F-1/A 1 d927161df1a.htm F-1/A F-1/A
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As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 28, 2020.

Registration Statement No. 333-248607

 

 

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

 

Amendment No. 5

to

Form F-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

 

 

Orphazyme A/S

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

 

The Kingdom of Denmark   2834   Not applicable
(State or other jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization)
  (Primary Standard Industrial
Classification Code Number)
  (I.R.S. Employer
Identification Number)

Ole Maaløes Vej 3, DK-2200

Copenhagen N

Denmark

Tel: +45 39178272

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of Registrant’s principal executive offices)

 

 

Orphazyme US, Inc.

180 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 3475

Chicago, Illinois 60601

(773) 770-6888

(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

 

 

Copies to:

 

Joshua A. Kaufman

Divakar Gupta

Alison Haggerty

Mark Ballantyne
Cooley LLP
55 Hudson Yards
New York, New York 10001

 

Ilir Mujalovic
Shearman & Sterling LLP

599 Lexington Avenue

New York, New York 10022

 

 

David Dixter

Shearman & Sterling (London) LLP

9 Appold Street

London EC2A 2AP, England

 

 

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after this registration statement becomes effective.

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box.  ☐

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.

Emerging growth company  ☒

If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards† provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act.  ☐

 

The term “new or revised financial accounting standards” refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012.

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

 

 

Title of each class of securities to be registered   Proposed maximum
aggregate offering
price(2)(3)(4)
  Amount of
registration fee(4)

Ordinary Shares, DKK 1 nominal value per share(1)

  $114,999,985   $14,927

 

 

(1)

All ordinary shares in the U.S. offering are represented by ADSs, each of which represents one ordinary share of the registrant. ADSs issuable upon deposit of the ordinary shares registered hereby are being registered pursuant to a separate registration statement on Form F-6 (File No. 333-248669).

 

(2)

Includes the aggregate offering price of additional ordinary shares (which may be in the form of ADSs) that the underwriters have the option to purchase.

 

(3)

Includes ordinary shares that are being offered in a private placement to qualified investors, as defined under the EU Prospectus Regulation 2017/1129, in Europe, but which may be resold from time to time in the United States in transactions requiring registration under the Securities Act, or an exemption therefrom. The total number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) in the U.S. offering and the European private placement is subject to reallocation between them to the extent permitted under applicable laws and regulations.

 

(4)

Estimated solely for the purpose of determining the amount of registration fee in accordance with Rule 457(o) under the Securities Act of 1933. This registration fee was previously paid by the Registrant in connection with the filing of its Registration Statement on Form F-1 on September 4, 2020.

The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

 

 

 


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The information in this prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and it is not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any state where the offer or sale is not permitted.

 

Subject to Completion

Preliminary Prospectus dated September 28, 2020

P R O S P E C T U S

7,616,146 Ordinary Shares

(including Ordinary Shares in the form of American Depositary Shares)

 

LOGO

Orphazyme A/S

$        per American Depositary Share

DKK              per Ordinary Share

 

 

We are offering an aggregate of 7,616,146 of our ordinary shares in a global offering.

We are offering                ordinary shares in the form of                American Depositary Shares, or ADSs, in the United States, referred to herein as the U.S. offering. Each ADS represents the right to receive one ordinary share.

We are concurrently offering              ordinary shares in Europe in a private placement to qualified investors, as defined under the EU Prospectus Regulation 2017/1129, referred to herein as the European private placement.

This is the initial public offering of ADSs in the United States. The ADSs have been approved for listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “ORPH.”

Currently, our ordinary shares are listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen A/S, or Nasdaq Copenhagen, under the symbol “ORPHA.” The closing price of our ordinary shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen on September 17, 2020 was DKK 82.70 per ordinary share, which equals a price of $13.13 per ADS, based on an exchange rate of DKK 6.2967 per $1.00 as of September 17, 2020 and an ADS-to-ordinary share ratio of 1 to 1.

Currently, no public market exists for the ADSs. After pricing of the global offering, we expect that the ADSs will trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “ORPH.”

The closings of the U.S. offering and the European private placement, which are together referred to as the global offering, will occur substantially simultaneously. The number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) in the U.S. offering and the European private placement is subject to reallocation between these offerings to the extent permitted under applicable laws and regulations.

We are an “emerging growth company” as that term is used in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 and, as such, have elected to comply with certain reduced public company reporting requirements for this prospectus and future filings. See “Prospectus Summary—Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company” and “Prospectus Summary—Implications of Being a Foreign Private Issuer” for additional information.

Investing in the ordinary shares and ADSs involves risks that are described in the ‘‘Risk Factors’’ section beginning on page 15 of this prospectus.

 

 

 

    

Per Ordinary Share

      

Per ADS

      

Total (1)

 

Public offering price

     DKK        $          $    

Underwriting commission (2)

     DKK        $          $    

Proceeds, before expenses, to us

     DKK        $          $    

 

  (1)

Total gross proceeds from the global offering, including the European private placement, are $            . Such proceeds less underwriting commissions are $            .

  (2)

We refer you to “Underwriting” beginning on page 230 for additional information regarding underwriting compensation.

The underwriters may also exercise their option to purchase up to an additional 1,142,421 ordinary shares (which may be in the form of ADSs) from us, at the public offering price, less the underwriting commission, for 30 days after the date of this prospectus.

None of the Securities and Exchange Commission, any state securities commission, the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, nor any other foreign securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

The ordinary shares and ADSs will be ready for delivery on or about                , 2020.

 

 

Joint Book-Running Managers

 

BofA Securities   Cowen   Guggenheim Securities

Lead Manager

Danske Markets

 

 

The date of this prospectus is                , 2020.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

    

Page

 

ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS

     iii  

TRADEMARKS

     iii  

MARKET AND INDUSTRY DATA

     iii  

PRESENTATION OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION

     iv  

PROSPECTUS SUMMARY

     1  

SUMMARY CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA

     13  

RISK FACTORS

     15  

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

     77  

USE OF PROCEEDS

     80  

DIVIDEND POLICY

     82  

CAPITALIZATION

     83  

DILUTION

     85  

SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA

     88  

MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

     90  

BUSINESS

     106  

MANAGEMENT

     173  

PRINCIPAL SHAREHOLDERS

     188  

CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

     191  

DESCRIPTION OF SHARE CAPITAL AND ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION

     193  

DESCRIPTION OF AMERICAN DEPOSITARY SHARES

     208  

ORDINARY SHARES AND ADSS ELIGIBLE FOR FUTURE SALE

     217  

TAXATION

     219  

UNDERWRITING

     229  

EXPENSES OF THE GLOBAL OFFERING

     238  

LEGAL MATTERS

     239  

EXPERTS

     239  

SERVICE OF PROCESS AND ENFORCEMENT OF LIABILITIES

     239  

WHERE YOU CAN FIND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

     239  

INDEX TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

     F-1  

 

 

We and the underwriters have not authorized anyone to provide you any information other than that contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectus prepared by or on behalf of us or to which we have referred you. We and the underwriters take no responsibility for and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. We and the underwriters are not making an offer to sell these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. You should assume that the information appearing in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date on the front cover of this prospectus. Our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects may have changed since that date.

For investors outside of the United States: we have not and the underwriters have not done anything that would permit the global offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than the United States. Persons outside of the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the global offering of ordinary shares and ADSs and the distribution of this prospectus outside of the United States.

In accordance with applicable Danish law, we have prepared a Danish prospectus, or the Danish Prospectus. The Danish Prospectus will be made public on, or about,                , 2020. The Danish Prospectus is

 

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prepared for the sole purpose of satisfying applicable Danish securities legal and regulatory requirements in order to list the ordinary shares underlying the ADSs and the ordinary shares offered in this global offering on Nasdaq Copenhagen. The Danish Prospectus may not be relied upon for any other purposes, including with respect to the global offering of ordinary shares and ADSs by us or any other person. Neither we, our management team, our board of directors, our employees, our advisors, the underwriters nor any other person accept any liability for any information contained (or not contained) in the Danish Prospectus or for any inconsistencies with the contents of this prospectus.

 

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ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS

Unless otherwise indicated or the context otherwise requires, all references in this prospectus to the terms “Orphazyme,” “the Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Orphazyme A/S and its wholly owned subsidiaries. In this prospectus, any reference to any provision of any legislation shall include any amendment, modification, re-enactment or extension thereof. Words importing the singular shall include the plural and vice versa, and words importing the masculine gender shall include the feminine or neutral gender. All references to “shares” in this prospectus refer to ordinary shares of Orphazyme A/S with a nominal value of DKK 1 per share.

TRADEMARKS

This prospectus includes trademarks, tradenames and service marks, certain of which belong to us and others that are the property of other organizations. Solely for convenience, trademarks and tradenames referred to in this prospectus appear without the ® and symbols, but the absence of those references is not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert our rights or that the applicable owner will not assert its rights to these trademarks and tradenames to the fullest extent under applicable law. We do not intend our use or display of other parties’ trademarks, trade names or service marks to imply, and such use or display should not be construed to imply, a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, these other parties.

MARKET AND INDUSTRY DATA

This prospectus includes statistical and other industry and market data that we obtained from industry publications and research, surveys and studies conducted by third parties, as well estimates by our management based on such data. Management estimates are derived from publicly available information, our knowledge of our industry and assumptions based on such information and knowledge, which we believe to be reasonable. The market data and estimates used in this prospectus involve a number of assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to such data and estimates. We believe that the information from these industry publications, surveys and studies is reliable. The industry in which we operate is subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of important factors, including those described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the estimates made by the independent parties and by us.

 

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PRESENTATION OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION

This prospectus includes our audited consolidated financial statements as of and for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 and the related notes and unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements as of and for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019 and the related notes, which are collectively referred to as “consolidated financial statements” or “financial statements,” and can be found beginning on page F-1 of this prospectus.

We maintain our books and records in Danish kroner and we prepare our audited consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, or IASB. None of the consolidated financial statements in this prospectus were prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, or U.S. GAAP. All references in this prospectus to “$” are to U.S. dollars, to “DKK” are to Danish kroner and to “€” are to the Euro. Except with respect to U.S. dollar amounts presented as contractual terms, amounts denominated in U.S. dollars when received or paid and unless otherwise indicated, certain Danish kroner amounts contained in this prospectus have been translated into U.S. dollars at the rate of $1.00 to DKK 6.6318, which was the noon buying rate of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on June 30, 2020. Except with respect to Euros amounts presented as contractual terms, amounts denominated in Euros when received or paid and unless otherwise indicated, have been translated into Euros at the rate of €1.00 to DKK 7.4526, which was the noon buying rate of the European Central Bank on June 30, 2020. These translations should not be considered representations that any such amounts have been, could have been or could be converted into U.S. dollars or Danish kroner at that or any other exchange rate as of that or any other rate. We have made rounding adjustments to some of the figures included in this prospectus. Accordingly, numerical figures shown as totals in some tables may not be an arithmetic aggregation of the figures that preceded them.

 

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PROSPECTUS SUMMARY

This summary does not contain all of the information that may be important to you in making your investment decision. In addition to this summary, we urge you to read the entire prospectus carefully, especially the risks of investing in the ordinary shares and ADSs discussed under “Risk Factors,” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements contained elsewhere in this prospectus before deciding whether to invest in the ordinary shares and ADSs. The following summary is qualified in its entirety by, and should be read in conjunction with, the more detailed information and financial statements appearing elsewhere in this prospectus.

Overview

We are a late-stage biopharmaceutical company harnessing the amplification of Heat Shock Proteins, or HSPs, in order to develop and commercialize novel therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative orphan diseases. In September 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, accepted our new drug application, or NDA, for our product candidate, arimoclomol, for Niemann-Pick disease Type C, or NPC, with priority review. In the letter accepting the NDA, the FDA set a target action date of March 17, 2021 under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, or PDUFA, for completion of its review of our NDA. The FDA has also notified us that it has identified potential review issues that we may need to address before obtaining FDA approval, as discussed in “—Recent Developments”. We also intend to submit a marketing authorization application, or MAA, to the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, in the second half of 2020. Arimoclomol is also in registrational clinical trials for the treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS, and Sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis, or sIBM, and we intend to advance into pivotal-stage clinical development in neurological Gaucher disease. Arimoclomol is an orally- or naso/gastrically-administered small molecule that crosses the blood-brain barrier and is designed to selectively amplify the natural role of endogenous HSPs, which protect against cellular toxicity caused by protein misfolding, aggregation and lysosomal dysfunction. In our Phase 2/3 clinical trial of arimoclomol in NPC, we have observed evidence of slowing of disease progression, supporting our registration effort in the United States and Europe. Results observed in the Phase 2 clinical trials for ALS, sIBM and Gaucher disease demonstrated the potential of arimoclomol to slow the progression of such diseases, forming the basis of our ongoing registrational clinical trials in ALS and sIBM, as well as our intention to advance into pivotal-stage clinical development in neurological Gaucher disease. We also believe that arimoclomol has been well tolerated in clinical trials including more than 500 human subjects for various indications. We are committed to leveraging our deep scientific expertise in the field of HSPs and lysosomal biology, the unique benefits of arimoclomol and our commercial experience and infrastructure to dramatically transform the lives of underserved individuals living with devastating neurodegenerative orphan diseases.    

Arimoclomol functions by upregulating HSPs, which are molecular chaperones that are critical in the natural cellular response to stress, protein misfolding, aggregation and lysosomal dysfunction. We believe that arimoclomol is the first clinical product candidate to harness this mechanism of action for the treatment of lysosomal storage diseases, or LSDs, and neuromuscular diseases affecting the central nervous system, or CNS, and muscle. Arimoclomol is currently available to NPC patients in the United States through our early access program, or EAP, with nine patients on treatment as of September 18, 2020 and we have established and may in the future establish early access programs or compassionate use programs for same and other indications and in other locations. We are conducting clinical trials for arimoclomol in three additional indications, including a Phase 3 registrational clinical trial in ALS, for which we expect top-line results in the first half of 2021, a Phase 2/3 registrational clinical trial in sIBM, for which we expect top-line results in the first half of 2021, and a Phase 2 clinical trial in Gaucher disease, for which we announced top-line results in June 2020. We believe that each of these indications has a significant unmet medical need today, given the limited availability of effective therapies for NPC, ALS and neurological Gaucher disease and the lack of any approved drugs for sIBM. Both the FDA and the EMA have granted arimoclomol orphan drug designation for NPC, ALS and sIBM. The FDA has also



 

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granted arimoclomol fast track designation in NPC, ALS and sIBM, has designated arimoclomol as a breakthrough therapy in NPC and has granted arimoclomol a rare pediatric disease designation in NPC, potentially entitling us to a priority review voucher if arimoclomol is approved in NPC.

The following table summarizes the indications we are pursuing with arimoclomol, for which we have retained our full, worldwide, exclusive marketing and distribution rights.

 

LOGO

Our Product Candidate—Arimoclomol

Arimoclomol for the Treatment of Niemann-Pick Disease Type-C

Our most advanced program is for the treatment of NPC, a LSD. NPC is a rare, genetic and progressive disease that impairs the ability of the body to recycle cholesterol and other types of lipids, resulting in damage to the body’s tissues, including the brain. Symptoms of NPC usually occur during mid to late childhood, and include difficulties in swallowing, loss of speech and cognition, motor coordination and ambulation. In more aggressive forms, NPC is frequently fatal by the time patients reach their twenties. We estimate the incidence of NPC to be one in 100,000 live births. Based on these incidence rates, the number of NPC patients in the United States and in Europe is estimated to be approximately 1,800 individuals. Of these, we estimate that approximately 1,100 individuals have been diagnosed, of which approximately 300 are in the United States and approximately 800 are in Europe. However, diagnostic challenges may affect the number of potential patients, and we believe that the availability of treatment options could increase awareness of the disease and assist in identifying more cases. We believe that there is a significant unmet need for new treatments for NPC due to the side effects, limited availability and efficacy of the existing treatment options. In our registrational Phase 2/3 clinical trial for NPC, arimoclomol was observed to be well-tolerated and demonstrated a benefit over placebo and routine clinical care using the 5-domain NPC clinical severity score, or NPCCSS, the key primary endpoint, corresponding to a 63% relative reduction in disease progression (p=0.0537). The 5-domain NPCCSS is a disease-specific and validated measure of disease progression refined by us with disease opinion leaders, consisting of the five clinically most relevant domains to patients with NPC, caregivers and physicians. Arimoclomol demonstrated a statistically significant benefit over placebo using the 5-domain NPCCSS score when excluding three patients with double functional null mutations, corresponding to a 77% relative reduction in disease progression (p=0.0242); in patients aged ³ 4 years, corresponding to an 80% relative reduction in disease progression (p=0.0189); and in patients also receiving miglustat (corresponding to a 101% reduction in disease progression over routine care including miglustat (p=0.0074)).

Arimoclomol for the Treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

We are also developing arimoclomol for the treatment of ALS. ALS, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rapidly progressing neurological disease with the onset of symptoms typically occurring between 40 to 70 years of age, with patient mortality occurring in most patients within three to five years of



 

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disease onset. ALS attacks neurons responsible for controlling voluntary muscles, resulting in muscle weakness in limbs, and impacts speaking, chewing, swallowing and breathing, leading to progressive disability and eventually death, typically from respiratory failure and aspiration pneumonia. In addition, up to 50% of ALS patients develop cognitive impairment associated with frontotemporal dementia. According to the ALS Association, the incidence of ALS in the United States is estimated to be two per 100,000 within the general population and prevalence is estimated to be between five and seven cases within a population of 100,000, equating to approximately 20,000 patients in the United States and 30,000 patients in Europe. 5,000 new ALS patients are diagnosed each year in the United States. ALS affects men to women at a ratio of 3:2. There are currently a limited number of treatments available for ALS, with disease management predominantly focused on treatment of symptoms and supportive care. Riluzole, developed by Sanofi, was the first drug to be approved by the FDA for the treatment of ALS more than 20 years ago, but has been shown to prolong survival by just two to three months. In May 2017, the FDA approved Edaravone, which has been shown to slow functional decline in ALS patients, but is administered through a burdensome intravenous regimen. Non-invasive ventilation has also been shown to support against respiratory failure, improve quality of life, and potentially increase survival by around seven months. We believe there is a significant unmet need for new effective treatments for patients suffering from ALS in order to improve the clinical course of their disease and extend their survival. In a Phase 2 clinical trial of arimoclomol for the treatment of ALS and in a Phase 2/3 clinical trial for the treatment of superoxide dismutase 1, or SOD1, ALS, arimoclomol was observed to be well tolerated, and showed positive trends across clinical endpoints, including a 30% and 28% slowing of disease progression, respectively, as measured by the ALS Functional Rating Scale, or ALSFRS-R, from baseline, when compared to a historical control group. The ALSFRS-R is an instrument for evaluating the functional status of patients with ALS, including respiratory function. Based on these results, we are conducting a Phase 3 registrational trial of arimoclomol for ALS, for which we expect to report top-line results in the first half of 2021.

Arimoclomol for the Treatment of Sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis

In addition, we are developing arimoclomol for the treatment of sIBM. sIBM is an acquired, rare and slowly progressive muscle disorder. The onset of symptoms occurs on average after age 50, with up to three of every four cases occurring in men. Many patients with sIBM will suffer loss of fine motor skills such as writing, grooming and the ability to eat unaided, and it is associated with significant morbidity including a propensity to fall, difficulty swallowing and severe disability. Patients with sIBM may also require use of a walking stick as early as five years after symptom onset and become wheelchair dependent and severely disabled within 10 to 15 years. In a recent systematic review, the prevalence of sIBM has been estimated to be 4.6 per 100,000 people, equating to an estimated 40,000 individuals living with sIBM in the United States and Europe combined. sIBM is distinct in its presentation, most commonly affecting muscles of the thigh and forearm, and immunosuppressive treatments have not been shown to be effective, despite evidence of inflammatory pathology. There is a prominent degenerative element to the disease and muscle biopsies reveal the presence of myotoxic protein aggregates (inclusions). There are currently no effective or approved treatments for sIBM. In a Phase 2 clinical trial of arimoclomol for the treatment of sIBM, arimoclomol was observed to be well tolerated and demonstrated a slowing in the rate of disease progression as measured on the Inclusion Body Myositis functional rating scale, or IBMFRS, with a 60% reduction in progression at four months when compared to placebo. This was shown to persist for several months beyond the 4 month treatment period (72.8% reduction at 8-months, p=0.055). Typically, sIBM patients progress by losing up to 2.0 to 2.5 points on the IBMFRS score per eight months. Based on these results, we are conducting a Phase 2/3 registrational trial in sIBM, for which we expect top-line results in the first half of 2021.

Arimoclomol for the Treatment of Neurological Gaucher Disease

We are also developing arimoclomol for the treatment of neurological manifestations of Gaucher disease. Gaucher disease is a rare, inherited metabolic disorder causing certain sugar containing fats to abnormally accumulate in the lysosomes of cells, especially within cells of the blood system and nerve cells, thereby affecting organs such as the brain, bone marrow, spleen and liver. The typical systemic symptoms of



 

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Gaucher disease, which can appear at any age, include an abnormally enlarged liver and/or spleen and low levels of circulating red blood cells and platelets. These systemic symptoms are generally treated by existing enzyme replacement therapy, or ERT, and substrate reduction therapy, or SRT. The neurological symptoms, although heterogeneous, may include muscle rigidity, loss of movement, seizures, cognitive impairment and vision problems and are insufficiently treated by these therapies, given their limited ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. Gaucher disease is the most common LSD, with an estimated incidence of one in 50,000, and affects up to an estimated 15,000 individuals in the United States and Europe combined. Gaucher disease has three subtypes, which are, in part, distinguished by the presence or absence of neurological symptoms. Type 1 Gaucher disease is the most common form of the disease, can occur at any age and initially do not present with neurological symptoms. It is now estimated that up to 30% of patients diagnosed with Gaucher Type 1 develop neurological symptoms later in life, including 5% to 7% showing Parkinsonism symptoms. We believe this is due to individuals with Gaucher Type 1 living much longer as a result of availability of ERT and SRT therapy. Patients with Gaucher disease Type 2 or Type 3 present with acute neurological symptoms (Type 2) or develop chronic neurological disease (Type 3). Results of preclinical studies demonstrated an increase in HSP70, a key member of the HSP family, and refolding, maturation and correct intracellular localization of glucocerebrosidase, or GCase, an enzyme responsible for breaking down certain lipids and for which reduced activity causes Gaucher disease. Based on these results, we initiated a randomized, double-blinded, dose-ranging Phase 2 clinical trial of arimoclomol for the treatment of neurological Gaucher disease in June 2018, which completed enrollment in August 2019. We reported top-line Phase 2 results in June 2020, in which arimoclomol was observed to be well-tolerated and demonstrated a relative reduction in serum chitotriosidase activity from baseline to six months, the primary endpoint, across all dosages compared to placebo ranging from -12% to -29%, although statistical significance was not achieved (p=0.4). However, we observed a statistically significant and dose-dependent reduction in liver size ranging from -15% to -20% relative to placebo (dose trend analysis p<0.05). Based on these results, we intend to advance into pivotal-stage clinical development for arimoclomol in neurological Gaucher disease.

Our Commercial Organization, Leadership Team and Intellectual Property Position

If we are successful in our initial indications of NPC, ALS, sIBM and neurological Gaucher disease, we estimate that arimoclomol could benefit up to approximately 100,000 patients in the United States and Europe. However, based on the significant data we have generated to date, we believe that arimoclomol’s unique mechanism of action has potential therapeutic application across a broader range of lysosomal and neurodegenerative orphan diseases, several of which address significantly larger patient populations and target markets than those we are currently pursuing in our clinical development programs. Beyond the registrational clinical trials in ALS and sIBM, we are undertaking preclinical studies to explore and inform us on the opportunity to address additional indications, including GCase-deficient Parkinson’s disease among others. If we are also successful in the GCase-deficient Parkinson’s disease indication in addition to the other four initial indications, we estimate that arimoclomol could benefit up to approximately 500,000 patients in the United States and Europe.

We are currently building a highly specialized commercial sales organization in anticipation of a potential launch of arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC in the United States and Europe. Our plans include having a commercial infrastructure that is supported by high-touch patient support initiatives and established relationships with the concentrated number of treatment centers that address NPC in advance of a potential launch in the United States. We have had significant and positive engagement with payors, physicians and patient advocacy organizations. We have already successfully established our EAP for NPC patients, which continues to provide us with significant insights to enhance our broader commercial readiness plans. In NPC, there are approximately 25 to 50 highly specialized centers in the United States and Europe that cover the vast majority of patients, and we believe this market can be effectively addressed with our own targeted commercial field force of approximately 20 to 30 representatives. If arimoclomol is approved for additional diseases, we plan to leverage



 

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our core orphan disease commercial infrastructure and expertise to efficiently address the relevant patient populations. We are also actively engaging with key ALS, sIBM and Gaucher disease patient advocacy groups.

We were founded in 2009 based on a scientific discovery published in Nature on the function of HSPs co-authored by Dr. Thomas Kirkegaard Jensen, who serves as our Chief Scientific Officer. We are led by our Chief Executive Officer, Kim Stratton, our Chief Financial Officer, Anders Vadsholt, our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Thomas Blaettler, and Dr. Jensen. Each member of our management team has extensive experience in the global biopharmaceutical industry. Our management team’s experience in clinical drug development, manufacture and commercialization, particularly in the rare disease drug space, provide us with valuable insights that we believe will help us maximize the value of arimoclomol and our foundational expertise in HSPs. Our management team has a highly successful track record of launching and commercializing products in more than fifteen rare diseases across the United States and international markets at leading global pharmaceutical firms such as Shire Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Roche and Bristol-Myers Squibb. We are supported by leading global life sciences investors, including Consonance Capital, Coöperative Aescap Ventures, Sunstone Life Science Ventures and, through a joint investment vehicle Orpha Pooling N.V., Life Science Partners and the ALS Investment Fund. Our board of directors also includes industry experts with experience at companies focused on rare diseases, including Genzyme and Swedish Orphan Biovitrum. We completed the initial public offering of our ordinary shares in Denmark in November 2017. Our ordinary shares currently trade on Nasdaq Copenhagen under the symbol “ORPHA.” Our initial public offering in Denmark raised gross proceeds of DKK 600 million ($90 million). In February 2020, we also raised gross proceeds of DKK 745 million ($112 million) in a directed issue and private placement in Europe and the United States.

We have retained our exclusive worldwide marketing and distribution rights, and we have a patent portfolio covering the use of arimoclomol in the treatment of NPC and Gaucher disease until 2029, with possible extensions to 2032 in the United States and 2034 in the European Union based on method of use patents, and for the treatment of ALS until 2024, as well as orphan drug exclusivity, if approved, for seven years in the United States and ten years in the European Union for NPC, ALS and sIBM.

Our Competitive Strengths

We believe we have the potential to transform the lives of underserved individuals living with devastating neurodegenerative orphan diseases. Our key competitive strengths include:

 

   

Deep scientific expertise and discovery capabilities in the field of HSPs and lysosomal biology

 

   

Our product candidate, arimoclomol, which has exhibited compelling results in clinical trials of neurodegenerative orphan diseases

 

   

Potential near-term approval of arimoclomol in our first targeted ultra-orphan indication of NPC

 

   

Arimoclomol’s pipeline-in-a-product potential, with registrational clinical trials ongoing in two additional orphan indications and our intention to advance into pivotal-stage clinical development in a third

 

   

A highly experienced, rare disease focused management team

 

   

Multiple regulatory designations that support the importance of arimoclomol and potentially provide accelerated approval pathways

 

   

Exclusive worldwide marketing and distribution rights, supported by intellectual property protections and additional regulatory exclusivity protections



 

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Our Strategy

Our goal is to leverage our deep scientific expertise in the field of HSPs and lysosomal biology, the unique benefits of arimoclomol and our commercial experience and infrastructure to dramatically transform the lives of underserved individuals living with devastating neurodegenerative orphan diseases. The key pillars of our business strategy include:

 

   

Secure regulatory approvals in the United States and European Union for arimoclomol in NPC

 

   

Maximize the commercial potential of arimoclomol in NPC and beyond

 

   

Complete registrational studies and obtain regulatory approval of arimoclomol for ALS and sIBM and advance into pivotal-stage clinical development in Gaucher disease

 

   

Actively expand and advance our pipeline, including developing arimoclomol for additional indications and discovering additional new molecular entities

Recent Developments

In September 2020, the FDA accepted our NDA for arimoclomol for NPC with priority review. In the letter accepting the NDA, the FDA set a target action date of March 17, 2021 under the PDUFA for completion of its review of our NDA. On September 24, 2020, we received a filing communication from the FDA in connection with our NDA for arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC in which the FDA summarized six potential review issues, four of which we have previously discussed with the FDA, including the FDA’s continuing evaluation of the integrity of data from our Phase 2/3 trial for NPC; the effect of the high degree of concomitant miglustat use in our Phase 2/3 trial for NPC on its ability to determine the safety and efficacy of arimoclomol, which could have potential implications for labeling/recommended dosing and post-marketing studies; the proposed primary hypothetical treatment effect used in our Phase 2/3 trial for NPC to estimate the treatment benefit effect; the meaningfulness of one metric utilized to evaluate patient progress in our Phase 2/3 trial of NPC; the timing of submission of the QTc and other study reports to the FDA, including in light of evidence suggesting a potential QT safety signal; and differences among the formulations of arimoclomol used in our Phase 2/3 trial of NPC as compared to the formulation of arimoclomol to be marketed. The FDA has requested that we submit reports from the QTc clinical trial by October 1, 2020 and that, given the priority review timeline and both nonclinical and clinical evidence suggesting a potential QT safety signal, submission of these reports after that date may not allow the FDA sufficient time to review. In a preclinical study, we observed a potential QT signal in dogs at a level of arimoclomol exposure that is 28 times higher than the level of exposure in humans in our Phase 2/3 trial in NPC. To date, we are not aware of any clinical evidence of a potential QT signal related to arimoclomol. We do not anticipate being able to submit the reports by October 1, 2020, which may negatively impact our development timeline.

The filing communication constitutes preliminary notice from the FDA of potential review issues as part of its ordinary course review of our NDA and is not necessarily indicative of deficiencies that may be identified during the review. We intend to discuss the filing communication with the FDA. The receipt of the filing communication does not impact the FDA’s acceptance of the NDA for arimoclomol, the target PDUFA date or the priority review determination. However, we cannot assure you that such issues will not result in a delay of any potential approval of arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC by the FDA or a determination by the FDA not to approve the product candidate for marketing in the United States.

Risks Associated With Our Business

Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those highlighted in the section titled “Risk Factors” immediately following this prospectus summary. Some of these risks are:

 

   

We have not received approval for any product candidate for commercial sale and, as a result, we have never generated any revenue and have incurred significant financial losses, and expect to continue to incur significant financial losses in the future, which makes it difficult to assess our future viability.



 

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Even if the global offering is successful, we will require additional capital in the future, which may not be available to us on commercially favorable terms, or at all.

 

   

Our business, operations and clinical development plans and timelines could be adversely affected by the effects of health epidemics, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic, on the manufacturing, clinical trial and other business activities performed by us or by third parties with whom we conduct business, including our contract manufacturers, contract research organizations, or CROs, shippers and others.

 

   

Clinical trials being conducted to test our product candidate, arimoclomol, may not obtain the desired safety and efficacy results or may be delayed or more costly than anticipated. In addition, our completed clinical trials have been small, each with less than 100 persons; in larger clinical trials, additional risks, including safety risks or lack of efficacy, may materialize.

 

   

As we have focused our efforts on the development of arimoclomol, we are currently highly dependent on obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval for arimoclomol and the potential success of this one product candidate.

 

   

Because we are developing arimoclomol for the treatment of diseases in which there is little clinical experience, the FDA or other regulatory authorities may not consider the endpoints of our clinical trials to predict or provide clinically meaningful results.

 

   

Arimoclomol may be shown to cause undesirable side effects or other adverse events that could delay or prevent its regulatory approval, limit its commercial profile or result in significant negative consequences following regulatory approval, if such approval is granted.

 

   

Fast track, orphan drug, and breakthrough therapy designation by the FDA and EMA may not actually lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process, and does not assure or increase the likelihood of FDA or EMA approval of arimoclomol.

 

   

Even if arimoclomol receives marketing approval, we may not be successful in our commercialization efforts and arimoclomol may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, healthcare payors and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.

 

   

If we are unable to achieve and maintain adequate levels of coverage or reimbursement for arimoclomol, if commercialized, or any future product candidates we may seek to commercialize, or if patients are left with significant out-of-pocket costs, our commercial success may be severely hindered.

 

   

We are currently dependent on third parties for manufacturing arimoclomol. If such third-party manufacturers do not deliver their manufactured products in time, this could have a material adverse effect on our business.

 

   

Our business operations and current and future relationships with healthcare professionals, principal investigators, consultants, customers and third-party payors in the United States and elsewhere may be subject, directly or indirectly, to applicable anti-kickback, fraud and abuse, false claims, physician payment transparency, health information privacy and security and other healthcare laws and regulations, which could expose us to substantial penalties.



 

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If we are unable to obtain and maintain our marketing and distribution rights for arimoclomol, as well as patent protection for our technology and current or future product candidates, if we are unable to obtain or maintain orphan drug designation, if we are unable to benefit from orphan drug exclusivity, or if the scope of the marketing and distribution rights or patent protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, we may not be able to compete effectively in our markets.

 

   

We may not be able to attract, integrate, manage and retain qualified personnel or key employees or our employees may not be able to come to work as a result of COVID-19.

 

   

As a foreign private issuer and as permitted by the listing requirements of Nasdaq, we will rely on certain home country corporate governance practices rather than the corporate governance requirements of Nasdaq.

Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company

As a company with less than $1.07 billion in revenue during our last fiscal year, we qualify as an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act. An emerging growth company may take advantage of specified reduced reporting and other burdens that are otherwise applicable generally to public companies. These provisions include:

 

   

a requirement to include only two years of audited financial statements and only two years of related Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations disclosure; and

 

   

an exemption from the auditor attestation requirement in the assessment of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

We may choose to take advantage of some but not all of these reduced burdens, and therefore the information that we provide holders of ordinary shares and ADSs may be different than the information you might receive from other public companies in which you hold equity. In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of an extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards applicable to public companies in the United States. As a public company in Denmark, we are unable to take advantage of the extended transition period.

We may take advantage of these provisions for up to five years from the initial public offering of our ADSs or such earlier time that we are no longer an emerging growth company. We will cease to be an emerging growth company upon the earliest of the following:

 

   

the last day of the first fiscal year in which our annual revenues were at least $1.07 billion;

 

   

the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the initial public offering of our ADSs;

 

   

the date on which we have issued more than $1 billion of non-convertible debt securities over a three-year period; and

 

   

the last day of the fiscal year during which we meet the following conditions: (i) the worldwide market value of our common equity securities held by non-affiliates as of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter is at least $700 million, (ii) we have been subject to U.S. public company reporting requirements for at least 12 months and (iii) we have filed at least one annual report as a U.S. public company.



 

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Implications of Being a Foreign Private Issuer

Upon the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, we will report under the Exchange Act as a non-U.S. company with foreign private issuer status. Even after we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, as long as we continue to qualify as a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act, we will be exempt from certain provisions of the Exchange Act that are applicable to U.S. domestic public companies, including:

 

   

the sections of the Exchange Act regulating the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations in respect of a security registered under the Exchange Act;

 

   

the sections of the Exchange Act requiring insiders to file public reports of their stock ownership and trading activities and liability for insiders who profit from trades made in a short period of time; and

 

   

the rules under the Exchange Act requiring the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, of quarterly reports on Form 10-Q containing unaudited financial and other specified information, or current reports on Form 8-K, upon the occurrence of specified significant events.

In addition, we will not be required to file annual reports and financial statements with the SEC as promptly as U.S. domestic companies whose securities are registered under the Exchange Act, and are not required to comply with Regulation FD, which restricts the selective disclosure of material information.

Both foreign private issuers and emerging growth companies are also exempt from certain more stringent executive compensation disclosure rules for U.S. public companies under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Even if we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, so long as we remain a foreign private issuer, we will continue to be exempt from such compensation disclosures.

Corporate History and Information

We were incorporated on June 19, 2009 as a private limited liability company under Danish law and later converted into a Danish public limited liability company on October 20, 2017. We are registered with the Danish Business Authority (Erhvervsstyrelsen) in Copenhagen, Denmark under company registration number (CVR) no. 32266355. We were publicly listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen in November 2017.

Our headquarters and principal executive offices are located at Ole Maaløes Vej 3, DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark, and our telephone number is +45 39 17 82 72. Our website address is www.orphazyme.com. The information contained on, or accessible through, our website is not incorporated by reference into this prospectus, and you should not consider any information contained in, or that can be accessed through, our website as part of this prospectus or in deciding whether to purchase ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) in the global offering. We have included our website address as an inactive textual reference only.



 

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THE GLOBAL OFFERING

 

Global Offering

7,616,146 ordinary shares offered by us, consisting of              ordinary shares in the form of ADSs offered in the U.S. offering and              ordinary shares offered in the European private placement. The closings of the U.S. offering and the European private placement will occur substantially simultaneously. The total number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) in the U.S. offering and the European private placement is subject to reallocation between these offerings to the extent permitted under applicable laws and regulations.

 

U.S. Offering

            ADSs, representing                ordinary shares.

 

European private placement

                ordinary shares.

 

Ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) to be outstanding immediately after the global offering

34,661,075 ordinary shares (or 35,803,486 ordinary shares if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase an additional 1,142,421 ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs)).

 

Underwriters’ option to purchase additional ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs)

The underwriters have an option, exercisable within 30 days from the date of this prospectus, to purchase up to 1,142,421 additional ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs).

 

American Depositary Shares

Each ADS represents one ordinary share and as such, any sale of ADSs will be reflected in the amount of the new ordinary shares which we will issue and for which the underwriters will subscribe.

 

 

The depositary will hold ordinary shares underlying your ADSs. As an ADS holder, you will not be treated as one of our shareholders, you will not have shareholder rights and you may not be able to exercise your right to vote the shares underlying your ADSs. You will have the contractual rights of an ADS holder, as provided in the deposit agreement among us, the depositary and holders and beneficial owners of ADSs from time to time. ADS holders may only exercise voting rights with respect to the shares underlying the ADSs in accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement, which will provide that a holder may vote the shares underlying any ADSs for any particular matter to be voted on by our shareholders either by withdrawing the shares underlying the ADSs or by instructing the depositary how to vote those shares. Our articles of association permit differentiated voting, allowing the depositary to vote the shares registered in its name that underlie the ADSs in a manner that is not



 

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identical. As a result, the depositary will be able to vote such shares in a manner to reflect the preferences of the ADS holders, thereby effectively permitting pass-through voting by ADS holders who indicate their preference to the depositary in accordance with and subject to the depositary’s procedures. The depositary will try, to the extent practical, to vote the shares underlying the ADSs as instructed by the ADS holders.

 

  You may surrender your ADSs to the depositary for cancellation in exchange for ordinary shares. The depositary will charge you fees for any cancellation.

 

  We may amend or terminate the deposit agreement without your consent. If you continue to hold your ADSs after an amendment to the deposit agreement, you agree to be bound by the deposit agreement as amended.

 

  To better understand the terms of the ADSs, you should carefully read the “Description of American Depositary Shares” section of this prospectus. You should also read the deposit agreement, which is filed as an exhibit to the registration statement that includes this prospectus.

 

ADS depositary

The Bank of New York Mellon.

 

Use of proceeds

We estimate that the net proceeds to us from the global offering, after deducting the estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, to be approximately $90.4 million, or $104.4 million if the underwriters exercise their option in full to purchase additional ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs), based on an assumed initial offering price of DKK 82.70 ($13.13 per ADS), which was the last reported sale price of our ordinary shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen on September 17, 2020 (assuming a DKK/U.S. dollar exchange rate of 6.2967 DKK per $1.00 as of September 17, 2020.

 

  We intend to use the net proceeds from the global offering, together with our existing cash, to continue the regulatory approval process for and fund the commercial launch, if approved, of arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC, advance the clinical development of arimoclomol for the treatment of ALS, sIBM and neurological Gaucher disease and for working capital and general corporate purposes, including to fund the development of our next generation of HSP amplifiers.

 

  See “Use of Proceeds” for a more complete description of the intended use of proceeds from the global offering.

 

Dividend Policy

We do not expect to pay dividends in the foreseeable future. If, however, we declare dividends on our ordinary shares, the depositary will distribute the cash dividends and other distributions it receives on



 

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our ordinary shares after deducting its fees and expenses in accordance with the terms set forth in the deposit agreement.

 

Risk factors

See “Risk Factors” and the other information included in this prospectus for a discussion of factors you should carefully consider before deciding to invest in the ADSs.

 

Listing

The ADSs have been approved for listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “ORPH.” Our ordinary shares are admitted to trading on Nasdaq Copenhagen under the symbol “ORPHA.”

The number of ordinary shares to be outstanding after the global offering is based on 27,044,929 of our ordinary shares outstanding as of June 30, 2020 and excludes:

 

   

subject to certain vesting criteria being satisfied, up to 242,950 ordinary shares that may be issued to cover the delivery of shares to participants of our long-term incentive program, or the LTIP, as of June 30, 2020;

 

   

up to 26,336 ordinary shares underlying unvested or unexercised restricted share units, or RSUs, as of June 30, 2020; and

 

   

bonus shares that we have agreed to issue pursuant to a license agreement with the University of Kansas and UCL Business PLC as described in “Business—Material Agreements.”

Unless otherwise indicated, all information contained in this prospectus also reflects and does not take into account:

 

   

any issuance of ordinary shares to cover our obligations under the LTIP and additional grants under the LTIP or any additional grants of RSUs after June 30, 2020; and

 

   

any exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase up to 1,142,421 additional ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) in the global offering.



 

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SUMMARY CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA

The following tables set forth our summary consolidated financial data for the periods indicated. We have derived the summary consolidated statements of profit or loss and other comprehensive income data for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. We have derived the summary consolidated statements of profit or loss and other comprehensive income data for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019 and the summary consolidated statements of financial position data as of June 30, 2020 from the unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. We have prepared the unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements on the same basis as the audited consolidated financial statements, and the unaudited financial data include all adjustments, consisting only of normal recurring adjustments, that we consider necessary for a fair presentation of our consolidated financial position and results of operations as of and for the periods presented.

Our consolidated financial statements are prepared and presented in accordance with IFRS, as issued by the IASB. IFRS differ in certain significant respects from U.S. GAAP. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of results expected for future periods and our operating results for the six months ended June 30, 2020 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the entire year ending December 31, 2020.

The summary consolidated financial data set forth below should be read together with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes to those statements, as well as the sections of this prospectus titled “Capitalization,” “Selected Consolidated Financial Data” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

Summary Consolidated Statements of Profit or Loss and Other Comprehensive Income Data:

 

    

Six Months Ended

June 30,

   

Years Ended

December 31,

 
(In thousands, except per share data)   

2020

   

2019

   

2019

   

2018

 
    

$ (1)

   

DKK

   

DKK

   

$ (1)

   

DKK

   

DKK

 

Research and development expenses

     (25,179     (166,980     (141,710     (43,037     (285,413     (196,525

General and administrative expenses

     (11,848     (78,575     (23,345     (7,621     (50,541     (35,127

Operating loss

     (37,027     (245,555     (165,055     (50,658     (335,954     (231,652

Financial income

     19       126       152       48       316       5  

Financial expenses

     (1,201     (7,967     (1,500     (1,110     (7,359     (3,453
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Loss before tax

     (38,209     (253,396     (166,403     (51,720     (342,997     (235,100

Income tax benefit

     299       1,981       2,495       829       5,500       5,500  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net loss for the period

     (37,911     (251,415     (163,908     (50,891     (337,497     (229,600
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Exchange difference from translation of foreign operation, net of tax DKK 0

     (20     (135     (19     10       67       42  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total comprehensive loss

     (37,930     (251,550     (163,927     (50,881     (337,430     (229,558
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Loss per share (2)

            

Basic loss per share

     (1.49     (9.88     (8.20     (2.54     (16.87     (11.49
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Diluted loss per share

     (1.49     (9.88     (8.20     (2.54     (16.87     (11.49
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

(1)

Translated solely for convenience into U.S. dollars at an assumed exchange rate of DKK 6.6318 per $1.00, which was the rounded official exchange rate of such currencies as of June 30, 2020.



 

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(2)

See Note 4.3 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus for further details regarding the calculation of basic and diluted loss per share.

Summary Consolidated Statement of Financial Position:

 

    

As of June 30, 2020

 

(In thousands)

  

Actual

    

As Adjusted (2)

 
    

$ (1)

    

DKK

    

$ (1)

    

DKK

 

Cash

     92,049        610,448        177,907        1,179,842  

Working capital (3)

     77,865        516,384        163,723        1,085,778  

Total assets

     101,987        676,360        187,846        1,245,754  

Share capital

     4,078        27,045        5,227        34,661  

Total equity

     76,319        506,135        162,178        1,075,529  

 

(1)

Translated solely for convenience into U.S. dollars at an assumed exchange rate of DKK 6.6318 per $1.00, which was the rounded official exchange rate of such currencies as of June 30, 2020.

(2)

Gives effect to the sale of 7,616,146 ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) in the global offering at the assumed initial offering price of DKK 82.70 per ordinary share, which was the last reported sale price of our ordinary shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen on September 17, 2020.

(3)

We define working capital as current assets less current liabilities.

The as adjusted information discussed above is illustrative only and will be adjusted based on the actual initial offering price and other terms of our global offering determined at pricing. Each DKK 6.2967 ($1.00) increase or decrease in the assumed initial offering price of DKK 82.70 per ordinary share ($13.13 per ADS), which was the last reported sale price of our ordinary shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen on September 17, 2020 (assuming a DKK/U.S. dollar exchange rate of 6.2967 DKK per $1.00 as of September 17, 2020), would increase or decrease, as applicable, the as adjusted amount of each of cash, working capital, total assets, total liabilities and total equity by DKK 44.6 million ($7.1 million), assuming that the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable to us. Similarly, each increase or decrease of 1.0 million ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) offered by us at the assumed initial offering price would increase or decrease, as applicable, each of cash, working capital, total assets and total equity by DKK 76.9 million ($12.2 million), assuming the assumed initial offering price of DKK 82.70 per ordinary share ($13.13 per ADS), which was the last reported sale price of our ordinary shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen on September 17, 2020 (assuming a DKK/U.S. dollar exchange rate of 6.2967 DKK per $1.00 as of September 17, 2020), remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.



 

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RISK FACTORS

Investing in our ordinary shares and ADSs involves a high degree of risk. Before you invest in the ordinary shares or ADSs, you should carefully consider the risks described below together with all of the other information contained in this prospectus, including our financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus and the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects could suffer materially. In such event, the trading price of the ordinary shares and ADSs could decline, which would cause you to lose all or part of your investment. Please also see “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”

Risks Related to our Financial Position and Capital Needs

We have not received approval for any product candidate for commercial sale and, as a result, we have never generated any revenue and have incurred significant financial losses, and expect to continue to incur significant financial losses in the future, which makes it difficult to assess our future viability.

We have not had any product candidates approved for commercial sale. Biopharmaceutical product development is a highly speculative undertaking and involves a substantial degree of risk, including risks related to the regulatory approval process for arimoclomol. To date, we have focused on research and development activities on developing arimoclomol, as described in “Business.” Since our inception in 2009, we have incurred significant losses, which have substantially resulted from costs related to our research and development programs and general and administrative activities. Our net loss for the year ended December 31, 2019 was DKK 337.5 million ($50.9 million) and for the six months ended June 30, 2020 was DKK 251.4 million ($37.9 million). Going forward, we expect to continue to incur significant losses from our operations.

We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if, and as, we, for instance:

 

   

continue the ongoing and planned development of arimoclomol for multiple indications;

 

   

initiate, conduct and complete ongoing, anticipated or future preclinical studies and clinical trials for our current and future product candidates;

 

   

seek marketing approvals for product candidates that successfully complete clinical trials;

 

   

pay milestone and royalty fees to CytRx Corporation, or CytRx, and other third parties from whom we have licensed intellectual property in accordance with the terms of the applicable license agreement;

 

   

establish a sales, marketing and distribution infrastructure to commercialize products for which we may obtain marketing approval;

 

   

continue to build a portfolio of product candidates through the acquisition or in-license of product candidates or technologies;

 

   

add operational, financial and management information systems and personnel, including personnel to support our product development and planned future commercialization efforts; and

 

   

incur additional legal, accounting and other expenses associated with operating as a dual-listed public company.

 

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If annual operating expenses increase significantly over the next several years and we are not able to commercialize our product candidate, we will have less financial resources available for our other business prospects, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Even if the global offering is successful, we will require additional capital in the future, which may not be available to us on commercially favorable terms, or at all.

We expect to incur significant expenses and operating losses over the next several years and we will need to raise additional capital in the future. We have so far been financed by funds provided by debt providers or invested by our shareholders. Based on the current operating plan and the existing capital resources together with the anticipated net proceeds from the global offering, we expect to be able to fund our operating plan for at least the next 24 months. However, the operating plan may change as a result of many factors currently unknown, and it may be necessary to seek additional funds sooner than anticipated. The future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including the progress, timing, scope, results and costs of our preclinical studies and clinical trials, including the ability to enroll patients in a timely manner for clinical trials as well as the time and cost necessary to obtain regulatory approvals for arimoclomol and any future product candidates. For example, we will require additional capital in the future in order to obtain regulatory approval for arimoclomol in ALS and sIBM. In addition, funding requirements will also depend on the progress in commercialization and promotion of arimoclomol as well as the manufacturing, selling and marketing costs associated with arimoclomol, including the cost and timing of building sales and marketing capabilities. This extends to the sales price and the availability of adequate third-party coverage and reimbursement for our products, the number and scope of preclinical and discovery programs that we may decide to pursue or initiate, the time and cost necessary to respond to technological and market developments and the costs of filing, prosecuting, maintaining, defending and enforcing any patent claims and other intellectual property rights, including litigation costs and the outcome of such litigation. We may also engage in future acquisitions or strategic partnerships, which may increase our capital requirements, dilute our shareholders if we issue equity securities, cause us to incur debt or assume contingent liabilities, divert management’s attention and subject us to other risks.

We may seek to raise new capital in the future through public or private debt or equity financings by issuing additional ordinary shares or ADSs, debt or equity securities convertible into shares, or rights to acquire these securities.

Any additional financing that we could seek may not be available on favorable terms or at all. For example, while the potential impact and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy and our business in particular may be difficult to assess or predict, the pandemic has resulted in, and may continue to result in significant disruption of global financial markets, reducing our ability to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our future plans and our ability to execute our strategy could be adversely affected, which in turn could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Our business, operations and clinical development plans and timelines could be adversely affected by the effects of health epidemics, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic, on the manufacturing, clinical trial and other business activities performed by us or by third parties with whom we conduct business, including our contract manufacturers, CROs, shippers and others.

Our business has been and could be further adversely affected by health epidemics wherever we have clinical trial sites or other business operations. In addition, health epidemics could cause significant disruption in the operations of third-party manufacturers, CROs and other third parties upon whom we rely. For example, in December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, causing a disease referred to as COVID-19, was

 

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reported to have surfaced in Wuhan, China. Since then, COVID-19 has spread to multiple countries worldwide, including the United States. In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, and the U.S. government ordered the closure of all non-essential businesses, imposed social distancing measures, “shelter-in-place” orders and restrictions on travel between the United States, Europe and certain other countries. The global pandemic and government measures taken in response have also had a significant impact on businesses and commerce worldwide, as worker shortages have occurred; supply chains have been disrupted; facilities and production have been suspended across a variety of industries; and demand for certain goods and services, such as medical services and supplies, has spiked, while demand for other goods and services, such as travel, has fallen. On March 18, 2020 the FDA issued updated industry guidance for conducting clinical trials during the COVID-19 pandemic, which requires clinical trial sponsors to consider the need to delay or cease patient recruitment, change protocol regarding patient monitoring and assessment that minimizes in-person visits, alternative administration of certain investigational products due to compromised clinical sites and to put in place new processes or modify existing processes in consultation with the FDA that would ensure the safety of clinical trial participants. In connection with COVID-19, we temporarily closed our executive offices and implemented optional work-from-home policies for most employees. The effects of government orders and our work-from-home policies may negatively impact productivity, disrupt our business and delay our clinical programs and timelines, the magnitude of which will depend, in part, on the length and severity of the restrictions and other limitations on our ability to conduct our business in the ordinary course.

We depend on a global supply chain to manufacture product candidates used in our preclinical studies and clinical trials. Quarantines, “shelter-in-place” and similar government orders, or the expectation that such orders, shutdowns or other restrictions could occur, whether related to COVID-19 or other infectious diseases, could impact personnel at third-party manufacturing facilities in the United States and other countries, or the availability or cost of materials, which could disrupt our supply chain.

If our relationships with our suppliers or other vendors are terminated or scaled back as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic or other health epidemics, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative suppliers or vendors or do so on commercially reasonable terms or in a timely manner. Switching or adding additional suppliers or vendors involves substantial cost and requires management time and focus. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new supplier or vendor commences work. As a result, delays may occur, which could adversely impact our ability to meet our desired clinical development and any future commercialization timelines. Although we carefully manage our relationships with our suppliers and vendors, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter challenges or delays in the future or that these delays or challenges will not harm our business.

In addition, our preclinical studies and clinical trials have been and may continue to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical site initiation, patient enrollment and activities that require visits to clinical sites, including data monitoring, have been and may continue to be delayed due to prioritization of hospital resources toward the COVID-19 pandemic or concerns among patients about participating in clinical trials during a pandemic. Some patients may have difficulty following certain aspects of clinical trial protocols if quarantines impede patient movement or interrupt healthcare services. For example, some patients, including patients in our Phase 3 registrational clinical trial in ALS, may not be able to attend follow-ups and comply with trial protocols. These challenges have and in the future may continue to also increase the costs of completing our clinical trials. Similarly, if we are unable to successfully recruit and retain patients and principal investigators and site staff who, as healthcare providers, may have heightened exposure to COVID-19 or experience additional restrictions by their institutions, city or state, our clinical trial operations could be adversely impacted. In addition, access to arimoclomol as a treatment for NPC, which was announced in January 2020 to be available through the EAP, in the United States, was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the QTc clinical trial required to support our NDA for NPC has been delayed due to COVID-19. The FDA has requested that we submit reports from the QTc clinical trial by October 1, 2020 and that, given the priority review timeline and both nonclinical and clinical evidence suggesting a potential QT safety signal, submission of these reports after that date may not allow the FDA sufficient time to review. We do not anticipate being able to submit the reports by October 1, 2020, which may delay the timing of FDA approval for NPC. Additionally, we cannot assure you that the

 

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potential QT safety signal (individually or together with other factors) will not prevent us from obtaining FDA approval for NPC.

The spread of COVID-19, which has caused a broad impact globally, may materially affect us economically. While the potential economic impact brought by, and the duration of, COVID-19 may be difficult to assess or predict, a widespread pandemic has resulted in significant disruption of global financial markets, resulting in an economic downturn that could continue to significantly impact our business and operations and may reduce our ability to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity. In addition, a recession or market correction resulting from the spread of COVID-19 could materially affect our business and the value of the ordinary shares and ADSs.

Further, we may experience additional disruptions that could severely impact our business and clinical trials, including:

 

   

diversion of healthcare resources away from the conduct of clinical trials, including the diversion of hospitals serving as our clinical trial sites and hospital staff supporting the conduct of our clinical trials;

 

   

interruption or delays in the operations of the FDA or other regulatory authorities, which may impact review and approval timelines;

 

   

limitations on employee resources that would otherwise be focused on the conduct of our preclinical studies and clinical trials, including because of sickness of employees or their families or the desire of employees to avoid contact with large groups of people;

 

   

risk that participants enrolled in our clinical trials will acquire COVID-19 while the clinical trial is ongoing, which could impact the results of the clinical trial, including by increasing the number of observed adverse events; and

 

   

refusal of the FDA to accept data from clinical trials in these affected geographies.

These and similar, and perhaps more severe, disruptions in our operations could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

The global pandemic of COVID-19 continues to evolve rapidly. The ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or a similar health epidemic is highly uncertain and subject to change. We do not yet know the full extent of potential delays or impacts on our business, our clinical trials, healthcare systems or the global economy as a whole. However, these effects could have a material impact on our operations, and we continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely. To the extent the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section.

Our indebtedness may limit our flexibility in operating our business and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

As of June 30, 2020, we had €9.0 million of principal balance, or the Term Loan, outstanding under the loan facility agreement, or the Loan Agreement, with Kreos Capital VI (UK) Limited, or Kreos. We are required to repay the Term Loan over 42 months with the first 12 months requiring interest only payments at a nominal annual fixed interest rate of 9.75% and the remaining 30 months requiring equal installments comprising principal and interest. Early repayment of the borrowed amounts may be made in whole but not in part, with the repayment amount being equal to the principal outstanding plus the sum of all the interest repayments that would have been paid throughout the remainder of the loan discounted at an annual rate of 4.0%. The Loan Agreement also provides that we will pay Kreos a facilitation fee upon the request of Kreos, which request may be made in its sole discretion at any time prior to the earlier to occur of August 27, 2024 and the date of delisting of our shares, including ADSs representing our ordinary shares, from a securities exchange. The facility fee is equal to the greater of (i) €0.9 million and (ii) the percentage increase in our share price between the 30-day volume-weighted average share price on the date of the Loan Agreement and the closing share price on the day

 

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immediately preceding the date of the notification applied to the aggregate amount borrowed. We have also agreed to pay Kreos an end of loan payment in an amount equal to 3% of the amount drawn under the first tranche. The amounts due under the Loan Agreement are secured by certain of our assets, including our intellectual property rights, pursuant to a floating charge agreement registered with the Danish personal register in the initial principal amount of €9.0 million, our patents registered in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, and our shares in our U.S. subsidiary. Our obligations under the Loan Agreement are guaranteed by our U.S. subsidiary.

In order to service this indebtedness and any additional indebtedness we may incur in the future, we need to generate cash. Our ability to generate cash is subject, in part, to our ability to successfully execute our business strategy, as well as general economic, financial, competitive, regulatory and other factors beyond our control. It cannot be guaranteed that our business will be able to generate sufficient cash flow or that future borrowings or other financings will be available to us in an amount sufficient to enable us to service our indebtedness and fund our other liquidity needs. To the extent we are required to use cash from operations or the proceeds of any future financing to service our indebtedness instead of funding working capital, capital expenditures or other general corporate purposes, we will be less able to plan for, or react to, changes in our business, industry and in the economy generally. This will place us at a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors that have less indebtedness.

In addition, the Loan Agreement contains, and any agreements evidencing or governing other future indebtedness may contain, certain covenants that limit our ability to engage in certain transactions that may be in our long-term best interests. Subject to certain limited exceptions, these covenants limit our ability to, among other things:

 

   

sell, lease, convey, transfer, assign, license or otherwise of or deal with all or any material part of our property, assets or undertaking;

 

   

sell, assign transfer or otherwise dispose of any assets that are subjects to liens under the Loan Agreement, any of our material assets or any share therein

 

   

incur or allow to remain outstanding any indebtedness

 

   

create or permit to subsist any liens; and

 

   

declare and/or make or agree to make any distribution by way of dividend or otherwise, without the written consent of Kreos.

While we have not previously breached and are not currently in breach of these or any of the other covenants contained in the Loan Agreement, there can be no guarantee that we will not breach these covenants in the future. Our ability to comply with these covenants may be affected by events and factors beyond our control. In the event that we breach one or more covenants, our lender may choose to declare an event of default and require that we immediately repay all amounts outstanding, terminate any commitment to extend further credit and foreclose on the collateral granted to it to collateralize such indebtedness. The occurrence of any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Risks Related to Development of Our Product Candidates

Clinical trials being conducted to test our product candidate, arimoclomol, may not obtain the desired safety and efficacy results or may be delayed or more costly than anticipated.

Prior to launching a pharmaceutical product into the market, its safety and efficacy for treatment of patients must be ascertained through execution of certain preclinical studies and clinical trials conducted in

 

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accordance with the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use, the FDA, the EMA, and other applicable regulatory authorities’ legal requirements, regulations and guidelines, including good laboratory practices, an international standard meant to harmonize the conduct and quality of non-clinical studies and the reporting of findings, as well as good clinical practices, or GCP, an international ethical and scientific quality standard for designing, conducting, recording and reporting trials that involve the participation of human subjects. Conducting such trials is complex, costly and time-consuming, and neither the results nor the timing can be predicted with any certainty. Some of the clinical trials that we currently sponsor relate to pediatric diseases for which there are additional regulatory requirements.

The performance of clinical trials is associated with risks. We may experience numerous unforeseen events prior to, during or as a result of clinical trials that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize arimoclomol, including:

 

   

effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including delays in clinical trial enrollment, patient treatment and data processing, as well as complications with commercial suppliers, clinical testing sites and/or CROs;

 

   

the FDA, the EMA or other comparable regulatory authority may disagree as to the number, design or implementation of our clinical trials, or may not interpret the results from clinical trials as we do;

 

   

regulators or institutional review boards may not authorize us or our investigators to commence a clinical trial or conduct a clinical trial at a prospective trial site;

 

   

we may not reach agreement on acceptable terms with prospective clinical trial sites, the terms of which can be subject to extensive negotiation and may vary significantly among different clinical trial sites;

 

   

clinical trials of arimoclomol may produce negative or inconclusive results;

 

   

we may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional clinical trials or abandon product development programs;

 

   

the number of patients required for clinical trials of arimoclomol may be larger than we anticipate, enrollment in these clinical trials may be slower than we anticipate, participants may drop out of these clinical trials at a higher rate than we anticipate or we may fail to recruit eligible patients to participate in a trial;

 

   

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;

 

   

regulators may issue a clinical hold, or regulators or institutional review boards 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 cost of clinical trials of arimoclomol may be greater than we anticipate;

 

   

the supply or quality of arimoclomol or other materials necessary to conduct clinical trials of arimoclomol may be insufficient or inadequate;

 

   

arimoclomol may have undesirable side effects or other unexpected characteristics causing us or our investigators, regulators or institutional review boards to suspend or terminate the clinical trials; and

 

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the approval policies or regulations of the FDA, the EMA or other comparable regulatory authorities may significantly change in a manner rendering our clinical data insufficient for approval.

There is a risk that the clinical trials that we currently sponsor will not confirm previous results or will not demonstrate sufficient evidence of safety and efficacy to receive requisite regulatory approvals. This risk is compounded by the fact that, thus far, we have only conducted relatively small Phase 2/3 and Phase 2 clinical trials, only one of which was designed to measure efficacy. Such clinical trials may not lead to pharmaceutical products that can be effectively commercialized. Adverse or inconclusive results may, despite initially promising results, result in arimoclomol not receiving requisite approvals for marketing and sale, and there is a risk that additional clinical trials will be required to obtain such approvals or that our clinical development program will be required to be altered, which would result in increased costs, significant delays to filing with regulatory authorities, filing for a narrower indication than previously anticipated or the abandonment of efforts to commercialization of arimoclomol. For example, even though we did not meet the primary endpoint in our Phase 2 clinical trial for Gaucher disease, based on other results in this clinical trial, including the statistically significant dose-dependent reduction in liver size and dose-dependent reduction in spleen size, we intend to advance arimoclomol into pivotal-stage clinical development in neurological Gaucher disease. However, it is possible that the FDA may require us to conduct further clinical trials. Further, even though we believe chitotriosidase is of limited value moving forward and we no longer intend to use chitotriosidase as a key endpoint in our clinical trials in Gaucher disease, it is possible that the FDA may require us to alter our intended design for the Phase 3 trial for Gaucher disease.

In addition, the FDA, the EMA or other regulatory authorities may not approve or authorize the labeling that we believe is necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of a product.

All of our current clinical trials are studying the same chemical compound, arimoclomol, but for different indications. There is a risk, therefore, that any unexpected findings, including serious adverse events, in one clinical trial may have a “spill-over” effect on other trials, in particular if the finding is related to the compound’s safety and tolerability. An adverse or inconclusive finding in one trial, therefore, may halt or significantly delay our entire clinical development portfolio. If our ongoing clinical trials are unsuccessful, we may be unable to expand our development of arimoclomol to other indications.

Designing and conducting clinical trials for orphan drugs involves additional risks because, for instance, the relevant indications are not well characterized and experience with treatment of orphan diseases is limited. In addition, patients in our clinical trials may have a clinically relevant medical condition that may make conducting the clinical trial difficult and/or confound an assessment of the effects of the experimental therapy and its adverse events. Such risks may also include delays and increased costs.

As clinical product development can be affected by unforeseen delays, increased costs, unexpected adverse events, unforeseen suspensions and unfavorable results, these circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

In addition, we depend on our ability to enter into agreements with CROs, conducting clinical trials with respect to arimoclomol. Through our CROs, we are in a close, ongoing dialogue with physicians, who are relevant as investigators. However, if we are not able, through our CROs, to enter into the necessary agreements with respect to clinical trials, it may have a material adverse effect on our ability to complete such clinical trials. Further, if the counterparties to our sponsored clinical trial agreements do not carry out their obligations or do so within the agreed deadlines, the clinical trials may be delayed, terminated or deemed unsuccessful, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Most of our clinical trials conducted have been small, each with less than 100 persons, and have advanced through Phase 1 and Phase 2. Our later-phase clinical trials are being conducted with larger patient

 

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populations, such as our recently-enrolled Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating arimoclomol for the treatment of ALS, which has enrolled 245 patients. In these trials, additional risks, including previously unidentified low incidence safety risks, safety risks associated with high-dose long-term treatment or lack of efficacy may materialize.

If the above risks were to materialize, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

As we have focused our efforts on the development of arimoclomol, we are currently highly dependent on obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval for arimoclomol and the potential success of this one product candidate.

To date, we have focused substantially all of our efforts on the development of arimoclomol. We are currently conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials based on the arimoclomol molecule. In September 2020, the FDA sent us a letter in which it accepted our NDA for arimoclomol for NPC with priority review and set a target action date of March 17, 2021 under the PDUFA to complete its review of our NDA. On September 24, 2020, we received a filing communication from the FDA in connection with our NDA for arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC in which the FDA summarized six potential review issues, including the FDA’s continuing evaluation of the integrity of data from our Phase 2/3 trial for NPC; the effect of the high degree of concomitant miglustat use in our Phase 2/3 trial for NPC on its ability to determine the of safety and efficacy of arimoclomol which could have potential implications for labeling/recommended dosing and post-marketing studies; the proposed primary hypothetical treatment effect used in our Phase 2/3 trial for NPC to estimate the treatment benefit effect; the meaningfulness of one metric utilized to evaluate patient progress in our Phase 2/3 trial for NPC; the timing of submission of the QTc and other study reports to the FDA, including in light of evidence suggesting a potential QT safety signal; and differences among the formulations of arimoclomol used in our Phase 2/3 trial of NPC as compared to the formulation of arimoclomol to be marketed. The filing communication constitutes preliminary notice from the FDA of potential review issues as part of its ordinary course review of our NDA and is not necessarily indicative of deficiencies that may be identified during the review. We cannot assure you that such issues will not result in a delay of any potential approval of arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC by the FDA or a determination by the FDA not to approve the product candidate for marketing in the United States. Further, as part of its review process, the FDA may request additional information and data, require us to make modifications to ongoing NPC-related clinical trials, manufacturing or other processes, run additional studies or clinical trials or incur significant additional expenditures in order to obtain such approval. If arimoclomol does not obtain approval for the indications we are currently exploring, we will have spent substantial time and financial resources without receiving a return on investment. As a result, if arimoclomol does not become a success, this will have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

We are highly dependent on obtaining and maintaining required regulatory approvals and may not receive such approvals.

Before we can start commercializing arimoclomol, a number of regulatory registrations and approvals must be obtained. For instance, approvals from the authorities and ethical committees as well as consents from patients participating in our clinical trials are required before initiating preclinical studies and clinical trials, and marketing authorizations must be obtained from the relevant regulatory authorities. Biopharmaceutical development is a long, expensive and uncertain process, and delay or failure can occur at any stage of any of our clinical trials. For example, in connection with the transfer of manufacturing for arimoclomol to a different facility, our CMO informed us that a component of arimoclomol may deflagrate during the drying process if not manufactured with specialized equipment. Our CMO will install and obtain approval for such equipment, which may result in a delay in approval by the EMA of arimoclomol in NPC.

The success in the development of arimoclomol and any future product candidates will depend on many factors, including:

 

   

completing preclinical studies and receiving regulatory approvals or clearance for conducting clinical trials for our preclinical-stage programs;

 

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obtaining positive results in our clinical trials demonstrating efficacy, safety and durability of effect of arimoclomol and any future product candidates;

 

   

receiving approvals for commercialization of arimoclomol and any future product candidates from regulatory authorities;

 

   

manufacturing of arimoclomol and any future product candidates at an acceptable quality and cost; and

 

   

maintaining and growing an organization of scientists, medical professionals and business people who can develop and commercialize our products and technology.

If required regulatory registrations or approvals are delayed, denied or withdrawn or if the regulatory authorities question the efficacy of arimoclomol as a treatment, it is likely to have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Because we are developing arimoclomol for the treatment of diseases in which there is little clinical experience, the FDA or other regulatory authorities may not consider the endpoints of our clinical trials to predict or provide clinically meaningful results.

There are currently either no or limited approved therapies in the orphan disease indications we are targeting and there may be no therapies approved to treat other diseases that we will target in the future. As a result, the design and conduct of clinical trials of arimoclomol or any future product candidate may take longer, be more costly or be less effective as a result of the novelty of development in these diseases. In some cases, we may use endpoints or methodologies that regulatory authorities may not consider to be clinically meaningful and that we may not continue to use in clinical trials or that we may determine after the initiation of the trial to no longer be an appropriate endpoint or methodology. Any such regulatory authority may require evaluation of additional or different clinical endpoints in our clinical trials or ultimately determine that these clinical endpoints do not support marketing approval. In addition, if we are required to use additional or different clinical endpoints by regulatory authorities, arimoclomol may not achieve or meet such clinical endpoints in our clinical trials. Even if a regulatory authority finds our clinical trial success criteria to be sufficiently validated and clinically meaningful, we may not achieve the pre-specified endpoint to a degree of statistical significance in any pivotal or other clinical trials we may conduct for our product candidate. Further, even if we do achieve the pre-specified criteria, our trials may produce results that are unpredictable or inconsistent with the results of other efficacy endpoints in the trial. Regulatory authorities also could give overriding weight to other efficacy endpoints over a primary endpoint even if we achieve statistically significant results on that primary endpoint, if we do not do so on our secondary efficacy endpoints. Regulatory authorities also weigh the benefits of a product against its risks and may view the efficacy results in the context of safety as not being supportive of approval.

Arimoclomol may be shown to cause undesirable side effects or other adverse events that could delay or prevent its regulatory approval, limit its commercial profile or result in significant negative consequences following regulatory approval, if such approval is granted.

We or regulatory authorities may suspend clinical trials at any time if it is believed that patients who participate in such clinical trials are being exposed to unacceptable health risks resulting in an unfavorable risk-benefit assessment or other adverse events. Undesirable side effects caused by arimoclomol could cause us or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials and could result in a more restrictive use permitted by such regulatory authorities or the delay or denial of approval by such regulatory authorities. In the event that the data from clinical trials suggest an unacceptable severity and prevalence of adverse side effects, such clinical trials could be suspended or terminated, and regulatory authorities could order us to cease further development of, or deny approval of, arimoclomol for any or all targeted indications. Treatment-related side effects could affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled patients to complete a clinical trial or result in potential product liability claims. In addition, if adverse effects occur during clinical testing or during our EAP or any

 

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other early access program or compassionate use program that we have established or may in the future establish, we may also have to conduct additional testing, which will cause delays in our development program and result in increased costs, or may ultimately lead to the abandonment of the development of arimoclomol for any specific indication or for all indications. For example, there was one death that was deemed possibly related to treatment by the investigator during the initial six month assessment period in our Phase 2 clinical trial for Gaucher disease and there were two additional deaths during the extension portion of this trial (where prior placebo patients were randomized to one of 3 arimoclomol doses), one of which was deemed probably related, and the other of which was deemed possibly related, to treatment by the investigator. In addition, there were two deaths that were deemed possibly related to treatment by the blinded investigator in our ongoing Phase 3 clinical trial in ALS. In addition, in our clinical trials of ALS and sIBM, we have observed increased transaminases in a minority of patients. Currently the association of increased transaminases to arimoclomol is undetermined but all cases are considered possibly related to arimoclomol until further data becomes available. If the increased transaminases are considered related to arimoclomol, it could cause us or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials and could lead to the delay or denial of approval by such regulatory authorities.

Even after receiving approval, the products may later exhibit adverse effects that could prevent their widespread use or necessitate their withdrawal from the market. If adverse events occur once the product is on the market, there is a risk that we may have to recall and destroy products, and ultimately there is a risk of fines, suspension or withdrawal of regulatory approvals and potential litigation.

Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

If we are unable to obtain or maintain orphan drug designation or if we are unable to benefit from orphan drug exclusivity for arimoclomol, it will have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

We are dependent on obtaining and maintaining orphan drug designations for NPC, ALS and sIBM. Further, we are dependent on the future grant of orphan drug exclusivity for arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC, ALS and sIBM after marketing approval, as such exclusivity is important in light of the fact that our general patent protection for the composition-of-matter of arimoclomol expired in 2020. The method of use patent protection for treatment of lysosomal diseases, including NPC and Gaucher disease, is anticipated to expire in 2029, with possible extensions to 2032 in the United States and 2034 in the European Union based on method of use patents, and we do not currently have patent protection for the treatment of sIBM. The method of use patent protection for ALS is anticipated to expire in 2024.

Even if we obtain orphan drug exclusivity for arimoclomol for NPC or other orphan designated indications, the exclusivity may not effectively protect the product from competition, because exclusivity can be broken under certain circumstances. In the United States, even after an orphan drug is approved, the FDA can subsequently approve an application for the same drug for the same orphan indication if the FDA concludes that such subsequent applicant’s version of the drug is clinically superior in that it is shown to be safer, more effective or makes a major contribution to patient care. In the European Union, orphan drug exclusivity will not prevent a marketing authorization being granted for a similar medicinal product in the same indication if the new product is safer, more effective or otherwise clinically superior to the first product or if the marketing authorization holder of the first product is unable to supply sufficient quantities of the product. If an orphan drug designation or other designations are revoked or if the market exclusivity granted in connection with the orphan drug designation period is suspended, shortened or revoked, it could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects. Additionally, obtaining orphan drug exclusivity for arimoclomol for NPC would not necessarily ensure that we would obtain orphan drug exclusivity for other indications and would therefore not preclude generic competition for other non-orphan approved uses of arimoclomol, such as sIBM, ALS or any other indications.

 

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If we are not able to obtain or maintain orphan drug status for NPC, ALS and sIBM or for other diseases or disorders, or if we are unable to benefit from the associated marketing exclusivity, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Fast track and orphan drug designation by the FDA and EMA may not actually lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process, and does not assure FDA or EMA approval of arimoclomol.

If a product candidate is intended for the treatment of a serious or life threatening condition and the product candidate demonstrates the potential to address unmet medical need for this condition, the sponsor may apply for FDA or EMA fast track designation. In addition, orphan drug designation can be granted for product candidates intended to treat a rare disease or condition. However, neither a fast track designation nor an orphan drug designation ensures that the product candidate will receive marketing approval or that approval will be granted within any particular timeframe. As a result, while we received fast track designation for arimoclomol for NPC, ALS and sIBM as well as orphan drug designation for arimoclomol for NPC, ALS and sIBM from both the FDA and EMA, we may not experience a faster development process, review or approval compared to conventional FDA or EMA procedures. In addition, the FDA or EMA may withdraw fast track designation if it believes that the designation is no longer supported by data from our clinical development program. In addition, the FDA or EMA may withdraw orphan drug designation. Fast track and orphan drug designation alone does not guarantee qualification for the FDA’s or EMA’s priority review procedures.

A breakthrough therapy designation by the FDA for arimoclomol may not lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process, and it does not increase the likelihood that our product candidate will receive marketing approval.

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. For drugs and biologics that have been designated as breakthrough therapies, interaction and communication between the FDA and the sponsor of the trial can help to identify the most efficient path for clinical development while minimizing the number of patients placed in ineffective control regimens. Drugs designated as breakthrough therapies by the FDA are also eligible for accelerated approval.

The FDA designated arimoclomol as a breakthrough therapy for NPC and in the future it may designate it as such for other indications. Designation as a breakthrough therapy is within the discretion of the FDA. Accordingly, even if we believe one of our current or future product candidates meets the criteria for designation as a breakthrough therapy, the FDA may disagree and instead determine not to make such designation. The receipt of such designation for arimoclomol for a particular indication 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 though the FDA granted arimoclomol breakthrough therapy for NPC and even if it decides to grant such designation for another indication, the FDA may later decide that arimoclomol no longer meets the conditions for qualification or decide that the time period for FDA review or approval will not be shortened.

We and our CROs have conducted and intend to conduct additional clinical trials at sites outside the United States, and the FDA may not accept data from trials conducted in such locations due to the study design and conduct, trial population or for other reasons, or may require additional U.S.-based trials.

We and our CROs have conducted, currently are conducting and intend in the future to conduct, clinical trials outside the United States, particularly in the European Union where we are headquartered. We also conducted a Phase 2 clinical trial for neurological Gaucher disease in India, with respect to which we announced top-line results in June 2020 and are currently conducting an open label extension of the same trial. Although the FDA may accept data from clinical trials conducted outside the United States, acceptance of this data is subject

 

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to certain conditions imposed by the FDA. For example, the clinical trial must be well designed and conducted by qualified investigators in accordance with current good manufacturing practices, or cGMP, including review and approval by an independent ethics committee and receipt of informed consent from trial patients. The trial population must also adequately represent the U.S. population, and the data must be applicable to the U.S. population and U.S. medical practice in ways that the FDA deems clinically meaningful. Generally, the patient population for any clinical trial conducted outside of the United States must be representative of the population for which we intend to seek approval in the United States. In addition, while these clinical trials are subject to applicable local laws, FDA acceptance of the data will be dependent upon its determination that the trials also comply with all applicable U.S. laws and regulations. There can be no assurance that the FDA will accept data from trials conducted outside of the United States. If the FDA does not accept the data from any clinical trials that we or our CROs conduct outside the United States, it would likely result in the need for additional clinical trials, which would be costly and time-consuming and delay or permanently halt our ability to develop and market arimoclomol for the proposed indications in the United States.

In addition, there are risks inherent in conducting clinical trials in multiple jurisdictions, inside and outside of the United States, such as:

 

   

regulatory and administrative requirements of the jurisdiction where the trial is conducted that could burden or limit our and our CROs’ ability to conduct clinical trials;

 

   

foreign exchange fluctuations;

 

   

manufacturing, customs, shipment and storage requirements;

 

   

cultural differences in medical practice and clinical research; and

 

   

the risk that the patient populations in such trials are not considered representative as compared to the patient population in the target markets where approval is being sought.

We have limited long-term data regarding the safety and effectiveness of arimoclomol and results in preclinical studies or clinical trials of our current and future product candidates may not be indicative of results in future clinical trials, and does not assure FDA or EMA approval of arimoclomol.

Results from preclinical studies are not necessarily predictive of future clinical trial results, and interim results of a clinical trial are not necessarily indicative of final results. While we have received some positive data in clinical trials of arimoclomol in ALS and sIBM, we are still conducting additional clinical trials in such indications and intend to conduct additional clinical trials in other indications in order to seek regulatory approvals. We do not know whether these clinical trials will establish sufficient efficacy and safety in order to receive regulatory approval.

Further, although we believe that we have demonstrated the safety, effectiveness and clinical advantages of arimoclomol in approximately 35 patients with NPC for two years, the long-term effects of arimoclomol in a large number of patients have not been studied and the existing data do not necessarily predict long-term clinical benefits or reveal long-term adverse effects. This failure to establish sufficient efficacy and safety could cause us to abandon clinical development of arimoclomol and any other current or future product candidates entirely or for specific indications.

Our molecules in preclinical development may also fail to show the desired safety and efficacy in clinical development despite positive results in preclinical studies.

We may never obtain approval with respect to arimoclomol for NPC or for any of the indications we intend to seek approval for, which would limit our ability to realize our full market potential.

If we obtain regulatory approval for arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC, we intend to follow with data to support use in other indications such as ALS, sIBM and neuropathic Gaucher disease. If we are

 

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successful, the indication for use of arimoclomol could potentially be broadened beyond the treatment of NPC to include such additional indications. However, there can be no assurance that, even if we obtain approval for one or more of these indications, we will obtain approval for any other or all of these additional indications, or for a broadened indication beyond the treatment of NPC. If we fail to obtain and maintain required approvals for these additional or broadened indications, or if regulatory approvals are delayed, we will not realize the full market potential of arimoclomol.

Obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval of arimoclomol in one jurisdiction does not mean that we will be successful in obtaining regulatory approval of arimoclomol in other jurisdictions.

Obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval of arimoclomol in one jurisdiction does not guarantee that we will be able to obtain or maintain regulatory approval in any other jurisdiction, but a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one jurisdiction may have a negative effect on the regulatory approval process in others. For example, even if the FDA grants marketing approval of a product candidate, comparable regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions must also approve the manufacturing, marketing and promotion of the product candidate in those countries. Approval procedures vary among jurisdictions and can involve requirements and administrative review periods different from those in the United States, including additional preclinical studies or clinical trials as clinical studies conducted in one jurisdiction may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions. In many jurisdictions outside the United States, a product candidate must be approved for reimbursement before it can be approved for sale in that jurisdiction. In some cases, the price that we intend to charge for our products is also subject to approval.

Obtaining non-U.S. regulatory approvals and compliance with non-U.S. regulatory requirements could result in significant delays, difficulties and costs for us and could delay or prevent the introduction of our products in certain countries. If we fail to comply with the regulatory requirements in international markets and/or to receive applicable marketing approvals, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of arimoclomol will be harmed.

All the above risks, individually or in the aggregate, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

The fact that we have received rare pediatric disease designation for arimoclomol as a treatment for NPC is not an indication that we will receive a rare pediatric disease priority review voucher.

As further described under “Business,” the FDA has granted a rare pediatric disease designation to arimoclomol as a treatment for NPC, and we may seek rare pediatric disease designations for any future product candidates. Under the FDA’s rare pediatric disease priority review voucher program, upon the approval of a new drug application, or NDA, for the treatment of a rare pediatric disease, the sponsor of such application would be eligible for a rare pediatric disease priority review voucher that can be used to obtain priority review for a subsequent new drug application. However, receiving a rare pediatric disease designation for arimoclomol as a treatment for NPC does not automatically mean that we will receive a priority review voucher as a priority review voucher is only awarded following approval by the FDA of arimoclomol as a treatment for NPC.

If a priority review voucher is granted, we may use the voucher for our own FDA approval processes or decide to sell the voucher to other biotech or pharmaceutical companies. The market for priority review vouchers has a limited history and disclosed sales prices may not be indicative of the current value of vouchers, which may also fluctuate significantly. Congress has only authorized the Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Voucher program until September 30, 2020. However, if a drug candidate receives Rare Pediatric Disease Designation before October 1, 2020, it is eligible to receive a voucher if it is approved before October 1, 2022. Hence, it may be unavailable to us even if we meet all of the requirements. Further, the potential award of a voucher would trigger an obligation to market the relevant rare pediatric disease product within one year from FDA approval or the FDA may revoke the voucher. Finally, a voucher award subjects us to post-marketing reporting obligations to the FDA.

 

 

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We may not be able to recruit enough patients for clinical trials to research new molecular entities or for agreements with investigators and hospitals and this may have a material adverse impact on our business.

The diseases for which arimoclomol is currently being developed are rare and, consequently, patient groups relevant for testing arimoclomol are limited in size and located across many jurisdictions. Therefore, even though we, through our CROs, cooperate closely with relevant physicians treating such patient groups, finding and recruiting the appropriate number of patients for the clinical trials, as well as patients with a profile appropriate for such clinical trials, may be challenging. Should clinical trials in indications similar to arimoclomol be initiated, it could negatively affect the possibility that we will be able to recruit patients. Failure to find and recruit the necessary number of appropriate patients to complete our clinical trials may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Interim, “top-line” and preliminary data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.

From time to time, we may publish interim, “top-line” or preliminary data from our clinical trials. Interim data from clinical trials that we may complete are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as patient enrollment continues and more patient data become available. Preliminary or “top-line” data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary data we previously published. As a result, interim and preliminary data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. Differences between preliminary or interim data and final data could significantly harm our business prospects and may cause the trading price of the ordinary shares and ADSs to fluctuate significantly, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

We might not be able to identify, acquire, in-license and develop additional product candidates and, even if we are able to develop additional product candidates, such development might expose us to additional and new risks.

Efforts to identify, acquire or in-license, and then develop product candidates require substantial technical, financial and human resources, whether or not any product candidates are ultimately identified. Our efforts may initially show promise in identifying potential product candidates, yet fail to yield product candidates for clinical development, approved products or commercial revenues for many reasons, including the following:

 

   

the methodology used may not be successful in identifying potential product candidates;

 

   

competitors may develop alternatives that render any product candidates we develop obsolete;

 

   

any product candidates we develop may nevertheless be covered by third parties’ patents or other exclusive rights;

 

   

a product candidate may be shown to have harmful side effects or other characteristics that indicate it is unlikely to be effective or otherwise does not meet applicable regulatory criteria;

 

   

a product candidate may not be capable of being produced in commercial quantities at an acceptable cost, or at all; and

 

   

a product candidate may not be accepted as safe and effective by physicians, patients, the medical community or third-party payors.

We have limited financial and personnel resources and, 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 market

 

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potential. Our resource allocation decisions may cause it to fail to capitalize on viable commercial drugs or profitable market opportunities. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular product, we may relinquish valuable rights to that product through collaboration, licensing or other royalty arrangements in circumstances under which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights to such product. If we are unsuccessful in identifying and developing additional product candidates or are unable to do so, our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

Risks Related to Commercialization of Our Product Candidates

Even if arimoclomol receives marketing approval, we may not be successful in our commercialization efforts and arimoclomol may fail to achieve the degree of market acceptance by physicians, patients, healthcare payors and others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.

Even if arimoclomol receives marketing approval, we may not be successful in our commercialization efforts and market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community may be less than estimated. Market acceptance will require us to build and maintain strong relationships with healthcare professionals involved in the treatment of orphan diseases, including nationally-recognized as well as community physicians, in addition to nurses and other allied health professionals. The number of healthcare professionals within orphan diseases and treatment centers that address NPC is limited. A failure to build or maintain these important relationships with these healthcare professionals and treatment centers could result in lower market acceptance. Our efforts to educate physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community on the benefits of arimoclomol may require significant resources and may never be successful. Such efforts may require more resources than are typically required due to the complexity and uniqueness of arimoclomol. The degree of market acceptance of, for instance, arimoclomol, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including:

 

   

the efficacy of arimoclomol;

 

   

the convenience and ease of administration as an oral capsule, sprinkled in food/beverage or via a feeding tube compared to alternative treatments and therapies;

 

   

limitations or warnings or any restrictions on the use of arimoclomol together with other medications and the prevalence and severity of any side effects;

 

   

the efficacy and potential advantages compared to alternative treatments and therapies;

 

   

the cost-effectiveness of arimoclomol compared to alternative therapies and the ability to offer such drug for sale at competitive prices;

 

   

changes in the standard of care for the targeted indications for our product candidate;

 

   

the effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts and the strength of marketing and distribution support;

 

   

availability and amount of coverage and reimbursement from government payors, managed care plans and other third-party payors;

 

   

the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies and of physicians to prescribe these therapies; and

 

   

the timing of competitive product introductions and other actions by competitors in the marketplace.

The market opportunities for arimoclomol may be limited because we are targeting patients suffering from orphan diseases with relatively small populations and these populations may be smaller than expected.

Our estimates of the annual total addressable markets for arimoclomol under development is based on our beliefs and estimates regarding the incidence or prevalence of certain types of lysosomal and neuromuscular degenerative orphan diseases that may be addressable by arimoclomol, which is derived from a variety of

 

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sources, including scientific literature, surveys of clinics, patient foundations or market research. While we believe our assumptions and the data underlying our estimates are reasonable, these assumptions and estimates may not be correct and the conditions supporting our assumptions or estimates may change at any time, thereby reducing the predictive accuracy of these underlying factors and therefore the accuracy of these estimates.

We base our development activities and commercial strategy on estimates of the number of patients who may benefit from and who may be medically eligible for a particular treatment. In addition to the number of patients, the ultimate pricing of arimoclomol, if approved, may be affected by the burden of disease, the extent of unmet need and clinical efficacy. Even if the number of medically eligible patients is correctly estimated, the number of patients who will ultimately receive a particular treatment may be greatly reduced if governmental authorities decide to change reimbursement policies. These estimates are subject to significant uncertainty and may prove to be inaccurate and we may not generate significant drug revenue and may not become profitable. Even if we obtain significant market share for arimoclomol, because the initial target populations for NPC, ALS and sIBM are relatively small, we may never achieve profitability without obtaining regulatory approval for additional and broader indications.

To date, we have not commercialized a drug and currently have a limited commercial infrastructure. We may not be successful in commercializing arimoclomol if it is approved unless, among other factors, we are able to identify patients, expand sales and marketing capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to sell and market arimoclomol.

Even if arimoclomol receives marketing approval, whether commercialization will be successful and whether we will ultimately be profitable, will depend on factors such as our ability to successfully execute our business strategy and attract and build-up the internal resources necessary to effectively market our products.

To achieve commercial success for any approved drug, among other factors, we must either develop and expand our sales and marketing organization or outsource these functions to strategic collaborators and other third parties. We currently have limited in-house capabilities for sales, marketing and distribution but intend to expand such capabilities in order to market arimoclomol, if approved, directly through our own sales and marketing force in selected geographic areas, including the United States and Europe. In order to implement this strategy of commercializing in-house, we must expand our sales and marketing organization and establish distribution capabilities. This entails recruiting additional managerial, operational, financial and other employees, which is expensive and time-consuming and could delay product launches. If the commercial launch of a product candidate for which we recruit a sales force and establish marketing capabilities is delayed or does not occur for any reason, we would have prematurely or unnecessarily incurred these commercialization expenses. This may be costly, and our investment would be lost if we cannot retain or reposition our sales and marketing personnel.

In addition, to achieve commercial success for any approved drug we must be able to identify patients. The diseases for which we are currently developing our product candidate have a limited number of patients and for which, in many cases, there are limited diagnostics tools. The lack of diagnostic tools, coupled with the fact that there is frequently limited awareness among certain health care providers concerning the rare diseases we treat, often means that a proper diagnosis can, and frequently does, take years to identify (or an appropriate diagnosis may never be made for certain patients). As a result, we may not be able to grow our revenues if our product candidate is approved.

Factors that may inhibit our efforts to commercialize our drugs on our own after obtaining any regulatory approval to gain market acceptance include:

 

   

our inability to recruit and retain adequate numbers of effective sales and marketing personnel;

 

   

the inability of sales personnel to obtain access to physicians or educate adequate numbers of physicians on the benefits of prescribing any future products;

 

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the lack of complementary products to be offered by sales personnel, which may put us at a competitive disadvantage relative to companies with more extensive product lines;

 

   

unforeseen costs and expenses associated with creating an independent sales and marketing organization;

 

   

inability to maintain or develop additional relationships with medical centers or patient advocacy groups;

 

   

inability to obtain sufficient coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors and governmental agencies; and

 

   

inability to identify patients and improve diagnosis rates particularly in orphan populations in which no effective therapies exist.

We are not currently a party to a strategic collaboration that provides us with access to a collaborator’s resources in selling or marketing drugs. If we enter into arrangements with third parties to perform sales and marketing services, our revenues from the sale of drugs or the profitability of these revenues to us are likely to be lower than if we were to market and sell any products that we develop ourselves. In addition, we may not be successful in entering into arrangements with third parties to sell and market arimoclomol or may be unable to do so on terms that are favorable to us. We likely will have little control over such third parties, and any of them may fail to devote the necessary resources and attention to sell and market our products effectively. If we do not establish further sales and marketing capabilities successfully, either on our own or in collaboration with third parties, we will not be successful in commercializing arimoclomol.

If we are unable to achieve and maintain adequate levels of coverage or reimbursement for arimoclomol, if commercialized, or any future product candidates we may seek to commercialize, or if patients are left with significant out-of-pocket costs, our commercial success may be severely hindered.

Our product candidate, arimoclomol, may be significantly more expensive than traditional drug treatments and we expect that many patients will require governmental payors, such as Medicare and Medicaid in the United States or other country specific government organizations in foreign countries and/or private third-party payors to pay all or a portion of the cost of arimoclomol. Even if arimoclomol is approved for sale by the appropriate regulatory authorities, market acceptance and sales will depend on reimbursement policies and may be affected by future healthcare reform measures. Government authorities and third-party payors, such as private health insurers and health maintenance organizations, decide which drugs they will reimburse and establish payment levels and, in some cases, utilization management strategies, such as tiered formularies and prior authorization. There is also a significant trend in the health care industry by public and private payors to contain or reduce their costs. As a result, payors may (i) decrease the portion of costs they will cover, (ii) cease providing adequate payment for arimoclomol or (iii) not cover arimoclomol at all. Any of the foregoing may have an adverse impact on our revenue and results of operations. We cannot be certain that reimbursement will be available for any products that we develop or that the reimbursement level will be adequate to allow us to operate profitably. Also, we cannot be certain that reimbursement policies will not reduce the demand for, or the price paid for, our products. If reimbursement is not available or is available on a limited basis, or if the reimbursement amount is inadequate, we may not be able to successfully commercialize any products, if approved.

We anticipate that we will derive substantially all of our revenue from the sale of our products to hospitals and specialized medical centers. Hospitals typically bill various third-party payors to cover all or a portion of the costs and fees associated with the treatments in which arimoclomol will be used and bill patients for any deductibles or co-payments.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, have established guidelines for the coverage and reimbursement of certain products and treatments by Medicare. In general, in order to be reimbursed by

 

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Medicare, a treatment furnished to a Medicare beneficiary must be reasonable and necessary for the diagnosis or treatment of an illness or injury, or to improve the functioning of a malformed body part. The methodology for determining coverage status and the amount of Medicare reimbursement varies based upon, among other factors, the setting in which a Medicare beneficiary received healthcare products and services. Any changes in federal legislation, regulations and policy affecting CMS coverage and reimbursement relative to the treatment using our products could have a material effect on our performance.

Physicians that perform treatments using our products, or the hospitals or specialized medical centers for which they work, may be subject to reimbursement claim denials upon submission of the claim. Physicians or hospitals may also be subject to recovery of overpayments if a payor makes payment for the claim and subsequently determines that the payor’s coding, billing or coverage policies were not followed. Some physicians and hospitals may be unwilling to adopt our products in light of any additional associated cost. Further, any decline in the amount payors are willing to reimburse physicians and hospitals could make it difficult for existing physicians and hospitals to continue using or to adopt our products and could create additional pricing pressure for us. If we are forced to lower the price we charge for our products, our gross margins will decrease, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Outside of the United States, reimbursement levels vary significantly by country and by patient. Reimbursement is obtained from a variety of sources, including government sponsors, hospital budgets, or private health insurance plans, or combinations thereof. In the European Union, changes to pricing and reimbursement of medicinal products, are almost exclusively a matter for national, and not EU, law and policy, which have generally resulted in restrictions on the pricing and reimbursement of medicines due to healthcare budgetary constraints in most EU member states. Even if we succeed in bringing our products to market in additional foreign countries, uncertainties regarding future healthcare policy, legislation and regulation, as well as private market practices, could affect our ability to sell our products in commercially acceptable quantities at acceptable prices.

Third-party payors, whether foreign or domestic, or governmental or commercial, are developing increasingly sophisticated methods of controlling healthcare costs and it is unlikely there will be a uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for treatments using our products. Therefore, coverage and reimbursement for treatments using our products can differ significantly from payor to payor. Payors continually review new and existing technologies for possible coverage and can, without notice, deny or reverse coverage for new or existing products and treatments. There can be no assurance that third-party payor policies will provide coverage for treatments in which our products are used.

Further, we believe that future coverage and reimbursement may be subject to increased restrictions, such as additional prior authorization requirements, both in the United States and in international markets. Third-party coverage and reimbursement for treatments using arimoclomol, if approved, may not be available or adequate in either the United States or international markets, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

We are operating in a field with substantial global competition and swift technological advances which could mean that our competitors may develop other treatments for similar or the same diseases as those targeted by arimoclomol and may be able to commercialize them more successfully.

The biopharmaceutical industry is subject to substantial global competition and swift technological advances. Certain companies are currently developing, or may initiate development of, competing product candidates targeting the same diseases as those targeted by us. For instance, we are aware of several pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies that have successfully commercialized products or have commenced clinical trials of product candidates addressing indications that we target with arimoclomol.

 

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With respect to NPC, we consider our most direct competitor to be Zavesca (miglustat), which was originally developed by Actelion Pharmaceuticals and is now owned by Johnson & Johnson, which is also available as a generic product in several countries and is currently approved for the treatment of NPC. Miglustat has not been approved by the FDA for treatment of NPC, but it is approved for the treatment of Gaucher Type I disease in the United States. For the treatment of NPC, it is approved only in Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and several countries in Asia and South America as Zavesca and in Japan as Brazaves. We are also aware of several pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies that have commenced clinical trials of product candidates for NPC, including: adrabetadex (VTS-270), being developed by Mallinckrodt for NPC; trappsol, being developed by Cyclo Therapeutics for NPC; IB1001, being developed by IntraBio for NPC; and ESB1609, being evaluated by E-scape Bio for NPC.

With respect to ALS, we consider our most direct competitors to be Sanofi and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, which have the pharmaceutical products Rilutek (riluzole) and Radivaca (edaravone). In addition to the current treatment options for ALS, a number of pharmaceutical product candidates are being developed to treat ALS, including: levosimendan (Orion Pharma); (ii) NurOwn (Brainstorm Therapeutic); and (iii) BIIB067/tofersen (Biogen); Masitinib (AB Science); and reldesemtiv (Cytokinetics).

There are currently no treatments for neurological symptoms of Gaucher disease. However, there are two types of treatment currently available for patients with Gaucher Type 1 disease: ERT, such as Cerezyme (Sanofi), Elelyso (Pfizer) and Vpriv (Shire); and SRT using Zavesca or Cerdelga (Sanofi). There are a few other advanced clinical programs for the treatment of Gaucher disease, including: Genzyme is currently evaluating the combined use of two agents for Gaucher disease Type 3; Tottori University Hospital and Shire are evaluating ambroxol hydrochloride for neuronopathic Gaucher disease; and AVROBIO Inc. is evaluating a product candidate for Gaucher disease Type 1.

We may also face heightened competition from gene therapy, alternative treatment forms and generics, after expiry of patent protection and loss of any market exclusivity for our products.

Any product candidates that we are able to commercialize in the United States and the EU may be subject to competition from lower priced imports of those same products, leading to reduced revenues and lower sales margins, as well as lower priced imports of competing products from countries with government price controls or other market dynamics that, in each case, reduce prices of products. The ability of patients and other customers to obtain these lower priced imports has grown significantly. Some of these foreign imports are illegal under current law. However, the volume of imports is now significant, due in part to the limited enforcement resources and the pressure in the current political environment to permit the imports as a mechanism for expanding access to lower priced medicines. Parallel importation or importation of foreign products could adversely affect our future profitability. This impact potentially could become even greater if there is a further change in relevant protective legislation or if state or local governments take further steps to import products from abroad.

Further, these competitors may have greater resources than us, develop more effective or affordable product candidates than us or develop their product candidates faster or more efficiently than us and thereby achieve commercialization of their products earlier or more effectively than us.

If we are unable to respond effectively to competition, arimoclomol may be rendered obsolete and our ability to generate revenue may be limited, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Product liability and other claims or litigation may have material adverse effects on our business.

Companies in the life sciences industry, such as us, are generally subject to risks related to product liability litigation and other claims or litigation.

 

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Product liability risks are inherent in developing, marketing and sale of pharmaceutical products. Even though we are not currently subject to any product liability claims, such claims could arise at a later date. Litigation would be time-consuming for our management and lead to significant costs and losses, which would adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

In addition, we may from time to time become involved in various litigation matters and governmental or regulatory investigations, prosecutions or similar matters arising out of our current or future business. We cannot accurately anticipate how the liabilities from any claims asserted against us, regardless of merit or eventual outcome, may harm our reputation. There is no guarantee that we will be successful in defending against future litigation or similar matters brought under various laws.

Even though we have obtained product liability insurance in respect of all clinical trials we have performed and are performing with respect to arimoclomol and for the EAP and any other early access program or compassionate use program that we have established or may in the future establish, there can be no assurance that such insurance coverage or any future insurance coverage for commercialization of arimoclomol will be available on reasonable commercial terms or that it will prove adequate. If sufficient insurance coverage is not obtained covering, for instance, product liability, or if such future litigation or investigation exceeds our insurance coverage, we could be subject to significant liabilities, which could have material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Our insurance policies protect us only from some business risks, which leaves us exposed to significant uninsured liabilities.

We do not carry insurance for all categories of risk that our business may encounter. Although we have product liability and clinical study liability insurance that we believe is appropriate, this insurance is subject to deductibles and coverage limitations. Our current product liability insurance may not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms, if at all, and, if available, coverage may not be adequate to protect us against any future product liability claims. If we are unable to obtain insurance at an acceptable cost or on acceptable terms or otherwise protect against potential product liability claims, we could be exposed to significant liabilities. A product liability claim or other claim with respect to uninsured liabilities or for amounts in excess of insured liabilities could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects. We do not carry specific hazardous waste insurance coverage, and our property, casualty and general liability insurance policies specifically exclude coverage for damages and fines arising from hazardous waste exposure or contamination. Accordingly, in the event of contamination or injury, we could be held liable for damages or be penalized with fines in an amount exceeding our resources, and our clinical trials or regulatory approvals could be suspended. Additionally, we do not carry cyber security insurance, which may expose us to certain potential losses for damages or result in penalization with fines in an amount exceeding our resources.

We also expect that operating as a public company in the United States will make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified people to serve on our board of directors, on our board committees or as executive officers. We do not know, however, if we will be able to maintain existing insurance with adequate levels of coverage. Any significant uninsured liability may require us to pay substantial amounts, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

 

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Risks Related to Our Dependence on Third Parties

Data provided by collaborators and others upon which we rely that has not been independently verified could turn out to be false, misleading or incomplete.

We rely on third-party vendors, such as CROs and other collaborators to provide us with significant data and other information related to our projects, preclinical studies or clinical trials and our business. If such third parties provide inaccurate, misleading or incomplete data, our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects could be materially adversely affected. In addition, our CROs in the past have been and will be subject to regular inspections by regulatory authorities. Any findings of deficiencies, data integrity issues or noncompliance with applicable rules and regulations in such inspections may lead to delay or suspension of preclinical studies or clinical trials, implementation of additional internal controls and policies required by the authorities, refusal by the FDA or EMA to accept results of our preclinical studies or clinical trials as a result of compromised data integrity and control processes and termination of our agreement with such CROs. If our existing or future CROs are not in compliance with applicable rules and regulations in conducting our preclinical studies or clinical trials or otherwise fail to fulfil their contractual and regulatory obligations, this could adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects. In addition, any delays in providing data or providing inaccurate, misleading or incomplete data would adversely affect our preclinical studies and human clinical trials, including timing for obtaining marketing approval, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

We are currently dependent on third parties for manufacturing arimoclomol. If such third-party manufacturers do not deliver their manufactured products in time, this could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Manufacturing includes the production, formulation and stability testing of an active pharmaceutical ingredient and its formulation into pharmaceutical products, such as capsules or tablets. We do not have our own manufacturing facility and currently we do not intend to develop any such manufacturing capacity. We are therefore dependent on third parties for manufacturing our products and if any of those third parties terminates the agreements or moves their facilities to a different location, this could have a material adverse effect on our ability obtain such manufactured products. We currently depend on one manufacturer for arimoclomol and were our relationship with that manufacturer to deteriorate or the contract with such supplier be terminated then that could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects. If we had to replace our manufacturer for arimoclomol, this could entail significant costs, delay, disruption of management attention and inventory shortage.

We may be required in the future to enter into agreements with other third parties to manufacture arimoclomol at a larger scale to increase supply for potential marketing and sale of its drug (if arimoclomol as a treatment for any of the indications targeted by us receives approval in any jurisdiction). We can provide no assurance that we will be able to make the transition from the current scale of production to a larger scale of production of arimoclomol or from laboratory-scale production to development-scale production of new molecules. We may need to enter into additional collaborative arrangements with other parties who have established manufacturing capabilities, or have other third parties manufacture our products on a contractual basis. We may not have access to the substantial financing on acceptable terms that would be required to scale-up production and develop effective commercial manufacturing processes and technologies. We may not be able to enter into collaborative or contracting arrangements on acceptable terms with parties that will meet our requirements for quality, quantity and timeliness.

Any manufacturing of pharmaceutical products is subject to a number of regulatory requirements, for instance quality control and documentation. We are dependent on our contract manufacturing partners appropriately handling arimoclomol in accordance with good manufacturing practices and the costs of compliance may be high. Manufacturing facilities must be approved by the authorities and will be subject to

 

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regular inspections by the authorities. Such inspections may lead to suspension of manufacturing and interfere with product supply and distribution. If our existing or future contract manufacturing partners do not manufacture arimoclomol properly and otherwise fulfil their contractual and regulatory obligations to deliver agreed quantities of arimoclomol in a timely manner and of sufficient quality, this could adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects. In addition, any delays in production would delay our preclinical studies and human clinical trials, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

We are dependent on third-party vendors to provide certain licenses, products and services and our business and operations, including clinical trials, could be disrupted by any problems with our significant third-party vendors.

We engage a number of third-party suppliers and service providers to supply critical goods and services, such as contract research services, contract manufacturing services and IT services. Disruptions to the business, financial stability or operations of these suppliers and service providers, including due to strikes, labor disputes or other disruptions to the workforce, for instance, if, as a result of COVID-19, employees are not able to come to work, or to their willingness and ability to produce or deliver such products or provide such services in a manner that satisfies the requirements put forth by the authorities, or in a manner that satisfies our own requirements, could affect our ability to develop and market arimoclomol on a timely basis. If these suppliers and service providers were unable or unwilling to continue to provide their products or services in the manner expected, or at all, we could encounter difficulty finding alternative suppliers. Even if we are able to secure appropriate alternative suppliers in a timely manner, costs for such products or services could increase significantly. Any of these events could adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Specifically, we depend on agreements with external parties that carry out the clinical trials sponsored by us. If these external parties do not carry out their obligations under these agreements, or do not meet expected deadlines, if the parties need to be replaced, or if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised, ongoing and planned clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

In the future we may seek to enter into collaborations with third parties for the development and commercialization of arimoclomol. If such collaborations are not successful, we may not be able to capitalize on the market potential of arimoclomol.

In the future we may enter into collaboration agreements with third-party collaborators, such as by introducing a license right or a distribution agreement, for development and commercialization of existing or other products to address market opportunities that require large development investments and/or special expertise in selected geographic areas, as well as to share the financial risks involved in drug development and commercialization of arimoclomol.

We have no significant experience in entering into major collaboration or license agreements. We may be unable to attract partners for collaboration agreements or the terms of those collaboration agreements that we choose to enter into may not be favorable to us. This may be a result of factors such as general market demand for particular products or products within specific therapeutic areas, results of clinical trials relating to the product candidates or market competition.

If we are not successful in efforts to enter into future partnership agreements, our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects may be negatively affected. Even if we are successful in entering into collaboration agreements, such agreements may not lead to development or commercialization of the products in the most efficient manner or at all.

 

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With any future collaboration agreements, we expect to have limited control over the amount and timing of resources that such collaborators dedicate to the development or commercialization of the products. The ability to generate revenue from these arrangements will depend on such collaborators’ abilities to successfully perform the functions assigned to them in these arrangements. Our potential partners may have significant discretion in determining how to pursue planned activities and we may have limited control over the quality and nature of the efforts and resources that such a partner applies to the collaboration as well as the branding and marketing of us and our products. We cannot be certain that any collaborations will be scientifically or commercially successful or that we will receive revenues from any collaboration agreements.

Should any of the risks associated with the entering into collaborations with third parties for the development and commercialization of arimoclomol materialize, these could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Our employees, third-party contractors and other commercial partners may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including non-compliance with regulatory standards and requirements.

We are exposed to the risk that our employees, consultants, and other commercial partners and business associates may engage in fraudulent or illegal activity. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional, reckless or negligent conduct or other unauthorized activities that violate the regulations of the FDA, the EMA and non-U.S. regulators, including those laws requiring the reporting of true, complete and accurate information to such regulators, manufacturing standards, healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations in the United States and internationally or 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. It is not always possible to identify and deter misconduct by our employees, third-party contractors and other commercial partners, 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 comply with these 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 result in the imposition of significant fines or other sanctions, including the imposition of civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, monetary fines, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, and curtailment of operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations. Whether or not we are successful in defending against such actions or investigations, we could incur substantial costs, including legal fees and reputational harm, and divert the attention of management in defending ourselves against any of these claims or investigations.

Risks Related to Legal and Regulatory Compliance Matters

Our business operations and current and future relationships with healthcare professionals, principal investigators, consultants, customers and third-party payors in the United States and elsewhere may be subject, directly or indirectly, to applicable anti-kickback, fraud and abuse, false claims, physician payment transparency, health information privacy and security and other healthcare laws and regulations, which could expose us to substantial penalties.

Healthcare providers, physicians and third-party payors in the United States and elsewhere 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 professionals, principal investigators, consultants, customers and third-party payors may expose us to broadly applicable healthcare laws, including, without limitation, the U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the U.S. federal False Claims Act, that may constrain the

 

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business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we sell, market and distribute any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. In addition, we may be subject to physician payment transparency laws and privacy and security regulation by the U.S. federal government and by the states and non-U.S. jurisdictions in which we conduct our business. The applicable federal, state and non-U.S. healthcare laws that may affect our ability to operate include the following:

 

   

the U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, persons 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, lease, order or recommendation of, any good, facility, item or service, for which payment may be made, in whole or in part, under federal and state healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. The term “remuneration” has been broadly interpreted to include anything of value. This statute has been interpreted to apply to arrangements between pharmaceutical manufacturers on the one hand and prescribers, purchasers and formulary managers on the other hand. Although there are a number of statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors protecting certain common activities from prosecution or other regulatory sanctions, the exceptions and safe harbors are drawn narrowly, and practices that involve remuneration that are alleged to be intended to induce prescribing, purchases or recommendations may be subject to scrutiny if they do not qualify for an exception or safe harbor. Failure to meet all of the requirements of a particular applicable statutory exception or regulatory safe harbor does not make the conduct per se illegal under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. Instead, the legality of the arrangement will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis based on a cumulative review of all its facts and circumstances. Several courts have interpreted the statute’s intent requirement to mean that if any one purpose of an arrangement involving remuneration is to induce referrals of federal healthcare covered business, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute has been violated;

 

   

U.S. federal civil and criminal false claims laws, including the federal False Claims Act, which can be enforced through civil whistleblower or qui tam actions, and civil monetary penalty laws, which, among other things, impose criminal and civil penalties, against individuals or entities for, among other things, knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, to the federal government, including the Medicare and Medicaid programs, 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. Pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies have been prosecuted under these laws for, among other things, allegedly inflating drug prices they report to pricing services, which in turn were used by the government to set Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates, and for allegedly providing free product to customers with the expectation that the customers would bill federal programs for the product. In addition, certain marketing practices, including off-label promotion, may also violate false claims laws. Further, pharmaceutical manufacturers can be held liable under the False Claims Act even when they do not submit claims directly to government payors if they are deemed to “cause” the submission of false or fraudulent claims. Criminal prosecution is also possible for making or presenting a false, fictitious or fraudulent claim to the federal government;

 

   

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, which contains new federal criminal statutes that prohibit knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program or obtain, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises, any of the money or property owned by, or under the custody or control of, any healthcare benefit program, regardless of whether the payor is public or private, knowingly and willfully embezzling or stealing from a healthcare benefit program, willfully obstructing a criminal investigation of a healthcare offense and knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up by any trick or device a material fact or making any materially false statements in connection with the delivery of, or payment for, healthcare benefits, items or services relating to healthcare matters;

 

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HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009, or HITECH, and their respective implementing regulations, which impose obligations on “covered entities,” including certain healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses, as well as their respective “business associates” that create, receive, maintain or transmit individually identifiable health information for or on behalf of a covered entity, with respect to safeguarding the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information. Additionally, HITECH also contains four new tiers of civil monetary penalties; amends HIPAA to make civil and criminal penalties directly applicable to business associates and gave state attorneys general new authority to file civil actions for damages or injunctions in U.S. federal courts to enforce the federal HIPAA laws and to seek attorneys’ fees and costs associated with pursuing federal civil actions;

 

   

the U.S. federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which prohibits, among other things, the adulteration or misbranding of drugs, biologics and medical devices;

 

   

the EU General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, and other EU member state data protection legislation as well as that of the United Kingdom, which requires data controllers and processors, to adopt administrative, physical, and technical safeguards designed to protect personal data, including health-related data, including mandatory contractual terms with third-party providers, requirements for establishing an appropriate legal basis for processing personal data, transparency requirements related to communications with data subjects regarding the processing of their personal data, standards for obtaining consent from individuals to process their personal data, notification requirements to individuals about the processing of their personal data, an individual data rights regime, mandatory data breach notifications, limitations on the retention of personal data, increased requirements pertaining to health data, and strict rules and restrictions on the transfer of personal data outside of the EU, including to the United States;

 

   

the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, or collectively the ACA, and its implementing regulations, created annual reporting requirements for certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologicals and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (with certain exceptions), to report information related for certain payments and “transfers of value” provided to physicians (currently defined to include doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors) and teaching hospitals, as well as ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members. Beginning in 2022, applicable manufacturers also will be required to report such information regarding payments and transfers of value provided, as well as ownership and investment interests held, during the previous year to physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified nurse anesthetists and certified nurse-midwives; and

 

   

analogous state laws and regulations and non-U.S. laws, 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; state and non-U.S. laws that require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government or to adopt compliance programs as prescribed by state laws and regulations, or that otherwise restrict payments that may be made to healthcare providers; state and non-U.S. laws that require drug manufacturers to report information related to payments and other transfers of value to physicians and other healthcare providers, marketing expenditures or drug pricing; state and local laws that require the registration of pharmaceutical sales representatives; and state and non-U.S. laws governing the privacy and security of health information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts.

 

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Further, the ACA, among other things, amended the intent requirement of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and certain criminal statutes governing healthcare fraud. A person or entity no longer needs to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it. In addition, the ACA provided that the government may assert that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the False Claims Act.

Because of the breadth of these laws and the narrowness of their exceptions and safe harbors, it is possible that our business activities can be subject to challenge under one or more of such laws. The full scope and enforcement of each of these laws is uncertain and subject to rapid change in the current environment of healthcare reform. Federal and state enforcement bodies have continued to increase their scrutiny of interactions between healthcare companies and healthcare providers, which has led to a number of investigations, prosecutions, convictions and settlements in the healthcare industry.

Efforts to ensure that our internal operations and future business arrangements with third parties will comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations will involve substantial costs. 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, including, without limitation, damages, monetary fines, imprisonment, disgorgement of profits, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, additional reporting or oversight obligations if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or other agreement to resolve allegations of noncompliance with the law and curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and pursue our strategy. If any of the physicians or other healthcare providers or entities with whom we expect to do business, including future collaborators, are found not to be in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to significant criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from participation in government healthcare programs, which could also affect our business.

Nearly all aspects of our activities are subject to substantial regulation and compliance and staying up-to-date with such regulation is time-consuming and expensive.

Our business activities are subject to a wide range of laws as well as regulations, including those promulgated by the FDA and EMA, and other regulatory authorities, regulating matters such as orphan drug designations, clinical trials, use of data, animal testing, approval processes, requirements for production, marketing, sales, pricing, pharmacovigilance and intellectual property rights. Compliance with such laws is time-consuming and expensive. In addition, the FDA, the EMA or comparable regulatory authorities may change their policies, adopt additional regulations or revise existing regulations or take other actions, which may prevent or delay approval of arimoclomol. Changes to the prevailing legal or regulatory regime, may cause us to incur significant costs, revise, delay or discontinue all or part of our development program or adopt new processes and procedures in order to comply with new laws or regulations, which may negatively impact how we develop, attest, produce, market or sell our products, if approved, for instance, by making it more costly and demanding to develop or obtain approval for arimoclomol and this may materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Even if we obtain regulatory approval for arimoclomol, it will remain subject to ongoing regulatory oversight.

Even if we obtain regulatory approvals for arimoclomol, such approvals will be subject to ongoing regulatory requirements for manufacturing, labeling, packaging, storage, advertising, promotion, record-keeping and submission of safety and other post-market information. Any regulatory approvals that we receive for arimoclomol may also be subject to a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy limitations on the approved indicated uses for which the drug may be marketed or to the conditions of approval, or contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing testing, including Phase 4 trials, and surveillance to monitor the quality, safety and efficacy of the drug. For instance, the FDA has notified us that since approximately 80% of patients enrolled

 

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in our Phase 2/3 trial of NPC received miglustat as a concomitant medication, it may limit their ability to determine efficacy and safety and will therefore be a significant review issue. This may have implications for labeling and recommended dosing and may lead to a need for post-marketing trials. Such regulatory requirements may differ from country to country depending on where we have received regulatory approval.

In addition, drug manufacturers and their facilities are subject to payment of user fees and continual review and periodic inspections by the FDA and other regulatory authorities for compliance with cGMP requirements and adherence to commitments made in the NDA or non-U.S. marketing application. If we, or a regulatory authority, discover previously unknown problems with a drug, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the drug is manufactured or if a regulatory authority disagrees with the promotion, marketing or labeling of that drug, a regulatory authority may impose restrictions relative to that drug, the manufacturing facility or us, including requesting a recall or requiring withdrawal of the drug from the market or suspension of manufacturing.

If we fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements following approval of arimoclomol, a regulatory authority may:

 

   

issue an untitled letter or warning letter asserting that we are in violation of the law;

 

   

seek an injunction or impose administrative, civil or criminal penalties or monetary fines;

 

   

suspend or withdraw regulatory approval;

 

   

suspend any ongoing clinical trials;

 

   

refuse to approve a pending NDA, MAA, or comparable non-U.S. marketing application or any supplements thereto submitted by us or our partners;

 

   

restrict the marketing or manufacturing of the drug;

 

   

seize or detain the drug or otherwise require the withdrawal of the drug from the market;

 

   

refuse to permit the import or export of arimoclomol; or

 

   

refuse to allow us to enter into supply contracts, including government contracts.

Moreover, the FDA strictly regulates the promotional claims that may be made about drug products. In particular, a product may not be promoted for uses that are not approved by the FDA as reflected in the product’s approved labeling. The FDA and other agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off-label uses, and a company that is found to have improperly promoted off-label uses may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties. However, physicians may, in their independent medical judgment, prescribe legally available products for off-label uses. The FDA does not regulate the behavior of physicians in their choice of treatments but the FDA does restrict manufacturer’s communications on the subject of off-label use of their products.

If we are unable to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, we may be subject to fines, withdrawal of regulatory approvals, recall of products, suspension of manufacturing or other operational restrictions, as well as criminal sanctions and damage claims. Any government investigation of alleged violations of law could require us to expend significant time and resources in response and could generate negative publicity. The occurrence of any event or penalty described above may inhibit our ability to commercialize arimoclomol and harm our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

 

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We are subject to 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 the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, and the rules and regulations thereunder, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, and any other domestic or foreign anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws in the countries in which we conduct activities. Anti-corruption laws are interpreted broadly and prohibit companies and their employees, agents, contractors, and other collaborators from authorizing, promising, offering, or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or anything else of value to recipients in the public or private sector. We may engage third parties to sell our products outside the United States, to conduct clinical trials, 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, contractors and other collaborators, 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.

We, our employees and third-party contractors are subject to safety requirements and any failure to comply with such requirements could result in liability or reputational damage.

Due to the chemical ingredients of pharmaceutical products and the nature of the research and development and manufacturing process, we, our employees and third-party contractors are subject to safety reporting requirements, environmental regulations and, going forward, additional requirements following potential receipt of marketing approval. If we fail to comply with applicable rules and regulations, we could be subject to criminal sanctions and substantial liability or could be required to suspend or modify our operations. Further, if any of our employees or third-party contractors perform acts or omissions that are considered unethical, criminal or otherwise contrary to applicable laws and regulations or internal guidelines, our reputation may be harmed, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Compliance with environmental laws and regulations could be expensive, and the failure to comply with these laws and regulations could subject us to significant liability.

Our research, development and manufacturing operations involve the use of hazardous substances, and we are subject to a variety of federal, state, local and foreign environmental laws and regulations relating to the storage, use, handling, generation, manufacture, treatment, discharge and disposal of hazardous substances. Our products may also contain hazardous substances, and they are subject laws and regulations relating to labeling requirements and to their sale, collection, recycling, treatment, storage and disposal. Hazardous materials are also used by us in our research and development, such as Rotenone. We cannot completely eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from the use, storage, handling or disposal of these materials. We may be held liable for any accident or injury that occurs as a result of this risk, the costs of which may exceed any insurance coverage that we currently have, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects. Compliance with these laws and regulations may be expensive and noncompliance could result in substantial fines and penalties. Environmental laws and regulations also impose liability for the remediation of releases of hazardous substances into the environment and for personal injuries resulting from exposure to hazardous substances, and they can give rise to substantial remediation costs and to third-party claims, including for property damage and personal injury. Liability under environmental laws and regulations can be joint and several and without regard to fault or negligence, and they tend to become more stringent over time, imposing greater compliance costs and increased risks and penalties associated with violations. We cannot assure you that violations of these laws and regulations, or releases of or

 

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exposure to hazardous substances, will not occur in the future or have not occurred in the past, including as a result of human error, accidents, equipment failure or other causes. The costs of complying with environmental laws and regulations, and liabilities that may be imposed for violating them, or for remediation obligations or responding to third-party claims, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Although we believe that we hold all permits required for our use of hazardous materials, any failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations could result in fines, suspension of permits or authorizations or claims for damages, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

We are subject to risks related to data privacy concerns, cyber security breaches and failure to comply with laws, regulations, standards, and contracts relating to data privacy and security.

We are subject to evolving data protection laws, privacy and security requirements and other regulatory restrictions in the various jurisdictions in which we operate. These laws are subject to differing interpretations and may be inconsistent among jurisdictions, and guidance on implementation and compliance practices are often updated or otherwise revised, which adds to the complexity of processing personal information. During the course of our business, we come in the possession of sensitive personal data, including information from clinical trials, and health data obtained in connection with reporting of adverse events and may store or process such information outside the country in which it was collected. This information needs to be handled by us in compliance with such obligations. These and other obligations could require us or our partners to incur additional costs to achieve compliance, limit our competitiveness, necessitate the acceptance of more onerous obligations in our contracts, restrict our ability to use, store, transfer, and process data, impact our or our partners’ ability to process or use data in order to support the provision of our products or services, affect our or our partners’ ability to offer our products and services or operate in certain locations, cause regulators to reject, limit, or disrupt our clinical trial activities, result in increased expenses, reduce overall demand for our products and services and make it more difficult to meet expectations of or commitments to customers or collaborators

Furthermore, our failure to keep apprised of, and comply with, privacy, data use and security laws, standards and regulations, including, for instance, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to, data, could result in the suspension or revocation of our approvals or registrations, the limitation, suspension or termination of services or the imposition of administrative, civil or criminal penalties, including fines. For example, under the EU General Data Protection Regulation that entered into force in May 25, 2018, fines may be as high as 20 million Euros or 4% of the annual worldwide revenue, whichever is higher, for certain infringements. Laws such as the GDPR and EU member state laws may also apply to health-related and other personal information that we process. These laws impose strict obligations on the ability to process health-related and other personal information of data subjects in the European Union and the United Kingdom, including, among other things, standards relating to the privacy and security of personal data, which require the adoption of administrative, physical and technical safeguards designed to protect such information. These laws may affect our use, collection, analysis, and transfer (including cross-border transfer) of such personal information. These laws include several requirements relating to transparency requirements related to communications with data subjects regarding the processing of their personal data, obtaining the consent of the individuals to whom the personal data relates, limitations on data processing, establishing a legal basis for processing, notification of data processing obligations or security incidents to appropriate data protection authorities or data subjects, the security and confidentiality of the personal data and various rights that data subjects may exercise. The GDPR prohibits the transfer, without an appropriate legal basis, of personal data to countries outside of the European Economic Area, or EEA, such as the United States, which are not considered by the European Commission to provide an adequate level of data protection. Switzerland has adopted similar restrictions. Although there are legal mechanisms to allow for the transfer of personal data from the EEA and Switzerland to the United States, uncertainty about compliance with EU data protection laws remains and such mechanisms may not be available or applicable with respect to the personal data processing activities necessary to research, develop, and market

 

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our products and services. For example, ongoing legal challenges in Europe to the mechanisms allowing companies to transfer personal data from the EEA to the United States could result in further limitations on the ability to transfer personal data across borders, particularly if governments are unable or unwilling to reach new or maintain existing agreements that support cross-border data transfers, such as the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks. Additionally, other countries have passed or are considering passing laws requiring local data residency and/or restricting the international transfer of data. Further, the UK’s decision to leave the EU, often referred to as Brexit, has created uncertainty with regard to data protection regulation in the United Kingdom. In particular, while the Data Protection Act of 2018, that “implements” and complements the GDPR achieved Royal Assent on May 23, 2018 and is now effective in the United Kingdom, it is still unclear whether transfer of data from the EEA to the United Kingdom will remain lawful under GDPR. During the period of “transition” (i.e., until December 31, 2020), EU law will continue to apply in the United Kingdom, including the GDPR, after which the GDPR will be converted into UK law. Beginning in 2021, the UK will be a “third country” under the GDPR. We may, however, incur liabilities, expenses, costs, and other operational losses under GDPR and applicable EU Member States and the United Kingdom privacy laws in connection with any measures we take to comply with them.

Additionally, California recently enacted legislation that has been dubbed the first “GDPR-like” law in the United States. Known as the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, it creates new individual privacy rights for consumers (as that word is broadly defined in the law) and places increased privacy and security obligations on entities handling personal data of consumers or households. The CCPA went into effect on January 1, 2020 and requires covered companies to provide new disclosures to California consumers, provides consumers with new data privacy rights, imposes new operational requirements for covered businesses, creates a statutory damages framework, and allows for a new cause of action for data breaches. Although there are limited exemptions for clinical trial data, the CCPA could impact our business activities depending on how it is interpreted and exemplifies the vulnerability of our business to not only cyber threats but also the evolving regulatory environment related to personal data and protected health information.

In addition, we may obtain health information from third parties in the United States (including research institutions from which we may obtain clinical trial data) that are subject to privacy and security requirements under HIPAA, as amended by HITECH. Additionally, HITECH created four new tiers of civil monetary penalties, amended HIPAA to make civil and criminal penalties directly applicable to business associates, and gave state attorneys general new authority to file civil actions for damages or injunctions in U.S. federal courts to enforce HIPAA and seek attorneys’ fees and costs associated with pursuing federal civil actions. Depending on the facts and circumstances, we could be subject to criminal penalties, including if we knowingly obtain, use, or disclose individually identifiable health information maintained by a HIPAA-covered entity or business associate in a manner that is not authorized or permitted by HIPAA. In addition, such failure or non-compliance may cause existing or potential partners, including hospitals, physicians and patients to cease interacting with us, and could damage our reputation and brand. In addition, to the extent more restrictive laws, rules or security requirements relating to business and personal data are adopted in the future in the various jurisdictions in which we operate, such changes could have an adverse impact on our business by increasing our costs or imposing restrictions on our business processes.

Any failure by our vendors to comply with applicable law, regulations or contractual obligations related to data privacy and security could result in proceedings against us by governmental entities or others.

We publish privacy policies, self-certifications, and other documentation regarding our collection, processing, use and disclosure of personal information and/or other confidential information. Although we endeavor to comply with our published policies, certifications, and documentation, we may at times fail to do so or may be perceived to have failed to do so. Moreover, despite our efforts, we may not be successful in achieving compliance if our employees or vendors to comply with our published policies, certifications, and documentation. Such failures can subject us to potential international, local, state and federal action if they are found to be deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative of our actual practices. Moreover, patients or subjects about

 

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whom we or our partners obtain information, as well as the providers who share this information with us, may contractually limit our ability to use and disclose the information. Claims that we have violated individuals’ privacy rights or failed to comply with data protection laws or applicable privacy notices even if we are not found liable, could be expensive and time-consuming to defend and could result in adverse publicity that could harm our business.

Because of the breadth of these laws, it is possible that some of our current or future business activities could be subject to challenge under one or more of such privacy and data security laws. The heightening compliance environment and the need to build and maintain robust and secure systems to comply with different privacy compliance and/or reporting requirements in multiple jurisdictions could increase the possibility that a healthcare company may fail to comply fully with one or more of these requirements. If our operations are alleged to be or are found to be in violation of any of the privacy or data security laws or regulations described above that are applicable to us, or any other laws that apply to us, we may be subject to government investigations and enforcement actions, private litigation, penalties, including potentially significant criminal, civil, and administrative penalties, damages, fines, imprisonment, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, additional reporting requirements, and/or oversight if we become subject to a consent decree or similar agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations. To the extent that arimoclomol, once approved, is sold in a foreign country, we may be subject to similar foreign laws. Accordingly, our failure to keep apprised of, and comply with, privacy, data use and security laws, standards and regulations could have a material adverse effect on our reputation and negatively affect our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Cyber security attacks on our servers, information systems and databases, or the third-party servers, information systems and databases on which our information is stored or processed, could compromise the security, availability, or integrity of our data or could cause interruptions in the operations of our business. We cannot guarantee that our security measures will be sufficient to protect against unauthorized access to or other compromise of the personal or confidential information we process. The techniques used to sabotage or to obtain unauthorized access to our systems, networks and/or physical facilities in which data is stored or through which data is transmitted change frequently, and we may be unable to implement adequate preventative measures or stop security breaches. The recovery systems, security protocols, network protection mechanisms and other security measures that we have integrated into our platform, systems, networks and physical facilities, which are designed to protect against, detect and minimize security breaches, may not be adequate to prevent or detect service interruption, system failure or data loss. Notwithstanding safeguards, cyber security breaches, internal security breaches, physical security breaches or other unauthorized or accidental access to our servers, other information systems or databases could result in tampering with, or the theft or publication of, sensitive information or the deletion or modification of data, or could otherwise cause interruptions in our operations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

The tampering with, disruption to, or the theft or publication of, sensitive information or the deletion or modification of records held either in our systems or the systems of others to which we have access, could subject us to increased costs and exposure to litigation. We have contractual and legal obligations to notify relevant stakeholders of security breaches. Most jurisdictions have enacted laws requiring companies to notify individuals, regulatory authorities, and others of security breaches involving certain types of data. In addition, our agreements with certain partners may require us to notify them in the event of a security breach. The loss of confidential information could result in the payment of damages and reputational harm and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems and those of our third-party CMOs, CROs and other contractors and consultants are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses,

 

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natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. If such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our product candidate development programs. For example, the loss of pre-clinical studies or clinical trial data from completed, ongoing or planned trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. To the extent that any such disruption results in a loss of or damage to our data or applications or other data or applications relating to our technology or product candidate, or inappropriate disclosure or theft of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liabilities, our competitive position could be harmed and the further development of our product candidates could be delayed.

The financial exposure from the items referenced above could either not be insured against or not fully covered through any insurance that we maintain and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects. In addition, we cannot be sure that our existing insurance coverage and coverage for errors and omissions will continue to be available on acceptable terms or that our insurers will not deny coverage as to any future claim. There can be no assurance that the limitations of liability in our contracts would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from liabilities or damages.

Risks Related to Intellectual Property Rights

If we are unable to obtain and maintain our marketing and distribution rights for arimoclomol, as well as patent protection for our technology and current or future product candidates, or if the scope of the marketing and distribution rights or patent protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, we may not be able to compete effectively in our markets.

We rely upon a combination of patents, trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect the intellectual property related to our development programs and product candidate. Our success depends in large part on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection in the United States and other countries with respect to our current and future product candidates. We have sought to protect our proprietary position by filing and in-licensing patent applications in the United States and abroad related to our development programs and product candidate. The patent prosecution process is expensive and time-consuming, and we or our licensors may not be able to file, maintain or prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner or in all jurisdictions. We currently do not have composition of matter patents that cover our product candidate nor any patent that covers the formulation of our product candidate. We rely on method of use patents for protection of our product candidate, which protect methods of treating the current indications that we are targeting other than sIBM (the treatment of which is not currently covered by patent protection).

It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection. Moreover, in some circumstances, we do not have the right to control the preparation, filing and prosecution of patent applications, or to maintain the patents, covering technology that we have licensed from third parties. The patent applications that we own or in-license may fail to result in issued patents with claims that cover our current and future product candidates in the United States or in other foreign countries. Our patent applications cannot be enforced against third parties practicing the technology claimed in such applications unless, and until, a patent issues from such applications, and then only to the extent the issued claims cover the technology.

If the patent applications we hold or have in-licensed with respect to our development programs and product candidate fail to issue, if their breadth or strength of protection is threatened, or if they fail to provide meaningful exclusivity for our current and future product candidates, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to develop product candidates, and threaten our ability to commercialize, products. Any such outcome could have a negative effect on our business.

The patent position of biopharmaceutical companies is generally highly uncertain, involves complex legal, scientific and factual questions for which important legal principles remain unresolved and has in recent

 

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years been the subject of much litigation. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of our patent rights may be uncertain. In addition, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. For example, patent laws in various jurisdictions, including significant commercial markets such as Europe, restrict the patentability of methods of treatment of the human body more than U.S. law does. In addition, many countries, including certain countries in Europe, have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties (for example, the patent owner has failed to “work” the invention in that country, or the third party has patented improvements). In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, the patent owner may have limited remedies, which could materially diminish the value of the patent. Moreover, the legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the aggressive enforcement of patent and other intellectual property protection, which makes it difficult to stop infringement. Publications of discoveries in scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions remain confidential for a period of time after filing, and some remain so until issued. Therefore, we cannot know with certainty whether we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our owned or licensed patents or pending patent applications, or that we 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. There is no assurance that all potentially relevant prior art relating to our patents and patent applications has been found, and such prior art could potentially invalidate a one or more of our patents or prevent a patent from issuing from a one or more of our pending patent applications. There is also no assurance that there is not prior art of which we are aware, but which we do not believe affects the validity or enforceability of a claim in our patents and patent applications, which may, nonetheless, ultimately be found to affect the validity or enforceability of a claim. Even if patents do successfully issue and even if such patents cover our current and future product candidates, third parties may challenge their validity, enforceability or scope, which may result in such patents being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, which could 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. Any successful opposition to these patents or any other patents owned by or licensed to us could deprive us of rights necessary for the successful commercialization of any product candidates that we may develop. Furthermore, even if they are unchallenged, our patents and patent applications may not adequately protect our intellectual property, provide exclusivity for our current or future product candidates, prevent others from designing around our claims or provide us with a competitive advantage. Any of these outcomes could impair our ability to prevent competition from third parties.

We have filed several patent applications covering various aspects of our current or future product candidates. We cannot offer any assurances about which, if any, patents will issue, the breadth of any such patent, or whether any issued patents will be found invalid and unenforceable or will be challenged by third parties. Any successful opposition to these patents or any other patents owned by or licensed to us after patent issuance could deprive us of rights necessary for the successful commercialization of any product candidates that we may develop. Further, if we encounter delays in regulatory approvals, the period of time during which we could market a product candidate under patent protection could be reduced.

Our current intellectual property portfolio may not prove to be sufficient to protect the exclusivity of arimoclomol for our indications. Additional competitors could enter the market, including with generic versions of our products, and sales of affected products may decline materially.

We do not own any patents covering the composition of matter or the current formulation for arimoclomol. Composition of matter patents are generally believed to offer the strongest patent protection. It is therefore possible for any third party to make arimoclomol for another unpatented indication, and for such third party product to have the same formulation as ours. Such third party may also offer its version of arimoclomol at a lower cost.

 

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Our patent portfolio has a strategic scope of protection consisting of method of use patents. While many countries such as the United States permit method of use patents relating to the use of drug products, in some countries the law relating to patentability of such use claims is evolving and may be unfavorably interpreted to prevent us from patenting some or all of our pending patent applications. There are some countries that currently do not allow such method of use patents, or that significantly limit the types of uses that are patentable.

Since our composition of matter patent for arimoclomol has expired, a competitor could, at any time, submit an ANDA for a generic version of arimoclomol and request immediate approval. The ANDA process is confidential, so there may be other arimoclomol ANDAs pending. As a result, it is possible that we could face competition from third party products that have arimoclomol as the active pharmaceutical ingredient. If a third party were to obtain FDA approval in the United States for the use of arimoclomol, or regulatory approval in another jurisdiction, for an indication before we did, such third party would be first to market and could establish the price for arimoclomol in these jurisdictions. This could adversely impact our ability to implement our pricing strategy for the product and may limit our ability to maximize the commercial potential of arimoclomol in the United States and elsewhere. The presence of a lower priced competitive product with the same active pharmaceutical ingredients as our product could lead to use of the competitive product for our indications, including on an off-label basis. Such uses may be made by physicians or other third parties that are too small for us to pursue patent claims against. This could lead to pricing pressure for arimoclomol, which would adversely affect our ability to generate revenue from the sale of arimoclomol.

Our rights to develop and commercialize product candidates may be subject, in part, to the terms and conditions of licenses granted to us by others, and, if we fail to comply with our obligations under these arrangements, we could lose such intellectual property rights or owe damages to the licensor of such intellectual property.

We license know-how and technology related to our product candidate and certain other intellectual property rights from third parties, and in the future may be party to other material license or collaboration agreements. These agreements typically impose numerous obligations on a licensee, including payment obligations. If we fail to comply with our obligations under these agreements, our licensors may have the right to terminate our licenses, in which event we might not be able to develop, manufacture or market any product that is covered by the intellectual property we in-license from such licensors and may face other penalties. In addition, the agreements under which we currently license intellectual property or technology 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 or will license in the future prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current or future licensing arrangements on commercially acceptable terms, we may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize the affected technology and product candidates, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial conditions, results of operations and prospects. In addition to the above risks, intellectual property rights that we license in the future may include sublicenses under intellectual property owned by third parties, in some cases through multiple tiers. The actions of our licensors may therefore affect our rights to use our sublicensed intellectual property, even if we are in compliance with all of the obligations under our license agreements. Should our licensors or any of the upstream licensors fail to comply with their obligations under the agreements pursuant to which they obtain the rights that are sublicensed to us, or should such agreements be terminated or amended, our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates may be materially harmed.

 

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We may not identify relevant third-party patents or may incorrectly interpret the relevance, scope or expiration of a third-party patent which might adversely affect our ability to develop and market our current or future product candidates.

We cannot guarantee that any of our or our licensors’ patent searches or analyses, including the identification of relevant patents, the scope of patent claims or the expiration of relevant patents, are complete or thorough, nor can we be certain that we have identified each and every third-party patent and pending application in the United States and abroad that is relevant to or necessary for the commercialization of our current or future product candidates in any jurisdiction. Even if we diligently search third-party patents for potential infringement by our products or current or future product candidates, we may not successfully find patents our products or current or future product candidates may infringe. For example, U.S. applications filed before November 29, 2000 and certain U.S. applications filed after that date that will not be filed outside the United States remain confidential until patents issue. Because patent applications in the United States, Europe and many other jurisdictions are published approximately 18 months after the earliest filing for which priority is claimed, with such earliest filing date being commonly referred to as the priority date, patent applications covering our current or future product candidates could have been filed by others without our knowledge. Additionally, pending patent applications that have been published can, subject to certain limitations, be later amended in a manner that could cover our current or future product candidates or the use of such product candidates. The scope of a patent claim is determined by an interpretation of the law, the written disclosure in a patent and the patent’s prosecution history. Our interpretation of the relevance or the scope of a patent or a pending application may be incorrect, which may negatively impact our ability to market our current or future product candidates. We may incorrectly determine that our current or future product candidates are not covered by a third-party patent or may incorrectly predict whether a third party’s pending application will issue with claims of relevant scope. Our determination of the expiration date of any patent in the United States or abroad that we consider relevant may be incorrect, which may negatively impact our ability to develop and market our current or future product candidates. Our failure to identify and correctly interpret relevant patents may negatively impact our ability to develop and market our current or future product candidates.

If we fail to identify and correctly interpret relevant patents, we may be subject to infringement claims. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to successfully settle or otherwise resolve such infringement claims. If we fail in any such dispute, in addition to being forced to pay damages, we may be temporarily or permanently prohibited from commercializing any of our current or future product candidates that are held to be infringing and/or harm our reputation and financial results. In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may have to pay substantial damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement, pay royalties, redesign our infringing products, in the case of claims concerning registered trademarks, rename our current or future product candidates, or obtain one or more licenses from third parties, which may require substantial time and monetary expenditure, and which might be impossible or technically infeasible. Any of these events, even if we were ultimately to prevail, could require us to divert substantial financial and management resources that we would otherwise be able to devote to our business.

Patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on our current or future product candidates for an adequate amount 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 earliest 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 current or future product candidates are obtained, once the patent life has expired for a product candidate, we may be open to competition from competitive medications, including biosimilar or generic medications. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such product candidates might expire before or shortly after such product candidates are commercialized. As a result, our owned and licensed patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing product candidates similar or identical to ours.

 

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Depending upon the timing, duration and conditions of FDA marketing approval of our current or future product candidates, one or more of our U.S. patents may be eligible for limited patent term extension under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984, referred to as the Hatch-Waxman Amendments, and similar legislation in the EU. The Hatch-Waxman Amendments permit a patent term extension of up to five years for a patent covering an approved product as compensation for effective patent term lost during product development and the FDA regulatory review process. Patent term restoration cannot be used to extend the remaining term of a patent past a total of 14 years from the product’s approval date in the United States. Only one patent applicable to an approved product is eligible for the extension, and the application for the extension must be submitted prior to the expiration of the patent for which extension is sought. A patent that covers multiple products for which approval is sought can only be extended in connection with one of the approvals. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, reviews and approves the application for any patent term extension in consultation with the FDA. However, we may not receive an extension if we fail to apply within applicable deadlines, fail to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents or otherwise fail to satisfy applicable requirements. Moreover, the length of the extension could be less than we request. If we are unable to obtain patent term extension or the term of any such extension is less than we request, the period during which we can enforce our patent rights for that product will be shortened and our competitors may obtain approval to market competing products sooner. As a result, our revenue from applicable products could be reduced. Further, if this occurs, our competitors may take advantage of our investment in development and trials by referencing our clinical and preclinical data and launch their product earlier than might otherwise be the case.

Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats to our business.

While we seek broad coverage under our existing patent applications, there is always a risk that an alteration to products or processes may provide sufficient basis for a competitor to avoid infringing our patent claims. In addition, patents, if granted, expire and we cannot provide any assurance that any potentially issued patents will adequately protect our current or future product candidates. Once granted, patents may remain open to opposition, interference, re-examination, post-grant review, inter partes review, nullification or derivation action in court or before patent offices or similar proceedings for a given period after allowance or grant, during which time third parties can raise objections against such grant. In the course of such proceedings, which may continue for a protracted period of time, the patent owner may be compelled to limit the scope of the allowed or granted claims thus attacked, or may lose the allowed or granted claims altogether.

In addition, the degree of future protection afforded by our intellectual property rights is uncertain because even granted intellectual property rights have limitations and may not adequately protect our business. The following examples are illustrative:

 

   

others may be able to make compounds, or formulations that are similar to our current or future product candidate formulations but that are not covered by the claims of the patents that we own or control;

 

   

the patents of third parties may have an adverse effect on our business;

 

   

we or our licensors or any future strategic partners might not have been the first to conceive or reduce to practice the inventions covered by the issued patent or pending patent application that we own or have exclusively licensed;

 

   

we or our licensors or any future strategic partners might not have been the first to file patent applications covering certain of our inventions;

 

   

others may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies without infringing our intellectual property rights;

 

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it is possible that our owned or in-licensed pending patent applications will not lead to issued patents;

 

   

issued patents that we own or have exclusively licensed may not provide us with any competitive advantage, or may be held invalid or unenforceable, as a result of legal challenges by our competitors;

 

   

our competitors might conduct research and development activities in countries where we do not have patent rights and then use the information learned from such activities to develop competitive products for sale in our major commercial markets;

 

   

third parties performing manufacturing or testing for us using our current or future product candidates or technologies could use the intellectual property of others without obtaining a proper license;

 

   

we cannot ensure that any of our patents, or any of our pending patent applications, if issued, or those of our licensors, will include claims having a scope sufficient to protect our current or future product candidates;

 

   

we cannot ensure that any patents issued to us or our licensors will provide a basis for an exclusive market for our current or future commercially viable product candidates or will provide us with any competitive advantages;

 

   

the Supreme Court of the United States, other U.S. federal courts, Congress, the USPTO or similar foreign authorities may change the standards of patentability and any such changes could narrow or invalidate, or change the scope of, our or our licensors’ patents;

 

   

patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on our current or future product candidates for an adequate amount of time;

 

   

we cannot ensure that our commercial activities or current or future product candidates will not infringe upon the patents of others;

 

   

we cannot ensure that we will be able to successfully commercialize our current or future product candidates on a substantial scale, if approved, before the relevant patents that we own or license expire;

 

   

we may choose not to file a patent in order to maintain certain trade secrets or know-how, and a third party may subsequently file a patent covering such intellectual property;

 

   

we may not develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable; and

 

   

the patents of others may have an adverse effect on our business.

Should any of these events occur, they could significantly harm our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Changes in patent laws or patent jurisprudence could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our current and future product candidates.

As is the case with other biopharmaceutical companies, our success is heavily dependent on intellectual property, particularly patents. Obtaining and enforcing patents in the biopharmaceutical industry involve both technological complexity and legal complexity. Therefore, obtaining and enforcing biopharmaceutical patents is

 

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costly, time-consuming and inherently uncertain. In addition, the United States has recently enacted and is currently implementing wide-ranging patent reform legislation. Recent patent reform legislation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents. In addition, the America Invents Act, or the AIA, which was signed into law on September 16, 2011, includes a number of significant changes to U.S. patent law, including provisions that affect the way patent applications are prosecuted, redefine prior art, may affect patent litigation, and changed the U.S. patent system from a “first-to-invent” system to a “first-to-file” system.

An important change introduced by the AIA is that, as of March 16, 2013, the United States transitioned to a “first-to-file” system for deciding which party should be granted a patent when two or more patent applications are filed by different parties claiming the same invention. A third party that files a patent application in the USPTO after that date but before us could therefore be awarded a patent covering an invention of ours even if we had made the invention prior to such third party. While this will require us to be cognizant of the time that passes from creating an invention to filing a patent application on such invention, circumstances could prevent us from promptly filing patent applications on our inventions.

Among some of the other changes introduced by the AIA are changes that limit where a patentee may file a patent infringement suit and providing opportunities for third parties to challenge any issued patent in the USPTO. This applies to all of our U.S. patents, even those issued before March 16, 2013. Because of a lower evidentiary standard in USPTO proceedings compared to the evidentiary standard in U.S. federal courts necessary to invalidate a patent claim, a third party could potentially provide evidence in a USPTO proceeding sufficient for the USPTO to hold a claim invalid even though the same evidence would be insufficient to invalidate the claim if first presented in a district court action. Accordingly, a third party may attempt to use the USPTO procedures to invalidate our patent claims that would not have been invalidated if first challenged by the third party as a defendant in a district court action. The AIA and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents.

In the last few years, the USPTO has developed regulations and procedures to govern administration of the AIA, and many of the substantive changes to patent law associated with the AIA, and, in particular, the first-to-file provisions, only became effective on March 16, 2013. Accordingly, it is not clear what, if any, impact the AIA will have on the operation of our business. However, the AIA and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our or our licensors’ or collaboration partners’ patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our or our licensors’ or collaboration partners’ issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

In addition, patent reform legislation may pass in the future that could lead to additional uncertainties and increased costs surrounding the prosecution, enforcement and defense of our patents and pending patent applications. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on several patent cases in recent years, such as Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., and Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International, which together have narrowed the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances and weakened the rights of patent owners in certain situations. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained. Depending on decisions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts, and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that could weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce our existing patents and patents that we might obtain in the future. Similarly, the complexity and uncertainty of European patent laws has also increased in recent years. For example, the April 2010 amendment of the European Patent Convention, which limited the time permitted for filing divisional applications, was subsequently abrogated. This amendment and subsequent abrogation illustrates the uncertainty involved in the prosecution of European patent laws. In

 

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addition, the European patent system is relatively stringent in the type of amendments that are allowed during prosecution. These changes could limit our ability to obtain new patents in the future that may be important for our business.

Furthermore, the United States federal government retains certain rights in inventions produced with its financial assistance under the Bayh-Dole Act. The federal government retains a “nonexclusive, nontransferable, irrevocable, paid-up license” for its own benefit. The Bayh-Dole Act also provides federal agencies with “march-in rights”. March-in rights allow the government, in specified circumstances, to require the contractor or successors in title to the patent to grant a “nonexclusive, partially exclusive, or exclusive license” to a “responsible applicant or applicants.” If the patent owner refuses to do so, the government may grant the license itself. We cannot be sure that any co-developed intellectual property will be free from government rights pursuant to the Bayh-Dole Act. For instance, we have license agreements with the University of Miami and the University of Kansas pursuant to which we have in-licensed specified data, know-how, inventions and patent rights generated from clinical trials. As the University of Miami and University of Kansas have obtained federal grants, such license agreements may be subject to the Bayh-Dole Act. If, in the future, we co-own or license in technology which is critical to our business that is developed in whole or in part with federal funds subject to the Bayh-Dole Act, our ability to enforce or otherwise exploit patents covering such technology may be adversely affected.

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 negative impact on the success of our business.

Our commercial success depends, in part, upon our ability, and the ability of any future collaborators, to develop, manufacture, market and sell our current and future product candidates, if approved, and use our proprietary technologies without alleged or actual infringement, misappropriation or other violation of the patents and intellectual property and proprietary rights of third parties. There have been many lawsuits and other proceedings involving patent and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including patent infringement lawsuits, interferences, oppositions and re-examination proceedings before the USPTO, and corresponding foreign patent offices. Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications, which are owned by third parties, exist in the fields in which we are developing product candidates. Some claimants may have substantially greater resources than we do and may be able to sustain the costs of complex intellectual property litigation to a greater degree and for longer periods of time than we could. In addition, patent holding companies that focus solely on extracting royalties and settlements by enforcing patent rights may target us. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, the risk increases that our current or future product candidates may be subject to claims of infringement of the intellectual property rights of third parties.

We may in the future become party to, or be threatened with, adversarial proceedings or litigation regarding intellectual property rights with respect to arimoclomol and any future product candidates and technology, including interference or derivation proceedings, post grant review and inter partes review before the USPTO or similar adversarial proceedings or litigation in other jurisdictions. Similarly, we may initiate such proceedings or litigation against third parties, including to challenge the validity or scope of intellectual property rights controlled by third parties. Third parties may assert infringement claims against us based on existing patents or patents that may be granted in the future, regardless of their merit. There is a risk that third parties may choose to engage in litigation with us to enforce or to otherwise assert their patent rights against us. Even if we believe such claims are without merit, a court of competent jurisdiction could hold that these third-party patents are valid, enforceable and infringed, which may result in such patents being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, which could 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 right, unless we obtained a license under the applicable patents, or until such patents expire or are finally determined to be invalid or unenforceable. Similarly, if any third-party patents were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover aspects of our compositions, formulations, or methods of treatment,

 

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prevention or use, the holders of any such patents may be able to block our ability to develop and commercialize the applicable product candidate unless we obtained a license or until such patent expires or is finally determined to be invalid or unenforceable. In either case, such a license may not be available 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. Furthermore, even in the absence of litigation, we may need to obtain licenses from third parties to advance our research or allow commercialization of our current or future product candidates, and we have done so from time to time. We may fail to obtain any of these licenses at a reasonable cost or on reasonable terms, if at all. In such an event, we would be unable to further practice our technologies or develop and commercialize any of our current or future product candidates at issue, which could harm our business significantly.

Parties making claims against us may obtain injunctive or other equitable relief, which could effectively block our ability to further develop and commercialize one or more of our current and future product candidates and/or harm our reputation and financial results. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of employee resources from our business. Third parties making such claims may have the ability to dedicate substantially greater resources to these legal actions than we or our licensors or collaborators can. In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may have to pay substantial damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement, pay royalties, redesign our infringing products, in the case of claims concerning registered trademarks, rename our current or future product candidates, or obtain one or more licenses from third parties, which may be impossible, technically infeasible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure. Furthermore, 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, or include terms that impede or destroy our ability to compete successfully in the commercial marketplace.

We may become involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents, the patents of our licensors or our other intellectual property rights, which could be expensive, time-consuming and unsuccessful.

Competitors may infringe or otherwise violate our or our licensors’ patents or misappropriate or otherwise violate our or our licensor’s other intellectual property rights. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file legal claims on a country-by-country basis, which can be expensive, time-consuming and divert the time and attention of our management and scientific personnel. Our adversaries in these proceedings may have the ability to dedicate substantially greater resources to prosecuting these legal actions than we can. There can be no assurance that we will have sufficient financial or other resources to file and pursue such infringement claims, which typically last for years before they are concluded.

In addition, in an infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent of ours is not valid or is unenforceable, or may 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 or defense proceedings could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly, could put our patent applications at risk of not issuing and could limit our ability to assert those patents against those parties or other competitors and curtail or preclude our ability to exclude third parties from making and selling similar or competitive products. Similarly, if we assert trademark infringement claims, a court may determine that the trademarks we have asserted are invalid or unenforceable, or that the party against whom we have asserted trademark infringement has superior rights to the marks in question. In this case, we could ultimately be forced to cease use of such trademarks, which could materially harm our business and negatively affect our position in the marketplace.

The initiation of a claim against a third party may also cause the third party to bring counter claims against us such as claims asserting that our patents are invalid or unenforceable or claims challenging the scope of the intellectual property rights we own or control. In patent litigation in the United States, defendant

 

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counterclaims alleging invalidity or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge could be an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including lack of novelty, obviousness, non-enablement or lack of statutory subject matter. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could be an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant material information from the USPTO, or made a materially misleading statement, during prosecution. Third parties may also raise similar validity claims before the USPTO in post-grant proceedings such as ex parte re-examinations, inter partes review, or post-grant review, or oppositions or similar proceedings outside the United States, in parallel with litigation or even outside the context of litigation. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable. We cannot be certain that there is no invalidating prior art of which we and the patent examiner were unaware during prosecution. If a defendant were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity or unenforceability, we would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of any future patent protection on our current or future product candidates. Such a loss of patent protection could harm our business. 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.

We may not be able to prevent, alone or with our licensors, infringement or misappropriation of our intellectual property rights, particularly in countries where the laws may not protect those rights as fully as in the United States. Our business could be harmed if in litigation the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms. Any litigation or other proceedings to enforce our intellectual property rights may fail, and even if successful, may result in substantial costs and distract our management and other employees.

Even if we establish infringement, the court may decide not to grant an injunction against further infringing activity and instead award only monetary damages, which may or may not be an adequate remedy. 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 during the course of litigation. There could also be public announcements regarding the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a material adverse effect on the price of the ordinary shares and ADSs. Any of the foregoing could allow third parties to develop and commercialize competing technologies and products and have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and/or prospects.

If our trademarks and trade names are not adequately protected, then we may not be able to build name recognition in our markets of interest and our business may be adversely affected.

While we seek to protect the trademarks we use in the United States and in other countries, we may be unsuccessful in obtaining registrations and/or otherwise protecting these trademarks. If that were to happen, we may be prevented from using our names, brands and trademarks unless we enter into appropriate royalty, license or coexistence agreements, which may not be available or may not be available on commercially reasonable terms. Over the long term, if we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks, trade names, service marks and domain names, then we may not be able to compete effectively, resulting in a material adverse effect on our business. Our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names may be challenged, infringed, diluted or declared generic, or determined to be infringing on other third-party trademarks. In addition to registrations, we also rely on common law protection for our trademarks. We may not be able to protect our rights to these trademarks and trade names or may be forced to stop using these names, which we need to build name recognition among potential partners or customers in our markets of interest. At times, competitors may adopt trademarks and trade names similar to ours, thereby impeding our ability to build brand identity and possibly leading to market confusion. In addition, there could be potential trademark infringement claims brought by owners of other registered trademarks or trademarks that incorporate variations of our registered or unregistered trademarks. Over the long term, if we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks, then we may not be able to compete effectively and our business may be adversely affected. During trademark registration proceedings, we may receive rejections. Although we would be given an opportunity to

 

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respond to those rejections, we may be unable to overcome such rejections. In addition, in the USPTO and in comparable agencies in many foreign jurisdictions, third parties are given an opportunity to oppose pending trademark applications and to seek to cancel registered trademarks. Opposition or cancellation proceedings may be filed against our trademarks, and our trademarks may not survive such proceedings. Effective trademark protection may not be available or may not be sought in every country in which our products are made available. Any name we propose to use for our products in the United States must be approved by the FDA, regardless of whether we have registered it, or applied to register it, as a trademark. The FDA typically conducts a review of proposed product names, including an evaluation of potential for confusion with other product names. If the FDA objects to any of our proposed product names, we may be required to expend significant additional resources in an effort to identify a usable substitute name that would qualify under applicable trademark laws, not infringe the existing rights of third parties and be acceptable to the FDA. If we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks and trade names, we may not be able to compete effectively and our business may be adversely affected.

We may not have enough financial resources to successfully enforce and defend our intellectual property rights.

The enforcement and defense of our intellectual property rights, including patent rights, through legal or administrative proceedings may be costly and time-consuming, may divert our personnel from their usual responsibilities and may provide our competitors and others with insights into our proprietary rights. Moreover, there can be no assurance that we will have sufficient financial or other resources to conduct such enforcement or defense actions. An adverse determination in any litigation or other proceeding could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and could put our pending patent applications at risk of not being issued. The occurrence of any of the above could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties or that our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their former employers. The majority of our employees and consultants were previously employed at universities or biopharmaceutical or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Although we try to ensure that our employees, consultants and independent contractors do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that we or these employees have, inadvertently or otherwise, used or disclosed intellectual property, trade secrets or other proprietary information of their former employers or other third parties. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, we may have to pay substantial monetary damages and, lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and other employees.

We will not seek to protect our intellectual property rights in all jurisdictions throughout the world and may not be able to adequately enforce our intellectual property rights even in the jurisdictions where protection is sought.

Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on the products in all countries and jurisdictions throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and the intellectual property rights in some countries could be less extensive than those in the European Union or the United States, assuming that rights are obtained in the European Union and the United States. Competitors may use our technologies in such jurisdictions to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but enforcement is not as strong as that in the European Union or the United States.

In addition, the laws of some countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as in the European Union and the United States. Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting

 

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and defending intellectual property rights in certain jurisdictions. The legal systems of some countries, particularly developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, especially those relating to biopharmaceuticals or biotechnologies. This could make it difficult to stop the infringement of our patents, if obtained, or the misappropriation of other intellectual property rights. For example, many countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner under certain conditions must grant licenses to third parties. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against third parties, including government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, patents may provide limited or no benefit. Patent protection must ultimately be sought on a country-by-country basis, which is an expensive and time-consuming process with uncertain outcomes.

Such lack of patent protection may lead to material costs for us, or we may be unable to protect or use our intellectual property rights, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

We may be subject to claims challenging the inventorship of our patents and other intellectual property.

Although we are not currently experiencing any claims challenging the inventorship of our patents or ownership of our intellectual property, we may in the future be subject to claims that former employees, collaborators or other third parties have an interest in our patents or other intellectual property as an inventor or co-inventor. While it is our policy to require our employees and contractors who may be involved in the conception or development of intellectual property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be unsuccessful in executing such an agreement with each party who, in fact, conceives or develops intellectual property that we regard as our own. For example, the assignment of intellectual property rights may not be self-executing or the assignment agreements may be breached, or we may have inventorship disputes arise from conflicting obligations of consultants or others who are involved in developing our current or future product candidates. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these and other claims challenging inventorship. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights, such as exclusive ownership of, or right to use, valuable intellectual property. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and other employees.

Intellectual property litigation could cause us to spend substantial resources and distract our personnel from their normal responsibilities.

Litigation or other legal proceedings relating to intellectual property claims, with or without merit, is unpredictable and generally expensive and time-consuming and is likely to divert significant resources from our core business, including distracting our technical and management personnel from their normal responsibilities. 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 during this type of litigation. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. Such litigation or proceedings could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce the resources available for development activities or any future sales, marketing or distribution activities.

We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to adequately conduct such litigation or proceedings. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources and more mature and developed intellectual property portfolios. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing upon, misappropriating or successfully challenging our intellectual property rights. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace.

 

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Our inability to protect our confidential information and trade secrets would harm our business and competitive position.

In addition to seeking patents for some of our technology and products, 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 also enter into confidentiality and invention or patent assignment agreements with our employees and consultants. We also seek to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of our data, trade secrets and know-how by maintaining physical security of our premises and physical and electronic security of our information technology systems. Monitoring unauthorized uses and disclosures is difficult, and we do not know whether the steps we have taken to protect our proprietary technologies will be effective. We cannot guarantee that our trade secrets and other proprietary and confidential information will not be disclosed or that competitors will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets. Despite these efforts, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information, including our trade secrets, 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 both within and outside the United States may be less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. If a competitor lawfully obtained or independently developed any of our trade secrets, we would have no right to prevent such competitor from using that technology or information to compete with us, which could harm our competitive position.

Trade secrets and know-how can be difficult to protect as trade secrets and know-how will over time be disseminated within the industry through independent development, the publication of journal articles, and the movement of personnel skilled in the art from company to company or academic to industry scientific positions. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, we would have no right to prevent such competitor from using that technology or information to compete with us, which could harm our competitive position. If we are unable to prevent material disclosure of the intellectual property related to our technologies to third parties, we will not be able to establish or maintain a competitive advantage in our market, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects. Even if we are able to adequately protect our trade secrets and proprietary information, our trade secrets could otherwise become known or could be independently discovered by our competitors. Competitors could purchase our products and attempt to replicate some or all of the competitive advantages we derive from our development efforts, willfully infringe our intellectual property rights, design around our protected technology or develop their own competitive technologies that fall outside of our intellectual property rights. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, in the absence of patent protection, we would have no right to prevent them, or those to whom they communicate, from using that technology or information to compete with us.

We may not be able to prevent misappropriation of our intellectual property, trade secrets or confidential information, particularly in countries where the laws may not protect those rights as fully as in the United States. 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 during this type of litigation. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments.

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 and annuity fees on any issued patent are due to be paid to the USPTO and foreign patent agencies in several stages over the lifetime of the patent. The USPTO and various foreign governmental

 

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patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. While an inadvertent lapse can in many cases be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules, there are situations in which noncompliance 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. Non-compliance events that could result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application include failure to respond to official actions within prescribed time limits, non-payment of fees and failure to properly legalize and submit formal documents. If we fail to maintain the patents and patent applications covering our products, our competitors might be able to enter the market, which would harm our business.

We may not be successful in obtaining necessary intellectual property rights to future products through acquisitions and in-licenses.

Although we intend to develop products and technology through our own internal research, we may also seek to acquire or in-license technologies to grow our product offerings and technology portfolio. However, we may be unable to acquire or in-license intellectual property rights relating to, or necessary for, any such products or technology from third parties on commercially reasonable terms or at all. In that event, we may be unable to develop or commercialize such products or technology. We may also be unable to identify products or technology that we believe are an appropriate strategic fit for our company and protect intellectual property relating to, or necessary for, such products and technology.

The in-licensing and acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights for product candidates is a competitive area, and a number of more established companies are also pursuing strategies to in-license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights for products that we may consider attractive or necessary. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, cash resources and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities. Furthermore, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to additional technologies or products, our business, financial condition, results of operations and/or prospects for growth could suffer.

In addition, if competition for the in-licensing or acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights for products and technologies that are attractive to us increases in the future, there may be fewer suitable opportunities for us as well as higher acquisition or licensing costs. We may be unable to in-license or acquire the third-party intellectual property rights for products or technology on terms that would allow us to make an appropriate return on our investment.

Risks Related to Employee Matters and Managing Our Growth

We may not be able to attract, integrate, manage and retain qualified personnel or key employees or our employees may not be able to come to work as a result of COVID-19.

The success of our business depends on our ability to successfully develop and commercialize arimoclomol. Since our organization currently consists of a limited number of employees with additional personnel hires planned for the years to come, our ability to successfully develop and commercialize arimoclomol will depend on recruiting a range of specialist personnel, particularly in the areas of development of new products, planning and managing clinical programs and commercialization of pharmaceutical products, and also requires that we retain and develop the necessary qualified personnel who can provide the needed expertise to support our business and operations. The market for qualified personnel is competitive and we may not succeed in recruiting personnel to, for instance, commercialize arimoclomol as currently envisaged, or we may fail to effectively replace current personnel who depart with qualified or effective successors. Our effort to retain and develop personnel may also result in significant additional expenses, which could adversely affect our profitability. We can make no assurances that key personnel, including our senior management such as our Chief

 

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Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Medical Officer, or Chief Scientific Officer, will continue to be employed or that we will be able to attract and retain qualified personnel in the future. Failure to retain or attract key personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects. In addition, if, as a result of COVID-19, our employees are not able to come to work, then this could also have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Business disruptions could seriously harm our future revenue and financial condition and increase our costs and expenses.

Our operations, and those of our third-party collaborators, CROs, CMOs, suppliers, manufacturers and other contractors and consultants, could be subject to earthquakes, power shortages, telecommunications failures, water shortages, floods, hurricanes, typhoons, fires, extreme weather conditions, medical epidemics, protests, strikes, civil unrest, revolutions, rebellions, terrorist activities, and other natural or man-made disasters or business interruptions. The occurrence of any of these business disruptions could seriously harm our operations and financial condition and increase our costs and expenses. We currently rely on one third-party manufacturer to produce and process arimoclomol. Our ability to obtain clinical supplies of arimoclomol could be disrupted if the operations of this manufacturer are affected by a man-made or natural disaster or other business interruption. Damage or extended periods of interruption to our third-party collaborators’ facilities due to fire, natural disaster, power loss, communications failure, unauthorized entry or other events could cause us to cease or delay development of arimoclomol. Although we intend to maintain property damage and business interruption insurance coverage on these facilities, our insurance might not cover all losses under such circumstances and our business may be seriously harmed by such delays and interruption.

We are increasing and expect to continue increasing the size of our organization. If we are unable to effectively manage the anticipated growth, our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects will be negatively affected.

Any growth that we experience in the future will require us to expand our sales personnel, manufacturing operations and general and administrative infrastructure. As a dual listed public company, we will need additional managerial, operational, financial and other resources. In addition to the need to scale our organization, future growth will impose significant added responsibilities on management, including the need to identify, recruit, train and integrate additional employees. Rapid expansion of personnel could mean that less experienced people manufacture, market and sell arimoclomol if approved, which could result in inefficiencies and unanticipated costs, reduced quality and disruptions to our operations. In addition, rapid and significant growth may strain our administrative and operational infrastructure. Our ability to manage our business and growth will require us to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls, reporting systems and procedures. If we are unable to manage our growth effectively, it may be difficult for us to execute our business strategy and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

If and when demand for arimoclomol or any of our future product candidates increases, we will need to continue to scale our capacity, expand customer service, billing and systems processes and enhance our internal quality assurance program. We cannot assure you that any increases in scale, related improvements and quality assurance will be successfully implemented or that appropriate personnel will be available to facilitate the growth of our business. Failure to implement necessary procedures, transition to new processes or hire the necessary personnel could result in higher costs of processing data or inability to meet increased demand. If we encounter difficulty meeting market demand, quality standards or physician expectations, our reputation will be harmed and negatively affect our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

 

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Our operations as a global company subject us to various risks, and our failure to manage these risks could adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

We face significant operational risks as a result of doing business globally, such as:

 

   

fluctuations in currency exchange rates (in particular, U.S. dollars, Euros and Danish kroner);

 

   

potentially adverse tax consequences, including the complexities of foreign value-added tax systems, tax inefficiencies related to our corporate structure, and restrictions on the repatriation of earnings;

 

   

reduced or varied protection for intellectual property rights in some countries;

 

   

export restrictions, trade regulations and foreign tax laws;

 

   

foreign certification and regulatory clearance or approval requirements;

 

   

difficulties in developing effective marketing campaigns in unfamiliar foreign countries;

 

   

customs clearance and shipping delays;

 

   

political, social, and economic instability abroad, global health epidemics or other contagious diseases, terrorist attacks and security concerns in general;

 

   

differing payment and reimbursement regimes;

 

   

the burdens of complying with a wide variety of foreign laws and different legal standards; and

 

   

increased financial accounting and reporting burdens and complexities.

If one or more of these risks are realized, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Global economic uncertainty and other global economic or political and regulatory developments could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Growth in the global pharmaceutical market has become increasingly tied to (i) global economic growth as an economic downturn may, for example as the result of COVID-19 paralyzing economic activities, reduce the amount of funding for the pharmaceutical sector as a whole or certain diseases targeted by us and (ii) political conditions, tension and uncertainty which could, for instance, impact the regulations applicable to us. The successful commercialization of arimoclomol will depend in part on the extent to which governmental authorities and health insurers are willing or able to establish coverage, and adequate reimbursement levels, as well as pricing policies.

Uncertain political and geopolitical conditions currently exist in various parts of the world, including barriers to free trade and free movement of people in the European Union following the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU on January 31, 2020 and transition period that is set to end on December 31, 2020. The full effects of the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU are impossible to predict but may result in significant market volatility and dislocation, and adversely affect the United Kingdom, European and global economy. In addition, as part of Brexit, the EMA has formally relocated to Amsterdam on March 30, 2019. This relocation might interrupt current administrative routines and occupy resources, which may cause delays in EMA’s handling of our applications or otherwise adversely affect our dealings with the EMA. In addition, the United Kingdom will no

 

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longer be covered by the centralized procedures for obtaining EU-wide marketing authorization from the EMA and, unless a specific agreement is entered into, a separate process for authorization of medical products, including arimoclomol, will be required in the United Kingdom, the potential process for which is currently unclear. Brexit may, therefore, adversely affect and delay our ability to commercialize, market and sell arimoclomol in the United Kingdom. Brexit may also result in a reduction of funding to the EMA if the United Kingdom no longer makes financial contributions to European institutions, such as the EMA. If the United Kingdom funding is reduced, it could create delays in EMA issuing regulatory approvals for arimoclomol.

Future legal or regulatory changes in jurisdictions where we currently operate, or in such jurisdictions in which we may choose to operate in the future, could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects, including by imposing regulatory and operational restrictions and compliance obligations on our business, reducing our revenue or increasing our expenses. For instance, changes in applicable laws in the following areas may have an impact on our operations: orphan drugs; clinical trials; use of data; animal testing; regulatory approval processes; requirements to production; marketing, sales and pricing of pharmaceutical products; pharmacovigilance and other regulatory requirements; and intellectual property rights.

In the United States, in particular, and in the other principal markets in which we may in the future sell arimoclomol, if approved, there is continued economic, regulatory and political pressure to promote changes in healthcare systems that would limit healthcare costs and expand access to healthcare. This uncertainty is further heightened in light of the impeding 2020 presidential elections. Legislation that has been enacted in the United States, at both the federal and state levels, has introduced cost-reduction measures and other provisions that could decrease the coverage and compensation that we may receive for arimoclomol, if approved. In the United States, the pharmaceutical industry has been a particular focus of these efforts and has been significantly affected by major legislative initiatives. In March 2010, , the ACA was passed, which is 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 (under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act) and health insurance industries, impose new taxes and fees on the health industry and impose additional health policy reforms. In the years since enactment of the ACA, there have been, and continue to be, significant developments in, and continued executive, judicial and legislative activity around attempts to repeal or repeal and replace the ACA. On December 14, 2018, a Texas U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the ACA is unconstitutional in its entirety because the “individual mandate” was repealed by Congress as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Additionally, on December 18, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld the District Court ruling that the individual mandate was unconstitutional and remanded the case back to the District Court to determine whether the remaining provisions of the ACA are invalid as well. On March 2, 2020, the United States Supreme Court granted the petitions for writs of certiorari to review this case, and has allotted one hour for oral arguments, which are expected to occur in the fall. It is unclear how such litigation and other efforts to repeal and replace the ACA will impact the ACA and our business. Due to these efforts, there is significant uncertainty regarding the future of the ACA, and its impact on our business and operations.

Additionally, there has been heightened governmental scrutiny in the United States of pharmaceutical pricing practices in light of the rising cost of prescription drugs and biologics. Such scrutiny has resulted in several recent congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to product pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for products. At the federal level, the current presidential administration’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2021 includes a $135 billion allowance to support legislative proposals seeking to reduce drug prices, increase competition, lower out-of-pocket drug costs for patients, and increase patient access to lower-cost generic and biosimilar drugs. On March 10, 2020, the current presidential administration sent “principles” for drug pricing to Congress, calling for legislation that would, among other things, cap Medicare Part D beneficiary out-of-pocket pharmacy expenses, provide an option to cap Medicare Part D beneficiary monthly out-of-pocket expenses, and place limits on

 

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pharmaceutical price increases. Further, the current presidential administration previously released a “Blueprint” to lower drug prices and reduce out of pocket costs of drugs that contained proposals to increase drug manufacturer competition, increase the negotiating power of certain federal healthcare programs, incentivize manufacturers to lower the list price of their products, and reduce the out of pocket costs of drug products paid by consumers. The Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, has solicited feedback on some of these measures and has implemented others under its existing authority. For example, in May 2019, CMS issued a final rule to allow Medicare Advantage plans the option to use step therapy for Part B drugs beginning January 1, 2020. This final rule codified CMS’s policy change that was effective January 1, 2019.

There have also been legislative changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which was signed into law in March 2020 and is designed to provide financial support and resources to individuals and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, suspended the 2% Medicare payment reduction sequester from May 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020, and extended the sequester by one year, through 2030. It is possible that additional governmental action is taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, changes to the political landscape in the United States (including as a result of the 2020 presidential elections) may impact the market sentiment surrounding the pharmaceutical industry.

In the EU, changes to healthcare systems, including the establishment and operation of health services and the pricing and reimbursement of medicinal products, are almost exclusively a matter for national, and not EU, law and policy. National governments and health service providers have different priorities and approaches to the delivery of health care and the pricing and reimbursement of products in that context. In general, however, the healthcare budgetary constraints in most EU member states have resulted in restrictions on the pricing and reimbursement of medicines, and such measures are expected to continue, which could affect our ability to commercialize any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval.

The above circumstances, individually or in the aggregate, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Risks Related to the Global Offering and These Securities

Investors in the global offering will experience immediate and substantial dilution in the book value of their investment.

The initial offering price of the ordinary shares and ADSs in the global offering is substantially higher than the pro forma net tangible book value per ordinary share before giving effect to the global offering. Accordingly, if you invest in the ordinary shares or ADSs in the global offering, you will incur immediate substantial dilution of $8.37 per ADS (based on the net tangible book value per share underlying the ADSs), based on an assumed initial offering price of DKK 82.70 per ordinary share ($13.13 per ADS), and our pro forma net tangible book value as of June 30, 2020. In addition, following the global offering, investors in the global offering will have contributed approximately 29% of the total gross consideration paid by shareholders to purchase our ordinary shares and ADSs, but will only own ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) representing approximately 22% of our ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) outstanding after the global offering. Furthermore, if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs), or if the board authorizes the issue of additional shares, ADSs or warrants or convertible securities are issued and subsequently exercised, you could experience further dilution. For a further description of the dilution that you will experience immediately after the global offering, see “Dilution.”

 

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There has been no prior market for the ADSs on a U.S. securities exchange and an active and liquid market for the securities may fail to develop, which could harm the market price of the ADSs.

Prior to the global offering, while our ordinary shares have been traded on Nasdaq Copenhagen since November 2017, there has been no public market on a U.S. securities exchange for the ADSs or our ordinary shares.

Although the ADSs have been approved for listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, an active trading market for the ADSs may never develop or be sustained following the global offering. The offering price of the ordinary shares and ADSs will be based on the market price for our ordinary shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen at the time of the global offering. The global offering price may not be indicative of the market price of the ordinary shares or ADSs after the global offering. In the absence of an active trading market for the ordinary shares or ADSs, investors may not be able to sell their ordinary shares or ADSs at or above the offering price or at the time that they would like to sell. In addition, although we expect the price of the ordinary shares and ADSs in the global offering to be based on the closing price of the underlying ordinary shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen at the time of the global offering, there is no guarantee that such price will be free from challenge by our existing shareholders based on allegations that it does not reflect the “market price” at which we are required by our articles of association and Danish law to issue our ordinary shares, if such ordinary shares are issued without pre-emptive rights for our existing shareholders or outside of applicable authorizations to the board of directors in our articles of association. Any such shareholder challenge could be time consuming and costly and, if decided in a manner unfavorable to us, could result in liability to us and our directors, and could prevent the global offering from closing.

Following the global offering and after the ADSs begin trading on Nasdaq, our ordinary shares will continue to be admitted to trading on Nasdaq Copenhagen. We cannot predict the effect of this dual listing on the value of the ordinary shares and ADSs. However, the dual listing of the ordinary shares and ADSs may dilute the liquidity of these securities in one or both markets and may adversely affect the development of an active trading market for the ADSs.

The dual listing of our ordinary shares and the ADSs following the U.S. offering may adversely affect the liquidity and value of the ADSs.

Following the U.S. offering and after the ADSs begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, our ordinary shares will continue to be listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen. Trading of the ordinary shares or ADSs, as applicable, in these markets will take place in different currencies (U.S. dollars on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and DKK on Nasdaq Copenhagen), and at different times (resulting from different time zones, different trading days and different public holidays in the United States and Denmark). The trading prices of our ordinary shares or ADSs, as applicable, on these two markets may differ due to these and other factors. Any decrease in the price of our ordinary shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen could cause a decrease in the trading price of the ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Investors could seek to sell or buy our ordinary shares or ADSs to take advantage of any price differences between the markets through a practice referred to as arbitrage. Any arbitrage activity could create unexpected volatility in both the trading prices on one exchange and the ordinary shares or ADSs available for trading on the other exchange. In addition, holders of ADSs will not be immediately able to surrender their ADSs and withdraw the underlying ordinary shares for trading on the other market without effecting necessary procedures with the depositary. This could result in time delays and additional cost for holders of ADSs. We cannot predict the effect of this dual listing on the value of the ordinary shares and the ADSs. However, the dual listing of the ordinary shares and the ADSs may reduce the liquidity of these securities in one or both markets and may adversely affect the development of an active trading market for the ADSs in the United States.

The trading price of our equity securities may be volatile due to factors beyond our control, and purchasers of the ordinary shares or ADSs could incur substantial losses.

The market prices of the ordinary shares or ADSs and shares may be volatile. The stock market in general and the market for biotechnology companies in particular have experienced extreme volatility that has

 

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often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. As a result of this volatility, investors may not be able to sell their ordinary shares or ADSs or shares at or above the price originally paid for the security. The market price for the ordinary shares or ADSs and shares may be influenced by many factors, including:

 

   

actual or anticipated fluctuations in our financial condition and operating results;

 

   

the release of new data from the clinical trials of arimoclomol;

 

   

actual or anticipated changes in our growth rate relative to our competitors;

 

   

competition from existing products or new products that may emerge;

 

   

announcements by us or our competitors of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, collaborations or capital commitments;

 

   

failure to meet or exceed financial estimates and projections of the investment community or that we provide to the public;

 

   

issuance of new or updated research or reports by securities analysts;

 

   

fluctuations in the valuation of companies perceived by investors to be comparable to us;

 

   

currency fluctuations;

 

   

ordinary share price and volume fluctuations attributable to inconsistent trading volume levels of the ADSs;

 

   

additions or departures of key management or scientific personnel;

 

   

disputes or other developments related to proprietary rights, including patents, litigation matters and our ability to obtain patent protection for our technologies;

 

   

changes to coverage policies or reimbursement levels by commercial third party payors and government payors and any announcements relating to coverage policies or reimbursement levels;

 

   

announcement or expectation of additional debt or equity financing efforts;

 

   

uncertainty caused by and the unprecedented nature of the current COVID-19 pandemic;

 

   

issuances or sales of the ordinary shares or ADSs by us, our insiders or our other shareholders; and

 

   

general economic and market conditions.

These and other market and industry factors may cause the market price and demand for the ordinary shares or ADSs to fluctuate substantially, regardless of our actual operating performance, which may limit or prevent investors from readily selling their shares or ordinary shares or ADSs and may otherwise negatively affect the liquidity of the trading market for ordinary shares or ADSs.

 

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We have broad discretion over the use of the net proceeds from the global offering and may use them in ways with which you do not agree and in ways that may not enhance our operating results or the price of the ordinary shares or ADSs.

Our board of directors and management will have broad discretion over the application of the net proceeds that we receive from the global offering. We may spend or invest these proceeds in ways with which our shareholders and holders of ADSs disagree or that do not yield a favorable return, if at all. We intend to use the net proceeds from the global offering, together with our existing cash resources as described in “Use of Proceeds.” However, our use of these proceeds may differ substantially from our current plans. For instance, if we do not use the proceeds to obtain regulatory approval and fund a potential commercial launch of arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC, we will continue to not generate any revenue in the near future. Failure by our management to apply these funds effectively could harm our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects. Pending their use, we may invest the net proceeds from the global offering in a manner that does not produce income or that loses value.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of the ordinary shares and ADSs and their trading volume could decline.

The trading market for the ordinary shares and ADSs depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If no or only limited securities or industry analysts cover our company, the trading price for the ordinary shares and ADSs could be negatively impacted. If one or more of the analysts who covers us downgrades our equity securities or publishes inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of ordinary shares and ADSs would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of our company or fails to publish reports on us regularly, or downgrades our securities, demand for ordinary shares and ADSs could decrease, which could cause the price of the ordinary shares and ADSs or their trading volume to decline.

We intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings and, consequently, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of the ordinary shares or ADSs.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our shares, and we intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings to fund the development and expansion of our business. Therefore, you are not likely to receive any dividends on your ordinary shares or ADSs for the foreseeable future and the success of an investment in ordinary shares or ADSs will depend upon any future appreciation in their value. Consequently, investors may need to sell all or part of their holdings of ordinary shares or ADSs after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment. There is no guarantee that the ordinary shares or ADSs will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which our investors have purchased them. Investors seeking cash dividends should not purchase the ordinary shares or ADSs.

In addition, if we choose to pay dividends in the future, exchange rate fluctuations may affect the amount of Danish kroner that we are able to distribute, and the amount in U.S. dollars that our shareholders receive upon the payment of cash dividends or other distributions we declare and pay in Danish kroner, if any. Any dividends will generally be subject to Danish withholding tax. See the section of this prospectus titled “Material Danish Income Tax Consequences” for a more detailed description of Danish taxes on dividends. These factors could harm the value of the ordinary shares or ADSs.

Investors should be aware that the rights provided to our shareholders and holders of ADSs under Danish corporate law and our articles of association differ in certain respects from the rights that you would typically enjoy as a shareholder of a U.S. company under applicable U.S. federal and state laws.

We are, and will upon the consummation of the global offering be, a Danish company with limited liability. Our corporate affairs are governed by our Articles of Association and by the laws governing companies incorporated in Denmark. The rights of shareholders and the responsibilities of members of our board of

 

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directors may be different from the rights and obligations of shareholders and boards of directors in companies governed by the laws of U.S. jurisdictions. In the performance of its duties, our board is required by Danish law to consider the interests of our company, its shareholders, its employees and other stakeholders. It is possible that some of these parties will have interests that are different from, or in addition to, the interests of our shareholders. See “Description of Share Capital and Articles of Association—Articles of Association and Danish Corporate Law.”

Under Danish corporate law, except in certain limited circumstances, which require at a minimum that a proposal for inspection has been supported by shareholders representing a minimum of 25% of the voting rights and the share capital being present at a general meeting, our shareholders may not ask for an inspection of our corporate records, while under Delaware corporate law any shareholder, irrespective of the size of such shareholder’s shareholdings, may do so. Shareholders of a Danish limited liability company are also unable to initiate a derivative action, a remedy typically available to shareholders of U.S. companies, in order to enforce a right of our company, in case we fail to enforce such right ourselves, other than in certain cases of board member/management liability under limited circumstances. In addition, a majority of our shareholders may release a member of our board of directors or our executive management from any claim of liability we may have, including if such board member or member of our executive management has acted in bad faith, negligently or fraudulently. However, a shareholder may bring a derivative action on behalf of our company against, among other persons, a member of our board of directors or our executive management, provided that the circumstances of the act or omission giving rise to the claim of liability was not known to the shareholder at the time of such shareholder resolution, or if shareholders representing at least 10% of the share capital represented at the relevant general meeting have opposed such shareholder resolution. In contrast, most U.S. federal and state laws prohibit a company or its shareholders from releasing a board member from liability altogether if such board member has acted in bad faith or has breached such board member’s duty of loyalty. Additionally, distribution of dividends from Danish companies to foreign companies and individuals can be subject to non-refundable withholding tax, and not all receiving countries allow for deduction. See “Material Danish Income Tax Consequences” for a more detailed description of the withholding tax. Also, the rights of a creditor of the company may not be as strong under Danish insolvency law as under U.S. or other insolvency law, and consequently creditors may recover less in the event our company is subject to insolvency compared to a similar case involving a U.S. debtor. In addition, the use of the tax asset consisting of the accumulated tax losses requires that we are able to generate positive taxable income, and the use of tax losses carried forward to offset against future income is subject to certain restrictions and can be restricted further by future amendments to Danish tax law. Finally, Danish corporate law may not provide appraisal rights in the case of a business combination equivalent to those generally afforded a shareholder of a U.S. company under applicable U.S. laws. For additional information on these and other aspects of Danish corporate law and our articles of association, see the section herein entitled “Description of Share Capital and Articles of Association.” As a result of these differences between Danish corporate law and our articles of association, on the one hand, and U.S. federal and state laws, on the other hand, in certain instances, you could receive less protection as an equity holder of our company than you would as a shareholder of a U.S. company.

You may not be able to exercise your right to vote the ordinary shares underlying your ADSs.

As a holder of the ADSs, you will not be treated as one of our shareholders and you will not have shareholder rights. The depositary will be the holder of the ordinary shares underlying your ADSs. As a holder of ADSs, you will have contractual ADS holder rights. The deposit agreement among us, the depositary and you, as an ADS holder, and all other persons directly and indirectly holding ADSs sets out ADS holder rights as well as the rights and obligations of the depositary.

ADS holders may only exercise voting rights with respect to the shares underlying their respective ADSs in accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement, which provides that a holder may vote the ordinary shares underlying any ADSs for any particular matter to be voted on by our shareholders either by withdrawing the ordinary shares underlying the ADSs or by instructing the depositary how to vote those ordinary shares. However, even if you are able to instruct the depositary to vote the ordinary shares underlying your

 

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ADSs, we cannot guarantee you that the depositary will vote in accordance with your instructions and you may not know about the meeting far enough in advance to withdraw those ordinary shares.

Our articles of association permit differentiated voting, allowing the depositary to vote the ordinary shares registered in its name that underlie the ADSs in a manner that is not identical. As a result, the depositary will be able to vote such ordinary shares in a manner to reflect the preferences of the ADS holders, thereby effectively permitting pass-through voting by ADS holders who indicate their preference to the depositary in accordance with and subject to the depositary’s procedures. The depositary will try, as far as practical, to vote the ordinary shares underlying the ADSs as instructed by the ADS holders. In such an instance, if we ask for your instructions, the depositary, upon timely notice from us, will notify you of the upcoming vote and arrange to deliver our voting materials to you. We cannot guarantee that you will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that you can instruct the depositary to vote your ordinary shares or to withdraw your ordinary shares so that you can vote them yourself. Voting instructions may be given only in respect of a number of ADSs representing an integral number of ordinary shares or other deposited securities. In addition, the depositary and its agents are not responsible for failing to carry out voting instructions or for the manner of carrying out voting instructions. This means that you may not be able to exercise any right to vote that you may have with respect to the underlying ordinary shares, and there may be nothing you can do if the ordinary shares underlying your ADSs are not voted as you requested. In addition, the depositary is only required to notify you of any particular vote if it receives notice from us in advance of the scheduled meeting.

ADS investors may also not realize all of the benefits of being a shareholder in our company. For instance, the votes of ADS holders will not be represented directly on our books, but only through a vote by the depositary of the underlying ordinary shares, which vote will reflect the ADS majority’s election on the vote of all such ordinary shares. Separately, we may elect to offer subscription rights to our shareholders without offering such rights to ADS holders as such subscription rights will be offered to the depositary as shareholder. The depositary has substantial discretion as to what will happen with any offered subscription rights and may determine that it is not legal or reasonably practicable to make such rights available to ADS holders, in which case the depositary will endeavor to sell such rights and distribute the proceeds to ADS holders, which it may not be able to do at the then-current market price or at all. If the depositary is unable to distribute or sell such rights, they will lapse, and ADS holders will receive no value. See “Description of American Depositary Shares—Dividends and Other Distributions.”

Holders of ADSs may be subject to limitations on the transfer of ADSs and the withdrawal of the underlying ordinary shares.

ADSs are transferable on the books of the depositary. However, the depositary may close its books at any time or from time to time when it deems expedient in connection with the performance of its duties. The depositary may refuse to deliver, transfer or register transfers of ADSs generally when our books or the books of the depositary are closed, or at any time if we or the depositary think it is advisable to do so because of any requirement of law, government or governmental body, or under any provision of the deposit agreement, or for any other reason subject to your right to cancel ADSs and withdraw the underlying shares. Temporary delays in the cancellation of ADSs and withdrawal of the underlying shares may arise because the depositary has closed its transfer books or we have closed our transfer books, the transfer of ordinary shares is blocked to permit voting at a shareholders’ meeting or we are paying a dividend on our ordinary shares. In addition, you may not be able to cancel ADSs and withdraw the underlying ordinary shares when you owe money for fees, taxes and similar charges and when it is necessary to prohibit withdrawals in order to comply with any laws or governmental regulations that apply to ADSs or to the withdrawal of ordinary shares or other deposited securities. See “Description of American Depositary Shares.”

You may not receive distributions on our ordinary shares represented by the ADSs or any value for them if it is illegal or impractical to make them available to holders of ADSs.

Although we do not have any present plans to declare or pay any dividends, in the event we declare and pay any dividends, the depositary for the ADSs has agreed to pay to you the cash dividends or other distributions

 

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it or the custodian receives on our ordinary shares after deducting its fees and expenses. You will receive these distributions in proportion to the number of our ordinary shares your ADSs represent. However, in accordance with the limitations set forth in the deposit agreement, it may be unlawful or impractical to make a distribution available to holders of ADSs. We have no obligation to register under U.S. securities laws any offering of ADSs, ordinary shares or other securities received through such distributions. We also have no obligation to take any other action to permit distribution of ADSs, ordinary shares, rights or anything else to holders of the ADSs. This means that you may not receive the distributions we make on our ordinary shares or any value from them if it is unlawful or impractical to make them available to you. These restrictions may have an adverse effect on the value of your ADSs. See “Description of American Depositary Shares.”

ADSs holders may not be entitled to a jury trial with respect to claims arising under the deposit agreement, which could cause less favorable results to the plaintiff(s) in any such action.

The deposit agreement governing the ADSs representing our ordinary shares provides that holders and beneficial owners of ADSs irrevocably waive the right to a trial by jury in any legal proceeding arising out of or relating to the deposit agreement or the ADSs, including claims under federal securities laws, against us or the depositary to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. If this jury trial waiver provision is prohibited by applicable law, an action could nevertheless proceed under the terms of the deposit agreement with a jury trial. To our knowledge, the enforceability of a jury trial waiver under the federal securities laws has not been finally adjudicated by a federal court. However, we believe that a jury trial waiver provision is generally enforceable under the laws of the State of New York, which govern the deposit agreement, by a court of the State of New York or a federal court, which have non-exclusive jurisdiction over matters arising under the deposit agreement, applying such law. In determining whether to enforce a jury trial waiver provision, New York courts and federal courts will consider whether the visibility of the jury trial waiver provision within the agreement is sufficiently prominent such that a party has knowingly waived any right to trial by jury. We believe that this is the case with respect to the deposit agreement and the ADSs. In addition, New York courts will not enforce a jury trial waiver provision in order to bar a viable setoff or counterclaim sounding in fraud or one which is based upon a creditor’s negligence in failing to liquidate collateral upon a guarantor’s demand, or in the case of an intentional tort claim (as opposed to a contract dispute), none of which we believe are applicable in the case of the deposit agreement or the ADSs. No condition, stipulation or provision of the deposit agreement or ADSs serves as a waiver by any holder or beneficial owner of ADSs or by us or the depositary of compliance with any provision of the federal securities laws. If you or any other holder or beneficial owner of ADSs brings a claim against us or the depositary in connection with matters arising under the deposit agreement or the ADSs, you or such other holder or beneficial owner may not be entitled to a jury trial with respect to such claims, which may have the effect of limiting and discouraging lawsuits against us and / or the depositary. If a lawsuit is brought against us and/or the depositary under the deposit agreement, it may be heard only by a judge or justice of the applicable trial court, which would be conducted according to different civil procedures and may cause different results than a trial by jury would have had, including results that could be less favorable to the plaintiff(s) in any such action, depending on, among other things, the nature of the claims, the judge or justice hearing such claims, and the venue of the hearing.

Future sales, or the perception of future sales, of a substantial number of our ordinary shares or ADSs could adversely affect the price of the ordinary shares or ADSs, and actual sales of our equity will dilute shareholders and ADS holders.

Future sales of a substantial number of our ordinary shares or ADSs, or the perception that such sales will occur, could cause a decline in the market price of the ordinary shares or ADSs. Following the completion of the global offering, based on the number of shares outstanding as of June 30, 2020, we will have 34,661,075 ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) outstanding (assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs)). This includes the shares underlying the ADSs offered in the U.S. offering, which may be resold in the public market immediately without restriction, unless purchased by our “affiliates” as that term is defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act, which may be resold only if registered under the Securities Act or in accordance with

 

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the requirements of Rule 144 or another applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act. See “Ordinary Shares and ADSs Eligible for Future Sale—Rule 144.” Shares held by our directors, officers and certain shareholders will be subject to the lock-up agreements described in the “Underwriting” section of this prospectus. If, after the period during which such lock-up agreements restrict sales of the ADSs and shares or if BofA Securities, Inc. and Cowen and Company, LLC waive the restrictions set forth therein (which may occur at any time), one or more of these shareholders sell substantial amounts of shares or ADSs in the public market, or the market perceives that such sales may occur, the market price of the ordinary shares or ADSs and our ability to raise capital through an issue of equity securities in the future could be adversely affected.

If we issue ordinary shares in future financings, shareholders may experience dilution and, as a result, our ordinary share price may decline.

We may from time to time issue additional ordinary shares at a discount from the trading price of our ordinary shares. As a result, our shareholders would experience immediate dilution upon the issuance of any of our ordinary shares at such discount. In addition, as opportunities present themselves, we may enter into financing or similar arrangements in the future, including the issuance of debt securities, preference shares or shares. If we issue ordinary shares or securities convertible into ordinary shares of our share capital, our shareholders would experience additional dilution and, as a result, our ordinary share price may decline.

Holders of the ADSs will not be able to exercise the pre-emptive subscription rights related to the ordinary shares that they represent, and may suffer dilution of their equity holding in the event of future issuances of our ordinary shares.

Under the Danish Companies Act, or DCA, our shareholders benefit from a pre-emptive subscription right on the issuance of ordinary shares for cash consideration only and not in the event of issuance of shares against non-cash contribution or debt conversion. Shareholders’ pre-emptive subscription rights, in the event of issuances of ordinary shares against cash payment, may be disapplied by a resolution of the shareholders at a general meeting of our shareholders and/or the ordinary shares may be issued on the basis of an authorization granted to the board of directors pursuant to which the board may disapply the shareholders’ pre-emptive subscription rights. Our shareholders have authorized our board of directors to issue securities, including in connection with issues of new ordinary shares without pre-emptive rights for our existing shareholders at or above market price against cash payment, issues of new ordinary shares without pre-emptive rights to members of our board of directors, our executives and/or our employees and to certain specific third-parties which may be below the market price against cash payment or, for certain third-parties, by issuance of bonus shares as well as issues of new ordinary shares with pre-emptive rights for our existing shareholders against cash payment or conversion of debt which may be below the market price. Ordinary shares may be issued at or above the market price or below the market price, as such term is construed under Danish law, in the case of rights issues or pursuant to a resolution of the shareholders. The absence of pre-emptive rights for existing equity holders may cause dilution to such holders.

Furthermore, the ADS holders would not be entitled, even if such rights accrued to our shareholders in any given instance, to receive such pre-emptive subscription rights related to the ordinary shares that they represent. Rather, the depositary is required to endeavor to sell any such subscription rights that may accrue to the ordinary shares underlying the ADSs and to remit the net proceeds therefrom to the ADS holders pro rata. In addition, if the depositary is unable to sell rights, the depositary will allow the rights to lapse, in which case you will receive no value for these rights.

Claims of U.S. civil liabilities may not be enforceable against us.

We are incorporated under the laws of Denmark. Substantially all of our assets are located outside the United States. The majority of our board members and employees reside outside the United States. As a result, it

 

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may not be possible for investors to effect service of process within the United States upon such persons or to enforce against them or us in U.S. courts, including judgments predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the U.S. securities laws.

The United States and Denmark currently do not have a treaty providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments (other than arbitration awards) in civil and commercial matters. Consequently, a final judgment for payment given by a U.S. court, whether or not predicated solely upon U.S. securities laws, would not be enforceable in Denmark.

In order to obtain a judgment that is enforceable in Denmark, the party in whose favor a final and conclusive judgment of the U.S. court has been rendered will be required to file its claim again with a court of competent jurisdiction in Denmark. The Danish court will not be bound by the judgment by the U.S. court, but the judgment may be submitted as evidence. It is up to the Danish court to assess the judgment by the U.S. court and decide if and to what extent the judgment should be followed. Danish courts are likely to deny claims for punitive damages and may grant a reduced amount of damages compared to U.S. courts.

Based on the lack of a treaty as described above, U.S. investors may not be able to enforce against us or members of our board of directors or our executive management, or certain experts named herein who are residents of Denmark or countries other than the United States any judgments obtained in U.S. courts in civil and commercial matters, including judgments under the U.S. federal securities laws.

We are an “emerging growth company” and as a result of the reduced disclosure and governance requirements applicable to emerging growth companies, the ordinary shares or ADSs may be less attractive to investors.

We are an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Section 404, exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As an emerging growth company, we are required to report only two years of financial results and selected financial data compared to three and five years, respectively, for comparable data reported by other public companies. We may take advantage of these exemptions until we are no longer an emerging growth company. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if the aggregate market value of our ordinary shares, including ordinary shares represented by ADSs, held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the end of our second fiscal quarter before that time, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following December 31st (the last day of our fiscal year). We cannot predict if investors will find the ordinary shares or ADSs less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find the ordinary shares or ADSs less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for the ordinary shares or ADSs and the price of the ordinary shares or ADSs may be more volatile.

As a foreign private issuer and as permitted by the listing requirements of Nasdaq, we will rely on certain home country corporate governance practices rather than the corporate governance requirements of Nasdaq.

We qualify as a foreign private issuer and the ADSs have been approved to be listed on Nasdaq. As a result, in accordance with the listing requirements of Nasdaq, we will rely on home country governance requirements and certain exemptions thereunder rather than relying on the corporate governance requirements of Nasdaq. For example, we are exempt from certain rules under the Exchange Act that regulate disclosure obligations and procedural requirements related to the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations applicable to a security registered under the Exchange Act, including the U.S. proxy rules under Section 14 of the

 

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Exchange Act. In addition, our officers and directors are exempt from the reporting and “short-swing” profit recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act and related rules with respect to their purchases and sales of our securities. Moreover, while we currently publish annual and semi-annual reports on our website pursuant to the rules of Nasdaq Copenhagen and expect to file such financial reports with the SEC, we will not be required to file periodic reports with the SEC as frequently or as promptly as U.S. public companies. Specifically, we will not be required to file quarterly reports on Form 10-Q or current reports on Form 8-K that a domestic company would be required to file under the Exchange Act. Accordingly, there may be less publicly available information concerning our company than there would be if we were not a foreign private issuer.

In addition, the Listing Rules for the Nasdaq, or the Nasdaq Listing Rules, for domestic U.S. issuers require listed companies to have, among other things, a majority of their board members be independent, and to have independent director oversight of executive compensation, nomination of board members and corporate governance matters. We intend to follow home country practice in lieu of the above requirements where permitted. Danish law does not require that a majority of our board consist of independent directors or the implementation of a nominating and corporate governance committee, and our board may thus in the future not include, or include fewer, independent directors than would be required if we were subject to the Nasdaq Listing Rules, or our Board may decide that it is in our interest not to have a compensation committee or nominating and corporate governance committee, or have such committees governed by practices that would not comply with the Nasdaq Listing Rules. We intend to follow home country practice with regard to, among other things, quorum requirements generally applicable to general meetings of shareholders. Danish law does not have a regulatory regime for the solicitation of proxies and the solicitation of proxies is not a generally accepted business practice in Denmark, thus our practice will vary from the requirement of Nasdaq Listing Rule 5620(b). In addition, our shareholders have authorized our board of directors to issue securities, including in connection with the issues of new ordinary shares without pre-emptive rights for our existing shareholders at or above market price against cash payment, issues of new ordinary shares without pre-emptive rights to members of our board of directors, our executives and/or our employees and to certain specific third-parties which may be below the market price against cash payment or, for certain third-parties, by issuance of bonus shares as well as issues of new ordinary shares with pre-emptive rights for our existing shareholders against cash payment or conversion of debt which may be below the market price. To this extent, our practice varies from the requirements of Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635, which generally requires an issuer to obtain shareholder approval for the issuance of securities in connection with such events. For an overview of our corporate governance principles, see “Description of Share Capital and Articles of Association.” Accordingly, you may not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to these Nasdaq Listing Rule requirements.

We may lose our foreign private issuer status in the future, which could result in significant additional costs and expenses.

As a foreign private issuer, we are not required to comply with all the periodic disclosure and current reporting requirements of the Exchange Act and related rules and regulations. Following the consummation of the global offering, the determination of foreign private issuer status will be made annually on the last business day of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter. Accordingly, we will next make a determination with respect to our foreign private issuer status on June 30, 2021. There is a risk that we will lose our foreign private issuer status in the future.

We would lose our foreign private issuer status if, for instance more than 50% of our ordinary shares (including ordinary shares represented by ADSs) are owned by U.S. residents or persons and more than 50% of our assets are located in the United States and we continue to fail to meet additional requirements necessary to maintain our foreign private issuer status. The regulatory and compliance costs to us under U.S. securities laws as a U.S. domestic issuer may be significantly greater than the costs we incur as a foreign private issuer. If we are not a foreign private issuer, we will be required to file periodic reports and registration statements on U.S. domestic issuer forms with the SEC, which are more detailed and extensive in certain respects than the forms available to a foreign private issuer. We would be required under current SEC rules to prepare our financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP and modify certain of our policies to comply with corporate governance practices associated with U.S.

 

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domestic issuers. Such conversion and modifications would involve additional costs. In addition, we may lose our ability to rely upon exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements on U.S. stock exchanges that are available to foreign private issuers, which could also increase our costs.

U.S. Holders may suffer adverse tax consequences if we are characterized as a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC.

Based on our current estimates (and not final audited financials) of the composition of our income and valuation of our assets, including goodwill, we do not believe we were a PFIC for our taxable year ending June 30, 2020. There can be no assurance that the United States Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, will agree with our conclusion and that the IRS would not successfully challenge our position. The determination of whether we are a PFIC is a fact-intensive determination made on an annual basis and the applicable law is subject to varying interpretation. Furthermore, because there are uncertainties in the application of the relevant rules, it is possible that the IRS may challenge our classification of certain income and assets as non-passive or our valuation of our tangible and intangible assets, each of which may result in us being treated as a PFIC for our taxable year ending June 30, 2020 or us becoming a PFIC for the current taxable year or any future taxable years. Our PFIC status may change from year to year and we have not yet made any determination as to our expected PFIC status for the current year and our status may depend, in part, on how quickly we utilize the cash proceeds from the global offering and concurrent private placement. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that we will not be considered a PFIC in the current year or for any future taxable year. Our U.S. counsel expresses no opinion with respect to our PFIC status for our taxable year ending June 30, 2020, and the current or any future taxable year. Under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or Code, we will be a PFIC for any taxable year in which either (i) 75% or more of our gross income consists of “passive income,” or (ii) 50% or more of the average quarterly value of our assets, including cash, consists of assets that produce, or are held for the production of, “passive income.” Passive income generally includes interest, dividends, rents, certain non-active royalties and capital gains. Whether we will be a PFIC in any year depends on the composition of our income and assets, and the relative fair market value of our assets from time to time, which we expect may vary substantially over time. In addition, for purposes of the above calculations, a non-U.S. corporation that directly or indirectly owns at least 25% by value of the shares of another corporation is treated as if it held its proportionate share of the assets and received directly its proportionate share of the income of such other corporation.

If we are a PFIC for any taxable year during which a U.S. Holder (as defined below under “Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations”) holds ordinary shares or ADSs, we will continue to be treated as a PFIC with respect to such U.S. Holder in all succeeding years during which the U.S. Holder owns the ordinary shares or ADSs regardless of whether we continue to meet the PFIC test described above, unless the U.S. Holder makes a specified election once we cease to be a PFIC. If we are classified as a PFIC for any taxable year during which a U.S. Holder holds ordinary shares or ADSs, the U.S. Holder may be subject to adverse tax consequences regardless of whether we continue to qualify as a PFIC, including ineligibility for any preferred tax rates on capital gains or on actual or deemed dividends, interest charges on certain taxes treated as deferred, and additional reporting requirements.

A U.S. Holder may in certain circumstances mitigate the adverse tax consequences of the PFIC rules by filing an election to treat the PFIC as a QEF, or, if shares of the PFIC are “marketable stock” for purposes of the PFIC rules, by making a mark-to-market election with respect to the shares of the PFIC. However, in the event that we are or become a PFIC, we do not intend to comply with the reporting requirements necessary to permit U.S. Holders to elect to treat us as a QEF. Furthermore, if a U.S. Holder were to make a mark-to-market election with respect to its ordinary shares or ADSs, the U.S. Holder would be required to include annually in its U.S. federal taxable income (taxable at ordinary income rates) an amount reflecting any year end increase in the value of its ordinary shares or ADSs. For further discussion of the PFIC rules and the adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences in the event we are classified as a PFIC, see the section titled “Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations.” The U.S. federal income tax rules relating to PFICs are very complex. Prospective U.S. Holders are strongly urged to consult their own tax advisors with respect to the impact of PFIC status on the purchase,

 

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ownership and disposition of ordinary shares or ADSs, the consequences to them of an investment in a PFIC, any elections available with respect to the ordinary shares or ADSs and the IRS information reporting obligations with respect to the purchase, ownership and disposition of ordinary shares or ADSs of a PFIC.

If a U.S. Holder is treated as owning at least 10% of our ordinary shares or ADSs, such holder may be subject to adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences.

If a U.S. Holder is treated as owning, directly, indirectly or constructively, at least 10% of the value or voting power of our ordinary shares or ADSs, such U.S. Holder may be treated as a “United States shareholder” with respect to each “controlled foreign corporation” in our group, if any. Because our group currently includes at least one U.S. subsidiary, under current law, any of our current non-U.S. subsidiaries and any future newly formed or acquired non-U.S. subsidiaries will be treated as controlled foreign corporations, regardless of whether we are treated as a controlled foreign corporation. A United States shareholder of a controlled foreign corporation may be required to annually report and include in its U.S. taxable income its pro rata share of “Subpart F income,” “global intangible low-taxed income” and investments in U.S. property by controlled foreign corporations, regardless of whether we make any distributions. An individual that is a United States shareholder with respect to a controlled foreign corporation generally would not be allowed certain tax deductions or foreign tax credits that would be allowed to a United States shareholder that is a U.S. corporation. Failure to comply with controlled foreign corporation reporting obligations may subject a United States shareholder to significant monetary penalties. We cannot provide any assurances that we will furnish to any United States shareholder information that may be necessary to comply with the reporting and tax paying obligations applicable under the controlled foreign corporation rules of the Code. U.S. Holders should consult their tax advisors regarding the potential application of these rules to their investment in ordinary shares or ADSs.

The intended tax effects of our corporate structure depend on the application of the tax laws of various jurisdictions and on how we operate our business.

During the ordinary course of business, there are many transactions and calculations for which the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. For example, our effective tax rates could be adversely affected by changes in foreign currency exchange rates or by changes in the relevant tax, accounting and other laws, regulations, principles and interpretations. As we intend to operate in numerous countries and tax jurisdictions, the application of tax laws can be subject to diverging and sometimes conflicting interpretations by tax authorities of these jurisdictions. It is not uncommon for tax authorities in different countries to have conflicting views, for instance, with respect to, among other things, the manner in which the arm’s length standard is applied for transfer pricing purposes, or with respect to the valuation of intellectual property. In addition, it is uncertain

whether we will be able to fully utilize our net operating losses as an income tax benefit for future periods. To the extent that our ability to use our net operating losses is restricted, this may result in us paying more tax and could therefore reduce our post-tax profits. In addition, tax laws are subject to change as new laws are passed and new interpretations of the law are promulgated by taxing authorities or sustained by judicial bodies. We are unable to predict what tax law changes may be proposed or enacted in the future or what effect such changes would have on our business, but such changes, to the extent they are brought into tax legislation, regulations, policies or practices, could affect our financial position and increase the complexity, burden and cost of tax compliance.

We are exposed to changes in foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates.

Substantially all of our income is expected to be in U.S. dollars and Euros, while part of our operating costs are currently denominated in Danish kroner, although in the future such Danish kroner denominated operating costs are likely to constitute a smaller percentage of our total operating costs. We do not currently have in place hedging contracts to cover our currency risks and, accordingly, fluctuations in Danish kroner against, in particular U.S. dollars, could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

 

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Our interest rate risk mainly derives from the fact that we hold a large cash position. Significant negative changes in interest rates could affect the value of our funds and any placement thereof and may thereby adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and/or prospects.

Shareholders outside Denmark may be subject to exchange rate risk.

The ordinary shares underlying the ADSs are denominated in Danish kroner. Accordingly, an investment in the ordinary shares or ADSs by an investor whose principal currency is not Danish kroner may expose such investor to foreign currency exchange rate risk. Any depreciation of Danish kroner against such foreign currency would reduce the value of the investment in the ordinary shares or ADSs, as applicable, in terms of such foreign currency.

We will incur significant increased costs as a result of operating as a company that is publicly listed on both Nasdaq in the United States and Nasdaq Copenhagen in Denmark, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives.

As a U.S. public company listed on Nasdaq, we will incur legal, accounting, and other expenses that we did not previously incur. We will be subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, or the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Nasdaq listing requirements and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Compliance with these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time consuming or costly and increase demand on our systems and resources, particularly after we are no longer an “emerging growth company” and/or a foreign private issuer. The Exchange Act would require that, as a public company, we file annual, semi-annual and current reports with respect to our business, financial condition and result of operations. However, as a foreign private issuer, we are not required to file quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and results. We currently make annual and semiannual reporting with respect to our listing on Nasdaq Copenhagen.

Moreover, these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. For example, we expect that these rules and regulations may make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, which in turn could make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified senior management personnel or members for our board of directors.

However, these rules and regulations are often subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices.

Further, being a U.S. listed company and a Danish public company with ordinary shares admitted to trading on Nasdaq Copenhagen impacts the disclosure of information and requires compliance with two sets of applicable rules. From time to time, this may result in uncertainty regarding compliance matters and result in higher costs necessitated by legal analysis of dual legal regimes, ongoing revisions to disclosure and adherence to heightened governance practices. As a result of the enhanced disclosure requirements of the U.S. securities laws, business and financial information that we report is broadly disseminated and highly visible to investors, which we believe may increase the likelihood of threatened or actual litigation, including by competitors and other third parties, which could, even if unsuccessful, divert financial resources and the attention of our management from our operations.

 

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As a result of becoming a U.S. public company, we will become subject to additional regulatory compliance requirements, including Section 404, and if we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud.

Pursuant to Section 404, our management will be required to assess and attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in connection with issuing our consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ending December 31, 2021. Section 404 also requires an attestation report on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting be provided by our independent registered public accounting firm beginning with our annual report following the date on which we are no longer an “emerging growth company”, which may be up to five fiscal years from the initial public offering of our ADSs.

The cost of complying with Section 404 will significantly increase and management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could adversely affect our results. We may need to hire more employees in the future or engage outside consultants to comply with these requirements, which will further increase expenses. If we fail to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in the required timeframe, we may be subject to sanctions or investigations by regulatory authorities, including the SEC and Nasdaq. Furthermore, if we are unable to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, and the market price of our ordinary shares and ADSs could decline. Failure to implement or maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could also restrict our future access to the capital markets and subject each of us, our directors and our officers to both significant monetary and criminal liability. In addition, changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure are creating uncertainty for public companies, increasing legal and financial compliance costs and making some activities more time consuming. These laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expense and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue generating activities to compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to their application and practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business, financial position, results and prospects may be adversely affected.

We may be subject to securities litigation, which is expensive and could divert management’s attention.

The market price of the ordinary shares or ADSs may be volatile and, in the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention from other business concerns, which could seriously harm our business.

We are a Danish company with limited liability. The rights of our shareholders may be different from the rights of shareholders in companies governed by the laws of U.S. jurisdictions.

We are, and will upon the consummation of the global offering be, a Danish company with limited liability. Our corporate affairs are governed by our Articles of Association and by the laws governing companies incorporated in Denmark. The rights of shareholders and the responsibilities of members of our board of directors may be different from the rights and obligations of shareholders and boards of directors in companies governed by the laws of U.S. jurisdictions. In the performance of its duties, our board is required by Danish law to consider the interests of our company, its shareholders, its employees and other stakeholders, in all cases with due observation of the principles of reasonableness and fairness. It is possible that some of these parties will have interests that are different from, or in addition to, the interests of our shareholders. See “Description of Share Capital and Articles of Association—Articles of Association and Danish Corporate Law.”

 

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus contains forward-looking statements that reflect our current expectations and views of future events. The forward-looking statements are contained principally in the sections entitled “Prospectus Summary,” “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and “Business.” Known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including those listed under “Risk Factors,” may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

You can identify some of these forward-looking statements by words or phrases, such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “aim,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “is/are likely to,” “potential,” “continue” or other similar expressions. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. These forward-looking statements include statements relating to:

 

   

the ability of our clinical trials to demonstrate acceptable safety and efficacy of our product candidate, and other positive results;

 

   

the timing, progress and results of clinical trials for our product candidate, including statements regarding the timing of initiation and completion of studies or trials and related preparatory work, the period during which the results of the trials will become available, and our research and development programs;

 

   

the timing, scope and likelihood of regulatory filings, NDA submissions and approvals, including the NDA process for arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC and final regulatory approval of arimoclomol;

 

   

our ability to obtain marketing approvals of our product candidate and to meet existing or future regulatory standards or comply with post-approval requirements;

 

   

our expectations regarding our ability to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements with our cash and net proceeds of the global offering;

 

   

our payments of future milestone payments to our licensing partners, and the expected timing of such payments;

 

   

our expectations regarding the potential market size and the size of the patient populations for our product candidate, if approved for commercial use;

 

   

our expectations regarding the potential advantages of our product candidate over existing therapies;

 

   

the impact of COVID-19 on our business and operations;

 

   

our potential to enter into new collaborations;

 

   

our expectations with regard to our ability to develop additional product candidates or product candidates for other indications our ability to identify additional products, product candidates or technologies with significant commercial potential that are consistent with our commercial objectives;

 

   

our expectations with regard to the willingness and ability of our current and future licensing and collaboration partners to pursue the development of our product candidate;

 

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our ability to develop, acquire and advance additional product candidates into, and successfully complete, clinical trials;

 

   

the initiation, timing, progress and results of our preclinical studies and clinical trials, and our research and development programs;

 

   

the commercialization and market acceptance of our product candidate;

 

   

our marketing and manufacturing capabilities;

 

   

the pricing of and reimbursement for our product candidate;

 

   

the implementation of our business model and strategic plans for our business and product candidate;

 

   

our ability to operate our businesses without infringing the intellectual property rights and proprietary technology of third parties;

 

   

the scope of protection we are able to establish and maintain for intellectual property rights covering our product candidate;

 

   

our analysis of our actual or potential patent infringement claims and the rights of our collaboration partners with respect to such claims;

 

   

estimates of our expenses, future revenue, capital requirements, our needs for additional financing and our ability to obtain additional capital;

 

   

regulatory development in the United States, Europe and other jurisdictions;

 

   

our exposure to additional scrutiny as a U.S. public company;

 

   

our ability to effectively manage our anticipated growth;

 

   

our ability to attract and retain qualified employees and key personnel;

 

   

our expectations regarding the time during which we will be an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act;

 

   

our use of proceeds from the global offering;

 

   

our financial performance;

 

   

our expectations regarding the time during which we will be an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act and qualify as a foreign private issuer; and

 

   

developments and projections relating to our competitors and our industry, including competing therapies.

These forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties. Although we believe that our expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, our expectations may later be found to be incorrect. Our actual results could be materially different from our expectations. Important risks and factors that could cause our actual results to be materially different from our expectations are generally set forth in

 

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“Prospectus Summary,” “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” “Business,” and other sections in this prospectus. You should read thoroughly this prospectus and the documents that we refer to with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from and worse than what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.

The forward-looking statements made in this prospectus relate only to events or information as of the date on which the statements are made in this prospectus. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. You should read this prospectus and the documents that we refer to in this prospectus and have filed as exhibits to the registration statement, of which this prospectus is a part, completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect.

 

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USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that the net proceeds to us from the global offering, after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, to be approximately $90.4 million, or $104.4 million if the underwriters exercise their option in full to purchase additional ordinary shares (which may be in the form of ADSs). These estimates are based on an assumed initial offering price of DKK 82.70 per ordinary share ($13.13 per ADS), which was the last reported sale price of our ordinary shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen on September 17 , 2020 (assuming a DKK/U.S. dollar exchange rate of 6.2967 DKK per $1.00 as of September 17, 2020.

A $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial offering price of $13.13 per ADS would increase or decrease, as applicable, the net proceeds to us from the global offering by $7.1 million, assuming the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) offered by us, as set forth on the front cover of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. An increase or decrease of 1.0 million in the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) we are offering would increase or decrease, as applicable, the net proceeds to us from the global offering by $12.2 million, assuming the assumed initial offering price remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. The actual net proceeds payable to us will adjust based on the actual number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) sold by us, the actual initial offering price and other terms of the global offering determined at pricing.

The principal purposes of the global offering are to obtain additional capital to support our operations, establish a public market for the ADSs and facilitate our future access to the public capital markets.

We expect to use the net proceeds from the global offering, together with our existing cash, as follows:

 

   

approximately $35 million to $40 million to continue the regulatory approval process for and fund the commercial launch, if approved, of arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC;

 

   

approximately $10 million to $15 million to advance the clinical development of arimoclomol for the treatment of ALS;

 

   

approximately $8 million to $12 million to advance the clinical development of arimoclomol for the treatment of sIBM;

 

   

approximately $2 million to $3 million to advance the clinical development of arimoclomol for the treatment of neurological Gaucher disease; and

 

   

the remaining amounts for working capital and general corporate purposes, including to fund the development of our next generation of HSP amplifiers.

Based on our current operating plan, we believe that the net proceeds from the global offering, together with our existing cash, will enable us to fund our planned operating expenses and capital expenditures through the next 24 months. The net proceeds from the global offering, together with our existing cash, may be insufficient to fund our product candidate through regulatory approval for one or more indications. We anticipate these funds will be sufficient to fund the commercial launch, if approved, of arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC. We also anticipate these funds will be sufficient to fund the completion of our Phase 3 trial of arimoclomol for the treatment of ALS, completion of our Phase 2/3 trial of arimoclomol for the treatment of sIBM and the initiation of pivotal-stage clinical development of arimoclomol for the treatment of neurological Gaucher disease. We anticipate that we will need additional funds to obtain regulatory approval of arimoclomol for the treatment of ALS, obtain regulatory approval of arimoclomol for the treatment of sIBM and complete the pivotal-stage clinical development of arimoclomol for the treatment of neurological Gaucher disease. It is difficult to predict

 

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the cost and timing required to complete development and obtain regulatory approval of, and commercialize, our product candidate due to, among other factors, the relatively short history of our experience with initiating, conducting and completing clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approval and commercializing our product candidate, the rate of subject enrollment in our clinical trials, filing requirements with various regulatory agencies, clinical trial results and the actual costs of manufacturing and supplying our product candidate.

Our expected use of the net proceeds from the global offering represents our intentions based upon our current plans and business conditions. As of the date of this prospectus, we cannot predict with certainty all of the particular uses for the net proceeds to be received upon the completion of the global offering or the amounts that we will actually spend on the uses set forth above. We believe that opportunities may exist from time to time to expand our current business through licenses with or acquisitions of, or investments in, complementary businesses, products or technologies. While we have no current agreements, commitments or understandings for any specific licenses, acquisitions or investments at this time, we may use a portion of the net proceeds for these purposes.

Our management will have broad discretion over the use of the net proceeds from the global offering. The amounts and timing of our expenditures will depend upon numerous factors, including the results of our research and development efforts, the timing, cost and success of preclinical studies and ongoing clinical trials or clinical trials we may commence in the future, the timing of regulatory submissions, our ability to obtain additional financing, the amount of cash obtained through our existing collaborations and future collaborations, if any, and any unforeseen cash needs.

Pending any use described above, we intend to invest the net proceeds of the global offering in short- and intermediate-term interest-bearing obligations, investment-grade instruments, certificates of deposit or direct or guaranteed obligations of the U.S. government.

 

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DIVIDEND POLICY

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our ordinary shares and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our ordinary shares in the foreseeable future. We intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings to fund the development and expansion of our business. In addition, the Loan Agreement prohibits us to agree, make or agree to make any distribution by way of dividend or otherwise without the written consent of the lender thereunder. Any future determination related to our dividend policy and the declaration of any dividends will be made at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on a number of factors, including our results of operations, financial condition, future prospects, contractual restrictions, restrictions imposed by applicable law and other factors our board of directors deems relevant.

If we pay any dividends on our ordinary shares, we will pay those dividends, which are payable in respect of the ordinary shares underlying the ADSs to the depositary, as the registered holder of such ordinary shares, and the depositary then will pay such amounts to our ADS holders in proportion to the ordinary shares underlying the ADSs held by such ADS holders, subject to the terms of the deposit agreement, including the fees and expenses payable thereunder. See “Description of American Depositary Shares.” Cash dividends on our ordinary shares, if any, will be paid in U.S. dollars.

Legal and Regulatory Requirements

In accordance with the DCA, dividends, if any, are declared with respect to a financial year at the annual general meeting of shareholders in the following year, where the statutory annual report (which includes the audited financial statements) for that financial year is approved. Any resolution to distribute interim dividends within six months of the date of the statement of financial position as set out in our latest adopted annual report must be accompanied by the statement of financial position from our latest annual report or an interim statement of financial position which must be reviewed by our auditor. If the decision to distribute interim dividends is passed more than six months after the date of the statement of financial position as set out in our latest adopted annual report, an interim statement of financial position must be prepared and reviewed by our auditor. The statement of financial position or the interim statement of financial position, as applicable, must show that sufficient funds are available for distribution. Dividends may not exceed the amount recommended by the board of directors for approval by the general meeting of shareholders. Moreover, dividends and interim dividends may only be made out of distributable reserves and may not exceed what is considered sound and adequate with regard to our financial condition or be to the detriment of our creditors and such other factors as the board of directors may deem relevant.

In accordance with the DCA, share buybacks, if any, may only be carried out by the board of directors using funds that could have been distributed as dividends at the latest annual general meeting of shareholders. Any share buyback must be conducted in accordance with an authorization obtained at a general meeting of our shareholders. The authorization must be granted for a defined period of time not exceeding five years. In addition, the authorization must specify the maximum permitted value of treasury shares as well as the minimum and maximum amount that we may pay as consideration for such shares. A decision by our board of directors to engage in share buybacks, if any, will be made in accordance with the factors applicable to dividend payments set forth above.

See “Taxation—Material Danish Income Tax Considerations” for a description of Danish withholding taxes and certain other Danish considerations relevant to the purchase or holding of ordinary shares and ADSs and “Taxation—Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences for U.S. Holders” for a description of U.S. federal income tax considerations relevant to the purchase or holding of ordinary shares and ADSs.

 

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CAPITALIZATION

The following table sets forth our cash and capitalization as of June 30, 2020 on:

 

   

an actual basis; and

 

   

on an as adjusted basis to give effect to our issuance and sale of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) in the global offering, assuming an initial offering price of DKK 82.70 per ordinary share ($13.13 per ADS), which was the last reported sale price of our ordinary shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen on September 17, 2020 (assuming a DKK/U.S. dollar exchange rate of 6.2967 DKK per $1.00 as of September 17, 2020) and after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

The as adjusted information set forth below is unaudited and for illustrative purposes only and it will be adjusted based on the actual initial offering price and other terms of the global offering determined at pricing. You should read this information in conjunction with our financial statements and the related notes appearing elsewhere in this prospectus, as well as the sections of this prospectus titled “Selected Consolidated Financial Data” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

 

    

As of June 30, 2020

 
(in thousands)   

Actual

    

As Adjusted (2)

 
    

$ (1)

    

DKK

    

$ (1)

    

DKK

 

Cash

     92,049        610,448        177,907        1,179,842  
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Borrowings

           

Current borrowings

     4,517        29,954        4,517        29,954  

Non-current borrowings

     5,553        36,827        5,553        36,827  
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total borrowings

     10,070        66,781        10,070        66,781  
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Shareholder’s Equity

           

Share capital

     4,078        27,045        5,227        34,661  

Share premium

     243,015        1,611,630        327,726        2,173,408  

Other reserves

     867        5,753        867        5,753  

Accumulated deficit

     (171,642      (1,138,293      (171,642      (1,138,293
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total equity

     76,319        506,135        162,178        1,075,529  
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total capitalization

     86,389        572,916        172,248        1,142,310  
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

(1)

Translated solely for convenience into U.S. dollars at an assumed exchange rate of DKK 6.6318 per $1.00, which was the rounded official exchange rate of such currencies as of June 30, 2020.

(2)

Each $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial offering price of DKK 82.70 per ordinary share ($13.13 per ADS) would increase or decrease, as applicable, each of cash, share capital, total equity and total capitalization by DKK 44.6 million ($7.1 million), assuming the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. We may also increase or decrease the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) we are offering. An increase or decrease of 1.0 million in the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) offered by us would increase or decrease, as applicable, each of cash, share capital, total equity and total capitalization by DKK 76.9 million ($12.2 million), assuming no change in the assumed initial offering price and after deducting the estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

 

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The number of ordinary shares issued and outstanding, as adjusted in the table above, is based on 27,044,929 of our ordinary shares outstanding as of June 30, 2020, and excludes:

 

   

subject to certain vesting criteria being satisfied, up to 242,950 ordinary shares that may be issued to cover the delivery of ordinary shares to participants of the LTIP as of June 30, 2020;

 

   

up to 26,336 ordinary shares underlying unvested or unexercised RSUs as of June 30, 2020; and

 

   

bonus shares that we have agreed to issue pursuant to a license agreement with the University of Kansas and UCL Business PLC as described in “Business—Material Agreements”

In addition, our board of directors may decide to issue ordinary shares pursuant to the authorizations to our board of directors described under the section titled “Description of Share Capital and Articles of Association–Authorizations to Our Board of Directors.”

 

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DILUTION

If you invest in the ordinary shares or ADSs in the global offering, your interest will be immediately diluted to the extent of the difference between the initial offering price per ordinary share or ADS in the global offering and our net tangible book value per ordinary share after the global offering. Dilution results from the fact that the initial offering price is substantially in excess of the net book value per ordinary share.

Our historical net tangible book value per ordinary share as of June 30, 2020 was $74.7 million, or DKK18.32 per ordinary share (equivalent to $2.76 per ADS). Historical net tangible book value per ordinary share represents the amount of our total consolidated tangible assets, less the amount of our total consolidated liabilities, all divided by the number of ordinary shares outstanding as of June 30, 2020. Dilution is determined by subtracting historical net tangible book value per ordinary share, after giving effect to the additional proceeds we will receive from the global offering, from the assumed initial offering price of DKK 82.70 per ordinary share ($13.13 per ADS), which was the last reported sale price of our ordinary shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen on September 17, 2020, after deducting the estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

Without taking into account any other changes in net tangible book value after June 30, 2020, other than to give effect to our sale of the ordinary shares and ADSs offered in the global offering at the assumed initial offering price of DKK 82.70 per ordinary share ($13.13 per ADS), which was the last reported sale price of our ordinary shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen on September 17, 2020, after deducting the estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, our as adjusted net tangible book value as of June 30, 2020 would have been $4.76 per ordinary share, or $4.76 per ADS. This represents an immediate increase in adjusted net tangible book value of $2.00 per ordinary share ($2.00 per ADS) to our existing shareholders and an immediate dilution in net tangible book value of $8.37 per ordinary share ($8.37 per ADS) to investors purchasing ADSs in the global offering.

The following table illustrates this dilution on a per ADS basis:

 

Assumed initial offering price per ADS

      $ 13.13  

Historical net tangible book value per ADS as of June 30, 2020

   $ 2.76     

Increase in net tangible book value attributable to the global offering

     2.00     
  

 

 

    

As adjusted net tangible book value per ADS as of June 30, 2020

        4.76  
     

 

 

 

Dilution per ADS to investors participating in the global offering

      $ 8.37  
     

 

 

 

A DKK 6.2967 ($1.00) increase or decrease in the assumed initial offering price of DKK 82.70 per ordinary share ($13.13 per ADS), the last reported sale price of our ordinary shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen on September 17, 2020, would increase or decrease, as applicable, our as adjusted net tangible book value as of June 30, 2020 after giving effect to the global offering (excluding the potential exercise of the underwriters of their option to purchase additional ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs)) by approximately $0.21 per ordinary share, or $0.21 per ADS, and would increase or decrease the dilution in as adjusted net tangible book value per ADS to investors in the global offering by $0.79 per ordinary share ($0.79 per ADS), assuming no change to the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) offered by us as set forth on the front cover of this prospectus, and after deducting the estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. We may also increase or decrease the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) we are offering. An increase of 1.0 million in the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) we are offering would increase our as adjusted net tangible book value as of June 30, 2020 after the global offering (excluding the potential exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase additional ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of

 

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ADSs)) by approximately $0.21 per ordinary share ($0.21 per ADS), and would decrease dilution to investors in the global offering by approximately $0.21 per ordinary share ($0.21 per ADS), assuming the assumed initial offering price remains the same, after deducting the estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. A decrease of 1.0 million in the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) we are offering would decrease our as adjusted net tangible book value as of June 30, 2020 after the global offering (excluding the potential exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase additional ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs)) by approximately $0.22 per ordinary share ($0.22 per ADS), and would increase dilution to investors in the global offering by approximately $0.22 per ordinary share ($0.22 per ADS), assuming the assumed initial offering price remains the same, after deducting the estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

The as adjusted information is illustrative only, and we will adjust this information based on the actual initial offering price and other terms of the global offering determined at pricing.

The following table summarizes, on an as adjusted basis as of June 30, 2020, the differences between existing shareholders and the investors with respect to the number of ordinary shares (in the form of ADSs or ordinary shares) purchased from us, the total consideration paid and the average price per ordinary share and per ADS paid before deducting the estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. The total number of ordinary shares does not include ordinary shares issuable upon the underwriters’ exercise in full of their option to purchase additional ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs).

 

    

Ordinary Shares

Purchased (1)

   

Total

Consideration

   

Average

Price Per

Ordinary
Share

 
    

Number

    

Percent

   

Amount
(in millions)

    

Percent

 

Existing shareholders

     27,044,929        78.0   $ 247.1        71.2   $ 9.14  

Investors participating in the global offering

     7,616,146        21.9   $ 100.0        28.8   $ 13.13  
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

   

Total

     34,661,075        100   $ 347.1        100  
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

(1)

Includes ordinary shares in the form of ADSs. Each ADS represents one ordinary share.

If the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional ordinary shares (which may be in the form of ADSs), the percentage of ordinary shares held by existing shareholders would be reduced to 75.5 % of the total number of ordinary shares outstanding after the offering, and the number of ordinary shares held by investors participating in the global offering would be increased to 24.5% of the total number of ordinary shares outstanding after the global offering (in each case, including ordinary shares underlying ADSs).

A $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial offering price of $13.13 per ordinary share ($13.13 per ADS), the last reported sale price of our ordinary shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen on September 17, 2020, would increase or decrease total consideration paid by new investors by $7.6 million, assuming that the number of ordinary shares (including ordinary shares in the form of ADSs) offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, after deducting the estimated underwriting commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

The foregoing tables and calculations are based on 27,044,929 of our ordinary shares outstanding as of June 30, 2020, and excludes:

 

   

subject to certain vesting criteria being satisfied, up to 242,950 ordinary shares that may be issued to cover the delivery of shares to participants of the LTIP as of June 30, 2020;

 

   

up to 26,336 ordinary shares underlying unvested or unexercised RSUs as of June 30, 2020; and

 

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bonus shares that we have agreed to issue pursuant to a license agreement with the University of Kansas and UCL Business PLC as described in “Business—Material Agreements”

To the extent that we issue additional ADSs or ordinary shares in the future, there will be further dilution to investors participating in the global offering. In addition, we may choose to raise additional capital because of market conditions or strategic considerations, even if we believe that we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans. If we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the issuance of these securities could result in further dilution to our shareholders.

 

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SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA

The following tables set forth our selected consolidated financial data for the periods indicated. We have derived the selected consolidated statements of profit or loss and other comprehensive income data for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 and the selected consolidated statements of financial position data as at December 31, 2019 and 2018 from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. We have derived the summary consolidated statements of profit or loss and other comprehensive income data for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019 and the summary consolidated statements of financial position data as of June 30, 2020 from the unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. We have prepared the unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements on the same basis as the audited consolidated financial statements, and the unaudited financial data include all adjustments, consisting only of normal recurring adjustments, that we consider necessary for a fair presentation of our consolidated financial position and results of operations as of and for the periods presented.

Our consolidated financial statements are prepared and presented in accordance with IFRS, as issued by the IASB. IFRS differ in certain significant respects from U.S. GAAP. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of results expected for future periods and our operating results for the six months ended June 30, 2020 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the entire year ending December 31, 2020.

The selected consolidated financial data set forth below should be read together with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes to those statements, as well as the section of this prospectus titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

Selected Consolidated Statements of Profit or Loss and Other Comprehensive Income Data:

 

    

Six Months Ended

June 30,

   

Years Ended December 31,

 
(In thousands, except per share data)   

2020

   

2019

   

2019

   

2018

 
    

$ (1)

   

DKK

   

DKK

   

$ (1)

   

DKK

   

DKK

 

Research and development expenses

     (25,179     (166,980     (141,710     (43,037     (285,413     (196,525

General and administrative expenses

     (11,848     (78,575     (23,345     (7,621     (50,541     (35,127
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Operating loss

     (37,027     (245,555     (165,055     (50,658     (335,954     (231,652

Financial income

     19       126       152       48       316       5  

Financial expenses

     (1,201     (7,967     (1,500     (1,110     (7,359     (3,453
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Loss before tax

     (38,209     (253,396     (166,403     (51,720     (342,997     (235,100

Income tax benefit

     299       1,981       2,495       829       5,500       5,500  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net loss for the period

     (37,911     (251,415     (163,908     (50,891     (337,497     (229,600

Exchange difference from translation of foreign operation, net of tax DKK 0

     (20     (135     (19     10       67       42  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total comprehensive loss

     (37,930     (251,550     (163,927     (50,881     (337,430     (229,558
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Loss per share (2)

            

Basic loss per share

     (1.49     (9.88     (8.20     (2.54     (16.87     (11.49
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Diluted loss per share

     (1.49     (9.88     (8.20     (2.54     (16.87     (11.49
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

(1)

Translated solely for convenience into U.S. dollars at an assumed exchange rate of DKK 6.6318 per $1.00, which was the rounded official exchange rate of such currencies as of June 30, 2020.

(2)

See Note 4.3 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus for further details regarding the calculation of basic and diluted loss per share.

 

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Selected Consolidated Statements of Financial Position:

 

           

As of December 31,

 
(in thousands)   

As of June 30, 2020

    

2019

    

2018

 
    

$ (1)

    

DKK

    

$ (1)

    

DKK

    

DKK

 

Cash

     92,049        610,448        18,636        123,588        394,706  

Working capital (2)

     77,865        516,384        12,400        82,237        370,389  

Total assets

     101,987        676,360        27,256        180,754        441,349  

Share Capital

     4,078        27,045        3,013        19,984        19,939  

Total equity

     76,319        506,135        7,987        52,969        388,249  

 

(1)

Translated solely for convenience into U.S. dollars at an assumed exchange rate of DKK 6.6318 per $1.00, which was the rounded official exchange rate of such currencies as of June 30, 2020.

(2)

We define working capital as current assets less current liabilities.

 

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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and other financial information included elsewhere in this prospectus. The following discussion is based on our financial information prepared in accordance with IFRS, as issued by the IASB, which might differ in material respects from accounting principles generally accepted in other jurisdictions, including U.S. GAAP. Danish kroner amounts in this discussion and analysis have been translated solely for convenience into U.S. dollars at an assumed exchange rate of DKK 6.6318 per $1.00, which was the rounded official exchange rate of such currencies as of June 30, 2020. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this prospectus, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. You should review the “Risk Factors” section of this prospectus for a discussion of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results described in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.

Overview

We are a late-stage biopharmaceutical company harnessing the amplification of HSPs in order to develop and commercialize novel therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative orphan diseases. In September 2020, the FDA accepted our NDA for our product candidate, arimoclomol, for NPC, with priority review. The FDA has set a target action date of March 17, 2021 under the PDUFA for completion of its review of our NDA. We also intend to submit a MAA to the EMA in the second half of 2020. Arimoclomol is also in registrational clinical trials for the treatment of ALS and sIBM, and we intend to advance into pivotal-stage clinical development in neurological Gaucher disease. Arimoclomol is an orally- or naso/gastrically-administered small molecule that crosses the blood-brain barrier and is designed to selectively amplify the natural role of endogenous HSPs, which protect against cellular toxicity caused by protein misfolding, aggregation and lysosomal dysfunction. In our Phase 2/3 clinical trial of arimoclomol in NPC, we have observed evidence of slowing of disease progression, supporting our registration effort in the United States and Europe. Results observed in the Phase 2 clinical trials for ALS, sIBM and Gaucher disease demonstrated the potential of arimoclomol to slow the progression of such diseases, forming the basis of our ongoing registrational clinical trials in ALS and sIBM, as well as our intention to advance into pivotal-stage clinical development in neurological Gaucher disease. We also believe that arimoclomol has been well tolerated in clinical trials including more than 500 human subjects for various indications. We are committed to leveraging our deep scientific expertise in the field of HSPs and lysosomal biology, the unique benefits of arimoclomol and our commercial experience and infrastructure to dramatically transform the lives of underserved individuals living with devastating neurodegenerative orphan diseases.

We do not have any product candidates approved for sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales. Since our inception we have devoted substantially all of our resources to organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials, building out our commercial infrastructure and establishing and protecting our intellectual property portfolio. To date, we have raised aggregate gross proceeds of DKK 1,731 million ($261 million) through sales of equity securities. This includes gross proceeds of DKK 600 million ($90 million) raised in our initial public offering in Denmark in November 2017 and gross proceeds of DKK 745 million ($112 million) raised in our directed issue and private placement in February 2020. In addition, in August 2019, we borrowed €9 million under a loan agreement with Kreos. Our ability to generate product revenue sufficient to achieve profitability will depend heavily on the successful development and eventual commercialization of arimoclomol in at least one indication.

Since inception, we have incurred significant operating losses and net losses. For the six-months ended June 30, 2020, our net loss was DKK 251 million ($38 million). Our net losses were DKK 338 million ($51 million) and DKK 230 million for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. As of June 30, 2020, we had an accumulated deficit of DKK 1,138 million ($172 million). We expect to continue to

 

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incur significant expenses and operating losses for the foreseeable future. We anticipate that our expenses will increase significantly in connection with our ongoing activities, as we:

 

   

continue our ongoing clinical programs evaluating arimoclomol as well as initiate and complete additional preclinical studies and clinical trials;

 

   

pursue regulatory approval for arimoclomol in the United States and Europe and other jurisdictions;

 

   

further establish a commercialization infrastructure, including hiring sales representatives, and scale up external manufacturing and distribution capabilities to commercialize any product candidates for which we may obtain regulatory approval, including arimoclomol;

 

   

adapt our regulatory compliance efforts to incorporate requirements applicable to marketed products;

 

   

maintain, expand and protect our intellectual property portfolio;

 

   

hire additional clinical, manufacturing and scientific personnel;

 

   

add operational, financial and management information systems and personnel, including personnel to support our product development and planned future commercialization efforts;

 

   

seek to develop, in-license or acquire additional product candidates; and

 

   

incur additional legal, accounting, investor relations and other expenses associated with operating as a U.S. public company following the completion of the global offering.

As a result, we will need substantial additional funding to support our continuing operations and pursue our growth strategy. If arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC is approved, the earliest we would expect to generate revenue from product sales is 2021. Even if we generate revenue from product sales, we expect to continue to fund our operations through public or private equity or debt financings, debt borrowings or other sources, including strategic collaborations. We may, however, be unable to raise additional funds or enter into such other arrangements when needed on favorable terms or at all. Our failure to raise capital or enter into such other arrangements as and when needed would have a negative impact on our financial condition and our ability to develop arimoclomol or any additional future product candidate, if developed. If we raise additional funds through collaborations, strategic alliances, or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish rights to future revenue streams, research programs, product candidates or our intellectual property, or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce, or terminate our product development programs or any future commercialization efforts or grant rights to develop and market arimoclomol or any other future product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves.

Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with product development, we are unable to accurately predict the timing or amount of increased expenses or when or if we will be able to achieve or maintain profitability. Even if we are able to generate revenue from product sales, we may not become profitable. If we fail to become profitable or are unable to sustain profitability on a continuing basis, then we may be unable to continue our operations at planned levels and be forced to reduce or terminate our operations.

As of June 30, 2020, we had DKK 611 million ($92 million) in cash. We expect that the net proceeds from the global offering, together with our existing cash, will enable us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 24 months. We have based these estimates on assumptions that may prove to be imprecise or incorrect, and we may use our available capital resources sooner than we currently expect. See “—Liquidity and Capital Resources.”

 

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We were incorporated in 2009 in Denmark. Our wholly-owned subsidiaries are Orphazyme US, Inc., incorporated in Delaware in 2018, and Orphazyme Schweiz GmbH, incorporated in Zug, Switzerland in 2020. We had 114 full-time equivalent employees as of June 30, 2020.

Our Licensing Agreements

Asset Purchase Agreement with CytRx

In May 2011, we entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement with the biopharmaceutical company CytRx. Pursuant to this agreement, CytRx sold and transferred certain preclinical and clinical data, patents and other intellectual property rights, and other assets, including contractual rights and obligations relating to a portfolio of chemical compounds, including arimoclomol, to us.

Under the terms of the Asset Purchase Agreement, we made an up-front cash payment of $150,000 and further agreed to make future payments to CytRx contingent upon the achievement of specified clinical/regulatory and sales milestones as well as royalty payments based on a specified percentage of any eventual net sales of products containing one of the purchased compounds, as summarized further below.

Clinical/Regulatory Milestone payment obligations (non-ALS or stroke products)

We have agreed to pay CytRx clinical and regulatory milestone payments for the first two products being developed or labeled for indications other than for the treatment or prevention of ALS or stroke (non-ALS or stroke products). Payments are triggered upon achieving certain key clinical or regulatory milestones. The maximum aggregate amount of milestone payments that may be triggered is $12.1 million for the first non-ALS or stroke product and $10.3 million for the second non-ALS or stroke product developed assuming (for both products) approval in the European Union (or certain major European markets), United States and Japan. A second non-ALS or stroke product is not considered a second product (and does not trigger milestone payments) unless it contains a different compound than the first non-ALS or stroke product. In 2016, we paid CytRx $0.1 million for achievement of a clinical milestone for the first product.

Clinical/Regulatory Milestone payment obligations (ALS or stroke products)

We have also agreed to pay CytRx clinical and regulatory milestone payments (payable one time only) for each product developed that is being developed or labelled for the treatment or prevention of ALS or stroke (ALS or stroke products). Payments are triggered upon achieving certain key clinical or regulatory milestones. The maximum aggregate amount of milestone payments that may be triggered per ALS or stroke product is $23.8 million assuming approval in the European Union (or certain major European markets), the United States and Japan. The milestone obligations are payable only once per ALS or stroke product. A subsequent ALS or stroke product may achieve an additional maximum aggregate amount of $23.8 million in milestone payments, only if it contains a different compound than an ALS or stroke product previously achieving the same milestone, or if it contains the same compound as another ALS or stroke product previously achieving the same milestone but is for a different indication. In 2018, we paid CytRx $0.3 million for achievement of a clinical milestone for the first product.

Sales milestones. We also agreed to pay CytRx milestone payments upon reaching certain aggregated annual global net sales of all products developed by us containing any of the compounds purchased from CytRx. The first milestone payment is triggered on aggregated annual global net sales exceeding $100 million. The aggregate milestone payment obligations may be up to $50 million assuming aggregated annual global net sales in excess of $1 billion.

Royalties. We have agreed to pay CytRx a low teens double-digit royalty on net sales of all products developed by us, our affiliates or licensees which are labeled or prescribed for the treatment or prevention of ALS or stroke and a mid-single digit royalty on net sales of all other products developed by us or our affiliates or licensees containing any of the compounds purchased from CytRx. Royalties accrue on a country-by-country and

 

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product-by-product basis until the latest of expiration of relevant patent claims in the country covering such product, expiry of regulatory exclusivity in the country for such product or ten years from the date of the approval of the product in the country. The royalty rates are subject to reductions for patent expiration, lack of regulatory exclusivity, third party payments and generic competition. Under the terms of the Asset Purchase Agreement, we were assigned and became party to a royalty agreement with the ALS Charitable Remainder Trust pursuant to which we are obliged to pay a 1% royalty to the ALS Charitable Remainder Trust on worldwide net sales of arimoclomol for the treatment of ALS.

We have no contractual obligations to CytRx to develop or commercialize any products under the terms of the Asset Purchase Agreement and we cannot be held liable towards CytRx for our failure to do so.

We capitalize amounts paid to CytRx as an acquired license right, as we assess that the consideration paid reflects market expectations about the probability that future economic benefits will flow us. The acquired license is not being amortized until approval of the underlying asset has been received from regulatory authorities.

Exclusive License Agreement with University of Miami

In September 2019, we entered into an exclusive license agreement with the University of Miami on behalf of itself, Emory University and Massachusetts General Hospital. Pursuant to the exclusive license agreement, we have been granted a global royalty-bearing, exclusive license to all data, know-how, inventions and technology generated by the aforementioned institutions in a Phase 2 clinical trial of arimoclomol for the treatment of ALS with the A4V SOD1 mutation to research, develop, make, use or sell certain pharmaceutical products or processes containing arimoclomol. Under the license agreement, we are required to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize the licensed product. The license is subject to rights of the U.S. federal government.

Under the terms of the exclusive license agreement, we made an up-front cash payment of $75,000 and further agreed to make certain future payments, including (i) a development milestone payment of $1,150,000 upon receiving regulatory approval for a pharmaceutical product containing arimoclomol for which the intended indication is ALS if the institution’s Phase 2 clinical trial results were used in support of such regulatory approval, (ii) annual license fees from 2023 until the earlier of 2033 or termination of the agreement for a maximum aggregate amount of $570,000 and (iii) beginning on the date of first commercial sale by us, our affiliates or sublicensees of a licensed product or licensed process in a country, a low single-digit royalty on net sales of licensed products or licensed processes on a product-by-product and country-by-country basis for a period of ten years thereafter unless the agreement is terminated earlier. Any annual license fees will be creditable against other payments due in the same calendar year.

The up-front cash payment was capitalized as an acquired license right, which will not be amortized until approval of the underlying asset has been received from regulatory authorities.

License Agreement with University of Kansas and UCL Business PLC

In October 2017, we entered into a license agreement with the University of Kansas, KU Center for Technology Commercialization Inc., Kansas Life Sciences Development Company Inc. and UCL Business PLC (a wholly-owned subsidiary of University College London, which subsequently has been converted into a Ltd). The license agreement grants us the global, royalty bearing exclusive license to all data, know-how, inventions and patent rights generated in the course of the ongoing Phase 2/3 clinical trial for testing arimoclomol in sIBM and other relevant data to research, develop, make, sell and otherwise commercialize pharmaceutical products containing arimoclomol for any purpose. Such license grant is subject to rights held by the U.S. government. The trial was initiated in August 2017 with the University of Kansas as sponsor and supported by an FDA grant. Sponsorship of the trial was transferred to us in December 2017.

 

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Under the terms of the license agreement, we are obliged to pay an aggregate royalty of a low single-digit percentage of net sales of licensed products sold for the treatment, diagnosis, palliation or prevention in humans of sIBM. We are required to use commercially diligent efforts to develop and commercialize such products and to perform the development plan for the aforementioned clinical trial. The license agreement also provides that, in consideration of the license, we are obliged to issue bonus shares in favor of the Kansas Life Sciences Development Company Inc. (for the University of Kansas) and UCL Business Ltd, for up to an aggregate value of $2.5 million depending on the amount of the FDA grant to the universities spent the preceding calendar year (with a price per ordinary share calculated based on the average closing price of the ordinary shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen for the 30 days immediately prior to the date of issuance). The ordinary shares are required to be issued or delivered on a yearly basis subject to certain reporting requirements. As of June 30, 2020, 58,090 bonus shares had been issued. We are also responsible for the enforcement, prosecution and maintenance of licensed patents and all associated costs, subject to the consultation rights of the University of Kansas and UCL Business Ltd.

The license is being amortized over the duration of the license agreement, which has been estimated to be approximately 14 years. For the six-month period ended June 30, 2020, we recognized DKK 0.4 million ($0.1 million) in amortization expense within research and development expenses. Amortization expense for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 amounts to DKK 0.7 million ($0.1 million) and DKK 0.7 million, respectively.

Components of Our Results of Operations

Operating Expenses

Research and Development Expenses

Research and development expenses consist primarily of costs incurred in connection with our research and development activities for arimoclomol and include:

 

   

personnel expenses, including salaries, benefits and share-based compensation expense for personnel engaged in research and development functions;

 

   

costs of funding research performed by third parties, such as CROs;

 

   

costs of purchasing lab supplies and non-capital equipment used in designing, developing and manufacturing preclinical study and clinical trial materials;

 

   

consultant fees related to research and development activities;

 

   

expenses related to regulatory activities, including filing fees paid to regulatory agencies;

 

   

facility costs including rent, depreciation and maintenance expenses, as allocated to research and development;

 

   

amortization of intangible assets, as allocated to research and development;

 

   

legal expenses related to the protection, defense and enforcement of our intellectual property; and

 

   

payments under our third-party licensing agreements.

Research and development costs are expensed in the period in which they are incurred. Costs for certain activities, such as manufacturing and preclinical studies and clinical trials, are generally recognized based on an evaluation of the progress to completion of specific tasks using information and data provided to us by our CROs and contract manufacturing organizations, or CMOs.

Research and development activities are central to our business model. Indications that are in later stages of clinical development, such as NPC, ALS, sIBM, generally have higher development costs than those in

 

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earlier stages of clinical development, primarily due to the increased size and duration of later-stage clinical trials. We have not historically tracked our research and development expenses on an indication-by-indication or development program basis.

We expect our research and development expenses will increase for the foreseeable future as we seek to advance our product candidate. At this time, we cannot reasonably estimate or know the nature, timing and estimated costs of the efforts that will be necessary to complete the development of our product candidate. We are also unable to predict when, if ever, material net cash inflows will commence from sales of our product candidate. This is due to the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with developing product candidates, including the uncertainty of:

 

   

successful enrollment in and completion of clinical trials;

 

   

establishing an appropriate safety profile;

 

   

establishing commercial manufacturing capabilities or making arrangements with third-party manufacturers;

 

   

timing and receipt of marketing approvals from applicable regulatory authorities;

 

   

commercializing our product candidate, if approved, whether alone or in collaboration with others;

 

   

obtaining and maintaining patent and trade secret protection and regulatory exclusivity for our product candidate;

 

   

business interruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic;

 

   

competition with other therapies;

 

   

significant and changing government regulations;

 

   

continued acceptable safety profiles of products following approval; and

 

   

retention of key research and development personnel.

A change in the outcome of any of these variables with respect to the development of our product candidate would significantly change the costs, timing and viability associated with the product candidate’s development. For example, if the FDA, EMA or another regulatory authority were to require us to conduct clinical trials beyond those that we anticipate will be required for the completion of clinical development of arimoclomol for a particular indication, or if we experience significant delays in our clinical trials due to patient enrollment or other reasons, including but not limited to COVID-19 pandemic, we would be required to expend significant additional financial resources and time on the completion of clinical development and our clinical development programs could be significantly delayed.

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel expenses, including salaries, benefits and share-based compensation for employees in executive, finance and accounting functions as well as remuneration to the board of directors. General and administrative expense also includes corporate facility costs, including rent, utilities, depreciation and maintenance, not otherwise included in research and development expense, as well as legal fees related to intellectual property and corporate matters and fees for accounting and consulting services and investor relations. In addition, we include pre-commercial activities in general and

 

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administrative expenses, such as the build-up of our commercial organization, preparation of the EAP for NPC, tradename costs, market and pricing studies and related costs.

We anticipate that our general and administrative expenses will increase in the future to support continued research and development activities. If arimoclomol obtains regulatory approval in the United States or Europe, we expect that we would incur significantly increased expenses associated with continuing to build a commercial organization and sales and marketing team. We also anticipate that we will incur increased accounting, audit, legal, regulatory, compliance and director and officer insurance costs, as well as investor and public relations expenses associated with operating as a U.S. public company.

Financial Income and Expenses

Financial income and expenses include interest income and expense, gains and losses due to the change in fair value of the Loan Agreement facilitation fee accounted for as an embedded call option, gains and losses due to changes in foreign exchange rates and other immaterial miscellaneous items.

Income Tax Benefit

Income tax benefit allows the company to obtain the tax value of costs incurred in connection with research and development activities under the Danish Tax Credit Regime. As a Danish resident trading entity, we are subject to Danish corporate taxation. Due to the nature of our business, we have generated losses since inception. As a company that carries out extensive research and development activities, we benefit from the Danish research and development tax credit regime and are able to surrender some of our trading losses that arise from our research and development activities for a cash rebate of up to DKK 5.5 million ($0.8 million) of eligible research and development expenditure. Qualifying expenditures largely comprise employment costs for research staff, consumables and certain internal overhead costs incurred as part of research projects.

Results of Operations

Comparison of the Six Months Ended June 30, 2020 and 2019

The following table summarizes our results of operations for the six-month periods ended June 30, 2020 and 2019 (in thousands):

 

    

Six Months Ended June 30,

    

Change

 
    

2020

    

2020

    

2019

 
    

($)

    

(DKK)

    

(DKK)

 

Consolidated Statement of Profit or Loss:

           

Operating expenses:

           

Research and development expenses

     (25,179      (166,980      (141,710      (25,270

General and administrative expenses

     (11,848      (78,575      (23,345      (55,230

Financial income

     19        126        152        (26

Financial expenses

     (1,201      (7,967      (1,500      (6,467
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Loss before tax

     (38,209      (253,396      (166,403      (86,993
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Income tax benefit

     299        1,981        2,495        (514
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Net loss

     (37,911      (251,415      (163,908      (87,507
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

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Operating Expenses

Research and Development Expenses

Research and development expenses for the six-month period ended June 30, 2020 were DKK 167.0 million ($25.2 million), compared to DKK 141.7 million for the six-month period ended June 30, 2019. The increase of DKK 25.3 million ($3.8 million) was mainly attributable to an increase of DKK 14.2 million for the initiation of three clinical pharmacology registration trials in the six months ended June 30, 2020 and an increase of DKK 11.1 million in employee costs due to the increase in full-time research and development employees from 60 on June 30, 2019 to 77 on June 30, 2020.

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses for the six-month period ended June 30, 2020 were DKK 78.6 million ($11.9 million), compared to DKK 23.3 million for the six-month period ended June 30, 2019. The increase of DKK 55.3 million ($8.3 million) was primarily due to the build-up of our commercial organization as well as expenses related to our support functions.

Pre-launch expenses represented DKK 40.4 million ($6.1 million) of the increase, which was mainly due to the escalation of commercial launch preparation activities, including the strengthening of our U.S.-based and Switzerland-based commercial team of 12 additional full-time employees; and an increase in medical affairs activities, particularly for NPC, as we further engaged with the scientific community through our communication and education programs.

Administrative expenses represented the remaining DKK 14.9 million ($2.2 million) increase, which was mainly due to audit, legal, investor relations, other external assistance, and share-based payment expenses; and the hiring of ten additional administrative, finance and legal full-time employees to support our growing organization.

Financial Income and Expenses

Net financial expenses for the six-month period ended June 30, 2020 were DKK 7.8 million ($1.2 million) compared to DKK 1.3 million for the six-month period ended June 30, 2019. The increase of DKK 6.5 million ($1.0 million) was mainly related to the Loan Agreement with Kreos, including interest expense of DKK 5.0 million ($0.8 million) and an increase of DKK 0.7 million ($0.1 million) related to the change in fair value of the facilitation fee accounted for as an embedded call option. The remaining increase of DKK 0.8 million ($0.1 million) results from interest paid on cash balances in the bank due to negative interest rates.

Income Tax Benefit

Income tax benefit for the six-month period ended June 30, 2020 was DKK 2.0 million ($0.3 million) compared to DKK 2.5 million for the six-month period ended June 30, 2019. Income tax benefit for the two periods include a tax credit for research and development costs at the applicable tax rate under the Danish Corporate Income Tax Act. The amount of the tax benefit in the first half of 2020 has been reduced by an income tax expense in our subsidiaries in the U.S. and Switzerland. Our corporate income tax rate in Denmark was 22%. However, for the six-month periods ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, we did not recognize any deferred tax assets considering uncertainties surrounding their potential utilization.

 

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Comparison of Years Ended December 31, 2019 and 2018

The following table summarizes our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 (in thousands):

 

    

Year Ended December 31,

    

Change

 
    

2019

    

2019

    

2018

 
    

($)

    

(DKK)

    

(DKK)

 

Consolidated Statement of Profit or Loss:

           

Operating expenses:

           

Research and development expenses

     (43,037      (285,413      (196,525      (88,888

General and administrative expenses

     (7,621      (50,541      (35,127      (15,414

Financial income

     48        316        5        311  

Financial expenses

     (1,110      (7,359      (3,453      (3,906
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Loss before tax

     (51,720      (342,997      (235,100      (107,897
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Income tax benefit

     829        5,500        5,500        —    
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Net loss

     (50,891      (337,497      (229,600      (107,897
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Operating Expenses

Research and Development Expenses

Research and development expenses for the year ended December 31, 2019 were DKK 285.4 million ($43.0 million), compared to DKK 196.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2018. The increase of DKK 88.9 million ($13.4 million) was mainly attributable to an increase of DKK 63.8 million ($9.6 million) in our external costs associated with our development activities primarily due to the ramp-up of the sIBM Phase 2/3 clinical trial and the Phase 3 clinical trial for ALS, the initiation of open-label extensions for these clinical trials and the initiation of preclinical studies to support our anticipated NDA filing of arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC. The increase in clinical trial activities also demanded increased amounts of arimoclomol, resulting in higher costs incurred with our contract manufacturing organization. During 2019 we also grew our organization from 46 to 70 full-time research and development employees, which caused our research and development employee costs to increase by DKK 23.9 million ($3.6 million).

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses for the year ended December 31, 2019 were DKK 50.5 million ($7.6 million), compared to DKK 35.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2018. This increase of DKK 15.4 million ($2.3 million) was primarily attributable to increased personnel expenses of DKK 10.2 million ($1.5 million) as our general and administrative employee headcount increased from 11 to 16; an increase of DKK 7.9 million ($1.2 million) in external costs attributed to legal, accounting, and investor relations activities; and a decrease of DKK 2.9 million ($0.4 million) in travel and related expenses.

Financial Income and Expenses

Net financial expenses for the year ended December 31, 2019, were DKK 7.0 million ($1.1 million), compared to DKK 3.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2018. This increase of DKK 3.6 million ($0.5 million) was primarily attributable to an increase of DKK 3.2 million ($0.5 million) in interest expense recognized on the Loan Agreement; an increase of DKK 1.7 million ($0.3 million) due to the write-off of transaction costs for Tranche 2 of the Loan Agreement that was not drawn down; and an increase of DKK

 

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0.4 million ($0.1 million) on the change in fair value of the facilitation fee accounted for as an embedded call option. See “Liquidity and Capital Resources – Sources of Liquidity.” An increase of DKK 0.6 million ($0.1 million) was also due to interest expense on the lease obligations. In addition, the net decrease in our interest expense on our cash balance in Denmark was DKK 1.9 million ($0.3 million). The remaining decrease of DKK 0.4 million ($0.1 million) was primarily due to foreign currency exchange.

Income Tax Benefit

Income tax benefit for each of the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 was DKK 5.5 million ($0.8 million). Our corporate income tax rate in Denmark was 22%. However, for each of the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, we did not recognize any deferred tax assets considering uncertainties surrounding their potential utilization. Accumulated unrecognized tax assets at December 31, 2019 primarily comprising tax deductible losses and deferred tax on intangible assets amounted to DKK 168 million.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Sources of Liquidity

Since our inception, we have incurred significant operating losses. We expect to incur significant expenses and operating losses for the foreseeable future as we advance the clinical development of our product candidate. We expect that our research and development and general and administrative expenses will increase in connection with conducting additional clinical trials for our product candidate, contracting with CMOs and CROs to support preclinical studies and clinical trials, expanding our intellectual property portfolio, and providing general and administrative support for our operations. As a result, we will need additional capital to fund our operations, which we may obtain from additional equity or debt financings, collaborations, licensing arrangements or other sources.

We do not have any product candidates approved for sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales. Since our inception we have devoted substantially all of our resources to organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials, building out our commercial infrastructure and establishing and protecting our intellectual property portfolio. We raised gross proceeds of DKK 600 million ($90 million) from our initial public offering in Denmark in November 2017. In addition, on February 11, 2020, we closed a directed issue and private placement of 7,032,937 ordinary shares for gross proceeds of DKK 745 million ($112 million).

In August 2019, we entered into a structured debt facility, or the Loan Agreement, with Kreos, which consisted of two tranches of €9.0 million (DKK 67.2 million) each. We borrowed €9.0 million from the first tranche, or the Term Loan, but did not draw on the second tranche prior to the expiration date on January 1, 2020. We are required to repay the Term Loan over 42 months with the first 12 months requiring interest only payments at a nominal annual fixed interest rate of 9.75% and the remaining 30 months requiring equal installments comprising principal and interest. Early prepayment of the borrowed amounts may be made in whole but not in part, with the repayment amount being equal to the principal outstanding plus the sum of all the interest repayments that would have been paid throughout the remainder of the loan discounted at an annual rate of 4.0%. The Loan Agreement also provides that we will pay Kreos a facilitation fee upon the request of Kreos, which request may be made in its sole discretion at any time prior to the earlier to occur of August 27, 2024 and the date of delisting of our ordinary shares, including ADSs, from a securities exchange. The facilitation fee is equal to the greater of (i) €0.9 million and (ii) the percentage increase in our ordinary share price between the 30-day volume-weighted average ordinary share price on the date of the Loan Agreement and the closing ordinary share price on the day immediately preceding the date of the notification applied to the aggregate amount of amounts borrowed. We have also agreed to pay Kreos an end of loan payment in an amount equal to 3% of the amount drawn under the first tranche on the date the Term Loan is repaid in full. The amounts due under the Loan Agreement are secured by certain of our assets, including our intellectual property rights,

 

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pursuant to a floating charge agreement registered with the Danish personal register in the initial principal amount of €9.0 million, our patents registered in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, and our shares in our U.S. subsidiary. Our obligations under the Loan Agreement are guaranteed by our U.S. subsidiary. The Loan Agreement includes certain covenants that, subject to certain limited exceptions, limit our ability to, among other things:

 

   

sell, lease, convey, transfer, assign, license or otherwise of or deal with all or any material part of our property, assets or undertaking;

 

   

sell, assign transfer or otherwise dispose of any assets that are subjects to liens under the Loan Agreement, any of our material assets or any share therein;

 

   

incur or allow to remain outstanding any indebtedness;

 

   

create or permit to subsist any liens; and

 

   

declare and/or make or agree to make any distribution by way of dividend or otherwise, without the written consent of Kreos.

While we have not previously breached and are not currently in breach of these or any of the other covenants contained in the Loan Agreement, there can be no guarantee that we will not breach these covenants in the future.

As of June 30, 2020, we had DKK 610.5 million ($92.0 million) in cash and an accumulated deficit of DKK 1,138.3 million ($171.6 million).

Cash Flows

The following table shows a summary of our cash flows for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019 and for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 (in thousands):

 

    

Six Months Ended June 30,

   

Year Ended December 31,

 
    

2020

   

2020

   

2019

   

2019

   

2019

   

2018

 
    

($)

   

(DKK)

   

(DKK)

   

($)

   

(DKK)

   

(DKK)

 

Net cash used in operating activities

     (30,786     (204,169     (166,597     (49,280     (326,818     (234,764

Net cash used in investing activities

     (265     (1,760     (1,225     (495     (3,285     (2,346

Net cash provided by financing activities

     104,488       692,944       (1,061     8,887       58,939       —    
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net increase (decrease) in cash

     73,436       487,015       (168,883     (40,888     (271,164     (237,110
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Operating Activities

Net cash used in operating activities for the six-month period ended June 30, 2020 was DKK 204.2 million ($30.8 million) compared to DKK 166.6 million in the six-month period ended June 30, 2019. The increase of DKK 37.6 million ($5.7 million) was primarily attributable to the progression of clinical development activities, in particular the clinical pharmacology registration trials, as well as commercial launch preparation activities.

Net cash used in operating activities for the year ended December 31, 2019 was DKK 326.8 million ($49.3 million) compared to DKK 234.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2018. The increase of DKK 92.0 million ($13.9 million) was attributable primarily to higher general and administrative expenses and the progression of clinical development activities, in particular the ramp-up of the sIBM Phase 2/3 clinical trial, the Phase 3 clinical trial for ALS and the initiation of open-label extensions for these clinical trials.

 

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Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities for the six-month period ended June 30, 2020 was DKK 1.8 million ($0.3 million) compared to DKK 1.2 million in the six-month period ended June 30, 2019. The increase of DKK 0.6 million ($0.1 million) comprises the capitalization of our new ERP system.

Net cash used in investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2019 was DKK 3.3 million ($0.5 million) compared to DKK 2.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2018. The increase of DKK 1.0 million ($0.2 million) was attributable primarily to the purchase of equipment and payments pursuant to license agreements.

Financing Activities

Net cash provided by financing activities for the six-month period ended June 30, 2020 was DKK 692.9 million ($104.5 million) compared to an outflow of DKK 1.1 million in the six-month period ended June 30, 2019. The increase of DKK 694.0 million ($104.6 million) reflects the net proceeds of DKK 694.0 million from our directed issue and private placement in February.

Net cash provided by financing activities in the year ended December 31, 2019 was DKK 58.9 million ($8.9 million), attributable primarily to the repayment of lease liabilities following our adoption of IFRS 16 as well as our borrowings under the Loan Agreement. There was no cash provided by financing activities in the year ended December 31, 2018.

Funding Requirements

We expect our expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we continue the research and development of, continue or initiate clinical trials of, and seek regulatory approval for, our product candidate. In addition, if we obtain marketing approval for our product candidate, we expect to incur significant commercialization expenses related to sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution to the extent that such sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution are not the responsibility of potential collaborators. Furthermore, following the completion of the global offering, we expect to incur additional costs associated with operating as a U.S. public company. Accordingly, we will need to obtain substantial additional funding in connection with our continuing operations. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on attractive terms, we would be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our research and development programs or future commercialization efforts.

We expect our existing cash, together with the net proceeds from the global offering, will enable us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 24 months. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:

 

   

the scope, progress, results and costs of product discovery, preclinical studies and clinical trials;

 

   

the scope, prioritization and number of our research and development programs;

 

   

the costs, timing and outcome of regulatory review of our product candidate;

 

   

our ability to establish and maintain collaborations on favorable terms, if at all;

 

   

the costs of preparing, filing and prosecuting patent applications, maintaining and enforcing our intellectual property rights and defending intellectual property-related claims;

 

   

the extent to which we acquire or in-license other product candidates and technologies;

 

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the costs of securing manufacturing arrangements for commercial production;

 

   

the costs of establishing or contracting for sales and marketing capabilities if we obtain regulatory approvals to market our product candidate;

 

   

obtaining and maintaining coverage, adequate pricing and adequate reimbursement from third-party payors, including government payors;

 

   

acceptance of arimoclomol, if approved, by patients, the medical community and third-party payors; and

 

   

business interruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Developing product candidates is a time-consuming, expensive and uncertain process that takes many years to complete, and we may never generate the necessary data or results required to obtain marketing approval and achieve product sales. In addition, our product candidate, if approved, may not achieve commercial success. Our commercial revenues, if any, will be derived from sales of our product candidate, if approved. Accordingly, we will need to continue to rely on additional financing to achieve our business objectives. Adequate additional financing may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all.

Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenues, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, collaborations, strategic alliances and licensing arrangements. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, your ownership interest will be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a shareholder. Debt 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 alliances, or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish rights to future revenue streams, research programs, product candidates or our intellectual property, or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce, or terminate our product development programs or any future commercialization efforts or grant rights to develop and market arimoclomol or any other future product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves.

Contractual Obligations & Commitments

The following are our contractual obligations and commitments as of December 31, 2019:

 

    

Less than 1 Year

   

1 to 3 Years

    

3 to 5 Years

    

More than 5 Years

   

Total

 
(In thousands)   

$

    

DKK

   

$

    

DKK

    

$

    

DKK

    

$

    

DKK

   

$

    

DKK

 

Lease obligations

     504        3,344       1,002        6,647        618        4,102        —          —         2,125        14,093  

Borrowings (1)

     3,447        22,862       9,080        60,215        682        4,522        —          —         13,209        87,599  
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total

     3,951        26,206       10,082        66,862        1,300        8,624        —          —         15,334        101,692  
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

(1)

Represents payments to be made pursuant to the Loan Agreement, including principal, interest, a payment of €0.3 million payable at the end of the loan, and the facilitation fee included in the time period Less than 1 Year, as it is payable upon demand from the lender. For additional information, see “–Liquidity and Capital Resources–Sources of Liquidity.”

 

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The commitment amounts in the table above are associated with contracts that are enforceable and legally binding and that specify all significant terms, including fixed or minimum services to be used, fixed, minimum or variable price provisions, and the approximate timing of the actions under the contracts. The table does not include obligations under agreements that we can cancel without a significant penalty.

We also have certain future contingent commitments under our license and collaboration agreements that may become due for future payments. These milestone payments generally become due and payable only upon the achievement of certain development, clinical, regulatory or commercial milestones. The events triggering such payments or obligations have not yet occurred and as such have not been reflected in the above table. These payments may be significant. See “—Our Licensing Agreements.”

We also enter into contracts in the normal course of business with CROs for clinical trials, preclinical studies, CMOs for manufacturing and other services and products for operating purposes that are cancelable by us. Payments due upon cancellation consisting only of payments for services provided or expenses incurred, including noncancelable obligations of our service providers, up to the date of cancellation are not included in the preceding table as the amount and timing of such payments are not known.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We have not entered into any off-balance sheet arrangements.

Critical Accounting Policies

Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with IFRS, as issued by the IASB. A description of our significant accounting policies, including significant accounting estimates and judgements, is provided in Notes 1.3, 1.4, and within the notes to each relevant line item of our audited consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, and for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, and within the notes to each relevant line item of our unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements as of June 30, 2020, and for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, each included in this prospectus.

New IFRS Standards Applicable to the Company

On January 1, 2019, we adopted IFRS 16, “Leases,” pursuant to which leases are recognized as a right-of-use asset and a corresponding liability at the adoption date. For the year ended December 31, 2019, we applied the modified retrospective approach, which requires the recognition of the cumulative effect of initially applying IFRS 16 as of January 1, 2019 in accumulated losses.

See note 1.5 to our audited consolidated financial statements beginning on page F-1 of this prospectus for a description of recent accounting pronouncements applicable to our consolidated financial statements.

Qualitative and Quantitative Disclosures about Market Risk

Our activities primarily expose us to the financial risks of changes in foreign currency exchange rates. Increases or decreases in the exchange rate of foreign currencies against the Danish kroner can affect our results and cash position negatively or positively.

Exchange Rate Risk

Most of our financial transactions are made in Danish kroner, U.S. dollars and Euros. As our functional and reporting currency is Danish kroner, we experience exchange rate risk with respect to our holdings and transactions denominated in currencies other than Danish kroner. Our currency exposure to both the U.S. dollar and the Euro is mainly related to cash deposits and contracts denominated in those currencies. In addition, the facilitation fee under the Loan Agreement is accounted for as an embedded derivative and is denominated in Euro.

 

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Due to the long-standing policy of Denmark’s Nationalbank with respect to the €/DKK exchange rate, we believe that there are currently no material transaction exposure or exchange rate risks regarding transactions in Euros. Since the introduction of the Euro in 1999, Denmark has committed to maintaining a central rate of 7.46 DKK to €1. This rate may fluctuate within a +/– 2.25% band. Although there has been some pressure on the Danish kroner, we do not expect the €/DKK exchange rate to move outside of the current limits. However, should Denmark’s policy towards the Euro change, the Danish kroner values of our Euro-denominated assets and costs could be materially different compared to what is calculated and reported under the existing Danish policy towards the €/DKK exchange rate.

As of June 30, 2020, we have no material interest rate risk or credit risk exposure.

Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company

As a company with less than $1.07 billion in revenue during our last fiscal year, we qualify as an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act. An emerging growth company may take advantage of specified reduced reporting and other burdens that are otherwise applicable generally to public companies. These provisions include:

 

   

a requirement to include only two years of audited financial statements and only two years of related Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations disclosure; and

 

   

an exemption from the auditor attestation requirement in the assessment of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

We may choose to take advantage of some but not all of these reduced burdens, and therefore the information that we provide holders of ordinary shares and ADSs may be different than the information you might receive from other public companies in which you hold equity. In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of an extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards applicable to public companies in the United States. As a public company in Denmark, we are unable to take advantage of the extended transition period.

We may take advantage of these provisions for up to five years or such earlier time that we are no longer an emerging growth company. We will cease to be an emerging growth company upon the earliest of the following:

 

   

the last day of the first fiscal year in which our annual revenues were at least $1.07 billion;

 

   

the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the initial public offering of our ADSs;

 

   

the date on which we have issued more than $1 billion of non-convertible debt securities over a three-year period; and

 

   

the last day of the fiscal year during which we meet the following conditions: (i) the worldwide market value of our common equity securities held by non-affiliates as of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter is at least $700 million, (ii) we have been subject to U.S. public company reporting requirements for at least 12 months and (iii) we have filed at least one annual report as a U.S. public company.

 

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Implications of Being a Foreign Private Issuer

Upon the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part, we will report under the Exchange Act as a non-U.S. company with foreign private issuer status. Even after we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, as long as we continue to qualify as a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act, we will be exempt from certain provisions of the Exchange Act that are applicable to U.S. domestic public companies, including:

 

   

the sections of the Exchange Act regulating the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations in respect of a security registered under the Exchange Act;

 

   

the sections of the Exchange Act requiring insiders to file public reports of their stock ownership and trading activities and liability for insiders who profit from trades made in a short period of time; and

 

   

the rules under the Exchange Act requiring the filing with the SEC of quarterly reports on Form 10-Q containing unaudited financial and other specified information, or current reports on Form 8-K, upon the occurrence of specified significant events.

In addition, we will not be required to file annual reports and financial statements with the SEC as promptly as U.S. domestic companies whose securities are registered under the Exchange Act, and are not required to comply with Regulation FD, which restricts the selective disclosure of material information.

Both foreign private issuers and emerging growth companies are also exempt from certain more stringent executive compensation disclosure rules for U.S. public companies under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Even if we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, so long as we remain a foreign private issuer, we will continue to be exempt from such compensation disclosures.

 

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BUSINESS

Overview

We are a late-stage biopharmaceutical company harnessing the amplification of Heat Shock Proteins, or HSPs, in order to develop and commercialize novel therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative orphan diseases. In September 2020, the U.S Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, accepted our a new drug application, or NDA, for our product candidate, arimoclomol, for Niemann-Pick disease Type C, or NPC, with priority review. In the letter accepting the NDA, the FDA set a target action date of March 17, 2021 under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, or PDUFA, for completion of its review of our NDA. The FDA has also notified us that it has identified potential review issues that we may need to address before obtaining FDA approval, as discussed in “Prospectus Summary—Recent Developments”. We also intend to submit a marketing authorization application, or MAA, to the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, in the second half of 2020. Arimoclomol is also in registrational clinical trials for the treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS, and Sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis, or sIBM, and we intend to advance into pivotal-stage clinical development in neurological Gaucher disease. Arimoclomol is an orally- or naso/gastrically-administered small molecule that crosses the blood-brain barrier and is designed to selectively amplify the natural role of endogenous HSPs, which protect against cellular toxicity caused by protein misfolding, aggregation and lysosomal dysfunction. In our Phase 2/3 clinical trial of arimoclomol in NPC, we have observed evidence of slowing of disease progression, supporting our registration effort in the United States and Europe. Results observed in the Phase 2 clinical trials for ALS, sIBM and Gaucher disease demonstrated the potential of arimoclomol to slow the progression of such diseases, forming the basis of our ongoing registrational clinical trials in ALS and sIBM, as well as our intention to advance into pivotal-stage clinical development in neurological Gaucher disease. We also believe that arimoclomol has been well tolerated in clinical trials including more than 500 human subjects for various indications. We are committed to leveraging our deep scientific expertise in the field of HSPs and lysosomal biology, the unique benefits of arimoclomol and our commercial experience and infrastructure to dramatically transform the lives of underserved individuals living with devastating neurodegenerative orphan diseases.

Arimoclomol functions by upregulating HSPs, which are molecular chaperones that are critical in the natural cellular response to stress, protein misfolding, aggregation and lysosomal dysfunction. We believe that arimoclomol is the first clinical product candidate to harness this mechanism of action for the treatment of lysosomal storage diseases, or LSDs, and neuromuscular diseases affecting the central nervous system, or CNS, and muscle. Arimoclomol is currently available to NPC patients in the United States through our early access program, or EAP, with nine patients on treatment as of September 18, 2020 and we have established and may in the future establish early access programs or compassionate use programs for same and other indications and in other locations. We are conducting clinical trials for arimoclomol in three additional indications, including a Phase 3 registrational clinical trial in ALS, for which we expect top-line results in the first half of 2021, a Phase 2/3 registrational clinical trial in sIBM, for which we expect top-line results in the first half of 2021, and a Phase 2 clinical trial in Gaucher disease, for which we announced top-line results in June 2020. We believe that each of these indications has a significant unmet medical need today, given the limited availability of effective therapies for NPC, ALS and neurological Gaucher disease and the lack of any approved drugs for sIBM. Both the FDA and the EMA have granted arimoclomol orphan drug designation for NPC, ALS and sIBM. The FDA has also granted arimoclomol fast track designation in NPC, ALS and sIBM, has designated arimoclomol as a breakthrough therapy in NPC and has granted arimoclomol a rare pediatric disease designation in NPC, potentially entitling us to a priority review voucher if arimoclomol is approved in NPC.

 

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The following table summarizes the indications we are pursuing with arimoclomol, for which we have retained our full, worldwide, exclusive marketing and distribution rights.

 

 

LOGO

Our Product Candidate—Arimoclomol

Our most advanced program is for the treatment of NPC, a LSD. NPC is a rare, genetic and progressive disease that impairs the ability of the body to recycle cholesterol and other types of lipids, resulting in damage to the body’s tissues, including the brain. Symptoms of NPC usually occur during mid to late childhood, and include difficulties in swallowing, loss of speech and cognition, motor coordination and ambulation. In more aggressive forms, NPC is frequently fatal by the time patients reach their twenties. We estimate the incidence of NPC to be one in 100,000 live births. Based on these incidence rates, the number of NPC patients in the United States and in Europe is estimated to be approximately 1,800 individuals. Of these, we estimate that approximately 1,100 individuals have been diagnosed, of which approximately 300 are in the United States and approximately 800 are in Europe. However, diagnostic challenges may affect the number of potential patients, and we believe that the availability of treatment options could increase awareness of the disease and assist in identifying more cases. We believe that there is a significant unmet need for new treatments for NPC due to the side effects, limited availability and efficacy of the existing treatment options. In our registrational Phase 2/3 clinical trial for NPC, arimoclomol was observed to be well-tolerated and demonstrated a benefit over placebo and routine clinical care using the 5-domain NPC clinical severity score, or NPCCSS, the key primary endpoint, corresponding to a 63% relative reduction in disease progression (p=0.0537). The 5-domain NPCCSS is a disease-specific and validated measure of disease progression refined by us with disease opinion leaders, consisting of the five clinically most relevant domains to patients with NPC, caregivers and physicians. Arimoclomol demonstrated a statistically significant benefit over placebo using the 5-domain NPCCSS score when excluding three patients with double functional null mutations, corresponding to a 77% relative reduction in disease progression (p=0.0242); in patients aged ³ 4 years, corresponding to an 80% relative reduction in disease progression (p=0.0189); and in patients also receiving miglustat (corresponding to a 101% reduction in disease progression over routine care including miglustat (p=0.0074)).

We are also developing arimoclomol for the treatment of ALS. ALS, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rapidly progressing neurological disease with the onset of symptoms typically occurring between 40 to 70 years of age, with patient mortality occurring in most patients within three to five years of disease onset. ALS attacks neurons responsible for controlling voluntary muscles, resulting in muscle weakness in limbs, and impacts speaking, chewing, swallowing and breathing, leading to progressive disability and eventually death, typically from respiratory failure and aspiration pneumonia. In addition, up to 50% of ALS patients develop cognitive impairment associated with frontotemporal dementia. According to the ALS Association, the incidence of ALS in the United States is estimated to be two per 100,000 within the general population and prevalence is estimated to be between five and seven cases within a population of 100,000, equating to approximately 20,000 patients in the United States and 30,000 patients in Europe. 5,000 new ALS

 

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patients are diagnosed each year in the United States. ALS affects men to women at a ratio of 3:2. There are currently a limited number of treatments available for ALS, with disease management predominantly focused on treatment of symptoms and supportive care. Riluzole, developed by Sanofi, was the first drug to be approved by the FDA for the treatment of ALS more than 20 years ago, but has been shown to prolong survival by just two to three months. In May 2017, the FDA approved Edaravone, which has been shown to slow functional decline in ALS patients, but is administered through a burdensome intravenous regimen. Non-invasive ventilation has also been shown to support against respiratory failure, improve quality of life, and potentially increase survival by around seven months. We believe there is a significant unmet need for new effective treatments for patients suffering from ALS in order to improve the clinical course of their disease and extend their survival. In a Phase 2 clinical trial of arimoclomol for the treatment of ALS and in a Phase 2/3 clinical trial for the treatment of superoxide dismutase 1, or SOD1, ALS, arimoclomol was observed to be well tolerated, and showed positive trends across clinical endpoints, including a 30% and 28% slowing of disease progression, respectively, as measured by the ALS Functional Rating Scale, or ALSFRS-R, from baseline, when compared to a historical control group. The ALSFRS-R is an instrument for evaluating the functional status of patients with ALS, including respiratory function. Based on these results, we are conducting a Phase 3 registrational trial of arimoclomol for ALS, for which we expect to report top-line results in the first half of 2021.

In addition, we are developing arimoclomol for the treatment of sIBM. sIBM is an acquired, rare and slowly progressive muscle disorder. The onset of symptoms occurs on average after age 50, with up to three of every four cases occurring in men. Many patients with sIBM will suffer loss of fine motor skills such as writing, grooming and the ability to eat unaided, and it is associated with significant morbidity including a propensity to fall, difficulty swallowing and severe disability. Patients with sIBM may also require use of a walking stick as early as five years after symptom onset and become wheelchair dependent and severely disabled within 10 to 15 years. In a recent systematic review, the prevalence of sIBM has been estimated to be 4.6 per 100,000 people, equating to an estimated 40,000 individuals living with sIBM in the United States and Europe combined. sIBM is distinct in its presentation, most commonly affecting muscles of the thigh and forearm, and immunosuppressive treatments have not been shown to be effective, despite evidence of inflammatory pathology. There is a prominent degenerative element to the disease and muscle biopsies reveal the presence of myotoxic protein aggregates (inclusions). There are currently no effective or approved treatments for sIBM. In a Phase 2 clinical trial of arimoclomol for the treatment of sIBM, arimoclomol was observed to be well tolerated and demonstrated a slowing in the rate of disease progression as measured on the Inclusion Body Myositis functional rating scale, or IBMFRS, with a 60% reduction in progression at four months when compared to placebo. This was shown to persist for several months beyond the 4 month treatment period (72.8% reduction at 8-months, p=0.055). Typically, sIBM patients progress by losing up to 2.0 to 2.5 points on the IBMFRS score per eight months. Based on these results, we are conducting a Phase 2/3 registrational trial in sIBM, for which we expect top-line results in the first half of 2021.

We are also developing arimoclomol for the treatment of neurological manifestations of Gaucher disease. Gaucher disease is a rare, inherited metabolic disorder causing certain sugar containing fats to abnormally accumulate in the lysosomes of cells, especially within cells of the blood system and nerve cells, thereby affecting organs such as the brain, bone marrow, spleen and liver. The typical systemic symptoms of Gaucher disease, which can appear at any age, include an abnormally enlarged liver and/or spleen and low levels of circulating red blood cells and platelets. These systemic symptoms are generally treated by existing enzyme replacement therapy, or ERT, and substrate reduction therapy, or SRT. The neurological symptoms, although heterogeneous, may include muscle rigidity, loss of movement, seizures, cognitive impairment and vision problems and are insufficiently treated by these therapies, given their limited ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. Gaucher disease is the most common LSD, with an estimated incidence of one in 50,000, and affects up to an estimated 15,000 individuals in the United States and Europe combined. Gaucher disease has three subtypes, which are, in part, distinguished by the presence or absence of neurological symptoms. Type 1 Gaucher disease is the most common form of the disease, can occur at any age and initially do not present with neurological symptoms. It is now estimated that up to 30% of patients diagnosed with Gaucher Type 1 develop neurological symptoms later in life, including 5% to 7% showing Parkinsonism symptoms. We believe this is due

 

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to individuals with Gaucher Type 1 living much longer as a result of availability of ERT and SRT therapy. Patients with Gaucher disease Type 2 or Type 3 present with acute neurological symptoms (Type 2) or develop chronic neurological disease (Type 3). Results of preclinical studies demonstrated an increase in HSP70, a key member of the HSP family, and refolding, maturation and correct intracellular localization of GCase, an enzyme responsible for breaking down certain lipids and for which reduced activity causes Gaucher disease. Based on these results, we initiated a randomized, double-blinded, dose-ranging Phase 2 clinical trial of arimoclomol for the treatment of neurological Gaucher disease in June 2018, which completed enrollment in August 2019. We reported top-line Phase 2 results in June 2020, in which arimoclomol was observed to be well-tolerated and demonstrated a relative reduction in serum chitotriosidase activity from baseline to six months, the primary endpoint, across all dosages compared to placebo ranging from -12% to -29%, although statistical significance was not achieved (p=0.4). However, we observed a statistically significant dose-dependent reduction in liver size ranging from -15% to -20% relative to placebo (dose trend analysis p<0.05). Based on these results, we intend to advance into pivotal-stage clinical development for arimoclomol in neurological Gaucher disease.

If we are successful in our initial indications of NPC, ALS, sIBM and neurological Gaucher disease, we estimate that arimoclomol could benefit up to approximately 100,000 patients in the United States and Europe. However, based on the significant data we have generated to date, we believe that arimoclomol’s unique mechanism of action has potential therapeutic application across a broader range of lysosomal and neurodegenerative orphan diseases, several of which address significantly larger patient populations and target markets than those we are currently pursuing in our clinical development programs. Beyond the registrational clinical trials in ALS and sIBM, we are undertaking preclinical studies to explore and inform us on the opportunity to address additional indications, including GCase-deficient Parkinson’s disease among others. If we are also successful in the GCase-deficient Parkinson’s disease indication in addition to the other 4 initial indications, we estimate that arimoclomol could benefit up to approximately 500,000 patients in the United States and Europe.

We are currently building a highly specialized commercial sales organization in anticipation of a potential launch of arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC in the United States and Europe. Our plans include having a commercial infrastructure that is supported by high-touch patient support initiatives and established relationships with the concentrated number of treatment centers that address NPC in advance of a potential launch in the United States. We have had significant and positive engagement with payors, physicians and patient advocacy organizations. We have already successfully established our EAP for NPC patients, which continues to provide us with significant insights to enhance our broader commercial readiness plans. In NPC, there are approximately 25 to 50 highly specialized centers in the United States and Europe that cover the vast majority of patients, and we believe this market can be effectively addressed with our own targeted commercial field force of approximately 20 to 30 representatives. If arimoclomol is approved for additional diseases, we plan to leverage our core orphan disease commercial infrastructure and expertise to efficiently address the relevant patient populations. We are also actively engaging with key ALS, sIBM and Gaucher disease patient advocacy groups.

We were founded in 2009 based on a scientific discovery published in Nature on the function of HSPs co-authored by Dr. Thomas Kirkegaard Jensen, who serves as our Chief Scientific Officer. We are led by our Chief Executive Officer, Kim Stratton, our Chief Financial Officer, Anders Vadsholt, our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Thomas Blaettler, and Dr. Jensen. Each member of our management team has extensive experience in the global biopharmaceutical industry. Our management team’s experience in clinical drug development, manufacture and commercialization, particularly in the rare disease drug space, provide us with valuable insights that we believe will help us maximize the value of arimoclomol and our foundational expertise in HSPs. Our management team has a highly successful track record of launching and commercializing products in more than fifteen rare diseases across the United States and international markets at leading global pharmaceutical firms such as Shire Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Roche and Bristol-Myers Squibb. We are supported by leading global life sciences investors, including Consonance Capital, Coöperative Aescap Ventures, Sunstone Life Science Ventures and, through a joint investment vehicle Orpha Pooling N.V., Life Science Partners and the ALS Investment Fund. Our board of directors also includes industry experts with experience at companies focused on

 

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rare diseases, including Genzyme and Swedish Orphan Biovitrum. We completed the initial public offering of our ordinary shares in Denmark in November 2017. Our ordinary shares currently trade on Nasdaq Copenhagen under the symbol “ORPHA.” Our initial public offering in Denmark raised gross proceeds of DKK 600 million ($90 million). In February 2020, we also raised gross proceeds of DKK 745 million ($112 million) in a directed issue and private placement in Europe and the United States.

Our Competitive Strengths

We believe we have the potential to transform the lives of underserved individuals living with devastating neurodegenerative orphan diseases. Our key competitive strengths include:

 

   

Deep scientific expertise and discovery capabilities in the field of Heat Shock Proteins and lysosomal biology: Orphazyme was founded on pioneering discoveries made in the biology of HSPs, which are the body’s natural response to cellular stress, and their role in lysosomal function. We are the first to successfully apply this foundational expertise to pursue registrational development of novel therapeutic candidates for the treatment of lysosomal and neurodegenerative orphan diseases.

 

   

Our product candidate, arimoclomol, which has exhibited compelling results in clinical trials of neurodegenerative orphan diseases: In clinical trials to date, arimoclomol has exhibited compelling results on slowing of disease progression in NPC and results observed in our clinical trials in ALS, sIBM and Gaucher disease also demonstrated the potential of arimoclomol to slow the progression of such diseases. We also believe that arimoclomol has been well tolerated in clinical trials including more than 500 human subjects for various indications.

 

   

Potential near-term approval of arimoclomol in our first targeted ultra-orphan indication of NPC: If approved, arimoclomol could be the first product approved by the FDA for the treatment of NPC. In September 2020, the FDA accepted our NDA for arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC with priority review and we plan to submit an MAA in Europe in the second half of 2020.

 

   

Arimoclomol’s pipeline-in-a-product potential, with registrational clinical trials ongoing in two additional orphan indications and our intention to advance into pivotal-stage clinical development in a third: We believe arimoclomol’s novel mechanism of action has potential in a range of increasingly more widespread orphan diseases. Registrational clinical trials are ongoing in ALS and sIBM and we reported positive data from a Phase 2 clinical trial in Gaucher disease in June 2020, which may support the ability of arimoclomol to address a larger group of LSDs. If arimoclomol is approved for the treatment of NPC, ALS, sIBM and neurological Gaucher disease, we estimate the total addressable patient pool would be approximately 100,000 patients in the United States and Europe.

 

   

A highly experienced, rare disease focused management team: Our organization is built around a scientific, development, medical and commercial team with extensive expertise in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and rare diseases. This includes experience in patient advocacy, education, diagnosis, EAPs, engaging with specialty pharmacies and the supply chain to support patient access and adherence.

 

   

Multiple regulatory designations that support the importance of arimoclomol and potentially provide accelerated approval pathways: Arimoclomol has been granted orphan drug designation in the United States and Europe for NPC, ALS and sIBM. Arimoclomol has also been granted fast track designation by FDA for NPC, ALS and sIBM and has received breakthrough therapy designation for NPC. Furthermore, arimoclomol has received rare pediatric disease designation from FDA, potentially entitling the sponsor to a priority review voucher should the product be approved in NPC.

 

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Exclusive worldwide marketing and distribution rights, supported by intellectual property protections and additional regulatory exclusivity protections: We have retained our exclusive worldwide marketing and distribution rights for arimoclomol. Furthermore, our patent portfolio provides us with protection for the treatment of NPC and Gaucher disease until 2029, with possible extensions to 2032 in the United States and 2034 in the European Union based on method of use patents, and for the treatment of ALS until 2024, as well as orphan drug exclusivity, if approved, for seven years in the United States and ten years in the European Union for NPC, ALS and sIBM.

Our Strategy

Our goal is to leverage our deep scientific expertise in the field of HSPs and lysosomal biology, the unique benefits of arimoclomol and our commercial experience and infrastructure to dramatically transform the lives of underserved individuals living with devastating neurodegenerative orphan diseases. The key pillars of our business strategy include:

Secure Regulatory Approvals in the United States and European Union for Arimoclomol in NPC

We believe arimoclomol has the potential to become the first FDA-approved therapy for the treatment of NPC. Based on the data observed in the registrational Phase 2/3 clinical trial, the FDA accepted our NDA for arimoclomol in NPC in September 2020 with priority review, and we expect to submit an MAA in Europe in the second half of 2020. Arimoclomol is available in the United States through our EAP, which provides access to arimoclomol to NPC patients before the drug is approved by the FDA and we are exploring similar initiatives for early access in Europe.

Maximize the Commercial Potential of Arimoclomol in NPC and Beyond

We are building an efficient, highly specialized commercial organization in anticipation of a potential launch of arimoclomol for the treatment of NPC in the United States and Europe. Our management’s expertise in rare disease drug commercialization has informed our commercial readiness plans in the United States and Europe, where we intend to deploy a targeted field force of 20 to 30 representatives, alongside various high-touch patient support initiatives and make use of our already established relationships with the 25 to 50 specialized treatment centers that address NPC. We also plan to build on the significant engagement we have fostered with payors, physicians and the patient advocacy community. We are harnessing many of these efforts in our EAP for NPC patients in the United States while also using this program to further inform our commercial strategy. If arimoclomol is approved for additional diseases, we plan to leverage our rare disease commercial infrastructure and expertise to efficiently address those patient populations. We may also opportunistically seek strategic collaborations in disease areas or geographies that we believe could benefit from the resources of either larger biopharmaceutical companies or those specialized in a particular area of relevance.

Complete Registrational Studies and Obtain Regulatory Approval of Arimoclomol for ALS and sIBM and Advance into Pivotal-Stage Clinical Development in Gaucher Disease

Based on the compelling results from our Phase 2/3 clinical trial in NPC and investigator and CytRx Corporation, or CytRx, sponsored clinical trials, we believe there is significant potential for arimoclomol in the treatment of other protein misfolding and aggregation disorders. Arimoclomol has demonstrated clinical proof-of-concept in ALS and sIBM, with Phase 2 clinical trials in both indications having shown trends in pre-defined efficacy endpoints. We are currently conducting registrational clinical trials of arimoclomol for ALS and sIBM, and we expect top-line results in both indications in the first half of 2021. We intend to advance arimoclomol into pivotal-stage clinical development in neurological Gaucher disease following compelling results reported in our Phase 2 clinical trial in June 2020, in which we achieved clinical proof-of-concept.

 

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Actively Expand and Advance our Pipeline, Including Developing Arimoclomol for Additional Indications and Discovering Additional NMEs

Based on our expertise in HSPs’ mechanism and lysosomal biology, we believe arimoclomol has the potential to be an effective treatment for additional protein misfolding and aggregation diseases, as well as diseases characterized by lysosomal dysfunction. Furthermore, we are actively evaluating opportunities in disorders such as GCase-deficient Parkinson’s disease and other LSDs. We are also actively developing a proprietary suite of next generation HSP amplifiers and lysosome biology-targeting compounds and intend to select protein misfolding diseases for these new molecular entities, or NMEs, based on genetic and mechanistic insights. For our new indications and molecule development, we plan to continue to closely collaborate with academic experts and patient organizations, and we intend to leverage our learnings to inform a selection of additional indications involving related biological mechanisms.

Heat Shock Proteins and the Heat Shock Response

We are pioneering the use of a natural cellular defense system, the heat shock response, or Heat Shock Protein response, for the treatment of neurodegenerative orphan diseases, based around our investigational drug arimoclomol.

HSPs are a family of molecular chaperone proteins present in all cells throughout the body, characterized by their cell protective properties and whose levels are amplified by cells in response to exposure to a wide variety of stressful conditions, including thermal, oxidative, mechanical, chemical and pathophysiological stresses. This amplification of HSP production in times of stress is described as the Heat Shock Response. The HSPs form a natural cellular defense system that helps other proteins work correctly and guards against the toxicity arising from misfolded proteins, protein aggregation and dysfunctional cellular recycling systems (lysosomes), essentially acting as cellular lifeguards.

In particular, HSPs promote the survival of stressed cells by re-folding misfolded proteins into their correct conformation, or by directing terminally misfolded proteins to be broken down. They also protect cells by stabilizing lysosomes and thereby allow cells to clear away waste, prevent lysosome-associated cell death and return to their healthy status.

There are several different types of HSPs which work in conjunction. A key member of the HSP family is HSP70, which has been shown to protect against the formation of protein aggregates that are the defining characteristic of a number of neurodegenerative diseases including ALS and sIBM. HSP70 has also been identified to be a co-factor for lysosomal sphingolipid breakdown: a necessary step in the metabolism of stored lipids, which otherwise cause toxicity if accumulated in the lysosome and whose deficiencies give rise a group of lysosomal storage disorders known as the sphingolipidoses.

When protein misfolding occurs gradually as a consequence of an inherited mutation or as part of a disease progression, this can lead to a slow but steady aggregation of misfolded proteins occurring under the threshold for the cells to activate the production of HSPs. This sub-threshold accumulation and aggregation can lead to cellular dysfunction and eventually, in time, cell death, leading to loss of brain, nerve, muscle and other affected cells. These events can contribute to a wide range of diseases, including ALS, sIBM, GCase-deficient Parkinson’s disease and others.

Protein Misfolding, Aggregation and Lysosomal Dysfunction

If a protein does not fold properly or if it gets mislocalized in the wrong part of the cell, it can clump together with other proteins, creating accumulations or aggregates. Both the mislocalization and formation of aggregates can cause cell stress and toxicity, which are major components of the pathology in many neurodegenerative and other progressive diseases. HSP70 and other HSPs chaperone nascent proteins and

 

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misfolded proteins, ensuring their correct folding, function and cellular localization. HSP70 is also involved in dissolving aggregates and is part of a system that guides unsalvageable proteins to be degraded by the cells’ recycling systems.

Lysosomes are essential compartments of cells and contain enzymes which act like molecular scissors to digest cellular waste products for recycling. If, as a result of a genetic mutation, one of these digestive enzymes does not function properly, the waste product will accumulate inside the lysosome and eventually become toxic to cells. The digestive enzymes are proteins, and their dysfunction can be the result of a failure to fold into the correct shape (misfolding) or because they are incomplete. In some cases, cells do not produce a specific digestive enzyme at all. The extent of the digestive enzyme dysfunction depends on the genetic mutations. These mutations are inherited from both parents who are carriers of the mutation. HSP70 promote lysosomal function by facilitating the function of these lysosomal digestive enzymes both through its effect on the enzymes’ folding, as well as acting directly in the lysosomes, thereby increasing lipid metabolism and removal, which leads to stabilization of lysosomal membranes and prevention of cell death.

As exemplified in the figure below, the way HSPs target protein misfolding, aggregation and lysosomal function can be summarized as follows:

 

  1.

HSPs chaperone nascent proteins and misfolded proteins, ensuring their correct folding and function;

 

  2.

HSPs can dissolve protein aggregates, potentially restore folded and functional proteins, or ensure their removal by facilitating degradation; and

 

  3.

HSPs promote lysosomal function by chaperoning lysosomal proteins to the lysosome, thereby increasing lipid metabolism and removal. In addition, intra-lysosomal HSP70 also enhances lipid metabolism thereby stabilizing lysosomal membranes and preventing cell death.

 

 

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Our research focuses on the beneficial effects of HSP70. In NPC and Gaucher disease, as well as several other LSDs, we aim to target both protein misfolding and lysosomal function. In ALS and sIBM our goal is to

 

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target protein mislocalization, misfolding and aggregation. It has also been our ambition since our foundation that this beneficial impact on lysosomal biology might be translated to a treatment that could benefit many LSDs. We furthermore use HSP70 as a key parameter to measure activity of our drug candidates in both preclinical studies and clinical trials.

Our Product Candidate—Arimoclomol

Summary of Arimoclomol

Arimoclomol is an orally or naso/gastrically-administered small molecule that crosses the blood-brain-barrier and is designed to selectively amplify the natural role of endogenous HSPs, which protect against cellular toxicity caused by protein misfolding, aggregation and lysosomal dysfunction. In our Phase 2/3 clinical trial in NPC, we have observed evidence of slowing of disease progression, which supports our registration effort in the United States and Europe. Results observed in the Phase 2 clinical trials for ALS, sIBM and Gaucher disease demonstrated the potential of arimoclomol to slow the progression of such diseases, forming the basis of our ongoing registrational clinical trials in ALS and sIBM, as well as our intention to advance into pivotal-stage clinical development in neurological Gaucher disease. We also believe that arimoclomol has been well tolerated in clinical trials including more than 500 human subjects for various indications. We are committed to leveraging our deep scientific expertise in the field of HSPs and lysosomal biology, the unique benefits of arimoclomol and our commercial expertise and infrastructure to dramatically transform the lives of underserved individuals living with devastating neurodegenerative orphan diseases.

Arimoclomol functions by upregulating HSPs, which are molecular chaperones that are critical in the natural cellular response to stress, protein misfolding, aggregation and lysosomal dysfunction. We believe that arimoclomol is the first clinical product candidate to harness this mechanism of action targeting lysosomal storage diseases and neuromuscular diseases affecting the CNS and muscle. The FDA accepted our NDA for arimoclomol in September 2020 for the treatment of NPC with priority review. The FDA has set a target action date of March 17, 2021 under the PDUFA for completion of its review of our NDA. We also intend to submit an MAA, to the EMA in the second half of 2020. Arimoclomol is already available to NPC patients in the United States through our EAP, with nine patients on treatment as of September 18, 2020 and we have established and may in the future establish early access programs or compassionate use programs for same and other indications and in other locations. We are also conducting additional clinical trials for arimoclomol including a Phase 3 registrational clinical trial for ALS, for which we expect top-line results in the first half of 2021, a Phase 2/3 registrational clinical trial in sIBM, for which we expect top-line results in the first half of 2021, and a Phase 2 clinical trial in Gaucher disease, for which we announced top-line results in June 2020. We believe that each of these indications has a significant unmet medical need today, given the limited availability of effective therapies for NPC, ALS and neurological Gaucher disease and the lack of any approved drugs for sIBM. Both the FDA and the EMA have granted arimoclomol orphan drug designation for NPC, ALS and sIBM. The FDA has also granted arimoclomol fast track designation for NPC, ALS and sIBM, has designated arimoclomol as a breakthrough therapy for NPC and has granted arimoclomol a rare pediatric disease designation in NPC, potentially entitling us to a priority review voucher if arimoclomol is approved in NPC.

Arimoclomol Mechanism of Action

The production of HSPs is regulated by a transcription factor, heat shock factor 1, or HSF1. A transcription factor is a protein that regulates production of other proteins in the cell. Activation of HSF1 starts the production of the HSP70 chaperone along with other HSP-chaperones. Under normal cellular conditions, HSF1 is inactive. However, the transcription factor can be activated by an initial cellular stress, such as protein misfolding, and become fully activated under a sustained stress signal.

Arimoclomol has been shown to amplify and prolong the activated, HSP-producing state of HSF1. This is believed to lead to an increase in the production of cell protective HSPs, but only in physiologically stressed cells.

 

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This increase in the production of naturally occurring HSPs inside the cells, which reduce protein misfolding and aggregation and improve lysosomal function (the cells’ recycling system), selectively targets cells that are under stress. Accordingly, it is believed that increasing production of HSPs enhances the natural biological mechanisms that reduce protein misfolding and aggregation and improve lysosomal function.

Our Program for the Treatment of Lysosomal Storage Diseases

LSDs are inherited metabolic disorders in which enzyme and protein deficiencies result in an accumulation of toxic materials in the lysosomes, the cells’ recycling centers. This leads to lysosomal dysfunction and cell death and consequently organ dysfunction. The enzyme and protein deficiencies are often caused by genetic mutations leading to misfolding and degradation of the enzymes. Lysosomes are membrane-bound compartments located in the body’s cells, used to break down fats, proteins and other large molecules into their respective building blocks. Loss of lysosomal enzyme activity due to enzyme misfolding and dysfunction prohibits the lysosomes from performing their normal function and results in accumulation of metabolites in the lysosomes, which is why these diseases are referred to as LSDs.

LSDs include more than 50 different diseases, that may affect different parts of the body, including the brain, CNS, spleen, liver, skeleton, skin and heart.

The two LSDs that we are initially focused on are NPC and neurological Gaucher disease.

Arimoclomol for the Treatment of Niemann-Pick Disease Type-C

Our most advanced indication with arimoclomol is for the treatment of NPC. In January 2019, we reported results from a Phase 2/3 clinical trial of arimoclomol in NPC and we reported additional results from the open-label extension clinical trial in January 2020. In the trial, including the extension, we observed that arimoclomol was well-tolerated and demonstrated evidence of slowing the disease progression in NPC over two years. Based on the data from our Phase 2/3 clinical trial, the FDA accepted our NDA in the United States in September of 2020 with priority review and we plan to submit an MAA in the EMA in the second half of 2020 for arimoclomol as a treatment for NPC. If approved, we intend to launch arimoclomol for NPC in the United States and Europe.

Overview of NPC

NPC is a rare, genetic and progressive disease that impairs the ability of the body to recycle cholesterol and other types of lipids, resulting in damage to the body’s tissues, including the brain. The symptoms upon onset of NPC vary from fatality during the first months after birth to a progressive disorder not diagnosed until adulthood. The disease affects the brain as well as various internal organs. Symptoms of NPC usually occur during mid to late childhood, including difficulties in swallowing, loss of speech and cognition, motor coordination and ambulation. In more aggressive forms, NPC is frequently fatal by the time patients reach their twenties. During this period, affected individuals may also develop impairment of intellectual ability, psychiatric disturbances and progressive loss of memory. Symptoms include enlargement of the liver and/or spleen and lung diseases, epileptic seizures and dystonia. Systemic symptoms of NPC are more common in infancy or childhood and the rate of progression is usually much slower in individuals with onset of symptoms during adulthood. In more aggressive forms, NPC is frequently fatal by the time patients reach their twenties. However, approximately half of NPC patients are adults with a less aggressive form of the disease that progresses more slowly, and is frequently initially misdiagnosed, as these patients are more likely to present with dementia, psychiatric symptoms and other symptoms.

NPC is caused by mutations in one of two genes, NPC1 or NPC2, which prevent cells from properly processing waste lipids and lead to an accumulation of lipids in the lysosomes, resulting in cell toxicity and loss of cell function. In the CNS, it results in progressive motor and brain impairment. Approximately 95% of people with the disease have mutations in NPC1. Genetic diseases are determined by the combination of the pair of genes for a particular trait received from the father and the mother. NPC is an autosomal recessive disorder, i.e.

 

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two copies of an abnormal gene must be present in order for the disease or trait to develop. Although uncertainty exists about the function of the NPC1 and NPC2 protein products, they are known to be involved in the trafficking (transportation) of large molecules inside human cells. Hence, a mutated gene may lead to insufficient protein production and, as a consequence, an abnormal accumulation, e.g. cholesterol and/or other fatty materials and sugars in the organs most commonly affected, such as the liver, spleen and brain.

Many cases of NPC go misdiagnosed or undiagnosed. NPC is often initially misdiagnosed as a learning disability, mild retardation, and delayed development of fine motor skills and it is common to spend several years seeking a diagnosis before NPC is identified. The diagnosis of NPC is made upon the characteristic symptoms, as described above, obtained from clinical evaluations and tests to evaluate a protein’s function or the presence of accumulated byproducts (biochemical tests) and to evaluate if the NPC1 or NPC2 gene is mutated (gene sequencing). However, physicians’ limited experience with NPC often results in delayed diagnosis. According to Aptis Partners, an estimated 40-70% of all NPC patients are diagnosed depending on the country. We estimate the incidence of NPC to be one in 100,000 live births. Based on these incidence rates, the number of NPC patients in the United States and in Europe is estimated to be approximately 1,800 individuals. Of these, we estimate that approximately 1,100 individuals have been diagnosed, of which approximately 300 are in the United States and approximately 800 are in Europe. However, diagnostic challenges may affect the number of potential patients, and we believe that the availability of treatment options could increase awareness of the disease and assist in identifying more cases.

Treatment Options for NPC and Unmet Need

The majority of current treatment options are directed towards the specific symptoms apparent in each individual. These include, for example, referral to a therapist to optimize the swallowing function, prescription of anti-seizure medications to prevent seizures and prescription of melatonin to treat insomnia and other sleep problems caused by the disease, and may require the coordinated efforts of a team of specialists.

Zavesca (miglustat), which was originally developed by Actelion Pharmaceuticals and is now owned by Johnson & Johnson and is also now available as a generic product in several countries, is currently the only approved treatment for NPC. It is approved only in Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several countries in Asia and in South America as Zavesca and in Japan as Brazaves. In Europe, miglustat is indicated for the treatment of progressive neurological manifestations in adult patients and pediatric patients with NPC disease. The FDA declined to approve miglustat for NPC in 2010 and requested more data be provided. A range of side effects are known to be associated with miglustat, including weight loss, decreased appetite, diarrhea, nausea and thrombocytopenia. While miglustat has not been approved by the FDA for the treatment of NPC, it has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of Gaucher Type I disease. In addition, studies are currently being performed to test the safety and efficacy of other treatment options, which are discussed in more detail below under “—Competition.”

Due to the limited availability, efficacy and side effects of existing treatment options, we believe that a significant unmet need for treatment of NPC continues to exist.

Our Solution—Arimoclomol for NPC

To date in our clinical trials, we have observed that arimoclomol amplifies and sustains levels of HSP70 which, as shown in the figure below:

 

   

Prevents and corrects NPC protein misfolding, specifically improving NPC1 folding and maturation across genotypes (as indicated by (1) in the figure below); and

 

   

Promotes lysosomal function by chaperoning NPC protein to the lysosome, thereby increasing lipid metabolism and removal. In addition, intra-lysosomal HSP70 also enhances lipid metabolism

 

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thereby stabilizing lysosomal membranes and preventing cell death (as indicated by (3) in the figure below).

 

 

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Clinical Trials of Arimoclomol for the Treatment of NPC

We initiated a Phase 2/3, randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial in July 2016, after receiving regulatory advice from the EMA and the FDA. The aim of the Phase 2/3 clinical trial was to investigate the safety and efficacy of arimoclomol. The multi-center trial completed enrollment in May 2017, with 50 patients recruited at sites across Europe and the United States, and was completed in the second half of 2018. In January 2019, we announced clinical trial results of the Phase 2/3 clinical trial of arimoclomol in NPC and, in November 2019, we received breakthrough therapy designation for arimoclomol in NPC from the FDA.

Trial design. A total of 50 patients were enrolled with patients randomized 2:1 to arimoclomol and placebo (34 patients in the arimoclomol group and 16 patients in the placebo group), respectively, and assessed for a total of 12 months of randomized treatment, followed by open-label treatment of up to 48 months. The purpose of the clinical trial was to assess the efficacy and safety of arimoclomol citrate 200 mg, weight adjusted, three times-a-day when administered in addition to patient’s current prescribed routine clinical care, which included miglustat for 39 of the patients. Patients included in the trial were: aged 2–18 years, had a minimum 1 neurological symptom, had the ability to walk with assistance and, if on miglustat, were stable on treatment for at least six months. Patients who participated in other trials, had epilepsy or liver/renal insufficiency were excluded from the clinical trial.

The primary endpoint was disease severity as measured by the 5-domain NPCCSS. The 5-domain NPCCSS is a disease-specific and validated measure of disease progression refined by us with disease opinion leaders, consisting of the five clinically most relevant domains to patients with NPC, caregivers and physicians. The score ranges from 0 – 25, a higher score corresponds to more severe clinical impairment. A change of 1 point or greater on the scale has been assessed to be a clinically meaningful change based on a survey with NPC clinicians, individuals with NPC and caregivers. The overall estimated mean 5-domain NPCCSS score at baseline was 11.2 (SD=6.8). The mean baseline 5-domain NPCCSS score was higher in the group of patients randomized to arimoclomol (n=34: mean 12.1 (SD=6.9)) than the placebo group (n=16; mean 9.4 (SD=6.4)).

 

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5 domain NPC-CSS

 

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In agreement with the FDA, treatment response defined as no change or improved on the Clinical Global Impression of Improvement scale, or CGI-I, was included as a co-primary endpoint after the clinical trial had already been initiated.

Efficacy results. In January 2019, we announced clinical trial results of our Phase 2/3 clinical trial of arimoclomol in NPC. As shown in the figure below, a benefit of arimoclomol over placebo was established on the 5-domain NPCCSS score at 12-months, the primary endpoint, corresponding to a 63% relative reduction in disease progression (mean treatment difference of -1.34, 95% CI: -2.71 to 0.02; p=0.0537).

A result is considered to be statistically significant when the probability of the result occurring by random chance, rather than from the efficacy of the treatment, is sufficiently low. The conventional method for determining the statistical significance of a result is known as the “p-value,” which represents the probability that random chance caused the result (e.g., a p=0.01 means that there is a 1% probability that the difference between the control group and the treatment group is purely due to random chance). Generally, a p-value less than 0.05 is considered statistically significant.

5-domain NPCCSS (P=0.0537), corresponding to a 63% relative reduction in disease progression

 

 

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In agreement with the FDA, a post-hoc analysis was conducted to exclude three patients with double functional null mutations (do not express NPC protein and predictive of early-onset, rapid disease progression). All excluded patients had been randomized to the arimoclomol arm. After this exclusion, the results showed a statistically significant benefit of arimoclomol over placebo on the 5-domain NPCCSS score, corresponding to a 77% relative reduction in disease progression (mean treatment difference of -1.56: 95% CI -2.90 to -0.21, p=0.0242), as shown in the figure below.

5-domain NPCCSS (P=0.0242), corresponding to a 77% relative reduction in disease progression, when excluding patients with double functional null mutations

 

 

LOGO

Two preplanned subgroup analyses were also conducted which also showed a statistically significant benefit of arimoclomol over placebo on the 5-domain NPCCSS score: patients aged ³ 4 years, corresponding to an 80% relative reduction in disease progression (mean treatment difference of -1.75: 95% CI -3.20, -0.30; p=0.0189) and in patients receiving miglustat (corresponding to a 101% reduction in disease progression over routine care + miglustat; treatment difference of -2.01, 95% CI -3.44, -0.57; p=0.0074).

5-domain NPCCSS (P=0.0189), corresponding to an 80% relative reduction in disease progression, in patients aged ³4 years

 

 

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5-domain NPCCSS (P=0.0074), corresponding to a 101% relative reduction in disease progression, in patients receiving miglustat

 

 

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Because the FDA requested we add CGI-I as a co-primary endpoint only after the clinical trial had already been initiated, only eight patients had a formal baseline assessment for CGI-I – for the remaining patients such data had to be reconstructed afterwards. A responder rate of more than 50% in CGI-I in the placebo control group impeded the ability to show an overall effect on this endpoint and therefore was not statistically significant. However, when considering patients who severely progressed during the clinical trial based on clinician assessment, only 10.7% of the arimoclomol-treated patients got ‘much worse’ or ‘very much worse’ compared to 26.7% in the placebo control group.

Several exploratory biomarkers were measured during the clinical trial, demonstrating a clear biological effect of arimoclomol in support of the clinical results. The biomarker data showed a biological response to arimoclomol on key characteristics of its mechanism of action and the disease biology of NPC. This includes the important rescue protein HSP70 and accumulating lipids involved in the disease pathology. HSP70 levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, or PMBCs, showed a statistically significant increase in patients treated with arimoclomol (p=0.0010) demonstrating target engagement. The accumulation of un-esterified cholesterol in PBMCs was less in the arimoclomol group as compared to the placebo group (p=0.0959) and the change in the cholestane-triol levels in serum declined more in the arimoclomol group as compared to the placebo group (p=0.2251). Furthermore a reduction of the cholesterol metabolite oxysterol was also observed (p=0.0613). We believe these results support our hypothesis that arimoclomol may correct the underlying pathology of NPC based on observed biomarker response that it is in line with preclinical data, such as increased levels of HSP70, reduced lipid burden and improved measurable manifestations of ataxia.

Safety results. Arimoclomol was well-tolerated with a similar incidence of adverse events, or adverse events, for arimoclomol (88%) and placebo control (75%). Common adverse events that occurred in at least 8%

 

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of patients with NPC treated with arimoclomol and more frequently than in patients receiving placebo were: decreased weight (transient), tremor, urticaria, and decreased appetite (see table below).

Safety results: Common adverse events reported in Phase 2/3 clinical trial occurring in at least 8% of patients treated with arimoclomol than in patients receiving placebo.

 

 

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Three patients (9%) withdrew because of adverse events, all in the arimoclomol group (2 urticaria/angiodema and one patient with a two-fold increase in serum creatinine from baseline) (see table below). Serious adverse events, or SAEs, occurred less frequently in the arimoclomol group (15%) compared to placebo control (31%). All SAEs, except 2 events of urticaria and angioedema in the arimoclomol group, were assessed as not related to arimoclomol and were in line with the expected adverse event profile in NPC patients. One patient died due to cardiorespiratory arrest. The event was assessed as related to the underlying NPC disease and not related to arimoclomol.

Summary of Adverse Events: Double-Blind Phase

 

    

Arimoclomol

372 mg (1)

weight-

adjusted

N (%) E

    

Placebo

N (%) E

 

Safety set (N,%)

     34 (100.0)        16 (100.0)  

TEAEs

     30 (88.2) 278        12 (75.0) 87  

Serious TEAEs

     5 (14.7) 9        5 (31.3) 8  

Non-serious TEAEs

     30 (88.2) 269        12 (75.0) 79  

TEAEs leading to withdrawal from IMP

     3 (8.8) 4     

AEs with fatal outcome

     1 (2.9) 1     

Severity of TEAEs

     

Mild

     27 (79.4) 148        12 (75.0) 48  

Moderate

     26 (76.5) 120        9 (56.3) 34  

Severe

     4 (11.8) 10        3 (18.8) 5  

Relationship of TEAEs

     

Probably related

     5 (14.7) 12     

Possibly related

     12 (35.3) 26        3 (18.8) 3  

Not related

     30 (88.2) 240        12 (75.0) 84  

Relationship of serious TEAEs

     

Probably related

     2 (5.9) 3     

Not related

     3 (8.8) 6        5 (31.3) 8  

 

(1)

Arimoclomol citrate 200 mg three times a day weight-adjusted.

 

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The safety results reported during the 12-month open label extension is detailed in the table below which provides an overview of adverse events and SAEs during the open-label extension portion of the trial. Similar to the doubled-blinded portion of the trial, a total of 87.8% of the patients reported at least one treatment emergent adverse event. A slightly higher proportion of patients (24.4%) reported at least 1 SAE in the open-label portion of the trial than in the arimoclomol group during the double-blinded phase (14.7%), while the proportion was lower than in the placebo group of the double-blinded phase (31.3%). One out of the 19 SAEs were assessed as probably related to arimoclomol (an event of proteinuria which did not resolve, although the arimoclomol dosing continued unchanged). The proteinuria did not have clinical symptoms. One patient died during the first 12 months of the open-label portion of the trial due to lower respiratory tract infection, which was deemed to be unrelated to treatment by the investigator.

Summary of Adverse Events: Open-Label Phase

 

    

Arimoclomol

372 mg (1)

weight-

adjusted/

Arimoclomol

372 mg (1)

weight-

adjusted

N (%) E

    

Placebo/

Arimoclomol

372 mg (1)

weight-

adjusted

N (%) E

    

Arimoclomol

Total

N (%) E

 

Safety set (N,%)

     26 (100.0)        15 (100.0)        41 (100.0)  

TEAEs

     24 (92.3) 114        12 (80.0) 48        36 (87.8) 162  

Serious TEAEs

     8 (30.8) 17        2 (13.3) 2        10 (24.4) 19  

Non-serious TEAEs

     24 (92.3) 97        12 (80.0) 46        36 (87.8) 143  

TEAEs leading to withdrawal from IMP

     2 (7.7) 3        1 (6.7) 2        3 (7.3) 5  

AEs with fatal outcome

     1 (3.8) 1           1 (2.4) 1  

Severity of TEAEs

        

Mild

     20 (76.9) 54        9 (60.0) 27        29 (70.7) 81  

Moderate

     17 (65.4) 44        5 (33.3) 21        22 (53.7) 65  

Severe

     9 (34.6) 16           9 (22.0) 16  

Relationship of TEAEs

        

Probably related

     1 (3.8) 1        1 (6.7) 1        2 (4.9) 2  

Possibly related

     2 (7.7) 2        3 (20.0) 4        5 (12.2) 6  

Not related

     24 (92.3) 111        11 (73.3) 43        35 (85.4) 154  

Relationship of serious TEAEs

        

Probably related