Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
You should read this section in conjunction with our unaudited interim consolidated financial statements and related notes included in Part I, Item 1 of this report and our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto and management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations for the years ended September 30, 2024 and 2023 included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2024, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, on December 27, 2024.
Forward-Looking Statements
This discussion contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. Forward-looking statements are identified by words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potentially,” “seek,” “should,” “will,” “would,” or the negative of these terms or similar expressions in this report. You should read these statements carefully because they discuss future expectations, contain projections of future results of operations or financial condition, or state other forward-looking information. These statements relate to our future plans, objectives, expectations, intentions and financial performance and the assumptions that underlie these statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause a material difference including, but not limited to, those discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2024, filed with the SEC on December 27, 2024, and elsewhere in this report. See “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” Forward-looking statements are based on our management’s current beliefs and assumptions and based on information currently available to our management. These statements, like all statements in this report, speak only as of their date, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise these statements in light of future developments.
Overview
We are a biopharmaceutical company working to launch the first ophthalmic formulation of bevacizumab approved by the European Commission in the European Union, or EU, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, or MHRA, in the United Kingdom, or UK, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, for use in retinal indications. Our initial goal is to launch directly in the EU and UK, and, if approved, to launch directly in the United States as the first and only approved ophthalmic bevacizumab for the treatment of retina conditions, including wet age-related macular degeneration, or wet AMD. Our plans also include seeking approval and launching the product in Japan and other markets. On May 27, 2024, we received a marketing authorization from the European Commission for ONS-5010/LYTENAVA for the treatment of wet AMD. The authorization is valid throughout the European Economic Area, or the EEA, and provides eight years of data exclusivity and 10 years of market exclusivity. On July 8, 2024, we also received marketing authorization for ONS-5010/LYTENAVA for the treatment of wet AMD in the UK, followed by a recommendation by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, or NICE, for LYTENAVA™ (bevacizumab gamma), as an option for the treatment of wet AMD on December 4, 2024. Outside of the United States, we are currently moving ahead with our plans to launch directly in the initial markets of Germany and the UK in the second quarter of calendar 2025.
Bevacizumab is a full-length, humanized anti-VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor) recombinant monoclonal antibody, or mAb, that inhibits VEGF and associated angiogenic activity. In October 2022 we submitted a Marketing Authorization Application, or MAA, for ONS-5010/LYTENAVA with the European Medicines Agency, or EMA. The MAA was submitted as a ‘full-mixed marketing authorization application’ based on Article 8.3 of Directive 2001/83/EC. On March 22, 2024, the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, or CHMP issued a positive opinion concerning the authorization of ONS-5010/LYTENAVA (bevacizumab gamma), an investigational ophthalmic formulation of bevacizumab for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration, or wet AMD, in the EU. In May 2024, the European Commission granted the Marketing Authorization for ONS-5010/LYTENAVA for the treatment of wet AMD in the EU. The decision applied automatically in all 27 EU Member States, and, within 30 days, also to Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. Additionally, in April 2024, we submitted a MAA to the MHRA in the UK seeking approval of ONS-5010/LYTENAVA (bevacizumab gamma) for the treatment of wet AMD. The submission was completed under the new International Recognition Procedure, or IRP, which allows the MHRA to rely on an authorization received for the same product from one of MHRA’s specified Reference Regulators, or RRs, when considering an application for marketing authorization in the UK. These RRs include a positive opinion by the EMA’s CHMP concerning an application