Commitments and Contingencies

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

Commitments and Contingencies

Commitments and Contingencies

18. Commitments and Contingencies

License Agreement with Enteris Biopharma, Inc.

In August 2019, the Company entered into a non-exclusive license agreement, or the Enteris License Agreement, with Enteris Biopharma, Inc., or Enteris, pursuant to which Enteris granted to the Company a non-exclusive, royalty-bearing license, including the right to grant sublicenses, under certain proprietary technology and patent rights related to or covering formulations for oral delivery of peptide active pharmaceutical ingredients with functional excipients to enhance permeability and/or solubility, known as Enteris’s Peptelligence^® technology, to develop, manufacture and commercialize products using such technology worldwide, excluding Japan and South Korea.

As consideration for the licensed rights under the Enteris License Agreement, the Company paid an upfront fee equal to $8,000, consisting of $4,000 in cash and $4,000 in shares of the Company’s common stock pursuant to the Purchase Agreement with Enteris.

The Company is also obligated, pursuant to the Enteris License Agreement, to pay Enteris (1) milestone payments upon the achievement of certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones and (2) low-single digit royalty percentages on net sales of licensed products, subject to reductions in specified circumstances. Until the second anniversary of the entry into the Enteris License Agreement, the Company had the right, but not the obligation, to terminate its obligation to pay any royalties under the Enteris License Agreement in exchange for a lump sum payment in cash, or the Royalty Buyout. The Company did not exercise its Royalty Buyout right and such right expired in August 2021. During the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, the Company paid $5,000, $15,000 and $5,000, respectively, to Enteris for milestones earned in relation to the Enteris License Agreement and as a result, the Company recognized $5,000, $15,000 and $5,000 of R&D expense related to the Enteris License Agreement during these respective years.

The Enteris License Agreement will expire on a country-by-country, licensed product-by-licensed product basis upon the later of (1) the expiration (or invalidation) of all valid claims in licensed patent rights that cover such product in such country, (2) the end of the calendar quarter in which generic competition (as defined in the Enteris License Agreement) occurs for such product in such country and (3) ten years from the first commercial sale of such product.

Either party may terminate the Enteris License Agreement upon written notice if the other party has failed to remedy a material breach within 60 days (or 30 days in the case of a material breach of a payment obligation). Enteris may terminate the Enteris License Agreement upon 30 days’ written notice to the Company if the Company or any of its affiliates formally challenge the validity of any licensed patent rights or assists a third party in doing so. The Company may terminate the Enteris License Agreement for any reason or no reason (a) prior to receipt of first regulatory approval for a licensed product in the United States for any indication upon 30 days’ prior written notice to Enteris or (b) on or after receipt of first regulatory approval for a licensed product in the United States for any indication upon 60 days’ prior written notice to Enteris.

Manufacturing Agreements

In July 2021, the Company entered into an API Commercial Supply Agreement with Polypeptide Laboratories S.A., or PPL, that defines each party’s responsibilities with respect to PPL’s manufacture and supply of the API difelikefalin, for the difelikefalin injection product candidate. Under the API Commercial Supply Agreement, PPL shall manufacture API at its facility for sale and supply to the Company, in the amounts as set forth in purchase orders to be provided by the Company. The Company will be required to purchase its requirements of API for each year of the term of the agreement, based on internal forecasts.

The API Commercial Supply Agreement will continue until the fifth anniversary of the approval by the FDA of the new drug application for KORSUVA injection, unless the API Commercial Supply Agreement is earlier terminated, and will automatically be extended for successive five-year periods unless either party gives notice to the other party of its intention to terminate.

In July 2019, the Company entered into a Master Manufacturing Services Agreement, or MSA, with Patheon UK Limited, or Patheon. The MSA governs the general terms under which Patheon, or one of its affiliates, will provide non-exclusive manufacturing services to the Company for the drug products specified by the Company from time to time. Pursuant to the MSA, the Company has agreed to order from Patheon at least a certain percentage of its commercial requirements for a product under a related Product Agreement. Each Product Agreement that the Company may enter into from time to time will be governed by the terms of the MSA, unless expressly modified in such Product Agreement.

The MSA has an initial term ending December 31, 2024, and will automatically renew after the initial term for successive terms of two years each if there is a Product Agreement in effect, unless either party gives notice of its intention to terminate the MSA at least 18 months prior to the end of the then current term.

Either party may terminate the MSA or a Product Agreement upon written notice if the other party (1) has failed to remedy a material breach within a specified time or (2) is declared insolvent or bankrupt, voluntarily files a petition of bankruptcy or assigns such agreement for the benefit of creditors. The Company may terminate a Product Agreement (a) upon 90 days’ prior written notice if any governmental agency takes any action that prevents the Company from selling the relevant product in the relevant territory, (b) upon six months’ prior written notice if it does not intend to order manufacturing services due to a product’s discontinuance in the market, or (c) upon 90 days’ prior written notice if it determines that the manufacture or supply of a product likely infringes third-party rights. Patheon may terminate the MSA or a Product Agreement (i) upon six months’ prior written notice if the Company assigns such agreement to an assignee that is unacceptable to Patheon for certain reasons, or (ii) upon 30 days’ prior written notice if, after the first year of commercial sales, the Company forecasts zero volume for 12 months.

The MSA contains, among other provisions, customary representations and warranties by the parties, a grant to Patheon of certain limited license rights to the Company’s intellectual property in connection with Patheon’s performance of the services under the MSA, certain indemnification rights in favor of both parties, limitations of liability and customary confidentiality provisions.

Also in July 2019, the Company entered into two related Product Agreements under the MSA, one with each of Patheon and Patheon Manufacturing Services LLC, or Patheon Greenville, to govern the terms and conditions of the manufacture of commercial supplies of difelikefalin injection, the Company’s lead product candidate. Pursuant to the Product Agreements, Patheon and Patheon Greenville will manufacture commercial supplies of difelikefalin injection at the Monza, Italy and Greenville, North Carolina manufacturing sites, respectively, from API supplied by the Company. Patheon and Patheon Greenville will be responsible for supplying the other required raw materials and packaging components, and will also provide supportive manufacturing services such as quality control testing for raw materials, packaging components, and finished product.

Leases

The Company’s Stamford Lease has an initial 7-year term which ends in December 2023 and is renewable for one five-year term. The Stamford Lease requires monthly lease payments, including rent escalations and rent holidays, during the initial lease term. The Stamford Lease landlord had made tenant improvements of $1,094 to the leased premises which was included in Property and equipment, net.

In connection with the signing of the Stamford Lease, the Company entered into a standby letter of credit agreement which serves as a security deposit for the Premises. The standby letter of credit is automatically renewed annually through November 2023. This standby letter of credit is secured with restricted cash in a money market account and is included within current assets as of December 31, 2022 (refer to Note 8, Restricted Cash).

In June 2020, the Company entered into an amendment to the Stamford Lease to add additional office space, or the Lease Amendment. The term of the Lease Amendment began when renovation of the additional space was completed and the Company took possession of the additional space in October 2020, or the Amendment Commencement Date, and ends on December 31, 2023. The Lease Amendment is also renewable for one five-year term (see Note 2 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies – Leases). The Company is currently evaluating its options for 2024 and beyond for both the Stamford Lease and the Lease Amendment.

The rent for the Lease Amendment is at market rate as of the signing of the Lease Amendment. The Lease Amendment requires monthly lease payments, including rent escalations, during the lease term. The Company began paying rent for the Lease Amendment on the Amendment Commencement Date.

In October 2020, the Company recorded an operating lease liability of $1,934 for the Lease Amendment as the sum of the present value of the future minimum lease payments over the term for the new lease. The Company also recorded a corresponding ROU asset of $1,934, as no lease incentives were identified in the Lease Amendment.

Lease expenses on the Stamford lease and Lease Amendment are recognized on a straight-line basis over the lease term. As a result, $1,624, $1,624 and $1,116 of operating lease cost, or lease expense, was recognized for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively, consisting of $1,137 relating to R&D lease expense and $487 relating to G&A lease expense for the Stamford Lease and Lease Amendment in the 2022 period, $1,137 relating to R&D lease expense and $487 relating to G&A lease expense for the Stamford Lease and Lease Amendment in the 2021 period, and $781 relating to R&D lease expense and $335 relating to G&A lease expense for the Stamford Lease and Lease Amendment in the 2020 period.

Other information related to the Stamford Lease and Lease Amendment was as follows:

	Year Ended December 31,
	2022			2021
Cash paid for amounts included in the measurement of lease liabilities:
Operating cash outflows relating to operating leases	$	1,957		$	1,921
ROU assets obtained in exchange for new operating lease liabilities	$	—		$	—
Remaining lease term - operating leases (years)		1.0			2.0
Discount rate - operating leases		7.0	%		7.0	%

Future minimum lease payments under the non-cancellable operating leases for the Stamford lease and the Lease Amendment, as well as a reconciliation of these undiscounted cash flows to the operating lease liabilities as of December 31, 2022, were as follows:

Year Ending December 31,
2023	$	1,992
Total future minimum lease payments, undiscounted		1,992
Less imputed interest		(74)
Total	$	1,918
Operating lease liabilities reported as of December 31, 2022:
Operating lease liabilities - current	$	1,918
Operating lease liabilities - non-current		—
Total	$	1,918