XML 31 R18.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT v3.24.2.u1
RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
 6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2024
Related Party Transactions [Abstract]  
RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

10) RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

 

Agreements with Factor Bioscience Inc. and Affiliates

 

As of June 30, 2024, the Company had the agreements described below with Factor Bioscience Inc. and/or Dr. Matthew Angel. These agreements have been deemed related party transactions because the Company’s former chief executive officer, Dr. Angel, is the chairman and chief executive officer of Factor Bioscience Inc. and a director of its subsidiary, Factor Bioscience Limited (“Factor Limited” and together with Factor Bioscience Inc. and its other affiliates, “Factor Bioscience”). Dr. Angel resigned as the Company’s chief executive officer effective December 31, 2023.

 

In September 2022, the Company entered into a Master Services Agreement (the “MSA”) with Factor Bioscience, pursuant to which Factor Bioscience agreed to provide services to the Company as agreed between the Company and Factor Bioscience and as set forth in one or more work orders under the MSA, including the first work order included in the MSA (“WO1”). The MSA contains customary confidentiality provisions and representations and warranties of the parties, and the MSA may be terminated by either party upon 30 days’ prior notice, subject to any superseding termination provisions contained in a particular work order.

 

Under WO1, Factor Bioscience agreed to provide the Company with mRNA cell engineering research support services, including access to certain facilities, equipment, materials and training, and the Company agreed to pay Factor Bioscience an initial fee of $5.0 million, payable in 12 equal monthly installments of approximately $0.4 million. Of the $5.0 million, the Company allocated $3.5 million to the License Fee Obligation (as defined below). Following the initial 12-month period, the Company agreed to continue paying Factor Bioscience the monthly fee of $0.4 million until such time as WO1 is terminated. Upon entering into the MSA, the Company paid a deposit of $0.4 million, which will be applied to the last month of WO1.

 

Under the terms of an amendment to WO1, the Company may terminate WO1 on or after the second anniversary of the date of the MSA, subject to providing Factor Bioscience with 75 days’ prior notice if such notice is provided no later than June 30, 2024. On June 26, 2024, the Company provided Factor Bioscience with its notice to terminate WO1, which will be effective on September 9, 2024.

 

In connection with entering into the MSA, Factor Limited entered into a waiver agreement with Eterna LLC, pursuant to which Factor Limited agreed to waive payment of $3.5 million otherwise payable to it (the “License Fee Obligation”) in October 2022 by Eterna LLC under the exclusive license agreement entered into in April 2021 by and among Eterna LLC, Novellus Limited and Factor Limited (the “Original Factor License Agreement”). Under the terms of the waiver agreement, the License Fee Obligation is waived conditionally on the Company paying Factor Bioscience a minimum of $3.5 million due under the MSA.

 

Because the License Fee Obligation was conditionally waived until the Company paid Factor Bioscience a minimum of $3.5 million under the MSA, the Company recorded a liability of $3.5 million. As of June 30, 2024, there was approximately $0.3 million of the unamortized License Fee Obligation remaining, which is recorded on the accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheet in the “due to related party, current” line item.

 

 

In September 2022, Novellus Inc. (“Novellus”) and the Company entered into a Second Amendment to the Limited Waiver and Assignment Agreement (the “Waiver and Assignment Agreement”) with Drs. Matthew Angel and Christopher Rohde (the “Founders”) whereby the Company agreed to be responsible for all future, reasonable and substantiated legal fees, costs, settlements and judgments incurred by the Founders, the Company or Novellus for certain claims and actions and any pending or future litigation brought against the Founders, Novellus and/or the Company by or on behalf of the Westman and Sowyrda legal matters described in Note 10 (the “Covered Claims”). The Founders will continue to be solely responsible for any payments made to satisfy a judgement or settlement of any pending or future wage act claims. Under the Waiver and Assignment Agreement, the Founders agreed that they are not entitled to, and waived any right to, indemnification or advancement of past, present or future legal fees, costs, judgments, settlement or other liabilities they may have been entitled to receive from the Company or Novellus in respect of the Covered Claims. The Company and the Founders will share in any recoveries up to the point at which the parties have been fully compensated for legal fees, costs and expenses incurred, with the Company retaining any excess recoveries. The Company has the sole authority to direct and control the prosecution, defense and settlement of the Covered Claims.

 

In November 2022, following the expiration of one of the milestone deadlines for certain regulatory filings required under the Third Amended and Restated Exclusive License Agreement between Novellus Limited and Factor Limited entered into in November 2020 (the “Novellus-Factor License Agreement”), which permitted Factor Limited to terminate the license granted to Novellus Limited thereunder, the Company entered into the first amendment to the Original Factor License Agreement (as amended, the “2021 Factor License Agreement”), pursuant to which, among other things, Factor Limited granted to Eterna LLC an exclusive, sublicensable license under certain patents owned by Factor Limited (the “Factor Patents”) for the purpose of identifying and pursuing certain opportunities to grant to third parties sublicenses to the Factor Patents. The Original Factor License Agreement also (i) terminated the Novellus-Factor License Agreement, (ii) confirmed Factor Limited’s grant to Eterna LLC of the rights and licenses Novellus Limited previously granted to Eterna LLC under the Novellus-Factor License Agreement on the same terms and conditions as granted by Novellus Limited to Eterna LLC under such agreement, (iii) confirmed that the sublicense granted by Novellus Limited in accordance with the Novellus-Factor License Agreement to NoveCite, Inc., a company which the Company has a 25% non-controlling interest (“NoveCite”), survived termination of the Novellus-Factor License Agreement; and (iv) removed Novellus Limited from the Original Factor License Agreement and the license agreement entered into on October 6, 2020 between Novellus Limited and NoveCite, Inc, as amended, and replaced Novellus Limited with Factor Limited as the direct licensor to Eterna LLC and NoveCite under such agreements, respectively.

 

On February 20, 2023, the Company, entered into an exclusive license agreement (the “Feb 2023 Factor Exclusive License Agreement”) with Factor Limited, pursuant to which Factor Limited granted to the Company an exclusive, sublicensable, worldwide license under certain patents owned by Factor Limited for the purpose of, among other things, identifying and pursuing certain opportunities to develop products in respect of such patents and to otherwise grant to third parties sublicenses to such patents. The Feb 2023 Factor Exclusive License Agreement, which terminated and superseded the Amended Factor License Agreement, was subsequently terminated and superseded by the A&R Factor License Agreement (as defined below).

 

On November 14, 2023, the Company entered into an amended and restated exclusive license agreement (the “A&R Factor License Agreement”) with Factor Limited to replace in its entirety the exclusive license agreement between the parties dated February 20, 2023 and the amendment thereto. Under the terms of the A&R Factor License Agreement, Factor Limited granted to the Company an exclusive, sublicensable license under certain patents owned by Factor Limited (the “Factor Patents”). The A&R Factor License Agreement also provides for, among other things, the expansion of the Company’s license rights to include (i) the field of use of the Factor Patents to include veterinary uses (ii) know-how that is necessary or reasonably useful to practice to the licensed patents, (iii) the ability to sublicense through multiple tiers (as opposed to only permitting a direct sublicense) and (iv) the transfer of technology to the Company, subject to the use restrictions in the A&R Factor License Agreement. The term of the A&R Factor License Agreement expires on November 22, 2027, but will be automatically extended for an additional five years (such period, the “Renewal Term”) if the Company pays at least $6.0 million to Factor Limited from fees from sublicenses to the Factor Patents (“Sublicense Fees”), other cash on hand or a combination of both sources of funds. The Company will pay to Factor Limited 20% of any Sublicense Fee received by the Company during the term of the A&R Factor License Agreement. Beginning in September 2024, the Company will also begin paying Factor Limited a monthly maintenance fee of approximately $0.4 million until the expiration of the A&R Factor License Agreement, including any Renewal Term. The Company may terminate the A&R Factor License Agreement upon 120 days’ written notice to Factor Limited, and both parties have additional customary termination rights. Under the A&R Factor License Agreement, the Company is obligated to pay the expenses incurred by Factor Limited in preparing, filing, prosecuting and maintaining the Factor Patents and the Company agreed to bear all costs and expenses associated with enforcing and defending the Factor Patents in any action or proceeding arising from pursuit of sublicensing opportunities under the license granted under the A&R Factor License Agreement.

 

 

Exacis Asset Acquisition

 

On April 26, 2023, the Company closed the Exacis Acquisition. See Note 3 for additional information.

 

The Exacis Acquisition was deemed a related party transaction because, at the time of the acquisition, (i) Dr. Gregory Fiore was both the chief executive officer of Exacis and a member of the Company’s board of directors, (ii) Dr. Angel was both the Company’s chief executive officer and chairman of Exacis’ scientific advisory board, and (iii) an affiliate of Factor Bioscience was the majority stockholder of Exacis.

 

Consulting Agreement with Former Director

 

In May 2023, the Company entered into a consulting agreement with Dr. Fiore, whereby Dr. Fiore agreed to provide business development consulting services to the Company for a monthly retainer of $20,000. The consulting agreement was terminable for any reason by either party upon 15 days’ written notice. The Company terminated the consulting agreement, effective July 31, 2023. Dr. Fiore served on the Company’s board of directors from June 2022 to October 4, 2023.

 

July 2023 and December 2023 Financings

 

Investors in the July 2023 convertible note financing included Brant Binder, Richard Wagner, Charles Cherington and Nicholas Singer, and investors in the December 2023 convertible note financing included Messrs. Cherington and Singer. Each of them participated in the applicable financing under the same terms and subject to the same conditions as all the other investors. See Note 4 for additional information regarding the financings. Mr. Binder served on the Company’s board of directors from July 6, 2023 to August 8, 2023, Mr. Wagner served on the Company’s board of directors from July 6, 2023 to August 8, 2023, Mr. Cherington served on the Company’s board of directors from March 2021 to July 6, 2023, and Mr. Singer served on the Company’s board of directors from June 2022 to July 6, 2023.