EyePoint Pharmaceuticals Inc

This section augments and updates certain risk factors disclosed in Item 1A of Part I of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 (the Annual Report). The following risk factors should be read together with the other risk factors disclosed in the Annual Report. In addition to the other information in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, all of the risk factors should be carefully considered in evaluating us and our common stock. Any of these risks, many of which are beyond our control, could materially and adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows, or cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. We may also face other risks and uncertainties that are not presently known, are not currently believed to be material, or are not identified below because they are common to all businesses. Past financial performance may not be a reliable indicator of future performance, and historical trends should not be used to anticipate results or trends in future periods. For more information, see “Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

We use our own facility for the manufacturing of YUTIQ® and rely on third party suppliers for key components, and any disruptions to our or our suppliers’ operations could adversely affect YUTIQ®’s commercial viability and our ability to supply YUTIQ® to Alimera.

Pursuant to our agreements with our commercialization partners, we currently manufacture commercial supplies of YUTIQ® ourselves at our Watertown, MA facility and rely on third party suppliers for key components of YUTIQ®. We have, and will continue, to perform extensive audits of our suppliers, vendors and contract laboratories. The cGMP requirements govern, among other things, recordkeeping, production processes and controls, personnel and quality control. To ensure that we continue to meet these requirements, we have and will continue to expend significant time, money, and effort.

The commercial manufacture of medical products is complex and requires significant expertise and capital investment, including the development of advanced manufacturing techniques and process controls. Manufacturers of medical products often encounter difficulties in production, particularly in scaling out and validating initial production and ensuring the absence of contamination. These problems include difficulties with production costs and yields, quality control, including stability of the product, quality assurance testing, operator error, shortages of qualified personnel, as well as compliance with strictly enforced federal, state, and foreign regulations. We cannot assure you that any issue relating to the manufacture of YUTIQ® will not occur in the future.

The FDA also may, at any time following approval of a product for sale, audit our manufacturing facilities. If any such inspection or audit identifies a failure to comply with applicable regulations or if a violation of our product specifications or applicable regulation occurs independent of such an inspection or audit, the FDA may issue a Form FDA-483 and/or an untitled or warning letter, or we or the FDA may require remedial measures that may be costly and/or time consuming for us to implement and that may include the temporary or permanent suspension of commercial sales, recalls, market withdrawals, seizures or the temporary or permanent closure of a facility. We recently received an FDA Form 483 at the conclusion of an FDA inspection of our facility in February 2024, which included certain observations, and a subsequent determination that our facility has been classified as Official Action Indicated (OAI), which could lead to an enforcement action or, if left unaddressed, negatively affect our manufacturing of YUTIQ®. We are currently in the process of addressing each of the FDA’s observations and we believe we can successfully address all of the observations by implementing required corrective and preventive actions.

If our Contract Research Organizations (CROs), Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs), Contract Development Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOs), vendors, and investigators do not successfully carry out their responsibilities or if we lose our relationships with them, our development efforts with respect to our product candidates could be delayed.

We are dependent on CROs, CMOs, CDMOs, vendors, and investigators for pre-clinical testing and clinical trials related to our product development programs, including for DURAVYU™ and other product candidates. These parties are not our employees, and we cannot control the amount or timing of resources that they devote to our programs. If they do not timely fulfill their responsibilities or if their performance is inadequate, the development, and commercialization of our product candidates could be delayed.

The parties with which we contract for execution of clinical trials play a significant role in the conduct of the trials and the subsequent collection and analysis of data. Their failure to meet their obligations could adversely affect clinical development of our product candidates. In addition, if we or our CROs fail to comply with applicable current Good Clinical Practices (GCP), the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving any marketing applications. Upon inspection, the FDA may determine that our clinical trials did not comply with GCP.

Switching or adding additional CROs involves additional cost and requires management time and focus. Identifying, qualifying and managing performance of third-party service providers can be difficult, time-consuming and cause delays in our development programs. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new CRO commences work and the new CRO may not provide the same type or level of services as the original provider. Though we carefully manage our relationships with our CROs, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter challenges or delays in the future or that these delays or challenges will not have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and prospects. If any of our relationships with our CROs terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative CROs or to do so on commercially reasonable terms. As a result, delays may occur, which can materially impact our ability to meet our desired clinical development timelines.

Additionally, our CMOs may experience manufacturing difficulties due to resource constraints or as a result of labor disputes or unstable political environments. If our CMOs were to encounter any of these difficulties, our ability to provide our product candidate to patients in clinical trials, or to provide product for the treatment of patients once approved, would be jeopardized.

In addition, any facilities located outside the United States (U.S.) that are used by us or by our CMOs or CDMOs to manufacture, test, and optimize our product candidates will be subject to various regulatory requirements of the jurisdiction in which they are located and in addition be subject to trade laws and regulations of the U.S. that may restrict our ability to continue to utilize certain CMOs or CDMOs. Foreign CMOs or CDMOs may be subject to U.S. legislation or investigations, including the proposed BIOSECURE Act, sanctions, trade restrictions, and other foreign regulatory requirements, which could increase the cost or reduce the supply of material available to us, delay the procurement or supply of such material, delay or impact clinical trials, have an adverse effect on our clinical drug development efforts and could adversely affect our financial condition and business prospects. For example, we currently engage with WuXi Apptec (WuXi), to perform certain process development, manufacturing and testing associated with one of our product candidates, EYP-2301. WuXi has been identified as a U.S. national security threat in the proposed BIOSECURE Act, which, if enacted, or if alternatively implemented through executive or administrative action, could restrict WuXi’s business in the U.S. or the ability of businesses in the U.S. to conduct business with WuXi.

Moreover, if a foreign regulatory authority curtails operations at such foreign facilities of our CMOs or CDMOs, or if trade laws are adopted limiting our ability to use such CMO or CDMO facilities, we may need to find alternative facilities, which could negatively impact our clinical development timelines.

Because we have relied on third parties, our internal capacity to perform certain functions is limited. Outsourcing these functions involves risks that third parties may not perform to our standards, may not produce results in a timely manner or may fail to perform at all. In addition, the use of third-party service providers requires us to disclose our proprietary information to these parties, which could increase the risk that this information will be misappropriated. We currently have a small number of employees, which limits the internal resources we have available to identify and monitor our third-party providers. To the extent we are unable to identify and successfully manage the performance of third-party service providers in the future, our ability to advance our product candidates through clinical trials will be compromised. Though we carefully manage our relationships with our CROs, CMOs, and CDMOs, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter similar challenges or delays in the future or that these delays or challenges will not have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and prospects.