UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, DC 20549
FORM
(Mark One)
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QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the quarterly period ended
OR
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TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the transition period from _______________to ____________
Commission File Number:
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)
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(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) |
(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
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(Address of principal executive offices) |
(Zip Code) |
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
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Title of each class |
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Name of each exchange on which registered |
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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
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Large accelerated filer |
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Accelerated filer |
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Smaller reporting company |
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Emerging growth company |
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If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes
As of August 5, 2022, the registrant had
Table of Contents
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Page |
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PART I. |
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Item 1. |
1 |
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1 |
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Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss |
2 |
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3 |
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4 |
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Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements |
5 |
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Item 2. |
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations |
14 |
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Item 3. |
22 |
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Item 4. |
22 |
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PART II. |
23 |
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Item 1. |
23 |
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Item 1A. |
23 |
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Item 2. |
40 |
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Item 3. |
40 |
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Item 4. |
40 |
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Item 5. |
40 |
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Item 6. |
41 |
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42 |
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i
PART I—FINANCIAL INFORMATION
Item 1. Financial Statements.
89bio, Inc.
Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets
(In thousands)
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June 30, |
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December 31, |
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2022 |
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2021 |
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(Unaudited) |
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Assets |
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Current assets: |
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Cash and cash equivalents |
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$ |
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$ |
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Restricted cash |
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Short-term available-for-sale securities |
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Prepaid and other current assets |
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Total current assets |
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Operating lease right-of-use asset |
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— |
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Property and equipment, net |
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Other assets |
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Total assets |
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$ |
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$ |
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Liabilities and stockholders’ equity |
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Current liabilities: |
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Accounts payable |
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$ |
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$ |
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Accrued expenses |
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Operating lease liability, current |
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— |
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Term loan, current |
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Total current liabilities |
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Term loan, non-current, net |
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Liability related to public offering |
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— |
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Other non-current liability |
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Total liabilities |
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Commitments and contingencies (Note 5) |
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Stockholders’ equity: |
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Common stock |
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Additional paid-in capital |
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Accumulated other comprehensive loss |
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( |
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( |
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Accumulated deficit |
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( |
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( |
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Total stockholders’ equity |
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Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity |
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$ |
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$ |
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The accompanying notes are an integral part of these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.
1
89bio, Inc.
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss
(Unaudited)
(In thousands, except share and per share amounts)
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Three Months Ended |
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Six Months Ended |
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June 30, |
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June 30, |
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2022 |
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2021 |
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2022 |
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2021 |
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Operating expenses: |
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Research and development |
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$ |
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$ |
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$ |
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$ |
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General and administrative |
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Total operating expenses |
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Loss from operations |
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( |
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( |
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( |
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( |
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Other expenses, net |
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( |
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( |
) |
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( |
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( |
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Net loss before tax |
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( |
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( |
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( |
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( |
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Income tax expense |
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— |
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— |
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( |
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— |
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Net loss |
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$ |
( |
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$ |
( |
) |
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$ |
( |
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$ |
( |
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Other comprehensive (loss) income: |
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Unrealized (loss) gain on available-for-sale securities |
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( |
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( |
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Foreign currency translation adjustments |
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( |
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Total other comprehensive (loss) income |
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$ |
( |
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$ |
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$ |
( |
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$ |
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Comprehensive loss |
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$ |
( |
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$ |
( |
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$ |
( |
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$ |
( |
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Net loss per share, basic and diluted |
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$ |
( |
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$ |
( |
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$ |
( |
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$ |
( |
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Weighted-average shares used to compute net loss per share, basic and diluted |
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The accompanying notes are an integral part of these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.
2
89bio, Inc.
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity
For the Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2022 and 2021
(Unaudited)
(In thousands, except share amounts)
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Accumulated |
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Additional |
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Other |
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Total |
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Common Stock |
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Paid-in |
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Comprehensive |
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Accumulated |
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Stockholders’ |
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Shares |
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Amount |
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Capital |
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Loss |
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Deficit |
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Equity |
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Balance as of December 31, 2021 |
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$ |
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$ |
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$ |
( |
) |
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$ |
( |
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$ |
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Issuance of common stock upon exercise of stock options |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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Issuance of common stock upon vesting of restricted stock units, net |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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Stock-based compensation |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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Net loss |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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( |
) |
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( |
) |
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Other comprehensive loss |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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( |
) |
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— |
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( |
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Balance as of March 31, 2022 |
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( |
) |
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( |
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Issuance of common stock upon ESPP purchases |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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Withholding taxes related to restricted stock units |
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— |
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— |
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( |
) |
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— |
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— |
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( |
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Stock-based compensation |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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Net loss |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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( |
) |
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( |
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Other comprehensive loss |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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( |
) |
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— |
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( |
) |
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Balance as of June 30, 2022 |
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$ |
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$ |
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$ |
( |
) |
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$ |
( |
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$ |
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Accumulated |
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Additional |
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Other |
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Total |
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Common Stock |
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Paid-in |
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Comprehensive |
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Accumulated |
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Stockholders’ |
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Shares |
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Amount |
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Capital |
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(Loss) Income |
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Deficit |
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Equity |
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Balance as of December 31, 2020 |
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$ |
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$ |
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$ |
( |
) |
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$ |
( |
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$ |
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Issuance of common stock upon exercise of stock options |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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Stock-based compensation |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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Net loss |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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( |
) |
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( |
) |
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Other comprehensive income |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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Balance as of March 31, 2021 |
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( |
) |
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( |
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Issuance of common stock upon exercise of stock options |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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Issuance of common stock upon ESPP purchases |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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Issuance of common stock warrant in connection with term loan facility |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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Stock-based compensation |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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Net loss |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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( |
) |
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( |
) |
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Other comprehensive income |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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— |
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Balance as of June 30, 2021 |
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$ |
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$ |
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$ |
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$ |
( |
) |
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$ |
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The accompanying notes are an integral part of these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.
3
89bio, Inc.
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
(Unaudited)
(In thousands)
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Six Months Ended |
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June 30, |
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2022 |
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2021 |
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Cash flows from operating activities: |
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Net loss |
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$ |
( |
) |
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$ |
( |
) |
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Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities: |
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Stock-based compensation |
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Accretion of final payment fee on term loan |
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— |
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Amortization of debt issuance costs |
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Amortization of premium on available-for-sale securities |
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Non-cash operating lease expense |
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— |
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Depreciation |
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Changes in operating assets and liabilities: |
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Prepaid and other current assets |
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( |
) |
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Other assets |
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( |
) |
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Accounts payable |
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( |
) |
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( |
) |
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Accrued expenses |
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( |
) |
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Operating lease liability |
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( |
) |
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— |
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Net cash used in operating activities |
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( |
) |
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( |
) |
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Cash flows from investing activities: |
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Proceeds from maturities of available-for-sale securities |
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Purchases of available-for-sale securities |
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( |
) |
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( |
) |
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Purchases of property and equipment |
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( |
) |
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( |
) |
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Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities |
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( |
) |
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Cash flows from financing activities: |
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Proceeds from public offering, prior to closing |
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— |
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Proceeds from issuance of common stock upon ESPP purchases |
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Proceeds from issuance of common stock upon stock option exercises |
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Payment of withholding taxes related to restricted stock units |
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( |
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— |
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Proceeds from term loan facility, net of issuance costs |
|
|
— |
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Net cash provided by financing activities |
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Net change in cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash |
|
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( |
) |
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Cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash at beginning of period |
|
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Cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash at end of period |
|
$ |
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$ |
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|
Components of cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash: |
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Cash and cash equivalents |
|
$ |
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$ |
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Restricted cash |
|
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Total cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash |
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$ |
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$ |
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Supplemental disclosures of cash information: |
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|
|
Cash paid for interest |
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
Cash paid for operating leases |
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
Supplemental disclosures of non-cash information: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Offering costs included in other assets and accrued expenses |
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
Purchases of property and equipment included in accounts payable and accrued expenses |
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
Issuance of common stock warrant in connection with term loan facility |
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
Debt issuance costs included in accounts payable |
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
|
|
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.
4
89bio, Inc.
Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
1. Organization and Basis of Presentation
Description of Business
89bio, Inc. (“89bio” or the “Company”) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative therapies for the treatment of liver and cardio-metabolic diseases. The Company’s lead product candidate, pegozafermin (previously BIO89-100), a specifically engineered glycoPEGylated analog of fibroblast growth factor 21, is currently being developed for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and for the treatment of severe hypertriglyceridemia.
89bio was formed as a Delaware corporation in to carry on the business of 89Bio Ltd., which was incorporated in Israel in January 2018.
Public Offerings
In March 2021, the Company entered into a sales agreement (the “Sales Agreement”) with SVB Leerink LLC and Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. (the “Sales Agents”) pursuant to which it may offer and sell up to $
In July 2022, pursuant to a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (No. 333-254684), the Company completed an underwritten public offering of its common stock, warrants to purchase shares of its common stock and pre-funded warrants to purchase shares of its common stock. The Company sold
Liquidity
The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming the Company will continue as a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and liquidation of liabilities in the normal course of business. To date, the Company has not generated revenues from its activities and has incurred substantial operating losses. Management expects the Company to continue to generate substantial operating losses for the foreseeable future until it completes development of its products and seeks regulatory approvals to market such products. The Company had cash and cash equivalents and short-term available-for-sale securities of $
The Company expects that its cash and cash equivalents and short-term available-for-sale securities as of June 30, 2022, together with the proceeds received from the Company’s July 2022 offering and proceeds available from the Company’s ATM Facility, will be sufficient to fund operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements for a period of at least one year from the date these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).
2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
The accompanying interim unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“U.S. GAAP”) and applicable rules and regulations of the SEC regarding interim financial reporting.
The accompanying interim condensed consolidated financial statements are unaudited. The interim unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared on the same basis as the audited consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2021 and, in the opinion of management, reflect all adjustments, which include only normal recurring
5
adjustments, necessary to present fairly the Company’s consolidated financial position, results of operations and comprehensive loss, and cash flows. The results of operations for the three and six months ended June 30, 2022 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the year ending December 31, 2022 or for any other future annual or interim period. The condensed consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2021 was derived from the audited financial statements as of that date. These condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements included in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, which was filed with the SEC on March 24, 2022.
Principles of Consolidation
The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly owned subsidiaries. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities as of the date of the condensed consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of expenses during the reporting period. Significant estimates and assumptions made in the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements include but are not limited to the fair value of stock options and certain accrued expenses. The Company evaluates its estimates and assumptions on an ongoing basis using historical experience and other factors and adjusts those estimates and assumptions when facts and circumstances dictate. Actual results could differ from those estimates.
Fair Value Measurements
Financial assets and liabilities are recorded at fair value on a recurring basis in the condensed consolidated balance sheets. The carrying values of Company’s financial assets and liabilities, including cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, prepaid and other current assets, accounts payable and accrued expenses approximate to their fair value due to the short-term nature of these instruments. The fair value of the Company’s term loan approximates its carrying value, or amortized cost, due to the prevailing market rates of interest it bears. Fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability (an exit price) in an orderly transaction between market participants at the reporting date. Assets and liabilities recorded at fair value are categorized based upon the level of judgment associated with the inputs used to measure their fair value. Hierarchical levels are directly related to the amount of subjectivity with the inputs to the valuation of these assets or liabilities as follows:
Level 1—Observable inputs such as unadjusted, quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities at the measurement date;
Level 2—Inputs (other than quoted prices included in Level 1) are either directly or indirectly observable inputs for similar assets or liabilities. These include quoted prices for identical or similar assets or liabilities in active markets and quoted prices for identical or similar assets or liabilities in markets that are not active; and
Level 3—Unobservable inputs that are supported by little or no market activity and that are significant to the fair value of the assets or liabilities.
Risks and Uncertainties
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted and may continue to disrupt the Company’s business and delay its preclinical and clinical programs and timelines. The Company does not yet know the full extent of potential delays to clinical trials, which could prevent or delay the Company from obtaining approval for pegozafermin. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic may impact the Company’s future operating results and financial condition is uncertain.
Cash and Cash Equivalents
The Company considers all highly liquid investments purchased with original maturities of three months or less from the purchase date to be cash equivalents. Cash equivalents consist primarily of amounts invested in money market funds and commercial paper that are stated at fair value.
Investments
Investments have been classified as available-for-sale and are carried at estimated fair value as determined based upon quoted market prices or pricing models for similar securities. Management determines the appropriate classification of its available-for-sale investments in debt securities at the time of purchase. Generally, investments with original maturities beyond three months at the date
6
of purchase are classified as short-term because it is management’s intent to use the investments to fund current operations or to make them available for current operations.
Unrealized gains and losses are excluded from earnings and are reported as a component of comprehensive loss. The Company periodically evaluates whether declines in fair values of its available-for-sale securities below their book value are other-than-temporary. This evaluation consists of several qualitative and quantitative factors regarding the severity and duration of the unrealized loss as well as the Company’s ability and intent to hold the available-for-sale security until a forecasted recovery occurs. Additionally, the Company assesses whether it has plans to sell the security or it is more likely than not it will be required to sell any available-for-sale securities before recovery of its amortized cost basis. Realized gains and losses and declines in fair value judged to be other than temporary, if any, on available-for-sale securities are included in other expenses, net. The cost of investments sold is based on the specific-identification method. The Company has
Leases
Prior to January 1, 2022, the Company accounted for leases under Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 840, Leases (“ASC 840”). Effective January 1, 2022, the Company adopted and accounts for leases under ASC 842, Leases (“ASC 842”) as discussed below in the section titled “Recently Adopted Accounting Standards”. Therefore, as of December 31, 2021 and for the three and six months ended June 30 2021, the Company’s consolidated financial statements continue to be presented in accordance with ASC 840, the accounting standard originally in effect for such periods. As of June 30, 2022 and for the three and six months ended June 30, 2022, the Company’s consolidated financial statements are presented in accordance with ASC 842. The Company’s existing leases are for office and laboratory space.
The Company accounts for a contract as a lease when it has the right to control the asset for a period of time while obtaining substantially all of the asset’s economic benefits. The Company determines if an arrangement is a lease or contains an embedded lease at inception. For arrangements that meet the definition of a lease, the Company determines the initial classification and measurement of its right-of-use (“ROU”) asset and lease liability at the lease commencement date and thereafter if modified. Operating lease ROU assets represent the Company’s right to use an underlying asset for the lease term and lease liabilities represent the Company’s obligation to make the contractual lease payments over the lease term. The lease term includes any renewal options that the Company is reasonably assured to exercise. The present value of lease payments is determined by using the interest rate implicit in the lease, if that rate is readily determinable, otherwise, the Company uses its estimated collateralized incremental borrowing rate for the lease term. The Company has elected not to record leases with an original term of twelve months or less on its consolidated balance sheets and recognizes those lease payments in operating expenses in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss. The Company’s short-term lease is not material.
In addition, the leases may require the Company to pay additional costs, such as utilities, maintenance and other operating costs, which are generally referred to as non-lease components and vary based on future outcomes. The Company has elected to not separate lease and non-lease components. Only the fixed costs for lease components and their associated non-lease components are accounted for as a single lease component and recognized as part of a ROU asset and lease liability. Any variable expenses are recognized in operating expenses as incurred. The rent expense for an operating lease liability is recognized on a straight-line basis over the lease term and is included in operating expenses in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss.
Comprehensive Loss
The Company’s comprehensive loss is comprised of net loss and changes in unrealized gains or losses on available-for-sale securities and foreign currency translation adjustments.
Recently Adopted Accounting Standards
On
7
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
In June 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued ASU 2016-13, Financial Instruments—Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments (“ASU 2016-13”), which replaces the existing incurred loss impairment model with an expected credit loss model and requires a financial asset measured at amortized cost to be presented at the net amount expected to be collected. As an emerging growth company, ASU 2016-13 is effective for the Company for the year ending December 31, 2023 and interim periods within that fiscal year and must be adopted using a modified retrospective approach, with certain exceptions. The Company is evaluating the impact of this standard on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.
3. Fair Value Measurements
The following table presents the Company’s financial assets measured at fair value on a recurring basis by level within the fair value hierarchy as of June 30, 2022 (in thousands):
|
|
|
|
|
June 30, 2022 |
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|
Valuation |
|
Amortized |
|
|
Unrealized |
|
|
Unrealized |
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
Hierarchy |
|
Cost |
|
|
Gains |
|
|
Losses |
|
|
Fair Value |
|
||||
|
Money market funds |
|
Level 1 |
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
Commercial paper |
|
Level 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
U.S. government bonds |
|
Level 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
Agency bonds |
|
Level 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
Corporate debt securities |
|
Level 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
Non-U.S. debt securities |
|
Level 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
U.S. treasury bills |
|
Level 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
Municipal bonds |
|
Level 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
Total cash equivalents and available-for-sale securities |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
|
|
|
Classified as: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cash equivalents |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
Short-term available-for-sale securities |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total cash equivalents and available-for-sale securities |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
As of June 30, 2022, all of the Company’s available-for-sale securities by contractual maturity are within one year.
The following table presents the Company’s financial assets measured at fair value on a recurring basis by level within the fair value hierarchy as of December 31, 2021 (in thousands):
|
|
|
|
|
December 31, 2021 |
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|
Valuation |
|
Amortized |
|
|
Unrealized |
|
|
Unrealized |
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
Hierarchy |
|
Cost |
|
|
Gains |
|
|
Losses |
|
|
Fair Value |
|
||||
|
Money market funds |
|
Level 1 |
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
Commercial paper |
|
Level 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
U.S. government bonds |
|
Level 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
Corporate debt securities |
|
Level 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
Agency bonds |
|
Level 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
Municipal bonds |
|
Level 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
Non-U.S. debt securities |
|
Level 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
Total cash equivalents and available-for-sale securities |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
( |
) |
|
$ |
|
|
|
Classified as: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cash equivalents |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
Short-term available-for-sale securities |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total cash equivalents and available-for-sale securities |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
8
The following table summarizes the Company’s available-for-sale securities by contractual maturity as of December 31, 2021 (in thousands):
|
|
|
December 31, 2021 |
|
|
|
Within one year |
|
$ |
|
|
|
After one year through two years |
|
|
|
|
|
Total cash equivalents and available-for-sale securities |
|
$ |
|
|
4. Balance Sheet Components
Prepaid and other current assets consist of the following as of the periods indicated (in thousands):
|
|
|
June 30, |
|
|
December 31, |
|
||
|
|
|
2022 |
|
|
2021 |
|
||
|
Prepaid research and development |
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
Prepaid taxes |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Prepaid other |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total prepaid and other current assets |
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
Accrued expenses consist of the following as of the periods indicated (in thousands):
|
|
|
June 30, |
|
|
December 31, |
|
||
|
|
|
2022 |
|
|
2021 |
|
||
|
Accrued research and development expenses |
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
Accrued employee and related expenses |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Accrued professional and legal fees |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Accrued other expenses |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total accrued expenses |
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
5. Commitments and Contingencies
Leases
On January 1, 2022, the Company adopted ASC 842 (see Note 2) and the following disclosures as of June 30, 2022 and for the three and six months ended June 30, 2022 are presented under ASC 842.
For the three and six months ended June 30, 2022, the Company incurred $
As of June 30, 2022, the undiscounted future minimum lease payments due under the Company’s non-cancellable operating lease are as follows (in thousands):
|
Remainder of 2022 |
|
$ |
|
|
|
2023 |
|
|
|
|
|
Total undiscounted future minimum lease payments |
|
$ |
|
|
|
Less: imputed interest |
|
$ |
( |
) |
|
Present value of operating lease liability, current |
|
$ |
|
|
9
In accordance with ASC 840, rent expense for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021 was $
|
2022 |
|
$ |
|
|
|
2023 |
|
|
|
|
|
Total future minimum annual payments |
|
$ |
|
|
Asset Transfer and License Agreement with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd
In April 2018, the Company concurrently entered into two Asset Transfer and License Agreements (the “Teva Agreements”) with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (“Teva”) under which it acquired certain patents and intellectual property relating to two programs: (1) Teva’s glycoPEGylated FGF21 program, including the compound TEV-47948 (pegozafermin), a glycoPEGylated long-acting FGF21 and (2) Teva’s development program of small molecule inhibitors of fatty acid synthase. Pursuant to the Teva Agreements, the Company could be obligated to pay Teva up to $
The Teva Agreements can be terminated (i) by the Company without cause upon
During the three and six months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021, none of the development and commercial milestones were met and accordingly, there were
6. Term Loan
Loan and Security Agreement
In April 2020, the Company entered into a Loan and Security Agreement, (the “Loan Agreement”) with the lenders referred to therein (the “Lenders”), and Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”), as collateral agent. The Loan Agreement provided for (i) a secured term A loan facility (the “Term A Loan Facility”) of up to $
In April 2020, in connection with the execution of the Loan Agreement, the Company issued SVB a warrant to purchase
10
In May 2021, in connection with the execution of the 2021 Loan Agreement, the Company issued SVB a warrant to purchase
The 2021 Loan Agreement was accounted for as a modification to a credit facility. The debt issuance costs incurred in May 2021, including the fair value of the warrant, together with the remaining unamortized debt issuance costs related to the Loan Agreement of $
The expected repayments of principal amount due on the term loan, excluding the final payment fee (which is presented as an other non-current liability on the condensed consolidated balance sheets) as of June 30, 2022 are as follows (in thousands):
|
Remainder of 2022 |
|
$ |
|
|
|
2023 |
|
|
|
|
|
2024 |
|
|
|
|
|
Total principal repayments |
|
|
|
|
|
Less: unamortized debt discount |
|
|
( |
) |
|
Total term loan, net |
|
|
|
|
|
Less: term loan, current |
|
|
( |
) |
|
Term loan, non-current, net |
|
$ |
|
|
7. Stockholders’ Equity
Equity Incentive Plan
In September 2019, the Company’s board of directors adopted the 2019 Equity Incentive Plan (the “2019 Plan”), which also became effective in September 2019. The Company initially reserved
Employee Stock Purchase Plan
In October 2019, the Company’s board of directors adopted the 2019 Employee Stock Purchase Plan (“ESPP”), which became effective in November 2019. The Company initially reserved
11
The following table summarizes stock option activity for the six months ended June 30, 2022:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Weighted |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Weighted |
|
|
Average |
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Average |
|
|
Remaining |
|
|
Aggregate |
|
|||
|
|
|
Number of |
|
|
Exercise |
|
|
Contractual |
|
|
Intrinsic |
|
||||
|
|
|
Options |
|
|
Price |
|
|
Term |
|
|
Value |
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(In years) |
|
|
(In thousands) |
|
||
|
Balance outstanding as of December 31, 2021 |
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
Granted |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Exercised |
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cancelled |
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Balance outstanding as of June 30, 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
Exercisable as of June 30, 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
The fair value of stock option awards granted for the periods indicated was estimated at the date of grant using a Black-Scholes option-pricing model with the following assumptions:
|
|
|
Six Months Ended |
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
June 30, |
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
2022 |
|
|
2021 |
|
|
||
|
Expected term (years) |
|
5.5-6.1 |
|
|
5.5-6.1 |
|
|
||
|
Expected volatility |
|
|
|
% |
|
|
% |
||
|
Risk-free interest rate |
|
|
|
% |
|
|
% |
||
|
Expected dividend |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
Restricted Stock Units (“RSUs”)
Pursuant to the Company’s 2019 Plan, RSUs are granted to executives and certain employees.
In February 2021 and 2022, the Company granted certain employees service-based RSUs that generally vest annually over a period. The restrictions lapse over time for these service-based RSUs. In the event of termination of the holder’s continuous service to the Company, any unvested portion of the service-based RSUs are cancelled. For the three months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021, the Company recognized $
In February 2021, the Company granted performance-based RSUs that vest as to one-third on each anniversary date, subject to achievement of a development milestone and continued service to the Company. In February 2022, a portion of the performance-based RSUs vested upon achievement of the development milestone and satisfaction of the continued service condition. Also, in February 2022, the Company granted performance-based RSUs that vest during the performance period, subject to the achievement of certain corporate or department targets and continued service to the Company. Expense was recognized for the performance-based RSUs using the accelerated attribution method because it is probable that the performance conditions will be met. For the three months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021, the Company recognized $
The following table summarizes RSU activity for the six months ended June 30, 2022:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Weighted Average |
|
|
|
|
|
Number of |
|
|
Grant Date |
|
||
|
|
|
RSUs |
|
|
Fair Value |
|
||
|
Balance outstanding as of December 31, 2021 |
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
Granted |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Vested / released |
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
Cancelled / forfeited |
|
|
( |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
Balance outstanding as of June 30, 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
12
The Company recorded stock-based compensation for the periods indicated as follows (in thousands):
|
|
|
Three Months Ended |
|
|
Six Months Ended |
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
June 30, |
|
|
June 30, |
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
2022 |
|
|
2021 |
|
|
2022 |
|
|
2021 |
|
||||
|
Research and development |
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
General and administrative |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total stock-based compensation |
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
8. Net Loss Per Share
|
|
|
Six Months Ended |
|
|||||
|
|
|
June 30, |
|
|||||
|
|
|
2022 |
|
|
2021 |
|
||
|
Stock options to purchase common stock |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Unvested restricted stock units |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Warrants to purchase common stock |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9. Subsequent Events
In July 2022, the Company completed an underwritten public offering of its common stock, warrants and pre-funded warrants (see Note 1).
13
Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Forward Looking Statements
You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes and other financial information included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and our consolidated financial statements and related notes and other financial information included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those described in or implied by 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 titled “Risk Factors” included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
Overview
We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative therapies for the treatment of liver and cardio-metabolic diseases. Our lead product candidate, pegozafermin (previously BIO89-100), a specifically engineered glycoPEGylated analog of fibroblast growth factor 21 (“FGF21”), is currently being developed for the treatment of severe hypertriglyceridemia (“SHTG”) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (“NASH”).
SHTG is a condition identified by severely elevated levels of triglycerides (≥500 mg/dL), which is associated with an increased risk of NASH, cardiovascular events and acute pancreatitis. In June 2022, we reported positive topline results from our Phase 2 trial (ENTRIGUE) in SHTG patients. Treatment with pegozafermin resulted in clinically meaningful and statistically significant reductions in triglycerides from baseline across all doses (with a 63% reduction in the highest dosing group; p<0.001), statistically significant improvements in key markers of cardiovascular risk (non-HDL-C and apo B), reductions in liver fat, and improvements in glycemic control markers. Results were consistent in patients not on background therapy or on background therapy (consistent results on statins or statin combos, prescription fish oils, and fibrates) and across various subgroups, including those with the greatest disease burden, such as patients with Type 2 diabetes and those with baseline triglyceride levels ≥750 mg/dL. Pegozafermin was generally well tolerated with a favorable safety profile across doses consistent with prior studies. The most commonly reported treatment-related adverse events were nausea, diarrhea, and injection site reactions, all which were classified as mild or moderate. No tremors or transaminase elevation adverse events were observed. There were no drug-related serious adverse events and two Grade 2 treatment-related discontinuations. We plan to initiate our Phase 3 SHTG trial in the first half of 2023 pending our end of Phase 2 meeting with the FDA.
NASH is a severe form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, characterized by inflammation and fibrosis in the liver that can progress to cirrhosis, liver failure, hepatocellular carcinoma (“HCC”) and death. There are currently no approved products for the treatment of NASH. In January 2022, we announced positive topline results from an expansion cohort (cohort 7) of the Phase 1b/2a trial of pegozafermin in NASH after announcing positive topline data from cohorts 1 through 6 in September 2020. We also initiated a Phase 2b trial (ENLIVEN) evaluating pegozafermin in fibrosis stage 2 or 3 NASH patients in June 2021. Patients will receive weekly doses (15 mg and 30 mg) or a every two-week dose (44 mg) of pegozafermin or placebo for 24 weeks followed by a blinded extension phase of an additional 24 weeks for a total treatment period of 48 weeks. Dose selection for ENLIVEN was informed by concentration response relationships in the NASH Phase 1b/2a study. Maximal effect for relevant response metrics was observed at concentrations achieved with 27 – 30 mg once weekly dose. We are making good progress in ENLIVEN and project to close enrollment in the third quarter of 2022 and expect to report topline data from this trial in the first quarter of 2023. Based on learnings from our recent cohort, developments in the field, and feedback from our steering committee, we have implemented steps to optimize the ENLIVEN trial. In 2021, we completed a pharmacokinetic study of pegozafermin in NASH patients with compensated cirrhosis (fibrosis stage F4) demonstrating that pegozafermin 30 mg has similar single-dose pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in F4 as it does in non-cirrhotic NASH. We are currently evaluating the potential opportunity for pegozafermin in these fibrosis stage F4 patients.
We commenced operations in 2018 and have devoted substantially all of our resources to raising capital, acquiring our initial product candidate, identifying and developing pegozafermin, licensing certain related technology, conducting research and development activities (including preclinical studies and clinical trials) and providing general and administrative support for these operations.
As of June 30, 2022, our cash and cash equivalents and short-term available-for-sale securities totaled $139.3 million. Based on our current operating plan, we believe that our cash and cash equivalents and short-term available-for-sale securities, together with the proceeds received from our offering of common stock, warrants and pre-funded warrants consummated in July 2022, and proceeds available from our at-the-market facility, will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash requirements for a period of at least one year from the date this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q is filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).
14
We have incurred net losses since our inception. Our net losses for the three months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021 were $25.1 million and $20.7 million, respectively. Our net losses for the six months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021 were $50.6 million and $35.5 million, respectively. As of June 30, 2022, we had an accumulated deficit of $263.8 million. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and increasing operating losses as we advance pegozafermin and any future product candidates through clinical trials, seek regulatory approval for pegozafermin and any future product candidates, expand our clinical, regulatory, quality, manufacturing and commercialization capabilities, protect our intellectual property, prepare for and, if approved, proceed to commercialization of pegozafermin and any future product candidates, expand our general and administrative support functions, including hiring additional personnel, and incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company. Our net losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year, depending on the timing of our clinical trials and our expenditures on other research and development activities.
Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted and may continue to disrupt our business and delay our development timeline. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic may impact our future operating results and financial condition is uncertain. We do not yet know the full extent of potential delays that may affect our clinical trials, which could prevent or delay us from obtaining approval for pegozafermin. Given the surges in cases of COVID-19 experienced previously and uncertainty regarding other variants, we cannot predict how our ongoing trials may be impacted. For more information regarding risks related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, please see the risk factor entitled “The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted and may in the future result in significant disruptions to our clinical trials or other business operations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business,” in Part II. Item 1A of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. To the extent the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects our business and financial results, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks set forth under “Risk Factors” in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
Components of Results of Operations
Research and Development Expenses
Research and development expenses consist primarily of costs incurred for the development of our lead product candidate, pegozafermin. Our research and development expenses consist primarily of external costs related to preclinical and clinical development, including costs related to acquiring patents and intellectual property, expenses incurred under license agreements and agreements with contract research organizations and consultants, costs related to acquiring and manufacturing clinical trial materials, including under agreements with contract manufacturing organizations and other vendors, costs related to the preparation of regulatory submissions and expenses related to laboratory supplies and services, as well as personnel costs. Personnel costs consist of salaries, employee benefits and stock-based compensation for individuals involved in research and development efforts.
We expense all research and development expenses in the periods in which they are incurred. We accrue for costs incurred as services are provided by monitoring the status of specific activities and invoices received from our external service providers. We adjust our accrued expenses as actual costs become known.
Payments associated with licensing agreements to acquire licenses to develop, use, manufacture and commercialize products that have not reached technological feasibility and do not have alternate commercial use are expensed as incurred. Where contingent milestone payments are due to third parties under research and development arrangements or license agreements, the milestone payment obligations are expensed when the milestone results are probable and estimable, which is generally upon achievement of milestones.
15
We expect our research and development expenses to increase for the foreseeable future as we continue the development of pegozafermin and continue to invest in research and development activities. The process of conducting the necessary clinical research to obtain regulatory approval is costly and time consuming, and the successful development of pegozafermin and any future product candidates is highly uncertain. To the extent that pegozafermin continues to advance into larger and later stage clinical trials, our expenses will increase substantially and may become more variable. The actual probability of success for pegozafermin or any future product candidate may be affected by a variety of factors, including the safety and efficacy of our product candidates, investment in our clinical programs, manufacturing capability and competition with other products. As a result, we are unable to determine the timing of initiation, duration and completion costs of our research and development efforts or when and to what extent we will generate revenue from the commercialization and sale of pegozafermin or any future product candidate.
General and Administrative Expenses
General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, expenses for outside professional services, including legal, human resource, audit and accounting services, consulting costs and allocated facilities costs. Personnel and related costs consist of salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation for personnel in executive, finance and other administrative functions. Facilities costs consist of rent and maintenance of facilities. We expect our general and administrative expenses to increase for the foreseeable future as we increase the size of our administrative function to support the growth of our business and support our continued research and development activities.
Other Expenses, Net
Other expenses, net primarily consists of interest expense, amortization of deferred debt issuance costs and amortization of premium on available-for-sale securities offset by interest income on available-for-sale securities.
Results of Operations
Three Months Ended June 30, 2022 and 2021
The following table summarizes our results of operations for the periods presented (in thousands):
|
|
|
Three Months Ended |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
June 30, |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
2022 |
|
|
2021 |
|
|
Change |
|
|||
|
Operating expenses: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Research and development |
|
$ |
19,686 |
|
|
$ |
15,630 |
|
|
$ |
4,056 |
|
|
General and administrative |
|
|
5,052 |
|
|
|
4,921 |
|
|
|
131 |
|
|
Total operating expenses |
|
|
24,738 |
|
|
|
20,551 |
|
|
|
4,187 |
|
|
Loss from operations |
|
|
(24,738 |
) |
|
|
(20,551 |
) |
|
|
(4,187 |
) |
|
Other expenses, net |
|
|
(316 |
) |
|
|
(172 |
) |
|
|
(144 |
) |
|
Net loss before tax |
|
$ |
(25,054 |
) |
|
$ |
(20,723 |
) |
|
$ |
(4,331 |
) |
Research and Development Expenses
The following table summarizes the period-over-period changes in research and development expenses for the periods presented (in thousands):
|
|
|
Three Months Ended |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
June 30, |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
2022 |
|
|
2021 |
|
|
Change |
|
|||
|
Clinical development |
|
$ |
12,873 |
|
|
$ |
7,339 |
|
|
$ |
5,534 |
|
|
Contract manufacturing |
|
|
3,182 |
|
|
|
5,069 |
|
|
|
(1,887 |
) |
|
Personnel-related expenses |
|
|
3,393 |
|
|
|
2,643 |
|
|
|
750 |
|
|
Preclinical costs |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
32 |
|
|
|
(32 |
) |
|
Other expenses |
|
|
238 |
|
|
|
547 |
|
|
|
(309 |
) |
|
Total research and development expenses |
|
$ |
19,686 |
|
|
$ |
15,630 |
|
|
$ |
4,056 |
|
Research and development expenses increased by $4.1 million, or 26%, to $19.7 million for the three months ended June 30, 2022 from $15.6 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021. The change was primarily due to an increase of $5.5 million in
16
clinical development costs related to our ongoing clinical trials and an increase of $0.8 million in personnel-related costs, including stock-based compensation due to higher headcount, offset in part by a decrease of $1.9 million in contract manufacturing costs, mainly as a result of the completion of manufacturing batches to cater to the current supply requirement for our ongoing clinical trials and a decrease of $0.3 million in other expenses primarily due to lower overhead costs.
General and Administrative Expenses
General and administrative expenses increased by $0.1 million, or 3%, to $5.1 million for the three months ended June 30, 2022 from $4.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021. The change was primarily due to an increase in personnel-related costs, including stock-based compensation.
Other Expenses, Net
Other expenses, net increased by $0.1 million to $0.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2022 from $0.2 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021, primarily due to higher interest expense, including the accretion of the final payment fee and amortization of debt issuance costs, related to our term loan facility.
Six Months Ended June 30, 2022 and 2021
The following table summarizes our results of operations for the periods presented (in thousands):
|
|
|
Six Months Ended |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
June 30, |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
2022 |
|
|
2021 |
|
|
Change |
|
|||
|
Operating expenses: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Research and development |
|
$ |
39,535 |
|
|
$ |
25,761 |
|
|
$ |
13,774 |
|
|
General and administrative |
|
|
10,311 |
|
|
|
9,529 |
|
|
|
782 |
|
|
Total operating expenses |
|
|
49,846 |
|
|
|
35,290 |
|
|
|
14,556 |
|
|
Loss from operations |
|
|
(49,846 |
) |
|
|
(35,290 |
) |
|
|
(14,556 |
) |
|
Other expenses, net |
|
|
(772 |
) |
|
|
(215 |
) |
|
|
(557 |
) |
|
Net loss before tax |
|
$ |
(50,618 |
) |
|
$ |
(35,505 |
) |
|
$ |
(15,113 |
) |
Research and Development Expenses
The following table summarizes the period-over-period changes in research and development expenses for the periods presented (in thousands):
|
|
|
Six Months Ended |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
June 30, |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
2022 |
|
|
2021 |
|
|
Change |
|
|||
|
Clinical development |
|
$ |
24,058 |
|
|
$ |
11,020 |
|
|
$ |
13,038 |
|
|
Contract manufacturing |
|
|
7,496 |
|
|
|
8,458 |
|
|
|
(962 |
) |
|
Personnel-related expenses |
|
|
7,338 |
|
|
|
5,227 |
|
|
|
2,111 |
|
|
Preclinical costs |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
167 |
|
|
|
(167 |
) |
|
Other expenses |
|
|
643 |
|
|
|
889 |
|
|
|
(246 |
) |
|
Total research and development expenses |
|
$ |
39,535 |
|
|
$ |
25,761 |
|
|
$ |
13,774 |
|
Research and development expenses increased by $13.8 million, or 53%, to $39.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2022 from $25.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021. The change was primarily due to an increase of $13.0 million in clinical development costs related to our ongoing clinical trials, an increase of $2.1 million in personnel-related costs, including stock-based compensation due to higher headcount, offset in part by a decrease of $1.0 million in contract manufacturing costs, mainly as a result of the completion of manufacturing batches to cater to the current supply requirement for our ongoing clinical trials and a decrease of $0.2 million in other expenses primarily due to lower overhead costs.
General and Administrative Expenses
General and administrative expenses increased by $0.8 million, or 8%, to $10.3 million for the six months ended June 30, 2022 from $9.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021. The change was due to an increase of $1.2 million in personnel-related costs, including stock-based compensation, driven by higher headcount, offset in part by a decrease of $0.3 million in consulting services and a decrease of $0.1 million in insurance related costs.
17
Other Expenses, Net
Other expenses, net increased by $0.6 million to $0.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2022 from $0.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021, primarily due to higher interest expense, including the accretion of the final payment fee and amortization of debt issuance costs, related to our term loan facility.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
To date, we have incurred significant net losses and negative cash flows from operations. As of June 30, 2022, we had available cash and cash equivalents and short-term available-for-sale securities of $139.3 million and an accumulated deficit of $263.8 million.
In March 2021, we entered into a sales agreement (the “Sales Agreement”) with SVB Leerink LLC and Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. (the “Sales Agents”) pursuant to which we may offer and sell up to $75.0 million of shares of our common stock, from time to time, in “at-the-market” offerings (the “ATM Facility”). The Sales Agents are entitled to compensation at a commission equal to 3.0% of the aggregate gross sales price per share sold under the Sales Agreement. In October and November 2021, we received aggregate proceeds of $3.3 million, net of commissions and offering expenses from sales of 186,546 shares of our common stock at a weighted-average price of $17.97 per share pursuant to the ATM Facility. For the six months ended June 30, 2022, there were no sales pursuant to the ATM Facility.
In May 2021, we amended our secured term loan facility (“2021 Loan Agreement”) to increase the aggregate committed principal amount up to $25.0 million. As of December 2021, we had drawn $20.0 million under the term loan facility and $5.0 million remains available to be drawn on or before September 30, 2022, upon achievement of certain milestones.
In July 2022, pursuant to a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (No. 333-254684), we completed an underwritten public offering of our common stock, warrants to purchase shares of our common stock and pre-funded warrants to purchase shares of our common stock. We sold 18,675,466 shares of our common stock with accompanying warrants to purchase up to 9,337,733 shares of our common stock at a combined public offering price of $3.55 per share. We also sold 7,944,252 pre-funded warrants to purchase shares of our common stock with accompanying warrants to purchase up to 3,972,126 shares of our common stock at a combined public offering price of $3.549 per pre-funded warrant. The warrants have an exercise price of $5.325 per share. The offering was completed on July 1, 2022 and we raised net proceeds of approximately $88.2 million, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions of approximately $5.7 million and other offering costs of approximately $0.6 million. We received $28.2 million in proceeds prior to the closing of the offering.
Our primary use of cash is to fund operating expenses, which consist primarily of research and development expenditures related to our lead product candidate, pegozafermin. We plan to increase our research and development expenses for the foreseeable future as we continue the clinical development of our current and future product candidates. At this time, due to the inherently unpredictable nature of clinical development, we cannot reasonably estimate the costs we will incur and the timelines that will be required to complete development, obtain marketing approval, and commercialize our current product candidate or any future product candidates. For the same reasons, we are also unable to predict when, if ever, we will generate revenue from product sales or our current or any future license agreements which we may enter into or whether, or when, if ever, we may achieve profitability. Clinical and preclinical development timelines, the probability of success, and development costs can differ materially from expectations. In addition, we cannot forecast the timing and amounts of milestone, royalty and other revenue from licensing activities, which future product candidates may be subject to future collaborations, when such arrangements will be secured, if at all, and to what degree such arrangements would affect our development plans and capital requirements.
Based on our research and development plans, we expect that our existing cash and cash equivalents and short-term available-for-sale securities as of June 30, 2022, together with the proceeds received from our July 2022 offering and the proceeds from our ATM Facility, will be sufficient to fund our operations for a period of at least one year from the date this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q is filed with the SEC. However, our operating plans and other demands on our cash resources may change as a result of many factors, and we may seek additional funds sooner than planned. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in acquiring additional funding at levels sufficient to fund our operations or on terms favorable to us.
Our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including the following:
|
|
• |
the progress, timing, scope, results and costs of our clinical trials of pegozafermin and preclinical studies or clinical trials of other potential product candidates we may choose to pursue in the future, including the ability to enroll patients in a timely manner for our clinical trials; |
|
|
• |
the costs and timing of obtaining clinical and commercial supplies and validating the commercial manufacturing process for pegozafermin and any other product candidates we may identify and develop; |
18
|
|
• |
the cost, timing and outcomes of regulatory approvals; |
|
|
• |
the timing and amount of any milestone, royalty or other payments we are required to make pursuant to current or any future collaboration or license agreements; |
|
|
• |
costs of acquiring or in-licensing other product candidates and technologies; |
|
|
• |
the terms and timing of establishing and maintaining collaborations, licenses and other similar arrangements; |
|
|
• |
the costs associated with attracting, hiring and retaining additional qualified personnel as our business grows; |
|
|
• |
our efforts to enhance operational systems and hire additional personnel to satisfy our obligations as a public company, including enhanced internal controls over financial reporting; and |
|
|
• |
the cost of preparing, filing, prosecuting, defending and enforcing any patent claims and other intellectual property rights. |
We expect to continue to generate substantial operating losses for the foreseeable future as we expand our research and development activities. We will continue to fund our operations primarily through utilization of our current financial resources and through additional raises of capital to advance our current product candidate through clinical development, to develop, acquire or in-license other potential product candidates and to fund operations for the foreseeable future. However, there is no assurance that such funding will be available to us or that it will be obtained on terms favorable to us or will provide us with sufficient funds to meet our objectives. Any failure to raise capital as and when needed could have a negative impact on our financial condition and on our ability to pursue our business plans and strategies.
To the extent that we raise additional capital through partnerships or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our product candidates, future revenue streams or research programs or to grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. If we raise additional capital through public or private equity offerings, the ownership interest of our then-existing stockholders will be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect our stockholders’ rights. If we raise additional capital through debt financing, we may be subject to covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing when needed, we may have to delay, reduce the scope of or suspend one or more of our clinical trials or preclinical studies, research and development programs or commercialization efforts or grant rights to develop and market our product candidates even if we would otherwise prefer to develop and market such product candidates ourselves.
Cash Flows
The following table summarizes our cash flows for the periods presented (in thousands):
|
|
|
Six Months Ended |
|
|||||
|
|
|
June 30, |
|
|||||
|
|
|
2022 |
|
|
2021 |
|
||
|
Net cash (used in) provided by |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Operating activities |
|
$ |
(39,179 |
) |
|
$ |
(35,091 |
) |
|
Investing activities |
|
|
19,176 |
|
|
|
(29,286 |
) |
|
Financing activities |
|
|
28,189 |
|
|
|
1,908 |
|
|
Net change in cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash |
|
$ |
8,186 |
|
|
$ |
(62,469 |
) |
Operating Activities
During the six months ended June 30, 2022, net cash used in operating activities was $39.2 million, which consisted of a net loss of $50.6 million, offset in part by non-cash charges of $5.7 million and a net change of $5.7 million in our net operating assets and liabilities. The non-cash charges are primarily comprised of $5.1 million in stock-based compensation, $0.2 million in accretion of the final payment fee related to our term loan facility, $0.2 million in amortization of debt issuance costs and $0.1 million in amortization of premium on available-for-sale securities. The change in our operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to a $4.0 million decrease in prepaid and other current assets and a $2.3 million increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses due to the timing of payments, partially offset by a $0.5 million increase in other assets, primarily due to offering costs related to our public offering.
During the six months ended June 30, 2021, net cash used in operating activities was $35.1 million, which consisted of a net loss of $35.5 million and a net change of $4.5 million in our net operating assets and liabilities, partially offset by non-cash charges of $4.9
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million. The non-cash charges are primarily comprised of $4.2 million in stock-based compensation, $0.5 million in amortization of premium on available-for-sale securities and $0.2 million in amortization of debt issuance costs. The change in our operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to a $4.0 million increase in prepaid and other current assets and a $0.5 million decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses due to timing of payments.
Investing Activities
During the six months ended June 30, 2022, net cash provided by investing activities was $19.2 million, which primarily consisted of $59.9 million in proceeds from maturities of available-for-sale securities, offset in part by $40.7 million in purchases of available-for-sale securities.
During the six months ended June 30, 2021, net cash used in investing activities was $29.3 million, which consisted primarily of $93.2 million in purchases of available-for-sale securities, offset in part by $64.0 million in proceeds from sales and maturities of available-for-sale securities.
Financing Activities
During the six months ended June 30, 2022, net cash provided by financing activities was $28.2 million, which primarily related to proceeds received in the current period related to our public offering that closed in July 2022.
During the six months ended June 30, 2021, net cash provided by financing activities was $1.9 million, which consisted of proceeds of $1.5 million from our term loan facility and proceeds of $0.4 million from the issuance of common stock upon exercise of stock options and ESPP purchases.
Debt Obligations
Our 2021 Loan Agreement provides for a total term loan facility of $25.0 million. As of December 2021, we had drawn $20.0 million under the term loan facility and are required to make interest-only payments until October 1, 2022 followed by consecutive monthly payments of principal and interest starting on October 1, 2022 and continuing through September 1, 2024, the maturity date of the term loan. The interest-only period may be extended to April 1, 2023, if on or before September 20, 2022, we receive net cash proceeds of at least $75.0 million from the sale of our equity securities. Our term loan bears interest at the greater of (i) 4.25% and (ii) the sum of (a) the Prime Rate as reported in The Wall Street Journal plus (b) 1.00%. The interest rate on the term loan was 4.25% at inception and 5.75% as of June 30, 2022. In addition, a final payment fee of 5.0% of the principal amount of the loan is due when the term loan becomes due or upon prepayment of the term loan. If we elect to prepay the loan, there is also a prepayment fee of between 1.0% and 3.0% of the principal amount of the term loan depending on the timing of prepayment.
Other Contractual Obligations and Commitments
See Note 5 to our condensed consolidated financial statements for additional disclosures. There have been no other material changes from the contractual obligations disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021.
Critical Accounting Estimates
There have been no significant changes in our critical accounting estimates as compared to the critical accounting estimates disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
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See Note 2 to our condensed consolidated financial statements for more information.
JOBS Act Accounting Election
We are an emerging growth company, as defined in 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 consolidated financial statements and our interim condensed consolidated financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements.
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Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
We are a smaller reporting company, as defined by Rule 12b-2 under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K, and are not required to provide the information under this item.
Item 4. Controls and Procedures
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
As of June 30, 2022, our management, with the participation and supervision of our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer, evaluated our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act). The term “disclosure controls and procedures,” as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act, means controls and other procedures of a company that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to the Company’s management, including its principal executive and principal financial officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives and management necessarily applies its judgment in evaluating the cost benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. Based on this evaluation, our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of June 30, 2022 to provide reasonable assurance that information we are required to disclose in reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) occurred during the quarter ended June 30, 2022 that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
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PART II—OTHER INFORMATION
Item 1. Legal Proceedings.
We are currently not a party to any material legal proceedings. From time to time, we may become involved in legal proceedings arising in the ordinary course of our business. Regardless of outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on us due to defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources, negative publicity, reputational harm and other factors, and there can be no assurances that favorable outcomes will be obtained.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
An investment in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below before deciding whether to make an investment decision with respect to shares of our common stock. You should also refer to the other information contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially and adversely affected by any of these risks or uncertainties. In any such case, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. We caution you that the risks, uncertainties and other factors referred to below and elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q may not contain all of the risks, uncertainties and other factors that may affect our future results and operations. Moreover, new risks will emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks.
Risk Factor Summary
Investing in our common stock involves significant risks. You should carefully consider the risks described below before making a decision to invest in our common stock. If we are unable to successfully address these risks and challenges, our business, financial condition, results of operations, or prospects could be materially adversely affected. In such case, the trading price of our common stock would likely decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. Below is a summary of some of the risks we face.
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We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history and no products approved for commercial sale. We have incurred net losses since our inception, we expect to incur significant and increasing operating losses and we may never be profitable. Our stock is a highly speculative investment. |
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We will require substantial additional capital to finance our operations, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. As a result, we may not complete the development and commercialization of pegozafermin or develop new product candidates. |
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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted and may in the future result in significant disruptions to our clinical trials or other business operations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. |
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Our business depends on the success of pegozafermin, our only product candidate under clinical development, which has not completed a pivotal trial. If we are unable to obtain regulatory approval for and successfully commercialize pegozafermin or other future product candidates, or we experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed. |
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Clinical drug development involves a lengthy and expensive process with uncertain timelines and uncertain outcomes, and the results of prior preclinical or clinical trials are not necessarily predictive of our future results. |
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If we experience delays in clinical testing, our commercial prospects will be adversely affected, our costs may increase and our business may be harmed. |
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If we encounter difficulties in enrolling patients in our clinical trials, our clinical development activities could be delayed or otherwise adversely affected. |
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We have relied on, and expect to continue to rely on, third-party manufacturers and vendors to produce and release pegozafermin or any future product candidates. Any failure by a third-party to produce and release acceptable product candidates for us pursuant to our specifications and regulatory standards may delay or impair our ability to initiate or complete our clinical trials, obtain and maintain regulatory approvals or commercialize approved products. |
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Pegozafermin and any future product candidates may cause undesirable side effects or have other properties that could delay or prevent their regulatory approval or limit the commercial profile of an approved label. |
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We are developing pegozafermin for the treatment of NASH, an indication for which there are no approved products, and the treatment of SHTG. The requirements for approval of pegozafermin by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities |
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may be difficult to predict and may change over time, which makes it difficult to predict the timing and costs of the clinical development. |
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Lack of efficacy, adverse events or undesirable side effects may emerge in clinical trials conducted by third parties developing FGF product candidates, which could adversely affect our stock price, our ability to attract additional capital and our development program. |
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Interim, topline and preliminary data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data. |
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The manufacture of biologic products is complex and we are subject to many manufacturing risks, any of which could substantially increase our costs and limit supply of our products. |
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We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing or commercializing competing products before or more successfully than us. |
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Unstable market and economic conditions may have serious adverse consequences on our business and financial condition. |
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Our Loan and Security Agreement with Silicon Valley Bank contains certain covenants that could adversely affect our operations and, if an event of default were to occur, we could be forced to repay any outstanding indebtedness sooner than planned and possibly at a time when we do not have sufficient capital to meet this obligation. |
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Pegozafermin has not received regulatory approval. If we are unable to obtain regulatory approvals to market pegozafermin or any future product candidates, our business will be adversely affected. |
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Our success depends upon our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our products and technologies. |
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We rely on a license from Teva and a sublicense from ratiopharm to patents and know-how related to glycoPEGylation technology that are used in the development, manufacture and commercialization of pegozafermin. Any termination or loss of significant rights, including the right to glycoPEGylation technology, or breach, under these agreements or any future license agreement related to our product candidates, would materially and adversely affect our ability to continue the development and commercialization of the related product candidates. |
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history and no products approved for commercial sale. We have incurred net losses since our inception, we expect to incur significant and increasing operating losses and we may never be profitable. Our stock is a highly speculative investment.
We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history that may make it difficult to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability. We commenced operations in 2018, and to date, our operations have been focused on organizing and staffing our company, raising capital, acquiring our initial product candidate, pegozafermin and licensing certain related technology, conducting research and development activities, including preclinical studies and clinical trials, and providing general and administrative support for these operations. Investment in biopharmaceutical product development is highly speculative because it entails substantial upfront capital expenditures and significant risk that any potential product candidate will fail to demonstrate adequate effect and/or an acceptable safety profile, gain regulatory approval and become commercially viable. We have no products approved for commercial sale, we have not generated any revenue from product sales to date and we continue to incur significant research and development and other expenses related to our ongoing operations. We have limited experience as a company conducting clinical trials and no experience as a company commercializing any products.
Pegozafermin is in development and, to date, we have not generated any revenue from the licensing or commercialization of pegozafermin. We will not be able to generate product revenue unless and until pegozafermin or any future product candidate, alone or with future partners, successfully completes clinical trials, receives regulatory approval and is successfully commercialized. As pegozafermin is in development, we do not expect to receive revenue from it for a number of years, if ever. Although we may seek to obtain revenue from collaboration or licensing agreements with third parties, we currently have no such agreements that could provide us with material, ongoing future revenue and we may never enter into any such agreements.
We are not profitable and have incurred net losses since our inception. Consequently, predictions about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they would be if we had a longer operating history or a history of successfully developing and commercializing pharmaceutical products. We have spent, and expect to continue to spend, significant resources to fund research and development of, and seek regulatory approvals for, pegozafermin and any future product candidates. We expect to incur substantial and increasing operating losses over the next several years as our research, development clinical trial and manufacturing activities increase. In addition, because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with pharmaceutical product development, including that our product candidates may not advance through development or achieve the endpoints of applicable clinical trials, we are unable to predict the timing or amount of increased expenses, or if or when we will achieve or maintain profitability. The size of our future
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net losses will depend, in part, on the rate of future growth of our expenses and our ability to generate revenue. The net losses we incur may fluctuate significantly from quarter-to-quarter such that a period-to-period comparison of our results of operations may not be a good indication of our future performance. Even if we eventually generate product revenue, we may never be profitable and, if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis.
We will require substantial additional capital to finance our operations, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. As a result, we may not complete the development and commercialization of pegozafermin or develop new product candidates.
As a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, our operations have consumed significant amounts of cash since our inception. We expect our research and development expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we conduct clinical trials of and seek regulatory approvals for pegozafermin. We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents and short-term available-for-sale securities, including the net proceeds from our July 2022 offering, will fund our projected operating requirements for a period of at least one year from the date this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q is filed with the SEC.
We will require additional capital to discover, develop, obtain regulatory approval for and commercialize pegozafermin and any future product candidates. Our ability to complete new clinical trials for pegozafermin may be subject to our ability to raise additional capital. We do not have any committed external source of funds other than the unused portion of the line of credit available to us pursuant to our Loan and Security Agreement (as amended, the “2021 Loan Agreement”) with Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) and as a result of any sales that we may make pursuant to the sales agreement for our “at-the-market” offerings (the “ATM Facility”). We expect to finance future cash needs through public or private equity or debt offerings or product collaborations. Additional capital may not be available in sufficient amounts or on reasonable terms, if at all. The current market environment for small biotechnology companies, like 89bio, and broader macroeconomic factors may preclude us from successfully raising additional capital.
If we do not raise additional capital, we may not be able to expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities, our business and financial condition will be negatively impacted and we may need to: significantly delay, scale back or discontinue research and discovery efforts and the development or commercialization of any product candidates or cease operations altogether; seek strategic alliances for research and development programs when we otherwise would not, or at an earlier stage than we would otherwise desire or on terms less favorable than might otherwise be available; or relinquish, or license on unfavorable terms, our rights to technologies or any product candidates that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves.
In addition, if pegozafermin receives approval and is commercialized, we will be required to make milestone and royalty payments to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (“Teva”), from whom we acquired certain patents and intellectual property rights relating to pegozafermin, and from whom we licensed patents and know-how related to glycoPEGylation technology that is used in the manufacture of pegozafermin. For additional information regarding this license agreement, please see Note 5 of our accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted and may in the future result in significant disruptions to our clinical trials or other business operations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Our business and its operations, including but not limited to our research and development activities, could be adversely affected by health epidemics in regions where we have business operations, and such health epidemics could cause significant disruption in the operations of third parties upon whom we rely. In response to COVID-19, we have implemented hybrid work policy. The effects of which may negatively impact our growth, including our ability to recruit and onboard new employees, and productivity.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted execution and enrollment of our trials. Given the surges in cases of COVID-19 experienced previously and uncertainty regarding other variants, we cannot predict how our ongoing or future trials may be impacted.
In addition, COVID-19 has impacted and may continue to impact personnel at third-party manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe and other countries, or the availability or cost of materials we use or require to conduct our business, including product development, which would disrupt our supply chain. In particular, BTPH, our sole source supplier for pegozafermin, has missed certain project deadlines for our manufacturing scale-up due to quarantine orders and has forecasted other delays due to COVID-19-related impacts on their suppliers. Furthermore, we have experienced and may continue to experience delays due to widespread supply chain issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as historically the designation of certain supplies for vaccine production, which may limit our ability to obtain sufficient materials for our drug products. However, we have not experienced and do not expect to experience any delays to the overall timeline for the delivery of clinical supplies.
If COVID-19 continues to spread in the United States and elsewhere, we may experience additional disruptions that could severely impact our business, preclinical studies and clinical trials, including: delays in receiving authorization from local regulatory authorities to initiate our planned clinical trials; delays or difficulties in enrolling patients in our clinical trials; delays or difficulties in clinical site initiation, including difficulties in recruiting clinical site investigators and clinical site staff; delays in clinical sites receiving the supplies and materials needed to conduct our clinical trials; changes in local regulations as part of a response to the COVID-19 pandemic which may require us to change the ways in which our clinical trials are conducted and result in unexpected costs, or discontinuing our clinical trials altogether; a diversion of healthcare resources away from the conduct of clinical trials, including the diversion of hospitals serving as our clinical trial sites and hospital staff supporting the conduct of our clinical trials; interruption of key clinical trial activities or interruption of clinical trial subject visits and study procedures, the occurrence of which could affect the completeness and integrity of clinical trial data and, as a result, determine the outcomes of the trial; the risk that participants enrolled in our clinical trials will acquire COVID-19 while the clinical trial is ongoing, which could impact the results of
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the clinical trial, including by increasing the number of observed adverse events; the refusal of the FDA to accept data from clinical trials in affected geographies; and interruption or delays to our clinical activities.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve. The ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or a similar public health emergency is highly uncertain and subject to change. We do not yet know the full extent of potential delays or impacts on our business, our clinical trials, healthcare systems, or the global economy as a whole. However, any one or a combination of these events could have an adverse effect on the operation of and results from our clinical trials and on our other business operations, including preventing or delaying approval for pegozafermin.
Our business depends on the success of pegozafermin, our only product candidate under clinical development, which has not completed a pivotal trial. If we are unable to obtain regulatory approval for and successfully commercialize pegozafermin or other future product candidates, or we experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.
The primary focus of our product development is pegozafermin for the treatment of patients with NASH and the treatment of patients with SHTG. Currently, pegozafermin is our only product candidate under clinical development. This may make an investment in our company riskier than similar companies that have multiple product candidates in active development and that therefore may be able to better sustain a failure of a lead candidate. Successful continued development and ultimate regulatory approval of pegozafermin for the treatment of NASH or SHTG is critical to the future success of our business. We have invested, and will continue to invest, a significant portion of our time and financial resources in the clinical development of pegozafermin. If we cannot successfully develop, obtain regulatory approval for and commercialize pegozafermin, we may not be able to continue our operations. The future regulatory and commercial success of pegozafermin is subject to a number of risks, including that if approved for NASH or SHTG, pegozafermin will likely compete with products that may reach approval for the treatment of NASH prior to pegozafermin, products that are currently approved for the treatment of SHTG and the off-label use of currently marketed products for NASH and SHTG.
Clinical drug development involves a lengthy and expensive process with uncertain timelines and uncertain outcomes, and the results of prior preclinical or clinical trials are not necessarily predictive of our future results.
Pegozafermin and any future product candidates will be subject to rigorous and extensive clinical trials and extensive regulatory approval processes implemented by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities before obtaining marketing approval from these regulatory authorities. The drug development and approval process is lengthy and expensive, and approval is never certain. Investigational new drugs, such as pegozafermin, may not prove to be safe and effective in clinical trials. We have no direct experience as a company in conducting pivotal trials required to obtain regulatory approval. We may be unable to conduct clinical trials at preferred sites, enlist clinical investigators, enroll sufficient numbers of participants or begin or successfully complete clinical trials in a timely fashion, if at all. In addition, the design of a clinical trial can determine whether its results will support approval of a product, and flaws in the design of a clinical trial may not become apparent until the clinical trial is well advanced. We may be unable to design and execute a clinical trial to support regulatory approval. Even if a current clinical trial is successful, it may be insufficient to demonstrate that pegozafermin is safe or effective for registration purposes.
There is a high failure rate for drugs and biologic products proceeding through clinical trials. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. The results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of pegozafermin or any future product candidate may not be predictive of the results of later-stage clinical studies or trials and the results of studies or trials in one set of patients or line of treatment may not be predictive of those obtained in another. In fact, many companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in late-stage clinical trials even after achieving promising results in preclinical studies and earlier stage clinical trials. In addition, data obtained from preclinical and clinical activities is subject to varying interpretations, which may delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. It is impossible to predict when or if pegozafermin or any future product candidate will prove effective or safe in humans or will receive regulatory approval. Owing in part to the complexity of biological pathways, pegozafermin or any future product candidate may not demonstrate in patients the biochemical and pharmacological properties we anticipate based on laboratory studies or earlier stage clinical trials, and they may interact with human biological systems or other drugs in unforeseen, ineffective or harmful ways. The number of patients exposed to product candidates and the average exposure time in the clinical development programs may be inadequate to detect rare adverse events or findings that may only be detected once a product candidate is administered to more patients and for greater periods of time. To date, our Phase 1a, Phase 1b/2a and Phase 2 clinical trials have involved small patient populations and, because of the small sample size in such trials, the results of these clinical trials may be subject to substantial variability, including the inherent variability associated with biopsies in NASH patients, and may not be indicative of either future interim results or final results in future trials of patients with liver or cardio-metabolic diseases. If we are unable to successfully demonstrate the safety and efficacy of pegozafermin or other future product candidates and receive the necessary regulatory approvals, our business will be materially harmed.
If we experience delays in clinical testing, our commercial prospects will be adversely affected, our costs may increase and our business may be harmed.
We cannot guarantee that we will be able to initiate and complete clinical trials and successfully accomplish all required regulatory activities or other activities necessary to gain approval and commercialize pegozafermin or any future product candidates. We currently have two active investigational new drug (“IND”) applications with the FDA in the United States for pegozafermin. In the future, we may file an additional IND with another division for any future indications or future product candidates. If any such
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future IND is not approved by the FDA, our clinical development timeline may be negatively impacted and any future clinical programs may be delayed or terminated. As a result, we may be unable to obtain regulatory approvals or successfully commercialize our products. We do not know whether any other clinical trials will begin as planned, will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, or at all. Our product development costs will increase if we experience delays in clinical testing. Significant clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize pegozafermin and any future product candidates or allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, which would impair our ability to successfully commercialize pegozafermin or any future product candidates and may harm our business, results of operations and prospects. Our or our future collaborators’ inability to timely complete clinical development could result in additional costs to us as well as impair our ability to generate product revenue, continue development, commercialize pegozafermin and any future product candidates, reach sales milestone payments and receive royalties on product sales. In addition, if we make changes to a product candidate including, for example, a new formulation, we may need to conduct additional nonclinical studies or clinical trials to bridge or demonstrate the comparability of our modified product candidate to earlier versions, which could delay our clinical development plan or marketing approval for our current product candidate and any future product candidates.
If we encounter difficulties in enrolling patients in our clinical trials, our clinical development activities could be delayed or otherwise adversely affected.
The timely completion of clinical trials largely depends on patient enrollment. We may encounter delays in enrolling, or be unable to enroll, a sufficient number of patients to complete any of our future clinical trials, and even once enrolled, we may be unable to retain a sufficient number of patients to complete any of our trials. Furthermore, there are inherent difficulties in diagnosing NASH, which can currently only be definitively diagnosed through a liver biopsy, and identifying SHTG patients. Specifically, identifying patients most likely to meet NASH enrollment criteria on biopsy is an on-going challenge, with existing clinical indicators lacking both sensitivity and specificity. As a result, NASH trials often suffer from high levels of screen failure following central review of the baseline liver biopsy, which can lead to lower enrollment. As a result of such difficulties and the significant competition for recruiting NASH and SHTG patients in clinical trials, we or our future collaborators may be unable to enroll the patients we need to complete clinical trials on a timely basis, or at all. In addition, our competitors, some of whom have significantly greater resources than we do, are conducting clinical trials for the same indications and seek to enroll patients in their studies that may otherwise be eligible for our clinical studies or trials. Since the number of qualified clinical investigators is limited, we expect to conduct some of our clinical trials at the same clinical trial sites that some of our competitors use, which could further reduce the number of patients who are available for our clinical trials in these sites. Our inability to enroll a sufficient number of patients for our clinical trials would result in significant delays or may require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether. Even if we are able to enroll a sufficient number of patients in our clinical studies or trials, delays in patient enrollment may result in increased costs or may affect the timing or outcome of our clinical trials, which could prevent completion of these trials and adversely affect our ability to advance the development of pegozafermin and any future product candidates.
We have relied on, and expect to continue to rely on, third-party manufacturers and vendors to produce and release pegozafermin or any future product candidates. Any failure by a third-party to produce and release acceptable product candidates for us pursuant to our specifications and regulatory standards may delay or impair our ability to initiate or complete our clinical trials, obtain and maintain regulatory approvals or commercialize approved products.
We do not own or operate manufacturing facilities for the production of clinical or commercial quantities of our product candidates, and we lack the resources and the capabilities to do so. As a result, we currently rely, and expect to rely for the foreseeable future, on third-party manufacturers to supply us with pegozafermin and any future product candidates. We currently have a sole source relationship with BTPH pursuant to which they supply us with pegozafermin. If there should be any disruption in our supply arrangement with BTPH, including any adverse events affecting BTPH, it could have a negative effect on the clinical development of pegozafermin and other operations while we work to identify and qualify an alternate supply source. In addition, we will require large quantities of pegozafermin for large clinical trials and to commercialize pegozafermin. Our current manufacturer may not be able to scale production to the larger quantities. We have identified a manufacturing partner for commercial-scale manufacturing, however, we cannot guarantee that such partner will be able to scale up and produce the quantities we would require to commercialize pegozafermin.
We do not have a long-term supply agreement with any third-party manufacturer. Reliance on third-party manufacturers entails risks to which we would not be subject if we manufacture product candidates or products ourselves. For example, if we do not maintain our key manufacturing relationships, we may fail to find replacement manufacturers or develop our own manufacturing capabilities in a timely manner or at all, which could delay or impair our ability to obtain regulatory approval for our products and substantially increase our costs or deplete profit margins, if any. If we do find replacement manufacturers, we may not be able to enter into agreements with them on terms and conditions favorable to us, and there could be a substantial delay before new facilities could be qualified and registered with the FDA and other comparable foreign regulatory authorities.
We have begun producing certain of the reagents required for the glycoPEGylation at BTPH using the know-how transferred to us from Teva under our Reagent Supply and Technology Transfer Agreement. We have not completed the manufacturing process for all these reagents and cannot guarantee that we will be able to produce them successfully, or scale up our production for the quantities needed for commercialization.
Teva continues to supply us with certain reagents and will continue to do so until December 31, 2022. We expect the manufacturing of such reagents will be transferred to a new supplier prior to the end of 2022. Any complications arising under our
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agreement with Teva or any difficulties securing a new supplier could considerably delay the manufacture of pegozafermin. Any significant delay in the acquisition or decrease in the availability of these raw materials from Teva or any new supplier could considerably delay the manufacture of pegozafermin, which could adversely impact the timing of any planned trials or the regulatory approvals of pegozafermin.
We rely on third-party vendors for our assay development and testing. If such third-party vendors are unable to successfully produce or test such assays, it may substantially increase our cost or could adversely impact the timing of any planned trials or the regulatory approvals of pegozafermin.
The FDA and other comparable foreign regulatory authorities require manufacturers to register manufacturing facilities. The FDA and other comparable foreign regulatory authorities also inspect these facilities to confirm compliance with cGMP. We have little to no control regarding the occurrence of third-party manufacturer incidents. Any failure to comply with cGMP requirements or other FDA or comparable foreign regulatory requirements could adversely affect our clinical research activities and our ability to develop pegozafermin or any future product candidates and market our products following approval. Our sole source supplier, BTPH, has not yet manufactured a commercial product, and as a result, has not been subject to inspection by the FDA and other comparable foreign regulatory authorities.
Our current and anticipated future dependence upon others for the manufacture of our product candidates may adversely affect our future profit margins and our ability to develop our product candidates and commercialize any products that receive regulatory approval on a timely basis. Supply chain issues, including those resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine, may affect our third-party vendors and cause delays. If we are required to change manufacturers for any reason, we will be required to verify that the new manufacturer maintains facilities and procedures that comply with quality standards and with all applicable regulations and guidelines. For example, in the event that we need to switch our third-party manufacturer of pegozafermin from BTPH, which is our sole manufacturing source for pegozafermin, we anticipate that the complexity of the glycoPEGylation manufacturing process may materially impact the amount of time it may take to secure a replacement manufacturer. The delays associated with the verification of a new manufacturer, if we are able to identify an alternative source, could negatively affect our ability to develop product candidates in a timely manner or within budget.
Pegozafermin and any future product candidates may cause undesirable side effects or have other properties that could delay or prevent their regulatory approval or limit the commercial profile of an approved label.
Undesirable side effects caused by pegozafermin or any future product candidates could cause us or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials and could result in a more restrictive label or the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities. Additional clinical studies may be required to evaluate the safety profile of pegozafermin or any future product candidates. As with other drugs, we have seen evidence of adverse effects in animal and human studies and it is possible that other adverse effects will become apparent in ongoing or future animal or human safety studies. It may be difficult to discern whether certain events or symptoms observed during our clinical trials or by patients using our approved products are related to pegozafermin or any future product candidates or approved products or some other factor. As a result, we and our development programs may be negatively affected even if such events or symptoms are ultimately determined to be unlikely related to pegozafermin or any future product candidates or approved products. Further, we expect that pegozafermin will require multiple administrations via subcutaneous injection in the course of a clinical trial. This chronic administration increases the risk that rare adverse events or chance findings are discovered in the commercial setting, where pegozafermin would be administered to more patients or for greater periods of time, that were not uncovered by our clinical drug development programs.
We are developing pegozafermin for the treatment of NASH, an indication for which there are no approved products, and the treatment of SHTG. The requirements for approval of pegozafermin by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities may be difficult to predict and may change over time, which makes it difficult to predict the timing and costs of the clinical development.
We are developing pegozafermin for the treatment of NASH, an indication for which there are no approved products. Although there are guidelines issued by the FDA for the development of drugs for the treatment of NASH, the development of a novel product candidates such as pegozafermin may be more expensive and take longer than for other, better known or extensively studied product candidates. As other companies are in later stages of clinical trials for their potential NASH therapies, we expect that the path for regulatory approval for NASH therapies may continue to evolve in the near term as these other companies refine their regulatory approval strategies and interact with regulatory authorities. Such evolution may impact our future clinical trial designs, including trial size and endpoints, in ways that we cannot predict today. In particular, regulatory authority expectations about liver biopsy data may evolve especially as more information is published about the inherent variability in liver biopsy data. Certain of our competitors have experienced regulatory setbacks for NASH therapies following communications from the FDA. We currently do not know the impact, if any, that these setbacks could have on the path for regulatory approval for NASH therapies generally or for pegozafermin. Furthermore, the histology endpoints from our Phase 2b ENLIVEN trial may not be accepted as primary endpoints for a pivotal Phase 3 trial or for FDA approval.
We are also developing pegozafermin for the treatment of SHTG. Clinical trials for the treatment of SHTG may be relatively costly and time consuming. We currently expect that our SHTG program would be subject to smaller clinical trials and that we may expect a relatively quicker overall development timeline for this indication. These expectations are based on a published FDA surrogate endpoint table for drug approval that includes SHTG, as well as the development path followed by other companies that
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developed an SHTG therapy. However, the requirements for approval by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities may change over time. If the FDA disagrees with our trial and program design for our planned Phase 3 program for SHTG or requires additional evidence to support a successful submission for approval, we may be required to make changes to our program design that could impact timelines and cost.
Our anticipated development costs would likely increase if development of pegozafermin or any future product candidate is delayed because we are required by the FDA to perform studies or trials in addition to, or different from, those that we currently anticipate, or make changes to ongoing or future clinical trial designs.
Lack of efficacy, adverse events or undesirable side effects may emerge in clinical trials conducted by third parties developing FGF product candidates, which could adversely affect our stock price, our ability to attract additional capital and our development program.
Lack of efficacy, adverse events or undesirable side effects may emerge in clinical trials conducted by third parties developing FGF product candidates like ours. For example, Novo Nordisk and Akero Therapeutics, Inc. are also developing FGF21 product candidates for the treatment of NASH. We have no control over their clinical trials or development program, and lack of efficacy, adverse events or undesirable side effects experienced by subjects in their clinical trials could adversely affect our stock price, our ability to attract additional capital and our clinical development plans for pegozafermin or even the viability or prospects of pegozafermin as a product candidate, including by creating a negative perception of FGF therapeutics by healthcare providers or patients.
Interim, topline and preliminary data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.
From time to time, we may publicly disclose preliminary or topline data from our clinical trials, which are based on a preliminary analysis of then-available data, and the results and related findings and conclusions are subject to change following a more comprehensive review of the data related to the particular study or trial. We also make assumptions, estimations, calculations and conclusions as part of our analyses of data, and we may not have received or had the opportunity to fully and carefully evaluate all data. As a result, the topline results that we report may differ from future results of the same studies, or different conclusions or considerations may qualify such results, once additional data have been received and fully evaluated. Topline data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary data we previously published. As a result, topline data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. From time to time, we may also disclose interim data from our clinical trials. In addition, we may report interim analyses of only certain endpoints rather than all endpoints. Interim data from clinical trials that we may complete are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as patient enrollment continues and more patient data become available.
The manufacture of biologic products is complex and we are subject to many manufacturing risks, any of which could substantially increase our costs and limit supply of our products.
To date, pegozafermin has been manufactured by a single third-party manufacturer, BTPH, solely for preclinical studies and clinical trials. The process of manufacturing pegozafermin, and in particular, the glycoPEGylation process, is complex, highly regulated, subject to several risks and requires significant expertise and capital investment, including the development of advanced manufacturing techniques and process controls. Manufacturers of biologic products often encounter difficulties in production, including difficulties with production costs and yields, quality control, including stability of the product, quality assurance testing, operator error and shortages of qualified personnel, as well as compliance with strictly enforced federal, state and foreign regulations. We cannot assure you that any stability or other issues relating to the manufacture of pegozafermin will not occur in the future. We have limited process development capabilities and have access only to external manufacturing capabilities. We do not have and we do not currently plan to acquire or develop the facilities or capabilities to manufacture bulk drug substance or filled drug product for use in human clinical trials or commercialization.
We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing or commercializing competing products before or more successfully than us.
The biopharmaceutical industry is intensely competitive and subject to rapid innovation and significant technological advancements. Our competitors include multinational pharmaceutical companies, specialized biotechnology companies, universities and other research institutions. A number of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are pursuing the development or marketing of pharmaceuticals that target the same diseases that we are targeting. Certain of these companies have published positive data regarding their clinical trials, which may further increase the competition we face. Smaller or earlier-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large, established companies. Given the high incidence of NASH and SHTG, it is likely that the number of companies seeking to develop products and therapies for the treatment of liver and cardio-metabolic diseases, such as NASH and SHTG, will increase.
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There are numerous currently approved therapies for treating diseases other than NASH and some of these currently approved therapies may exert effects that could be similar to pegozafermin in NASH. Many of these approved drugs are well-established therapies or products and are widely accepted by physicians, patients and third-party payors. Some of these drugs are branded and subject to patent protection, and others are available on a generic basis. This may make it difficult for us to differentiate our products from currently approved therapies, which may adversely impact our business strategy. We expect that if pegozafermin or any future product candidates are approved, they will be priced at a significant premium over competitive generic products, including branded generic products. Insurers and other third-party payors may also encourage the use of generic products or specific branded products prior to utilization of pegozafermin. In addition, many companies are developing new therapeutics, and we cannot predict what the standard of care will be as pegozafermin or any future product candidates progress through clinical development. In addition, to the extent pegozafermin or any future product candidates are approved for liver or cardio-metabolic indications, such as SHTG, the commercial success of our products will also depend on our ability to demonstrate benefits over the then-prevailing standard of care, including diet, exercise and lifestyle modifications.
Further, if pegozafermin or any future product candidates are approved for the treatment of SHTG, we will compete with currently approved therapies and therapies further along in development. Our competitors both in the United States and abroad include large, well-established pharmaceutical and generic companies with significantly greater name recognition. Our competitors may be able to charge lower prices than we can, which may adversely affect our market acceptance. Many of these competitors have greater resources than we do, including financial, product development, marketing, personnel and other resources.
If our competitors market products that are more effective, safer or cheaper than our products or that reach the market sooner than our products, we may not achieve commercial success. Many of our competitors have substantially greater financial, technical, human and other resources than we do and may be better equipped to develop, manufacture and market technologically superior products. As a result, our competitors may obtain regulatory approval of their products more rapidly than we do or may obtain patent protection or other intellectual property rights that limit our ability to develop or commercialize our product candidate or any future product candidates. Our competitors may also develop and succeed in obtaining approval for drugs that are more effective, more convenient, more widely used and less costly or have a better safety profile than our products and these competitors may also be more successful than we are in manufacturing and marketing their products.
Unstable market and economic conditions may have serious adverse consequences on our business and financial condition.
Global credit and financial markets have experienced extreme disruptions at various points over the last few decades. If another such disruption in credit and financial markets and deterioration of confidence in economic conditions occurs, it may make any necessary debt or equity financing more difficult to complete, more costly, and more dilutive. Failure to secure any necessary financing in a timely manner and on favorable terms could have a material adverse effect on our growth strategy, financial performance and share price and could require us to delay or abandon development or commercialization plans. In addition, there is a risk that one or more of our service providers, manufacturers or other partners would not survive or be able to meet their commitments to us under such circumstances, which could directly affect our ability to attain our operating goals on schedule and on budget.
The 2021 Loan Agreement contains certain covenants that could adversely affect our operations and, if an event of default were to occur, we could be forced to repay any outstanding indebtedness sooner than planned and possibly at a time when we do not have sufficient capital to meet this obligation.
Pursuant to the 2021 Loan Agreement, we have pledged substantially all of our assets, other than our intellectual property rights, and have agreed that we may not sell or assign rights to our patents and other intellectual property without the prior consent of SVB. Additionally, the 2021 Loan Agreement contains certain affirmative and negative covenants that could prevent us from taking certain actions without the consent of our lenders. These covenants may limit our flexibility in operating our business and our ability to take actions that might be advantageous to us and our stockholders. The 2021 Loan Agreement also includes customary events of default, including, among other things, a change of control. Upon the occurrence and continuation of an event of default, all amounts due under the 2021 Loan Agreement become (in the case of a bankruptcy event) or may become (in the case of all other events of default and at the option of SVB), immediately due and payable. If an event of default under the 2021 Loan Agreement should occur, we could be required to immediately repay any outstanding indebtedness. If we are unable to repay such debt, the lenders would be able to foreclose on the secured collateral, including our cash accounts, and take other remedies permitted under the 2021 Loan Agreement. Even if we are able to repay any indebtedness on an event of default, the repayment of these sums may significantly reduce our working capital and impair our ability to operate as planned.
We may encounter difficulties in managing our growth, which could adversely affect our operations.
We are in the early stages of building the full team that we anticipate we will need to complete the development pegozafermin and other future product candidates. As we advance our preclinical and clinical development programs for product candidates, seek
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regulatory approval in the United States and elsewhere and increase the number of ongoing product development programs, we anticipate that we will need to increase our product development, scientific and administrative headcount. We will also need to establish commercial capabilities in order to commercialize any product candidates that may be approved. Such an evolution may impact our strategic focus and our deployment and allocation of resources. Our ability to manage our operations and growth effectively depends upon the continual improvement of our procedures, reporting systems and operational, financial and management controls. We may not be able to implement administrative and operational improvements in an efficient or timely manner and may discover deficiencies in existing systems and controls. In addition, in order to continue to meet our obligations as a public company and to support our anticipated long-term growth, we will need to increase our general and administrative capabilities. Our management, personnel and systems may experience difficulty in adjusting to our growth and strategic focus.
We must attract and retain highly skilled employees in order to succeed. If we are not able to retain our current senior management team and our scientific advisors or continue to attract and retain qualified scientific, technical and business personnel, our business will suffer.
We may not be able to attract or retain qualified personnel and consultants due to the intense competition for such individuals in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. If we are not able to attract and retain necessary personnel and consultants to accomplish our business objectives, it may significantly impede the achievement of our development and commercial objectives and our ability to implement our business strategy. In addition, we are highly dependent on the development, regulatory, manufacturing, commercialization and financial expertise of the members of our executive team, as well as other key employees and consultants. If we lose one or more of our executive officers or other key employees or consultants, our ability to implement our business strategy successfully could be seriously harmed.
We are developing a new drug product formulation for pegozafermin and we may be unsuccessful. Any changes in methods of product candidate manufacturing or formulation may result in the need to perform new clinical trials or obtain new drug product, which would require additional costs and cause delay.
Our current drug product comes in a liquid formulation, which is being used in all current and planned studies. We are also developing a new drug product formulation of pegozafermin and a pre-filled syringe. We also plan to begin development of a pen-type autoinjector. Any formulation and presentation intended for commercialization is subject to regulatory approval. There is no assurance that we will be successful in developing a new drug product formulation, a pre-filled syringe or an autoinjector on a timely basis or at all, any of which could impede our development and commercialization strategy for pegozafermin. The FDA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities could require nonclinical studies or clinical trials to support introduction of any new formulation, pre-filled syringe and autoinjector, which could delay completion of clinical trials, require the conduct of bridging clinical trials or the repetition of one or more clinical trials, increase our clinical trial costs, delay approval of pegozafermin and jeopardize our ability to commence product sales and generate revenue from pegozafermin, if approved.
We rely on third parties for certain aspects of our product candidate development process and we may not be able to obtain and maintain the third-party relationships that are necessary to develop, commercialize and manufacture some or all of our product candidates.
We expect to depend on collaborators, partners, licensees, clinical investigators, contract research organizations, manufacturers and other third parties to support our discovery efforts, to formulate product candidates, to conduct clinical trials for some or all of our product candidates, to manufacture clinical and commercial scale quantities of our drug substance and drug product and to market, sell and distribute any products we successfully develop. Any of these third parties may terminate their engagements with us at any time. If we need to enter into alternative arrangements, it would delay our product development activities and such alternative arrangements may not be available on terms acceptable to us. We also expect to rely on other third parties to store and distribute drug supplies for our clinical trials. Any performance failure on the part of our distributors could delay clinical development, marketing approval and/or commercialization of pegozafermin or any future product candidates, producing additional losses and depriving us of potential revenue.
Business disruptions could seriously harm our future revenue and financial condition and increase our costs and expenses.
Our operations, and those of our contract research organizations, CMO, suppliers, and other contractors and consultants, could be subject to earthquakes, power shortages, telecommunications failures, water shortages, floods, hurricanes, typhoons, fires, extreme weather conditions, acts of war, medical pandemics or epidemics, such as the novel coronavirus, and other natural or man-made disasters or business interruptions. The occurrence of any of these business disruptions could seriously harm our operations and financial condition and increase our costs and expenses.
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If we fail to develop and commercialize additional product candidates, we may be unable to grow our business.
Although the development and commercialization of pegozafermin is currently our primary focus, as part of our longer-term growth strategy, we plan to evaluate the development and commercialization of other therapies related to NASH and other liver and cardio-metabolic diseases. The success of this strategy depends primarily upon our ability to identify and validate new therapeutic candidates, and to identify, develop and commercialize new drugs and biologics. Our research efforts may initially show promise in discovering potential new drugs and biologics, yet fail to yield product candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons.
We may use our limited financial and human resources to pursue a particular research program or product candidate that is ultimately unsuccessful or less successful than other programs or product candidates that we may have forgone or delayed.
Because we have limited personnel and financial resources, we may forego or delay the development of certain programs or product candidates that later prove to have greater commercial potential than the programs or product candidates that we do pursue. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future research and development programs for product candidates may not yield any commercially viable products. Similarly, our decisions to delay or terminate drug development programs may also be incorrect and could cause us to miss valuable opportunities.
We may seek to establish commercial collaborations for our product candidates, and, if we are not able to establish them on commercially reasonable terms, we may have to alter our development and commercialization plans.
Our drug development programs and the potential commercialization of our product candidates will require substantial additional cash to fund expenses. We may decide to collaborate with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for the development and potential commercialization of our product candidates. Collaborations are complex and time-consuming to negotiate and document. We may not be able to negotiate collaborations on a timely basis, on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to do so, we may have to curtail the development of the product candidate for which we are seeking to collaborate, reduce or delay its development program or one or more of our other development programs, delay its potential commercialization or reduce the scope of any sales or marketing activities or increase our expenditures and undertake development or commercialization activities at our own expense.
We may not be successful in our efforts to identify, in-license or acquire, discover, develop or commercialize additional product candidates.
We may seek to identify, in-license or acquire, discover, develop and commercialize additional product candidates. We cannot assure you that our effort to in-license or acquire additional product candidates will be successful. Even if we are successful in in-licensing or acquiring additional product candidates, their requisite development activities may require substantial resources, and we cannot assure you that these development activities will result in regulatory approvals.
Our international operations may expose us to business, regulatory, political, operational, financial, pricing and reimbursement risks associated with doing business outside of the United States.
Our use of our international facilities subjects us to U.S. and foreign governmental trade, import and export, and customs regulations and laws. Compliance with these regulations and laws is costly and exposes us to penalties for non-compliance. Doing business internationally potentially involves a number of risks, any of which could harm our ongoing international clinical operations and supply chain, as well as any future international expansion and operations and, consequently, our business, financial condition, prospects and results of operations.
Product liability lawsuits against us could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and to limit commercialization of any products that we may develop.
We face an inherent risk of product liability exposure related to the testing of our product candidates in human clinical trials and will face an even greater risk if we commercialize any resulting products. Product liability claims may be brought against us by subjects enrolled in our clinical trials, patients, or others using our products. Our clinical trial liability insurance coverage may not adequately cover all liabilities that we may incur.
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Our employees, contractors, vendors, principal investigators, consultants and future partners may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements and insider trading.
We are exposed to the risk of fraud or other misconduct by our employees, contractors, vendors, principal investigators, consultants or future partners. Misconduct by these parties could include failures to comply with FDA regulations, to provide accurate information to the FDA, to comply with federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations, to report financial information or data timely, completely or accurately, or to disclose unauthorized activities to us. Most states also have statutes or regulations similar to these federal laws, which may apply to items such as pharmaceutical products and services reimbursed by private insurers. We and/or our future partners may be subject to administrative, civil and criminal sanctions for violations of any of these laws.
We depend on our information technology systems and those of our third-party collaborators, service providers, contractors or consultants. Our internal computer systems, or those of our third-party collaborators, service providers, contractors or consultants, may fail or suffer security breaches, disruptions, or incidents, which could result in a material disruption of our development programs or loss of data or compromise the privacy, security, integrity or confidentiality of sensitive information related to our business and have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition or results of operations.
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. Our internal technology systems and infrastructure, and those of our current or future third-party collaborators, service providers, contractors and consultants are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access or use resulting from malware, natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures, denial-of-service attacks, cyber-attacks or cyber-intrusions over the Internet, hacking, phishing and other social engineering attacks, persons inside our organizations (including employees or contractors), loss or theft, or persons with access to systems inside our organization. From time to time, we are subject to periodic phishing attempts. In the third quarter of 2021, we discovered a business email compromise caused by phishing. The phishing attack did not result in the misappropriation of any funds. Even though we are implementing remedial measures promptly following this incident and do not believe that it had a material adverse effect on our business, we cannot guarantee that our implemented remedial measures will prevent additional related, as well as unrelated, incidents. If a material system failure, accident or security breach were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations or the operations of third-party collaborators, service providers, contractors and consultants, it could result in a material disruption of our development programs and significant reputational, financial, legal, regulatory, business or operational harm.
To the extent that any real or perceived security breach affects our systems (or those of our third-party collaborators, service providers, contractors or consultants), or results in the loss of or accidental, unlawful or unauthorized access to, use of, release of, or other processing of personally identifiable information or damage to our data or applications or other data or applications relating to our technology or product candidates, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liabilities and the further development of our product candidates could be delayed. Any failure or perceived failure by us or any third-party collaborators, service providers, contractors or consultants to comply with our privacy, confidentiality, data security or similar obligations, or any data security incidents or other security breaches that result in the accidental, unlawful or unauthorized access to, use of, release of, processing of, or transfer of sensitive information, including personally identifiable information, may result in negative publicity, harm to our reputation, governmental investigations, enforcement actions, regulatory fines, litigation or public statements against us, could cause third parties to lose trust in us or could result in claims by third parties, including those that assert that we have breached our privacy, confidentiality, data security or similar obligations, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition or results of operations.
Risks Related to Regulatory Approvals
Pegozafermin has not received regulatory approval. If we are unable to obtain regulatory approvals to market pegozafermin or any future product candidates, our business will be adversely affected.
We do not expect pegozafermin or any future product candidate to be commercially available for several years, if at all. Pegozafermin is and any future product candidate will be subject to strict regulation by regulatory authorities in the United States and in other countries. We cannot market any product candidate until we have completed all necessary preclinical studies and clinical trials and have obtained the necessary regulatory approvals. We do not know whether regulatory agencies will grant approval for pegozafermin or any future product candidate. Even if we complete preclinical studies and clinical trials successfully, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approvals or we may not receive approvals to make claims about our products that we believe to be necessary to effectively market our products. Data obtained from preclinical studies and clinical trials is subject to varying interpretations that could delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval, and failure to comply with regulatory requirements or inadequate manufacturing processes are examples of other problems that could prevent approval.
The regulatory authorities in the United States and the EU have not approved any products for the treatment of NASH, and while there are guidelines issued by the FDA for the development of drugs for the treatment of NASH and an FDA surrogate endpoint table for drug approval that includes SHTG, it is unclear whether the requirements for approval will change in the future. Any such changes may require us to conduct new trials that could delay our timeframe and increase the costs of our programs related to
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pegozafermin or any future product candidate for the treatment of NASH or SHTG. While the FDA has approved reduction in triglycerides levels as a surrogate endpoint for the full approval of drugs for the treatment of SHTG, it is unclear whether this endpoint will apply to any product candidates that we develop. If such endpoint is not deemed to apply to our product candidates, it would delay our development timeline and increase the costs of our programs for the treatment of SHTG. We have not had any discussions with the FDA regarding a surrogate endpoint or accelerated approval regulations. However, we currently expect that our SHTG program would be subject to smaller clinical trials and that we may expect a relatively quicker overall development timeline for this indication. These expectations are based on a published FDA surrogate endpoint table for drug approval that includes SHTG, as well as the development path followed by other companies that developed an SHTG therapy.
Even if we are able to obtain regulatory approvals for pegozafermin or any future product candidate, if they exhibit harmful side effects after approval, our regulatory approvals could be revoked or otherwise negatively impacted, and we could be subject to costly and damaging product liability claims.
Even if we receive regulatory approval for pegozafermin or any future product candidates, we will have tested them in only a small number of patients during our clinical trials. If our applications for marketing are approved and more patients begin to use our product, new risks and side effects associated with our products may be discovered. As a result, regulatory authorities may revoke their approvals. We have not had any discussions with the FDA regarding a surrogate endpoint or accelerated approval regulations. However, based on recent guidelines issued by the FDA for the development of drugs for the treatment of NASH, if pegozafermin is approved by the FDA based on a surrogate endpoint pursuant to section 506(c) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the accelerated approval regulations (21 C.F.R. part 314, subpart H; 21 C.F.R. part 601, subpart E), consistent with FDA guidance, we will be required to conduct additional clinical trials establishing clinical benefit on the ultimate outcome of NASH. If pegozafermin is approved by the FDA for the treatment of SHTG based on an endpoint of the reduction of triglycerides, the FDA may still require a cardiovascular outcomes study as part of a post-marketing authorization commitment. Such a study would be time consuming and costly and we cannot guarantee that we will see positive results, which could result in the revocation of the approval. Additionally, we may be required to conduct additional clinical trials, make changes in labeling of our product, reformulate our product or make changes and obtain new approvals for our and our suppliers’ manufacturing facilities for pegozafermin and any future product candidates. We might have to withdraw or recall our products from the marketplace. We may also experience a significant drop in the potential sales of our product if and when regulatory approvals for such product are revoked. As a result, we may experience harm to our reputation in the marketplace or become subject to lawsuits, including class actions. Any of these results could decrease or prevent any sales of our approved product or substantially increase the costs and expenses of commercializing and marketing our product.
The regulatory approval processes of the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities are lengthy, time-consuming and inherently unpredictable. Our inability to obtain regulatory approval for pegozafermin or any future product candidates would substantially harm our business.
Currently, we do not have any product candidates that have received regulatory approval. The time required to obtain approval from the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities is unpredictable but typically takes many years following the commencement of preclinical studies and clinical trials and depends upon numerous factors, including the substantial discretion of the regulatory authorities. In addition, approval policies, regulations or the type and amount of clinical data necessary to gain approval may change during the course of a product candidate’s development and may vary among jurisdictions. It is possible that none of pegozafermin or any future product candidates will ever obtain regulatory approval. Pegozafermin or any future product candidate could fail to receive regulatory approval from the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities for many reasons, including those referenced in Part I, Item 1. “Business—Government Regulation and Product Approval” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021. If we were to obtain approval, regulatory authorities may approve any of our product candidates for fewer or more limited indications than we request, may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly post-marketing clinical trials or may approve a product candidate with a label that does not include the labeling claims necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of the product candidate.
Even if pegozafermin or any future product candidate receives regulatory approval, it may still face future development and regulatory difficulties.
Even if we obtained regulatory approval for a product candidate, it would be subject to ongoing requirements by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities governing the manufacture, quality control, further development, labeling, packaging, storage, distribution, safety surveillance, import, export, advertising, promotion, recordkeeping and reporting of safety and other post-market information. In addition, manufacturers of drug products and their facilities are subject to continual review and periodic inspections by the FDA and other regulatory authorities for compliance with cGMP, regulations and standards. If we or a regulatory agency discover 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, a regulatory agency may impose restrictions on that product, the manufacturing facility or us, including requiring recall or withdrawal of the product from the market or suspension of manufacturing. If we, our product candidates or the manufacturing facilities for our product candidates fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, or undesirable side effects caused by such products are identified, a regulatory agency may: issue safety alerts, Dear Healthcare Provider letters, press releases or other communications containing warnings about such product; mandate modifications to promotional materials or require us to provide corrective information to healthcare practitioners; require that we conduct post-marketing studies; require us to enter into a consent decree, which can include imposition of various fines, reimbursements for
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inspection costs, required due dates for specific actions and penalties for noncompliance; seek an injunction or impose civil or criminal penalties or monetary fines; suspend marketing of, withdraw regulatory approval of or recall such product; suspend any ongoing clinical studies; refuse to approve pending applications or supplements to applications filed by us; suspend or impose restrictions on operations, including costly new manufacturing requirements; or seize or detain products, refuse to permit the import or export of products or require us to initiate a product recall. The occurrence of any event or penalty described above may inhibit our ability to commercialize our products and generate product revenue.
Risks Relating to Intellectual Property
Our success depends upon our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our products and technologies.
Our success will depend in significant part on our current or future licensors’, licensees’ or collaborators’ ability to establish and maintain adequate protection of our owned and licensed intellectual property covering the product candidates we plan to develop, and the ability to develop these product candidates and commercialize the products resulting therefrom, without infringing the intellectual property rights of others. In addition to taking other steps to protect our intellectual property, we hold issued patents, we have applied for patents, and we intend to continue to apply for, patents with claims covering our technologies, processes and product candidates when and where we deem it appropriate to do so. We have filed numerous patent applications both in the United States and in certain foreign jurisdictions to obtain patent rights to inventions we have discovered, with claims directed to compositions of matter, methods of use and other technologies relating to our programs. There can be no assurance that any of these patent applications will issue as patents or, for those applications that do mature into patents, that the claims of the patents will exclude others from making, using or selling our product candidates or products that compete with or are similar to our product candidates. In countries where we have not sought and do not seek patent protection, third parties may be able to manufacture and sell our product candidates without our permission, and we may not be able to stop them from doing so.
With respect to patent rights, we do not know whether any of the pending patent applications for any of our product candidates will result in the issuance of patents that effectively protect our technologies, processes and product candidates, or if any of our issued patents or our current or future licensors’, licensees’ or collaborators’ issued patents will effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive technologies, processes and products. We cannot be certain that we or our current or future licensors, licensees or collaborators were the first to make the inventions claimed in our owned or licensed patents or pending patent applications, or that we or our current or future licensors, licensees or collaborators were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions.
Any changes we make to our pegozafermin or any future product candidates to cause them to have what we view as more advantageous properties may not be covered by our existing patents and patent applications, and we may be required to file new applications and/or seek other forms of protection for any such altered product candidates. The patent landscape surrounding the technology underlying our product candidates is crowded, and there can be no assurance that we would be able to secure patent protection that would adequately cover an alternative to pegozafermin or any future product candidates.
We and our current or future licensors, licensees or collaborators may not be able to prepare, file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. It is also possible that we or our current or future licensors, licensees or collaborators will fail to identify patentable aspects of inventions made in the course of development and commercialization activities before it is too late to obtain patent protection for them. Moreover, in some circumstances, we may not have the right to control the preparation, filing and prosecution of patent applications, or to maintain or enforce the patents, covering technology that we license from or license to third parties and may be reliant on our current or future licensors, licensees or collaborators to perform these activities, which means that these patent applications may not be prosecuted, and these patents enforced, in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. If our current or future licensors, licensees or collaborators fail to establish, maintain, protect or enforce such patents and other intellectual property rights, such rights may be reduced or eliminated. If our current or future licensors, licensees or collaborators are not fully cooperative or disagree with us as to the prosecution, maintenance or enforcement of any patent rights, such patent rights could be compromised.
Similar to the patent rights of other biotechnology companies, the scope, validity and enforceability of our owned and licensed patent rights generally are highly uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions. The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability, and our patents may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad. In recent years, these areas have been the subject of much litigation in the industry. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of our and our current or future licensors’, licensees’ or collaborators’ patent rights are highly uncertain. Our and our current or future licensors’, licensees’ or collaborators’ pending and future patent applications may not result in patents being issued that protect our technology or product candidates, or products resulting therefrom, in whole or in part, or that effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive technologies and products. The patent examination process may require us or our current or future licensors, licensees or collaborators to narrow the scope of the claims of pending and future patent applications, which would limit the scope of patent protection that is obtained, if any. Our and our current or future licensors’, licensees’ or collaborators’ patent applications cannot be enforced against third parties practicing the technology that is currently claimed in such applications unless and until a patent issues from such applications, and then only to the extent the claims that issue are broad enough to cover the technology being practiced by those third parties.
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Furthermore, given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after the resulting products are commercialized. As a result, our owned and in-licensed patents may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours. We expect to seek extensions of patent terms for our issued patents, where available. The applicable authorities, including the FDA in the United States, and any comparable foreign regulatory authorities, may not agree with our assessment of whether such extensions are available, and may refuse to grant extensions to our patents, or may grant more limited extensions than we request. In addition, we may not be granted an extension because of, for example, failing to apply within applicable deadlines, failing to apply prior to the expiration of relevant patents or otherwise failing to satisfy applicable requirements.
We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.
The legal protection afforded to inventors and owners of intellectual property in countries outside of the United States may not be as protective or effective as that in the United States and we may, therefore, be unable to acquire and enforce intellectual property rights outside the United States to the same extent as in the United States. Whether filed in the United States or abroad, our patent applications may be challenged or may fail to result in issued patents. Filing, prosecuting, enforcing and defending patents on product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States are 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 certain 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 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 pegozafermin or any future product candidates and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.
We rely on a license from Teva and a sublicense from ratiopharm to patents and know-how related to glycoPEGylation technology that are used in the development, manufacture and commercialization of pegozafermin. Any termination or loss of significant rights, including the right to glycoPEGylation technology, or breach, under these agreements or any future license agreement related to our product candidates, would materially and adversely affect our ability to continue the development and commercialization of the related product candidates.
In April 2018, we entered into an Asset Transfer and License Agreement (the “FGF21 Agreement”) with Teva under which we acquired certain patents, intellectual property and other assets relating to Teva’s glycoPEGylated FGF21 program, including pegozafermin. Under this agreement, we were granted a perpetual, non-exclusive (but exclusive as to pegozafermin), non-transferable, worldwide license to patents and know-how related to glycoPEGylation technology used in the development, manufacture and commercialization of pegozafermin and products containing pegozafermin. The FGF21 Agreement also contains numerous covenants with which we must comply, including the utilization of commercially reasonable efforts to develop and ultimately commercialize pegozafermin, as well as certain reporting covenants and the obligation to make royalty payments, if and when pegozafermin is approved for commercialization. Our failure to satisfy any of these covenants could result in the termination of the FGF21 Agreement. In addition, we entered into a Sublicense Agreement with ratiopharm (the “ratiopharm Sublicense”), under which we were granted a perpetual, exclusive, worldwide sublicense to patents and know-how related to glycoPEGylation technology used in the development, manufacture and commercialization of pegozafermin and products containing pegozafermin. Termination of the FGF21 Agreement or the ratiopharm Sublicense will impact our rights under the intellectual property licensed to us by Teva and ratiopharm, respectively, including our license to glycoPEGylation technology, but will not affect our rights under the assets assigned to us.
Beyond this agreement, our commercial success will also depend upon our ability, and the ability of our licensors, to develop, manufacture, market and sell our product candidates and use our proprietary technologies without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties. A third party may hold intellectual property rights, including patent rights, that are important or necessary to the development of our product candidates. As a result, we may enter into additional license agreements in the future. If we fail to comply with the obligations under these agreements, including payment and diligence obligations, our licensors may have the right to terminate these agreements, in which event we may not be able to develop, manufacture, market or sell any product that is covered by these agreements or to engage in any other activities necessary to our business that require the freedom to operate afforded by the agreements, or we may face other penalties under the agreements.
We may be unable to obtain intellectual property rights or technology necessary to develop and commercialize pegozafermin and any future product candidates.
The patent landscape around our programs is complex, and we are aware of several third-party patents and patent applications containing subject matter that might be relevant to pegozafermin. Depending on what claims ultimately issue from these patent applications, and how courts construe the issued patent claims, as well as depending on the ultimate formulation and method of use of pegozafermin or any future product candidates, we may need to obtain a license to practice the technology claimed in such patents. There can be no assurance that such licenses will be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all.
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We may become involved in lawsuits or other proceedings to protect or enforce our intellectual property, which could be expensive, time-consuming and unsuccessful and have a material adverse effect on the success of our business.
Third parties may infringe our patents or misappropriate or otherwise violate our intellectual property rights. In the future, we may initiate legal proceedings to enforce or defend our intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets or to determine the validity or scope of intellectual property rights we own or control. Also, third parties may initiate legal proceedings against us to challenge the validity or scope of intellectual property rights we own, control or to which we have rights. An adverse result in any litigation proceeding could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated, narrowed, held unenforceable or interpreted in such a manner that would not preclude third parties from entering the market with competing products.
Third-party pre-issuance submission of prior art to the USPTO, or opposition, derivation, revocation, reexamination, inter partes review or interference proceedings, or other pre-issuance or post-grant proceedings or other patent office proceedings or litigation in the United States or other jurisdictions provoked by third parties or brought by us, may be necessary to determine the inventorship, priority, patentability or validity of inventions with respect to our patents or patent applications. An unfavorable outcome could leave our technology or product candidates without patent protection, allow third parties to commercialize our technology or product candidates and compete directly with us, without payment to us, or could require us to obtain license rights from the prevailing party in order to be able to manufacture or commercialize our product candidates without infringing third-party patent rights. Our business could be harmed if the prevailing party in such a case does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Even if we obtain a license, it may be non-exclusive, thereby giving our competitors access to the same technologies licensed to us. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop or commercialize current or future product candidates. Even if we successfully defend such litigation or proceeding, we may incur substantial costs and our defense may distract our management and other employees.
Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. In addition, many foreign jurisdictions have rules of discovery that are different than those in the United States and that may make defending or enforcing our patents extremely difficult. There could also be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a material adverse effect on the price of shares of our common stock.
Third parties may initiate legal proceedings against us alleging that we infringe their intellectual property rights or we may initiate legal proceedings against third parties to challenge the validity or scope of intellectual property rights controlled by third parties.
Third parties may initiate legal proceedings against us alleging that we infringe their intellectual property rights or we may initiate legal proceedings against third parties to challenge the validity or scope of intellectual property rights controlled by third parties, including in oppositions, interferences, revocations, reexaminations, inter partes review or derivation proceedings before the USPTO or its counterparts in other jurisdictions. These proceedings can be expensive and time-consuming and many of our adversaries in these proceedings may have the ability to dedicate substantially greater resources to prosecuting these legal actions than we can. We could be found liable for monetary damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees, if we are found to have willfully infringed a patent of a third party. A finding of infringement could prevent us from commercializing our pegozafermin or any future product candidates or force us to cease some of our business operations, which could materially harm our business.
Although we have reviewed certain third-party patents and patent filings that we believe may be relevant to our therapeutic candidates or products, we have not conducted a freedom-to-operate search or analysis for any of our therapeutic candidates or products, and we may not be aware of patents or pending or future patent applications that, if issued, would block us from commercializing our product candidates. Thus, we cannot guarantee that our product candidates, or our commercialization thereof, do not and will not infringe any third party’s intellectual property.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock
The price of our common stock may be volatile, and you may lose all or part of your investment.
The market price of our common stock could fluctuate significantly, and you may not be able to resell your shares at or above the price you paid for your shares. Those fluctuations could be based on various factors in addition to those otherwise described in this prospectus, including those described in these “Risk Factors.” Any of these factors may result in large and sudden changes in the volume and trading price of our common stock. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, stockholders have often instituted securities class action litigation against that company.
Sales of our common stock, or the perception that such sales may occur, or issuance of shares of our common stock upon exercise of warrants could depress the price of our common stock.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that such sales may occur, could depress the market price of our common stock. Certain holders of shares of our common stock have rights, subject to certain conditions, to require us to file registration statements covering their shares or to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or other stockholders. In addition, we have filed a registration statement registering under the Securities Act the shares of our common stock reserved for issuance under our 2019 Equity Incentive Plan, including shares issuable upon exercise of
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outstanding options. These shares can be freely sold in the public market upon issuance, subject to volume limitations applicable to affiliates. Further, as opportunities present themselves, we may enter into financing or similar arrangements in the future, including the issuance of debt or equity securities.
In addition, we must settle exercises of our outstanding warrants in shares of our common stock. The issuance of shares of our common stock upon exercise of the warrants will dilute the ownership interests of our stockholders, which could depress the trading price of our common stock. In addition, the market’s expectation that exercises may occur could depress the trading price of our common stock even in the absence of actual exercises. Moreover, the expectation of exercises could encourage the short selling of our common stock, which could place further downward pressure on the trading price of our common stock.
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to existing stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies.
Existing stockholders could suffer dilution or be negatively affected by fixed payment obligations we may incur if we raise additional funds through the issuance of additional equity securities, including under the ATM Facility, or debt or pursuant to the 2021 Loan Agreement. Furthermore, these securities may have rights senior to those of our common stock and could contain covenants or protective rights that would restrict our operations and potentially impair our competitiveness, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, limitations on our ability to acquire, sell or license intellectual property rights and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business.
Hedging activity by investors in the warrants could depress the trading price of our common stock.
We expect that many investors in our warrants will seek to employ an arbitrage strategy. Under this strategy, investors typically short sell a certain number of shares of our common stock and adjust their short position over time while they continue to hold the warrants. Investors may also implement this type of strategy by entering into swaps on our common stock in lieu of, or in addition to, short selling shares of our common stock. This market activity, or the market’s perception that it will occur, could depress the trading price of our common stock.
General Risk Factors
Our directors, executive officers and current holders of 5% or more of our capital stock have substantial control over our company, which could limit your ability to influence the outcome of matters subject to stockholder approval, including a change of control.
As of June 30, 2022, our executive officers, directors and other holders of 5% or more of our common stock beneficially owned a majority of our outstanding common stock. As a result, our executive officers, directors and other holders of 5% or more of our common stock, if they act, will be able to influence or control matters requiring approval by our stockholders, including the election of directors and the approval of mergers, acquisitions or other extraordinary transactions. In addition, our current directors, executive officers and other holders of 5% or more of our common stock, acting together, would have the ability to control the management and affairs of our company. They may also have interests that differ from yours and may vote in a way with which you disagree and that may be adverse to your interests. This concentration of ownership may have the effect of delaying, preventing or deterring a change of control of our company, could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock as part of a sale of our company.
We previously identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, which have been remediated. If we identify additional material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to produce timely and accurate financial statements, and we or our independent registered public accounting firm may conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective, which could adversely affect our investors’ confidence and our stock price.
As an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act, our management is required to report upon the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Our independent registered public accounting firm is not required to formally attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until the date we are no longer an emerging growth company and reach accelerated filer status. Any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation, could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. In addition, any testing by us conducted in connection with Section 404, or any subsequent testing by our independent registered public accounting firm, may reveal deficiencies in our internal controls over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses or that may require prospective or retroactive changes to our consolidated financial statements or identify other areas for further attention or improvement. As previously disclosed, in connection with our financial statement close process for 2018, we identified material weaknesses in the design and operating effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. While we have remediated such material weaknesses, we cannot assure you that we have identified all material weaknesses or that there will not be additional material weaknesses or deficiencies that we will identify in the future.
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Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws and Delaware law could prevent a third party from acquiring us (even if an acquisition would benefit our stockholders), may limit the ability of our stockholders to replace our management and limit the price that investors might be willing to pay for shares of our common stock.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws could have the effect of making it more difficult for a third party to acquire, or of discouraging a third party from attempting to acquire, control of us. These provisions could delay or prevent a change in control of the company and could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock. In addition, as a Delaware corporation, we are subject to the anti-takeover provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in a business combination specified in the statute with an interested stockholder (as defined in the statute) for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person first becomes an interested stockholder, unless the business combination is approved in advance by a majority of the independent directors or by the holders of at least two-thirds of the outstanding disinterested shares. The application of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law could also have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of us.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and the federal district courts of the United States 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 provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for certain actions or proceedings under Delaware statutory or common law. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides further that the federal district courts of the United States will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. These choice of forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees. If a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions.
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Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds.
None.
Item 3. Defaults upon Senior Securities.
None.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.
Not applicable.
Item 5. Other Information.
None.
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Item 6. Exhibits.
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Description |
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2.1 |
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3.1 |
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3.2 |
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4.1 |
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4.2 |
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4.3 |
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4.4 |
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Form of Warrant (filed with the SEC as Exhibit 4.1 to the Company’s Form 8-K filed on July 1, 2022). |
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4.5 |
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31.1* |
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31.2* |
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32# |
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101.INS* |
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Inline XBRL Instance Document |
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101.SCH* |
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Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document |
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101.CAL* |
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Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document |
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101.DEF* |
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Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document |
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101.LAB* |
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Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document |
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101.PRE* |
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Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document |
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104 |
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The cover page for the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q has been formatted in Inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101 |
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* |
Filed herewith. |
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# |
Furnished herewith and not deemed to be “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act. |
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SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.
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89bio, Inc. |
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Date: August 11, 2022 |
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By: |
/s/ Rohan Palekar |
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Rohan Palekar |
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Chief Executive Officer (principal executive officer) |
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Date: August 11, 2022 |
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By: |
/s/ Ryan Martins |
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Ryan Martins Chief Financial Officer |
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(principal financial and accounting officer) |
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