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COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2022
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES [Abstract] |
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES |
10) | COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
Legal Matters The Company is involved in litigation and arbitrations from time to time in the ordinary course of business. Legal fees and other costs associated with such actions are expensed as incurred. In addition, the Company assesses the need to record a liability for litigation and contingencies. The Company reserves for costs relating to these matters when a loss is probable, and the amount can be reasonably estimated. Dhesh Govender v. Brooklyn Immunotherapeutics, LLC, et al., Index No. 650847/2021 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cty. 2021) On or about February 5, 2021, Dhesh Govender, a former short-term consultant of Brooklyn LLC, filed a complaint against Brooklyn LLC and certain individuals that plaintiff alleges were directors of Brooklyn LLC. The complaint is captioned, Dhesh Govender v. Brooklyn Immunotherapeutics, LLC, et al., Index No. 650847/2021 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cty. 2021). Plaintiff alleges that Brooklyn LLC and certain of its officers and directors (“defendants”) engaged in unlawful and discriminatory conduct based on race, national origin and hostile work environment. Plaintiff also asserts various breach of contract, fraud and quantum meruit claims based on an alleged oral agreement pursuant to which he alleges Brooklyn LLC agreed to hire him as an executive once the Merger was completed. In particular, plaintiff alleges that, in exchange for transferring an opportunity to obtain an agreement to acquire a license from Novellus for its mRNA-based gene editing and cell reprogramming technology to Brooklyn LLC, he was promised a $0.5 million salary and 7% of the equity of Brooklyn LLC. Based on these and other allegations, plaintiff seeks damages of not less than $10 million. By Order dated November 10, 2021, the Court granted defendants’ motion to compel Govender to arbitrate all of his claims against them, based on the arbitration clause of his consulting agreement with Brooklyn LLC. Govender thereafter filed his Statement of Claim (the “Demand”) with the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”), Case No. 01-21-0017-9417, on December 15, 2021 against the same defendants, and served it on defendants’ counsel on February 3, 2022. In his Demand, Govender continues to assert statutory discrimination claims against all defendants, claims against Brooklyn LLC premised on the breach of an alleged oral promise to issue Govender 7% of the equity of Brooklyn LLC and to employ Govender at a $0.5 million annual salary in exchange for allegedly arranging and negotiating the Novellus license, common law fraud claims against Brooklyn LLC and Cherington based on the breach of these same promises and a claim for quantum meruit against the Brooklyn LLC. In his Demand, Govender now claims that the fair and reasonable value of his services on the quantum meruit claim exceeded $100 million and is seeking damages in an amount to be determined at the hearing. Defendants filed an answering statement to the Demand on February 28, 2022 and the parties have selected a three-member arbitration panel. The date on which arbitration is scheduled to begin has not yet been set. Defendants intend to vigorously defend themselves against these claims. At this stage in the litigation, the Company is not able to predict the probability of a favorable or unfavorable outcome. Emerald Private Equity Fund, LLC Matter By a letter dated July 7, 2021, Emerald Private Equity Fund, LLC (“Emerald”), a stockholder of Eterna, made a demand pursuant to 8 Del. C. 220 to inspect certain books and records of Eterna. The stated purpose of the demand was to investigate possible wrongdoing by persons responsible for the implementation of the Merger and the issuance of paper stock certificates, including investigating whether: (i) Eterna’s stock certificates were issued in accordance with the Merger Agreement; (ii) certain restrictions on the sale of Eterna common stock following the Merger were proper and applied without favor; (iii) anyone received priority in post-Merger issuances of Eterna’s stock certificates that allowed them to benefit from an increase in the trading price of Eterna’s common stock; and (iv) it should pursue remedial measures and/or report alleged misconduct to the SEC. Eterna responded to the demand letter and produced certain information to Emerald in connection with the demand, which is subject to the terms of a confidentiality agreement entered into among the parties, including certain additional stockholders who subsequently joined as parties to such agreement. In October 2021, Emerald requested that Eterna produce additional information related to the authority, purpose and justification for the restriction imposed on the sale of Eterna common stock following the Merger and the timing of share delivery to Eterna stockholders, following which request Eterna agreed to produce certain additional information and emails relating to these topics. On March 30, 2022, counsel to Emerald advised the Company that it was prepared to file suit against the Company, certain current and former directors of the Company, and the Company’s financial advisor in connection with the Merger, on behalf of Emerald and a class of similarly situated stockholders with respect to some or all of the foregoing matters, alleging claims for breach of fiduciary duty, conversion and aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty. Emerald’s counsel expressed a willingness to engage in private pre-suit early resolution discussions with the Company and its financial advisor on behalf of individual stockholders whom counsel represents in addition to Emerald (collectively, the “Emerald Plaintiffs”); and the Company engaged in such discussions in lieu of incurring the legal costs anticipated in respect of litigating the Emerald Plaintiffs’ claims, all of which the Company disputes. Following such discussions, with no admission of wrongdoing, the Company and the Emerald Plaintiffs entered into a confidential settlement agreement, pursuant to which the Company paid $1.2 million in full settlement of all of the Emerald Plaintiffs’ purported claims, including a release by the Emerald Plaintiffs in favor of the Company in respect of any and all such claims. John Westman v. Novellus, Inc., Christopher Rohde, and Matthew Angel, Civil Action No. 2181CV01949 (Middlesex County (Massachusetts) Superior Court) On or about September 7, 2021, John Westman, a former employee of Novellus, Inc. filed a Complaint in Middlesex County (Massachusetts) Superior Court against Novellus, Inc. and the company’s founders and former executives, Dr. Christopher Rohde and Dr. Matthew Angel (collectively, “Defendants”). The case includes allegations that Novellus, Inc. violated the Massachusetts Wage Act. Eterna acquired Novellus, Inc. on July 16, 2021. Mr. Westman’s claims relate to alleged conduct that took place before Eterna acquired Novellus, Inc. Defense and liability in association with any Wage Act claims have been assumed by Dr. Rohde and Dr. Angel. On December 24, 2021, Westman dismissed the case without prejudice so the parties could mediate the matter. The parties’ February 2022 mediation was unsuccessful and the dispute is currently pending in arbitration. Novellus, Inc. v. Sowyrda et al., C.A. No. 2184CV02436-BLS2 On October 25, 2021 Novellus, Inc. filed a complaint in the Superior Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk County, against former Novellus, Inc. employees Paul Sowyrda and John Westman and certain other former investors in Novellus LLC (Novellus, Inc.’s former parent company prior to the Company’s acquisition of Novellus, Inc.), alleging breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and civil conspiracy. Eterna acquired Novellus, Inc. on July 16, 2021. On May 27, 2022 Novellus, Inc. amended the complaint to withdraw all claims against all defendants except Paul Sowyrda and John Westman. On July 1, 2022, Westman filed a motion to compel arbitration or in the alternative, to stay the litigation pending the disposition of certain litigation in the Court of Chancery for the State of Delaware filed by Mr. Sowyrda against Novellus LLC, Dr. Christopher Rohde, Dr. Matthew Angel, Leonard Mazur and Factor Bioscience, Inc. captioned Zelickson et al., v. Angel et al., C.A. 2021-1014-JRS and by Westman against Novellus LLC captioned Westman v. Novellus LLC, C.A. No. 2021-0882-NAC (the “Delaware Actions”). On July 1, 2022, Sowyrda answered the complaint and asserted counterclaims against Novellus, Inc, and third-party defendants Dr. Matthew Angel and Dr. Christopher Rohde alleging violations of the Massachusetts Wage Act, Massachusetts Minimum Fair Wage Law, the Fair Labor Standards Act, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and quantum meruit. Sowyrda also joined in Westman’s motion to stay the case pending the Delaware Actions. Novellus, Inc.’s claims and Mr. Sowyrda’s counterclaims relate to alleged conduct that took place before Eterna acquired Novellus, Inc. Defense and liability in association with any Wage Act claims have been assumed by Dr. Rohde and Dr. Angel. The Company filed its opposition to Sowyrda and Westman’s motions on August 19, 2022. On September 9, 2022, Westman and Sowyrda filed replies in support of their motions and requested to be heard. The hearing is scheduled for November 16, 2022. Under applicable Delaware law and Novellus Inc.’s organizational documents, the Company may be required to advance or reimburse certain legal expenses incurred by former officers and directors of Novellus, Inc. in connection with the foregoing Westman and Sowyrda matters. However, a future advance or reimbursement is not currently probable nor can it be reasonably estimated. Licensing Agreements USF Brooklyn LLC has license agreements with University of South Florida Research Association, Inc. (“USF”), granting Brooklyn LLC the right to sell, market, and distribute IRX-2, subject to a 7% royalty payable to USF based on a percentage of gross product sales. Under the license agreement with USF, Brooklyn LLC is obligated to repay patent prosecution expenses incurred by USF. To date, Brooklyn LLC has not recorded any product sales, or obligations related to USF patent prosecution expenses. The license agreement terminates upon the expiration of the IRX-2 patents. Novellus Ltd. and Factor Limited In December 2020, Brooklyn LLC entered into option agreements (the “Option Agreements”) with Novellus Ltd. and Factor Limited (together, the “Licensors”) to obtain the right to exclusively license the Licensors’ intellectual property and mRNA cell reprogramming and gene editing technology for use in the development of certain cell-based therapies to be evaluated and developed for treating human diseases, including certain types of cancer, sickle cell disease, and beta thalassemia (the “Licensed Technology”). The option was exercisable before February 28, 2021 (or April 30, 2021 if the Merger had not closed by that date) and required Brooklyn LLC to pay a non-refundable option fee of $0.5 million and then an initial license fee of $4.0 million (including the non-refundable fee of $0.5 million) in order to exercise the option. In April 2021, Brooklyn LLC and the Licensors amended the Option Agreements to extend the exercise period to May 21, 2021 and to require Brooklyn LLC to pay a total $1.0 million of the $4.0 million initial license fees to the Licensors by April 15, 2021. In April 2021, Brooklyn LLC and the Licensors entered into an exclusive license agreement (the “License Agreement”) pursuant to which Brooklyn LLC acquired an exclusive worldwide license to the Licensed Technology for use in the development of certain mRNA, gene-editing, and cellular therapies to be evaluated and developed for treating human diseases, including certain types of cancer, sickle cell disease, and beta thalassemia. Under the terms of the License Agreement, Brooklyn LLC is obligated to pay the Licensors a total of $4.0 million in connection with the execution of the License Agreement, all of which was paid as of June 2021. As a result of the Novellus Acquisition, in accordance with the terms of the Novellus-Factor License Agreement, the rights and obligations of Novellus Ltd. thereunder pertaining to any and all licensed products have inured to Eterna. The agreement with Factor Limited under the License Agreement, which grants Brooklyn LLC exclusive rights to develop certain next-generation mRNA gene editing and cell therapy products, remained unchanged after the completion of the Novellus Acquisition. Accordingly, under the License Agreement, Brooklyn LLC remained obligated to pay to Factor Limited a fee of $3.5 million in October 2022, which would have been in addition to a fee of $2.5 million paid to Factor Limited in October 2021. In connection with the Company entering into the MSA (see Note 8), Factor Limited entered into the Waiver Agreement with Brooklyn LLC, pursuant to which Factor Limited waived payment of the $3.5 million otherwise payable to it in October 2022 by Brooklyn LLC. Brooklyn LLC is also required to use commercially reasonably efforts to achieve certain delineated milestones, including specified clinical development and regulatory milestones and specified commercialization milestones. In general, upon its achievement of these milestones, Brooklyn LLC will be obligated to pay, in the case of development and regulatory milestones, milestone payments to the Licensors in specified amounts and, in the case of commercialization milestones, specified royalties with respect to product sales, sublicense fees or sales of pediatric review vouchers. In the event Brooklyn LLC fails to timely achieve certain delineated milestones, the Licensors will have the right to terminate Brooklyn LLC’s rights under provisions of the License Agreement relating to those milestones. Novellus Ltd. also has a license agreement with Factor Limited, which was entered into in February 2015, amended in June 2018 and March 2020, and then amended and restated in November 2020 (the “Novellus-Factor License Agreement”). The Novellus-Factor License Agreement grants to Novellus Ltd. an exclusive license to use certain technology owned by Factor Limited for the development of mesenchymal stem cell-based cellular therapies for treating diseases and conditions in humans and animals (the “Novellus-Factor Licensed Technology”). Under the License Agreement, Novellus Ltd. in turn granted a sublicense to Brooklyn LLC to use the Novellus-Factor Licensed Technology to develop up to four mesenchymal stem cell-based therapy products for use in the treatment of cancer in humans. Under the Novellus-Factor License Agreement, Novellus Ltd. is required to use commercially reasonably efforts to achieve certain delineated milestones, including specified clinical development and regulatory milestones and specified commercialization milestones. The Novellus-Factor License Agreement states that upon its achievement of these milestones, Novellus Ltd. will be obligated to make milestone payments of up to $51.0 million in aggregate to Factor Limited as well as specified royalties with respect to product sales, sublicense fees or sales of pediatric review vouchers. In the event Novellus Ltd. fails to timely achieve certain delineated milestones under the Novellus-Factor License Agreement, Factor Limited could seek to terminate the license granted thereunder. The Novellus-Factor License Agreement provides that in the event of termination of the Novellus-Factor License Agreement, if Novellus Ltd. requests that its sublicense to Brooklyn LLC under the License Agreement survive such termination, such sublicense shall be considered a direct license from Factor Limited to Brooklyn LLC, provided that Brooklyn LLC agrees in writing that (i) Factor Limited is entitled to enforce all relevant provisions directly against Brooklyn LLC, and (ii) Factor Limited shall not assume, and shall not be responsible to Brooklyn LLC for, any representations, warranties or obligations of Novellus Ltd. to Brooklyn LLC, other than to permit Brooklyn LLC to exercise any rights to the technology sublicensed by Novellus Ltd. to Brooklyn LLC. Factor Limited also agreed under the License Agreement that upon the termination of the Novellus-Factor License Agreement for any reason other than Brooklyn LLC’s breach of the License Agreement, the rights and licenses granted to Brooklyn LLC by Novellus Ltd. under the License Agreement shall survive such termination of the Novellus-Factor License Agreement, and Factor Limited grants to Brooklyn LLC such rights and licenses on the same terms and conditions as granted by Novellus Ltd. to Brooklyn LLC under the License Agreement.. Following the expiration of one of the delineated milestone deadlines in the Novellus-Factor License Agreement without Novellus Ltd.’s achievement of the required regulatory filing on November 1, 2022, Novellus Ltd., Brooklyn LLC and Factor began discussions regarding an amendment to the terms of the License Agreement and the Novellus-Factor License Agreement in order for Brooklyn LLC, among other things, to directly license the Novellus-Factor Licensed Technology from Factor and consolidate and amend the milestone, payment and other terms with respect thereto accordingly. There can be no assurance that such an amendment will be made on the forgoing terms, if at all. NoveCite In October 2020, Novellus Ltd. (as sublicensor) and NoveCite (as sublicensee) entered into an exclusive license agreement (the “Sublicense”) to license novel cellular therapy for acute respiratory distress syndrome, which NoveCite is licensing from Factor Limited. Under the sublicense agreement, NoveCite is required to use commercially reasonably efforts to achieve certain delineated milestones, including specified clinical development and regulatory milestones and specified commercialization milestones. In general, upon its achievement of these milestones, NoveCite will be obligated, in the case of development and regulatory milestones, to make milestone payments to the Novellus Ltd. in specified amounts and, in the case of commercialization milestones, specified royalties with respect to product sales, sublicense fees or sales of pediatric review vouchers. Under the terms of the Sublicense, in the event that Novellus Ltd. receives any revenue involving the original cell line included in the licensed technology, then Novellus Ltd. shall remit to NoveCite 50% of such revenue. Royalty Agreements Collaborator Royalty Agreement Effective June 22, 2018, IRX terminated its Research, Development and Option Facilitation Agreement and its Options Agreement (the “RDO and Options Agreements”) with a collaborative partner (the “Collaborator”), pursuant to a termination agreement (the “Termination Agreement”). The Termination Agreement was assigned to Brooklyn LLC in November 2018 when Brooklyn LLC acquired the assets of IRX. In connection with the Termination Agreement, all of the rights granted to the Collaborator under the RDO and Options Agreements were terminated, and Brooklyn LLC has no obligation to refund any payments received from the Collaborator. As consideration for entering into the Termination Agreement, the Collaborator will receive a royalty equal to 6% of revenues from the sale of IRX-2, for the period of time beginning with the first sale of IRX-2 through the later of (i) the twelfth anniversary of the first sale of IRX-2 or (ii) the expiration of the last IRX patent, or other exclusivity of IRX-2. Royalty Agreement with certain former IRX Therapeutics Investors On May 1, 2012, IRX Therapeutics entered into a royalty agreement (the “IRX Investor Royalty Agreement”) with certain investors who participated in a financing transaction. The IRX Investor Royalty Agreement was assigned to Brooklyn LLC in November 2018 when Brooklyn LLC acquired the assets of IRX. Pursuant to the IRX Investor Royalty Agreement, when Brooklyn LLC becomes obligated to pay royalties to USF under the agreement described above under “Licensing Agreements-USF,” it will pay an additional royalty of 1% of gross sales to an entity organized by the investors who participated in such financing transaction. There are no termination provisions in the IRX Investor Royalty Agreement. Brooklyn LLC has not recognized any revenues to date, and no royalties are due pursuant to any of the above-mentioned royalty agreements. Investor Royalty Agreement On March 22, 2021, Brooklyn LLC restated its royalty agreement with certain beneficial holders of Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics Investors GP LLC and Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics Investors LP, whereby such beneficial holders will continue to receive, on an annual basis, royalties in an aggregate amount equal to 4% of the net revenues of IRX-2, a cytokine-based therapy being developed by Brooklyn LLC to treat patients with cancer.

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