UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, DC 20549

 

FORM 10-Q

 

(Mark One)

 

 

For the quarterly period ended March 31, 2020

OR

 

 

For the transition period from               to               

 

Commission File Number: 001-37746

 

APTEVO THERAPEUTICS INC.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

 

 

 

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (206) 838-0500

 

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

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.     Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

 

 

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).     ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

As of May 13, 2020, the number of shares of the registrant’s common stock outstanding was 3,232,811.

 

 

 

 

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Table of Contents

 

 

In this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, “we,” “our,” “us,” “Aptevo,” and “the Company” refer to Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. and, where appropriate, its consolidated subsidiaries.

 

 

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PART I—FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1. Financial Statements.

Aptevo Therapeutics Inc.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(in thousands, except share and per share amounts, unaudited)

 

 

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

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Aptevo Therapeutics Inc.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(in thousands, except share and per share amounts, unaudited)

 

 

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

 

 

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Aptevo Therapeutics Inc.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(in thousands, unaudited)

 

 

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

 

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Aptevo Therapeutics Inc.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CHANGES IN STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

(in thousands, except share amounts, unaudited)

 

 

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated financial statements.

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Aptevo Therapeutics Inc.

Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

 

 

Note 1. Nature of Business and Significant Accounting Policies

Organization and Liquidity

Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. (Aptevo, we, us, or the Company) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. Our lead clinical candidate, APVO436, and preclinical candidates, ALG.APV-527 and APVO603 were developed based on the Company’s versatile and robust ADAPTIR™ modular protein technology platform. The ADAPTIR platform is capable of generating highly differentiated bispecific antibodies with unique mechanisms of action for the treatment of different types of cancer. Before February 28, 2020, we had one revenue-generating product in the area of hematology, IXINITY^®.

We are currently trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “APVO.”

On February 28, 2020, we entered into an LLC Purchase Agreement with Medexus Pharma Inc. (“Medexus”), pursuant to which we sold all of the issued and outstanding limited liability company interests of Aptevo BioTherapeutics LLC (“Aptevo BioTherapeutics”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Aptevo. As a result of the transaction, Medexus obtained all rights, title and interest to the IXINITY product, and the related Hemophilia B business and intellectual property. In addition, Aptevo BioTherapeutics personnel responsible for the sale and marketing of IXINITY also transitioned to Medexus as part of the transaction. Aptevo BioTherapeutics met all the conditions to be classified as a discontinued operation since the sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics represented a strategic shift that will have a major effect on the Company’s operations and financial results. Aptevo will not have further significant involvement in the operations of the discontinued Aptevo BioTherapeutics business. The operating results of Aptevo BioTherapeutics are reported as income (loss) from discontinued operations, in the condensed consolidated statements of operations for all periods presented. The gain recognized on the sale of  Aptevo BioTherapeutics is presented in income (loss) from discontinued operations in the condensed consolidated statement of operations. In addition, on the consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2019, the assets and liabilities held for sale have been presented separately. See Note 2 - Sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics for additional information.

The accompanying financial statements have been prepared on a basis that assumes we will continue as a going concern and which contemplates the realization of assets and satisfaction of liabilities and commitments in the normal course of business. For the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, we had a net income $2.9 million and net loss $12.0 million, respectively. We had an accumulated deficit of $165.0 million as of March 31, 2020. For the three months ended March 31, 2020, net cash used in our operating activities was $11.2 million. We have suffered recurring losses from operations and negative cash flows from operating activities. When considered in aggregate, these factors raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern for the one-year period from the date of issuance of these financial statements. We will need to raise additional funds to support our operating and capital needs in 2020.

We continue to face significant challenges and uncertainties and, as a result, our available capital resources may be consumed more rapidly than currently expected due to: (a) changes we may make to the business that affect ongoing operating expenses; (b) changes we may make in our business strategy; (c) changes we may make in our research and development spending plans; (d) potential decreases in our expected milestone and deferred payments from Medexus with respect to IXINITY; and (e) other items affecting our forecasted level of expenditures and use of cash resources. We may attempt to obtain additional funding through our existing equity sales agreement with Lincoln Park Financial LLC or our Equity Distribution Agreement with Piper Sandler, or other public or private financing, collaborative arrangements with strategic partners, or through credit lines or other debt financing sources to increase the funds available to fund operations. However, we may not be able to secure such funding in a timely manner or on favorable terms, if at all. Furthermore, if we issue equity or debt securities to raise additional funds, our existing stockholders may experience dilution, and the new equity or debt securities may have rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of our existing stockholders. If we raise additional funds through collaboration, licensing or other similar arrangements, it may be necessary to relinquish valuable rights to our potential products or proprietary technologies, or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us. Without additional funds, we may be forced to delay, scale back or eliminate some of our research and development activities or other operations and potentially delay product development in an effort to provide sufficient funds to continue our operations. If any of these events occurs, our ability to achieve our development and commercialization goals may be adversely affected. Given the global economic climate and additional or unforeseen effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, we may experience delays or difficulties to the financing environment and raising capital due to economic uncertainty.

 

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Basis of Presentation

 

The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). These condensed consolidated financial statements include all adjustments, which include normal recurring adjustments, necessary for the fair presentation of the Company’s financial position.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from these estimates.

 

The condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the company and its wholly owned subsidiaries: Aptevo Research and Development LLC and Aptevo BioTherapeutics LLC (for all periods prior to the sale to Medexus). All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated.

In March 2020, we effected a 1-for-14 reverse stock split (the “Reverse Split”) of our common stock pursuant to which every 14 shares of our common stock issued and outstanding as of March 26, 2020 were automatically combined into one issued and outstanding share of common stock.  No fractional shares were issued as a result of the reverse stock split. Stockholders of record who would otherwise have been entitled to receive a fractional share received a cash payment in lieu thereof.  All share and per share information with respect to our common stock have been restated to reflect the effect of the Reverse Split for all periods presented. Refer to Note 8 for additional information.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, revenues and expenses, and related disclosures of contingent liabilities in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. Estimates are used for, but not limited to, useful lives of equipment, commitments and contingencies, stock-based compensation forfeiture rates, and collectability of receivables. Given the global economic climate and additional or unforeseen effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, these estimates are becoming more challenging, and actual results could differ materially from those estimates.

 

Other Significant Accounting Policies

Our significant accounting policies were reported in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 that was filed with the SEC on March 25, 2020. Our significant accounting policies have not changed materially from the policies previously reported.

Recently Adopted Standards

On December 18, 2019 we adopted ASU No. 2019-12, Income Taxes (Topic 740), which amended the existing standards for income tax accounting, eliminating the legacy exception on how to allocate income tax expense or benefit for the year to continuing operations, discontinued operations, other comprehensive income, and other charges or credits recorded directly to shareholder’s equity.  We did not adjust comparative periods in our financial statements prior to that period.

Adoption of the new standard resulted in determining the tax effect of income or loss from continuing operations using a computation that does not consider the tax effects of items that are not included in continuing operations. As such, we did not record a tax expense or benefit in the first quarter of 2020. Refer to Note 2 for additional information.

 

Note 2. Sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics

On February 28, 2020, we entered into an LLC Purchase Agreement with Medexus, pursuant to which Aptevo sold all of the issued and outstanding limited liability company interests of Aptevo BioTherapeutics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aptevo. As a result of the transaction, Medexus obtained all rights, title and interest to the IXINITY product and the related Hemophilia B business and intellectual property.

From the $30 million payment at closing, Medexus withheld $0.9 million which was deposited with an escrow agent (i) to fund potential payment obligations of Aptevo with respect to the final post-closing adjustment and (ii) to fund potential post-closing indemnification obligations of Aptevo. In addition to the payment received at closing, Aptevo may also earn milestone and deferred payments from Medexus in the future. We used $22.1 million of the $30 million in proceeds to repay in full our term debt facility with MidCap Financial Trust, including $20 million of principal and $2.1 million in an end of facility fee, accrued interest, legal fees and prepayment fees. We recorded a $2.1 million loss on extinguishment of debt in the first quarter of 2020.

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The net gain on sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics, totaling $14.3 million, was calculated as the difference between the fair value of the consideration received for Aptevo BioTherapeutics, less the net carrying value of the assets transferred to Medexus, less the transaction costs incurred and a working capital adjustment.

The following table summarizes the gain on sale (in thousands):

 

 

The purchase agreement included a target net working capital of $9.5 million compared to preliminary net working capital sold of $9.1 million. The difference between the target net working capital and the preliminary working capital is due to Medexus. The parties agreed to defer payment of this amount for a period of six months, during which time, the amount will be reduced by the cost of certain transition services performed by Aptevo during the transition service period, as agreed to by both parties (the “Minimum TSA Fund”). At March 31, 2020, the amount due to Medexus in the Minimum TSA Fund was $0.3 million, which we have included in other accrued liabilities in the accompanying balance sheet.

 

The following table presents a reconciliation of the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities of Aptevo BioTherapeutics held for sale, net in the unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheet (in thousands):

 

 

The following table represents the components attributable to Aptevo BioTherapeutics presented as income (loss) from discontinued operations in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations (in thousands):

 

 

 

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The LLC Purchase Agreement with Medexus entitles us to future deferred payments and royalties. We recorded an estimated deferred payment due from Medexus of $0.1 million due to activity in the first quarter of 2020. Amortization for Aptevo BioTherapeutics was $0.1 million and $0.2 million in March 31, 2020 and March 31, 2019, respectively. There was no depreciation, capital expenditures or other significant operating or investing non-cash items for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019.

Note 3. Collaboration Agreements

Alligator

On July 20, 2017, our wholly owned subsidiary Aptevo Research and Development LLC (Aptevo R&D), entered into a collaboration and option agreement (Collaboration Agreement) with Alligator Bioscience AB (Alligator), pursuant to which Aptevo and Alligator will collaboratively develop ALG.APV-527, a lead bispecific antibody candidate simultaneously targeting 4-1BB (CD137), a member of the TNFR superfamily of a costimulatory receptor found on activated T-cells, and 5T4, a tumor antigen widely overexpressed in a number of different types of cancer.

 

Alligator and Aptevo have made a joint decision to focus efforts on partnering ALG.APV-527 prior to phase 1 clinical development.  The adjustment to the development plan for ALG.APV -527 will allow both Aptevo and Alligator to align their resources with their respective ongoing clinical programs. The companies are initiating discussions with potential partners for the upcoming clinical development of ALG.APV-527.

We assessed the arrangement in accordance with ASC 606 and concluded that the contract counterparty, Alligator, is not a customer. As such the arrangement is not in the scope of ASC 606 and is instead treated as a collaborative agreement under ASC 808. ASU 2018-18, under ASC 808, clarifies the interactions between Topic 808 and 606. ASU 2018-18 is a targeted amendment to ASC 808 that requires that if the counterparty in a collaborative arrangement is a customer for goods and services that is a distinct unit, the transaction should be considered as revenues from customers. We concluded that because the Collaboration Agreement with Alligator is a cost sharing agreement, there is no revenue and therefore ASU 2018-18 is not applicable to the Collaboration Agreement with Alligator.

For the three months ended March 31, 2020, we recorded an immaterial increase in research and development expense for the three months ended March 31, 2019, we recorded an increase in our research and development expense of less than $0.4 million related to the Collaboration Agreement.  

 

Note 4. Fair Value Measurements

The Company’s estimates of fair value for financial assets and financial liabilities are based on the framework established in the fair value accounting guidance. The framework is based on the inputs used in valuation, it gives the highest priority to quoted prices in active markets and requires that observable inputs be used in the valuations when available. The disclosure of fair value estimates in the fair value accounting guidance hierarchy is based on whether the significant inputs into the valuation are observable. In determining the level of the hierarchy in which the estimate is disclosed, the highest priority is given to unadjusted quoted prices in active markets and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs that reflect the Company’s significant market assumptions. The level in the fair value hierarchy within which the fair value measurement is reported is based on the lowest level input that is significant to the measurement in its entirety. The three levels of the hierarchy are as follows:

Level 1— Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets and liabilities;

Level 2— Inputs other than quoted prices in active markets that are either directly or indirectly observable; and

Level 3— Unobservable inputs that are supported by little or no market activity and that are significant to the fair value of the assets or liabilities.

 

At March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, we had $9.5 million and $12.5 million in Level 1 money market funds, respectively. The carrying amounts of our money market funds approximate their fair value. At March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, we did not have any level two or level three assets.

 

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Note 5. Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Restricted Cash

 

The Company’s cash equivalents are highly liquid investments with a maturity of 90 days or less at the date of purchase and include time deposits and investments in money market funds. Restricted cash, long-term includes $2.5 million securing letters of credit. As of March 31, 2020, we are no longer required to maintain a restricted cash balance of $5.0 million related to the minimum cash covenant included in the Credit and Security Agreement with MidCap Financial Trust, as the debt was repaid on February 28, 2020.

The following table shows our cash, cash equivalents and long-term restricted cash as of March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019:

 

 

Note 6. Debt

On February 28, 2020, we repaid the entire amount outstanding under the Credit and Security Agreement with MidCap Financial Trust from the proceeds of the sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics to Medexus.  In addition to the outstanding principal of $20 million, we paid $2.1 million in an end of facility fee, accrued interest, legal fees and prepayment fees. We recorded an adjustment of $0.1 million related to unamortized loan initiation fees and a $2.1 million loss on extinguishment of debt in the first quarter of 2020.

 

Note 7. Leases

 

Office Space Lease - Operating

 

We have an operating lease related to our office and laboratory space in Seattle, Washington. This lease was amended and extended in March 2019. The term of the amended lease is through April 2030 and we have two options to extend the lease term, each by five years, as well as a one-time option to terminate the lease in April 2023. The lease was further amended effective August 2019 to reduce the square footage of our rented area.  

 

We recorded a right-of-use asset for this lease on January 1, 2019, of $1.2 million which reflects the amount of the remaining lease liability, less the balance of accrued and deferred rent, and net of the unamortized balance of tenant incentives. We also recorded a lease liability of $1.9 million which reflects the present value of the remaining lease payments, discounted using our incremental borrowing rate of 16.95% for the remaining term of the lease.

 

In March 2019, we recorded an increase to our right-of-use asset for this lease amendment of $3.2 million which reflects the amount of the remaining lease liability through April 30, 2023, less the balance of accrued and deferred rent, and net of the unamortized balance of tenant incentives. In March 2019, we also recorded an increase to our lease liability for this lease amendment of $3.2 million which reflects the present value of the remaining lease payments through April 30, 2023, discounted using our incremental borrowing rate of 14.45% for the remaining term of the lease on the date of amendment.

 

For the three months ended March 31, 2020, we recorded $0.1 million related to variable expenses.

 

Equipment Leases - Operating

As of March 31, 2020, we have operating leases for one piece of lab equipment and four copiers in our Seattle, Washington headquarters. The future expense for these leases will be straight-line and will include any variable expenses that arise.

Equipment Lease – Financing

As of March 31, 2020, we had one equipment lease classified as a financing lease as the lease transfers ownership of the underlying asset to us at the end of the lease term. The remaining term of this lease is five months and has a remaining expense obligation of less than $0.1 million. There were no financing lease payments in the three months ended March 31, 2020.  

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Components of lease expense:

 

 

Supplemental cash flows information related to leases is as follows:

Right of use assets acquired under operating leases:

 

 

The long-term portion of the lease liabilities included in the amounts above is $3.1 million and the remainder of our lease liabilities are included in other current liabilities on our condensed consolidated balance sheets.

 

Lease payments:

 

 

As of March 31, 2020, the weighted average remaining lease term and weighted average discount rate for operating leases was 3.02 years and 14.55%.

Note 8. Reverse Stock Split

 

On March 11, 2020, we held a Special Meeting of Stockholders at which our stockholders approved a series of alternate amendments to the Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation to effect, at the option of our Board of Directors, a reverse split of the Aptevo’s common stock at a ratio ranging from 1-for-2 to 1-for-20, inclusive, with the effectiveness of one of such amendments and the abandonment of the other amendments, or the abandonment of all amendments, to be determined by the Board in its sole discretion following the Special Meeting. The specific 1-for-14 reverse split ratio was subsequently approved by the Board on March 23, 2020. On March 26, 2020, the Company filed a Certificate of Amendment of Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation (the “Amendment”) with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware to effect a 1-for-14 reverse stock split of the Company’s outstanding common stock.

 

No fractional shares were issued as a result of the reverse stock split. Stockholders of record who would otherwise be entitled to receive a fractional share received a cash payment in lieu thereof. 

 

We have adjusted all common stock and stock equivalent figures retroactively in this Form 10-Q for all periods presented to reflect the reverse stock split.

 

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Note 9. Net Income (Loss) per Share

Basic net loss per share is calculated by dividing the net loss by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted net loss per share is computed by dividing the net loss by the weighted average number of common share equivalents outstanding for the period using the as-if converted method. For the purpose of this calculation, warrants, stock options and restricted stock units (RSUs) are only included in the calculation of diluted net income per share when their effect is dilutive.

We utilize the control number concept in the computation of diluted earnings per share to determine whether potential common stock instruments are dilutive. The control number used is loss from continuing operations or income from discontinued operations. The control number concept requires that the same number of potentially dilutive securities applied in computing diluted earnings per share from continuing operations be applied to all other categories of income or loss, regardless of their anti-dilutive effect on such categories. Therefore, no dilutive effect has been recognized in the calculation of income from discontinued operations per share.

 

Common stock equivalents include warrants, stock options and unvested RSUs.

 

The following table presents the computation of basic and diluted net loss per share (in thousands, except share and per share amounts):

 

 

The following table represents all potentially dilutive shares, which were all anti-dilutive and therefore excluded from the calculation of diluted net loss per share:

 

 

Note 10. Equity

 

Common Stock

 

On March 11, 2019, we completed a public offering of common stock and warrants, as follows:

 

 

 

We received net proceeds of $20.2 million, net of transaction costs, as a result of this offering.

 

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For the three months ended March 31, 2019, we issued 6,138 shares of common stock due to the vesting of RSUs. In addition, pursuant to our purchase agreement with Lincoln Park, we issued 13,991 of commitment shares in a non-cash transaction during the three months ended March 31, 2019.

 

Equity Distribution Agreement

 

On November 9, 2017, we entered into an Equity Distribution Agreement (the Equity Distribution Agreement) with Piper Sandler & Co. (Piper Sandler). The Equity Distribution Agreement provides that, upon the terms and subject to the conditions set forth therein, we may issue and sell through Piper Sandler, acting as sales agent, shares of our common stock, $0.001 par value per share having an aggregate offering price of up to $17.5 million. We have no obligation to sell any such shares under the Equity Distribution Agreement. The sale of such shares of common stock by Piper Sandler will be effected pursuant to a Registration Statement on Form S-3 which we filed on November 9, 2017. We issued no shares under the Equity Distribution Agreement in the first quarter of 2020.

 

 

Converted Equity Awards Incentive Plan

In connection with the spin-off from Emergent BioSolutions, Inc. (Emergent) in August 2016, we adopted the Converted Equity Awards Incentive Plan (Converted Plan) and outstanding equity awards of Emergent held by Aptevo employees were converted into or replaced with equity awards of Aptevo (Conversion Awards) under the Converted Plan and were adjusted to maintain the economic value before and after the distribution date using the relative fair market value of the Emergent and Aptevo common stock based on the closing prices as of August 1, 2016. A total of 0.1 million shares of Aptevo common stock have been authorized for issuance under the Converted Plan. Options issued as Conversion Awards were priced according to the Converted Plan. RSUs issued as part of the Converted Plan provide for the issuance of a share of Aptevo’s stock at no cost to the holder.

2016 Stock Incentive Plan

On August 1, 2016, the Company adopted the 2016 Stock Incentive Plan (2016 SIP). A total of 0.2 million shares of Aptevo common stock have been authorized for issuance under the 2016 SIP in the form of equity stock options.

 

Stock options under the 2016 SIP generally vest pro rata over a three-year period and terminate ten years from the grant date, though the specific terms of each grant are determined individually. The Company’s executive officers and certain other employees may be awarded options with different vesting criteria, and options granted to non-employee directors also vest over a three-year period. Option exercise prices for new options granted by the Company equal the closing price of the Company’s common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market on the date of grant.

RSUs issued under the 2016 SIP provide for the issuance of a share of the Company’s common stock at no cost to the holder. RSUs granted to employees under the 2016 SIP generally provide for time-based vesting over a twelve-month to three-year period, although certain employees may be awarded RSUs with different time-based vesting criteria. Prior to vesting, RSUs granted under the 2016 SIP do not have dividend equivalent rights, do not have voting rights and the shares underlying the RSUs are not considered issued or outstanding.

The equity compensation awards granted by the Company generally vest only if the employee is employed by the Company (or in the case of directors, the director continues to serve on the Board) on the vesting date.

 

On May 31, 2017, at the 2017 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (Annual Meeting), the Company’s stockholders approved the amendment and restatement of the Company’s 2016 SIP (Restated 2016 Plan) to, among other things, increase the number of authorized shares issuable by 0.1 million shares of Aptevo common stock. The Restated 2016 Plan was previously approved, subject to stockholder approval, by the Board of Directors of the Company.

2018 Stock Incentive Plan

 

On June 1, 2018, at the 2018 Annual Meeting, the Company’s stockholders approved a new 2018 Stock Incentive Plan (2018 SIP), which replaced the Restated 2016 Plan on a go-forward basis. All stock options, RSUs or other equity awards granted subsequent to June 1, 2018 will be issued out of the 2018 SIP, which has 0.3 million shares of Aptevo common stock authorized for issuance. The 2018 Plan became effective immediately upon stockholder approval at the Annual Meeting. Any shares subject to outstanding stock awards granted under the 2016 SIP that (a) expire or terminate for any reason prior to exercise or settlement; (b) are forfeited because of the failure to meet a contingency or condition required to vest such shares or otherwise return to the Company; or (c) otherwise would have returned to the 2016 SIP for future grant pursuant to the terms of the 2016 Plan (such shares, the “Returning Shares”) will immediately be added to the share reserve under the 2018 SIP as and when such shares become Returning Shares, up to a maximum of 0.3 million shares. The 2018 SIP was previously approved, subject to stockholder approval, by the Board of Directors of the Company. As of March 31, 2020, there are 0.1 million shares available to be granted under the 2018 SIP.

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Stock options under the 2018 SIP generally vest pro rata over a three-year period and terminate ten years from the grant date, though the specific terms of each grant are determined individually. The Company’s executive officers and certain other employees may be awarded options with different vesting criteria, and options granted to non-employee directors also vest over a three-year period. Option exercise prices for new options granted by the Company equal the closing price of the Company’s common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market on the date of grant.

 

 

Stock-Based Compensation Expense

Stock-based compensation expense includes amortization of stock options and RSUs granted to employees and non-employees and has been reported in our Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations as follows:

 

 

The Company accounts for stock-based compensation by measuring the cost of employee services received in exchange for all equity awards granted based on the fair value of the award as of the grant date. The Company recognizes the compensation expense over the vesting period.

Stock Options

Aptevo utilizes the Black-Scholes valuation model for estimating the fair value of all stock options granted. Set forth below are the assumptions used in valuing the stock options granted:

 

 

Management has applied an estimated forfeiture rate of 8% for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 10% for the three months ended March 31, 2019.

 

The following is a summary of option activity for the three months ended March 31, 2020:

 

 

As of March 31, 2020, we had $1.6 million of unrecognized compensation expense related to options expected to vest over a weighted average period of 1.6 years. The weighted average remaining contractual life of outstanding and exercisable options is  5.3 years.

The aggregate intrinsic value in the table above represents the total pretax intrinsic value (the difference between the closing stock price of Aptevo’s common stock on the last trading day of March 2020 and the exercise price, multiplied by the number of in the money options) that would have been received by the option holders had all the option holders exercised their options on the last trading day of the quarter. As the exercise price for all outstanding options as of March 31, 2020 exceeded the closing stock price of Aptevo’s common stock on that date, the aggregate intrinsic value is zero.

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Restricted Stock Units

The following is a summary of RSU activity for the three months ended March 31, 2020:

 

 

As of March 31, 2020, there was $0.06 million unrecognized stock-based compensation expense related to unvested RSUs.

The fair value of each RSU has been determined to be the closing trading price of the Company’s common stock on the date of grant as quoted on the Nasdaq Capital Market.

 

Warrants

In March 2019, as part of a public offering, we issued warrants to purchase up to 1,725,000 shares of our common stock, 1,571,429 of which have an exercise price of $18.20 per share and have a five-year life, and 153,571 of pre-funded warrants with an exercise price of $0.14 per share. The pre-funded warrants have a ten-year life and would have expired on March 11, 2029; however, the pre-funded warrants were exercised in March 2019. We determined the warrants do not meet liability classification pursuant to ASC 480 – Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity. These are therefore included within equity on our consolidated balance sheet. As of March 31, 2020, there were warrants to purchase 1,571,429 shares of common stock outstanding.

 

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Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

This quarterly report on Form 10-Q includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements in this quarterly report, other than statements of historical facts, including statements regarding our strategy, future operations, future financial position, future revenues, projected costs, prospects, plans, intentions, expectations and objectives could be forward-looking statements. The words “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” “designed,” “estimates,” “expects,” “goal,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” “projects,” “pursuing,” “will,” “would” and similar expressions (including the negatives thereof) are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, expectations or objectives disclosed in our forward-looking statements and the assumptions underlying our forward-looking statements may prove incorrect. Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions, expectations and objectives disclosed in the forward-looking statements that we make. Factors that we believe could cause actual results or events to differ materially from our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those discussed in “Risk Factors”, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and elsewhere in this quarterly report. Our forward-looking statements in this quarterly report are based on current expectations and we do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

You should read the following discussion and analysis together with the financial statements and the related notes to those statements included elsewhere in this quarterly report.

Overview

We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. Our lead clinical candidate, APVO436, and preclinical candidates, ALG.APV-527 and APVO603 were developed based on our versatile and robust ADAPTIR™ modular protein technology platform. The ADAPTIR platform is capable of generating highly differentiated bispecific antibodies with unique mechanisms of action for the treatment of different types of cancer and autoimmunity. We previously had one revenue-generating product in the area of hematology, IXINITY, which sold to Medexus Pharma, Inc. (“Medexus”) on February 28, 2020.

 

For the three months ended March 31, 2020, we had net income of $2.9 million, compared to the three months ended March 31, 2019, when we had a net loss $12.0 million. We had an accumulated deficit of $165.0 million as of March 31, 2020. For the three months ended March 31, 2020, net cash used in our operating activities was $11.2 million. Our net income during the three months ended March 31, 2020 was the result of our gain recognized on the sale of IXINITY and related Hemophilia B business.

 

On February 28, 2020, we entered into an LLC Purchase Agreement with Medexus, pursuant to which we sold all of the issued and outstanding limited liability company interests of Aptevo BioTherapeutics LLC (“Aptevo BioTherapeutics”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aptevo. As a result of the transaction, Medexus obtained all rights, title and interest to the IXINITY product and related Hemophilia B business and intellectual property. In addition, Aptevo BioTherapeutics personnel responsible for the sale and marketing of IXINITY also transitioned to Medexus as part of the transaction.  Aptevo BioTherapeutics met all the conditions to be classified as a discontinued operation since the sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics represented a strategic shift that will have a major effect on our operations and financial results. Aptevo will not have further significant involvement in the operations of the discontinued Aptevo BioTherapeutics business. The operating results of Aptevo BioTherapeutics are reported as income from the discontinued operations, in the condensed consolidated statements of operations for all periods presented. The gain recognized on the sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics is presented in income (loss) from discontinued operations in the consolidated statement of operations. In addition, on the consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2019, the assets and liabilities held for sale have been presented separately. See Note 2 - Sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics to the accompanying financial statements for additional information.

 

A novel strain of coronavirus, COVID-19 has spread through the world, including the United States.  We have experienced and may experience additional disruptions that could severely impact our business and clinical trials, including:

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The global outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus continues to rapidly evolve. The extent to which the COVID-19 coronavirus may impact our business and clinical trials will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, such as the ultimate geographic spread of the disease, the duration of the outbreak, travel restrictions and social distancing in the United States and other countries, business closures or business disruptions and the effectiveness of actions taken in the United States and other countries to contain and treat the disease.

Corporate Highlights:

Results of Operations

Except as otherwise stated below, the following discussions of our results of operations reflect the results of our continuing operations, excluding the results related to Aptevo BioTherapeutics, which has been separated from continuing operations and reflected as a discontinued operation.  See Note 2 – Sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics to the accompanying financial statements for additional information.

Comparison of the three months ended March 31, 2020 and March 31, 2019

Research and Development Expenses

We expense research and development costs as incurred. These expenses consist primarily of the costs associated with our research and discovery activities, including conducting pre-clinical studies and clinical trials, fees to professional service providers for analytical testing, independent monitoring or other administration of our clinical trials and obtaining and evaluating data from our clinical trials and non-clinical studies, as well as costs of contract manufacturing services for clinical trial material, and costs of materials used in clinical trials and research and development. Our research and development expenses primarily consist of:

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We expect our research and development spending will be dependent upon such factors as the results from our clinical trials, the availability of reimbursement of research and development spending, the number of product candidates under development, the size, structure and duration of any clinical programs that we may initiate, and the costs associated with manufacturing our product candidates on a large-scale basis for later stage clinical trials. We may experience interruption of key clinical trial activities, such as patient enrollment and clinical trial site monitoring, and key non-clinical activities due to COVID-19. While programs are still in the pre-clinical trial phase, we do not provide a breakdown of the initial associated expenses as we are often evaluating multiple product candidates simultaneously. Costs are reported in pre-clinical research and discovery until the program enters the clinic.

Our research and development expenses by program for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019 are shown in the following table:

 

 

Research and development expenses decreased by $2.6 million, to $4.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020 from $6.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2019. Research and development expenses decreased primarily due to decreased spending for our preclinical, general research and discovery programs, which are primarily related to research and development activities around new pipeline product candidates or programs as they are being evaluated. We also decreased expenses for other clinical programs, including lower costs for programs discontinued in 2019, such as APVO210 which was discontinued in October 2019.

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel-related costs and professional fees in support of our executive, business development, finance, accounting, information technology, legal and human resource functions. Other costs include facility costs not otherwise included in research and development expenses.

For the three months ended March 31, 2020, general and administrative expenses decreased by $0.9 million, or 20%, to $3.6 million from $4.5 million for March 31, 2019. This decrease was primarily due to reduced personnel and professional services costs.

Other Expense

Other expense consists primarily of interest on debt. For the three months ended March 31, 2020, other expense increased due to a loss on extinguishment of debt of $2.1 million, which consists of interest, exit, prepayment, and legal fees recognized during the three months ended March 31, 2020. There is no comparable activity in 2019.  Other expense decreased from $0.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2019 to $0.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020 due primarily to a decrease in the number of months during the quarter in which debt was outstanding.

Discontinued Operations

On February 28, 2020, we entered into an LLC Purchase Agreement with Medexus, pursuant to which Aptevo sold all of the issued and outstanding limited liability company interests of Aptevo BioTherapeutics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aptevo. As a result of the transaction, Medexus obtained all rights, title and interest to the IXINITY product and the related Hemophilia B business and intellectual property.

In connection with the sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics, we recognized net income from discontinued operations totaling $12.9 million. This included the gain on the sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics of $14.3 million and net operating losses from Aptevo BioTherapeutics of $1.6 million related to the period prior to the sale on February 28, 2020. The LLC Purchase Agreement with Medexus entitles us to future deferred payments and royalties.

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Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgements and Estimates

The preparation of our condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, or GAAP, requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances; however, actual results could differ from those estimates. An accounting policy is considered critical if it is important to a company’s financial condition and results of operations and if it requires the exercise of significant judgment and the use of estimates on the part of management in its application. Although we believe that our judgments and estimates are appropriate, actual results may differ materially from our estimates.

We believe the judgments, estimates and assumptions associated with the following critical accounting policies have the greatest potential impact on our condensed consolidated financial statements:

Given the global economic climate and additional or unforeseen effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, these estimates are becoming more challenging, and actual results could differ materially from those estimates.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements as of March 31, 2020.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Cash Flows

We have financed our operations to date primarily through revenue generated from our commercial products, the sale of our hyperimmune products business in 2017, the sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics, public offerings of our common stock, loan proceeds, license fees, milestone payments and research and development funding from strategic partners, and funds received at the date of our spin-off from Emergent. As of March 31, 2020, we had cash, and cash equivalents in the amount of $12.3 million and restricted cash of $2.5 million.

In February 2020, we used $22.1 million from the proceeds of the sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics to Medexus to repay in full our term debt facility with MidCap Financial Trust, including $20 million of principal and $2.1 million in an end of facility fee, accrued interest, legal fees and prepayment fees. Repayment of the debt relieved us of our obligation to keep $5 million of cash restricted related to the agreement with MidCap.  

The following table provides information regarding our cash flows for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019:

 

 

Net cash used in operating activities of $11.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020 was primarily due to our net income of $2.9 million, gain on sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics of $14.3 million, and changes in working capital accounts. Net cash used in operating activities of $13.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2019 was primarily due to our net loss of $12.0 million, and changes in working capital accounts.

Net cash provided by investing activities for the three months ended March 31, 2020, was due to the cash received from the sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics, net of transaction fees. For the three months ended March 31, 2019, the largest components of the cash used in investing activities were purchases of property and equipment.

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Net cash used in financing activities for the three months ended March 31, 2020 is primarily due to the $22.1 million repayment of long-term debt. Net cash provided by financing activities for the three months ended March 31, 2019 was primarily due to the proceeds received from the issuance of common stock and purchase of warrants exercised.

Sources of Liquidity

Equity Distribution Agreement

On November 9, 2017, we entered into an Equity Distribution Agreement with Piper Sandler. The Equity Distribution Agreement provides that, upon the terms and subject to the conditions set forth therein, we may issue and sell through Piper Sandler, acting as sales agent, shares of our common stock having an aggregate offering price of up to $17.5 million. We have no obligation to sell any such shares under the Equity Distribution Agreement. The sale of the shares of our common stock by Piper Sandler will be effected pursuant to a Registration Statement on Form S-3 which we filed on November 9, 2017. We issued no additional shares under the Equity Distribution Agreement in the first quarter of 2020. Following prior sales, we have the ability to sell up to an additional $17.3 million of common stock under the Equity Distribution Agreement.

The Equity Distribution Agreement will terminate upon the issuance and sale of all shares under the Equity Distribution Agreement or upon the earlier termination thereof at any time by us or Piper Sandler upon notice to the other party.

Purchase Agreement

On December 20, 2018 we entered into the Purchase Agreement, and a registration rights agreement with Lincoln Park. Pursuant to the purchase agreement Lincoln Park has committed to purchase up to $35.0 million worth of our common stock over a 36-month period commencing on February 13, 2019, the date the registration statement covering the resale of the shares was declared effective by the SEC. Pursuant to this purchase agreement, we issued 13,991 commitment shares of common stock in the first quarter of 2019 and none in the first quarter of 2020.

Under the Purchase Agreement, on any business day selected by us, we may direct Lincoln Park to purchase shares of our common stock provided that Lincoln Park’s maximum commitment on any single day does not exceed $2.0 million. The purchase price per share will be based off of prevailing market prices of our common stock immediately preceding the time of sale; provided, however, that we cannot direct any such purchase if the prevailing market price is less than $1.00. In addition, we may also direct Lincoln Park to purchase other amounts as accelerated purchases or as additional accelerated purchases if the closing sale price of our common stock exceeds certain threshold prices as set forth in the Purchase Agreement. We have not purchased any shares under the Purchase Agreement through the first quarter of 2020.

Actual sales of shares of our common stock to Lincoln Park under the Purchase Agreement will depend on a variety of factors as determined by us from time to time, including, among others, market conditions, the trading price of our common stock and additional determinations as to the appropriate sources of funding for our operations. Lincoln Park has no right to require any sales but is obligated to make purchases as we direct in accordance with the Purchase Agreement.

Liquidity

We have financed our operations to date primarily through revenue generated from our commercial products, the sale of our hyperimmune products business in 2017, the sale of Aptevo BioTherapeutics, public offerings of our common stock, loan proceeds, license fees, milestone payments and research and development funding from strategic partners, and funds received at the date of our spin-off from Emergent. We had a net income of $2.9 million and net loss of $12.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and March 31, 2019, respectively. We had cash and cash equivalents of $12.3 million, restricted cash of $2.5 million and an accumulated deficit of $165.0 million as of March 31, 2020.

For the three months ended March 31, 2020, net cash used in our operating activities was $11.2 million.

Our results of operations will be highly dependent on our research and development and general and administrative spending. Due to COVID-19, we may experience delays in opportunities to partner our product candidates, due to financial and other impacts on potential partners. Additionally, we may experience potential impacts on our future deferred payments from Medexus due to the environment, which may impact Medexus’ ability to continue to successfully commercialize the IXINITY business. When considered in aggregate, these factors raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern for the one-year period from the date of issuance of these financial statements. Our ability to continue as a going concern will require us to obtain additional financing, enter into strategic alliances and/or sell assets.

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Our plans to address this condition include pursuing one or more of the following options to secure additional funding, none of which can be guaranteed or are entirely within our control:

There can be no assurance, however, that we will receive cash proceeds from any of these potential resources or to the extent cash proceeds are received such proceeds would be sufficient to support our current operating plan for at least the next twelve months from the date of filing this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

There are numerous risks and uncertainties associated with research, development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products. Accordingly, our future funding requirements may vary from our current expectations and will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:

If we are unable to raise substantial additional capital in the next year, whether on terms that are acceptable to us or at all, then we may be required to:

The sale of additional equity or convertible debt securities may result in additional dilution to our stockholders. If we raise additional funds through the issuance of debt securities or preferred stock or through credit facilities, these securities and/or the loans under credit facilities could provide for rights senior to those of our common stock and could contain covenants that would restrict our operations. Additional funds may not be available when we need them, on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all. We also expect to seek additional funds through arrangements with collaborators, licensees or other third parties. These arrangements would generally require us to relinquish or encumber rights to some of our technologies or drug candidates, and we may not be able to enter into such arrangements on acceptable terms, if at all. Due to COVID-19, we may experience delays in opportunities to partner our product candidates, due to financial and other impacts on potential partners.

Our future success is dependent on our ability to develop our product candidates and ultimately upon our ability to attain profitable operations. We anticipate that we will continue to incur significant operating losses for the next several years as we incur expenses to continue to execute on our development strategy to advance our preclinical and clinical stage assets. We will not generate revenues from our development stage product candidates unless and until we or our collaborators successfully complete development

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and obtain regulatory approval for such product candidates, which we expect will take a number of years and is subject to significant uncertainty. If we obtain regulatory approval for one of our development stage product candidates, we expect to incur significant commercialization expenses related to sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution, to the extent that such costs are not paid by collaborators. We do not have sufficient cash to complete the clinical development of any of our development stage product candidates and will require additional funding in order to complete the development activities required for regulatory approval of such product candidates. We will require substantial additional funds to continue our development programs and to fulfill our planned operating goals.

Contractual Obligations

In January 2020, we entered into a contract with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) to be part of an ongoing national AML master clinical trial called the ‘Beat AML Master Clinical Trial.’ The Beat AML Master Clinical Trial provides access to leading academic cancer centers and allows us to study APVO436 in a front-line AML setting. Our purchase obligation for the Beat AML Master Clinical Trial totals $8.1 million over the next four years. The Clinical Trial Participation Agreement contains a termination for convenience clause where we may terminate the agreement with 180 days prior written notice.

Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.

As of March 31, 2020, there was no material changes to the information provided under Item 7A, Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and filed on March 25, 2020.

Item 4. Controls and Procedures.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

As of March 31, 2020, management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, performed an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the Exchange Act. Based on this evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that, as of March 31, 2020, the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures were effective to provide reasonable assurance that information we are required to disclose in reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms and to provide reasonable assurance that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

There have been no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) during the quarter ended March 31, 2020, that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Because of inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

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PART II—OTHER INFORMATION

 

 

Item 1. Legal Proceedings.

We may from time to time be named as a party to legal claims, actions and complaints, including matters involving employment claims, our intellectual property or other third-party claims. Our management believes that there are currently no claims or actions pending against us, the ultimate disposition of which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

You should carefully consider the following risks and other information in this quarterly report on Form 10-Q in evaluating us and our common stock. Any of the following risks could materially and adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition or financial prospects.

RISKS RELATED TO OUR BUSINESS

Financial Risks

We have a history of losses and may not be profitable in the future.

For the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, we had net income of $2.9 million and net losses of $12.0 million, respectively. As of March 31, 2020, we had an accumulated deficit of $165.0 million. Our net income during the three months ended March 31, 2020 was the result of our gain recognized on the sale of IXINITY and related Hemophilia B business to Medexus.  

Our management and board of directors have concluded that a substantial doubt is deemed to exist concerning our ability to continue as a going concern.

 

Accounting Standards Update, or ASU, 2014-15, requires management to assess our ability to continue as a going concern for one year after the date the financial statements are issued. As further discussed in Note 1, Nature of Business and Significant Accounting Policies to our condensed consolidated financial statements in this Form 10-Q, substantial doubt is deemed to exist about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern through March 2021. Our financial statements do not include any adjustment relating to the recoverability and classification of recorded asset amounts or the amounts and classification of liabilities that might be necessary should we be unable to continue as a going concern. Our ability to continue as a going concern will require us to obtain additional financing, enter into strategic alliances and/or sell assets. The reaction of investors to the inclusion of a going concern statement in this report on Form 10-Q, our current lack of cash resources and our potential inability to continue as a going concern may materially adversely affect our share price and our ability to raise new capital and enter into strategic alliances. If we become unable to continue as a going concern, we may have to liquidate our assets and the values we receive for our assets in liquidation or dissolution could be significantly lower than the values reflected in our financial statements.

We will require additional capital and may be unable to raise capital when needed or on acceptable terms.

As of March 31, 2020, we had cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash in the amount of $14.8 million. We will require additional funding to grow our business including to develop additional products, support commercial marketing activities or otherwise provide additional financial flexibility. In October 2019, we implemented an expense reduction plan that reduced annual expenditures by approximately 30%. Including streamlining research and development programs, through reducing investment in certain programs; cut-backs in legal, professional and consulting expenses; reduction of leased space, cut-backs in non-commercial headcount; and reductions in executive and board cash compensation. If we are not able to secure adequate additional funding, we may need to make additional reductions in spending. This may include extending payment terms with suppliers, liquidating assets, and suspending or curtailing planned programs. We may also have to further delay, reduce the scope of, suspend or eliminate one or more research and development programs. A failure to raise the additional funding or to effectively implement cost reductions could harm our business, results of operations and future prospects. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:

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If our capital resources are insufficient to meet our future capital requirements, we will need to finance our cash needs through bank loans, public or private equity or debt offerings, collaboration and licensing arrangements or other strategic transactions. Future issuances of common stock may include (i) any sale of up to the remaining $17.3 million worth of shares of our common stock pursuant to our Equity Distribution Agreement with Piper Sandler & Co entered into in November 2017, (ii) any sale of up to $35.0 million worth of shares of our common stock in a private placement pursuant to our Purchase Agreement with Lincoln Park Capital Fund, LLC, or Lincoln Park, entered into in December 2018, and (iii) the issuance of up to 1,571,429 shares of common stock upon the exercise of warrants issued in connection with our March 2019 public offering of common stock and warrants. Public or bank debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures, pursuing acquisition opportunities or declaring dividends. If we raise funds by issuing equity securities, our stockholders will experience dilution. If we raise funds through collaboration and licensing arrangements with third parties or enter into other strategic transactions, it may be necessary to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies or product candidates or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us.

Current economic conditions may make it difficult to obtain additional financing on attractive terms, or at all. Due to COVID-19, we may experience delays in opportunities to partner our product candidates, due to financial and other impacts on potential partners. Additionally, we may experience potential impacts on our future deferred payments from Medexus due to the environment which may impact Medexus’ ability to continue to successfully commercialize the IXINITY business. If financing is unavailable or lost, our business, results of operations, financial condition and financial prospects would be adversely affected and we could be forced to delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate many of our planned activities.

Our operating results are unpredictable and may fluctuate.  

Our operating results are difficult to predict and will likely fluctuate from quarter to quarter and year to year, as a result due to a variety of factors, including:

 

Due to COVID-19, we may experience delays in opportunities to partner our product candidates, due to financial and other impacts on potential partners. Additionally, we may experience potential impacts on our future deferred payments from Medexus due to the environment which may impact Medexus’ ability to continue to successfully commercialize the IXINITY business. These and other factors may make it difficult for us to forecast our expected financial performance. If our operating results are below the expectations of securities analysts or investors, the trading price of our stock could decline.

Our future income will be dependent on the ability of Medexus to successfully further develop, market and commercialize IXINITY, resulting in the payment of milestone and deferred payments.

On February 28, 2020, Aptevo entered into an LLC Purchase Agreement with Medexus, pursuant to which Aptevo sold all of the issued and outstanding limited liability company interests of Aptevo BioTherapeutics, a subsidiary of Aptevo wholly owns the IXINITY and related Hemophilia B business. We are entitled to receive future potential payments as the result of the achievement of certain regulatory and commercial milestones and through deferred payments based on net sales of IXINITY. We no longer control the development, marketing and commercialization of IXINITY and are dependent on Medexus to successfully do so.  Although Medexus has agreed to use commercially reasonable efforts to commercialize IXINITY in the ordinary course of business in good faith, Medexus may not commit adequate resources to the further development, marketing and commercialization of IXINITY, may experience financial difficulties, may face competition, or may prioritize other products or initiatives.  Due to COVID-19, we may experience potential impacts on our future deferred payments from Medexus due to the environment which may impact Medexus’ ability to continue to successfully commercialize the IXINITY business. The failure of Medexus to perform as expected under the purchase agreement, including because of factors outside of Medexus’ control, could result in lower than expected milestone or deferred payments and negatively impact our future financial and operating results.

 

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We face product liability exposure, which could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The nature of our business exposes us to potential liability inherent in pharmaceutical products, including with respect to the testing of our product candidates in clinical trials and any product candidates that we successfully develop. Product liability claims might be made by patients in clinical trials, consumers, health care providers or pharmaceutical companies or others that sell any products that we successfully develop. These claims may be made even with respect to those products that are manufactured in licensed and regulated facilities or otherwise possess regulatory approval for study or commercial sale. We cannot predict the frequency, outcome or cost to defend any such claims.

If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against future claims that our product candidates caused injuries, we may incur substantial liabilities. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, product liability claims may result in:

The amount of insurance that we currently hold may not be adequate to cover all liabilities that may occur. Further product liability insurance may be difficult and expensive to obtain. We may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost and we may not be able to obtain insurance coverage that will be adequate to satisfy all potential liabilities. Claims or losses in excess of our product liability insurance coverage could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. The cost of defending any product liability litigation or other proceeding, even if resolved in our favor, could be substantial. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of product liability litigation or other proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace. Product liability claims, regardless of merit or eventual outcome, may absorb significant management time and result in reputational harm, potential loss of revenue from decreased demand for any product candidates we successfully develop, withdrawal of clinical trial participants and potential termination of clinical trial sites or entire clinical programs, and could cause our stock price to fall.

Our success is dependent on our continued ability to attract, motivate and retain key personnel, and any failure to attract or retain key personnel may negatively affect our business.

Because of the specialized scientific nature of our business, our ability to develop products and to compete with our current and future competitors largely depends upon our ability to attract, retain and motivate highly qualified managerial and key scientific and technical personnel. If we are unable to retain the services of one or more of the principal members of senior management, including our Chief Executive Officer, Marvin L. White, our Chief Financial Officer, Jeffrey G. Lamothe, our Chief Scientific Officer, Jane Gross Ph.D., or other key employees, our ability to implement our business strategy could be materially harmed. We face intense competition for qualified employees from biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, research organizations and academic institutions. Attracting, retaining or replacing these personnel on acceptable terms may be difficult and time-consuming given the high demand in our industry for similar personnel. We believe part of being able to attract, motivate and retain personnel is our ability to offer a competitive compensation package, including equity incentive awards. If we cannot offer a competitive compensation package or otherwise attract and retain the qualified personnel necessary for the continued development of our business, we may not be able to maintain our operations or grow our business. A novel strain of coronavirus, COVID-19 has spread through the world, including the United States.  We have experienced and may experience an impact on the health of key personnel due to COVID-19.

We may be subject to periodic litigation, which could result in losses or unexpected expenditure of time and resources.

From time to time, we may be called upon to defend ourselves against lawsuits relating to our business. Any litigation, regardless of its merits, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources that are needed to successfully run our business. Due to the inherent uncertainties of litigation, we cannot accurately predict the ultimate outcome of any such proceedings. An unfavorable outcome in any such proceedings could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations. If our stock price is volatile, we may become involved in securities class action lawsuits in the future.

 

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Our ability to use net operating losses to offset future taxable income may be subject to limitations.

 

As of December 31, 2019, we had approximately $28.2 million and $3.0 million of federal and state net operating loss carryforwards, respectively, available to reduce future taxable income that will begin to expire in 2028 for federal purposes and 2029 for state tax purposes. These net operating loss carryforwards could expire unused and be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities. Under the newly enacted federal income tax law, federal net operating losses incurred in 2018 and in future years may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such federal net operating losses is limited. It is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to the newly enacted federal tax law. In addition, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and corresponding provision of state law, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” which is generally defined as a greater than 50% change, by value, in its equity ownership over a three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes to offset its post-change income or taxes may be limited. We have not assessed whether such an ownership change has previously occurred, including as a result of our March 2019 public offering of common stock and warrants. In addition, we may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership, some of which may be outside of our control. If an ownership change has occurred or occurs in the future and our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards is materially limited, it would harm our future operating results by effectively increasing our future tax obligations.  

The COVID-19 coronavirus could adversely impact our business, including our clinical trials.

A novel strain of coronavirus, COVID-19 has spread through the world, including the United States.  We have experienced and may experience additional disruptions that could severely impact our business and clinical trials, including:

 

The global outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus continues to rapidly evolve. The extent to which the COVID-19 coronavirus may impact our business and clinical trials will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, such as the ultimate geographic spread of the disease, the duration of the outbreak, travel restrictions and social distancing in the United States and other countries, business closures or business disruptions and the effectiveness of actions taken in the United States and other countries to contain and treat the disease.

Product Development Risks

Serious adverse events, undesirable side effects or other unexpected properties of our product candidates may be identified that could delay, prevent or cause the withdrawal of regulatory approval, limit the commercial potential, or result in significant negative consequences following marketing approval.

Serious adverse events or undesirable side effects caused by, or other unexpected properties of any of our product candidates could cause us or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt our manufacturing and distribution operations and could result in a more restrictive label, the imposition of distribution or use restrictions or the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA or

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comparable foreign regulatory authorities. If any of our product candidates are associated with serious adverse events or undesirable side effects or have properties that are unexpected, we may need to abandon their development or limit development to certain uses or subpopulations in which the undesirable side effects or other characteristics are less prevalent, less severe or more acceptable from a risk-benefit perspective. Many compounds that initially showed promise in clinical or earlier stage testing have later been found to cause undesirable or unexpected side effects that prevented further development of the compound.

Undesirable side effects, or other unexpected adverse events or properties of any of our product candidates, could arise or become known either during clinical development or, if approved, after the approved product has been marketed. If such an event occurs during development, our trials could be suspended or terminated, and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities could order us to cease further development of or deny approval of our other product candidates. If such an event occurs, a number of potentially significant negative consequences may result, including:

Any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the affected product candidate, or could substantially increase commercialization costs and expenses, which could delay or prevent us from generating revenue from the sale of our products and harm our business and results of operations.

We depend on third parties to conduct our clinical and non-clinical trials.

We do not have the ability to independently conduct the clinical and non-clinical trials required to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates. We depend on third parties, such as independent clinical investigators, contract research organizations and other third-party service providers to conduct the clinical and non-clinical trials of our product candidates and expect to continue to do so. For example, Dr. Scott Stromatt, our former full-time Chief Medical Officer, is now providing clinical trial and medical affairs oversight duties as an independent consultant. We rely heavily on Dr. Stromatt and these other third parties for successful execution of our clinical and non-clinical trials, but we do not exercise day-to-day control over their activities. Our reliance on these service providers does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities, including ensuring that our trials are conducted in accordance with the FDA-approved good clinical practices, or GCPs, and the plan and protocols contained in the relevant regulatory application. In addition, these organizations and individuals may not complete these activities on our anticipated or desired timeframe. We also may experience unexpected cost increases that are beyond our control. Problems with the timeliness or quality of the work of a contract research organization may lead us to seek to terminate the relationship and use an alternative service provider, which may prove difficult, costly and result in a delay of our trials. In addition, business disruptions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic could negatively affect the ability of some of the independent clinical investigators, contract research organizations and other third-party service provider that conduct our clinical and non-clinical trials of our product candidates. Any delay in or inability to complete our trials could delay or prevent the development, approval and commercialization of our product candidates.

If we contract research organizations or other third parties assisting us or our study sites fail to comply with applicable GCPs, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA or its non-U.S. counterparts may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. We cannot assure you that, upon inspection, the FDA or non-U.S. regulatory agencies will determine that any of our clinical trials comply with GCPs. In addition, our clinical trials must be conducted with product produced under GCPs and similar regulations outside of the United States. Our failure, or the failure of our product manufacturers, to comply with these regulations may require us to repeat or redesign clinical trials, which would increase our development costs and delay or impact the likelihood of regulatory approval.

If third parties do not carry out their duties under their agreements with us, if the quality or accuracy of the data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols, including dosing requirements, or regulatory requirements, or if they otherwise fail to comply with clinical trial protocols or meet expected deadlines, our clinical trials may not meet regulatory requirements. If our clinical trials do not meet regulatory requirements or if these third parties need to be replaced, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed, suspended or terminated. If any of these events occur, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval of our product candidates or succeed in our efforts to create approved line extensions for certain of our existing products or generate additional useful clinical data in support of these products.

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If we are unable to obtain any necessary third-party services on acceptable terms or if these service providers do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, our efforts to obtain regulatory approvals for our product candidates may be delayed or prevented.

Commercialization Risks

Our ability to grow revenues and execute on our long-term strategy depends heavily on our ability to discover, develop, and obtain marketing approval for our product candidates.

In order for us to achieve our long-term business objectives, we will need to successfully discover and/or develop and commercialize our product candidates. Although we have made, and expect to continue to make, significant investments in research and development, we have had only a limited number of our internally-discovered product candidates reach the clinical development stage. Drug discovery and development is a complex, time-consuming and expensive process that is fraught with risk and a high rate of failure. For example, in 2018, we announced the discontinuation of development of APVO414 and otlertuzumab as a result of clinical trial results. In addition, in October 2019, we announced our decision to discontinue development of APVO210, a novel investigational bispecific antibody candidate under development for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. The decision followed the review of data from Phase 1 multiple ascending dose (MAD) clinical study of APVO210 in healthy volunteers that suggests that APVO210 would not meet the desired target product profile for future commercialization. Specifically, the clinical data showed evidence of increasing titers of ADA with repeated doses of APVO210, which had varying impact on APVO210 drug levels in subjects’ blood. Failure to successfully discover and/or develop, obtain marketing approval for and commercialize additional products and product candidates would likely have a material adverse effect on our ability to grow revenues and improve our financial condition.

We may not be successful in our efforts to use and further develop our ADAPTIR platform.

A key element of our strategy is to expand our product pipeline of immunotherapeutics based on our ADAPTIR platform technology. We plan to select and create product candidates for early development, potentially with other collaborative partners. We expect to continue to develop the platform to address unmet medical needs through directed cytokine delivery via monospecifics and bispecifics in areas including oncology, and multispecific molecules in oncology and other therapeutic areas. Our goal is to leverage this technology to make targeted investment in bispecific ADAPTIR therapeutics. Even if we are successful in continuing to build our pipeline, the potential product candidates that we identify may not be suitable for clinical development, including as a result of being shown to have harmful side effects or other characteristics that indicate that they are unlikely to be products that will receive marketing approval and achieve market acceptance. If we do not successfully develop and commercialize product candidates based on our ADAPTIR platform technology, our ability to obtain product revenues in future periods may be adversely affected, which likely would result in harm to our financial position and our financial prospects and adversely affect our stock price.

We face substantial competition.

The development and commercialization of new biotechnology products is highly competitive and subject to rapid technological advances. We may face future competition with respect to our current product candidates and any product candidates we may seek to develop or commercialize in the future obtained from other companies and governments, universities and other non-profit research organizations. Our competitors may develop products that are safer, more effective, more convenient or less costly than any products that we may develop or market, or may obtain marketing approval for their products from the FDA, or equivalent foreign regulatory bodies more rapidly than we may obtain approval for our product candidates. Our competitors have greater resources and may devote greater resources to research and develop their products, research and development capabilities, adapt more quickly to new technologies, scientific advances or patient preferences and needs, initiate or withstand substantial price competition more successfully, or more effectively negotiate third-party licensing and collaborative arrangements.

 

We believe that our most significant competitors in the oncology market include: AbbVie Inc., Aduro, Inc., Affirmed, Amgen Inc., AnaptysBio, Inc., Astellas Pharma Inc., Bayer AG, Biogen Idec Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Genentech Inc. (a subsidiary of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.), Genmab A/S, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Grifols USA LLC, Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, ImmunoGen, Inc., Immunomedics, Inc., Janssen BioTech Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Macrogenics, Inc., Novartis International AG, Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Sanofi-Aventis US LLC, Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc., Xencor, Inc. and Zymeworks Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. We expect to compete on the basis of product efficacy, safety, ease of administration, price and economic value compared to drugs used in current practice or currently being developed. If we are not successful in demonstrating these attributes, physicians and other key healthcare decision makers may choose other products over any products we successfully develop, switch from our products to new products or choose to use our products only in limited circumstances, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Any of our product candidates, if approved, may become subject to unfavorable pricing regulations or third-party coverage and reimbursement policies, which would harm our business.

The success of our product candidates, if approved, will depend upon, among other things, their acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and other members of the medical community as a therapeutic and cost-effective alternative to competing products and treatments. If any of our product candidates do not achieve and maintain an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate material revenues from sales of these products. The degree of market acceptance of our products will depend on a number of factors, including: our ability to provide acceptable evidence of safety and efficacy; the prevalence and severity of any side effects; availability, relative cost and relative efficacy of alternative and competing treatments; the ability to offer our products for sale at competitive prices; our ability to continuously supply the market without interruption; the relative convenience and ease of administration; the willingness of the target patient population to try new products and of physicians to prescribe these products; the strength of marketing and distribution support; publicity concerning our products or competing products and treatments; and the sufficiency of coverage or reimbursement by third parties.

 

Healthcare legislature reform measures may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

 

In the United States, there have been and continue to be a number of legislative initiatives to contain healthcare costs. For example, in March 2010, the ACA was enacted, which substantially changed the way health care is financed by both governmental and private insurers, and significantly impacted the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. However, some provisions of the ACA have yet to be fully implemented and certain provisions have been subject to legal and political challenges, as well as efforts by the Trump Administration to repeal or replace certain aspects of the ACA. For example, since January 2017, President Trump has signed two executive orders and other directives designed to delay, circumvent, or loosen certain requirements mandated by the ACA. Concurrently, Congress has considered legislation that would repeal or repeal and replace all or part of the ACA. While Congress has not passed comprehensive repeal legislation, it has enacted laws that modify certain provisions of the ACA, such as removing penalties as of January 1, 2019 for not complying with the ACA’s individual mandate to carry health insurance, delaying the implementation of certain ACA-mandated fees, and increasing the point-of-sale discount that is owed by pharmaceutical manufacturers who participate in Medicare Part D. Additionally, on December 14, 2018, a Texas U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the ACA is unconstitutional in its entirety because the individual mandate was repealed by Congress as part of the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act. While the Texas U.S. District Court Judge, as well as the current U.S. Presidential administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, have stated that the ruling will have no immediate effect pending appeal of the decision, it is unclear how this decision, subsequent appeals, and other efforts to repeal and replace the ACA will impact the ACA and our business. We continue to evaluate how the ACA and recent efforts to repeal and replace or limit the implementation of the ACA will impact our business.

 

In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the United States since the ACA was enacted. On August 2, 2011, the Budget Control Act of 2011 among other things, created measures for spending reductions by Congress. A Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, tasked with recommending a targeted deficit reduction of at least $1.2 trillion for the years 2013 through 2021, was unable to reach required goals, thereby triggering the legislation’s automatic reduction to several government programs. This includes aggregate reductions of Medicare payments to providers of 2 percent per fiscal year. These reductions went into effect on April 1, 2013 and, due to subsequent legislative amendments to the statute, will remain in effect through 2027 unless additional Congressional action is taken.

 

Additionally, there has been heightened governmental scrutiny recently over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products. For example, there have been several recent Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drug products. For example, the Trump administration released a “Blueprint”, or plan, to lower drug prices and reduce out of pocket costs of drugs that contains additional proposals to increase drug manufacturer competition, increase the negotiating power of certain federal healthcare programs, incentivize manufacturers to lower the list price of their products, and reduce the out of pocket costs of drug products paid by consumers. Individual states in the United States have also become increasingly active in passing legislation and implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. These new laws and initiatives may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other healthcare funding, which could have a material adverse effect on our future customers and accordingly, our financial operations.

We expect that additional state and federal healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that federal and state governments will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in reduced demand for any product candidates we successfully develop or additional pricing pressures.

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The loss of any of our third-party manufacturers, or delays or problems in the manufacture our product candidates, could result in product shortages delays in clinical development.

We do not have manufacturing capabilities and do not plan to develop such capacity in the foreseeable future. We depend on a limited number of sole source third-party suppliers for our product candidates. Accordingly, our ability to develop and deliver products in a timely and competitive manner depends on our third-party manufacturers being able to continue to meet our ongoing clinical trial needs and perform their contractual obligations.

Manufacture of our product candidates, especially in large quantities, is complex and time consuming.

All of our current product candidates are biologics. Our product candidates must be made consistently and in compliance with a clearly defined manufacturing process. Problems may arise during manufacturing for a variety of reasons, including problems with raw materials, equipment malfunction or replacement and failure to follow specific protocols and procedures. Slight deviations anywhere in the manufacturing process, including obtaining materials, maintaining master seed or cell banks and preventing genetic drift, seed or cell growth, fermentation and contamination including from, among other things, particulates, filtration, filling, labeling, packaging, storage and shipping, and quality control testing, may result in lot failures or manufacturing shut-down, delays in the release of lots, product recalls, spoilage or regulatory action. Due to COVID-19, our third-party manufacturers may experience difficulties that impact our product candidates.  

Failure of our third-party manufacturers to successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the FDA’s or foreign regulatory authorities’ strict regulatory requirements, may prevent regulatory approval of those manufacturing facilities.

We rely on third parties to manufacture all clinical trial materials for our product candidates, and we will rely on third parties to manufacture commercial supplies, if any such product candidates are ultimately approved for commercial sale. Our product candidates, including APVO436 and ALG.APV-527 will not be approved for marketing by the FDA or other foreign regulatory authorities unless the FDA or their foreign equivalents also approve the facilities used by our third-party manufacturers to produce them for commercialization. If our third-party manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the FDA’s or foreign regulatory authorities’ strict regulatory requirements, the FDA or their foreign counterparts will not approve their manufacturing facilities, which would result in significant delays in obtaining FDA or foreign marketing approvals for our product candidates. In order to successfully develop and commercialize our product candidates in a timely manner, we and our third-party manufacturers must be able to develop and execute on manufacturing processes and reach agreement on contract terms.

We and our third-party manufacturers may not be able to meet these manufacturing process requirements for any of our current product candidates, all of which have complex manufacturing processes, which make meeting these requirements even more challenging. Due to COVID-19, our third-party manufacturers may experience difficulties that impact our product candidates. If we are unable to develop manufacturing processes for our clinical product candidates that satisfy these requirements, we will not be able to supply sufficient quantities of test material to conduct our clinical trials in a timely or cost effective manner, and as a result, our development programs will be delayed, our financial performance will be adversely impacted and we will be unable to meet our long-term goals.

Development and commercialization of our product candidates may be terminated or delayed.

Our development and commercialization strategy involves entering into arrangements with corporate and academic collaborators, contract research organizations, distributors, third-party manufacturers, licensors, licensees and others to conduct development work, manage or conduct our clinical trials, manufacture our product candidates and market and sell our products outside of the United States and maintaining our existing arrangements with respect to the commercialization or manufacture of our products. We may not have the expertise or the resources to conduct all of these activities for all products and product candidates on our own and, as a result, are particularly dependent on third parties in many areas. Any current or future arrangements for development and commercialization may not be successful, as the amount and timing of resources that third parties devote to developing, manufacturing and commercializing our products candidates are not within our control. If we are not able to establish or maintain agreements relating our product candidates in development, our results of operations and prospects would be materially and adversely affected.

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Regulatory and Compliance Risks

Our long-term success depends, in part, upon our ability to develop, receive regulatory approval for and commercialize our product candidates.

Our product candidates and the activities associated with their development, including testing, manufacture, recordkeeping, storage and approval, are subject to comprehensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory agencies in the United States and by comparable authorities in other countries. Generally, failure to obtain regulatory approval for a product candidate will prevent us from commercializing the product candidate. We have limited resources for use in preparing, filing and supporting the applications necessary to gain regulatory approvals and expect to rely on third-party contract research organizations and consultants to assist us in this process.

The FDA and other comparable regulatory agencies in foreign countries impose substantial and rigorous requirements for the development, production, marketing authorization and commercial introduction of drug products. These requirements include pre-clinical, laboratory and clinical testing procedures, sampling activities, clinical trials and other costly and time-consuming procedures. In addition, regulation is not static, and regulatory authorities, including the FDA evolve in their staff interpretations and practices and may impose more stringent or different requirements than currently in effect, which may adversely affect our planned and ongoing drug development and/or our sales and marketing efforts.

In the United States, to obtain approval from the FDA to market any of our future biologic products, we will be required to submit a biologics license application, or BLA, to the FDA. Ordinarily, the FDA requires a sponsor to support a BLA with substantial evidence of the product’s safety, purity and potency in treating the targeted indication based on data derived from adequate and well-controlled clinical trials, including Phase 3 safety and efficacy trials conducted in patients with the disease or condition being targeted.

Developing and obtaining regulatory approval for product candidates is a lengthy process, often taking a number of years, is uncertain and is expensive. All of the product candidates that we are developing, or may develop in the future, require research and development, pre-clinical studies, nonclinical testing and clinical trials prior to seeking regulatory approval and commencing commercial sales. In addition, we may need to address a number of technological challenges in order to complete development of our product candidates. As a result, the development of product candidates may take longer than anticipated or not be successful at all.

Generally, no product can receive FDA approval, marketing authorization from the European Commission or the competent authorities of the EU Member States, or approval from comparable regulatory agencies in foreign countries unless data generated in human clinical trials demonstrates both safety and efficacy for each target indication in accordance with such authority’s standards.

The large majority of product candidates that begin human clinical trials fail to demonstrate the required safety and efficacy characteristics necessary for marketing approval. Failure to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of any of our product candidates for each target indication in clinical trials would prevent us from obtaining required approvals from regulatory authorities, which would prevent us from commercializing those product candidates. Negative or inconclusive results from the clinical trials or adverse medical events during the trials could lead to requirements that trials be repeated or extended, or that additional trials be conducted, any of which may not be clinically feasible or financially practicable, that the conduct of trials be suspended, or that a program be terminated.

Any regulatory approval we ultimately obtain may limit the indicated uses for the product or subject the product to restrictions or post-approval commitments that render the product commercially non-viable. Securing regulatory approval requires the submission of extensive non-clinical and clinical data, information about product manufacturing processes and inspection of facilities and supporting information to the regulatory authorities for each therapeutic indication to establish the product’s safety and efficacy. If we are unable to submit the necessary data and information, for example, because the results of clinical trials are not favorable, or if the applicable regulatory authority delays reviewing or does not approve our applications, we will be unable to obtain regulatory approval.

Delays in obtaining or failure to obtain regulatory approvals may: delay or prevent the successful commercialization of any of the products or product candidates in the jurisdiction for which approval is sought; diminish our competitive advantage; and defer or decrease our receipt of revenue.

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Certain of our product candidates previously in development experienced regulatory and/or clinical setbacks. Clinical development has been discontinued for product candidates otlertuzumab, APVO414, and APVO210. Both APVO414 and APVO210 were discontinued after patients developed anti-drug antibodies (ADA). Most recently, in 2019, we elected to discontinue the APVO210 development program following the review of data from the Phase 1 multiple ascending dose (MAD) clinical study of APVO210 in healthy volunteers that suggests that APVO210 would not meet the desired target product profile for future commercialization. Specifically, the clinical data showed evidence of increasing titers of ADA with repeated doses of APVO210, which had varying impact on APVO210 drug levels in subjects’ blood.  The cause of the ADA is uncertain; however we believe that appearance of ADA is related to the mechanism of action of APVO210, and not due to the structure, or sequences characteristic of the ADAPTIR platform.   Although we have re-designed certain components of the ADAPTIR platform based on what we have learned in prior clinical, trials, there is no guarantee that the occurrence of ADA or other clinical setbacks will not occur in the development of our existing and future ADAPTIR product candidates.

 

The procedures to obtain marketing approvals vary among countries and can involve additional clinical trials or other pre-filing requirements. The time required to obtain foreign regulatory approval may differ from that required to obtain FDA approval. The foreign regulatory approval process may include all the risks associated with obtaining FDA approval, or different or additional risks. Regulatory agencies may have varying interpretations of the same data, and approval by one regulatory authority does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions. Accordingly, approval by the FDA does not ensure approval by the regulatory authorities in other countries, and approval by one foreign regulatory authority does not ensure approval by the FDA or regulatory authorities in other foreign countries. We may not be able to file for regulatory approvals and may not receive necessary approvals to commercialize our products and products in development in any market on a timely basis, if at all.

Biotechnology company stock prices have declined significantly in certain instances where companies have failed to obtain FDA or foreign regulatory authority approval of a product candidate or if the timing of FDA or foreign regulatory authority approval is delayed. If the FDAs or any foreign regulatory authority’s response to any application for approval is delayed or not favorable for any of our product candidates, our stock price could decline significantly.

If we fail to comply with foreign, federal, state and local healthcare laws, including fraud and abuse and health information privacy and security laws, we could face substantial penalties and our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects could be adversely affected.

As a biotechnology company, even though we do not provide healthcare services or receive payments directly from or bill directly to Medicare, Medicaid or other third-party payors for our products, certain federal, state, local and foreign healthcare laws and regulations pertaining to fraud and abuse and patients’ rights are applicable to our business. We are subject to healthcare fraud and abuse and patient privacy regulation by both the federal government and the states in which we conduct our business. The laws that may affect our ability to operate include:

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Because of the breadth of these laws and the narrowness of the statutory exceptions and safe harbors available under the U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute, it is possible that some of our business activities could be subject to challenge under one or more of such laws. Moreover, recent health care reform legislation has strengthened these laws. For example, the ACA, among other things, amends the intent requirement of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and criminal health care fraud statutes, so that a person or entity no longer needs to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it. In addition, the ACA provides that the government may assert that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the False Claims Act.

Recently, several pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies have been prosecuted under the federal false claims laws for allegedly inflating drug prices they report to pricing services, which in turn are used by the government to set Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates, and for allegedly providing free product to customers with the expectation that the customers would bill federal programs for the product. In addition, certain marketing practices, including off-label promotion, interactions with specialty pharmacies, and patient assistance programs may also violate fraud and abuse laws. To the extent that any product we make is sold in a foreign country, we may be subject to similar foreign laws and regulations.

In addition, certain state and local laws mandate that we comply with a state code of conduct, adopt a company code of conduct under state criteria, disclose marketing payments made to health care professionals and entities, disclose drug pricing information and/or report compliance information to the state authorities. The shifting compliance environment and the need to build and maintain robust and expandable systems to comply in multiple jurisdictions with different compliance and reporting requirements increase the possibility that a pharmaceutical company may violate one or more of the requirements. Any failure to comply with these reporting requirements could result in significant fines and penalties.

The risks of complying with these laws cannot be entirely eliminated. The risk of violation of such laws is also increased because many of them have not been fully interpreted by the regulatory authorities or the courts, and their provisions are open to a variety of interpretations. Any action against us for violation of these laws, even if we successfully defend against it, could cause us to incur significant legal expenses and divert our management’s attention from the operation of our business. Moreover, achieving and sustaining compliance with applicable federal, state, local and foreign privacy, security, fraud and transparency laws may prove costly. If our past or present operations, or those of our distributors are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other governmental regulations that apply to us, we may be subject to sanctions, including civil and administrative penalties, criminal fines, damages, disgorgement, exclusion from participation in U.S. federal or state health care programs, individual imprisonment, integrity obligations, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could materially adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results. Similarly, if healthcare providers, distributors or other entities with whom we do business are found to be out of compliance with applicable laws and regulations, they may be subject to sanctions, which could also have a negative impact on us.

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Our operations, including our use of hazardous materials, chemicals, bacteria and viruses, require us to comply with regulatory requirements and expose us to significant potential liabilities.

Our operations involve the use of hazardous materials, including chemicals, and may produce dangerous waste products. Accordingly, we, along with the third parties that conduct clinical trials and manufacture our products and product candidates on our behalf, are subject to federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations that govern the use, manufacture, distribution, storage, handling, exposure, disposal and recordkeeping with respect to these materials. We are also subject to a variety of environmental and occupational health and safety laws. Compliance with current or future laws and regulations can require significant costs and we could be subject to substantial fines and penalties in the event of noncompliance. In addition, the risk of contamination or injury from these materials cannot be completely eliminated. In such event, we could be held liable for substantial civil damages or costs associated with the cleanup of hazardous materials.

Our failure to comply with data protection laws and regulations could lead to government enforcement actions and significant penalties against us, and adversely impact our operating results.

EU Member States, Switzerland and other countries have adopted data protection laws and regulations, which impose significant compliance obligations. For example, European Union, or EU, member states and other foreign jurisdictions, including Switzerland, have adopted data protection laws and regulations which impose significant compliance obligations. Moreover, the collection and use of personal health data in the EU is now governed under the EU General Data Protection Regulation, or the GDPR, effective in May 2018. The GDPR, which is wide-ranging in scope, imposed several requirements relating to the consent of the individuals to whom the personal data relates, the information provided to the individuals, the security and confidentiality of the personal data, data breach notification and the use of third-party processors in connection with the processing of personal data. The GDPR also imposes strict rules on the transfer of personal data out of the EU to the U.S., provides an enforcement authority and imposes large penalties for noncompliance, including the potential for fines of up to €20 million or 4% of the annual global revenues of the noncompliant company, whichever is greater. The GDPR requirements apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information between us and our subsidiaries, including employee information. The GDPR increases our responsibility and liability in relation to personal data that we process, including in clinical trials, and we may be required to put in place additional mechanisms to ensure compliance with the GDPR, which could divert management’s attention and increase our cost of doing business. In addition, new regulation or legislative actions regarding data privacy and security (together with applicable industry standards) may increase our costs of doing business. However, despite our ongoing efforts to bring our practices into compliance with the GDPR, we may not be successful either due to various factors within our control, such as limited financial or human resources, or other factors outside our control. It is also possible that local data protection authorities may have different interpretations of the GDPR, leading to potential inconsistencies amongst various EU member states. Any failure or alleged failure (including as a result of deficiencies in our policies, procedures, or measures relating to privacy, data security, marketing, or communications) by us to comply with laws, regulations, policies, legal or contractual obligations, industry standards, or regulatory guidance relating to privacy or data security, may result in governmental investigations and enforcement actions, litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity. In addition, we expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws, regulations and industry standards relating to privacy and data protection in the United States, the EU and other jurisdictions, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, which has been characterized as the first “GDPR-like” privacy statute to be enacted in the United States, and we cannot determine the impact such future laws, regulations and standards may have on our business.

Intellectual Property Risks

If we are unable to protect our intellectual proprietary rights, our business could be harmed.

Our commercial success will depend, in large part, on our ability to obtain and maintain protection in the United States and other countries for the intellectual property covering or incorporated into our technology, products and product candidates. Obtaining and maintaining this protection is very costly. The patentability of technology in the biotechnology field generally is highly uncertain and involves complex legal and scientific questions. We cannot be certain that our patents and patent applications, including our own and those that we have rights through licenses from third parties, will adequately protect our intellectual property. Our success protecting our intellectual property depends significantly on our ability to:

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We may not be able to obtain issued patents relating to our technology or product candidates. Even if issued, patents may inadvertently lapse or be challenged, narrowed, invalidated or circumvented, which could limit our ability to stop competitors from marketing similar products or limit the duration of patent protection we may have for our product candidates. Further, patents may lapse prior to the regulatory approval of the underlying product in one or more territories. In the past, we have abandoned the prosecution and/or maintenance of patent applications related to patent families in the ordinary course of business. In the future we may choose to abandon such prosecution and/or maintenance in a similar fashion. If these patent rights are later determined to be valuable or necessary to our business, our competitive position may be adversely affected. Changes in patent laws or administrative patent office rules or changes in interpretations of patent laws in the United States and in other countries may diminish the value of our intellectual property or narrow the scope of our patent protection, or result in costly defensive measures.

The cost of litigation to uphold the validity of patents, once obtained, to prevent infringement or to otherwise protect or enforce our proprietary rights could be substantial and, from time to time, our patents are subject to patent office proceedings. Some of our competitors may be better able to sustain the costs of complex patent litigation because they may have substantially greater financial resources. Intellectual property lawsuits are expensive and unpredictable and would consume management’s time and attention and other resources, even if the outcome were successful. In addition, there is a risk that a court would decide that our patents are not valid and that we do not have the right to stop the other party from using the inventions covered by or incorporating them. There is also a risk that, even if the validity of a patent were upheld, a court would refuse to stop the other party from using the invention(s), including on the grounds that its activities do not infringe the patent. If any of these events were to occur, our business, financial condition and operating results could be materially and adversely affected.

In addition to patent litigation, we may be a party to adversarial proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), or the Opposition Division of the European Patent Office (EPO). Potential proceedings before the PTAB include inter partes review proceedings, post-grant review proceedings and interference proceedings. Depending on our level of success at the PTAB and Opposition Division of the EPO, these proceedings could adversely impact our intellectual property rights with respect to our products and technology.

In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on several patent cases in recent years, either narrowing the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances or weakening the rights of patent owners in certain situations. This combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained, and with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future. Depending on decisions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts, and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that would weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce our existing patents and patents that we might obtain in the future. Patent and intellectual property laws outside of the United States may also change and be uncertain.

Patent and other intellectual property laws outside the United States are even more uncertain than in the United States and are continually undergoing review and revisions in many countries. Further, the laws of some foreign countries may not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. For example, certain countries do not grant patent claims that are directed to business methods and processes. In addition, we may have to participate in additional opposition proceedings, like the proceedings described above, to determine the validity of our foreign patents or our competitors’ foreign patents, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of our efforts.

Our collaborative partners and licensors may not adequately protect our intellectual property rights. These third parties may have the first right to maintain or defend intellectual property rights in which we have an interest and, although we may have the right to assume the maintenance and defense of such intellectual property rights if these third parties do not do so, our ability to maintain and defend such intellectual property rights may be compromised by the acts or omissions of these third parties.

Our patents, once obtained, also may not afford us protection against competitors with similar technology. Because patent applications in the United States and many foreign jurisdictions are typically not published until eighteen months after filing, or in some cases not at all, and because publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind actual discoveries, neither we nor our licensors can be certain that others have not filed or maintained patent applications for technology used by us or covered by our pending patent applications without our being aware of these applications.

We also will rely on current and future trademarks to establish and maintain recognized brands. If we fail to acquire and protect such trademarks, our ability to market and sell our products, and therefore our business, financial condition and operating results, could be materially and adversely affected.

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Third parties may choose to file patent infringement claims against us.

Our development and commercialization activities, as well as any product candidates or products resulting from these activities, may infringe or be claimed to infringe patents and other intellectual property rights of third parties under which we do not hold sufficient licenses or other rights. Third parties may be successful in obtaining patent protection for technologies that cover development and commercialization activities in which we are already engaged. These third parties may have substantially greater financial resources than us and could bring claims against us that could cause us to incur substantial expenses to defend against these claims and, if successful against us, could cause us to pay substantial damages. If a patent infringement or other similar suit were brought against us, we could be forced to stop or delay development, manufacturing or sales of the product or product candidate that is the subject of the suit. Intellectual property litigation in the biotechnology industry is common, and we expect this trend to continue.

As a result of patent infringement or other similar claims, or to avoid potential claims, we may choose or be required to seek a license from the third party and be required to pay license fees or royalties or both. These licenses may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Even if we were able to obtain a license, the rights may be non-exclusive, which could result in our competitors gaining access to the same intellectual property. Ultimately, we could be prevented from commercializing a product, or be forced to cease some aspect of our business operations, if, as a result of actual or threatened patent infringement claims, we are unable to enter into licenses on acceptable terms, if at all, or if an injunction is granted against us, which could harm our business significantly.

There has been substantial litigation and other proceedings regarding patent and other intellectual property rights in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. In addition to infringement claims against us, we may become a party to other patent litigation and other adversarial proceedings such as proceedings before the PTAB and opposition proceedings in the European Patent Office, regarding intellectual property rights that could impact our products and technology.

Patent litigation and other proceedings may also absorb significant management time. The cost to us of any patent litigation or other proceeding, even if resolved in our favor, could be substantial. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their substantially greater financial resources. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace. Patent litigation and other proceedings may also absorb significant management time.

Our Aptevo trademarks may be opposed which could have a material and adverse effect on our business.

We have applications pending that cover the APTEVO THERAPEUTICS, APTEVO BIOTHERAPEUTICS, and APTEVO RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT trademarks. We refer to these trademarks as our house marks. If a third party opposes any of these house marks and we are unable to reach settlement prior to the commencement of an opposition proceeding, we may incur significant expense in the course of participating in the opposition process, which can be expensive and lengthy. Any settlement with a third party may result in our agreeing to be subject to restrictions on our use of the relevant house mark. In addition, if we are unsuccessful in an opposition against a house mark, we would lose the ability to obtain trademark registration for one or more uses of the relevant mark both in the United States and in other territories which could have a material and adverse effect on our business.

We may be subject to claims that our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their former employers.

As is common in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, we employ individuals who were previously employed at other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. We may be subject to claims that these employees or we have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other proprietary information of their former employers. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management.

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Failure to comply with our obligations in our intellectual property licenses with third parties, could result in loss of license rights or other damages.

We are a party to a number of license agreements and expect to enter into additional license agreements in the future. Our existing licenses impose, and we expect future licenses will impose, various diligence, milestone payment, royalty, insurance and other obligations on us. If we fail to comply with these obligations, the licensor may have the right to terminate the license in whole or in part, terminate the exclusive nature of the license and/or sue us for breach, which could cause us to not be able to market any product that is covered by the licensed patents and may be subject to damages.

If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our proprietary information and know-how, the value of our technology and product candidates could be adversely affected.

In addition to patented technology, we rely upon unpatented proprietary technology, information processes and know-how. These types of trade secrets can be difficult to protect. We seek to protect this confidential information, in part, through agreements with our employees, consultants and third parties as well as confidentiality policies and audits, although these may not be successful in protecting our trade secrets and confidential information. These agreements may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any such breach. In addition, our trade secrets may otherwise become known, including through a potential cyber security breach, or may be independently developed by competitors. If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our proprietary information and know-how, competitors may be able to use this information to develop products that compete with our products, which could adversely impact our business.

 

If we experience a significant disruption in our information technology systems or breaches of data security, our business could be adversely affected.

We rely on information technology systems to keep financial records, capture laboratory data, maintain clinical trial data and corporate records, communicate with staff and external parties and operate other critical functions. Our information technology systems are potentially vulnerable to disruption due to breakdown, malicious intrusion and computer viruses or other disruptive events including but not limited to natural disaster. The impact of COVID-19 also poses an increased security risk, due to the mandatory remote working orders. If we were to experience a prolonged system disruption in our information technology systems or those of certain of our vendors, it could delay or negatively impact our development and commercialization of our product candidates, which could adversely impact our business. If operations at our facilities were disrupted, it may cause a material disruption in our business if we are not capable of restoring function on an acceptable timeframe. In addition, our information technology systems are potentially vulnerable to data security breaches—whether by employees or others—which may expose sensitive or personal data to unauthorized persons. Such data security breaches could lead to the loss of trade secrets or other intellectual property, or could lead to the public exposure of personal information (including sensitive personal information) of our employees, patients in our clinical trials, customers and others, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Moreover, a security breach or privacy violation that leads to destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized use or access, disclosure or modification of, personally identifiable information or personal data, could harm our reputation, compel us to comply with federal, state and/or international breach notification laws, subject us to mandatory corrective or regulatory action, require us to verify the correctness of database contents and otherwise subject us to liability under laws and regulations that protect personal data, including the GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, which could disrupt our business, result in increased costs or loss of revenue, and/or result in significant legal and financial exposure. In addition, a data security breach could result in loss of clinical trial data or damage to the integrity of that data. If we are unable to implement and maintain adequate organizational and technical measures to prevent such security breaches or privacy violations, or to respond adequately in the event of a breach, our operations could be disrupted, and we may suffer loss of reputation, problems with regulatory authorities, financial loss and other negative consequences. In addition, these breaches and other inappropriate access can be difficult to detect, and any delay in identifying them may lead to increased harm of the type described above.

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Risk Related to Collaborations and Other Agreements

We may not be successful in establishing and maintaining collaborations that leverage our capabilities in pursuit of developing and commercializing our product candidates.

For each of our product candidates we plan to evaluate the merits of entering into collaboration arrangements with third parties, including leading biotechnology companies or non-governmental organizations. In July 2017, we entered into a collaboration agreement with Alligator Bioscience AB, or Alligator, pursuant to which Aptevo R&D and Alligator will collaboratively develop ALG.APV-527, a lead bispecific antibody candidate simultaneously targeting 4-1BB (CD137), a member of the TNFR superfamily of a costimulatory receptor found on activated T-cells, and 5T4, a tumor antigen widely overexpressed in a number of different types of cancer. We expect to selectively pursue collaboration arrangements with third parties that have particular technology, expertise or resources for the development or commercialization of our product candidates or for accessing particular markets. We face, and will continue to face, significant competition in seeking appropriate partners for our product candidates. If we are unable to identify partners whose capabilities complement and integrate well with ours and reach collaboration arrangements with such partners on a timely basis, on acceptable terms or at all, or if the arrangements we establish are unproductive for us, we may fail to meet our business objectives for the particular product candidate. Our ability to enter into such arrangements with respect to products in development that are subject to licenses may be limited by the terms of those licenses.

Our collaboration agreement with Alligator, or any collaboration agreement we may consider entering into, may not be successful and the success of our collaboration arrangements will depend heavily on the efforts and activities of our collaborative partners. It is likely that our collaborative partners will have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply to these collaborations.

The risks that we are subject to in any of our collaborations include, among others:

The failure of any of our current or future collaboration partners to perform as expected could place us at a competitive disadvantage and adversely affect us financially, including delay and increased costs of development, loss of market opportunities, lower than expected revenues and impairment of the value of the related product candidate. A loss of our collaboration agreement with Alligator would result in a burden of locating a replacement partner under potentially less favorable terms at an additional cost. Collaborations are a critical part of our business strategy, and any inability on our part to establish and successfully maintain such arrangements on terms favorable to us or to work successfully with our collaborative partners could have an adverse effect on our operations and financial performance. Due to COVID-19, we may experience delays in opportunities to develop our product candidates, due to financial and other impacts on potential partners.

In connection with our separation from Emergent, we and Emergent agreed to indemnify the other party for certain liabilities. The Emergent indemnity may not be sufficient to hold us harmless from the full amount of liabilities for which Emergent will be allocated responsibility, and Emergent may not be able to satisfy its indemnification obligations in the future.

Pursuant to the separation agreement and certain other agreements with Emergent, Emergent has agreed to indemnify us for certain liabilities, and we agreed to indemnify Emergent for certain liabilities. Indemnities that we may be required to provide Emergent are not subject to any cap, may be significant and could negatively impact our business, particularly indemnities relating to our actions that could impact the tax-free nature of the distribution. Third parties could also seek to hold us responsible for any of the liabilities that Emergent has agreed to retain. Any amounts we are required to pay pursuant to these indemnification obligations and other liabilities could require us to divert cash that would otherwise have been used in furtherance of our operating business. Further, the indemnity from Emergent may not be sufficient to protect us against the full amount of such liabilities, and Emergent may not be able to fully satisfy its indemnification obligations. Moreover, even if we ultimately succeed in recovering from Emergent any amounts for which we are held liable, we may be temporarily required to bear these losses ourselves. Each of these risks could negatively affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Due to COVID-19, we may experience delays in opportunities to develop our product candidates, due to financial and other impacts on potential partners.

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Risks Related to Our Common Stock

Our stock price may be volatile.

Our stock price has fluctuated in the past and is likely to be volatile in the future. Since August 1, 2016, the reported closing price of our common stock has fluctuated between $3.29 and $112 per share (as adjusted to reflect our 1-for-14 reverse stock split of our outstanding common stock that was effective on March 26, 2020). The stock market in general, and the market for biotechnology companies in particular, have experienced extreme volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. In particular, the stock market has experienced extreme volatility in recent months as a result of COVID-19 and its impact on the global economy. The market price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly due to a number of factors, some of which may be beyond our control or unrelated to our operations, including, among others:

In addition, when the market price of a company’s common stock drops significantly, stockholders often institute securities class action lawsuits against the company. A lawsuit against us could cause us to incur substantial costs and could divert the time and attention of our management and other resources.

If we do not continue to develop effective internal controls, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results and our business could be harmed.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting annually and the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures quarterly. In particular, Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or Section 404, requires us to perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on, and our independent registered public accounting firm potentially to attest to, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. As an emerging growth company, we have availed ourselves of the exemption from the requirement that our independent registered public accounting firm attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting under Section 404. However, we may no longer avail ourselves of this exemption when we cease to be an emerging growth company. When our independent registered public accounting firm is required to undertake an assessment of our internal control over financial reporting, the cost of our compliance with Section 404 will correspondingly increase. Our compliance with applicable provisions of Section 404 will require that we incur substantial accounting expense and expend significant management time on compliance-related issues as we implement additional corporate governance practices and comply with reporting requirements. Moreover, if we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 applicable to us in a timely manner, or if we or our independent registered public accounting firm identifies deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, the market price of our stock could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources.

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Investor perceptions of our company may suffer if material weaknesses are found, and this could cause a decline in the market price of our common stock. Irrespective of compliance with Section 404, any failure of our internal control over financial reporting could harm our operating results and reputation. If we are unable to implement these requirements effectively or efficiently, it could harm our operations, financial reporting, or financial results and could result in an adverse opinion on our internal controls from our independent registered public accounting firm.

 

The public announcement of data from clinical trials or news of any developments related to our product pipeline may cause significant volatility in our stock price.

The announcement of data from clinical trials by us or our collaborative partners or news of any developments related to our key pipeline product candidates may cause significant volatility in our stock price. Furthermore, the announcement of any negative or unexpected data or the discontinuation of development of any of our key pipeline product candidates, or any delay in our anticipated timelines for filing for regulatory approval, could cause our stock price to decline significantly. There can be no assurance that data from clinical trials will support a filing for regulatory approval or even if approved, that any of our key pipeline products will become commercially successful.

Your percentage of ownership in Aptevo may be diluted in the future.

In the future, your percentage ownership in Aptevo may be diluted because of equity issuances for acquisitions, capital market transactions or otherwise, including equity awards to our directors, officers and employees. Our employees have options to purchase shares of our common stock and from time to time, we expect to issue additional options, restricted stock units, or other stock-based awards to our employees under our employee benefits plans.

Future issuances of common stock may include (i) any sale of up to the remaining $17.3 million worth of shares of our common stock pursuant to our Equity Distribution Agreement with Piper Sandler & Co entered into in November 2017, (ii) any sale of up to $35.0 million worth of shares of our common stock in a private placement pursuant to our Purchase Agreement with Lincoln Park, entered into in December 2018 and (iii) the issuance of up to 1,571,429 shares of common stock upon the exercise of warrants issued in connection with our March 2019 public offering of common stock and warrants.

In addition, our restated certificate of incorporation authorizes us to issue, without the approval of our stockholders, one or more classes or series of preferred stock having such designation, powers, preferences and relative, participating, optional and other special rights, including preferences over our common stock respecting dividends and distributions, as our board of directors generally may determine. The terms of one or more classes or series of preferred stock could dilute the voting power or reduce the value of our common stock. For example, we could grant the holders of preferred stock the right to elect some number of our directors in all events or on the happening of specified events or the right to veto specified transactions. Similarly, the repurchase or redemption rights or liquidation preferences we could assign to holders of preferred stock could affect the residual value of the common stock.

Provisions under Delaware law and in our restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated by-laws may discourage acquisition proposals, delay a change in control or prevent transactions that stockholders may consider favorable.

Certain provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated by-laws, and under Delaware law, may discourage, delay or prevent a merger, acquisition or other changes in control that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares. These provisions may also prevent or frustrate attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our incumbent directors and management.

These provisions include:

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The affirmative vote of holders of our capital stock representing at least 75% of the voting power of all outstanding stock entitled to vote is required to amend or repeal the above provisions of our certificate of incorporation. The affirmative vote of either a majority of the directors present at a meeting of our Board of Directors or holders of our capital stock representing at least 75% of the voting power of all outstanding stock entitled to vote is required to amend or repeal our by-laws.

In addition, Section 203 of the General Corporation Law of Delaware prohibits a corporation from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder, generally a person which, together with its affiliates, owns or within the last three years has owned 15% or more of the corporation’s voting stock, for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person became an interested stockholder, unless the business combination is approved in a prescribed manner. Accordingly, Section 203 may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of us.

Our by-laws include an exclusive forum provision that could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a judicial forum viewed by stockholders as more favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees or certain stockholders.

Our by-laws provide that the Chancery Court of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for certain legal proceedings, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum. This exclusive forum provision may limit the ability of our stockholders to bring a claim in a judicial forum that such stockholders find favorable for disputes with us or our directors or officers, which may discourage lawsuits against us or our directors or officers. Alternatively, if a court outside of Delaware were to find this exclusive forum provision inapplicable to, or unenforceable in respect of, one or more of the types of actions or proceedings described above, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.

 

 

Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds.

Not applicable.

 

 

Item 3. Defaults Upon Senior Securities.

Not applicable.

 

 

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.

Not applicable.

 

 

Item 5. Other Information.

Not applicable.

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Item 6. Exhibits

Exhibit Index

 

 

 

 

 

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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 thereunto duly authorized.

 

 

 

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Exhibit 31.1

CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO

RULES 13a-14(a) AND 15d-14(a) UNDER THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934,

AS ADOPTED PURSUANT TO SECTION 302 OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002

I, Marvin White, certify that:

 

 

Exhibit 31.2

CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO

RULES 13a-14(a) AND 15d-14(a) UNDER THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934,

AS ADOPTED PURSUANT TO SECTION 302 OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002

I, Jeff Lamothe, certify that:

 

 

Exhibit 32.1

CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO

RULE 13a-14(b) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934, AS AMENDED AND

18 U.S.C. SECTION 1350, AS ADOPTED PURSUANT TO

SECTION 906 OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002

In connection with the Annual Report of Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. on Form 10-Q for the period ending March 31, 2020 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the date hereof (the “Report”), I certify, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1350, as adopted pursuant to § 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, that:

 

 

 

“This certification accompanies the Form 10-Q to which it relates, is not deemed filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is not to be incorporated by reference into any filing of Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (whether made before or after the date of the Form-K), irrespective of any general incorporation language contained in such filing.”

Exhibit 32.2

CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO

RULE 13a-14(b) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934, AS AMENDED AND

18 U.S.C. SECTION 1350, AS ADOPTED PURSUANT TO

SECTION 906 OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002

In connection with the Annual Report of Aptevo Inc. on Form 10-Q for the period ending March 31, 2020 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the date hereof (the “Report”), I certify, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1350, as adopted pursuant to § 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, that:

 

 

 

“This certification accompanies the Form 10-Q to which it relates, is not deemed filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is not to be incorporated by reference into any filing of Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (whether made before or after the date of the Form-K), irrespective of any general incorporation language contained in such filing.”