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Kura Oncology (KURA)
NASDAQ:KURA
US Market

Risk Overview Q1, 2024

Risk Distribution
72Risks
31% Tech & Innovation
26% Finance & Corporate
25% Legal & Regulatory
11% Production
4% Macro & Political
3% Ability to Sell
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

2020
Q4
S&P500 Average
Sector Average
Risks removed
Risks added
Risks changed
Kura Oncology 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 Q1, 2024

Main Risk Category
Tech & Innovation
With 22 Risks
Tech & Innovation
With 22 Risks
Number of Disclosed Risks
72
No changes from last report
S&P 500 Average: 31
72
No changes from last report
S&P 500 Average: 31
Recent Changes
0Risks added
0Risks removed
3Risks changed
Since Mar 2024
0Risks added
0Risks removed
3Risks changed
Since Mar 2024
Number of Risk Changed
3
-6
From last report
S&P 500 Average: 3
3
-6
From last report
S&P 500 Average: 3
See the risk highlights of Kura Oncology 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 72

Tech & Innovation
Total Risks: 22/72 (31%)Above Sector Average
Innovation / R&D7 | 9.7%
Innovation / R&D - Risk 1
Our product candidates may cause serious adverse events or have unacceptable side effects that could delay, limit or prevent their development.
If our product candidates are associated with unacceptable side effects in preclinical or clinical trials or have characteristics that are unexpected, we may need to interrupt, delay or abandon their development or limit development to more narrow uses or subpopulations in which the undesirable side effects or other characteristics are less prevalent, less severe or more acceptable from a risk-benefit perspective. Any observed, drug-related side effects could affect the ability of patients to tolerate potentially therapeutically effective doses of the drug, which in turn could affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled patients to complete the clinical trial or result in potential product liability claims. Additionally, if results of our ongoing or planned clinical trials reveal an unacceptable frequency and severity of serious adverse events or side effects, our trials could be suspended or terminated and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory agencies could require us to cease further development of, or deny approval of, our product candidates for any or all targeted indications. Many compounds developed in the biopharmaceutical industry that initially showed promise in early-stage testing for treating cancer have later been found to cause side effects that prevented further development of those compounds. Any of these occurrences may significantly harm our business, financial condition and prospects. Continuous daily dosing of ziftomenib was well tolerated in the Phase 1b portion of our KOMET-001 trial, with no evidence of drug-induced QTc prolongation. The on-target effect of DS was manageable, with 15% of patients experiencing Grade 1 or 2 events and 5% experiencing a Grade 3 event. Grade =3 treatment-emergent adverse events were reported in 17 patients (85%), and included anemia (25%) and thrombocytopenia (20%). Grade =3 treatment-related adverse events were reported in six patients (30%). As of the January 11, 2024 data cutoff for the initial data read-out for the KOMET-007 trial, no differentiation syndrome events of any grade were reported, and no dose-limiting toxicities, evidence of QTc prolongation, drug-drug interactions or additive myelosuppression were observed. Tipifarnib has been studied in more than 5,000 oncology patients and was generally well tolerated and exhibited a manageable side effect profile. The most common hematologic adverse events of any grade were neutropenia, or low white blood cell count, anemia and thrombocytopenia, or low platelet count. The most common non-hematologic adverse events of any grade were gastrointestinal system disorders such as nausea, anorexia, diarrhea and vomiting, fatigue and rash. Treatment discontinuation across the prior tipifarnib clinical studies has been in the range of approximately 20-25%. The side effects observed so far in our ongoing clinical trials of tipifarnib have been generally consistent with the prior observations; however, there is no guarantee that additional or more severe side effects will not be identified through further clinical studies. Our FIT-001 trial represents the first time our KO-2806 compound has been tested in humans. While we can anticipate potential side effects based upon the safety profiles of tipifarnib and other FTIs, we cannot predict the type, frequency or severity of side effects that we will observe in patients treated with KO-2806. Additionally, we may evaluate our product candidates in combination with third-party drugs or biologics, and safety concerns arising during a combination trial could negatively affect the individual development program of each candidate, as the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to discontinue single-candidate trials until the contribution of each product candidate to any safety issues is better understood.
Innovation / R&D - Risk 2
We may expend our limited resources to pursue a specific product candidate or indication and fail to capitalize on product candidates or indications that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success.
Because we have limited financial and managerial resources, we must focus on a limited number of research programs and product candidates and on specific indications. As a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future discovery and preclinical development programs and product candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable products.
Innovation / R&D - Risk 3
Our discovery, preclinical and clinical development is focused on the development of targeted therapeutics for patients with genetically defined cancers, which is a rapidly evolving area of science, and the approach we are taking to discover and develop drugs may never lead to marketable products.
The discovery and development of targeted therapeutics for patients with genetically defined cancers, and the scientific discoveries that form the basis for our efforts to discover and develop product candidates, are a relatively new and rapidly evolving area of science. The scientific evidence to support the feasibility of developing product candidates based on these discoveries is both preliminary and limited. The patient populations for our product candidates are not completely defined but are substantially smaller than the general treated cancer population, and patients will need to be screened and identified in order to be eligible for our therapies. Successful identification of patients is dependent on several factors, including screening a sufficient number of patients to identify whether they harbor a particular genetic alteration or expression level, achieving certainty as to how specific genetic alterations or expression levels respond to our product candidates and developing companion diagnostics to identify such genetic alterations or expression levels. Furthermore, even if we are successful in identifying patients, we cannot be certain that the resulting patient populations will be large enough to allow us to successfully commercialize any products for which we are able to obtain marketing approval and achieve profitability. Therefore, we do not know if our approach of treating patients with genetically defined cancers will be successful. If our approach is unsuccessful, our business will suffer. In order to execute on our strategy of advancing the clinical development of our product candidates, we have designed our clinical trials, and expect to design future clinical trials of our product candidates, to include patients who harbor a particular attribute such as a particular genetic alteration, tumor histology or expression level that we believe contribute to or are associated with particular cancer subsets. Our goal in doing this is to enroll patients who have the highest probability of responding to our product candidate and in our Phase 1 and/or proof-of-concept Phase 2 clinical trials, to show early and statistically significant evidence of clinical efficacy. Potential molecular biomarkers we have identified in retrospective analyses of data from clinical trials of ziftomenib or tipifarnib in certain cancer indications may not be prospectively validated as biomarkers of ziftomenib or tipifarnib activity in future clinical trials that we may conduct in these indications. If we are unable to identify molecular or genetic alterations, or biomarkers, that are predictive of response to our product candidates, or we are unable to include patients who harbor the applicable genetic alterations or expression levels in our clinical trials, or if our product candidates fail to work as we expect, our ability to assess the therapeutic effect, seek participation in FDA expedited review and approval programs, including Breakthrough Therapy Designation, Fast Track Designation, Priority Review and Accelerated Approval, or otherwise to seek to accelerate clinical development and regulatory timelines, could be compromised, resulting in longer development times, larger clinical trials and a reduced likelihood of obtaining regulatory approval.
Innovation / R&D - Risk 4
We may find it difficult to enroll patients in our clinical trials. Difficulty in enrolling patients could delay or prevent clinical trials of our product candidates.
Identifying and qualifying patients to participate in clinical studies of our product candidates is critical to our success. The timing of our clinical studies depends in part on the speed at which we can recruit patients to participate in testing our product candidates, and we may experience delays in our clinical trials if we encounter difficulties in enrollment. In addition to the potentially small populations for our clinical trials, the eligibility criteria of our clinical trials will further limit the pool of available trial participants as we will require that patients have specific characteristics that we can measure or to assure their disease is either severe enough or not too advanced to include them in a trial. Additionally, the process of finding and diagnosing patients may prove costly. For example, certain genetic alterations are not included in existing diagnostic panels, have unknown prognostic significance and/or are not targeted by any FDA-approved treatment, and as a result, biomarker testing for such alterations is not routinely performed. To seek to address these limitations, we have contracted with third-party laboratories to facilitate the genetic screening of patients for our clinical sites. However, there is no guarantee that these efforts will be effective. We also may not be able to identify, recruit and enroll a sufficient number of patients to complete our clinical studies because of the perceived risks and benefits of the product candidate under trial including the number and frequency of trial required procedures and tests, the availability and efficacy of competing therapies and clinical trials, the proximity and availability of clinical trial sites for prospective patients, and the patient referral practices of physicians. Further, if patients do not comply with clinical trial process and procedure and, for example, drop out, miss scheduled doses or follow-up visits, or fail to follow trial protocols, then the integrity of data from our trials may be compromised or not accepted by the FDA or other regulatory authorities. Additionally, in estimating the frequency of biomarkers, we rely on data published in the scientific literature as well as our experience and that of our collaborators. The technologies used to identify mutations in published datasets may be different from the technologies we are using currently, which may make it more difficult to compare results across clinical trials or we may experience lower rates of mutation or other alteration frequencies in our clinical trials than provided in the current scientific literature. Moreover, sample quality in academic studies of molecular biomarkers may not reflect standard clinical practice that is focused on pathological diagnosis. Even if patients carrying specific mutations or other genetic characteristics are identified, the potential clinical benefit of a product candidate may be delayed or reduced due to increased durations in time to disease progression in patients treated with first-line therapies and the number of patients who could benefit from such product candidate may be reduced. Potential trial subjects may also be located at too great a distance to participate at our clinical trial sites. Any delay or failure by us or third-party collaborators to screen patients or identify patients for enrollment in our ongoing clinical trials could delay or prevent us from completing our clinical trials which could prevent us from obtaining regulatory approval or commercializing our product candidates on a timely or profitable basis, or at all. If we experience delays in the completion of, or termination of, any clinical trial of our product candidates, the commercial prospects of our product candidates may be harmed, and our ability to generate product revenue from any of these product candidates could be delayed or prevented. In addition, any delays in completing our clinical trials will increase our costs, slow down our product candidate development and approval process, and jeopardize our ability to commence product sales and generate revenue. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, financial condition, and prospects significantly. In addition, many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates, including: - unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects;- failure of our companion diagnostics to identify patients;- modifications to protocols of our clinical trials resulting from the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities or institutional review board, or IRB, decisions; and - ambiguous or negative interim results of our clinical trials or results that are inconsistent with earlier results.
Innovation / R&D - Risk 5
Clinical drug development involves a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome. The results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of our product candidates may not be predictive of the results of subsequent clinical trials, and preliminary or interim results of a clinical trial do not necessarily predict final results. We may incur additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of our product candidates.
The risk of failure for our product candidates is high. Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of any product candidate, we must conduct extensive preclinical and clinical testing to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our product candidates in humans. This testing is expensive, difficult to design and implement and can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. Further, the results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of our product candidates may not be predictive of the results of subsequent clinical trials, and preliminary or interim results of a clinical trial do not necessarily predict final results. Results from clinical trials conducted at a single clinical site or a small number of clinical sites may not be predictive of results from additional clinical sites or from subsequent clinical trials. Moreover, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses, and many companies that have believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their products. For instance, the FDA previously issued a non-approval letter to Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, or Janssen, for tipifarnib as a treatment for elderly, untreated AML patients in June 2005. It is impossible to predict with certainty if or when any of our product candidates will prove effective or safe in humans or will receive regulatory approval. We may experience delays in our clinical trials, and we do not know whether ongoing or planned clinical trials will begin or enroll patients on time, need to be redesigned or be completed on schedule, if at all. If the FDA, comparable foreign regulatory authorities or IRBs have comments on our study plans for our clinical trials that we are required to address, such studies may be delayed, or may not start at all. Clinical trials may be delayed, suspended or prematurely terminated at any time by us or by the FDA or other similar regulatory agency if it is determined at any time that patients may be or are being exposed to unacceptable health risks, including risk of death, or if compounds are not manufactured in compliance with current good manufacturing practice, or cGMP, regulations or with acceptable quality. There can be no assurance that the FDA or other similar regulatory agency will not put any of our product candidates on clinical hold in the future. For example, on November 24, 2021, we reported that the FDA had placed the KOMET-001 trial on a partial clinical hold. The partial clinical hold was initiated following our report to the FDA of a Grade 5 serious adverse event potentially associated with DS, a known adverse event related to differentiating agents in the treatment of AML. Patients who were enrolled in the Phase 1b expansion cohorts at the time of the partial clinical hold were permitted to continue to receive ziftomenib, although no additional patients were to be enrolled until the partial clinical hold was lifted. On January 20, 2022, we announced that the FDA had lifted the partial clinical hold on the KOMET-001 trial following agreement on our mitigation strategy for DS, and that the study would resume screening and enrollment of new patients. We may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, clinical trials that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize our product candidates. Clinical trials may be delayed, suspended or prematurely terminated because costs are greater than we anticipate or for a variety of reasons, such as: - failure to generate sufficient preclinical, toxicology or other in vivo or in vitro data to support the initiation or continuation of clinical trials;- delay or failure in reaching agreement with the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority on a clinical trial design that we are able to execute;- delay or failure in obtaining authorization to commence a clinical trial or inability to comply with conditions imposed by a regulatory authority regarding the scope or design of a clinical trial;- delays in reaching, or failure to reach, agreement on acceptable clinical trial contracts or clinical trial protocols with prospective clinical trial sites;- inability, delay or failure in identifying and maintaining a sufficient number of clinical trial sites, many of which may already be engaged in other clinical programs;- delay or failure in recruiting and enrolling suitable subjects to participate in a clinical trial;- delay or failure in having subjects complete a clinical trial or return for post-treatment follow-up;- delay or failure in determining an acceptable dose and schedule for a product candidate in a clinical trial;- clinical sites and investigators deviating from clinical trial protocol, failing to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements or dropping out of a clinical trial;- lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial, including the incurrence of unforeseen costs due to enrollment delays, requirements to conduct additional clinical studies and increased expenses associated with the services of our CROs and other third parties;- clinical trials of our product candidates may produce negative or inconclusive results, and we may decide, or regulators may require us, to redesign or modify our clinical trial protocols, conduct additional clinical trials or abandon product development programs;- the number of patients required for clinical trials of our product candidates may be larger than we anticipate, enrollment in these clinical trials may be slower than we anticipate or participants may drop out of these clinical trials at a higher rate than we anticipate;- we may experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment of patients whose tumors harbor the specific genetic alterations that our product candidates are designed to target;- our third-party contractors may fail to comply with regulatory requirements or meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner, or at all;- we may have difficulty partnering with experienced CROs that can screen for patients whose tumors harbor the applicable genetic alterations and run our clinical trials effectively;- regulators or IRBs may require that we or our investigators suspend or terminate clinical research for various reasons, including noncompliance with regulatory requirements or a finding that the participants are being exposed to unacceptable health risks;- the supply or quality of our product candidates or other materials necessary to conduct clinical trials of our product candidates may be insufficient or inadequate; or - there may be changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions. If we are required to conduct additional clinical trials or other testing of our product candidates beyond those that we currently contemplate, if we are unable to successfully complete clinical trials of our product candidates or other testing, if the results of these clinical trials or tests are not positive or are only modestly positive or if there are safety concerns, we may: - be delayed in obtaining marketing approval for our product candidates;- not obtain marketing approval at all;- obtain approval for indications or patient populations that are not as broad as intended or desired;- obtain approval with labeling that includes significant use or distribution restrictions or safety warnings that could reduce the potential market for our products or inhibit our ability to successfully commercialize our products;- be subject to additional post-approval restrictions and/or testing requirements; or - have the product removed from the market after obtaining marketing approval. Our product development costs will also increase if we experience delays in testing or marketing approvals. We do not know whether any of our preclinical studies or clinical trials will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, or at all. Significant preclinical or clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates or allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do and impair our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and may harm our business and results of operations.
Innovation / R&D - Risk 6
Preclinical and clinical testing of tipifarnib that has been conducted to date may not have been performed in compliance with applicable regulatory standards, which could lead to increased costs or material delays for their further development.
We licensed the rights to develop tipifarnib from Janssen in December 2014, and the development of tipifarnib prior to our license was conducted wholly by Janssen or any third parties with which it had contracted. As a result, we were not involved with nor did we have any control over any of those development activities. Because we had no input on Janssen's development activities relating to tipifarnib, we may discover that certain elements of the clinical development or manufacturing activities that Janssen performed were not performed in compliance with applicable regulatory standards or have otherwise been deficient, particularly relative to current requirements as development of tipifarnib began in the 1990s. Any such deficiency in the prior development of tipifarnib may adversely affect our ability to obtain regulatory approval for tipifarnib.
Innovation / R&D - Risk 7
A Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the FDA may not lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process, and does not increase the likelihood that our product candidates will receive marketing approval.*
We have received Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the FDA on ziftomenib for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory NPM1-mutant AML and tipifarnib for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic HRAS mutant HNSCC with variant allele frequency = 20% after disease progression on platinum-based chemotherapy. A Breakthrough Therapy is defined as a drug that is intended, alone or in combination with one or more other drugs, to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition, and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the drug may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development. Drugs that have been designated as Breakthrough Therapies are eligible for priority review by the FDA, rolling submission of portions of the NDA and FDA's organizational commitment involving senior management to provide guidance to the company to help determine the most efficient route to approval. Such interaction and communication between the FDA and the sponsor can help to identify the most efficient path for development. However, the reduced timelines may introduce significant chemistry, manufacturing and controls challenges for product development. Designation as a Breakthrough Therapy is within the discretion of the FDA. Accordingly, even if we believe that one of our product candidates meets the criteria for designation as a Breakthrough Therapy, the FDA may disagree and instead determine not to make such designation. In any event, the receipt of a Breakthrough Therapy Designation for a product candidate may not result in a faster development process, review or approval compared to drugs considered for approval under conventional FDA procedures and does not assure ultimate approval by the FDA. In addition, even if one or more of our product candidates qualify as Breakthrough Therapies, the FDA may later decide that such product candidates no longer meet the conditions for qualification and rescind such designations.
Trade Secrets13 | 18.1%
Trade Secrets - Risk 1
If we are unable to, or if we do not, obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our product candidates, or if the scope of the intellectual property protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize products similar or identical to ours, and our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates may be impaired.
We intend to rely upon a combination of regulatory exclusivity periods, patents, trade secret protection, confidentiality agreements, and license agreements to protect the intellectual property related to our current product candidates and development programs. If the breadth or strength of protection provided by any patents, patent applications or future patents we may own, license, or pursue with respect to any of our current or future product candidates or products is threatened, it could threaten our ability to commercialize any of our current or future product candidates or products. For example, our patent rights may not protect our patent-protected products and product candidates if competitors devise ways of making products that compete with us without legally infringing our patent rights. Further, if we encounter delays in our development efforts, the period of time during which we could market any of our current or future product candidates or products under any patent protection we obtain would be reduced. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates or products, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such product candidates or products are commercialized. Ziftomenib We have issued patents in the United States, Europe, China, Japan and other foreign jurisdictions covering the composition of matter of ziftomenib and certain structurally related compounds and methods of using the compounds for treating cancers. Although these patents are currently in force, there is no guarantee that a court would agree that any of the patents are valid or enforceable. We are pursuing additional U.S. and foreign patents for ziftomenib; however, there is no guarantee that any such patents will be granted or that, if granted, would provide protection against third parties. Patent term extension may be available in the United States or in other jurisdictions to account for regulatory delays in obtaining marketing approval for a product candidate; however, only one patent may be extended per marketed product. The applicable authorities, including the U.S. PTO and the FDA, and any equivalent patent or regulatory authorities in other countries, may not agree with our assessment of whether such extensions are available, and may refuse to grant extensions to patents, or may grant more limited extensions than requested. If this occurs, our competitors who obtain the requisite regulatory approval can offer products with the same API as ziftomenib so long as the competitors do not infringe any patents that we may hold. Competitors may take advantage of our investment in development and clinical trials by referencing our clinical and preclinical data and launch their product earlier than might otherwise be the case. We expect that following expiration of patents and any regulatory exclusivity we are able to obtain for ziftomenib, competitors may manufacture and sell generic versions of ziftomenib, at a lower price, which would reduce our ziftomenib revenues. In certain jurisdictions, legislation mandates generic substitution for brand name drugs. Tipifarnib Our patent rights in tipifarnib are limited in ways that affect our ability to exclude third parties from competing against us. In particular, the patent term for the composition of matter patents covering the API of tipifarnib expired in the United States and countries in Europe in 2016. Composition of matter patents on APIs are generally considered to be the strongest form of intellectual property protection because such patents provide protection without regard to any particular method of use or manufacture or formulation of the API used. Patents directed to the method of treatment of certain cancers using tipifarnib or a farnesyl transferase inhibitor have been issued to us in a number of jurisdictions, including the United States, Europe, China and Japan. Although these patents are currently in force, there is no guarantee that a court would agree that any of the patents are valid or enforceable. Further, if a competitor were to develop tipifarnib for use in an indication other than that claimed by our patents, we would not be able to prevent the competitor from marketing tipifarnib for such indication in the United States or other jurisdictions based on our currently issued patents. We are pursuing additional U.S. and foreign method of treatment patents for tipifarnib and farnesyl transferase inhibitors; however, there is no guarantee that any such patents will be granted or that, if granted, would provide protection against third parties. Under our license agreement with Janssen for tipifarnib, we and Janssen agree to cooperate in obtaining available patent term extensions. We and Janssen may not reach agreement and no patent term extension may be obtained. Additionally, the applicable authorities, including the U.S. PTO and the FDA, and any equivalent patent or regulatory authorities in other countries, may not agree with our assessment of whether such extensions are available, and may refuse to grant extensions to patents, or may grant more limited extensions than requested. If this occurs, our competitors who obtain the requisite regulatory approval can offer products with the same API as tipifarnib so long as the competitors do not infringe any method of use patents that we may hold. Competitors may take advantage of our investment in development and clinical trials by referencing our clinical and preclinical data and launch their product earlier than might otherwise be the case. We expect that following expiration of patents and any regulatory exclusivity we are able to obtain, competitors may manufacture and sell generic versions of tipifarnib, at a lower price, which would reduce tipifarnib's revenues. In certain jurisdictions, legislation mandates generic substitution for brand name drugs. KO-2806 We have filed patent applications in the United States, and under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, covering the composition of matter of KO-2806 and certain structurally related compounds and methods of using KO-2806 for treating cancers. However, there is no guarantee that patents will be granted from such applications or that, if granted, would provide protection against third parties.
Trade Secrets - Risk 2
We depend on our licensors to prosecute and maintain patents and patent applications that are material to our business. Any failure by our licensors to effectively protect these intellectual property rights could adversely impact our business and operations.
We have licensed patent rights from third parties for some of our development programs, including compounds in our menin-KMT2A program from the University of Michigan and tipifarnib from Janssen. As a licensee of third parties, we rely on these third parties to file and prosecute patent applications and maintain patents and otherwise protect the licensed intellectual property under some of our license agreements. We have not had and do not have primary control over these activities for certain of our patents or patent applications and other intellectual property rights. We cannot be certain that such activities by third parties have been or will be conducted in compliance with applicable laws and regulations or will result in valid and enforceable patents or other intellectual property rights. Pursuant to the terms of the license agreements with some of our licensors, the licensors may have the right to control enforcement of our licensed patents or defense of any claims asserting the invalidity of these patents and even if we are permitted to pursue such enforcement or defense, we will require the cooperation of our licensors. We cannot be certain that our licensors will allocate sufficient resources or prioritize their or our enforcement of such patents or defense of such claims to protect our interests in the licensed patents. Even if we are not a party to these legal actions, an adverse outcome could harm our business because it might prevent us from continuing to license intellectual property that we may need to operate our business.
Trade Secrets - Risk 3
If we breach any of the agreements under which we license from third parties the commercialization rights to our product candidates, we could lose license rights that are important to our business and our operations could be materially harmed.
We have in-licensed rights to ziftomenib and other compounds in our menin-KMT2A program from the University of Michigan. We have also in-licensed from Janssen use, development and commercialization rights in all indications other than virology, for tipifarnib. Additionally, we have an exclusive worldwide license from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to a patent family pertaining to a method of use of FTIs, including tipifarnib. As a result, our current business plans are dependent upon our satisfaction of certain conditions to the maintenance of the University of Michigan license agreement and the Janssen license agreement and the rights we license under such agreements and our other in-license agreements. The University of Michigan license agreement and the Janssen license agreement each provides that we are subject to diligence obligations relating to the commercialization and development of the respective product candidates, milestone payments, royalty payments and other obligations. If we fail to comply with any of the conditions or obligations or otherwise breach the terms of our license agreement with University of Michigan, or Janssen, or any of our other license agreements or license agreements we may enter into on which our business or product candidates are dependent, University of Michigan, or Janssen, or other licensors may have the right to terminate the applicable agreement in whole or in part and thereby extinguish our rights to the licensed technology and intellectual property and/or any rights we have acquired to develop and commercialize certain product candidates. The loss of the rights licensed to us under our license agreement with University of Michigan, or Janssen, or our other license agreements or any future license agreement that we may enter granting us rights on which our business or product candidates are dependent, would eliminate our ability to further develop the applicable product candidates and would materially harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. Disputes may arise regarding intellectual property subject to, and any of our rights and obligations under, any license or other strategic agreement, including: - the scope of rights granted under the license agreement and other interpretation-related issues;- the extent to which our technology and processes infringe, misappropriate or violate the intellectual property of the licensor that is not subject to the license agreement;- our diligence obligations under the license agreement and what activities satisfy those diligence obligations;- the sublicensing of patent and other rights to third parties under any such agreement or collaborative relationships;- the inventorship and ownership of inventions and know-how resulting from the joint creation or use of intellectual property by our licensors and us and our partners; and - the priority of invention of patented technology. In addition, the agreements under which we license intellectual property or technology to or from third parties are complex, and certain provisions in such agreements may be susceptible to multiple interpretations. The resolution of any contract interpretation disagreement that may arise could narrow what we believe to be the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual property or technology or increase what we believe to be our financial or other obligations under the relevant agreement, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Moreover, if disputes over intellectual property that we have licensed prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current licensing arrangements on commercially acceptable terms, we may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize the affected product candidates.
Trade Secrets - Risk 4
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 position of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions and has in recent years been the subject of much litigation. In addition, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. Certain inventions that are patentable in the United States may not be patentable in other countries and vice versa. Further, our ability to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions may not be as effective as in the United States. For example, some foreign countries, such as India and China, may not allow or enforce patents for methods of treating the human body. Publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. Therefore, we cannot know with certainty whether we or our licensors were the first to make the inventions claimed in our owned or licensed patents or pending patent applications, or that we or our licensors were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain. Our pending and future patent applications may not result in patents being issued which protect our technology or products, in whole or in part, or which effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive technologies and products. Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our patents or narrow the scope of our patent protection, or eliminate our patent protection completely. Moreover, we may be subject to a third-party preissuance submission of prior art to the U.S. PTO or third-party preissuance observations to the European Patent Office, or EPO, or become involved in patent office post-grant proceedings, such as opposition, derivation, reexamination, inter partes review, or post-grant review proceedings challenging our patent rights or the patent rights of others. An adverse determination in any such submission or proceeding, or in litigation, could reduce the scope of, or invalidate, our patent rights, allow third parties to commercialize our technology or products and compete directly with us, without payment to us, or result in our inability to manufacture or commercialize products without infringing third-party patent rights. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop or commercialize current or future product candidates. Even if our owned and licensed patent applications issue as patents, they may not issue in a form that will provide us with any meaningful protection, prevent competitors from competing with us or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. Even if our owned and licensed patents might provide such protection or competitive advantage, we may not have the resources to effectively enforce our rights under such patents, which can be expensive and time-consuming. Further, our competitors may be able to circumvent our owned or licensed patents by developing similar or alternative technologies or products in a non-infringing manner. The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability, and our owned and licensed patents may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad. Such challenges may result in loss of exclusivity or freedom to operate or in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, in whole or in part, which could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our technology and products. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. As a result, our owned and licensed patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours.
Trade Secrets - Risk 5
Changes in U.S. patent law, or laws in other countries, could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our product candidates.
As is the case with other pharmaceutical companies, our success is heavily dependent on intellectual property, particularly patents. Obtaining and enforcing patents in the pharmaceutical industry involve a high degree of technological and legal complexity. Therefore, obtaining and enforcing pharmaceutical patents is costly, time consuming and inherently uncertain. Changes in either the patent laws or in the interpretations of patent laws in the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our intellectual property and may increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of patent applications and the enforcement or defense of issued patents. We cannot predict the breadth of claims that may be allowed or enforced in our patents or in third-party patents. In addition, Congress or other foreign legislative bodies may pass patent reform legislation that is unfavorable to us. For instance, under the Unitary Patent Court system that has been implemented in Europe, patent applicants have the option, upon grant of a patent by the EPO, of electing grant of a Unitary Patent, which will be subject to the jurisdiction of the Unified Patent Court, or UPC. This is a significant change in European patent practice. As the UPC is a new court system, there is no precedent for the court, increasing the uncertainty of any litigation.
Trade Secrets - Risk 6
Patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on our product candidates for a commercially meaningful length of time.
Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, if all maintenance fees are timely paid, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years from its effective U.S. non-provisional filing date. Various extensions may be available, but the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Even if patents covering our product candidates are obtained, once the patents have expired, we may be open to competition from competitive products. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. As a result, our patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient duration of rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours.
Trade Secrets - Risk 7
Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.
Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other governmental fees on patents and/or applications will be due to be paid to the U.S. PTO and various governmental patent agencies outside of the United States in several stages over the lifetime of the patents and/or applications. We have systems in place to remind us to pay these fees, and we employ an outside annuity provider firm and rely on our outside counsel to pay these fees due to patent agencies. The U.S. PTO and various non-U.S. governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. We employ reputable law firms and other professionals to help us comply, and in many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules. However, there are situations in which non-compliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. In such an event, our competitors might be able to enter the market and this circumstance would have a material adverse effect on our business.
Trade Secrets - Risk 8
We may become involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or other intellectual property, which could be expensive, time consuming and unsuccessful.
Because competition in our industry is intense, competitors may infringe or otherwise violate our issued patents, patents of our licensors or other intellectual property. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file infringement claims, which can be expensive and time-consuming to pursue. Any claims we assert against perceived infringers could provoke these parties to assert counterclaims against us alleging that we infringe their patents. In addition, in a patent infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent of ours is invalid or unenforceable, in whole or in part, construe the patent's claims narrowly or refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our patents do not cover the technology in question. An adverse result in any litigation proceeding could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly. We may also elect to enter into license agreements in order to settle patent infringement claims or to resolve disputes prior to litigation, and any such license agreements may require us to pay royalties and other fees that could be significant. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure.
Trade Secrets - Risk 9
Third parties may initiate legal proceedings alleging that we are infringing their intellectual property rights, the outcome of which would be uncertain and could have a material adverse effect on the success of our business.
Our commercial success depends upon our ability, and the ability of our collaborators, to develop, manufacture, market and sell our product candidates and use our proprietary technologies without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties. There is considerable intellectual property litigation in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. We may become party to, or threatened with, future adversarial proceedings or litigation regarding intellectual property rights with respect to our products and technology, including derivation, reexamination, inter partes review, post-grant review or interference proceedings before the U.S. PTO. Third parties may assert infringement claims against us based on existing patents or patents that may be granted in the future. If we are found to infringe a third party's intellectual property rights, we could be required to obtain a license from such third party to continue developing and marketing our products and technology. However, we may not be able to obtain any required license on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Even if we were able to obtain a license, it could be non-exclusive, thereby giving our competitors access to the same technologies licensed to us. We could be forced, including by court order, to cease commercializing the infringing technology or product. In addition, we could be found liable for monetary damages, including treble damages and attorneys' fees if we are found to have willfully infringed a patent. A finding of infringement could prevent us from commercializing our product candidates or force us to cease some of our business operations, which could materially harm our business. Claims that we have misappropriated the confidential information or trade secrets of third parties could have a similar negative impact on our business.
Trade Secrets - Risk 10
We may not be successful in obtaining or maintaining necessary third-party intellectual property rights for our development pipeline through acquisitions and in-licenses.
Presently we have rights to intellectual property under an exclusive worldwide license from the University of Michigan for all therapeutic indications for ziftomenib and other compounds in our menin-KMT2A program, an exclusive license from Janssen to develop tipifarnib in all fields other than virology, and an exclusive worldwide license from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to a patent family pertaining to a method of use of FTIs, including tipifarnib. Because our programs may involve additional product candidates that may require the use of proprietary rights held by third parties, the growth of our business may depend in part on our ability to acquire, in-license or use these proprietary rights. Additionally, a companion diagnostic may require that we or a third-party collaborator developing the diagnostic acquire proprietary rights held by third parties, which may not be available. We may be unable to acquire or in-license any compositions, methods of use, or other third-party intellectual property rights from third parties that we identify. The licensing and acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and a number of more established companies are also pursuing strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider attractive. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, cash resources and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities. For example, we may collaborate with U.S. and foreign academic and other research institutions to accelerate our discovery and preclinical development work under written agreements with these institutions. Typically, these institutions provide us with an option to negotiate a license to any of the institution's rights in technology resulting from the collaboration. Regardless of such right of first negotiation for intellectual property, we may be unable to negotiate a license within the specified time frame or under terms that are acceptable to us. If we are unable to do so, the institution may offer the intellectual property rights to other parties, potentially blocking our ability to pursue our program. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. We also may be unable to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights on terms that would allow us to make an appropriate return on our investment. If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to required third-party intellectual property rights, our business, financial condition and prospects for growth could suffer.
Trade Secrets - Risk 11
If we are unable to maintain the confidentiality of our trade secrets or other confidential information, our business and competitive position would be harmed.
In addition to seeking patents for some of our technology and product candidates, we also rely on trade secrets, including unpatented know-how, technology and other proprietary information, to maintain our competitive position. We seek to protect these trade secrets, in part, by entering into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to them, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors and other third parties. We seek to protect our confidential proprietary information, in part, by entering into confidentiality and invention or patent assignment agreements with our employees and consultants; however, we cannot be certain that such agreements have been entered into with all relevant parties. Moreover, to the extent we enter into such agreements, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information, including our trade secrets, to third parties, and we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for such breaches. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts inside and outside the United States are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, we would have no right to prevent them, or those to whom they communicate it, from using that technology or information to compete with us. If any of our trade secrets were to be disclosed to or independently developed by a competitor, our competitive position would be harmed.
Trade Secrets - Risk 12
Intellectual property discovered through government funded programs may be subject to federal regulations such as "march-in" rights, certain reporting requirements and a preference for U.S.-based manufacturing companies. Compliance with such regulations may limit our exclusive rights and limit our ability to contract with non-U.S. manufacturers.
Although we do not currently own issued patents or pending patent applications that have been generated through the use of U.S. government funding, our license agreement with the University of Michigan includes intellectual property rights unrelated to ziftomenib that have been generated through the use of U.S. government funding or grants, and we may acquire or license additional intellectual property rights from one or more entities that have been generated through the use of U.S. government funding or grants. Pursuant to the Bayh-Dole Act, the U.S. government has certain rights in inventions developed with government funding. These U.S. government rights include a non-exclusive, non-transferable, irrevocable worldwide license to use inventions for any governmental purpose. In addition, the U.S. government has the right, under certain limited circumstances, to require us to grant exclusive, partially exclusive, or non-exclusive licenses to any of these inventions to a third party if it determines that: (1) adequate steps have not been taken to commercialize the invention; (2) government action is necessary to meet public health or safety needs; or (3) government action is necessary to meet requirements for public use under federal regulations (also referred to as "march-in rights"). If the U.S. government exercised its march-in rights in our intellectual property rights generated through the use of U.S. government funding or grants, we could be forced to license or sublicense intellectual property developed by us or that we license on terms unfavorable to us, and there can be no assurance that we would receive compensation from the U.S. government for the exercise of such rights. The U.S. government also has the right to take title to these inventions if the grant recipient fails to disclose the invention to the government or fails to file an application to register the intellectual property within specified time limits. Intellectual property generated under a government funded program is also subject to certain reporting requirements, compliance with which may require us to expend substantial resources. In addition, the U.S. government requires that any products embodying any of these inventions or produced through the use of any of these inventions be manufactured substantially in the United States. This preference for U.S. industry may be waived by the federal agency that provided the funding if the owner or assignee of the intellectual property can show that reasonable but unsuccessful efforts have been made to grant licenses on similar terms to potential licensees that would be likely to manufacture substantially in the United States or that under the circumstances domestic manufacture is not commercially feasible. This preference for U.S. industry may limit our ability to contract with non-U.S. product manufacturers for products covered by such intellectual property.
Trade Secrets - Risk 13
We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.
Geo-political actions in the United States and in foreign countries could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution or maintenance of our patent applications or those of any current or future licensors and the maintenance, enforcement or defense of our issued patents or those of any current or future licensors. For example, the United States and foreign government actions related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine may limit or prevent filing, prosecution, and maintenance of patent applications in Russia. Government actions may also prevent maintenance of issued patents in Russia. These actions could result in abandonment or lapse of our patents or patent applications, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in Russia. In addition, a decree was adopted by the Russian government in March 2022, allowing Russian companies and individuals to exploit inventions owned by patentees from the United States without consent or compensation. Consequently, we would not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in Russia or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into Russia. Accordingly, our competitive position may be impaired, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
Cyber Security1 | 1.4%
Cyber Security - Risk 1
Changed
If our information technology systems, or those of third parties with whom we work, or our data are or were compromised, we could experience adverse consequences resulting from such compromise, including but not limited to regulatory investigations or actions; litigation; fines and penalties; disruptions of our business operations; reputational harm; loss of revenue or profits; and other adverse consequences.*
In the ordinary course of our business, we and the third parties with whom we work process sensitive data, and, as a result, we and the third parties with whom we work face a variety of evolving threats that could cause security incidents. Cyberattacks, malicious internet-based activity, online and offline fraud, and other similar activities threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our sensitive data and information technology systems, and those of the third parties with whom we work. Such threats are prevalent and continue to rise, are increasingly difficult to detect, and come from a variety of sources, including traditional computer "hackers," threat actors, "hacktivists," organized criminal threat actors, personnel (such as through theft or misuse), sophisticated nation-states, and nation-state-supported actors. Some actors now engage and are expected to continue to engage in cyber-attacks, including without limitation nation-state actors for geopolitical reasons and in conjunction with military conflicts and defense activities. During times of war and other major conflicts, we and the third parties with whom we work may be vulnerable to a heightened risk of these attacks, including retaliatory cyber-attacks, that could materially disrupt our systems and operations, supply chain and ability to produce and develop our products or services. We and the third parties with whom we work are subject to a variety of evolving threats, including but not limited to social-engineering attacks (including through deep fakes, which may be increasingly more difficult to identify as fake, and phishing attacks), malicious code (such as viruses and worms), malware (including as a result of advanced persistent threat intrusions), denial-of-service attacks, credential stuffing, credential harvesting, personnel misconduct or error, ransomware attacks, supply-chain attacks, software bugs, server malfunctions, software or hardware failures, loss of data or other information technology assets, adware, attacks enhanced or facilitated by AI, telecommunications failures, earthquakes, fires, floods, and other similar threats. In particular, severe ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly prevalent and can lead to significant interruptions in our operations, ability to produce and develop our products or services, loss of sensitive data and income, reputational harm, and diversion of funds. Extortion payments may alleviate the negative impact of a ransomware attack, but we may be unwilling or unable to make such payments due to, for example, applicable laws or regulations prohibiting such payments. In addition, our reliance on third parties could introduce new cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities, including supply-chain attacks, and other threats to our business operations. We rely on third parties and technologies to operate critical business systems to process sensitive data in a variety of contexts, including, without limitation information technology systems, cloud-based infrastructure, applications, websites, data center facilities, encryption and authentication technology, employee email, content delivery to customers, and other functions. We also rely on third parties to provide other products, services, parts, or otherwise to operate our business. Our business, including our ability to manufacture drug products and conduct clinical trials, therefore depends on the continuous, effective, reliable and secure operation of our information technology resources. Our ability to monitor these third parties' information security practices is limited, and these third parties may not have adequate information security measures in place. If the third parties with whom we work experience a security incident or other interruption, we could experience adverse consequences. While we may be entitled to damages if these third parties fail to satisfy their privacy or security-related obligations to us, any award may be insufficient to cover our damages, or we may be unable to recover such award. Similarly, supply-chain attacks have increased in frequency and severity, and we cannot guarantee that third parties' infrastructure in our supply chain or that of the third parties with whom we work have not been compromised. Remote work has become more common and has increased risks to our information technology systems and data, as more of our employees utilize network connections, computers, and devices outside our premises or network, including working at home, while in transit and in public locations. Additionally, future or past business transactions (such as acquisitions or integrations) could expose us to additional cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities, as our systems could be negatively affected by vulnerabilities present in acquired or integrated entities' systems and technologies. Furthermore, we may discover security issues that were not found during due diligence of such acquired or integrated entities, and it may be difficult to integrate companies into our information technology environment and security program. While we have implemented security measures designed to protect against security incidents, there can be no assurance that these measures will be effective. We take steps designed to detect, mitigate, and remediate vulnerabilities in our information systems (such as our hardware and/or software, including that of third parties with whom we work). We may not, however, detect and remediate all such vulnerabilities including on a timely basis. Further, we may experience delays in developing and deploying remedial measures and patches designed to address identified vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities could be exploited and result in a security incident. Any of the previously identified or similar threats could cause a security incident or other interruption that could result in unauthorized, unlawful, or accidental acquisition, modification, destruction, loss, alteration, encryption, disclosure of, or access to our sensitive data or our information technology systems, or those of the third parties with whom we work. A security incident or other interruption could disrupt our ability (and that of third parties with whom we work) to provide our products. We may expend significant resources or modify our business activities (including our clinical trial activities) to try to protect against security incidents. Additionally, certain data privacy and security obligations may require us to implement and maintain specific security measures, industry-standard or reasonable security measures to protect our information technology systems and sensitive data. Applicable data privacy and security obligations may require us to notify relevant stakeholders, including affected individuals, customers, regulators, and investors, of security incidents, or to implement other requirements, such as providing credit monitoring. Such disclosures and compliance with such requirements are costly, and the disclosure or the failure to comply with such requirements could lead to adverse consequences. If we (or a third party with whom we work) experience a security incident or are perceived to have experienced a security incident, we may experience adverse consequences, such as government enforcement actions (for example, investigations, fines, penalties, audits, and inspections); additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; restrictions on processing sensitive data (including personal data); litigation (including class claims); indemnification obligations; negative publicity; reputational harm; monetary fund diversions; diversion of management attention, interruptions in our operations (including availability of data); financial loss; and other similar harms. Security incidents and attendant consequences may prevent or cause customers to stop using our products, deter new customers from using our products, and negatively impact our ability to grow and operate our business. Additionally, our contracts may not contain limitations of liability, and even where they do, there can be no assurance that limitations of liability in our contracts are sufficient to protect us from liabilities, damages, or claims related to our data privacy and security obligations. Furthermore, we cannot be sure that our insurance coverage will be adequate or sufficient to protect us from or to mitigate liabilities arising out of our privacy and security practices, that such coverage will continue to be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or that such coverage will pay future claims. In addition to experiencing a security incident, third parties may gather, collect, or infer sensitive data about us from public sources, data brokers, or other means that reveals competitively sensitive details about our organization and could be used to undermine our competitive advantage or market position. Additionally, sensitive data of the Company could be leaked, disclosed, or revealed as a result of or in connection with our employees', personnel's, or vendors' use of generative AI technologies.
Technology1 | 1.4%
Technology - Risk 1
Our business and operations would suffer in the event of system failures.
Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems and those of our CROs, collaborators and third parties on whom we rely are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. We are increasingly dependent upon our technology systems to operate our business and our ability to effectively manage our business depends on the security, reliability and adequacy of our technology systems and data, which includes use of cloud technologies. While we have not experienced any system failures, accidents or security breaches to date, if such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our drug development programs. 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 we may incur substantial costs to attempt to recover or reproduce the data. If any disruption or security breach resulted in a loss of or damage to our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liability and/or the further development of our product candidates could be delayed.
Finance & Corporate
Total Risks: 19/72 (26%)Below Sector Average
Share Price & Shareholder Rights8 | 11.1%
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 1
Changed
The resale of shares covered by our effective shelf registration statements could adversely affect the market price of our common stock in the public market, which result would in turn negatively affect our ability to raise additional equity capital.*
The sale, or availability for sale, of our common stock in the public market may adversely affect the prevailing market price of our common stock and may impair our ability to raise additional capital by selling equity or equity-linked securities. We have filed shelf registration statements with the SEC, which have been declared effective, to register the resale of certain shares of our common stock. The shelf registration statements permit the resale of such shares at any time, subject to restrictions under applicable law. The resale of a significant number of shares of our common stock in the public market could adversely affect the market price for our common stock and make it more difficult for you to sell shares of our common stock at times and prices that you feel are appropriate. Furthermore, we expect that, because there are a large number of shares registered pursuant to the shelf registration statements, the selling stockholders named in such registration statements will continue to offer shares covered by such shelf registration statements for a significant period of time, the precise duration of which cannot be predicted. Accordingly, the adverse market and price pressures resulting from an offering pursuant to the shelf registration statements may continue for an extended period of time and continued negative pressure on the market price of our common stock could have a material adverse effect on our ability to raise additional equity capital.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 2
Our stock price may fluctuate significantly and you may have difficulty selling your shares based on current trading volumes of our stock.*
Our common stock has been listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, or Nasdaq, under the symbol "KURA" since November 5, 2015. The high and low price per share of our common stock as reported by Nasdaq during the period from November 5, 2015 through March 31, 2024, were $43.00 and $2.50, respectively. We cannot predict the extent to which investor interest in our company will sustain an active trading market on Nasdaq or any other exchange in the future. We have several stockholders, including affiliated 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, particularly given our small historic trading volumes. 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. Moreover, if an active trading market is not sustained or if the volume of trading is limited, holders of our common stock may have difficulty selling their shares.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 3
The price of our common stock may be volatile and may be influenced by numerous factors, some of which are beyond our control.
The market for our common stock could fluctuate substantially due to a variety of factors, some of which may be beyond our control. In addition to the factors discussed in this "Risk Factors" section and elsewhere in this Quarterly Report, these factors include: - the product candidates we seek to pursue, and our ability to obtain rights to develop, commercialize and market those product candidates;- our decision to initiate a clinical trial, not to initiate a clinical trial or to terminate an existing clinical trial;- actual or anticipated adverse results or delays in our clinical trials;- our failure to commercialize our product candidates, if approved;- changes in the structure of healthcare payment systems;- unanticipated serious safety concerns related to the use of any of our product candidates;- adverse regulatory decisions;- additions or departures of key scientific or management personnel;- changes in laws or regulations applicable to our product candidates, including without limitation clinical trial requirements for approvals;- disputes or other developments relating to patents and other proprietary rights and our ability to obtain patent protection for our product candidates;- our dependence on third parties, including CROs as well as our potential partners that produce companion diagnostic products;- failure to meet or exceed any financial guidance or expectations regarding development milestones that we may provide to the public;- actual or anticipated variations in quarterly operating results, liquidity or other indicators of our financial condition;- failure to meet or exceed the estimates and projections of the investment community;- overall performance of the equity markets and other factors that may be unrelated to our operating performance or the operating performance of our competitors, including changes in market valuations of similar companies;- market conditions or trends in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries;- introduction of new products offered by us or our competitors;- announcements of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments by us or our competitors;- our ability to maintain an adequate rate of growth and manage such growth;- issuances of debt or equity securities;- sales of our common stock by us or our stockholders in the future, or the perception that such sales could occur;- trading volume of our common stock;- ineffectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting or disclosure controls and procedures;- general political and economic conditions;- effects of natural or man-made catastrophic events; and - other events or factors, many of which are beyond our control. In addition, the stock market in general, and the stocks of small-cap biotechnology companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, bank failures, actual or perceived changes in interest rates and economic inflation. Broad market and industry factors may negatively affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. These events may also lead to securities litigation, which can be expensive and time-consuming to defend, regardless of the merit or outcome. The realization of any of the above risks or any of a broad range of other risks, including those described in these "Risk Factors," could have a dramatic and material adverse impact on the market price of our common stock.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 4
Future sales and issuances of our common stock or rights to purchase or acquire common stock, including pursuant to our equity incentive plans, outstanding stock options, restricted stock units, performance-based restricted stock units, warrants, pre-funded warrants or otherwise, could result in dilution to the percentage ownership of our stockholders and could cause our stock price to fall.*
We expect that significant additional capital will be needed in the future to continue our planned operations. To raise capital, we may sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner we determine from time to time. If we sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in more than one transaction, investors in a prior transaction may be materially diluted by subsequent sales. Additionally, any such sales may result in material dilution to our existing stockholders, and new investors could gain rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of holders of our common stock. Further, any future sales of our common stock by us or resales of our common stock by our existing stockholders or the perception that such sales could occur could cause the market price of our common stock to decline. On November 2, 2023, we entered into the ATM Facility under which we may offer and sell, from time to time, at our sole discretion, shares of our common stock having an aggregate offering price of up to $150.0 million. We have not sold any shares of our common stock under the ATM Facility. Pursuant to our Amended and Restated 2014 Equity Incentive Plan, or 2014 Plan, we are authorized to grant equity awards consisting of shares of our common stock to our employees, directors and consultants. As of March 31, 2024, we had 893,289 shares of common stock available for grant under the 2014 Plan, options to purchase up to an aggregate of 11,975,268 shares of common stock outstanding, 1,352,876 unvested restricted stock units outstanding and 1,313,100 unvested performance-based restricted stock units outstanding. Also, pursuant to our 2023 Inducement Option Plan, or Inducement Plan, we are authorized to grant nonstatutory stock options to individuals that were not previously our employees or directors (or following a bona fide period of non-employment), as an inducement material to the individual's entry into employment with us, pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4). As of March 31, 2024, we had 447,250 shares of common stock available for grant under the Inducement Plan. In addition, we may grant or provide for the grant of rights to purchase shares of our common stock pursuant to our 2015 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or ESPP. As of March 31, 2024, we had 653,852 shares of common stock reserved for future issuance under the ESPP. The number of shares of our common stock reserved for issuance under the ESPP will automatically increase on January 1 of each calendar year through January 1, 2025 by the lesser of 1% of the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding on December 31 of the preceding calendar year and 2,000,000 shares, subject to the ability of our board of directors (or a duly authorized committee thereof) to take action to reduce the size of the increase in any given year. In December 2023, the compensation committee of the board of directors elected not to automatically increase the number of shares of our common stock reserved for issuance under the ESPP in 2024. In addition, as of March 31, 2024, (i) warrants to purchase up to (a) 33,988 shares of our common stock at an exercise price of $3.31 per share and (b) 26,078 shares of our common stock at an exercise price of $14.38 per share and (ii) pre-funded warrants to purchase up to 10,353,668 shares of our common stock at an exercise price of $0.0001 per share were outstanding. Any future grants of options, restricted stock units, performance-based restricted stock units, warrants, pre-funded warrants or other securities exercisable or convertible into our common stock, or the exercise or conversion of such shares, and any sales of such shares in the market, could have an adverse effect on the market price of our common stock.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 5
Anti-takeover provisions under our charter documents and Delaware law could delay or prevent a change of control which could limit the market price of our common stock and may prevent or frustrate attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that could delay or prevent a change of control of our company or changes in our board of directors that our stockholders might consider favorable. Some of these provisions include: - a prohibition on stockholder action through written consent, which requires that all stockholder actions be taken at a meeting of our stockholders;- a requirement that special meetings of stockholders be called only by the chairman of the board of directors, the chief executive officer, or by a majority of the total number of authorized directors;- advance notice requirements for stockholder proposals and nominations for election to our board of directors;- division of our board of directors into three classes;- a requirement that no member of our board of directors may be removed from office by our stockholders except for cause and, in addition to any other vote required by law, upon the approval of not less than 662/3% of all outstanding shares of our voting stock then entitled to vote in the election of directors;- a requirement of approval of not less than 662/3% of all outstanding shares of our voting stock to amend any bylaws by stockholder action or to amend specific provisions of our certificate of incorporation;- the authority of the board of directors to issue preferred stock on terms determined by the board of directors without stockholder approval and which preferred stock may include rights superior to the rights of the holders of common stock; and - a requirement that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors or officers to us or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law or our certificate of incorporation or bylaws, or (iv) any action asserting a claim against us governed by the internal affairs doctrine. These provisions would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act. Furthermore, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all such Securities Act actions. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporate Law, which may prohibit certain business combinations with stockholders owning 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock. These anti-takeover provisions and other provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, and amended and restated bylaws could make it more difficult for stockholders or potential acquirers to obtain control of our board of directors or initiate actions that are opposed by the then-current board of directors and could also delay or impede a merger, tender offer or proxy contest involving our company. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for you and other stockholders to elect directors of your choosing or cause us to take other corporate actions you desire. Any delay or prevention of a change of control transaction or changes in our board of directors could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 6
Our charter documents provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders' ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, and amended and restated bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for the following types of actions or proceedings under Delaware statutory or common law: - any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf;- any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors or officers to us or our stockholders;- any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law or our certificate of incorporation or bylaws; and - any action asserting a claim against us governed by the internal affairs doctrine. These provisions would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act. Furthermore, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all such Securities Act actions. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. These exclusive forum provisions may limit a stockholder's ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. If a court were to find the exclusive-forum provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, and amended and restated bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur further significant additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, all of which could seriously harm our business.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 7
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about us, our business or our market, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our common stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our common stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our common stock could decrease, which might cause our common stock price and trading volume to decline.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 8
Our business could be negatively affected as a result of actions of activist stockholders, and such activism could impact the trading value of our securities.
Stockholders may, from time to time, engage in proxy solicitations or advance stockholder proposals, or otherwise attempt to effect changes and assert influence on our board of directors and management. Activist campaigns that contest or conflict with our strategic direction or seek changes in the composition of our board of directors could have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition. A proxy contest would require us to incur significant legal and advisory fees, proxy solicitation expenses and administrative and associated costs and require significant time and attention by our board of directors and management, diverting their attention from the pursuit of our business strategy. Any perceived uncertainties as to our future direction and control, our ability to execute on our strategy, or changes to the composition of our board of directors or senior management team arising from a proxy contest could lead to the perception of a change in the direction of our business or instability which may result in the loss of potential business opportunities, make it more difficult to pursue our strategic initiatives, or limit our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel and business partners, any of which could adversely affect our business and operating results. If individuals are ultimately elected to our board of directors with a specific agenda, it may adversely affect our ability to effectively implement our business strategy and create additional value for our stockholders. We may choose to initiate, or may become subject to, litigation as a result of the proxy contest or matters arising from the proxy contest, which would serve as a further distraction to our board of directors and management and would require us to incur significant additional costs. In addition, actions such as those described above could cause significant fluctuations in our stock price based upon temporary or speculative market perceptions or other factors that do not necessarily reflect the underlying fundamentals and prospects of our business.
Accounting & Financial Operations6 | 8.3%
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 1
Our ability to use net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes to offset future taxable income or taxes may be limited.*
Under current law, federal net operating losses incurred in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such federal net operating loss carryforwards in a year is limited to 80% of taxable income in such year. In addition, under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and corresponding provisions of state law, if a corporation undergoes an "ownership change," which is generally defined as a greater than 50% change in its equity ownership value over a three-year period, the corporation's ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes to offset its post-change income or taxes may be limited. We have experienced an ownership change in the past and we may also experience additional ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership, some of which may be outside of our control. If an ownership change occurs and our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards is materially limited, it would harm our future operating results by effectively increasing our future tax obligations. In addition, at the state level, there may be periods during which the use of net operating loss carryforwards is suspended or otherwise limited, which could accelerate or permanently increase state taxes owed. As a result, if we earn net taxable income, we may be unable to use all or a material portion of our net operating loss carryforwards and other tax attributes, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us and adversely affect our future cash flows.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 2
We do not intend to pay cash dividends on our capital stock in the foreseeable future.
We have never declared or paid any dividends on our common stock and do not anticipate paying any dividends in the foreseeable future. Any payment of cash dividends in the future would depend on our financial condition, contractual restrictions, including under our term loan facility, solvency tests imposed by applicable corporate laws, results of operations, anticipated cash requirements and other factors and will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Our stockholders should not expect that we will ever pay cash or other dividends on our outstanding capital stock.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 3
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 certain aspects of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires public companies to, among other things, conduct an annual review and evaluation of their internal controls 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 requires frequent evaluation. Our failure to maintain the effectiveness of our internal controls in accordance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 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. 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, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business may be harmed.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 4
We expect to incur losses over the next several years and may never achieve or maintain profitability.
To date, we have financed our operations primarily through equity and debt financings. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and increasing operating losses for the foreseeable future. The net losses we incur may fluctuate significantly from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if and as we: - continue research and development of our product candidates;- initiate new clinical trials for our product candidates;- seek marketing approvals for our product candidates;- enter into collaboration arrangements for combination drugs or biologics for our product candidates;- enter into collaboration arrangements for companion diagnostics for our product candidates;- establish a sales, marketing and distribution infrastructure to commercialize any products for which we may obtain marketing approval;- maintain, expand and protect our intellectual property portfolio;- hire additional personnel;- add operational, financial and management information systems and personnel, including personnel to support our product development and planned future commercialization efforts; and - incur increased costs as a result of continued operations as a public company. To become and remain profitable, we must develop and eventually commercialize a product or products with significant market potential. This will require us to be successful in a range of challenging activities, including completing clinical trials of our product candidates, successfully developing companion diagnostics, obtaining marketing approval from the FDA and other global regulatory authorities for these product candidates, and the manufacturing, marketing and selling of these products for which we may obtain marketing approval. We may never succeed in these activities and, even if we do, may never generate revenues that are significant or even sufficient to achieve profitability. If we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable could decrease our value and could impair our ability to raise capital, maintain our research and development efforts, expand our business or continue our operations. A decline in the value of our company could also cause you to lose all or part of your investment.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 5
We are a clinical-stage company with no approved products and no historical product revenue. Consequently, we expect that our financial and operating results will vary significantly from period to period.
We are a clinical-stage company that has incurred losses since our inception and expect to continue to incur substantial losses in the foreseeable future. Biopharmaceutical product development is a highly speculative undertaking and involves a substantial degree of uncertainty. We expect our actual financial condition and operating results to fluctuate significantly from quarter-to-quarter or year-to-year due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. Factors relating to our business that may contribute to these fluctuations include: - the success of our clinical trials through all phases of clinical development;- delays in the commencement, enrollment and completion of clinical trials;- our ability to secure and maintain collaborations, licensing or other strategic partnerships for the future development and/or commercialization of our product candidates, as well as meet the terms of those arrangements;- our and our third-party collaborators' ability to develop and validate companion diagnostics for our product candidates;- our ability to obtain, as well as the timeliness of obtaining, additional funding to develop our product candidates;- the results of clinical trials or marketing applications for other product candidates that may compete with our portfolio of product candidates;- competition from existing products or new products that may receive marketing approval;- potential side effects of our product candidates that could delay or prevent approval or cause an approved drug to be taken off the market;- any delays in regulatory review and approval of our product candidates;- our ability to identify and develop additional product candidates;- the ability of patients or healthcare providers to obtain sufficient coverage and adequate reimbursement for our products;- our ability, and the ability of third parties, such as CROs, to adhere to clinical trial and other regulatory requirements;- the ability of third-party manufacturers to manufacture our product candidates and the ability to obtain key ingredients needed to produce materials for clinical trial material in order to conduct clinical trials and, if approved, successfully produce commercial products;- the costs to us, and our ability as well as the ability of any third-party collaborators, to obtain, maintain and protect our intellectual property rights;- costs related to and outcomes of any future intellectual property litigation;- our ability to adequately support future growth;- our ability to attract and retain key personnel to manage our business effectively;- changes in governmental regulations, healthcare policy, pricing and reimbursement systems and our ability to set and maintain prices in the United States and other territories; and - our ability to build our finance infrastructure and, to the extent required, improve our accounting systems and controls. Accordingly, the likelihood of our success must be evaluated in light of many potential challenges and variables associated with a clinical-stage company, many of which are outside of our control, and past operating or financial results should not be relied on as an indication of future results. Fluctuations in our operating and financial results could cause our share price to decline. It is possible that in some future periods, our operating results will be above or below the expectations of securities analysts or investors, which could also cause our share price to decline.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 6
Our limited operating history may make it difficult for you to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability.
We are a clinical-stage company with a limited operating history. Our operations to date have been limited to organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, identifying and acquiring potential product candidates, undertaking preclinical, clinical and regulatory development of our product candidates and conducting pre-commercial and diagnostic related activities for our product candidates. We have not yet demonstrated our ability to successfully complete clinical trials or the development of companion diagnostics in support of FDA approval, obtain marketing approvals, manufacture a product at commercial scale, or arrange for a third party to do so on our behalf, or conduct sales and marketing activities necessary for successful product commercialization. Medicines, on average, take 10 to 15 years to be developed from the time they are discovered to the time they receive marketing approval. Consequently, any predictions you make about our future success or viability based on our short operating history to date may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history. In addition, we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other known and unknown factors. We may in the future need to transition from a company with a research and development focus to a company capable of supporting commercial activities. We may not be successful in such a transition.
Debt & Financing4 | 5.6%
Debt & Financing - Risk 1
We will need to obtain substantial additional capital in connection with our continuing operations. Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish certain rights to our technologies or product candidates.*
Until such time, if ever, as we can generate sufficient product revenues to fund our operations, we will need to raise additional capital in connection with our continuing operations. We expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, collaborations, strategic partnerships or licensing arrangements. Additional capital may not be available on reasonable terms, if at all. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of our stockholders will be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect rights of our stockholders as a common stockholder. Debt financing and preferred equity financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. If we raise additional funds through collaborations, strategic partnerships or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our product candidates, including our other technologies, future revenue streams or research programs, or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, bank failures, actual or perceived changes in interest rates and economic inflation, the global financial markets have experienced volatility and uncertainty. There can be no assurance that further volatility and uncertainty in the financial markets and declining confidence in economic conditions will not occur. If financial markets deteriorate, it may make any necessary debt or equity financing more difficult to obtain, more costly and/or more dilutive. On November 2, 2023, we entered into the ATM Facility under which we may offer and sell, from time to time, at our sole discretion, shares of our common stock having an aggregate offering price of up to $150.0 million. We have not sold any shares of our common stock under the ATM Facility. In November 2022, we entered into the Loan Agreement with the Lenders and Hercules, in its capacity as administrative agent and collateral agent for itself and the Lenders, providing for up to $125.0 million in a series of Term Loans. Upon entering into the Loan Agreement, we borrowed $10.0 million of an initial $25.0 million Tranche 1 Loan. In September 2023, the draw period for the remaining $15.0 million of the Tranche 1 Loan expired without us drawing down such additional loan. On March 15, 2024, the draw period for the $35.0 million Tranche 2 Loan expired without us drawing down such additional loan. We may borrow (i) up to the $40.0 million Tranche 3 Loan, which will become available to us upon our satisfaction of certain terms and conditions set forth in the Loan Agreement, and (ii) up to the $25.0 million Tranche 4 Loan, subject to the Lenders' investment committee approval in its sole discretion. Other than our term loan facility, we do not have any committed external source of funds. While any amounts are outstanding under our term loan facility, we are subject to affirmative and restrictive covenants, including covenants regarding delivery of financial statements, maintenance of inventory, payment of taxes, maintenance of insurance, dispositions of property, business combinations or acquisitions, incurrence of additional indebtedness, transactions with affiliates and a minimum cash covenant, among other customary covenants. If we default under our term loan facility, the Lenders may accelerate our repayment obligations and take control of our pledged assets, potentially requiring us to renegotiate our agreement on terms less favorable to us or to immediately cease operations. Further, if we are liquidated, the Lenders' right to repayment would be senior to the rights of the holders of our common stock to receive any proceeds from the liquidation. The Lenders could accelerate our obligations under the Loan Agreement upon the occurrence of an event of default, which includes, among other things, our failure to satisfy our payment obligations under the Loan Agreement, the breach of certain of our other covenants under the Loan Agreement or the occurrence of a material adverse change, thereby requiring us to repay the loan immediately or to attempt to reverse the declaration of default through negotiation or litigation. Any declaration by the Lenders of an event of default could significantly harm our business and prospects and could cause the price of our common stock to decline. We cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Subject to limited exceptions, our term loan facility also prohibits us from incurring indebtedness without the prior written consent of the Lenders. If we are unable to raise additional funds when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development or future commercialization efforts.
Debt & Financing - Risk 2
Adverse developments affecting the financial services industry, such as actual events or concerns involving liquidity, defaults or non-performance by financial institutions could adversely affect our current financial condition and projected business operations.
Events involving limitations to liquidity, defaults, non-performance or other adverse developments that affect financial institutions, transactional counterparties or other companies in the financial services industry, or concerns or rumors about any events of these kinds or other similar risks, have in the past led and may in the future lead to market-wide liquidity problems. For example, on March 10, 2023, Silicon Valley Bank, or SVB, was closed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, was appointed as receiver. Subsequently, the FDIC announced that all deposits with SVB are fully insured. Similarly, on March 12, 2023, Signature Bank Corp. and Silvergate Capital Corp. were each placed into receivership and on May 1, 2023, First Republic Bank was placed into receivership. We regularly maintain cash balances at third-party financial institutions in excess of the FDIC standard insurance limit, with balances concentrated at a small number of financial institutions. The failure of a bank, or other adverse conditions in the financial or credit markets impacting financial institutions at which we maintain balances, or with which we do business, could adversely impact our liquidity and financial performance. There can be no assurance that our deposits in excess of the FDIC or other comparable insurance limits will be backstopped by the United States or any applicable foreign government in the future or that any bank or financial institution with which we do business will be able to obtain needed liquidity from other banks, government institutions or by acquisition in the event of a future failure or liquidity crisis. In addition, if any of our partners or parties with whom we conduct business are unable to access funds due to the status of their financial institution, such parties' ability to pay their obligations to us or to enter into new commercial arrangements requiring additional payments to us could be adversely affected. Investor concerns regarding the U.S. or international financial systems could result in less favorable commercial financing terms, including higher interest rates or costs and tighter financial and operating covenants, or systemic limitations on access to credit and liquidity sources, thereby making it more difficult for us to acquire financing on acceptable terms or at all.
Debt & Financing - Risk 3
We have broad discretion in the use of our cash and may not use our cash effectively, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
Our management has broad discretion in the application of our cash resources. Because of the number and variability of factors that will determine our use of our cash resources, our management might not apply our cash in ways that ultimately increase the value of our common stock. The failure by our management to apply our cash effectively could harm our business. Pending their use, we may invest our cash in short-term, investment-grade, interest-bearing securities. These investments may not yield a favorable return to our stockholders. If we do not invest or apply our cash in ways that enhance stockholder value, we may fail to achieve expected financial results, which could cause our stock price to decline.
Debt & Financing - Risk 4
The insurance coverage and reimbursement status of newly-approved products are uncertain. Failure to obtain or maintain coverage and adequate reimbursement for new or current products could limit our ability to market those products and decrease our ability to generate revenue.
The availability and extent of coverage and reimbursement by governmental and private payors is essential for most patients to be able to afford expensive treatments. Sales of our product candidates will depend substantially, both domestically and abroad, on the extent to which the costs of our product candidates will be paid by health maintenance, managed care, pharmacy benefit and similar healthcare management organizations, or reimbursed by government health administration authorities, private health coverage insurers and other third-party payors. If reimbursement is not available, or is available only to limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our product candidates. Even if coverage is provided, the approved reimbursement amount may not be high enough to allow us to establish or maintain pricing sufficient to realize a sufficient return on our investment. Further, any companion diagnostic that we or our collaborators develop will be subject to separate coverage and reimbursement determinations by third-party payors. There is significant uncertainty related to the insurance coverage and reimbursement of newly approved products. In the United States, the principal decisions about reimbursement for new medicines are typically made by CMS, an agency within HHS, as CMS decides whether and to what extent a new medicine will be covered and reimbursed under Medicare. Private payors often, but not always, follow CMS's decisions regarding coverage and reimbursement. It is difficult to predict what CMS will decide with respect to coverage and reimbursement for fundamentally novel products such as ours, as there is no body of established practices and precedents for these new products. One payor's determination to provide coverage for a drug product does not assure that other payors will also provide coverage for the drug product. Further, a payor's decision to provide coverage for a drug product does not imply that an adequate reimbursement rate will be approved. We or our collaborators may need to conduct expensive pharmacoeconomic studies in order to demonstrate the medical necessity and cost-effectiveness of our products, in addition to the costs required to obtain FDA approvals. Nonetheless, our product candidates may not be considered medically necessary or cost-effective. Reimbursement agencies in countries other than the United States may be more conservative than CMS. For example, a number of cancer drugs have been approved for reimbursement in the United States and have not been approved for reimbursement in certain European countries. Outside the United States, international operations are generally subject to extensive governmental price controls and other market regulations, and we believe the increasing emphasis on cost-containment initiatives in Europe, Canada, and other countries has and will continue to put pressure on the pricing and usage of our product candidates. In many countries, the prices of medical products are subject to varying price control mechanisms as part of national health systems. In general, the prices of medicines under such systems are substantially lower than in the United States. Other countries allow companies to fix their own prices for medicines but monitor and control company profits. Additional foreign price controls or other changes in pricing regulation could restrict the amount that we are able to charge for our product candidates. Accordingly, in markets outside the United States, the reimbursement for our products may be reduced compared with the United States and may be insufficient to generate commercially reasonable revenues and profits. Moreover, increasing efforts by governmental and third-party payors, in the United States and abroad, to cap or reduce healthcare costs may cause such organizations to limit both coverage and level of reimbursement for new products approved and, as a result, they may not cover or provide adequate payment for our product candidates. In addition, drug-pricing by pharmaceutical companies has come under increased scrutiny. Specifically, there have been several recent U.S. Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing by requiring drug companies to notify insurers and government regulators of price increases and provide an explanation of the reasons for the increase, reduce the out-of-pocket cost of prescription drugs, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drugs. We expect to experience pricing pressures in connection with the sale of any of our product candidates, due to the trend toward managed healthcare, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations and additional legislative changes. The downward pressure on healthcare costs in general, particularly prescription drugs and surgical procedures and other treatments, has become very intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the entry of new products into the healthcare market. In addition to CMS and private payors, professional organizations such as the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the American Society of Clinical Oncology can influence decisions about reimbursement for new medicines by determining standards for care. In addition, many private payors contract with commercial vendors who sell software that provide guidelines that attempt to limit utilization of, and therefore reimbursement for, certain products deemed to provide limited benefit to existing alternatives. Such organizations may set guidelines that limit reimbursement or utilization of our products. Further, we or our collaborators will be required to obtain coverage and reimbursement for companion diagnostic tests separate and apart from the coverage and reimbursement we seek for our product candidates, once approved. There is significant uncertainty regarding our and our collaborators' ability to obtain coverage and adequate reimbursement for any companion diagnostic test for the same reasons applicable to our product candidates. If insurance coverage and reimbursement for companion diagnostic tests for our product candidates is inadequate, utilization may be low, and patient tumors may not be comprehensively screened for the presence of the genetic markers that predict response to our product candidates.
Corporate Activity and Growth1 | 1.4%
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 1
We expect to expand our development, regulatory, operations, medical affairs, market access and marketing capabilities and potentially implement sales capabilities, and as a result, we may encounter difficulties in managing our growth, which could disrupt our operations.
We expect to experience significant growth in the number of our employees and the scope of our operations, particularly in the areas of development, regulatory affairs, operations, medical affairs, sales, marketing and market access. To manage our anticipated future growth, we must continue to implement and improve our managerial, operational and financial systems, expand our facilities and continue to recruit and train additional qualified personnel. Due to our limited financial resources and the limited experience of our management team in managing a company with such anticipated growth, we may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations or recruit and train additional qualified personnel. The expansion of our operations may lead to significant costs and may divert our management and business development resources. Any inability to manage growth could delay the execution of our business plans or disrupt our operations.
Legal & Regulatory
Total Risks: 18/72 (25%)Above Sector Average
Regulation13 | 18.1%
Regulation - Risk 1
FINRA sales practice requirements may limit a stockholder's ability to buy and sell our stock.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, has adopted rules requiring that, in recommending an investment to a customer, a broker-dealer must have reasonable grounds for believing that the investment is suitable for that customer. Prior to recommending speculative or low-priced securities to their non-institutional customers, broker-dealers must make reasonable efforts to obtain information about the customer's financial status, tax status, investment objectives and other information. Under interpretations of these rules, FINRA has indicated its belief that there is a high probability that speculative or low-priced securities will not be suitable for at least some customers. If these FINRA requirements are applicable to us or our securities, they may make it more difficult for broker-dealers to recommend that at least some of their customers buy our common stock, which may limit the ability of our stockholders to buy and sell our common stock and could have an adverse effect on the market for and price of our common stock.
Regulation - Risk 2
We will incur increased 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 current corporate governance requirements, including requirements under Section 404 and other provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as rules implemented by the SEC or Nasdaq 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 3
We are subject to U.S. and certain foreign export and import controls, sanctions, embargoes, anti-corruption laws and anti-money laundering laws and regulations. Compliance with these legal standards could impair our ability to compete in domestic and international markets. We can face criminal liability and other serious consequences for violations, which can harm our business.*
We are subject to export control and import laws and regulations, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations, U.S. Customs regulations, and various economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Controls, and anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws and regulations, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, and other state and national anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws in the countries in which we conduct activities. Export controls and trade sanctions laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit altogether the provision, sale, or supply of our products to certain governments, persons, entities, countries, and territories, including those that are the target of comprehensive sanctions or an embargo. Anti-corruption laws are interpreted broadly and prohibit companies and their employees, agents, clinical research organizations, contractors and other collaborators and partners from authorizing, promising, offering, providing, soliciting or receiving, directly or indirectly, improper payments or anything else of value to recipients in the public or private sector. The FCPA also requires public companies to make and keep books and records that accurately and fairly reflect the transactions of the corporation and to devise and maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls. We may engage third parties for clinical trials outside of the United States to sell our products internationally once we enter a commercialization phase, and/or to obtain necessary permits, licenses, patent registrations and other regulatory approvals. We have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or government-affiliated hospitals, universities and other organizations. We can be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of our employees, agents, clinical research organizations, contractors and other collaborators and partners, even if we do not explicitly authorize or have actual knowledge of such activities. Any violations of the laws and regulations described above may result in substantial civil and criminal fines and penalties, imprisonment, the loss of export or import privileges, debarment, tax reassessments, breach of contract and fraud litigation, reputational harm, and other consequences.
Regulation - Risk 4
Changed
We and the third parties with whom we work are subject to stringent and evolving U.S. and foreign laws, regulations, and rules, contractual obligations, industry standards, policies and other obligations related to data privacy and security. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations (or such failure by the third parties with whom we work) could lead to regulatory investigations or actions; litigation (including class claims) and mass arbitration demands; fines and penalties; disruptions of our business operations; reputational harm; loss of revenue or profits; and other adverse business consequences.*
In the ordinary course of business, we collect, receive, store, process, generate, use, transfer, disclose, make accessible, protect, secure, dispose of, transmit, and share, or collectively, process personal data, including data we collect about participants in our clinical trials, and other sensitive information, including proprietary and confidential business data, trade secrets, intellectual property, sensitive third-party data, business plans, transactions, and financial information (collectively, sensitive data). Our data processing activities subject us to numerous data privacy and security obligations, such as various laws, regulations, guidance, industry standards, external and internal privacy and security policies, contractual requirements, and other obligations relating to data privacy and security. In the United States, federal, state, and local governments have enacted numerous data privacy and security laws, including data breach notification laws, personal data privacy laws, consumer protection laws (e.g., Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act), and other similar laws (e.g., wiretapping laws). For example, HIPAA, as amended by HITECH, imposes specific requirements relating to the privacy, security, and transmission of individually identifiable health information. In the past few years, numerous U.S. states-including California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah-have enacted comprehensive privacy laws that impose certain obligations on covered businesses, including providing specific disclosures in privacy notices and affording residents with certain rights concerning their personal data. As applicable, such rights may include the right to access, correct, or delete certain personal data, and to opt-out of certain data processing activities, such as targeted advertising, profiling, and automated decision-making. The exercise of these rights may impact our business. Certain states also impose stricter requirements for processing certain personal data, including sensitive information, such as conducting data privacy impact assessments. These state laws allow for statutory fines for noncompliance. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, or collectively CCPA, applies to personal data of consumers, business representatives, and employees who are California residents, and requires covered businesses to provide specific disclosures in privacy notices and honor requests of such individuals to exercise certain privacy rights. The CCPA provides for fines of up to $7,500 per intentional violation and allows private litigants affected by certain data breaches to recover significant statutory damages. Although the CCPA and other state laws exempt some data processed in the context of clinical trials, these developments may increase compliance costs and potential liability. Similar laws are being considered in several other states. In addition, data privacy and security laws have been proposed at the federal and local levels in recent years, which could further complicate compliance efforts. Outside the United States, an increasing number of laws, regulations, and industry standards may govern data privacy and security. For example, the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, or EU GDPR, and the United Kingdom's GDPR, or UK GDPR (collectively, GDPR), and Australia's Privacy Act impose strict requirements for processing personal data. For example, under GDPR, companies may face temporary or definitive bans on data processing, and other corrective actions, fines of up to 20 million Euros under the EU GDPR/17.5 million pounds sterling under the UK GDPR, or, in each case, 4% of annual global revenue, whichever is greater, or private litigation related to processing of personal data brought by classes of data subjects or consumer protection organizations authorized at law to represent their interests. The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and various related provincial laws, as well as Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation, may apply to our clinical trials conducted in Canada. Clinical trials conducted in Asia may be subject to new and emerging data privacy regimes in that region. In addition, we may be unable to transfer personal data from Europe and other jurisdictions to the United States or other countries due to data localization requirements or limitations on cross-border data flows. Europe and other jurisdictions have enacted laws requiring data to be localized or limiting the transfer of personal data to other countries. In particular, the European Economic Area, or EEA, and the United Kingdom, or UK, have significantly restricted the transfer of personal data to the United States and other countries whose privacy laws it generally believes are inadequate. Other jurisdictions may adopt similarly stringent interpretations of their data localization and cross-border data transfer laws. Although there are currently various mechanisms that may be used to transfer personal data from the EEA and UK to the United States in compliance with law, such as the EEA standard contractual clauses, the UK's International Data Transfer Agreement / Addendum, and the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the UK extension thereto (which allows for transfers to relevant U.S.-based organizations who self-certify compliance and participate in the Framework), these mechanisms are subject to legal challenges, and there is no assurance that we can satisfy or rely on these measures to lawfully transfer personal data to the United States. If there is no lawful manner for us to transfer personal data from the EEA, the UK, or other jurisdictions to the United States, or if the requirements for a legally-compliant transfer are too onerous, we could face significant adverse consequences, including the interruption or degradation of our operations, the need to relocate part of or all of our business or data processing activities to other jurisdictions (such as Europe) at significant expense, increased exposure to regulatory actions, substantial fines and penalties, the inability to transfer data and work with partners, vendors and other third parties, and injunctions against our processing or transferring of personal data necessary to operate our business. Additionally, companies that transfer personal data out of the EEA and UK to other jurisdictions, particularly to the United States, are subject to increased scrutiny from regulators, individual litigants, and activities groups. Some European regulators have ordered certain companies to suspend or permanently cease certain transfers of personal data out of Europe for allegedly violating the GDPR's cross-border data transfer limitations. In addition to data privacy and security laws, we are bound by other contractual obligations related to data privacy and security, and our efforts to comply with such obligations may not be successful. We publish privacy policies, materials, and other statements regarding data privacy and security. If these policies, materials, or statements are found to be deficient, lacking in transparency, deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative of our practices, we may be subject to investigation, enforcement actions by regulators, or other adverse consequences. Obligations related to data privacy and security (and consumers' data privacy expectations) are quickly changing, becoming increasingly stringent, and creating uncertainty. Additionally, these obligations may be subject to differing applications and interpretations, which may be inconsistent or conflict among jurisdictions. Preparing for and complying with these obligations requires us to devote significant resources and may necessitate changes to our information technologies, systems, and practices and to those of any third parties that process personal data on our behalf. We may at times fail (or be perceived to have failed) in our efforts to comply with our data privacy and security obligations. Moreover, despite our efforts, our personnel or third parties with whom we work may fail to comply with such obligations, which could negatively impact our business operations. If we or the third parties with whom we work fail, or are perceived to have failed, to address or comply with applicable data privacy and security obligations, we could face significant consequences including, but not limited to, government enforcement actions (e.g., investigations, fines, penalties, audits, inspections, and similar); litigation (including class-action claims) and mass arbitration demands; additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; bans or restrictions on processing personal data; orders to destroy or not use personal data; and imprisonment of company officials. In particular, plaintiffs have become increasingly more active in bringing privacy-related claims against companies, including class claims and mass arbitration demands. Some of these claims allow for the recovery of statutory damages on a per violation basis, and, if viable, carry the potential for monumental statutory damages, depending on the volume of data and the number of violations. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, or financial condition, including but not limited to: interruptions or stoppages in our business operations (including, as relevant, clinical trials); inability to process personal data or to operate in certain jurisdictions; limited ability to develop or commercialize our products; expenditure of time and resources to defend any claim or inquiry; adverse publicity; or revision or restructuring of our operations.
Regulation - Risk 5
We are highly dependent on the success of our lead product candidate, ziftomenib, which is still in clinical development, and we cannot give any assurance that ziftomenib or any of our other product candidates will receive regulatory approval, which is necessary before they can be commercialized.
Our future success is highly dependent on our ability to obtain regulatory approval for, and then successfully commercialize, our lead product candidate, ziftomenib. Our business depends entirely on the successful development and commercialization of our product candidates. We have not completed the development of any product candidates; we currently generate no revenues from sales of any product, and we have not demonstrated that we can successfully develop a marketable product. We may subsequently learn of certain information or data that the FDA may request, which may necessitate conducting additional preclinical studies or generating additional information at significant cost in terms of both time and expense, including under a clinical hold imposed on an IND. For example, if the FDA does not believe we have sufficiently demonstrated that the selected doses for our investigational products maximize not only the efficacy of the investigational product, but the safety and tolerability as well, our ability to initiate new studies may be delayed. Even if we conducted the additional studies or generated the additional information requested, the FDA could disagree that we have satisfied their requirements, all of which will cause significant delays and expense to our programs. Our product candidates will require additional clinical development, evaluation of clinical, preclinical and manufacturing activities, regulatory approval in one or more jurisdictions, substantial investment, access to sufficient commercial manufacturing capacity and significant marketing efforts before we can generate any revenues from product sales. We are not permitted to market or promote any product candidates before we receive regulatory approval from the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, and we may never receive such regulatory approvals. Although the scope of regulatory approval is similar in other countries, in some countries there are additional regulatory requirements and potential regulatory risks and we cannot predict success in these jurisdictions. There is no guarantee that our clinical trials will be completed on time or at all. Prior to receiving approval, if any, to commercialize a product candidate in the United States or internationally, we must demonstrate to the satisfaction of the FDA and other regulatory authorities, that such product candidate is safe and effective for its intended use. The results from preclinical studies and clinical trials can be interpreted in different ways, and the favorable results from previous trials of a product candidate may not be replicated in subsequent clinical trials. Even if we believe the preclinical or clinical data are promising, such data may not be sufficient to support approval by the FDA and other regulatory authorities. We maintain frequent, ongoing dialogue with the FDA and other regulatory bodies regarding our clinical trial designs, including the patient selection criteria, dosing plan and statistical analysis plans. There is a risk that the FDA or other regulatory agencies could at any time raise objections to the design or conduct of our clinical trials. Any such objections could delay the initiation or completion of our registration-directed clinical trial. Although we believe there may be potential to pursue a path to approval for ziftomenib for the treatment of patients with particular subtypes of relapsed or refractory AML, we cannot guarantee that ziftomenib will demonstrate sufficient safety and tolerability and clinical activity in that subtype to support an application for approval. Even if ziftomenib demonstrates sufficient activity in one patient subtype, such as patients with NPM1-mutant AML, to support an application in that subset, there can be no assurance it will demonstrate sufficient activity to support an application for approval in other patient subsets. Even if the trial results from ziftomenib demonstrate a compelling clinical benefit, the FDA has substantial discretion in the approval process and may not grant approval based on data generated by us. If the results of our trials are not satisfactory to the FDA or foreign regulatory authorities for support of a marketing application, we may be required to expend significant additional resources to conduct additional trials in support of potential approval of ziftomenib, tipifarnib, KO-2806 or our other product candidates. We have not previously submitted a new drug application, or NDA, to the FDA, or similar product approval filings to comparable foreign authorities, or received marketing approval for any product candidate, and we cannot be certain that any of our product candidates will be successful in clinical trials or receive regulatory approval for any indication. We cannot anticipate whether or when we will seek regulatory review of a product candidate for any other indications. If we do not receive regulatory approvals for and successfully commercialize any of our product candidates on a timely basis or at all, we may not be able to continue our operations. Even if we successfully obtain regulatory approvals to market one of our product candidates, our revenues will be dependent, in part, on our third-party collaborator's ability to commercialize the companion diagnostic as well as the size of the markets in the territories for which we gain regulatory approval and have commercial rights. If the market opportunities for the treatment of NPM1-mutant AML, KMT2A-rearranged AML, PIK3CA-dependent HNSCC and other diseases are not as significant as we estimate, our business and prospects may be harmed.
Regulation - Risk 6
If we are not able to obtain, or if there are delays in obtaining, required regulatory approvals in some or all planned regions, we will not be able to commercialize, or may be delayed in commercializing, our product candidates, and our ability to generate revenue will be materially impaired.
Our product candidates must be approved by the FDA pursuant to an NDA in the United States and by the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, and similar regulatory authorities outside the United States prior to commercialization. The process of obtaining marketing approvals, both in the United States and abroad, is expensive and takes many years, if approval is obtained at all, and can vary substantially based upon a variety of factors, including the type, complexity and novelty of the product candidates involved. In addition, public health epidemics or outbreaks could also potentially affect the business of the FDA, the EMA or other health authorities, which could result in delays in meetings related to planned clinical trials and ultimately of reviews and approvals of our product candidates. Failure to obtain marketing approval for a product candidate will prevent us from commercializing the product candidate. We have not received approval to market any of our product candidates from regulatory authorities in any jurisdiction. We have no experience in filing and supporting the applications necessary to gain marketing approvals and expect to rely on third-party CROs to assist us in this process. Securing marketing approval requires the submission of extensive preclinical and clinical data and supporting information to regulatory authorities for each therapeutic indication to establish the product candidate's safety and efficacy. Securing marketing approval also requires the submission of information about the product manufacturing process to, and inspection of manufacturing facilities by, the regulatory authorities, among other requirements. Our product candidates may not be effective, may be only moderately effective, may not have an acceptable durability of response, may not have an acceptable risk-benefit profile or may prove to have undesirable or unintended side effects, toxicities or other characteristics that may preclude our obtaining marketing approval or prevent or limit commercial use. Regulatory authorities have substantial discretion in the approval process and may refuse to accept any application or may decide that our data are insufficient for approval and require additional preclinical, clinical or other studies. In addition, varying interpretations of the data obtained from preclinical and clinical testing could delay, limit or prevent marketing approval of a product candidate. Changes in marketing approval policies during the development period, changes in or the enactment of additional statutes or regulations, or changes in regulatory review for each submitted product application, may also cause delays in or prevent the approval of an application. If we experience delays in obtaining approval or if we fail to obtain approval of our product candidates, the commercial prospects for our product candidates may be harmed and our ability to generate revenues will be materially impaired.
Regulation - Risk 7
We may not be able to benefit from available regulatory exclusivity periods for tipifarnib if another company obtains regulatory approval for tipifarnib before we do.
The composition of matter patents covering tipifarnib expired in the United States and in countries in Europe in 2016. Our commercial strategy for tipifarnib relies on obtaining method of use and method of treatment patents, including those directed to specific indications and biomarkers, other patents related to tipifarnib, and method of treatment patents related to farnesyl transferase inhibitors including tipifarnib, and on non-patent regulatory exclusivity. In the United States, a pharmaceutical manufacturer may obtain five years of non-patent exclusivity upon FDA approval of an NDA for a new chemical entity, or NCE, which is a drug that contains an active moiety that has not been approved by the FDA in any other NDA. An "active moiety" is defined as the molecule or ion responsible for the drug substance's physiological or pharmacologic action. During the five-year exclusivity period, the FDA cannot accept for filing any abbreviated new drug application seeking approval of a generic version of that drug or any Section 505(b)(2) NDA for the same active moiety and that relies on the FDA's findings regarding that drug, except that the FDA may accept an application for filing after four years if the follow-on applicant makes a paragraph IV certification.
Regulation - Risk 8
Failure to obtain marketing approval in international jurisdictions would prevent our product candidates from being marketed abroad.
In order to market and sell our products in the European Union and many other jurisdictions, we or our third-party collaborators must obtain separate marketing approvals and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements. The approval procedure varies among countries and can involve additional testing and different criteria for approval. The time required to obtain approval may differ substantially from that required to obtain FDA approval. The regulatory approval process outside the United States generally includes all of the risks associated with obtaining FDA approval. In addition, in many countries outside the United States, it is required that the product be approved for reimbursement before the product can be approved for sale in that country. We or our third-party collaborators may not obtain approvals from regulatory authorities outside the United States on a timely basis, if at all. Approval by the FDA does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions, and approval by one regulatory authority outside the United States does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions or by the FDA. However, failure to obtain marketing approval in some countries or jurisdictions may compromise our ability to obtain approval elsewhere. We may not be able to file for marketing approvals and may not receive necessary approvals to commercialize our products in any market.
Regulation - Risk 9
Any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval will be subject to extensive post-approval regulatory requirements and could be subject to post-approval restrictions or withdrawal from the market, and we may be subject to penalties if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or if we experience unanticipated problems with our products, when and if any of them are approved.
Our product candidates and the activities associated with their development and commercialization, including their testing, manufacture, recordkeeping, labeling, storage, approval, advertising, promotion, sale and distribution, are subject to comprehensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory authorities. These requirements include, without limitation, submissions of safety and other post-approval information and reports, registration and listing requirements, cGMP requirements relating to manufacturing, quality control, quality assurance and corresponding maintenance of records and documents, including periodic inspections by the FDA and other regulatory authorities, restrictions or requirements regarding the distribution of samples to physicians, tracking and reporting of payments to physicians and other healthcare providers, and recordkeeping requirements. The FDA may also impose requirements for costly post-approval studies or clinical trials and surveillance to monitor the safety or efficacy of the product. The FDA closely regulates the post-approval marketing and promotion of drugs to ensure drugs are marketed only for the approved indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved labeling. The FDA imposes stringent restrictions on manufacturers' communications regarding use of their products and if we promote our products beyond their approved indications, we may be subject to enforcement action for off-label promotion. Violations of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act relating to the promotion of prescription drugs may lead to investigations alleging violations of federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws, as well as state consumer protection laws. In addition, later discovery of previously unknown adverse events or other problems with our products, manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may yield various results, including: - restrictions on such products, manufacturers or manufacturing processes;- restrictions on the labeling or marketing of a product;- restrictions on product distribution or use;- requirements to conduct post-approval studies or clinical trials;- warning or untitled letters;- withdrawal of the products from the market;- refusal to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications that we submit;- recall of products;- fines, restitution or disgorgement of profits or revenues;- suspension or withdrawal of marketing approvals;- refusal to permit the import or export of our products;- product seizure; or - injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties. Non-compliance with European Union requirements regarding safety monitoring or pharmacovigilance, and with requirements related to the development of products for the pediatric population, can also result in significant financial penalties. Similarly, failure to comply with the European Union's requirements regarding the protection of personal data can also lead to significant penalties and sanctions.
Regulation - Risk 10
The FDA and other regulatory agencies may require more extensive or expensive trials for combination product candidates than may be required for single agent pharmaceuticals.
In the event that we seek regulatory approval for a combination product candidate, we may be required to show that each API in the product candidate makes a contribution to the combined product candidate's claimed effects and that the dosage of each component, including amount, frequency and duration, is such that the combination is safe and effective for a significant patient population requiring such concurrent therapy. As a result, we may be required to conduct clinical trials comparing each component drug with the combination. This could require us to conduct more extensive and more expensive clinical trials than would be the case for many single agent pharmaceuticals. The need to conduct such trials could make it more difficult and costly to obtain regulatory approval of a combination drug than of a new drug containing only a single API.
Regulation - Risk 11
Our relationships with healthcare professionals, customers and third-party payors and our general business operations may be subject to applicable fraud and abuse laws, including anti-kickback and false claims laws, transparency laws, privacy laws and other healthcare laws and regulations, which could expose us to significant penalties, including criminal sanctions, administrative and civil penalties, contractual damages, reputational harm and diminished profits and future earnings, among other penalties.
Healthcare providers and third-party payors will play a primary role in the recommendation and prescription of any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. Our current and future arrangements with healthcare providers, third-party payors and customers may expose us to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations that may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we research as well as market, sell and distribute any products for which we obtain marketing approval. Restrictions under applicable federal and state healthcare laws and regulations include the following: - the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, individuals and entities from knowingly and willfully soliciting, offering, receiving or providing remuneration, directly or indirectly, in cash or in kind, to induce or reward, or in return for, either the referral of an individual for, or the purchase, order or recommendation of, any good or service, for which payment may be made under a federal healthcare program such as Medicare and Medicaid;- the federal civil and criminal false claims laws, including the civil False Claims Act, which can be enforced by private citizens, on behalf of the government, through whistleblower actions, and civil monetary penalties laws which prohibits, among other things, individuals and entities from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, to the federal government, claims for payment that are false or fraudulent or making a false statement to avoid, decrease or conceal an obligation to pay money to the federal government;- the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, which imposes criminal and civil liability for, among other things, executing a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program or making false statements relating to healthcare matters;- HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH, and their implementing regulations, which also imposes obligations, including mandatory contractual terms, with respect to safeguarding the privacy, security and transmission of protected health information on covered entities which include certain healthcare providers, health plans and healthcare clearinghouses, and their business associates that create, receive, maintain, or transmit protected health information in connection with providing a service for or on behalf of a covered entity as well as their covered subcontractors;- the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act, which requires applicable manufacturers of certain drugs, devices, biologics, and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children's Health Insurance Program, with specific exceptions, to report annually to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, information related to payments and other transfers of value to physicians (defined to include doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors), certain other healthcare professionals (such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners), and teaching hospitals, as well as certain manufacturers and group purchasing organizations to report annually ownership and investment interests held by physicians or their immediate family; and - analogous state and foreign laws and regulations, such as state anti-kickback and false claims laws, which may apply to sales or marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by non-governmental third-party payors, including private insurers. Some state laws require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry's voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government and may require drug manufacturers to report information related to payments and other transfers of value to physicians and other healthcare providers, marketing expenditures, and/or drug pricing. Some state and local laws also require the registration of pharmaceutical sales representatives. Efforts to ensure that our business arrangements with third parties will comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations will involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices may not comply with current or future statutes, regulations or case law involving applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these laws or any other governmental regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, imprisonment, additional reporting requirements and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or similar agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws, exclusion from government funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. If any of the physicians or other healthcare providers or entities with whom we expect to do business is found to be not in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to significant criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from government funded healthcare programs.
Regulation - Risk 12
Recently enacted and future legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain marketing approval of and commercialize our product candidates and affect the prices we may obtain.*
In the United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could prevent or delay marketing approval of our product candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to profitably sell any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. For example, in March 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, or collectively the ACA, a sweeping law intended to broaden access to health insurance, improve quality, reduce or constrain the growth of healthcare spending, enhance remedies against fraud and abuse, add new transparency requirements for the healthcare and health insurance industries, impose new taxes and fees on the health industry and impose additional health policy reforms. With regard to pharmaceutical products, among other things, the ACA expanded and increased industry rebates for drugs covered under Medicaid programs and made changes to the coverage requirements under the Medicare prescription drug benefit. There have been executive, judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the ACA. Certain changes to the ACA, such as the removal of the ACA's individual health insurance mandate by federal tax legislation, a delay in the implementation of certain ACA-mandated fees, and other changes to the ACA to close the coverage gap in most Medicare drug plans, commonly referred to as the "donut hole," were recently enacted or implemented, and the effect of these changes is unknown. Furthermore, on June 17, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a challenge on procedural grounds that argued the ACA is unconstitutional in its entirety because the "individual mandate" was repealed by Congress. Further, prior to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on January 28, 2021, President Biden issued an executive order that initiated a special enrollment period for purposes of obtaining health insurance coverage through the ACA marketplace. The executive order also instructed certain governmental agencies to review and reconsider their existing policies and rules that limit access to healthcare, including among others, reexamining Medicaid demonstration projects and waiver programs that include work requirements, and policies that create unnecessary barriers to obtaining access to health insurance coverage through Medicaid or the ACA. It is possible that the ACA will be subject to judicial or Congressional challenges in the future. We cannot predict the ultimate content, timing or effect of healthcare reform legislation or regulation or the impact of potential legislation or regulation on us. In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the ACA was enacted. These changes included aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year, starting in 2013, that due to subsequent legislative amendments, will stay in effect until 2032. In January 2013, President Obama signed into law the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which, among other things, reduced Medicare payments to certain providers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years. Additionally, on March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 into law, which eliminates the statutory Medicaid drug rebate cap, previously set at 100% of a drug's average manufacturer price, for single source and innovator multiple source drugs, effective January 1, 2024. These laws and other potential legislation may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other healthcare funding, which could have a material adverse effect on customers for our drugs, if approved, and accordingly, our financial operations. Further, recently there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products. As a result, there have been several recent U.S. Presidential executive orders, Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, reduce the cost of drugs under Medicare, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drug products. In July 2021, the Biden administration released an executive order, "Promoting Competition in the American Economy," with multiple provisions aimed at prescription drugs. In response to Biden's executive order, on September 9, 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, released a Comprehensive Plan for Addressing High Drug Prices that outlines principles for drug pricing reform and sets out a variety of potential legislative policies that Congress could pursue to advance these principles. Further, on August 16, 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, or IRA, into law. The IRA, among other things, (1) extends enhanced subsidies for individuals purchasing health insurance coverage in ACA marketplaces through plan year 2025, (2) directs HHS to negotiate, subject to a specified cap, the price of a set number of certain single-source drugs and biologics covered under Medicare each year starting in 2026, (3) imposes rebates under Medicare Part B and Medicare Part D to penalize manufacturers for price increases that outpace inflation, and (4) makes several changes to the Medicare Part D benefit, including by significantly lowering the beneficiary maximum annual out-of-pocket costs, and through a change in manufacturer liability under the program. These provisions take effect progressively starting in fiscal year 2023. On August 29, 2023, HHS announced the list of the first ten drugs that will be subject to price negotiations, although the Medicare drug price negotiation program is currently subject to legal challenges. The IRA permits HHS to implement many of these provisions through guidance, as opposed to regulation, for the initial years. HHS has issued, and will continue to issue and update, guidance as these programs are implemented. It is currently unclear how the IRA will be implemented but is likely to have a significant impact on the pharmaceutical industry and could negatively affect our business and financial condition. Further, in response to the Biden administration's October 2022 executive order, on February 14, 2023, HHS released a report outlining three new models for testing by the CMS Innovation Center which will be evaluated on their ability to lower the cost of drugs, promote accessibility, and improve quality of care. It is unclear whether the models will be utilized in any health reform measures in the future. Further, on December 7, 2023, the Biden administration announced an initiative to control the price of prescription drugs through the use of march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act. On December 8, 2023, the National Institute of Standards and Technology published for comment a Draft Interagency Guidance Framework for Considering the Exercise of March-In Rights which for the first time includes the price of a product as one factor an agency can use when deciding to exercise march-in rights. While march-in rights have not previously been exercised, it is uncertain if that will continue under the new framework. At the state level, legislatures have increasingly passed legislation and implemented regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. For example, on January 5, 2024, the FDA approved Florida's SIP proposal to import certain drugs from Canada for specific state healthcare programs. It is unclear how this program will be implemented, including which drugs will be chosen, and whether it will be subject to legal challenges in the United States or Canada. Other states have also submitted SIP proposals that are pending review by the FDA. Any such approved importation plans, when implemented, may result in lower drug prices for products covered by those programs. Future legislation could potentially change drug pricing dynamics. We cannot predict all of the ways in which future healthcare reform legislation or regulation could affect our business. We expect that healthcare reform measures that have been adopted and may be adopted in the future, may result in more rigorous coverage criteria and in additional downward pressure on the price that we receive for any approved product. Any reduction in reimbursement from Medicare or other government programs may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors. The implementation of cost containment measures or other healthcare reforms may prevent us from being able to generate revenue, attain profitability, or commercialize our products. Legislative and regulatory proposals have been made to expand post-approval requirements and restrict sales and promotional activities for pharmaceutical products. We cannot be sure whether additional legislative changes will be enacted, or whether FDA regulations, guidance or interpretations will be changed, or what the impact of such changes on the marketing approvals of our product candidates, if any, may be. Foreign legislative changes may also affect our ability to commercialize our product candidates.
Regulation - Risk 13
Governments outside the United States tend to impose strict price controls, which may adversely affect our revenues, if any.
In some countries, particularly the countries of the European Union, the pricing of prescription pharmaceuticals is subject to governmental control. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after the receipt of marketing approval for a product. To obtain reimbursement or pricing approval in some countries, we may be required to conduct a clinical trial that compares the cost-effectiveness of our product candidate to other available therapies. If reimbursement for our products is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels, our business could be harmed, possibly materially.
Litigation & Legal Liabilities2 | 2.8%
Litigation & Legal Liabilities - Risk 1
Securities class action litigation could divert our management's attention and harm our business and could subject us to significant liabilities.
The stock markets have from time to time experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that have affected the market prices for the equity securities of life sciences and biotechnology companies. These broad market fluctuations may cause the market price of our common stock to decline. In the past, securities class action litigation has often been brought against a company following a decline in the market price of its securities. This risk is especially relevant for us because biotechnology and biopharma companies have experienced significant stock price volatility in recent years. Even if we are successful in defending claims that may be brought in the future, such litigation could result in substantial costs and may be a distraction to our management and may lead to an unfavorable outcome that could adversely impact our financial condition and prospects.
Litigation & Legal Liabilities - Risk 2
Product liability lawsuits against us could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and to limit commercialization of any products that we may develop.
We face an inherent risk of product liability exposure related to the testing of our product candidates in human clinical trials and will face an even greater risk if we commercially sell any products that we may develop. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against claims that our product candidates or products caused injuries, we will incur substantial liabilities. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in: - decreased demand for any product candidates or products that we may develop;- injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention;- withdrawal of clinical trial participants;- significant costs to defend the related litigation;- substantial monetary awards to clinical trial participants or patients;- loss of revenue;- reduced resources of our management to pursue our business strategy; and - the inability to commercialize any products that we may develop. Our current product liability insurance coverage may not be adequate to cover all liabilities that we may incur. We may need to increase our insurance coverage as we expand our clinical trials or if we commence commercialization of our product candidates. Insurance coverage is increasingly expensive. We may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in an amount adequate to satisfy any liability that may arise.
Taxation & Government Incentives1 | 1.4%
Taxation & Government Incentives - Risk 1
Changes in tax laws or regulations that are applied adversely to us or our customers may have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition or results of operations.
New income, sales, use or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be enacted at any time, which could affect the tax treatment of our domestic and foreign earnings. Any new taxes could adversely affect our domestic and international business operations, and our business and financial performance. Further, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified or applied adversely to us. For example, legislation enacted in 2017 informally titled the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and the IRA enacted many significant changes to the U.S. tax laws. Future guidance from the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities with respect to such legislation may affect us, and certain aspects of such legislation could be repealed or modified in future legislation. In addition, it is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to federal tax laws. Future tax reform legislation could have a material impact on the value of our deferred tax assets, could result in significant one-time charges, and could increase our future U.S. tax expense. Effective January 1, 2022, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the option to deduct research and development expenses for tax purposes in the year incurred and requires taxpayers to capitalize and subsequently amortize such expenses over five years for research activities conducted in the United States and over 15 years for research activities conducted outside the United States. Unless the United States Department of the Treasury issues regulations that narrow the application of this provision to a smaller subset of our research and development expenses or the provision is deferred, modified, or repealed by Congress, we expect an increase in our net deferred tax assets and an offsetting similarly sized increase in our valuation allowance over these amortization periods. The actual impact of this provision will depend on multiple factors, including the amount of research and development expenses we will incur and whether we conduct our research and development activities inside or outside the United States.
Environmental / Social2 | 2.8%
Environmental / Social - Risk 1
Third-party expectations relating to environmental, social and governance factors may impose additional costs and expose us to new risks.
In recent years, there has been an increased focus from certain investors, employees and other stakeholders concerning corporate responsibility, specifically related to environmental, social and governance, or ESG, factors. Third-party providers of ESG ratings and reports on companies have increased in number, resulting in varied and, in some cases, inconsistent standards. Topics taken into account in such assessments include, among others, the company's efforts and impacts with respect to climate change and human rights, ethics and compliance with the law, and the role of the company's board of directors in supervising various sustainability issues. In addition to the topics typically considered in such reviews, in our industry, the public's ability to access our medicines is of particular importance. Some investors may use third-party ESG ratings and reports to guide their investment strategies and, in some cases, may choose not to invest in us if they believe our ESG practices are inadequate. The criteria by which companies' ESG practices are assessed are evolving, which could result in greater expectations of us and cause us to undertake costly initiatives to satisfy such new criteria. Alternatively, if we elect not to or are unable to satisfy new criteria or do not meet the criteria of a specific third-party provider, some investors may conclude that our policies with respect to ESG are inadequate and choose not to invest in us. If our ESG practices do not meet evolving investor or other stakeholder expectations and standards, then our reputation, our ability to attract or retain employees and our desirability as an investment or business partner could be negatively impacted. Similarly, our failure or perceived failure to adequately pursue or fulfill any goals and objectives or to satisfy various reporting standards within the timelines we announce, or at all, could expose us to additional regulatory, social or other scrutiny of us, the imposition of unexpected costs, or damage to our reputation, which in turn could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations and could cause the market value of our common stock to decline.
Environmental / Social - Risk 2
If we fail to comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur costs that could harm our business.
We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures and the handling, use, storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological materials. Our operations also produce hazardous waste products. We generally contract with third parties for the disposal of these materials and wastes. We cannot eliminate the risk of contamination or injury from these materials. In the event of contamination or injury resulting from our use of hazardous materials, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, and any liability could exceed our resources. We also could incur significant costs associated with civil or criminal fines and penalties for failure to comply with such laws and regulations. Although we maintain workers' compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees resulting from the use of hazardous materials and a pollution liability policy, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. Other than our pollution liability policy, we do not maintain insurance for environmental liability or toxic tort claims that may be asserted against us in connection with our storage or disposal of biological, hazardous or radioactive materials. In addition, we may incur substantial costs in order to comply with current or future environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. These current or future laws and regulations may impair our discovery, preclinical development or production efforts. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations also may result in substantial fines, penalties or other sanctions.
Production
Total Risks: 8/72 (11%)Below Sector Average
Employment / Personnel3 | 4.2%
Employment / Personnel - Risk 1
We are highly dependent on our Chief Executive Officer. Our future success depends on our ability to retain key executives and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel.
We are highly dependent on the expertise of Troy E. Wilson, Ph.D., J.D., our President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as the other principal members of our management, scientific and clinical teams. Although we have entered into employment letter agreements with our executive officers, each of them may terminate their employment with us at any time. We do not maintain "key person" insurance for any of our executives or other employees. Recruiting and retaining qualified scientific, clinical, manufacturing, sales and market access personnel will also be critical to our success. The loss of the services of our executive officers or other key employees could impede the achievement of our research, development and commercialization objectives and seriously harm our ability to successfully implement our business strategy. Furthermore, replacing executive officers and key employees, and recruiting additional key employees, may be difficult and may take an extended period of time because of the limited number of individuals in our industry with the breadth of skills and experience required to successfully develop, gain regulatory approval of and commercialize products. Competition to hire from this limited pool is intense, and we may be unable to hire, train, retain or motivate these key personnel on acceptable terms given the competition among numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for similar personnel. We also experience competition for the hiring of scientific and clinical personnel from universities and research institutions. In addition, we rely on consultants and advisors, including scientific and clinical advisors, to assist us in formulating our discovery and preclinical development and commercialization strategy. Our consultants and advisors may be employed by employers other than us and may have commitments under consulting or advisory contracts with other entities that may limit their availability to us. If we are unable to continue to attract and retain high quality personnel, our ability to pursue our growth strategy will be limited.
Employment / Personnel - Risk 2
We currently have no sales personnel. If we are unable to establish effective sales capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to sell or market our product candidates if they obtain regulatory approval, we may not be able to effectively sell or market our product candidates, if approved, or generate product revenues.
We currently do not have a sales team for the marketing, sales and distribution of any of our product candidates that are able to obtain regulatory approval. In order to commercialize any product candidates, we must build on a territory-by-territory basis sales, marketing, distribution, managerial and other non-technical capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services, and we may not be successful in doing so. If our product candidates continue to progress toward regulatory approval, we intend to establish or expand our sales, marketing, analytics and market access teams with expertise to commercialize our product candidates, which will be expensive and time consuming and will require significant attention of our executive officers to manage. Capable managers with commercial experience may need to be identified and successfully recruited to our company. Any failure or delay in the development of our commercial capabilities would adversely impact the commercialization of any of our products that we obtain approval to market. With respect to the commercialization of all or certain of our product candidates, we may choose to collaborate, either globally or on a territory-by-territory basis, with third parties that have direct sales forces and established distribution systems, either to augment our own sales force and distribution systems or in lieu of our own sales force and distribution systems. If we are unable to enter into such arrangements when needed on acceptable terms or at all, we may not be able to successfully commercialize any of our product candidates that receive regulatory approval or any such commercialization may experience delays or limitations. If we are not successful in commercializing our product candidates, either on our own or through collaborations with one or more third parties, our future product revenue will suffer and we may incur significant additional losses.
Employment / Personnel - Risk 3
Our employees, independent contractors, principal investigators, consultants, vendors, distributors and CROs 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, consultants, vendors, distributors and CROs may engage in fraudulent or other illegal activity. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional, reckless and/or negligent conduct or unauthorized activities that violate FDA regulations, including those laws that require the reporting of true, complete and accurate information to the FDA, manufacturing standards, federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations, and laws that require the true, complete and accurate reporting of financial information or data. In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, misconduct, 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. Misconduct by our employees and other third parties may also include the improper use of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation. We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, but 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. 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 significant civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, the exclusion from participation in federal and state healthcare programs and imprisonment.
Supply Chain5 | 6.9%
Supply Chain - Risk 1
We may not be able to obtain orphan drug exclusivity for the product candidates for which we seek it, which could limit the potential profitability of such product candidates.
Regulatory authorities in some jurisdictions, including the United States and Europe, may designate drugs for relatively small patient populations as orphan drugs. Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may designate a product as an orphan drug if it is a drug intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is generally defined as a patient population of fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States. Generally, if a product with an orphan designation subsequently receives the first marketing approval for the indication for which it receives the designation, then the product is entitled to a period of marketing exclusivity that precludes the applicable regulatory authority from approving another marketing application for the same drug for the same indication during the exclusivity period. The applicable period is seven years in the United States and ten years in Europe. The European exclusivity period can be reduced to six years if a drug no longer meets the criteria for orphan designation or if the drug is sufficiently profitable so that market exclusivity is no longer justified. Orphan drug exclusivity may be lost if the FDA or EMA determines that the request for designation was materially defective, or if the manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient quantity of the drug to meet the needs of patients with the rare disease or condition. In July 2019, the FDA granted orphan drug designation to ziftomenib for the treatment of AML. If ziftomenib receives marketing approval for an indication broader than AML, ziftomenib may no longer be eligible for marketing exclusivity. Furthermore, orphan drug exclusivity may not effectively protect ziftomenib from the competition of different drugs for the same orphan condition, which could be approved during the exclusivity period. Additionally, after an orphan drug is approved, the FDA could subsequently approve another application for the same drug for the same condition if the FDA concludes that the later drug is shown to be safer, more effective or makes a major contribution to patient care. The failure to obtain an orphan designation for any product candidates we may develop for the treatment of rare cancers, and/or the inability to maintain that designation for the duration of the applicable exclusivity period, could reduce our ability to make sufficient sales of the applicable product candidate to balance our expenses incurred to develop it, which would have a negative impact on our operational results and financial condition. If we obtain an orphan designation and FDA approval of any of our product candidates for an oncology indication, we would be entitled to seven years of marketing exclusivity for that orphan indication. However, if a competitor obtained approval of a generic form of such product candidate for another indication, physicians would not be prevented from prescribing the generic drug for the orphan indication during the period of marketing exclusivity. Such prescribing practices could adversely affect the sales of our product candidates for the orphan indication.
Supply Chain - Risk 2
Failure by us or our third-party collaborators to develop, validate and obtain regulatory approval for a diagnostic testing platform could harm our drug development strategy and operational results.*
One of the central elements of our business strategy is to screen and identify subsets of patients with molecular or genetic alterations who may derive meaningful clinical benefit from our product candidates. Successful identification of these patient subsets depends on the development of sensitive, accurate and cost-effective molecular and other diagnostic tests and the widespread adoption and use of these tests at clinical sites to screen a sufficient number of patients to identify whether they are appropriate candidates for treatment with one of our product candidates. As we do not have in-house diagnostic testing capabilities, we rely extensively on third-party collaborators for the development, validation and regulatory approval of these diagnostic tests. We and our third-party collaborators may encounter difficulties in developing, validating and obtaining regulatory approval for these diagnostic tests. We may also experience difficulties in having these diagnostic tests adopted and used by oncologists, both during the clinical development phase and if and when approved as a companion diagnostic for commercial sale. Companion diagnostics are subject to regulation by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities as medical devices and require separate clearance or approval prior to their commercialization. To date, the FDA has frequently required a premarket approval application of companion diagnostics for cancer therapies. We presently anticipate that approved companion diagnostics will be required in order to obtain approval for ziftomenib in NPM1-mutant AML and KMT2A-rearranged AML, for tipifarnib in PIK3CA-dependent HNSCC and for KRAS mutations in NSCLC. We and our third-party collaborators may encounter difficulties in developing, validating and obtaining approval for these companion diagnostics. Any delay or failure by us or third-party collaborators to develop, validate or obtain regulatory approval of a companion diagnostic could delay or prevent approval of our product candidates. We may also experience delays in developing a sustainable, reproducible and scalable manufacturing process or transferring that process to commercial partners or negotiating insurance reimbursement plans, all of which may prevent us from completing our clinical trials or commercializing our products on a timely or profitable basis, if at all. Even if we or our companion diagnostic collaborators successfully obtain regulatory approval for the companion diagnostics for our product candidates, our collaborators: - may not perform their obligations as expected;- may not pursue commercialization of companion diagnostics for our therapeutic product candidates that achieve regulatory approval;- may elect not to continue or renew commercialization programs based on changes in the collaborators' strategic focus or available funding, or external factors, such as an acquisition, that divert resources or create competing priorities;- may not commit sufficient resources to the marketing and distribution of such product or products; and - may terminate their relationship with us. Additionally, we or our collaborators may encounter production difficulties that could constrain the supply of the companion diagnostics, affect the ease of use, affect the price or have difficulties gaining acceptance of the use of the companion diagnostics in the clinical community. If companion diagnostics for use with our product candidates fail to gain market acceptance, our ability to derive revenues from sales of our product candidates could be harmed. If insurance reimbursement to the laboratories who perform the companion diagnostic tests is inadequate, utilization may be low, and patient tumors may not be comprehensively screened for the presence of the genetic markers that predict response to our product candidates. If we or our collaborators fail to commercialize these companion diagnostics, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with another diagnostic company to obtain supplies of an alternative diagnostic test for use in connection with our product candidates or do so on commercially reasonable terms, which could adversely affect and delay the development or commercialization of our product candidates.
Supply Chain - Risk 3
We rely on third-party contractors and organizations to conduct, and/or to supply materials to conduct, our clinical trials, and those third parties may not perform satisfactorily, including failing to meet deadlines for the supply of materials and/or the completion of such clinical trials.
We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third-party contractors, CROs, clinical data management organizations, independent contractors, medical institutions and clinical investigators to support our preclinical development activities and conduct our clinical trials. These agreements may terminate for a variety of reasons, including a failure to perform by the third parties. If we are required to enter into alternative arrangements, our product development activities could be delayed. We compete with many other companies, some of which may be our business competitors, for the resources of these third parties. Large pharmaceutical companies often have significantly more extensive agreements and relationships with such third-party providers, and such third-party providers may prioritize the requirements of such large pharmaceutical companies over ours. The third parties on whom we rely may have the right to terminate their engagements with us at any time, which may cause delay in the development and commercialization of our product candidates. If any such third-party terminates its engagement with us or fails to perform as agreed, we may be required to enter into alternative arrangements, which could result in significant cost and delay to our product development program. Moreover, our agreements with such third parties generally do not provide assurances regarding employee turnover and availability, which may cause interruptions in the research on our product candidates by such third parties. Our reliance on third parties to conduct our clinical trials reduces our control over these activities but does not relieve us of our responsibilities. For example, we will remain responsible for ensuring that each of our clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the general investigational plan and protocols for the clinical trial. Moreover, the FDA and other regulatory authorities require us to comply with good clinical practice guidelines 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 clinical trial participants are protected. We are also required to register ongoing clinical trials and post the results of completed clinical trials on government-sponsored databases, such as ClinicalTrials.gov, within specified timeframes. Failure to do so can result in fines, adverse publicity and civil and criminal sanctions. Additionally, we rely substantially on third-party data managers for our clinical trial data. There is no assurance that these third parties will not make errors in the design, management or retention of our data or data systems. There is no assurance that these third parties will pass FDA or other regulatory audits, which could delay or prevent regulatory approval. For our KURRENT-HN trial, in addition to relying upon third-party service providers, we depend upon Novartis to supply alpelisib in accordance with the terms of our collaboration agreement. If Novartis does not perform in accordance with the agreement, or the agreement is terminated, the KURRENT-HN trial, and our development plans for tipifarnib in combination with alpelisib, could be materially adversely impacted. Similarly, we depend on Mirati to supply adagrasib for the NSCLC combination cohort of our FIT-001 trial. If Mirati does not perform in accordance with the agreement, or the agreement is terminated, the NSCLC combination cohort of our FIT-001 trial, and our development plans for KO-2806 in combination with adagrasib, could be materially adversely impacted. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, meet expected timelines, conduct our clinical trials or supply clinical trial materials in accordance with regulatory requirements, our agreements or our stated protocols, we will not be able to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, marketing approvals for our product candidates and will not be able to, or may be delayed in our efforts to, successfully commercialize our product candidates. In addition, the ability of these third parties to conduct certain of their operations, including monitoring of clinical sites, as applicable, may be limited by actual or threatened public health epidemics or outbreaks, and to the extent that such third parties are unable to fulfill their contractual obligations as a result of such events or government orders in response to such events, we may have limited or no recourse under the terms of our contractual agreements with such third parties. Further, if any of the third parties with whom we engage were to experience shutdowns or other substantial disruptions due to actual or threatened public health epidemics or outbreaks, our ability to conduct our business in the manner and on the timelines presently planned could be materially and negatively affected, which could have a material adverse impact on our business and our results of operation and financial condition.
Supply Chain - Risk 4
We depend on third parties for the manufacture of our product candidates for preclinical and clinical testing and expect to continue to do so for commercialization. This reliance on third parties increases the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of our product candidates or products at an acceptable cost and quality, which could delay, prevent or impair our development or commercialization efforts.*
We do not own or operate facilities for the manufacture of our product candidates and we currently have no plans to build our own clinical or commercial scale manufacturing capabilities. We rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties for the manufacture of clinical supplies of ziftomenib, tipifarnib and KO-2806 for preclinical and clinical testing. We expect to rely on third parties as well for commercial manufacture if any of our product candidates receive marketing approval. This reliance on third parties increases the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of our product candidates or products or such quantities at an acceptable cost or quality, which could delay, prevent or impair our development or commercialization efforts. We also expect to rely on other third parties to package and label the drug product as well as to store and distribute drug supplies for our clinical trials. The manufacture of pharmaceutical products is complex and requires significant expertise and capital investment, including the development of drug formulation and manufacturing techniques and process controls. Manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients, or APIs, and pharmaceutical products often encounter difficulties in production, particularly in scaling up and validating initial production and absence of contamination. These problems include difficulties with production costs and yields, quality control, including stability of the product, quality assurance testing, operator error, shortages of qualified personnel, as well as compliance with strictly enforced federal, state and foreign regulations. Furthermore, if contaminants are discovered in our products or in the manufacturing facilities in which our products are made, such manufacturing facilities may need to be closed for an extended period of time to investigate and remedy the contamination. Some of our manufacturers and suppliers are located in China. Trade tensions and conflict between the United States and China have been escalating in recent years and, as such, we are exposed to the possibility of product supply disruption and increased costs and expenses in the event of changes to the laws, rules, regulations, and policies of the governments of the United States or China, or due to geopolitical unrest and unstable economic conditions. Certain Chinese biotechnology companies may become subject to trade restrictions, sanctions, other regulatory requirements, or proposed legislation by the U.S. Government, which could restrict or even prohibit our ability to work with such entities, thereby potentially disrupting their supply of material to us. Such disruption could have adverse effects on the development of our product candidates and our business operations. In addition, the BIOSECURE Act recently proposed in the House of Representatives, as well as a substantially similar bill in the Senate, targets certain Chinese biotechnology companies. If these bills become law, or similar laws are passed, they would have the potential to severely restrict our ability to contract with certain Chinese biotechnology companies of concern without losing the ability to contract with, or otherwise receive funding from, the U.S. government. If we are unable to develop formulations of our product candidates with acceptable stability and sterility characteristics, or experience an unexpected delay or loss of supply of any of our product candidates for any reason, whether as a result of manufacturing, supply or storage issues, geopolitical events, actual or threatened public health epidemics or outbreaks, or otherwise, our business may be harmed and we may experience delays, disruptions, suspensions or terminations of, or we may be required to restart or repeat, any pending or ongoing clinical trials. Although we generally do not begin a clinical trial unless we believe we have a sufficient supply of a product candidate to complete the clinical trial, we may be required to manufacture additional supplies of our product candidates to the extent our estimates of the amounts required prove inaccurate, we suffer unexpected losses of product candidate supplies, or to the extent that we are required to have fresh product candidate supplies manufactured to satisfy regulatory requirements or specifications. Any significant delay or discontinuation in the supply of a product candidate, or the raw material components thereof, due to the need to replace a supplier, contract manufacturer or other third-party manufacturer, could considerably harm our business and delay completion of our clinical trials, product testing and potential regulatory approval of our product candidates. Any performance failure on the part of our existing or future manufacturers, suppliers or distributors could delay clinical development or marketing approval of our product candidates or commercialization of our products, producing additional losses and depriving us of potential product revenue. If our current contract manufacturers cannot perform as agreed, we may be required to replace such manufacturers. Although we believe that there are several potential alternative manufacturers who could manufacture our product candidates, we may incur added costs and delays in identifying and qualifying any such replacement. We may be unable to establish any agreements with third-party manufacturers or to do so on acceptable terms. Even if we are able to establish agreements with third-party manufacturers, reliance on third-party manufacturers entails additional risks, including: - reliance on the third party for regulatory compliance and quality assurance;- catastrophic events at the third-party organization;- the possible breach of the manufacturing agreement by the third party;- the possible misappropriation of our proprietary information, including our trade secrets and know-how; and - the possible termination or nonrenewal of the agreement by the third party at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us. The facilities used by our contract manufacturers to manufacture our product candidates must be approved by the applicable regulatory authorities, including the FDA, pursuant to inspections that will be conducted after an NDA is submitted to the FDA. We are completely dependent on our contract manufacturing partners for compliance with the FDA's requirements for manufacture of both the active drug substances and finished drug product for ziftomenib, tipifarnib, KO-2806 and our other product candidates. If our contract manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the FDA's regulatory requirements, they will not be able to secure or maintain FDA approval for the manufacturing facilities. In addition, we have limited control over the ability of our contract manufacturers to maintain adequate quality control, quality assurance and qualified personnel. If the FDA or any other applicable regulatory authorities does not approve these facilities for the manufacture of our product candidates or if it withdraws any such approval in the future, or if our suppliers or contract manufacturers decide they no longer want to supply or manufacture our products, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, in which case we might not be able to identify manufacturers for clinical or commercial supply on acceptable terms, or at all, which would significantly impact our ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for or market our product candidates. Third-party manufacturers may not be able to comply with cGMP regulations or similar regulatory requirements outside the United States. Our failure, or the failure of our third-party manufacturers, to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including clinical holds, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, seizures or recalls of product candidates or products, operating restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect supplies of our products. Our product candidates and any products that we may develop may compete with other product candidates and products for access to manufacturing facilities. There are a limited number of manufacturers that operate under cGMP regulations and that might be capable of manufacturing for us. We and our collaboration partners have been able to continue to supply our clinical products to our patients and currently do not anticipate any interruptions in supply. To the extent our third-party manufacturers and supply chain suppliers are negatively impacted by geopolitical events such as actual or potential conflicts in the Middle East, Europe or Asia, as well as actual or threatened public health epidemics or outbreaks, we may not be able to provide continuous drug supply to our clinical sites and our clinical trials may be delayed or may not be completed which would have a material adverse effect on our business operations and performance.
Supply Chain - Risk 5
We anticipate that our current product candidates and any future product candidates may be used in combination with third-party drugs or biologics, some of which may still be in development, and we have limited or no control over the supply, regulatory status, or regulatory approval of such drugs or biologics.
We are currently developing our product candidates, and may develop future product candidates, for use in combination with one or more other cancer therapies, such as venetoclax, azacitidine, cytarabine, daunorubicin, gilteritinib, fludarabine, G-CSF, and idarubicin in the case of ziftomenib, alpelisib in the case of tipifarnib, and cabozantinib and adagrasib in the case of KO-2806, or other drugs, both approved and unapproved. Our ability to develop and ultimately commercialize our current product candidates and any future product candidates used in combination with another drug or biologic will depend on our ability, or the ability of third-party clinical trial sites on which we rely, to access such drugs or biologics on commercially reasonable terms for the clinical trials and their availability for use with the commercialized product, if approved. We cannot be certain that we, or third-party clinical trial sites on which we rely, will be able to secure a steady supply of such drugs or biologics on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Any failure by us, or by third-party clinical trial sites on which we rely, to secure a steady supply of such drugs or biologics may delay our development timelines, increase our costs and jeopardize our ability to develop our current product candidates and any future product candidates as commercially viable therapies. If any of these occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations, stock price and prospects may be materially harmed. Moreover, the development of product candidates for use in combination with another product or product candidate may present challenges that are not faced for single agent product candidates. The FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to use more complex clinical trial designs in order to evaluate the contribution of each product and product candidate to any observed effects. It is possible that the results of such trials could show that any positive previous trial results are attributable to the combination therapy and not our current product candidates and any future product candidates. Moreover, following product approval, the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require that products used in conjunction with each other be cross labeled for combined use. To the extent that we do not have rights to the other product, this may require us to work with a third party to satisfy such a requirement. Moreover, developments related to the other product may impact our clinical trials for the combination as well as our commercial prospects should we receive marketing approval. Such developments may include changes to the other product's safety or efficacy profile, changes to the availability of the approved product, quality, manufacturing and supply issues, and changes to the standard of care. In the event that any future collaborator or supplier cannot continue to supply their products on commercially reasonable terms, we would need to identify alternatives for accessing such products. Additionally, should the supply of products from any future collaborator or supplier be interrupted, delayed or otherwise be unavailable, our clinical trials may be delayed. In the event we are unable to source an alternative supply or are unable to do so on commercially reasonable terms, our business, financial condition, results of operations, stock price and prospects may be materially harmed. In addition, to the extent a third-party clinical trial site on which we rely sources a combination therapy itself and does not submit the costs of such therapy to government programs or patients' insurance, the costs of such therapy may be passed on to us, which could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, stock price and prospects.
Macro & Political
Total Risks: 3/72 (4%)Below Sector Average
Economy & Political Environment1 | 1.4%
Economy & Political Environment - Risk 1
Unfavorable global economic conditions could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Our results of operations could be adversely affected by general conditions in the global economy and in the global financial markets. From time to time, including recently as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, bank failures, actual or perceived changes in interest rates and economic inflation, global financial markets have experienced volatility and uncertainty. A severe or prolonged economic downturn could result in a variety of risks to our business, including our ability to raise additional capital when needed on acceptable terms, if at all. A weak or declining economy could also strain our suppliers, possibly resulting in supply disruption. Any of the foregoing could harm our business and we cannot anticipate all of the ways in which the current economic climate and financial market conditions could adversely impact our business.
Natural and Human Disruptions2 | 2.8%
Natural and Human Disruptions - Risk 1
Actual or threatened public health epidemics or outbreaks may adversely impact our industry, including our clinical trials, our supply chain, our liquidity and access to capital markets and our business development activities.
While many health organizations have declared that the COVID-19 pandemic has ended, the pandemic and previous actions to slow its spread had an adverse impact on our operations, including our ability to conduct our clinical trials, and we cannot predict if or when other similar disease outbreaks will emerge that cause similar disruptions. The extent to which future pandemics may impact our clinical trials, our supply chain, our access to capital and our business development activities, will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, such as the timing and duration of future pandemics, the transmissibility and severity of illness caused by future pandemics, the efforts by governments and businesses to contain the spread of future pandemics, business closures or business disruptions and the impact on the economy and capital markets.
Natural and Human Disruptions - Risk 2
Our operations are vulnerable to interruption by natural disasters, power loss, terrorist activity and other events beyond our control, the occurrence of which could materially harm our business.
Businesses located in California have, in the past, been subject to electrical blackouts as a result of a shortage of available electrical power, and any future blackouts could disrupt our operations. We are vulnerable to a major earthquake, wildfire and other natural disasters, and we have not undertaken a systematic analysis of the potential consequences to our business as a result of any such natural disaster and do not have an applicable recovery plan in place. We do not carry any business interruption insurance that would compensate us for actual losses from interruption of our business that may occur, and any losses or damages incurred by us could cause our business to materially suffer.
Ability to Sell
Total Risks: 2/72 (3%)Below Sector Average
Competition1 | 1.4%
Competition - Risk 1
We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing or commercializing competing products before or more successfully than we do.*
The development and commercialization of new drug products is highly competitive. We face competition with respect to our current product candidates, and we will face competition with respect to any product candidates that we may seek to develop or commercialize in the future, from major pharmaceutical companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies worldwide. There are a number of large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that currently market and sell products or are pursuing the development of products for the treatment of the disease indications for which we are developing our product candidates. Some of these competitive products and therapies are based on scientific approaches that are the same as or similar to our approach, and others are based on entirely different approaches. Potential competitors also include academic institutions, government agencies and other public and private research organizations that conduct research, seek patent protection and establish collaborative arrangements for research, development, manufacturing and commercialization. Specifically, there are a large number of companies developing or marketing treatments for cancer, including many major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, which may directly compete with ziftomenib, tipifarnib, KO-2806 and any other future product candidates. If any competitor is able to advance their clinical program more quickly than ours, the commercial opportunity for our product candidates could be reduced. In the case of ziftomenib, earlier this year, Syndax announced that they could receive regulatory approval of revumenib in relapsed or refractory KMT2A-rearranged acute leukemia by September 26, 2024, and that they expect to report topline data from a cohort of patients with relapsed or refractory NPM1-m AML in the fourth quarter of 2024 that could support a supplemental NDA in the first half of 2025. Our commercial opportunity also could be reduced or eliminated if our competitors develop and commercialize products that are safer, more effective, have fewer or less severe side effects, are more convenient or are less expensive than any products that we may develop alone or in combination with other drugs or biologics. Our competitors also may obtain FDA or other regulatory approval for their products more rapidly than we may obtain approval for ours, which could result in our competitors establishing a strong market position before we are able to enter the market or slow our regulatory approval. In addition, our ability to compete may be affected in many cases by insurers or other third-party payors seeking to encourage the use of generic products. Many of the companies against which we are competing or against which we may compete in the future have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals and marketing approved products than we do. Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller and other early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These third parties compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs.
Sales & Marketing1 | 1.4%
Sales & Marketing - Risk 1
Even if any of our product candidates receives marketing approval, it may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.
If any of our product candidates receives marketing approval, it may nonetheless fail to gain sufficient market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community. For example, current cancer treatments like immunotherapy, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are well established in the medical community, and doctors may continue to rely on these treatments to the exclusion of our product candidates. If our product candidates do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenues and we may not become profitable. The degree of market acceptance of our product candidates, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including: - the efficacy and safety and potential advantages and disadvantages compared to alternative treatments;- our ability to offer our products for sale at competitive prices;- the convenience and ease of administration compared to alternative treatments;- the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies and of physicians to prescribe these therapies;- the strength of our marketing and distribution support;- the availability of third-party coverage and adequate reimbursement, including patient cost-sharing programs such as copays and deductibles;- our ability to develop or partner with third-party collaborators to develop companion diagnostics;- the acceptance and utilization of diagnostics to identify appropriate patients;- the prevalence and severity of any side effects; and - any restrictions on the use of our products together with other medications.
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.
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