Collegium Pharmaceutical (COLL) Risk Factors

Certain provisions of Virginia law, the state in which we are incorporated, and our second amended and restated articles of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws could hamper a third party's acquisition of us, or discourage a third party from attempting to acquire control of us. These provisions could limit the price that certain investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock. In addition, these provisions make it more difficult for our shareholders to remove our Board of Directors or management or elect new directors to our Board of Directors.

Sales of our common stock in the public market, either by us or by our current shareholders, or the perception that these sales could occur, could cause a decline in the market price of our securities. All of the shares of our common stock held by our current shareholders may be immediately eligible for resale in the open market either in compliance with an exemption under Rule 144 promulgated under the Securities Act, or pursuant to an effective resale registration statement that we have previously filed with the SEC. Such sales, along with any other market transactions, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock. As of September 30, 2024, there were outstanding options to purchase an aggregate of 684,223 shares of our common stock at a weighted average exercise price of $18.74 per share, of which options to purchase 684,083 shares of our common stock were then exercisable. The exercise of options at prices below the market price of our common stock could adversely affect the price of shares of our common stock. Additional dilution may result from the issuance of shares of our common stock in connection with collaborations or manufacturing arrangements or in connection with other financing efforts.

We depend on our ability to protect our proprietary technology. We rely on patent and trademark laws, unpatented trade secrets and know-how, and confidentiality, licensing and other agreements with employees and third parties, all of which offer only limited protection. Our success depends in large part on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection in the United States with respect to our proprietary technology and products. The steps we have taken to protect our proprietary rights may not be adequate to preclude misappropriation of our proprietary information or infringement of our intellectual property rights in the United States. The rights already granted under any of our currently issued patents and those that may be granted under future issued patents may not provide us with the proprietary protection or competitive advantages we are seeking.

We have been, and may continue to be, forced to litigate to enforce or defend our intellectual property rights against infringement and unauthorized use by competitors, and to protect our trade secrets, including in connection with our pending litigation against generic competitors that have filed Paragraph IV Certifications relating to certain of our products. In so doing, we may place our intellectual property at risk of being invalidated, rendered unenforceable or limited or narrowed in scope. This litigation is expensive and time consuming. Many of our current and potential competitors have the ability to dedicate substantially greater resources to defend their intellectual property rights than we can. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating our intellectual property. Litigation could result in substantial costs and diversion of management resources, which 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 addition, an adverse result in any litigation proceeding could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated, held unenforceable or interpreted narrowly.

In addition to seeking patents for some of our technology and products, we rely on trade secrets, including unpatented know-how, technology and other proprietary information, to maintain our competitive position. We seek to protect these trade secrets, in part, by entering into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to them, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors and other third parties. Despite these efforts, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information, including our trade secrets, and we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for such breaches. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts in the United States may be less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, we would have no right to prevent such competitor, or those with whom they communicate, from using that technology or information to compete with us. If any of our trade secrets were to be disclosed or independently developed, our competitive position would be harmed.

A significant percentage of our product shipments are to three of our wholesale pharmaceutical distributors. Our loss of any of these wholesale pharmaceutical distributors' accounts, or a material reduction in their purchases or a significant disruption to transportation infrastructure or other means of distribution of our products, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. The significance of each wholesale pharmaceutical distributor account to our business adversely impacts our ability to negotiate favorable commercial terms with each such distributor, and as a result, we may be forced to accept terms that adversely impact our results of operations. In addition, these wholesaler customers comprise a significant part of the distribution network for pharmaceutical products in the United States. This distribution network has undergone, and may continue to undergo, significant consolidation marked by mergers and acquisitions. As a result, a small number of large wholesale distributors control a significant share of the market. Consolidation of drug wholesalers has increased, and may continue to increase, competitive and pricing pressures on pharmaceutical products. We cannot guarantee that we can manage these pricing pressures or that wholesaler purchases will not fluctuate unexpectedly from period to period.

For certain of our products, we are subject to post-marketing requirements to conduct epidemiological studies and clinical trials, or, in some cases, to conduct post-marketing surveillance or observational studies to gather additional information about our products. For our opioid products, we generally intend to fulfill our post-marketing requirements ("PMRs") by virtue of our participation in the Opioid PMR Consortium ("OPC"). Although we retain discretion in how to discharge such PMRs, the scale and scope of the studies required by the FDA make it cost prohibitive to discharge these requirements other than by joining the OPC that was formed to conduct them. We are a member of the OPC and engage in decision-making as a member of that organization, but do not have a majority. If the OPC fails to conduct sufficiently rigorous studies or is unable to achieve the patient enrollment or other requirements established by the FDA, we may be unable to satisfy our PMRs and the FDA may choose to withdraw or otherwise restrict its approval of our opioid products. Additionally, there may be certain PMRs or post-marketing commitments that we fulfill on our own for our products, including via the conduct of post-marketing surveillance or observational studies. If such studies lead to the discovery of adverse findings regarding the safety or benefit profiles of our products, then the FDA may choose to withdraw or otherwise restrict the approval of our products or the FDA or we may determine that labeling changes are warranted based on their finding. Such withdrawal or restriction or labeling changes for our products would have an adverse impact on our business and financial condition.

Our commercial organization continues to evolve and we cannot guarantee that we will continue to be successful in marketing our products. We recently acquired the sales force supporting Jornay in connection with the Ironshore acquisition and we cannot guarantee that we will be able to build and manage the Jornay sales infrastructure, while continuing to support and maintain our existing sales organization. In addition, we compete with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with extensive and well-funded sales and marketing operations to recruit, hire, train and retain sales and marketing personnel. If we are unable to continue to grow and maintain adequate sales, marketing and distribution capabilities, whether independently or with third parties, including with respect to our acquisition of Jornay, we may not be able to generate sufficient product revenue and may not remain profitable. Factors that may inhibit our efforts to continue successfully commercializing our products in the United States include: - our inability to recruit and retain adequate numbers of effective sales and marketing personnel;- the inability of sales personnel to reach adequate numbers of physicians who may prescribe our products; and - unforeseen costs and expenses associated with creating and maintaining an independent sales and marketing organization. If we are not successful in retaining sales and marketing personnel or in maintaining our sales and marketing infrastructure or if we do not preserve strategic alliances with marketing collaborators, agreements with contract sales organizations or collaboration arrangements, we will have difficulty in continuing to commercialize our products.

We do not own any manufacturing facilities in drug development and commercial manufacturing. We currently have no plans to build our own clinical or commercial scale manufacturing facility and do not have the resources and expertise to manufacture and test, on a commercial scale, the technical performance of our products. We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on a limited number of experienced personnel and contract manufacturers for our products, as well as other vendors to formulate, test, supply, store and distribute our products, and we control only certain aspects of their activities. In 2020, we completed the build-out of a dedicated manufacturing suite for Xtampza ER at a site operated by our contract manufacturing organization, Patheon, part of Thermo Fisher Scientific. This facility requires the maintenance of regulatory approvals and other costs, all of which we absorb. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to continue to leverage the dedicated manufacturing suite in a profitable manner. If the demand for Xtampza ER and any future related products never meets our expectations and forecasts, or if we do not produce the output we plan, we may not be able to realize the return on investment we anticipated, which would have a negative impact on our financial condition and results of operations. We have also transitioned commercial manufacturing for Nucynta ER from Janssen to Patheon. While we were successful in our regulatory approval and validation activities, we could encounter issues in obtaining commercial supply from Patheon's facility due to technical problems or challenges obtaining adequate and/or timely DEA procurement quota. Although we have identified alternate sources for these services, it would be time-consuming, and require us to incur additional costs, to qualify these sources. Our reliance on a limited number of vendors and, in particular, Patheon as our single manufacturer for Xtampza ER and Nucynta ER, exposes us to the following risks, any of which could impact commercialization of our products, result in higher costs, or deprive us of potential product revenues: - Our contract manufacturers, or other third parties we rely on, may encounter difficulties in achieving the volume of production needed to satisfy commercial demand, may experience technical issues that impact quality or compliance with applicable and strictly enforced regulations governing the manufacture of pharmaceutical products, may be affected by natural disasters that interrupt or prevent manufacturing of our products, may experience shortages of qualified personnel to adequately staff production operations, may experience shortages of raw materials and may have difficulties finding replacement parts or equipment;- Our contract manufacturers could default on their agreements with us to meet our requirements for commercial supplies of our products and/or we could experience technical problems in the operation of our dedicated manufacturing suite;- The use of alternate manufacturers may be difficult because the number of potential manufacturers that have the necessary governmental licenses to produce narcotic products is limited. Additionally, the FDA and the DEA must approve any alternative manufacturer of our products, before we may use the alternative manufacturer to produce commercial supplies;- It may be difficult or impossible for us to find a replacement manufacturer on acceptable terms quickly, or at all. Our contract manufacturers and vendors may not perform as agreed or may not remain in the contract manufacturing business for the time required to produce, store and distribute our products successfully; and - If our contract manufacturers were to terminate our arrangements or fail to meet our commercial manufacturing demands, we may be forced to delay our development and commercial programs. Failure to obtain the necessary active pharmaceutical ingredients, excipients or components necessary to manufacture our products could adversely affect our ability to continue to commercialize our products, which could in turn adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. Likewise, the inability of any of our sole or limited suppliers to provide components that meet our specifications and requirements could adversely impact our ability to manufacture our products. In addition, DEA regulations, through the quota procurement process, limit the amount of DEA-controlled active pharmaceutical ingredient we have available for manufacture. Consequently, we are limited in our ability to maintain an appreciable safety stock of finished drug product. Recently, the ADHD market has encountered several supply chain interruptions, due to, among other items, limited DEA quota of methylphenidate hydrochloride, creating a shortage in supply of ADHD medication. In July 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an official health advisory warning, noting that patients who rely on prescription stimulant medications to treat ADHD could experience a disruption to their treatment and disrupted access to care while the shortage persists. While Jornay has not experienced these issues to date, there is no assurance that we will not experience these issues related to Jornay in the future. Our reliance on third parties reduces our control over our manufacturing and commercialization activities but does not relieve us of our responsibility to ensure compliance with all required legal, regulatory and scientific standards. The FDA and other regulatory authorities require our products to be manufactured according to Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations promulgated by the FDA ("cGMP"). Any failure by our third-party manufacturer to comply with cGMP or failure to scale up manufacturing processes, including any failure to deliver sufficient quantities of products in a timely manner, could lead to inspection deficiencies, a shortage of commercial product, or potential products liability exposure for any noncompliant distributed products. Such failure could also be the basis for the FDA to issue a warning or untitled letter, withdraw approvals for products previously granted to us, or take other regulatory or legal action, including recall or seizure, total or partial suspension of production, refusal to approve pending applications or supplemental applications, detention of product, refusal to permit the import or export of products, injunction, imposing civil penalties or pursuing criminal prosecution. Any stock out, or failure to obtain sufficient supplies of any of our products, or the necessary active pharmaceutical ingredients, excipients or components necessary to manufacture each of our products, could adversely affect our ability to commercialize such products, which could in turn adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.