8-K
false 0001567514 0001567514 2020-01-06 2020-01-06

 

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

Form 8-K

 

CURRENT REPORT

Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): January 6, 2020

 

Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

Commission File Number: 001-36274

Delaware

 

36-4742850

(State or other jurisdiction

of incorporation)

 

(IRS Employer

Identification No.)

430 East 29th Street

New York, New York 10016

(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

(646) 440-9333

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Not applicable

(Former name or former address, if changed since last report)

 

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:

Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)

Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)

Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))

Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class

 

Trading

Symbol(s)

 

Name of each exchange

on which registered

Common Stock

 

ITCI

 

The Nasdaq Global Select Market

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (§230.405 of this chapter) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (§240.12b-2 of this chapter).

Emerging growth company  

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.  

 

 


ITEM 2.02 Results of Operations and Financial Condition.

On January 6, 2020, the Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. (the “Company” or “we”) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission a preliminary prospectus supplement to its effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-235817) (the “Preliminary Prospectus Supplement”) pursuant to Rule 424(b)(5) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), relating to a proposed public offering of shares of the Company’s common stock. The Company included the following disclosure in the Preliminary Prospectus Supplement:

“While we have not finalized our financial results for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, we expect to report that, as of December 31, 2019, we had cash, cash equivalents and investment securities of approximately $224 million. This amount is preliminary, unaudited and may change, was prepared by management and is based on the most current information available to management, and is subject to completion by management of the financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2019, or the 2019 financial statements, including completion of the review procedures, final adjustments and other developments that may arise between now and the time the financial results for this period are finalized, and completion of the audit of the 2019 financial statements. As a result, there can be no assurance that our cash, cash equivalents and investment securities as of December 31, 2019 will not differ from these estimates and any such change could be material. Additional information and disclosures are required for a more complete understanding of our financial position and results of operations as of and for the year ended December 31, 2019.”

ITEM 8.01 Other Events.

On January 6, 2020, the Company issued a press release announcing it has commenced an underwritten public offering of 10,000,000 shares of its common stock, and its intention to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 15% of the shares of common stock offered in the public offering. All of the shares in the offering will be sold by the Company. A copy of the press release is attached hereto as Exhibit 99.1, and is incorporated herein by reference.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, SVB Leerink LLC and Evercore Group L.L.C. are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. The offering is subject to market and other conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed, or as to the actual size or terms of the offering.

In addition, the Preliminary Prospectus Supplement contains an updated summary description of the Company’s business in the section entitled “Prospectus Supplement Summary,” which is attached hereto as Exhibit 99.2 and incorporated herein by reference, and updated risk factors in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in the base prospectus attached to the Preliminary Prospectus Supplement, which is attached hereto as Exhibit 99.3 and incorporated herein by reference.

This Current Report on Form 8-K, including the exhibits hereto, shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities of the Company, which is being made only by means of a written prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act, nor shall there be any offer, solicitation, or sale of the securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction.


ITEM 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits.

(d)    Exhibits

Exhibit
Number

   

Description

         
 

99.1

   

Press Release of Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc., dated January 6, 2020.

         
 

99.2

   

Prospectus Supplement Summary included in Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc.’s Preliminary Prospectus Supplement dated January 6, 2020 to the Registration Statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-235817).

         
 

99.3

   

Risk Factors included in the base prospectus attached to Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc.’s Preliminary Prospectus Supplement dated January 6, 2020 to the Registration Statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-235817).

         
 

104

   

Cover Page Interactive Data File (embedded within the Inline XBRL document).


SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

INTRA-CELLULAR THERAPIES, INC.

     

By:

 

/s/ Lawrence J. Hineline

 

Lawrence J. Hineline

 

Senior Vice President of Finance, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Assistant Secretary

Date: January 6, 2020

EX-99.1

Exhibit 99.1

Intra-Cellular Therapies Announces Proposed Public Offering of Common Stock

NEW YORK, January 6, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. (Nasdaq:ITCI), a biopharmaceutical company, today announced that it has commenced an underwritten public offering of 10,000,000 shares of its common stock. In connection with the offering, Intra-Cellular Therapies intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 15% of the shares of common stock offered in the public offering. All of the shares in the offering will be sold by Intra-Cellular Therapies.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, SVB Leerink LLC and Evercore Group L.L.C. are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. The offering is subject to market and other conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed, or as to the actual size or terms of the offering.

The public offering will be made pursuant to a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 that was previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and became effective upon filing. A preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying base prospectus relating to and describing the terms of the offering will be filed with the SEC and will be available on the SEC’s website located at http://www.sec.gov. The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus and related prospectus supplement, copies of which may be obtained from J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Attention: Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, by telephone at 1-866-803-9204 or by email at prospectus-eq_fi@jpmchase.com, SVB Leerink LLC, Attention: Syndicate Department, One Federal Street, 37th Floor, Boston, MA, 02110, by telephone at 1-800-808-7525, ext. 6132, or by email at syndicate@svbleerink.com, or Evercore Group L.L.C., Attention: Equity Capital Markets, 55 East 52nd Street, 36th Floor, New York, NY 10055, by telephone at (888) 474-0200 or by email at ecm.prospectus@evercore.com. The final terms of the offering will be disclosed in a final prospectus supplement to be filed with the SEC.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor will there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction.

About Intra-Cellular Therapies

Intra-Cellular Therapies is a biopharmaceutical company founded on Nobel prize-winning research that allows it to understand how therapies affect the inner-workings of cells in the body. The Company leverages this intracellular approach to develop innovative treatments for people living with complex psychiatric and neurologic diseases.

Contact

Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc.

Juan Sanchez, M.D.

Vice President, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations

646-440-9333

Burns McClellan, Inc.

Lisa Burns

jgrimaldi@burnsmc.com

212-213-0006

EX-99.2

Exhibit 99.2

Prospectus supplement summary

Overview

We are a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, clinical development and commercialization of innovative, small molecule drugs that address underserved medical needs primarily in neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders by targeting intracellular signaling mechanisms within the central nervous system, or CNS. In December 2019, we announced that CAPLYTATM (lumateperone) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults (42mg/day). We expect to initiate the commercial launch of CAPLYTA late in the first quarter of 2020. In support of our commercialization efforts we expect to employ a national sales force consisting of approximately 240 sales representatives. We anticipate that, at the time of launch, CAPLYTA will be priced in line with other currently marketed branded antipsychotics indicated for the treatment of schizophrenia. As used herein, “CAPLYTA” refers to lumateperone approved by the FDA for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults, and “lumateperone” refers to, where applicable, CAPLYTA as well as lumateperone for the treatment of indications beyond schizophrenia.

Lumateperone is also in Phase 3 clinical development as a novel treatment for bipolar depression. Our lumateperone bipolar depression Phase 3 clinical program currently consists of two monotherapy studies and one adjunctive study. In addition, in the first quarter of 2020 we expect to initiate an additional Phase 3 study, Study 403, evaluating lumateperone as monotherapy in the treatment of major depressive episodes associated with Bipolar I or Bipolar II disorder. On July 8, 2019, we announced topline results from our first monotherapy study, Study 401, conducted in the U.S., and our second monotherapy study, Study 404, conducted globally, evaluating lumateperone as monotherapy in the treatment of major depressive episodes associated with Bipolar I or Bipolar II disorder. In Study 404, lumateperone 42 mg met the primary endpoint for improvement in depression as measured by change from baseline versus placebo on the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, or MADRS, total score (p<0.0001; effect size = 0.56). Study 401 tested two doses of lumateperone, 42 mg and 28mg along with placebo. In this trial, neither dose of lumateperone met the primary endpoint of statistical separation from placebo as measured by change from baseline on the MADRS total score. There was a high placebo response in this trial. Lumateperone was generally well-tolerated in both bipolar depression studies, with a favorable safety profile. The rates of discontinuation due to treatment emergent adverse events for both doses of lumateperone were low. We are currently evaluating our strategy with regards to submitting our new drug application, or NDA, to the FDA for regulatory approval for bipolar depression. Our global study evaluating adjunctive lumateperone in bipolar depression (Study 402) is ongoing and we anticipate reporting topline results from this study in mid-2020.

In the second quarter of 2016, we initiated Phase 3 development of lumateperone for the treatment of agitation in patients with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, or AD. Our ITI-007-201 trial was a Phase 3 multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial in patients with a clinical diagnosis of probable AD and clinically significant symptoms of agitation. In the fourth quarter of 2018, an independent data

 

1


monitoring committee, or DMC, completed a pre-specified interim analysis of the ITI-007-201 trial, and concluded that the trial was not likely to meet its primary endpoint upon completion and therefore recommended the study should be stopped for futility. As a result, we determined to discontinue the ITI-007-201 trial. Lumateperone was generally well tolerated in the ITI-007-201 trial and the decision to discontinue the study was not related to safety. We are analyzing the data set from this trial and will determine the next steps in our program following completion of this analysis.

We are also pursuing clinical development of lumateperone for the treatment of additional CNS diseases and disorders. We believe lumateperone may have utility for treating agitation, aggression and sleep disturbances in diseases that include dementia, AD, Huntington’s disease and autism spectrum disorders. At a dose of 42 mg, lumateperone has been shown effective in treating the symptoms associated with schizophrenia, and we believe this higher dose range may merit further investigation for the treatment of bipolar disorder, depressive disorders and other neuropsychiatric diseases.

Within the lumateperone portfolio, we are also developing a long-acting injectable formulation to provide more treatment options to patients suffering from mental illness. Given the encouraging tolerability data to date with oral lumateperone, we believe that a long-acting injectable option, in particular, may lend itself to being an important formulation choice for patients.

We may investigate the use of lumateperone, either on our own or with a partner, as a treatment for agitation, aggression and sleep disturbances in additional diseases that include autism spectrum disorders, depressive disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, non-motor symptoms and motor complications associated with Parkinson’s disease, and post-traumatic stress disorder. We hold exclusive, worldwide commercialization rights to lumateperone and a family of compounds from Bristol-Myers Squibb Company pursuant to an exclusive license.

We have a second major program called ITI-002 that has yielded a portfolio of compounds that selectively inhibit the enzyme phosphodiesterase type 1, or PDE1. PDE1 enzymes are highly active in multiple disease states and our PDE1 inhibitors are designed to reestablish normal function in these disease states. Abnormal PDE1 activity is associated with cellular proliferation and activation of inflammatory cells. Our PDE1 inhibitors ameliorate both of these effects in animal models. We intend to pursue the development of our phosphodiesterase, or PDE, program, for the treatment of several CNS and non-CNS conditions with a focus on diseases where excessive PDE1 activity has been demonstrated and increased inflammation is an important contributor to disease pathogenesis. Our potential disease targets include heart failure, immune system regulation, neurodegenerative diseases, and other non-CNS disorders. ITI-214 is our lead compound in this program. We believe ITI-214 is the first compound in its class to successfully advance into Phase 1 clinical trials. Following the favorable safety and tolerability results in our Phase 1 program, we initiated our development program for ITI-214 for Parkinson’s disease and commenced patient enrollment in the third quarter of 2017 in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of ITI-214 in patients with Parkinson’s disease to evaluate safety and tolerability in this patient population, as well as motor and non-motor exploratory endpoints. In the fourth quarter of 2018, we announced that the Phase 1/2 clinical trial of ITI-214 has been completed and topline results demonstrated ITI-214 was generally well-tolerated with a favorable safety profile and clinical signs consistent with improvements in motor symptoms and dyskinesias. In addition, in the first quarter of 2018, the investigational new drug application, or IND, went into effect for ITI-214 for the treatment of heart failure. Clinical conduct of the first clinical study in this program, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 1/2 study of escalating single doses of ITI-214 to evaluate safety and hemodynamic effects in patients with systolic heart failure, is ongoing and we anticipate reporting topline results from this study in the first half of 2020.

 

2


Our pipeline also includes preclinical programs that are focused on advancing drugs for the treatment of schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, AD and other neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. We are also investigating the development of treatments for disease modification of neurodegenerative disorders and non-CNS diseases, including our ITI-333 development program. ITI-333 is designed as a potential treatment for substance use disorders, pain and psychiatric comorbidities including depression and anxiety. There is a pressing need to develop new drugs to treat opioid addiction and safe, effective, non-addictive treatments to manage pain. Preclinical safety studies with ITI-333 are currently ongoing and we expect to initiate a clinical program in the first half of 2020.

We have assembled a management team with significant industry experience to lead the discovery, development and potential commercialization of our product candidates. We complement our management team with a group of scientific and clinical advisors that includes recognized experts in the fields of schizophrenia and other CNS disorders.

Our therapeutic pipeline

 

LOGO

Our strategy

Our goal is to discover, develop and commercialize novel small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of CNS diseases and other diseases in order to improve the lives of people suffering from such illnesses. Using our key understanding of intracellular signaling, we seek to accomplish our goal, using our in-house expert drug discovery and clinical development teams, in two ways:

 

   

we seek to have the capability to develop first-in-class medications with novel mechanisms that have the potential to treat CNS diseases and other diseases for which there are no previously marketed drugs; and

 

   

we seek to develop drugs that either can differentiate themselves in competitive markets by addressing aspects of CNS diseases and other diseases which are not adequately treated by currently marketed drugs or can be effective with fewer side effects.

 

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The key elements of our strategy are to:

 

   

initiate the commercialization of CAPLYTA, which has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults, in the United States;

 

   

complete the development of lumateperone for additional neuropsychiatric indications, such as bipolar disorder, behavioral disturbances in dementia, including AD, residual symptoms in schizophrenia and MDD;

 

   

expand the commercial potential of lumateperone by investigating its usefulness in additional neurological areas, such as autism spectrum disorder, and in additional neuropsychiatric indications, such as sleep disorders associated with neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders;

 

   

continue to develop PDE inhibitor compounds, such as ITI-214, for the treatment of CNS and other disorders; and

 

   

advance earlier stage product candidates in our pipeline, such as ITI-333, for substance use disorders, pain and psychiatric comorbidities including depression and anxiety.

Recent developments

While we have not finalized our financial results for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, we expect to report that, as of December 31, 2019, we had cash, cash equivalents and investment securities of approximately $224 million. This amount is preliminary, unaudited and may change, was prepared by management and is based on the most current information available to management, and is subject to completion by management of the financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2019, or the 2019 financial statements, including completion of the review procedures, final adjustments and other developments that may arise between now and the time the financial results for this period are finalized, and completion of the audit of the 2019 financial statements. As a result, there can be no assurance that our cash, cash equivalents and investment securities as of December 31, 2019 will not differ from these estimates and any such change could be material. Additional information and disclosures are required for a more complete understanding of our financial position and results of operations as of and for the year ended December 31, 2019.

In addition, to help build our commercial organization and related functions, in December 2019 we adopted our 2019 Inducement Award Plan pursuant to which we may grant equity incentive awards for up to 1,000,000 shares of our common stock to new employees.

 

4

EX-99.3

Exhibit 99.3

RISK FACTORS

Investing in our securities involves significant risk. The prospectus supplement applicable to each offering of our securities will contain a discussion of the risks applicable to an investment in Intra-Cellular. Prior to making a decision about investing in our securities, you should carefully consider the specific factors discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in the applicable prospectus supplement, together with all of the other information contained or incorporated by reference in the prospectus supplement or appearing or incorporated by reference in this prospectus. You should also consider the risks, uncertainties and assumptions discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” included in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, as revised or supplemented by our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q or current reports on Form 8-K that we have filed with the SEC, all of which are incorporated herein by reference, and which may be amended, supplemented or superseded from time to time by other reports we file with the SEC in the future. The risks and uncertainties we have described are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also affect our operations. The occurrence of any of these risks might cause you to lose all or part of your investment in the offered securities.

Risks Related to Our Business

In order to execute our business plan and achieve profitability, we need to effectively commercialize CAPLYTA, which received FDA approval in December 2019 for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults.

CAPLYTA is our only drug that has been approved for sale and it has been approved only for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults in the United States. We are focusing a significant portion of our activities and resources on CAPLYTA, and we believe our prospects are highly dependent on, and a significant portion of the value of our company relates to, our ability to successfully commercialize CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults in the United States.

Successful commercialization of CAPLYTA is subject to many risks. We have never, as an organization, launched or commercialized any product, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to successfully commercialize CAPLYTA for its approved indication. There are numerous examples of failures to meet high expectations of market potential, including by pharmaceutical companies with more experience and resources than us. We are in the process of building our commercial organization and hiring our U.S. sales force and will need to refine and further develop our commercial organization in order to successfully commercialize CAPLYTA. We expect that the initial commercial success of CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia will depend on many factors, including the following:

 

   

the efficacy, cost, approved use, and side-effect profile of CAPLYTA regimens relative to competitive treatment regimens for the treatment of schizophrenia;

 

   

the timing of the initiation of our commercial launch of CAPLYTA;

 

   

the effectiveness of our commercial strategy for the launch and marketing of CAPLYTA, including our pricing strategy and the effectiveness of our efforts to obtain adequate third-party reimbursements;

 

   

maintaining and successfully monitoring commercial manufacturing arrangements for CAPLYTA with third-party manufacturers to ensure they meet our standards and those of regulatory authorities, including the FDA, which extensively regulate and monitor pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities;

 

   

our ability to meet the demand for commercial supplies of CAPLYTA;

 

   

the acceptance of CAPLYTA by patients, the medical community and third-party payors; and

 

   

the effect of recent or potential health care legislation in the United States.

While we believe that CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia will have a commercially competitive profile, we cannot accurately predict the amount of revenue that will be generated from the sale of CAPLYTA. If

 

1


we do not effectively commercialize CAPLYTA, we will not be able to execute our business plan and may not be able to achieve profitability. If our revenues, market share and/or other indicators of market acceptance of CAPLYTA do not meet the expectations of investors or public market analysts, the market price of our common stock would likely decline.

If we do not obtain regulatory approval of lumateperone for other indications in the United States, or for any indication in foreign jurisdictions, we will not be able to market lumateperone for other indications or in other jurisdictions, which will limit our commercial revenues.

While CAPLYTA has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults, lumateperone has not been approved by the FDA for any other indications, and it has not been approved in any other jurisdiction for this indication or for any other indication. In order to market lumateperone for other indications or in other jurisdictions, we must obtain regulatory approval for each of those indications and in each of the applicable jurisdictions, and we may never be able to obtain such approval. Approval of CAPLYTA by the FDA for the treatment of schizophrenia does not ensure that foreign jurisdictions will also approve CAPLYTA for that indication, nor does it ensure that lumateperone will be approved by the FDA for any other indication. Lumateperone is in Phase 3 clinical development as a novel treatment for bipolar depression and for the treatment of agitation in patients with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. There is no guarantee that any ongoing or future studies of lumateperone in other indications will be successful, or that the FDA or any regulatory authority in foreign jurisdictions will approve lumateperone for any of those indications. The research, testing, manufacturing, labeling, approval, sale, import, export, marketing, and distribution of pharmaceutical product candidates are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory authorities in the United States and other countries, whose regulations differ from country to country. We will be required to comply with different regulations and policies of the jurisdictions where we seek approval for our product candidates, and we have not yet identified all of the requirements that we will need to satisfy to submit lumateperone for approval for other indications or in other jurisdictions. This will require additional time, expertise and expense, including the potential need to conduct additional studies or development work for other jurisdictions beyond the work that we have conducted to support our new drug application, or NDA, submission in schizophrenia. In addition, strategic considerations need to be taken into account when determining whether and when to submit lumateperone for approval in other jurisdictions. If we do not receive marketing approval for lumateperone for any other indication or from any regulatory agency outside of the United States, we will never be able to commercialize lumateperone for any other indication in the United States or for any indication in any other jurisdiction. Even if we do receive additional regulatory approvals, we may not be successful in commercializing those opportunities.

If the results or timing of regulatory filings, the regulatory process, regulatory developments, clinical trials or preclinical studies, or other activities, actions or decisions related to lumateperone do not meet our or others’ expectations, the market price of our common stock could decline significantly.

If the sales and marketing capabilities we are establishing or our third-party relationships for the commercialization of lumateperone are not effective, lumateperone may not be successfully commercialized.

We have no experience as a company in marketing drugs or with respect to pricing and obtaining adequate third-party reimbursement for drugs. We are in the process of building our commercial organization and capabilities in the United States in order to prepare to market CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia. We will need to successfully complete the expansion of our capabilities and/or enter into arrangements with third parties to sell and market CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia and, if approved, our other product candidates. If our sales and marketing capabilities or our third-party relationships for the commercialization of our products are not effective, our business could be materially harmed.

 

2


We have never generated revenue from product sales and there is no guarantee that our revenue from the sale of CAPLYTA following our planned commercial launch will be substantial.

Our ability to generate revenue from product sales and achieve profitability depends on our ability to successfully commercialize CAPTLYA for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults in the United States and to complete the development of and obtain regulatory approvals necessary to commercialize lumateperone in other indications and our other product candidates. We have a limited operating history on which to evaluate our business and prospects. To date, we have not generated any product revenues from lumateperone or our other product candidates. We cannot guarantee that lumateperone will be successfully commercialized or that any of our product candidates currently in development will ever become marketable products.

We must demonstrate that our product candidates satisfy rigorous standards of safety and efficacy for their intended uses before the FDA and other regulatory authorities in the European Union and elsewhere will approve them for commercialization. Significant additional research, preclinical testing and clinical testing is required before we can file applications with the FDA or other regulatory authorities for premarket approval of our drug candidates. In addition, to compete effectively, our drugs must be easy to administer, cost-effective and economical to manufacture on a commercial scale. We may not achieve any of these objectives.

Our lumateperone bipolar depression Phase 3 clinical program currently consists of two monotherapy studies and one adjunctive study. In addition, in the first quarter of 2020 we expect to initiate an additional Phase 3 study, Study 403, evaluating lumateperone as monotherapy in the treatment of major depressive episodes associated with Bipolar I or Bipolar II disorder. On July 8, 2019, we announced topline results from our first monotherapy study, Study 401, conducted in the U.S., and our second monotherapy study, Study 404, conducted globally, evaluating lumateperone as monotherapy in the treatment of major depressive episodes associated with Bipolar I or Bipolar II disorder. We have also initiated Phase 3 development of lumateperone for the treatment of agitation in patients with dementia, including AD. Our ITI-007-201 trial was a Phase 3 multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial in patients with a clinical diagnosis of probable AD and clinically significant symptoms of agitation. In the fourth quarter of 2018, an independent data monitoring committee, or DMC, completed a pre-specified interim analysis of the ITI-007-201 trial, concluded that the trial is not likely to meet its primary endpoint upon completion and therefore recommended the study should be stopped for futility. As a result, we determined to discontinue the ITI-007-201 trial. Lumateperone was generally well tolerated in the ITI-007-201 trial and the decision to discontinue the study was not related to safety. We are analyzing the data set from this trial and will determine the next steps in our dementia program following completion of this analysis.

In addition, we intend to pursue the development of our PDE program, including ITI-214 for the treatment of several CNS and non-CNS conditions, including cardiovascular disease. Following the favorable safety and tolerability results in our Phase 1 program, we initiated our development program for ITI-214 for Parkinson’s disease. In the fourth quarter of 2018, we announced that the Phase 1/2 clinical trial of ITI-214 has been completed and topline results demonstrated ITI-214 was generally well-tolerated with a favorable safety profile and clinical signs consistent with improvements in motor symptoms and dyskinesias. In addition, in the first quarter of 2018, the investigational new drug application, or IND, went into effect for ITI-214 for the treatment of heart failure. Clinical conduct of the first clinical study in this program, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of escalating single doses of ITI-214 to evaluate safety and hemodynamic effects in patients with systolic heart failure, is ongoing.

We cannot be certain that the clinical development of these or any other drug candidates in preclinical testing or clinical development will be successful, that we will receive the regulatory approvals required to commercialize them or that any of our other research and drug discovery programs will yield a drug candidate suitable for investigation through clinical trials.

 

3


There is no guarantee that our planned clinical trials for lumateperone will be successful.

The historical rate of failures for product candidates in clinical development and late-stage clinical trials is high. We are conducting and plan to conduct further clinical trials in lumateperone in indications beyond schizophrenia, and there is no guarantee that we will have the same level of success in these trials as we have had in certain of our previous clinical trials, or be successful at all.

In addition, although we believe that lumateperone and follow-on compounds may also have clinical utility in indications other than schizophrenia, such as bipolar depression, behavioral disturbances in dementia, intermittent explosive disorder, non-motor disorders associated with Parkinson’s disease, obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder, we have never tested lumateperone in Phase 3 clinical trials in the patient populations for these other indications, except for our two Phase 3 monotherapy studies in bipolar depression for which we announced topline results in July 2019 and our ITI-007-201 Phase 3 trial in patients with a clinical diagnosis of probable AD and clinically significant symptoms of agitation, which we determined to discontinue following the DMC’s recommendation that the study should be stopped for futility.

If we do not successfully complete clinical development and obtain approval of lumateperone in indications beyond schizophrenia, we will be unable to market, sell and generate revenue from lumateperone in any of these other indications. Even though we have successfully completed certain clinical trials for CAPLYTA in patients with schizophrenia, those results are not necessarily predictive of results of future trials that may be needed before we may submit an NDA to the FDA for any indication beyond schizophrenia. Of the vast number of drugs in development, only a small percentage result in the submission of an NDA to the FDA, and even less result in the NDA ultimately being approved by the FDA for commercialization.

We expect our net losses to continue for at least several years and are unable to predict the extent of future losses or when we will become profitable, if ever.

We have experienced significant net losses since our inception. As of September 30, 2019, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $669.5 million. We expect to incur net losses over the next several years as we advance our programs and incur significant clinical development costs. We have not received any revenues from the commercialization of our approved product or product candidates. Substantially all of our revenues to date were from our license and collaboration agreement with Takeda and our agreements with various U.S. governmental agencies and other parties, including our research and development grants. In October 2014, we entered into the Takeda Termination Agreement, which terminated our license and collaboration agreement with Takeda, pursuant to which all rights with respect to ITI-214 that we previously granted to Takeda were returned to us. We will not, therefore, receive any further milestone payments from Takeda and we cannot be certain that we will enter into additional collaboration agreements. To obtain revenues from lumateperone, we must successfully commercialize lumateperone in its approved indication. To obtain revenues from our product candidates, we must succeed, either alone or with others, in developing, obtaining regulatory approval for, and manufacturing and marketing drugs with significant market potential. We may never succeed in these activities, and may never generate revenues that are significant enough to achieve profitability.

We will require substantial additional funding, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all, and, if not so available, may require us to delay, limit, reduce or cease our operations.

We have consumed substantial amounts of capital since our inception. Our cash, cash equivalents and investment securities totaled $255.4 million at September 30, 2019. While we believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents and investment securities, together with interest on cash balances, will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into the mid-fourth quarter of 2020, the amount and timing of our actual expenditures will depend upon numerous factors, including the initiation of commercial launch and sales of CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults in the United States, including the timing and costs thereof, the relative success and cost of our research, preclinical and clinical development programs,

 

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whether we are able to enter into future collaborations, and any unforeseen delays or cash needs. If the FDA requires that we perform additional preclinical studies or clinical trials, or we experience delays or other setbacks in our clinical trials, our expenses would further increase beyond what we currently expect and the anticipated timing of any potential future NDA submission would likely be delayed.

Our future capital requirements will depend on, and could increase significantly as a result of, many factors, including:

 

   

the costs of maintaining and developing our sales and marketing capabilities for lumateperone;

 

   

the amount of product sales from lumateperone;

 

   

the costs of preparing applications for regulatory approvals for lumateperone in additional indications other than in schizophrenia, and potentially in jurisdictions other than the United States, and for other product candidates, as well as the costs required to support review of such applications;

 

   

the costs of manufacturing and distributing lumateperone for commercial use in the United States;

 

   

our ability to obtain regulatory approval for, and subsequently generate product sales from, lumateperone in additional indications other than in schizophrenia or in jurisdictions other than the United States;

 

   

the progress in, and the costs of, our preclinical studies and clinical trials and other research and development programs;

 

   

the scope, prioritization and number of our research and development programs;

 

   

the ability of any future collaborators and us to reach the milestones, and other events or developments, triggering payments under any future collaboration agreements or to otherwise make payments under such agreements;

 

   

our ability to enter into new, and to maintain any existing, collaboration and license agreements;

 

   

the extent to which any future collaborators are obligated to reimburse us for clinical trial costs under any future collaboration agreements;

 

   

the costs involved in filing, prosecuting, enforcing and defending patent claims and other intellectual property rights;

 

   

the costs of maintaining or securing manufacturing and supply arrangements for clinical or commercial production of lumateperone or our other product candidates;

 

   

the costs of preparing applications for regulatory approvals for our product candidates;

 

   

the costs of preparing for and establishing, or contracting for, sales and marketing capabilities if we obtain regulatory clearances to market our product candidates;

 

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the costs involved in expanding the accounting and data management systems to support commercial operations, including but not limited to an Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP); and

 

   

the costs associated with litigation, including the costs incurred in defending against any product liability claims that may be brought against us related to lumateperone or our other product candidates.

Until we can generate significant continuing revenues, we expect to satisfy our future cash needs through our existing cash, cash equivalents and investment securities, strategic collaborations, private or public sales of our securities, debt financings, grant funding, or by licensing all or a portion of our product candidates or technology. Turmoil and volatility in the financial markets have adversely affected the market capitalizations of many biotechnology companies, and generally made equity and debt financing more difficult to obtain. This, coupled with other factors, may limit our access to additional financing. This could have a material adverse effect on our ability to access sufficient funding. We cannot be certain that additional funding will be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If we do obtain additional funding through equity offerings, the ownership of our existing stockholders and purchasers of shares of our common stock in any such offering will be diluted, and the terms of any financing may adversely affect the rights of our stockholders. In addition, the issuance of additional shares by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our shares to decline. If funds are not available, we will be required to delay, reduce the scope of, or eliminate one or more of our research or development programs or our commercialization efforts. We also could be required to seek funds through arrangements with collaboration partners or otherwise that may require us to relinquish rights to some of our technologies, products or product candidates or otherwise agree to terms unfavorable to us.

Our management has broad discretion over the use of our cash and we may not use our cash effectively, which could adversely affect our results of operations.

Our management has significant flexibility in applying our cash resources and could use these resources for corporate purposes that do not increase our market value, or in ways with which our stockholders may not agree. We may use our cash resources for corporate purposes that do not yield a significant return or any return at all for our stockholders, which could adversely affect our future growth prospects.

Delays, suspensions and terminations in our clinical trials could result in increased costs to us, delay our ability to generate product revenues and therefore may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and future growth prospects.

The commencement of clinical trials can be delayed for a variety of reasons, including delays in: demonstrating sufficient safety and efficacy to obtain regulatory approval to commence a clinical trial; reaching agreement on acceptable terms with prospective contract research organizations and clinical trial sites; manufacturing sufficient quantities of a product candidate; obtaining clearance from the FDA to commence clinical trials pursuant to an IND; obtaining institutional review board approval to conduct a clinical trial at a prospective clinical trial site; and patient enrollment, which is a function of many factors, including the size of the patient population, the nature of the protocol, the proximity of patients to clinical trial sites, the availability of effective treatments for the relevant disease and the eligibility criteria for the clinical trial.

Once a clinical trial has begun, it may be delayed, suspended or terminated due to a number of factors, including: ongoing discussions with regulatory authorities regarding the scope or design of our clinical trials or requests by them for supplemental information with respect to our clinical trial results; failure to conduct clinical trials in accordance with regulatory requirements; lower than anticipated screening or retention rates of patients in clinical trials; serious adverse events or side effects experienced by participants; and insufficient supply or deficient quality of product candidates or other materials necessary for the conduct of our clinical trials. In the fourth quarter of 2018, a DMC completed a pre-specified interim analysis of our ITI-007-201 Phase 3 trial in patients with a clinical diagnosis of probable AD and clinically significant symptoms of agitation, concluded that the trial is not likely to meet its primary endpoint upon completion and therefore recommended the study should be stopped for futility. As a result, we determined to discontinue the ITI-007-201 trial.

 

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Many of these factors may also ultimately lead to denial of regulatory approval of a current or potential product candidate. If we experience delays, suspensions or terminations in a clinical trial, our costs will increase, the commercial prospects for the related product candidate will be harmed, and our ability to generate product revenues will be delayed.

Even though the FDA has granted approval of CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia, the terms of the approval may limit its commercial potential. Additionally, CAPLYTA is still subject to ongoing regulatory requirements.

Even though the FDA has granted approval of CAPLYTA, the scope and terms of the approval may limit our ability to commercialize CAPLYTA and, therefore, our ability to generate substantial sales revenues. The FDA has approved CAPLYTA only for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults. The label for CAPLYTA also contains a “boxed” warning that elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis treated with antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of death and that CAPLYTA is not approved for the treatment of patients with dementia-related psychosis.

The manufacturing processes, labeling, packaging, distribution, adverse event reporting, storage, advertising, promotion and recordkeeping for CAPLYTA will also continue to be subject to extensive and ongoing regulatory requirements. These requirements include submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, registration, as well as continued compliance with current good manufacturing processes, good clinical practices, international council for harmonization guidelines and good laboratory practices, which are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA for all of our nonclinical and clinical development and for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval.

Discovery of any issues post-approval, including any safety concerns, such as unexpected side effects or drug-drug interaction problems, adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or concerns over misuse or abuse of the product, problems with the facilities where the product is manufactured, packaged or distributed, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in, among other things, restrictions on CAPLYTA or on us, including:

 

   

withdrawal of approval, addition of warnings or narrowing of the approved indication in the product label;

 

   

requirement of a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy to mitigate the risk of off-label use in populations where the FDA may believe that the potential risks of use may outweigh its benefits;

 

   

voluntary or mandatory recalls;

 

   

warning letters;

 

   

suspension of any ongoing clinical studies;

 

   

refusal by the FDA or other regulatory authorities to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications filed by us, or suspension or revocation of product approvals;

 

   

restrictions on operations, including restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of the product or the imposition of costly new manufacturing requirements; or

 

   

seizure or detention, or refusal to permit the import or export of products.

If any of these actions were to occur, we may have to delay or discontinue the commercialization of CAPLYTA, limit our sales and marketing efforts, conduct further post-approval studies, and/or delay, discontinue or change any other ongoing or planned clinical studies, which in turn could result in significant expense and delay or limit our ability to generate sales revenues.

 

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Safety issues with our product candidates or approved product, or with product candidates or approved products of third parties that are similar to our product candidates, could give rise to delays in the regulatory approval process, restrictions on labeling or product withdrawal after approval.

Problems with product candidates or approved products marketed by third parties that utilize the same therapeutic target or that belong to the same therapeutic class as our product candidates or approved product could adversely affect the development, regulatory approval and commercialization of our product candidates or approved product. In 2012, the FDA released draft guidance recommending that prospective suicidality assessments be performed in clinical trials of any drug being developed for a psychiatric indication. Our development programs are focused on psychiatric indications. Our PDE program is a novel target and may have unexpected safety effects that do not appear until late in clinical development or after commercial approval. As we continue the development and clinical trials of our product candidates and initiate commercialization of our approved product, there can be no assurance that our product candidates or approved product will not experience significant safety issues.

Discovery of previously unknown class effect problems may prevent or delay clinical development and commercial approval of product candidates or result in restrictions on permissible uses after their approval, including withdrawal of the medicine from the market. Many drugs acting on the CNS include boxed warnings and precautions related to suicidal behavior or ideation, driving impairment, somnolence/sedation and dizziness, discontinuation, weight gain, non-insulin dependent (type II) diabetes, cardiovascular side effects, sleep disturbances, and motor disturbances. The label for CAPLYTA contains a “boxed” warning that elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis treated with antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of death and that CAPLYTA is not approved for the treatment of patients with dementia-related psychosis. If we or others later identify undesirable side effects caused by the mechanisms of action or classes of our products or product candidates or any specific products or product candidates:

 

   

we may be required to conduct additional clinical trials or implement a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies program prior to or following approval;

 

   

regulatory authorities may not approve our product candidates or, as a condition of approval, may require specific warnings and contraindications;

 

   

regulatory authorities may withdraw their approval of the product and require us to take our drug off the market;

 

   

we may have limitations on how we promote our drugs;

 

   

sales of products may decrease significantly;

 

   

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 the affected product or could substantially increase our commercialization costs and expenses, which, in turn, could delay or prevent us from generating significant revenues from its sale.

Finally, if the FDA determines that a drug may present a risk of substance abuse, it can recommend to the Drug Enforcement Administration that the drug be scheduled under the Controlled Substances Act. Any failure or delay in commencing or completing clinical trials or obtaining regulatory approvals for our product candidates would delay commercialization of our product candidates, and severely harm our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

 

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If we seek to enter into strategic alliances for our drug candidates, but fail to enter into and maintain successful strategic alliances, we may have to reduce or delay our drug candidate development or increase our expenditures.

An important element of a biotechnology company’s strategy for developing, manufacturing and commercializing its drug candidates may be to enter into strategic alliances with pharmaceutical companies or other industry participants to advance its programs and enable it to maintain its financial and operational capacity. We may face significant competition in seeking appropriate alliances. If we seek such alliances, we may not be able to negotiate alliances on acceptable terms, if at all. In addition, these alliances may be unsuccessful. On October 31, 2014, we entered into the Termination Agreement with Takeda, which terminated the Takeda License Agreement, pursuant to which all rights granted under the Takeda License Agreement were returned to us. If we seek such alliances and then fail to create and maintain suitable alliances, we may have to limit the size or scope of, or delay, one or more of our drug development or research programs. If we elect to fund drug development or research programs on our own, we will have to increase our expenditures and will need to obtain additional funding, which may be unavailable or available only on unfavorable terms.

To the extent we are able to enter into collaborative arrangements or strategic alliances, we will be exposed to risks related to those collaborations and alliances.

Biotechnology companies at our stage of development sometimes become dependent upon collaborative arrangements or strategic alliances to complete the development and commercialization of drug candidates, particularly after the Phase 2 stage of clinical testing. If we elect to enter into collaborative arrangements or strategic alliances, these arrangements may place the development of our drug candidates outside our control, may require us to relinquish important rights or may otherwise be on terms unfavorable to us.

Dependence on collaborative arrangements or strategic alliances would subject us to a number of risks, including the risk that:

 

   

we may not be able to control the amount and timing of resources that our collaborators may devote to the drug candidates;

 

   

our collaborators may experience financial difficulties;

 

   

we may be required to relinquish important rights, such as marketing and distribution rights;

 

   

business combinations or significant changes in a collaborator’s business strategy may also adversely affect a collaborator’s willingness or ability to complete its obligations under any arrangement;

 

   

a collaborator could independently move forward with a competing drug candidate developed either independently or in collaboration with others, including our competitors; and

 

   

collaborative arrangements are often terminated or allowed to expire, which would delay the development and may increase the cost of developing our drug candidates.

Preliminary and interim data from our clinical studies that we may announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available.

From time to time, we may announce or publish preliminary or interim data from our clinical studies. Preliminary and interim data of a clinical trial are not necessarily predictive of final data. Preliminary and interim data are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as patient enrollment continues and more patient data become available. As a result, preliminary and interim data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. Material adverse changes in the final data compared to the interim data could affect our planned clinical path for our product candidates, including increasing costs of and/or causing delays in such development, and could significantly harm our business prospects.

 

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We rely on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and perform data collection and analysis, which may result in costs and delays that prevent us from successfully commercializing our product candidates.

Although we design and manage our current preclinical studies and clinical trials, we do not now have the ability to conduct clinical trials for our product candidates on our own. In addition to our collaborators, we rely on contract research organizations, medical institutions, clinical investigators, and contract laboratories to perform data collection and analysis and other aspects of our clinical trials. In addition, we also rely on third parties to assist with our preclinical studies, including studies regarding biological activity, safety, absorption, metabolism, and excretion of product candidates.

Our preclinical activities or clinical trials may be delayed, suspended, or terminated if: the quality or accuracy of the data obtained by the third parties on whom we rely is compromised due to their failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or regulatory requirements or if for other reasons, these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or fail to meet regulatory obligations or expected deadlines, or these third parties need to be replaced.

If the third parties on whom we rely fail to perform, our development costs may increase, our ability to obtain regulatory approval, and consequently, to commercialize our product candidates may be delayed or prevented altogether. We currently use several contract research organizations to perform services for our preclinical studies and clinical trials. While we believe that there are numerous alternative sources to provide these services, in the event that we seek such alternative sources, we may not be able to enter into replacement arrangements without delays or incurring additional expenses.

Even if we successfully complete the clinical trials of one or more of our product candidates, the product candidates may fail for other reasons.

Even if we successfully complete the clinical trials for one or more of our product candidates, the product candidates may fail for other reasons, including the possibility that the product candidates will:

 

   

fail to receive the regulatory approvals required to market them as drugs;

 

   

be subject to proprietary rights held by others requiring the negotiation of a license agreement prior to marketing;

 

   

be difficult or expensive to manufacture on a commercial scale;

 

   

have adverse side effects that make their use less desirable; or

 

   

fail to compete with product candidates or other treatments commercialized by our competitors.

If we are unable to receive the required regulatory approvals, secure our intellectual property rights, minimize the incidence of any adverse side effects or fail to compete with our competitors’ products, our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

We are subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and restrictions with regard to CAPLYTA and, following regulatory approval of any of our product candidates, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and restrictions with regard to such product candidates, which may result in significant expense and limit our ability to commercialize lumateperone and our other potential products.

With regard to CAPLYTA and our product candidates, if any, approved by the FDA, or by another regulatory authority, we are held to extensive regulatory requirements over product manufacturing, labeling, packaging, adverse event reporting, storage, advertising, promotion and record keeping. Regulatory approvals may also be subject to significant limitations on the indicated uses or marketing of the product candidates. Potentially costly follow-up or post-marketing clinical studies may be required as a condition of approval to further substantiate safety or efficacy, or to investigate specific issues of interest to the regulatory authority.

 

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Previously unknown problems with the product candidate, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, may result in restrictions on the marketing of the drug, and could include withdrawal of the drug from the market.

In addition, the law or regulatory policies governing pharmaceuticals may change. New statutory requirements or additional regulations may be enacted that could prevent or delay regulatory approval of our product candidates. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of adverse government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, either in the United States or elsewhere. If we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we might not be permitted to market our drugs and our business could suffer.

CAPLYTA and our product candidates, if approved, may not gain acceptance among physicians, patients, or the medical community, thereby limiting our potential to generate revenues, which will undermine our future growth prospects.

The degree of market acceptance by physicians, health care professionals and third-party payors of CAPLYTA, and any product candidate for which we obtain regulatory approval, and our profitability and growth will depend on a number of factors, including:

 

   

our ability to provide acceptable evidence of safety and efficacy;

 

   

the scope of the approved indication(s) for the product;

 

   

the inclusion of any warnings or contraindications in the product label;

 

   

pricing and cost effectiveness, which may be subject to regulatory control;

 

   

our ability to obtain sufficient third-party insurance coverage or reimbursement;

 

   

effectiveness of our or our collaborators’ sales and marketing strategy;

 

   

relative convenience and ease of administration;

 

   

prevalence and severity of any adverse side effects; and

 

   

availability of alternative treatments.

If any product that we develop does not provide a treatment regimen that is at least as beneficial as the current standard of care or otherwise does not provide some additional patient benefit over the current standard of care, that product will not achieve market acceptance and we will not generate sufficient revenues to achieve profitability.

The failure to attract and retain skilled personnel and key relationships could impair our drug development and commercialization efforts.

We are highly dependent on our senior management and key clinical development, sales and marketing, scientific and technical personnel. Competition for these types of personnel is intense. The loss of the services of any member of our senior management, clinical development, sales and marketing, scientific or technical staff may significantly delay or prevent the achievement of drug development, commercialization and other business objectives and could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. We also rely on consultants and advisors to assist us in formulating our strategy. All of our consultants and advisors are either self-employed or employed by other organizations, and they may have conflicts of interest or other commitments, such as consulting or advisory contracts with other organizations, that may affect their ability to contribute to us. We intend to expand and develop new drug candidates, and will need additional funding to grow our business. We will need to hire additional employees in order to continue our research and clinical trials and to market our drugs when approved. This strategy will require us to recruit additional executive management and clinical development, regulatory, scientific, technical and sales and marketing personnel. There is currently

 

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intense competition for skilled executives and employees with relevant clinical development, scientific, technical and sales and marketing expertise, and this competition is likely to continue. The inability to attract and retain sufficient clinical development, scientific, technical, sales and marketing, and managerial personnel, due to intense competition and our limited resources, would limit or delay our product development and commercialization efforts, which would adversely affect the development of our drug candidates and commercialization of CAPLYTA and growth of our business.

We may not be able to continue or fully exploit our partnerships with outside scientific and clinical advisors, which could impair the progress of our clinical trials and our research and development efforts.

We work with scientific and clinical advisors at academic and other institutions who are experts in the field of CNS disorders. They advise us with respect to our clinical trials. These advisors are not our employees and may have other commitments that would limit their future availability to us. If a conflict of interest arises between their work for us and their work for another entity, we may lose their services, which may impair our reputation in the industry and delay the development or commercialization of our approved product or product candidates.

Lumateperone and our other product candidates have never been manufactured on a commercial scale, and there are risks associated with scaling up manufacturing to commercial scale. In particular, we will need to develop a larger scale manufacturing process that is more efficient and cost-effective to commercialize lumateperone and our other potential products, which may not be successful.

Lumateperone and our other product candidates have never been manufactured on a commercial scale, and there are risks associated with scaling up manufacturing to commercial scale including, among others, cost overruns, potential problems with process scale-up, process reproducibility, stability issues, lot consistency and timely availability of raw materials. On January 4, 2017, we entered into a supply agreement with Siegfried. Under the Siegfried Agreement, Siegfried has agreed to manufacture and supply the active pharmaceutical ingredient, or API, for lumateperone in commercial quantities. There is no assurance that Siegfried or other manufacturers will be successful in establishing a larger-scale commercial manufacturing process for lumateperone which achieves our objectives for manufacturing capacity and cost of goods. In addition, there is no assurance that our manufacturers will be able to manufacture lumateperone to specifications acceptable to the FDA or other regulatory authorities, to produce it in sufficient quantities to meet the requirements for the potential launch of lumateperone or to meet potential future demand. If our manufacturers are unable to produce sufficient quantities of lumateperone for commercialization, our commercialization efforts would be impaired, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

We rely on third-party manufacturers to manufacture and supply lumateperone and our other product candidates for us. If one of our suppliers or manufacturers fails to perform adequately or fulfill our needs, we may be required to incur significant costs and devote significant efforts to find new suppliers or manufacturers. We may also face significant delays in our clinical trials, regulatory approvals and product introductions and commercialization.

We have no manufacturing facilities and have limited experience in the manufacturing of drugs or in designing drug-manufacturing processes. We have contracted with third-party manufacturers to produce, in collaboration with us, our product candidates, including lumateperone, for clinical trials and to produce lumateperone for commercial sales. For example, on January 4, 2017, we entered into a supply agreement with Siegfried under which Siegfried has agreed to manufacture and supply the API for lumateperone in commercial quantities. Each month, we will provide Siegfried with a rolling forecast of our anticipated requirements for supply of the API, with the first 12 months of each forecast being binding on us. Under the Siegfried Agreement, we have the right to and may purchase the API for lumateperone from other suppliers, including if Siegfried cannot fulfill our requirements. In addition, we expect to have an additional third party source of supply of the API for lumateperone in commercial quantities. While we believe that there are alternative sources available to

 

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manufacture our product candidates, in the event that we seek such alternative sources, we may not be able to enter into replacement arrangements without delays or additional expenditures. We cannot estimate these delays or costs with certainty but, if they were to occur, they could cause a delay in our development and commercialization efforts. If our existing or planned third party manufacturing arrangements are terminated or if the sources of supply from such arrangements are inadequate and we must seek supply agreements from alternative sources, we may be unable to enter into such agreements or do so on commercially reasonable terms, which could delay a product launch or subject our commercialization efforts to significant supply risk.

Manufacturers of our product candidates are obliged to operate in accordance with FDA-mandated current good manufacturing practices, or cGMPs. The manufacture of pharmaceutical products in compliance with the cGMPs requires significant expertise and capital investment, including the development of advanced manufacturing techniques and process controls. Manufacturers of pharmaceutical products often encounter difficulties in production, including difficulties with production costs and yields, quality control, including stability of the product or product candidate and quality assurance testing, shortages of qualified personnel, as well as compliance with strictly enforced cGMP requirements, other federal and state regulatory requirements and foreign regulations. If our manufacturers were to encounter any of these difficulties or otherwise fail to comply with their obligations to us or under applicable regulations, our ability to provide product for commercial sale or product candidates in our clinical trials would be jeopardized. Any delay or interruption in the supply of commercial quantities of approved product could have a material adverse impact on our revenue from product sales and any delay or interruption in the supply of clinical trial materials could delay the completion of our clinical trials, increase the costs associated with maintaining our clinical trial programs and, depending upon the period of delay, require us to commence new clinical trials at significant additional expense or terminate the clinical trials completely.

In addition, the facilities used by our contract manufacturers or other third party manufacturers to manufacture our product candidates must be approved by the FDA pursuant to inspections conducted following our request for regulatory approval for our product candidates from the FDA. These requirements include, among other things, quality control, quality assurance and the maintenance of records and documentation. Manufacturers of our product candidates may be unable to comply with these cGMP requirements and with other FDA, state and foreign regulatory requirements. The FDA or similar foreign regulatory agencies may also implement new standards at any time, or change their interpretation and enforcement of existing standards for manufacture, packaging or testing of products. We have little control over our manufacturers’ compliance with these regulations and standards. A failure of any of our current or future contract manufacturers to establish and follow cGMPs and to document their adherence to such practices may lead to significant delays in clinical trials or in obtaining regulatory approval of product candidates or the ultimate launch of products, if approved, into the market. Failure by our current or future third-party manufacturers or us to comply with applicable regulations could result in sanctions being imposed on us, including fines, injunctions, civil penalties, failure of the government to grant pre-market approval of drugs, delays, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, seizures or recalls of products, operating restrictions, and criminal prosecutions. If the safety of any product supplied is compromised due to our manufacturers’ failure to adhere to applicable laws or for other reasons, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or successfully commercialize our products and we may be held liable for any injuries sustained as a result. Any of these factors could cause a delay of clinical studies, regulatory submissions, approvals or commercialization of our product candidates or approved product, entail higher costs or impair our reputation.

We will need to continue to manage our organization and we may encounter difficulties with our staffing and any future transitions, which could adversely affect our results of operations.

We will need to manage our operations and facilities effectively in order to advance our drug development programs (including lumateperone and ITI-214), facilitate any future collaborations, and pursue other development activities. It is possible that our infrastructure may be inadequate to support our future efforts and growth. In particular, we will need to further develop information technology systems and internal sales,

 

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marketing, and distribution capabilities for any drug that we may successfully develop, including CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia. We may not successfully manage our operations and, accordingly, may not achieve our research, development, and commercialization goals.

Our ability to generate product revenues will be diminished if lumateperone or any of our other potential products does not receive coverage from payors or sell for inadequate prices, or if patients are unable to obtain adequate levels of reimbursement.

Patients who are prescribed medicine for the treatment of their conditions generally rely on third-party payors to reimburse all or part of the costs associated with their prescription drugs. Adequate coverage and reimbursement from governmental health care programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and commercial payors is critical to new product acceptance. Coverage decisions may depend upon clinical and economic standards that disfavor new drug products when more established or lower cost therapeutic alternatives are already available or subsequently become available. Even if we obtain coverage for lumateperone or other potential products, the resulting reimbursement payment rates might not be adequate or may require co-payments that patients find unacceptably high. Patients are unlikely to use lumateperone or other product candidates, if approved, unless coverage is provided and reimbursement is adequate to cover a significant portion of the cost of those products.

In addition, the market for lumateperone or any product candidate for which we may receive regulatory approval will depend significantly on access to third-party payors’ drug formularies, or lists of medications for which third-party payors provide coverage and reimbursement. The industry competition to be included in such formularies often leads to downward pricing pressures on pharmaceutical companies. Also, third-party payors may refuse to include a particular branded drug in their formularies or otherwise restrict patient access to a branded drug when a less costly generic equivalent or other alternative is available, even if not approved for the indication for which lumateperone is approved.

Third-party payors, whether foreign or domestic, governmental or commercial, are developing increasingly sophisticated methods of controlling health care costs.

The current environment is putting pressure on companies to price products below what they may feel is appropriate. Selling lumateperone at less than an optimized price could impact our revenues and overall success as a company. We do not know if the price we have selected, or may select in the future, for lumateperone is or will be the optimized price. In addition, in the United States, no uniform policy of coverage and reimbursement for drug products exists among third-party payors. Therefore, coverage and reimbursement for drug products such as lumateperone may differ significantly from payor to payor. As a result, the coverage determination process is often a time-consuming and costly process that will require us to provide scientific and clinical support for the use of our drug products such as lumateperone to each payor separately, with no assurance that coverage will be obtained. If we are unable to obtain coverage of, and adequate payment levels for, our products from third-party payors, physicians may limit how much or under what circumstances they will prescribe or administer them and patients may decline to purchase them. This in turn could affect our ability to successfully commercialize any approved products and thereby adversely impact our profitability, results of operations, financial condition, and future success.

Health care legislation may make it more difficult to receive revenues from CAPLYTA or future products.

In both the United States and certain foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory proposals in recent years to change the health care system in ways that could impact our ability to sell our products profitably. In March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010, or collectively, ACA, became law in the United States. The ACA substantially changed the way health care is financed by both governmental and private

 

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insurers and significantly affects the health care industry. Among the provisions of ACA of importance to lumateperone and our other potential products are the following:

 

   

imposition of an annual, nondeductible fee on any entity that manufactures or imports certain branded prescription drugs and biologic agents, apportioned among these entities according to their market share in certain government health care programs;

 

   

an increase in the statutory minimum rebates a manufacturer must pay under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, retroactive to January 1, 2010, to 23% and 13% of the average manufacturer price for most branded and generic drugs, respectively;

 

   

expansion of health care fraud and abuse laws, including the False Claims Act and the Anti-Kickback Statute, new government investigative powers, and enhanced penalties for noncompliance;

 

   

a Medicare Part D coverage gap discount program, in which manufacturers agreed to offer 50% point-of-sale discounts off negotiated prices of applicable brand drugs to eligible beneficiaries during their coverage gap period, as a condition for the manufacturer’s outpatient drugs to be covered under Medicare Part D;

 

   

extension of manufacturers’ Medicaid rebate liability to covered drugs dispensed to individuals who are enrolled in Medicaid managed care organizations;

 

   

expansion of eligibility criteria for Medicaid programs;

 

   

expansion of the entities eligible for discounts under the Public Health Service pharmaceutical pricing program;

 

   

requirements to report certain financial arrangements with physicians and teaching hospitals, including reporting any “payments or transfers of value” made or distributed to prescribers, teaching hospitals and other health care providers and reporting any ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members and applicable group purchasing organizations during the preceding calendar year;

 

   

a requirement to annually report drug samples that manufacturers and distributors provide to physicians; and

 

   

a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to oversee, identify priorities in, and conduct comparative clinical effectiveness research, along with funding for such research.

Some of the details regarding the implementation of the ACA are yet to be determined and, at this time, it remains unclear what the full effect that the ACA will have on our business. Moreover, certain legislative changes to and regulatory changes under the ACA have occurred in the 115th United States Congress and under the Trump Administration. For instance, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 increased the ACA required manufacturer point-of-sale discount from 50% to 70% off the negotiated price for Medicare Part D beneficiaries during their coverage gap period beginning in 2019. Further legislative changes to and regulatory changes under the ACA remain possible. We expect that healthcare reform measures that may be adopted in the future may result in more rigorous coverage criteria and lower reimbursement, and in additional downward pressure on the price that may be charged for lumateperone or any of our other product candidates, if approved.

In addition, in many foreign countries, particularly the countries of the European Union, the pricing of prescription drugs is subject to government control. In some non-U.S. jurisdictions, the proposed pricing for a drug must be approved before it may be lawfully marketed. The requirements governing drug pricing vary widely from country to country. For example, the European Union provides options for its member states 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. A 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. We may face competition from lower-priced products in

 

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foreign countries that have placed price controls on pharmaceutical products. In addition, there may be importation of foreign products that compete with any products we may market, which could negatively impact our profitability.

We expect that the ACA, in its current form or as it may be amended, as well as other health care reform measures that may be adopted in the future, may result in more rigorous coverage criteria and in additional downward pressure on the price that we may receive for any approved product. Any reduction in reimbursement from Medicare or other government programs may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors. The implementation of cost containment measures or other health care reforms may prevent us from being able to generate revenue, attain profitability, or commercialize lumateperone or any other products for which we receive regulatory approval.

We currently have very limited experience as a company in marketing and distributing pharmaceutical products and rely on a network of third-party distributors and pharmacies to distribute CAPLYTA. If we are unable to effectively commercialize CAPLYTA, we may not be able to generate adequate product revenues.

CAPLYTA, which was approved in December 2019 by the FDA for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults in the United States, is our only drug that has been approved for sale by any regulatory body. We expect to initiate the commercial launch of CAPLYTA late in the first quarter of 2020. As such, we currently have never, as an organization, launched or commercialized any pharmaceutical product. In order to successfully market CAPLYTA, we must continue to develop our sales, marketing, managerial, compliance, and related capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services. If we are unable to maintain and develop adequate sales, marketing, and distribution capabilities, whether independently or with third parties, we may not be able to appropriately commercialize and generate revenue from sales of CAPLYTA and may not become profitable.

We expect to employ our own internal sales force to commercialize CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia as part of our commercialization strategy in the United States. We will need to complete the hiring of our U.S. sales force and refine and further develop our sales force as we initiate our commercialization of CAPLYTA, and we will be competing with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to recruit, hire, train and retain marketing and sales personnel. These efforts will continue to be expensive and time-consuming, and we cannot be certain that we will be able to successfully complete the hiring of our U.S. sales force and refine and further develop our sales force.

Additionally, our strategy in the United States includes distributing CAPLYTA through a network of third-party distributors. While we have entered into, or will attempt to enter into, agreements with these distributors to distribute CAPLYTA in the United States, they may not perform as agreed or they may terminate their agreements with us. Also, we may need to enter into agreements with additional distributors or pharmacies, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to do so on commercially reasonable terms or at all. If we are unable to maintain and, if needed, expand, our network of distributors, we would be exposed to substantial distribution risk.

In the event we are unable to effectively develop and maintain our commercial team, including our U.S. sales force, or maintain and, if needed, expand, our network of distributors, our ability to effectively commercialize CAPLYTA and generate product revenues would be limited.

There are possible limitations on our use of net operating losses.

As of September 30, 2019, we had net operating loss carryforwards, or NOLs, of approximately $166 million, which are available to reduce any future federal and state taxable income and will begin to expire in the year 2034. The use of our NOLs may be restricted due to changes in our ownership, including as a result of our public offerings.

 

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Under Section 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, substantial changes in our ownership may limit the amount of NOLs and tax credit carryforwards that could be utilized annually in the future to offset taxable income.

For the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, we performed a Section 382 ownership analysis and determined that no ownership change occurred (within the meaning of Section 382 of the Code) as a result of our public offering in 2017. Our previous ownership analysis, through December 31, 2015, reflected an ownership change occurred as a result of our 2015 public offerings. Based on the analysis performed, however, we do not believe that the Section 382 annual limitation will impact our ability to utilize the tax attributes that existed as of the date of the ownership change in a material manner. If we experience an ownership change in the future, the tax benefits related to the NOLs and tax credit carryforwards may be further limited or lost.

In September 2016, we licensed certain intellectual property rights to our wholly-owned subsidiary, ITI Limited, which was formed in the third quarter of 2016. The costs to develop, test, manufacture and perform other activities related to the lumateperone program will be the responsibility of ITI Limited and will be incurred outside of the United States. Therefore, the majority of expected losses that we incur during the next several years will not result in additional NOLs in the U.S. to be carried forward and used against future net income of the U.S. operations.

The comprehensive tax reform bill could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed into law the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” or TCJA, that significantly reforms the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. The TCJA, among other things, includes changes to U.S. federal tax rates, imposes significant additional limitations on the deductibility of interest and net operating loss carryforwards, allows for the expensing of capital expenditures, and puts into effect the migration from a “worldwide” system of taxation to a territorial system. In addition, the TCJA repealed the alternative minimum tax, or AMT, and provides for a refund of taxes paid between 2018 and 2021. With the passing of the TCJA, the Company will receive a refund in future periods for AMT paid in prior years. The Company has recognized a benefit of approximately $1.1 million for these taxes on its December 31, 2017 consolidated statement of operations. As of September 30, 2019, the Company had received refunds of approximately $0.5 million and has recorded receivables of approximately $0.5 million for future AMT refunds. We continue to examine the impact this tax reform legislation may have on our business and depending on possible foreign operations, among other things, the impact of this tax reform is uncertain and could be adverse. This prospectus does not discuss any such tax legislation or the manner in which it might affect holders of our common stock. We urge our stockholders to consult with their legal and tax advisors with respect to such legislation and the potential tax consequences of investing in our common stock.

Security breaches, loss of data and other disruptions could compromise sensitive information related to our business, prevent us from accessing critical information or expose us to liability, which could adversely affect our business and our reputation.

In the ordinary course of our business, we, our clinical research organizations and other third parties on which we rely collect and store sensitive data, including legally protected patient health information, personally identifiable information about our employees, intellectual property, and proprietary business information. We manage and maintain our applications and data utilizing on-site systems. These applications and data encompass a wide variety of business critical information, including research and development information and business and financial information.

The secure processing, storage, maintenance and transmission of this critical information is vital to our operations and business strategy, and we devote significant resources to protecting such information. Although we take measures to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access or disclosure, our information

 

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technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to attacks by hackers, viruses, breaches, interruptions due to employee error, malfeasance or other disruptions, lapses in compliance with privacy and security mandates, or damage from natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. Any such event could compromise our networks and the information stored there could be accessed by unauthorized parties, publicly disclosed, lost or stolen. We have measures in place that are designed to detect and respond to such security incidents and breaches of privacy and security mandates. 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, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, government enforcement actions and regulatory penalties. Unauthorized access, loss or dissemination could also disrupt our operations, including our ability to conduct research and development activities, process and prepare company financial information, manage various general and administrative aspects of our business and damage our reputation, any of which could adversely affect our business. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or ongoing or planned clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. In addition, there can be no assurance that we will promptly detect any such disruption or security breach, if at all. To the extent that any disruption or security breach were to result in a loss of or damage to our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liability and the commercialization of our approved product and the further development of our product candidates could be delayed or otherwise adversely impacted.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

Our ability to compete may be undermined if we do not adequately protect our proprietary rights.

Our commercial success depends on obtaining and maintaining proprietary rights to our products and product candidates and technologies and their uses, as well as successfully defending these rights against third-party challenges. We will only be able to protect our products and product candidates, proprietary technologies, and their uses from unauthorized use by third parties to the extent that valid and enforceable patents, or effectively protected trade secrets, cover them. We have patent rights under issued patents in many cases covering our lumateperone, ITI-002 and ITI-333 development programs. Nonetheless, the issued patents and patent applications covering our primary technology programs remain subject to uncertainty and continuous monitoring and action by us due to a number of factors, including:

 

   

we may not have been the first to make the inventions covered by our pending patent applications or issued patents;

 

   

we may not have been the first to file patent applications for our products, product candidates or the technologies we rely upon;

 

   

others may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies;

 

   

our disclosures in patent applications may not be sufficient to meet the statutory requirements for patentability;

 

   

any or all of our pending patent applications may not result in issued patents;

 

   

we may not seek or obtain patent protection in all countries that will eventually provide a significant business opportunity;

 

   

any patents issued to us or our collaborators may not provide a basis for commercially viable products, may not provide us with any competitive advantages or may be challenged by third parties;

 

   

our proprietary technologies may not be patentable;

 

   

others may design around our patent claims to produce competitive products which fall outside of the scope of our patents;

 

18


   

others may identify prior art which could invalidate our patents; and

 

   

changes to patent laws may limit the exclusivity rights of patent holders.

Even if we have or obtain patents covering our products, product candidates or technologies, we may still be barred from making, using and selling our products, product candidates or technologies because of the patent rights of others. Others have or may have filed, and in the future are likely to file, patent applications covering compounds, assays, genes, gene products and therapeutic products that are similar or identical to ours. There are many issued U.S. and foreign patents relating to genes, nucleic acids, polypeptides, chemical compounds or therapeutic products, and some of these may encompass reagents utilized in the identification of candidate drug compounds or compounds that we desire to commercialize. Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications owned by others exist in the area of CNS disorders and the other fields in which we are developing product candidates. These could materially affect our ability to develop our product candidates or sell our products. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending applications, unknown to us, that may later result in issued patents that our products, product candidates or technologies may infringe. These patent applications may have priority over patent applications filed by us.

We regularly conduct searches to identify patents or patent applications that may prevent us from obtaining patent protection for our proprietary compounds or that could limit the rights we have claimed in our patents and patent applications. Disputes may arise regarding the ownership or inventorship of our inventions. It is difficult to determine how such disputes would be resolved. Others may challenge the validity, enforceability, scope and term of our patents. Additionally, any patent term extensions that we seek may not be granted on a timely basis, if at all. If our patents are found to be invalid, we will lose the ability to exclude others from making, using or selling the inventions claimed in our patents.

Some of our academic institutional licensors, research collaborators and scientific advisors have rights to publish data and information to which we have rights. If we cannot maintain the confidentiality of our technology and other confidential information in connection with our collaborations, then our ability to receive patent protection or protect our proprietary information will be impaired. Additionally, any employee whose employment with us terminates, whether voluntarily by the employee or by us in connection with restructurings or otherwise, may seek future employment with our competitors. Although each of our employees is required to sign a confidentiality agreement with us at the time of hire, we cannot guarantee that the confidential nature of our proprietary information will be maintained in the course of such future employment. In addition, technology that we may license-in may become important to some aspects of our business. We generally will not control the patent prosecution, maintenance or enforcement of in-licensed technology.

Confidentiality agreements with employees and others may not adequately prevent disclosure of our trade secrets and other proprietary information and may not adequately protect our intellectual property, which could limit our ability to compete.

Because we operate in the highly technical field of drug discovery and development of small molecule drugs, we rely in part on trade secret protection in order to protect our proprietary technology and processes. However, trade secrets are difficult to protect. We enter into confidentiality and intellectual property assignment agreements with our corporate partners, employees, consultants, outside scientific collaborators, sponsored researchers, and other advisors. These agreements generally require that the other party keep confidential and not disclose to third parties any confidential information developed by the party or made known to the party by us during the course of the party’s relationship with us. These agreements also generally provide that inventions conceived by the party in the course of rendering services to us will be our exclusive property. However, these agreements may not be honored and may not effectively assign intellectual property rights to us. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally obtained and is using our trade secrets is difficult, expensive and time consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, courts outside the United States may be less willing to protect trade secrets. The failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive position.

 

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A dispute concerning the infringement or misappropriation of our proprietary rights or the proprietary rights of others could be time consuming and costly, and an unfavorable outcome could harm our business.

There is significant litigation in our industry regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. While we are not currently subject to any pending intellectual property litigation, and are not aware of any such threatened litigation, we may be exposed to future litigation by third parties based on claims that our products, product candidates, technologies or activities infringe the intellectual property rights of others. If our drug development or commercialization activities are found to infringe any such patents, we may have to pay significant damages or seek licenses to such patents. We may need to resort to litigation to enforce a patent issued to us, protect our trade secrets or determine the scope and validity of third-party proprietary rights. From time to time, we may hire scientific personnel formerly employed by other companies involved in one or more areas similar to the activities conducted by us. Either we or these individuals may be subject to allegations of trade secret misappropriation or other similar claims as a result of their prior affiliations. If we become involved in litigation, it could consume a substantial portion of our managerial and financial resources, regardless of whether we win or lose. We also may not be able to afford the costs of litigation.

The patent applications of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies involve highly complex legal and factual questions, which, if determined adversely to us, could negatively impact our patent position.

The patent positions of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies can be highly uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s, or USPTO’s, standards are uncertain and could change in the future. Consequently, the issuance and scope of patents cannot be predicted with certainty. Patents, if issued, may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented. U.S. patents and patent applications may also be subject to interference proceedings, and U.S. patents may be subject to reexamination proceedings in the USPTO (and foreign patents may be subject to opposition or comparable proceedings in the corresponding foreign patent office), which proceedings could result in either loss of the patent or denial of the patent application or loss or reduction in the scope of one or more of the claims of the patent or patent application. Similarly, opposition or invalidity proceedings could result in loss of rights or reduction in the scope of one or more claims of a patent in foreign jurisdictions. In addition, such interference, reexamination and opposition proceedings may be costly. Accordingly, rights under any issued patents may not provide us with sufficient protection against competitive products or processes.

In addition, changes in or different interpretations of patent laws in the United States and foreign countries may permit others to use our discoveries or to develop and commercialize our technology, products and product candidates without providing any compensation to us or may limit the number of patents or claims we can obtain. In particular, there have been proposals to shorten the exclusivity periods available under U.S. patent law that, if adopted, could substantially harm our business. Our approved product and the product candidates that we are developing are protected by intellectual property rights, including patents and patent applications. For our approved product and any of our product candidates that become a marketable product, if any, we will rely on our exclusivity under patents to sell the compound and recoup our investments in the research and development of the compound. If the exclusivity period for patents is shortened, then our ability to generate revenues without competition will be reduced and our business could be materially adversely impacted. The laws of some countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as U.S. laws, and those countries may lack adequate rules and procedures for defending our intellectual property rights. For example, some countries, including many in Europe, do not grant patent claims directed to methods of treating humans and, in these countries, patent protection may not be available at all to protect our products or product candidates. In addition, U.S. patent laws may change, which could prevent or limit us from filing patent applications or patent claims to protect our products, product candidates and/or technologies or limit the exclusivity periods that are available to patent holders. For example, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or the Leahy-Smith Act, was recently signed into law and includes a number of significant changes to U.S. patent law. These include changes to transition from a “first-to-invent” system to a “first-to-file” system and to the way issued patents are challenged. These changes may favor larger and more established companies that have more resources to devote to patent

 

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application filing and prosecution. The USPTO has been in the process of implementing regulations and procedures to administer the Leahy-Smith Act, and many of the substantive changes to patent law associated with the Leahy-Smith Act may affect our ability to obtain, enforce or defend our patents. Accordingly, it is not clear what, if any, impact the Leahy-Smith Act will ultimately have on the cost of prosecuting our patent applications, our ability to obtain patents based on our discoveries and our ability to enforce or defend our issued patents.

If we fail to obtain and maintain patent protection and trade secret protection of our products, product candidates, proprietary technologies and their uses, we could lose our competitive advantage and competition we face would increase, reducing our potential revenues and adversely affecting our ability to attain or maintain profitability.

Risks Related to the Transfer of Certain Intellectual Property Rights to our Foreign Subsidiary

We may need to utilize all of our available net operating losses, and we may be subject to additional income taxes in connection with our transfer of certain intellectual property rights to our foreign subsidiary.

In September 2016, we licensed certain intellectual property rights to our wholly-owned Bermuda subsidiary, ITI Limited for $125 million and other consideration. The fair value of the intellectual property rights was determined by an independent third party. The proceeds from this license represented a prior year gain for U.S. tax purposes which was offset partially by prior year losses. However, the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, could challenge the valuation of the intellectual property rights and assess a greater valuation, which would require us to utilize a portion, or all, of our available NOLs at such time. If an IRS valuation exceeds our available NOLs, we could incur additional income taxes in the future. Our ability to use our NOLs is generally subject to the limitations of IRS Section 382, as well as expiration of federal and state net operating loss carryforwards.

Risks Related to Our Industry

We will be subject to stringent regulation in connection with the marketing of CAPLYTA and any other products derived from our product candidates, which could delay the development and commercialization of our products.

The pharmaceutical industry is subject to stringent regulation by the FDA and other regulatory agencies in the United States and by comparable authorities in other countries. Neither we nor our collaborators can market a pharmaceutical product in the United States until it has completed rigorous preclinical testing and clinical trials and an extensive regulatory clearance process implemented by the FDA. Satisfaction of regulatory requirements typically takes many years, depends upon the type, complexity and novelty of the product, and requires substantial resources. Even if regulatory approval is obtained, it may impose significant restrictions on the indicated uses, conditions for use, labeling, advertising, promotion, and/or marketing of such products, and requirements for post-approval studies, including additional research and development and clinical trials. For example, the label for CAPLYTA contains a “boxed” warning that elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis treated with antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of death and that CAPLYTA is not approved for the treatment of patients with dementia-related psychosis. These limitations may limit the size of the market for the product or result in the incurrence of additional costs. Any delay or failure in obtaining required approvals could have a material adverse effect on our ability to generate revenues and continue our business.

Outside the United States, the ability to market a product is contingent upon receiving approval from the appropriate regulatory authorities. The requirements governing the conduct of clinical trials, marketing authorization, pricing, and reimbursement vary widely from country to country. Only after the appropriate regulatory authority is satisfied that adequate evidence of safety, quality, and efficacy has been presented will it grant a marketing authorization. Approval by the FDA does not automatically lead to the approval by regulatory authorities outside the United States and, similarly, approval by regulatory authorities outside the United States will not automatically lead to FDA approval.

 

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Many of our competitors have greater resources and capital than us, putting us at a competitive disadvantage. If our competitors develop and market products that are more effective than lumateperone or our other product candidates, they may reduce or eliminate our commercial opportunity.

Competition in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries is intense and increasing. We face competition from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as numerous academic and research institutions and governmental agencies, both in the United States and abroad. Some of these competitors have products or are pursuing the development of drugs that target the same diseases and conditions that are the focus of our drug development programs.

For example, CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia and, if approved, lumateperone for the treatment of bipolar depression would compete with, among other branded products, Latuda®, marketed by Sunovion, Rexulti®, marketed by Otsuka Pharmaceutical, VRAYLAR®, marketed by Allergan, Saphris®, marketed by Allergan, and Fanapt®, marketed by Vanda Pharmaceuticals. In addition, lumateperone and our other product candidates, if approved, will compete with, among other generic antipsychotic products, aripiprazole, haloperidol, paliperidone, risperidone, quetiapine/XR, olanzapine and clozapine.

Many of our competitors and their collaborators have significantly greater experience than we do in the following:

 

   

identifying and validating targets;

 

   

screening compounds against targets;

 

   

preclinical studies and clinical trials of potential pharmaceutical products;

 

   

obtaining FDA and other regulatory approvals; and

 

   

commercializing pharmaceutical products.

In addition, many of our competitors and their collaborators have substantially greater capital and research and development resources, manufacturing, sales and marketing capabilities, and production facilities. Smaller companies also may prove to be significant competitors, particularly through proprietary research discoveries and collaboration arrangements with large pharmaceutical and established biotechnology companies. Many of our competitors have products that have been approved or are in advanced development and may develop superior technologies or methods to identify and validate drug targets and to discover novel small molecule drugs. Our competitors, either alone or with their collaborators, may succeed in developing drugs that are more effective, safer, more affordable, or more easily administered than ours and may achieve patent protection or commercialize drugs sooner than us. Our competitors may also develop alternative therapies that could further limit the market for any drugs that we may develop. Our failure to compete effectively could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Any claims relating to improper handling, storage, or disposal of biological, hazardous, and radioactive materials used in our business could be costly and delay our research and development efforts.

Our research and development activities involve the controlled use of potentially harmful hazardous materials, including volatile solvents, biological materials such as blood from patients that have the potential to transmit disease, chemicals that cause cancer, and various radioactive compounds. Our operations also produce hazardous waste products. We face the risk of contamination or injury from the use, storage, handling or disposal of these materials. We are subject to federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the use, storage, handling, and disposal of these materials and specified waste products. The cost of compliance with these laws and regulations could be significant, and current or future environmental regulations may impair our research, development, or production efforts. If one of our employees were accidentally injured from the use, storage, handling, or disposal of these materials, the medical costs related to his or her treatment would be covered by our workers’ compensation insurance policy. However, we do not carry specific biological or hazardous waste

 

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insurance coverage and our general liability insurance policy specifically excludes coverage for damages and fines arising from biological or hazardous waste exposure or contamination. Accordingly, in the event of contamination or injury, we could be subject to criminal sanctions or fines or be held liable for damages, our operating licenses could be revoked, and we could be required to suspend or modify our operations and our research and development efforts.

If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of lumateperone or any other product for which we obtain regulatory approval, or development or commercialization of our product candidates.

We face an inherent risk of product liability as a result of commercial sales of lumateperone in the United States and the clinical testing of our product candidates, and will face an even greater risk following commercial launch of lumateperone in additional jurisdictions, if approved, or if we engage in the clinical testing of new product candidates or commercialize any additional products.

For example, we may be sued if lumateperone or any other product we develop allegedly causes injury or is found to be otherwise unsuitable for administration in humans. Any such product liability claims may include allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a failure to warn of dangers inherent in the product, negligence, strict liability or a breach of warranties. Claims could also be asserted under state consumer protection acts. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we may incur substantial liabilities or be required to limit commercialization of our product candidates. Even successful defense would require significant financial and management resources. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:

 

   

decreased demand for our products or product candidates that we may develop;

 

   

injury to our reputation;

 

   

withdrawal of clinical trial participants;

 

   

initiation of investigations by regulators;

 

   

costs to defend the related litigation;

 

   

a diversion of management’s time and our resources;

 

   

substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;

 

   

product recalls, withdrawals or labeling, marketing or promotional restrictions;

 

   

loss of revenue;

 

   

exhaustion of any available insurance and our capital resources;

 

   

the inability to commercialize our products or product candidates; and

 

   

a decline in our stock price.

Although we currently have product liability insurance that covers our clinical trials and the commercialization of CAPLYTA for the treatment of schizophrenia, we may need to increase and expand this coverage, including if lumateperone is approved for the treatment of indications beyond schizophrenia or if other product candidates are approved for commercial sale. This insurance may be prohibitively expensive or may not fully cover our potential liabilities. Inability to obtain sufficient insurance coverage at an acceptable cost or otherwise to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of products that we or our collaborators develop. If we determine that it is prudent to increase our product liability coverage, we may be unable to obtain such increased coverage on acceptable terms or at all. Our insurance policies also have various exclusions, and we may be subject to a product liability claim for which we have no coverage. Our liability could exceed our total assets if we do not prevail in a lawsuit from any injury caused by our drug products. Product liability claims could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

 

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Risks Related to Owning Our Common Stock

Numerous factors could result in substantial volatility in the trading price of our stock.

During the year ended December 31, 2019, the price per share of our common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market has ranged from a high of $43.56 to a low of $6.75. We have several stockholders, including affiliated stockholders, who hold substantial blocks of our stock. Sales of large numbers of shares by any of our large stockholders could adversely affect our trading price. If stockholders holding shares of our common stock sell, indicate an intention to sell, or if it is perceived that they will sell, substantial amounts of their common stock in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline.

In addition, the trading price of our common stock may be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. These factors include:

 

   

the success of our commercial launch and commercialization of CAPLYTA in the United States for the treatment of schizophrenia;

 

   

timing and announcement of regulatory developments, submissions and approvals or preliminary, interim or final results of clinical trials;

 

   

actual or anticipated quarterly variation in our results of operations or the results of our competitors;

 

   

announcements of medical innovations or new products or product candidates by our competitors;

 

   

issuance of new or changed securities analysts’ reports or recommendations for our stock;

 

   

developments or disputes concerning our intellectual property or other proprietary rights;

 

   

commencement of, or our involvement in, litigation;

 

   

market conditions in the biopharmaceutical industry;

 

   

any future sales of our common stock or other securities in connection with raising additional capital or otherwise;

 

   

any major change to the composition of our board of directors or management; and

 

   

general economic conditions and slow or negative growth of our markets.

The stock market in general, and market prices for the securities of biotechnology companies like ours in particular, have from time to time experienced volatility that often has been unrelated to the operating performance of the underlying companies. These broad market and industry fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our operating performance. In several recent situations where the market price of a stock has been volatile, holders of that stock have instituted securities class action litigation against the company that issued the stock. If any of our stockholders were to bring a lawsuit against us, such as the purported class action lawsuits brought against us and certain of our executive officers in May 2017, consolidated in July 2017 and voluntarily dismissed in November 2017, the defense and disposition of the lawsuit could be costly and divert the time and attention of our management and harm our operating results.

Raising additional capital may cause dilution to existing stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights.

We will need to satisfy our future cash needs through public or private sales of our equity securities, sales of debt securities, the incurrence of debt from commercial lenders, strategic collaborations, licensing a portion or all of our products, product candidates and technology and, to a lesser extent, grant funding, although there can be no assurances such financing can be obtained. We filed a universal shelf registration statement on Form S-3 with the SEC, which was declared effective on September 12, 2019, on which we registered for sale up to $350 million of any combination of our common stock, preferred stock, debt securities, warrants, rights, and/or

 

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units from time to time and at prices and on terms that we may determine, including up to $75 million of common stock which we may offer and sell, from time to time at our sole discretion, under our at-the-market program sales agreement that we entered into with SVB Leerink LLC in August 2019. This registration statement will remain in effect for up to three years from the date it was declared effective. In addition, for so long as we continue to satisfy the requirements of a “well-known seasoned issuer” under SEC rules, we may file an automatic shelf registration statement, such as the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part, which would become effective immediately upon filing and would provide us with immediate access to the capital markets to sell our securities from time to time. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of our existing stockholders will be diluted, and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our stockholders. Debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. If we raise additional funds through collaboration and licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us.

The price of our common stock could be subject to volatility related or unrelated to our operations.

The market price of our common stock could fluctuate substantially due to a variety of factors, including market perception of our ability to meet our growth projections and expectations, quarterly operating results of other companies in the same industry, trading volume in our common stock, changes in general conditions in the economy and the financial markets or other developments affecting our business and the business of others in our industry. In addition, the stock market itself is subject to extreme price and volume fluctuations. This volatility has had a significant effect on the market price of securities issued by many companies for reasons related and unrelated to their operating performance and could have the same effect on our common stock.

We will incur increased 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 have incurred and will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses, including costs associated with public company reporting requirements. We also have incurred and will incur costs associated with current corporate governance requirements, including requirements under Section 404 and other provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as rules implemented by the SEC or the Nasdaq Global Select Market or any other stock exchange or inter-dealer quotations system on which our common stock may be listed in the future. The expenses incurred by public companies for reporting and corporate governance purposes have increased dramatically in recent years.

If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce accurate and timely financial statements could be impaired, which could harm our operating results, our ability to operate our business and investors’ views of us.

We are required to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires public companies to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting. In particular, we must perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. In addition, we are required to have our independent registered public accounting firm attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Ensuring that we have adequate internal financial and accounting controls and procedures in place so that we can produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis is a costly and time-consuming effort that will need to be evaluated frequently. We currently do not have an internal audit group, and we may need to hire additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge. If we fail to maintain the effectiveness of our internal controls or fail to comply in a timely manner with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or if we or our independent registered public accounting firm identify deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, this could have a material adverse effect on our business. We could lose investor

 

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confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which could have an adverse effect on the price of our common stock and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources. In addition, if our efforts to comply with new or changed laws, regulations, and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business may be harmed.

Our ability to successfully implement our business plan and comply with Section 404 requires us to be able to prepare timely and accurate financial statements. We expect that we will need to continue to improve existing, and implement new operational and financial systems, procedures and controls to manage our business effectively. Any delay in the implementation of, or disruption in the transition to, new or enhanced systems, procedures or controls, may cause our operations to suffer and we may be unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective and to obtain an unqualified report on internal controls from our independent registered public accounting firm as required under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This, in turn, could have an adverse impact on trading prices for our common stock, and could adversely affect our ability to access the capital markets.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish, or cease publishing, research or reports about us, our business or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock adversely, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock is and will be influenced by whether industry or securities analysts publish or continue to publish research and reports about us, our business, our market or our competitors and, to the extent analysts do publish such reports, what they publish in those reports. We may not continue to have or to obtain analyst coverage in the future. Any analysts that do cover us may make adverse recommendations regarding our stock, adversely change their recommendations from time to time, and/or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors. If any analyst who covers us or may cover us in the future were to cease coverage of us or fail to regularly publish reports on us, or if analysts fail to cover us or publish reports about us at all, we could lose, or never gain, visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

Provisions of the Delaware law, our restated certificate of incorporation and our restated bylaws may delay or prevent a takeover which may not be in the best interests of our stockholders.

The provisions of Delaware law and our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws could discourage or make it more difficult to accomplish a proxy contest or other change in our management or the acquisition of control by a holder of a substantial amount of our voting stock. It is possible that these provisions could make it more difficult to accomplish, or could deter, transactions that stockholders may otherwise consider to be in their best interests or in our best interests. These provisions are intended to enhance the likelihood of continuity and stability in the composition of our board of directors and in the policies formulated by the board of directors and to discourage certain types of transactions that may involve an actual or threatened change of our control. These provisions are designed to reduce our vulnerability to an unsolicited acquisition proposal and to discourage certain tactics that may be used in proxy fights. Such provisions also may have the effect of preventing changes in our management.

We do not anticipate paying cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

We currently intend to retain any future earnings for funding growth. We do not anticipate paying any dividends in the foreseeable future. As a result, you should not rely on an investment in our securities if you require dividend income. Capital appreciation, if any, of our shares may be your sole source of gain for the foreseeable future. Moreover, you may not be able to re-sell your shares at or above the price you paid for them.

 

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