Commitments and Contingencies

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Commitments and Contingencies

Commitments and Contingencies

Collaboration Agreement with Sacco S.r.l.

In July 2019, the Company entered into an agreement with Sacco S.r.l. ("Sacco"), an affiliate of one of the Company’s existing contract manufacturing organizations, pursuant to which and subject to certain exceptions for pre-existing products for pre-existing customers, Sacco will manufacture and supply single strain, non-genetically modified microbes intended for oral delivery or oral use in pharmaceutical products exclusively for the Company for a period of five years. Sacco may terminate the agreement if the provision of manufacturing services has been, or is scheduled to be, inactive for a period of six consecutive months. The Company has agreed to pay Sacco an aggregate of €3.0 million, €0.6 million annually, during the exclusivity period. The Company has incurred milestone payments to date totaling approximately €0.6 million of which no amounts are currently due as of March 31, 2020.

Equipment Funding Arrangement

In July 2019, the Company entered into an arrangement with one of its external manufacturing partners providing the Company with priority access to future manufacturing services which will be rendered using certain dedicated equipment. In return for such access, the Company committed to provide funding for the purchase of the dedicated equipment in an aggregate amount of £0.8 million. An upfront payment of £0.4 million was paid in 2019 and any remaining amounts will be paid subject to the manufacturer's installation and qualification of the equipment, estimated to occur in 2020.

Agreement with Biose Industrie

On February 15, 2018, the Company entered into an agreement with Biose Industrie (“Biose”), a French corporation, in which Biose has agreed to exclusively manufacture certain microbial biotherapeutic products for the Company and reserve agreed upon manufacturing resources to conduct manufacturing runs for such products. Under the terms of this agreement, the Company agreed to annual fees in the mid-six digits in consideration of both exclusivity for the manufacture of monoclonal microbials and for a set minimum number of manufacturing runs per year. Exclusivity fees paid and any minimum commitments are expensed as incurred. At March 31, 2020, aggregate minimum payments over the remaining contract life total approximately $1.2 million.

Litigation and Other Proceedings

The Company may periodically become subject to legal proceedings and claims arising in connection with on-going business activities, including claims or disputes related to patents that have been issued or that are pending in the field of research on which the Company is focused. The Company is not a party to any material litigation and does not have contingency reserves established for any litigation liabilities.

In April 2019, the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO"), granted a third party petition to initiate a post-grant review of a patent issued to the University of Chicago, to which the Company has an exclusive license from the University of Chicago.