Autolus Therapeutics plc
For the period ended Dec 31, 2023. Filed Mar 21, 2024.
View on SEC.govAbout this filing
A company's yearly report to the SEC, with audited financial statements. It is the fullest account a company gives of its business, its finances and the risks it sees.
FY2023 · Filed Mar 21, 2024
Extracted filing text, with the paragraph anchors used by the comparison.
See the whole filing, with its images and exhibitsContents
Item 8. Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Shareholders and the Board of Directors of Autolus Therapeutics plc
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Autolus Therapeutics plc (the Company) as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, and the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, shareholders’ equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023 and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Autolus Therapeutics plc at December 31, 2023 and 2022, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
Restatement of 2022 and 2021 Financial Statements
As discussed in Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements, the 2022 and 2021 consolidated financial statements have been restated to correct a misstatement.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audits we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.
Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Critical Audit Matter
The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective or complex judgments. The communication of the critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.
Liabilities related to future royalties and sales milestones
| Description of the matter | As explained in note 11 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company entered into a collaboration agreement with BXLS V- Autobahn L.P (“Blackstone”) in 2021 for the development of certain CAR T therapy products for which the Company received an upfront payment and subsequently certain milestone payments which was initially recognized as a liability. The Company remeasures the liability as the present value of future royalties and sales milestones payable, when significant assumptions associated with the underlying cash flows change. The liability is sensitive to forecasts of future royalties and sales milestones payable, which are based on management estimates which include the probability of success of the clinical trial and regulatory approval (‘POS’) and the estimated selling prices of products in different territories. Auditing the Company's measurement of the liability for future royalties and sales milestones, net is especially challenging because the calculation involves significant management judgement about future events, which are inherently uncertain. In particular, the measurement was sensitive to the Company’s estimates of the timing and likelihood of regulatory approvals and pricing of the products on which royalties will be paid. |
|---|
| How we addressed the matter | To test the liability related to future royalties and sales milestones, net and the related financial model our audit procedures included among others, meeting with management and its expert to understand the basis for changes in the POS and forecast selling prices. We also evaluated the reasonableness of the POS assumption, with the assistance of a specialist, by assessing analysts’ reports, industry standards and publicly available information for similar products. We evaluated the appropriateness of management’s selling price assumptions by comparing the pricing of the Company’s product with competitor pricing from publicly available information in different market segments. We evaluated the reasonableness of the underlying financial model by performing a roll-forward of the prior year valuation, performing certain sensitivity analysis on the significant assumptions and comparing it to the significant assumptions used by management. We also tested the clerical accuracy of the model. |
|---|
/s/Ernst & Young LLP
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2017.
Reading, United Kingdom
March 21, 2024
The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.