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Strategic License and Research and Collaboration Agreements
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2024
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Strategic License and Research and Collaboration Agreements

8. Strategic License and Research and Collaboration Agreements

2015 TSRI License Agreement

In connection with the acquisition of BlackThorn (see Note 6), the Company gained certain exclusive rights to intellectual property related to Kappa Opioid Receptor and V1aR Receptor Antagonist programs as well as an oxytocin receptors positive allosteric modulator program (collectively, the TSRI Programs) under a license agreement between BlackThorn and TSRI originally entered into in November 2015 (as amended, the 2015 TSRI License Agreement). The technology licensed under the 2015 TSRI License Agreement is used in the Company’s navacaprant and NMRA-511 research and development programs.

Pursuant to the 2015 TSRI License Agreement, the Company is obligated, among other things, to pay TSRI (i) a nominal annual license fee due and payable on the first day of each calendar year and after the fourth anniversary creditable against any royalties due for such calendar year, (ii) development and regulatory milestone payments of up to $1.5 million in aggregate for the first product from each TSRI Program, which are contingent upon achieving specific development and regulatory milestone events, (iii) commercial milestone payments of up to $3.5 million in aggregate for each occurrence, which are contingent upon achieving specified commercialization milestone events, (iv) tiered low-single digit royalties on future net sales of each royalty-bearing product and (v) a percentage ranging from the mid-single digits to sub teen double digits of any sublicensing revenues the Company receives. In October 2023, the Phase 3 navacaprant dosing milestone was met and the Company paid $0.3 million to TSRI, which was recognized in acquired in-process research and developed expenses in the fourth quarter of 2023. None of the other milestones have been achieved and no royalties were due under the 2015 TSRI License Agreement as of March 31, 2024.

Research and Collaboration Agreement with Amgen

In September 2021, and concurrently with the Amgen License Agreements (see Note 6), the Company entered into a research collaboration agreement with Amgen (Amgen Collaboration Agreement) to collectively discover drug targets, biomarkers, and other insights associated with central nervous system (CNS) diseases utilizing Amgen’s deCODE genetics and human data research capabilities. The Company received exclusive rights under intellectual property generated in the collaboration to exploit therapeutic compounds and diagnostics for use with therapeutics in the CNS field and Amgen received exclusive rights to exploit therapeutic

compounds and diagnostics for use with therapeutics outside of the CNS field. The agreement is governed by the Joint Research Committee (JRC), which is made up of equal representatives from each of the Company and Amgen to manage the progress and direction of research and development activities. All decisions made by the JRC shall be by consensus with each party having one vote, and if the JRC cannot reach a consensus, the dispute shall be referred to each company’s executive officers. If the executive officers fail to reach a consensus, the Company will have final decision-making authority provided that the matter does not relate to the approval of, or any material change to, a project, decisions to acquire rights from a third party, decisions or activities that are in conflict with Amgen’s database usage or data access rights, or the approval of external costs and expenses relating to certain new data generation activities or certain new dataset acquisitions, as such matters require mutual agreement.

In return for Amgen performing research and development activities under the agreement, the Company is committed to making non-refundable, non-creditable quarterly payments over the first two years totaling $50.0 million and for the third year $12.5 million. Additionally, the Company will reimburse Amgen for certain direct, out-of-pocket external costs and expenses that are incurred in the performance of the activities under the Amgen Collaboration Agreement.

The term of the agreement is up to five years, although it will terminate after three years if the Company and Amgen do not mutually agree upon a compensation structure for years four and five. If the parties do not reach an agreement at least 30 days prior to the end of year three, the Amgen Collaboration Agreement will automatically terminate upon its third anniversary. Further, either party can terminate the Amgen Collaboration Agreement upon material uncured breach or bankruptcy by the other party, in which case all amounts that have become due through the date of termination are non-refundable.

Amgen also has an exclusive option to negotiate, and the right of first negotiation, to obtain exclusive, worldwide licenses to research, develop, commercialize, and otherwise exploit up to two therapeutic compounds or any pharmaceutical product containing such therapeutic compound arising from the collaboration. That right exists with respect to each compound for a certain period of time following positive Phase 2 results for that compound. The Company determined that these rights were not freestanding instruments from the Amgen Collaboration Agreement and did not meet the definition of a derivative. Upon execution of the Amgen Collaboration Agreement in September 2021, the Company was obligated to start paying Amgen non-refundable quarterly payments. As of March 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, the related prepaid research and development costs included in the condensed consolidated balance sheets were $9.4 million and $6.3 million, respectively, within prepaid expenses and other current assets. No research and development expense was incurred during the three months ended March 31, 2024. The Company recorded $8.1 million of related research and development expenses during the three months ended March 31, 2023.

Sponsored Research Agreement with Vanderbilt

In February 2022, concurrently with the Vanderbilt License Agreement (see Note 6), the Company entered into a sponsored research agreement with Vanderbilt (Vanderbilt Research Agreement), pursuant to which Vanderbilt agreed to provide the Company research services to develop a M4 PAM back-up program.

In return for Vanderbilt performing research and development activities under the agreement, the Company agreed to make quarterly payments for research up to a total of $1.7 million on an annual basis. The term of the agreement ended in September 2023. In addition, the Company also had an exclusive option to negotiate an exclusive license to certain patent rights conceived or developed by Vanderbilt in the course of carrying out the sponsored research (see Note 6).

Parkinson's Research Ventures Funding Agreement

In March 2024, the Company entered into a research funding agreement with Parkinson's Research Ventures Limited (PRV), pursuant to which PRV agreed to provide the Company funding up to a total of £2.1 million in two tranches to carry out preclinical research and development activities related to the Company’s NLPR3 program.

The first tranche of £0.9 million was due upon execution of the agreement and was received in March 2024, for $1.1 million. The Company is eligible to receive the second tranche of £1.2 million upon the completion of certain development milestones. The Company concluded the funding arrangement was an obligation to perform services and the funding received is recognized as a contra-R&D expense as project costs are incurred. No costs were incurred during the three months ended March 31, 2024. Upon achievement of certain development, regulatory or commercial trigger events, the Company agreed to pay PRV in aggregate an amount equal to no more than four times the funding provided by PRV i.e., a maximum repayment amount of up to £8.4 million. The trigger event payments meet the derivative scope exception under Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 815 Derivatives and Hedging, and therefore do not need to be bifurcated and separately accounted for.