Commitments and Contingencies | 6. Commitments and Contingencies License Agreements Exclusive License Agreement with Precigen, Inc. On October 5, 2018, the Company entered into the License Agreement, with Precigen. As between the Company and Precigen, the terms of the License Agreement replace and supersede the terms of: (a) that certain Exclusive Channel Partner Agreement by and between the Company and Intrexon, dated January 6, 2011, as amended by the First Amendment to Exclusive Channel Partner Agreement effective September 13, 2011, the Second Amendment to the Exclusive Channel Partner Agreement effective March 27, 2015, and the Third Amendment to Exclusive Channel Partner Agreement effective June 29, 2016, which was subsequently assigned by Intrexon to Precigen; (b) certain rights and obligations pursuant to that certain License and Collaboration Agreement effective March 27, 2015 between the Company, Intrexon and ARES TRADING S.A., or Ares Trading, a subsidiary of Merck KGaA, or Merck, as assigned by Intrexon to Precigen, or the Ares Trading Agreement; (c) that certain License Agreement between the Company, Intrexon, and MD Anderson, with an effective date of January 13, 2015, or the MD Anderson License, which was subsequently assigned by Intrexon and assumed by Precigen effective as of January 1, 2018; and (d) that certain Research and Development Agreement between the Company, Intrexon and MD Anderson with an effective date of August 17, 2015, or the Research and Development Agreement, and any amendments or statements of work thereto. Pursuant to the terms of the License Agreement, Precigen has granted the Company an exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing, sub-licensable ® IL-12 sub-licensable Sleeping Beauty The Company will be solely responsible for all aspects of the research, development and commercialization of the exclusively licensed products for the treatment of cancer. The Company is required to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize IL-12 two-year Precigen has also granted the Company an exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing, sub-licensable IL-12 IL-12 In consideration of the licenses and other rights granted by Precigen, the Company will pay Precigen an annual license fee of $0.1 million and has agreed to reimburse Precigen for certain historical costs of the licensed programs up to $1.0 million, payable quarterly. The Company will make milestone payments totaling up to an additional $52.5 million for each exclusively licensed program upon the initiation of later stage clinical trials and upon the approval of exclusively licensed products in various jurisdictions. In addition, the Company will pay Precigen tiered royalties ranging from low-single IL-12 low-single mid-single The Company is responsible for all development costs associated with each of the licensed products, other than Gorilla IL-12 IL-12 Precigen will pay the Company royalties ranging from low-single mid-single In consideration of entering into the License Agreement, Intrexon has forfeited and returned to the Company all shares of Series 1 preferred stock held by or payable to Intrexon as of the date of the License Agreement (Note 8). License Agreement—The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center On January 13, 2015, the Company, together with Intrexon, entered into the MD Anderson License with MD Anderson (which Intrexon subsequently assigned to Precigen). Pursuant to the MD Anderson License, the Company, together with Precigen, holds an exclusive, worldwide license to certain technologies owned and licensed by MD Anderson including technologies relating to novel CAR T-cell non-viral On August 17, 2015, the Company, Precigen and MD Anderson entered into the Research and Development Agreement, to formalize the scope and process for the transfer by MD Anderson, pursuant to the terms of the MD Anderson License, of certain existing research programs and related technology rights, as well as the terms and conditions for future collaborative research and development of new and ongoing research programs. Pursuant to the Research and Development Agreement, the Company, Precigen and MD Anderson formed a joint steering committee to oversee and manage the new and ongoing research programs. Under the License Agreement with Precigen, the Company and Precigen agreed that Precigen would no longer participate on the joint steering committee after the date of the License Agreement. As provided under the MD Anderson License, the Company provided funding for research and development activities in support of the research programs under the Research and Development Agreement for a period of three years and in an amount of no less than $15.0 million and no greater than $20.0 million per year. On November 14, 2017, the Company entered into an amendment to the Research and Development Agreement extending its term until April 15, 2021. During the six months ended June 30, 2019 and 2018, the Company expensed approximately $3.0 million and $2.2 million, respectively, for its research programs being conducted in Houston. The net balance of cash resources on hand at MD Anderson available to offset expenses and future costs is $24.2 million, of which $19.4 million is included in other current assets and the remaining $4.8 million is included in non-current non-current The term of the MD Anderson License expires on the last to occur of (a) the expiration of all patents licensed thereunder, or (b) the twentieth anniversary of the date of the MD Anderson License; provided, however, that following the expiration of the term of the MD Anderson License, the Company, together with Precigen, shall then have a fully-paid up, royalty free, perpetual, irrevocable and sublicensable license to use the licensed intellectual property thereunder. After ten years from the date of the MD Anderson License and subject to a 90-day non-exclusive case-by-case 180-day License Agreement with the National Cancer Institute On May 28, 2019, the Company entered into a patent license agreement, or the Patent License, with the National Cancer Institute, or the NCI. Pursuant to the Patent License, the Company holds an exclusive, worldwide license to certain intellectual property to develop and commercialize patient-derived (autologous), peripheral blood T-cell therapy products engineered by transposon-mediated gene transfer to express TCRs reactive to mutated KRAS, p53 and EGFR. In addition, pursuant to the Patent License, the Company holds an exclusive, worldwide license to certain intellectual property for manufacturing technologies to develop and commercialize autologous, peripheral blood T-cell therapy products engineered by non-viral gene transfer to express TCRs, as well as a non-exclusive, worldwide license to certain additional manufacturing technologies. Pursuant to the terms of the Patent License, the Company is required to pay the NCI a cash payment in the aggregate amount of $1.5 million, which is included in current liabilities at June 30, 2019. The Company also agreed to reimburse the NCI for past patent expenses in the aggregate amount of approximately $46 thousand. At June 30, 2019, the Company recorded both the $1.5 million payment due upon the execution of the Patent License and the $46 thousand in patent expenses for accrued current liabilities on the Company’s balance sheet. The terms of the Patent License also require the Company to pay the NCI minimum annual royalties in the amount of $0.3 million, which amount will be reduced to $0.1 million once the aggregate minimum annual royalties paid by the Company equals $1.5 million. The first minimum annual royalty payment is payable on the date that is eighteen months following the date of the Patent License. The Company is also required to make performance-based payments upon successful completion of clinical and regulatory benchmarks relating to the licensed products. The aggregate potential benchmark payments are $4.3 million, of which aggregate payments of $3.0 million are due only after marketing approval in the United States or in Europe, Japan, Australia, China or India. The first benchmark payment of $0.1 million will be due upon the initiation of the Company’s first sponsored phase 1 clinical trial of a licensed product or licensed process in the field of use licensed under the Patent License. In addition, the Company is required to pay the NCI one-time mid-single The Patent License will expire upon expiration of the last patent contained in the licensed patent rights, unless terminated earlier. The NCI may terminate or modify the Patent License in the event of a material breach, including if the Company does not meet certain milestones by certain dates, or upon certain insolvency events that remain uncured following the date that is 90 days following written notice of such breach or insolvency event. The Company may terminate the Patent License, or any portion thereof, in the Company’s sole discretion at any time upon 60 days’ written notice to the NCI. In addition, the NCI has the right to: (i) require the Company to sublicense the rights to the product candidates covered by the Patent License upon certain conditions, including if the Company is not reasonably satisfying required health and safety needs if the Company is not satisfying requirements for public use as specified by federal regulations. Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Cancer Institute On January 10, 2017, the Company announced the signing of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, or CRADA, with the NCI for the development of adoptive cell transfer, or ACT,-based immunotherapies genetically modified using the Sleeping Beauty non-viral Sleeping Beauty In February 2019, the Company extended the CRADA with the NCI for two years, committing an additional $5.0 million to this program through January 2022. The remaining obligation, as of June 30, 2019, to the NCI under the CRADA is $6.3 million over the next two years, payable in $0.6 million payments on a quarterly basis. The Company made payments of $ 0.6 Exclusive Channel Partner Agreement with Precigen for the Cancer Programs From 2011 to 2018, the Company was party to various arrangements with Intrexon (now Precigen) in which the Company used Precigen’s technology to research and develop cancer treatments in return for various future profit sharing and royalty arrangements. These agreements were modified or terminated by the License Agreement described in Note 8. Ares Trading License and Collaboration Agreement On March 27, 2015, the Company, together with Intrexon (now Precigen), signed the Ares Trading Agreement, with Ares Trading, through which the parties established a collaboration for the research and development and commercialization of certain products for the prophylactic, therapeutic, palliative or diagnostic use for cancer in humans. Precigen was entitled to receive $5.0 million, from Ares Trading, payable in equal quarterly installments over two years for each identified product candidate, which will be used to fund discovery work. The Company was responsible for costs exceeding the quarterly installments and all other costs of the preclinical research and development. For the three and six months ended June 30, 2018, the Company expensed $36 thousand under the Ares Trading Agreement. The Company did not incur any costs under the agreement for the six months ended June 30, 2019 as there are no continuing obligations to reimburse Precigen for expenses under the Ares Trading Agreement Ares Trading paid a non-refundable Under the License Agreement, Precigen agreed to perform all future obligations of the Company under the Ares Trading Agreement other than certain payment obligations. Accordingly, the Company recognized the remaining deferred revenue as part of the settlement of a related party relationship as described in Note 8. Patent and Technology License Agreement—The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Texas A&M University System On August 24, 2004, the Company entered into a patent and technology license agreement with MD Anderson and the Texas A&M University System, which the Company refers to, collectively, as the Licensors. Under this agreement, the Company was granted an exclusive, worldwide license to rights (including rights to U.S. and foreign patent and patent applications and related improvements and know-how) two Under the terms of the agreement, the Company may be required to make additional payments to the Licensors upon achievement of certain other milestones in varying amounts which, on a cumulative basis could total up to an additional $4.5 million. In addition, the Licensors are entitled to receive single digit percentage royalty payments on sales from a licensed product and will also be entitled to receive a portion of any fees that the Company may receive from a possible sublicense under certain circumstances. Collaboration Agreement with Solasia Pharma K.K. On March 7, 2011, the Company entered into a License and Collaboration Agreement with Solasia which was amended on July 31, 2014 to include an exclusive worldwide license. Pursuant to the License and Collaboration Agreement, the Company granted Solasia an exclusive license to develop and commercialize darinaparsin in both intravenous and oral forms and related organic arsenic molecules, in all indications for human use As consideration for the license, the Company is eligible to receive from Solasia development- and sales-based milestones, a royalty on net sales of darinaparsin, once commercialized, and a percentage of any sublicense revenues generated by Solasia. Solasia will be responsible for all costs related to the development, manufacturing and commercialization of darinaparsin. The Company’s Licensors, as defined in the agreement, will receive a portion of all milestone and royalty payments made by Solasia to the Company in accordance with the terms of the license agreement with the Licensors. |