ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Overview
We are a biotechnology company seeking to develop and commercialize innovative drug candidates for the treatment of human cancers. Our most advanced drug candidate is CUDC-907, an orally-available, small molecule inhibitor of histone deacetylase, or HDAC, and phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase, or PI3K enzymes, which has completed the dose escalation stage of a first-in-man Phase 1 clinical study in patients with relapsed, refractory lymphoma or multiple myeloma. In addition, we recently entered into an exclusive, multi-year collaboration agreement focused on immuno-oncology and selected precision oncology targets with Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited, or Aurigene, a specialized, discovery stage biotechnology company and wholly-owned subsidiary of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories that is developing novel therapies to treat cancer and inflammatory diseases. We expect to exercise our options during the first half of 2015 to obtain two exclusive licenses under this collaboration including for drug candidates that target an orally-available small molecule antagonist of programmed death ligand-1, or PD-L1, an immune checkpoint target, and an orally-available small molecule inhibitor of Interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4, or IRAK4 kinase. Our proprietary pipeline also
includes CUDC-427, an orally-available, small molecule antagonist of inhibitor of apoptosis, or IAP proteins, which has recently completed dose escalation in a Phase 1 clinical trial in patients with solid tumors or lymphoma. We also recently regained rights to our Heat Shock Protein 90, or HSP90, inhibitor Debio 0932 from Debiopharm International S.A., or Debiopharm. We have redesignated this drug candidate as CUDC-305 and are evaluating initiating clinical studies with CUDC-305 in 2015. Our collaborators F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, or Roche, and Genentech Inc., or Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, are commercializing Erivedge® (vismodegib), a first-in-class orally-administered small molecule Hedgehog pathway inhibitor, in advanced basal cell carcinoma, or BCC. Roche and Genentech are also continuing Erivedge’s clinical development in less severe forms of BCC as well as planned development in other non-oncology indications.
CUDC-907. In January 2013, we initiated a Phase 1 clinical study of CUDC-907 in patients with relapsed or refractory lymphomas or multiple myeloma. In the fourth quarter of 2014, we established the recommended Phase 2 dose and schedules of administration for further development of CUDC-907, and initiated enrollment of patients primarily with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, or DLBCL, or multiple myeloma in the expansion stage of the Phase 1 study. A preliminary analysis of the eight heavily pre-treated subjects with relapsed, refractory DLBCL disease enrolled in the dose escalation phase showed that three patients have experienced confirmed partial responses and one patient achieved a complete response leading to that patient undergoing an autologous stem cell transplantation. We expect to present the available data from the Phase 1 study at a medical conference in 2015 and anticipate that we will initiate a Phase 2, registration-directed, randomized study of CUDC-907 in patients with relapsed, refractory DLBCL during the second half of 2015 in order to assess the drug candidate’s efficacy in this indication. Development of CUDC-907 in hematological malignancies is partially supported under a collaboration with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, or LLS.
In the fourth quarter of 2014, we initiated a separate Phase 1 trial to investigate CUDC-907 in patients with advanced solid tumors, including those with hormone receptor positive breast cancer or with NUT midline carcinoma.
Aurigene. In January 2015, we entered into an exclusive, multi-year collaboration with Aurigene that is focused on discovery, development and commercialization of drug candidates in the fields of immuno-oncology and precision oncology. As part of the agreement, Aurigene has granted to us the option to exclusively license multiple compounds, including the designated development candidates discovered using their small molecule technology that address molecular targets within the scope of the collaboration. Within the collaboration, Aurigene is responsible for conducting all discovery and preclinical activities, including IND-enabling studies and providing Phase 1 clinical trial supply of the investigational agent, and we are responsible for all clinical development, regulatory and commercialization efforts worldwide, excluding India and Russia, for each candidate for which we exercise an option to obtain a license. We will also make specified payments to Aurigene, including option exercise fees, pre-IND milestones for the first four programs, as well as milestone payments and royalties on any products we successfully commercialize under the collaboration. The lead compounds under the collaboration are orally-available small molecule antagonists of PD-L1 immune checkpoint target and orally-available small molecule inhibitors of IRAK4 kinase in the precision oncology field. We expect to exercise our options to obtain exclusive licenses to compounds directed at these two targets in the first half of 2015 and to file IND applications for a development candidate from each program later in 2015. Because Aurigene is primarily responsible for preclinical development of all program compounds, we expect that a substantial majority of our costs in 2015 related to PD-L1 and IRAK4 will be related to option exercise fees and preclinical milestones. For each of these first two programs, we are obligated to pay Aurigene $3,000,000 upon option exercise, $3,000,000 upon acceptance of an IND, and $4,000,000 upon our dosing of the fifth patient in the related Phase 1 study.
CUDC-427. In 2012, we licensed from Genentech the exclusive, worldwide rights for the development and commercialization of CUDC-427. Under the terms of the license agreement, we have the sole right and responsibility for all research, development, manufacturing and commercialization activities related to
CUDC-427. Genentech previously conducted a Phase 1 study in patients with advanced and refractory solid tumors or lymphoma where CUDC-427 was administered at escalating once daily doses for two weeks, followed by a one week rest period in 21-day cycles until disease progression or treatment discontinuation for any other reason. In July 2013, we initiated a single-agent, Phase 1 dose escalation trial of CUDC-427 in patients with advanced and refractory solid tumors or lymphoma a using twice-daily treatment schedule with no rest period in 21-day cycles. In November 2013, we received written notification from the United States Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, that the Phase 1 trial of CUDC-427 was placed on partial clinical hold following the report of death of a patient who progressed to liver failure approximately one month following the discontinuation of CUDC-427 dosing. In February 2014, we responded to the FDA’s requests for additional information and also submitted an amendment to the trial protocol. In March 2014, the FDA completed its review of our complete response submission and determined that it was safe to proceed under the IND and lifted the partial clinical hold on the Phase 1 trial of CUDC-427. In the fourth quarter of 2014, we completed the dose escalation stage of a Curis-sponsored Phase 1 study in which consecutive cohorts of patients according to the standard 3+3 design were treated with CUDC-427 at dose levels of 100, 200 and 300 mg daily. We have established 300 mg daily dose given on a 14 days “on”, 7 days ‘off” schedule as the recommended dose and schedule for further development of CUDC-427 and we expect to enroll patients with lymphoma, including those with DLBCL or mucosa associated lymphoid tissue, or MALT, lymphoma in an expansion cohort later in 2015.
CUDC-305. We have recently regained the worldwide development and commercialization rights to Debio 0932 from Debiopharm. During the fourth quarter of 2014, Debiopharm determined that it would not advance Debio 0932 to the Phase 2 stage of the HALO, or HSP90 inhibition And Lung cancer Outcomes, study. Debiopharm determined that the results from the Phase 1 portion of the HALO study were inconclusive although safety observations were generally consistent with the previously observed side effects of Debio 0932 and/or the respective chemotherapeutic regimens administered in the trial. In February 2015, we entered into a termination and transition agreement with Debiopharm pursuant to which Debiopharm has returned to us all future development and commercialization rights to Debio 0932, which we have redesignated as CUDC-305. While we do not plan to continue to investigate CUDC-305 in non-small cell lung cancer, we are evaluating initiating clinical studies with CUDC-305 in 2015, including trials in patients with systemic mastocytosis and glioblastoma multiforme, either in company-sponsored or investigator sponsored studies.
Erivedge. Erivedge is the first and only FDA approved medicine for treatment of metastatic or locally advanced basal cell carcinoma, or BCC, and is being developed and commercialized by Roche and Genentech under a collaboration agreement between Curis and Genentech. In January 2012, the FDA approved Erivedge for treatment of adults with BCC that has spread to other parts of the body, or that has come back after surgery or that their healthcare provider decides cannot be treated with surgery or radiation, collectively considered as advanced BCC. In May 2013, Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration, or TGA, approved Erivedge and in July 2013, the European Commission granted conditional approval for the marketing of Erivedge in all 28 European Union member states. Erivedge’s approvals in the United States, Europe, Australia and several other countries are based on positive clinical data from the ERIVANCE BCC/SHH4476g trial, a pivotal Phase 2 study of Erivedge in patients with advanced BCC. Under the provisions of the conditional approval in Europe, Roche is expected to provide additional data on Erivedge in advanced BCC from the ongoing global safety study, known as STEVIE, which is an international, single-arm, open-label multicenter trial in patients with advanced forms of BCC. The STEVIE trial has completed enrollment of approximately 1,200 patients and interim analyses from the study confirmed a safety profile similar to that observed in previous studies of Erivedge in BCC patients. Roche and Genentech are also continuing Erivedge’s clinical development in less severe forms of BCC as well as its potential development in other non-oncology indications.
Product Development Programs
We are seeking to develop and commercialize innovative drug candidates to treat cancer. Our product development initiatives, described in the table below, are being pursued using our internal resources or through our collaborations.
Drug Candidate
Primary Disease
Collaborator/Licensee
Status
Dual HDAC and PI3K Inhibitor
- CUDC-907
Advanced lymphomas and multiple myeloma
Internal development/LLS
Phase 1
HER 2-/ ER+ or PR+ breast cancer and NUT midline carcinoma
Internal development
Phase 1
Aurigene Immuno-Oncology
- PD-L1 antagonist
Cancers
Aurigene
Preclinical*
Aurigene Precision Oncology
- IRAK4 Inhibitor
Hematological cancers
Aurigene
Preclinical*
Antagonist of IAP Proteins
- CUDC-427
Advanced solid tumor & lymphomas
Internal development
Phase 1
HSP90 Inhibitor
- CUDC-305
Cancers
Internal development
Regained global rights in February 2015; evaluating initiating clinical studies in 2015, including in systemic mastocytosis and glioblastoma multiforme
Hedgehog Pathway Inhibitor
- Erivedge
Advanced BCC
Genentech (Roche)
Approved in US, Australia and others and conditional approval in the EU; regulatory submissions made in certain other territories
- Erivedge
Preceding excision and/or multiple BCC
Roche
Phase 2
- Erivedge
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
Roche
Phase 2; patient enrollment currently suspended to allow for protocol amendment
* We have an option to exclusively license molecules under the terms of our agreement with Aurigene.
Since our inception in 2000, substantially all of our revenues have been derived from collaborations and other agreements with third parties. For the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, milestone and royalty payments from Genentech accounted for $9,796,000, or 100%, $14,233,000, or 95%, and $15,893,000, or 94%, respectively, of our revenue, all of which was related to the development and commercialization of Erivedge.
Our Proprietary Drug Candidates
Human cancers are driven by genetic alterations in specific genes whose products support survival, growth, invasion and evasion from immune surveillance of the cancer cells. These genetic alterations afford the cancer cell a malignant phenotype, which results in the formation and maintenance of a tumor. We are focused on development and commercialization of drug candidates that are designed to address molecular targets that are altered in human cancers or modulate systems of the human body such as certain immune cells for effective recognition and clearance of cancer cells.
CUDC-907. We are developing CUDC-907, an orally bioavailable, small molecule drug candidate designed to inhibit primarily class I and IIB HDAC enzymes and PI3K alpha, delta and beta isoforms. It is known that the PI3K pathway plays an important role in cancer cell initiation, growth, proliferation, and survival, and that the PI3 kinases are frequently activated through mutations or by receptor tyrosine kinases in many cancer types. While targeting kinase enzymes, including certain of the specific isoforms of PI3K alone has demonstrated clinical activity in certain cancers such as indolent non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, drug resistance often emerges in part due to the activation of other survival/ growth-promoting pathways within the cancer environment. Inhibitors of HDAC enzymes can affect a number of cell functions by regulating the acetylation of both histone and non-histone substrates and in preclinical models of human cancer, have been shown to synergize with kinase inhibitors to potentially address some of these resistance mechanisms. HDAC inhibitors such as romidepsin or IstodaxTM, vorinostat or ZolinzaTM, and belinostat or BeleodaqTM are approved for the treatment of certain hematologic malignancies, including cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and/ or peripheral T-cell lymphoma. One PI3K inhibitor, idelalisib or ZydeligTM is approved for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, follicular B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma and small lymphocytic lymphoma. Other selective PI3K inhibitors as well as pan-PI3K inhibitors are being studied in multiple clinical trials in patients with hematologic malignancies or solid tumors. Concurrent inhibition of HDAC and PI3K has demonstrated synergistic effect in certain preclinical cancer models in hematological and other cancers. We have shown in preclinical models that CUDC-907 is a potent inhibitor of three isoforms of PI3K enzymes: alpha, delta and beta. Additionally, we have also shown in preclinical models that by inhibiting HDAC enzymes, CUDC-907 can effectively modulate the RAF-MEK-MAPK and cause the suppression of STAT signaling pathways. In addition to its in vitro effects, CUDC-907 has shown potent antitumor activity in a variety of hematologic tumor models including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma.
In January 2013, we treated the first subject in a Phase 1 clinical trial in patients with relapsed/refractory lymphoma or multiple myeloma. The ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial is designed as a standard dose escalation study in which CUDC-907 is orally administered to patients enrolled in consecutive cohorts. The primary objectives of the trial are to determine the maximum tolerated dose, and recommended Phase 2 dose for CUDC-907 administration. The secondary objectives of this study are to assess safety and tolerability, to assess pharmacokinetics, to evaluate biomarker activity and to assess preliminary anti-cancer activity of CUDC-907 in this patient population. In the absence of dose limiting toxicity, each patient will receive CUDC-907 at the respective dose schedule for a minimum of 21 days (1 cycle), and may continue to receive additional cycles of treatment until disease progression or other treatment discontinuation criteria are met. Additionally, exploratory biomarkers will be assessed for the activity of CUDC-907.
Over 40 patients with relapsed/ refractory lymphomas or multiple myeloma have been enrolled in the dose escalation and expansion phases of this Phase 1 clinical trial of CUDC-907. To date, diarrhea and hyperglycemia have been the only dose limiting toxicities reported in the trial. Other frequent side effects include fatigue, gastrointestinal and hematologic side effects such as diarrhea and thrombocytopenia and these side effects are consistent with CUDC-907’s mechanism of action of inhibiting HDAC or PI3K activities. Although the trial is still ongoing, a preliminary evaluation of the eight heavily pre-treated patients with DLBCL enrolled in the dose escalation phase showed that three patients have experienced confirmed partial responses and one patient achieved a complete response leading to that patient undergoing an autologous stem cell transplantation procedure. Long-term stable disease has been observed within this trial, including one patient with multiple myeloma who has remained in the study for nearly two years. We expect to present data from this study at a medical conference in 2015.
In October 2014, we initiated enrollment of patients in expansion cohorts in the ongoing Phase 1 study to be treated at the recommended dose and schedule of administration. In the expansion cohorts, patients are treated with either a 120 mg dose of CUDC-907 administered three times per week, or a 60 mg dose administered on a 5 days “on”, 2 days “off” treatment schedule. Both of these doses and regimens were well tolerated with minimal dose interruptions or reductions in the dose escalation phase of the trial, and equate to approximately a 300mg dose of CUDC-907 per week of administration. The expansion phase of the trial is expected to enroll up to 12 patients in each cohort with either relapsed or refractory DLBCL or multiple myeloma. These indications were selected for the expansion cohorts based on evidence of clinical benefit in the dose escalation phase of the trial.
We anticipate that we will initiate a Phase 2, registration-directed, randomized study of CUDC-907 in patients with relapsed, refractory DLBCL during the second half of 2015 to assess the drug candidate’s efficacy in this indication.
In addition to the trial in patients with relapsed/refractory lymphomas and multiple myeloma, we are also investigating CUDC-907 in a separate Phase 1 trial in patients with advanced solid tumors including those with hormone receptor positive breast cancer or with NUT midline carcinoma. The primary objective of this study is to determine the safety and tolerability of orally-administered CUDC-907 in these disease settings. The secondary objectives are to assess the pharmacokinetics, establish the maximum tolerated dose/biologically effective dose, recommended Phase 2 dose, evaluate biomarkers of activity and identify any preliminary anti-cancer activity of CUDC-907.
We are party to an agreement with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, or LLS, pursuant to which LLS will, upon achievement of specified milestones, provide up to $4,000,000 in payments to support our ongoing development of CUDC-907. Through December 31, 2014, we have earned an aggregate of $1,650,000 in milestone payments under the terms of the agreement with LLS. We will be obligated to make contingent payments in the future, including potential royalty payments, upon our successful entry into a partnering agreement for CUDC-907 or upon the achievement of regulatory and commercial objectives, with such future payments capped at 2.5 times the milestone payments that we receive from LLS under this agreement. If clinical development of CUDC-907 does not continue to meet its clinical safety endpoints in future clinical trials in the defined field or fails to obtain necessary regulatory approvals, all funding provided by LLS will be considered a non-repayable grant.
The agreement with LLS will remain in effect until the completion of the defined milestones, unless the agreement earlier terminates or expires in accordance with its terms, including termination due to safety issues related to the administration of CUDC-907, failure to obtain or maintain regulatory approvals for clinical trials, and breach by either party.
CUDC-427. In 2012, we licensed from Genentech the exclusive, worldwide rights for the development and commercialization of CUDC-427, an oral, small molecule Smac mimetic that is designed to promote cancer cell death by antagonizing IAP proteins. IAP proteins are a family of functionally and structurally related proteins that promote cancer cell survival by inhibiting programmed cell death, also known as apoptosis, which is a normal process inherent in every cell. Using IAP proteins and other anti-apoptotic factors, cancer cells evade apoptosis in response to a variety of signals, including those provided by anti-cancer agents such as chemotherapy, or naturally occurring inflammatory and immune signals transmitted through members of tumor necrosis factor, or TNF, family of factors. Evasion from apoptosis is a fundamental mechanism whereby human cancers develop resistance to standard anti-cancer treatments. IAP inhibitors such as CUDC-427 are designed to counteract the effects of IAP proteins, thus shifting the balance away from cancer cell survival and allowing apoptosis to proceed.
Under the terms of the license agreement, we have the sole right and responsibility for all research, development, manufacturing and commercialization activities related to CUDC-427. Genentech will be entitled to receive milestone payments upon the first commercial sale of CUDC-427 in certain territories and a tiered single digit royalty on net sales of CUDC-427, if any. The license agreement will continue to be in effect until expiration of all royalty payment obligations with respect to any product, unless terminated early by either party as described below. Upon expiration of the agreement, the Company’s license will become royalty-free, fully paid-up, irrevocable and perpetual.
Prior to our licensing agreement, Genentech had completed enrollment in a Phase 1 clinical trial of CUDC-427 (previously GDC-0917), in which 42 patients with refractory solid tumors or lymphoma received daily oral doses of CUDC-427 for two weeks, followed by a one week rest period in 21-day cycles until disease progression or treatment discontinuation for any other reason. In this study, patients were enrolled across 11 dose cohorts and received CUDC-427 monotherapy at doses ranging from 5 mg to 600 mg daily. Unconfirmed complete responses were reported in two patients, including one patient with ovarian cancer and another with mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue, or MALT, lymphoma. Additionally, one patient experienced a mixed
response and four patients (one patient each with breast cancer, sarcoma, small cell lung cancer and Kaposi’s sarcoma) had stable disease lasting at least three months, including one patient who continued to receive CUDC-427 for more than 10 months. The maximum tolerated dose of CUDC-427 was not determined in this study, although plasma concentrations in the order of pre-clinically predicted ED90 were reached. ED90 refers to the dose that leads to 90% of the maximal response. Three deaths were reported on that study, none of which was considered related to the study drug: two patients died due to progression of breast cancer and one patient died due to pneumonia. Adverse events, or AEs, that resulted in treatment discontinuation were Grade 3 fatigue (one patient), Grade 2 QTc prolongation (one patient), Grade 2 drug hypersensitivity (one patient), Grade 2 pneumonitis (one patient), and Grade 3 pruritus/Grade 2 rash (one patient). Other treatment related AEs that were equal to or greater than Grade 3 in severity in more than one patient were elevated levels of liver enzymes (two patients at 450 and 600 mg dose levels). Biomarker analyses of tumor samples (obtained from two patients) and peripheral blood cells (obtained from all patients) showed changes that were consistent with CUDC-427’s mechanism of action.
During the third quarter of 2013, the first patient was treated in our open-label, multicenter Phase 1 trial of CUDC-427 in patients with relapsed/refractory solid tumors or lymphoma. The trial was originally designed to determine the maximum tolerated dose and the recommended Phase 2 dose of CUDC-427 administered as a single agent using a continuous, twice-daily treatment schedule in 21-day cycles. Upon determination of the recommended dose, the trial was designed to enroll up to an additional 12 patients in the expansion cohort of a particular cancer type. The secondary objectives of the study were to assess CUDC-427’s safety and tolerability, pharmacokinetics, exploratory biomarkers of activity and preliminary anti-cancer activity. In November 2013, the FDA placed this Phase 1 trial on partial clinical hold following the death of a patient who progressed to liver failure approximately one month following the discontinuation of CUDC-427 dosing. In February 2014, we responded to the FDA’s requests for additional information and also submitted an amendment to the trial protocol. In March 2014, the FDA completed its review of our complete response submission and determined that it was safe to proceed under the IND and lifted the partial clinical hold on the single agent Phase 1 trial for CUDC-427 in patients with advanced relapsed/refractory solid tumors or lymphoma.
We re-initiated patient treatment in the Phase 1 trial under an amended protocol in June 2014. Under the amended protocol, the trial is designed to determine the safety and recommended Phase 2 dose of CUDC-427 administered once daily on a 14 days “on”, 7 days “off” schedule in 21-day cycles in patients with advanced and/or refractory solid tumors or lymphoma. The secondary objectives of the study are to assess CUDC-427’s tolerability, pharmacokinetics, exploratory biomarkers of activity and preliminary anti-cancer activity. Patients have been enrolled in the dose escalation portion of this study in consecutive cohorts according to the standard 3+3 design at dose levels of 100, 200 and 300 mg daily. Enrollment in the dose escalation portion of this study is now complete and the recommended Phase 2 dose has been determined as 300 mg daily given on a 14 days “on”, 7 days “off” schedule. Thus far, no significant side effects or new safety issues have been identified in the study subsequent to re-initiation. We expect to initiate an expansion phase of the study later in 2015 that will enroll patients with lymphomas, including patients with DLBCL and mucosa associated lymphoid tissue, or MALT lymphoma.
Both Curis and Genentech may terminate the license agreement prior to expiration in the event of the uncured material breach of the agreement by the other party. In addition, we may terminate the license agreement prior to expiration for any reason upon 90 days’ prior written notice to Genentech. Upon any termination of the license agreement, the license granted to us will terminate and revert to Genentech. If Genentech terminates the license agreement for an uncured material breach by us, or if we terminate the agreement for any reason other than uncured material breach by Genentech, Genentech will be entitled to certain licenses and other rights with respect to products existing as of the date of termination, and we may, under specified circumstances, be obligated to supply products to Genentech for a limited period after termination.
CUDC-305. CUDC-305 is an oral HSP90 inhibitor that was discovered by us and previously licensed to Debiopharm, which was developing it in advanced lung cancer as Debio 0932. HSP90 is a member of a class of proteins called molecular chaperones that play a fundamental role in the proper folding,
stabilization and degradation of other cellular proteins under normal or stressful conditions. HSP90, in particular, has become an attractive therapeutic target for the treatment of cancer because it stabilizes cellular proteins involved in various aspects of cancer cell growth and survival.
In August 2009, we granted a worldwide, exclusive royalty-bearing license to develop, manufacture, market and sell our HSP90 inhibitor technology, including Debio 0932, to Debiopharm. Debiopharm completed Phase 1 testing of this drug candidate and in August 2012, Debiopharm initiated the HALO, or HSP90 inhibition And Lung cancer Outcomes, Phase 1/2 clinical trial of Debio 0932 in combination with various chemotherapy regimens in patients with stage IIIb or IV non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, without known epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR, mutations. The primary objective of this trial was to analyze the effect of adding Debio 0932 to combination chemotherapy with cisplatin/pemetrexed or cisplatin/ gemcitabine on the rate of progression-free survival at six months in first-line therapy of patients in this trial population. Debiopharm reviewed data from the Phase 1 portion of the HALO study and determined that the results from the Phase 1 portion of the HALO study were inconclusive although safety observations were generally consistent with the previously observed side effects of Debio 0932 and/or the respective chemotherapeutic regimens administered in the trial.
In February 2015, we entered into a termination and transition agreement, which we refer to as the transition agreement, with Debiopharm to terminate our August 2009 license agreement, effective February 5, 2015. We have redesignated the molecule CUDC-305. While we do not plan to continue to investigate CUDC-305 in non-small cell lung cancer, we are evaluating initiating clinical studies with CUDC-305 in 2015 and are exploring the potential to test the molecule in other indications, including in systemic mastocytosis and glioblastoma multiforme, either in company-sponsored or investigator sponsored studies.
Under the terms of the transition agreement, the licenses and all other rights granted by us related to CUDC-305 have been terminated and reverted to Curis effective as of the termination date. Debiopharm ceased enrollment in all clinical trials as of the termination date. In addition, we exercised our right, pursuant to the license agreement, to obtain a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing license, with the right to sublicense, under other intellectual property rights of Debiopharm to develop, make, have made, use, sell, offer for sale, have sold and import CUDC-305, and Debiopharm will transfer to us the U.S. investigational new drug application related to CUDC-305. Debiopharm also assigned its sole patent application related to CUDC-305 to us.
Under the terms of the transition agreement, Debiopharm will transition ongoing CUDC-305 development and manufacturing activities to us and will make available all necessary information generated by or on behalf of Debiopharm to pursue the manufacturing of CUDC-305.
We paid $750,000 to Debiopharm shortly after the termination date, primarily in consideration for Debiopharm providing drug product for use in our future clinical studies. In addition, we have agreed to make each of the following contingent one-time payments to Debiopharm: (i) $3,000,000 within 30 days after the first dosing of the first patient in the first Phase 3 clinical trial of CUDC-305; and (ii) $10,000,000 within 30 days after receipt of the first marketing approval for CUDC-305 in the U.S. or any specified major European market (whichever occurs first). We have also agreed to pay to Debiopharm royalties at a rate of 3% of net sales by us (excluding sales by our third party sublicensees) of products containing CUDC-305 and to pay Debiopharm the following percentages of amounts that we receive from third party sublicensees: (i) 10% of any royalties that we receive from third party sublicensees based on such sublicensees’ net sales of products containing CUDC-305; and (ii)15% of any non-royalty sublicense payments that we receive from third party sublicensees, provided that the maximum aggregate amount payable by us to Debiopharm with respect to non-royalty sublicense payments is $20,000,000, unless such sublicense payments are attributable to our grant to a third party sublicensee of a license or sublicense to develop or commercialize a topical formulation of CUDC-305 for local, non-systemic delivery for the treatment of psoriasis, in which case there is no such maximum aggregate.
Our Collaborations
Aurigene Agreement
Collaboration Overview. In January 2015, we entered into a collaboration agreement with Aurigene for the discovery, development and commercialization of small molecule compounds in the areas of immuno-oncology and precision oncology. Under the collaboration agreement, Aurigene granted us an option to obtain exclusive, royalty-bearing licenses under relevant Aurigene technology to develop, manufacture and commercialize products containing certain of such compounds.
The lead compounds under our collaboration agreement are directed at developing orally available small molecules that will target the modulation of the PD-L1 pathway and IRAK4 kinase, respectively.
As part of the immuno-oncology collaboration, Aurigene is developing oral small molecule antagonists of PD-L1, a molecule expressed on the surface of tumor cells that is involved in inhibiting the T cells from generating an anti-tumor response. Certain tumors express PD-L1, a cell surface molecule that binds to PD-1, a receptor on the surface of T cells that inhibits the T cells infiltrating the tumor microenvironment. It has been previously shown that modulation of the PD-1 mediated inhibitory signaling in T cells by either anti-PD-1 antibodies or anti-PD-L1 antibodies can lead to activation of T-cells that mediate anti-tumor effects in the tumor tissues. Preliminary data generated by Aurigene demonstrate that in in vitro studies, such small molecule PD-L1 antagonists can induce effective T cell proliferation and IFN-
(Interferon-gamma) production (a cytokine that is produced by activated T cells and is a marker of T cell activation) by T cells that are specifically suppressed by PD-L1 in culture. In addition, such small molecules also appear to have efficacy similar to anti-PD1 antibodies in some in vivo tumor models, including IFN-
production and inhibition of tumor growth. The left panel in the chart below shows amount of IFN-
in the blood after treatment with increasing doses of PD-L1 antagonist in a syngeneic colon cancer model in mice. The effect on IFN-
production is similar to J43, a known anti-mouse PD1 antibody with anti-tumor activity. The right panel shows the anti-tumor effects, as measured by decrease in tumor volume, in a colon cancer model in mice after treatment with an oral antagonist of PD-L1 (to the far right) as compared to treatment with vehicle alone (control, to the far left). The anti-tumor effect of the oral PD-L1 antagonist is similar to that seen with a known anti-PD1 antibody (in the middle) in this mouse model.
For the modulation of IRAK4 pathway, Aurigene is developing specific inhibitors to IRAK4 kinase and has generated preliminary in vivo and in vitro data with certain lead molecules in development. Some of the properties of the compounds in development include oral bioavailability, half maximal inhibitory concentrations or IC50 in the nanomolar range in biochemical assays, selectivity to IRAK4 in a wide panel of kinase inhibitory assays as well as modulation of phosphorylation of IRAK1, an enzyme that is phosphorylated by IRAK4 in the pathway. The left panel below shows the percent inhibition of phosphorylation of IRAK1 with increasing concentrations of an IRAK4 inhibitor in a cell based assay. In addition, such compounds also appear to have anti-tumor activity in in vivo DLBCL tumor models with activating mutations in MYD88, a key adaptor protein
directly upstream of IRAK4 in the IRAK signaling pathway. As an example, the right panel below shows reduction in tumor size after treatment with two different doses of an IRAK4 inhibitor (versus treatment with vehicle/ control alone) in a DLBCL mouse model with MYD88 mutations. The anti-tumor activity of the IRAK inhibitor in this model is similar to ibrutinib or ImbruvicaTM, a BTK inhibitor approved for Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Sustained signaling through the MYD88-IRAK pathway mediated by activating mutations in MYD88 is necessary for the pathogenesis and survival of tumor cells in cancers such as Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia and in a subset of Activated B cell or ABC type of DLBCL (ABC-DLBCL). Hence, suppression of IRAK signaling using inhibitors of IRAK4 appears to be a promising therapeutic approach for the treatment of such malignancies.
We anticipate that at least two additional programs will be selected within two years of the effective date of the Collaboration Agreement, and our goal is to have the collaboration’s steering committee recommend as many additional programs as feasible, in order for Aurigene to initiate or continue the relevant preclinical activities for each.
For each program, Aurigene has granted us an exclusive option, exercisable within 90 days after Aurigene delivers the relevant data regarding a development candidate, to obtain an exclusive, royalty-bearing license to develop, manufacture and commercialize compounds from such program, including the development candidate and products containing such compounds, anywhere in the world with the exception of India and Russia. Upon exercise of the option for a particular program, Aurigene will grant us the royalty-bearing license described above for such program, and we will grant Aurigene an exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid license under our relevant technology to develop, manufacture and commercialize compounds from such program and products containing such compounds in India and Russia.
For each program with respect to which we exercise the option to license (as described above), we are obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop, obtain regulatory approval for, and commercialize at least one product in each of the U.S., specified countries in the European Union, and Japan, and Aurigene is obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to perform its obligations under the development plan for such licensed program in an expeditious manner.
Subject to specified exceptions, Aurigene and we have agreed to work exclusively with each other on the discovery, research, development and commercialization of programs and compounds within immuno-oncology for approximately two years from the effective date of the collaboration agreement. At our option, and subject to specified conditions, we may extend such exclusivity for up to three additional one year periods by paying to Aurigene exclusivity option fees on an annual basis.
In addition, beyond the up-to five years of exclusivity described above, and subject to specified exceptions, Aurigene and we have agreed to work exclusively with each other on each program for which there are ongoing activities in research or development, or for which we have exercised our option to exclusively license (as described above) and we or our affiliates or sublicensees are actively developing or commercializing a compound
or product from such program in a major market, subject to our payment of an annual exclusivity fee on a program-by-program basis.
For each product that may be commercialized, we have granted Aurigene the right, subject to certain conditions, to nominate one global supplier of drug substance or drug product to provide up to 50% of the total requirements in our territory.
Up-front Equity Issuance. In connection with the collaboration agreement, we issued to Aurigene 17,120,131 shares of our common stock in partial consideration for the rights granted to us under the collaboration agreement. The shares were issued pursuant to a stock purchase agreement with Aurigene dated January 18, 2015.
Research Payments, Option Exercise Fees and Milestone Payments. We have agreed to make the following research, option exercise fees and milestone payments to Aurigene:
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for the first two programs: up to $52.5 million per program, including up to $10 million for an option exercise fee, a preclinical milestone and development milestones, as well as specified approval and commercial milestones, plus specified additional payments for approvals for additional indications, if any;
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for the third and fourth programs: up to $50 million per program, including up to $7.5 million for research fees, an option exercise fee, a preclinical milestone and development milestones, as well as specified approval and commercial milestones, plus specified additional payments for approvals for additional indications, if any; and
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for any program thereafter: up to $140.5 million per program, including up to a total of $53 million for research fees, an option exercise fee, a preclinical milestone and development milestones, as well as specified filing, approval and commercial milestones, plus specified additional payments for approvals for additional indications, if any.
Royalties on Net Sales by Curis. We have agreed to pay Aurigene tiered royalties on our and our affiliates’ annual net sales of products at percentage rates ranging from the high single digits up to 10%, subject to specified reductions.
Amounts that we Receive from Sublicensees. We have agreed to make the following payments to Aurigene upon our entry into sublicense agreements on any program(s):
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with respect to amounts that we and our affiliates receive from sublicensees with respect to the grant of a sublicense of a licensed program in the U.S. or the European Union, a declining percentage of non-royalty sublicense revenues that is dependent on the stage of the most advanced product for such licensed program at the time the sublicense is granted, including for example 25% of such amounts following our initiation of Phase 2 clinical study and 15% of such amounts after initiation of the first pivotal study. This sharing will also extend to royalties that we receive from sublicensees, subject to minimum royalty percentage rates that we are obligated to pay to Aurigene, which generally range from mid-to-high single-digit royalty percentage rates up to 10%;
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with respect to sublicensing revenues we and our affiliates receive from sublicensees with respect to the grant of a sublicense of a licensed program in Asia, 50% of such sublicensing revenues, including both non-royalty sublicensee revenues and royalties that we receive from sublicensees; and
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with respect to non-royalty sublicensing revenues we and our affiliates receive from sublicensees with respect to the grant of a sublicense of a licensed program outside of the U.S., the European Union and Asia, a percentage of such non-royalty sublicense revenues ranging from 30% to 50%. We are also obligated to share 50% of royalties that we receive from sublicensees that we receive in these territories.
Our royalty payment obligations (including with respect to royalties on sales by sublicensees) under the Collaboration Agreement with respect to a product in a country will expire on a product-by-product and country-by-country basis on the later of (i) expiration of the last-to-expire valid claim of the Aurigene patents covering the manufacture, use or sale of such product in such country and (ii) 10 years from the first commercial sale of such product in such country.
Term and Termination. The term of the collaboration agreement begins upon signing and, unless earlier terminated, will expire upon either: (i) 90 days after the completion by Aurigene of its obligations under all research plans if we have not exercised the option with respect to at least one program by such time; or (ii) expiration of the last-to-expire royalty term for any and all products. Upon expiration (but not on earlier termination) of the collaboration agreement, all licenses granted by Aurigene to us that were in effect immediately prior to such expiration shall survive on a non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid, irrevocable, perpetual basis.
The collaboration agreement may be terminated, either in its entirety or with respect to a particular program, by either Aurigene or us for uncured material breach by the other party, other than an uncured material breach by the other party of its diligence obligations with respect to a program or licensed program. If an uncured material breach other than a diligence breach relates to a particular program or licensed program, the non-breaching party may terminate the collaboration agreement only with respect to that program or licensed program. However, after initiation of the first pivotal clinical trial of a product for a licensed program, Aurigene may not terminate the collaboration agreement with respect to such licensed program for an uncured non diligence breach by us, except in the case of our uncured material breach of our payment obligations with respect to such licensed program, but Aurigene may pursue any and all remedies that may be available to it at law or in equity as a result of such breach. Similarly, after initiation of the first pivotal clinical trial of a product for a licensed program, we may not terminate the collaboration agreement with respect to the license we have granted Aurigene for the its territory or India and Russia for such licensed program for an uncured non diligence breach by Aurigene, but we may pursue any and all remedies that may be available to us at law or in equity as a result of such breach.
On a program-by-program basis, we may terminate the collaboration agreement as it relates to a program or licensed program for an uncured diligence breach by Aurigene with respect to such program or licensed program, and Aurigene may terminate the collaboration agreement as it relates to a licensed program for an uncured Diligence Breach by us with respect to such licensed program.
In addition, we may terminate the collaboration agreement in its entirety or as it relates to a particular program or licensed program or on a country-by-country basis, for any reason or for no reason at any time upon 60 days’ prior written notice to Aurigene.
In the event of termination of the collaboration agreement in its entirety before we have exercised the option for any program, or termination of the collaboration agreement as it relates to any program prior to exercise of the option for such program, all rights and licenses granted by either Aurigene or us to the other party with respect to such program under the collaboration agreement (including the option for such program) will automatically terminate.
If the royalty term with respect to a product for any licensed program in any country has expired on or before any termination of the collaboration agreement in its entirety or as to such licensed program, the license granted by Aurigene to us with respect to such product in such country, as well as the corresponding license granted to Aurigene in its territory, shall survive such termination of the Collaboration Agreement.
Solely in the event of termination of the collaboration agreement by Aurigene for our uncured breach, or our termination of the collaboration agreement for convenience, the following will apply to any program that was a licensed program immediately prior to such termination:
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our license with respect to any licensed program that is not a terminated program (defined below), either in our entire territory or in countries within our territory outside of the terminated region (defined
below), as applicable, shall continue in full force and effect, subject to all terms and conditions of the collaboration agreement, including our payment obligations;
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our license with respect to any terminated program, either in our entire territory or in the terminated region, as applicable, shall terminate and revert to Aurigene;
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we will grant Aurigene a perpetual, royalty-free (except for pass-through royalties and milestone payments payable by us under licenses to third party patent rights with respect to products developed or commercialized by or on behalf of Aurigene) license, with the right to sublicense, under our relevant patent rights and other technology solely to develop, manufacture and commercialize compounds and products for any terminated program, either in our entire territory or in the terminated region, as applicable. The foregoing license will be non-exclusive with respect to our patent rights and exclusive with respect to our other technology;
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we will grant to Aurigene a right of first negotiation, exercisable within 90 days after termination, to obtain an exclusive, royalty-bearing license, with the right to sublicense, under our relevant patent rights solely to develop, manufacture and commercialize compounds and products for any terminated program, either in our entire territory or in the terminated region, as applicable, upon commercially reasonable terms and conditions to be negotiated in good faith by the parties;
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we will perform other specified activities and actions reasonably necessary for Aurigene to develop, manufacture and commercialize compounds and products for any terminated program, either in our entire territory or in the terminated region, as applicable; and
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the applicable license to Aurigene will survive termination.
For purposes of the foregoing, “terminated program” means: (i) in the case of termination of the collaboration agreement in its entirety by Aurigene for our uncured non diligence breach, any program that was a licensed program immediately prior to such termination, but excluding, except in the case of our uncured material breach of our payment obligations with respect to such licensed program, any such licensed program for which initiation of the first pivotal clinical trial of a product has occurred prior to such termination; (ii) in the case of any termination of the collaboration agreement as to a particular licensed program by Aurigene either for our uncured non diligence breach (to the extent termination as to such licensed program is permitted) or our uncured diligence breach, such licensed program; (iii) in the case of our termination of the collaboration agreement in its entirety for convenience, any program that was a licensed program immediately prior to such termination; or (iv) in the case of our termination of the collaboration agreement as to a particular licensed program for convenience, such licensed program; provided, however, that, in the case of the preceding clauses (iii) and (iv), if our termination of the collaboration agreement in its entirety or as to a particular licensed program for convenience was with respect only to a particular country or subset of countries within the entire territory (as applicable, a “terminated region”), the applicable licensed program(s) shall be considered “terminated program(s)” only in the terminated region but shall remain licensed program(s) in the rest of our territory.
Genentech Hedgehog Pathway Collaboration Agreement
The Hedgehog pathway is normally active during embryonic development and regulates tissue and organ formation by directly promoting cell division in specific cell types, and by activating other secondary signaling pathways that control the synthesis of growth promoting and angiogenic (blood vessel-forming) factors. Unregulated activation of the Hedgehog pathway is believed to play a central role in allowing the proliferation and survival of cancer cells and leading to formation and maintenance of certain cancers, including BCC and medulloblastoma as well as colorectal, ovarian, pancreatic, small cell lung and breast cancers, among others.
Erivedge, which is also referred to as vismodegib, GDC-0449 and RG3616, is an orally bioavailable small molecule which is designed to selectively inhibit the Hedgehog signaling pathway by targeting a protein called
Smoothened. In January 2012, Erivedge was approved by the FDA as the first and only FDA-approved medicine for adults with advanced forms of BCC. Genetic mutations that lead to unregulated activation of Hedgehog signaling are found in BCC and medulloblastoma. Aberrant signaling in the Hedgehog pathway is implicated in over 90% of BCC cases. Many other cancers have abnormal Hedgehog signaling that is not linked to Hedgehog pathway mutations.
Erivedge is FDA-approved for adults with advanced forms of BCC and is being developed in various cancer indications under a collaboration agreement with Genentech. Genentech and Roche are responsible for the clinical development and commercialization of Erivedge and it is currently marketed and sold in the U.S. Erivedge is also approved for use in the European Union, Australia and several other countries, and Roche has begun selling Erivedge in several territories outside of the U.S. It is also under regulatory review in multiple other territories worldwide.
Roche has indicated that it expects to re-initiate a Phase 2 study of Erivedge in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and Erivedge is also currently being tested in clinical trials for the treatment of other cancers under collaborative agreements between Genentech and either third-party investigators or the U.S. National Cancer Institute, or NCI.
Pursuant to the terms of our collaboration agreement, we are entitled to receive royalties on net sales of Erivedge that range from 5% to 7.5% based on worldwide annual net sales ranging from less than $150 million to $600 million. The royalty rate applicable to Erivedge may be decreased by 2% (such that the applicable royalty rate will range between 3% to 5.5%) in certain specified circumstances, including when a competing product that binds to the same molecular target as Erivedge is approved by the applicable regulatory authority and is being sold in such country by a third party for use in the same indication as Erivedge or when there is no issued intellectual property covering Erivedge in a territory in which sales are recorded. We are aware of one competing Hedgehog pathway inhibitor that is currently the subject of applications for marketing approval in the United States and European Union. We cannot predict whether or when this competing drug candidate will be approved, although we believe that such review process typically takes up to one year or more, subject to extension. If this molecule is approved and commercialized, the royalty rate for sales in the applicable territory would decline and would likely increase our estimated repayment period of the loan made by BioPharma Secured Debt Fund II Sub, S.à r.l., or BioPharma-II.
In November 2012, in connection with a $30,000,000 loan made by BioPharma-II, a Luxembourg limited liability company managed by Pharmakon Advisors, to our subsidiary Curis Royalty, LLC, or Curis Royalty, we transferred to Curis Royalty our rights to receive (i) royalty payments on the commercial sales of Erivedge owed by Genentech under our collaboration agreement, (ii) certain other royalty-related payments, if any, including amounts owed by Genentech with respect to the underpayment of royalties and accrued interest on payments which are not timely made by Genentech pursuant to the collaboration agreement and (iii) any payments made by Genentech to Curis pursuant to Genentech’s indemnification obligations under the collaboration agreement.
The loan from BioPharma-II, which bears interest at an annual rate of 12.25% will be repaid by Curis Royalty from the proceeds of the royalty and royalty-related payments that it receives from time to time from Genentech. Quarterly royalty and royalty-related payments from Genentech will first be applied to pay (i) escrow fees payable by Curis pursuant to an escrow agreement between Curis, Curis Royalty, BioPharma-II and Boston Private Bank and Trust Company, (ii) Curis’ royalty obligations to university licensors, as described below, (iii) certain expenses incurred by BioPharma-II in connection with the credit agreement and related transaction documents, including enforcement of its rights in the case of an event of default under the credit agreement and (iv) expenses incurred by Curis enforcing its right to indemnification under the collaboration agreement with Genentech. Remaining amounts, subject to caps of $3,000,000 per quarter in 2015, will be applied first, to pay interest and second, principal on the loan. Curis Royalty will be entitled to receive and distribute to Curis remaining royalty and royalty-related amounts in excess of the foregoing caps, if any. In 2016, there are no caps to the amounts Curis Royalty will be required to pay to BioPharma-II. In addition, if Erivedge royalties are
insufficient to pay the accrued interest on the outstanding loan, the unpaid interest outstanding will be added to the principal on a quarterly basis. As a result, we will continue to record royalty revenue from Genentech but expect the majority, if not all, of such revenues, subject to the above caps, will be used to pay down the loan received from BioPharma-II until it is repaid in full. As of December 31, 2014, the balance of principal plus accrued interest on the loan to Curis Royalty, gross of issuance costs, was $28,699,000. We currently estimate that the loan will be fully repaid in 2017. However, the actual repayment period could vary materially from our estimate to the extent that royalty payments we receive are lower than our current estimates, which could arise due to factors beyond our control, such as due to competitive factors, decreased market acceptance, a failure by Genentech and/or Roche to successfully commercialize Erivedge in territories where it has received regulatory approval, and other factors described under “Part I, Item 1A
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described below before buying our common stock. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows could be materially adversely affected, the trading price of our common stock could decline materially and you could lose all or part of your investment.
RISKS RELATING TO OUR FINANCIAL RESULTS AND NEED FOR FINANCING
We have incurred substantial losses, expect to continue to incur substantial losses for the foreseeable future and may never generate significant revenue or achieve profitability.
We have incurred significant losses since our inception. As of December 31, 2014, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $779,555,000. We will require substantial funds to continue our research and development programs and to fulfill our planned operating goals. In particular, our currently planned operating and capital requirements include the need for working capital to support our current and planned research and development activities for CUDC-907, CUDC-427, CUDC-305, to fund programs we may license and develop under our collaboration with Aurigene, which we expect will require substantial additional capital, and to fund our general and administrative costs and expenses. For example, for each of the first two programs under this collaboration, we expect to exercise options to obtain exclusive licenses to these two programs in the first half of 2015 and to file IND applications for a development candidate from each program later in 2015. We are obligated to pay Aurigene $3,000,000 upon option exercise, $3,000,000 upon acceptance of an IND, and $4,000,000 upon our dosing of the fifth patient in the related Phase 1 study for each of the first two programs under our collaboration with Aurigene.
We have historically derived a substantial portion of our operating cash flow from the research funding portion of collaboration agreements with third parties. However, we have no current research funding revenue under these agreements. Our ability to generate cash flow to operate our business will depend, in part, on royalty payments from the commercial sale of Erivedge (subject to Curis Royalty’s obligation to remit certain royalties to BioPharma-II). We expect that our only source of cash flows from operations for the foreseeable future will be:
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up-front license payments and research and development funding that we may receive if we are able to successfully enter into new collaboration agreements;
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contingent cash payments that we may receive for the achievement of development objectives under any new collaborations or our existing collaborations with Genentech and LLS; and
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royalty payments that are contingent upon the successful commercialization of products based upon these collaborations, including royalties on sales of Erivedge in advanced BCC by Genentech, subject to Curis Royalty’s obligation to remit certain royalties to BioPharma-II.
The royalty rate applicable to Erivedge may be decreased in certain specified circumstances, including when a competing product that binds to the same molecular target as Erivedge is approved by the applicable regulatory authority and is being sold in such country by a third party for use in the same indication as Erivedge or when there is no issued intellectual property covering Erivedge in a territory in which sales are recorded. We are aware of one competing Hedgehog pathway inhibitor that is currently the subject of applications for marketing approval in the United States and European Union. We cannot predict whether or when this competing drug candidate will be approved, although we believe that such review process typically takes up to one year or more, subject to extension. If this molecule is approved and commercialized, the royalty rate for sales in the applicable territory would decline and would likely increase our estimated repayment period of the loan made by BioPharma-II.
We may not be able to successfully enter into or continue any corporate collaborations and the timing, amount and likelihood of us receiving payments under such collaborations is highly uncertain. In addition, for the foreseeable future, we will only receive royalties under our collaboration agreement with Genentech to the extent net sales are generated at a level sufficient to derive royalties in excess of Curis Royalty’s obligation to remit such royalties to BioPharma-II in repayment of the loan. We currently estimate that all royalties that we receive from Genentech will be remitted to BioPharma-II until the loan is fully repaid.
To become and remain profitable, we, either alone or with collaborators, must develop and eventually commercialize one or more drug candidates with significant market potential. This will require us to be successful in a range of challenging activities, including completing preclinical testing and clinical trials of our drug candidates, obtaining marketing approval for these drug candidates, manufacturing, marketing and selling those drugs for which we may obtain marketing approval and satisfying any post-marketing requirements. We may never succeed in these activities and, even if we do, may never generate revenues that are significant or large enough to achieve profitability. Other than Erivedge, which is being commercialized by Genentech and Roche, our most advanced drug candidates are currently only in early clinical testing.
For the foreseeable future, we will need to spend significant capital in an effort to develop and commercialize products and we expect to incur substantial operating losses. Our failure to become and remain profitable would, among other things, depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business, diversify our research and development programs or continue our operations.
We will require substantial additional capital, which may be difficult to obtain.
We will require substantial funds to continue our research and development programs and to fulfill our planned operating goals. In particular, our currently planned operating and capital requirements include the need for substantial working capital to support our research and development activities for CUDC-907, CUDC-427, CUDC-305 and other drug candidates that we may seek to develop in the future and to fund our general and administrative costs and expenses. Moreover, under the collaboration, license and option agreement with Aurigene, we are required to make milestone, royalty and option fee payments for discovery, research and preclinical development programs that will be performed by Aurigene, which will impose significant potential financial obligations on us. For example, for each of the first two programs under this collaboration, we expect to exercise options to obtain exclusive licenses to these two programs in the first half of 2015 and to file IND applications for a development candidate from each program later in 2015. We are obligated to pay Aurigene $3,000,000 upon option exercise, $3,000,000 upon acceptance of an IND, and $4,000,000 upon our dosing of the fifth patient in the related Phase I study for each of the first two programs under this collaboration. We expect our expenses to substantially increase in connection with these ongoing activities. Accordingly, we will need to obtain substantial additional funding in connection with our continuing operations. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on attractive terms, we would be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our research and development programs or future commercialization efforts.
We anticipate that existing cash, cash equivalents, investments and working capital at December 31, 2014 should enable us to maintain current and planned operations into 2016. Our future capital requirements, however, may vary from what we currently expect. There are a number of factors that may affect our planned future capital requirements and accelerate our need for additional working capital, many of which are outside our control, including the following:
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unanticipated costs in our research and development programs;
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the timing and cost of obtaining regulatory approvals for our drug candidates and maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements;
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the timing, receipt and amount of payments, if any, from current and potential future collaborators;
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the timing and amount of option exercise fees, milestone payments, royalties and other payments due to licensors, including Aurigene, for patent rights and technology used in our drug development programs;
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the costs of commercialization activities for any of our product candidates that receive marketing approval, to the extent such costs are not the responsibility of one of our collaborators, including the costs and timing of establishing product sales, marketing, distribution and manufacturing capabilities;
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unplanned costs to prepare, file, prosecute, defend and enforce patent claims and other patent-related costs, including litigation costs and technology license fees; and
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unexpected losses in our cash investments or an inability to otherwise liquidate our cash investments due to unfavorable conditions in the capital markets.
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or drug candidates.
We may seek additional funding through public or private financings of debt or equity. The market for emerging life science stocks in general, and the market for our common stock in particular, are highly volatile. Due to this and various other factors, including potentially adverse general market conditions and the early-stage development status of a majority of our drug candidates and the early stage of the commercial U.S. launch of Erivedge, additional funding may not be available to us on acceptable terms, if at all. In addition, the terms of any potential financing may be dilutive or otherwise adversely affect other rights of our stockholders.
We also expect to seek additional funds through arrangements with collaborators, licensees or other third parties. These arrangements would generally require us to relinquish or encumber rights to some of our technologies or drug candidates, and we may not be able to enter into such arrangements on acceptable terms, if at all.
We anticipate that we will require additional funding. If we are unable to obtain such additional funding on a timely basis, whether through payments under existing or future collaborations or license agreement or sales of debt or equity, we may be required to:
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delay, limit, reduce or terminate preclinical studies, clinical trials or other development activities for one or more of our drug candidates; or
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delay, limit, reduce or prevent us from establishing sales and marketing capabilities, either internally or through third parties, or other activities that may be necessary to commercialize our drug candidates.
We transferred and encumbered certain royalty and royalty-related payments on the commercial sales of Erivedge in connection with our credit agreement with BioPharma-II and, as a result, we could lose all rights to future royalty and royalty-related payments.
In December 2012, our wholly-owned subsidiary, Curis Royalty, received a $30,000,000 loan pursuant to a credit agreement with BioPharma-II. In connection with the loan, we transferred to Curis Royalty our right to receive certain future royalty and royalty-related payments on the commercial sales of Erivedge that we receive from Genentech. The loan and accrued interest will be repaid by Curis Royalty using such royalty and royalty-related payments. To secure repayment of the loan, Curis Royalty granted a first priority lien and security interest (subject only to permitted liens) to BioPharma-II in all of its assets and all real, intangible and personal property, including all of its right, title and interest in and to the royalty and royalty-related payments. The loan constitutes an obligation of Curis Royalty, and is intended to be non-recourse to Curis.
Under the terms of the credit agreement, neither Curis nor Curis Royalty guaranteed any level of future royalty or royalty-related payments or the value of such payments as collateral to the loan. However, in certain circumstances, the obligations of Curis Royalty under the credit agreement to repay the loan may be accelerated, including:
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if any payment of principal is not made within three days of when such payment is due and payable or otherwise made in accordance with the terms of the credit agreement;
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if any representations or warranties made in the credit agreement or any other transaction document prove to be incorrect or misleading in any material respect when made;
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if there occurs a default in the performance of affirmative and negative covenants set forth in the credit agreement or under certain ancillary transaction documents;
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the failure by Genentech to pay material amounts owed under the collaboration agreement with Genentech because of an actual breach or default by Curis under the collaboration agreement;
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a material breach or default by Curis Royalty under certain ancillary transaction documents, in each case, which breach or default is not cured within 30 days after written demand thereof by BioPharma-II;
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the voluntary or involuntary commencement of bankruptcy proceedings by either Curis or Curis Royalty and other insolvency related defaults;
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any materially adverse effect on the binding nature of any of the transaction documents or the Genentech collaboration agreement;
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if any person shall be designated as an independent director of Curis Royalty other than in accordance with its limited liability company operating agreement; or
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if Curis shall at any time cease to own, of record and beneficially, 100% of the equity interests in Curis Royalty.
If any of the above were to occur, Curis Royalty may not have sufficient funds to pay the accelerated obligation and BioPharma-II could foreclose on the secured royalty and royalty-related payment stream. In such an event, we could lose our right to royalty and royalty-related payments not transferred to BioPharma-II, including those we would otherwise be entitled to receive if, or when, Curis Royalty satisfied its obligations to BioPharma-II under the credit agreement.
Fluctuations in our quarterly and annual operating results could adversely affect the price of our common stock.
Our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate significantly. Some of the factors that may cause our operating results to fluctuate on a period-to-period basis include:
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payments we may be required to make to collaborators such as Aurigene to exercise license rights and satisfy milestones and royalty obligations;
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the status of, and level of expenses incurred in connection with, our preclinical and clinical development programs, including development costs relating to CUDC-907, CUDC-427, and CUDC-305;
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fluctuations in sales of Erivedge and related royalty payments including fluctuations resulting from the impact of future sales of competing products;
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any intellectual property infringement lawsuit or other litigation in which we may become involved;
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the implementation of restructuring and cost-savings strategies;
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the occurrence of an event of default under the credit agreement by and among Curis, Curis Royalty and BioPharma II;
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the implementation or termination of collaboration, licensing, manufacturing or other material agreements with third parties, and non-recurring revenue or expenses under any such agreement; and
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compliance with regulatory requirements.
Unstable market and economic conditions may have serious adverse consequences on our business, financial condition and stock price.
Our general business strategy and prospects may be adversely affected by the uncertain economic conditions, volatile business environment and continued unpredictable and unstable market conditions, both domestically and abroad. If equity and credit markets are unfavorable, it is likely to make future debt or equity financing more difficult, more costly, and more dilutive. Failure to secure any necessary financing in a timely manner and on favorable terms could have a material adverse effect on our growth strategy, financial performance and stock price and could require us to delay or abandon research and development plans.
At December 31, 2014, we had $50,539,000 of cash, cash equivalents and investments consisting of cash, money market, commercial paper, corporate debt securities, and government obligations. Any deterioration in conditions of the global credit and financial markets could negatively impact our current portfolio of cash equivalents and marketable securities and our ability to meet our financing objectives. Further dislocations in the credit market may adversely impact the value and liquidity of marketable securities owned by us.
There is a possibility that our stock price may decline due to the volatility of the stock market in recent years.
RISKS RELATING TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND COMMERCIALIZATION OF OUR PRODUCTS
We depend heavily on the success of our most advanced product candidates. All of our product candidates are still in early clinical development. Clinical trials of our product candidates may not be successful. If we are unable to commercialize our product candidates or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.
We have invested a significant portion of our efforts and financial resources on our most advanced product candidates, CUDC-907, CUDC-427 and CUDC-305. We have not commenced clinical trials for any other product candidates. In addition, under our agreement with Aurigene, we have the option to license from Aurigene specified drug development programs and we expect to exercise our right to license two such programs in the first half of 2015 and to file IND applications for a development candidate from each program in 2015. Our ability to generate product revenues, which we do not expect will occur for many years, if ever, will depend heavily on the successful development and eventual commercialization of our product candidates. The success of our product candidates will depend on many factors, including the following:
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successful enrollment in, and completion of, clinical trials;
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Aurigene’s ability to successfully discover and preclinically develop drug candidates under the parties’ collaboration agreement;
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receipt of marketing approvals from applicable regulatory authorities;
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establishing commercial manufacturing capabilities or making arrangements with third-party manufacturers;
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obtaining and maintaining patent and trade secret protection and non-patent exclusivity for our medicines;
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launching commercial sales of the medicines, if and when approved, whether alone or in collaboration with others;
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acceptance of the medicines, if and when approved, by patients, the medical community and third-party payors;
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effectively competing with other therapies;
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continuing acceptable safety profile for the medicines following approval;
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enforcing and defending intellectual property rights and claims; and
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achieving desirable medicinal properties for the intended indications.
If we do not achieve one or more of these factors in a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully commercialize our most advanced product candidates which would materially harm our business.
We are reliant on Genentech and Roche for the successful development and commercialization of Erivedge. If Genentech and Roche do not successfully commercialize Erivedge for advanced BCC, or develop Erivedge for other indications, our future prospects may be substantially harmed.
In January 2012, Erivedge was approved by the FDA as the first and only FDA-approved medicine for people with advanced BCC. Erivedge has also been approved in over 50 foreign countries. Genentech and/or Roche have filed regulatory submissions in additional territories seeking approval to commercialize Erivedge for this same indication. Genentech and Roche are also conducting Phase 2 clinical trials of Erivedge in patients with less severe forms of BCC and Erivedge is currently being tested in other cancers under collaborative agreements between Genentech and either third-party investigators or the NCI. Our levels of revenue in each period and our near-term prospects substantially depend upon Genentech’s ability to successfully develop and commercialize Erivedge in one or more additional indications and to demonstrate its safety and efficacy, as well as its superiority over existing therapies and standards of care. The development and commercialization of Erivedge could be unsuccessful if:
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Erivedge for the treatment of advanced BCC is no longer accepted as safe, efficacious, cost-effective, and preferable to current therapies in the medical community and by third-party payors;
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Genentech and/or Roche fail to continue to apply the necessary financial resources and expertise to manufacturing, marketing and selling Erivedge for advanced BCC and to regulatory approvals for this indication outside of the U.S.;
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Genentech and/or Roche do not continue to develop and implement effective marketing, sales and distribution strategies and operations, for development and commercialization of Erivedge for advanced BCC;
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Genentech and/or Roche do not continue to develop, validate and maintain a commercially viable manufacturing process for Erivedge that is compliant with current good manufacturing practices;
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Genentech and Roche do not obtain full approval to commercialize Erivedge in the EU based upon the results of the STEVIE trial;
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Genentech and/or Roche do not successfully obtain third party reimbursement and generate commercial demand that results in sales of Erivedge for advanced BCC in any geographic areas where requisite approvals have been, or may be, obtained;
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we or Genentech and/or Roche encounter any third party patent interference, derivation, inter partes review, post-grant review, reexamination or patent infringement claims with respect to Erivedge;
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Genentech and/or Roche do not comply with any and all regulatory and legal requirements applicable to the sale of Erivedge for advanced BCC;
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competing products are approved for the same indications as Erivedge;
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new safety risks are identified; and/or
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Erivedge does not demonstrate acceptable safety and efficacy in current or future clinical trials, or otherwise does not meet applicable regulatory standards for approval in indications other than advanced BCC.
In addition, pursuant to the terms of our credit agreement with BioPharma-II, for the foreseeable future, we expect that all royalties that Curis Royalty receives under our collaboration agreement with Genentech will be remitted to BioPharma-II in repayment of our loan until the loan is fully repaid.
The therapeutic efficacy of our drug candidates is unproven in humans, and we may not be able to successfully develop and commercialize drug candidates pursuant to these programs.
Our drug candidates are novel chemical entities and their potential benefit as therapeutic cancer drugs is unproven. Our ability to generate revenues from these drug candidates, which we do not expect will occur in the
short term, if ever, will depend heavily on their successful development and commercialization, which is subject to many potential risks. For example, our drug candidates may not prove to be effective inhibitors of the molecular targets they are being designed to act against and may not demonstrate in patients any or all of the pharmacological benefits that may have been demonstrated in preclinical studies. These drug candidates may interact with human biological systems in unforeseen, ineffective or harmful ways. If the FDA determines that any of our drug candidates are associated with significant side effects or have characteristics that are unexpected, we may need to delay or abandon their development or limit development to certain uses or subpopulations in which the undesirable side effects or other characteristics are less prevalent, less severe or more acceptable from a risk-benefit perspective. In addition, in connection with our collaboration with Aurigene, we are seeking to discover, develop and commercialize small molecule antagonists for immuno-oncology targets such as immune checkpoints proteins like programmed death ligand-1 or PD-L1 protein and precision oncology targets, and such efforts may not prove to be successful. As such, outside of our collaboration with Aurigene, we are not aware of any small molecules that target immune checkpoint protein interactions in late preclinical or clinical development and we may never be able to successfully develop such drug candidates. Moreover, many drug candidates that initially showed promise in early stage testing for treating cancer have later been found to cause side effects that prevented further development of the compound or their removal from the market. As a result of these and other risks described herein that are inherent in the development and commercialization of novel therapeutic agents, we may never successfully develop, enter into or maintain third party licensing or collaboration transactions with respect to, or successfully commercialize drug candidates, in which case we will not achieve profitability and the value of our stock may decline.
We may expend our limited resources to pursue a particular drug candidate or indication and fail to capitalize on drug candidates or indications that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success.
Because we have limited financial and managerial resources, we focus on research programs and drug candidates that we believe may have the best potential in certain specific indications. As a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of certain opportunities with our other drug candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future proprietary research and development programs and drug candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable products. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular product candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that drug candidate through collaboration, licensing or other royalty arrangements in cases in which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights to such drug candidate.
We depend on third parties for the research and, as applicable, development of certain programs. If one or more of our collaborators fails or delays in developing or, as applicable, commercializing drug candidates based upon our technologies, our business prospects and operating results would suffer and our stock price would likely decline.
We currently have a collaboration with Genentech pursuant to which we have granted to Genentech exclusive rights to develop and commercialize products based upon our Hedgehog pathway technologies. In addition, we entered into a collaboration, license and option agreement with Aurigene pursuant to which Aurigene may develop various immuno-oncology, selected precision oncology and other potential targets which we will have the option to license and advance into clinical trials. Collaborations involving our product candidates, including our collaborations with Aurigene and Genentech, pose the following risks to us:
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Our collaborators each have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply to their respective collaboration with us. If a collaborator fails to allocate sufficient time, attention and resources to its collaboration with us, the successful development and commercialization of drug candidates under such collaboration is likely to be adversely affected. For example, we are dependent on
Aurigene to successfully discover and advance preclinical programs from which we may exercise our option to license drug candidates for future development.
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Our collaborators may develop and commercialize, either alone or with others, products that are similar to or competitive with the drug candidates that are the subject of its collaboration with us. For example, Genentech/ Roche is involved in the commercialization of many cancer medicines and is seeking to develop several other cancer drug therapies, and Aurigene has other active cancer-focused discovery programs and has also entered into license agreements with other companies that are focused on cancer therapies.
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Our collaborators may change the focus of their development and commercialization efforts or pursue higher-priority programs.
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Our collaborators may enter into one or more transactions with third parties, including a merger, consolidation, reorganization, sale of substantial assets, sale of substantial stock or change of control. Any such transaction could divert the attention of our collaborative partner’s management and adversely affect its ability to retain and motivate key personnel who are important to the continued development of the programs under such collaboration. In addition, an acquirer could determine to reprioritize our collaborator’s development programs such that our collaborator ceases to diligently pursue the development of our programs, and/or terminates its collaboration with us.
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Our collaborators may, under specified circumstances, terminate their collaborations with us on short notice and for circumstances outside of our control, which could make it difficult for us to attract new collaborators or adversely affect how we are perceived in the scientific, biotech, pharma and financial communities.
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Our collaborators may utilize our intellectual property rights in such a way as to invite litigation that could jeopardize or invalidate our intellectual property rights or expose us to potential liability.
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If any of our collaborators were to breach or terminate its arrangement with us, the development and commercialization of the affected drug candidate or program could be delayed, curtailed or terminated.
In addition, our collaboration agreement with Genentech has resulted in the approval in the United States, European Union and several other countries of Erivedge for the treatment of advanced BCC. The commercial success of Erivedge in this patient population is dependent on continued investment by Genentech and Roche and development and market approvals in indications other than in BCC will require significant investments from Genentech and Roche. The success of either the further development or commercialization of Erivedge in advanced BCC and potentially in additional indications is dependent on a number of factors, including the following:
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Genentech is a wholly-owned member of the Roche Group and as such is subject to the risk that Roche could determine to re-prioritize Genentech’s commercial or development programs which could reduce Genentech’s efforts on the development or commercialization of Erivedge or cause Genentech to terminate our collaboration.
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Genentech has the first right to maintain or defend intellectual property rights associated with the drug candidate under its agreement and, although we may have the right to assume the maintenance and defense of our intellectual property rights if Genentech does not, our ability to do so may be compromised by Genentech’s acts or omissions.
We may not be successful in establishing additional strategic collaborations, which could adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize products.
We intend to seek corporate collaborators or licensees for the further development and commercialization of one or more of our drug candidates in one or more geographic territories outside of the United States. We do not currently have the resources or capacity to advance these programs into later stage clinical development (i.e.,
Phase 3) or commercialization on our own, but we are seeking to build such a capacity to enable Curis to retain development and commercial rights to most of our programs in at the least the United States. Our success will depend, in part, on either our ability to build such capacity or our ability to enter into one or more collaborations for our drug candidates. We face significant competition in seeking appropriate collaborators and a number of recent business combinations in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry may continue to result in a reduced number of potential future collaborators. In addition, collaborations are complex and time-consuming to negotiate and document. Moreover, we may not be successful in our efforts to establish a collaboration or other alternative arrangements because our research and development pipeline may be insufficient, our programs may be deemed to be at too early of a stage of development for collaborative effort and/or third parties may not view our drug candidates and programs as having the requisite potential to demonstrate safety and efficacy or sufficiently differentiated compared to existing or emerging treatments. We are also restricted under the terms of certain of our existing collaboration agreements from entering into collaborations regarding or otherwise developing product candidates that are similar to the product candidates that are subject to those agreements, such as developing product candidates that inhibit the same molecular target. In addition, collaboration agreements that we enter into in the future may contain further restrictions on our ability to enter into potential collaborations or to otherwise develop specified product candidates. Even if we are successful in our efforts to establish new collaborations, the terms that we agree upon may not be favorable to us and such collaboration agreements may not lead to development or commercialization of drug candidates in the most efficient manner or at all.
Moreover, if we fail to establish and maintain additional collaborations related to our drug candidates:
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the development of certain of our current or future drug candidates may be terminated or delayed;
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our cash expenditures related to development of certain of our current or future drug candidates would increase significantly and we may need to seek additional financing;
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we may be required to hire additional employees or otherwise develop expertise, such as additional clinical, regulatory, sales and marketing expertise, for which we have not budgeted;
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we will have to bear all of the risk related to the development of any such drug candidates; and
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our future prospects may be adversely affected and our stock price could decline.
If preclinical studies and clinical trials of our drug candidates are not successful then our future profitability and success could be adversely affected.
In order to obtain regulatory approval for the commercial sale of our drug candidates, we and any current or potential future collaborators will be required to complete extensive preclinical studies as well as clinical trials in humans to demonstrate to the FDA and foreign regulatory authorities that our drug candidates are safe and effective for each indication for which approval is sought.
Development, including preclinical and clinical testing, is a long, expensive and uncertain process. Preclinical testing and clinical trials of our drug candidates may not be successful. Many companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in late-stage clinical trials after achieving positive results in earlier development, and we cannot be certain that we will not face similar setbacks. We and our collaborators could experience delays or failures in preclinical testing or clinical trials of any of our drug candidates for a number of reasons including, for example:
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preclinical studies or clinical trials may produce negative, inconsistent or inconclusive results;
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we or any collaborators may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional preclinical studies or clinical trials or terminate testing for a particular drug candidate;
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the results from preclinical studies and early clinical trials may not be statistically significant or predictive of results that will be obtained from expanded, advanced clinical trials;
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preclinical and early clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses and even if we, or our collaborators, believe that the results of clinical trials for our product candidates to be successful, regulatory authorities may disagree with our interpretations and analyses;
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we may encounter difficulties or delays in manufacturing sufficient quantities of the drug candidate used in any preclinical study or clinical trial;
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we may have delays in reaching or fail to reach agreement on acceptable clinical trial contracts or clinical trial protocols with prospective trial sites;
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the cost of clinical trials of our drug candidates may be greater than we anticipate;
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the timing and completion of clinical trials of our drug candidates depend on, among other factors, the number of patients required to be enrolled in the clinical trials and the rate at which those patients are enrolled, and any increase in the required number of patients, decrease in recruitment rates or difficulties retaining trial participants may result in increased costs, program delays or program termination;
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our products under development may not be effective in treating cancer or may prove to have undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities or other characteristics that may prevent or limit their commercial use;
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we, our clinical investigators, or our current or potential future collaborators and subcontractors, may fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, including good clinical practices and requirements regarding the disclosure of clinical trial information;
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institutional review boards, regulators, including the FDA or its foreign equivalents, or any collaborators may hold, suspend or terminate our clinical research or the clinical trials of our drug candidates for various reasons, including failure to achieve established success criteria, noncompliance with regulatory requirements or if, in their opinion, the participating subjects are being exposed to unacceptable health risks; and
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we, along with any of our current or potential future collaborators and subcontractors, may not employ, in any capacity, persons who have been debarred under the FDA’s Application Integrity Policy, or similar policy under foreign regulatory authorities, nor may we or any of our current or potential future collaborators or subcontractors use disqualified clinical investigators or institutions to perform clinical trials of our drug candidates. Employment or use of such a debarred or disqualified person or institution may result in delays in FDA’s or foreign equivalent’s review or approval of our products, or the rejection of data developed with the involvement of such person(s) or institution(s).
If we are required to conduct additional clinical trials or other testing of our drug candidates beyond those that we currently contemplate, if we are unable to successfully complete clinical trials of our drug candidates or other testing, if the results of these trials or tests are not positive or are only modestly positive or if there are safety concerns, we may:
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be delayed in obtaining marketing approval for our drug candidates;
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not obtain marketing approval at all;
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obtain approval for indications that are not as broad as intended or with labeling that highlights undesirable safety risks;
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have the product removed from the market after obtaining marketing approval;
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be subject to additional post-marketing testing requirements;
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be subject to restrictions on how the product is distributed or used; or
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be unable to obtain reimbursement for use of the product.
If any of the above were to occur, our reputation and our ability to raise additional capital will be materially impaired and our stock price is likely to decline.
If we experience delays in the enrollment of patients in our clinical trials, our receipt of necessary regulatory approvals could be delayed or prevented.
We may not be able to initiate or continue clinical trials for our drug candidates if we are unable to locate and enroll a sufficient number of eligible patients to participate in these trials. Patient enrollment is a significant factor in the timing of clinical trials, and is affected by many factors, including:
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the size and nature of the patient population;
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the severity of the disease under investigation;
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the proximity of patients to clinical sites;
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the eligibility criteria and design for the trial; and
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clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions as to the potential advantages and risks of the drug being studied in relation to other available therapies, including any new drugs that may be approved for the indications we are investigating.
In addition, many of our competitors have ongoing clinical trials for drug candidates that could be competitive with our drug candidates. Patients who would otherwise be eligible for our clinical trials may instead enroll in clinical trials of our competitors’ drug candidates or rely upon treatment with existing therapies that may preclude them from eligibility for our clinical trials.
Enrollment delays in our clinical trials, including for the additional clinical trials of CUDC-907, may result in increased development costs for our drug candidates, which could cause the value of our stock price to decline. Moreover, our inability to enroll a sufficient number of patients for any of our current or future clinical trials, and/or the reporting of adverse events by companies with competing drug candidates, could result in significant delays or may require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether.
We rely in part on third parties to conduct clinical trials of our internally-developed drug candidates, and if such third parties perform inadequately, including failing to meet deadlines for the completion of such trials, research or testing, then we will not be able to successfully develop and commercialize drug candidates and grow our business.
For the foreseeable future, we expect to rely substantially on third parties such as consultants, clinical investigators, contract research organizations and other similar entities to complete certain aspects of our preclinical testing and clinical trials and provide services in connection with such clinical trials. Despite having contractual remedies available to us under our agreements with such contractors, we cannot control whether or not they devote sufficient time, skill and resources to our ongoing development programs. Furthermore, these third parties may also have relationships with other entities, some of which may be our competitors. These third parties may not complete activities on schedule, or at all, or may not conduct our clinical trials in accordance with the clinical trial protocol or design. In addition, the FDA and its foreign equivalents require us to comply with certain standards, referred to as good clinical practices, and applicable regulatory requirements, for conducting, recording and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the rights, integrity and confidentiality of trial participants are protected. Our reliance on third parties that we do not control does not relieve us of these responsibilities and requirements. If any of the third party contractors on whom we rely do not comply with good clinical practices or other applicable regulatory requirements, we may not be able to use the data and reported results from the applicable trial. Any failure by a third party to conduct our clinical trials as planned or in accordance with regulatory requirements could delay or otherwise adversely affect our efforts to obtain regulatory approvals for and commercialize our drug candidates.
If we or Genentech and/ or Roche do not obtain, or if there are delays in obtaining, necessary regulatory approvals, then we will not be able to commercialize our drug candidates and our business will be materially impaired and the market price of our common stock could substantially decline.
We and Genentech and/or Roche will be required to obtain regulatory approval in order to successfully advance drug candidates through the clinic and prior to marketing and selling such products. We have limited experience in filing and prosecuting applications to obtain marketing approval. The process of obtaining required regulatory approvals is expensive and the time required for these approvals is uncertain and typically takes a number of years, depending on the type, complexity and novelty of the product. During the course of this process, the FDA or a foreign equivalent may determine that a drug candidate is not effective, or is only moderately effective, or has undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities, safety profile or other characteristics that preclude our obtaining marketing approval. With respect to our internal programs, we have limited experience in filing and prosecuting applications to obtain marketing approval.
Any regulatory approval to market a product may be subject to limitations on the approved indicated uses for which we or our collaborative partners may market the product, to labeling that highlights undesirable safety risks, or to distribution and use restrictions or other requirements under a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS. These limitations may restrict the size of the market for the product and affect reimbursement by third-party payors. In addition, regulatory agencies may not grant approvals on a timely basis or may revoke or significantly modify previously granted approvals.
We and Genentech and/or Roche are subject to numerous foreign regulatory requirements governing the manufacturing and marketing of potential future products outside of the U.S. The approval procedure varies among countries, additional testing may be required in some jurisdictions, and the time required to obtain foreign approvals often differs from that required to obtain FDA approvals. Moreover, approval by the FDA or a foreign equivalent does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries, and vice versa.
In addition, regulatory agencies may change existing requirements or adopt new requirements or policies. We and Genentech and/or Roche may be slow to adapt or may not be able to adapt to these changes or new requirements.
As a result of these factors, we and Genentech and/or Roche may not successfully begin or complete clinical trials and/or obtain regulatory approval to market and sell drug candidates in the time periods estimated, if at all. Moreover, if we or Genentech and/or Roche incur costs and delay development programs or fail to successfully develop and commercialize products based upon our technologies, our ability to generate revenues will be materially impaired and our stock price could decline.
Any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval could be subject to post-marketing restrictions or withdrawal from the market and we may be subject to substantial penalties if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or if we experience unanticipated problems with such products.
Even if we or any collaborators obtain regulatory approval of a drug candidate, such product, along with the manufacturing processes, post-approval clinical data, labeling, advertising and promotional activities for such product, will be subject to continual requirements of and review by the FDA and other regulatory authorities. These requirements include submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, registration and listing requirements, cGMP requirements relating to manufacturing, quality control, quality assurance and corresponding maintenance of records and documents, requirements regarding the distribution of samples to physicians and recordkeeping.
The FDA may also impose requirements for costly post-marketing studies or clinical trials and surveillance to monitor the safety or efficacy of the product, including the requirement to implement a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy. The FDA closely regulates the post-approval marketing and promotion of products to ensure
products are marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling. The FDA imposes stringent restrictions on manufacturers’ communications regarding off-label use and if we do not market our products for their approved indications, we may be subject to enforcement action for, among other things, off-label marketing. Violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act relating to the promotion or manufacturing of prescription products may lead to investigations by the FDA, Department of Justice, and state Attorneys General alleging violations of federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws, as well as state consumer protection laws.
In addition, later discovery of previously unknown adverse events or other problems with our products, manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may yield various results, including:
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restrictions on such products, manufacturers or manufacturing processes;
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restrictions on the labeling or marketing of a product;
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restrictions on product distribution or use;
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requirements to conduct post-marketing studies or clinical trials;
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warning letters;
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withdrawal of the products from the market;
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refusal to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications that we submit;
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recall of products;
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fines, restitution or disgorgement of profits or revenue;
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suspension or withdrawal of regulatory approvals;
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refusal to permit the import or export of our products;
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product seizure; or
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injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.
Our current and future relationships with customers and third-party payors in the U.S. and elsewhere may be subject, directly or indirectly, to applicable anti-kickback, fraud and abuse, false claims, transparency, health information privacy and security, and other healthcare laws and regulations, which could expose us to criminal sanctions, civil penalties, contractual damages, reputational harm, administrative burdens, and diminished profits and future earnings.
Healthcare providers, physicians and third-party payors in the U.S. and elsewhere will play a primary role in the recommendation and prescription of any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. Our future arrangements with third-party payors and customers may expose us to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations that may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we market, sell and distribute any products for which we obtain marketing approval. In addition, we may be subject to transparency laws and patient privacy regulation by U.S. federal and state governments and by governments in foreign jurisdictions in which we conduct our business. The applicable federal, state, and foreign healthcare laws and regulations that may affect our ability to operate include:
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the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, persons from knowingly and willfully soliciting, offering, receiving or providing remuneration, directly or indirectly, in cash or in kind, to induce or reward, or in return for, either the referral of an individual for, or the purchase, order or recommendation of, any good or service, for which payment may be made under a federal healthcare program such as Medicare and Medicaid;
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federal civil and criminal false claims laws and civil monetary penalty laws, including the federal False Claims Act, which impose criminal and civil penalties, including civil whistleblower or qui tam actions, against individuals or entities for knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, to the federal government, including the Medicare and Medicaid programs, claims for payment that are false or fraudulent or making a false statement to avoid, decrease or conceal an obligation to pay money to the federal government;
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the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, which imposes criminal and civil liability for executing a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program or making false statements relating to healthcare matters;
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HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009, and their respective implementing regulations, which imposes obligations, including mandatory contractual terms, on covered healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses, as well as their business associates, with respect to safeguarding the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information;
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the federal Open Payments program, which requires manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologics and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, with specific exceptions, to report annually to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, information related to “payments or other transfers of value” made to physicians, and teaching hospitals with data collection, requirements for manufacturers to submit reports to CMS on the 90th day of each calendar year, and disclosure of such information to be made by CMS on a publicly available website beginning in September 2014; and
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analogous state and foreign laws and regulations, such as state anti-kickback and false claims laws, which may apply to sales or marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by non-governmental third-party payors, including private insurers; state and foreign laws that require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government or otherwise restrict payments that may be made to healthcare providers; state and foreign laws that require drug manufacturers to report information related to payments and other transfers of value to physicians and other healthcare providers or marketing expenditures; and state and foreign laws governing the privacy and security of health information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts.
Efforts to ensure that our business arrangements with third parties will comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations may involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices may not comply with current or future statutes, regulations or case law involving applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these laws or any other governmental regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, including, without limitation, damages, fines, imprisonment, exclusion from participation in government funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. If any of the physicians or other healthcare providers or entities with whom we expect to do business is found to be not in compliance with applicable laws, it may be subject to criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from participation in government funded healthcare programs.
Governments outside the United States tend to impose strict price controls, which may adversely affect our revenues, if any.
In some countries, such as the countries of the EU, the pricing of prescription pharmaceuticals is subject to governmental control. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after the receipt of marketing approval for a product. To obtain reimbursement or pricing
approval in some countries, we, or our collaborators, may be required to conduct a clinical trial that compares the cost-effectiveness of our product to other available therapies. If reimbursement of our products is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels, our business could be materially harmed.
If we or any of our collaborators fail to achieve market acceptance for any approved products, our future revenue and ability to achieve profitability may be adversely affected.
Our future products, including those developed under collaborations with third parties such as Aurigene, may not gain commercial acceptance among physicians, patients and third-party payors, even if necessary marketing approvals have been obtained. The degree of market acceptance of our drug candidates, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including:
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the prevalence and severity of any side effects;
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efficacy and potential advantages compared to alternative treatments;
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the price we charge for our drugs;
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convenience and ease of administration compared to alternative treatments;
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the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies and of physicians to prescribe these therapies;
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our ability to successfully develop companion diagnostics that effectively identify patient populations likely to benefit from treatment with our therapeutic products;
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the strength of marketing and distribution support; and
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sufficient third party coverage or reimbursement.
The potential market opportunities for our product candidates are difficult to precisely estimate. Our estimates of the potential market opportunities are predicated on many assumptions including industry knowledge and publications, third party research reports and other surveys. While we believe that our internal assumptions are reasonable, these assumptions involve the exercise of significant judgment on the part of our management, are inherently uncertain and the reasonableness of these assumptions has not been assessed by an independent source. If any of the assumptions proves to be inaccurate, the actual markets for our product candidates could be smaller than our estimates of the potential market opportunities.
We may not receive Fast Track designation for our product candidates from the FDA, or Fast Track designation may not actually lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process.
We intend to seek Fast Track designation for some or all of our product candidates. Fast track designation provides increased opportunities for sponsor meetings with the FDA during preclinical and clinical development, in addition to the potential for rolling review once a marketing application is filed. A new drug or biologic is eligible for Fast Track designation if it is intended to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition and the drug demonstrates the potential to address unmet medical needs for the disease or condition. The FDA has broad discretion whether or not to grant this designation, and even if we believe a particular product candidate is eligible for this designation, we cannot assure you that the FDA will grant it. Even if our product candidates receive Fast Track designation, we may not experience a faster development process, review or approval compared to conventional FDA procedures. The FDA may withdraw Fast Track designation if it believes that the designation is no longer supported by data from our clinical development program.
RISKS RELATING TO OUR BUSINESS, INDUSTRY, STRATEGY AND OPERATIONS
We and our collaborators may not achieve projected research, development, commercialization and marketing goals in the time frames that we or they announce, which could have an adverse impact on our business and could cause our stock price to decline.
We set goals for, and make public statements regarding, the timing of certain accomplishments, such as the commencement and completion of preclinical studies, initiation and completion of clinical trials, and other developments and milestones under our proprietary programs and those programs being developed under collaboration agreements. Genentech is a wholly-owned member of the Roche Group, and Roche has also made public statements regarding its expectations for the clinical development, commercialization and marketing of Erivedge, and may in the future make additional statements about its goals and expectations for Erivedge and/or its collaboration with us. The actual timing of these events can vary dramatically due to a number of factors including without limitation delays or failures in our and our current and potential future collaborators’ preclinical studies or clinical trials, the amount of time, effort and resources committed to our programs by us and our current and potential future collaborators and the uncertainties inherent in the regulatory approval and commercialization process. As a result:
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our or our current and potential future collaborators’ preclinical studies and clinical trials may not advance or be completed in the time frames we or they announce or expect;
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we or our current and potential future collaborators may not make regulatory submissions, receive regulatory approvals or commercialize approved products as planned; and
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we or our current and potential future collaborators may not be able to adhere to our current schedule for the achievement of key milestones under any of our internal or collaborative programs.
If we or any collaborators fail to achieve research, development and commercialization goals as planned, our business could be materially adversely affected and the price of our common stock could decline.
We face substantial competition, which may result in our competitors discovering, developing or commercializing products before or more successfully than we do.
Our drug candidates face competition from existing and new technologies and products being developed by biotechnology, medical device and pharmaceutical companies, as well as universities and other research institutions. For example, we are aware of several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies that have drug development programs relating to compounds that modulate the Hedgehog pathway. We believe that there are currently at least five other companies that have progressed Hedgehog pathway inhibitors into clinical development: Eli Lilly and Company, Exelixis, Inc. (in co-development with the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company); Pfizer Inc.; and Novartis. In February 2014, Novartis announced that its Hedgehog pathway inhibitor met the primary endpoint in a pivotal Phase 2 trial in patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma and is currently the subject of applications for marketing approvals in the United States and European Union. Under the terms of our collaboration agreement with Genentech, our royalty would be reduced in any country where another drug that binds to the same molecular target receives regulatory approval for the same indication as Erivedge and is subsequently commercialized in that country.
In addition, there are several companies developing drug candidates that target the same molecular targets that we are targeting or that are testing drug candidates in the same cancer indications that we are testing. For example, while we are not aware of other molecules in clinical testing that are designed as one chemical entity to target both PI3K and HDAC, there are commercially-available drugs that individually target HDAC or PI3K and there are multiple companies testing HDAC or PI3K inhibitors that are in various stages of clinical development. In addition, Debiopharm, Novartis and TetraLogic are all developing antagonists of IAP proteins and several companies are investigating HSP90 inhibitors.
We also expect that we will exercise options to obtain exclusive licenses to at least two programs under our collaboration agreement with Aurigene, including programs that target IRAK4 and the interactions between PD-1 and PD-L1 for the treatment of human cancers. We are aware of at least two other companies that are developing IRAK4 inhibitors for oncology indications: Nimbus Discovery and TG Therapeutics (in-licensed an IRAK4 inhibitor from Ligand Pharmaceuticals). In addition, there are two approved drugs on the market that target PD-1/ PD-L1 interactions (Bristol-Myer Squibb’s OpdivoTM and Merck & Co.’s KeytrudaTM) and a number of drug candidates in various stages of development that target the similar interactions such as Roche’s MPDL3280A, Merck KGaA’s MSB0010718C (collaborator: Pfizer), AstraZeneca/ MedImmune’s MEDI4736 and MEDI0680, Curetech/ Medivation’s pidilizumab and others.
Many of our competitors have substantially greater capital resources, research and development staffs and facilities, and more extensive experience than we have. As a result, efforts by other biotechnology, medical device and pharmaceutical companies could render our programs or products uneconomical or result in therapies superior to those that we develop alone or with a collaborator. For those programs that we have selected for internal development, we face competition from companies that are more experienced in product development and commercialization, obtaining regulatory approvals and product manufacturing. Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Other smaller companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These third parties compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs. As a result, any of these companies may be more successful in obtaining collaboration agreements or other monetary support, approval and commercialization of their products and/or may develop competing products more rapidly and/or at a lower cost.
If we are not able to compete effectively, then we may not be able, either alone or with others, to advance the development and commercialization of our drug candidates, which would adversely affect our ability to grow our business and become profitable.
Product liability lawsuits against us could divert our resources, cause us to incur substantial liabilities and limit commercialization of any products that we may develop.
Product liability claims are inherent in the process of researching, developing and commercializing human health care products and could expose us to significant liabilities and prevent or interfere with the development or commercialization of our drug candidates. Any such product liability claims may include allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a failure to warn of dangers inherent in the product, negligence, strict liability or a breach of warranties. Regardless of their merit or eventual outcome, product liability claims would require us to spend significant time, money and other resources to defend such claims, could result in:
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decreased demand for our product candidates or products that we may develop;
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injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention;
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withdrawal of clinical trial participants;
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significant costs to defend resulting litigation;
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substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;
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reduced resources of our management to pursue our business strategy; and
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the inability to commercialize any products that we may develop
Although we currently have product liability insurance for our clinical trials, this insurance is subject to deductibles and coverage limitations and may not be adequate in scope to protect us in the event of a successful
product liability claim. Product liability insurance is expensive and may be difficult to retain. As such, it is possible that we will not be able to retain product liability insurance on acceptable terms, if at all, or that our product liability insurance coverage will prove to be inadequate to protect us from all potential claims.
If we are not able to attract and retain key management and scientific personnel and advisors, we may not successfully develop our drug candidates or achieve our other business objectives.
We depend upon our senior management team. The loss of the service of any of the key members of our senior management may significantly delay or prevent the achievement of product development and other business objectives. Our officers all serve pursuant to “at will” employment arrangements and can terminate their employment with us at any time. We do not maintain key man life insurance on any of these officers. Replacing key employees may be difficult and may take an extended period of time because of the limited number of individuals in our industry with the breadth of skills and experience required to research, develop and successfully commercialize products in our areas of core competency.
Our ability to operate successfully will depend on our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel, consultants and advisors. We face intense competition for qualified individuals from numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, universities, governmental entities and other research institutions. We may be unable to attract and retain these individuals, and our failure to do so would have an adverse effect on our business.
We may seek to acquire complementary businesses and technologies or otherwise seek to expand our operations to grow our business, which may divert management resources and adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.
We may seek to expand our operations, including without limitation through internal growth and/or the acquisition of businesses and technologies that we believe are a strategic complement to our business model. We may not be able to identify suitable acquisition candidates or expansion strategies and successfully complete such acquisitions or successfully execute any such other expansion strategies. We may never realize the anticipated benefits of any efforts to expand our business. Furthermore, the expansion of our business, either through internal growth or through acquisitions, poses significant risks to our existing operations, financial condition and operating results, including:
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a diversion of management from our existing operations;
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increased operating complexity of our business, requiring greater personnel and resources;
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significant additional cash expenditures to expand our operations and acquire and integrate new businesses and technologies;
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unanticipated expenses and potential delays related to integration of the operations, technology and other resources of any acquired companies;
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uncertainty related to the value, benefits or legitimacy of intellectual property or technologies acquired;
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retaining and assimilating key personnel and the potential impairment of relationships with our employees;
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incurrence of debt, other liabilities and contingent liabilities, including potentially unknown contingent liabilities; and
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dilutive stock issuances.
Any business that we conduct in China will expose us to risks resulting from adverse changes in political, legal and economic policies of the Chinese government.
We have a subsidiary in China, Curis Shanghai, which is currently licensed to conduct business but is not operational.
Conducting business in China exposes us to a variety of risks and uncertainties that are unique to China. The economy of China has been transitioning from a planned economy to a more market-oriented economy. Although in recent years the Chinese government has implemented measures emphasizing the utilization of market forces for economic reform, the reduction of state ownership of productive assets and the establishment of sound corporate governance in business enterprises, a substantial portion of productive assets in China is still owned by the Chinese government. In addition, the Chinese government continues to play a significant role in regulating industrial development. It also exercises significant control over China’s economic growth through the allocation of resources, controlling payment of foreign currency-denominated obligations, setting monetary policy and providing preferential treatment to particular industries or companies. Recent evidence of a slowdown in the pace of growth of the Chinese economy could result in interruptions of our development efforts in China. If our research and development efforts in China are delayed due to such interruptions, we may not realize the reductions in costs anticipated from doing business in China. We would also have to consider moving our chemistry and/or biology research that is currently conducted by contract research organizations in China to U.S. or European providers, thereby potentially either increasing our overall costs for such services or reducing the total number of chemists and or/biologists that we could engage. In addition, we cannot predict the effect of future developments in the Chinese legal system, including the promulgation of new laws, changes to existing laws or the interpretation or enforcement thereof, or the preemption of local regulations by national laws. Our business could be materially harmed by any changes in the political, legal or economic climate in China or the inability to enforce applicable Chinese laws and regulations.
If the estimates we make and the assumptions on which we rely in preparing our financial statements prove inaccurate, our actual results may vary significantly.
Our financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of our assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses, the amounts of charges taken by us and related disclosure. Such estimates and judgments include the carrying value of our property, equipment and intangible assets, revenue recognition, the value of certain liabilities, including the fair value of our warrant liability, the repayment term of our loan with BioPharma-II and stock-based compensation expense. We base our estimates and judgments on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. However, these estimates and judgments, or the assumptions underlying them, may change over time. Accordingly, our actual financial results may vary significantly from the estimates contained in our financial statements.
For a further discussion of the estimates and judgments that we make and the critical accounting policies that affect these estimates and judgments, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations-Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates” set forth in this report.
Our business and operations would suffer in the event of system failures.
Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems and those of our current and any future collaborators and other contractors or consultant are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. Any system failure, accident or security breach that causes interruptions in our operations or those of our collaboration partners could result in a material disruption of our product development programs or those of our collaboration partners. To the extent that any disruption or security breach results in a loss or damage to our data or
applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we may incur liability and the further development of our drug candidates may be delayed. If a natural disaster, power outage or other event occurred that prevented us from using all or a significant portion of our headquarters, that damaged critical infrastructure (such as the manufacturing facilities of our third-party contract manufacturers) or that otherwise disrupted operations, it may be difficult or, in certain cases, impossible for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time. The disaster recovery and business continuity plans we have in place currently are limited and are unlikely to prove adequate in the event of a serious disaster or similar event. We may incur substantial expenses as a result of the limited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity plans, which, particularly when taken together with our lack of earthquake insurance, could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a company undergoes an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater than 50% change (by value) in its equity ownership over a three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes (such as research tax credits) to offset its post-change taxable income or taxes may be limited. Changes in our stock ownership, some of which are outside of our control, may have resulted or could in the future result in an ownership change. The changes of ownership will result in net operating loss and research and development credit carryforwards that we expect to expire unutilized. If additional limitations were to apply, utilization of a portion of our net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards could be further limited in future periods and a portion of the carryforwards could expire before being available to reduce future income tax liabilities.
RISKS RELATING TO OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
We may not be able to obtain and maintain patent protection for our technologies and products, our licensors may not be able to obtain and maintain patent protection for the technology or products that we license from them and the patent protection we or they do obtain may not be sufficient to stop our competitors from using similar technology.
The long-term success of our business depends in significant part on our ability to:
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obtain patents to protect our technologies and discoveries;
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protect trade secrets from disclosure to third-party competitors;
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operate without infringing upon the proprietary rights of others; and
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prevent others from infringing on our proprietary rights.
The patent positions of pharmaceutical and life science companies, including ours, are generally uncertain and involve complex legal, scientific and factual questions. The laws, procedures and standards that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and various foreign intellectual property offices use to grant patents, and the standards that courts use to interpret patents, are not always applied predictably or uniformly and have changed in significant ways and are expected to continue to change. In addition, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent or in the same manner as the laws of the U.S. For example, European patent law restricts the patentability of methods of treatment of the human body more than U.S. law does. Consequently, the level of protection, if any, that will be obtained and provided by our patents if we attempt to enforce them, and they are challenged, is uncertain.
Patents may not issue from any of the patent applications that we own or license. If patents do issue, the type and extent of patent claims issued to us may not be sufficient to protect our technology from exploitation by
our competitors. Our patents also may not afford us protection against competitors with similar technology. Assuming the other requirements for patentability are met, currently, the first to file a patent application is generally entitled to the patent. Prior to March 16, 2013, in the United States, patent applications were subject to a “first to invent” rule of law. Applications filed on or after March 16, 2013 (with the exception of certain applications claiming priority to applications filed prior to March 16, 2013, such as continuations and divisionals) are subject to a “first to file” rule of law. Publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the U.S. and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. Additionally, how the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and U.S. courts will interpret the new laws remains significantly uncertain at this time. We cannot be certain that any existing or future application will be subject to the “first to file” or “first to invent” rule of law, that we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our existing patents or pending patent applications subject to the prior laws, or that we were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions subject to the new laws.
We may not have rights under patents that may cover one or more of our drug candidates. In some cases, these patents may be owned or controlled by third-party competitors and may prevent or impair our ability to exploit our technology. As a result, we or our current or potential future collaborative partners may be required to obtain licenses under third-party patents to develop and commercialize some of our drug candidates. If we are unable to secure licenses to such patented technology on acceptable terms, we or our collaborative partners may not be able to develop and commercialize the affected drug candidate or candidates.
It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection. Moreover, in some circumstances, we do not have the right to control the preparation, filing and prosecution of patent applications, or to maintain the patents, covering technology or products that we license from third parties and are reliant on our licensors. For example, we do not control the prosecution of certain patent rights licensed to us under our IAP agreement with Genentech. Therefore, we cannot be certain that these patents and applications will be prosecuted and enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business.
The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability, and our owned and licensed patents may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the U.S. and abroad. Such challenges may result in loss of exclusivity or in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, which could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our technology and products. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new drug candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. As a result, our owned and licensed patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours.
We may become involved in expensive and unpredictable patent litigation or other contentious intellectual property proceedings, which could result in liability for damages or require us to cease our development and commercialization efforts.
There are substantial litigation and other adversarial opposition proceedings regarding patent and other intellectual property rights in the pharmaceutical and life science industries. We may become a party to patent litigation or other proceedings regarding intellectual property rights.
Situations that may give rise to patent litigation or other disputes over the use of our intellectual property include:
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initiation of litigation or other proceedings against third parties to enforce our patent rights, to seek to invalidate the patents held by these third parties or to obtain a judgment that our drug candidates do not infringe the third parties’ patents;
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participation in interference and/or derivation proceedings to determine the priority of invention if our competitors file U.S. patent applications that claim technology also claimed by us;
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initiation of opposition, reexamination, post grant review or inter partes review proceedings by third parties that seek to limit or eliminate the scope of our patent protection;
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initiation of litigation by third parties claiming that our processes or drug candidates or the intended use of our drug candidates infringes their patent or other intellectual property rights; and
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initiation of litigation by us or third parties seeking to enforce contract rights relating to intellectual property that may be important to our business.
Any patent litigation or other proceeding, even if resolved favorably, will likely incur substantial costs and be a distraction to management. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the cost of such litigation or other proceedings more effectively than we can because of their substantially greater financial resources. In addition, our collaborators and licensors may have rights to file and prosecute claims of infringement of certain of our intellectual property and we are reliant on them. If a patent litigation or other intellectual property proceeding is resolved unfavorably, we or any collaborative partners may be enjoined from manufacturing or selling our future products without a license from the other party and be held liable for significant damages. Moreover, we may not be able to obtain required licenses on commercially acceptable terms or any terms at all. In addition, we could be held liable for lost profits if we are found to have infringed a valid patent, or liable for treble damages if we are found to have willfully infringed a valid patent. Litigation results are highly unpredictable and we or any collaborative partner may not prevail in any patent litigation or other proceeding in which we may become involved. Any changes in, or unexpected interpretations of the patent laws may adversely affect our ability to enforce our patent position. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could damage our ability to compete in the marketplace.
We face risks relating to the enforcement of our intellectual property rights in Asia that could adversely affect our business.
We have historically conducted synthetic chemistry work through a contract research agreement with a medicinal chemistry provider in China. We seek to protect our intellectual property rights under this arrangement through, among other things, non-disclosure and assignment of invention covenants. Enforcement of intellectual property rights and confidentiality protections in China may not be as effective as in the U.S. or other countries. Policing unauthorized use of proprietary technology is difficult and expensive, and we might need to resort to litigation to enforce or defend patents issued to us or to determine the enforceability, scope and validity of our proprietary rights or those of others. The experience and capabilities of Chinese courts in handling intellectual property litigation vary, and outcomes are unpredictable. Further, such litigation may require significant expenditure of cash and management efforts and could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. An adverse determination in any such litigation will impair our intellectual property rights and may harm our business, prospects and reputation.
In addition, we collaborate with Aurigene, an Indian company, in the development of new therapeutic compounds. Some or all of the intellectual property arising from this collaboration may be developed by Aurigene’s employees, consultants, and third-party contractors, and we license Aurigene’s rights in this intellectual property. Accordingly, our rights depend in part on Aurigene’s contracts with its employees and contractors and Aurigene’s ability to protect its trade secrets and other confidential information in India. Enforcement of intellectual property rights and confidentiality protections in India may not be as effective as in the U.S. or other countries. Policing unauthorized use of proprietary technology is difficult and expensive, and we or Aurigene might need to resort to litigation to protect our trade secrets and confidential information. The experience and capabilities of Indian courts in handling intellectual property litigation vary, and outcomes are unpredictable. Further, such litigation may require significant expenditure of cash and management efforts and could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. An adverse determination in any such litigation will impair our intellectual property rights and may harm our business, prospects and reputation.
If we are unable to keep our trade secrets confidential, our technology and proprietary information may be used by others to compete against us.
We rely significantly on trade secrets, including unpatented know-how, technology and other proprietary information, to maintain our competitive position. We seek to protect this information through confidentiality and intellectual property license or assignment provisions in agreements with our employees, consultants and other third-party contractors, including our contract research agreement with a medicinal chemistry provider in China, as well as through other security measures. Similarly, our agreement with Aurigene requires Aurigene to enter into such agreements with its employees, consultants, and other third-party contractors. The confidentiality and intellectual property provisions of our agreements and security measures may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any such breach. In addition, our trade secrets may otherwise become known or be independently developed by competitors.
If we fail to comply with our obligations in the agreements under which we license rights to technology from third parties, we could lose license rights that are important to our business.
We are party to agreements that provide for licenses to us of intellectual property or sharing of rights to intellectual property that is important to our business, and we may enter into additional agreements in the future that provide licenses to us of valuable technology. These licenses, including our agreement with Aurigene, impose, and future licenses may impose, various commercialization, milestone and other obligations on us, including the obligation to terminate our use of patented subject matter under certain contingencies. If a licensor becomes entitled to, and exercises, termination rights under a license, we would lose valuable rights and could lose our ability to develop our products. We may need to license other intellectual property to commercialize future products. Our business may suffer if any current or future licenses terminate, if the licensors fail to abide by the terms of the license or fail to prevent infringement by third parties, if the licensed patents or other rights are found to be invalid or if we are unable to enter into necessary licenses on acceptable terms.
We may be subject to claims that our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their former employers.
As is common in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, we employ individuals who were previously employed at other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Although no claims against us are currently pending, we may be subject to claims that these employees or we have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other proprietary information of their former employers. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management.
RISKS RELATING TO MANUFACTURING AND SALES
We depend on third parties to produce our drug candidates, and if these third parties do not successfully formulate or manufacture these drug candidates, our business will be harmed.
We have no internal manufacturing experience or manufacturing capabilities and we lack the resources and the capability to manufacture any of our product candidates on a clinical or commercial scale. In order to continue to develop drug candidates, apply for regulatory approvals, and commercialize products, we or any collaborators must be able to manufacture drug candidates in adequate clinical and commercial quantities, in compliance with regulatory requirements, including those related to quality control and quality assurance, at acceptable costs and in a timely manner. The manufacture of our drug candidates may be complex, difficult to accomplish and difficult to scale-up when large-scale production is required. Manufacture may be subject to delays, inefficiencies and poor or low yields of quality products. The cost of manufacturing some of our drug candidates may make them prohibitively expensive.
To the extent that we or any collaborators seek to enter into manufacturing arrangements with third parties, we and such collaborators will depend upon these third parties to perform their obligations in a timely and effective manner and in accordance with government regulations. Contract manufacturers may breach their manufacturing agreements because of factors beyond our and our collaborators’ control or may terminate or fail to renew a manufacturing agreement based on their own business priorities at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us and our collaborators.
Any contract manufacturers with whom we or our collaborators enter into manufacturing arrangements will be subject to ongoing periodic, unannounced inspection by the FDA and corresponding state and foreign agencies or their designees to ensure strict compliance with current good manufacturing practices and other governmental regulations and corresponding foreign standards. Any failure by contract manufacturers, collaborators, or us to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed, including fines, injunctions, civil penalties, failure of regulatory authorities to grant marketing approval of drug candidates, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, imposition of clinical holds, seizures or recalls of drug candidates, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect our business. If we or a collaborator need to change manufacturers, the FDA and corresponding foreign regulatory agencies must approve any new manufacturers in advance. This would involve testing and pre-approval inspections to ensure compliance with FDA and foreign regulations and standards.
If third-party manufacturers fail to perform their obligations, our competitive position and ability to generate revenue may be adversely affected in a number of ways, including;
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we and any collaborators may not be able to initiate or continue certain preclinical and/or clinical trials of products that are under development;
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we and any collaborators may be delayed in submitting applications for regulatory approvals for our drug candidates; and
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we and any collaborators may not be able to meet commercial demands for any approved products.
Because we rely on a limited number of suppliers for the raw materials used in our drug candidates, any delay or interruption in the supply of such raw materials could lead to delays in the manufacture and supply of our drug candidates.
We rely on third parties to supply certain raw materials necessary to produce our drug candidates for preclinical studies and clinical trials. There are a small number of suppliers for certain raw materials that we use to manufacture our drug candidates. We purchase these materials from our suppliers on a purchase order basis and do not have long-term supply agreements in place. Such suppliers may not sell these raw materials to us at the times we need them or on commercially reasonable terms, or delivery of these raw materials may be delayed or interrupted. Although we generally do not begin a preclinical study or clinical trial unless we believe we have a sufficient supply of a drug candidate to complete such study or trial, any significant delay in the supply of raw materials for our drug candidates for an ongoing clinical trial due to the need to replace a third-party supplier could considerably delay completion of certain preclinical studies and/or clinical trials. Moreover, if we were unable to purchase raw materials after regulatory approval had been obtained for our drug candidates, the commercial launch of our drug candidates would be delayed or there would be a shortage in supply, which would impair our ability to generate revenues from the sale of our drug candidates.
Any contamination in our manufacturing process, shortages of raw materials or failure of any of our key suppliers to deliver necessary components could result in delays in our clinical development or marketing schedules.
Any contamination could materially adversely affect our ability to produce product candidates on schedule and could, therefore, harm our results of operations and cause reputational damage. A material shortage,
contamination, recall or restriction on the use of biologically derived substances in the manufacture of our product candidates could adversely impact or disrupt the commercial manufacturing or the production of clinical material, which could materially and adversely affect our development timelines and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We have no sales or marketing experience and, as such, plan to depend significantly on third parties who may not successfully market and sell any products we develop.
We have no sales, marketing or product distribution experience or capabilities. If we receive required regulatory approvals to commercialize any of our drug candidates, we plan to rely primarily on sales, marketing and distribution arrangements with third parties, including our collaborative partners. For example, as part of our agreements with Genentech, we have granted Genentech the exclusive rights to distribute certain products resulting from such collaboration, and Genentech is currently commercializing Erivedge. We may have to enter into additional marketing and/or sales arrangements in the future and we may not be able to enter into these additional arrangements on terms that are favorable to us, if at all. In addition, we may have limited or no control over the sales, marketing and distribution activities of these third parties and sales through these third parties could be less profitable to us than direct sales. These third parties could sell competing products and may devote insufficient sales efforts to our products. Our future revenues will be materially dependent upon the success of the efforts of these third parties.
We may seek to independently market and sell products that are not already subject to agreements with other parties. If we determine to perform sales, marketing and distribution functions ourselves, we could face a number of additional risks, including:
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we may not be able to attract and build a significant and skilled marketing staff or sales force;
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the cost of establishing a marketing staff or sales force may not be justifiable in light of the revenues generated by any particular product; and
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our direct sales and marketing efforts may not be successful.
Even if we successfully commercialize any products under development, either alone or in collaboration, we face uncertainty with respect to pricing, third-party reimbursement and healthcare reform, all of which could adversely affect the commercial success of our drug candidates.
Our ability to collect significant revenues from sales of our products, if commercialized successfully, may depend on our ability, and the ability of any current or potential future collaboration partners or customers, to obtain adequate levels of coverage and reimbursement for such products from third-party payers such as:
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government health administration authorities;
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private health insurers;
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health maintenance organizations;
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pharmacy benefit management companies; and
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other healthcare-related organizations.
A primary trend in the U.S. healthcare industry and elsewhere is cost containment. Third party payers are increasingly challenging the prices charged for medical products and services. Government authorities and third-party payors have attempted to control costs by limiting coverage and the amount of reimbursement for particular medications. We cannot be sure that reimbursement will be available for any product that we commercialize and, if reimbursement is available, the level of reimbursement. Reimbursement may impact the demand for, or the price of, any drug candidate for which we obtain marketing approval. If reimbursement is not available or is available only to limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize any drug candidate for which we obtain marketing approval.
There may be significant delays in obtaining reimbursement for newly approved drugs, and coverage may be more limited than the purposes for which the drug is approved by the FDA or a foreign equivalent. Moreover, eligibility for reimbursement does not imply that any drug will be paid for in all cases or at a rate that covers our costs, including research, development, manufacture, sale and distribution. Interim reimbursement levels for new drugs, if applicable, may also not be sufficient to cover our costs and may not be made permanent. Reimbursement rates may vary according to the use of the drug and the clinical setting in which it is used, may be based on reimbursement levels already set for lower cost drugs, and may be incorporated into existing payments for other services. Net prices for drugs may be reduced by mandatory discounts or rebates required by government healthcare programs or private payors and by any future relaxation of laws that presently restrict imports of drugs from countries where they may be sold at lower prices than in the US. Third-party payors often rely upon Medicare coverage policy and payment limitations in setting their own reimbursement policies. Our inability to promptly obtain coverage and profitable payment rates from both government-funded and private payors for any approved products that we develop could have a material adverse effect on our operating results, our ability to raise capital needed to commercialize products and our overall financial condition.
In the United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could prevent or delay marketing approval of any product candidate that we develop, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to profitably sell profitably or commercialize any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval or that we may in-license. The pharmaceutical industry has been a particular focus of these efforts and has been significantly affected by legislative initiatives. Current laws, as well as other healthcare reform measures that may be adopted in the future, may result in more rigorous coverage criteria and in additional downward pressure on the price that we receive for any approved product.
In the United States, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, or the MMA, changed the way Medicare covers and pays for pharmaceutical products. Cost reduction initiatives and other provisions of this legislation could limit coverage of and reduce the price that we receive for any approved products. While the MMA applies only to product benefits for Medicare beneficiaries, private payors often follow Medicare coverage policy and payment limitations in setting their own reimbursement rates. Therefore, any reduction in reimbursement that results from the MMA or other healthcare reform measures may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors.
In March 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act, or collectively PPACA. Among the provisions of PPACA of importance to our potential products are the following:
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an annual, nondeductible fee on any entity that manufactures or imports specified branded prescription drugs and biologic agents, apportioned among these entities according to their market share in certain government healthcare programs;
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an increase in the statutory minimum rebates a manufacturer must pay under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program to 23.1% and 13.0% of the average manufacturer price for branded and generic drugs, respectively;
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expansion of healthcare fraud and abuse laws, including the False Claims Act and the Anti-Kickback Statute, new government investigative powers, and enhanced penalties for noncompliance;
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a new Medicare Part D coverage gap discount program, in which manufacturers must agree to offer 50% point-of-sale discounts off negotiated prices of applicable brand drugs to eligible beneficiaries during their coverage gap period, as a condition for a manufacturer’s outpatient drugs to be covered under Medicare Part D;
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extension of manufacturers’ Medicaid rebate liability to covered drugs dispensed to individuals who are enrolled in Medicaid managed care organizations;
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expansion of eligibility criteria for Medicaid programs by, among other things, allowing states to offer Medicaid coverage to additional individuals and by adding new mandatory eligibility categories for certain individuals with income at or below 133% of the federal poverty level beginning in 2014, thereby potentially increasing a manufacturer’s Medicaid rebate liability;
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expansion of the entities eligible for discounts under the Public Health Service pharmaceutical pricing program;
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the new requirements under the federal Open Payments program and its implementing regulations;
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a new requirement to annually report product samples that manufacturers and distributors provide to physicians; and
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a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to oversee, identify priorities in, and conduct comparative clinical effectiveness research, along with funding for such research.
In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since PPACA was enacted. These changes include aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year, which went into effect in April 2013. In January 2013, President Obama signed into law the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which, among other things, reduced Medicare payments to several types of providers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years. These new laws may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other healthcare funding.
Legislative and regulatory proposals have been made to expand post-approval requirements and restrict sales and promotional activities for pharmaceutical products. We cannot be sure whether additional legislative changes will be enacted, or whether the FDA regulations, guidance or interpretations will be changed, or what the impact of such changes on the marketing approvals of our product candidates, if any, or in-licensed products, if any, may be.
RISKS RELATING TO OUR COMMON STOCK
If we fail to meet the requirements for continued listing on the NASDAQ Global Market, our common stock could be delisted from trading, which would adversely affect the liquidity of our common stock and our ability to raise additional capital.
Our common stock is currently listed for quotation on the NASDAQ Global Market. We are required to meet specified financial requirements in order to maintain our listing on the NASDAQ Global Market. One such requirement is that we maintain a minimum bid price of at least $1.00 per share for our common stock. Although we currently comply with the minimum bid requirement, our bid price has remained relatively low and has fallen within a range of $1.00 to $2.00 per share for several consecutive recent months of trading. Our bid price could fall below $1.00 per share in the future. If our bid price falls below $1.00 per share for 30 consecutive business days, we will receive a deficiency notice from NASDAQ advising us that we have 180 days to regain compliance by maintaining a minimum bid price of at least $1.00 for a minimum of ten consecutive business days. Under certain circumstances, NASDAQ could require that the minimum bid price exceed $1.00 for more than ten consecutive days before determining that a company complies. If in the future we fail to satisfy the NASDAQ Global Market’s continued listing requirements, we may transfer to the NASDAQ Capital Market, which generally has lower financial requirements for initial listing, to avoid delisting, or, if we fail to meet its listing requirements, the OTC Bulletin Board. Any potential delisting of our common stock from the NASDAQ Global Market would make it more difficult for our stockholders to sell our stock in the public market and would likely result in decreased liquidity and increased volatility for our common stock.
Our stock price may fluctuate significantly and the market price of our common stock could drop below the price paid by our investors.
The trading price of our common stock has been volatile and is likely to continue to be volatile in the future. For example, our stock traded within a range of a high price of $5.65 and a low price of $1.09 per share for the period January 1, 2012 through February 18, 2015. The stock market, particularly in recent years, has experienced significant volatility with respect to pharmaceutical and biotechnology company stocks. Prices for our stock will be determined in the marketplace and may be influenced by many factors, including:
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announcements regarding new technologies and/or drug candidates by us or our competitors;
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market conditions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors;
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rumors relating to us or our collaborators or competitors;
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litigation or public concern about the safety of our drug candidates;
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actual or anticipated variations in our quarterly operating results and any subsequent restatement of such results;
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the amount and timing of any royalty revenue we receive from Genentech related to Erivedge;
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actual or anticipated changes to our research and development plans;
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deviations in our operating results from the estimates of securities analysts;
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entering into new collaboration agreements or termination of existing collaboration agreements;
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adverse results or delays in clinical trials being conducted by us or any collaborators;
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any intellectual property or other lawsuits involving us;
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third-party sales of large blocks of our common stock;
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sales of our common stock by our executive officers, directors or significant stockholders;
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equity sales by us of our common stock to fund our operations;
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the loss of any of our key scientific or management personnel;
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FDA or international regulatory actions;
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the limited trading volume in our common stock; and
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general economic and market conditions, including recent adverse changes in the domestic and international financial markets.
While we cannot predict the individual effect that these factors may have on the price of our common stock, these factors, either individually or in the aggregate, could result in significant variations in price during any given period of time.
In the past, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies following periods of volatility in their stock price. This type of litigation could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention and resources.
Future sales of shares of our common stock, including shares issued upon the exercise of currently outstanding options and warrants or pursuant to our universal shelf registration statement could result in dilution to our stockholders and negatively affect our stock price.
Most of our outstanding common stock can be traded without restriction at any time. As such, sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could occur at any time. These sales, or
the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell such shares, could reduce the market price of our common stock. In addition, we have a significant number of shares that are subject to outstanding options and warrants and in the future we may issue additional options, warrants or other derivative securities convertible into our common stock. The exercise of any such options, warrants or other derivative securities, and the subsequent sale of the underlying common stock could cause a further decline in our stock price. These sales also might make it difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate.
We currently have on file with the SEC a “universal” shelf registration statement which allows us to offer and sell registered common stock, preferred stock and warrants from time to time pursuant to one or more offerings at prices and terms to be determined at the time of sale. For example, in July 2013 we entered into a sales agreement with Cowen pursuant to which, from time to time, we may offer and sell through Cowen, acting as agent, up to $30,000,000 of the registered common stock that was on this shelf registration statement pursuant to one or more “at the market” offerings. We have received gross proceeds of approximately $16,900,000 as of December 31, 2014 through such sales. In addition, with our prior written approval, Cowen may also sell these shares of common stock by any other method permitted by law, including in privately negotiated transactions. Sales of substantial amounts of shares of our common stock or other securities under this registration statement could lower the market price of our common stock and impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of equity securities.
If we are not able to maintain effective internal controls under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, our business and stock price could be adversely affected.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires us, on an annual basis, to review and evaluate our internal controls, and requires our independent auditors to attest to the effectiveness of our internal controls. Any failure by us to maintain the effectiveness of our internal controls in accordance with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as such requirements exist today or may be modified, supplemented or amended in the future, could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and stock price.
We do not intend to pay dividends on our common stock, and any return to investors will come, if at all, only from potential increases in the price of our common stock.
At the present time, we intend to use available funds to finance our operations. Accordingly, while payment of dividends rests within the discretion of our board of directors, no common stock dividends have been declared or paid by us and we have no intention of paying any common stock dividends in the foreseeable future.
Insiders have substantial influence over us and could delay or prevent a change in corporate control.
As of January 31, 2015, we believe that our directors, executive officers and principal stockholders, together with their affiliates, owned, in the aggregate, approximately 38.3% of our outstanding common stock. As a result, these stockholders, if acting together, will be able to exert influence over the management and affairs of our company and over matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. This concentration of ownership could harm the market price of our common stock by:
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delaying, deferring or preventing a change in control of our company;
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impeding a merger, consolidation, takeover or other business combination involving our company; or
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entrenching our management or the board of directors.
If securities analysts publish negative evaluations of our stock, the price of our stock could decline.
If one or more of the analysts covering our business downgrade their evaluations of our stock, the price of our stock could decline. If one or more of these analysts cease to cover our stock, we could lose visibility in the market for our stock, which in turn could cause our stock price to decline.
We have anti-takeover defenses that could delay or prevent an acquisition that our stockholders may consider favorable or prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management and the market price of our common stock may be lower as a result.
Provisions of our certificate of incorporation, our bylaws and Delaware law may have the effect of deterring unsolicited takeovers or delaying or preventing changes in control of our management, including transactions in which our stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares over then current market prices. In addition, these provisions may limit the ability of stockholders to approve transactions that they may deem to be in their best interest. For example, we have divided our board of directors into three classes that serve staggered three-year terms, we may issue shares of our authorized “blank check” preferred stock and our stockholders are limited in their ability to call special stockholder meetings.
In addition, we are subject to the anti-takeover provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which prohibits a publicly-held Delaware corporation from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder, generally a person which together with its affiliates owns, or within the last three years has owned, 15% of our voting stock, for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person became an interested stockholder, unless the business combination is approved in a prescribed manner. These provisions could discourage, delay or prevent a change in control transaction.
ITEM 1B.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.
ITEM 2.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
We currently lease a facility for our administrative, research and development requirements located at 4 Maguire Road in Lexington, Massachusetts consisting of 24,529 square feet pursuant to a lease that expires February 2018. We believe that our existing facility will be suitable and adequate to meet our needs for the foreseeable future.
ITEM 3.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
We are currently not a party to any material legal proceedings.
ITEM 4.
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
Not applicable.
PART II
ITEM 5.
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDERS MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Market Information. Our common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Market under the trading symbol “CRIS.” The following table sets forth, for the fiscal periods indicated, the high and low sales prices per share of our common stock as reported on the NASDAQ Global Market:
Holders. On February 23, 2015, the last reported sale price of our common stock per share on the NASDAQ Global Market was $3.15 and there were 230 holders of record of our common stock. The number of record holders may not be representative of the number of beneficial owners because many of the shares of our common stock are held by depositories, brokers or other nominees.
Dividends. We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock. We currently intend to retain earnings, if any, to support our business strategy and do not anticipate paying cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Payment of future dividends, if any, will be at the sole discretion of our board of directors after taking into account various factors, including our financial condition, operating results, capital requirements and any plans for expansion.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities. None.
Performance Graph. The graph below compares the cumulative total stockholder return on our common stock for the period from December 31, 2009 through December 31, 2014, with the cumulative total return on (i) NASDAQ Pharmaceutical Index , (ii) NASDAQ Composite Index and (iii) NASDAQ Biotechnology Index. The comparison assumes investment of $100 on December 31, 2009 in our common stock and in each of the indices and, in each case, assumes reinvestment of all dividends.
This graph is not deemed to be “filed” with the SEC or subject to the liabilities of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, and should not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any of our prior or subsequent filings under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act.
COMPARISON OF 5 YEAR CUMULATIVE TOTAL RETURN*
Among Curis, Inc., the NASDAQ Composite Index, the NASDAQ Pharmaceutical Index,
and the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index
*$100 invested on 12/31/09 in stock or index, including reinvestment of dividends.
Fiscal year ending December 31.
ITEM 6.
ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
The selected consolidated financial data set forth below have been derived from our consolidated financial statements. These historical results are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for any future period. You should read the data set forth below in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this report.
(1) During the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011, we recognized $3,000,000, $10,000,000, $14,000,000 and $14,000,000 of revenue for cash payments that we earned during each of 2014, 2013, 2012
and 2011, respectively, under our June 2003 Hedgehog pathway inhibitor collaboration with Genentech. During the year ended December 31, 2010, we recognized $11,000,000 of revenue for cash payments that we earned under our August 2009 license agreement with Debiopharm, and we also recognized $4,000,000 in settlement proceeds from Micromet pursuant to the settlement agreement that we entered into in February 2010 to resolve a contract claim we filed related to our June 2001 agreement with Micromet.
(2) During the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, we recognized $650,000 and $1,000,000, respectively, of research and development revenue for milestones that we earned under our November 2011 agreement with LLS.
(3) Long-term obligations are comprised of the following:
ITEM 7.
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations should be read together with “Selected Financial Data,” and our financial statements and accompanying notes appearing elsewhere in this report. This discussion contains forward-looking statements, based on current expectations and related to future events and our future financial performance, that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of many important factors, including those set forth under Item 1A, “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this report.
Overview
We are a biotechnology company seeking to develop and commercialize innovative drug candidates for the treatment of human cancers. Our most advanced drug candidate is CUDC-907, an orally-available, small molecule inhibitor of histone deacetylase, or HDAC, and phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase, or PI3K enzymes, which has completed dose escalation stage of a first-in-man Phase 1 clinical study in patients with relapsed, refractory lymphoma or multiple myeloma. In addition, we recently entered into an exclusive collaboration agreement focused on immuno-oncology and selected precision oncology targets with Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited, or Aurigene, a specialized, discovery stage biotechnology company and wholly-owned subsidiary of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories that is developing novel therapies to treat cancer and inflammatory diseases. We expect to exercise our options during the first half of 2015 to obtain two exclusive licenses under this collaboration including for drug candidates that target an orally-available small molecule antagonist of programmed death ligand-1, or PD-L1 immune checkpoint target, and an orally-available small molecule inhibitor of Interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4, or IRAK4 kinase. Our proprietary pipeline also includes CUDC-427, an orally-available, small molecule antagonist inhibitor of apoptosis, or IAP proteins, which has recently completed dose escalation in a Phase 1 clinical trial in patients with solid tumors or lymphoma. We also recently regained rights to our Heat Shock Protein 90, or HSP90, inhibitor Debio 0932 from Debiopharm International S.A., or Debiopharm. We have redesignated this drug candidate as CUDC-305 and are evaluating initiating clinical studies with CUDC-305 in 2015. Our collaborators F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, or Roche, and Genentech Inc., or Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, are commercializing Erivedge® (vismodegib), a first-in-class orally-administered small molecule Hedgehog pathway inhibitor, in advanced basal cell carcinoma, or BCC. Roche and Genentech are also continuing Erivedge’s clinical development in less severe forms of BCC as well as planned development in other non-oncology indications.
CUDC-907. In January 2013, we initiated a Phase 1 clinical study of CUDC-907 in patients with relapsed or refractory lymphomas or multiple myeloma. In the fourth quarter of 2014, we established the recommended Phase 2 dose and schedules of administration for further development of CUDC-907and initiated enrollment of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, or DLBCL, or multiple myeloma in the expansion stage of the Phase 1 study. A preliminary analysis of the eight heavily pre-treated subjects with relapsed, refractory DLBCL disease enrolled in the dose escalation phase showed that three patients have experienced confirmed partial responses and one patient achieved a complete response leading to that patient undergoing an to autologous stem cell transplantation. We expect to present the available data from the Phase 1 study at a medical conference in 2015 and anticipate that we will initiate a Phase 2, registration-directed, randomized study of CUDC-907 in patients with relapsed, refractory DLBCL during the second half of 2015 in order to assess the drug candidate’s efficacy in this indication. Development of CUDC-907 in hematological malignancies is partially supported under a collaboration with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, or LLS.
In the fourth quarter of 2014, we initiated a separate Phase 1 trial to investigate CUDC-907 in patients with advanced solid tumors, including those with hormone receptor positive breast cancer or with NUT midline carcinoma.
Aurigene. In January 2015, we entered into an exclusive, multi-year collaboration with Aurigene that is focused on discovery, development and commercialization of drug candidates in the fields of immuno-oncology and precision oncology. As part of the agreement, Aurigene has granted to us the option to exclusively license multiple compounds including the designated development candidates discovered using their small molecule technology that address molecular targets within the scope of the collaboration. Within the collaboration, Aurigene is responsible for conducting all discovery and preclinical activities, including IND-enabling studies and providing Phase 1 clinical trial supply of the investigational agent, and we are responsible for all clinical development, regulatory and commercialization efforts worldwide, excluding India and Russia, for each candidate for which we exercise an option to obtain a license. We will also make specified payments to Aurigene, including option exercise fees, pre-IND milestones for the first four programs, as well as milestone payments and royalties on any products we successfully commercialize under the collaboration. The lead compounds under the collaboration are orally-available small molecule antagonists of PD-L1 immune checkpoint target and orally-available small molecule inhibitors of IRAK4 kinase in the precision oncology field. We expect to exercise options to obtain exclusive licenses to compounds directed at these targets in the first half of 2015 and to file IND applications for a development candidate from each program later in 2015. Because Aurigene is primarily responsible for preclinical development of all program compounds, we expect that a substantial majority of our costs in 2015 related to PD-L1 and IRAK4 will be related to option exercise fees and preclinical milestones. For the first two programs, we are obligated to pay Aurigene $3,000,000 upon option exercise, $3,000,000 upon acceptance of an IND, and $4,000,000 upon our dosing of the fifth patient in the related Phase 1 study.
CUDC-427. In 2012, we licensed from Genentech the exclusive, worldwide rights for the development and commercialization of CUDC-427. Under the terms of the license agreement, we have the sole right and responsibility for all research, development, manufacturing and commercialization activities related to CUDC-427. Genentech previously conducted a Phase 1 study in patients with advanced and refractory solid tumors or lymphoma where CUDC-427 was administered at escalating once daily doses for two weeks, followed by a one week rest period in 21-day cycles until disease progression or treatment discontinuation for any other reason. In July 2013, we initiated a single-agent, Phase 1 dose escalation trial of CUDC-427 in patients with advanced and refractory solid tumors or lymphoma using twice-daily treatment schedule with no rest period in 21-day cycles. In November 2013, we received written notification from the United States Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, that the Phase 1 trial of CUDC-427 was placed on partial clinical hold following the report of death of a patient who progressed to liver failure approximately one month following the discontinuation of CUDC-427 dosing. In February 2014, we responded to the FDA’s requests for additional information and also submitted an amendment to the trial protocol. In March 2014, the FDA completed its review of our complete response submission and determined that it was safe to proceed under the IND and lifted the partial clinical hold on the Phase 1 trial of CUDC-427. In the fourth quarter of 2014, we completed the dose escalation stage of a Curis-sponsored Phase 1 study in which consecutive cohorts of patients according to the standard 3+3 design were treated with CUDC-427 at dose levels of 100, 200 and 300 mg daily. We have established 300 mg daily dose given on a 14 days “on”, 7 days ‘off” schedule as the recommended dose and schedule for further development of CUDC-427 and we expect to enroll patients with lymphoma, including those with DLBCL and mucosa associated lymphoid tissue, or MALT, lymphoma in an expansion cohort later in 2015.
CUDC-305. We have recently regained the worldwide development and commercialization rights to Debio 0932 from Debiopharm. During the fourth quarter of 2014, Debiopharm determined that it would not advance Debio 0932 to the Phase 2 stage of the HALO, or HSP90 inhibition And Lung cancer Outcomes, study. Debiopharm determined that the results from the Phase 1 portion of the HALO study were inconclusive although safety observations were generally consistent with the previously observed side effects of Debio 0932 and/or the respective chemotherapeutic regimens administered in the trial. In February 2015, we entered into a termination and transition agreement with Debiopharm pursuant to which Debiopharm has returned to us all future development and commercialization rights to Debio 0932, which we have redesignated as CUDC-305. While we do not plan to continue to investigate CUDC-305 in non-small cell lung cancer, we are evaluating initiating
clinical studies with CUDC-305 in 2015, including trials in patients with systemic mastocytosis and glioblastoma multiforme, either in company-sponsored or investigator sponsored studies.
Erivedge. Erivedge is the first and only FDA approved medicine for the treatment of metastatic or locally advanced basal cell carcinoma, or BCC, and is being developed and commercialized by Roche and Genentech under a collaboration agreement between Curis and Genentech. In January 2012, the FDA approved the Erivedge for treatment of adults with BCC that has spread to other parts of the body, or that has come back after surgery or that their healthcare provider decides cannot be treated with surgery or radiation, collectively considered as advanced BCC. In May 2013, Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration, or TGA, approved Erivedge and in July 2013, the European Commission granted conditional approval for the marketing of Erivedge in all 28 European Union member states. Erivedge’s approval in the United States, Europe, Australia and several other countries are based on positive clinical data from the ERIVANCE BCC/SHH4476g trial, a pivotal Phase 2 study of Erivedge in patients with advanced BCC. Under the provisions of the conditional approval in Europe, Roche is expected to provide additional data on Erivedge in advanced BCC from the ongoing global safety study, known as STEVIE, which is an international, single-arm, open-label multicenter trial in patients with advanced forms of BCC. The STEVIE trial has completed enrollment of approximately 1,200 patients and interim analyses from the study confirmed a safety profile similar to that observed in previous studies of Erivedge in BCC patients. Roche and Genentech are also continuing Erivedge’s clinical development in less severe forms of BCC as well as pursuing its potential development in other non-oncology indications.
Our Collaborations and License Agreements
Our current collaborations and license agreements are summarized as follows:
Aurigene
Collaboration Overview. On January 18, 2015, we entered into a collaboration agreement with Aurigene for the discovery, development and commercialization of small molecule compounds in the areas of immuno-oncology and precision oncology. Under the collaboration agreement, Aurigene granted us option to obtain exclusive, royalty-bearing licenses under relevant Aurigene technology to develop, manufacture and commercialize products containing certain of such compounds.
The lead compounds under our collaboration agreement are directed at developing orally available small molecules that will target the modulation of the PD-L1 pathway and IRAK4 kinase, respectively.
For each program, Aurigene has granted us an exclusive option, exercisable within 90 days after Aurigene delivers the relevant data regarding a development candidate, to obtain an exclusive, royalty-bearing license to develop, manufacture and commercialize compounds from such program, including the development candidate and products containing such compounds, anywhere in the world with the exception of India and Russia. Upon exercise of the option for a particular program, Aurigene will grant us the royalty-bearing license described above for such program, and we will grant Aurigene an exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid license under our relevant technology to develop, manufacture and commercialize compounds from such program and products containing such compounds in India and Russia.
Up-front Equity Issuance. In connection with the collaboration agreement, we issued to Aurigene 17,120,131 shares of our common stock in partial consideration for the rights granted to us under the collaboration agreement. The shares were issued pursuant to a stock purchase agreement with Aurigene dated January 18, 2015.
Research Payments, Option Exercise Fees and Milestone Payments. We have agreed to make the following research, option exercise fees and milestone payments to Aurigene:
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for the first two programs: up to $52.5 million per program, including up to $10 million for an option exercise fee, a preclinical milestone and development milestones, as well as specified approval and commercial milestones, plus specified additional payments for approvals for additional indications, if any;
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for the third and fourth programs: up to $50 million per program, including up to $7.5 million for research fees, an option exercise fee, a preclinical milestone and development milestones, as well as specified approval and commercial milestones, plus specified additional payments for approvals for additional indications, if any; and
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for any program thereafter: up to $140.5 million per program, including up to a total of $53 million for research fees, an option exercise fee, a preclinical milestone and development milestones, as well as specified filing, approval and commercial milestones, plus specified additional payments for approvals for additional indications, if any.
Royalties on Net Sales by Curis. We have agreed to pay Aurigene tiered royalties on our and our affiliates’ annual net sales of products at percentage rates ranging from the high single digits up to 10%, subject to specified reductions.
Amounts that we Receive from Sublicensees. We have agreed to make the following payments to Aurigene upon our entry into sublicense agreements on any program(s):
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with respect to amounts that we and our affiliates receive from sublicensees with respect to the grant of a sublicense of a licensed program in the U.S. or the European Union, a declining percentage of non-royalty sublicense revenues that is dependent on the stage of the most advanced product for such licensed program at the time the sublicense is granted, including for example 25% of such amounts following our initiation of Phase 2 clinical study and 15% of such amounts after initiation of the first pivotal study. This sharing will also extend to royalties that we receive from sublicensees, subject to minimum royalty percentage rates that we are obligated to pay to Aurigene, which generally range from mid-to-high single-digit royalty percentage rates up to 10%;
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with respect to sublicensing revenues we and our affiliates receive from sublicensees with respect to the grant of a sublicense of a licensed program in Asia, 50% of such sublicensing revenues, including both non-royalty sublicensee revenues and royalties that we receive from sublicensees; and
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with respect to non-royalty sublicensing revenues we and our affiliates receive from sublicensees with respect to the grant of a sublicense of a licensed program outside of the U.S., the European Union and Asia, a percentage of such non-royalty sublicense revenues ranging from 30% to 50%. We are also obligated to share 50% of royalties that we receive from sublicensees that we receive in these territories.
Our royalty payment obligations (including with respect to royalties on sales by sublicensees) under the Collaboration Agreement with respect to a product in a country will expire on a product-by-product and country-by-country basis on the later of (i) expiration of the last-to-expire valid claim of the Aurigene patents covering the manufacture, use or sale of such product in such country and (ii) 10 years from the first commercial sale of such product in such country.
For additional information regarding the terms and termination provisions of this agreement, see “Business-Collaborations-Aurigene Agreement.”
Genentech
Genentech Hedgehog Pathway Inhibitor Collaboration. Under the terms of our collaboration agreement with Genentech, we granted Genentech an exclusive, global, royalty-bearing license, with the right to sublicense, to make, use, sell and import small molecule and antibody Hedgehog pathway inhibitors. The lead drug candidate being developed under this program is Erivedge. Genentech subsequently granted a sublicense to Roche for non-U.S. rights to GDC-0449, other than in Japan where such rights are held by Chugai. Genentech and Roche have primary responsibility for worldwide clinical development, regulatory affairs, manufacturing and supply, formulation and sales and marketing.
We are eligible to receive up to $115,000,000 in contingent cash payments for the development of Erivedge or another small molecule, assuming the successful achievement by Genentech and Roche of specified clinical development and regulatory objectives, of which we have received $59,000,000 to date. Pursuant to the terms of our collaboration agreement with Genentech, we are also entitled to a royalty on net sales of Erivedge. The royalty rate escalates from 5% to 7.5% based on worldwide annual net sales ranging from less than $150 million to $600 million. The royalty rate applicable to Erivedge may be decreased by 2% (such that the applicable royalty rate will range between 3% to 5.5%) in certain specified circumstances, including when a competing product that binds to the same molecular target as Erivedge is approved by the applicable regulatory authority and is being sold in such country by a third party for use in the same indication as Erivedge or when there is no issued intellectual property covering Erivedge in a territory in which sales are recorded. We recognized $6,757,000 and $3,942,000 in such revenue for sales of Erivedge during the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively. In December 2012, our wholly-owned subsidiary, Curis Royalty, received a $30,000,000 loan from BioPharma-II. In connection with the loan, we transferred to Curis Royalty our right to receive certain future royalty and royalty-related payments on the commercial sales of Erivedge that we may receive from Genentech. The loan and accrued interest will be repaid by Curis Royalty using such royalty and royalty-related payments. The loan constitutes an obligation of Curis Royalty, and is intended to be non-recourse to Curis. As of December 31, 2014, Curis Royalty owed a total of $28,699,000, gross, to BioPharma-II comprised of principal and accrued interest. Future royalty payments related to Erivedge will service the outstanding debt and accrued interest to BioPharma-II, up to the quarterly caps for 2015, and until the debt is fully repaid thereafter.
We are also obligated to make payments to university licensors on royalties that Curis Royalty earns in all territories other than Australia in an amount that is equal to 5% of the royalty payments that Curis Royalty receives from Genentech. This obligation is for a period of 10 years from the first commercial sale of Erivedge, which occurred in February 2012. For royalties that Curis Royalty earns from Roche’s sales of Erivedge in Australia, we are obligated to make payments to university licensors of 2% of Roche’s direct net sales in Australia until expiration of the Australian patent in April 2019, after which the amount will decrease to 5% of the royalty payments that Curis Royalty receives from Genentech for the remainder of the period ending 10 years from the first commercial sale of Erivedge, or February 2022. Cost of royalty revenues were $340,000 during the year ended December 31, 2014. We have incurred an aggregate of $713,000 to university licensors upon receipt of royalties since Erivedge was approved, including a one-time milestone payment to a university licensor of $100,000 on the first commercial sale of Erivedge in 2012.
Genentech IAP Inhibitor License Agreement. In November 2012, we licensed from Genentech the exclusive, worldwide rights for the development and commercialization of CUDC-427, a small molecule that is designed to promote cancer cell death by antagonizing IAP proteins. Under the terms of the license agreement, we have the sole right and responsibility for all research, development, manufacturing and commercialization activities related to CUDC-427. During the fourth quarter of 2012, we incurred expenses of $9,500,000 representing an up-front license payment and technology transfer costs payable to Genentech. In addition, Genentech is entitled to receive milestone payments upon the first commercial sale of CUDC-427 in certain territories and tiered single-digit royalties on net sales of CUDC-427.
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Agreement.
In November 2011, we entered into an agreement with LLS, under which LLS will provide approximately 50% of the direct costs of the development of CUDC-907, up to $4,000,000, through milestone payments upon our achievement of specified development objectives, in patients with relapsed or refractory lymphomas and multiple myeloma. During the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, we earned milestone payments of $650,000 and $1,000,000, respectively, under the terms of the agreement with LLS. We will be obligated to make future contingent payments, including potential royalty payments under our agreement with LLS upon our successful entry into a partnering agreement for CUDC-907 or upon the achievement of regulatory and commercial objectives, with such future payments capped at 2.5 times the milestone payments that we receive from LLS under this agreement.
Debiopharm
In August 2009, we granted a worldwide, exclusive royalty-bearing license to develop, manufacture, market and sell our HSP90 inhibitor technology, including Debio 0932, to Debiopharm. Debiopharm completed Phase 1 testing of this drug candidate and in August 2012, Debiopharm initiated the HALO, or HSP90 inhibition And Lung cancer Outcomes, Phase 1/2 clinical trial of Debio 0932 in combination with various chemotherapy regimens in patients with stage IIIb or IV non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, without known epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR, mutations. The primary objective of this trial was to analyze the effect of adding Debio 0932 to combination chemotherapy with cisplatin/pemetrexed or cisplatin/ gemcitabine on the rate of progression-free survival at 6 months in first-line therapy of patients in this trial population. Debiopharm reviewed data from the Phase 1 portion of the HALO study and determined that the results from the Phase 1 portion of the HALO study were inconclusive although safety observations were generally consistent with the previously observed side effects of Debio 0932 and/or the respective chemotherapeutic regimens administered in the trial.
In February 2015, we entered into a termination and transition agreement, which we refer to as the transition agreement, with Debiopharm to terminate our August 2009 license agreement, effective February 5, 2015. We have redesignated the molecule CUDC-305. While we do not plan to continue to investigate CUDC-305 in non-small cell lung cancer, we are evaluating initiating clinical studies with CUDC-305 in 2015 and we are exploring the potential to test the molecule in other indications, including in systemic mastocytosis and glioblastoma multiforme, either in company-sponsored or investigator sponsored studies. Under the terms of the transition agreement, the licenses and all other rights granted by us related to CUDC-305 have been terminated and reverted to Curis effective as of the termination date. Debiopharm ceased enrollment in all clinical trials as of the termination date. In addition, we exercised our right, pursuant to the license agreement, to obtain a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing license, with the right to sublicense, under other intellectual property rights of Debiopharm to develop, make, have made, use, sell, offer for sale, have sold and import CUDC-305, and Debiopharm will transfer to us the U.S. investigational new drug application related to CUDC-305. Debiopharm also assigned its sole patent application related to CUDC-305 to us.
Under the terms of the transition agreement, Debiopharm will transition ongoing CUDC-305 development and manufacturing activities to us and will make available all necessary information generated by or on behalf of Debiopharm to pursue the manufacturing of CUDC-305.
We paid $750,000 to Debiopharm shortly after the termination date, primarily in consideration for Debiopharm providing drug product for use in our future clinical studies. In addition, we have agreed to make each of the following contingent one-time payments to Debiopharm: (i) $3,000,000 within 30 days after the first dosing of the first patient in the first Phase 3 clinical trial of CUDC-305; and (ii) $10,000,000 within 30 days after receipt of the first marketing approval for CUDC-305 in the U.S. or any specified major European market (whichever occurs first). We have also agreed to pay to Debiopharm royalties at a rate of 3% of net sales by us (excluding sales by our third party sublicensees) of products containing CUDC-305 and to pay Debiopharm the
following percentages of amounts that we receive from third party sublicensees: (i) 10% of any royalties that we receive from third party sublicensees based on such sublicensees’ net sales of products containing CUDC-305; and (ii)15% of any non-royalty sublicense payments that we receive from third party sublicensees, provided that the maximum aggregate amount payable by us to Debiopharm with respect to non-royalty sublicense payments is $20,000,000, unless such sublicense payments are attributable to our grant to a third party sublicensee of a license or sublicense to develop or commercialize a topical formulation of CUDC-305 for local, non-systemic delivery for the treatment of psoriasis, in which case there is no such maximum aggregate.
Liquidity
Since our inception, we have funded our operations primarily through license fees, contingent cash payments, research and development funding from our corporate collaborators, private and public placement of our equity securities, debt financings and the monetization of certain royalty rights. We have never been profitable on an annual basis and have an accumulated deficit of $779,555,000 as of December 31, 2014.
We will need to generate significant revenues to achieve profitability and do not expect to achieve profitability in the foreseeable future, if at all. We anticipate that existing capital resources as of December 31, 2014 should enable us to maintain current and planned operations into 2016. Our ability to continue funding our planned operations into and beyond this point is dependent on future contingent payments that we may receive from Genentech or LLS upon the achievement of development and regulatory approval objectives, our ability to manage our expenses and our ability to raise additional funds through additional corporate collaborations, equity or debt financings, or from other sources of financing.
Key Drivers
We believe that near term key drivers to our success will include:
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Genentech and Roche’s ability to successfully commercialize Erivedge in advanced BCC in the United States and in other global territories, respectively;
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our ability to successfully plan, finance and complete current and planned clinical trials for CUDC-907, CUDC-427 and CUDC-305 as well as obtain promising results from these trials; and
•
Aurigene’s ability to advance its preclinical immuno-oncology and precision oncology drug candidates toward clinical testing and our ability to progress these programs clinically.
In the longer term, a key driver to our success will be our ability, and the ability of any current or future collaborator or licensee, to successfully develop and commercialize additional product candidates.
Financial Operations Overview
General. Our future operating results will largely depend on the magnitude of payments from our current and potential future corporate collaborators and the progress of drug candidates currently in our research and development pipeline. The results of our operations will vary significantly from year to year and quarter to quarter and depend on, among other factors, the timing of our entry into new collaborations, if any, the timing of the receipt of payments, if any, from new or existing collaborators and the cost and outcome of any preclinical development or clinical trials then being conducted. We anticipate that existing capital resources as of December 31, 2014 should enable us to maintain current and planned operations into 2016.
Debt. In December 2012, our wholly-owned subsidiary, Curis Royalty, entered into a $30,000,000 debt transaction with BioPharma-II at an annual interest rate of 12.25% collateralized with certain future Erivedge royalty and royalty-related payment streams.
In connection with the loan, we transferred to Curis Royalty our right to receive certain future royalty and royalty-related payments on the commercial sales of Erivedge that we may receive from Genentech. The loan and accrued interest will be repaid by Curis Royalty using such royalty and royalty-related payments. To secure repayment of the loan, Curis Royalty granted a first priority lien and security interest (subject only to permitted liens) to BioPharma-II in all of its assets and all real, intangible and personal property, including all of its right, title and interest in and to the royalty and royalty-related payments. The loan constitutes an obligation of Curis Royalty, and is intended to be non-recourse to us. Under the terms of the loan, quarterly royalty payments received by Curis Royalty from Genentech will first be applied to pay (i) escrow fees payable by us pursuant to an escrow agreement between Curis, Curis Royalty, BioPharma-II and Boston Private Bank and Trust Company, (ii) our royalty obligations to academic institutions, (iii) certain expenses incurred by BioPharma-II in connection with the credit agreement and related transaction documents, including enforcement of its rights in the case of an event of default under the credit agreement and (iv) expenses incurred by us enforcing our right to indemnification under the collaboration agreement with Genentech. Remaining amounts, subject to caps of $3,000,000 per quarter in 2015, will be applied first, to pay interest and second, principal on the loan. Curis Royalty will be entitled to receive the remaining amounts above the caps, if any, and we remain entitled to receive any contingent payments upon achievement of clinical development objectives. In 2016, there are no caps to the amounts Curis Royalty will be required to make to BioPharma-II. Curis Royalty retains the right to royalty payments related to sales of Erivedge following repayment of the loan.
The final maturity date of the loan will be the earlier of the date when the principal is paid in full and the termination of Curis Royalty’s right to receive royalties under the collaboration agreement with Genentech. At any time after January 1, 2017, Curis Royalty may, subject to certain limitations, prepay the outstanding principal of the loan in whole or in part, at a price equal to 105% of the outstanding principal on the loan, plus accrued but unpaid interest. The obligations of Curis Royalty under the credit agreement to repay the loan may be accelerated upon the occurrence of an event of default as defined in the credit agreement. During 2013, Curis Royalty began making payments to BioPharma-II upon receipt of Erivedge royalties. As of December 31, 2014, the outstanding principal and interest due under the loan is $28,699,000.
Revenue. We do not expect to generate any revenues from our direct sale of products for several years, if ever. Substantially all of our revenues to date have been derived from license fees, research and development payments, and other amounts that we have received from our strategic collaborators and licensees, including royalty payments. For the year ended December 31, 2014, milestone and royalty payments from Genentech accounted for $9,796,000, or approximately 100%, of our total revenue, all of which related to the development and commercialization of Erivedge. Since the first quarter of 2012, we have recognized royalty revenues related to Genentech’s sales of Erivedge in the U.S. We expect to continue to recognize royalty revenue in future quarters from Genentech’s sales of Erivedge in the U.S. and in other markets where Genentech and Roche successfully obtain marketing approval, if any. However, we expect that all of such royalty revenues will be used by our wholly-owned subsidiary, Curis Royalty, to pay principal and interest under the loan that Curis Royalty received from BioPharma II, subject to quarterly caps, until such time as the loan is fully repaid. We currently estimate that the debt will be repaid in the first half of 2017. However, the actual repayment period could vary materially from our estimate to the extent that royalty payments we receive are lower than our current estimates, which could arise due to factors beyond our control, such as due to the sale of competing products that result in a lowering of the royalty rates we are entitled to receive, decreased market acceptance, a failure by Genentech and/or Roche to obtain required regulatory approvals, and other factors described under “Part I, Item 1A - Risk Factors.”
We could receive additional milestone payments from Genentech and LLS, provided the respective programs meet contractually-specified development and regulatory objectives. In June 2014, Roche filed an IND application with the FDA to initiate a Phase 2 clinical study of Erivedge in patients with IPF, which represents the first clinical study by Roche in a non-oncology indication and resulted in a $3,000,000 cash milestone payment to us, which was received in July 2014. Although the Phase 2 study was opened, no patients were enrolled in the study and in August 2014 enrollment in this study was suspended by Roche pending additional changes in the study protocol. We received milestone payments from Genentech totaling $10,000,000 during the
year ended December 31, 2013 for the achievement of development objectives related to market approvals of Erivedge. Our only source of revenues and/or cash flows from operations for the foreseeable future will be up-front license payments and funded research and development that we may receive under new collaboration agreements, if any, contingent cash payments for the achievement of clinical, development and regulatory objectives, if any are met, under new collaborations or our existing collaborations with Genentech and LLS and royalty payments that are contingent upon the successful commercialization of any products based upon these collaborations. Our ability to enter into new collaborations and our receipt of additional payments under our existing collaborations with Genentech and LLS cannot be assured, nor can we predict the timing of any such arrangements or payments, as the case may be.
Cost of Royalty Revenues. Cost of royalty revenues consists of all expenses incurred that are associated with royalty revenues that we record in the Revenues section of our Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss. These costs currently consist of payments we are obligated to make to university licensors on royalties that we earn from Genentech on net sales of Erivedge. In all territories other than Australia, our obligation is equal to 5% of the royalty payments that we receive from Genentech for a period of 10 years from the first commercial sale of Erivedge, which occurred in February 2012. For royalties that we earn from Roche’s sales of Erivedge in Australia, we will be obligated to make payments to university licenses of 2% of Roche’s direct net sales in Australia until expiration of the patent in April 2019, after which the amount will decrease to 5% of the royalty payments that we receive from Genentech for the remainder of the period ending 10 years from the first commercial sale of Erivedge, or February 2022.
Research and Development. Research and development expense consists of costs incurred to discover, research and develop our drug candidates. These expenses consist primarily of: (1) salaries and related expenses for personnel including stock-based compensation expense; (2) outside service costs including, clinical research organizations and contract manufacturing; (3) sublicense payments; and (4) the costs of supplies and reagents, consulting, and occupancy and depreciation charges. We expense research and development costs as incurred. We are currently incurring research and development expenses under our Hedgehog pathway inhibitor collaboration with Genentech related to the maintenance of third-party licenses to certain background technologies. In addition, we record research and development expense for payments that we are obligated to make to certain third-party university licensors upon our earning payments from Genentech related to the achievement of clinical development and regulatory objectives under our collaboration agreement.
Drug Candidate
Primary Disease
Collaborator/Licensee
Status
Dual HDAC and PI3K Inhibitor
- CUDC-907
Advanced lymphomas and multiple myeloma
Internal development/LLS
Phase 1
HER 2-/ ER+ or PR+ breast cancer and NUT midline carcinoma
Internal development
Phase 1
Aurigene Immuno-Oncology
- PD-L1 antagonist
Cancers
Aurigene
Preclinical*
Aurigene Precision Oncology
- IRAK4 Inhibitor
Hematological cancers
Aurigene
Preclinical*
Antagonist of IAP Proteins
- CUDC-427
Advanced solid tumor & lymphomas
Internal development
Phase 1
HSP90 Inhibitor
- CUDC-305
Cancers
Internal development
Regained global rights in February 2015; evaluating initiating clinical studies in 2015, including in systemic mastocytosis and glioblastoma multiforme
Hedgehog Pathway Inhibitor
- Erivedge
Advanced BCC
Genentech (Roche)
Approved in US, Australia and others and conditional approval in the EU; regulatory submissions made in certain other territories
- Erivedge
Preceding excision and multiple BCC
Roche
Phase 2
- Erivedge
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
Roche
Phase 2; patient enrollment currently suspended to allow for protocol amendment
* We have an option to exclusively license molecules under the terms of our agreement with Aurigene.
With the exception of Erivedge in advanced BCC, our programs are in early stages of development. Therefore, our ability and that of our collaborators and licensees to successfully complete preclinical studies and clinical trials of these drug candidates, and the timing of completion of such programs, is highly uncertain.
There are numerous other risks and uncertainties associated with developing drugs which may affect our and our collaborators’ future results, including:
•
the scope, quality of data, rate of progress and cost of clinical trials and other research and development activities undertaken by us or our collaborators;
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the results of future preclinical studies and clinical trials;
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the cost and timing of regulatory approvals and maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements;
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the cost and timing of establishing sales, marketing and distribution capabilities;
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the cost of establishing clinical and commercial supplies of our drug candidates and any products that we may develop;
•
the effect of competing technological and market developments; and
•
the cost and effectiveness of filing, prosecuting, defending and enforcing any patent claims and other intellectual property rights.
We cannot reasonably estimate or know the nature, timing and estimated costs of the efforts necessary to complete the development of, or the period in which material net cash inflows are expected to commence from any of our drug candidates. Any failure to complete the development of our drug candidates in a timely manner could have a material adverse effect on our operations, financial position and liquidity.
A further discussion of some of the risks and uncertainties associated with completing our research and development programs on schedule, or at all, and some consequences of failing to do so, are set forth under “Part I, Item 1A - Risk Factors.”
In-process Research and Development. We recognized in-process research and development expenses of $9,500,000 during the year ended December 31, 2012 for to the one-time license and technology transfer fees related to the licensing of CUDC-427 from Genentech.
General and Administrative. General and administrative expense consists primarily of salaries, stock-based compensation expense and other related costs for personnel in executive, finance, accounting, business development, legal, information technology, corporate communications and human resource functions. Other costs include facility costs not otherwise included in research and development expense, insurance, and professional fees for legal, patent and accounting services. Patent costs include certain patents covered under collaborations, a portion of which is reimbursed by collaborators and a portion of which is borne by us. We expect that our general and administration expenses will increase in future periods related to an increase in employee-related costs.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
The preparation of our consolidated financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States requires that we make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts and disclosure of certain assets and liabilities at our balance sheet date. Such estimates and judgments include the carrying value of property and equipment and intangible assets, revenue recognition, the value of certain liabilities, including our warrant liability, debt classification and stock-based compensation. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other factors that we believe to be appropriate under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.
While our significant accounting policies are more fully described in our consolidated financial statements, we believe that the following accounting policies are critical to understanding the judgments and estimates we use in preparing our financial statements:
Revenue Recognition
Our business strategy includes entering into strategic license and development agreements with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies for the development and commercialization of our drug candidates. The terms of the agreements typically include non-refundable license fees, funding of research and development, payments based upon achievement of clinical development milestones and royalties on product sales. We follow the provisions of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, Codification Topic 605, Revenue Recognition.
License Fees and Multiple Element Arrangements. In January 2011, we adopted a new U.S. GAAP accounting standard which amends existing revenue recognition accounting guidance to provide accounting principles and application guidance on whether multiple deliverables exist, how the arrangement should be separated, and the consideration allocated. This new guidance eliminates the requirement to establish objective evidence of fair value of undelivered products and services and instead provides for separate revenue recognition
based upon management’s estimate of the selling price for an undelivered item when there is no vendor-specific objective evidence or third-party evidence to determine the fair value of that undelivered item. The new standard was implemented on a prospective basis for new or materially modified arrangements beginning in 2011.
Non-refundable license fees are recognized as revenue when we have a contractual right to receive such payment, the contract price is fixed or determinable, the collection of the resulting receivable is reasonably assured and we have no further performance obligations under the license agreement. Multiple element arrangements, such as license and development arrangements are analyzed to determine whether the deliverables, which often include a license and performance obligations such as research and steering committee services, can be separated or whether they must be accounted for as a single unit of accounting in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. We recognize up-front license payments as revenue upon delivery of the license only if the license has stand-alone value. If the license is considered to not have stand-alone value, the arrangement would then be accounted for as a single unit of accounting and the license payments and payments for performance obligations are recognized as revenue over the estimated period of when the performance obligations are performed.
Whenever we determine that an arrangement should be accounted for as a single unit of accounting, we must determine the period over which the performance obligations will be performed and revenue will be recognized. Revenue will be recognized using either a relative performance or straight-line method. We recognize revenue using the relative performance method provided that we can reasonably estimate the level of effort required to complete our performance obligations under an arrangement and such performance obligations are provided on a best-efforts basis. Direct labor hours or full-time equivalents are typically used as the measure of performance. Revenue recognized under the relative performance method would be determined by multiplying the total payments under the contract, excluding royalties and payments contingent upon achievement of substantive milestones, by the ratio of level of effort incurred to date to estimated total level of effort required to complete our performance obligations under the arrangement. Revenue is limited to the lesser of the cumulative amount of payments received or the cumulative amount of revenue earned, as determined using the relative performance method, as of each reporting period.
If we cannot reasonably estimate the level of effort required to complete our performance obligations under an arrangement, the performance obligations are provided on a best-efforts basis we can reasonably estimate when the performance obligation ceases or becomes inconsequential, then the total payments under the arrangement, excluding royalties and payments contingent upon achievement of substantive milestones, would be recognized as revenue on a straight-line basis over the period we expect to complete our performance obligations. Revenue is limited to the lesser of the cumulative amount of payments received or the cumulative amount of revenue earned, as determined using the straight-line basis, as of the period ending date.
If we cannot reasonably estimate when our performance obligation either ceases or becomes inconsequential and perfunctory, then revenue is deferred until we can reasonably estimate when the performance obligation ceases or becomes inconsequential and perfunctory. Revenue is then recognized over the remaining estimated period of performance.
In addition, if we are involved in a steering committee as part of a multiple element arrangement, we assess whether our involvement constitutes a performance obligation or a right to participate. Steering committee services that are not inconsequential or perfunctory and that are determined to be performance obligations are combined with other research services or performance obligations required under an arrangement, if any, in determining the level of effort required in an arrangement and the period over which we expect to complete our aggregate performance obligations.
Substantive Milestone Payments. Our collaboration agreements may also contain substantive milestone payments. Collaboration agreements that contain substantive milestone payments are recognized upon achievement of the milestone only if:
•
such milestone is commensurate with either of the following:
a) our performance to achieve the milestone (for example, the achievement of the milestone involves a degree of risk and was not reasonably assured at the inception of the arrangement); or
b) the enhancement of the value of the deliverable as a result of a specific outcome resulting from our performance to achieve the milestone (or substantive effort on our part is involved in achieving the milestone);
•
such milestone relates solely to past performance; and
•
the amount of the milestone payment is reasonable relative to all deliverables and payment terms in the arrangement.
Determination as to whether a payment meets the aforementioned conditions involves management’s judgment. If any of these conditions are not met, the resulting payment would not be considered a substantive milestone, and the resulting payment would be considered part of the consideration for the single unit of accounting and be recognized as revenue as such performance obligations are performed under either the relative performance or straight-line methods, as applicable, and in accordance with these policies as described above. In addition, the determination that one such payment was not a substantive milestone could prevent us from concluding that subsequent milestone payments were substantive milestones and, as a result, any additional milestone payments could also be considered part of the consideration for the single unit of accounting and would be recognized as revenue as such performance obligations are performed under either the relative performance or straight-line methods, as applicable. Milestones that are tied to regulatory approval are not considered probable of being achieved until such approval is received. Milestones tied to counter-party performance are not included in our revenue model until the performance conditions are met.
Reimbursement of Costs. Reimbursement of research and development costs by third party collaborators is recognized as revenue provided the provisions of the FASB Codification Topic 605-45, Revenue Recognition, Principal Agent Consideration, are met, the amounts are determinable, and collection of the related receivable is reasonably assured.
Royalty Revenue. Since the first quarter of 2012, we have recognized royalty revenues related to Genentech’s sales of Erivedge in the U.S. We expect to recognize royalty revenue in future quarters from Genentech’s sales of Erivedge in the U.S. and in other markets where Genentech and Roche successfully obtain marketing approval, if any. However, Erivedge royalties we earn will service Curis Royalty’s debt to BioPharma-II, and only amounts in excess of certain quarterly repayment caps, if any, will be available to us for use in operations. Royalty revenue is recognized upon the sale of the related products based on contractual terms, provided that the royalty amounts are fixed or determinable, collection of the related receivable is reasonably assured and we have no remaining performance obligations under the arrangement. If royalties are received when we have remaining performance obligations, we expect to attribute the royalty payments to the services being provided under the arrangement and therefore recognize such royalty payments as such performance obligations are performed under either the relative performance or straight line methods, as applicable, and in accordance with these policies as described above.
Deferred Revenue. Amounts received prior to satisfying the above revenue recognition criteria are recorded as deferred revenue in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets. Significant judgments are required in the application of revenue recognition guidance. For example, in connection with our existing and former collaboration agreements, we have historically recorded on our balance sheet short- and long-term deferred revenue based on our best estimate of when such revenue would be recognized. Short-term deferred
revenue would consist of amounts that are expected to be recognized as revenue, or applied against future co-development costs, within the next fiscal year. Amounts that we expect will not be recognized in the next fiscal year would be classified as long-term deferred revenue. However, this estimate would be based on our operating plan as of the balance sheet date and on our estimated performance periods under the collaboration in which we have recorded deferred revenues. If our operating plan or our estimated performance period would change, we could recognize a different amount of deferred revenue over the reporting period.
With respect to each of the foregoing areas of revenue recognition, we exercise significant judgment in determining whether an arrangement contains multiple elements, and, if so, how much revenue is allocable to each element. In addition, we exercise our judgment in determining when our significant obligations have been met under such agreements and the specific time periods over which we recognized revenue, such as non-refundable, up-front license fees. To the extent that actual facts and circumstances differ from our initial judgments, our revenue recognition with respect to such transactions would change accordingly and any such change could affect our reported financial results.
Stock-based Compensation
We account for stock-based compensation transactions be accounted for using a grant-date fair-value-based method under FASB Codification Topic 718, Compensation-Stock Compensation.
We have recorded employee and director stock-based compensation expense of $3,141,000, $2,651,000 and $3,269,000 for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively. We estimate that we will record approximately $3,250,000, in stock-based compensation expense in 2015. We have granted and expect that we may grant additional options in 2015 that could increase the amount of stock-based compensation ultimately recognized. The amount of the incremental employee stock-based compensation expense attributable to 2015 employee stock options to be granted will depend primarily on the number of stock options granted, the fair market value of our common stock at the respective grant dates, and the specific terms of the stock options.
We measure compensation cost for share-based compensation at fair value, including estimated forfeitures, and recognize the expense as compensation expense over the period that the recipient is required to provide service in exchange for the award, which generally is the vesting period. We use the Black-Scholes option pricing model to measure the fair value of stock options. This model requires significant estimates related to the award’s expected life and future stock price volatility of the underlying equity security. In determining the amount of expense to be recorded, we also are required to estimate forfeiture rates for awards, based on the probability that employees will complete the required service period. We estimate the forfeiture rate based on historical experience. If actual forfeitures differ significantly from our estimates, additional adjustments to compensation expense may be required in future periods. Ultimately, the actual expense recognized over the vesting period will only be for those shares that vest.
Fair Value Measurements
We have adopted the provisions of the FASB Codification Topic 820, Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures. Topic 820 provides a framework for measuring fair value under GAAP and requires expanded disclosures regarding fair value measurements. GAAP defines fair value as the exchange price that would be received for an asset or paid to transfer a liability (an exit price) in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability in an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. Market participants are buyers and sellers in the principal market that are (i) independent, (ii) knowledgeable, (iii) able to transact, and (iv) willing to transact.
GAAP requires the use of valuation techniques that are consistent with the market approach, the income approach and/or the cost approach. The market approach uses prices and other relevant information generated by market transactions involving identical or comparable assets and liabilities. The income approach uses valuation
techniques to convert future amounts, such as cash flows or earnings, to a single present amount on a discounted basis. The cost approach is based on the amount that currently would be required to replace the service capacity of an asset (replacement cost). Valuation techniques should be consistently applied. GAAP also establishes a fair value hierarchy which requires an entity to maximize the use of observable inputs, where available, and minimize the use of unobservable inputs when measuring fair value. The standard describes three levels of inputs that may be used to measure fair value:
Level 1
Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.
Level 2
Observable inputs other than Level 1 prices, such as quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities; quoted prices in markets that are not active; or other inputs that are observable or can be corroborated by observable market data for substantially the full term of the assets or liabilities.
Level 3
Unobservable inputs that are supported by little or no market activity and that are significant to the fair value of the assets or liabilities.
Our cash equivalents and short- and long-term investments have been classified as either Level 1 or Level 2 assets. We do not hold any asset-backed or auction rate securities. Short-term accounts receivable and accounts payable are reflected in the consolidated financial statements at net realizable value, which approximates fair value due to the short-term nature of these instruments.
In 2010, we completed a registered direct offering in which we issued warrants to purchase shares of our common stock, and the warrants were deemed to be a liability. We estimate the fair value of the warrants using a Black-Scholes option pricing model under various probability-weighted outcomes which take into consideration the protective, but limited, cash-settlement feature of the warrants. In using this model, the fair value is determined by applying Level 3 inputs, which have included assumptions around the estimated future stock price of our common stock and varying probabilities that certain events will occur. Significant increases or decreases in any of these assumptions would materially impact the fair value of the warrants and our financial statements. The warrants were revalued each reporting period with updated assumptions, and the resulting change in fair value of the warrant liability will be recognized in our financial statements. All warrants outstanding at December 31, 2014 expired unexercised in January 2015 pursuant to the terms of the warrant agreements and will not have a financial statement impact in subsequent reporting periods.
While we believe our valuation methodologies are appropriate and consistent with other market participants, the use of different methodologies or assumptions to determine the fair value of certain financial instruments could result in a different estimate of fair value at the reporting date.
Long-lived Assets
Long-lived assets consist primarily of property and equipment, debt issuance costs and goodwill. Property and equipment is stated at cost and depreciated over the estimated useful lives of the related assets using the straight-line method. Determining the economic lives of property and equipment requires us to make significant judgments that can materially impact our operating results. If it were determined that the carrying value of our other long-lived assets might not be recoverable based upon the existence of one or more indicators of impairment, we would measure an impairment based on application of the FASB Codification Topic 360-10-05, Impairment or Disposal of Long-Lived Assets.
Debt issuance costs are stated at cost and amortized over the estimated term of the debt using the straight-line method. Assumptions used in determining the term of the debt requires us to make significant judgments that would impact our operating results; however, we do not believe adjustments to the term of the debt and related amortization period would have a material impact on our financial statements.
We evaluate our goodwill for impairment at least annually or more frequently if an indicator of potential impairment exists. In performing our evaluations of impairment, we determine fair value using widely accepted valuation techniques, including discounted cash flows. These calculations contain uncertainties as they require us to make assumptions related to future cash flows, projected useful lives of assets and the appropriate discount rate to reflect the risk inherent in future cash flows. We must also make assumptions regarding industry economic factors and the profitability of future business strategies. If actual results are not consistent with our estimates and assumptions used in estimating future cash flows and asset fair values, we may be exposed to a material impairment charge. As a single reporting unit, we completed our annual goodwill impairment tests in December 2014, 2013 and 2012, and determined that as of those dates our fair value exceeded the carrying value of our net assets. Accordingly, no goodwill impairment was recognized in 2014, 2013 and 2012.
Our discussion of our critical accounting policies is not intended to be a comprehensive discussion of all of our accounting policies. In many cases, the accounting treatment of a particular transaction is specifically dictated by generally accepted accounting principles, with no need for management’s judgment in their application. There are also areas in which management’s judgment in selecting any available alternative would not produce a materially different result.
Debt Classification
In December 2012, our wholly-owned subsidiary, Curis Royalty, received a $30,000,000 loan at an annual interest rate of 12.25% pursuant to a credit agreement between Curis Royalty and BioPharma-II. In connection with the loan, we transferred to Curis Royalty our right to receive certain future royalty and royalty-related payments on the commercial sales of Erivedge that we may receive from Genentech. The loan and accrued interest will be repaid by Curis Royalty using such royalty and royalty-related payments.
The final maturity date of the loan will be the earlier of the date when the principal is paid in full or the termination of Curis Royalty’s right to receive royalties under the collaboration agreement with Genentech. At any time after January 1, 2017, Curis Royalty may, subject to certain limitations, prepay the outstanding principal of the loan in whole or in part, at a price equal to 105% of the outstanding principal on the loan, plus accrued but unpaid interest. The obligations of Curis Royalty under the credit agreement to repay the loan may be accelerated upon the occurrence of an event of default as defined in the credit agreement.
Because the repayment of the term loan is contingent upon the level of Erivedge royalties received, the short- and long-term classification is based on our best estimate of the timing of amounts to be repaid. The repayment term may be shortened or extended depending on the actual level of Erivedge royalties. In addition, if Erivedge royalties are insufficient to pay the accrued interest on the outstanding loan, the unpaid interest outstanding will be added to the principal on a quarterly basis. We currently estimate that the loan will be repaid in 2017. However, the actual repayment period could vary materially from our estimate to the extent that royalty payments Curis Royalty receives are lower than our current estimates, which could arise due to factors beyond our control, such as due to competitive factors, decreased market acceptance or a failure by Genentech and/or Roche to successfully commercialize Erivedge in territories where it has received regulatory approval. For example, Curis Royalty is currently entitled to a royalty on net sales of Erivedge that ranges from 5% to 7.5% based on worldwide annual net sales ranging from less than $150 million to $600 million. The royalty rate applicable to Erivedge may be decreased by 2% (such that the applicable royalty rate will range between 3% to 5.5%) in certain specified circumstances, including when a competing product that binds to the same molecular target as Erivedge is approved by the applicable regulatory authority and is being sold in such country by a third party for use in the same indication as Erivedge. We are aware of one competing Hedgehog pathway inhibitor that is currently the subject of applications for marketing approval in the United States and European Union. We cannot predict whether or when this competing drug candidate will be approved, although we believe that such review process typically takes up to one year or more, subject to extension. If this molecule is approved and commercialized, the royalty rate for sales in the applicable territory would decline and would likely increase our estimated repayment period.
Results of Operations (all amounts rounded to the nearest thousand)
Years Ended December 31, 2014 and 2013
Revenues
Total revenues are summarized as follows:
Total revenues decreased by $5,159,000, or 34%, to $9,843,000 for the year ended December 31, 2014 as compared to $15,002,000 for the year ended December 31, 2013. During the year ended December 31, 2014, we received a payment of $3,000,000 from Genentech in connection with Genentech’s June 2014 filing of an IND application to initiate a Phase 2 clinical study of Erivedge in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Our license fee revenues of $10,000,000 for the year ended December 31, 2013 are related to payments we received from Genentech upon marketing approvals of Erivedge in Europe and Australia. In addition, we recognized research and development revenues of $650,000 under our agreement with LLS associated with our development of CUDC-907 during the year ended December 31, 2013. We did not receive any such payments from LLS during the year ended December 31, 2014. Offsetting these decreases, royalty revenues recognized from Genentech and Roche’s net sales of Erivedge increased by $2,815,000, or 71%, to $6,757,000 for the year ended December 31, 2014 as compared to $3,942,000 for the year ended December 31, 2013.
All potential future revenues under our current collaboration agreements with Genentech and LLS are either (i) contingent payments based on the achievement of clinical and regulatory objective milestones or (ii) royalties on future net sales made by Genentech and Roche.
Cost of Royalty Revenues. Cost of royalty revenues increased to $340,000 from $198,000 for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively, as a result of an increase in Erivedge royalties. We are obligated to make payments to two university licensors on royalties that Curis Royalty earns from Genentech on net sales of Erivedge.
Operating Expenses
Research and development expenses are summarized as follows:
Total research and development expenses increased $732,000, or 6%, for the year ended December 31, 2014 as compared to the prior year, primarily related to increased spending on CUDC-907 offset by decreased spending on other development programs and discovery research. Spending on CUDC-907 increased $2,730,000, or 62%, during the year ended December 31, 2014 as compared to the prior year related to our ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial of CUDC-907 as well as initial expenses related to a second Phase 1 clinical trial of CUDC-907 in solid tumors, which began enrolling patients in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Increased spending on CUDC-907 was offset by decreased spending on CUDC-427 of $574,000 during the year ended December 31, 2014, as a result of the re-initiation of this Phase 1 clinical trial in June 2014 that continues to enroll patients. Spending related to our CUDC-101 and discovery research programs also decreased by $860,000 during the year ended December 31, 2014 as compared to 2013, primarily due to the completion of our Phase 1 trial of CUDC-101 in head and neck cancers in 2013 and continued research efforts for an oral formulation of this molecule in 2014. Other internal resources allocated to CUDC-101 in the prior year, primarily personnel, were rea-allocated to our CUDC-907 and CUDC-427 clinical development programs, during the year ended December 31, 2014.
Finally, sublicense fees that we incurred related to third party obligations on milestone payments we received from Genentech decreased by $350,000 from the prior year and stock-based compensation decreased by $208,000 related to unvested non-employee stock options that are marked-to-market at each quarterly reporting period. Fluctuations in our stock price will result in fluctuations in the related expense.
We expect that a majority of our research and development expenses for the foreseeable future will be incurred in support of our efforts to advance CUDC-907 and CUDC-427, and any development programs resulting from our collaboration with Aurigene. In addition, we will be obligated to pay Aurigene milestone payments upon achievement of specified preclinical and development objectives in certain territories and royalties on net sales of drug candidates resulting from that collaboration, if any. For example, for each of the first two programs under this collaboration, we expect to exercise options to obtain exclusive licenses to these two programs in the first half of 2015 and to file IND applications for a development candidate from each program later in 2015. We are obligated to pay Aurigene $3,000,000 upon option exercise, $3,000,000 upon acceptance of an IND, and $4,000,000 upon our dosing of the fifth patient in the related Phase 1 study for each of the first two programs under our collaboration with Aurigene. . We will be obligated to pay sublicense fees for any milestone payments we may receive upon achievement of specified regulatory objectives and royalty payments on net sales of Erivedge in the U.S. We will also be obligated to pay Genentech milestone payments upon the first commercial sale of CUDC-427 in certain territories and royalties on net sales of CUDC-427, if any. We will also be obligated to pay LLS up to 2.5 times the amount of funding that we have received from LLS in support of our development of CUDC-907 should CUDC-907 be partnered or commercialized on or after completion of a Phase 2a trial. As of December 31, 2014, we have received $1,650,000 under our agreement with LLS, which would result in a maximum payment to LLS of $4,125,000. If our developments efforts are successful, we anticipate that we would receive additional payments from LLS and that our corresponding potential obligation would increase accordingly.
General and administrative expenses are summarized as follows:
General and administrative expenses increased by $413,000, or 4%, during the year ended December 31, 2014 as compared to the prior year, primarily due to an increase in personnel costs of $361,000 related to an increase in the number of administrative employees. We also recorded an increase in consulting and professional services, including audit-related expenses, of $475,000. Stock-based compensation also increased $266,000 as a result of an increase in the number of options granted during the year ended December 31, 2014 as compared to the prior year.
Partially offsetting these increases, legal fees decreased $756,000 from the prior year due to decreased spending on patent costs which includes fees related to foreign patent filings and various other corporate matters.
Change in Fair Value of Warrant Liability. In connection with our January 2010 registered direct offering, we issued warrants to purchase an aggregate of 1,612,322 shares of common stock which became exercisable as of the closing of the transaction. The warrants had an initial exercise price of $3.55 per share and had a five year term, and the fair value of the warrants was recorded as a long-term liability. The fair value of the warrants was estimated using a Black-Scholes option pricing model. The warrants were revalued each reporting period, with updated assumptions and the resulting gains and losses recorded as the change in fair value of warrant liability in the income statement. Expected volatilities used in the models were based on our historical volatility commensurate with the term of the warrants. All of the outstanding warrants at December 31, 2014 expired unexercised on January 27, 2015 in accordance with the warrant terms.
We estimated that the warrants had a fair value of zero at December 31, 2014 due to decreases in the remaining term and our common stock price using this Black-Scholes option pricing model with the following assumptions: expected volatility of 82%, risk free interest rate of 0%, expected life of 0.1 years and no dividends. We recorded the fair value of the warrants at December 31, 2013 as $717,000 using this model with the following assumptions: expected volatility of 65%, risk free interest rate of 0.2%, expected life of 1.1 years and no dividends. We recorded other income of $717,000 and $771,000 for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively, related to changes in the assumptions used in the valuation of the warrants, including changes in our stock price, during the respective periods.
Other Expense (Income)
For the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, interest expense was $3,748,000 and $3,842,000, respectively. The decrease in interest expense was related to a lower principal balance throughout 2014 on Curis Royalty’s outstanding debt with BioPharma-II.
For the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, interest income was $165,000 each year, respectively.
Net Loss Applicable to Common Stockholders
As a result of the foregoing, we incurred a net loss applicable to common stockholders of $18,729,000 for the year ended December 31, 2014, as compared to $12,322,000 for the year ended December 31, 2013.
Results of Operations (all amounts rounded to the nearest thousand)
Years Ended December 31, 2013 and 2012
Revenues
Total revenues are summarized as follows:
Total revenues were $15,002,000 and $16,972,000 for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. The decrease in 2013 total revenues of $1,970,000, or 12%, as compared to the prior year was due to a decrease in license fee revenues from Genentech, offset by an increase in royalty revenues from Genentech and Roche’s net sales of Erivedge. Our license fee revenues of $14,000,000 for the year ended December 31, 2012 are related to payments we received from Genentech upon FDA approval of Erivedge and Roche’s filing for marketing registration in Australia. Our license fee revenues of $10,000,000 for the year ended December 31, 2013 are related to payments we received from Genentech upon marketing approvals of Erivedge in Europe and Australia. In addition, the revenues recognized under our agreement with LLS for achievement of clinical development objectives related to our Phase 1 clinical trial of CUDC-907 decreased by $350,000 for the year ended December 31, 2013.
Royalty revenues from Genentech and Roche’s net sales of Erivedge during the year ended December 31, 2013 increased by $2,412,000, or 158%, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2012.
Cost of Royalty Revenues. Cost of royalty revenues were $198,000 and $176,000 for the year ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. The increase in cost of royalty revenues during 2013 was due to an increase in payments to our university licensors during 2013 resulting from an increase in royalty revenues from Genentech and Roche’s net sales of Erivedge. Cost of royalty revenues for the year ended December 31, 2012 also included a $100,000 one-time cash payment paid to a university licensor upon the first commercial sale of Erivedge.
Operating Expenses
Research and development expenses are summarized as follows:
Total research and development expenses were $12,927,000 for the year ended December 31, 2013 as compared to $15,492,000 for 2012. Our research and development expenses decreased by $2,565,000, or 17%, for the year ended December 31, 2013, as compared to the prior year primarily due to decreases in spending on CUDC-101, our discovery research programs and Erivedge-related payments to sublicensors, offset in part by increased spending on CUDC-427 that was exclusively licensed from Genentech in November 2012.
Spending related to our CUDC-101 and discovery research programs decreased by $6,186,000 during the year ended December 31, 2013 as compared to 2012, primarily due to our decisions to discontinue clinical development of CUDC-101 while continuing to research oral formulations of this molecule and to allocate our internal resources, primarily personnel, to our clinical development programs, CUDC-907 and CUDC-427.
In addition, sublicense fees decreased by $1,614,000 during the year ended December 31, 2013 as compared to the prior year, primarily resulting from one-time sublicense fees and the one-time issuance to a university licensor of an aggregate of 200,000 shares of our common stock in connection with Erivedge’s FDA approval, Roche’s NDA filing in Australia and our receipt of related milestone payments during the year ended December 31, 2012.
Stock-based compensation also decreased $196,000 during the year ended December 31, 2013 from the prior year, primarily related to a decrease in the expense recognized on unvested non-employee stock options that are marked-to-market at each quarterly reporting period. Fluctuations in our stock price will result in fluctuations in the related expense.
We recorded in-process research and development expenses of $9,500,000 for the year ended December 31, 2012 which represents the one-time up-front license payment and technology transfer costs payable to Genentech upon exclusively licensing CUDC-427 in November 2012.
General and administrative expenses are summarized as follows:
General and administrative expenses were $11,294,000 and $10,423,000 for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. General and administrative expenses increased in 2013, primarily due to an increase in personnel costs and an increase in professional services, including audit fees and business development consulting services. In addition, other general and administrative spending increased $154,000 over the prior year period, which is comprised of travel, banking and listing fees and other operating expenses.
Offsetting these increases, stock-based compensation expense decreased $426,000 from the prior year as a result of a decrease in the grant-date fair value of options issued during the year ended December 31, 2013 as compared to the prior year.
Change in Fair Value of Warrant Liability. As a result of revaluing the warrants issued in January 2010, we recorded other income of $771,000 and $2,257,000 for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively, related to changes in the assumptions used in the valuation of the warrants, including changes in our stock price, during the respective periods. During the year ended December 31, 2012, warrants to purchase 237,301 shares of our common stock were exercised.
Other Expense (Income).
For the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, interest expense was $3,842,000 and $204,000, respectively. The increase in 2013 was related to an increase in the interest accrued on Curis Royalty’s outstanding debt with BioPharma-II. Curis Royalty’s debt with the BioPharma-II was not incurred until the December 2012.
For the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, interest income was $165,000 and $150,000, respectively.
Net Loss Applicable to Common Stockholders
As a result of the foregoing, we incurred a net loss applicable to common stockholders of $12,322,000 for the year ended December 31, 2013, as compared to $16,417,000 for the year ended December 31, 2012.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Sources of Liquidity
We have financed our operations primarily through license fees, contingent cash payments and research and development funding from our collaborators and licensors, the private and public placement of our equity securities, debt financings and the monetization of certain royalty rights.
In December 2012, our wholly-owned subsidiary, Curis Royalty, received a $30,000,000 loan at an annual interest rate of 12.25% pursuant to a credit agreement with BioPharma-II. In connection with the loan, we transferred to Curis Royalty our right to receive certain future royalty and royalty-related payments on the commercial sales of Erivedge that we may receive from Genentech. The loan and accrued interest will be repaid by Curis Royalty using such royalty and royalty-related payments. The loan constitutes an obligation of Curis Royalty, and is intended to be non-recourse to us. The final maturity date of the loan will be the earlier of the date when the principal is paid in full or the termination of Curis Royalty’s right to receive royalties under the collaboration agreement with Genentech. Payments to BioPharma-II through December 31, 2014 totaled $8,901,000, of which $1,587,000 has been applied to the principal portion of the debt with the remainder paying interest. As of December 31, 2014, Curis Royalty owed a total of $28,699,000, gross of issuance costs, to BioPharma-II comprised of principal and accrued interest.
Since 2012, we received aggregate milestone payments totaling $27,000,000 under our collaboration with Genentech. In addition, we began receiving royalty revenues in 2012 in connection with Genentech’s net sales of Erivedge. Royalty revenues earned subsequent to December 2012 are being used to repay Curis Royalty’s outstanding principal and interest under the loan due to BioPharma-II, subject to specified quarterly caps. Curis Royalty will be entitled to receive and distribute to Curis remaining royalty and royalty-related amounts in excess of the foregoing caps, if any. We also remain entitled to receive any contingent payments upon achievement of clinical development objectives and royalty payments related to sales of Erivedge following repayment of the loan. Upon earning any such payments, as well as on royalties that are earned in any territory other than Australia, we are required to make payments to certain university licensors totaling 5% of these amounts. For royalties that we earn from Roche’s sales of Erivedge in Australia, we will be obligated to make payments to university licenses of 2% of Roche’s direct net sales in Australia until expiration of the patent in April 2019, after which the amount will decrease to 5% of the royalty payments that we receive from Genentech for the remainder of the period ending 10 years from the first commercial sale of Erivedge, or February 2022.
In July 2013, we entered into a sales agreement with Cowen and Company, LLC, or Cowen, pursuant to which we may sell from time to time up to $30,000,000 of our common stock through an “at-the-market” equity offering program under which Cowen will act as sales agent. Subject to the terms and conditions of the sales agreement, Cowen may sell the common stock by methods deemed to be an “at-the-market” offering as defined in Rule 415 promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, including sales made directly on the NASDAQ Global Market, on any other existing trading market for the common stock or to or through a market maker other than on an exchange. The aggregate compensation payable to Cowen shall be 3% of the gross sales price of the common stock sold by Cowen pursuant to the sales agreement. Through December 31, 2014, we have sold 3,850,206 shares of common stock pursuant to this sales agreement for proceeds of $16,246,000, net of all issuance costs.
At December 31, 2014, our principal sources of liquidity consisted of cash, cash equivalents, and investments of $50,539,000, excluding our restricted investments of $166,000. Our cash and cash equivalents are highly liquid investments with a maturity of three months or less at date of purchase and consist of investments in money market funds with commercial banks and financial institutions, as well as short-term commercial paper, and government obligations. We maintain cash balances with financial institutions in excess of insured limits.
Cash Flows
The use of our cash flows for operations has primarily consisted of salaries and wages for our employees, facility and facility-related costs for our office and laboratory, fees paid in connection with preclinical and clinical studies, laboratory supplies, consulting fees and legal fees. We expect that costs associated with clinical studies will increase in future periods.
Net cash used in operating activities was $16,813,000 during the year ended December 31, 2014, primarily the result of our net loss for the period of $18,729,000 and repayments of capitalized interest on our debt of $714,000. These decreases in cash were offset by non-cash charges consisting of stock-based compensation, changes in the fair value of our warrant liability, non-cash interest expense and depreciation which totaled $2,755,000. Changes in certain operating assets and liabilities had offsetting impacts on operating cash during the year ended December 31, 2014. During the year ended December 31, 2014, we received $9,757,000 in milestone and royalty payments under our collaborations with Genentech. Offsetting these cash receipts, we incurred operating and other expenses of $28,572,000.
Net cash used in operating activities was $9,540,000 during the year ended December 31, 2013, primarily the result of our net loss for the period of $12,322,000, offset by non-cash charges totaling $3,286,000 consisting of stock-based compensation, changes in the fair value of our warrant liability, non-cash interest expense and depreciation and amortization. Changes in certain operating assets and liabilities had offsetting impacts on operating cash during the year ended December 31, 2013, and an increase of $569,000 in our accounts receivable, primarily related to quarterly royalties earned on the sale of Erivedge, also decreased operating cash. During the year ended December 31, 2013, we received $14,883,000 in milestone and royalty payments under our collaborations with Genentech and LLS. Offsetting these cash receipts, we incurred operating and other expenses of $27,324,000.
We expect to continue to use cash in operations as we seek to advance our drug candidates and at least two programs under our collaboration agreement with Aurigene. In addition, in the future we may owe royalties and other contingent payments to our licensors based on the achievement of developmental milestones, product sales and other specified objectives.
Investing activities provided cash of $16,273,000 and used cash of $13,618,000 for years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively, resulting primarily from net investment activity from purchases and sales or maturities of investments for the respective periods. The decrease in investments during the year ended December 31, 2014 was the result of the need for cash to fund our operations, and the increase in investments
during the year ended December 31, 2013 was the result of increases in cash receipts. In addition, during the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, we reduced our restricted investments, resulting in an increase in our available cash for the periods of $14,000 in each respective period. These increases in cash were offset by purchases of research equipment totaling $92,000 and $153,000 during the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.
Financing activities used cash of $1,304,000 for the year ended December 31, 2014 as a result of principal payments on Curis Royalty’s loan with BioPharma-II of $1,587,000, offset by $283,000 in proceeds from the exercise of stock options. Financing activities provided cash of $20,001,000 for the year ended December 31, 2013. We received $16,246,000 in net proceeds from sales of common stock under our sales agreement with Cowen for the year ended December 31, 2013. We also received proceeds of $4,016,000 from the exercise of stock options during the year ended December 31, 2013. These proceeds were offset by the payment of debt issuance costs of $261,000 related to Curis Royalty’s financing transaction with BioPharma-II.
Funding Requirements
We have incurred significant losses since our inception. As of December 31, 2014, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $779,555,000. We will require substantial funds to continue our research and development programs and to fulfill our planned operating goals. In particular, our currently planned operating and capital requirements include the need for working capital to support our research and development activities for CUDC-907, CUDC-427, CUDC-305, and to fund our general and administrative costs and expenses.
In addition, in January 2015, we entered into an exclusive collaboration agreement focused on immuno-oncology and selected precision oncology targets with Aurigene. The collaboration provides for inclusion of multiple programs, and we have the option to exclusively license compounds once a development candidate is nominated within each respective program. The first two programs under the collaboration are an orally-available small molecule antagonist of programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) in the immuno-oncology field and an orally-available small molecule inhibitor of Interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4 (IRAK4) in the precision oncology field. We expect to exercise our options to obtain exclusive licenses to both programs and file IND applications for a development candidate from each in 2015. Developing programs under our collaboration with Aurigene will require substantial additional capital. For example, for each of the first two programs under this collaboration, we expect to exercise options to obtain exclusive licenses to these two programs in the first half of 2015 and to file IND applications for a development candidate from each program later in 2015. We are obligated to pay Aurigene $3,000,000 upon option exercise, $3,000,000 upon acceptance of an IND, and $4,000,000 upon our dosing of the fifth patient in the related Phase 1 study for each of the first two programs under our collaboration with Aurigene.
We have historically derived a substantial portion of our operating cash flow from the research funding portion of collaboration agreements with third parties. However, we have no current research funding revenue under these agreements. Our ability to generate cash flow to operate our business will depend, in part, on royalty payments from the commercial sale of Erivedge (subject to Curis Royalty’s obligation to remit certain royalties to BioPharma-II). We expect that our only source of cash flows from operations for the foreseeable future will be:
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up-front license payments and research and development funding that we may receive if we are able to successfully enter into new collaboration agreements;
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contingent cash payments that we may receive for the achievement of development objectives under any new collaborations or our existing collaborations with Genentech and LLS; and
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royalty payments that are contingent upon the successful commercialization of products based upon these collaborations, including royalties on sales of Erivedge in advanced BCC by Genentech, subject to Curis Royalty’s obligation to remit certain royalties to BioPharma-II.
We may not be able to successfully enter into or continue any corporate collaborations and the timing, amount and likelihood of us receiving payments under such collaborations is highly uncertain. In addition, for the foreseeable future, we will only receive royalties under our collaboration agreement with Genentech to the extent net sales are generated at a level sufficient to derive royalties in excess of Curis Royalty’s obligation to remit such royalties to BioPharma-II in repayment of the loan. We currently estimate that all royalties that we receive from Genentech will be remitted to BioPharma-II until the loan is fully repaid.
To become and remain profitable, we, either alone or with collaborators, must develop and eventually commercialize one or more drug candidates with significant market potential. This will require us to be successful in a range of challenging activities, including completing preclinical testing and clinical trials of our drug candidates, obtaining marketing approval for these drug candidates, manufacturing, marketing and selling those drugs for which we may obtain marketing approval and satisfying any post-marketing requirements. We may never succeed in these activities and, even if we do, may never generate revenues that are significant or large enough to achieve profitability. Other than Erivedge, which is being commercialized by Genentech and Roche, our most advanced drug candidates are currently only in early clinical testing.
For the foreseeable future, we will need to spend significant capital in an effort to develop and commercialize products and we expect to incur substantial operating losses. Our failure to become and remain profitable would, among other things, depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business, diversify our research and development programs or continue our operations.
We anticipate that existing cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities, investments and working capital at December 31, 2014, should enable us to maintain current and planned operations into 2016. Our future capital requirements, however, may vary from what we currently expect. There are a number of factors that may adversely affect our planned future capital requirements and accelerate our need for additional financing, many of which are outside our control, including the following:
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unanticipated costs in our research and development programs;
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the timing and cost of obtaining regulatory approvals for our drug candidates and maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements;
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the timing, receipt and amount of payments, if any, from current and potential future collaborators;
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the timing and amount of option exercise fees, milestone payments, royalties and other payments due to licensors, including Aurigene, for patent rights and technology used in our drug development programs;
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unplanned costs to prepare, file, prosecute, defend and enforce patent claims and other patent-related costs, including litigation costs and technology license fees; and
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unexpected losses in our cash investments or an inability to otherwise liquidate our cash investments due to unfavorable conditions in the capital markets.
We may seek additional funding through public or private financings of debt or equity. The market for emerging life science stocks in general, and the market for our common stock in particular, are highly volatile. Due to this and various other factors, including potentially adverse general market conditions and the early-stage development status of a majority of our drug candidates and the early stage of the commercial U.S. launch of Erivedge, additional funding may not be available to us on acceptable terms, if at all. In addition, the terms of any potential financing may be dilutive or otherwise adversely affect other rights of our stockholders.
We also expect to seek additional funds through arrangements with collaborators, licensees or other third parties. These arrangements would generally require us to relinquish or encumber rights to some of our technologies or drug candidates, and we may not be able to enter into such arrangements on acceptable terms, if at all.
We anticipate that we will require additional funding. If we are unable to obtain such additional funding on a timely basis, whether through payments under existing or future collaborations or license agreement or sales of debt or equity, we may be required to:
•
delay, limit, reduce or terminate preclinical studies, clinical trials or other development activities for one or more of our drug candidates; or
•
delay, limit, reduce or prevent us from establishing sales and marketing capabilities, either internally or through third parties, or other activities that may be necessary to commercialize our drug candidates.
Contractual Obligations
As of December 31, 2014 we had contractual obligations and other commitments as follows:
(1) As of December 31, 2014, the outstanding balance, including interest, on the debt was $28,699,000. The above amounts reflect management’s estimates of repayments, including accrued interest payments, based on the terms of Curis Royalty’s credit facility with BioPharma-II and assumptions of future Erivedge royalties as of December 31, 2014. If future royalties are lower or higher than these assumptions, the repayment period will increase or decrease, respectively, and related debt payments will fluctuate accordingly.
(2) We are party to a lease agreement with the Trustees of Lexington Office Realty Trust pursuant to which we lease 24,529 square feet of property for office, research and laboratory space located at 4 Maguire Road in Lexington, Massachusetts. The term of the lease agreement commenced on December 1, 2010, and expires in February 2018. The total remaining cash obligation for the base rent over the initial term of the lease agreement is approximately $2,086,000. In addition to the base rent, we are responsible for our share of operating expenses and real estate taxes, in accordance with the terms of the lease agreement. Amounts include contractual rent payments and exclude any impact of an early termination payment as defined in the agreement.
(3) Outside service obligations consist of agreements we have with outside labs, consultants and various other service organizations. Obligations to clinical research organizations, medical centers and hospitals conducting our clinical trials are included in our financial statements for costs incurred as of December 31, 2014. Our obligations under these types of arrangements are limited to actual costs incurred for services performed and do not include any contingent or milestone payments.
(4) Licensing obligations include only obligations that are known to us as of December 31, 2014. In the future, we may owe royalties and other contingent payments to our licensors based on the achievement of developmental milestones, product sales and specified other objectives. For example, contingent payments to sublicensors related to future development milestones would total $2,800,000, or 5%, if all of the $56,000,000 in remaining milestones under our June 2003 Genentech collaboration are achieved. These future obligations, and those related to Aurigene and Debiopharm, are not reflected in the table above as these payments are contingent upon achievement of developmental and commercial milestones, the likelihood of which cannot be reasonably estimated at this time.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We have no off-balance sheet arrangements as of December 31, 2014.
Inflation
We believe that inflation has not had a significant impact on our revenue and results of operations since inception.
New Accounting Pronouncements
In May 2014, the FASB issued guidance codified in ASC 606, Revenue Recognition-Revenue from Contracts with Customers , which amends the guidance in former ASC 605, Revenue Recognition, and is effective for public companies for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2016. We are currently evaluating the impact of the provisions of ASC 606.
In August 2014, the FASB issued an accounting standards update, Disclosures of Uncertainties about an Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern, which is included in ASC 205, Presentation of Financial Statements. This update provides an explicit requirement for management to assess an entity’s ability to continue as a going concern, and to provide related footnote disclosure in certain circumstances. The guidance will be effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2016, and applied prospectively; early adoption is also permitted. We do not expect adoption of this guidance to have a material impact on our financial condition or results of operations.
ITEM 7A.
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Our current cash balances in excess of operating requirements are invested in cash equivalents, short-term marketable securities, which consist of time deposits and investments in money market funds with commercial banks and financial institutions, short-term commercial paper, and government obligations with an average maturity of less than one year, and long-term investments. All marketable securities and long-term investments are considered available for sale. The primary objective of our cash investment activities is to preserve principal while at the same time maximizing the income we receive from our invested cash without significantly increasing risk of loss. This objective may be adversely affected by the ongoing economic downturn and volatile business environment and continued unpredictable and unstable market conditions.
Our marketable securities and long-term investments are subject to interest rate risk and will fall in value if market interest rates increase. While as of the date of this filing, we are not aware of any downgrades, material losses, or other significant deterioration in the fair value of our cash equivalents, marketable securities or long-term investments since December 31, 2014, no assurance can be given that further deterioration in conditions of the global credit and financial markets would not negatively impact our current portfolio of cash equivalents or marketable securities or our ability to meet our financing objectives. Further dislocations in the credit market may adversely impact the value and/or liquidity of marketable securities and long-term investments owned by us. To help manage this risk, we limit our investments to investment grade securities and deposits are with investment grade financial institutions. We believe that the realization of losses due to changes in credit spreads is unlikely as we currently have the ability to hold our investments for a sufficient period of time to recover the fair value of the investment and there is sufficient evidence to indicate that the fair value of the investment is recoverable. We do not use derivative financial instruments in our investment portfolio. We do not believe that a 10% change in interest rate percentages would have a material impact on the fair value of our investment portfolio or our interest income.
ITEM 8.
ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Internal control over financial reporting is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) or 15d-15(f) promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, as a process designed by, or under the supervision of, our principal executive and principal financial officers and effected by our board of directors, management and other personnel, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and includes those policies and procedures that:
•
pertain to the maintenance of records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of our assets;
•
provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and our directors; and
•
provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of evaluations of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Our management assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2014. In making this assessment our management used the criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, or COSO.
Based on our assessment, management concluded that, as of December 31, 2014, our internal control over financial reporting is effective based on the criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013) issued by COSO.
The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2014 has been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, who has issued an attestation report on our internal control over financial reporting which appears herein.
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of Curis, Inc.
In our opinion, the accompanying consolidated balance sheets and the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, stockholders’ equity and cash flows present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Curis, Inc. and its subsidiaries at December 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2014 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2014, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). The Company’s management is responsible for these financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting appearing under 9A. Our responsibility is to express opinions on these financial statements and on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our integrated audits. We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audits of the financial statements included examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements, assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, and evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
/s/ PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Boston, Massachusetts
February 24, 2015
CURIS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
Consolidated Balance Sheets
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
CURIS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
CURIS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
CURIS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
CURIS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(1) OPERATIONS
Curis, Inc. is a biotechnology company seeking to develop and commercialize innovative drug candidates for the treatment of human cancers. As used throughout these consolidated financial statements, the term “the Company” refers to the business of Curis, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries, except where the context otherwise requires, and the term “Curis” refers to Curis, Inc.
The Company conducts its research and development programs both internally and through strategic collaborations. The Company is leveraging its experience in targeting signaling pathways to develop drug candidates including CUDC-907, a dual histone deacetylase, or HDAC and phosphoinositide-3 kinase, or PI3K, inhibitor, CUDC-427, a small molecule antagonist of the inhibitor of apoptosis, or IAP, proteins, and CUDC-305, a Heat Shock Protein 90, or HSP90, inhibitor. Erivedge®, the first and only approved medicine for the treatment of advanced basal cell carcinoma, or BCC, is being commercialized by F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., or Roche, and Genentech Inc., or Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, under a collaboration agreement between Curis and Genentech.
In January 2015, the Company entered into an exclusive collaboration agreement focused on immuno-oncology and selected precision oncology targets with Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited, or Aurigene, a specialized, discovery stage biotechnology company developing novel therapies to treat cancer and inflammatory diseases. The collaboration provides for inclusion of multiple programs, with Curis having the option to exclusively license compounds once a development candidate is nominated within each respective program. The first two programs under the collaboration are orally-available small molecule antagonists of programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) in the immuno-oncology field and orally-available small molecule inhibitors of Interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4 (IRAK4) in the precision oncology field.
The Company operates in a single reportable segment, which is the research and development of innovative cancer therapeutics. The Company expects that any products that are successfully developed and commercialized would be used in the health care industry and would be regulated in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, and in overseas markets by similar regulatory authorities.
The Company is subject to risks common to companies in the biotechnology industry as well as risk factors that are specific to the Company’s business, including, but not limited to: the Company’s reliance on Genentech and Roche to successfully commercialize Erivedge in the approved indication of advanced BCC and to progress it’s clinical development in indications other than BCC; the Company’s reliance on Aurigene to successfully discover and preclinically develop drug candidates under the parties’ collaboration agreement, the Company’s ability to advance and expand its research and development programs; the Company’s ability to obtain adequate financing to fund its operations; the ability of the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Curis Royalty, LLC, or Curis Royalty, to satisfy the terms of its loan agreement with BioPharma Secured Debt Fund II Sub, S.à r.l., a Luxembourg limited liability company managed by Pharmakon Advisors, or BioPharma-II; the Company’s ability to obtain and maintain necessary intellectual property protection; development by the Company’s competitors of new or better technological innovations; dependence on key personnel; the Company’s ability to comply with regulatory requirements; and the Company’s ability to execute on its overall business strategies.
The Company’s future operating results will largely depend on the magnitude of payments that it receives and makes under its current and potential future corporate collaborators and the progress of drug candidates currently in its development pipeline. The results of the Company’s operations will vary significantly from year to year and quarter to quarter and depend on a number of factors, including, but not limited to: Roche and Genentech’s ability to successfully commercialize Erivedge;
positive results in Genentech’s ongoing clinical trials; Aurigene’s ability to successfully discover and develop preclinically programs under the Company’s collaboration with Aurigene, as well as the Company’s decision to exclusively license and further develop programs under this collaboration; the timing, outcome and cost of the Company’s preclinical studies and clinical trials for its drug candidates; and the Company’s ability to successfully enter into one or more material outlicensing or collaboration agreements for its proprietary drug candidates.
The Company anticipates that existing cash, cash equivalents and investments at December 31, 2014 should enable it to maintain current and planned operations into 2016. The Company’s ability to continue funding its planned operations beyond this period is dependent upon, among other things, the success of its collaborations with Genentech and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, or LLS, including its receipt of additional contingent cash payments under these collaborations; its ability to control expenses and its ability to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings, new collaborations or other sources of financing. The Company may not be able to successfully raise additional funds or enter into or continue any corporate collaborations and the timing, amount and likelihood of the Company receiving payments under such collaborations is highly uncertain. If the Company is unable to obtain adequate financing, the Company may be required to reduce or delay spending on its research and/or development programs.
(2) SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES
(a) USE OF ESTIMATES
The preparation of the Company’s consolidated financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts and disclosure of revenue, expenses and certain assets and liabilities at the balance sheet date. Such estimates include revenue recognition, including estimates of the performance obligations under the Company’s collaboration agreements; the estimated repayment term of the Company’s debt and related short- and long-term classification; the collectibility of receivables; the carrying value of property and equipment and intangible assets; the assumptions used in the Company’s valuation of stock-based compensation and the value of certain investments and liabilities, including our warrant liability. Actual results may differ from such estimates.
(b) CONSOLIDATION
The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the Company and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Curis Royalty (see Note 7), Curis Securities Corporation, Inc. and Curis Pharmaceuticals (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., or Curis Shanghai. The Company has eliminated all intercompany transactions in each of the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012.
(c) REVENUE RECOGNITION
The Company’s business strategy includes entering into collaborative license and development agreements with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies for the development and commercialization of the Company’s drug candidates. The terms of the agreements typically include non-refundable license fees, funding of research and development, payments based upon achievement of clinical development and regulatory objectives, and royalties on product sales. The Company follows the provisions of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, Codification Topic 605, Revenue Recognition.
License Fees and Multiple Element Arrangements
In January 2011, the Company adopted a new U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, accounting standard on a prospective basis which amends existing revenue recognition accounting guidance to provide accounting principles and application guidance on whether multiple deliverables
exist, how the arrangement should be separated, and the consideration allocated. This new guidance eliminates the requirement to establish objective evidence of fair value of undelivered products and services and instead provides for separate revenue recognition based upon management’s best estimate of the selling price for an undelivered item when there is no vendor-specific objective evidence or third-party evidence to determine the fair value of the undelivered item.
Non-refundable license fees are recognized as revenue when the Company has a contractual right to receive such payment, the contract price is fixed or determinable, the collection of the resulting receivable is reasonably assured and the Company has no further performance obligations under the license agreement. Multiple element arrangements, such as license and development arrangements are analyzed to determine whether the deliverables, which often include a license and performance obligations such as research and steering committee services, can be separated or whether they must be accounted for as a single unit of accounting in accordance with GAAP. The Company recognizes up-front license payments as revenue upon delivery of the license only if the license has stand-alone value. If the license is considered to not have stand-alone value, the arrangement would then be accounted for as a single unit of accounting and the license payments and payments for performance obligations are recognized as revenue over the estimated period of when the performance obligations are performed.
If the Company is involved in a steering committee as part of a multiple element arrangement, the Company assesses whether its involvement constitutes a performance obligation or a right to participate. Steering committee services that are determined to be performance obligations are combined with other research services or performance obligations required under an arrangement, if any, in determining the level of effort required in an arrangement and the period over which the Company expects to complete its aggregate performance obligations.
Whenever the Company determines that an arrangement should be accounted for as a single unit of accounting, it must determine the period over which the performance obligations will be performed and revenue will be recognized. Revenue will be recognized using either a relative performance or straight-line method. The Company recognizes revenue using the relative performance method provided that the Company can reasonably estimate the level of effort required to complete its performance obligations under an arrangement and such performance obligations are provided on a best-efforts basis. Direct labor hours or full-time equivalents are typically used as the measure of performance. Revenue recognized under the relative performance method would be determined by multiplying the total payments under the contract, excluding royalties and payments contingent upon achievement of substantive milestones, by the ratio of level of effort incurred to date to estimated total level of effort required to complete the Company’s performance obligations under the arrangement. Revenue is limited to the lesser of the cumulative amount of payments received or the cumulative amount of revenue earned, as determined using the relative performance method, as of each reporting period.
If the Company cannot reasonably estimate the level of effort required to complete its performance obligations under an arrangement, the performance obligations are provided on a best-efforts basis and the Company can reasonably estimate when the performance obligation ceases or the remaining obligations become inconsequential and perfunctory, then the total payments under the arrangement, excluding royalties and payments contingent upon achievement of substantive milestones, would be recognized as revenue on a straight-line basis over the period the Company expects to complete its performance obligations. Revenue is limited to the lesser of the cumulative amount of payments received or the cumulative amount of revenue earned, as determined using the straight-line basis, as of the period ending date.
If the Company cannot reasonably estimate when its performance obligation either ceases or becomes inconsequential and perfunctory, then revenue is deferred until the Company can reasonably estimate when the performance obligation ceases or becomes inconsequential. Revenue is then recognized over the remaining estimated period of performance.
Significant management judgment is required in determining the level of effort required under an arrangement and the period over which the Company is expected to complete its performance obligations under an arrangement.
Substantive Milestone Payments
In April 2010, the FASB issued guidance on the milestone method for revenue recognition purposes. Previously, definitive guidance on when the use of the milestone method was appropriate did not exist. This guidance provides a framework of the criteria that should be met for determining whether the milestone method of revenue recognition is appropriate.
Collaboration agreements that contain substantive milestone payments are recognized upon achievement of the milestone only if:
•
such milestone is commensurate with either of the following:
a) the Company’s performance to achieve the milestone (for example, the achievement of the milestone involves a degree of risk and was not reasonably assured at the inception of the arrangement); or
b) the enhancement of the value of the deliverable as a result of a specific outcome resulting from the Company’s performance to achieve the milestone (or substantive Company effort is involved in achieving the milestone);
•
such milestone relates solely to past performance; and
•
the amount of the milestone payment is reasonable relative to all deliverables and payment terms in the arrangement.
Determination as to whether a payment meets the aforementioned conditions involves management’s judgment. If any of these conditions are not met, the resulting payment would not be considered a substantive milestone, and the resulting payment would be recognized as revenue as performance obligations are performed under either the relative performance or straight-line methods, as applicable, and in accordance with these policies as described above. In addition, the determination that one such payment was not a substantive milestone could prevent the Company from concluding that subsequent milestone payments were substantive milestones and, as a result, any additional milestone payments could also be considered part of the consideration for the single unit of accounting and would be recognized as revenue as such performance obligations are performed under either the relative performance or straight-line methods, as applicable. Milestones that are tied to regulatory approval are not considered probable of being achieved until such approval is received. Milestones tied to counter-party performance are not included in the Company’s revenue model until the performance conditions are met.
Reimbursement of Costs
Reimbursement of research and development costs by third party collaborators is recognized as revenue provided the Company has determined that it is acting primarily as a principal in the transaction according to the provisions outlined in the FASB Codification Topic 605-45, Revenue Recognition, Principal Agent Considerations, the amounts are determinable and collection of the related receivable is reasonably assured.
Royalty Revenue
Since the first quarter of 2012, the Company has recognized royalty revenues related to Genentech’s and Roche’s sales of Erivedge. Royalty revenue is recognized upon the sale of the related products based on contractual terms, provided that the royalty amounts are fixed or determinable, collection of
the related receivable is reasonably assured and we have no remaining performance obligations under the arrangement. If royalties are received when the Company was remaining performance obligations, it expects to attribute the royalty payments to the services being provided under the arrangement and therefore to recognize such royalty payments as such performance obligations are performed under either the relative performance or straight line methods, as applicable, and in accordance with these policies as described above. The Company expects to recognize royalty revenue in future quarters from Genentech’s sales of Erivedge in the U.S. and in other markets where Genentech and Roche successfully obtain marketing approval, if any (see Notes 3(a) and 7). However, Erivedge royalties will service Curis Royalty’s debt to BioPharma-II, and only amounts in excess of certain quarterly repayment caps, if any, will be available to the Company for use in operations.
Deferred Revenue
Amounts received prior to satisfying the above revenue recognition criteria are recorded as short term deferred revenue in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets. Amounts not expected to be recognized during the year ending December 31, 2015 would be classified as long-term deferred revenue. As of December 31, 2014 and 2013, the Company had no amounts classified as short-term or long-term deferred revenue.
Summary
During the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, total gross revenues from the Company’s collaborators as a percent of total gross revenues of the Company were as follows:
(d) RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Research and development expense consists of costs incurred to discover, research and develop drug candidates. These expenses consist primarily of: (1) salaries and related expenses for personnel including stock-based compensation expense; (2) outside service costs, including clinical research organizations and medicinal chemistry; (3) sublicense payments; and (4) the costs of supplies and reagents, consulting, and occupancy and depreciation charges. In addition, the Company incurred in-process research and development expenses of $9,500,000 during the year ended December 31, 2012, representing the one-time license and technology transfer fee related to the license of CUDC-427 from Genentech (see Note 3(b)). The Company expenses research and development costs as incurred.
The Company recognizes cost of royalties on Erivedge royalty revenue earned under the June 2003 collaboration with Genentech related to obligations to third-party university licensors. The Company is also incurring research and development expenses under this collaboration related to the maintenance of these third-party licenses to certain background technologies. In addition, the Company records research and development expense for obligations to certain third-party university licensors upon earning payments from Genentech related to the achievement of clinical development and regulatory objectives under this collaboration.
(e) CASH EQUIVALENTS AND INVESTMENTS
Cash equivalents consist of short-term, highly liquid investments purchased with original maturities of three months or less. All other liquid investments are classified as marketable securities. The
Company’s short-term investments are marketable securities with original maturities of greater than three months from the date of purchase, but less than twelve months from the balance sheet date, and long-term investments are marketable securities with original maturities of greater than twelve months from the balance sheet. Marketable securities consist of commercial paper, corporate bonds and notes, and government obligations. All of the Company’s investments have been designated as available-for-sale and are stated at fair value with any unrealized holding gains or losses included as a component of stockholders’ equity and any realized gains and losses recorded in the statement of operations in the period the securities are sold.
Unrealized gains and temporary losses on investments are included in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) as a separate component of stockholders’ equity. Realized gains and losses, dividends and interest income are included in other income (expense). Any premium or discount arising at purchase is amortized and/or accreted to interest income.
The amortized cost, unrealized gains and losses and fair value of investments available-for-sale as of December 31, 2014 are as follows:
Short-term investments have maturities ranging from one and twelve months with a weighted average maturity of 4.1 months. Long-term investments have maturities ranging from January 2016 to May 2016 with a weighted average maturity of 13.8 months.
The amortized cost, unrealized losses and fair value of short-term investments available-for-sale as of December 31, 2013 with maturity dates ranging between one and twelve months and with a weighted average maturity of 4.7 months are as follows:
In addition, a certificate of deposit in the amount of $1,001,802 that the Company held as of December 31, 2013 was included within short-term investments in the consolidated balance sheet but is excluded from the table above as it was not deemed to be a security.
As of December 31, 2013, the Company also recorded long-term investments of $10,726,685 on its Consolidated Balance Sheet. This amount is comprised of corporate and government-secured debt securities with maturities ranging from January 2015 to May 2015 with a weighted average maturity of 14.3 months and with amortized cost totaling $10,727,958, less unrealized net losses of $1,273.
(f) FAIR VALUE OF FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS
The Company discloses fair value measurements based on a framework outlined by GAAP which requires expanded disclosures regarding fair value measurements. GAAP also defines fair value as the exchange price that would be received for an asset or paid to transfer a liability (an exit price) in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability in an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. Market participants are buyers and sellers in the principal market that are (i) independent, (ii) knowledgeable, (iii) able to transact, and (iv) willing to transact.
The FASB Codification Topic 820, Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures, requires the use of valuation techniques that are consistent with the market approach, the income approach and/or the cost approach. The market approach uses prices and other relevant information generated by market transactions involving identical or comparable assets and liabilities. The income approach uses valuation techniques to convert future amounts, such as cash flows or earnings, to a single present amount on a discounted basis. The cost approach is based on the amount that currently would be required to replace the service capacity of an asset (replacement cost). Valuation techniques should be consistently applied. GAAP also establishes a fair value hierarchy which requires an entity to maximize the use of observable inputs, where available, and minimize the use of unobservable inputs when measuring fair value. The standard describes three levels of inputs that may be used to measure fair value:
Level 1
Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.
Level 2
Observable inputs other than Level 1 prices, such as quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities; quoted prices in markets that are not active; or other inputs that are observable or can be corroborated by observable market data for substantially the full term of the assets or liabilities.
Level 3
Unobservable inputs that are supported by little or no market activity and that are significant to the fair value of the assets or liabilities. The Company’s warrant liability was valued using a probability-weighted Black-Scholes model, discussed further in Note 9, and is therefore classified as Level 3.
In accordance with the fair value hierarchy, the following table shows the fair value as of December 31, 2014 and 2013 of those financial assets and liabilities that are measured at fair value on a recurring basis, according to the valuation techniques the Company used to determine their fair value. No financial assets or liabilities are measured at fair value on a nonrecurring basis at December 31, 2014 and 2013.
The above table excludes a certificate of deposit in the amount of $1,001,802 that the Company held as of December 31, 2013.
The following table rolls forward the fair value of the Company’s warrant liability, the fair value of which is determined by Level 3 inputs for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013:
The remaining 1,373,517 warrants outstanding as of December 31, 2014 expired unexercised in January 2015.
(g) LONG-LIVED ASSETS OTHER THAN GOODWILL
Long-lived assets other than goodwill consist of property and equipment. The aggregate net balances for these long-lived assets were $407,738 and $445,655 as of December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively. The Company applies the guidance in FASB Codification Topic 360-10-05, Impairment or Disposal of Long-Lived Assets. If it were determined that the carrying value of the Company’s other long-lived assets might not be recoverable based upon the existence of one or more indicators of impairment, the Company would measure an impairment based on the difference between the carrying value and fair value of the asset. The Company did not recognize any impairment charges for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 or 2012.
Purchased equipment is recorded at cost. The Company does not currently hold any leased equipment. Depreciation and amortization are provided on the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the related assets or the remaining terms of the leases, whichever is shorter, as follows:
The Company incurred debt issuance costs totaling $421,715 in connection with the Curis Royalty loan transaction, of which $215,000 related to expenses that the Company paid to third parties on behalf of BioPharma-II and the remaining $206,715 were incurred directly by the Company. The debt issuance costs incurred directly by the Company were capitalized as assets and will be amortized over the estimated term of the debt using the straight-line. Assumptions used in determining the expected repayment term of the debt and amortization period of the issuance costs requires management to make estimates that could impact the Company’s short- and long-term classification of the debt issuance costs, as well as the period over which these costs will be amortized (see Note 7). As of December 31, 2014 and 2013, the Company had recorded short-term debt issuance costs of $43,616 and $51,441, respectively, and long-term debt issuance costs of $64,564 and $101,055, respectively. These costs are reported within the prepaid expenses and other current assets and other assets line items, respectively, in the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheet at December 31, 2014 and 2013.
(h) GOODWILL
As of December 31, 2014 and 2013, the Company had recorded goodwill of $8,982,000. The Company applies the guidance in the FASB Codification Topic 350, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other. During each of December 2014, 2013 and 2012, the Company completed its annual goodwill impairment tests and determined that the Company represented a single reporting unit and as of those dates the fair value of the Company exceeded the carrying value of its net assets. Accordingly, no goodwill impairment was recognized for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012.
(i) TREASURY STOCK
On May 31, 2002, the Company announced that its Board of Directors had approved the repurchase of up to $3,000,000 of the Company’s common stock. The Company accounted for its common stock repurchases as treasury stock under the cost method. In 2002, the Company repurchased 1,047,707 shares of its common stock at a cost of $891,274 pursuant to this repurchase program.
The Company’s 2000 Stock Incentive Plan and the Amended and Restated 2010 Plan generally allow participants to purchase common stock upon the exercise of a stock option by delivery of shares of Company common stock held directly by the participant, with such shares of common stock valued at the closing price on the Nasdaq Global Market, or NASDAQ, on the date of exercise. During the year ended December 31, 2013, certain executive officers and a director exercised stock options by remitting shares of Curis common stock then held by the respective person. The Company accounted for the value of the common stock remitted to the Company in satisfaction of the exercise price as treasury stock under the cost method. These option holders remitted an aggregate of 175,139 shares during the year ended December 31, 2013 with an aggregate value equal to $632,755. As of December 31, 2014, the Company had repurchased an aggregate of 1,222,846 shares of its common stock at a total cost of $1,524,029.
(j) BASIC AND DILUTED LOSS PER COMMON SHARE
Basic and diluted net losses per share were determined by dividing net loss by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding during the period. Diluted net loss per common share is the same as basic net loss per common share for all periods presented, as the effect of the potential common stock equivalents is antidilutive due to the Company’s net loss position for all periods presented. Antidilutive securities consist of stock options and warrants outstanding as of the respective
reporting period. Antidilutive securities as of December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012 consisted of the following:
(k) STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION
The Company adopted Statement of Financial Accounting Standards, or SFAS, No. 123 (revised 2004), Share-Based Payment (SFAS 123(R)), which established standards for the accounting of transactions in which an entity exchanges its equity instruments for goods or services, and is now referred to as the FASB Codification Topic 718, Compensation-Stock Compensation. Topic 718 focuses primarily on accounting for transactions in which an entity obtains employee services in share-based payment transactions. Topic 718 requires that the fair value of such equity instruments be recognized as an expense in the financial statements as services are performed.
(l) OPERATING LEASES
The Company currently has one facility located at 4 Maguire Road in Lexington, Massachusetts under a noncancellable operating lease agreement for office and laboratory space. The rent payments for this facility escalate over the lease term and the Company expenses its obligations under this lease agreement on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease (see Note 8(a)).
(m) CONCENTRATION OF RISK
Financial instruments, which potentially subject the Company to concentrations of credit risk, consist principally of cash and cash equivalents, short- and long-term investments. The Company invests directly in commercial paper of financial institutions and corporations with A-/Aa3 or better long-term ratings and A-1/P-1 short term debt ratings and U.S. Treasury securities. The Company maintains deposits in federally insured financial institutions in excess of federally insured limits. Management believes that the Company is not exposed to significant credit risk due to the financial position of the depository institutions in which those deposits are held. The Company’s credit risk related to investments is reduced as a result of the Company’s policy to limit the amount invested in any one issue.
The Company’s accounts receivable at December 31, 2014, represents amounts due from collaborators, primarily for royalties earned on sales of Erivedge by Genentech and Roche.
The Company relies on third parties to supply certain raw materials necessary to produce its drug candidates, including CUDC-907 and CUDC-427, for preclinical studies and clinical trials. There are a small number of suppliers for certain raw materials that the Company uses to manufacture its drug candidates.
(n) COMPREHENSIVE LOSS
Comprehensive loss is comprised of net loss and other comprehensive income (loss). Other comprehensive income (loss) includes unrealized holding gains and losses arising during the period on available-for-sale securities that are not other-than-temporarily impaired.
(o) NEW ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS
In May 2014, the FASB issued guidance codified in ASC 606, Revenue Recognition-Revenue from Contracts with Customers , which amends the guidance in former ASC 605, Revenue Recognition, and is effective for public companies for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2016. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of the provisions of ASC 606.
In August 2014, the FASB issued an accounting standards update, Disclosures of Uncertainties about an Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern, which is included in ASC 205, Presentation of Financial Statements. This update provides an explicit requirement for management to assess an entity’s ability to continue as a going concern, and to provide related footnote disclosure in certain circumstances. The guidance will be effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2016, and applied prospectively; early adoption is also permitted. The Company does not expect adoption of this guidance to have a material impact on its financial condition or results of operations.
(p) SEGMENT REPORTING
The Company is engaged solely in the discovery and development of innovative drug candidates for the treatment of human cancers. Accordingly, the Company has determined that it operates in one operating segment.
(3) RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT COLLABORATIONS
(a) GENENTECH, INC. JUNE 2003 COLLABORATION
(i) Agreement Summary
In June 2003, the Company licensed its proprietary Hedgehog pathway technologies to Genentech for human therapeutic use. The primary focus of the collaborative research plan has been to develop molecules that inhibit the Hedgehog pathway for the treatment of various cancers. The collaboration is currently focused on the development of Erivedge. Genentech is currently conducting a Phase 2 clinical trial with Erivedge in less severe basal cell carcinoma and several additional clinical trials are ongoing by third parties under collaboration agreements between Genentech and the National Cancer Institute as well as Genentech and other third-party investigators.
The Company is eligible to receive up to $115,000,000 in contingent cash payments under the collaboration for the development of Erivedge or another small molecule Hedgehog pathway inhibitor, assuming the successful achievement by Genentech and Roche of specified clinical development and regulatory objectives. The Company has received $59,000,000 in contingent cash payments through December 31, 2014.
In addition to these payments, the Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Curis Royalty, is entitled to a royalty on net sales of Erivedge that ranges from 5% to 7.5% based on worldwide annual net sales ranging from less than $150 million to $600 million. The royalty rate applicable to Erivedge may be decreased by 2% (such that the applicable royalty rate will range between 3% to 5.5%) in certain specified circumstances, including when a competing product that binds to the same molecular target as Erivedge is approved by the applicable regulatory authority and is being sold in such country by a third party for use in the same indication as Erivedge or when there is no issued intellectual property covering Erivedge in a territory in which sales are recorded. Future royalty payments related to Erivedge will service the outstanding debt and accrued interest to BioPharma-II, up to the quarterly caps for 2015, and until the debt is fully repaid thereafter (see Note 7).
Unless terminated earlier, the agreement shall expire six months after the later of the expiration of Genentech’s obligation to pay royalties to the Company under the agreement or such time as no activities have occurred under the agreement for a period of twelve months.
(ii) Accounting Summary
The Company considers its arrangement with Genentech to be a revenue arrangement with multiple deliverables. The Company’s deliverables under this collaboration include an exclusive license to its Hedgehog pathway inhibitor technologies, research and development services for the first two years of the collaboration, and participation on the joint steering committee. The Company applied the
provisions of the FASB Codification Topic 605-25, Revenue Recognition, Multiple Element Arrangement to determine whether the performance obligations under this collaboration should be accounted for separately or should be accounted for as a single unit of account. The Company determined that the deliverables, specifically, the license, research and development services and steering committee participation, represented a single unit of account because the Company believes that the license, although delivered at the inception of the arrangement, did not have stand-alone value to Genentech without the Company’s research and development services and steering committee participation. During 2007, the Company reassessed its participation on the joint steering committee and concluded that its participation in the joint steering committee had become inconsequential and perfunctory. As a result, the Company determined that it had no further performance obligations under this collaboration and consideration received after this date is recognized in the Company’s financial statements in the period in which it was earned.
The Company received contingent payments from Genentech totaling $3,000,000, $10,000,000 and $14,000,000 during the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively, for the achievement of certain clinical and regulatory development objectives related to Erivedge described above. The Company has recorded these amounts as revenue within “License Fees” in the Revenues section of its Consolidated Statement of Operations for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012.
As a result of its licensing agreements with various universities, the Company is obligated to make payments to these university licensors when certain payments are received from Genentech. Through December 31, 2014, the Company has incurred aggregate research and development expenses over the term of this collaboration of $4,364,000 related to payments made to these university licensors in connection with the Company’s receipt of cash payments from Genentech for research, development and regulatory objectives achieved related to such university licensing agreements. In connection with the receipt of payments from Genentech, the Company recorded research and development expenses of $2,114,000 during the year ended December 31, 2012, which represents the Company’s obligations to these university licensors. Of this amount, the Company recognized expense of $964,000, which represents the fair value of a one-time issuance of an aggregate of 200,000 shares of the Company’s common stock in March 2012 to two university licensors in connection with the FDA-approval of Erivedge in January 2012. In addition, the Company recorded research and development expenses of $650,000 for obligations the Company incurred in connection with Roche’s filing of an investigational new drug application in Australia and its application to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, or TGA, for marketing registration of Erivedge in Australia based on the $4,000,000 milestone that the Company received. The remaining expense recognized of $500,000 relates to the Company’s receipt of the $10,000,000 milestone payment associated with the FDA’s U.S. approval of Erivedge in January 2012. During the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, the Company recorded research and development expenses of $150,000 and $500,000, respectively, representing 5% of the total cash payments received during each year.
In addition, the Company recognized $6,757,023, $3,942,136 and $1,529,644 in royalty revenue from Genentech’s net sales of Erivedge during the year ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively. The Company also recorded $339,578, $197,796 and $176,482, respectively, as cost of royalty revenues within the costs and expenses section of its Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss during these same periods. Cost of royalty revenues represents 5% of the royalties earned by Curis Royalty with respect to Erivedge that the Company is obligated to pay to university licensors. In addition to the 5% obligation, the Company made a one-time cash payment of $100,000 to one university licensor upon the first commercial sale of Erivedge during the year ended December 31, 2012.
During the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, the Company also recognized “Research and development” revenue of $265,047, $291,448 and $363,000, respectively, related to expenses incurred on behalf of Genentech that were paid by the Company and for which Genentech is obligated
to reimburse the Company. During the year ended December 31, 2014, Genentech incurred expenses of $225,707 under this collaboration which the Company is obligated to reimburse to Genentech, and which the Company has recorded as contra-revenues which have been net against research and development revenues in its Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss. The Company will continue to recognize revenue for expense reimbursement as such reimbursable expenses are incurred, provided that the provisions of the FASB Codification Topic 605-45 are met.
The Company had recorded as amounts receivable from Genentech under this collaboration, comprised primarily of Erivedge royalties earned in the fourth quarters of 2014 and 2013, of $1,958,000 and $1,455,000, as of December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively, in “Accounts receivable” in the Company’s Current Assets section of its Consolidated Balance Sheets.
(b) IAP LICENSE AGREEMENT WITH GENENTECH, INC.
On November 27, 2012, the Company entered into an exclusive license agreement, or the IAP license agreement, with Genentech, pursuant to which Genentech granted to the Company an exclusive, worldwide license to develop and commercialize CUDC-427.
Pursuant to the terms of the IAP license agreement, Genentech transferred to the Company know how, information and materials necessary to continue the development of CUDC-427. Genentech also assigned its existing investigational new drug application, or IND, for CUDC-427 to the Company.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Company agreed to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize CUDC-427, including to conduct at least one additional Phase 1 clinical trial of CUDC-427, and unless the results of the additional Phase 1 trial do not provide sufficient scientific or clinical justification for continued clinical development, to conduct a Phase 2 clinical trial to inform a decision to start a Phase 3 clinical trial. The Company is solely responsible for all future costs related to the development, registration and commercialization of products under the agreement.
Under the terms of the IAP agreement, the Company made a payment of $9,500,000 to Genentech as an up-front license fee and for technology transfer costs. Given that the compound licensed from Genentech is in clinical development and will require substantial development, regulatory and marketing approval efforts in order to reach technological feasibility, the Company recognized in-process research and development expense of $9,500,000 within the 2012 Consolidated Statement of Operations and Comprehensive Loss.
In addition, Genentech is eligible to receive milestone payments upon the first commercial sale of products containing CUDC-427 in certain territories, and escalating royalties on net sales of products, which royalties are subject to reduction in certain limited circumstances. On a product-by-product and country-by-country basis, the term of the Company’s royalty payment obligations will begin on the first commercial sale of a product in a country and will continue until the later of (i) 10 years after the first commercial sale of such product in such country and (ii) the date of expiration of Genentech’s patent rights covering such product in such country. Upon expiration of its royalty payment obligations with respect to a product in a country, the Company’s license with respect to such product in such country will become royalty-free and fully paid-up.
The IAP license agreement will continue in effect until expiration of all royalty payment obligations with respect to any product, unless terminated early by either party as described below. Upon expiration of the agreement, the Company’s license will become royalty-free, fully paid-up, irrevocable and perpetual.
Each of Genentech and the Company may terminate the IAP license agreement prior to expiration in the event of the uncured material breach of the agreement by the other party. In addition, the Company may terminate the IAP license agreement prior to expiration for any reason upon 90 days’ prior written notice to Genentech. Upon any termination of the IAP license agreement, the license granted to the
Company will terminate and revert to Genentech. If Genentech terminates the IAP license agreement for an uncured material breach by the Company, or if the Company terminates the agreement for any reason other than uncured material breach by Genentech, Genentech will be entitled to certain licenses and other rights with respect to products existing as of the date of termination, and the Company may, under specified circumstances, be obligated to supply products to Genentech for a limited period after termination.
(c) THE LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOCIETY AGREEMENT
(i) Agreement Summary
In November 2011, the Company entered into an agreement under which The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) agreed to support the Company’s ongoing development of CUDC-907 for patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Under the agreement, LLS will make milestone payments up to $4,000,000 that are contingent upon the Company’s achievement of specified clinical development objectives with CUDC-907. Since the inception of the agreement through December 31, 2014, the Company has received $1,650,000 from LLS related to milestones achieved under this agreement. Additional milestone payments may be earned assuming CUDC-907 continues to progress through the Phase 1 clinical trial.
Under certain conditions associated with the Company’s successful partnering and/or commercialization of CUDC-907 in the specified indications, the Company may be obligated to make payments, including royalties, to LLS of up to $10,000,000. This obligation is capped at 2.5 times the amount the Company receives from LLS, and, as of December 31, 2014, the maximum obligation, assuming that CUDC-907 successfully progresses through future clinical trials, would be $4,125,000. If clinical development of CUDC-907 does not continue to meet its clinical safety endpoints in future clinical trials in the defined field or fails to obtain necessary regulatory approvals, all funding provided to the Company by LLS will be considered a non-refundable grant. As of December 31, 2014, the Company has not recorded an obligation to repay any of the funds received from LLS because the contingent repayment obligation depends solely on the successful results of the continued development of CUDC-907, which is not probable at December 31, 2014 as this program remains in the very early stages of clinical development.
The LLS agreement also stipulates a “follow-up diligence period” beginning on the date the Company receives its last milestone payment from LLS and ends on the earlier of (a) five years from that date or (b) the fulfillment (or termination, as applicable) of Company’s payment obligations as described above. During the follow-up period, the Company agrees that it will take the appropriate steps as are commercially reasonable to further the clinical and commercial development of CUDC-907 in the defined field in at least one major market, provided that the Company reasonably believes that CUDC-907 is safe and effective in the field as determined by successfully meeting its pre-determined endpoints in its clinical trials, and further provided that the Company receives necessary regulatory guidance from agency officials in the applicable major market(s) to continue development and reach the market for CUDC-907 in the defined field. If the program is successful as defined by the agreement, and if Curis cannot fund the additional clinical development, the Company agrees to seek to license CUDC-907 to a third party, either on its own or through LLS, in the defined field in the same commercially reasonable manner during the remainder of the follow-up period. The Company will be solely responsible for all costs related to the development, registration and commercialization of products under the agreement.
The agreement became effective on November 29, 2011 and will remain in effect until the completion of the defined milestones, unless earlier terminated in accordance with the provisions of the agreement, including safety issues related to the administration of CUDC-907, failure to obtain or maintain regulatory approvals for clinical trials, and breach by either party.
(ii) Accounting Summary
The Company considers its agreement with LLS to be a revenue arrangement with multiple deliverables. The Company’s obligations under this agreement include: (i) conduct the development program through a Phase Ib/IIa clinical trial; (ii) participate on the joint research advisory committee; and (iii) continue development during a follow-up diligence period of five years, if CUDC-907 is successful, as described above. The Company determined that the LLS arrangement is an obligation to perform contractual services and that payments received from LLS should be recognized as revenue rather than contra-research and development expenses or other income because this arrangement is part of the Company’s on-going operations as it relates to one of its three internal proprietary programs and the arrangement is similar to other types of arrangements the Company has entered into historically.
The follow-up diligence period becomes an obligation only if and when CUDC-907 has successful results from the completion of a Phase 1b/2a study and has received the appropriate regulatory approvals to proceed with additional clinical testing. The Company initiated a Phase 1 study of CUDC-907 in December 2012 and treated the first patient with CUDC-907 in January 2013. Since the Company’s intention would be to continue to develop CUDC-907 upon completion of a successful program, either internally or through a licensee, it has determined that there is no commercial substance to the follow-up diligence period, which is also based on the same level of success of the program. As a result, the Company determined that the follow-up diligence period is a non-substantive obligation as: (i) this performance obligation is not essential to the current development of CUDC-907 as the Company is only eligible to receive funding if specified clinical development milestones are achieved; and (ii) any repayment right only exists if the program is successful beyond Phase 1b/2a and the Company breaches this obligation by choosing not to use reasonable effort to continue developing CUDC-907, which is not probable at December 31, 2014.
The Company believes that its participation on the joint research advisory committee, which is comprised of equal representation from Curis and LLS, is tied to its performance to conduct the research program and is occurring concurrent with the research and development services. The Company determined that its participation on the joint research advisory committee does not have stand-alone value and is essential to the development of CUDC-907 since the Company has the sole responsibility for the development program. The Company determined that the only substantive deliverables are limited to the research and development services and joint research advisory committee participation, which represent a single unit of account.
The Company applied the provisions of ASC 605-28, Revenue Recognition, Milestone Method to determine whether the revenue earned under this agreement should be accounted for as substantive milestones. In determining whether the milestones in this arrangement are substantive, the Company considered whether uncertainty exists as to: (i) the achievement of the milestone event at the inception of the arrangement; (ii) the achievement of the milestone involves substantive effort and can only be achieved based in whole or part on the performance or the occurrence of a specific outcome resulting from the Company’s performance; (iii) the amount of the milestone payment appears reasonable either in relation to the effort expected to be expended or to the projected enhancement of the value of the delivered items; (iv) there is any future performance required to earn the milestone; and (v) the consideration is reasonable relative to all deliverables and payment terms in the arrangement. When a substantive milestone is achieved, the accounting guidance permits recognition of revenue related to the milestone payment in its entirety. The Company determined that the milestones achieved in 2012 and 2013 under the LLS agreement were substantive and recognized related revenue totaling $650,000 and $1,000,000 in the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. The Company did not receive any milestones under this agreement during the year ended December 31, 2014.
(4) STOCK PLANS AND STOCK BASED COMPENSATION
As of December 31, 2014, the Company had two shareholder-approved, share-based compensation plans: (i) the Amended and Restated 2010 Stock Incentive Plan, or the Amended and Restated 2010 Plan, adopted by the Board of Directors in March 2013 and approved by shareholders in May 2013 and (ii) the 2010 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or the ESPP, adopted by the Board of Directors in April 2010 and approved by shareholders in June 2010. In the first quarter of 2010, the Company’s 2000 Stock Incentive Plan expired in accordance with its terms and its 2000 Director Stock Option Plan had no available shares remaining under the plan. No additional awards will be made under these plans, although all outstanding awards under these plans will remain in effect until they are exercised or they expire in accordance with their terms.
The Amended and Restated 2010 Stock Incentive Plan
The Amended and Restated 2010 Plan permits the granting of incentive and non-qualified stock options and stock awards to employees, officers, directors, and consultants of the Company and its subsidiaries at prices determined by the Company’s Board of Directors. The Company can issue up to 9,000,000 shares of its common stock pursuant to awards granted under the Amended and Restated 2010 Plan. Options become exercisable as determined by the Board of Directors and expire up to 10 years from the date of grant. The Amended and Restated 2010 Plan uses a “fungible share” concept under which each share of stock subject to awards granted as options and stock appreciation rights (“SARs”), will cause one share per share under the award to be removed from the available share pool, while each share of stock subject to awards granted as restricted stock, restricted stock units, other stock-based awards or performance awards where the price charged for the award is less than 100% of the fair market value of the Company’s common stock will cause 1.3 shares per share under the award to be removed from the available share pool. As of December 31, 2014, the Company had only granted options to purchase shares of the Company’s common stock with an exercise price equal to the closing market price of the Company’s common stock on the NASDAQ Global Market on the grant date. As of December 31, 2014, 1,749,752 shares remained available for grant under the Amended and Restated 2010 Plan.
During the year ended December 31, 2014, the Company’s board of directors granted options to purchase 2,040,500 shares of the Company’s common stock to officers and employees of the Company under the 2010 Plan. Of this amount, options to purchase 1,000,500 shares of common stock vest over a four-year period and bear exercise prices that are equal to the closing market price of the Company’s common stock on the NASDAQ Global Market on the grant dates. The remaining options to purchase 1,040,000 shares of common stock were issued to the Company’s officers and will vest in tranches only if the closing sale price of the Company’s common stock is maintained at specified levels for a period of 60 consecutive trading days prior to the third anniversary of the respective grant dates. If the specified market conditions are not achieved prior to the third anniversary of the respective grant dates, any unvested options will be forfeited and such shares will then be available for grant under the 2010 Plan.
During the year ended December 31, 2014, the Company’s board of directors also granted options to its non-employee directors to purchase 235,000 shares of common stock under the 2010 Plan, which will vest monthly over a one-year period. All options granted to non-employee directors during the year ended December 31, 2014 bear exercise prices that are equal to the closing market price of the Company’s common stock on the NASDAQ Global Market on the grant date.
Employee and Director Grants
In determining the fair value of stock options, the Company uses the Black-Scholes option pricing model. The Black-Scholes option pricing model contained the following weighted average assumptions for employee option grants issued in each of the following years:
The expected volatility is based on the annualized daily historical volatility of the Company’s stock price for a time period consistent with the expected term of each grant. Management believes that the historical volatility of the Company’s stock price best represents the volatility of the stock price. The risk-free rate is based on the U.S. Treasury yield curve in effect at the time of grant for the expected term of the respective grant. The Company has not historically paid cash dividends, and does not expect to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future.
The stock price volatility and expected terms utilized in the calculation involve management’s best estimates at that time, both of which impact the fair value of the option calculated under the Black-Scholes methodology and, ultimately, the expense that will be recognized over the life of the option. GAAP also requires that the Company recognize compensation expense for only the portion of options that are expected to vest. Therefore, management calculated an estimated annual pre-vesting forfeiture rate that is derived from historical employee termination behavior since the inception of the Company, as adjusted. If the actual number of forfeitures differs from those estimated by management, additional adjustments to compensation expense may be required in future periods.
At December 31, 2014, the aggregate intrinsic value of employee options outstanding was $659,000, of which all related to exercisable options, and the weighted average remaining contractual life of vested stock options was 5.89 years. The weighted average grant-date fair values of stock options granted with standard vesting terms during the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012 were $1.79, $2.27 and $2.99 per share of common stock underlying such stock options, respectively. As of December 31, 2014, there was approximately $4,720,000, including the impact of estimated forfeitures, of unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested employee stock option awards outstanding under the Company’s 2000 Stock Incentive Plan and Amended and Restated 2010 Plan that is expected to be recognized as expense over a weighted average period of 2.4 years. The intrinsic value of employee stock options exercised during the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012 were $105,000, $2,091,000 and $6,145,000, respectively. The total fair value of vested stock options for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012 were $2,907,000, $2,716,000 and $2,525,000, respectively.
Vesting Tied to Market Conditions
Monte Carlo simulation models were used to value stock options to purchase an aggregate of 1,040,000 shares of common stock granted to the Company’s officers during the year ended December 31, 2014. Of this amount, options to purchase 640,000 shares of common stock were granted in February 2014 with an exercise price of $3.09 and options to purchase 400,000 shares of common stock were granted in June 2014 with an exercise price of $1.75 per share that contained specific market conditions. The
key assumptions used in these Monte Carlo simulation models and resulting valuations are noted in the following table:
Based on the above, the Monte Carlo simulation models calculated an aggregate fair value of $905,000, excluding forfeitures, related to these grants that are being recognized on a straight-line basis over the estimated vesting periods of the separate tranches. These awards accounted for $392,945 of the employee stock-based compensation expense recorded by the Company for the year ended December 31, 2014.
Non-Employee Grants
Pursuant to the Company’s stock plans, the Company has periodically granted stock options and unrestricted stock awards to consultants for services at the closing market price of the Company’s common stock on NASDAQ on the grant date. During the year ended December 31, 2013, the Company issued options to purchase a total of 525,000 shares of common stock to consultants. These options were issued pursuant to the Amended and Restated 2010 Plan at exercise prices equal to the closing market price of the Company’s common stock on NASDAQ on the grant date. Should the Company terminate any of its consulting agreements, the unvested options underlying the agreements would also be cancelled. Unvested non-employee options are marked-to-market, which means that as the Company’s stock price fluctuates, the related expense either increases or decreases. The Company reversed previously recognized expense of $80,866 for the year ended December 31, 2014 and recognized expense of $351,089 and $355,222 related to non-employee stock options and stock awards for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively.
A summary of stock option activity under the Amended and Restated 2010 Plan, the 2000 Stock Incentive Plan and the 2000 Director Stock Option Plan is summarized as follows:
2010 Employee Stock Purchase Plan
The Company has reserved 500,000 of its shares of common stock for issuance under the ESPP. Eligible employees may purchase shares of the Company’s common stock at 85% of the lower closing market price of the common stock at the beginning or ending date of the purchase period, as defined. The Company has two six-month purchase periods per year. As of December 31, 2014, 325,314 shares were issued under the ESPP, of which 56,983 were issued during 2014. As of December 31, 2014, there were 174,686 shares available for future purchase under the ESPP.
For the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, the Company recorded compensation expense related to its ESPP and calculated the fair value of shares expected to be purchased under the ESPP using the Black-Scholes models with the following assumptions:
Stock-based compensation for employee and director stock option grants for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012 of $3,140,855, $2,651,152 and $3,268,689, respectively, was calculated using the above valuation models and has been included in the Company’s results of operations.
Total Stock-Based Compensation Expense
For the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, the Company recorded employee and non-employee stock-based compensation expense to the following line items in its Costs and Expenses section of the Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss:
No income tax benefits have been recorded for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 or 2012, as the Company has recorded a full valuation allowance and management has concluded that it is more likely than not that the net deferred tax assets will not be realized (see Note 10).
(5) PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT
Property and equipment consist of the following:
The Company recorded depreciation and amortization expense of $155,083, $141,522 and $126,537 for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively.
During the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, the Company identified certain of its fully depreciated assets no longer being used. As a result, the Company wrote off gross assets and related accumulated depreciation, totaling $139,000, $329,000 and $418,000 for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively.
(6) ACCRUED LIABILITIES
Accrued liabilities consist of the following:
(7) DEBT
In December 2012, Curis’ wholly-owned subsidiary, Curis Royalty, received a $30,000,000 loan at an annual interest rate of 12.25% pursuant to a credit agreement between Curis Royalty and BioPharma-II. In connection with the loan, Curis transferred to Curis Royalty its right to receive certain future royalty and royalty-related payments on the commercial sales of Erivedge that it may receive from Genentech. The loan and accrued interest will be repaid by Curis Royalty using such royalty and royalty-related payments. To secure repayment of the loan, Curis Royalty granted a first priority lien and security interest (subject only to permitted liens) to BioPharma-II in all of its assets and all real, intangible and personal property, including all of its right, title and interest in and to the royalty and royalty-related payments. The loan constitutes an obligation of Curis Royalty, and is intended to be non-recourse to Curis. Under the terms of the loan, quarterly royalty payments received by Curis Royalty from Genentech will first be applied to pay (i) escrow fees payable by Curis pursuant to an escrow agreement between Curis, Curis Royalty, BioPharma-II and Boston Private Bank and Trust Company, (ii) Curis’ royalty obligations to academic institutions, (iii) certain expenses incurred by BioPharma-II in connection with the credit agreement and related transaction documents, including enforcement of its rights in the case of an event of default under the credit agreement and (iv) expenses incurred by Curis enforcing its right to indemnification under the collaboration agreement with Genentech. Remaining amounts, subject to caps of $3,000,000 per quarter in 2015, will be applied first to pay interest and second, principal on the loan. Curis Royalty will be entitled to receive the remaining royalty amounts above the caps, if any, and Curis remains entitled to receive any contingent payments upon achievement of clinical development objectives. Curis Royalty retains its right to royalty payments related to sales of Erivedge following repayment of the loan.
The final maturity date of the loan will be the earlier of the date when the principal is paid in full or the termination of Curis Royalty’s right to receive royalties under the collaboration agreement with Genentech. At any time after January 1, 2017, Curis Royalty may, subject to certain limitations, prepay the outstanding principal of the loan in whole or in part, at a price equal to 105% of the outstanding principal on the loan, plus accrued but unpaid interest. The obligations of Curis Royalty under the credit agreement to repay the loan may be accelerated upon the occurrence of an event of default as defined in the credit agreement.
Payments to BioPharma-II through December 31, 2014 totaled $8,901,330, of which $1,587,154 has been applied to the principal portion of the debt with the remainder applied to accrued interest, including interest capitalized and added to the principal portion of the loan during the year ended December 31, 2013. As of December 31, 2014, the Company recorded short- and long-term debt of $5,709,985 and $22,589,058, respectively (net of unamortized issuance costs of $38,074 and $75,729, respectively), and as of December 31, 2013, the Company recorded short- and long-term debt of $2,610,174 and $27,945,186, respectively (net of unamortized issuance costs of $53,503 and $105,105, respectively), related to the loan, with such amounts recorded within the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheets. In addition, the Company recorded accrued interest payable on the debt of $286,075 and $298,935 as of December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively, with such amounts included in the Company’s accrued liabilities section of its Consolidated Balance Sheets.
Because the repayment of the term loan is contingent upon the level of Erivedge royalties received, the short- and long-term classification is based on the Company’s best estimate of the timing of amounts to be repaid and the repayment term may be shortened or extended depending on the actual level of Erivedge royalties. In addition, if Erivedge royalties are insufficient to pay the accrued interest on the outstanding loan, the unpaid interest outstanding will be added to the principal on a quarterly basis. Currently, Curis management estimates that the loan will be repaid in 2017. However, the actual repayment period could vary materially from the Company’s estimate to the extent that royalty payments it receives are lower than the Company’s current estimates, which could arise due to factors beyond the Company’s control, such as due to the sale of competing products that result in a lowering of the royalty rates we are entitled to receive, decreased market acceptance or a failure by Genentech and/or Roche to successfully commercialize Erivedge in territories where it has received regulatory approval. For example, Curis Royalty is currently entitled to a royalty on net sales of Erivedge that ranges from 5% to 7.5% based on worldwide annual net sales ranging from less than $150 million to $600 million. The royalty rate applicable to Erivedge may be decreased by 2% (such that the applicable royalty rate will range between 3% to 5.5%) in certain specified circumstances, including when a competing product that binds to the same molecular target as Erivedge is approved by the applicable regulatory authority and is being sold in such country by a third party for use in the same indication as Erivedge. The Company is aware of one competing Hedgehog pathway inhibitor that is currently under regulatory review in the United States and European Union. If this molecule is approved and commercialized, the royalty rate for sales in the applicable territory would decline and would likely increase our estimated repayment period.
At December 31, 2014, the fair value of the principal portion of the debt is estimated as $28,710,000. Due to the assumptions required in estimating future Erivedge royalties, the expected repayment period and weighting of various royalty projection scenarios, determining the fair value of the debt required application of Level 3 inputs.
The Company incurred debt issuance costs totaling $421,715 in connection with this loan transaction, of which $215,000 related to expenses that the Company paid on behalf of BioPharma-II and the remaining $206,715 were incurred directly by the Company. The debt issuance costs incurred directly by the Company were capitalized as assets and those costs paid on behalf of BioPharma-II have been
netted against the debt and accrued interest in the Company’s Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2014 and 2013 as detailed in the following table:
All issuance costs are being amortized over the estimated term of the debt using the straight-line method which approximates the effective interest method. For the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, the Company recognized interest expense related to the loan with BioPharma-II of $3,748,374, $3,841,646 and $204,167 within the Company’s Consolidated Statement of Operations, comprised of interest accrued on the outstanding principal of the loan and amortization of debt issuance costs. The assumptions used in determining the expected repayment term of the debt and amortization period of the issuance costs requires management to make estimates that could impact the short- and long-term classification of these costs, as well as the period over which these costs will be amortized.
Future payments of principal on the loan will require application of these same assumptions and will be used to estimate short- and long-term classification of the debt within the Company’s consolidated balance sheets, and these assumptions currently do not include a reduction in the Company’s forecasted royalties related to a competing product for the expected repayment term. As noted above, the Company is aware of one competing Hedgehog pathway inhibitor that is currently under regulatory review in the United States and European Union. If this molecule is approved and commercialized, the royalty rate for sales in the applicable territory would decline and would likely increase our estimated repayment period.
At December 31, 2014, the Company estimates that its future payments of principal on the loan are as follows:
(8) COMMITMENTS
(a) OPERATING LEASES
The Company is party to a lease agreement with the Trustees of Lexington Office Realty Trust pursuant to which the Company leases 24,529 square feet of property that is used for office, research and laboratory space located at 4 Maguire Road in Lexington, Massachusetts.
The term of the 4 Maguire Road lease agreement commenced on December 1, 2010, and expires in February 2018. The Company has the option to extend the term for one additional five-year period upon the Company’s written notice to the lessor at least one year and no more than 18 months in advance of the extension.
The total cash obligation for the base rent over the initial term of the lease agreement is approximately $4,401,000. In addition to the base rent, the Company is also responsible for its share of operating expenses and real estate taxes, in accordance with the terms of the lease agreement. The Company has provided a security deposit to the lessor in the form of an irrevocable letter of credit in the original amount of $277,546. The original deposit has been reduced throughout the lease term since its inception to $180,364 and $166,487 during 2013 and 2014, respectively, and will continue to be reduced an additional $13,877 in 2015, in accordance with the terms of the lease. These amounts have been classified as the restricted investments in the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2014 and 2013.
The Company’s remaining operating lease commitments for all leased facilities with an initial or remaining term of at least one year are as follows:
Rent expense for all operating leases was $614,000 for each of the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively. The other long-term liability in the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2014 and 2013 represents the accrual for straight-line rent expense.
(b) LICENSE AGREEMENTS
In exchange for the right to use licensed technology in its research and development efforts, the Company has entered into various license agreements. These agreements generally stipulate that the Company pay an annual license fee and is obligated to pay royalties on future revenues, if any, resulting from use of the underlying licensed technology. Such revenues may include, for example, up-front license fees, contingent payments upon collaborators’ achievement of development and regulatory objectives, and royalties. In addition, some of the agreements commit the Company to make contractually defined payments upon the attainment of scientific or clinical milestones. During the year ended December 31, 2012, the Company also issued 200,000 shares of its common stock under agreements with two of its university licensors resulting in expense of $964,000. The Company expenses these payments as incurred and expenses royalty payments as related future product sales or royalty revenues are recorded. The Company accrues expenses for scientific and clinical objectives over the period that the work required to meet the respective objective is completed, provided that the Company believes that the achievement of such objective is probable. The Company incurred license fee expenses within the “Research and development” line item of its “Costs and expenses” section of its Consolidated Statement of Operations for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, of
$417,000, $500,000, and $2,114,000, respectively. For the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, the Company also recognized $339,578, $197,796 and $176,482 as cost of royalty revenues in its Consolidated Statement of Operations related to such obligations (see Note 3(a)).
During the year ended December 31, 2012, pursuant to the IAP license agreement with Genentech, the Company also recognized expense of $9,500,000 related to the up-front license fee and technology transfer costs within the in-process research and development expense line item of the Consolidated Statement of Operations (see Note 3(b)).
(9) COMMON STOCK AND WARRANT LIABILITY
(a) 2013 Sales Agreement with Cowen
On July 3, 2013, the Company entered into a sales agreement with Cowen and Company, LLC, or Cowen, pursuant to which the Company may sell from time to time up to $30,000,000 of its common stock through an “at-the-market”, or ATM, equity offering program under which Cowen will act as sales agent. Subject to the terms and conditions of the sales agreement, Cowen may sell the common stock by methods deemed to be an “at-the-market” offering as defined in Rule 415 promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, including sales made directly on NASDAQ, on any other existing trading market for the common stock or to or through a market maker other than on an exchange. In addition, with the Company’s prior written approval, Cowen may also sell the common stock by any other method permitted by law, including in negotiated transactions. Cowen will use its commercially reasonable efforts consistent with its normal trading and sales practices and applicable state and federal laws, rules and regulations and the rules of NASDAQ to sell on the Company’s behalf all of the shares requested to be sold by the Company. The Company has no obligation to sell any of the common stock under the sales agreement. Either the Company or Cowen may at any time suspend solicitations and offers under the sales agreement upon notice to the other party. The sales agreement may be terminated at any time by either the Company or Cowen upon written notice to the other party as specified in the sales agreement. The aggregate compensation payable to Cowen shall be 3% of the gross sales price of the common stock sold by Cowen pursuant to the sales agreement. In addition, the Company reimbursed $34,268 of Cowen’s expenses of Cowen in connection with the offering. Each party has agreed in the sales agreement to provide indemnification and contribution against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act, subject to the terms of the sales agreement. Common stock will be issued pursuant to the Company’s currently-effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3. During the year ended December 31, 2013, the Company sold 3,850,206 shares of common stock under the sales agreement resulting in gross proceeds of $16,887,036. Total offering expenses incurred, including Cowen’s commission, related to the sales agreement through December 31, 2013 were $641,052, which offset the gross proceeds. No common stock was sold under this sales agreement during the year ended December 31, 2014.
(b) 2011 At Market Issuance Sales Agreement with MLV
On June 13, 2011, the Company entered into an ATM agreement with McNicoll, Lewis & Vlak LLC, or MLV, pursuant to which the Company could issue and sell from time to time up to $20,000,000 of its common stock through MLV in at-the-market and other specified forms of sale. The ATM Agreement terminated in June 2013 in accordance with the terms of the agreement
During the year ended December 31, 2012, the Company sold 210,879 shares of common stock under the ATM agreement resulting in gross proceeds of $906,436. Total offering expenses, including MLV’s commission, incurred related to the ATM agreement for the year ended December 31, 2012, were $27,356, which offset the gross proceeds.
(c) 2010 Registered Direct Offering
On January 27, 2010, the Company completed a registered direct offering of 6,449,288 units with each unit consisting of (i) one share of the Company’s common stock and (ii) one warrant to purchase 0.25 of one share of common stock at a purchase price of $2.52 per unit. The Company received net proceeds from the sale of the units, after deducting offering expenses, of approximately $14,942,317 during the year ended December 31, 2010.
In connection with this offering, the Company issued warrants to purchase an aggregate of 1,612,322 shares of common stock. As of December 31, 2014, warrants to purchase 238,805 shares of the Company’s common stock have been exercised, resulting in outstanding warrants to purchase an aggregate of 1,373,517 shares of common stock, all of which expired on January 27, 2015 pursuant to the terms of the warrants.
The warrants had an initial exercise price of $3.55 per share and a five-year term. The warrants contained anti-dilution adjustment provisions that could have resulted in a decrease in the price and an increase in the number of shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of such warrants in the event of certain issuances of common stock by the Company at prices below $3.55 per share. Due to the original terms, the warrants were deemed to be a liability and, therefore, the fair values of the warrants were recorded as a liability in the Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2014 and 2013. The Company has estimated the fair value of the warrants using a Black-Scholes option pricing model under various probability-weighted outcomes which take into consideration the protective, but limited, cash-settlement feature of the warrants, with updated assumptions at each reporting date as detailed in the following table:
The Company recorded other income of $716,786, $771,393 and $2,257,130 for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively, as a result of a change in the fair value of the warrant liability that was primarily due to changes in the Company’s stock price during the respective reporting periods. During the year ended December 31, 2012, as a result of the exercise of warrants to purchase 237,301 shares of the Company’s common stock, the warrant liability decreased by $615,859 with an offsetting increase to additional paid-in-capital.
(10) INCOME TAXES
For the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, the Company did not record any federal or state income tax expense given its continued operating losses.
The provision for income taxes for continuing operations was at rates different from the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate for the following reasons:
Deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities are recognized based on temporary differences between the financial reporting and tax basis of assets and liabilities using future expected enacted rates. A valuation allowance is recorded against deferred tax assets if it is more likely than not that some or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized.
The principle components of the Company’s deferred tax assets at December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively, are as follows:
The classification of the above deferred tax assets is as follows:
As of December 31, 2014, the Company had federal and state net operating losses, or NOLs, of $222,620,000 and $49,202,000, respectively, and federal and state research and experimentation credit carryforwards of approximately $9,807,000 and $3,644,000, respectively, which will expire at various dates starting in 2019 through 2034. The Company had $9,857,000 of Massachusetts net operating losses generated in 2009 that expired in 2014. As required by U.S. GAAP, the Company’s management has evaluated the positive and negative evidence bearing upon the realizability of its deferred tax assets, and has determined that it is more likely than not that the Company will not recognize the benefits of the deferred tax assets. Accordingly, a valuation allowance of approximately $121,919,000 has been established at December 31, 2014. The benefit of deductions from the exercise of stock options is included in the NOL carryforwards. The benefit from these deductions will be recorded as a credit to additional paid-in capital if and when realized through a reduction of cash taxes.
Utilization of the NOL and research and development, or R&D, credit carryforwards may be subject to a substantial annual limitation under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 due to ownership change limitations that have occurred previously or that could occur in the future. These ownership changes may limit the amount of NOL and R&D credit carryforwards that can be utilized annually to offset future taxable income and tax, respectively. The Company has not completed a study to assess whether a change of control has occurred or whether there have been multiple changes of control since the Company’s formation because the Company continues to maintain a full valuation allowance on its NOL and R&D credit carryforwards. In addition, there could be additional ownership changes in the future, which may result in additional limitations in the utilization of the carryforward NOLs and credits, and the Company does not expect to have any taxable income for the foreseeable future.
An individual tax position must satisfy for some or all of the benefits of that position to be recognized in a company’s financial statements. At December 31, 2014 and 2013, the Company had no unrecognized tax benefits. The Company has not, as yet, conducted a study of its R&D credit carryforwards. This study may result in an adjustment to the Company’s R&D credit carryforwards, however, until a study is completed and any adjustment is known, no amounts are being presented as an uncertain tax position under Topic 740. A full valuation allowance has been provided against the Company’s R&D credits and, if an adjustment is required, this adjustment would be offset by an adjustment to the valuation allowance. Thus, there would be no impact to the consolidated balance sheet or statement of operations if an adjustment were required.
The tax years 1999 through 2014 remain open to examination by major taxing jurisdictions to which the Company is subject, which are primarily in the U.S., as carryforward attributes generated in years past may still be adjusted upon examination by the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, or state tax authorities if they have or will be used in a future period. The Company is currently not under examination by the IRS or any other jurisdictions for any tax years. The Company recognizes both accrued interest and penalties related to unrecognized benefits in income tax expense. The Company has not recorded any interest and penalties on any unrecognized tax benefits since its inception.
(11) RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
(a) Agreement with Former Officer
On June 2, 2014, Daniel R. Passeri resigned as Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Mr. Passeri will continue to serve as a Class II director of the Company. On June 2, 2014, the Board of Directors of the Company elected Mr. Passeri Vice Chairman of the Board. As a non-employee director, Mr. Passeri will be compensated $100,000 per year plus meeting fees for his participation on the Board of Directors.
The Company and Mr. Passeri entered into a consulting agreement on June 2, 2014. The agreement is for an initial term of one year, subject to renewal or earlier termination by the parties. Pursuant to the
terms of the consulting agreement, Mr. Passeri has agreed to provide 120 hours per month of consulting services to the Company on intellectual property, corporate and strategic matters. In consideration for the services rendered by Mr. Passeri to the Company, the Company has agreed to pay Mr. Passeri $32,500 per month until June 1, 2015, provided that if at any time during the consultation period Mr. Passeri obtains full time employment with a third party, then Mr. Passeri and the Company will negotiate a good faith reduction in the number of hours that Mr. Passeri will consult, and thereafter Mr. Passeri will be paid an hourly fee, in lieu of the monthly retainer, for services rendered under the consulting agreement. On December 1, 2014, Mr. Passeri obtained full time employment with a third party.
From June 2, 2014 until June 1, 2015, the consulting agreement may be terminated at any time by mutual agreement between the parties. The Company may terminate the consulting agreement immediately if Mr. Passeri breaches, or threatens to breach the terms of the non-disclosure and non-competition agreement previously entered into with the Company. Pursuant to the terms of the consulting agreement, the Company recognized expenses of $197,833 during the year ended December 31, 2014, under the consulting agreement.
(b) Agreement with Director
On March 7, 2013, the Company’s Board of Directors elected Kenneth J. Pienta, M.D., to serve as a class I director until the 2015 Annual Meeting of Stockholders and thereafter until his successor is duly elected and qualified. Dr. Pienta has served as a member of the Company’s Scientific Advisory Board since September 2006 and as its Chairman since June 2007, pursuant to the terms of a Scientific Advisory Board Agreement, or the SAB agreement, effective September 13, 2006, as amended from time to time, by and between Dr. Pienta and the Company. Pursuant to the SAB agreement, Dr. Pienta receives compensation in the amount of $50,000 per year, payable in equal quarterly installments. In addition, pursuant to the terms of a consulting agreement dated March 1, 2012, as amended from time to time, by and between the Company and Dr. Pienta, Dr. Pienta served as a consultant to the Company in the areas of corporate strategy and business development. The Company and Dr. Pienta terminated the consulting agreement in connection with his election as a member of the Board of Directors in March 2013. Pursuant to the terms of the SAB agreement and the consulting agreement, the Company paid cash consideration of $50,000, $72,258 and $190,000 during the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively, as it relates to services provided by Dr. Pienta. In addition, the Company’s board of directors granted two options to purchase an aggregate of 125,000 shares of the Company’s common stock to Dr. Pienta in his role on the SAB. These options vest over a four-year period and bear exercise prices that are equal to the closing market price of the Company’s common stock on the NASDAQ Global Market on the respective grant dates.
(c) License Agreement with Former Officer
Effective on February 24, 2012, the Company entered into a Drug Development Partnership and License Agreement for CU-906 and CU-908 with Guangzhou BeBetter Medicine Technology Company Ltd., or GBMT, a company organized under the laws of the People’s Republic of China. Dr. Changgeng Qian, the Company’s former Senior Vice President, Discovery and Preclinical Development, is the founder, owner, and legal representative of GBMT.
Pursuant to the GMBT license agreement, the Company has granted to GBMT an exclusive royalty-free license, with the right to grant sublicenses subject to certain conditions, to develop, manufacture, market and sell any product containing CU-906 or CU-908 in China, Macau, Taiwan and Hong Kong, which is referred to as the GBMT territory. In addition, the Company has granted to GBMT a non-exclusive, royalty-free manufacturing license, with the right to grant sublicenses subject to certain conditions, to manufacture CU-906 or CU-908 or any product containing CU-906 or CU-908 outside of the GBMT Territory solely to import the compounds or products into the GBMT territory. GBMT has
assumed all future development responsibility and will incur all future costs related to the development, registration and commercialization of products in the GBMT territory under the GMBT license agreement. Pursuant to the terms of the GMBT license agreement, the Company has retained rights, including the right to grant sublicenses, to develop, manufacture, market and sell any product containing CU-906 or CU-908 worldwide excluding the GBMT territory. The Company also has certain specified rights to any GBMT technology developed under the GMBT license agreement as well as certain specified rights to GBMT’s interest in joint technology developed under the GMBT license agreement. Furthermore, the Company has a right of first negotiation to obtain a license to CU-906 or CU-908 for the GBMT territory from GBMT.
The Company provided GBMT with up to $400,000 in financial support for specified CU-908 pre-clinical activities related to enabling the filing by the Company of an IND with the FDA, provided that GBMT completes such CU-908 IND-enabling activities in accordance with specified criteria and delivers a U.S. IND package for CU-908 to the Company within prescribed timeframes as specified in the license agreement. All costs incurred under the license agreement will be expensed as incurred. During the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2012, the Company had incurred expenses of $266,667 and $133,333, respectively, under the GMBT license agreement reported within the research and development line item of the Company’s Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss. No such expenses were incurred during the year ended December 31, 2013.
Unless terminated earlier in accordance with its terms, the GMBT license agreement will expire on the later of (i) the expiration of the last-to-expire valid claim of the Company patents and the Company non-assert patents relating to the products, and (ii) such time as none of GBMT, its affiliates or sublicensees is commercializing any compound or product in the GBMT territory. Either party can terminate the GMBT license agreement with notice under prescribed circumstances, and the GMBT license agreement specifies the consequences to each party for such early termination.
(12) RETIREMENT SAVINGS PLAN
The Company has a 401(k) retirement savings plan covering substantially all of the Company’s employees. Matching Company cash contributions are at the discretion of the Board of Directors. For the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, the Board of Directors authorized matching contributions of $172,000, $145,000 and $153,000, respectively.
(13) SELECTED QUARTERLY FINANCIAL DATA (UNAUDITED)
The following are selected quarterly financial data for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013:
(14) SUBSEQUENT EVENTS
Collaboration, License and Option Agreement with Aurigene Discovery Technologies, Ltd.
In January 2015, the Company entered into an exclusive collaboration agreement focused on immuno-oncology and selected precision oncology targets with Aurigene Discovery Technologies, Ltd., or Aurigene. The collaboration provides for inclusion of multiple programs, with the Company having the option to exclusively license compounds once a development candidate is nominated within each respective program. The partnership draws from each company’s respective areas of expertise, with Aurigene having the responsibility for conducting all discovery and preclinical activities, including IND-enabling studies and providing Phase 1 clinical trial supply, and the Company having responsibility for all clinical development, regulatory and commercialization efforts worldwide, excluding India and Russia, for each program for which it exercises an option to obtain a license.
The first two programs under the collaboration are an orally-available small molecule antagonist of programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) in the immuno-oncology field and an orally-available small molecule inhibitor of Interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4 (IRAK4) in the precision oncology field. The agreement provides that the parties will collaborate exclusively in immuno-oncology for an initial period of approximately two years, with the option for the Company to extend the broad immuno-oncology exclusivity.
In connection with the transaction, the Company issued to Aurigene approximately 17,120,131 shares of its common stock, or 19.9% of its outstanding common stock immediately prior to the transaction, in partial consideration for the rights granted to Curis under the collaboration agreement. The shares issued to Aurigene are subject to a lock-up agreement until January 18, 2017, with a portion of the shares being released from the lock-up in four equal bi-annual installments between now and that date.
In addition, the Company has agreed to make payments to Aurigene as follows:
•
for the first two programs: up to $52.5 million per program, including $42.5 million per program for approval and commercial milestones, plus specified approval milestone payments for additional indications, if any;
•
for the third and fourth programs: up to $50 million per program, including $42.5 million per program for approval and commercial milestones, plus specified approval milestone payments for additional indications, if any; and
•
for any program thereafter: up to $140.5 million per program, including $87.5 million per program in approval and commercial milestones, plus specified approval milestone payments for additional indications, if any.
The Company has agreed to pay Aurigene royalties on any net sales ranging from high single digits to 10% in territories where it successfully commercializes products and will also share in amounts that it receives from sublicensees depending upon the stage of development of the respective molecule.
Termination and Transition Agreement with Debiopharm
On February 6, 2015, the Company entered into a termination and transition agreement with Debiopharm International S.A., or Debiopharm to terminate the August 5, 2009 license agreement between the Company and Debiopharm, under which the Company granted Debiopharm an exclusive, worldwide license to Debio 0932, a small molecule inhibitor of heat shock protein 90, or HSP90, as amended. The transition agreement is effective as of February 5, 2015.
Under the terms of the termination and transition agreement, the licenses and all other rights granted by the Company related to Debio 0932 have been terminated and reverted to the Company effective as of the termination date. Debiopharm ceased enrollment in all clinical trials as of the termination date. In addition, the Company exercised its right, pursuant to the license agreement, to obtain a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing license, with the right to sublicense, under intellectual property rights of Debiopharm to develop, make, have made, use, sell, offer for sale, have sold and import Debio 0932 and any product containing Debio 0932, and Debiopharm will transfer to the Company the U.S. investigational new drug application related to Debio 0932. Debiopharm also assigned its sole patent application related to Debio 0932 to the Company.
Under the terms of the transition agreement, Debiopharm will transition ongoing Debio 0932 development and manufacturing activities to the Company and will transfer the manufacturing technology necessary for the manufacture of Debio 0932 and all data generated by or on behalf of Debiopharm relating to Debio 0932 to the Company.
The Company has agreed to make the following payments to Debiopharm under the terms of the termination and transition agreement:
Up-front drug product payment. The Company has agreed to pay $750,000 within fifteen (15) days of the termination date, primarily in consideration for Debiopharm providing Debio 0932 drug product for use in the Company’s future clinical studies.
Milestone payments. The Company has agreed to make each of the following one-time payments to Debiopharm:
(i) $3,000,000 within 30 days after the first dosing of the first patient in the first Phase 3 clinical trial of Debio 0932; and
(ii) $10,000,000 within 30 days after receipt of the first marketing approval for Debio 0932 in the United States of America or any specified major European market (whichever occurs first);
Royalties on the Company’s net sales. The Company has agreed to pay to Debiopharm royalties at a rate of 3% of net sales by the Company (excluding sales by the Company’s third party sublicensees) of products containing Debio 0932.
Amounts that the Company receives from sublicensees. The Company has agreed to pay to Debiopharm the following percentages of amounts that the Company receives from third party sublicensees;
(i) 10% of any royalties that the Company receives from third party sublicensees based on such sublicensees’ net sales of products containing Debio 0932; and
(ii) 15% of any non-royalty sublicense payments that the Company receives from third party sublicensees, provided that the maximum aggregate amount payable by the Company to Debiopharm with respect to non-royalty sublicense payments is $20,000,000, unless such sublicense payments are attributable to the Company’s grant to a third party sublicensee of a license or sublicense to develop or commercialize a topical formulation of Debio 0932 for local, non-systemic delivery for the treatment of psoriasis, in which case there is no such maximum aggregate.
ITEM 9.
ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE
None.
ITEM 9A.
ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls & Procedures
Our management, with the participation of our chief executive officer and chief financial officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2014. The term “disclosure controls and procedures,” as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act, means controls and other procedures of a company that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to the company’s management, including its principal executive and principal financial officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives and management necessarily applies its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. Based on the evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2014, our chief executive officer and chief financial officer concluded that, as of such date, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective.
Management’s report on internal control over financial reporting, as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act, is included in Item 8 of this annual report on Form 10-K and is incorporated herein by reference.
Our management assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2014. In making this assessment, management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) in its 2013 Internal Control-Integrated Framework.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
No changes in our internal control over financial reporting occurred during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
ITEM 9B.
ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
None.
PART III
ITEM 10.
ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Information concerning directors that is required by this Item 10 will be set forth in our proxy statement for our 2015 annual meeting of stockholders under the headings “Directors and Nominees for Director,” “Board Committees” and “Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting Compliance,” which information is incorporated herein by reference. The information concerning our code of ethics is set forth in our proxy statement under the heading “Code of Business Conduct and Ethics.” The name, age, and position of each of our executive officers is set forth under the heading “Executive Officers of the Registrant” in Part I of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which information is incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 11.
ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
Information required by this Item 11 will be set forth in our proxy statement for our 2015 annual meeting of stockholders under the headings “Executive and Director Compensation and Related Matters,” “Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation” and “Compensation Committee Report” which information is incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 12.
ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS
Information required by this Item 12 relating to security ownership of certain beneficial owners and management will be set forth in our 2015 proxy statement under the caption “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management” and is incorporated herein by reference. Information required by this Item 12 relating to securities authorized for issuance under equity compensation plans will be set forth in our 2015 proxy statement under the caption “Executive and Director Compensation and Related Matters-Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans” and is incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 13.
ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE
Information required by this Item 13 will be set forth in our proxy statement for our 2015 annual meeting of stockholders under the headings “Policies and Procedures for Related Person Transactions,” “Determination of Independence” and “Board Committees,” which information is incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 14.
ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES
Information required by this Item 14 will be set forth in our proxy statement for our 2015 annual meeting of stockholders under the heading “Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm’s Fees and Other Matters,” which information is incorporated herein by reference.
PART IV
ITEM 15.
ITEM 15. EXHIBITS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
(a)(1) Financial Statements.
(a)(2) Financial Statement Schedules.
All schedules are omitted because they are not applicable or the required information is shown in the Financial Statement or Notes thereto.
(a)(3) List of Exhibits. The list of Exhibits filed as a part of this annual report on Form 10-K is set forth on the Exhibit Index immediately preceding such Exhibits, and is incorporated herein by reference.
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
CURIS, INC.
By:
/S/ ALI FATTAEY
Ali Fattaey
President and Chief Executive Officer
Date: February 24, 2015
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.
EXHIBIT INDEX
# Indicates management contract or compensatory plan or arrangement.
 Confidential treatment has been granted as to certain portions, which portions have been separately filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
 Confidential treatment has been requested as to certain portions, which portions have been separately filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.