As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 23, 2018.
Registration No. 333-224163
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
Amendment No. 1
to
FORM S-1
REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933
Unity Biotechnology, Inc.
(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) |
2834 (Primary Standard Industrial Classification Code Number) |
26-4726035 (I.R.S. Employer Identification Number) |
3280 Bayshore Blvd
Brisbane, California 94005
(650) 416-1192
(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of Registrants principal executive offices)
Keith R. Leonard Jr.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Unity Biotechnology, Inc.
3280 Bayshore Blvd, Suite 100
Brisbane, California 94005
(650) 416-1192
(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)
Copies to: | ||||
Brian J. Cuneo, Esq. Alan C. Mendelson, Esq. Mark V. Roeder, Esq. Latham & Watkins LLP 140 Scott Drive Menlo Park, California 94025 Telephone: (650) 328-4600 Facsimile: (650) 463-2600 |
Tamara L. Tompkins, Esq. General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Unity Biotechnology, Inc., Suite 100 3280 Bayshore Blvd Brisbane, California 94005 Telephone: (650) 416-1192 Facsimile: (415) 656-4371 |
Alan F. Denenberg, Esq. Stephen Salmon, Esq. Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP 1600 El Camino Real Menlo Park, California 94025 Telephone: (650) 752-2004 Facsimile: (650) 752-3604 |
Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after the effective date of this Registration Statement.
If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box. ☐
If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of large accelerated filer, accelerated filer, smaller reporting company and emerging growth company in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer | ☐ | Accelerated filer | ☐ | |||
Non-accelerated filer | ☒ (Do not check if a smaller reporting company) | Smaller reporting company | ☐ | |||
Emerging growth company | ☒ |
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ☐
CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE
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Title of Securities Being Registered |
Amount to be Registered(1) |
Proposed Maximum Offering Price Per Share |
Proposed Maximum Offering Price (2) |
Amount of Registration Fee(3) | ||||
Common Stock, $0.0001 par value per share |
5,750,000 shares | $18.00 | $103,500,000 | $12,886.00 | ||||
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(1) | Includes 750,000 shares of common stock that the underwriters have the option to purchase. |
(2) | Estimated solely for the purpose of calculating the amount of the registration fee in accordance with Rule 457(a) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. |
(3) | The registrant previously paid a total of $10,583.00 in connection with previous filings of the registration statement. In accordance with Rule 457(a), an additional registration fee of $2,303.00 is being paid with this amendment to the registration statement. |
The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.
The information in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. These securities may not be sold until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities nor does it seek an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.
Subject to Completion, dated April 23, 2018
Preliminary Prospectus
5,000,000 Shares
Common Stock
This is the initial public offering of shares of common stock by Unity Biotechnology, Inc.
Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our common stock. It is currently estimated that the initial public offering price will be between $16.00 and $18.00 per share.
We have applied to list our common stock on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol UBX.
We are an emerging growth company as defined under the federal securities laws and, as such, have elected to comply with certain reduced reporting requirements for this prospectus and may elect to do so in future filings.
Investing in our common stock involves risks. See the section titled Risk Factors beginning on page 13 to read about factors you should consider before buying shares of our common stock.
Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities, or passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
Per Share | Total | |||||||
Initial public offering price |
$ | $ | ||||||
Underwriting discounts(1) |
$ | $ | ||||||
Proceeds to Unity Biotechnology, Inc., before expenses |
$ | $ |
(1) | See the section titled Underwriting for additional information regarding compensation payable to the underwriters. |
To the extent that the underwriters sell more than 5,000,000 shares of common stock, the underwriters have the option to purchase up to an additional 750,000 shares from us at the initial public offering price less the underwriting discount.
The underwriters expect to deliver the shares against payment in New York, New York on , 2018.
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC | Morgan Stanley | Citigroup | ||
Mizuho Securities |
Prospectus dated , 2018
Prospectus
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MANAGEMENTS DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS |
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MATERIAL U.S. FEDERAL INCOME TAX CONSEQUENCES TO NON-U.S. HOLDERS |
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F-1 |
Through and including , 2018 (the 25th day after the date of this prospectus), all dealers effecting transactions in these securities, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This is in addition to a dealers obligation to deliver a prospectus when acting as an underwriter and with respect to an unsold allotment or subscription.
We and the underwriters have not authorized anyone to provide you any information other than that contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectus prepared by or on behalf of us or to which we have referred you. We take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. We and the underwriters are not making an offer to sell these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. You should assume that the information appearing in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date on the front cover of this prospectus. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since that date.
For investors outside of the United States: we have not and the underwriters have not done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than the United States. Persons outside of the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the shares of common stock and the distribution of this prospectus outside of the United States.
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This summary highlights information contained elsewhere in this prospectus and does not contain all of the information that you should consider in making your investment decision. Before deciding to invest in our common stock, you should read this entire prospectus carefully, including the sections of this prospectus entitled Risk Factors and Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and our financial statements and related notes contained elsewhere in this prospectus. Unless the context otherwise requires or as otherwise noted, references in this prospectus to the company, Unity Biotechnology, Unity, we, us and our refer to Unity Biotechnology, Inc.
Unity Biotechnology, Inc.
Overview
Our mission is to extend human healthspan. We define healthspan, or healthy longevity, as the period of ones life unburdened by the diseases of aging. Enabled by foundational scientific insights, we have devoted over six years to identifying multiple mechanisms that we believe to be root causes of age-associated disease. We are utilizing these insights to develop a broad portfolio of drug candidates to treat these diseases of aging, and we plan to initiate our first clinical study of our lead drug candidate in the second quarter of 2018.
Age-associated diseases such as arthritis, vision loss, and cognitive decline cause considerable economic, personal, and societal burden. These diseases negatively impact quality of life, are typically chronic, and progress from the time of onset until death. It is estimated that providing healthcare for people over the age of 65 costs four to five times more than for younger individuals. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this elderly population of Americans is expected to nearly double by 2050, increasing the economic burden of aging dramatically. Any success increasing longevity without treating underlying diseases of aging would only serve to increase this burden.
Over the last three decades, knowledge of the fundamental mechanisms of aging has advanced considerably. As a result of these advances, aging is no longer characterized as a single, over-arching process but rather as multiple biological and cellular processes working concurrently. We now have evidence that one of these mechanisms, the accumulation of senescent cells, is a major driver of many common age-associated diseases. The selective elimination of these cells extends both the healthspan and lifespan of animals, as we have demonstrated in preclinical studies published in Nature (Naturally occurring P16lnk4a-positive cells shorten healthy lifespan, Nature (2016) and Clearance of p16lnk4a-positive senescent cells delays ageing associated disorders, Nature (2011)) and Science (Senescent intimal foam cells are deleterious at all stages of atherosclerosis, Science (2016)). In particular, in 2011, one of our scientific co-founders demonstrated that mice allowed to accumulate senescent cells aged more rapidly, and that the elimination of these accumulated cells blunted multiple aspects of aging. In 2016, another one of our scientific co-founders demonstrated that molecules able to selectively eliminate senescent cells, or senolytic molecules, could potentially blunt the senescence-driven effects of the cardiovascular disease atherosclerosis. Science listed these findings among the top breakthroughs of 2011 and 2016.
Cellular Senescence
Cellular senescence is a natural biological state in which a cell permanently halts division. As senescent cells accumulate with age, they begin secreting large quantities of more than 100 proteins,
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including inflammatory factors, proteases, fibrotic factors, and growth factors that disturb the tissue micro-environment. This collection of secreted proteins is referred to as the Senescence Associated Secretory Phenotype, or SASP. In addition to its effects on tissue function, the SASP contains factors that induce senescence in neighboring cells, setting off a cascade of events that culminates in the formation of the functionally aged and/or diseased tissue that underlies a variety of age-associated diseases. Senolytic medicines selectively eliminate senescent cells and stop the production of the SASP at its source, which we believe addresses a root cause of these diseases. As a result, we believe senolytic medicines could have a more durable impact on disease and could slow, halt, or reverse particular diseases of aging. The figure below illustrates the process through which the accumulation of senescent cells and accompanying SASP factors affect tissue function and our therapeutic approach.
Our Pipeline
We are developing a portfolio of programs targeting specific biological mechanisms implicated in diseases of aging. Our core therapeutic approach targets cellular senescence, and we are currently advancing programs in musculoskeletal, ophthalmologic, and pulmonary disorders. Our clinical development strategy is initially focused on the development of senolytic medicines designed to be administered locally into diseased tissue. After demonstrating efficacy in indications amenable to localized therapy, we plan to pursue the development of senolytic medicines that could be administered systemically to treat additional diseases of aging, such as kidney, liver, and heart disease. In addition to our efforts to eliminate senescent cells, we are also advancing other programs with the potential to extend human healthspan, including the administration of circulating youth factors and the enhancement of mitochondrial health.
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Our current pipeline of programs is illustrated below:
Within our cellular senescence programs, our lead senolytic molecules, UBX0101 and UBX1967, designed for local treatment for the removal of accumulated senescent cells, are described below:
| UBX0101 is our lead drug candidate for musculoskeletal disease with an initial focus on osteoarthritis. This drug candidate is a potent senolytic small molecule inhibitor of the MDM2/p53 protein interaction. Disruption of this protein interaction can trigger the elimination of senescent cells. Our investigational new drug, or IND, application for UBX0101 was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, in April 2018, and we plan to initiate a Phase 1 clinical study in osteoarthritis in the second quarter of 2018. We expect to receive data from this clinical study in the first quarter of 2019. |
| UBX1967 is our lead drug candidate for ophthalmologic diseases. This drug candidate is a potent senolytic small molecule inhibitor of specific members of the Bcl-2 family of apoptosis regulatory proteins. Senescent cells utilize pro-survival mechanisms to remain viable and rely on specific Bcl-2 protein family members to persist and accumulate in tissues. We plan to submit our IND application and commence a Phase 1 clinical study in an ophthalmologic indication in the second half of 2019. |
In addition to the above, we expect to file one additional IND application in the second half of 2019 for a Phase 1 clinical study in either an additional ophthalmologic indication or an initial pulmonary indication. We retain worldwide rights to UBX0101 and have an option to an exclusive license for UBX1967 pursuant to our compound library and option agreement with Ascentage Pharma Group Corp. Ltd. See BusinessLicenses and Collaborations.
Advantages of Our Approach
We believe that senolytic medicinesmedicines that selectively eliminate senescent cells from diseased tissuesmay have four advantages over other efforts to treat age-associated diseases:
| Senolytic medicines target a root cause of diseases of aging. Unlike treatments that inhibit the activity of a single factor (such as antibodies targeting single pro-inflammatory proteins), we believe a senolytic medicine that selectively eliminates accumulated senescent |
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cells and their associated SASP could simultaneously blunt the activity of numerous factors contributing to disease. |
| Senolytic medicines are dosed intermittently. The administration of senolytic medicines would remove senescent cells from diseased tissue. As new senescent cells may take months or even years to re-accumulate, senolytic medicines could potentially be dosed infrequently. We believe that intermittent dosing may improve drug tolerability and patient adherence when compared to chronic therapies. |
| Senescent cells accumulate at sites of disease, simplifying multiple aspects of clinical development. Our ability to quantify senescent cells and accompanying SASP factors in sites of disease may simplify clinical development through targeted indication selection, patient selection, and monitoring of therapeutic response. |
| Senolytic medicines restore tissues to a healthy state. We believe senescent cells generally do not accumulate in young individuals and that the accumulation of senescent cells is unnecessary for normal tissue function. Our goal for the administration of senolytic medicines is to restore tissue to a functionally younger state. |
We have secured our lead position in the discovery and development of senolytic medicines through our commitment to fundamental biological research and translational science. We have partnered with key academics and thought leaders to pursue areas of emerging aging science. We continue to recruit top tier scientists with the desire and drive to understand, uncover, and invent. We invest a significant proportion of resources and effort in emerging fields of aging science in order to transition fundamental scientific observations to the design and development of new therapeutics. We believe that we have built the internal research capabilities and scientific network to continue to be at the forefront of extending human healthspan.
Our Team
We have assembled an executive team of scientific, clinical, and business leaders with broad expertise in biotechnology. Our co-founder and President, Nathaniel (Ned) E. David, Ph.D., is a biochemist and experienced entrepreneur, having founded four biotechnology companies. Our Chief Executive Officer, Keith R. Leonard Jr., M.S., M.B.A., was CEO of KYTHERA Biopharmaceuticals from its founding through its acquisition in 2015 and held numerous leadership roles over thirteen years at Amgen. Our Chief Medical Officer, Jamie Dananberg, M.D., has held leadership roles at Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly & Co. and has overseen the development of eight FDA-approved products. Our Chief Scientific Officer, Daniel G. Marquess, D.Phil., served as Vice President and Head of Medicinal Chemistry at Theravance Biopharma. We have approximately 70 employees, over 65% of whom hold advanced degrees.
We have built a strong culture of teamwork with emphasis on external collaboration, providing us with access to rapidly-evolving science. We maintain more than a dozen active early-stage research and discovery focused collaborations with leading external academic institutions, including: the Buck Institute for Research on Aging; Massachusetts General Hospital; Mayo Clinic; the Medical Research Council (MRC, Imperial College); The University of California, San Francisco; and Yale University.
Our Strategy
To achieve our objective of building Unity into a leading healthspan company, we focus on two parallel efforts. First, we are committed to developing senolytic medicines that slow, halt, or reverse specific diseases of aging. Second, we dedicate significant resources and effort to better understand
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additional fundamental aging mechanisms and translate these insights into human medicines. To achieve these core objectives we intend to:
| Demonstrate in our clinical studies that local treatment with senolytic medicines can alter the course of an age-associated disease. If we prove that local treatment with senolytic medicines can slow, halt, or reverse aspects of aging, we will be well-positioned to expand upon that success with numerous additional applications. |
| Continue research into the development of systemic senolytic medicines. In order to realize the full potential of senolysis, we intend to explore the development of systemic senolytic medicines using multiple modalities, including small molecules and biologics. |
| Target aging mechanisms beyond cellular senescence. In order to achieve our broader goal of extending human healthspan, we will continue to conduct fundamental research into additional aging mechanisms beyond cellular senescence, including loss of circulating youth factors and mitochondrial dysfunction. |
| Leverage our core science and biotechnology experience. We strive to attract, retain, and incentivize a unique team with significant strengths and experience in basic science, biotechnology, medicinal chemistry, and clinical development. Over the last six years, our team has identified multiple mechanisms that can selectively eliminate senescent cells, created potent senolytic molecules, and developed proprietary animal models to monitor senescent cell clearance. |
| Opportunistically expand our product portfolio. Our internal research has identified multiple biological pathways that are potential targets for diseases of aging. We will search for opportunities for potential in-licensing of novel medicines with rapid access to clinical development. |
| Continue to build a robust and defensible patent portfolio. We are an innovative biotechnology company focused on developing novel insights into the biology and diseases of aging. We intend to continue to aggressively develop, file, and pursue patent protection for our innovative technologies. |
Risks Associated with Our Business
Our ability to implement our business strategy is subject to numerous risks that you should be aware of before making an investment decision. These risks are described more fully in the section entitled Risk Factors, immediately following this prospectus summary. These risks include the following, among others:
| We are a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history and no products approved for commercial sale. We have incurred significant losses since our inception, and we anticipate that we will continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future, which, together with our limited operating history, make it difficult to assess our future viability. |
| We will require substantial additional financing to achieve our goals, and a failure to obtain this capital when needed on acceptable terms, or at all, could force us to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development, other operations or commercialization efforts. |
| Our core therapeutic approach to extending human healthspan is based on our understanding of cellular senescence. Utilizing senolytic molecules to treat age-associated diseases is a novel therapeutic approach, which exposes us to unforeseen risks and makes it difficult to predict the time and cost of drug development and potential for regulatory approval. |
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| Our business is dependent on the successful development, regulatory approval, and commercialization of our drug candidates, all of which are in early stages of development and none of which have been tested in a human subject. |
| We may be unable to obtain regulatory approval for our drug candidates under applicable regulatory requirements. The denial or delay of any such approval would delay commercialization of our drug candidates and adversely impact our potential to generate revenue, our business and our results of operations. |
| Clinical development involves a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome, and results of earlier studies and trials may not be predictive of future trial results. |
| It may be many years, if ever, before we develop senolytic medicines capable of systemic administration to treat systemic diseases of aging. |
| We rely on third parties in the conduct of all of our preclinical studies and intend to rely on third parties in the conduct of all of our future clinical studies. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements or meet expected deadlines, we may be unable to obtain regulatory approval for our drug candidates. |
| If we are unable to obtain, maintain and enforce intellectual property protection directed to our senolytic medicine platform and any future technologies that we develop, others may be able to make, use, or sell products substantially the same as ours, which could adversely affect our ability to compete in the market. |
| Our stock price may be volatile and you may not be able to resell shares of our common stock at or above the price you paid. |
Corporate Information
We were founded on March 30, 2009, as a Delaware corporation under the name Forge, Inc. On January 28, 2015, we changed our name to Unity Biotechnology, Inc. Our principal executive offices are located at 3280 Bayshore Blvd., Suite 100, Brisbane, California 94005, and our telephone number is (650) 416-1192. Our website address is www.unitybiotechnology.com. The information on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not part of this prospectus. We have included our website address as an inactive textual reference only.
Unity Biotechnology and our logo are some of our trademarks used in this prospectus. This prospectus also includes trademarks, tradenames, and service marks that are the property of other organizations. Solely for convenience, our trademarks and tradenames referred to in this prospectus may appear without the ® and symbol, but those references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights, or the right of the applicable licensor to these trademarks and tradenames.
Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company
We are an emerging growth company as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the year following the fifth anniversary of the consummation of this offering, (2) the last day of the year in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, (3) the last day of the year in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer as defined in Rule 12b-2 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, which would occur if the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeded $700.0 million as of the last business day of the second
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fiscal quarter of such year or (4) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period. An emerging growth company may take advantage of specified reduced reporting requirements and is relieved of certain other significant requirements that are otherwise generally applicable to public companies. As an emerging growth company:
| We will present only two years of audited financial statements, plus unaudited condensed financial statements for any interim period, and related managements discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations; |
| We will avail ourselves of the exemption from the requirement to obtain an attestation and report from our auditors on the assessment of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Sarbanes Oxley; |
| We will provide less extensive disclosure about our executive compensation arrangements; and |
| We will not require stockholder non-binding advisory votes on executive compensation or golden parachute arrangements. |
In addition, 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 elected to avail ourselves of the extended transition period for complying with new or revised financial accounting standards. As a result of the accounting standards election, we will not be subject to the same implementation timing for new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies which may make comparison of our financials to those of other public companies more difficult. Additionally, because we have taken advantage of certain reduced reporting requirements, the information contained herein may be different from the information you receive from other public companies in which you hold stock.
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Issuer |
Unity Biotechnology, Inc. |
Common stock offered by us |
5,000,000 shares. |
Common stock to be outstanding after the offering |
41,903,538 shares (or 42,653,538 shares if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full). |
Underwriters option to purchase additional shares |
750,000 shares. |
Use of proceeds |
We estimate that the net proceeds from this offering will be approximately $76.1 million, or approximately $87.9 million if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full, at an assumed initial public offering price of $17.00 per share, the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. |
We currently expect to use the net proceeds from this offering to fund our clinical development of UBX0101, our planned IND-enabling studies and Phase 1 clinical studies of UBX1967, internal research and development activities and for working capital and general corporate purposes. See Use of Proceeds on page 64 for a more complete description of the intended use of proceeds from this offering. |
Risk factors |
See Risk Factors beginning on page 13 and other information included in this prospectus for a discussion of factors that you should consider carefully before deciding to invest in our common stock. |
Directed Share Program |
At our request, the underwriters have reserved up to 5.0% of the shares of common stock offered hereby, at the initial public offering price, to offer to directors, officers, employees, business associates and related persons of Unity Biotechnology, Inc. The number of shares of common stock available for sale to the general public will be reduced to the extent these individuals purchase such reserved shares. Any reserved shares that are not so purchased will be offered by the underwriters to the general public on the same basis as the other shares offered by this prospectus. Except for any shares |
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acquired by our directors and officers, shares purchased pursuant to the directed share program will not be subject to lock-up agreements with the underwriters. See Underwriting beginning on page 187. |
Proposed Nasdaq Global Select Market symbol |
UBX |
The number of shares of common stock to be outstanding after this offering is based on 4,830,389 shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2017, and includes an aggregate of 28,159,724 shares of common stock issuable upon conversion of our outstanding Series A-1, Series A-2 and Series B convertible preferred stock as of December 31, 2017 and 3,913,425 shares of common stock issuable upon conversion of our Series C convertible preferred stock issued in March and April 2018, and excludes the following:
| 4,365,964 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options to purchase common stock that were outstanding as of December 31, 2017, with a weighted average exercise price of $3.07 per share; |
| 918,595 shares of our common stock reserved for issuance pursuant to future awards under our 2013 Equity Incentive Plan, or the Plan, and associated amendments as of December 31, 2017; |
| 96,610 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of an outstanding warrant with an exercise price of $0.18 per share; |
| 763,501 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of outstanding convertible preferred stock warrants with a weighted-average exercise price of $0.65 per share; |
| 739,551 shares of our common stock that we may be obligated to issue under our license agreements; |
| 4,289,936 shares of common stock reserved for issuance pursuant to future awards under our 2018 Equity Incentive Award Plan, as well as any automatic increases in the number of shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under this plan, which will become effective immediately prior to the consummation of this offering; and |
| 536,242 shares of common stock reserved for issuance pursuant to future awards under our Employee Stock Purchase Plan, as well as any automatic increases in the number of shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under this plan, which will become effective immediately prior to the consummation of this offering. |
In addition, unless we specifically state otherwise, all information in this prospectus assumes:
| a 1-for-2.95 reverse stock split of our capital stock, which we effected on April 20, 2018; |
| the conversion of all shares of our outstanding convertible preferred stock into an aggregate of 32,073,149 shares of common stock immediately prior to the consummation of this offering; |
| the filing and effectiveness of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation in Delaware and the adoption of our amended and restated bylaws, each of which will occur immediately prior to the consummation of this offering; |
| no exercise of outstanding stock options or warrants subsequent to December 31, 2017; and |
| no exercise of the underwriters option to purchase additional shares of common stock. |
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Unless otherwise specified and unless the context otherwise requires, we refer to our Series A-1, Series A-2, and Series B, convertible preferred stock outstanding at December 31, 2017 and Series C convertible preferred stock issued in March and April 2018 collectively as convertible preferred stock or preferred stock in this prospectus, as well as for financial reporting purposes and in the financial tables included in this prospectus, as more fully explained in Note 11 and Note 17 to our audited financial statements included in this prospectus.
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The following tables present summary financial data for our business. We derived the statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2017, from our audited financial statements appearing elsewhere in this prospectus. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future. You should read this data together with our financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this prospectus and the information under the captions Selected Financial Data and Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||
2016 | 2017 | |||||||
(in thousands, except share and per share data) |
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Summary of Operations Data: |
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Contribution revenue |
$ | | $ | 1,382 | ||||
Operating expenses: |
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Research and development |
13,707 | 37,373 | ||||||
General and administrative |
5,137 | 9,617 | ||||||
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Total operating expenses |
18,844 | 46,990 | ||||||
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Loss from operations |
(18,844 | ) | (45,608 | ) | ||||
Loss on extinguishment of promissory notes |
(9,377 | ) | | |||||
Interest income (expense), net |
(2,183 | ) | 1,055 | |||||
Other expense, net |
| (103 | ) | |||||
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Net loss |
$ | (30,404 | ) | $ | (44,656 | ) | ||
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Net loss per share, basic and diluted(1) |
$ | (11.42 | ) | $ | (13.97 | ) | ||
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Weighted average number of shares used in computing net loss per share, basic and diluted(1) |
2,662,841 | 3,197,516 | ||||||
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Pro forma net loss per share, basic and diluted(1) |
$ | (1.49 | ) | |||||
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Weighted average number of shares used in computing pro forma net loss per share, basic and diluted(1) |
30,039,385 | |||||||
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(1) | See Notes 2 and 14 to our audited financial statements for an explanation of the calculations of our basic and diluted net loss per common share, pro forma net loss per common share, and the weighted-average number of common shares used in the computation of the per share amounts. |
The table below presents our balance sheet data as of December 31, 2017:
| on an actual basis; |
| on a pro forma basis to give effect to: (i) the sale and issuance in March and April 2018 of 3,913,425 shares of our Series C convertible preferred stock at $15.3317 per share for net proceeds of $59.9 million, (ii) the conversion of all shares of our outstanding Series A-1, Series A-2, Series B and Series C convertible preferred stock into an aggregate of 32,073,149 shares of common stock immediately prior to the consummation of this offering; and (iii) the filing and effectiveness of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, which will occur, in each case, immediately prior to the consummation of this offering; and |
| on a pro forma as adjusted basis to give further effect to the sale of 5,000,000 shares of common stock in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $17.00 per share, the |
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midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. |
As of December 31, 2017 | ||||||||||||
Actual | Pro Forma | Pro Forma As Adjusted(1) |
||||||||||
(In thousands) | ||||||||||||
Balance Sheet Data: |
||||||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents |
$ | 7,298 | $ | 67,178 | $ | 143,228 | ||||||
Marketable securities |
84,330 | 84,330 | 84,330 | |||||||||
Working capital |
80,983 | 140,863 | 216,913 | |||||||||
Total assets |
102,024 | 161,904 | 237,954 | |||||||||
Convertible preferred stock |
173,956 | | | |||||||||
Accumulated deficit |
(86,880 | ) | (86,880 | ) | (86,880 | ) | ||||||
Total stockholders (deficit) equity |
(83,113 | ) | 150,723 | 226,773 |
(1) | Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $17.00 per share (the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus), would increase (decrease) the amount of cash and cash equivalents, working capital, total assets and total stockholders (deficit) equity by $4.7 million, assuming the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting discount and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. We may also increase (decrease) the number of shares we are offering. An increase (decrease) of 1,000,000 in the number of shares we are offering would increase (decrease) the amount of cash and cash equivalents, working capital, total assets and total stockholders (deficit) equity by approximately $15.8 million, assuming the assumed initial public offering price per share, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same. The pro forma as adjusted information is illustrative only and we will adjust this information based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing. |
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Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described below, as well as the other information in this prospectus, including our financial statements and the related notes and Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, before deciding whether to invest in our common stock. The occurrence of any of the events or developments described below could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. In such an event, the market price of our common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations.
Risks Related to Our Limited Operating History, Financial Condition, and Capital Requirements
We are a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history and no products approved for commercial sale. We have incurred significant losses since our inception, and we anticipate that we will continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future, which, together with our limited operating history, make it difficult to assess our future viability.
We are a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history. Biopharmaceutical product development is a highly speculative undertaking and involves a substantial degree of risk. We have not yet sought approval for commercial sale of any products and therefore have no products approved for commercial sale and have not generated any revenue from contracts with customers and have incurred losses in each year since our inception in March 2009. We have only a limited operating history upon which you can evaluate our business and prospects. In addition, we have limited experience 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 industry. We only recently received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, of an Investigational New Drug, or IND, application for one of our lead drug candidates, UBX0101, a senolytic small-molecule inhibitor of MDM2/p53, and we have not yet initiated clinical studies for any of our drug candidates.
We have had significant operating losses since our inception. Our net loss for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2017, was approximately $30.4 million and $44.7 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2017, we had an accumulated deficit of $86.9 million. Substantially all of our losses have resulted from expenses incurred in connection with our research and development programs and from general and administrative costs associated with our operations. We expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future, and we anticipate these losses will increase as we continue to develop our drug candidates, conduct clinical studies and pursue research and development activities. 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 require substantial additional financing to achieve our goals, and a failure to obtain this capital when needed on acceptable terms, or at all, could force us to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development, other operations or commercialization efforts.
Since our inception, we have invested a significant portion of our efforts and financial resources in research and development activities. Preclinical studies and clinical studies for our drug candidates and additional research and development activities to discover and develop new drug candidates will require substantial funds to complete. As of December 31, 2017, we had capital resources consisting of cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities of $91.6 million. In March and April 2018, we received net proceeds of $59.9 million from the sale and issuance of shares of our Series C convertible preferred stock. We believe that we will continue to expend substantial resources for the foreseeable
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future in connection with the preclinical and clinical development of our lead drug candidates, UBX0101 and UBX1967, and the discovery and development of any other drug candidates we may choose to pursue. These expenditures will include costs associated with conducting preclinical studies and clinical studies, obtaining regulatory approvals, and manufacturing and supply, as well as marketing and selling any products approved for sale. In addition, other unanticipated costs may arise. Because the outcome of any preclinical study or clinical study is highly uncertain, we cannot reasonably estimate the actual amounts necessary to successfully complete the development and commercialization of our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidates.
We expect our existing capital resources, together with the proceeds from the offering will fund our planned operating expenses into 2021. However, our operating plans may change as a result of many factors currently unknown to us, and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned, through public or private equity or debt financings or other sources, such as strategic collaborations. Such financing may result in dilution to stockholders, imposition of burdensome debt covenants and repayment obligations, or other restrictions that may affect our business. In addition, we may seek additional capital due to favorable market conditions or strategic considerations even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans.
Our future capital requirements depend on many factors, including:
| the scope, progress, results and costs of researching and developing UBX0101, UBX1967 or any other drug candidates, and conducting preclinical studies and clinical studies, including our planned Phase 1 clinical study of UBX0101, which we expect to initiate in the second quarter of 2018; |
| the timing of, and the costs involved in, obtaining regulatory approvals for our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidates; |
| the number and characteristics of any additional drug candidates we develop or acquire; |
| the timing and amount of any milestone payments we are required to make pursuant to our license agreements; |
| the cost of manufacturing our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidates and any products we successfully commercialize; |
| the cost of building a sales force in anticipation of product commercialization; |
| the cost of commercialization activities if our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidates are approved for sale, including marketing, sales and distribution costs; |
| our ability to maintain existing, and establish new, strategic collaborations, licensing or other arrangements and the financial terms of any such agreements, including the timing and amount of any future milestone, royalty or other payments due under any such agreement; |
| any product liability or other lawsuits related to our products; |
| the expenses needed to attract, hire and retain skilled personnel; |
| the costs associated with being a public company; |
| the costs involved in preparing, filing, prosecuting, maintaining, defending and enforcing our intellectual property portfolio; and |
| the timing, receipt and amount of sales of any future approved products, if any. |
Additional funds may not be available when we need them, on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all. If adequate funds are not available to us on a timely basis, we may be required to:
| delay, limit, reduce or terminate preclinical studies, clinical studies or other development activities for our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidate; |
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| delay, limit, reduce or terminate our research and development activities; or |
| delay, limit, reduce or terminate our efforts to establish manufacturing and sales and marketing capabilities or other activities that may be necessary to commercialize our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidate, or reduce our flexibility in developing or maintaining our sales and marketing strategy. |
We also could be required to seek funds through arrangements with collaborators or others that may require us to relinquish rights to some of our technologies or drug candidates that we would otherwise pursue on our own. We do not expect to realize revenue from sales of products or royalties from licensed products in the foreseeable future, if at all, and unless and until our drug candidates are clinically tested, approved for commercialization and successfully marketed. To date, we have primarily financed our operations through the sale of debt and equity securities. We will be required to seek additional funding in the future and currently intend to do so through collaborations, public or private equity offerings or debt financings, credit or loan facilities or a combination of one or more of these funding sources. Our ability to raise additional funds will depend on financial, economic and other factors, many of which are beyond our control. Additional funds may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. If we raise additional funds by issuing equity securities, our stockholders will suffer dilution and the terms of any financing may adversely affect the rights of our stockholders. In addition, as a condition to providing additional funds to us, future investors may demand, and may be granted, rights superior to those of existing stockholders. Debt financing, if available, is likely to involve restrictive covenants limiting our flexibility in conducting future business activities, and, in the event of insolvency, debt holders would be repaid before holders of our equity securities received any distribution of our corporate assets.
Due to the significant resources required for the development of our drug candidates, we must prioritize development of certain drug candidates and/or certain disease indications. We may expend our limited resources on candidates or indications that do not yield a successful product and fail to capitalize on drug candidates or indications that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success.
We plan to develop a pipeline of drug candidates to treat age-associated diseases and extend human healthspan. We are currently developing multiple senolytic molecules to address a variety of age-associated diseases, including musculoskeletal, ophthalmologic and pulmonary disorders. In addition, we are pursuing other aging mechanisms, such as loss of circulating youth factors and mitochondrial dysfunction, which also have the potential to reduce the damaging effects of age. We seek to maintain a process of prioritization and resource allocation among our programs to maintain a balance between aggressively advancing lead programs in identified indications and exploring additional indications or mechanisms to effect diseases of aging. However, due to the significant resources required for the development of our drug candidates, we must focus on specific diseases and disease pathways and decide which drug candidates to pursue and the amount of resources to allocate to each. Our near-term objective is to demonstrate in our clinical studies that local treatment with senolytic molecules can alter the course of an age-associated disease. To accomplish this goal, we submitted our IND application in March 2018, which was cleared by the FDA in April 2018, and we plan to initiate a Phase 1 clinical study of UBX0101 in osteoarthritic patients in the second quarter of 2018. In addition, we plan to submit our IND application and commence a Phase 1 clinical study of UBX1967 in an ophthalmologic indication in the second half of 2019.
Our decisions concerning the allocation of research, development, collaboration, management and financial resources toward particular drug candidates or therapeutic areas may not lead to the development of any viable commercial product and may divert resources away from better opportunities. Similarly, our potential decisions to delay, terminate or collaborate with third parties in respect of certain programs may subsequently also prove to be suboptimal and could cause us to miss
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valuable opportunities. If we make incorrect determinations regarding the viability or market potential of any of our programs or drug candidates or misread trends in the aging or healthspan or biopharmaceutical industry, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected. As a result, we may fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities, be required to forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other drug candidates or other diseases and disease pathways that may later prove to have greater commercial potential than those we choose to pursue, or relinquish valuable rights to such drug candidates through collaboration, licensing or other royalty arrangements in cases in which it would have been advantageous for us to invest additional resources to retain development and commercialization rights.
Our operating results may fluctuate significantly, which makes our future operating results difficult to predict and could cause our operating results to fall below expectations.
Our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate significantly, which makes it difficult for us to predict our future operating results. These fluctuations may occur due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control and may be difficult to predict, including:
| the timing and cost of, and level of investment in, research, development and, if approved, commercialization activities relating to our drug candidates, which may change from time to time; |
| the timing and status of enrollment for our clinical studies; |
| the cost of manufacturing our drug candidates, as well as building out our supply chain, which may vary depending on the quantity of production and the terms of our agreements with manufacturers; |
| expenditures that we may incur to acquire, develop or commercialize additional drug candidates and technologies; |
| timing and amount of any milestone, royalty or other payments due under any collaboration or license agreement; |
| future accounting pronouncements or changes in our accounting policies; |
| the timing and success or failure of preclinical studies and clinical studies for our drug candidates or competing drug candidates, or any other change in the competitive landscape of our industry, including consolidation among our competitors or partners. |
| the timing of receipt of approvals for our drug candidates from regulatory authorities in the United States and internationally; |
| coverage and reimbursement policies with respect to our drug candidates, if approved, and potential future drugs that compete with our products; and |
| the level of demand for our products, if approved, which may vary significantly over time; |
The cumulative effects of these factors could result in large fluctuations and unpredictability in our quarterly and annual operating results. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. Investors should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance.
This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failing to meet the expectations of industry or financial analysts or investors for any period. If our revenue or operating results fall below the expectations of analysts or investors or below any forecasts we may provide to the market, or if the forecasts we provide to the market are below the expectations of analysts or investors, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. Such a stock price decline could occur even when we have met any previously publicly stated revenue or earnings guidance we may provide.
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Risks Related to Our Business
Our core therapeutic approach to extending human healthspan is based on our understanding of cellular senescence. Utilizing senolytic molecules to treat age-associated diseases is a novel therapeutic approach, which exposes us to unforeseen risks and makes it difficult to predict the time and cost of drug development and potential for regulatory approval.
We are developing a pipeline of drug candidates to treat age-associated diseases and extend human healthspan. Our foundational science and lead drug candidates are based on senescent biology. We believe that we can develop drug candidates capable of eliminating accumulated senescent cells and the associated Senescence Associated Secretory Phenotype, or SASP, when administered locally, and eventually develop systemic senolytic medicines using multiple modalities. However, this approach to treating age-associated diseases is novel and the scientific research that forms the basis of our efforts to develop senolytic medicines is ongoing. We currently have only limited data, and no conclusive evidence in humans that the accumulation of senescent cells and resulting exposure to SASP factors is the underlying cause of tissue damage and dysfunction associated with many age-associated diseases. Further, we have not yet tested our senolytic molecules in humans and our current data is limited to animal models and preclinical cell lines, the results of which may not translate into humans. As such, there can be no assurances that even if we are able to develop senolytic medicines capable of eliminating senescent cells that such medicines would safely and effectively treat age-associated diseases.
While cellular senescence is a natural occurring biological process, the administration of senolytic medicines to eliminate accumulated senescent cells in humans is untested and may potentially harm healthy tissue or result in unforeseen safety events. We may also ultimately discover that our senolytic molecules do not possess certain properties required for therapeutic effectiveness, or that even if found to be effective in one type of tissue, such molecules are not effective in other tissues. In addition, given the novel nature of this therapeutic approach, designing preclinical and clinical studies to demonstrate the effect of senolytic medicines is complex and exposes us to unforeseen risks. For example, attempts to replicate mouse anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, transection findings using different animal models of osteoarthritis, or OA, have proven to be challenging, as it is difficult to mimic a disease like OA, which develops over a long period of time in humans, in short-term animal models. A model of OA using the rat medial meniscal-tibial ligament, or MX, transection failed to produce significant senescence, while a recently conducted canine model of OA in which both the ACL and MX were transected produced significantly higher levels of senescence (roughly 10-fold higher than that of the mouse ACL model). In those studies, administration of UBX0101 did not appear to affect either senescence burden or SASP factors. Further, the scientific evidence to support the feasibility of developing systemic senolytic medicines is both preliminary and limited. We may spend substantial funds attempting to develop these drug candidates and never succeed in doing so.
No regulatory authority has granted approval for a senolytic medicine. As such, we believe the FDA has limited experience with biological senescence, which may increase the complexity, uncertainty and length of the regulatory approval process for our drug candidates. We may never receive approval to market and commercialize any drug candidate. Even if we obtain regulatory approval, the approval may be for targets, disease indications or patient populations that are not as broad as we intended or desired or may require labeling that includes significant use or distribution restrictions or safety warnings. We may be required to perform additional or unanticipated clinical studies to obtain approval or be subject to post-marketing testing requirements to maintain regulatory approval. If our senolytic molecules prove to be ineffective, unsafe or commercially unviable, our entire senolytic platform and pipeline would have little, if any, value, which would have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
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Our business is dependent on the successful development, regulatory approval, and commercialization of our drug candidates, all of which are in early stages of development and none of which have been tested in a human subject.
We have no products approved for sale and all of our drug candidates are in early stages of development. Our lead drug candidate, UBX0101, has not yet been evaluated in a clinical study and our other lead drug candidate, UBX1967, has yet to complete IND-enabling studies. Further, we have not yet administered any of our drug candidates in humans and, as such, we face significant translational risk with our drug candidates. The success of our business, including our ability to finance our company and generate any revenue in the future, will primarily depend on the successful development, regulatory approval and commercialization of drug candidates from our senolytic medicine pipeline. However, given our early stage of development, it may be many years, if we succeed at all, before we have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of a drug candidate sufficient to warrant approval for commercialization.
In the future, we may also become dependent on other drug candidates that we may develop or acquire. The clinical and commercial success of our drug candidates and future drug candidates will depend on a number of factors, including the following:
| our ability to raise any additional required capital on acceptable terms, or at all; |
| our ability to complete IND-enabling studies and successfully submit IND or comparable applications; |
| timely completion of our preclinical studies and clinical studies, which may be significantly slower or cost more than we currently anticipate and will depend substantially upon the performance of third-party contractors; |
| whether we are required by the FDA or similar foreign regulatory agencies to conduct additional clinical studies or other studies beyond those planned to support the approval and commercialization of our drug candidates or any future drug candidates; |
| acceptance of our proposed indications and primary endpoint assessments relating to the proposed indications of our drug candidates by the FDA and similar foreign regulatory authorities; |
| our ability to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the FDA and similar foreign regulatory authorities the safety, efficacy and acceptable risk to benefit profile of our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidates; |
| the prevalence, duration and severity of potential side effects or other safety issues experienced with our drug candidates or future approved products, if any; |
| the timely receipt of necessary marketing approvals from the FDA and similar foreign regulatory authorities; |
| achieving and maintaining, and, where applicable, ensuring that our third-party contractors achieve and maintain compliance with our contractual obligations and with all regulatory requirements applicable to our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidates or approved products, if any; |
| the willingness of physicians, operators of clinics and patients to utilize or adopt any of our future drug candidates to treat age-associated diseases; |
| the ability of third parties with whom we contract to manufacture adequate clinical study and commercial supplies of our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidates, remain in good standing with regulatory agencies and develop, validate and maintain commercially viable manufacturing processes that are compliant with current good manufacturing practices, or cGMP; |
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| our ability to successfully develop a commercial strategy and thereafter commercialize our drug candidates or any future drug candidates in the United States and internationally, if approved for marketing, reimbursement, sale and distribution in such countries and territories, whether alone or in collaboration with others; |
| the convenience of our treatment or dosing regimen; |
| acceptance by physicians, payors and patients of the benefits, safety and efficacy of our drug candidates or any future drug candidates, if approved, including relative to alternative and competing treatments; |
| patient demand for our drug candidates, if approved; |
| our ability to establish and enforce intellectual property rights in and to our drug candidates or any future drug candidates; and |
| our ability to avoid third-party patent interference, intellectual property challenges or intellectual property infringement claims. |
These factors, many of which are beyond our control, could cause us to experience significant delays or an inability to obtain regulatory approvals or commercialize our drug candidates. Even if regulatory approvals are obtained, we may never be able to successfully commercialize any of our drug candidates. Accordingly, we cannot provide assurances that we will be able to generate sufficient revenue through the sale of our drug candidates or any future drug candidates to continue our business or achieve profitability.
We may be unable to obtain regulatory approval for our drug candidates under applicable regulatory requirements. The denial or delay of any such approval would delay commercialization of our drug candidates and adversely impact our potential to generate revenue, our business and our results of operations.
To gain approval to market our drug candidates, we must provide the FDA and foreign regulatory authorities with clinical data that adequately demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the drug candidate for the intended indication applied for in the applicable regulatory filing. For our senolytic medicines, we must also demonstrate that eliminating senescent cells and the associated SASP will lead to the improvement of well-defined and measurable endpoints. Product development is a long, expensive and uncertain processes, and delay or failure can occur at any stage of any of our clinical development programs. A number of companies in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries have suffered significant setbacks in clinical studies, even after promising results in earlier preclinical or clinical studies. These setbacks have been caused by, among other things, preclinical findings made while clinical studies were underway and safety or efficacy observations made in clinical studies, including previously unreported adverse events. Success in preclinical testing and early clinical studies does not ensure that later clinical studies will be successful, and the results of clinical studies by other parties may not be indicative of the results in trials we may conduct.
We have not previously submitted a new drug application, or NDA, or biologics license application, or BLA, to the FDA, or similar approval filings to comparable foreign regulatory authorities. An NDA, BLA or other relevant regulatory filing must include extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to establish that the drug candidate is safe, pure and potent for each desired indication. The NDA, BLA or other relevant regulatory filing must also include significant information regarding the chemistry, manufacturing and controls for the product.
Our IND application for UBX0101 was cleared by the FDA in April 2018, and we plan to conduct IND-enabling studies of UBX1967. The research, testing, manufacturing, labeling, approval, sale,
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marketing and distribution of drug and biologic products are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory authorities in the United States and other countries, and such regulations differ from country to country. We are not permitted to market our drug candidates in the United States or in any foreign countries until they receive the requisite approval from the applicable regulatory authorities of such jurisdictions.
The FDA or any foreign regulatory bodies can delay, limit or deny approval of our drug candidates for many reasons, including:
| our inability to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the FDA or the applicable foreign regulatory body that any of our drug candidates is safe and effective for the requested indication; |
| the FDAs or the applicable foreign regulatory agencys disagreement with our trial protocol or the interpretation of data from preclinical studies or clinical studies; |
| our inability to demonstrate that the clinical and other benefits of any of our drug candidates outweigh any safety or other perceived risks; |
| the FDAs or the applicable foreign regulatory agencys requirement for additional preclinical studies or clinical studies; |
| the FDAs or the applicable foreign regulatory agencys non-approval of the formulation, labeling or specifications of UBX0101, UBX1967, or any of our future drug candidates; |
| the FDAs or the applicable foreign regulatory agencys failure to approve the manufacturing processes or facilities of third-party manufacturers upon which we rely; or |
| the potential for approval policies or regulations of the FDA or the applicable foreign regulatory agencies to significantly change in a manner rendering our clinical data insufficient for approval. |
Of the large number of biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical products in development, only a small percentage successfully complete the FDA or other regulatory approval processes and are commercialized.
Even if we eventually complete clinical testing and receive approval from the FDA or applicable foreign agencies for any of our drug candidates, the FDA or the applicable foreign regulatory agency may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly additional clinical studies which may be required after approval. The FDA or the applicable foreign regulatory agency also may approve our lead drug candidates for a more limited indication or a narrower patient population than we originally requested, and the FDA, or applicable foreign regulatory agency, may not approve our drug candidates with the labeling that we believe is necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of such drug candidates.
Any delay in obtaining, or inability to obtain, applicable regulatory approval would delay or prevent commercialization of our drug candidates and would materially adversely impact our business and prospects.
Clinical development involves a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome, and results of earlier studies and trials may not be predictive of future trial results.
Clinical testing is expensive and can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure or delay can occur at any time during the clinical study process. Success in preclinical studies and early clinical studies does not ensure that later clinical studies will be successful. A number of companies in the biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries have suffered significant
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setbacks in clinical studies, even after positive results in earlier preclinical studies or clinical studies. These setbacks have been caused by, among other things, preclinical findings made while clinical studies were underway and safety or efficacy observations made in clinical studies, including previously unreported adverse events. The results of our preclinical animal studies or studies in ex vivo human tissues may not be predictive of the results of outcomes in human clinical studies. For example, our senolytic molecules may demonstrate different chemical and pharmacological properties in patients than they do in laboratory studies or may interact with human biological systems in unforeseen or harmful ways. Drug candidates in later stages of clinical studies may fail to show the desired pharmacological properties or safety and efficacy traits despite having progressed through preclinical studies and initial clinical studies. Notwithstanding any promising results in earlier studies, we cannot be certain that we will not face similar setbacks. Even if we are able to initiate and complete clinical studies, the results may not be sufficient to obtain regulatory approval for our drug candidates.
Although our IND application for UBX0101 was cleared by the FDA in April 2018, and we expect to initiate a Phase 1 clinical study in the second quarter of 2018, we may experience delays in obtaining the FDAs authorization to initiate clinical studies under such IND, completing ongoing studies of our other drug candidates and initiating our planned studies and trials. Additionally, we cannot be certain that studies or trials for our drug candidates will begin on time, not require redesign, enroll an adequate number of subjects on time or be completed on schedule, if at all. Clinical studies can be delayed or terminated for a variety of reasons, including delays or failures related to:
| the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities disagreeing as to the design or implementation of our clinical studies; |
| delays in obtaining regulatory approval to commence a trial; |
| reaching agreement on acceptable terms with prospective contract research organizations, or CROs, and clinical study 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; |
| recruiting an adequate number of suitable patients to participate in a trial; |
| having subjects complete a trial or return for post-treatment follow-up; |
| clinical sites deviating from trial protocol or dropping out of a trial; |
| addressing subject safety concerns that arise during the course of a trial; |
| adding a sufficient number of clinical study sites; or |
| obtaining sufficient product supply of drug candidate for use in preclinical studies or clinical studies from third-party suppliers. |
We may experience numerous adverse or unforeseen events during, or as a result of, preclinical studies and clinical studies that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize our drug candidates, including:
| we may receive feedback from regulatory authorities that requires us to modify the design of our clinical studies; |
| clinical studies of our drug candidates may produce negative or inconclusive results, and we may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional clinical studies or abandon drug development programs, including all of our senolytic programs; |
| the number of patients required for clinical studies of our drug candidates may be larger than we anticipate, enrollment in these clinical studies may be slower than we anticipate or participants may drop out of these clinical studies at a higher rate than we anticipate; |
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| our third-party contractors may fail to comply with regulatory requirements, fail to maintain adequate quality controls, or be unable to provide us with sufficient product supply to conduct and complete preclinical studies or clinical studies of our drug candidates in a timely manner, or at all; |
| we or our investigators might have to suspend or terminate clinical studies of our drug candidates for various reasons, including non-compliance with regulatory requirements, a finding that our drug candidates have undesirable side effects or other unexpected characteristics, or a finding that the participants are being exposed to unacceptable health risks; |
| the cost of clinical studies of our drug candidates may be greater than we anticipate; |
| the quality of our drug candidates or other materials necessary to conduct preclinical studies or clinical studies of our drug candidates may be insufficient or inadequate; |
| regulators may revise the requirements for approving our drug candidates, or such requirements may not be as we anticipate; and |
| future collaborators may conduct clinical studies in ways they view as advantageous to them but that are suboptimal for us. |
If we are required to conduct additional clinical studies or other testing of our drug candidates beyond those that we currently contemplate, if we are unable to successfully complete clinical studies of our drug candidates or other testing, if the results of these trials or tests are not positive or are only moderately positive or if there are safety concerns, we may:
| incur unplanned costs; |
| be delayed in obtaining marketing approval for our drug candidates or not obtain marketing approval at all; |
| obtain marketing approval in some countries and not in others; |
| obtain marketing approval for indications or patient populations that are not as broad as intended or desired |
| obtain marketing approval with labeling that includes significant use or distribution restrictions or safety warnings, including boxed warnings; |
| be subject to additional post-marketing testing requirements; or |
| have the treatment removed from the market after obtaining marketing approval. |
We could also encounter delays if a clinical study is suspended or terminated by us, by the IRBs of the institutions in which such trials are being conducted, by the Data Safety Monitoring Board, or DSMB, for such trial or by the FDA or other regulatory authorities. Such authorities may suspend or terminate a clinical study due to a number of factors, including failure to conduct the clinical study in accordance with regulatory requirements or our clinical protocols, inspection of the clinical study operations or trial site by the FDA or other regulatory authorities resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold, unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a drug, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical study.
Further, conducting clinical studies in foreign countries, as we may do for certain of our drug candidates, presents additional risks that may delay completion of our clinical studies. These risks include the failure of enrolled patients in foreign countries to adhere to clinical protocol as a result of differences in healthcare services or cultural customs, managing additional administrative burdens associated with foreign regulatory schemes, as well as political and economic risks relevant to such foreign countries.
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Principal investigators for our clinical studies may serve as scientific advisors or consultants to us from time to time and may receive cash or equity compensation in connection with such services. If these relationships and any related compensation result in perceived or actual conflicts of interest, or a regulatory authority concludes that the financial relationship may have affected the interpretation of the trial, the integrity of the data generated at the applicable clinical study site may be questioned and the utility of the clinical study itself may be jeopardized, which could result in the delay or rejection of the marketing application we submit. Any such delay or rejection could prevent or delay us from commercializing our current or future drug candidates.
If we experience delays in the completion, or termination, of any preclinical study or clinical study of our drug candidates, the commercial prospects of our drug candidates may be harmed, and our ability to generate revenues from any of these drug candidates will be delayed or not realized at all. In addition, any delays in completing our clinical studies may increase our costs, slow down our drug candidate development and approval process and jeopardize our ability to commence product sales and generate revenues. Any of these occurrences may significantly harm our business, financial condition and prospects. In addition, many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical studies may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our drug candidates. If one or more of our drug candidates or our senescence technology generally prove to be ineffective, unsafe or commercially unviable, our entire platform and pipeline would have little, if any, value, which would have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We may not be successful in our efforts to continue to create a pipeline of drug candidates or to develop commercially successful products. If we fail to successfully identify and develop additional drug candidates, our commercial opportunity may be limited.
We are committed to developing senolytic medicines that slow, halt or reverse age-associated diseases and are currently advancing multiple senolytic molecules to address a variety of age-associated diseases, including musculoskeletal, ophthalmologic and pulmonary disorders. As senolytic medicines are not limited to intervention by a single mode of action or molecular target, we believe that we can modulate a number of biologic pathways in order to trigger the beneficial elimination of senescent cells. However, our core therapeutic approach is based on our belief that the elimination of the accumulation of senescent cells and their accompanying SASP can treat the root cause of many of the diseases of aging, which may never be successfully validated in a human. In addition, identifying, developing, obtaining regulatory approval and commercializing drug candidates for the treatment of age-associated diseases will require substantial additional funding beyond the net proceeds of this offering and is prone to the risks of failure inherent in drug development. Research programs to identify drug candidates also require substantial technical, financial and human resources, regardless of whether or not any drug candidates are ultimately identified, and even if our research programs initially show promise in identifying potential drug candidates, they may fail to yield drug candidates for clinical development.
In addition, we believe that many age-associated diseases will require the development of systemic senolytic medicines and that the full potential to extend human healthspan will require additional non-senescence based therapeutic approaches. As a result, we intend to continue to dedicate significant resources and effort to better understand fundamental aging mechanisms, such as loss of circulating youth factors and mitochondrial dysfunction, and translate these insights into human medicines. However, the scientific evidence to support the feasibility of developing systemic senolytic medicines is both preliminary and limited and our non-senolytic programs are based on emerging science. We therefore cannot provide any assurance that we will be able to successfully identify or acquire additional drug candidates, advance any of these additional drug candidates through the development process, successfully commercialize any such additional drug candidates, if approved, or
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assemble sufficient resources to identify, acquire, develop or, if approved, commercialize additional drug candidates. If we are unable to successfully identify, acquire, develop and commercialize additional drug candidates, our commercial opportunity may be limited.
It may be many years, if ever, before we develop senolytic medicines capable of systemic administration to treat systemic diseases of aging.
We are focusing initially on the development of senolytic molecules for age-associated diseases that can be treated by means of local treatment and intend to continue our research into the development of systemic senolytic medicines. However, we are still at a very early stage of developing locally administered senolytic medicines, and we must establish proof-of-concept in humans for local treatment before developing a systemically administered senolytic medicine. We still face significant risks in the development of localized treatments. As a result, it may be many years before we have sufficient human data and scientific understanding to effectively pursue a systemically administered senolytic medicine, if ever.
If we encounter difficulties enrolling patients in our clinical studies, our clinical development activities could be delayed or otherwise adversely affected.
The timely completion of clinical studies in accordance with their protocols depends, among other things, on our ability to enroll a sufficient number of patients who remain in the study until its conclusion. We may experience difficulties in patient enrollment in our clinical studies for a variety of reasons. The enrollment of patients depends on many factors, including:
| the patient eligibility criteria defined in the protocol; |
| the size of the patient population required for analysis of the trials primary endpoints; |
| the proximity of patients to trial sites; |
| the design of the trial; |
| our ability to recruit clinical study investigators with the appropriate competencies and experience; |
| clinicians and patients perceptions as to the potential advantages of the drug candidate being studied in relation to other available therapies, including any new drugs that may be approved for the indications we are investigating; and |
| our ability to obtain and maintain patient consents. |
In addition, our clinical studies may compete with other clinical studies for drug candidates that are in the same therapeutic areas as our drug candidates, and this competition will reduce the number and types of patients available to us, because some patients who might have opted to enroll in our trials may instead opt to enroll in a trial being conducted by one of our competitors. Since the number of qualified clinical investigators is limited, we may conduct some of our clinical studies at the same clinical study sites that some of our competitors use, which will reduce the number of patients who are available for our clinical studies in such clinical study site.
Further, senolytic medicines designed to eliminate senescent cells and associated SASP may result in unforeseen events, including by harming healthy tissues. As a result, it is possible that safety concerns could negatively affect patient enrollment among the patient populations that we intend to treat, including among those in indications with a low risk of mortality. Delays in patient enrollment may result in increased costs or may affect the timing or outcome of the planned clinical studies, which could prevent completion of these trials and adversely affect our ability to advance the development of our drug candidates.
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Our drug candidates may cause undesirable side effects or have other properties that could delay or prevent their regulatory approval, limit the commercial profile of an approved label, or result in significant negative consequences following marketing approval, if any.
Undesirable side effects caused by our drug candidates could cause us or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical studies and could result in a more restrictive label or the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities. No senolytic medicines designed to eliminate senescent cells and associated SASP have ever been tested in humans. As a result, any clinical studies we initiate could reveal a high and unacceptable severity and prevalence of side effects, and it is possible that patients enrolled in such clinical studies could respond in unexpected ways. For instance, in preclinical in vivo animal and ex vivo human tissue studies, our senolytic molecules have exhibited clearance of senescent cells, however the elimination of accumulated senescent cells may result in unforeseen events, including by harming healthy cells or tissues. In addition, the entry by cells into a senescent state is a natural biological process that we believe may have protective effects, such as halting the proliferation of damaged cells. The treatment of tissues with senolytic molecules could interfere with such protective processes.
If unacceptable side effects arise in the development of our drug candidates, we, the FDA, the IRBs at the institutions in which our studies are conducted, or the DSMB could suspend or terminate our clinical studies or the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities could order us to cease clinical studies or deny approval of our drug candidates for any or all targeted indications. Treatment-related side effects could also affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled patients to complete any of our clinical studies or result in potential product liability claims. In addition, these side effects may not be appropriately recognized or managed by the treating medical staff. We expect to have to train medical personnel using our drug candidates to understand the side effect profiles for our clinical studies and upon any commercialization of any of our drug candidates. Inadequate training in recognizing or managing the potential side effects of our drug candidates could result in patient injury or death. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly.
In addition, even if we successfully advance any of our drug candidates into and through clinical studies, such trials will likely only include a limited number of subjects and limited duration of exposure to our drug candidates. As a result, we cannot be assured that adverse effects of our drug candidates will not be uncovered when a significantly larger number of patients are exposed to the drug candidate. Further, any clinical studies may not be sufficient to determine the effect and safety consequences of taking our drug candidates over a multi-year period.
If any of our drug candidates receives marketing approval, and we or others later identify undesirable side effects caused by such products, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including:
| regulatory authorities may withdraw their approval of the product; |
| we may be required to recall a product or change the way such product is administered to patients; |
| additional restrictions may be imposed on the marketing of the particular product or the manufacturing processes for the product or any component thereof; |
| regulatory authorities may require the addition of labeling statements, such as a black box warning or a contraindication; |
| we may be required to implement a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS, or create a Medication Guide outlining the risks of such side effects for distribution to patients; |
| we could be sued and held liable for harm caused to patients; |
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| the product may become less competitive; and |
| our reputation may suffer. |
Any of the foregoing events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the particular drug candidate, if approved, and result in the loss of significant revenues to us, which would materially and adversely affect our results of operations and business. In addition, if one or more of our drug candidates or our senescence approach generally prove to be unsafe, our entire platform and pipeline could be affected, which would have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Even if our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidates obtain regulatory approval, they may fail to achieve the broad degree of physician and patient adoption and use necessary for commercial success.
Even if one or more of our drug candidates receive FDA or other regulatory approvals, the commercial success of any of our current or future drug candidates will depend significantly on the broad adoption and use of the resulting product by physicians and patients for approved indications. Our drug candidates may not be commercially successful. For a variety of reasons, including among other things, competitive factors, pricing or physician preference, reimbursement by insurers, the degree and rate of physician and patient adoption of our current or future drug candidates, if approved, will depend on a number of factors, including:
| the clinical indications for which the product is approved and patient demand for approved products that treat those indications; |
| the safety and efficacy of our product as compared to other available therapies; |
| the availability of coverage and adequate reimbursement from managed care plans, insurers and other healthcare payors for any of our drug candidates that may be approved; |
| acceptance by physicians, operators of clinics and patients of the product as a safe and effective treatment; |
| physician and patient willingness to adopt a new therapy over other available therapies to treat approved indications; |
| overcoming any biases physicians or patients may have toward particular therapies for the treatment of approved indications; |
| proper training and administration of our drug candidates by physicians and medical staff; |
| public misperception regarding the use of our therapies, or public bias against anti-aging companies; |
| patient satisfaction with the results and administration of our drug candidates and overall treatment experience, including, for example, the convenience of any dosing regimen; |
| the cost of treatment with our drug candidates in relation to alternative treatments and reimbursement levels, if any, and willingness to pay for the product, if approved, on the part of insurance companies and other third-party payers, physicians and patients; |
| the willingness of patients to pay for certain of our products, if approved; |
| the revenue and profitability that our products may offer a physician as compared to alternative therapies; |
| the prevalence and severity of side effects; |
| limitations or warnings contained in the FDA-approved labeling for our products; |
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| the willingness of physicians, operators of clinics and patients to utilize or adopt our products as a solution; |
| any FDA requirement to undertake a REMS; |
| the effectiveness of our sales, marketing and distribution efforts; |
| adverse publicity about our products or favorable publicity about competitive products; and |
| potential product liability claims. |
We cannot assure you that our current or future drug candidates, if approved, will achieve broad market acceptance among physicians and patients. Any failure by our drug candidates that obtain regulatory approval to achieve market acceptance or commercial success would adversely affect our results of operations.
We rely on third-party suppliers to manufacture preclinical supplies of our drug candidates and we intend to rely on third parties to produce clinical supplies as well as commercial supplies of any approved product. The loss of these suppliers, or their failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements or to provide us with sufficient quantities at acceptable quality levels or prices, or at all, would materially and adversely affect our business.
We do not have nor do we plan to build or acquire the infrastructure or capability internally to manufacture supplies of our drug candidates or the materials necessary to produce our drug candidates for use in the conduct of our preclinical studies or clinical studies, and we lack the internal resources and the capability to manufacture any of our drug candidates on a preclinical, clinical or commercial scale. The facilities used by our contract manufacturers to manufacture our drug candidates are subject to various regulatory requirements and may be subject to the inspection of the FDA or other regulatory authorities. We do not control the manufacturing process of, and are completely dependent on, our contract manufacturing partners for compliance with the regulatory requirements, known as cGMPs. If our contract manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA or comparable regulatory authorities in foreign jurisdictions, we may not be able to rely on their manufacturing facilities for the manufacture or our drug candidates. In addition, we have limited control over the ability of our contract manufacturers to maintain adequate quality control, quality assurance and qualified personnel. If the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority finds these facilities inadequate for the manufacture of our drug candidates or if such facilities are subject to enforcement action in the future or are otherwise inadequate, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which would significantly impact our ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for or market our drug candidates.
We currently intend to supply all of our drug candidates in all territories for our clinical development programs. We currently rely on third parties at key stages in our supply chain. For instance, the supply chains for our lead drug candidates involve several manufacturers that specialize in specific operations of the manufacturing process, specifically, raw materials manufacturing, drug substance manufacturing, and drug product manufacturing. As a result, the supply chain for the manufacturing of our drug candidates is complicated and we expect the logistical challenges associated with our supply chain to grow more complex as our drug candidates, such as UBX0101, commence any clinical studies.
We do not have any control over the process or timing of the acquisition or manufacture of materials by our manufacturers. We generally do not begin a preclinical study and we do not intend to initiate any clinical studies unless we believe we have access to a sufficient supply of a drug candidate to complete such study or trial. In addition, any significant delay in, or quality control problems with
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respect to, the supply of a drug candidate, or the raw material components thereof, for an ongoing study or trial could considerably delay completion of our preclinical studies or future clinical studies, product testing and potential regulatory approval of our drug candidates.
We have not yet engaged any manufacturers for the commercial supply of our drug candidates. Although we intend to enter into such agreements prior to commercial launch of any of our drug candidates, we may be unable to enter into any such agreement or do so on commercially reasonable terms, which could have a material adverse impact upon our business. Moreover, if there is a disruption to one or more of our third-party manufacturers or suppliers relevant operations, or if we are unable to enter into arrangements for the commercial supply of our drug candidates, we will have no other means of producing our lead drug candidates until they restore the affected facilities or we or they procure alternative manufacturing facilities or sources of supply. Our ability to progress our preclinical and clinical programs could be materially and adversely impacted if any of the third party suppliers upon which we rely were to experience a significant business challenge, disruption or failure due to issues such as financial difficulties or bankruptcy, issues relating to other customers such as regulatory or quality compliance issues, or other financial, legal, regulatory or reputational issues. Additionally, any damage to or destruction of our third-party manufacturers or suppliers facilities or equipment may significantly impair our ability to manufacture our drug candidates on a timely basis.
In addition, to manufacture our lead drug candidates in the quantities that we believe would be required to meet anticipated market demand, our third-party manufacturers would likely need to increase manufacturing capacity and, in some cases, we plan to secure alternative sources of commercial supply, which could involve significant challenges and may require additional regulatory approvals. In addition, the development of commercial-scale manufacturing capabilities may require us and our third-party manufacturers to invest substantial additional funds and hire and retain the technical personnel who have the necessary manufacturing experience. Neither we nor our third-party manufacturers may successfully complete any required increase to existing manufacturing capacity in a timely manner, or at all. If our manufacturers or we are unable to purchase the raw materials necessary for the manufacture of our drug candidates on acceptable terms, at sufficient quality levels, or in adequate quantities, if at all, the commercial launch of our lead drug candidates or any future 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 such drug candidates, if approved.
We depend on third-party suppliers for key raw materials used in our manufacturing processes, and the loss of these third-party suppliers or their inability to supply us with adequate raw materials could harm our business.
We rely on third-party suppliers for the raw materials required for the production of our drug candidates. Our dependence on these third-party suppliers and the challenges we may face in obtaining adequate supplies of raw materials involve several risks, including limited control over pricing, availability, quality and delivery schedules. As a small company, our negotiation leverage is limited and we are likely to get lower priority than our competitors who are larger than we are. We cannot be certain that our suppliers will continue to provide us with the quantities of these raw materials that we require or satisfy our anticipated specifications and quality requirements. Any supply interruption in limited or sole sourced raw materials could materially harm our ability to manufacture our drug candidates until a new source of supply, if any, could be identified and qualified. We may be unable to find a sufficient alternative supply channel in a reasonable time or on commercially reasonable terms. Any performance failure on the part of our suppliers could delay the development and potential commercialization of our drug candidates, including limiting supplies necessary for clinical studies and regulatory approvals, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.
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We rely on third parties in the conduct of all of our preclinical studies and intend to rely on third parties in the conduct of all of our future clinical studies. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements or meet expected deadlines, we may be unable to obtain regulatory approval for our drug candidates.
We currently do not have the ability to independently conduct preclinical studies that comply with the regulatory requirements known as good laboratory practice, or GLP, requirements. We also do not currently have the ability to independently conduct any clinical studies. The FDA and regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions require us to comply with regulations and standards, commonly referred to as good clinical practice, or GCP, requirements for conducting, monitoring, recording and reporting the results of clinical studies, in order to ensure that the data and results are scientifically credible and accurate and that the trial subjects are adequately informed of the potential risks of participating in clinical studies. We rely on medical institutions, clinical investigators, contract laboratories and other third parties, such as CROs, to conduct GLP-compliant preclinical studies and GCP-compliant clinical studies on our drug candidates properly and on time. While we have agreements governing their activities, we control only certain aspects of their activities and have limited influence over their actual performance. The third parties with whom we contract for execution of our GLP-compliant preclinical studies and our GCP-compliant clinical studies play a significant role in the conduct of these studies and trials and the subsequent collection and analysis of data. These third parties are not our employees and, except for restrictions imposed by our contracts with such third parties, we have limited ability to control the amount or timing of resources that they devote to our programs. Although we rely on these third parties to conduct our GLP-compliant preclinical studies and GCP-compliant clinical studies, we remain responsible for ensuring that each of our GLP preclinical studies and clinical studies is conducted in accordance with its investigational plan and protocol and applicable laws and regulations, and our reliance on the CROs does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities.
Many of the third parties with whom we contract may also have relationships with other commercial entities, including our competitors, for whom they may also be conducting clinical studies or other drug development activities that could harm our competitive position. If the third parties conducting our preclinical studies or our clinical studies do not adequately perform their contractual duties or obligations, experience significant business challenges, disruptions or failures, do not meet expected deadlines, terminate their agreements with us or need to be replaced, or if the quality or accuracy of the data they obtain is compromised due to their failure to adhere to our protocols or to GCPs, or for any other reason, we may need to enter into new arrangements with alternative third parties. This could be difficult, costly or impossible, and our preclinical studies or clinical studies may need to be extended, delayed, terminated or repeated. As a result we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval in a timely fashion, or at all, for the applicable drug candidate, our financial results and the commercial prospects for our drug candidates would be harmed, our costs could increase, and our ability to generate revenues could be delayed.
We face significant competition in an environment of rapid technological and scientific change, and our drug candidates, if approved, will face significant competition and our failure to effectively compete may prevent us from achieving significant market penetration. Most of our competitors have significantly greater resources than we do and we may not be able to successfully compete.
The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries in particular are characterized by rapidly advancing technologies, intense competition and a strong emphasis on developing proprietary therapeutics. Numerous companies are engaged in the development, patenting, manufacturing and marketing of healthcare products competitive with those that we are developing. We face competition
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from a number of sources, such as pharmaceutical companies, generic drug companies, biotechnology companies and academic and research institutions, many of which have greater financial resources, marketing capabilities, sales forces, manufacturing capabilities, research and development capabilities, clinical study expertise, intellectual property portfolios, experience in obtaining patents and regulatory approvals for drug candidates and other resources than we do. Some of the companies that offer competing products also have a broad range of other product offerings, large direct sales forces and long-term customer relationships with our target physicians, which could inhibit our market penetration efforts. Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These competitors also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical study sites and patient registration for clinical studies, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs. In addition, certain of our drug candidates, if approved, may compete with other products that treat age-associated diseases, including over-the-counter, or OTC, treatments, for a share of some patients discretionary budgets and for physicians attention within their clinical practices.
We are aware of other companies seeking to develop treatments to prevent or treat aging-related diseases through various biological pathways, including Calico and resTORbio. Calico has not yet disclosed any pipeline candidates or mechanisms of interest, and resTORbio is developing candidates targeting TORC1. Within our three senolytic programs, our drug candidates would compete against current therapies from a wide range of companies and technologies, including:
| symptom management approaches for musculoskeletal diseases, including anti-inflammatory drugs, such as Ibuprofen, Diclofenac and Celecoxib, analgesic pain relief, such as Acetaminophen, and narcotic pain relief, such as Tramadol; |
| potentially disease modifying therapeutics for ophthalmology disease that are currently being developed and sold by several large and specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Roche/Genentech and Regeneron; and |
| potentially disease modifying therapeutics for pulmonary disease that are currently being developed by several large and specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and academic institutions, including Genentech, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Cytokinetics and Mallinckrodt, and are in various stages of clinical studies. |
Further, we believe that potential competitors may be able to develop senolytic medicines utilizing well-established molecules and pathways, which could enable the development of competitive drug candidates utilizing the same cellular senescent biological theories.
Certain alternative treatments offered by competitors may be available at lower prices and may offer greater efficacy or better safety profiles. Furthermore, currently approved products could be discovered to have application for treatment of age-associated diseases generally, which could give such products significant regulatory and market timing advantages over any of our drug candidates. Our competitors also may obtain FDA, EMA or other regulatory approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours and may obtain orphan product exclusivity from the FDA for indications our drug candidates are targeting, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market. Newly developed systemic or non-systemic treatments that replace existing therapies that are currently only utilized in patients suffering from severe disease may also have lessened side effects or reduced prices compared to current therapies, which make them more attractive for patients suffering from mild to moderate disease. Even if a generic product or an OTC product is less effective than our drug candidates, a less
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effective generic or OTC product may be more quickly adopted by physicians and patients than our competing drug candidates based upon cost or convenience. For additional information regarding our competition, see the section of this prospectus captioned BusinessCompetition.
The successful commercialization of our drug candidates will depend in part on the extent to which governmental authorities and health insurers establish adequate coverage, reimbursement levels and pricing policies. Failure to obtain or maintain coverage and adequate reimbursement for our drug candidates, if approved, could limit our ability to market those products and decrease our ability to generate revenue.
The availability and adequacy of coverage and reimbursement by governmental healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, private health insurers and other third-party payors are essential for most patients to be able to afford prescription medications such as our drug candidates, assuming FDA approval. Our ability to achieve acceptable levels of coverage and reimbursement for products by governmental authorities, private health insurers and other organizations will have an effect on our ability to successfully commercialize our drug candidates. Assuming we obtain coverage for our drug candidates by a third-party payor, the resulting reimbursement payment rates may not be adequate or may require co-payments that patients find unacceptably high. We cannot be sure that coverage and reimbursement in the United States, the EU or elsewhere will be available for our drug candidates or any product that we may develop, and any reimbursement that may become available may be decreased or eliminated in the future.
Third-party payors increasingly are challenging prices charged for pharmaceutical products and services, and many third-party payors may refuse to provide coverage and reimbursement for particular drugs or biologics when an equivalent generic drug, biosimilar or a less expensive therapy is available. It is possible that a third-party payor may consider our drug candidates as substitutable and only offer to reimburse patients for the cost of the less expensive product. Even if we show improved efficacy or improved convenience of administration with our drug candidates, pricing of existing third-party therapeutics may limit the amount we will be able to charge for our drug candidates. These payors may deny or revoke the reimbursement status of a given product or establish prices for new or existing marketed products at levels that are too low to enable us to realize an appropriate return on our investment in our drug candidates. If reimbursement is not available or is available only at limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our drug candidates, and may not be able to obtain a satisfactory financial return on our investment in the development of drug candidates.
There is significant uncertainty related to the insurance coverage and reimbursement of newly-approved products. In the United States, third-party payors, including private and governmental payors, such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs, play an important role in determining the extent to which new drugs and biologics will be covered. The Medicare and Medicaid programs increasingly are used as models in the United States for how private payors and other governmental payors develop their coverage and reimbursement policies for drugs and biologics. Some third-party payors may require pre-approval of coverage for new or innovative devices or drug therapies before they will reimburse healthcare providers who use such therapies. We cannot predict at this time what third-party payors will decide with respect to the coverage and reimbursement for our drug candidates.
No uniform policy for coverage and reimbursement for products exists among third-party payors in the United States. Therefore, coverage and reimbursement for products can differ significantly from payor to payor. As a result, the coverage determination process is often a time-consuming and costly process that will require us to provide scientific and clinical support for the use of our drug candidates to each payor separately, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be applied consistently or obtained in the first instance. Furthermore, rules and regulations regarding reimbursement change frequently, in some cases on short notice, and we believe that changes in these rules and regulations are likely.
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Outside the United States, international operations are generally subject to extensive governmental price controls and other market regulations, and we believe the increasing emphasis on cost-containment initiatives in Europe and other countries have and will continue to put pressure on the pricing and usage of our drug candidates. In many countries, the prices of medical products are subject to varying price control mechanisms as part of national health systems. Other countries allow companies to fix their own prices for medical products, but monitor and control company profits. Additional foreign price controls or other changes in pricing regulation could restrict the amount that we are able to charge for our drug candidates. Accordingly, in markets outside the United States, the reimbursement for our drug candidates may be reduced compared with the United States and may be insufficient to generate commercially-reasonable revenue and profits.
Moreover, increasing efforts by governmental and third-party payors in the United States and abroad to cap or reduce healthcare costs may cause such organizations to limit both coverage and the level of reimbursement for newly approved products and, as a result, they may not cover or provide adequate payment for our drug candidates. We expect to experience pricing pressures in connection with the sale of our drug candidates due to the trend toward managed health care, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations and additional legislative changes. The downward pressure on healthcare costs in general, particularly prescription drugs and biologics and surgical procedures and other treatments, has become intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the entry of new products.
We currently have no sales organization. If we are unable to establish sales capabilities on our own or through third parties, we may not be able to market and sell our drug candidates effectively in the United States and foreign jurisdictions, if approved, or generate product revenue.
We currently do not have a marketing or sales organization. In order to commercialize our drug candidates in the United States and foreign jurisdictions, we must build our marketing, sales, distribution, managerial and other non-technical capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services, and we may not be successful in doing so. If any of our drug candidates receive regulatory approval, we expect to establish a sales organization with technical expertise and supporting distribution capabilities to commercialize each such drug candidate, which will be expensive and time consuming. We have no prior experience in the marketing, sale and distribution of pharmaceutical products and there are significant risks involved in building and managing a sales organization, including our ability to hire, retain, and incentivize qualified individuals, generate sufficient sales leads, provide adequate training to sales and marketing personnel, and effectively manage a geographically dispersed sales and marketing team. Any failure or delay in the development of our internal sales, marketing and distribution capabilities would adversely impact the commercialization of these products. We may choose to collaborate 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 we are unable to enter into such arrangements on acceptable terms or at all, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our drug candidates. If we are not successful in commercializing our drug candidates or any future drug candidates, either on our own or through arrangements with one or more third parties, we may not be able to generate any future product revenue and we would incur significant additional losses.
We will need to increase the size of our organization, and we may experience difficulties in managing growth.
As of December 31, 2017, we had 67 full-time employees. We will need to continue to expand our managerial, operational, finance and other resources in order to manage our operations and clinical studies, continue our development activities and commercialize our lead drug candidates or any future
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drug candidates. Our management and personnel, systems and facilities currently in place may not be adequate to support this future growth. Our need to effectively execute our growth strategy requires that we:
| manage our clinical studies effectively; |
| identify, recruit, retain, incentivize and integrate additional employees, including sales personnel; |
| manage our internal development and operational efforts effectively while carrying out our contractual obligations to third parties; and |
| continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls, reports systems and procedures. |
If we fail to attract and retain senior management and key scientific personnel, we may be unable to successfully develop our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidates, conduct our clinical studies and commercialize our current or any future drug candidates.
Our success depends in part on our continued ability to attract, retain and motivate highly qualified management, clinical and scientific personnel. We are highly dependent upon our senior management, particularly our President, Nathaniel E. David, and our Chief Executive Officer, Keith R. Leonard, as well as our senior scientists and other members of our senior management team. The loss of services of any of these individuals could delay or prevent the successful development of our product pipeline, initiation or completion of our planned clinical studies or the commercialization of our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidates.
Competition for qualified personnel in the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals field is intense due to the limited number of individuals who possess the skills and experience required by our industry. We will need to hire additional personnel as we expand our clinical development and if we initiate commercial activities. We may not be able to attract and retain quality personnel on acceptable terms, or at all. In addition, to the extent we hire personnel from competitors, we may be subject to allegations that they have been improperly solicited or that they have divulged proprietary or other confidential information, or that their former employers own their research output.
If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of our current or future drug candidates.
We face an inherent risk of product liability as a result of the clinical testing of our drug candidates and will face an even greater risk if we commercialize any products. For example, we may be sued if any product we develop allegedly causes injury or is found to be otherwise unsuitable 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 warranty. Claims could also be asserted under state consumer protection acts. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we may incur substantial liabilities or be required to limit commercialization of our drug candidates. Even a successful defense would require significant financial and management resources. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:
| decreased demand for our current or future drug candidates; |
| injury to our reputation; |
| withdrawal of clinical study participants; |
| costs to defend the related litigation; |
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| a diversion of managements time and our resources; |
| substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients; |
| regulatory investigations, product recalls, withdrawals or labeling, marketing or promotional restrictions; |
| loss of revenue; and |
| the inability to commercialize our current or any future drug candidates. |
Our inability to obtain and maintain sufficient product liability insurance at an acceptable cost and scope of coverage to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of our current or any future drug candidates we develop. We currently carry product liability insurance covering our clinical studies. Although we maintain such insurance, 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 our insurance or that is in excess of the limits of our insurance coverage. Our insurance policies also have various exclusions and deductibles, and we may be subject to a product liability claim for which we have no coverage. We will have to pay any amounts awarded by a court or negotiated in a settlement that exceed our coverage limitations or that are not covered by our insurance, and we may not have, or be able to obtain, sufficient funds to pay such amounts. Moreover, in the future, we may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in sufficient amounts to protect us against losses. If and when we obtain approval for marketing any of our drug candidates, we intend to expand our insurance coverage to include the sale of such drug candidate; however, we may be unable to obtain this liability insurance on commercially reasonable terms or at all.
Our existing collaborations as well as additional collaboration arrangements that we may enter into in the future may not be successful, which could adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize our drug candidates.
We utilize external collaborations and currently maintain more than a dozen active early-stage research and discovery focused collaborations. In the future, we may seek additional collaboration arrangements for the commercialization, or potentially for the development, of certain of our drug candidates depending on the merits of retaining commercialization rights for ourselves as compared to entering into collaboration arrangements. To the extent that we decide to enter into additional collaboration agreements in the future, we may face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators. Moreover, collaboration arrangements are complex and time-consuming to negotiate, document, implement and maintain and challenging to manage. We may not be successful in our efforts to prudently manage our existing collaborations or to enter new ones should we chose to do so. The terms of new collaborations or other arrangements that we may establish may not be favorable to us.
The success of our collaboration arrangements will depend heavily on the efforts and activities of our collaborators. Collaborations are subject to numerous risks, which may include risks that:
| collaborators have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply to collaborations; |
| collaborators may not pursue development and commercialization of our drug candidates or may elect not to continue or renew development or commercialization programs based on clinical study results, changes in their strategic focus due to their acquisition of competitive products or their internal development of competitive products, availability of funding or other external factors, such as a business combination that diverts resources or creates competing priorities; |
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| collaborators may delay clinical studies, provide insufficient funding for a clinical study program, stop a clinical study, abandon a drug candidate, repeat or conduct new clinical studies or require a new formulation of a drug candidate for clinical testing; |
| collaborators could independently develop, or develop with third parties, products that compete directly or indirectly with our products or drug candidates; |
| a collaborator with marketing, manufacturing and distribution rights to one or more products may not commit sufficient resources to or otherwise not perform satisfactorily in carrying out these activities; |
| we could grant exclusive rights to our collaborators that would prevent us from collaborating with others; |
| collaborators may not properly maintain or defend our intellectual property rights or may use our intellectual property or proprietary information in a way that gives rise to actual or threatened litigation that could jeopardize or invalidate our intellectual property or proprietary information or expose us to potential liability; |
| disputes may arise between us and a collaborator that cause the delay or termination of the research, development or commercialization of our current or future drug candidates or that result in costly litigation or arbitration that diverts management attention and resources; |
| collaborations may be terminated, and, if terminated, this may result in a need for additional capital to pursue further development or commercialization of the applicable current or future drug candidates; |
| collaborators may own or co-own intellectual property covering products that results from our collaborating with them, and in such cases, we would not have the exclusive right to develop or commercialize such intellectual property; |
| disputes may arise with respect to the ownership of any intellectual property developed pursuant to our collaborations; and |
| a collaborators sales and marketing activities or other operations may not be in compliance with applicable laws resulting in civil or criminal proceedings. |
Unfavorable global economic or political conditions could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Our results of operations could be adversely affected by general conditions in the global economy and in the global financial markets. Furthermore, the market for products with the potential to treat age-associated diseases, particularly those affecting large populations, may be particularly vulnerable to unfavorable economic conditions. A global financial crisis or a global or regional political disruption could cause extreme volatility in the capital and credit markets. A severe or prolonged economic downturn or political disruption could result in a variety of risks to our business, including weakened demand for our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidates, if approved, and our ability to raise additional capital when needed on acceptable terms, if at all. A weak or declining economy or political disruption could also strain our manufacturers or suppliers, possibly resulting in supply disruption, or cause our customers to delay making payments for our services. Any of the foregoing could harm our business and we cannot anticipate all of the ways in which the political or economic climate and financial market conditions could adversely impact our business.
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We or the third parties upon whom we depend may be adversely affected by earthquakes or other natural disasters and our business continuity and disaster recovery plans may not adequately protect us from a serious disaster.
Our corporate headquarters and other facilities are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, which in the past has experienced both severe earthquakes and wildfires. We do not carry earthquake insurance. Earthquakes, wildfires or other natural disasters could severely disrupt our operations, and have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
If a natural disaster, power outage or other event occurred that prevented us from using all or a significant portion of our headquarters, that damaged critical infrastructure, such as our enterprise financial systems or manufacturing resource planning and enterprise quality systems, or that otherwise disrupted operations, it may be difficult or, in certain cases, impossible, for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time. The disaster recovery and business continuity plans we have in place currently are limited and are unlikely to prove adequate in the event of a serious disaster or similar event. We may incur substantial expenses as a result of the limited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity plans, which, particularly when taken together with our lack of earthquake insurance, could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Furthermore, integral parties in our supply chain are similarly vulnerable to natural disasters or other sudden, unforeseen and severe adverse events. If such an event were to affect our supply chain, it could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Significant disruptions of information technology systems or breaches of data security could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We collect and maintain information in digital form that is necessary to conduct our business, and we are increasingly dependent on information technology systems and infrastructure to operate our business. In the ordinary course of our business, we collect, store and transmit large amounts of confidential information, including 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 have established physical, electronic and organizational measures to safeguard and secure our systems to prevent a data compromise, and rely on commercially available systems, software, tools, and monitoring to provide security for our information technology systems and the processing, transmission and storage of digital information. We have also outsourced elements of our information technology infrastructure, and as a result a number of third-party vendors may or could have access to our confidential information. Our internal information technology systems and infrastructure, and those of our current and any future collaborators, contractors and consultants and other third parties on which we rely, are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, malware, natural disasters, terrorism, war, telecommunication and electrical failures, cyber-attacks or cyber-intrusions over the Internet, attachments to emails, persons inside our organization, or persons with access to systems inside our organization.
The risk of a security breach or disruption, particularly through cyber-attacks or cyber intrusion, including by computer hackers, foreign governments and cyber terrorists, has generally increased as the number, intensity and sophistication of attempted attacks and intrusions from around the world have increased. In addition, the prevalent use of mobile devices that access confidential information increases the risk of data security breaches, which could lead to the loss of confidential information or other intellectual property. The costs to us to mitigate network security problems, bugs, viruses, worms, malicious software programs and security vulnerabilities could be significant, and while we have implemented security measures to protect our data security and information technology systems, our
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efforts to address these problems may not be successful, and these problems could result in unexpected interruptions, delays, cessation of service and other harm to our business and our competitive position. If such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our product development programs. For example, the loss of clinical study data from completed or ongoing or planned clinical studies could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. Moreover, if a computer security breach affects our systems or results in the unauthorized release of personally identifiable information, our reputation could be materially damaged. In addition, such a breach may require notification to governmental agencies, the media or individuals pursuant to various federal and state privacy and security laws, if applicable, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Clinical Health Act of 2009, and its implementing rules and regulations, as well as regulations promulgated by the Federal Trade Commission and state breach notification laws. We would also be exposed to a risk of loss or litigation and potential liability, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our employees and independent contractors, including principal investigators, consultants, commercial collaborators, service providers and other vendors may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements, which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.
We are exposed to the risk that our employees and independent contractors, including principal investigators, consultants, any future commercial collaborators, service providers and other vendors may engage in misconduct or other illegal activity. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional, reckless and/or negligent conduct or other unauthorized activities that violate the laws and regulations of the FDA and other similar regulatory bodies, including those laws that require the reporting of true, complete and accurate information to such regulatory bodies; manufacturing standards; U.S. federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse, data privacy laws and other similar non-U.S. laws; or laws that require the true, complete and accurate reporting of financial information or data. Activities subject to these laws also involve the improper use or misrepresentation of information obtained in the course of clinical studies, the creation of fraudulent data in our preclinical studies or clinical studies, or illegal misappropriation of product, which could result in regulatory sanctions and cause serious harm to our reputation. It is not always possible to identify and deter misconduct by employees and other third-parties, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations. In addition, we are subject to the risk that a person or government could allege such fraud or other misconduct, even if none occurred. 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 financial results, including, without limitation, the imposition of significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, monetary fines, disgorgements, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other U.S. healthcare programs, individual imprisonment, other sanctions, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings and curtailment of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations.
Our business involves the use of hazardous materials and we and our third-party manufacturers and suppliers must comply with environmental laws and regulations, which can be expensive and restrict how we do business.
Our research and development activities and our third-party manufacturers and suppliers activities involve the controlled storage, use and disposal of hazardous materials owned by us,
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including the components of our product and drug candidates and other hazardous compounds. We and any third-party manufacturers and suppliers we engage are subject to numerous federal, state and local environmental, health and safety laws, regulations and permitting requirements, including those governing laboratory procedures; the generation, handling, use, storage, treatment, and disposal of hazardous and regulated materials and wastes; the emission and discharge of hazardous materials into the ground, air and water; and employee health and safety. Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological and radioactive materials. Our operations also produce hazardous waste. In some cases, these hazardous materials and various wastes resulting from their use are stored at our and our manufacturers facilities pending their use and disposal. We generally contract with third parties for the disposal of these materials and wastes. We cannot eliminate the risk of contamination, which could cause an interruption of our commercialization efforts, research and development efforts and business operations, environmental damage resulting in costly clean-up and liabilities under applicable laws and regulations governing the use, storage, handling and disposal of these materials and specified waste products.
Although we believe that the safety procedures utilized by our third-party manufacturers for handling and disposing of these materials generally comply with the standards prescribed by these laws and regulations, we cannot guarantee that this is the case or eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials. Under certain environmental laws, we could be held responsible for costs relating to any contamination at our current or past facilities and at third-party facilities. In such an event, we may be held liable for any resulting damages and such liability could exceed our resources and state or federal or other applicable authorities may curtail our use of certain materials and/or interrupt our business operations. Furthermore, environmental laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent. We cannot predict the impact of such changes and cannot be certain of our future compliance.
Compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations may be expensive, and current or future environmental laws and regulations may impair our research, product development and manufacturing efforts. In addition, we cannot entirely eliminate the risk of accidental injury or contamination from these materials or wastes. Although we maintain workers compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees resulting from the use of hazardous materials, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. We do not carry specific biological or hazardous waste insurance coverage, and our property, casualty, and general liability insurance policies specifically exclude coverage for damages and fines arising from biological or hazardous waste exposure or contamination. Accordingly, in the event of contamination or injury, we could be held liable for damages or be penalized with fines in an amount exceeding our resources, and our clinical studies or regulatory approvals could be suspended, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Risks Related to Intellectual Property
Our senolytic medicine platform and any future products that we commercialize could be alleged to infringe patent rights and other proprietary rights of third parties, which may require costly litigation and, if we are not successful, could cause us to pay substantial damages and/or limit our ability to commercialize our products.
Our commercial success depends on our ability to develop, manufacture and market our senolytic medicines and future drug candidates and use our proprietary technology without infringing the patents and other proprietary rights of third parties. Intellectual property disputes can be costly to defend and may cause our business, operating results and financial condition to suffer. We operate in an industry with extensive intellectual property litigation. As the biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical industries
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expand and more patents are issued, the risk increases that there may be patents issued to third parties that relate to our products and technology of which we are not aware or that we may need to challenge to continue our operations as currently contemplated.
Whether merited or not, we may face allegations that we have infringed the trademarks, copyrights, patents and other intellectual property rights of third parties, including patents held by our competitors or by non-practicing entities. We may also face allegations that our employees have misappropriated the intellectual property rights of their former employers or other third parties. Litigation may make it necessary to defend ourselves by determining the scope, enforceability and validity of third-party proprietary rights, or to establish our proprietary rights. Regardless of whether claims that we are infringing patents or other intellectual property rights have merit, the claims can be time consuming, divert management attention and financial resources and are costly to evaluate and defend. Results of any such litigation are difficult to predict and may require us to stop treating certain conditions, obtain licenses or modify our products and features while we develop non-infringing substitutes, or may result in significant settlement costs. For example, litigation can involve substantial damages for infringement (and if the court finds that the infringement was willful, we could be ordered to pay treble damages and the patent owners attorneys fees), and the court could prohibit us from selling or licensing our products unless the third party licenses rights to us, which it is not required to do at a commercially reasonable price or at all. If a license is available from a third party, we may have to pay substantial royalties, upfront fees or grant cross-licenses to intellectual property rights for our products. We may also have to redesign our products so they do not infringe third-party intellectual property rights, which may not be possible at all or may require substantial monetary expenditures and time, during which our products may not be available for manufacture, use, or sale.
In addition, patent applications in the United States and many international jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after the filing of certain priority documents (or, in some cases, are not published until they issue as patents) and publications in the scientific literature often lag behind actual discoveries. Thus, we cannot be certain that others have not filed patent applications or made public disclosures relating to our technology or our contemplated technology. A third party may have filed, and may in the future file, patent applications covering our products or technology similar to ours. Any such patent application may have priority over our patent applications or patents, which could further require us to obtain rights to issued patents covering such technologies. If another party has filed a U.S. patent application on inventions similar to ours, depending on whether the timing of the filing date falls under certain patent laws, we may have to participate in a priority contest (such as an interference proceeding) declared by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, to determine priority of invention in the United States. The costs of patent and other proceedings could be substantial, and it is possible that such efforts would be unsuccessful if it is determined that the other party had independently arrived at the same or similar invention prior to our own invention, resulting in a loss of our U.S. patent position with respect to such inventions.
From time to time, we may be subject to legal proceedings and claims in the ordinary course of business with respect to intellectual property. Although we are not currently subject to any claims from third parties asserting infringement of their intellectual property rights, in the future, we may receive claims from third parties asserting infringement of their intellectual property rights. Future litigation may be necessary to establish our intellectual property rights or to defend ourselves by determining the scope, enforceability and validity of third-party intellectual property rights. There can be no assurance with respect to the outcome of any current or future litigation brought by or against us, and the outcome of any such litigation could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial condition. Litigation is inherently unpredictable and outcomes are uncertain. Further, as the costs and outcome of these types of claims and proceedings can vary significantly, it is difficult to estimate potential losses that may occur. Accordingly, we are unable at this time to estimate the effects of these potential future lawsuits on our financial condition, operations or cash flows.
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Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of complex patent litigation more effectively than we can because they have substantially greater resources. Even if resolved in our favor, litigation or other legal proceedings relating to intellectual property claims may cause us to incur significant expenses, and could distract our technical and management personnel from their normal responsibilities. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments, and if securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a material adverse effect on the price of our common stock. Finally, any uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of any litigation could have a material adverse effect on our ability to raise the funds necessary to continue our operations.
If we are unable to obtain, maintain and enforce intellectual property protection directed to our senolytic medicine platform and any future technologies that we develop, others may be able to make, use, or sell products substantially the same as ours, which could adversely affect our ability to compete in the market.
We have not pursued or maintained, and may not pursue or maintain in the future, patent protection for our products in every country or territory in which we may sell our products. In addition, we cannot be sure that any of our pending patent applications or pending trademark applications will issue or that, if issued, they will issue in a form that will be advantageous to us. The United States Patent and Trademark Office, or the USPTO, international patent offices or judicial bodies may deny or significantly narrow claims made under our patent applications and our issued patents may be successfully challenged, may be designed around, or may otherwise be of insufficient scope to provide us with protection for our commercial products. Further, the USPTO, international trademark offices or judicial bodies may deny our trademark applications and, even if published or registered, these trademarks may not effectively protect our brand and goodwill. Like patents, trademarks also may be successfully opposed or challenged.
We cannot be certain that the steps we have taken will prevent unauthorized use or unauthorized reverse engineering of our technology. Moreover, third parties may independently develop technologies that are competitive with ours and such competitive technologies may or may not infringe our intellectual property. The enforcement of our intellectual property rights also depends on the success of our legal actions against these infringers in the respective country or forum, but these actions may not be successful. As with all granted intellectual property, such intellectual property may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented, may not provide specific protection and/or may not prove to be enforceable in actions against specific alleged infringers.
The market for biopharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals and treatments for age-associated diseases is highly competitive and subject to rapid technological change. Our success depends, in part, upon our ability to maintain a competitive position in the development and protection of technologies and products for use in these fields and upon our ability to obtain, maintain and enforce our intellectual property rights in connection therewith. We seek to obtain and maintain patents and other intellectual property rights to restrict the ability of others to market products that misappropriate our technology and/or infringe our intellectual property to unfairly and illegally compete with our products. If we are unable to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights, our competitive position and our business could be harmed, as third parties may be able to make, use, or sell products that are substantially the same as ours without incurring the sizeable development and licensing costs that we have incurred, which would adversely affect our ability to compete in the market.
We use a combination of patents, trademarks, know-how, confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions to protect our proprietary technology. However, these protections may not be adequate and may not provide us with any competitive advantage. For example, patents may not issue from any of our currently pending or any future patent applications, and our issued patents and any
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future patents that may issue may not survive legal challenges to their scope, validity or enforceability, or provide significant protection for us.
If we or one of our current or future collaborators were to initiate legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering one of our lead drug candidates or future drug candidates, the defendant could counterclaim that our patent is invalid and/or unenforceable. In patent litigation in the United States, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity and/or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge could be an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including lack of novelty, obviousness or non-enablement. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could be an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant information from the USPTO, or made a misleading statement, during prosecution. Third parties may also raise similar claims before the USPTO, even outside the context of litigation. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable. With respect to the validity question, for example, we cannot be certain that there is no invalidating prior art, of which we and the patent examiner were unaware during prosecution. If a defendant were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity and/or unenforceability, we would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the patent protection on our drug candidates. Such a loss of patent protection would have a material adverse impact on our business.
Even if our patents are determined by a court to be valid and enforceable, they may not be interpreted sufficiently broadly to prevent others from marketing products similar to ours or designing around our patents. For example, third parties may be able to make product that are similar to ours but that are not covered by the claims of our patents. Third parties may assert that we or our licensors were not the first to make the inventions covered by our issued patents or pending patent applications. The claims of our issued patents or patent applications when issued may not cover our proposed commercial technologies or the future products that we develop. We may not have freedom to commercialize unimpeded by the patent rights of others. Third parties may have dominating, blocking, or other patents relevant to our technology of which we are not aware. There may be prior public disclosures or art that could be deemed to invalidate one or more of our patent claims. Further, we may not develop additional proprietary technologies in the future, and, if we do, they may not be patentable.
Patent law can be highly uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions for which important principles remain unresolved. In the United States and in many international jurisdictions, policy regarding the breadth of claims allowed in patents can be inconsistent. The U.S. Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit have made, and will likely continue to make, changes in how the patent laws of the United States are interpreted. Similarly, international courts have made, and will likely continue to make, changes in how the patent laws in their respective jurisdictions are interpreted. We cannot predict future changes in the interpretation of patent laws or changes to patent laws that might be enacted into law by U.S. and international legislative bodies. Those changes may materially affect our patents, our ability to obtain patents or the patents and patent applications of our licensors.
Patent reform legislation in the United States could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents. For example, on September 16, 2011, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or Leahy-Smith Act, was signed into law. The Leahy-Smith Act included a number of significant changes to U.S. patent law. These include provisions that affect the way patent applications are prosecuted, redefine prior art, may affect patent litigation, and switch the U.S. patent system from a first-to-invent system to a first-to-file system. Under a first-to-file system, assuming the other requirements for patentability are met, the first inventor to file a patent application generally will be entitled to the patent on an invention regardless of whether another inventor had made the invention earlier. The United States Patent and Trademark Office recently developed new regulations and procedures to govern administration of the
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Leahy-Smith Act, and many of the substantive changes to patent law associated with the Leahy-Smith Act, and in particular, the first-to-file provisions, only became effective on March 16, 2013. The Leahy-Smith Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
In addition, we have a number of international patents and patent applications, and expect to continue to pursue patent protection in many of the significant markets in which we intend to do business. The laws of some international jurisdictions may not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as laws in the United States, and many companies have encountered significant difficulties in obtaining, protecting, and defending such rights in international jurisdictions. If we encounter such difficulties or we are otherwise precluded from effectively protecting our intellectual property rights in international jurisdictions, our business prospects could be substantially harmed. Varying filing dates in international countries may also permit intervening third parties to allege priority to certain technology.
Patent terms may be shortened or lengthened by, for example, terminal disclaimers, patent term adjustments, supplemental protection certificates, and patent term extensions. Patent term extensions and supplemental protection certificates, and the like, may be impacted by the regulatory process and may not significantly lengthen patent term. Non-payment or delay in payment of patent fees or annuities, delay in patent filings or delay in extension filing (including any patent term extension or adjustment filing), whether intentional or unintentional, may also result in the loss of patent rights important to our business. Certain countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to other parties. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against other parties, including government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, the patent owner may have limited remedies, which could materially diminish the value of any patents.
In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we rely on confidentiality agreements to protect confidential information and proprietary know-how that is not patentable or that we elect not to patent, processes for which patents are difficult to enforce and any other elements of our drug candidate discovery and development processes that involve proprietary know-how, information or technology that is not covered by patents. We seek to protect our proprietary technology and processes, in part, by entering into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, scientific advisors and contractors. We cannot guarantee that we have entered into such agreements with each party that may have or have had access to our confidential information or proprietary technology and processes. We also seek to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of our data and other confidential information by maintaining physical security of our premises and physical and electronic security of our information technology systems. While we have confidence in these individuals, organizations and systems, agreements or security measures may be breached and detecting the disclosure or misappropriation of confidential information and enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated confidential information is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. Further, we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for any breach. In addition, our confidential information may otherwise become known or be independently discovered by competitors, in which case we would have no right to prevent them, or those to whom they communicate it, from using that technology or information to compete with us. We may in the future rely on trade secret protection, which would be subject to the risks identified above with respect to confidential information.
Monitoring unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and costly. From time to time, we review our competitors products, and may in the future seek to enforce our patents or other rights against potential infringement. However, the steps we have taken to protect our proprietary rights may not be adequate to prevent misappropriation of our intellectual property. We may not be able to detect
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unauthorized use of, or take appropriate steps to enforce, our intellectual property rights. Our competitors may also independently develop similar technology. Any inability to meaningfully protect our intellectual property could result in competitors offering products that incorporate our product or service features, which could reduce demand for our products. In addition, we may need to defend our patents from third-party challenges, such as (but not limited to) interferences, derivation proceedings, re-examination proceedings, post-grant review, inter partes review, third-party submissions, oppositions, nullity actions or other patent proceedings. We may need to initiate infringement claims or litigation.
Adverse proceedings such as litigation can be expensive, time consuming and may divert the efforts of our technical and managerial personnel, which could in turn harm our business, whether or not we receive a determination favorable to us. In addition, in an infringement proceeding, a court or other judicial body may decide that the patent we seek to enforce is invalid or unenforceable, or may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that the patent in question does not cover the technology in question. An adverse result in any litigation could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly. Some of our competitors may be able to devote significantly more resources to intellectual property litigation, and may have significantly broader patent portfolios to assert against us if we assert our rights against them. Further, because of the substantial discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be disclosed or otherwise compromised during litigation.
We may not be able to correctly estimate or control our future operating expenses in relation to obtaining intellectual property, enforcing intellectual property and/or defending intellectual property, which could affect operating expenses. Our operating expenses may fluctuate significantly in the future as a result of a variety of factors, including the costs of preparing, filing, prosecuting, defending, and enforcing patent and trademark claims and other intellectual property-related costs, including adverse proceedings (such as litigation) costs.
Our intellectual property agreements with third parties may be subject to disagreements over contract interpretation, which could narrow the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual property or technology or increase our financial or other obligations to our licensors.
Certain provisions in our intellectual property agreements may be susceptible to multiple interpretations. The resolution of any contract interpretation disagreement that may arise could affect the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual property or technology, or affect financial or other obligations under the relevant agreement, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
In addition, while it is our policy to require our employees and contractors who may be involved in the conception or development of intellectual property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be unsuccessful in executing such an agreement with each party who in fact conceives or develops intellectual property that we regard as our own. Our assignment agreements may not be self-executing or may be breached, and we may be forced to bring claims against third parties, or defend claims they may bring against us, to determine the ownership of what we regard as our intellectual property.
We may be subject to claims challenging the inventorship or ownership of our patents and other intellectual property.
We may also be subject to claims that former employees, collaborators or other third parties have an ownership interest in our patents or other intellectual property. Litigation may be necessary to
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defend against these and other claims challenging inventorship or ownership. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights. Such an outcome could have a material adverse effect on our business. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and distraction to management and other employees.
We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.
Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on drug candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States can be less extensive than those in the United States. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as federal and state laws in the United States. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States, or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into the United States or other jurisdictions. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our products and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.
Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biopharmaceuticals, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not issuing and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.
If our trademarks and trade names are not adequately protected, then we may not be able to build name recognition in our markets of interest and our business may be adversely affected.
Our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names may be challenged, infringed, circumvented, declared generic or conflict with third-party rights. We may not be able to protect our rights to these trademarks and trade names, which we need to build name recognition by potential partners or customers in our markets of interest. In addition, third parties may file first for our trademarks in certain countries. If they succeeded in registering such trademarks, and if we were not successful in challenging such third-party rights, we may not be able to use these trademarks to market our products in those countries. In such cases, over the long term, if we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks and trade names, then our marketing abilities may be impacted.
If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our proprietary information and know-how, the value of our technology and products could be adversely affected.
We may not be able to protect our proprietary information and technology adequately. Although we use reasonable efforts to protect our proprietary information, technology, and know-how, our
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employees, consultants, contractors and outside scientific advisors may unintentionally or willfully disclose our information to competitors. Enforcing a claim that a third party illegally obtained and is using any of our proprietary information, technology or know-how is expensive and time consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, courts outside the United States are sometimes less willing to protect proprietary information, technology, and know-how. We rely, in part, on non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants and other parties to protect our proprietary information, technology, and know-how. These agreements may be breached and we may not have adequate remedies for any breach. Moreover, others may independently develop similar or equivalent proprietary information, and third parties may otherwise gain access to our proprietary knowledge.
Risks Related to Government Regulation
Even if we obtain regulatory approval for a drug candidate, our products will remain subject to regulatory scrutiny.
If our drug candidates are approved, they will be subject to ongoing regulatory requirements for manufacturing, labeling, packaging, storage, advertising, promotion, sampling, record-keeping, conduct of post-marketing studies, and submission of safety, efficacy, and other post- market information, including both federal and state requirements in the United States and requirements of comparable foreign regulatory authorities.
Manufacturers and manufacturers facilities are required to comply with extensive FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authority requirements, including ensuring that quality control and manufacturing procedures conform to cGMP regulations. As such, we and our contract manufacturers will be subject to continual review and inspections to assess compliance with cGMP and adherence to commitments made in any approved marketing application. Accordingly, we and others with whom we work must continue to expend time, money, and effort in all areas of regulatory compliance, including manufacturing, production, and quality control.
We will have to comply with requirements concerning advertising and promotion for our products. Promotional communications with respect to prescription drugs and biologics are subject to a variety of legal and regulatory restrictions and must be consistent with the information in the products approved label. As such, we may not promote our products for indications or uses for which they do not have approval. The holder of an approved application must submit new or supplemental applications and obtain approval for certain changes to the approved product, product labeling, or manufacturing process. We could also be asked to conduct post-marketing clinical studies to verify the safety and efficacy of our products in general or in specific patient subsets. An unsuccessful post-marketing study or failure to complete such a study could result in the withdrawal of marketing approval.
If a regulatory agency discovers previously unknown problems with a product, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured, or disagrees with the promotion, marketing or labeling of a product, such regulatory agency may impose restrictions on that product or us, including requiring withdrawal of the product from the market. If we fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, a regulatory agency or enforcement authority may, among other things:
| issue warning letters; |
| impose civil or criminal penalties; |
| suspend or withdraw regulatory approval; |
| suspend any of our clinical studies; |
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| refuse to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications submitted by us; |
| impose restrictions on our operations, including closing our contract manufacturers facilities; or |
| seize or detain products, or require a product recall. |
Any government investigation of alleged violations of law could require us to expend significant time and resources in response, and could generate negative publicity. Any failure to comply with ongoing regulatory requirements may significantly and adversely affect our ability to commercialize and generate revenue from our products. If regulatory sanctions are applied or if regulatory approval is withdrawn, the value of our company and our operating results will be adversely affected.
Moreover, the policies of the FDA and of other regulatory authorities may change and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of our drug candidates. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative or executive action, either in the United States or abroad. For example, certain policies of the Trump administration may impact our business and industry. Namely, the Trump administration has taken several executive actions, including the issuance of a number of Executive Orders, that could impose significant burdens on, or otherwise materially delay, the FDAs ability to engage in routine oversight activities such as implementing statutes through rulemaking, issuance of guidance, and review and approval of marketing applications. It is difficult to predict how these orders will be implemented, and the extent to which they will impact the FDAs ability to exercise its regulatory authority. If these executive actions impose restrictions on the FDAs ability to engage in oversight and implementation activities in the normal course, our business may be negatively impacted. In addition, 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 not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing approval that we may have obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability.
If any of our small molecule drug candidates obtain regulatory approval, additional competitors could enter the market with generic versions of such drugs, which may result in a material decline in sales of affected products.
Under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984, or the Hatch-Waxman Act, a pharmaceutical manufacturer may file an abbreviated new drug application, or ANDA, seeking approval of a generic version of an approved, small molecule innovator product. Under the Hatch-Waxman Act, a manufacturer may also submit a new drug application, or NDA, under section 505(b)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that references the FDAs prior approval of the small molecule innovator product. A 505(b)(2) NDA product may be for a new or improved version of the original innovator product. The Hatch-Waxman Act also provides for certain periods of regulatory exclusivity, which preclude FDA approval (or in some circumstances, FDA filing and review) of an ANDA or 505(b)(2) NDA. In addition to the benefits of regulatory exclusivity, an innovator NDA holder may have patents claiming the active ingredient, product formulation or an approved use of the drug, which would be listed with the product in the FDA publication, Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations, known as the Orange Book. If there are patents listed in the Orange Book for a product, a generic or 505(b)(2) applicant that seeks to market its product before expiration of the patents must include in their applications what is known as a Paragraph IV certification, challenging the validity or enforceability of, or claiming non-infringement of, the listed patent or patents. Notice of the certification must be given to the patent owner and NDA holder and if, within 45 days of receiving notice, either the patent owner or NDA holder sues for patent infringement, approval of the ANDA or 505(b)(2) NDA is stayed for up to 30 months.
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Accordingly, if any of our small molecule drug candidates, such as UBX0101 or UBX1967, are approved, competitors could file ANDAs for generic versions of our small molecule drug products or 505(b)(2) NDAs that reference our small molecule drug products. If there are patents listed for our small molecule drug products in the Orange Book, those ANDAs and 505(b)(2) NDAs would be required to include a certification as to each listed patent indicating whether the ANDA applicant does or does not intend to challenge the patent. We cannot predict which, if any, patents in our current portfolio or patents we may obtain in the future will be eligible for listing in the Orange Book, how any generic competitor would address such patents, whether we would sue on any such patents, or the outcome of any such suit.
We may not be successful in securing or maintaining proprietary patent protection for products and technologies we develop or license. Moreover, if any of our owned or in-licensed patents that are listed in the Orange Book are successfully challenged by way of a Paragraph IV certification and subsequent litigation, the affected product could immediately face generic competition and its sales would likely decline rapidly and materially.
Any biologic, or large molecule, drug candidates for which we intend to seek approval may face competition sooner than anticipated.
If we are successful in achieving regulatory approval to commercialize any biologic drug candidate faster than our competitors, such drug candidates may face competition from biosimilar products. In the United States, our large molecule drug candidates are regulated by the FDA as biologic products subject to approval under the biologics license application, or BLA, pathway. The Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, or BPCIA, creates an abbreviated pathway for the approval of biosimilar and interchangeable biologic products following the approval of an original BLA. The abbreviated regulatory pathway establishes legal authority for the FDA to review and approve biosimilar biologics, including the possible designation of a biosimilar as interchangeable based on its similarity to an existing brand product. Under the BPCIA, an application for a biosimilar product cannot be approved by the FDA until 12 years after the original branded product was approved under a BLA. The law is complex and is still being interpreted and implemented by the FDA. As a result, its ultimate impact, implementation, and meaning are subject to uncertainty.
Moreover, the extent to which a biosimilar product, once approved, will be substituted for any one of our reference products in a way that is similar to traditional generic substitution for non-biologic products is not yet clear, and will depend on a number of marketplace and regulatory factors that are still developing. In addition, a competitor could decide to forego the biosimilar approval path and submit a full BLA after completing its own preclinical studies and clinical studies. In such cases, any exclusivity to which we may be eligible under the BPCIA would not prevent the competitor from marketing its product as soon as it is approved.
If competitors are able to obtain marketing approval for biosimilars referencing our large molecule drug candidates, if approved, such products may become subject to competition from such biosimilars, with the attendant competitive pressure and potential adverse consequences. Such competitive products may be able to immediately compete with us in each indication for which our drug candidates may have received approval.
We may seek orphan drug designation for certain future drug candidates, but we may be unable to obtain such designations or to maintain the benefits associated with orphan drug designation, including market exclusivity, which may cause our revenue, if any, to be reduced.
We may pursue orphan drug designation for certain of our future drug candidates. Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may designate a drug or biologic product as an orphan drug if it is intended
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to treat a rare disease or condition, defined as a patient population of fewer than 200,000 in the United States, or a patient population greater than 200,000 in the United States where there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing the drug will be recovered from sales in the United States. In the European Union, the EMAs Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products, or COMP, grants orphan drug designation to promote the development of products that are intended for the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of a life-threatening or chronically debilitating condition affecting not more than five in 10,000 persons in the European Union. Additionally, designation is granted for products intended for the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of a life-threatening, seriously debilitating or serious and chronic condition when, without incentives, it is unlikely that sales of the drug in the European Union would be sufficient to justify the necessary investment in developing the drug or biological product or where there is no satisfactory method of diagnosis, prevention, or treatment, or, if such a method exists, the medicine must be of significant benefit to those affected by the condition.
In the United States, orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives such as opportunities for grant funding towards clinical study costs, tax advantages, and application fee waivers. In addition, if a product receives the first FDA approval for the indication for which it has orphan designation, the product is entitled to orphan drug exclusivity, which means the FDA may not approve any other application to market the same drug for the same indication for a period of seven years, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority over the product with orphan exclusivity or where the manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient product quantity for the orphan patient population. In the European Union, orphan drug designation entitles a party to financial incentives such as reduction of fees or fee waivers and ten years of market exclusivity following drug or biological product approval. This period may be reduced to six years if the orphan drug designation criteria are no longer met, including where it is shown that the product is sufficiently profitable not to justify maintenance of market exclusivity.
Even if we obtain orphan drug designation, we may not be the first to obtain marketing approval for any particular orphan indication due to the uncertainties associated with developing pharmaceutical products. Further, even if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for a drug candidate, that exclusivity may not effectively protect the product from competition because different drugs with different active moieties can be approved for the same condition. Even after an orphan drug is approved, the FDA or EMA can subsequently approve the same drug with the same active moiety for the same condition if the FDA or EMA concludes that the later drug is clinically superior in that it is safer, more effective, or makes a major contribution to patient care. Orphan drug designation neither shortens the development time or regulatory review time of a drug or biologic nor gives the drug or biologic any advantage in the regulatory review or approval process.
Enacted and future healthcare legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain marketing approval of and commercialize our drug candidates and may affect the prices we may set.
In the United States, the EU and other jurisdictions, there have been, and we expect there will continue to be, a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes to the healthcare system that could affect our future results of operations. In particular, there have been and continue to be a number of initiatives at the U.S. federal and state levels that seek to reduce healthcare costs and improve the quality of healthcare. For example, in March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, or collectively the Affordable Care Act, was enacted, which substantially changed the way healthcare is financed by both governmental and private insurers. Among the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, those of greatest importance to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries include the following:
| an annual, non-deductible fee payable by any entity that manufactures or imports certain branded prescription drugs and biologic agents (other than those designated as orphan drugs), |
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which is apportioned among these entities according to their market share in certain government healthcare programs; |
| a new Medicare Part D coverage gap discount program, in which manufacturers must agree to offer 50% point-of-sale discounts off negotiated prices of applicable brand drugs to eligible beneficiaries during their coverage gap period, as a condition for the manufacturers outpatient drugs to be covered under Medicare Part D; |
| new requirements to report certain financial arrangements with physicians and teaching hospitals, including reporting transfers of value made or distributed to prescribers and other healthcare providers and reporting investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members; |
| an increase in the statutory minimum rebates a manufacturer must pay under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program to 23.1% and 13.0% of the average manufacturer price for branded and generic drugs, respectively; |
| a new methodology by which rebates owed by manufacturers under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program are calculated for drugs that are inhaled, infused, instilled, implanted or injected; |
| extension of a manufacturers Medicaid rebate liability to covered drugs dispensed to individuals who are enrolled in Medicaid managed care organizations; |
| expansion of eligibility criteria for Medicaid programs by, among other things, allowing states to offer Medicaid coverage to certain individuals with income at or below 133% of the federal poverty level, thereby potentially increasing a manufacturers Medicaid rebate liability; |
| a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to oversee, identify priorities in, and conduct comparative clinical effectiveness research, along with funding for such research; |
| creation of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which, once empaneled, will have the authority to recommend certain changes to the Medicare program that could result in reduced payments for prescription drugs and those recommendations could have the effect of law unless overruled by a supermajority vote of Congress; and |
| establishment of a Center for Medicare Innovation at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, to test innovative payment and service delivery models to lower Medicare and Medicaid spending, potentially including prescription drug spending. |
Since its enactment, there have been judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act, and we expect there will be additional challenges and amendments to the Affordable Care Act in the future. The current presidential administration and Congress will likely continue to seek to modify, repeal, or otherwise invalidate all, or certain provisions of, the Affordable Care Act. It is uncertain the extent to which any such changes may impact our business or financial condition.
In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the United States since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. In August 2011, the Budget Control Act of 2011, among other things, led to aggregate reductions of Medicare payments to providers of 2% per fiscal year. These reductions went into effect in April 2013 and, due to subsequent legislative amendments to the statute, will remain in effect through 2025 unless additional action is taken by Congress. In January 2013, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 was signed into law, which, among other things, further reduced Medicare payments to several types of providers, including hospitals, imaging centers and cancer treatment centers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years.
Individual states in the United States have also become increasingly aggressive in passing legislation and implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product
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pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. Legally-mandated price controls on payment amounts by third-party payors or other restrictions could harm our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. In addition, regional healthcare authorities and individual hospitals are increasingly using bidding procedures to determine what pharmaceutical products and which suppliers will be included in their prescription drug and other healthcare programs. This could reduce the ultimate demand for our drug candidates or put pressure on our product pricing. Moreover, payment methodologies may be subject to changes in healthcare legislation and regulatory initiatives. For example, CMS may develop new payment and delivery models, such as bundled payment models. In addition, recently there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products.
In the EU, similar political, economic and regulatory developments may affect our ability to profitably commercialize our drug candidates, if approved. In addition to continuing pressure on prices and cost containment measures, legislative developments at the EU or member state level may result in significant additional requirements or obstacles that may increase our operating costs. The delivery of healthcare in the EU, including the establishment and operation of health services and the pricing and reimbursement of medicines, is almost exclusively a matter for national, rather than EU, law and policy. National governments and health service providers have different priorities and approaches to the delivery of health care and the pricing and reimbursement of products in that context. In general, however, the healthcare budgetary constraints in most EU member states have resulted in restrictions on the pricing and reimbursement of medicines by relevant health service providers. Coupled with ever-increasing EU and national regulatory burdens on those wishing to develop and market products, this could prevent or delay marketing approval of our drug candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to commercialize our drug candidates, if approved. In markets outside of the United States and EU, reimbursement and healthcare payment systems vary significantly by country, and many countries have instituted price ceilings on specific products and therapies.
We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action in the United States, the EU or any other jurisdiction. If we or any third parties we may engage are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we or such third parties are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, our drug candidates may lose any regulatory approval that may have been obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability.
Our business operations and current and future relationships with investigators, healthcare professionals, consultants, third-party payors, patient organizations and customers will be subject to applicable healthcare regulatory laws, which could expose us to penalties.
Our business operations and current and future arrangements with investigators, healthcare professionals, consultants, third-party payors, patient organizations and customers, may expose us to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations. These laws may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we conduct our operations, including how we research, market, sell and distribute our drug candidates, if approved. Such laws include:
| the U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, persons or entities from knowingly and willfully soliciting, offering, receiving or providing any remuneration (including any kickback, bribe, or certain rebate), directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in cash or in kind, to induce or reward, or in return for, either the referral of an individual for, or the |
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purchase, lease, order or recommendation of, any good, facility, item or service, for which payment may be made, in whole or in part, under U.S. federal and state healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. A person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation; |
| the U.S. federal false claims and civil monetary penalties laws, including the civil False Claims Act, which, among other things, impose criminal and civil penalties, including through civil whistleblower or qui tam actions, against individuals or entities for knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, to the U.S. federal government, claims for payment or approval that are false or fraudulent, knowingly making, using or causing to be made or used, a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim, or from knowingly making a false statement to avoid, decrease or conceal an obligation to pay money to the U.S. federal government. In addition, the government may assert that a claim including items and services resulting from a violation of the U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the False Claims Act; |
| the U.S. federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, which imposes criminal and civil liability for, among other things, knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program, or knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact or making any materially false statement, in connection with the delivery of, or payment for, healthcare benefits, items or services; similar to the U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute, a person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation; |
| HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 and its implementing regulations, which also imposes certain obligations, including mandatory contractual terms, with respect to safeguarding the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information without appropriate authorization by covered entities subject to the rule, such as health plans, healthcare clearinghouses and healthcare providers as well as their business associates that perform certain services involving the use or disclosure of individually identifiable health information; |
| the FDCA, which prohibits, among other things, the adulteration or misbranding of drugs, biologics and medical devices; |
| the U.S. Public Health Service Act, which prohibits, among other things, the introduction into interstate commerce of a biological product unless a biologics license is in effect for that product; |
| the U.S. Physician Payments Sunshine Act and its implementing regulations, which require certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologics and medical supplies that are reimbursable under Medicare, Medicaid, or the Childrens Health Insurance Program to report annually to the government information related to certain payments and other transfers of value to physicians and teaching hospitals, as well as ownership and investment interests held by the physicians described above and their immediate family members; |
| analogous U.S. state laws and regulations, including: state anti-kickback and false claims laws, which may apply to our business practices, including but not limited to, research, distribution, sales and marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by any third-party payor, including private insurers; state laws that require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industrys voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the U.S. federal government, or otherwise restrict payments that may be made to healthcare providers and other potential referral sources; state laws and regulations that require drug manufacturers to file reports |
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relating to pricing and marketing information, which requires tracking gifts and other remuneration and items of value provided to healthcare professionals and entities; and state laws governing the privacy and security of health information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts; and |
| similar healthcare laws and regulations in the EU and other jurisdictions, including reporting requirements detailing interactions with and payments to healthcare providers. |
Ensuring that our internal operations and future business arrangements with third parties comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations will involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices do not comply with current or future statutes, regulations, agency guidance or case law involving applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other governmental laws and regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant penalties, including civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, exclusion from government-funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid or similar programs in other countries or jurisdictions, disgorgement, individual imprisonment, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. Further, defending against any such actions can be costly, time-consuming and may require significant personnel resources. Therefore, even if we are successful in defending against any such actions that may be brought against us, our business may be impaired.
Recent U.S. tax legislation and future changes to applicable U.S. tax laws and regulations may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Changes in laws and policy relating to taxes may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, the U.S. government recently enacted significant tax reform, and certain provisions of the new law may adversely affect us. Changes include, but are not limited to, a federal corporate tax rate decrease to 21% for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, a reduction to the maximum deduction allowed for net operating losses generated in tax years after December 31, 2017, eliminating carrybacks of net operating losses, and providing for indefinite carryforwards for losses generated in tax years after December 31, 2017. The legislation is unclear in many respects and could be subject to potential amendments and technical corrections, and will be subject to interpretations and implementing regulations by the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service, any of which could mitigate or increase certain adverse effects of the legislation. In addition, it is unclear how these U.S. federal income tax changes will affect state and local taxation. Generally, future changes in applicable U.S. tax laws and regulations, or their interpretation and application could have an adverse effect on our business, financial conditions and results of operations.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock and This Offering
Our stock price may be volatile and you may not be able to resell shares of our common stock at or above the price you paid.
The trading price of our common stock following this offering could be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. These factors include those discussed in this Risk Factors section of this prospectus and others such as:
| results from, and any delays in, our clinical studies for our lead drug candidates, or any other future clinical development programs; |
| announcements by academic or other third parties challenging the fundamental premises underlying our approach to treating age-associated diseases and/or drug development; |
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| announcements of regulatory approval or disapproval of our current or any future drug candidates; |
| failure or discontinuation of any of our research and development programs; |
| announcements relating to future licensing, collaboration, or development agreements; |
| delays in the commercialization of our current or any future drug candidates; |
| public misperception regarding the use of our therapies, or public bias of against anti-aging companies; |
| acquisitions and sales of new products, technologies, or businesses; |
| manufacturing and supply issues related to our drug candidates for clinical studies or future drug candidates for commercialization; |
| quarterly variations in our results of operations or those of our future competitors; |
| changes in earnings estimates or recommendations by securities analysts; |
| announcements by us or our competitors of new products, significant contracts, commercial relationships, acquisitions, or capital commitments; |
| developments with respect to intellectual property rights; |
| our commencement of, or involvement in, litigation; |
| changes in financial estimates or guidance, including our ability to meet our future revenue and operating profit or loss estimates or guidance; |
| any major changes in our board of directors or management; |
| new legislation in the United States relating to the sale or pricing of pharmaceuticals; |
| FDA or other U.S. or foreign regulatory actions affecting us or our industry; |
| product liability claims or other litigation or public concern about the safety of our drug candidates; |
| market conditions in the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors; and |
| general economic conditions in the United States and abroad. |
In addition, the stock markets in general, and the markets for pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and biotechnology stocks in particular, have experienced extreme volatility that may have been unrelated to the operating performance of the issuer. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the trading price or liquidity of our common stock. In the past, when the market price of a stock has been volatile, holders of that stock have sometimes instituted securities class action litigation against the issuer. If any of our stockholders were to bring such a lawsuit against us, we could incur substantial costs defending the lawsuit and the attention of our management would be diverted from the operation of our business.
An active, liquid and orderly market for our common stock may not develop, and you may not be able to resell your common stock at or above the public offering price.
Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for shares of our common stock, and an active public market for our shares may not develop or be sustained after this offering. We and the representatives of the underwriters will determine the initial public offering price of our common stock through negotiation. This price will not necessarily reflect the price at which investors in the market will be willing to buy and sell our shares following this offering. In addition, an active trading market may
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not develop following the consummation of this offering or, if it is developed, may not be sustained. The lack of an active market may impair your ability to sell your shares at the time you wish to sell them or at a price that you consider reasonable. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital by selling shares and may impair our ability to acquire other businesses, applications, or technologies using our shares as consideration.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or if they issue an adverse or misleading opinion regarding our stock, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts publish about us or our business. We do not currently have and may never obtain research coverage by securities and industry analysts. If no or few securities or industry analysts commence coverage of us, the trading price for our stock would be negatively impacted. In the event we obtain securities or industry analyst coverage, if any of the analysts who cover us issue an adverse or misleading opinion regarding us, our business model, our intellectual property or our stock performance, or if our clinical studies and operating results fail to meet the expectations of analysts, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
We are an emerging growth company and as a result of the reduced disclosure and governance requirements applicable to emerging growth companies, our common stock may be less attractive to investors.
We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act, and we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. In addition, as an emerging growth company the JOBS Act allows us to delay adoption of new or revised accounting pronouncements applicable to public companies until such pronouncements are made applicable to private companies. We have elected to use this extended transition period under the JOBS Act. As a result, our consolidated financial statements may not be comparable to the financial statements of issuers who are required to comply with the effective dates for new or revised accounting standards that are applicable to public companies, which may make comparison of our financials to those of other public companies more difficult.
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. We may take advantage of these reporting exemptions until we are no longer an emerging growth company. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the year following the fifth anniversary of the consummation of this offering, (2) the last day of the year in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, (3) the last day of the year in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer as defined in Rule 12b-2 under the Exchange Act, which would occur if the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeded $700.0 million as of the last business day of the second fiscal quarter of such year or (4) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the prior three-year period.
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We will incur significant costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives. We may fail to comply with the rules that apply to public companies, including Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which could result in sanctions or other penalties that would harm our business.
We will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses as a public company, including costs resulting from public company reporting obligations under the Exchange Act and regulations regarding corporate governance practices. The listing requirements of The Nasdaq Global Select Market and the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, require that we satisfy certain corporate governance requirements relating to director independence, filing annual and interim reports, stockholder meetings, approvals and voting, soliciting proxies, conflicts of interest and a code of conduct. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to ensure that we comply with all of these requirements. Moreover, the reporting requirements, rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. Any changes we make to comply with these obligations may not be sufficient to allow us to satisfy our obligations as a public company on a timely basis, or at all. These reporting requirements, rules and regulations, coupled with the increase in potential litigation exposure associated with being a public company, could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or board committees or to serve as executive officers, or to obtain certain types of insurance, including directors and officers insurance, on acceptable terms.
After this offering, we will be subject to Section 404 of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Section 404, and the related rules of the SEC, which generally require our management and independent registered public accounting firm to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Beginning with the second annual report that we will be required to file with the SEC, Section 404 requires an annual management assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. However, for so long as we remain an emerging growth company as defined in the JOBS Act, we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404. Once we are no longer an emerging growth company or, if prior to such date, we opt to no longer take advantage of the applicable exemption, we will be required to include an opinion from our independent registered public accounting firm on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting.
To date, we have never conducted a review of our internal control for the purpose of providing the reports required by these rules. During the course of our review and testing, we may identify deficiencies and be unable to remediate them before we must provide the required reports. Furthermore, if we have a material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting, we may not detect errors on a timely basis and our financial statements may be materially misstated. We or our independent registered public accounting firm may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting, which could harm our operating results, cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and cause the trading price of our stock to fall. In addition, as a public company we will be required to file accurate and timely quarterly and annual reports with the SEC under the Exchange Act. In order to report our results of operations and financial statements on an accurate and timely basis, we will depend in part on CROs to provide timely and accurate notice of their costs to us. Any failure to report our financial results on an accurate and timely basis could result in sanctions, lawsuits, delisting of our shares from The Nasdaq Global Select Market or other adverse consequences that would materially harm to our business.
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Purchasers in this offering will experience immediate and substantial dilution in the book value of their investment.
The initial public offering price of our common stock is substantially higher than the pro forma net tangible book value per share of our common stock before giving effect to this offering. Accordingly, if you purchase our common stock in this offering, you will incur immediate substantial dilution of approximately $11.59 per share, based on an assumed initial public offering price of $17.00 per share, the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus, and our pro forma net tangible book value as of December 31, 2017. In addition, following this offering, purchasers in this offering will have contributed approximately 27.7% of the total gross consideration paid by stockholders to us to purchase shares of our common stock, through December 31, 2017, but will own only approximately 11.9% of the shares of common stock outstanding immediately after this offering. Furthermore, if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares, or outstanding options and warrants are exercised, you could experience further dilution. For a further description of the dilution that you will experience immediately after this offering, see the section titled Dilution.
If we sell shares of our common stock in future financings, stockholders may experience immediate dilution and, as a result, our stock price may decline.
We may from time to time issue additional shares of common stock at a discount from the current trading price of our common stock. As a result, our stockholders would experience immediate dilution upon the purchase of any shares of our common stock sold at such discount. In addition, as opportunities present themselves, we may enter into financing or similar arrangements in the future, including the issuance of debt securities, preferred stock or common stock. If we issue common stock or securities convertible into common stock, our common stockholders would experience additional dilution and, as a result, our stock price may decline.
Our principal stockholders and management own a significant percentage of our stock and will be able to exert significant control over matters subject to stockholder approval.
As of April 11, 2018, our executive officers, directors, holders of 5% or more of our capital stock and their respective affiliates beneficially owned approximately 42.7% of our voting stock and, upon the closing of this offering, that same group will hold approximately 38.0% of our outstanding voting stock (assuming no exercise of the underwriters option to purchase additional shares and no exercise of outstanding options). Therefore, even after this offering these stockholders will have the ability to influence us through this ownership position. These stockholders may be able to determine all matters requiring stockholder approval. For example, these stockholders may be able to control elections of directors, amendments of our organizational documents, or approval of any merger, sale of assets, or other major corporate transaction. This may prevent or discourage unsolicited acquisition proposals or offers for our common stock that you may feel are in your best interest as one of our stockholders.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market 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 after the lock-up and other legal restrictions on resale discussed in this prospectus lapse, the trading price of our common stock could decline. Based upon the number of shares outstanding as of December 31, 2017 (including the Series C convertible preferred stock issued in March and April 2018), upon the closing of this offering, we will have outstanding a total of 41,903,538 shares of common stock, assuming no exercise of the underwriters option to purchase additional shares. Of these shares, substantially all of the shares of our common stock sold in this offering (excluding any shares sold to our director or officers in the directed share program), plus any shares sold upon exercise of the underwriters option to purchase additional shares, will be freely tradable, without restriction, in the public market immediately following this offering.
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The lock-up agreements pertaining to this offering will expire 180 days from the date of this prospectus. Based upon the number of shares outstanding as of December 31, 2017 (including the Series C convertible preferred stock issued in March and April 2018), after the lock-up agreements expire, up to approximately 36.9 million additional shares of common stock will be eligible for sale in the public market, approximately 14.2 million of which shares are held by directors, executive officers and other affiliates and will be subject to Rule 144 under the Securities Act. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. may, however, in their sole discretion, permit our officers, directors and other stockholders who are subject to these lock-up agreements to sell shares prior to the expiration of the lock-up agreements.
In addition, as of December 31, 2017, approximately 4.4 million shares of common stock that are either subject to outstanding options or reserved for future issuance under our equity incentive plans will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting schedules, the lock-up agreements and Rule 144 and Rule 701 under the Securities Act. 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.
Based upon the number of shares outstanding as of December 31, 2017 (including the Series C convertible preferred stock issued in March and April 2018), after this offering, the holders of approximately 32.1 million shares of our common stock, or approximately 77% of our total outstanding shares of common stock will be entitled to rights with respect to the registration of their shares under the Securities Act, subject to vesting schedules and to the lock-up agreements described above. Registration of these shares under the Securities Act would result in the shares becoming freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act, except for shares purchased by affiliates. Any sales of securities by these stockholders could have a material adverse effect on the trading price of our common stock.
We have broad discretion to determine how to use the funds raised in this offering, and may use them in ways that may not enhance our operating results or the price of our common stock.
Our management will have broad discretion over the use of proceeds from this offering, and we could spend the proceeds from this offering in ways our stockholders may not agree with or that do not yield a favorable return, if at all. We currently expect to use substantially all of the net proceeds of this offering to fund our planned clinical development of UBX0101, our planned IND-enabling studies and Phase 1 clinical study of UBX1967, internal research and development activities and for working capital and general corporate purposes. However, our use of these proceeds may differ substantially from our current plans. If we do not invest or apply the proceeds of this offering in ways that improve our operating results, we may fail to achieve expected financial results, which could cause our stock price to decline.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
We have incurred substantial losses during our history and do not expect to become profitable in the near future, and we may never achieve profitability. To the extent that we continue to generate taxable losses, unused losses will carry forward to offset a portion of future taxable income, if any, until such unused losses expire, if ever. Under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a corporation undergoes an ownership change, generally defined as a greater than 50 percentage point change (by value) in its equity ownership by certain stockholders over a three-year period, the corporations ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards, or NOLs, and other pre-change tax attributes (such as research and development tax credits) to offset its post-change income or taxes may be limited. We may have experienced ownership changes in the past and may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of this offering and/or subsequent shifts in our stock ownership (some of which shifts are outside our control). As a result, if we earn net taxable
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income, our ability to use our pre-change NOLs to offset such taxable income could be subject to limitations. Similar provisions of state tax law may also apply. As a result, even if we attain profitability, we may be unable to use a material portion of our NOLs and other tax attributes.
Additionally, the Tax Act, which was enacted on December 22, 2017, significantly reforms the Code, including changes to the rules governing net operating loss carryforwards. For net operating loss carryforwards arising in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, the Tax Act limits a taxpayers ability to utilize such carryforwards to 80% of taxable income. In addition, net operating loss carryforwards arising in tax years ending after December 31, 2017 can be carried forward indefinitely, but carryback is generally prohibited. Net operating loss carryforwards generated by us before January 1, 2018 will not be subject to the taxable income limitation and will continue to have a twenty-year carryforward period. However, the changes in the carryforward and carryback periods as well as the new limitation on use of net operating losses may significantly impact our ability to use net operating loss carryforwards generated after December 31, 2017, as well as the timing of any such use, and could adversely affect our results of operations.
Provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could discourage a takeover that stockholders may consider favorable and may lead to entrenchment of management.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws that will be in effect immediately prior to the consummation of this offering will contain provisions that could delay or prevent changes in control or changes in our management without the consent of our board of directors. These provisions will include the following:
| a classified board of directors with three-year staggered terms, which may delay the ability of stockholders to change the membership of a majority of our board of directors; |
| no cumulative voting in the election of directors, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates; |
| the exclusive right of our board of directors to elect a director to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of the board of directors or the resignation, death or removal of a director, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our board of directors; |
| the ability of our board of directors to authorize the issuance of shares of preferred stock and to determine the price and other terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder approval, which could be used to significantly dilute the ownership of a hostile acquiror; |
| the ability of our board of directors to alter our amended and restated bylaws without obtaining stockholder approval; |
| the required approval of at least 66 2/3% of the shares entitled to vote at an election of directors to adopt, amend or repeal our amended and restated bylaws or repeal the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation regarding the election and removal of directors; |
| a prohibition on stockholder action by written consent, which forces stockholder action to be taken at an annual or special meeting of our stockholders; |
| the requirement that a special meeting of stockholders may be called only by the chief executive officer or the president or the board of directors, which may delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or to take action, including the removal of directors; and |
| advance notice procedures that stockholders must comply with in order to nominate candidates to our board of directors or to propose matters to be acted upon at a stockholders meeting, |
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which may discourage or deter a potential acquiror from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirors own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us. |
We are also subject to the anti-takeover provisions contained in Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. Under Section 203, a corporation may not, in general, engage in a business combination with any holder of 15% or more of its capital stock unless the holder has held the stock for three years or, among other exceptions, the board of directors has approved the transaction. For a description of our capital stock, see the section titled Description of Capital Stock.
Claims for indemnification by our directors and officers may reduce our available funds to satisfy successful third-party claims against us and may reduce the amount of money available to us.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws will provide that we will indemnify our directors and officers, in each case to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law.
In addition, as permitted by Section 145 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated bylaws to be effective immediately prior to the completion of this offering and our indemnification agreements that we have entered into with our directors and officers will provide that:
| We will indemnify our directors and officers for serving us in those capacities or for serving other business enterprises at our request, to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. Delaware law provides that a corporation may indemnify such person if such person acted in good faith and in a manner such person reasonably believed to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the registrant and, with respect to any criminal proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe such persons conduct was unlawful. |
| We may, in our discretion, indemnify employees and agents in those circumstances where indemnification is permitted by applicable law. |
| We are required to advance expenses, as incurred, to our directors and officers in connection with defending a proceeding, except that such directors or officers shall undertake to repay such advances if it is ultimately determined that such person is not entitled to indemnification. |
| We will not be obligated pursuant to our amended and restated bylaws to indemnify a person with respect to proceedings initiated by that person against us or our other indemnitees, except with respect to proceedings authorized by our board of directors or brought to enforce a right to indemnification. |
| The rights conferred in our amended and restated bylaws are not exclusive, and we are authorized to enter into indemnification agreements with our directors, officers, employees and agents and to obtain insurance to indemnify such persons. |
| We may not retroactively amend our amended and restated bylaw provisions to reduce our indemnification obligations to directors, officers, employees and agents. |
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty, any action asserting a claim against us arising
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pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws, any action to interpret, apply, enforce, or determine the validity of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or amended and restated bylaws, or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. The choice of forum provision may limit a stockholders ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision that will be contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.
We do not currently intend to pay dividends on our common stock, and, consequently, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our common stock.
We do not currently intend to pay any cash dividends on our common stock for the foreseeable future. We currently intend to invest our future earnings, if any, to fund our growth. Therefore, you are not likely to receive any dividends on your common stock for the foreseeable future. Since we do not intend to pay dividends, your ability to receive a return on your investment will depend on any future appreciation in the market value of our common stock. There is no guarantee that our common stock will appreciate or even maintain the price at which our holders have purchased it.
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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This prospectus contains forward-looking statements concerning our business, operations and financial performance and condition, as well as our plans, objectives and expectations for our business operations and financial performance and condition. Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as aim, anticipate, assume, believe, contemplate, continue, could, due, estimate, expect, goal, intend, may, objective, plan, predict, potential, positioned, seek, should, target, will, would and other similar expressions that are predictions of or indicate future events and future trends, or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about:
| our expectations regarding the potential benefits, activity, effectiveness and safety of our drug candidates; |
| our expectations with regard to the results of our clinical studies, preclinical studies and research and development programs, including the timing and availability of data from such studies; |
| our preclinical, clinical and regulatory development plans for our drug candidates, including the timing or likelihood of regulatory filings and approvals for our drug candidates; |
| our expectations with regard to our ability to acquire, discover and develop additional drug candidates and advance such drug candidates into, and successfully complete, clinical studies; |
| our expectations regarding the potential market size and size of the potential patient populations for our drug candidates, if approved for commercial use; |
| our intentions and our ability to establish collaborations and/or partnerships; |
| the timing and amount of any milestone payments we are obligated to make pursuant to our existing license agreements and any future license or collaboration agreements that we may enter into; |
| our commercialization, marketing, and manufacturing capabilities and expectations; |
| our intentions with respect to the commercialization of our drug candidates; |
| the pricing and reimbursement of our drug candidates, if approved; |
| the implementation of our business model and strategic plans for our business and drug candidates, including additional indications for which we may pursue; |
| the scope of protection we are able to establish and maintain for intellectual property rights covering our drug candidates, including the projected terms of patent protection; |
| estimates of our expenses, future revenue, capital requirements, our needs for additional financing, and our ability to obtain additional capital; |
| our anticipated use of proceeds from this offering; |
| our future financial performance; |
| developments and projections relating to our competitors and our industry, including competing therapies; and |
| other risks and uncertainties, including those listed under the caption Risk Factors. |
These forward-looking statements are based on managements current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about our business and the industry in which we operate and managements
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beliefs and assumptions and are not guarantees of future performance or development and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are in some cases beyond our control. As a result, any or all of our forward-looking statements in this prospectus may turn out to be inaccurate. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, those listed under Risk Factors and elsewhere in this prospectus. Potential investors are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this prospectus. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available in the future. You should, however, review the factors and risks we describe in the reports we will file from time to time with the SEC after the date of this prospectus. See Where You Can Find More Information.
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This prospectus contains estimates, projections and other information concerning our industry, our business, and the markets for our drug candidates, including data regarding the estimated patient population and market size for our drug candidates, as well as data regarding market research, estimates and forecasts prepared by our management. Information that is based on estimates, forecasts, projections, market research or similar methodologies is inherently subject to uncertainties and actual events or circumstances may differ materially from events and circumstances that are assumed in this information. Unless otherwise expressly stated, we obtained this industry, business, market and other data from reports, research surveys, studies and similar data prepared by market research firms and other third parties, industry, medical and general publications, government data and similar sources. In some cases, we do not expressly refer to the sources from which this data is derived. In that regard, when we refer to one or more sources of this type of data in any paragraph, you should assume that other data of this type appearing in the same paragraph is derived from the same sources, unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires.
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We estimate that the net proceeds from the sale of 5,000,000 shares of common stock in this offering will be approximately $76.1 million at an assumed initial public offering price of $17.00 per share (the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus), after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. If the underwriters exercise their option to purchase an additional 750,000 shares from us in full, we estimate that net proceeds will be approximately $87.9 million at an assumed initial public offering price of $17.00 per share (the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus) after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $17.00 per share (the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus) would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, by approximately $4.7 million, assuming that the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same. We may also increase or decrease the number of shares we are offering. An increase (decrease) of 1,000,000 in the number of shares we are offering would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, by approximately $15.8 million, assuming the assumed initial public offering price stays the same. The pro forma as adjusted information is illustrative only, and we will adjust this information based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing.
We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering together with our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities on hand as follows:
| approximately $10.0 million to $20.0 million to fund our planned Phase 1 clinical study and subsequent clinical development of UBX0101; |
| approximately $15.0 million to $25.0 million to fund our planned IND-enabling studies and Phase 1 clinical study of UBX1967 in an opthalmologic indication; |
| approximately $30.0 million to $50.0 million to advance our research and development efforts, including conducting additional preclinical and IND-enabling studies, as well as an additional Phase 1 clinical study, in our other senolytic pipeline programs and advancing our programs targeting other aging mechanisms; and |
| any remaining proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes. |
We estimate that our current cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities will be sufficient for us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements through at least the next 12 months. We expect our existing capital resources together with the proceeds from this offering will fund our planned operating expenses into 2021, including through clinical data readout from our Phase 1 clinical study of UBX0101 and data readouts from two additional Phase 1 clinical studies of our lead programs for ophthalmologic and/or pulmonary disorders.
This expected use of the net proceeds from this offering represents our intentions based upon our current plans and business conditions. As of the date of this prospectus, we cannot predict with certainty all of the particular uses for the net proceeds to be received upon the completion of this offering or the amounts that we will actually spend on the uses set forth above.
The amounts and timing of our actual expenditures and the extent of our research and development activities may vary significantly depending on numerous factors, including the progress of
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our development efforts, the status of and results from any pre-clinical or clinical studies we may commence in the future, our ability to take advantage of expedited programs or to obtain regulatory approval for any other drug candidates we may identify and pursue, the timing and costs associated with the manufacture and supply of any other drug candidates we may identify and pursue for clinical development or commercialization, and any unforeseen cash needs. As a result, our management will retain broad discretion over the allocation of the net proceeds from this offering.
Pending our use of the net proceeds from this offering, we intend to invest the net proceeds in interest-bearing, investment-grade instruments and government securities.
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We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock. We intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings, if any, to fund the development and expansion of our business and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination related to dividend policy will be made at the discretion of our board of directors.
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The following table sets forth our cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities and capitalization as of December 31, 2017:
| on an actual basis; |
| on a pro forma basis to give effect to: (i) the sale and issuance in March and April 2018 of 3,913,425 shares of our Series C convertible preferred stock at $15.3317 per share for net proceeds of $59.9 million, (ii) the conversion of all shares of our outstanding Series A-1, Series A-2, Series B, and Series C convertible preferred stock into an aggregate of 32,073,149 shares of common stock immediately prior to the consummation of this offering; and (iii) the filing and effectiveness of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, which will occur immediately prior to the consummation of this offering; and |
| on a pro forma as adjusted basis to give further effect to the sale of 5,000,000 shares of common stock in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $17.00 per share (the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus), after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. |
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You should read this information together with our audited financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this prospectus and the information set forth under the headings Selected Financial Data and Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
As of December 31, 2017 | ||||||||||||
Actual | Pro Forma | Pro Forma As Adjusted(1) |
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(In thousands, except share and per share amounts) | ||||||||||||
Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities |
$ | 91,628 | $ | 151,508 | $ | 227,558 | ||||||
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Convertible preferred stock, $0.0001 par value91,739,149 shares authorized; 28,159,724 shares issued and outstanding, actual; no shares authorized, issued or outstanding, pro forma or pro forma as adjusted |
$ | 173,956 | $ | | $ | | ||||||
Stockholders (deficit) equity: |
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Common stock, $0.0001 par value122,000,000 shares authorized; 4,830,389 shares issued and outstanding, actual; 300,000,000 shares authorized, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted; 36,903,538 shares issued and outstanding, pro forma; 41,903,538 shares issued and outstanding, pro forma as adjusted |
1 | 4 | 5 | |||||||||
Preferred stock, $0.0001 par valueno shares authorized, issued and outstanding, actual; 10,000,000 shares authorized, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted; no shares issued and outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted |
| | | |||||||||
Additional paid-in capital |
4,072 | 237,905 | 313,954 | |||||||||
Related party promissory notes for purchase of common stock |
(202 | ) | (202 | ) | (202 | ) | ||||||
Accumulated other comprehensive loss |
(104 | ) | (104 | ) | (104 | ) | ||||||
Accumulated deficit |
(86,880 | ) | (86,880 | ) | (86,880 | ) | ||||||
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Total stockholders (deficit) equity |
(83,113 | ) | 150,723 | 226,773 | ||||||||
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Total capitalization |
$ | 90,843 | $ | 150,723 | $ | 226,773 | ||||||
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(1) | A $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $17.00 per share (the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus) would increase (decrease) the amount of cash, cash-equivalents, and marketable securities, additional paid-in capital, total stockholders (deficit) equity and total capitalization by approximately $4.7 million, assuming the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. Similarly, each increase (decrease) of 1,000,000 in the number of shares offered by us would increase (decrease) cash, cash-equivalents, and marketable securities, additional paid-in capital, total stockholders (deficit) equity and total capitalization by approximately $15.8 million, assuming the assumed initial public offering price of $17.00 per share (the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus) remains the same, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. The pro forma as adjusted information discussed above is illustrative only and will be adjusted based on the actual public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing. |
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The number of shares of common stock issued and outstanding actual, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted in the table above excludes the following:
| 4,365,694 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options to purchase common stock that were outstanding as of December 31, 2017, with a weighted average exercise price of $3.07 per share; |
| 918,595 shares of our common stock reserved for issuance pursuant to future awards under our 2013 Equity Incentive Plan, or the Plan, and associated amendments as of December 31, 2017; |
| 96,610 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of an outstanding warrant with an exercise price of $0.18 per share; |
| 763,501 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of outstanding convertible preferred stock warrants with a weighted-average exercise price of $0.65 per share; |
| 739,551 shares of our common stock that we may be obligated to issue under our license agreements; |
| 4,289,936 shares of common stock reserved for issuance pursuant to future awards under our 2018 Equity Incentive Award Plan, as well as any automatic increases in the number of shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under this plan, which will become effective immediately prior to the consummation of this offering; and |
| 536,242 shares of common stock reserved for issuance pursuant to future awards under our Employee Stock Purchase Plan, as well as any automatic increases in the number of shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under this plan, which will become effective immediately prior to the consummation of this offering. |
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If you invest in our common stock in this offering, your interest will be immediately diluted to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price per share of our common stock in this offering and the net tangible book value per share of our common stock after this offering.
As of December 31, 2017, we had a historical net tangible book value (deficit) of $(83.1) million, or $(17.21) per share of common stock. Our net tangible book value (deficit) represents total tangible assets less total liabilities and convertible preferred stock all divided by the number of shares of common stock outstanding on December 31, 2017. Our pro forma net tangible book value as of December 31, 2017, before giving effect to this offering, was $150.7 million, or $4.08 per share of our common stock. Pro forma net tangible book value, before the issuance and sale of shares in this offering, gives effect to:
| the conversion of all shares of our outstanding Series A-1, Series A-2, and Series B, convertible preferred stock as of December 31, 2017 and the conversion of all shares of our Series C convertible preferred stock issued in March and April 2018 into an aggregate of 32,073,149 shares of common stock immediately prior to the consummation of this offering; and |
| the filing and effectiveness of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, which will occur immediately prior to the consummation of this offering. |
Net tangible book value dilution per share to new investors represents the difference between the amount per share paid by purchasers of shares of common stock in this offering and the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of common stock immediately after completion of this offering. After giving effect to the sale of shares of common stock in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $17.00 per share (the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus) and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of December 31, 2017 would have been approximately $226.8 million, or $5.41 per share. This represents an immediate increase in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value of $1.33 per share to existing stockholders and an immediate dilution of $11.59 per share to new investors. The following table illustrates this per share dilution:
Assumed initial public offering price per share |
$ | 17.00 | ||||||
Historical net tangible book value (deficit) per share as of December 31, 2017 |
$ | (17.21 | ) | |||||
Pro forma increase in net tangible book value (deficit) per share |
21.29 | |||||||
|
|
|||||||
Pro forma net tangible book value per share as of December 31, 2017 |
4.08 | |||||||
Increase in pro forma net tangible book value per share attributable to new investors |
1.33 | |||||||
|
|
|||||||
Pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering |
5.41 | |||||||
|
|
|||||||
Dilution per share to new investors participating in this offering |
$ | 11.59 | ||||||
|
|
A $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $17.00 per share (the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus) would increase (decrease) our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of December 31, 2017 after this offering by approximately $4.65 million, or approximately $0.11 per share, and would decrease (increase) dilution to investors in this offering by approximately $0.89 per share, assuming that the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering
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expenses payable by us. We may also increase or decrease the number of shares we are offering. An increase of 1,000,000 in the number of shares we are offering would increase our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of December 31, 2017 after this offering by approximately $15.8 million, or approximately $0.24 per share, and would decrease dilution to investors in this offering by approximately $0.24 per share, assuming the assumed initial public offering price per share remains the same, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. A decrease of 1,000,000 in the number of shares we are offering would decrease our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of December 31, 2017 after this offering by approximately $15.8 million, or approximately $0.25 per share, and would increase dilution to investors in this offering by approximately $0.25 per share, assuming the assumed initial public offering price per share remains the same, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. The pro forma as adjusted information is illustrative only, and we will adjust this information based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing.
If the underwriters fully exercise their option to purchase additional shares, pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value after this offering would increase to approximately $5.59 per share, and the dilution to new investors purchasing shares in this offering would be $11.41 per share.
To the extent that outstanding options with an exercise price per share that is less than the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share are exercised, new investors will experience further dilution. In addition, we may choose to raise additional capital due to market conditions or strategic considerations even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the issuance of these securities could result in further dilution to our stockholders.
The following table shows, as of December 31, 2017, on a pro forma as adjusted basis, the number of shares of common stock purchased from us, the total consideration paid to us and the average price paid per share by existing stockholders and by new investors purchasing common stock in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $17.00 per share (the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus), before deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us (in thousands, except share and per share amounts and percentages):
Shares Purchased | Total Consideration | Average Price Per Share |
||||||||||||||||||
Number | Percent | Amount | Percent | |||||||||||||||||
Existing stockholders |
36,903,538 | 88.1% | $ | 222,387 | 72.3% | $ | 6.03 | |||||||||||||
Investors participating in this offering |
5,000,000 | 11.9 | 85,000 | 27.7 | 17.00 | |||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||
Total |
41,903,538 | 100% | $ | 307,387 | 100% | $ | 7.34 | |||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
The number of shares of common stock to be outstanding after this offering is based on 4,830,389 shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2017, and includes an aggregate of 28,159,724 shares of common stock issuable upon conversion of our outstanding Series A-1, A-2 and B convertible preferred stock as of December 31, 2017 and 3,913,425 shares of our Series C convertible preferred stock issued in March and April 2018, and excludes the following:
| 4,365,694 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options to purchase common stock that were outstanding as of December 31, 2017, with a weighted average exercise price of $3.07 per share; |
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| 918,595 shares of our common stock reserved for issuance pursuant to future awards under our 2013 Equity Incentive Plan, or the Plan, and associated amendments as of December 31, 2017; |
| 96,610 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of an outstanding warrant with an exercise price of $0.18 per share; |
| 763,501 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of outstanding convertible preferred stock warrants with a weighted-average exercise price of $0.65 per share; |
| 739,551 shares of our common stock that we may be obligated to issue under our license agreements; |
| 4,289,936 shares of common stock reserved for issuance pursuant to future awards under our 2018 Equity Incentive Award Plan, as well as any automatic increases in the number of shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under this plan, which will become effective immediately prior to the consummation of this offering; and |
| 536,242 shares of common stock reserved for issuance pursuant to future awards under our Employee Stock Purchase Plan, as well as any automatic increases in the number of shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under this plan, which will become effective immediately prior to the consummation of this offering. |
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You should read the following selected historical financial data below together with Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and our audited financial statements, related notes and other financial information included elsewhere in this prospectus. The selected financial data in this section are not intended to replace the financial statements and are qualified in their entirety by the audited financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.
We derived our selected statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2017 and the balance sheet data as of December 31, 2016 and 2017 from our audited financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in any future period. The selected financial data below should be read in conjunction with the section entitled Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and our financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.
Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||
2016 | 2017 | |||||||
(in thousands, except share and per share data) |
||||||||
Summary of Operations Data: |
||||||||
Contribution revenue |
$ | | $ | 1,382 | ||||
Operating expenses: |
||||||||
Research and development |
13,707 | 37,373 | ||||||
General and administrative |
5,137 | 9,617 | ||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||
Total operating expenses |
18,844 | 46,990 | ||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||
Loss from operations |
(18,844 | ) | (45,608 | ) | ||||
Loss on extinguishment of promissory notes |
(9,377 | ) | | |||||
Interest income (expense), net |
(2,183 | ) | 1,055 | |||||
Other expense, net |
| (103 | ) | |||||
|
|
|
|
|||||
Net loss |
$ | (30,404 | ) | $ | (44,656 | ) | ||
|
|
|
|
|||||
Net loss per share, basic and diluted(1) |
$ | (11.42 | ) | $ | (13.97 | ) | ||
|
|
|
|
|||||
Weighted average number of shares used in computing net loss per share, basic and diluted(1) |
2,662,841 | 3,197,516 | ||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||
Pro forma net loss per share, basic and diluted(1) |
$ | (1.49 | ) | |||||
|
|
|||||||
Weighted average number of shares used in computing pro forma net loss per share, basic and diluted(1) |
30,039,385 | |||||||
|
|
(1) | See Notes 2 and 14 to our audited financial statements for an explanation of the calculations of our basic and diluted net loss per common share, pro forma net loss per common share, and the weighted-average number of common shares used in the computation of the per share amounts. |
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As of December 31, | ||||||||
2016 | 2017 | |||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||
Balance Sheet Data: |
||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents |
$ | 89,286 | $ | 7,298 | ||||
Marketable securities |
| 84,330 | ||||||
Working capital |
89,718 | 80,983 | ||||||
Total assets |
96,648 | 102,024 | ||||||
Convertible preferred stock |
131,089 | 173,956 | ||||||
Accumulated deficit |
(42,224 | ) | (86,880 | ) | ||||
Total stockholders deficit |
(41,536 | ) | (83,113 | ) |
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MANAGEMENTS DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF
FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with the section entitled Selected Financial Data and our audited financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. This discussion and other parts of this prospectus contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, such as our plans, objectives, expectations, intentions and beliefs. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those identified below and those discussed in the section entitled Risk Factors included elsewhere in this prospectus.
Overview
We are a preclinical biotechnology company engaged in researching and developing therapeutics with a mission to extend human healthspan, the period of ones life unburdened by the diseases of aging. Enabled by foundational scientific insights, we have devoted over six years to identifying multiple mechanisms that we believe to be root causes of age-associated disease. We are utilizing these insights to develop a broad portfolio of drug candidates to treat these diseases of aging, and we plan to initiate our first clinical study of our lead drug candidate in the second quarter of 2018.
Since the commencement of our operations, we have invested a significant portion of our efforts and financial resources in research and development activities, and we have incurred net losses each year since inception. Our net losses were $30.4 million and $44.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2017, respectively. We do not have any products approved for sale, and we have never generated any revenue from contracts with customers. As of December 31, 2017, we had an accumulated deficit of $86.9 million, and we do not expect positive cash flows from operations in the foreseeable future. We expect to continue to incur net operating losses for at least the next several years as we continue our research and development efforts, advance our drug candidates through preclinical and clinical development, seek regulatory approval, prepare for and, if approved, proceed to commercialization.
We have funded our operations to date primarily from the issuance and sale of convertible preferred stock and convertible promissory notes. We do not expect to generate revenue from any drug candidates that we develop until we obtain regulatory approval for one or more of such drug candidates and commercialize our products or enter into collaboration agreements with third parties. Substantially all of our net losses have resulted from costs incurred in connection with our research and development programs and from general and administrative costs associated with our operations. As a result, we will need to raise additional capital. If sufficient funds on acceptable terms are not available when needed, we could be required to significantly reduce our operating expenses and delay, reduce the scope of, or eliminate one or more of our development programs.
We rely on third parties in the conduct of our preclinical studies and clinical studies and for manufacturing and supply of our drug candidates. We have no internal manufacturing capabilities, and we will continue to rely on third parties, many of whom are single-source suppliers, for our preclinical and clinical study materials. In addition, we do not yet have a marketing or sales organization or commercial infrastructure. Accordingly, we will incur significant expenses to develop a marketing and sales organization and commercial infrastructure in advance of generating any product sales.
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Components of Our Results of Operations
Contribution Revenue
Contribution revenue to date has been derived from an agreement with a third-party organization under which we received funding in 2017 for the performance of certain research and development activities in pursuit of the third-party organizations philanthropic mission.
Research and Development Expenses
Research and development expenses consist primarily of costs incurred for the development of our drug candidates, which include:
| personnel-related expenses, including salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation for personnel contributing to research and development activities; |
| laboratory expenses including supplies and services; |
| expenses incurred under agreements with third-party contract manufacturing organizations, contract research organizations, research and development service providers, academic research institutions, and consultants; |
| expenses related to license and sponsored research agreements; and |
| facilities and other allocated expenses, including expenses for rent and facilities maintenance, and depreciation and amortization. |
We expect our research and development expenses to increase substantially in the future as we advance our drug candidates into and through clinical studies and pursue regulatory approval of our drug candidates. The process of conducting the necessary clinical studies to obtain regulatory approval is costly and time-consuming. Clinical studies generally become larger and more costly to conduct as they advance into later stages and, in the future, we will be required to make estimates for expense accruals related to clinical study expenses. The actual probability of success for our drug candidates may be affected by a variety of factors including: the safety and efficacy of our drug candidates, early clinical data, investment in our clinical program, the ability of collaborators, if any, to successfully develop any drug candidates we license to them, competition, manufacturing capability and commercial viability. We may never succeed in achieving regulatory approval for any of our drug candidates. As a result of the uncertainties discussed above, we are unable to determine the duration and completion costs of our research and development projects or when and to what extent we will generate revenue from the commercialization and sale of our drug candidates. Due to the early-stage nature of our lead programs, we do not track costs on a project-by-project basis. As our programs enter clinical studies, we intend to track the cost of each program.
General and Administrative Expenses
Our general and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, allocated facilities costs and other expenses for outside professional services, including legal, audit and accounting services. Personnel costs consist of salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation. We expect to incur additional expenses associated with operating as a public company, including expenses related to compliance with the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and standards applicable to companies listed on a national securities exchange, additional insurance expenses, investor relations activities and other administrative and professional services. We also expect to increase the size of our administrative headcount to support the growth of our business and operate as a public company.
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Loss on Extinguishment of Promissory Notes
Loss on extinguishment of promissory notes consists of the difference between the fair value of the convertible notes elected to be accounted for under the fair value option and the fair value of the shares of convertible preferred stock for which these notes were settled.
Interest Income (Expense), net
Interest expense is primarily related to the discount created from a contingent beneficial conversion on our promissory notes that was recognized in 2016 upon the conversion of these promissory notes to convertible preferred stock. Interest income is primarily related to interest earned on our marketable securities in 2017.
Results of Operations
Comparison of the year ended December 31, 2016 and 2017
The following table sets forth the significant components of our results of operations:
Year Ended December 31, |
Change | |||||||||||
2016 | 2017 | |||||||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||||||
Summary of Operations Data: |
||||||||||||
Contribution revenue |
$ | | $ | 1,382 | $ | 1,382 | ||||||
Operating expenses: |
||||||||||||
Research and development |
13,707 | 37,373 | 23,666 | |||||||||
General and administrative |
5,137 | 9,617 | 4,480 | |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
Total operating expenses |
18,844 | 46,990 | 28,146 | |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
Loss from operations |
(18,844 | ) | (45,608 | ) | (26,764 | ) | ||||||
Loss on extinguishment of promissory notes |
(9,377 | ) | | 9,377 | ||||||||
Interest income (expense), net |
(2,183 | ) | 1,055 | 3,238 | ||||||||
Other expense, net |
| (103 | ) | (103 | ) | |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
Net loss |
$ | (30,404 | ) | $ | (44,656 | ) | $ | (14,252 | ) | |||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Contribution Revenue
Contribution revenue for the year ended December 31, 2017 was related to funding we recognized from a third-party organization in 2017 for the performance of certain research and development activities in pursuit of that organizations philanthropic mission.
Research and Development
Research and development expenses increased by $23.7 million from $13.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 to $37.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $10.4 million for direct research and development costs related to consultants, third-party contract research organizations, and preclinical studies as we expanded and continued to progress our development programs. Additionally, we had a $8.6 million increase in personnel-related expenses, of which $1.5 million related to stock-based compensation due to an increase in our headcount, an increase of $1.9 million in lab supplies as we expanded our lab space, $1.0 million in facility-related costs, and a $1.0 million increase in depreciation and amortization primarily related to leasehold improvements associated with our new space.
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General and Administrative
General and administrative expenses increased by $4.5 million from $5.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 to $9.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The increase was primarily due to an increase in personnel-related expenses of $2.9 million, of which $1.3 million related to stock-based compensation, as a result of an increase in our headcount and an increase of $1.3 million related to unconditional funding provided to academic institutions in 2017.
Loss on Extinguishment of Promissory Notes
We recognized a loss on extinguishment of promissory notes issued in July, September, and October 2016 of $9.4 million upon the settlement of such notes in 2016 for shares of Series B convertible preferred stock.
Interest Income (Expense), net
Our interest income was $1.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 as we invested our cash in marketable securities.
We recognized interest expense of $2.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 primarily related to the discount created from a contingent beneficial conversion on the February, April, and May 2016 promissory notes which was recognized upon the conversion of such notes in 2016 into shares of Series B preferred stock.
Liquidity, Capital Resources and Capital Requirements
Sources of Liquidity
We have incurred net losses each year since inception. Our net losses were $30.4 million and $44.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2017. We do not have any products approved for sale, and have never generated any revenue from contracts with customers. As of December 31, 2017, we had $91.6 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities and an accumulated deficit of $86.9 million. In March and April 2018, we received net proceeds of $59.9 million from the sale and issuance of shares of our Series C convertible preferred stock. Additionally, we do not expect positive cash flows from operations in the foreseeable future. Historically, we have incurred operating losses as a result of ongoing efforts to develop our drug candidates, including conducting ongoing research and development, preclinical studies and providing general and administrative support for these operations. We expect our operating losses and net cash used in operating activities will increase over at least the next several years as we continue our research and development activities, advance our drug candidates through preclinical and clinical testing and move into later and more costly stages of drug development, hire personnel and prepare for regulatory submissions and the commercialization of our drug candidates.
We have historically financed our operations primarily through issuance and sale of convertible preferred stock and convertible promissory notes and will continue to be dependent upon equity and/or debt financing until we are able to generate positive cash flows from our operations.
Future Funding Requirements
To date we have not generated any revenue for contracts with customers and have only received a contribution from a third party organization for certain research and development activities to support their philanthropic mission. We expect to continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future, and we expect the losses to increase as we continue the development of, and seek regulatory
78
approvals for, our drug candidates, and begin to commercialize any approved products. We are subject to all of the risks typically related to the development of new drug candidates, and we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other unknown factors that may adversely affect our business. Moreover, following the completion of this offering, we expect to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company. We anticipate that we will need substantial additional funding in connection with our continuing operations.
Until we can generate a sufficient amount of revenue from the commercialization of our drug candidates or from collaboration agreements with third parties, if ever, we expect to finance our future cash needs through public or private equity or debt financings. Additional capital may be raised through the sale of our equity securities, incurring debt, entering into licensing or collaboration agreements with partners, receiving research contributions, grants or other sources of financing to fund our operations. There can be no assurance that sufficient funds will be available to us on attractive terms or at all. If we are unable to obtain additional funding from these or other sources, it may be necessary to significantly reduce our rate of spending through reductions in staff and delaying, scaling back, or stopping certain research and development programs. Insufficient liquidity may also require us to relinquish rights to drug candidates at an earlier stage of development or on less favorable terms than we would otherwise choose.
Since our inception, we have incurred significant losses and negative cash flows from operations. We have an accumulated deficit of $86.9 million through December 31, 2017. We expect to incur substantial additional losses in the future as we conduct and expand our research and development activities. We believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities will be sufficient to enable us to fund our projected operations through at least the next 12 months. We expect our existing capital resources together with the proceeds from this offering will fund our planned operating expenses into 2021, including through clinical data readout from our Phase 1 clinical study of UBX0101 and data readouts from two additional Phase 1 clinical studies of our lead programs for ophthalmologic and pulmonary disorders.
We have based our projections of operating capital requirements on assumptions that may prove to be incorrect and we may use all our available capital resources sooner than we expect. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with research, development and commercialization of biotechnology products, we are unable to estimate the exact amount of our operating capital requirements. Our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:
| the scope, progress, results and costs of researching and developing UBX0101, UBX1967 or any other drug candidates, and conducting preclinical studies and clinical studies, including our planned Phase 1 clinical study of UBX0101, which we expect to initiate in the second quarter of 2018; |
| the timing of, and the costs involved in, obtaining regulatory approvals for our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidates; |
| the number and characteristics of any additional drug candidates we develop or acquire; |
| the timing and amount of any milestone payments we are required to make pursuant to our license agreements; |
| the cost of manufacturing our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidates and any products we successfully commercialize; |
| the cost of building a sales force in anticipation of product commercialization; |
| the cost of commercialization activities if our lead drug candidates or any future drug candidates are approved for sale, including marketing, sales and distribution costs; |
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| our ability to maintain existing, and establish new, strategic collaborations, licensing or other arrangements and the financial terms of any such agreements, including the timing and amount of any future milestone, royalty or other payments due under any such agreement; |
| any product liability or other lawsuits related to our products; |
| the expenses needed to attract, hire and retain skilled personnel; |
| the costs associated with being a public company; |
| our efforts to enhance operational, financial and information management systems and hire additional personnel, including personnel to support development of our drug candidates; |
| the costs involved in preparing, filing, prosecuting, maintaining, defending and enforcing our intellectual property portfolio; and |
| the timing, receipt and amount of sales of any future approved or cleared products, if any. |
Cash Flows
The following table sets forth a summary of the primary sources and uses of cash for each of the periods presented below:
Year Ended December 31, |
||||||||
2016 | 2017 | |||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||
Cash used in operating activities |
$ | (16,398 | ) | $ | (38,358 | ) | ||
Cash used in investing activities |
(2,744 | ) | (86,305 | ) | ||||
Cash provided by financing activities |
107,938 | 42,775 | ||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||
Net increase (decrease) in cash |
$ | 88,796 | $ | (81,888 | ) | |||
|
|
|
|
Cash Flows Used in Operating Activities
Cash used in operating activities of $38.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 consisted primarily of a net loss of $44.7 million, which was partially offset by non-cash charges of $4.0 million and a decrease in our net operating assets of $2.3 million. Our non-cash charges primary consisted of $1.3 million for depreciation and amortization expense and $3.0 million for stock-based compensation expense. The decrease in our net operating assets of $2.3 million was primarily due to an increase in accrued compensation of $1.6 million related to our bonus accrual and increases in accounts payable of $1.2 million and accrued and other current liabilities of $1.3 million as we expand our operations, partially offset by an increase in our contribution receivable of $1.4 million.
Cash used in operating activities of $16.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 consisted primarily of a net loss of $30.4 million, which was partially offset by non-cash charges of $12.0 million and a decrease in our net operating assets of $2.0 million. Our non-cash charges primarily consisted of $9.4 million for loss on extinguishment of our July, September, and October 2016 promissory notes and $2.2 million for interest expense related to our February, April and May 2016 promissory notes. The decrease in our net operating assets was due primarily to an increase in accrued and other current liabilities of $1.0 million primarily related to deferred rent for our facility lease entered into in 2016 and an increase in our accrued compensation of $0.5 million.
Cash Flows Used in Investing Activities
Cash used in investing activities of $86.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 was related to purchases of marketable securities of $134.5 million and purchases of property and
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equipment of $1.7 million, which were partially offset by maturities of marketable securities of $49.8 million.
Cash used in investing activities of $2.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 was related to the purchases of property and equipment of $2.2 million and the purchase of a cost method investment of $0.5 million.
Cash Flows Provided by Financing Activities
Cash provided by financing activities of $42.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 was primarily related to net proceeds from the issuance of shares of our convertible preferred stock.
Cash provided by financing activities of $107.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 was primarily related to net proceeds of $91.0 million from the issuance of shares of our convertible preferred stock and proceeds of $16.9 million from the issuance of convertible promissory notes which have since been converted into or settled with shares of convertible preferred stock.
Contractual Obligations and Other Commitments
The following table summarizes our contractual obligations as of December 31, 2017:
Payments due by period | ||||||||||||||||||||
Less than 1 year |
1 to 3 years |
3 to 5 years |
More than 5 years |
Total | ||||||||||||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Contractual obligations: |
||||||||||||||||||||
Operating lease(1) |
$ | 1,846 | $ | 4,084 | $ | 3,756 | $ | | $ | 9,686 | ||||||||||
Capital lease |
78 | 124 | | | 202 | |||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||
Total contractual obligations |
$ | 1,924 | $ | 4,208 | $ | 3,756 | $ | | $ | 9,888 | ||||||||||
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(1) | Our contractual obligations and commitments primarily relate to our facilities lease agreement. We have a lease for laboratory and office space in Brisbane, California. The current lease is for approximately 39,000 square feet and the lease period expires in October 2022. |
We are party to various license agreements pursuant to which we have in-licensed rights to various technologies, including patents, research know-how and proprietary research tools, for the discovery, research, development and commercialization of drug products to treat diseases of aging. The license agreements obligated us to make certain milestone payments related to specified clinical development and sales milestone events, as well as tiered royalties in the low-single digits based on sales of licensed products. This table does not include any milestone payments or royalty payments to third parties as the amounts, timing and likelihood of such payments are not known. See Note 5 to our Financial Statements License Agreements for additional information.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We have not entered into any off-balance sheet arrangements. Our license and compound library and option agreement with a privately held clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company represents a variable interest in a variable interest entity, or VIE. However, we do not consolidate this entity in our financial statements because we are not considered to be its primary beneficiary.
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Critical Accounting Polices and Estimates
This discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, as well as the reported expenses incurred during the reporting periods. Our estimates are based on our historical experience and on various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. While our significant accounting policies are described in more detail in the notes to our financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus, we believe that the following accounting policies are critical to understanding our historical and future performance, as these policies relate to the more significant areas involving managements judgments and estimates.
Research and Development Expenses
Costs related to research and development of drug candidates are charged to research and development expense as incurred. Research and development costs include, but are not limited to, payroll and personnel expenses for personnel contributing to research and development activities, laboratory supplies, outside services, licenses acquired to be used in research and development and allocated overhead, including rent, equipment, depreciation and utilities. Payments made prior to the receipt of goods or services to be used in research and development are deferred and recognized as expense in the period in which the related goods are received or services are rendered.
We have and may continue to enter into license agreements to access and utilize certain technology. We evaluate if the license agreement is an acquisition of an asset or a business. To date none of our license agreements have been considered to be an acquisition of a business. For asset acquisitions, the upfront payments to acquire such licenses, as well as any future milestone payments made before product approval, are immediately recognized as research and development expense when due, provided there is no alternative future use of the rights in other research and development projects. These license agreements may also include contingent consideration in the form of cash and additional issuances of our common stock. We assess whether such contingent consideration meets the definition of a derivative. To date, we have determined that such contingent consideration are not derivatives. We will continuously reassess this determination until such time that the contingency is met or expires.
Variable Interest Entities
We assess whether we are the primary beneficiary of a variable interest entity, or VIE, at the inception of the arrangement we enter into with third party entities and at each reporting date. This assessment is based on our power to direct the activities of the VIE that most significantly impact the VIEs economic performance and our obligation to absorb losses or the right to receive benefits from the VIE that could potentially be significant to the VIE.
Stock-Based Compensation
We recognize compensation costs related to stock options granted to employees and nonemployees based on the estimated fair value of the awards on the date of grant, and we recognize forfeitures as they occur. For awards that vest solely based on service conditions or a combination of service and performance conditions, we estimate the grant date fair value, and the resulting stock-
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based compensation expense, using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model. The grant date fair value of the awards is generally recognized on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period, which is typically their vesting period.
The Black-Scholes option-pricing model requires the use of highly subjective assumptions to determine the fair value of stock-based awards. These assumptions include:
| Expected termThe expected term represents the period that the stock-based awards are expected to be outstanding. We use the simplified method to determine the expected term, which is based on the average of the time-to-vesting and the contractual life of the options. |
| Expected volatilitySince we are not yet a public company and do not have any trading history for our common stock, the expected volatility is estimated based on the average historical volatilities of common stock of comparable publicly traded entities over a period equal to the expected term of the stock option grants. The comparable companies are chosen based on their size, stage in the product development cycle or area of specialty. We will continue to apply this process until a sufficient amount of historical information regarding the volatility of our own stock price becomes available. |
| Risk-free interest rateThe risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury yield in effect at the time of grant for zero-coupon U.S. Treasury notes with maturities approximately equal to the expected term of the awards. |
| Expected DividendWe have never paid dividends on our common stock and have no plans to pay dividends on our common stock. Therefore, we used an expected dividend yield of zero. |
For options granted to non-employee consultants, the fair value of these options is also remeasured using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model reflecting consistent assumptions as applied to employee options in each of the reported periods, other than the expected term, which is assumed to be the remaining contractual life of the option.
We have also granted stock options to certain key employees that vest in conjunction with certain performance and market conditions. We estimate the fair value of these awards using a lattice model, taking into consideration the market conditions. No expense will be recorded related to these awards until the achievement of the performance condition becomes probable. Once the achievement of the performance condition becomes probable, expense related to these awards is recognized using the accelerated attribution method with a cumulative catch-up adjustment over the derived service period relating to the market conditions, if the market conditions have not been met. As these awards vest in their entirety upon achievement of the market conditions, any unrecognized expense would be accelerated if the market conditions are achieved prior to the completion of the derived service period.
As there has been no public market for our common stock to date, the estimated fair value of our common stock has been determined by our board of directors, with input from management, considering our most recently available third-party valuations of common stock and our board of directors assessment of additional objective and subjective factors that it believed were relevant, and factors that may have changed from the date of the most recent valuation through the date of the grant. These factors include, but are not limited to: the prices at which we sold shares of our convertible preferred stock to outside investors in arms-length transactions; the rights, preferences and privileges of our convertible preferred stock relative to those of our common stock; our results of operations, financial position and capital resources; current business conditions and projections; the lack of marketability of our common stock; the hiring of key personnel and the experience of management; progress of our research and development activities; our stage of development and material risks related to its business; the fact that the option grants involve illiquid securities in a private company; and the likelihood of achieving a liquidity event, such as an initial public offering or sale, in light of prevailing market conditions.
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We have periodically determined the estimated fair value of our common stock at various dates using contemporaneous valuations performed in accordance with the guidance outlined in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Accounting and Valuation Guide, Valuation of Privately-Held-Company Equity Securities Issued as Compensation, or the Practice Aid. The Practice Aid identifies various available methods for allocating enterprise value across classes and series of capital stock to determine the estimated fair value of common stock at each valuation date. In accordance with the Practice Aid, our board of directors considered the following methods:
| Current Value Method. Under the Current Value Method, or CVM, our value is determined based on our balance sheet. This value is then first allocated based on the liquidation preference associated with preferred stock issued as of the valuation date, and then any residual value is assigned to the common stock. |
| Option-Pricing Method. Under the option-pricing method, or OPM, shares are valued by creating a series of call options with exercise prices based on the liquidation preferences and conversion terms of each equity class. The estimated fair values of the preferred and common stock are inferred by analyzing these options. |
| Probability-Weighted Expected Return Method. The probability-weighted expected return method, or PWERM, is a scenario-based analysis that estimates value per share based on the probability-weighted present value of expected future investment returns, considering each of the possible outcomes available to us, as well as the economic and control rights of each share class. |
Our board of directors and management develop best estimates based on application of these approaches and the assumptions underlying these valuations, giving careful consideration to the advice from our third-party valuation expert. Such estimates involve inherent uncertainties and the application of significant judgment. As a result, if factors or expected outcomes change and we use significantly different assumptions or estimates, our equity-based compensation could be materially different. Following the closing of this offering, our board of directors will determine the fair market value of our common stock based on its closing price as reported on the date of grant on the primary stock exchange on which our common stock is traded.
The intrinsic value of all outstanding options as of December 31, 2017 was approximately $60.8 million, based on the assumed initial public offering price of $17.00 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated initial public offering price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, of which approximately $13.3 million is related to vested options and approximately $47.5 million is related to unvested options.
Income Taxes
We use the asset and liability method of accounting for income taxes, in which deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for future tax consequences attributable to the differences between the financial statement carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using the enacted tax rates expected to apply to taxable income in the years in which those temporary differences are expected to be reversed. The effect on deferred tax assets and liabilities of a change in tax rates is recognized as income in the period that includes the enactment date. A valuation allowance is established if it is more likely than not that all or a portion of the deferred tax asset will not be realized.
Our tax positions are subject to income tax audits. We recognize the tax benefit of an uncertain tax position only if it is more likely than not that our position is sustainable upon examination by the taxing authority, based on the technical merits. The tax benefit recognized is measured as the largest
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amount of benefit which is more likely than not to be realized upon settlement with the taxing authority. We recognize interest accrued and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits in our tax provision. We evaluate uncertain tax positions on a regular basis. The evaluations are based on a number of factors, including changes in facts and circumstances, changes in tax law, correspondence with tax authorities during the course of the audit, and effective settlement of audit issues. Our provision for income taxes includes the effects of any accruals that we believe are appropriate, as well as the related net interest and penalties.
On December 22, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (Tax Act) was signed into law. The Tax Act lowered the Federal corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and made numerous other tax law changes. The Company has measured deferred tax assets at the enacted tax rate expected to apply when these temporary differences are expected to be realized or settled. U.S. GAAP requires companies to recognize the effect of tax law changes in the period of enactment.
On December 22, 2017, the SEC staff issued Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118 (SAB 118) that allows us to record provisional amounts during a measurement period not to extend beyond one year of the enactment date. We are currently analyzing the impact of the various provisions of the 2017 Tax Act. The ultimate impact may differ from the provisional amounts recorded. We expect to complete our analysis within the measurement period in accordance with SAB 118.
Reasonable estimates were made based on the Companys analysis of the Tax Act. These provisional amounts may be adjusted during 2018 when additional information is obtained. Additional information that may affect our provisional amounts would include further clarification and guidance on how the Internal Revenue Service will implement the Tax Act, including guidance with respect to guidance on how state taxing authorities will implement tax reform and the related effect on our state income tax returns, completion of our 2017 tax return filings, and the potential for additional guidance from the Financial Accounting Standards Board related to the Tax Act. Under the Tax Act, net operating losses (NOLs) arising after December 31, 2017 may be carried forward indefinitely. However, NOLs arising after December 31, 2017 will be limited to 80% of taxable income. Our NOLs generated in 2017 and in prior years will not be subject to the limitations under the Tax Act.
JOBS Act Accounting Election
We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act. Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards issued subsequent to the enactment of the JOBS Act until such time as those standards apply to private companies.
We have elected to use this extended transition period to enable us to comply with new or revised accounting standards that have different effective dates for public and private companies until the earlier of the date we (i) are no longer an emerging growth company or (ii) affirmatively and irrevocably opt out of the extended transition period provided in the JOBS Act. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates.
Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk
We are exposed to market risks in the ordinary course of our business. These risks primarily relate to interest rate sensitivities. We had cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $91.6 million as of December 31, 2017, which consist of bank deposits, money market funds, and marketable securities. The primary objective of our investment activities is to preserve capital to fund our operations. We also seek to maximize income from our investments without assuming significant
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risk. Because our investments are primarily short-term in duration, we believe that our exposure to interest rate risk is not significant, and a 1% movement in market interest rates would not have a significant impact on the total value of our portfolio. We had no debt outstanding as of December 31, 2017.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
See Note 2 to our Financial Statements Summary of Significant Accounting Policies for information.
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Overview
Our mission is to extend human healthspan. We define healthspan, or healthy longevity, as the period of ones life unburdened by the diseases of aging. Enabled by foundational scientific insights, we have devoted over six years to identifying multiple mechanisms that we believe to be root causes of age-associated disease. We are utilizing these insights to develop a broad portfolio of drug candidates to treat these diseases of aging, and we plan to initiate our first clinical study of our lead drug candidate in the second quarter of 2018. We believe our team of scientific, clinical, and business leaders and our strong culture of collaboration with external scientists make us uniquely qualified to accomplish our ambitious mission.
Age-associated diseases such as arthritis, vision loss, and cognitive decline cause considerable economic, personal, and societal burden. As individuals age, the prevalence of chronic disease increases, with 80% of older Americans having at least one chronic disease and 50% having two or more. Age-associated diseases negatively impact quality of life, are typically chronic, and progress from the time of onset until death. It is estimated that providing healthcare for people over the age of 65 costs four to five times more than for younger individuals. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this elderly population of Americans is expected to nearly double by 2050, increasing the economic burden of aging dramatically. Any success increasing longevity without treating underlying diseases of aging would only serve to increase this burden.
Over the last three decades, knowledge of the fundamental mechanisms of aging has advanced considerably. As a result of these advances, aging is no longer characterized as a single, over-arching process but rather as multiple biological and cellular processes working concurrently. We now have evidence that one of these mechanisms, the accumulation of senescent cells, is a fundamental mechanism of aging and a major driver of many common age-associated diseases. Further, we believe that we have developed the tools required to target this mechanism. We have demonstrated in preclinical studies published in Nature (Naturally occurring P16lnk4a-positive cells shorten healthy lifespan, Nature (2016) and Clearance of p16lnk4a-positive senescent cells delays ageing associated disorders, Nature (2011)) and Science (Senescent intimal foam cells are deleterious at all stages of atherosclerosis, Science (2016)) that the selective elimination of accumulated senescent cells extends both the healthspan and lifespan of animals and slows, halts, or reverses particular diseases of aging.
With these tools in hand we have developed a portfolio of programs targeting specific biological mechanisms implicated in diseases of aging and a pipeline of drug candidates to attack specific age-associated diseases, beginning with musculoskeletal, ophthalmologic, and pulmonary indications.
Cellular Senescence
Cellular senescence is a natural biological state in which a cell permanently halts division. These cells are referred to as senescent. As senescent cells accumulate with age, they begin secreting large quantities of more than 100 proteins, including inflammatory factors, proteases, fibrotic factors, and growth factors that disturb the tissue micro-environment. This collection of secreted proteins is referred to as the Senescence Associated Secretory Phenotype, or SASP. In addition to its effects on tissue function, the SASP contains factors that induce senescence in neighboring cells, setting off a cascade of events that culminates in the formation of the functionally aged and/or diseased tissue that underlies a variety of age-associated diseases.
Senolytic medicines selectively eliminate senescent cells and stop the production of the SASP at its source, which we believe addresses a root cause of diseases of aging. Existing therapeutics, such as antibodies, target single SASP factors, but fail to remove the cells that continually produce multiple SASP factors. By stopping the production of the SASP at it source, we believe senolytic medicines
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could have a more durable impact on disease and could slow, halt, or reverse particular diseases of aging, and shift the treatment paradigm from chronic to intermittent dosing. Less frequent dosing may also improve drug tolerability and patient adherence. We are developing a number of molecules that we refer to as senolytic medicines.
Our Pipeline
We are developing a portfolio of programs targeting specific biological mechanisms implicated in diseases of aging. Our core therapeutic approach targets cellular senescence, and we are currently advancing programs in musculoskeletal, ophthalmologic, and pulmonary disorders. Our clinical development strategy is initially focused on the development of senolytic medicines designed to be administered locally into diseased tissue. After demonstrating efficacy in indications amenable to localized therapy, we plan to pursue the development of senolytic medicines that could be administered systemically to treat additional diseases of aging, such as kidney, liver, and heart disease. In addition to our efforts to eliminate senescent cells, we are also advancing other programs with the potential to extend human healthspan, including the administration of circulating youth factors and the enhancement of mitochondrial health.
Our current pipeline of programs is illustrated below:
Within our cellular senescence programs, our lead senolytic molecules, UBX0101 and UBX1967, designed for local treatment for the removal of accumulated senescent cells, are described below:
| UBX0101 is our lead drug candidate for musculoskeletal disease with an initial focus on osteoarthritis. This drug candidate is a potent senolytic small molecule inhibitor of the MDM2/p53 protein interaction. Disruption of this protein interaction can trigger the elimination of senescent cells. Our Investigational New Drug, or IND, application for UBX0101 was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, in April 2018, and we plan to initiate a Phase 1 clinical study in osteoarthritis in the second quarter of 2018. We expect to receive data from this clinical study in the first quarter of 2019. |
| UBX1967 is our lead drug candidate for ophthalmologic diseases. This drug candidate is a potent senolytic small molecule inhibitor of specific members of the Bcl-2 family of apoptosis regulatory proteins. Senescent cells utilize pro-survival mechanisms to remain viable and rely on specific Bcl-2 protein family members to persist and accumulate in tissues. In our preclinical |
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studies, we have demonstrated that by targeting this pathway our molecule exhibits selectivity for senescent cells while sparing non-senescent cells in preclinical studies. We plan to submit our IND application and commence a Phase 1 clinical study in an ophthalmologic indication in the second half of 2019. |
In addition to the above, we expect to file one additional IND application in the second half of 2019 for a Phase 1 clinical study in either an additional ophthalmologic indication or an initial pulmonary indication. We retain worldwide rights to UBX0101 and have an option to an exclusive license for UBX1967 pursuant to our compound library and option agreement with Ascentage Pharma Group Corp. Ltd., or Ascentage. See Licenses and Collaborations
Our Team
We have assembled an executive team of scientific, clinical, and business leaders with broad expertise in biotechnology. Our co-founder and President, Nathaniel (Ned) E. David, Ph.D., is a biochemist and experienced entrepreneur, having founded four biotechnology companies, including Syrrx (acquired by Takeda Pharmaceuticals), Achaogen, Inc. (a public biopharmaceutical company), and KYTHERA Biopharmaceuticals (acquired by Allergan). Our Chief Executive Officer, Keith R. Leonard Jr., M.S., M.B.A., was CEO of KYTHERA Biopharmaceuticals from its founding through its acquisition in 2015 and held numerous leadership roles over thirteen years at Amgen, including Senior Vice President and General Manager of Amgen Europe. Our Chief Medical Officer, Jamie Dananberg, M.D., has held leadership roles at Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly & Co. and has overseen the development of eight FDA-approved products. Our Chief Scientific Officer, Daniel G. Marquess, D.Phil., served as Vice President and Head of Medicinal Chemistry at Theravance Biopharma, where he led the chemistry department to leverage Theravances multivalent approach to create Theravances pipeline of differentiated medicines. We have approximately 70 employees, over 65% of whom hold advanced degrees.
We have built a strong culture of teamwork with emphasis on external collaboration, providing us with access to rapidly-evolving science. We were co-founded by three leading scientists, Judith Campisi, Ph.D., Jan Van Deursen, Ph.D., and Daohong Zhou, M.D., and maintain more than a dozen active early-stage research and discovery focused collaborations with leading external academic institutions, including: the Buck Institute for Research on Aging; Massachusetts General Hospital; Mayo Clinic; the Medical Research Council (MRC, Imperial College); The University of California, San Francisco; and Yale University.
Our Strategy
To achieve our objective of building Unity into a leading healthspan company, we focus on two parallel efforts. First, we are committed to developing senolytic medicines that slow, halt, or reverse specific diseases of aging. Second, we dedicate significant resources and effort to better understand fundamental aging mechanisms and translate these insights into human medicines. This pioneering work is supported by valuable collaborations with leading academics. By investing early in the science of aging, we believe we are positioned to transition the field of aging biology from fundamental scientific insights to the development and commercialization of medicines. Our core strategies to achieve this objective include:
| Demonstrate in our clinical studies that local treatment with senolytic medicines can alter the course of an age-associated disease. We believe that local treatment with senolytic medicines has the potential to slow, halt, or reverse aspects of aging. If we prove this concept in a localized setting, we will be well-positioned to expand upon that success with numerous additional applications. |
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| Continue research into the development of systemic senolytic medicines. We believe that harnessing the full potential of senolysis, or the selective elimination of senescent cells, to alter many diseases of aging will require systemic senolytic medicines. We intend to explore the development of systemic senolytic medicines using multiple modalities, including small molecules and biologics. |
| Target aging mechanisms beyond cellular senescence. While cellular senescence and senolysis have been shown to affect the course of multiple diseases of aging, we believe achieving our broader goal of extending human healthspan will require intervention in additional aging mechanisms beyond cellular senescence. We will continue to conduct fundamental research into these other aging mechanisms, including loss of circulating youth factors and mitochondrial dysfunction. We will also continue to partner with the most forward-thinking aging researchers in the world to foster a collaborative environment to bring their insights, innovation, and technologies into our powerful research and drug development infrastructure. |
| Leverage our core science and biotechnology experience. We strive to attract, retain, and incentivize a unique team with significant strengths and experience in basic science, biotechnology, medicinal chemistry, and clinical development. Over the last six years, our team has identified multiple mechanisms that can selectively eliminate senescent cells, created potent senolytic molecules, and developed proprietary animal models to monitor senescent cell clearance. We have developed significant insight into the relationship between senescent cells and diseased tissues. Further, our management team has extensive biotechnology and pharmaceutical experience, and has played a leadership role in the creation of numerous FDA-approved medicines. |
| Opportunistically expand our product portfolio. Our internal research has identified multiple biological pathways that are potential targets for diseases of aging. We will search for opportunities for potential in-licensing of novel medicines with rapid access to clinical development. We expect that our current leadership in the biology of cellular senescence will serve as a foundation for us to develop numerous products to treat human disease. |
| Continue to build a robust and defensible patent portfolio. We are an innovative biotechnology company focused on developing novel insights into the biology and diseases of aging. Our current patent portfolio consists, on a worldwide basis, of nine issued or allowed patents and over 60 additional pending patent applications which we own, co-own or have exclusively licensed. We intend to continue to aggressively develop, file, and pursue additional patent protection for our innovative technologies. |
Healthspan and Diseases of Aging
Age-associated diseases such as arthritis, vision loss, and cognitive decline cause considerable economic, personal and societal burden. As individuals age, the prevalence of chronic disease increases, with 80% of older Americans having at least one chronic disease and 50% having two or more. This deterioration of health negatively impacts quality of life, and age-associated diseases generally persist from the time of onset until death.
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Diseases of aging drive significant healthcare spending. It is estimated that providing healthcare for people over the age of 65 costs four to five times more than for younger individuals. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services expect US health spending to exceed $5.2 trillion by 2025, which is equal to approximately 20% of the projected US gross national product for the same year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the population of Americans aged 65 years or older is expected to nearly double by 2050, dramatically increasing the economic burden of aging. The chart below represents total (left) and per capita (right) spending on health care in the United States during 2013 (in 2015 dollars) as a function of age.
Moreover, diseases associated with aging have a detrimental impact on quality of life and older adults are often less optimistic about their future. Of the 34 million family caregivers in the United States who support aging relatives, many find a deterioration in their own health and well-being as a result.
We believe that by creating medicines that target fundamental aging mechanisms, we can reduce the economic, personal, and societal burden of aging and enhance quality of life.
Historical Approaches
As highlighted in Nature Medicine, a number of compounds have been developed to target fundamental aging mechanisms, including rapamycin, resveratrol, and metformin. These approaches were motivated by empirical observations in humans and data from the treatments of lower species (worms, flies, and mice) with these compounds. We believe that the lack of meaningful clinical data, potential serious side effects, and limited, if any, efficacy make these approaches less suitable for
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widespread age-associated disease intervention and the extension of human healthspan on a large scale.
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Our Approach to Extending Human Healthspan
Causes of Cellular Senescence
Cellular senescence is a natural biological state in which a cell permanently halts division. Cells become senescent when they experience some form of unresolvable cellular stress. To date, six stress mechanisms have been identified that can cause a cell to become senescent, including (i) extensive cell division and telomere shortening, (ii) DNA damage, (iii) oxidative stress, (iv) high concentration glucose, (v) mitochondrial dysfunction, and (vi) activation of a cancer-causing gene.
These cellular stress events result in the activation of the tumor suppressor protein p53, which drives the production of two cell-cycle dependent kinase inhibitors (CDK inhibitors) p21 and p16. These two molecules are required for the establishment and subsequent maintenance of the senescent cell state. The first CDK inhibitor to be produced is p21, which works through subsequent pathways to block the production of numerous proteins that cells need to divide. The initial p21-driven signal is an acute response to cell damage and eventually decreases. In contrast, p16 permanently locks the cell into a non-dividing state, and the production of p16 continues as long as the cell lives. Given that p16 production continues indefinitely and is believed to be produced only in senescent cells, it is a widely used marker to identify and quantify senescent cells.
The process through which stress mechanisms can induce cells to become senescent is illustrated in the figure below.
How Senescent Cells Drive Diseases of Aging: The SASP
Once cells become senescent, they begin secreting large quantities of more than 100 proteins, including pro-inflammatory factors that recruit the immune system, proteases that remodel the extra-cellular matrix, pro-fibrotic factors that drive the formation of dysfunctional matrix, and growth factors that perturb the function of the tissue micro-environment. This collection of secreted proteins is referred to as the Senescence Associated Secretory Phenotype, or SASP(s). In addition to its effects on tissue function, the SASP contains factors that induce senescence in neighboring cells, setting off a cascade
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of events that ultimately culminates in the formation of a functionally aged and/or diseased tissue that underlies a variety of age-associated diseases. This process is illustrated in the figure below.
Numerous SASP factors have been implicated as potentially contributing to human disease and it is now believed that the SASP is the primary means by which senescent cells drive specific diseases of aging. For example, a variety of single SASP factors (TNFa and VEGFa) have been demonstrated to drive human diseases by themselves and have been the target of well-known antibody therapeutics, including HUMIRA® and EYLEA®. While these antibodies are able to modify human disease by removing the activity of a single SASP factor, we believe the clearance of senescent cells will remove the source of numerous SASP factors, providing both improved efficacy and duration-of-effect.
A History of the Science of Senescent Cells and Their Role in Diseases of Aging
In 1961, Leonard Hayflick, Ph.D. demonstrated that human cells have a finite capacity to divide, a concept now referred to as the Hayflick Limit. Dr. Hayflick suggested that humans age because senescent cells are unable to participate in tissue repair.
In 1993, Manuel Serrano, Ph.D. et al. discovered the p16 gene and described its role as an anti-cancer mechanism. In 1996, David Alcorta, Ph.D. recognized that p16 induced a state of cellular senescence by binding to and inhibiting the function of cycle-dependent kinases. These two discoveries laid the groundwork for the use of p16 as a universal marker of senescent cells and the use of the p16 promoter to selectively remove senescent cells from living animals.
In 2008, Judith Campisi, Ph.D. (of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and one of our scientific co-founders) demonstrated that senescent cells produce the SASP. Also in 2008, Jan van Deursen, Ph.D. (of Mayo Clinic and one of our scientific co-founders) demonstrated that mice engineered to produce large numbers of senescent cells age rapidly and that the deletion of p16 reduced some of these aging effects. In 2011, Dr. van Deursen and Darren Baker, Ph.D. extended this work, demonstrating that mice allowed to accumulate senescent cells aged more rapidly, and that the elimination of these accumulated cells blunted multiple aspects of aging. For these efforts, Science listed the work of Drs. Baker and van Deursen as one of the top breakthroughs of 2011.
In 2015, Daohong Zhou, Ph.D. (one of our scientific co-founders while at the University of Arkansas Medical Center) and a Unity scientist demonstrated that a single drug-like molecule could
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eliminate senescent cells from a living animal. While the molecule used for this demonstration, a Bcl-2 family inhibitor, was not ideally suited to become a medicine, the work demonstrated that the findings of Drs. Campisi, van Deursen, and Baker could be achieved with a small molecule. The molecule utilized was also one of the worlds first demonstrably senolytic molecules and has led to the design of more potent and selective senolytics.
In 2016 and 2017, significant scientific advancements in senescence biology were reported, with publications demonstrating that senescent cells mediated the effects of aging in naturally aged mice. In particular, Science again acknowledged the field of senescence, highlighting research finding that senolytic molecules could potentially blunt the senescence-driven effects of the cardiovascular disease atherosclerosis as one of the top breakthroughs of 2016. In addition, we (in collaboration with investigators at Johns Hopkins) reported that osteoarthritis was potentially driven by senescent cells and that senolytic molecules could mitigate, and potentially reverse, the disease.
The following figure illustrates the chronology of key scientific findings in senescence biology underlying our senolytic medicine approach.
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Concurrent with these advances, there has been a rapid increase in the number of scientific papers in the field. The substantial increase in the number of scientific publications including the term cellular senescence (on a yearly basis) is reflected in the chart below.
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Our Therapeutic Paradigm
We were founded on the principle that the selective elimination of senescent cells and their accompanying SASP has the potential to slow, halt, or reverse diseases of aging. Our insights into senescent cell biology allow us to identify senescence-driven diseases, target the senescent cells driving a particular disease, and selectively eliminate these cells. The figure below illustrates this process.
In developing this approach, we have acquired significant expertise with respect to senescent cell survival pathways, which are the signaling systems that senescent cells rely on for survival. When these pathways are inhibited with specifically designed molecules, senescent cells undergo programmed cell death. Through our research, we have identified several of these mechanistically distinct survival pathways, which differ depending on cell type and the tissue in which the senescent cells reside.
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Using small molecules, we have cataloged these survival pathways on a cell-type-by-cell-type basis into a database we refer to as the ATLAS, shown in the simplified figure below. The database indicates which senescent cell types implicated in various diseases of aging rely on which survival pathways, and thus which senolytic molecules may be used to trigger the elimination of these cells. The ATLAS provides us with a map of chemical starting points for the creation of senolytic medicines.
Advantages of Our Approach
We believe that senolytic medicinesmedicines that selectively eliminate senescent cells from diseased tissuesmay have four advantages over other efforts to treat age-associated diseases:
| Senolytic medicines target a root cause of diseases of aging. We believe that the accumulation of senescent cells is a root cause of many diseases of aging. Unlike treatments that inhibit the activity of a single factor (such as antibodies targeting single pro-inflammatory proteins), we believe a senolytic medicine that selectively eliminates accumulated senescent cells and their associated SASP could simultaneously blunt the activity of numerous factors contributing to disease. As a result, senolytic medicines could have significantly advantaged efficacy because they target diseases at their source and are able to normalize tissue levels of numerous disease-causing factors simultaneously. |
| Senolytic medicines are dosed intermittently. The administration of senolytic medicines would remove senescent cells from diseased tissue. As new senescent cells may take months or even years to re-accumulate, senolytic medicines could potentially be dosed infrequently. We believe that intermittent dosing (rather than ongoing chronic dosing) could restore normal tissue function such that further drug administration would not be required until senescent cells have re-accumulated. Intermittent dosing may also improve drug tolerability and patient adherence when compared to chronic therapies. |
| Senescent cells accumulate at sites of disease, simplifying multiple aspects of clinical development. Senescent cells accumulate at sites of disease and drive disease through their accompanying SASP. Our ability to quantify senescent cells and accompanying SASP factors in sites of disease may simplify clinical development in a number of ways. First, we can simplify indication selection to pursue the development of senolytic medicines for diseases in which we observe the local accumulation of senescent cells. Second, it is possible to identify patients that |
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may better respond to senolytic medicines based on p16 expression and other biomarkers of senescence. Third, we can potentially monitor for response to therapy by tracking the reduction of senescence-associated biomarkers. |
| Senolytic medicines restore tissues to a healthy state. We believe senescent cells generally do not accumulate in young individuals and that the accumulation of senescent cells is unnecessary for normal tissue function. Our goal for the administration of senolytic medicines is to restore tissue to a functionally younger state. |
Our Discovery and Development Strategy
Our clinical development strategy is initially to develop senolytic medicines designed to be administered locally into diseased tissue (either by injection or inhalation), which reduces systemic toxicological risks by limiting drug exposure largely to the treated tissue. We believe that each of our senolytic programs has the potential to address a root cause of an age-associated disease. After demonstrating efficacy in indications amenable to localized therapy, we plan to pursue the development of senolytic medicines that could be administered systemically, initially acting on specific tissues for which direct local administration is challenging. Ultimately, we envision the potential for systemic administration of senolytic medicines to selectively eliminate senescent cells throughout the body to treat systemic diseases of aging, such as kidney, liver, and heart disease. We are also developing medicines that act on aging mechanisms beyond cellular senescence, such as those that address the loss of circulating youth factors and enhance mitochondrial health. By targeting specific biological mechanisms that are implicated in diseases of aging, our vision is to address the body as a whole, reducing age-associated diseases and extending human healthspan. We plan to initiate our first clinical study for our lead drug candidate in the second quarter of 2018.
Statistical Significance
In the description of our preclinical studies below, n represents the number of patients in a particular group and p or p-values represent the probability that random chance caused the result (e.g., a p-value = 0.001 means that there is a 0.1% probability that the difference between the placebo group and the treatment group is purely due to random chance). A p-value £ 0.05 is a commonly used criterion for statistical significance, and may be supportive of a finding of efficacy by regulatory authorities.
Cellular Senescence Biology Program
Musculoskeletal/Osteoarthritis Programs
Unmet Need and Therapeutic Rationale
Diseases of the musculoskeletal system represent one the leading causes of disability in the world, particularly among the aging population. According to the 2015 World Health Organization World Report on Ageing and Health, musculoskeletal diseases accounted for the most years spent living with a disability by those over age 50 in the developed world. To date, senescence has been linked with osteoarthritis of the knee, hip, and intervertebral (spine) facet joints, degeneration of intervertebral discs, and loss of bone density.
Osteoarthritis, or OA, is a degenerative disease that negatively impacts subchondral bone and the synovial tissue surrounding the joint, causing pain and physical impairment. The effect of tissue degeneration causes the normally smooth joint layers to become fragmented and pitted, the synovial tissue to become inflamed and thickened, and the bone to develop abnormal morphology, all of which lead to a decrease in joint function and mobility, pain, and physical impairment. OA is a highly
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prevalent disease, symptomatically affecting as many as 10% to 15% of the worlds population over age 60 and results in a decline in quality of life. The most common joint affected by OA is the knee, followed by the hip, ankle, and shoulder. Importantly, the current standard of care begins with symptomatic treatment that temporarily addresses joint inflammation or pain control. The natural progression of treatment often results in joint replacement surgery. Based on data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US HHS) for 2009, the aggregate cost of knee and hip replacements in the United States was $42.3 billion. The overall cost of OA is estimated to be greater than $150 billion per year in the United States.
We believe that the accumulation of senescent cells and associated SASP are significant contributing factors in OA disease. A number of SASP factors are secreted by senescent cells into the tissue and synovial fluid surrounding an affected joint, including inflammatory cytokines, such as the interleukins IL-1ß and IL-6; matrix metallopeptidases, such as MMP-1, MMP-3 and -13; tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a); and prostanoids, such as prostaglandin E2. We believe these SASP factors lead to cartilage loss, inflammation of the synovial membrane, abnormalities to bone, degeneration of the joint cartilage, and pain.
Evidence for Cellular Senescence Burden in Human Disease and Human Biomarker Discovery
To evaluate the link between cellular senescence, SASP accumulation and OA disease, we conducted a non-interventional biomarker study in 30 patients with primary OA of the knee. The enrolled patients displayed a range of OA disease between grades 1 and 4 based on an X-ray scoring system called the Kellgren-Lawrence, or KL, grade, which is a common research tool used to classify grades of OA utilizing a classification range between 0, referring to no disease, and 4, referring to severe disease. During the study, patients underwent knee MRI imaging with contrast enhancement and arthroscopy, a fiber optic surgical device inserted into the knee joint, for biopsy of synovial membrane and non-weight bearing cartilage. They also provided blood and urine, and underwent pain scoring, as measured by the WOMAC-A sub-scale, a commonly used standardized questionnaire that includes questions about pain, to evaluate their OA disease status and its relationship to senescent cell burden.
Immunohistochemistry, or IHC, of the sampled tissue demonstrated p16-positive cells affecting a number of cell types within the synovial membrane (Figure 1). The degree of senescence was quantified in these samples by measuring the percentage of p16 positive cells relative to the total cell number in the specimen.
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Figure 1. Human biomarker study demonstrated presence of senescent cells (p16 positive, red arrow) in patients with osteoarthritis. Non-senescent cells are depicted by the green arrow.
Several significant findings were identified by assessing the relationship between the percent of p16-positive cells and other measures in this study. First, the extent of senescence was significantly correlated with the concentration of a well-established inflammatory marker associated with OA, namely IL-6 (Figure 2A). Second, the extent of senescence in the synovial membrane from each patient showed statistically significant correlation to the amount of pain each of those patients experienced at the start of the study, based on the WOMAC-A pain sub-scale (Figure 2B). Third, the extent of senescence in the synovial membrane, including examining specific individual areas within the knee, showed statistically significantly correlation with the MRI-based synovitis score that evaluates 11 different regions within the knee (Figure 2C). Finally, a relationship trend was identified when assessing the correlation between the extent of senescence and the grade of disease based on the KL grade. When evaluating the relationship in patients with mild to moderately severe disease (KL grades 1-3), this relationship was statistically significant (Figure 2D).
Figure 2A. Relationship between concentration of IL-6 and percent of p16 positive cells within the synovial membrane. Regression adjusted partial R, rank = 0.5888, p-value = 0.0137. The regression adjusted partial R is the correlation after adjustment for body mass index (BMI), age, and KL grade.
Figure 2B. Relationship between WOMAC-A Score and percent of p16 positive cells within the synovial membrane. Regression adjusted partial R, rank = 0.4554, p-value = 0.0147.
Figure 2C. Relationship between MRI synovitis score and percent of p16 positive cells within the synovial membrane; p-value overall = 0.0008; Score 0 vs 2, p = 0.0043; Score 1 vs 2, p = 0.0656.
Figure 2D. Relationship between KL grade and percent of p16 positive cells within the synovial membrane. Trend observed across all grades; across grades 1-3, p=0.005 in an unadjusted regression model.
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Mechanism of Action of UBX0101
Our drug candidate, UBX0101, is a small molecule inhibitor of the MDM2/p53 protein interaction. The tumor suppressor p53 is a transcription factor that regulates a broad set of genes that control cellular functions including cell cycle arrest, cell death (or apoptosis), and senescence. MDM2 is a protein-ubiquitin ligase that marks proteins for destruction. UBX0101 binds to MDM2, raising p53 levels and causing senescent cells to undergo apoptosis.
Preclinical Studies with UBX0101
We conducted in vitro experiments to study the potency of UBX0101 and its ability to eliminate senescent cells. In vitro studies demonstrate that UBX0101 is a potent inducer of p53 expression and senescent cell apoptosis (Figure 3). This confirmed that UBX0101 elevates p53 and eliminates senescent cells.
Figure 3. Induction of p53, p21, and caspase 3 activation by treatment with UBX0101 in senescent IMR90 cells.
In particular, treatment of irradiated human fetal lung fibroblasts, or IMR90 (Figure 4A), and irradiated human primary synovium fibroblasts, or SF (Figure 4B), exhibited a dose-dependent potent reduction of senescent cell survival.
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Figures 4A and 4B. Dose-dependent induction of apoptosis by UBX0101 (µM) in senescent IMR90 cells and senescent synovial fibroblast (SF) cells.
IMR90 cells have been the cell line used to study senescence biology for the past 30 years. They present a useful model to study senescence in vitro because they are normal cells without acquired mutations that could drive resistance to drug-induced apoptosis. We use IMR90 and synovial fibroblast cells as our primary screens and complement these two cell types with disease-relevant primary cell cultures to confirm that mechanisms of senescence translate to the relevant cell type.
We next studied the in vivo efficacy of UBX0101 in a mouse model of osteoarthritis. We used the mouse anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, transection model in which the ACL is transected in a surgical procedure after which the mouse is allowed to recover for 14 days. This model induces an aggressive form of OA characterized by inflammation, cartilage degeneration, and pain. We selected this model as it has demonstrated the accumulation of senescent cells. Intra-articular (IA) dosing of our clinical candidate, UBX0101, led to a dose-dependent reduction of senescent cells as measured by lowering the expression of p16 (Figure 5A) and a reduced expression of SASP factors, including IL-1ß (Figure 5B) and MMP13 (Figure 5C). These data further support our hypothesis that elimination of senescent cells with UBX0101 in this model leads to changes in accompanying SASP.
Figures 5A, 5B and 5C. IA dosing of UBX0101 reduces p16 expression (*p£0.05) and OA-relevant SASP factors, including IL-1ß and MMP13 expression levels in the ACLT murine model.
Attempts to replicate these findings in different animal models of OA have proven to be challenging, as it is difficult to mimic a disease like OA, which develops over a long period of time in humans, in short-term animal models. For example, a model of OA using the rat medial meniscal-tibial ligament, or MX, transection failed to produce significant senescence, while a recently conducted canine model of OA in which both the ACL and MX were transected produced significantly higher levels of senescence (roughly 10-fold higher than that of the mouse ACL model). In those studies, administration of UBX0101 did not appear to affect either senescence burden or SASP factors.
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We also conducted an ex vivo study in which cartilage from active OA lesions was obtained from human knees following total knee replacement surgery, placed in culture, and treated with UBX0101. The regions of high OA disease tissue burden correlated well with higher p16 and MMP13 biomarker levels, which we believe is a key indicator of cellular senescence-driven disease. When treated with UBX0101, the number of p16 positive cells and cells expressing MMP13 were greatly reduced. In addition, the expression of two key proteins, type 2 collagen and aggrecan, were significantly upregulated (Figure 6). These two proteins are among the most abundant components of cartilage. These data suggest that chondrocytes from patients with end-stage OA are capable of synthesizing cartilage once accumulated senescent cells are removed. As a result, we believe that intervening in vivo in humans could not only slow the progression of OA, but could also induce a reparative state in which more functional tissue is restored.
Figure 6. Treatment with UBX0101 leads to an increase in type 2 collagen (COL2A1) and aggrecan (ACAN) in explants of OA knee samples from total knee arthroplasty (n=4; *p£0.05)
In 2017, we completed a number of IND-enabling studies of UBX0101 to evaluate the potential local and systemic toxicity via single intra-articular and oral administration.
The potential for local toxicity was assessed in GLP-compliant studies after a single-dose intra-articular injection in both rabbits (doses of 0.1 , 0.3 and 0.6 mg/joint) and canines (doses of 0.1, 0.3 and 1.0 mg/joint). Findings from these rabbit and canine studies showed that a single intra-articular administration of UBX0101 was well tolerated at doses up to 0.6 mg/joint in the rabbit and 1 mg/joint in the canine, the highest doses tested in the GLP toxicity studies. UBX0101-related histopathological findings after a single intra-articular injection were limited to fibrinoid degeneration and mixed cell inflammation of the synovium in canines. Neither the degeneration nor the inflammation was considered adverse at any dose level due to the minimal severity of the changes. There was no evidence of systemic toxicity in the canines following intra-articular injection. Although histopathological findings were noted in earlier exploratory rabbit studies performed at high doses (up to 9 mg/joint), no UBX0101-related findings in the joint or evidence of systemic toxicity were noted in the 2017 GLP toxicity study conducted in rabbits.
The potential systemic toxicity was evaluated in GLP-compliant toxicity studies after a single oral administration in both rats (doses of 30, 300 and 600 mg/kg) and canines (doses of 30, 100 and 300 mg/kg). In these studies, the no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) was 300 mg/kg in rats and 100 mg/kg in canines. At doses of 100 mg/kg and above, adverse effects after oral dosing
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consisted of transient, reversible and monitorable clinical signs in canines (300 mg/kg), decrease in body weight in canines (100 and 300 mg/kg) and rats (600 mg/kg) and clinical pathology changes (decrease in hematopoietic populations and increase in hepatic parameters) in both canines (100 and 300 mg/kg) and rats (300 mg/kg and 600 mg/kg). At pathological examination, changes in hematopoietic organs were noted in both rats (600 mg/kg) and dogs (100 and 300 mg/kg) whereas non-adverse liver-related changes were observed in rats only (300 and 600 mg/kg). These effects were observed at systemic exposures that are greater than 800 fold the anticipated maximum exposure in patient after a single intra articular injection.
The potential genotoxicity of UBX0101 was evaluated in the following GLP studies: (i) a bacterial reverse mutation assay (in vitro) at concentrations up to 5000 µg/plate, (ii) a chromosome aberration assay (in vitro) at concentrations ranging from 0.25 µg/ml to 300 µg/ml, and (iii) a rat micronucleus assay (oral/once) at doses of 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/kg. In these studies, UBX0101 was non-mutagenic in bacterial species up to a concentration of 5000 ug/plate and it was weakly positive in vitro for inducing chromosomal aberrations, which is consistent with the pharmacological activity of UBX0101. It was negative for inducing polyploidy and endoreduplication in cultured human lymphocytes and negative in the in vivo rat micronucleus at oral doses up to 2000 mg/kg, the maximum recommended dose based on regulatory guidelines.
We also conducted the following safety pharmacology studies: (i) hERG channel in mammalian cells (in vitro) at concentrations of 1, 3, 10 and 30 µM, (ii) central nervous system in rat (oral/once) at doses of 30, 300 and 600 mg/kg, (iii) cardiovascular in canine (oral/once) at doses of 10, 30 and 100 mg/kg, and (iv) respiratory in rat at doses of 30, 300 and 600 mg/kg. These studies indicated that the risk for significant hERG inhibition in vivo is minimal. UBX0101 demonstrated a low potential for cardiovascular effects in canines (NOAEL of 30 mg/kg) and did not produce any effect on ventilatory function or neurobehavioral effects in rats at doses up to 30 mg/kg (the no-observed-effect-level, or NOEL) when given as a single oral administration.
The nonclinical exploratory and GLP studies have demonstrated that findings related to the proposed clinical intra-articular route of administration are generally non-adverse and likely to be reversible. There was no systemic toxicity noted after intra-articular injection in safety assessment studies at any dose level tested. Estimated UBX0101 knee concentrations at the NOAEL from the safety studies were 38-fold higher than the exposures required to achieve the EC50 concentration in the in vitro OA knee efficacy model. Based on the findings of our preclinical studies, we believe the safety pharmacology and toxicology studies support the evaluation of UBX0101 in the proposed Phase 1 clinical program.
UBX0101 Development Plan
Our IND application for UBX0101 was cleared by the FDA in April 2018, and we plan to initiate a Phase 1 clinical study in OA patients in the second quarter of 2018. The Phase 1 study is planned as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to investigate the safety and tolerability of single, ascending intra-articular doses of UBX0101. Additional secondary objectives of the study are to evaluate plasma pharmacokinetics, daily pain intensity using an 11-point numeric rating score of pain, WOMAC osteoarthritis scores derived from the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) instrument (a patient-reported outcome measurement index), and an 11-point synovitis score during contrast-enhanced MRI imaging from patients. We also plan to measure plasma and synovial fluid biomarkers to qualify biomarkers identified from the previously discussed biomarker study and to identify new biomarkers that can potentially measure the effect of UBX0101 on measures of senescence. At the conclusion of this study, we expect to have the option to use any of the supportive assessments of safety and tolerability along with positive signals of pharmacodynamics to support the expansion of selected cohorts to sufficiently power a proof-of-concept study. Additionally, we could explore higher doses if safety assessments were supportive and we could conduct a repeated dose study to optimize the dosing regime for future trials.
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As part of our ongoing commitment to our OA program, we have designed a number of follow-on senolytic molecules that include differing mechanisms of action and that target distinct molecular biological targets.
Ophthalmology Programs
Unmet Need and Therapeutic Rationale
The majority of significant eye diseases are age related, with the prevalence of vision-threatening disease increasing significantly over the age of 75. Of the 285 million individuals worldwide living with visual impairment, 65% are over the age of 50. The individual diseases that are associated with these figures include glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, and diabetic eye disease, all of which have a high prevalence and significant unmet need in either prevention or therapeutic options. The three diseases that we are evaluating as initial target indications for local administration of senolytic therapy in the eye are diabetic retinopathy, primary open angle glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration.
Diabetic Retinopathy
Diabetic retinopathy is estimated to affect over 90 million people globally and approximately 28 million have vision-threatening stages of disease. It is a leading cause of vision loss in middle-aged and elderly people and impacts 8% of the U.S. population over age 65. Due to the increasing diabetic population arising from lifestyle changes in developing countries, the disease incidence is predicted to climb.
Diabetic retinopathy is a complex multifactorial disease, characterized by progression through a series of stages of increasing severity. High glucose levels incite a variety of inflammatory and a number of metabolic stress-induced events leading to proliferation of abnormal blood vessels, or neovascularization, with subsequent bleeding and swelling causing visual loss. The risk of developing diabetic retinopathy and its severity increase with the duration of underlying diabetes. It is also associated with poor glycemic control and the presence of additional coexistent diseases, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, and impaired kidney function.
Current standard of care for diabetic retinopathy (blood sugar control, anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs, and laser therapy) is modestly effective. Limitations of existing therapy include general challenges with compliance in diabetes control, the need for frequent intravitreal, or in the eye, injections for the administration of anti-VEGF therapy, a significant percentage of patients not completing or being non-responsive to anti-VEGF therapy, and tissue destruction with permanent side effects from laser therapy. This presents a significant opportunity to design and develop a treatment paradigm that treats a root cause of the disease.
Evidence suggests that diabetic retinopathy is driven by the accumulation of senescent cells that are a direct result of elevated glucose levels in patients with diabetes. These senescent cells are triggered by local stresses in the retina and their accumulation drives the production of the accompanying ocular SASP factors, VEGF and PDGF. Overproduction of VEGF and IL6 leads to ocular inflammation and abnormal blood vessel growth, key signatures of the causes of diabetic retinopathy. Thus, a senolytic approach could target multiple aspects of the underlying causes of diabetic retinopathy and ideally lead to greater therapeutic coverage in a wider range of patients. By eliminating senescent cell accumulation and accompanying SASP factors, one could limit further disease progression, reduce vessel leakage and inflammation, and prevent vision loss.
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Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma
Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world, with an estimated 60 million cases worldwide. There are approximately 2.7 million people in the United States with glaucoma, with up to 50% of cases undetected as the result of the disease typically being asymptomatic until very late in the course of its progression. This number is projected to reach 6.3 million by 2050 and age is one of the strongest risk factors for the development of the disease. Prevalence in general increases with age, with 2.5% prevalence between the ages of 55 and 64, 5.7% between 65 and 74 and 10.3% over the age of 75.
Primary open-angle glaucoma, or POAG, is a degeneration of nerve cells in the retina characterized by a progressive loss of retinal nerve function. This occurs due to abnormalities in the outflow channels, which are referred to as the trabecular meshwork, or TM, of the front portion of the eye such that removal of aqueous humor, or AH fluid, no longer balances AH production. As a result, intra-ocular pressure, or IOP increases. Before vision loss becomes prominent, POAG is an asymptomatic disease making screening examinations critical for early detection. There are no available therapies that restore lost visual function. With advancing disease, more central vision is lost and, if left untreated, total blindness can occur. There are no curative therapies for glaucoma. Treatment is lifelong and aimed at slowing progression of disease. Even with maximal therapy a proportion of patients will continue to progress, highlighting the significant unmet need in glaucoma treatment.
Current POAG management primarily includes strategies to lower IOP by medical and/or surgical means in an attempt to slow disease progression. IOP is a modifiable risk factor in glaucoma and therefore a target for therapy, yet it is known that IOP is but one of many factors in the complex pathophysiology of POAG. Topical therapeutic options to reduce IOP include prostaglandin analogues, cholinergic agonists, and ß-blockers. The major challenge in topical therapy is non-adherence with regimens that require at least daily dosing and are associated with significant tolerability profiles. Adherence rates with topical regimens at one year following prescription were reported to be between 10% and 40%. Compounding this problem is a greater than 40% incidence rate of intolerability issues and that 40% of patients require more than one medication to control IOP to their individual target range. Surgical options to control IOP include laser therapy, surgery to open the outflow channels, and micro-incisional glaucoma surgery. Surgical interventions are associated with greater risks and are in general reserved for more advanced cases.
Thus, POAG remains a high unmet medical need with significant opportunity for a sustained and durable IOP lowering therapy. We believe that POAG is driven by the accumulation of senescent cells and secretion of the SASP in the TM as a result of cellular stress and injury leading to decreased outflow of AH. A reduction in cellularity leading to changes in TM architecture has been described in glaucoma and supports our belief that a senolytic could have prolonged effect on IOP lowering through the clearance of senescent cells and reduction in SASP.
Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in people over the age of 65 in the United States, where there are currently 2.1 million people with AMD. This number is projected to more than double by 2050, reaching 5.4 million. The prevalence of AMD increases significantly with advancing age, with a prevalence of 2.8% in those aged 65 to 74 years, increasing to 8.7% in those over 75 years. AMD affects central vision, impairing functions such as reading, driving, and facial recognition, and has a major impact on quality of life and the ability to live independently. AMD is defined in 3 stages: early, in which visual function is affected in the presence of signs of age-related changes in the retina such as drusen and pigmentary changes, intermediate,
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in which increasing degrees of macular lipid deposition and structural changes are noted, and late, in which central vision is severely compromised due to abnormal blood vessel growth (wet AMD) or advanced atrophy of the retina (dry AMD). It is a complex multifactorial disease, with inflammatory, degenerative, genetic, and vascular factors all contributing to its development and progression. The potential role of senescent cells and the associated SASP in driving the two main presentations of the disease, both wet and dry forms, could prove a unifying mechanism across this complex disorder.
Standard of care for AMD is limited to anti-VEGF therapy to control aspects of the wet form of the disease. Therapeutic options for the dry AMD have proven challenging with no currently approved therapies available to slow progression or reverse disease. Wet AMD has been significantly impacted by anti-VEGF therapy, but, as in diabetic eye disease, this therapeutic is limited by the need for frequent, long-term eye injections, a significant percentage of patients not completing or being non-responsive to anti-VEGF therapy, and the contribution of multiple other mechanisms at play in the disease beyond VEGF. Thus, there is considerable potential for a senolytic approach to impact disease progression and stabilization in AMD via modulation of senescent cell burden and accompanying SASP. SASP factors include molecules that promote abnormal blood vessel growth and inflammation, all of which have been implicated in various stages of AMD. It is our hypothesis that a senolytic medicine could have a meaningful and prolonged impact on the AMD disease state and help restore the cellular microenvironment toward a more normal pre-senescent state.
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Evidence for Senescence Burden in Human Disease and Human Biomarker Discovery: Diabetic Retinopathy
We have evaluated the link of senescence and SASP accumulation in proliferative diabetic retinopathy by measuring the senescent cell signature in diseased patient retina tissue. Nuclear staining revealed gross disorganization of the retina tissues layers with elevated and co-localized levels of p16. Analysis indicated the elevation of ocular SASP factors, Pai1 (Figure 7A), IL-8 (Figure 7B), IL-6 (Figure 7C), and VEGF-A (Figure 7D) in diabetic retinopathy tissue compared to healthy tissue samples. We believe this data is consistent with our hypothesis that senescent cell accumulation and SASP factors play a central role in diabetic retinopathy. We further investigated this hypothesis by evaluating one of our proprietary senolytic molecules in an animal model of diabetic retinopathy.
Figures 7A, 7B, 7C and 7D: Graph to show the elevation of ocular SASP factors, Pai1, IL-8, IL-6, and VEGF-A in diabetic retinopathy tissue samples compared to healthy tissue samples (**p<0.01, ***p<0.001; control (CT); progressive diabetic retinopathy (PDR)).
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Evidence for Cellular Senescence Burden in Human Disease and Human Biomarker Discovery: POAG
We also evaluated the presence of senescent cells in the trabecular meshwork (TM) by quantifying the detection of p16 positive cells in control TM versus TM from POAG patients. Analysis of data from more than 11 control and 15 POAG patients showed a significant increase in the number of p16 cells in TMs from POAG patients (Figure 8). We believe this data supports our hypothesis that senescent cell accumulation in the TM provides increased resistance to aqueous humor outflow resulting in increased IOP.
Figure 8. Increased presence of p16 positive cells in TM tissue from POAG patients.
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Evidence for Cellular Senescence Burden in Human Disease and Human Biomarker Discovery: AMD
We evaluated the presence of senescent cells in retinal donor tissue from normal and AMD subject samples by IHC staining for p16. An example of a normal subject is seen in Figure 9A, which shows the clear organization of the ganglion cell layer (GCL), inner nuclear layer (INL), outer nuclear layer (ONL), and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). An example of a subject with AMD is shown in Figure 9B, which shows the disruption of the cell layers associated with the disease pathology and p16 positive cells in the RPE. We believe this data supports our hypothesis that the accumulation of senescent cells is linked to AMD and is seen at the junction between normal retina and AMD affected retina.
Figure 9: Immunohistochemistry staining for p16 positive cells in diseased retinal tissue of a healthy adult and an older patient with diagnosed AMD. Senescent cells are present in AMD retinas and co-localize with disease histopathology.
Mechanism of Action of UBX1967 (Inhibitors of the Bcl-2 Family)
The most advanced senolytic drug candidate in our ophthalmology program, UBX1967, is a potent small molecule inhibitor of specific subtypes within the Bcl-2 family of regulator proteins. The B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) gene family encodes more than 20 proteins that regulate the intrinsic apoptosis pathway, and are fundamental to the balance between cell survival and death. Inhibition of certain Bcl-2 family proteins results in cell death. Targeting this pathway has been extensively studied in connection with the search for new oncology medicines.
UBX1967 is currently being evaluated in non-GLP toxicity studies by both intracameral and intravitreal administration. The purpose of the study is to evaluate ocular pharmacokinetics and tolerability. Existing preliminary data supports further advancement of UBX1967 into GLP IND-enabling
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ocular toxicology studies. Preliminary results from this study support continued development of UBX1967, and we plan to submit our IND application and commence a clinical study in patients in an ocular indication in the second half of 2019.
In vitro and in vivo Pharmacology Studies with UBX1967
We next conducted an in vitro assessment of binding and efficacy to determine the potency of senolytic molecules for the Bcl-2 family protein targets and their potency at eliminating senescent cells. Biochemical assays for Bcl-2, Bcl-XL, and Bcl-W yielded binding affinities in the sub-nM range. In order to assess the activity of UBX1967 on senescent cells, we used a cell-based assay with radiation-induced senescence. Senescent cells were then exposed to increasing concentrations of UBX1967 for 72 hours. In this study, UBX1967 showed potent dose-dependent senolytic activity against IMR90 (Figure 10A), RPE (Figure 10B), and human retinal microvascular endothenial cell, or HRMEC (Figure 10C), cell lines as measured by reduction of senescent cell survival.
Figures 10A, 10B, and 10C. Dose-dependent Induction of apoptosis by UBX1967 (µM) in senescent IMR90 cells, RPE cells, and HRMEC cells.
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We next studied the efficacy of UBX1967 in the eye in an in vivo model. We employed the mouse oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) disease model, which provides an in vivo model of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and diabetic retinopathy. In this model, UBX1967 showed statistically significant improvement in the degree of neovascularization at all dose levels (Figure 11). Based on these results, we believe a single ocular injection of UBX1967 can functionally inhibit pathogenic angiogenesis and promote vascular repair in this key OIR disease model. We believe that efficacy of UBX1967 in the OIR model is due to elimination of senescent cells and accompanying SASP that propagates senescence in retinal cells and promotes neovascularization of retinal vessels.
Figure 11. A single administration of UBX1967 reverses neovascularization in the OIR model at all dose levels.
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We then studied the in vivo efficacy of UBX1967 in a mouse model of elevated intraocular pressure (IOP). An experimental increase in IOP was induced in one eye of a mouse cohort by injection of bleomycin, a DNA damage agent known to cause fibrosis. Within the study design, the left eye (OS) of a single animal was used as a vehicle control (no insult and no treatment) while the right eye (OD) was subjected to insult and treatment with UBX1967. During the study we measured the level of p16 expression (Figure 12A) and intraocular pressure (Figure 12B). Bleomycin induced a significant increase in p16 transcript levels leading to increased measureable IOP relative to the control OS eye. Intervention with UBX1967 normalized p16 transcript and IOP to levels that were non-significant from the OS eye (illustrated in Figure 12B). This study demonstrated that UBX1967 eliminated senescent cells and reduced IOP in this mouse model of efficacy.
Figures 12A and 12B. UBX1967 reverses both bleomycin-induced p16 expression (p<0.01 v. uninjected (OS) control; one-tailed t-test) and intraocular pressure (p<0.01 v. uninjected (OS) control; one tailed t-test).
UBX1967 is currently being evaluated in non-GLP toxicity studies by both intracameral and intravitreal administration. The purpose of the studies is to evaluate ocular pharmacokinetics and tolerability. Preliminary data supports further advancement of UBX1967 into GLP IND-enabling ocular toxicology studies.
Ophthalmology Development Plan
We plan to submit our IND application and commence a Phase 1 clinical study of UBX1967 for an ophthalmologic indication in the second half of 2019. We are currently evaluating whether this initial Phase 1 clinical study would be focused on diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, or AMD. In diabetic retinopathy, a Phase 1 clinical study would investigate treatment naïve patients as well those on a background of anti-VEGF standard of care. Primary endpoints are expected to include local ocular and systemic safety and tolerability. Secondary endpoints under consideration include functional outcomes such as best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and structural outcomes such as retinal thickness and fluid on optical coherence tomography (OCT).
In glaucoma, a Phase 1 study would be expected to primarily assess the safety and tolerability of a single intracameral dose of the senolytic molecule drug candidate. Secondary measures could include the effect on IOP at selected time points throughout the study. Patients could be followed for an extended period of time to assess durability on IOP as measured by the time-to-need for additional IOP lowering agents. In AMD, we will start investigating patients on background anti-VEGF treatment. Like the diabetic retinopathy program, the primary objective of the study is to assess the safety and tolerability of intravitreal administered senolytic molecule. Also, as in diabetic retinopathy, secondary endpoints could include functional outcomes such as BCVA and structural outcomes such as retinal thickness and fluid on OCT.
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As part of our continued commitment to our ophthalmology indications, we have also designed a number of alternative senolytic molecules with differing mechanisms of action. We are also focused on the physiochemical properties of our small molecules and are developing approaches to optimize solubility, permeability, and pharmacokinetic parameters to manage ocular absorption, distribution, metabolism, and organ residency duration.
Pulmonary Programs
Unmet Need and Therapeutic Rationale
Data from the World Health Organization from 2015 shows that respiratory diseases make up three of the top five causes of death worldwide, several of which are prevalent in the elderly. In addition, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the US National Institutes of Health published a white paper in 2017 highlighting the association of age with lung disease, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF, and COPD, and underscoring the potential for understanding and developing therapeutics related to aging biology.
Historically, therapies for these diseases have been non-specific in their mode of action, whether anti-inflammatory (e.g., corticosteroids) or immunosuppressive (e.g., cyclophosphamide) or purely supportive in nature (e.g., supplemental oxygen). Increasingly, new therapies have been developed that are more targeted to specific pathogenic factors, such as anti-IL-5 antibody (mepolizumab) in COPD and tyrosine kinase inhibitor (nintedanib) in IPF. In contrast, the goal of senolytics is not just to interrupt specific pathogenic pathways but specifically to target senescent cells and inhibit multiple pathogenic pathways.
We initiated an active discovery and development program in IPF based on a series of observations. These observations include the aggressive nature of the disease and the data suggesting a potentially strong association between IPF and senescence.
IPF is a severely debilitating fibrotic disease of the lung that primarily affects older adults and often leads to a progressive worsening of lung function, eventually leading to respiratory failure or lung transplantation. Increasing organ fibrosis causes a restriction of ventilation that symptomatically is perceived as a constant state of suffocation. While the course of the disease is variable, the prognosis is uniformly poor with a median survival of about three to four years after diagnosis. In the United States, it is estimated to affect up to 90,000 people, with approximately 40,000 people dying each year. While the overall prevalence is not high, it increases substantially in people over the age of 65. The hypoxemia resulting from IPF ultimately necessitates the use of supplemental oxygen. Supplemental oxygen relieves dyspnea and improves functional status, and may play a role in ameliorating associated comorbidities such as secondary pulmonary hypertension. However, the use of supplemental oxygen requires equipment for administration that can place significant burden on patients, limiting their mobility and profoundly reducing quality of life.
Beyond the use of oxygen, there are two marketed products available for the treatment of IPF, nintedanib and pirfenidone, that are recommended by the American Thoracic Society. In clinical studies, these anti-fibrotic agents slowed the rate of decline in lung function over 52 weeks but did not show a significant effect on survival or disease exacerbations. IPF remains a fatal disease with the need for additional effective therapies that treat the underlying lung fibrosis to improve quality of life and survival.
Resident cell types within the lung, including epithelial cells and macrophages, have been shown to become senescent. Accumulation of these senescent cells followed by SASP secretion may drive IPF disease exacerbation and progression. In the case of senescent lung cells, we propose that the
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SASP is enriched with pro-fibrotic factors such as connective tissue growth factors CTGF and TGF-b. We believe that excessive and prolonged exposure to these factors leads to remodeling of the lung, expansion of lung matrix, and fibrosis, all of which deteriorate function and ultimately result in death. Furthermore, these factors may also play a role in suppressing the endogenous capacity of the lung to demonstrate regenerative capacity that has been shown in patients post-removal of lung tissue as well as during recuperation of those patients who survive Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, an injury that severely damages the lung.
Evidence for Cellular Senescence Burden in Human Disease and Human Biomarker Discovery
Our exploratory work in IPF resulted in the identification of senescent cells associated with areas of active disease in lung tissue taken from patients with IPF. Immunohistochemistry staining for p16 in human IPF lung tissue demonstrated the presence of senescent cells as shown below. These cells were predominantly epithelial in origin and located in areas of fibrosis and at the leading edge of the disease. These sites are likely amendable to access by inhalation therapeutics.
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Importantly, the number of p16 positive cells was greater across all levels of fibrosis (Figure 13) relative to that of normal tissue. Additionally, there was a strong relationship between the extent of disease in a given area and the percentage of senescent cells present in those areas. At its peak, approximately 30% of the total cellularity in an affected region is comprised of senescent cells. These data support the hypothesis that elimination of senescent cells and its associated SASP could halt progressive fibrosis and potentially allow for restoration of pulmonary function. This further supports our hypothesis that IPF is related to SASP proliferation and suggests that treatment with senolytic molecules has the potential to treat the root cause of disease. We further studied our hypothesis regarding cellular senescence accumulation and their accompanying SASP by investigating the cellular senescence signature in a key animal model of lung fibrosis.
Figure 13. Increased presence of p16 positive cells in human lung tissue with significant fibrotic area indicative of a significant role in disease progression (****p<0.0001 for group difference among means by one-way ANOVA).
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Preclinical Disease Model of Lung Fibrosis
Preclinical studies were conducted to understand the involvement of senescent cells in preclinical models of lung fibrosis. Results from the bleomycin model of lung fibrosis in the mouse were most compelling. Evaluation of p16 in the intra-tracheal bleomycin model of lung fibrosis showed an increase in senescent cell levels (Figure 14A) and the degree of fibrosis, as judged by the well-established hydroxproline biomarker of fibrosis (Figure 14B). IHC staining data from this study also showed increasing levels of type 1 and 2 collagens indicative of new areas of fibrotic tissue growth. We conclude that senescent cells drive the lung fibrosis in this mouse model.
Figures 14A and 14B. Induction of p16 expression and fibrosis in murine lungs by bleomycin (Bleo) intratracheal instillation (*p<0.05 and **p<0.001 using Welchs t-test between vehicle and Bleo).
We next evaluated if eliminating senescent cells reduced fibrosis in this mouse model utilizing a p16-3MR transgenic mouse model. The p16-3MR mouse is a transgenic mouse model designed to detect and eliminate senescent cells through the administration of ganciclovir (GCV). The data from this transgenic mouse model of the elimination of p16 positive cells shows a trend towards the reduction of both senescent cell presence (Figure 15A) and hydroxproline tissue content (Figure 15B). The early preclinical and human disease tissue evidence suggests that administration of senolytic molecules has the potential to treat the root cause of cellular senescence-driven lung fibrosis diseases.
Figures 15A and 15B. Elimination of p16 positive cells fibrosis (*p<0.05 using Welchs t-test between Belo/phosphate buffered saline (PBS) V Bleo/GCV) using ganciclovir in the 3MR genetically engineered mouse model reduces fibrosis (*p<0.05 using unpaired t-test between Belo/PBS V Bleo/GCV).
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Development Plan in Pulmonary Diseases
We plan to submit an IND application to support a Phase 1 clinical study of a senolytic molecule administered by the inhaled route in pulmonary indications. While IPF is currently our lead indication, we are also pursuing inhaled administration opportunities in other lung diseases, such as systemic sclerosis with pulmonary manifestations and hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and in obstructive diseases such as COPD.
Our integrated pulmonary development plan will utilize patient safety data and pharmacological dose responses from the initial clinical study to accelerate the design of next-generation clinical studies in other pulmonary diseases. The Phase 1 program in any of these diseases would closely parallel our work in IPF and would take advantage of any learnings regarding pharmacokinetics following inhaled administration as well as biomarker and imaging responses. This approach should allow us to lay more groundwork for a broader range of pulmonary diseases once we demonstrate the safety, tolerability, and pharmacodynamics of inhaled senolytic administration.
Research and Discovery Other Anti-Aging Programs
We have secured our lead position in the discovery and development of senolytic medicines through our commitment to fundamental biological research and translational science. We have partnered with key academics and thought leaders to pursue areas of emerging aging science. We continue to recruit top tier scientists with the desire and drive to understand, uncover, and invent. We invest a significant proportion of our resources and effort in emerging fields of aging science in order to transition fundamental scientific observations to the design and development of new therapeutics. We believe that we have built the internal research capabilities and scientific network to continue to be at the forefront of extending human healthspan.
Strategy for Systemically Administered Senolytic Medicines
In addition to our discovery and development of locally administered senolytic medicines for the treatment of local disease, we are similarly investigating the systemic administration of senolytic medicines for the treatment of senescent cell-driven disease within specific organs, tissues, and cell types.
Our first approach to systemic administration is to create a senolytic medicine that is designed to target a specific organ or even specific tissue within that organ. Such a senolytic medicine would selectively eliminate senescent cells within a tissue and reduce the SASP within that tissue. By considering therapeutic areas with unmet need and where there is strong evidence for the role of senescent cells driving disease, we have evaluated both hepatic and renal disease.
Our long-term goal is to use the principles that we establish for the design of systemically administered, targeted senolytic medicines to produce clinical candidates to eliminate senescent cells throughout the body. This could draw on ideas from immunology, senolytic viruses, vaccines, CAR-T type approaches or antibody drug conjugates.
Circulating Youth Factors (Klotho Protein)
We are also evaluating the administration of circulating youth factors in age-associated diseases. Our lead discovery effort in circulating youth factors is focused on the a-Klotho protein. First discovered in 1997, the klotho gene was identified in mice as an aging-suppressor that accelerates aging when disrupted and extends lifespan when overexpressed. The a-Klotho protein is a circulating hormone primarily produced in the kidneys and choroid plexus of the brain and was recently
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discovered to delay and suppress the deleterious effects of aging on multiple organs, including the brain. Circulating levels of a-Klotho protein gradually decline with age, chronic stress, cognitive impairment, and neurodegenerative disease.
A small percentage of the population possesses naturally elevated a-Klotho levels as a result of the a-Klotho-VS heterozygous genetic variation. a-Klotho-VS heterozygosity is associated with extended healthspan, enhanced cognition, and less age-associated cognitive decline. Elevated a-Klotho levels are also associated with greater dorsolateral prefrontal cortex volume and improved connectivity between cortical regions, which in turn correlates with better executive function in normal aging humans. As this brain region is especially susceptible to shrinkage with age and vulnerable in several psychiatric and neurological disorders, its protection may provide clinical benefit in both normal aging and disease.
In 2014, Dena Dubal, of the University of California, San Francisco, and one of our scientific collaborators, first demonstrated that genetically elevated a-Klotho levels significantly enhance cognitive performance and neural resilience independent of age in normal and human amyloid precursor protein mouse models of neurodegenerative disease related to Alzheimers Disease. a-Klotho is hypothesized to optimize synaptic neurotransmission of NMDA receptors in the brain, effectively combatting the cognitive and synaptic deficits, despite high levels of pathogenic Ab, tau, and phosphorylated tau proteins associated with Alzheimers Disease.
We are exploring the utility of a-Klotho protein in a variety of preclinical animal models, with the intent of identifying a drug candidate.
Reversing Age-Associated Loss of Mitochondrial Function
Mitochondria are the power plants of eukaryotic cells, providing over 90% of the energy required for life. With the exception of one recently identified organism, mitochondria are essential for all eukaryotic life. Mitochondria enable the flow of electrons from the high energy carbon-to-carbon bonds found in energy-rich food molecules (such as glucose) to molecular oxygen. This downhill flow of potential energy from carbon-to-carbon bonds to molecular oxygen provides over 90% of energy used by eukaryotic cells to drive life.
While the mitochondrial genome is small, mutations in it accumulate as we age and have profound effects. Because such mutations result in the diminished production of functional mitochondrial proteins, mitochondria from older organisms produce less energy than mitochondria from younger organisms. Mitochondrial mutations contribute to diseases such as cardiomyopathy, myopathy, dementia, optic atrophy, infertility, fibrosis, Parkinsons Disease, Alzheimers disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntingtons disease, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. We are in the early stages of developing a technology to reverse age-associated declines in mitochondrial function.
Manufacturing
Our success as a company will depend on our ability to deliver reliable, high-quality preclinical and clinical drug supply. As we mature as a company and approach commercial stage operations, securing reliable high-quality commercial drug supply will be critical. We do not currently own or operate facilities for product manufacturing, storage and distribution, or testing. We contract with third parties for the manufacture of our drug candidates. Because we rely on contract manufacturers, we employ personnel with extensive technical, manufacturing, analytical, and quality experience. Our staff has strong project management discipline to oversee contract manufacturing and testing activities, and to compile manufacturing and quality information for our regulatory submissions.
Manufacturing is subject to extensive regulation that imposes various procedural and documentation requirements and that governs record keeping, manufacturing processes and controls,
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personnel, quality control and quality assurance, and more. Our systems and our contractors are required to be in compliance with these regulations, and compliance is assessed regularly through monitoring of performance and a formal audit program.
Our current supply chains for our lead drug candidates involve several manufacturers that specialize in specific operations of the manufacturing process, specifically, raw materials manufacturing, drug substance manufacturing, and drug product manufacturing. We currently operate under purchase order programs for our drug candidates with Material Service Agreements in place, and we intend to establish long-term supply agreements in the future. We believe our current manufacturers have the scale, the systems, and the experience to supply all planned clinical studies.
We do not currently require commercial manufacturing capabilities. Should our needs change, we will likely need to scale up our manufacturing processes to enable commercial launch. To ensure continuity in our supply chain, we plan to establish supply arrangements with alternative larger scale suppliers for certain portions of our supply chain, as appropriate.
Commercialization Plan
We do not currently, nor do we expect to have in the near term, any FDA-approved drugs in our portfolio. Therefore, we have not yet built an infrastructure for sales, marketing, or commercial distribution.
Should any of our drug candidates be approved for commercialization, we intend to develop a plan to commercialize them in the United States and other key markets, through an internal infrastructure or an external partnership.
Competition
The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including the field of research in aging, are typically rife with rapid technological developments, bold competition, and dependence on intellectual property. Like any biotechnology company, we face competition from multiple sources, including large or established pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and wellness companies, academic research institutions, government agencies, and private institutions. We believe our drug candidates will prevail amid the competitive landscape through their efficacy, safety, administration methods, cost, public and institutional demand, intellectual property portfolio, and treatment of the root cause of many age-associated diseases.
We are aware of other companies seeking to develop treatments to prevent or treat aging-associated diseases through various biological pathways, including Calico and resTORbio. Calico has not yet disclosed any pipeline candidates or mechanisms of interest, and resTORbio is developing candidates targeting TORC1. Hence, we believe that we currently have the most advanced program addressing cellular senescence.
Our drug candidates are likely to compete against current therapies from a wide range of companies and technologies, including therapies for our lead indications:
| Musculoskeletal diseases, including osteoarthritis: current standard of care treatments (though not disease-modifying and focused on symptom management) include anti-inflammatory drugs (Ibruprofen, Diclofenac, Celecoxib), analgesic pain relief (Acetaminophen), or narcotic pain relief (Tramadol). |
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| Ophthalmology diseases, including diabetic retinopathy: potentially disease-modifying therapeutics are being sold and developed by several pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Roche/Genentech and Regeneron. |
| Pulmonary disease, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: therapeutics are being sold and developed by several pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and academic institutions, including Genentech, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Cytokinetics and Mallinckrodt, and are in various stages of clinical studies. |
Many of our competitors, either alone or with strategic partners, have substantially greater financial, technical, and human resources than we do. Accordingly, our competitors may be more successful in obtaining approval for treatments and achieving widespread market acceptance, rendering our treatments obsolete or non-competitive. Accelerated merger and acquisition activity in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries may result in even more resources concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. These companies also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, establishing clinical study sites, patient registration for clinical studies, and acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. Our commercial opportunity could be substantially limited in the event that our competitors develop and commercialize products that are more effective, safer, more tolerable, more convenient, or less expensive than our comparable products. In geographies that are critical to our commercial success, competitors may also obtain regulatory approvals before us, resulting in our competitors building a strong market position in advance of our products entry. We believe the factors determining the success of our programs will be the efficacy, safety, and convenience of our drug candidates.
Intellectual Property
Our success depends in large part upon our ability to obtain and maintain proprietary protection for our products and technologies and to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of others. Our policy is to protect our proprietary position by, among other methods, filing U.S. and foreign patent applications that relate to our proprietary technologies, inventions and improvements that are important to the development and implementation of our business. We also rely on trademarks, trade secrets, know-how, continuing technological innovation and licensing opportunities to develop and maintain our proprietary position.
Patent Portfolio
Our patent portfolio consists of a combination of issued and allowed patents and pending patent applications that are owned or co-owned by us and/or licensed to us from third parties. The majority of these patents and applications cover our cellular senescence program, and others pertain to our programs that target aging mechanisms beyond cellular senescence, including the administration of circulating youth factors and enhancement of mitochondrial health. As of April 2018, we owned, co-own, or have an exclusive license in certain fields of use to over 80 patents and pending applications in the United States and foreign jurisdictions. This portfolio includes five issued U.S. patents, over 30 pending U.S. applications (including 14 provisional applications), and over 30 granted or pending applications in foreign jurisdictions.
Our cellular senescence patent portfolio includes patents and patent applications that are directed to our senolytic agents and programs, including our lead molecules UBX0101 and UBX1967, related molecules, and other compounds. We also have an option to take an exclusive license to the issued patents and patent applications covering the composition of matter of UBX1967, as well as other Bcl-2 inhibitor compounds under our compound library and option agreement with Ascentage. Our cellular
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senescence patent portfolio includes patents and patent applications directed to compositions of matter, use for treating age-related conditions, and methods of manufacture.
Our patent portfolio, including patents and applications that we have exclusively optioned, as well as those we own, co-own or have exclusively licensed, directed to our programs that target aging mechanisms beyond cellular senescence, including the administration of circulating youth factors and enhancement of mitochondrial health, includes five pending U.S. patent applications and six pending patent applications in foreign jurisdictions.
In general, patents have a term of 20 years from the earliest claimed non-provisional priority date. Several of our issued U.S. and foreign patents that relate to UBX0101 and UBX1967 are scheduled to expire between approximately 2032 and 2035. The patent term may be extendible by up to five years in certain countries by means of patent term extension, depending on the regulatory pathway and the remaining term upon marketing approval. Certain other patents and patent applications directed to our cellular senescence patent portfolio, if they were to issue, may have later expiration dates.
Osteoarthritis Program
We co-own two patent families directed to the treatment of senescence-related diseases, including osteoarthritis, by removal of senescent cells in or around the site of the disease. The other co-owners of this patent family are the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, the Johns Hopkins University, and Mayo Clinic, each of which has granted us an exclusive license which extends to the treatment of senescence-related diseases in therapeutic areas. This patent family includes two issued U.S. patents directed toward the use of UBX0101 for the treatment of osteoarthritis. One of these issued U.S. patents covers a unit dose of a pharmaceutical composition as a composition of matter, and the other covers a method of treatment. Applications are also pending in the following 14 foreign jurisdictions: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, and South Africa. Patents that issue from this family are expected to expire in 2035, excluding any patent term adjustments or extensions.
We also own a patent family directed to a scalable method of chiral synthesis of UBX0101, which includes one pending U.S. patent application and one international application filed under the patent cooperation treaty, or PCT. Future U.S. and foreign patents issued from this family are expected to expire in 2037, excluding any patent term adjustments and patent term extensions.
We additionally own six composition of matter patent applications directed to alternative drug candidates for osteoarthritis, including five pending provisional U.S. applications (which also cover aspects of our ophthalmology and pulmonary programs) and one pending international application.
Ophthalmology Program
We have an exclusive option to enter a license with Ascentage Pharma Group Corp. Ltd., or Ascentage, to a family of issued composition of matter patents and pending composition of matter applications directed to chemical entities including our lead drug candidate, UBX1967. Our license would be exclusive in all fields outside of oncology. Patents in this family have been granted in the U.S., Korea, New Zealand, and South Africa, and are pending in Australia, Canada, China, Europe, India, Japan, and Singapore. Future U.S. and foreign patents issued from this family are expected to expire in 2032, excluding any patent term adjustments or extensions.
We co-own two families of pending patent applications directed to the use of Bcl-2 inhibitors, including UBX1967 and related chemical entities for the treatment of eye disease, including diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, and glaucoma (which also cover aspects of our
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osteoarthritis and pulmonary programs). One of these patent families is co-owned by the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and us. The patents within the other family that are relevant for opthamology indications are co-owned by the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, the Mayo Clinic and us. We have exclusive licenses from each of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and the Mayo Clinic to these patent families in the field of senescence. Applications in both of these families are pending in the U.S., Australia, Canada, China, Europe, and Japan. Future U.S. and foreign patents issued from these families are expected to expire in 2035 and 2036, excluding any patent term adjustments and patent term extensions.
We also own composition of matter patent applications directed to alternative drug candidates for the treatment of eye disease, including five pending provisional applications (which also cover aspects of our osteoarthritis and pulmonary programs).
Pulmonary Program
We are currently testing a number of drug candidates for the treatment of pulmonary disease. Several of these compounds are covered as compositions of matter by the issued patents and pending applications that are included in the patent family we have exclusively optioned from Ascentage.
We also co-own two families of pending patent applications directed to the use of these compounds and other Bcl-2 inhibitors for the treatment of pulmonary disease, including IPF and COPD (which also cover aspects of our osteoarthritis and ophthalmology programs). One of these patent families is co-owned by the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and us. The patents within the other family that are relevant for pulmonary indications are co-owned by the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, the Mayo Clinic and us. We have exclusive licenses from each of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and the Mayo Clinic to these patent families in the field of senescence. Patent applications in both these families are pending in the U.S., Australia, Canada, China, Europe, and Japan. Future U.S. and foreign patents issued from these families are expected to expire in 2035 and 2036, excluding any patent term adjustments and patent term extensions.
We additionally own composition of matter patent applications directed to the use of alternative drug candidates for the treatment of lung disease, including five pending provisional applications (which also cover aspects of our osteoarthritis and ophthalmology programs). Future U.S. and foreign patents issued from this family are expected to expire in 2038, excluding any patent term adjustments and patent term extensions.
Other Anti-Aging Programs
We have an option to enter into an exclusive license with The Regents of the University of California for a patent family directed to methods of treatment and the use of klotho protein for the development of human therapeutics. Patent applications in this family are pending in the U.S. and six foreign jurisdictions. Future U.S. and foreign patents issued from this family are expected to expire in 2036, excluding any patent term adjustments and patent term extensions.
We also own three provisional patents and co-own with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging one provisional patents directed toward the enhancement of mitochondrial health.
Other Intellectual Property
Our continuing research and development, technical know-how, and contractual arrangements supplement our intellectual property protection to maintain our competitive position. Our policy is to require inventors who are identified on any Company-owned patent applications to assign rights to us.
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We also have confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, and other advisors to protect our proprietary information. Our policy is to require third parties that receive material confidential information to enter into confidentiality agreements with us.
We also protect our brand through procurement of trademark rights. As of March 1, 2018, the mark UNITY BIOTECHNOLOGY® is registered in both the United States and the European Union. In order to supplement protection of our brand, we have also registered several internet domain names.
Government Regulation
Government authorities in the United States (including federal, state and local authorities) and in other countries, extensively regulate, among other things, the manufacturing, research and clinical development, marketing, labeling and packaging, storage, distribution, post-approval monitoring and reporting, advertising and promotion, pricing, and export and import of pharmaceutical products, such as those we are developing. The process of obtaining regulatory approvals and the subsequent compliance with appropriate federal, state, local and foreign statutes and regulations require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources.
U.S. Government Regulation
In the United States, the FDA regulates drugs under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or FDCA, and its implementing regulations, and biologics under the FDCA and the Public Health Service Act, or PHSA, and its implementing regulations. FDA approval is required before any new unapproved drug or dosage form, including a new use of a previously approved drug, can be marketed in the United States. Drugs and biologics are also subject to other federal, state and local statutes and regulations. If we fail to comply with applicable FDA or other requirements at any time during the drug development process, clinical testing, the approval process or after approval, we may become subject to administrative or judicial sanctions. These sanctions could include the FDAs refusal to approve pending applications, license suspension or revocation, withdrawal of an approval, warning letters, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions, fines, civil penalties or criminal prosecution.
The process required by the FDA before drug candidates may be marketed in the United States generally involves the following:
| completion of extensive preclinical laboratory tests and preclinical animal studies, all performed in accordance with the Good Laboratory Practices, or GLP, regulations; |
| submission to the FDA of an IND, which must become effective before human clinical studies may begin; |
| approval by an independent IRB or ethics committee representing each clinical site before each clinical study may be initiated; |
| performance of adequate and well-controlled human clinical studies to establish the safety and efficacy, or in the case of a biologic, the safety, purity and potency, of the drug candidate for each proposed indication; |
| preparation of and submission to the FDA of a new drug application, or NDA, or biologics license application, or BLA, after completion of all pivotal clinical studies; |
| review of the product application by an FDA advisory committee, where appropriate and if applicable; |
| a determination by the FDA within 60 days of its receipt of an NDA or BLA to file the application for review; |
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| satisfactory completion of an FDA pre-approval inspection of the manufacturing facilities where the drug candidate is produced to assess compliance with current Good Manufacturing Practices, or cGMP; and |
| FDA review and approval of an NDA or BLA prior to any commercial marketing or sale of the drug or biologic in the United States. |
An IND is a request for authorization from the FDA to administer an investigational new drug product to humans. The central focus of an IND submission is on the general investigational plan and the protocol(s) for human studies. The IND also includes results of animal and in vitro studies assessing the toxicology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology and pharmacodynamic characteristics of the product; chemistry, manufacturing and controls information; and any available human data or literature to support the use of the investigational new drug. An IND must become effective before human clinical studies may begin. An IND will automatically become effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA, unless before that time the FDA raises concerns or questions related to the proposed clinical studies. In such a case, the IND may be placed on clinical hold and the IND sponsor and the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns or questions before clinical studies can begin. Accordingly, submission of an IND may or may not result in the FDA allowing clinical studies to commence.
Clinical Studies
Clinical studies involve the administration of the investigational new drug to human subjects under the supervision of qualified investigators in accordance with Good Clinical Practice regulations, or GCPs, which include the requirement that all research subjects provide their informed consent for their participation in any clinical study. Clinical studies are conducted under protocols detailing, among other things, the objectives of the study, the parameters to be used in monitoring safety and the efficacy criteria to be evaluated. A protocol for each clinical study and any subsequent protocol amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND. Additionally, approval must also be obtained from each clinical study sites IRB before the studies may be initiated, and the IRB must monitor the study until completed. There are also requirements governing the reporting of ongoing clinical studies and clinical study results to public registries.
The clinical investigation of a drug or biologic is generally divided into three or four phases. Although the phases are usually conducted sequentially, they may overlap or be combined.
| Phase 1. The drug or biologic is initially introduced into healthy human subjects or patients with the target disease or condition. These studies are designed to evaluate the safety, dosage tolerance, metabolism and pharmacologic actions of the investigational new drug in humans, the side effects associated with increasing doses, and if possible, to gain early evidence on effectiveness. |
| Phase 2. The drug or biologic is administered to a limited patient population to evaluate dosage tolerance and optimal dosage, identify possible adverse side effects and safety risks and preliminarily evaluate efficacy. |
| Phase 3. The drug or biologic is administered to an expanded patient population, generally at geographically dispersed clinical study sites to generate enough data to statistically evaluate dosage, clinical effectiveness and safety, to establish the overall benefit-risk relationship of the investigational product and to provide an adequate basis for product approval. |
| Phase 4. In some cases, the FDA may condition approval of an NDA or BLA for a drug candidate on the sponsors agreement to conduct additional clinical studies after approval. In other cases, a sponsor may voluntarily conduct additional clinical studies after approval to gain more information about the drug. Such post-approval studies are typically referred to as Phase 4 clinical studies. |
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A pivotal study is a clinical study that adequately meets regulatory agency requirements for the evaluation of a drug candidates efficacy and safety such that it can be used to justify the approval of the product. Generally, pivotal studies are Phase 3 studies, but the FDA may accept results from Phase 2 studies if the study design provides a well-controlled and reliable assessment of clinical benefit, particularly in situations where there is an unmet medical need and the results are sufficiently robust.
The FDA, the IRB or the clinical study sponsor may suspend or terminate a clinical study at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the research subjects are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk. Additionally, some clinical studies are overseen by an independent group of qualified experts organized by the clinical study sponsor, known as a data safety monitoring board or committee. This group provides authorization for whether or not a study may move forward at designated check points based on access to certain data from the study. We may also suspend or terminate a clinical study based on evolving business objectives and/or competitive climate.
Submission of an NDA or BLA to the FDA
Assuming successful completion of all required testing in accordance with all applicable regulatory requirements, detailed investigational new drug product information is submitted to the FDA in the form of an NDA or BLA requesting approval to market the product for one or more indications. Under federal law, the submission of most NDAs and BLAs is subject to a substantial application user fee. Applications for orphan drug products are exempted from the NDA and BLA application user fees.
An NDA or BLA must include all relevant data available from pertinent preclinical and clinical studies, including negative or ambiguous results as well as positive findings, together with detailed information relating to the products chemistry, manufacturing, controls and proposed labeling, among other things. Data can come from company-sponsored clinical studies intended to test the safety and effectiveness of a use of a product, or from a number of alternative sources, including studies initiated by investigators. To support marketing approval, the data submitted must be sufficient in quality and quantity to establish the safety and effectiveness of the investigational product to the satisfaction of the FDA.
Once an NDA or BLA has been submitted, the FDAs goal is to review the application within ten months after it accepts the application for filing, or, if the application relates to an unmet medical need in a serious or life-threatening indication, six months after the FDA accepts the application for filing. The review process is often significantly extended by FDA requests for additional information or clarification.
Before approving an NDA or BLA, the FDA typically will inspect the facility or facilities where the product is manufactured. The FDA will not approve an application unless it determines that the manufacturing processes and facilities are in compliance with cGMP requirements and adequate to assure consistent production of the product within required specifications. Additionally, before approving an NDA or BLA, the FDA will typically inspect one or more clinical sites to assure compliance with GCP.
The FDA is required to refer an application for a novel drug or biologic to an advisory committee or explain why such referral was not made. An advisory committee is a panel of independent experts, including clinicians and other scientific experts, that reviews, evaluates and provides a recommendation as to whether the application should be approved and under what conditions. The FDA is not bound by the recommendations of an advisory committee, but it considers such recommendations carefully when making decisions and typically follows such recommendations.
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The FDAs Decision on an NDA or BLA
After the FDA evaluates the NDA or BLA and conducts inspections of manufacturing facilities, it may issue an approval letter or a Complete Response Letter. An approval letter authorizes commercial marketing of the drug or biologic with specific prescribing information for specific indications. A Complete Response Letter indicates that the review cycle of the application is complete and the application is not ready for approval. A Complete Response Letter may require additional clinical data and/or an additional pivotal Phase 3 clinical study(ies), and/or other significant, expensive and time-consuming requirements related to clinical studies, preclinical studies or manufacturing. Even if such additional information is submitted, the FDA may ultimately decide that the NDA or BLA does not satisfy the criteria for approval. The FDA could also approve the NDA or BLA with a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS, to mitigate risks, which could include medication guides, physician communication plans or elements to assure safe use, such as restricted distribution methods, patient registries and other risk minimization tools. The FDA also may condition approval on, among other things, changes to proposed labeling, development of adequate controls and specifications or a commitment to conduct one or more post-market studies or clinical studies. Such post-market testing may include Phase 4 clinical studies and surveillance to further assess and monitor the products safety and effectiveness after commercialization. Also, new government requirements, including those resulting from new legislation, may be established, or the FDAs policies may change, which could delay or prevent regulatory approval of our products under development.
Expedited Review and Accelerated Approval Programs
The FDA has various programs, including fast track designation, breakthrough therapy designation, accelerated approval, and priority review, that are intended to expedite the development and approval of new drugs and biologics that address unmet medical needs in the treatment of serious or life-threatening diseases and conditions. To be eligible for a fast track designation, the FDA must determine, based on the request of a sponsor, that a product is intended to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and demonstrates the potential to address an unmet medical need. The FDA may review sections of the NDA for a fast-track product on a rolling basis before the complete application is submitted, if the sponsor provides a schedule for the submission of the sections of the NDA, the FDA agrees to accept sections of the NDA and determines that the schedule is acceptable, and the sponsor pays any required user fees upon submission of the first section of the NDA.
The FDA may give a priority review designation to drugs that offer major advances in treatment, or provide a treatment where no adequate therapy exists. A priority review means that the goal for the FDA to review an application is six months, rather than the standard review of ten months under current. These six and 10 month review periods are measured from the filing date rather than the receipt date for NDAs for new molecular entities, which typically adds approximately two months to the timeline for review and decision from the date of submission. Most products that are eligible for fast-track designation are also likely to be considered appropriate to receive a priority review.
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 be eligible for accelerated approval and may be approved on the basis of adequate and well-controlled clinical studies establishing that the product has an effect on 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. As a condition of approval, the FDA may require a sponsor of a drug receiving accelerated approval to perform post-marketing studies to verify and describe the
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predicted effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality or other clinical endpoint, and the drug may be subject to accelerated withdrawal procedures.
Moreover, under the provisions of the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act, or FDASIA, passed in July 2012, a sponsor can request designation of a drug candidate as a breakthrough therapy. A breakthrough therapy is defined as a drug or biologic that is intended, alone or in combination with one or more other drugs or biologics, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the product may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. Drugs designated as breakthrough therapies are also eligible for the other expedited review and approval programs, including accelerated approval, priority review, and fast-track designation. The FDA must take certain actions, such as holding timely meetings and providing advice, intended to expedite the development and review of an application for approval of a breakthrough therapy.
Even if a product qualifies for one or more of these programs, the FDA may later decide that the product no longer meets the conditions for qualification or decide that the time period for FDA review or approval will not be shortened.
Post-Approval Requirements
Drugs and biologics marketed pursuant to FDA approvals are subject to pervasive and continuing regulation by the FDA, including, among other things, requirements relating to recordkeeping, periodic reporting, product sampling and distribution, advertising and promotion and reporting of adverse experiences with the product. After approval, most changes to the approved product, such as adding new indications or other labeling claims are subject to prior FDA review and approval. There also are continuing, annual user fee requirements.
Manufacturers are subject to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA and state agencies for compliance with cGMP requirements. Changes to the manufacturing process are strictly regulated and, depending on the significance of the change, may require prior FDA approval before being implemented. FDA regulations also require investigation and correction of any deviations from cGMP and impose reporting and documentation requirements upon us and any third-party manufacturers that we may decide to use. Accordingly, manufacturers must continue to expend time, money and effort in the area of production and quality control to maintain compliance with cGMP and other aspects of regulatory compliance.
Discovery of previously unknown problems with a product or the failure to comply with applicable requirements may result in restrictions on a product, manufacturer or holder of an approved NDA or BLA, including withdrawal or recall of the product from the market or other voluntary, FDA-initiated or judicial action that could delay or prohibit further marketing. Also, new government requirements, including those resulting from new legislation, may be established, or the FDAs policies may change, which could delay or prevent regulatory approval of our products under development.
The FDA may withdraw approval if compliance with regulatory requirements and standards is not maintained or if problems occur after the product reaches the market. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in revisions to the approved labeling to add new safety information; imposition of post-market studies or clinical studies to assess new safety risks; or imposition of distribution restrictions or other restrictions under a REMS program. Other potential consequences include, among other things:
| restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of the product; |
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| complete withdrawal of the product from the market or product recalls; |
| fines, warning letters or holds on post-approval clinical studies; |
| refusal of the FDA to approve pending NDAs or BLAs or supplements to approved NDAs or BLAs, or suspension or revocation of product licenses or approvals; |
| product seizure or detention, or refusal to permit the import or export of products; or |
| injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties. |
The FDA strictly regulates marketing, labeling, advertising and promotion of 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. The FDA and other agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off-label uses, and a company that is found to have improperly promoted off-label uses may be subject to significant liability.
Orphan Designation and Exclusivity
Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may grant orphan designation to a drug or biologic intended to treat a rare disease or condition, defined as a disease or condition with a patient population of fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States, or a patient population greater than 200,000 individuals in the United States and when there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing and making available the drug or biologic in the United States will be recovered from sales in the United States for that drug or biologic. Orphan drug designation must be requested before submitting a BLA or NDA. After the FDA grants orphan drug designation, the generic identity of the therapeutic agent and its potential orphan use are disclosed publicly by the FDA.
If a product that has orphan drug designation subsequently receives the first FDA approval for a particular active ingredient 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, including a full BLA, to market the same biologic for the same indication for seven years, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority to the product with orphan drug exclusivity or if FDA finds that the holder of the orphan drug exclusivity has not shown that it can assure the availability of sufficient quantities of the orphan drug to meet the needs of patients with the disease or condition for which the drug was designated. Orphan drug exclusivity does not prevent the FDA from approving a different drug or biologic for the same disease or condition, or the same drug or biologic for a different disease or condition. Among the other benefits of orphan drug designation are tax credits for certain research and a waiver of the BLA or NDA application user fee.
A designated orphan drug many not receive orphan drug exclusivity if it is approved for a use that is broader than the indication for which it received orphan designation. In addition, orphan drug exclusive marketing rights in the United States may be lost if the FDA later determines that the request for designation was materially defective or, as noted above, if the second applicant demonstrates that its product is clinically superior to the approved product with orphan exclusivity or the manufacturer of the approved product is unable to assure sufficient quantities of the product to meet the needs of patients with the rare disease or condition.
Biosimilars and Exclusivity
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, or the Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010, includes a subtitle called the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, or BPCIA, which created an abbreviated approval pathway for biological products that are biosimilar to or interchangeable with an FDA-licensed
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reference biological product. To date, only a handful of biosimilars have been licensed under the BPCIA, although numerous biosimilars have been approved in Europe. The FDA has issued several guidance documents outlining an approach to review and approval of biosimilars.
Biosimilarity, which requires that there be no clinically meaningful differences between the biological product and the reference product in terms of safety, purity and potency, can be shown through analytical studies, animal studies and a clinical study or studies. Interchangeability requires that a product is biosimilar to the reference product and the product must demonstrate that it can be expected to produce the same clinical results as the reference product in any given patient and, for products that are administered multiple times to an individual, the biologic and the reference biologic may be alternated or switched after one has been previously administered without increasing safety risks or risks of diminished efficacy relative to exclusive use of the reference biologic. However, complexities associated with the larger, and often more complex, structures of biological products, as well as the processes by which such products are manufactured, pose significant hurdles to implementation of the abbreviated approval pathway that are still being worked out by the FDA.
Under the BPCIA, an application for a biosimilar product may not be submitted to the FDA until four years following the date that the reference product was first licensed by the FDA. In addition, the approval of a biosimilar product may not be made effective by the FDA until 12 years from the date on which the reference product was first licensed. During this 12-year period of exclusivity, another company may still market a competing version of the reference product if the FDA approves a full BLA for the competing product containing that applicants own preclinical data and data from adequate and well-controlled clinical studies to demonstrate the safety, purity and potency of its product. The BPCIA also created certain exclusivity periods for biosimilars approved as interchangeable products. At this juncture, it is unclear whether products deemed interchangeable by the FDA will, in fact, be readily substituted by pharmacies, which are governed by state pharmacy law.
A biological product can also obtain pediatric market exclusivity in the United States. Pediatric exclusivity, if granted, adds six months to existing exclusivity periods and patent terms. This six-month exclusivity, which runs from the end of other exclusivity protection or patent term, may be granted based on the voluntary completion of a pediatric study in accordance with an FDA-issued Written Request for such a study.
The BPCIA is complex and continues to be interpreted and implemented by the FDA. In addition, recent government proposals have sought to reduce the 12-year reference product exclusivity period. Other aspects of the BPCIA, some of which may impact the BPCIA exclusivity provisions, have also been the subject of recent litigation. As a result, the ultimate impact, implementation, and impact of the BPCIA is subject to significant uncertainty.
Hatch-Waxman Amendments and Exclusivity
Section 505 of the FDCA describes three types of marketing applications that may be submitted to the FDA to request marketing authorization for a new drug. A Section 505(b)(1) NDA is an application that contains full reports of investigations of safety and efficacy. A 505(b)(2) NDA is an application that contains full reports of investigations of safety and efficacy but where at least some of the information required for approval comes from investigations that were not conducted by or for the applicant and for which the applicant has not obtained a right of reference or use from the person by or for whom the investigations were conducted. This regulatory pathway enables the applicant to rely, in part, on the FDAs prior findings of safety and efficacy for an existing product, or published literature, in support of its application. Section 505(j) establishes an abbreviated approval process for a generic version of approved drug products through the submission of an Abbreviated New Drug Application, or ANDA. An ANDA provides for marketing of a generic drug product that has the same active
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ingredients, dosage form, strength, route of administration, labeling, performance characteristics and intended use, among other things, to a previously approved product. ANDAs are termed abbreviated because they are generally not required to include preclinical (animal) and clinical (human) data to establish safety and efficacy. Instead, generic applicants must scientifically demonstrate that their product is bioequivalent to, or performs in the same manner as, the innovator drug through in vitro, in vivo or other testing. The generic version must deliver the same amount of active ingredients into a subjects bloodstream in the same amount of time as the innovator drug and can often be substituted by pharmacists under prescriptions written for the reference listed drug. In seeking approval for a drug through an NDA, applicants are required to list with the FDA each patent with claims that cover the applicants drug or a method of using the drug. Upon approval of a drug, each of the patents listed in the application for the drug is then published in the FDAs Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations, commonly known as the Orange Book. Drugs listed in the Orange Book can, in turn, be cited by potential competitors in support of approval of an ANDA or 505(b)(2) NDA.
Upon submission of an ANDA or a 505(b)(2) NDA, an applicant must certify to the FDA that (1) no patent information on the drug product that is the subject of the application has been submitted to the FDA; (2) such patent has expired; (3) the date on which such patent expires; or (4) such patent is invalid or will not be infringed upon by the manufacture, use or sale of the drug product for which the application is submitted. Generally, the ANDA or 505(b)(2) NDA cannot be approved until all listed patents have expired, except where the ANDA or 505(b)(2) NDA applicant challenges a listed patent through the last type of certification, also known as a paragraph IV certification. If the applicant does not challenge the listed patents, or indicates that it is not seeking approval of a patented method of use, the ANDA or 505(b)(2) NDA application will not be approved until all of the listed patents claiming the referenced product have expired.
If the ANDA or 505(b)(2) NDA applicant has provided a Paragraph IV certification to the FDA, the applicant must send notice of the Paragraph IV certification to the NDA and patent holders once the application has been accepted for filing by the FDA. The NDA and patent holders may then initiate a patent infringement lawsuit in response to the notice of the paragraph IV certification. If the paragraph IV certification is challenged by an NDA holder or the patent owner(s) asserts a patent challenge to the paragraph IV certification, the FDA may not approve that application until the earlier of 30 months from the receipt of the notice of the paragraph IV certification, the expiration of the patent, when the infringement case concerning each such patent was favorably decided in the applicants favor or settled, or such shorter or longer period as may be ordered by a court. This prohibition is generally referred to as the 30-month stay. In instances where an ANDA or 505(b)(2) NDA applicant files a paragraph IV certification, the NDA holder or patent owner(s) regularly take action to trigger the 30-month stay, recognizing that the related patent litigation may take many months or years to resolve.
The FDA also cannot approve an ANDA or 505(b)(2) application until all applicable non-patent exclusivities listed in the Orange Book for the branded reference drug have expired. For example, a pharmaceutical manufacturer may obtain five years of non-patent exclusivity upon NDA approval of a new chemical entity, or NCE, which is a drug containing an active moiety that has not been approved by FDA in any other NDA. An active moiety is defined as the molecule responsible for the drug substances physiological or pharmacologic action. During that five-year exclusivity period, the FDA cannot accept for filing (and therefore cannot approve) any ANDA seeking approval of a generic version of that drug or any 505(b)(2) NDA that relies on the FDAs approval of the drug, provided that that the FDA may accept an ANDA four years into the NCE exclusivity period if the ANDA applicant also files a Paragraph IV certification.
A drug, including one approved under Section 505(b)(2), may obtain a three-year period of exclusivity for a particular condition of approval, or change to a marketed product, such as a new formulation for a previously approved product, if one or more new clinical studies (other than
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bioavailability or bioequivalence studies) was essential to the approval of the application and was conducted/sponsored by the applicant. Should this occur, the FDA would be precluded from approving any ANDA or 505(b)(2) application for the protected modification until after that three-year exclusivity period has run. However, unlike NCE exclusivity, the FDA can accept an application and begin the review process during the exclusivity period.
Other Healthcare Laws and Compliance Requirements
Pharmaceutical companies are subject to additional healthcare regulation and enforcement by the federal government and by authorities in the states and foreign jurisdictions in which they conduct their business. Such laws include, without limitation, state and federal anti-kickback, fraud and abuse, false claims, privacy and security and physician sunshine laws and regulations. If their operations are found to be in violation of any of such laws or any other governmental regulations that apply, they may be subject to penalties, including, without limitation, civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, the curtailment or restructuring of operations, exclusion from participation in federal and state healthcare programs and individual imprisonment.
Coverage and Reimbursement
Sales of any product depend, in part, on the extent to which such product will be covered by third-party payors, such as federal, state and foreign government healthcare programs, commercial insurance and managed healthcare organizations and the level of reimbursement for such product by third-party payors. Decisions regarding the extent of coverage and amount of reimbursement to be provided are made on a plan-by-plan basis. These third-party payors are increasingly reducing reimbursements for medical products, drugs and services. In addition, the U.S. government, state legislatures and foreign governments have continued implementing cost-containment programs, including price controls, restrictions on coverage and reimbursement and requirements for substitution of generic products. Adoption of price controls and cost-containment measures, and adoption of more restrictive policies in jurisdictions with existing controls and measures, could further limit sales of any product. Decreases in third-party reimbursement for any product or a decision by a third-party payor not to cover a product could reduce physician usage and patient demand for the product and also have a material adverse effect on sales.
Healthcare Reform
In March 2010, former President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, which substantially changed the way healthcare is financed by both governmental and private insurers in the United States, and significantly affected the pharmaceutical industry. The Affordable Care Act contains a number of provisions, including those governing enrollment in federal healthcare programs, reimbursement adjustments and fraud and abuse changes. Additionally, the Affordable Care Act increases the minimum level of Medicaid rebates payable by manufacturers of brand name drugs from 15.1% to 23.1%; requires collection of rebates for drugs paid by Medicaid managed care organizations; requires manufacturers to participate in a coverage gap discount program, under which they must agree to offer 50 percent point-of-sale discounts off negotiated prices of applicable brand drugs to eligible beneficiaries during their coverage gap period, as a condition for the manufacturers outpatient drugs to be covered under Medicare Part D; and imposes a non-deductible annual fee on pharmaceutical manufacturers or importers who sell branded prescription drugs to specified federal government programs.
Since its enactment, there have been judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act, and we expect there will be additional challenges and amendments to the
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Affordable Care Act in the future. Other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the Affordable Care Act was enacted, including aggregate reductions of Medicare payments to providers of 2% per fiscal year and reduced payments to several types of Medicare providers. Moreover, there has recently been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in several Congressional inquiries and proposed bills designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to product pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drug products. Individual states in the United States have also become increasingly active in implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing.
Licenses and Collaborations
Description of Ascentage Agreements
In February 2016, we entered into several related agreements with Ascentage Pharma Group Corp. Ltd., or, Ascentage, an affiliate of Jiangsu Ascentage Pharma Development Ltd., a private clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in China. These agreements include (i) a compound library and option agreement, which includes a template form of license agreement, (ii) a license agreement covering an initial compound, and (iii) a research services agreement.
Library Agreement and License Template
The compound library and option agreement, or library agreement, gives us access to Ascentages existing collection of Bcl-2 inhibitor compounds, as well as any additional Bcl-2 inhibitor compounds developed during the term of the library agreement, in order to screen such compounds for senolytic activity. The library agreement permits us to nominate up to 15 such compounds at any given time for further evaluation and up to 10 of such selected compounds into preclinical development. Prior to commencing IND-enabling toxicology studies on an Ascentage compound of interest, we must formally designate the compound as a development candidate under the library agreement and enter into a separate license agreement with Ascentage covering that compound on the terms set forth in the template form of license agreement. The library agreement includes exclusivity provisions that (i) prohibit us from developing Ascentage Bcl-2 compounds for oncology indications, (ii) prohibit Ascentage from researching or developing certain Bcl-2 compounds for non-oncology indications under any circumstances, and (iii) prohibit Ascentage from researching or developing certain other Bcl-2 compounds for a specified set of non-oncology indications under certain circumstances. The term of the library agreement is determined by a formula that is linked to the term of the research services agreement, with a maximum term of six years. The library agreement may be terminated by either party due to the other partys uncured material breach of the library agreement.
Under the terms of the template form of license agreement, Ascentage will grant us the following rights with respect to a selected Ascentage compound for all non-oncology indications: (i) exclusive worldwide development rights, and (ii) exclusive commercialization rights outside of Greater China (China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan). Inside Greater China, we will be obligated to commercialize the licensed Ascentage compound through a joint venture with Ascentage. Ascentage will also have the right to manufacture at least 50% of our supply requirements of the licensed compound, provided they achieve and maintain certain manufacturing quality standards. We will be obligated to make certain milestone payments in the form of shares of our common stock, subject to the equity cap described below, and other milestone payments in in the form of cash, not to exceed $38 million per licensed product, based in each case, upon the achievement of certain clinical and commercial
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milestones. We will also be required to make low-single digit royalty payments on net sales of the licensed product under the agreement. Our royalty payment obligations will expire on a country-by-country basis and licensed product-by-licensed product basis upon the later to occur of (a) the expiration of the last valid claim of a licensed patent covering such licensed product in such country, (b) the expiration of regulatory exclusivity for such licensed product in such country, and (c) the tenth anniversary of the first commercial sale of such licensed product in any country. We have the right to credit certain royalty payments that we pay to third parties with respect to certain licensed products against our royalty obligation to Ascentage. Any license agreement may be terminated by either party due to the other partys uncured material breach of the agreement.
Under the library agreement, we issued 133,333 shares of our common stock as an upfront license fee. Of such shares, 80% were issued to Ascentage and 20% were issued to the University of Michigan in satisfaction of Ascentages obligation to pay a related sublicense fee to the University of Michigan. In addition to the shares issued pursuant to the APG 1252 license agreement described below, we will also be obligated to issue an additional 133,333 shares of our common stock as an upfront license fee to Ascentage and the University of Michigan for each of the next two license agreements. The aggregate number of shares of our common stock we could be required to issue to Ascentage and the University of Michigan pursuant to the library agreement, the APG 1252 license agreement, and any additional license agreements we enter into pursuant to the library agreement is capped at 1,333,338 shares.
APG 1252 License Agreement
In conjunction with the library agreement, we entered into our first license agreement with Ascentage, which grants us the right to develop and commercialize an Ascentage compound known as APG 1252 on the template license terms described above, including up to $38.0 million of potential cash milestone payments and low-single digit royalties. Under the APG 1252 license agreement, Ascentage retains the right to manufacture APG 1252 compounds for use in our licensed products. In connection with the APG 1252 license agreement, we issued 533,335 shares of our common stock as an upfront license fee to Ascentage and the University of Michigan, in the proportion described above. The APG 1252 license agreement may be terminated by either party due to the other partys uncured material breach of the APG 1252 license agreement, and we may terminate for convenience on a licensed product-by-licensed product basis.
In October 2016, we nominated UBX1967 as a compound of interest for further evaluation under the library agreement. Prior to commencing IND-enabling toxicology studies on UBX1967 we anticipate designating UBX1967 as a development candidate, at which point we will enter into an exclusive license agreement on the template license terms.
Research Agreement
In conjunction with the library agreement we also entered into a research services agreement with Ascentage under which we provide $500,000 per year in funding to Ascentage for the further development of Bcl-2 inhibitor compounds, which we retain the right to access under the library agreement. The research agreement has a term of up to four years, provided that the research agreement may be terminated by us for convenience after the first year, by either party due to the other partys uncured material breach, and by Ascentage if we fail to make the $500,000 payment in any given year.
Additional License Agreements
We are party to three additional license agreements that support our senescence-related patent portfolio. These agreements are with The John Hopkins University, or JHU, an entity affiliated with the
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Mayo Clinic, or Mayo, and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, or Buck, and provide us with a worldwide, exclusive, sublicensable license under those counter-parties rights to patent families that are co-owned by JHU, Buck, Mayo and us to develop and commercialize licensed products, including for the treatment of senescence-related diseases in therapeutic areas, including osteoarthritis, ophthalmology, and pulmonary disease.
Under our November 2016 license with JHU, which relates to patents that are relevant only to osteoarthritis indications, we may be obligated to make development and sales milestone payments to JHU in the form of equity (22,033 shares of our common stock) and cash (of up to $2.6 million in the aggregate), to pay JHU a low-single digit percentage of certain sublicensing revenue, and to pay JHU a running royalty payment of less than 1% on net sales, in all cases, with respect to licensed products for the treatment of osteoarthritis, which we refer to as Royalty Products. Our obligation to pay running royalties to JHU under the agreement is subject to a non-material minimum annual royalty, and may continue on a country-by-country basis until such time as neither the manufacture, sale, or use of such Royalty Product would infringe a valid claim of a licensed patent in the applicable country. Our agreement with JHU continues on a country-by-country basis until the expiration of the last to expire licensed patent in such country (or until twenty years after the effective date if no licensed patent issues in such country). We may terminate the agreement for convenience (as a whole, with respect to a licensed product, or with respect to a particular licensed patent). Either party may terminate the agreement for the other partys uncured material breach of bankruptcy or insolvency-related events.
Under our June 2013 license with Mayo, we may be obligated to make development and sales milestone payments to Mayo of up to $10.8 million in the aggregate, to pay Mayo a percentage of certain sublicensing revenue that is between the high-single digits and the low-teens, and to pay Mayo running royalty payments ranging from less than 1% to low-single digit percentages on net sales of licensed products. Our obligation to pay running royalties to Mayo under the agreement is subject to a non-material minimum annual royalty, and could potentially extend until January 1, 2037. We also issued 677,966 shares of our common stock to Mayo under this agreement. Our agreement with Mayo continues until the later of (i) the expiration of the last valid claim within the licensed patents and (ii) 13 years after first commercial sale of the first licensed product. We may terminate the agreement for convenience, and either party may terminate the agreement for the other partys uncured material breach.
Under our January 2017 license with Buck, which includes similar rights to a second patent family that is co-owned by Buck and us, we may be obligated to make development and sales milestone payments to Buck of up to $5.4 million in the aggregate, to pay Buck a mid-single digit percentage of certain sublicensing revenue, and to pay Buck running royalty payments ranging from less than 1% to low-single digit percentages on net sales of licensed products. Our obligation to pay running royalties to Buck under the agreement is subject to a non-material minimum annual royalty, and could potentially extend until January 1, 2037. We also issued 132,203 shares of our common stock to Buck under this agreement. The term of our license agreement with Buck continues until the expiration of all our payment obligations to Buck thereunder. We may terminate the agreement for convenience, and either party may terminate the agreement for the other partys uncured material breach.
Employees
As of December 31, 2017, we had approximately 67 employees, 65 of whom were full-time. Greater than 65% of our employees hold advanced degrees. The majority of our employees work in our Brisbane, California, facility. None of our employees is represented by a labor union or a collective bargaining agreement.
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Facilities
Our corporate headquarters are located in Brisbane, California, where we lease approximately 39,000 square feet of office, research and development, laboratory, and vivarium space pursuant to a lease dated May 13, 2016, which continues through October 2022. Substantially all our employees work at this facility. We believe this facility is sufficient for our near-term needs, and expect to expand to new and/or additional space as we grow. We believe the biotechnology environment in the South San Francisco area offers suitable additional space on commercially reasonable terms to enable our expansion.
Legal Proceedings
We are not currently involved in any litigation or legal proceedings that, in managements opinion, are likely to have any material adverse effect on our company. While we know of no imminent legal action in which we are likely to be involved, we may in the future become engaged in litigation or other legal proceedings. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact due to defense fees, settlement costs, demands on management attention, and other concerns.
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Executive Officers and Directors
The following table sets forth information regarding our executive officers, directors and key employees as of April 1, 2018:
Name |
Age | Position(s) | ||||
Executive Officers and Employee Directors |
||||||
Keith R. Leonard Jr. |
56 | Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Director | ||||
Nathaniel E. David, Ph.D. |
50 | President and Director | ||||
Robert C. Goeltz II |
45 | Chief Financial Officer | ||||
Jamie Dananberg, M.D. |
60 | Chief Medical Officer | ||||
Daniel G. Marquess, D. Phil |
49 | Chief Scientific Officer | ||||
Tamara L. Tompkins, J.D. |
53 | General Counsel and Corporate Secretary | ||||
Significant Employees |
||||||
Pedro J. Beltran, Ph.D. |
47 | Senior Vice President, Biology | ||||
Douglas A. Rich |
49 | Senior Vice President, Operations | ||||
Susan L. Smuck |
51 | Senior Vice President, People | ||||
Non-Employee Directors |
||||||
Paul L. Berns(1)(2) |
51 | Director | ||||
Kristina M. Burow(2)(3) |
44 | Director | ||||
Graham K. Cooper(1)(2) |
48 | Director | ||||
David L. Lacey M.D.(3) |
65 | Director | ||||
Robert T. Nelsen(3) |
54 | Director | ||||
Camille D. Samuels(1)(3) |
46 | Director |
(1) | Member of the audit committee. |
(2) | Member of the compensation committee. |
(3) | Member of the nominating and corporate governance committee. |
Executive Officers and Employee Directors
Keith R. Leonard Jr., has served as our Chairman since January 2016 and our Chief Executive Officer since October 2016. Mr. Leonard was a co-founder of and served as President and Chief Executive Officer of KYTHERA Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company, or KYTHERA, from August 2005 until its acquisition by Allergan plc, a public pharmaceutical company, or Allergan, in October 2015. Prior to that, Mr. Leonard held roles of increasing responsibility at Amgen Inc., a public biotechnology company, or Amgen, from October 1991 to November 2004, including as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Amgen Europe. Mr. Leonard currently serves on the board of directors of Sanifit Laboratories S.L., a biopharmaceutical company, and Intuitive Surgical, Inc., a public medical device company, and is the Chairman of the board of directors for Sienna Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., a public biotechnology company, or Sienna. He previously served on the boards of directors of Affymax, Inc., a public biotechnology company, Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company, and ARYx Therapeutics, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company. Mr. Leonard was formerly an active duty officer in the United States Navy. Mr. Leonard received a B.S. in Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, a B.A. in History from the University of Maryland, an M.S. in Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. We believe that Mr. Leonard is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his extensive executive
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management and leadership experience in the life science industry, as well as experience as a director of public companies.
Nathaniel E. David, Ph.D., is our co-founder and has served as a member of our board of directors since its inception in November 2011, our President since January 2016, and as our Chief Executive Officer from our inception until January 2016. Dr. David was a co-founder of and served as Chief Science Officer of KYTHERA from January 2005 to September 2009 and a member of the board of directors from its inception until its acquisition by Allergan. He was a co-founder of Syrrx, Inc., a biotechnology company, or Syrrx, which was acquired by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, a public pharmaceutical company, or Takeda, where he was Director of Business Development from 1999 to 2003. Dr. David was also a co-founder of Achaogen, Inc., a public biotechnology company, and Sapphire Energy, Inc., an energy company. Dr. David currently serves on the board of trustees of the University of California Foundation. Dr. David previously served on the board of trustees of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, and on the board of directors of Sapphire Energy, Inc. Dr. David received an B.A. in Biology from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. We believe that Dr. David is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his extensive scientific and operational background gained as a research scientist, founder, and executive focused on life science and pharmaceutical companies.
Robert C. Goeltz II has served as our Chief Financial Officer since September 2017. Previously, he served as Chief Financial Officer of CytomX Therapeutics, Inc., a public biotechnology company, from May 2015 to May 2017. Prior to that, Mr. Goeltz served as Chief Financial Officer of Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. after its acquisition by Amgen Inc., from October 2013 until May 2015. Previously, Mr. Goeltz held roles of increasing responsibility at Amgen, including in Business Development, Commercial Finance, R&D Finance and Corporate Accounting from August 2004 to November 2013. He began his career working in the audit practice of Ernst & Young LLP. Mr. Goeltz received a B.B.A. in Business from Emory University and an M.B.A. from the UCLA Andersen School of Management. He is also a Certified Public Accountant (inactive).
Jamie Dananberg, M.D., has served as our Chief Medical Officer since January 2016. Prior to that, Dr. Dananberg held roles of increasing responsibility at Takeda from August 2012 to October 2015, including as Executive Vice President, and at Eli Lilly & Co., a public pharmaceutical company, from October 2000 to September 2012, including as Vice President for Translational Medicine and Tailored Therapeutics. At the University of Michigan, Dr. Dananberg practiced medicine in Endocrinology & Metabolism and ran a basic science laboratory from 1983 to 1996. Dr. Dananberg received a B.S. in Biology and an M.D. from Tufts University.
Daniel G. Marquess, D. Phil., has served as our Chief Scientific Officer since December 2015. Prior to that, Dr. Marquess held roles of increasing responsibility at Theravance Biopharma, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company, from June 1998 to December 2015, including as Vice President and Head of Medicinal Chemistry, and at GlaxoSmithKline, plc, a public pharmaceutical company from 1994 to 1998, including as a research scientist. Since November 2011, he has served as pharmaceutical discovery advisor to the Wellcome Trust, the second largest biomedical charitable organization in the world. Mr. Marquess received a B.S. in Chemistry from the Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, and a D. Phil in Organic Chemistry from the University of Oxford.
Tamara L. Tompkins, J.D., has served as our General Counsel and Corporate Secretary since June 2017. Prior to that, Ms. Tompkins served as an Operating Partner, General Counsel, and Chief Administrative Officer of Khosla Ventures, a venture capital firm, from January 2013 to December 2016. From February 2005 to May 2012, Ms. Tompkins served as General Counsel of Amyris, Inc., a public bio-renewables company. She began her career in private practice, first with Shearman & Sterling, then Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, and finally as Of Counsel at Morgan Lewis. Ms. Tompkins received a B.A. in History from Middlebury College and a J.D. from Georgetown University.
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Significant Employees
Pedro J. Beltran, Ph.D., has served as our Senior Vice President, Biology, since December 2017. Prior to that, Dr. Beltran held roles of increasing responsibility at Amgen from September 2003 to November 2017, including as Executive Director of Discovery Research. At the University of Miami, Dr. Beltran served as Assistant Scientist from November 2001 to August 2003 and was a postdoctoral fellow from November 1998 to November 2001. He received a B.S. in Molecular Biology from the Florida Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from the University of Texas, Health Science Center at Houston.
Douglas A. Rich has served as our Senior Vice President, Operations, since April 2017. Mr. Rich served as Senior Vice President, Operations of KYTHERA from February 2015 until its acquisition by Allergan in February 2016, and prior to that he served as Vice President, Manufacturing, of KYTHERA from May 2014 until January 2015. Previously, Mr. Rich held roles of increasing responsibility at Boehringer Ingelheim, a pharmaceutical company, from March 2011 to April 2014, including Vice President, Quality. He spent over 18 years at Amgen in various roles within Operations from October 2001 to August 2011. He received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Southern California and an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University.
Susan L. Smuck has served as our Senior Vice President, People, since January 2016. She served as Senior Vice President, Human Resources, of KYTHERA from October 2006 until its acquisition by Allergan in October 2015. Prior to that, Ms. Smuck held roles of increasing responsibility at Activus Healthcare Solutions, Inc., a healthcare company, from 2005 to 2007, including Vice President of Human Resources and Administration, and at Amgen from 1993 to 2005, including Senior Director of Human Resources. Ms. Smuck received a B.A. in Psychology and Business Administration from California Lutheran University and currently chairs the Universitys Board of Regents.
Non-Employee Directors
Paul L. Berns has served as a member of our board of directors since March 2018. Mr. Berns has been a consultant in the pharmaceutical industry since July 2016, as well as from August 2012 to March 2014 and from July 2005 to March 2006. From March 2014 to June 2016, Mr. Berns served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a biopharmaceutical company, which was acquired by Pfizer Inc. in 2016. Previously, Mr. Berns served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Allos Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, from March 2006 to September 2012, when it was acquired by Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Mr. Berns was President and Chief Executive Officer of Bone Care International, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, from June 2002 to July 2005, when it was acquired by Genzyme Corporation. Prior to that, Mr. Berns was Vice President and General Manager of the Immunology, Oncology and Pain Therapeutics business unit of Abbott Laboratories from 2001 to 2002, and from 2000 to 2001, he served as Vice President, Marketing of BASF Pharmaceuticals/Knoll, when it was acquired by Abbott Laboratories in 2001. Earlier in his career, Mr. Berns held various positions, including senior management roles, at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company from 1990 to 2000. Mr. Berns is currently a board member of the privately held company, MC2 Therapeutics (since May 2017), and the publicly held companies, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, PLC (since April 2010) and Menlo Therapeutics, Inc. (since November 2017). Mr. Berns previously served on the boards of Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (from June 2012 to June 2016), XenoPort, Inc. (from November 2005 to May 2016), Allos Therapeutics, Inc. (from March 2006 to September 2012) and Bone Care International, Inc. (from June 2002 to July 2005). Mr. Berns received his B.S. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin. We believe that Mr. Berns is qualified to serve on our board of directors because of his extensive experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and his service as a director of a number of public pharmaceutical companies.
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Kristina M. Burow has served as a member of our board of directors since its inception in November 2011. Ms. Burow has served as Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners, or ARCH, since November 2011 and previously held roles of increasing responsibility at ARCH from August 2002 to November 2011. Ms. Burow currently serves on the boards of directors of several biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Vividion Therapeutics, Inc., Lycera Corp., BlackThorn Therapeutics, Inc., Metacrine, Inc., Scholar Rock, Inc., AgBiome Inc., Vir Biotechnology Inc., and AgTech Accelerator, an agricultural technology startup accelerator. Ms. Burow also serves on the board of directors of Sienna. She previously was a co-founder and member of the board of directors of Receptos, Inc., a public pharmaceutical company, until its acquisition by Celgene Corporation, a public biopharmaceutical company, and of Sapphire Energy, Inc., an energy company. Ms. Burow has participated in a number of other ARCH portfolio companies including KYTHERA, Siluria Technologies, Inc., an energy company, and Ikaria, Inc., a biotechnology company, acquired by Madison Dearborn Partners, a private equity firm. Prior to joining ARCH, Ms. Burow was an Associate with the Novartis BioVenture Fund in San Diego and an early employee at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation. Ms. Burow received a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, an M.A. in Chemistry from Columbia University, and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. We believe that Ms. Burow is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to her extensive experience investing in biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and her experience on boards of directors in the medical industry.
Graham K. Cooper has served as a member of our board of directors since April 2017. Since March 2018, Mr. Cooper has served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Assembly Biosciences, Inc. Mr. Cooper previously served as the Chief Financial Officer of Receptos, from February 2013 until its acquisition by Celgene in August 2015 and the Executive Vice President, Finance, and Chief Financial Officer of Geron Corporation, a public biopharmaceutical company from January 2012 to December 2012. From May 2006 until March 2011, Mr. Cooper served as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer of Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc., a public biotechnology company. Prior to that, Mr. Cooper held roles of increasing responsibility at Deutsche Bank Securities, an investment bank, from August 1997 to February 2006, including Director, Health Care Investment Banking. He began his career as an accountant at Deloitte & Touche, and was previously a C.P.A. Mr. Cooper currently serves on the board of directors of Celladon Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company. Mr. Cooper received a B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. We believe that Mr. Cooper is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his significant financial and accounting experience in the life sciences industry.
David L. Lacey, M.D., has served as a member of our board of directors since February 2018. Dr. Lacey currently serves as Scientific Advisor at Verdant Therapeutics Inc., a biotechnology company. Prior to that, Dr. Lacey held roles of increasing responsibility at Amgen from 1994 to 2011, including as Senior Vice President of Research. Dr. Lacey currently serves on the board of directors of argenx SE, a public biotechnology company. He also serves on the boards of directors of Nurix, Inc., a biotechnology company, and Inbiomotion SL, a biotechnology company. He previously served on the boards of directors or as an advisory board member to Bay Area Bioscience Association and AnaptysBio, Inc. Dr. Lacey previously served as Assistant Professor of Pathology at Jewish Hospital, Washington University Medical Center and was also a postgraduate research associate in the University of Colorados Department of Pathology. Dr. Lacey received a B.S. in Biology and an M.D. from the University of Colorado. We believe that Dr. Lacey is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his extensive experience as an advisor to biotechnology companies and his medical background.
Robert T. Nelsen has served as a member of our board of directors since its inception in November 2011. Mr. Nelsen is a co-founder and has served as a Managing Director of ARCH Venture
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Partners, a venture capital firm, since July 1994. Mr. Nelsen currently serves on the boards of directors of public biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Juno Therapeutics, Inc., Sienna, Syros Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Denali Therapeutics Inc. Mr. Nelsen also currently serves on the boards of directors of private biotechnology companies, including Arivale Inc., Encoded Genomics, Inc., Ensemble Discovery Corp., and as Chairman of the board of directors of Hua Medicine. Previously, Mr. Nelsen served on a number of public biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Bellerophon Therapeutics, Inc., Fate Therapeutics, Inc., KYTHERA, NeurogesX, Inc., and Sage Therapeutics Inc. He previously served as a trustee of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute and the Institute for Systems Biology, and as a member of the board of directors of the National Venture Capital Association. Mr. Nelsen received a B.S. from the University of Puget Sound with majors in Economics and Biology and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. We believe that Mr. Nelsen is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his extensive experience serving on the board of directors of clinical-stage biotechnology companies and his investment experience in the life sciences industry.
Camille D. Samuels has served as a member of our board of directors since March 2015. Ms. Samuels has been a Partner of Venrock, a venture capital firm, since May 2014. Prior to that, she served as a Managing Director of Versant Ventures, a life sciences venture capital firm, from February 2000 to December 2012. She previously served as a board member or a board observer on other public healthcare companies, including Achaogen, Inc., Carmenta Biosciences, Fluidigm Corporation, Genomic Health, Inc., KYTHERA, Novacardia, Inc., ParAllele BioScience, Inc., RegenXBIO and Syrrx. Prior to her venture career, Ms. Samuels held business development and strategic marketing roles at Tularik Inc., a public biotechnology company, acquired by Amgen and Genzyme Corp. Ms. Samuels received a B.A. in Biology from Duke University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, both with high distinction.
Board Composition
Director Independence
Our board of directors currently consists of eight members. Our board of directors has determined that all of our directors, other than Mr. Leonard and Dr. David, qualify as independent directors in accordance with The Nasdaq Global Select Market listing requirements. Mr. Leonard and Dr. David are not considered independent because each is an employee of Unity Biotechnology, Inc. The Nasdaq Global Select Markets independence definition includes a series of objective tests, such as that the director is not, and has not been for at least three years, one of our employees and that neither the director nor any of his or her family members has engaged in various types of business dealings with us. In addition, as required by The Nasdaq Global Select Market rules, our board of directors has made a subjective determination as to each independent director that no relationships exists that, in the opinion of our board of directors, would interfere with the exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director. In making these determinations, our board of directors reviewed and discussed information provided by the directors and us with regard to each directors business and personal activities and relationships as they may relate to us and our management. There are no family relationships among any of our directors or executive officers.
Classified Board of Directors
In accordance with our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be in effect immediately prior to the consummation of this offering, our board of directors will be divided into three classes with staggered, three-year terms. At each annual meeting of stockholders, the successors to directors whose terms then expire will be elected to serve from the time of election and qualification
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until the third annual meeting following election. Effective upon the consummation of this offering, our directors will be divided among the three classes as follows:
| the Class I directors will be Nathaniel E. David, David L. Lacey and Robert T. Nelsen, and their terms will expire at the annual meeting of stockholders to be held in 2019; |
| the Class II directors will be Paul L. Berns, Graham K. Cooper and Camille D. Samuels, and their terms will expire at the annual meeting of stockholders to be held in 2020; and |
| the Class III directors will be Keith R. Leonard and Kristina M. Burow, and their terms will expire at the annual meeting of stockholders to be held in 2021. |
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that the authorized number of directors may be changed only by resolution of the board of directors. Any additional directorships resulting from an increase in the number of directors will be distributed among the three classes so that, as nearly as possible, each class will consist of one-third of the directors. The division of our board of directors into three classes with staggered three-year terms may delay or prevent a change of our management or a change in control of our company.
Voting Arrangements
The election of the members of our board of directors is governed by the amended and restated voting agreement, as amended, that we entered into with certain holders of our common stock and certain holders of our convertible preferred stock and the related provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation.
Pursuant to the voting agreement and these provisions the holders of our Series A-1 and Series A-2 convertible preferred stock, voting together as a single class, have the right to elect two directors to our board of directors, the holders of our Series B convertible preferred stock, voting as a separate class, have the right to elect one director to our board of directors and the holders of our common stock and our preferred stock, exclusively and voting together as a single class, have the right to elect the balance of the total number of our directors, which are designated as follows:
| two members designated by ARCH (together with its affiliated funds) and elected by the holders of a majority of our Series A-1 and Series A-2 convertible preferred stock, voting together as a single class, for which Ms. Burow and Mr. Nelsen have been designated; |
| one member designated by the holders of a majority of our Series B convertible preferred stock, voting as a separate class, for which Dr. Lacey has been designated; |
| four members designated by the other members of our board of directors and elected by the holders of a majority of the shares of our common stock and convertible preferred stock, voting together as a single class, for which Ms. Samuels, Mr. Berns, Mr. Cooper, and Dr. David have been designated; and |
| one member elected by the holders of a majority of the shares of our common stock and convertible preferred stock, voting together as a single class, who shall be our then-serving Chief Executive Officer, for which Mr. Leonard has been designated. |
The holders of our common stock and convertible preferred stock who are parties to our voting agreement are obligated to vote for such designees indicated above. The provisions of this voting agreement will terminate upon the consummation of this offering and our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will be amended and restated, after which there will be no further contractual obligations or charter provisions regarding the election of our directors. Our directors hold office until their successors have been elected and qualified or appointed, or the earlier of their death, resignation, or removal.
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Leadership Structure of the Board
Our amended and restated bylaws and corporate governance guidelines will provide our board of directors with flexibility to combine or separate the positions of Chairman of the board of directors and Chief Executive Officer and to implement a lead director in accordance with its determination that utilizing one or the other structure would be in the best interests of our company. Mr. Leonard currently serves as the chairman of our board of directors. In that role, Mr. Leonard presides over the executive sessions of the board of directors and as a liaison between management and the board of directors.
Our board of directors has concluded that our current leadership structure is appropriate at this time. However, our board of directors will continue to periodically review our leadership structure and may make such changes in the future as it deems appropriate.
Role of Board in Risk Oversight Process
Risk assessment and oversight are an integral part of our governance and management processes. Our board of directors encourages management to promote a culture that incorporates risk management into our corporate strategy and day-to-day business operations. Management discusses strategic and operational risks at regular management meetings, and conducts specific strategic planning and review sessions during the year that include a focused discussion and analysis of the risks facing us. Throughout the year, senior management reviews these risks with the board of directors at regular board meetings as part of management presentations that focus on particular business functions, operations or strategies, and presents the steps taken by management to mitigate or eliminate such risks.
Our board of directors does not have a standing risk management committee, but rather administers this oversight function directly through our board of directors as a whole, as well as through various standing committees of our board of directors that address risks inherent in their respective areas of oversight. While our board of directors is responsible for monitoring and assessing strategic risk exposure, our audit committee is responsible for overseeing our major financial risk exposures and the steps our management has taken to monitor and control these exposures. The audit committee also monitors compliance with legal and regulatory requirements and considers and approves or disapproves any related person transactions. Our nominating and corporate governance committee monitors the effectiveness of our corporate governance guidelines. Our compensation committee assesses and monitors whether any of our compensation policies and programs has the potential to encourage excessive risk-taking.
Board Committees
Our board of directors has the following standing committees: an audit committee, a compensation committee and a nominating and corporate governance committee. Our board of directors may establish other committees to facilitate the management of our business. The composition and functions of each committee are described below.
Audit Committee
Our audit committee oversees our corporate accounting and financial reporting process. Among other matters, the audit committee:
| appoints our independent registered public accounting firm; |
| evaluates the independent registered public accounting firms qualifications, independence and performance; |
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| determines the engagement of the independent registered public accounting firm; |
| reviews and approves the scope of the annual audit and pre-approves the audit and non-audit fees and services; |
| reviews and approves all related party transactions on an ongoing basis; |
| establishes procedures for the receipt, retention and treatment of complaints received by the Company regarding accounting, internal accounting controls or auditing matters; |
| discusses with management and the independent registered public accounting firm the results of the annual audit and the review of our quarterly financial statements; |
| approves the retention of the independent registered public accounting firm to perform any proposed permissible non-audit services; |
| monitors the rotation of partners of the independent registered public accounting firm on our engagement team in accordance with requirements established by the SEC; |
| discusses on a periodic basis, or as appropriate, with management the Companys policies and procedures with respect to risk assessment and risk management; |
| is responsible for reviewing our financial statements and our managements discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations to be included in our annual and quarterly reports to be filed with the SEC; |
| annually reviews and assesses internal controls and treasury functions including cash management procedures; |
| investigates any reports received through the ethics helpline and report to the Board periodically with respect to the information received through the ethics helpline and any related investigations; |
| reviews our critical accounting policies and estimates; and |
| reviews the audit committee charter and the committees performance at least annually. |
The members of our audit committee are Paul L. Berns, Graham K. Cooper and Camille D. Samuels. Mr. Cooper serves as the chairperson of the committee. All members of our audit committee meet the requirements for financial literacy under the applicable rules and regulations of the SEC and The Nasdaq Global Select Market. Our board of directors has determined that Mr. Cooper is an audit committee financial expert as defined under the applicable rules of the SEC and has the requisite financial sophistication as defined under the applicable rules and regulations of The Nasdaq Global Select Market. Under the rules of the SEC, members of the audit committee must also meet heightened independence standards. Our board of directors has determined that each of Messrs. Berns and Cooper and Ms. Samuels are independent under the applicable rules of the SEC and The Nasdaq Global Select Market. The audit committee operates under a written charter that satisfies the applicable standards of the SEC and The Nasdaq Global Select Market.
Compensation Committee
Our compensation committee oversees policies relating to compensation and benefits of our officers and employees. The compensation committee reviews and approves or recommends corporate goals and objectives relevant to compensation of our executive officers (other than our Chief Executive Officer), evaluates the performance of these officers in light of those goals and objectives and approves the compensation of these officers based on such evaluations. The compensation committee also reviews and approves or makes recommendations to our board of directors regarding the issuance of stock options and other awards under our stock plans to our executive officers (other
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than our Chief Executive Officer). The compensation committee reviews the performance of our Chief Executive Officer and makes recommendations to our board of directors with respect to his compensation and our board of directors retains the authority to make compensation decisions relative to our Chief Executive Officer. The compensation committee will review and evaluate, at least annually, the performance of the compensation committee and its members, including compliance by the compensation committee with its charter. The members of our compensation committee are Paul L. Berns, Kristina M. Burow and Graham K. Cooper. Mr. Berns serves as the chairman of the committee. Each of the members of our compensation committee is independent under the applicable rules and regulations of The Nasdaq Global Select Market, is a non-employee director as defined in Rule 16b-3 promulgated under the Exchange Act and is an outside director as that term is defined in Section 162(m) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or Section 162(m). The compensation committee operates under a written charter that satisfies the applicable standards of the SEC and The Nasdaq Global Select Market.
Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
The nominating and corporate governance committee is responsible for making recommendations to our board of directors regarding candidates for directorships and the size and composition of our board of directors. In addition, the nominating and corporate governance committee is responsible for overseeing our corporate governance policies and reporting and making recommendations to our board of directors concerning governance matters. The members of our nominating and corporate governance committee are Kristina M. Burow, David L. Lacey, Robert T. Nelsen and Camille D. Samuels. Dr. Lacey serves as the chairman of the committee. Each member of our nominating and corporate governance committee is an independent director under the applicable rules and regulations of The Nasdaq Global Select Market relating to nominating and corporate governance committee independence. The nominating and corporate governance committee operates under a written charter that satisfies the applicable standards of the SEC and The Nasdaq Global Select Market.
Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation
During the year ended December 31, 2017, our compensation committee consisted of Mses. Burow and Samuels and Mr. Cooper. None of the members of our compensation committee during 2017 nor any of the current members of our compensation committee has at any time been one of our officers or employees. None of our executive officers currently serves, or in the past fiscal year has served, as a member of the board of directors or compensation committee of any entity that has one or more executive officers on our board of directors or compensation committee.
Board Diversity
Upon consummation of this offering, our nominating and corporate governance committee will be responsible for reviewing with the board of directors, on an annual basis, the appropriate characteristics, skills and experience required for the board of directors as a whole and its individual members. In evaluating the suitability of individual candidates (both new candidates and current members), the nominating and corporate governance committee, in recommending candidates for election, and the board of directors, in approving (and, in the case of vacancies, appointing) such candidates, may take into account many factors, including but not limited to the following:
| personal and professional integrity; |
| ethics and values; |
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| experience in corporate management, such as serving as an officer or former officer of a publicly held company; |
| experience in the industries in which we compete; |
| experience as a board member or executive officer of another publicly held company; |
| diversity of expertise and experience in substantive matters pertaining to our business relative to other board members; |
| conflicts of interest; and |
| practical and mature business judgment. |
Currently, our board of directors evaluates, and following the consummation of this offering will evaluate, each individual in the context of the board of directors as a whole, with the objective of assembling a group that can best maximize the success of the business and represent stockholder interests through the exercise of sound judgment using its diversity of experience in these various areas.
Code of Business Conduct and Ethics
Prior to the consummation of this offering, we will adopt a code of business conduct and ethics that will apply to all of our employees, officers and directors, including those officers responsible for financial reporting. Following the consummation of this offering, the code of business conduct and ethics will be available on our website. We expect that any amendments to the code, or any waivers of its requirements, will be disclosed on our website.
Limitation on Liability and Indemnification Matters
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, which will become effective immediately prior to the consummation of this offering, will contain provisions that limit the liability of our directors for monetary damages to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. Consequently, our directors will not be personally liable to us or our stockholders for monetary damages for any breach of fiduciary duties as directors, except liability for:
| any breach of the directors duty of loyalty to us or our stockholders; |
| any act or omission not in good faith or that involves intentional misconduct or a knowing violation of law; |
| unlawful payments of dividends or unlawful stock repurchases or redemptions as provided in Section 174 of the Delaware General Corporation Law; or |
| any transaction from which the director derived an improper personal benefit. |
Each of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, which will become effective immediately prior to the consummation of this offering, will provide that we are required to indemnify our directors and officers, in each case to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. Our amended and restated bylaws will also obligate us to advance expenses incurred by a director or officer in advance of the final disposition of any action or proceeding, and permit us to secure insurance on behalf of any officer, director, employee or other agent for any liability arising out of his or her actions in that capacity regardless of whether we would otherwise be permitted to indemnify him or her under Delaware law. We have entered and expect to continue to enter into agreements to indemnify our directors, executive officers and other employees as determined by our
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board of directors. With specified exceptions, these agreements provide for indemnification for related expenses including, among other things, attorneys fees, judgments, fines and settlement amounts incurred by any of these individuals in any action or proceeding. We believe that these bylaw provisions and indemnification agreements are necessary to attract and retain qualified persons as directors and officers. We also maintain directors and officers liability insurance.
The limitation of liability and indemnification provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may discourage stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against our directors and officers for breach of their fiduciary duty. They may also reduce the likelihood of derivative litigation against our directors and officers, even though an action, if successful, might benefit us and our stockholders. Further, a stockholders investment may be adversely affected to the extent that we pay the costs of settlement and damages.
Director Compensation
Historically, we have not had a formalized non-employee director compensation program. In April 2017, the Board granted an option to purchase 84,745 shares of our common stock to Graham K. Cooper, which vests annually over three years subject to Mr. Coopers continued service. Other than the stock option grant to Mr. Cooper, none of our non-employee directors received any compensation for his or her service in 2017. In connection with their appointments to the Board, in February 2018 and March 2018, the Board granted to each of Dr. Lacey and Mr. Berns, respectively, an option to purchase 84,745 shares of our common stock, which vest annually over three years subject to their respective continued service. We reimburse our non-employee directors for travel and other necessary business expenses incurred in the performance of their services for us.
Name |
Fees Earned or Paid in Cash ($) |
Option Awards ($)(1)(2) |
All Other Compensation ($) |
Total ($) | ||||||||||||
Kristina M. Burow |
| | | | ||||||||||||
Graham K. Cooper |
| 194,549 | | 194,549 | ||||||||||||
Robert T. Nelsen |
| | | | ||||||||||||
Camille D. Samuels |
| | | |
(1) | Amounts reflect the full grant-date fair value of stock options granted during 2017 computed in accordance with ASC Topic 718, rather than the amounts paid to or realized by the named individual. See Note 12 of the audited financial statements included in this prospectus for the assumptions used in calculating these amounts. |
(2) | As of December 31, 2017, Mr. Cooper held an option to purchase 84,745 shares of our common stock. No other non-employee director held any other equity awards as of December 31, 2017. |
We have approved and implemented a compensation policy for our non-employee directors to be effective in connection with the consummation of this offering, or the Director Compensation Program. Pursuant to the Director Compensation Program, our non-employee directors will receive cash compensation as follows:
| Each non-employee director will receive an annual cash retainer in the amount of $40,000 per year. |
| The chairperson of the audit committee will receive additional annual cash compensation in the amount of $15,000 per year for such chairpersons service on the audit committee. Each non-chairperson member of the audit committee will receive additional annual cash compensation in the amount of $7,500 per year for such members service on the audit committee. |
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| The chairperson of the compensation committee will receive additional annual cash compensation in the amount of $12,500 per year for such chairpersons service on the compensation committee. Each non-chairperson member of the compensation committee will receive additional annual cash compensation in the amount of $6,250 per year for such members service on the compensation committee. |
| The chairperson of the nominating and corporate governance committee will receive additional annual cash compensation in the amount of $8,000 per year for such chairpersons service on the nominating and corporate governance committee. Each non-chairperson member of the nominating and corporate governance committee will receive additional annual cash compensation in the amount of $4,000 per year for such members service on the nominating and corporate governance committee. |
Under the Director Compensation Program, each non-employee director who is elected or appointed to our board of directors after the completion of this offering will automatically receive an option award representing $450,000 in grant date fair value upon the directors initial appointment or election to our board of directors, referred to as the Initial Grant. In addition, each non-employee director who is serving on our board of directors immediately following an annual stockholders meeting will automatically be granted an annual option representing $225,000 in grant date fair value on the date of such annual stockholders meeting, referred to as the Annual Grant. The Initial Grant will vest as to 1/36th of the underlying shares on a monthly basis over three years, subject to continued service through each applicable vesting date. The Annual Grant will vest in full on the one year anniversary of the grant date, subject to continued service through each applicable vesting date. All equity awards granted to our non-employee directors under the Director Compensation Program will vest in full as to any unvested portion of the award immediately prior to the consummation of a change in control transaction.
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This section discusses the material components of the executive compensation program for our executive officers who are named in the 2017 Summary Compensation Table below. In 2017, our named executive officers and their positions were as follows:
| Keith R. Leonard Jr., Chief Executive Officer; |
| Nathaniel E. David, Ph.D., President; and |
| Robert C. Goeltz II, Chief Financial Officer. |
This discussion may contain forward-looking statements that are based on our current plans, considerations, expectations and determinations regarding future compensation programs. Actual compensation programs that we adopt following the completion of this offering may differ materially from the currently planned programs summarized in this discussion. As an emerging growth company as defined in the JOBS Act, we are not required to include a Compensation Discussion and Analysis section and have elected to comply with the scaled disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies.
2017 Summary Compensation Table
The following table sets forth information concerning the compensation of our named executive officers for the year ended December 31, 2017.
Name and Principal Position |
Year | Salary ($) |
Bonus ($)(1) |
Stock Awards ($)(2) |
Option Awards ($)(2) |
All Other Compensation ($) |
Total ($) |
|||||||||||||||||||||
Keith R. Leonard Jr. |
|
2017 |
|
|
485,000 |
|
|
237,650 |
|
|
|
3,188,725 |
|
|
115,521 |
(3) |
4,026,896 | |||||||||||
Chief Executive Officer |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nathaniel E. David |
|
2017 |
|
|
425,000 |
|
|
169,575 |
|
| |
1,973,679 |
|
| 2,568,254 | |||||||||||||
President |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Robert C. Goeltz II(4) |
|
2017 |
|
|
112,386 |
|
|
39,729 |
|
| |
902,794 |
|
| 1,054,909 | |||||||||||||
Chief Financial Officer |
(1) | Amounts represent the annual performance-based cash bonuses earned by our named executive officers based on the achievement of certain corporate performance objectives and individual performance, other than with respect to our Chief Executive Officer, during 2017. These amounts were paid to the named executive officers in early 2018. Please see the descriptions of the annual performance bonuses paid to our named executive officers under 2017 Bonuses below. |
(2) | Amounts reflect the full grant-date fair value of stock awards and option awards during 2017 computed in accordance with ASC Topic 718. Amounts in the option awards column also reflect stock purchase rights granted to Dr. David in 2017. For performance-vesting options, the grant date fair value is based on the probable outcome of the applicable performance conditions (which was also the maximum level of achievement) as well as the value of the applicable market conditions based on a Monte Carlo simulation. The assumptions used in calculating the grant date fair value of the awards disclosed in these columns are set forth in the notes to our audited financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. These amounts do not correspond to the actual value that may be recognized by the named executive officers upon vesting of the applicable awards. |
(3) | Amounts represent $90,000 for Mr. Leonards housing allowance and $25,521 in taxable reimbursement of expenses incurred by Mr. Leonard in traveling from his home in Southern California to our principal offices in Brisbane, California. |
(4) | Mr. Goeltz commenced employment as our Chief Financial Officer on September 5, 2017. |
Narrative to Summary Compensation Table
2017 Salaries
The named executive officers receive a base salary to compensate them for services rendered to our company. The base salary payable to each named executive officer is intended to provide a fixed component of compensation reflecting the executives skill set, experience, role and responsibilities.
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For fiscal year 2017, Mr. Leonards annual base salary was $485,000, Dr. Davids base salary was $425,000, and Mr. Goeltzs base salary was $345,000. The annual base salaries of Mr. Leonard and Dr. David remained unchanged from their respective levels in 2016, and Mr. Goeltzs base salary was determined by the Compensation Committee as a result of negotiations in connection with his commencement of employment with us in September 2017. In early 2018, we entered into employment agreements with each of our named executive officers providing for the following annual base salaries: Mr. Leonard: $500,000, Dr. David: $437,750, and Mr. Goeltz: $350,000. The Board has also approved increasing Mr. Goeltzs base salary to $385,000 effective upon the completion of this offering.
2017 Bonuses
We maintain an annual performance-based cash bonus program in which each of our named executive officers participated in 2017. Each of our named executive officers target bonus is expressed as a percentage of base salary which can be achieved by meeting corporate goals at target level. The 2017 annual bonuses for Mr. Leonard, Dr. David and Mr. Goeltz were targeted at 50%, 40% and 35% of their respective base salaries. The target bonuses of Mr. Leonard and Dr. David remained unchanged from their respective levels in 2016, and Mr. Goeltzs target bonus was determined by the Compensation Committee as a result of negotiations in connection with his commencement of employment with us in September 2017. The employment agreements entered into with each of our named executive officers in early 2018 provide for the same target bonuses to each of these officers as in 2017.
For 2017, our named executive officers were eligible to earn annual cash bonuses based on the achievement of certain corporate performance objectives approved by the Compensation Committee and the Board, as well as individual performance for Dr. David and Mr. Goeltz. For the 2017, the Board set corporate performance goals in the three broad strategic areas of advancing therapeutic programs, discovering new molecules, paths and diseases, and building capability (including human resources, finance and intellectual property goals). Each area included specific performance objectives and a corresponding weighting. For each strategic area, the Board also approved certain stretch goals with corresponding weightings, such that the corporate goals could be achieved at up to 142.5% of target.
In early 2018, the Board reviewed and approved the achievement of our 2017 corporate goals at 98%. Based on this level of achievement and adjustments for individual 2017 performance for Dr. David and Mr. Goeltz, which were determined by the Board following the recommendation of Mr. Leonard, our named executive officers were paid at the following percentages of their targeted amounts: Mr. Leonard: 98%; Dr. David: 99.75%; and Mr. Goeltz: 101%.
The actual annual cash bonuses awarded to each named executive officer for 2017 performance are set forth above in the Summary Compensation Table in the column titled Bonus. Mr. Goeltzs annual bonus was based on his actual base salary earnings for 2017.
Equity Compensation
Certain of our named executive officers currently hold options or restricted stock. Specifically, in 2017, Messrs. Leonard and Goeltz and Dr. David were granted options to purchase our common stock, and Dr. David was granted certain additional stock purchase rights, in each case, pursuant to our 2013 Equity Incentive Plan.
In January 2017, pursuant to his employment agreement with us dated as of October 26, 2016, the Board granted to Mr. Leonard an option to purchase 1,384,100 shares of our common stock, which vests as to 1/48th of the shares subject to the option each month from October 26, 2016, subject to Mr. Leonards continued service to the Company on each applicable vesting date. In addition, the
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option is subject to the accelerated vesting provisions set forth in Mr. Leonards employment agreement, as described below under Executive Compensation Arrangements.
In September 2017, in connection with his commencement of employment with us, the Board granted to Mr. Goeltz an option to purchase 220,338 shares of our common stock subject to time-based vesting, and an option to purchase 115,254 shares of our common stock subject to performance-based vesting. The time-vesting option vests with respect to 25% of the shares subject to the option on the first anniversary of Mr. Goeltzs employment commencement date, and with respect to 1/48th of the shares subject to the option on each monthly anniversary thereafter, subject to Mr. Goeltzs continued service to the Company on each applicable vesting date. The performance-vesting option vests as to (i) 25% of the shares subject to the option upon the achievement of a clinical milestone, (ii) as to 25% of the shares subject to the option upon a financing or valuation milestone; and (iii) as to 50% of the shares subject to the option upon an additional financing or valuation milestone. Mr. Goeltz exercised options to purchase 94,718 shares of our common stock in January 2018 using a combination of cash and a promissory note in the principal amount of $188,500, which was repaid on April 4, 2018.
In September 2017, the Board granted to Dr. David an option to purchase an aggregate of 138,417 shares of our common stock. 27,118 shares subject to the option vest on December 31, 2018, subject to Dr. Davids continued service to the Company, and the remaining shares are subject to the same performance-based vesting conditions as described above for Mr. Goeltzs performance-vesting option. Dr. David was also granted stock purchase rights to purchase an aggregate of 625,084 shares of the Companys common stock. 146,113 shares underlying the stock purchase right were fully vested upon purchase, and the remaining shares underlying the stock purchase right vest as to 25% on January 1, 2018 and as to 75% on January 1, 2019, subject to Dr. Davids continued service to the Company on each such vesting date. Dr. David exercised his stock purchase rights in 2017 using promissory notes in aggregate principal amount of $2,139,037, $1,639,038 of which was forgiven and $499,999 of which was repaid on April 4, 2018.
In connection with this offering, we have adopted a 2018 Incentive Award Plan, referred to below as the 2018 Plan, in order to facilitate the grant of cash and equity incentives to directors, employees (including our named executive officers) and consultants of our company and certain of its affiliates and to enable us to obtain and retain services of these individuals, which is essential to our long-term success. For additional information about the 2018 Plan, please see the section titled Equity Incentive Plans below.
Other Elements of Compensation
Retirement Savings and Health and Welfare Benefits
We maintain a 401(k) retirement savings plan for our employees, including our named executive officers, who satisfy certain eligibility requirements. Our named executive officers are eligible to participate in the 401(k) plan on the same terms as other full-time employees. Currently, we do not match contributions made by participants in the 401(k) plan. We believe that providing a vehicle for tax-deferred retirement savings though our 401(k) plan adds to the overall desirability of our executive compensation package and further incentivizes our employees, including our named executive officers, in accordance with our compensation policies.
All of our full-time employees, including our named executive officers, are eligible to participate in our health and welfare plans, including medical, dental and vision benefits; medical and dependent care flexible spending accounts; short-term and long-term disability insurance; and life and AD&D insurance.
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Perquisites and Other Personal Benefits
Pursuant to Mr. Leonards employment agreement, we provide a monthly allowance of $7,500 for housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, where our principal offices are located. We also provide to Mr. Leonard reimbursement of commuting expenses to our principal offices. We believe these benefits are reasonable and are intended to facilitate Mr. Leonard being accessible to the business as required. Other than the housing and commuting benefits provided to Mr. Leonard, we do not provide perquisites or other personal benefits to our named executive officers.
No Tax Gross-Ups
In 2017, we did not make gross-up payments to cover our named executive officers personal income taxes that pertained to any of the compensation or perquisites paid or provided by our company. However, in calendar year 2018, we will reimburse Mr. Leonard for taxes incurred by him in connection with our reimbursement of certain of his travel expenses.
Outstanding Equity Awards at Fiscal Year-End
The following table summarizes the number of shares of common stock and preferred stock underlying outstanding equity incentive plan awards for each named executive officer as of December 31, 2017.
Option Awards | Stock Awards | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name |
Vesting Commencement Date |
Number of Securities Underlying Unexercised Options (#) Exercisable |
Number of Securities Underlying Unexercised Options (#) Unexercisable |
Equity Incentive Plan Awards: Number of Securities Underlying Unexercised Unearned Options (#) |
Option Exercise Price ($) |
Option Expiration Date |
Number of Shares or Units of Stock That Have Not Vested (#) |
Market Value of Shares or Units of Stock That Have Not Vested ($)(1) |
Equity Incentive Plan Awards: Number of Unearned Shares, Units or Other Rights That Have Not Vested (#) |
Equity Incentive Plan Awards: Market or Payout Value of Unearned Shares, Units or Other Rights That Have Not Vested ($) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Keith R. Leonard Jr. |
10/26/2016 | (2) | 1,384,100 | | | 3.39 | 1/20/2027 | | | | | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nathaniel E. David |
12/31/2018 | (3) | 27,118 | | | 3.42 | 9/25/2027 | | | | | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
N/A | (4) | | | 111,299 | 3,42 | 9/25/2027 | | | | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1/1/2018 | (5) | | 192,823 | | 0.65 | | | | | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1/1/2018 | (6) | | 570,678 | | 0.66 | | | | | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1/1/2018 | (7) | | | | | | 478,971 | 2,825,929 | | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Robert C. Goeltz II |
9/5/2017 | (8) | 220,338 | | | 3.42 | 9/25/2027 | | | | | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
N/A | (4) | | | 115,254 | 3.42 | 9/25/2027 | | | | |
(1) | Amounts are calculated by multiplying the number of shares shown in the table by $5.90, the estimated fair market value of our common stock as of December 31, 2017. |
(2) | The option is exercisable immediately, in whole or in part, conditioned upon the executive entering into a restricted stock purchase agreement with respect to any unvested shares. The shares subject to the option vest and/or are released from the Companys repurchase option as to 1/48th of the shares subject to the option on each monthly anniversary of the vesting commencement date, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date. |
(3) | Vests in full on December 31, 2018, subject to continued service through such date. |
(4) | Vests as to (i) 25% of the shares subject to the option upon the achievement of a clinical milestone, (ii) as to 25% of the shares subject to the option upon a financing or valuation milestone; and (iii) as to 50% of the shares subject to the option upon an additional financing or valuation milestone, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date. |
(5) | Represents a compensatory warrant to purchase shares of our Series A-1 convertible preferred stock. The warrant is exercisable during the period from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018. |
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(6) | Represents compensatory warrants to purchase shares of our Series A-2 convertible preferred stock. The warrants are exercisable during the period from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018. |
(7) | Vests as to 25% of the restricted shares on January 1, 2018 and as to 75% of the restricted shares on January 1, 2019, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date. |
(8) | The option is exercisable immediately, in whole or in part, conditioned upon the executive entering into a restricted stock purchase agreement with respect to any unvested shares. The shares subject to the option vest and/or are released from the Companys repurchase option as to 25% of the shares subject to the option on the first anniversary of the vesting commencement date, and as to 1/48th of the shares subject to the option on each monthly anniversary thereafter, subject to continued service on each applicable vesting date. |
Executive Compensation Arrangements
As of December 31, 2017, we were party to an employment agreement with Mr. Leonard and offer letters with Dr. David and Mr. Goeltz. In early 2018, we entered into new employment agreements with each of our named executive officers, which superseded in their entirety their prior employment arrangements with us.
Mr. Leonard. We entered into an employment agreement with Mr. Leonard on October 26, 2016 in connection with his appointment as our Chief Executive Officer, which sets forth Mr. Leonards base salary, annual bonus opportunity and benefit plan participation. Pursuant to the employment agreement, Mr. Leonard also receives a housing allowance of $7,500 per month for housing in the San Francisco Bay Area. The employment agreement also provides for the grant of an option to purchase a number of shares of the Companys common stock such that combined with Mr. Leonards prior equity grants, Mr. Leonard would hold 5% of the Companys fully diluted shares, as well as a top-up option in the event of certain additional closings of the Companys Series B Preferred Stock financing. This option was granted in January 2017, as described above under Equity Compensation, and vests as to 1/48th of the shares subject to the option each month from October 26, 2016, subject to Mr. Leonards continued service to the Company on each applicable vesting date.
Pursuant to Mr. Leonards employment agreement, in the event of a change in control of the Company, Mr. Leonards equity awards will vest as to all of the shares subject thereto except for the lesser of (i) 6/48ths of the original number of shares underlying the award or (ii) the shares remaining unvested subject to the award as of the date of the change in control. The unvested portion of each such award will vest in substantially equal installments on each of the first six monthly anniversaries of the change in control, subject to Mr. Leonards continued service to the Company on each applicable vesting date.
In addition, Mr. Leonards employment agreement provides that in the event of his termination by the Company without cause or his resignation for good reason (each, as defined in the employment agreement), subject to his execution and delivery of a release of claims against the Company, Mr. Leonard will be entitled to receive: (i) continued base salary for 12 months following the date of termination; (ii) payment or reimbursement of continued healthcare coverage for up to 12 months following the date of termination; and (iii) 12 months accelerated vesting of his equity awards, or, in the event such termination occurs within the period beginning three months prior to and ending 12 months following a change in control, full acceleration of all his equity awards.
Pursuant to the new employment agreement entered into with Mr. Leonard in early 2018, in the event of a change in control of the Company, Mr. Leonards options outstanding as of the effective date of the employment agreement will vest as to the lesser of (i) 6/48ths of the original number of shares underlying the option or (ii) the remaining unvested shares underlying the options, and any then unvested shares will convert to a time-based option which will vest in substantially equal installments on each of the first six monthly anniversaries of the change in control, subject to Mr. Leonards continued service through the applicable vesting date. In addition, each other of Mr. Leonards future
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equity awards (including any performance awards to the extent then-unvested based on the change in control price) will vest as to 50% of the then-unvested shares subject thereto, and the remaining unvested shares will convert to a time-based equity award which will vest in substantially equal installments on each of the first twelve monthly anniversaries of the change in control, subject to Mr. Leonards continued service through the applicable vesting date. Mr. Leonards new employment agreement provides for the same severance benefits as his current employment agreement in the event of a qualifying termination not in connection with a change in control. In addition, in the event of a termination without cause or resignation for good reason, in either case, that occurs within the period beginning three months prior to and ending 18 months following a change in control, Mr. Leonard will be eligible to receive: (i) a lump sum severance payment equal to his annual base salary and target annual bonus; (ii) payment or reimbursement of continued healthcare coverage for up to 12 months following the date of termination; and (iii) full acceleration of his equity awards.
Dr. David and Mr. Goeltz. We are party to offer letters with each of Dr. David and Mr. Goeltz, which set forth their initial base salaries, bonus opportunities, benefit plan participation and initial equity awards. Mr. Goeltzs offer letter provided for an initial stock option grant, which was granted in September 2017, covering an aggregate of 335,591 shares, including 220,338 time-vesting shares and 115,254 performance-vesting shares, as described above under Equity Compensation.
Pursuant to the new employment agreements entered into with each of Dr. David and Mr. Goeltz in early 2018, in the event of a change in control of the Company, the executives equity awards (including any performance awards to the extent then-unvested based on the change in control price) will vest as to 50% of the then-unvested shares subject thereto, and the remaining unvested shares will convert to a time-based equity award which will vest in substantially equal installments on each of the first twelve monthly anniversaries of the change in control, subject to Dr. David and Mr. Goeltzs continued service through the applicable vesting date. In addition, in the event of a termination without cause or resignation for good reason (each, as defined in the employment agreement), in either case, that occurs within the period beginning three months prior to and ending 18 months following a change in control, subject to his execution and delivery of a release of claims against the Company, the executive will be eligible to receive: (i) an amount equal to 0.75 times the sum of the executives annual base salary and target bonus, payable in a lump sum; (ii) payment or reimbursement of continued healthcare coverage for up to nine months following the date of termination; and (iii) full acceleration of his equity awards.
Equity Compensation Plans
The following summarizes the material terms of the long-term incentive compensation plan in which our named executive officers will be eligible to participate following the consummation of this offering and our 2013 Equity Incentive Plan, referred to as the 2013 Plan, under which we have previously made periodic grants of equity and equity-based awards to our named executive officers and other key employees.
2018 Incentive Award Plan
The Board has adopted, and our stockholders have approved, the 2018 Incentive Award Plan, or 2018 Plan, which will be effective upon the effectiveness of the registration statement to which this prospectus relates. The principal purpose of the 2018 Plan is to attract, retain and motivate selected employees, consultants and directors through the granting of stock-based compensation awards and cash-based performance bonus awards. The material terms of the 2018 Plan, as it is currently contemplated, are summarized below.
Share Reserve. Under the 2018 Plan, 4,289,936 shares of our common stock will be initially reserved for issuance pursuant to a variety of stock-based compensation awards, including stock
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options, stock appreciation rights, or SARs, restricted stock awards, restricted stock unit awards and other stock-based awards, plus the number of shares remaining available for future awards under the 2013 Plan, as of the effective date of the 2018 Plan. The number of shares initially reserved for issuance or transfer pursuant to awards under the 2018 Plan will be increased by (i) the number of shares represented by awards outstanding under our 2013 Plan that are forfeited or lapse unexercised and which following the effective date are not issued under our 2013 Plan and (ii) an annual increase on the first day of each fiscal year beginning in 2019 and ending in 2028, equal to the lesser of (A) 5.0% of the shares of stock outstanding (on an as converted basis) on the last day of the immediately preceding fiscal year and (B) such smaller number of shares of stock as determined by our board of directors; provided, however, that no more than 60.0 million shares of stock may be issued upon the exercise of incentive stock options.
The following counting provisions will be in effect for the share reserve under the 2018 Plan:
| to the extent that an award terminates, expires or lapses for any reason or an award is settled in cash without the delivery of shares, any shares subject to the award at such time will be available for future grants under the 2018 Plan; |
| to the extent shares are tendered or withheld to satisfy the grant, exercise price or tax withholding obligation with respect to any award under the 2018 Plan, such tendered or withheld shares will be available for future grants under the 2018 Plan; |
| to the extent shares subject to stock appreciation rights are not issued in connection with the stock settlement of stock appreciation rights on exercise thereof, such shares will be available for future grants under the 2018 Plan; and |
| to the extent permitted by applicable law or any exchange rule, shares issued in assumption of, or in substitution for, any outstanding awards of any entity acquired in any form of combination by us or any of our subsidiaries will not be counted against the shares available for issuance under the 2018 Plan. |
Administration. The compensation committee of our board of directors is expected to administer the 2018 Plan unless our board of directors assumes authority for administration. To the extent required by applicable law, the committee administering the plan is intended to qualify as a non-employee director for purposes of Rule 16b-3 under the Exchange Act. The 2018 Plan provides that the board or compensation committee may delegate its authority to grant awards to employees other than executive officers and certain senior executives of the company to a committee consisting of one or more members of our board of directors or one or more of our officers, other than awards made to our non-employee directors, which must be approved by our full board of directors.
Subject to the terms and conditions of the 2018 Plan, the administrator has the authority to select the persons to whom awards are to be made, to determine the number of shares to be subject to awards and the terms and conditions of awards, and to make all other determinations necessary or advisable for the administration of the 2018 Plan. The full board of directors will administer the 2018 Plan with respect to awards to non-employee directors.
Eligibility. Awards under the 2018 Plan may generally be granted to individuals who are then our officers, employees or consultants or are the officers, employees or consultants of certain of our subsidiaries. Such awards also may be granted to our directors. Only employees of our company or certain of our subsidiaries may be granted incentive stock options, or ISOs.
Awards. The 2018 Plan provides that the administrator may grant or issue stock options, SARs, restricted stock, restricted stock units, performance bonus awards, performance stock units, other stock- or cash-based awards and dividend equivalents, or any combination thereof. Each award will be