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Research Collaboration and License Agreement
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2020
Research Collaboration and License Agreement  
Research Collaboration and License Agreement  
Research Collaboration and License Agreement

Note 7.    Research Collaboration and License Agreement

The Company and Zealand Pharma A/S entered into a collaboration agreement in June 2012. In October 2013, Zealand Pharma abandoned the collaboration and the collaboration agreement was terminated in 2014. The agreement provides for certain post-termination payment obligations to Zealand with respect to compounds related to the collaboration that meet specified conditions set forth in the collaboration agreement and which the Company elects to further develop following Zealand’s abandonment of the collaboration. The Company has the right, but not the obligation, to further develop and commercialize such compounds. The agreement provides for payments to Zealand for the

achievement of certain development, regulatory and sales milestone events that occur prior to a partnering arrangement related to such compounds between the Company and a third party.

The Company initially determined that rusfertide is a compound for which the post-termination payments described above are required under the collaboration agreement and has made three development milestone payments for an aggregate amount of $1.0 million under the agreement. However, the Company concluded in 2019 that rusfertide is not a compound with respect to which post-termination payments are required under the agreement, and initiated the arbitration proceeding described in Note 11 below.

Milestone payments to collaboration partners are recorded as research and development expenses in the period that the expense is incurred. No research and development expense was recorded under this agreement for the years ended December 31, 2020 or 2019. For the year ended December 31, 2018, the Company recorded research and development expense of $500,000 under this agreement.

If the Company is required to continue to make payments with respect to rusfertide under the collaboration agreement, the next two milestones that would be due under the agreement include: $1.0 million to $3.0 million for initiation of placebo-controlled Phase 2b clinical trial; and $1.5 million to $4.5 million for initiation of a Phase 3 clinical trial. The milestone amounts vary depending on the number of patients in the applicable clinical trial, and the Company expects the milestones would be the lowest amount within the specified range.

See Note 11. Commitments and Contingencies – Legal Proceedings for additional information on arbitration proceedings related to this research and collaboration agreement.