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Commitments and Contingencies
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2021
Commitments And Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies

6. Commitments and Contingencies

Legal Contingencies

From time to time, we may become involved in legal proceedings arising from the ordinary course of business. We record a liability for such matters when it is probable that future losses will be incurred and that such losses can be reasonably estimated. Significant judgment by us is required to determine both probability and the estimated amount. We do not believe that there is any litigation or asserted or unasserted claim pending that could, individually or in the aggregate, have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.

Guarantees and Indemnifications

In the normal course of business, we enter into agreements that contain a variety of representations and provide for general indemnification. Our exposure under these agreements is unknown because it involves claims that may be made against us in the future. To date, we have not paid any claims or been required to defend any action related to our indemnification obligations. As of December 31, 2021, we did not have any material indemnification claims that were probable or reasonably possible and consequently have not recorded related liabilities.

Indemnification

To the extent permitted under Delaware law, we have agreed to indemnify our directors and officers for certain events or occurrences while the director or officer is, or was, serving at our request in such capacity. The indemnification period covers all pertinent events and occurrences during the director’s or officer’s service. The maximum potential amount of future payments we could be required to make under these indemnification agreements is not specified in the agreements; however, we have director and officer insurance coverage that reduces our exposure and enables us to recover a portion of any future amounts paid. We have not incurred any material costs as a result of such indemnification and are not currently aware of any indemnification claims.

Development and Manufacturing Services Agreement

On October 21, 2016, we entered into a development and manufacturing services agreement, as amended, with Lonza (the “Lonza DMSA”), pursuant to which Lonza is obligated to perform services including manufacturing process development and the manufacture of components for VAX-24, including the polysaccharide antigens, our proprietary eCRM protein carrier and conjugated drug substances.

In the September 2017, we and Lonza agreed to defer the completion payments for any stage that commenced after December 31, 2019 or had not been completed by December 31, 2019 until the earlier of the completion of all Investigational New Drug (“IND”)-enabling activities or December 31, 2020. In March 2020, Lonza agreed to defer the completion payments until the earlier of the completion of all IND-enabling activities or April 30, 2021. In April 2021, Lonza further agreed to defer 50% of the completion payments until the earlier of the completion of all IND-enabling activities or December 31, 2021. Pursuant to this agreement, all deferred completion payments were paid in December 2021.

In June 2018, we and Lonza entered into a letter agreement pursuant to which we agreed to certain terms for potential future equity payments in shares of our common stock as partial satisfaction of future obligations to Lonza. This agreement states that the initial pre-IND cash payments would be subject to a specified dollar cap (the “Initial Cash Cap”). After the Initial Cash Cap has been reached, we have the option to make any further pre-IND payments owed to Lonza in cash, in shares of our common stock at then market prevailing prices, or a combination of both, at our election. The Initial Cash Cap had not been reached as of December 31, 2020. As such, no amount was recorded with respect to the potential future payments above the Initial Cash Cap at December 31, 2020. In April 2021, we reached the Initial Cash Cap and notified Lonza that we would be exercising our option to issue approximately $10.0 million in shares of our common stock as payment for a portion of pre-IND payments due April 30, 2021. In June 2021, we issued 399,680 shares of our common stock to Lonza at a price of $25.02 per share to pay for $10.0 million of the pre-IND payments due April 30, 2021.

In October 2018, we entered into a second development and manufacturing services agreement with Lonza (the “Lonza 2018 DMSA,” and together with the Lonza DMSA, the “Lonza Agreements”), pursuant to which Lonza is obligated to perform services including manufacturing process development and the manufacture and supply of VAX-24 finished drug product.

Under the Lonza Agreements, we are obligated to pay Lonza agreed-upon fees for Lonza’s performance of manufacturing services, and to reimburse Lonza for its out-of-pocket costs associated with purchasing raw materials, plus a customary handling fee. Each Lonza Agreement is managed by a steering committee and any dispute at the steering committee will be resolved by senior executives of the parties.