CymaBay Therapeutics, Inc. - Quarter Report: 2021 March (Form 10-Q)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule of the Exchange Act.

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule of the Exchange Act).     Yes  ☐    No  ☒

Historically, the Company has incurred substantial research and development expenses in the course of studying its product candidates in clinical trials. To date, none of the Company’s product candidates have been approved for marketing and sale, and the Company has not recorded any revenue from product sales. Generally, the Company’s ability to achieve profitability is dependent on its ability to successfully develop, acquire or additional product candidates, conduct clinical trials for those product candidates, obtain regulatory approvals, and support commercialization activities for those product candidates. Any products developed will require approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or a foreign regulatory authority prior to commercial sale. The regulatory approval process is expensive, time-consuming, and uncertain, and any denial or delay of approval could have a material adverse effect on the Company. Even if approved, the Company’s products may not achieve market acceptance and will face competition from both generic and branded pharmaceutical products.

$125.5 

The Company invests excess cash in marketable securities with high credit ratings that are classified in Level 1 and Level 2 of the fair value hierarchy. These securities consist primarily of corporate debt, commercial paper, asset-backed securities, U.S. treasury and agency securities and supranational debt securities and are classified as The Company considers marketable securities as short-term investments if the maturity date is less than or equal to one year from the balance sheet date. The Company considers marketable securities as long-term investments if the maturity date is in excess of one year of the

 

 

In December 2019, the FASB issued ASU Income (Topic 740): , which removes certain exceptions to the general principles in Topic 740 related to the approach for intraperiod tax allocation, the methodology for calculating income taxes in an interim period and the recognition of deferred tax liabilities for outside basis differences. The new guidance also simplifies aspects of the accounting for franchise taxes and enacted changes in tax laws or rates and clarifies the accounting for transactions that result in a in the tax basis of goodwill. The guidance became effective for the Company on January 1, 2021. The adoption of this standard did not have a material impact on the Company’s condensed consolidated financial statementsand related disclosures for the three months ended March 31, 2021.

 

In June 1998, the Company entered into a license agreement with DiaTex, Inc. (DiaTex) relating to products containing halofenate, its enantiomers, derivatives, and analogs (the licensed products). The license agreement provides that DiaTex and the Company are joint owners of all the patents and patent applications covering the licensed products and methods of producing or using such compounds, as well as certain other (the covered IP). As part of the license agreement, the Company received an exclusive worldwide license, including as to DiaTex, to use the covered IP to develop and commercialize the licensed products. The Company also retained the right to the covered IP. The license agreement contains a requirement to make additional payments for development achievements and royalty payments on any sales of licensed products containing arhalofenate. In December 2016, the agreement was amended by the parties to change the timing of a specified development milestone. No development payments were made or became due as of and for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020 and no royalties have been paid to date.  

Our lead product candidate, seladelpar, is a potent and selective agonist of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor delta (PPAR), a nuclear receptor that regulates genes directly or indirectly involved in the synthesis of bile acids/sterols, metabolism of lipids and glucose, inflammation and fibrosis. We have been developing seladelpar for the treatment of:

In late 2019, we terminated our NASH Phase 2b study and our ongoing PBC studies. The decision to halt development of seladelpar was based on initial histological observations in the NASH Phase 2b study that were observed in the first blinded tranche of liver biopsies in the trial. These observations were characterized by an interface hepatitis presentation, with or without biliary injury. Although these patients had stable or improving biochemical markers of liver disease, the decision to halt development was based on a need to understand the significance of the observations, and possible impact on patients, before dosing additional patients with seladelpar. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agreed with this decision and subsequently placed a formal clinical hold on seladelpar. Thereafter, in December 2019, we announced a restructuring plan to reduce our workforce by approximately 60% to control our operating costs, and we commenced a process to evaluate strategic alternatives to maximize stockholder value, pending further investigation of the histological observations. In May 2020, an independent expert panel completed a review of the findings and unanimously concluded that the data in aggregate did not support liver injury related to seladelpar. We subsequently discussed the data, the panel’s conclusions, and other matters with the FDA and in July 2020, the FDA lifted the clinical hold, thereby permitting us to reinstate clinical development of seladelpar. Specifically, we made the strategic decision to refocus our strategy primarily on clinical development of seladelpar in PBC and to explore the potential to partner seladelpar in NASH in a combination study with other complimentary agents. In addition, we are evaluating opportunities to develop other internal programs and possibly acquire compounds or programs.

Following the decision to reinstate clinical development of seladelpar, in late 2020, we commenced startup and site feasibility activities for RESPONSE, a new global Phase 3 registration study to evaluate seladelpar in patients with PBC. The Phase 3 study is a placebo-controlled, randomized, global, registration study evaluating the safety and efficacy of seladelpar in patients with PBC. The study is intended to enroll 180 patients, who have an inadequate response to, or intolerance to, ursodeoxycholic acid, in a 2:1 randomization to oral, once daily seladelpar 10 mg or placebo. The primary outcome measure will be the responder rate at 52 weeks. A responder is defined as a patient who achieves an alkaline phosphatase level less than 1.67 times the upper limit of normal with at least a 15% decrease from baseline and has a normal level of total bilirubin. Additional key outcomes of efficacy will compare the rate of normalization of alkaline phosphatase at 52 weeks and the level of pruritus at six months for patients with moderate to severe pruritus at baseline assessed by a numerical rating scale recorded with an electronic diary.

In May 2018, we initiated a randomized, placebo-controlled Phase 2b study to evaluate seladelpar at three doses in biopsy-proven NASH. The primary efficacy outcome is the change from baseline in liver fat content at 12 weeks measured by magnetic resonance imaging using the proton density fat fraction method The study also included pathology assessments of liver biopsy samples at baseline and at 52 weeks to examine the potential of seladelpar treatment to resolve NASH and/or decrease fibrosis. In preclinical studies, Seladelpar was found to reverse NASH pathology, decrease fibrosis, inflammation, hepatic lipids and reverse insulin resistance in the mouse which is a diabetic obese model of NASH. In February 2019, we announced full enrollment of 181 patients with liver biopsy proven NASH at specialized U.S. investigational centers. In June 2019, we announced results from the primary efficacy outcome, which were that treatment with seladelpar resulted in significant reductions in liver fat but that these changes were not significant when compared to placebo, which also had significant reductions. Treatment with seladelpar did, however, result in robust and clinically meaningful reductions in markers associated with liver injury. In November 2019, we terminated this trial based on initial histological observations. Although these patients had stable or improving biochemical markers of liver disease, we halted dosing of patients with seladelpar due to the lack of understanding the significance of the observations, and possible impact on patients. Subsequent investigation indicated there was no seladelpar-induced liver injury in the Phase 2b study patients. As we continue to believe seladelpar may have therapeutic benefit in NASH patients, using the data accumulated to date from our Phase 2b study, we intend to explore the potential to partner seladelpar in NASH in a combination study with other complementary agents.

targets G protein-coupled receptor 119 (GPR119), a receptor that interacts with bioactive lipids known to stimulate glucose-dependent insulin secretion. In November 2020, we announced a study to evaluate the potential for to stimulate the release of the hormone glucagon in response to hypoglycemia in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D). The Phase 2a study will assess whether can enhance glucagon secretion during insulin-induced hypoglycemia in subjects with T1D. If successful, studies to evaluate as a potential preventive therapy for hypoglycemia in patients with T1D may be warranted. The study is being led by the AdventHealth Translational Research Institute in Orlando, Florida and is fully funded by The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. We retain full commercial rights to We believe may also have utility in various inflammatory diseases and are currently exploring potential opportunities to advance development.

In 2020 we began to evaluate the active metabolite of arhalofenate, a previously studied for chronic metabolic diseases, in a single and multiple ascending dose study in healthy subjects to establish its pharmacokinetics, safety and maximum tolerated dose. Decisions on any future development are contingent on it achieving a favorable profile with respect to safety and exposure. We believe may have utility in various inflammatory diseases and are currently exploring potential opportunities to advance development.

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the global novel coronavirus disease outbreak a pandemic. Accordingly, economic and health conditions in the United States and across most of the globe have changed rapidly since the end of the first quarter of 2020. As a result of the pandemic, we have experienced and may continue to experience disruptions that could impact aspects of our business, including our progress towards the initiation and completion of certain clinical studies, and other associated drug development activities. Possible future disruptions are currently difficult to foresee. We continue to monitor areas of potential risk which include, but are not limited to, the following:

Overall, we cannot at this time predict the specific extent, duration, or full impact that the outbreak will have on our consolidated financial condition and operations. The impact of the coronavirus outbreak on our financial performance will depend on future developments, including the duration and spread of the outbreak and related governmental advisories and restrictions, which could result in unexpected costs to us. These developments and the impact of on the financial markets and the overall economy are highly uncertain. If the financial markets and/or the overall economy are impacted for an extended period, our results may be adversely affected.

There have been no changes to our critical accounting policies since we filed our Annual Report on Form for the year ended December 31, 2020 with the SEC on March 25, 2021. For a description of our critical accounting policies, please refer to our Annual Report on Form

We have financed our operations primarily through the sale of equity securities, licensing fees, issuance of debt and collaborations with third parties. At March 31, 2021, cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $125.5 million, compared to $146.3 million at December 31, 2020. Our cash, cash equivalents and investments are held in a variety of interest-bearing instruments, including deposits, money market funds, corporate debt, commercial paper, asset-backed securities, U.S. treasury securities, and supranational debt securities investments. We invest cash in excess of immediate requirements with a view toward liquidity and capital preservation, and we seek to minimize the potential effects of concentration and degrees of risk. We believe these funds are sufficient to fund our current operating plan into

: Net cash used in operating activities for the three months ended March 31, 2021 increased by $5.9 million to $20.6 million as compared to $14.7 million for the same period in the prior year, primarily due to an increase in our net loss to $17.6 million from $13.1 million in the prior year period as a result of our restart of the seladelpar development program following the lifting of the clinical hold in July 2020. In addition, cash was used to fund changes in our working capital.

Net cash provided by investing activities was $35.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021 compared to $46.6 million for the same period in the prior year, primarily due to the timing of our investments in marketable securities and portfolio risk management.

We do not currently have, nor have we ever had, any relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities often referred to as structured finance or special purpose entities, established for the purpose of facilitating sheet arrangements or other contractually narrow or limited purposes. In addition, we do not engage in trading activities involving traded contracts.

We carried out an evaluation as of March 31, 2021 under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our President and Chief Executive Officer and Vice President, Finance, of the effectiveness of our “disclosure controls and procedures,” which are defined in Rule under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act), as controls and other procedures of a company that are designed to ensure that the information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our President and Chief Executive Officer and Vice President, Finance, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Based upon that evaluation, our President and Chief Executive Officer and Vice President, Finance concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of March 31, 2021.

There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the quarter ended March 31, 2021, that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting. We have not experienced any material impact to our internal controls over financial reporting despite the fact that most of our employees are working remotely due to the pandemic. We are continually monitoring and assessing the situation on our internal controls to minimize the impact on their design and operating effectiveness.

We are subject to a number of risks that if realized could materially harm our business, prospects, operating results, and financial condition. Some of the more significant risks and uncertainties we face include those summarized below. The summary below is not exhaustive and is qualified by reference to the full set of risk factors set forth in Item 1A of this Form “Risk Factors.” Please carefully consider all of the information in this Form including the full set of risks set forth in the “Risk Factors” section, and in our other filings with the SEC before making an investment decision regarding CymaBay.

On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the coronavirus causing the disease a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern,” and on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization characterized the outbreak as a “pandemic.” While the pandemic did not materially adversely affect our business operations in the three month periods ended March 31, 2021 and 2020, economic and health conditions in the United States and across most of the globe have continued to change during the first quarter of 2021. As a result of the pandemic, we have experienced and may continue to experience disruptions that could impact aspects of our business, including our progress towards the completion of our clinical studies and other associated drug development activities. Possible future disruptions are currently difficult to foresee and include, but are not limited to, potential risk areas as noted below:

The pandemic continues to evolve. The extent to which the pandemic may impact our business, including our preclinical, clinical and associated drug development activities, will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, such as the ultimate geographic spread of variants to that continue to arise, the duration of the pandemic, travel restrictions and actions to contain the pandemic or treat its impact, such as social distancing and quarantines or lock-downs in the United States, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area where our executive offices are located, and other countries, business closures or business disruptions and the effectiveness of actions taken in the United States and other countries to contain and treat the disease.

We cannot commercialize our product candidates until the appropriate regulatory authorities, such as the FDA, have reviewed and approved the product candidate. The regulatory agencies may not complete their review processes in a timely manner, or we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates. Additional delays may result if a product candidate is brought before an FDA advisory committee, which could recommend restrictions on approval or recommend of the product candidate. In addition, we may experience delays or rejections based upon additional government regulation from future legislation or administrative action, or changes in regulatory agency policy during the period of product development, clinical studies and the review process. As a result, we cannot predict when, if at all, we will receive any future revenue from commercialization of any of our product candidates. The FDA and foreign regulatory authorities have substantial discretion in the drug approval process, including the ability to delay, limit or deny approval of a product candidate for many reasons, including the following:

The FDA and other regulatory agencies strictly regulate the promotional claims that may be made about prescription products. In particular, a product may not be promoted for uses that are not approved by the FDA or such other regulatory agencies as reflected in the product’s approved labeling. If we receive marketing approval for our product candidates, physicians may nevertheless prescribe such products to their patients in a manner that is inconsistent with the approved label. If we are found to have promoted such uses, we may become subject to significant government fines and other related liability. For example, the federal government has levied large civil and criminal fines against companies for alleged improper promotion and has enjoined several companies from engaging in promotion. The FDA also has requested that companies enter into consent decrees or permanent injunctions under which specified promotional conduct is changed or curtailed.

In order to market any products outside of the United States, we must establish and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements on a basis regarding safety and efficacy. Approval by the FDA does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions. In addition, clinical trials conducted in one country may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other countries, and regulatory approval in one country does not guarantee regulatory approval in any other country. Approval processes vary among countries and can involve additional product testing and validation and additional administrative review periods. Seeking foreign regulatory approval could result in difficulties and costs for us and require additional preclinical studies or clinical trials that could be costly and time consuming. Regulatory requirements can vary widely from country to country and could delay or prevent the introduction of our products in those countries. We do not have any product candidates approved for sale in any jurisdiction, including international markets, and we do not have experience in obtaining regulatory approval in international markets. If we fail to comply with regulatory requirements in international markets or to obtain and maintain required approvals, or if regulatory approvals in international markets are delayed, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of our products will be unrealized.

Market acceptance and sales of any product candidates that we commercialize, if approved, will depend in part on the extent to which coverage and adequate reimbursement will be available from third-party payers, including government health administration authorities, managed care organizations and private health insurers. Third-party payers decide which therapies they will pay for and establish reimbursement levels. Third-party payers in the United States often rely upon Medicare coverage policy and payment limitations in setting their own coverage and reimbursement policies. However, decisions regarding the extent of coverage and amount of reimbursement to be provided for any product candidates that we develop will be made on a basis. One payer’s

We are not sure whether additional legislative changes will be enacted, or whether the FDA regulations, guidance or interpretations will be changed, or what the impact of such changes on the marketing approvals of our product candidates, if any, may be. Further, it is possible that additional governmental action is taken in response to the pandemic.

We currently do not have an organization for the sales, marketing and distribution of pharmaceutical products and the cost of establishing and maintaining such an organization may exceed the cost-effectiveness of doing so. In order to market any products that may be approved we must build our sales, marketing, managerial and other capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services. We may enter into strategic partnerships with third parties to commercialize our product candidates.

We rely upon a combination of patents, trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect the intellectual property related to our products and product candidates. The strength of patents in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical field involves complex legal and scientific questions and can be uncertain. The patent applications that we own, or may fail to result in issued patents with claims that cover the products in the United States or in other countries. If this were to occur, early generic competition could be expected against our product candidates in development. There is no assurance that all of the potentially relevant prior art relating to our patents and patent applications has been found, which can invalidate a patent or prevent a patent from issuing based on a pending patent application. Even if patents do successfully issue, third parties may challenge their validity, enforceability, scope or ownership, which may result in such patents, or our rights to such patents, being narrowed or invalidated. Furthermore, even if they are unchallenged, our patents and patent applications may not adequately protect our intellectual property or prevent others from designing around our claims. If the patent applications we hold or license with respect to our product candidates fail to issue or if their breadth or strength of protection is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us and threaten our ability to commercialize our products. We cannot offer any assurances about which, if any, patents will issue or whether any issued patents will be found invalid or unenforceable, will be challenged by third parties or will adequately protect our products and product candidates. Further, if we encounter delays in development or regulatory approvals, the period of time during which we could market our products under patent protection could be reduced. Since patent applications in the United States and most other countries are confidential for a period of time after filing, and some remain so until issued, we cannot be certain that we or our licensors were the first to file any patent application related to our product candidates. Furthermore, if third parties have filed such patent applications, an interference proceeding in the United States can be provoked by a third party or instituted by us to determine who was the first to invent any of the subject matter covered by the patent claims of our applications. An unfavorable outcome could require us to cease using the related technology or to attempt to license it from the prevailing party, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we rely on trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect proprietary that is not patentable, processes for which patents are difficult to enforce and other elements of our drug discovery and development processes that involve proprietary information or technology that is not covered by patents. Although we expect all of our employees to assign their inventions to us, and all of our employees, consultants, advisors and any third parties who have access to our proprietary information or technology to enter into confidentiality agreements, we cannot provide any assurances that all such agreements have been duly executed, that such agreements provide adequate protection

and will not be breached, that our trade secrets and other confidential proprietary information will not otherwise be disclosed or that competitors will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or independently develop substantially equivalent information and techniques. If we are unable to prevent material disclosure of the intellectual property related to our technologies to third parties, and there is no guarantee that we will have any such enforceable trade secret protection, we may not be able to establish or maintain a competitive advantage in our market, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our commercial success depends in part on our avoiding infringement and other violations of the patents and proprietary rights of third parties. There is a substantial amount of litigation, both within and outside the United States, involving patent and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including patent infringement lawsuits, interferences, oppositions and inter party proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (U.S. PTO) and its foreign counterparts. Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications, which are owned by third parties, exist in the fields in which we and our collaborators are developing product candidates. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, and as we gain greater visibility and market exposure as a public company, the risk increases that our product candidates or other business activities may be subject to claims of infringement of the patent and other proprietary rights of third parties.

Third parties may assert that we are employing their proprietary technology without authorization. There may be third-party patents or patent applications with claims to materials, formulations, methods of manufacture or methods for treatment related to the use or manufacture of our product candidates. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent applications that may later result in issued patents that our product candidates may infringe. In addition, third parties may obtain patents in the future and claim that use of our technologies infringes upon these patents. If any third-party patents were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover the manufacturing process of any of our product candidates, any molecules formed during the manufacturing process or any final product itself, the holders of any such patents may be able to block our ability to commercialize such product candidate unless we obtained a license under the applicable patents, or until such patents expire. Similarly, if any third-party patent were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover aspects of our formulations, processes for manufacture or methods of use, including combination therapy, the holders of any such patent may be able to block our ability to develop and commercialize the applicable product candidate unless we obtained a license or until such patent expires. In either case, such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all. In addition, we may be subject to claims that we are infringing other intellectual property rights, such as trademarks or copyrights, or misappropriating the trade secrets of others, and to the extent that our employees, consultants or contractors use intellectual property or proprietary information owned by others in their work for us, disputes may arise as to the rights in related or resulting and inventions. We are currently engaged in legal proceedings with Genfit S.A. (Genfit), which alleges that we misappropriated some of their trade secrets.

We are a party to a number of technology licenses that are important to our business and expect to enter into additional licenses in the future. For example, we rely on an exclusive license to certain patents and from Janssen Pharmaceutical NV (Janssen NV), which include seladelpar and certain other PPAR compounds (the PPAR Products). Under the exclusive license with Janssen NV we have full control and responsibility over the research, development and registration of any PPAR Products and are required to use diligent efforts to conduct all such activities. If we fail to comply with our obligations under our agreement with Janssen NV, including our obligations to expend more than a de minimis amount of effort and resources on the research and/or development of at least one PPAR product, to make any payment called for under the agreement, not to disclose any confidential information related to the agreement, or to use diligent efforts to promote, market and sell any PPAR Product under the agreement, such action would constitute a default under the agreement and Janssen NV may have the right to terminate the license, in which event we would not be able to develop or market products covered by the license, including in the case of the Janssen NV license, seladelpar, which would have a materially adverse effect on our business.