Filed pursuant to Rule 424(b)(3)
Registration No. 333-237638
PROSPECTUS
6,739,580 Shares of Common Stock
This prospectus relates to the sale or other disposition from time to time of up to 6,739,580 shares of our common stock, $0.001 par value per share, issuable upon the exercise of warrants held by the selling stockholders named in this prospectus, including their transferees, pledgees, donees or successors. We are not selling any shares of common stock under this prospectus and will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of shares of common stock by the selling stockholders.
The selling stockholders may sell or otherwise dispose of the shares of common stock covered by this prospectus in a number of different ways and at varying prices. We provide more information about how the selling stockholders may sell or otherwise dispose of their shares of common stock in the section entitled “Plan of Distribution” beginning on page 37. The selling stockholders will pay all brokerage fees and commissions and similar expenses. We will pay all expenses (except brokerage fees and commissions and similar expenses) relating to the registration of the shares with the Securities and Exchange Commission. No underwriter or other person has been engaged to facilitate the sale of shares of our common stock in this offering.
Our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol “CTXR.” On April 23, 2020, the last reported closing price of our common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market was $0.78.
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should review carefully the risks and uncertainties described under the heading “Risk Factors” beginning on page 10 of this prospectus, and under similar headings in any amendments or supplements to this prospectus.
Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
The date of this prospectus is April 24, 2020.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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You should rely only on the information that we have provided or incorporated by reference in this prospectus and any prospectus supplement that we may authorize to be provided to you. We have not, and the selling stockholders have not, authorized anyone to provide you with different information. No dealer, salesperson or other person is authorized to give any information or to represent anything not contained in this prospectus or any prospectus supplement that we may authorize to be provided to you. If anyone provides you with different or inconsistent information, you should not rely on it. You should assume that the information in this prospectus and any prospectus supplement is accurate only as of the date on the cover of the document and that any information we have incorporated by reference is accurate only as of the date of the document incorporated by reference, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or any prospectus supplement or any sale of a security. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since those dates.
We urge you to carefully read this prospectus and any prospectus supplement, together with the information incorporated herein by reference as described under the heading “Where You Can Find More Information” and “Incorporation of Documents by Reference.”
Unless the context indicates otherwise, as used in this prospectus, the terms “Citius,” “we,” “us,” “our,” “the Company,” “our company” and “our business” refer to Citius Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its subsidiaries.
We own or have rights to various U.S. federal trademark registrations and applications, and unregistered trademarks and servicemarks, including Mino-Lok®. All other trade names, trademarks and service marks appearing in this prospectus are the property of their respective owners. We have assumed that the reader understands that all such terms are source-indicating. Accordingly, such terms, when first mentioned in this prospectus, appear with the trade name, trademark or service mark notice and then throughout the remainder of this prospectus without trade name, trademark or service mark notices for convenience only and should not be construed as being used in a descriptive or generic sense.
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This summary highlights certain information about us and this offering contained elsewhere in this prospectus. Because it is only a summary, it does not contain all of the information that you should consider before investing in shares of our securities and it is qualified in its entirety by, and should be read in conjunction with, the more detailed information appearing elsewhere in this prospectus. Before you decide to invest in our securities, you should read the entire prospectus carefully, including “Risk Factors” beginning on page 10, and the consolidated financial statements and related notes and the other information incorporated by reference into this prospectus.
Overview
Citius Pharmaceuticals, Inc., headquartered in Cranford, New Jersey, is a specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development and commercialization of critical care products targeting important medical needs with a focus on anti-infective products in adjunct cancer care and unique prescription products. Our goal is to achieve leading market positions by providing therapeutic products that address unmet medical needs yet have a lower development risk than usually is associated with new chemical entities. New formulations of previously approved drugs with substantial existing safety and efficacy data are a core focus. We seek to reduce development and clinical risks associated with drug development, yet still focus on innovative applications. Our strategy centers on products that have intellectual property and regulatory exclusivity protection, while providing competitive advantages over other existing therapeutic approaches.
Since its inception, the Company has devoted substantially all of its efforts to business planning, acquiring our proprietary technology, research and development, recruiting management and technical staff, and raising capital. We are developing three proprietary products: Mino-Lok, an antibiotic lock solution used to treat patients with catheter-related bloodstream infections by salvaging the infected catheter; Mino-Wrap, a liquifying gel-based wrap for reduction tissue expander infections following breast reconstructive surgeries; and Halo-Lido, a corticosteroid-lidocaine topical formulation that is intended to provide anti-inflammatory and anesthetic relief to persons suffering from hemorrhoids. We believe these unique markets for our products are large, growing, and underserved by the current prescription products or procedures.
Mino-Lok®
Overview
Mino-Lok is a patented solution containing minocycline, disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (edetate), and ethyl alcohol, all of which act synergistically to treat and salvage infected central venous catheters (“CVCs”) in patients with catheter related bloodstream infections (“CRBSIs”). Mino-Lok breaks down biofilm barriers formed by bacterial colonies, eradicates the bacteria, and provides anti-clotting properties to maintain patency in CVCs.
The administration of Mino-Lok consists of filling the lumen of the catheter with 0.8 ml to 2.0 ml of Mino-Lok solution. The catheter is then “locked”, meaning that the solution remains in the catheter without flowing into the vein. The lock is maintained for a dwell-time of two hours while the catheter is not in use. If the catheter has multiple lumens, all lumens may be locked with the Mino-Lok solution either simultaneously or sequentially. If patients are receiving continuous infusion therapy, the catheters alternate between being locked with the Mino-Lok solution and delivering therapy. The Mino-Lok therapy is two hours per day for at least five days, usually with two additional locks in the subsequent two weeks. After locking the catheter for two hours, the Mino-Lok solution is aspirated, and the catheter is flushed with normal saline. At that time, either the infusion will be continued, or will be locked with the standard-of-care lock solution until further use of the catheter is required. In a clinical study conducted by MD Anderson Cancer Center (“MDACC”), there were no serum levels of either minocycline or edetate detected in the sera of several patients who underwent daily catheter lock solution with minocycline and edetate (“M-EDTA”) at the concentration level proposed in Mino-Lok treatment. Thus, it has been demonstrated that the amount of either minocycline or edetate that leaks into the serum is very low or none at all.
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Phase 2b Results
From April 2013 to July 2014, 30 patients with CVC-related bloodstream infection were enrolled at MDACC in a prospective Phase 2b study. Patients received Mino-Lok therapy for two hours once daily for a minimum of five days within the first week, followed by two additional locks within the next two weeks. Patients were followed for one month post-lock therapy. Demographic information, clinical characteristics, laboratory data, therapy, as well as adverse events and outcome were collected for each patient. Median age at diagnosis was 56 years (range: 21-73 years). In all patients, prior to the use of lock therapy, systemic treatment with a culture-directed, first-line intravenous antibiotic was started. Microbiological eradication was achieved at the end of therapy in all cases. None of the patients experienced any serious adverse event related to the lock therapy.
The active arm, which is the Mino-Lok treated group of patients, was then compared to 60 patients in a matched cohort that experienced removal and replacement of their CVCs within the same contemporaneous timeframe. The patients were matched for cancer type, infecting organism, and level of neutropenia. All patients were cancer patients and treated at the MDACC. The efficacy of Mino-Lok therapy was 100% in salvaging CVCs, demonstrating equal effectiveness to removing the infected CVC and replacing with a new catheter.
The main purpose of the study was to show that Mino-Lok therapy was at least as effective as the removal and replacement of CVCs when CRBSIs are present, and that the safety was better, that is, the complications of removing an infected catheter and replacing with a new one could be avoided. In addition to having a 100% efficacy rate with all CVCs being salvaged, Mino-Lok therapy had no significant adverse events (“SAEs”), compared to an 18% SAE rate in the matched cohort where patients had the infected CVCs removed and replaced with a fresh catheter. There were no overall complication rates in the Mino-Lok arm group compared to 11 patients with events (18%) in the control group. These events included bacterial relapse (5%) at four weeks post-intervention, and a number of complications associated with mechanical manipulation in the removal or replacement procedure for the catheter (10%) or development of deep seated infections such as septic thrombophlebitis and osteomyelitis (8%). As footnoted, six patients had more than one complication in the control arm group.
| Parameter | Mino-Lok Arm | Control Arm | ||||||||||||||
| N | (%) | N | (%) | |||||||||||||
| Patients | 30 | (100 | %) | 60 | (100 | %) | ||||||||||
| Cancer type | ||||||||||||||||
| - Hematologic | 20 | (67 | ) | 48 | (80 | ) | ||||||||||
| - Solid tumor | 10 | (33 | ) | 12 | (20 | ) | ||||||||||
| ICU Admission | 4 | (13 | ) | 4 | (7 | ) | ||||||||||
| Mech. Ventilator | 3 | (10 | ) | 0 | (0 | ) | ||||||||||
| Bacteremia | ||||||||||||||||
| - Gram+ | 17 | (57 | )* | 32 | (53 | ) | ||||||||||
| - Gram- | 14 | (47 | )* | 28 | (47 | ) | ||||||||||
| Neutropenia (<500) | 19 | (63 | ) | 36 | (60 | ) | ||||||||||
| Microbiologic Eradication | 30 | (100 | ) | 60 | (100 | ) | ||||||||||
| - Relapse | 0 | (0 | ) | 3 | (5 | ) | ||||||||||
| Complications | 0 | (0 | ) | 8 | (13 | ) | ||||||||||
| SAEs related to R&R | 0 | (0 | ) | 6 | (10 | ) | ||||||||||
| Overall Complication Rate | 0 | (0 | %) | 11 | ** | (18 | %) | |||||||||
| * | 1 polymicrobial patient had a Gram+ and a Gram- organism cultured |
| ** | 6 patients had > 1 complication |
Source: Dr. Issam Raad, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, June 2016, Vol. 60 No. 6, Page 3429
Phase 3 Initiation
In November 2016, the Company initiated site recruitment for Phase 3 clinical trials. From initiation through first quarter 2017, the Company received input from several sites related to the control arm as being less than standard-of-care for some of the respective institutions. The Company worked closely with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) with respect to the design of the Phase 3 trial, and received feedback on August 17, 2017. The FDA stated that they recognized that there is an unmet medical need in salvaging infected catheters and agreed that an open label, superiority design would address the Company’s concerns and would be acceptable to meet the requirements of a new drug application. The Company amended the Phase 3 study design to remove the saline and heparin placebo control arm and to use an active control arm that conforms with today’s current standard-of-care. Patient enrollment commenced in February 2018.
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The Mino-Lok phase 3 trial was originally planned to enroll 700 patients in 50 participating institutions, all located in the U.S. There will be interim analyses at both the 50% and 75% points of the trial as measured by the number of patients treated. As of February 29, 2020, there are 30 active sites currently enrolling patients including such academic centers as MDACC, Henry Ford Health Center, Georgetown University Medical Center, University of Chicago, and others. There are five additional well renowned medical centers in startup mode. There are no other remaining sites in feasibility.
In September 2019, the Company announced that the FDA agreed to a new primary efficacy endpoint of “time to catheter failure” in comparing Mino-Lok to the antibiotic lock control arm. This change in the trial design reduced the required patient sample size of the trial from 700 subjects to approximately 144 available subjects to achieve the pre-specified 92 catheter failure events needed to conclude the trial. Additionally, the Company submitted a response to the FDA that it will implement this change in the primary endpoint and expected it to result in less than 150 subjects needed in its Phase 3 trial, which the FDA is reviewing.
In October 2019, the FDA agreed that the patient sample size of approximately 144 patients was acceptable.
In October 2019, the Company announced that the Phase 3 trial had reached the 40% completion triggering an interim futility analysis. That analysis showed a positive outcome, as it met the prespecified interim futility analysis criteria. The next major milestone in the Mino-Lok trial, expected to be achieved in the first half of 2020, will be the 75% interim analysis for superior efficacy. The endpoints for this analysis require that the time to catheter failure be at least 38 days for Mino-Lok vs. 21 days for SOC antibiotic locks.
Fast Track Designation
In October 2017, the Company received official notice from the FDA that the investigational program for Mino-Lok was granted “Fast Track” status. Fast Track is a designation that expedites FDA review to facilitate development of drugs which treat a serious or life-threatening condition and fill an unmet medical need. A drug that receives Fast Track designation is eligible for the following:
| ● | More frequent meetings with the FDA to discuss the drug’s development plan and ensure collection of appropriate data needed to support drug approval; |
| ● | More frequent written correspondence from the FDA about the design of the clinical trials; |
| ● | Priority review to shorten the FDA review process for a new drug from ten months to six months; and |
| ● | Rolling review, which means Citius can submit completed sections of its New Drug Application (“NDA”) for review by the FDA, rather than waiting until every section of the application is completed before the entire application can be reviewed. |
Mino-Lok International Study
In October 2017, data from an international study on Mino-Lok was presented at the Infectious Disease Conference, (“ID Week”), in San Diego, California. The 44 patient study was conducted in Brazil, Lebanon, and Japan and showed Mino-Lok therapy was an effective intervention to salvage long-term, infected CVCs in CRBSIs in patients who had cancer with limited vascular access. This study showed 95% effectiveness for Mino-Lok therapy in achieving microbiological eradication of the CVCs as compared to 83% for the control. The single failure in the Mino-Lok arm was due to a patient withBurkholderia cepacia that was resistant to all antibiotics tested.
Stability Patent Application for Mino-Lok
In October 2018, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) issued U.S. Patent No. 10,086,114, entitled “Antimicrobial Solutions with Enhanced Stability.” The new invention overcomes limitations in mixing antimicrobial solutions in which components have precipitated because of physical and/or chemical factors, thus limiting the stability of the post-mix solutions. The scientists and technologists at MDACC have been able to improve the stability of the post-mixed solutions through adjustments of the post-mixed pH of the solution. This may allow for longer storage time of the ready-to-use solution. Citius holds the exclusive worldwide license which provides access to this patented technology for development and commercialization of Mino-Lok.
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On October 9, 2019, the European Patent Office (“EPO”) granted European Patent No. 3370794, entitled “Antimicrobial Solutions with Enhanced Stability.” The grant of this European patent strengthens the intellectual property protection for Mino-Lok through November of 2036. The new invention overcomes limitations in mixing antimicrobial solutions, in which components have precipitated because of physical and/or chemical factors, thus limiting the stability of the post-mix solutions. The scientists and technologists at MDACC have been able to improve the stability of the post-mixed solutions through adjustments of the post-mixed pH of the solution. This may allow for longer storage time of the ready-to-use solution.
Mino-Wrap
Overview
On January 2, 2019, we entered into a patent and technology license agreement with the Board of Regents of the University of Texas System on behalf of the MDACC, whereby we in-licensed exclusive worldwide rights to the patented technology for any and all uses relating to breast implants, specifically the Mino-Wrap technology. This includes rights to U.S. Patent No. 9,849,217, which was issued on December 16, 2017. We intend to develop Mino-Wrap as a liquefying, gel-based wrap containing minocycline and rifampin for the reduction of infections associated with breast implants following breast reconstructive surgeries. We are required to use commercially reasonable efforts to commercialize Mino-Wrap under several regulatory scenarios and achieve milestones associated with these regulatory options leading to an approval from the FDA. Mino-Wrap will require pre-clinical development prior to any regulatory pathway. In July 2019, we announced that we intend to pursue the FDA’s Investigational New Drug (“IND”) regulatory pathway for the development of Mino-Wrap.
Halo-Lido
Overview
Halo-Lido is a topical formulation of halobetasol propionate, a corticosteroid and lidocaine that is intended for the treatment of hemorrhoids. To our knowledge, there are currently no FDA-approved prescription drug products for the treatment of hemorrhoids. Some physicians are known to prescribe topical steroids for the treatment of hemorrhoids. In addition, there are various topical combination prescription products containing halobetasol propionate along with lidocaine or pramoxine, each a topical anesthetic, that are prescribed by physicians for the treatment of hemorrhoids. These products contain drugs that were in use prior to the start of the Drug Efficacy Study Implementation (“DESI”) program and are commonly referred to as DESI drugs. However, none of these single-agent or combination prescription products have been clinically evaluated for safety and efficacy and approved by the FDA for the treatment of hemorrhoids. Further, many hemorrhoid patients use over the counter (“OTC”) products as their first line therapy. OTC products contain any one of several active ingredients including glycerin, phenylephrine, pramoxine, white petrolatum, shark liver oil and/or witch hazel, for symptomatic relief.
Development of Hemorrhoids Drugs
Hemorrhoids are a common gastrointestinal disorder, characterized by anal itching, pain, swelling, tenderness, bleeding and difficulty defecating. In the U.S., hemorrhoids affect nearly 5% of the population, with approximately 10 million persons annually admitting to having symptoms of hemorrhoidal disease. Of these persons, approximately one third visit a physician for evaluation and treatment of their hemorrhoids. The data also indicate that for both sexes a peak of prevalence occurs from age 45 to 65 years with a subsequent decrease after age 65 years. Caucasian populations are affected significantly more frequently than African Americans, and increased prevalence rates are associated with higher socioeconomic status in men but not women. Development of hemorrhoids before age 20 is unusual. In addition, between 50% and 90% of the general U.S., Canadian and European population will experience hemorrhoidal disease at least once in life. Although hemorrhoids and other anorectal diseases are not life-threatening, individual patients can suffer from agonizing symptoms which can limit social activities and have a negative impact on the quality of life.
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Hemorrhoids are defined as internal or external according to their position relative to the dentate line. Classification is important for selecting the optimal treatment for an individual patient. Accordingly, physicians use the following grading system referred to as the Goligher’s classification of internal hemorrhoids:
| Grade I | Hemorrhoids not prolapsed but bleeding. |
| Grade II | Hemorrhoids prolapse and reduce spontaneously with or without bleeding. |
| Grade III | Prolapsed hemorrhoids that require reduction manually. |
| Grade IV | Prolapsed and cannot be reduced including both internal and external hemorrhoids that are confluent from skin tag to inner anal canal. |
Development Activities to Date
In the fall of 2015, we completed dosing patients in a double-blind dose ranging placebo controlled Phase 2a study where six different formulations containing hydrocortisone and lidocaine in various strengths were tested against the vehicle control. The objectives of this study were to: (1) demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the formulations when applied twice daily for two weeks in subjects with Grade I or II hemorrhoids, and (2) assess the potential contribution of lidocaine hydrochloride and hydrocortisone acetate, alone or in combination for the treatment of symptoms of Goligher’s Classification Grade I or II hemorrhoids.
Symptom improvement was observed based on a global score of disease severity (“GSDS”), and based on some of the individual signs and symptoms of hemorrhoids, specifically itching and overall pain and discomfort. Within the first few days of treatment, the combination products (containing both hydrocortisone and lidocaine) were directionally favorable versus the placebo and their respective individual active treatment groups (e.g., hydrocortisone or lidocaine alone) in achieving ‘almost symptom free’ or ’symptom free’ status according to the GSDS scale. These differences suggest the possibility of a benefit for the combination product formulation.
Overall, results from adverse event reporting support the safety profile of all test articles evaluated in this study and demonstrate similar safety profiles as compared to the vehicle. The safety findings were unremarkable. There was a low occurrence of adverse events and a similar rate of treatment related adverse events across all treatment groups. The majority of adverse events were mild and only one was severe. None of the adverse events were an SAE and the majority of adverse events were recovered/resolved at the end of the study. There were only two subjects who were discontinued from the study due to adverse events.
In addition to the safety and dose-ranging information, information was obtained relating to the use of the GSDS as an assessment tool for measuring the effectiveness of the test articles. Individual signs and symptoms were also assessed but can vary from patient to patient. Therefore, the goal of the GSDS was to provide an assessment tool that could be used for all patients regardless of which signs and symptoms they are experiencing. The GSDS proved to be a more effective tool for assessing the severity of the disease and the effectiveness of the drug when compared to the assessment of the individual signs and symptoms. Citius believes that we can continue to develop this assessment tool as well as other patient reported outcome endpoints for use in the next trials and in the pivotal trial.
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Information was also obtained about the formulation of the drug and the vehicle. As a result of this study, we believe that the performance of the active arms of the study relative to the vehicle can be improved by re-formulating our topical preparation. Therefore, we have initiated work on vehicle formulation and evaluation of higher potency steroids.
In June and July 2016, we engaged the Dominion Group, a leading provider of healthcare and pharmaceutical marketing research services. The primary market research was conducted to understand the symptoms that are most bothersome to patients better in order to develop meaningful endpoints for the clinical trials. We also learned about the factors that drive patients to seek medical attention for hemorrhoids in an effort to understand the disease impact on quality of life. The results of this survey are able to help us develop patient reported outcome evaluation tools. These tools can be used in clinical trials to evaluate the patients’ conditions and to assess the performance of the test articles.
In March 2018, we announced that we had selected a higher potency corticosteroid in our steroid/anesthetic topical formulation program for the treatment of hemorrhoids. The original topical preparation, which we referred to as Hydro-Lido or CITI-001, which was used in the Phase 2a study, was a combination of hydrocortisone acetate and lidocaine hydrochloride. The new formulation, CITI-002, which we refer to as Halo-Lido, will combine lidocaine with the higher potency corticosteroid halobetasol propionate for symptomatic relief of the pain and discomfort of hemorrhoids.
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We held a Type C meeting with the FDA in December 2017 to discuss the results of the Phase 2a study and to obtain the FDA’s view on development plans to support the potential formulation change for the planned Phase 2b study. We also requested the FDA’s feedback on our Phase 2b study design, including target patient population, inclusion/exclusion criteria, and efficacy endpoints. The pre-clinical and clinical development programs for CITI-002 are planned to be similar to those conducted for the development of CITI-001 to support the design for a planned Phase 3 clinical trial.
Recent Developments
On March 31, 2020, we entered into an option agreement with a subsidiary of Novellus, Inc. whereby for the duration of the option agreement we will have the exclusive opportunity to in-license from Novellus on a worldwide basis, a novel cellular therapy for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The option exercise period runs for six months, during which period, if and when we exercise the option, we and Novellus must negotiate a mutually acceptable definitive license agreement. The option agreement contains the agreed upon financial terms for the license. Novellus also agreed to allow us access to such records as we deem necessary for our due diligence to determine whether to exercise the option. We will pay Novellus $100,000 for the option.
Corporate History and Information
The Company was founded as Citius Pharmaceuticals, LLC, a Massachusetts limited liability company, on January 23, 2007. On September 12, 2014, Citius Pharmaceuticals, LLC entered into a Share Exchange and Reorganization Agreement, with Citius Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (formerly Trail One, Inc.), a publicly traded company incorporated under the laws of the State of Nevada. Citius Pharmaceuticals, LLC became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Citius. On March 30, 2016, Citius acquired Leonard-Meron Biosciences, Inc. (“LMB”) as a wholly-owned subsidiary. LMB was a pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of critical care products with a concentration on anti-infectives.
Our principal executive offices are located at 11 Commerce Drive, First Floor, Cranford, New Jersey 07016 and our telephone number is (908) 976-6677.
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Up to 6,739,580 Shares of Common Stock
This prospectus relates to the resale by the selling stockholders identified in this prospectus of up to 6,739,580 shares of our common stock issuable upon exercise of the following warrants:
| ● | warrants for 6,298,673 shares of common stock issued in a private placement in February 2020 to investors with an exercise price of $1.02 that expire on August 19, 2025; |
| ● | warrants for 440,907 shares of common stock issued in February 2020 to the placement agent for the private placement, with an exercise price of $1.275 per share that expire on August 19, 2025. |
| Common stock offered by the selling stockholders | 6,739,580 shares |
| Common stock outstanding before the offering(1) | 38,078,062 shares |
| Common stock to be outstanding after the offering | 44,817,642 shares |
| Common stock Nasdaq Capital Market Symbol | CTXR |
| (1) | Based on the number of shares outstanding as of March 31, 2020. |
Use of Proceeds
The 6,739,580 shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of currently outstanding warrants that are being offered for resale by the selling stockholders will be sold for the accounts of the selling stockholders named in this prospectus. As a result, all proceeds from the sales of the 6,739,580 shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of currently outstanding warrants and offered for resale hereby will go to the selling stockholders and we will not receive any proceeds from the resale of those shares of common stock by the selling stockholders.
We may receive up to a total of $6,986,803 in gross proceeds if all of the warrants are exercised hereunder for cash. However, as we are unable to predict the timing or amount of potential exercises of the warrants, we have not allocated any proceeds of such exercises to any particular purpose. Accordingly, all such proceeds are allocated to working capital. Pursuant to conditions set forth in the warrants, the warrants are exercisable under certain circumstances on a cashless basis, and should a selling stockholder elect to exercise on a cashless basis we will not receive any proceeds from the sale of common stock issued upon the cashless exercise of the warrant. It is possible that the warrants may expire and may never be exercised.
We will incur all costs associated with this registration statement and prospectus.
Dividend Policy
We have never paid dividends on our capital stock and do not anticipate paying any dividends for the foreseeable future.
Risk Factors
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. Please read the information contained under the heading “Risk Factors” beginning on page 10 of this prospectus and in any subsequent report incorporated by reference herein.
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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This prospectus, including the sections entitled “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Business,” and the related documents incorporated herein by reference, contains forward-looking statements that are based on our management’s belief and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, these statements relate to future events or our future financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this prospectus include, but are not limited to, statements about:
| ● | our need for, and ability to raise, additional capital; |
| ● | the number, designs, results and timing of our pre-clinical and clinical trials; |
| ● | the regulatory review process and any regulatory approvals that may be issued or denied by the FDA or other regulatory agencies; |
| ● | the commercial success and market acceptance of any of our products and product candidates that are approved for marketing in the United States or other countries; |
| ● | the accuracy of our estimates and of third-party estimates of the size and characteristics of the markets that may be addressed by our products and product candidates; |
| ● | our ability to manufacture sufficient amounts of our product candidates for clinical trials and our products for commercialization activities; |
| ● | our need to secure collaborators to license, manufacture, market and sell any products for which we receive regulatory approval in the future; |
| ● | our ability to protect our intellectual property and operate our business without infringing upon the intellectual property rights of others; |
| ● | the medical benefits, effectiveness and safety of our products and product candidates; |
| ● | the safety and efficacy of medicines or treatments introduced by competitors that are targeted to indications which our products and product candidates have been developed to treat; |
| ● | our current or prospective collaborators’ compliance or non-compliance with their obligations under our agreements with them; and |
| ● | other factors discussed elsewhere in this prospectus. |
In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential,” “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions.
You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which are, in some cases, beyond our control and which could materially affect results. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, those listed under “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus or incorporated herein by reference. Actual events or results may vary significantly from those implied or projected by the forward-looking statements. No forward-looking statement is a guarantee of future performance. You should read this prospectus and the documents that we incorporated by reference in this prospectus and have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or “SEC,” as exhibits to this prospectus completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.
Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the respective dates of this prospectus or any prospectus supplement or the date of the document incorporated by reference in this prospectus or any prospectus supplement. We expressly disclaim any obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by federal securities laws.
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Investing in our common stock includes a high degree of risk. Prior to making a decision about investing in our common stock, you should consider carefully the specific factors discussed below, together with all of the other information contained in and incorporated by reference into this prospectus. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects would likely be materially and adversely affected. This could cause the market price of our common stock to decline and could cause you to lose all or part of your investment.
Risks related to our Business and our Industry
We have a history of net losses and expect to incur losses for the foreseeable future. We may never generate revenues or, if we are able to generate revenues, achieve profitability.
We were formed in 2007 and since our inception have incurred a net loss in each of our previous operating years. Our ability to become profitable depends upon our ability to obtain marketing approval for and generate revenues from sales of our product candidates. We have been focused on product development, have not received approval for any of our product candidates, and have not generated any revenues to date. We have incurred losses in each period of our operations, and we expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future. These losses are likely to continue to adversely affect our working capital, total assets and shareholders’ equity. The process of developing our product candidates requires significant clinical, development and laboratory testing and clinical trials. In addition, commercialization of our product candidates will require that we obtain necessary regulatory approvals and establish sales, marketing and manufacturing capabilities, either through internal hiring or through contractual relationships with others. We expect to incur substantial losses for the foreseeable future as a result of anticipated increases in our research and development costs, including costs associated with conducting preclinical testing and clinical trials, and regulatory compliance activities. We incurred net losses of $15,562,144, $12,536,638 and $10,384,953 for the years ended September 30, 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively, and $4,322,370 for the three months ended December 31, 2019. At December 31, 2019, we had stockholders’ equity of $20,376,792 and an accumulated deficit of $60,142,352. Our net cash used in operating activities was $12,437,751, $11,318,138 and $7,971,205 for the years ended September 30, 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively, and $5,114,260 for the three months ended December 31, 2019.
Our ability to generate revenues and achieve profitability will depend on numerous factors, including success in:
| ● | developing and testing product candidates; |
| ● | receiving regulatory approvals for our product candidates; |
| ● | commercializing our product candidates; |
| ● | manufacturing commercial quantities of our product candidates at acceptable cost levels; |
| ● | obtaining medical insurance coverage for any approved product candidate; and |
| ● | establishing a favorable competitive position for our product candidates. |
Many of these factors will depend on circumstances beyond our control. We cannot assure you that any of our product candidates will be approved by the FDA or any foreign regulatory body or obtain medical insurance coverage, that we will successfully bring any approved product to market or, if so, that we will ever become profitable.
There is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.
At December 31, 2019, after taking into account the proceeds from warrant exercises in January 2020, but not taking into account warrant exercises for February 2020, we expect that we have sufficient capital to continue our operations through March 2020. You should not rely on our consolidated balance sheet as an indication of the amount of proceeds that would be available to satisfy claims of creditors, and potentially be available for distribution to shareholders, in the event of liquidation.
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Our audited consolidated financial statements included in this report have been prepared assuming that we will continue as a going concern and do not include any adjustments to reflect the possible future effects on the recoverability and classification of assets, or the amounts and classification of liabilities that may result if we do not continue as a going concern. We have concluded that substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern exists and our auditors have made reference to this in their audit report on our audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended September 30, 2019.
We need to secure additional financing in the near future to complete the development of our current product candidates and support our operations.
We anticipate that we will incur operating losses for the foreseeable future. We have received gross proceeds of approximately $47.9 million from our public and private placement offerings through December 31, 2019. Additionally, in connection with the acquisition of LMB our Executive Chairman, Leonard Mazur, made an equity investment of $3.0 million in March 2016. Mr. Mazur has also loaned us $4,710,000 pursuant to convertible promissory notes. On August 8, 2017, these notes and accrued interest of $76,240 were converted into 1,547,067 shares of common stock at a price of $3.09 per share as part of an underwritten public offering which closed on the same date.
The amount and timing of our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:
| ● | the rate of progress and cost of our trials and other product development programs for our current product candidates; |
| ● | the costs and timing of obtaining licenses for additional product candidates or acquiring other complementary technologies; |
| ● | the timing of any regulatory approvals of any of our product candidates; |
| ● | the costs of establishing or contracting for sales, marketing and distribution capabilities for our product candidates; and |
| ● | the status, terms and timing of any collaborative, licensing, co-promotion or other arrangements. |
We will need to access the capital markets in the future for additional capital for research and development and for operations. Traditionally, pharmaceutical companies have funded their research and development expenditures through raising capital in the equity markets. Declines and uncertainties in these markets over the past several years have severely restricted raising new capital and have affected companies’ ability to continue to expand or fund existing research and development efforts. If these economic conditions continue or become worse, our future cost of equity or debt capital and access to the capital markets could be adversely affected. If we are not successful in securing additional financing, we may be required to significantly delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate one or more of our research or development programs, downsize our general and administrative infrastructure, or seek alternative measures to avoid insolvency, including arrangements with collaborative partners or others that may require us to relinquish rights to certain of our technologies or product candidates.
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We are a late-stage development company with an unproven business strategy and may never achieve commercialization of our therapeutic product candidates or profitability.
We have no approved products. All of our current product candidates are in the pre-clinical or clinical stage. We rely on third parties to conduct the research and development activities for our product candidates. Further, we have no sales or marketing capability at this time. Even if we decide to use collaborative partners to assist us in the commercialization of our product candidates, our product commercialization capabilities are unproven. Our success will depend upon our ability to develop such capabilities on our own or to enter into collaboration agreements on favorable terms and to select an appropriate commercialization strategy for each product candidate that we choose to pursue, whether on our own or in collaboration. If we are not successful in implementing our strategy to commercialize our product candidates, we may never achieve, maintain or increase profitability. Our ability to successfully commercialize any of our product candidates will depend, among other things, on our ability to:
| ● | successfully complete pre-clinical and clinical trials for our product candidates; |
| ● | receive marketing approvals from the FDA and similar foreign regulatory authorities for our product candidates; |
| ● | establish commercial manufacturing arrangements with third-party manufacturers for our product candidates; |
| ● | produce, through a validated process, sufficiently large quantities of our drug compound(s) to permit successful commercialization of our product candidates; |
| ● | build and maintain strong sales, distribution and marketing capabilities sufficient to launch commercial sales of any approved products or establish collaborations with third parties for such commercialization; |
| ● | secure acceptance of any approved products from physicians, health care payers, patients and the medical community; and |
| ● | manage our spending as costs and expenses increase due to clinical trials, regulatory applications and development and commercialization activities. |
There are no guarantees that we will be successful in completing these tasks. If we are unable to successfully complete these tasks, we may not be able to commercialize any of our product candidates in a timely manner, or at all, in which case we may be unable to generate sufficient revenues to sustain and grow our business. If we experience unanticipated delays or problems, our development costs could substantially increase and our business, financial condition and results of operations will be adversely affected.
We have a limited operating history upon which to evaluate our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates.
We are a clinical stage company and our success is dependent upon our ability to obtain regulatory approval for and commercialize our products and we have not demonstrated an ability to perform the functions necessary for the approval or successful commercialization of any product candidates. While various members of our executive management and key employees have significant prior experience in pharmaceutical development, as a company we have to date not successfully completed any late stage clinical trials nor undertaken any commercialization activities. Our operations have been limited primarily to businesses planning, acquiring our proprietary technology, research and development, recruiting management and technical staff, and raising capital. These operations provide a limited basis for you to assess our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and the advisability of investing in our securities.
We may choose not to continue developing any of our product candidates at any time during development, which would reduce or eliminate our potential return on investment for those product candidates.
At any time, we may decide to discontinue the development of any of our product candidates for a variety of reasons, including inadequate financial resources, the appearance of new technologies that render our product candidates obsolete, competition from a competing product or changes in or failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements. If we terminate a program in which we have invested significant resources, we will not receive any return on our investment and we will have missed the opportunity to allocate those resources to potentially more productive uses.
As an example, on July 1, 2016, we announced that we were discontinuing the development of Suprenza, which was our first commercial product candidate, for strategic reasons and not due to safety or regulatory concerns, in order to focus our management and cash resources on the Phase 3 development of Mino-Lok and the Phase 2b development of Halo-Lido. The resources expended on Suprenza therefore did not provide us any benefit.
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We face significant risks in our product candidate development efforts.
Our business depends on the successful development and commercialization of our product candidates. We are not permitted to market any of our product candidates in the United States until we receive approval from the FDA, or in any foreign jurisdiction until we receive the requisite approvals from such jurisdiction. The process of developing new drugs and/or therapeutic products is inherently complex, unpredictable, time-consuming, expensive and uncertain. We must make long-term investments and commit significant resources before knowing whether our development programs will result in products that will receive regulatory approval and achieve market acceptance. Product candidates that appear to be promising at all stages of development may not reach the market for a number of reasons that may not be predictable based on results and data of the clinical program. Product candidates may be found ineffective or may cause harmful side effects during clinical trials, may take longer to progress through clinical trials than had been anticipated, may not be able to achieve the pre-defined clinical endpoints due to statistical anomalies even though clinical benefit may have been achieved, may fail to receive necessary regulatory approvals, may prove impracticable to manufacture in commercial quantities at reasonable cost and with acceptable quality, or may fail to achieve market acceptance.
We cannot predict whether or when we will obtain regulatory approval to commercialize our product candidates that are under development and we cannot, therefore, predict the timing of any future revenues from these product candidates, if any. The FDA has substantial discretion in the drug approval process, including the ability to delay, limit or deny approval of a product candidate for many reasons. For example, the FDA:
| ● | could determine that we cannot rely on Section 505(b)(2) for Mino-Lok or Halo-Lido or any future product candidates; |
| ● | could determine that the information provided by us was inadequate, contained clinical deficiencies or otherwise failed to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of any of our product candidates for any indication; |
| ● | may not find the data from clinical trials sufficient to support the submission of an NDA or to obtain marketing approval in the United States, including any findings that the clinical and other benefits of our product candidates outweigh their safety risks; |
| ● | may disagree with our trial design or our interpretation of data from preclinical studies or clinical trials, or may change the requirements for approval even after it has reviewed and commented on the design for our trials; |
| ● | may determine that we have identified the wrong reference listed drug or drugs or that approval of a Section 505(b)(2) application for any of our product candidates is blocked by patent or non-patent exclusivity of the reference listed drug or drugs; |
| ● | may identify deficiencies in the manufacturing processes or facilities of third-party manufacturers with which we enter into agreements for the manufacture of our product candidates; |
| ● | may approve our product candidates for fewer or more limited indications than we request, or may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly post-approval clinical trials; |
| ● | may change its approval policies or adopt new regulations that could adversely impact our product candidate development programs; or |
| ● | may not approve the labeling claims that we believe are necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of our product candidates, or may require labeling claims that impair the potential market acceptance of our product candidates. |
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These same risks are generally applicable to the regulatory process in foreign countries. Any failure to obtain regulatory approval of our product candidates would significantly limit our ability to generate revenues, and any failure to obtain such approval for all of the indications and labeling claims we deem desirable could reduce our potential revenues.
While our business strategy generally is to focus on the development of late stage product candidates to lessen the development risk, there is still significant risk to successfully developing a product candidate.
Our goal in pursuing late stage therapeutic product candidates with what we believe is a promising pre-clinical and early clinical stage track record is to avoid the risk of failure at the pre-clinical and early clinical stages. However, there is still significant risk to obtaining regulatory approval and successfully commercializing any late stage product candidate that we pursue. All of the risks inherent in drug development of initial stage product candidates also apply to late stage candidates. We cannot assure you that our business strategy will be successful.
The results of pre-clinical studies and completed clinical trials are not necessarily predictive of future results, and our current product candidates may not have favorable results in later studies or trials.
Pre-clinical studies and Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials are not primarily designed to test the efficacy of a product candidate in the general population, but rather to test initial safety, to study pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, to study limited efficacy in a small number of study patients in a selected disease population, and to identify and attempt to understand the product candidate’s side effects at various doses and dosing schedules. Success in pre-clinical studies or completed clinical trials does not ensure that later studies or trials, including continuing pre-clinical studies and large-scale clinical trials, will be successful nor does it predict future results. Favorable results in early studies or trials may not be repeated in later studies or trials, and product candidates in later stage trials may fail to show acceptable safety and efficacy despite having progressed through earlier trials. In addition, the placebo rate in larger studies may be higher than expected.
We may be required to demonstrate through large, long-term outcome trials that our product candidates are safe and effective for use in a broad population prior to obtaining regulatory approval.
There is typically a high rate of attrition from the failure of product candidates proceeding through clinical trials. In addition, certain subjects in our clinical trials may respond positively to placebo treatment - these subjects are commonly known as “placebo responders” - making it more difficult to demonstrate efficacy of the trial drug compared to placebo. This effect is likely to be observed in the treatment of hemorrhoids, which could negatively impact the development program for Halo-Lido.
If any of our product candidates fail to demonstrate sufficient safety and efficacy in any clinical trial, we will experience potentially significant delays and cost increases in, or may decide to abandon development of that product candidate. If we abandon or are delayed, or experience increased costs, in our development efforts related to any of our product candidates, we may not have sufficient resources to continue or complete development of that product candidate or any other product candidates. We may not be able to generate any revenues, continue our operations and clinical studies, or become profitable. Our reputation in the industry and in the investment community would likely be significantly damaged. Further, it might not be possible for us to raise funds in the public or private markets, and our stock price would likely decrease significantly.
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If we are unable to file for approval of Mino-Lok or Halo-Lido under Section 505(b)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, or if we are required to generate additional data related to safety and efficacy in order to obtain approval of Mino-Lok or Halo-Lido under Section 505(b)(2), we may be unable to meet our anticipated development and commercialization timelines.
Our current plans for filing NDAs for our product candidates include efforts to minimize the data we will be required to generate in order to obtain marketing approval for certain of our product candidates and therefore possibly reduce the time and cost of development of a product candidate and obtain a shortened review period for the application. The timeline for filing and review of our planned NDA for each of Mino-Lok and Halo-Lido is based upon our plan to submit each such NDA under Section 505(b)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, wherein we will rely in part on data generated by third parties and that is in the public domain or elsewhere. Depending on the data that may be required by the FDA for approval, some of the data may be related to products already approved by the FDA. If the data relied upon is related to products already approved by the FDA and covered by third-party patents we would be required to certify that we do not infringe the listed patents or that such patents are invalid or unenforceable. As a result of the certification, the third party would have 45 days from notification of our certification to initiate an action against us. In the event that an action is brought in response to such a certification, the approval of our NDA could be subject to a stay of up to 30 months or more while we defend against such a suit. Approval of any product candidate under Section 505(b)(2) may therefore be delayed until patent exclusivity expires or until we successfully challenge the applicability of those patents applicable to our product candidates. Alternatively, we may elect to generate sufficient additional clinical data so that we no longer rely on data which triggers a potential stay of the approval of any product candidate. Even if no exclusivity periods apply to an application under Section 505(b)(2), the FDA has broad discretion to require us to generate additional data on the safety and efficacy of our product candidates to supplement third-party data on which we may be permitted to rely. In either event, we could be required, before obtaining marketing approval for such product candidate, to conduct substantial new research and development activities beyond those in which we currently plan to engage in order to obtain approval of that product candidate. Such additional new research and development activities would be costly and time consuming.
We may not be able to obtain shortened review of our applications where available, and in any event the FDA may not agree that any of our product candidates qualify for marketing approval. If we are required to generate additional data to support approval, we may be unable to meet our anticipated development and commercialization timelines, may be unable to generate the additional data at a reasonable cost, or at all, and may be unable to obtain marketing approval of that product candidate. In addition, notwithstanding the approval of many products by the FDA pursuant to Section 505(b)(2), over the last few years, some pharmaceutical companies and others have objected to the FDA’s interpretation of Section 505(b)(2). If the FDA changes its interpretation of Section 505(b)(2), or if the FDA’s interpretation is successfully challenged in court, this could delay or even prevent the FDA from approving any Section 505(b)(2) application that we submit.
Two of our product candidates, Mino-Lok and Halo-Lido, are combination products consisting of components that have each been separately approved by the FDA for other indications and which are commercially available and marketed by other companies. Our approval under Section 505(b)(2), if received, would not preclude physicians, pharmacists and patients from obtaining individual drug products and titrating the dosage of these drug products as close to our approved dose as possible.
Our Mino-Lok solution contains minocycline, disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (edetate), and ethyl alcohol, all of which have been separately approved by the FDA for other indications, or are used as excipients in other parenteral products. Assuming FDA approval and as a branded pharmaceutical product, we would need to obtain hospital formulary acceptance to generate sales of Mino-Lok. Additionally, we may encounter reluctance by the infectious disease physician community to vary from the existing standard of care to remove and replace an infected catheter. Currently, hospitals are reimbursed for the treatment of CRBSIs by the Center for Medicare and Medicare Services, (“CMS”) through a Diagnosis Related Group (“DRG”) classification or code. Commercial insurance plans reimburse for CRBSIs in a similar manner. With Mino-Lok being priced as a branded FDA-approved pharmaceutical product, this could result in the participating hospital retaining a lower share of CMS or commercial reimbursement which may impact the acceptance and use of Mino-Lok by these institutions.
Our Halo-Lido product candidate for the treatment of hemorrhoids is a combination product consisting of two drugs, halobetasol propionate, a corticosteriod, and lidocaine, that have each been separately approved by the FDA for other indications and which are commercially available and marketed by other companies. Halobetasol propionate cream is available in a 0.05% strength, and lidocaine creams are also available in strengths up to 5%. From our market analysis and discussions with a limited number of physicians, we know that patients sometimes obtain two separate cream products and co-administer them as prescribed, giving them a combination treatment which could be very similar to what we intend to study and seek approval for. As a branded, FDA-approved product with safety and efficacy data, we intend to price our product substantially higher than the generically available individual creams. We will then have to convince third-party payers and pharmacy benefit managers of the advantages of our product and justify our premium pricing. We may encounter resistance from these entities and will then be dependent on patients’ willingness to pay the premium and not seek alternatives. In addition, pharmacists often suggest lower cost prescription treatment alternatives to both physicians and patients. If approved, our Section 505(b)(2) approval and the market exclusivity we may receive will not guarantee that such alternatives will not exist, that substitution will not occur, or that there will be immediate acceptance to our pricing by payer formularies.
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Any fast track designation or grant of priority review status by the FDA may not actually lead to a faster development or regulatory review or approval process, nor will it assure FDA approval of our product candidates. Additionally, our product candidates may treat indications that do not qualify for priority review vouchers.
We have received fast track designation for Mino-Lok to treat and salvage infected central venous catheters in patients with CRBSIs. We may seek fast track designation for some of our other product candidates or priority review of applications for approval of our product candidates for certain indications. If a drug is intended for the treatment of a serious or life-threatening condition and the drug demonstrates the potential to address unmet medical needs for this condition, the drug sponsor may apply for FDA fast track designation. If a product candidate offers major advances in treatment, the FDA may designate it eligible for priority review. The FDA has broad discretion whether or not to grant these designations, so even if we believe a particular product candidate is eligible for these designations, we cannot assure you that the FDA would decide to grant them. Even with the fast track designation for Mino-Lok and if we do receive fast track designation or priority review for any other product candidate, we may not experience a faster development process, review or approval compared to conventional FDA procedures. The FDA may withdraw fast track designation from Mino-Lok or any other product candidate to be so designated if it believes that the designation is no longer supported by data from our clinical development program.
Even if we receive regulatory approval to commercialize a product candidate, our ability to generate revenues from any resulting product will be subject to a variety of risks, many of which are out of our control.
Even if one of our product candidates obtains regulatory approval, that product may not gain market acceptance among physicians, patients, healthcare payers or the medical community. The indication may be limited to a subset of the population or we may implement a distribution system and patient access program that is limited. Coverage and reimbursement of our product candidates by third-party payers, including government payers, generally is also necessary for commercial success. We believe that the degree of market acceptance and our ability to generate revenues from any approved product candidate or acquired approved product will depend on a number of factors, including:
| ● | prevalence and severity of any side effects; |
| ● | results of any post-approval studies of the product; |
| ● | potential or perceived advantages or disadvantages over alternative treatments; |
| ● | availability of coverage and reimbursement from government and other third-party payers; |
| ● | the willingness of patients to pay out of pocket in the absence of government or third-party coverage; |
| ● | the relative convenience and ease of administration and dosing schedule; |
| ● | product labeling or product insert requirements of the FDA or other regulatory authorities; |
| ● | strength of sales, marketing and distribution support; |
| ● | price of any future products, if approved, both in absolute terms and relative to alternative treatments; |
| ● | the effectiveness of our or any future collaborators’ sales and marketing strategies; |
| ● | the effect of current and future healthcare laws on our product candidates; |
| ● | patient access programs that require patients to provide certain information prior to receiving new and refill prescriptions; and |
| ● | requirements for prescribing physicians to complete certain educational programs for prescribing drugs. |
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If approved, any product candidate may fail to achieve market acceptance or generate significant revenue to achieve or sustain profitability. In addition, our efforts to educate the medical community and third-party payers on the benefits of any product candidate may require significant resources and may never be successful.
Even if approved for marketing by applicable regulatory bodies, we will not be able to create a market for any of our product candidates if we fail to establish marketing, sales and distribution capabilities, either on our own or through arrangements with third parties.
Our strategy with our product candidates is to outsource to third parties, all or most aspects of the product development process, and possibly marketing, sales and distribution activities. Currently, we do not have any sales, marketing or distribution capabilities. In order to generate sales of any product candidates that receive regulatory approval, we must either acquire or develop an internal marketing and sales force with technical expertise and with supporting distribution capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services for us. The acquisition or development of a sales and distribution infrastructure would require substantial resources, which may divert the attention of our management and key personnel and defer our product development efforts. To the extent that we enter into marketing and sales arrangements with other companies, our revenues will depend on the efforts of others. These efforts may not be successful. If we fail to develop sales, marketing and distribution channels, or enter into arrangements with third parties, we will experience delays in product sales and incur increased costs.
The markets in which we operate are highly competitive and we may be unable to compete successfully against new entrants or established companies.
Competition in the pharmaceutical and medical products industries is intense and is characterized by costly and extensive research efforts and rapid technological progress. We are aware of several pharmaceutical companies also actively engaged in the development of therapies or products for at least some of the same conditions we are targeting. Many of these companies have substantially greater research and development capabilities as well as substantially greater marketing, financial and human resources than we do. In addition, many of these companies have significantly greater experience than us in undertaking pre-clinical testing, clinical trials and other regulatory approval procedures. Our competitors may develop technologies and products that are more effective than those we are currently marketing or researching and developing. Such developments could render our product candidates, if approved, less competitive or possibly obsolete. We are also competing with respect to marketing capabilities and manufacturing efficiency, areas in which we have no current capabilities and in which we have no experience as a company, although our executive officers do have commercialization experience. However, that experience might not translate into the successful development and launch of any of our product candidates. Mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and similar events may also significantly increase the competition we face. In addition, new developments, including the development of other drug technologies and methods of preventing the incidence of disease, occur in the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries at a rapid pace. These developments may render our product candidates obsolete or noncompetitive. Compared to us, many of our potential competitors have substantially greater:
| ● | research and development resources, including personnel and technology; |
| ● | regulatory resources, experience and expertise; |
| ● | product candidate development and clinical trial resources and experience; |
| ● | product sourcing, sales and marketing resources and experience; |
| ● | experience and expertise in exploitation of intellectual property rights; and |
| ● | access to strategic partners and capital resources. |
As a result of these factors, our competitors may obtain regulatory approval of their products more rapidly than we can or may obtain patent protection or other intellectual property rights that limit our ability to develop or commercialize our product candidates. Our competitors may also develop products that are more effective, more useful and less costly than ours and may also be more successful in manufacturing and marketing their products. In addition, our competitors may be more effective than us in commercializing their products and as a result, our business and prospects might be materially harmed.
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Physicians and patients might not accept and use any of our product candidates for which regulatory approval is obtained.
Even if the FDA approves one of our product candidates, physicians and patients might not accept and use it. Acceptance and use of our approved product candidates will depend upon a number of factors, including:
| ● | perceptions by members of the health care community, including physicians, about the safety and effectiveness of any of our product candidates; |
| ● | cost-effectiveness of our product candidates relative to competing products or therapies; |
| ● | availability of reimbursement for our product candidates from government or other healthcare payers; and |
| ● | effective marketing and distribution efforts by us and/or our licensees and distributors, if any. |
If any of our current product candidates are approved, we expect their sales to generate substantially all of our revenues for the foreseeable future, and as a result, the failure of any of these product candidates to find market acceptance would harm our business and would require us to seek additional financing.
Our ability to generate product revenues will be diminished if any of our product candidates that may be approved sell for inadequate prices or patients are unable to obtain adequate levels of reimbursement.
Our ability to commercialize our product candidates, alone or with collaborators, will depend in part on the extent to which reimbursement will be available from:
| ● | government and health administration authorities; |
| ● | private health maintenance organizations and health insurers; and |
| ● | other healthcare payers. |
Significant uncertainty exists as to the reimbursement status of newly approved healthcare products. Healthcare payers, including Medicare, are challenging the prices charged for medical products and services. Government and other healthcare payers increasingly attempt to contain healthcare costs by limiting both coverage and the level of reimbursement for drugs. Even if our product candidates are approved by the FDA, insurance coverage might not be available, and reimbursement levels might be inadequate, to cover our products. If government and other healthcare payers do not provide adequate coverage and reimbursement levels for our products, once approved, market acceptance of such products could be reduced. Proposals to modify the current health care system in the U.S. to improve access to health care and control its costs are continually being considered by the federal and state governments. In March 2010, the U.S. Congress passed landmark healthcare legislation. Portions of this legislation have been repealed in recent years and members of the U.S. Congress and some state legislatures continue to seek to overturn at least some remaining portions of the legislation and we expect they will continue to review and assess this legislation and possibly alternative health care reform proposals. We cannot predict what impact on federal reimbursement policies this legislation will have in general or on our business specifically. We cannot predict whether new proposals will be made or adopted, when they may be adopted or what impact they may have on us if they are adopted.
Health administration authorities in countries other than the U.S. may not provide reimbursement for our products at rates sufficient for us to achieve profitability, or at all. Like the U.S., these countries have considered health care reform proposals and could materially alter their government-sponsored health care programs by reducing reimbursement rates. Any reduction in reimbursement rates under Medicare or foreign health care programs could negatively affect the pricing of our product candidates. If we are not able to charge a sufficient amount for our product candidates, then our margins and our profitability will be adversely affected.
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We are and will be dependent on third-party contract research organizations to conduct all of our clinical trials.
We are and will be dependent on third-party research organizations to conduct all of our clinical trials with respect to our product candidates, including any candidates that we may develop in the future. If we are unable to obtain any necessary testing services on acceptable terms, we may not complete our product development efforts in a timely manner or at all. If we rely on third parties for human trials, we may lose some control over these activities and become too dependent upon these parties. These third parties may not complete testing activities on schedule or when we so request. We may not be able to secure and maintain suitable research organizations to conduct our human trials. We are responsible for confirming that each of our clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the trial’s general plan and protocol. Moreover, the FDA and foreign regulatory agencies require us to comply with regulations and standards, commonly referred to as good clinical practices, for conducting, recording and reporting the results of clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the trial participants are adequately protected. Our reliance on third parties does not relieve us of these responsibilities and requirements. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or regulatory obligations or meet expected deadlines, if the third parties need to be replaced or if the quality or accuracy of the data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or regulatory requirements or for other reasons, our preclinical development activities or clinical trials may be extended, delayed, suspended or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates.
We rely exclusively on third parties to formulate and manufacture our product candidates.
We do not have and do not intend to establish our own manufacturing facilities. Consequently, we lack the physical plant to formulate and manufacture our product candidates, which are currently being manufactured entirely by commercial third party manufacturers. If any product candidate we might develop or acquire in the future receives FDA approval, we will rely on one or more third-party contractors to manufacture our products. If, for any reason, we become unable to rely on our current source or any future source or sources to manufacture our product candidates, either for pre-clinical or clinical trials or for commercial quantities, then we would need to identify and contract with additional or replacement third-party manufacturers to manufacture compounds for preclinical, clinical and commercial purposes. We might not be successful in identifying additional or replacement third-party manufacturers, or in negotiating acceptable terms with any that we do identify. If we are unable to secure and maintain third-party manufacturing capacity, the development and sales of our product candidates and our financial performance might be materially affected.
In addition, before any of our collaborators can begin to commercially manufacture our product candidates, each must obtain regulatory approval of the manufacturing facility and process. Manufacturing of drugs for clinical and commercial purposes must comply with the FDA’s Current Good Manufacturing Practices, or cGMP, and applicable non-U.S. regulatory requirements. The cGMP requirements govern quality control and documentation policies and procedures. Complying with cGMP and non-U.S. regulatory requirements will require that we expend time, money, and effort in production, recordkeeping, and quality control to assure that the product meets applicable specifications and other requirements. Our contracted manufacturing facilities must also pass a pre-approval inspection prior to FDA approval. Failure to pass a pre-approval inspection might significantly delay FDA approval of our product candidates. If any of our collaborators fails to comply with these requirements, we would be subject to possible regulatory action which could limit the jurisdictions in which we are permitted to sell our product candidates. As a result, our business, financial condition, and results of operations might be materially harmed.
Our reliance on a limited number of third-party manufacturers exposes us to the following risks:
| ● | We might be unable to identify manufacturers for commercial supply on acceptable terms or at all because the number of potential manufacturers is limited and the FDA must approve any replacement contractor. This approval would generally require compliance inspections. In addition, a new manufacturer would have to be educated in, or develop substantially equivalent processes for, production of our product candidates after receipt of FDA approval, if any; |
| ● | Our third-party manufacturers might be unable to formulate and manufacture our product candidates in the volume and of the quality required to meet our clinical and commercial needs, if any; |
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| ● | Our contract manufacturers might not perform as agreed or might not remain in the contract manufacturing business for the time required to supply our clinical trials or to successfully produce, store and distribute our product candidates for commercialization; |
| ● | Currently, our contract manufacturer for our clinical supplies is foreign, which increases the risk of shipping delays and adds the risk of import restrictions; |
| ● | Drug manufacturers are subject to ongoing periodic unannounced inspection by the FDA and corresponding state agencies to ensure strict compliance with cGMP and other government regulations and corresponding foreign standards. We do not have complete control over third-party manufacturers’ compliance with these regulations and standards; |
| ● | If any third-party manufacturer makes improvements in the manufacturing process for our product candidates, we might not own, or might have to share, the intellectual property rights to the innovation with our licensors; |
| ● | Operations of our third-party manufacturers or suppliers could be disrupted by conditions unrelated to our business or operations, including a bankruptcy of the manufacturer or supplier or a natural disaster; and |
| ● | We might compete with other companies for access to these manufacturers’ facilities and might be subject to manufacturing delays if the manufacturers give other clients higher priority than us. |
Each of these risks could delay our clinical trials or the approval, if any, of our product candidates by the FDA or any foreign regulatory agency or the commercialization of our product candidates and could result in higher costs or deprive us of potential product revenues. As a result, our business, financial condition, and results of operations might be materially harmed.
If we materially breach or default under any of our license agreements, the licensor party to such agreement will have the right to terminate the license agreement, which termination may materially harm our business.
Our commercial success will depend in part on the maintenance of our license agreements. Currently, we are a party to two in-license agreements with MDACC, one for Mino-Lok (sub-licensed from the entity holding the license from MDACC) and one for Mino-Wrap. Additionally, we expect to enter into additional license agreements in the future. Our license agreements impose, and we expect that future license agreements will impose, various diligence, milestone payment, royalty and other obligations on us. For example, under our current license agreements, we are required to use commercially reasonable diligence to develop and commercialize a product and to satisfy specified payment obligations. If we fail to comply with our obligations under our agreements or any future license agreements with any party, or we are subject to a bankruptcy, the licensor may have the right to terminate the license, in which event we would not be able to market products covered by the license. Each of our license agreements provides the licensor with a right to terminate the license agreement for our material breach or default under the agreement, including the failure to make any required milestone or other payments. Should the licensor under any of our license agreements exercise such a termination right, we would lose our right to the intellectual property under the respective license agreement, which loss may materially harm our business.
Any termination, or breach by, or conflict with our strategic partners or licensees could harm our business.
If we or any of our current or future collaborators or licensees fail to renew or terminate any of our collaborations or if either party fails to satisfy its obligations under any of our collaboration or license agreements or complete them in a timely manner, we could have difficulty completing the development of any of our product candidates and potentially lose significant sources of revenue, which could result in volatility in our future revenue. In addition, our agreements with our collaborators and licensees may have provisions that give rise to disputes regarding the rights and obligations of the parties. These and other possible disagreements could lead to termination of the agreement or delays in collaborative research, development, supply or commercialization of our product candidates, or could require or result in litigation or arbitration. Any such conflicts with our collaborators could reduce our ability to obtain future collaboration agreements and could have a negative impact on our relationship with existing collaborators, adversely affecting our business and revenues. Finally, any of our collaborations or license agreements may prove to be unsuccessful.
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We plan to grow and develop our business through acquisitions of or investment in new or complementary businesses, products or technologies, and the failure to manage these acquisitions or investments, or the failure to integrate them with our existing business, could have a material adverse effect on us.
Our business strategy is based on the acquisition of additional product candidates. We might consider opportunities to acquire or invest in other technologies, products and businesses that might enhance our capabilities or complement our current product candidates. Potential and completed acquisitions and strategic investments involve numerous risks, including potential problems or issues associated with the following:
| ● | assimilating the purchased technologies, products or business operations; |
| ● | maintaining uniform standards, procedures, controls and policies; |
| ● | unanticipated costs associated with the acquisition or investment; |
| ● | diversion of our management’s attention from our preexisting business; |
| ● | maintaining or obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals or complying with regulatory standards; and |
| ● | adverse effects on existing business operations. |
We have no current commitments with respect to any acquisition or investment in other technologies or businesses. We do not know if we will identify suitable acquisitions, whether we will be able to successfully complete any acquisitions, or whether we will be able to successfully integrate any acquired product, technology or business into our business operations or retain key personnel, suppliers or collaborators.
Our ability to successfully develop our business through acquisitions would depend on our ability to identify, negotiate, complete and integrate suitable target businesses or technologies and obtain any necessary financing. These efforts could be expensive and time consuming and might disrupt our ongoing operations. If we are unable to efficiently integrate any acquired business, technology or product into our business operations, our business and financial condition might be adversely affected.
We rely on the significant experience and specialized expertise of our executive management and other key personnel and the loss of any of our executive management or key personnel or our inability to successfully hire their successors could harm our business.
Our performance is substantially dependent on the continued services and on the performance of our executive management and other key personnel, who have extensive experience and specialized expertise in our business. Our President and Chief Executive Officer, Myron Holubiak, and our Executive Chairman, Leonard Mazur, in particular have significant experience in the running of pharmaceutical companies as well as drug development itself. This depth of experience is of significant benefit to us, especially given the small size of our management team and company. The loss of the services of either Mr. Holubiak or Mr. Mazur, as well as any other member of our executive management or any key employees could harm our ability to attract capital and develop and commercialize our product candidates. We have no key man life insurance policies.
If we are unable to retain or hire additional qualified personnel, our ability to grow our business might be harmed.
We utilize the services of a clinical management team on a part-time basis to assist us in managing our ongoing Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials and intend to do so for future trials. While we believe this will provide us with sufficient staffing for our current and future development efforts, we will need to hire or contract with additional qualified personnel with expertise in preclinical testing, clinical research and testing, government regulation, formulation and manufacturing and sales and marketing in connection with the continued development, regulatory approval and commercialization of our product candidates. We compete for qualified individuals with numerous pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, universities and other research institutions. Competition for these individuals is intense, and we cannot be certain that our search for such personnel will be successful. Attracting and retaining qualified personnel will be critical to our success. In addition, we may be unable to attract and retain those qualified officers, directors and members of board committees required to provide for effective management. If we are unable to attract and retain qualified employees, officers and directors, the management and operation of our business could be adversely affected.
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We expect to need to increase the size of our organization to further develop our product candidates, and we may experience difficulties in managing growth.
We will need to manage our anticipated growth and increased operational activity. Our personnel, systems and facilities currently in place may not be adequate to support this future growth. Our need to effectively execute our growth strategy will require that we:
| ● | manage our research and development activities and our regulatory trials effectively; |
| ● | attract and motivate sufficient numbers of talented employees or consultants; |
| ● | manage our internal development efforts effectively while complying with our contractual obligations to licensors, licensees, contractors, collaborators and other third parties; |
| ● | develop internal sales and marketing capabilities or establish collaborations with third parties with such capabilities; |
| ● | commercialize our product candidates; and |
| ● | improve our operational, financial and management controls, reporting systems and procedures. |
This planned future growth could place a strain on our administrative and operational infrastructure and may require our management to divert a disproportionate amount of its attention away from our day-to-day activities. We may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations or recruit and train additional qualified personnel, which may result in weaknesses in our infrastructure, and give rise to operational mistakes, loss of business opportunities, loss of employees and consultants and reduced productivity among remaining employees and consultants. We may not be able to make improvements to our management information and control systems in an efficient or timely manner and may discover deficiencies in existing systems and controls. If our management is unable to effectively manage our expected growth, our expenses may increase more than expected, our ability to generate or increase our revenues could be reduced and we may not be able to implement our business strategy. Our future financial performance and our ability to compete effectively will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth.
Risks Related to Our Regulatory and Legal Environment
We are subject to extensive and costly government regulation.
Our product candidates are and any approved products will be subject to extensive and rigorous domestic government regulation including regulation by the FDA, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, other divisions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Justice, state and local governments, and their respective foreign equivalents. The FDA regulates the research, development, preclinical and clinical testing, manufacture, safety, effectiveness, record keeping, reporting, labeling, storage, approval, advertising, promotion, sale, distribution, import, and export of pharmaceutical products. If our product candidates are to be marketed abroad, they will also be subject to extensive regulation by foreign governments, whether or not they have obtained FDA approval. Such foreign regulation might be equally or more demanding than corresponding U.S. regulation. Government regulation substantially increases the cost and risk of researching, developing, manufacturing, and selling our product candidates. The regulatory review and approval process, which includes preclinical testing and clinical trials of each product candidate, is lengthy, expensive, and uncertain. We or our collaborators must obtain and maintain regulatory authorization to conduct clinical trials and approval for each product candidate we intend to market, and the manufacturing facilities used for the product candidates must be inspected and meet legal requirements. Securing regulatory approval requires submitting extensive preclinical and clinical data and other supporting information for each proposed product candidate in order to establish the product’s safety and efficacy for each intended use. The development and approval process might take many years, requires substantial resources, and might never lead to the approval of a product. Further, the FDA or any foreign regulatory authority could change its established regulations that govern the drug development and approval process, which could negatively impact the regulatory review of our product candidates, including the anticipated timeline and cost of development and approval. Even if we are able to obtain regulatory approval for a particular product candidate, the approval might limit the indicated medical uses for the product, limit our ability to promote, sell, and distribute the product, require that we conduct costly post-marketing surveillance, and/or require that we conduct ongoing post-marketing studies. Material changes to an approved product, such as, for example, manufacturing changes or revised labeling, might require further regulatory review and approval. Once obtained, any approvals might be withdrawn, including, for example, if there is a later discovery of previously unknown problems with the product, such as a previously unknown safety issue.
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If we, our collaborators, or our contract manufacturers fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements at any stage during the regulatory process, such noncompliance could result in, among other things: suspension or cessation of clinical trials; delays in the approval of applications or supplements to approved applications; refusal of a regulatory authority, including the FDA, to review pending market approval applications or supplements to approved applications; warning letters; fines; import and export restrictions; product recalls or seizures; injunctions; total or partial suspension of production; civil penalties; withdrawals of previously approved marketing applications or licenses; recommendations by the FDA or other regulatory authorities against governmental contracts; and/or criminal prosecutions.
We might not obtain the necessary U.S. regulatory approvals to commercialize any product candidates.
We cannot assure you that we will receive the approvals necessary to commercialize for sale any product candidates we are currently developing or that we may acquire or develop in the future. We will need FDA approval to commercialize our product candidates in the U.S. In order to obtain FDA approval of any product candidate, we must submit to the FDA an NDA demonstrating that the product candidate is safe for humans and effective for its intended use. This demonstration requires significant research, pre-clinical studies, and clinical trials. Satisfaction of the FDA’s regulatory requirements typically takes many years, depends upon the type, complexity and novelty of the product candidate and requires substantial resources for research, development and testing. We cannot predict whether our research and clinical approaches will result in products that the FDA considers safe for humans and effective for their indicated uses. The FDA has substantial discretion in the product approval process and might require us to conduct additional pre-clinical and clinical testing, perform post-marketing studies or otherwise limit or impose conditions on any additional approvals we obtain. The approval process might also be delayed by changes in government regulation, future legislation or administrative action or changes in FDA policy that occur prior to or during our regulatory review. Delays in obtaining regulatory approvals might:
| ● | delay commercialization of, and our ability to derive product revenues from, our product candidates; |
| ● | impose costly procedures on us; and |
| ● | diminish any competitive advantages that we might otherwise enjoy. |
Even if we comply with all FDA requests, the FDA might ultimately reject one or more of our NDAs. We cannot be sure that we will ever obtain regulatory clearance for our product candidates. Failure to obtain FDA approval of our product candidates will severely undermine our business by leaving us without saleable products, and therefore without any potential sources of revenues, until another product candidate could be developed or obtained and successfully developed, approved and commercialized. There is no guarantee that we will ever be able to successfully develop or acquire any product candidate.
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Following any regulatory approval of any product candidate, we will be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and restrictions, which may result in significant expense and limit our ability to commercialize our other product candidates.
If one of our product candidates is approved by the FDA or by a foreign regulatory authority, we will be required to comply with extensive regulations for product manufacturing, labeling, packaging, adverse event reporting, storage, distribution, advertising, promotion and record keeping. Regulatory approvals may also be subject to significant limitations on the indicated uses or marketing of the products or to whom and how we may distribute an approved product. Even if U.S. regulatory approval is obtained, the FDA may still impose significant restrictions on a product’s indicated uses or marketing or impose ongoing requirements for potentially costly post-approval studies. For example, the label ultimately approved for our product candidates, if any, may include restrictions on use. If so, we may be subject to ongoing regulatory obligations and restrictions, which may result in significant expense and limit our ability to commercialize our product candidates. The FDA could also require a registry to track the patients utilizing the product or implement a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS, that could restrict access to the product, reduce our revenues and/or increase our costs. Potentially costly post-marketing clinical studies may be required as a condition of approval to further substantiate safety or efficacy, or to investigate specific issues of interest to the regulatory authority.
Manufacturers of pharmaceutical products and their facilities are subject to continual review and periodic inspections by the FDA and other regulatory authorities for compliance with cGMP regulations, which include requirements relating to quality control and quality assurance as well as the corresponding maintenance of records and documentation. Further, regulatory agencies must approve these manufacturing facilities before they can be used to manufacture our future approved products, if any, and these facilities are subject to ongoing regulatory inspections. In addition, regulatory agencies subject a pharmaceutical product, its manufacturer and the manufacturer’s facilities to continual review and inspections. The subsequent discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured, may result in restrictions on the marketing of that product, up to and including, withdrawal of the product from the market. If the manufacturing facilities of our suppliers fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, it could result in regulatory action and additional costs to us. Failure to comply with applicable FDA and other regulatory requirements may, either before or after product approval, if any, subject our company to administrative or judicially imposed sanctions, including:
| ● | issuance of Form 483 notices, warning letters and adverse publicity by the FDA or other regulatory agencies; |
| ● | imposition of fines and other civil penalties due to product liability or other issues; |
| ● | injunctions, suspensions or revocations of regulatory approvals; |
| ● | suspension of any ongoing pre-clinical and clinical trials; |
| ● | total or partial suspension of manufacturing; |
| ● | delays in commercialization; |
| ● | refusal by the FDA to approve pending applications or supplements to approved applications filed by us or our collaborators; |
| ● | refusals to permit medical products to be imported into or exported from the U.S.; |
| ● | restrictions on operations, including costly new manufacturing requirements; |
| ● | product recalls or seizures; and |
| ● | criminal prosecutions. |
In addition, the law or regulatory policies governing pharmaceutical products may change. New statutory requirements may be enacted or additional regulations may be enacted that could prevent or delay regulatory approval of our product candidates. Contract manufacturing organizations, or CMOs, and their vendors or suppliers may also face changes in regulatory requirements from governmental agencies in the U.S. and other countries. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature, extent or effects of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, either in the U.S. or elsewhere. If we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we might not be permitted to market any future approved products and our business could suffer.
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Even if we receive regulatory approval to commercialize our product candidates, post-approval marketing and promotion of products is highly regulated by the FDA, and marketing campaigns which violate FDA standards may result in adverse consequences including regulatory enforcement action by the FDA as well as follow-on actions filed by consumers and other end-payers, which could result in substantial fines, sanctions and damage awards against us, any of which could harm our business.
Post-approval marketing and promotion of products, standards and regulations for direct-to-consumer advertising, dissemination of off-label product information, industry-sponsored scientific and educational activities and promotional activities via the Internet are heavily scrutinized and regulated by the FDA. Products may only be marketed for approved indications and in accordance with provisions of the FDA approved labels. Failure to comply with such requirements may result in adverse publicity, warning letters issued by the FDA, and civil or criminal penalties.
In the event the FDA discovers post-approval violations, we could face penalties in the future including the FDA’s issuance of a cease and desist order, impounding of our products, and civil or criminal penalties. As a follow-on to such governmental enforcement activities, consumers and other end-payers of the product may initiate action against us claiming, among other things, fraudulent misrepresentation, unfair competition, violation of various state consumer protection statues and unjust enrichment. If the plaintiffs in such follow-on actions are successful, we could be subject to various damages, including compensatory damages, treble damages, punitive damages, restitution, disgorgement, prejudgment and post-judgment interest on any monetary award, and the reimbursement of the plaintiff’s legal fees and costs, any of which could have an adverse effect on our revenue, business, financial condition and prospects.
We could be forced to pay substantial damage awards if product liability claims that may be brought against us are successful.
The use of any of our product candidates in pre-clinical and clinical trials, and the sale of any approved products, may expose us to liability claims and financial losses resulting from the use or sale of our product candidates. We have obtained limited product liability insurance coverage for our pre-clinical and clinical trials of $2.0 million per occurrence and in the aggregate, subject to a deductible of $50,000 per occurrence. There can be no assurance that our existing insurance coverage will extend to any other product candidates in the future. Any product liability insurance coverage may not be sufficient to satisfy all liabilities resulting from product liability claims. A successful claim may prevent us from obtaining adequate product liability insurance in the future on commercially desirable terms, if at all. Even if a claim is not successful, defending such a claim would be time consuming and expensive, may damage that product’s and our reputations in the marketplace, and would likely divert management’s attention, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our company.
Risks Related to our Intellectual Property
Our business depends on protecting our intellectual property.
Without the intellectual property rights we have already obtained, as well as the further rights we are also pursuing, our competitors would have opportunity to take advantage of our research and development efforts to develop competing products. Our success, competitive position and future revenues, if any, depend in part on our ability and the abilities of our licensors to obtain and maintain patent protection for our product candidates, methods, processes and other technologies, to preserve our trade secrets, to prevent third parties from infringing on our proprietary rights and to operate without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties. We anticipate filing additional patent applications both in the U.S. and in other countries, as appropriate. However, the patent process is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that we will be successful in protecting our product candidates by obtaining and defending patents. These risks and uncertainties include the following:
| ● | Our patent rights might be challenged, invalidated, or circumvented, or otherwise might not provide any competitive advantage; |
| ● | Our competitors, many of which have substantially greater resources than we do and many of which might make significant investments in competing technologies, might seek, or might already have obtained, patents that will limit, interfere with, or eliminate our ability to make, use, and sell our product candidates either in the U.S. or in international markets; |
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| ● | Countries other than the U.S. might have less restrictive patent laws than those upheld by U.S. courts, allowing foreign competitors the ability to exploit these laws to create, develop, and market competing products; and |
| ● | As a matter of public policy regarding worldwide health concerns, there might be significant pressure on the U.S. government and other international governmental bodies to limit the scope of patent protection both inside and outside the U.S. for product candidates that prove successful. |
In addition, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and patent offices in other jurisdictions have often required that patent applications concerning pharmaceutical and/or biotechnology-related inventions be limited or narrowed substantially to cover only the specific innovations exemplified in the patent application, thereby limiting the scope of protection against competitive challenges. Thus, even if we or our licensors are able to obtain patents, the patents might be substantially narrower than anticipated.
Because the time period from filing a patent application to the issuance, if ever, of the patent is often more than three years and because any regulatory approval and marketing for a pharmaceutical product often occurs several years after the related patent application is filed, the resulting market exclusivity afforded by any patent on our drug candidates and technologies will likely be substantially less than 20 years. For example, the U.S. patent on the original Mino-Lok composition expires in June 2024, and the U.S. patent on the stabilized Mino-Lok composition expires in November 2036. Since we anticipate significant additional time before FDA approval could be obtained, the maximum market exclusivity afforded by the statutory term of the currently issued patents would be less than 17 years. In the United States, the European Union and some other jurisdictions, patent term extensions are available for certain delays in either patent office proceedings or marketing and regulatory approval processes. However, due to the specific requirements for obtaining these extensions, there is no assurance that our patents will be granted extensions even if we encounter significant delays in patent office proceedings or marketing and regulatory approval.
Patent and other intellectual property protection is crucial to the success of our business and prospects, and there is a substantial risk that such protections will prove inadequate. Our business and prospects will be harmed if these protections prove insufficient.
We rely on trade secret protections through confidentiality agreements with our employees and other parties, and the breach of these agreements could adversely affect our business and prospects.
We rely on trade secrets, which we seek to protect, in part, through confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements with our employees, collaborators, suppliers, and other parties. There can be no assurance that these agreements will not be breached, that we would have adequate remedies for any such breach or that our trade secrets will not otherwise become known to or independently developed by our competitors. We might be involved from time to time in litigation to determine the enforceability, scope and validity of our proprietary rights. Any such litigation could result in substantial cost and divert management’s attention from our operations.
If we infringe the rights of third parties we might have to forego developing and/or selling any approved products, pay damages, or defend against litigation.
If our product candidates, methods, processes and other technologies infringe the proprietary rights of other parties, we could incur substantial costs and we might have to:
| ● | obtain licenses, which might not be available on commercially reasonable terms, if at all; |
| ● | abandon an infringing product candidate; |
| ● | redesign our product candidates or processes to avoid infringement; |
| ● | stop using the subject matter claimed in the patents held by others; |
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| ● | pay damages; and/or |
| ● | defend litigation or administrative proceedings which might be costly whether we win or lose, and which could result in a substantial diversion of our financial and management resources. |
Any of these events could substantially harm our earnings, financial condition and operations.
The U.S. government could have “march-in rights” to certain of our intellectual property.
If at any time federal monies are used in support of the research and development activities at MDACC that resulted or in the future result in certain of our issued pending U.S. patent applications, the federal government retains what are referred to as “march-in rights” to patents that are granted on these applications. Our license agreements for Mino-Lok and Mino-Wrap each provide that in the event of such governmental funding, our rights are subject to the government’s prior rights, if any. In addition, the license agreements provide that we will comply with the requirements of any agreement between MDACC and the governmental funding entity. If applicable, this could require us to grant the U.S. government either a nonexclusive, partially exclusive or exclusive license to the patented invention in any field of use, upon terms that are reasonable for a particular situation. Circumstances that could trigger march-in rights generally would be set out in the agreement between MDACC and the funding governmental entity and could include, for example, failure to take, within a reasonable time, effective steps to achieve practical application of the invention in a field of use, failure to satisfy the health and safety needs of the public and failure to meet requirements of public use specified by federal regulations. A funding governmental entity could elect to exercise these march-in rights on their own initiative or at the request of a third party; however, the exercise of such march-in rights has been historically rare when the patent holder (or its licensee) is practicing the patent invention although there can be no assurance that such rights would not be exercised. This same risk would apply to any other license into which we enter if the licensor receives government funding for the product candidate that is the subject of the license.
Changes in patent law or patent jurisprudence could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our product candidates.
The United States has enacted and is expected to continue to implement wide-ranging patent reform legislation. Further, recent United States Supreme Court rulings have either narrowed the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances or weakened the rights of patent owners in certain situations. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the scope and value of patents, once obtained.
In September 2011, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, also known as the America Invents Act, or AIA, was signed into law. The AIA includes a number of significant changes to U.S. patent law, including provisions that affect the way patent applications will be prosecuted and may also affect patent litigation. The USPTO is currently developing regulations and procedures to govern administration of the AIA, and many of the substantive changes to patent law associated with the AIA. It is not clear what other, if any, impact(s) the AIA will have on the operation of our business. Moreover, the AIA and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents, all of which could have an adverse effect on our business. One important change introduced by the AIA is that, as of March 16, 2013, the United States transitioned to a “first-to-file” system for deciding which party should be granted a patent when two or more patent applications are filed by different parties claiming the same invention. A third party who files a patent application with the USPTO after such date but prior to our filing may therefore be awarded a patent covering an invention of ours even if we were the first to invent. All of our U.S. patent applications were filed after March 16, 2013. This “first-inventor-to-file” system will require us both to remain cognizant, going forward, of the timing between invention and filing of a patent application.
Among some of the other changes introduced by the AIA are those that (i) limit where a patentee may file a patent infringement suit and (ii) provide opportunities for third parties to challenge any issued patent in the USPTO. Such changes apply to all of our U.S. patents. Because of a lower evidentiary standard in USPTO proceedings, as compared to the evidentiary standard applied in U.S. federal courts, necessary to invalidate a patent claim, a third party could potentially present evidence in a USPTO proceeding sufficient for the USPTO to find a claim invalid, notwithstanding that the same evidence would be insufficient to invalidate a claim first presented in a district court action. Accordingly, a third party may attempt opportunistically to use USPTO procedures to invalidate our patent claims.
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Depending on decisions by the United States Congress, the U.S. federal courts, the USPTO or similar authorities in foreign jurisdictions, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that may weaken our and our licensors’ abilities to obtain new patents or to enforce existing patents we and our licensors or partners may obtain in the future.
Risks Related to Our Securities
If we fail to meet the continued listing requirements of Nasdaq it could result in a delisting of our common stock and certain warrants.
Our common stock and certain outstanding warrants are currently listed for trading on The Nasdaq Capital Market, and the continued listing of our common stock on The Nasdaq Capital Market is subject to our compliance with a number of listing standards. These listing standards include the requirement for avoiding sustained losses, maintaining a minimum level of stockholders’ equity and maintaining a minimum stock price. The failure to meet any listing standard would subject us to potential loss of listing.
If our common stock were no longer listed on The Nasdaq Capital Market, investors might only be able to trade on one of the over-the-counter markets, including the OTC Bulletin Board ® or in the Pink Sheets ® (a quotation medium operated by Pink Sheets LLC). This would impair the liquidity of our common stock not only in the number of shares that could be bought and sold at a given price, which might be depressed by the relative illiquidity, but also through delays in the timing of transactions and reduction in media coverage. In addition, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
| ● | a limited availability of market quotations for our securities; |
| ● | a limited amount of news and analyst coverage for us; and |
| ● | a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future. |
We have twice failed to meet the listing standards, most recently between October 2019 and January 2020. In October 2019, we received a notice from Nasdaq that we failed to comply with the $1.00 minimum bid price requirement. We regained compliance on January 31, 2020. On April 1, 2020, we received written notice from The Nasdaq Stock Market indicating that, because the closing bid price for the Company’s common stock has fallen below $1.00 per share for 30 consecutive business days, we no longer comply with the $1.00 minimum bid price requirement for continued listing on The Nasdaq Capital Market under Rule 5550(a)(2) of the Nasdaq Listing Rules. Pursuant to Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 5810(c)(3)(A), we had been provided a compliance period of 180 calendar days, which ran until September 28, 2020, to regain compliance with the minimum bid price requirement. The date to regain compliance was extended by Nasdaq in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the capital markets and listed companies’ stock prices. As a result of the extension, to regain compliance, the closing bid price of our common stock must meet or exceed $1.00 per share for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days prior to December 14, 2020. We intend to consider all available alternatives to regain compliance with Rule 5550(a)(2) to allow for continued listing of the common stock on The Nasdaq Capital Market.
In the event of a future delisting, we would take actions to restore our compliance with Nasdaq’s listing requirements, but we can provide no assurance that any such action taken by us would allow our common stock to become listed again, stabilize the market price or improve the liquidity of our common stock, prevent our common stock from dropping below the Nasdaq minimum bid price requirement or prevent future non-compliance with Nasdaq’s listing requirements.
If our common stock were delisted and determined to be a “penny stock,” a broker-dealer may find it more difficult to trade our common stock and an investor may find it more difficult to acquire or dispose of our common stock in the secondary market.
If our common stock were removed from listing with The Nasdaq Capital Market, it may be subject to the so-called “penny stock” rules. The SEC has adopted regulations that define a “penny stock” to be any equity security that has a market price per share of less than $5.00, subject to certain exceptions, such as any securities listed on a national securities exchange, which is the exception on which we currently rely. For any transaction involving a “penny stock,” unless exempt, the rules impose additional sales practice requirements on broker-dealers, subject to certain exceptions. If our common stock were delisted and determined to be a “penny stock,” a broker-dealer may find it more difficult to trade our common stock and an investor may find it more difficult to acquire or dispose of our common stock on the secondary market.
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If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or detect fraud. Consequently, shareholders could lose confidence in our financial reporting and this may decrease the trading price of our common stock.
We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or SOX, and Nasdaq rules and regulations. SOX requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal controls over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filing for that year, as required by Section 404 of SOX. We previously had identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting related to ineffective separation of duties due to our limited finance staff, our reliance on consultants to assist with the financial reporting function and a lack of documented policies and procedures, which weaknesses were reported in fiscal 2016 and 2017 (and prior to that by our predecessor company). While we remediated these material weaknesses as of September 30, 2018, such that management determined that our internal controls over financial reporting were effective as of that date, and as of December 31, 2019, we cannot assure that, in the future, a material weakness or significant deficiency will not exist or otherwise be discovered. If that were to happen, it could harm our operating results and cause shareholders to lose confidence in our reported financial information. Any such loss of confidence would have a negative effect on the trading price of our securities.
A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be satisfied. Internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures are designed to give a reasonable assurance that they are effective to achieve their objectives. We cannot provide absolute assurance that all of our possible future control issues will be detected. These inherent limitations include the possibility that judgments in our decision making can be faulty, and that isolated breakdowns can occur because of simple human error or mistake. The design of our system of controls is based in part upon assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed absolutely in achieving our stated goals under all potential future or unforeseeable conditions. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error could occur and not be detected. This and any future failures could cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a negative impact on our financial condition and stock price.
The price of our securities may become volatile, which could lead to losses by shareholders and costly securities litigation.
The trading price of our securities is likely to be highly volatile and could fluctuate in response to factors such as:
| ● | the completion and/or results of our clinical trials; |
| ● | our common stock being delisted from The Nasdaq Capital Market; |
| ● | sales of our common stock or other securities in the open market or in private placements; |
| ● | regulatory actions regarding our product candidates or any approved products; |
| ● | additions or departures of key personnel; |
| ● | announcements of developments by us or our competitors; |
| ● | announcements by us or our competitors of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments; |
| ● | actual or anticipated variations in our operating results; |
| ● | adoption of new accounting standards affecting our industry; |
| ● | introduction of new approved products by us or our competitors; and |
| ● | other events or factors, many of which are beyond our control. |
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The stock market is subject to significant price and volume fluctuations. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been initiated against such a company. Any such litigation initiated against us, whether or not successful, could result in substantial costs and diversion of our management’s attention and resources, which could harm our business and financial condition.
You may experience dilution of your ownership interests because of the future issuance of additional shares of our common stock or securities convertible into common stock.
For the foreseeable future, to finance our operations, including possible acquisitions or strategic transactions, we expect to issue equity securities, resulting in the dilution of the ownership interests of our present stockholders. We are currently authorized to issue an aggregate of 200,000,000 shares of common stock and 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock. As of March 31, 2020, there were 38,078,062 shares of common stock outstanding, 23,501,050 shares underlying warrants with a weighted average exercise price of $1.675 per share and 2,751,838 shares underlying options with a weighted average exercise price of $2.83 per share. We may also issue additional shares of our common stock or other securities that are convertible into or exercisable for common stock in connection with hiring or retaining employees, or for other business purposes. The future issuance of any such additional shares of common stock or common stock equivalents may create downward pressure on the trading price of our common stock.
The common stock is controlled by insiders.
As of March 31, 2020, our executive officers and directors beneficially owned approximately 45.9% of our outstanding shares of common stock. Such concentrated control of our company may adversely affect the price of our common stock. If you acquire common stock, you may have no effective voice in the management of our company. Sales by our directors and executive officers or their affiliates, along with any other market transactions, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
We have paid no dividends on our common stock to date and we do not anticipate that any dividends will be paid to holders of our common stock in the foreseeable future. While our future dividend policy will be based on the operating results and capital needs of the business, it is currently anticipated that any future earnings will be retained to finance our future expansion and for the implementation of our business plan. The lack of a dividend can further affect the market value of our stock, and could significantly affect the value of any investment in our company.
Our Certificate of Incorporation allows for our Board of Directors to create new series of preferred stock without further approval by our stockholders, which could adversely affect the rights of the holders of the common stock.
Our Board of Directors has the authority to issue up to 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock and to fix and determine the relative rights and preferences of any such preferred stock without further stockholder approval. As a result, our Board of Directors could authorize the issuance of one or more series of preferred stock that would grant preferential rights to our assets upon liquidation, the right to receive dividend payments before dividends are distributed to the holders of common stock and the right to the redemption of the preferred shares, together with a premium, prior to the redemption of the common stock. In addition, our Board of Directors could authorize the issuance of a series of preferred stock that has greater voting power than the common stock or that is convertible into our common stock, which could decrease the relative voting power of the common stock or result in dilution to our existing stockholders.
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The 6,739,580 shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of currently outstanding warrants and that are being offered for resale by the selling stockholders will be sold for the accounts of the selling stockholders named in this prospectus. As a result, all proceeds from the sales of the 6,739,580 shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of currently outstanding warrants and offered for resale hereby will go to the selling stockholders and we will not receive any proceeds from the resale of those shares of common stock by the selling stockholders.
We may receive up to a total of $6,986,803 in gross proceeds if all of the warrants are exercised hereunder for cash. However, as we are unable to predict the timing or amount of potential exercises of the warrants, we have not allocated any proceeds of such exercises to any particular purpose. Accordingly, all such proceeds are allocated to working capital. Pursuant to conditions set forth in the warrants, the warrants are exercisable under certain circumstances on a cashless basis, and should a selling stockholder elect to exercise on a cashless basis we will not receive any proceeds from the sale of common stock issued upon the cashless exercise of the warrant. It is possible that the warrants may expire and may never be exercised.
We will incur all costs associated with this registration statement and prospectus.
Prior to August 3, 2017, our common stock traded under the ticker symbol “CTXR.QB” on the OTCQB Venture Market operated by OTC Markets Group, Inc., or “OTCQB.” On August 3, 2017, our common stock began trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “CTXR”.
On April 23, 2020, the closing price as reported on the Nasdaq Capital Market of our common stock was $0.78. As of March 20, 2020, there were 98 holders of record of our common stock.
We have paid no dividends on our common stock to date and we do not anticipate that any dividends will be paid to holders of our common stock in the foreseeable future. While our future dividend policy will be based on the operating results and capital needs of the business, it is currently anticipated that any future earnings will be retained to finance our future expansion and for the implementation of our business plan.
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Please see Part II, Item 8 in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2019, filed with the SEC on December 16, 2019, which is incorporated herein by reference, for the following financial statements:
| ● | Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm; |
| ● | Consolidated Balance Sheets as of September 30, 2019 and 2018; |
| ● | Consolidated Statements of Operations for the years ended September 30, 2019, 2018 and 2017; |
| ● | Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity for the years ended September 30, 2019, 2018 and 2017; |
| ● | Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the years ended September 30, 2019, 2018 and 2017; and |
| ● | Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements. |
See also Part I, Item 1 in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2019, filed with the SEC on February 13, 2020, which is incorporated herein by reference, for the following financial statements:
| ● | Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31 and September 30, 2019 (Unaudited); |
| ● | Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations for the three months ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 (Unaudited); |
| ● | Condensed Consolidated Statement of Changes in Stockholders’ Equity for the three months ended December 31, 2019 (Unaudited); |
| ● | Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the three months ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 (Unaudited); and |
| ● | Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements (Unaudited). |
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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION
AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
Please see Item 7 in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2019, filed with the SEC on December 16, 2019, and Item 2 in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2019, filed with the SEC on February 13, 2020, both of which are incorporated herein by reference, for our management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations for the respective periods.
Please see Item 1 in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2019 filed with the SEC on December 16, 2019, which is incorporated herein by reference, for a discussion of our business.
Employees
As of January 31, 2020, the Company had 9 employees and various consultants providing support. Through our consulting and collaboration arrangements, and including our Scientific Advisory Board, we have access to more than 30 additional professionals, who possess significant expertise in business development, legal, accounting, regulatory affairs, clinical operations and manufacturing. We also rely upon a network of consultants to support our clinical studies and manufacturing efforts.
Properties
We lease our offices at 11 Commerce Drive, Cranford, New Jersey 07016. The lease runs until October 31, 2025. Annual base rent for the years ending September 30, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 is $191,526, $234,447, $239,306, $244,165, $249,024, $253,883 and $21,460, respectively. We will also pay our proportionate share of real estate taxes and operating expenses in excess of the base year expenses.
Legal Proceedings
We are not involved in any litigation that we believe could have a material adverse effect on our financial position or results of operations. There is no action, suit, proceeding, inquiry or investigation before or by any court, public board, government agency, self-regulatory organization or body pending or, to the knowledge of our executive officers, threatened against or affecting our company or our officers or directors in their capacities as such.
Please see “Election of Directors” and “Information Regarding the Board and its Committees” in our proxy statement on Schedule 14A for our 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, filed with the SEC on December 20, 2019, which is incorporated herein by reference, for information regarding our board and directors. Please see “Executive Officers of Citius” in Item 1 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2019, filed with the SEC on December 16, 2019, which is incorporated herein by reference, for information regarding our executive officers.
EXECUTIVE AND DIRECTOR COMPENSATION
Please see the sections captioned “Director Compensation,” “Executive Compensation,” and “Corporate Governance — Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation” in our proxy statement on Schedule 14A for our 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, filed with the SEC on December 20, 2019, which is incorporated herein by reference, for a discussion of executive and director compensation.
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TRANSACTIONS WITH RELATED PERSONS
Please see “Certain Relationships and Related Transactions” in our proxy statement on Schedule 14A for our 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, filed with the SEC on December 20, 2019, which is incorporated herein by reference.
SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT
The following table shows the amount of our common stock beneficially owned as of March 31, 2020 by (i) each person or group, as those terms are used in Section 13(d)(3) of the Exchange Act, believed by us to beneficially own more than 5% of our common stock, (ii) each of our directors, (iii) each of our executive officers, and (iv) all of our directors and executive officers as a group. Except as otherwise noted, each person named in the table has sole voting and investment power with respect to all shares shown as beneficially owned by them, subject to applicable community property laws.
| Name of Beneficial Owner(1) | Number of Shares of Common Stock Beneficially Owned(2) | Percentage of Shares of Common Stock Beneficially Owned(3) | ||||||
| Executive Officers and Directors | ||||||||
| Myron Holubiak | 3,577,951 | (4) | 9.02 | % | ||||
| Leonard Mazur | 17,926,290 | (5) | 39.18 | % | ||||
| Jaime Bartushak | 154,898 | (6) | * | |||||
| Suren Dutia | 51,667 | (7) | * | |||||
| Dr. William Kane | 50,404 | (8) | * | |||||
| Howard Safir | 50,404 | (8) | * | |||||
| Carol Webb | 50,404 | (8) | * | |||||
| Eugene Holuka | 40,749 | (9) | * | |||||
| All executive officers and directors as a group (8 people) | 21,902,767 | 45.94 | % | |||||
| Other 5% holders | ||||||||
| Armistice Capital Master Fund Ltd. | 3,803,998 | (10) | 9.99 | % | ||||
* Less than 1%.
| (1) | The address for our officers and directors is c/o of the Company, 11 Commerce Drive, 1st Floor, Cranford, New Jersey 07016. |
| (2) | Beneficial ownership is determined in accordance with the rules of the SEC and generally includes voting or investment power with respect to securities. Shares of common stock subject to options or warrants currently exercisable or convertible, or exercisable or convertible within 60 days of March 31, 2020 are deemed outstanding for computing the percentage of the person holding such option or warrant but are not deemed outstanding for computing the percentage of any other person. |
| (3) | Percentage based on 38,078,062 shares of common stock issued and outstanding at March 31, 2020. |
| (4) | Consists of (i) 1,992,243 shares of common stock, (ii) 113,347 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of options and (iii) warrants to purchase an aggregate of 1,472,361 shares of common stock. |
| (5) | Consists of (i) 10,255,343 shares of common stock, (ii) 306,680 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of options and (iii) warrants to purchase an aggregate of 7,364,267 shares of common stock. |
| (6) | Consists of (i) 60,353 shares of common stock and (ii) 94,545 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of options. |
| (7) | Consists of 51,667 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of options. |
| (8) | Consists of 50,404 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of options. |
| (9) | Consists of 40,749 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of options. |
| (10) | Consists of (i) 3,262,348 shares of common stock, (ii) warrants to purchase 9,057,492 shares of common stock, which shares constitute all of the shares offered for sale by this prospectus. The warrants representing the right to purchase an aggregate of 5,135,923 shares are not exercisable until August 19, 2020 but are included in the table. The warrants and pre-funded warrants held by Armistice Capital Master Fund Ltd., or “Armistice,” are subject to a beneficial ownership limitation of 9.99%, which does not permit Armistice to exercise that portion of the warrants or pre-funded warrants that would result in Armistice and its affiliates owning, after exercise, a number of shares of common stock in excess of the beneficial ownership limitation. The amounts and percentages in the table give effect to the beneficial ownership limitation. The business address of Armistice is 510 Madison Avenue, 22nd Floor, New York, New York 10022. |
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The common stock to be sold by the selling stockholders upon conversion of their warrants is common stock that is issuable upon such exercise. To the extent the common stock underlying the warrants is issued, there will be dilution to the ownership interests of our existing stockholders.
The following table set forth certain information regarding the selling stockholders and the shares of common stock beneficially owned by them, which information is available to us as of March 31, 2020. The selling stockholders may offer the shares under this prospectus from time to time and may elect to sell some, all or none of the shares set forth under this prospectus. However, for the purposes of the table below, we have assumed that, after completion of the offering, none of the shares covered by this prospectus will be held by the selling stockholders. In addition, a selling stockholder may have sold, transferred or otherwise disposed of all or a portion of that holder’s shares of common stock since the date on which the selling stockholder provided information for this table. We have not made independent inquiries about such transfers or dispositions. See the section entitled “Plan of Distribution” beginning on page 37.
Beneficial ownership is determined in accordance with Rule 13d-3(d) promulgated by the SEC under the Exchange Act. The percentage of shares beneficially owned prior to the offering is based on 38,078,062 shares of our common stock outstanding as of March 31, 2020.
Selling Stockholder | Number of Shares of Common Stock Beneficially | % of Class | Number of Shares of Common Stock Offered | Shares of Common Stock Beneficially Owned After Sale of All Shares of Common Stock Pursuant to this Prospectus | ||||||||||||||||
| Number of Shares | % of Class | |||||||||||||||||||
| Armistice Capital Master Fund, Ltd. | 3,803,998 | (1) | 9.99 | %(1) | 5,135,923 | 3,803,998 | (1) | 9.99 | %(1) | |||||||||||
| Sabby Volatility Warrant Master Fund, Ltd. | 1,937,750 | (2) | 4.99 | %(2) | 1,162,750 | 1,214,218 | 3.09 | %(2) | ||||||||||||
| Noam Rubinstein(3) | 685,421 | (4) | 1.77 | % | 138,886 | 546,535 | 1.42 | % | ||||||||||||
| Michael Vasinkevich(3) | 1,234,203 | (5) | 3.14 | % | 282,731 | 951,472 | 2.44 | % | ||||||||||||
| Craig Schwabe(3) | 14,881 | (5) | * | 14,881 | -- | -- | ||||||||||||||
| Charles Worthman(3) | 14,731 | (5) | * | 4,409 | 10,322 | * | ||||||||||||||
| TOTAL | 7,690,984 | 18.87 | % | 6,739,580 | 6,526,545 | 19.19 | % | |||||||||||||
* Represents beneficial ownership of less than one percent of the outstanding shares of our common stock.
| (1) | Consists of (i) 3,262,348 shares of common stock and warrants to purchase 9,057,492 shares of common stock. The warrants representing the right to purchase an aggregate of 5,135,923 shares are not exercisable until August 19, 2020 but are included in the table. The warrants held by Armistice are subject to a beneficial ownership limitation of 9.99%, which does not permit Armistice to exercise that portion of the warrants that would result in Armistice and its affiliates owning, after exercise, a number of shares of common stock in excess of the beneficial ownership limitation. The amounts and percentages in the table give effect to the beneficial ownership limitation. |
| (2) | Consists of (i) 1,162,750 shares of common stock and (ii) warrants to purchase 1,214,218 shares of common stock. The warrants held by Sabby are subject to a beneficial ownership limitation of 4.99%, which does not permit Sabby to exercise that portion of the warrants that would result in Sabby and its affiliates owning, after exercise, a number of shares of common stock in excess of the beneficial ownership limitation. The amounts and percentages in the table give effect to the beneficial ownership limitation. |
| (3) | The selling stockholder is an affiliate of a registered broker-dealer. |
| (4) | Consists of 55,000 shares of common stock and 630,421warrants to purchase shares of common stock. |
| (5) | Consists of warrants to purchase shares of common stock. |
Information about any other selling stockholders will be included in prospectus supplements or post-effective amendments, if required. Information about the selling stockholders may change from time to time. Any changed information with respect to which we are given notice will be included in prospectus supplements.
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Certain Relationships and Transactions with the Selling Stockholders
In the last three fiscal years, we had the following transactions with the following selling stockholder.
Armistice Capital Master Fund, Ltd.
In August 2018, we sold to institutional and accredited investors in an underwritten at-the-market offering, (i) units, with each unit being comprised of one share of the Company’s common stock and one warrant to purchase one share and (ii) pre-funded units, with each pre-funded unit being comprised of one pre-funded warrant to purchase one share and one warrant. Armistice purchased 1,600,000 shares of common stock, pre-funded warrants to purchase up to 2,321,569 shares of common stock, and warrants to purchase up to 3,921,569 shares of our common stock on the same terms as the other investors in the offering.
In April 2019, we sold to institutional and accredited investors shares of our common stock in an at-the-market offering public offering and warrants to purchase shares of our common stock in a concurrent private placement. Armistice purchased 2,135,923 shares of common stock and warrants to purchase up to 2,135,923 shares of our common stock on the same terms as the other investors in the offering.
In February 2020, we entered into a warrant exercise agreement with several existingaccredited investors to exercise certain warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 3,712,218 shares of common stock having an existing exercise price of $0.77 and 2,586,455 shares of common stock at a reduced exercise price of $1.02. In consideration for the immediate exercise of the warrants for cash, the exercising holders received new unregistered warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 6,298,673 shares of common stock at an exercise price of $1.02 per share, exercisable commencing six months following the issuance and which have a term of exercise equal to five years. Armistice was one of the investors and exercised warrants to purchase 3,000,000 shares at $0.77 per share and exercised warrants to purchase 2,135,923 shares at $1.02 per share, which purchase price was reduced from $1.42 per share. We issued to Armistice warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 5,135,923 shares of common stock at an exercise price of $1.02. Armistice participated in this financing on the same terms as the other investors.
36
The selling stockholders, which, as used herein, includes donees, pledgees, transferees or other successors-in-interest selling shares of common stock or interests in shares of common stock received after the date of this prospectus from a selling stockholder as a gift, pledge, partnership distribution or other transfer, may, from time to time, sell, transfer or otherwise dispose of any or all of their shares of common stock or interests in shares of common stock on any stock exchange, market or trading facility on which the shares are traded or in private transactions. These dispositions may be at fixed prices, at prevailing market prices at the time of sale, at prices related to the prevailing market price, at varying prices determined at the time of sale, or at negotiated prices.
The selling stockholders may use any one or more of the following methods when disposing of shares or interests therein:
| ● | ordinary brokerage transactions and transactions in which the broker-dealer solicits purchasers; |
| ● | block trades in which the broker-dealer will attempt to sell the shares as agent, but may position and resell a portion of the block as principal to facilitate the transaction; |
| ● | purchases by a broker-dealer as principal and resale by the broker-dealer for its account; |
| ● | an exchange distribution in accordance with the rules of the applicable exchange; |
| ● | privately negotiated transactions; |
| ● | short sales effected after the date the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part is declared effective by the SEC; |
| ● | through the writing or settlement of options or other hedging transactions, whether through an options exchange or otherwise; |
| ● | broker-dealers may agree with the selling stockholders to sell a specified number of such shares at a stipulated price per share; |
| ● | a combination of any such methods of sale; and |
| ● | any other method permitted by applicable law. |
The selling stockholders may, from time to time, pledge or grant a security interest in some or all of the shares of common stock owned by them and, if they default in the performance of their secured obligations, the pledgees or secured parties may offer and sell the shares of common stock, from time to time, under this prospectus, or under an amendment to this prospectus under Rule 424(b)(3) or other applicable provision of the Securities Act amending the list of selling stockholders to include the pledgee, transferee or other successors-in-interest as selling stockholders under this prospectus. The selling stockholders also may transfer the shares of common stock in other circumstances, in which case the transferees, pledgees or other successors-in-interest will be the selling beneficial owners for purposes of this prospectus.
In connection with the sale of our common stock or interests therein, the selling stockholders may enter into hedging transactions with broker-dealers or other financial institutions, which may in turn engage in short sales of the common stock in the course of hedging the positions they assume. The selling stockholders may also sell shares of our common stock short and deliver these securities to close out their short positions, or loan or pledge the common stock to broker-dealers that in turn may sell these securities. The selling stockholders may also enter into option or other transactions with broker-dealers or other financial institutions or the creation of one or more derivative securities which require the delivery to such broker-dealer or other financial institution of shares offered by this prospectus, which shares such broker-dealer or other financial institution may resell pursuant to this prospectus (as supplemented or amended to reflect such transaction).
The aggregate proceeds to the selling stockholders from the sale of the common stock offered by them will be the purchase price of the common stock less discounts or commissions, if any. Each of the selling stockholders reserves the right to accept and, together with their agents from time to time, to reject, in whole or in part, any proposed purchase of common stock to be made directly or through agents. We will not receive any of the proceeds from this offering. Upon any exercise of the warrants by payment of cash, however, we will receive the exercise price of the warrants.
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The selling stockholders also may resell all or a portion of the shares in open market transactions in reliance upon Rule 144 under the Securities Act, provided that they meet the criteria and conform to the requirements of that rule.
The selling stockholders and any underwriters, broker-dealers or agents that participate in the sale of the common stock or interests therein may be “underwriters” within the meaning of Section 2(11) of the Securities Act. Any discounts, commissions, concessions or profit they earn on any resale of the shares may be underwriting discounts and commissions under the Securities Act. Selling stockholders who are “underwriters” within the meaning of Section 2(11) of the Securities Act will be subject to the prospectus delivery requirements of the Securities Act.
To the extent required, the shares of our common stock to be sold, the names of the selling stockholders, the respective purchase prices and public offering prices, the names of any agents, dealer or underwriter, any applicable commissions or discounts with respect to a particular offer will be set forth in an accompanying prospectus supplement or, if appropriate, a post-effective amendment to the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part.
In order to comply with the securities laws of some states, if applicable, the common stock may be sold in these jurisdictions only through registered or licensed brokers or dealers. In addition, in some states the common stock may not be sold unless it has been registered or qualified for sale or an exemption from registration or qualification requirements is available and is complied with.
We have advised the selling stockholders that the anti-manipulation rules of Regulation M under the Exchange Act may apply to sales of shares in the market and to the activities of the selling stockholders and their affiliates. In addition, to the extent applicable we will make copies of this prospectus (as it may be supplemented or amended from time to time) available to the selling stockholders for the purpose of satisfying the prospectus delivery requirements of the Securities Act. The selling stockholders may indemnify any broker-dealer that participates in transactions involving the sale of the shares against certain liabilities, including liabilities arising under the Securities Act.
We will pay all expenses of the registration of the shares of common stock, including, without limitation, SEC filing fees and expenses of compliance with state securities or “blue sky” laws; provided, however, that each selling stockholder will pay all underwriting discounts and selling commissions, if any and any related legal expenses incurred by it. We will indemnify the selling stockholders against certain liabilities, including some liabilities under the Securities Act, arising in connection with the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part.
We have agreed with the selling stockholders to keep the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part effective until the time that no recipient of the warrants in the February 2020 private placement owns any such warrants or shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants.
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The following description summarizes the material terms of Citius capital stock as of the date of this prospectus. Because it is only a summary, it does not contain all the information that may be important to you. For a complete description of our capital stock, you should refer to our certificate of incorporation and our bylaws, and to the provisions of applicable Nevada law.
General
Our authorized capital stock consists of 200,000,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.001, of which 38,078,062 shares were issued and outstanding as of March 31, 2020, and 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock, none of which are issued and outstanding. Our preferred stock and/or common stock may be issued from time to time without prior approval by our stockholders. Our preferred stock and/or common stock may be issued for such consideration as may be fixed from time to time by our Board of Directors. Our Board of Directors may issue such shares of our preferred stock in one or more series, with such voting powers, designations, preferences and rights or qualifications, limitations or restrictions thereof as shall be stated in the resolution or resolutions.
Common Stock
The Company, a Nevada corporation, is authorized to issue 200,000,000 shares of common stock, $0.001 par value. Each share of common stock shall have one vote per share for all purposes. The holders of a majority of the shares entitled to vote, present in person or represented by proxy shall constitute a quorum at all meetings of our stockholders. Our common stock does not provide preemptive, subscription or conversion rights and there are no redemption or sinking fund provisions or rights. Our common stock holders are not entitled to cumulative voting for election of the Board of Directors.
Holders of common stock are entitled to receive ratably such dividends as may be declared by the Board of Directors out of funds legally available therefore as well as any distributions to the security holder. We have never paid cash dividends on our common stock, and do not expect to pay such dividends in the foreseeable future.
In the event of a liquidation, dissolution or winding up of our company, holders of common stock are entitled to share ratably in all of our assets remaining after payment of liabilities. Holders of common stock have no preemptive or other subscription or conversion rights.
Preferred Stock
The Company is authorized to issue 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock. Our Board of Directors is authorized to cause us to issue, from our authorized but unissued shares of preferred stock, one or more series of preferred stock, to establish from time to time the number of shares to be included in each such series, as well as to fix the designation and any preferences, conversion and other rights and limitations of such series. These rights and limitations may include voting powers, limitations as to dividends, and qualifications and terms and conditions of redemption of the shares of each such series.
Options
As of March 31, 2020, under the Company’s 2014 Stock Incentive Plan and 2018 Omnibus Stock Incentive Plan, we had outstanding options to purchase an aggregate of 2,751,838 shares of our common stock at a weighted average exercise price of $2.831 per share. Of these, an aggregate of 1,226,592 are exercisable. The remainder has vesting requirements. No more grants may be made under our 2014 Stock Incentive Plan or our 2018 Omnibus Stock Incentive Plan. At March 31, 2020, there were no options or other awards issued or outstanding under our 2020 Omnibus Stock Incentive Plan.
Unit Purchase Options
On April 7, 2017, the Company issued a three-year Unit Purchase Option Agreement for the purchase of 38,000 units at a purchase price of $9.00 per unit. Each unit consists of one share of common stock and a warrant to purchase one share of common stock at an exercise price of $9.00 per share which expires on the earlier of three years after exercise of the Unit Purchase Option Agreement or April 7, 2023.
On June 29, 2017, the Company issued a three-year Unit Purchase Option Agreement for the purchase of 62,667 units at a purchase price of $9.00 per unit. Each unit consists of one share of common stock and a warrant to purchase one share of common stock at an exercise price of $9.00 per share which expires on the earlier of three years after exercise of the Unit Purchase Option Agreement or June 29, 2022.
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Warrants
As of March 31, 2020, we had outstanding warrants to purchase an aggregate of 23,501,050 shares of our common stock at a weighted average price of $1.675 per share, with a weighted average remaining life of 4.24 years.
Trading Market
The shares of our common stock are currently quoted on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “CTXR”.
Transfer Agent
The transfer agent of our common stock is VStock Transfer. Their address is 18 Lafayette Place, Woodmere, NY 11598.
Nevada’s Anti-Takeover Law and Provisions of Our Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws
Acquisition of Controlling Interest Statutes. Nevada’s “acquisition of controlling interest” statutes contain provisions governing the acquisition of a controlling interest in certain Nevada corporations. These “control share” laws provide generally that any person that acquires a “controlling interest” in certain Nevada corporations may be denied certain voting rights, unless a majority of the disinterested stockholders of the corporation elects to restore such voting rights. These statutes provide that a person acquires a “controlling interest” whenever a person acquires shares of a subject corporation that, but for the application of these provisions of the Nevada Revised Statutes, would enable that person to exercise (1) one-fifth or more, but less than one-third, (2) one-third or more, but less than a majority or (3) a majority or more, of all of the voting power of the corporation in the election of directors. Once an acquirer crosses one of these thresholds, shares which it acquired in the transaction taking it over the threshold and within the 90 days immediately preceding the date when the acquiring person acquired or offered to acquire a controlling interest become “control shares” to which the voting restrictions described above apply. Our articles of incorporation and bylaws currently contain no provisions relating to these statutes, and unless our articles of incorporation or bylaws in effect on the tenth day after the acquisition of a controlling interest were to provide otherwise, these laws would apply to us if we were to (i) have 200 or more stockholders of record (at least 100 of which have addresses in the State of Nevada appearing on our stock ledger) and (ii) do business in the State of Nevada directly or through an affiliated corporation. As of March 20, 2020, we have 98 record stockholders and do not have 100 stockholders of record with Nevada addresses appearing on our stock ledger. If these laws were to apply to us, they might discourage companies or persons interested in acquiring a significant interest in or control of the Company, regardless of whether such acquisition may be in the interest of our stockholders.
Combination with Interested Stockholders Statutes. Nevada’s “combinations with interested stockholders” statutes prohibit certain business “combinations” between certain Nevada corporations and any person deemed to be an “interested stockholder” for two years after such person first becomes an “interested stockholder” unless (i) the corporation’s Board of Directors approves the combination (or the transaction by which such person becomes an “interested stockholder”) in advance, or (ii) the combination is approved by the Board of Directors and sixty percent of the corporation’s voting power not beneficially owned by the interested stockholder, its affiliates and associates. Furthermore, in the absence of prior approval certain restrictions may apply even after such two-year period. For purposes of these statutes, an “interested stockholder” is any person who is (x) the beneficial owner, directly or indirectly, of ten percent or more of the voting power of the outstanding voting shares of the corporation, or (y) an affiliate or associate of the corporation and at any time within the two previous years was the beneficial owner, directly or indirectly, of ten percent or more of the voting power of the then outstanding shares of the corporation. The definition of the term “combination” is sufficiently broad to cover most significant transactions between the corporation and an “interested stockholder”. Subject to certain timing requirements set forth in the statutes, a corporation may elect not to be governed by these statutes. We have not included any such provision in our articles of incorporation.
The effect of these statutes may be to potentially discourage parties interested in taking control of the Company from doing so if it cannot obtain the approval of our Board of Directors
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Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws.Provisions of our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may delay or discourage transactions involving an actual or potential change of control or change in our management, including transactions in which stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares, or transactions that our stockholders might otherwise deem to be in their best interests. Therefore, these provisions could adversely affect the price of our common stock. Among other things, these provisions include:
| ● | the authorization of 10,000,000 shares of “blank check” preferred stock, the rights, preferences and privileges of which may be established and shares of which may be issued by our Board of Directors at its discretion from time to time and without stockholder approval; |
| ● | limiting the removal of directors by the stockholders; |
| ● | allowing for the creation of a staggered Board of Directors; |
| ● | eliminating the ability of stockholders to call a special meeting of stockholders; and |
| ● | establishing advance notice requirements for nominations for election to the Board of Directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon at stockholder meetings. |
The validity of the shares of common stock being offered by this prospectus will be passed upon for us by Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton, LLP, Raleigh, North Carolina.
The consolidated financial statements incorporated by reference from our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2019 have been audited by Wolf & Company, P.C., an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their report, which is incorporated by reference and has been so incorporated in reliance upon the report of such firm given upon their authority as experts in accounting and auditing.
WHERE YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION
This prospectus, which constitutes a part of the Registration Statement on Form S-1 that we have filed with the SEC under the Securities Act, does not contain all of the information in the registration statement and its exhibits. For further information with respect to us and the common stock offered by this prospectus, you should refer to the registration statement and the exhibits filed as part of that document. Statements contained in this prospectus as to the contents of any contract or any other document referred to are not necessarily complete, and in each instance, we refer you to the copy of the contract or other document filed as an exhibit to the registration statement. Each of these statements is qualified in all respects by this reference.
We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC. You can read our SEC filings, including the registration statement, over the Internet at the SEC’s website athttp://www.sec.gov. We also maintain a website athttp://www.citiuspharma.com, at which you may access these materials free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. The information contained in, or that can be accessed through, our website is not part of this prospectus. You may also request a copy of these filings, at no cost, by writing or telephoning us at: 11 Commerce Drive, First Floor, Cranford, New Jersey 07016, (908) 967-6677.
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INCORPORATION OF CERTAIN DOCUMENTS BY REFERENCE
The SEC allows us to “incorporate by reference” information that we file with them. Incorporation by reference allows us to disclose important information to you by referring you to those other documents. The information incorporated by reference is an important part of this prospectus, and information that we file later with the SEC will automatically update and supersede this information. We filed a registration statement on Form S-1 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, with the SEC with respect to the securities being offered pursuant to this prospectus. This prospectus omits certain information contained in the registration statement, as permitted by the SEC. You should refer to the registration statement, including the exhibits, for further information about us and the securities being offered pursuant to this prospectus. Statements in this prospectus regarding the provisions of certain documents filed with, or incorporated by reference in, the registration statement are not necessarily complete and each statement is qualified in all respects by that reference. Copies of all or any part of the registration statement, including the documents incorporated by reference or the exhibits, may be obtained upon payment of the prescribed rates at the offices of the SEC listed above in “Where You Can Find More Information.” We are incorporating by reference the documents listed below, which we have already filed with the SEC, and all documents subsequently filed by us pursuant to Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, except as to any portion of any future report or document that is not deemed filed under such provisions, prior to the termination of the offering:
| ● | our Annual Report onForm 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2019, filed with the SEC on December 16, 2019; |
| ● | our Quarterly Report onForm 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2019, filed with the SEC on February 13, 2020; |
| ● | our Current Reports on Form 8-K, filed with the SEC onOctober 7,November 1,November 5 andDecember 19, 2019, andJanuary 22,February 3,February 4,February 10,February 14,February 19,February 25,April 1, andApril 7, 2020; |
| ● | our proxy statement onSchedule 14A for our 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, filed with the SEC on December 20, 2019; and |
| ● | the description of our common stock contained in our registration statement onForm 8-A, filed with the SEC on July 28, 2017. |
Any statement contained in this prospectus and any applicable prospectus supplement or in a document incorporated or deemed to be incorporated by reference into this prospectus and any applicable prospectus supplement will be deemed to be modified or superseded for purposes of this prospectus and any prospectus supplement to the extent that a statement contained in this prospectus and any applicable prospectus supplement or any other subsequently filed document that is deemed to be incorporated by reference into this prospectus and any applicable prospectus supplement modifies or supersedes the statement. Any statement so modified or superseded will not be deemed, except as so modified or superseded, to constitute a part of this prospectus and any applicable prospectus supplement.
We will furnish without charge to you, on written or oral request, a copy of any filing or report incorporated by reference, including exhibits to the document. You should direct any requests for documents to Citius Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 11 Commerce Drive, First Floor, Cranford, New Jersey 07016, (908) 967-6677, Attention: Jaime Bartushak.
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