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Commitments and Contingencies
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2021
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies Commitments and Contingencies
Purchase Commitments
The Company has entered into purchasing arrangements in which minimum quantities of goods or services have been committed to be purchased on an annual basis.
As of December 31, 2021, future payments required under purchase commitments are as follows:
(in thousands)Amount
2022$3,483 
20233,000 
Total$6,483 
The Company has entered into agreements which contain certain percentage volume purchase requirements. The Company has excluded these future purchase commitments from the table above since there are no minimum purchase commitments or payments under these agreements.
License Agreements
The Company has entered into license agreements in which fixed payments have been committed to be paid on an annual basis.
As of December 31, 2021, future fixed payments required under license agreements are $0.3 million. The Company may be required to pay additional amounts up to approximately $170.5 million in contingent payments under the Company’s license agreements. These contingent payments include potential milestone or contractual payment obligations contingent upon the achievement or occurrence of future milestones or events and the amounts and timing of such potential obligations are unknown or uncertain.
Legal Proceedings
From time to time, the Company is a party to various legal proceedings arising in the ordinary course of business. In addition, the Company has in the past been, and may in the future be, subject to investigations by governmental and regulatory authorities, which expose it to greater risks associated with litigation, regulatory or other proceedings, as a result of which the Company could be required to pay significant fines or penalties. The costs and outcome of litigation, regulatory or other proceedings cannot be predicted with certainty, and some lawsuits, claims, actions or proceedings may be disposed of unfavorably to the Company and could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s results of operations or financial condition. In addition, intellectual property disputes often have a risk of injunctive relief which, if imposed against the Company, could materially and adversely affect its financial condition or results of operations. If a matter is both probable to result in material liability and the amount of loss can be reasonably estimated, the Company estimates and discloses the possible material loss or range of loss. If such loss is not probable or cannot be reasonably estimated, a liability is not recorded in its consolidated financial statements.
As of December 31, 2021, the Company had the following material ongoing litigation in which the Company was a party:
On January 31, 2022, the Company entered into a global settlement agreement with Pharma AG (“Novartis”), Advanced Accelerator Applications USA, Inc. (“AAA”), Endocyte, Inc. (“Endocyte”) and certain of their affiliates (the “Novartis Agreement”) to settle certain disputes between the parties, as further described below:
German PSMA-617 Litigation
On November 8, 2018, Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a subsidiary of Progenics (“MIP”), filed a complaint against the University of Heidelberg (the “University”) in the District Court in Mannheim, Germany (the “German District Court” and, such litigation, the “German Litigation”). In this Complaint, MIP claimed that the discovery and development of PSMA-617 was related to work performed under a research collaboration sponsored by MIP. MIP alleged that the University breached certain contracts with MIP and that MIP is the co-owner of inventions embodied in certain worldwide patent filings related to PSMA-617 that were filed by the University. On February 27, 2019, Endocyte, a wholly owned subsidiary of Novartis, filed a motion to intervene in the German Litigation. Endocyte is the exclusive licensee of the patent rights that are the subject of the German proceedings.
In connection with this dispute, MIP filed a Confirmation of Ownership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) for certain U.S. patent applications filed by the University to support MIPs claim that it is the co-owner of these pending U.S. patent applications (the “Ownership Claim”).
On February 27, 2019, the German District Court set €0.4 million as the amount MIP must deposit with the German District Court as security in the event of an unfavorable final decision on the merits of the dispute. On August 24, 2020, the German District Court issued its decision dismissing MIP’s claims, stating that MIP failed to discharge its burden of proof in the matter.
MIP filed a Notice of Appeal of the German District Court’s decision on September 24, 2020 and filed its appeal brief on November 26, 2020. The University and Endocyte each filed oppositions to MIP’s Notice of Appeal on March 12, 2021 and an oral hearing for the appeal was scheduled for September 28, 2022, at the Higher Regional Court Karlsruhe.
Pursuant to the terms of the Novartis Agreement, the German Litigation was dismissed and the Ownership Claim withdrawn.
Post-Grant Review Proceeding
On February 4, 2021, AAA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Novartis and parent of Endocyte, filed a petition for post-grant review of U.S. Patent No. 10,640,461 (the “’461 patent”) with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) of the USPTO. The ’461 patent is owned by MIP. In the petition, AAA challenged the patentability of certain claims of the ’461 patent. The PTAB instituted Post-Grant Review proceedings (the “PGR Proceeding”) on July 29, 2021. Pursuant to the terms of the Novartis Agreement, the PGR Proceeding will be terminated.
Global Settlement Agreement
In addition to the dismissal of the German Litigation, the withdrawal of the Ownership Claim and the termination of the PGR Proceeding, under the Novartis Agreement, the parties will, among other things, cross-license certain patent rights to one another, and Novartis will make a $24.0 million lump sum payment to the Company and also reimburse the Company for certain fees and expenses the Company is required to pay to the University in connection with the German Litigation.
RELISTOR European Opposition Proceedings
In October 2015, Progenics received notices of opposition to three European patents relating to methylnaltrexone: EP1615646, EP2368553 and EP2368554. Notices of opposition were filed separately at the European Patent Office (the “EPO”) by each of Actavis Group PTC ehf and Fresenius Kabi Deutschland GmbH. Between May 11, 2017 and July 4, 2017, the Opposition Division of the EPO (the “Opposition Division”) provided notice that the three European patents would be revoked. Each of these matters was appealed to the Appeal Board of the EPO. On November 13, 2020, Progenics withdrew the appeal for EP2368553 and EP2368554. Notices of termination of the proceedings with revocation of the patent were issued on November 23, 2020 for both patents.
Progenics continued its appeal on the revocation of the third patent, EP1615646. Oral proceedings for EP1615646 were held at the Appeal Board of the EPO on September 22, 2020. The revocation decision under appeal was set aside and the case was remitted to the Opposition Division for further prosecution. An oral hearing was held before the Opposition Division on September 27, 2021. The Opposition Division issued its final written opinion on November 11, 2021, indicating that the patent will be maintained in amended form. The final written decision of the Opposition Division was appealable to the Appeal Board of the EPO by either party. Progenics appealed this decision on January 20, 2022 to hold open its option to file Grounds for Appeal. Given that neither opponent filed an Notice of Appeal, Progenics intends to withdraw its notice to allow the patent to issue in amended form.