As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 4, 2015
Registration No. 333-
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM S-8
REGISTRATION STATEMENT UNDER THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933
CONTRAVIR PHARMACEUTICALS INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) |
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46-2783806 (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
399 Thornall Street, First Floor
Edison, NJ 108837
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
2013 Equity Incentive Plan
(Full title of the plans)
James R. Sapirstein, Chief Executive Officer
399 Thornall Street, First Floor
Edison, NJ 08837
(Name and Address of agent for service)
(732)902-4000
(Telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)
With a copy to:
Jeffrey J. Fessler, Esq.
Stephen A. Cohen, Esq.
Sichenzia Ross Friedman Ference LLP
61 Broadway, 32 nd Floor
New York, NY 10006
Phone (212) 930-9700
Fax (212) 930-9725
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See definitions of large accelerated filer, accelerated filer and smaller reporting company in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):
Large accelerated filer o |
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Accelerated filer o |
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Non-accelerated filer o |
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Smaller Reporting Company x |
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CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE
Title of Securities
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Amount to
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Proposed
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Proposed
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Amount of
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Common Stock, $.001 par value |
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3,390,578 |
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$ |
1.63 |
(2) |
$ |
5,526,642 |
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$ |
642 |
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Common Stock, $.001 par value to be issued under the Plan |
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3,109,422 |
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$ |
3.14 |
(3) |
$ |
9,763,585 |
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$ |
1,135 |
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TOTAL |
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6,500,000 |
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|
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$ |
15,290,227 |
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$ |
1,777 |
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(1) |
Pursuant to Rule 416(a) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, this Registration Statement shall also cover any additional shares of the Registrants common stock that become issuable under the Companys 2013 Equity Incentive Plan, as amended (the Plan), by reason of any stock dividend, stock split, recapitalization or other similar transaction that increases the number of the outstanding shares of the Registrants common stock. |
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(2) |
Estimated in accordance with Rule 457(h) solely for the purpose of calculating the registration fee. The price of $1.63 per share represents the weighted average of the exercise prices for outstanding options as of May 1, 2015 under the Plan. |
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(3) |
Estimated solely for purposes of calculating the registration fee in accordance with Rule 457(c) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, using the last sale price reported on The NASDAQ Capital Market on April 30, 2015. |
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EXPLANATORY NOTE
This Registration Statement contains two parts. The first part contains a reoffer prospectus pursuant to Form S-3 (in accordance with Section C of the General Instructions to the Form S-8), which covers reoffers and resales of restricted securities and/or control securities (as such terms are defined in Section C of the General Instructions to Form S-8). This reoffer prospectus relates to offers and resales by directors and executive officers of shares of common stock, par value $0.001 per share (the Common Stock) issuable upon the exercise of options granted by ContraVir Pharmaceuticals Inc. (the Company) pursuant to the Companys 2013 Equity Incentive Plan, as amended (the Plan). This reoffer prospectus may be used by the selling shareholders for reoffers and resales on a continuous or delayed basis in the future of up to 3,390,578 shares of Common Stock issued pursuant to the Plan. The second part of this Registration Statement contains information required in the Registration Statement pursuant to Part II of Form S-8.
PART I
INFORMATION REQUIRED IN THE SECTION 10(a) PROSPECTUS
Item 1. |
Plan Information. |
The Company will provide each recipient of a grant under the Plans (the Recipients) with documents that contain information related to the Plans, and other information including, but not limited to, the disclosure required by Item 1 of Form S-8, which information is not required to be and are not being filed as a part of this Registration Statement on Form S-8 (the Registration Statement) or as prospectuses or prospectus supplements pursuant to Rule 424 under the Securities Act. The foregoing information and the documents incorporated by reference in response to Item 3 of Part II of this Registration Statement, taken together, constitute a prospectus that meets the requirements of Section 10(a) of the Securities Act. A Section 10(a) prospectus will be given to each Recipient who receives common stock covered by this Registration Statement, in accordance with Rule 428(b)(1) under the Securities Act.
Item 2. |
Registrant Information and Employee Plan Annual Information. |
We will provide to each Recipient a written statement advising of the availability of documents incorporated by reference in Item 3 of Part II of this Registration Statement (which documents are incorporated by reference in this Section 10(a) prospectus) and of documents required to be delivered pursuant to Rule 428(b) under the Securities Act without charge and upon written or oral request by contacting:
James R. Sapirstein
Chief Executive Officer
399 Thornall Street, First Floor
Edison, NJ 08837
REOFFER PROSPECTUS
ContraVir Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
3,390,578 Shares of
Common Stock
This reoffer prospectus relates to the sale of up to 3,390,578 shares (the Shares) of our common stock, $.001 par value per share (the Common Stock) on The NASDAQ Capital Market, or such other stock market or exchange on which our common stock may be listed or quoted, in negotiated transactions or otherwise, at market prices prevailing at the time of the sale or at prices otherwise negotiated (see Plan of Distribution starting on page 34 of this prospectus). We will receive no part of the proceeds from sales made under this reoffer prospectus. The selling stockholders will bear all sales commissions and similar expenses. Any other expenses incurred by us in connection with the registration and offering and not borne by the selling stockholders will be borne by us.
This reoffer prospectus has been prepared for the purposes of registering the common shares under the Securities Act to allow for future sales by selling stockholders on a continuous or delayed basis to the public without restriction.
Investing in our common stock involves risks. See Risk Factors beginning on page 3 of this reoffer prospectus. These are speculative securities.
Our common stock is quoted on The NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol CTRV and the last reported sale price of our common stock on May 1, 2015 was $3.04 per share.
NEITHER THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION NOR ANY STATE SECURITIES COMMISSION HAS APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED OF THESE SECURITIES OR DETERMINED IF THIS PROSPECTUS IS TRUTHFUL OR COMPLETE. ANY REPRESENTATION TO THE CONTRARY IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE.
The date of this prospectus is May 4, 2015
CONTRAVIR PHARMACEUTICALS INC.
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30 |
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31 |
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31 |
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34 |
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36 |
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36 |
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36 |
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Disclosure of Commission Position on Indemnification For Securities Act Liabilities |
37 |
37 |
NO PERSON HAS BEEN AUTHORIZED TO GIVE ANY INFORMATION OR TO MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS, OTHER THAN THOSE CONTAINED IN THIS PROSPECTUS, IN CONNECTION WITH THE OFFERING MADE HEREBY, AND, IF GIVEN OR MADE, SUCH INFORMATION OR REPRESENTATION MUST NOT BE RELIED UPON AS HAVING BEEN AUTHORIZED BY THE COMPANY OR ANY OTHER PERSON. NEITHER THE DELIVERY OF THIS PROSPECTUS NOR ANY SALE MADE HEREUNDER SHALL UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES CREATE ANY IMPLICATION THAT THERE HAS BEEN NO CHANGE IN THE AFFAIRS OF THE COMPANY SINCE THE DATE HEREOF. THIS PROSPECTUS DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR A SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY ANY SECURITIES OFFERED HEREBY BY ANYONE IN ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH SUCH OFFER OR SOLICITATION IS NOT AUTHORIZED OR IN WHICH THE PERSON MAKING SUCH OFFER OR SOLICITATION IS NOT QUALIFIED TO DO SO OR TO ANY PERSON TO WHOM IT IS UNLAWFUL TO MAKE SUCH OFFER OR SOLICITATION.
This summary highlights information contained elsewhere or incorporated by reference into this prospectus. This summary does not contain all of the information that you should consider before deciding to invest in our securities. You should read this entire prospectus and the accompanying prospectus carefully, including the Risk Factors section contained in this prospectus and our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and the other documents incorporated by reference into this prospectus and in the accompanying prospectus. Unless we have indicated otherwise or the context otherwise requires, references in this prospectus or the documents incorporated by reference herein and therein to the Company, we, us and our refer to ContraVir Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its subsidiaries.
Business Overview
Overview
We were incorporated in Delaware on May 15, 2013 for the purpose of holding certain FV-100 assets of Synergy Pharmaceuticals Inc., or Synergy. We were a majority-owned subsidiary of Synergy until February 18, 2014, the date Synergy completed the spinout of our shares of common stock. We are now an independent publicly traded company and Synergy retains no ownership interest in us.
We are a biopharmaceutical company focused primarily on the development of virology drugs to treat diseases of unmet needs, such as herpes zoster and hepatitis B. Herpes zoster is an infection caused by the reactivation of varicella zoster virus, or VZV. The varicella zoster virus is commonly known as chicken pox upon initial exposure to the virus. The virus can lay dormant in nerve endings for many years and if reactivated, causes an extremely painful condition called shingles. We are currently developing a compound called FV-100 for the treatment of shingles. FV-100 is an orally available small molecule, nucleoside analogue. Nucleoside analogs are capable of disrupting replication of the virus. FV-100 is a pro-drug of CF-1743, which means that FV-100 is more readily absorbed when given orally and then broken down to the active portion of the compound, or active moiety, CF-1743 upon entry to the blood stream. FV-100 is the compound under development for the treatment of shingles. Published preclinical studies demonstrate that FV-100 is significantly more potent based on plaque inhibition in VZV infected human embryonic lung cells (HEL cells) than currently marketed compounds acyclovir, valacyclovir, and famciclovir, the FDA-approved drugs used for the treatment of shingles. Preclinical studies further demonstrate that FV-100 has a more rapid onset of antiviral activity, and may fully inhibit the replication of VZV more rapidly than these drugs at significantly lower concentration levels. In addition, pharmacokinetic data from completed Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials suggest that FV-100 has the potential to demonstrate antiviral activity when dosed orally once-a-day at significantly lower blood levels than valacyclovir, acyclovir, and famciclovir (ICAR, 2008, abst. 137; ICAAC, 2008, abst. A-951; ICAR, 2009, abst. 105; ICAR, 2009, abst. 106).
FV-100 was previously in development by Inhibitex, Inc., or Inhibitex. In January 2012, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, or BMS acquired Inhibitex. In August 2012, Synergy acquired the FV-100 assets from BMS. The FV-100 assets are licensed from University College Cardiff Consultants Limited (Cardiff) pursuant to the terms of that certain Patent and Technology License Agreement, dated as of February 2, 2005, between Cardiff and Contravir Research Incorporated, an entity with no prior relationship with us, as amended March 27, 2007.
On June 10, 2013, we and Synergy entered into a Contribution Agreement, as amended and restated on August 5, 2013, or the Contribution Agreement, to transfer to us the FV-100 assets, in exchange for the issuance to Synergy of 9,000,000 shares of our common stock representing 100% of the outstanding shares of our common stock as of immediately following such issuance. Pursuant to the Contribution Agreement, Synergy transferred ownership of all intellectual property rights acquired from BMS including all historical research, clinical study protocols, data, results and patents related to the FV-100 assets as well as assumed the obligations of Synergy, including all liabilities of Synergy, under the asset purchase agreement, dated August 17, 2012, by and between Synergy and BMS, or the BMS Agreement.
FV-100
A Phase 2 clinical trial for FV-100 in shingles patients was conducted by Inhibitex and completed in December 2010. This trial represented the first evaluation of FV-100 in shingles patients, and was a well-controlled double blind study comparing two different doses of FV-100 to an active control dose of valacyclovir. A total of 350 patients, aged 50 years and older, were enrolled in one of three treatment arms: 200 mg FV-100 administered once daily; 400 mg FV-100 administered once daily; and 1,000 mg valacyclovir administered three times per day. In addition to further evaluating its safety and tolerability, the main objectives of the trial were to
evaluate the potential therapeutic benefit of FV-100 in reducing the severity and duration of shingles-related pain, the incidence of post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) (burning pain that follows healing of the shingles rash), and the time to lesion healing.
The primary endpoint for the FV-100 study was a 25% reduction in the severity and duration of shingles-related pain during the first 30 days as compared to valacyclovir. The trial missed its primary endpoint which was an endpoint developed by Inhibitex specifically for this trial called burden of illness over the first 30 days (BOI30), as the results from the study did not meet statistical significance with respect to this endpoint. However, numerically favorable treatment differences with respect to the primary endpoint were observed, particularly in those patients that received 400 mg FV-100 relative to valacyclovir patients. Valacyclovir gave a BOI30 of 118.0 days (6.25). In comparison, 400 mg FV-100 gave a BOI30 of 110.3 days (6.08), which constitutes a 7% reduction over the value observed for valacyclovir over the first 30 days. As this was a Phase 2 study, we will be able to use this information to help design future clinical studies, as well as discussing future study designs with FDA and regulatory authorities worldwide. There were also favorable, non-statistically significant treatment differences observed for key secondary pain endpoints, including reduction in the severity and duration of shingles-associated pain over 90 days (a 14% relative reduction for 400 mg FV-100 as compared to valacyclovir), and the incidence of PHN (a 37% relative reduction for 400 mg FV-100 as compared to valacyclovir). The secondary endpoints were not, however, powered to demonstrate statistically significant treatment differences between the arms. FV-100 was generally well tolerated at both dose levels, and demonstrated a similar adverse event profile as compared to valacyclovir.
Inhibitex filed for an IND (IND 102,011) on March 19, 2008. This IND was transferred from Inhibitex to its new sponsor, Synergy, on August 27, 2012 and subsequently transferred to us in April 2014. As a result of this transfer, we will be able to run all clinical trials required to support FV-100 for the use in the treatment of shingles.
We plan to begin a Phase 3 clinical trial during the second quarter of 2015. This Phase 3 trial will be a well controlled, double-blind study comparing two different doses of FV-100 to an active control (valacyclovir). A total of 989 patients, aged 50 years and older who had shingles-associated pain and presented to the clinic within 72 hours of appearance of their first shingles lesion, will be equally randomized to one of three treatment arms: 400 mg FV-100 administered once-daily for seven days; 400 mg FV-100 administered twice-daily for seven days; or 1,000 mg valacyclovir administered three times daily for seven days. In addition to further evaluating its safety and tolerability, the primary objective of the trial will be to evaluate the potential therapeutic benefit of FV-100 in reducing the incidence of PHN compared to valacyclovir. A key secondary objective of the trial will be to evaluate the potential therapeutic benefit of FV-100 in reducing the duration of shingles-associated pain compared to valacyclovir. The effect of treatment on other measures of shingles, such as new lesion formation and healing will also be compared between the treatment groups. The primary efficacy analysis will be conducted on the intent-to-treat population which is defined as all subjects who enroll in the study and are randomized. Subjects will be analyzed according to the treatment to which they were randomized.
CMX157
On December 17, 2014, we entered into an exclusive license agreement (the License Agreement) with Chimerix, Inc. (Chimerix) pursuant to which we have licensed CMX157 from Chimerix for further clinical development and commercialization. CMX157 is a highly potent analog of the antiviral drug tenofovir DF (Viread®). Under the terms of the License Agreement, we licensed CMX157 from Chimerix in exchange for an upfront payment consisting of 120,000 shares of ContraVir Series B Convertible Preferred Stock with a stated value of $1.2 million. In addition, Chimerix is eligible to receive up to approximately $20 million in clinical, regulatory and initial commercial milestones in the United States and Europe, as well as royalties and additional milestones based on commercial sales in those territories. Either party may terminate the License Agreement upon the occurrence of a material breach by the other party (subject to standard cure periods), or upon certain events involving the bankruptcy or insolvency of the other party. We may also terminate the License Agreement without cause on a country by country basis upon sixty (60) days prior written notice to Chimerix.
Corporate Information
Our principal executive offices are located at 399 Thornall Street, First Floor, Edison, New Jersey 08837. Our telephone number is (732) 902-4000 and our website address is www.contravir.com. The information on our website is not a part of, and should not be construed as being incorporated by reference into, this prospectus supplement or the accompanying prospectus.
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. Prospective investors should carefully consider the risks described below and other information contained in this prospectus, before purchasing shares of our common stock. There are numerous and varied risks that may prevent us from achieving our goals. If any of these risks actually occur, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially adversely affected. In that case, the trading price of our common stock could decline and investors in our common stock could lose all or part of their investment.
Risks Related to Our Business
We have incurred losses since inception, anticipate that we will incur continued losses for the foreseeable future and our independent registered public accounting firms report, contained herein, includes an explanatory paragraph that expresses substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern, indicating the possibility that we may not be able to operate in the future.
As of December 31, 2014, we had an accumulated deficit of $14.8 million. As of June 30, 2014 and 2013, we had an accumulated deficit of $5.4 million and $0.1 million, respectively. We expect to incur significant and increasing operating losses for the next several years as we expand our research and development efforts, continue our clinical trials of FV-100, acquire or license technologies, advance other product candidates into clinical development, complete clinical trials, seek regulatory approval and, if we receive FDA approval, commercialize our products. Primarily as a result of our losses and limited cash balances, our independent registered public accounting firm has included in its report an explanatory paragraph expressing substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. Our ability to continue as a going concern is contingent upon, among other factors, the sale of the shares of our common stock or obtaining alternate financing. We cannot provide any assurance that we will be able to raise additional capital.
If we are unable to secure additional capital, we may be required to curtail our research and development initiatives and take additional measures to reduce costs in order to conserve our cash in amounts sufficient to sustain operations and meet our obligations. These measures could cause significant delays in our clinical and regulatory efforts, which is critical to the realization of our business plan. The accompanying financial statements do not include any adjustments that may be necessary should we be unable to continue as a going concern. It is not possible for us to predict at this time the potential success of our business. The revenue and income potential of our proposed business and operations are currently unknown. If we cannot continue as a viable entity, you may lose some or all of your investment in our company.
We will require substantial additional funding which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If we fail to raise the necessary additional capital, we may be unable to complete the development and commercialization of our product candidate, or continue our development programs.
We expect to significantly increase our spending to advance the preclinical and clinical development of our product candidate and launch and commercialize any product candidate for which we receive regulatory approval, including building our own commercial organizations to address certain markets. We will require additional capital for the further development and commercialization of our product candidate, as well as to fund our other operating expenses and capital expenditures.
We cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue the development or commercialization of our product candidate. We may also seek collaborators for one or more of our current or future product candidates at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable or on terms that are less favorable than might otherwise be available. Any of these events could significantly harm our business, financial condition and prospects.
Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:
· the progress of the development of FV-100;
· the number of product candidates we pursue;
· the time and costs involved in obtaining regulatory approvals;
· the costs involved in filing and prosecuting patent applications and enforcing or defending patent claims;
· our plans to establish sales, marketing and/or manufacturing capabilities;
· the effect of competing technological and market developments;
· the terms and timing of any collaborative, licensing and other arrangements that we may establish;
· general market conditions for offerings from biopharmaceutical companies;
· our ability to establish, enforce and maintain selected strategic alliances and activities required for product commercialization; and
· our revenues, if any, from successful development and commercialization of our product candidate.
In order to carry out our business plan and implement our strategy, we anticipate that we will need to obtain additional financing from time to time and may choose to raise additional funds through strategic collaborations, licensing arrangements, public or private equity or debt financing, bank lines of credit, asset sales, government grants, or other arrangements. We cannot be sure that any additional funding, if needed, will be available on terms favorable to us or at all. Furthermore, any additional equity or equity-related financing may be dilutive to our stockholders, and debt or equity financing, if available, may subject us to restrictive covenants and significant interest costs. If we obtain funding through a strategic collaboration or licensing arrangement, we may be required to relinquish our rights to certain of our product candidate or marketing territories. Our inability to raise capital when needed would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations, and could cause our stock price to decline or require that we wind down our operations altogether.
In preparing our consolidated financial statements, our management determined that our disclosure controls and procedures and internal controls were ineffective as of December 31, 2014 and if they continue to be ineffective could result in material misstatements in our financial statements.
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over our financial reporting, as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. As of December 31, 2014, our management has determined that our disclosure controls and procedures and internal controls were ineffective due to weaknesses in our financial closing process.
If we fail to comply with the rules under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 related to accounting controls and procedures in the future, or, if we discover additional material weaknesses and other deficiencies in our internal control and accounting procedures, our stock price could decline significantly and raising capital could be more difficult.
If we fail to comply with the rules under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 related to disclosure controls and procedures in the future, or, if we discover material weaknesses and other deficiencies in our internal control and accounting procedures, our stock price could decline significantly and raising capital could be more difficult. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires annual management assessments of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and a report by our independent auditors addressing these assessments. If material weaknesses or significant deficiencies are discovered or if we otherwise fail to achieve and maintain the adequacy of our internal control, we may not be able to ensure that we can conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal controls over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Moreover, effective internal controls are necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports and are important to helping prevent financial fraud. If we cannot provide reliable financial reports or prevent fraud, our business and operating results could be harmed, investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information, and the trading price of our Common Stock could drop significantly.
Our prospects are largely dependent on the success of FV-100, which was the subject of a Phase II clinical trial that failed to meet its primary endpoints. While we seek to determine the implications, if any, of the Phase II results on our FV-100 product candidate and consider other potential strategic pathways, there can be no assurance we will be able to successfully advance or develop our FV-100 product candidate and if we are unable to further develop or obtain regulatory approval, our business will be materially harmed.
In December 2010, Inhibitex, a previous owner of the FV-100 assets, announced that in a pivotal Phase II clinical trial of FV-100, an oral antiviral compound being developed to treat herpes zoster, more commonly referred to as shingles, failed to meet its primary endpoint. Since we received the FV-100 assets from Synergy, we have not engaged in any clinical study of FV-100 or
materially advanced the development of FV-100. We are currently conducting various analyses of our preclinical and clinical data related to FV-100, as well as analyzing the various lots of clinical trial material used in the Phase II trials in an effort to determine whether the results of the Phase II trial were a consequence of one or more factors, including the potency and consistency of the clinical trial material, the change in the dosing schedule, and selection of the patient population studied and the appropriateness of the primary efficacy endpoint used in the clinical trial to determine the effectiveness of the treatments. If we are unable to successfully advance or develop our FV-100 product candidate, it will have a material adverse effect on our business.
Our product candidate is in the early stages of development and its commercial viability remains subject to the successful outcome of current and future preclinical studies, clinical trials, regulatory approvals and the risks generally inherent in the development of a pharmaceutical product candidate. If we are unable to successfully advance or develop our product candidate, our business will be materially harmed.
In the near-term, failure to successfully advance the development of FV-100 may have a material adverse effect on us. To date, we have not successfully developed or commercially marketed, distributed or sold any product candidate. The success of our business depends primarily upon our ability to successfully advance the development of FV-100 through preclinical studies and clinical trials, have these product candidate approved for sale by the FDA or regulatory authorities in other countries, and ultimately have this product candidate successfully commercialized by us or a strategic collaborator. We cannot assure you that the results of our ongoing preclinical studies or clinical trials will support or justify the continued development of our product candidate, or that we will receive approval from the FDA, or similar regulatory authorities in other countries, to advance the development of our product candidate.
Our product candidate must satisfy rigorous regulatory standards of safety and efficacy before we can advance or complete their clinical development or they can be approved for sale. To satisfy these standards, we must engage in expensive and lengthy preclinical studies and clinical trials, develop acceptable manufacturing processes, and obtain regulatory approval of our product candidate. Despite these efforts, our product candidate may not:
· offer therapeutic or other medical benefits over existing drugs or other product candidates in development to treat the same patient population;
· be proven to be safe and effective in current and future preclinical studies or clinical trials;
· have the desired effects;
· be free from undesirable or unexpected effects;
· meet applicable regulatory standards;
· be capable of being formulated and manufactured in commercially suitable quantities and at an acceptable cost; or
· be successfully commercialized by us or by collaborators.
Even if we demonstrate favorable results in preclinical studies and early-stage clinical trials, we cannot assure you that the results of late-stage clinical trials will be favorable enough to support the continued development of our product candidate. A number of companies in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries have experienced significant delays, setbacks and failures in all stages of development, including late-stage clinical trials, even after achieving promising results in preclinical testing or early-stage clinical trials. Accordingly, results from completed preclinical studies and early-stage clinical trials of our product candidate may not be predictive of the results we may obtain in later-stage trials. Furthermore, even if the data collected from preclinical studies and clinical trials involving our product candidate demonstrates a satisfactory safety and efficacy profile, such results may not be sufficient to support the submission of a New Drug Application, or NDA or a biologics license application, or BLA to obtain regulatory approval from the FDA in the U.S., or other similar regulatory agencies in other jurisdictions, which is required to market and sell the product.
Our product candidate will require significant additional research and development efforts, the commitment of substantial financial resources, and regulatory approvals prior to advancing into further clinical development or being commercialized by us or collaborators. We cannot assure you that our product candidate will successfully progress through the drug development process or will result in a commercially viable product. We do not expect our product candidate to be commercialized by us or collaborators for at least several years.
Our product candidate may exhibit undesirable side effects when used alone or in combination with other approved pharmaceutical products or investigational new drugs, which may delay or preclude its further development or regulatory approval, or limit its use if approved.
Throughout the drug development process, we must continually demonstrate the safety and tolerability of our product candidate to obtain regulatory approval to further advance their clinical development or to market them. Even if our product candidate demonstrates biologic activity and clinical efficacy, any unacceptable adverse side effects or toxicities, when administered alone or in the presence of other pharmaceutical products, which can arise at any stage of development, may outweigh its potential benefit. In preclinical studies and clinical trials we have conducted to date, our product candidate has demonstrated an acceptable safety profile, although these studies and trials have involved a small number of subjects or patients over a limited period of time. We may observe adverse or significant adverse events or drug-drug interactions in future preclinical studies or clinical trials of this product candidate, which could result in the delay or termination of its development, prevent regulatory approval, or limit its market acceptance if it is ultimately approved.
If the actual or perceived therapeutic benefits of FV-100 are not sufficiently different from existing generic drugs currently used to treat shingles or reduce or prevent shingles-associated pain and PHN, we may terminate the development of FV-100 at any time, or our ability to generate significant revenue from the sale of FV-100, if approved, may be limited and our potential profitability could be harmed.
Valacyclovir, famciclovir and acyclovir are existing generic drugs currently marketed to treat shingles patients. Generic drugs are compounds that have no remaining patent protection, and generally have an average selling price substantially lower than drugs that are protected by patents and intellectual property rights. Unless a patented drug can differentiate itself from generic drugs treating the same condition or disease in a clinically meaningful manner, the existence of generic competition in any indication may impose significant pricing pressure on patented drugs. Accordingly, if at any time we believe that FV-100 may not provide meaningful therapeutic benefits, perceived or real, over these existing generic drugs, we may delay or terminate its future development. We cannot provide any assurance that later-stage clinical trials of FV-100 will demonstrate any meaningful therapeutic benefits over existing generic drugs sufficient to justify its continued development. Further, if we successfully develop FV-100 and it is approved for sale, we cannot assure you that any real or perceived therapeutic benefits of FV-100 over generic drugs will result in it being, accepted for sale by insurance company formularies, prescribed by physicians or commanding a price higher than the existing generic drugs.
If the results of preclinical studies or clinical trials for our product candidate, including those that are subject to existing or future license or collaboration agreements, are unfavorable or delayed, we could be delayed or precluded from the further development or commercialization of our product candidate, which could materially harm our business.
In order to further advance the development of, and ultimately receive regulatory approval to sell, our product candidate, we must conduct extensive preclinical studies and clinical trials to demonstrate their safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of the FDA or similar regulatory authorities in other countries, as the case may be. Preclinical studies and clinical trials are expensive, complex, can take many years to complete, and have highly uncertain outcomes. Delays, setbacks, or failures can occur at any time, or in any phase of preclinical or clinical testing, and can result from concerns about safety or toxicity, a lack of demonstrated efficacy or superior efficacy over other similar products that have been approved for sale or are in more advanced stages of development, poor study or trial design, and issues related to the formulation or manufacturing process of the materials used to conduct the trials. The results of prior preclinical studies or clinical trials are not necessarily predictive of the results we may observe in later stage clinical trials. In many cases, product candidate in clinical development may fail to show desired safety and efficacy characteristics despite having favorably demonstrated such characteristics in preclinical studies or earlier stage clinical trials.
In addition, we may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, preclinical studies and the clinical trial process, which could delay or impede our ability to advance the development of, receive regulatory approval for, or commercialize our product candidate, including, but not limited to:
· communications with the FDA, or similar regulatory authorities in different countries, regarding the scope or design of a trial or trials;
· regulatory authorities (including an Institutional Review Board) or IRBs not authorizing us to commence or conduct a clinical trial at a prospective trial site;
· enrollment in our clinical trials being delayed, or proceeding at a slower pace than we expected, because we have difficulty recruiting patients or participants dropping out of our clinical trials at a higher rate than we anticipated;
· our third party contractors, upon whom we rely for conducting preclinical studies, clinical trials and manufacturing of our trial materials, may fail to comply with regulatory requirements or meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner;
· having to suspend or ultimately terminate our clinical trials if participants are being exposed to unacceptable health or safety risks;
· IRBs or regulators requiring that we hold, suspend or terminate our preclinical studies and clinical trials for various reasons, including non-compliance with regulatory requirements; and
· the supply or quality of drug material necessary to conduct our preclinical studies or clinical trials being insufficient, inadequate or unavailable.
Even if the data collected from preclinical studies or clinical trials involving our product candidate demonstrate a satisfactory safety and efficacy profile, such results may not be sufficient to support the submission of a NDA or BLA to obtain regulatory approval from the FDA in the U.S., or other similar foreign regulatory authorities in foreign jurisdictions, which is required to market and sell the product.
If third party vendors upon whom we intend to rely on to conduct our preclinical studies or clinical trials do not perform or fail to comply with strict regulations, these studies or trials of our product candidate may be delayed, terminated, or fail, or we could incur significant additional expenses, which could materially harm our business.
We have limited resources dedicated to designing, conducting and managing preclinical studies and clinical trials. We intend to rely on third parties, including clinical research organizations, consultants and principal investigators, to assist us in designing, managing, monitoring and conducting our preclinical studies and clinical trials. As of the date hereof, we have not entered into any contracts with third party vendors for any studies to be conducted. We intend to rely on these vendors and individuals to perform many facets of the drug development process, including certain preclinical studies, the recruitment of sites and patients for participation in our clinical trials, maintenance of good relations with the clinical sites, and ensuring that these sites are conducting our trials in compliance with the trial protocol and applicable regulations. If these third parties fail to perform satisfactorily, or do not adequately fulfill their obligations under the terms of our agreements with them, we may not be able to enter into alternative arrangements without undue delay or additional expenditures, and therefore the preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidate may be delayed or prove unsuccessful. Further, the FDA may inspect some of the clinical sites participating in our clinical trials in the U.S., or our third-party vendors sites, to determine if our clinical trials are being conducted according to Good Clinical Practices or GCPs. If we or the FDA determine that our third-party vendors are not in compliance with, or have not conducted our clinical trials according to, applicable regulations we may be forced to delay, repeat or terminate such clinical trials.
We have limited capacity for recruiting and managing clinical trials, which could impair our timing to initiate or complete clinical trials of our product candidate and materially harm our business.
We have limited capacity to recruit and manage the clinical trials necessary to obtain FDA approval or approval by other regulatory authorities. By contrast, larger pharmaceutical and bio-pharmaceutical companies often have substantial staffs with extensive experience in conducting clinical trials with multiple product candidates across multiple indications. In addition, they may have greater financial resources to compete for the same clinical investigators and patients that we are attempting to recruit for our clinical trials. To the best of our knowledge, the following companies are potential competitors as we develop FV-100: Epiphany Biosceinces, Inc., Astellas Pharma US, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc and Janus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Specifically, we are aware that valomaciclovir is being developed by Epiphany Pharmaceuticals and has completed Phase IIb clinical trials for VZV infections. To our knowledge, other potential competitors are in earlier stages of development for VZV infections. If potential competitors are successful in completing drug development for their product candidates and obtain approval from the FDA, they could limit the demand for FV-100.
As a result, we may be at a competitive disadvantage that could delay the initiation, recruitment, timing, completion of our clinical trials and obtaining regulatory approvals, if at all, for our product candidate.
We, and our collaborators, must comply with extensive government regulations in order to advance our product candidate through the development process and ultimately obtain and maintain marketing approval for our products in the U.S. and abroad.
The product candidates that we, or our collaborators, are developing require regulatory approval to advance through clinical development and to ultimately be marketed and sold, and are subject to extensive and rigorous domestic and foreign government regulation. In the U.S., the FDA regulates, among other things, the development, testing, manufacture, safety, efficacy, record-
keeping, labeling, storage, approval, advertising, promotion, sale and distribution of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products. Our product candidate is also subject to similar regulation by foreign governments to the extent we seek to develop or market them in those countries. We, or our collaborators, must provide the FDA and foreign regulatory authorities, if applicable, with preclinical and clinical data, as well as data supporting an acceptable manufacturing process, that appropriately demonstrate our product candidate safety and efficacy before they can be approved for the targeted indications. Our product candidate has not been approved for sale in the U.S. or any foreign market, and we cannot predict whether we or our collaborators will obtain regulatory approval for any product candidate we are developing or plan to develop. The regulatory review and approval process can take many years, is dependent upon the type, complexity, novelty of, and medical need for the product candidate, requires the expenditure of substantial resources, and involves post-marketing surveillance and vigilance and ongoing requirements for post-marketing studies or Phase 4 clinical trials. In addition, we or our collaborators may encounter delays in, or fail to gain, regulatory approval for our product candidate based upon additional governmental regulation resulting from future legislative, administrative action or changes in FDA policy or interpretation during the period of product development. Delays or failures in obtaining regulatory approval to advance our product candidate through clinical development, and ultimately commercialize them, may:
· adversely impact our ability to raise sufficient capital to fund the development of the program candidate;
· adversely affect our ability to further develop or commercialize our product candidate;
· diminish any competitive advantages that we or our collaborators may have or attain; and
· adversely affect the receipt of potential milestone payments and royalties from the sale of our products or product revenues.
Furthermore, any regulatory approvals, if granted, may later be withdrawn. If we or our collaborators fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements at any time, or if post-approval safety concerns arise, we or our collaborators may be subject to restrictions or a number of actions, including:
· delays, suspension or termination of clinical trials related to our products;
· refusal by regulatory authorities to review pending applications or supplements to approved applications;
· product recalls or seizures;
· suspension of manufacturing;
· withdrawals of previously approved marketing applications; and
· fines, civil penalties and criminal prosecutions.
Additionally, at any time we or our collaborators may voluntarily suspend or terminate the preclinical or clinical development of a product candidate, or withdraw any approved product from the market if we believe that it may pose an unacceptable safety risk to patients, or if the product candidate or approved product no longer meets our business objectives. The ability to develop or market a pharmaceutical product outside of the U.S. is contingent upon receiving appropriate authorization from the respective foreign regulatory authorities. Foreign regulatory approval processes typically include many, if not all, of the risks and requirements associated with the FDA regulatory process for drug development and may include additional risks.
We have limited experience in the development of small molecule antiviral product candidate and therefore may encounter difficulties developing our product candidate or managing our operations in the future.
Our lead product candidate, FV-100, is a chemical compound, also referred to as a small molecule. We have limited experience in the discovery, development and manufacturing of these small molecule antiviral compounds. In order to successfully develop this product candidate, we must continuously supplement our research, clinical development, regulatory, medicinal chemistry, virology and manufacturing capabilities through the addition of key employees, consultants or third-party contractors to provide certain capabilities and skill sets that we do not possess.
Furthermore, we have adopted an operating model that largely relies on the outsourcing of a number of responsibilities and key activities to third-party consultants, and contract research and manufacturing organizations in order to advance the development of our product candidate. Therefore, our success depends in part on our ability to retain highly qualified key management, personnel, and directors to develop, implement and execute our business strategy, operate the company and oversee the activities of our consultants
and contractors, as well as academic and corporate advisors or consultants to assist us in this regard. We are currently highly dependent upon the efforts of our management team. In order to develop our product candidate, we need to retain or attract certain personnel, consultants or advisors with experience in the drug development activities of small molecules that include a number of disciplines, including research and development, clinical trials, medical matters, government regulation of pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, formulation and chemistry, business development, accounting, finance, human resources and information systems. We are highly dependent upon our senior management and scientific staff, particularly James Sapirstein, our Chief Executive Officer. The loss of services of Mr. Sapirstein or one or more of our other members of senior management could delay or prevent the successful completion of our planned clinical trials or the commercialization of our product candidate.
Our success depends in part on our continued ability to attract, retain and motivate highly qualified management, clinical and scientific personnel and on our ability to develop and maintain important relationships with leading academic institutions, clinicians and scientists. The competition for qualified personnel in the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals field is intense. We will need to hire additional personnel as we expand our clinical development and commercial activities. While we have not had difficulties recruiting qualified individuals, to date, we may not be able to attract and retain quality personnel on acceptable terms given the competition for such personnel among biotechnology, pharmaceutical and other companies. Although we have not experienced material difficulties in retaining key personnel in the past, we may not be able to continue to do so in the future on acceptable terms, if at all. If we lose any key managers or employees, or are unable to attract and retain qualified key personnel, directors, advisors or consultants, the development of our product candidate could be delayed or terminated and our business may be harmed.
We will need to obtain FDA approval of any proposed product brand names, and any failure or delay associated with such approval may adversely impact our business.
A pharmaceutical product cannot be marketed in the U.S. or other countries until we have completed rigorous and extensive regulatory review processes, including approval of a brand name. Any brand names we intend to use for our product candidate will require approval from the FDA regardless of whether we have secured a formal trademark registration from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or the PTO. The FDA typically conducts a review of proposed product brand names, including an evaluation of potential for confusion with other product names. The FDA may also object to a product brand name if the FDA believes the name inappropriately implies medical claims. If the FDA objects to any of our proposed product brand names, we may be required to adopt an alternative brand name for our product candidate. If we adopt an alternative brand name, we would lose the benefit of our existing trademark applications for such product candidate and may be required to expend significant additional resources in an effort to identify a suitable product brand name that would qualify under applicable trademark laws, not infringe the existing rights of third parties and be acceptable to the FDA. We may be unable to build a successful brand identity for a new trademark in a timely manner or at all, which would limit our ability to commercialize our product candidate.
Clinical trials involve a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome, and results of earlier studies and trials may not be predictive of future trial results.
Our product candidate may not prove to be safe and efficacious in clinical trials and may not meet all the applicable regulatory requirements needed to receive regulatory approval. In order to receive regulatory approval for the commercialization of our product candidate, we must conduct, at our own expense, extensive preclinical testing and clinical trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy of this product candidate for the intended indication of use. Clinical testing is expensive, can take many years to complete, if at all, and its outcome is uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process.
The results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of new drugs do not necessarily predict the results of later-stage clinical trials. The design of our clinical trials is based on many assumptions about the expected effects of our product candidate, and if those assumptions are incorrect it may not produce statistically significant results. Preliminary results may not be confirmed on full analysis of the detailed results of an early clinical trial. Product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may fail to show safety and efficacy sufficient to support intended use claims despite having progressed through initial clinical testing. The data collected from clinical trials of our product candidate may not be sufficient to support the filing of an NDA or to obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere. Because of the uncertainties associated with drug development and regulatory approval, we cannot determine if or when we will have an approved product for commercialization or achieve sales or profits.
Delays in clinical testing could result in increased costs to us and delay our ability to generate revenue.
We may experience delays in clinical testing of our product candidate. We do not know whether planned clinical trials will begin on time, will need to be redesigned or will be completed on schedule, if at all. Clinical trials can be delayed for a variety of reasons, including delays in obtaining regulatory approval to commence a clinical trial, in securing clinical trial agreements with prospective sites with acceptable terms, in obtaining institutional review board approval to conduct a clinical trial at a prospective site, in
recruiting patients to participate in a clinical trial or in obtaining sufficient supplies of clinical trial materials. Many factors affect patient enrollment, including the size of the patient population, the proximity of patients to clinical sites, the eligibility criteria for the clinical trial, competing clinical trials and new drugs approved for the conditions we are investigating. Clinical investigators will need to decide whether to offer their patients enrollment in clinical trials of our product candidate versus treating these patients with commercially available drugs that have established safety and efficacy profiles. Any delays in completing our clinical trials will increase our costs, slow down our product development, timeliness and approval process and delay our ability to generate revenue.
The regulatory approval processes of the FDA and comparable foreign authorities are lengthy, time consuming and inherently unpredictable, and if we are ultimately unable to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidate, our business will be substantially harmed.
The time required to obtain approval by the FDA and comparable foreign authorities is unpredictable but typically takes many years following the commencement of clinical trials and depends upon numerous factors, including the substantial discretion of the regulatory authorities. 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 candidates clinical development and may vary among jurisdictions. We have not obtained regulatory approval for any product candidate and it is possible that our existing product candidate or any product candidate we may seek to develop in the future will ever obtain regulatory approval.
Our product candidate could fail to receive regulatory approval for many reasons, including the following:
· the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with the design or implementation of our clinical trials;
· we may be unable to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities that a product candidate is safe and effective for its proposed indication;
· the results of clinical trials may not meet the level of statistical significance required by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities for approval;
· the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with our interpretation of data from preclinical studies or clinical trials;
· the data collected from clinical trials of our product candidate may not be sufficient to support the submission of an NDA or other submission or to obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere;
· the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may fail to approve the manufacturing processes or facilities of third-party manufacturers with which we contract for clinical and commercial supplies;
· the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may fail to approve the companion diagnostics we contemplate developing with partners; and
· the approval policies or regulations of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may significantly change in a manner rendering our clinical data insufficient for approval.
This lengthy approval process as well as the unpredictability of future clinical trial results may result in our failing to obtain regulatory approval to market our product candidate, which would significantly harm our business, results of operations and prospects.
In addition, even if we were to obtain approval, regulatory authorities may approve our product candidate for fewer or more limited indications than we request, may not approve the price we intend to charge for our products, 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 that product candidate. Any of the foregoing scenarios could materially harm the commercial prospects for our product candidate.
We, as a newly formed entity, have not previously submitted a biologics license application, or BLA, or a New Drug Application, or NDA, to the FDA, or similar drug approval filings to comparable foreign authorities, for our product candidate, and we cannot be certain that our product candidate will be successful in clinical trials or receive regulatory approval. Further, our product candidate may not receive regulatory approval even if they are successful in clinical trials. If we do not receive regulatory approvals for our product candidate, we may not be able to continue our operations. Even if we successfully obtain regulatory approvals to market one or more of our product candidates, our revenues will be dependent, in part, upon our collaborators ability to obtain regulatory
approval of the companion diagnostics to be used with our product candidate, as well as the size of the markets in the territories for which we gain regulatory approval and have commercial rights. If the markets for patients that we are targeting for our product candidate are not as significant as we estimate, we may not generate significant revenues from sales of such products, if approved.
We plan to seek regulatory approval and to commercialize our product candidate, directly or with a collaborator, worldwide including the United States, the European Union and other additional foreign countries which we have not yet identified. While the scope of regulatory approval is similar in other countries, to obtain separate regulatory approval in many other countries we must comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of such countries regarding safety and efficacy and governing, among other things, clinical trials and commercial sales, pricing and distribution of our product candidate, and we cannot predict success in these jurisdictions.
We may be required to suspend or discontinue clinical trials due to unexpected side effects or other safety risks that could preclude approval of our product candidate.
Our clinical trials may be suspended at any time for a number of reasons. For example, we may voluntarily suspend or terminate our clinical trials if at any time we believe that they present an unacceptable risk to the clinical trial patients. In addition, the FDA or other regulatory agencies may order the temporary or permanent discontinuation of our clinical trials at any time if they believe that the clinical trials are not being conducted in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements or that they present an unacceptable safety risk to the clinical trial patients.
Administering any product candidate to humans may produce undesirable side effects. These side effects could interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials of our product candidate and could result in the FDA or other regulatory authorities denying further development or approval of our product candidate for any or all targeted indications. Ultimately, some or all of our product candidates may prove to be unsafe for human use. Moreover, we could be subject to significant liability if any volunteer or patient suffers, or appears to suffer, adverse health effects as a result of participating in our clinical trials.
If we fail to comply with healthcare regulations, we could face substantial enforcement actions, including civil and criminal penalties and our business, operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
As a developer of pharmaceuticals, even though we do not intend to make referrals of healthcare services or bill directly to Medicare, Medicaid or other third-party payers, certain federal and state healthcare laws and regulations pertaining to fraud and abuse, false claims and patients privacy rights are and will be applicable to our business. We could be subject to healthcare fraud and abuse laws and patient privacy laws of both the federal government and the states in which we conduct our business. The laws include:
· the federal healthcare program anti-kickback law, which prohibits, among other things, persons from soliciting, receiving or providing remuneration, directly or indirectly, to induce either the referral of an individual, for an item or service or the purchasing or ordering of a good or service, for which payment may be made under federal healthcare programs such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs;
· federal false claims laws which prohibit, among other things, individuals or entities from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, claims for payment from Medicare, Medicaid, or other third-party payers that are false or fraudulent, and which may apply to entities like us which provide coding and billing information to customers;
· the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which prohibits executing a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program or making false statements relating to healthcare matters and which also imposes certain requirements relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information;
· the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which among other things, strictly regulates drug manufacturing and product marketing, prohibits manufacturers from marketing drug products for off-label use and regulates the distribution of drug samples; and
· state law equivalents of each of the above federal laws, such as anti-kickback and false claims laws which may apply to items or services reimbursed by any third-party payer, including commercial insurers, and state laws governing the privacy and security of health information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by federal laws, thus complicating compliance efforts.
If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any governmental regulations that apply to us, we may be subject to penalties, including civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines and the curtailment or restructuring of our
operations. Any penalties, damages, fines, curtailment or restructuring of our operations could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results. Although compliance programs can mitigate the risk of investigation and prosecution for violations of these laws, the risks cannot be entirely eliminated. Any action against us for violation of these laws, even if we successfully defends against it, could cause us to incur significant legal expenses and divert managements attention from the operation of our business. Moreover, achieving and sustaining compliance with applicable federal and state privacy, security and fraud laws may prove costly.
If we are unable to satisfy regulatory requirements, we may not be able to commercialize our product candidate.
We need FDA approval prior to marketing our product candidate in the United States. If we fail to obtain FDA approval to market our product candidate, we will be unable to sell our product candidate in the United States and we will not generate any revenue.
The FDAs review and approval process, including among other things, evaluation of preclinical studies and clinical trials of a product candidate as well as the manufacturing process and facility, is lengthy, expensive and uncertain. To receive approval, we must, among other things, demonstrate with substantial evidence from well-designed and well-controlled pre-clinical testing and clinical trials that the product candidate is both safe and effective for each indication for which approval is sought. Satisfaction of these requirements typically takes several years and the time needed to satisfy them may vary substantially, based on the type, complexity and novelty of the pharmaceutical product. We cannot predict if or when we will submit an NDA for approval for our product candidate currently under development. Any approvals we may obtain may not cover all of the clinical indications for which we are seeking approval or may contain significant limitations on the conditions of use.
The FDA has substantial discretion in the NDA review process and may either refuse to file our NDA for substantive review or may decide that our data is insufficient to support approval of our product candidate for the claimed intended uses. Following any regulatory approval of our product candidate, we will be subject to continuing regulatory obligations such as safety reporting, required and additional post marketing obligations, and regulatory oversight of promotion and marketing. Even if we receive regulatory approvals, the FDA may subsequently seek to withdraw approval of our NDA if we determine that new data or a reevaluation of existing data show the product is unsafe for use under the conditions of use upon the basis of which the NDA was approved, or based on new evidence of adverse effects or adverse clinical experience, or upon other new information. If the FDA does not file or approve our NDA or withdraws approval of our NDA, the FDA may require that we conduct additional clinical trials, preclinical or manufacturing studies and submit that data before it will reconsider our application. Depending on the extent of these or any other requested studies, approval of any applications that we submit may be delayed by several years, may require us to expend more resources than we have available, or may never be obtained at all.
We will also be subject to a wide variety of foreign regulations governing the development, manufacture and marketing of our products to the extent we seek regulatory approval to market our product candidates in a foreign jurisdiction. As of the date hereof we have not identified any foreign jurisdictions which we intend to seek approval from. Whether or not FDA approval has been obtained, approval of a product by the comparable regulatory authorities of foreign countries must still be obtained prior to marketing the product in those countries. The approval process varies and the time needed to secure approval in any region such as the European Union or in a country with an independent review procedure may be longer or shorter than that required for FDA approval. We cannot assure you that clinical trials conducted in one country will be accepted by other countries or that an approval in one country or region will result in approval elsewhere.
If our product candidate is unable to compete effectively with marketed drugs targeting similar indications as our product candidate, our commercial opportunity will be reduced or eliminated.
We face competition generally from established pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as from academic institutions, government agencies and private and public research institutions. Many of our competitors have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals and marketing approved products than we do. Small or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large, established companies. Our commercial opportunity will be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize any shingles drugs that are safer, more effective, have fewer side effects or are less expensive than our product candidate. These potential competitors compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and patient enrollment for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies and technology licenses complementary to our programs or advantageous to our business.
If approved and commercialized, FV-100 intends to compete with at least 4 currently approved prescription therapies for the treatment of shingles, acyclovir, valacyclovir and famiciclovir. In addition, Zostavax®, a live attenuated varicella zoster virus VZV
vaccine, is available and may reduce the overall incidence of shingles. We also believe other companies are developing products that will compete with FV-100 should they be approved by the FDA. For example, valomaciclovir is being developed by Epiphany Pharmaceuticals and has completed Phase IIb clinical trials for VZV infections. To our knowledge, other potential competitors are in earlier stages of development. If potential competitors are successful in completing drug development for their product candidates and obtain approval from the FDA, they could limit the demand for FV-100.
We expect that our ability to compete effectively will depend upon our ability to:
· successfully identify and develop key points of product differentiations from currently available therapies;
· successfully and rapidly complete clinical trials and submit for and obtain all requisite regulatory approvals in a cost-effective manner;
· maintain a proprietary position for our products and manufacturing processes and other related product technology;
· attract and retain key personnel;
· develop relationships with physicians prescribing these products; and
· build an adequate sales and marketing infrastructure for our product candidate.
Because we will be competing against significantly larger companies with established track records, we will have to demonstrate that, based on experience, clinical data, side-effect profiles and other factors, our products, if approved, are competitive with other products. If we are unable to compete effectively in the shingles drug market and differentiate our products from other marketed shingles drugs, we may never generate meaningful revenue.
We currently have no sales and marketing organization. If we are unable to establish a direct sales force in the United States to promote our products, the commercial opportunity for our products may be diminished.
We currently have no sales and marketing organization. If our product candidate is approved by the FDA, we intend to market that product through our own sales force. We will incur significant additional expenses and commit significant additional management resources to establish our sales force. We may not be able to establish these capabilities despite these additional expenditures. We will also have to compete with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to recruit, hire and train sales and marketing personnel. If we elect to rely on third parties to sell our product candidate in the United States, we may receive less revenue than if we sold our products directly. In addition, although we would intend to use due diligence in monitoring their activities, we may have little or no control over the sales efforts of those third parties. In the event we are unable to develop our own sales force or collaborate with a third party to sell our product candidate, we may not be able to commercialize our product candidate which would negatively impact our ability to generate revenue.
We may need others to market and commercialize our product candidate in international markets.
Currently, we do not have any plans to enter international markets. In the future, if appropriate regulatory approvals are obtained, we may commercialize our product candidate in international markets. However, we have not decided how to commercialize our product candidate in those markets. We may decide to build our own sales force or sell our products through third parties. If we decide to sell our product candidate in international markets through a third party, we may not be able to enter into any marketing arrangements on favorable terms or at all. In addition, these arrangements could result in lower levels of income to us than if we marketed our product candidate entirely on our own. If we are unable to enter into a marketing arrangement for our product candidate in international markets, we may not be able to develop an effective international sales force to successfully commercialize those products in international markets. If we fail to enter into marketing arrangements for our products and are unable to develop an effective international sales force, our ability to generate revenue would be limited.
If the manufacturers upon whom we rely fail to produce FV-100, in the volumes that we require on a timely basis, or fail to comply with stringent regulations applicable to pharmaceutical drug manufacturers, we may face delays in the development and commercialization of our product candidate.
We do not currently possess internal manufacturing capacity. We plan to utilize the services of contract manufacturers to manufacture our clinical supplies. Any curtailment in the availability of FV-100, however, could result in production or other delays
with consequent adverse effects on us. In addition, because regulatory authorities must generally approve raw material sources for pharmaceutical products, changes in raw material suppliers may result in production delays or higher raw material costs.
We continue to pursue active pharmaceutical ingredients, or API, and drug product supply agreements with other manufacturers. We may be required to agree to minimum volume requirements, exclusivity arrangements or other restrictions with the contract manufacturers. We may not be able to enter into long-term agreements on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. If we change or add manufacturers, the FDA and comparable foreign regulators may require approval of the changes. Approval of these changes could require new testing by the manufacturer and compliance inspections to ensure the manufacturer is conforming to all applicable laws and regulations and good manufacturing practices or GMP. In addition, the new manufacturers would have to be educated in or independently develop the processes necessary for the production of our product candidate.
The manufacture of pharmaceutical products requires significant expertise and capital investment, including the development of advanced manufacturing techniques and process controls. Manufacturers of pharmaceutical products may encounter difficulties in production, particularly in scaling up production. These problems include difficulties with production costs and yields, quality control, including stability of the product and quality assurance testing, shortages of qualified personnel, as well as compliance with federal, state and foreign regulations. In addition, any delay or interruption in the supply of clinical trial supplies could delay the completion of our clinical trials, increase the costs associated with conducting our clinical trials and, depending upon the period of delay, require us to commence new clinical trials at significant additional expense or to terminate a clinical trial.
We are responsible for ensuring that each of our contract manufacturers comply with the GMP requirements of the FDA and other regulatory authorities from which we seek to obtain product approval. These requirements include, among other things, quality control, quality assurance and the maintenance of records and documentation. The approval process for NDAs includes a review of the manufacturers compliance with GMP requirements. We are responsible for regularly assessing a contract manufacturers compliance with GMP requirements through record reviews and periodic audits and for ensuring that the contract manufacturer takes responsibility and corrective action for any identified deviations. Manufacturers of FV-100 or other product candidates may be unable to comply with these GMP requirements and with other FDA and foreign regulatory requirements, if any.
While we will oversee compliance by our contract manufacturers, ultimately we will not have control over our manufacturers compliance with these regulations and standards. A failure to comply with these requirements may result in fines and civil penalties, suspension of production, suspension or delay in product approval, product seizure or recall, or withdrawal of product approval. If the safety of FV-100 or other product candidates is compromised due to a manufacturers failure to adhere to applicable laws or for other reasons, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or successfully commercialize FV-100 or other product candidates, and we may be held liable for any injuries sustained as a result. Any of these factors could cause a delay of clinical trials, regulatory submissions, approvals or commercialization of FV-100 or other product candidates, entail higher costs or result in us being unable to effectively commercialize FV-100 or other product candidates. Furthermore, if our manufacturers fail to deliver the required commercial quantities on a timely basis and at commercially reasonable prices, we may be unable to meet demand for any approved products and would lose potential revenues.
We may not be able to manufacture our product candidate in commercial quantities, which would prevent us from commercializing our product candidate.
To date, our product candidate has been manufactured in small quantities for preclinical studies and clinical trials. If our product candidate is approved by the FDA or comparable regulatory authorities in other countries for commercial sale, we will need to manufacture such product candidate in larger quantities. We may not be able to increase successfully the manufacturing capacity for our product candidate in a timely or economic manner, or at all. Significant scale-up of manufacturing may require additional validation studies, which the FDA must review and approve. If we are unable to increase successfully the manufacturing capacity for a product candidate, the clinical trials as well as the regulatory approval or commercial launch of that product candidate may be delayed or there may be a shortage in supply. Our product candidate requires precise, high quality manufacturing. Our failure to achieve and maintain these high quality manufacturing standards in collaboration with our third-party manufacturers, including the incidence of manufacturing errors, could result in patient injury or death, product recalls or withdrawals, delays or failures in product testing or delivery, cost overruns or other problems that could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Materials necessary to manufacture our product candidate may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, which may delay the development and commercialization of our product candidate.
We rely on the third-party manufacturers of our product candidate to purchase from third-party suppliers the materials necessary to produce bulk APIs, and product candidate for our clinical trials, and we will rely on such manufacturers to purchase such materials to produce the APIs and finished products for any commercial distribution of our products if we obtain marketing approval. Suppliers
may not sell these materials to our manufacturers at the time they need them in order to meet our required delivery schedule or on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. We do not have any control over the process or timing of the acquisition of these materials by our manufacturers. Moreover, we currently do not have any agreements for the production of these materials. If our manufacturers are unable to obtain these materials for our clinical trials, testing of the affected product candidate would be delayed, which may significantly impact our ability to develop the product candidate. If we or our manufacturers are unable to purchase these materials after regulatory approval has been obtained for one of our products, the commercial launch of such product would be delayed or there would be a shortage in supply of such product, which would harm our ability to generate revenues from such product and achieve or sustain profitability.
Our product candidate, if approved for sale, may not gain acceptance among physicians, patients and the medical community, thereby limiting our potential to generate revenues.
If our product candidate is approved for commercial sale by the FDA or other regulatory authorities, the degree of market acceptance of any approved product by physicians, healthcare professionals and third-party payers and our profitability and growth will depend on a number of factors, including:
· demonstration of safety and efficacy;
· changes in the practice guidelines and the standard of care for the targeted indication;
· relative convenience and ease of administration;
· the prevalence and severity of any adverse side effects;
· budget impact of adoption of our product on relevant drug formularies and the availability, cost and potential advantages of alternative treatments, including less expensive generic drugs;
· pricing, reimbursement and cost effectiveness, which may be subject to regulatory control;
· effectiveness of our or any of our partners sales and marketing strategies;
· the product labeling or product insert required by the FDA or regulatory authority in other countries; and
· the availability of adequate third-party insurance coverage or reimbursement.
If any product candidate that we develop does not provide a treatment regimen that is as beneficial as, or is perceived as being as beneficial as, the current standard of care or otherwise does not provide patient benefit, that product candidate, if approved for commercial sale by the FDA or other regulatory authorities, likely will not achieve market acceptance. Our ability to effectively promote and sell any approved products will also depend on pricing and cost-effectiveness, including our ability to produce a product at a competitive price and our ability to obtain sufficient third-party coverage or reimbursement. If any product candidate is approved but does not achieve an adequate level of acceptance by physicians, patients and third-party payers, our ability to generate revenues from that product would be substantially reduced. In addition, our efforts to educate the medical community and third-party payers on the benefits of our product candidate may require significant resources, may be constrained by FDA rules and policies on product promotion, and may never be successful.
Guidelines and recommendations published by various organizations can impact the use of our product.
Government agencies promulgate regulations and guidelines directly applicable to us and to our product. In addition, professional societies, practice management groups, private health and science foundations and organizations involved in various diseases from time to time may also publish guidelines or recommendations to the health care and patient communities. Recommendations of government agencies or these other groups or organizations may relate to such matters as usage, dosage, route of administration and use of concomitant therapies. Recommendations or guidelines suggesting the reduced use of our products or the use of competitive or alternative products that are followed by patients and health care providers could result in decreased use of our proposed product.
If third-party contract manufacturers upon whom we rely to formulate and manufacture our product candidate do not perform, fail to manufacture according to our specifications or fail to comply with strict regulations, our preclinical studies or clinical trials could be adversely affected and the development of our product candidate could be delayed or terminated or we could incur significant additional expenses.
We do not own or operate any manufacturing facilities. We intend to rely on third-party contractors, at least for the foreseeable future, to formulate and manufacture these preclinical and clinical materials. Our reliance on third-party contract manufacturers exposes us to a number of risks, any of which could delay or prevent the completion of our preclinical studies or clinical trials, or the regulatory approval or commercialization of our product candidate, result in higher costs, or deprive us of potential product revenues. Some of these risks include:
· our third-party contractors failing to develop an acceptable formulation to support later-stage clinical trials for, or the commercialization of, our product candidate;
· our contract manufacturers failing to manufacture our product candidate according to their own standards, our specifications, cGMPs, or otherwise manufacturing material that we or the FDA may deem to be unsuitable in our clinical trials;
· our contract manufacturers being unable to increase the scale of, increase the capacity for, or reformulate the form of our product candidate. We may experience a shortage in supply, or the cost to manufacture our products may increase to the point where it adversely affects the cost of our product candidate. We cannot assure you that our contract manufacturers will be able to manufacture our products at a suitable scale, or we will be able to find alternative manufacturers acceptable to us that can do so;
· our contract manufacturers placing a priority on the manufacture of their own products, or other customers products;
· our contract manufacturers failing to perform as agreed or not remain in the contract manufacturing business; and
· our contract manufacturers plants being closed as a result of regulatory sanctions or a natural disaster.
Manufacturers of pharmaceutical products are subject to ongoing periodic inspections by the FDA, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and corresponding state and foreign agencies to ensure strict compliance with FDA-mandated current good marketing practices or cGMPs, other government regulations and corresponding foreign standards. While we are obligated to audit their performance, we do not have control over our third-party contract manufacturers compliance with these regulations and standards. Failure by our third-party manufacturers, or us, to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us or the drug manufacturer from the production of other third-party products. These sanctions may include fines, injunctions, civil penalties, failure of the government to grant pre-market approval of drugs, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, seizures or recalls of product, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect our business.
In the event that we need to change our third-party contract manufacturers, our preclinical studies, clinical trials or the commercialization of our product candidate could be delayed, adversely affected or terminated, or such a change may result in significantly higher costs.
Due to regulatory restrictions inherent in an IND, NDA or BLA, various steps in the manufacture of our product candidate may need to be sole-sourced. In accordance with cGMPs, changing manufacturers may require the re-validation of manufacturing processes and procedures, and may require further preclinical studies or clinical trials to show comparability between the materials produced by different manufacturers. Changing our current or future contract manufacturers may be difficult for us and could be costly, which could result in our inability to manufacture our product candidate for an extended period of time and therefore a delay in the development of our product candidate. Further, in order to maintain our development time lines in the event of a change in our third-party contract manufacturer, we may incur significantly higher costs to manufacture our product candidate.
Our industry is highly competitive and subject to rapid technological changes. As a result, we may be unable to compete successfully or develop innovative products, which could harm our business.
Our industry is highly competitive and characterized by rapid technological change. Key competitive factors in our industry include, among others, the ability to successfully advance the development of a product candidate through preclinical and clinical trials; the efficacy, toxicological, safety, resistance or cross-resistance, and dosing profile of a product or product candidate; the timing and scope of regulatory approvals, if ever achieved; reimbursement rates for and the average selling price of competing products and pharmaceutical products in general; the availability of raw materials and qualified contract manufacturing and manufacturing capacity; manufacturing costs; establishing and maintaining intellectual property and patent rights and their protection; and sales and marketing capabilities. If ultimately approved, FV-100 or any other product candidate we may develop, would compete against existing therapies or other product candidates in various stages of clinical development that we believe may potentially become available in the future for the treatment of chronic shingles-associated pain and the prevention of staphylococcal infections. Some of the large
pharmaceutical companies that currently market products that would compete with our product candidate, if approved, include, but are not limited to multiple large generic companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and Merck.
Developing a pharmaceutical product candidate is a highly competitive, expensive and risky activity with a long business cycle. Many organizations, including the large pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies that have existing products on the market or in clinical development that could compete with FV-100 have substantially more resources than we have, and much greater capabilities and experience than we have in research and discovery, designing and conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials, operating in a highly regulated environment, manufacturing drug substances and drug products, and marketing and sales. Our competitors may be more successful than we are in obtaining FDA or other regulatory approvals for their product candidates and achieving broad market acceptance once they are approved. Our competitors drugs or product candidates may be more effective, have fewer negative side effects, be more convenient to administer, have a more favorable resistance profile, or be more effectively marketed and sold than any drug we, or our potential collaborators, may develop or commercialize. New drugs or classes of drugs from competitors may render our product candidate obsolete or non-competitive before we are able to successfully develop them or, if approved, before we can recover the expenses of developing and commercializing them. We anticipate that we or our collaborators will face intense and increasing competition as new drugs and drug classes enter the market and advanced technologies or new drug targets become available. If our product candidate does not demonstrate any competitive advantages over existing drugs, new drugs or product candidate, we or our future collaborators may terminate the development or commercialization of our product candidate at any time.
We anticipate that FV-100 if successfully developed and approved, will compete directly or indirectly with existing generic drugs. Generic drugs are drugs whose patent protection has expired, and generally have an average selling price substantially lower than drugs protected by intellectual property rights. Unless a patented drug can differentiate itself from a generic drug in a meaningful manner, the existence of generic competition in any indication may impose significant pricing pressure on competing patented drugs.
We also face, and will continue to face, intense competition from other companies for collaborative arrangements with pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, and for attracting investigators and clinical sites capable of conducting our preclinical studies and clinical trials. These competitors, either alone or with their collaborators, may succeed in developing technologies or products that are safer, more effective, less expensive or easier to administer than ours. Accordingly, our competitors may succeed in obtaining FDA or other regulatory approvals for their product candidates more rapidly than we can. Companies that can complete clinical trials, obtain required regulatory approvals and commercialize their products before their competitors may achieve a significant competitive advantage, including certain patent and FDA marketing exclusivity rights that could delay the ability of competitors to market certain products. We cannot assure you that product candidates resulting from our research and development efforts, or from joint efforts with our collaborators, will be able to compete successfully with our competitors existing products or products under development.
We do not currently have any internal drug discovery capabilities, and therefore we are dependent on in-licensing or acquiring development programs from third parties in order to obtain additional product candidates.
If in the future we decide to further expand our pipeline, we will be dependent on in-licensing or acquiring product candidates as we do not have significant internal discovery capabilities at this time. Accordingly, in order to generate and expand our development pipeline, we have relied, and will continue to rely, on obtaining discoveries, new technologies, intellectual property and product candidates from third-parties through sponsored research, in-licensing arrangements or acquisitions. We may face substantial competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, many of which may have greater resources then we have, in obtaining these in-licensing, sponsored research or acquisition opportunities. Additional in-licensing or acquisition opportunities may not be available to us on terms we find acceptable, if at all. In-licensed compounds that appear promising in research or in preclinical studies may fail to progress into further preclinical studies or clinical trials.
If a product liability claim is successfully brought against us for uninsured liabilities, or such claim exceeds our insurance coverage, we could be forced to pay substantial damage awards that could materially harm our business.
The use of any of our existing or future product candidates in clinical trials and the sale of any approved pharmaceutical products may expose us to significant product liability claims. We currently have product liability insurance coverage for our clinical trials in the amount of $5.0 million. Such insurance coverage may not protect us against any or all of the product liability claims that may be brought against us in the future. We may not be able to acquire or maintain adequate product liability insurance coverage at a commercially reasonable cost or in sufficient amounts or scope to protect us against potential losses. In the event a product liability claim is brought against us, we may be required to pay legal and other expenses to defend the claim, as well as uncovered damage awards resulting from a claim brought successfully against us. In the event our product candidate is approved for sale by the FDA and commercialized, we may need to substantially increase the amount of our product liability coverage. Defending any product liability
claim or claims could require us to expend significant financial and managerial resources, which could have an adverse effect on our business.
If our use of hazardous materials results in contamination or injury, we could suffer significant financial loss.
Our research activities, through third parties, involve the controlled use of certain hazardous materials and medical waste. Notwithstanding the regulations controlling the use and disposal of these materials, as well as the safety procedures we undertake, we cannot eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials. In the event of an accident or environmental discharge or exposure, we may be held liable for any resulting damages, which may exceed our financial resources and have an adverse effect on our business.
Risks Relating to the Commercialization of our Product Candidate
We may delay or terminate the development of a product candidate at any time if we believe the perceived market or commercial opportunity does not justify further investment, which could materially harm our business.
Even though the results of preclinical studies and clinical trials that we have conducted or may conduct in the future may support further development of one or more of our product candidates, we may delay, suspend or terminate the future development of a product candidate at any time for strategic, business, financial or other reasons, including the determination or belief that the emerging profile of the product candidate is such that it may not receive FDA approval, gain meaningful market acceptance, generate a significant return to shareholders, or otherwise provide any competitive advantages in its intended indication or market.
If we fail to enter into collaborations, license agreements or other transactions with third parties to accelerate the development of our product candidate, we will bear the risk of developmental failure.
We plan to seek out-licensing opportunities as a way to accelerate the development of our product candidate. There is no guarantee that we will enter into a future transaction on favorable terms, or at all, or that discussions will initiate or progress on our desired timelines. Completing transactions of this nature is difficult and time-consuming. Potentially interested parties may decline to re-engage or may terminate discussions based upon their assessment of our competitive, financial, regulatory or intellectual property position or for any other reason. Furthermore, we may choose to defer consummating a transaction relating to our product candidate until additional clinical data is obtained. If we decide to not actively pursue a transaction until we have additional clinical data, we and our stockholders will bear the risk that our product candidate fails prior to any future transaction.
If we fail to enter into or maintain collaborations or other sales, marketing and distribution arrangements with third parties to commercialize our product candidate, or otherwise fail to establish marketing and sales capabilities, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our products.
We currently have no infrastructure to support the commercialization of our product candidate, and have little, if any, experience in the commercialization of pharmaceutical products. Therefore, if our product candidate is successfully developed and ultimately approved for sale, our future profitability will depend largely on our ability to access or develop suitable marketing and sales capabilities. We anticipate that we will need to establish relationships with other companies, through license and collaborations agreements, to commercialize our product candidate in the U.S. and in other countries around the world. To the extent that we enter into these license and collaboration agreements, or marketing and sales arrangements with other companies to sell, promote or market our products in the U.S. or abroad, our product revenues, which may be in the form of indirect revenue, a royalty, or a split of profits, will depend largely on their efforts, which may not be successful. In the event we develop a sales force and marketing capabilities, this may result in us incurring significant costs before the time that we may generate any significant product revenues. We may not be able to attract and retain qualified third parties or marketing or sales personnel, or be able to establish marketing capabilities or an effective sales force.
If government and third-party payers fail to provide adequate reimbursement or coverage for our products or those we develop through collaborations, our revenues and potential for profitability will be harmed.
In the U.S. and most foreign markets, our product revenues, and therefore the inherent value of our product candidate, will depend largely upon the reimbursement rates established by third-party payers for such product candidate or products. Such third-party payers include government health administration authorities, managed-care organizations, private health insurers and other similar organizations. These third-party payers are increasingly challenging the price and examining the cost effectiveness of medical products, services and pharmaceuticals. In addition, significant uncertainty exists as to the reimbursement status, if any, of newly approved drugs or pharmaceutical products. Further, the comparative effectiveness of new compounds over existing therapies and the assessment of other non-clinical outcomes are increasingly being considered in the decision by these payers to establish
reimbursement rates. We may also need to conduct post-marketing clinical trials in order to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of our products. Such studies may require us to commit a significant amount of management time and financial resources. We cannot assure you that any products we successfully develop will be reimbursed in part, or at all, by any third-party payers in any countries.
Domestic and foreign governments continue to propose legislation designed to expand the coverage, yet reduce the cost, of healthcare, including pharmaceutical drugs. In some foreign markets, governmental agencies control prescription drugs pricing and profitability. In the U.S. significant changes in federal health care policy have been recently approved and will mostly likely result in reduced reimbursement rates in the future. We expect that there will continue to be federal and state proposals to implement more governmental control over reimbursement rates of pharmaceutical products. In addition, we expect that increasing emphasis on managed care and government intervention in the U.S. healthcare system will continue to put downward pressure on the pricing of pharmaceutical products domestically. Cost control initiatives could decrease the price that we receive for any of our product candidates that may be approved for sale in the future, which would limit our revenues and profitability. Accordingly, legislation and regulations affecting the pricing of pharmaceutical products may change before our product candidate is approved for sale, which could further limit or eliminate reimbursement rates for our product candidate.
If any product candidate that we develop independently or through collaborations is approved but does not gain meaningful acceptance in its intended market, we are not likely to generate significant revenues or become profitable.
Even if our product candidate is successfully developed and we or a collaborator obtain the requisite regulatory approvals to commercialize it in the future, it may not gain market acceptance or utilization among physicians, patients or third party payers. The degree of market acceptance that our product candidate may achieve will depend on a number of factors, including:
· the therapeutic efficacy or perceived benefit of the product relative to existing therapies, if they exist;
· the timing of market approval and existing market for competitive drugs;
· the level of reimbursement provided by payers to cover the cost of the product to patients;
· the net cost of the product to the user or payer;
· the convenience and ease of administration of our product;
· the products potential advantages over existing or alternative therapies;
· the actual or perceived safety of similar classes of products;
· the actual or perceived existence, prevalence and severity of negative side effects;
· the effectiveness of sales, marketing and distribution capabilities; and
· the scope of the product label approved by the FDA.
There can be no assurance that physicians will choose to prescribe or administer our product, if approved, to the intended patient population. If our product does not achieve meaningful market acceptance, or if the market for our product proves to be smaller than anticipated, we may not generate significant revenues or ever become profitable.
Even if we or a collaborator achieve market acceptance for our product, we may experience downward pricing pressure on the price of our product due to social or political pressure to lower the cost of drugs, which would reduce our revenue and future profitability.
Pressure from social activist groups and future government regulations, whose goal it is to reduce the cost of drugs, particularly in less developed nations, also may put downward pressure on the price of drugs, which could result in downward pressure on the prices of our product in the future.
We may be unable to successfully develop a product candidate that is the subject of collaboration if our collaborator does not perform, terminates our agreement, or delays the development of our product candidate.
We expect to continue to enter into and rely on license and collaboration agreements or other business arrangements with third parties to further develop and/or commercialize our existing and future product candidates. Such collaborators or partners may not perform as agreed upon or anticipated, fail to comply with strict regulations, or elect to delay or terminate their efforts in developing or commercializing our product candidates even though we have met our obligations under the arrangement. For example, if an existing or future collaborator does not devote sufficient time and resources to our collaboration arrangement, we may not realize the full potential benefits of the arrangement, and our results of operations may be adversely affected.
A majority of the potential revenue from existing and future collaborations will likely consist of contingent payments, such as payments for achieving development or regulatory milestones and royalties payable on the sales of approved products. The milestone and royalty revenues that we may receive under these collaborations will depend primarily upon our collaborators ability to successfully develop and commercialize our product candidate. In addition, our collaborators may decide to enter into arrangements with third parties to commercialize products developed under our existing or future collaborations using our technologies, which could reduce the milestone and royalty revenue that we may receive, if any. In many cases, we will not be directly involved in the development or commercialization of our product candidate and, accordingly, will depend entirely on our collaborators. Our collaboration partners may fail to develop or effectively commercialize our product candidate because they:
· do not allocate the necessary resources due to internal constraints, such as limited personnel with the requisite scientific expertise, limited capital resources, or the belief that other product candidate or other internal programs may have a higher likelihood of obtaining regulatory approval or may potentially generate a greater return on investment;
· do not have sufficient resources necessary to fully support the product candidate through clinical development, regulatory approval and commercialization;
· are unable to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals; or
· may re-evaluate the importance and their support for developing our product candidate pipeline due to a change in management, business operations or financial strategy.
In addition, a collaborator may decide to pursue the development of a competitive product candidate developed outside of our collaboration with them. Conflicts may also arise if there is a dispute about the progress of, or other activities related to, the clinical development or commercialization of a product candidate, the achievement and payment of a milestone amount, the ownership of intellectual property that is developed during the course of the collaborative arrangement, or other licensing agreement terms. If a collaboration partner fails to develop or effectively commercialize our product candidate for any of these reasons, we may not be able to replace them with another partner willing to develop and commercialize our product candidate under similar terms, if at all. Similarly, we may disagree with a collaborator as to which party owns newly or jointly-developed intellectual property. Should an agreement be revised or terminated as a result of a dispute and before we have realized the anticipated benefits of the collaboration, we may not be able to obtain certain development support or revenues that we anticipated receiving. We may also be unable to obtain, on terms acceptable to us, a license from such collaboration partner to any of its intellectual property that may be necessary or useful for us to continue to develop and commercialize the product candidate.
If we are unable to adequately protect or expand our intellectual property related to our current or future product candidates, our business prospects could be harmed.
Our success, competitive position and future revenues will depend in part on our ability and the ability of Cardiff, the licensor of the FV-100 assets, to obtain and maintain patent protection for our products, methods, processes and other technologies, to preserve our trade secrets, to prevent third parties from infringing on our proprietary rights and to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties. Under the Cardiff Agreement, we hold certain exclusive patent rights for our FV-100 assets, including licensed rights under U.S. patents and U.S. patent applications as well as licensed rights under foreign patents and patent applications owned by Cardiff.
We will be able to protect our proprietary intellectual property rights from unauthorized use by third parties only to the extent that our proprietary rights are covered by valid and enforceable patents or are effectively maintained as trade secrets. The patent position of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies involves complex legal and factual questions, and, therefore, we cannot predict with certainty whether we will be able to ultimately enforce our patents or proprietary rights. Therefore, any issued patents that we own or otherwise have intellectual property rights to may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented, and may not provide us with the protection against competitors that we anticipate. The degree of future protection for our proprietary intellectual property rights is
uncertain because issued patents and other legal means afford only limited protection and may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep our competitive advantage. Our future patent position will be influenced by the following factors:
· we or our licensors may not have been the first to discover the inventions covered by each of our or our licensors pending patent applications and issued patents, and we may have to engage in expensive and protracted interference proceedings to determine priority of invention;
· our or our licensors pending patent applications may not result in issued patents;
· our or our licensors issued patents may not provide a basis for commercially viable products, may not provide us with any competitive advantages, or may be challenged by third parties; and
· third parties may develop intellectual property around our or our licensors patent claims to design competitive intellectual property and ultimately product candidates that fall outside the scope of our or our licensors patents.
Because of the extensive time required for the development, testing and regulatory review and approval of a product candidate, it is possible that before our product candidate can be approved for sale and commercialized, our relevant patent rights may expire, or such patent rights may remain in force for only a short period following approval and commercialization. Patent expiration could adversely affect our ability to protect future product development and, consequently, our operating results and financial position. Also, patent rights may not provide us with adequate proprietary protection or competitive advantages against competitors with similar technologies. The laws of certain foreign countries do not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the U.S. and those countries may lack adequate rules and procedures for defending our intellectual property rights. For example, we may not be able to prevent a third party from infringing our patents in a country that does not recognize or enforce patent rights, or that imposes compulsory licenses on or restricts the prices of life-saving drugs. Changes in either patent laws or in interpretations of patent laws in the U.S. and other countries may diminish the value of our intellectual property.
We may not develop or obtain rights to products or processes that are patentable. Even if we or our licensors do obtain patents, such patents may not adequately protect the products or technologies we own or have licensed, or otherwise be limited in scope. In addition, we may not have total control over the patent prosecution of subject matter that we license from others. Accordingly, we may be unable to exercise the same degree of control over this intellectual property as we would over our own. Others may challenge, seek to invalidate, infringe or circumvent any pending or issued patents we own or license, and rights we receive under those issued patents may not provide competitive advantages to us. We cannot assure you as to the degree of protection that will be afforded by any of our issued or pending patents, or those licensed by us.
If a third party claims we are infringing on its intellectual property rights, we could incur significant expenses, or be prevented from further developing or commercializing our product candidate.
Our success will also depend on our ability to operate without infringing the patents and other proprietary intellectual property rights of third parties. This is generally referred to as having the freedom to operate. The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are characterized by extensive litigation regarding patents and other intellectual property rights. The defense and prosecution of intellectual property claims, United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, interference proceedings and related legal and administrative proceedings, both in the U.S. and internationally, involve complex legal and factual questions. As a result, such proceedings are lengthy, costly and time-consuming and their outcome is highly uncertain. We may become involved in protracted and expensive litigation in order to determine the enforceability, scope and validity of the proprietary rights of others, or to determine whether we have the freedom to operate with respect to the intellectual property rights of others.
Patent applications in the U.S. are, in most cases, maintained in secrecy until approximately 18 months after the patent application is filed. The publication of discoveries in the scientific or patent literature frequently occurs substantially later than the date on which the underlying discoveries were made. Therefore, patent applications relating to products similar to our product candidate may have already been filed by others without our knowledge. In the event that a third party has also filed a patent application covering our product candidate or other claims, we may have to participate in an adversarial proceeding, known as an interference proceeding in the USPT office, or similar proceedings in other countries to determine the priority of invention. In the event an infringement claim is brought against us, we may be required to pay substantial legal fees and other expenses to defend such a claim and, if we are unsuccessful in defending the claim, we may be prevented from pursuing the development and commercialization of a product candidate and may be subject to injunctions and/or damage awards.
In the future, the USPT or a foreign patent office may grant patent rights to our product candidate or other claims to third parties. Subject to the issuance of these future patents, the claims of which will be unknown until issued, we may need to obtain a license or
sublicense to these rights in order to have the appropriate freedom to further develop or commercialize them. Any required licenses may not be available to us on acceptable terms, if at all. If we need to obtain such licenses or sublicenses, but are unable to do so, we could encounter delays in the development of our product candidate, or be prevented from developing, manufacturing and commercializing our product candidate at all. If it is determined that we have infringed an issued patent and do not have the freedom to operate, we could be subject to injunctions, and/or compelled to pay significant damages, including punitive damages. In cases where we have in-licensed intellectual property, our failure to comply with the terms and conditions of such agreements could harm our business.
It is becoming common for third parties to challenge patent claims on any successful product candidate or approved drug. If we or our collaborators become involved in any patent litigation, interference or other legal proceedings, we could incur substantial expense, and the efforts of our technical and management personnel will be significantly diverted. A negative outcome of such litigation or proceedings may expose us to the loss of our proprietary position or to significant liabilities, or require us to seek licenses that may not be available from third parties on commercially acceptable terms, if at all. We may be restricted or prevented from developing, manufacturing and selling our product candidate in the event of an adverse determination in a judicial or administrative proceeding, or if we fail to obtain necessary licenses.
We cannot be sure that any patents will be issued or that patents licensed to us will be issued from any of our patent applications or, should any patents issue, that we will be provided with adequate protection against potentially competitive products. Furthermore, we cannot be sure that patents issued or licensed to us will be of any commercial value, or that private parties or competitors will not successfully challenge these patents or circumvent our patent position in the U.S. or abroad. In the absence of adequate patent protection, our business may be adversely affected by competitors who develop comparable technology or products.
If we materially breach or default under the Cardiff Agreement, Cardiff will have the right to terminate the agreement and we could lose critical license rights, which would materially harm our business.
We do not currently own any patents, trademarks, or copyrights; however, our business is substantially dependent upon certain intellectual property rights that we license from Cardiff. Therefore, our commercial success will depend to a large extent on our ability to maintain and comply with our obligations under the Cardiff Agreement. The Cardiff Agreement provides Cardiff with the right to terminate the Cardiff Agreement for an uncured breach by us, or if we are insolvent or the subject of a bankruptcy proceeding, or potentially other reasons. We expect that other technology in-licenses that we may enter into in the future will contain similar provisions and impose similar obligations on us. If we fail to comply with any such obligations to Cardiff or future licensors, such licensor will likely terminate their out-licenses to us, in which case we would not be able to market products covered by these licenses, including our FV-100 assets. The loss of our license with Cardiff with respect to the FV-100 assets, and potentially other licenses that we enter into in the future, would have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, our failure to comply with obligations under our material in-licenses may cause us to become subject to litigation or other potential disputes under any such license agreements.
In addition, the Cardiff Agreement and BMS Agreement each requires us to make certain payments, including license fees, milestone payments royalties, and other such terms typically required under licensing agreements and these types of technology in-licenses generally could make it difficult for us to find corporate partners and less profitable for us to develop product candidates utilizing these existing product candidates and technologies.
Confidentiality agreements with employees and others may not adequately prevent disclosure of trade secrets and other proprietary information and may not adequately protect our intellectual property.
We rely on trade secrets to protect our technology, especially where we do not believe patent protection is obtainable, or prior to us filing patent applications on inventions we may make from time to time. However, trade secrets are difficult to protect. In order to protect our proprietary technology and processes, we also rely in part on confidentiality and intellectual property assignment agreements with our corporate partners, employees, consultants, outside scientific collaborators and sponsored researchers and other advisors. These agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of confidential information nor result in the effective assignment to us of intellectual property, and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of confidential information or other breaches of the agreements. In addition, others may independently discover our trade secrets and proprietary information, and in such case we could not assert any trade secret rights against such party. Enforcing a claim that a third-party illegally obtained and is using our trade secrets is difficult, expensive and time consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, courts outside the U.S. may be less willing to protect trade secrets. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to seek to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position.
Our failure to successfully discover, acquire, develop and market additional product candidates or approved products would impair our ability to grow.
As part of our growth strategy, we intend to develop and market additional products and product candidates. We are pursuing various therapeutic opportunities through our pipeline. We may spend several years completing our development of any particular current or future internal product candidate, and failure can occur at any stage. The product candidates to which we allocate our resources may not end up being successful. In addition, because our internal research capabilities are limited, we may be dependent upon pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic scientists and other researchers to sell or license products or technology to us. The success of this strategy depends partly upon our ability to identify, select, discover and acquire promising pharmaceutical product candidates and products. Failure of this strategy would impair our ability to grow.
The process of proposing, negotiating and implementing a license or acquisition of a product candidate or approved product is lengthy and complex. Other companies, including some with substantially greater financial, marketing and sales resources, may compete with us for the license or acquisition of product candidates and approved products. We have limited resources to identify and execute the acquisition or in-licensing of third-party products, businesses and technologies and integrate them into our current infrastructure. Moreover, we may devote resources to potential acquisitions or in-licensing opportunities that are never completed, or we may fail to realize the anticipated benefits of such efforts. We may not be able to acquire the rights to additional product candidates on terms that we find acceptable, or at all.
In addition, future acquisitions may entail numerous operational and financial risks, including:
· disruption of our business and diversion of our managements time and attention to develop acquired products or technologies;
· incurrence of substantial debt, dilutive issuances of securities or depletion of cash to pay for acquisitions;
· higher than expected acquisition and integration costs;
· difficulty in combining the operations and personnel of any acquired businesses with our operations and personnel;
· increased amortization expenses;
· impairment of relationships with key suppliers or customers of any acquired businesses due to changes in management and ownership;
· inability to motivate key employees of any acquired businesses; and
· assumption of known and unknown liabilities.
Further, any product candidate that we acquire may require additional development efforts prior to commercial sale, including extensive clinical testing and approval by the FDA and applicable foreign regulatory authorities. All product candidates are prone to risks of failure typical of pharmaceutical product development, including the possibility that a product candidate will not be shown to be sufficiently safe and effective for approval by regulatory authorities.
Even if our product candidate receives regulatory approval, it may still face future development and regulatory difficulties.
Even if U.S. regulatory approval is obtained, the FDA may still impose significant restrictions on a products indicated uses or impose ongoing requirements for potentially costly post-approval studies. FV-100 and other product candidates would also be subject to ongoing FDA requirements governing the labeling, packaging, storage, advertising, promotion, recordkeeping and submission 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 GMP regulations. If we or a regulatory agency discovers previously unknown problems with a product, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured, a regulatory agency may impose restrictions on that product or the manufacturer, including requiring withdrawal of the product from the market or suspension of manufacturing. If we, our product candidate or the manufacturing facilities for our product candidate fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, a regulatory agency may:
· issue warning letters;
· impose civil or criminal penalties;
· suspend regulatory approval;
· suspend any ongoing clinical trials;
· refuse to approve pending applications or supplements to applications filed by us;
· impose restrictions on operations, including costly new manufacturing requirements;
· seize or detain products or request us to initiate a product recall; or
· pursue and obtain an injunction.
Even if our product candidate receives regulatory approval in the United States, we may never receive approval to commercialize it outside of the United States.
In the future, we may seek to commercialize FV-100 and/or other product candidates in foreign countries outside of the United States. In order to market any products outside of the United States, we must establish and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of other jurisdictions regarding safety and efficacy. Approval procedures vary among jurisdictions and can involve product testing and administrative review periods different from, and greater than, those in the United States. The time required to obtain approval in other jurisdictions might differ from that required to obtain FDA approval. The regulatory approval process in other jurisdictions may include all of the risks detailed above regarding FDA approval in the United States as well as other risks. Regulatory approval in one jurisdiction does not ensure regulatory approval in another, but a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one jurisdiction may have a negative effect on the regulatory processes in others. Failure to obtain regulatory approvals in other jurisdictions or any delay or setback in obtaining such approvals could have the same adverse effects detailed above regarding FDA approval in the United States. As described above, such effects include the risks that FV-100 or other product candidates may not be approved for all indications for use included in proposed labeling or for any indications at all, which could limit the uses of FV-100 or other product candidates and have an adverse effect on our products commercial potential or require costly post-marketing studies.
We intend to rely on third parties to conduct our clinical trials. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, we may not be able to seek or obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidate.
We intend to enter into agreements with third-party contract research organizations, or CROs, under which we will delegate to the CROs the responsibility to coordinate and monitor the conduct of our clinical trials and to manage data for our clinical programs. We, our CROs and our clinical sites are required to comply with current Good Clinical Practices, or GCPs, regulations and guidelines issued by the FDA and by similar governmental authorities in other countries where we are conducting clinical trials. We have an ongoing obligation to monitor the activities conducted by our CROs and at our clinical sites to confirm compliance with these requirements. In the future, if we, our CROs or our clinical sites fail to comply with applicable GCPs, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. In addition, our clinical trials must be conducted with product produced under cGMP regulations, and will require a large number of test subjects. Our failure to comply with these regulations may require us to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process.
If CROs do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations or meet expected deadlines, if they need to be replaced, or if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to their failure to adhere to our clinical protocols, regulatory requirements or for other reasons, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or successfully commercialize our product candidate. As a result, our financial results and the commercial prospects for our product candidate would be harmed, our costs could increase, and our ability to generate revenue could be delayed.
We will need to increase the size of our organization, and we may experience difficulties in managing growth since we no longer rely upon Synergy for providing various services to us.
We are a small company with three employees as of December 31, 2014. All management services being provided to us other than the services of Mr. James Sapirstein, our chief executive officer, and William Hornung, our chief financial officer were provided by our former majority shareholder, Synergy, under our Shared Services Agreement, or SSA. Effective April 1, 2014, we terminated the SSA with Synergy. As a result, all executive officer positions other than Mr. Sapirstein were provided by various employees of Synergy under the SSA and we are now required to find suitable candidates who can fill their roles. To continue our clinical trials and commercialize our product candidate, we will need to expand our employee base for managerial, operational, financial and other resources. Future growth will impose significant added responsibilities on members of management, including the need to identify, recruit, maintain and integrate additional employees. Over the next twelve (12) months depending on the progress of our planned clinical trials and capital raising efforts, we plan to add additional employees to assist us with our clinical programs. Our future financial performance and our ability to commercialize our product candidate and to compete effectively will depend, in part, on our ability to manage any future growth effectively. To that end, we must be able to:
· manage development efforts effectively;
· manage our clinical trials effectively;
· integrate additional management, administrative, manufacturing and sales and marketing personnel;
· maintain sufficient administrative, accounting and management information systems and controls; and
· hire and train additional qualified personnel.
We may not be able to accomplish these tasks, and our failure to accomplish any of them could harm our financial results and impact our ability to achieve development milestones.
Reimbursement may not be available for our product candidate, which would impede sales.
Market acceptance and sales of our product candidate may depend on coverage and reimbursement policies and health care reform measures. Decisions about formulary coverage as well as levels at which government authorities and third-party payers, such as private health insurers and health maintenance organizations, reimburse patients for the price they pay for our products as well as levels at which these payers pay directly for our products, where applicable, could affect whether we are able to commercialize these products. We cannot be sure that reimbursement will be available for any of these products. Also, we cannot be sure that coverage or reimbursement amounts will not reduce the demand for, or the price of, our products. We have not commenced efforts to have our product candidate reimbursed by government or third party payers. If coverage and reimbursement are not available or are available only at limited levels, we may not be able to commercialize our products.
In recent years, officials have made numerous proposals to change the health care system in the United States. These proposals include measures that would limit or prohibit payments for certain medical treatments or subject the pricing of drugs to government control. In addition, in many foreign countries, particularly the countries of the European Union, the pricing of prescription drugs is subject to government control. If our products are or become subject to government regulation that limits or prohibits payment for our products, or that subjects the price of our products to governmental control, we may not be able to generate revenue, attain profitability or commercialize our products.
As a result of legislative proposals and the trend towards managed health care in the United States, third-party payers are increasingly attempting to contain health care costs by limiting both coverage and the level of reimbursement of new drugs. They may also impose strict prior authorization requirements and/or refuse to provide any coverage of uses of approved products for medical indications other than those for which the FDA has granted market approvals. As a result, significant uncertainty exists as to whether and how much third-party payers will reimburse patients for their use of newly-approved drugs, which in turn will put pressure on the pricing of drugs.
Healthcare reform measures could hinder or prevent our product candidates commercial success.
The U.S. government and other governments have shown significant interest in pursuing healthcare reform. Any government-adopted reform measures could adversely impact the pricing of healthcare products and services in the United States or internationally and the amount of reimbursement available from governmental agencies or other third-party payers. The continuing efforts of the U.S. and foreign governments, insurance companies, managed care organizations and other payers of health care services to contain or reduce health care costs may adversely affect our ability to set prices for our products which we believe are fair, and our ability to generate revenues and achieve and maintain profitability.
New laws, regulations and judicial decisions, or new interpretations of existing laws, regulations and decisions, that relate to healthcare availability, methods of delivery or payment for products and services, or sales, marketing or pricing, may limit our potential revenue, and we may need to revise our research and development programs. The pricing and reimbursement environment may change in the future and become more challenging due to several reasons, including policies advanced by the current executive administration in the United States, new healthcare legislation or fiscal challenges faced by government health administration authorities. Specifically, in both the United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory proposals to change the health care system in ways that could affect our ability to sell our products profitably.
For example, in March 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, or the PPACA. This law will substantially change the way healthcare is financed by both government health plans and private insurers, and significantly impact the pharmaceutical industry. The PPACA contains a number of provisions that are expected to impact our business and operations in ways that may negatively affect our potential revenues in the future. For example, the PPACA imposes a non-deductible excise tax on pharmaceutical manufacturers or importers that sell branded prescription drugs to U.S. government programs which we believe will increase the cost of our products. In addition, as part of the PPACAs provisions closing a funding gap that currently exists in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program (commonly known as the donut hole), we will be required to provide a discount on branded prescription drugs equal to 50% of the government-negotiated price, for drugs provided to certain beneficiaries who fall within the donut hole. Similarly, PPACA increases the level of Medicaid rebates payable by manufacturers of brand-name drugs from 15.1% to 23.1% and requires collection of rebates for drugs paid by Medicaid managed care organizations. The PPACA also includes significant changes to the 340B drug discount program including expansion of the list of eligible covered entities that may purchase drugs under the program. At the same time, the expansion in eligibility for health insurance benefits created under PPACA is expected to increase the number of patients with insurance coverage who may receive our products. While it is too early to predict all the specific effects the PPACA or any future healthcare reform legislation will have on our business, they could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
Congress periodically adopts legislation like the PPACA and the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, that modifies Medicare reimbursement and coverage policies pertaining to prescription drugs. Implementation of these laws is subject to ongoing revision through regulatory and sub regulatory policies. Congress also may consider additional changes to Medicare policies, potentially including Medicare prescription drug policies, as part of ongoing budget negotiations. While the scope of any such legislation is uncertain at this time, there can be no assurances that future legislation or regulations will not decrease the coverage and price that we may receive for our proposed products. Other third-party payers are increasingly challenging the prices charged for medical products and services. It will be time consuming and expensive for us to go through the process of seeking coverage and reimbursement from Medicare and private payors. Our proposed products may not be considered cost-effective, and coverage and reimbursement may not be available or sufficient to allow us to sell our proposed products on a profitable basis. Further federal and state proposals and health care reforms are likely which could limit the prices that can be charged for the product candidate that we develop and may further limit our commercial opportunities. Our results of operations could be materially adversely affected by proposed healthcare reforms, by the Medicare prescription drug coverage legislation, by the possible effect of such current or future legislation on amounts that private insurers will pay and by other health care reforms that may be enacted or adopted in the future.
In September 2007, the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 was enacted, giving the FDA enhanced post-marketing authority, including the authority to require post-marketing studies and clinical trials, labeling changes based on new safety information, and compliance with risk evaluations and mitigation strategies approved by the FDA. The FDAs exercise of this authority could result in delays or increased costs during product development, clinical trials and regulatory review, increased costs to assure compliance with post-approval regulatory requirements, and potential restrictions on the sale and/or distribution of approved products.
Security breaches and other disruptions could compromise our information and expose us to liability, which would cause our business and reputation to suffer.
In the ordinary course of our business, we collect and store sensitive data, including intellectual property, our proprietary business information and that of our suppliers and business partners, as well as personally identifiable information of clinical trial participants and employees. Similarly, our business partners and third party providers possess certain of our sensitive data. The secure maintenance of this information is critical to our operations and business strategy. Despite our security measures, our information technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to attacks by hackers or breached due to employee error, malfeasance or other disruptions. Any such breach could compromise our networks and the information stored there could be accessed, publicly disclosed, lost or stolen. Any such access, disclosure or other loss of information, including our data being breached at our business partners or third-party providers, could result in legal claims or proceedings, liability under laws that protect the privacy of personal information, disrupt our operations, and damage our reputation which could adversely affect our business.
Our clinical activities involve the handling of hazardous materials, and we must comply with environmental laws and regulations, which can be expensive and restrict how we do business.
Our clinical activities involve the controlled storage, use and disposal of hazardous materials. We are subject to federal, state, city and local environmental, health and safety laws and regulations governing, among other matters, the use, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of these hazardous materials. We cannot eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials. In the event of an accident or if we fail to comply with such laws and regulations, local, city, state or federal authorities may curtail the use of these materials and interrupt our business operations or impose sanctions, such as fines, and we could be held liable for any resulting damages or liabilities. We do not currently maintain hazardous materials insurance coverage.
Until recently, we depended on Synergy to provide us with certain services for our business. We may be unable to provide these services ourselves or obtain substitute arrangements with other third parties.
We were a controlled subsidiary of Synergy until February 18, 2014. All administrative services required by us for the operation of our business were provided by Synergy, including services related to insurance and risk management, accounting and human resources. On July 8, 2013, we entered into the shared services agreement with Synergy, effective May 16, 2013. Under the SSA, Synergy provided us with certain transition services until we were able to build our own capabilities in the transition areas. Effective April 1, 2014, we terminated the shared services agreement with Synergy. As a result, we are now required to provide these services ourselves or to obtain substitute arrangements with other third parties. We may be unable to provide these services because of financial or other constraints or be unable to implement substitute arrangements on a timely basis on terms that are favorable to us, or at all.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
If we discover material weaknesses and other deficiencies in our internal control and accounting procedures, our stock price could decline significantly and raising capital could be more difficult.
If we fail to comply with the rules under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 related to disclosure controls and procedures, or, if we discover additional material weaknesses and other deficiencies in our internal control and accounting procedures, our stock price could decline significantly and raising capital could be more difficult. Moreover, effective internal controls are necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports and are important to helping prevent financial fraud. If we cannot provide reliable financial reports or prevent fraud, our business and operating results could be harmed, investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information, and the trading price of our common stock could drop significantly. In addition, we cannot be certain that additional material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal controls will not be discovered in the future.
The market price of our common stock may be volatile and adversely affected by several factors.
The market price of our common stock could fluctuate significantly in response to various factors and events, including:
· our ability to integrate operations, technology, products and services;
· our ability to execute our business plan;
· operating results below expectations;
· our issuance of additional securities, including debt or equity or a combination thereof, which will be necessary to fund our operating expenses;
· announcements of technological innovations or new products by us or our competitors;
· loss of any strategic relationship;
· industry developments, including, without limitation, changes in healthcare policies or practices or third-party reimbursement policies;
· economic and other external factors;
· period-to-period fluctuations in our financial results; and
· whether an active trading market in our common stock develops and is maintained.
In addition, the securities markets have from time to time experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that are unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. These market fluctuations may also materially and adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
Certain provisions in our certificate of incorporation and by-laws, and of Delaware law, may prevent or delay an acquisition of our company, which could decrease the trading price of our common stock.
Our certificate of incorporation, by-laws and Delaware law contain provisions that are intended to deter coercive takeover practices and inadequate takeover bids by making such practices or bids unacceptably expensive to the raider and to encourage prospective acquirors to negotiate with our board of directors rather than to attempt a hostile takeover. These provisions include, among others:
· the inability of our stockholders to call a special meeting;
· rules regarding how stockholders may present proposals or nominate directors for election at stockholder meetings;
· the right of our board to issue preferred stock without stockholder approval;
· the ability of our directors, and not stockholders, to fill vacancies on our board of directors.
Delaware law also imposes some restrictions on mergers and other business combinations between us and any holder of 15% or more of our outstanding common stock. For more information, see Description of Our Capital StockAnti-takeover Effects of Certain Provisions of ContraVir Certificate of Incorporation, By-laws and the DCGL.
We believe these provisions will protect our stockholders from coercive or otherwise unfair takeover tactics by requiring potential acquirors to negotiate with our board of directors and by providing our board of directors with more time to assess any acquisition proposal. These provisions are not intended to make our company immune from takeovers. However, these provisions will apply even if the offer may be considered beneficial by some stockholders and could delay or prevent an acquisition that our board of directors determines is not in the best interests of our company and our stockholders. These provisions may also prevent or discourage attempts to remove and replace incumbent directors.
Future sales and issuances of our common stock or rights to purchase common stock pursuant to our equity incentive plan could result in additional dilution of the percentage ownership of our stockholders and could cause our share price to fall.
We expect that significant additional capital will be needed in the future to continue our planned operations, including expanding research and development, funding clinical trials, purchasing of capital equipment, hiring new personnel, commercializing our products, and continuing activities as an operating public company. To the extent we raise additional capital by issuing equity securities, our stockholders may experience substantial dilution. We may sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner we determine from time to time. If we sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in more than one transaction, investors may be materially diluted by subsequent sales. Such sales may also result in material dilution to our existing stockholders, and new investors could gain rights superior to our existing stockholders.
Future sales and issuances of our common stock or rights to purchase common stock pursuant to our equity incentive plan could result in additional dilution of the percentage ownership of our stockholders and could cause our share price to fall.
We expect that significant additional capital will be needed in the future to continue our planned operations, including expanding research and development, funding clinical trials, purchasing of capital equipment, hiring new personnel, commercializing our products, and continuing activities as an operating public company. To the extent we raise additional capital by issuing equity securities, our stockholders may experience substantial dilution. We may sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner we determine from time to time. If we sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in more than one transaction, investors may be materially diluted by subsequent sales. Such sales may also result in material dilution to our existing stockholders, and new investors could gain rights superior to our existing stockholders.
We are an emerging growth company and as a result of our reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies, our common stock may be less attractive to investors.
We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act, and we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We could remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of our initial public offering in February 2014, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.0 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeded $700.0 million as of the prior June 30 th , and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.. We cannot predict whether investors will find our common stock less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.
Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have irrevocably elected not to avail ourselves of this exemption from new or revised accounting standards, and, therefore, we will be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.
We may be at risk of securities class action litigation.
We may be at risk of securities class action litigation. This risk is especially relevant for us due to our dependence on positive clinical trial outcomes and regulatory approvals of FV-100. In the past, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies have experienced significant stock price volatility, particularly when associated with binary events such as clinical trials and product approvals. If we face such litigation, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of managements attention and resources, which could harm our business and results in a decline in the market price of our common stock.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock adversely, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts publish about us or our business. We do not currently have and may never obtain research coverage by industry or financial analysts. If no or few analysts commence coverage of us, the trading price of our stock would likely decrease. Even if we do obtain analyst coverage, if one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our stock, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
We presently do not intend to pay cash dividends on our common stock.
We expect that no cash dividends will be paid on the common stock in the foreseeable future. While our dividend policy will be based on the operating results and capital needs of the business, it is anticipated that all earnings, if any, will be retained to finance the future expansion of our business.
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This prospectus, including the documents that we incorporate by reference, contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Any statements in this Annual Report about our expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not historical facts and are forward-looking statements. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as believe, will, expect, anticipate, estimate, intend, plan and would. For example, statements concerning financial condition, possible or assumed future results of operations, growth opportunities, industry ranking, plans and objectives of management, markets for our common stock and future management and organizational structure are all forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from any results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by any forward-looking statement.
Any forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by reference to the risk factors discussed throughout this Annual Report. Some of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from estimates or projections contained in the forward-looking statements include but are not limited to:
· Market conditions;
· Our capital position;
· Our ability to compete with larger, better-financed pharmaceutical companies;
· New and alternative approaches to the treatment of shingles;
· Our uncertainty of developing a marketable product;
· Our ability to develop and commercialize our product;
· Our ability to obtain regulatory approvals;
· Our ability to maintain and protect intellectual property rights;
· The inability to raise additional future financing and lack of financial and other resources;
· Our ability to control product development costs;
· We may not be able to attract and retain key employees;
· We may not be able to compete effectively;
· We may not be able enter into new strategic collaborations;
· Changes in government regulation affecting FV-100 could increase our development costs;
· Our involvement in patent and other intellectual property litigation could be expensive and could divert managements attention;
· The possibility that there will be no market acceptance for our products; and
· Changes in third-party reimbursement policies could adversely affect potential future sales of any of our products that are approved for marketing.
The foregoing list sets forth some, but not all, of the factors that could affect our ability to achieve results described in any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this prospectus. We assume no obligation and expressly disclaim any
duty to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this prospectus or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. In addition, we cannot assess the impact of each factor on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or any person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section.
You should read this prospectus and the documents that we reference herein and therein, completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. You should assume that the information appearing in this prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference is accurate as of their respective dates. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may change. We may not update these forward-looking statements, even though our situation may change in the future, unless required by law to update and disclose material developments related to previously disclosed information. We qualify all of the information presented in this prospectus and particularly our forward-looking statements, by these cautionary statements.
This prospectus relates to sale of shares of common stock that may be offered and sold from time to time by the selling stockholders. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders.
The selling stockholders named in this prospectus (the Selling Stockholders) are offering 3,390,578 shares of our common stock including shares of stock which are issuable to the Selling Stockholders directly by options, stock awards or indirectly through exercise of options pursuant to our Plan. The selling stockholders are our officers and directors, and may be deemed to be our affiliates, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act, who may acquire such shares upon exercise of options granted under the Plan. We do not know whether any of such individuals will be granted additional options under the Plan, whether any of such Selling Stockholders will use this prospectus in connection with the offer or sale of any shares of Common Stock, or, if this prospectus is so used, how many shares of Common Stock will be offered or sold. The selling stockholders may resell all, a portion, or none of the shares that they may acquire pursuant to the Plan. The Selling Stockholders named in this prospectus were granted the options in consideration of services and such shares are issuable upon exercise of stock options at various exercise prices, depending on the dates of grant.
The following table provides, as of May 1, 2015 information regarding the beneficial ownership of our common shares held by each of the Selling Stockholders, including:
1. the total number of common shares owned by each selling stockholder prior to this offering;
2. the total number of common shares that are to be offered by each selling stockholder;
3. the total number of common shares that will be owned by each selling stockholder upon completion of the offering; and
4. the percentage owned by each selling stockholder, prior to and upon completion of the offering.
Information with respect to beneficial ownership is based upon information obtained from the Selling Stockholders. Information with respect to Shares Beneficially Owned Prior to this Offering includes the shares issuable upon exercise of the stock options held by the selling stockholders to the extent these options are exercisable within 60 days of May 1, 2015. Information with respect to Shares Beneficially Owned Upon Completion of the Offering assumes the sale of all of the common shares offered by this prospectus and no other purchases or sales of our common shares by the selling stockholders. Except as described below and to our knowledge, the named selling shareholder beneficially owns and has sole voting and investment power over all common shares or rights to these common shares.
Because the Selling Stockholders may offer all or part of the shares of common stock, which they own pursuant to the offering contemplated by this reoffer prospectus, and because this offering is not being underwritten on a firm commitment basis, no estimate can be given as to the amount of shares that will be held upon termination of this offering. The shares of common stock currently owned offered by this reoffer prospectus may be offered from time to time by the Selling Stockholders named below. Except as
described below and to our knowledge, the named selling stockholder beneficially owns and has sole voting and investment power over all common shares or rights to these common shares.
|
|
SHARES BENEFICIALLY
|
|
NUMBER OF
|
|
SHARES BENEFICIALLY OWNED
|
|
||
NAME |
|
NUMBER |
|
OFFERED |
|
NUMBER |
|
PERCENT (2) |
|
James Sapirstein |
|
250,000 |
(3) |
1,500,000 |
(4) |
0 |
|
|
|
William Hornung |
|
0 |
|
150,000 |
(5) |
0 |
|
|
|
Gary Jacob |
|
317,935 |
(6) |
950,000 |
(7) |
32,935 |
|
* |
|
John Brancaccio |
|
34,314 |
(8) |
135,656 |
(9) |
2,015 |
|
* |
|
Christopher McGuigan |
|
98,865 |
(3) |
415,234 |
(10) |
0 |
|
|
|
Timothy Block |
|
24,925 |
(3) |
104,688 |
(11) |
0 |
|
|
|
John Sullivan-Bolyai |
|
0 |
|
135,000 |
(12) |
0 |
|
|
|
* Less than one percent (1%).
(1) The number and percentage of shares beneficially owned is determined in accordance with Rule 13d-3 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the information is not necessarily indicative of beneficial ownership for any other purpose. Under such rule, beneficial ownership includes any shares as to which the selling stockholder has sole or shared voting power or investment power and also any shares which the selling stockholder has the right to acquire within 60 days.
(2) Percentage is based upon 22,273,397 shares of common stock outstanding as of May 1, 2015.
(3) Consists of shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of outstanding stock options.
(4) Of the options being registered on behalf of this selling shareholder: (a) 750,000 options remain unvested and shall vest as follows: 250,000 on each of March 19, 2016, 2017 and 2018, and (b) 500,000 options remain unvested and shall vest as follows: 166,667 options shall vest on each of December 3, 2015 and 2016 and 166,666 options shall vest on December 3, 2017.
(5) Of the options being registered on behalf of this selling shareholder: (a) 100,000 options remain unvested and shall vest as follows: 33,333 options shall vest on each of June 23, 2015 and 2016 and 33,334 options shall vest on June 23, 2017 and (b) 50,000 options remain unvested and shall vest as follows: 16,667 options shall vest on each of December 3, 2015 and 2016 and 16,666 options shall vest on December 3, 2017.
(6) Consists of 32,935 shares of common stock and 285,000 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of outstanding stock options.
(7) Of the options being registered on behalf of this selling shareholder: (a) 20,000 options remain unvested and 10,000 shall vest on each of October 2, 2015 and 2016, (b) 225,000 options remain unvested and 75,000 shall vest on each of March 19, 2016, 2017 and 2018, and (c) 420,000 options remain unvested and shall vest as follows: 140,000 options shall vest on each of December 3, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
(8) Consists of 2,015 shares of common stock and 34,299 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of outstanding stock options.
(9) Of the options being registered on behalf of this selling shareholder: (a) 20,000 options remain unvested and 10,000 shall vest on each of October 2, 2015 and 2016, (b) 20,000 options remain unvested and 10,000 shall vest on each of January 24, 2016 and 2017, (c) 14,598 options remain unvested and shall vest as follows: 7,299 options shall vest on each of March 12, 2016 and 2017, (d) 10,000 options remain unvested and 5,000 shall vest on each of April 3, 2016 and 2017 and (e) 38,759 options remain unvested and shall vest as follows: 12,919 options shall vest on each of December 3, 2015 and 2016 and 12,290 options shall vest on December 3, 2017.
(10) Of the options being registered on behalf of this selling shareholder: (a) 20,000 options remain unvested and 10,000 shall vest on each of October 2, 2015 and 2016, (b) 166,667 options remain unvested and shall vest as follows: 83,333 options shall
vest on January 24, 2016 and 83,334 options shall vest on January 24, 2017, (c) 11,064 options remain unvested and shall vest as follows: 5,532 options shall vest on each of March 12, 2016 and 2017, and (d) 118,638 options remain unvested and shall vest as follows: 39,546 options shall vest on each of December 3, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
(11) Of the options being registered on behalf of this selling shareholder: (a) 20,000 options remain unvested and 10,000 shall vest on each of November 26, 2015 and 2016, (b) 6,667 options remain unvested and shall vest as follows: 3,333 options shall vest on January 24, 2016 and 1,666 options shall vest on January 24, 2017, (c) 13,185 options remain unvested and shall vest as follows: 6,592 options shall vest on March 12, 2016 and 6,593 options shall vest on March 12, 2017, (d) 10,000 options remain unvested and 5,000 shall vest on each of April 3, 2016 and 2017 and (e) 29,911 options remain unvested and shall vest as follows: 9,970 options shall vest on each of December 3, 2015 and 2016 and 9,971 options shall vest on December 3, 2017.
(12) Of the options being registered on behalf of this selling shareholder, 135,000 remain unvested and shall vest as follows: 45,000 options vest on each of January 19, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Timing of Sales
The selling stockholders may offer and sell the shares covered by this prospectus at various times. The selling stockholders will act independently of our company in making decisions with respect to the timing, manner and size of each sale.
No Known Agreements to Resell the Shares
To our knowledge, no selling stockholder has any agreement or understanding, directly or indirectly, with any person to resell the common shares covered by this prospectus.
Offering Price
The sales price offered by the selling stockholders to the public may be:
1. the market price prevailing at the time of sale;
2. a price related to such prevailing market price; or
3. such other price as the selling stockholders determine from time to time.
Manner of Sale
The common shares may be sold by means of one or more of the following methods:
1. a block trade in which the broker-dealer so engaged will attempt to sell the common shares as agent, but may position and resell a portion of the block as principal to facilitate the transaction;
2. Purchases by a broker-dealer as principal and resale by that broker-dealer for its account pursuant to this prospectus;
3. ordinary brokerage transactions in which the broker solicits purchasers;
4. through options, swaps or derivatives;
5. in transactions to cover short sales;
6. privately negotiated transactions; or
7. in a combination of any of the above methods.
The selling stockholders may sell their common shares directly to purchasers or may use brokers, dealers, underwriters or agents to sell their common shares. Brokers or dealers engaged by the selling stockholders may arrange for other brokers or dealers to participate. Brokers or dealers may receive commissions, discounts or concessions from the selling stockholders, or, if any such broker-dealer acts as agent for the purchaser of common shares, from the purchaser in amounts to be negotiated immediately prior to the sale. The compensation received by brokers or dealers may, but is not expected to, exceed that which is customary for the types of transactions involved.
Broker-dealers may agree with a selling stockholder to sell a specified number of common shares at a stipulated price per common share, and, to the extent the broker-dealer is unable to do so acting as agent for a selling stockholder, to purchase as principal any unsold common shares at the price required to fulfill the broker-dealer commitment to the selling stockholder.
Broker-dealers who acquire common shares as principal may thereafter resell the common shares from time to time in transactions, which may involve block transactions and sales to and through other broker-dealers, including transactions of the nature
described above, on The NASDAQ Capital Market or otherwise at prices and on terms then prevailing at the time of sale, at prices then related to the then-current market price or in negotiated transactions. In connection with resales of the common shares, broker-dealers may pay to or receive from the purchasers of shares commissions as described above.
If our selling stockholders enter into arrangements with brokers or dealers, as described above, we are obligated to file a post-effective amendment to this prospectus disclosing such arrangements, including the names of any broker-dealers acting as underwriters.
The selling stockholders and any broker-dealers or agents that participate with the selling stockholders in the sale of the common shares may be deemed to be underwriters within the meaning of the Securities Act. In that event, any commissions received by broker-dealers or agents and any profit on the resale of the common shares purchased by them may be deemed to be underwriting commissions or discounts under the Securities Act.
We will make copies of this prospectus available to the selling stockholders for the purpose of satisfying the prospectus delivery requirements of the Securities Act.
Sales Pursuant to Rule 144
Any common shares covered by this prospectus which qualify for sale pursuant to Rule 144 under the Securities Act may be sold under Rule 144 rather than pursuant to this prospectus.
Accordingly, during such times as a selling stockholder may be deemed to be engaged in a distribution of the common stock, and therefore be considered to be an underwriter, the selling stockholder must comply with applicable law and, among other things:
1. |
may not engage in any stabilization activities in connection with our common stock; |
2. |
may not cover short sales by purchasing shares while the distribution is taking place; and |
3. |
may not bid for or purchase any of our securities or attempt to induce any person to purchase any of our securities other than as permitted under the Exchange Act. |
Regulation M
The selling stockholders must comply with the requirements of the Securities Act and the Exchange Act in the offer and sale of the common stock. In particular we will advise the selling stockholders that the anti-manipulation rules of Regulation M under the Exchange Act may apply to sales of shares of common stock in the market and to the activities of the selling stockholders and their affiliates. Regulation M under the Exchange Act prohibits, with certain exceptions, participants in a distribution from bidding for, or purchasing for an account in which the participant has a beneficial interest, any of the securities that are the subject of the distribution.
Accordingly, during such times as a selling stockholder may be deemed to be engaged in a distribution of the common stock, and therefore be considered to be an underwriter, the selling stockholder must comply with applicable law and, among other things:
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1. |
may not engage in any stabilization activities in connection with our common stock; |
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2. |
may not cover short sales by purchasing shares while the distribution is taking place; and |
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3. |
may not bid for or purchase any of our securities or attempt to induce any person to purchase any of our securities other than as permitted under the Exchange Act. |
In addition, we will make copies of this prospectus available to the selling stockholders for the purpose of satisfying the prospectus delivery requirements of the Securities Act.
State Securities Laws
Under the securities laws of some states, the common shares may be sold in such states only through registered or licensed brokers or dealers. In addition, in some states the common shares may not be sold unless the shares have been registered or qualified for sale in the state or an exemption from registration or qualification is available and is complied with.
Expenses of Registration
We are bearing all costs relating to the registration of the common stock. These expenses are estimated to be $20,000, including, but not limited to, legal, accounting, printing and mailing fees. The selling stockholders, however, will pay any commissions or other fees payable to brokers or dealers in connection with any sale of the common stock.
The validity of the common stock has been passed upon for us by Sichenzia Ross Friedman Ference LLP, 32 nd Floor, New York, New York 10006.
The balance sheet as of December 31, 2014 and the related statements of operations, changes in stockholders deficit, and cash flows for the six months then ended and the balance sheets as of June 30, 2014 and 2013 and the related statements of operations, changes in stockholders deficit, and cash flows for the period May 15, 2013 (inception) through June 30, 2013 and for the year ended June 30, 2014 incorporated by reference in this prospectus have been so incorporated in reliance on the report of BDO USA, LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, incorporated herein by reference, given on the authority of said firm as experts in auditing and accounting.
INCORPORATION OF CERTAIN DOCUMENTS BY REFERENCE
The Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission) allows us to incorporate by reference certain of our publicly filed documents into this prospectus, which means that such information is considered part of this prospectus. As such, the following documents filed with the Commission are incorporated herein by reference:
· Annual report on Form 10-K/A for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2014 filed with the Commission on November 7, 2014;
· Annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2014 filed with the Commission on September 29, 2014;
· Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q/A for the quarterly period ended December 31, 2014 filed with the Commission on February 13, 2015;
· Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended December 31, 2014 filed with the Commission on February 12, 2015;
· Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2014 filed with the Commission on November 13, 2014;
· Current Reports on Form 8-K or Form 8-K/A (excluding any reports or portions thereof that are deemed to be furnished and not filed) filed on August 22, 2014, October 15, 2014, December 2, 2014, December 9, 2014, December 11, 2014, December 16, 2014, December 18, 2014, January 7, 2015, January 8, 2015, January 15, 2015, January 20, 2015, February 4, 2015, February 20, 2015, February 25, 2015, March 4, 2015 and March 9, 2015; and
· The description of our common stock contained in our Registration Statement on Form 8-A12B/A filed with the Commission on February 25, 2015.
All documents subsequently filed with the Commission by the Registrant pursuant to Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14, and 15(d) of the Exchange Act, prior to the filing of a post-effective amendment which indicates that all securities offered hereunder have been sold or which deregisters all securities then remaining unsold under this Registration Statement, shall be deemed to be incorporated by reference in this Registration Statement and to be part hereof from the date of filing of such documents. Any statement contained herein or in a document incorporated or deemed to be incorporated by reference herein shall be deemed to be modified or superseded for purposes of this Registration Statement to the extent that a statement contained herein or in any other subsequently filed document which also is or is deemed to be incorporated by reference herein modifies or supersedes such earlier statement. Any statement so modified or superseded shall not be deemed, except as so modified or superseded, to constitute a part of this Registration Statement.
We will provide without charge to each person to whom a copy of this prospectus has been delivered, on written or oral request, a copy of any or all of the documents incorporated by reference in this prospectus, other than exhibits to such documents. Written or oral requests for such copies should be directed to James R. Sapirstein at the Company.
DISCLOSURE OF COMMISSION POSITION ON INDEMNIFICATION
FOR SECURITIES ACT LIABILITIES
The Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) authorizes corporations to limit or eliminate the personal liability of directors to corporations and their stockholders for monetary damages for breaches of directors fiduciary duties as directors and our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will include such an exculpation provision. Our certificate of incorporation and by-laws will include provisions that indemnify, to the fullest extent allowable under the DGCL, the personal liability of directors or officers for monetary damages for actions taken as a director or officer of us, or for serving at our request as a director or officer or another position at another corporation or enterprise, as the case may be. Our certificate of incorporation and by-laws will also provide that we must indemnify and advance reasonable expenses to our directors and officers, subject to our receipt of an undertaking from the indemnified party as may be required under the DGCL. Our certificate of incorporation will expressly authorize us to carry directors and officers insurance to protect us, our directors, officers and certain employees for some liabilities. The limitation of liability and indemnification provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and by-laws may discourage stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions may also have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against our directors and officers, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our stockholders. However, these provisions do not limit or eliminate our rights, or those of any stockholder, to seek non-monetary relief such as injunction or rescission in the event of a breach of a directors duty of care. The provisions will not alter the liability of directors under the federal securities laws. In addition, your investment may be adversely affected to the extent that, in a class action or direct suit, we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against directors and officers pursuant to these indemnification provisions. There is currently no pending material litigation or proceeding against any of our directors, officers or employees for which indemnification is sought.
Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act may be permitted to directors, officers and controlling persons of the Company pursuant to the foregoing provisions, or otherwise, the Company has been advised that in the opinion of the Securities and Exchange Commission such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and is, therefore, unenforceable. In the event that a claim for indemnification against such liabilities (other than the payment by the Company of expenses incurred or paid by a director, officer or controlling person of the Company in the successful defense of any action, suit or proceeding) is asserted by such director, officer or controlling person in connection with the securities being registered, the Company will, unless in the opinion of its counsel the matter has been settled by controlling precedent, submit to a court of appropriate jurisdiction the question whether such indemnification by it is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and will be governed by the final adjudication of such issue.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO YOU
This prospectus is part of a Registration Statement on Form S-8 that we filed with the SEC. Certain information in the Registration Statement has been omitted from this prospectus in accordance with the rules of the SEC. We file annual, quarterly and special reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC. You can inspect and copy the Registration Statement as well as reports, proxy statements and other information we have filed with the SEC at the public reference room maintained by the SEC at 100 F Street N.E. Washington, D.C. 20549. You can obtain copies from the public reference room of the SEC at 100 F Street N.E. Washington, D.C. 20549, upon payment of certain fees. You can call the SEC at 1-800-732-0330 for further information about the public reference room. We are also required to file electronic versions of these documents with the SEC, which may be accessed through the SECs World Wide Web site at http://www.sec.gov.
CONTRAVIR PHARMACEUTICALS INC.
3,390,578 SHARES OF COMMON STOCK
PROSPECTUS
May 4, 2015
PART II
INFORMATION NOT REQUIRED IN THE PROSPECTUS
Item 3. Incorporation of Documents by Reference.
The following documents filed by the Registrant with the Commission pursuant to the Securities Act and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act) are incorporated herein by reference:
· Annual report on Form 10-K/A for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2014 filed with the Commission on November 7, 2014;
· Annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2014 filed with the Commission on September 29, 2014;
· Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q/A for the quarterly period ended December 31, 2014 filed with the Commission on February 13, 2015;
· Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended December 31, 2014 filed with the Commission on February 12, 2015;
· Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2014 filed with the Commission on November 13, 2014;
· Current Reports on Form 8-K or Form 8-K/A (excluding any reports or portions thereof that are deemed to be furnished and not filed) filed on August 22, 2014, October 15, 2014, December 2, 2014, December 9, 2014, December 11, 2014, December 16, 2014, December 18, 2014, January 7, 2015, January 8, 2015, January 15, 2015, January 20, 2015, February 4, 2015, February 20, 2015, February 25, 2015, March 4, 2015 and March 9, 2015; and
· The description of our common stock contained in our Registration Statement on Form 8-A12B/A filed with the Commission on February 25, 2015.
All documents subsequently filed with the Commission by the Registrant pursuant to Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14, and 15(d) of the Exchange Act, prior to the filing of a post-effective amendment which indicates that all securities offered hereunder have been sold or which deregisters all securities then remaining unsold under this Registration Statement, shall be deemed to be incorporated by reference in this Registration Statement and to be part hereof from the date of filing of such documents. Any statement contained herein or in a document incorporated or deemed to be incorporated by reference herein shall be deemed to be modified or superseded for purposes of this Registration Statement to the extent that a statement contained herein or in any other subsequently filed document which also is or is deemed to be incorporated by reference herein modifies or supersedes such earlier statement. Any statement so modified or superseded shall not be deemed, except as so modified or superseded, to constitute a part of this Registration Statement.
We will provide without charge to each person to whom a copy of this prospectus has been delivered, on written or oral request, a copy of any or all of the documents incorporated by reference in this prospectus, other than exhibits to such documents. Written or oral requests for such copies should be directed to James R. Sapirstein at the Company.
Item 4. Description of Securities.
Not applicable.
Item 5. Interests of Named Experts and Counsel.
No expert or counsel named in this Registration Statement as having prepared or certified any part of this Registration Statement or having given an opinion upon the validity of the securities being registered or upon other legal matters in connection with the registration or offering of the common stock was employed on a contingency basis or had, or is to receive, in connection with the offering, a substantial interest, directly or indirectly, in the registrant or any of its parents or subsidiaries.
Item 6. Indemnification of Directors and Officers.
The Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) authorizes corporations to limit or eliminate the personal liability of directors to corporations and their stockholders for monetary damages for breaches of directors fiduciary duties as directors and our amended
and restated certificate of incorporation will include such an exculpation provision. Our certificate of incorporation and by-laws will include provisions that indemnify, to the fullest extent allowable under the DGCL, the personal liability of directors or officers for monetary damages for actions taken as a director or officer of us, or for serving at our request as a director or officer or another position at another corporation or enterprise, as the case may be. Our certificate of incorporation and by-laws will also provide that we must indemnify and advance reasonable expenses to our directors and officers, subject to our receipt of an undertaking from the indemnified party as may be required under the DGCL. Our certificate of incorporation will expressly authorize us to carry directors and officers insurance to protect us, our directors, officers and certain employees for some liabilities. The limitation of liability and indemnification provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and by-laws may discourage stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions may also have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against our directors and officers, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our stockholders. However, these provisions do not limit or eliminate our rights, or those of any stockholder, to seek non-monetary relief such as injunction or rescission in the event of a breach of a directors duty of care. The provisions will not alter the liability of directors under the federal securities laws. In addition, your investment may be adversely affected to the extent that, in a class action or direct suit, we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against directors and officers pursuant to these indemnification provisions. There is currently no pending material litigation or proceeding against any of our directors, officers or employees for which indemnification is sought.
Item 7. Exemption from Registration Claimed.
Not applicable.
Item 8. Exhibits.
Exhibit Number |
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Description |
5.1 |
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Opinion of Sichenzia Ross Friedman Ference LLP |
10.1 |
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2013 Equity Incentive Plan |
23.1 |
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Consent of BDO USA LLP |
23.2 |
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Consent of Sichenzia Ross Friedman Ference LLP (included in Exhibit 5.1) |
24.1 |
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Powers of Attorney (included on signature page) |
Item 9. Undertakings.
A. The undersigned Registrant hereby undertakes:
1. To file, during any period in which offers or sales are being made, a post-effective amendment to this Registration Statement:
(i) To include any prospectus required by section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act;
(ii) To reflect in the prospectus any facts or events arising after the effective date of the Registration Statement (or the most recent post-effective amendment thereof) which, individually or in the aggregate, represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the Registration Statement. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any increase or decrease in volume of securities offered (if the total dollar value of securities offered would not exceed that which was registered) and any deviation from the low or high end of the estimated maximum offering range may be reflected in the form of prospectus filed with the Commission pursuant to Rule 424(b) if, in the aggregate, the changes in volume and price represent no more than a 20% change in the maximum aggregate offering price set forth in the Calculation of Registration Fee table in the effective Registration Statement.
(iii) To include any material information with respect to the plan of distribution not previously disclosed in the Registration Statement or any material change to such information in the Registration Statement;
Provided, however, that paragraphs (A)(1)(i) and (A)(1)(ii) do not apply if the information required to be included in a post-effective amendment by those paragraphs is contained in reports filed with or furnished to the Commission by the Registrant pursuant to section 13 or section 15(d) of the Exchange Act that are incorporated by reference in the Registration Statement.
2. That, for the purpose of determining any liability under the Securities Act, each such post-effective amendment shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered herein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.
3. To remove from registration by means of a post-effective amendment any of the securities being registered which remain unsold at the termination of the offering.
B. The undersigned Registrant hereby undertakes that, for purposes of determining any liability under the Securities Act, each filing of the Registrants annual report pursuant to Section 13(a) or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act (and, where applicable, each filing of an employee benefit plans annual report pursuant to section 15(d) of the Exchange Act) that is incorporated by reference in the Registration Statement shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered herein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.
C. Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act may be permitted to directors, officers and controlling persons of the Registrant pursuant to the foregoing provisions, or otherwise, the Registrant has been advised that in the opinion of the Securities and Exchange Commission such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and is, therefore, unenforceable. In the event that a claim for indemnification against such liabilities (other than the payment by the Registrant of expenses incurred or paid by a director, officer or controlling person of the Registrant in the successful defense of any action, suit or proceeding) is asserted by such director, officer or controlling person in connection with the securities being registered, the Registrant will, unless in the opinion of its counsel the matter has been settled by controlling precedent, submit to a court of appropriate jurisdiction the question whether such indemnification by it is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and will be governed by the final adjudication of such issue.
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, the Registrant certifies that it has reasonable grounds to believe that it meets all of the requirements for filing on Form S-8 and has duly caused this Registration Statement to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in Edison, New Jersey, on the 4th day of May 2015.
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CONTRAVIR PHARMACEUTICALS, INC. |
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By: |
/s/ James R. Sapirstein |
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James R. Sapirstein |
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Chief Executive Officer and Director |
POWER OF ATTORNEY
KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints James R. Sapirstein, his true and lawful attorney-in-fact and agent with full power of substitution and re-substitution, for him/her and in his name, place and stead, in any and all capacities to sign any or all amendments (including, without limitation, post-effective amendments) to this Registration Statement, any related Registration Statement filed pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act of 1933 and any or all pre- or post-effective amendments thereto, and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto, and all other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, granting unto said attorney-in-fact and agent, full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing requisite and necessary to be done in and about the premises, as fully for all intents and purposes as he or she might or could do in person, hereby ratifying and confirming that said attorney-in-fact and agent, or any substitute or substitutes for him, may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, the following persons in the capacities and on the dates indicated have signed this Registration Statement below.
Signature |
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Title |
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Date |
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/s/ James Sapirstein |
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Chief Executive Officer and Director |
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May 4, 2015 |
James Sapirstein |
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(Principal Executive Officer) |
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/s/ William Hornung |
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Chief Financial Officer |
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May 4, 2015 |
William Hornung |
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(Principal Financial and Accounting Officer) |
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/s/ Gary S. Jacob |
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Chairman, Board of Directors |
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May 4, 2015 |
Gary S. Jacob |
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/s/ John Brancaccio |
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Director |
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May 4, 2015 |
John Brancaccio |
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/s/ Chris McGuigan |
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Director |
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May 4, 2015 |
Chris McGuigan |
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/s/ Timothy Block |
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Director |
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May 4, 2015 |
Timothy Block |
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Exhibit 5.1
May 4, 2015
VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION
Securities and Exchange Commission
100 F Street, N.E.
Washington, DC 20549
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Re: |
ContraVir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Form S-8 Registration Statement |
Ladies and Gentlemen:
We refer to the above-captioned registration statement on Form S-8 (the Registration Statement) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Act), filed by ContraVir Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the Company), with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
We have examined the originals, photocopies, certified copies or other evidence of such records of the Company, certificates of officers of the Company and public officials, and other documents as we have deemed relevant and necessary as a basis for the opinion hereinafter expressed. In such examination, we have assumed the genuineness of all signatures, the authenticity of all documents submitted to us as certified copies or photocopies and the authenticity of the originals of such latter documents.
Based on our examination mentioned above, we are of the opinion that the securities being registered to be sold pursuant to the Registration Statement are duly authorized and will be, when sold in the manner described in the Registration Statement, legally and validly issued, and fully paid and non-assessable.
We hereby consent to the filing of this opinion as Exhibit 5.1 to the Registration Statement and to the reference to our firm under Legal Matters. In giving the foregoing consent, we do not hereby admit that we are in the category of persons whose consent is required under Section 7 of the Act, or the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Very truly yours, |
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/s/ Sichenzia Ross Friedman Ference LLP |
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Sichenzia Ross Friedman Ference LLP |
Exhibit 10.1
CONTRAVIR PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.
2013 EQUITY INCENTIVE PLAN
1. Purpose of the Plan.
This 2013 Equity Incentive Plan (the Plan ) is intended as an incentive, to retain in the employ of and as directors, officers, consultants, advisors and employees to ContraVir Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the Company ), and any Subsidiary of the Company, within the meaning of Section 424(f) of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Code ), persons of training, experience and ability, to attract new directors, officers, consultants, advisors and employees whose services are considered valuable, to encourage the sense of proprietorship and to stimulate the active interest of such persons in the development and financial success of the Company and its Subsidiaries.
It is further intended that certain options granted pursuant to the Plan shall constitute incentive stock options within the meaning of Section 422 of the Code (the Incentive Options ) while certain other options granted pursuant to the Plan shall be nonqualified stock options (the Nonqualified Options ). Incentive Options and Nonqualified Options are hereinafter referred to collectively as Options .
The Company intends that the Plan meet the requirements of Rule 16b-3 ( Rule 16b-3 ) promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act ), and that transactions of the type specified in subparagraphs (c) to (f) inclusive of Rule 16b-3 by officers and directors of the Company pursuant to the Plan will be exempt from the operation of Section 16(b) of the Exchange Act. Further, the Plan is intended to satisfy the performance-based compensation exception to the limitation on the Companys tax deductions imposed by Section 162(m) of the Code with respect to those Options for which qualification for such exception is intended. In all cases, the terms, provisions, conditions and limitations of the Plan shall be construed and interpreted consistent with the Companys intent as stated in this Section 1.
2. Administration of the Plan.
The Board of Directors of the Company (the Board ) shall appoint and maintain as administrator of the Plan a Committee (the Committee ) consisting of two or more directors who are (i) Independent Directors (as such term is defined under the rules of the NASDAQ Stock Market), (ii) Non-Employee Directors (as such term is defined in Rule 16b-3) and (iii) Outside Directors (as such term is defined in Section 162(m) of the Code), which shall serve at the pleasure of the Board. The Committee, subject to Sections 3, 5 and 6 hereof, shall have full power and authority to designate recipients of Options and restricted stock ( Restricted Stock ) and to determine the terms and conditions of the respective Option and Restricted Stock agreements (which need not be identical) and to interpret the provisions and supervise the administration of the Plan. The Committee shall have the authority, without limitation, to designate which Options granted under the Plan shall be Incentive Options and which shall be Nonqualified Options. To the extent any Option does not qualify as an Incentive Option, it shall constitute a separate Nonqualified Option.
Subject to the provisions of the Plan, the Committee shall interpret the Plan and all Options and Restricted Stock granted under the Plan, shall make such rules as it deems necessary for the proper administration of the Plan, shall make all other determinations necessary or advisable for the administration of the Plan and shall correct any defects or supply any omission or reconcile any inconsistency in the Plan or in any Options or Restricted Stock granted under the Plan in the manner and to the extent that the Committee deems desirable to carry into effect the Plan or any Options or Restricted Stock. The act or determination of a majority of the Committee shall be the act or determination of the Committee and any decision reduced to writing and signed by all of the members of the Committee shall be fully effective as if it had been made by a majority of the Committee at a meeting duly held for such purpose. Subject to the provisions of the Plan, any action taken or determination made by the Committee pursuant to this and the other Sections of the Plan shall be conclusive on all parties.
In the event that for any reason the Committee is unable to act or if the Committee at the time of any grant, award or other acquisition under the Plan does not consist of two or more Non-Employee Directors, or if there shall be no such Committee, or if the Board otherwise determines to administer the Plan, then the Plan shall be
administered by the Board, and references herein to the Committee (except in the proviso to this sentence) shall be deemed to be references to the Board, and any such grant, award or other acquisition may be approved or ratified in any other manner contemplated by subparagraph (d) of Rule 16b-3; provided , however , that grants to the Companys Chief Executive Officer or to any of the Companys other four most highly compensated officers that are intended to qualify as performance-based compensation under Section 162(m) of the Code may only be granted by the Committee.
3. Designation of Optionees and Grantees.
The persons eligible for participation in the Plan as recipients of Options (the Optionees ) or Restricted Stock (the Grantees and together with Optionees, the Participants ) shall include directors, officers and employees of, and consultants and advisors to, the Company or any Subsidiary; provided that Incentive Options may only be granted to employees of the Company and any Subsidiary. In selecting Participants, and in determining the number of shares to be covered by each Option or award of Restricted Stock granted to Participants, the Committee may consider any factors it deems relevant, including, without limitation, the office or position held by the Participant or the Participants relationship to the Company, the Participants degree of responsibility for and contribution to the growth and success of the Company or any Subsidiary, the Participants length of service, promotions and potential. A Participant who has been granted an Option or Restricted Stock hereunder may be granted an additional Option or Options, or Restricted Stock if the Committee shall so determine.
4. Stock Reserved for the Plan.
Subject to adjustment as provided in Section 8 hereof, a total of 1,500,000 shares of the Companys common stock, par value $0.0001 per share (the Stock ), shall be subject to the Plan. The shares of Stock subject to the Plan shall consist of unissued shares, treasury shares or previously issued shares held by any Subsidiary of the Company, and such number of shares of Stock shall be and is hereby reserved for such purpose. Any of such shares of Stock that may remain unissued and that are not subject to outstanding Options at the termination of the Plan shall cease to be reserved for the purposes of the Plan, but until termination of the Plan the Company shall at all times reserve a sufficient number of shares of Stock to meet the requirements of the Plan. Should any Option or award of Restricted Stock expire or be canceled prior to its exercise or vesting in full or should the number of shares of Stock to be delivered upon the exercise or vesting in full of an Option or award of Restricted Stock be reduced for any reason, the shares of Stock theretofore subject to such Option or Restricted Stock may be subject to future Options or Restricted Stock under the Plan, except where such reissuance is inconsistent with the provisions of Section 162(m) of the Code where qualification as performance-based compensation under Section 162(m) of the Code is intended.
5. Terms and Conditions of Options.
Options granted under the Plan shall be subject to the following conditions and shall contain such additional terms and conditions, not inconsistent with the terms of the Plan, as the Committee shall deem desirable:
(a) Option Price . The purchase price of each share of Stock purchasable under an Incentive Option shall be determined by the Committee at the time of grant, but shall not be less than 100% of the Fair Market Value (as defined below) of such share of Stock on the date the Option is granted; provided , however , that with respect to an Optionee who, at the time such Incentive Option is granted, owns (within the meaning of Section 424(d) of the Code) more than 10% of the total combined voting power of all classes of stock of the Company or of any Subsidiary, the purchase price per share of Stock shall be at least 110% of the Fair Market Value per share of Stock on the date of grant. The purchase price of each share of Stock purchasable under a Nonqualified Option shall not be less than 100% of the Fair Market Value of such share of Stock on the date the Option is granted. The exercise price for each Option shall be subject to adjustment as provided in Section 8 below. Fair Market Value means the closing price on the final trading day immediately prior to the grant date of the Stock on the principal securities exchange on which shares of Stock are listed (if the shares of Stock are so listed), or on the NASDAQ Stock Market or OTC Bulletin Board (if the shares of Stock are regularly quoted on the NASDAQ Stock Market or OTC Bulletin Board, as the case may be), or, if not so listed, the mean between the closing bid and asked prices of publicly traded shares of Stock in the over the counter market, or, if such bid and asked prices shall not be available, as reported by any nationally recognized quotation service selected by the Company, or as determined by the
Committee in a manner consistent with the provisions of the Code. Anything in this Section 5(a) to the contrary notwithstanding, in no event shall the purchase price of a share of Stock be less than the minimum price permitted under the rules and policies of any national securities exchange on which the shares of Stock are listed.
(b) Option Term . The term of each Option shall be fixed by the Committee, but no Option shall be exercisable more than ten years after the date such Option is granted and in the case of an Incentive Option granted to an Optionee who, at the time such Incentive Option is granted, owns (within the meaning of Section 424(d) of the Code) more than 10% of the total combined voting power of all classes of stock of the Company or of any Subsidiary, no such Incentive Option shall be exercisable more than five years after the date such Incentive Option is granted.
(c) Exercisability . Subject to Section 5(j) hereof, Options shall be exercisable at such time or times and subject to such terms and conditions as shall be determined by the Committee at the time of grant; provided , however , that in the absence of any Option vesting periods designated by the Committee at the time of grant, Options shall vest and become exercisable as to one-tenth of the total number of shares subject to the Option on each of the three month anniversary of the date of grant; and provided further that no Options shall be exercisable until such time as any vesting limitation required by Section 16 of the Exchange Act, and related rules, shall be satisfied if such limitation shall be required for continued validity of the exemption provided under Rule 16b-3(d)(3).
Upon the occurrence of a Change in Control (as hereinafter defined), the Committee may accelerate the vesting and exercisability of outstanding Options, in whole or in part, as determined by the Committee in its sole discretion. In its sole discretion, the Committee may also determine that, upon the occurrence of a Change in Control, each outstanding Option shall terminate within a specified number of days after notice to the Optionee thereunder, and each such Optionee shall receive, with respect to each share of Company Stock subject to such Option, an amount equal to the excess of the Fair Market Value of such shares immediately prior to such Change in Control over the exercise price per share of such Option; such amount shall be payable in cash, in one or more kinds of property (including the property, if any, payable in the transaction) or a combination thereof, as the Committee shall determine in its sole discretion.
For purposes of the Plan, unless otherwise defined in an employment agreement between the Company and the relevant Optionee, a Change in Control shall be deemed to have occurred if:
(i) a tender offer (or series of related offers) shall be made and consummated for the ownership of 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the Company, unless as a result of such tender offer more than 50% of the outstanding voting securities of the surviving or resulting corporation shall be owned in the aggregate by the stockholders of the Company (as of the time immediately prior to the commencement of such offer), any employee benefit plan of the Company or its Subsidiaries, and their affiliates;
(ii) the Company shall be merged or consolidated with another corporation, unless as a result of such merger or consolidation more than 50% of the outstanding voting securities of the surviving or resulting corporation shall be owned in the aggregate by the stockholders of the Company (as of the time immediately prior to such transaction), any employee benefit plan of the Company or its Subsidiaries, and their affiliates;
(iii) the Company shall sell substantially all of its assets to another corporation that is not wholly owned by the Company, unless as a result of such sale more than 50% of such assets shall be owned in the aggregate by the stockholders of the Company (as of the time immediately prior to such transaction), any employee benefit plan of the Company or its Subsidiaries and their affiliates; or
(iv) a Person (as defined below) shall acquire 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the Company (whether directly, indirectly, beneficially or of record), unless as a result of such acquisition more than 50% of the outstanding voting securities of the surviving or resulting corporation shall be owned in the aggregate by the stockholders of the Company (as of
the time immediately prior to the first acquisition of such securities by such Person), any employee benefit plan of the Company or its Subsidiaries, and their affiliates.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, if Change of Control is defined in an employment agreement between the Company and the relevant Optionee, then, with respect to such Optionee, Change of Control shall have the meaning ascribed to it in such employment agreement.
For purposes of this Section 5(c), ownership of voting securities shall take into account and shall include ownership as determined by applying the provisions of Rule 13d-3(d)(I)(i) (as in effect on the date hereof) under the Exchange Act. In addition, for such purposes, Person shall have the meaning given in Section 3(a)(9) of the Exchange Act, as modified and used in Sections 13(d) and 14(d) thereof; provided , however , that a Person shall not include (A) the Company or any of its Subsidiaries; (B) a trustee or other fiduciary holding securities under an employee benefit plan of the Company or any of its Subsidiaries; (C) an underwriter temporarily holding securities pursuant to an offering of such securities; or (D) a corporation owned, directly or indirectly, by the stockholders of the Company in substantially the same proportion as their ownership of stock of the Company.
(d) Method of Exercise . Options to the extent then exercisable may be exercised in whole or in part at any time during the option period, by giving written notice to the Company specifying the number of shares of Stock to be purchased, accompanied by payment in full of the purchase price, in cash, or by check or such other instrument as may be acceptable to the Committee. As determined by the Committee, in its sole discretion, at or after grant, payment in full or in part may be made at the election of the Optionee (i) in the form of Stock owned by the Optionee (based on the Fair Market Value of the Stock which is not the subject of any pledge or security interest, (ii) in the form of shares of Stock withheld by the Company from the shares of Stock otherwise to be received with such withheld shares of Stock having a Fair Market Value equal to the exercise price of the Option, or (iii) by a combination of the foregoing, such Fair Market Value determined by applying the principles set forth in Section 5(a), provided that the combined value of all cash and cash equivalents and the Fair Market Value of any shares surrendered to the Company is at least equal to such exercise price and except with respect to (ii) above, such method of payment will not cause a disqualifying disposition of all or a portion of the Stock received upon exercise of an Incentive Option. An Optionee shall have the right to dividends and other rights of a stockholder with respect to shares of Stock purchased upon exercise of an Option at such time as the Optionee (i) has given written notice of exercise and has paid in full for such shares, and (ii) has satisfied such conditions that may be imposed by the Company with respect to the withholding of taxes.
(e) Non-transferability of Options . Options are not transferable and may be exercised solely by the Optionee during his lifetime or after his death by the person or persons entitled thereto under his will or the laws of descent and distribution. The Committee, in its sole discretion, may permit a transfer of a Nonqualified Option to (i) a trust for the benefit of the Optionee, (ii) a member of the Optionees immediate family (or a trust for his or her benefit) or (iii) pursuant to a domestic relations order. Any attempt to transfer, assign, pledge or otherwise dispose of, or to subject to execution, attachment or similar process, any Option contrary to the provisions hereof shall be void and ineffective and shall give no right to the purported transferee.
(f) Termination by Death . Unless otherwise determined by the Committee, if any Optionees employment with or service to the Company or any Subsidiary terminates by reason of death, the Option may thereafter be exercised, to the extent then exercisable (or on such accelerated basis as the Committee shall determine at or after grant), by the legal representative of the estate or by the legatee of the Optionee under the will of the Optionee, for a period of one (1) year after the date of such death (or, if later, such time as the Option may be exercised pursuant to Section 14(d) hereof) or until the expiration of the stated term of such Option as provided under the Plan, whichever period is shorter.
(g) Termination by Reason of Disability . Unless otherwise determined by the Committee, if any Optionees employment with or service to the Company or any Subsidiary terminates by reason of Disability (as defined below), then any Option held by such Optionee may thereafter be exercised, to the extent it was exercisable at the time of termination due to Disability (or on such accelerated basis as the Committee shall determine at or after grant), but may not be exercised after one (1) year after the date of such termination of employment or service (or, if later, such time as the Option may be exercised pursuant to Section 14(d) hereof) or the expiration of the stated term of such Option, whichever period is shorter; provided , however , that, if the Optionee dies within such ninety (90)
day period, any unexercised Option held by such Optionee shall thereafter be exercisable to the extent to which it was exercisable at the time of death for a period of one (1) year after the date of such death (or, if later, such time as the Option may be exercised pursuant to Section 14(d) hereof) or for the stated term of such Option, whichever period is shorter. Disability shall mean an Optionees total and permanent disability; provided , that if Disability is defined in an employment agreement between the Company and the relevant Optionee, then, with respect to such Optionee, Disability shall have the meaning ascribed to it in such employment agreement
(h) Termination by Reason of Retirement . Unless otherwise determined by the Committee, if any Optionees employment with or service to the Company or any Subsidiary terminates by reason of Normal or Early Retirement (as such terms are defined below), any Option held by such Optionee may thereafter be exercised to the extent it was exercisable at the time of such Retirement (or on such accelerated basis as the Committee shall determine at or after grant), but may not be exercised after ninety (90) days after the date of such termination of employment or service (or, if later, such time as the Option may be exercised pursuant to Section 14(d) hereof) or the expiration of the stated term of such Option, whichever date is earlier; provided , however , that, if the Optionee dies within such ninety (90) day period, any unexercised Option held by such Optionee shall thereafter be exercisable, to the extent to which it was exercisable at the time of death, for a period of one (1) year after the date of such death (or, if later, such time as the Option may be exercised pursuant to Section 14(d) hereof) or for the stated term of such Option, whichever period is shorter.
For purposes of this paragraph (h), Normal Retirement shall mean retirement from active employment with the Company or any Subsidiary on or after the normal retirement date specified in the applicable Company or Subsidiary pension plan or if no such pension plan, age 65, and Early Retirement shall mean retirement from active employment with the Company or any Subsidiary pursuant to the early retirement provisions of the applicable Company or Subsidiary pension plan or if no such pension plan, age 55.
(i) Other Terminations . Unless otherwise determined by the Committee upon grant, if any Optionees employment with or service to the Company or any Subsidiary is terminated by such Optionee for any reason other than death, Disability, Normal or Early Retirement or Good Reason (as defined below), the Option shall thereupon terminate, except that the portion of any Option that was exercisable on the date of such termination of employment or service may be exercised for the lesser of ninety (90) days after the date of termination (or, if later, such time as the Option may be exercised pursuant to Section 14(d) hereof) or the balance of such Options term, whichever period is shorter. The transfer of an Optionee from the employ of or service to the Company to the employ of or service to a Subsidiary, or vice versa, or from one Subsidiary to another, shall not be deemed to constitute a termination of employment or service for purposes of the Plan.
(i) In the event that the Optionees employment or service with the Company or any Subsidiary is terminated by the Company or such Subsidiary for cause any unexercised portion of any Option shall immediately terminate in its entirety. For purposes hereof, unless otherwise defined in an employment agreement between the Company and the relevant Optionee, Cause shall exist upon a good-faith determination by the Board, following a hearing before the Board at which an Optionee was represented by counsel and given an opportunity to be heard, that such Optionee has been accused of fraud, dishonesty or act detrimental to the interests of the Company or any Subsidiary of Company or that such Optionee has been accused of or convicted of an act of willful and material embezzlement or fraud against the Company or of a felony under any state or federal statute; provided , however , that it is specifically understood that Cause shall not include any act of commission or omission in the good-faith exercise of such Optionees business judgment as a director, officer or employee of the Company, as the case may be, or upon the advice of counsel to the Company. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if Cause is defined in an employment agreement between the Company and the relevant Optionee, then, with respect to such Optionee, Cause shall have the meaning ascribed to it in such employment agreement.
(ii) In the event that an Optionee is removed as a director, officer or employee by the Company at any time other than for Cause or resigns as a director, officer or employee for Good Reason the Option granted to such Optionee may be exercised by the Optionee, to the extent the Option was exercisable on the date such Optionee ceases to be a director, officer or employee. Such Option may be exercised at any time within one (1) year after the date the
Optionee ceases to be a director, officer or employee (or, if later, such time as the Option may be exercised pursuant to Section 14(d) hereof), or the date on which the Option otherwise expires by its terms; which ever period is shorter, at which time the Option shall terminate; provided , however , if the Optionee dies before the Options terminate and are no longer exercisable, the terms and provisions of Section 5(f) shall control. For purposes of this Section 5(i), and unless otherwise defined in an employment agreement between the Company and the relevant Optionee, Good Reason shall exist upon the occurrence of the following:
(A) the assignment to Optionee of any duties inconsistent with the position in the Company that Optionee held immediately prior to the assignment;
(B) a Change of Control resulting in a significant adverse alteration in the status or conditions of Optionees participation with the Company or other nature of Optionees responsibilities from those in effect prior to such Change of Control, including any significant alteration in Optionees responsibilities immediately prior to such Change in Control; and
(C) the failure by the Company to continue to provide Optionee with benefits substantially similar to those enjoyed by Optionee prior to such failure.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, if Good Reason is defined in an employment agreement between the Company and the relevant Optionee, then, with respect to such Optionee, Good Reason shall have the meaning ascribed to it in such employment agreement.
(j) Limit on Value of Incentive Option . The aggregate Fair Market Value, determined as of the date the Incentive Option is granted, of Stock for which Incentive Options are exercisable for the first time by any Optionee during any calendar year under the Plan (and/or any other stock option plans of the Company or any Subsidiary) shall not exceed $100,000.
6. Terms and Conditions of Restricted Stock.
Restricted Stock may be granted under this Plan aside from, or in association with, any other award and shall be subject to the following conditions and shall contain such additional terms and conditions (including provisions relating to the acceleration of vesting of Restricted Stock upon a Change of Control), not inconsistent with the terms of the Plan, as the Committee shall deem desirable:
(a) Grantee rights . A Grantee shall have no rights to an award of Restricted Stock unless and until Grantee accepts the award within the period prescribed by the Committee and, if the Committee shall deem desirable, makes payment to the Company in cash, or by check or such other instrument as may be acceptable to the Committee. After acceptance and issuance of a certificate or certificates, as provided for below, the Grantee shall have the rights of a stockholder with respect to Restricted Stock subject to the non-transferability and forfeiture restrictions described in Section 6(d) below.
(b) Issuance of Certificates . The Company shall issue in the Grantees name a certificate or certificates for the shares of Common Stock associated with the award promptly after the Grantee accepts such award.
(c) Delivery of Certificates . Unless otherwise provided, any certificate or certificates issued evidencing shares of Restricted Stock shall not be delivered to the Grantee until such shares are free of any restrictions specified by the Committee at the time of grant.
(d) Forfeitability, Non-transferability of Restricted Stock . Shares of Restricted Stock are forfeitable until the terms of the Restricted Stock grant have been satisfied. Shares of Restricted Stock are not transferable until the date on which the Committee has specified such restrictions have lapsed. Unless otherwise provided by the Committee at or after grant, distributions in the form of dividends or otherwise of additional shares
or property in respect of shares of Restricted Stock shall be subject to the same restrictions as such shares of Restricted Stock.
(e) Change of Control . Upon the occurrence of a Change in Control as defined in Section 5(c), the Committee may accelerate the vesting of outstanding Restricted Stock, in whole or in part, as determined by the Committee, in its sole discretion.
(f) Termination of Employment . Unless otherwise determined by the Committee at or after grant, in the event the Grantee ceases to be an employee or otherwise associated with the Company for any other reason, all shares of Restricted Stock theretofore awarded to him which are still subject to restrictions shall be forfeited and the Company shall have the right to complete the blank stock power. The Committee may provide (on or after grant) that restrictions or forfeiture conditions relating to shares of Restricted Stock will be waived in whole or in part in the event of termination resulting from specified causes, and the Committee may in other cases waive in whole or in part restrictions or forfeiture conditions relating to Restricted Stock.
7. Term of Plan.
No Option or award of Restricted Stock shall be granted pursuant to the Plan on or after the date which is ten years from the effective date of the Plan, but Options and awards of Restricted Stock theretofore granted may extend beyond that date.
8. Capital Change of the Company.
In the event of any merger, reorganization, consolidation, recapitalization, stock dividend, or other change in corporate structure affecting the Stock, the Committee shall make an appropriate and equitable adjustment in the number and kind of shares reserved for issuance under the Plan and in the number and option price of shares subject to outstanding Options granted under the Plan, to the end that after such event each Optionees proportionate interest shall be maintained (to the extent possible) as immediately before the occurrence of such event. The Committee shall, to the extent feasible, make such other adjustments as may be required under the tax laws so that any Incentive Options previously granted shall not be deemed modified within the meaning of Section 424(h) of the Code. Appropriate adjustments shall also be made in the case of outstanding Restricted Stock granted under the Plan.
The adjustments described above will be made only to the extent consistent with continued qualification of the Option under Section 422 of the Code (in the case of an Incentive Option) and Section 409A of the Code.
9. Purchase for Investment/Conditions.
Unless the Options and shares covered by the Plan have been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act ), or the Company has determined that such registration is unnecessary, each person exercising or receiving Options or Restricted Stock under the Plan may be required by the Company to give a representation in writing that he is acquiring the securities for his own account for investment and not with a view to, or for sale in connection with, the distribution of any part thereof. The Committee may impose any additional or further restrictions on awards of Options or Restricted Stock as shall be determined by the Committee at the time of award.
10. Taxes.
(a) The Company may make such provisions as it may deem appropriate, consistent with applicable law, in connection with any Options or Restricted Stock granted under the Plan with respect to the withholding of any taxes (including income or employment taxes) or any other tax matters.
(b) If any Grantee, in connection with the acquisition of Restricted Stock, makes the election permitted under Section 83(b) of the Code (that is, an election to include in gross income in the year of transfer the
amounts specified in Section 83(b)), such Grantee shall notify the Company of the election with the Internal Revenue Service pursuant to regulations issued under the authority of Code Section 83(b).
(c) If any Grantee shall make any disposition of shares of Stock issued pursuant to the exercise of an Incentive Option under the circumstances described in Section 421(b) of the Code (relating to certain disqualifying dispositions), such Grantee shall notify the Company of such disposition within ten (10) days hereof.
11. Effective Date of Plan.
The Plan shall be effective on , 2013; provided, however, that if, and only if, certain options are intended to qualify as Incentive Stock Options, the Plan must subsequently be approved by majority vote of the Companys stockholders no later than , 2013, and further, that in the event certain Option grants hereunder are intended to qualify as performance-based compensation within the meaning of Section 162(m) of the Code, the requirements as to stockholder approval set forth in Section 162(m) of the Code are satisfied.
12. Amendment and Termination.
The Board may amend, suspend, or terminate the Plan, except that no amendment shall be made that would impair the rights of any Participant under any Option or Restricted Stock theretofore granted without the Participants consent, and except that no amendment shall be made which, without the approval of the stockholders of the Company would:
(a) increase the number of shares that may be issued under the Plan, except as is provided in Section 8;
(b) materially increase the benefits accruing to the Participants under the Plan;
(c) materially modify the requirements as to eligibility for participation in the Plan;
(d) decrease the exercise price of an Incentive Option to less than 100% of the Fair Market Value per share of Stock on the date of grant thereof or the exercise price of a Nonqualified Option to less than 100% of the Fair Market Value per share of Stock on the date of grant thereof; or
(e) extend the term of any Option beyond that provided for in Section 5(b).
(f) except as otherwise provided in Sections 5(d) and 8 hereof, reduce the exercise price of outstanding Options or effect repricing through cancellations and re-grants of new Options.
Subject to the forgoing, the Committee may amend the terms of any Option theretofore granted, prospectively or retrospectively, but no such amendment shall impair the rights of any Optionee without the Optionees consent.
It is the intention of the Board that the Plan comply strictly with the provisions of Section 409A of the Code and Treasury Regulations and other Internal Revenue Service guidance promulgated thereunder (the Section 409A Rules ) and the Committee shall exercise its discretion in granting awards hereunder (and the terms of such awards), accordingly. The Plan and any grant of an award hereunder may be amended from time to time (without, in the case of an award, the consent of the Participant) as may be necessary or appropriate to comply with the Section 409A Rules.
13. Government Regulations.
The Plan, and the grant and exercise of Options or Restricted Stock hereunder, and the obligation of the Company to sell and deliver shares under such Options and Restricted Stock shall be subject to all applicable laws, rules and regulations, and to such approvals by any governmental agencies, national securities exchanges and interdealer quotation systems as may be required.
14. General Provisions.
(a) Certificates . All certificates for shares of Stock delivered under the Plan shall be subject to such stop transfer orders and other restrictions as the Committee may deem advisable under the rules, regulations and other requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or other securities commission having jurisdiction, any applicable Federal or state securities law, any stock exchange or interdealer quotation system upon which the Stock is then listed or traded and the Committee may cause a legend or legends to be placed on any such certificates to make appropriate reference to such restrictions.
(b) Employment Matters . Neither the adoption of the Plan nor any grant or award under the Plan shall confer upon any Participant who is an employee of the Company or any Subsidiary any right to continued employment or, in the case of a Participant who is a director, continued service as a director, with the Company or a Subsidiary, as the case may be, nor shall it interfere in any way with the right of the Company or any Subsidiary to terminate the employment of any of its employees, the service of any of its directors or the retention of any of its consultants or advisors at any time.
(c) Limitation of Liability . No member of the Committee, or any officer or employee of the Company acting on behalf of the Committee, shall be personally liable for any action, determination or interpretation taken or made in good faith with respect to the Plan, and all members of the Committee and each and any officer or employee of the Company acting on their behalf shall, to the extent permitted by law, be fully indemnified and protected by the Company in respect of any such action, determination or interpretation.
(d) Registration of Stock . Notwithstanding any other provision in the Plan, no Option may be exercised unless and until the Stock to be issued upon the exercise thereof has been registered under the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws, or are, in the opinion of counsel to the Company, exempt from such registration in the United States. The Company shall not be under any obligation to register under applicable federal or state securities laws any Stock to be issued upon the exercise of an Option granted hereunder in order to permit the exercise of an Option and the issuance and sale of the Stock subject to such Option, although the Company may in its sole discretion register such Stock at such time as the Company shall determine. If the Company chooses to comply with such an exemption from registration, the Stock issued under the Plan may, at the direction of the Committee, bear an appropriate restrictive legend restricting the transfer or pledge of the Stock represented thereby, and the Committee may also give appropriate stop transfer instructions with respect to such Stock to the Companys transfer agent.
15. Non-Uniform Determinations.
The Committees determinations under the Plan, including, without limitation, (i) the determination of the Participants to receive awards, (ii) the form, amount and timing of such awards, (iii) the terms and provisions of such awards and (ii) the agreements evidencing the same, need not be uniform and may be made by it selectively among Participants who receive, or who are eligible to receive, awards under the Plan, whether or not such Participants are similarly situated.
16. Governing Law.
The validity, construction, and effect of the Plan and any rules and regulations relating to the Plan shall be determined in accordance with the internal laws of the State of Delaware, without giving effect to principles of conflicts of laws, and applicable federal law.
Exhibit 23.1
Consent of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
ContraVir Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
New York, New York
We hereby consent to the incorporation by reference in the Prospectus constituting a part of this Registration Statement of our reports dated September 29, 2014 and February 12, 2015, relating to the financial statements of ContraVir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. appearing in the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2014 and in the Companys Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the six months ended December 31, 2014, respectively. Our reports contain an explanatory paragraph regarding the Companys ability to continue as a going concern.
We also consent to the reference to us under the caption Experts in the Prospectus.
/s/ BDO USA, LLP |
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BDO USA, LLP |
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New York, New York |
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May 4, 2015