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Table of Contents

 

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, DC 20549

 

 

FORM 10-Q

 

 

(Mark One)

x QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the quarterly period ended June 30, 2014

Or

 

¨ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Commission file number: 001-35900

 

 

RECEPTOS, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

 

Delaware   26-4190792
(State or other jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization)
  (I.R.S. Employer
Identification No.)
10835 Road to the Cure, Suite 205, San Diego CA   92121
(Address of principal executive offices)   (Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (858) 652-5700

 

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  x    No  ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes  x    No  ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

 

Large accelerated filer   ¨    Accelerated filer   ¨
Non-accelerated filer   x  (Do not check if a smaller reporting company)    Smaller reporting company   ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).    Yes  ¨    No  x

The number of outstanding shares of the registrant’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share, as of July 31, 2014 was 27,278,662.

 

 

 


Table of Contents

RECEPTOS, INC.

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR QUARTERLY REPORT ON FORM 10-Q

For the Quarter ended June 30, 2014

 

     Page  

PART I — FINANCIAL INFORMATION

  

Item 1. Financial Statements (Unaudited)

     3   

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

     3   

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss

     4   

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

     5   

Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

     6   

Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

     16   

Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

     23   

Item 4. Controls and Procedures

     23   

PART II — OTHER INFORMATION

  

Item 1. Legal Proceedings

     24   

Item 1A. Risk Factors

     24   

Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

     54   

Item 3. Defaults Upon Senior Securities

     54   

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

     54   

Item 5. Other Information

     54   

Item 6. Exhibits

     54   

SIGNATURES

     55   

 

2


Table of Contents

PART I — FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1. Financial Statements

RECEPTOS, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

(In thousands, except per share data)

 

     June 30,
2014
    December 31,
2013
 
     (unaudited)     (Note 1)  

Assets

    

Current assets:

    

Cash and cash equivalents

   $ 238,974      $ 23,805   

Short-term investments

     94,399        45,685   

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

     2,556        914   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total current assets

     335,929        70,404   

Property and equipment, net

     12,341        269   

Other assets, net

     325        555   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total assets

   $ 348,595      $ 71,228   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Liabilities and stockholders’ equity

    

Current liabilities:

    

Accounts payable

   $ 3,997      $ 5,096   

Accrued expenses

     7,663        7,612   

Accrued compensation and benefits

     1,939        1,998   

Current portion of term loan

     1,618        735   

Deferred revenue

     2,200        700   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total current liabilities

     17,417        16,141   

Term loan, less current portion

     3,391        4,180   

Financing liability for leased facility

     12,000        —     

Deferred rent

     45        112   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total liabilities

     32,853        20,433   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Commitments and contingencies

     —          —     

Stockholders’ equity:

    

Preferred stock, $0.001 par value; 10,000 shares authorized; no shares issued or outstanding

     —          —     

Common stock, $0.001 par value; 200,000 shares authorized; 27,276 and 18,350 shares issued and outstanding at June 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively

     27        18   

Additional paid-in capital

     456,282        146,680   

Accumulated comprehensive income (loss)

     (4     6   

Accumulated deficit

     (140,563     (95,909
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total stockholders’ equity

     315,742        50,795   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity

   $ 348,595      $ 71,228   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

See accompanying notes to these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements

 

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Table of Contents

RECEPTOS, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss

(In thousands, except per share data)

(Unaudited)

 

     Three months ended June 30,     Six months ended June 30,  
           2014                 2013                 2014                 2013        

Collaborative revenue

   $ 1,100      $ 1,238      $ 2,450      $ 2,726   

Operating expenses:

        

Research and development

     20,408        9,441        40,415        17,461   

General and administrative

     3,763        1,589        6,522        2,651   
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total operating expenses

     24,171        11,030        46,937        20,112   
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Loss from operations

     (23,071     (9,792     (44,487     (17,386
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Other income (expense):

        

Interest income

     76        5        149        6   

Interest expense

     (159     (126     (316     (126

Other expense

     —          (5     —          (5
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net loss

     (23,154     (9,918     (44,654     (17,511

Preferred stock deemed dividend

     —          —          —          (2,056
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net loss attributable to common stockholders

   $ (23,154   $ (9,918   $ (44,654   $ (19,567
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net loss per share:

        

Net loss per common share, basic and diluted

   $ (1.04   $ (0.98   $ (2.06   $ (3.27
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Weighted-average shares used to compute net loss per common share, basic and diluted

     22,181        10,151        21,691        5,982   
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 
Comprehensive loss:         

Net loss

   $ (23,154   $ (9,918   $ (44,654   $ (17,511

Unrealized gain (loss) on marketable securities

     2        —          (11     —     
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Comprehensive loss

   $ (23,152   $ (9,918   $ (44,665   $ (17,511
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

See accompanying notes to these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements

 

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Table of Contents

RECEPTOS, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

(In thousands)

(Unaudited)

 

     Six Months Ended June 30,  
           2014                 2013        

Cash flows from operating activities

    

Net loss

   $ (44,654   $ (17,511

Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities:

    

Stock-based compensation expense

     4,622        529   

Depreciation and amortization

     141        176   

Deferred rent

     (67     (57

Other

     852        42   

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:

    

Prepaid expenses and other assets

     (1,681     (231

Accounts payable

     (1,099     70   

Accrued expenses

     85        2,596   

Accrued compensation and benefits

     (59     (69

Deferred revenue

     1,500        (839
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net cash used in operating activities

     (40,360     (15,294
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Cash flows from investing activities

    

Purchases of marketable securities

     (98,817     —     

Maturities and sales of marketable securities

     49,352        —     

Purchases of property and equipment

     (213     (4
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net cash used in investing activities

     (49,678     (4
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Cash flows from financing activities

    

Proceeds from issuance of common stock, net

     305,166        75,009   

Proceeds from exercise of common stock options and warrants

     45        26   

Proceeds from issuance of convertible preferred stock, net

     —          21,192   

Proceeds from borrowings under term loan

     —          4,790   

Repurchase of common stock

     (4     —     
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net cash provided by financing activities

     305,207        101,017   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Increase in cash and cash equivalents

     215,169        85,719   

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of the period

     23,805        5,427   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Cash and cash equivalents at end of the period

   $ 238,974      $ 91,146   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Supplemental cash flow information

    

Capitalized costs associated with leased building

   $ 12,000      $ —     
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Conversion of Series A and B Preferred Stock to common stock

   $ —        $ 63,064   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Cash paid for interest

   $ 209      $ 49   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Release of repurchase liability for restricted stock

   $ 34      $ 42   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Non-cash financing activity

    

Preferred stock deemed dividend

   $ —        $ 2,056   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

See accompanying notes to these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements

 

5


Table of Contents

RECEPTOS, INC.

Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

June 30, 2014

(Unaudited)

 

1. Organization and Basis of Presentation

Description of Business

Receptos, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing innovative therapeutics in immune disorders for specialty markets including for Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis (RMS), Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE). The Company was incorporated in the state of Delaware on September 26, 2008 under the name Receptor Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and commenced significant operations in 2009. As used in this report, unless the context suggests otherwise, “the Company” and “Receptos” mean Receptos, Inc.

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Receptos, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Apoptos, Inc. (Apoptos) and Receptos UK Ltd., which are both currently inactive. All intercompany balances and transactions among the consolidated entities have been eliminated in consolidation.

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (U.S. GAAP) and the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) related to interim reporting in a quarterly report on Form 10-Q. Certain information and note disclosures normally included in annual financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP have been condensed or omitted pursuant to those rules and regulations. The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements reflect all adjustments which, in the opinion of management, are necessary for a fair presentation of the results for the periods presented. All such adjustments are of a normal and recurring nature. The operating results presented in these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any future periods. These unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto for the year ended December 31, 2013 included in our Form 10-K.

Liquidity

The Company has incurred losses since inception and negative cash flows from operating activities and, as of June 30, 2014, the Company had an accumulated deficit of $140.6 million. The Company anticipates that it will continue to incur net losses into the foreseeable future as it: (i) continues the development and commercialization of its drug candidates; (ii) works to develop additional drug candidates through research and development programs; and (iii) expands its corporate infrastructure. The Company had cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $333.4 million as of June 30, 2014. Based on our current business plan, management believes that existing cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments will be sufficient to fund the Company’s obligations for at least the next twelve months. The Company plans to continue to fund its losses from operations and capital funding needs through cash and investments on hand, as well as future debt and equity financing and potential collaboration arrangements. If the Company is not able to secure adequate additional funding, it may be forced to make reductions in spending, extend payment terms with suppliers, liquidate assets where possible, and/or suspend or curtail planned programs. Any of these actions could materially harm the Company’s business, results of operations and future prospects.

 

2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Use of Estimates

The preparation of the Company’s condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make informed estimates and assumptions that impact the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in the Company’s condensed consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. The most significant estimates in the Company’s condensed consolidated financial statements relate to clinical trial accruals and revenue recognition. Although these estimates are based on the Company’s knowledge of current events and actions it may undertake in the future, actual results may ultimately materially differ from these estimates and assumptions.

 

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Table of Contents

Segment Reporting

Operating segments are identified as components of an enterprise about which separate discrete financial information is available for evaluation by the chief operating decision-maker in making decisions regarding resource allocation and assessing performance. The Company views its operations and manages its business in one operating segment operating primarily in the United States.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

The Company classifies time deposits and other investments that are highly liquid and have maturities of three months or less at the date of purchase as cash equivalents. The carrying amounts approximate fair value due to the short maturities of these instruments. Cash and cash equivalents include cash in readily available checking and money market accounts, as well as corporate debt securities.

Short-Term Investments

The Company carries short-term investments classified as available-for-sale at fair value as determined by prices for identical or similar securities at the balance sheet date. Short-term investments consist of both Level 1 and Level 2 financial instruments in the fair-value hierarchy outlined below. The Company records unrealized gains and losses as a component of other comprehensive loss within the statements of operations and comprehensive loss and as a separate component of stockholders’ equity. Realized gains or losses on available-for-sale securities are determined using the specific identification method and we include net realized gains and losses in interest income.

At each balance sheet date, the Company assesses available-for-sale securities in an unrealized loss position to determine whether the unrealized loss is other-than-temporary. The Company considers factors including: the significance of the decline in value compared to the cost basis, underlying factors contributing to a decline in the prices of securities in a single asset class, the length of time the market value of the security has been less than its cost basis, the security’s relative performance versus its peers, sector or asset class, expected market volatility and the market and economy in general. An impairment loss is recognized at the time the Company determines that a decline in the fair value below its cost basis is other-than-temporary.

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

The valuation of assets and liabilities are subject to fair value measurements using a three tiered approach and fair value measurement is classified and disclosed by the Company in one of the following three categories:

Level 1: Unadjusted quoted prices in active markets that are accessible at the measurement date for identical, unrestricted assets or liabilities;

Level 2: Quoted prices for similar assets and liabilities in active markets, quoted prices in markets that are not active, or inputs which are observable, either directly or indirectly, for substantially the full term of the asset or liability; or

Level 3: Prices or valuation techniques that require inputs that are both significant to the fair value measurement and unobservable (i.e., supported by little or no market activity).

The carrying amounts of all cash equivalents, accounts payable and accrued liabilities are reasonable estimates of their fair value because of the short-term nature of these items. The Company reports its available-for-sale securities at their estimated fair value based on quoted market prices for identical or similar instruments.

Concentrations of Credit Risk

Financial instruments that potentially subject the Company to significant concentrations of credit risk consist primarily of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. The Company maintains deposits in federally insured financial institutions in excess of federally insured limits. The Company has not experienced any losses in such accounts and believes it is not exposed to significant risk on its cash balances due to the financial position of the depository institutions in which those deposits are held. Additionally, the Company has established guidelines regarding approved investments and maturities of investments, which are designed to preserve principal and liquidity.

 

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Table of Contents

Property and Equipment

Property and equipment is carried at cost and depreciation is computed using the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the assets (generally three to seven years). The Company amortizes leasehold improvements over the lease term or the useful life of the improvement, whichever is shorter (including any renewal periods that are deemed to be reasonably assured). The Company expenses repair and maintenance costs that do not improve service potential or extend economic life as such costs are incurred.

Impairment of Long-Lived Assets

The Company reviews property and equipment for impairment on an annual basis and whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of such assets may not be recoverable. An impairment loss would be recognized when estimated future undiscounted cash flows relating to the asset are less than its carrying amount. An impairment loss is measured as the amount by which the carrying amount of an asset exceeds its fair value. While the Company’s current and historical operating losses and negative cash flows are possible indicators of impairment, management believes that the future cash flows to be generated by these assets support the carrying value of its long-lived assets and, accordingly, has not recognized any impairment losses through June 30, 2014.

Income Taxes

The accounting guidance for uncertainty in income taxes prescribes a recognition threshold and measurement attribute criteria for the financial statement recognition and measurement of tax positions taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. For those benefits to be recognized, a tax position must be more likely than not to be sustained upon examination by taxing authorities based on the technical merits of the position.

The Company uses the liability method of accounting for income taxes. Under this method, deferred tax assets and liabilities are determined based on the difference between the financial reporting and the tax reporting basis of assets and liabilities and are measured using the enacted tax rates and laws that are expected to be in effect when the differences are expected to reverse. The Company provides a valuation allowance against net deferred tax assets unless, based upon the available evidence, it is more likely than not that the deferred tax assets will be realized. When the Company establishes or reduces the valuation allowance against its deferred tax assets, its provision for income taxes will increase or decrease, respectively, in the period such determination is made.

Revenue Recognition

The Company enters into arrangements with pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners that may involve multiple deliverables. The Company’s arrangements may contain upfront payments, license fees for research and development arrangements, research and development funding and milestone payments under collaborative agreements. Each deliverable in the arrangement is evaluated to determine whether it meets the criteria to be accounted for as a separate unit of accounting or whether it should be combined with other deliverables. Revenue is recognized separately for each unit of accounting when all four of the following criteria are met: (i) persuasive evidence that an arrangement exists; (ii) delivery of the products and/or services has occurred; (iii) the selling price is fixed or determinable; and (iv) collectability is reasonably assured.

Upfront Fees. When management determines the Company has a single unit of accounting under its collaborative arrangements, upfront fees received for collaborative agreements are recognized ratably over the expected performance period under each respective arrangement. As a result, management makes its best estimate of the period over which the Company expects to fulfill its performance obligations under an arrangement. Any amounts received under the arrangement in advance of performance, if deemed substantive, are recorded as deferred revenue and recognized as revenue as the Company completes its performance obligations.

Milestones. The Company evaluates all milestones at the beginning of the agreement to determine if they meet the definition of a substantive milestone. Revenue is recognized from milestone payments when earned, provided that (i) the milestone event is substantive, in that it can only be achieved based in whole or in part on either the Company’s performance or on the occurrence of a specific outcome resulting from the Company’s performance, and its achievability was not reasonably assured at the inception of the agreement, (ii) the Company does not have ongoing performance obligations related to the achievement of the milestone, and (iii) it would result in the receipt of additional payments. A milestone payment is considered substantive if all of the following conditions are met: (i) the milestone payment is non-refundable; (ii) achievement of the milestone was not reasonably assured at the inception of the arrangement; (iii) substantive effort is involved to achieve the milestone; and (iv) the amount of the milestone payments appears reasonable in relation to the effort expended, the other milestones in the arrangement and the related risk associated with the achievement of the milestone.

 

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Table of Contents

Deferred Revenue. Amounts received prior to satisfying the above revenue recognition criteria are recorded as deferred revenue in the accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheets. Amounts not expected to be recognized within the next 12 months are classified as non-current deferred revenue.

Research and Development

Research and development (R&D) expenses include the costs associated with the Company’s R&D activities, including salaries, benefits and occupancy costs. Also included in R&D expenses are third-party costs incurred in conjunction with contract manufacturing for the Company’s R&D programs and clinical trials, including the cost of clinical trial drug supply shipped to the Company’s clinical study vendors, costs incurred by contract research organizations (CROs) and regulatory expenses. R&D costs are expensed as incurred, except when accounting for nonrefundable advance payments for goods or services to be used in future R&D activities. These payments are capitalized at the time of payment and expensed as the related goods are delivered or the services are performed.

Clinical Trial Costs and Accruals

The Company accounts for a significant portion of its clinical trial costs according to the terms of its contracts with CROs. The financial terms of its CRO contracts may result in payment flows that do not match the periods over which materials or services are provided to us under such contracts. The Company’s objective is to reflect the appropriate clinical trial expenses in its condensed consolidated financial statements by matching those expenses with the period in which services and efforts are expended. As part of the process of preparing its condensed consolidated financial statements, the Company relies on cost information provided by its CROs (concerning monthly expenses as well as reimbursement for pass through costs). The Company is also required to estimate certain of its expenses resulting from its obligations under its CRO contracts. Accordingly, the Company’s clinical trial accrual is dependent upon the timely and accurate reporting of CROs and other third-party vendors.

Stock-Based Compensation

The Company accounts for stock-based compensation expense related to stock options granted to employees and members of its board of directors by estimating the fair value of each stock option on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes options-pricing model, net of estimated forfeitures. For awards subject to time-based vesting conditions, stock-based compensation expense is recognized using the straight-line method. In accordance with the authoritative accounting literature, options subject to both performance and time-based vesting conditions are expensed using an accelerated multiple-option approach. Under the accelerated multiple-option approach (also known as the graded-vesting method), compensation expense is recognized over the requisite service period for each separately vesting tranche of the award as though the award was, in substance, multiple awards, resulting in accelerated expense recognition during the earlier vesting periods. The Company accounts for stock options granted to non-employees using the fair value approach. Stock options granted to non-employees are subject to periodic revaluation over their vesting terms.

For performance-based awards to employees (i) the fair value of the award is determined on the grant date, (ii) the Company assesses the probability of the individual milestones under the award being achieved and (iii) the fair value of the shares subject to the milestone is expensed over the implicit service period commencing once management believes achieving the performance criteria is probable. For performance-based awards to non-employees, no expense is recognized until such time as the milestone event is achieved. Upon achievement, the portion of the milestone subject to immediate vesting is expensed based upon the then fair value of the award. For the portion of the award further subject to time-based vesting restrictions, expense is recorded quarterly, at the then fair value, as the shares vest until such time as performance is complete.

Comprehensive Loss

Comprehensive loss is defined as the change in equity during a period from transactions and other events and/or circumstances from non-owner sources.

Net Loss per Share

Basic net loss per share is calculated by dividing the net loss by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding for the period, without consideration of common stock equivalents. Diluted net loss per share is calculated by dividing the net loss by the weighted-average number of common shares and dilutive common stock equivalents outstanding for the period determined using the treasury-stock method. The calculation of the net loss per share for all periods presented includes the impact of the conversion of 72.3 million shares of convertible preferred stock into 9.6 million shares of common stock on May 14, 2013 in connection with the Company’s initial public offering. The calculation of the weighted-average number of shares outstanding excludes shares which have been issued upon the early exercise of stock options and are subject to future vesting and unvested restricted stock. Such shares totaled 0.3 million and 0.7 million shares as of June 30, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

 

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Basic and diluted net loss per share are equivalent because the Company has incurred a net loss in all periods presented causing any potentially dilutive securities, consisting of common stock options, to be anti-dilutive. The calculation of net loss per share excludes potentially dilutive common stock options totaling 2.0 million and 0.5 million shares as of June 30, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In May 2014, the FASB issued accounting guidance on the recognition of revenue from customers and supersedes most current revenue recognition guidance, including industry-specific guidance. The guidance provides that an entity recognize revenue when it transfers promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. This guidance also requires additional disclosure about the nature, amount, timing and uncertainty of revenue and cash flows arising from customer contracts, including significant judgments and changes in judgments, and assets recognized from costs incurred to obtain or fulfill a contract. The guidance allows for either full retrospective or modified retrospective adoption and will become effective for the Company in the first quarter of 2017. The Company is evaluating the alternative transition methods and the potential effects of the adoption of this update on its financial statements.

 

3. Short-Term Investments

The Company invests in available-for-sale securities, consisting of money market funds, commercial paper and debt instruments of financial institutions and corporations. Available-for-sale securities are classified as part of either cash equivalents or short-term investments in the condensed consolidated balance sheets.

Available-for-sale securities with maturities of three months or less from date of purchase have been classified as cash equivalents, and amounted to $206.1 and $19.1 million as of June 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively.

The carrying value of available-for-sale securities classified as short-term investments consisted of the following (in thousands):

 

     As of June 30, 2014  
     Amortized
Cost
     Unrealized
Gains
     Unrealized
Losses
    Fair Market
Value
 

Commercial paper

   $ 28,636       $ 12       $ —       $ 28,648   

Corporate debt securities

     65,767         2         (18     65,751   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total

   $ 94,403       $ 14       $ (18   $ 94,399   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

     As of December 31, 2013  
     Amortized
Cost
     Unrealized
Gains
     Unrealized
Losses
    Fair Market
Value
 

Commercial paper

   $ 18,927       $ 17       $ —       $ 18,944   

Corporate debt securities

     26,752         —          (11     26,741   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total

   $ 45,679       $ 17       $ (11   $ 45,685   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

 

At June 30, 2014, the Company did not have any securities in material unrealized loss positions. The Company determined that there were no other-than-temporary declines in the value of any available-for-sale investment securities held as of June 30, 2014. All of the Company’s available-for-sale investment securities held at June 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013 had maturity dates of less than one year.

 

4. Fair Value Measurements

Available-for-sale investment securities are classified within the fair-value hierarchy as defined by authoritative guidance. The Company has not transferred any investment securities between the classifications.

The fair value of the Company’s investment holdings is summarized in the following tables (in thousands):

 

     As of June 30, 2014  
     Total Fair
Value
     Fair Value Determined Under  
        (Level 1)      (Level 2)      (Level 3)  

Money market funds

   $ 206,077       $ 206,077       $ —        $ —    

Commercial paper

     28,648         —          28,648         —    

Corporate debt securities

     65,751         —          65,751         —    
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total

   $ 300,476       $ 206,077       $ 94,399         —    
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

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     As of December 31, 2013  
     Total Fair
Value
     Fair Value Determined Under  
        (Level 1)      (Level 2)      (Level 3)  

Money market funds

   $ 8,147       $ 8,147       $ —        $ —    

Commercial paper

     18,944         —          18,944         —    

Corporate debt securities

     37,649         —          37,649         —    
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total

   $ 64,740       $ 8,147       $ 56,593         —    
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

The majority of the Company’s securities have been classified as Level 2. The Company obtains the fair value of its Level 2 investments from the custodian bank or from a professional pricing service.

 

5. Balance Sheet Details

Prepaid Expenses and Other Current Assets

The following table summarizes major classes of prepaid expenses and other current assets (in thousands):

 

     June 30,
2014
     December 31,
2013
 

Prepaid insurance

   $ 562       $ 321   

Prepaid research and development services

     689         —     

Prepaid contract costs

     357         —     

Interest receivable

     481         277   

Other prepaid costs

     467         316   
  

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total prepaid expenses and other current assets

   $ 2,556       $ 914   
  

 

 

    

 

 

 

Property and Equipment

The following table summarizes major classes of property and equipment (in thousands):

 

     Useful 
life
     June 30,
2014
    December 31,
2013
 

Laboratory equipment

     3 years       $ 3,048      $ 2,860   

Computer equipment and software

     3 years         135        150   

Leasehold improvements

     7 years         879        854   

Construction in process (see note 8)

        12,000        —     
     

 

 

   

 

 

 

Subtotal

        16,062        3,864   

Less accumulated depreciation and amortization

        (3,721     (3,595
     

 

 

   

 

 

 

Property and equipment, net

      $ 12,341      $ 269   
     

 

 

   

 

 

 

Accrued Expenses

The following table summarizes major classes of accrued expenses (in thousands):

 

     June 30,
2014
     December 31,
2013
 

Accrued research and development services

   $ 3,910       $ 3,197   

Accrued royalty payable

     —           550   

Other accrued liabilities

     3,753         3,865   
  

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total accrued expenses

   $ 7,663       $ 7,612   
  

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

6. Collaborative Arrangements

The Company has entered into various license agreements and collaborative research and development arrangements with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Under these arrangements, the Company is entitled to receive license fees, upfront payments, milestone payments (when and if certain research or technology transfer milestones are achieved), development milestones (in one instance based solely upon the Company’s partner’s performance) and/or reimbursement for research and development activities. The Company’s costs of performing these services are included in research and development expense.

 

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Collaboration with Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. In December 2011, the Company entered into a co-exclusive Collaboration Agreement with Ono to utilize the Company’s proprietary GPCR structure determination technologies for the identification of a high resolution novel protein crystal structure of an Ono proprietary GPCR drug discovery target. In December 2011, Ono paid the Company an upfront fee of $2.5 million as consideration for technology access. The Company determined there was one unit of accounting under the Collaboration Agreement. As such, the upfront fee is being recognized as collaborative revenue on a straight-line basis over the expected period of performance of the arrangement.

The Collaboration Agreement also provided for payments to the Company upon achievement of certain milestone events. The Company concluded that certain of these milestone payments did not meet the definition of a substantive milestone, inasmuch as achievability was reasonably assured at the inception of the Collaboration Agreement. Such milestone payments were deferred and are being amortized over the estimated period of performance of the arrangement.

In December 2013, the Collaboration Agreement was amended to allow for the early termination of the research term and the Company agreed to perform technology transfer and training with respect to, and to grant Ono a non-exclusive sublicense to, the Company’s GPCR technology platform for high-resolution crystal structure determination. Pursuant to the Amendment, the Company received upfront license and collaborative research termination fees totaling $3.7 million in the first quarter of 2014 and is eligible to receive technology transfer milestone payments of up to an additional $2.0 million (upon satisfaction of certain predetermined criteria). The Company determined there was one unit of accounting under the Amendment. As such, the upfront fees of $3.7 million, along with the remaining deferred revenue of $0.7 million from the Collaboration Agreement are being amortized over the revised expected period of performance of 12 months. The Company determined the technology transfer milestone payments did not satisfy the criteria for treatment as substantive milestones.

Revenue under the Collaboration Agreement with Ono for the three and six months ended June 30, 2014 was $1.1 million and $2.5 million, respectively, and for the three and six months ended June 30, 2013 was $1.2 million and $2.7 million, respectively.

Under the Amendment, the Company remains eligible for research milestone payments of up to another $1.8 million based on successful completion of certain research activities and for development milestone payments of up to $13.5 million for the achievement of development milestones based solely upon Ono’s performance.

 

7. Term Loan and Security Agreement

On April 19, 2013, the Company entered into a credit and security agreement with MidCap Funding III, LLC. The Company borrowed $5.0 million under this facility during 2013, and the Company is able to borrow up to an additional $10.0 million under the facility through December 31, 2014. The interest rate under the credit and security agreement is 8.25%, and there is an interest-only repayment period until August 1, 2014, followed by a 34-month principal and interest repayment period. Any unpaid amounts mature and become payable on May 1, 2017. Pursuant to the credit and security agreement, the Company provided a first-priority security interest in all existing and after-acquired assets (excluding intellectual property owned by the Company, which is subject to a negative pledge arrangement).

The loan was recorded at its initial carrying value of $5.0 million, less the debt discount of $0.2 million. The debt discount included an initial fee and certain reimbursed transaction costs paid to the lender. At the time of final payment of the loan, the Company must also pay to the lender an exit fee based on a percentage of the drawn amount (as of June 30, 2014, the exit fee obligation is $350,000). In addition, if the Company’s repayment obligation is accelerated following an event of default, or if the Company elects to prepay any portion of the loan, the Company must also pay to the lender a prepayment fee of 3% of the principal being repaid (dropping to 2% after August 18, 2014 and then to 1% after December 18, 2015). The debt discount and the exit fee are being accreted to interest expense over the loan term.

Future principal payments due under the loan agreement are as follows (in thousands):

 

Year ended December 31, 2014 (six months remaining)

   $ 735   

Year ended December 31, 2015

     1,765   

Year ended December 31, 2016

     1,765   

Year ended December 31, 2017

     735   
  

 

 

 

Total future principal payments due under loan agreement

   $ 5,000   
  

 

 

 

 

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8. Financing Liability for Leased Facility

On April 22, 2014, the Company entered into an agreement for the lease of 42,047 square feet of laboratory and office space on a build-to-suit basis for its new headquarters location in San Diego, California. The building that houses the leased space is currently undergoing a significant structural renovation which is expected to be completed by December 31, 2014. Based on the terms of the lease agreement and applicable accounting rules, the Company was determined to bear substantially all of the construction-related risks during the construction period and was deemed the owner of the building for accounting purposes during the construction period. As a result, the Company recorded the estimated fair value of the facility at June 30, 2014 as a fixed asset (construction in process) and a corresponding liability in non-current liabilities as a long-term financing obligation . Upon completion of construction, the Company will occupy the building and will finalize an assessment of the sale-leaseback criteria to determine whether it will de-recognize the building asset and liability.

The lease commencement date is the earlier to occur of: (i) the date that tenant improvements to the leased space are substantially completed; or (ii) December 31, 2014. The rent commencement date is nine months after the lease commencement date, with base monthly rent payments in the initial amount of approximately $137,000, subject to annual increases of 3%. The total estimated base rent payments over the initial 10-year lease term are expected to total $17.6 million. In addition to the base rent payment, the Company will be obligated to pay certain customary amounts for its share of operating expenses and tax obligations. The lease can be terminated by the Company after five years, subject to payment of a lease termination fee as well as certain other costs. The Company has the option to extend the term of this lease for an additional five-year period with a base rent equal to the then market rate.

The Company will incur costs to build out the leased space to its specifications, subject to a tenant improvement (“TI”) allowance from the landlord. The TI allowance is incorporated into the base rent to be paid by the Company. The lease agreement also allows for an additional TI allowance of up to $0.9 million, to be used at the election of the Company and to be repaid with interest at 8%. The Company expects to occupy this space by December 31, 2014.

 

9. Commitments and Contingencies

License Agreements

The Company has license agreements with The Scripps Research Institute, or TSRI, that require it to make annual license maintenance payments and future payments upon the success of licensed products that include milestones and/or royalties. The Company’s agreements with TSRI include the following:

S1P1R Modulators License Agreement. In April 2009, the Company entered into a License Agreement with TSRI, whereby the Company received an exclusive worldwide license under the Licensed Patent Rights (as defined in the license agreement) for S1P1R modulators and a non-exclusive worldwide license to the Licensed Materials (as defined in the license agreement). In consideration, the Company (i) agreed to pay a nominal annual maintenance fee, (ii) is responsible for paying royalties on annual net Sales of Licensed Product ranging between 1.5% and 2.0%, for Licensed Product until such time as the expiration of the last valid claim, (iii) is responsible for paying royalties ranging between 0.75% and 1.0%, on annual net Sales of Non-Patent Product until such time as one or more generic versions of such Non-Patent Product are commercially sold and the Company demonstrates to TSRI that sales of such generic products account for a specific percentage of aggregate unit sales in a calendar quarter, (iv) is responsible for paying product development milestone payments not to exceed $4.4 million, and (v) is responsible for paying a percentage of any sublicense revenue payments received by the Company.

Technology Platform License Agreement. In June 2009, the Company entered into a Technology Platform License Agreement with TSRI whereby the Company received an exclusive worldwide license under the Licensed Patent Rights, as defined, and a non-exclusive worldwide license under the Know-How (as defined in the Technology Platform License Agreement). In consideration, the Company (i) agreed to pay a nominal annual maintenance fee beginning after June 18, 2011, which is credited against running royalties during the term of the agreement, (ii) agreed to pay running royalties at a de minimus rate of annual Net Sales of Company Products until June 18, 2019, (iii) agreed to pay product development milestone payments not to exceed approximately $1.0 million and (iv) is required to make non-creditable, non-refundable Aggregate Technology Income (ATI) (as defined in the Technology Platform License Agreement) payments of 7.5% of the first $100 million of cumulative ATI, except that no ATI payments is due on the first $2.5 million in cumulative ATI and a reduced percentage of that portion of cumulative ATI that is in excess of $100 million. All product development milestone and ATI payments are payable up to June 18, 2027.

 

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Royalty consideration paid to TSRI under these agreements totaled $19,000 and $0.6 million for the three and six months ended June 30, 2014, respectively, $0 and $0.2 million for each of the comparable prior year periods.

Operating Lease

In addition to the lease described in note 8, the Company currently occupies laboratory and office space as its headquarters in San Diego, California under a lease which commenced in March 2008 and expires in January 2015. Under the terms of this lease the Company maintains a letter of credit totaling $0.1 million. The Company recognizes minimum rent payments and escalation clauses on a straight-line basis over the lease term. The Company accounts for the difference between the minimum lease payments and the straight-line amount as deferred rent. The Company also pays property taxes, maintenance and insurance, in addition to rent.

Litigation

From time to time, the Company may be involved in various lawsuits, legal proceedings, or claims that arise in the ordinary course of business. Management does not believe any legal proceedings or claims pending at June 30, 2014, will have, individually or in the aggregate, a material adverse effect on its business, liquidity, financial position or results of operations. Litigation, however, is subject to inherent uncertainties, and an adverse result in these or other matters may arise from time to time that may harm the Company’s business.

 

10. Stockholders’ Equity

Preferred Stock

In May 2013, the Company filed an amended and restated certificate of incorporation to authorize 10,000,000 shares of undesignated preferred stock, none of which is outstanding.

Common Stock

Reverse Stock Split. On April 25, 2013, the Company implemented a 1-for-7.5 reverse stock split of its outstanding common stock. The accompanying consolidated financial statements give retroactive effect to the reverse split for all periods presented.

Restricted Common Stock. The Company’s 2008 Stock Plan allowed for the early exercise of options issued under the plan. As of June 30, 2014, 208,000 shares associated with these early exercised option grants were subject to repurchase by the Company. Under the authoritative guidance, early exercise is not considered an exercise for accounting purposes and, therefore, any payment for unvested shares is recognized as a liability at the original exercise price. This repurchase obligation is included in accrued expenses. During the six months ended June 30, 2014, the Company repurchased 13,870 unvested shares of common stock from terminated employees associated with early exercised option grants. The Company did not make any such repurchases during the comparable period of 2013.

Prior to 2013, the Company issued restricted common stock to certain founders and officers of the Company. As of June 30, 2014, 100,000 shares associated with these restricted stock awards were subject to repurchase by the Company.

Sales of Common Stock. During June 2014, the Company completed an underwritten public offering of 5,097,950 shares of its common stock at an offering price of $40.25 per share. The Company received net proceeds of approximately $195.0 million, after deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and offering-related expenses of $10.1 million.

During January 2014, the Company completed an underwritten public offering of 3,818,000 shares of its common stock at an offering price of $30.75 per share. The Company received net proceeds of approximately $109.9 million, after deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and offering-related expenses of $7.5 million.

 

11. Stock Options and Stock-Based Compensation

The Company’s 2013 Stock Incentive Plan provides for the granting of stock options, restricted stock, stock appreciation rights, stock unit and cash-based awards to employees, non-employee directors and consultants. The Company issues both performance-based and time-based stock options and restricted stock awards. Performance-based awards generally vest 25% upon achievement of a milestone event, with monthly time-based vesting over the subsequent 36 months, while time-based awards generally vest over a four-year period commencing on the first anniversary of the date of grant with monthly vesting thereafter. Milestone events are specific to corporate goals. Awards generally expire ten years from the date of grant.

 

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The following table summarizes stock option activity for the six months ended June 30, 2014 (share amounts in thousands):

 

     # Shares     Weighted
Average
Exercise
Price
per Share
 

Outstanding at December 31, 2013

     1,398      $ 14.78   

Granted

     638        39.93   

Exercised

     (24     1.76   

Forfeited

     (36     16.18   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Outstanding at June 30, 2014

     1,976      $ 23.04   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

The Company granted an aggregate of 7,445 restricted stock units to certain employees during the six months ended June 30, 2014. These awards are subject to both performance-based and time-based vesting conditions. The expense associated with these awards is being recognized over the anticipated service period.

The Company uses the Black-Scholes option pricing model to estimate the grant date fair value of its stock options. The following table summarizes stock-based compensation expense for all equity awards granted (in thousands):

 

     Three months ended
June 30,
     Six months ended
June 30,
 
       2014          2013          2014          2013    

Included in research and development expense

   $ 1,330       $ 231       $ 2,367       $ 291   

Included in general and administrative expense

     1,447         189         2,255         238   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total stock-based compensation expense

   $ 2,777       $ 420       $ 4,622       $ 529   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

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Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The interim unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and this Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes thereto for the year ended December 31, 2013 and the related Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, both of which are contained in our Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As used in this report, unless the context suggests otherwise, “the Company” and “Receptos” mean Receptos, Inc.

Information Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This quarterly report on Form 10-Q contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this quarterly report, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, strategy and plans, and our expectations for future operations, are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “design,” “intend,” “expect” or the negative version of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, strategy, short-term and long-term business operations and objectives, and financial needs. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in “Risk Factors.” In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements in this quarterly report and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about:

 

    the initiation, cost, timing, progress and results of our research and development activities, including preclinical and clinical studies;

 

    our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of RPC1063, RPC4046 and any of our other future product candidates, and any related restrictions, limitations, and/or warnings in the label of an approved product candidate;

 

    our ability to obtain funding for our operations;

 

    our plans to research, develop and commercialize our product candidates;

 

    our ability to enter into collaboration agreements to pursue the development, regulatory approval and commercialization of our product candidates;

 

    our collaboration partners’ election to pursue development and commercialization;

 

    our ability, and the ability of our in-licensors, to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our product candidates;

 

    the size and growth potential of the markets for our product candidates, and our ability to enter and serve those markets;

 

    our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates, if approved;

 

    the rate and degree of market acceptance of our product candidates, if approved;

 

    our ability to develop sales and marketing capabilities, whether alone or with potential collaborators, to commercialize our product candidates, if approved;

 

    regulatory developments in the US and foreign countries;

 

    the performance of third parties in connection with the development of our product candidates, including third parties conducting our clinical trials as well as third-party suppliers and manufacturers;

 

    the development, regulatory approval and commercial success of competing therapies;

 

    our ability to retain key scientific or management personnel;

 

    our expectations regarding our loss of status as an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act;

 

    our use of our available cash; and

 

    the accuracy of our estimates regarding expenses, future revenues, capital requirements and need for additional financing.

Although we believe that the expectations and assumptions reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this quarterly report speaks only as of the date on which it is made. We disclaim any duty to update any of these forward-looking statements after the date of this quarterly report to conform these statements to actual results or revised expectations.

Overview

We are a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing innovative therapeutics in immune disorders. Our product candidates span three distinct specialty disease areas. We are developing our lead asset, RPC1063, as

 

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an oral therapy for the treatment of Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis (RMS) and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), which consists of Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Crohn’s Disease (CD). We are developing our second asset, RPC4046, for the treatment of an allergic/immune-mediated disorder, Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE), which is an Orphan Disease. Our strategy is to develop best-in-class (by mechanism of action) drug candidates and selectively pursue first-in-class (based on projected timing of approval) market positions.

Since our inception, we have focused our attention on, and devoted substantial resources to, developing RPC1063 and RPC4046. We are focusing on two indications for RPC1063, one of which is currently the subject of the Phase 3 portion of a Phase 2/3 study and the second of which is currently the subject of a randomized Phase 2 study. We have an open IND with respect to RPC4046 and plan to initiate a randomized Phase 2 study. In addition, we have a research program developing oral, small molecule, positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) of the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) for the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes.

We have entered into various collaboration arrangements and a license arrangement related to our G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) structure-based drug design technology platform. Under these agreements we have received upfront payments, license fees, research and development funding and research and/or development milestones. We have not generated any revenue from product sales. Through June 30, 2014, we have funded our operations primarily through the sale of our stock and through the receipt of upfront payments, research funding and preclinical milestones from our collaboration arrangements.

We have incurred significant operating losses since our inception in 2008 and, as of June 30, 2014, we had an accumulated deficit of $140.6 million. Substantially all of our operating losses resulted from expenses incurred in connection with our drug candidate development programs, our research activities and general and administrative costs associated with our operations. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and increasing operating losses for at least the next several years. In the near term, we anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially as we:

 

    advance the current Phase 3 portion of our Phase 2/3 study of RPC1063 in RMS;

 

    advance our current Phase 2 study of RPC1063 in UC;

 

    prepare for and initiate a Phase 2 study of RPC4046 in EoE;

 

    advance our GLP-1R PAM program through preclinical development;

 

    continue research efforts;

 

    maintain, expand and protect our intellectual property portfolio; and

 

    hire additional staff, including clinical, scientific, operational, financial and management personnel.

To fund future operations we will likely need to raise additional capital. Our existing cash and cash equivalents and our access to funds through the credit and security agreement we entered into with MidCap Funding III, LLC (MidCap) in April 2013, will not be sufficient for us to commercialize any product candidate which may receive approval. Accordingly, we will continue to require substantial additional capital for our clinical development and potential commercialization activities. The amount and timing of our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including the pace and results of our clinical development efforts. We anticipate that we will seek to fund our operations through public or private equity or debt financings or other sources, such as potential collaboration arrangements. Our failure to raise capital as and when needed would have a negative impact on our financial condition and our ability to pursue our business strategies.

Financial Operations Overview

Revenues

Our revenues to date have been generated from payments under various collaborative research and development arrangements and a license agreement with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Under our arrangements, we are entitled to receive upfront payments, license fees, research and development funding and research, development and technology transfer milestone payments when and if certain related milestones are achieved. Certain milestone payments are based solely upon our counterparty’s performance.

In the future, we may generate revenue from a combination of product sales as well as upfront payments, license fees, research and development funding, milestone payments and royalties pursuant to collaborative agreements. We expect that any revenue we generate will fluctuate from quarter-to-quarter as a result of the timing and amount of any upfront payments, license fees, research and development funding, milestone and other payments we may receive pursuant to any collaborative agreements, and the payments we may receive upon the sale of our product candidates, to the extent that any are approved and successfully commercialized.

 

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Research and development expenses

Research and development (R&D) expenses primarily consist of costs associated with our research activities, including our drug discovery efforts, and the preclinical and clinical development of our product candidates. Our R&D expenses include:

 

    external R&D expenses incurred under arrangements with third parties, such as contract research organizations (CROs), consultants and our scientific advisory board;

 

    employee-related expenses, including salaries, benefits, travel and stock-based compensation expense;

 

    license and royalty fees; and

 

    facilities, depreciation and other allocated expenses, which include direct and allocated expenses for rent and maintenance of facilities, depreciation of leasehold improvements and equipment, and laboratory and other supplies.

We expense R&D costs as incurred. We account for nonrefundable advance payments for goods and services that will be used in future R&D activities as expenses when the service has been performed or when the goods have been received. We do not track our employee and facility related R&D costs by project, as we typically use our employee and infrastructure resources across multiple R&D programs as well as to provide support for our collaborative agreements with third parties. We believe that the allocation of such costs would be arbitrary and would not be meaningful.

To date, we have conducted research on two classes of GPCR-targeted therapeutics, sphingosine 1-phosphate 1 receptor (S1P1R) modulators and glucagon-like-peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) positive allosteric modulators (PAMs), including through the utilization of our GPCR technology platform, with the goal of identifying product candidate characteristics that may lead to best-in-class profiles. Our development is focused on two indications for our lead asset RPC1063, one of which is currently the subject of the Phase 3 portion of a Phase 2/3 study and the second of which is currently the subject of a randomized Phase 2 study. In the near future, we anticipate the majority of our financial resources will continue to be dedicated to development of RPC1063. We also intend to initiate clinical development for an in-licensed asset, RPC4046, and advance our GLP-1R PAM program through preclinical development. We expect our R&D expenses to increase for the foreseeable future as we advance our clinical development programs.

During the first quarter of 2011, we began tracking external development costs once our lead product candidate development program entered the clinical stage. Such costs were not significant prior to that time. From the beginning of 2011 through June 30, 2014, costs associated with developing RPC1063 have been our largest research-related expenditure, representing 64.8% of our total R&D expenses. Such costs totaled $27.2 million, or 67.3% of R&D expenses, for the six months ended June 30, 2014. We have contracted with a CRO to manage our clinical trials under an agreed upon budget for each study, with oversight by our clinical program managers. Any deviations from the budgets must be approved by us in writing, prior to commencement of the work. Our internal R&D costs are controlled through our internal budget and forecast process and subject to quarterly review and analysis of budget versus actual expenditures.

The process of conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials necessary to obtain regulatory approval is costly and time consuming. The costs of clinical trials may vary significantly over the life of a project owing to, but not limited to, the following:

 

    per patient trial costs;

 

    the number of sites included in the trials;

 

    the countries in which the trials are conducted;

 

    the length of time required to enroll eligible patients;

 

    the number of patients that participate in the trials;

 

    the number of doses that patients receive;

 

    the cost of comparative agents used in trials;

 

    the drop-out or discontinuation rates of patients;

 

    potential additional safety monitoring or other studies requested by regulatory agencies;

 

    the duration of patient follow-up; and

 

    the efficacy and safety profile of the product candidate.

Under our agreement with Ono, we are responsible for assisting Ono with technology transfer regarding our GPCR technology platform, but Ono is fully responsible for advancing any development candidate. We are responsible for all of the R&D costs for the RPC1063 and GLP-1R PAM programs, unless and to the extent that we partner these programs in the future. We are responsible for the Phase 2 development costs for RPC4046 in EoE and, depending upon whether AbbVie Bahamas Ltd. and AbbVie Inc., which we refer to together as AbbVie (formerly a part of Abbott Laboratories), elects to exercise its option to collaborate with us following the availability of Phase 2 results, we may be responsible for half or all of the development costs for RPC4046 in the future.

 

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Our lead product, RPC1063, is in mid-stage clinical development for two indications, RMS and UC, and our second clinical product, RPC4046, is being prepared for Phase 2 study in EoE. Our GLP-1R PAM research program is at the stage of lead series determination. Successful development of current and future product candidates from our clinical development and research programs is highly uncertain. Completion dates and completion costs for our clinical development programs as well as our research program can vary significantly for each current and future product candidate and are difficult to predict. We therefore cannot estimate with any degree of certainty the costs we will incur in connection with development of our product candidates. We anticipate we will make determinations as to which programs and product candidates to pursue and how much funding to direct to each program and product candidate on an ongoing basis in response to the scientific success of research programs, the results of ongoing and future clinical trials, and our ability to enter into collaborative agreements with respect to each program or potential product candidate, as well as ongoing assessments as to each current or future product candidate’s commercial potential. We will need to raise substantial additional capital and may seek collaborative agreements in the future in order to advance our various programs.

General and administrative expenses

General and administrative (G&A) expenses consist primarily of salaries and related benefits, including stock-based compensation, related to our executive, finance, corporate development and support functions. Other G&A expenses include allocated facility-related costs not otherwise included in R&D expenses, travel expenses and professional fees for audit, tax, patent costs and legal services.

We expect that G&A expenses will increase in the future as we expand our operating activities and incur additional costs associated with being a publicly traded company and complying with exchange listing and Securities and Exchange Commission requirements, including the additional complexities and related costs of our transition from an “emerging growth company” to a “large accelerated filer” under the rules of the SEC. These increases will likely include higher legal fees, accounting fees, directors’ and officers’ liability insurance premiums and fees associated with investor relations activities.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our condensed consolidated financial statements. The preparation of our financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities, and the revenues and expenses incurred during the reported periods. We believe that the estimates, assumptions and judgments involved in the accounting policies described in Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 7 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013 have the greatest potential impact on our financial statements, so we consider them to be our critical accounting policies and estimates. Other than as described below under “Other Accrued Liability,” there were no material changes to our critical accounting policies and estimates during the quarter ended June 30, 2014.

Other Accrued Liability

In April 2014, we entered into a commercial lease for a portion of an existing building which will serve as our new headquarters. The landlord is in process of a significant renovation of this building, including tenant improvements in preparation for our occupation of the premises. We currently expect construction to be completed and to occupy the premises at or around the end of December 2014.

The form of a lessee’s involvement during the construction period raises questions about whether the lessee is, solely for accounting purposes, acting as an agent for the owner/lessor or is, in substance, the owner of the asset during the construction period. For accounting purposes, a lessee is considered the owner of a construction project during the construction period if the lessee bears substantially all of the construction period risks. If, at any time during the construction period, the present value of amounts that could be due to the landlord is 90% or more of the total qualifying project costs incurred to date, or the lease agreement does not comply with any one or more of six “special” provisions, then the lessee would be deemed to bear substantially all of the construction period risk and be deemed the accounting owner of the property. Since we determined we are the owner for accounting purposes during the construction period, we recorded an asset representing the fair value of the building, with a corresponding liability recorded as a component of other long-term liabilities.

Results of Operations

The period-to-period comparison of our condensed consolidated financial results below is not necessarily indicative of the consolidated financial results that will be achieved in future periods.

 

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Comparison of Three Months Ended June 30, 2014 and 2013

The following table summarizes the results of our operations for the three months ended June 30, 2014 and 2013, together with the changes in those items in dollars (in thousands):

 

     Three months ended
June 30,
     Increase
(Decrease)
 
     2014      2013     

Collaborative revenues

   $ 1,100       $ 1,238       $ (138

Research and development expenses

     20,408         9,441         10,967   

General and administrative expenses

     3,763         1,589         2,174   

Collaborative Revenues. The following table summarizes our sources of revenue for the periods indicated (in thousands):

 

Partner

   Upfront Fees
and Non-
Substantive
Milestone
Payments
     Research &
Development
Funding
Payments
     Total
Revenue
 

Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

   $ 1,100       $ —         $ 1,100   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total for the three months ended June 30, 2014

   $ 1,100       $ —         $ 1,100   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

   $ 420       $ 818       $ 1,238   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total for the three months ended June 30, 2013

   $ 420       $ 818       $ 1,238   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Collaborative revenues were $1.1 million for the three months ended June 30, 2014, compared to $1.2 million for the same period of 2013. Revenue during these periods consisted primarily of amortization of upfront fees and milestone payments, which are being recognized over our estimated period of performance, and research and development funding received under our collaborative arrangements. The decrease in our collaborative revenues during 2014 in comparison to the prior year reflects the termination of R&D funding from Ono in connection with the amendment of our agreement with them in December 2013.

Research and Development Expenses. The following table summarizes our R&D expenses for the periods indicated (in thousands):

 

     Three months ended
June 30,
     Increase  
     2014      2013     

Third-party clinical trial costs:

        

RPC1063 — RMS study costs

   $ 10,417       $ 5,436       $ 4,981   

RPC1063 — UC study costs

     2,712         1,432         1,280   

RPC4046 — EoE study costs

     894         38         856   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total external clinical trial costs

     14,023         6,906         7,117   

Other unallocated R&D costs

     6,385         2,535         3,850   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total R&D expenses

   $ 20,408       $ 9,441       $ 10,967   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

R&D expenses were $20.4 million for the three months ended June 30, 2014, compared to $9.4 million for the same period of 2013. The increase in R&D costs is primarily related to increased Phase 2 trial activity and Phase 3 costs for our Phase 2/3 trial of RPC1063 in RMS, and increased activity related to the Phase 2 trial of RPC1063 in UC.

General and Administrative (G&A)Expenses. G&A expenses were $3.8 million for the three months ended June 30, 2014, compared to $1.6 million for the same period of 2013. The increase in G&A expenses is primarily related to the expansion of our operating activities and costs associated with being a publicly traded company. The overall increase is comprised of an increase in personnel costs related to additional headcount, additional stock-based compensation expense of $1.3 million, and additional expenditures on outside services, including consulting costs, legal and accounting fees and insurance.

 

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Comparison of Six Months Ended June 30, 2014 and 2013

The following table summarizes the results of our operations for the six months ended June 30, 2014 and 2013 (in thousands):

 

     Six months ended
June 30,
     Increase
(decrease)
 
     2014      2013     

Collaborative revenues

   $ 2,450       $ 2,726       $ (276

Research and development expenses

     40,415         17,461         22,954   

General and administrative expenses

     6,522         2,651         3,871   

Deemed dividend

     —           2,056         (2,056

Collaborative Revenues. The following table summarizes our sources of revenue for the periods indicated (in thousands):

 

Partner

   Upfront Fees
and Non-
Substantive
Milestone
Payments
     Milestone
Payments
     Research &
Development
Funding
Payments
     Total
Revenue
 

Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

   $ 2,200       $ 250       $ —         $ 2,450   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total for the six months ended June 30, 2014

   $ 2,200       $ 250       $ —         $ 2,450   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

   $ 840       $ 250       $ 1,636       $ 2,726   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total for the six months ended June 30, 2013

   $ 840       $ 250       $ 1,636       $ 2,726   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Collaborative revenues were $2.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2014, compared to $2.7 million for the comparable prior-year period. Revenue during these periods consisted primarily of amortization of upfront fees and milestone payments, which are being recognized over our estimated period of performance, and R&D funding received from our collaborative arrangements. The decrease in our collaborative revenues during 2014 in comparison to the prior year reflects the termination of R&D funding from Ono in connection with the amendment of our agreement with Ono in December 2013.

Research and Development Expenses. The following table summarizes our R&D expenses for the periods indicated (in thousands):

 

     Six months ended
June 30,
     Increase  
     2014      2013     

Third-party clinical trial costs:

        

RPC1063 — RMS study costs

   $ 22,073       $ 9,709       $ 12,364   

RPC1063 — UC study costs

     5,116         2,836         2,280   

RPC4046 — EoE study costs

     980         39         941   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total external clinical trial costs

     28,169         12,584         15,585   

Other unallocated R&D costs

     12,246         4,877         7,369   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total R&D expenses

   $ 40,415       $ 17,461       $ 22,954   
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

R&D expenses were $40.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2014, compared to $17.5 million for the same period of 2013. The increase in R&D costs is primarily related to increased Phase 2 trial activity and Phase 3 costs for our Phase 2/3 trial of RPC1063 in RMS, and increased activity related to the Phase 2 trial of RPC1063 in UC.

General and Administrative Expenses. G&A expenses were $6.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2014, compared to $2.7 million for the same period of 2013. The increase in G&A expenses is primarily related to the expansion of our operating activities and costs associated with being a publicly traded company. The overall increase is comprised of an increase in personnel costs related to additional headcount, additional stock-based compensation expense of $2.0 million, and additional expenditures on outside services, including consulting costs, legal and accounting fees and insurance.

Deemed Dividend. On March 27, 2013, pursuant to the terms of the Series B Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement dated as of February 3, 2012, we closed the sale of 8.2 million shares of Series B Convertible Preferred Stock, at $1.03 per share, for aggregate net proceeds of $8.4 million. The shares issued in this financing were sold at a price per share below the reassessed deemed fair value of our common stock at that time. Accordingly, we recorded a deemed dividend charge of $2.1 million in the first quarter of 2013 associated with the issuance of such shares, which is equal to the number of shares of Series B Convertible Preferred Stock sold on that date multiplied by the difference between the estimated value of the underlying common stock and the Series B conversion price per share on that date. There was no similar charge during fiscal 2014.

 

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Liquidity and Capital Resources

Overview

We have incurred losses and negative cash flows from operating activities since our inception and we anticipate that we will continue to incur net losses into the foreseeable future as we: (i) continue the development and commercialization of our drug candidates; (ii) work to develop additional drug candidates through research and development programs; and (iii) expand our corporate infrastructure, including the costs associated with becoming a public company. We plan to continue to fund losses from operations and capital funding needs through future debt and equity financing, as well as potential additional collaborations. The sale of additional equity or convertible debt could result in additional dilution to our stockholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in debt service obligations and could result in operating and financing covenants that would restrict our operations. No assurances can be provided that financing will be available in the amounts we need or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. If we are not able to secure adequate additional funding we may be forced to make reductions in spending, extend payment terms with suppliers, liquidate assets where possible, and/or suspend or curtail planned programs.

As of June 30, 2014, we had cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $333.4 million. Based on our current business plan, we believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, along with our access to funds through our credit facility with MidCap Funding III, LLC, or MidCap (which allows for additional borrowings of up to $10.0 million through December 31, 2014), will be sufficient to fund our operations for at least the next 12 months. However, our forecast of the period of time through which our financial resources will be adequate to support our operations may differ materially from actual results.

Cash Flows

The following table summarizes our cash flows for the six months ended June 30, 2014 and 2013 (in thousands):

 

     Six months ended
June 30,
 
     2014     2013  

Net cash (used in) provided by:

    

Operating activities

   $ (40,360   $ (15,294

Investing activities

     (49,678     (4

Financing activities

     305,207        101,017   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total

   $ 215,169      $ 85,719   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

Operating activities. Net cash used in operating activities was $40.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2014, compared to $15.3 million for the same period ended June 30, 2013. During the six months ended June 30, 2014 and 2013, respectively, the primary use of cash was to fund our clinical trial and other R&D activities. The increase in our clinical trial and other R&D activities is primarily related to increased Phase 2 trial activity and Phase 3 costs for our Phase 2/3 trial of RPC1063 in RMS, and increased activity related to the Phase 2 trial of RPC1063 in UC.

Investing activities. Net cash used in investing activities was $49.7 million during the six months ended June 30, 2014. During 2014, we made net purchases of marketable securities of $49.5 million with a portion of the proceeds from our secondary offerings of common stock in January and June 2014. During that same time period, we also purchased $0.2 million in equipment to further support our research and development activities. We did not hold any short-term investments during the first half of fiscal 2013, and our equipment purchases were negligible during that time period as well.

Financing activities. During the six months ended June 30, 2014 and 2013, net cash provided by financing activities was $305.2 million and $101.0 million, respectively. During the first half of 2014, the net cash provided by financing activity was primarily attributable to the net proceeds from two secondary offerings of our common stock which occurred in January and June 2014. During the first half of 2013, we raised $75.0 million from the initial public offering (IPO) of our common stock. We also raised an additional $21.2 million from the sale of Series B Convertible Preferred Stock (which later converted into common stock in connection with our IPO) and $5.0 million from borrowings under our term loan arrangement with MidCap.

 

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Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

Through June 30, 2014, we have not entered into and did not have any relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial collaborations, such as entities often referred to as structured finance or special purpose entities, which would have been established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements or other contractually narrow or limited purposes.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In May 2014, the FASB issued accounting guidance on the recognition of revenue from customers and supercedes most current revenue recognition guidance, including industry-specific guidance. The guidance provides that an entity recognize revenue when it transfers promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. This guidance also requires additional disclosure about the nature, amount, timing and uncertainty of revenue and cash flows arising from customer contracts, including significant judgments and changes in judgments, and assets recognized from costs incurred to obtain or fulfill a contract. The guidance allows for either full retrospective or modified retrospective adoption and will become effective for the Company in the first quarter of 2017. The Company is evaluating the alternative transition methods and the potential effects of the adoption of this update on its financial statements.

Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

Interest Rate Fluctuation Risk

Some of the securities in which we invest have market risk in that a change in prevailing interest rates may cause the principal amount of the marketable securities to fluctuate. Financial instruments that potentially subject us to significant concentrations of credit risk consist primarily of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. We invest our cash primarily in commercial paper and debt instruments of financial institutions, corporations, US government-sponsored agencies and the US Treasury. The primary objectives of our investment activities are to ensure liquidity and to preserve principal while at the same time maximizing the income we receive from our marketable securities without significantly increasing risk. We have established guidelines regarding approved investments and maturities of investments, which are designed to maintain safety and liquidity. Because of the short-term maturities of our cash equivalents and marketable securities, we do not believe that an increase in market rates would have any significant impact on the realized value of our marketable securities. If a 10% change in interest rates were to have occurred on June 30, 2014, this change would not have had a material effect on the fair value of our investment portfolio as of that date.

In April 2013, we entered into a credit and security agreement under which we drew down $5.0 million. The interest rate under the credit and security agreement is 8.25%, and there is an interest-only repayment period until August 1, 2014, followed by a 34-month principal and interest repayment period. The interest rate is fixed during the repayment term and therefore does not subject us to interest rate fluctuation risk.

Foreign Currency Exchange Risk

We contract with CROs and investigational sites in several foreign countries, including countries in Eastern and Western Europe and the Asian Pacific. In addition, we purchase certain supplies, including comparator drug supply for our Phase 3 program in RMS, outside the U.S. We are therefore subject to fluctuations in foreign currency rates in connection with these agreements. We do not hedge our foreign currency exchange rate risk. To date, we have not incurred any material effects from foreign currency changes on these contracts.

Inflation Risk

Inflation generally affects us by increasing our cost of labor and clinical trial costs. We do not believe that inflation has had a material effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations during the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2014 and 2013.

Item 4. Controls and Procedures

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

We maintain disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our periodic and current reports that we file with the SEC is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures, management recognized that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable and not absolute assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. In reaching a reasonable level of assurance, management necessarily was required to apply its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. In addition, the design of any system of controls also is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions. Over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or the degree of compliance with policies or procedures may deteriorate. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.

As of June 30, 2014, we carried out an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls

 

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and procedures, as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Based on this evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level as of June 30, 2014.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

An evaluation was performed under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, of any change in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the last fiscal quarter and that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting. That evaluation did not identify any change in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2014 and that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

PART II — OTHER INFORMATION

Item 1. Legal Proceedings

We are not currently party to any material legal proceedings.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

You should carefully consider the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this quarterly report and the financial statements and notes thereto for the year ended December 31, 2013 before making your decision whether to purchase or sell shares of our common stock. We cannot assure you that any of the events discussed in the risk factors below will not occur. These risks could have a material and adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition and growth prospects. If that were to happen, the trading price of our common stock could decline.

Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Capital Requirements

We are a clinical-stage company with no approved products and no historical product revenues, which makes it difficult to assess our future prospects and financial results.

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a limited operating history upon which you can evaluate our business and prospects. Biopharmaceutical product development is a highly speculative undertaking and involves a substantial degree of uncertainty. Our operations to date have been limited to developing our technology, undertaking preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidate RPC1063, and in-licensing and preparing for the clinical development of our product candidate RPC4046. As an early stage company, we have not yet demonstrated an ability to overcome many of the risks and uncertainties frequently encountered by companies in new and rapidly evolving fields, particularly in the biopharmaceutical area. Consequently, the ability to predict our future operating results or business prospects is more limited than if we had a longer operating history or approved products on the market.

Our actual financial condition and operating results have varied significantly in the past and are expected to continue to fluctuate significantly from quarter-to-quarter or year-to-year due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. Factors relating to our business that may contribute to these fluctuations include:

 

    the results of our clinical trials through all phases of clinical development;

 

    the timing of commencement of, and enrollment in, our clinical trials;

 

    potential side effects of our product candidates that could delay or prevent approval or cause an approved drug to be taken off the market;

 

    our ability to obtain, as well as the timeliness of obtaining, additional funding to develop our product candidates;

 

    our ability to secure and maintain collaborations, licensing or other arrangements for the future development and/or commercialization of our product candidates, as well as the terms of such arrangements;

 

    the results of clinical trials or marketing applications for product candidates that may compete with our product candidates;

 

    competition from existing products, as well as new products that may receive marketing approval;

 

    the availability of generic versions of products that compete with our product candidates;

 

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    the timing of regulatory review and approval of our product candidates;

 

    market acceptance of our product candidates that receive regulatory approval, if any;

 

    our ability to establish an effective sales and marketing infrastructure directly or through collaborations with third parties;

 

    the ability of patients or healthcare providers to obtain coverage or sufficient reimbursement for our products;

 

    our ability, and the ability of third parties on which we rely upon for clinical development of our product candidates such as contract research organizations (CROs), to adhere to clinical study and other regulatory requirements;

 

    the ability of third-party manufacturers to manufacture our product candidates for the conduct of clinical trials and, if approved, for successful commercialization;

 

    the cost, availability and timeliness of supply of sufficient quantities of placebo or comparator drugs used in certain of our clinical trials;

 

    the costs to us, and our ability as well as the ability of any third-party collaborators, to obtain, maintain and protect intellectual property rights covering our product candidates and technologies;

 

    costs related to potential intellectual property disputes, and the outcome of any such dispute;

 

    our ability to adequately support future growth;

 

    our ability to attract and retain key personnel to manage our business effectively;

 

    our ability to identify and develop additional product candidates; and

 

    our ability to build our finance infrastructure and improve our accounting systems and controls.

Accordingly, the likelihood of our success must be evaluated in light of many potential challenges and variables associated with an early stage drug development company, many of which are outside of our control, and past operating or financial results should not be relied on as an indication of future results.

We have incurred significant losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future. We have never generated any revenue from product sales and may never be profitable.

We have incurred significant operating losses since our inception in 2008. Our net loss attributable to common stockholders for the six months ended June 30, 2014 was approximately $44.7 million, and as of June 30, 2014, we had an accumulated deficit of $140.6 million. Our prior losses, combined with expected future losses, have had and will continue to have an adverse effect on our stockholders’ equity and working capital. We expect to continue incurring significant research, development and other expenses related to our ongoing operations, and to continue incurring losses for the foreseeable future. We also expect these losses to increase as we continue our development of, and seek regulatory approvals for, our product candidates.

We do not anticipate generating revenues from sales of products for the foreseeable future, if ever. If any of our product candidates fail in clinical trials or do not gain regulatory approval, or if any of our product candidates, if approved, fail to achieve market acceptance, we may never become profitable. Even if we achieve profitability in the future, we may not be able to sustain profitability in subsequent periods. Our ability to generate future revenues from product sales depends heavily on our success in:

 

    completing development and clinical trial programs for our product candidates RPC1063 and RPC4046;

 

    entering into collaboration and license agreements, particularly with respect to the development and commercialization of RPC1063;

 

    seeking and obtaining marketing approvals for any product candidates that successfully complete clinical trials;

 

    establishing and maintaining supply and manufacturing relationships with third parties; and

 

    successfully commercializing any product candidates for which marketing approval is obtained, including with one or more partners or, if launched independently, successfully establishing a sales force, marketing and distribution infrastructure.

If one or more of our product candidates is approved for commercial sale and we retain commercial rights, we anticipate incurring significant costs associated with commercializing any such approved product candidate. Therefore, even if we are able to generate revenues from the sale of any approved product, we may never become profitable. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with pharmaceutical product development, we are unable to predict the timing or amount of expenses and when we will be able to achieve or maintain profitability, if ever.

 

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We will require substantial additional funding, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all.

Our operations have consumed substantial amounts of cash since inception. We are currently conducting the Phase 3 portion of a Phase 2/3 study of RPC1063 in Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis (RMS) and a Phase 2 study of RPC1063 in Ulcerative Colitis (UC), and we are preparing to conduct a Phase 2 study of RPC4046 in Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE). Developing pharmaceutical product candidates, including conducting clinical trials, is expensive. We will require substantial additional future capital in order to complete clinical development and, if we are successful, to commercialize any of our current product candidates. If the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or any foreign regulatory agency, such as the European Medicines Agency (EMA), requires that we perform studies or trials in addition to those that we currently anticipate with respect to the development of RPC1063 and RPC4046, or repeat studies or trials, our expenses would further increase beyond what we currently expect, and any delay resulting from such further or repeat studies or trials could also result in the need for additional financing.

Our existing cash and cash equivalents and our access to funds through our credit and security agreement with MidCap Funding III, LLC (MidCap), will not be sufficient for us to complete advanced clinical development of any of our product candidates or, if applicable, to commercialize any product candidate that is approved. Accordingly, we will continue to require substantial additional capital to continue our clinical development activities and potentially engage in commercialization activities. Because successful development of our product candidates is uncertain, we are unable to estimate the actual funds we will require to complete research and development and commercialize our product candidates. The amount and timing of our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including but not limited to:

 

    the progress, costs, results of and timing of our ongoing and planned clinical trials;

 

    our ability to enter into collaborative agreements for the development and commercialization of our product candidates, particularly RPC1063;

 

    the willingness of the FDA and EMA to accept our clinical and preclinical studies and other work as the basis for review and approval of product candidates;

 

    the outcome, costs and timing of seeking and obtaining regulatory approvals from the FDA, EMA and any similar regulatory agencies;

 

    whether AbbVie Bahamas Ltd. and AbbVie Inc., which we refer to together as AbbVie (formerly a part of Abbott Laboratories), exercises its option, following the availability of results from the planned Phase 2 trial of RPC4046 in EoE, to collaborate with us on the development and commercialization of RPC4046;

 

    the number of product candidates and indications that we pursue, whether developed from our research program for glucagon-like peptide-1 small molecule positive allosteric modulators (GLP-1R PAMs), otherwise developed internally or in-licensed;

 

    the timing and costs associated with manufacturing our product candidates for clinical trials and other studies and, if approved, for commercial sale;

 

    our need to expand our development activities and, potentially, our research activities;

 

    the timing and costs associated with establishing sales and marketing capabilities;

 

    market acceptance of any approved product candidates;

 

    the costs of acquiring, licensing or investing in additional businesses, products, product candidates and technologies;

 

    the cost to maintain, expand and defend the scope of our intellectual property portfolio, including the amount and timing of any payments we may be required to make, or that we may receive, in connection with licensing, filing, prosecution, defense and enforcement of any patents or other intellectual property rights;

 

    the extent to which we are required to pay milestone or other payments under our in-license agreements and the timing of such payments;

 

    our need and ability to hire additional management, development and scientific personnel; and

 

    our need to implement additional internal systems and infrastructure, including financial and reporting systems.

 

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Some of these factors are outside of our control. Based upon our current expected level of operating expenditures, our existing cash and cash equivalents and our access to funds through our credit and security agreement with MidCap, we believe that we will be able to fund our operations for at least the next 12 months. This period could be shortened if there are any significant increases beyond our expectations in spending on development programs or more rapid progress of development programs than anticipated. We do not expect our existing capital resources to be sufficient to enable us to complete the Phase 3 portion of the Phase 2/3 study of RPC1063 in RMS. Accordingly, we expect that we will need to raise substantial additional funds in the future. Additional funding may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to obtain funding from equity offerings or debt financings, including on a timely basis, we may be required to:

 

    seek collaborators for one or more of our product candidates at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable or on terms that are less favorable than might otherwise be available;

 

    relinquish or license on unfavorable terms our rights to technologies or product candidates that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves; or

 

    significantly curtail one or more of our research or development programs or cease operations altogether.

Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our existing stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our product candidates or technologies.

We may seek additional funding through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, collaborations and/or licensing arrangements. Additional funding may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, your ownership interest will be diluted, and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a stockholder. The incurrence of additional indebtedness and/or the issuance of certain equity securities could result in increased fixed payment obligations and could also result in certain additional restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt and/or issue additional equity, limitations on our ability to acquire or license intellectual property rights and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. In addition, issuance of additional equity securities, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our common stock to decline. In the event that we enter into collaborations and/or licensing arrangements in order to raise capital, we may be required to accept unfavorable terms, including relinquishing or licensing to a third party on unfavorable terms our rights to technologies or product candidates that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves or potentially reserve for future potential arrangements when we might be able to achieve more favorable terms.

Our credit and security agreement with MidCap contains restrictions that limit our flexibility in operating our business. We may be required to make a prepayment or repay the outstanding indebtedness earlier than we expect under our credit and security agreement if a prepayment event or an event of default occurs, including a material adverse change with respect to us, which could have a materially adverse effect on our business.

Our credit and security agreement with MidCap, pursuant to which we have drawn down $5.0 million, contains various covenants that limit our ability to engage in specified types of transactions. These covenants limit our ability to, among other things:

 

    incur or assume certain debt;

 

    merge or consolidate or acquire all or substantially all of the capital stock or property of another entity;

 

    change the nature of our business;

 

    change our organizational structure or type;

 

    amend, modify or waive any of our organizational documents;

 

    license, transfer or dispose of certain assets;

 

    grant certain types of liens on our assets;

 

    make certain investments;

 

    pay cash dividends;

 

    enter into material transactions with affiliates; and

 

    amend or waive provisions of material agreements in certain manners.

The restrictive covenants of the agreement could cause us to be unable to pursue business opportunities that we or our stockholders may consider beneficial. A breach of any of these covenants could result in an event of default under the agreement. An event of default will also occur if, among other things, a material adverse change in our business, operations or condition occurs, or a material impairment of the prospect of our repayment of any portion of the amounts we owe under the agreement occurs. In the case of a continuing event of default under the agreement, MidCap could elect to declare all amounts outstanding to be immediately due and payable and terminate all commitments to extend further credit, proceed against the collateral in which we granted MidCap a security interest under the agreement, or otherwise exercise the rights of a secured creditor. Amounts outstanding under the agreement are secured by all of our existing and future assets (excluding intellectual property we own, which is subject to a negative pledge arrangement). Additionally, in the event we receive negative clinical data for RPC1063 and discontinue development of RPC1063 for all indications in humans, at MidCap’s election we could be required to prepay an amount under the credit agreement equal to the lesser of $10.0 million or 50% of the sum otherwise then-payable upon a full repayment under the credit agreement.

 

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We may not have enough available cash or be able to raise additional funds on satisfactory terms, if at all, through equity or debt financings to make any required prepayment or repay such indebtedness at the time any such prepayment event or event of default occurs. In such an event, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development or commercialization efforts or grant to others rights to develop and market product candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves. Our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected as a result.

Our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.

We have incurred substantial losses during our history. We do not anticipate generating revenues from sales of products for the foreseeable future, if ever, and we may never achieve profitability. To the extent that we continue to generate taxable losses, unused losses will carry forward to offset future taxable income, if any, until such unused losses expire. Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change” (generally defined as a greater than 50% change (by value) in its equity ownership over a three-year period), the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes to offset its post-change income may be limited. We have not completed our analysis to determine what, if any, impact any prior ownership change has had on our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards. In addition, we may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership. As of December 31, 2013, we had federal net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $87.1 million that could be limited if we have experienced, or if in the future we experience, an ownership change, which could have an adverse effect on our future results of operations.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We are heavily dependent on the success of our product candidate RPC1063. We are also dependent on the success of our product candidate RPC4046. We cannot give any assurance that any product candidate will successfully complete clinical trials or receive regulatory approval, which is necessary before it can be commercialized.

Our business and future success is substantially dependent on our ability to develop successfully, obtain regulatory approval for, and then successfully commercialize our product candidate RPC1063, which is in the Phase 3 portion of a Phase 2/3 study for RMS and a Phase 2 study for UC. Our business and future success also depends on our ability to develop successfully, obtain regulatory approval for, and then successfully commercialize our product candidate RPC4046, which we are preparing for a Phase 2 study in EoE. Our product candidates will require additional clinical development, management of clinical and manufacturing activities, regulatory approval in multiple jurisdictions (if regulatory approval can be obtained at all), securing sources of commercial manufacturing supply, building of, or partnering with, a commercial organization, substantial investment and significant marketing efforts before any revenues can be generated from product sales. We are not permitted to market or promote any of our product candidates before we receive regulatory approval from the FDA, the EMA or any other foreign regulatory authority, and we may never receive such regulatory approval for any of our product candidates. We cannot assure you that our clinical trials for RPC1063 or RPC4046 will be completed in a timely manner, or at all, or that we will be able to obtain approval from the FDA, the EMA or any other foreign regulatory authority for either of these product candidates. We cannot be certain that we will advance any other product candidates into clinical trials. If any of RPC1063, RPC4046 or any future product candidate is not approved and commercialized, we will not be able to generate any product revenues. Moreover, any delay or setback in the development of any product candidate could adversely affect our business and cause our stock price to fall.

Clinical development is a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome, and results of earlier studies and trials as well as data from any interim analysis of ongoing clinical trials may not be predictive of future trial results. Clinical failure can occur at any stage of clinical development. We have never completed a Phase 3 study or submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) or a Biologics License Application (BLA).

Clinical testing is expensive and can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. The results of preclinical studies and previous clinical trials as well as data from any interim analysis of ongoing clinical trials of our product candidates, as well as studies and trials of other products with similar mechanisms of action to our product candidates, may not be predictive of the results of ongoing or future clinical trials. For example, the positive results generated to date in preclinical and Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical studies for RPC1063 in RMS do not ensure that the current Phase 3 portion of our Phase 2/3 study for RMS or later clinical trials will demonstrate similar results or observations. Product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy traits despite having progressed through preclinical studies and earlier clinical trials. In addition to the safety and efficacy traits of any product candidate, clinical trial failures may result from a multitude of factors including flaws in trial design, dose selection, placebo effect and patient enrollment criteria. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or adverse safety profiles, notwithstanding promising results in earlier trials. Based upon negative or inconclusive results, we or our collaborators may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional clinical trials or preclinical studies. In addition, data obtained from trials and studies are susceptible to varying interpretations, and regulators may not interpret our data as favorably as we do, which may delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval.

 

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We may experience delays in our ongoing clinical trials and we do not know whether planned clinical trials will begin on time, need to be redesigned, enroll patients on time or be completed on schedule, if at all. Clinical trials can be delayed for a variety of reasons, including delays related to:

 

    obtaining regulatory approval to commence a trial;

 

    reaching agreement on acceptable terms with prospective CROs and clinical trial sites, the terms of which can be subject to extensive negotiation and may vary significantly among different CROs and trial sites;

 

    obtaining Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval at each site;

 

    obtaining regulatory concurrence on the design and parameters for the trial;

 

    obtaining approval for the design of the Phase3 portion of our Phase 2/3 trial of RPC1063 in RMS for each country targeted for trial enrollment;

 

    recruiting suitable patients to participate in a trial, which may be impacted by the number of competing trials that are enrolling patients;

 

    having patients complete a trial or return for post-treatment follow-up;

 

    clinical sites deviating from trial protocol or dropping out of a trial;

 

    adding new clinical trial sites;

 

    manufacturing sufficient quantities of product candidate or obtaining sufficient quantities of comparator drug for use in clinical trials; or

 

    the availability of adequate financing and other resources.

Patient enrollment, a significant factor in the timing of clinical trials, is affected by many factors including the size and nature of the patient population, the proximity of patients to clinical sites, the eligibility criteria for the trial, the design of the clinical trial, competing clinical trials and clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions as to the potential advantages of the drug being studied in relation to other available therapies, including any new drugs that may be approved for the indications we are investigating. With respect to our clinical development of RPC1063 in RMS, the recent availability of oral therapies such as Gilenya® (fingolimod), Aubagio® (teriflunomide) and Tecfidera® (dimethyl fumarate) may cause patients to be less willing to participate in our clinical trial for an oral therapy in regions in which an oral therapy has been approved. Since RMS is a competitive market in certain regions such as the US and the European Union (EU) with a number of product candidates in development, patients may have other choices with respect to potential clinical trial participation and we may have difficulty in reaching our enrollment targets. In addition, the relatively limited number of RMS patients worldwide (estimated at 500,000) may make enrollment more challenging.

We could encounter delays if a clinical trial is suspended or terminated by us, by the IRBs of the institutions in which such trials are being conducted, by the Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) for such trial or by the FDA or other regulatory authorities. A suspension or termination may be imposed due to a number of factors, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements or our clinical protocols, inspection of the clinical trial operations or trial site by the FDA or other regulatory authorities resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold, safety issues or adverse side effects, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a drug, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial. For example, it is possible that safety issues or adverse side effects could be observed in our trials for RPC1063 in RMS and UC which could result in a delay, suspension or termination of the ongoing trials of RPC1063 in one or both indications. If we experience delays in the completion of, or termination of, any clinical trial of our product candidates, the commercial prospects of our product candidates will be harmed, and our ability to generate product revenues from any of these product candidates will be delayed. In addition, any delays in completing our clinical trials will increase our costs, slow down our product candidate development and approval process and jeopardize our ability to commence product sales and generate revenues. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly. In addition, many of the factors that cause or lead to a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates.

If RPC1063, RPC4046 or any other product candidate is found to be unsafe or lack efficacy, we will not be able to obtain regulatory approval for it and our business would be materially harmed. For example, if the results of our ongoing trials for RPC1063 in RMS and/or UC do not achieve the primary efficacy endpoints or demonstrate unexpected safety findings, the prospects for approval of RPC1063 as well our stock price and our ability to create stockholder value would be materially and adversely affected.

In some instances, there can be significant variability in safety and/or efficacy results between different trials of the same product candidate due to numerous factors, including changes in trial protocols, differences in composition of the patient populations,

 

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adherence to the dosing regimen and other trial protocols and the rate of dropout among clinical trial participants. We do not know whether any Phase 2, Phase 3 or other clinical trials we or any of our collaborators may conduct will demonstrate consistent or adequate efficacy and safety to obtain regulatory approval to market our product candidates. If we are unable to bring any of our current or future product candidates to market, or to acquire any marketed, previously approved products, our ability to create long-term stockholder value will be limited.

We face significant competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and our operating results will suffer if we fail to compete effectively.

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are intensely competitive and subject to rapid and significant technological change. The competition in the RMS market is particularly intense. We have competitors both in the US and internationally, including major multinational pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies and universities and other research institutions. For example, the branded RMS treatment market today includes the ABCRs (including Avonex® (interferon (IFN) ß-1a), Betaseron® (IFN ß -1b), Copaxone® (glatiramer acetate) and Rebif® (IFN ß-1a)), Tysabri® (natalizumab), mitoxantrone, Aubagio®, Gilenya® and Tecfidera®. In 2012 two drug candidates for RMS were submitted for regulatory approval, Nerventra® (laquinimod) (in the EU) and LemtradaTM (alemtuzumab). LemtradaTM was approved in the EU in September 2013 as a twice-yearly, intravenously infused therapy. Although the FDA provided its sponsor (Sanofi) with a Complete Response Letter in December 2013 in response to its supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for approval of LemtradaTM in the US, Sanofi resubmitted an sBLA in the second quarter of 2014 to address the issues noted by the FDA. In addition, there are a number of active clinical trials ongoing in RMS for additional product candidates. For Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), which consists of UC and Crohn’s Disease (CD), drug sales from three therapeutic categories substantially comprise the market, including intestinal anti-inflammatory drugs (including mesalamine, budesonide, hydrocortisone and others), immunosuppressive agents (including Remicade® (infliximab), Simponi® (golimumab), Tysabri®, Cimzia® (certolizumab pegol) and Humira® (adalimumab)) and antimetabolites (including methotrexate and others). In addition, Entyvio® (vedolizumab) was approved by the FDA for treatment of UC and CD in May 2014, and there are several late-stage pipeline programs in development for IBD indications. For EoE, there are currently no approved drugs indicated for that disorder, although steroids are prescribed off-label and several anti-inflammatory targeted drugs are in development for EoE.

Oral RMS therapies in particular represent competition for us, since RPC1063 is being developed as an oral therapy. The first oral treatment for RMS, Novartis’ Gilenya®, was approved in September 2010. In 2013, Gilenya® achieved approximately $1.9 billion in worldwide sales and in the first quarter of 2014 achieved $552 million in worldwide sales, an increase of 31% over 2013 first quarter sales. Like RPC1063, Gilenya® is an S1PR modulator, although non-selective. Whereas Gilenya® is already approved and is currently being marketed, RPC1063 is in the Phase 2 and Phase 3 portions of a Phase 2/3 trial for RMS and will require significant additional clinical development before it will be eligible for approval, if ever. Gilenya® will thus have at least a several-year period, prior to any market entrance by RPC1063, in which to acquire additional brand identity and market share. Aside from Gilenya®, other oral therapies for RMS have recently been, or may soon be, approved. Specifically, in September 2012, Genzyme’s Aubagio® became the second oral therapy approved for RMS, and in March 2013, Biogen Idec’s Tecfidera® became the third oral therapy approved for RMS. Notwithstanding confirmation by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use in May 2014 of its January 2014 opinion to recommend against approval of Nerventra® for the treatment of RMS in the EU, its sponsors (Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Active Biotech AB) have announced their commitment to this potential fourth oral therapy for the treatment of RMS. Although not an S1PR modulator, Tecfidera® in particular has built upon the shift in treatment paradigm from a largely injectable product landscape to an oral product landscape. Tecfidera® achieved $877 million in sales in 2013, and in the first quarter of 2014 achieved $506 million in worldwide sales. Beyond Gilenya®, which is approved, the late-stage S1PR modulator drug pipeline of potential competition in RMS consists of three active programs: siponimod (under development by Novartis); ponesimod (under development by Actelion); and MT-1303 (under development by Mitsubishi Tanabe). In June 2014, Merck KGaA announced that it had reached a mutual agreement with Ono Pharmaceuticals to terminate the license agreement for a fourth program, ceralifimod (Ono-4641), because it did not meet Merck’s criteria for further investment.

Although we believe RPC1063 has the potential to demonstrate differentiation as the best S1PR modulator in RMS, as clinical development of RPC1063 is conducted and trial results become known it is possible that the data will not support such differentiation, whether as a result of the effectiveness of RPC1063 in RMS or as a result of its safety profile. With respect to efficacy, for example, whereas Gilenya® is a non-selective S1PR modulator with activity on four of the five S1P receptors and RPC1063 is by comparison more selective for the S1P1R, it is possible that efficacy for an S1PR modulator benefits from, and is potentially dependent upon, broader activity among the S1P receptors and that RPC1063’s profile will not result in best-among-S1PR modulator effectiveness, or even meaningful effectiveness. Moreover, although we believe RPC1063 has the potential for clinically meaningful improved safety features, late-stage clinical trial results may be inconsistent with earlier studies and not support such a safety profile. Inasmuch as RPC1063 will, if approved in RMS, be entering a market in which the first approved oral therapy (Gilenya®, which is also an S1PR modulator) will have been available since 2010, the absence of differentiation for RPC1063 as the best S1PR modulator in RMS may adversely affect the ability of RPC1063 to be approved for commercialization. If approved, the absence of differentiation for RPC1063 as the best S1PR modulator in RMS would adversely affect the ability of RPC1063 to gain market share and otherwise be commercialized successfully. In addition, at such time as RPC1063 is approved for marketing in RMS, if ever, the patent protection

 

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for Gilenya® may have lapsed, in which case generic treatments of Gilenya® may be available. The competition represented by generic alternatives to or versions of an S1PR modulator, including the expected lower cost of any such generic alternatives, would adversely affect the ability of RPC1063, if approved, to gain market share and otherwise be commercialized successfully.

We believe that the effects of S1P1R modulation may have utility in other immune disorders in addition to RMS, such as UC, and we have an ongoing Phase 2 study of RPC1063 in UC. Although we believe RPC1063 has the potential to be the best orally administered therapy as well as the first S1PR modulator approved for the treatment of UC, as clinical development of RPC1063 in UC is conducted and trial results become known it is possible that the data will not support such differentiation, whether as a result of the effectiveness of RPC1063 in UC, the safety profile of RPC1063 or the relative pace of development and potential timing for regulatory approval, if any, of RPC1063 in UC. To our knowledge, currently there are no other S1P1 modulators in clinical trials for UC. It is possible, particularly as clinical results for the use of an S1PR modulator in UC become available (including, for example, from our Phase 2 trial of RPC1063 in UC, if successful), that an approved therapy, such as Gilenya®, could be used for UC patients notwithstanding the absence of regulatory approval (so called “off-label” use). Where applicable, off-label use of generic alternatives to Gilenya® may also occur. Xeljanz® (tofacitinib), Pfizer’s oral JAK tyrosine kinase inhibitor which is approved for Rheumatoid Arthritis, is currently in phase 2 development for CD and phase 3 development for UC. Although Xeljanz® is not an S1P1R modulator, its advanced stage of development relative to RPC1063 in UC may provide Xeljanz® with the opportunity to become the first approved oral therapy for UC. KRP203, a non-selective S1PR modulator being developed by Kyorin and Novartis, has completed a Phase 2 exploratory trial for UC under Novartis sponsorship and is in Phase 2 development for CD in Japan under Kyorin sponsorship. If RPC1063 is not the first-approved S1PR modulator for UC, the ability of RPC1063 to be approved for commercialization in UC may be adversely affected. In addition, the absence of such status for RPC1063 as an S1P1R modulator and/or oral therapy in UC, as well as any off-label use of another S1P1R modulator in UC, would adversely affect the ability of RPC1063, if approved, to gain market share and otherwise be commercialized successfully in UC.

RPC4046 is a recombinant, humanized, high-affinity, selective, anti-interleukin-13 (IL-13) monoclonal antibody. IL-13 antagonists have demonstrated efficacy in preclinical models of allergic and other immunological disorders, with the first human proof-of-concept data being recently obtained in a Phase 2 study of Genentech’s anti-IL-13 antibody lebrikizumab for the treatment of Asthma. We have an open IND for RPC4046 and plan to initiate a Phase 2 clinical study in an allergic/immune-mediated disorder, EoE, which is an Orphan Disease for which there is currently no FDA-approved therapy. It is possible that other anti-IL-13 antibodies may also pursue approval in EoE. For example, QAX-576, an intravenously administered anti-IL-13 antibody currently in development by Novartis for EoE and other indications, has completed an exploratory single dose Phase 2 study in 25 patients with EoE. The absence of status for RPC4046 as the first-approved therapy in EoE may adversely affect the ability of RPC4046, if approved, to gain market share and otherwise be commercialized successfully in EoE. If RPC4046 is not the first-approved therapy for EoE, the ability of RPC4046 to be approved for commercialization may be adversely affected. If approved, the presence of other approved therapies, including in particular any other anti-IL-13 antibodies, would adversely affect the ability of RPC4046 to gain market share and otherwise be commercialized successfully.

Many of our competitors have substantially greater financial, technical and other resources, such as larger research and development staff and experienced marketing and manufacturing organizations. Mergers and acquisitions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries may result in even more resources being concentrated in our competitors. As a result, these companies may obtain regulatory approval more rapidly than we are able and may be more effective in selling and marketing their products as well. Smaller or early stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large, established companies. Competition may increase further as a result of advances in the commercial applicability of technologies and greater availability of capital for investment in these industries. Our competitors may succeed in developing, acquiring or licensing on an exclusive basis drug products that are more effective or less costly than any drug candidate that we are currently developing or that we may develop. If approved, our product candidates will face competition from commercially available drugs as well as drugs that are in the development pipelines of our competitors.

Established pharmaceutical companies may invest heavily to accelerate discovery and development of novel compounds or to in-license novel compounds that could make our product candidates less competitive. In addition, any new product that competes with an approved product must demonstrate compelling advantages in efficacy, convenience, tolerability and safety in order to overcome price competition and to be commercially successful. Accordingly, our competitors may succeed in obtaining patent protection, receiving FDA, EMA or other regulatory approval or discovering, developing and commercializing medicines before we do, which would have a material adverse impact on our business.

We believe that our ability to successfully compete will depend on, among other things:

 

    the efficacy and safety of our product candidates, including as relative to marketed products and product candidates in development by third parties;

 

    the time it takes for our product candidates to complete clinical development and receive marketing approval;

 

    the ability to maintain a good relationship with regulatory authorities;

 

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    the ability to commercialize and market any of our product candidates that receive regulatory approval;

 

    the price of our products, including in comparison to branded or generic competitors;

 

    whether coverage and adequate levels of reimbursement are available under private and governmental health insurance plans, including Medicare;

 

    the ability to protect intellectual property rights related to our product candidates;

 

    the ability to manufacture and sell commercial quantities of any of our product candidates that receive regulatory approval; and

 

    acceptance of any of our product candidates that receive regulatory approval by physicians and other healthcare providers.

If our competitors market products that are more effective, safer or less expensive than our future products, if any, or that reach the market sooner than our future products, if any, we may not achieve commercial success. In addition, the biopharmaceutical industry is characterized by rapid technological change. Because our research approach integrates many technologies, it may be difficult for us to stay abreast of the rapid changes in each technology. If we fail to stay at the forefront of technological change, we may be unable to compete effectively. Technological advances or products developed by our competitors may render our technologies or product candidates obsolete, less competitive or not economical.

We may not be successful in establishing development and commercialization collaborations, which could adversely affect, and potentially prohibit, our ability to develop our product candidates.

Developing pharmaceutical products, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approval, establishing manufacturing capabilities and marketing approved products are expensive. Accordingly, we may seek to enter into collaborations with companies that have more resources and experience. For example, we may seek a development and commercial partner for RPC1063, particularly since the substantial costs of developing an RMS therapy in later-stage clinical trials may otherwise be prohibitive. If we are unable to obtain a partner for RPC1063, we may be unable to advance the development of RPC1063 through late-stage clinical development and seek approval in any market. In addition, although AbbVie has an option to enter into a global collaboration for RPC4046 with us following the availability of Phase 2 results in EoE, if AbbVie declines such option, we may elect to seek a different development and commercial partner for RPC4046 if we believe such Phase 2 results warrant further development. We do not intend to enter into a collaboration agreement for the development of RPC1063 unless we retain key decision-making, development and/or commercialization rights, and it may be difficult to find a suitable partner willing to share such rights. In situations where we enter into a development and commercial collaboration arrangement for a product candidate, we may also seek to establish additional collaborations for development and commercialization in territories outside of those addressed by the first collaboration arrangement for such product candidate. If any of our product candidates receives marketing approval, we may enter into sales and marketing arrangements with third parties with respect to otherwise unlicensed or unaddressed territories. There are a limited number of potential partners, and we expect to face competition in seeking appropriate partners. If we are unable to enter into any development and commercial collaborations and/or sales and marketing arrangements on acceptable terms, if at all, we may be unable to successfully develop and seek regulatory approval for our product candidates and/or effectively market and sell approved products, if any.

We may not be successful in maintaining development and commercialization collaborations, and any partner may not devote sufficient resources to the development or commercialization of our product candidates or may otherwise fail in development or commercialization efforts, which could adversely affect our ability to develop certain of our product candidates and our financial condition and operating results.

Even if we are able to establish collaboration arrangements, any such collaboration may not ultimately be successful, which could have a negative impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition and growth prospects. When we partner with a third party for development and commercialization of a product candidate, we can expect to relinquish some or all of the control over the future success of that product candidate to the third party. For example, if AbbVie elects to exercise its option to enter into a global collaboration for RPC4046 with us following the availability of Phase 2 results in EoE, AbbVie will have control of any ex-US commercialization in the event RPC4046 is approved. It is possible that a partner may not devote sufficient resources to the development or commercialization of our product candidate or may otherwise fail in development or commercialization efforts, in which event the development and commercialization of such product candidate could be delayed or terminated and our business could be substantially harmed. In addition, the terms of any collaboration or other arrangement that we establish may not be favorable to us or may not be perceived as favorable, which may negatively impact the trading price of our common stock. In some cases, we may be responsible for continuing development of a product candidate or research program under a collaboration and the payment we receive from our partner may be insufficient to cover the cost of this development. Moreover, collaborations and sales and marketing arrangements are complex and time consuming to negotiate, document and implement and they may require substantial resources to maintain.

 

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We are subject to a number of additional risks associated with our dependence on collaborations with third parties, the occurrence of which could cause our collaboration arrangements to fail. Conflicts may arise between us and partners, such as conflicts concerning the interpretation of clinical data, the achievement of milestones, the interpretation of financial provisions or the ownership of intellectual property developed during the collaboration. If any such conflicts arise, a partner could act in its own self-interest, which may be adverse to our best interests. Any such disagreement between us and a partner could result in one or more of the following, each of which could delay or prevent the development or commercialization of our product candidates, and in turn prevent us from generating sufficient revenues to achieve or maintain profitability:

 

    reductions in the payment of royalties or other payments we believe are due pursuant to the applicable collaboration arrangement;

 

    actions taken by a partner inside or outside our collaboration which could negatively impact our rights or benefits under our collaboration; or

 

    unwillingness on the part of a partner to keep us informed regarding the progress of its development and commercialization activities or to permit public disclosure of the results of those activities.

AbbVie retains rights to the antibody which is the subject of RPC4046 which could conflict with the development and commercialization of RPC4046.

RPC4046 is a recombinant, humanized, high affinity, selective anti-IL-13 monoclonal antibody. Our rights to RPC4046, which are the subject of an exclusive development agreement with AbbVie which is limited in scope to conducting a Phase 2 study of RPC4046 in EoE, do not preclude AbbVie from using the anti-IL-13 antibody in other products which are not solely specific to the IL-13 target. Whether AbbVie elects to exercise its option to enter into a global collaboration for RPC4046 with us following the availability of Phase 2 results in EoE, or in the alternative AbbVie does not elect such a collaboration and we receive an exclusive worldwide license to RPC4046 which will be unlimited as to indications, AbbVie will retain the right to use the anti-IL-13 antibody in certain other products. While we believe that any such product would necessarily be meaningfully different from RPC4046, there can be no assurance that any such product would not have certain qualities in common with or similar to RPC4046 and thus be potentially competitive with RPC4046, or that adverse events arising from the clinical development of any such product would not have an impact on the development, commercialization or potential value of RPC4046 due, for example, to such qualities. With respect to the patent portfolio for RPC4046, which is in-licensed from AbbVie, AbbVie maintains rights to prosecute and maintain patents and patent applications within the portfolio as well as to assert such patents against infringers within and outside the scope of our license, and to defend such patents against claims of invalidity and unenforceability. Although we have rights to consult with AbbVie on actions taken as well as back-up rights of prosecution and enforcement, another AbbVie product covered by the same patent portfolio, such as a different product using the anti-IL-13 antibody, could potentially influence AbbVie’s interests in the exercise of its prosecution, maintenance and enforcement rights in a manner that may favor the interests of such other product as compared with RPC4046. In addition, while the term of the composition of matter patent for RPC4046 in the US could be extended up to five additional years under the provisions of the Hatch-Waxman Act if RPC4046 achieves regulatory approval, such an extension for RPC4046 is subject to AbbVie’s consent where AbbVie does not exercise its option to enter into a global collaboration for RPC4046 with us and we instead receive an exclusive worldwide license to RPC4046. If the extension is otherwise available in such context it is possible that AbbVie would instead utilize or choose to reserve the opportunity for an extension of the composition of matter patent for a different product using the anti-IL-13 antibody, in which case we would not have the benefit of a potential extended patent term for RPC4046.

The regulatory approval processes of the FDA and comparable foreign authorities are lengthy, time consuming and inherently unpredictable, and if we are ultimately unable to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates, our business will be substantially harmed.

The time required to obtain approval by the FDA and comparable foreign authorities is unpredictable but typically takes many years following the commencement of clinical trials and depends upon numerous factors, including the substantial discretion of the regulatory authorities. In addition, approval policies, regulations, or the type and amount of clinical data necessary to gain approval may change during the course of a product candidate’s clinical development and may vary among jurisdictions. We have not obtained regulatory approval for any product candidate and it is possible that none of our existing product candidates or any product candidates we may seek to develop in the future will ever obtain regulatory approval.

Our product candidates could fail to receive regulatory approval for many reasons, including the following:

 

    the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with the design or implementation of our clinical trials;

 

    we may be unable to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities that a product candidate is safe and effective for its proposed indication;

 

    the results of clinical trials may not meet the level of statistical significance required by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities for approval;

 

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    we may be unable to demonstrate that a product candidate’s clinical and other benefits outweigh its safety risks;

 

    the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with our interpretation of data from preclinical studies or clinical trials;

 

    the data collected from clinical trials of our product candidates may not be sufficient to support the submission of an NDA, supplemental NDA (sNDA), BLA or other submission or to obtain regulatory approval in the US or elsewhere;

 

    the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may fail to approve the manufacturing processes or facilities of third-party manufacturers with which we contract for clinical and commercial supplies; and

 

    the approval policies or regulations of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may change or differ from one another significantly in a manner rendering our clinical data insufficient for approval.

This lengthy approval process as well as the unpredictability of future clinical trial results may result in our failure to obtain regulatory approval to market RPC1063 and/or RPC4046, which would harm our business, results of operations and prospects significantly.

In addition, even if we were to obtain approval, regulatory authorities may approve any of our product candidates for fewer or more limited indications than we request, may not approve the price we intend to charge for our products, may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly post-marketing clinical trials, or may approve a product candidate with a label that does not include the labeling claims necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of that product candidate. Any of the foregoing scenarios could materially harm the commercial prospects for our product candidates.

We have not previously submitted an NDA, a BLA, a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) or any similar drug approval filing to the FDA, the EMA or any comparable foreign authority for any product candidate, and we cannot be certain that any of our product candidates will be successful in clinical trials or receive regulatory approval. Further, our product candidates may not receive regulatory approval even if they are successful in clinical trials. If we do not receive regulatory approvals for our product candidates, we may not be able to continue our operations. Even if we successfully obtain regulatory approvals to market one or more of our product candidates, our revenues will be dependent, to a significant extent, upon the size of the markets in the territories for which we gain regulatory approval and have commercial rights or share in revenues from the exercise of such rights. If the markets for patient subsets that we are targeting (such as RMS, UC and EoE) are not as significant as we estimate, we may not generate significant revenues from sales of such products, if approved.

Our product candidates may cause undesirable side effects or have other properties that could delay or prevent their regulatory approval, limit the commercial profile of an approved label, or result in significant negative consequences following marketing approval, if any.

Undesirable side effects caused by our product candidates could cause us or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials and could result in a more restrictive label or the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA or other comparable foreign authorities. Results of our trials could reveal a high and unacceptable severity and prevalence of these or other side effects. In such an event, our trials could be suspended or terminated and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities could order us to cease further development of or deny approval of our product candidates for any or all targeted indications. The drug-related side effects could affect patient recruitment or the ability of enrolled patients to complete the trial or result in potential product liability claims. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, financial condition and prospects significantly.

RPC1063 is an S1PR modulator which is selective for the GPCR termed S1P1R. Upon initial treatment, S1PR modulators have been associated with a dose-dependent transient drop in heart rate that attenuates over time. During its development program, Gilenya®, a non-selective S1PR modulator, was reported to cause certain cardiovascular side effects, including abnormal slowing of the heart rate, or bradyarrhythmia, and atrioventricular (AV) blocks after first dose administration. The prescribing information for Gilenya® requires that six hours of cardiac monitoring occur upon first dose administration to observe patients for potential cardiovascular side effects. In a Phase 1 study of RPC1063, the findings we observed are consistent with the biology of S1P1R agonism, including potential dose-dependent effects on target organ systems, such as cardiovascular and pulmonary effects, with subjects treated with higher doses (such as 1.5 mg and higher) experiencing greater changes on parameters. Although pharmaceutic properties of RPC1063 including low maximum concentration (or “Cmax”), slow time to maximum concentration (or “Tmax”) and lower overall exposure may provide the potential for an improved cardiac conduction profile which may reduce risk of cardiovascular side effects, in our ongoing development of RPC1063 we are also employing a dose titration strategy to further improve patient outcomes upon first dose administration. Based on the high potency of RPC1063, we are exploring the potential for efficacy at a lower dose in an effort to further improve the cardiovascular safety profile. Despite these features and efforts, as clinical development of RPC1063 is conducted and trial results become known, it is possible the data will reveal that RPC1063 may have a cardiovascular safety profile which is no better than, and possibly inferior to, Gilenya®. Moreover, whether or not RPC1063 has an improved profile, since RPC1063 is an S1PR modulator, physicians may nonetheless associate RPC1063 with adverse cardiovascular side effects. In connection with any approval of RPC1063, cardiac monitoring may be required upon first dose administration to observe patients for potential cardiovascular side effects. Required cardiac monitoring as well as dose titration will adversely affect the convenience of prescribing RPC1063 and the initiation of patients on the therapy, if RPC1063 is approved, and may thus adversely affect the adoption and market potential of RPC1063.

 

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Common Gilenya® adverse reactions include headache, influenza, diarrhea, back pain, liver transaminase elevations and cough. In addition to the risks of bradyarrhythmia and AV blocks, prescribing information warnings and precautions for Gilenya® include risks of infection, macular edema, respiratory effects, hepatic effects (elevations in liver enzymes), fetal risk, blood pressure effects and immune system effects following discontinuation of therapy (long lymphocyte recovery time of one-to-two months). Aside from hepatic effects, we believe these reactions and risks are associated with S1PR modulation. Since RPC1063 is also an S1PR modulator, although selective for S1P1R, these adverse reactions and risks could apply to use of RPC1063. However, we believe that by virtue of its pharmaceutic properties, RPC1063 has the potential to improve upon the cardiovascular side effect profile and immune system effects following discontinuation of therapy as well as the non-class hepatic effects.

If one or more of our product candidates receives marketing approval, and we or others later identify undesirable side effects caused by such products, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including:

 

    regulatory authorities may withdraw approvals of such product;

 

    regulatory authorities may require additional warnings on the label;

 

    we may be required to create a medication guide outlining the risks of such side effects for distribution to patients;

 

    we could be sued and held liable for harm caused to patients; and

 

    our reputation may suffer.

Any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the particular product candidate, if approved, and could significantly harm our business, results of operations and prospects.

If serious adverse events or other undesirable side effects are identified during the development of RPC1063 or any other product candidate for one indication, we may need to abandon our development of RPC1063 or such other product candidate for any other indications.

We are simultaneously developing RPC1063 for both RMS and UC. When a drug candidate is in development for multiple indications, different patient populations are involved and side effects could be identified in either population. Side effects found during the development of RPC1063 or any other product candidate for one indication, particularly if severe or having unexpected characteristics, could require us to abandon our development of RPC1063 or any other product candidate at issue for other potential indications. We cannot assure you that severe or unexpected side effects with respect to RPC1063 or any other product candidate will not develop in current or future clinical trials, which could delay or preclude regulatory approval of RPC1063 or any other product candidate at issue or limit its commercial use.

We rely on third parties to conduct our preclinical and clinical trials. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidates and our business could be substantially harmed.

We have relied upon and plan to continue to rely upon CROs to monitor and manage data for our preclinical and clinical programs. We rely on these parties for execution of our preclinical and clinical trials, and we control only certain aspects of their activities. We and our CROs also rely upon clinical sites and investigators for the performance of our clinical trials in accordance with the applicable protocols and applicable legal, regulatory and scientific standards. Nevertheless, we are responsible for ensuring that each of our studies is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol and applicable legal, regulatory and scientific standards, and our reliance on CROs as well as clinical sites and investigators does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities. We, our CROs, as well as the clinical sites and investigators are required to comply with current good clinical practices (GCPs), which are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA, the Competent Authorities of the Member States of the European Economic Area (EEA) and comparable foreign regulatory authorities for all of our products in clinical development. Regulatory authorities enforce these GCPs through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, investigators and clinical sites. If we, any of our CROs or any of the clinical sites or investigators fail to comply with applicable GCPs, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the FDA, EMA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. We cannot assure you that upon inspection by a given regulatory authority, such regulatory authority will determine that any of our clinical trials comply with GCP regulations. We also cannot assure you that our CROs, as well as the clinical sites and investigators, will perform our clinical trials in accordance with the applicable protocols as well as applicable legal, regulatory and scientific standards, or report the results obtained in a timely and accurate manner. In addition to GCPs, our clinical trials must be conducted with product produced under cGMP regulations. While we have agreements governing activities of our CROs, we have limited influence over the actual performance of our CROs as well as the performance of clinical sites and investigators. In addition, significant portions of the clinical studies for our product candidates will be conducted outside of the US,

 

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which will make it more difficult for us to monitor CROs as well as clinical sites and investigators and perform visits of our clinical sites, and will force us to rely heavily on CROs to ensure the proper and timely conduct of our clinical trials in accordance with the applicable protocols and compliance with applicable regulations, including GCPs. Failure to comply with applicable protocols and regulations in the conduct of the clinical studies for our product candidates may require us to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process.

Some of our CROs have an ability to terminate their respective agreements with us if it can be reasonably demonstrated that the safety of the subjects participating in our clinical trials warrants such termination, if we make a general assignment for the benefit of our creditors or if we are liquidated.

If any of our relationships with these CROs terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative CROs or to do so on commercially reasonable terms. In addition, our CROs are not our employees, and except for remedies available to us under our agreements with such CROs, we cannot control whether or not they devote sufficient time and resources to our preclinical and clinical programs. If CROs do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations or meet expected deadlines, if they need to be replaced, or if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure (including by clinical sites or investigators) to adhere to our clinical protocols, regulatory requirements or for other reasons, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or successfully commercialize our product candidates. As a result, our results of operations and the commercial prospects for our product candidates would be harmed, our costs could increase substantially and our ability to generate revenues could be delayed significantly.

Switching or adding additional CROs involves additional cost and requires management time and focus. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new CRO commences work. As a result, delays occur, which can materially impact our ability to meet our desired clinical development timelines. Though we carefully manage our relationships with our CROs, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter challenges or delays in the future or that these delays or challenges will not have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and prospects.

We rely completely on third parties to manufacture our preclinical and clinical drug supplies and we intend to rely on third parties to produce commercial supplies of any approved product candidate.

If, for any reason, we were to experience an unexpected loss of supply of our product candidates or placebo or comparator drug used in certain of our clinical trials, whether as a result of manufacturing, supply or storage issues or otherwise, we could experience delays, disruptions, suspensions or terminations of, or be required to restart or repeat, any pending or ongoing clinical trials. We do not currently have, nor do we plan to acquire, the infrastructure or capability internally to manufacture our preclinical and clinical drug supplies and we lack the resources and the capability to manufacture any of our product candidates on a clinical or commercial scale. The facilities used by our contract manufacturers or other third-party manufacturers to manufacture our product candidates must be approved by the FDA pursuant to inspections that will be conducted after we submit our NDA to the FDA. We do not control the implementation of the manufacturing process of, and are completely dependent on, our contract manufacturers or other third-party manufacturers for compliance with the regulatory requirements, known as cGMPs, for manufacture of both active drug substances and finished drug products. If our contract manufacturers or other third-party manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to applicable specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA or others, they will not be able to secure and/or maintain regulatory approval for their manufacturing facilities. In addition, we have no control over the ability of our contract manufacturers or other third-party manufacturers to maintain adequate quality control, quality assurance and qualified personnel. If the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority does not approve these facilities for the manufacture of our product candidates or if it withdraws any such approval in the future, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which would significantly impact our ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for or market our product candidates, if approved.

We rely on our manufacturers to purchase from third-party suppliers the materials necessary to produce our product candidates for our clinical trials. There are a limited number of suppliers for raw materials that we use to manufacture our drugs and there may be a need to assess alternate suppliers to prevent a possible disruption of the manufacture of the materials necessary to produce our product candidates for our clinical trials, and if approved, for commercial sale. We do not have any control over the process or timing of the acquisition of these raw materials by our manufacturers. Moreover, we currently do not have any agreements for the commercial production of these raw materials. Although we generally do not begin a clinical trial unless we believe we have access to a sufficient supply of a product candidate to complete the clinical trial, any significant delay in the supply of a product candidate, or the raw material components thereof, for an ongoing clinical trial due to the need to replace a contract manufacturer or other third-party manufacturer could considerably delay completion of our clinical trials, product testing and potential regulatory approval of our product candidates. If our manufacturers or we are unable to purchase these raw materials after regulatory approval has been obtained for our product candidates, the commercial launch of our product candidates would be delayed or there would be a shortage in supply, which would impair our ability to generate revenues from the sale of our product candidates. Additionally, if we receive regulatory approval for our product candidates, we may experience unforeseen difficulties or challenges in the manufacture of our product candidates on a commercial scale compared to the manufacture for clinical purposes.

We have an open IND for our RPC4046 development program and plan to initiate a Phase 2 trial in EoE. As part of our Development License and Option Agreement, AbbVie has agreed to manufacture quantities of RPC4046 drug substance and drug product needed for preclinical and clinical studies, including the planned Phase 2 study of RPC4046 in EoE. Should AbbVie elect at

 

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its option to enter into a collaboration with us following the completion of the planned Phase 2 trial of RPC4046 in EoE, AbbVie can elect to manufacture and supply the collaboration with RPC4046 or effect technology transfer to a third-party manufacturer to supply the collaboration. If AbbVie does not exercise its option to collaborate, the parties will either agree on the terms for AbbVie to supply RPC4046 to us or AbbVie will effect technology transfer to a third-party manufacturer. If technology transfer occurs in either scenario, and if we or AbbVie are unable to arrange for such a third-party manufacturing source or fail to do so on commercially reasonable terms, or if AbbVie fails to supply RPC4046 on a timely basis, any ability to develop and commercialize RPC4046 will be adversely affected. Additionally, an inability to effect technology transfer in a timely fashion will impact the pace and potential success of our development efforts as well as our prospects for potential commercialization.

We expect to continue to depend on contract manufacturers or other third-party manufacturers for the foreseeable future. We currently obtain our supplies of finished drug product through individual purchase orders. We have not entered into long-term agreements with our current contract manufacturers or with any alternate fill/finish suppliers. Although we intend to do so prior to any commercial launch in order to ensure that we maintain adequate supplies of finished drug product, we may be unable to enter into such an agreement or do so on commercially reasonable terms, which could have a material adverse impact upon our business.

We rely on clinical data and results obtained by third parties that could ultimately prove to be inaccurate or unreliable.

As part of our strategy to mitigate development risk, we seek to develop product candidates with validated mechanisms of action and we utilize biomarkers to assess potential clinical efficacy early in the development process. This strategy necessarily relies upon clinical data and other results obtained by third parties that may ultimately prove to be inaccurate or unreliable. Further, such clinical data and results may, at times, be based on products or product candidates that are significantly different from our product candidates. If the third-party data and results we rely upon prove to be inaccurate, unreliable or not applicable to our product candidates, we could make inaccurate assumptions and conclusions about our product candidates and our research and development efforts could be materially adversely affected.

Even if we receive regulatory approval for any of our product candidates, we will be subject to ongoing obligations and continued regulatory review, which may result in significant additional expense. Additionally, our product candidates, if approved, could be subject to labeling and other restrictions and market withdrawal and we may be subject to penalties if we fail to comply with regulatory requirements or experience unanticipated problems with our products.

Any regulatory approvals that we receive for our product candidates may also be subject to limitations on the approved indicated uses for which the product may be marketed or to the conditions of approval, or contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing testing, including Phase 4 clinical trials, and surveillance to monitor the safety and efficacy of the product candidate. For example, the prescribing information for Gilenya® requires that six hours of cardiac monitoring occur upon first dose administration to observe patients for potential cardiovascular side effects. In connection with any approval of RPC1063, cardiac monitoring may be required upon first dose administration. Required cardiac monitoring will adversely affect the convenience of prescribing RPC1063 and the initiation of patients on the therapy, if RPC1063 is approved, and may thus adversely affect the adoption and market potential of RPC1063.

If the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority approves any of our product candidates, the manufacturing processes, labeling, packaging, distribution, adverse event reporting, storage, advertising, promotion and recordkeeping for the product will be subject to extensive and ongoing regulatory requirements. These requirements include submissions of safety and other post-marketing information and reports, registration requirements and continued compliance with cGMPs and GCPs for any clinical trials that we conduct post-approval. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or with our third-party manufacturers or manufacturing processes, or failure to comply with regulatory requirements, may result in, among other things:

 

    restrictions on the marketing or manufacturing of the product, withdrawal of the product from the market, or voluntary or mandatory product recalls;

 

    fines, warning letters or holds on clinical trials;

 

    refusal by the FDA to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications filed by us, or suspension or revocation of product license approvals;

 

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

 

    injunctions or the imposition of civil or criminal penalties.

The FDA’s policies may change and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of our product candidates. If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing approval that we may have obtained, which would adversely affect our business, prospects and ability to achieve or sustain profitability.

 

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We currently have no marketing and sales organization. To the extent any of our product candidates for which we maintain commercial rights is approved for marketing, if we are unable to establish marketing and sales capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to market and sell our product candidates, we may not be able to effectively market and sell any product candidates, or generate product revenues.

We currently do not have a marketing or sales organization for the marketing, sales and distribution of pharmaceutical products. In order to commercialize any product candidates that receive marketing approval, we would have to build marketing, sales, distribution, managerial and other non-technical capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services, and we may not be successful in doing so. In the event of successful development of RPC1063 and/or RPC4046, we may elect to build a targeted specialty sales force which will be expensive and time consuming. Any failure or delay in the development of our internal sales, marketing and distribution capabilities would adversely impact the commercialization of these products. With respect to our product candidates, we may choose to partner with third parties that have direct sales forces and established distribution systems, either to augment our own sales force and distribution systems or in lieu of our own sales force and distribution systems. In the instance of RPC4046, should AbbVie elect to enter into a collaboration with us following completion of the planned Phase 2 trial of RPC4046 in EoE, then we will have co-promotion and commercialization rights with AbbVie in the US with AbbVie having control of commercialization outside the US. If we are unable to enter into collaborations with third parties for the commercialization of approved products, if any, on acceptable terms or at all, or if any such partner (including AbbVie if it exercises its option to collaboration with us on RPC4046) does not devote sufficient resources to the commercialization of our product or otherwise fails in commercialization efforts, we may not be able to successfully commercialize any of our product candidates that receive regulatory approval. If we are not successful in commercializing our product candidates, either on our own or through collaborations with one or more third parties, our future revenue will be materially and adversely impacted.

Although we have obtained SPA agreements for the Phase 3 portion of our Phase 2/3 study of RPC1063 for RMS as well as a second planned Phase 3 study of RPC1063 in RMS, these agreements do not guarantee any particular outcome from regulatory review of these trials of RPC1063.

We have obtained SPA agreements from the FDA for the Phase 3 portion of our Phase 2/3 study of RPC1063 for RMS (called RADIANCE) as well as a second planned Phase 3 study of RPC1063 in RMS. The FDA’s SPA process creates a written agreement between the sponsoring company and the FDA regarding clinical trial design and other clinical trial issues that can be used to support approval of a product candidate. The SPA is intended to provide the sponsoring company with assurance that if the agreed upon clinical trial protocols are followed and the clinical trial endpoints are achieved, the data may serve as the primary basis for an efficacy claim in support of an NDA. However, SPA agreements are not a guarantee of an approval of a product candidate or any permissible claims about the product candidate. In particular, SPA agreements are not binding on the FDA if previously unrecognized public health concerns arise during the performance of the clinical trial, if other new scientific concerns regarding product candidate safety or efficacy arise or if the sponsoring company fails to comply with the agreed upon clinical trial protocols. SPA agreements do not address all of the variables and details that may go into planning for or conducting a clinical trial, and any change in the protocol for a clinical trial can invalidate the SPA agreement unless the change is intended to improve the clinical trial at issue and the FDA agrees in writing prior to implementation. A protocol change entails a resubmission to the FDA and triggers a new cycle of FDA review which is not limited to the change. In the event of a resubmission, there can be no assurance that the FDA will agree with the proposed changes or that delays in the applicable development program will not occur as a result. Moreover, there can be no assurance that the FDA will ultimately consider either of our SPA agreements to be binding, in which event the FDA could assert that additional data, including data obtained through one or more additional clinical trials, may be required to support a regulatory submission. In addition, while an SPA agreement addresses the requirements for submission of an NDA, the results of the related clinical trial(s) may not support FDA approval.

Our revenues to date have been generated through our collaboration agreements and we may not receive any additional revenues under such agreements.

To date, our sources of revenue have been the upfront and milestone payments received under now-concluded collaborations utilizing our proprietary GPCR platform with Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co., as well as a completed collaboration and ongoing technology transfer program with Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. We do not expect to receive further payments pursuant to the collaborations with Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly. Additional payments under the collaboration with Ono Pharmaceuticals are based on the achievement of various research, development and technology transfer milestones. Future payments from Ono Pharmaceuticals are uncertain because the nature of the research, development and technology transfer activities is inherently uncertain, and Ono Pharmaceuticals may choose not to pursue activities that would support achievement of the milestones. If we do not receive any further milestone payments from Ono Pharmaceuticals and we are unable to enter into new collaborations utilizing our proprietary GPCR platform, then our reliance on other potential sources of funding for our operations will be increased. Financing from such other potential sources may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all.

 

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Our commercial success depends upon attaining significant market acceptance of our product candidates, if approved, among physicians, healthcare payors, patients and the medical community.

Even if we obtain regulatory approval for one or more of our product candidates, the product may not gain market acceptance among physicians, healthcare payors, patients and the medical community, which is critical to commercial success. Market acceptance of any product candidate for which we receive approval depends on a number of factors, including:

 

    the efficacy and safety as demonstrated in clinical trials;

 

    the timing of market introduction of the product candidate as well as competitive products;

 

    the clinical indications for which the product candidate is approved;

 

    acceptance by physicians, the medical community and patients of the product candidate as a safe and effective treatment;

 

    the convenience of prescribing and initiating patients on the product candidate, which may be adversely affected in the instance of RPC1063 by dose titration as well as cardiac monitoring upon first dose administration;

 

    the potential and perceived advantages of such product candidate over alternative treatments;

 

    the cost of treatment in relation to alternative treatments, including any similar generic treatments;

 

    the availability of coverage and adequate reimbursement and pricing by third-party payors and government authorities;

 

    relative convenience and ease of administration;

 

    the prevalence and severity of adverse side effects; and

 

    the effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts.

If our product candidates are approved but fail to achieve an adequate level of acceptance by physicians, healthcare payors, patients and the medical community, we will not be able to generate significant revenues, and we may not become or remain profitable.

Even if we obtain and maintain approval for any of our product candidates from the FDA, we may never obtain approval for such product candidates outside of the US, which would limit our market opportunities and adversely affect our business.

Sales of our product candidates outside of the US will be subject to foreign regulatory requirements governing clinical trials and marketing approval and, to the extent that we retain commercial rights following clinical development, we would plan to seek regulatory approval to commercialize our product candidates in the US, the EU and additional foreign countries. Even if the FDA grants marketing approval for a product candidate, comparable regulatory authorities of foreign countries must also approve the manufacturing and marketing of the product candidates in those countries. Approval procedures vary among jurisdictions and can involve requirements and administrative review periods different from, and greater than, those in the US, including additional preclinical studies or clinical trials. In many countries outside the US, a product candidate must be approved for reimbursement before it can be approved for sale in that country. In some cases, the price that we intend to charge for our products is also subject to approval. We may decide to submit an MAA to the EMA for approval in the EEA. As with the FDA, obtaining approval of an MAA from the EMA is a similarly lengthy and expensive process and the EMA has its own procedures for approval of product candidates. Even if a product is approved, the FDA or the EMA, as the case may be, may limit the indications for which the product may be marketed, require extensive warnings on the product labeling or require expensive and time-consuming clinical trials or reporting as conditions of approval. Regulatory authorities in countries outside of the US and the EEA also have requirements for approval of drug candidates with which we must comply prior to marketing in those countries. Obtaining foreign regulatory approvals and compliance with foreign regulatory requirements could result in significant delays, difficulties and costs for us and could delay or prevent the introduction of our products in certain countries. Further, clinical trials conducted in one country may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other countries and regulatory approval in one country does not ensure approval in any other country, while a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one country may have a negative effect on the regulatory approval process in others. Also, regulatory approval for any of our product candidates may be withdrawn. If we fail to comply with the regulatory requirements in international markets and or receive applicable marketing approvals, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of our product candidates will be harmed and our business will be adversely affected.

Coverage and reimbursement decisions by third-party payors may have an adverse effect on pricing and market acceptance. Recent legislative and regulatory activity may exert downward pressure on potential pricing and reimbursement for any of our product candidates, if approved, that could materially affect the opportunity to commercialize.

There is significant uncertainty related to the third-party coverage and reimbursement of newly approved drugs. To the extent that we retain commercial rights following clinical development, we would seek approval to market our product candidates in the US, the EU and other selected foreign jurisdictions. Market acceptance and sales of our product candidates, if approved, in both domestic and international markets will depend significantly on the availability of adequate coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors for any of our product candidates and may be affected by existing and future healthcare reform measures. Government

 

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authorities and third-party payors, such as private health insurers and health maintenance organizations, decide which drugs they will cover and establish payment levels. We cannot be certain that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be available for any of our product candidates, if approved. Also, we cannot be certain that reimbursement policies will not reduce the demand for, or the price paid for, any of our product candidates, if approved. If reimbursement is not available or is available on a limited basis for any of our product candidates, if approved, we may not be able to successfully commercialize any such product candidate. Reimbursement by a third-party payor may depend upon a number of factors, including, without limitation, the third-party payor’s determination that use of a product is:

 

    a covered benefit under its health plan;

 

    safe, effective and medically necessary;

 

    appropriate for the specific patient;

 

    cost-effective; and

 

    neither experimental nor investigational.

Obtaining coverage and reimbursement approval 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 or to have pricing set at a satisfactory level. If reimbursement of our future products, if any, is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels such as may result where alternative or generic treatments are available, we may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability.

In some foreign countries, particularly in the EU, the pricing of prescription pharmaceuticals is subject to governmental control. In these countries, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after the receipt of marketing approval for a product candidate. To obtain reimbursement or pricing approval in some countries, we may be required to conduct additional clinical trials that compare the cost-effectiveness of our product candidates to other available therapies. If reimbursement of any of our product candidates, if approved, is unavailable or limited in scope or amount in a particular country, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels, we may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability of our products in such country.

In the US, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) changed the way Medicare covers and pays for pharmaceutical products. The legislation established Medicare Part D, which expanded Medicare coverage for outpatient prescription drug purchases by the elderly but provided authority for limiting the number of drugs that will be covered in any therapeutic class. The MMA also introduced a new reimbursement methodology based on average sales prices for physician-administered drugs. Any negotiated prices for any of our product candidates, if approved, covered by a Part D prescription drug plan will likely be lower than the prices we might otherwise obtain outside of the Medicare Part D prescription drug plan. Moreover, while Medicare Part D applies only to drug benefits for Medicare beneficiaries, private payors often follow Medicare coverage policy and payment limitations in setting their own payment rates. Any reduction in payment under Medicare Part D may result in a similar reduction in payments from non-governmental payors.

The US and several other jurisdictions are considering, or have already enacted, a number of legislative and regulatory proposals to change the healthcare system in ways that could affect our ability to sell any of our product candidates profitably, if approved. Among policy-makers and payors in the US and elsewhere, there is significant interest in promoting changes in healthcare systems with the stated goals of containing healthcare costs, improving quality and/or expanding access to healthcare. In the US, the pharmaceutical industry has been a particular focus of these efforts and has been significantly affected by major legislative initiatives. There have been, and likely will continue to be, legislative and regulatory proposals at the federal and state levels directed at broadening the availability of healthcare and containing or lowering the cost of healthcare. We cannot predict the initiatives that may be adopted in the future. The continuing efforts of the government, insurance companies, managed care organizations and other payors of healthcare services to contain or reduce costs of healthcare may adversely affect:

 

    the demand for any of our product candidates, if approved;

 

    the ability to set a price that we believe is fair for any of our product candidates, if approved;

 

    our ability to generate revenues and achieve or maintain profitability;

 

    the level of taxes that we are required to pay; and

 

    the availability of capital.

 

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In 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act (collectively, ACA), became law in the US. The goal of ACA is to reduce the cost of healthcare and substantially change the way healthcare is financed by both governmental and private insurers. The ACA may result in downward pressure on pharmaceutical reimbursement, which could negatively affect market acceptance of any of our product candidates, if they are approved. Provisions of ACA relevant to the pharmaceutical industry include the following:

 

    an annual, nondeductible fee on any entity that manufactures or imports certain branded prescription drugs and biologic agents, apportioned among these entities according to their market share in certain government healthcare programs;

 

    an increase in the rebates a manufacturer must pay under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program to 23.1% and 13% of the average manufacturer price for branded and generic drugs, respectively;

 

    a new Medicare Part D coverage gap discount program, in which manufacturers must agree to offer 50% point-of-sale discounts on negotiated prices of applicable brand drugs to eligible beneficiaries during their coverage gap period, as a condition for the manufacturer’s outpatient drugs to be covered under Medicare Part D;

 

    extension of manufacturers’ Medicaid rebate liability to covered drugs dispensed to individuals who are enrolled in Medicaid managed care organizations;

 

    expansion of eligibility criteria for Medicaid programs by, among other things, allowing states to offer Medicaid coverage to additional individuals and by adding new mandatory eligibility categories for certain individuals with income at or below 133% of the Federal Poverty Level beginning in 2014, thereby potentially increasing manufacturers’ Medicaid rebate liability;

 

    expansion of the entities eligible for discounts under the Public Health Service pharmaceutical pricing program;

 

    new requirements under the federal Open Payments program and its implementing regulations;

 

    expansion of healthcare fraud and abuse laws, including the federal False Claims Act and the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, new government investigative powers and enhanced penalties for noncompliance;

 

    a licensure framework for follow-on biologic products; and

 

    a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to oversee, identify priorities in and conduct comparative clinical effectiveness research, along with funding for such research.

In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since ACA was enacted. These changes include aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year, which went into effect in April 2013. In January 2013, President Obama signed into law the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which, among other things, reduced Medicare payments to several types of providers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years. These new laws may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other healthcare funding.

Our future success depends on our ability to retain our executive officers and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel. If we are not successful in attracting and retaining highly qualified personnel, we may not be able to successfully implement our business strategy.

Our industry has experienced a high rate of turnover of management personnel in recent years. Our ability to compete in the highly competitive biotechnology and pharmaceuticals industries depends upon our ability to attract and retain highly qualified managerial, scientific and medical personnel. We are highly dependent on our management, scientific and medical personnel, especially Faheem Hasnain, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Graham Cooper, our Chief Financial Officer, Sheila Gujrathi, our Chief Medical Officer, Marcus Boehm, our Chief Technology Officer, Robert Peach, our Chief Scientific Officer, Chrysa Mineo, our Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, and Christian Waage, our Senior Vice President and General Counsel, whose services are critical to the successful implementation of our product candidate acquisition, development and regulatory strategies. We are not aware of any present intention of any of these individuals to leave our company. In order to induce valuable employees to continue their employment with us, we have provided stock options that vest over time. The value to employees of stock options that vest over time is significantly affected by movements in our stock price that are beyond our control, and may at any time be insufficient to counteract more lucrative offers from other companies.

Despite our efforts to retain valuable employees, members of our management, scientific and development teams may terminate their employment with us at any time, with or without notice. The loss of the services of any of our executive officers or other key employees and our inability to find suitable replacements could harm our business, financial condition and prospects. Our success also depends on our ability to continue to attract, retain and motivate highly skilled junior, mid-level, and senior managers as well as junior, mid-level, and senior scientific and medical personnel.

We may not be able to attract or retain qualified management and scientific personnel in the future due to the intense competition for a limited number of qualified personnel among biopharmaceutical, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and other businesses. Many of the other pharmaceutical companies that we compete against for qualified personnel have greater financial and other resources, different risk profiles and a longer history in the industry than we do. They also may provide more diverse

 

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opportunities and better chances for career advancement. Some of these characteristics may be more appealing to high quality candidates than what we have to offer. If we are unable to continue to attract and retain high quality personnel, the rate and success at which we can develop and commercialize product candidates will be limited.

We will need to grow the size of our organization, and we may experience difficulties in managing this growth.

As of June 30, 2014, we had 47 full-time employees. As our development and commercialization plans and strategies develop, we expect to need additional managerial, operational, scientific, sales, marketing, financial and other resources. Future growth would impose significant added responsibilities on members of management, including:

 

    managing our clinical trials effectively;

 

    identifying, recruiting, maintaining, motivating and integrating additional employees;

 

    managing our internal development efforts effectively while complying with our contractual obligations to licensors, licensees, contractors and other third parties;

 

    improving our managerial, development, operational and finance systems; and

 

    expanding our facilities.

As our operations expand, we expect that we will need to manage additional relationships with various strategic partners, suppliers and other third parties. Our future financial performance and our ability to commercialize our product candidates and to compete effectively will depend, in part, on our ability to manage any future growth effectively. To that end, we must be able to hire, train and integrate additional management, scientific, administrative and sales and marketing personnel. We may not be able to accomplish these tasks, and our failure to accomplish any of them could prevent us from successfully growing our company.

If we engage in an acquisition, reorganization or business combination, we will incur a variety of risks that could adversely affect our business operations or our stockholders.

From time to time we have considered, and we will continue to consider in the future, strategic business initiatives intended to further expand and develop our business. These initiatives may include acquiring businesses, technologies or products or entering into a business combination with another company. If we pursue such a strategy, we could, among other things:

 

    issue equity securities that would dilute our stockholders;

 

    incur substantial debt that may place strains on our operations;

 

    spend substantial operational, financial and management resources to integrate new businesses, technologies and products;

 

    assume substantial actual or contingent liabilities;

 

    reprioritize our development programs and even cease development and commercialization of our product candidates; or

 

    merge with, or otherwise enter into a business combination with, another company in which our stockholders would receive cash and/or shares of the other company on terms that certain of our stockholders may not deem desirable.

Although we intend to evaluate and consider acquisitions, reorganizations and business combinations in the future, we have no agreements or understandings with respect to any acquisition, reorganization or business combination at this time.

Failure to build our finance infrastructure and improve our accounting systems and controls could impair our ability to comply with the financial reporting and internal controls requirements for publicly traded companies and our ability to accurately report our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the value of our common stock.

As a public company, we operate in an increasingly demanding regulatory environment, which requires us to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Sarbanes-Oxley Act), and the related rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), expanded disclosure requirements, accelerated reporting requirements and more complex accounting rules. Requirements under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act include establishing corporate oversight and adequate internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. Effective internal controls are necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports and are important to help prevent financial fraud.

We are continuing to implement upgrades to our system of internal controls over financial reporting and preparing the documentation necessary to perform and document the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We anticipate that we will need to continue building upon our financial infrastructure, enhancing internal controls and training our financial and accounting staff.

 

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We are required to perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal controls over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Additionally, at the time we file our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, we will be deemed a large accelerated filer under the rules of the SEC and will no longer be an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (JOBS Act). As a result, we will be required to obtain from our independent registered public accounting firm an attestation report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Our testing, or the subsequent testing by our independent registered public accounting firm, may reveal deficiencies in our internal controls over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses. Our compliance with Section 404 will require that we incur substantial accounting expense and expend significant management efforts. If we identify, or our independent registered public accounting firm identifies, deficiencies in our internal controls over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, the market price of our stock could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the NASDAQ Stock Market (NASDAQ), the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources. New laws and regulations as well as changes to existing laws and regulations affecting public companies, including the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and rules adopted by the SEC and by NASDAQ, would likely result in increased costs to us as we respond to these requirements.

If we cannot prepare and disclose, in a timely manner, our consolidated financial statements and other required disclosures or comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act or existing or new reporting requirements, or if we cannot prevent fraud, our business and results of operations could be harmed and investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information.

If we fail to comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur costs that could have a material adverse effect on the success of our business.

We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures and the handling, use, storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. Our operations involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological materials. Our operations also produce hazardous waste products. We generally contract with third parties for the disposal of these materials and wastes. We cannot eliminate the risk of contamination or injury from these materials. In the event of contamination or injury resulting from our use of hazardous materials, we could be held liable for any resulting damages, and any liability could exceed our resources. We also could incur significant costs associated with civil or criminal fines and penalties.

Although we maintain workers’ compensation insurance to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees resulting from the use of hazardous materials or other work-related injuries, this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. In addition, we may incur substantial costs in order to comply with current or future environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. These current or future laws and regulations may impair our research, development or production efforts. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations also may result in substantial fines, penalties or other sanctions.

Any future relationships with customers and third-party payors may be subject, directly or indirectly, to applicable anti-kickback laws, fraud and abuse laws, false claims laws, health information privacy and security laws and other healthcare laws and regulations, which could expose us to criminal sanctions, civil penalties, contractual damages, reputational harm, administrative burdens and diminished profits and future earnings.

If we obtain FDA approval for any of our product candidates and begin commercializing those products in the US, our future arrangements with third-party payors and customers may expose us to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations that may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we market, sell and distribute any products for which we obtain marketing approval. In addition, we may be subject to health information privacy and security regulation by the federal government and by the US states and foreign jurisdictions in which we conduct our business. The laws that may affect our ability to operate include:

 

    the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, persons from knowingly and willfully soliciting, receiving, offering or paying remuneration, directly or indirectly, to induce, or in return for, either the referral of an individual, or the purchase or recommendation of an item or service for which payment may be made under a federal healthcare program, such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs;

 

    federal civil and criminal false claims laws and civil monetary penalty laws, including the federal False Claims Act, which impose criminal and civil penalties against individuals or entities for knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, to the federal government, including the Medicare and Medicaid programs, claims for payment that are false or fraudulent or making a false statement to avoid, decrease or conceal an obligation to pay money to the federal government;

 

    the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which created new federal criminal statutes that prohibit executing a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program and making false statements relating to healthcare matters;

 

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    HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH), and their respective implementing regulations, which imposes certain obligations, including mandatory contractual terms, on covered healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses, as well as their business associates, with respect to safeguarding the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information; and

 

    analogous state and foreign laws and regulations, such as state anti-kickback and false claims laws, which may apply to sales or marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by non-governmental third-party payors, including private insurers, and state and foreign laws governing the privacy and security of health information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts.

Efforts to ensure that our business arrangements with third parties will comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations may involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices may not comply with current or future statutes, regulations or case law involving applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these laws or any other governmental regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, including, without limitation, damages, fines, imprisonment, exclusion from participation in government funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. If any of the physicians or other healthcare providers or entities with whom we expect to do business is found to be not in compliance with applicable laws, it may be subject to criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from participation in government funded healthcare programs.

If product liability lawsuits are brought against us, we may incur substantial liabilities and may be required to limit commercialization of any of our product candidates, if approved.

We face an inherent risk of product liability as a result of the clinical testing of our product candidates and will face an even greater risk if we commercialize any products. For example, we may be sued if any product we develop allegedly causes injury or is found to be otherwise unsuitable during product testing, manufacturing, marketing or sale. Any such product liability claims may include allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a failure to warn of dangers inherent in the product, negligence, strict liability and a breach of warranties. Claims could also be asserted under state consumer protection acts. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we may incur substantial liabilities or be required to stop development or, if approved, limit commercialization of our product candidates. Even successful defense would require significant financial and management resources. Regardless of the merits or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:

 

    delay or termination of clinical studies;

 

    injury to our reputation;

 

    withdrawal of clinical trial participants;

 

    initiation of investigations by regulators;

 

    costs to defend the related litigation;

 

    a diversion of management’s time and our resources;

 

    substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;

 

    decreased demand for our product candidates;

 

    product recalls, withdrawals or labeling, marketing or promotional restrictions;

 

    loss of revenues from product sales; and

 

    the inability to commercialize any our product candidates, if approved.

Our inability to obtain and retain sufficient product liability insurance at an acceptable cost to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the development or commercialization of our product candidates. We currently carry clinical trial liability insurance at levels which we believe are appropriate for our clinical trials. Although we maintain such insurance, any claim that may be brought against us could result in a court judgment or settlement in an amount that is not covered, in whole or in part, by our insurance or that is in excess of the limits of our insurance coverage. Our insurance policies also have various exclusions, and we may be subject to a product liability claim for which we have no coverage. We will have to pay any amounts awarded by a court or negotiated in a settlement that exceed our coverage limitations or that are not covered by our insurance, and we may not have, or be able to obtain, sufficient capital to pay such amounts.

 

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We are conducting a substantial portion of the clinical trials for our product candidates outside of the US. If approved, we intend to market our product candidates abroad. We will thus be subject to the risks of doing business outside of the US.

We are conducting a substantial portion of our clinical trials outside of the US and, if approved, we intend to market our product candidates outside of the US. We are thus subject to risks associated with doing business outside of the US. With respect to our product candidates, we may choose to partner with third parties that have direct sales forces and established distribution systems, either to augment our own sales force and distribution systems outside of the US or in lieu of our own sales force and distribution systems, which would indirectly expose us to these risks. Our business and financial results in the future could be adversely affected due to a variety of factors associated with conducting development and marketing of our product candidates, if approved, outside of the US, including:

 

    efforts to develop an international sales, marketing and distribution organization may increase our expenses, divert our management’s attention from the acquisition or development of product candidates or cause us to forgo profitable licensing opportunities in these geographies;

 

    changes in a specific country’s or region’s political and cultural climate or economic condition;

 

    unexpected changes in foreign laws and regulatory requirements;

 

    difficulty of effective enforcement of contractual provisions in local jurisdictions;

 

    inadequate intellectual property protection in foreign countries;

 

    trade-protection measures, import or export licensing requirements such as Export Administration Regulations promulgated by the US Department of Commerce and fines, penalties or suspension or revocation of export privileges;

 

    regulations under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar foreign anti-corruption laws;

 

    the effects of applicable foreign tax structures and potentially adverse tax consequences; and

 

    significant adverse changes in foreign currency exchange rates which could make the cost of our clinical trials, or the cost of drug supply or comparator drug supply to the extent conducted or sourced outside of the US, more expensive.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

If our efforts to protect the proprietary nature of the intellectual property related to our technologies are not adequate, we may not be able to compete effectively in our market.

We rely upon a combination of patents, trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect the intellectual property related to our technologies. Any disclosure to or misappropriation by third parties of our confidential proprietary information could enable competitors to quickly duplicate or surpass our technological achievements, thus eroding our competitive position in our market.

The strength of patents in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical field involves complex legal and scientific questions and can be uncertain. The patent applications that we own or license may fail to result in issued patents in the US or in other foreign countries. Even if patents have issued, or do successfully issue, from patent applications, third parties may challenge the validity, enforceability or scope thereof, which may result in such patents being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable. Furthermore, even if they are unchallenged, our patents and patent applications may not adequately protect our intellectual property or prevent others from designing around our claims. If the breadth or strength of protection provided by the patents and patent applications we hold, license or pursue with respect to our product candidates is threatened, it could threaten our ability to commercialize our product candidates. Further, if we encounter delays in our clinical trials, the period of time during which we could market any of our product candidates under patent protection, if approved, would be reduced. Since patent applications in the US and most other countries are confidential for a period of time after filing, we cannot be certain that we or our licensors were the first to file any patent application related to our product candidates. Furthermore, an interference proceeding can be provoked by a third party or instituted by the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to determine who was the first to invent any of the subject matter covered by the patent claims of our applications.

The patent portfolio for RPC1063 contains patents and patent applications directed to compositions of matter for RPC1063 and multiple chemical scaffolds as well as certain of their metabolites, synthetic intermediates, manufacturing methods, and methods of use. As of June 30, 2014, we owned or had exclusive license (from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI)) to six issued US patents and six pending US patent applications as well as corresponding foreign patents and patent applications issued or pending in Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, Mexico, Eurasia, South Korea, China, New Zealand, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Brazil, India, Israel, and South Africa. We expect the composition of matter patent for RPC1063 (which is in-licensed from TSRI), if the appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees are paid, to expire in 2029 (worldwide). It is possible, assuming RPC1063 achieves regulatory approval, that the term of the composition of matter patent in the US may be extended up to a maximum of five additional years under the provisions of the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984 (Hatch-Waxman Act). Patent term extension may similarly be available in certain foreign countries upon regulatory approval. We expect the other patents and patent applications in this portfolio, if issued, and if the appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity, or other governmental fees are paid, to expire from 2030 to 2032.

 

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The patent portfolio for RPC4046, which is in-licensed from AbbVie, contains issued patents and pending patent applications directed to compositions of matter for RPC4046 and certain of their methods of use. As of June 30, 2014, this in-licensed portfolio consisted of two issued US patents, one pending US patent application, and corresponding foreign pending patent applications in Europe, Japan, China, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Norway, Korea, Russia, and Costa Rica. We expect the issued composition of matter patent in the US, if the appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees are paid, to expire in 2028. It is possible, assuming RPC4046 achieves regulatory approval, that the term of the composition of matter patent in the US may be extended up to five additional years under the provisions of the Hatch-Waxman Act, although such an extension is subject to AbbVie’s consent where AbbVie does not exercise its option to enter into a global collaboration for RPC4046 with us and we instead receive an exclusive worldwide license to RPC4046, and thus the possibility that AbbVie utilizes or chooses to reserve the opportunity for an extension of that patent in such context for a different drug. We expect the pending foreign patent applications in the portfolio, if issued, and if the appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity, or other governmental fees are paid, to expire in 2027. Patent term extension may similarly be available, also subject to AbbVie’s consent, in certain foreign countries upon regulatory approval.

The patent portfolio for our GLP-1R PAMs program contains pending patent applications directed to certain compositions of matter for multiple chemical scaffolds as well as one issued patent directed to certain methods of use. As of June 30, 2014, we owned one issued US patent and five pending US patent applications and corresponding foreign patent applications, including one pending PCT application as well as applications pending in Europe and Japan. We expect the composition of matter patents in the US, if issued from the pending patent applications and if the appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees are paid, to expire from 2031 to 2032. It is possible that the term of the composition of matter patents in the US, if issued, may be extended up to a maximum of five additional years under the provisions of the Hatch-Waxman Act if a clinical candidate covered by such a patent is selected for development and subsequently receives regulatory approval. We expect the corresponding foreign patent applications in the portfolio, if issued, and if the appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity, or other governmental fees are paid, to expire from 2031 to 2032. Patent term extension may similarly be available in certain foreign countries upon regulatory approval.

The patent portfolio for our proprietary GPCR structure determination portfolio, which is in-licensed from TSRI, includes patents and patent applications directed primarily to methods and compositions for obtaining high resolution crystals of G-protein coupled receptors. As of June 30, 2014, we had exclusive commercial license rights from TSRI to two US patents, two pending US patent applications and foreign patent applications in Australia, Canada, China, Eurasia, Europe, Israel, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Singapore related to GPCR structure determination. We expect the patent and any patent applications in the US or corresponding foreign patent applications which issue, if the appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees are paid, to expire from 2028 to 2032.

In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we seek to rely on trade secrets and know-how to develop and maintain our competitive position. We seek to protect our proprietary data and processes, in part, by confidentiality agreements and invention assignment agreements with our employees, consultants, scientific advisors, contractors and partners. These agreements are designed to protect our proprietary information, although we cannot be certain that our trade secrets and other confidential proprietary information will not be disclosed or that competitors will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or independently develop substantially equivalent information and techniques. We also seek to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of our data, trade secrets and know-how by maintaining physical security of our premises and physical and electronic security of our information technology systems. With respect to our proprietary GPCR structure determination technology platform, we consider trade secrets and know-how to be our primary intellectual property. Trade secrets and know-how can be difficult to protect. In particular, we anticipate that with respect to this GPCR structure determination technology platform, these trade secrets and know-how will over time be disseminated within the industry through independent development, the publication of journal articles describing methodology for crystallization of membrane proteins, and the movement of personnel skilled in the art from academic to industry scientific positions. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, we would have no right to prevent such competitor from using that technology or information to compete with us, which could harm our competitive position. Further, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent or in the same manner as the laws of the US. As a result, we may encounter significant problems in protecting and defending our intellectual property both in the US and abroad. If we are unable to prevent material disclosure of the intellectual property related to our technologies to third parties, we will not be able to establish or maintain a competitive advantage in our market, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Third-party claims of intellectual property infringement may prevent or delay our drug discovery and development efforts.

Our commercial success depends in part on our avoiding infringement of the patents and proprietary rights of third parties. There is a substantial amount of litigation involving patent and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including interference and reexamination proceedings before the PTO or oppositions and other comparable proceedings in foreign jurisdictions. Numerous US and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications, which are owned by

 

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third parties, exist in the fields in which we are developing product candidates. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, the risk increases that our product candidates may give rise to claims of infringement of the patent rights of others.

Third parties may assert that we are employing their proprietary technology without authorization. As a result of searching patent literature in support of patent protection and otherwise evaluating the patent landscape, we are aware of third-party patents, and third-party patent applications which may issue, with coverage that could be asserted with respect to mechanisms of action and uses or formulations of RPC4046, which if successful could materially affect any commercialization of RPC4046 contemplated by us, if RPC4046 is approved. Similarly, we are also aware of a third-party patent, and third-party patent applications which may issue, with respect to certain dosing regimens for S1P1R modulators. Such patent contains broad claims to administering an S1P receptor agonist (including for treatment of Multiple Sclerosis) at a dosage lower than the standard daily dosage, and then increasing the dosage to the standard daily dosage (including to ameliorate a negative chronotropic effect of the S1PR agonist). While we do not believe that any claims of such patent that could otherwise materially adversely affect commercialization of RPC1063 (if approved) are valid and enforceable, we may be incorrect in this belief. In addition, other patents may issue from third-party patent applications with respect to certain dosing regimens with coverage broader than any product candidate being developed by a party seeking such a patent, which could adversely affect our ability to commercialize RPC1063 if RPC1063 is approved, and if it is included within such coverage together with its dosing regimen. We are also aware of pending third-party patent applications with claims to broad generic structural formulas, which claims if issued in their broadest form could adversely affect commercialization of RPC1063, if RPC1063 is approved. In addition, we are aware of a portfolio of patents and pending third party patent applications with respect to certain GPCR structure-based drug discovery and design technology. While we do not believe that any of the currently issued patents in such portfolio affect the manner in which we are utilizing our proprietary GPCR structure-based drug discovery and design technology, if a patent were to issue from any pending application in such portfolio with coverage affecting the manner in which we utilize such technology, our ability to utilize such technology or to use the results of any such utilization could be adversely affected. There may be third-party patents of which we are currently unaware with claims to materials, formulations, methods of manufacture or methods for treatment related to the use or manufacture of our product candidates. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent applications which may later result in issued patents that our product candidates may infringe. Third parties may obtain patents in the future and claim that use of our technologies infringes upon these patents. If any third-party patent were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover the manufacturing process of any of our product candidates, any molecules formed during the manufacturing process or any final product itself, the holders of any such patent may be able to block our ability to develop and commercialize such product candidate unless we obtain a license under the applicable patent or limit or modify our manufacturing process to avoid the coverage of the patent, or until such patent expires or is finally determined to be invalid or unenforceable. Similarly, if any third-party patent were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover aspects of the formulation of any of our product candidates or any method of use of any of our product candidates, including any therapy or patient selection methods, the holder of any such patent may be able to block our ability to develop and commercialize such product candidate unless we obtain a license under the applicable patent or limit or modify the formulation or use, or until such patent expires or is finally determined to be invalid or unenforceable. Where a license to a third-party patent is needed, such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

Parties making claims against us may obtain injunctive or other equitable relief, which could effectively block our ability to further develop and commercialize one or more of our product candidates. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of employee resources from our business. In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may have to pay substantial damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement (which may include situations in which we had knowledge of an issued patent but nonetheless proceeded with activity which infringed such patent), obtain one or more licenses from third parties, limit our uses, pay royalties or redesign our infringing product candidates, which may be impossible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure. We cannot predict whether any required license would be available on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. Furthermore, even in the absence of litigation, we may need to obtain licenses from third parties to advance our research or allow commercialization of our product candidates, and we have done so from time to time. We may fail to obtain any of these licenses at a reasonable cost or on reasonable terms, if at all. In such an event, we would be unable to further develop and commercialize any of our product candidates at issue, which could harm our business significantly.

Patent protection and patent prosecution for some of our product candidates is dependent on, and the ability to assert patents and defend them against claims of invalidity is maintained by, third parties.

While we normally seek and gain the right to prosecute fully the patents relating to our product candidates, there may be times when patents that relate to our product candidates are controlled by our licensors. The patent portfolio for our proprietary GPCR structure determination technology and a portion of the patent portfolio for RPC1063 (including a composition of matter patent for RPC1063) are each in-licensed from TSRI. Although TSRI prosecutes and maintains the patent portfolio, we have the right to consult with TSRI on any action taken. With respect to the patent portfolio for RPC4046, which is in-licensed from AbbVie, AbbVie maintains rights to prosecute and maintain patents and patent applications within the portfolio as well as to assert such patents against

 

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infringers within and outside the scope of our license and to defend such patents against claims of invalidity and unenforceability, although we have rights to consult with AbbVie on actions taken as well as back-up rights of prosecution and enforcement. If TSRI, AbbVie or any future licensor fails to appropriately prosecute and maintain patent protection for patents covering any of our product candidates, or if patents covering any of our product candidates are asserted against infringers or defended against claims of invalidity or unenforceability in a manner which adversely affects such coverage, our ability to develop and commercialize any such product candidate may be adversely affected and we may not be able to prevent competitors from making, using and selling competing products.

We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or the patents of our licensors, which could be expensive, time consuming and unsuccessful.

Competitors may infringe our patents or the patents of our licensors. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file infringement claims, which can be expensive and time-consuming. In addition, in an infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent of ours or one of our licensors is not valid or is unenforceable, or may refuse to stop the other party in such infringement proceeding from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our patents do not cover the technology in question. An adverse result in any litigation or defense proceedings could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated, held unenforceable or interpreted narrowly, and could put any of our patent applications at risk of not yielding an issued patent.

Interference proceedings provoked by third parties or brought by the PTO or any foreign patent authority may be necessary to determine the priority of inventions with respect to our patents or patent applications or those of our licensors. An unfavorable outcome could require us to cease using the related technology or to attempt to license rights to it from the prevailing party. Our business could be harmed if the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms, if any license is offered at all. Litigation or interference proceedings may fail and, even if successful, may result in substantial costs and distract our management and other employees.

We may not be able to prevent, alone or with our licensors, misappropriation of our trade secrets or confidential information, particularly in countries where the laws may not protect those rights as fully as in the US. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common stock.

We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.

Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on all of our product candidates throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection but enforcement is not as strong as in the US. These products may compete with our products in jurisdictions where we do not have any issued patents and our patent claims or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from so competing. Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biopharmaceuticals, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial cost and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business.

If we breach any of the agreements under which we license the use, development and commercialization rights to our product candidates or GPCR structure determination technology from third parties, we could lose license rights that are important to our business.

The patent portfolio for our proprietary GPCR structure determination technology and a portion of the patent portfolio for RPC1063 (including a composition of matter patent for RPC1063) are each in-licensed from TSRI. The patent portfolio for RPC4046 is in-licensed from AbbVie. Under our existing license agreements, we are subject to various obligations, including diligence obligations such as development and commercialization obligations, as well as potential royalty payments and other obligations. If we fail to comply with any of these obligations or otherwise breach our license agreements, our licensing partners may have the right to terminate the applicable license in whole or in part. Generally, the loss of any one of our current licenses, or any other license we may acquire in the future, could materially harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

In particular, the loss of the license from TSRI to a portion of the patent portfolio for RPC1063, inasmuch as it includes a composition of matter patent for RPC1063, would materially adversely affect our ability to proceed with any development or potential commercialization of RPC1063. In addition, the loss of the license from AbbVie for RPC4046 would likely result in the termination of our efforts with respect to RPC4046.

 

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Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats to our competitive advantage.

The degree of future protection afforded by our intellectual property rights is uncertain because intellectual property rights have limitations, and may not adequately protect our business or permit us to maintain our competitive advantage. The following examples are illustrative:

 

    Others may be able to make compounds that are similar to our product candidates but that are not covered by the claims of the patents that we own or have licensed;

 

    We or our licensors or partners might not have been the first to make the inventions covered by an issued patent or pending patent application that we own or have exclusively licensed;

 

    We or our licensors or partners might not have been the first to file patent applications covering an invention;

 

    Others may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies without infringing our intellectual property rights;

 

    Pending patent applications that we own or have licensed may not lead to issued patents;

 

    Issued patents that we own or have licensed may not provide us with any competitive advantages, or may be held invalid or unenforceable, as a result of legal challenges by our competitors;

 

    Our competitors might conduct research and development activities in countries where we do not have patent rights and then use the information learned from such activities to develop competitive products for sale in our major commercial markets;

 

    We may not develop or in-license additional proprietary technologies that are patentable; and

 

    The patents of others may have an adverse effect on our business.

Should any of these events occur, they could significantly harm our business, results of operations and prospects.

Obtaining and maintaining patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.

Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other governmental fees on patents and/or applications will be due to be paid to the PTO and various governmental patent agencies outside of the US in several stages over the lifetime of the patents and/or applications. We employ reputable law firms and other professionals and rely on such third parties to effect payment of these fees with respect to the patents and patent applications that we own, and we rely upon our licensors to effect payment of these fees with respect to the patents and patent applications that we license. The PTO and various non-US governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. We employ reputable law firms and other professionals to help us comply with respect to the patents and patent applications that we own, and we rely upon our licensors to effect compliance with respect to the patents and patent applications that we license. In many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules. However, there are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. In such an event, our competitors might be able to enter the market and this circumstance would have a material adverse effect on our business.

Recent patent reform legislation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents.

In 2011, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (Leahy-Smith Act) was signed into law. The Leahy-Smith Act includes a number of significant changes to US patent law. These include provisions that affect the way patent applications will be prosecuted and may also affect patent litigation. The PTO is currently developing regulations and procedures to govern administration of the Leahy-Smith Act, and many of the substantive changes to patent law associated with the Leahy-Smith Act, and in particular, the first to file provisions, did not become effective until March 2013, 18 months after its enactment. Accordingly, it is not clear what, if any, impact the Leahy-Smith Act will have on the operation of our business. However, the Leahy-Smith Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

 

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We may be subject to claims that our employees or consultants have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of former or other employers.

Many of our employees and consultants, including our senior management and our scientific founders, have been employed or retained by other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Some of these employees and consultants, including each member of our senior management and each of our scientific founders, executed proprietary rights, non-disclosure and non-competition agreements in connection with such previous employment or retention. Although we try to ensure that our employees and consultants do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that we or these employees or consultants have used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information, of any such employee’s or consultants former or other employer. We are not aware of any threatened or pending claims related to these matters or concerning the agreements with our senior management or scientific founders, but in the future litigation may be necessary to defend against such claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management.

Intellectual property disputes could cause us to spend substantial resources and distract our personnel from their normal responsibilities.

Even if resolved in our favor, litigation or other legal proceedings relating to intellectual property claims may cause us to incur significant expenses, and could distract our technical and/or management personnel from their normal responsibilities. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments and if securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the market price of our common stock. Such litigation or proceedings could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce the resources available for development activities or any future sales, marketing or distribution activities. We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to adequately conduct such litigation or proceedings. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace.

If we do not obtain protection under the Hatch-Waxman Act and similar legislation outside of the US by extending the patent terms and obtaining data exclusivity for our product candidates, our business may be materially harmed.

Depending upon the timing, duration and specifics of FDA marketing approval of our product candidates, if any, one or more US patents may be eligible for limited patent term restoration under the Hatch-Waxman Act. The Hatch-Waxman Act permits a patent restoration term of up to five years as compensation for patent term lost during product development and the FDA regulatory review process. However, we may not be granted an extension because of, for example, failing to apply within applicable deadlines, failing to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents or otherwise failing to satisfy applicable requirements. Moreover, the applicable time period or the scope of patent protection afforded could be less than we request.

We expect the composition of a matter patent for RPC1063 in the US, if the appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees are paid and it withstands any challenge, would expire in 2029. It is possible, assuming RPC1063 achieves regulatory approval in the US and a timely application is made, that the term of the composition of matter patent in the US may be extended up to a maximum of five additional years under the Hatch-Waxman Act. We expect the composition of matter patent for RPC4046 in the US if the appropriate maintenance, renewal, annuity or other governmental fees are paid and it withstands any challenge, to expire in 2028. It is possible, assuming RPC4046 achieves regulatory approval in the US and a timely application is made, that the term of the composition of matter patent in the US may be extended up to a maximum of five additional years under the Hatch-Waxman Act, although such an extension for RPC4046 is subject to AbbVie’s consent where AbbVie does not exercise its option to enter into a global collaboration for RPC4046 with us and we instead receive an exclusive worldwide license to RPC4046, and thus the possibility in such context that AbbVie utilizes such extension for a different drug.

If we are unable to obtain patent term extension or restoration or the term of any such extension is less than we request, the period during which we will have the right to exclusively market our product will be shortened and our competitors may obtain approval of competing products following our patent expiration, and our revenue could be reduced, possibly materially.

Risks Related to Ownership of our Common Stock

The price of our stock may be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

The trading price of our common stock is likely to be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. In addition to the factors discussed in this “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this Quarterly Report, these factors include:

 

    actual or anticipated adverse results or delays in our clinical trials;

 

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    positive outcomes, or faster development results than expected, by parties developing product candidates that are competitive with our product candidates, as well as approval of any such competitive product candidates;

 

    unanticipated serious safety concerns related to the use of any of our product candidates;

 

    our failure to secure collaboration agreements for our product candidates or actual or perceived unfavorable terms of such agreements;

 

    adverse regulatory decisions;

 

    changes in laws or regulations applicable to our product candidates, including but not limited to clinical trial requirements for approvals;

 

    disputes or other developments relating to proprietary rights, including patents, litigation matters and our ability to obtain patent protection for our product candidates;

 

    our decision to initiate a clinical trial, not to initiate a clinical trial or to terminate an existing clinical trial;

 

    our dependence on third parties, including CROs as well as manufacturers;

 

    our failure to successfully commercialize any of our product candidates, if approved;

 

    additions or departures of key scientific or management personnel;

 

    failure to meet or exceed any financial guidance or development timelines that we may provide to the public;

 

    actual or anticipated variations in quarterly operating results;

 

    failure to meet or exceed the estimates and projections of the investment community;

 

    overall performance of the equity markets and other factors that may be unrelated to our operating performance or the operating performance of our competitors, including changes in market valuations of similar companies;

 

    conditions or trends in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries;

 

    announcements of significant acquisitions, strategic collaborations, joint ventures or capital commitments by us or our competitors;

 

    our ability to maintain an adequate rate of growth and manage such growth;

 

    issuances of debt or equity securities;

 

    significant lawsuits, including patent or stockholder litigation;

 

    sales of our common stock by us or our stockholders in the future;

 

    trading volume of our common stock;

 

    publication of research reports about us or our industry or positive or negative recommendations or withdrawal of research coverage by securities analysts;

 

    ineffectiveness of our internal controls;

 

    general political and economic conditions;

 

    effects of natural or man-made catastrophic events; and

 

    other events or factors, many of which are beyond our control.

In addition, the stock market in general, and The NASDAQ Global Market and biotechnology companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies. Broad market and industry factors may negatively affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. The realization of any of the above risks or any of a broad range of other risks, including those described in these “Risk Factors,” could have a dramatic and material adverse impact on the market price of our common stock.

We have broad discretion in the use of our cash and may not use it effectively.

Our management has broad discretion in the use of our cash and might not use it in ways that ultimately increase the value of your investment. If we do not invest or use our cash in ways that enhance stockholder value, we may fail to achieve expected financial results, which could cause our stock price to decline.

 

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We may be subject to securities litigation, which is expensive and could divert management attention.

The market price of our common stock may be volatile, and in the past companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention from other business concerns, which could seriously harm our business.

Our principal stockholders and management own a significant percentage of our stock and will be able to exert significant influence over matters subject to stockholder approval.

As of June 30, 2014, our executive officers, directors, holders of 5% or more of our capital stock and their respective affiliates beneficially owned approximately 21.0% of our outstanding stock. Therefore, these stockholders will have the ability to exert significant influence on matters requiring stockholder approval. For example, these stockholders may be able to have a substantial impact on elections of directors, approval of amendments of our organizational documents, or approval of any merger, sale of assets, or other major corporate transaction. This may prevent or discourage unsolicited acquisition proposals or offers for our common stock that you may feel are in your best interest as one of our stockholders.

We are currently an “emerging growth company” as defined in the JOBS Act and have availed, and to the extent available may continue to avail, ourselves of reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies, which could make our common stock less attractive to investors.

We are currently an “emerging growth company” as defined in the JOBS Act, and will remain so until January 1, 2015, the date on which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer” under the rules of the SEC. We have taken, and to the extent available may continue to take, advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could cause our stock price to fall.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market or the perception that these sales might occur could depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. We are unable to predict the effect that sales may have on the prevailing market price of our common stock.

Certain holders of shares of our common stock are entitled to rights with respect to the registration of their shares under the Securities Act. Registration of these shares under the Securities Act would result in the shares becoming freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act, except for shares purchased by affiliates. Any sales of securities by these stockholders could have a material adverse effect on the trading price of our common stock.

Future sales and issuances of our common stock or rights to purchase common stock, including pursuant to our equity incentive plans, could result in additional dilution of the percentage ownership of our stockholders and could cause our stock price to fall.

We expect that significant additional capital will be needed in the future to continue our planned operations. To raise capital, we may sell common stock, convertible securities or other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner we determine from time to time. Such sales may result in material dilution to our existing stockholders, and new investors could gain rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of holders of our common stock.

Pursuant to our equity incentive plan(s), our board of directors or compensation committee, and in certain instances (involving non-executive new hires) our chief executive officer and chief financial officer, are authorized to grant equity-based incentive awards to our employees, directors and consultants. As of June 30, 2014, 407,727 shares of our common stock were available for future grant under our 2013 Stock Plan. The number of shares of our common stock reserved for issuance under our 2013 Plan will be increased (i) from time to time by the number of shares of our common stock forfeited upon the expiration, cancellation, forfeiture, cash settlement or other termination of awards under our 2008 Stock Plan, and (ii) on January 1 of each year through January 1, 2023, by the lesser of (x) a number of additional shares of our common stock representing four percent of our then-outstanding shares of common stock and (y) another amount that our board of directors determines. As of June 30, 2014, the number of shares of our common stock available for future grant under our ESPP was 343,496. The number of shares of our common stock reserved for issuance under our ESPP will be increased on January 1 of each year by the lesser of (x) a number of additional shares of our common

 

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stock representing one percent of our then-outstanding shares of common stock and (y) another amount that our board of directors determines. Future option grants and issuances of common stock under our 2013 Stock Plan or ESPP may have an adverse effect on the market price of our common stock.

Some provisions of our charter documents and Delaware law may have anti-takeover effects that could discourage an acquisition of us by others, even if an acquisition would be beneficial to our stockholders and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management.

Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws, as well as provisions of Delaware law, could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us or increase the cost of acquiring us, even if doing so would benefit our stockholders or remove our current management. These provisions:

 

    divide our board of directors into three classes, each serving staggered, three-year terms;

 

    authorize the board of directors to issue, without further action by the stockholders, up to 10,000,000 shares of undesignated preferred stock;

 

    require that any action to be taken by our stockholders be effected at a duly called annual or special meeting and not by written consent;

 

    specify that special meetings of our stockholders can be called only by the board of directors, the chairman of the board, or the chief executive officer;

 

    establish an advance notice procedure for stockholder approvals to be brought before an annual meeting of our stockholders, including proposed nominations of persons for election to the board of directors;

 

    provide that directors may be removed only for cause;

 

    establish the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware as the sole and exclusive forum for certain derivative actions or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action asserting a claim of breach of fiduciary duty, any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, or any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine;

 

    require the affirmative vote of holders of at least 66 23% of the total votes eligible to be cast in the election of directors to amend, alter, change or repeal our bylaws; and

 

    provide that vacancies on our board of directors may be filled only by a majority of directors then in office, even though less than a quorum.

These provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. Because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which may discourage, delay or prevent someone from acquiring us or merging with us whether or not it is desired by or beneficial to our stockholders. Under Delaware law, a corporation may not, in general, engage in a business combination with any holder of 15% or more of its capital stock unless the holder has held the stock for three years or, among other things, the board of directors has approved the transaction. Any provision of our certificate of incorporation or bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our common stock.

We do not anticipate paying cash dividends and, accordingly, stockholders must rely on stock appreciation for any return on their investment.

We do not anticipate paying cash dividends in the future. Additionally, our credit and security agreement with MidCap contains covenants that restrict our ability to pay dividends. As a result, only appreciation of the market price of our common stock, which may never occur, will provide a return to our stockholders. Investors seeking cash dividends should not invest in our common stock.

 

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Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

Use of Proceeds

On May 8, 2013, we commenced our initial public offering pursuant to a Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-187737) that was declared effective by the SEC on May 8, 2013 and that registered shares of our common stock with a maximum aggregate offering price of $86,480,000. On May 14, 2013 and May 30, 2013, we sold 5,200,000 shares and 733,277 shares of our common stock, respectively, to the public at a price of $14.00 per share for an aggregate gross offering price of $83,065,878, or net proceeds of approximately $75.0 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering costs.

As of June 30, 2014, we have used approximately $47.4 million of the net proceeds from our initial public offering. We intend to use the net proceeds to fund continued development of our product candidate RPC1063 in ongoing clinical trials for relapsing multiple sclerosis and ulcerative colitis, development of our in-licensed product candidate RPC4046 in a clinical trial for eosinophilic esophagitis, other ongoing preclinical and research programs, and working capital and other general corporate purposes. We cannot specify with certainty all of the particular uses for the net proceeds from our initial public offering. Accordingly, our management will have broad discretion in the application of the net proceeds.

Repurchases

The following table provides information regarding shares of our common stock that were repurchased during the quarter ended June 30, 2014:

 

Period

   Total Number of
Shares (or Units)
Purchased
    Average Price Paid
per Share (or Unit)
     Total Number of Shares
(or Units) Purchased as
Part of Publicly
Announced Plans or
Programs
     Maximum Number (or
Approximate Dollar Value) of
Shares (or Units) that May Yet  be
Purchased Under the
Plans or Programs
 

April 1-30, 2014

     0       —          0         0   

May 1-31, 2014

     1,037 (1)    $ 0.30         0         0   

June 1-30, 2014

     0       —          0         0   
  

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total

     1,037      $ 0.30         0         0   
  

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

(1)  Repurchase of unvested shares from a former employee that were acquired upon the early exercise of stock options.

Item 3. Defaults Upon Senior Securities

Not applicable.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

Item 5. Other Information

Not applicable.

Item 6. Exhibits

A list of the exhibits filed as part of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q is set forth on the Exhibit Index, which is incorporated herein by reference.

 

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SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.

 

  RECEPTOS, INC.

Dated: August 12, 2014

 
 

/s/ Faheem Hasnain

  Faheem Hasnain
  President and Chief Executive Officer
  (Principal Executive Officer)

Dated: August 12, 2014

 
 

/s/ Graham Cooper

  Graham Cooper
  Chief Financial Officer
  (Principal Financial Officer)

 

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Table of Contents

EXHIBIT INDEX

 

Exhibit
Number

  

Description

  10.1    Lease Agreement, dated April 22, 2014, by and between Receptos, Inc. and ARE-SD Region No. 35, LLC (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 of Registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed on April 28, 2014).
  31.1    Certification of Principal Executive Officer pursuant to Rules 13a-14 and 15d-14 promulgated pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended
  31.2    Certification of Principal Financial Officer pursuant to Rules 13a-14 and 15d-14 promulgated pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended
  32.1    Certification of Principal Executive Officer pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
  32.2    Certification of Principal Financial Officer pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
101.INS*    XBRL Instance Document
101.SCH*    XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document
101.CAL*    XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document
101.DEF*    XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document
101.LAB*    XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document
101.PRE*    XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document

 

* In accordance with Rule 406T of Regulation S-T, the XBRL related information in Exhibit 101 to this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q is deemed not filed or part of a registration statement or prospectus for purposes of Sections 11 or 12 of the Securities Act, is deemed not filed for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, and otherwise is not subject to liability under these sections.

 

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