our failure to remediate our material weakness in internal controls and thereafter to maintain the effectiveness of our internal controls in accordance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could have a material adverse effect on the tradability of our common stock, which in turn would negatively impact our business. We could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which could have an adverse effect on the price of our common stock. In addition, if our efforts to comply with new or changed laws, regulations, and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business may be harmed.
Based on our assessment under the COSO Internal Control-Integrated Framework, management believes that, as of December 31, 2017, our internal control over financial reporting was not effective, as described below.
In connection with the preparation of our financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2017, we concluded that we had a material weakness relating to the financial statement close process due to the combination of deficiencies. The deficiencies resulted from two separate errors that were not identified by management; one related to the classification of certain operating expenses and one related to the reporting of foreign currency re-measurements on investments.
Shares of our common stock that have not been registered under federal securities laws are subject to resale restrictions imposed by Rule 144, including those set forth in Rule 144(i) which apply to a former “shell company.”
Prior to the closing of the Acquisition, we were deemed a “shell company” under applicable SEC rules and regulations because we had no or nominal operations and either no or nominal assets, assets consisting solely of cash and cash equivalents, or assets
consisting of any amount of cash and cash equivalents and nominal other assets. Pursuant to Rule 144 promulgated under the Securities Act, sales of the securities of a former shell company, such as us, under that rule are not permitted unless at the time of a proposed sale, we are subject to the reporting requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act and have filed all reports and other materials required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, as applicable, during the preceding 12 months, other than current reports on Form 8-K. Additionally, our previous status as a shell company could also limit our use of our securities to pay for any acquisitions we may seek to pursue in the future. The lack of liquidity of our securities as a result of the inability to sell under Rule 144 for a longer period of time than a non-former shell company could cause the market price of our securities to decline.
If we issue additional shares of our capital stock in the future, our existing stockholders will be diluted.
Our Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation authorize the issuance of up to 300,000,000 shares of our common stock and up to 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock with the terms, limitations, voting rights, relative rights and preferences and variations of each series that our Board of Directors may determine from time to time. Possible business and financial uses for our authorized capital stock include, without limitation, equity financing, future stock splits, acquiring other companies, businesses or products in exchange for shares of our capital stock, issuing shares of our capital stock to partners or other collaborators in connection with strategic alliances, attracting and retaining employees by the issuance of additional securities under our equity compensation plan, or other transactions and corporate purposes that our Board of Directors deems are in the interests of our company. Additionally, issuances of shares of our capital stock could have the effect of delaying or preventing changes in control or our management. Any future issuances of shares of our capital stock may not be made on favorable terms or at all, they may have rights, preferences and privileges that are superior to those of our common stock, and may have an adverse effect on our business or the trading price of our common stock. The issuance of any additional shares of our common stock will reduce the book value per share and may contribute to a reduction in the market price of the outstanding shares of our common stock. Additionally, any such issuance will reduce the proportionate ownership and voting power of all of our current stockholders.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that such sales could occur, could cause our stock price to fall.
If our existing stockholders sell, or indicate an intention to sell, substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline. As of December 31, 2017, a total of 45,017,062 shares of our common stock were outstanding. Any sales of those shares or any perception in the market that such sales may occur could cause the trading price of our common stock to decline.
In addition, shares of common stock that are either subject to outstanding options or reserved for future issuance under our equity incentive plan will be eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting schedules. If these additional shares of common stock are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold, in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline.
The resale of shares covered by our effective resale registration statement could adversely affect the market price of our common stock in the public market, which result would in turn negatively affect our ability to raise additional equity capital.
The sale, or availability for sale, of our common stock in the public market may adversely affect the prevailing market price of our common stock and may impair our ability to raise additional equity capital. Pursuant to registration statements filed with the SEC, (i) we previously registered for resale 27,321,870 shares of our common stock, which represents all of the shares of our common stock issued and sold in our private placement consummated in December 2014, shares of our common stock issued to former stockholders of Pieris GmbH in connection with the closing of the Acquisition on December 17, 2014, and shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of common stock purchase warrants issued in connection with the closings of the private placement in December 2014 and (ii) registered for resale (w) 3,225,804 shares of our common stock, (x) 4,963,000 shares of common stock issuable upon the conversion of 4,963 shares of our Series A Convertible Preferred Stock, par value $0.001 per share, and (y) 4,913,280 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of common stock purchase warrants, which represents all of the securities issued and sold in our private placement consummated in June 2016. In addition (z) 6,325,000 shares of our common stock were issued and sold in our underwritten public offering completed in February 2018. Such shares represented approximately 67% of our outstanding shares of common stock as of February 28, 2018. The resale registration statement permits the resale of these shares at any time without restriction. The resale of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could adversely affect the market price for our common stock and make it more difficult for investors to sell shares of our common stock at times and prices that investors feel are appropriate. Furthermore, because there are a large number of shares registered pursuant to the resale registration statement, we may continue to offer shares covered by the resale registration statement for a significant period of time, the precise duration of which cannot be predicted. Accordingly,
the adverse market and price pressures resulting from an offering pursuant to the resale registration statement may continue for an extended period of time and continued negative pressure on the market price of our common stock could have a material adverse effect on our ability to raise additional equity capital.
Future sales and issuances of our common stock or rights to purchase common stock, including pursuant to our equity incentive plans or otherwise, could result in dilution of the percentage ownership of our stockholders and could cause our stock price to fall.
Even after giving effect to the funds raised in the past, we expect that significant additional capital will be needed in the future to continue our planned operations. To raise capital, we may sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner, we determine from time to time. If we sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in more than one transaction, investors in a prior transaction may be materially diluted. Additionally, new investors could gain rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of existing holders of our common stock. Further, any future sales of our common stock by us or resales of our common stock by our existing stockholders could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
Pursuant to our 2016 Employee, Director and Consultant Equity Incentive Plan, or the Pieris Plan, we are authorized to grant equity awards to our employees, directors and consultants for up to an aggregate of 3,750,000 shares of our common stock, plus shares granted under the 2014 Plan that expired or were cancelled on or after June 28, 2016, and as of December 31, 2017, we have granted options to purchase approximately
5.4 million
shares of our common stock. Any future grants of options, warrants or other securities exercisable or convertible into our common stock, or the exercise or conversion of such shares, and any sales of such shares in the market, could have an adverse effect on the market price of our common stock.
Anti-takeover provisions in our organizational documents could delay or prevent a change of control.
Certain provisions of our Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation and Amended and Restated Bylaws may have an anti-takeover effect and may delay, defer or prevent a merger, acquisition, tender offer, takeover attempt or other change of control transaction that a stockholder might consider to be in its interests, including attempts that might result in a premium over the market price for the shares held by our stockholders.
These provisions provide, among other things:
|
|
•
|
a classified Board of Directors with staggered three-year terms;
|
|
|
•
|
the ability of our Board of Directors to issue one or more series of preferred stock with voting or other rights or preferences that could have the effect of impeding the success of an attempt to acquire us or otherwise effect a change of control;
|
|
|
•
|
advance notice for nominations of directors by stockholders and for stockholders to include matters to be considered at stockholder meetings;
|
|
|
•
|
certain limitations on convening special stockholder meetings and the prohibition of stockholder action by written consent; and
|
|
|
•
|
directors may only be removed for cause and only by the affirmative vote of the holders of at least eighty percent (80%) of the voting power of all of the then-outstanding shares of our capital stock entitled to vote at an election of directors, voting together as a single class.
|
These anti-takeover provisions, including those noted above, could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if the third party’s offer may be considered beneficial by many of our stockholders. As a result, our stockholders may be limited in their ability to obtain a premium for their shares. See “Description of Capital Stock”.
Our Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation designates the Eighth Judicial District Court of Clark County, Nevada, as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by our stockholders, and therefore limit our stockholders’ ability to choose a forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, employees or agents.
Our Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation provide that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, and unless we consent to the selection of an alternative forum, the Eighth Judicial District Court of Clark County, Nevada shall be the sole and exclusive forum for any (i) derivative action or proceeding brought in the name or right of the corporation or on its behalf,
(ii) action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers, employees or agents to the corporation or any of our stockholders, (iii) any action arising or asserting a claim arising pursuant to any provision of Chapters 78 or 92A of the Nevada Revised Statutes or any provision of our articles of incorporation or bylaws, (iv) any action to interpret, apply, enforce or determine the validity of our articles of incorporation or bylaws or (v) any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine. Our Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation further provide that any person purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our capital stock shall be deemed, to the fullest extent permitted by law, to have notice of and consented to the foregoing provision.
We believe the choice-of-forum provision in our Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation will help provide for the orderly, efficient and cost-effective resolution of Nevada-law issues affecting us by designating courts located in the State of Nevada (our state of incorporation) as the exclusive forum for cases involving such issues. However, this provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it believes to be favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, employees or agents, which may discourage such actions against us and our directors, officers, employees and agents. While there is no Nevada case law addressing the enforceability of this type of provision, Nevada courts have on prior occasion found persuasive authority in Delaware case law in the absence of Nevada statutory or case law specifically addressing an issue of corporate law. The Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware ruled in June 2013 that choice-of-forum provisions of a type similar to those included in our Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation are not facially invalid under corporate law and constitute valid and enforceable contractual forum selection clauses. However, if a court were to find the choice-of-forum provision in our Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation inapplicable to, or unenforceable in respect of, one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
The elimination of personal liability of our directors and officers under Nevada law and the existence of indemnification rights held by our directors, officers and employees may result in substantial expenses.
Our Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation eliminate to the furthest extent permitted under Nevada law the personal liability of our directors and officers to us, our stockholders and creditors for damages as a result of any act or failure to act in his or her capacity as a director or officer. Further, our Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation, our Amended and Restated Bylaws and individual indemnification agreements that we have entered with each of our directors and officers provide that we are obligated to indemnify, subject to certain exceptions, each of our directors or officers to the fullest extent authorized by Nevada law and, subject to certain conditions, to advance the expenses incurred by any director or officer in defending any action, suit or proceeding prior to its final disposition. Those indemnification obligations could expose us to substantial expenditures to cover the cost of settlement or damage awards against our directors or officers, which we may be unable to afford. Further, those provisions and resulting costs may discourage us or our stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against any of our current or former directors or officers for such damages, even if such actions might otherwise benefit our stockholders.
We do not intend to pay cash dividends on our capital stock in the foreseeable future.
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock and do not anticipate paying any dividends in the foreseeable future. We currently intend to retain all future earnings to fund the development and growth of our business. Any future payment of cash dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend on, among other things, our earnings, financial condition, capital requirements, level of indebtedness, statutory and contractual restrictions applying to the payment of dividends and other considerations that the Board of Directors deems relevant. Our stockholders should not expect that we will ever pay cash or other dividends on our outstanding capital stock.
We will incur increased costs associated with, and our management will need to devote substantial time and effort to, compliance with public company reporting and other requirements.
As a public company listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market, and particularly after we cease to be a "smaller reporting company" or an “emerging growth company”, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company and that we did not incur prior to the listing of our common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market, including costs associated with public company reporting requirements. In addition, the rules and regulations of the SEC and the Nasdaq Capital Market impose numerous requirements on public companies, including requirements relating to our corporate governance practices and requirements under Section 404 and other provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, with which we will now need to comply. Further, since we are subject to the Exchange Act, we are required to, among other things, file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and operating results. Our management and other personnel will need to devote substantial time to gaining expertise regarding operations as a public company and compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and our efforts and initiatives to comply with those requirements could be expensive. The expenses incurred by
public companies for reporting and corporate governance purposes have increased dramatically in recent years. We are unable currently to estimate these costs with any degree of certainty.
We are an emerging growth company and we cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will make our common stock less attractive to investors.
We are an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies including, but not limited to, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory stockholder vote on executive compensation and any golden parachute payments not previously approved, exemption from the requirement of auditor attestation in the assessment of our internal control over financial reporting and exemption from any requirement that may be adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. If we do, the information that we provide stockholders may be different than what is available with respect to other public companies. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we will rely 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.
Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have irrevocably elected to take advantage of this extended transition period. Since we will not be required to comply with new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for other public companies, our financial statements may not be comparable to the financial statements of companies that comply with the effective dates of those accounting standards.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of (1) the end of the fiscal year in which the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the end of the second fiscal quarter, (2) the end of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenues of $1 billion or more during such fiscal year, (3) the date on which we issue more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt in a three-year period or (4) December 31, 2019, the end of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the first sale of our common stock pursuant to an effective registration statement filed under the Securities Act. Decreased disclosures in our SEC filings due to our status as an “emerging growth company” may make it harder for investors to analyze our results of operations and financial prospects.
Having availed ourselves of scaled disclosure available to smaller reporting companies, we cannot be certain if such reduced disclosure will make our common stock less attractive to investors.
Under Section 12b-2 of the Exchange Act, a "smaller reporting company" is a company that we are not an investment company, an asset backed issuer, or a majority-owned subsidiary of a parent company that is not a smaller reporting company, and has a public float of less than $75 million and annual revenues of less than $50 million during the most recently completed fiscal year. Similar to emerging growth companies, smaller reporting companies are permitted to provide simplified executive compensation disclosure in their filings; they are exempt from the provisions of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requiring that independent registered public accounting firms provide an attestation report on the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting; and they have certain other decreased disclosure obligations in their SEC filings, including, among other things, only being required to provide two years of audited financial statements in annual reports. We are no longer a smaller reporting company as of December 31, 2017 as our public float exceeded $75 million at June 30, 2017; however, under Item 10(f)(2)(i) of Regulation S-K, we are permitted to avail ourselves of the scaled disclosure requirements available to smaller reporting companies in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Having ceased to be a smaller reporting company, we will no longer be able to avail ourselves of scaled disclosure beginning with our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ending March 31, 2018. Decreased disclosure in our SEC filings as a result of our having availed ourselves of scaled disclosure may make it harder for investors to analyze our results of operations and financial prospects.