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Commitments and Contingencies
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2022
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, 2022, 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 Agreements

In October 2016, we entered into a non-exclusive development and manufacturing services agreement, as amended, with Lonza (the “2016 Lonza DMSA”) pursuant to which Lonza is obligated to perform 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 entered into a letter agreement with Lonza (the “Lonza Letter Agreement”) pursuant to which we agreed to certain terms for potential future payments in shares of our common stock as partial satisfaction of future obligations to Lonza. The Lonza Letter Agreement states that the initial pre-IND cash payments under the 2016 Lonza DMSA would be subject to a specified dollar cap (the “Initial Cash Cap”). After the Initial Cash Cap has been reached, we would 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. 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 non-exclusive development and manufacturing services agreement with Lonza (the “2018 Lonza DMSA”), pursuant to which Lonza is obligated to perform services including manufacturing process development and the manufacture and supply of VAX-24 finished drug product.
 

In April 2022, we entered into a third non-exclusive development and manufacturing services agreement, as amended, with Lonza (the “2022 Lonza DMSA”) effective as of March 22, 2022. Pursuant to the 2022 Lonza DMSA, Lonza will perform manufacturing process development and clinical manufacture and supply of our proprietary PCV.

Under each of the 2016 Lonza DMSA, 2018 Lonza DMSA and 2022 Lonza DMSA (collectively, the “Lonza Agreements”), we will pay Lonza agreed-upon fees for its performance of development and manufacturing services and pass through expenses incurred by Lonza for raw materials, as well as customary procurement and handling fees. Under each Lonza Agreement, we will own all right, title and interest in and to any and all New Customer Intellectual Property (as defined in each Lonza Agreement), and Lonza shall own all right, title and interest in New General Application Intellectual Property (as defined in each Lonza Agreement). Subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Lonza Agreements, Lonza granted us a non-exclusive, world-wide, fully paid-up, irrevocable, transferable license, including the right to grant sublicenses, under the New General Application Intellectual Property (as defined in each Lonza Agreement), to research, develop, make, have made, use, sell and import the Product (as defined in each Lonza Agreement) manufactured under each Lonza Agreement.


 

Sutro Option Agreement

In December 2022, we entered into an Option Agreement with Sutro Biopharma, pursuant to which we acquired from Sutro Biopharma (i) authorization to enter into an agreement with an independent alternate CMO to directly source Sutro Biopharma’s cell-free extract, allowing us to have direct oversight over financial and operational aspects of the relationship with the CMO; and (ii) a right, but not an obligation, to obtain certain exclusive rights to internally manufacture and/or source extract from certain CMOs and the right to independently develop and make improvements to extract (including the right to make improvements to the extract manufacturing process as well as cell lines) for use in connection with the exploitation of certain vaccine compositions (the “Option”). We and Sutro Biopharma have agreed to negotiate the terms and conditions of a form definitive agreement to be entered into in the event we exercise the Option, which shall include the terms and conditions set forth in an executed term sheet between us (the “Term Sheet”), and such terms that are necessary to give effect to each of the terms and conditions set forth in the Term Sheet (the “Form Definitive Agreement”). The Option period

is five years from the date of the Option Agreement, subject to potential acceleration in the event we undergo a change of control.

As consideration for the Option and other rights and authorizations granted to us under the Option Agreement, we agreed to pay Sutro Biopharma upfront consideration of $22.5 million, consisting of (i) $10.0 million in cash and $7.5 million worth of shares of our common stock (the number of shares to be calculated based on the arithmetic average of the daily volume weighted average price of our common stock as traded on Nasdaq in the three consecutive trading days immediately prior to the issuance thereof), and (ii) $5.0 million payable within five business days after we and Sutro Biopharma mutually agree in writing upon the Form Definitive Agreement. The 167,780 shares of common stock issued was recorded at fair value of $8.0 million on the date of settlement, December 22, 2022. In the event that we elect to exercise the Option, we would pay Sutro Biopharma an aggregate Option exercise price of $75.0 million in cash in two installments and, upon the occurrence of certain regulatory milestones, certain additional milestone payments totaling up to $60.0 million in cash. In the event that we undergo a change of control, certain rights and payments may be accelerated.

As of December 31, 2022, we have determined there is no current alternative future use of the acquired manufacturing rights paid and accrued for the option as of December 31, 2022. We have classified such costs incurred in entering the Option Agreement as Acquired Manufacturing Rights on the accompanying statement of operations for the year ended December 31, 2022. Part of the total cost incurred as reported on the statement of operations for the year ended December 31, 2022 is a $5.0 million accrued commitment that remains outstanding as of December 31, 2022.

 

Purchase Commitments

We enter into agreements in the normal course of business with CMOs and other vendors for manufacturing services and raw materials purchases. We rely on several third-party manufacturers for our manufacturing requirements. As of December 31, 2022, we had the following amounts due of non-cancelable purchase commitments related to manufacturing services and raw materials purchased due to our key manufacturing partners. These amounts represent our minimum contractual obligations, including termination fees. If we terminate certain firm orders with key manufacturing partners, we will be required to pay for the manufacturing services scheduled or raw materials purchased under our arrangements. The actual amounts we pay in the future to our vendors under such agreements may differ from the purchase order amounts.

 

Years ending December 31,

(in thousands)

 

2023

$

123,099

 

2024

 

2,471

 

Total non-cancelable purchase commitments due to key manufacturing partners

$

125,570