Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc. - Quarter Report: 2020 September (Form 10-Q)

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, DC 20549

FORM 10-Q

(Mark One)

⌧	QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the quarterly period ended September 30, 2020

◻	TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from to

Commission File Number: 001-38899

Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

Quebec		Not applicable
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)		(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

1111 Dr. Frederik-Philips Boulevard, Suite 420

Montréal, Québec CA H4M 2X6

(514) 336-0444

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class		Trading Symbol(s)		Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Shares		MIST		The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ◻

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 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 non-accelerated 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 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer	◻	Accelerated filer	◻
Non-accelerated filer	☒	Smaller reporting company	☒
Emerging growth company	☒

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ◻ No ☒

As of November 6, 2020, the registrant had 29,822,897 common shares, no par value per share, outstanding.

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		Page
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS		1
SUMMARY OF SELECTED RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH OUR BUSINESS		2
PART I.	FINANCIAL INFORMATION	4
Item 1.	Financial Statements (Unaudited)	4
	Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets	4
	Condensed Consolidated Statements of Loss and Comprehensive Loss	5
	Condensed Consolidated Statements of Shareholders’ Equity and Convertible Preferred Shares	6
	Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows	7
	Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements	8
Item 2.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	15
Item 3.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk	27
Item 4.	Controls and Procedures	28
PART II.	OTHER INFORMATION	29
Item 1.	Legal Proceedings	29
Item 1A.	Risk Factors	29
Item 2.	Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds	70
Item 3.	Defaults Upon Senior Securities	71
Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures	71
Item 5.	Other Information	71
Item 6.	Exhibits	72

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“Milestone Pharmaceuticals” and the Milestone logo appearing in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q are unregistered trademarks of Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc. All other trademarks, trade names and service marks appearing in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q are the property of their respective owners. Solely for convenience, the trademarks and trade names in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q may be referred to without the ® and ™ symbols, but such references should not be construed as any indicator that their respective owners will not assert their rights thereto.

This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q contains references to United States dollars and Canadian dollars. All dollar amounts referenced, unless otherwise indicated, are expressed in United States dollars. References to “$” are to United States dollars and references to “C$” are to Canadian dollars.

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q contains forward-looking statements about us and our industry that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including statements regarding our strategy, future financial condition, future operations, projected costs, prospects, plans, objectives of management and expected market growth, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "aim," "anticipate," "assume," "believe," "contemplate," "continue," "could," "design," "due," "estimate," "expect," "goal," "intend," "may," "objective," "plan," "predict," "positioned," "potential," "seek," "should," "target," "will," "would" and other similar expressions that are predictions of or indicate future events and future trends, or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology.

We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including risks described in the section titled "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, regarding, among other things:

●

the initiation, timing, progress and results of our current and future clinical trials of etripamil, including our Phase 3 clinical trials of etripamil for the treatment of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, or PSVT, and of our research and development programs;

●

our plans to develop and commercialize etripamil and any future product candidates;

●

our estimates regarding expenses, future revenue, capital requirements and needs for additional financing;

●

our ability to successfully acquire or in-license additional product candidates on reasonable terms;

●

our ability to establish collaborations or obtain additional funding;

●

our ability to obtain regulatory approval of our current and future product candidates;

●

our ability to finalize the registration plan for etripamil in PSVT, which is dependent on future discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA and other regulatory agencies;

●

our expectations regarding the potential market size and the rate and degree of market acceptance of etripamil and any future product candidates;

●

our ability to fund our working capital requirements and expectations regarding the sufficiency of our capital resources;

●

the implementation of our business model and strategic plans for our business, etripamil and any future product candidates;

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●

our intellectual property position and the duration of our patent rights;

●

developments or disputes concerning our intellectual property or other proprietary rights;

●

our expectations regarding government and third-party payor coverage and reimbursement;

●

our ability to compete in the markets we serve;

●

the impact of government laws and regulations;

●

the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, or other public health emergencies, and their effects on our operations, clinical trials and financial position, and potential effects on the operations of third-parties with whom we conduct business;

●

developments relating to our competitors and our industry; and

●

the factors that may impact our financial results.

The foregoing list of risks is not exhaustive. Other sections of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q may include additional factors that could harm our business and financial performance. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for our management to predict all risk factors nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in, or implied by, any forward-looking statements.

In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur at all. You should refer to the section titled "Risk Factors" for a discussion of important factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. Furthermore, if our forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SUMMARY OF SELECTED RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH OUR BUSINESS

Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those discussed at length in the section titled "Risk Factors." These risks include, among others, the following:

●

We have incurred significant operating losses since inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur substantial operating losses for the foreseeable future and may never achieve or maintain profitability.

●

Our limited operating history may make it difficult for you to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability.

●

We will require substantial additional funding to finance our operations. If we are unable to raise capital when needed, we could be forced to delay, reduce or terminate our development of etripamil or other operations.

●

Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our shareholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our product candidates.

●

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etripamil. If we are not able to obtain required regulatory approvals for etripamil or any future product candidates, we will not be able to commercialize etripamil or any future product candidates and our ability to generate revenue will be adversely affected.

●

We may not be successful in our efforts to expand our pipeline of product candidates beyond etripamil for PSVT.

●

Success in preclinical studies or earlier clinical trials may not be indicative of results in future clinical trials and we cannot assure you that any ongoing, planned or future clinical trials will lead to results sufficient for the necessary regulatory approvals.

●

Our business, operations and clinical development timelines and plans have been adversely affected by the effects of health epidemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and could be affected by future health epidemics.

●

As an organization, we have never successfully completed pivotal clinical trials, and we may be unable to do so for any product candidates we may develop, including our pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of PSVT.

●

If we are unable to establish sales and marketing capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to market and sell etripamil or any future product candidates, we may not be successful in commercializing etripamil or any future product candidates, if and when they are approved.

●

Even if etripamil or any future product candidates receive marketing approval, they may fail to achieve market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors or others in the medical community necessary for commercial success.

●

Even if we obtain and maintain approval for etripamil or any future product candidates from the FDA, we may never obtain approval of etripamil or any future product candidates outside of the United States, which would limit our market opportunities and could harm our business.

●

We will rely on third parties to produce clinical and commercial supplies of etripamil and any future product candidates.

●

If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent protection for etripamil or any future product candidates, or if the scope of the patent protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize drugs similar or identical to ours, and our ability to commercialize successfully our product candidates may be impaired.

●

Our future success depends on our ability to retain key executives and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel.

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PART I—FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1. Financial Statements.

Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

(Unaudited)

(in thousands of US dollars, except share data)



	September 30, 2020		December 31, 2019
Assets

Current assets
Cash and cash equivalents	$	46,910	$	119,818
Short-term investments (note 3)		56,000		—
Research and development tax credits receivable		822		578
Prepaid expenses		3,504		1,845
Other receivables		183		258
Total current assets		107,419		122,499
Operating lease right-of-use assets		1,045		524
Property and equipment		333		405
Total assets	$	108,797	$	123,428

Liabilities

Current liabilities
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities (note 5)	$	5,647	$	7,997
Current portion of operating lease liabilities		234		330
Total current liabilities		5,881		8,327
Operating lease liabilities		718		184
Total liabilities		6,599		8,511


Shareholders’ Equity (note 6, note 9)
Share capital
Common shares, no par value, unlimited shares authorized, 24,727,000 shares issued and outstanding as of September 30, 2020, 24,505,748 shares issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2019.		226,758		226,245
Pre-funded warrants - 6,655,131 issued and outstanding at September 30, 2020		24,770		—
Additional paid-in capital		7,104		3,805
Cumulative translation adjustment		(1,634)		(1,634)
Accumulated deficit		(154,800)		(113,499)

Total shareholders’ equity		102,198		114,917

Total liabilities, and shareholders’ equity	$	108,797	$	123,428

Subsequent Events (note 9)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these interim condensed consolidated financial statements.

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Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Loss and Comprehensive Loss

(Unaudited)

(thousands of US dollars, except share and per share data)



	Three months ended September 30,				Nine months ended September 30,
	2020		2019		2020		2019
Operating expenses
Research and development, net of tax credits (note 8)	$	8,228	$	9,545	$	28,722	$	27,836
General and administrative		2,952		2,104		8,611		4,725
Commercial		905		2,076		4,615		6,428

Loss from operations	$	(12,085)	$	(13,725)	$	(41,948)	$	(38,989)

Interest income, net of bank charges		89		821		630		1,993

Loss and comprehensive loss before income taxes		(11,996)		(12,904)		(41,318)		(36,996)

Income tax recovery		(17)		(73)		(17)		(55)

Net loss and comprehensive loss for the period	$	(11,979)	$	(12,831)	$	(41,301)	$	(36,941)

Weighted average number of shares outstanding, basic and diluted		29,774,065		24,490,742		26,329,581		12,848,974

Net loss per share, basic and diluted (note 7)	$	(0.40)	$	(0.52)	$	(1.57)	$	(2.87)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these interim condensed consolidated financial statements.

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Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Shareholders’ Equity and Convertible Preferred Shares

(Unaudited)

(thousands of US dollars, except per share data)


				Convertible Preferred Shares
	Common Shares			Class A1			Class A2			Class B			Class C			Class D1			Class D2			Pre-funded warrants
	Number of shares	Amount		Number of shares	Amount		Number of shares	Amount		Number of shares	Amount		Number of shares	Amount		Number of shares	Amount		Number of shares	Amount		Number of warrants	Amount		Additional paid-in capital		Cumulative translation adjustment		Accumulated deficit		Total
Balance as of December 31, 2018	596,787	$	2,039	372,211	$	2,027	2,443,914	$	12,643	2,830,907	$	17,198	3,786,878	$	27,236	6,893,236		64,719	1,223,656		14,935	—	$	—	$	2,655	$	(1,634)	$	(58,270)	$	83,548
Transactions in three-month period ended March 31, 2019
Net loss and comprehensive loss	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		—		—		(10,452)		(10,452)
Exercise of stock options (note 6)	18,153		51	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		(26)		—		—		25
Share-based compensation (note 6)	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		211		—		—		211
Balance at March 31, 2019	614,940	$	2,090	372,211	$	2,027	2,443,914	$	12,643	2,830,907	$	17,198	3,786,878	$	27,236	6,893,236		64,719	1,223,656		14,935	—	$	—	$	2,840	$	(1,634)		(68,722)	$	73,332
Transactions in three-month period ended June 30, 2019
Net loss and comprehensive loss	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		—		—		(13,658)		(13,658)
Share-based compensation (note 6)	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		276		—		—		276
Initial public offering	6,325,000		85,363	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		—		—		—		85,363
Preferred share Conversion (note 6)	17,550,802		138,758	(372,211)		(2,027)	(2,443,914)		(12,643)	(2,830,907)		(17,198)	(3,786,878)		(27,236)	(6,893,236)		(64,719)	(1,223,656)		(14,935)	—		—		—		—		—		—
Balance at June 30, 2019	24,490,742	$	226,211	—	$	—	—	$	—	—	$	—	—	$	—	—		—	—		—	—	$	—	$	3,116	$	(1,634)	$	(82,380)	$	145,313
Transactions in three-month period ended September 30, 2019
Net loss and comprehensive loss	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		—		—		(12,831)		(12,831)
Exercise of stock options (note 6)	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		—		—		—		—
Share-based compensation (note 6)	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		350		—		—		350
Balance at September 30, 2019	24,490,742	$	226,211	—	$	—	—	$	—	—	$	—	—	$	—	—		—	—		—	—	$	—	$	3,466	$	(1,634)	$	(95,211)	$	132,832

Balance as of December 31, 2019	24,505,748	$	226,245	—	$	—	—	$	—	—	$	—	—	$	—	—		—	—		—	—	$	—	$	3,805	$	(1,634)		(113,499)	$	114,917
Transactions in three-month period ended March 31, 2020
Net loss and comprehensive loss	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		—		—		(16,343)		(16,343)
Exercise of stock options (note 6)	53,722		133	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		(56)		—		—		77
Share-based compensation (note 6)	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		981		—		—		981
Balance at March 31, 2020	24,559,470	$	226,378	—	$	—	—	$	—	—	$	—	—	$	—	—	$	—	—	$	—	—	$	—	$	4,730	$	(1,634)	$	(129,842)	$	99,632
Transactions in three-month period ended June 30, 2020
Net loss and comprehensive loss	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		—		—		(12,979)		(12,979)
Exercise of stock options (note 6)	133,483		298	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		(126)		—		—		172
Share-based compensation (note 6)	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		1,191		—		—		1,191
Balance at June 30, 2020	24,692,953	$	226,676	—	$	—	—	$	—	—	$	—	—	$	—	—		—	—		—	—	$	—	$	5,795	$	(1,634)	$	(142,821)	$	88,016
Transactions in three-month period ended September 30, 2020
Net loss and comprehensive loss	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		—		—		(11,979)		(11,979)
Exercise of stock options (note 6)	34,047		82	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		(34)		—		—		48
Share-based compensation (note 6)	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—		1,343		—		—		1,343
Pre-funded warrants - Private Placement (note 6)	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	—		—	6,655,131		24,770		—		—		—		24,770
Balance at September 30, 2020	24,727,000	$	226,758	—	$	—	—	$	—	—	$	—	—	$	—	—		—	—		—	6,655,131	$	24,770	$	7,104	$	(1,634)	$	(154,800)	$	102,198

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these interim condensed consolidated financial statements.

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Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

(Unaudited)

(thousands of US dollars)


	Nine months ended September 30,
	2020		2019
Cash flows from
Operating activities
Net loss for the period	$	(41,301)	$	(36,940)
Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities:
Amortization of property and equipment		72		14
Share-based compensation expense (note 6)		3,515		837
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
Other receivables		75		(110)
Research and development tax credits receivable		(244)		(166)
Prepaid expenses		(1,659)		(2,119)
Operating lease right of use asset, net		(83)		(11)
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities		(2,350)		4,001
Income taxes payable (receivable)		—		(55)

Net cash used in operating activities		(41,975)		(34,549)

Investing Activities
Acquisition of property and equipment		—		(312)
Acquisition of short-term investments		(60,000)		(35,000)
Redemption of short-term investments		4,000		5,029

Net cash used in investing activities		(56,000)		(30,283)

Financing activities
Net proceeds from issuance of common shares in Initial Public Offering		—		85,361
Issuance of common shares on exercise of share options (note 6)		297		25
Net proceeds from issuance of pre-funded warrants in a private placement (note 9)		24,770		—

Net cash provided by financing activities		25,067		85,386

Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents during the period		(72,908)		20,554

Cash and cash equivalents – Beginning of period		119,818		85,947

Cash and cash equivalents – End of period	$	46,910	$	106,501

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these interim condensed consolidated financial statements.

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Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

(Unaudited)

(in thousands of US dollars, except where noted and for share and per share data)

1 Organization and nature of operations

Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Milestone or the Company) is a biopharmaceutical company incorporated under the Business Corporations Act of Québec. Milestone is focused on the development and commercialization of innovative cardiovascular medicines. Milestone’s lead product candidate, etripamil, is a novel, potent short-acting calcium channel blocker that the Company designed and is developing as a rapid-onset nasal spray to be administered by patients. The Company is developing etripamil to treat paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, and other cardiovascular indications.

2 Summary of significant accounting policies

a) Basis of consolidation

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and Milestone Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. Milestone Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. began its operations on March 3, 2017. All intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated.

b) Basis of presentation and use of accounting estimates

These unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (US GAAP) and on a basis consistent with those accounting principles followed by the Company and disclosed in note 2 of its most recent annual consolidated financial statements except for new standard described in note 2 c). Certain information, in particular the accompanying notes normally included in the annual financial statements prepared in accordance with US GAAP have been omitted or condensed. Accordingly, the unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements do not include all the information required for full annual financial statements, and therefore, should be read in conjunction with the annual consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto for the year ended December 31, 2019.

In the opinion of the Company's management, the accompanying unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements contain all adjustments, consisting of only normal recurring adjustments, necessary for a fair statement of its financial position as of September 30, 2020, and its results of operations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019.

The condensed consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2019, was derived from audited annual consolidated financial statements, but does not contain all of the footnote disclosures required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

These unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements are presented in US dollars, which is the Company’s functional currency.

The preparation of unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with US GAAP requires the Company to make estimates and judgments that affect certain reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the period. The Company bases its estimates and assumptions on current facts, historical experience and various other factors that it believes are reasonable under the circumstances, to determine the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant estimates and judgments include, but are not limited to, research and development tax credits recoverable, research and development expenses, and share-based compensation. Accordingly, actual results may differ from those estimates and such differences may be material.

The Company will continue to evaluate the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the development timelines of its clinical programs. Estimates and assumptions about future events and their effects cannot be determined with certainty and therefore require the exercise of judgment. As of the date of issuance of these financial statements, the Company is not aware of any specific event or circumstance that would require the Company to update its estimates, assumptions and

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Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

(Unaudited)

(in thousands of US dollars, except where noted and for share and per share data)

judgments. These estimates may change as new events occur and additional information is obtained and are recognized in the consolidated financial statements as soon as they become known. Actual results could differ from those estimates and any such differences may be material to the Company’s financial statements.

c) Recently adopted accounting pronouncement

New Accounting Policies - Financial Instruments - Credit Losses

In June 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued Accounting Standards Update 2016-13, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments (ASU 2016-13). ASU 2016-13 significantly changes the impairment model for most financial assets and certain other instruments. ASU 2016-13 will require immediate recognition of estimated credit losses expected to occur over the remaining life of many financial assets, which will generally result in earlier recognition of allowances for credit losses on loans and other financial instruments. The Company adopted ASU 2016-13 effective January 1, 2020 and the adoption did not have an impact on the measurement of credit losses.

d) Significant Risks and Uncertainties

With the global spread of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Company has implemented business continuity plans designed to address and mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its business. The Company anticipates that the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to have an impact on the development timelines for its clinical programs. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact its business, its clinical development and regulatory efforts, its corporate development objectives and the value of and market for its common shares will depend on future developments that remain highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence at this time, such as the ultimate duration of the pandemic, travel restrictions, quarantines, social distancing and business closure requirements in the U.S., Europe and other countries, and the effectiveness of actions taken globally to contain and treat the disease. The global economic slowdown, the overall disruption of global healthcare systems and the other risks and uncertainties associated with the pandemic could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

In addition, the Company is subject to other challenges and risks specific to its business and its ability to execute on its strategy, as well as risks and uncertainties common to companies in the pharmaceutical industry with development, including, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with: obtaining regulatory approval of its product candidate; delays or problems in the supply of its study drug or failure to comply with manufacturing regulations; identifying, acquiring or in-licensing product candidates; pharmaceutical product development and the inherent uncertainty of clinical success; and the challenges of protecting and enhancing its intellectual property rights; and complying with applicable regulatory requirements. In addition, to the extent the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects the Company’s business and results of operations, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks and uncertainties discussed above.

e) Sources of Liquidity and Funding Requirements

Since inception, the Company incurred significant operating losses. Prior to May 2019, the Company financed its operations primarily through sales of convertible preferred shares to accredited investors generating net proceeds of $138.8 million. In May 2019, the Company received net proceeds of $85.4 million from its Initial Public Offering (IPO).

In July 2020, the Company received $24.7 million of net proceeds from the private placement of pre-funded warrants to existing shareholders (note 6).

The Company has incurred operating losses and experienced negative operating cash flows since its inception and anticipates to continue to incur losses for at least the next several years. As of September 30, 2020, the Company had cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $102.9 million and an accumulated deficit of $154.8 million. In October 2020, the Company concluded an offering of common shares and pre-funded warrants for gross proceeds of $51.7 million (note 9).

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Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

(Unaudited)

(in thousands of US dollars, except where noted and for share and per share data)

Management expects the Company’s current operating plan and existing cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments to be sufficient to fund its operations and determined that there are no events or conditions that may cast substantial doubt on the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern for at least the next 12 months from the date of issuance of these unaudited interim financial statements.

3 Short-term investments

Short-term investments are comprised of term deposits issued in US currency, earning interest between 0.48% and 0.86%, maturing between October 1, 2020 and August 16, 2021. These short term investments are in scope of ASC 320, Investments - Debt Securities. The short term investments maturity is greater than 90 days but less than one year, they are classified as held to maturity, recorded as current assets and are accounted for at amortized cost.

4 Operating lease

On July 1, 2020, the Company entered into an arrangement for the lease renewal for its headquarters located in Ville Saint-Laurent, Quebec. The 5-year lease term is from December 1, 2020 expiring on November 30, 2025. The Company revalued the operating lease right-of-use asset and operating lease liabilities at the effective lease arrangement date of July 1, 2020. The interest rate implicit in lease contracts is not readily determinable and the Company does not have a public credit rating and carries no debt. As such, several factors were considered in the determination of the Company’s incremental borrowing rate used in determining the present value of lease payments. The Company’s examined credit ratings for similar companies, assumed equivalency between the Canadian and U.S. markets for collateralized debt and used rates for the remaining lease term of 65 months. This resulted in an incremental borrowing rate of 5.26%. Lease expenses are recognized on a straight-line basis over the lease term, which is accomplished by increasing the amortization of the right-of-use asset as interest expense on the lease liability declines over the lease term. The Company is not reasonably certain of renewing the lease following the current renewal option and recognized the right-of-use asset and operating lease liabilities to November 30, 2025.


Right-of-use balance as at January 1, 2020	$	524
Right-of-use adjustment renewal on July 1, 2020		735
Amortization of right-of-use asset nine-month period ended September 30, 2020		(214)
	$	1,045

Operating lease expenses for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2020 was $240 [2019 – $202], which are included in general and administrative operating expenses in the consolidated statement of loss and comprehensive loss, and within operating activities in the statement of cash flows for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2020, and are comprised of two operating lease right-of-use assets.

The following table summarizes the future minimum lease payments of operating lease right-of-use assets as at September 30, 2020:


October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021	$	283
October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022		277
October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023		167
October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024		167
October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025		167
October 1, 2025 to November 30, 2025		15
		1,076
Less interest		(124)
	$	952

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Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

(Unaudited)

(in thousands of US dollars, except where noted and for share and per share data)

5 Accounts payable and accrued liabilities

Accounts payable and accrued liabilities comprised the following:


	September 30, 2020		December 31, 2019
Trade accounts payable	$	4,256	$	4,376
Accrued research and development liabilities		413		1,513
Other accrued liabilities		296		331
Accrued compensation and benefits payable		682		1,777
	$	5,647	$	7,997

6 Shareholders’ equity

Authorized share capital

An unlimited number of common shares, voting and participating, without par value.

As of September 30, 2020, 523,821 common shares were available under the ESPP and no common shares have been issued.

During the nine-month period ended September 30, 2020, the Company issued a total of 221,252 common shares [2019 –18,153] for a total cash consideration of $297 [2019 - $25] pursuant to the exercise of 221,252 stock options [2019 – 18,153] at an average exercise price of US$1.34 per option [2019 – US$1.32]. As a result, an amount of $216 [2019 - $26] previously included in additional paid-in capital related to the exercised options has been credited to share capital and deducted from additional paid-in capital.

Pre-funded warrants – Private Placement

On July 23, 2020, the Company entered into a securities purchase agreement to sell and issue in a private placement pre-funded warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 6,655,131 of the Company’s common shares, at a purchase price of $3.7465 per pre-funded warrant for aggregate net proceeds of $24.8 million (the Private Placement). The Private Placement closed on July 24, 2020. Each pre-funded warrant is exercisable for one of the Company’s common shares at an exercise price of $0.01 per share, has no expiration date, and is immediately exercisable, subject to certain beneficial ownership limitations. The pre-funded warrants are classified and accounted for as equity.

Open Market Sale Agreement

On July 29, 2020, the Company entered into an Open Market Sale Agreement℠ (the Sales Agreement) with respect to an at-the-market offering program (ATM Program) under which the Company may issue and sell its common shares having an aggregate offering price of up to $50 million. The Company has not sold shares under the ATM program as of the date of this filing.

Additional paid-in capital


	Three months ended September 30,				Nine months ended September 30,
	2020		2019		2020		2019
Opening balance	$	5,795	$	3,116	$	3,805	$	2,655
Share-based compensation expense		1,343		350		3,515		837
Exercise of stock options		(34)		—		(216)		(26)
Closing balance	$	7,104	$	3,466	$	7,104	$	3,466

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Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

(Unaudited)

(in thousands of US dollars, except where noted and for share and per share data)

Share-based compensation

Under the 2019 Plan and 2011 Plan, unless otherwise decided by the Board of Directors, options vest and are exercisable as follows: 25% vest and are exercisable on the one year anniversary of the grant date and one thirty-sixth (1/36^th) of the remaining options vest and are exercisable each month thereafter, such that options are vested in full on four-year anniversary of the grant date. In the nine-month period ended on September 30, 2020, the Company granted stock options under the 2019 Plan that also vest and are exercisable in equal monthly installments over periods of 12 months to 48 months.

On January 1, 2020, the number of the Company’s common shares reserved for issuance under the 2019 Plan increased by 980,229 common shares. In addition, 42,576 options forfeited under the 2011 Plan after adoption of the 2019 Plan and became available for issuance under the 2019 Plan. As of September 30, 2020, there were 3,339,738 shares available for issuance under the 2019 Plan, of which 1,686,048 shares were available for future grants.

The total outstanding and exercisable options from the 2011 Plan and 2019 Plan as at September 30 were as follows:


	2020							2019
						Weighted							Weighted
		Number				average			Number				average
		of shares				exercise			of shares				exercise
		2019 Plan		2011 Plan	Total	price			2019 Plan		2011 Plan	Total	price
Outstanding at beginning of period - 2011 Plan		—		2,364,526	2,364,526	$	2.15		—		2,295,045	2,295,045	$	1.77
Outstanding at beginning of period - 2019 Plan		220,140		—	220,140		20.78		—		—	—		—
Granted - 2011 Plan		—		—	—		—		—		116,739	116,739		9.42
Granted - 2019 Plan		1,474,460		—	1,474,460		12.91		241,378		—	241,378		20.34
Exercised - 2011 Plan		—		(221,252)	(221,252)		1.34		—		(18,153)	(18,153)		1.32
Forfeited - 2011 Plan		—		(28,478)	(28,478)		2.57		—		—	—		—
Forfeited - 2019 Plan		(37,913)		—	(37,913)		21.46		—		—	—		—
Cancelled - 2019 Plan		(2,997)		—	(2,997)		21.48		—		—	—		—
Outstanding - 9/30/2020		1,653,690		2,114,796	3,768,486	$	7.30		241,378		2,393,631	2,635,009	$	3.81
Outstanding - 9/30/2020 - Weighted average exercise price	$	13.78	$	2.23				$	20.34	$	2.15
Exercisable at end of period		155,501		1,445,244	1,600,745	$	2.77		—		906,994	906,994	$	1.49
Exercisable at end of period - Weighted average exercise price	$	10.11	$	1.99				$	—	$	1.49

As of September 30, 2020, the weighted average remaining contractual life was 8.2 [2019 – 6.25 years]. The weighted average remaining contractual life was 7.2 years for vested options [2019 – 6.7 years]. There were 66,391 options forfeited and 2,997 options cancelled for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2020 [2019 – nil].

Options granted are valued using the Black-Scholes option pricing model. Amortization of the fair value of the options over vesting years has been expensed and credited to additional paid-in capital in shareholders’ equity. The weighted average fair values of options granted in the nine-month period ended September 30, 2020 was $9.14 per share [2019 - $11.76]. Share-based compensation expense recognized for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2020 was $3,515 [2019 - $837].

As of September 30, 2020, there was $17,847 [2019 – $6,193] of total unrecognized compensation cost, related to non-vested share options, which is expected to be recognized over a remaining weighted average vesting period of 2.4 years [2019 – 2.9 years].

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Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

(Unaudited)

(in thousands of US dollars, except where noted and for share and per share data)

The non-vested options as at September 30 were as follows:


	2020							2019
		Number				Weighted			Number				Weighted
		of options				average			of options				average
		2019 Plan		2011 Plan	Total	fair value			2019 Plan		2011 Plan	Total	fair value
Non-vested share options at beginning of period - 2011 Plan		—		1,152,300	1,152,300	$	1.88		—		1,706,303	1,706,303	$	1.35
Non-vested share options at beginning of period - 2019 Plan		218,975		—	218,975	$	14.44		—		—	—	$	—
Granted - 2011 Plan		—		—	—		—		—		116,739	116,739		6.65
Granted - 2019 Plan		1,474,460		—	1,474,460		9.14		241,378		—	241,378		14.23
Vested, outstanding 2011 Plan		—		(454,270)	(454,270)		1.87		—		(336,405)	(336,405)		1.21
Vested, outstanding 2019 Plan		(154,336)		—	(154,336)		6.99		—		—	—		-
Forfeited - 2011 Plan		—		(28,478)	(28,478)		1.84		—		—	—		—
Forfeited - 2019 Plan		(37,913)		—	(37,913)		15.21		—		—	—		—
Cancelled - 2019 Plan		(2,997)		—	(2,997)		15.25		—		—	—		—
Non-vested share options at end of period		1,498,189		669,552	2,167,741	$	7.48		241,378		1,486,637	1,728,015	$	3.53
Non-vested share options at end of period - Weighted average fair value	$	9.97	$	1.90				$	14.23	$	1.79

The fair value of share-based payment transaction is measured using Black-Scholes valuation model. This model also requires assumptions, including expected option life, volatility, risk-free interest rate and dividend yield, which greatly affect the calculated values.

The fair value of options granted was estimated using the Black-Scholes option pricing model, resulting in the following weighted average assumptions for the options granted for the three and nine months ended September 30:


	Three months ended September 30,						Nine months ended September 30,
	2020			2019			2020			2019
Exercise price	$	—		$	21.63		$	12.91		$	16.78
Share price	$	—		$	21.63		$	12.91		$	16.78
Volatility		—	%		10	%		84	%		80	%
Risk-free interest rate		—	%		1.54	%		1.06	%		1.94	%
Expected life		—			6.25			5.89			6.25
Dividend		—	%		0	%		0	%		0	%

Expected volatility is determined using comparable companies for which the information is publicly available. The risk-free interest rate is determined based on the U.S. sovereign rates benchmark in effect at the time of grant with a remaining term equal to the expected life of the option. Expected option life is determined based on the simplified method as the Company does not have sufficient historical exercise data to provide a reasonable basis upon which to estimate expected term. The simplified method is an average of the contractual term of the options and its ordinary vesting period. Dividend yield is based on the share option’s exercise price and expected annual dividend rate at the time of grant.

The Company recognized share-based compensation expense as follows for the three months ended September 30:


	Three months ended September 30,				Nine months ended September 30,
	2020		2019		2020		2019
Administration	$	525	$	194	$	1,367	$	396
Research and development		580		124		1,495		358
Commercial activities		238		32		653		83
	$	1,343	$	350	$	3,515	$	837

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Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

(Unaudited)

(in thousands of US dollars, except where noted and for share and per share data)

7 Net loss per share

Basic and diluted net loss per common share is determined by dividing net loss applicable to common shareholders by the weighted average number of common shares and pre-funded warrants outstanding during the period. Share-based compensation shares have been excluded from the calculation because their effects would be anti-dilutive. Therefore, the weighted average number of shares used to calculate both basic and diluted loss per share are the same.

The following potentially dilutive securities have been excluded from the computation of diluted weighted average shares outstanding as of September 30 as they would be anti-dilutive:


	2020	2019
Share options and unvested restricted share awards	3,768,486	2,635,009

Amounts above reflect the common share equivalents of the noted instruments.

8 Government assistance

The Company incurred research and development expenditures that are eligible for investment tax credits. The investment tax credits recorded are based on management’s estimates of amounts expected to be recovered and are subject to audit by the taxation authorities. These amounts have been recorded as a reduction of research and development expenditures for an amount of $470 for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2020 [2019 - $270].

9 Subsequent events

On October 22, 2020, the Company entered into an underwriting agreement with Jefferies LLC and Piper Sandler & Co. as representatives of the several underwriters (collectively, the Underwriters) relating to the issuance and sale of (i) 5,095,897 common shares, without par value, at a price to the public of $5.25 per share, and (ii) pre-funded warrants to purchase 4,761,903 common shares at an exercise price equal to $0.01 per share, at a price to the public of $5.24 per common share underlying the pre-funded warrants (the Offering). The gross proceeds to the Company from the Offering were $51.7 million, including proceeds from the exercise of the Underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares.

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Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

The following information should be read in conjunction with the unaudited financial information and the notes thereto included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and the audited financial information and the notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, on March 6, 2020. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those discussed in “Risk Factors” and in other parts of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Overview

We are a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative cardiovascular medicines. Our lead product candidate etripamil is a novel, potent and short-acting calcium channel blocker that we designed as a rapid-onset nasal spray to be self-administered by patients. We are developing etripamil to treat paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, or PSVT, atrial fibrillation, and other cardiovascular indications.

PSVT is a rapid heart rate condition characterized by episodes of supraventricular tachycardia, or SVT, that start and stop without warning. Episodes of SVT are often experienced by patients with symptoms including palpitations, sweating, chest pressure or pain, shortness of breath, sudden onset of fatigue, lightheadedness or dizziness, fainting and anxiety. Calcium channel blockers have long been approved for the treatment of PSVT as well as other cardiac conditions. Calcium channel blockers available in oral form are frequently used prophylactically to control the frequency and duration of future episodes of SVT. For treatment of episodes of SVT, approved calcium channel blockers are administered intravenously under medical supervision, usually in the emergency department. The combination of convenient nasal-spray delivery, rapid-onset and short duration of action of etripamil has the potential to shift the current treatment paradigm for episodes of SVT away from the burdensome and costly emergency department setting. If approved, we believe that etripamil will be the first self-administered therapy for the rapid termination of episodes of SVT wherever and whenever they occur.

NODE-301

In March 2020, we reported topline results of the first part of the NODE-301 pivotal trial of etripamil for the treatment of PSVT, which is a placebo-controlled Phase 3 safety and efficacy trial. The first part of NODE-301, which enrolled a total of 431 patients across 65 sites in the United States and Canada, did not meet its primary endpoint of time to conversion of SVT to sinus rhythm compared to placebo over the five hour period following study drug administration. The median time to conversion for etripamil was 25 minutes (95% CI:16, 43) compared to 50 minutes (95% CI: 31,101) for placebo (p=0.12). Despite early activity, including the conversion of 61% of etripamil patients compared to 45% of placebo patients within 45 minutes after study drug administration (p=0.02), a time period consistent with the pharmacological activity of etripamil, results from the latter part of the analysis confounded the statistical analysis of the primary endpoint. Patients were monitored during five hours after study drug administration.

The study demonstrated statistically significant improvements in patients taking etripamil compared to those taking placebo in the secondary endpoint of patient reported treatment satisfaction, as measured by a treatment satisfaction questionnaire for medication (TSQM-9), including global satisfaction (p=0.0069) and effectiveness scores (p=0.0015). Additionally, there was a trend toward improvement in the percentage of patients seeking rescue medical intervention, including in the emergency department, with 15% and 27% etripamil and placebo patients, respectively, reporting such intervention (p=0.12).

We believe the safety and tolerability data from the first part of the NODE-301 trial is supportive of at-home use of etripamil, with adverse events, or AEs, consistent with those observed in prior trials. The most common AEs observed in patients receiving etripamil were nasal irritation and congestion, and these events were typically transient in nature and most commonly characterized by patients as mild in severity. There were no significant differences in incidences of

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severe adverse events or adverse events of interest, such as atrioventricular nodal blocks or blood pressure-related symptoms, across the etripamil and placebo groups.

The second part of the NODE-301 trial, NODE-301B, which we have renamed the RAPID trial, is continuing. The RAPID trial continues to follow patients already randomized in the NODE-301 trial who did not administer a dose of the study drug before the end of the first part of the trial. We plan to analyze the final data from the RAPID trial separately as a second efficacy data set.

Pivotal Clinical Program

In July 2020, we announced that we received guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, on our proposal to use data from the outcome of the NODE-301 trial as well as the ongoing RAPID trial. The FDA indicated that the two trials, the RAPID trial and the completed NODE-301 trial, could potentially fulfill the efficacy requirement for our planned NDA for etripamil in patients with PSVT.

Under an updated statistical analysis plan, or SAP, the primary efficacy endpoint for both the RAPID and NODE-301 trials will be defined as time to conversion over the first 30 minutes, with a target p- value of less than 0.05 for each trial. This endpoint supports the desire of patients to rapidly address their PSVT symptoms during an episode and ideally avoid visiting the emergency department. Later and earlier time points will also be assessed as part of secondary analyses to fully characterize the efficacy profile of etripamil.

When employing the updated SAP, results from NODE-301 show that 54% of etripamil patients vs. 35% of placebo patients converted within 30 minutes (HR 1.87, p=0.02). We believe that clinicians and cardiovascular thought leaders will view this as a clinically-meaningful outcome given the symptomatic nature of SVT episodes and the lack of approved at-home treatments. Assuming a positive outcome in the RAPID trial, these data could potentially serve to fulfill the efficacy requirement for the NDA.

RAPID Trial

The RAPID trial, which was originally designed to collect double-blind data from randomized patients who had not yet experienced an SVT event after the NODE-301 study reached its target number of adjudicated SVT events, will be an amendment and expansion of NODE-301B, which was already underway. Should the RAPID trial meet its primary objective, it could potentially serve as a pivotal efficacy and safety study. The study will include the 170 patients who are already enrolled, although many of those patients have been enrolled in the study for more than one year without reporting an SVT event. The study is expected to enroll up to 500 patients and will be completed after a total of 180 confirmed SVT events are reached. Additional patients to be enrolled in the RAPID trial will be randomized 1:1. We expect to report topline data from the RAPID trial in late 2021 or early 2022.

Based on discussions with the FDA regarding maximizing the treatment effect of etripamil, the RAPID trial will allow for an optional repeat administration of study drug (either 70 mg of etripamil or placebo) for patients who have not experienced symptom relief within 10 minutes of the first study drug administration. This tailored regimen, which is similar to current PSVT treatment practices in the emergency department setting, is enabled by the favorable safety data from the NODE-301 study. We expect that the repeat administration could benefit a broader group of patients, including those with more persistent episodes. In the NODE-301 study, 32% of etripamil patients and 14% of placebo patients converted to sinus rhythm within 10 minutes. The FDA agreed that the single and repeat administrations of etripamil could be pooled and compared to placebo for the primary analysis, resulting in no increase in the sample size.

Safety Studies

In addition to NODE-301 and the RAPID trial, the clinical development program for etripamil for PSVT consists of two other ongoing Phase 3 clinical trials, as well as completed Phase 2 and Phase 1 trials. NODE-302 is our ongoing Phase 3 open-label safety extension of the NODE-301 trial. Patients who completed NODE-301 could enroll in NODE-302 and receive up to an additional 11 doses of etripamil. NODE-302 is a multi- center, open label study designed to evaluate the safety of etripamil nasal spray when self-administered by patients without medical supervision for spontaneous episodes

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of SVT in an outpatient setting. Eligibility was also contingent on satisfying all inclusion and exclusion criteria, including not experiencing a serious adverse event related to the study drug or the study procedure that precludes the self administration of etripamil. NODE-302 has collected safety data on more than 200 episodes across approximately 100 patients and is expected to be completed in 2020. Trial safety results will contribute to the etripamil safety database.

NODE-303 is a Phase 3, multi-center, open-label safety trial, evaluating the safety of etripamil when self administered without medical supervision, and evaluating the treatment safety and efficacy of etripamil on multiple SVT episodes. The trial was originally designed to enroll enough patients to collect data on approximately 1,000 patients taking etripamil in an at-home setting. With the expanded size of the RAPID trial, the size of the NODE-303 study is expected to be reduced. A more accurate sizing of the trial will be determined once an overall size of the safety dataset is determined for NDA filing following future discussions with the FDA and other regulatory authorities. Based on a review of the NODE-301 safety data available in June 2019, the FDA and multiple European and Latin American regulatory authorities agreed to allow patient enrollment in NODE-303 without an in-office safety test dose, which was required in the NODE-301 trial, and in a broad patient population including patients taking concomitant beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers.

We are in the process of initiating patient access programs that have as their primary objective providing further access to etripamil to patients who have participated in the clinical development registration trials to treat future SVT episodes. These programs will be tailored to meet the regulatory requirements in the territories in which the clinical sites are located.

Phase 1 and Phase 2 Trials

We completed our Phase 2 clinical trial of etripamil for the treatment of PSVT in the United States and Canada in the electrophysiology lab, with results published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Investigators reported an 87% termination rate of induced episodes of SVT within 15 minutes at the dose selected for our Phase 3 trials versus a 35% termination rate for placebo.

We have completed two Phase 1 clinical trials in healthy volunteers, characterizing the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamic effect of etripamil. Our most recent Phase 1 trial (NODE-102) demonstrated no significant differences in etripamil plasma levels or pharmacodynamic outcomes between Caucasian volunteers or subjects of Japanese descent, which was the primary objective of the study. In secondary analyses of all patients, the study showed that the relevant pharmacodynamic effect of 70 mg etripamil for PSVT, as measured by PR interval prolongation, is approximately in the range of 5 to 50 minutes. This period of time is consistent with data on time to conversion of SVT and data on heart rate reductions observed in NODE-301. When interpreting an electrocardiogram, the interval between the P wave and the R wave, known as the PR interval, is a measure of conduction over the AV node.

As with PSVT, calcium channel blockers are also approved for use in intravenous form for the treatment of some episodes of atrial fibrillation in which patients experience rapid ventricular rates. We plan to initiate a Phase 2 proof-of-concept clinical trial in the second half of 2020 to evaluate the potential effectiveness of etripamil to reduce ventricular rate in atrial fibrillation and we anticipate reporting data following disclosure of top line results of the RAPID trial.

As we generate more data on the safety and efficacy profile of etripamil in PSVT, we will continue to assess whether etripamil could be developed for the treatment of atrial fibrillation as well as other areas of unmet medical need.

Operations Overview

Since the commencement of our operations in 2003, we have devoted substantially all of our resources to performing research and development activities in support of our product development efforts, hiring personnel, raising capital to support and expand such activities, providing general and administrative support for these operations and, more recently preparing for commercialization. We operate our business using a significant outsourcing model. As such, our team is composed of a relatively smaller core of employees who direct a significantly larger number of team members who are outsourced in the forms of vendors and consultants to enable execution of our operational plans. We do not currently

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have any products approved for sale, and we continue to incur significant research and development and general administrative expenses related to our operations.

Since inception, we have incurred significant operating losses. For the nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, we recorded net losses of $41.3 million and $36.9 million, respectively. As of September 30, 2020, we had an accumulated deficit of $154.8 million. We expect to continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future. We anticipate that a substantial portion of our capital resources and efforts in the foreseeable future will be focused on completing the necessary development activities required for obtaining regulatory approval and preparing for potential commercialization of our product candidates. We had $102.9 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments at September 30, 2020, and in October 2020, we received $51.7 million of proceeds from the sale of pre-funded warrants.

Although we implemented certain cost-cutting measures, we nevertheless expect to continue to incur significant expenses and increasing operating losses for at least the next several years. Our net losses may fluctuate significantly from period to period, depending on the timing of our planned clinical trials and expenditures on other research and development activities. We expect our expenses will increase substantially over time as we:

●

continue our ongoing and planned development of etripamil, including our Phase 3 clinical trials of etripamil for the treatment of PSVT;

●

seek marketing approvals for etripamil for the treatment of PSVT and other cardiovascular indications;

●

establish a sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution capability, either directly or indirectly through third parties, to commercialize etripamil or any future product candidate for which we may obtain marketing approval;

●

build a portfolio of product candidates through development, or the acquisition or in-license of drugs, product candidates or technologies;

●

initiate preclinical studies and clinical trials for etripamil for any additional indications we may pursue, including the clinical trials for the treatment of atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular rate as well as other areas of unmet medical need, and for any additional product candidates that we may pursue in the future;

●

maintain, protect and expand our intellectual property portfolio;

●

hire additional clinical, regulatory and scientific personnel;

●

add operational, financial and management information systems and personnel, including personnel to support our product development and planned future commercialization efforts; and

●

incur additional legal, accounting and other expenses associated with operating as a public company.

Recent Developments

Pre-Funded Warrants - Private Placement

On July 23, 2020, we entered into a securities purchase agreement with affiliates of an existing shareholder, all of whom are accredited investors, pursuant to which we agreed to sell and issue to the purchasers, in a private placement, pre-funded warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 6,655,131 of our common shares at a purchase price of $3.7465 per pre-funded warrant. The private placement closed on July 24, 2020, and we received approximately $25 million in gross proceeds before deducting offering expenses.

The pre-funded warrants have an initial exercise price of $0.01 per share, subject to certain adjustments, and no expiration date. The pre-funded warrants may be exercised at any time. A holder (together with its affiliates and other

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attribution parties) may not exercise any portion of a pre-funded warrant to the extent that immediately prior to or after giving effect to such exercise the holder would own more than 9.99% of our outstanding common shares immediately after exercise, which percentage may be changed at the holder’s election to a lower or higher percentage upon 61 days’ notice subject to the terms of the pre-funded warrants.

Open Market Sale Agreement

On July 29, 2020, we entered into an Open Market Sale Agreement℠, or the Sales Agreement, with Jefferies LLC or Jefferies with respect to an at-the-market offering program , or the ATM Program, under which we may issue and sell our common shares having an aggregate offering price of up to $50 million through Jefferies as our sales agent or principal. The common shares to be sold under the Sales Agreement, if any, will be offered and sold pursuant to our shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-239318), which was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 6, 2020. We have not sold shares under the ATM program as of the date of this filing.

Changes to the Board of Directors

On September 21, 2020, our Board of Directors appointed Lisa M. Giles and Robert J. Wills, Ph.D. to the Board of Directors, effective October 1, 2020. Ms. Giles has over 35 years of extensive and significant experience in the pharmaceutical, diagnostic, and device industries, including enterprise strategic planning, R&D and Commercial planning, operations, and business development, and Dr. Wills has over 35 years of extensive and significant experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including preclinical and clinical research and development, business development and strategic partnering.

Public Offering

On October 22, 2020, we entered into an underwriting agreement with Jefferies and Piper Sandler & Co. as representatives of the several underwriters, or collectively, the Underwriters, relating to the issuance and sale of (i) 5,095,897 common shares, without par value, at a price to the public of $5.25 per share, and (ii) pre-funded warrants to purchase 4,761,903 Common Shares at an exercise price equal to $0.01 per share, at a price to the public of $5.24 per common share underlying the pre-funded warrants, or the Offering. Pre-Funded Warrants. The gross proceeds to us from the Offering were $51.7 million, including proceeds from the exercise of the Underwriters' option to purchase additional shares. The securities were offered and sold pursuant to our shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-239318), which was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 6, 2020, a base prospectus dated July 6, 2020 and the related prospectus supplement dated October 22, 2020 and a related registration statement (File No. 333-249623) filed on October 22, 2020 in accordance with Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The offering closed on October 27, 2020.

COVID-19 Business Update

While we are experiencing limited business or financial impact from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic at this time, given the global economic slowdown, the overall disruption of global healthcare systems and the other risks and uncertainties associated with the pandemic, our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects could be materially adversely affected. In March 2020, our global workforce transitioned to working remotely and this may otherwise adversely impact our business (see below for discussion on Clinical Development impacts). In addition, working at home policies could increase cybersecurity risk and communication disruptions. While certain governments have begun rolling back restrictions and implementing phased re-openings, there is no certainty that such plans will continue, and that prior or new and additional restrictions, will not be imposed. We continue to closely monitor the COVID-19 situation as we evolve our business continuity plans and response strategy.

Clinical Development

With respect to clinical development, we have taken measures to maintain patient safety and trial continuity and to preserve study integrity. For our clinical development programs, we have experienced disruptions or delays in our ability to initiate trial sites and enroll and assess patients, and such disruptions or delays may continue. Since our last quarterly filing, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our ability to maintain patient enrollment in our NODE-303

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study as some of the initiated clinical sites have closed their practices to further enrollment. We believe that the corresponding overall impact on the etripamil PSVT program will be lessened as we downsize the NODE-303 study and allocate resources to the recently initiated RAPID trial. Given the uncertainty and differing and evolving restrictions applicable to clinical trial sites and participants, additional disruptions and delays are possible. We will continue to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on our planned clinical sites and patient enrollment activities. We could also see an impact on the ability to supply study drug, report trial results, or interact with regulators, ethics committees or other important agencies due to limitations in regulatory authority employee resources or otherwise. In addition, we rely on contract research organizations or other third parties to assist us with clinical trials, and we cannot guarantee that they will continue to perform their contractual duties in a timely and satisfactory manner as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. If the COVID-19 pandemic continues and persists for an extended period of time, and if phased reopenings stall or are limited due to continued spread of COVID-19, we could experience significant disruptions to our clinical development timelines, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Corporate Development

We expect that our current operating plan and existing cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments will be sufficient to fund our operations and determined that there are no events or conditions that may cast substantial doubt on our ability to continue as a going concern for at least the next 12 months.

However, our operating plan has changed as we focus our efforts on the development of etripamil PSVT program and may change as a result of many factors currently unknown to us, and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned, through public or private equity or debt financings, third-party funding, marketing and distribution arrangements, as well as other collaborations, strategic alliances and licensing arrangements, or any combination of these approaches. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve and has resulted in a significant disruption of global financial markets. It is not possible to reliably estimate the length and severity of this disruption. If the disruption persists and deepens, we could experience an inability to access additional capital, which could in the future negatively affect our operations.

Other Financial and Corporate Impacts

While we expect the COVID-19 pandemic to continue to affect our business operations and financial results, the extent of the impact on our clinical development and regulatory efforts, our corporate development objectives and the value of and market for our common stock, will depend on future developments that are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence at this time, such as the ultimate duration of the pandemic, travel restrictions, quarantines, social distancing and business closure requirements in the United States, Canada, Europe and other countries, and the effectiveness of actions taken globally to contain and treat the disease. For example, if remote work policies for certain portions of our business, or that of our business partners, are extended longer than we currently expect, we may need to reassess our priorities and our corporate objectives for the year.

Components of Results of Operations

Research and Development Expenses

Research and development expenses consist primarily of salaries and fees paid to external service providers and also include personnel costs, including share-based compensation expense and other related compensation expenses. We expense research and development costs in the periods in which they are incurred. Costs for certain development activities are recognized based on an evaluation of the progress to completion of specific tasks using information and data provided to us by our vendors, collaborators and third-party service providers.

To date, substantially all of our research and development expenses have been related to the preclinical and clinical development of etripamil. As we advance etripamil or other product candidates for other indications, we expect to allocate our direct external research and development costs across each of the indications or product candidates. Further, while we expect our research and development costs for the development of etripamil in atrial fibrillation with rapid

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ventricular rate to increase for initiation of our proof of concept clinical trial, we expect our research and development expenses related to the development of etripamil for PSVT to remain a very large majority of our total research and development expenses. The following table shows our research and development expenses by type of activity for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively.



	Three months ended September 30,				Nine months ended September 30,
(in thousands)	2020		2019		2020		2019
Clinical and pre-clinical	$	7,058	$	7,778	$	23,677	$	22,989
Drug manufacturing and formulation		1,029		1,431		3,769		3,699
Regulatory and other costs		433		435		1,746		1,418
Less: investment tax credits		(292)		(99)		(470)		(270)
Total research and development expenses	$	8,228	$	9,545	$	28,722	$	27,836

We expect our research and development expenses to increase as we continue the development of etripamil and prepare to pursue regulatory approval. The process of conducting the necessary clinical research to obtain regulatory approval is costly and time-consuming and is subject to uncertainties and delays, including as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the uncertainties discussed above, we are unable to determine the duration and completion costs of our research and development projects or when and to what extent we will generate revenue from the commercialization and sale of our product candidates, if at all.

We recognize the benefit of Canadian research and development tax credits as a reduction of research and development costs for fully refundable investment tax credits.

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses include personnel and related compensation costs, expenses for outside professional services, lease expense, insurance expense and other general administrative expenses. Personnel costs consist of salaries, bonuses, benefits, related payroll taxes and share-based compensation. Outside professional services consist of legal, accounting and audit services and other consulting fees.

We expect to continue to incurring expenses as a public company, including expenses related to compliance with the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and those of any national securities exchange on which our securities are traded, additional insurance expenses, investor relations activities, and other administrative and professional services.

Commercial Expenses

Commercial expenses consist primarily of personnel and related compensation costs, market and health economic research, and market development activities for PSVT and, to a much lesser extent, atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular rate. The focus of these expenses is three-fold: first, we want to leverage rigorous primary and secondary research to fully understand our target disease states from the perspective of the patient, healthcare provider, and payor; second, we want to understand and document the burden of disease posed by PSVT from an epidemiology, healthcare resource use, and cost perspective; and third, we want to engage our target patient, physician, and payor stakeholders with evidence-based and compliant educational materials that serve to increase the awareness and understanding of the impact of PSVT on patients and the overall healthcare system.

We expect to continue implementing our plan to reduce operating expenses by 20 to 25% during the remainder of fiscal year 2020 in order to focus our efforts on the optimized clinical development pathway for etripamil that was determined following regulatory feedback. The cuts primarily affect pre-commercialization activities. Starting approximately one year before we file our new drug application, or NDA with the FDA, we anticipate our commercial expenses will

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increase substantially as we invest in the infrastructure, personnel, and operational expenses required to launch our first product in the United States, if approved.

Interest Income

Interest income primarily consists of interest income from our cash equivalents and short-term investments.

Results of Operations

Comparison of the Three and Nine Months Ended September 30, 2020 and 2019

The following table summarizes our results of operations and changes:


	Three months ended
	September 30,
(in thousands)	2020		2019		$Change		% Change
Operating expenses
Research and development, net of tax credits	$	8,228	$	9,545	$	(1,317)	-13.8%
General and administrative		2,952		2104		848	40.3%
Commercial		905		2,076		(1,171)	-56.4%
Total operating expenses		12,085		13,725		(1,640)	-12.0%
Loss from operations		(12,085)		(13,725)		1,640	-12.0%
Interest income, net of bank charges		89		821		(732)	-89.2%
Loss and comprehensive loss before income taxes		(11,996)		(12,904)		908	-7.0%
Income tax recovery		(17)		(73)		56	-76.7%
Net loss and comprehensive loss	$	(11,979)	$	(12,831)	$	852	-6.6%


	Nine months ended
	September 30,
(in thousands)	2020		2019		$Change		% Change
Operating expenses
Research and development, net of tax credits	$	28,722	$	27,836	$	886	3.2%
General and administrative		8,611		4,725		3,886	82.2%
Commercial		4,615		6,428		(1,813)	-28.2%
Total operating expenses		41,948		38,989		2,959	7.6%
Loss from operations		(41,948)		(38,989)		(2,959)	7.6%
Interest income, net of bank charges		630		1,993		(1,363)	-68.4%
Loss and comprehensive loss before income taxes		(41,318)		(36,996)		(4,322)	11.7%
Income tax recovery		(17)		(55)		38	-69.1%
Net loss and comprehensive loss	$	(41,301)	$	(36,941)	$	(4,360)	11.8%

Research and Development Expenses

Research and development, or R&D, expenses decreased by $1.3 million, or 14%, for the three months ended September 30, 2020 compared to the three months ended September 30, 2019. However, R&D expenses increased by $1.0 million, or 3.5% for the nine months ended September 30, 2020 compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2019. During the quarter ended September 30, 2020, we recorded $8.2 million in R&D expenses. During the nine months ended September 30, 2020, we recorded $28.8 million in research and development expenses. Spending during both periods was primarily related to advancing our Phase 3 efficacy and safety trials in etripamil for the treatment of PSVT. We spent $5.6 million on these programs in the third quarter of 2020 and recorded R&D and personnel related costs of $2.9 million, including non-cash compensation costs related to share-based compensation expense. During the same period of 2019, we recorded expenses of $6.6 million for the efficacy trial in etripamil for the treatment of PSVT and recorded R&D and personnel related costs of $3.0 million. Additionally, we spent $18.8 million on these programs in the first nine months of 2020 and recorded R&D and personnel related costs of $10.4 million, including non-cash cost related to

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share-based compensation expense. During the same period of 2019, we recorded expenses of $19.1 million for the efficacy trial in etripamil for the treatment of PSVT and recorded R&D personnel related costs of $9.0 million. We also recognized $0.3 million and $0.1 of reimbursable R&D investment tax credits provided by the provincial government of Québec in the three-month periods ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively and $0.5 and 0.3 million of such tax credits in the nine-month periods ended September 30, 2020 and 2019. Tax credits are recorded as a reduction of our R&D expenses.

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses increased by $0.9 million, or 40% for the three months ended September 30, 2020 compared to the three months ended September 30, 2019 and increased by $4.0 million, or 82% for the nine months ended September 30, 2020 compared to the nine month ended September 30, 2019. Following the IPO in May 2019, insurance costs increased to support risk management activities as a public company. In addition, we incurred increased spending related to consulting, recruiting and professional fees to support the increased compliance requirements of being a public company. Additionally, during the three-month and nine-month periods ended on September 30, 2020, compensation and related personnel costs increased when compared to the same period in 2019 due to an increase in administrative headcount and non-cash compensation cost related to share-based compensation expense.

In June 2020, we amended our executive officer employment agreements in connection with our plan to reduce operating expenses for the remainder of 2020, which included, among other items, a 20% reduction in base salary for our executive officers (25% for our Chief Executive Officer) for a term of one year.

Commercial Expenses

Commercial expenses decreased by $1.2 million, or 56%, for the three months ended September 30, 2020 and by $1.8 million, or 28.2% for the nine months ended September 30, 2020 when compared to the same periods in 2019. We reduced operating expenses in the second quarter of 2020 in order to focus our efforts on an optimized clinical development pathway for etripamil. The cuts primarily affected pre-commercialization activities.

Interest Income, Net

Interest income, net of bank charges was $0.1 million and $0.8 million for the three-month periods ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively and $0.6 million and $2.0 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively. The reduction in interest income is mainly explained by lower interest rates earned on investments in 2020 when compared to 2019 and by lower cash balances in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

Net Loss

For the foregoing reasons, we had net losses of $12.0 million and $12.8 million for the three months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, and $41.3 million and $36.9 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Sources of Liquidity

Prior to the IPO, we financed our operations primarily through sales of our convertible preferred shares to accredited investors generating net proceeds of $138.8 million. In May 2019, we received net proceeds of $85.4 million from the IPO.

We have incurred operating losses and experienced negative operating cash flows since our inception and anticipate to continue to incur losses for at least the next several years. As of September 30, 2020, we had cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $102.9 million and an accumulated deficit of $154.8 million.

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In July 2020, we entered into a securities purchase agreement with affiliates of RTW Investments LP, an existing shareholder (the Purchasers), to sell and issue to the Purchasers in a private placement, pre-funded warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 6,655,131 of the our common shares, at a purchase price of $3.7465 per pre-funded warrant for aggregate proceeds of $25 million before deducting offering expenses. The private placement closed on July 24, 2020.

On July 29, 2020, we entered into the Sales Agreement with Jefferies with respect to the ATM Program, under which we may issue and sell our common shares having an aggregate offering price of up to $50 million through Jefferies as our sales agent or principal. We have not yet sold any common shares under the ATM Program.

In addition, on October 22, 2020, we entered into an underwriting agreement with Jefferies and Piper Sandler & Co. as representatives of the Underwriters relating to the issuance and sale of (i) 5,095,897 common shares, without par value, at a price to the public of $5.25 per share, and (ii) pre-funded warrants to purchase 4,761,903 Common Shares at an exercise price equal to $0.01 per share, at a price to the public of $5.24 per Common Share underlying the pre-funded warrants. The gross proceeds were $51.7 million before deducting offering expenses, including proceeds from the exercise of the Underwriters' option to purchase additional shares. The securities were offered and sold pursuant to a base prospectus dated July 6, 2020 and the related prospectus supplement dated October 22, 2020 and a related registration statement (File No. 333-249623) filed on October 22, 2020 in accordance with Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The offering closed on October 27, 2020.

We have evaluated whether material uncertainties exist relating to clinical trials, COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on market conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on our business, operations and clinical development timelines. Government orders and restrictions in order to control the spread of the disease have impacted patient recruitment, enrollment and follow-up visits at clinical sites. At the date of the publication of our quarterly report, it is not possible to reliably estimate the length and severity of these developments. We expect that our current operating plan, existing cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments and access to financing sources, including our Sales Agreement with Jefferies, to be sufficient to fund our operations and determined that there are no events or conditions that may cast substantial doubt on our ability to continue as a going concern for at least the next 12 months from the date of issuance of these unaudited interim financial statements.

Funding Requirements

We use our cash primarily to fund research and development expenditures. We expect our research and development expenses to increase as we continue the development of etripamil and prepare to pursue regulatory approval. We expect to incur an increase in general and administrative expenses notwithstanding our temporary salary reductions and other measures implemented in June 2020, and a decrease in expenses related to commercial activities in 2020 as we focus our efforts on the clinical pathway for etripamil. We expect to incur increasing operating losses for the foreseeable future as we continue the clinical development of our product candidate. At this time, due to the inherently unpredictable nature of clinical development, we cannot reasonably estimate the costs we will incur and the timelines that will be required to complete development, obtain marketing approval, and commercialize etripamil or any future product candidates, if at all. For the same reasons, we are also unable to predict when, if ever, we will generate revenue from product sales or whether, or when, if ever, we may achieve profitability. Clinical and preclinical development timelines, the probability of success, and development costs can differ materially from expectations.

In addition, we have exclusive development and commercialization rights for etripamil for all indications that we may pursue and as such have the potential to license development and or commercialization rights for etripamil to a potential partner. We plan to establish commercialization and marketing capabilities using a direct sales force to commercialize etripamil in the United States. Outside of the United States, we are considering commercialization strategies that may include collaborations with other companies. For other new product candidates, our efforts are focused on licensing development and/or commercialization rights from potential partners. In the case of either in-licensing or out-licensing, we cannot forecast when such arrangements will be secured, if at all, and to what degree such arrangements would affect our development and commercialization plans and capital requirements.

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The timing and amount of our operating expenditures will depend largely on:

●

the timing, progress and results of our ongoing and planned clinical trials and other development activities of etripamil in PSVT and in other cardiovascular indications;

●

the scope, progress, results and costs of preclinical development, laboratory testing and clinical trials of etripamil for additional indications or any future product candidates that we may pursue;

●

our ability to establish collaborations on favorable terms, if at all;

●

the ability of vendors and third-party service providers to accurately forecast expenses and deliver on expectations;

●

the costs, timing and outcome of regulatory review of etripamil and any future product candidates;

●

the costs and timing of future commercialization activities, including product manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution, for etripamil and any future product candidates for which we receive marketing approval;

●

the revenue, if any, received from commercial sales of etripamil and any future product candidates for which we receive marketing approval;

●

the costs and timing of preparing, filing and prosecuting patent applications, maintaining and enforcing our intellectual property rights and defending any intellectual property-related claims; and

●

the extent to which we acquire or in-license other product candidates and technologies.

Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial revenue from product sales, we expect to fund our operations and capital funding needs through equity and/or debt financing. We may also consider entering into collaboration arrangements or selectively partnering for clinical development and commercialization. The sale of additional equity would result in additional dilution to our shareholders. The incurrence of debt financing would result in debt service obligations and the instruments governing such debt could provide for operating and financing covenants that restrict our operations or our ability to incur additional indebtedness or pay dividends, among other items. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rapidly evolve and has already resulted in a significant disruption of global financial markets. If the disruption persists and deepens, we could experience an inability to access additional capital, which could in the future negatively affect our operations. If we are not able to secure adequate additional funding, we may be forced to make reductions in spending, extend payment terms with suppliers, liquidate assets where possible, and/or suspend or curtail planned programs. Any of these actions could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Cash Flows

The following table summarizes our cash flows for the periods indicated:


	Nine months ended
	September 30,
(in thousands)	2020	2019	$ Change	% Change
Net cash (used in) provided by:
Operating activities	(41,975)	(34,549)	(7,426)	21.49	%
Investing activities	(56,000)	(30,283)	(25,717)	84.92	%
Financing activities	25,067	85,386	(60,319)	(70.64)	%
Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents during the period	(72,908)	20,554	(93,462)

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Operating Activities

In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, we used $42.0 million of cash in operating activities, which consisted of a net loss of $41.3 million and a net change of $4.3 million in our net operating liabilities and non-cash charges of $3.6 million related to share-based compensation expense for grants to employees, board directors and consultants. The change in our net operating assets and liabilities was mainly due to a decrease of $2.4 million for accounts payable and accrued liabilities and an increase of $1.7 million for prepaid expenses.

In the nine months ended September 30, 2019, we used $34.5 million of cash in operating activities, which consisted of a net loss of $36.9 million and a net change of $1.5 million in our net operating liabilities and non-cash charges of $0.9 million. The non-cash charges primarily consist of share-based compensation expense for grants to employees. The change in our net operating assets and liabilities was due to an increase of $4.0 million of accounts payable and accrued liabilities and a net decrease of $0.3 million primarily related to other receivables, income tax payable and research and development tax credits receivable offset by $2.1 million for prepaid expenses.

Investing Activities

In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, we used $60.0 million of cash for the acquisition of short-term investments and we received $4.0 million of cash from redemptions. In the same period in 2019, we used $35.0 million of cash for the acquisition of short-term investments and we received $5.0 million of cash from redemptions.

Financing Activities

In the nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, our financing activities provided $297 thousand and $25 thousand, respectively, which consisted of proceeds from the exercise of share options. In addition, we received net proceeds of $24.7 from a private placement of equity securities which closed on July 24, 2020. In the nine months ended September 30, 2019, the IPO provided net cash consideration of $85.4 million.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We have not entered into off-balance sheet arrangements.

Contractual Obligations

On July 1, 2020, we entered into an arrangement for the lease renewal for our headquarters located in Ville Saint-Laurent, Quebec. The 5-year lease extension term is from December 1, 2020 expiring on November 30, 2025. We revalued the operating lease right-of-use asset and operating lease liabilities at the effective lease arrangement date of July 1, 2020. We recognize lease expenses on a straight-line basis over the lease term, which is accomplished by increasing the amortization of the right-of-use asset as interest expense on the lease liability declines over the lease term. We are not reasonably certain of renewing the lease following the current renewal option and recognized the right-of-use asset and operating lease liabilities to November 30, 2025.

Except as set forth above, during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020, there were no material changes to our contractual obligations and commitments described under "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 6, 2020.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our unaudited interim consolidated financial statements as at September 30, 2020, which have been prepared in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles, or U.S. GAAP and on a basis consistent with those accounting principles followed by us and disclosed in Note 2 to our most recent annual audited consolidated financial statements. The preparation of these unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements requires our management to make judgments and estimates that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, as well as the reported revenue generated and expenses

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incurred during the reporting periods. Our estimates are based on our historical experience and on various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant estimates and judgments include, but are not limited to, research and development tax credits recoverable, research and development expenses, and share-based compensation. Accordingly, actual results may differ from these judgments and estimates under different assumptions or conditions and any such differences may be material. We believe that the accounting policies discussed below are critical to understanding our historical and future performance, as these policies relate to the more significant areas involving management’s judgments and estimates.

We anticipate that the COVID-19 pandemic will have an impact on the development timelines of our clinical programs. Estimates and assumptions about future events and their effects cannot be determined with certainty and therefore require the exercise of judgment. As of the date of issuance of these financial statements, we are not aware of any specific event or circumstance that would require the update of our estimates, assumptions and judgments. These estimates may change as new events occur and additional information is obtained and are recognized in the consolidated financial statements as soon as they become known. Actual results could differ from those estimates and any such differences may be material to our financial statements.

Other than as described under Note 2 of our unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements, there have been no material changes to our critical accounting policies from those described in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” included in our most recent annual consolidated financial statements.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Refer to Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies”, for a discussion of recent accounting pronouncements and to the notes to our audited consolidated financial statements as at December 31, 2019 appearing in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 6, 2020.

Emerging Growth Company Status

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 permits an “emerging growth company” such as us to take advantage of an extended transition period to comply with new or revised accounting standards applicable to public companies until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We have irrevocably elected to “opt out” of this provision and, as a result, we comply with new or revised accounting standards when they are required to be adopted by public companies that are not emerging growth companies.

Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.

The primary objective of our investment activities is to preserve principal and liquidity while maximizing income without significantly increasing risk. We are exposed to market risks in the ordinary course of our business. These risks primarily relate to interest rate risks. We had cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $102.9 million as of September 30, 2020, which consist primarily of bank deposits and guaranteed investment certificates. We do not enter into investments for trading or speculative purposes. Due to the short-term nature of our investment portfolio, we do not believe an immediate 10% increase or decrease in interest rates would have a material effect on the fair market value of our portfolio, and accordingly we do not expect our operating results or cash flows to be materially affected by a sudden change in market interest rates.

We undertake certain transactions in Canadian dollars and as such are subject to risk due to fluctuations in exchange rates. Canadian dollar denominated payables are paid at the converted rate as due. We do not use derivative instruments to hedge exposure to foreign exchange rate risk due to the low volume of transactions denominated in foreign currencies. At September 30, 2020, our net monetary assets denominated in Canadian dollars were equivalent to $0.75 in U.S. dollars.

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Our operating results and financial position are reported in U.S. dollars in our consolidated financial statements. The fluctuation of the Canadian dollar in relation to the U.S. dollar might, consequently, have an impact upon our loss and may also affect the value of our assets and the amount of shareholders’ equity.

We do not believe that inflation and changing prices had a significant impact on our results of operations for any periods presented herein. We do not have a formal hedging program with respect to foreign currency. A 10% increase or decrease in current exchange rates would not have a material effect on our consolidated financial results.

Item 4. Controls and Procedures.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures.

We maintain “disclosure controls and procedures,” as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in the reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is (1) recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms and (2) accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives and management necessarily applies its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures.

Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of September 30, 2020. Based upon the evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that, as of such date, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at a reasonable assurance level.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting.

There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the period covered by this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q 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 our employees are working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are continually monitoring and assessing the COVID-19 situation on our internal controls to minimize the impact on their design and operating effectiveness.

Inherent Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls.

Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, believes that our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting are designed to provide reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives and are effective at the reasonable assurance level. However, our management does not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or our internal control over financial reporting will prevent all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of a simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people or by management override of the controls. The design of any system of controls also is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions; over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or the degree of compliance with policies or procedures may deteriorate. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.

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PART II—OTHER INFORMATION

Item 1. Legal Proceedings.

From time to time, we may become involved in legal proceedings arising in the ordinary course of our business. We are not currently a party to any material legal proceedings, and we are not aware of any pending or threatened legal proceeding against us that we believe could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition.

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

An investment in shares of our common shares involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following information about these risks, together with the other information appearing elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto before deciding to invest in our common shares. The occurrence of any of the following risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and future growth prospects or cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements we have made in this report and those we may make from time to time. In these circumstances, the market price of our common shares could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. We cannot assure you that any of the events discussed below will not occur. Such risks may be amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic and its potential impact on our business and the global economy. We have updated the risk factors previously disclosed in Part I, Item 1A. of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 6, 2020.

Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Capital Needs

Since inception in 2003, we have incurred significant operating losses. Our net loss was $41.3 million and $36.9 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively. As of September 30, 2020, we had an accumulated deficit of $154.8 million We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and increasing operating losses for the foreseeable future. Since inception, we have devoted substantially all of our efforts to research and preclinical and clinical development of etripamil, as well as to expanding our management team and infrastructure. It could be several years, if ever, before we have a commercialized drug. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on our business, operations and clinical development timelines. Government orders and restrictions in order to control the spread of the disease have impacted patient recruitment, enrollment and follow-up visits at clinical sites. At the date of the publication of our quarterly report, it is not possible to reliably estimate the length and severity of these developments. We expect that our current operating plan, existing cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments to be sufficient to fund our operations.

The net losses we incur may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if, and as, we:

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continue our ongoing and planned development of etripamil, including our Phase 3 clinical trials of etripamil for the treatment of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, or PSVT;

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seek marketing approvals for etripamil for the treatment of PSVT and other cardiovascular indications and any future product candidates that successfully complete clinical trials;

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establish a sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution capability, either directly or indirectly with third parties, to commercialize etripamil or any future product candidate for which we may obtain marketing approval;

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build a portfolio of product candidates through development, or the acquisition or in-license of drugs, product candidates or technologies;

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maintain, protect and expand our intellectual property portfolio;

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hire additional clinical, regulatory and scientific personnel;

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add operational, financial and management information systems and personnel, including personnel to support our product development and planned future commercialization efforts; and

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incur additional legal, insurance related, accounting and other expenses associated with operating as a public company.

To become and remain profitable, we must succeed in developing and eventually commercializing drugs that generate significant revenue. This will require us to be successful in a range of challenging activities, including completing clinical trials of etripamil and any future product candidates that way may pursue, obtaining regulatory approval, procuring commercial-scale manufacturing, marketing and selling etripamil and any future products for which we may obtain regulatory approval, as well as discovering or acquiring and then developing additional product candidates. We are only in the preliminary stages of some of these activities, and we have recently encountered setbacks in our clinical development program for etripamil, as our NODE-301 trial did not meet its primary endpoint. We may never succeed in these activities and, even if we do, may never generate revenues that are significant enough to achieve profitability.

Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with drug development, we are unable to accurately predict the timing or amount of expenses or when, or if, we will be able to achieve profitability.

Our expenses could increase beyond our expectations if we are required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, the European Medicines Agency or other regulatory authorities to perform studies in addition to those we currently expect, or if there are any delays in the initiation and completion of our clinical trials or the development of etripamil or any future product candidates.

Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable would decrease the value of our company and could impair our ability to raise capital, maintain our research and development efforts, expand our business or continue our operations. A decline in the value of our common shares could also cause you to lose all or part of your investment.

Our limited operating history may make it difficult for you to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability.

We are a clinical-stage company founded in 2003, and our operations to date have been largely focused on raising capital, organizing and staffing our company, and undertaking preclinical studies and conducting clinical trials for etripamil. As an organization, we have not yet demonstrated an ability to successfully complete clinical development, obtain regulatory approvals, manufacture a commercial-scale product or arrange for a third party to do so on our behalf, or conduct sales and marketing activities necessary for successful commercialization. Consequently, any predictions about our future success or viability may not be as accurate as they could be if we had a longer operating history or a history of successful clinical development and commercialization of products.

We may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other known or unknown factors in achieving our business objectives. We will need to transition at some point from a company with a research and development focus to a company capable of supporting commercial activities. We may not be successful in such a transition.

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Additionally, we expect our financial condition and operating results to continue to fluctuate from quarter to quarter and year to year due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. Accordingly, you should not rely upon the results of any quarterly or annual periods as indications of future operating performance.

Based on our research and development plans, we expect that our existing cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, will be sufficient to fund our operations for at least the next 12 months. However, we will need to obtain substantial additional funding in connection with our continuing operations and planned activities. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:

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the timing, progress and results of our ongoing and planned clinical trials of etripamil in PSVT and in other cardiovascular indications;

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the scope, progress, results and costs of preclinical development, laboratory testing and clinical trials of etripamil for additional indications or any future product candidates that we may pursue;

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our ability to establish collaborations on favorable terms, if at all;

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the ability of vendors who we rely on to accurately forecast expenses and deliver on expectations;

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the costs, timing and outcome of regulatory review of etripamil, including our anticipated discussions with the FDA regarding the results of our NODE-301 trial, and any future product candidates;

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the revenue, if any, received from commercial sales of etripamil and any future product candidates for which we receive marketing approval;

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the costs and timing of preparing, filing and prosecuting patent applications, maintaining and enforcing our intellectual property rights and defending any intellectual property-related claims;

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the extent to which we acquire or in-license other product candidates and technologies; and

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the costs of operating as a public company.

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Identifying potential product candidates and conducting preclinical testing and clinical trials is a time-consuming, expensive and uncertain process that takes years to complete, and we may never generate the necessary data or results required to obtain regulatory approval and achieve product sales. For example, we recently announced that the pivotal NODE-301 trial of etripamil for PSVT did not meet its primary endpoint. There can be no guarantee that the recently initiated RAPID trial will meet its primary endpoint. In addition, etripamil and any future product candidates, if approved, may not achieve commercial success. Our commercial revenues, if any, will be derived from sales of drugs that we do not expect to be commercially available for several years, if at all. Accordingly, we will need to continue to rely on additional financing to achieve our business objectives. Adequate additional financing may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. In addition, we may seek additional capital due to favorable market conditions or strategic considerations even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on attractive terms, we could be forced to delay, reduce or altogether terminate our research and development programs or future commercialization efforts.

Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our shareholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our product candidates.

Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial product revenue, we expect to finance our cash needs through public or private equity or debt financings, third-party funding, marketing and distribution arrangements, as well as other collaborations, strategic alliances and licensing arrangements, or any combination of these approaches. We do not have any committed external source of funds. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, your ownership interest may be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a shareholder. Debt and equity financings, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as redeeming our shares, making investments, incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures, declaring dividends or placing limitations on our ability to acquire, sell or license intellectual property rights.

If we raise additional capital through future collaborations, strategic alliances or third-party licensing arrangements, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our intellectual property, future revenue streams, research programs or product candidates, or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. If we are unable to raise additional capital when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our drug development or future commercialization efforts, or grant rights to develop and market product candidates that we would otherwise develop and market ourselves.

Limited directors’ and officers’, or D&O insurance, may reduce the amount of money available to us and may make it difficult for us to retain and attract talented and skilled directors and officers.

Due to recent increases in D&O insurance premiums, we have recently reduced coverage under our D&O insurance policy. Under our current policy, our directors, officers and other agents are insured against losses for actions taken in their capacities as directors, officers or agents only if we cannot or are prohibited from indemnifying them for such losses. As a result, we would have to self-fund any indemnification amounts owed to our directors, officers and agents, in which case our financial condition could be materially adversely affected.

We expect that D&O insurance premiums may increase in the future. If the costs of maintaining adequate D&O insurance coverage increase significantly in the future, our financial condition could be materially adversely affected. Additionally, limited D&O insurance, or the perception that our D&O insurance is inadequate, may make it difficult for us to retain and attract talented and skilled directors and officers to serve our company, which could adversely affect our business.

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Our ability to use our non-capital loss carryforwards to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.

In general, where control of a corporation has been acquired by a person or group of persons, subsection 111(5) of the Income Tax Act (Canada), or the Canadian Tax Act, and equivalent provincial income tax legislation restrict the corporation’s ability to carry forward non-capital losses from preceding taxation years. We have not performed a detailed analysis to determine whether an acquisition of control for the purposes of subsection 111(5) of the Canadian Tax Act has occurred after each of our previous issuances of common shares or preferred shares. In addition, if we undergo an acquisition of control, our ability to utilize non-capital losses could be limited by subsection 111(5) of the Canadian Tax Act. As of December 31, 2019, we had Canadian federal and provincial non-capital loss carry forwards of $86.6 million and $86.1 million, respectively, which expire beginning in 2027 through 2039. In addition, we also have scientific research and experimental development expenditures of $9.4 million and $11.1 million, respectively, for Canadian federal and provincial income tax purposes, which have not been deducted. These expenditures are available to reduce future taxable income and have an unlimited carry-forward period. Research and development tax credits and expenditures are subject to verification by the tax authorities, and, accordingly, these amounts may vary. Future changes in our share ownership, some of which are outside of our control, could result in an acquisition of control for the purposes of subsection 111(5) of the Canadian Tax Act. Furthermore, our ability to utilize non-capital losses (or U.S. equivalents) of companies that we may acquire in the future may be subject to limitations. As a result, even if we attain profitability, we may be unable to use a material portion of our non-capital losses and other tax attributes, which could negatively impact our future cash flows.

Our subsidiary’s ability to use our U.S. net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes for U.S. income tax purposes may be limited.

As of December 31, 2019, we had U.S. federal net operating loss carryforwards, or NOLs, of $12.4 million as a result of expenses incurred by Milestone Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., our wholly-owned subsidiary. Under U.S. federal income tax legislation enacted in 2017, informally titled the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or the Tax Act, which was modified by legislation enacted on March 27, 2020 entitled the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act, U.S. federal NOLs incurred in taxable years ending beginning after December 31, 2017 may be carried forward indefinitely. However, the deductibility of such NOLs in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2020 is limited to 80% of taxable income. It is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to the Tax Act or the CARES Act. In addition, under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and corresponding provisions of state law, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” which is generally defined as a greater than 50% change (by value) in its equity ownership over a three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change NOL carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes (such as research tax credits) to offset its post-change income may be limited. It is possible that we have experienced one or more ownership changes in the past. In addition, we may also experience ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our share ownership some of which may be outside of our control. As a result, if we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-ownership change NOL carryforwards to offset U.S. federal taxable income may be subject to limitations, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us. In addition, at the state level, there may be periods during which the use of NOLs is suspended or otherwise limited, which could accelerate or permanently increase state taxes owed.

Risks Related to the Development of Our Product Candidates

We have only one product candidate, etripamil, for which we are currently pursuing clinical development. Our future success is substantially dependent on the successful clinical development and regulatory approval of etripamil. If we are not able to obtain required regulatory approvals for etripamil or any future product candidates, we will not be able to commercialize etripamil or any future product candidates and our ability to generate revenue will be adversely affected.

Etripamil is currently our only product candidate. We have not obtained regulatory approval for etripamil or any product candidate, and it is possible that neither etripamil nor any product candidates we may seek to develop in the future will ever obtain regulatory approval. Neither we nor any future collaborator is permitted to market any drug product candidates in the United States or other countries until we receive regulatory approval from the FDA or applicable

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foreign regulatory agency. The time required to obtain approval or other marketing authorizations by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities is unpredictable but typically takes many years following the commencement of clinical trials and depends upon numerous factors, including the substantial discretion of the regulatory authorities. In addition, approval policies, regulations or the type and amount of clinical data necessary to gain approval may change during the course of a product candidate’s clinical development and may vary among jurisdictions. For example, in July 2020, we announced that the FDA indicated that two studies, the RAPID study and the completed NODE-301 study, could potentially fulfill the efficacy requirement for our NDA for etripamil in patients with PSVT. We proposed certain program changes to the FDA and they agreed.

Prior to obtaining approval to commercialize etripamil and any other drug product candidate in the United States or elsewhere, we must demonstrate with substantial evidence from well controlled clinical trials, and to the satisfaction of the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, that such product candidates are safe and effective for their intended uses. Results from nonclinical studies and clinical trials can be interpreted in different ways. Even if we believe the nonclinical or clinical data for our product candidates are promising, such data may not be sufficient to support approval by the FDA and other regulatory authorities. The FDA may also require us to conduct additional nonclinical studies, including human factor studies, or clinical trials for our product candidates either prior to or post-approval, or it may object to elements of our clinical development program. In addition, the FDA typically refers applications for novel drugs, like etripamil and potentially any future product candidates, to an advisory committee composed of outside experts. The FDA is not bound by the recommendation of the advisory committee, but it considers such recommendation when making its decision.

Of the large number of products in development, only a small percentage successfully complete the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities’ approval processes and are commercialized. The lengthy approval or marketing authorization process as well as the unpredictability of future clinical trial results may result in our failing to obtain regulatory approval or marketing authorization to market etripamil or any future product candidates, which would significantly harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We have invested a significant portion of our time and financial resources in the development of etripamil. Our business is dependent on our ability to successfully complete development of, obtain regulatory approval for, and, if approved, successfully commercialize etripamil and any future product candidates in a timely manner.

Even if we eventually complete clinical testing and receive approval of a new drug application, or NDA, or foreign marketing application for etripamil and any future product candidates, the FDA or the comparable foreign regulatory authorities may grant approval or other marketing authorization contingent on the performance of costly additional clinical trials, including post-market clinical trials. The FDA or the comparable foreign regulatory authorities also may approve or authorize for marketing a product candidate for a more limited indication or patient population that we originally request, and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may not approve or authorize the labeling that we believe is necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of a product candidate. Any delay in obtaining, or inability to obtain, applicable regulatory approval or other marketing authorization would delay or prevent commercialization of that product candidate and would materially adversely impact our business and prospects.

In addition, the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities may change their policies, adopt additional regulations or revise existing regulations or take other actions, which may prevent or delay approval of our future products under development on a timely basis. Such policy or regulatory changes could impose additional requirements upon us that could delay our ability to obtain approvals, increase the costs of compliance or restrict our ability to maintain any marketing authorizations we may have obtained.

We may not be successful in our efforts to expand our pipeline of product candidates beyond etripamil for PSVT.

We intend to build a pipeline of product candidates beyond etripamil for PSVT and progress these product candidates through clinical development. We may not be able to expand the scope of cardiovascular indications for etripamil beyond PSVT, or leverage our expertise and experience with etripamil in PSVT to other product candidates. We may not be able to in-license, acquire or develop future product candidates that are safe and effective. Even if we are successful in continuing to expand etripamil to other indications and further build our pipeline, the potential product candidates that

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we identify may not be suitable for clinical development, including as a result of safety, tolerability, efficacy or other characteristics that indicate that they are unlikely to be drugs that will receive marketing approval, achieve market acceptance or obtain reimbursements from third-party payors. If we do not successfully execute on our strategy of expanding our product pipeline, it could significantly harm our financial position and adversely affect the trading price of our common shares.

The development of additional product candidates is risky and uncertain.

Efforts to identify, acquire or in-license, and then develop product candidates require substantial technical, financial and human resources, whether or not any product candidates are ultimately identified. Our efforts may initially show promise in identifying potential product candidates, yet fail to yield product candidates for clinical development, approved products or commercial revenues for many reasons, including the following:

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the methodology used may not be successful in identifying potential product candidates;

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competitors may develop alternatives that render any product candidates we develop obsolete;

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any product candidates we develop may nevertheless be covered by third parties’ patents or other exclusive rights;

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a product candidate may be shown to have harmful side effects or other characteristics that indicate it is unlikely to be effective or otherwise does not meet applicable regulatory criteria;

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a product candidate may not be capable of being produced in commercial quantities at an acceptable cost, or at all; and

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a product candidate may not be accepted as safe and effective by physicians, patients, the medical community or third-party payors.

We have limited financial and management resources and, as a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or for other indications that later prove to have greater market potential. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial drugs or profitable market opportunities. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular product candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that product candidate through collaboration, licensing or other royalty arrangements in circumstances under which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights to such product candidate. If we are unsuccessful in identifying and developing additional product candidates or are unable to do so, our business may be harmed.

Success in preclinical testing and earlier clinical trials does not ensure that later clinical trials will generate the same results or otherwise provide adequate data to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of a product candidate. Preclinical tests and Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials are primarily designed to test safety, to study pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics and to understand the side effects of product candidates at various doses and schedules. Success in preclinical studies and earlier clinical trials does not ensure that later efficacy trials will be successful, nor does it predict final results. For example, our Phase 2 clinical trial of etripamil for PSVT was conducted in an electrophysiology lab, a controlled setting, in which episodes of supraventricular tachycardia, or SVT, were induced and etripamil was administered by healthcare providers. Our Phase 3 clinical trials are being conducted in an at-home setting with patients self-administering etripamil and monitoring their cardiac activity as episodes of SVT occur. Additionally, in our Phase 2 clinical trial, four sprays of study drug were dispensed to patients using four separate FDA-approved single-spray devices. In our Phase 3 clinical trials, patients self-administer two sprays of study drug from an FDA-approved device that is capable of delivering two separate sprays. Accordingly, the results of our Phase 2 trial of etripamil may not be

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replicated in the at-home setting of our Phase 3 clinical trials, and notably, our NODE-301 clinical trial did not meet its primary endpoint. Etripamil and any future product candidates may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy in clinical development despite positive results in preclinical studies or having successfully advanced through earlier clinical trials.

In addition, the design of a clinical trial can determine whether its results will support approval of a product, and flaws in the design of a clinical trial may not become apparent until the clinical trial is well advanced. Clinical trial design flaws are more likely in therapy areas, such as PSVT, where there are limited previous trials from which to learn and model clinical trials. As an organization, we have limited experience designing clinical trials and may be unable to design and execute a clinical trial to support regulatory approval. Many companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have suffered significant setbacks in late-stage clinical trials even after achieving promising results in preclinical testing and earlier clinical trials. Data obtained from preclinical and clinical activities are subject to varying interpretations, which may delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. In addition, we may experience regulatory delays or rejections as a result of many factors, including changes in regulatory policy during the period of our product candidate development. Any such delays could negatively impact our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Our business, operations and clinical development timelines and plans have been, and could in the future be adversely affected by health epidemics in regions where we have concentrations of clinical trial sites or other business operations, and could cause significant disruption in the operations of CROs and manufacturers upon whom we rely.

In response to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, many state, local and foreign governments put in place quarantines, executive orders, shelter-in-place orders and similar government orders and restrictions in order to control the spread of the disease which resulted in business closures, work stoppages, slowdowns and delays, work-from-home policies, travel restrictions and cancellation of events. We implemented a work-from-home policy for all employees, and we may take further actions that alter our operations as may be required by federal, state or local authorities, or which we determine are in the best interests of our employees. While the situation is evolving, and certain locations are doing phased re-openings, new restrictions could be implemented, or prior restrictions reinstated in order to address the spread of COVID-19. These actions, and the uncertainty about the ever evolving landscape, could negatively impact productivity and disrupt our business and operations.

Moreover, our clinical development timelines and plans could continue to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We rely on contract research organizations or other third parties to assist us with clinical trials, and we cannot guarantee that they will continue to perform their contractual duties in a timely and satisfactory manner as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical trial site initiations and patient enrollment have been and may be further delayed or suspended due to the desire to protect potential study patients and study personnel. For example, some sites for our NODE-303 study have closed their practices to further enrollment. In addition, already-enrolled patients may not be able to comply with clinical trial protocols or attend follow up visits if quarantines impede patient movement or interrupt healthcare services. Similarly, our ability to recruit and retain patients and principal investigators and site staff who, as healthcare providers, may have heightened exposure to COVID-19 could be adversely impacted. As a result, we may face delays in meeting the anticipated timelines for our ongoing and planned clinical trials.

Further, if the business operations of our third-party manufacturers and suppliers are interrupted, this could disrupt our supply chain and impact our ongoing preclinical studies and clinical trials. In addition, disruptions or delays in chemistry, manufacturing and control activities for current or future product candidates in general may result in delays and challenges in numerous areas of the drug development lifecycle, including preclinical drug development, clinical stage validation and testing and manufacturing.

In addition, the spread of COVID-19, which has caused a broad impact globally, may materially affect us economically. While the potential economic impact brought by and the duration of COVID-19 may be difficult to assess or predict, a widespread pandemic could result in significant disruption of global financial markets, reducing our ability to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity. In addition, a recession or market correction resulting from the spread of COVID-19 could materially affect our business and the value of our common shares.

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The global COVID-19 pandemic continues to rapidly evolve, and we will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely. The ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or a similar health epidemic is highly uncertain and subject to change. We do not yet know the full extent of the potential impacts on our business, our clinical trials, healthcare systems or the global economy as a whole.

We may encounter substantial delays or difficulties in our clinical trials.

We may not commercialize, market, promote or sell any product candidate without obtaining marketing approval from the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, and we may never receive such approvals. It is impossible to predict when or if any of our product candidates will prove effective or safe in humans and will receive regulatory approval. Before obtaining marketing approval from regulatory authorities for the sale of our product candidates, we must complete preclinical development and then conduct extensive clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our product candidates in humans. Clinical testing is expensive, difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete and is uncertain as to outcome. A failure of one or more clinical trials can occur at any stage of testing. For example, in March 2020, we reported that the first our NODE-301 trial did not meet its primary endpoint. With agreement from the FDA, we have revised the second part, and renamed it the RAPID trial, but there can be no guarantee that the recently initiated RAPID trial will meet its primary endpoints. Moreover, preclinical and clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses, and many companies that have believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in preclinical studies and clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their products.

We may experience numerous unforeseen events prior to, during, or as a result of, clinical trials that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize etripamil and any future product candidates, including:

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delays in reaching a consensus with regulatory authorities on design or implementation of our clinical trials;

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regulators or institutional review boards, or IRBs, may not authorize us or our investigators to commence a clinical trial or conduct a clinical trial at a prospective trial site;

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delays in reaching agreement on acceptable terms with prospective clinical research organizations, or CROs, and clinical trial sites;

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the number of patients required for clinical trials of our product candidates may be larger than we anticipate, enrollment in these clinical trials may be slower than we anticipate, patients may drop out of these clinical trials at a higher rate than we anticipate or fail to return for post-treatment follow-up or we may fail to recruit suitable patients to participate in a trial;

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clinical trials of our product candidates may produce negative or inconclusive results;

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imposition of a clinical hold by regulatory authorities as a result of a serious adverse event, concerns with a class of product candidates or after an inspection of our clinical trial operations, trial sites or manufacturing facilities;

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occurrence of serious adverse events associated with the product candidate that are viewed to outweigh its potential benefits;

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changes in regulatory requirements and guidance that require amending or submitting new clinical protocols;

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interruptions resulting from public health emergencies, including those related to the COVID-19 pandemic; or

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we may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional clinical trials or abandon product development programs.

Any inability to successfully complete preclinical and clinical development could result in additional costs to us or impair our ability to generate revenue from future drug sales or other sources. In addition, if we make manufacturing or formulation changes to our product candidates, we may need to conduct additional testing to bridge our modified product candidate to earlier versions. Clinical trial delays could also shorten any periods during which we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates, if approved, or allow our competitors to bring competing drugs to market before we do, which could impair our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and may harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Additionally, if the results of our clinical trials are inconclusive or if there are safety concerns or serious adverse events associated with our product candidates, we may:

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be delayed in obtaining marketing approval, if at all;

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obtain approval for indications or patient populations that are not as broad as intended or desired;

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obtain approval with labeling that includes significant use or distribution restrictions or safety warnings;

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be subject to additional post-marketing testing requirements;

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be required to perform additional clinical trials to support approval or be subject to additional post-marketing testing requirements;

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have regulatory authorities withdraw, or suspend, their approval of the drug or impose restrictions on its distribution in the form of a modified risk evaluation and mitigation strategy, or REMS;

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be subject to the addition of labeling statements, such as warnings or contraindications;

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be sued; or

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experience damage to our reputation.

Our product development costs will also increase if we experience delays in testing or obtaining marketing approvals. We do not know whether any of our preclinical studies or clinical trials will begin as planned, need to be restructured or be completed on schedule, if at all.

Further, we, the FDA or an IRB may suspend our clinical trials at any time if it appears that we or our collaborators are failing to conduct a trial in accordance with regulatory requirements, including the FDA’s current Good Clinical Practice, or GCP, regulations, that we are exposing participants to unacceptable health risks, or if the FDA finds deficiencies in our investigational new drug applications, or INDs, or the conduct of these trials. Therefore, we cannot predict with any certainty the schedule for commencement and completion of future clinical trials. If we experience delays in the commencement or completion of our clinical trials, or if we terminate a clinical trial prior to completion, the commercial prospects of our product candidates could be negatively impacted, and our ability to generate revenues from our product candidates may be delayed.

Clinical trials are very expensive, time consuming and difficult to design and implement.

Our product candidates will require clinical testing before we are prepared to submit an NDA, or comparable application to foreign regulatory authorities, for regulatory approval. We cannot predict with any certainty if or when we might submit an application for regulatory approval for any of our product candidates or whether any such application will be approved by the FDA or foreign regulatory authority. Human clinical trials are very expensive and difficult to design and implement, in part because they are subject to rigorous regulatory requirements. For instance, the FDA or foreign

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regulatory authority may not agree with our proposed endpoints for any future clinical trial of our product candidates, which may delay the commencement of our clinical trials. In addition, we may not succeed in developing and validating disease-relevant clinical endpoints based on insights regarding biological pathways for the diseases we are studying. The clinical trial process is also time consuming. We estimate that the successful completion of clinical trials for etripamil and any future product candidates will take several years to complete. Furthermore, failure can occur at any stage, and we could encounter problems that cause us to abandon or repeat clinical trials. For example, we recently announced that the pivotal NODE-301 trial of etripamil for PSVT did not meet its primary endpoint. As a result, we have submitted our protocol amendment to the FDA for the RAPID trial.

Enrollment and retention of patients in clinical trials is an expensive and time-consuming process and could be delayed, made more difficult or rendered impossible by multiple factors outside our control.

Identifying and qualifying patients to participate in our clinical trials is critical to our success. If the actual number of patients with PSVT, or any other indications that we may pursue for etripamil or future product candidates, is smaller than we anticipate, we may encounter difficulties in enrolling patients in our clinical trials, thereby delaying or preventing development and approval of etripamil and any future product candidates. Even once enrolled we may be unable to retain a sufficient number of patients to complete any of our trials. Patient enrollment and retention in clinical trials depends on many factors, including the size of the patient population, the nature of the trial protocol, the existing body of safety and efficacy data, the number and nature of competing treatments and ongoing clinical trials of competing therapies for the same indication, the proximity of patients to clinical sites, the experience and capabilities of the clinical sites to recruit the correct patients, and the eligibility criteria for the trial. In our Phase 3 clinical trials, we are attempting to enroll elderly patients and patients taking concomitant medications that impact the heart, such as other calcium channel blockers and beta blockers. We are doing this in order to obtain efficacy and safety data on patients representing the subset of our intended population that is most vulnerable to safety concerns with the use of etripamil. Such patients may be difficult to enroll in this trial, and the lack of data on these patients may negatively impact the approvability or labeling of etripamil. Patient enrollment may also continue to be affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which could be due to the prioritization of hospitalization resources toward this pandemic, exposure of healthcare providers to COVID-19 and difficulties for patients to access clinical trial sites and comply with clinical trial protocols. For example, some sites for our NODE-303 study have closed their practices to further enrollment.

In our Phase 2 clinical trial of etripamil for the treatment of PSVT, only 104 of 199 enrolled patients completed the trials, with 70 patients unable to induce or sustain episodes of SVT during the trial period. The first Phase 3 trial of PSVT for etripamil enrolled over 400 diagnosed PSVT patients meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria in order to achieve the required treatment of 150 confirmed PSVT episodes. PSVT is episodic and unpredictable, and all of our Phase 3 trial designs depend on patients experiencing and recognizing an episode of SVT, self-administering etripamil and monitoring their cardiac activity using a monitoring device. We cannot control the timing of these episodes or guarantee that patients will correctly recognize the episode, self-administer etripamil and use the cardiac monitor as directed. We also cannot predict with certainty the number or timing of any SVT episodes for those patients that enroll in the trial. Conducting a Phase 3 clinical trial for a PSVT treatment in an at-home setting is paradigm changing, and subject to a number of risks. There is limited, if any, meaningful precedent from which to inform our trial design and make assumptions about patient enrollment and compliance. Accordingly, our Phase 3 trial design is subject to significantly more risks than if there were numerous studies upon which we could model our protocols. Our efficacy and safety databases could take significantly longer to populate than projected, which would add cost to our development program and delay any potential approval of etripamil.

Furthermore, our efforts to build relationships with patient communities may not succeed, which could result in delays in patient enrollment in our clinical trials. In addition, any negative results we may report in clinical trials of etripamil and any future product candidate may make it difficult or impossible to recruit and retain patients in other clinical trials of that same product candidate. For example, we reported a failed primary endpoint from our NODE-301 trial in March 2020. Delays or failures in planned patient enrollment or retention may result in increased costs, program delays or both, which could have a harmful effect on our ability to develop etripamil or any future product candidates or could render further development impossible. In addition, we expect to rely on CROs and clinical trial sites to ensure proper and timely conduct of our future clinical trials and, while we intend to enter into agreements governing their services, we will be limited in our ability to compel their actual performance. Similarly, our formulation of etripamil is designed to be

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self-administered as a nasal spray during an SVT episode by patients enrolled in our Phase 3 trials. While we expect enrolled patients to adhere to the protocol, our ability to ensure patient compliance is limited.

Our product candidates may cause undesirable side effects or have other properties that could delay or prevent their regulatory approval, limit the commercial potential or result in significant negative consequences following any potential marketing approval.

During the conduct of clinical trials, patients report changes in their health, including illnesses, injuries and discomforts, to their doctor. Often, it is not possible to determine whether or not the product candidate being studied caused these conditions. Regulatory authorities may draw different conclusions or require additional testing to confirm these determinations, if they occur. For example, in our Phase 2 clinical trial for PSVT, three serious adverse events, or SAEs, were considered possibly related to etripamil, including a second degree AV block that subsequently resolved. Calcium channel blockers have known side effects, such as slowing the heart rate below normal levels and hypotension, or low blood pressure. While we designed etripamil to have a short pharmacodynamic effect to lower these risks, if etripamil is not quickly metabolized as designed, these known side effects may become more pronounced in patients who use etripamil.

In addition, it is possible that as we test etripamil or any future product candidates in larger, longer and more extensive clinical trials, such as our Phase 3 clinical trials, or as use of etripamil or any future product candidates becomes more widespread if they receive regulatory approval, illnesses, injuries, discomforts and other adverse events that were observed in earlier trials, as well as conditions that did not occur or went undetected in previous trials, will be reported by subjects or patients. Many times, side effects are only detectable after investigational drugs are tested in large-scale pivotal trials or, in some cases, after they are made available to patients on a commercial scale after approval. If additional clinical experience indicates that etripamil or any future product candidates have side effects or causes serious or life-threatening side effects, the development of the product candidate may fail or be delayed, or, if the product candidate has received regulatory approval, such approval may be revoked, which would harm our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition.

Interim, “top-line” and preliminary data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.

From time to time, we may publish interim, “top-line” or preliminary data from our clinical trials, as we recently did for our NODE-301 trial. Interim data from clinical trials that we may complete are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as patient enrollment continues and more patient data become available. Preliminary or “top-line” data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary data we previously published. As a result, interim and preliminary data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. Differences between preliminary or interim data and final data could significantly harm our business prospects and may cause the trading price of our common shares to fluctuate significantly.

We will need to successfully complete pivotal clinical trials in order to obtain the approval of the FDA and other regulatory agencies to market etripamil or any of our other product candidates. Carrying out later-stage clinical trials and the submission of a successful NDA is a complicated process. As an organization, we have only completed one Phase 3 clinical trial, we have other trials ongoing, and we have limited experience in preparing, submitting and prosecuting regulatory filings. Due to our limited experience with later stage trials, we may be unable to successfully and efficiently execute and complete necessary clinical trials in a way that leads to NDA submission and approval of etripamil for the treatment of PSVT. We may require more time and incur greater costs than our competitors and may not succeed in obtaining regulatory approvals of product candidates that we develop. Failure to commence or complete, or delays in, our planned clinical trials could prevent us from or delay us in commercializing etripamil for the treatment of PSVT.

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We may explore strategic collaborations that may never materialize, or we may be required to relinquish important rights to and control over the development of our product candidates to any future collaborators.

We intend to periodically explore a variety of possible strategic collaborations in an effort to gain access to additional product candidates or resources. At the current time, we cannot predict what form such a strategic collaboration might take. We are likely to face significant competition in seeking appropriate strategic collaborators, and strategic collaborations can be complicated and time consuming to negotiate and document. We may not be able to negotiate strategic collaborations on acceptable terms, or at all. We are unable to predict when, if ever, we will enter into any strategic collaborations because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with establishing them.

Future collaborations could subject us to a number of risks, including:

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we may be required to undertake the expenditure of substantial operational, financial and management resources;

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we may be required to issue equity securities that would dilute our shareholders’ percentage ownership of our company;

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we may be required to assume substantial actual or contingent liabilities;

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we may not be able to control the amount and timing of resources that our strategic collaborators devote to the development or commercialization of our product candidates;

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strategic collaborators may select indications or design clinical trials in a way that may be less successful than if we were doing so;

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strategic collaborators may delay clinical trials, provide insufficient funding, terminate a clinical trial or abandon a product candidate, repeat or conduct new clinical trials or require a new version of a product candidate for clinical testing;

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strategic collaborators may not pursue further development of products resulting from the strategic collaboration arrangement or may elect to discontinue research and development programs;

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strategic collaborators may not commit adequate resources to the marketing and distribution of our product candidates, limiting our potential revenues from these products;

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disputes may arise between us and our strategic collaborators that result in the delay or termination of the research or development of our product candidates or that result in costly litigation or arbitration that diverts management’s attention and consumes resources;

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strategic collaborators may experience financial difficulties;

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strategic collaborators may not properly maintain or defend our intellectual property rights or may use our proprietary information in a manner that could jeopardize or invalidate our proprietary information or expose us to potential litigation;

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business combinations or significant changes in a strategic collaborator’s business strategy may adversely affect a strategic collaborator’s willingness or ability to complete its obligations under any arrangement;

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strategic collaborators could decide to move forward with a competing product candidate developed either independently or in collaboration with others, including our competitors; and

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strategic collaborators could terminate the arrangement or allow it to expire, which would delay the development and may increase the cost of developing our product candidates.

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Risks Related to the Commercialization of Our Product Candidates

To successfully commercialize etripamil or any future product candidate that may result from our development programs, we will need to build out our sales and marketing capabilities, either on our own or with others. The establishment and development of our own commercial team or the establishment of a contract field force to market any product candidate we may develop will be expensive and time-consuming and could delay any drug launch. Moreover, we cannot be certain that we will be able to successfully develop this capability. We may seek to enter into collaborations with other entities to use their established marketing and distribution capabilities, but we may be unable to enter into such agreements on favorable terms, if at all. If any current or future collaborators do not commit sufficient resources to commercialize our product candidates, or we are unable to develop the necessary capabilities on our own, we may be unable to generate sufficient revenue to sustain our business. We may compete with many companies that currently have extensive, experienced and well-funded marketing and sales operations to recruit, hire, train and retain marketing and sales personnel. We will likely also face competition if we seek third parties to assist us with the sales and marketing efforts of etripamil and any future product candidates. Without an internal team or the support of a third party to perform marketing and sales functions, we may be unable to compete successfully against these more established companies.

Even if etripamil or any future product candidates receive marketing approval, they may fail to gain market acceptance by physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community. If such product candidates do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate significant drug revenue and may not become profitable. The degree of market acceptance of etripamil or any future product candidates, if approved for commercial sale, will depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to:

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the convenience and ease of administration compared to alternative treatments and therapies;

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the willingness of the target patient population to try new therapies and of physicians to prescribe these therapies;

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the efficacy and potential advantages compared to alternative treatments and therapies;

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the effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts;

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the prevalence and severity of any side effects;

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the strength of our relationships with patient communities;

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the cost of treatment in relation to alternative treatments and therapies, including any similar generic treatments;

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our ability to offer such drug for sale at competitive prices;

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the strength of marketing and distribution support;

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the availability of third-party coverage and adequate reimbursement; any restrictions on the use of the drug together with other medications; and the awareness and support from key opinion leaders in cardiology.

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Our efforts to educate physicians, patients, third-party payors and others in the medical community on the benefits of etripamil or any future product candidates may require significant resources and may never be successful. Such efforts may require more resources than are typically required due to the potential of etripamil to shift the treatment paradigm away from acute-care settings to self-administration. Because we expect sales of etripamil or any future product candidates, if approved, to generate substantially all of our revenues for the foreseeable future, the failure of these product candidates to find market acceptance would harm our business.

Even if we successfully obtain approval for etripamil, its success will be dependent on its proper use.

While we have designed etripamil to be self-administered, we cannot control the successful use of the product. While we have conducted, and intend in the future to conduct, human factors studies to determine how to optimize the instructions for use, the results in our clinical trials may not be replicated by users in the future. If we are not successful in promoting the proper use of etripamil, if approved, we may not be able to achieve market acceptance or effectively commercialize the drug. In addition, even in the event of proper use of etripamil, individual devices may fail. Increasing the scale of production inherently creates increased risk of manufacturing errors, and we may not be able to adequately inspect every device that is produced, and it is possible that individual devices may fail to perform as designed. Manufacturing errors could negatively impact market acceptance of any of our product candidates that receive approval, result in negative press coverage, or increase our liability.

If the market opportunities for etripamil and any future product candidates are smaller than we estimate, our business may suffer.

Our eligible patient population may differ significantly from the actual market addressable by our product candidates. Our projections of both the number of people who have these conditions, as well as the subset of people with these diseases who have the potential to benefit from treatment with our product candidates, are based on our beliefs and estimates. These estimates have been derived from a variety of sources, including the scientific literature, insurance claims databases or market research, and may prove to be incorrect. Further, new studies may change the estimated incidence or prevalence of these diseases. The number of patients may turn out to be lower than expected. Likewise, the potentially addressable patient population for each of our product candidates may be limited or may not be amenable to treatment with our product candidates, and new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or access. If the market opportunities for our product candidates are smaller than we estimate, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.

We may face substantial competition, which may result in others developing or commercializing drugs before or more successfully than us.

The development and commercialization of new drugs is highly competitive. We may face competition from major pharmaceutical companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies worldwide. Potential competitors also include academic institutions, government agencies and other public and private research organizations that conduct research, seek patent protection and establish collaborative arrangements for research, development, manufacturing and commercialization.

More established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their greater size, resources and institutional experience. In particular, these companies have greater experience and expertise in securing reimbursement, government contracts and relationships with key opinion leaders, conducting testing and clinical trials, obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals and distribution relationships to market products and marketing approved drugs. These companies also have significantly greater research and marketing capabilities than we do. If we are not able to compete effectively against existing and potential competitors, our business and financial condition may be harmed.

As a result of these factors, our competitors may obtain regulatory approval of their drugs before we are able to, which may limit our ability to develop or commercialize etripamil and any future product candidates. Our competitors may also develop therapies that are safer, more effective, more widely accepted or less expensive than ours, and may also be more successful than we in manufacturing and marketing their drugs. These advantages could render our product candidates

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obsolete or non-competitive before we can recover the costs of such product candidates’ development and commercialization.

Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries may result in even more resources being concentrated among a smaller number of our competitors. Smaller and early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. These third parties compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific, management and commercial personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and subject registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs.

If we commercialize etripamil or any future product candidates outside of the United States, a variety of risks associated with international operations could harm our business.

We intend to seek approval to market etripamil outside of the United States, and may do so for future product candidates. If we market approved products outside of the United States, we expect that we will be subject to additional risks in commercialization including:

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different regulatory requirements for approval of therapies in foreign countries;

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reduced protection for intellectual property rights;

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unexpected changes in tariffs, trade barriers and regulatory requirements;

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economic weakness, including inflation, or political instability in particular foreign economies and markets;

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compliance with tax, employment, immigration and labor laws for employees living or traveling abroad;

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foreign currency fluctuations, which could result in increased operating expenses and reduced revenues, and other obligations incident to doing business in another country;

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foreign reimbursement, pricing and insurance regimes;

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workforce uncertainty in countries where labor unrest is more common than in the United States;

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production shortages resulting from any events affecting raw material supply or manufacturing capabilities abroad; and

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business interruptions resulting from pandemics and public health emergencies, including those related to COVID-19 coronavirus, geopolitical actions, including war and terrorism or natural disasters including earthquakes, typhoons, floods and fires.

We have no prior experience in these areas. In addition, there are complex regulatory, tax, labor and other legal requirements imposed by many of the individual countries in and outside of Europe with which we will need to comply. Many biopharmaceutical companies have found the process of marketing their own products in foreign countries to be very challenging.

Coverage and adequate reimbursement may not be available for etripamil or any future product candidates, which could make it difficult for us to gain market acceptance.

Market acceptance and sales of any product candidates that we commercialize, if approved, will depend in part on the extent to which reimbursement for these drugs and related treatments will be available from third-party payors, including government health administration authorities, managed care organizations and other private health insurers. Third-party payors decide for which therapies and establish reimbursement levels. While no uniform policy for coverage and

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reimbursement exists in the United States, third-party payors 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 payor-by-payor basis. Therefore, one payor’s determination to provide coverage for a drug does not assure that other payors will also provide coverage, and adequate reimbursement, for the drug. Additionally, a third-party payor’s decision to provide coverage for a therapy does not imply that an adequate reimbursement rate will be approved. Each payor determines whether or not it will provide coverage for a therapy, what amount it will pay the manufacturer for the therapy, and on what tier of its formulary it will be placed. The position on a payor’s list of covered drugs, or formulary, generally determines the co-payment that a patient will need to make to obtain the therapy and can strongly influence the adoption of such therapy by patients and physicians. Patients who are prescribed treatments for their conditions and providers prescribing such services generally rely on third-party payors to reimburse all or part of the associated healthcare costs. Patients are unlikely to use our products unless coverage is provided and reimbursement is adequate to cover a significant portion of the cost of our products.

Third-party payors have attempted to control costs by limiting coverage and the amount of reimbursement for particular medications. We cannot be sure that coverage and reimbursement will be available for any drug that we commercialize and, if reimbursement is available, what the level of reimbursement will be. Inadequate coverage and reimbursement may impact the demand for, or the price of, any drug for which we obtain marketing approval. If coverage and adequate reimbursement are not available, or are available only to limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize etripamil or any future product candidates that we develop.

In addition, we expect that the increased emphasis on managed care and cost containment measures in the United States by third-party payors and government authorities to continue and will place pressure on pharmaceutical pricing and coverage. Coverage policies and third-party reimbursement rates may change at any time. Therefore, even if favorable coverage and reimbursement status is attained for one or more drug products for which we receive regulatory approval, less favorable coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future. If we are unable to obtain and maintain sufficient third-party coverage and adequate reimbursement for our drug products, the commercial success of our drug products may be greatly hindered and our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Product liability lawsuits against us could cause us to incur substantial liabilities and could limit commercialization of any product candidates that we may develop.

We face an inherent risk of product liability exposure related to the testing of etripamil or any future product candidates in clinical trials and may face an even greater risk if we commercialize any product candidate that we may develop. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against claims that any such product candidates caused injuries, we could incur substantial liabilities. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, liability claims may result in:

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decreased demand for any product candidate that we may develop;

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loss of revenue;

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substantial monetary awards to trial participants or patients;

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significant time and costs to defend the related litigation;

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withdrawal of clinical trial participants;

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increased insurance costs;

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the inability to commercialize any product candidate that we may develop; and injury to our reputation and significant negative media attention.

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Although we maintain clinical trial liability insurance coverage with maximum coverage of $10 million per incident and an aggregate loss limit of $10 million such insurance may not be adequate to cover all liabilities that we may incur with medical product during the clinical trials. We anticipate that we will need to increase our insurance coverage each time we commence a clinical trial and maintain a product liability insurance if we successfully commercialize any product candidate. Insurance coverage is increasingly expensive. We may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in an amount adequate to satisfy any liability that may arise.

Risks Related to Regulatory Compliance

Approval of a product candidate in the United States by the FDA does not ensure approval of such product candidate by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions, and approval by one foreign regulatory authority does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other foreign countries or by the FDA. Sales of etripamil or any future product candidates outside of the United States will be subject to foreign regulatory requirements governing clinical trials and marketing approval. Even if the FDA grants marketing approval for a product candidate, comparable foreign regulatory authorities also must approve the manufacturing and marketing of the product candidate in those countries. Approval procedures vary among jurisdictions and can involve requirements and administrative review periods different from, and more onerous than, those in the United States, including additional preclinical studies or clinical trials. In many countries outside the United States, a product candidate must be approved for reimbursement before it can be approved for sale in that country. In some cases, the price that we intend to charge for any product candidates, if approved, is also subject to approval. Obtaining approval for etripamil or any future product candidates in the European Union from the European Commission following the opinion of the European Medicines Agency, if we choose to submit a marketing authorization application there, would be a lengthy and expensive process. Even if a product candidate is approved, the FDA or the European Commission, as the case may be, may limit the indications for which the drug may be marketed, require extensive warnings on the drug labeling or require expensive and time-consuming additional clinical trials or reporting as conditions of approval. Obtaining foreign regulatory approvals and compliance with foreign regulatory requirements could result in significant delays, difficulties and costs for us and could delay or prevent the introduction of etripamil or any future product candidates in certain countries.

Further, clinical trials conducted in one country may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other countries. Also, regulatory approval for our product candidates may be withdrawn. If we fail to comply with the regulatory requirements, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of etripamil or any future product candidates will be harmed and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be harmed.

Even if we obtain regulatory approval for etripamil or any future product candidates, they will remain subject to ongoing regulatory oversight.

Even if we obtain regulatory approvals for etripamil or any future product candidates, such approvals will be subject to ongoing regulatory requirements for manufacturing, labeling, packaging, storage, advertising, promotion, sampling, record-keeping and submission of safety and other post-market information. Any regulatory approvals that we receive for etripamil or any future product candidates may also be subject to a REMS, limitations on the approved indicated uses for which the drug may be marketed or to the conditions of approval, or contain requirements for potentially costly post-marketing testing, including Phase 4 trials, and surveillance to monitor the quality, safety and efficacy of the drug. Such regulatory requirements may differ from country to country depending on where we have received regulatory approval.

In addition, drug manufacturers and their facilities are subject to payment of user fees and continual review and periodic inspections by the FDA and other regulatory authorities for compliance with cGMP requirements and adherence to commitments made in the NDA or foreign marketing application. If we, or a regulatory authority, discover previously unknown problems with a drug, such as adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the drug is manufactured or if a regulatory authority disagrees with the promotion, marketing or labeling

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of that drug, a regulatory authority may impose restrictions relative to that drug, the manufacturing facility or us, including requesting a recall or requiring withdrawal of the drug from the market or suspension of manufacturing.

If we fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements following approval of etripamil or any future product candidates, a regulatory authority may:

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issue an untitled letter or warning letter asserting that we are in violation of the law;

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seek an injunction or impose administrative, civil or criminal penalties or monetary fines;

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suspend or withdraw regulatory approval;

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suspend any ongoing clinical trials;

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refuse to approve a pending NDA or comparable foreign marketing application or any supplements thereto submitted by us or our partners;

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restrict the marketing or manufacturing of the drug;

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seize or detain the drug or otherwise require the withdrawal of the drug from the market;

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refuse to permit the import or export of product candidates; or

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refuse to allow us to enter into supply contracts, including government contracts.

Moreover, the FDA strictly regulates the promotional claims that may be made about drug products. In particular, a product may not be promoted for uses that are not approved by the FDA as reflected in the product’s approved labeling. However, biopharmaceutical companies may share truthful and not misleading information that is otherwise consistent with the labeling. The FDA and other agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off-label uses, and a company that is found to have improperly promoted off-label uses may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties.

Any government investigation of alleged violations of law could require us to expend significant time and resources in response and could generate negative publicity. The occurrence of any event or penalty described above may inhibit our ability to commercialize etripamil or any future product candidates and harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

The FDA’s and other regulatory authorities’ policies may change, and additional government regulations may be enacted that could prevent, limit or delay regulatory approval of our product candidates. If we are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing requirements or the adoption of new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, we may lose any marketing approval that we may have obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability, which would adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, we cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative or executive action, either in the United States or abroad. For example, certain policies of the Trump administration may impact our business and industry. Namely, the Trump administration has taken several executive actions, including the issuance of a number of Executive Orders, that could impose significant burdens on, or otherwise materially delay, the FDA’s ability to engage in routine regulatory and oversight activities such as implementing statutes through rulemaking, issuance of guidance, and review and approval of marketing applications. It is difficult to predict how these executive actions, including the Executive Orders, will be implemented and the extent to which they will affect the FDA’s ability to exercise its regulatory authority. If these executive actions impose constraints on the FDA’s ability to engage in oversight and implementation activities in the normal course, our business may be negatively impacted.

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Our relationships with customers, physicians, and third-party payors are subject, directly or indirectly, to federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws, false claims laws, health information privacy and security laws, and other healthcare laws and regulations. If we are unable to comply, or have not fully complied, with such laws, we could face substantial penalties.

Healthcare providers, including physicians and third-party payors in the United States and elsewhere will play a primary role in the recommendation and prescription of any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. Our current and future arrangements with healthcare professionals, principal investigators, consultants, customers and third-party payors subject us to various federal and state fraud and abuse laws, data privacy and security laws, transparency laws and other healthcare laws that may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we research, sell, market, and distribute our products, if we obtain marketing approval.

The federal Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits the offer, receipt, or payment of remuneration in exchange for or to induce the referral of patients or the use of products or services that would be paid for in whole or part by Medicare, Medicaid or other federal healthcare programs. Remuneration has been broadly defined to include anything of value, including cash, improper discounts, and free or reduced price items and services. Additionally, the intent standard under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute was amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, or collectively, PPACA, to a stricter standard such that a person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation. Further, PPACA codified case law that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the False Claims Act.

The federal false claims, including the False Claims Act, and civil monetary penalties laws, which prohibit individuals or entities from, among other things, knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, false or fraudulent claims for payment of federal funds, and knowingly making, or causing to be made, a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim to avoid, decrease or conceal an obligation to pay money to the federal government.

The federal Health Information Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, prohibits, among other things, knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program, or knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact or making any materially false statement, in connection with the delivery of, or payment for, healthcare benefits, items or services. Similar to the U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute, a person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation.

HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009, or HITECH, also imposes, among other things, certain standards and obligations on covered entities including certain healthcare providers, health plans and healthcare clearinghouses, and their respective business associates that create, receive, maintain, or transmit individually identifiable health information for or on behalf of a covered entity as well as their covered subcontractors relating to the privacy, security, transmission and breach reporting of individually identifiable health information.

The federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act, and its implementing regulations, require certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologics and medical supplies that are reimbursable under Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program to report annually to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services information related to certain payments and other transfers of value to physicians, as defined by such law, and teaching hospitals, as well as ownership and investment interests held by the physicians described above and their immediate family members. Beginning in 2022, applicable manufacturers also will be required to report such information regarding its relationships with physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified registered nurse anesthetists and certified nurse midwives during the previous year.

We will also be subject to healthcare regulation and enforcement by the U.S. federal government and the states and any other countries in which we conduct our business, including our research, and the sales, marketing and distribution of our product candidates and products once they have obtained marketing authorization.

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Analogous state and foreign anti-kickback and false claims laws that may apply to sales or marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by non-governmental third party payors, including private insurers, or that apply regardless of payor; state laws that require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government; state and local laws that require drug manufacturers to report information related to payments and other transfers of value to physicians and other healthcare providers or marketing expenditures; state laws that require the reporting of information related to drug pricing; state and local laws requiring the registration of pharmaceutical sales representatives; and state and foreign laws governing the privacy and security of health information in some circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not preempted by HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts.

Ensuring that our business arrangements with third parties comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations will likely be costly. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices may not comply with current or future statutes, regulations or case law involving applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these laws or any other governmental regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, imprisonment, exclusion from participating in government funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, additional reporting requirements and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or similar agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws, contractual damages, reputational harm and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations.

If the physicians or other providers or entities with whom we expect to do business are found not to be in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to significant criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from government funded healthcare programs. Even if resolved in our favor, litigation or other legal proceedings relating to healthcare laws and regulations may cause us to incur significant expenses and could distract our technical and management personnel from their normal responsibilities. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common shares. Such litigation or proceedings could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce the resources available for development, manufacturing, sales, marketing or distribution activities. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of litigation or other proceedings relating to applicable healthcare laws and regulations could have a material adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace.

Healthcare legislative reform measures may have a negative impact on our business and results of operations.

In the United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been, and continue to be, several legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could prevent or delay marketing approval of product candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities, and affect our ability to profitably sell any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. In particular, there have been and continue to be a number of initiatives at the U.S. federal and state levels that seek to reduce healthcare costs and improve the quality of healthcare. For example, in March 2010 the PPACA, was passed, which substantially changed the way healthcare is financed by both governmental and private payors in the United States. There remain judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the PPACA as well as efforts by the Trump administration to repeal or replace certain aspects of the PPACA. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or the Tax Act, was enacted, which includes a provision that repealed, effective January 1, 2019, the tax-based shared responsibility payment imposed by the PPACA on certain individuals who fail to maintain qualifying health coverage for all or part of a year that is commonly referred to as the “individual mandate.” In addition, the 2020 federal spending package permanently eliminated, effective January 1, 2020, the PPACA-mandated “Cadillac” tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health coverage and medical device tax and, effective January 1, 2021, also eliminates the health insurer tax. Additionally, on December 15, 2018, a Texas U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the PPACA is unconstitutional in its entirety because the “individual mandate” was repealed by Congress as part of the Tax Act. Additionally, on December 18, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld the District Court ruling that the individual mandate was unconstitutional and remanded the case back to the District Court to determine whether the remaining provisions of the PPACA are invalid as well. On March 2, 2020, the United States Supreme Court granted the petitions for writs of certiorari to review this case.

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It is unclear how such litigation and other efforts to repeal and replace the PPACA will impact the PPACA and our business.

Further, in the United States there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in several Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, reduce the cost of prescription drugs under government payor programs, and review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs. At the federal level, the Trump administration’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2021 includes a $135 billion allowance to support legislative proposals seeking to reduce drug prices, increase competition, lower out-of-pocket drug costs for patients, and increase patient access to lower-cost generic and biosimilar drugs. On March 10, 2020, the Trump administration sent “principles” for drug pricing to Congress, calling for legislation that would, among other things, cap Medicare Part D beneficiary out-of-pocket pharmacy expenses, provide an option to cap Medicare Part D beneficiary monthly out-of-pocket expenses, and place limits on pharmaceutical price increases. In addition, the Trump administration previously released a “Blueprint” to lower drug prices and reduce out of pocket costs of drugs that contained proposals to increase manufacturer competition, increase the negotiating power of certain federal healthcare programs, incentivize manufacturers to lower the list price of their products, and reduce the out of pocket costs of drug products paid by consumers. The Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, has solicited feedback on some of these measures and has implemented others under its existing authority. On July 24, 2020, the Trump administration announced four executive orders related to prescription drug pricing that attempt to implement several of the administration’s proposals, including a policy that would tie certain Medicare Part B drug prices to international drug prices, or the “most favored nation price,” the details of which were released on September 13, 2020 and also expanded the policy to cover certain Part D drugs; one that directs HHS to finalize the Canadian drug importation proposed rule previously issued by HHS and makes other changes allowing for personal importation of drugs from Canada; one that directs HHS to finalize the rulemaking process on modifying the anti-kickback law safe harbors for discounts for plans, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical benefit managers; and one that reduces costs of insulin and epipens to patients of federally qualified health centers. The FDA also recently released a final rule, effective November 30, 2020, implementing a portion of the importation executive order providing guidance for states to build and submit importation plans for drugs from Canada.While some of these measures may require additional authorization to become effective, U.S. Congress and the Trump administration have indicated that they will continue to seek new legislative and/or administrative measures to control drug costs. At the state level, legislatures have increasingly passed legislation and implemented regulations designed to control pharmaceutical and biological product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. We expect that additional U.S. healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that the U.S. federal government will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in reduced demand for etripamil or any future product candidates or additional pricing pressures.

In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the PPACA was enacted. On August 2, 2011, the Budget Control Act of 2011 was signed into law, which includes reductions to Medicare payments to providers of 2% per fiscal year, which went into effect on April 1, 2013 and, due to subsequent legislative amendments to the statute, will remain in effect through 2030 unless additional Congressional action is taken. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, which was signed into law in March 2020 and is designed to provide financial support and resources to individuals and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, suspended the 2% Medicare sequester from May 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020, and extended the sequester by one year, through 2030. On January 2, 2013, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 was signed into law, which, among other things, reduced Medicare payments to several providers, including hospitals, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years.

It is possible that additional governmental action is taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, on August 6, 2020, the Trump administration issued another executive order that instructs the federal government to develop a list of “essential” medicines and then buy them and other medical supplies from manufacturers in the United States instead of from companies around the world, including China. The order is meant to reduce regulatory barriers to domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing and catalyze manufacturing technologies needed to keep drug prices low and the production of drug products in the United States.

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We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of health reform initiatives that may arise from future legislation or administrative action in the United States, particularly as a result of the recent presidential election, or any other jurisdiction. If we or any third parties we may engage are slow or unable to adapt to changes in existing or new requirements or policies, or if the we or such third parties are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, etripamil or any future product candidates we may develop may lose any regulatory approval that may have been obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability.

Our business involves the use of hazardous materials and we and our third-party manufacturers and suppliers must comply with environmental laws and regulations, which can be expensive and restrict how we do business.

Our research and development activities and our third-party manufacturers’ and suppliers’ activities involve the controlled storage, use and disposal of hazardous materials owned by us, including the components of etripamil and any future product candidates and other hazardous compounds. We and our manufacturers and suppliers are subject to laws and regulations governing the use, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of these hazardous materials. In some cases, these hazardous materials and various wastes resulting from their use are stored at our and our manufacturers’ facilities pending their use and disposal. We cannot eliminate the risk of contamination, which could cause an interruption of our commercialization efforts, research and development efforts and business operations, environmental damage resulting in costly clean-up and liabilities under applicable laws and regulations governing the use, storage, handling and disposal of these materials and specified waste products. Although we believe that the safety procedures utilized by our third-party manufacturers for handling and disposing of these materials generally comply with the standards prescribed by these laws and regulations, we cannot guarantee that this is the case or eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials. In such an event, we may be held liable for any resulting damages and such liability could exceed our resources and state or federal or other applicable authorities may curtail our use of certain materials and/or interrupt our business operations. Furthermore, environmental laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent. We cannot predict the impact of such changes and cannot be certain of our future compliance. We do not currently carry hazardous waste insurance coverage.

Risks Related to Our Dependence on Third Parties

We will rely on third parties to produce clinical and commercial supplies of etripamil and any future product candidates.

We do not own or operate facilities for drug manufacturing, storage and distribution, or testing. We are dependent on third parties to manufacture the clinical supplies of etripamil and any future product candidates. The facilities used by our contract manufacturers to manufacture etripamil and any future product candidates must be approved by the FDA pursuant to inspections that will be conducted after we submit our NDA to the FDA. We do not control the manufacturing process of, and are completely dependent on, our contract manufacturing partners for compliance with the regulatory requirements, known as cGMPs for manufacture of active drug substances, nasal spray device, and finished product candidates. If our contract manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA or others, we will not be able to secure and/or maintain regulatory approval for our product candidates. In addition, we have no control over the ability of our contract manufacturers to maintain adequate quality control, quality assurance and qualified personnel. We intend to use multiple contract manufacturers for clinical and commercial supply of our drug product and drug substance. As such, we will need to demonstrate to the FDA that the drug product and drug substance from these contract manufacturers are comparable, which may include conducting additional equivalence studies. If the FDA or a comparable foreign regulatory authority does not approve these facilities for the manufacture of our product candidates or if it withdraws any such approval in the future, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which would significantly impact our ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for or market our product candidates, if approved. Any significant delay in the supply of a product candidate, or the raw material components thereof, for an ongoing clinical trial due to the need to replace a third-party manufacturer could considerably delay completion of our clinical trials, product testing and potential regulatory approval of our product candidates.

Further, we also will rely on third-party manufacturers to supply us with sufficient quantities of etripamil and any future product candidates, if approved, for commercialization. We do not yet have a commercial supply agreement for

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commercial quantities of drug substance, drug product or nasal spray device. If we are not able to meet market demand for any approved product, it would negatively affect our ability to generate revenue, harm our reputation, and could have a material and adverse effect on our business and financial condition. Increasing the scale of production inherently creates increased risk of manufacturing errors, and we may not be able to adequately inspect every device that is produced, and it is possible that individual devices may fail to perform as designed. Manufacturing errors could negatively impact market acceptance of any of our product candidates that receive approval, result in negative press coverage, or increase our liability.

Further, our reliance on third-party manufacturers entails risks to which we would not be subject if we manufactured product candidates ourselves, including:

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inability to meet our product specifications and quality requirements consistently;

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delay or inability to procure or expand sufficient manufacturing capacity;

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issues related to scale-up of manufacturing;

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costs and validation of new equipment and facilities required for scale-up;

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our third-party manufacturers may not be able to execute our manufacturing procedures and other logistical support requirements appropriately;

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our third-party manufacturers may fail to comply with cGMP-compliance and other inspections by the FDA or other comparable regulatory authorities;

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our inability to negotiate manufacturing agreements with third parties under commercially reasonable terms, if at all;

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breach, termination or nonrenewal of manufacturing agreements with third parties in a manner or at a time that is costly or damaging to us;

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reliance on a single source for the nasal spray device;

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our third-party manufacturers may not devote sufficient resources to our product candidates;

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we may not own, or may have to share, the intellectual property rights to any improvements made by our third-party manufacturers in the manufacturing process for our product candidates;

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operations of our third-party manufacturers or suppliers could be disrupted by conditions unrelated to our business or operations, including public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, such as earthquakes, fires or floods, the bankruptcy of the manufacturer or supplier, and carrier disruptions or increased costs that are beyond our control.

In addition, if we enter into a strategic collaboration with a third party for the commercialization of etripamil or any future product candidate, we will not be able to control the amount of time or resources that they devote to such efforts. If any strategic collaborator does not commit adequate resources to the marketing and distribution of etripamil or any future product candidate, it could limit our potential revenues.

Any of these events could lead to clinical trial delays, failure to obtain regulatory approval or affect our ability to successfully commercialize etripamil or any future product candidates once approved. Some of these events could be the basis for FDA action, including injunction, request for recall, seizure, or total or partial suspension of production.

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We rely on third parties to conduct, supervise and monitor our preclinical studies and clinical trials, and if those third parties perform in an unsatisfactory manner, it may harm our business.

We have engaged CROs to conduct our Phase 3 clinical trials of etripamil for the treatment of PSVT, and we expect to engage a CRO for future clinical trials of etripamil and any future product candidates. We do not currently have the ability to independently conduct any clinical trials. We rely on CROs and clinical trial sites to ensure the proper and timely conduct of our preclinical studies and clinical trials, and we expect to have limited influence over their actual performance. We rely upon CROs to monitor and manage data for our clinical programs, as well as the execution of future nonclinical studies. We expect to control only certain aspects of our CROs’ activities. Nevertheless, we will be responsible for ensuring that each of our preclinical studies and clinical trials is conducted in accordance with the applicable protocol, legal, regulatory and scientific standards, and our reliance on the CROs does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities.

We and our CROs are required to comply with the good laboratory practices, or GLPs, and GCPs, which are regulations and guidelines enforced by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities in the form of International Conference on Harmonization guidelines for any of our product candidates that are in preclinical and clinical development. The regulatory authorities enforce GCPs through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and clinical trial sites. Although we rely on CROs to conduct GCP-compliant clinical trials, we remain responsible for ensuring that each of our GLP preclinical studies and clinical trials is conducted in accordance with its investigational plan and protocol and applicable laws and regulations, and our reliance on the CROs does not relieve us of our regulatory responsibilities. If we or our CROs fail to comply with GCPs, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable, and the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. Accordingly, if our CROs fail to comply with these regulations or fail to recruit a sufficient number of subjects, we may be required to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process.

Our reliance on third parties to conduct clinical trials will result in less direct control over the management of data developed through clinical trials than would be the case if we were relying entirely upon our own staff. Any failure by third parties to prevent unauthorized access, use or disclosure of data, including personal information regarding our patients or employees, could harm our reputation, cause us not to comply with federal and/or state breach notification laws and foreign law equivalents and otherwise subject us to liability under laws and regulations that protect the privacy and security of personal information.

Communicating with CROs and other third parties can be challenging, potentially leading to mistakes as well as difficulties in coordinating activities. Such parties may:

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have staffing difficulties;

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fail to comply with contractual obligations;

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experience regulatory compliance issues;

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experience business disruptions from public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and accompanying shelter in place orders; or

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undergo changes in priorities or become financially distressed.

These factors may materially adversely affect the willingness or ability of third parties to conduct our clinical trials and may subject us to unexpected cost increases that are beyond our control. If our CROs do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations, fail to meet expected deadlines, fail to comply with regulatory requirements, or if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or regulatory requirements or for any other reasons, our clinical trials may be extended, delayed or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for, or successfully commercialize, any product candidate that we develop. As a result, our financial results and the commercial prospects for any product candidate that we develop would be harmed,

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our costs could increase, and our ability to generate revenue could be delayed. While we will have agreements governing their activities, our CROs will not be our employees, and we will not control whether or not they devote sufficient time and resources to our future clinical and nonclinical programs. These CROs may also have relationships with other commercial entities, including our competitors, for whom they may also be conducting clinical trials, or other drug development activities that could harm our business. We face the risk of potential unauthorized disclosure or misappropriation of our intellectual property by CROs, which may reduce our trade secret protection and allow our potential competitors to access and exploit our proprietary technology.

If our relationship with any of these CROs terminates, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative CROs or do so on commercially reasonable terms. Switching or adding additional CROs involves substantial cost and requires management time and focus. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new CRO commences work. As a result, delays occur, which can negatively affect our ability to meet our desired clinical development timelines. Though we intend to manage carefully our relationships with our CROs, there can be no assurance that we will not encounter challenges or delays in the future or that these delays or challenges will not have a negative impact on our business, financial condition and prospects.

In addition, principal investigators for our clinical trials may serve as scientific advisors or consultants to us from time to time and receive compensation in connection with such services. Under certain circumstances, we may be required to report some of these relationships to the FDA. The FDA may conclude that a financial relationship between us and a principal investigator has created a conflict of interest or otherwise affected interpretation of the trial. The FDA may therefore question the integrity of the data generated at the applicable clinical trial site and the utility of the clinical trial itself may be jeopardized. This could result in a delay in approval, or rejection, of our marketing applications by the FDA and may ultimately lead to the denial of marketing approval of etripamil and any future product candidates.

Etripamil is intended to be used with a nasal-spray device, which may result in additional regulatory and supply risks.

Etripamil is administered through a nasal-spray device that we obtain from a single source supplier, and that supplier is relying on multiple component suppliers, some of whom are single source suppliers. There are a limited number of device suppliers that address our particular design requirements. While we intend to explore alternative nasal spray devices for the delivery of etripamil that are produced by other suppliers to have backup sources for future commercial needs, we may not identify other nasal device suppliers that meet our requirements, and such alternative devices may not be as effective at the delivery of etripamil as our current supplier’s device. We do not currently have a formal supply agreement with our current sole nasal spray device supplier, and obtain such devices as needed. Even if we reach agreement for commercial supply, if we do not have additional nasal spray device suppliers, our sole supplier may be unable to meet our demands. Unpredictability of supply could have a material adverse effect on our commercialization plans for etripamil, if approved, and could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

Our finished drug product in the intra-nasal delivery system will be regulated as a drug/device combination product. We may experience delays in obtaining regulatory approval of etripamil given the increased complexity of the review process when approval of the product and a delivery device is sought under a single marketing application. In the United States, each component of a combination product is subject to the requirements established by the FDA for that type of component, whether a drug, biologic, or device. The delivery system device would be subject to FDA device requirements regarding design, performance and validation as well as human factors testing, among other things.

Delays in or failure of the studies conducted by us, or failure of our company, our collaborators, if any, or the third-party providers or suppliers to obtain or maintain regulatory approval could result in increased development costs, delays in or failure to obtain regulatory approval, and associated delays in etripamil reaching the market. Further, failure to successfully develop or supply the device, or to gain or maintain its approval, could adversely affect sales of etripamil.

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Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

Our success depends in large part on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection in the United States and other countries with respect to etripamil and any future product candidates. We seek to protect our proprietary position by filing patent applications in the United States and abroad related to our product candidates. The patent application and prosecution process is expensive and time-consuming. We may not be able to file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. We may also fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development before it is too late to obtain patent protection. Therefore, these and any of our patents and applications may not be prosecuted and enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. It is possible that defects of form in the preparation or filing of our patents or patent applications may exist, or may arise in the future, such as with respect to proper priority claims, inventorship, claim scope or patent term adjustments. If any future licensors or licensees are not fully cooperative or disagree with us as to the prosecution, maintenance or enforcement of any patent rights, such patent rights could be compromised and we might not be able to prevent third parties from making, using and selling competing products. If there are material defects in the form or preparation of our patents or patent applications, such patents or applications may be invalid and unenforceable. Moreover, our competitors may independently develop equivalent knowledge, methods and know-how. Any of these outcomes could impair our ability to prevent competition from third parties.

The patent position of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain. Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our patents or narrow the scope of our patent protection. In addition, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. No consistent policy regarding the breadth of claims allowed in biotechnology and pharmaceutical patents has emerged to date in the United States or in many foreign jurisdictions. In addition, the determination of patent rights with respect to pharmaceutical compounds and technologies commonly involves complex legal and factual questions, which has in recent years been the subject of much litigation. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain. Furthermore, recent changes in patent laws in the United States, including the America Invents Act of 2011, may affect the scope, strength and enforceability of our patent rights or the nature of proceedings that may be brought by us related to our patent rights.

We may not be aware of all third-party intellectual property rights potentially relating to etripamil or any future product candidates. Publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. For example, U.S. applications filed before November 28, 2000 and certain U.S. applications filed after that date that will not be filed outside the United States remain confidential until a patent issues. Therefore, we cannot be certain that we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our patents or pending patent applications, or that we were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions. Similarly, should we own any patents or patent applications in the future, we may not be certain that we were the first to file for patent protection for the inventions claimed in such patents or patent applications. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity and commercial value of our patent rights cannot be predicted with any certainty. Moreover, we may be subject to a third-party pre-issuance submission of prior art to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, or become involved in opposition, derivation, reexamination, inter partes review, post grant review, or interference proceedings, in the United States or elsewhere, challenging our patent rights or the patent rights of others. An adverse determination in any such submission, proceeding or litigation could reduce the scope of, or invalidate, our patent rights, allow third parties to commercialize our technology or product candidates and compete directly with us, without payment to us, or result in our inability to manufacture or commercialize products without infringing third-party patent rights.

Our pending and future patent applications may not result in patents being issued that protect our technology or product candidates, in whole or in part, or which effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive technologies and

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products. Even if our patent applications issue as patents, they may not issue in a form that will provide us with any meaningful protection against competing products or processes sufficient to achieve our business objectives, prevent competitors from competing with us or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. Our competitors may be able to circumvent our owned or licensed patents by developing similar or alternative technologies or products in a non-infringing manner. Our competitors may seek to market generic versions of any approved products by submitting abbreviated new drug applications to the FDA in which they claim that patents owned or licensed by us are invalid, unenforceable and/or not infringed. Alternatively, our competitors may seek approval to market their own products similar to or otherwise competitive with our products. In these circumstances, we may need to defend and/or assert our patents, including by filing lawsuits alleging patent infringement. In any of these types of proceedings, a court or other agency with jurisdiction may find our patents invalid and/or unenforceable.

The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability, and our owned and licensed patents may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad. Such challenges may result in loss of exclusivity or freedom to operate or in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, in whole or in part, which could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, or limit the duration of the patent protection of our technology and products. In addition, given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized.

Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other requirements imposed by government patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.

The USPTO and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. In addition, periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other government fees on patents and/or applications will have to be paid to the USPTO and various government patent agencies outside of the United States over the lifetime of our owned patents and/or applications and any patent rights we may own or license in the future. We rely on our outside counsel to pay these fees due to non-U.S. patent agencies. The USPTO and various non-U.S. government patent agencies require compliance with several procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. We employ reputable law firms and other professionals to help us comply.

Non-compliance events that could result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application include, but are not limited to, failure to respond to official actions within prescribed time limits, non-payment of fees and failure to properly legalize and submit formal documents. If we fail to maintain the patents and patent applications covering our products or technologies, we may not be able to stop a competitor from marketing products that are the same as or similar to etripamil or any future product candidates, which would have a material adverse effect on our business. In many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules. There are situations, however, in which non-compliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. In such an event, potential competitors might be able to enter the market and this circumstance could harm our business.

Patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on our product candidates for an adequate amount of time.

Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, such as etripamil, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. We expect to seek extensions of patent terms in the United States and, if available, in other countries where we are prosecuting patents. In the United States, the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984 permits a patent term extension of up to five years beyond the normal expiration of the patent, which is limited to the approved indication (or any additional indications approved during the period of extension). However, the applicable authorities, including the FDA and the USPTO in the United States, and any equivalent regulatory authority in other countries, may not agree with our assessment of whether such extensions are available, and may refuse to grant extensions to our patents, or may grant more limited extensions than we request. If this occurs, our competitors may be able to take

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advantage of our investment in development and clinical trials by referencing our clinical and preclinical data and launch their drug earlier than might otherwise be the case.

Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats to our business.

The degree of future protection afforded by our intellectual property rights is uncertain because intellectual property rights have limitations and may not adequately protect our business. The following examples are illustrative:

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others may be able to make compounds or formulations that are similar to etripamil or formulations of etripamil or our future product candidates but that are not covered by the claims of any patents, should they issue, that we own or control;

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we or any strategic partners might not have been the first to make the inventions covered by the issued patents or pending patent applications that we own or control;

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we might not have been the first to file patent applications covering certain of our inventions;

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others may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies without infringing our intellectual property rights;

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it is possible that our pending patent applications will not lead to issued patents;

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issued patents that we own or control may not provide us with any competitive advantages, or may be held invalid or unenforceable as a result of legal challenges;

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our competitors might conduct research and development activities in the United States and other countries that provide a safe harbor from patent infringement claims for certain research and development activities, as well as in countries where we do not have patent rights and then use the information learned from such activities to develop competitive drugs for sale in our major commercial markets;

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we may not develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable; and the patents of others may have an adverse effect on our business.

Should any of these events occur, they could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We may become involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or other intellectual property rights, which could be expensive, time consuming and unsuccessful.

Competitors may infringe our issued patents, future trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file infringement claims, which can be expensive and time-consuming and divert the time and attention of our management and scientific personnel. Any claims we assert against perceived infringers could provoke these parties to assert counterclaims against us alleging that we infringe their patents, trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property. In addition, in a patent infringement proceeding, there is a risk that a court will decide that a patent of ours is invalid or unenforceable, in whole or in part, and that we do not have the right to stop the other party from using the invention at issue. There is also a risk that, even if the validity of such patents is upheld, the court will construe the patent’s claims narrowly or decide that we do not have the right to stop the other party from using the invention at issue on the grounds that our patents do not cover the invention. An adverse outcome in a litigation or proceeding involving our patents could limit our ability to assert our patents against those parties or other competitors, and may curtail or preclude our ability to exclude third parties from making and selling similar or competitive products. Similarly, if we assert trademark infringement claims, a court may determine that the marks we have asserted are invalid or unenforceable, or that the party against whom we have asserted trademark infringement has superior rights to the marks in question. In this case, we could ultimately be forced to cease use of such trademarks.

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In any infringement litigation, any award of monetary damages we receive may not be commercially valuable. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during litigation. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments and if securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common shares. Moreover, there can be no assurance that we will have sufficient financial or other resources to file and pursue such infringement claims, which typically last for years before they are concluded. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources and more mature and developed intellectual property portfolios. Even if we ultimately prevail in such claims, the monetary cost of such litigation and the diversion of the attention of our management and scientific personnel could outweigh any benefit we receive as a result of the proceedings. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing, misappropriating or successfully challenging our intellectual property rights. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other proceedings could have a negative impact on our ability to compete in the marketplace.

Third parties may initiate legal proceedings alleging that we are infringing their intellectual property rights, the outcome of which would be uncertain and could have a negative impact on the success of our business.

Our commercial success depends, in part, upon our ability and the ability of future collaborators, if any, to develop, manufacture, market and sell etripamil and any future product candidates and use our proprietary technologies without infringing the proprietary rights and intellectual property of third parties. The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are characterized by extensive and complex litigation regarding patents and other intellectual property rights. We may in the future become party to, or be threatened with, adversarial proceedings or litigation regarding intellectual property rights with respect to etripamil and any future product candidates and technology, including interference proceedings, post grant review and inter partes review before the USPTO. Third parties may assert infringement claims against us based on existing patents or patents that may be granted in the future, regardless of their merit. There is a risk that third parties may choose to engage in litigation with us to enforce or to otherwise assert their patent rights against us. Even if we believe such claims are without merit, a court of competent jurisdiction could hold that these third-party patents are valid, enforceable and infringed, which could have a negative impact on our ability to commercialize our current and any future product candidates. In order to successfully challenge the validity of any such U.S. patent in federal court, we would need to overcome a presumption of validity. As this burden is a high one requiring us to present clear and convincing evidence as to the invalidity of any such U.S. patent claim, there is no assurance that a court of competent jurisdiction would invalidate the claims of any such U.S. patent. If we are found to infringe a third party’s valid and enforceable intellectual property rights, we could be required to obtain a license from such third party to continue developing, manufacturing and marketing our product candidate(s) and technology. However, we may not be able to obtain any required license on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Even if we were able to obtain a license, it could be non-exclusive, thereby giving our competitors and other third parties access to the same technologies licensed to us, and it could require us to make substantial licensing and royalty payments. We could be forced, including by court order, to cease developing, manufacturing and commercializing the infringing technology or product candidate. In addition, we could be found liable for monetary damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees, if we are found to have willfully infringed a patent or other intellectual property right. A finding of infringement could prevent us from manufacturing and commercializing etripamil or any future product candidates or force us to cease some or all of our business operations, which could materially harm our business. Claims that we have misappropriated the confidential information or trade secrets of third parties could have a similar negative impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. See the section herein titled “Legal Proceedings” for additional information.

We may need to license intellectual property from third parties, and such licenses may not be available or may not be available on commercially reasonable terms.

A third party may hold intellectual property rights, including patent rights, that are important or necessary to the development of etripamil or any future product candidates. It may be necessary for us to use the patented or proprietary technology of third parties to commercialize our product candidates, in which case we would be required to obtain a license from these third parties. Such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, and we

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could be forced to accept unfavorable contractual terms. If we are unable to obtain such licenses on commercially reasonable terms, our business could be harmed.

We may be subject to claims asserting that our employees, consultants or advisors have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their current or former employers or claims asserting ownership of what we regard as our own intellectual property.

Many of our employees, consultants or advisors are currently, or were previously, employed at universities or other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Although we try to ensure that our employees, consultants and advisors do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that these individuals or we have used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information, of any such individual’s current or former employer. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management.

In addition, we may in the future be subject to claims by our former employees or consultants asserting an ownership right in our patents or patent applications, as a result of the work they performed on our behalf. Although it is our policy to require our employees and contractors who may be involved in the development of intellectual property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be unsuccessful in executing such an agreement with each party who, in fact, conceives or develops intellectual property that we regard as our own, and we cannot be certain that our agreements with such parties will be upheld in the face of a potential challenge or that they will not be breached, for which we may not have an adequate remedy. The assignment of intellectual property rights may not be self-executing or the assignment agreements may be breached, and we may be forced to bring claims against third parties, or defend claims that they may bring against us, to determine the ownership of what we regard as our intellectual property.

Changes in U.S. patent law or the patent law of other countries or jurisdictions could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect etripamil and any future product candidates.

The United States has recently enacted and implemented wide ranging patent reform legislation. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on several patent cases in recent years, either narrowing the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances or weakening 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 value of patents, once obtained. Depending on actions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts, and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that could weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce patents that we have licensed or that we might obtain in the future. Similarly, changes in patent law and regulations in other countries or jurisdictions, changes in the governmental bodies that enforce them or changes in how the relevant governmental authority enforces patent laws or regulations may weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce patents that we have licensed or that we may obtain in the future.

We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world, which could negatively impact our business.

Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States could be less extensive than those in the United States. In some cases, we may not be able to obtain patent protection for certain technology outside the United States. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as federal and state laws in the United States, even in jurisdictions where we do pursue patent protection. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States, even in jurisdictions where we do pursue patent protection or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into the United States or other jurisdictions.

Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the

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enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents, if pursued and obtained, or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not issuing and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.

Reliance on third parties requires us to share our proprietary information, which increases the possibility that such information will be misappropriated or disclosed.

Because we rely on third parties to develop and manufacture etripamil and any future product candidates, or if we collaborate with third parties for the development or commercialization of etripamil or any future product candidates, we must, at times, share proprietary information with them. We seek to protect our proprietary technology in part by entering into confidentiality agreements and, if applicable, material transfer agreements, consulting agreements or other similar agreements with our advisors, employees, third-party contractors and consultants prior to beginning research or disclosing proprietary information. These agreements typically limit the rights of the third parties to use or disclose our confidential information. Despite the contractual provisions employed when working with third parties, the need to share confidential information increases the risk that such information become known by our competitors, is inadvertently incorporated into the technology of others, or is disclosed or used in violation of these agreements. Given that our proprietary position is based, in part, on our know-how, a competitor’s discovery of our know-how or other unauthorized use or disclosure could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

In addition, these agreements typically restrict the ability of our advisors, employees, third-party contractors and consultants to publish data potentially relating to our know-how. Despite our efforts to protect our know-how, we may not be able to prevent the unauthorized disclosure or use of our technical know-how by the parties to these agreements. Moreover, we cannot guarantee that we have entered into such agreements with each party that may have or have had access to our confidential information or proprietary technology and processes. Monitoring unauthorized uses and disclosures is difficult, and we do not know whether the steps we have taken to protect our proprietary technologies will be effective. If any of the collaborators, scientific advisors, employees, contractors and consultants who are parties to these agreements breaches or violates the terms of any of these agreements, we may not have adequate remedies for any such breach or violation. Moreover, if confidential information that is licensed or disclosed to us by our partners, collaborators, or others is inadvertently disclosed or subject to a breach or violation, we may be exposed to liability to the owner of that confidential information. Enforcing a claim that a third-party illegally obtained and is using our proprietary information, like patent litigation, is expensive and time consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, courts outside the United States are sometimes less willing to protect proprietary information.

Any trademarks we may obtain may be infringed or successfully challenged, resulting in harm to our business.

We expect to rely on trademarks as one means to distinguish any of our product candidates that are approved for marketing from the products of our competitors. We have not yet selected trademarks for etripamil and have not yet begun the process of applying to register trademarks for etripamil or any other product candidate. Once we select trademarks and apply to register them, our trademark applications may not be approved. Third parties may oppose our trademark applications or otherwise challenge our use of the trademarks. In the event that our trademarks are successfully challenged, we could be forced to rebrand our products, which could result in loss of brand recognition and could require us to devote resources to advertising and marketing new brands. Our competitors may infringe our trademarks, and we may not have adequate resources to enforce our trademarks.

In addition, any proprietary name we propose to use with etripamil or any future product candidate in the United States must be approved by the FDA, regardless of whether we have registered it, or applied to register it, as a trademark. The FDA typically conducts a review of proposed product names, including an evaluation of the potential for confusion with other product names. If the FDA objects to any of our proposed proprietary product names, we may be required to

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expend significant additional resources in an effort to identify a suitable proprietary product name that would qualify under applicable trademark laws, not infringe the existing rights of third parties and be acceptable to the FDA.

If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our proprietary information, our business and competitive position would be harmed.

In addition to seeking patent and trademark protection for etripamil and any future product candidate, we also rely on unpatented know-how, technology and other proprietary information, to maintain our competitive position. We seek to protect our proprietary information, in part, by entering into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to them, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside scientific collaborators, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors and other third parties. We also enter into confidentiality and invention or patent assignment agreements with our employees and consultants. Despite these efforts, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information. Monitoring unauthorized uses and disclosures of our intellectual property is difficult, and we do not know whether the steps we have taken to protect our intellectual property will be effective. In addition, we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for any such breaches. Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated proprietary information is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts inside and outside the United States are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets.

Moreover, our competitors may independently develop knowledge, methods and know-how equivalent to our proprietary information. Competitors could purchase our products and replicate some or all of the competitive advantages we derive from our development efforts for technologies on which we do not have patent protection. If any of our proprietary information were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor, we would have no right to prevent them, or those to whom they communicate it, from using that technology or information to compete with us. If any of our proprietary information were to be disclosed to or independently developed by a competitor, our competitive position would be harmed.

We also seek to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of our data and other confidential information by maintaining physical security of our premises and physical and electronic security of our information technology systems. While we have confidence in these individuals, organizations and systems, agreements or security measures may be breached and detecting the disclosure or misappropriation of confidential information and enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated confidential information is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. Further, we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for any breach. In addition, our confidential information may otherwise become known or be independently discovered by competitors, in which case we would have no right to prevent them, or those to whom they communicate it, from using that technology or information to compete with us.

Risks Related to Our Business Operations, Employee Matters and Managing Growth

Our future success depends on our ability to retain key executives and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel.

We are highly dependent on our President and Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Oliveto, our Chief Medical Officer, Francis Plat, our Chief Commercial Officer, Lorenz Muller and our Chief Financial Officer, Amit Hasija. Each of them may currently terminate their employment with us at any time. The loss of the services of any of these persons could impede the achievement of our research, development and commercialization objectives. We do not currently maintain “key person” life insurance on the lives of our executives or any of our employees other than on our President and Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Oliveto.

Recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and clinical personnel and, if we progress the development of any of our product candidates, commercialization, manufacturing and sales and marketing personnel, will be critical to our success. The loss of the services of our executive officers or other key employees could impede the achievement of our research, development and commercialization objectives and seriously harm our ability to successfully implement our business strategy. Furthermore, replacing executive officers and key employees may be difficult and may take an extended period

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of time because of the limited number of individuals in our industry with the breadth of skills and experience required to successfully develop, gain regulatory approval of and commercialize our product candidates. Competition to hire from this limited pool is intense, and we may be unable to hire, train, retain or motivate these key personnel on acceptable terms given the competition among numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for similar personnel. We also experience competition for the hiring of scientific and clinical personnel from universities and research institutions. In addition, we rely on consultants and advisors, including scientific and clinical advisors, to assist us in formulating our research and development and commercialization strategy. Our consultants and advisors may have commitments under consulting or advisory contracts with other entities that may limit their availability to us. If we are unable to continue to attract and retain high-quality personnel, our ability to pursue our growth strategy will be limited.

We expect to expand our organization, and we may experience difficulties in managing this growth, which could disrupt our operations.

As of September 30, 2020, we had 28 full-time employees. As the clinical development of etripamil progresses and as we expand our pipeline, we may experience significant growth in the number of our employees and the scope of our operations, particularly in the areas of research, drug development, regulatory affairs and, if etripamil or any future product candidates receives marketing approval, sales, marketing and distribution. To manage any future growth, we will be required to continue to implement and improve our managerial, operational and financial systems, expand our facilities and continue to recruit and train additional qualified personnel. Due to our limited financial resources and the limited experience of our management team in managing a company with growth, we may not be able to effectively manage any expansion of our operations or recruit and train additional qualified personnel. Any expansion of our operations may lead to significant costs and may divert our management and business development resources. Any inability to manage growth could delay the execution of our business plans or disrupt our operations.

Our internal computer systems, or those of our collaborators or other contractors or consultants, may fail or suffer security breaches, which could result in a significant disruption of our product development programs and our ability to operate our business effectively.

Our internal computer systems and those of our current and any future collaborators and other contractors or consultants are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. Cyber attacks are increasing in their frequency, sophistication and intensity, and have become increasingly difficult to detect. Cyber attacks could include the deployment of harmful malware, ransomware, denial-of-service attacks, social engineering and other means to affect service reliability and threaten the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information. Cyber attacks also could include phishing attempts or e-mail fraud to cause payments or information to be transmitted to an unintended recipient.

While we have not experienced any significant system failure, accident or security breach to date, if such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a disruption of our development programs and our business operations, whether due to a loss of our trade secrets or other proprietary information or other similar disruptions. For example, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or future clinical trials by us or our CROs could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. Additionally, any such event that leads to unauthorized access, use or disclosure of personal information, including personal information regarding our patients or employees, could harm our reputation, cause us not to comply with federal and/or state breach notification laws and foreign law equivalents and otherwise subject us to liability under laws and regulations that protect the privacy and security of personal information. Security breaches and other inappropriate access can be difficult to detect, and any delay in identifying them may lead to increased harm of the type described above. While we have implemented security measures to protect our information technology systems and infrastructure, such measures may not prevent service interruptions or security breaches that could adversely affect our business and to the extent that any disruption or security breach were to result in a loss of, or damage to, our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liability, our competitive position could be harmed and the further development and commercialization of our product candidates could be delayed.

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If we fail to comply with European data protection laws, including the new European Union General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, or GDPR, when appropriate, and any other existing or future data protection regulations, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be materially adversely affected.

We anticipate seeking regulatory approval for, and commercialize, etripamil for the treatment of PSVT in Europe. We may also elect to do so for future product candidates. We are conducting clinical trial activities in Europe, which will subject us to European data protection laws, including GDPR. The GDPR, which came into effect on May 25, 2018, establishes new requirements applicable to the processing of personal data (i.e., data which identifies an individual or from which an individual is identifiable), affords new data protection rights to individuals (e.g., the right to erasure of personal data) and imposes penalties for serious breaches of up to 4% annual worldwide turnover or €20 million, whichever is greater. Individuals (e.g., study subjects) also have a right to compensation for financial or non-financial losses (e.g., distress). There may be circumstances under which a failure to comply with GDPR, or the exercise of individual rights under the GDPR, would limit our ability to utilize clinical trial data collected on certain subjects. The GDPR will likely impose additional responsibility and liability in relation to our processing of personal data. This may be onerous and materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

To comply with the GDPR restrictions on transfer of personal data out of Europe, we have relied on Standard Contractual Clauses. However, a July 2020 decision of the EU’s highest court has called into question this practice, and UK authorities may similarly question the viability of the Standard Contractual Clauses as a mechanism for the lawful transfer of personal data outside of Europe. In addition to rely on Standard Contractual Clauses, we have taken a number of measures to strengthen data protection such as appointing a Data Protection Officer in EU, performing a Data Protection Impact Assessment, creating a Record of Processing Activities for data protection control and implementing data protection policies.If we are unable to implement safeguards necessary to ensure that our transfers of personal data from and within Europe are lawful, we will face increased exposure to regulatory actions, substantial fines, and injunctions against processing personal data from Europe, and could be required to increase our data processing capabilities in Europe at significant expense. Restrictions on our ability to import personal data from Europe could impact our clinical trial activities in Europe and limit our ability to collaborate with CROs and other third parties subject to European data protection laws. Other countries may adopt similar restrictions to the GDPR, which could further impact our operations.

Our employees, principal investigators, consultants and commercial partners may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including non-compliance with regulatory standards and requirements and insider trading.

We are exposed to the risk of fraud or other misconduct by our employees, principal investigators, consultants and commercial partners. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional failures to comply with FDA regulations or the regulations applicable in other jurisdictions, provide accurate information to the FDA and other regulatory authorities, comply with healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations in the United States and abroad, report financial information or data accurately or disclose unauthorized activities to us. In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, misconduct, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements. Such misconduct also could involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of clinical trials or interactions with the FDA or other regulatory authorities, which could result in regulatory sanctions and cause serious harm to our reputation. It is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from government investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to comply with these laws or regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could result in significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, imprisonment, exclusion from participating in government funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, additional reporting requirements and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or similar agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws, contractual damages, reputational harm and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could have a negative impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

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If we engage in future acquisitions or strategic collaborations, this may increase our capital requirements, dilute our shareholders, cause us to incur debt or assume contingent liabilities and subject us to other risks.

We actively search for and continually evaluate various acquisition and strategic collaboration opportunities, including licensing or acquiring complementary drugs, intellectual property rights, technologies or businesses, as deemed appropriate to carry out our business plan. Any potential acquisition or strategic partnership may entail numerous risks, including:

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increased operating expenses and cash requirements;

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the assumption of additional indebtedness or contingent liabilities;

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assimilation of operations, intellectual property and drugs of an acquired company, including difficulties associated with integrating new personnel;

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the diversion of our management’s attention from our existing drug programs and initiatives in pursuing such a strategic partnership, merger or acquisition;

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retention of key employees, the loss of key personnel, and uncertainties in our ability to maintain key business relationships;

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risks and uncertainties associated with the other party to such a transaction, including the prospects of that party and their existing drugs or product candidates and regulatory approvals; and

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our inability to generate revenue from acquired technology and/or drugs sufficient to meet our objectives in undertaking the acquisition or even to offset the associated acquisition and maintenance costs.

In addition, if we engage in future acquisitions or strategic partnerships, we may issue dilutive securities, assume or incur debt obligations, incur large one-time expenses and acquire intangible assets that could result in significant future amortization expense. Moreover, we may not be able to locate suitable acquisition opportunities, and this inability could impair our ability to grow or obtain access to technology or drugs that may be important to the development of our business.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Shares

The market price of our common shares has been and may continue to be volatile and fluctuate substantially, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

The market price of our common shares has been and may continue to be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in price in response to various factors, many of which are beyond our control. Since our initial public offering which occurred in May 2019, through September 30, 2020, the price of our common shares has ranged from $1.70 per share to $27.15 per share. The stock market in general and the market for biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical companies in particular, has experienced extreme volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. As a result of this volatility, you may not be able to sell your common shares at or above the price paid for the shares. In addition to the factors discussed in this “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, the market price for our common shares may be influenced by the following:

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the commencement, enrollment or results of our planned or future clinical trials of etripamil and any future product candidates or those of our competitors;

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the success of competitive drugs or therapies;

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regulatory or legal developments in the United States and other countries;

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the success of competitive products or technologies;

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developments or disputes concerning patent applications, issued patents or other proprietary rights;

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the recruitment or departure of key personnel;

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the level of expenses related to etripamil and any future product candidates or clinical development programs;

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the results of our efforts to discover, develop, acquire or in-license additional product candidates;

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actual or anticipated changes in estimates as to financial results, development timelines or recommendations by securities analysts;

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our inability to obtain or delays in obtaining adequate drug supply for any approved drug or inability to do so at acceptable prices;

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disputes or other developments relating to proprietary rights, including patents, litigation matters and our ability to obtain patent protection for our technologies;

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significant lawsuits, including patent or shareholder litigation;

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variations in our financial results or those of companies that are perceived to be similar to us;

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changes in the structure of healthcare payment systems, including coverage and adequate reimbursement for any approved drug;

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market conditions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors;

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general economic, political, and market conditions and overall fluctuations in the financial markets in the United States and abroad; and

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investors’ general perception of us and our business.

These and other market and industry factors may cause the market price and demand for our common shares to fluctuate substantially, regardless of our actual operating performance, which may limit or prevent investors from selling their shares at or above the price paid for the shares and may otherwise negatively affect the liquidity of our common shares. In addition, the stock market in general, and biopharmaceutical companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies.

Some companies that have experienced volatility in the trading price of their shares have been the subject of securities class action litigation. Any lawsuit to which we are a party, with or without merit, may result in an unfavorable judgment. We also may decide to settle lawsuits on unfavorable terms. Any such negative outcome could result in payments of substantial damages or fines, damage to our reputation or adverse changes to our business practices. Defending against litigation is costly and time-consuming, and could divert our management’s attention and our resources. Furthermore, during the course of litigation, there could be negative public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments, which could have a negative effect on the market price of our common shares.

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Our common shares are thinly traded and our shareholders may be unable to sell their shares quickly or at market price.

Although we have had periods of high volume daily trading in our common shares, generally our shares are thinly traded. As a consequence of this lack of liquidity, the trading of relatively small quantities of shares by our shareholders may disproportionately influence the price of those shares in either direction. The price for our shares could, for example, decline significantly in the event that a large number of our common shares are sold on the market without commensurate demand, as compared to a seasoned issuer that could better absorb those sales without adverse impact on its share price.

Concentration of ownership of our common shares among our existing executive officers, directors and principal shareholders may prevent new investors from influencing significant corporate decisions.

Based upon our common shares outstanding as of September 30, 2020, our executive officers, directors and shareholders who owned more than 5% of our outstanding common shares, in the aggregate, beneficially owned shares representing 50.6% of our outstanding common shares. If our executive officers, directors and shareholders who owned more than 5% of our outstanding common shares acted together, they may be able to significantly influence all matters requiring shareholder approval, including the election and removal of directors and approval of any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. The concentration of voting power and transfer restrictions could delay or prevent an acquisition of our company on terms that other shareholders may desire or result in the management of our company in ways with which other shareholders disagree.

If research analysts do not publish research or reports, or publish unfavorable research or reports, about us, our business or our market, our share price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common shares will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. Equity research analysts may discontinue research coverage of our common shares, and such lack of research coverage may adversely affect the market price of our common shares. We do not have any control over the analysts or the content and opinions included in their reports. The price of our shares could decline if one or more equity research analysts downgrade our shares or issue other unfavorable commentary or research about us. If one or more equity research analysts ceases coverage of us or fails to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our shares could decrease, which in turn could cause the trading price or trading volume of our common shares to decline.

Because we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our share capital in the foreseeable future, capital appreciation, if any, will be your sole source of gain.

You should not rely on an investment in our common shares to provide dividend income. We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our share capital. We currently intend to retain all of our future earnings, if any, to finance the growth and development of our business. In addition, the terms of any future debt agreements or preferred equity may preclude us from paying dividends. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our common shares will be your sole source of gain for the foreseeable future. Investors seeking cash dividends should not purchase our common shares.

We have broad discretion in the use of our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments and may use them in ways in which you do not agree or in ways that do not increase the value of your investment.

Our management has broad discretion in the application of our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, and could spend these funds in ways that do not improve our results of operations or enhance the value of our common shares. The failure by our management to apply these funds effectively could result in financial losses that could have a negative impact on our business, cause the price of our common shares to decline and delay the development of our product candidates. Pending their use, we may invest our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, in a manner that does not produce income or that loses value.

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If we are a passive foreign investment company, there could be adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. Holders (as defined below).

Based on the nature and composition of our income, assets, activities and market capitalization for our taxable year ending December 31, 2019, we believe that we may have been classified as a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, for our taxable year ending December 31, 2019. Based on the expected nature and composition of our income and assets for our taxable year ending December 31, 2020, we expect that we may be classified as a PFIC for our taxable year ending December 31, 2020. If we are a PFIC for the current taxable year, or any subsequent taxable years, we intend to annually furnish U.S. Holders, upon request, a “PFIC Annual Information Statement,” with the information required to allow U.S. Holders to make a “qualified electing fund” election, or “QEF Election” for United States federal income tax purposes. No assurances regarding our PFIC status can be provided for any past, current or future taxable years. The determination of whether we are a PFIC is a fact-intensive determination made on an annual basis and the applicable law is subject to varying interpretation. In particular, the characterization of our assets as active or passive may depend in part on our current and intended future business plans, which are subject to change. In addition, for our current and future taxable years, the total value of our assets for PFIC testing purposes may be determined in part by reference to the market price of our common shares from time to time, which may fluctuate considerably. As a result, our PFIC status may change from year to year and we have not yet made any determination as to our expected PFIC status for the current year. Under the income test, our status as a PFIC depends on the composition of our income which will depend on the transactions we enter into in the future and our corporate structure. The composition of our income and assets is also affected by how, and how quickly, we spend the cash we raise in any offering.

If we are a PFIC, U.S. Holders may be subject to adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences, such as ineligibility for any preferential tax rates for individuals on capital gains or on actual or deemed dividends, interest charges on certain taxes treated as deferred, and additional reporting requirements under U.S. federal income tax laws and regulations.

A “U.S. Holder” is a holder of our common shares who, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, is: (i) an individual who is a citizen or resident of the United States; (ii) a corporation, or another entity taxable as a corporation, created or organized in or under the laws of the United States, any state therein or the District of Columbia; (iii) an estate the income of which is subject to U.S. federal income taxation regardless of its source; or (iv) a trust if (1) a U.S. court is able to exercise primary supervision over the administration of the trust and one or more U.S. persons have authority to control all substantial decisions of the trust or (2) the trust has a valid election to be treated as a U.S. person under applicable U.S.Treasury Regulations.

Future changes to tax laws could materially adversely affect our company and reduce net returns to our shareholders.

Our tax treatment is subject to the enactment of, or changes in, tax laws, regulations and treaties, or the interpretation thereof, tax policy initiatives and reforms under consideration and the practices of tax authorities in jurisdictions in which we operate, including those related to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s, or OECD, Base Erosion and Profit Shifting, or BEPS, Project, the European Commission’s state aid investigations and other initiatives. Such changes may include (but are not limited to) the taxation of operating income, investment income, dividends received or (in the specific context of withholding tax) dividends paid. We are unable to predict what tax reform may be proposed or enacted in the future or what effect such changes would have on our business, but such changes, to the extent they are brought into tax legislation, regulations, policies or practices, could affect our financial position and overall or effective tax rates in the future in countries where we have operations, reduce post-tax returns to our shareholders, and increase the complexity, burden and cost of tax compliance.

For example, the Tax Act enacted many significant changes to the U.S. tax laws. Future guidance from the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities with respect to the Tax Act may affect us, and certain aspects of the Tax Act could be repealed or modified in future legislation. In addition, it is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to the Tax Act or any newly enacted federal tax legislation. Changes in corporate tax rates, the realization of net deferred tax assets relating to our operations, the taxation of foreign earnings, and the deductibility of expenses under the Tax Act or future reform legislation could have a material impact on the value of our deferred tax assets, could result in significant one-time charges, and could increase our future U.S. tax expense. We urge you to consult with your legal and

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tax advisors with respect to this legislation and the potential tax consequences of investing in or holding our common shares.

Tax authorities may disagree with our positions and conclusions regarding certain tax positions, resulting in unanticipated costs, taxes or non-realization of expected benefits.

A tax authority may disagree with tax positions that we have taken, which could result in increased tax liabilities. For example, the Canadian Revenue Agency, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service or another tax authority could challenge our allocation of income by tax jurisdiction and the amounts paid between our affiliated companies pursuant to our intercompany arrangements and transfer pricing policies, including amounts paid with respect to our intellectual property development. Similarly, a tax authority could assert that we are subject to tax in a jurisdiction where we believe we have not established a taxable connection, often referred to as a “permanent establishment” under international tax treaties, and such an assertion, if successful, could increase our expected tax liability in one or more jurisdictions. A tax authority may take the position that material income tax liabilities, interest and penalties are payable by us, in which case, we expect that we might contest such assessment. Contesting such an assessment may be lengthy and costly and if we were unsuccessful in disputing the assessment, the result could increase our anticipated effective tax rate.

We are an “emerging growth company,” and the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies may make our common shares less attractive to investors.

We are an “emerging growth company,” or EGC, as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act, and we intend to take advantage of some of the exemptions from reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including:

•

not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements in the assessment of our internal control over financial reporting;

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not being required to comply with any requirement that may be adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s report providing additional information about the audit and the financial statements;

•

reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation; and

•

not being required to hold a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.

We currently take advantage of some or all of these reporting exemptions and may continue to until we are no longer an EGC. We will remain an EGC until the earlier of (i) December 31, 2024, (ii) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, (iii) the last day of the first fiscal year in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our common shares that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (iv) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period. We cannot predict whether investors will find our common shares less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common shares less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common shares and our share price may be more volatile.

In addition, under Section 107(b) of the JOBS Act, EGCs can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have irrevocably elected not to avail ourselves of this exemption from new or revised accounting standards and, therefore, we will be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not EGCs.

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We are incurring, and expect to continue to incur additional costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives.

As a public company, and particularly after we are no longer an EGC, we are incurring, and expect to continue to incur, significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC have imposed various requirements on public companies, including establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and corporate governance practices. Our management and other personnel need to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations have increased, and will continue to increase, our legal and financial compliance costs and make some activities more time-consuming and costly.

Pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or Section 404, we will be required to furnish a report by our management on our internal control over financial reporting, including an attestation report on internal control over financial reporting issued by our independent registered public accounting firm. However, while we remain an EGC, we will not be required to include an attestation report on internal control over financial reporting issued by our independent registered public accounting firm. To achieve compliance with Section 404 within the prescribed period, we will be engaged in a process to document and evaluate our internal control over financial reporting, which is both costly and challenging. In this regard, we will need to continue to dedicate internal resources, potentially engage outside consultants and adopt a detailed work plan to assess and document the adequacy of internal control over financial reporting, continue steps to improve control processes as appropriate, validate through testing that controls are functioning as documented and implement a continuous reporting and improvement process for internal control over financial reporting. Despite our efforts, there is a risk that neither we nor our independent registered public accounting firm will be able to conclude within the prescribed timeframe that our internal control over financial reporting is effective as required by Section 404. This could result in an adverse reaction in the financial markets due to a loss of confidence in the reliability of our consolidated financial statements.

Because we are a Canadian company, it may be difficult to serve legal process or enforce judgments against us.

We are a domestic filer in the United States; however, we are incorporated and have our corporate headquarters in Canada. In addition, while many of our directors and officers reside in the United States, several of them reside outside of the United States. Accordingly, service of process upon us may be difficult to obtain within the United States. Furthermore, because substantially all of our assets are located outside the United States, any judgment obtained in the United States against us, including one predicated on the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws, may not be collectible within the United States. Therefore, it may not be possible to enforce those actions against us.

In addition, it may be difficult to assert U.S. securities law claims in original actions instituted in Canada. Canadian courts may refuse to hear a claim based on an alleged violation of U.S. securities laws against us or these persons on the grounds that Canada is not the most appropriate forum in which to bring such a claim. Even if a Canadian court agrees to hear a claim, it may determine that Canadian law and not U.S. law is applicable to the claim. If U.S. law is found to be applicable, the content of applicable U.S. law must be proved as a fact, which can be a time-consuming and costly process. Certain matters of procedure will also be governed by Canadian law. Furthermore, it may not be possible to subject foreign persons or entities to the jurisdiction of the courts in Canada. Similarly, to the extent that our assets are located in Canada, investors may have difficulty collecting from us any judgments obtained in the U.S. courts and predicated on the civil liability provisions of U.S. securities provisions.

We are governed by the corporate laws of Québec, which in some cases have a different effect on shareholders than the corporate laws of Delaware.

We are governed by the Business Corporations Act (Québec), or the QBCA, and other relevant laws, which may affect the rights of shareholders differently than those of a company governed by the laws of a U.S. jurisdiction, and may, together with our charter documents, have the effect of delaying, deferring or discouraging another party from acquiring control of us by means of a tender offer, a proxy contest or otherwise, or may affect the price an acquiring party would be willing to offer in such an instance. The material differences between the QBCA and Delaware General Corporation

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Law, or the DGCL, that may have the greatest such effect include but are not limited to the following: (i) for material corporate transactions (such as mergers and amalgamations, other extraordinary corporate transactions or amendments to our articles), the QBCA generally requires a two-thirds majority vote by shareholders, whereas the DGCL generally only requires a majority vote; and (ii) under the QBCA, a holder of 5% or more of our common shares can requisition a special meeting of shareholders, whereas such right does not exist under the DGCL.

Our bylaws and certain Canadian legislation contain provisions that may have the effect of delaying or preventing certain change in control transactions or shareholder proposals.

Certain provisions of our bylaws and certain Canadian legislation, together or separately, could discourage or delay certain change in control transactions or shareholder proposals.

Our bylaws contain provisions that establish certain advance notice procedures for nomination of candidates for election as directors at shareholders’ meetings. The BCA requires that any shareholder proposal that includes nominations for the election of directors must be signed by one or more holders of shares representing in the aggregate not less than 5% of the shares or 5% of the shares of a class or series of shares of the corporation entitled to vote at the meeting to which the proposal is to be presented.

The Investment Canada Act requires that a non-Canadian must file an application for review with the Minister responsible for the Investment Canada Act and obtain approval of the Minister prior to acquiring control of a “Canadian business” within the meaning of the Investment Canada Act, where prescribed financial thresholds are exceeded. Furthermore, limitations on the ability to acquire and hold our common shares may be imposed by the Competition Act (Canada). This legislation permits the Commissioner of Competition, or Commissioner, to review any acquisition or establishment, directly or indirectly, including through the acquisition of shares, of control over or of a significant interest in our company. Otherwise, there are no limitations either under the laws of Canada or Quebec, or in our articles on the rights of non-Canadians to hold or vote our common shares.

Any of these provisions may discourage a potential acquirer from proposing or completing a transaction that may have otherwise presented a premium to our shareholders.

Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Equity Securities

None

Use of Proceeds from the IPO

On May 13, 2019, we completed the IPO and issued 6,325,000 common shares at an initial offering price of $15.00 per share (inclusive of 825,000 common shares pursuant to the full exercise of an overallotment option granted to the underwriters in connection with the offering). We received net proceeds from the IPO of $85.4 million, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions. None of the expenses associated with the IPO were paid to directors, officers, persons owning 10% or more of any class of equity securities, or to their associates. Jefferies LLC, Cowen and Company, LLC and Piper Jaffray & Co. acted as lead book-running managers. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acted as lead manager for the IPO.

Our common shares began trading on The Nasdaq Global Select Market on May 9, 2019. The offer and sale of the shares were registered under the Securities Act on Registration Statement on Form S-1 (Registration No. 333-230846), which was declared effective on May 8, 2019.

There has been no material change in the planned use of proceeds from the IPO as described in the prospectus used in connection therewith. We invested the funds received in cash equivalents and other short term investments in accordance with our investment policy. In July 2020, we started to use proceeds from the IPO for the development of etripamil and to pursue regulatory approval.

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Item 3. Defaults Upon Senior Securities.

Not applicable

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.

Not applicable

Item 5. Other Information.

On November 11, 2020, Paul Edick notified the Company of his decision to resign from the Board of Directors, including any committees of the Board of Directors, effective January 1, 2021. Mr. Edick’s resignation from the Board of Directors is not due to any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices. Following Mr. Edick’s resignation and effective January 1, 2021, the Compensation Committee of the Board will consist of Debra Liebert, Richard Pasternak and Paul Truex, and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of the Board will consist of Robert Wills and Paul Truex. In addition, Robert Wills will replace Mr. Edick as Chairperson of the Board, effective as of January 1, 2021.

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Item 6. Exhibits.


Exhibit Number		Description

3.1		Amended Articles of Incorporation of the Company (incorporated herein by reference to Exhibit 3.1 to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-38899), filed with the SEC on May 15, 2019).
3.2		Amended and Restated Bylaws of the Company (incorporated herein by reference to Exhibit 3.2 to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-38899), filed with the SEC on May 15, 2019).
4.1		Form of Pre-Funded Warrant to Purchase Common Shares (incorporated herein by reference to Exhibit 4.1 to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-38899), filed with the SEC on July 23, 2020).
10.1		Securities Purchase Agreement , dated July 22, 2020, between the Company and affiliates of RTW Investments, LP (incorporated herein by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Company's Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-38899), filed with the SEC on July 23, 2020).
10.2		Open Market Sale Agreement^SM, dated July 29, 2020, by and between the Company and Jefferies LLC (incorporated herein by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to the Company's Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-38899), filed with the SEC on July 29, 2020).
10.3+		The Non-employee Director Compensation Policy, as amended.
31.1		Certification of Principal Executive Officer Pursuant to Rules 13a-14(a) and 15d-14(a) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as Adopted Pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
31.2		Certification of Principal Financial Officer Pursuant to Rules 13a-14(a) and 15d-14(a) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as Adopted Pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
32.1*		Certification of Principal Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
101.INS		XBRL Instance Document
101.SCH		XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document
101.CAL		XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document
101.DEF		XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document
101.LAB		XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document
101.PRE		XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document

* Furnished herewith and not deemed to be “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act (whether made before or after the date of the Form 10-Q), irrespective of any general incorporation language contained in such filing.

+	Indicates a management contract or compensatory plan.

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SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.


	MILESTONE PHARMACEUTICALS INC.

Date: November 13, 2020	By:	/s/ Joseph Oliveto
		Joseph Oliveto
		President and Chief Executive Officer (Principal Executive Officer)




Date: November 13, 2020	By:	/s/ Amit Hasija
		Amit Hasija
		Chief Financial Officer (Principal Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer)