Licensing Arrangements

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Collaboration Arrangements [Abstract]

Sato License Agreement

Significant Terms

On January 12, 2017, the Company entered into a license agreement, and related first amendment, with Sato Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (“Sato”), relating to SB204, its drug candidate for the treatment of acne vulgaris in Japan (the “Sato Agreement”). Pursuant to the Sato Agreement, the Company granted to Sato an exclusive, royalty-bearing, non-transferable right and license under certain of the Company’s intellectual property rights, with the right to sublicense with the Company’s prior written consent, to develop, use and sell products in Japan that incorporate SB204 in certain topical dosage forms for the treatment of acne vulgaris, and to make the finished form of such products.

On October 5, 2018, the Company and Sato entered into the second amendment (the “Sato Amendment”) to the Sato Agreement (collectively, the “Amended Sato Agreement”). The Sato Amendment expanded the Sato Agreement to include SB206, the Company’s drug candidate for the treatment of viral skin infections. Pursuant to the Amended Sato Agreement, the Company granted to Sato an exclusive, royalty-bearing, non-transferable license under certain of its intellectual property rights, with the right to sublicense with the Company’s prior written consent, to develop, use and sell products in Japan that incorporate SB204 or SB206 in certain topical dosage forms for the treatment of acne vulgaris or viral skin infections, respectively, and to make the finished form of such products. The Company or its designated contract manufacturer will supply finished product to Sato for use in the development of SB204 and SB206 in the licensed territory. The rights granted to Sato do not include the right to manufacture the active pharmaceutical ingredient (“API”) of SB204 or SB206; rather, the parties agreed to negotiate a commercial supply agreement pursuant to which the Company or its designated contract manufacturer would be the exclusive supplier to Sato of the API for the commercial manufacture of licensed products in the licensed territory. Under the terms of the Amended Sato Agreement, the Company also has exclusive rights to certain intellectual property that may be developed by Sato in the future, which the Company could choose to use for its own development and commercialization of SB204 or SB206 outside of Japan.

Under the Amended Sato Agreement, in exchange for the SB204 and SB206 license rights granted to Sato, Sato agreed to pay the Company the following:

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An upfront payment of 1.25 billion Japanese Yen, or “JPY”, payable in installments of 0.25 billion JPY, 0.5 billion JPY and 0.5 billion JPY on October 5, 2018, February 14, 2019 and September 13, 2019, respectively. This is in addition to the 1.25 billion JPY (approximately $10,813 USD) paid on January 19, 2017 following the execution of the Sato Agreement on January 12, 2017. On October 23, 2018, the Company received the first installment from the Amended Sato Agreement of 0.25 billion JPY (approximately $2,224 USD). On March 14, 2019, the Company received the second installment payment related to the Amended Sato Agreement of 0.5 billion JPY (approximately $4,460 USD). On November 7, 2019, the Company received the third installment payment related to the Amended Sato Agreement of 0.5 billion JPY (approximately $4,554 USD).

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Up to an aggregate of 1.75 billion JPY (adjusted from 2.75 billion JPY in the Sato Agreement) upon the achievement of various development and regulatory milestones, including (i) a 0.25 billion JPY (approximately $2,162 USD) milestone payment received during the fourth quarter of 2018 following Sato’s initiation of a Phase 1 trial in Japan and (ii) an aggregate of 1.0 billion JPY that becomes payable upon the earlier occurrence of specified fixed future dates or the achievement of milestone events.


•	Up to an aggregate of 3.9 billion JPY (adjusted from 0.9 billion JPY in the Sato Agreement) upon the achievement of various commercial milestones.


•	A tiered royalty ranging from a mid-single digit to a low-double digit percentage (adjusted from a mid-single digit percentage in the Sato Agreement) of net sales of licensed products in the licensed territory, subject to a reduction in the royalty payments in certain circumstances.

The term of the Amended Sato Agreement (and the period during which Sato must pay royalties under the amended license agreement) expires on the twentieth anniversary of the first commercial sale of a licensed product in the licensed field in the licensed territory (adjusted from the tenth anniversary of the first commercial sale in the license agreement). The term of the Amended Sato Agreement may be renewed with respect to a licensed product by mutual written agreement of the parties for additional two-year periods following expiration of the initial term. All other material terms of the license agreement remain unchanged by the Sato Amendment.

Sato is responsible for funding the development and commercial costs for the program that are specific to Japan. The Company is obligated to perform certain oversight, review and supporting activities for Sato, including: (i) using commercially reasonable efforts to obtain marketing approval of SB204 and SB206 in the U.S; (ii) sharing all future scientific information the Company may obtain during the term of the Amended Sato Agreement pertaining to SB204 and SB206; (iii) performing certain additional preclinical studies if such studies are deemed necessary by the Japanese regulatory authority, up to and not to exceed a total cost of $1,000; and (iv) participating in a joint committee that oversees, reviews and approves Sato’s development and commercialization activities under the Amended Sato Agreement. Additionally, the Company has granted Sato the option to use the Company’s trademarks in connection with the commercialization of licensed products in the licensed territory for no additional consideration, subject to the Company’s approval of such use.

The Amended Sato Agreement may be terminated by (i) Sato without cause upon 120 days’ advance written notice to the Company; (ii) either party in the event of the other party’s uncured material breach upon 60 days’ advance written notice; (iii) force majeure; (iv) either party in the event of the other party’s dissolution, liquidation, bankruptcy or insolvency; and (v) the Company immediately upon written notice if Sato challenges the validity, patentability, or enforceability of any of the Company’s patents or patent applications licensed to Sato under the Amended Sato Agreement. In the event of a termination, no portion of the upfront fees received from Sato are refundable.

Research and Development Arrangements

Royalty and Milestone Payments Purchase Agreement with Reedy Creek Investments LLC

On April 29, 2019, the Company entered into a royalty and milestone payments purchase agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”) with Reedy Creek Investments LLC (“Reedy Creek”), pursuant to which Reedy Creek provided funding to the Company in an initial amount of $25,000, which the Company will use primarily to pursue the development, regulatory approval and commercialization (including through out-license agreements and other third party arrangements) activities for SB206, a topical anti-viral gel being developed for the treatment of molluscum contagiosum, and advancing programmatically such activities with respect to SB204, a once-daily, topical monotherapy being developed for the treatment of acne vulgaris, and SB414, a topical cream-based product candidate being developed for the treatment of atopic dermatitis. Reedy Creek was to provide additional funding to the Company of $10,000 contingent upon the achievement by the Company of SB206 clinical trial success, defined as (i) the achievement, no later than March 31, 2020, of statistically significant rates of complete clearance of lesions for molluscum contagiosum in humans at week 12 in each of the two Phase 3 clinical trials or any other primary endpoint required or accepted by the FDA for the SB206 product; or (ii) equivalent achievement (as agreed upon by the parties). See Note 16—Subsequent Events regarding the January 2020 announcement of top-line results from two pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials of SB206 for the treatment of molluscum contagiosum. SB206 did not achieve statistically significant results in the primary endpoint in both trials, which was the complete clearance of all molluscum lesions at Week 12. Based on the top line efficacy results from the Phase 3 SB206 program released in January 2020, the Company understands that Reedy Creek will not be paying the Company the contingent $10,000 of additional funding.

Pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, the Company will pay Reedy Creek ongoing quarterly payments, calculated based on an applicable percentage per product of any upfront fees, milestone payments, royalty payments or equivalent payments received by the Company pursuant to any out-license agreement for SB204, SB206 or SB414 in the United States, Mexico or Canada, net of any upfront fees, milestone payments, royalty payments or equivalent payments paid by the Company to third parties pursuant to any agreements under which the Company has in-licensed intellectual property with respect to such products in the United States, Mexico or Canada. The applicable percentage used for determining the ongoing quarterly payments, applied to amounts received directly by the Company pursuant to any out-license agreement for each product, ranges from 10% for SB206 to 20% for SB204 and SB414. However, the agreement provides that the applicable percentage for each product will be 25% for fees or milestone payments received by the Company (but not royalty payments received by the Company) until Reedy Creek has received payments under the Purchase Agreement equal to the total funding amount provided by Reedy Creek under the Purchase Agreement. If the Company decides to commercialize any product on its own following regulatory approval, as opposed to commercializing through an out-license agreement or other third-party arrangement, the Company will be obligated to pay Reedy Creek a low single digits royalty on net sales of such products.

The Company has determined that the Reedy Creek Purchase Agreement is within the scope of ASC 730-20, Research and Development Arrangements. The Company concluded that there has not been a substantive and genuine transfer of risk related to the Purchase Agreement as (i) Reedy Creek has the opportunity to recover its investment regardless of the outcome of the research and development programs within the scope of the agreement (prior to commercialization of any in scope assets through potential out-licensing agreements and related potential future milestone payments); and (ii) there is a presumption that the Company is obligated to pay Reedy Creek amounts equal to its investment based on the related party relationship at the time the parties entered into the Purchase Agreement. The Purchase Agreement is a broad funding arrangement, due to (i) the multi-asset, or portfolio approach including three developmental assets that are within the scope of the arrangement; and (ii) Reedy Creek’s approximate 15% ownership of the outstanding shares of common stock of the Company.

As such, the Company has determined that the appropriate accounting treatment under ASC 730-20 is to record the initial proceeds of $25,000 as cash and cash equivalents, as the Company has the ability to direct the usage of funds, and a long-term liability within its classified balance sheet. The long-term liability will remain until the Company receives future milestones from other potential third parties, as defined within the Purchase Agreement, of which 25% will be contractually owed to Reedy Creek. If potential future milestones are received by the Company, and become partly due to Reedy Creek, the corresponding partial repayment to Reedy Creek will result in a ratable reduction of the total long-term obligation to repay the initial purchase price.

Development Funding and Royalties Agreement with Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated

On May 4, 2019, the Company entered into a development funding and royalties agreement (the “Funding Agreement”) with Ligand, pursuant to which Ligand provided funding to the Company of $12,000, which the Company will use to pursue the development and regulatory approval of SB206, a topical anti-viral gel being developed for the treatment of molluscum contagiosum.

Pursuant to the Funding Agreement, the Company will pay Ligand up to $20,000 in milestone payments upon the achievement by the Company of certain regulatory and commercial milestones associated with SB206 or any product that incorporates or uses NVN1000, the active pharmaceutical ingredient for the Company’s clinical stage product candidates, for the treatment of molluscum contagiosum. In addition to the milestone payments, the Company will pay Ligand tiered royalties ranging from 7% to 10% based on annual aggregate net sales of such products in the United States, Mexico or Canada.

The Company has determined that the Ligand transaction is within the scope of ASC 730-20 as it represents an obligation to perform contractual services for the development of SB206 using commercially reasonable efforts. In addition, the Funding Agreement also states that if all development of SB206 is ceased prior to the first regulatory approval, the Company must pay to Ligand an amount equal to the purchase price less the amount spent in accordance with the development budget on development activities conducted prior to such cessation. As such, the Company has concluded that the appropriate accounting treatment under ASC 730-20 is to record the initial proceeds of $12,000, as a liability and as restricted cash on its consolidated balance sheet, as the funds can only be used for the progression of SB206.

The Company amortizes the liability ratably during each reporting period, based on the Ligand funding as a percentage of the total direct costs incurred by the Company during the reporting period related to the estimated total cost to progress the SB206 program to a regulatory approval in the U.S. The ratable Ligand funding is presented within the consolidated statement of operations as an offset to research and development expenses associated with the SB206 program. During the first quarter of 2020, the Company expects to reassess the estimated total cost to progress the SB206 program to a U.S. regulatory approval, as the Company considers how such estimated costs may potentially be affected by various factors, including (i) the recent results from the Company’s SB206 Phase 3 trials in the U.S., including but not limited to top-line efficacy results announced in January 2020, (ii) the Company’s plans and timelines for potential further clinical development of SB206 in the U.S., which is subject to additional funding and feedback from a Type C meeting with the FDA scheduled for April 1, 2020, and (iii) the Company’s in-house drug manufacturing capabilities and the progression of the Company’s manufacturing technology transfer projects with third-party contract manufacturing organizations.

The initial restricted cash balance was also reduced ratably during interim reporting periods in 2019 in a manner consistent with the amortization method for the Ligand funding liability balance. As of December 31, 2019, the aggregate amount spent in accordance with the SB206 development budget on SB206 development activities had exceeded the $12,000 purchase price, causing the aforementioned repayment provision provided for in the Funding Agreement to no longer be enforceable. Therefore, the Company reported no restricted cash balance related to the Funding Agreement, as of December 31, 2019 in its consolidated balance sheet.

For the year ended December 31, 2019, the Company recorded $8,185 as contra-research and development expense related to the SB206 developmental program, funded by Ligand.