Public companies are required to disclose risks that can affect the business and impact the stock. These disclosures are known as “Risk Factors”. Companies disclose these risks in their yearly (Form 10-K), quarterly earnings (Form 10-Q), or “foreign private issuer” reports (Form 20-F). Risk factors show the challenges a company faces. Investors can consider the worst-case scenarios before making an investment. TipRanks’ Risk Analysis categorizes risks based on proprietary classification algorithms and machine learning.
Intra-Cellular Therapies disclosed 51 risk factors in its most recent earnings report. Intra-Cellular Therapies reported the most risks in the “Finance & Corporate” category.
Risk Overview Q3, 2024
Risk Distribution
27% Finance & Corporate
24% Legal & Regulatory
20% Tech & Innovation
14% Production
12% Ability to Sell
4% Macro & Political
Finance & Corporate - Financial and accounting risks. Risks related to the execution of corporate activity and strategy
This chart displays the stock's most recent risk distribution according to category. TipRanks has identified 6 major categories: Finance & corporate, legal & regulatory, macro & political, production, tech & innovation, and ability to sell.
Risk Change Over Time
2022
Q4
S&P500 Average
Sector Average
Risks removed
Risks added
Risks changed
Intra-Cellular Therapies Risk Factors
New Risk (0)
Risk Changed (0)
Risk Removed (0)
No changes from previous report
The chart shows the number of risks a company has disclosed. You can compare this to the sector average or S&P 500 average.
The quarters shown in the chart are according to the calendar year (January to December). Businesses set their own financial calendar, known as a fiscal year. For example, Walmart ends their financial year at the end of January to accommodate the holiday season.
Risk Highlights Q3, 2024
Main Risk Category
Finance & Corporate
With 14 Risks
Finance & Corporate
With 14 Risks
Number of Disclosed Risks
51
No changes from last report
S&P 500 Average: 31
51
No changes from last report
S&P 500 Average: 31
Recent Changes
0Risks added
0Risks removed
0Risks changed
Since Sep 2024
0Risks added
0Risks removed
0Risks changed
Since Sep 2024
Number of Risk Changed
0
No changes from last report
S&P 500 Average: 2
0
No changes from last report
S&P 500 Average: 2
See the risk highlights of Intra-Cellular Therapies in the last period.
Risk Word Cloud
The most common phrases about risk factors from the most recent report. Larger texts indicate more widely used phrases.
Risk Factors Full Breakdown - Total Risks 51
Finance & Corporate
Total Risks: 14/51 (27%)Below Sector Average
Share Price & Shareholder Rights4 | 7.8%
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 1
Provisions of the Delaware law, our restated certificate of incorporation and our restated bylaws may delay or prevent a takeover which may not be in the best interests of our stockholders.
The provisions of Delaware law and our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws could discourage or make it more difficult to accomplish a proxy contest or other change in our management or the acquisition of control by a holder of a substantial amount of our voting stock. It is possible that these provisions could make it more difficult to accomplish, or could deter, transactions that stockholders may otherwise consider to be in their best interests or in our best interests. These provisions are intended to enhance the likelihood of continuity and stability in the composition of our board of directors and in the policies formulated by the board of directors and to discourage certain types of transactions that may involve an actual or threatened change of control of the Company. These provisions are designed to reduce our vulnerability to an unsolicited acquisition proposal and to discourage certain tactics that may be used in proxy fights. Such provisions also may have the effect of preventing changes in our management.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 2
If securities or industry analysts do not publish, or cease publishing, research or reports about us, our business or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock adversely, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock is and will be influenced by whether industry or securities analysts publish or continue to publish research and reports about us, our business, our market or our competitors and, to the extent analysts do publish such reports, what they publish in those reports. We may not continue to have or to obtain analyst coverage in the future. Any analysts that do cover us may make adverse recommendations regarding our stock, adversely change their recommendations from time to time, and/or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors. If any analyst who covers us or may cover us in the future were to cease coverage of us or fail to regularly publish reports on us, or if analysts fail to cover us or publish reports about us at all, we could lose, or never gain, visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 3
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to existing stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights.
We may need to satisfy our future cash needs through public or private sales of our equity securities, sales of debt securities, the incurrence of debt from commercial lenders, strategic collaborations, licensing a portion or all of our products, product candidates and technology and, to a lesser extent, grant funding, although there can be no assurances such financing can be obtained. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of our existing stockholders will be diluted, and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our stockholders. Debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. If we raise additional funds through collaboration and licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 4
Numerous factors could result in substantial market volatility in the trading price of our common stock.
The trading price of our common stock could fluctuate substantially due to a variety of factors, including market perception of our ability to meet our growth projections and expectations, operating results of other companies in the same industry, trading volume in our common stock, and other developments affecting our business and the business of others in our industry. During the year ended December 31, 2023, the price per share of our common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market has ranged from a high of $74.17 to a low of $42.01. We have several stockholders who hold substantial blocks of our stock. Sales of large numbers of shares by any of our large stockholders could adversely affect our trading price. If stockholders holding shares of our common stock sell, indicate an intention to sell, or if it is perceived that they will sell, substantial amounts of their common stock in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline.
In addition, the trading price of our common stock may be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. These factors include:
- the success of our commercialization of CAPLYTA in the United States for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar depression;- timing and announcement of regulatory developments, submissions and approvals or preliminary, interim or final results of clinical trials;- actual or anticipated quarterly variation in our results of operations or the results of our competitors;- announcements of medical innovations or new products or product candidates by our competitors;- issuance of new or changed securities analysts' reports or recommendations for our stock;- developments or disputes concerning our intellectual property or other proprietary rights;- commencement of, or our involvement in, litigation;- market conditions in the biopharmaceutical industry;- any future sales of our common stock or other securities in connection with raising additional capital or otherwise;- possible acquisitions or business combinations and possible or perceived collaborations;- any major change to the composition of our board of directors or management; and - general market, economic, and political conditions and slow or negative growth of our markets, both domestically and globally.
The stock market in general, and market prices for the securities of biotechnology companies like ours in particular, are subject to extreme fluctuations and have from time to time experienced volatility that often has been unrelated to the operating performance of the underlying companies. These broad market and industry fluctuations have had a significant effect on the market price of securities issued by many companies for reasons related and unrelated to their operating performance and may adversely affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our operating performance. In several recent situations where the market price of a stock has been volatile, holders of that stock have instituted securities class action litigation against the company that issued the stock. If any of our stockholders were to bring a securities class action lawsuit against us, such as the purported class action lawsuits brought against us and certain of our executive officers in May 2017, consolidated in July 2017 and voluntarily dismissed in November 2017, the defense and disposition of the lawsuit could be costly and divert the time and attention of our management and harm our operating results.
Accounting & Financial Operations5 | 9.8%
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 1
We do not anticipate paying cash dividends in the foreseeable future.
We currently intend to retain any future earnings for funding growth. We do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. As a result, you should not rely on an investment in our securities if you require dividend income. Capital appreciation, if any, of our shares may be your sole source of gain for the foreseeable future. Moreover, you may not be able to re-sell your shares at or above the price you paid for them.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 2
If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce accurate and timely financial statements could be impaired, which could harm our operating results, our ability to operate our business and investors' views of us.
We are required to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires public companies to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting. In particular, we must perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. In addition, we are required to have our independent registered public accounting firm attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Ensuring that we have adequate internal financial and accounting controls and procedures in place so that we can produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis is a costly and time-consuming effort that will need to be re-evaluated frequently. We currently outsource the internal audit function. We have hired and may need to hire additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge to establish an internal audit function. If we fail to maintain the effectiveness of our internal controls or if we or our independent registered public accounting firm identify deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, this could have a material adverse effect on our business. We could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which could have an adverse effect on the price of our common stock and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources. In addition, if our efforts to comply with new or changed laws, regulations, and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business may be harmed.
Our ability to successfully implement our business plan and comply with Section 404 requires us to be able to prepare timely and accurate financial statements. We expect that we will need to continue to improve existing, and implement new operational and financial systems, procedures and controls to manage our business effectively. Any delay in the implementation of, or disruption in the transition to, new or enhanced systems, procedures or controls, may cause our operations to suffer and we may be unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective and to obtain an unqualified report on internal controls from our independent registered public accounting firm as required under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This, in turn, could have an adverse impact on trading prices for our common stock, and could adversely affect our ability to access the capital markets.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 3
There are possible limitations on our use of net operating losses.
As of December 31, 2023, we had net operating loss carryforwards, or NOLs, of approximately $528.4 million, which are available to reduce any future federal and state taxable income, of which $73.6 million will begin to expire at various dates through 2037 and $454.8 million do not expire. The use of our NOLs may be restricted due to changes in ownership, including as a result of public offerings.
Under Section 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, changes in our ownership (as defined by the foregoing sections of the Code) may limit the amount of NOLs and tax credit carryforwards that could be utilized annually in the future to offset taxable income.
For the years ended December 31, 2015 through 2022, we performed a Section 382 ownership analysis and determined that no ownership change occurred (within the meaning of Section 382 of the Code) as a result of our public offering in 2022. Our previous ownership analysis through December 31, 2015 reflected an ownership change occurred as a result of our 2015 public offerings.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 4
We expect our net losses to continue and are unable to predict the extent of future losses or when we will become profitable, if ever.
We have experienced significant net losses since inception. As of December 31, 2023, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $1.6 billion. We expect to continue to incur net losses as we advance our programs and incur significant clinical development costs. To date, we have received product revenues only from the commercialization of CAPLYTA. Prior to our commercial launch of CAPLYTA in March 2020, substantially all of our revenues were from our license and collaboration agreement with Takeda and our agreements with various U.S. governmental agencies and other parties, including our research and development grants. To continue to grow our revenues from lumateperone, we must successfully commercialize lumateperone in its approved indications. To obtain revenues from our product candidates, we must succeed, either alone or with others, in developing, obtaining regulatory approval for, and manufacturing and marketing drugs with significant market potential. We may never succeed in these activities, and may never generate revenues that are significant enough to achieve profitability.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 5
We have generated revenues from product sales but there is no guarantee that our revenues from the sale of CAPLYTA will result in us achieving profitability.
Our ability to generate revenue from product sales and achieve profitability depends on our ability to successfully commercialize CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar depression in adults in the United States as well as our ability to complete the development of and obtain regulatory approvals necessary to commercialize lumateperone in other indications or to manufacture and market our other product candidates. We have a limited operating history on which to evaluate our business and prospects. While we have generated product revenues from CAPLYTA, we cannot guarantee that CAPLYTA will be successfully commercialized or that any of our product candidates currently in development will ever become marketable products.
We must demonstrate that our product candidates satisfy rigorous standards of safety and efficacy for their intended uses before the FDA and other regulatory authorities in the European Union and elsewhere will approve them for commercialization. Significant additional research, non-clinical testing and clinical testing is required before we can submit applications to the FDA or other regulatory authorities for approval of our drug candidates. In addition, to compete effectively, our drugs must be easy to administer, cost-effective and economical to manufacture on a commercial scale. We may not achieve any of these objectives.
Lumateperone is in Phase 3 clinical development as a novel treatment for MDD. Clinical conduct in Study 501, Study 502, and Study 505, global Phase 3 clinical trials evaluating lumateperone 42 mg as an adjunctive therapy to antidepressants for the treatment of MDD, is ongoing. Subject to the results of Study 501 and Study 502, we expect to file an sNDA with the FDA for approval of lumateperone as an adjunctive therapy to antidepressants for the treatment of MDD in 2024.
In addition, we intend to pursue the development of our PDE program, including lenrispodun for the treatment of several CNS and non-CNS conditions. Following the favorable safety and tolerability results in our Phase 1 program, we initiated our development program for lenrispodun for Parkinson's disease. We have an ongoing Phase 2 clinical program with lenrispodun for Parkinson's disease. We also have an active Investigational New Drug application to evaluate our newest candidate within the PDE 1 inhibitor program, ITI-1020, as a novel cancer immunotherapy. Our Phase 1 program with ITI-1020 in healthy volunteers is ongoing.
We cannot be certain that the clinical development of these or any other drug candidates in non-clinical testing or clinical development will be successful, that we will receive the regulatory approvals required to commercialize them or that any of our other research and drug discovery programs will yield a drug candidate suitable for investigation through clinical trials.
Debt & Financing2 | 3.9%
Debt & Financing - Risk 1
Our management has broad discretion over the use of our cash and we may not use our cash effectively, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
Our management has significant flexibility in applying our cash resources and could use these resources for corporate purposes that do not increase our market value, or in ways with which our stockholders may not agree. We may use our cash resources for corporate purposes that do not yield a significant return or any return at all for our stockholders, which could adversely affect our future growth prospects.
Debt & Financing - Risk 2
We may require additional funding, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all, and, if not so available, may require us to delay, limit, reduce or cease our operations.
We have consumed substantial amounts of capital since our inception. Our cash, cash equivalents, investment securities and restricted cash totaled $499.7 million at December 31, 2023. With our cash, cash equivalents and investment securities, we intend to fund our drug development programs and our working capital needs in connection with the commercialization of CAPLYTA. Accordingly, we may require additional capital to continue our clinical development and commercialization activities. Because successful development of our product candidates is uncertain, we are unable to estimate the actual funds we will require to complete research and development and commercialize our products under development.
Our future capital requirements will depend on, and could increase significantly as a result of, many factors, including:
- the amount of product sales from lumateperone;- the costs of maintaining and expanding our sales and marketing capabilities for lumateperone;- the costs of preparing applications for regulatory approvals for lumateperone in additional indications beyond schizophrenia and bipolar depression, and potentially in jurisdictions other than the United States, and for other product candidates, as well as the costs required to support review of such applications;- the costs of manufacturing and distributing lumateperone for commercial use in the United States;- our ability to obtain regulatory approval for, and subsequently generate product sales from, lumateperone in additional indications beyond schizophrenia and bipolar depression or in jurisdictions other than the United States;- the progress in, and the costs of, our non-clinical studies and clinical trials and other research and development programs;- the scope, prioritization and number of our research and development programs;- our ability to enter into new, and to maintain any existing, collaboration and license agreements;- the ability of any future collaborators and us to reach the milestones, and other events or developments, triggering payments under any future collaboration agreements or to otherwise make payments under such agreements;- the extent to which any future collaborators are obligated to reimburse us for clinical trial costs under any future collaboration agreements;- the costs involved in filing, prosecuting, enforcing and defending patent claims and other intellectual property rights;- the costs of maintaining or securing manufacturing and supply arrangements for clinical or commercial production of lumateperone or our other product candidates;- the costs of preparing applications for regulatory approvals for our product candidates;- the costs of preparing for and establishing, or contracting for, sales and marketing capabilities if we obtain regulatory approvals for our product candidates;- the costs involved in maintaining and expanding the accounting and data management systems to support commercial operations;- the costs of acquiring products and entering into research collaborations; and - the costs associated with litigation, including the costs incurred in defending against any product liability claims that may be brought against us related to lumateperone or our other product candidates.
Until we can generate sufficient continuing revenues, we expect to satisfy our future cash needs through our existing cash, cash equivalents and investment securities, strategic collaborations, private or public sales of our securities, debt financings, grant funding, or by licensing all or a portion of our products, product candidates or technology. Turmoil and volatility in the financial markets have adversely affected the market capitalization of many biotechnology companies, and generally made equity and debt financing more difficult to obtain. This, coupled with other factors, may limit our access to additional financing. This could have a material adverse effect on our ability to access sufficient funding. We cannot be certain that additional funding will be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If we do obtain additional funding through equity offerings, the ownership of our existing stockholders and purchasers of shares of our common stock in any such offering will be diluted, and the terms of any financing may adversely affect the rights of our stockholders. In addition, the issuance of additional shares by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our shares to decline. If funds are not available, we will be required to delay, reduce the scope of, or eliminate one or more of our research or development programs or our commercialization efforts. We also could be required to seek funds through arrangements with collaboration partners or otherwise that may require us to relinquish rights to some of our technologies, products or product candidates or otherwise agree to terms unfavorable to us.
Corporate Activity and Growth3 | 5.9%
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 1
To the extent we are able to enter into collaborative arrangements or strategic alliances, we will be exposed to risks related to those collaborations and alliances.
Biotechnology companies at our stage of development sometimes become dependent upon collaborative arrangements or strategic alliances to complete the development and commercialization of drug candidates, particularly after the Phase 2 stage of clinical testing. If we elect to enter into collaborative arrangements or strategic alliances, these arrangements may place the development of our drug candidates outside our control, may require us to relinquish important rights or may otherwise be on terms unfavorable to us.
Dependence on collaborative arrangements or strategic alliances would subject us to a number of risks, including the risk that:
- we may not be able to control the amount and timing of resources that our collaborators may devote to the drug candidates;- our collaborators may experience financial difficulties;- we may be required to relinquish important rights, such as marketing and distribution rights;- business combinations or significant changes in a collaborator's business strategy may also adversely affect a collaborator's willingness or ability to complete its obligations under any arrangement;- a collaborator could independently move forward with a competing drug candidate developed either independently or in collaboration with others, including our competitors; and - collaborative arrangements are often terminated or allowed to expire, which would delay the development and may increase the cost of developing our drug candidates.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 2
If we seek to enter into strategic alliances for our drug candidates, but fail to enter into and maintain successful strategic alliances, we may have to reduce or delay our drug candidate development or increase our expenditures.
An important element of a biotechnology company's strategy for developing, manufacturing and commercializing its drug candidates may be to enter into strategic alliances with pharmaceutical companies or other industry participants to advance its programs and enable it to maintain its financial and operational capacity. We may face significant competition in seeking appropriate alliances. If we seek such alliances, we may not be able to negotiate alliances on acceptable terms, if at all. In addition, these alliances may be unsuccessful. On October 31, 2014, we entered into the Termination Agreement with Takeda, which terminated the Takeda License Agreement, pursuant to which all rights granted under the Takeda License Agreement were returned to us. If we seek such alliances and then fail to create and maintain suitable alliances, we may have to limit the size or scope of, or delay, one or more of our drug development or research programs.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 3
In order to execute our business plan and achieve profitability, we need to effectively expand the commercialization of CAPLYTA, which has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults and for the treatment of bipolar depression in adults.
CAPLYTA is our only drug that has been approved for sale and it has been approved only for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults and bipolar depression in adults in the United States only. We are focusing a significant portion of our activities and resources on CAPLYTA, and we believe our prospects are highly dependent on, and a significant portion of the value of our company relates to, our ability to successfully commercialize CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults and for the treatment of bipolar depression in adults in the United States.
Successful commercialization of CAPLYTA is subject to many risks. We have never, as an organization, launched or commercialized any other product, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to successfully commercialize CAPLYTA for its approved indications. There are numerous examples of failures to meet high expectations of market potential, including by pharmaceutical companies with more experience and resources than us. We expect that continued commercial success of CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar depression will depend on many factors, including the following:
- the efficacy, cost, approved use, and side-effect profile of CAPLYTA regimens relative to competitive treatment regimens for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar depression;- the effectiveness of our commercial strategy for the marketing of CAPLYTA, including our pricing strategy and the effectiveness of our efforts to obtain adequate third-party reimbursements;- maintaining and successfully monitoring commercial manufacturing arrangements for CAPLYTA with third-party manufacturers to ensure they meet our standards and those of regulatory authorities, including the FDA, which extensively regulate and monitor pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities;- our ability to meet the demand for commercial supplies of CAPLYTA;- the acceptance of CAPLYTA by patients, the medical community and third-party payers; and - the effect of recent or potential health care legislation in the United States.
While we believe that CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar depression has a commercially competitive profile, we cannot accurately predict the amount of revenue that will be generated from the sale of CAPLYTA. If we do not effectively commercialize CAPLYTA, we will not be able to execute our business plan and may not be able to achieve profitability. If our revenues, market share and/or other indicators of market acceptance of CAPLYTA do not meet the expectations of investors or public market analysts, the market price of our common stock would likely decline.
Legal & Regulatory
Total Risks: 12/51 (24%)Below Sector Average
Regulation8 | 15.7%
Regulation - Risk 1
We are subject to stringent regulation in connection with the marketing of CAPLYTA and any other products derived from our product candidates, which could delay the development and commercialization of our products.
The pharmaceutical industry is subject to stringent regulation by the FDA and other regulatory agencies in the United States and by comparable authorities in other countries. Neither we nor our collaborators can market a pharmaceutical product in the United States until we or they have completed rigorous non-clinical testing and clinical trials and an extensive regulatory clearance process implemented by the FDA. Satisfaction of regulatory requirements typically takes many years, depends upon the type, complexity and novelty of the product, and requires substantial resources. Even if regulatory approval is obtained, it may impose significant restrictions on the indicated uses, conditions for use, labeling, advertising, promotion, and/or marketing of such products, and requirements for post-approval studies, including additional research and development and clinical trials. For example, the label for CAPLYTA contains a "boxed" warning that elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis treated with antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of death and that CAPLYTA is not approved for the treatment of patients with dementia-related psychosis. These limitations may reduce the size of the market for the product or result in the incurrence of additional costs. Any delay or failure in obtaining required approvals could have a material adverse effect on our ability to generate revenues and continue our business.
Outside the United States, the ability to market a product is contingent upon receiving approval from the appropriate regulatory authorities. The requirements governing the conduct of clinical trials, marketing authorization, pricing, and reimbursement vary widely from country to country. Only after the appropriate regulatory authority is satisfied that adequate evidence of safety, quality, and efficacy has been presented will it grant a marketing authorization. Approval by the FDA does not automatically lead to approval by regulatory authorities outside the United States and, similarly, approval by regulatory authorities outside the United States will not automatically lead to FDA approval.
Regulation - Risk 2
The FDA has granted marketing approval of CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults and the treatment of bipolar depression in adults, and we could face liability if a regulatory authority determines that we are promoting CAPLYTA for any "off-label" uses.
A company may not promote "off-label" uses for its drug products. An off-label use is the use of a product for an indication or patient population that is not described in the product's FDA-approved label in the United States or for uses in other jurisdictions that differ from those approved by the applicable regulatory agencies. Physicians, on the other hand, may prescribe products for off-label uses. Although the FDA and other regulatory agencies do not regulate a physician's choice of drug treatment made in the physician's independent medical judgment, they do restrict promotional communications from pharmaceutical companies or their sales forces with respect to off-label uses of products for which marketing clearance has not been issued. A company that is found to have promoted off-label use of its product may be subject to significant liability, including civil and criminal sanctions. We intend to comply with the requirements and restrictions of the FDA and other regulatory agencies with respect to our promotion of CAPLYTA, and any other products we may market, but we cannot be sure that the FDA or other regulatory agencies will agree that we have not violated their restrictions. As a result, we may become subject to criminal and civil liability should an agency determine that such violations occurred. In addition, our management's attention could be diverted to handle any such alleged violations. A significant number of pharmaceutical companies have been the target of inquiries and investigations by various U.S. federal and state regulatory, investigative, prosecutorial and administrative entities in connection with the promotion of products for unapproved uses and other sales practices, including the Department of Justice, or DOJ, and various U.S. Attorneys' Offices, the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the FDA, the Federal Trade Commission and various state Attorneys General offices. These investigations have alleged violations of various U.S. federal and state laws and regulations, including claims asserting antitrust violations, violations of the FDCA, the civil False Claims Act, anti-kickback laws, and other alleged violations in connection with the promotion of products for unapproved uses, pricing and Medicare and/or Medicaid reimbursement. If the FDA, DOJ, or any other governmental agency initiates an enforcement action against us, or if we are the subject of a qui tam suit under the False Claims Act and it is determined that we violated prohibitions relating to the promotion of products for unapproved uses, we could be subject to substantial civil or criminal fines or damage awards and other sanctions such as consent decrees and corporate integrity agreements pursuant to which our activities would be subject to ongoing scrutiny and monitoring to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Any such fines, awards or other sanctions would have an adverse effect on our revenue, business, financial prospects, and reputation.
Regulation - Risk 3
Health care legislation may make it more difficult to receive revenues from CAPLYTA or future products.
In both the United States and certain foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory proposals in recent years to change the health care system in ways that could impact our ability to sell our products profitably. For example, on August 16, 2022, President Biden signed into the law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, or the IRA. Among other things, the IRA has multiple provisions that may impact the prices of drug products that are both sold into the Medicare program and throughout the United States. Starting in 2023, a manufacturer of drugs or biological products covered by Medicare Parts B or D must pay a rebate to the federal government if their drug product's price increases faster than the rate of inflation. This calculation is made on a drug product by drug product basis and the amount of the rebate owed to the federal government is directly dependent on the volume of a drug product that is paid for by Medicare Parts B or D. Additionally, starting for payment year 2026, CMS will negotiate drug prices annually for a select number of single source Part D drugs without generic or biosimilar competition. CMS will also negotiate drug prices for a select number of Part B drugs starting for payment year 2028. If a drug product is selected by CMS for negotiation, it is expected that the revenue generated from such drug will decrease. CMS has begun to implement these new authorities and entered into the first set of agreements with pharmaceutical manufacturers to conduct price negotiations in October 2023. However, the IRA's impact on the biopharmaceutical industry in the U.S. remains uncertain, in part because multiple large pharmaceutical companies and other stakeholders (e.g., the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) have initiated federal lawsuits against CMS arguing the program is unconstitutional for a variety of reasons, among other complaints. Those lawsuits are currently ongoing. Further legislative changes to health care and pharmaceutical laws in the United States remain possible. We expect that health care reform measures that may be adopted in the future may result in more rigorous coverage criteria and lower reimbursement, and in additional downward pressure on the price that may be charged for lumateperone or any of our other product candidates, if approved. Any reduction in reimbursement from Medicare or other government programs may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payers. The implementation of cost containment measures or other health care reforms may prevent us from being able to generate revenue, attain profitability, or commercialize CAPLYTA or any other products for which we receive regulatory approval.
In addition, in many foreign countries, particularly the countries of the European Union, the pricing of prescription drugs is subject to government control. In some non-U.S. jurisdictions, the proposed pricing for a drug must be approved before it may be lawfully marketed. The requirements governing drug pricing vary widely from country to country. For example, the European Union provides options for its member states to restrict the range of medicinal products for which their national health insurance systems provide reimbursement and to control the prices of medicinal products for human use. A member state may approve a specific price for the medicinal product or it may instead adopt a system of direct or indirect controls on the profitability of the company placing the medicinal product on the market. We may face competition from lower-priced products in foreign countries that have placed price controls on pharmaceutical products.
Regulation - Risk 4
We are subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and restrictions with regard to CAPLYTA and, following regulatory approval of any of our product candidates, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and restrictions with regard to such product candidates, which may result in significant expense and limit our ability to commercialize lumateperone and our other potential products.
With regard to CAPLYTA and our product candidates, if any, approved by the FDA, or by another regulatory authority, we are held to extensive regulatory requirements over product manufacturing, labeling, packaging, adverse event reporting, storage, advertising, promotion and record keeping. Regulatory approvals may also be subject to significant limitations on the indicated uses or marketing of the product candidates. Potentially costly follow-up or post-marketing clinical studies may be required as a condition of approval to further substantiate safety or efficacy, or to investigate specific issues of interest to the regulatory authority.
Previously unknown problems with the product candidate, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, may result in restrictions on the marketing of the drug, and could include withdrawal of the drug from the market.
In addition, the law or regulatory policies governing pharmaceuticals may change. New statutory requirements or additional regulations may be enacted that could prevent or delay regulatory approval of our product candidates. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of adverse government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, either in the United States or elsewhere. If we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we might not be permitted to market our drugs and our business could suffer.
Regulation - Risk 5
We are subject, directly and indirectly, to federal, state and foreign healthcare laws and regulations, including healthcare fraud and abuse laws, false claims laws, physician payment transparency laws and health information privacy and security laws. If we are unable to comply, or have not fully complied, with such laws, we could face substantial penalties.
Our operations are directly, and indirectly through our customers and third-party payers, subject to various U.S. federal and state healthcare laws and regulations, including, without limitation, the U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute, the U.S. federal False Claims Act, and physician sunshine laws and regulations. These laws may impact, among other things, our clinical research, sales, marketing, grants, charitable donations, and education programs and constrain the business or financial arrangements with healthcare providers, physicians, charitable foundations, and other parties that have the ability to directly or indirectly influence the prescribing, ordering, marketing, or distribution of our products for which we obtain marketing approval. In addition, we and any potential future collaborators, partners or service providers are subject to data privacy and security laws and regulations by both the U.S. federal government and the states in which we conduct our business as discussed more fully above. Finally, we may be subject to additional healthcare, statutory and regulatory requirements and enforcement by foreign regulatory authorities in jurisdictions in which we conduct our business. The laws that may affect our ability to operate include:
- the U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, persons or entities from knowingly and willfully soliciting, offering, receiving or paying any remuneration (including any kickback, bribe, or certain rebates), directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in cash or in kind, to induce, or in return for, either the referral of an individual, or the purchase, lease, order or recommendation of any good, facility, item or service, for which payment may be made, in whole or in part, under U.S. federal and state healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. A person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation;- the U.S. federal civil and criminal false claims laws, including the civil False Claims Act, which can be enforced through civil whistleblower or qui tam actions, and civil monetary penalties laws, which impose criminal and civil penalties on individuals or entities for, among other things, knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, to the U.S. federal government, claims for payment or approval that are false or fraudulent or from knowingly making a false statement to avoid, decrease or conceal an obligation to pay money to the U.S. federal government. In addition, the government may assert that a claim including items and services resulting from a violation of the U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the False Claims Act;- HIPAA, and its implementing regulations, and as amended again by the Final HIPAA Omnibus Rule, Modifications to the HIPAA Privacy, Security, Enforcement and Breach Notification Rules Under HITECH and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act; Other Modifications to the HIPAA Rules, published in January 2013, which imposes criminal and civil liability for, among other things, knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program or obtain, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, any of the money or property owned by, or under the custody or control of, any healthcare benefit program, regardless of the payer (e.g., public or private) and knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up by any trick or device a material fact or making any materially false statement, in connection with the delivery of, or payment for, healthcare benefits, items or services. Similar to the U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute, a person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation;- we are not directly subject to HIPAA, however, we could be subject to penalties, including criminal penalties if we knowingly obtain or disclose individually identifiable health information from a HIPAA-covered health care provider, or a research institution that has not complied with HIPAA's requirements for disclosing such information. Furthermore, the number of government investigations related to data security incidents and privacy violations continue to increase and government investigations typically require significant resources and generate negative publicity, which could harm our business and our reputation;- the FDCA, which prohibits, among other things, the adulteration or misbranding of drugs, biologics and medical devices;- the U.S. federal physician payment transparency requirements, sometimes referred to as the "Physician Payments Sunshine Act", which was enacted as part of the ACA and its implementing regulations and requires certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologics and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children's Health Insurance Program to report annually to CMS information related to certain payments and other transfers of value made to physicians (as defined to include doctors of medicine, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors under such law), and, teaching hospitals, as well as ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members, which was expanded beginning in 2022, to require applicable manufacturers to report such information regarding its relationships with physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, anesthesiologist assistants, certified registered nurse anesthetists and certified nurse midwives during the previous year; and - analogous state and local laws and regulations, including: state anti-kickback and false claims laws, which may apply to our business practices, including but not limited to, research, distribution, sales and marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by any third-party payer, including private insurers; state laws that require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry's voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the U.S. federal government, or otherwise restrict payments that may be made to healthcare providers and other potential referral sources; state and local laws and regulations that require drug manufacturers to file reports relating to pricing and marketing information, which requires tracking gifts and other remuneration and items of value provided to healthcare professionals and entities and/or the registration of pharmaceutical sales representatives; and state laws governing the privacy and security of personal data and protected / personal health information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA.
Ensuring that our internal operations and future business arrangements with third parties comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations could involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices do not comply with current or future statutes, regulations or case law interpreting applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other governmental laws and regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant penalties, including civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, exclusion from U.S. government-funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, disgorgement, imprisonment, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits, additional reporting requirements and/or oversight, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. Moreover, while we do not bill third-party payers directly and our customers make the ultimate decision on how to submit claims, from time-to-time, for CAPLYTA, and any other product candidates that may be approved, we may provide reimbursement guidance to patients and healthcare providers. If a government authority were to conclude that we provided improper advice and/or encouraged the submission of a false claim for reimbursement, we could face action against us by government authorities. If any of the physicians or other providers or entities with whom we expect to do business is found to be not in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from government-funded healthcare programs and imprisonment. If any of the above occur, it could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations. In addition, the approval and commercialization of CAPLYTA, or any other product candidates that may be approved, outside of the United States will also likely subject us to foreign equivalents of the healthcare laws mentioned above, among other foreign laws.
Regulation - Risk 6
We incur substantial costs and demands upon management as a result of complying with the laws and regulations affecting public companies, which could harm our operating results.
As a public company, we have incurred and will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses, including costs associated with public company reporting requirements. We also have incurred and will incur costs associated with corporate governance requirements, including requirements under Section 404 and other provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as rules implemented by the SEC or the Nasdaq Global Select Market or any other stock exchange or inter-dealer quotations system on which our common stock may be listed in the future. The expenses incurred by public companies for reporting and corporate governance purposes have increased dramatically in recent years.
Regulation - Risk 7
Even though the FDA has granted approval of CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar depression, the terms of the approval may limit its commercial potential. Additionally, CAPLYTA is still subject to ongoing regulatory requirements.
Even though the FDA has granted approval of CAPLYTA, the scope and terms of the approval may limit our ability to commercialize CAPLYTA and, therefore, our ability to generate substantial revenues. The FDA has approved CAPLYTA only for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar depression in adults. The label for CAPLYTA also contains a "boxed" warning that elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis treated with antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of death and that CAPLYTA is not approved for the treatment of patients with dementia-related psychosis.
The manufacturing processes, labeling, packaging, distribution, adverse event reporting, storage, advertising, promotion and recordkeeping for CAPLYTA also continue to be subject to extensive and ongoing regulatory requirements. These requirements include, but are not limited to, submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports and manufacturing establishment registration. We will also have to continue to comply with current good manufacturing processes, good clinical practices, international council for harmonization guidelines and good laboratory practices, which are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA for all of our non-clinical and clinical development and for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval.
Discovery of any issues post-approval, including any safety concerns, such as unexpected side effects or drug-drug interaction problems, adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or concerns over misuse or abuse of the product, problems with the facilities where the product is manufactured, packaged or distributed, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in, among other things, restrictions on CAPLYTA or on us, including:
- withdrawal of approval, addition of warnings or narrowing of the approved indication in the product label;- requirement of a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS, program to mitigate the risk of off-label use in populations where the FDA may believe that the potential risks of use may outweigh its benefits;- voluntary or FDA-requested recalls;- warning letters;- suspension of any ongoing clinical studies;- refusal by the FDA or other regulatory authorities to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications filed by us;- restrictions on operations, including restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of the product or the imposition of costly new manufacturing requirements; or - seizure or detention, or refusal to permit the import or export of products.
If any of these actions were to occur, we may have to delay or discontinue the commercialization of CAPLYTA, limit our sales and marketing efforts, conduct further post-approval studies, and/or delay, discontinue or change any other ongoing or planned clinical studies, which in turn could result in significant expense and delay or limit our ability to generate revenues.
Regulation - Risk 8
If we do not obtain regulatory approval of lumateperone for other indications in the United States, or for any indication in foreign jurisdictions, we will not be able to market lumateperone for other indications or in other jurisdictions, which will limit our commercial revenues.
While CAPLYTA has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar depression in adults, lumateperone has not been approved by the FDA for any other indications, and it has not been approved in any other jurisdiction for these indications or for any other indication. In order to market lumateperone for other indications or in other jurisdictions, we must obtain regulatory approval for each of those indications and in each of the applicable jurisdictions, and we may never be able to obtain such approval. Approval of CAPLYTA by the FDA for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar depression does not ensure that foreign jurisdictions will also approve CAPLYTA for those indications, nor does it ensure that lumateperone will be approved by the FDA for additional indications or populations. Lumateperone is in Phase 3 clinical development as an adjunctive therapy for the treatment of MDD. There is no guarantee that any ongoing or future studies of lumateperone in other indications will be successful, or that the FDA or any regulatory authority in foreign jurisdictions will approve lumateperone for any of those indications. The research, testing, manufacturing, labeling, approval, sale, import, export, marketing, and distribution of pharmaceutical product candidates are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory authorities in the United States and other countries, whose regulations differ from the FDA and from each other. We will be required to comply with different regulations and policies of the jurisdictions where we seek approval for our product candidates, and we have not yet identified all of the requirements that we will need to satisfy to submit lumateperone for approval for other indications or in other jurisdictions. This will require additional time, expertise and expense, including the potential need to conduct additional studies or development work for other jurisdictions beyond the work that we have conducted to support our NDA submission in schizophrenia or our sNDA submissions in bipolar depression. In addition, strategic considerations need to be taken into account when determining whether and when to submit lumateperone for approval in other jurisdictions. If we do not receive marketing approval for lumateperone for any other indication or from any regulatory agency outside of the United States, we will never be able to commercialize lumateperone for any other indication in the United States or for any indication in any other jurisdiction. Even if we do receive additional regulatory approvals, we may not be successful in commercializing those opportunities.
If the results or timing of regulatory filings, the regulatory process, regulatory developments, clinical trials or non-clinical studies, or other activities, actions or decisions related to lumateperone do not meet our or others' expectations, the market price of our common stock could decline significantly.
Litigation & Legal Liabilities1 | 2.0%
Litigation & Legal Liabilities - Risk 1
If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of lumateperone or any other product for which we obtain regulatory approval, or development or commercialization of our product candidates.
We face an inherent risk of product liability as a result of commercial sales of lumateperone in the United States and the clinical testing of our product candidates, and will face an even greater risk following commercial launch of lumateperone in additional jurisdictions, if approved, or if we engage in the clinical testing of new product candidates or commercialize any additional products.
For example, we may be sued if lumateperone or any other product we develop allegedly causes injury or is found to be otherwise unsuitable for administration in humans. 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. Claims could also be asserted under state consumer protection laws. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we may incur substantial liabilities or be required to limit commercialization of our product candidates. Even successful defense would require significant financial and management resources. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:
- decreased demand for our products or product candidates that we may develop;- injury to our reputation;- withdrawal of clinical trial participants;- initiation of investigations by regulators;- costs to defend the related litigation;- a diversion of management's time and our resources;- substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;- product recalls, withdrawals or labeling, marketing or promotional restrictions;- loss of revenue;- exhaustion of any available insurance and our capital resources;- the inability to commercialize our products or product candidates; and - a decline in our stock price.
Although we currently have product liability insurance that covers our clinical trials and the commercialization of CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar depression, we may need to increase and expand this coverage, including if lumateperone is approved for the treatment of indications beyond schizophrenia and bipolar depression or if other product candidates are approved for commercial sale. This insurance may be prohibitively expensive or may not fully cover our potential liabilities. Inability to obtain sufficient insurance coverage at an acceptable cost or otherwise to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of products that we or our collaborators develop. If we determine that it is prudent to increase our product liability coverage, we may be unable to obtain such increased coverage on acceptable terms or at all. Our insurance policies also have various exclusions, and we may be subject to a product liability claim for which we have no coverage. Our liability could exceed our total assets if we do not prevail in a lawsuit from any injury caused by our drug products. Product liability claims could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Taxation & Government Incentives1 | 2.0%
Taxation & Government Incentives - Risk 1
Changes in tax laws could adversely affect our business and financial condition.
On August 9, 2022, the United States enacted the CHIPS and Science Act which provides an investment tax credit for 25% of qualified investments primarily used for manufacturing of semiconductors and related equipment in the U.S. On August 16, 2022, the United States enacted the Inflation Reduction Act ("IRA") which includes a provision for a 15% corporate alternative minimum tax on companies with average annual adjusted financial statement income over $1 billion effective for tax years ending after December 31, 2022. In addition to other provisions included such as stock buy-back and prescription drug pricing, we reviewed the provisions and there was not a material tax impact on our financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2023.
We continue to examine the impact this tax reform legislation may have on our business and depending on possible foreign operations, among other things, the impact of this tax reform is uncertain and could be adverse. This report does not discuss any such tax legislation or the manner in which it might affect holders of our common stock. We urge our stockholders to consult with their legal and tax advisors with respect to such legislation and the potential tax consequences of investing in our common stock.
Environmental / Social2 | 3.9%
Environmental / Social - Risk 1
Our business is subject to complex and evolving U.S. federal and state, and foreign laws and regulations, imposing obligations on how we collect, use disclose, store and process personal data. We are also subject to information security policies and contractual obligations relating to privacy and data protection, including the use, processing, and cross-border transfer of personal data. The actual or perceived failure by us, or vendors to comply with these laws and regulations, policies and contractual obligations could harm our business and/or reputation, and subject us to significant fines and liability.
A growing body of increasingly stringent domestic and foreign laws and regulations governs the collection, use, disclosure, transfer and other processing of personal data, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA. Privacy laws in the United States are becoming increasingly complex and changing rapidly. California was the first U.S. state to enact a comprehensive privacy law, California Consumer Privacy Act, or the CCPA, which took effect on January 1, 2020. The CCPA requires covered companies to provide new disclosures to California residents and honor their requests to access, delete and opt-out of certain sharing of their personal data. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations and statutory damages for certain data breaches. The CCPA has also been substantially amended by a voter-approved ballot initiative called the California Privacy Rights Act, or the CPRA. The CPRA went into full effect on January 1, 2023, and, among other things, creates a new administrative agency to implement and enforce California's privacy laws and extended rights to California-based employees. In addition to California, more U.S. states are enacting similar legislation, increasing compliance complexity and increasing risks of failure to comply. In 2023, comprehensive privacy laws in Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah all took effect, and laws in Montana, Oregon, and Texas will take effect in 2024. While certain clinical trial activities are exempt from some state privacy law requirements, other personal data that we handle may be subject to these various laws, which may increase our compliance costs, exposure to regulatory enforcement action and other liabilities.
Compliance with U.S. and international data protection laws and regulations could require us to take on more onerous obligations in our contracts, restrict our ability to collect, use and disclose data, or in some cases, impact our ability to operate in certain jurisdictions. Data protection laws and data protection worldwide is, and is likely to remain, uncertain for the foreseeable future. While we strive to comply with applicable data protection laws, external and internal privacy and security policies, and contractual data protection obligations to the extent possible, we may at times fail to do so. Moreover, despite our efforts, we may not be successful in achieving compliance if our personnel, collaborators, partners or vendors do not comply with applicable data protection laws, external and internal privacy and security policies, and contractual data protection obligations. Actual or perceived failure to comply with U.S. and international data protection laws could result in government enforcement actions (which could include civil or criminal penalties), private litigation or adverse publicity, penalties and other liabilities, claims for damages by affected individuals, and damage to our reputation, any of which could materially and negatively affect our operating results and business, financial condition, and growth prospects. Moreover, clinical trial subjects about whom we or our potential collaborators obtain information, as well as the providers who share this information with us, may contractually limit our ability to use and disclose the information. Claims that we have violated individual's privacy rights, even if we are found not liable, could be expensive and time consuming to defend and could result in adverse publicity that could harm our business.
We are also subject to the terms of our external and internal privacy and security policies, representations, certifications, publications and frameworks, and contractual obligations to third parties related to privacy, information security and processing. Failure or a perceived failure to comply with these policies, or if these policies are, in whole or part, found or perceived to be inaccurate, incomplete, deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative of our actual practices, could result in reputational harm; result in litigation; cause a material adverse impact to business operations or financial results; and otherwise result in other material harm to our business.
Environmental / Social - Risk 2
Our business involves the use of hazardous materials, and we and our third party manufacturers and suppliers must comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, which can be expensive and restrict how we do, or interrupt, our business. Any claims relating to improper handling, storage, or disposal of biological, hazardous, and radioactive materials used in our business could be costly and delay our research and development and commercial efforts.
Our business, including our research and development activities, involves the controlled use of potentially harmful hazardous materials, including volatile solvents, biological materials such as blood from patients that have the potential to transmit disease, chemicals that cause cancer, and various radioactive compounds, which requires us and our third party manufacturers and suppliers to comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. Our operations also produce hazardous waste products. We face increasing complexity in our product development as we adjust to new and upcoming requirements relating to the materials composition of many of our product candidates. We face the risk of contamination or injury from the use, storage, handling or disposal of these materials.
We are subject to federal, state, local, and foreign laws and regulations governing the use, storage, handling, and disposal of these materials and specified waste products. The cost of compliance with these laws and regulations could be significant, and current or future environmental regulations may impair our research, development, or production efforts. If one of our employees were accidentally injured from the use, storage, handling, or disposal of these materials, the medical costs related to their treatment would be covered by our workers' compensation insurance policy. Accordingly, in the event of contamination or injury, we could be subject to criminal sanctions or fines or be held liable for damages, our operating licenses could be revoked, and we could be required to suspend or modify our operations and our research and development efforts.
Tech & Innovation
Total Risks: 10/51 (20%)Below Sector Average
Innovation / R&D4 | 7.8%
Innovation / R&D - Risk 1
Delays, suspensions and terminations in our clinical trials or the need to conduct additional clinical trials or non-clinical studies could result in increased costs to us, delay our ability to generate product revenues and therefore may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and future growth prospects.
The commencement of clinical trials can be delayed for a variety of reasons, including delays in: demonstrating sufficient safety and pharmacological activity to justify seeking to commence a clinical trial; reaching agreement on acceptable terms with prospective contract research organizations and clinical trial sites; manufacturing sufficient quantities of a product candidate; obtaining clearance from the FDA to commence clinical trials pursuant to an IND; obtaining institutional review board approval to conduct a clinical trial at a prospective clinical trial site; and patient enrollment, which is a function of many factors, including the size of the patient population, the nature of the protocol, the proximity of patients to clinical trial sites, the availability of effective treatments for the relevant disease and the eligibility criteria for the clinical trial.
Once a clinical trial has begun, it may be delayed, suspended or terminated due to a number of factors, including: ongoing discussions with regulatory authorities regarding the scope or design of our clinical trials or requests by them for supplemental information with respect to our clinical trial results; failure to conduct clinical trials in accordance with regulatory requirements; lower than anticipated screening or retention rates of patients in clinical trials; serious adverse events or side effects experienced by participants; and insufficient supply or deficient quality of product candidates or other materials necessary for the conduct of our clinical trials.
Many of these factors may also ultimately lead to denial of regulatory approval of a current or potential product candidate. If we experience delays, suspensions or terminations in a clinical trial or are required to conduct additional clinical trials or non-clinical studies, our costs will increase, the commercial prospects for the related product candidate will be harmed, and our ability to generate product revenues will be delayed.
Innovation / R&D - Risk 2
There is no guarantee that our planned clinical trials for lumateperone or our other product candidates will be successful.
The historical rate of failures for product candidates in clinical development and late-stage clinical trials is high. We are conducting and plan to conduct further clinical trials in lumateperone in indications beyond schizophrenia and bipolar depression as well as clinical trials of our other product candidates, and there is no guarantee that we will have the same level of success in these trials as we have had in certain of our previous clinical trials, or be successful at all.
In addition, although we believe that lumateperone and follow-on compounds may also have clinical utility in indications other than schizophrenia and bipolar depression, we have never tested lumateperone in Phase 3 clinical trials in the patient populations for these other indications, except for our ongoing studies in MDD and our study in patients with a clinical diagnosis of probable AD and clinically significant symptoms of agitation, which we determined to discontinue following our independent data monitoring committee's, or DMC's, recommendation that the study should be stopped for futility.
If we do not successfully complete clinical development and obtain approval of lumateperone in indications beyond schizophrenia and bipolar depression, we will be unable to market, sell and generate revenue from lumateperone in any of these other indications. Even though we have successfully completed certain clinical trials for CAPLYTA in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar depression, those results are not necessarily predictive of results of future trials that may be needed before we may submit an sNDA to the FDA for any indication beyond schizophrenia and bipolar depression. Of the vast number of drugs in development, only a small percentage result in the submission of an NDA to the FDA, and even fewer result in the NDA ultimately being approved by the FDA for commercialization.
Innovation / R&D - Risk 3
Even if we successfully complete the clinical trials of one or more of our product candidates, the product candidates may fail for other reasons.
Even if we successfully complete the clinical trials for one or more of our product candidates, the product candidates may fail for other reasons, including the possibility that the product candidates will:
- fail to receive the regulatory approvals required to market them as drugs;- be subject to proprietary rights held by others requiring the negotiation of a license agreement prior to marketing;- be difficult or expensive to manufacture on a commercial scale;- have adverse side effects that make their use less desirable; or - fail to compete with product candidates or other treatments commercialized by our competitors.
If we are unable to receive the required regulatory approvals, secure our intellectual property rights, minimize the incidence of any adverse side effects or fail to compete with our competitors' products, our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
Innovation / R&D - Risk 4
Preliminary and interim data from our clinical trials that we may announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available.
From time to time, we may announce or publish preliminary or interim data from our clinical trials. Preliminary and interim data of a clinical trial are not necessarily predictive of final data. Preliminary and interim data are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as patient enrollment continues and more patient data become available. As a result, preliminary and interim data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. Material adverse changes in the final data compared to the interim data could affect our planned clinical path for our product candidates, including increasing costs of and/or causing delays in such development, and could significantly harm our business prospects.
Trade Secrets5 | 9.8%
Trade Secrets - Risk 1
We may not be able to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights throughout the world, which could negatively impact our business.
Filing, prosecuting and defending patents relating to our products, product candidates and technologies in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as U.S. laws. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States, or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into the United States or other jurisdictions. Competitors or other third parties may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection or licenses but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our products, and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.
Many companies have encountered significant difficulties in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biotechnology, which could make it difficult, costly or impossible for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our intellectual property and proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly, could put our patent applications at risk of not issuing and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us or any of our future licensors. We may not prevail in any lawsuits or other adversarial proceedings that we initiate, and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.
Further, many countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, the patent owner may have limited remedies, which could materially diminish the value of such patent. If we or any of our licensors are forced to grant a license to third parties with respect to any patents relevant to our business, our competitive position may be impaired, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
Trade Secrets - Risk 2
The patent applications of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies involve highly complex legal and factual questions, which, if determined adversely to us, could negatively impact our patent position.
The patent positions of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies can be highly uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions. The standards of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, are uncertain and could change in the future. Consequently, the issuance and scope of patents cannot be predicted with certainty. Patents, if issued, may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented. U.S. patents and patent applications may also be subject to interference proceedings, and U.S. patents may be subject to reexamination proceedings in the USPTO (and foreign patents may be subject to opposition or comparable proceedings in the corresponding foreign patent office), which proceedings could result in either loss of the patent or denial of the patent application or loss or reduction in the scope of one or more of the claims of the patent or patent application. Similarly, opposition or invalidity proceedings could result in loss of rights or reduction in the scope of one or more claims of a patent in foreign jurisdictions. In addition, such interference, reexamination and opposition proceedings may be costly. Accordingly, rights under any issued patents may not provide us with sufficient protection against competitive products or processes.
In addition, changes in or different interpretations of patent laws in the United States and foreign countries may permit others to use our discoveries or to develop and commercialize our technology, products and product candidates without providing any compensation to us or may limit the number of patents or claims we can obtain. In particular, there have been proposals to shorten the exclusivity periods available under U.S. patent law that, if adopted, could substantially harm our business. Our approved product and the product candidates that we are developing are protected by intellectual property rights, including patents and patent applications. For our approved product and any of our product candidates that become a marketable product, if any, we will rely on our exclusivity under patents to sell the compound and recoup our investments in the research and development of the compound. If the exclusivity period for patents is shortened, then our ability to generate revenues without competition will be reduced and our business could be materially adversely impacted. The laws of some countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as U.S. laws, and those countries may lack adequate rules and procedures for defending our intellectual property rights. For example, some countries, including many in Europe, do not grant patent claims directed to methods of treating humans and, in these countries, patent protection may not be available at all to protect our products or product candidates. In addition, U.S. patent laws may change, which could prevent or limit us from filing patent applications or patent claims to protect our products, product candidates and/or technologies or limit the exclusivity periods that are available to patent holders. For example, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or the Leahy-Smith Act, was signed into law in 2011 and includes a number of significant changes to U.S. patent law. These include changes to transition from a "first-to-invent" system to a "first-to-file" system and to the way issued patents are challenged. These changes may favor larger and more established companies that have more resources to devote to patent application filing and prosecution. The USPTO has been in the process of implementing regulations and procedures to administer the Leahy-Smith Act, and many of the substantive changes to patent law associated with the Leahy-Smith Act may affect our ability to obtain, enforce or defend our patents. Accordingly, it is not clear what, if any, impact the Leahy-Smith Act will ultimately have on the cost of prosecuting our patent applications, our ability to obtain patents based on our discoveries and our ability to enforce or defend our issued patents.
If we fail to obtain and maintain patent protection and trade secret protection of our products, product candidates, proprietary technologies and their uses, we could lose our competitive advantage and competition we face would increase, reducing our potential revenues and adversely affecting our ability to attain or maintain profitability.
Trade Secrets - Risk 3
A dispute concerning the infringement or misappropriation of our proprietary rights or the proprietary rights of others could be time consuming and costly, and an unfavorable outcome could harm our business.
There is significant litigation in our industry regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. While we are not currently subject to any pending intellectual property litigation, and are not aware of any such threatened litigation, we may be exposed to future litigation by third parties based on claims that our products, product candidates, technologies or activities infringe the intellectual property rights of others. If our drug development or commercialization activities are found to infringe any such patents, we may have to pay significant damages or seek licenses to such patents. We may need to resort to litigation to enforce a patent issued to us, protect our trade secrets or determine the scope and validity of third-party proprietary rights. From time to time, we may hire scientific personnel formerly employed by other companies involved in one or more areas similar to the activities conducted by us. Either we or these individuals may be subject to allegations of trade secret misappropriation or other similar claims as a result of their prior affiliations. If we become involved in litigation, it could consume a substantial portion of our managerial and financial resources, regardless of whether we win or lose. We also may not be able to afford the costs of litigation.
Trade Secrets - Risk 4
Confidentiality agreements with employees and others may not adequately prevent disclosure of our trade secrets and other proprietary information and may not adequately protect our intellectual property, which could limit our ability to compete.
Because we operate in the highly technical field of drug discovery and development of small molecule drugs, we rely in part on trade secret protection in order to protect our proprietary technology and processes. However, trade secrets are difficult to protect. We enter into confidentiality and intellectual property assignment agreements with our corporate partners, employees, consultants, outside scientific collaborators, sponsored researchers, and other advisors. These agreements generally require that the other party keep confidential and not disclose to third parties any confidential information developed by the party or made known to the party by us during the course of the party's relationship with us. These agreements also generally provide that inventions conceived by the party in the course of rendering services to us will be our exclusive property. However, these agreements may not be honored and may not effectively assign intellectual property rights to us. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally obtained and is using our trade secrets is difficult, expensive and time consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, courts outside the United States may be less willing to protect trade secrets. The failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive position.
Trade Secrets - Risk 5
Our ability to compete may be undermined if we do not adequately protect our proprietary rights.
Our commercial success depends on obtaining and maintaining proprietary rights to our products, product candidates and technologies and their uses, as well as successfully defending these rights against third-party challenges. We will only be able to protect our products and product candidates, proprietary technologies, and their uses from unauthorized use by third parties to the extent that valid and enforceable patents, or effectively protected trade secrets, cover them. We have patent rights under issued patents in many cases covering our lumateperone, lenrispodun, ITI-1284, ITI-333, ITI-1020, and ITI-1500 development programs. Nonetheless, the issued patents and patent applications covering our primary technology programs remain subject to uncertainty and continuous monitoring and action by us due to a number of factors, including:
- we may not have been the first to make the inventions covered by our pending patent applications or issued patents;- we may not have been the first to file patent applications for our products, product candidates or the technologies we rely upon;- others may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies;- our disclosures in patent applications may not be sufficient to meet the statutory requirements for patentability;- any or all of our pending patent applications may not result in issued patents;- we may not seek or obtain patent protection in all countries that will eventually provide a significant business opportunity;- any patents issued to us or our collaborators may not provide a basis for commercially viable products, may not provide us with any competitive advantages or may be challenged by third parties;- our proprietary technologies may not be patentable;- others may design around our patent claims to produce competitive products which fall outside of the scope of our patents;- others may identify prior art which could invalidate our patents; and - changes to patent laws may limit the exclusivity rights of patent holders.
Even if we have or obtain patents covering our products, product candidates or technologies, we may still be barred from making, using and selling our products, product candidates or technologies because of the patent rights of others. Others have or may have filed, and in the future are likely to file, patent applications covering compounds, assays, genes, gene products and therapeutic products that are similar or identical to ours. There are many issued U.S. and foreign patents relating to genes, nucleic acids, polypeptides, chemical compounds or therapeutic products, and some of these may encompass reagents utilized in the identification of candidate drug compounds or compounds that we desire to commercialize. Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications owned by others exist in the area of CNS disorders and the other fields in which we are developing product candidates. These could materially affect our ability to develop our product candidates or sell our products. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending applications, unknown to us, that may later result in issued patents that our products, product candidates or technologies may infringe. These patent applications may have priority over patent applications filed by us.
We regularly conduct searches to identify patents or patent applications that may prevent us from obtaining patent protection for our proprietary compounds or that could limit the rights we have claimed in our patents and patent applications. Disputes may arise regarding the ownership or inventorship of our inventions. It is difficult to determine how such disputes would be resolved. Others may challenge the validity, enforceability, scope and term of our patents. Additionally, any patent term extensions that we seek may not be granted on a timely basis, if at all. If our patents are found to be invalid, we will lose the ability to exclude others from making, using or selling the inventions claimed in our patents.
Some of our academic institutional licensors, research collaborators and scientific advisors have rights to publish data and information to which we have rights. If we cannot maintain the confidentiality of our technology and other confidential information in connection with our collaborations, then our ability to receive patent protection or protect our proprietary information will be impaired. Additionally, any employee whose employment with us terminates, whether voluntarily by the employee or by us in connection with restructurings or otherwise, may seek future employment with our competitors. Although each of our employees is required to sign a confidentiality agreement with us at the time of hire, we cannot guarantee that the confidential nature of our proprietary information will be maintained in the course of such future employment. In addition, technology that we may license-in may become important to some aspects of our business. We generally will not control the patent prosecution, maintenance or enforcement of in-licensed technology.
In addition, generic drug companies have in the past and may in the future file abbreviated new drug applications, or ANDAs, with the FDA seeking approval to market generic versions of CAPLYTA, or any of our other product candidates that receive marketing approval, if any, before the expiration of the patents covering such products, which may trigger Hatch-Waxman litigation over the associated patent. For example, we have received notices of ANDA filings seeking approval to market generic versions of CAPLYTA and alleging that certain of our patents covering CAPLYTA are invalid and/or will not be infringed by such generic drug companies' manufacture, use or sale of the medicine for which the ANDA was submitted. Refer to Item 3, Legal Proceedings. Similarly, another applicant may submit a 505(b)(2) NDA referencing the approved CAPLYTA marketing application, which would also trigger Hatch-Waxman litigation, depending upon the types of certifications made by the applicant for any of our listed patents. Settlements and related licensing agreements resulting from Hatch-Waxman litigation can be challenged and have the potential to generate additional litigation which can be costly. The success of such litigation depends on the strength of the patents covering our branded products and our ability to prove that the follow-on applicant's product would infringe one or more such patents. The outcome of such litigation is inherently uncertain and may result in potential loss of market exclusivity for any of our approved products, including CAPLYTA, which may have a significant financial impact on our product revenue. Furthermore, the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, has brought successful lawsuits challenging Hatch-Waxman litigation settlements as anti-competitive, and such decisions have been upheld by federal circuit courts. If we engage in Hatch-Waxman litigation, we may also face an FTC challenge with respect to any proposed settlement related to such litigation, which may result in additional expense or penalty. The FTC also has more recently been questioning pharmaceutical company patent listings in the Orange Book and raising concerns about "improper" listings that may be intended to discourage competition by generic drug developers, and certain members of Congress have been investigating similar issues. Accordingly, there could be future changes to federal laws, regulations, or guidelines related to Hatch-Waxman requirements or procedures that could have a material adverse impact on all pharmaceutical innovators, including us.
Cyber Security1 | 2.0%
Cyber Security - Risk 1
Cybersecurity incidents, loss of data and other disruptions could compromise sensitive information related to our business, prevent us from accessing critical information, impact our ability to manufacture, distribute and sell CAPLYTA and any future products, or expose us to liability and reputational harm. Any of these risks could adversely affect our business and our reputation.
We rely upon information technology systems for our business, many of which are licensed from, and therefore operated and hosted by, third parties who process, transmit and store our electronic information. These systems, some of which are native cloud technologies, are used to manage or support our research and operational activities. We continue to work in a hybrid working model where the majority of our employees and contingent workers operate from locations other than our corporate offices. As a result, we are increasingly dependent upon our information technology systems to operate our business. We are dependent on adequate security to ensure the availability, reliability, and integrity of our technology systems and data.
As part of our business, we or our third party providers collect sensitive personal health information during the development of drug products, the execution of clinical trials, and as part of our patient incentive programs.
Breakdowns, invasions, corruptions, destructions, denial of service, unauthorized access to our data and information, and/or breaches of our information technology systems, including our cloud technologies, could subject us to legal liability, financial penalties and remediation costs, operational down time, and reputational loss, which would negatively impact our business operations. Recovery from any such cybersecurity incident could require replacement of technology, extensive remediation work, and/or ransomware payments.
Our information technology systems, including our cloud technologies, continue to increase in multitude and complexity, increasing our vulnerability to breakdowns and cybersecurity incidents. At the same time, techniques used in cybersecurity attacks to obtain unauthorized access, disable or sabotage information technology systems are evolving rapidly with data breaches and other cybersecurity events becoming commonplace. This is a direct result of the intensification of state-sponsored cybersecurity attacks and the monetary gain by cyber criminals.
Cybersecurity incidents also pose a risk that sensitive data, including intellectual property, trade secrets or personal data, and/or personal/protected health information belonging to us, patients, customers or other business partners, may be exposed to unauthorized persons or to the public.
Cybersecurity incidents and attacks are increasing in their frequency, sophistication and intensity, are becoming increasingly difficult to detect, and they can impact vendors, customers or companies, including vendors, suppliers and other companies in our supply chain. They are often carried out by motivated, well-resourced, skilled and persistent actors, including nation states, organized crime groups, "hacktivists" and employees or contractors acting with careless or malicious intent. Cyber-attacks include deployment of harmful malware and key loggers, ransomware, a denial-of-service attack, a malicious website, the use of social engineering and other means to affect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our technology systems and data. Cyber-attacks also include manufacturing, hardware or software supply chain attacks, which could cause a delay in the manufacturing of products or products produced for contract manufacturing or lead to a compromise of data or other cybersecurity incident. Our key business partners face similar risks and any cybersecurity incident affecting their systems could adversely affect our security posture. In addition, our increased use of dispersed technologies heightens these and other operational risks, and any failure by cloud or other technology service providers to adequately safeguard their systems and prevent cyber-attacks under the shared responsibility model could disrupt our operations and result in misappropriation, corruption or loss of confidential or trade secret information, personal data and/or personal/protected health information. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or ongoing or planned clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. In addition, there can be no assurance that we will promptly detect any such disruption or cybersecurity incident, if at all. To the extent that any disruption or cybersecurity incident were to result in a loss of or damage to our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liability and the commercialization of our approved product and the further development of our product candidates could be delayed or otherwise adversely impacted.
We have invested and continue to invest in security initiatives, information technology risk management, third party risk management, and disaster recovery. The development and maintenance of these measures is costly and requires ongoing monitoring and updating as efforts by threat actors to overcome security measures become increasingly more frequent, intense, and sophisticated. There can be no assurance that our efforts will prevent disruptions or cybersecurity incidents in our systems that could adversely affect our business and operations and/or result in the loss of critical or sensitive information, which could result in financial, legal, operational or reputational harm to us, loss of competitive advantage or loss of consumer confidence.
Production
Total Risks: 7/51 (14%)Below Sector Average
Manufacturing1 | 2.0%
Manufacturing - Risk 1
Safety issues with our product candidates or approved product, or with product candidates or approved products of third parties that are similar to our product candidates, could give rise to delays in the regulatory approval process, restrictions on labeling or product withdrawal after approval.
Problems with product candidates or approved products marketed by third parties that utilize the same therapeutic target or that belong to the same therapeutic class as our product candidates or approved product could adversely affect the development and regulatory approval of our product candidates or commercialization or our approved product. In 2012, the FDA released draft guidance recommending that prospective suicidality assessments be performed in clinical trials of any drug being developed for a psychiatric indication. Our development programs are focused on psychiatric indications. Our PDE program is a novel target and may have unexpected safety effects that do not appear until late in clinical development or after commercial approval. As we continue the development and clinical trials of our product candidates and continue to commercialize our approved product, there can be no assurance that our product candidates or approved product will not experience significant safety issues.
Discovery of previously unknown class effect problems may prevent or delay clinical development and commercial approval of product candidates or result in restrictions on permissible uses after their approval, including withdrawal of the medicine from the market. Many drugs acting on the CNS include boxed warnings and precautions related to suicidal behavior or ideation, driving impairment, somnolence/sedation and dizziness, discontinuation, weight gain, non-insulin dependent (type II) diabetes, cardiovascular side effects, sleep disturbances, and motor disturbances. The label for CAPLYTA contains a "boxed" warning that elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis treated with antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of death and that CAPLYTA is not approved for the treatment of patients with dementia-related psychosis. If we or others later identify undesirable side effects caused by the mechanisms of action or classes of our products or product candidates or any specific products or product candidates:
- we may be required to conduct additional clinical trials or implement a REMS program prior to or following approval;- regulatory authorities may not approve our product candidates or, as a condition of approval, may require specific warnings and contraindications;- regulatory authorities may withdraw their approval of the product and require us to take our drug off the market;- we may have limitations on how we promote our drugs;- sales of products may decrease significantly;- we may be subject to litigation or product liability claims; and - our reputation may suffer.
Any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the affected product or could substantially increase our commercialization costs and expenses, which, in turn, could delay or prevent us from generating significant revenues from its sale.
Finally, if the FDA determines that a drug may present a risk of substance abuse, it can recommend to the Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, that the drug be scheduled under the Controlled Substances Act, or the CSA. Controlled substances are subject to a high degree of regulation under the CSA, which establishes, among other things, certain registration, manufacturing quotas, security, recordkeeping, reporting, import, export and other requirements administered by the DEA that are separate and apart from the FDA's regulatory requirements. The DEA classifies controlled substances into five schedules. Schedule I substances by definition have a high potential for abuse, have no currently "accepted medical use" in the United States, lack accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and may not be prescribed, marketed or sold in the United States. Pharmaceutical products approved for use by the FDA may be listed as Schedule II, III, IV or V, with Schedule II substances considered to present the highest potential for abuse or dependence and Schedule V substances the lowest relative risk of abuse. Any regulatory decision that one of our product candidates should be controlled under the CSA would create additional operational, financial, and commercialization burdens for such a product, which could affect our business and cash flows.
Employment / Personnel3 | 5.9%
Employment / Personnel - Risk 1
Our employees, independent contractors, principal investigators, contract research organizations, consultants or vendors may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements.
We are exposed to the risk that our employees, independent contractors, principal investigators, contract research organizations, consultants or vendors may engage in fraudulent or other illegal activity. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional, reckless and/or negligent conduct or disclosure of unauthorized activities to us that violates: FDA regulations, including those laws requiring the reporting of true, complete and accurate information to the FDA; manufacturing standards; federal and state health care fraud and abuse laws and regulations; or laws that require the true, complete and accurate reporting of financial information or data. In addition, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the health care industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements. Activities subject to these laws also involve the improper use or misrepresentation of information obtained in the course of clinical trials or creating fraudulent data in our non-clinical studies or clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation.
It is not always possible to identify and deter misconduct by our employees and other third parties, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations. Additionally, we are subject to the risk that a person could allege such fraud or other misconduct, even if none occurred. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a significant impact on our business, including the imposition of civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, monetary fines, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health care programs, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished potential profits and future earnings, and curtailment of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects.
Employment / Personnel - Risk 2
As our business expands and evolves, we may find that our staffing is not adequate in size or capability to manage these changes and to perform under the new circumstances.
As our business expands and evolves, we will need to manage our operations and facilities effectively in order to advance our drug development programs (including lumateperone, ITI-1284, lenrispodun, ITI-333, and ITI-1500), facilitate any future collaborations, and pursue other development activities as we may find that our staffing is not adequate in size or capability to manage these changes and to perform under the new circumstances. It is possible that our infrastructure may be inadequate to support our future efforts and growth. In particular, we will need to further develop information technology systems and internal sales, marketing, and distribution capabilities for any drug that we may successfully develop, including additional indications for lumateperone. We may not successfully manage our operations and, accordingly, may not achieve our research, development, commercialization, and profitability goals.
Employment / Personnel - Risk 3
The failure to attract and retain skilled personnel and key relationships could impair our drug development and commercialization efforts.
We are highly dependent on our senior management and key clinical development, sales and marketing, scientific and technical personnel. Competition for these types of personnel is intense. The loss of the services of any member of our senior management, clinical development, sales and marketing, scientific or technical staff may significantly delay or prevent the achievement of drug development, commercialization and other business objectives and could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. We also rely on consultants and advisors to assist us in formulating our strategy. All of our consultants and advisors are either self-employed or employed by other organizations, and they may have conflicts of interest or other commitments, such as consulting or advisory contracts with other organizations, that may affect their ability to contribute to us. We intend to expand and develop new drug candidates, and may need additional funding to grow our business. We will need to hire additional employees in order to continue our research and clinical trials and to market our drugs when approved. This strategy may require us to recruit additional executive management and clinical development, regulatory, scientific, technical and sales and marketing personnel. There is currently intense competition for skilled executives and employees with relevant clinical development, regulatory, scientific, technical and sales and marketing expertise, and this competition is likely to continue. The inability to attract and retain sufficient clinical development, scientific, technical, sales and marketing, and managerial personnel, due to intense competition and our limited resources, would limit or delay our product development and commercialization efforts, which would adversely affect the development of our product candidates and commercialization of CAPLYTA and our product candidates, if approved, and growth of our business.
Supply Chain2 | 3.9%
Supply Chain - Risk 1
We rely on third-party manufacturers to manufacture and supply lumateperone and our other product candidates for us. If one of our suppliers or manufacturers fails to perform adequately or fulfill our needs, we may be required to incur significant costs and devote significant efforts to find new suppliers or manufacturers. We may also face significant delays in our clinical trials, regulatory approvals and product introductions and commercialization.
We have no manufacturing facilities and have limited experience in the manufacturing of drugs or in designing drug-manufacturing processes. We have contracted with third-party manufacturers to produce, in collaboration with us, our product candidates, including lumateperone, for clinical trials and to produce lumateperone for commercial sales. For example, in January 2017, we entered into a supply agreement with Siegfried and entered into a new supply agreement with Siegfried in January 2023, under which Siegfried has agreed to manufacture and supply the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for lumateperone in commercial quantities. Each month, we will provide Siegfried with a rolling forecast of our anticipated requirements for supply of the API. Under the Siegfried Agreement, we have the right to and may purchase the API for lumateperone from other suppliers. In addition, in January 2017, we entered into a manufacturing services agreement with Lonza, as amended in December 2022, under which Lonza has agreed to manufacture and supply the API for lumateperone in commercial quantities. We agreed to provide Lonza with a written forecast of our estimated quarterly requirements. While we believe that there are alternative sources available to manufacture our product candidates, in the event that we seek such alternative sources, we may not be able to enter into replacement arrangements without delays or additional expenditures. We cannot estimate these delays or costs with certainty but, if they were to occur, they could cause a delay in our development and commercialization efforts. If our existing or planned third-party manufacturing arrangements are terminated or if the sources of supply from such arrangements are inadequate and we must seek supply agreements from alternative sources, we may be unable to enter into such agreements or do so on commercially reasonable terms, which could delay a product launch or subject our commercialization efforts to significant supply risk.
Manufacturers of our product candidates are obliged to operate in accordance with FDA-mandated current good manufacturing practices, or cGMPs. The manufacture of pharmaceutical products in compliance with the cGMPs requires significant expertise and capital investment, including the development of advanced manufacturing techniques and process controls. Manufacturers of pharmaceutical products often encounter difficulties in production, including difficulties with production costs and yields, quality control, including stability of the product or product candidate and quality assurance testing, shortages of qualified personnel, as well as compliance with strictly enforced cGMP requirements, other federal and state regulatory requirements and foreign regulations. If our manufacturers were to encounter any of these difficulties or otherwise fail to comply with their obligations to us or under applicable regulations, our ability to provide product for commercial sale or product candidates in our clinical trials would be jeopardized. Any delay or interruption in the supply of commercial quantities of approved product could have a material adverse impact on our revenue from product sales and any delay or interruption in the supply of clinical trial materials could delay the completion of our clinical trials, increase the costs associated with maintaining our clinical trial programs and, depending upon the period of delay, require us to commence new clinical trials at significant additional expense or terminate the clinical trials completely.
In addition, the facilities used by our contract manufacturers or other third-party manufacturers to manufacture our product candidates must be approved by the FDA pursuant to inspections conducted following our request for regulatory approval for our product candidates from the FDA. Drug manufacturing facilities are also subject to periodic inspections by FDA and other regulatory authorities. The pre-approval and periodic inspections are intended to confirm compliance with cGMP requirements including, among other things, quality control, quality assurance and the maintenance of records and documentation. Manufacturers of our product candidates may be unable to comply with these cGMP requirements and with other FDA, state and foreign regulatory requirements. The FDA or similar foreign regulatory agencies may also implement new standards at any time, or change their interpretation and enforcement of existing standards for manufacture, packaging or testing of products. We have little control over our manufacturers' compliance with these regulations and standards. A failure of any of our current or future contract manufacturers to establish and follow cGMPs or to document their adherence to such practices may lead to significant delays in obtaining regulatory approval of product candidates or the ultimate launch of products, if approved, into the market. Failure by our current or future third-party manufacturers or us to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including fines, injunctions, civil penalties, failure of the government to grant marketing approval of drugs, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, seizures or recalls of products, operating restrictions, and criminal prosecutions. If the safety of any product supplied is compromised due to our manufacturers' failure to adhere to applicable laws or for other reasons, we may be held liable for any injuries sustained as a result. Any of these factors could cause a delay of clinical studies, regulatory submissions, approvals or commercialization of our product candidates or approved product, entail higher costs or impair our reputation.
Supply Chain - Risk 2
We rely on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and perform data collection and analysis, which may result in costs and delays that prevent us from successfully commercializing our product candidates.
Although we design and manage our current non-clinical studies and clinical trials, we do not currently have the ability to conduct clinical trials for our product candidates on our own. In addition to our collaborators, we rely on contract research organizations, medical institutions, clinical investigators, and contract laboratories to perform data collection and analysis and other aspects of our clinical trials. In addition, we also rely on third parties to assist with our non-clinical studies, including studies regarding biological activity, safety, absorption, metabolism, and excretion of product candidates.
Our non-clinical activities or clinical trials may be delayed, suspended, or terminated if: the quality or accuracy of the data obtained by the third parties on whom we rely is compromised due to their failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or regulatory requirements or if for other reasons, these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or fail to meet regulatory obligations or expected deadlines, or these third parties need to be replaced.
The third-party service providers we contract with are not our employees and, except for remedies available to us under our agreements with such third parties, we have less control over the timing, quality and other aspects of such non-clinical studies and clinical trials than we would have if we were to conduct them on our own. If the third parties on whom we rely fail to perform, our development costs may increase, our ability to obtain regulatory approval, and consequently, to commercialize our product candidates may be delayed or prevented altogether. We currently use several contract research organizations to perform services for our non-clinical studies and clinical trials. While we believe that there are numerous alternative sources to provide these services, in the event that we seek such alternative sources, we may not be able to enter into replacement arrangements without delays or incurring additional expenses.
Even though our reliance on third parties for development activities reduces our control over such activities, we are responsible for ensuring that each of our studies is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol, legal, regulatory, and scientific standards, and our reliance on third parties does not relieve us of our oversight and regulatory responsibilities. For example, we must ensure that our non-clinical studies are conducted in accordance with GLP requirements, as appropriate. In addition, we remain responsible for ensuring that each of our clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the general investigational plan and protocol for each trial. Moreover, the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities require us to comply with established Good Clinical Practice standards 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. In addition, our clinical trials must be conducted with product candidates produced under cGMP conditions. Regulatory authorities enforce these requirements through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, clinical and non-clinical investigators, manufacturers and trial sites. If we or any of our third-party service providers fails to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, we or they may be subject to enforcement or other legal actions, the data generated in our trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional studies, which may significantly delay our clinical development plans and the regulatory approval process. We cannot assure you that upon inspection by a given regulatory authority, such regulatory authority will determine that we or our third-party service providers or clinical trial sites are in substantial compliance with the applicable regulatory requirements.
Further, we are currently conducting clinical trials for our product candidates in many countries, including the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America and may expand to other geographies. Timely enrollment of, completion of and reporting on our clinical trials is dependent upon these global clinical trial sites which are, or in the future may be, adversely affected by political instability or conflict. Political instability and conflict in areas in the world where we have clinical operations, may delay our trials and negatively affect our business and operations in those regions.
Costs1 | 2.0%
Costs - Risk 1
Summary of Risk Factors
Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those highlighted in this section below, that represent challenges that we face in connection with the successful implementation of our strategy. The occurrence of one or more of the events or circumstances described in more detail in the risk factors below, alone or in combination with other events or circumstances, may have an adverse effect on our business, cash flows, financial condition and results of operations. Such risks include, but are not limited to:
- In order to execute our business plan and achieve profitability, we need to effectively expand the commercialization of CAPLYTA, which has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults and for the treatment of bipolar depression in adults.
- If we do not obtain regulatory approval of lumateperone for other indications in the United States, or for any indication in foreign jurisdictions, we will not be able to market lumateperone for other indications or in other jurisdictions, which will limit our commercial revenues.
- If the sales and marketing capabilities we have established or our third-party relationships for the commercialization of CAPLYTA are not effective, CAPLYTA may not be successfully commercialized.
- We have generated revenues from product sales but there is no guarantee that our revenue from the sale of CAPLYTA will result in us achieving profitability.
- There is no guarantee that our planned clinical trials for lumateperone or our other product candidates will be successful.
- We expect our net losses to continue and are unable to predict the extent of future losses or when we will become profitable, if ever.
- We may require additional funding, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all, and, if not so available, may require us to delay, limit, reduce or cease our operations.
- Our management has broad discretion over the use of our cash and we may not use our cash effectively, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
- Delays, suspensions and terminations in our clinical trials or the need to conduct additional clinical trials or non-clinical studies could result in increased costs to us, delay our ability to generate product revenues and therefore may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and future growth prospects.
- Even though the FDA has granted approval of CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar depression, the terms of the approval may limit its commercial potential. Additionally, CAPLYTA is still subject to ongoing regulatory requirements.
- Safety issues with our product candidates or approved product, or with product candidates or approved products of third parties that are similar to our product candidates, could give rise to delays in the regulatory approval process, restrictions on labeling or product withdrawal after approval.
- Preliminary and interim data from our clinical studies that we may announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available.
- We rely on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and perform data collection and analysis, which may result in costs and delays that prevent us from successfully commercializing our product candidates.
- Even if we successfully complete the clinical trials of one or more of our product candidates, the product candidates may fail for other reasons.
- We are subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and restrictions with regard to CAPLYTA and, following regulatory approval of any of our product candidates, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and restrictions with regard to such product candidates, which may result in significant expense and limit our ability to commercialize lumateperone and our other potential products.
- CAPLYTA and our product candidates, if approved, may not gain acceptance among physicians, patients, or the medical community, thereby limiting our potential to generate revenues, which will undermine our future growth prospects.
- We rely on third-party manufacturers to manufacture and supply lumateperone and our other product candidates for us. If one of our suppliers or manufacturers fails to perform adequately or fulfill our needs, we may be required to incur significant costs and devote significant efforts to find new suppliers or manufacturers. We may also face significant delays in our clinical trials, regulatory approvals and product introductions and commercialization.
- As our business expands and evolves, we may find that our current staffing is not adequate in size or capability to manage these changes and to perform under the new circumstances.
- Our ability to compete may be undermined if we do not adequately protect our proprietary rights.
- Our ability to generate product revenues will be diminished if lumateperone or any of our other potential products do not sell for adequate prices, receive coverage from payers or if patients are unable to obtain adequate levels of reimbursement.
- Public health threats could have a material impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations, including our commercial operations and sales, clinical trials and non-clinical studies.
- CAPLYTA and future product candidates for which we obtain approval may face competition sooner than anticipated.
- Many of our competitors have greater resources and capital than us, putting us at a competitive disadvantage. If our competitors develop and market products that are more widely accepted in the marketplace than lumateperone or our other product candidates, they may negatively affect or eliminate our commercial opportunity.
- Numerous factors could result in substantial market volatility in the trading price of our common stock.
Ability to Sell
Total Risks: 6/51 (12%)Above Sector Average
Competition2 | 3.9%
Competition - Risk 1
Many of our competitors have greater resources and capital than us, putting us at a competitive disadvantage. If our competitors develop and market products that are more widely accepted in the marketplace than lumateperone or our other product candidates, they may negatively affect or eliminate our commercial opportunity.
Competition in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries is intense and increasing. We face competition from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as numerous academic and research institutions and governmental agencies, both in the United States and abroad. Some of these competitors have products or are pursuing the development of drugs that target the same diseases and conditions that are the focus of our drug development programs.
For example, CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia and for the treatment of bipolar depression competes with, among other branded products, Fanapt, marketed by Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Lybalvi, marketed by Alkermes, Rexulti, marketed by Otsuka Pharmaceutical, and Vraylar, marketed by AbbVie. In addition, CAPLYTA competes and our product candidates, if approved, would compete with, among other generic antipsychotic products, aripiprazole, clozapine, haloperidol, lurasidone, olanzapine, paliperidone, quetiapine/XR and risperidone.
Many of our competitors and their collaborators have significantly greater experience than we do in the following:
- identifying and validating targets;- screening compounds against targets;- non-clinical studies and clinical trials of potential pharmaceutical products;- obtaining FDA and other regulatory approvals; and - commercializing pharmaceutical products.
In addition, many of our competitors and their collaborators have substantially greater capital and research and development resources, manufacturing, sales and marketing capabilities, and production facilities. Smaller companies also may prove to be significant competitors, particularly through proprietary research discoveries and collaboration arrangements with large pharmaceutical and established biotechnology companies. Many of our competitors have products that have been approved or are in advanced development and may develop superior technologies or methods to identify and validate drug targets and to discover novel small molecule drugs. Our competitors, either alone or with their collaborators, may succeed in developing drugs that are more effective, safer, more affordable, or more easily administered than ours, have fewer side effects than ours, and may achieve patent protection or commercialize drugs sooner than us. Our competitors may also develop alternative therapies that could further limit the market for any drugs that we may develop. Our failure to compete effectively could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Competition - Risk 2
CAPLYTA and future product candidates for which we obtain approval may face competition sooner than anticipated.
CAPLYTA and our future pharmaceutical products that gain marketing approval may face direct competition from generic and other follow-on drug products. In addition, CAPLYTA may face competition from generic products earlier or more aggressively than anticipated, depending upon how well it performs in the United States prescription drug market. Our ability to compete may also be affected in many cases by insurers or other third-party payers seeking to encourage the use of generic products.
The Hatch-Waxman Amendments to the FDCA authorized the FDA to approve generic drugs that are the same as drugs previously approved for marketing under the NDA provisions of the statute pursuant to ANDAs, and also created the Section 505(b)(2) NDA pathway. An ANDA relies on the pre-clinical and clinical testing conducted for a previously approved reference listed drug and must demonstrate to the FDA that the generic drug product is identical to the reference listed drug with respect to the active ingredients, the route of administration, the dosage form, and the strength of the drug and also that it is "bioequivalent" to the reference listed drug. In contrast, Section 505(b)(2) enables the applicant to rely, in part, on the FDA's prior findings of safety and efficacy data for an existing product, or published literature, in support of its application. Section 505(b)(2) provides an alternate path to FDA approval for new or improved formulations or new uses of previously approved products; for example, a follow-on applicant may be seeking approval to market a previously approved drug for new indications or for a new patient population that would require new clinical data to demonstrate safety or effectiveness. Such products, if approved and depending upon the scope of the changes made to the reference drug, may also compete with CAPLYTA or any other product candidates from which we receive approval.
The FDA is prohibited by statute from approving an ANDA or 505(b)(2) NDA when certain marketing or data exclusivity protections apply to the reference listed drug. If any such competitor or third party is able to demonstrate bioequivalence without infringing our patents, then this competitor or third party may then be able to gain approval of an ANDA and introduce a competing generic product onto the market. In addition, CAPLYTA is protected by new chemical entity ("NCE") exclusivity that expires on December 20, 2024. Reduction or loss of this period of marketing exclusivity could negatively affect our business, operating results and financial condition. FDA is also blocked from approving any follow-on applications that rely on the CAPLYTA NDA until that NCE exclusivity ends.
Furthermore, bipartisan legislation called the Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples Act (the "CREATES Act") was signed into law in late 2019. The CREATES Act was intended to address concerns articulated by both the FDA and others in the industry that some brand manufacturers have improperly restricted the distribution of their products, including by invoking the existence of a REMS for certain products, to deny generic product developers access to samples of brand products. Because generic product developers need samples to conduct certain comparative testing required by the FDA, some have attributed the inability to timely obtain samples as a cause of delay in the entry of generic and other follow-on products. To remedy this concern, the CREATES Act established a private cause of action that permits a generic product developer to sue the brand manufacturer to compel it to furnish the necessary samples on "commercially reasonable, market-based terms." Therefore, a generic developer may request samples of CAPLYTA, or our other product candidates that receive marketing approval, if any, in order to conduct comparative testing to support an ANDA for a generic version of our products, and if we refuse any such request, we may be subject to litigation under the CREATES Act. Although lawsuits have been filed under the CREATES Act since its enactment, those lawsuits have settled privately; therefore to date no federal court has reviewed or opined on the statutory language and there continues to be uncertainty regarding the scope and application of the law.
We cannot predict the interest of potential follow-on competitors or how quickly others may seek to come to market with competing products, whether approved as a direct ANDA competitor or as a Section 505(b)(2) NDA referencing CAPLYTA or one of our future product candidates. If the FDA approves generic versions of CAPLYTA in the future, should they be approved for commercial marketing, such competitive products may be able to immediately compete with us in each indication for which our product has received approval, which could negatively impact our future revenue, profitability and cash flows and substantially limit our ability to obtain a return on our investments.
Sales & Marketing4 | 7.8%
Sales & Marketing - Risk 1
CAPLYTA and our product candidates, if approved, may not gain acceptance among physicians, patients, or the medical community, thereby limiting our potential to generate revenues, which will undermine our future growth prospects.
The degree of market acceptance by physicians, health care professionals and third-party payers of CAPLYTA, and any product candidate for which we obtain regulatory approval, and our profitability and growth will depend on a number of factors, including:
- our ability to provide acceptable evidence of safety and efficacy;- the scope of the approved indication(s) for the product;- the inclusion of any warnings or contraindications in the product label;- pricing and cost effectiveness, which may be subject to regulatory control;- our ability to obtain sufficient third-party insurance coverage or reimbursement;- effectiveness of our or our collaborators' sales and marketing strategy;- relative convenience and ease of administration;- patient adherence to treatment;- prevalence and severity of any adverse side effects; and - availability of alternative treatments.
If any product that we develop does not provide a treatment regimen that is at least as beneficial as the current standard of care or otherwise does not provide some additional patient benefit over the current standard of care, that product will not achieve market acceptance and we will not generate sufficient revenues to achieve profitability.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 2
Our ability to generate product revenues will be diminished if lumateperone or any of our other potential products do not sell for adequate prices, receive coverage from payers or if patients are unable to obtain adequate levels of reimbursement.
Patients who are prescribed medicine for the treatment of their conditions generally rely on third-party payers to reimburse all or part of the costs associated with their prescription drugs. Adequate coverage and reimbursement from governmental health care programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and commercial payers are critical to new product acceptance. Coverage decisions may depend upon clinical and economic standards that disfavor new drug products when more established or lower cost therapeutic alternatives are already available or subsequently become available. Even if we obtain coverage for lumateperone or other potential products, the resulting reimbursement payment rates might not be adequate or may require co-payments that patients find unacceptably high. Patients are unlikely to use lumateperone or other product candidates, if approved, unless coverage is provided and reimbursement is adequate to cover a significant portion of the cost of those products.
In addition, the market for lumateperone or any product candidate for which we may receive regulatory approval will depend significantly on access to third-party payers' drug formularies, or lists of medications for which third-party payers provide coverage and reimbursement. The industry competition to be included in such formularies often leads to downward pricing pressures on pharmaceutical companies. Also, third-party payers may refuse to include a particular branded drug in their formularies or otherwise restrict patient access to a branded drug when a less costly generic equivalent or other alternative is available, even if not approved for the indications for which lumateperone is approved.
Third-party payers, whether foreign or domestic, governmental or commercial, are developing increasingly sophisticated methods of controlling health care costs.
The current environment is putting pressure on companies to price products below what they may feel is appropriate. Selling lumateperone at less than an optimized price could impact our revenues and overall success as a company. We do not know if the price we have selected, or may select in the future, for lumateperone is or will be the optimized price. In addition, in the United States, no uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for drug products exists among third-party payers. Therefore, coverage and reimbursement for drug products such as lumateperone may differ significantly from payer to payer. As a result, the coverage determination process is often a time-consuming and costly process that will require us to provide scientific and clinical support for the use of our drug products such as lumateperone to each payer separately, with no assurance that coverage will be obtained. If we are unable to obtain and maintain coverage of, and adequate payment levels for, our products from third-party payers, physicians may limit how much or under what circumstances they will prescribe or administer them and patients may decline to purchase them. This in turn could affect our ability to successfully commercialize any approved products and thereby adversely impact our profitability, results of operations, financial condition, and future success.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 3
We currently have limited experience as a company in marketing and distributing pharmaceutical products and rely on third-party distributors to distribute CAPLYTA. If we are unable to continue to effectively commercialize CAPLYTA, we may not be able to generate adequate product revenues.
CAPLYTA, which was approved by the FDA in December 2019 for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults in the United States and in December 2021 for the treatment of bipolar depression in adults in the United States, is our only drug that has been approved for sale by any regulatory body. We initiated the commercial launch of CAPLYTA in March 2020. As such, as an organization, this was the first time we have launched or commercialized any pharmaceutical product. In order to continue to successfully commercialize CAPLYTA, we must continue to develop our sales, marketing, managerial, compliance, and related capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services. If we are unable to maintain and develop adequate sales, marketing, and distribution capabilities, whether independently or with third parties, we may not be able to continue to appropriately commercialize and generate revenue from sales of CAPLYTA and may not become profitable.
We are employing our own internal sales force to commercialize CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar depression as part of our commercialization strategy in the United States. We are competing with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to recruit, hire, train and retain marketing and sales personnel. These efforts will continue to be expensive and time-consuming, and we cannot be certain that we will be able to successfully maintain and further develop our sales force.
Additionally, our strategy includes distributing CAPLYTA through third-party distributors. While we have entered into, or will attempt to enter into, agreements with these distributors to distribute CAPLYTA in the United States, they may not perform as agreed or they may terminate their agreements with us. Also, we may need to enter into agreements with additional distributors, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to do so on commercially reasonable terms or at all. If we are unable to maintain and, if needed, expand, our network of distributors, we would be exposed to substantial distribution risk.
In the event we are unable to effectively develop and maintain our commercial team, including our U.S. sales force, or maintain and, if needed, expand, our network of distributors, our ability to effectively commercialize CAPLYTA and generate product revenues would be limited.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 4
If the sales and marketing capabilities we have established or our third-party relationships for the commercialization of CAPLYTA are not effective, CAPLYTA may not be successfully commercialized.
Prior to the commercial launch of CAPLYTA in March 2020, we had no experience as a company in marketing drugs or with respect to pricing and obtaining adequate third-party reimbursement for drugs. We continue to build our commercial organization and capabilities in the United States in order to market CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar depression. We will need to successfully complete the expansion of our capabilities and/or enter into arrangements with third parties to sell and market CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar depression and, if approved, to sell and market our other product candidates. If our sales and marketing capabilities or our third-party relationships for the commercialization of our products are not effective, our business could be materially harmed.
Macro & Political
Total Risks: 2/51 (4%)Below Sector Average
Economy & Political Environment1 | 2.0%
Economy & Political Environment - Risk 1
Unfavorable domestic or global economic conditions could adversely affect our business, financial condition, or results of operations.
Various macroeconomic factors could adversely affect our business and the results of our operations and financial condition, including changes in inflation, foreign currency, interest rates and overall economic conditions and uncertainties, failures and instability in U.S. and international banking systems, downgrades of the U.S. credit rating, slower economic growth or recession, and other unfavorable changes resulting from the current and future conditions in the global financial markets. For instance, if inflation or other factors were to significantly increase our business costs, it may not be feasible to pass price increases on to our customers due to the process by which healthcare providers are reimbursed for our product by the government. Interest rates, the liquidity of the credit markets and the volatility of the capital markets has and could continue to also affect the value of our investments and our ability to liquidate our investments in order to fund our operations. We purchase or enter into a variety of financial instruments and transactions, including high-grade corporate bonds and commercial paper. If any of the issuers or counter parties to these instruments were to default on their obligations, it could materially reduce the value of the transaction and adversely affect our cash flows. Interest rates and the ability to access credit markets could also adversely affect the ability of our customers and distributors to purchase, pay for and effectively distribute our products. Similarly, these macroeconomic factors could affect the ability of our suppliers and manufacturers to supply or manufacture our product.
Natural and Human Disruptions1 | 2.0%
Natural and Human Disruptions - Risk 1
Public health threats could have a material impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations, including our commercial operations and sales, clinical trials and non-clinical studies.
The COVID-19 worldwide pandemic, which was recently declared no longer a public health emergency both globally and in the United States, presented substantial public health and economic challenges and affected our employees, customers, patients, physicians and other healthcare providers, communities and business operations, as well as the U.S. and global economies and financial markets. International and U.S. governmental authorities in impacted regions took multiple and diverse actions in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 and variants of the virus, including issuing varying forms of "stay-at-home" orders. Such measures taken by the governmental authorities to respond to any future epidemic or pandemic disease outbreaks could severely impact our ability to successfully commercialize CAPLYTA in the United States, disrupt the supply chain and the manufacture or shipment of drug substances and finished drug products for use in our clinical trials and research and non-clinical studies and, delay, limit or prevent our employees from continuing research and development activities, impede our clinical trial initiation and recruitment and the ability of patients to continue in clinical trials, including due to measures taken that may limit social interaction or prevent reopening of high-transmission settings, impede testing, monitoring, data collection and analysis and other related activities, any of which could delay our non-clinical studies and clinical trials and increase our development costs, and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Any future epidemic or pandemic disease outbreak, including any resurgence of COVID-19, could also potentially further affect the operations of the FDA or other regulatory authorities, which could result in delays in meetings related to our planned clinical trials. Any future epidemic disease outbreak may have an adverse impact on global economic conditions which could have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition, including impairing our ability to raise capital when needed.
See a full breakdown of risk according to category and subcategory. The list starts with the category with the most risk. Click on subcategories to read relevant extracts from the most recent report.
FAQ
What are “Risk Factors”?
Risk factors are any situations or occurrences that could make investing in a company risky.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires that publicly traded companies disclose their most significant risk factors. This is so that potential investors can consider any risks before they make an investment.
They also offer companies protection, as a company can use risk factors as liability protection. This could happen if a company underperforms and investors take legal action as a result.
It is worth noting that smaller companies, that is those with a public float of under $75 million on the last business day, do not have to include risk factors in their 10-K and 10-Q forms, although some may choose to do so.
How do companies disclose their risk factors?
Publicly traded companies initially disclose their risk factors to the SEC through their S-1 filings as part of the IPO process.
Additionally, companies must provide a complete list of risk factors in their Annual Reports (Form 10-K) or (Form 20-F) for “foreign private issuers”.
Quarterly Reports also include a section on risk factors (Form 10-Q) where companies are only required to update any changes since the previous report.
According to the SEC, risk factors should be reported concisely, logically and in “plain English” so investors can understand them.
How can I use TipRanks risk factors in my stock research?
Use the Risk Factors tab to get data about the risk factors of any company in which you are considering investing.
You can easily see the most significant risks a company is facing. Additionally, you can find out which risk factors a company has added, removed or adjusted since its previous disclosure. You can also see how a company’s risk factors compare to others in its sector.
Without reading company reports or participating in conference calls, you would most likely not have access to this sort of information, which is usually not included in press releases or other public announcements.
A simplified analysis of risk factors is unique to TipRanks.
What are all the risk factor categories?
TipRanks has identified 6 major categories of risk factors and a number of subcategories for each. You can see how these categories are broken down in the list below.
1. Financial & Corporate
Accounting & Financial Operations - risks related to accounting loss, value of intangible assets, financial statements, value of intangible assets, financial reporting, estimates, guidance, company profitability, dividends, fluctuating results.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights – risks related to things that impact share prices and the rights of shareholders, including analyst ratings, major shareholder activity, trade volatility, liquidity of shares, anti-takeover provisions, international listing, dual listing.
Debt & Financing – risks related to debt, funding, financing and interest rates, financial investments.
Corporate Activity and Growth – risks related to restructuring, M&As, joint ventures, execution of corporate strategy, strategic alliances.
2. Legal & Regulatory
Litigation and Legal Liabilities – risks related to litigation/ lawsuits against the company.
Regulation – risks related to compliance, GDPR, and new legislation.
Environmental / Social – risks related to environmental regulation and to data privacy.
Taxation & Government Incentives – risks related to taxation and changes in government incentives.
3. Production
Costs – risks related to costs of production including commodity prices, future contracts, inventory.
Supply Chain – risks related to the company’s suppliers.
Manufacturing – risks related to the company’s manufacturing process including product quality and product recalls.
Human Capital – risks related to recruitment, training and retention of key employees, employee relationships & unions labor disputes, pension, and post retirement benefits, medical, health and welfare benefits, employee misconduct, employee litigation.
4. Technology & Innovation
Innovation / R&D – risks related to innovation and new product development.
Technology – risks related to the company’s reliance on technology.
Cyber Security – risks related to securing the company’s digital assets and from cyber attacks.
Trade Secrets & Patents – risks related to the company’s ability to protect its intellectual property and to infringement claims against the company as well as piracy and unlicensed copying.
5. Ability to Sell
Demand – risks related to the demand of the company’s goods and services including seasonality, reliance on key customers.
Competition – risks related to the company’s competition including substitutes.
Sales & Marketing – risks related to sales, marketing, and distribution channels, pricing, and market penetration.
Brand & Reputation – risks related to the company’s brand and reputation.
6. Macro & Political
Economy & Political Environment – risks related to changes in economic and political conditions.
Natural and Human Disruptions – risks related to catastrophes, floods, storms, terror, earthquakes, coronavirus pandemic/COVID-19.
International Operations – risks related to the global nature of the company.
Capital Markets – risks related to exchange rates and trade, cryptocurrency.