Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Commitments and Contingencies

v2.4.0.6
Commitments and Contingencies
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2013
Commitments and Contingencies [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies

7. Commitments and Contingencies

The University of Florida Research Foundation Licenses

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

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, March 17, 2003 and April 19, 2013. 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” and includes U.S. patent numbers 6,964,760; 7,067,125; 6,391,285; 6,475,771 and foreign patents. The Company’s license is for the period of the patents, which expire from 2017 through 2019, subject to the performance of terms and conditions contained therein.

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, March 17, 2003 and April 19, 2013. 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.

Additional Terms of UFRF License Agreements—In the amended license agreements for SMaRT Replacement Therapy and MU1140, 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 22% of all revenues received from the sublicenses, excluding monies received solely for development costs. The Company is also obligated to make the following payments to UFRF as follows: a one-time commercialization fee, post-commercialization minimum royalty payments, and a one-time cumulative royalty payment. The one-time commercialization fee would be due on the first anniversary of first commercial sale and is calculated at $5,000 per month between May 1, 2013 and the month of the first anniversary of a commercial sale. The post-commercialization minimum royalty payments of $50,000 annually would be due following payment of a commercialization fee. The one-time additional royalty payment would be due when total cumulative royalties paid to UFRF exceed $2.0 million, upon which we would be obligated to make a one-time additional payment to UFRF of 10% of the total royalties due to UFRF in the calendar year in which cumulative royalties exceeded $2.0 million.

The Company is required to make minimum annual maintenance payments to the UFRF for the term of the amended license agreements in the amount of $10,000 for each license agreement and $20,000 in aggregate. The aggregate minimum annual payments are required to be paid in advance on a quarterly basis (i.e. $5,000 per quarter) for both licenses. 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 (“ECC”) Agreement with Intrexon Corporation (“Intrexon”)

On June 5, 2012, the Company entered into ECC 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 ECC 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 ECC 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, exporting, manufacture, sale, and offer for sale of drug products involving the direct administration to humans or companion animals of a lantibiotic for the 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 ECC 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 ECC 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 ECC 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 ECC Agreement, except under limited circumstances, including in the event of a material breach by the other party and Intrexon may terminate the ECC Agreement under certain circumstances if the Company assigns its rights under the ECC Agreement without Intrexon’s consent. Following the first 12 months of the agreement, Intrexon may also terminate the ECC 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 ECC Agreement. Following the first 18 months of the agreement, the Company may voluntarily terminate the ECC Agreement at any time upon 90 days written notice to Intrexon.

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

 

   

commercialized by the Company;

 

   

approved by regulatory authorities;

 

   

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

 

   

the subject of at least an ongoing Phase 1, Phase 2 or Phase 3 clinical trial in the Field (in the case of a termination by Intrexon due to an uncured material breach by the Company or a voluntary termination by the Company).

The Company’s obligation to pay 25% of gross profits or revenue described above with respect to these “retained” products as well as to use diligent efforts to develop and commercialize these “retained” Oragenics Products will survive termination of the ECC Agreement.

In addition, in partial consideration for each party’s execution and delivery of the ECC 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 ECC Agreement and granted Intrexon certain equity participation rights and registration rights.

 

Under the Stock Issuance Agreement and as part of the ECC 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 issued). The milestone events and amounts payable are as follows:

 

  (i) upon filing of the first Investigational New Drug application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an Oragenics Product, that number of shares 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 with an Oragenics Product, that number of shares 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 with an Oragenics Product, that number of shares 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 Oragenics Product, or alternatively the filing of the first equivalent regulatory filing with a foreign regulatory agency, that number of shares 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 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 March 31, 2013.