UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
| x | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2003
| ¨ | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the transition period from to
Commission file number: 0-26642
MYRIAD GENETICS, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
| Delaware | 87-0494517 | |
| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) |
(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) | |
| 320 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT | 84108 | |
| (Address of principal executive offices) | (Zip Code) | |
Registrants telephone number, including area code: (801) 584-3600
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act: None
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act:
Common Stock, $.01 Par Value Per Share
Preferred Share Purchase Rights
(Title of Class)
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 if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrants knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act Yes x No ¨
The aggregate market value of the registrants voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant (without admitting that any person whose shares are not included in such calculation is an affiliate), computed by reference to the price at which the common stock was last sold on December 31, 2002, the last business day of the registrants most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was $380,358,441.
As of September 1, 2003 the registrant had 27,089,114 shares of common stock outstanding.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
The following documents (or parts thereof) are incorporated by reference into the following parts of this Form 10-K: Certain information required in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K is incorporated from the Registrants Proxy Statement for the Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held on November 12, 2003.
PART I
Item 1. BUSINESS
Overview
We are a leading biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapeutic products and the development and marketing of predictive medicine products. We employ a number of proprietary technologies that permit us to identify genes, their related proteins and the biological pathways they form. We use this information to better understand the role proteins play in the onset and progression of human disease.
We believe that the future of medicine lies in the creation of new classes of drugs that prevent disease from occurring or progressing and that treat the cause, not just the symptoms, of disease. In addition, we believe that advances in the emerging field of predictive medicine will improve our ability to determine which patients are subject to a greater risk of developing these diseases and who therefore should receive these new preventive medicines.
Myriad researchers have made important discoveries in the fields of cancer, Alzheimers disease, viral diseases such as HIV, depression, and obesity. These discoveries point to novel disease pathways that may pave the way for the development of new drugs. Flurizan (MPC-7869), our lead therapeutic candidate for the treatment of prostate cancer, is currently in a large, multi-center human clinical trial. We are also conducting a Phase I human clinical trial for the evaluation of MPC-7869 for the treatment of Alzheimers disease. The Phase I study will evaluate the safety of MPC-7869 in healthy older volunteers and is being conducted at the Mayo Clinic and the University of California, San Diego. We recently initiated a Phase II human clinical study in Europe and Canada to assess the efficacy of MPC-7869 in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimers disease. We intend to independently develop and, subject to regulatory approval, market our therapeutic products, particularly in the area of cancer, viral disease, and Alzheimers disease.
We also have developed and commercialized a number of innovative predictive medicine products; including BRACAnalysis®, which assesses a womans risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer, COLARIS® and COLARIS AP, which determine a persons risk of developing colon cancer, and MELARIS®, which assesses a persons risk of developing malignant melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer. In the United States we market these products using our own 100 person internal sales force. We have complemented our internal sales and marketing efforts through a marketing collaboration with Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings to sell our products to primary care physicians. Revenues from these proprietary products were $34.7 million for the year ended June 30, 2003.
We have devoted substantially all of our resources to undertaking our drug discovery and development programs, operating our predictive medicine business, and continuing our research and development efforts. Our revenues have consisted primarily of sales of predictive medicine products, research payments, upfront fees, and milestone payments. We have yet to attain profitability and, for the year ended June 30, 2003, we had a net loss of $24.8 million. As of June 30, 2003 we had an accumulated deficit of $98.7 million.
We expect to incur losses for at least the next several years, primarily due to the expansion of our drug discovery and development efforts, the initiation and continuing conduct of human clinical trials, the launch of new predictive medicine products, the continuation of our internal research and development programs, and expansion of our facilities. Additionally, we expect to incur substantial sales, marketing and other expenses in connection with building our pharmaceutical and predictive medicine businesses. We expect that losses will fluctuate from quarter to quarter and that such fluctuations may be substantial.
Business Strategy
Understanding the cause of a disease at the level of genes, proteins and biological pathways can be very helpful in determining how best to treat the disease. Historically, technologies used to discover treatments for the symptoms of diseases have been less effective against complex diseases that arise through a combination of
2
genetic and environmental factors, such as cancer and heart disease. In order to treat complex diseases effectively, it is imperative to understand how the body uses its genetic information, how the disruption of important biological pathways can lead to disease, and how drugs can be developed to prevent, halt or reverse disease progression. As we learn more about the genetic basis of disease, we believe that we will be able to develop drugs that are safer and more efficacious.
The majority of diseases are treated by modifying the activities of proteins in affected cells and tissues. The quest for safer and more effective treatments for a wider range of diseases has led us to employ genomics and proteomics in our drug discovery and development programs.
Gene-based small molecule drug discovery and development programs at Myriad typically involve the following steps:
Target Discovery. Target discovery involves identifying genes and their proteins related to disease susceptibility, onset or progression. A better understanding of some diseases has resulted from the identification of disease-related proteins and the subsequent understanding of their function.
Biological Pathway and Protein Function. Proteins control virtually all cellular processes, including important disease processes. The determination of a proteins function and clarifying the role of a protein in the biological pathway of a disease, leads to the identification of key regulators in that pathway.
Target Validation. After identifying an important disease-related protein, the drug target must be validated to confirm that it is at a control point in a disease-related pathway and that a drug which interacts with the target is expected to have a beneficial effect. If through the validation process a protein is not qualified to serve as a drug target, other proteins in the same disease pathway can be examined as potential targets.
Assay Development and High-Throughput Screening. A specific assay must be developed for each validated drug target to identify compounds that inhibit or activate the target. To identify potential drugs, a target is tested through high-throughput screening against a chemically diverse library, comprised of hundreds of thousands of different small molecule compounds. The screening process frequently produces several compounds that interact with the identified drug target.
Drug Development. Compounds that may be suitable for development into potential drugs undergo selection and optimization. Once selected, the compound is optimized by synthesizing and testing a series of closely related compounds. Based on expected activity, safety and bioavailability, the most promising leads are selected. If the disease results from the loss of function of a specific protein, protein replacement therapy may represent an attractive alternative. Following optimization, lead compounds enter into pre-clinical testing to establish their efficacy and safety in animals. If pre-clinical tests are successful, candidate drugs enter clinical trials to determine their efficacy and safety in humans.
We believe that the future of medicine lies in the creation of new classes of drugs that are safer and more effective; drugs that not only treat disease but that also prevent disease from occurring. We also believe that the emerging field of predictive medicine will revolutionize the practice of medicine by identifying an individuals risk of developing diseases later in life.
Our business strategy is to understand the relationship between proteins and diseases in order to develop the next generation of therapeutic and predictive medicine products. Through our proprietary technologies, we are uniquely positioned to identify these proteins and the biological pathways they form, and develop novel therapeutic and predictive medicine products. Our business strategy includes the following key elements:
| | Use our technologies to discover important disease genes and proteins, understand their functions and identify lead compounds. We plan to expand our proprietary technologies to uncover additional disease pathways, discover functions for many of the proteins in these pathways and identify high quality drug targets. We will employ our high-throughput screening technology to rapidly identify novel |
3
| small molecule drug candidates. Based on the specific characteristics of our drug targets, we will augment our small molecule drug development capability with protein replacement therapy and antibody therapy programs. |
| | Develop and commercialize therapeutic products. We intend to take novel compounds, particularly in the areas of cancer, Alzheimers disease, and infectious diseases such as AIDS through the clinical development process ourselves. We are focusing on these diseases due to the large unmet need for more effective and less toxic drugs. We believe that some of our candidate drugs may experience a shorter and less expensive clinical trial process resulting from the potential for fast track status that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, has typically afforded novel drugs in these areas. Additionally, we will be able to leverage the expertise of our existing oncology sales force in the marketing of novel cancer therapies and intend to expand our existing sales force to address the AIDS and Alzheimers disease markets as well. |
| | Grow and expand our predictive medicine business. We plan continue to increase the domestic and foreign market penetration of our existing predictive medicine products and create additional products to capitalize on the emerging areas of predictive medicine. |
| | Capitalize on our strategic alliances with major pharmaceutical companies. We expect to maintain our strategic alliances focused on the discovery of novel drug targets outside of our primary area of interest. This will shift much of the financial risk associated with drug development to our partners, while permitting us to benefit from our partners drug development expertise and marketing strength. |
Drug Discovery
We have developed and integrated a powerful set of technologies that enable us to discover genes of commercial importance, elucidate the function of their proteins, and understand their role in disease pathways. Our technology platform provides the knowledge to develop therapeutic and predictive medicine products, based on a vastly improved understanding of the genetic basis of disease.
Using our high-throughput proteomic technologies, we screen target proteins with our proprietary libraries constructed from a variety of different tissues and organs, such as heart, brain, kidney, liver, breast and prostate. We have constructed over 33 proprietary libraries each containing approximately 10 million protein fragments. We apply our proprietary automation and robotic capabilities to the protein search process to allow high-throughput processing of protein interactions. Each drug target and its interacting partners form a network, which reads like a map, positioning the target in the disease pathway and tracing the targets role in that pathway.
We employ RNA interference, dominant negative, and over-expression technologies to validate our drug targets and provide valuable information concerning their function. We are able to gain an important insight into understanding a proteins method of action and function by observing the effects of over expressing or under expressing the protein.
Once a drug target has been validated and appears promising for therapeutic intervention, we develop drug-screening assays. We have the capability of making cell-based assays, enzyme assays, and assays that identify if we are disrupting a protein interaction. These proprietary drug-screening technologies allow us to quickly and cost-effectively build high-throughput drug screens using a yeast-based and mammalian-cell system.
When a small molecular weight compound inhibits or activates the protein, a change in the characteristics of the assay is identified. The drug discovery screens are designed to be run in parallel, such that each screen controls for false positives in other screens. The result is greater efficiency and a higher screening throughput. Our proprietary compound library contains approximately 300,000 small molecular weight compounds, including patented peptide mimetic compounds.
Our high-throughput screening is highly automated, using robot workstations and a proprietary computerized management system that monitors each step of the process, confirms that each step has been
4
performed to eliminate operator errors and automatically correlates results with compound identity and drug target. Current capacity is approximately 50 million screening data points per year.
Our high-throughput sequencing and screening systems use a robotics platform and bioinformatics software custom designed by our scientists and software engineers. This integrated system has been expanded to incorporate the introduction of a large number of genes and research populations, permitting the rapid comparison of novel mutations in candidate genes between individuals with diseases and healthy individuals drawn from the same population. This high-throughput, automated system enables us to rapidly detect genes and proteins, which are highly correlated with disease, and in many instances can be shown to be causal.
Our proprietary bioinformatics systems provide significant analytical and data management capabilities. Our systems are based on integrated, protocol-driven database management software, which is used to track experiments and collect relevant data. In addition, we have developed a proprietary laboratory information management system. This system has the advantages of simplicity of design, ease of maintenance, and speed of development. We use our information management software for our high-throughput systems for protein analysis, genotyping, genomic sequencing, mutation screening and compound screening.
We employ state-of-the-art robotics platforms in all of our high-throughput systems. We use the same robotics software and hardware to ensure efficiency throughout our operations. Each of our robotics systems is connected continually in a real time interface with our proprietary laboratory information management system to maintain a high degree of precision in sample tracking. Our robotics systems have been designed to ensure that the sample volumes used for each of the applications are kept at minimum levels to maintain reagent cost savings in each of our operations.
Drug Development
The pharmaceutical industry has been successful in developing medicines to treat the symptoms of disease. However, as the current generation of compounds nears the end of its patent protection, the industry has begun to seek new approaches to disease treatment. We believe that the future of medicine will be in the creation of new drugs that either prevent disease from initially developing or prevent disease from progressing by treating the cause of disease. We are using our broad, proprietary technologies to develop lead compounds and take these drug candidates through human clinical trials. For those therapeutic products in the area of cancer, we would also be able to leverage the marketing efforts of our existing oncology sales force.
As we identify compound hits from our proprietary compound library that are active against the drug screening assays, we access the viability of the hit or lead in terms of its safety, efficacy, and bioavailability. Hits that appear promising move into lead optimization. Our staff of medicinal and analytical chemists develop analogs based on the original lead structure. Our chemists use molecular modeling and other techniques to increase the efficacy, improve the safety, and increase the oral bioavailability of the lead compounds.
To date, we have discovered over 1,000 drug targets and have identified numerous candidate drug compounds from our drug discovery screens, including drug candidates for cancer, Alzheimers disease, HCV, and HIV, which satisfy the initial criteria of showing selectivity for one molecular target without obvious toxicity. Furthermore, the compounds have been shown to display a good dose response curve, showing increased activity at higher concentrations and decreased activity at lower concentrations.
Once a candidate drug has been selected, we access its efficacy in vivo and perform the necessary toxicology and pharmacokinetic analysis. Our regulatory and clinical staff are experienced in preparing Investigational New Drug (IND) applications, performing human clinical trials, and submitting New Drug Applications (NDA). We also have strong in-house capability in the areas of toxicology, formulation, and ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion) studies.
5
We have 16 drug candidates currently under development in pre-clinical studies. Following is a description of some of our most advanced drug development programs:
Flurizan: Candidate Drug for Prostate Cancer. Flurizan (R-flurbiprofen) is a novel drug for the treatment of prostate cancer and is our most advanced therapeutic program. In animal models of cancer, Flurizan demonstrated marked anti-tumor and anti-metastatic activity, significantly reducing the incidence of primary and secondary prostate tumors. In humans, the drug was well tolerated in normal healthy subjects and prostate cancer patients, has completed a phase II human clinical trial, and is currently in a phase II/III clinical study at 65 centers in the U.S. The study will assess the ability of Flurizan to delay the onset of metastatic cancer in 400 patients with prostate cancer. The drug has good oral bioavailability and would be given in pill form once or twice a day. Approximately 221,000 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year. It is the second most prevalent cancer among men and also the second leading cause of death from cancer in men. Despite current first-line therapies after diagnosis, cancer cells may remain and can go undetected for years until they develop into metastatic disease. During this stage there is no treatment for these patients who undergo watchful waiting by their physician for early signs of cancer recurrence. Upon recurrence patients undergo hormone therapy. The risk of prostate cancer recurrence is high, suggesting a need for new treatment approaches. Our prostate cancer drug candidate, Flurizan, is designed to address this need and fill this treatment gap. The current clinical study will assess whether the compound is capable of extending the time to metastatic disease and will determine if Flurizan holds promise as an effective, safe drug for the treatment of prostate cancer. Three U.S. patents have issued on Flurizan.
MPC-7869: Candidate Drug for Alzheimers Disease. Last year we submitted an IND application to the FDA for the evaluation of MPC-7869 (R-flurbiprofen) in the treatment and prevention of Alzheimers disease. Our Phase I human clinical trial will establish the safety profile and dosing regimens of MPC-7869 in healthy elderly volunteers. We recently received approval in both the United Kingdom and Canada for a phase II human clinical trial. The study will assess the ability of MPC-7869 to reduce the rate of cognitive decline in approximately 200 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimers disease. Alzheimers disease is a degenerative neurological condition affecting up to 50% of all people aged 85 or older, with an estimated 4 million cases in the United States alone. Current approved treatments, such as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, temporarily mitigate symptoms without meaningfully impacting progression of the underlying disease. Alzheimers disease is marked by progressive cognitive decline and by the accumulation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. The major structural component of these plaques is amyloid beta protein, specifically Amyloid beta-42 (Ab42). Many researchers now believe that Ab42 plays an important role in the onset and progression of Alzheimers disease. Preclinical studies performed with NIH funding, at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville and UCSD have demonstrated that R-flurbiprofen substantially lowers the levels of Ab42 in both human cell lines and in animal models of Alzheimers disease. We believe MPC-7869 holds promise as an effective, safe drug for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimers disease.
MPI-49839: Candidate Drug for AIDS. Our novel drug candidate, MPI-49839, represents a new approach to the treatment of AIDS. The concept behind the drug may enable the creation of an entirely new class of antiviral therapeutics. The drug is distinct from the protease inhibitors, reverse-transcriptase inhibitors, and fusion inhibitors which are the current generation of AIDS drugs, or integrase inhibitors, which are a new class of anti-HIV drugs being studied. Our anti-HIV drug is especially exciting in that it has the potential to improve on these current treatments for AIDS through the inhibition of the viral budding mechanism. Our discovery of this viral budding pathway was published in the scientific journal Cell on October 5, 2001. With the evolution of multi-drug resistant strains of the virus comes an increased need for therapies that act through different mechanisms. Although current drugs have been quite successful in improving survival for AIDS patients, the drugs do not eliminate the virus, thus drug therapy becomes a life-long commitment. Researchers at the University of California recently estimated that an alarming 42% of HIV-infected individuals will be resistant to the current generation of drugs by 2005. The ability to establish long-term suppression of viral activity requires new drugs that are more impervious to viral resistance. Novel approaches such as ours may well provide that extended therapeutic benefit to patients. MPI-49839 is a small molecule candidate drug with good oral
6
bioavailability and is in late stage pre-clinical studies. If successful, we plan to enter human clinical trials in AIDS patients.
MPI-42511: Candidate Drug for Colon Cancer. MPI-42511 is a novel small-molecule drug candidate that inhibits a key regulator of a cancer pathway that is involved in 95% of all cases of colon cancer. Our scientists employed a rapid, high-throughput two-tier screening procedure to discover this potential colon cancer drug. Initially, we screened our library of small molecules for their ability to inhibit the activity of the drug target. We isolated several candidates, which were subsequently screened for the ability to specifically kill human colon cancer cells without harming normal cells. These compounds provide the potential to prevent unchecked cell growth during the progression of colon cancer. The lead drug is now in pre-clinical evaluation.
MPI-176716: Candidate Drug for Cancer. MPI-176716 is a novel small-molecule drug that inhibits an important step in the pathway controlling apoptosis or programmed cell death. As a result, most dividing cancer cell types tested to date are sensitive to this drug. We expect this drug candidate to address solid tumors as well as leukemias and lymphomas. These cancers accounted for approximately 1.3 million cases in 2001, according to the American Cancer Society. We believe that drugs that have the potential to treat a common underlying mechanism of cancer have broad application to the treatment of disease and therefore, a very large market potential worldwide. MPI-176716 is a small molecule candidate drug in a sterile IV formulation. This cancer drug is in preclinical testing and if successful we plan to enter human clinical trials in cancer patients.
Predictive Medicine Products
Predictive medicine analyzes genes and their mutations to predict an individuals risk for developing disease and/or their responses to specific treatments. Armed with this risk assessment information, individuals can increase surveillance and take action to prevent or delay the onset of disease. Furthermore, as drugs are developed and approved for use, knowledge about side effects and efficacy in specific individuals emerges. Using this pharmacogenomic knowledge, personal genetic profiles can be developed to predict responses of individuals to drugs. Because predictive medicine specifically guides the healthcare management of individuals, this allows healthcare resources to be focused on individuals who have the greatest need and greatest response to therapy, and may reduce waste in the healthcare system.
We are committed to the development and marketing of novel products for the emerging market opportunities of predictive medicine. We provide educational and support services to physicians and healthcare professionals as part of our predictive medicine business. The predictive medicine products we have developed and currently market are not currently subject to FDA approval, but are subject to oversight and certification under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, or CLIA. We have obtained all certifications required by CLIA.
Our strategy is to first introduce predictive medicine products in the United States, and then to make them available worldwide through strategic marketing partnerships abroad. We currently market four predictive medicine products, BRACAnalysis®, COLARIS® and COLARIS AP, and MELARIS®, in the United States through our own 100 person oncology sales force. Through our partnership with Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp) we also make our predictive medicine products broadly available to primary care physicians throughout the United States.
We believe that the potential international market for our predictive medicine products is significant. We have introduced our products in foreign markets primarily through strategic marketing partners. We have completed marketing agreements with MDS Laboratory Services in Canada, Falco Biosystems, Ltd. in Japan, Bioscientia, Ltd. in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and Laboratorio Fleury in Brazil. We have also completed a licensing agreement with Genetic Technologies, Inc. for Australia and New Zealand.
BRACAnalysis®: Predictive Medicine Product for Breast and Ovarian Cancer. It is estimated that each year, approximately 237,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancer. Each year
7
in the United States, an estimated 54,000 women will die from these cancers. The BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes appear to be responsible for approximately 84% of the early onset hereditary breast cancer and approximately 90% of hereditary ovarian cancer. A study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics indicates that a woman with a deleterious BRCA1 mutation has an 86% risk of developing breast cancer by age 80 as compared to a general population risk of approximately 10%. Additionally, according to a study published in Lancet, the risk to a woman with a BRCA1 mutation of developing ovarian cancer by age 70 is approximately 44%, compared to a general population risk of approximately 1%. BRACAnalysis® is a comprehensive analysis of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes for determining a womans risk for breast and ovarian cancer. BRACAnalysis® provides important information that we believe will help the patient and her physician make better informed lifestyle, surveillance, preventative medication, and treatment decisions. The price for the test is $2,760 and is covered by most health maintenance organizations and health insurance providers in the United States. We own or are the exclusive licensee to 50 United States and foreign patents covering BRACAnalysis®.
COLARIS®: Predictive Medicine Product for Colon Cancer and Uterine Cancer. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, with approximately 148,000 new cases expected to be diagnosed this year. Familial forms of colorectal cancer were estimated in 1997 to account for 10% to 30% of all cases according to the American Society of Clinical Oncologists. Individuals who carry a deleterious mutation in one of the two colon cancer genes have a greater than 80% lifetime risk of developing colon cancer and women have a 60% life time chance of developing uterine cancer. Highly effective preventive measures include colonoscopy and the removal of precancerous polyps. To illustrate the value of predictive medicine, it has been shown that individuals who carry gene mutations can lower their risk of developing cancer by more than 50% with appropriate preventive and surveillance measures. COLARIS® is a comprehensive analysis of the MLH1 and MSH2 genes for determining a persons risk of developing colon cancer or uterine cancer. The price for the test is $1,950 and is covered by most health maintenance organizations and health insurance providers in the United States.
COLARIS AP: Predictive Medicine Product for Colon Cancer. COLARIS AP detects mutations in the APC gene, which cause a colon polyp-forming syndrome known as familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), and a more common variation of the syndrome known as attenuated FAP (aFAP). Individuals who carry a deleterious mutation in the APC gene have a greater than 80% lifetime risk of developing colon cancer. Highly effective preventive measures include colonoscopy, the removal of pre-cancerous polyps and surgery. The price for the test is $1,685 and is covered by many health maintenance organizations and health insurance providers in the United States.
MELARIS®: Predictive Medicine Product for Melanoma. MELARIS®, our fourth predictive medicine product, detects genetic susceptibility to malignant melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer. Melanoma is the second fastest growing cancer in the United States, affecting approximately 54,000 Americans this year. We discovered that mutations in the p16 gene are involved in cancer and can be inherited to predispose individuals to melanoma, as reported in the September 1994 issue of the journal Nature Genetics. Melanoma is lethal within five years in 86% of cases where it has spread to another site in the body. However, when melanoma is diagnosed at an early stage, fewer than 10% of patients die within five years. MELARIS®, which assesses a persons risk of developing melanoma, provides important information that we believe will be useful in the surveillance and prevention of melanoma. Melanoma can be prevented through appropriate screening and a specific threshold of action for mutation carriers, in which pre-cancerous lesions are removed before cancer can develop. The price for the test is $745 and is covered by some health maintenance organizations and health insurance providers in the United States. We own or are the exclusive licensee to 12 United States and foreign patents covering MELARIS®.
Strategic Alliances
In order to limit the financial risks associated with the development of therapeutic products, including costs associated with related clinical trials of such drugs, in some circumstances our strategy is to enter into alliances with corporate partners who assume such risks and other financial costs. In addition to our current strategic
8
alliances, we are actively pursuing other partners in areas that we believe may enhance our ability to develop and exploit our technology. We have formed strategic alliances with 12 major pharmaceutical or multinational companies including Abbott Laboratories, Bayer Corporation, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont), Eli Lilly and Company, Hitachi Ltd., Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc., Novartis Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Pharmacia Corporation, Schering AG, Schering-Plough Corporation, and Syngenta.
In certain alliances we are dependent on our strategic partners to commercialize the therapeutic products identified under the research collaborations. If our partner commercializes the product, we will receive milestone payments and a royalty on sales of the product or share in the profits derived from sales of the drug. If any of our strategic partners cease efforts to commercialize any therapeutic products identified during our collaboration, the rights to commercialize those products will revert back to us.
Patents and Proprietary Rights
We intend to seek patent protection in the United States and major foreign jurisdictions for genes, proteins, protein interactions, antibodies, drug targets, drug compounds, transgenic animals, technology related methods and processes and other inventions which we believe are patentable and where we believe our interests would be best served by seeking patent protection. We also intend to seek patent protection or rely upon trade secret rights to protect certain other technologies which may be used in discovering and characterizing new genes and proteins and which may be used in the development of novel therapeutic and predictive medicine products. To protect our trade secrets and other proprietary information, we require that our employees and consultants enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements. However, those confidentiality and invention assignment agreements may not provide us with adequate protection. In addition, any such patents may not issue, and the breadth or the degree of protection of any claims of such patents may not afford us with significant protection.
We own or have licensed rights to issued patents and numerous patent applications in the United States and foreign countries. However, any patent applications which we have filed or will file or to which we have licensed or will license rights may not issue, and patents that do issue may not contain commercially valuable claims. In addition, any patents issued to us or our licensors may not afford meaningful protection for our technology or products or may be subsequently circumvented, invalidated or narrowed.
Our processes and potential products may also conflict with patents which have been or may be granted to competitors, academic institutions or others. As the biotechnology industry expands and more patents are issued, the risk increases that our processes and potential products may give rise to interferences filed by others in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or to claims of patent infringement by other companies, institutions or individuals. These entities or persons could bring legal actions against us claiming damages and seeking to enjoin clinical testing, manufacturing and marketing of the related product or process. If any of these actions are successful, in addition to any potential liability for damages, we could be required to cease the infringing activity or obtain a license in order to continue to manufacture or market the relevant product or process. We may not prevail in any such action and any license required under any such patent may not be made available on acceptable terms, if at all.
Our failure to obtain a license to any technology that we may require to commercialize our technologies or potential products could have a material adverse effect on our business. There is also considerable pressure on academic institutions to publish discoveries in the genomic and proteomic fields. Such a publication by an academic collaborator of ours prior to the filing date of our application, if it covers a discovery claimed in the application, may preclude the patent from issuing or the filing of foreign patent applications, or if a patent was issued, may invalidate the patent.
We also rely upon unpatented proprietary technology, and in the future may determine in some cases that our interests would be better served by reliance on trade secrets or confidentiality agreements rather than patents or licenses. These include some of our genomic, proteomic, robotic and bioinformatic technologies. We may not be able to protect our rights to such unpatented proprietary technology and others may independently develop
9
substantially equivalent technologies. If we are unable to obtain strong proprietary rights to our processes or products after obtaining regulatory clearance, competitors may be able to market competing processes and products.
Others may obtain patents having claims which cover aspects of our products or processes which are necessary for or useful to the development, use or manufacture of our services or products. Should any other group obtain patent protection with respect to our discoveries, our commercialization of potential therapeutic products and predictive medicine products could be limited or prohibited.
In addition, we are a party to various license agreements which give us the rights to use certain technology in our research, development and testing processes. We may not be able to continue to license this technology on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. Our failure to maintain rights to this technology could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Competition
Competition is intense in our existing and potential markets. Our competitors in the United States and abroad are numerous and include, among others, major pharmaceutical companies, diagnostic companies, and biotechnology firms, universities and other research institutions. Many of our potential competitors have considerably greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources than we do. We expect competition to intensify in the fields in which we are involved as technical advances occur in these fields and become more widely known.
We expect to encounter significant competition with respect to any drugs that may be developed using our technologies. Companies that complete clinical trials, obtain required regulatory approvals and commence commercial sales of therapeutic products prior to us may achieve a significant competitive advantage. We may not be able to develop such products successfully and we may not obtain patents covering such products that provide protection against competitors. Moreover, competitors may succeed in developing therapeutic products that circumvent our products, and our competitors may succeed in developing technologies or products that are more effective than those developed by us or that would render our technologies or products less competitive or obsolete.
The technologies for discovering genes that predispose persons to major diseases and approaches for commercializing those discoveries are new and rapidly evolving. Rapid technological developments could result in our potential services, products, or processes becoming obsolete before we recover a significant portion of our related research and development costs and associated capital expenditures. If we do not discover additional disease-predisposing genes, characterize their functions, develop predictive medicine products and related information services based on such discoveries, obtain regulatory and other approvals, and launch such services or products before our competitors, we could be adversely affected. Moreover, any predictive medicine products that we may develop could be made obsolete by less expensive or more effective tests or methods that may be developed in the future.
Governmental Regulation
Regulation by governmental authorities in the United States and foreign countries is a significant factor in the development, manufacture and marketing of our proposed products and services and in our ongoing research and development activities. The therapeutic products and predictive medicine products developed by us will require regulatory approval by governmental agencies prior to commercialization. Various federal statutes and regulations also govern or influence the testing, manufacturing, safety, labeling, storage, record keeping, and marketing of therapeutic products. The process of obtaining these approvals and the subsequent compliance with applicable statutes and regulations require the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources. Any failure by us or our collaborators, licensors or licensees to obtain, or any delay in obtaining regulatory approval could have a material adverse effect on our business.
10
Therapeutics. We intend to develop independently therapeutic products based on our discoveries. Such products will be subject to regulation by the FDA and foreign regulatory authorities and require approval before they may be clinically tested and commercially marketed for human therapeutic use in the United States and other countries. The precise regulatory requirements with which we will have to comply are undergoing frequent revisions and refinement.
The steps required before a therapeutic product may be marketed in the United States include:
| | pre-clinical laboratory, in vivo, chemical process development, and formulation studies; |
| | the submission to the FDA of an Investigational New Drug, or IND, application, which must become effective before human clinical trials may commence; |
| | adequate and well-controlled human clinical trials to establish the safety and efficacy of the drug for its intended use; |
| | the submission of a New Drug Application, or NDA, to the FDA; and |
| | FDA approval of the NDA, including approval of all product labeling and advertising. |
The testing and approval process requires substantial time, effort, and financial resources and we cannot be certain that any approvals for any of our products will be granted on a timely basis, if at all.
Human clinical trials are typically conducted in three sequential phases which may overlap:
| | PHASE I: The drug is initially introduced into healthy human subjects or patients and tested for safety, dosage tolerance, absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion. |
| | PHASE II: Involves studies in a limited patient population to identify possible adverse effects and safety risks, to determine the efficacy of the product for specific targeted diseases and to determine dosage tolerance and optimal dosage. |
| | PHASE III: When Phase II evaluations demonstrate that a dosage range of the product is effective and has an acceptable safety profile, Phase III trials are undertaken to further evaluate dosage and clinical efficacy and to further test for safety in an expanded patient population at geographically dispersed clinical study sites. |
In the case of products for severe or life-threatening diseases such as cancer, the initial human testing is often conducted in patients rather than in healthy volunteers. Since these patients already have the target disease, these studies may provide initial evidence of efficacy traditionally obtained in Phase II trials and thus these trials are frequently referred to as Phase I/II trials. We cannot be certain that we will successfully complete Phase I, Phase II or Phase III testing of any compound within any specific time period, if at all. Furthermore, the FDA or the sponsor may suspend clinical trials at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the subjects or patients are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk.
The results of product development, pre-clinical studies and clinical studies are submitted to the FDA as part of a NDA. The FDA may deny a NDA if the applicable regulatory criteria are not satisfied or may require additional data. Even if such data is submitted, the FDA may ultimately decide that the NDA does not satisfy the criteria for approval. Once issued, the FDA may withdraw product approval or limit product use if compliance with regulatory standards is not maintained or if problems occur after the product reaches the market. In addition, the FDA may require testing and surveillance programs to monitor the effect of approved products which have been commercialized, and the FDA has the power to prevent or limit further marketing of a product based on the results of these post-marketing programs.
Satisfaction of the above FDA requirements or similar requirements of state, local and foreign regulatory agencies typically takes several years and the actual time required may vary substantially, based upon the type, complexity and novelty of the product or indication. The FDA may grant fast track approval for therapies
11
intended to treat severe or life-threatening diseases such as cancer or AIDS. This policy is intended to facilitate the study of life-saving therapies and shorten the total time for marketing approvals; however, there can be no assurance that these fast track procedures will shorten the time of approval for any of our product candidates. Government regulation may delay or prevent marketing of potential products for a considerable period of time and impose costly procedures upon our or our partners activities. The FDA or any other regulatory agency may not grant any approvals on a timely basis, if at all. Success in early stage clinical trials does not assure success in later stage clinical trials. Data obtained from clinical activities is not always conclusive and may be susceptible to varying interpretations which could delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. Even if a product receives regulatory approval, the approval may be significantly limited to specific indications and dosages. Delays in obtaining, or failures to obtain regulatory approvals may have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, we cannot predict what adverse governmental regulations may arise from future U.S. or foreign governmental action.
Any products manufactured or distributed by us pursuant to FDA approvals are subject to pervasive and continuing regulation by the FDA, including record-keeping requirements and reporting of adverse experiences with the drug. Drug manufacturers and their subcontractors are required to register their establishments with the FDA and certain state agencies, and are subject to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA to assess compliance with current Good Manufacturing Practices, which impose certain procedural and documentation requirements upon us and our third-party manufacturers. We cannot be certain that we or our present or future suppliers will be able to comply with current Good Manufacturing Practices regulations and other FDA regulatory requirements.
Predictive Medicine. We are subject to governmental regulation at the federal, state, and local levels as a clinical laboratory. We have received CLIA certification from the Department of Health and Human Services. On the state level, New York has implemented regulations concerning molecular diagnostic testing and we have received approval from the State of New York for breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility, colon and uterine cancer susceptibility, and malignant melanoma susceptibility. We are aware of several other states that require licensing or registration of general clinical laboratory activities. We believe that we have taken all steps required of us in such jurisdictions in order for us to conduct business in those jurisdictions. However, we may not be able to maintain state level regulatory compliance in all states where we may do business. Failure to maintain state regulatory compliance, or changes in state regulatory schemes, could result in a substantial curtailment or even prohibition of our clinical activities and could have a material adverse effect on our business.
CLIA authorizes the Department of Health and Human Services to regulate clinical laboratories. These regulations, which affect us, mandate that all clinical laboratories be certified to perform testing on human specimens and provide specific conditions for certification. These regulations also contain guidelines for the qualification, responsibilities, training, working conditions and oversight of clinical laboratory employees. In addition, specific standards are imposed for each type of test which is performed in a laboratory. CLIA and the regulations promulgated thereunder are enforced through quality inspections of test methods, equipment, instrumentation, materials and supplies on a periodic basis. Any change in CLIA or these regulations or in the interpretation thereof could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Our business is also subject to regulation under state and federal laws regarding environmental protection and hazardous substances control, including the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Environmental Protection Act, and the Toxic Substance Control Act. We believe that we are in material compliance with these and other applicable laws and that our ongoing compliance will not have a material adverse effect on our business. However, statutes or regulations applicable to our business may be adopted which impose substantial additional costs to assure compliance or otherwise materially adversely affect our operations.
In 1996, Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Through this Act, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is responsible for establishing regulations that are designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system by facilitating the transfer of
12
health information along with protecting the confidentiality and security of health information. Specifically, Title II of HIPAA, the Administrative Simplification Act, contains four provisions that address the privacy of health data, the security of health data, the standardization of identifying numbers used in the health care system and the standardization of data content, codes and formats used in health care transactions. We are currently subject to the HIPAA regulations and maintain an active program designed to address regulatory compliance issues. Penalties for non-compliance with HIPAA include both civil and criminal penalties. Violations could result in civil penalties of up to $25,000 per type of violation in each calendar year and criminal penalties of up to $250,000 per violation.
The privacy regulations protect medical records and other personal health information by limiting its use and release, giving patients the right to access their medical records and limiting most disclosures of health information to the minimum amount necessary to accomplish an intended purpose. The deadline for compliance with the privacy regulations was April 14, 2003. In addition to the Federal privacy regulations, there are a number of state laws regarding the confidentiality of health information that are applicable to clinical laboratories. The penalties for violation of state privacy laws may vary widely and new privacy laws in this area are pending. We believe that we have taken all necessary steps required of us to comply with health information privacy and confidentiality statutes and regulations in all jurisdictions, both state and Federal. However, we may not be able to maintain compliance in all jurisdictions where we do business. Failure to maintain compliance, or changes in state or Federal laws regarding privacy, could result in civil and/or criminal penalties and could have a material adverse effect on our business.
On August 17, 2000, HHS published the final version of the transactions and code sets regulations. These regulations adopt standards for eight electronic transactions and for code sets to be used in those transactions. They also contain requirements concerning the use of these standards by health plans, health care clearinghouses, and certain health care providers. The transactions and code sets regulations were designed to improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the health care industry by simplifying administration of the system and enabling the efficient electronic transmission of certain health information. The initial compliance date for these regulations was October 16, 2002, but, under the Administrative Simplification Compliance Act, certain covered entities were permitted to file an extension plan with HHS before October 6, 2002 that extended the compliance date to October 16, 2003. We have filed an extension plan and expect to meet the compliance deadline. We have also been informed by our contracted health care clearinghouse, an entity that submits claims to certain payers on our behalf, that they will meet the October 16, 2003 compliance deadline. However, if the health care clearinghouse is unable to meet the compliance date, it is possible that cash flow could be disrupted as a result of payers failing to accept claims. In addition, failure to maintain compliance with the transaction and code sets regulations could result in civil and/or criminal penalties and could have a material adverse effect on our business.
The final security regulations were published on February 20, 2003 and require a compliance date of April 21, 2005. The security regulations adopt standards for the security of electronic protected health information to be implemented by health plans, health care clearinghouses, and certain health care providers. The security standards were designed by HHS to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the health care industry in general by establishing a level of protection for certain electronic health information. Our HIPAA security compliance plan has two phases. The first phase involves assessment of our systems, applications and processes for compliance to the security regulations. In the second phase, we will develop a plan to implement remedial measures that must be taken in order to achieve compliance. We are currently assessing our systems, applications and processes for compliance to the security regulations and plan to remediate any affected systems, applications and processes for compliance to the security regulation prior to the April 21, 2005 deadline. We believe the measures required to achieve compliance to the security regulations should not impose significant costs on the company and will be implemented prior to the compliance deadline.
13
Available Information
We are a Delaware corporation with our principal executive offices located at 320 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108. Our telephone number is 801.584.3600 and our web site address is www.myriad.com. We make available free of charge through the Investor Relations section of our web site our Corporate Code of Conduct and Ethics, as well as our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. We include our web site address in this Annual Report on Form 10-K only as an inactive textual reference and do not intend it to be an active link to our web site.
Human Resources
As of September 1, 2003, we had 517 full-time equivalent employees, including 65 persons holding doctoral or medical doctor degrees. Most of our employees are engaged directly in research, development, production and marketing activities. We believe that the success of our business will depend, in part, on our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel.
Our employees are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and we consider our relations with our employees to be good.
Risk Factors
We are a company in the early stages of development and commercialization and may never achieve the goals of our business plan.
Although we have developed and marketed several predictive medicine products to date, we believe our future success is dependent upon our ability to successfully develop and commercialize our potential therapeutic products and additional predictive medicine products. Our therapeutic products are still in the early stages of development. Flurizan, our lead therapeutic compound, is in a large, multi-center human clinical trial. We also recently entered into a Phase II human clinical trial for the evaluation of R-flurbiprofen (MPC-7869) for the treatment of Alzheimers disease. Other potential therapeutic products are in various stages of pre-clinical development. Any therapeutic products under development by us will take several more years to develop and undergo extensive pre-clinical and clinical testing. Additionally, therapeutic products are subject to substantial regulatory review. We may be unable to discover or develop any therapeutic or additional predictive medicine products through the utilization of our technologies. Even if we develop products for commercial use, we may not be able to develop products that:
| | meet applicable regulatory standards, in a timely manner or at all; |
| | successfully compete with other technologies and products; |
| | avoid infringing the proprietary rights of others; |
| | are manufacturable in sufficient quantities or at reasonable cost; or |
| | are successfully marketed. |
We have a history of operating losses and expect to continue to incur losses in the future.
We have a limited operating history and have experienced operating losses since our inception. We expect these losses to continue for the next several years and we may never be profitable or achieve significant revenues. For example, we experienced net losses of $24.8 million during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2003, $14.0 million during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2002 and $7.2 million during the year ended June 30, 2001. We had an accumulated deficit of $98.7 million as of June 30, 2003. In order to develop and commercialize our
14
products, we expect to incur significant increases in our expenses over the next several years. As a result, we expect to incur operating losses at least for the foreseeable future. Our ability to achieve significant revenues or profitability will depend upon numerous factors, including our ability to:
| | identify drug targets and lead compounds that may lead to future therapeutic products; |
| | develop candidate drugs and receive required regulatory approvals; |
| | launch new therapeutic products; |
| | develop a sales force and marketing team to market our therapeutic products; and |
| | create and introduce additional marketable predictive medicine products. |
Failure to Obtain or Maintain Regulatory Approvals for Our Potential Therapeutic Products Would Harm Our Business.
Our potential therapeutic products are subject to stringent regulation with respect to product safety and efficacy by various foreign, federal, state and local authorities. Of particular significance are the FDAs requirements covering R&D, preclinical and clinical testing, manufacturing, quality control, labeling and promotion of drugs for human use. A therapeutic product cannot be marketed in the United States until it has been approved by the FDA, and then can only be marketed for the indications and claims approved by the FDA. As a result of these requirements, the length of time, the level of expenditures and the laboratory and clinical information required for approval of a New Drug Application (or NDA), are substantial and can require a number of years. In addition, if any of our potential therapeutic products receive regulatory approval, they would remain subject to ongoing FDA regulation, including, for example, changes to the product label, new or revised regulatory requirements for manufacturing practices, written advisements to physicians and a product recall.
We cannot be sure that we can obtain necessary regulatory approvals on a timely basis, if at all, for any of the therapeutic products we are developing or that if approved, we can maintain necessary regulatory approvals for such products, and all of the following could have a material adverse effect on our business:
| | significant delays in obtaining or failing to obtain required approvals; |
| | loss of, or changes to, previously obtained approvals; or |
| | failure to comply with existing or future regulatory requirements, including Good Manufacturing Practices regulations. |
Moreover, it is possible that the current regulatory framework could change or additional regulations could arise at any stage during our product development or marketing, which may affect our ability to obtain or maintain approval of our potential therapeutic products.
We have only limited experience in regulatory affairs, and some of our products may be based on new technologies, which may affect our ability to obtain or delay necessary regulatory approvals.
We have only limited experience in filing the applications necessary to gain regulatory approvals. Moreover, certain of our potential therapeutic products are based on new technologies and new therapeutic approaches that have not been extensively tested in humans. The regulatory requirements governing these types of products may be more rigorous than for conventional products. As a result, we may experience a longer regulatory process in connection with any products that we develop based on these new technologies or new therapeutic approaches.
The development and marketing of our potential therapeutic products will be very expensive.
The development of our potential therapeutic products will require significant research and development expenditures. In addition, preclinical and clinical testing and the regulatory approval process will require the expenditure of significant funds. Before receiving all required FDA approvals to market any therapeutic product,
15
we will have to demonstrate that the product is safe and effective on the patient population and for the diseases that would be treated. The clinical testing, manufacturing and marketing of products are subject to the rigorous testing and approval process of the FDA and equivalent foreign regulatory authorities, which can take many years and require the expenditure of substantial financial and other resources. Even after spending significant funds, we may not be able to develop or successfully commercialize any potential therapeutic products as the therapeutic products that we may develop will be subject to the risks of failure inherent in the development of therapeutic products based on new technologies. These risks include the possibilities that:
| | potential therapeutic products will be found to be unsafe or ineffective or otherwise fail to receive necessary regulatory clearances; |
| | the products, if safe and effective, will be difficult to manufacture on a large scale or uneconomical to market; |
| | proprietary rights of third parties will preclude us or our partners from marketing our products; or |
| | third parties will market superior or equivalent products. |
In addition, as we develop therapeutic products internally, we will have to make significant investments in therapeutic product development, marketing, sales and regulatory compliance resources. We will also have to establish facilities for or contract for the manufacture of products, including supplies of drugs used in clinical trials, under the current Good Manufacturing Practices of the FDA, which can be time consuming and costly.
We Face Uncertain Results of Clinical Trials for Our Potential Therapeutic Products.
Our future success depends in large part upon the results of clinical trials designed to assess the safety and efficacy of our potential therapeutic products. The completion rate of clinical trials depends significantly upon the rate of patient enrollment. Our inability to enroll patients on a timely basis could result in increased expenses and product development delays, which could harm our business. We can make no assurances that patients enrolled in our clinical trials will respond to our product candidates, that any product candidate will be safe and effective or that data derived from the trials will be suitable for submission to the FDA or satisfactorily support a NDA. Factors that affect patient enrollment include:
| | size of patient population for the targeted disease; |
| | eligibility criteria; |
| | proximity of eligible patients to clinical sites; |
| | clinical trial protocols; and |
| | the existence of competing protocols and existing approved drugs. |
Even if a trial is fully enrolled, significant uncertainties remain as to whether it will prove successful. Success in preclinical development and early clinical trials does not ensure that large-scale trials will be successful nor does it predict final results. Acceptable results in early trials may not be repeated in later trials. A number of companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials, even after promising results in earlier clinical trials. Negative or inconclusive results or adverse medical events during a clinical trial could cause that trial to be redone or terminated. In addition, failure to construct appropriate clinical trial protocols could result in the test or control group experiencing a disproportionate number of adverse events and could cause a clinical trial to be redone or terminated.
Furthermore, the length of time necessary to complete clinical trials and submit an application for marketing and manufacturing approvals varies significantly and may be difficult to predict. Failure to comply with extensive FDA regulations may result in delay, suspension or cancellation of a trial or the FDAs refusal to accept test results. The FDA may also suspend our clinical trials at any time if it concludes that the participants are being exposed to unacceptable risks. Consequently, we cannot ensure that clinical testing will be completed timely or successfully, if at all, for any of our potential therapeutic products.
16
We have limited experience in conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials, which may delay or prevent us from commercializing our therapeutic products.
We currently have limited experience in conducting preclinical and clinical trial activities. We may choose to, or may be required to, suspend, repeat or terminate our clinical trials if they are not conducted in accordance with regulatory requirements or the clinical trials are not well designed. In order to successfully develop and commercialize our therapeutic products, we will be required to further develop our internal capability to conduct preclinical studies and clinical trials. For some of our drug candidates, we will rely on our strategic partners, and in some instances, we may rely on third-party clinical research organizations, to design and conduct preclinical and clinical activities. Our reliance on strategic partners and third parties for preclinical and clinical development activities will reduce our control over these activities. In addition, if necessary, our inability to contract for any necessary clinical activities on acceptable terms would impair or delay our ability to complete our drug development programs, which could adversely affect our business.
Our current predictive medicine products and other predictive medicine or therapeutic products that we may develop may never achieve significant commercial market acceptance.
We may not succeed in achieving significant commercial market acceptance of any of our products. While we have marketed several of our predictive medicine products for several years and have gained some acceptance with oncologists, we need to convince the larger group of obstetricians/gynecologists and primary care physicians of the benefits of our predictive medicine products in order to increase our sales of those products. Our ability to successfully commercialize our current predictive medicine products, as well as any other predictive medicine or therapeutic products that we may develop, will depend on several factors, including:
| | Our ability to convince the medical community of the safety and clinical efficacy of our products and their potential advantages over existing therapeutic products and predictive medicine products. |
| | The agreement by third-party payors to provide full or even partial reimbursement coverage for our products, the scope and extent of which will affect patients willingness or ability to pay for our products and will likely heavily influence physicians decisions to recommend our products. |
| | The willingness of physicians and patients to utilize predictive medicine products which are difficult to perform and interpret. This difficulty is caused by a combination of factors, including the large number, sometimes many hundreds, of different mutations in the genes which our tests analyze, the need to characterize each specific mutation, and the ability of our products to predict only as to a statistical probability, not certainty, that a tested individual will develop the disease for which the test has been completed. |
These factors present obstacles to significant commercial acceptance of our products, which we will have to spend substantial time and money to overcome, if we can do so at all. Our inability to successfully do so will harm our business.