Summary of the Material and Other Risks Associated with Our Business
Our business is subject to numerous material and other risks and uncertainties that you should be aware of in evaluating our business. These risks include, but are not limited to, the following:
We are a targeted oncology company with a limited operating history.
We have incurred significant net losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future.
We have no products approved for commercial sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales.
We will require additional capital to finance our operations, which may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on terms acceptable to us, we would be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate some of our product development programs or commercialization efforts.
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or product candidates.
The COVID-19 pandemic, or a similar pandemic, epidemic, or outbreak of an infectious disease, may materially and adversely affect our business and our financial results and could cause a disruption to the development of our product candidates.
We have never successfully completed any clinical trials for our oncology programs, and we may be unable to do so for any product candidates we develop. Certain of our oncology programs are still in preclinical development and may never advance to clinical development.
Our programs are focused on the development of oncology therapeutics for patients with genetically defined or biomarker-driven cancers, which is a rapidly evolving area of science, and the approach we are taking to discover and develop drugs is novel and may never lead to approved or marketable products.
Clinical product development involves a lengthy and expensive process, with an uncertain outcome.
We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing or commercializing products before or more successfully than we do.
If the market opportunities for our programs and product candidates are smaller than we estimate or if any regulatory approval that we obtain is based on a narrower definition of the patient population, our revenue and ability to achieve profitability will be adversely affected, possibly materially.
We rely on third parties to conduct our company sponsored Phase 1 clinical trials of IK-930, IK-175, and IK-007 and expect to rely on third parties to conduct clinical trials for our other programs that enter clinical trials. In addition, our product candidates may be evaluated in investigator-sponsored clinical trials. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, comply with regulatory requirements, or meet expected deadlines, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidates and our business could be substantially harmed.
We have entered into collaborations and may enter into additional collaborations in the future, and we might not realize the anticipated benefits of such collaborations.
If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent and other intellectual property protection for our technology and product candidates or if the scope of the intellectual property protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize technology and drugs similar or identical to ours, and our ability to successfully commercialize our technology and drugs may be impaired.
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Obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval of our product candidates in one jurisdiction does not mean that we will be successful in obtaining regulatory approval of our product candidates in other jurisdictions.
Our future success depends on our ability to retain key executives and experienced scientists and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel.
The dual class structure of our common stock may limit your ability to influence corporate matters and may limit your visibility with respect to certain transactions.
The material and other risks summarized above should be read together with the text of the full risk factors below and with the other information set forth in this Annual Report, including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes, as well as with other documents that we file with the SEC. If any such material and other risks and uncertainties actually occur, our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. The risks summarized above, or described in full below, are not the only risks that we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us, or that we currently deem to be immaterial may also materially adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains express or implied forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). These statements involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including statements regarding our strategy, future operations, future financial position, future revenue, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management and expected market growth are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “would” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words.
Forward-looking statements in this prospectus include, but are not limited to, statements about:
the initiation, timing, progress, results, and cost of our research and development programs and our current and future preclinical studies and clinical trials, including statements regarding the timing of initiation and completion of studies or trials and related preparatory work, the period during which the results of the trials will become available, and our research and development programs;
our ability to efficiently discover and develop product candidates;
our ability and the potential to successfully manufacture our drug substances and product candidates for preclinical use, for clinical trials, and on a larger scale, for commercial use, if approved;
the ability and willingness of our third-party strategic collaborators to continue research and development activities relating to our development candidates and product candidates;
our ability to obtain funding for our operations necessary to complete further development and commercialization of our product candidates;
our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of our product candidates;
our ability to commercialize our products, if approved;
the pricing and reimbursement of our product candidates, if approved;
the implementation of our business model, and strategic plans for our business and product candidates;
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the scope of protection we are able to establish and maintain for intellectual property rights covering our product candidates;
estimates of our future expenses, revenue, capital requirements, and our needs for additional financing;
the potential benefits of strategic collaboration agreements, our ability to enter into strategic collaborations or arrangements, and our ability to attract collaborators with development, regulatory and commercialization expertise;
future agreements with third parties in connection with the commercialization of product candidates and any other approved product;
the size and growth potential of the markets for our product candidates, and our ability to serve those markets;
our financial performance;
the rate and degree of market acceptance of our product candidates;
regulatory developments in the United States and relevant foreign countries;
our ability to contract with third-party suppliers and manufacturers and their ability to perform adequately;
our ability to produce our products or product candidates with advantages in turnaround times or manufacturing cost;
the success of competing therapies that are or may become available;
our ability to attract and retain key scientific or management personnel;
the impact of laws and regulations;