Vera Therapeutics Inc

Overview

We are a late clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing transformative treatments for patients with serious immunological diseases. Our lead product candidate, atacicept, a fully humanized TACI-Fc fusion protein that binds both B-cell activating factor (BAFF) and A proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL) and is self-administered subcutaneously, is currently being evaluated for the treatment of immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN). We are conducting ORIGIN 3, the pivotal Phase 3 trial of atacicept 150 mg in IgAN, and in September 2024 completed enrollment of the initial cohort of 200 participants that will provide data for the 36-week urine protein creatinine ratio (UPCR) primary efficacy endpoint. We expect to announce primary endpoint results in the second quarter of 2025, supporting our planned submission for regulatory approval later in 2025. The Phase 2b ORIGIN clinical trial evaluated the safety and efficacy of atacicept in 116 participants with IgAN and reported positive results at 24 weeks in January 2023, 36 weeks in June 2023, and 96 weeks in October 2024. The trial remained blinded through 36 weeks, after which all participants were eligible for the open label extension portion of the study and received atacicept 150 mg through 96 weeks. At 24 and 36 weeks, atacicept met its primary and key secondary endpoints, respectively, with statistically significant reductions in UPCR, and stable estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was observed with clinically meaningful and statistically significant difference for participants on atacicept versus placebo. Participants treated with atacicept demonstrated reductions in galactose-deficient IgA1 (Gd-IgA1), the autoantigen produced by B cells in patients with IgAN, and a reduction in hematuria. The improvements in Gd-IgA1, hematuria, UPCR and eGFR represent the quartet of findings consistent with IgAN disease modification. The 96-week open label extension results showed consistent and sustained reductions in Gd-IgA1, hematuria, and UPCR, with continued eGFR stabilization at a rate similar to the general population without kidney disease. Additionally, atacicept’s safety profile was comparable to placebo. We believe that atacicept has pipeline in a molecule potential, with potential application in multiple diseases. Based on data from the Phase 2b ORIGIN trial, the US FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation to atacicept for the treatment of IgAN. We have also committed to providing long-term access to atacicept for all ORIGIN participants by initiating ORIGIN EXTEND, a long-term Phase 2 extension study that offers open-label atacicept to participants who completed ORIGIN Phase 2b or 3 until commercial availability in their country or region. We will be evaluating atacicept in non-IgAN autoimmune kidney diseases, including primary membranous nephropathy (pMN), focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and minimal change disease (MCD), in the Phase 2 PIONEER clinical trial that will initiate in 2025, in patients with anti-PLA2R antibodies or other autoantibodies. Potential other future indications include several rheumatologic diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjogren’s disease, and hematologic diseases, including idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura and autoimmune hemolytic anemia. We also hold worldwide, exclusive development and commercial rights to MAU868, a potentially first-in-class monoclonal antibody to treat reactivated BK virus (BKV) infections for which we completed a Phase 2 clinical trial in 2022, and in January 2025, we acquired field-limited, worldwide, exclusive development and commercial rights to VT-109, a novel, next-generation dual BAFF/APRIL inhibitor that is in preclinical development. We believe that our current pipeline programs leverage the deep expertise of our team and have strong potential commercial synergies. We hold global developmental and commercial rights to all of our pipeline molecules.

IgAN is a serious and progressive autoimmune disease of the kidney that is driven by the production of Gd-IgA1 and its corresponding autoantigen produced by B cells. IgAN is associated with a high risk of kidney-related morbidity and mortality. We estimate there will be approximately 157,000 biopsy-confirmed IgAN patients in the United States, 136,000 in Europe, and 130,000 in Japan, at estimated peak year of sales. Up to 50% of patients diagnosed with IgAN develop end-stage renal disease (ESRD) within 20 years from initial diagnosis, requiring dialysis or kidney transplant. ESRD causes considerable morbidity and impact on patients’ lives and represents a significant health economic burden, which was estimated to be $70.6 billion in the United States in 2022. Despite this high level of morbidity, only three treatments have been approved for this indication: TARPEYO (budesonide, developed by Calliditas Therapeutics AB), a reformulated steroid, FILSPARI (sparsentan, developed by Travere Therapeutics), a dual endothelin angiotensin receptor antagonist, and FABHALTA (iptacopan, developed by Novartis), a complement inhibitor. None of these agents have been shown to reduce the rate of eGFR decline to a level that minimized the lifetime risk of kidney failure, and thus are not disease-modifying treatments in IgAN. The current standard of care continues to consist of non-specific CKD therapies such as off-label use of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibitors, including angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), and, in some patients, sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors. We estimate the global market opportunity for novel, disease-modifying therapeutics in IgAN is approximately $6.0 billion to $10.0 billion annually, based on the disease prevalence and the segment of IgAN patients at high risk of progressing to ESRD.

Atacicept is a TACI-Fc fusion protein self-administered at home as a subcutaneous injection once weekly that blocks both BAFF and APRIL, which stimulate B cells to produce autoantibodies contributing to certain autoimmune diseases. We believe that atacicept’s mechanism has the potential to generate clinical success by measures designed to assess efficacy in IgAN and other immunologic diseases. BAFF inhibition has been clinically and commercially validated through the approval of Benlysta (belimumab) in both systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and lupus nephritis (LN). Preclinical and clinical evidence support that atacicept’s mechanism of dual inhibition of BAFF and APRIL may provide improved clinical outcomes, measured by endpoints designed to assess efficacy, compared to inhibiting either signal alone. Atacicept has the potential to be the first disease-modifying therapy for IgAN due to its ability to precisely modulate B cell activity, with reductions in Gd-IgA1, hematuria, and proteinuria – and stabilization of eGFR.

We have worldwide, exclusive rights to atacicept from Ares, an affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, pursuant to the Ares Agreement, which advanced atacicept in randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials for several autoimmune diseases in over 1,500 patients, in which it was well tolerated. In IgAN, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2a trial known as JANUS. Results from the JANUS trial showed a dose-dependent effect of atacicept 25 mg and 75 mg weekly on serum Gd-IgA1, proteinuria, and key biomarkers, including serum Ig levels. As reported at the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Kidney Week conference in 2022, atacicept is also the first therapeutic candidate in IgAN to show reduction in all first three hits of disease pathogenesis—serum Gd-IgA1, anti-Gd-IgA1 autoantibody, and immune complex levels.

We are conducting a multinational, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 clinical trial in IgAN, which we refer to as ORIGIN 3, and have completed the open label extension of our Phase 2b clinical trial in IgAN, which we refer to as ORIGIN 2b. The ORIGIN 3 trial is evaluating atacicept 150 mg by weekly subcutaneous injection at home versus placebo through 104 weeks. The primary endpoint is reduction in UPCR in a 24-hour urine collection versus placebo at 36 weeks to support potential accelerated approval. A significant reduction in proteinuria, as measured by UPCR in a 24-hour urine collection, is associated with improved renal outcomes in patients with IgAN. UPCR is a surrogate endpoint accepted by the FDA for primary glomerular diseases associated with significant proteinuria, including IgAN. Given the FDA’s recent approvals of TARPEYO and FILSPARI, we believe the use of proteinuria as a surrogate endpoint for accelerated approval has been validated. The key secondary endpoint is eGFR change up to week 104.

The ORIGIN 2b trial evaluated three subcutaneous weekly doses of atacicept (25 mg, 75 mg and 150 mg) and their impact on the reduction of proteinuria as measured by UPCR as the primary endpoint, with secondary endpoints including the difference in kidney function between treated and placebo participants as measured by eGFR and reduction in Gd-IgA1. We completed enrollment of the Phase 2b ORIGIN trial in mid-2022, enrolling a total of 116 participants at multiple global sites. In January 2023, we announced that atacicept met the primary endpoint: the pooled 75 mg and 150 mg arms achieved a statistically significant reduction in proteinuria versus placebo at 24 weeks. In June 2023, we announced positive results at 36 weeks in a late-breaking presentation at the European Renal Association (ERA) Conference. In a prespecified per-protocol (PP) analysis in which a blinded third-party CRO identified and excluded participants with protocol deviations, atacicept 150 mg achieved a 43% mean reduction in proteinuria versus placebo, and a 35% mean reduction in proteinuria versus placebo in the intent-to-treat (ITT) population. Stable eGFR was observed for participants on atacicept 150 mg at 36 weeks, with an 11% mean eGFR change versus placebo, approximating to an absolute difference of 5.8 mL/min/1.73m2. Atacicept 150 mg reduced Gd-IgA1 64% from baseline and resolved hematuria in 80% of participants receiving atacicept 150 mg compared to 5% of those receiving placebo. Furthermore, Atacicept was well tolerated, and its safety profile in IgAN was comparable to placebo. The ORIGIN 2b trial remained blinded through 36 weeks, after which all participants were eligible to roll onto the open label portion of the trial and receive atacicept 150 mg once weekly through 96 weeks, allowing for the evaluation of long-term safety and durability of response of atacicept in IgAN. In October 2024, we simultaneously announced positive results through 96 weeks with a late breaking presentation at ASN Kidney Week and a publication in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). Through 96 weeks of treatment, atacicept demonstrated further reductions in Gd-IgA1, hematuria resolution, reductions in UPCR, and eGFR stabilization at a rate of decline similar to the general population without kidney disease. The open label extension adverse events profile was consistent with the randomized period. In aggregate, we believe these data provide evidence that atacicept offers a potential safe, long-term, disease-modifying treatment for patients with IgAN.

We completed full enrollment for the primary endpoint of ORIGIN 3 in the second half of 2024. With Phase 3 topline results expected in the second quarter of 2025, if positive, we expect to submit a biologics license application (BLA) for atacicept in IgAN to the FDA in the second half of 2025.

Pipeline

Beyond our lead indication in IgA nephropathy, we have several late-stage opportunities for potential patient benefit – consisting of both indication expansion opportunities for atacicept, and the development of VT-109 in B cell mediated diseases and MAU868 for BK viremia among kidney transplant recipients. We are currently evaluating these opportunities for future development.

For atacicept, we plan to evaluate the possibility of extended dosing intervals as part of our life cycle management strategy. There are also multiple indications in which blocking BAFF and APRIL may offer therapeutic benefit and offer an attractive commercial opportunity.

In January 2025, we announced a license agreement with Stanford University to acquire global rights to VT-109, a novel, next generation fusion protein targeting BAFF and APRIL that is in preclinical development with wide therapeutic potential across the spectrum of B cell mediated diseases. These rights are for all therapeutic, prophylactic, diagnostic, and treatment uses in humans outside of cancer immunotherapy.

Regarding MAU868 for BK viremia among kidney transplant recipients, at ASN Kidney Week 2022, final results from the Phase 2 clinical trial of MAU868 versus placebo showed that MAU868 was well tolerated and demonstrated clinically meaningful reductions in BK antiviral activity through 36 weeks in kidney transplant patients with BK viremia. Following feedback from the FDA on the Phase 2 clinical trial, we are evaluating strategies for continued development, including a potential next clinical trial.

MAU868 in BK viremia among kidney transplant recipients

We have exclusive worldwide rights, pursuant to the Novartis license, to MAU868, which is a potential treatment for reactivated BK infection in kidney transplant recipients. While up to 90% of healthy adults have been infected with BKV at some point in their lives, it remains latent except in severely immunocompromised populations such as kidney transplant recipients. BKV is a polyoma virus that can cause BKV nephropathy (BKVN), a condition in which BK infection, typically first identified as BK viremia, triggers inflammation, which then progresses to fibrosis and tubular injury; BKVN is a leading cause of allograft loss. Currently, there are no approved treatment options for BK viremia or BKVN. We estimate that approximately 80,000 kidney transplants are conducted globally each year, with approximately 20,000 in the United States, 20,000 in Europe, 1,500 in Japan, and 10,000 in China. Approximately 15% of kidney transplant recipients develop BK viremia; 3–4% of kidney transplant recipients develop BKVN. We estimate the market for a novel agent to treat reactivated BK infection in kidney transplant recipients to be a large commercial opportunity worldwide. We believe that MAU868 has the potential to become standard of care for the treatment of reactivated BK infection in order to prevent devastating consequences following kidney transplantation such as BKVN and graft loss.

Our business principles and strategy

Our goal is to develop and commercialize transformative treatments for patients suffering from severe immunological diseases. We believe the successful translation of biomedical science into innovative therapeutic products for patients with immunological diseases will enable outsized growth over the next decade and beyond. Specifically, our strategy is based on the following business principles:

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Develop disease-modifying medicines to improve patients’ lives. Our team seeks to bring transformative medical products to patients with severe immunological diseases, who often receive steroids as the current standard of care. The non-specific immunosuppressive effect of steroids, with known acute and chronic side effects, presents an important opportunity for innovation. We aim to develop and commercialize disease-modifying drugs that target the source of disease, minimize side effects, and have high potential to meaningfully change standard medical care and improve patients’ lives.

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Establish clear line-of-sight to successful products. We apply our deep drug development experience, scientific rigor, and disciplined decision making to establish clear line-of-sight along the full spectrum of drug development. We pursue biologic targets, product candidates, and disease indications with a strong scientific rationale, de-risked profile, and capital-efficient development pathway, and optimize for high probability of clinical, regulatory, and commercial success.

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Build a leading biotech company that delivers innovative medicines to patients. We believe our team’s expertise and our business culture are fundamental to our success. Our Research and Development and Commercial teams are led by experienced drug development executives with proven track records in clinical and commercial development who have led or been involved in the approvals of more than 15 medicines from leading companies, including Gilead Sciences and Amgen. We leverage our team’s know-how with additional outsourced resources and enable focused clinical development of our product candidates with the goal of improving patients’ lives.

These principles have guided us to the successful in-licensing of atacicept from Ares, VT-109 from Stanford University, and obtaining the rights to MAU868 from Pfizer, in each case with worldwide rights for development and commercialization. We take a gated-capital raise approach and scale product candidate investment and exposure in close step with key development milestones to ensure high return on development costs.

The near- and long-term objectives to achieve our goal include:

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Complete global development of atacicept in IgAN. We reported positive 96-week results from the open label extension of the ORIGIN Phase 2b clinical trial in October 2024. We completed enrollment for the primary endpoint cohort of our global pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial in September 2024 and full enrollment is projected in Q2 2025. We anticipate primary endpoint results in the second quarter of 2025. If positive, we expect to submit a biologics license application (BLA) for atacicept in IgAN to the FDA in the second half of 2025. We have also committed to providing access to atacicept for all global ORIGIN participants until atacicept is available in their region through the ORIGIN EXTEND study. The PIONEER study will evaluate atacicept in an expanded IgAN population beyond the ORIGIN program. We anticipate clinical results from the ORIGIN EXTEND and PIONEER studies in 2025 and 2026.

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Build and scale organizational capabilities to support commercialization of atacicept. Under the leadership of our experienced management team, we are building a specialized commercial organization with deep launch experience in nephrology, B cell, and autoimmune therapeutics, to launch atacicept in the United States and other key markets, if approved. During 2024, we hired a Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Vice President, Commercial, to lead this organization.

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Explore additional disease areas where atacicept holds significant therapeutic promise. By targeting BAFF and APRIL, atacicept’s ability to reduce disease-causing autoantibodies may provide clinical benefit. We intend to explore additional immunologic diseases where BAFF and APRIL are abnormally elevated, or where autoantibodies play an important role.

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Advance the development of VT-109 and explore its potential in multiple B-cell mediated diseases. We acquired rights to this novel, next-generation dual BAFF/APRIL inhibitor in January 2025 and plan to leverage our research, translational medicine, clinical development and commercial expertise in developing this program.

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Identify next clinical trial for MAU868 in BK viremia in kidney transplant recipients and align with regulatory authorities. We reported positive final results from our Phase 2 clinical trial in kidney transplant recipients in 2022 and are working to design our next clinical trial for MAU868.

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Expand our pipeline by acquiring or in-licensing product candidates for immunologic diseases with unmet needs. We believe our expertise and track record will enable us to identify and acquire or in-license additional product candidates that represent opportunities to expand the potential value of our pipeline. We will leverage our lean clinical development operation to bring to market additional product candidates to address kidney and immunologic diseases.

We are developing atacicept as a potential treatment for patients with IgAN, a serious and progressive autoimmune disease of the kidney with a high unmet medical need and limited treatment options available. Up to 50% of confirmed IgAN patients progress to ESRD, requiring dialysis or kidney transplant. ESRD causes significant morbidity and impact on patients’ lives and represents a significant health economic burden estimated to be over $70 billion annually in the United States. Despite this high level of morbidity, the current standard of care consists of non-IgAN specific CKD therapies, including off-label use of RAAS inhibitors (ACE inhibitors and ARBs), increasing use of SGLT2 inhibitors, and potentially steroids. IgAN is driven by the production of pathogenic Gd-IgA1, and patients with elevated Gd-IgA1 are at increased risk of kidney-related morbidity and mortality. We reported positive topline 24-week results in January 2023, 36-week results in June 2023, and 96-week results in October 2024 from the Phase 2b ORIGIN trial. We initiated a pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial in the second quarter of 2023, which we refer to as ORIGIN 3, that is currently ongoing. We believe that atacicept has the potential to be the best-in-class, leading B-cell modulator therapy for IgAN.

Pathophysiology of IgAN

The IgA antibody plays a key role in the immune system by protecting the body from foreign substances such as bacteria and viruses. Patients with IgAN produce elevated levels of Gd-IgA1. This abnormal glycosylation pattern of IgA1 is of central importance to the disease etiology.

As shown in Figure 1 below, a multi-step process leads to the ultimate development of progressive renal injury.

Figure 1: IgAN pathophysiology

(1)

B cells, which mature into plasma cells, are abnormally primed in the Peyer’s patch region of the ileum of the intestines, potentially due to a combination of genetic predisposition and environmental, bacterial or dietary factors. BAFF and APRIL are upregulated, leading to B cell maturation and survival, and antibody class switching, a mechanism that changes cells’ production from one immunoglobulin to another, causing an increase in the production of immunogenic Gd-IgA1.

(2)

The Gd-IgA1 antibodies are immunogenic when found in the systemic circulation, and are recognized as an autoantigen by autoantibodies, or antibodies created by the body in response to a constituent of its own tissue.

(3)

Gd-IgA1 and anti-Gd-IgA1 autoantibodies combine to form pathogenic immune complexes, or clusters of antibodies.

(4)

Pathogenic immune complexes are deposited and become trapped in the kidney’s glomeruli. This initiates an inflammatory response that damages the membranes.

(5)

As the glomeruli are destroyed, the kidney’s ability to remove waste products from the blood is reduced, and protein and blood leak into the urine. This can result in potentially life-threatening complications that lead to the need for dialysis or kidney transplant in many patients.

Gd-IgA1 is central to the pathogenesis of IgAN

Gd-IgA1 is a subclass of IgA antibodies that lack units of galactose, a type of sugar, at the O-linked glycans of their hinge region. The hinge region is a stretch of amino acids in the IgA antibody. Circulating Gd-IgA1 antibodies have been shown to be the target of autoantigens for IgG antibodies with specificity for the hinge region.

A histopathological hallmark of IgAN is deposition of Gd-IgA1 in the glomerular mesangium, either alone or in combination with IgG and/or IgM. Sampling of the serum of patients with IgAN has confirmed the presence of elevated levels of circulating immune complexes containing Gd-IgA1.

Clinical trials of patients with IgAN have correlated higher serum levels of Gd-IgA1 with greater severity of IgAN disease, suggesting that reduction in serum Gd-IgA1 may slow disease progression. Compared with healthy subjects, patients with IgAN have an increased proportion of Gd-IgA1 O-glycoforms in the serum. As published in Kidney International, in a prospective study of 275 patients with IgAN, higher serum levels of aberrantly glycosylated IgA1 demonstrated correlation with a higher likelihood of developing progressive renal failure, as shown in Figure 2 below. A separate clinical trial of patients with IgAN of varying severity found that higher titers of autoantibodies specific for Gd-IgA1 corresponded to both absolute renal risk score and risk of ESRD or death.

Figure 2: Renal survival by serum Gd-IgA1 quartiles in IgAN patients

In addition, high serum APRIL levels correlate with increased expression of serum Gd-IgA1 in IgAN patients and high serum BAFF levels are associated with more severe clinical features, as well as more severe histopathological features. For these reasons, we believe a fusion protein that blocks both BAFF and APRIL, which has the potential to reduce serum Gd-IgA1, would address the upstream source of IgAN, and represent the first disease-modifying approach for IgAN.

Disease burden, diagnosis, and predictors of disease progression

IgAN is a rare disease in the United States and Europe and is also the predominant cause of primary glomerulonephritis.

Patients with IgAN are diagnosed throughout life, but most commonly in the second and third decades. There are three common ways in which patients present:

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40–50% present with one or more episodes of gross (visible) hematuria, often linked to an upper respiratory tract infection.

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30–40% present with microscopic hematuria and mild proteinuria, which is detected in a routine physical or during chronic kidney disease evaluation.

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Less than 10% present with either nephrotic syndrome or an acute, rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis with symptoms including edema, hypertension, renal insufficiency, and hematuria.

Once IgAN is suspected based on clinical history and laboratory data, kidney biopsy, which is the gold standard for IgAN diagnosis, is performed.

IgAN market opportunity

We estimate there will be approximately 157,000 biopsy-confirmed IgAN patients in the United States, 136,000 in Europe, and 130,000 in Japan, at estimated peak year of sales, and that growth in the diagnosed prevalent population is due to overall population growth. Underlying genetic differences may contribute to the significantly higher rate in Japan. As therapies become commercially available, however, an increase in diagnosis rate or longer time to progression, due to better treatments, may increase the diagnosed population over time.

Figure 3: Estimated IgAN epidemiology at estimated peak year of sales

Current standard of care for IgAN patients

Despite the high unmet medical need in IgAN, there are limited treatment options available. The following two general approaches are typically employed for the treatment of patients with IgAN:

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Non-specific measures to slow progression, including RAAS inhibitors (including ACE inhibitors or ARBs) and SGLT2 inhibitors.

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Steroids with or without other immunosuppressive agents to non-specifically reduce inflammation as a result of immune complex deposition in the glomeruli.

Treatment is selected based on perceived risk of progressive kidney disease, and clinical measures such as hematuria, proteinuria, and eGFR are used to monitor patients while on treatment. The current standard of care is seen as insufficient by physicians and patients; these treatment approaches have limited clinical efficacy and are not well tolerated. Approximately 50% of patients fail to achieve controlled UPCR on ACE inhibitors, ARBS, or steroids. The use of steroids may cause significant side effects, including serious infections, high blood pressure, weight gain, diabetes, and osteoporosis. As such, there is a high unmet medical need for targeted therapies that impact the underlying disease pathophysiology and more tolerable, steroid-sparing treatment options for IgAN patients.

Emerging therapies in development

There are three agents approved for the treatment of IgAN and there are several treatments in clinical development. The multistep IgAN pathogenesis hypothesis offers potential target points and approaches for therapeutic intervention. Most therapeutic candidates in clinical development have employed various approaches to target inflammation and the downstream effects. Atacicept is the first agent in development for IgAN that has demonstrated a 64% reduction of Gd-IgA1, the upstream source of IgAN pathogenesis, after 36 weeks of treatment. Importantly, atacicept is the first agent in development to demonstrate Gd-IgA1 reductions, hematuria improvements, and UPCR reductions with eGFR stabilization at a rate of decline similar to the general population without kidney disease through 96 weeks, suggesting atacicept may offer a potential long-term, disease-modifying treatment for IgAN with a favorable safety profile.

These agents can be grouped mechanistically into the following categories: glucocorticoid receptor agonists, endothelin receptor antagonists (ERAs), complement inhibitors, B cell modulators, and a variety of other approaches that are earlier in development.

Glucocorticoid receptor agonists. Glucocorticoid receptor agonists are a well-known class of molecules that have broad anti-inflammatory effects, and well-established acute and chronic side effects. Though reduction in the risk of eGFR decline was shown in clinical trials, there is no consensus on whether glucocorticoids may improve renal survival. The glucocorticoid budesonide has been reformulated to concentrate steroid effects locally on the gut mucosa, theoretically suppressing the abnormal B cell activity and reducing systemic steroid toxicity. Reformulated budesonide is currently approved by the FDA and European Commission for reducing the loss of kidney function in adults with IgAN who are at risk for disease progression, though systemic steroid side effects have been observed in clinical trials.

ERAs. Aberrant endothelin signaling is implicated in structural podocyte changes and increased mesangial proliferation in chronic kidney diseases, including IgAN. ERAs block endothelin-induced cell proliferation and hence may reduce renal perfusion pressure and proteinuria. Since this mechanism of action works downstream of disease-related immune activities, it is not expected to reduce Gd-IgA1 or the resulting immune complexes that cause the disease. ERAs have previously been approved for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension and erectile dysfunction and make use of a vasodilatory effect. One ERA that is currently approved by the FDA has a boxed warning for hepatotoxicity and embryo-fetal toxicity and a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) assigned for liver toxicity, and another ERA is completing Phase 3 development. ERAs have been associated with edema, significant liver toxicity and increased risk of heart failure.

Complement inhibitors. Increased complement activation is commonly observed in patients with IgAN. It is hypothesized that immune-complex deposition in glomeruli may contribute to complement activation, though the exact mechanism is not well understood. Several agents that inhibit complement activation are in clinical development for IgAN. Modest reduction of proteinuria has been observed in early clinical trials. As complement inhibition works downstream of immune complex formation, these agents are not expected to impact the upstream cause of disease and reduce Gd-IgA1 or the resulting immune complexes that cause inflammation and complement activation in the kidney.

B cell modulators. B cell modulators, including atacicept, are an important category of emerging therapies for IgAN. The disease-causing Gd-IgA1 is predominantly produced by B cells. Therefore, control of B cell activation may reduce production of Gd-IgA1 and the downstream formation of autoantibodies and immune complexes. Preclinical models have shown that dual inhibition of BAFF and APRIL offers improved suppression of B cell activities over blocking BAFF or APRIL alone. Atacicept blocks both BAFF and APRIL and has shown substantial reduction (64% at 36 weeks) in Gd-IgA1. We believe that dual inhibition may also confer a potential dosing advantage versus APRIL-only inhibition.

Our solution: Atacicept

Atacicept is a fusion protein that blocks both BAFF and APRIL, which play key roles in the upstream pathway that causes IgAN and is dosed once weekly via a 1-mL subcutaneous injection, self-administered at home. As a result, we believe atacicept has the potential to be the first disease-modifying therapy for IgAN. Through an integrated analysis of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials in multiple autoimmune diseases with over 1,500 participants to date, atacicept has a well-characterized clinical safety profile. We completed enrollment of participants in the Phase 2b ORIGIN trial in 2022, and we reported positive results at 24 weeks in January 2023, 36 weeks in June 2023, 72 weeks in January 2024, and 96 weeks in October 2024.

Our approach to IgAN: Reducing Gd-IgA1, the source of autoantibodies

Atacicept is a fully humanized fusion protein that is designed to modulate the B cell pathway, which has well characterized implications in immunologic diseases. Specifically, as shown in Figure 4 below, atacicept contains the soluble extracellular domain of the TACI receptor fused with the inactivated Fc domain of IgG1. TACI is a native receptor for BAFF and APRIL, members of the tumor necrosis factor family that promote B cell survival and autoantibody production associated with IgAN and other immunologic diseases. Dual blockade of BAFF and APRIL by TACI has been shown to be more potent than blocking BAFF alone or APRIL alone and has the benefit of targeting long-lived plasma cells, in addition to B cells, thus reducing production of Gd-IgA1 and its autoantibodies. Therefore, atacicept is designed to precisely modulate B cell activity by binding both BAFF and APRIL, and follows a long history of impactful agents that are logically designed Fc fusion proteins. This mechanism acts directly on the source of IgAN, which we believe will significantly mitigate the downstream effects of the disease.

Figure 4: Atacicept is the result of rational drug design

Atacicept’s specific actions on IgAN disease pathogenesis are shown in Figure 5 below.

Figure 5: Atacicept impact on IgAN pathogenesis

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Atacicept inhibits BAFF and APRIL, leading to decreased Gd-IgA1 production by B cells.

(2)

This leads to a reduction in the autoantibodies that bind to Gd-IgA1.

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Therefore, formation of pathogenic immune complexes is greatly reduced.

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This, in turn, reduces immune complex deposition in glomeruli and glomerular inflammation is reduced.

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Ultimately, progressive renal injury is attenuated, with reductions in hematuria and proteinuria, and stabilization of eGFR, which we believe will significantly lower the morbidity and mortality associated with IgAN.

Atacicept’s disease-modifying mechanism addresses the upstream processes that cause IgAN, while most other molecules in development act downstream. Therefore, we believe that the clinical outcomes of atacicept, measured by endpoints designed to assess efficacy and durability, will be favorable over competitors, with a demonstrated tolerability profile. Once weekly 1 mL subcutaneous dosing also provides an attractive target product profile for patients.

Atacicept in IgAN: clinical development

Atacicept was the subject of a collaboration agreement between Ares and ZymoGenetics, Inc. in 2001, and was licensed on an exclusive basis to Ares in 2008. It was advanced by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in clinical trials for several autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis, SLE, and IgAN, and in totality studied in double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trials in over 1,500 participants to date.

Atacicept was studied in the Phase 2b ORIGIN clinical trial, a multinational, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial for the treatment of IgAN (Figure 6). The ORIGIN Phase 2b trial was designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of atacicept in participants with biopsy-proven IgAN and persistent proteinuria despite stable and maximum-tolerated RASi regimen for at least 12 weeks. The clinical trial consisted of a 36-week double-blind treatment period, followed by a 60-week open-label treatment period and a 26-week safety follow-up period. The trial assessed three doses (25 mg, 75 mg and 150 mg) of once-weekly 1-mL subcutaneous injections, administered at home, of atacicept versus placebo on impact of renal function as measured by proteinuria and eGFR. The primary endpoint was change from baseline in UPCR at 24 weeks based on 24-hour urine collection, with a secondary endpoint of UPCR at 36 weeks. Other secondary endpoints include UPCR at multiple timepoints, the effect of atacicept on change in eGFR, and safety and tolerability.

Figure 6: Phase 2b ORIGIN trial design

Primary endpoint efficacy and secondary endpoint safety data were published in Kidney International in 2024. The primary endpoint was met at week 24 as the mean UPCR was reduced from baseline by 31% in the combined atacicept group (defined as atacicept 75mg and 150mg dosing groups) versus 8% with placebo, resulting in a significant 25% reduction with atacicept versus placebo. At week 36, the key secondary endpoint was met as the mean urine protein creatinine ratio reduced from baseline by 34% in the combined atacicept group versus a 2% increase with placebo, resulting in a significant 35% reduction with atacicept versus placebo. The reduction in proteinuria was accompanied by stabilization in endpoint eGFR with atacicept compared to a decline with placebo at week 36, resulting in significant between-group geometric mean difference of 11%, approximating an absolute difference of 5.7 mL/min/1.73m2. Endpoint Gd-IgA1 levels significantly decreased from baseline by 60% versus placebo. The safety profile of atacicept was similar to placebo.

Vera reported positive results from the randomized phase of the Phase 2b ORIGIN clinical trial, which showed the following at 36 weeks:

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Gd-IgA1 reduction of 64% from baseline with atacicept 150 mg.

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Hematuria resolution in 80% of participants on atacicept 150 mg versus 5% on placebo.

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In a Per Protocol (PP) analysis, a blinded third-party CRO identified participants with protocol deviations that potentially confounded proteinuria measure. In the PP population that excludes these participants, atacicept 150 mg achieved a 43% mean reduction in proteinuria versus placebo (p<0.05); in the ITT population, atacicept 150 mg achieved a 35% further decrease from placebo.

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Stable eGFR observed for participants on atacicept, with clinically meaningful and statistically significant difference versus placebo.

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Clinical safety profile similar between atacicept and placebo.

In October 2024, long-term results from the ORIGIN Phase 2b trial were simultaneously presented in a late breaking oral presentation at ASN Kidney Week 2024 and published in a manuscript in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). Over 96 weeks, participants treated with atacicept demonstrated a 66% reduction in Gd-IgA1, resolution of hematuria in 75% of participants, a 52% reduction in proteinuria, and a mean annualized eGFR slope of -0.6 mL/min/1.73m2/year. This eGFR slope profile is consistent with the aging-related decline observed in the general population without biopsy-proven kidney disease. The cumulative generally favorable safety profile of atacicept remained consistent with that observed during the randomized period, with a 90% completion rate of atacicept treatment in the open-label extension period. We believe these data support the potential for atacicept to offer long-term, comprehensive IgAN disease modification and provide further confidence in the ongoing pivotal Phase 3 ORIGIN trial of atacicept in IgAN.

Figure 7: ORIGIN Phase 2b long-term 96-week results with atacicept was consistent with disease-modifying IgAN profile

Atacicept safety and tolerability profile

In the randomized phase of the ORIGIN Phase 2b clinical trial, the clinical safety profile was similar between atacicept and placebo – and in the 96-week results, the safety profile observed was consistent with that of the randomized phase (Figure 8 below).

Figure 8: Phase 2b ORIGIN clinical trial adverse events profile

In an integrated safety analysis of clinical trials for multiple indications with over 1,500 participants, atacicept was well tolerated, as shown in Figure 9 below. Serious treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) reported in the highest proportions were infections and infestations (placebo 3.9% versus atacicept 4.4%), musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders (placebo 1.9% versus atacicept 1.3%), and nervous system disorders (placebo 2.1% versus atacicept 1.2%). The most frequently reported TEAE was pneumonia (placebo 1.2% versus atacicept 1.3%). We believe that this large and established data set is a competitive advantage for atacicept versus other approved and emerging therapies in development, many of which lack extensive safety data.

Figure 9: Integrated safety analysis: Summary of treatment-emergent adverse events > 5% in any arm, by dose

The safety profile of atacicept 25 mg, 75 mg and 150 mg has been characterized in healthy subjects and patients with RA, multiple sclerosis, optic neuritis, SLE, and B cell malignancies, and is considered acceptable in IgAN. Over 2,213 individuals have been enrolled in ongoing and completed interventional clinical trials with atacicept, of which over 1,635 individuals have received at least one dose of atacicept. As of February 19, 2025, 647 participants with SLE from five Phase 2/3 clinical trials have received at least one dose of atacicept, and 124 participants with IgAN from two Phase 2 clinical trials have received at least one dose of atacicept. An additional estimated 180 patients are being dosed with atacicept in the ongoing blinded ORIGIN Phase 3 study.

We believe the benefit-risk balance of atacicept to be favorable for further development in IgAN and certain additional autoimmune diseases, and we intend to explore additional immunologic diseases where BAFF and APRIL are abnormally elevated, or where autoantibodies play an important role.

UPCR is an accepted surrogate primary endpoint for clinical trials in IgAN, which potentially allows for a faster path to commercialization than rate of change/slope in eGFR, which is determined with two years of data. The recommendation for usage of this surrogate endpoint was put forward by the ASN, partnering with the FDA under the auspices of the Kidney Health Initiative, and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and has now been implemented in five Phase 3 clinical trials in IgAN and in the three FDA approvals granted. Accelerated and/or conditional approval may be granted on the UPCR endpoint, with full approval to be granted upon longer-term data demonstrating stabilization of eGFR with treatment.

Ongoing Phase 3 ORIGIN clinical trial

We advanced atacicept 150 mg into a pivotal Phase 3 trial in IgAN in the second quarter of 2023, using the same formulation from the Phase 2b trial and learnings from the Phase 2b subgroup analyses to reduce risk in the design of a Phase 3 trial that aims to accurately assess treatment efficacy while minimizing potential confounders for proteinuria measure.

Figure 10: Phase 3 ORIGIN 3 trial design

ORIGIN 3 is a Phase 3 global, multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial (Figure 10) in participants with IgAN who have persistent proteinuria and remain at high risk of disease progression despite being on a stable prescribed regimen of renin-angiotensin system inhibitors (ACE inhibitors or ARBs) for at least 12 weeks that is the maximum labeled or tolerated dose. The clinical trial consists of a 104-week double-blind treatment period which is currently ongoing, followed by a 52-week open-label extension and a 26-week safety follow-up period. The trial will assess at-home self-administered once weekly 1-mL subcutaneous injections of atacicept 150 mg versus placebo on impact of kidney function as measured by proteinuria and eGFR. The primary endpoint is change from baseline in UPCR at 36 weeks based on 24-hour urine collection and the key secondary endpoint is eGFR up to 104 weeks. Additional secondary endpoints are change in Gd-IgA1, hematuria resolution, change in eGFR up to 52 weeks, and time from randomization to first occurrence of composite kidney failure endpoint event.

We completed enrollment for the Phase 3 primary endpoint cohort in September 2024 and anticipate full enrollment of the study in the second quarter of 2025. The Phase 3 primary endpoint results are expected in the first half of 2025, and, if supportive, we expect to submit a BLA to the FDA for accelerated approval of atacicept in IgAN in the second half of 2025.

ORIGIN EXTEND Phase 2 clinical trial

We initiated the ORIGIN EXTEND trial, a Phase 2 extension study in participants who complete ORIGIN Phase 2b or Phase 3. The objectives of the trial are to 1) provide patients with extended access to atacicept prior to commercial availability in their country or region; 2) capture longer-term data for research purposes; and 3) generate data from reinitiation of atacicept treatment following an off-treatment period. We anticipate clinical results from the trial in 2025 and 2026.

Initiation of PIONEER Phase 2 Study to assess Atacicept in pMN, FSGS, and MCD

Due to the positive results of the ORIGIN Phase 2b clinical trial, and following discussions with the FDA, we plan to initiate a new Phase 2 clinical trial for atacicept to treat patients with nephrotic syndrome who have biomarkers that may predict a positive response to B cell modulation. The PIONEER study will initiate in 2025 and will study atacicept in additional autoimmune glomerular diseases characterized by the presence of antibodies to glomerular antigens, including within primary membranous nephropathy (pMN), focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), and minimal change disease (MCD). We anticipate clinical results from the trial in 2025 and 2026.

Atacicept in primary membranous nephropathy (pMN)

pMN Pathophysiology and Disease Overview

pMN is an autoimmune disease characterized by glomerular membrane thickening and long-term proteinuria. pMN patients are initially treated with ACEi / ARBs, and upon progression typically are treated with either immunosuppressive or CD20 therapies. Despite proper management, patients still progress to ESRD, highlighting the need for a more effective standard of care.

pMN Market Opportunity, Current Standard of Care, and Our Proposed Solution

There are approximately 50,000 patients in the United States with pMN. In 70-80% of cases, inflammation of the renal glomeruli is caused by autoantibodies targeting the proteins phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R) and thrombospondin type 1 domain-containing 7A (THSD7A). The remaining 20-30% of cases develop as a secondary condition due to underlying issues such as infections, other autoimmune diseases, tumors, or drug poisoning. Most patients with biopsy-confirmed primary membranous nephropathy (pMN) have circulating anti-PLA2R autoantibodies, with approximately 70% of pMN cases associated with anti-PLA2R+ antibodies, and 65% of these cases considered moderate-to-severe. According to current KDIGO guidelines, PLA2R is recognized as a crucial diagnostic marker, eliminating the need for a kidney biopsy if the patient is seropositive for PLA2R and exhibits clinical symptoms. Additionally, the concentration of anti-PLA2R antibodies provides insights into disease activity and progression, serving as a clinical criterion for assessing the risk of progressive renal failure in pMN patients: 1) higher antibody concentrations indicate more active pMN and a greater risk of kidney failure, and 2) monitoring antibody levels can predict phases of clinical remission and relapses, as changes in anti-PLA2R antibody levels typically precede improvements or worsening of the disease.

Current treatments tackle the autoimmune aspect of pMN through B-cell depletion (e.g., agents such as rituximab) or immunosuppression via cyclophosphamide / high dose steroids; these therapies have been associated with significant toxicity. With no FDA-approved pMN therapies, significant unmet need remains for efficacious and safe agents, including those that can reduce adverse events associated with immunosuppressant therapy, offer benefit for the ~40% of patients that are refractory to rituximab, and further reduce disease progression to CKD and ESRD.

A more targeted approach that focuses on modulating autoimmune B-cell production, rather than broad immunosuppression, may offer a potential solution. Autoreactive B-cells are implicated in the immunopathogenesis of primary membranous nephropathy (pMN), with the phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R) identified as the target antigen for the typical immunoglobulin G (IgG) deposition observed in renal biopsies. While immunosuppressive treatments have shown reductions in PLA2R autoantibody (PLA2R-Ab) levels, patients with higher serum levels of both BAFF and APRIL are less likely to achieve clinical remission on standard immunosuppressive therapy. Additionally, the BAFF-targeting immunomodulator belimumab has been shown to improve proteinuria and PLA2R titers in an open-label trial. This supports the rationale for using other treatments involving B-cell modulation, such as atacicept. Atacicept's ability to block pathogenic B-cell activation via BAFF and APRIL cytokine binding suggests it may be effective in treating pMN, particularly in patients who have been treated with immunosuppressive therapies but still maintain high BAFF and APRIL serum levels.

Atacicept in FSGS and MCD

FSGS and MCD Pathophysiology and Disease Overview

FSGS is characterized by histological lesions (scarring) on kidney glomeruli, manifestations of proteinuria & hypoalbuminemia, and chronic kidney disease, which can present at any age. FSGS often presents with nephrotic syndrome manifestations, including high-grade proteinuria (>3.5 g/day), hypoalbuminemia, and edema, with 30 – 40% progressing to ESRD by 10 years. Nephrin is a transmembrane protein found in kidney podocytes, plays a significant role in maintaining the integrity and function of the glomerular filtration barrier, and it can be used as a biomarker for early glomerular injury, since elevated levels of nephrin in the urine (nephrinuria) can indicate damage to the podocytes and the filtration barrier. Recently, anti-nephrin antibodies were identified in ~10% of primary FSGS patients, indicating potential autoimmune involvement in the disease pathology and demonstrating a strong correlation to uACR.

MCD is a kidney disorder that leads to glomeruli damage and is characterized by sudden onset of nephrotic syndrome, including increased proteinuria, edema, and hypoalbuminemia. Immune dysregulation, including the presence of autoantibodies against nephrin and other podocyte components, contributes to podocyte injury and disease progression. MCD accounts for 70 – 90% of pediatric and 15% of adult idiopathic nephrotic syndrome patients. MCD is distinguished from other nephrotic diseases based on sudden onset of clinical features such as proteinuria (i.e., days/weeks vs. months) and distinct morphological features (e.g., podocyte effacement, normal glomerulus) based on kidney biopsy. Approximately two-thirds of adult patients with MCD and active nephrotic syndrome have anti-nephrin autoantibodies, while this figure rises to about 90% in children with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome.

FSGS and MCD Market Opportunity, Current Standard of Care, and Our Proposed Solution

There are approximately 44,000 diagnosed primary FSGS patients in the United States, of which approximately 7,000 may be identified as auto-immune assuming improved diagnostic methods. Primary FSGS patients are typically treated with background ACEi / ARBs, followed by sequencing steroids, calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs), immunosuppressive therapies (ISTs), and / or rituximab, with the aim to preserve kidney function and reduce risk to ESRD. Despite the current standard of care (which includes steroids, CNIs), there is persistent unmet need as up to 40% of patients reach ESRD and there are no FDA-approved disease-modifying drugs. Given the severity of clinical symptoms (e.g., ESRD risk), autoimmune FSGS patients would benefit from novel, efficacious therapies.

There are approximately 15,000 adult MCD patients and almost 10,000 pediatric MCD patients in the United States. Recently, anti-nephrin antibodies were identified in approximately 50% of pediatric MCD and adult MCD patients, indicating potential autoimmune involvement in disease pathology, which correlated to higher uACR and serum albumin levels. Patients are typically managed via steroids or other immunosuppressive therapies including CP, MMF and Levamisole. Additional treatments include diuretics for edema, ACE inhibitors or ARBs to reduce proteinuria, and dietary changes like a low-sodium diet. No FDA-approved therapies are currently available for MCD.

Given the autoimmune involvement in the disease pathology for at least some sub-populations of FSGS and MCD patients, potentially via B-cell mediated immune/inflammatory pathways, as demonstrated by response to rituximab in some patients, there is reason to believe that therapies that inhibit the proliferation and maturation of auto-reactive B-cells, such as atacicept, may be efficacious.

MAU868 in reactivated BK infection among kidney transplant recipients

We have exclusive worldwide rights, pursuant to the Novartis license, to MAU868, which is a potential treatment for reactivated BK infection in kidney transplant recipients. While up to 90% of healthy adults have been infected with BKV at some point in their lives, it remains latent in everyone except severely immunocompromised populations such as kidney transplant recipients. There are approximately 80,000 kidney transplants annually worldwide, with approximately 20,000 in the United States. Approximately 225,000 kidney allograft recipients are living in the United States. Waitlists to receive kidneys are long: approximately 3–5 years and 75,000 people long in the United States. Up to 12% of transplants per year are re-transplants, which further limits organ availability for new patients. BKV is a polyoma virus that is tropic to the kidney and bladder tissue and can reactivate with the immunosuppression required for kidney transplant. This reactivation can cause BKVN, a condition in which BK infection, typically first identified as BK viremia, triggers inflammation, which then progresses to renal fibrosis and tubular injury; as shown in Figure 11, BKVN is a leading cause of allograft loss, a devastating outcome for kidney transplant recipients.

Figure 11: Graft survival (%) in kidney transplant patients is worse with BKVN

Currently, there are no approved treatment options for BK viremia or BKVN. We shared full Cohort 1 and Cohort 2 results in 2022 from the Phase 2 trial conducted by Amplyx. Following feedback from the FDA on the Phase 2 clinical trial, we are evaluating strategies for continued clinical development, including a potential next clinical trial. We believe that MAU868 has the potential to become standard of care for the treatment of BK viremia in order to prevent devastating consequences such as BKVN.

Pathophysiology of BK virus in kidney transplant

BKV has a worldwide seroprevalence of up to 90%. Primary BK infection is typically acquired during childhood, after which the virus establishes lifelong infection in the kidney and bladder tissue. Most people do not experience any known adverse effects from either primary or persistent infection. Control of infection is dependent on CD4+ and CD8+ T cell immunity, which can be displaced by immunosuppressants. In the setting of kidney transplant and related immunosuppression, latent virus can be reactivated or new virus can be transmitted via the donor kidney. BKV reactivation is marked first by viruria—or detection of virus in the urine, and then viremia—detection of viral DNA in the blood, and most commonly occurs within the first year of transplant.

Viremia typically occurs in 15% of kidney transplant recipients, after which BKVN may occur. Approximately 3-4% of kidney transplant recipients develop BKVN.

BKVN disease burden and diagnosis

BKVN may lead to allograft injury and in some cases, allograft loss. 24–60% of all graft losses are due to BKV-associated disease. The average cost of a kidney transplant in the United States is over $440,000. Pre-transplant, recipients are typically on dialysis, for which the cost is approximately $90,000 per year; there is an approximate 450% increase in annual medical cost to treat transplant recipients who experience graft loss.

Most institutions monitor for BK in both the urine, through PCR and urinalysis, and plasma, via PCR. It is common practice to screen kidney transplant recipients for BK viremia via PCR test monthly in the first six months post-transplant and then every three months until two years post-transplant, after which patients are typically screened annually. Also, at any sign of allograft dysfunction, physicians will test for BK viremia. Viral load levels >1000 copies/mL are considered positive for BK viremia, and levels >10,000 copies/mL are considered presumptive BKVN. Kidney allograft biopsy is considered the gold standard for diagnosing BKVN. Late diagnosis of BKV can lead to irreversible renal function decline and poor treatment outcomes.

Kidney transplant market opportunity

An estimated 80,000 kidney transplants are conducted globally each year, with approximately 20,000 in the United States, 20,000 in Europe, 1,500 in Japan, and 10,000 in China. Approximately 225,000 kidney allograft recipients are living in the United States. Waitlists to receive kidneys are long: 3–5 years and 75,000 people deep in the United States. Up to 12% of transplants per year are re-transplants, which further limits organ availability for new patients. Approximately 15% of kidney transplant recipients develop BK viremia. Patients can be risk stratified for BK viremia based on the degree of immunosuppression employed, which is related to the degree of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) match between the graft and recipient; the greater the mismatch, the more intense immunosuppression required, which increases the risk of BKV reactivation.

We estimate the market for a novel agent to treat reactivated BK infection in kidney transplant recipients to be a large commercial opportunity. We believe that MAU868 has the potential to become standard of care for the treatment of reactivated BK infection in order to prevent devastating consequences following kidney transplantation such as BKVN and graft loss.

Current standard of care for kidney transplant patients with BK viremia

Currently, there is no approved treatment specific to BKV. Upon detection of BK viremia, physicians’ first line of defense is to reduce immunosuppression with the goal of restoring CD4+ and CD8+ T cell immunity without causing acute rejection. Initial modification will typically consist of lowering MMF by 50% followed by a reduction in tacrolimus by 50%. If no improvement is observed, use of MMF and tacrolimus will be stopped and dose of prednisone will be increased. Other agents such as intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), leflunomide, and cidofovir, are occasionally used—but all have limited data and both leflunomide and cidofovir have serious safety concerns. After development of BKVN, patients have limited options and may continue to receive antivirals or IVIG. Physicians are not satisfied with current treatment options for BKV and highlight that there is a significant unmet need for a viable therapy.

Emerging therapies in development

Despite the high level of unmet need in treating BK viremia and preventing devastating consequences, there is limited development in the space. Memo Therapeutics is also developing a BKV-neutralizing monoclonal antibody and is in Phase 2 clinical development.

Our solution: MAU868 / scientific rationale

MAU868 is a human monoclonal antibody (IgG1/l isotype subclass) directed against the major viral capsid protein of BKV, VP1, which is essential for binding to and infection of new cells, as shown in Figure 12. MAU868 neutralizes all four serotypes of BKV at sub-nanomolar concentrations and has a high barrier to resistance in vitro (resistant isolates of BKV were not selected in vitro at any of the concentrations of MAU868 investigated). MAU868 is being developed for the treatment of BKV disease in kidney transplant recipients (BKV nephropathy) and being considered for hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients (BKV-associated hemorrhagic cystitis). MAU868 also has neutralizing activity in vitro against the closely related JC virus, the cause of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy.

Figure 12: MAU868 blocks BK virion binding

Clinical development of MAU868

Phase 1

A first-in-human, randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled, single ascending dose study to assess the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of MAU868 following IV or SC administration to healthy adult subjects was performed. Administration of up to 100 mg/kg MAU868 IV and 3 mg/kg MAU868 SC were well tolerated. No deaths or serious adverse events were reported, and there were no adverse events that led to the discontinuation of the drug or the study.

Phase 2

We completed a Phase 2 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial designed to assess the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of MAU868 for the treatment of allograft-threatening BKV infection in kidney (or kidney-pancreas) transplant recipients in 2022. Two sequential cohorts enrolled a total of 28 participants with BK viremia. As shown in Figure 13, each cohort was designed to randomize approximately 12 participants (8 to MAU868 and 4 to placebo), for which Cohort 1 (1350 mg IV approximately every 28 days for a total of 4 doses) and Cohort 2 (6750 mg IV on Day 1, 1350 mg IV every 28 days for 3 additional doses) have completed dosing.

The primary objective of the clinical trial was to assess the safety and tolerability of MAU868, with secondary objectives to assess the impact of MAU868 on BKV related outcomes. MAU868 has been shown in an interim analysis of week 12 data from Cohorts 1 and 2 to be well-tolerated and showed a greater proportion of participants with decrease in BK plasma viral load versus placebo.

At the ASN 2022 conference, final results from the Phase 2 clinical trial of MAU868 versus placebo showed that MAU868 was well tolerated and demonstrated clinically meaningful reductions in BK antiviral activity through 36 weeks in kidney transplant patients with BK viremia.

Figure 13: MAU868 phase 2 clinical trial design

Future clinical trials

Following feedback from the FDA on the Phase 2 clinical trial, we are evaluating strategies for continued development, including a potential next clinical trial.

Exclusive license agreement with Ares Trading S.A.

On October 29, 2020, we entered into the Ares Agreement with Ares, an affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, pursuant to which Ares granted us an exclusive worldwide license to certain patents and related know-how to research, develop, manufacture, use and commercialize therapeutic products containing atacicept or any other compound that is covered by a claim of such licensed patents. Pursuant to the Ares Agreement, Ares also transferred inventory of licensed product to us for use in our clinical development of atacicept.

Per the Ares Agreement, we have obligations to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop at least one licensed product, to launch at least one licensed product in a major market country within a specified time frame after receiving marketing approval for such product and to maintain sufficient resources to manufacture and supply licensed products to meet the market demand in each country for which a licensed product has received marketing approval.

In consideration for the rights granted under the Ares Agreement, we issued 22,171,553 shares of our Series C redeemable convertible preferred stock to Ares at the time of the initial closing of our Series C redeemable convertible preferred stock financing in October 2020, representing ownership of approximately 10% on a fully diluted basis. As additional consideration under the Ares Agreement, we paid Ares $25.0 million upon delivery and initiation of the transfer of specified information and supply of drug product and drug substance and we are required to pay Ares aggregate milestone payments of up to $176.5 million upon the achievement of specified BLA filing or regulatory approvals in the United States, Europe and Japan (the first of which consists of a $15.0 million payment upon filing of the BLA), and aggregate milestone payments of up to $515.0 million upon the achievement of specified commercial milestones. Commencing on the first commercial sale of licensed products, we are obligated to pay tiered royalties of low double-digit to mid-teen percentages on annual net sales of the products covered by the license. Our obligation to pay royalties on a licensed product-by-licensed product and country-by-country basis will expire at the latest of (i) 15 years after the first commercial sale of such licensed product in such country; (ii) the expiration of the last valid claim of a licensed patent that covers such licensed product in, or its use, importation or manufacture with respect to, such country; and (iii) expiration of all applicable regulatory exclusivity periods in such country with respect to such licensed product. In the event we sublicense our rights under the Ares Agreement, we are obligated to pay Ares a percentage ranging from the mid single-digit to the low double-digits of specified sublicensing income received.

The term of the Ares Agreement will expire on a licensed product-by-licensed product and country-by-country basis upon the expiration of our obligation to pay royalties to Ares with respect to such licensed product in such country. We have the right to terminate the Ares Agreement at will upon a specified notice period, provided that such termination is not within two years of the effective date of the Ares Agreement. Ares has the right to terminate the Ares Agreement in the event we challenge the validity of the licensed patents. Additionally, either party can terminate the Ares Agreement for the other party’s uncured material breach or bankruptcy.

Asset purchase agreement with Amplyx and exclusive license with Novartis

On December 16, 2021, we entered into an asset purchase agreement (the Amplyx Agreement) with Amplyx, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pfizer.

Pursuant to the terms of the Amplyx Agreement, we acquired all of Amplyx’s right, title and interest in and to certain assets of Amplyx related to MAU868, a monoclonal antibody that was under development by Amplyx for the treatment of BKV infections (the Purchased Assets). The Purchased Assets include an investigational new drug application filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, patents, contracts, including the Novartis License, chemical and biological materials, and development and regulatory files, documentation, data, results and other electronic records related to MAU868. We also assumed certain liabilities of Amplyx arising out of the Purchased Assets. We and Amplyx have made customary representations and warranties and agreed to customary covenants in the Amplyx Agreement. Subject to certain limitations, each of we and Amplyx has also agreed to indemnify the other for breaches of representations and warranties and other specified matters.

In partial consideration for the Purchased Assets, we made an upfront initial payment of $5.0 million to Amplyx. In addition, we are also obligated to make certain milestone payments to Amplyx in an aggregate amount of up to $7.0 million based on certain regulatory milestones. Further, we are required to pay Amplyx low single digit percentage royalties based on net sales on a country-by-country and product-by-product basis.

MAU868 is subject to the Novartis License, which was assigned to us by Amplyx. Pursuant to the terms of the Novartis License, we obtained a worldwide, exclusive license from Novartis to develop, manufacture and commercialize MAU868, subject to certain retained rights for research and development by Novartis, provided that Novartis may not develop or sell products incorporating monoclonal antibody targeting BKV and treating BKV disease within a certain period. We will be solely responsible for all research, development, regulatory, manufacturing and commercialization activities of MAU868. Pursuant to the Novartis License, we are obligated to make certain milestone payments to Novartis in an aggregate amount of up to $62.0 million based on certain clinical development, regulatory and sales milestones. Further, we are required to pay Novartis mid- to high-single digit percentage royalties based on net sales on a country-by-country and product-by-product basis. Unless terminated earlier, the Novartis License will remain in effect with respect to each MAU868 product until the expiration of the royalty term for such product. We may terminate the Novartis License for convenience with 60 days’ prior written notice. We or Novartis may terminate the Novartis License for the other party’s uncured material breach. Novartis may terminate the Novartis License for our insolvency. Upon termination, any license granted by Novartis to us will terminate.

Exclusive License Agreement with Stanford University

On January 13, 2025, we entered into an exclusive license agreement with Stanford University to acquire global rights to VT-109, a novel, next-generation dual BAFF/APRIL inhibitor, for all fields of use outside of cancer immunotherapy. This agreement enables us to develop and market VT-109 in return for an upfront license issue fee, annual license maintenance fees, development, regulatory, and commercial milestones, and earned royalties on net sales. In the event we sublicense our rights under the Stanford Agreement, we are obligated to pay Stanford a percentage of specified sublicensing income received.

Intellectual property

Our success depends in part upon our ability to protect our core technology and intellectual property. To protect our intellectual property rights, we rely on patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secret laws, confidentiality procedures, and employee disclosure and invention assignment agreements. Our intellectual property is critical to our business and we strive to protect it through a variety of approaches, including by obtaining and maintaining patent protection in the United States and internationally for our product candidate, and other inventions that are important to our business. For our product candidates, we generally intend to pursue patent protection covering compositions of matter, including new formulations, methods of making and methods of use. As we continue the development of our product candidates, we intend to identify additional means of obtaining patent protection that would potentially enhance commercial success, including through claims covering additional methods of use.

As of December 31, 2024, we have licensed, including pursuant to sublicenses, from Ares, an affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a patent portfolio related to atacicept that contains approximately six issued U.S. patents, as well as certain foreign counterparts of a subset of these patents in foreign countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Israel, India, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, South Africa, and countries within the European Patent Convention and the Eurasian Patent Organization. The issued patents include claims covering methods of purifying atacicept, formulations and various methods of treatment, and are expected to expire between 2027 and 2029, without considering any patent term extension.

There is also a pending U.S. application as well as certain foreign counterparts directed to treatment of IgAN and proteinuria. The 20-year expiration date for patents that issue in this family is expected to be in 2041.

Because atacicept is a biologic, marketing approval would also provide 12 years of market exclusivity from the approval date of a BLA in the United States. We are currently seeking orphan drug designation for atacicept in IgAN from the FDA and EMA, which, if secured, would provide seven and ten years, in the United States and European Union (EU), respectively, of regulatory exclusivity protection from the approval date.

As of December 31, 2024, our patent portfolio licensed from Novartis and covering MAU868 includes three issued U.S. patents with claims covering the composition of matter of MAU868, and methods of neutralizing BKV or JC virus as well as methods of treating or reducing the likelihood of BKV or JC virus associated disorders. Corresponding foreign counterparts are granted in countries within the European Patent Convention, Australia, China, Japan, India, Israel, Mexico, Macau and Taiwan, and pending in Canada. The 20-year expiration date for patents in this family is in 2036.

In addition, an application co-owned with and licensed from Novartis that is directed to dosing regimens for MAU868 is pending as a U.S. application as well as certain foreign counterparts. The 20-year expiration date for patents in this family is in 2041.

In addition to patents, we may rely upon unpatented trade secrets and know-how and continuing technological innovation to develop and maintain our competitive position. However, trade secrets and know-how can be difficult to protect. We seek to protect our proprietary information, in part, by executing confidentiality agreements with our collaborators and scientific advisors, and non-solicitation, confidentiality, and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants. We have also executed agreements requiring assignment of inventions with selected scientific advisors and collaborators. The confidentiality agreements we enter into are designed to protect our proprietary information and the agreements or clauses requiring assignment of inventions to us are designed to grant us ownership of technologies that are developed through our relationship with the respective counterparty. We cannot guarantee, however, that we have executed such agreements with all applicable counterparties, such agreements will not be breached, or that these agreements will afford us adequate protection of our intellectual property and proprietary rights. For more information, see “Risk factors—Risks related to our intellectual property.”

Furthermore, we seek trademark protection in the United States and internationally where available and when we deem appropriate.

Manufacturing and supply

We manage a number of external contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) to develop and manufacture our product candidates.

Atacicept is a fully humanized fusion protein that impacts the B cell pathway, which has well characterized implications in immunologic diseases. The human IgG1-Fc was modified to reduce the Fc binding to the C1q component of complement and the interaction with Fc receptors.

Atacicept is manufactured following current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs) using a process similar to that used routinely for production of monoclonal antibodies.

The atacicept drug product is available as a ready-to-use injection solution in a pre-filled syringe (PFS) at strengths of 25 mg/mL, 75 mg/mL, or 150 mg/mL of trial drug. Each atacicept PFS is designed to deliver a 1 mL solution of drug product. All formulation components are pharmacopeia grade.

The Ares Agreement includes the transfer of all existing inventory of atacicept drug substance and drug product, for our use in planned and future clinical trials.

We acquired approximately 35,000 PFS of atacicept, representing all three strengths, 25 mg, 75 mg and 150 mg, of atacicept and approximately 25,000 PFS of placebo, as part of the Ares Agreement. This drug product will be utilized for our ongoing clinical trials, as needed.

The atacicept manufacturing supply chain is fully established using CMOs and is operational to supply products for clinical and, if approved, commercial use. An atacicept PFS/autoinjector combination is in clinical development.

MAU868 is an IgG1 monoclonal antibody that binds to BKV protein VP1. It is manufactured according to cGMP using a high expression CHO cell and a standard antibody manufacturing process that is completely free from animal or human derived raw materials. The MAU868 manufacturing supply chain is fully established using contract manufacturing organizations with contracts that are assignable to Vera Therapeutics.

The fully formulated MAU868 drug product is provided as a 3 mL fill in a 6 mL vial which can be combined with multiple vials to prepare infusions at different dosage strengths for use in clinical trials. The drug product formulation is composed of MAU868 as the active substance, a buffering agent, and both a sugar and a surfactant as stabilizing agents.

Commercialization plans

Atacicept

We estimate the market opportunity for novel therapeutics in IgAN to be approximately 157,000 patients in the United States, 136,000 patients in Europe and 130,000 in Japan, at estimated peak year of sales, based on our assumptions, secondary research, and primary market research with physicians and payors. In order to capitalize on this opportunity, we plan to build a specialty commercial infrastructure focused on IgAN, engaging treating physicians, including nephrologists, educating and engaging patients, and ensuring market access for patients.

Through the Ares Agreement, we were granted worldwide rights to the development and commercialization of atacicept in all indications. We intend to commercialize atacicept ourselves in the United States and other key markets, if approved. Within certain ex-U.S. markets, we may consider strategic collaborations to facilitate commercialization.

MAU868

We plan to develop MAU868 for the treatment of BK viremia in kidney transplant as an initial indication, which we believe has strong potential commercial synergies with our plans for atacicept. We believe that the prescribing physicians for MAU868 in renal transplant, if approved, will be a subset of the IgAN treating physicians, and plan to conduct an assessment of call point overlap. The launch of this indication, if prior to the atacicept launch, would require a smaller specialty commercial infrastructure build focused on educating and engaging treating physicians, including transplant nephrologists, partnering with kidney transplant organizations, and ensuring market access for patients. If prior to the atacicept launch, we would plan to leverage this infrastructure for eventual atacicept sales and marketing activities.

Through the Amplyx Agreement, we obtained worldwide rights to the development and commercialization of MAU868 in all indications.

Similar to our plans with atacicept, we intend to commercialize MAU868 ourselves in the United States and other key markets, if approved.

We also may consider strategic collaborations to facilitate commercialization in certain ex-U.S. markets.

Competition

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are characterized by rapidly changing technologies, significant competition and a strong emphasis on intellectual property. This is also true for the development and commercialization of treatments for immunologic diseases. Though we believe that our focus, experienced team, scientific knowledge, and intellectual property provide us with competitive advantages, we face competition from a number of sources, including large and small biopharmaceutical companies, universities, and other research institutions.

Many of our competitors have significantly greater financial, technical, human and other resources than we do and may be better equipped to develop, manufacture and market technologically superior products. In addition, many of these competitors have significantly greater experience than we have in undertaking nonclinical studies and human clinical trials of new pharmaceutical products and in obtaining regulatory approvals of human therapeutic products. Accordingly, our competitors may succeed in obtaining FDA approval for superior products. Many of our competitors have established distribution channels for the commercialization of their products, whereas we have no such channel or capabilities. In addition, many competitors have greater name recognition and more extensive collaborative relationships. Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller or early stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies.

Our competitors may obtain regulatory approval of their products more rapidly than we do or may obtain patent protection or other intellectual property rights that limit our ability to develop or commercialize our product candidates or any future product candidates. Our competitors may also develop drugs that are more effective, more convenient, more widely used and less costly or have a better safety profile than our products and these competitors may also be more successful than we are in manufacturing and marketing their products. If we are unable to compete effectively against these companies, then we may not be able to commercialize our product candidates or any future product candidates or achieve a competitive position in the market. This would adversely affect our ability to generate revenue. Our competitors also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific, management and commercial personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs.

Despite a high level of morbidity for IgAN, the current standard of care consists of off-label use of RAAS inhibitors, including ACE inhibitors and ARBs, and potentially steroids. Atacicept, if and when approved and successfully commercialized, may compete with these existing approaches and with any new therapies that may become available in the future. SGLT2 inhibitors, including AstraZeneca plc’s (AstraZeneca) Farxiga, which is approved for chronic kidney disease, are becoming the standard-of-care in some geographies including the United States. Among emerging therapies, we consider our most direct competitors with respect to atacicept in IgAN to be approved products: the reformulated steroid from Calliditas Therapeutics AB, the complement inhibitor from Novartis, and the endothelin and angiotensin II receptor antagonist from Travere Therapeutics, Inc.; programs in Phase 3 clinical development: Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Novartis, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., AstraZeneca PLC, and Roche/Ionis; and the following companies with programs in Phase 2 of clinical development: Biogen, and 32Bio.

Atacicept in pMN, FSGS, and MCD

There are no FDA-approved therapies for pMN. Companies with trials in Phases 2 or 3 include Roche, BeiGene, Biogen, and SynAct Pharma. There are no FDA-approved therapies for FSGS. Companies with trials in Phases 2 or 3 include the following: Sanofi, Eli Lilly, Astellas, Walden Biosciences, Travere Therapeutics, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis, and Vertex. There are no FDA-approved therapies for MCD. Companies with trials in Ph2/Ph3 include Travere Therapeutics and Walden Biosciences.

MAU868

There are currently no anti-BKV therapies approved, either in the kidney transplant or HSCT setting. The standard of care in both settings is to reduce immunosuppression as a first line, and potentially to offer IVIG in kidney transplant recipients or antivirals with limited clinical evidence, including leflunomide and cidofovir, in either setting. There are few industry-sponsored programs in development for these indications; we consider our most direct competitor to be Memo Therapeutics AG’s AntiBKV, a neutralizing monoclonal antibody in a Phase 2/3 clinical trial.

VT-109

The current landscape of B cell modulators primarily includes monoclonal antibodies which target either BAFF or APRIL alone, or Fc-fusion proteins containing TACI or TACI variants, including atacicept. VT-109 is a novel BAFF/APRIL dual-inhibitor B cell maturation antigen (BCMA) molecule which, if successfully developed, approved, and commercialized, may compete with the existing approaches to treat B cell mediated autoimmune diseases, many of which are described in the preceding paragraphs on atacicept. We consider the most advanced direct competitor to VT-109 to be the BCMA Fc-fusion protein from Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is currently in Phase 1 clinical development.

Government regulation

Government authorities in the United States at the federal, state and local level and in other countries and jurisdictions, including the European Union, extensively regulate, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, quality control, approval, labeling, packaging, storage, record-keeping, promotion, advertising, distribution, post-approval monitoring and reporting, marketing and export and import of drug and biological products, such as our investigational medicines and any future investigational medicines. Generally, before a new drug or biologic can be marketed, considerable data demonstrating its quality, safety and efficacy must be obtained, organized into a format specific for each regulatory authority, submitted for review and approved by the regulatory authority.

Regulatory approval in the United States

In the United States, pharmaceutical products are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA. The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), and other federal and state statutes and regulations, govern, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, storage, recordkeeping, approval, labeling, promotion and marketing, distribution, post- approval monitoring and reporting, sampling, and import and export of pharmaceutical products. Biological products used for the prevention, treatment or cure of a disease or condition of a human being are subject to regulation under the FDCA, except the section of the FDCA that governs the approval of a new drug application (NDA). Biological products are approved, or licensed, for marketing under provisions of the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) via a BLA. The application process and requirements for approval of BLAs for originator biological products are similar to those for NDAs for new chemical entities, and biologics are associated with similar approval risks and costs as drugs. Failure to comply with applicable U.S. requirements may subject a company to a variety of administrative or judicial sanctions, such as clinical hold, FDA refusal to approve pending NDAs or BLAs, warning or untitled letters, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions, fines, civil penalties, and criminal prosecution.

Our investigational medicines and any future investigational medicines must be approved by the FDA pursuant to a BLA before they may be legally marketed in the United States. The process generally involves the following:

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completion of extensive preclinical laboratory and animal studies in accordance with applicable regulations, including studies conducted in accordance with good laboratory practices (GLP) requirements;

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submission to the FDA of an Investigational New Drug Application (IND), which must become effective before human clinical trials may begin;

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approval of the protocol and related documents by an institutional review board (IRB) or independent ethics committee at each clinical trial site before each clinical trial may be commenced;

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performance of adequate and well controlled human clinical trials in accordance with applicable IND regulations, GCP requirements and other clinical trial-related regulations to establish the safety and efficacy of the investigational product for each proposed indication;

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preparation of and submission to the FDA of a BLA for marketing approval that includes sufficient evidence of establishing the safety, purity, and potency of the proposed biological product for its intended indication, including from results of nonclinical testing and clinical trials;

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payment of any user fees for FDA review of the BLA;

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a determination by the FDA within 60 days of its receipt of a BLA to accept the filing for review;

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satisfactory completion of one or more FDA pre-approval inspections of the manufacturing facility or facilities where the biologic, or components thereof, will be produced to assess compliance with current cGMP requirements to assure that the facilities, methods and controls are adequate to preserve the biologic’s identity, strength, quality and purity;

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satisfactory completion of any potential FDA audits of the clinical trial sites that generated the data in support of the BLA to assure compliance with GCPs and integrity of the clinical data;

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potential FDA audit of the nonclinical study and clinical trial sites that generated the data in support of the BLA;

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FDA review and approval of the BLA, including consideration of the views of any FDA advisory committee; and

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compliance with any post-approval requirements, including a REMS, where applicable, and post- approval studies required by the FDA as a condition of approval.

The preclinical and clinical testing and approval process requires substantial time, effort and financial resources, and we cannot be certain that any approvals for our product candidates will be granted on a timely basis, or at all.

Preclinical studies

Before testing any biological product candidates in humans, the product candidate must undergo rigorous preclinical testing. Preclinical studies include laboratory evaluation of product chemistry and formulation, as well as in vitro and animal studies to assess the potential for adverse events and in some cases to establish a rationale for therapeutic use. The conduct of preclinical studies is subject to federal regulations and requirements, including GLP regulations for safety/toxicology studies.

Prior to beginning the first clinical trial with a product candidate in the United States, an IND must be submitted to the FDA and the FDA must allow the IND to proceed. An IND is an exemption from the FDCA that allows an unapproved product candidate to be shipped in interstate commerce for use in an investigational clinical trial and a request for FDA allowance that such investigational product may be administered to humans in connection with such trial. Such authorization must be secured prior to interstate shipment and administration. In support of a request for an IND, applicants must submit a protocol for each clinical trial and any subsequent protocol amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND. An IND sponsor must also submit the results of the preclinical tests, together with manufacturing information, analytical data, any available clinical data or literature and plans for clinical trials, among other things, to the FDA as part of an IND. Some long-term preclinical testing may continue after the IND is submitted. An IND automatically becomes effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA, unless before that time the FDA raises concerns or questions related to one or more proposed clinical trials and places the trial on clinical hold. In such a case, the IND sponsor and the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns before the clinical trial can begin. As a result, submission of an IND may not result in the FDA allowing clinical trials to commence.

Clinical trials

The clinical stage of development involves the administration of the investigational product to healthy volunteers or patients under the supervision of qualified investigators, generally physicians not employed by or under the trial sponsor’s control. Clinical trials must be conducted: (i) in compliance with federal regulations; (ii) in compliance with GCPs, an international standard meant to protect the rights and health of patients and to define the roles of clinical trial sponsors, administrators and monitors; as well as (iii) under protocols detailing, among other things, the objectives of the trial, the parameters to be used in monitoring safety and the effectiveness criteria to be evaluated in the trial. Each protocol involving testing on U.S. patients and subsequent protocol amendments must be submitted to the FDA as part of the IND.

Furthermore, each clinical trial must be reviewed and approved by an IRB for each institution at which the clinical trial will be conducted to ensure that the risks to individuals participating in the clinical trials are minimized and are reasonable in relation to anticipated benefits. The IRB also approves the informed consent form that must be provided to each clinical trial subject or his or her legal representative and must monitor the clinical trial until completed. An IRB must operate in compliance with FDA regulations. An IRB can suspend or terminate approval of a clinical trial at its institution, or an institution it represents, if the clinical trial is not being conducted in accordance with the IRB’s requirements or if the product candidate has been associated with unexpected serious harm to patients.

Some trials are overseen by an independent group of qualified experts organized by the trial sponsor, known as a data safety monitoring board or committee (DSMB). This group provides authorization as to whether or not a trial may move forward at designated check points based on access that only the group maintains to available data from the study.

There also are requirements governing the reporting of ongoing clinical trials and completed clinical trial results to public registries. Information about certain clinical trials, including clinical trial results, must be submitted within specific timeframes for publication on the www.clinicaltrials.gov website. Information related to the product, patient population, phase of investigation, clinical trial sites and investigators and other aspects of the clinical trial is then made public as part of the registration. Disclosure of the results of these clinical trials can be delayed in certain circumstances for up to two years after the date of completion of the trial.

A sponsor who wishes to conduct a clinical trial outside of the United States may, but need not, obtain FDA authorization to conduct the clinical trial under an IND. If a foreign clinical trial is not conducted under an IND, the sponsor may submit data from the clinical trial to the FDA in support of a BLA. The FDA will accept a well-designed and well-conducted foreign clinical trial not conducted under an IND if the clinical trial was conducted in accordance with GCP requirements, and the FDA is able to validate the data through an onsite inspection if deemed necessary.

Clinical trials are generally conducted in three sequential phases, known as Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3:

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Phase 1 clinical trials generally involve a small number of healthy volunteers or disease-affected patients who are initially exposed to a single dose and then multiple doses of the product candidate. The primary purpose of these clinical trials is to assess the metabolism, pharmacokinetics, pharmacologic action, side effect tolerability, safety of the product candidate, and, if possible, early evidence of effectiveness.

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Phase 2 clinical trials generally involve studies in disease-affected patients to evaluate proof of concept and/or determine the dosing regimen(s) for subsequent investigations. At the same time, safety and further pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic information is collected, possible adverse effects and safety risks are identified, and a preliminary evaluation of efficacy is conducted.

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Phase 3 clinical trials generally involve a large number of patients at multiple sites and are designed to provide the data necessary to demonstrate the effectiveness of the product for its intended use, its safety in use and to establish the overall benefit/risk relationship of the product and provide an adequate basis for product labeling. In most cases, the FDA requires two adequate and well-controlled Phase 3 clinical trials to demonstrate the efficacy of the biologic.

These Phases may overlap or be combined. For example, a Phase 1/2 clinical trial may contain both a dose-escalation stage and a dose-expansion stage, the latter of which may confirm tolerability at the recommended dose for expansion in future clinical trials.

A single Phase 3 or Phase 2 trial with other confirmatory evidence may be sufficient in rare instances to provide substantial evidence of effectiveness (generally subject to the requirement of additional post-approval studies).

In some cases, FDA may require, or firms may voluntarily pursue, post-approval clinical trials, sometimes referred to as Phase 4 clinical trials, after initial marketing approval. These clinical trials are used to gain additional experience from the treatment of patients in the intended therapeutic indication, particularly for long-term safety follow-up.

During all phases of clinical development, regulatory agencies require extensive monitoring and auditing of all clinical activities, clinical data, and clinical trial investigators. Annual progress reports detailing the results of the clinical trials must be submitted to the FDA. Written IND safety reports must be promptly submitted to the FDA and the investigators for serious and unexpected adverse events, any findings from other studies, tests in laboratory animals or in vitro testing that suggest a significant risk for human subjects, or any clinically important increase in the rate of a serious suspected adverse reaction over that listed in the protocol or investigator brochure. The sponsor must submit an IND safety report within 15 calendar days after the sponsor determines that the information qualifies for reporting. The sponsor also must notify the FDA of any unexpected fatal or life-threatening suspected adverse reaction within seven calendar days after the sponsor’s initial receipt of the information.

Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3 and other types of clinical trials may not be completed successfully within any specified period, if at all. The FDA, the IRB, or the sponsor may suspend or terminate a clinical trial at any time on various grounds, including non-compliance with regulatory requirements or a finding that the patients are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk. Similarly, an IRB can suspend or terminate approval of a clinical trial at its institution if the clinical trial is not being conducted in accordance with the IRB’s requirements or if the drug or biologic has been associated with unexpected serious harm to patients.

Concurrent with clinical trials, companies usually complete additional animal studies and also must develop additional information about the chemistry and physical characteristics of the drug or biologic as well as finalize a process for manufacturing the product in commercial quantities in accordance with cGMP requirements. The manufacturing process must be capable of consistently producing quality batches of the product and, among other things, companies must develop methods for testing the identity, strength, quality, potency and purity of the final product. Additionally, appropriate packaging must be selected and tested, and stability studies must be conducted to demonstrate that the investigational medicines do not undergo unacceptable deterioration over their shelf life.

FDA review processes

Following completion of the clinical trials, the results of preclinical studies and clinical trials are submitted to the FDA as part of a BLA, along with proposed labeling, chemistry and manufacturing information to ensure product quality and other relevant data. To support marketing approval, the data submitted must be sufficient in quality and quantity to establish the safety and efficacy of the investigational product to the satisfaction of the FDA. FDA approval of a BLA must be obtained before a biologic or drug may be marketed in the United States.

The cost of preparing and submitting a BLA is substantial. Under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), each BLA must be accompanied by a substantial user fee. The FDA adjusts the PDUFA user fees on an annual basis. Fee waivers or reductions are available in certain circumstances, including a waiver of the application fee for the first application filed by a small business. Additionally, no user fees are assessed on BLAs for products designated as orphan drugs, unless the product also includes a non-orphan indication. The applicant under an approved BLA is also subject to an annual program fee.

Within 60 days following submission of the application, the FDA reviews a BLA submitted to determine if it is substantially complete before the FDA accepts it for filing. The FDA may refuse to file any BLA that it deems incomplete or not properly reviewable at the time of submission and may request additional information. In this event, the BLA must be resubmitted with the additional information. The resubmitted application also is subject to review to determine if it is substantially complete before the FDA accepts it for filing. Once the submission is accepted for filing, the FDA begins an in-depth review of the BLA. The FDA reviews the BLA to determine, among other things, whether the proposed product is safe, pure and potent, for its intended use, and whether the product is being manufactured in accordance with cGMP to ensure its continued safety, purity and potency.

Under the goals and policies agreed to by the FDA under PDUFA, the FDA has 10 months, from the filing date, in which to complete its initial review of an original BLA for a new molecular entity and respond to the applicant, and six months from the filing date of an original BLA designated for priority review. The review process for both standard and priority review may be extended by the FDA for three additional months to consider certain late-submitted information, or information intended to clarify information already provided in the submission. The FDA does not always meet its PDUFA goal dates for standard and priority BLAs, and the review process can be extended by FDA requests for additional information or clarification.

Before approving a BLA, the FDA will conduct a pre-approval inspection of the manufacturing facilities for the new product to determine whether they comply with cGMP requirements and to ensure they can supply the market demand once approved. The FDA will not approve the product unless it determines that the manufacturing processes and facilities are in compliance with cGMP requirements and adequate to assure consistent production of the product within required specifications.

The FDA also may audit data from clinical trials to ensure compliance with GCP requirements and the integrity of the data supporting safety and efficacy. Additionally, the FDA may refer applications for novel products or products that present difficult questions of safety or efficacy to an advisory committee, typically a panel that includes clinicians and other experts, for review, evaluation and a recommendation as to whether the application should be approved and under what conditions, if any. The FDA is not bound by recommendations of an advisory committee, but it generally follows such recommendations when making decisions on approval. The FDA likely will reanalyze the clinical trial data, which could result in extensive discussions between the FDA and the applicant during the review process.

After the FDA evaluates a BLA, it will issue either an approval letter or a Complete Response Letter. An approval letter authorizes commercial marketing of the biologic with specific prescribing information for specific indications. A Complete Response Letter indicates that the review cycle of the application is complete and the application will not be approved in its present form. A Complete Response Letter generally outlines the deficiencies in the BLA and may require additional clinical data, additional pivotal clinical trial(s) and/or other significant and time-consuming requirements related to clinical trials, preclinical studies or manufacturing in order for FDA to reconsider the application. If a Complete Response Letter is issued, the applicant may either resubmit the BLA, addressing all of the deficiencies identified in the letter, or withdraw the application or request an opportunity for a hearing. The FDA has committed to reviewing such resubmissions in two or six months, depending on the type of information included. Even if such data and information are submitted, the FDA may decide that the BLA does not satisfy the criteria for approval.

If a product receives regulatory approval, the approval may be significantly limited to specific diseases and dosages or the indications for use may otherwise be limited, including to subpopulations of patients, which could restrict the commercial value of the product. Furthermore, as a condition of BLA approval, the FDA may require a REMS to help ensure that the benefits of the biologic outweigh the potential risks to patients. A REMS can include medication guides, communication plans for healthcare professionals and elements to assure a product’s safe use (ETASU). An ETASU can include, but is not limited to, special training or certification for prescribing or dispensing the product, dispensing the product only under certain circumstances, special monitoring and the use of patient-specific registries. The requirement for a REMS can materially affect the potential market and profitability of the product. Moreover, the FDA may require substantial post-approval testing and surveillance to monitor the product’s safety or efficacy.

Orphan drug designation

Under the Orphan Drug Act, the FDA may grant orphan designation to a drug or biological product intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is generally a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States, or more than 200,000 individuals in the United States but for which there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of developing and making the product for this type of disease or condition will be recovered from sales of the product in the United States.

Orphan drug designation must be requested before submitting a BLA. After the FDA grants orphan drug designation, the identity of the therapeutic agent and its potential orphan use are disclosed publicly by the FDA. Orphan drug designation on its own does not convey any advantage in or shorten the duration of the regulatory review and approval process.

If a product that has orphan designation subsequently receives the first FDA approval for the disease or condition for which it has such designation, the product is entitled to orphan drug exclusivity, which means that the FDA may not approve any other applications to market the same product for the same indication for seven years from the date of such approval, except in limited circumstances, such as a showing of clinical superiority to the product with orphan exclusivity by means of greater effectiveness, greater safety, or providing a major contribution to patient care, or in instances of drug supply issues. A designated orphan drug may not receive orphan drug exclusivity if it is approved for a use that is broader than the indication for which it received orphan designation. Orphan drug exclusivity may be lost if the FDA later determines that the request for designation was materially defective. Further, competitors may receive approval of either a different product for the same indication or the same product for a different indication. In the latter case, because healthcare professionals are free to prescribe products for off-label uses, the competitor’s product could be used for the orphan indication despite another product’s orphan exclusivity.

Expedited development and review programs

The FDA is authorized to designate certain products for expedited review if they are intended to address an unmet medical need in the treatment of a serious or life-threatening disease or condition.

Fast track designation may be granted for products that are intended to treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition for which there is no effective treatment and preclinical or clinical data demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs for the condition. Fast track designation applies to both the product and the specific indication for which it is being studied. The sponsor of a new biologic candidate can request the FDA to designate the candidate for a specific indication for fast track status concurrent with, or after, the submission of the IND for the candidate. The FDA must determine if the biologic candidate qualifies for fast track designation within 60 days of receipt of the sponsor’s request. For fast track products, sponsors may have greater interactions with the FDA and the FDA may initiate review of sections of a fast track product’s BLA before the application is complete. This “rolling review” is available if the FDA determines, after preliminary evaluation of clinical data submitted by the sponsor, that a fast track product may be effective. The sponsor must also provide, and the FDA must approve, a schedule for the submission of the remaining information and the sponsor must pay applicable user fees. Any product submitted to the FDA for marketing, including under a fast track program, may be eligible for other types of FDA programs intended to expedite development and review, such as priority review and accelerated approval.

Breakthrough therapy designation may be granted for products that are intended, alone or in combination with one or more other products, to treat a serious or life-threatening condition and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the product may demonstrate substantial improvement over currently approved therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints. Under the breakthrough therapy program, the sponsor of a new biologic candidate may request that the FDA designate the candidate for a specific indication as a breakthrough therapy concurrent with, or after, the submission of the IND for the biologic candidate. The FDA must determine if the biological product qualifies for breakthrough therapy designation within 60 days of receipt of the sponsor’s request. The FDA may take certain actions with respect to breakthrough therapies, including holding meetings with the sponsor throughout the development process, providing timely advice to the product sponsor regarding development and approval, involving more senior staff in the review process, assigning a cross-disciplinary project lead for the review team and taking other steps to design the clinical trials in an efficient manner.

Priority review may be granted for products that are intended to treat a serious or life-threatening condition and, if approved, would provide a significant improvement in safety and effectiveness compared to available therapies. The FDA will attempt to direct additional resources to the evaluation of an application designated for priority review in an effort to facilitate the review. Under priority review, the FDA’s goal is to review an application in six months once it is filed, compared to ten months for a standard review. Priority review designation does not change the standard for approval or the quality of evidence necessary to support approval.

Accelerated approval may be granted for products that are intended to treat a serious or life-threatening condition and that generally provide a meaningful therapeutic advantage to patients over existing treatments. A product eligible for accelerated approval may be approved on the basis of either a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit, or on a clinical endpoint that can be measured earlier than irreversible morbidity or mortality, that is reasonably likely to predict an effect on irreversible morbidity or mortality or other clinical benefit, taking into account the severity, rarity or prevalence of the condition and the availability or lack of alternative treatments. In clinical trials, a surrogate endpoint is a measurement of laboratory or clinical signs of a disease or condition that substitutes for a direct measurement of how a patient feels, functions or survives. The accelerated approval pathway is most often used in settings in which the course of a disease is long, and an extended period of time is required to measure the intended clinical benefit of a product, even if the effect on the surrogate or intermediate clinical endpoint occurs rapidly. Use of the accelerated approval pathway entails submission of a BLA with the surrogate or intermediate clinical endpoint data while continuing to conduct the trial(s) to completion and is contingent on a sponsor’s agreement to complete and/or conduct additional post-approval confirmatory studies to verify and describe the product’s clinical benefit. These confirmatory trials must be completed with due diligence and, in some cases, the FDA may require that the trial be designed, initiated and/or fully enrolled prior to approval. Failure to conduct required post-approval studies, or to confirm a clinical benefit during post-marketing studies, would allow the FDA to withdraw the product from the market on an expedited basis. All promotional materials for product candidates approved under accelerated regulations are subject to prior review by the FDA.

Even if a product qualifies for one or more of these programs, the FDA may later decide that the product no longer meets the conditions for qualification or the time period for FDA review or approval may not be shortened. Furthermore, fast track designation, breakthrough therapy designation, priority review and accelerated approval do not change the standards for approval, but may expedite the development or approval process.

Additional controls for biologics

To help reduce the increased risk of the introduction of adventitious agents, the PHSA emphasizes the importance of manufacturing controls for products whose attributes cannot be precisely defined. The PHSA also provides authority to the FDA to immediately suspend licenses in situations where there exists a danger to public health, to prepare or procure products in the event of shortages and critical public health needs, and to authorize the creation and enforcement of regulations to prevent the introduction or spread of communicable diseases in the United States and between states.

After a BLA is approved, the product may also be subject to official lot release as a condition of approval. As part of the manufacturing process, the manufacturer is required to perform certain tests on each lot of the product before it is released for distribution. If the product is subject to official release by the FDA, the manufacturer submits samples of each lot of product to the FDA together with a release protocol showing a summary of the history of manufacture of the lot and the results of all of the manufacturer’s tests performed on the lot. The FDA may also perform certain confirmatory tests on lots of some products, such as viral vaccines, before releasing the lots for distribution by the manufacturer. In addition, the FDA conducts laboratory research related to the regulatory standards on the safety, purity, potency and effectiveness of biological products. As with drugs, after approval of biologics, manufacturers must address any safety issues that arise, are subject to recalls or a halt in manufacturing, and are subject to periodic inspection after approval.

Combination products

A combination product is a product comprised of two or more regulated components, e.g., drug and medical device, that are physically combined and produced as a single entity, packaged together in a single package, or packaged separately but intended to be labeled for use together. Atacicept in a prefilled autoinjector would be such a combination of therapeutic and delivery device.

FDA is divided into various branches, or Centers, by product type. Different Centers typically review drug, biologic, or device applications. In order to review an application for a combination product, FDA must decide which Center should be responsible for the review. FDA regulations require that FDA determine the combination product’s primary mode of action (PMOA), which is the single mode of a combination product that provides the most important therapeutic action of the combination product. The Center that regulates that portion of the product that generates the PMOA becomes the lead evaluator. If there are two independent modes of action, neither of which is subordinate to the other, FDA makes a determination as to which Center to assign the product based on consistency with other combination products raising similar types of safety and effectiveness questions or to the Center with the most expertise in evaluating the most significant safety and effectiveness questions raised by the combination product. When evaluating an application, a lead Center may consult other Centers but still retain complete reviewing authority, or it may collaborate with another Center, by which the Center assigns review of a specific section of the application to another Center, delegating its review authority for that section. Typically, FDA requires a single marketing application submitted to the Center selected to be the lead evaluator, although the agency has the discretion to require separate applications to more than one Center. We believe that our prefilled autoinjector would have a biologic PMOA.

Pediatric information

Under the Pediatric Research Equity Act (PREA), BLAs or supplements to BLAs must contain data to assess the safety and effectiveness of the biological product for the claimed indications in all relevant pediatric subpopulations and to support dosing and administration for each pediatric subpopulation for which the biological product is safe and effective. The FDA may grant full or partial waivers, or deferrals, for submission of data. Unless otherwise required by regulation, PREA generally does not apply to any biological product for an indication for which orphan designation has been granted.

The Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA) provides a six-month extension of any exclusivity—patent or non-patent—for a biologic if certain conditions are met. Conditions for exclusivity include the FDA’s determination that information relating to the use of a new biologic in the pediatric population may produce health benefits in that population, FDA making a written request for pediatric studies, and the applicant agreeing to perform, and reporting on, the requested studies within the statutory timeframe. Applications under the BPCA are treated as priority applications, with all of the benefits that designation confers.

Post-approval requirements

Once a BLA is approved, a product may be subject to certain post-approval requirements. For instance, the FDA closely regulates the post-approval marketing and promotion of biologics, including standards and regulations for direct-to-consumer advertising, off-label promotion, industry-sponsored scientific and educational activities and promotional activities involving the Internet. Biologics may be marketed only for the approved indications and in a manner consistent with the provisions of the approved labeling. Although physicians may prescribe products for off-label uses as the FDA and other regulatory authorities do not regulate a physician’s choice of drug treatment made in the physician’s independent medical judgment, they do restrict promotional communications from companies or their sales force with respect to off-label uses of products for which marketing clearance has not been issued. Companies may only share truthful and not misleading information that is otherwise consistent with a product’s FDA approved labeling.

Adverse event reporting and submission of periodic safety summary reports is required following FDA approval of a BLA. The FDA also may require post-marketing testing, known as Phase 4 testing, REMS, and surveillance to monitor the effects of an approved product, or the FDA may place conditions on an approval that could restrict the distribution or use of the product. In addition, quality control, biological product manufacture, packaging and labeling procedures must continue to conform to cGMPs after approval.

Biologic manufacturers and certain of their subcontractors are required to register their establishments with the FDA and certain state agencies. Registration with the FDA subjects entities to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA, during which the agency inspects a biologic product’s manufacturing facilities to assess compliance with cGMPs. Accordingly, manufacturers must continue to expend time, money and effort in the areas of production and quality-control to maintain compliance with cGMPs. Regulatory authorities may withdraw product approvals or request product recalls if a company fails to comply with required regulatory standards, if it encounters problems following initial marketing, or if previously unrecognized problems are subsequently discovered.

Once an approval is granted, the FDA may withdraw the approval if compliance with regulatory requirements and standards is not maintained or if problems occur after the product reaches the market. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with manufacturing processes or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in revisions to the approved labeling to add new safety information, imposition of post-market studies or clinical trials to assess new safety risks or imposition of distribution or other restrictions under a REMS program. Other potential consequences include, among other things:

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restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of the product, suspension of the approval, complete withdrawal of the product from the market or product recalls;

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fines, warning or other enforcement-related letters or holds on post-approval clinical trials;

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refusal of the FDA to approve pending BLAs or supplements to approved BLAs, or suspension or revocation of product license approvals;

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

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injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.

U.S. marketing exclusivity

The Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (BPCIA) created an abbreviated approval pathway for biological products shown to be biosimilar to, or interchangeable with, an FDA-licensed reference biological product. Biosimilarity, which requires that the biological product be highly similar to the reference product notwithstanding minor differences in clinically inactive components and that there be no clinically meaningful differences between the biological product and the reference product in terms of safety, purity and potency, can be shown through analytical studies, animal studies and a clinical trial or trials. Interchangeability requires that a biological product be biosimilar to the reference product and that the product can be expected to produce the same clinical results as the reference product in any given patient and, for products administered multiple times to an individual, that the product and the reference product may be alternated or switched after one has been previously administered without increasing safety risks or risks of diminished efficacy relative to exclusive use of the reference biological product without such alternation or switch.

A reference biological product is granted 12 years of data exclusivity from the time of first licensure of the product and the FDA will not accept an application for a biosimilar or interchangeable product based on the reference biological product until four years after the date of first licensure of the reference product. “First licensure” typically means the initial date the particular product at issue was licensed in the United States. Date of first licensure does not include the date of licensure of (and a new period of exclusivity is not available for) a biological product if the licensure is for a supplement for the biological product or for a subsequent application by the same sponsor or manufacturer of the biological product (or licensor, predecessor in interest or other related entity) for a change (not including a modification to the structure of the biological product) that results in a new indication, route of administration, dosing schedule, dosage form, delivery system, delivery device or strength, or for a modification to the structure of the biological product that does not result in a change in safety, purity or potency.

Regulatory approval in the European Union

The EMA is a decentralized scientific agency of the European Union (EU). It coordinates the evaluation and monitoring of centrally authorized medicinal products. It is responsible for the scientific evaluation of applications for EU marketing authorizations, as well as the development of technical guidance and the provision of scientific advice to sponsors. The EMA decentralizes its scientific assessment of medicines by working through a network of about 4,500 experts throughout the European Union, nominated by the Member States. The EMA draws on resources of over 40 national competent authorities of European Union Member States.

The process regarding approval of medicinal products in the European Union follows roughly the same lines as in the United States and likewise generally involves satisfactorily completing each of the following:

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preclinical laboratory tests, animal studies and formulation studies all performed in accordance with the applicable EU Good Laboratory Practice regulations;

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submission of a single clinical trial application (CTA) through the Clinical Trials Information System (CTIS) to the relevant national authorities of EU Member States in which a clinical trial is planned to be conducted, which must be approved by such national authorities and the subject of a positive opinion from at least one independent ethics committee before the trial may begin in each country where the clinical trial is planned;

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performance of adequate and well-controlled clinical trials to establish the safety and efficacy of the product for each proposed indication;

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submission to the relevant competent authorities of a marketing authorization application (MAA) which includes the data supporting safety and efficacy as well as detailed information on the manufacture and composition of the product in clinical development and proposed labelling;

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satisfactory completion of an inspection by the relevant competent national authorities of EU Member States of the manufacturing facility or facilities, including those of third parties, at which the product is produced to assess compliance with strictly enforced cGMP;

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potential audits of the non-clinical and clinical trial sites that generated the data in support of the MAA; and

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review and approval by the relevant competent authority of the MAA before any commercial marketing, sale or shipment of the product.

Preclinical studies

Preclinical tests include laboratory evaluations of product chemistry, formulation and stability, as well as studies to evaluate toxicity in animal studies, in order to assess the quality and potential safety and efficacy of the product. The conduct of the preclinical tests and formulation of the compounds for testing must comply with the relevant international, EU and national legislation, regulations and guidelines. The results of the preclinical tests, together with relevant manufacturing information and analytical data, are submitted as part of the CTA.

Clinical trials

Similarly to the United States, the various phases of non-clinical and clinical research in the EU are subject to significant regulatory controls.

In the EU, clinical trials are governed by the Clinical Trials Regulation (EU) No. 536/2014 (CTR), which entered into application on January 31, 2022 repealing and replacing the former Clinical Trials Directive 2001/20 (CTD).

The CTR is intended to harmonize and streamline clinical trial authorizations, simplify adverse-event reporting procedures, improve the supervision of clinical trials and increase transparency. Specifically, the Regulation, which is directly applicable in all EU Member States, introduces a streamlined application procedure through a single-entry point, the "EU portal", the CTIS; a single set of documents to be prepared and submitted for the application; as well as simplified reporting procedures for clinical trial sponsors. A harmonized procedure for the assessment of applications for clinical trials has been introduced and is divided into two parts. Part I assessment is led by the competent authorities of a reference Member State selected by the trial sponsor and relates to clinical trial aspects that are considered to be scientifically harmonized across EU Member States. This assessment is then submitted to the competent authorities of all concerned Member States in which the trial is to be conducted for their review. Part II is assessed separately by the competent authorities and Ethics Committees in each concerned EU Member State. Individual EU Member States retain the power to authorize the conduct of clinical trials on their territory.

The CTR foresaw a three-year transition period that ended on January 31, 2025. Since this date, all new or ongoing trials are subject to the provisions of the CTR.

Review and approval

In the EU, medicinal products can only be commercialized after a related marketing authorization (MA) has been granted. To obtain an MA for a product in the EU, an applicant must submit a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA), either under a centralized procedure administered by the EMA, or one of the procedures administered by the competent authorities of EU Member States (decentralized procedure, national procedure or mutual recognition procedure). An MA may be granted only to an applicant established in the EU.

The centralized procedure provides for the grant of a single MA by the European Commission that is valid throughout the European Economic Area (EEA), which is comprised of the 27 EU Member States plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 726/2004, the centralized procedure is compulsory for specific products, including for (i) medicinal products derived from biotechnological processes, (ii) products designated as orphan medicinal products, (iii) advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs), and (iv) products with a new active substance indicated for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, auto-immune and other immune dysfunctions and viral diseases. For products with a new active substance indicated for the treatment of other diseases and products that are highly innovative or for which a centralized process is in the interest of patients, authorization through the centralized procedure is optional on related approval.

Under the centralized authorization procedure, the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) conducts the initial assessment of a product. The CHMP is composed of experts nominated by each member state’s national drug authority, with one of them appointed to act as Rapporteur for the co-ordination of the evaluation with the possible assistance of a further member of the CHMP acting as a Co-Rapporteur. After approval, the Rapporteur(s) continue to monitor the product throughout its life cycle. The CHMP is required to issue an opinion within 210 days of receipt of a valid application, though the clock is stopped if it is necessary to ask the applicant for clarification or further supporting data. Clock stops may extend the timeframe of evaluation of a marketing authorization application considerably beyond 210 days. The process is complex and involves extensive consultation with the regulatory authorities of Member States and a number of experts. Once the procedure is completed, a European Public Assessment Report is produced. If the CHMP concludes that the quality, safety and efficacy of the medicinal product is sufficiently proven, it adopts a positive opinion. The CHMP’s opinion is sent to the European Commission, which uses the opinion as the basis for its decision whether or not to grant a marketing authorization. The European Commission’s decision is issued within 67 days of receipt of the CHMP’s recommendation. If the opinion is negative, information is given as to the grounds on which this conclusion was reached.

After a drug has been authorized and launched, it is a condition of maintaining the marketing authorization that all aspects relating to its quality, safety and efficacy must be kept under review. Sanctions may be imposed for failure to adhere to the conditions of the marketing authorization. In extreme cases, the authorization may be revoked, resulting in withdrawal of the product from sale.

Alternative approvals, accelerated assessment and PRIME

In the EU, in accordance with Article 14(7) of Regulation (EC) 726/2004, a “conditional” marketing authorization may be granted in cases where all the required safety and efficacy data are not yet available. The European Commission may grant a conditional marketing authorization for a medicinal product if it is demonstrated that all of the following criteria are met: (i) the benefit-risk balance of the medicinal product is positive; (ii) it is likely that the applicant will be able to provide comprehensive data post-authorization; (iii) the medicinal product fulfils an unmet medical need; and (iv) the benefit of the immediate availability to patients of the medicinal product is greater than the risk inherent in the fact that additional data are still required. The conditional marketing authorization is subject to conditions to be fulfilled for generating the missing data or ensuring increased safety measures. It is valid for one year and must be renewed annually until all related conditions have been fulfilled. Once any pending studies are provided, the conditional marketing authorization can be converted into a traditional marketing authorization. However, if the conditions are not fulfilled within the timeframe set by the EMA and approved by the European Commission, the marketing authorization will cease to be renewed.

A marketing authorization may also be granted “under exceptional circumstances” where the applicant can show that it is unable to provide comprehensive data on efficacy and safety under normal conditions of use even after the product has been authorized and subject to specific procedures being introduced. These circumstances may arise in particular when the intended indications are very rare and, in the state of scientific knowledge at that time, it is not possible to provide comprehensive information, or when generating data may be contrary to generally accepted ethical principles. Like a conditional marketing authorization, a marketing authorization granted in exceptional circumstances is reserved to medicinal products intended to be authorized for treatment of rare diseases or unmet medical needs for which the applicant does not hold a complete data set that is required for the grant of a standard marketing authorization. However, unlike the conditional marketing authorization, an applicant for authorization in exceptional circumstances is not subsequently required to provide the missing data. Although the marketing authorization “under exceptional circumstances” is granted definitively, the risk-benefit balance of the medicinal product is reviewed annually, and the marketing authorization will be withdrawn if the risk-benefit ratio is no longer favorable.

Accelerated assessment may be granted by the CHMP in exceptional cases, when an application is submitted for a marketing authorization in respect of a drug for human use targeting an unmet medical need which is expected to be of major interest from the point of view of public health and in particular from the viewpoint of therapeutic innovation. In these circumstances, the applicant may request an accelerated assessment procedure pursuant to Article 14(9) of Regulation (EC) 726/2004, which must be substantiated. If the CHMP accepts the request for accelerated assessment, the time limit of 210 days for the CHMP’s opinion is reduced to 150 days excluding clock stops. The CHMP may, however, revert to the standard time limit for the centralized procedure if it determines that the application is no longer appropriate to conduct an accelerated assessment. We believe that some of the disease indications in which our product candidates are currently being or may be developed in the future may qualify for this provision, in which case, we intend to submit related applications for accelerated assessment as appropriate.

Innovative products that target an unmet medical need and are expected to be of major public health interest may be eligible for a number of expedited development and review programs, such as the Priority Medicines scheme (PRIME), which provides incentives similar to the breakthrough therapy designation in the U.S. PRIME is a voluntary scheme aimed at enhancing the EMA’s support for the development of medicinal products that target unmet medical needs. Eligible products must target conditions for which there is an unmet medical need (there is no satisfactory method of diagnosis, prevention or treatment in the EU or, if there is, the new medicinal product will bring a major therapeutic advantage) and they must demonstrate the potential to address the unmet medical need by introducing new methods of therapy or improving existing ones. Benefits accrue to sponsors of product candidates with PRIME designation, including but not limited to, early and proactive regulatory dialogue with the EMA, frequent discussions on clinical trial designs and other development program elements, and potentially accelerated MAA assessment once a dossier has been submitted.

Validity of marketing authorizations

A marketing authorization has, in principle, an initial validity of five years. The market authorization may be renewed after five years on the basis of a re-evaluation of the risk-benefit balance by the EMA or by the competent authority of the EU Member State in which the original MA was granted. To support the application, the market authorization holder must provide the EMA or the competent authority with a consolidated version of the Common Technical Document providing up-to-date data concerning the quality, safety and efficacy of the product, including all variations introduced since the marketing authorization was granted, at least nine months before the marketing authorization ceases to be valid. The European Commission or the competent authorities of the EU Member States may decide, on justified grounds relating to pharmacovigilance, to proceed with one additional five-year renewal period for the marketing authorization. Once subsequently definitively renewed, the MA shall be valid for an unlimited period. Any authorization which is not followed by the actual placing of the medicinal product on the EU market (for a centralized procedure marketing authorization) or on the market of the authorizing EU Member State within three years after authorization ceases to be valid (the so-called sunset clause).

Pediatric development

In the EU, Regulation (EC) No 1901/2006 provides that all MAAs for new medicinal products have to include the results of trials conducted in the pediatric population, in compliance with a pediatric investigation plan (PIP), agreed with the EMA’s Pediatric Committee (PDCO). The PIP sets out the timing and measures proposed to generate data to support a pediatric indication of the medicinal product for which MA is being sought. The PDCO can grant a deferral of the obligation to implement some or all of the measures provided in the PIP until there are sufficient data to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of the product in adults. Further, the obligation to provide pediatric clinical trial data can be waived by the PDCO when these data are not needed or appropriate because the product is likely to be ineffective or unsafe in children, the disease or condition for which the product is intended occurs only in adult populations, or when the product does not represent a significant therapeutic benefit over existing treatments for pediatric patients. Once themarketing authorization is obtained in all EU Member States and study results are included in the product information, even when negative, the product is eligible for a six-month extension to the Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC), if any is in effect at the time of authorization or, in the case of orphan medicinal products, a two-year extension of orphan market exclusivity.

Manufacturing regulation in the EU

In addition to a marketing authorization, various other requirements apply to the manufacturing and placing on the EU market of medicinal products. The manufacturing of medicinal products in the EU requires a manufacturing authorization and import of medicinal products into the EU requires a manufacturing authorization allowing for import. The manufacturing authorization holder must comply with various requirements set out in the applicable EU laws, regulations and guidance, including EU cGMP standards. Similarly, the distribution of medicinal products within the EU is subject to compliance with the applicable EU laws, regulations and guidelines, including the requirement to hold appropriate authorizations for distribution granted by the competent authorities of EU Member States. Marketing authorization holders and/or manufacturing and import authorization, or marketing authorization holders and/or distribution authorization holders may be subject to civil, criminal or administrative sanctions, including suspension of manufacturing authorization, in case of non-compliance with the EU or EU Member States’ requirements applicable to the manufacturing of medicinal products.

Data and market exclusivity

The EU provides opportunities for data and market exclusivity related tomarketing authorizations. Upon receiving a marketing authorization, innovative medicinal products are generally entitled to receive eight years of data exclusivity and 10 years of market exclusivity. Data exclusivity, if granted, prevents regulatory authorities in the EU from referencing the innovator’s data to assess a generic application or biosimilar application for eight years from the date of authorization of the innovative product, after which a generic or biosimilar MAA can be submitted, and the innovator’s data may be referenced. The market exclusivity period prevents a successful generic or biosimilar applicant from commercializing its product inthe EU until 10 years have elapsed from the initial marketing authorization of the reference product in the EU. The overall ten-year period may, occasionally, be extended for a further year to a maximum of 11 years if, during the first eight years of those ten years, the marketing authorization holder obtains an authorization for one or more new therapeutic indications which, during the scientific evaluation prior to their authorization, are held to bring a significant clinical benefit in comparison with existing therapies. However, there is no guarantee that a product will be considered by the EU’s regulatory authorities to be a new chemical/biological entity, and products may not qualify for data exclusivity.

In the EU, there is a special regime for biosimilars, or biological medicinal products that are similar to a reference medicinal product but that do not meet the definition of a generic medicinal product. For such products, the results of appropriate preclinical or clinical trials must be provided in support of an application for marketing authorization. Guidelines from the EMA detail the type of quantity of supplementary data to be provided for different types of biological product.

Orphan drug designation

In the EU, Regulation (EC) No. 141/2000, as implemented by Regulation (EC) No. 847/2000 provides that a medicinal product can be designated as an orphan medicinal product by the European Commission if its sponsor can establish that (i) the product is intended for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of a life-threatening or chronically debilitating condition; (ii) either (a) such condition affects not more than five in 10,000 persons in the European Union when the application is made, or, (b) the product without the benefits derived from orphan status, would not generate sufficient return in the European Union to justify the necessary investment in its development; and (iii) there exists no satisfactory authorized method of diagnosis, prevention or treatment of the condition in question that has been authorized in the European Union or even, if such method exists, the product will be of significant benefit to those affected by that condition.

Regulation (EC) No. 847/2000 sets out further provisions for implementation of the criteria for designation of a medicinal product as an orphan medicinal product. An application for designation as an orphan product can be made any time prior to the submission of an MAA. A marketing authorization for an orphan medicinal product may only include indications designated as orphan. For non-orphan indications treated with the same active pharmaceutical ingredient, a separate marketing authorization has to be sought.

Orphan medicinal product designation entitles an applicant to incentives such as fee reductions or fee waivers, protocol assistance, and access to the centralized marketing authorization procedure. Upon a grant of marketing authorization, orphan medicinal products are entitled to a 10-year period of market exclusivity for the approved therapeutic indication, which means that the EMA cannot accept another marketing authorization application or accept an application to extend for a similar product and the European Commission cannot grant a marketing authorization for the same indication for a period of ten years. The period of market exclusivity is extended by two years for orphan medicinal products that have also complied with an agreed PIP. No extension to any supplementary protection certificate can be granted on the basis of pediatric studies for orphan indications. Orphan medicinal product designation does not convey any advantage in, or shorten the duration of, the regulatory review and approval process. The period of market exclusivity may, however, be reduced to six years if, at the end of the fifth year, it is established that the product no longer meets the criteria on the basis of which it received orphan medicinal product designation, including where it can be demonstrated on the basis of available evidence that the original orphan medicinal product is sufficiently profitable not to justify maintenance of market exclusivity or where the prevalence of the condition has increased above the threshold. Additionally, an MA may be granted to a similar medicinal product with the same orphan indication during the 10-year period if (i) the applicant consents to a second original orphan medicinal product application, (ii) if the manufacturer of the original orphan medicinal product is unable to supply sufficient quantities; or (iii) if the second applicant can establish that its product, although similar, is safer, more effective or otherwise clinically superior to the original orphan medicinal product. A company may voluntarily remove a product from the register of orphan products.

Post-authorization requirements

Where an MA is granted in relation to a medicinal product in the EU, the holder of the MA is required to comply with a range of regulatory requirements applicable to the manufacturing, marketing, promotion and sale of medicinal products. Similar to the United States, both MA holders and manufacturers of medicinal products are subject to comprehensive regulatory oversight by the EMA, the European Commission and/or the competent regulatory authorities of the individual EU Member States. The holder of an MA must establish and maintain a pharmacovigilance system and appoint an individual qualified person for pharmacovigilance who is responsible for oversight of that system. Key obligations include expedited reporting of suspected serious adverse reactions and submission of periodic safety update reports (PSURs).

All new MAAs must include a risk management plan (RMP) describing the risk management system that the company will put in place and documenting measures to prevent or minimize the risks associated with the product. The regulatory authorities may also impose specific obligations as a condition of the MA. Such risk- minimization measures or post-authorization obligations may include additional safety monitoring, more frequent submission of PSURs, or the conduct of additional clinical trials or post-authorization safety studies.

In the EU, the advertising and promotion of medicinal products are subject to both EU and EU Member States’ laws governing promotion of medicinal products, interactions with physicians and other healthcare professionals, misleading and comparative advertising and unfair commercial practices. General requirements for advertising and promotion of medicinal products, such as direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicinal products are established in EU law. However, the details are governed by regulations in individual EU Member States and can differ from one country to another. For example, applicable laws require that promotional materials and advertising in relation to medicinal products comply with the product’s Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC), which may require approval by the competent national authorities in connection with an MA. The SmPC is the document that provides information to physicians and other health care professionals concerning the safe and effective use of the product. Promotional activity that does not comply with the SmPC is considered off-label and is prohibited in the EU.

Combination products

The EU regulates medical devices and medicinal products separately, and through different legislative instruments. Products that are a combination of a medicinal product and a medical device may be regulated as either a medicinal product, a medical device or, subject to certain requirements, on the basis of both sets of rules. The applicable requirements governing placing a drug-device combination on the EU market will vary depending on the type of drug-device combination product and on which of the components of the combination has the primary mode of action. Drug-device combination products that form a single integral product that is not reusable and for which the action of the medicinal product is principal to that of the medical device are governed by the regulatory framework applicable to medicinal products. However, the General Safety and Performance Requirements (GSPRs) of Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2017/745 on Medical Devices (MDR) will be applicable to the safety and performance of the medical device part of the product in the context of its use with the medicinal product. In these circumstances, an MAA must be submitted to the competent authorities responsible for evaluating the safety and effectiveness of medicinal products. As part of the MAA, the applicant must also submit, where available, the results of the assessment of the conformity of the medical device part of the product with the MDR contained in the manufacturer's EU Declaration of Conformity of the device or the relevant Certificate of Conformity issued by a Notified Body. If the MAA does not include the results of the conformity assessment, and where the conformity assessment of the device, if used separately, requires the involvement of a Notified Body, the competent authorities must require the applicant to provide a Notified Body Opinion on the conformity of the device with the relevant GSPRs. Based on this approach, the competent authorities responsible for medicinal products will review the specific aspects of the medical devices part of the product which are relevant to the safety and efficacy of the medicinal product and the Notified Body – where applicable – will evaluate the relevant GSPRs of the device.

Drug-device combination products that form a single integral product that is not reusable and for which the action of the medicinal products is ancillary to that of the medical device are governed by the regulatory framework applicable to medical devices in accordance with the MDR. However, the quality, safety and usefulness of the medicinal product must also be verified as part of the device and a scientific opinion from a national competent authority of an EU Member State or from the EMA, depending on its nature and therapeutic intention, must be sought regarding the quality and safety of the medicinal product, including the benefit or risk of its incorporation into the medical device. Where a medical device incorporates a medicinal product as an integral part as a single use drug delivery system, which is intended exclusively for use in the given combination and which is not reusable, it is regulated as a medicinal product. In this case, the relevant GSPRs of the MDR will apply to the safety and performance of the device element.

By contrast, drug-device combination products which do not form a single integral product will be regulated separately. This may include, for example a drug-device combination product where a medical device and a medicinal product are co-packaged and the medical device is intended solely to be used for the administration of the co-packaged medicinal product. In these circumstances, the medicinal product will be governed by the regulatory framework applicable to medicinal products and the medical device will be governed by the MDR. However, the characteristics of a medical device used for the administration of a medicinal product may impact the quality, safety and efficacy profile of the medicinal product. As a result, as part of the MAA submitted to the competent authorities for the medicinal product, the applicant may need to provide additional information regarding the characteristics of the co-packaged medical device that may impact on the quality, safety and/or efficacy of the medicinal product. Similar requirements may apply where the products are not co-packaged but the medicinal product information makes an explicit reference to a specific medical device.

Brexit

The United Kingdom’s (UK) withdrawal from the EU on January 31, 2020, commonly referred to as Brexit, has changed the regulatory relationship between the UK and the EU. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is now the UK’s standalone regulator for medicinal products and medical devices. The UK is now a third country to the EU.

The UK regulatory framework in relation to clinical trials is governed by the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004, as amended, which isderived from the Clinical Trials Directive (EU) 2001/20 (CTD), as implemented into UK national law through secondary legislation. On January 17, 2022, the MHRA launched an eight-week consultation on reframing the UK legislation for clinical trials, and which aimed to streamline clinical trials approvals, enable innovation, enhance clinical trials transparency, enable greater risk proportionality, and promote patient and public involvement in clinical trials. The UK Government published its response to the consultation on March 21, 2023 confirming that it would bring forward changes to the legislation and such changes were laid in parliament on December 12, 2024. These resulting legislative amendments, if implemented in their current form, would bring the UK into closer alignment with the CTR. In October 2023, the MHRA announced a new Notification Scheme for clinical trials which enables a more streamlined and risk-proportionate approach to initial clinical trial applications for Phase 4 and low-risk Phase 3 clinical trial applications.

Marketing authorizations in the UK are governed by the Human Medicines Regulations (SI 2012/1916), as amended. Since January 1, 2021, an applicant for the EU centralized procedure marketing authorization can no longer be established in the UK. As a result, since this date, companies established in the UK cannot use the EU centralized procedure. In order to obtain a UK MA to commercialize products in the UK, an applicant must be established in the United Kingdom and must follow one of the UK national authorization procedures or one of the remaining post-Brexit international cooperation procedures to obtain a marketing authorization to market products in the UK. Applications are governed by the Human Medicines Regulations (SI 2012/1916) and are made electronically through the MHRA Submissions Portal. The MHRA has introduced changes to national licensing procedures, including procedures to prioritize access to new medicines that will benefit patients, a 150-day assessment (subject to clock-stops) and a rolling review procedure. The rolling-review procedure permits the separate or joint submission of quality, non-clinical, and clinical data to the MHRA which can be reviewed on a rolling basis. After an application under the rolling-review procedure has been validated, the decision should be received within 100 days (subject to clock-stops).

In addition, since January 1, 2024, the MHRA may rely on the International Recognition Procedure (IRP) when reviewing certain types of MAAs. Pursuant to the IRP, the MHRA will take into account the expertise and decision-making of trusted regulatory partners (e.g., the regulators in Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Singapore, Japan, the U.S. and the EU). The MHRA will conduct a targeted assessment of IRP applications but retain the authority to reject applications if the evidence provided is considered insufficiently robust. The IRP allows medicinal products approved by such trusted regulatory partners that meet certain criteria to undergo a fast-tracked MHRA review to obtain and/or update a MA in the United Kingdom. Applications should be decided within a maximum of 60 days if there are no major objections identified that cannot be resolved within such 60 day period and the approval from the trusted regulatory partner selected has been granted within the previous 2 years or if there are such major objections identified or such approval hasn’t been granted within the previous 2 years within 110 days. Applicants can submit initial MAAs to the IRP but the procedure can also be used throughout the lifecycle of a product for post-authorization procedures including line extensions, variations and renewals.

All existing EU marketing authorizations for centrally authorized products were automatically converted or grandfathered into UK marketing authorization, effective in Great Britain only, free of charge on January 1, 2021, unless the marketing authorization holder opted-out of this possibility. Northern Ireland remained within the scope of EU authorizations in relation to centrally authorized medicinal products until January 1, 2025. However, on January 1, 2025, a new arrangement as part of the so-called “Windsor Framework” came into effect and reintegrated Northern Ireland under the regulatory authority of the MHRA with respect to medicinal products. The Windsor Framework removes EU licensing processes and EU labeling and serialization requirements in relation to Northern Ireland and introduces a UK-wide licensing process for medicines.

There is no pre-marketing authorization orphan designation for medicinal products in the UK. Instead, the MHRA reviews applications for orphan designation in parallel to the corresponding marketing authorization application. The criteria are essentially the same as those in the EU, but have been tailored for the market. This includes the criterion that prevalence of the condition in Great Britain, rather than the EU, must not be more than five in 10,000. Upon the grant of a marketing authorization with orphan status, the medicinal product will benefit from up to 10 years of market exclusivity from similar products in the approved orphan indication. The start of this market exclusivity period will be set from the date of first approval of the product in Great Britain.

European and United Kingdom data collection and processing

The collection, receipt, storage, generation, transfer, access, protection, securing, disposal, transmittal, sharing, use, disclosure and other processing (commonly referred to as processing) of health-related and other personal data about clinical trials participants and other individuals in Europe is governed by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR), and in the UK is governed by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and the UK Data Protection Act 2018 (UK GDPR). The EU GDPR and UK GDPR require companies to, among other things, give detailed disclosures about how they are processing personal data; ensure any consents relied on to process personal data (including special categories of personal data, such as health information) meet the strict EU GDPR requirements; contractually impose data protection measures on vendors entrusted with personal data; maintain adequate data security measures; notify regulators and affected individuals of certain data breaches; meet extensive privacy governance and documentation requirements; honor individuals’ data protection rights, including their rights to access, correct and delete their personal data; and refrain from transferring personal data from Europe or the UK to most other countries unless specific safeguards can be implemented. Companies that violate the EU GDPR or UK GDPR can face private litigation, prohibitions on data processing and heavy fines. Complying with the EU GDPR and UK GDPR may be costly and require us to limit our activities in Europe. If our efforts to comply are not successful, we may face litigation, reputational harm, significant penalties and other liabilities.

Marketing

Much like the Anti-Kickback Statute prohibition in the United States, as described below, the provision of benefits or advantages to physicians and other health care professionals to induce or encourage the prescription, recommendation, endorsement, purchase, supply, order or use of medicinal products is also prohibited in the EU. Interactions between pharmaceutical companies and health care professionals are governed by strict laws, such as national anti-bribery laws of European countries, national sunshine rules, regulations, industry self-regulation codes of conduct and physicians’ codes of professional conduct. Failure to comply with these requirements could result in reputational risk, public reprimands, administrative penalties, fines or imprisonment. Infringement of related laws could result in substantial fines and imprisonment.

Payments made to physicians and other health care professionals in certain European Union Member States must be publicly disclosed. Moreover, agreements with health care professionals may require prior notification or approval by the health care professional’s employer, his or her competent professional organization and/or the regulatory authorities of the individual European Union Member States. These requirements are provided in the national laws, industry codes or professional codes of conduct, applicable in the European Union Member States. Failure to comply with these requirements could result in reputational risk, public reprimands, administrative penalties, fines or imprisonment.

International regulation

In addition to regulations in the United States and Europe, a variety of foreign regulations govern clinical trials, commercial sales and distribution of product candidates. The approval process varies from country to country and the time to approval may be longer or shorter than that required for FDA or European Commission approval.

Other healthcare laws and regulations and legislative reform

Healthcare laws and regulations

Healthcare providers and third-party payors will play a primary role in the recommendation and prescription of any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. Our operations, including any arrangements with healthcare providers, third-party payors and customers may expose us to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws that may affect the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we conduct research and would market, sell and distribute our products. The healthcare laws that may affect our ability to operate include, but are not limited to:

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The federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits any person or entity from, among other things, knowingly and willfully soliciting, receiving, offering or paying any remuneration, directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in cash or in kind, to induce or reward either the referral of an individual for, or the purchase, order or recommendation of an item or service reimbursable, in whole or in part, under a federal healthcare program, such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The term “remuneration” has been broadly interpreted to include anything of value. The federal Anti-Kickback Statute has also been interpreted to apply to arrangements between pharmaceutical manufacturers on the one hand and prescribers, purchasers and formulary managers on the other hand. There are a number of statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors protecting some common activities from prosecution, but the exceptions and safe harbors are drawn narrowly and require strict compliance in order to offer protection. Additionally, the intent standard under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute was amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (collectively, Affordable Care Act), to a stricter standard such that a person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation. Further, the Affordable Care Act codified case law 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 civil False Claims Act.

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Federal civil and criminal false claims laws, such as the False Claims Act, which can be enforced by private citizens through civil qui tam actions, and civil monetary penalty laws prohibit individuals or entities from, among other things, knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, false, fictitious or fraudulent claims for payment of federal funds, and knowingly making, using or causing to be made or used a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim to avoid, decrease or conceal an obligation to pay money to the federal government. For example, pharmaceutical companies have been prosecuted under the False Claims Act in connection with their alleged off-label promotion of drugs, purportedly concealing price concessions in the pricing information submitted to the government for government price reporting purposes, and allegedly providing free product to customers with the expectation that the customers would bill federal healthcare programs for the product. In addition, 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. As a result of a modification made by the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009, a claim includes “any request or demand” for money or property presented to the U.S. government. In addition, manufacturers can be held liable under the False Claims Act even when they do not submit claims directly to government payors if they are deemed to “cause” the submission of false or fraudulent claims.

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The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), among other things, imposes criminal liability for executing or attempting to execute a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program, including private third-party payors, knowingly and willfully embezzling or stealing from a healthcare benefit program, willfully obstructing a criminal investigation of a healthcare offense, and creates federal criminal laws that prohibit knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact or making any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation, or making or using any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or entry in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services.

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HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH), and their implementing regulations, which impose privacy, security and data breach reporting obligations with respect to individually identifiable health information upon entities subject to the law, such as health plans, healthcare clearinghouses and certain healthcare providers, known as covered entities, and their respective business associates and subcontractors that perform services for them that involve individually identifiable health information. HITECH also created new tiers of civil monetary penalties, amended HIPAA to make civil and criminal penalties directly applicable to business associates, and gave state attorneys general new authority to file civil actions for damages or injunctions in U.S. federal courts to enforce HIPAA laws and seek attorneys’ fees and costs associated with pursuing federal civil actions.

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Federal and state consumer protection and unfair competition laws, which broadly regulate marketplace activities and activities that potentially harm consumers.

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The federal transparency requirements under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, created under the Affordable Care Act, which requires, among other things, certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologics and medical supplies reimbursed under Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program to report annually to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) information related to payments and other transfers of value provided to physicians (defined to include doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors), other health care professionals (such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners) and teaching hospitals, as well as information regarding ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members.

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State and foreign laws that are analogous to each of the above federal laws, such as anti-kickback and false claims laws, that may impose similar or more prohibitive restrictions, and may apply to items or services reimbursed by non-governmental third-party payors, including private insurers.

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State and foreign laws that require pharmaceutical companies to implement compliance programs, comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the government, or to track and report gifts, compensation and other remuneration provided to physicians and other healthcare professionals; state and foreign laws that require the reporting of marketing expenditures or drug pricing, including information pertaining to and justifying price increases; state and local laws that require the registration of pharmaceutical sales representatives; state and foreign laws that prohibit various marketing-related activities, such as the provision of certain kinds of gifts or meals; state and foreign laws that require the posting of information relating to clinical trials and their outcomes; and other federal, state and foreign laws that govern the privacy and security of health information or personal data in certain circumstances, including state health information privacy and data breach notification laws which govern the processing of health-related and other personal data, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not pre-empted by HIPAA, thus requiring additional compliance efforts.

If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these laws or any other current or future healthcare laws that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, imprisonment, exclusion from government funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, or comparable foreign programs, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, additional reporting obligations and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or other agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could substantially disrupt our operations. Although effective compliance programs can mitigate the risk of investigation and prosecution for violations of these laws, these risks cannot be entirely eliminated. Any action against us for an alleged or suspected violation could cause us to incur significant legal expenses and could divert our management’s attention from the operation of our business, even if our defense is successful. In addition, if any of the physicians or other healthcare professionals or entities with whom we expect to do business is found not to be in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to significant criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from government funded healthcare programs.

Legislative reform

We operate in a highly regulated industry, and new laws, regulations and judicial decisions, or new interpretations of existing laws, regulations and decisions, related to healthcare availability, the method of delivery and payment for healthcare products and services could negatively affect our business, financial condition and prospects. There is significant interest in promoting healthcare reforms, and it is likely that federal and state legislatures within the United States and the governments of other countries will continue to consider changes to existing healthcare legislation.

For example, the United States and state governments continue to propose and pass legislation designed to reduce the cost of healthcare. The Affordable Care Act, among other things, substantially changed the way healthcare is financed by both governmental and private insurers, and significantly affected the pharmaceutical industry.

There have been executive, judicial and congressional challenges and amendments to certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act. For example, on August 16, 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the IRA) was signed into law, which among other things, extends enhanced subsidies for individuals purchasing health insurance coverage in ACA marketplaces through plan year 2025. The IRA also eliminates the “donut hole” under the Medicare Part D program beginning in 2025 by significantly lowering the beneficiary maximum out-of-pocket cost and creating a new manufacturer discount program. It is possible that the Affordable Care Act will be subject to judicial or Congressional challenges in the future. It is unclear how such challenges and the healthcare reform measures of the current administration will impact the Affordable Care Act.

In addition, there have been and continue to be a number of initiatives at the United States federal and state levels that seek to reduce healthcare costs. In 2011, the U.S. Congress enacted the Budget Control Act, which included provisions intended to reduce the federal deficit. The Budget Control Act resulted in the imposition of 2% reductions in Medicare payments to providers beginning in 2013 and, due to subsequent legislative amendments to the statute, including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will remain in effect through 2032, absent additional congressional action. Additionally, on March 11, 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was signed into law, which eliminated the statutory Medicaid drug rebate cap, previously set at 100% of a drug’s average manufacturer price, for single source and innovator multiple source drugs, effective January 1, 2024. If government spending is further reduced, anticipated budgetary shortfalls may also impact the ability of relevant agencies, such as the FDA, to continue to function at current levels, which may impact the ability of relevant agencies to timely review and approve research and development, manufacturing and marketing activities, which may delay our ability to develop, market and sell any product candidates we may develop. In addition, any significant spending reductions affecting Medicare, Medicaid or other publicly funded or subsidized health programs that may be implemented, or any significant taxes or fees that may be imposed on us, as part of any broader deficit reduction effort or legislative replacement to the Budget Control Act, could have an adverse impact on our anticipated product revenues.

Furthermore, there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in several congressional inquiries and proposed legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to product pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient assistance programs and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drug products. For example, the IRA, among other things, (i) directs the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to negotiate the price of certain high-expenditure, single-source biologics covered under Medicare that have been on the market for at least 11 years, and subject drug manufacturers to civil monetary penalties and a potential excise tax by offering a price that is not equal to or less than the negotiated “maximum fair price” for such drugs and biologics under the law (the “Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program”), and (ii) imposes rebates with respect to certain drugs and biologics covered under Medicare Part B or Medicare Part D to penalize price increases that outpace inflation. The IRA permits HHS to implement many of these provisions through guidance, as opposed to regulation, for the initial years. These provisions began to take effect progressively in fiscal year 2023. On August 15, 2024, HHS announced the agreed-upon price of the first ten drugs that were subject to price negotiations, although the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program is currently subject to legal challenges. On January 17, 2025, HHS selected fifteen additional products covered under Part D for price negotiation in 2025. Each year thereafter more Part B and Part D products will become subject to the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. Further, on December 7, 2023, an initiative to control the price of prescription drugs through the use of march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act was announced. On December 8, 2023, the National Institute of Standards and Technology published for comment a Draft Interagency Guidance Framework for Considering the Exercise of March-In Rights which for the first time includes the price of a product as one factor an agency can use when deciding to exercise march-in rights. While march-in rights have not previously been exercised, it is uncertain if that will continue under the new framework. 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. In addition, regional healthcare authorities and individual hospitals are increasingly using bidding procedures to determine what pharmaceutical products and which suppliers will be included in their prescription drug and other healthcare programs. It is difficult to predict the future legislative landscape in healthcare and the effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. However, we expect that additional state and federal healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, particularly in light of the new presidential administration.

Environmental, health and safety laws and regulations

We and our third-party contractors are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures and the use, generation, manufacture, distribution, storage, handling, treatment, remediation and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. Hazardous chemicals, including flammable and biological materials, are involved in certain aspects of our business, and we cannot eliminate the risk of injury or contamination from the use, generation, manufacture, distribution, storage, handling, treatment or disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. In particular, our product candidates use PBDs, which are highly potent cytotoxins that require special handling by our and our contractors’ staff. In the event of contamination or injury, or failure to comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, fines and penalties associated with such liability could exceed our assets and resources. Environmental, health and safety laws and regulations are becoming increasingly more stringent. We may incur substantial costs in order to comply with current or future environmental, health and safety laws and regulations.

Pharmaceutical coverage, pricing and reimbursement

The availability and extent of coverage and adequate reimbursement by governmental and private third-party payors are essential for most patients to be able to afford expensive medical treatments. In both domestic and foreign markets, sales of our product candidates will depend substantially on the extent to which the costs of our product candidates will be covered by third- party payors, such as government health programs, commercial insurance and managed healthcare organizations. These third-party payors decide which products will be covered and establish reimbursement levels for those products.

Coverage and reimbursement by a third-party payor may depend upon a number of factors, including the third-party payor’s determination that use of a product is:

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a covered benefit under its health plan;

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safe, effective and medically necessary;

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appropriate for the specific patient;

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cost-effective; and

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neither experimental nor investigational.

Obtaining coverage approval and reimbursement for a product from a government or other third-party payor is a time-consuming and costly process that could require us to provide supporting scientific, clinical and cost-effectiveness data for the use of our products to the payor. We may not be able to provide data sufficient to gain acceptance with respect to coverage and reimbursement at a satisfactory level. If coverage and adequate reimbursement of our future products, if any, are unavailable or limited in scope or amount, such as may result where alternative or generic treatments are available, we may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability. Adverse coverage and reimbursement limitations may hinder our ability to recoup our investment in our product candidates, even if such product candidates obtain regulatory approval.

There is significant uncertainty related to the insurance coverage and reimbursement of newly approved products. There is no uniform policy for coverage and reimbursement in the United States and, as a result, coverage and reimbursement can differ significantly from payor to payor. In the United States, the principal decisions about reimbursement for new medicines are typically made by the CMS, which decides whether and to what extent a new medicine will be covered and reimbursed under Medicare. Private payors often, but not always, follow the CMS’s decisions regarding coverage and reimbursement. It is difficult to predict what third-party payors will decide with respect to coverage and reimbursement for fundamentally novel products such as ours, as there is no body of established practices and precedents for these new products. Further, one payor’s determination to provide coverage and adequate reimbursement for a product does not assure that other payors will also provide coverage and adequate reimbursement for that product. We may need to conduct expensive pharmaco-economic studies in order to demonstrate the medical necessity and cost-effectiveness of our product candidates. There can be no assurance that our product candidates will be considered medically necessary or cost-effective. Therefore, it is possible that any of our product candidates, even if approved, may not be covered by third-party payors or the reimbursement limit may be so restrictive that we cannot commercialize the product candidates profitably.

Reimbursement authorities in Europe may be more restrictive than payors in the United States. In Europe, pricing and reimbursement schemes vary widely from country to country. For example, some countries provide that products may be marketed only after an agreement on reimbursement price has been reached. Such pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after receipt of marketing approval for a product. Political, economic and regulatory developments may further complicate pricing negotiations, and pricing negotiations may continue after reimbursement has been obtained. In addition, the European Union provides options for its Member States to restrict the range of products for which their national health insurance systems provide reimbursement and to control the prices of medicinal products for human use. European Union Member States may approve a specific price for a product, may adopt a system of direct or indirect controls on the profitability of the company placing the product on the market. Other EU Member States allow companies to fix their own prices for product but monitor and control prescription volumes and issue guidance to physicians to limit prescriptions. In addition, some EU Member States may require the completion of additional studies that compare the cost-effectiveness of a particular medicinal product candidate to currently available therapies. This Health Technology Assessment (HTA) process is conducted to assess the public health impact, therapeutic impact, and the economic and societal impact of use of a given medicinal product in the national healthcare systems of individual countries. The outcome of HTA regarding specific medicinal products will often influence the pricing and reimbursement status granted to these medicinal products by the competent authorities of individual EU Member States. In December 2021, Regulation No. 2021/2282 on Health Technology Assessment, or HTA Regulation, was adopted. The HTA Regulation is intended to boost cooperation among EU Member States in assessing health technologies, including new medicinal products, and providing the basis for cooperation at EU level for joint clinical assessments in these areas. The HTA Regulation has applied from January 12, 2025 although it will enter into force iteratively and initially apply to new active substances to treat cancer and to all advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs), it will then be expanded to orphan medicinal products in January 2028, and to all centrally authorized medicinal products as of 2030. Selected high-risk medical devices will also be assessed under the HTA Regulation as of 2026.

Reference pricing used by various European Union Member States and parallel distribution, or arbitrage between low-priced and high-priced Member States, can further reduce prices. Furthermore, many Member States in the European Union have increased the amount of discounts required on pharmaceutical products, and these efforts could continue as countries attempt to manage healthcare expenditures, especially in light of the severe fiscal and debt crises experienced by many Member States in the European Union. The downward pressure on healthcare costs in general, and prescription products in particular, has become increasingly intense. As a result, there are increasingly higher barriers to entry for new products. There can be no assurance that any country that has reimbursement limitations for pharmaceutical products will allow favorable reimbursement and pricing arrangements for any of our products, if approved in those countries. Accordingly, the reimbursement for any products in Europe may be reduced compared with the United States and may be insufficient to generate commercially reasonable revenues and profits.

Furthermore, the containment of healthcare costs has become a priority of foreign and domestic governments as well as private third-party payors. The prices of drugs have been a focus in this effort. Governments and private third-party payors have attempted to control costs by limiting coverage and the amount of reimbursement for particular medications, which could affect our ability to sell our product candidates profitably. We also expect to experience pricing pressures due to the trend towards managed healthcare, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations and additional legislative changes. These and other cost-control initiatives could cause us to decrease the price we might establish for products, which could result in lower-than-anticipated product revenues. In addition, the publication of discounts by third-party payors or authorities may lead to further pressure on the prices or reimbursement levels within the country of publication and other countries. If pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels or if coverage and adequate reimbursement of our products is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, our revenues and the potential profitability of our product candidates in those countries would be negatively affected.

Employees and human capital resources

As of December 31, 2024, we had a total of 112 full-time employees. We employ physicians, professionals in research and development, clinical, regulatory, manufacturing, marketing, finance and legal and other functions that are important to our business. We are not a party to any collective bargaining agreements. We use temporary workers such as consultants and advisors in certain instances when we think it is in the best interests of our business.

Attracting, developing, and retaining highly qualified individuals are key to our success. To do so, we believe we offer competitive compensation packages—inclusive of base salary, bonus, and equity, and benefits. We also sought to establish a values-based culture centered around our core values of collaboration, accountability, and empathy for patients to enhance the working environment for our current employees and to attract our desired candidates.

Facilities

We occupy 40,232 square feet of office space as our corporate headquarters at 2000 Sierra Point Parkway in Brisbane, California, under lease though March 2029. We also lease 24,606 square feet of office and lab space at 170 Harbor Way in South San Francisco, California. This space is currently subleased through the remaining term of the lease, ending September 2025.

Company information

We were incorporated as a Delaware corporation in May 2016. Our principal executive offices are located at 2000 Sierra Point Parkway, Suite 1200, Brisbane, California 94005. Our corporate website address is www.veratx.com. We post links on our website to the following filings as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC): annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements, and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All such filings are available through our website free of charge. The SEC also maintains an internet site at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. Information contained on or accessible through our website is not a part of this Annual Report, and the inclusion of our website address in this report is an inactive textual reference only.

Legal proceedings

From time to time, we may become involved in legal proceedings or be subject to claims arising in the ordinary course of our business. We are not currently a party to any material legal proceedings. Regardless of outcome, such proceedings or claims can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of resources and other factors, and there can be no assurances that favorable outcomes will be obtained.