Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Commitments and Contingencies

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Commitments and Contingencies
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2012
Commitments and Contingencies [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies
4. Commitments and Contingencies

The University of Florida Research Foundation Licenses

The Company holds licenses from the University of Florida Research Foundation, Inc. (“UFRF”) for its SMaRT Replacement Therapy and MU1140 product candidates.

SMaRT Replacement Therapy - The Company has exclusively licensed the intellectual property for its replacement therapy technology from the UFRF. The original license agreement was dated August 4, 1998 and was subsequently amended on September 15, 2000, July 10, 2002, September 25, 2002 and March 17, 2003. The amended license agreement provides the Company with an exclusive worldwide license to make, use and sell products and processes covered by Patent No. 5,607,672, entitled “Replacement Therapy for Dental Caries”, which was filed in the U.S. PTO on June 7, 1995 and made effective on March 4, 1997. The patent will expire on June 7, 2015. The Company’s license is for the period of the patent, subject to the performance of terms and conditions contained therein. The patent covers the genetically altered strain of S. mutans which does not produce lactic acid, a pharmaceutical composition for administering the genetically altered strain and the method of preventing tooth decay by administering the strain. The Company issued 599,940 shares of our common stock to the UFRF as partial consideration for the initial license.

MU1140 – The Company has exclusively licensed the intellectual property for our MU1140 lantibiotic technology from the UFRF. The original license agreement was dated June 22, 2000 and was subsequently amended on September 15, 2000, July 10, 2002, September 25, 2002 and March 17, 2003. The amended license agreement provides the Company with an exclusive worldwide license to make, use and sell products and processes covered by Patent No. 5,932,469 entitled “Antimicrobial Polypeptide, Nucleic Acid and Methods of Use.” The Company’s license is for the period of the patent, subject to the performance of terms and conditions contained therein.

Additional Terms of UFRF License Agreements - In the amended license agreements for SMaRT Replacement Therapy and MU1140 the UFRF has reserved the right to use and sell products and services for research purposes only. The amended license agreements also provide the UFRF with a license, for research purposes only, to any improvements that we make to the products and processes covered by the patents.

The Company is obligated to pay 5% of the selling price of any products developed from the licensed technologies that the Company may sell as royalty to the UFRF. In addition, if the Company sublicenses any rights granted by the amended license agreements, the Company is obligated to pay the UFRF 20% of all revenues received from the sublicenses, excluding monies received solely for development costs.

The Company is also obligated to make minimum annual royalty payments to the UFRF for the term of the amended license agreement in the amount of $50,000 by the end of each year for each license agreement. The minimum royalty payments are required to be paid in advance on a quarterly basis. For the SMaRT Replacement Therapy and MU1140 minimum royalty payments, the Company must pay the UFRF an aggregate of $100,000 which is required to be paid in equal quarterly installments of $25,000.

Under the terms of the amended license agreements, in each calendar year and in addition to the royalty payment obligations, the Company is obligated to spend, or cause to be spent, an aggregate of $1,000,000 on the research, development, and regulatory prosecution of our SMaRT Replacement Therapy and MU1140 technologies combined, until a product which is covered wholly or partially by the claims of the patent, or is manufactured using a process which is covered wholly or partially by the claims of the patent, is sold commercially. If the Company fails to make these minimum research and development expenditures, the UFRF may terminate our license agreement.

The Company must also pay all patent costs and expenses incurred by the UFRF for the preparation, filing, prosecution, issuance and maintenance of the patents.

 

The Exclusive Channel Collaboration Agreement with Intrexon Corporation (“Intrexon”)

On June 5, 2012, the Company entered into an Exclusive Channel Collaboration Agreement (the “Channel Agreement”) with Intrexon that governs a “channel partnering” arrangement in which the Company will use Intrexon’s advanced transgene and cell engineering platforms for the development and production of lantibiotics, a class of peptide antibiotics that are naturally produced in Gram-positive bacteria and contain the characteristic polycyclic thioether amino acids lanthionine and methyllanthonine (collectively, the “Lantibiotics Program”). The Channel Agreement establishes committees comprised of Company and Intrexon representatives that will govern activities related to the Lantibiotics Program in the areas of project establishment, chemistry, manufacturing and controls matters, clinical and regulatory matters, commercialization efforts and intellectual property matters.

The Channel Agreement grants the Company an exclusive worldwide license to use patents and other intellectual property of Intrexon in connection with the research, development, use, importing, manufacture, sale, and offer for sale of drug products involving the direct administration to humans or companies of lantibiotics for the purpose of prevention or treatment of infectious disease (“Oragenics Products”). Such license is exclusive with respect to any clinical development, selling, offering for sale or other commercialization of Oragenics Products, and otherwise is non-exclusive. Subject to limited exceptions, the Company may not sublicense the rights described without Intrexon’s written consent.

Under the Channel Agreement, and subject to certain exceptions, the Company is responsible for, among other things, funding the further anticipated development of lantibiotics toward the goal of commercialization, conducting preclinical and clinical development of candidate lantibiotics, as well as for other aspects of manufacturing and the commercialization of the product(s). Among other things, Intrexon is responsible for technology discovery efforts, cell-engineering development, certain aspects of the manufacturing process, and costs of filing, prosecution and maintenance of Intrexon’s patents.

Subject to certain expense allocations and other offsets provided in the Channel Agreement, the Company will pay Intrexon on a quarterly basis 25% of gross quarterly profits derived in that quarter from the sale of products developed from the Channel Agreement, calculated on an Oragenics Product-by-Oragenics Product basis. The Company has likewise agreed to pay Intrexon on a quarterly basis 50% of revenue obtained in that quarter from a sublicensor in the event of a sublicensing arrangement.

During the first 18 months of the agreement, neither the Company nor Intrexon may terminate the Channel Agreement other than in the event of a material breach by the other party and Intrexon may terminate the Channel Agreement under certain circumstances if the Company assigns its rights under the Channel Agreement without Intrexon’s consent. Following the first 18 months of the agreement, Intrexon may also terminate the Channel Agreement if the Company fails to use diligent efforts to develop and commercialize Oragenics Products or if the Company elects not to pursue the development of a Lantibiotics Program identified by Intrexon that is a “Superior Therapy” as defined in the Channel Agreement. Following the first 18 months of the Agreement, the Company may voluntarily terminate the Channel Agreement at any time upon 90 days written notice to Intrexon.

Upon termination of the Channel Agreement, the Company may continue to develop and commercialize any Oragenics Product that, at the time of termination:

 

   

is being commercialized by the Company;

 

   

has received regulatory approval;

 

   

is a subject of an application for regulatory approval that is pending before the applicable regulatory authority; or

 

   

is the subject of at least an ongoing Phase I, Phase A, Phase II or Phase III clinical trial (in the case of a termination by Intrexon due to a Oragenics uncured breach or a voluntary termination by the Company), or an ongoing Phase I clinical trial in the Field (in the case of a termination by the Company due to an Intrexon uncured breach or a termination by Intrexon following an unconsented assignment by the Company or the Company’s election not to pursue development of a Superior Therapy).

 

The Company’s obligation to pay 25% of gross profits or revenue described above with respect to these “retained” products will survive termination of the Channel Agreement.

In addition, in partial consideration for each party’s execution and delivery of the Channel Agreement, the Company entered into a Stock Issuance Agreement with Intrexon. Pursuant to the Stock Issuance Agreement the Company issued to Intrexon 4,392,425 shares of the Company common stock as an initial technology access fee, in consideration for the execution and delivery of the Channel Agreement and granted Intrexon certain equity participation rights and registration rights. See Note 7 — Common Stock.

Under the Stock Issuance Agreement and as part of the Channel Agreement, the Company has also agreed to make certain payments to Intrexon upon the Company’s achievement of designated milestones in the form of shares of Company Common Stock or at the Company’s option make a cash payment to Intrexon (based upon the fair market value of the shares otherwise required to be issues). The milestone events and amounts payable are as follows:

(i) filing of the first Investigational New Drug application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that number of shares of common stock equal to the number of shares of Common Stock comprising 1.0% of the Base Shares ;

(ii) upon the dosing of the first patient in the first Phase 2 clinical study, that number of shares of common stock equal to the number of shares of Common Stock comprising 1.5% of the Base Shares;

(iii) upon the dosing of the first patient in the first Phase 3 clinical study, that number of shares of common stock equal to the number of shares of Common Stock comprising 2% of the Base Shares;

(iv) upon the filing of the first New Drug Application (“NDA”) or Biologics License Application (“BLA”) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an Company Product, or alternatively the filing of the first equivalent regulatory filing with a foreign regulatory agency, that number of shares of common stock equal to the number of shares of Common Stock comprising 2.5% of the Base Shares; and

(v) upon the granting of the first regulatory approval of an Oragenics Product, that number of shares of common stock (the equal to the number of shares of Common Stock comprising 3% of the Base Shares.

Base Shares is defined in the Stock Issuance Agreement to mean (i) the number of shares of Company common stock together with any securities or instruments convertible or exercisable for shares of common stock issued and outstanding at the time of the applicable milestone event, (ii) minus any shares issuable upon conversion of Capital Inducement Securities. Capital Inducement Securities is defined in the Stock Issuance Agreement to mean warrants or other convertible securities of the Company issued to investors in connection with a debt or equity investment in the Company that are issued in addition to the primary investment securities and in an amount not to exceed 10% of the overall number of shares issued in the investment (on an as-converted to common stock basis).

None of these milestones had been achieved as of September 30, 2012.