Risks Related to Intellectual Property
If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent protection for our products and product candidates through intellectual property rights, or if the scope of such intellectual property rights obtained is not sufficiently broad, third parties may compete directly against us.
Our success depends, in part, on our ability to protect our products and product candidates from competition by obtaining, maintaining and enforcing our intellectual property rights, including patent rights. We seek to protect the products and product candidates and technology that we consider commercially important by filing Chinese and international patent applications, relying on trade secrets or pharmaceutical regulatory protection or employing a combination of these methods. We also seek to protect our proprietary position by
in-licensing
intellectual property relating to our technology and product candidates. We do not own or exclusively license any issued patents with respect to certain of our products and product candidates in all territories in which we plan to commercialize our products and product candidates. For example, we do not own or exclusively license any issued patents covering ZEJULA in Macau. We do not own or exclusively license any issued patents covering margetuximab, tebotelimab and a
pre-clinical
multi-specific TRIDENT molecule in Macau, but we do exclusively license issued patents or pending patent applications in mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan covering them. We do not own or exclusively license any issued patents or pending patent applications covering Tumor Treating Fields in Macau or Taiwan, but we do exclusively license issued patents and pending patent applications covering Tumor Treating Fields in mainland China and Hong Kong. We
in-license
one issued patent in Taiwan, two pending patent applications in mainland China, one pending patent application in each of Taiwan and Hong Kong, which are all related to retifanlimab (INCMGA0012
(PD-1)).
We
in-license
two issued patents in each of mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan relating to durlobactam, but we do not own or exclusively license any issued patents or pending application in Macau. We cannot predict whether such patent applications or any of our other owned or
in-licensed
pending patent applications will result in the issuance of any patents that effectively protect our products and product candidates. If we or our licensors are unable to obtain or maintain patent protection with respect to our products or product candidates and technology we develop, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially harmed.
The patent prosecution process is expensive, time-consuming and complex, and we may not be able to file, prosecute, maintain, enforce or license all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. In addition, our license and intellectual property-related agreements may not provide us with exclusive rights to use our
in-licensed
intellectual property rights relating to the applicable products and product candidates in all relevant fields of use and in all territories in which we may wish to develop or commercialize our technology and products in the future. For example, under our agreements with GSK for ZEJULA, our licenses are limited to mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. In the case of our agreements with argenx for efgartigimod, Paratek for omadacycline
(ZL-2401),
and Deciphera for QINLOCK, our licenses or, as applicable, our rights are limited to Greater China. Also, in the case of our agreement with Entasis for durlobactam, our license is limited to mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. In the case of our agreement with Takeda for simurosertib
(TAK-931),
our license is worldwide except for Japan. As a result, we may not be able to prevent competitors from developing and commercializing competitive products in all such fields and territories.
Patents may be invalidated and patent applications relating to bemarituzumab (FPA144), Tumor Treating Fields, margetuximab, tebotelimab, durlobactam, a
pre-clinical
multi-specific TRIDENT molecule or retifanlimab (INCMGA0012
(PD-1))
as well as Regeneron’s patents relating to odronextamab (REGN1979), may not be granted for a number of reasons, including known or unknown prior art, deficiencies in the patent application or the lack of novelty of the underlying invention or technology. It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output in time to obtain patent protection. Although we enter into
non-disclosure
and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to confidential or patentable aspects of our research and development output, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors and any other third parties, any of