AKTX Akari Therapeutics PLC - 10-K
0001493152-26-013664Year-over-year tone shift - average net-tone change across Risk Factors and MD&A vs the prior 10-K.
Why YoY instead of absolute: the LM lexicon has ~6.6× more negative words than positive (legal/risk-disclosure language is heavy on hedging), so every 10-K reads bearish on raw tone. Year-over-year change strips that bias and surfaces the actual shift in management's framing.
Sentence-level sentiment highlighting with category and subcategory filters is coming once the snippet-scoring pipeline lands. For now, dig into the actual section text on the Sections tab.
Risk Factors (Item 1A)
24,509 words
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below in addition to the other information included or incorporated by reference in this Form 10-K before purchasing our ADSs. Our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected by any of these and currently unknown risks or uncertainties. In that case, the market price of our ADSs could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment in our securities.
Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Our Capital Requirements
We have a history of operating losses and cannot give assurance of future revenues or operating profits.
We do not expect to generate revenue or profitability that is necessary to finance our operations in the short term. We incurred net losses of $17.3 million and $19.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. In addition, our accumulated deficit as of December 31, 2025 and 2024 was $264.5 million and $247.3 million, respectively. Losses have principally resulted from costs incurred for manufacturing, clinical trial and preclinical activities and general and administrative expenses. We have funded our operations primarily through public and private offerings of equity securities.
To date, we have not commercialized any products or generated any revenues from the sale of products, and absent the realization of sufficient revenues from product sales, we may never attain profitability in the future. We expect to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future as we continue to conduct research and development, clinical testing, regulatory compliance activities and, if any of our current or future product candidates receive marketing authorization, sales and marketing activities.
We have not initiated clinical development of any of the product candidates in our active pipeline and expect that it will be many years, if ever, before any of our candidates is ready for commercialization. To become and remain profitable, we must develop and, either directly or through collaborators, commercialize products with market potential. This will require us to be successful in a range of activities, including identifying product candidates, completing preclinical studies and clinical trials of product candidates, obtaining marketing approval for these product candidates, manufacturing, marketing and selling products for which we may obtain marketing approval and satisfying any post-marketing requirements. We may never succeed in these activities and, even if we do, we may never generate revenues that are significant or large enough to achieve profitability. Additionally, we are unable to predict the extent of any future losses or when we will become profitable, if at all. Our failure to become and remain profitable could impair our ability to raise capital, maintain our research and development efforts, expand our business or continue our operations. Accordingly, investors may not receive any return on their investment or may lose their entire investment.
We will require substantial additional capital to fund our operations, and if we are unable to obtain such capital, we will be unable to successfully develop and commercialize any product candidates.
As of December 31, 2025, we had cash of approximately $5.2 million. We will require additional capital in order to develop and commercialize our current product candidates or any future product candidates that we may develop or acquire. There is no assurance that additional funds will be available when we need them on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all. If adequate funds are not available on a timely basis, we may be required to terminate or delay development for one or more of our product candidates, which raises substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.
We expect our expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we identify, continue the research and development of, initiate and carry out preclinical studies and clinical trials of, and seek marketing approval for product candidates. The amount and timing of any expenditure needed will depend on numerous factors, some of which are outside our control, including:
the costs of developing our current products and any future product candidates that we may develop, in-license or acquire;
the costs of obtaining, maintaining and enforcing our patents and other intellectual property rights;
the costs and timing of future clinical trials or the need for additional clinical trials in any indications or product candidates which we are pursuing or may choose to pursue in the future;
the costs and timing of initiating manufacturing for our product candidates, including commercial manufacturing if any product candidate is approved;
the terms and timing of establishing and maintaining collaborations, license agreements and other partnerships;
the costs and timing of enhanced internal controls over financial reporting;
the effect of competing technological and market developments; and
the costs associated with being a public company.
We have not sold any products, and we do not expect to sell or derive revenue from any product sales for the foreseeable future. We may seek additional funding through future debt and equity financing, potential collaborations or strategic partnerships with other companies, non-dilutive financings or the divestiture of programs and product candidates that we have ceased developing or may in the future cease developing. Additional funding may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. General market conditions may make it difficult for us to seek financing from the capital markets. We may be required to relinquish rights to our technologies or product candidates, or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us, in order to raise additional funds through alliance, joint venture or licensing arrangements. In the event that we decide to pursue divestiture of any of our legacy programs or product candidates, we may be unable to identify a potential buyer or to complete such a divestiture on favorable terms or at all. In addition, the terms of any financing may adversely affect the holdings or the rights of our shareholders and the issuance of additional shares by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our shares to decline.
If we are unable to obtain funding on a timely basis, we will be delayed or unable to complete ongoing research for our programs and we may be required to significantly curtail some or all of our activities. Additionally, any additional fundraising efforts may divert our management from their day-to-day activities, which may adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize any product candidates we may develop. We cannot be certain that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms or at all. We have no committed source of additional capital and, if we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue the development or commercialization of any product candidates or other research and development initiatives. We could be required to seek collaborators for potential product candidates or complete divestitures of some or all of our legacy programs or product candidates earlier than we would otherwise plan or on terms that are less favorable than might otherwise be available. We could also be required to relinquish or license our rights to product candidates on unfavorable terms in certain markets where we otherwise would seek to pursue development or commercialization ourselves.
Raising additional capital may cause significant dilution to our shareholders or restrict our operations.
Until such time, as ever, as we are able to generate substantial product revenues, we expect to finance our capital needs at least in part through a combination of equity offerings and debt financings. To the extent that we do so, our shareholders may experience significant dilution, and the terms of these securities may contain preferential rights that adversely affect the rights of holders of ADSs representing our ordinary shares. The sale of a substantial number of ADSs, or anticipation of such sales, could cause the trading price of our ADSs to decline or make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-linked securities in the future at a time and at a price that we might otherwise desire. Additionally, 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, declaring dividends and other restrictions.
Our ability to use net operating losses to offset future income may be subject to certain limitations.
As of December 31, 2025, we had cumulative UK, U.S. federal, various U.S. state, and South Korea net operating loss carryforwards (“NOL”) to offset future taxable income of approximately $153.2 million, $47.2 million, $76.6 million, and $91.6 million, respectively. NOLs in certain jurisdictions do not expire, while NOLs in some jurisdictions are subject to expiration. A lack of future taxable income would adversely affect our ability to utilize these NOLs. In addition, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Code), a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its NOLs to offset future taxable income. We have already experienced ownership changes as defined under Section 382 of the Code. Depending on the timing of any future utilization of our NOLs, the amount that can be utilized each year may be limited as a result of such previous ownership changes. In addition, future changes in our stock ownership, including changes that may be outside of our control, could result in additional ownership changes under Section 382 of the Code. Our NOLs may also be impaired under similar provisions of state law. We maintain a full valuation allowance related to our NOLs and other deferred tax assets due to the uncertainty of the ultimate realization of the future benefits of those assets.
We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If our remediation of the material weaknesses are not effective, or if we experience additional material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls in the future, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the value of our ADSs.
As a public company, we are required to maintain internal control over financial reporting and to report any material weaknesses in such internal control. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“Sarbanes-Oxley”) requires that we evaluate and determine the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. The rules governing the standards that must be met for management to assess our internal control over financial reporting are complex and require significant documentation, testing and possible remediation. In connection with our year-end assessment as part of the preparation of this Form 10-K, we determined that, as of December 31, 2025, we did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting due to material weaknesses identified relating to the lack of formalized information technology general controls, lack of formally designed and implemented “purchase to pay” controls, and lack of effective controls over business combination accounting, as more fully described in “Disclosure Controls and Procedures” in Item 9A of Part II of this Form 10-K . A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim consolidated financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
While we are in the process of implementing changes to remediate the material weaknesses we have identified, we cannot assure you that these measures will significantly improve or remediate such material weaknesses. We may discover additional weaknesses in our system of internal financial and accounting controls and procedures that could result in a material misstatement of our consolidated financial statements. Our internal control over financial reporting will not prevent or detect all errors or fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud will be detected.
If we are unable to maintain proper and effective internal controls over financial reporting, we may not be able to produce timely and accurate financial statements. If that were to happen, our investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information, the market price of our ADSs could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities.
Risks Related to Discovery, Development and Regulatory Approval of Our Product Candidates
We have not initiated clinical studies for any of the programs in our active pipeline or entered into any strategic partnerships regarding the continued development of our legacy pipeline assets. As a result, it may be years before we commercialize a product candidate, if ever. If we, alone or with a strategic partner, are unable to identify and advance product candidates through preclinical studies and clinical trials, obtain marketing approval and ultimately commercialize them, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.
The success of our business depends primarily upon our ability to identify, develop and commercialize product candidates, which are subject to the risks of failure inherent in the novel approaches, targets and mechanisms of action upon which we base our efforts. We are early in our development efforts, have not yet completed preclinical studies of AKTX-101, our lead product candidate, and our other current active programs are in the drug discovery stage. We recently suspended further development of our legacy pipeline assets nomacopan, PAS-nomacopan, and PHP-303, and we cannot guarantee that we will be able to enter into any strategic partnerships covering the continued development of such assets or that future strategic partnerships with respect to such assets that we may enter into, if any, will result in successful therapeutic products. Furthermore, our reliance on our ADC Platform in the identification and development of product candidates may not yield any viable pharmaceutical products.
Additionally, our ability to achieve and sustain profitability depends on obtaining regulatory approvals for, and successfully commercializing, our product candidates, either alone or with third parties, and we cannot guarantee that we will ever obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates. Before obtaining regulatory approval for the commercial distribution of any product candidates, we must conduct extensive preclinical studies followed by clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our product candidates in humans. We cannot be certain of the timely completion or outcome of our research and development activities, preclinical studies or any future clinical trials, and cannot predict if the FDA or other regulatory authorities will accept our proposed clinical programs or if the outcome of our preclinical studies will ultimately support the further development of our future product candidates.
We also may not have the financial resources to continue development of, or the ability to enter into collaborations or other strategic partnerships for, a product candidate if we experience any issues that delay or prevent regulatory approval of, or our ability to commercialize, product candidates, including:
negative or inconclusive results from our preclinical trials, leading to a decision to conduct additional preclinical studies or abandon a program;
negative or inconclusive results from clinical trials or the clinical trials of others for product candidates similar to ours, leading to a decision or requirement to conduct additional preclinical studies or clinical trials or abandon a program;
our clinical safety data in humans not matching the safety evaluation in relevant animal models;
our strategy of deploying payloads, including our PH-1 payload, as ADCs failing to mitigate known toxicities of those classes of small molecules delivered as systemic chemotherapies;
our clinical data failing to match preclinical data supporting antibody selectivity, linker stability, pharmacokinetics, anti-tumor efficacy, or any other key attributes;
product-related side effects experienced by participants in our clinical trials or by individuals using drugs or therapeutic antibodies similar to ours;
delays in submitting IND applications or comparable foreign applications, or delays or failure in obtaining the necessary approvals from regulators to commence a clinical trial, or a suspension or termination of a clinical trial once commenced;
conditions imposed by the FDA, or other regulatory authorities regarding the scope or design of our clinical trials;
delays in clinical trials as a result of the limited number of patients with the diseases that some or all of our current or expected future product candidates target, patient enrollment taking longer than anticipated or patient withdrawal;
high drop-out rates or high failure rates of research subjects;
inadequate supply or quality of product candidate components or materials or other supplies necessary for the conduct of preclinical studies or clinical trials;
greater-than-anticipated clinical trial costs;
poor effectiveness of our product candidates during clinical trials;
unfavorable FDA or other regulatory agency inspection and review of a clinical trial or manufacture site;
failure of our third-party contractors or investigators to comply with regulatory requirements or otherwise meet their contractual obligations in a timely manner, or at all;
delays and changes in regulatory requirements, policies and guidelines;
the FDA or other regulatory agencies interpreting our data differently than we do; or
adverse impacts caused by any future pandemics or geopolitical considerations which could heighten any of the foregoing risks.
Our inability to complete development of, or commercialize, our product candidates, or significant delays in doing so due to one or more of these factors, or other factors, could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Preclinical and clinical drug development is a lengthy and expensive process, with uncertain timelines and outcomes. If preclinical studies or clinical trials of our product candidates are prolonged or delayed, we may be unable to obtain required regulatory approvals and therefore be unable to commercialize our product candidates or any of our future product candidates on a timely basis or at all.
Successful development of pharmaceutical products involves a lengthy and expensive process, is highly uncertain, and is dependent on numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control. Product candidates that appear promising in the early phases of development may fail to reach the market for several reasons, including:
clinical trial results may show the product candidates to be less effective than expected (for example, a clinical trial could fail to meet its primary or key secondary endpoint(s)) or have an unacceptable safety or tolerability profile;
failure to receive the necessary regulatory approvals or a delay in receiving such approvals, which, among other things, may be caused by patients who fail the trial screening process, slow enrollment in clinical trials, patients dropping out of trials, patients lost to follow-up, length of time to achieve trial endpoints, additional time requirements for data analysis or application preparation, discussions with the FDA, EMA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities (including FDA, EMA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities requesting additional preclinical or clinical data, such as long-term toxicology studies), or encountering unexpected safety or manufacturing issues;
preclinical study results may show the product candidate to be less effective than desired or to have harmful on-target or off-target side effects; or
the proprietary rights of others and their competing products and technologies that may prevent our product candidates from being commercialized.
Furthermore, the length of time necessary to complete clinical trials and submit an application for marketing approval for a final decision by a regulatory authority varies significantly from one product candidate to the next and from one country or jurisdiction to the next and may be difficult to predict. Even if we are successful in obtaining marketing approval, commercial success of any approved products will also depend in large part on the availability of coverage and adequate reimbursement from third-party payors, including government payors such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs and managed care organizations in the United States or country-specific governmental organizations in foreign countries, which may be affected by existing and future healthcare reform measures designed to reduce the cost of healthcare. Third-party payors could require us to conduct additional studies, including post-marketing studies related to the cost effectiveness of a product, to qualify for reimbursement, which could be costly and divert our resources. If government and other healthcare payors were not to provide coverage and adequate reimbursement for our products once approved, market acceptance and commercial success would be reduced. Even if we are able to obtain coverage and adequate reimbursement for our products once approved, there may be features or characteristics of our products, such as dose preparation requirements, that prevent our products from achieving market acceptance by the healthcare or patient communities.
In addition, if any of our product candidates receive marketing approval, we will be subject to significant regulatory obligations regarding the submission of safety and other post-marketing information and reports and registration, and will need to continue to comply (or ensure that our third-party providers comply) with current Good Manufacturing Practice (“cGMPs”) and Good Clinical Practice (“GCPs”) for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval. In addition, there is always the risk that we, a regulatory authority or a third party might identify previously unknown problems with a product post-approval, such as AEs of unanticipated severity or frequency. Compliance with these requirements is costly, and any failure to comply or other issues with our product candidates’ post-approval could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may encounter substantial delays in the commencement, enrollment or completion of clinical trials or we may fail to demonstrate safety and efficacy to the satisfaction of applicable regulatory authorities, which could prevent us from commercializing any product candidates we determine to develop on a timely basis, if at all.
The risk of failure in developing product candidates is high. It is impossible to predict when or if any product candidate would prove effective or safe in humans or receive regulatory approval. Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of any product candidate, we must complete preclinical development, submit an IND or comparable foreign application to permit initiation of clinical studies, and then conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of product candidates in humans. We have not yet commenced or completed a clinical trial of any of the product candidates in our active pipeline.
Before we can commence clinical trials for a product candidate, we must complete extensive preclinical testing and studies that support our INDs and other regulatory filings. We cannot be certain of the timely identification of a product candidate or the completion or outcome of our preclinical testing and studies and cannot predict whether the FDA, EMA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities will accept our proposed clinical programs or whether the outcome of our preclinical testing and studies will ultimately support the further development of any product candidates. Conducting preclinical testing is a lengthy, time-consuming and expensive process. The length of time may vary substantially according to the type, complexity and novelty of the program, and often can be several years or more per program. As a result, we cannot be sure that we will be able to submit INDs or other comparable foreign regulatory submissions for our preclinical programs on the timelines we expect, if at all, and we cannot be sure that submission of INDs will result in the FDA, EMA, or other comparable foreign regulatory authority allowing clinical trials to begin.
Furthermore, product candidates are subject to continued preclinical safety studies, which may be conducted concurrently with our clinical testing. The outcomes of these safety studies may delay the launch of or enrollment in future clinical trials and could impact our ability to continue to conduct our clinical trials.
Clinical testing is expensive, is difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete and is uncertain as to outcome. We cannot guarantee that any clinical trials will be conducted as planned or completed on schedule, or at all. A failure of one or more clinical trials can occur at any stage of testing, which may result from a multitude of factors, including, but not limited to, flaws in trial design, dose selection issues, patient enrollment criteria and failure to demonstrate favorable safety or efficacy traits.
Patient enrollment depends on many factors, including the size and nature of the patient population, eligibility criteria for the trial, the proximity of patients to clinical sites, the design of the clinical protocol, the availability of competing clinical trials, the availability of new drugs or biologics approved for the indication the clinical trial is investigating, and clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions as to the potential advantages of the drug being studied in relation to other available therapies. These factors may make it difficult to enroll enough patients to complete clinical trials in a timely and cost-effective manner.
Patient enrollment is affected by other factors, including:
design of the clinical trial protocol;
size and nature of the patient population;
eligibility criteria for the trial;
perceived risks and benefits of the product candidate under trial;
proximity and availability of clinical trial sites for prospective patients;
availability of competing therapies and clinical trials;
actual or threatened public health emergencies and outbreaks of disease;
clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions as to the potential advantages of the drug being studied in relation to other available therapies, including any new drugs that may be approved for the indications we are investigating;
efforts to facilitate timely enrollment in clinical trials;
number of physicians that treat patients with these diseases;
ability to identify and enroll such patients with a stage of disease appropriate for our ongoing or future clinical trials;
the costs of finding and diagnosing patients;
patient referral practices of physicians; and
our ability to monitor patients adequately during and after treatment.
We could also encounter delays if a clinical trial is suspended or terminated by us, by the IRBs overseeing the conduct of such trials, by a Data Safety Monitoring Board for such trial or by the FDA, EMA, or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities. Such regulatory authorities may impose such a suspension or termination due to a number of factors, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements or our clinical protocols, inspection of the clinical trial operations or trial site by the FDA, EMA, or other comparable regulatory foreign authorities resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold, unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a drug, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial. In addition, changes in regulatory requirements and policies may occur, and we may need to amend clinical trial protocols to comply with these changes. Amendments may require us to resubmit our clinical trial protocols to IRBs for re-examination and approval, which may impact the costs, timing or successful completion of a clinical trial.
Further, conducting clinical trials in foreign countries, as we may do for our product candidates, presents additional risks that may delay completion of our clinical trials. These risks include the failure of enrolled patients in foreign countries to adhere to clinical protocols as a result of differences in healthcare services or cultural customs, managing additional administrative burdens associated with foreign regulatory requirements, as well as political, currency exchange and other economic risks relevant to such foreign countries. We may face delays in meeting our anticipated timelines for our ongoing and planned clinical trials, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
Any inability to successfully complete preclinical and clinical development could result in additional costs to us or impair our ability to generate revenue from future product sales and regulatory and commercialization milestones. In addition, if we make manufacturing or formulation changes to our product candidates, we may need to conduct additional testing to bridge our modified product candidate to earlier versions. Clinical trial delays could also shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates, if approved, or allow our competitors to bring comparable products to market before we do, which could impair our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and may harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Serious adverse events, undesirable side effects or other unexpected properties of our product candidates may be identified during development or after approval, which could lead to the discontinuation of our development programs, refusal by regulatory authorities to approve our product candidates or, if discovered following marketing approval, revocation of marketing authorizations or limitations on the use of our product candidates, any of which would limit the commercial potential of such product candidates.
To date, we have not commenced or completed the evaluation of any of our current ADC candidates in human clinical trials. It is impossible to predict when or if any product candidates we may develop will ultimately prove safe in humans. As is the case with pharmaceuticals generally, it is likely that there may be side effects and AEs associated with our product candidates’ use. Often, it is not possible to determine whether or not the product candidate being studied caused these conditions. Regulatory authorities may draw different conclusions or require additional testing to confirm these determinations, if they occur. In addition, it is possible that as we test our product candidates in larger, longer and more extensive clinical trials with a broader group of patients, or as use of these product candidates becomes more widespread if they receive marketing approval, illnesses, injuries, discomforts and other AEs that were observed in earlier trials, as well as conditions that did not occur or went undetected in previous trials, will be reported by participants. In some instances, certain side effects are only detectable after investigational product candidates are tested in large-scale, Phase 3 trials or after they are made available to patients on a commercial scale after approval. If additional clinical experience indicates that any of our current or future product candidates has serious or life-threatening side effects or other side effects that outweigh the potential therapeutic benefit, the development of the product candidate may fail or be delayed, or, if the product candidate has received marketing approval, such approval may be limited or revoked, which would harm our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition. If we elect, or are required, to delay, suspend or terminate any clinical trial of our product candidates, the commercial prospects of our product candidates may be harmed and our ability to generate revenue through their sale may be delayed or eliminated. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly.
Moreover, if our product candidates are associated with undesirable side effects in clinical trials or have characteristics that are unexpected, we may elect to abandon their development or limit their development to more narrow uses or subpopulations in which the undesirable side effects or other characteristics are less prevalent, less severe or more acceptable from a risk-benefit perspective, which may limit the commercial value for the product candidate if approved. We may also be required to modify our trial plans based on findings after we commence our clinical trials. Many compounds that initially showed promise in early-stage testing have later been found to cause side effects that prevented further development of the compound.
In addition, if any of our product candidates receive marketing approval, the FDA could require us to include a boxed warning in our label or adopt a REMS to ensure that the benefits outweigh its risks, which may include, among other things, a medication guide outlining the risks of the drug for distribution to patients, a communication plan to health care practitioners, or other elements to assure safe use. Furthermore, if we or others identify undesirable side effects caused by our product candidates, several other potentially significant consequences could result, including:
regulatory authorities may suspend or withdraw approvals of any such product and require removal from the market;
regulatory authorities may require the addition of labeling statements, specific warnings, a contraindication or field alerts to physicians and pharmacies, specialty pharmacies and other pharmacy related distribution networks (for example, oncology therapies do have inherent risks and labeling considerations that in many instances require additional regulatory labeling requirements);
regulatory authorities may require a medication guide outlining the risks of such side effects for distribution to patients, or that we implement a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS) plan to ensure that the benefits of the product outweigh its risks;
we may be required to change the way a product is administered, including changes in dosing regimens, frequency of dose, or reduction in dosing and may require us to conduct additional clinical trials or change the labeling of a product;
we may be subject to limitations on how we may promote the product leading to the potential for sales of the product to decrease significantly;
third-party private or government payors may not offer, or may offer inadequate, reimbursement coverage for our product candidates, or reimbursement payments may be delayed or impossible to recover; and
we may be subject to litigation or product liability claims; and our reputation may suffer.
Any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of our product candidates or could substantially increase commercialization costs and expenses, which in turn could delay or prevent us from generating significant revenue from the sale of our product candidates.
Our proprietary ADC Platform is based on novel technologies that are unproven and may not result in approvable or marketable products, which exposes us to unforeseen risks and makes it difficult for us to predict the time and cost of product development and potential for regulatory approval, and we may not be successful in our efforts to expand our development portfolio of product candidates.
A key element of our strategy is to develop a robust and diverse portfolio of potentially first-in-class and best-in-class oncology therapies through the use of our proprietary ADC Platform to identify indications that are particularly suitable for the linkers and payloads that we have developed, including AKTX-101, or may in the future develop.
We have only recently commenced preclinical studies of AKTX-101, the lead program developed via our ADC Platform, and the scientific research that forms the basis of our efforts to develop product candidates with our ADC Platform is still ongoing. We are not aware of any FDA approved ADCs that involve the deployment of spliceosome inhibitors as payloads. Further, the scientific evidence to support the feasibility of developing therapeutic treatments based on our ADC Platform is both preliminary and limited. As a result, we are exposed to a number of unforeseen risks, and it is difficult to predict the types of challenges and risks that we may encounter during development of our product candidates. For example, we have not yet generated any clinical data on AKTX-101 or any other product candidate being developed using our ADC Platform, and our current data on AKTX-101 is limited to animal models and preclinical cell lines, the results of which may not translate into humans. Further, relevant animal models and assays may not accurately predict the safety and efficacy of our product candidates in humans, and we may encounter significant challenges creating appropriate models and assays for demonstrating the safety and purity of our product candidates.
Even if we obtain human data to support our product candidates, the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may lack experience in evaluating the safety and efficacy of product candidates like those developed using our ADC Platform, which could result in a longer than expected regulatory review process, increase our expected development costs, and delay or prevent commercialization of our product candidates. We cannot be certain that our approach will lead to the development of approvable or marketable products, alone or in combination with other therapies.
Although our research and development efforts to date have resulted in a development portfolio of potential programs and product candidates, our deployment of our ADC Platform may not prove reliable or effective in expanding our development portfolio. We may also pursue opportunities to acquire or in-license additional businesses, technologies or products, form strategic alliances or create joint ventures with third parties to complement or augment our existing business. However, we may not be able to identify any product candidates through such acquisition or in-license.
Even if we are successful in continuing to build and expand our development portfolio, the potential product candidates that we identify may not be suitable for clinical development. For example, they may be shown to have harmful side effects or other characteristics that indicate that they are unlikely to be drugs that will be successful in clinical trials or receive marketing approval and achieve market acceptance. If we do not successfully develop and commercialize product candidates, we will not be able to obtain drug revenues in future periods, which likely would result in significant harm to our financial position.
Interim, initial, or preliminary results from our preclinical testing or clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available and are subject to additional audit, validation and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.
From time to time, we may publish or present interim, initial, or preliminary data, including interim top-line results or initial or preliminary results from our clinical trials. Any interim, initial or preliminary data and other results from our clinical trials may materially change as more patient data becomes available. Preliminary, initial, interim or top-line results also remain subject to audit, validation and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the interim, initial or preliminary data we previously published. As a result, interim, initial or preliminary data may not be predictive of final results and should be viewed with caution until the final data is available. We may also arrive at different conclusions, or considerations may qualify such results, once we have received and fully evaluated additional data. Differences between preliminary, initial or interim data and final data could adversely affect our business.
Further, others, including regulatory agencies, may not accept or agree with our assumptions, estimates, calculations, conclusions or analyses or may interpret or weigh the importance of data differently, which could impact the value of the particular program, the approvability or commercialization of the particular product candidate or product and our company in general. In addition, the information we choose to publicly disclose regarding a particular study or clinical trial is based on what is typically extensive information, and you or others may not agree with what we determine is the material or otherwise appropriate information to include in our disclosure, and any information we determine not to disclose may ultimately be deemed significant with respect to future decisions, conclusions, views, activities or otherwise regarding a particular product, product candidate or our business. If the preliminary data that we report differ from actual results, or if others, including regulatory authorities, disagree with the conclusions reached, our ability to obtain approval for, and commercialize, our product candidates may be harmed, which could harm our business, operating results, prospects or financial condition.
We or a future strategic partner may choose to, or may be required to, suspend, repeat, or terminate clinical trials of our assets if they are not conducted in accordance with regulatory requirements, the results are negative or inconclusive or the trials are not well designed.
Clinical trials must be conducted in accordance with GCPs and are subject to oversight by the FDA and institutional review boards at the medical institutions where the clinical trials are conducted. In addition, clinical trials must be conducted with product candidates produced under cGMPs and may require large numbers of test patients. Clinical trials may be suspended by the FDA at any time if the FDA finds deficiencies in the conduct of these trials or it is believed that these trials expose patients to unacceptable health risks.
In addition, we or the FDA might delay or halt our clinical trials of a product candidate for various reasons, including:
the product candidate may have unforeseen adverse side effects;
the time required to determine whether the product candidate is effective may be longer than expected;
fatalities arising during a clinical trial due to medical problems that may not be related to clinical trial treatments;
the product candidate may not appear to be more effective than standard of care therapies;
insufficient statistical power due to significant patient dropout or crossover to other therapies;
insufficient patient enrollment in the clinical trials; or
we may not be able to produce sufficient quantities of the product candidate to complete the trials.
Furthermore, the process of obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals for new products is lengthy, expensive, and uncertain. It can vary substantially, based on the type, complexity and novelty of the product involved. Accordingly, our current product candidates or any of our other future product candidates could take a significantly longer time to gain regulatory approval than we expect or may never gain approval, which would have a significant adverse impact on our business and results of operations.
Our employees, independent contractors, principal investigators, contract research organizations, consultants, vendors and collaboration partners may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including non-compliance with regulatory standards.
We are exposed to the risk of employees, independent contractors, principal investigators, contract research organizations, consultants, commercial partners or vendors engaging in fraud or other misconduct. Misconduct by employees, independent contractors, principal investigators, consultants, commercial partners and vendors could include intentional failures to comply with applicable laws, including UK or EU regulations, to provide accurate information to the UK, EMA or EU Member States authorities or to comply with manufacturing or quality standards we have or will have established. 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 such as promotion of products by medical practitioners. Of general application are the European Anti-Fraud Office Regulation 883/2013, and the UK Bribery Act 2010. Under the latter, a commercial organization can be guilty of the offence if the bribery is carried out by an employee, agent, subsidiary, or another third-party, and the location of the third-party is irrelevant to the prosecution. The advertising of medicinal products in the EU is regulated by Title VIII of European Directive 2001/83/EC. The corresponding UK legislation is Part 14 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 (S.I. 2012/1916). Such 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. Misconduct could also involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of clinical studies, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious and irreparable harm to our reputation.
This could also apply with respect to data privacy. In the EU, the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (“GDPR”) lays down the legal framework for data protection and privacy. The GDPR applies directly in EU Member States and applies to companies with an establishment in the EEA and to certain other companies not in the EEA that offer or provide goods or services to individuals located in the EEA or monitor the behavior of individuals located in the EEA. Since January 1, 2021, the UK is not part of the EU. In the UK, the GDPR has been converted into UK domestic law, pursuant to the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (as amended), which makes some minor technical amendments to ensure the GDPR is operable in the UK (“UK GDPR”). The UK GDPR is also supplemented by the Data Protection Act 2018. UK and EU data protection law is therefore aligned. The GDPR and UK GDPR implement stringent operational requirements for controllers of personal data, including, for example, expanded disclosures about how personal information is to be used, limitations on retention of information, increased requirements pertaining to health data and pseudonymized (i.e., key-coded) data, increased cyber security requirements, mandatory data breach notification requirements and higher standards for controllers to demonstrate that they have obtained a valid legal basis for certain data processing activities. The activities of data processors are being regulated for the first time, and require companies undertaking processing activities to offer certain guarantees in relation to the security of such processing and the handling of personal data. Contracts with data processors will also need to be updated to include certain terms prescribed by the GDPR, and negotiating such updates may not be fully successful in all cases. The GDPR provides that EU Member States may make their own further laws and regulations in relation to the processing of genetic, biometric or health data, which could result in differences between Member States, limit our ability to use and share personal data or could cause our costs to increase, and harm our business and financial condition. We are also subject to evolving and strict rules on the transfer of personal data out of the EU and UK to the United States, under both the GDPR and the UK GDPR. Under the GDPR personal data cannot be transferred to a third country (i.e. outside of the EEA or UK, as applicable) unless certain safeguards are in place. These include, for example, where the transfer is to a country that the EU Commission has deemed “adequate” or where EU standard contractual clauses have been implemented. Further prospective revision of the Directive on privacy and electronic communications (Directive 2002/58/EC) (“ePrivacy Directive”) may affect our marketing communications. Failure to comply with EU laws, including failure under the GDPR and UK GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018, ePrivacy Directive and other laws relating to the security of personal data may result in fines up to €20,000,000 (or £17,500,000 under the UK GDPR) or up to 4% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the preceding financial year, if greater, and other administrative penalties including criminal liability, which may be onerous and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Failure to comply with the GDPR and related laws may also give rise to increased risk of private actions from data subjects and consumer not-for-profit organizations, including a new form of class action that is available under the GDPR. Compliance with the GDPR and UK GDPR requires a rigorous and time-intensive process that may increase our cost of doing business or require us to change our business practices, and despite those efforts, there is a risk that we may be subject to the aforementioned fines and penalties, litigation, and reputational harm in connection with any European activities.
The UK is treated as a third country (for the purposes of data transfers). On June 28, 2021 and renewed on December 19, 2025, the EU Commission published two adequacy decisions in respect of transfers under EU GDPR and the Law Enforcement Directive stating that the UK provides adequate protection for personal data transferred from the EU to the UK under EU GDPR. The adequacy decision is expected to last until December 27, 2031 but may end earlier, for example if an EU data subject or EU data protection authority challenges the adequacy decisions. In such a case, the Court of Justice of the European Union would need to determine whether the UK provides essentially equivalent protection.
The UK government has confirmed that the EEA is adequate, and so all transfers of personal data from the UK to the EEA will continue to be unrestricted after July 1, 2021.
The UK has issued a consultation with respect to future changes to data protection law. There is risk that in the event UK and EU data protection law diverges, that the adequacy decisions may come to an end. If this occurs, there will be cost implication due to dual compliance requirements and costs with respect to international data transfers.
It is not always possible to identify and deter misconduct by employees or other parties. The precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not protect us from legal or regulatory action resulting from a failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations. Misconduct by our employees, principal investigators, consultants, commercial partners or vendors could result in significant financial penalties, criminal sanctions and thus have a material adverse effect on our business, including through the imposition of significant fines or other sanctions, and our reputation.
Risks Related to Commercialization, Marketing and Competition
Our industry is highly competitive, and our product candidates may become obsolete.
We are engaged in a rapidly evolving field. Competition from other pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies and research and academic institutions is intense and likely to increase. Many of those companies and institutions have substantially greater financial, technical and human resources than we do. Those companies and institutions also may have substantially greater experience in developing products, conducting clinical trials, obtaining marketing authorization and in manufacturing and marketing biologic products. Our competitors may succeed in obtaining marketing authorization for their products more rapidly than we do. Competitors have developed or are in the process of developing technologies that are, or in the future may be, the basis for competitive products. Our competitors may succeed in developing products that are more effective than those we are developing, or that would render our product candidates less competitive or even obsolete. In addition, one or more of our competitors may achieve product commercialization, patent protection or regulatory exclusivity that could impede the commercialization of our product candidates, which could materially adversely affect our business.
If we are unable to establish sales, marketing and distribution capabilities on our own or through collaborations with partners, we may not be successful in commercializing any approved drugs.
We currently have no marketing, sales or distribution capabilities. If any of our product candidates is approved, we must establish a sales and marketing organization with technical expertise and supporting distribution capabilities or outsource this function to a third party. Either of these options could be expensive and time-consuming. In addition, we may not be able to hire a commercial team in the United States or other target market that is sufficient in size or has adequate expertise in the medical institutions that we intend to target. Any failure or delay in the development of our or third parties’ internal sales, marketing and distribution capabilities could adversely impact the commercialization of any existing or future product candidates, if and when approved by the FDA.
With respect to our existing and future product candidates, we may choose to collaborate with third parties that have direct sales forces and established distribution systems, either to augment or to serve as an alternative to our own sales force and distribution capabilities. If we do so, any future product revenue may be lower than if we directly marketed or sold any products that may be approved in the future. In addition, any revenue we receive will depend in whole or in part upon the efforts of these third parties, which may not be as diligent or successful as if we were to market and sell any products that may be approved in the future ourselves. If we are unable to enter into these arrangements on acceptable terms or at all, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our approved products. If we are not successful in commercializing any products that may be approved in the future, our future product revenue will suffer, and we may incur significant losses.
Even if any of our current or future product candidates receive marketing approval, such product candidates may fail to achieve market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors or others in the medical community necessary for commercial success, in which case we may not generate significant revenues or become profitable.
We have never commercialized a product, and even if any of our current or future product candidates are approved by the appropriate regulatory authorities for marketing and sale, they may not gain market acceptance among physicians, patients, third-party payors or others in the medical community. Market participants with significant influence over acceptance of new treatments, such as clinicians and third-party payors, may not be able to convince the medical community and third-party payors to accept and use, or to provide favorable reimbursement for, any product candidates developed by us or our existing or future collaborators. If our current or future product candidates do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant product revenue and may not become profitable. The degree of market acceptance of our current or future product candidates, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to:
the clinical indications and patient populations for which the product candidate is approved;
the safety, efficacy and potential advantages compared to alternative treatments and therapies;
the timing of market introduction of the product as well as competitive products;
effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts;
the strength of our relationships with patient communities;
the cost of treatment in relation to alternative treatments and therapies, including any similar generic treatments;
our ability to offer such product for sale at competitive prices;
the convenience and ease of administration compared to alternative treatments and therapies;
the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies and of physicians to prescribe these therapies;
the availability of third-party coverage and adequate reimbursement;
the willingness of patients to pay out-of-pocket in the absence of coverage and adequate reimbursement by third-party payors and government authorities;
the strength of marketing and distribution support;
the inclusion of any REMS program or other restrictions included by the regulators;
the prevalence and severity of any side effects; and
any restrictions on the use of the product together with other medications.
Our efforts to educate physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community on the benefits of our product candidates may require significant resources and may never be successful. Because we expect sales of our product candidates, if approved, to generate substantially all of our revenues for the foreseeable future, the failure of our product candidates, if approved, to find market acceptance would harm our business and could require us to seek additional financing.
Even if we are able to commercialize any product candidate, the third-party payor coverage and reimbursement status of newly approved products is uncertain. Failure to obtain or maintain adequate coverage and reimbursement for our product candidates could limit our ability to market those products and decrease our ability to generate revenue.
The availability and adequacy of coverage and reimbursement by governmental healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, private health insurers and other third-party payors in the United States are essential for most patients to be able to afford treatments such as our products or product candidates, if approved. Our ability to achieve acceptable levels of coverage and reimbursement for drug treatments by governmental authorities, private health insurers and other organizations will have an effect on our ability to successfully commercialize our products and potentially attract additional collaboration partners to invest in the development of our product candidates. We cannot be sure that adequate coverage and reimbursement in the United States, the EU, Australia or elsewhere will be available for our products or any products that we may develop, and any reimbursement that may become available may be decreased or eliminated in the future.
Third-party payors increasingly are challenging prices charged for pharmaceutical products, medical devices and services, and many third-party payors may refuse to provide coverage and reimbursement for particular drugs when an equivalent generic drug is available. It is possible that a third-party payor may consider our products or product candidates, if approved, and the generic or biosimilar parent drug as substitutable and only offer to reimburse patients for the generic drug. Even if we show improved efficacy or safety or improved convenience of administration with our products or product candidates, if approved, pricing of the existing parent drug may limit the amount we will be able to charge for such product. If reimbursement is not available or is available only at limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize our products or product candidates and may not be able to obtain a satisfactory financial return on products that we may develop.
There is significant uncertainty related to the insurance coverage and reimbursement of newly approved products. In the United States, third-party payors, including private and governmental payors, such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs, play an important role in determining the extent to which new drugs, biologics and medical devices will be covered. The Medicare and Medicaid programs increasingly are used as models for how private payors and other governmental payors develop their coverage and reimbursement policies for drugs, biologics and medical devices. It is difficult to predict at this time what third-party payors will decide with respect to the coverage and reimbursement for our products or product candidates.
Outside the United States, international operations are generally subject to extensive governmental price controls and other market regulations, and we believe the increasing emphasis on cost-containment initiatives in Europe, Canada, and other countries has and will continue to put pressure on the pricing and usage of our products and product candidates, if approved, and on related parent drugs. In many countries, the prices of medical products are subject to varying price control mechanisms as part of national health systems. Many countries, including the EU Member States, established complex and lengthy procedures to obtain price approvals, coverage and reimbursement. These procedures vary from country to country but are commonly initiated after grant of the related marketing authorization. More particularly, in the EU, potential reductions in prices and changes in reimbursement levels could be the result of different factors, including reference pricing systems. It could also result from the application of external reference pricing mechanisms, which consist of arbitrage between low-priced and high-priced countries. Reductions in the pricing of our medicinal products in one EU Member State could affect the price in other EU Member States and, thus, have a negative impact on our financial results. Other countries allow companies to fix their own prices for medical products but monitor and control company profits. Additional foreign price controls or other changes in pricing regulation could restrict the amount that we are able to charge for our products or product candidates. Accordingly, in markets outside the United States, the reimbursement for our products may be reduced compared with the United States and may be insufficient to generate commercially reasonable revenue and profits. As an example, many EU Member States review periodically their decisions concerning the pricing and reimbursement of medicinal products. The outcome of these reviews cannot be predicted and could have adverse effects on the pricing and reimbursement of our medicinal products in the EU Member States.
Moreover, increasing efforts by governmental and third-party payors in the United States and abroad to cap or reduce healthcare costs may cause such organizations to limit both coverage and the level of reimbursement for new products approved and, as a result, they may not cover or provide adequate payment for our products or product candidates. We expect to experience pricing pressures in connection with the sale of our products and product candidates due to the trend toward managed healthcare, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations, and additional legislative changes. The downward pressure on healthcare costs in general, particularly prescription drugs, medical devices and surgical procedures and other treatments, has become very intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the entry of new products.
Our future growth may depend, in part, on our ability to commercialize products in foreign markets, where we would be subject to additional regulatory burdens and other risks and uncertainties.
Our future growth may depend, in part, on our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates in foreign markets. We are not permitted to market or promote any of our product candidates before we receive regulatory approval from applicable regulatory authorities in foreign markets, and we may never receive such regulatory approvals for any of our product candidates. To obtain separate regulatory approval in many other countries we must comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements regarding safety and efficacy and governing, among other things, clinical trials, manufacturing, commercial sales, pricing and distribution of our product candidates. If we obtain regulatory approval of our product candidates and ultimately commercialize our products in foreign markets, we would be subject to additional risks and uncertainties, including:
different regulatory requirements for approval of drugs in foreign countries;
reduced protection for intellectual property rights;
the existence of additional third-party patent rights of potential relevance to our business;
unexpected changes in tariffs, trade barriers and regulatory requirements;
economic weakness, including inflation, or political instability in particular foreign economies and markets;
compliance with tax, employment, immigration and labor laws for employees living or traveling abroad;
foreign currency fluctuations, which could result in increased operating expenses and reduced revenues, and other obligations incident to doing business in another country;
foreign reimbursement, pricing and insurance regimes;
workforce uncertainty in countries where labor unrest is common;
production shortages resulting from any events affecting raw material supply or manufacturing capabilities abroad;
business interruptions resulting from geopolitical actions, including war and terrorism, or natural disasters including earthquakes, typhoons, floods and fires; and
business interruptions resulting from pandemics or similar public health crises.
EU drug marketing and reimbursement regulations may materially affect our ability to market and receive coverage for our products in the EU Member States.
We intend to seek approval to market our product candidates in both the United States and in selected foreign jurisdictions, including the EU. If we obtain approval in one or more foreign jurisdictions for our product candidates, we will be subject to rules and regulations in those jurisdictions. In some foreign countries, particularly those in the EU, the pricing of products is subject to governmental control and other market regulations which could put pressure on the pricing and usage of our product candidates. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after obtaining marketing approval of a product candidate. In addition, market acceptance and sales of our product candidates will depend significantly on the availability of adequate coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors for our product candidates and may be affected by existing and future healthcare reform measures.
Much like the federal Anti-Kickback Statute prohibition in the United States, the provision of benefits or advantages to physicians to induce or encourage the prescription, recommendation, endorsement, purchase, supply, order or use of medicinal products is also prohibited in the EU. The provision of benefits or advantages to reward improper performance is typically governed by the national anti-bribery laws of EU Member States and the Bribery Act 2010 in the United Kingdom. Infringement of these laws could result in substantial fines and imprisonment. EU Directive 2001/83/EC, which is the EU Directive governing medicinal products for human use, further provides that, where medicinal products are being promoted to persons qualified to prescribe or supply them, no gifts, pecuniary advantages or benefits in kind may be supplied, offered or promised to such persons unless they are inexpensive and relevant to the practice of medicine or pharmacy. This provision has been transposed into the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 and so remains applicable in the United Kingdom despite its departure from the EU.
Payments made to physicians in certain EU Member States must be publicly disclosed. Moreover, agreements with physicians often must be the subject of prior notification and approval by the physician’s employer, his or her competent professional organization and/or the regulatory authorities of the individual EU Member States. These requirements are provided in the national laws, industry codes or professional codes of conduct, applicable in the EU Member States. Failure to comply with these requirements could result in reputational risk, public reprimands, administrative penalties, fines or imprisonment.
In addition, in some foreign countries, including some countries in the EU, the proposed pricing for a product must be approved before it may be lawfully marketed. The requirements governing product pricing and reimbursement vary widely from country to country. For example, some EU Member States have the option to restrict the range of medicinal products for which their national health insurance systems provide reimbursement and to control the prices of medicinal products for human use. Reference pricing used by various EU Member States and parallel distribution, or arbitrage between low-priced and high-priced EU Member States, can further reduce prices. An EU Member State may approve a specific price for the medicinal product or it may instead adopt a system of direct or indirect controls on the profitability of the company placing the medicinal product on the market. In some countries, we may be required to conduct a clinical trial or other studies that compare the cost-effectiveness of any of our product candidates to other available therapies in order to obtain or maintain reimbursement or pricing approval. There can be no assurance that any country that has price controls or reimbursement limitations for pharmaceutical products will allow favorable reimbursement and pricing arrangements for any of our product candidates. Historically, products launched in the EU do not follow price structures of the United States and generally prices tend to be significantly lower. Publication of discounts by third-party payors or authorities may lead to further pressure on the prices or reimbursement levels within the country of publication and other countries. If pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels or if reimbursement of our products is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, our revenues from sales and the potential profitability of any of our product candidates in those countries would be negatively affected.
Obtaining and maintaining marketing approval of our product candidates in one jurisdiction does not mean that we will be successful in obtaining marketing approval of our product candidates in other jurisdictions.
Obtaining and maintaining marketing approval of our product candidates in one jurisdiction does not guarantee that we will be able to obtain or maintain marketing approval in any other jurisdiction. For example, even if the FDA grants marketing approval of a product candidate, comparable foreign regulatory authorities in foreign jurisdictions must also approve the manufacturing, marketing and promotion and reimbursement of the product candidate in those countries, and they may not do so. A failure or delay in obtaining marketing approval in one jurisdiction may negatively impact the marketing approval process in others. Approval procedures vary among jurisdictions and can involve requirements and administrative review periods different from, and greater than, those in the United States, including additional preclinical studies or clinical trials, as clinical trials 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 foreign marketing approvals and establishing and maintaining compliance with foreign 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 or any future collaborator fail to comply with the regulatory requirements in international markets or fail to receive applicable marketing approvals, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of our product candidates will be harmed, which would adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition, and results of operations.
If the market opportunities for any of our product candidates are smaller than we estimate, even assuming approval of a product candidate, our revenue may be adversely affected, and our business may suffer.
The precise incidence and prevalence for all the conditions we aim to address with our product candidates are unknown. Our projections of both the number of people who have these diseases, as well as the subset of people with these diseases who have the potential to benefit from treatment with our product candidates, are based on our beliefs and estimates. These estimates have been derived from a variety of sources, including scientific literature, surveys of clinics, patient foundations or market research, and may prove to be incorrect. Further, new information may change the estimated incidence or prevalence of these diseases. The total addressable market across all of our product candidates will ultimately depend upon, among other things, the diagnosis criteria included in the final label for each of our product candidates approved for sale for these indications, the availability of alternative treatments and the safety, convenience, cost and efficacy of our product candidates relative to such alternative treatments, acceptance by the medical community and patient access, drug pricing and reimbursement. The number of patients in the United States and other major markets and elsewhere may turn out to be lower than expected, patients may not be otherwise amenable to treatment with our products or new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or gain access to, all of which would adversely affect our results of operations and our business.
If we or our partners market products in a manner that violates fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws, or if we or they violate government price reporting laws, we or our partners may be subject to administrative civil and/or criminal penalties.
In addition to FDA restrictions on marketing of pharmaceutical products, several other types of state and federal healthcare laws, including those commonly referred to as “fraud and abuse” laws have been applied in recent years to restrict certain marketing practices in the pharmaceutical industry. These laws include, among others, false claims and anti-kickback statutes. At such time, if ever, as we or any of our partners market any of our future approved products, it is possible that some of the business activities of us and/or our partners could be subject to challenge under one or more of these laws.
Federal false claims, false statements and civil monetary penalties laws prohibit any person from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, a false claim for payment to the federal government or to get a false claim paid. The federal healthcare program anti-kickback statute prohibits, among other things, knowingly and willfully offering, paying, soliciting or receiving remuneration to induce, or in return for, purchasing, leasing, ordering or arranging for the purchase, lease or order of any healthcare item or service reimbursable under Medicare, Medicaid or other federally financed healthcare programs. 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. Although there are several statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors protecting certain common activities from prosecution, they are drawn narrowly, and practices that involve remuneration intended to induce prescribing, purchasing or recommending may be subject to scrutiny if they do not qualify for an exception or safe harbor.
In addition, we and/or our partners may be subject to data privacy and security regulation, including HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and their respective implementing regulations, which impose specified requirements relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information.
Most states also have statutes or regulations similar to these federal laws, which may apply to items such as pharmaceutical products and services reimbursed by private insurers. We and/or our partners may be subject to administrative, civil and criminal sanctions for violations of any of these federal and state laws.
Risks Related to Intellectual Property
Our success depends in part on our ability to protect our intellectual property and proprietary technologies.
Our commercial success depends in part on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection and trade secret protection in the U.S. and other countries for our product candidates, proprietary technologies, and their uses as well as our ability to operate without infringing upon the proprietary rights of others. We can provide no assurance that our patent applications or those of our licensors will result in additional patents being issued or that issued patents will afford sufficient protection against competitors with similar technologies, nor can there be any assurance that the patents issued will not be infringed, designed around or invalidated by third parties. Even issued patents may later be found unenforceable or may be modified or revoked in proceedings instituted by third parties before various patent offices or in courts. The degree of future protection for our proprietary rights is uncertain. Only limited protection may be available and may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep competitive advantage. Although we have issued composition-of-matter patents in the United States and other countries, we cannot be certain that the claims in our issued patents will not be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged. We cannot be certain that the claims in any patent applications covering our product candidates that are pending, or that we may file, will be considered patentable by the USPTO and courts in the United States or by the patent offices and courts in foreign countries, nor can we be certain that the claims in our issued patents will not be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged. Even if any patent applications that we may file relating to specific formulations of our product candidates issue as patents, formulation patents protect a specific formulation of a product and may not be enforced against competitors making and marketing a product that has the same active pharmaceutical ingredient in a different formulation. Method-of-use patents protect the use of a product for the specified method or for treatment of a particular indication. This type of patent may not be enforced against competitors making and marketing a product that has the same active pharmaceutical ingredient for use in a method not claimed by the patent. Moreover, even if competitors do not actively promote their product for our targeted indications, physicians may prescribe these products “off-label.” Although off-label prescriptions may infringe or contribute to the infringement of method-of-use patents, the practice is common and such infringement may be difficult to prevent or prosecute. Also, as is the case for composition-of-matter patents, we cannot be certain that the claims in our issued method-of-use patents will not be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged. We cannot be certain that the claims in any patent applications covering methods of using our product candidates that are pending, or that we may file, will be considered patentable by the USPTO and courts in the United States or by the patent offices and courts in foreign countries, nor can we be certain that the claims in our issued method-of-use patents will not be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged.
Further, the patent prosecution process is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, expensive and time-consuming, and we or our licensors may not be able to prepare, file and successfully prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications for a commercially reasonable cost or in a timely manner or in all jurisdictions. It is also possible that we or our licensors may fail to identify patentable aspects of inventions made in the course of development and commercialization activities before it is too late to obtain patent protection for them.
Moreover, depending on the terms of any future in-licenses to which we may become a party, we may not have the right to control the preparation, filing and prosecution of patent applications, or to maintain the patents, covering technology in-licensed from third parties. Therefore, these patents and patent applications may not be prosecuted and enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business.
In addition, we rely on the protection of our trade secrets and proprietary know-how. Although we have taken steps to protect our trade secrets and unpatented know-how, including entering into confidentiality agreements with third parties, and confidential information and inventions agreements with employees, consultants and advisors, we cannot provide any assurances that all such agreements have been duly executed, and third parties may still obtain this information or may come upon this or similar information independently. Enforcing a claim that a third party obtained illegally and is using trade secrets and/or proprietary know-how is expensive, time consuming and unpredictable. The enforceability of confidentiality agreements may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Additionally, if the steps taken to maintain our trade secrets are deemed inadequate, we may have insufficient recourse against third parties for misappropriating its trade secrets. If any of these events occurs or if we otherwise lose protection for our trade secrets or proprietary know-how, our business may be harmed.
With respect to certain patents, we enjoy only limited geographical protection, and as a consequence we may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.
It would be prohibitively expensive to file and prosecute patent applications and maintain and defend patents covering our product candidates in all countries throughout the world and competitors may use our and our licensors’ technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their competitor’s own product candidates and, further, may export otherwise infringing product candidates to territories where we and our licensors have patent protection, but enforcement rights are not as strong as that in the United States or Europe.
As a result, these product candidates may compete with our product candidates, and our and our licensors’ patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.
Further, national and regional patent authorities may restrict the scope and coverage of our PCT applications before grant. The examination of each national or regional patent application is an independent proceeding. As a result, patent applications in the same family may issue as patents in some jurisdictions, such as in the United States, but may issue as patents with claims of different or limited scope or may even be refused in other jurisdictions, such as in China and India, which have different requirements for patentability and it is also quite common that depending on the country, the scope of patent protection may vary for the same product or technology.
As maintaining patents in multiple countries over their lifetimes (usually a period of 20 years) is expensive, we may decide to abandon pending or granted national and regional patent applications for financial considerations, or, strategically, when projects are reprioritized, or for any other reason. In hindsight, these decisions may hurt us, our revenue stream from licensing activities, and ultimately profitability.
In addition, the laws of some jurisdictions do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws or rules and regulations in the United States, The UK and Europe, and many companies have encountered significant difficulties in protecting and defending such rights in such jurisdictions.
The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property protection, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing product candidates in violation of our proprietary rights generally.
Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in other jurisdictions, whether or not successful, could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not issuing as patents, and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. Should we seek legal redress, we may not prevail or if we do prevail, the damages or other remedies awarded may not be meaningful. As a result, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.
While we intend to protect our intellectual property rights in our expected significant markets, we cannot ensure that we will be able to initiate or maintain similar efforts in all jurisdictions in which we may wish to market our product candidates. Accordingly, our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights in such countries may be inadequate, which may have an adverse effect on our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates in all of our expected significant foreign markets.
If we or our licensors encounter difficulties in protecting, or are otherwise precluded from effectively protecting, the intellectual property rights important for our business in such jurisdictions, the value of these rights may be diminished, and we may face additional competition from others in those jurisdictions.
Another risk we face is that some countries in Europe and China have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties and some countries limit the enforceability of patents against government agencies or government contractors. As a result, in those countries, the patent owner may have limited remedies, which could materially diminish the value of such patents. If we, or any of our licensors, are forced to grant a license to third parties with respect to any patents relevant to our business, our competitive position may be impaired and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.
Our intellectual property rights may not adequately protect our technologies and product candidates and may not necessarily address all potential threats to our competitive advantage.
The degree of protection afforded by our intellectual property rights is uncertain because intellectual property rights have limitations, and may not adequately protect our business, or permit us to maintain our competitive advantage. For example:
others may be able to make compounds that are the same as or similar to our product candidates but that are not covered by the claims of the patents that we own or have exclusively licensed;
the patents of third parties may impair our ability to develop or commercialize our product candidates;
the patents of third parties may be extended beyond the expected patent term and thus may impair our ability to develop or commercialize our product candidates;
we or our licensors or any future strategic collaborators might not have been the first to conceive or reduce to practice the inventions covered by the issued patents or pending patent applications that we own or have exclusively licensed;
we or our licensors or any future strategic collaborators might not have been the first to file patent applications covering our inventions, our product candidates, or uses of the product candidates in the indications under our development or to be developed;
it is possible that the pending patent applications that we own or have exclusively licensed may 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;
issued patents that we own or have exclusively licensed may not provide coverage for all aspects of our product candidates in all countries, such as for uses of our product candidates in the indications under our development or to be developed;
others may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies without infringing our intellectual property rights;
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 product candidates for sale in our major commercial markets;
others performing manufacturing or testing for us using our product candidates or technologies could use the intellectual property of others without obtaining a proper license; or
our or our licensors’ inventions or technologies may be found to be not patentable; and we may not develop additional technologies that are patentable.
We may become subject to third parties’ claims alleging infringement of third-party patents and proprietary rights, or we may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents and other proprietary rights, which could be costly and time consuming, delay or prevent the development and commercialization of our product candidates, or put our patents and other proprietary rights at risk.
Others may claim an ownership interest in our intellectual property, which could expose us to litigation and have a significant adverse effect on our prospects.
A third party may claim an ownership interest in one or more of our patents or other intellectual property. A third party could bring legal actions against us and seek monetary damages and/or enjoin clinical testing, manufacturing and marketing of the affected product or products. We cannot guarantee that a third-party will not assert a claim or an interest in any of such patents or intellectual property. If we become involved in any litigation, it could consume a substantial portion of our resources and cause a significant diversion of effort by our technical and management personnel. If any of these actions are successful, in addition to any potential liability for damages, we could be required to obtain a license to continue to manufacture or market the affected product, in which case we may be required to pay substantial royalties or grant cross-licenses to our patents. We cannot, however, assure you that any such license will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. Ultimately, we could be prevented from commercializing a product, or be forced to cease some aspect of our business operations as a result of claims of patent infringement or violation of other IP rights, Further, the outcome of IP litigation is subject to uncertainties that cannot be adequately quantified in advance, including the demeanor and credibility of witnesses and the identity of the adverse party. This is especially true in IP cases that may turn on the testimony of experts as to technical facts upon which experts may reasonably disagree. Ultimately, there is no guarantee that courts or patent offices in the U.S. and abroad will rule in our favor.
We may be subject to claims by third parties asserting that we or our employees have misappropriated third-party intellectual property or claiming ownership of what we regard as our own intellectual property. These claims may be costly to defend and if we do not successfully do so, we may be required to pay monetary damages and lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel.
Some of our employees, including our senior management, were previously employed at other biopharmaceutical or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Some of these employees executed proprietary rights, non-disclosure and non-competition agreements in connection with such previous employment. Although we try to ensure that our employees do not use the know-how, trade secrets, or other proprietary information of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that we or these employees have used or disclosed confidential information or intellectual property, including know-how, trade secrets, or other proprietary information, of any such employee’s former employer. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in prosecuting or defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel.
A loss of key research personnel or their work product could hamper or undermine our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates, which would severely harm our business. In addition, if such intellectual property rights were to be awarded to a third party, we could be required to obtain a license from such third party to commercialize our technology or product candidates. Such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, which could hamper or undermine our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates, which would severely harm our business. Even if we successfully prosecute or defend against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and distract management from the development and commercialization of our product candidates.
Our proprietary information may be lost or we may suffer security breaches. In the ordinary course of our business, we collect and store sensitive data, including intellectual property, clinical trial data, proprietary business information, personal data and personally identifiable information of our clinical trial subjects and employees, in our data centers and on our networks. The secure processing, maintenance and transmission of this information is critical to our operations. Despite our security measures, our information technology and infrastructure and those of our Contract Research Organizations (“CROs”) or other contractors or consultants may be vulnerable to attacks by hackers or breached due to employee error, malfeasance, or other disruptions. While the maintenance of HIPAA-compliance and deidentification of clinical trial personal data is the responsibility of our CROs, breach of planned and future trials at our CRO sites may result in costly lawsuits, stiff penalties from governmental agencies, and may also result in disbarment from operating within some socio-geographic regions, such as the UK and the EU, where personal data is considered paramount. Furthermore, the loss of 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. Although, to our knowledge, we have not experienced any such material security breach to date, any such breach could compromise our networks and the information stored there could be accessed, publicly disclosed, lost, or stolen. Any such access, disclosure, or other loss of information could result in legal claims or proceedings, liability under laws that protect the privacy of personal information, and significant regulatory penalties; disrupt our operations; damage our reputation; and cause a loss of confidence in us and our ability to conduct clinical trials, which could adversely affect our reputation and delay our clinical development of our product candidates. This could increase our cyber security risk, create data accessibility concerns, and make us more susceptible to communication disruptions.
Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects.
Risks Related to Our Reliance on Third Parties
We rely on third parties to conduct, supervise and monitor our preclinical studies and clinical trials, and if those third parties perform in an unsatisfactory manner it may harm our business.
We do not currently have the ability to independently conduct preclinical studies or clinical trials required to develop our product candidates. We rely upon CROs, clinical trial sites and other third parties to ensure the proper and timely conduct of our preclinical studies, and we expect to have limited influence over their actual performance. We intend to rely upon CROs and others for the execution of future nonclinical studies and to monitor, manage and report data any future clinical trials.
We and our CROs and other third parties are required to comply with good clinical practice and good manufacturing practice (collectively, “GxP”) requirements, which are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA, the Competent Authorities of the Member States of the European Economic Area, and comparable foreign regulatory authorities for all of our product candidates in clinical development. Regulatory authorities enforce these GxP requirements through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and trial sites. At any point in time, the FDA may revoke or suspend the license of our contract manufacturer for failure to maintain standards resulting in business losses for us. Further, if we fail to exercise adequate oversight over any of our CROs or other third parties, or if we or any of our CROs or other third parties fail to comply with applicable GxP requirements, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA, the EMA, or foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. We cannot assure you that upon a regulatory inspection of us or our CROs or other third parties, such regulatory authority will determine that any of our clinical trials complies with GxP requirements. Our failure to comply with these regulations may require us to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process.
Further, while we may only control certain aspects of these parties’ activities, we are responsible for ensuring that each of our studies and trials is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol and legal, regulatory and scientific standards, and our reliance on these third parties does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities. Such standards may change, affecting the ability of contract manufacturers to produce our product candidates on the schedule we require for our clinical trials.
These CROs and other third parties are not our employees, and we are not able to control, other than by contract, the amount of resources, including time, which they devote to our clinical trials. If our CROs or other third parties fail to devote sufficient resources to the development of our product candidates, or if their performance is substandard, it may delay or compromise the prospects for approval and commercialization of our product candidates. In addition, the use of third-party service providers requires us to disclose our proprietary information to these parties, which could increase the risk that this information is misappropriated. If any of our relationships with our CROs or other third parties terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative CROs or other third parties or to do so on commercially reasonable terms. Switching or adding additional investigators or CROs involves additional cost and potential delays and requires our management’s time and focus. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new independent investigator or CRO commences work. As a result, delays could occur, which could materially impact our ability to meet our desired clinical development timelines.
If our CROs or other third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations or meet expected deadlines, if they need to be replaced or if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to a failure to adhere to our clinical protocols, regulatory requirements, or for other reasons, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed, or terminated and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or successfully commercialize our product candidates. As a result, our results of operations and the commercial prospects for our product candidates would be harmed, our costs could increase and our ability to generate revenue could be delayed.
We seek to partner with third-party collaborators with respect to aspects of the development and commercialization of our product candidates and we may not succeed in establishing and maintaining collaborative relationships, which may significantly limit our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates successfully, if at all.
Our business strategy relies in part on partnering with pharmaceutical companies to supplement our internal development efforts, particularly with respect to our legacy product candidates for which we have suspended development. If we are not able to enter into collaboration arrangements, we may be required to undertake and fund further development, clinical trials, manufacturing and commercialization activities solely at our own expense and risk. If we are unable to finance and/or successfully execute those activities, or we delay such activities due to capital availability, our business could be materially and adversely affected, and potential future product launches could be materially delayed, be less successful, or we may be forced to discontinue clinical development of product candidates.
The process of establishing and maintaining collaborative relationships is difficult, time-consuming and involves significant uncertainty, including if a collaboration partner:
may shift its priorities and resources away from our product candidates due to a change in business strategies, or a merger, acquisition, sale or downsizing;
may seek to renegotiate or terminate their relationships with us due to unsatisfactory clinical results, manufacturing issues, a change in business strategy, a change of control or other reasons;
may cease development in therapeutic areas which are the subject of our strategic collaboration;
may not devote sufficient capital or resources towards our product candidates;
may change the success criteria for a drug candidate thereby delaying or ceasing development of such candidate;
experiences significant delays in initiating certain development activities, which will also delay payment of milestones tied to such activities, thereby impacting our ability to fund our own activities;
develops a product that competes, either directly or indirectly, with our drug candidate;
may not commit sufficient financial or human resources to the marketing, distribution or sale of our product;
may encounter regulatory, resource or quality issues and be unable to meet demand requirements;
may exercise a contractual right to terminate a strategic alliance;
has a dispute arise concerning the research, development or commercialization of a drug candidate resulting in a delay in milestones, royalty payments or termination of an alliance and possibly resulting in costly litigation or arbitration which may divert management attention and resources; and
may use our products or technology in such a way as to invite litigation from a third party.
If any collaborator fails to fulfill its responsibilities in a timely manner, or at all, our research, clinical development, manufacturing or commercialization efforts related to that collaboration could be delayed or terminated, or it may be necessary for us to assume responsibility for expenses or activities that would otherwise have been the responsibility of our collaborator. If we are unable to establish and maintain collaborative relationships on acceptable terms or to successfully transition terminated collaborative agreements, we may have to delay or discontinue further development of one or more of our product candidates, undertake development and commercialization activities at our own expense or find sources of additional capital.
If the third parties on which we intend to rely for our clinical trials and results do not perform our clinical trial activities in accordance with good clinical practices and related regulatory requirements, we may be unable to obtain marketing authorization for or commercialize our product candidates.
We intend to use and rely on CROs to conduct and/or oversee future clinical trials of our product candidates. Nonetheless, we will be responsible for confirming that each of our future clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the FDA’s, MHRA’s or EMA’s requirements and general investigational plans and protocols, as may be applicable. Our expected reliance on third parties will not relieve us of these responsibilities and requirements. Third parties may not complete activities on schedule or conduct our clinical trials in accordance with regulatory requirements or the respective trial plans and protocols. In addition, third parties may not be able to repeat their past successes in clinical trials. The third parties’ failure to carry out their obligations could delay or prevent the development, approval and commercialization of our product candidates or result in enforcement action against us.
Use of third parties to manufacture our product candidates may increase the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of our product candidates, products, or necessary quantities at an acceptable cost.
The process of manufacturing pharmaceuticals and biological products is complex, time-consuming, highly regulated and subject to multiple risks. We do not own or operate manufacturing facilities for the production of clinical or commercial quantities of our product candidates, and we lack the resources and the capabilities to do so. As a result, we currently rely on third parties for supply of the active pharmaceutical ingredients for our product candidates. Our strategy is to outsource all manufacturing of our product candidates and products to third parties.
In addition, we have not yet concluded a commercial supply contract with any commercial manufacturer. There is no assurance that we will be able to timely secure needed supply arrangements on satisfactory terms, or at all. Our failure to secure these arrangements as needed could have a material adverse effect on our ability to complete the development of our product candidates or to commercialize them. We may be unable to conclude agreements for commercial supply with third-party manufacturers or may be unable to do so on acceptable terms. There may be difficulties in scaling up to commercial quantities, and the costs of manufacturing could be prohibitive.
Even if we are able to establish and maintain arrangements with third-party manufacturers, reliance on third-party manufacturers entails additional risks, including:
reliance on third-parties for manufacturing process development, regulatory compliance and quality assurance, which may result in delays or inadequate supply of product;
limitations on supply availability resulting from capacity and scheduling constraints of third-parties;
limitation on supply availability due to difficulties in sourcing raw materials;
the possible breach of manufacturing agreements by third-parties because of factors beyond our control;
the possible termination or non-renewal of the manufacturing agreements by the third-party, at a time that is costly or inconvenient to us; and
delays associated with the lack of availability of staff at third-party manufacturers.
If we do not maintain our key manufacturing relationships, we may fail to find replacement manufacturers or develop our own manufacturing capabilities, which could delay or impair our ability to develop and commercialize our product. If we do find replacement manufacturers, we may not be able to enter into agreements with them on terms and conditions favorable to us and there could be a substantial delay before new facilities could be qualified and registered with the FDA and other foreign regulatory authorities.
The FDA, MHRA EMA and other foreign regulatory authorities require manufacturers to register manufacturing facilities. The FDA and corresponding foreign regulators also inspect these facilities to confirm compliance with cGMPs. Contract manufacturers may face manufacturing or quality control problems causing drug substance production and shipment delays or a situation where the contractor may not be able to maintain compliance with the applicable cGMP requirements. While we provide oversight of manufacturing activities, we do not and will not control the execution of our manufacturing activities by, and are or will be essentially dependent on, our CDMOs for compliance with cGMP requirements for the manufacture of our product candidates. For more information, please see “Item 1 – Business – Manufacturing.” Any failure to comply with FDA, MHRA, EMA and comparable foreign regulatory requirements could adversely affect our clinical research activities and our ability to develop our product candidates and market our products.
Moreover, the manufacturing of therapeutic biologics products is highly complex. Problems may arise during manufacturing for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to:
equipment malfunction;
failure to follow specific protocols and procedures;
changes in product specification;
low quality or insufficient supply of raw materials;
delays in the construction of new facilities as a result of changes in manufacturing production sites and limits to manufacturing capacity due to regulatory requirements;
staffing shortages;
advances in manufacturing techniques;
physical limitations that could inhibit continuous supply; and
man-made or natural disasters and other environmental factors.
Products with quality issues may have to be discarded, resulting in product shortages or additional expenses. This could lead to, among other things, increased costs, lost revenue, damage to customer relationships, time and expense spent investigating the cause and, depending on the cause, similar losses with respect to other batches or products. If problems are not discovered before the product is released to the market, recall and product liability costs may also be incurred.
Manufacturing methods and formulation are sometimes altered through the development of drug candidates from clinical trials to approval, and further to commercialization, in an effort to optimize manufacturing processes and results. Such changes carry the risk that they will not achieve these intended objectives. Any of these changes could cause the drug candidates to perform differently and affect the results of planned clinical trials or other future clinical trials conducted with the altered materials. This could delay the commercialization of any approved drugs and require bridging studies or the repetition of one or more clinical trials, which may result in increases in clinical trial costs, delays in drug approvals and may jeopardize our ability to commence product sales and generate revenue.
We may also experience shortages of qualified personnel, raw materials or key contractors, and experience unexpected damage to our facilities or the equipment in them. In these cases, we may be required to delay or suspend our manufacturing activities. We may be unable to secure temporary, alternative manufacturers for our drugs with the terms, quality and costs acceptable to us, or at all. Such an event could delay our clinical trials and/or the availability of our products for commercial sale. Moreover, we may spend significant time and costs to remedy these deficiencies before we can continue production at our manufacturing facilities.
In addition, the quality of our products, including drug candidates manufactured by us for research and development purposes and drugs manufactured by us for commercial use, depends significantly on the effectiveness of our quality control and quality assurance, which in turn depends on factors such as the production processes used in our manufacturing facilities, the quality and reliability of equipment used, the quality of our staff and related training programs and our ability to ensure that our employees adhere to our quality control and quality assurance protocol. However, there can be no assurances that our quality control and quality assurance procedures will be effective in consistently preventing and resolving deviations from our quality standards. Any significant failure or deterioration of our quality control and quality assurance protocol could render our products unsuitable for use, jeopardize any cGMP certifications we may have and/or harm our market reputation and relationship with business partners. Any such developments may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Risks Related to our Business Operations
We only have a limited number of employees to manage and operate our business. Our business could suffer if we are unable to attract and retain key employees.
As of March 1, 2026, we had 6 employees, 5 of which are full-time. Our limited financial resources have led us to focus on the development of our ADC Platform and to manage and operate our business in a highly efficient manner.
Our success depends upon the continued service and performance of our senior management and other key personnel. The loss of the services of these personnel could delay or prevent the successful completion of our planned preclinical and clinical experiments, or the commercialization of our therapeutic candidates or otherwise affect our ability to manage our company effectively and to carry out our business plan. We do not maintain key-man life insurance. Although we have entered into employment agreements with members of our senior management team, members of our senior management team may resign at any time. High demand exists for senior management and other skilled personnel in the biopharmaceutical industry. There can be no assurance that we will be able to continue to attract and retain such personnel or train new hires to the skill level required for completing our preclinical/ clinical objectives.
Our growth and success also depend on our ability to attract and retain additional highly qualified scientific, clinical, technical, sales, managerial and finance personnel. We experience intense competition for qualified personnel, and the existence of non-competition agreements between prospective employees and their former employers may prevent us from hiring those individuals or subject us to suit from their former employers. In addition, if we elect to independently commercialize any approved drug, we will need to expand our marketing and sales capabilities. While we attempt to provide competitive compensation packages to attract and retain key personnel, many of our competitors are likely to have greater resources and more experience than we have, making it difficult for us to compete successfully for key personnel. If we cannot attract and retain sufficiently qualified technical employees on acceptable terms, we may not be able to develop and commercialize products. Further, any failure to effectively integrate new personnel could prevent us from successfully growing our company.
If we or any third-party manufacturers we engage fail to comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur costs or liabilities that could harm our business.
We and third-party manufacturers we engage are and will be subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures and the handling, use, storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological materials. Our operations also produce hazardous waste products. We generally contract with third parties for the disposal of these materials and wastes. We cannot eliminate the risk of contamination or injury from these materials. In the event of contamination or injury resulting from our use of hazardous materials, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, and any liability could exceed our resources. Liability under certain environmental laws governing the release and cleanup of hazardous materials is joint and several and could be imposed without regard to fault. We also could incur significant costs associated with civil or criminal fines and penalties or become subject to injunctions limiting or prohibiting our activities for failure to comply with such laws and regulations.
Although we maintain general liability insurance as well as workers’ compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees resulting from the use of hazardous materials, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. We do not maintain insurance for environmental liability or toxic tort claims that may be asserted against us in connection with our storage or disposal of biological, hazardous or radioactive materials.
In addition, we may incur substantial costs in order to comply with current or future environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. These current or future laws and regulations may impair our research, development or production efforts. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations also may result in substantial fines, penalties or other sanctions.
Further, with respect to the operations of our current and any future third-party contract manufacturers, it is possible that if they fail to operate in compliance with applicable environmental, health and safety laws and regulations or properly dispose of wastes associated with our products, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, suffer reputational harm or experience a disruption in the manufacture and supply of our product candidates or products. In addition, our supply chain may be adversely impacted if any of our third-party contract manufacturers become subject to injunctions or other sanctions as a result of their non-compliance with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations.
Any pandemic, epidemic, or outbreak of an infectious disease, may materially and adversely affect our business and our financial results and could cause a disruption to the development of our product candidates.
Public health crises, such as pandemics or similar outbreaks, could adversely impact our business. Any future pandemic, epidemic or outbreak of an infectious disease could have similar effects. Furthermore, economic recessions, increased inflation and/or interest rates, and any disruptions to our operations or workforce availability brought on by the effects of a health epidemic may have a negative effect on our operating results. The foregoing could result in an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.
Potential disruptions to our preclinical and clinical development efforts related to future outbreaks or pandemics may include, but are not limited to, disruptions in our supply chain and our ability to procure the components for each of our product candidates for use in preclinical studies and clinical trials and enrolling patients in clinical trials. We are unable to predict if a future outbreak or pandemic could have similar or different impacts on our preclinical studies, clinical trials, business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We are currently operating in a period of economic uncertainty and capital markets disruption, which has been significantly impacted by geopolitical instability. Our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected by any negative impact on the global economy and capital markets resulting from the geopolitical tensions or high inflation.
U.S. and global markets are experiencing volatility and disruption following the escalation of geopolitical tensions around the world, including with respect to the March 2026 conflict in Iran involving the United States and Israel. Although the length and impact of the ongoing military conflict is highly unpredictable, the conflicts could lead to market disruptions, including significant volatility in commodity prices, credit and capital markets, as well as supply chain interruptions, which has led to high inflation globally. We are continuing to monitor inflation and global capital markets and assess the potential impacts on our business.
Although our business has not been materially impacted by these geopolitical tensions to date, it is impossible to predict the extent to which our operations, or those of our suppliers and manufacturers, will be impacted in the short and long term, or the ways in which the conflict may impact our business. The extent and duration of the conflicts, geopolitical tensions, record inflation, sanctions and resulting market disruptions are impossible to predict, but could be substantial. Any such disruptions may also magnify the impact of other risks described herein.
Disruptions at the FDA, the SEC and other government agencies caused by the change in presidential administration, funding shortages or potential funding shortages could hinder their ability to hire and retain key leadership and other personnel, prevent new products and services from being developed or commercialized in a timely manner, or otherwise prevent those agencies from performing normal business functions, which could negatively impact our business and our timelines.
The ability of the FDA to review and clear or approve new products can be affected by a variety of factors, including government budget and funding levels, ability to hire and retain key personnel and accept the payment of user fees, shifting policy priorities as a result of changes in the presidential administration and its appointees tasked to oversee the agency, and statutory, regulatory, and policy changes. Average review times at the agency have fluctuated in the past as a result of these factors, and government funding of the SEC, and other government agencies on which our operations may rely, is subject to the impacts of political events, which are inherently fluid and unpredictable.
Disruptions at the FDA and other agencies may slow the time necessary for review and approval (including any applications we may file with respect to our current and future product candidates), which could adversely affect our business. For example, over the last several years, the U.S. government has shut down several times and certain regulatory agencies, such as the FDA and the SEC, have had to furlough critical employees and stop critical activities. If a prolonged government shutdown or other disruption occurs, it could significantly impact the ability of the FDA and the SEC to timely review and process our submissions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Our business and operations could suffer in the event of computer system failures or security breaches.
Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems, and those of our CROs and other third parties on which we rely, are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, cyber-attacks, natural disasters, fire, terrorism, war, and telecommunication and electrical failures. Cyber-attacks also may be further enhanced in frequency or effectiveness through threat actors’ use of artificial intelligence. If such an event were to occur and interrupt our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our drug development programs. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from planned clinical trials could result in delays in our marketing authorization efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. To the extent that any disruption or security breach results in a loss of or damage to our data or applications, loss of trade secrets or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, including protected health information or personal data of employees or former employees, access to our clinical data, or disruption of the manufacturing process, we could incur liability and the further development of our drug candidates could be delayed. We may also be vulnerable to cyber-attacks by hackers or other malfeasance. Especially since the merger, cyber-security needs have grown as the combined company has an office in the San Francisco Bay area, in addition to having employees operate out of UK, US East and West Coasts. This type of breach of our cybersecurity may compromise our confidential information and/or our financial information and adversely affect our business or result in legal proceedings. If security breaches result in the loss of clinical trial data or other confidential information, we may be the subject of legal proceedings and suffer financial and reputational damage. Further, these cybersecurity breaches may inflict reputational harm upon us that may result in decreased market value and erode public trust.
Our business is subject to risks associated with conducting business internationally.
We source research and development, manufacturing, consulting, and other services from companies based throughout the United States, the UK, the EU, and select Asian countries. Accordingly, our future results could be harmed by a variety of factors, including: economic weakness, including inflation, or political instability in varying economies and markets; differing regulatory requirements for drug approvals in non-European Union (EU) countries; differing jurisdictions could present different issues for securing, maintaining, or obtaining freedom to operate for our intellectual property in such jurisdictions; such jurisdictions; potentially reduced protection for intellectual property rights; difficulties in compliance with non- US laws and regulations; changes in non-U.S. regulations and customs, tariffs, and trade barriers; changes in non-U.S. currency exchange rates of the USD and currency controls; changes in a specific country’s or region’s political or economic environment, trade protection measures, import or export licensing requirements or other restrictive actions by the USA or non-U.S. governments; differing reimbursement regimes and price controls in certain non-U.S. markets; negative consequences from changes in tax laws; compliance with tax, employment, immigration, and labor laws for employees living or traveling outside of the USA; business interruptions resulting from geo-political actions, including war and terrorism, health epidemics and other widespread outbreaks of contagious disease, or natural disasters, including earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes, floods and fires.
Risks Related to our Ordinary Shares and ADSs
Our business, operating results and growth rates may be adversely affected by current or future unfavorable economic and market conditions and adverse developments with respect to financial institutions and associated liquidity risk.
Our business depends on the health of the global economies. If the conditions of the global economies remain uncertain or continue to be volatile, or if they deteriorate, including because of the impact of military conflict, such as the war between Russia and Ukraine, terrorism or other geopolitical events, our business, operating results and financial condition may be materially adversely affected. Economic weakness, inflation and increases in interest rates, limited availability of credit, liquidity shortages and constrained capital spending have at times in the past resulted, and may in the future result, in challenging and delayed sales cycles, slower adoption of new technologies and increased price competition, and could negatively affect our ability to forecast future periods, which could result in an inability to satisfy demand for our products and a loss of market share.
In addition, inflation raises our costs for commodities, labor, materials and services and other costs required to grow and operate our business, and failure to secure these on reasonable terms may adversely impact our financial condition. Additionally, inflation, geopolitical developments and global supply chain disruptions, have caused, and may in the future cause, global economic uncertainty and uncertainty about the interest rate environment, which may make it more difficult, costly or dilutive for us to secure additional financing. A failure to adequately respond to these risks could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.
If the current equity and credit markets deteriorate, or if adverse developments are experienced by financial institutions, it may cause short-term liquidity risk and make any necessary debt or equity financing more difficult, more costly, more onerous with respect to financial and operating covenants and more dilutive. Failure to secure any necessary financing in a timely manner and on favorable terms could have a material adverse effect on our growth strategy and financial performance and could require us to alter our operating plans. In addition, there is a risk that one or more of our service providers, financial institutions, manufacturers, suppliers and other partners may be adversely affected by the foregoing risks, which could directly affect our ability to attain our operating goals on schedule and on budget.
If we are deemed or become a passive foreign investment company for U.S. federal income tax purposes in 2025 or in any prior or subsequent years, there may be negative tax consequences for U.S. taxpayers that are holders of our ADSs.
We will be treated as a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, for U.S. federal income tax purposes in any taxable year in which either (i) at least 75% of our gross income is “passive income” or (ii) on average at least 50% of our assets by value produce passive income or are held for the production of passive income. Passive income for this purpose generally includes, among other things, certain dividends, interest, royalties, rents and gains from commodities and securities transactions and from the sale or exchange of property that gives rise to passive income. Passive income also includes amounts derived by reason of the temporary investment of funds, including those raised in a public offering. In determining whether a non-U.S. corporation is a PFIC, a proportionate share of the income and assets of each corporation in which it owns, directly or indirectly, at least a 25% interest (by value) is taken into account.
We may have been a PFIC for 2025, but we have not performed a detailed analysis to determine PFIC status for 2025. Because the PFIC determination is highly fact sensitive, there can be no assurance that we were not a PFIC for 2025 and there can be no assurance that we will not be a PFIC for 2026 or for any other taxable year. If we were to be characterized as a PFIC for U.S. federal income tax purposes in any taxable year during which a U.S. shareholder owns our ADSs, and such U.S. shareholder does not make an election to treat us as a “qualified electing fund” (“QEF”) or make a “mark-to-market” election, then “excess distributions” to such U.S. shareholder, and any gain realized on the sale or other disposition of our ADSs will be subject to special rules. Under these rules: (i) the excess distribution or gain would be allocated ratably over the U.S. shareholder’s holding period for ADSs; (ii) the amount allocated to the current taxable year and any period prior to the first day of the first taxable year in which we were a PFIC would be taxed as ordinary income; and (iii) the amount allocated to each of the other taxable years would be subject to tax at the highest rate of tax in effect for the applicable class of taxpayer for that year, and an interest charge for the deemed deferral benefit would be imposed with respect to the resulting tax attributable to each such other taxable year. In addition, if the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) determines that we are a PFIC for a year with respect to which we have determined that we were not a PFIC, it may be too late for a U.S. shareholder to make a timely QEF or mark-to-market election. U.S. shareholders who hold our ADSs during a period when we are a PFIC will be generally subject to the foregoing rules, even if we cease to be a PFIC in subsequent years, subject to certain exceptions, including for U.S. shareholders who made a timely QEF or mark-to-market election. A U.S. shareholder can make a QEF election by completing the relevant portions of and filing IRS Form 8621 in accordance with the instructions thereto. A QEF election generally may not be revoked without the consent of the IRS. If an investor provides reasonable notice to us that it has determined to make a QEF election, we intend to provide annual financial information to such investor as may be reasonably required for purposes of filing United States federal income tax returns in connection with such QEF election.
U.S. investors are urged to consult their own tax advisors regarding the possible application of the PFIC rules.
The market price of our ADSs may be volatile and may fluctuate in a way that is disproportionate to our operating performance.
The market price of our ADSs may experience substantial volatility as a result of a number of factors. The market prices for securities of biotechnology companies in general have been highly volatile and may continue to be so in the future. The following factors, in addition to other risk factors described in this section, may have a significant impact on the market price of our ADSs:
sales or potential sales of substantial amounts of our ordinary shares or ADSs;
delay or failure in initiating, enrolling, or completing clinical trials or unsatisfactory results of these trials or events reported in any of our current or future clinical trials;
announcements about us or about our competitors, including clinical trial results, marketing authorizations or new product introductions;
a serious AE in a clinical trial and/or a long-term safety issue;
developments concerning our licensors or product manufacturers;
litigation and other developments relating to our patents or other proprietary rights or those of our competitors;
conditions in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industries;
variations in our anticipated or actual operating results;
governmental regulation and legislation, actual or anticipated;
change in securities analysts’ estimates of our performance, or our failure to meet analysts’ expectations;
whether, to what extent and under what conditions the FDA, MHRA or EMA will permit us to continue developing our product candidates, if at all, and if development is continued, any reports of safety issues or other AEs observed in any potential future studies of these product candidates;
adverse publicity;
our ability to enter into new collaborative arrangements with respect to our product candidates;
the terms and timing of any future collaborative, licensing or other arrangements that we may establish;
our ability to raise additional capital to carry through with our clinical development plans and current and future operations and the terms of any related financing arrangements;
the timing of achievement of, or failure to achieve, our and any potential future collaborators’ clinical, regulatory and other milestones, such as the commencement of clinical development, the completion of a clinical trial or the receipt of marketing authorization;
announcement of FDA, MHRA or European Commission approval or non-approval of our product candidates or delays in or AEs during the FDA, MHRA or EMA review process;
actions taken by regulatory agencies with respect to our product candidates or products, our clinical trials or our future sales and marketing activities, including regulatory actions requiring or leading to restrictions, limitations and/or warnings in the label of an approved product candidate;
uncontemplated problems in the supply of the raw materials used to produce our product candidates;
the commercial success of any product approved by the FDA, MHRA, European Commission or any other foreign counterpart;
introductions or announcements of technological innovations or new products by us, our potential future collaborators, or our competitors, and the timing of these introductions or announcements;
market conditions for equity investments in general, or the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industries in particular;
we may have limited or very low trading volume that may increase the volatility of the market price of our ADSs;
regulatory developments in the United States and foreign countries;
changes in the structure or reimbursement policies of health care payment systems;
any intellectual property infringement lawsuit involving us;
actual or anticipated fluctuations in our results of operations;
changes in financial estimates or recommendations by securities analysts;
hedging activity that may develop regarding our ADSs;
regional or worldwide recession;
sales of our ordinary shares or ADSs by our executive officers, directors and significant shareholders;
managerial costs and expenses;
changes in accounting principles or practices;
the loss of any of our key scientific or management personnel; and
natural disasters and political and economic instability, including wars, terrorism, political unrest, results of certain elections and votes, emergence of a pandemic, or other widespread health emergencies (or concerns over the possibility of such an emergency, including for example, a resurgence of COVID-19), boycotts, adoption or expansion of government trade restrictions, and other business restrictions.
The stock markets in general, and the markets for biotechnology stocks in particular, have experienced significant volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. The financial markets continue to face significant uncertainty, resulting in a decline in investor confidence and concerns about the proper functioning of the securities markets, which decline in general investor confidence has resulted in depressed stock prices for many companies notwithstanding the lack of a fundamental change in their underlying business models or prospects. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the trading price of our ADSs.
In the past, class action litigation has often been instituted against companies whose securities have experienced periods of volatility in market price. Any such litigation brought against us, could result in substantial costs, which could hurt our financial condition and results of operations and divert management’s attention and resources, which could result in delays of our clinical trials or commercialization efforts.
Insiders own a significant amount of our outstanding shares which could delay or prevent a change in corporate control or result in the entrenchment of management and/or the board of directors.
As of March 1, 2026, our directors and executive officers, together with their affiliates and related persons, beneficially own, in the aggregate, approximately 37.3% of our outstanding ordinary shares. Our Chairman, Hoyoung Huh, MD, PhD, our director Dr. Samir Patel, and our director Dr. Ray Prudo, each beneficially own approximately 18.2%, 10.2% and 8.9% of our outstanding ordinary shares, respectively. Accordingly, these shareholders, if acting together, or Dr. Huh, Dr. Patel or Dr. Prudo, each individually, may have the ability to impact the outcome of matters submitted to our shareholders for approval, including the election and removal of directors and any merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. In addition, these persons may have the ability to influence the management and affairs of our Company. Accordingly, this concentration of ownership may harm the market price of our ADSs by:
delaying, deferring, or preventing a change in control;
entrenching our management and/or the board of directors;
impeding a merger, consolidation, takeover, or other business combination involving us; or
discouraging a potential acquirer from making a tender offer or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us.
Future sales and issuances of our Ordinary Shares or ADSs or rights to purchase ordinary shares or ADSs pursuant to our equity incentive plans could result in additional dilution of the percentage ownership of our shareholders and could cause our share price to fall.
We expect that significant additional capital will be needed in the future to continue our planned operations. To the extent we raise additional capital by issuing equity securities, our shareholders may experience substantial dilution. We may sell ordinary shares (which may be represented by ADSs), convertible securities or other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner we determine from time to time. If we sell ordinary shares, convertible securities or other equity securities in more than one transaction, investors may be materially diluted by subsequent sales. Such sales may also result in material dilution to our existing shareholders, and new investors could gain rights superior to our existing shareholders. Additionally, any ordinary shares or ADSs issued pursuant to our equity incentive plan may result in material dilution to our existing shareholders.
Provisions in our Articles of Association and under English law could make an acquisition of our Company more difficult and may prevent attempts by our shareholders to replace or remove our organization management.
Provisions in our Articles of Association may delay or prevent an acquisition or a change in management. These provisions include a staggered board and prohibition on actions by written consent of our shareholders. Although we believe these provisions collectively will provide for an opportunity to receive higher bids by requiring potential acquirors to negotiate with our board of directors, they would apply even if the offer might be considered beneficial by some shareholders. In addition, these provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our shareholders to replace or remove then current management by making it more difficult for shareholders to replace members of the board of directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of management.
We have in the past and may in the future fail to meet the requirements for continued listing on Nasdaq. If we fail to maintain compliance with the minimum listing requirements, our ADSs may be delisted, which could have a material adverse effect on the liquidity of our ADSs.
We have in the past received notices from The Nasdaq Stock Market relating to a failure to comply with the minimum $2,500,000 stockholders’ equity requirement for continued listing set forth in Listing Rule 5550(b) (the “Stockholders’ Equity Requirement”). Most recently, on November 24, 2025, we received a written notice from the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications, or the Notification Letter, notifying us that we were not in compliance with the minimum bid price requirements set forth in Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) for continued listing on The Nasdaq Capital Market. The Notification Letter provides that we have 180 calendar days, or until May 25, 2026, to regain compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2). To regain compliance, the bid price of the ADSs must have a closing bid price of at least $1.00 per share for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days. In the event we do not regain compliance by May 25, 2026, we may then be eligible for additional 180 days if we meet the continued listing requirement for market value of publicly held shares and all other initial listing standards for The Nasdaq Capital Market, with the exception of the bid price requirement, and will need to provide written notice of its intention to cure the deficiency during the second compliance period. If we do not qualify for the second compliance period or fail to regain compliance during the second compliance period, then Nasdaq will notify the Company of its determination to delist our ADSs, at which point the Company will have an opportunity to appeal the delisting determination to a Hearings Panel. In addition, if the closing bid price of our ADSs is $0.10 or less for ten consecutive business days, then Nasdaq will suspend trading. There can be no assurance that we will continue to meet the minimum bid price requirements, or any other Nasdaq requirements, in the future.
Furthermore, we may also be unable to meet other applicable Nasdaq listing requirements, including maintaining minimum levels of stockholders’ equity or market values of our ADSs, in which case our ADSs could be delisted. If our ADSs were to be delisted, the liquidity of our ADSs would be adversely affected, and the market price of our ADSs could decrease.
We do not anticipate paying cash dividends, and accordingly, shareholders must rely on appreciation in our ADSs for any return on their investment.
We anticipate that we will retain future earnings for the development, operation and expansion of our business and do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. Therefore, the success of an investment in our ADSs will depend upon any future appreciation in their value. There is no guarantee that our ADSs will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which our shareholders have purchased their shares.
We incur significant costs and demands upon management as a result of complying with the laws and regulations affecting public companies, which could harm our operating results.
As a public company, we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses, including costs associated with public company reporting requirements. We also incur costs associated with current corporate governance requirements, including requirements under Section 404 and other provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley, as well as rules implemented by the SEC and the Nasdaq Stock Market. The regulatory and compliance costs associated with the reporting and governance requirements applicable to U.S. domestic issuers may be significantly higher than the costs we previously incurred as a foreign private issuer. The expenses incurred by public companies for reporting and corporate governance purposes have increased dramatically in recent years.
U.S. investors may not be able to enforce their civil liabilities against our Company or certain of our directors, controlling persons and officers.
It may be difficult for U.S. investors to bring and/or effectively enforce suits against our Company outside of the United States. We are a public limited company incorporated in England and Wales under the Companies Act 2006, as amended (the “Companies Act”). A majority of our directors are not residents of the United States, and all or substantial portions of their assets are located outside of the United States. As a result, it may be difficult for U.S. holders of our ordinary shares or ADSs to effect service of process on these persons within the United States or to make effective recovery in the United States by enforcing any judgments rendered against them. In addition, if a judgment is obtained in the U.S. courts based on civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws against us or our directors or officers, it may, depending on the jurisdiction, be difficult to enforce the judgment in the non-U.S. courts against us and any of our non-U.S. resident executive officers or directors. Accordingly, U.S. shareholders may be forced to bring legal proceedings against us and our respective directors and officers under English law and in the English courts in order to enforce any claims that they may have against us or our directors and officers. The enforceability of a U.S. judgment in the United Kingdom will depend on the particular facts of the case as well as the laws and treaties in effect at the time. The United States and the United Kingdom do not currently have a treaty providing for reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments (other than arbitration awards) in civil and commercial matters. Nevertheless, it may be difficult for U.S. shareholders to bring an original action in the English courts to enforce liabilities based on the U.S. federal securities laws against us and any of our non-U.S. resident executive officers or directors.
The rights of our shareholders may differ from the rights typically offered to shareholders of a U.S. corporation.
We are incorporated under English law. The rights of holders of ordinary shares and, therefore, certain of the rights of holders of ADSs, are governed by English law, including the provisions of the Companies Act, and by our Articles of Association. These rights differ in certain respects from the rights of shareholders in typical U.S. corporations.
Provisions in the UK City Code on Takeovers and Mergers may have anti-takeover effects that could discourage an acquisition of us by others, even if an acquisition would be beneficial to our shareholders.
The UK City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (“Takeover Code”), applies, among other things, to an offer for a public company whose registered office is in the United Kingdom and whose securities are not admitted to trading on a regulated market in the United Kingdom if we are considered by the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers (the “Takeover Panel”), to have its place of central management and control in the United Kingdom. This is known as the “residency test.” The test for central management and control under the Takeover Code is different from that used by the UK tax authorities. Under the Takeover Code, the Takeover Panel will determine whether we have our place of central management and control in the United Kingdom by looking at various factors, including the structure of our board of directors, the functions of the directors and where they are resident. As of the date of this report, our place of central management and control is not, and is not expected to be, in the UK (or the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man) for the purposes of the jurisdictional criteria of the Takeover Code. Accordingly, we are not currently subject to the Takeover Code and, as a result, our shareholders are not currently entitled to benefit from certain takeover offer protections provided under the Takeover Code, including the rules regarding mandatory takeover bids (a summary of which is set out below). In the event that this changes, or if the interpretation and application of the Takeover Code by the Takeover Panel, changes (including changes to the way in which the Takeover Panel assesses the application of the Takeover Code to English companies whose shares are listed outside of the UK), the Takeover Code may apply to us in the future.
If at the time of a takeover offer the Takeover Panel determines that we have our place of central management and control in the United Kingdom, we will be subject to a number of rules and restrictions, including but not limited to the following: (1) our ability to enter into deal protection arrangements with a bidder will be extremely limited; (2) we may not, without the approval of our shareholders, be able to perform certain actions that could have the effect of frustrating an offer, such as issuing shares or carrying out acquisitions or disposals; and (3) we will be obliged to provide equality of information to all bona fide competing bidders.
Further, the Takeover Code contains certain rules in respect of mandatory offers. Under Rule 9 of the Takeover Code, if a person: (a) acquires an interest in our shares which, when taken together with shares in which he or persons acting in concert with him are interested, carry 30% or more of our voting rights; or (b) who, together with persons acting in concert with him, is interested in shares that in the aggregate carry not less than 30% of our voting rights and does not hold shares carrying more than 50% of our voting rights, acquires additional interests in shares that increase the percentage of shares carrying voting rights in which that person is interested, the acquirer and, depending on the circumstances, its concert parties, will be required (except with the consent of the Takeover Panel) to make a cash offer for our outstanding shares at a price not less than the highest price paid for any interest in our shares by the acquirer or its concert parties during the previous 12 months.
Holders of ADSs must act through the depositary to exercise their rights as shareholders of our Company.
Holders of our ADSs do not have the same rights of our shareholders and may only exercise the voting rights with respect to the underlying ordinary shares in accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement for the ADSs. Under our Articles of Association, the minimum notice period required to convene a general meeting is 14 clear days’ notice (or, for an annual general meeting, 21 clear days’ notice (unless, in the case of an annual general meeting, all members entitled to attend and vote at the meeting, or, in the case of any other general meeting, a majority in number of the members entitled to attend and vote who hold not less than 95% of the voting shares (excluding treasury shares), agree to shorter notice)). When a general meeting is convened, holders of our ADSs may not receive sufficient notice of a shareholders’ meeting to permit them to withdraw their ordinary shares to allow them to cast their vote with respect to any specific matter. In addition, the depositary and its agents may not be able to send voting instructions to holders of our ADSs or carry out their voting instructions in a timely manner. We will make all reasonable efforts to cause the depositary to extend voting rights to holders of our ADSs in a timely manner, but we cannot assure them that they will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that they can instruct the depositary to vote their ADSs. Furthermore, the depositary and its agents will not be responsible for any failure to carry out any instructions to vote, for the manner in which any vote is cast or for the effect of any such vote. As a result, holders of our ADSs may not be able to exercise their right to vote and they may lack recourse if their ADSs are not voted as they requested. In addition, in the capacity as an ADS holder, they will not be able to call a shareholders’ meeting.
Holders of our ADSs may be subject to limitations on transfers of ADSs.
ADSs are transferable on the books of the depositary. However, the depositary may close its transfer books at any time or from time to time when it deems expedient in connection with the performance of its duties. In addition, 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 deems it advisable to do so because of any requirement of law or of any government or governmental body, or under any provision of the deposit agreement, or for any other reason.
MD&A (Item 7)
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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read together with our audited consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes appearing elsewhere in this Form 10-K. In addition to historical information, this discussion and analysis includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors,” set forth in Part I, Item 1A of this Form 10-K, that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or anticipated results.
Overview
We are an oncology company developing next generation ADCs designed around novel payload biology. Our platform is anchored by PH1, a spliceosome modulating payload that in preclinical settings has demonstrated cytotoxic activity and robust activation of the immune system to attack cancer. Our business is focused on advancing our lead program, AKTX-101, through IND enabling activities and clinical readiness while maintaining the ability to expand the PH1 based ADC pipeline, as capital and priorities permit. We also have a second program, including AKTX-102, a CEACAM5 directed ADC, program, that is earlier in development.
ADCs are a class of cancer therapies that combine the precision targeting of antibodies with payload toxins that attack cancer cells. To date, innovation in the field of ADC therapies has focused primarily on the development of novel antibodies linked to existing classes of payload toxins. For example, there is a range of approved ADCs with antibodies that target the Her2, Trop-2, CD19, CD22, CD30, Nectin-4, Tissue Factor, and FR alpha antibodies. But there is a surprising lack of diversity in the payload toxins to which those antibodies are linked, as all of these marketed products, and more than 90% of ADCs in late-stage clinical development of which we are aware, utilize payloads from just two standard classes: (1) microtubule inhibitors or (2) DNA-damaging agents such as topoisomerase I inhibitors.
Our ADC Platform enables us to generate a range of ADC product candidates that pair our novel payloads with biologically validated antibody targets prevalent in cancer tumors. We believe that our focus on the development of ADCs that utilize our novel payloads may allow us to develop ADCs with potential benefits that include:
more effective cancer-killing properties, or cytotoxicity;
robust activation of the immune system to drive greater and more enduring efficacy in treating cancer sustained duration of response of tumor regression or elimination;
ability to be used in combination with checkpoint inhibitors to potentially deliver synergistic efficacy results (more than additive) to drive potential longer-term cancer remissions;
reduced tumor resistance leading to super outcomes; and
improved safety and tolerability relative to ADCs that are currently available.
Our lead product candidate is AKTX-101, a preclinical stage Trop-2-targeting ADC that combines PH1 with a Trop-2 targeting antibody. Trop-2 is an antigen that is expressed in a number of highly incident solid tumors, including lung, breast, bladder, head and neck, gastric, pancreatic, colon, prostate, and others. We aim to establish AKTX-101 as a best-in-class Trop-2-targeting ADC for the treatment of a variety of solid tumors.
We acquired the proprietary rights to our ADC discovery and development platform in connection with the Merger. Prior to that time, we were primarily focused on advancing our former product candidates nomacopan and PAS-nomacopan (longer-acting nomacopan that is PASylated). Since the closing of the Merger, we have focused substantially all of our efforts on the development of ADCs and our ADC Platform. We have suspended further internal development of our legacy programs, nomacopan and PAS-nomacopan, and intend to seek strategic partners to advance their development externally. Our activities since inception have consisted of performing research and development activities and raising capital.
We do not have any products available for commercial sale, and we have not generated any product revenue from our portfolio of product candidates or other sources. Our ability to generate revenue sufficient to achieve profitability, if ever, will depend on the successful development and eventual commercialization of our potential therapies, which we expect, if it ever occurs, will take a number of years. The research and development efforts require significant amounts of additional capital and adequate personnel infrastructure. There can be no assurance that our research and development activities will be successfully completed, or that our potential therapies will be commercially viable.
Recent Developments
During 2025 and through the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we invested key scientific, operational, leadership, and capital resources to support the continued development of our ADC platform and the advancement of our lead program, AKTX-101. The developments summarized below include scientific disclosures and conference presentations related to our PH1 payload and its proposed immuno-oncology mechanism, progress toward IND-enabling activities for AKTX-101 including announced IND-enabling initiatives, intellectual property filings related to PH1’s immuno-oncology mechanism and product combination strategies, leadership updates, and multiple financing activities.
AKTX-101 IND-Enabling Plan and Activities
Our near-term operational strategy remains focused on advancing AKTX-101 into IND-enabling activities and clinical readiness while maintaining the ability to expand our PH1-based ADC pipeline as capital and priorities permit. AKTX-101 is a preclinical Trop2–targeting ADC that combines PH1 with a proprietary non-cleavable linker and antibody construct. We are prioritizing the program’s path to Phase 1 clinical trials through the coordinated execution of GMP product supply and non-clinical data package workstreams that support IND/Phase 1enabling activities.
We rely on third-party CDMOs for development, scale-up, and GMP production of materials used in our research and development activities. In December 2025, we announced the initiation of GMP manufacturing activities for AKTX-101 and selected WuXi Biologics/XDC as our partner for this GMP product supply and related IND-enabling work. This milestone supports our timeline for our Phase 1 first-in-human study described in our public communications while we maintain an efficient, high-quality, and reliable virtual manufacturing model for clinical-grade supply. In December 2025 we publicly described that based on our anticipated for GMP product supply and IND-enabling activities and planning, we are projected to advance AKTX-101 into clinical trials by the first quarter of 2027.
Scientific Disclosures – 2025 SITC Annual Meeting
On November 10, 2025, we issued a press release announcing our abstract highlighting the novel immune mechanism-of-action data for our novel ADC payload, which was presented at the 2025 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Annual Meeting. The presentation outlines our investigation of multiple mechanisms behind preclinical colon tumor regressions induced by a Trastuzumab-PH1 ADC as a single agent or in combination with an anti-PD-1 therapy. The results observed with both the single agent Trastuzumab-PH1 ADC and the combination therapy with an anti-PD-1 agent support the possibility of creating an ADC/checkpoint inhibitor therapy paradigm that goes beyond regimens using ADCs with traditional payloads.
Intellectual Property – Expanding Protection Around PH1, Immune Activation, and Combination Strategies
We believe patents and other proprietary rights are an essential element of our business. Our success depends in part on our ability to obtain and maintain proprietary protection for our product candidates, technology, and know-how, to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of others, and to prevent others from infringing our proprietary rights. Our policy is to seek to protect our proprietary position by, among other methods, filing U.S. and foreign patent applications related to our proprietary technology, inventions, and improvements that are important to the development of our business, and defending our patent applications and patents if they are subjected to challenge by third parties.
As of January 1, 2026, our payload platform and ADC pipeline consisted of two Patent Cooperation Treaty (“PCT”) families and three provisional patents filed at the European Patent Office and/or the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The PH1 payload program was developed inhouse, and this patent family has been granted in the United States, China, Israel, India, Mexico, and Brazil, with actions pending in Europe, Japan, New Zealand, Canada and Australia. The composition of matter claims describing novel Thailanstatin payloads and linkers have IP coverage through September 2038.
A PCT patent application filed in 2024 includes claims describing next-generation Thailanstatin diastereomer payloads, novel Trop-2 antibodies and Trop-2 ADCs protecting different aspects of pipeline candidate AKTX-101, while also covering aspects of use or application of AKTX-101 to different cancer settings. This patent also describes a large-scale chemosynthetic process for payload synthesis amenable to manufacturing. This patent family is pending in 12 jurisdictions, and the anticipated expiry of this patent family is April 2043.
In 2025, we filed three additional provisional patent applications at the USPTO intended to broaden our protection around PH1’s mechanism and potential clinical positioning. These provisional filings include claims supporting: (i) targeting of specific oncogenic drivers using spliceosome modulators to reverse aspects of cancer progression, including angiogenesis, hormone dependency, and oncogene dependency; (ii) use of spliceosome modulators as immunogenic payloads inducing neoepitopes and related immune effects, covering elements of the immunomodulatory mechanism of PH1 ADCs and the expected therapeutic benefit through host immune activation; and (iii) use of spliceosome modulators in synergy with checkpoint inhibitors to improve anti-tumor efficacy or induce immune effectors neither single agent can achieve on its own.
Separately, in October 2025, we announced the filing of two new U.S. provisional patent applications. As described publicly, one filing includes claims protecting PH1 and its spliceosome modulatory mechanism of action with an expected therapeutic benefit through immune activation, and a second filing includes claims covering combination therapy of PH1 pipeline ADCs with immuno-oncology drugs, including combinations showing synergy with immune checkpoint inhibitors in preclinical models
Leadership Updates
Appointment of New President and Chief Executive Officer. On March 14, 2025, we entered into an Executive Offer of Employment Agreement (as amended by a subsequent Chief Executive Officer Letter Agreement dated March 18, 2025) with Mr. Abizer Gaslightwala pursuant to which Mr. Gaslightwala began serving as our President and Chief Executive Officer in April 2025.
Appointment of Interim Chief Financial Officer. On October 22, 2025, we entered into a consulting agreement with Mr. Kameel Farag and KDF Ventures LLC, as amended on October 31, 2025 (the “Consulting Agreement”), pursuant to which Mr. Farag will serve as our Interim Chief Financial Officer, effective on October 22, 2025. Mr. Farag succeeds our prior Chief Financial Officer, Torsten Hombeck, whose departure was previously reported. The Consulting Agreement provides for monthly cash fees and RSU awards, and provides for a term end date of February 16, 2026, extendable on a month-to-month basis at the Company’s discretion.
Financing and Liquidity Initiatives
We completed multiple financing and liquidity initiatives during 2025 and into early 2026. The summaries below provide high level context only; for additional detail see “Financial Condition, Liquidity and Capital Resources” below.
December 2025 equity related transactions (registered direct offering, concurrent private placement, and note exchange). On December 16, 2025, we entered into a series of concurrent equity related transactions that, taken together, totalled approximately $8.7 million in combined gross cash proceeds and liability reduction, comprised of approximately $4.9 million in gross cash proceeds from a registered direct offering and a concurrent private placement and approximately $3.8 million of non-cash reduction of outstanding note principal achieved through privately negotiated exchanges of certain notes into equity and warrants.
October 2025 financing. On October 16, 2025, we closed a registered direct offering with certain institutional investors that generated $2.5 million in aggregate gross proceeds (excluding any proceeds from future exercises of warrants).
White Lion equity line of credit (“ELOC”). On August 29, 2025, we entered into an ordinary share purchase agreement and registration rights agreement with White Lion Capital, LLC providing the right (but not the obligation) to require White Lion to purchase, from time to time, up to $25,000,000 of newly issued ordinary shares (which may be exchanged for ADSs), subject to specified limitations and conditions.
August 2025 financing. In August 2025, we entered into note purchase agreements in a private placement offering pursuant to which investors agreed to purchase, and the Company agreed to issue unsecured promissory notes with a 20% original issue discount, and in connection with the issuance the Company also agreed to extend the expiration date of Series A warrants held by certain note investors.
ADS Ratio Change
On March 17, 2026, we announced the 2026 ADS Ratio Change, which will change the ratio of our ADSs to ordinary shares to a new ratio of one ADS representing 80,000 ordinary shares. The 2026 ADS Ratio Change is expected to be effective on or after March 31, 2026.
Results of Operations
Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2025 and 2024
Overview
During the year ended December 31, 2025, our loss from operations totalled $17.3 million, a 20% decrease, compared to a loss from operations of $21.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2024. The decrease in our loss from operations from the prior year was primarily attributable to the merger-related expenses and restructuring and other expenses we incurred in connection with the Merger in 2024 as discussed in further detail below. General and administrative expenses and an impairment loss comprise the majority of our total operating expenses for the year ended December 31, 2025, as shown in the table below:
Year Ended
December 31,
($ in thousands)
$ Change
Operating expenses:
Research and development
General and administrative
Impairment loss on other intangible assets
Merger-related expenses
Restructuring and other expenses
Total operating expenses
Loss from operations
Research and development expenses
Our research and development expenses are charged to operations as incurred, and we incur both direct and indirect expenses for all of our programs. We track direct research and development expenses by preclinical and clinical programs, which may include third-party costs such as CROs, contract laboratories, consulting, and clinical trial costs. We do not allocate indirect research and development expenses, which may include product development and manufacturing, clinical, medical, regulatory, laboratory (equipment and supplies), personnel, facility and other overhead costs, to specific programs.
During the year ended December 31, 2025, total research and development expenses decreased by approximately $4.2 million, or 60%, compared to the year ended December 31, 2024. The following sets forth research and development expenses for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024 by category:
Year Ended
December 31,
($ in thousands)
$ Change
ADC preclinical development
HSCT-TMA clinical development (AK901)
Chemistry, manufacturing and control
Other external development expenses
Personnel costs
Tax credits
Total research and development expenses
ADC discovery and pre-clinical development
These expenses include external expenses that we incurred in connection with the discovery and pre-clinical development of our ADC platform and program(s) and primarily consist of payments to external vendors and consultants. In December 2024, we announced our strategic prioritization of our ADC technology and programs and expect to incur material additional costs going forward related to this program as we plan to invest in additional ADC related discovery and pre-clinical development activities.
HSCT-TMA clinical development (AK901)
These expenses include external expenses that we have incurred in connection with the development of nomacopan for the treatment of pediatric HSCT-TMA and primarily consist of payments to CROs and other vendors. Less than $0.1 million in expenses incurred during the year ended December 31, 2025, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2024, is primarily due to our decision to suspend the AK901 clinical program and find a collaborative partner for our nomacopan program in 2024.
Chemistry, manufacturing and control
These expenses include external expenses incurred related to the development and manufacturing of nomacopan for use in clinical trials and preclinical development of PAS-nomacopan. In general, such expenses primarily consist of payments to contract manufacturing organizations and other vendors for manufacturing of drug substance (including raw materials), drug product, supplies, and validation, quality assurance and other manufacturing development activities. The $3.3 million decrease in expenses incurred during the year ended December 31, 2025, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2024, is primarily due our decision to suspend the AK901 clinical program and pre-clinical PAS-nomacopan program and instead seek an external partner for further development.
Other external development expenses
These expenses include external expenses, such as payments to contract vendors, that may be related to preclinical development activities, discontinued programs and unallocated expenses. The $0.7 million, or 81%, decrease in expenses incurred during the year ended December 31, 2025, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2024, is primarily related to cessation of costs incurred related to preclinical studies and other development work investigating PAS-nomacopan for the treatment of GA.
Personnel costs
These expenses include compensation and related costs associated with employees, independent consultants and staffing firms. The $0.4 million decrease in expenses incurred during the year ended December 31, 2025, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2024, is primarily due to a reduction in workforce initiated in May 2024 (discussed in further detail below) along with lower costs incurred for consultants.
Tax credits
We record receipts of U.K. tax credits in the year received as a reduction in research and development expenses. Changes in tax credits received are the result of eligible research and development expenses incurred in the previous tax year, which can fluctuate depending on timing of and location in which expenses are incurred.
The extent of our future research and development expenditures will be determined based on future funding and location of work performed.
General and administrative expenses
Total general and administrative costs during the year ended December 31, 2025 was $9.3 million, of which $2.5 million was non-cash stock-based compensation, whereas during the year ended December 31, 2024, general and administrative costs was $9.7 million, of which $1.4 million was non-cash stock-based compensation.
The $0.4 million decrease in expenses incurred during the year ended December 31, 2025, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2024, was primarily due to decreases in (i) personnel and consulting costs of approximately $1.1 million resulting from reorganization of the team and resources, (ii) director and officer insurance premiums of approximately $0.7 million, and (iii) rent of approximately $0.2 million. These decreases were offset by increases in stock-based compensation of $1.1 million and regulatory and legal fees of approximately $0.5 million.
Impairment loss
During the year ended December 31, 2025, we recognized an impairment loss on the in-process R&D related to PHP 303 which was acquired in connection with the Merger. The impairment loss was triggered due to reprioritization of resources to our ADC platform, no further development plans and inability to find a collaborative partner to date.
Merger-related expenses
Merger-related expenses consist of direct expenses incurred in connection with the completed Merger and are comprised primarily of legal and professional fees. No such expenses were incurred during the year ended December 31, 2025.
Restructuring and other expenses
Restructuring and other expenses consist primarily of severance and related benefit costs related to workforce reductions incurred in connection with the reduction in force (“RIF”), which we implemented in May 2024. Restructuring and other expenses includes $0.3 million of non-cash stock-based compensation expense. No restructuring expenses were incurred during the year ended December 31, 2025.
Interest income
During each of the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, interest income was less than $0.1 million. Amounts may fluctuate from period to period due to changes in average cash balances and prevailing interest rates.
Interest expense
Interest expense primarily consists of amortization of debt issuance costs on the August 2025 Notes and interest expense on the May 2024 Notes, the financing of director and officer insurance premiums and the notes assumed in the Merger, which include the April 2023 Convertible Notes, the November 2023 Note, the September 2024 Note, the 2021 Notes and the January 2024 Note. Refer to Note 6 and Note 9 of our consolidated financial statements included in this Form 10-K.
Interest expense may fluctuate from period to period due to changes in average interest-bearing loans and related interest rates.
Gain on settlement of current liabilities
During the year ended December 31, 2025, we recognized a gain on settlement of current liabilities of approximately $3.0 million, of which $2.9 million relates to settlements with former vendors for outstanding accounts payables and $0.1 million relates to a gain on debt extinguishment related to a promissory note issued by Peak Bio in November 2023 and assumed by the Company in November of 2024 in the principal amount of $0.4 million, bearing interest at 6% per annum with a maturity date of December 31, 2024.
No such gain was recognized during the year ended December 31, 2024.
Loss on debt extinguishment
During the year ended December 31, 2025, we recognized a non-cash loss on extinguishment of debt of $3.2 million, of which $0.4 million was related to the issuance of the August 2025 Note to third party investors, $0.5 million was related to the cancellation and exchange of Dr. Huh’s January 2024 Note for his August 2025 Note, $2.2 million was related to the cancellation and exchange of all outstanding August 2025 Notes for Pre-funded Warrants and Note Exchange Warrants, in the December 2025 Note Exchange, and less than $0.1 million was related to the modification of the April 2023 Convertible Notes pursuant to the April 2023 Convertible Notes and Warrants Amendment (as defined and described in Note 7 of our consolidated financial statements included in this Form 10-K).
No such loss was recognized during the year ended December 31, 2024.
Loss on derivative liability
During the year ended December 31, 2025, we recognized a non-cash expense of $0.2 million in relation to the embedded derivative in the White Lion ELOC.
No such loss was recognized during the year ended December 31, 2024.
Change in fair value of warrant liabilities
Change in fair value of warrant liabilities represents non-cash warrant revaluation gains or losses related to the remeasurement of our liability-classified instruments, namely our September 2022 Warrants and the warrants we assumed on November 14, 2024 in connection with our acquisition of Peak Bio (the “Peak Bio Warrants”), which are more fully described in Note 3 of our consolidated financial statements included in this Form 10-K. Due to the nature of and inputs in the model used to assess the fair value of our outstanding September 2022 Warrants and Peak Bio Warrants, it is not unusual to experience significant fluctuations during each remeasurement period. These fluctuations may be due to a variety of factors, including changes in our stock price and changes in estimated stock price volatility over the remaining life of the warrants.
During the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, we recorded a change in the fair value of warrant liabilities, representing a non-cash warrant revaluation gain of approximately $0.8 million and $2.1 million, respectively. Change in the fair value of the warrant liabilities and resulting warrant revaluation gain for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024 were driven primarily by the decrease in our stock price and decreases in the expected term and expected volatility assumptions during the reporting period.
Foreign currency exchange gain, net
During the year ended December 31, 2025, we recorded a net foreign currency exchange loss of approximately $0.4 million, as compared to a net foreign currency gain of less than $0.1 million during the year ended December 31, 2024. Exchange gains and losses can fluctuate significantly from period to period due to changes in exchange rates, as well as the volume and timing of expenditures and related payments denominated in foreign currencies.
Other expense, net
During each of the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, we recorded a net other expense of less than $0.1 million. Such expenses are not material to our results of operations.
Net Loss Applicable to Common Shareholders
As a result of the factors discussed above, our net loss applicable to common shareholders for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024 was $17.3 million and $19.8 million, respectively.
Financial Condition, Liquidity and Capital Resources
Sources of Liquidity
Since inception, we have incurred substantial losses, and we have primarily funded our operations with proceeds from the sale of equity securities, including ordinary shares, warrants and pre-funded warrants, and convertible notes. At December 31, 2025, we had $5.2 million in cash and an accumulated deficit of $264.5 million. To date, we have not generated any revenue.
We have devoted substantially all of our efforts to research and development, including clinical trials, and we have not commercialized any products. Our research and development activities, together with our general and administrative expenses, are expected to continue to result in substantial operating losses for the foreseeable future. These losses, among other things, have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our shareholders’ equity, total assets and working capital. Due to the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with developing drug candidates and, if approved, commercial products, we are unable to predict the extent of any future losses, whether or when any of our drug candidates will become commercially available or when we will become profitable, if at all. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:
the progress and costs of our preclinical studies, clinical trials and other discovery, research and development activities;
the costs associated with the integration activities related to the Merger;
the scope, prioritization and number of our clinical trials and other research and development programs;
the amount of revenues and contributions we receive under future licensing, development and commercialization arrangements with respect to our product candidates;
the costs of the development and expansion of our operational infrastructure;
the costs and timing of obtaining regulatory approval for our product candidates;
the costs of filing, prosecuting, enforcing and defending patent claims and other intellectual property rights;
the costs and timing of securing manufacturing arrangements for clinical or commercial production;
the costs of contracting with third parties to provide sales and marketing capabilities for us;
the magnitude of our general and administrative expenses; and
any cost that we may incur under future in- and out-licensing arrangements relating to and current or future product candidates.
Other than under the ELOC Purchase Agreement, the use of which is subject to the effectiveness of the registration statement we filed with the SEC pursuant to the White Lion RRA, we currently do not have any commitments for future external funding. We will need to raise additional funds, and we may decide to raise additional funds even before we need such funds if the conditions for raising capital available and/or favorable. Until we can generate significant recurring revenues, we expect to satisfy our future cash needs through debt or equity financings, credit facilities or by out-licensing arrangements of our product candidates. The sale of equity or convertible debt securities may result in dilution to our existing shareholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed obligations and could also subject us to covenants that restrict our operations. We cannot be certain that additional funding, whether through grants, financings, credit facilities or out-licensing arrangements, will be available to us on acceptable terms, if at all. If sufficient funds are not available, we may be required to delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate research or development plans for, or commercialization efforts with respect to, one or more applications of our product candidates, or obtain funds through arrangements with collaborators or others that may require us to relinquish rights to certain potential products that we might otherwise seek to develop or commercialize independently.
December 2025 Financing
On December 16, 2025, we entered into a securities purchase agreement with certain institutional investors providing for the issuance and sale, in a Registered Direct Offering, of 10,043,774 ADSs. The ADSs have been offered and sold together with Series G Warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 10,043,774 ADSs, which were issued in a concurrent private placement. The combined purchase price per ADS and accompanying Series G Warrant sold in the Registered Direct Offering is $0.3883.
In a Private Placement, and together with the Registered Direct Offering, the December 2025 Offerings pursuant to a securities purchase agreement dated as of December 16, 2025, we agreed to issue to certain directors and officers of the Company (i) Pre-Funded Warrants to purchase an aggregate of 2,563,713 ADSs at an exercise price per ADS of $0.00001, and (ii) accompanying Series G Warrants to purchase an aggregate of 2,563,713 ADSs, at a combined purchase price of $0.4041 per Pre-Funded Warrant and Series G Warrant.
The aggregate gross proceeds from the Offerings were approximately $5 million, excluding any proceeds from any future exercises of the Warrants. The Registered Direct Offering closed on December 17, 2025 and January 20, 2026 and the Private Placement closed on December 23, 2025.
The Series G Warrants issued in the December 2025 Offerings have an exercise price of $0.3883 per ADS, subject to customary adjustments as set forth therein, are exercisable as of the effective date of Shareholder Approval, which was obtained on March 2, 2026, and will expire five years thereafter. The Pre-Funded Warrants have an exercise price of $0.00001 per ADS, are exercisable following the Shareholder Approval and will not expire until fully exercised.
The placement agent, Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., or the Placement Agent, received a cash commission of 8.0% of the gross proceeds from the sale of the securities in the December 2025 Offerings, a management fee equal to 0.5% of the gross proceeds from the sale of the securities in the December 2025 Offerings and a non-accountable expense allowance of up to $75,000. The Placement Agent and its designees also received warrants to purchase up to 504,300 ADSs, representing 4.0% of the aggregate number of ADSs and Pre-Funded Warrants sold in the Offerings, on substantially the same terms as the Series G Warrants, except the Placement Agent Warrants have an exercise price of $0.4853875 per ADS and have a 5-year term from the commencement of sales of the December 2025 Offerings.
October 2025 Financing
On October 16, 2025, the Company closed its 2025 Registered Direct Offering with certain institutional investors providing for the issuance and sale of 3,125,000 ADSs of the Company. The ADSs have been offered and sold together with Series E warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 3,125,000 ADSs and Series F warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 3,125,000 ADSs, which are being issued in a concurrent private placement. The combined purchase price per each ADS and accompanying Warrants sold in the 2025 Registered Direct Offering is $0.80. The aggregate gross proceeds from the 2025 Registered Direct Offering were $2.5 million, excluding any proceeds from any future exercises of Warrants.
The Series E Warrants have an exercise price of $0.98 per share, subject to customary adjustments as set forth therein, are exercisable commencing on the effective date (the “Shareholder Approval Date”) of shareholder approval of the issuance of the ADSs issuable upon exercise of the Warrants (the “Shareholder Approval”), and will have a 5-year term from the Shareholder Approval Date. The Series F Warrants have an exercise price of $0.98 per share, subject to customary adjustments as set forth therein, are exercisable on the Shareholder Approval Date, and will have a thirty-month term from the Shareholder Approval Date. If at the time of exercise there is no effective registration statement registering the ADSs underlying the Warrants, the Warrants may be exercised on a cashless basis.
The Company entered into a placement agency agreement (the “Placement Agent Agreement”) with Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. (the “Placement Agent”), pursuant to which the Company paid $262,500 in cash at closing of the 2025 Registered Direct Offering. The Placement Agent also received warrants (the “Placement Agent Warrants”) on substantially the same terms as the Series E Warrants in an amount equal to 4.0% of the aggregate number of ADSs sold in the 2025 Registered Direct Offering to purchase up to 125,000 ADSs, at an exercise price of $1.00 per ADS and will have a 5-year term expiring October 14, 2030.
White Lion Ordinary Share Purchase and Registration Rights Agreements
On August 29, 2025, the Company entered into the ELOC Purchase Agreement and White Lion RRA with White Lion Capital. Pursuant to the ELOC Purchase Agreement, the Company had the right, but not the obligation, to require White Lion to purchase, from time to time, up to $25,000,000 in aggregate gross purchase price of newly issued Ordinary Shares, which may be exchanged for ADSs, subject to certain limitations and conditions set forth in the ELOC Purchase Agreement.
The Company does not have a right to commence any sales of Ordinary Shares to White Lion under the ELOC Purchase Agreement until all conditions to the Company’s right to commence sales, as set forth in the ELOC Purchase Agreement, have been satisfied, including that a registration statement covering the resale of such shares is declared effective by the SEC and the final form of prospectus is filed with the SEC. Over the period ending on the earlier of (i) the date on which the Purchaser shall have purchased Ordinary Shares pursuant to the ELOC Purchase Agreement for an aggregate purchase price equal to the Commitment Amount or (ii) August 29, 2028 (the “Commitment Period”), subject to the conditions of the ELOC Purchase Agreement, the Company will control the timing and amount of any sales of Ordinary Shares to the Purchaser. Actual sales of Ordinary Shares to the Purchaser under the ELOC Purchase Agreement will depend on a variety of factors to be determined by the Company from time to time, including, among others, market conditions, the trading price of the ADSs, and determinations made by the Company as to appropriate levels and sources of funding.
The purchase price of the Ordinary Shares that the Company elects to sell to the Purchaser pursuant to the ELOC Purchase Agreement will be determined based on the type of Purchase Notice issued, as follows:
Rapid Purchase Option 1: The lowest traded price of the ADSs on the notice date.
Rapid Purchase Option 2: 97% of the lowest traded price of the ADSs during the two hours following the Purchaser’s confirmed receipt of the notice.
Rapid Purchase Option 3: The lowest of (i) the opening price of the ADSs on the notice date, (ii) the closing price of the ADSs on the prior business day, or (iii) the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) on the notice date, with a 20% discount if the trading price is below the opening price.
VWAP Purchase: 97% of the lowest daily VWAP during a two-day valuation period for the first $12,500,000 of closings, and 98% thereafter.
In no event may the Company issue to the Purchaser under the ELOC Purchase Agreement more than 13,039,369,358 Ordinary Shares (the “Exchange Cap”), which equals 19.99% of the Company’s outstanding Ordinary Shares as of the Execution Date, unless the Company obtains shareholder approval to issue shares in excess of the Exchange Cap or the average price paid for all Ordinary Shares issued under the agreement is equal to or greater than the Minimum Price (as defined in the ELOC Purchase Agreement). In any event, the ELOC Purchase Agreement provides that the Company may not issue or sell any Ordinary Shares if such issuance or sale would breach any applicable Nasdaq rules.
The ELOC Purchase Agreement prohibits the Company from directing the Purchaser to purchase any Ordinary Shares if those shares, when aggregated with all other Ordinary Shares then beneficially owned by the Purchaser (as calculated pursuant to Section 13(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended), would result in the Purchaser beneficially owning more than 4.99% of the outstanding Ordinary Shares (the “Beneficial Ownership Limitation”), which may be increased to 9.99% at the Purchaser’s discretion upon 61 days’ prior written notice.
As consideration for the Purchaser’s execution of the ELOC Purchase Agreement, the Company will pay a document preparation fee of $15,000, to be deducted from the proceeds related to the first Purchase Notice, and cash commitment fees of $37,500 when aggregate Purchase Notices exceed $500,000 and $87,500 (or $125,000 if $1,000,000 is reached first) when aggregate Purchase Notices exceed $1,000,000. Additionally, if the Company fails to close at least $625,000 in purchases by the 180th day after the Registration Statement’s effective date, the Company will issue ADSs, represented by Ordinary Shares, equivalent to $75,000 divided by the lowest traded ADS price during a 10-day period preceding that date (the “Commitment Shares”).
Concurrently with the ELOC Purchase Agreement, the Company and the Purchaser entered into a Registration Rights Agreement, dated August 29, 2025 (the “Registration Rights Agreement”), pursuant to which the Company agreed to file a registration statement on Form S-1 (or any successor form) with the SEC within thirty (30) calendar days following August 29, 2025, to register the resale of the maximum number of Registrable Securities (including the Ordinary Shares, Commitment Shares, and ADSs representing such shares) permitted by applicable SEC rules. The Company shall use its commercially reasonable efforts to have the registration statement declared effective as soon as practicable and to maintain its effectiveness during the Registration Period, which continues until all Registrable Securities are sold, the ELOC Purchase Agreement terminates and no Registrable Securities are held, or the securities cease to be Registrable Securities under specified conditions.
As of December 31, 2025, the Company had no outstanding purchase notices issued to White Lion.
August 2025 Financing
In August 2025, we entered into Note Purchase Agreements with certain investors, including the Company’s directors in a private placement offering pursuant to which the investors agreed to purchase, and the Company agreed to issue unsecured promissory notes with a 20% original issuance discount. In connection with the issuance and sale of the August 2025 Notes, the Company agreed to extend the expiration date of Series A Warrants held by certain August 2025 Note investors, previously issued in the March 2025 Private Placement, by 48 months from the original date of expiration.
We issued August 2025 Notes with an aggregate purchase price of $3,011,000 and an aggregate principal amount of $3,763,750, inclusive of the Note Termination (described below). The August 2025 Notes have maturity dates ranging from August 15, 2026, through September 26, 2026, at which time the principal amount is due and payable. The Company also entered into Warrant Amendment Agreements with the recipients of such August 2025 Notes, which extended the expiration date of the Series A Warrants to purchase an aggregate of 6,864,483 ADSs held by such investors from 2026 to 2030.
Included in the issued Notes with an aggregate purchase price of $3,011,000 and an aggregate principal amount of $3,763,750, as outlined above, Dr. Hoyoung Huh, the Company’s Chairman, purchased a Note with a principal amount of $1,250,000 for a purchase price of $1,000,000, with the purchase price thereof to be satisfied through the payment of $162,567 in cash and the cancellation of $837,433 of outstanding principal and accrued interest under a senior secured promissory note previously issued to him by the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Peak Bio Inc., in January 2024.
We paid a placement agent fee of $75,000 to Paulson in connection with the August 2025 Notes Offering.
On December 16, 2025, we entered into privately negotiated note cancellation and exchange agreement, or the Exchange Agreement, with the holders of August 2025 Note, to exchange all the outstanding principal amount of the August 2025 Notes for (i) Pre-Funded Warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 9,502,703 ADSs, at a price of $0.3883 per Pre-Funded Warrant for investors and a price of $0.4041 per Pre-Funded Warrant for insiders, and (ii) Note Exchange Warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 9,502,703 ADSs. The Exchange closed on December 17, 2025.
The Pre-Funded Warrants issued in connection with the Exchange have the same terms as the Pre-Funded Warrants issued in the Private Placement. The Note Exchange Warrants are exercisable commencing upon the Shareholder Approval for a term of five years thereafter and have an exercise price of $0.3883 and $0.4041 per ADS for investors and insiders, respectively.
Funding Requirements
As of the date of this report, we expect our existing cash, will be sufficient to fund our operations into April 2026. While we have additional funding activities in progress to fund our operations, we will need to raise additional capital to continue to fund our operations and service our obligations in the future. If we are unable to raise additional capital when needed, we will not be able to continue as a going concern. We do not currently have any products approved for sale and do not generate any revenue from product sales. We are currently seeking and expect to continue to seek additional funding through financings of equity and/or debt securities. We may also engage in strategic research and development collaborations, pre-clinical and clinical funding arrangements, the sale or license of technology assets, and/or other strategic alternatives.
Financing may not be available to us when we need it, or on favorable or acceptable terms, or at all. We could be required to seek funds through means that may require us to relinquish rights to some of our technologies, drug candidates or drugs that we would otherwise pursue on our own. In addition, if we raise additional funds by issuing equity securities, our then existing shareholders may experience dilution. The terms of any financing may adversely affect the holdings or the rights of existing shareholders. An equity financing that involves existing shareholders may cause a concentration of ownership. 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, and are likely to include rights that are senior to the holders of our Ordinary Shares. Any additional debt or equity financing may contain terms which are not favorable to us or to our shareholders, such as liquidation and other preferences, or liens or other restrictions on our assets. As discussed in Note 11 to the consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Form 10-K, additional equity financings may also result in cumulative changes in ownership over a three-year period in excess of 50% which would limit the amount of net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards that we may utilize in any one year.
If we are unable to raise additional capital when required or on acceptable terms, we may be required to:
significantly delay, scale back, or discontinue the development or commercialization of our product candidates;
seek strategic alliances for research and development programs at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable or that we otherwise would have sought to develop independently, or on terms that are less favorable than might otherwise be available in the future;
dispose of technology assets, including current product candidates, or relinquish or license on unfavorable terms, our rights to technologies or any of our product candidates that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves;
pursue the sale of our company to a third party at a price that may result in a loss on investment for our shareholders; or
file for bankruptcy or cease operations altogether.
Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and prospects.
We believe the key factors which will affect our ability to obtain funding are:
the receptivity of the capital markets to financings by biotechnology companies generally and companies with drug candidates and technologies similar to ours specifically;
the receptivity of the capital markets to any in-licensing, product acquisition or other transaction we may enter into or attempt to enter into;
our ability to successfully realize anticipated benefits of the Merger;
the results of our pre-clinical and clinical development activities in our drug candidates we develop on the timelines anticipated;
competitive and potentially competitive products and technologies and investors’ receptivity to our drug candidates we develop and the technology underlying them in light of competitive products and technologies; and
the cost, timing, and outcome of regulatory reviews.
In addition, increases in expenses or delays in clinical development may adversely impact our cash position and require additional funds or cost reductions.
Based on our recurring losses from operations incurred since inception, our expectation of continuing operating losses for the foreseeable future, negative operating cash flows for the foreseeable future, and the need to raise additional capital to finance its future operations, we have concluded that there is substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date that our consolidated financial statements, included elsewhere in this Form 10-K are issued. Because of these uncertainties, the accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming that we will continue as a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and the satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business. As such, the accompanying consolidated financial statements do not reflect any adjustments relating to the recoverability and classification of recorded assets and liabilities that might be necessary if we are unable to continue as a going concern.
Cash Flows
The following table summarizes our sources and uses of cash for each of the periods presented:
Year Ended
December 31,
(In thousands)
Net cash (used in) provided by:
Net cash used in operating activities
Net cash provided by investing activities
Net cash provided by financing activities
Effect of exchange rates on cash
Net increase (decrease) in cash
Operating Activities. The net cash used in operating activities for the periods presented consists primarily of our net loss adjusted for non-cash charges and changes in components of working capital. The decrease in cash used in operating activities during the year ended December 31, 2025, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2024, was primarily due to a decrease in research and development costs, restructuring costs related to the program reprioritization, and a decrease in merger-related costs incurred in connection with the Peak Bio acquisition.
Investment Activities. The net cash provided by investing activities during the year ended December 31, 2024, is solely related to the Merger. There were no investing activities during the year ended December 31, 2025.
Financing Activities. Net cash provided by financing activities primarily consisted of the following:
For the year ended December 31, 2025, an aggregate of $14.2 million in net proceeds received from the issuance of debt and equity securities, including (i) $5.6 million in net proceeds from the March 2025 Private Placement, (ii) $2.0 million in net proceeds from the issuance of the October 2025 Registered Direct Offering, (iii) $3.1 million in net proceeds from the issuance of the December 2025 Registered Direct Offering, (iv) $1.0 million in net proceeds from the December 2025 Private Placement, (v) $2.1 million in net proceeds from the August 2025 Notes, and (vi) $0.3 million received in advance for pre-funded warrants issued in the March 2025 Private Placement, partially offset by repayment of $0.6 million of payments related to our promissory notes and $0.5 million of payments for our insurance premium financing; and
For the year ended December 31, 2024, an aggregate of $11.8 million in net proceeds received from the issuance of debt and equity securities, including (i) $1.7 million in net proceeds from the March 2024 Private Placement, (ii) $1.0 million in net proceeds from the issuance of the May 2024 Convertible Notes, (iii) $7.0 million in net proceeds from the May 2024 Private Placement, and (iv) $2.8 million in net proceeds from the November 2024 Private Placement, partially offset by repayment of $0.75 million towards the May 2024 Convertible Notes and $1.1 million in payments related to our short-term insurance premium financing arrangement.
Material Cash Requirements
Insurance Financing Obligations
In January 2026, we entered into a short-term financing arrangement with a third-party vendor to finance insurance premiums. The aggregate amount financed under this agreement was $0.5 million which is scheduled to be paid in monthly installments through October 2026.
Debt Obligations
We have outstanding convertible notes and notes payable with third parties assumed from the acquisition of Peak Bio Inc. as more fully described in Note 7, to our consolidated financial statements appearing elsewhere in this Form 10-K. As of December 31, 2025, these obligations are expected to result in principal payments of approximately $0.8 million.
Other
We enter into a variety of agreements and financial commitments in the normal course of business. The terms generally provide us the option to cancel, reschedule and adjust our requirements based on our business needs, prior to the delivery of goods or performance of services. However, it is not possible to predict the amount of future payments under these agreements due to the conditional nature of our obligations and the unique facts and circumstances involved in each particular agreement.
Critical Accounting Estimates
This management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations is based on our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. In doing so, we must make estimates and assumptions that affect our reported amounts of assets, liabilities and expenses, as well as related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. On an ongoing basis, management evaluates its estimates and judgments, including, but not limited to, those related to (i) fair value of warrants classified as liabilities, (ii) accounting for the acquisition of Peak Bio Inc., (iii) the valuation of intangible assets, and (iv) valuation of intangible assets and goodwill. Management bases its estimates and judgments on historical experience and on various other factors that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.
Fair value of warrants classified as liabilities
Warrants classified as liabilities must be recorded at fair value under ASC 820, with changes in fair value recognized in earnings each period. We utilize a Black-Scholes model to value our outstanding September 2022 Warrants and the Peak Bio Warrants, at each reporting period, with changes in fair value recognized in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss. The estimated fair value of warrant liabilities is determined using Level 3 inputs. Inherent in an options pricing model are assumptions related to expected share-price volatility, expected life, risk-free interest rate and dividend yield. We estimate the expected volatility of our stock price based on historical volatility of our ADSs, considering the expected remaining life of the September 2022 Warrants and the Peak Bio Warrants. The risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury zero-coupon yield curve on the valuation date for a maturity similar to the expected remaining life of the September 2022 Warrants and the Peak Bio Warrants. The expected life of the September 2022 Warrants and the Peak Bio Warrants is assumed to be equivalent to their remaining contractual term. The dividend rate is based on our historical rate, which we anticipate to remain at zero. Due to the nature of and inputs in the model used to assess the fair value of the warrants, it is not unusual to experience significant fluctuations during each remeasurement period.
Peak Bi o Inc. Acquisition
On March 4, 2024, we entered into the Merger Agreement with Peak Bio and Merger Sub. On November 14, 2024, we completed the business combination contemplated by the Merger Agreement, pursuant to which, Merger Sub merged with and into Peak Bio, with Peak Bio surviving the acquisition as a wholly owned subsidiary of Akari.
In connection with the acquisition, we issued a total of 12,613,942 Akari American Depositary Shares (“Akari ADSs”) which reflected the conversion of each issued and outstanding share of Peak Bio common stock, par value $0.0001 (“Peak Bio Common Stock”) into the right to receive Akari ADSs representing a number of Akari ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share (“Akari Ordinary Shares”) equal to the exchange ratio calculated in accordance with the Merger Agreement (the “Exchange Ratio”). Each warrant to purchase capital stock of Peak Bio (“Peak Warrant”) and option to acquire shares of Peak Common Stock (“Peak Option”) was converted into warrants to purchase a number of Akari Ordinary Shares or Akari ADSs, as determined by Akari (“Adjusted Warrants”) and options to purchase a number of Akari Ordinary Shares or Akari ADSs, as determined by Akari (“Adjusted Options”), respectively, to purchase a number of Akari Ordinary Shares or Akari ADSs, based on the Exchange Ratio. The Adjusted Warrants and the Adjusted Options have substantially similar terms and conditions as were applicable to such Peak Warrants and Peak Options immediately prior to the Closing.
The estimated fair value of the Adjusted Warrants of $1.8 million at the acquisition closing date was calculated using the Black Scholes Option Pricing Model. The following assumptions were used to determine the fair value of the assumed warrants as of November 14. 2024:
Peak Bio Assumed Warrants
November 2022
April 2023
Stock (ADS) price
Exercise price
Expected term (in years)
Expected volatility
Risk-free interest rate
Expected dividend yield
We assumed Peak Bio’s outstanding stock option awards and granted options to purchase 1,618,081 ADSs as replacement awards for the Peak Bio Adjusted Options. We determined the Peak Bio Adjusted Options were not probable of vesting prior to the consummation of the Merger Agreement. For this reason, the fair value of the replacement awards was not included as consideration transferred in the business combination. Instead, the entire fair value of the adjusted options will be recognized as compensation cost in the post-combination period. The estimated fair value of the Adjusted Options of $1.8 million at the acquisition closing date was calculated using the Black Scholes Option Pricing Model. The valuation assumptions used in the Black Scholes Option Pricing Model include our stock price on the date of closing of $2.23, volatility ranging from 84.1% to 86.4%, an expected dividend yield of 0.0%, an expected term ranging from 0.20 years to 5.32 years, and a risk-free interest rate ranging from 4.3% to 4.6%.
We recognized in-process research and development (“IPR&D”) in connection with the acquisition. The fair value of the acquired IPR&D was determined based upon the income approach using a multi period excess earnings model which included a forecast of the expected cash flows, as discussed in more detail under “Valuation of Intangible Assets.”
Valuation of Intangible Assets
In a business combination, the fair value of acquired IPR&D is capitalized and accounted for as indefinite-lived intangible assets and are not amortized until the underlying project receives regulatory approval, at which point the intangible assets will be accounted for as definite-lived intangible assets. The intangible assets are assessed for impairment annually as outlined below. R&D costs incurred after the acquisition are expensed as incurred.
The estimated fair values of identifiable intangible assets were determined using the multi-period excess earnings method, which is a valuation methodology that provides an estimate of the fair value of an asset based on market participant expectations of the cash flows an asset would generate over its remaining useful life. The projected discounted cash flow models used to estimate the fair value of assets of our IPR&D reflect significant assumptions and are estimates a market participant would make in order to evaluate a drug development asset.
The valuation of our acquired IPR&D has significant measurement uncertainty given the lack of historical data on which to base assumptions. We engaged a third-party valuation firm to assist us with the valuation of the IPR&D. Assumptions are difficult to make accurately and were mainly derived from life science studies, industry data, and peer company information that our management believes represent appropriate comparable data.
Impairment Assessment of Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets
As noted above, we recognized goodwill and other intangible assets comprised of in-process research and development, or IPR&D, in connection with our acquisition of Peak Bio.
We follow the provisions of ASC 350, Intangibles – Goodwill and Other in accounting for goodwill and other indefinite-lived intangible assets. Goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets are tested for impairment annually on December 31, or more frequently if certain indicators are present.
Goodwill is tested for impairment at the reporting unit level. We manage our operations as a single operating segment for the purposes of assessing performance, making operating decisions and allocating resources, resulting in a single reportable segment, or reporting unit. If goodwill and another asset from the same reporting unit are tested for impairment simultaneously, the other asset shall be tested for impairment before goodwill.
We have the option to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether the fair value of our IPR&D asset or reporting unit is more likely than not less than its carrying value. In our qualitative assessment, we considered relevant facts and circumstances for our reporting unit, including (i) overall financial performance, including recent fundraising activities (ii) industry and market conditions in which the Company operates, (iii) changes in key inputs and assumptions used to rationalize the carrying value, (iv) changes in management or strategy, (v) macroeconomic conditions, and (vi) changes in the fair market value of the Company’s ADSs, market capitalization and relevant comparable control premiums.
If the Company concludes that it is more likely than not that the fair value of the asset or the reporting unit is less than its carrying value, or if the Company elects to bypass the qualitative assessment, a quantitative impairment test is performed. The quantitative test compares the fair value of the asset or reporting unit with its carrying amount. If the carrying amount of the asset or a reporting unit exceeds its fair value, an impairment loss is recognized in an amount equal to the excess. For goodwill, an impairment loss is limited to the total amount of goodwill allocated to that reporting unit.
The quantitative assessment of fair value for impairment purposes requires significant judgement by management. The estimated fair values of identifiable intangible assets were determined using the multi-period excess earnings method, which is a valuation methodology that provides an estimate of the fair value of an asset based on market participant expectations of the cash flows an asset would generate over its remaining useful life. The projected discounted cash flow models used to estimate the fair value of our PHP-303 and ADC IPR&D assets reflect significant assumptions, including the following:
Probability of clinical trial success and obtaining regulatory approval;
Forecasted gross revenues including up-front and milestone revenues and royalty revenue from product sales; and
A discount rate that reflects a market participant’s view of the assets and specific risk inherent in the underlying assets.
The valuation of our acquired IPR&D has significant measurement uncertainty given the lack of historical data on which to base assumptions. We engaged a third-party valuation firm to assist us with the valuation of the IPR&D. Assumptions are difficult to make accurately and were mainly derived from life science studies, industry data, and peer company information that our management believes represent appropriate comparable data.
As at September 30, 2025, the Company completed a qualitative assessment and determined that changes in our allocation of resources triggered a quantitative assessment of our PHP 303 IPR&D asset. Based on the results of our quantitative analysis, we recorded an impairment charge of $5.18 million related to this asset due to reprioritization of resources to our ADC platform, no further development plans and inability to find a collaborative partner to date for this program.
As at December 31, 2025, we performed our annual impairment test of our AKTX 101 IPR&D asset and goodwill. Based on the results of our quantitative assessment, we concluded that that the respective fair values of our AKTX 101 IPR&D asset and reporting unit are more than their respective carrying values.
If actual results are not consistent with our estimates and/or other assumptions change, and we continue to experience a decline in market price of our ADSs, it is reasonably possible that the estimates made in the financial statements have been, or will be, materially and adversely impacted in the near term, and if so, we may be subject to changes in valuations and exposed to future impairment charges that could materially and adversely impact our financial position and results of operations.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
Refer to Note 2, Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, of the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 15(a) of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for more information about recent accounting pronouncements, the timing of their adoption, and our assessment, to the extent we have made one, of their potential impact on our financial condition and results of operations.
- Exhibit 3.1: Articles of Incorporationex3-1.htm · 662.6 KB
- Exhibit 4.7ex4-7.htm · 148.0 KB
- Exhibit 21.1: Subsidiaries of the Registrantex21-1.htm · 7.7 KB
- Exhibit 23.1: Consent of Independent Auditorsex23-1.htm · 4.2 KB
- Exhibit 31.1: Rule 13a-14(a) Certification (CEO)ex31-1.htm · 16.3 KB
- Exhibit 31.2: Rule 13a-14(a) Certification (CFO)ex31-2.htm · 16.1 KB
- Exhibit 32.1: Section 1350 Certification (CEO)ex32-1.htm · 8.3 KB
- Exhibit 32.2: Section 1350 Certification (CFO)ex32-2.htm · 8.1 KB
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- Ticker
- AKTX
- CIK
0001541157- Form Type
- 10-K
- Accession Number
0001493152-26-013664- Filed
- Mar 30, 2026
- Period
- Dec 31, 2025 (Q4 25)
- Industry
- Pharmaceutical Preparations
External resources
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