As filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on May 30, 2019.

Registration Statement No. 333-            

 

 

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

 

Form F-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

 

 

ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Limited

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

Not Applicable

(Translation of Registrant’s name into English)

 

 

 

Cayman Islands		2834		Not Applicable
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)		(Primary Standard Industrial Classification Code Number)		(I.R.S. Employer Identification Number)

83 Clemenceau Avenue #12-03 UE Square

Singapore 239920

+65 6222 4235

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

 

 

Cogency Global Inc.

10 East 40th Street 10th Floor

New York, New York 10016

+1 212 947 7200

(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

 

 

Copies of all communications, including communications sent to agent for service, should be sent to:

 

Robert W. Phillips Sean M. Clayton Kristin VanderPas Charles S. Kim Patrick Loofbourrow Cooley LLP 4401 Eastgate Mall San Diego, California 92121 (858) 550-6000		Alan F. Denenberg Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP 1600 El Camino Real Menlo Park, California 94025 (650) 752-2000

 

 

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to public: As soon as practicable after this Registration Statement becomes effective.

If any of the securities being registered on this form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, check the following box.  ☐

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act:

Emerging growth company  ☒

If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, 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 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act.  ☐

 

†	The term “new or revised financial accounting standard” refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012.

 

 

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

 

Title of Each Class of Securities to be Registered		Proposed Maximum Aggregate Offering Price(1)		Amount of Registration Fee(2)
Ordinary shares, par value NT$10.00 per ordinary share(3)(4)		$15,000,000		$1,818.00

(1)	Estimated solely for the purpose of computing the amount of the registration fee pursuant to Rule 457(o) under the Securities Act. Includes the aggregate offering price of additional ordinary shares represented by American Depositary Shares (ADSs) that the underwriters have the option to purchase.

(2)	Calculated pursuant to Rule 457(o) under the Securities Act, based on an estimate of the proposed maximum aggregate offering price.

(3)	These ordinary shares are represented by ADSs, each of which represents 5 ordinary shares of the Registrant.

(4)	ADSs issuable upon deposit of the ordinary shares registered hereby are being registered pursuant to a separate registration statement on Form F-6 (File No. 333-224273).

 

 

The registrant hereby amends this registration statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this registration statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until the registration statement shall become effective on such date as the Commission, acting pursuant to such Section 8(a), may determine.

 

 

 

The information contained in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and we are not soliciting offers to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.

 

Subject to completion, dated May 30, 2019

PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS

American Depositary Shares

 

 

 

Representing                Ordinary Shares

 

 

 

 

 

•  ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Limited is offering American Depositary Shares, or ADSs. Each ADS represents five ordinary shares. The ADSs will be evidenced by American Depositary Receipts, or ADRs.		•  Trading symbol for ADSs: The Nasdaq Global Market—“ASLN”   •  Our ordinary shares are listed on the Taipei Exchange, or TPEx.
•  The last reported sale price of our ADSs on                     , 2019 was $                per share.
•  The last reported sale price of our ordinary shares was NT$                per share, or approximately $                per share, based on an exchange rate of NT$            to $            .

Pursuant to the relevant Taiwan rules and practices, we expect that the public offering price will be (i) at least 90% of the closing price of our ordinary shares on the date of this prospectus or (ii) at least 90% of the simple average of the closing prices of our ordinary shares on the one, three or five business days immediately preceding the date of this prospectus.

 

 

 

 

Investing in our ADSs involves a high degree of risk. Before buying any ADSs, you should carefully read the discussion of material risks of investing in our ADSs in “Risk Factors ” beginning on page 13 of this prospectus.

We are an “emerging growth company” and a “foreign private issuer” as defined under the federal securities laws and, as such, are subject to reduced public company reporting requirements. See “Prospectus Summary—Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company and a Foreign Private Issuer” for additional information.

 

 

 

		PER ADS				TOTAL
Public offering price		$				$
Underwriting discounts and commissions(1)		$				$
Proceeds to ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Limited, before expenses		$				$

 

 

 

(1)	See “Underwriting” beginning on page 182 for additional information regarding total underwriter compensation.

We have granted the underwriters an option, exercisable at any time through and until one day before the closing date of this offering, to purchase additional                     ADSs.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any other regulatory body has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

Delivery of the ADSs is expected to be made on or about                     , 2019.

 

Piper Jaffray

 

The date of this prospectus is                     , 2019.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

		Page
About this Prospectus			ii
Presentation of Financial Information			ii
Prospectus Summary			1
Risk Factors			13
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements			60
Industry and Market Data			62
Trademarks, Service Marks and Tradenames			63
Use of Proceeds			64
Dividend Policy			65
Capitalization			66
Dilution			67
Selected Consolidated Financial Data			69
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations			71
Business			90
Management			145
Related Party Transactions			159
Principal Shareholders			160
Description of Share Capital and Governing Documents			163
Description of American Depositary Shares			182
Ordinary Shares and ADSs Eligible for Future Sale			198
Material Income Tax Considerations			200
Underwriting			207
Expenses of this Offering			217
Legal Matters			218
Experts			218
Enforcement of Liabilities			219
Where You Can Find Additional Information			221
Index to Consolidated Financial Statements			F-1

 

 

 

 

We are responsible for the information contained in this prospectus and any free writing prospectus we prepare or authorize. We have not, and the underwriters have not, authorized anyone to provide you with different information, and we and the underwriters take no responsibility for any other information

 

i

others may give you. We are not, and the underwriters are not, making an offer to sell our ADSs in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. You should not assume that the information contained in this prospectus is accurate as of any date other than the date on the front cover of this prospectus, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or the sale of any ADSs.

For investors outside the United States: Neither we nor the underwriters have done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction, other than the United States, where action for that purpose is required. Persons outside the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the ADSs and the distribution of this prospectus outside the United States.

We are incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands as an exempted company with limited liability and a majority of our outstanding securities are owned by non-U.S. residents. Under the rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, we currently qualify for treatment as a “foreign private issuer.” As a foreign private issuer, are not required to file periodic reports and financial statements with the SEC as frequently or as promptly as domestic registrants whose securities are registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act.

ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS

Unless otherwise indicated or the context otherwise requires, all references in this prospectus to the terms “ASLAN,” “ASLAN Pharmaceuticals,” “the company,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Limited and its subsidiaries.

PRESENTATION OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Our consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, as issued by the International Accounting Standard Board, or IASB, which may differ in material respects from generally accepted accounting principles in other jurisdictions, including the United States.

Our functional currency is the U.S. dollar. Unless otherwise specified, all monetary amounts presented are in U.S. dollars. All references in this prospectus to “$” mean U.S. dollars, all references in this prospectus to “NT$” mean New Taiwan dollars, the legal currency of the Republic of China, or ROC, and all references in this prospectus to “SG$” mean Singapore dollars, the legal currency of Singapore. The translation of the trading price of our common stock on the TPEx from New Taiwan dollars to U.S. dollars was made at a rate of NT$31.11 to $1.00, based on the exchange reported by the Wall Street Journal as of the closing price of our common stock on the TPEx on May 14, 2019. No representation is made that the New Taiwan dollar amounts referred to herein could have been or could be converted into U.S. dollars at any particular rate or at all. Any discrepancies in any table between totals and sums of the amounts listed are due to rounding.

We have made rounding adjustments to some of the figures included in this prospectus. Accordingly, numerical figures shown as totals in some tables may not be an arithmetic aggregation of the figures that preceded them.

 

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PROSPECTUS SUMMARY

The following summary highlights information contained elsewhere in this prospectus and does not contain all of the information you should consider before investing in our ADSs. You should read the entire prospectus carefully, including “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and our financial statements and the related notes thereto, in each case included in this prospectus. You should carefully consider, among other things, the matters discussed in the section of this prospectus titled “Business” before making an investment decision.

Overview

We are a clinical-stage oncology and immunology focused biopharmaceutical company based in Singapore developing novel therapeutics for global markets. We target diseases that are both highly prevalent in Asia and orphan indications in the United States and Europe. Our Asia development platform is designed to enable us to accelerate the development of drugs to treat these diseases. Our portfolio is comprised of four product candidates which target: validated growth pathways applied to new patient segments; novel immune checkpoints; and novel cancer metabolic pathways.

Our lead program, varlitinib, is a reversible small molecule pan-human epidermal growth factor receptor, or pan-HER inhibitor, that targets the human epidermal growth factor receptors HER1, HER2 and HER4. Varlitinib is currently being studied in a global pivotal clinical trial for biliary tract cancer for which we expect to report topline data in the second half of 2019.

We focus on cancers, such as biliary tract cancer, that are orphan diseases in the United States and Europe for which there are few, if any, approved therapies. Although registration trials for orphan diseases may require fewer patients, recruitment for such trials in the United States and Europe is often challenging given the limited availability of suitable patients. Asia offers a unique opportunity to accelerate the development of novel therapies in diseases where either the cancers are more prevalent or the availability of suitable patients is greater.

We have built a development platform centered in Asia that can generate data suitable for submission to regulators in the United States, Europe, China and Japan. The key components of this platform include:

 

•

International presence.    We are strategically positioned, through our teams in Singapore, Taiwan and China, to recruit patients quickly and efficiently in Asia, supplemented with data generated in the United States and Europe. Our local presence in Asia has enabled us to work closely with leading investigators and institutions, and closely oversee the execution of clinical trials to ensure the quality of clinical data.

 

•

Extensive knowledge of Asia prevalent cancers.    In collaboration with leading Asia research centers, such as Singapore’s National Cancer Centre, Japan’s National Cancer Centre Hospital and Taiwan’s Academia Sinica, we have been studying tumor profiles of patients to analyze the expression of certain biomarkers. This allows us to design targeted clinical trials focusing on those patients most likely to respond to our product candidates.

 

•

Experienced management team.    Our senior management team has broad experience in global and regional drug development, regulatory activities and commercialization, having played significant roles at other companies in the development of Crestor, Iressa and Symbicort in Asia and other international markets.

 

 

 

 

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•

Deep local relationships.     Our team’s global experience is complemented by a strong network of local partners and collaborators that we have established over many years operating in Asia, such as the Director of the Clinical Trials Center at Seoul National University Hospital and the Chair of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology. We are also represented on some of the top industry and government advisory bodies in Asia, such as Singapore’s International Advisory Council, which advises the Singapore government on the development of the biomedical sector.

Our Product Candidates

The following table summarizes our product candidate pipeline:

 

 

 

We hold global rights to all of our product candidates with the exception of varlitinib and ASLAN003, for both of which BioGenetics Co., Ltd., or BioGenetics, acquired rights for the Republic of Korea, or South Korea, and ASLAN002, for which Bristol Myers Squibb Company, or BMS, acquired global rights.

Varlitinib.    Varlitinib is a highly potent, oral, reversible, small molecule inhibitor of the human epidermal growth factor receptor, or HER, family of receptor tyrosine kinases, or RTKs. Approved drugs that selectively target HER1 (also known as EGFR) or HER2 have been effective in some patients. However, patients may relapse on or may not respond to these therapies because the growth of their cancers is driven by other HER family receptors.

Varlitinib targets multiple members of the HER family of receptors and therefore we believe it may be effective in a broader range of tumor types and effective in patients that have progressed on prior HER1-selective or HER2-selective therapies. Following guidance from the U.S. FDA, we initiated a randomized global pivotal clinical trial testing varlitinib in second-line biliary tract cancer. We expect to report topline data for this trial in the second half of 2019.

We licensed varlitinib from Array BioPharma Inc., or Array, in 2011 after successful completion of five Phase 1 clinical trials in a range of solid tumors, which showed activity in breast cancer. To date, we have completed four additional Phase 1b clinical trials and two Phase 2 clinical trials for this product candidate. Over 600 patients have been dosed with varlitinib as monotherapy or in combination with other agents. In these clinical trials, varlitinib was well-tolerated in Caucasian and Asian patients. Varlitinib has demonstrated activity in a range of tumor types including biliary tract, breast and colorectal cancer. In January 2018, we entered into a new license agreement with Array, which replaces

 

 

 

 

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and supersedes our previous collaboration and license agreement, pursuant to which we obtained an exclusive, worldwide license to develop, manufacture and commercialize varlitinib for all human and animal therapeutic, diagnostic and prophylactic uses.

We have obtained orphan drug designation from the U.S. FDA for varlitinib in gastric cancer and cholangiocarcinoma, which represents approximately 60% of biliary tract cancer cases. The IND for varlitinib in biliary tract cancer was originally submitted by Array in 2005 and subsequently inactivated in February 2012. The IND for varlitinib in biliary tract cancer was then reactivated on April 21, 2017. We also have obtained orphan drug designation from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in South Korea for varlitinib in biliary tract cancer.

Varlitinib Mechanism of Action

 

We believe that varlitinib has the potential to be the first targeted therapy approved for biliary tract cancer. We believe varlitinib has the following potential competitive advantages:

 

•

potent inhibition of HER1, HER2 and HER4 potentially enables it to be used in a broader range of tumors than HER1-selective and HER2-selective agents;

 

•

HER4 inhibition may lead to a more durable response;

 

•

low levels of GI toxicity in comparison to other pan-HER inhibitors; and

 

•

well-tolerated in conjunction with certain other chemotherapy regimens.

ASLAN003.     ASLAN003 is an orally active, potent inhibitor of human dihydroorotate dehydrogenase, or DHODH, the enzyme controlling the rate limiting step in the de novo synthesis of pyrimidines, essential building blocks for the production of DNA and RNA in mammalian cells. DHODH also contributes to the production of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. In cancer, increased levels of pyrimidines and ATP are required for tumor growth and survival. Inhibition of DHODH depletes the intracellular pool of pyrimidines and contributes to lower levels of ATP. This leads to the induction of the tumor suppressor p53, which at high levels of induction triggers apoptosis, or programmed cell death.

 

 

 

 

3

 

 

We believe that ASLAN003 has the potential to be a first-in-class DHODH inhibitor in oncology due to the following competitive advantages:

 

•

potent inhibition of DHODH, up to two orders of magnitude stronger than first generation inhibitors with the potential to reach the levels required to be efficacious in oncology;

 

•

lack of toxicities associated with first generation inhibitors and other recently launched therapies for acute myeloid leukemia, or AML;

 

•

enables AML blast cells to differentiate into granulocytes and may be applicable in a broad range of AML patients; and

 

•

evidence of activity in triple negative breast cancer, or TNBC.

We are conducting a Phase 2 clinical trial to develop ASLAN003 in AML. We reported interim data from the first 14 patients in December 2018 and we expect to report data from the dose optimization portion in the second quarter of 2019. If such data is positive, our plan is to meet with regulatory authorities to discuss expedited regulatory strategies, such as accelerated approval. We are also exploring other solid and liquid tumor types where DHODH may be relevant, such as myelodysplastic syndrome, TNBC and hepatocellular carcinoma, or HCC.

Additional Pipeline Programs.    In addition to varlitinib and ASLAN003, we have several other product candidates in development. ASLAN004 is an interleukin 4/interleukin 13, or IL-4/IL-13, receptor antibody, which we believe has the potential to be a best-in-class therapy for severe atopic dermatitis and asthma, due to greater selectivity in binding target cells via the IL-13 receptor. We have initiated a Phase 1 clinical trial investigating ASLAN004 as a therapeutic antibody for atopic dermatitis. The single ascending dose study is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2019.

Additionally, ASLAN005 is an antibody in preclinical development targeting recepteur d’origine nantais, or RON, an immune checkpoint inhibitor.

Opportunity and Rationale for Drug Development in Asia

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death globally and is rapidly overtaking heart disease in many developed countries to become the number one cause of mortality. In 2015, there were approximately 1.7 million new cases of cancer and 600,000 deaths caused by cancer in the United States, as compared to 4.3 million new cases and 2.8 million deaths in China alone. Historically, there has been more research in cancers common in the United States and Europe, such as breast and lung cancer, than there has been in other cancer types which are more prevalent in Asia. This lack of research has contributed to fewer treatment options for those cancers that are more prevalent in Asia. For example, in 2016, the prevalence of biliary tract cancer was over 200,000 patients in Asia, compared to approximately 12,600 in the United States, and there are no therapies approved to treat this disease. In gastric cancer, the prevalence was over one million in Asia in 2012, but only approximately 32,000 in the United States, and there is only one targeted therapy approved for first-line treatment. For the cancers on which we are focusing, such as biliary tract cancer, patients typically present with late-stage disease that has already metastasized. These patients are often not eligible for surgery and curative options are limited. Currently, no drugs are approved in the United States for biliary tract cancer, which has a median overall survival of 11.7 months. We have designed our clinical trials to target the patients most likely to respond to our product candidates, which will be a subset of the overall patient population for each targeted indication.

 

 

 

 

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We believe that our Asia development platform and our understanding of cancers that are prevalent in Asia, in particular in our areas of focus in China, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia, will enable us to develop drugs for these diseases more efficiently than could be done in the United States and Europe.

Our Strategy

We intend to pursue the following strategy:

 

•

Rapidly advance varlitinib in biliary tract cancer.    We are conducting a global pivotal clinical trial of varlitinib, which we refer to as TREatmEnT OPPortunity, or TREETOPP. Based on guidance from the U.S. FDA, we intend to seek accelerated approval for this product candidate if we see an increase in response rate over the current standard of care.

 

•

Develop ASLAN003 in AML.    We are conducting a Phase 2 clinical trial in Asia to develop ASLAN003 in AML, and we plan to meet with the U.S. FDA to discuss expedited regulatory strategies, such as accelerated approval. We are also conducting preclinical studies in other types of cancer where DHODH has been implicated as a putative target in published research, such as triple negative breast cancer, or TNBC, and hepatocellular carcinoma, or HCC.

 

•

Build a broad immuno-oncology portfolio.    We are using antibodies to inhibit specific immune checkpoints, such as RON, a receptor expressed on the macrophage, the inhibition of which could enhance T-cell activity. We intend to initially pursue Asia prevalent tumor indications with this immuno-oncology portfolio.

 

•

Establish a targeted commercial organization in the United States, China and other Asian markets.    We started building a targeted commercial organization in 2018 in anticipation of the potential regulatory approval of varlitinib for biliary tract cancer. We may also establish collaborations with pharmaceutical companies to maximize the potential of our products in other markets.

 

•

Develop ASLAN004 in severe atopic dermatitis and asthma.    We are conducting a Phase 1 clinical trial to develop ASLAN004 as a treatment for atopic dermatitis. We intend to explore the use of ASLAN004 as a treatment for other atopic diseases, such as asthma, in the future.

 

•

Selectively in-license or acquire additional oncology product candidates.    We plan to utilize our global relationships and business development experience to identify and evaluate new product candidate opportunities based on our understanding of Asia prevalent cancers and the targets and pathways that drive them.

Risks Associated with Our Business

Our business is subject to a number of risks of which you should be aware before making an investment decision. You should carefully consider all of the information set forth in this prospectus and, in particular, should evaluate the specific factors set forth in the section titled “Risk Factors” before deciding whether to invest in our ADSs. Among these important risks are the following:

 

•

we have incurred significant losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future;

 

•

we currently do not generate any revenue from product sales, have generated only limited revenue since inception, and may never be profitable;

 

 

 

 

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we are a clinical-stage company and will require additional capital beyond this offering, including prior to completing pivotal studies of (except with respect to varlitinib in biliary tract cancer), filing for regulatory approval for, or commercializing any of our product candidates;

 

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our success is dependent on the successful development, regulatory approval and commercialization of our product candidates;

 

•

our Asia development platform may not result in the competitive advantages we anticipate because an Asia-focused development platform is a relatively novel approach to drug development and has not yet resulted in a proven track record of accelerated development or regulatory approval;

 

•

we rely on third parties to manufacture and conduct the clinical trials of our product candidates, which could delay or limit their future development or regulatory approval;

 

•

we currently do not have the infrastructure to commercialize any of our product candidates and our planned commercialization efforts may not prove successful;

 

•

we may be unable to adequately maintain and protect our proprietary intellectual property assets, which could impair our commercial opportunities;

 

•

the rights of our shareholders differ from the rights typically offered to shareholders of a U.S. corporation;

 

•

we believe we were a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, for U.S. federal income tax purposes for the taxable year ending December 31, 2018 and we expect to be a PFIC for the current year and in future taxable years which may result in adverse tax consequences to the U.S. holders of our ADSs, and we do not intend to provide the information necessary for U.S. holders to make qualified electing fund elections that might partially alleviate those adverse tax consequences;

 

•

we qualify as a foreign private issuer and, as a result, we are not subject to U.S. proxy rules and are subject to Exchange Act reporting obligations that permit less detailed and frequent disclosures than those of a U.S. domestic public company; and

 

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there is currently a ten percent limit on the daily price movement on the TPEx and this may materially limit the movement in trading price of any ADSs that are issued in this offering.

Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company and a Foreign Private Issuer

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or the JOBS Act, was enacted in April 2012 with the intention of encouraging capital formation in the United States and reducing the regulatory burden on newly public companies that qualify as “emerging growth companies.” We are an emerging growth company within the meaning of the JOBS Act. As an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various public reporting requirements, including the requirement that our internal control over financial reporting be audited by our independent registered public accounting firm pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

We may take advantage of these provisions until we are no longer an emerging growth company. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier to occur of (1) (a) December 31, 2023 (b) the last day of the fiscal year in which our annual gross revenue is $1.07 billion or more, or (c) the date on which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer,” under the rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, which means the market value of our equity securities that is held by non-affiliates

 

 

 

 

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exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.

In addition, under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies 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 delayed adoption of new or revised accounting standards and, therefore, we will be subject to the same requirements to adopt new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.

We report under the Exchange Act as a non-U.S. company with foreign private issuer status. Even after we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, as long as we qualify as a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act we will be exempt from certain provisions of the Exchange Act that are applicable to U.S. domestic public companies, including:

 

•

the sections of the Exchange Act regulating the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations in respect of a security registered under the Exchange Act;

 

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the sections of the Exchange Act requiring insiders to file public reports of their share ownership and trading activities and liability for insiders who profit from trades made in a short period of time; and

 

•

the rules under the Exchange Act requiring the filing with the SEC of quarterly reports on Form 10-Q containing unaudited financial and other specified information, or current reports on Form 8-K, upon the occurrence of specified significant events.

Both foreign private issuers and emerging growth companies are also exempt from certain more stringent executive compensation disclosure rules. Thus, even if we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, but remain a foreign private issuer, we will continue to be exempt from the more stringent compensation disclosures required of companies that are neither an emerging growth company nor a foreign private issuer.

Corporate Information

ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Pte. Ltd. was incorporated in Singapore in April 2010 and ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Limited was incorporated in Cayman Islands in June 2014 as the listing vehicle for our initial public offering and listing on the TPEx. Our subsidiaries, ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Taiwan Limited, ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Australia Pty Ltd., ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Hong Kong Limited, ASLAN Pharmaceuticals (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. and ASLAN Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc., were incorporated in the Republic of China, Australia, Hong Kong, China and the United States in November 2013, July 2014, July 2015, May 2016 and October 2018, respectively.

Our principal executive offices are located at 83 Clemenceau Avenue #12-03 UE Square, Singapore 239920. Our telephone number at this address is +65 6222 4235. Our registered office in the Cayman Islands is at the offices of Intertrust Corporate Services (Cayman) Limited at 190 Elgin Avenue, George Town, Grand Cayman KY1-9005, Cayman Islands. Our agent for service of process in the United States is Cogency Global Inc. located at 10 East 40th Street 10th Floor, New York, New York 10016. Our website address is www.aslanpharma.com. The reference to our website is an inactive textual reference only and the information contained in, or that can be accessed through, our website is not a part of this prospectus.

We conduct our business using the trademark “ASLAN,” “ASLAN PHARMACEUTICALS” and our lion logo, as well as domain names incorporating either or both of these trademarks. “ASLAN PHARMACEUTICALS” is a registered trademark in Singapore. In terms of Chinese character versions of

 

 

 

 

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our trademarks, in Taiwan, we have a trademark registration for “ ..” In China, we have a trademark registration for “ ..” We also have a trademark registration in China to protect the following Chinese character version of the word varlitinib: “ ” (wei li ti ni). This prospectus contains references to our trademarks and to trademarks belonging to other entities. Solely for convenience, trademarks and trade names referred to in this prospectus, including logos, artwork and other visual displays, may appear without the ^™ symbols, but such references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights or the rights of the applicable licensor to these trademarks and trade names. We do not intend our use or display of other companies’ trade names or trademarks to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, any other companies.

 

 

 

 

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The Offering

 

ADSs offered by us		ADSs, each representing five ordinary shares.
Ordinary shares to be outstanding immediately after this offering		ordinary shares (or                ordinary shares if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase an additional ADSs).
Option to purchase additional ADSs		We have granted the underwriters an option, exercisable at any time through and until one day before the closing date of this offering, to purchase up to an additional                ADSs from us.
American Depositary Shares		Each ADS represents five ordinary shares, par value NT$10.00 per ordinary share. You will have the rights of an ADS holder or beneficial owner (as applicable) as provided in the deposit agreement among us, the depositary and holders and beneficial owners of ADSs from time to time. To better understand the terms of our ADSs, see “Description of American Depositary Shares.” We also encourage you to read the deposit agreement, the form of which is filed as an exhibit to the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part.
Depositary		JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.
Use of proceeds		We estimate that the net proceeds to us from this offering, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, to be approximately $         million based on the assumed public offering price of $         per ADS (based upon the closing price of our ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Market, on              , 2019). We expect to use the net proceeds from this offering to fund the expansion cohorts for ASLAN003 in AML and the multiple ascending dose study for ASLAN004 in moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis patients. The remaining net proceeds, if any, are expected to fund new and other ongoing research and development activities, working capital and other general corporate purposes. See “Use of Proceeds” for a more complete description of the intended use of proceeds from this offering.
Risk factors		See “Risk Factors” and the other information included in this prospectus for a discussion of factors you should carefully consider before deciding to invest in our ADSs.
Nasdaq Global Market symbol		“ASLN”

 

 

 

 

9

 

 

The number of ordinary shares that will be outstanding after this offering is based on 160,248,940 ordinary shares outstanding as of March 31, 2019 and excludes:

 

•

14,227,545 ordinary shares issuable on the exercise of share options outstanding as of March 31, 2019 under our 2014 Plan and 2017 Plan, at a weighted-average exercise price of $0.73 per ordinary share; and

 

•

174,167 ordinary shares authorized for issuance pursuant to future awards under our 2017 Plan as of March 31, 2019.

Except as otherwise noted, the information in this prospectus assumes the following:

 

•

that the public offering price of our ADSs is                      per ADS (based upon the closing price of our ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Market, on             , 2019); and

 

•

no exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase additional ADSs.

 

 

 

 

10

 

 

Summary Consolidated Financial Data

The following tables summarize our summary consolidated financial data for the periods and as of the dates indicated. The summary consolidated statements of comprehensive loss data for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2017 and 2018 and the summary consolidated balance sheets data as of December 31, 2017 and 2018 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with IFRS, as issued by the IASB, and included elsewhere in this prospectus. The summary consolidated comprehensive loss statement data for the three months ended March 31, 2018 and March 31, 2019 and the summary consolidated balance sheet data as of March 31, 2019 have been derived from our unaudited condensed interim consolidated financial statements, which are included elsewhere in this prospectus. The unaudited condensed interim consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with IFRS, as issued by the IASB, and on the same basis as the audited financial statements and reflect, in the opinion of management, all adjustments, which include only normal, recurring adjustments that are necessary for the fair statement of the financial information in those statements. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future and our results for the three months ended March 31, 2019 may not be indicative of results for the full year ended December 31, 2019. The following summary consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus.

 

		Year ended December 31,												Three months ended March 31,
		2016				2017				2018				2018				2019
														(unaudited)
		(in thousands, except share and per share data)
Summary Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss Data:
Net revenue		$	11,547			$	—			$	—			$	—			$	3,000
Cost of revenue			(125	)			—				—				—				(425	)
Operating expenses
General and administrative expenses			(6,956	)			(8,759	)			(10,514	)			(2,808	)			(2,256	)
Research and development expenses			(13,165	)			(30,381	)			(31,834	)			(5,623	)			(4,450	)
Loss from operations			(8,699	)			(39,140	)			(42,348	)			(8,431	)			(4,131	)
Non-operating income and expenses
Other income			—				—				187				—				—
Other gains and losses, net			127				(698	)			213				(262	)			(80	)
Finance costs			(524	)			(417	)			(492	)			(112	)			(199	)
Interest income			47				363				268				61				69
Total non-operating income (expenses)			(350	)			(752	)			176				(313	)			(210	)
Loss before income tax			(9,049	)			(39,892	)			(42,172	)			(8,744	)			(4,341	)
Income tax expense			—				—				(14	)			—				(3	)
Net loss			(9,049	)			(39,892	)			(42,186	)			(8,744	)			(4,344	)
Total comprehensive loss			(9,049	)			(39,892	)			(42,186	)			(8,744	)			(4,344	)
Net loss per share, basic and diluted			(0.09	)			(0.32	)			(0.28	)			(0.07	)			(0.03	)
Weighted-average shares used in calculating net loss per ordinary share, basic and diluted			105,027,040				124,424,960				149,739,242				130,128,940				160,248,940

 

 

 

 

11

 

 

 

		As of March 31, 2019
		Actual				As Adjusted(1)
		(in thousands)
Summary Consolidated Balance Sheet Data:
Cash and cash equivalents		$	21,620			$
Working capital(2)			16,845
Total assets			46,863
Total equity			26,291

 

(1)

Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed public offering price of $        per ADS would increase (decrease) the as adjusted amount of each of cash and cash equivalents, working capital, total assets and total equity by $        million, assuming that the number of ADSs offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions. An increase (decrease) of 1.0 million shares in the number of ADSs offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) the as adjusted amount of each of cash and cash equivalents, working capital, total assets and total equity by $        million, assuming the assumed public offering price per ADS remains the same, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions. This as adjusted information is illustrative only and will depend on the actual public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing.

(2)	We define working capital as current assets minus current liabilities. See our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus for further details regarding our current assets and current liabilities.

 

 

 

 

12

RISK FACTORS

An investment in our ADSs 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 prospectus, before deciding to invest in our ADSs. 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. In these circumstances, the market price of our ADSs could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Financial Condition and Need for Additional Capital

We have incurred significant losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future.    We are a clinical-stage oncology and inflammatory disease focused biopharmaceutical company based in Singapore developing novel therapeutics for global markets. We target diseases that are both highly prevalent in Asia and orphan indications in the United States and Europe. Investment in biopharmaceutical product development is highly speculative because it entails substantial upfront capital expenditures and significant risk that any potential product candidate will not demonstrate adequate effectiveness in the targeted indication or an acceptable safety profile, gain regulatory approval or become commercially viable. All of our product candidates will require substantial additional development time and resources before we would be able to apply for or receive regulatory approvals and begin generating revenue from product sales. We are not profitable and have incurred significant net losses in each year since our inception, including net losses of $9.0 million, $39.9 million and $42.2 million for fiscal years 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively. As of March 31, 2019, we had an accumulated deficit of $136.8 million.

We have devoted substantially all our financial resources to developing our product candidates and targeted discovery work, including preclinical development activities and clinical trials. We expect to continue to incur substantial and increased expenses, losses and negative cash flows as we expand our development activities and advance our clinical programs, particularly with respect to our planned clinical development for varlitinib, ASLAN003 and ASLAN004, as well as the ASLAN005 discovery program. If our product candidates are not successfully developed or commercialized, including because of a lack of capital, or if we do not generate enough revenue following marketing approval, we will not achieve profitability and our business may fail. Even if we successfully obtain regulatory approval to market our product candidates in the United States and Europe, our revenue will also be heavily dependent upon the size of the markets outside of the United States and Europe, in particular China and Japan, as well as our ability to obtain market approval and achieve commercial success in those markets.

We currently do not generate any revenue from product sales, have generated only limited revenue since inception, and may never be profitable.    We do not anticipate generating revenue from sales of our proprietary product candidates for the foreseeable future. Our ability to generate future revenue from product sales depends on our success in completing clinical development of, obtaining regulatory approval for, and launching and successfully commercializing any product candidates.

Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with pharmaceutical product development, we are unable to predict the timing or amount of increased expenses, when, or if, we will begin to generate revenue from product sales, or when, or if, we will be able to achieve or maintain profitability. In addition, our expenses could increase beyond planned levels if we are required by the U.S. FDA to perform studies in addition to those that we currently anticipate or if such studies are larger, take longer or are otherwise more expensive to conduct than we expect.

Even if one or more of our product candidates is approved for commercial sale, to the extent we do not engage a third-party collaborator, we anticipate incurring significant costs associated with

 

13

commercializing any approved product candidate. Even if we are able to generate revenue from the sale of any approved products, we may not become profitable and may need to obtain additional funding to continue operations.

We will need to obtain substantial additional financing for our operations, and if we fail to obtain additional financing, we may be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our product development programs or commercialization efforts.    Developing pharmaceutical products, including conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials, is expensive and we have consumed substantial amounts of capital since inception. To date, we have financed our operations through government subsidies and grants, collaboration payments and the sale of equity securities and convertible debt. We will need substantial additional financing to continue our operations and do not expect revenues from product sales or potential licensing transactions to be sufficient to offset our development expenses as we advance our clinical programs, including varlitinib.

We estimate that the net proceeds from this offering will be approximately $        million, based on a public offering price of $        per ADS (based upon the closing price of our ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Market, on             , 2019) and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. As of March 31, 2019, we had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $21.6 million and working capital of $16.8 million. Based upon our current operating plan, we believe that the net proceeds from this offering, together with our existing cash and cash equivalents, will enable us to fund our operating expenses and capital requirements for at least the next 12 months. Regardless of our expectations as to how long our net proceeds from this offering will fund our operations, changing circumstances beyond our control may cause us to consume capital more rapidly than we currently anticipate. For example, our clinical trials may encounter technical, enrollment or other difficulties that could increase our development costs more than we expect. We may also incur expenses as we create additional infrastructure to support our planned commercialization efforts and our operations as a U.S. public company. In any event, we will require additional capital prior to completing pivotal studies of (except with respect to varlitinib in biliary tract cancer), filing for regulatory approval for, or commercializing, varlitinib, ASLAN003, ASLAN004 or any of our other preclinical product candidates.

We cannot guarantee that future financing will be available in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital when required or on acceptable terms, we may be required to:

 

•

significantly delay, scale back or discontinue the development or commercialization of our product candidates;

 

•

seek corporate partners for our product candidates when we would otherwise develop our product candidates on our own, or at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable or on terms that are less favorable than might otherwise be available;

 

•

relinquish or license on unfavorable terms, our rights to technologies or product candidates that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves; or

 

•

significantly curtail or cease operations.

If we are unable to raise additional capital in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, we will be prevented from pursuing development and commercialization efforts, which will have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and prospects.

 

14

Risks Related to Clinical Development and Regulatory Approval

We are heavily dependent on the success of varlitinib, as well as ASLAN003 and ASLAN004. We cannot give any assurance that any of varlitinib, ASLAN003 or ASLAN004 will successfully complete clinical development or receive regulatory approval, which is necessary before they can be commercialized.    Our business and future success is substantially dependent on our ability to successfully develop, obtain regulatory approval for, and successfully commercialize our lead program, varlitinib, as well as ASLAN003 and ASLAN004. Any delay or setback in the development of any of our product candidates, could adversely affect our business and cause the price of our ADSs or ordinary shares to decline. Should our planned clinical development of our more advanced product candidates fail to be completed in a timely manner or at all, we will need to rely on our other product candidates, which will require additional time and resources to obtain regulatory approval and proceed with commercialization. We cannot assure you that our planned clinical development for varlitinib or our other product candidates will be completed in a timely manner in our planned indications, or at all, or that we will be able to obtain approval for varlitinib or any of our product candidates from the U.S. FDA, the Chinese National Medical Products Administration, or NMPA (formerly China Food and Drug Administration, or CFDA), or any comparable foreign regulatory authority.

Clinical development is a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome, and results of earlier studies and trials may not be predictive of future trial results. Failure can occur at any stage of clinical development. We have never completed a pivotal clinical trial for our product candidates or submitted a New Drug Application, or NDA, or a Biologics License Application, or BLA, to the U.S. FDA or similar drug approval filings to comparable foreign authorities.    Clinical testing is expensive and can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. The results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of our product candidates may not be predictive of the results of subsequent clinical trials. We have a limited operating history and to date have not demonstrated our ability to complete large scale pivotal clinical trials.

Product candidates in later stages of clinical trials may fail to show the desired safety and efficacy traits despite having progressed through preclinical studies and initial clinical trials. In addition to the safety and efficacy traits of any product candidate, clinical trial failures may result from a multitude of factors including flaws in trial design, dose selection, placebo effect and patient enrollment criteria. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or adverse safety profiles, notwithstanding promising results in earlier trials. Based upon negative or inconclusive results, we or any potential future collaborator may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional clinical trials or preclinical studies. In addition, data obtained from trials and studies are susceptible to varying interpretations, and regulators may not interpret our data as favorably as we do, which may delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. Our future clinical trials may not be successful.

If any product candidate is found to be unsafe or lack efficacy, we will not be able to obtain regulatory approval for it and our business may be materially harmed. For example, if the results of our ongoing pivotal studies for varlitinib in biliary tract cancer, our ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial of ASLAN003 in AML, our ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial of ASLAN004 in atopic dermatitis, or any other clinical trials for these product candidates demonstrate unexpected safety findings or do not achieve the primary efficacy endpoints, the prospects for approval of these product candidates, as well the price of our ADSs and ordinary shares and our ability to create shareholder value would be materially and adversely affected.

In some instances, there can be significant variability in safety and/or efficacy results between different trials of the same product candidate due to numerous factors, including changes in trial protocols, differences in composition of the patient populations, adherence to the dosing regimen and other trial

 

15

protocols and the dropout rate among clinical trial participants. For example, we could be required to use a primary endpoint in our pivotal studies that is different from endpoints in our Phase 2 clinical trials, which could result in negative or less compelling efficacy results in pivotal trials despite promising results in Phase 2 clinical trials. We do not know whether any future clinical trials we may conduct will demonstrate consistent or adequate efficacy and safety to obtain regulatory approval to market our product candidates. If we are unable to bring any of our current or future product candidates to market, our ability to create long-term shareholder value will be limited.

Delays in clinical trials are common and have many causes, and any delay could result in increased costs to us and jeopardize or delay our ability to obtain regulatory approval and commence product sales.    We may experience delays in clinical trials of our product candidates. Our planned clinical trials may not begin on time, have an effective design, enroll a sufficient number of patients, or be completed on schedule, if at all. Our clinical trials can be delayed for a variety of reasons, including:

 

•

inability to raise funding necessary to initiate or continue a trial;

 

•

delays in obtaining regulatory approval to commence a trial;

 

•

delays in reaching agreement with the U.S. FDA, NMPA or other regulatory authorities on final trial design;

 

•

imposition of a clinical hold for safety reasons or following an inspection of our clinical trial operations or trial or manufacturing sites by the U.S. FDA, NMPA or other regulatory authorities;

 

•

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

 

•

delays in obtaining required institutional review board, or IRB, approval at each site;

 

•

delays in recruiting suitable patients to participate in a trial;

 

•

delays in having patients complete participation in a trial or return for post-treatment follow-up;

 

•

clinical sites dropping out of a trial to the detriment of enrollment;

 

•

time required to add new clinical sites; or

 

•

delays by our contract manufacturers to produce and deliver sufficient supply of clinical trial materials.

We could also experience delays if physicians encounter unresolved ethical issues associated with enrolling patients in clinical trials of our product candidates in lieu of prescribing existing treatments that have established safety and efficacy profiles. Further, a clinical trial may be suspended or terminated by us, the IRBs for the institutions in which such trials are being conducted, any data monitoring committee for such trial, or by the U.S. FDA, NMPA or other regulatory authorities due to a number of factors, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements or our clinical protocols, inspection of clinical trial or manufacturing sites by the U.S. FDA, NMPA or other regulatory authorities resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold, unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a product candidate, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial. Furthermore, we rely on CROs and clinical trial sites to ensure the proper and timely conduct of our clinical trials and while we have agreements governing their committed activities, we have limited influence over their actual performance. If we experience termination of, or delays in the completion of, any clinical trial of our product candidates, the commercial prospects for our product candidates will be harmed, and our ability to generate product revenues will be delayed. In addition, any delays in completing our clinical trials will

 

16

increase our costs and slow down our product development and approval process. Any of these occurrences may harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations significantly. Many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval for our product candidates.

Because we have multiple product candidates in our clinical pipeline and are considering a variety of target indications, we may expend our limited resources to pursue a particular product candidate or indication and fail to capitalize on product candidates or indications that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success.    Because we have limited financial and managerial resources, we must focus our research and development efforts on those product candidates and specific indications that we believe are the most promising. As a result, we may forego or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates or other indications that later prove to have greater commercial potential. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial products or profitable market opportunities.

We may in the future spend our resources on other research programs and product candidates for specific indications that ultimately do not yield any commercially viable products. For example, one component of our business strategy is to build a broad immuno-oncology portfolio based on antibodies which inhibit specific immune checkpoints in ways that we believe will enable us to simultaneously target multiple pathways. However, these antibodies have not been proven and we cannot assure you that they will be viable candidates for preclinical development, that we will be able to target multiple pathways simultaneously or that our estimates for the resultant pipeline will prove accurate. In addition, the costs, time and resources required to successfully move these antibodies into development may be greater than our estimates. Furthermore, 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 cases in which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights.

Our product candidates may cause adverse events or have other properties that could delay or prevent their regulatory approval or limit the scope of any approved label or market acceptance.    Adverse events, or AEs, caused by our product candidates or other potentially harmful characteristics of our product candidates could cause us, other reviewing entities, clinical trial sites or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials and could result in the denial of regulatory approval. For example, across all varlitinib clinical trials, the most commonly occurring drug-related AEs as of March 31, 2019 were nausea (37% of patients with any grade, 1% with grade 3 or 4), diarrhea (33% of patients with any grade, 1% with grade 3 or 4) and fatigue (33% of patients with any grade, 4% with grade 3 or 4). Grade refers to the severity of the AE, with grade 3 indicating a severe or medically significant but not immediately life-threatening AE, grade 4 indicating an AE with potentially life-threatening consequences, and grade 5 meaning patient death.

Patients admitted to our varlitinib clinical trials are experiencing later stages of cancer and may be in a diminished physical state prior to entering our clinical trials, which put them at increased risk of death. These patients may die while receiving our drug candidates. In such circumstances, it may not be possible to exclude with certainty a causal relationship to varlitinib. For example, across our varlitinib clinical trials, seven patient deaths (grade 5) that were possibly related to the varlitinib treatment occurred. One death was related to disease progression (worsening of metastatic breast cancer), one death was related to acute kidney injury, one death was due to liver failure leading to multi-organ failure and sepsis, one death was related to hemorrhage of upper gastrointestinal tract, one death was related to heart failure, one death was related to polymicrobial bacteremia due to hepatobiliary sepsis and one death was related to condition deterioration with suspected cholangiogenic infection. These deaths were reported to the appropriate regulatory authorities as “possibly related” to varlitinib because the immediate cause of the patient’s death could not be determined, and therefore, a relationship to varlitinib could not be excluded.

 

17

Serious adverse events observed in any of our clinical trials may adversely impact our ability to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates. Further, if any of our approved products cause serious or unexpected side effects after receiving market approval, a number of potentially significant negative consequences could result, including:

 

•

regulatory authorities may withdraw their approval of the product or impose restrictions on its distribution;

 

•

regulatory authorities may require the addition of labeling statements, such as warnings or contraindications;

 

•

we may be required to change the way the product is administered or conduct additional clinical studies;

 

•

we could be sued and held liable for harm caused to patients; or

 

•

our reputation may suffer.

Any of these events could prevent us from achieving or maintaining market acceptance of the affected product candidate and could substantially increase the costs of commercializing our product candidates.

The regulatory approval processes of the U.S. FDA, NMPA and comparable foreign authorities are lengthy, time consuming and inherently unpredictable, and if we are ultimately unable to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates, our business will be substantially harmed.    The time required to obtain approval by the U.S. FDA, NMPA and comparable foreign 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, we cannot guarantee that our ongoing pivotal clinical trials of varlitinib in biliary tract cancer will be sufficient to warrant accelerated approval or that our Phase 2 clinical trials of ASLAN003 in AML or Phase 1 clinical trials of ASLAN004 in atopic dermatitis will be sufficient to allow subsequent development or that the U.S. FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities will not require additional or different clinical trials prior to subsequent development of ASLAN003 or ASLAN004 or that the required primary endpoints in subsequent pivotal trials or other clinical trials will be different than those in Phase 2 clinical trials.

Our product candidates could fail to receive regulatory approval for many reasons, including the following:

 

•

the U.S. FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with the design, scope or implementation of our clinical trials;

 

•

we may be unable to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the U.S. FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities that a product candidate is safe and effective for its proposed indication;

 

•

the results of clinical trials may not meet the level of statistical significance required by the U.S. FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities for approval;

 

•

we may be unable to demonstrate that a product candidate’s clinical and other benefits outweigh its safety risks;

 

•

the U.S. FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may disagree with our interpretation of data from preclinical studies or clinical trials;

 

18

•

the data collected from clinical trials of our product candidates may not be sufficient to support the submission of an NDA, BLA or other submission or to obtain regulatory approval in the United States or elsewhere;

 

•

the U.S. FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may fail to approve the manufacturing processes or facilities of third-party manufacturers with which we contract for clinical and commercial supplies; and

 

•

the approval policies or regulations of the U.S. FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may change significantly in a manner rendering our clinical data insufficient for approval.

This lengthy approval process, as well as the unpredictability of future clinical trial results, may result in our failing to obtain regulatory approval to market our product candidates, which would harm our business, results of operations and prospects significantly.

In addition, even if we were to obtain approval, regulatory authorities may approve any of our product candidates for fewer or more limited indications than we request, may not approve the price we intend to charge for our products, may grant approval contingent on the performance of costly post-marketing clinical trials, or may approve a product candidate with a label that does not include the labeling claims necessary or desirable for the successful commercialization of that product candidate. Any of the foregoing scenarios could harm the commercial prospects for our product candidates.

We have not previously submitted an NDA, BLA or any similar drug approval filing to the U.S. FDA or any comparable foreign authority for any product candidate, and we cannot be certain that any of our product candidates will be successful in clinical trials or receive regulatory approval. Further, our product candidates may not receive regulatory approval even if they are successful in clinical trials. If we do not receive regulatory approvals for our product candidates, we may not be able to continue our operations. Even if we successfully obtain regulatory approvals to market one or more of our product candidates, our revenue will be dependent, to a significant extent, upon the size of the markets in the territories for which we gain regulatory approval. If the markets for patients or indications that we are targeting are not as significant as we estimate, we may not generate significant revenue from sales of such products, if approved.

Pharmaceutical companies in China are required to comply with extensive regulations and hold a number of permits and licenses to carry on their business. Our ability to obtain and maintain these regulatory approvals is uncertain, and future government regulation may place additional burdens on our efforts to commercialize our product candidates.    The pharmaceutical industry in China is subject to extensive government regulation and supervision. The regulatory framework addresses all aspects of operating in the pharmaceutical industry, including approval, registration, production, distribution, packaging, labelling, storage and shipment, advertising, licensing and certification requirements and procedures, periodic renewal and reassessment processes, registration of new drugs and environmental protection. In order to commercialize our product candidates and manufacture and distribute pharmaceutical products in China, we are required to:

 

•

obtain a pharmaceutical manufacturing permit and good manufacturing practices, or cGMP, certificate for each production facility from the NMPA and its relevant branches for trading and distribution of drugs not manufactured by the drug registration certificate holder;

 

•

obtain a drug registration certificate, which includes a drug approval number, from the NMPA for each drug manufactured by us;

 

•

obtain a pharmaceutical distribution permit and good supply practice, or GSP, certificate from the NMPA and its relevant branches; and

 

19

•

renew the pharmaceutical manufacturing permits, the pharmaceutical distribution permits, drug registration certificates, cGMP certificates and GSP certificates every five years, among other requirements.

If we are unable to obtain or renew such permits or any other permits or licenses required for our operations, will not be able to engage in the commercialization, manufacture and distribution of our product candidates and our business may be adversely affected.

The regulatory framework governing the pharmaceutical industry in China is subject to change and amendment from time to time. The Chinese government has introduced various reforms to the Chinese healthcare system in recent years and may continue to do so, with an overall objective to expand basic medical insurance coverage and improve the quality and reliability of healthcare services. The specific regulatory changes under the reform still remain uncertain. The implementing measures to be issued may not be sufficiently effective to achieve the stated goals, and as a result, we may not be able to benefit from such reform to the level we expect, if at all. Moreover, the reform could give rise to regulatory developments, such as more burdensome administrative procedures, which may have an adverse effect on our business and prospects.

Although we have obtained orphan drug designation for varlitinib in gastric cancer and cholangiocarcinoma, a form of biliary tract cancer, and for ASLAN003 in AML in the United States, we may not be able to obtain or maintain the benefits associated with orphan drug status, including market exclusivity.    Regulatory authorities in some jurisdictions, including the United States and the European Union, may designate drugs for relatively small patient populations as orphan drugs. Under the Orphan Drug Act, the U.S. FDA may designate a drug as an orphan drug if it is intended to treat a rare disease or condition, which is generally defined as a patient population of fewer than 200,000 individuals annually in the United States. We have obtained orphan drug designation for varlitinib in gastric cancer and cholangiocarcinoma from the U.S. FDA, as well as for varlitinib in biliary tract cancer from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in South Korea. We have also obtained orphan drug designation from the U.S. FDA for ASLAN003 in AML. Generally, if a drug with an orphan drug designation subsequently receives the first marketing approval for the indication for which it has such designation, the drug may be entitled to a period of marketing exclusivity, which precludes the U.S. FDA from approving another marketing application for the same molecule for the same indication for that time period. We can provide no assurance that another drug will not receive marketing approval prior to our product candidates. The applicable period is seven years in the United States and ten years in Japan and the European Union. The exclusivity period in the European Union can be reduced to six years if a drug no longer meets the criteria for orphan drug designation or if the drug is sufficiently profitable so that market exclusivity is no longer justified. Orphan drug exclusivity may be lost if the U.S. FDA determines that the request for designation was materially defective or if the manufacturer is unable to assure sufficient quantity of the drug to meet the needs of patients with the rare disease or condition. In addition, even after a drug is granted orphan exclusivity and approved, the U.S. FDA can subsequently approve another drug for the same condition before the expiration of the seven year exclusivity period if the U.S. FDA, concludes that the later drug is clinically superior in that it is shown to be safer, more effective or makes a major contribution to patient care.

Even if we obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates, we will still face extensive regulatory requirements and our products may face future development and regulatory difficulties.    Even if we obtain regulatory approval in the United States, China or other markets, the U.S. FDA, NMPA or other regulatory authorities, as applicable, may still impose significant restrictions on the indicated uses or marketing of our product candidates, or impose ongoing requirements for potentially costly post-approval studies or post-market surveillance. Our product candidates, if approved, will also be subject to ongoing U.S. FDA, NMPA and/ or other applicable regulatory requirements governing the labeling, packaging, storage, distribution, safety surveillance, advertising, promotion, record-keeping and

 

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reporting of safety and other post-market information. The holder of an approved NDA or BLA is obligated to monitor and report AEs and any failure of a product to meet the specifications in the NDA or BLA, as applicable. The holder of an approved NDA or BLA must also submit new or supplemental applications and obtain U.S. FDA approval for certain changes to the approved product, product labeling or manufacturing process. Advertising and promotional materials must comply with U.S. FDA rules and are subject to U.S. FDA review, in addition to other potentially applicable federal and state laws.

In addition, manufacturers of drug products and their facilities are subject to payment of user fees and continual review and periodic inspections by the U.S. FDA, NMPA and other regulatory authorities for compliance with current good manufacturing practices, or cGMP, and adherence to commitments made in the NDA. If we or a regulatory agency discovers previously unknown problems with a product, such as AEs of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured, a regulatory agency may impose restrictions relative to that product or the manufacturing facility, including requiring recall or withdrawal of the product from the market or suspension of manufacturing.

If we fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements following approval of a product candidate, a regulatory agency may:

 

•

issue a warning letter asserting that we are in violation of the law;

 

•

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

 

•

suspend or withdraw regulatory approval;

 

•

suspend any ongoing clinical trials;

 

•

refuse to approve a pending NDA or supplements to an NDA submitted by us;

 

•

seize product; or

 

•

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

In particular, we may seek accelerated approval from the U.S. FDA for our product candidates which will likely require a further confirmatory trial. If this confirmatory trial is not successful, we will be required to withdraw our product candidate from the U.S. market and potentially other markets. For instance, we intend to seek accelerated approval for varlitinib in second-line biliary tract cancer.

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 our products and generate revenue.

In addition, if any of our product candidates are approved and we are found to have improperly promoted off-label uses of those products, we may become subject to significant liability. The U.S. FDA and other regulatory agencies strictly regulate the promotional claims that may be made about prescription products, such as our product candidates, if approved. In particular, a product may not be promoted for uses that are not approved by the U.S. FDA or such other regulatory agencies as reflected in the product’s approved labeling. However, companies may share truthful and not misleading information that is otherwise consistent with the product’s FDA approved labeling. For example, if we receive marketing approval for varlitinib as a treatment for biliary tract cancer, physicians may nevertheless use our product for their patients in a manner that is inconsistent with the approved label. If we are found to have promoted such off-label uses, we may become subject to significant liability, which would materially adversely affect our business and financial condition.

 

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Even if we obtain U.S. FDA approval for our product candidates in the United States, we may never obtain approval to commercialize our product candidates outside of the United States, which would limit our ability to realize their full market potential.    In order to market any products outside of the United States, we must establish and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of other countries regarding safety and efficacy. Clinical trials conducted in one country may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other countries, and regulatory approval in one country does not mean that regulatory approval will be obtained in any other country. Approval processes vary among countries and can involve additional product testing and validation and additional administrative review periods.

Seeking foreign regulatory approval could result in difficulties and costs for us and require additional non-clinical studies or clinical trials which could be costly and time consuming. Regulatory requirements can vary widely from country to country and could delay or prevent the introduction of our products in those countries. We do not have any product candidates approved for sale in any jurisdiction, including international markets, and we do not have experience in obtaining regulatory approval in international markets. If we fail to comply with regulatory requirements in international markets or to obtain and maintain required approvals, or if regulatory approvals in international markets are delayed, our target market will be reduced and our ability to realize the full market potential of our products will be harmed.

If we fail to develop, acquire or in-license other product candidates or products, or other necessary intellectual property, our business and prospects will be limited.    Our long-term growth strategy is to develop, acquire or in-license and commercialize a portfolio of product candidates, including any related intellectual property, in addition to varlitinib and our other existing product candidates. Identifying, selecting and acquiring or licensing promising product candidates requires substantial technical, financial and human resources expertise. Efforts to do so may not result in the actual development, acquisition or license of a particular product candidate, potentially resulting in a diversion of our management’s time and the expenditure of our resources with no resulting benefit. If we are unable to obtain a license to any third-party intellectual property that is necessary to develop and commercialize any of our product candidates, we may have to abandon development or commercialization of such product candidates. Even if we are able to obtain such license, we cannot guarantee that such license will be available on commercially reasonable terms or exclusive. If we are unable to add additional product candidates to our pipeline, our long-term business and prospects will be limited.

Licensing assets from third parties involves technical and scientific due diligence to assess the opportunity, the strength of the intellectual property protection for the asset and the ability to commercialize the asset. This due diligence is usually conducted over a relatively short period of time. It can be difficult to identify all the issues relevant to the assessment. Failure to identify all the relevant issues can impact negatively on the value of the asset. If we are not able to adequately assess the value of an asset that we license from third parties, our ability to realize the full value of our products may be harmed.

We rely on third parties to conduct our preclinical studies and clinical trials. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or meet expected deadlines, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidates and our business could be substantially harmed.    We have relied upon and plan to continue to rely upon third-party CROs to conduct our preclinical studies and clinical trials, including investigator-initiated studies sponsored by the investigator’s institution, and control only certain aspects of their activities. Nevertheless, we are responsible for ensuring that each of our 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 U.S. FDA laws and regulations regarding current good clinical practice, or cGCP, which are also required by the Competent

 

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Authorities of the Member States of the European Economic Area and comparable foreign regulatory authorities in the form of International Council for Harmonization, or ICH, guidelines for all of our products in clinical development. Regulatory authorities enforce cGCP through periodic inspections of trial sponsors, principal investigators and trial sites. If we or any of our CROs fail to comply with applicable cGCP, the clinical data generated in our clinical trials may be deemed unreliable and the U.S. FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities may require us to perform additional clinical trials before approving our marketing applications. We cannot assure you that upon inspection by a given regulatory authority, such regulatory authority will determine that any of our clinical trials comply with cGCP regulations. In addition, our U.S. clinical trials must be conducted with product produced under cGMP regulations. While we have agreements governing activities of our CROs, we have limited influence over their actual performance. In addition, portions of the clinical trials for our product candidates are expected to be conducted at various locations great distances from where our principal operations are located in Singapore, which will make it more difficult for us to monitor CROs and perform visits of our clinical trial sites and will force us to rely heavily on CROs to ensure the proper and timely conduct of our clinical trials and compliance with applicable regulations, including cGCP. Failure to comply with applicable regulations in the conduct of the clinical trials for our product candidates may require us to repeat clinical trials, which would delay the regulatory approval process.

Some of our CROs have an ability to terminate their respective agreements with us if, among other reasons, it can be reasonably demonstrated that the safety of the subjects participating in our clinical trials warrants such termination, if we make a general assignment for the benefit of our creditors or if we are liquidated. If any of our relationships with these third-party CROs terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative CROs or to do so on commercially reasonable terms. In addition, our CROs are not our employees, and except for remedies available to us under our agreements with such CROs, we cannot control whether or not they devote sufficient time and resources to our preclinical and clinical programs. If CROs do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or obligations or meet expected deadlines, if they need to be replaced or if the quality or accuracy of the clinical data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols, regulatory requirements or for 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 our product candidates. Consequently, our results of operations and the commercial prospects for our product candidates would be harmed, our costs could increase substantially and our ability to generate revenue could be delayed significantly.

Switching or adding additional CROs involves additional 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 materially impact our ability to meet our desired clinical development timelines. Though we carefully manage 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 material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and prospects.

Risks Related to Our Business Operations and Industry

Our future success depends on our ability to retain key executives and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel.    We are highly dependent on the principal members of our executive team listed under “Management” located elsewhere in this prospectus, the loss of whose services may adversely impact the achievement of our objectives. While we have entered into employment agreements with each of our executive officers, any of them could leave our employment at any time, subject to any applicable notice requirements. Recruiting and retaining other qualified employees for our business, including scientific and technical personnel, will also be critical to our success. Competition for skilled personnel is intense and the turnover rate can be high. We may not be able to attract and retain personnel on acceptable terms given the competition among numerous pharmaceutical companies for individuals with

 

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similar skill sets. In addition, failure to succeed in clinical studies may make it more challenging to recruit and retain qualified personnel. The inability to recruit or loss of the services of any executive or key employee might impede the progress of our development and commercialization objectives.

We will need to expand our organization, and we may experience difficulties in managing this growth, which could disrupt our operations.    As of December 31, 2018, we had 56 full-time employees. In connection with our January 2019 corporate restructuring plan, we reduced our total workforce by approximately 30%. As of March 31, 2019, we had 36 full-time employees. In the future we may expand our employee base to increase our managerial, scientific, clinical, operational, financial and other resources, to add a sales and marketing function and to hire more consultants and contractors. Future growth would impose significant additional responsibilities on our management, including the need to identify, recruit, maintain, motivate and integrate additional employees, consultants and contractors. Also, our management may need to divert a disproportionate amount of its attention away from our day-to-day activities and devote a substantial amount of time to managing these growth activities. We may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations, which may result in weaknesses in our infrastructure, give rise to operational mistakes, loss of business opportunities, loss of employees and reduced productivity among remaining employees. Future growth could require significant capital expenditures and may divert financial resources from other projects, such as the development of our existing or future product candidates. If our management is unable to effectively manage our growth, our expenses may increase more than expected, our ability to generate and grow revenue could be reduced, and we may not be able to implement our business strategy. Our future financial performance and our ability to commercialize our product candidates, if approved, and compete effectively will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth.

We may undertake internal restructuring activities in the future that could result in disruptions to our business or otherwise materially harm our results of operations or financial condition.    From time to time we may undertake internal restructuring activities as we continue to evaluate and attempt to optimize our cost and operating structure in light of developments in our business strategy and long-term operating plans. For example, we initiated a corporate restructuring in January 2019 that resulted in a reduction in our workforce. Any such restructuring activities may result in write-offs or other restructuring charges. There can be no assurance that any restructuring activities that we have undertaken or undertake in the future will achieve the cost savings, operating efficiencies or other benefits that we may initially expect. Restructuring activities may also result in a loss of continuity, accumulated knowledge and inefficiency during transitional periods and thereafter. In addition, internal restructurings can require a significant amount of time and focus from management and other employees, which may divert attention from commercial operations. If any internal restructuring activities we have undertaken or undertake in the future fail to achieve some or all of the expected benefits therefrom, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.

The terms of our Loan Agreement with CSL Finance place restrictions on our operating and financial flexibility. If we raise additional capital through debt financing, the terms of any new debt could further restrict our ability to operate our business.    In connection with the license agreement with CSL Limited, or CSL, related to ASLAN004, in May 2014 we entered into a loan agreement with CSL Finance Pty Ltd, or CSL Finance, pursuant to which CSL Finance agreed to provide a ten-year facility for $4.5 million, or the CSL Facility. Borrowings under the CSL Facility are unsecured and can be used to reimburse a portion of eligible invoices for certain research and development costs or expenses incurred by us in connection with developing ASLAN004 and approved by CSL Finance at each drawdown period. In addition, we are required to mandatorily prepay amounts outstanding if we receive any income or revenue in connection with the commercialization or out-licensing of any intellectual property rights (other than under the license agreement with CSL Limited related to ASLAN004), in which case we are required to apply at least a low double digit percentage of such income or revenue against any

 

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amounts then-outstanding under the CSL Facility. Under the CSL Facility, we are subject to customary reporting and restrictive covenants. If an event of default occurs, CSL Finance can terminate the commitment under the CSL Facility and accelerate all amounts outstanding.

Further, if we are liquidated, CSL Finance’s right to repayment would be senior to the rights of the holders of our ordinary shares to receive any proceeds from the liquidation. Any declaration by CSL Finance of an event of default could significantly harm our business and prospects and could cause the price of our ordinary shares to decline. If we raise any additional debt financing, the terms of such additional debt could further restrict our operating and financial flexibility.

We face potential product liability, and, if successful claims are brought against us, we may incur substantial liability.    The use of our product candidates in clinical trials and the sale of any products for which we obtain marketing approval exposes us to the risk of product liability claims. Product liability claims might be brought against us by consumers, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies or others selling or otherwise coming into contact with our products and product candidates. If we cannot successfully defend against product liability claims, we could incur substantial liability and costs. In addition, regardless of merit or eventual outcome, product liability claims may result in:

 

•

impairment of our business reputation;

 

•

withdrawal of clinical trial participants;

 

•

costs due to related litigation;

 

•

distraction of management’s attention from our primary business;

 

•

substantial monetary awards to patients or other claimants;

 

•

the inability to commercialize our product candidates; and

 

•

decreased demand for our product candidates, if approved for commercial sale.

Our current clinical trial liability insurance coverage may not be sufficient to reimburse us for any expenses or losses we may suffer. Moreover, insurance coverage is becoming increasingly expensive and in the future we may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in sufficient amounts to protect us against losses due to liability. If and when we obtain marketing approval for our product candidates, we intend to expand our insurance coverage to include the sale of commercial products; however, we may be unable to obtain product liability insurance on commercially reasonable terms or in adequate amounts. On occasion, large judgments have been awarded in class action lawsuits based on drugs that had unanticipated adverse effects. A successful product liability claim or series of claims brought against us could cause the price of our ADSs or ordinary shares to decline and, if judgments exceed our insurance coverage, could adversely affect our results of operations and business.

Our internal computer systems, or those of our CROs or other contractors or consultants, may fail or suffer security breaches, which could result in a material disruption of our operations.    Despite the implementation of security measures, our internal computer systems and those of our CROs and other contractors and consultants are vulnerable to damage from computer viruses, unauthorized access, natural disasters, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. Such events could cause interruptions of our operations. Furthermore, we do not have formal internal disaster recovery procedures. If our systems experience a disaster or are otherwise unavailable, we may not be able to operate our business, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial conditions, reputation or business prospects. For instance, the loss of preclinical study or clinical trial data involving our product candidates could result in delays in our development and regulatory filing efforts and significantly increase our costs. In addition, theft or other exposure of data may interfere with our ability to protect our intellectual property, trade secrets, and other information critical to our operations. We

 

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can provide no assurances that certain sensitive and proprietary information relating to one or more of our product candidates has not been, or will not in the future be, compromised. There can be no assurances we will not experience unauthorized intrusions into our computer systems, or those of our CROs and other contractors and consultants, that we will successfully detect future unauthorized intrusions in a timely manner, or that future unauthorized intrusions will not result in material adverse effects on our financial condition, reputation, or business prospects.

Certain data breaches must also be reported to affected individuals and the government, and in some cases to the media, under provisions of the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH, other U.S. federal and state law, and requirements of non-U.S. jurisdictions, including the European Union Data Protection Directive, and financial penalties may also apply.

Our insurance policies may not be adequate to compensate us for the potential losses arising from breaches, failures or disruptions of our infrastructure, catastrophic events and disasters or otherwise. In addition, such insurance may not be available to us in the future on economically reasonable terms, or at all. Further, our insurance may not cover all claims made against us and defending a suit, regardless of its merit, could be costly and divert management’s attention.

Furthermore, the loss of clinical trial data from completed or future clinical trials could result in delays in our regulatory approval efforts and significantly increase our costs to recover or reproduce the data. Likewise, we rely on other third parties for the manufacture of our product candidates and to conduct clinical trials, and similar events relating to their computer systems could also have a material adverse effect on our business.

In addition to in-licensing or acquiring product candidates, we may engage in future business acquisitions that could disrupt our business, cause dilution to our ADS holders and harm our financial condition and operating results.    While we currently have no specific plans to acquire any other businesses, we have, from time to time, evaluated acquisition opportunities and may, in the future, make acquisitions of, or investments in, companies that we believe have products or capabilities that are a strategic or commercial fit with our current product candidates and business or otherwise offer opportunities for our company. In connection with these acquisitions or investments, we may:

 

•

issue shares that would dilute our ADS holders’ percentage of ownership;

 

•

incur debt and assume liabilities; and

 

•

incur amortization expenses related to intangible assets or incur large write-offs.

We also may be unable to find suitable acquisition candidates and we may not be able to complete acquisitions on favorable terms, if at all. If we do complete an acquisition, we cannot assure you that it will ultimately strengthen our competitive position or that it will not be viewed negatively by customers, financial markets or investors. Further, future acquisitions could also pose numerous additional risks to our operations, including:

 

•

problems integrating the purchased business, products or technologies;

 

•

increases to our expenses;

 

•

the failure to have discovered undisclosed liabilities of the acquired asset or company;

 

•

diversion of management’s attention from their day-to-day responsibilities;

 

•

harm to our operating results or financial condition;

 

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•

entrance into markets in which we have limited or no prior experience; and

 

•

potential loss of key employees, particularly those of the acquired entity.

We may not be able to complete one or more acquisitions or effectively integrate the operations, products or personnel gained through any such acquisition without a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our Asia development platform is unproven and may not result in the competitive advantages we anticipate.    We have built a development platform centered in Asia that is designed to enable us to accelerate the development of drugs which target Asia prevalent diseases and which we believe can generate data suitable for submission to regulators in the United States, Europe, China and Japan. Although data collected in Asia from the varlitinib biliary tract cancer clinical trial as well as other varlitinib clinical data have been submitted to a number of regulatory authorities, including the U.S. FDA, the NMPA, the Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Agency, or PMDA, the Health Sciences Authority in Singapore, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in South Korea, and after reviewing the data these health authorities have each agreed to include patients from their respective countries in the varlitinib biliary tract cancer clinical trials, we cannot guarantee this result will hold true in the future. Regulatory authorities could potentially reject Asia data if they believe that the Asian disease population is substantially different from the disease population in their particular country. Furthermore, while we have shown in certain cases that the pharmacokinetics in Asian and Caucasian patients are similar, we cannot guarantee that this will hold true more generally or in the future, or with respect to other ethnicities. While we believe our platform in Asia offers us an opportunity to accelerate the development of novel therapies in diseases where either the diseases are more prevalent or the availability of suitable patients in clinical trials is greater, an Asia-focused development platform is a relatively novel approach to drug development and has not yet resulted in a proven track record of accelerated development or regulatory approval.

Furthermore, drug development focused in Asia may be subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. We cannot assure you that governments of Asian countries will not enact regulations or incentives that favor local pharmaceutical companies over foreign-owned pharmaceutical companies. Any developments in Asia that make clinical development costlier or more time-consuming could delay our development timelines and materially harm our business and results of operations.

Our operations across Asia could be subject to natural disasters, health epidemics and other business disruptions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operation and financial condition.    Our operations, and in particular our clinical trials, are being conducted across areas of Asia that may be prone to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, cyclones, monsoons and floods, which could cause interruptions to our operations. In addition, the areas in which our clinical trials could be adversely affected by the outbreak of influenza A (H1N1), avian influenza (H7N9), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or other pandemics.

Any occurrence of these natural disasters or pandemic diseases or other adverse public health developments in the areas in which we operate our clinical trials could disrupt or delay our business operations or clinical development, which could materially adversely affect our business.

Our business is subject to economic, political, regulatory and other risks associated with international operations.    As a company based in Singapore with an Asia based development platform, our business is subject to risks associated with conducting business outside of the United States. Many of our suppliers and collaborative and clinical trial relationships are located outside the United States. Accordingly, our future results could be harmed by a variety of factors, including:

 

•

economic weakness, including inflation, or political instability;

 

27

•

differing and changing regulatory requirements for drug approvals;

 

•

differing jurisdictions could present different issues for securing, maintaining or obtaining freedom to operate in such jurisdictions;

 

•

potentially reduced protection for intellectual property rights;

 

•

difficulties in compliance with local laws and regulations;

 

•

changes in local regulations and customs, tariffs and trade barriers;

 

•

changes in currency exchange rates, including the Singapore dollar, and currency controls;

 

•

changes in a specific country’s or region’s political or economic environment;

 

•

the relationship between Singapore and other countries, including China;

 

•

trade protection measures, import or export licensing requirements or other restrictive actions;

 

•

differing reimbursement regimes and price controls;

 

•

negative consequences from changes in tax laws;

 

•

compliance with tax, employment, immigration and labor laws for employees;

 

•

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

 

•

difficulties associated with staffing and managing international operations, including differing labor relations;

 

•

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

 

•

business interruptions resulting from geo-political actions, including war and terrorism, or natural disasters including typhoons, floods and fires.

More specifically, the economy in Asia differs from most developed markets in many respects, including the level of government involvement, level of development, growth rate, control of foreign exchange, government policy on public order and allocation of resources. In some of the Asian markets, governments continue to play a significant role in regulating industry development by imposing industrial policies. Moreover, some local governments also exercise significant control over the economic growth and public order in their respective jurisdictions through allocating resources, controlling payment of foreign currency-denominated obligations, setting monetary policies, and providing preferential treatment to particular industries or companies. In addition, some Asian markets have experienced, and may in the future experience, political instability, including strikes, demonstrations, protests, marches, coups d’état, guerilla activity or other types of civil disorder. These instabilities and any adverse changes in the political environment could increase our costs, increase our exposure to legal and business risks, or disrupt our clinical operations.

We are subject to stringent privacy laws, information security policies and contractual obligations governing the use, processing, and cross-border transfer of personal information and our data privacy and security practices.    We receive, generate and store significant and increasing volumes of sensitive information, such as employee, personal and patient data. We are subject to a variety of local, state, national and international laws, directives and regulations that apply to the collection, use, retention, protection, disclosure, transfer and other processing of personal data in the different jurisdictions in which we operate, including comprehensive regulatory systems in the U.S. and Europe. Legal requirements relating to the collection, storage, handling, and transfer of personal information and

 

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personal data continue to evolve and may result in ever-increasing public scrutiny and escalating levels of enforcement, sanctions and increased costs of compliance.

Compliance with U.S. and international data protection laws and regulations could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices and compliance procedures in a manner adverse to our business. Moreover, complying with these various laws could require us to take on more onerous obligations in our contracts, restrict our ability to collect, use and disclose data, or in some cases, impact our ability to operate in certain jurisdictions. Failure to comply with U.S. and international data protection laws and regulations could result in government enforcement actions (which could include civil or criminal penalties), private litigation and/or adverse publicity and could negatively affect our operating results and business. Claims that we have violated individuals’ privacy rights, failed to comply with data protection laws, or breached our contractual obligations, even if we are not found liable, could be expensive and time consuming to defend, could result in adverse publicity and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The collection and use of personal data in the European Union are governed by the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. The GDPR imposes stringent requirements for controllers and processors of personal data, including, for example, more robust disclosures to individuals and a strengthened individual data rights regime, shortened timelines for data breach notifications, limitations on retention of information, increased requirements pertaining to special categories of data, such as health data, and additional obligations when we contract with third-party processors in connection with the processing of the personal data. The GDPR also imposes strict rules on the transfer of personal data out of the European Union to the United States and other third countries. In addition, the GDPR provides that European Union member states may make their own further laws and regulations limiting the processing of personal data, including genetic, biometric or health data.

The GDPR applies extraterritorially, and we may be subject to the GDPR because of our data processing activities that involve the personal data of individuals located in the European Union, such as in connection with any European Union clinical trials. GDPR regulations may impose additional responsibility and liability in relation to the personal data that we process and we may be required to put in place additional mechanisms to ensure compliance with the new data protection rules. This may be onerous and may interrupt or delay our development activities, and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Other jurisdictions outside the European Union are similarly introducing or enhancing privacy and data security laws, rules, and regulations, which could increase our compliance costs and the risks associated with non-compliance. We cannot guarantee that we may be in compliance with all applicable international regulations as they are enforced now or as they evolve. For example, our privacy policies may be insufficient to protect any personal information we collect, or may not comply with applicable laws, in which case we may be subject to regulatory enforcement actions, lawsuits or reputational damage, all of which may adversely affect our business. If we fail to comply with the GDPR and the applicable national data protection laws of the European Union member states, or if regulators assert we have failed to comply with these laws, it may lead to regulatory enforcement actions, which can result in monetary penalties of up to € 20,000,000 or up to 4% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the preceding financial year, whichever is higher, and other administrative penalties. If any of these events were to occur, our business and financial results could be significantly disrupted and adversely affected.

Although we take measures to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access, use or disclosure, our information technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to attacks by hackers or viruses or breached due to employee error, malfeasance or other malicious or inadvertent disruptions. Any such breach or interruption could compromise our networks and the information stored there could be accessed by unauthorized parties, manipulated, publicly disclosed, lost or stolen. Any such access, breach

 

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or other loss of information could result in legal claims or proceedings, and liability under federal or state laws that protect the privacy of personal information, and regulatory penalties. In the United States, notice of breaches must be made to affected individuals, the U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, and for extensive breaches, notice may need to be made to the media or U.S. state attorneys general. Such a notice could harm our reputation and our ability to compete. The HHS has the discretion to impose penalties without attempting to resolve violations through informal means. In addition, U.S. state attorneys general are authorized to bring civil actions seeking either injunctions or damages in response to violations that threaten the privacy of state residents. Although we have implemented security measures to prevent unauthorized access to patient data, such data is currently accessible through multiple channels, and there is no guarantee we can protect our data from breach. Unauthorized access, loss or dissemination could also damage our reputation or disrupt our operations, including our ability to conduct our analyses, deliver test results, process claims and appeals, provide customer assistance, conduct research and development activities, collect, process and prepare company financial information, provide information about our tests and other patient and physician education and outreach efforts through our website, and manage the administrative aspects of our business.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

If we are unable to obtain or protect intellectual property rights related to our current product candidates or any future product candidates which we may develop, we may not be able to compete effectively in our market.    We rely upon a combination of patents, trade secret protection, confidentiality agreements and proprietary know-how, and intend to seek marketing exclusivity for any approved product, in order to protect the intellectual property related to product candidates. The patent prosecution process is expensive, time-consuming and complex, and we may not be able to file, prosecute, maintain, enforce or license all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. The strength of patents in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical field involves complex legal and scientific questions, is highly uncertain, and has, in the 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. The patent applications that we own or in-license may fail to result in issued patents with claims that cover our product candidates in the United States or in other foreign countries for a number of reasons, including because of a finding of lack of novelty or that the claimed inventions are already in the public domain. If this were to occur, early competition from third parties could be expected against our product candidates.

Even if patents do successfully issue, third parties may challenge their validity, enforceability or scope, which may result in such patents being invalidated, rendered unenforceable, narrowed or deemed as not infringing. Also, a third party may challenge our ownership of patents and patent applications assigned to us, or may challenge our exclusive rights to patents and patent applications that we license from third parties. Furthermore, even if they are unchallenged, our patents and patent applications may not adequately protect our intellectual property or prevent others from circumventing our patents by developing products similar to or competing with our product candidates. If the patent applications we hold with respect to our other product candidates fail to issue or if their breadth or strength of protection is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to develop them, and threaten our ability to commercialize any resulting products. We cannot offer any assurances about which, if any, applications will issue as patents or whether any issued patents will be found not invalid and not unenforceable or will go unthreatened by third parties. In addition, due to 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. Furthermore, patent applications by third parties can result in an interference proceeding in the United States being invoked by a third party or instituted by us to determine who was the first to invent any of the subject matter covered by the patent claims of our applications or patents.

 

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Because patent applications in the United States, Europe and many other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, and because publications of discoveries in scientific literature lag behind actual discoveries, we cannot be certain that we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our issued patents or pending patent applications, or that we were the first to file for protection of the inventions set forth in our patents or patent applications. As a result, we may not be able to obtain or maintain protection for certain inventions. Therefore, the enforceability and scope of our patents in the United States, Europe and in many other jurisdictions cannot be predicted with certainty and, as a result, any patents that we own or license may not provide sufficient protection against competitors. We may not be able to obtain or maintain patent protection from our pending patent applications, from those we may file in the future, or from those we may license from third parties. Moreover, even if we are able to obtain patent protection, such patent protection may be of insufficient scope to achieve our business objectives.

Moreover, some of our owned patents and patent applications are, and may in the future be, co-owned with third parties. For example, under our license agreement with CSL, we and CSL will co-own certain intellectual property that we jointly develop. If we are unable to obtain, or continue to maintain, an exclusive license to any such third-party co-owners’ interest in such patents or patent applications, such co-owners may be able to license their rights to other third parties, including our competitors, and our competitors could market competing products and technology. In addition, we may need the cooperation of any such co-owners of our patents in order to enforce such patents against third parties, and such cooperation may not be provided to us. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial conditions, results of operations, and prospects.

Our inability to protect our confidential information and trade secrets would harm our business and competitive position.    In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we rely on trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect proprietary know-how that is not patentable, processes for which patents are difficult to enforce and any other elements of our drug development process that involve proprietary know-how, information or technology that is not covered by patents. Trade secrets can be difficult to protect. We seek to protect these trade secrets, 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 research organizations, contract manufacturers, consultants, advisors, and other third parties. We cannot guarantee that we have entered into such agreements with each party that may have or have had access to our trade secrets or proprietary technology and processes. Despite these efforts, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information, including our trade secrets, and we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for such breaches Furthermore, we cannot guarantee that our trade secrets and other confidential proprietary information will not be disclosed or that competitors will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or independently develop substantially equivalent information and techniques. If we are unable to prevent material disclosure of the non-patented intellectual property related to our technologies to third parties, and there is no guarantee that we will have any such enforceable trade secret protection, we may not be able to establish or maintain a competitive advantage in our market, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We may not be able to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights throughout the world.    Filing, prosecuting, and defending patents on product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and the laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States, or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into the United States or other jurisdictions. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and, further, may export otherwise infringing products to territories where

 

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we have patent protection but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our products, and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing. If we are unable to block the commercialization of these products, these products may erode our commercial position in the market place.

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 enforcement of patents, trade secrets, and other intellectual property protection, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our intellectual property and proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our intellectual property and proprietary 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, could put 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 and proprietary rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.

Several countries have compulsory licensing laws under which, in certain circumstances, a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, the patent owner may have limited remedies, which could materially diminish the value of such patent. If we or any of our licensors is forced to grant a license to third parties with respect to any patents relevant to our business, our competitive position may be impaired, and our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects may be adversely affected.

In China, the validity, enforceability and scope of protection available under the relevant intellectual property laws are uncertain and still evolving. Implementation and enforcement of Chinese intellectual property-related laws have historically been inconsistent. Accordingly, intellectual property and confidentiality legal regimes in China may not afford protection to the same extent as in the United States or other countries. Policing unauthorized use of proprietary technology is difficult and expensive, and we may need to resort to litigation to enforce or defend patents issued to us or to determine the enforceability, scope and validity of our proprietary rights or those of others. The experience and capabilities of Chinese courts in handling intellectual property litigation varies, and outcomes are unpredictable. Further, such litigation may require a significant expenditure of cash and may divert management’s attention from our operations, which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. An adverse determination in any such litigation could materially impair our intellectual property rights and may harm our business, prospects and reputation in China.

If we fail to comply with our obligations in the agreements under which we license rights to technology from third parties, or if the license agreements are terminated for other reasons, we could lose license rights that are important to our business.    We are heavily reliant upon licenses to certain patent rights and proprietary technology from third parties that are important or necessary to the development of our product candidates, including varlitinib. Accordingly, we are party to a number of technology licenses that are important to our business and expect to enter into additional licenses in the future. For example, our rights to varlitinib are the subject of an exclusive license agreement with Array. If we fail to comply with our obligations under our agreement with Array (including, among other things, if we fail to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize varlitinib) or our other license agreements, or we are subject to insolvency or liquidation, our licensors may have the right to terminate the license. In addition, under our agreement with Array, in the event of a change of control, we may be required to make additional payment to Array if the change of control meets specified conditions. In the event that

 

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any of our important technology licenses were to be terminated by the licensor, we may need to negotiate new or reinstated agreements, which may not be available to us on equally favorable terms, or at all, or we could lose our rights under these agreements, including our rights to intellectual property or technology important to our development programs, which would likely cause us to cease further development of the related program, including varlitinib. See “Business—License and Collaboration Agreements” for a description of our license agreements, which includes a description of the termination provisions of these agreements. Furthermore, under certain of our collaboration agreements, our licensors may retain the right to grant non-exclusive licenses to the licensed patents and technology to other academic or research institutions for non-commercial research purposes, in which case we would not have exclusive rights to such licensed patents and technologies.

Our technology agreements under which we currently license intellectual property or technology to and from third parties are complex and certain provisions in such agreements may be susceptible to multiple interpretations. The resolution of any contract interpretation disagreement that may arise could narrow what we believe to be the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual property or technology, increase what we believe to be our financial or other obligations under the relevant agreement or decrease the third party’s financial or other obligations under the relevant agreement, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

In addition, disputes may arise regarding intellectual property subject to a licensing agreement, including:

 

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the scope of rights granted under the license agreement and other interpretation-related issues;

 

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the extent to which our technology and processes infringe on intellectual property of the licensor that is not subject to the licensing agreement;

 

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the sublicensing of patent and other rights under our existing collaborative development relationships and any collaboration relationships we might enter into in the future;

 

•

our diligence obligations under the license agreement and what activities satisfy those diligence obligations;

 

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the inventorship and ownership of inventions and know-how resulting from the joint creation or use of intellectual property by our current and future licensors and us; and

 

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the priority of invention of patented technology.

We are generally also subject to all of the same risks with respect to protection of intellectual property that we license, as we are for intellectual property that we own, which are described elsewhere under “Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property.” If we or our licensors fail to adequately protect this intellectual property, our ability to commercialize products could suffer. Moreover, if disputes over intellectual property that we have licensed prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current licensing arrangements on commercially acceptable terms, we may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize the affected product candidates, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial conditions, results of operations, and prospects.

Third-party claims of intellectual property infringement may prevent or delay our development and commercialization efforts.    Our commercial success depends in part on our avoiding infringement of the patents and proprietary rights of third parties. There is a substantial amount of litigation, both within and outside the United States, involving patent and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including patent infringement lawsuits, interferences, oppositions, reexamination, post-grant review, inter partes review, and derivation proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or the USPTO and equivalent proceedings in foreign jurisdictions (e.g., opposition proceedings). Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications,

 

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which are owned by third parties, exist in the fields in which we and our collaborators are developing product candidates. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, the risk increases that our product candidates may be subject to claims of infringement of the patent rights of third parties.

Third parties may assert that we or our product candidates are infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating their intellectual property without authorization. There may be third-party patents or patent applications with claims to materials, formulations, methods of manufacture or methods for treatment related to the use or manufacture of our product candidates. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent applications which may later result in issued patents that our product candidates may infringe.

In addition, third parties may obtain patents in the future and claim that use of our technologies infringes upon these patents. If any third-party patents were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover the manufacturing process of any of our product candidates, any drug substance formed during the manufacturing process or any final product itself, the holders of any such patents may be able to block our ability to commercialize such product candidate unless we obtain a license under the applicable patents, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or until such patents are invalidated or expire. Similarly, if any third-party patent were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover aspects of our formulations or methods of use, the holders of any such patent may be able to block our ability to develop and commercialize the applicable product candidate formulation or use unless we obtain a license, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or until such patent expires. In either case, such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

Parties making intellectual property claims against us may request and/or obtain injunctive or other equitable relief, which could effectively block our ability to further develop and commercialize one or more of our product candidates. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of employee resources from our business. Even if we believe any third-party intellectual property claims are without merit, there is no assurance that a court would find in our favor on questions of validity, enforceability, priority, or non-infringement. In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may have to pay substantial damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement, obtain one or more licenses from third parties, pay royalties or redesign our infringing products or manufacturing processes, which may be impossible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure. We cannot predict whether any such license would be available at all or whether it would be available on commercially reasonable terms. Furthermore, even in the absence of litigation, we may need to obtain licenses from third parties to advance our research, manufacture clinical trial supplies or allow commercialization of our product candidates. The licensing or acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and several more established companies may pursue strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider attractive or necessary. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, capital resources and greater clinical development or commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. We may fail to obtain any of these licenses at a reasonable cost or on reasonable terms, if at all. In that event, we would be unable to further develop and commercialize one or more of our product candidates, which could harm our business significantly. We cannot provide any assurances that third-party patents do not exist which might be enforced against our products, resulting in either an injunction prohibiting our sales, or, with respect to our sales, an obligation on our part to pay royalties and/or other forms of compensation to third parties.

 

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We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or the patents of our licensors, which could be expensive, time consuming and unsuccessful.    Competitors may infringe our patents or the patents of our licensors. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file infringement claims, which can be expensive and time-consuming. If we or one of our licensors were to initiate legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering one of our products, the defendant could counterclaim that such patent is invalid or unenforceable. In patent litigation in the United States or in Europe, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity or unenforceability are commonplace. In addition, in an infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent of ours or our licensors is not valid or is unenforceable, may narrow the scope of our or our licensor’s patents, or may refuse to stop the defendant from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our patents do not cover the technology in question. An adverse result in any litigation or defense proceedings could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and could put our patent applications at risk of not issuing.

Interference proceedings provoked by third parties or brought by us may be necessary to determine the priority of inventions with respect to our patents or patent applications or those of our collaborators or licensors. An unfavorable outcome could require us to cease using the related technology or to attempt to license rights to it from the prevailing party. Our business could be harmed if the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms. Our defense of litigation or interference proceedings may fail and, even if successful, may result in substantial costs and distract our management and other employees. We may not be able to prevent, alone or with our licensors, misappropriation of our intellectual property rights, particularly in countries where the laws may not protect those rights as fully as in the United States.

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 this type of litigation. There could also 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 material adverse effect on the price of our ADSs.

Changes in patent law could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our product candidates.    Obtaining and enforcing patents in the biopharmaceutical industry involves both technological and legal complexity and is therefore costly, time-consuming and inherently uncertain. Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of patent applications and the enforcement or defense of issued patents. Recent patent reform legislation in the United States and other countries, including the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or Leahy-Smith Act, could increase those uncertainties and costs. The Leahy-Smith Act includes provisions that affect the way patent applications are prosecuted, redefine prior art and provide more efficient and cost-effective avenues for competitors to challenge the validity of patents, and may also affect patent litigation. These include allowing third-party submission of prior art to the USPTO during patent prosecution and additional procedures to attack the validity of a patent by USPTO administered post-grant proceedings, including post-grant review, inter partes review and derivation proceedings. In addition, assuming that other requirements for patentability are met, prior to March 15, 2013, in the United States, the first to invent the claimed invention was entitled to the patent, while outside the United States, the first to file a patent application was entitled to the patent. After March 15, 2013, under the Leahy-Smith Act, the United States transitioned to a first inventor to file system in which, assuming that the other statutory requirements are met, the first inventor to file a patent application will be entitled to the patent on an invention regardless of whether a third party was the first to invent the claimed invention. However, the Leahy-Smith Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

 

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In addition, 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. This combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the validity and enforceability of patents, once obtained. Depending on future actions by the U.S. Congress, the U.S. courts, the USPTO and the relevant law-making bodies in other countries, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that would weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce our existing patents and patents that we might obtain in the future.

Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.    Periodic maintenance fees on any issued patent are due to be paid to the USPTO and foreign patent agencies in several stages over the lifetime of the patent. 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. While an inadvertent lapse can in many cases be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules, there are situations in which non-compliance can (i) result in abandonment or lapse of, or (ii) otherwise affect the patentability of, the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. 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 or our licensors that control the prosecution and maintenance of our licensed patents fail to maintain the patents and patent applications covering our product candidates, our competitors might be able to enter the market, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.

In addition, as licensees we may not be responsible for or have control over the prosecution or enforceability of our licensed patents. In such cases, we have to rely on the licensor to comply with the requisite obligations of the patent offices, including the duty of disclosure, filing assignments, etc. We cannot guarantee that our licensed patents and patent applications will be prosecuted, maintained and enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business. As licensees, we may not be in a position to assess if these duties have been complied with or have the ability to complete these duties on behalf of the licensor. Failure by our licensors to comply with such duties may affect the enforceability of the patent rights, narrow the scope of our patent protection and, more generally, could affect the value of our patent rights. If our patent protection is reduced or eliminated, we may not be able to prevent our competitors or other third parties from developing or commercializing products similar to ours and may be required to cease development of our product candidates, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

If we do not obtain patent term extension for any product candidates we may develop, our business may be materially harmed.    Depending upon the timing, duration and specifics of any FDA marketing approval of any product candidates we may develop, one or more of our owned or in-licensed U.S. patents may be eligible for limited patent term extension under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984, or Hatch-Waxman Amendments. The Hatch-Waxman Amendments permit a patent term extension of up to five years as compensation for the patent term lost during the FDA regulatory review process. A patent term extension cannot extend the remaining term of a patent beyond a total of 14 years from the date of product approval, only one patent may be extended and only those claims covering the approved drug, a method for using it or a method for manufacturing it may be extended. However, we may not be granted an extension because of, for example, failing to exercise due diligence during the testing phase or regulatory review process, failing to apply within applicable deadlines, failing to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents, or otherwise failing to satisfy applicable requirements. Moreover, the applicable time period or the scope of patent protection afforded

 

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could be less than we request. Similar issues apply in the patent legal systems of other key markets such as the European Union. If we are unable to obtain patent term extension or the term of any such extension is less than we request, our competitors may obtain approval of competing products following our patent expiration, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially harmed.

We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties.    We employ individuals, and work with consultants or independent contractors, who were previously employed at other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. We may be subject to claims that we or our employees, consultants or independent contractors have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed confidential information, including trade secrets, of any such individual’s former employers or other third parties. We may also be subject to claims that former employers or other third parties have an ownership interest in our patents. 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. There is no guarantee of success in defending these claims, and even if we are successful, litigation could result in substantial cost and be a distraction to our management and other employees.

In addition, while it is our policy to require our employees, consultants and independent contractors who may be involved in the conception or 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. The assignment of intellectual property rights may not be self-executing (and may require further action), 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. Such claims could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

If our trademarks and tradenames are not adequately protected, then we may not be able to build name recognition in our markets and our business may be adversely affected.    We have registered or applied to register certain trademarks to protect our company name and plan to apply to register trademarks to cover product names in the future once our product candidates are closer to commercialization. We cannot assure you that our trademark applications will be approved or that we will seek registered trademark protection for each of our product names in each jurisdiction in which we operate. During trademark registration proceedings, we may receive rejections. Although we are given an opportunity to respond to those rejections, we may be unable to overcome such rejections. In addition, in proceedings before the USPTO and in proceedings before comparable agencies in many foreign jurisdictions, third parties are given an opportunity to oppose pending trademark applications and to seek to cancel registered trademarks. Opposition or cancellation proceedings may be filed against our trademarks, and our trademarks may not survive such proceedings. 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 toward advertising and marketing new brands. Further, we cannot assure you that competitors will not infringe our trademarks or that we will have adequate resources to enforce our trademarks.

 

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Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats.    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 or permit us to maintain our competitive advantage. For example:

 

•

others may be able to make products that are similar to any product candidates we may develop or utilize similar technology but that are not covered by the claims of the patents that we license or may own in the future;

 

•

we, or our license partners or current or future collaborators, might not have been the first to make the inventions covered by the issued patent or pending patent application that we license or may own in the future;

 

•

we, or our license partners or current or future collaborators, might not have been the first to file patent applications covering certain of our or their inventions;

 

•

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

 

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it is possible that our pending licensed patent applications or those that we may own in the future will not lead to issued patents;

 

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issued patents that we hold rights to may be held invalid or unenforceable, including as a result of legal challenges by our competitors;

 

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our competitors might conduct research and development activities in countries where we do not have patent rights and then use the information learned from such activities to develop competitive products for sale in our major commercial markets;

 

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we may not develop additional proprietary technologies that are patentable;

 

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the patents of others may harm our business; and

 

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we may choose not to file a patent in order to maintain certain trade secrets or know-how, and a third party may subsequently file a patent covering such intellectual property.

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

Risks Related to Commercialization of Our Product Candidates

Our commercial success depends upon attaining significant market acceptance of our product candidates, if approved, among physicians, healthcare payors, patients and the medical community.    Even if we obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates, the product may not gain market acceptance among physicians, healthcare payors, patients and the medical community, which is critical to commercial success. Market acceptance of any product candidate for which we receive approval depends on a number of factors, including:

 

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the efficacy and safety as demonstrated in clinical trials;

 

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the timing of market introduction of the product candidate as well as competitive products;

 

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the clinical indications for which the product candidate is approved;

 

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acceptance by physicians, the medical community and patients of the product candidate as a safe and effective treatment and also the willingness of physicians to prescribe a drug based on an active pharmaceutical ingredient, or API, that is less familiar to them than other drug APIs;

 

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the convenience of prescribing and initiating patients on the product candidate;

 

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•

the potential and perceived advantages of such product candidate over alternative treatments;

 

•

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

 

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favorable pricing and the availability of coverage and adequate reimbursement by third-party payors, such as government authorities;

 

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relative convenience and ease of administration;

 

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the prevalence and severity of adverse side effects; and

 

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the effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts.

If our product candidates are approved but fail to achieve an adequate level of acceptance by physicians, healthcare payors, patients and the medical community, we will not be able to generate significant revenue, and we may not become or remain profitable. In addition, even if any of our product candidates gain acceptance, the markets for the treatment of patients with our target indications may not be as significant as we estimate.

Our organization has no prior sales and marketing experience and resources.    We have never, as an organization, commercialized a product and there is no guarantee that we will be able to do so successfully. We will need to establish a commercial team and hire sales forces in the geographies where we are permitted and intend to market our drugs. We will also need to develop a marketing team and strategy in order to successfully market and sell our product candidates, which will require significant time and resources and the development of our ability to market and sell our product and generate revenues from our product candidates may be delayed or limited. We cannot assure you that our sales efforts will be effective or produce the results we expect. We will be competing with other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to recruit, hire, train and retain marketing and sales personnel. Further, we may face difficulties or delays in obtaining and maintaining the required licenses and permits to sell our product candidates in individual states and jurisdictions. If our commercialization of varlitinib or our other product candidates is unsuccessful or perceived as disappointing, the price of our ADSs could decline significantly and the long-term success of the product and our company could be harmed.

We may also seek to establish collaborations with pharmaceutical companies to maximize the potential of our products in other markets. For example, we are conducting a Phase 1 clinical trial to develop ASLAN004 as a treatment for atopic dermatitis, and, in the future, we may seek a global partner to support Phase 3 clinical trials and potential commercialization. We may not be successful in establishing development and commercialization collaborations which could adversely affect, and potentially prohibit, our ability to develop our product candidates.

If our planned targeted commercial organization in the United States and selected Asian markets is not as successful as we anticipate, we may be unable to generate any revenue.    Although we have started building a targeted commercial organization, we currently have a very limited commercial organization and capability, and the cost of establishing and maintaining such an organization may exceed the cost-effectiveness of doing so. In order to market any products that may be approved, we must build sales, marketing, managerial and other non-technical capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services. We may enter into strategic partnerships with third parties to commercialize our product candidates.

 

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Part of our business strategy is to establish collaborative relationships to commercialize and fund development and approval of certain of our product candidates. We may not succeed in establishing and maintaining collaborative relationships, which may significantly limit our ability to develop and commercialize products, for which we pursue this commercialization strategy.    We will need to establish and maintain successful collaborative relationships to obtain sales, marketing and distribution capabilities for the product candidates we do not intend to commercialize ourselves. The process of establishing and maintaining collaborative relationships is difficult, time-consuming and involves significant uncertainty, including:

 

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we may have limited control over the decisions of any partners and they may change the priority of any programs in a manner that would result in termination or significant delays to a partnered program;

 

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our ability to generate future payments and royalties from any partners will depend upon the ability of a partner to obtain regulatory approvals and achieve market acceptance of products developed from our product candidates;

 

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a partner may fail to properly initiate, maintain or defend our intellectual property rights, where applicable, or a party may use our proprietary information in such a way as to invite litigation that could jeopardize or potentially invalidate our proprietary information or expose us to potential liability;

 

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a partner may not devote sufficient capital or resources towards our product candidates; and,

 

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a partner may not comply with applicable government regulatory requirements necessary to successfully market and sell our products.

If any collaborator fails to fulfill its responsibilities in a timely manner, or at all, any clinical development, manufacturing or commercialization efforts pursuant to that collaboration could be delayed or terminated, or it may be necessary for us to assume responsibility for expenses or activities that would otherwise have been the responsibility of our collaborator. If we are unable to establish and maintain collaborative relationships on acceptable terms or to successfully and timely transition terminated collaborative agreements, we may have to delay or discontinue further development of one or more of our product candidates, undertake development and commercialization activities at our own expense or find alternative sources of capital.

Attempting to secure additional financing for a product candidate may also lead to the risks discussed under the risk factor titled “We will need to obtain substantial amounts of financing for our operations, and if we fail to obtain additional financing, we may be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our product development programs or commercialization efforts” described above.

We rely completely on third parties to manufacture our preclinical and clinical drug supplies and we intend to rely on third parties to produce commercial supplies of any approved product candidate.    If we were to experience an unexpected loss of supply of our product candidates for any reason, whether as a result of manufacturing, supply or storage issues or otherwise, we could experience delays, disruptions, suspensions or terminations of, or be required to restart or repeat, clinical trials. We do not currently have nor do we plan to acquire the infrastructure or capability internally to manufacture our preclinical and clinical drug supplies and we lack the resources and the capability to manufacture any of our product candidates on a clinical or commercial scale. The facilities used by our contract manufacturers or other third-party manufacturers to manufacture our product candidates must be approved by the U.S. FDA, NMPA or other regulators pursuant to inspections. While we work closely with our third-party manufacturers on the manufacturing process for our product candidates, including quality audits, we generally do not control the implementation of the manufacturing process of, and are completely

 

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dependent on, our contract manufacturers or other third-party manufacturers for compliance with cGMP regulatory requirements and for manufacture of both active drug substances and finished drug products. If our contract manufacturers or other third-party manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to applicable specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the U.S. FDA, NMPA or other regulators, they will not be able to secure and/or maintain regulatory approval for their manufacturing facilities. In addition, we have no control over the ability of our contract manufacturers or other third-party manufacturers to maintain adequate quality control, quality assurance and qualified personnel. If the U.S. FDA, NMPA or other regulators do not approve these facilities for the manufacture of our product candidates or if they withdraw any such approval in the future, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which could take several years and would significantly impact our ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for or market our product candidates, if approved.

We rely on our manufacturers to purchase from third-party suppliers the materials necessary to produce our product candidates for our clinical trials. There are a limited number of suppliers for raw materials that we use to manufacture our product candidates and there may be a need to assess alternate suppliers to prevent a possible disruption of the manufacture of the materials necessary to produce our product candidates for our clinical trials, and if approved, for commercial sale. We do not have any control over the process or timing of the acquisition of these raw materials by our manufacturers. Although we generally do not begin a clinical trial unless we believe we have a sufficient supply of a product candidate to complete the clinical trial, 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 contract manufacturer or other third-party manufacturer could considerably delay completion of our clinical trials, product testing and potential regulatory approval of our product candidates. If our manufacturers or we are unable to purchase these raw materials after regulatory approval has been obtained for our product candidates, the commercial launch of our product candidates would be delayed or there would be a shortage in supply, which would impair our ability to generate revenue from the sale of our product candidates.

We expect to continue to depend on contract manufacturers or other third-party manufacturers for the foreseeable future, and our requirements for and dependence upon these third-party manufacturers will increase when and if one or more of our product candidates is approved and commercialized. We have not entered into any long-term commercial supply agreements with our current contract manufacturers or with any alternate contract manufacturers. Although we intend to do so prior to any commercial launch of our product candidates, if approved by the U.S. FDA, in order to ensure that we maintain adequate supplies of finished drug product, we may be unable to enter into such an agreement or do so on commercially reasonable terms, which could have a material adverse impact upon our business, including delaying a product launch or subjecting our commercialization efforts to significant supply risk. Even if we are able to enter into long-term agreements with manufacturers for commercial supply on reasonable terms, we may be unable to do so with sufficient time prior to the launch of our product candidates, which would expose us to substantial supply risk and potentially jeopardize our launch. See “Business—Manufacturing” for additional information.

Manufacturing issues may arise that could increase product and regulatory approval costs or delay commercialization.    As we scale up manufacturing of our product candidates and conduct required stability testing, product, packaging, equipment and process-related issues may require refinement or resolution in order to proceed with our planned clinical trials and obtain regulatory approval for commercial marketing. In the future, we may identify impurities, which could result in increased scrutiny by the regulatory agencies, delays in our clinical program and regulatory approval, increases in our operating expenses, or failure to obtain or maintain approval for our product candidates.

 

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Guidelines and recommendations published by various organizations can reduce the use of our product candidates.    Government agencies promulgate regulations and guidelines directly applicable to us and to our product candidates. In addition, professional societies, such as practice management groups, private health and science foundations and organizations involved in various diseases from time to time may also publish guidelines or recommendations to the healthcare and patient communities. Recommendations of government agencies or these other groups or organizations may relate to such matters as usage, dosage, route of administration and use of concomitant therapies. Recommendations or guidelines suggesting the reduced use of our product candidates or the use of competitive or alternative products as the standard of care to be followed by patients and healthcare providers could result in decreased use of our product candidates.

We face significant competition from other biopharmaceutical companies, and our operating results will suffer if we fail to compete effectively.    Our industry is intensely competitive and subject to rapid and significant technological change. While we believe that our Asia based development platform, knowledge, experience and scientific resources provide us with competitive advantages, we face substantial competition from multinational pharmaceutical companies, specialty pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies, universities and other research institutions worldwide. For example, there are several targeted therapies currently in clinical development targeting specific subsets of biliary tract cancer, including ivosidenib being developed by Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc., ARQ087 being developed by Arqule, Inc. and lenvatinib being developed by Eisai Inc. In addition, trastuzumab is approved in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of first-line HER2-positive metastatic gastric cancer and there are other drugs approved for later lines of treatment including Eli Lilly and Company’s ramucirumab and Merck & Co., Inc.’s pembrolizumab. There are several other drugs in clinical development for first-line gastric cancer, including BMS’ nivolumab and pembrolizumab.

Many of our competitors have significantly greater financial, clinical and human resources. Additionally, small and early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. As a result, our competitors may discover, develop, license or commercialize products before or more successfully than we do. Competition may increase further as a result of advances in the commercial applicability of technologies and greater availability of capital for investment in these industries. Our competitors may succeed in developing, acquiring or licensing on an exclusive basis drug products or drug delivery technologies that are more effective or less costly than our product candidates that we are currently developing or that we may develop.

We believe that our ability to successfully compete will depend on, among other things:

 

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the efficacy and safety of our product candidates, especially as compared to marketed products and product candidates in development by third parties;

 

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the time it takes for our product candidates to complete clinical development and receive marketing approval;

 

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the ability to commercialize and market any of our product candidates that receive regulatory approval;

 

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the price of our products;

 

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whether coverage and adequate levels of reimbursement are available from third-party payors, such as private and governmental health insurance plans, including Medicare;

 

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the ability to protect intellectual property rights related to our product candidates;

 

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the ability to manufacture on a cost-effective basis and sell commercial quantities of any of our product candidates that receive regulatory approval; and

 

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•

acceptance of any of our product candidates that receive regulatory approval by physicians and other healthcare providers.

If our competitors market products that are more effective, safer or less expensive than our future products, if any, or that reach the market sooner than our future products, if any, we may not achieve commercial success. Because we have limited research and development capabilities, it may be difficult for us to stay abreast of the rapid changes in technology. If we fail to stay at the forefront of technological change, we may be unable to compete effectively. Technological advances or products developed by our competitors may render our technologies or product candidates obsolete, less competitive or not economical.

Price controls may adversely affect our future profitability.    In certain countries, prescription drug pricing and reimbursement is subject to governmental control. In those countries that impose price controls, pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after the receipt of marketing approval for a product. To obtain reimbursement or pricing approval in some countries, we or our strategic partners may be required to conduct a clinical trial that compares the cost-effectiveness of our product candidates to other available therapies.

Some countries require approval of the sale price of a drug before it can be marketed. In many countries, the pricing review period begins after marketing or product licensing approval is granted. In certain markets, prescription pharmaceutical pricing remains subject to continuing governmental control even after initial approval is granted. As a result, we or our strategic partners might obtain marketing approval for a product candidate in a particular country, but then be subject to price regulations that delay commercial launch of the product candidate, possibly for lengthy time periods, and negatively impact the revenue that we generate from the sale of the product in that country. If reimbursement of such product candidates is unavailable or limited in scope or amount, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels, or if there is competition from lower priced cross-border sales, our profitability will be negatively affected.

Legislative or regulatory healthcare reforms may make it more difficult and costly for us to obtain regulatory clearance or approval of our product candidates and to produce, market and distribute our products after clearance or approval is obtained.    From time to time, legislation is drafted and introduced that could significantly change the statutory provisions governing the regulatory clearance or approval, manufacture and marketing of regulated products or the reimbursement thereof. In addition, U.S. FDA regulations and guidance are often revised or reinterpreted by the U.S. FDA in ways that may significantly affect our business and our products. Any new regulations or revisions or reinterpretations of existing regulations may impose additional costs or lengthen review times of our product candidates. We cannot determine what effect changes in regulations, statutes, legal interpretation or policies, when and if promulgated, enacted or adopted may have on our business in the future. Such changes could, among other things, require:

 

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changes to manufacturing methods;

 

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change in clinical trial design, including additional treatment arm (control);

 

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recall, replacement or discontinuance of one or more of our products; and

 

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additional recordkeeping.

Each of these would likely entail substantial time and cost and could harm our business and our financial results.

In addition, in the United States, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory proposals to change the health care system in ways that could affect our ability to sell our products profitably. The

 

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pharmaceutical industry in the United States, as an example, has been affected by the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, collectively PPACA, which, among other things, imposed new fees on entities that manufacture or import certain branded prescription drugs and expanded pharmaceutical manufacturer obligations to provide discounts and rebates to certain government programs. Since its enactment, there have been judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of PPACA, as well as recent efforts by the Trump administration to repeal or replace certain aspects of PPACA. Since January 2017, President Trump has signed two Executive Orders and other directives designed to delay the implementation of certain provisions of PPACA or otherwise circumvent some of the requirements for health insurance mandated by PPACA. In addition, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, recently published a final rule that will give states greater flexibility in setting benchmarks for insurers in the individual and small group marketplaces, which may have the effect of relaxing the essential health benefits required under the PPACA marketplaces. Further, Congress has considered legislation that would repeal or repeal and replace all or part of the PPACA. While Congress has not passed comprehensive repeal legislation, two bills affecting the implementation of certain taxes under the PPACA have been signed into law. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or Tax Act, 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”. On January 22, 2018, President Trump signed a continuing resolution on appropriations for the year ended 2018 that delayed the implementation of certain PPACA-mandated fees, including the so-called “Cadillac” tax on certain high cost employer-sponsored insurance plans, the annual fee imposed on certain health insurance providers based on market share, and the medical device excise tax on non-exempt medical devices. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, or the BBA, among other things, amended the PPACA, effective January 1, 2019, to increase from 50 percent to 70 percent the point-of-sale discount that is owed by pharmaceutical manufacturers who participate in Medicare Part D and to close the coverage gap in most Medicare drug plans, commonly referred to as the “donut hole.” In July 2018, CMS published a final rule permitting further collections and payments to and from certain PPACA qualified health plans and health insurance issuers under the PPACA risk adjustment program in response to the outcome of federal district court litigation regarding the method CMS uses to determine this risk adjustment. On December 14, 2018, a U.S. District Court Judge in the Northern District of Texas, or Texas District Court Judge, ruled that the individual mandate is a critical and inseverable feature of the PPACA, and therefore, because it was repealed as part of the Tax Act, the remaining provisions of the PPACA are invalid as well. While the Texas District Court Judge, as well as the Trump Administration and CMS, have stated that the ruling will have no immediate effect, it is unclear how this decision, subsequent appeals, , and other efforts to repeal and replace the PPACA will impact the PPACA and our business.

Other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the United States since the PPACA was enacted. For example, in August 2011, the Budget Control Act of 2011, among other things, created measures for spending reductions by U.S. Congress. A Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, tasked with recommending a targeted deficit reduction of at least $1.2 trillion for the years 2012 through 2021, was unable to reach required goals, thereby triggering the legislation’s automatic reduction to several government programs. This includes aggregate reductions of Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year, which went into effect in April 2013 and, due to subsequent legislative amendments to the statute, including the BBA, will remain in effect through 2027 unless additional Congressional action is taken. In January 2013, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, among other things, further reduced Medicare payments to certain providers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years.

Further, there has been particular and increasing legislative and enforcement interest in the United States with respect to drug pricing practices in recent years, particularly with respect to drugs that have been

 

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subject to relatively large price increases over relatively short time periods. There have been several recent Congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drugs. At the federal level, the Trump administration’s budget proposal for the year ended 2019 contains further drug price control measures that could be enacted during the 2019 budget process or in other future legislation, including, for example, measures to permit Medicare Part D plans to negotiate the price of certain drugs under Medicare Part B, to allow some states to negotiate drug prices under Medicaid, and to eliminate cost sharing for generic drugs for low-income patients. Additionally, the Trump administration released a “Blueprint” to lower drug prices and reduce out of pocket costs of drugs that contains additional 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. HHS has already started the process of soliciting feedback on some of these measures and, at the same, is immediately implementing others under its existing authority. For example, in September 2018, CMS announced that it will allow Medicare Advantage Plans the option to use step therapy for Part B drugs beginning January 1, 2019, and in October 2018, CMS proposed a new rule that would require direct-to-consumer television advertisements of prescription drugs and biological products, for which payment is available through or under Medicare or Medicaid, to include in the advertisement the Wholesale Acquisition Cost, or list price, of that drug or biological product.

In addition, on January 31, 2019, the HHS Office of Inspector General, proposed modifications to the U.S. Anti-Kickback Statute discount safe harbor for the purpose of reducing the cost of drug products to consumers which, among other things, if finalized, will affect discounts paid by manufacturers to Medicare Part D plans, Medicaid managed care organizations and pharmacy benefit managers working with these organizations. Although a number of these, and other proposed, measures will require additional authorization to become effective, Congress and the Trump administration have each indicated that it 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.

Additionally, on May 30, 2018, the Trickett Wendler, Frank Mongiello, Jordan McLinn, and Matthew Bellina Right to Try Act of 2017, or the Right to Try Act, was signed into law. The law, among other things, provides a federal framework for certain patients to access certain investigational new drug products that have completed a Phase I clinical trial and that are undergoing investigation for FDA approval. Under certain circumstances, eligible patients can seek treatment without enrolling in clinical trials and without obtaining FDA permission under the FDA expanded access program. There is no obligation for a pharmaceutical manufacturer to make its drug products available to eligible patients as a result of the Right to Try Act.

In the future, there will likely continue to be proposals relating to the reform of the U.S. healthcare system, some of which could further limit coverage and reimbursement of drug products, including our product candidates.

Any reduction in reimbursement from Medicare or other government programs may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors. Our results of operations could be adversely affected by PPACA and by other health care reforms that may be enacted or adopted in the future.

 

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It may be difficult for us to profitably sell any future products that may be approved if coverage and reimbursement for these products is limited by government authorities and/or third-party payor policies.    In addition to any healthcare reform measures which may affect reimbursement, market acceptance and sales of our product candidates, if approved, will depend on, in part, the extent to which our products, and the procedures which utilize our products, will be covered by third-party payors, such as government health care programs, commercial insurance and managed care organizations. These third-party payors determine the extent to which new drugs, and the procedures which utilize new drugs, will be covered as a benefit under their plans and the level of reimbursement for any covered product and procedures utilizing such products. It is difficult to predict at this time what third-party payors will decide with respect to the coverage and reimbursement for our product candidates, and the procedures which utilize our product candidates.

A primary trend in the healthcare industry has been cost containment, including price controls, restrictions on coverage and reimbursement and requirements for substitution of generic products and/or biosimilars. Third-party payors decide which drugs, and procedures using such drugs, they will pay for and establish reimbursement and co-payment levels. Government and other third-party payors are increasingly challenging the prices charged for health care products and services, examining the cost effectiveness of drugs in addition to their safety and efficacy, and limiting or attempting to limit both coverage and the level of reimbursement for prescription drugs and the procedures which utilize prescription drugs. We cannot be sure that coverage will be available for our product candidates, and the procedures which utilize our product candidates, if approved, or, if coverage is available, the level of reimbursement.

There is significant uncertainty related to the insurance coverage and reimbursement of newly approved products, and the procedures which utilize such products. In the United States, the principal decisions about reimbursement for new medicines, and the procedures which utilize new medicines, are typically made by CMS, as CMS decides whether and to what extent a new medicine, and procedures which utilize a new medicine, will be covered and reimbursed under Medicare. Private payors may follow CMS, but have their own methods and approval processes for determining reimbursement for new medicines, and the procedures that utilize new medicines. It is difficult to predict what CMS or other payors will decide with respect to reimbursement for fundamentally novel products such as ours, as there is no body of established practices and precedents for these new products.

Reimbursement may impact the demand for, and/or the price of, any product for which we obtain marketing approval. Assuming we obtain coverage for a given product, or a procedure which utilizes a given product, by a third-party payor, the resulting reimbursement payment rates may not be adequate or may require co-payments that patients find unacceptably high. Patients who are prescribed medications and procedures for the treatment of their conditions, and their prescribing physicians, generally rely on third-party payors to reimburse all or part of the costs associated with those prescription drugs and procedures. Patients are unlikely to use our products, or agree to procedures utilizing our products, unless coverage is provided and reimbursement is adequate to cover all or a significant portion of the associated costs. Therefore, coverage and adequate reimbursement is critical to new product acceptance. Coverage decisions may depend upon clinical and economic standards that disfavor new drug products when more established or lower cost therapeutic alternatives are already available or subsequently become available. There may be significant delays in obtaining coverage and reimbursement for newly approved drugs, and the procedures which utilize newly approved drugs, and coverage may be more limited than the purposes for which such drug is approved by the U.S. FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities.

Moreover, eligibility for coverage and reimbursement does not imply that a drug will be paid for in all cases or at a rate that covers our costs, including research, development, manufacture, sale and distribution.

 

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We expect to experience pricing pressures in connection with the sale of any of our product candidates due to the trend toward managed healthcare, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations, and additional legislative changes. The downward pressure on healthcare costs in general, particularly prescription drugs, medical devices and surgical procedures and other treatments, has become very intense. As a result, increasingly high barriers are being erected to the successful commercialization of new products. Further, the adoption and implementation of any future governmental cost containment or other health reform initiative may result in additional downward pressure on the price that we may receive for any approved product. Reimbursement by a third-party payor may depend upon a number of factors including the third-party payor’s determination that use of a product is:

 

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a covered benefit under its health plan;

 

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safe, effective and medically necessary;

 

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appropriate for the specific patient;

 

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cost-effective; and

 

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neither experimental nor investigational.

Obtaining coverage and reimbursement approval for a product, or a procedure which utilizes a product, from a government or other third-party payor is a time-consuming and costly process that could require us to provide supporting scientific, clinical and cost effectiveness data for the use of our products, and the procedures which utilize our products, to the payor. Further, no uniform policy requirement for coverage and reimbursement for drug products, and procedures which utilize drug products, exists among third-party payors in the United States. Therefore, coverage and reimbursement for drug products, and the procedures which utilize drug products, can differ significantly from payor to payor. As a result, the coverage determination process may require us to provide scientific and clinical support for the use of our products to each payor separately, with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be applied consistently or obtained in the first instance. We may not be able to provide data sufficient to gain acceptance with respect to coverage and/or sufficient reimbursement levels. We cannot be sure that coverage or adequate reimbursement will be available for our product candidates, or the procedures which utilize our product candidates, if approved. Also, we cannot be sure that reimbursement amounts will not reduce the demand for, or the price of, our future products. If reimbursement is not available, or is available only to limited levels, we may not be able to commercialize our product candidates, or achieve profitably at all, even if approved.

Reimbursement may not be immediately available for our product candidates in China, which could diminish our sales or affect our profitability.    In China, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China or provincial or local human resources and social security authorities, together with other government authorities, review the inclusion or removal of drugs from China’s National Drug Catalog for Basic Medical Insurance, Work-related Injury Insurance and Maternity Insurance, or the National Reimbursement Drug List, or the NRDL, or provincial or local medical insurance catalogues for the National Medical Insurance Program regularly, and the tier under which a drug will be classified, both of which affect the amounts reimbursable to program participants for their purchases of those drugs. These determinations are made based on a number of factors, including price and efficacy.

We may be subject, directly or indirectly, to federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws, false claims laws and health information privacy and security laws. If we are unable to comply, or have not fully complied, with such laws, we could face substantial penalties.    Our current and future operations may be directly or indirectly through our relationships with healthcare providers, patients and other persons and entities, subject to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations that may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which

 

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we research, market, sell and distribute our products. In addition, we may be subject to patient privacy regulation by both the federal government and the states in which we conduct our business. The laws that may affect our ability to operate include:

The U.S. Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits, among other things, any person or entity from knowingly and willfully offering, paying, soliciting, receiving or providing any remuneration, directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, to induce or in return for purchasing, leasing, ordering or arranging for or recommending the purchase, lease or order of any item or service reimbursable, in whole or in part, under Medicare, Medicaid or other U.S. federal healthcare programs. The U.S. Anti-Kickback Statute has been interpreted to apply to arrangements between pharmaceutical manufacturers on the one hand and prescribers, purchasers, and formulary managers, among others, on the other. There are a number of statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors protecting some common activities from prosecution.

The U.S. federal false claims and civil monetary penalties laws, including the False Claims Act, or FCA, which prohibit any person or entity from, among other things, knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, a false, fictitious or fraudulent claim for payment to, or approval by, the U.S. federal government or knowingly making, using or causing to be made or used a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim to the U.S. federal government. As a result of a modification made by the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009, a claim includes “any request or demand” for money or property presented to the U.S. government. In addition, manufacturers can be held liable under the FCA even when they do not submit claims directly to government third-party payors if they are deemed to “cause” the submission of false or fraudulent claims. The FCA also permits a private individual acting as a “whistleblower” to bring actions on behalf of the federal government alleging violations of the FCA and to share in any monetary recovery. FCA liability is potentially significant in the healthcare industry because the statute provides for treble damages and mandatory penalties per false claim or statement. Government enforcement agencies and private whistleblowers have investigated pharmaceutical companies for or asserted liability under the FCA for a variety of alleged promotional and marketing activities, such as providing free product to customers with the expectation that the customers would bill federal programs for the product; providing consulting fees and other benefits to physicians to induce them to prescribe products; engaging in promotion for “off-label” uses; and submitting inflated best price information to the Medicaid Rebate Program.

HIPAA prohibits, among other actions, knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program, including private third-party payors, knowingly and willfully embezzling or stealing from a healthcare benefit program, willfully obstructing a criminal investigation of a healthcare offense, and knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact or making any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services.

The Physician Payments Sunshine Act, enacted as part of PPACA, imposes, among other things, annual reporting requirements for covered manufacturers for certain payments and “transfers of value” provided to physicians and teaching hospitals, as well as ownership and investment interests held by physicians and their immediate family members.

HIPAA, as amended by HITECH, and their respective implementing regulations, impose, among other things, specified requirements relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information held by covered entities, which include certain healthcare providers, health plans and healthcare clearinghouses, and their business associates, which include individuals or entities that perform services for covered entities that involve the creation, use, maintenance or disclosure of, individually identifiable health information. HITECH also created new tiers of civil monetary penalties, amended HIPAA to make civil and criminal penalties directly applicable to business associates, and gave state attorneys general new authority to file civil actions for damages or injunctions in U.S.

 

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federal courts to enforce the federal HIPAA laws and seek attorneys’ fees and costs associated with pursuing federal civil actions. In addition, state laws govern the privacy and security of health information in specified circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and may not have the same effect, thus complicating compliance efforts.

Many U.S. states and other foreign jurisdictions have analogous laws and regulations, such as state 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. In addition, certain states require drug manufacturers to report information related to payments and other transfers of value to physicians and other healthcare providers or marketing expenditures and certain states and local jurisdictions require the registration of pharmaceutical sales representatives.

Because of the breadth of these laws and the narrowness of the statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors available, it is possible that some of our business activities could be subject to challenge under one or more of such laws. In addition, recent health care reform legislation has strengthened these laws. For example, recent health care reform legislation, has among other things, amended the intent requirement of the U.S. Anti-Kickback Statute and criminal healthcare fraud statutes. A person or entity no longer needs to have actual knowledge of this statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation. Moreover, recent health care reform legislation provides that the government may assert that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the U.S. Anti-Kickback Statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the FCA.

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 do 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 were 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, possible exclusion from government funded healthcare programs, contractual damages, reputational harm, diminished profits and future earnings, additional reporting obligations and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or other agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws, and curtailment of our operations, any of which could substantially disrupt 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 criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from government funded healthcare programs.

We are subject to U.S. and foreign anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws with respect to our operations and non-compliance with such laws can subject us to criminal and/or civil liability and harm our business.    We are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, or the FCPA, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, and possibly other state and national anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws in countries in which we conduct activities. Anti-corruption laws are interpreted broadly and prohibit companies and their employees, agents, third-party intermediaries, joint venture partners and collaborators from authorizing, promising, offering, or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or benefits to recipients in the public or private sector. We engage third-party investigators, CROs, and other consultants to design and perform preclinical studies of our product candidates, and will do the same for any clinical trials. Also, once a product candidate has been approved and commercialized, we may engage third-party intermediaries to promote and sell our products abroad and/or to obtain necessary permits, licenses, and other regulatory approvals. We or our third-party intermediaries may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities. We can be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal

 

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activities of these third-party intermediaries, our employees, representatives, contractors, collaborators, partners, and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize or have actual knowledge of such activities.

Noncompliance with anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws could subject us to whistleblower complaints, investigations, sanctions, settlements, prosecution, other enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, significant fines, damages, other civil and criminal penalties or injunctions, suspension and/or debarment from contracting with certain persons, the loss of export privileges, reputational harm, adverse media coverage, and other collateral consequences. If any subpoenas, investigations, or other enforcement actions are launched, or governmental or other sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal litigation, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially harmed. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a materially significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and significant defense and compliance costs and other professional fees. In certain cases, enforcement authorities may even cause us to appoint an independent compliance monitor which can result in added costs and administrative burdens.

The incidence and prevalence for target patient populations of our product candidates are based on estimates and third-party sources. If the market opportunities for our product candidates are smaller than we estimate or if any approval that we obtain is based on a narrower definition of the patient population, our revenue and ability to achieve profitability might be materially and adversely affected.    Periodically, we make estimates regarding the incidence and prevalence of target patient populations for particular diseases based on various third-party sources and internally generated analysis and use such estimates in making decisions regarding our drug development strategy, including acquiring or in-licensing product candidates and determining indications on which to focus in preclinical or clinical trials.

These estimates may be inaccurate or based on imprecise data. For example, the total addressable market opportunity will depend on, among other things, acceptance of our drugs by the medical community and patient access, drug pricing and reimbursement. The number of patients in the addressable markets may turn out to be lower than expected, patients may not be otherwise amenable to treatment with our drugs, or new patients may become increasingly difficult to identify or gain access to, all of which may significantly harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Risks Related to our ADSs and This Offering

The price of our ADSs may be volatile and may fluctuate due to factors beyond our control.    The trading market for publicly traded emerging biopharmaceutical and drug discovery and development companies has been highly volatile and is likely to remain highly volatile in the future. The market price of our ADSs may fluctuate significantly due to a variety of factors, including:

 

•

positive or negative results from, or delays in, testing and clinical trials by us, collaborators or competitors;

 

•

technological innovations or commercial product introductions by us or competitors;

 

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changes in government regulations;

 

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changes in the structure of healthcare payment systems;

 

•

developments concerning proprietary rights, including patents and litigation matters;

 

•

public concern relating to the commercial value or safety of our product candidates;

 

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financing, collaborations or other corporate transactions;

 

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publication of research reports or comments by securities or industry analysts;

 

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•

general market conditions in the pharmaceutical industry or in the economy as a whole;

 

•

the loss of any of our key scientific or senior management personnel;

 

•

the perceived values of our ordinary shares trading on the TPEx and our ADSs trading on Nasdaq relative to one another;

 

•

sales of our ADSs or ordinary shares by us, our senior management and board members or holders of our ADSs or our ordinary shares in the future; or

 

•

other events and factors, many of which are beyond our control.

These and other market and industry factors may cause the market price and demand for our ADSs to fluctuate substantially, regardless of our actual operating performance, which may limit or prevent investors from readily selling their ADSs and may otherwise negatively affect the liquidity of our ADSs. 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. In the past, when the market price of a security has been volatile, holders of that security have sometimes instituted securities class action litigation against the issuer. If any of the holders of our ADSs were to bring such a lawsuit against us, we could incur substantial costs defending the lawsuit and the attention of our senior management would be diverted from the operation of our business. Any adverse determination in litigation could also subject us to significant liabilities.

Restrictions on the ability to deposit our ordinary shares into our American depositary receipt facility may adversely affect the liquidity of our ADSs.    The ability to deposit our ordinary shares into our American depositary receipt facility for the issuance of ADSs is restricted by Republic of China, or ROC, law, which may adversely affect the liquidity of our ADSs. Under current ROC law and the Deposit Agreement, no person or entity, including the holders of ADSs and us, may deposit our ordinary shares in our American depositary receipt facility for the issuance of ADRs without specific approval of the Financial Supervisory Commission, or FSC, unless:

 

(i)	we pay stock dividends on, or make a free distribution of, our ordinary shares;

 

(ii)	the ADS holder exercises pre-emptive rights in the event of capital increases for cash; or

 

(iii)

investors purchase our ordinary shares, directly or through the depositary, on the TPEx, and deliver our ordinary shares to the custodian for deposit into our American depositary receipt facility, or our existing shareholders deliver our ordinary shares to the custodian for deposit into our American depositary receipt facility.

With respect to (iii) above, the depositary may issue ADSs against the deposit of those shares only if the total number of ADSs outstanding following the deposit will not exceed the number of ADSs previously approved by the FSC, plus any ADSs issued pursuant to the events described in items (i) and (ii) above. Issuance of additional ADSs under item (iii) above will be permitted to the extent that a corresponding number of previous ADSs have been cancelled.

The price of our ADSs may be limited by the trading price of our ordinary shares on the TPEx.    Our ordinary shares have been listed on the TPEx since June 1, 2017 under the code “6497.” From May 4, 2018 through May 14, 2019, the closing price of our ordinary shares on the TPEx ranged from NT$49.85 per share to NT$20.25 per share (which would be approximately $1.60 per share to $0.65 per share, based on the exchange rate in effect as of May 14, 2019). During the same period, the closing price of our ADSs on The Nasdaq Global Market ranged from $10.24 per ADS to $2.86 per ADS. The TPEx sets certain limitations on the trading volatility of our ordinary shares and applicable ROC law requires the price at which our ADSs are issued in this offering to not be lower than 90% of the closing

 

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price of our ordinary shares on the pricing date of this offering or an average of closing prices a certain number of days prior to the pricing date of this offering. In addition, there is currently a ten percent limit on the daily price movement on the TPEx. As a result of these limitations, the potential increase in trading price of any ADSs that you may purchase in this offering may be materially limited based on the perceived value of our ordinary shares on the TPEx. Similarly, decreases in the trading price of our ordinary shares on the TPEx due to the perceptions of investors in that market, which may be different from your own, may impact the value of your investment.

The cross listing of our ordinary shares and our ADSs may adversely affect the liquidity and value of our ADSs.    The cross listing of our ordinary shares and our ADSs may dilute the liquidity of these securities in one or both markets and may adversely affect the development of an active trading market for our ADSs in the United States. The price of our ADSs could also be adversely affected by trading in our ordinary shares on the TPEx. In addition, currency fluctuations as between the New Taiwan dollar and U.S. dollar may have an adverse impact on the value of our ADSs.

We have incurred and will incur increased costs as a result of operating as a public company in the United States, and our senior management will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives and corporate governance practices.    Our ADSs began trading on The Nasdaq Global Market on May 4, 2018 under the trading symbol “ASLN”. As a U.S. public company, we have incurred significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur previously, and we will incur additional expenses after we no longer qualify as an “emerging growth company,” or EGC. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the listing requirements of The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, or Nasdaq, and other applicable securities rules and regulations impose various requirements on non-U.S. reporting public companies, including the establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and corporate governance practices. Our senior management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. For example, we expect that these rules and regulations may make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, which in turn could make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified senior management personnel or members for our board of directors.

However, these rules and regulations are often subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices.

Pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Section 404, we will be required to furnish a report by our senior management on our internal control over financial reporting and 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, 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 we will not be able to conclude, within the prescribed timeframe or at all, that our internal control over financial reporting is effective as required by

 

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Section 404. If we identify one or more material weaknesses, it could result in an adverse reaction in the financial markets due to a loss of confidence in the reliability of our financial statements.

You may face difficulties in protecting your interests, and your ability to protect your rights through U.S. courts may be limited, because we are incorporated under Cayman Islands law, we conduct substantially all of our operations and all of our directors and executive officers reside outside of the United States.    We are an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. Our corporate affairs are governed by our Sixth Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association, or our Articles, the Companies Law (2018 Revision) of the Cayman Islands and the common law of the Cayman Islands. The rights of shareholders to take action against the directors, actions by minority shareholders and the fiduciary duties of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from the common law of England and Wales, the decisions of whose courts are of persuasive authority, but are not binding, on a court in the Cayman Islands. Similarly, the rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary duties of our directors under Cayman Islands law are not as clearly established as they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a less developed body of securities laws than the United States, and some U.S. states, such as Delaware, have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law than the Cayman Islands. In addition, Cayman Islands companies do not have standing to sue before the federal court of the United States.

Shareholders of Cayman Islands exempted companies like us have no general rights under Cayman Islands law to inspect corporate records or to obtain copies of lists of shareholders of these companies. Although our shareholders are permitted by our Articles to request access to our books and records, our directors have discretion under our Articles to determine whether or not, and under what conditions, our corporate records may be inspected by our shareholders, but are not obliged to make them available to our shareholders. This may make it more difficult for you to obtain the information needed to establish any facts necessary for a shareholder motion or to solicit proxies from other shareholders in connection with a proxy contest.

Certain corporate governance practices in the Cayman Islands, which is our home country, differ significantly from requirements for companies incorporated in other jurisdictions such as the United States. To the extent we choose to follow home country practice with respect to corporate governance matters, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they otherwise would under rules and regulations applicable to U.S. domestic issuers.

As a result of all of the above, our public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests in the face of actions taken by management, members of the board of directors or controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a company incorporated in the United States. For a discussion of significant differences between the provisions of the Companies Law of the Cayman Islands and the laws applicable to companies incorporated in the United States and their shareholders, see “Description of Share Capital and Governing Documents—Material Differences in Corporate Law.”

Future sales, or the possibility of future sales, of a substantial number of our ADSs or ordinary shares could adversely affect the price of our ADSs.    Future sales of a substantial number of our ADSs or ordinary shares, or the perception that such sales will occur, could cause a decline in the market price of our ADSs. ADSs issued and sold in this offering may be resold in the U.S. public market immediately without restriction. A portion of our ordinary shares outstanding prior to the completion of this offering held by our directors, representatives of our entity directors and executive officers will be subject to the lock-up agreements described in “Ordinary Shares and ADSs Eligible for Future Sale” and “Underwriting.” If, after the end of such lock-up agreements, these shareholders sell substantial amounts

 

53

of our securities in the public markets, or the market perceives that such sales may occur, the market price of our ADSs and our ability to raise capital through an issue of equity securities in the future could be adversely affected.

If you purchase ADSs in this offering, you will suffer immediate dilution of your investment.    We expect the public offering price of our ADSs in this offering to be substantially higher than the as adjusted net tangible book value per ADS, and per underlying ordinary share, prior to this offering. Therefore, if you purchase ADSs in this offering, you will pay a price per ADS, and per underlying ordinary share, that substantially exceeds our net tangible book value per ADS, and per underlying ordinary share, after this offering. To the extent outstanding options are exercised for ordinary shares, you may experience further dilution. Based on the assumed public offering price of $         per ADS, you will experience immediate dilution of $         per ADS, representing the difference between our as adjusted net tangible book value per ADS after giving effect to this offering and the offering price. See “Dilution.”

We may sell additional equity or debt securities or enter into other financing arrangements to fund our operations, which may result in dilution to our shareholders and holders of our ADSs and impose restrictions on our business.    In order to raise additional funds to support our operations, we may sell additional equity or debt securities, which could adversely impact our existing shareholders and new investors participating in this offering, as well as our business. The sale of additional equity or debt securities, or a combination of both, would result in the issuance of additional shares capital and dilution to our shareholders and holders of our ADSs.

The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed payment obligations and could also result in certain restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, limitations on our ability to acquire, sell or license intellectual property rights and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. In the event that we enter into collaborations or licensing arrangements to raise capital, we may be required to accept unfavorable terms, including relinquishing or licensing to a third party on unfavorable terms our rights to technologies or product candidates that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves or potentially reserve for future potential arrangements when we might be able to achieve more favorable terms.

Because we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our ADSs or ordinary shares in the foreseeable future, capital appreciation, if any, will be your sole source of potential gains and you may never receive a return on your investment.    We have not paid cash dividends in the past on our ordinary shares. We intend to retain earnings, if any, for use in our business and do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, on our ADSs or ordinary shares will be your sole source of potential gains for the foreseeable future, and you will suffer a loss on your investment if you are unable to sell your ADSs or the underlying ordinary shares at or above the price you pay for our ADSs or ordinary shares. Investors seeking cash dividends should not purchase our ADSs in this offering.

We have broad discretion in the use of the net proceeds from this offering and may not use them effectively.    Our senior management will have broad discretion in the application of the net proceeds from this offering and could spend the proceeds in ways that do not improve our results of operations or enhance the value of our ADSs. The failure by our senior management to apply these funds effectively could result in financial losses, cause the price of our ADSs to decline and delay the development of our product candidates. Pending their use, we may invest the net proceeds from this offering in a manner that does not produce income or that loses value.

Purchasers of our ADSs may not have the same voting rights as the holders of our ordinary shares and may not receive voting materials in time to be able to exercise their right to vote.    As a holder of our ADSs, you will only be able to exercise the voting rights with respect to the underlying ordinary shares in

 

54

accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement. Under the deposit agreement, you must vote by giving voting instructions to the depositary. Upon receipt of your voting instructions, the depositary will try to vote the underlying ordinary shares in accordance with these instructions. You will not be able to directly exercise your right to vote with respect to the underlying shares unless you withdraw the shares. When a general meeting is convened, you may not receive sufficient advance notice to withdraw the shares underlying your ADSs to allow you to vote with respect to any specific matter. After we notify the depositary of the agenda for the shareholders’ meeting, the depositary will notify you of the upcoming vote and will arrange to deliver our voting materials to you once they are available. We have agreed to give the depositary at least 30 days’ prior notice of shareholder meetings. Nevertheless, we cannot assure you that you will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that you can instruct the depositary to vote your shares. In addition, the depositary and its agents are not responsible for failing to carry out voting instructions or for their manner of carrying out your voting instructions. This means that you may not be able to exercise your right to vote and you may have no legal remedy if the shares underlying your ADSs are not voted as you requested.

Except in limited circumstances, the depositary for our ADSs will give us a discretionary proxy to vote our ordinary shares underlying your ADSs if you do not vote at shareholders’ meetings, which could adversely affect your interests.    Under the deposit agreement for our ADSs, to the extent we have provided the depositary with at least 45 days’ notice of a proposed meeting, if voting instructions are not timely received by the depositary from you, you shall be deemed to have instructed the depositary to give a discretionary proxy to a person designated by us to vote the shares represented by your ADSs as desired. However, no such instruction shall be deemed given and no discretionary proxy shall be given (a) if we inform the depositary in writing that (i) we do not wish such proxy to be given, (ii) substantial opposition exists with respect to any agenda item for which the proxy would be given or (iii) the agenda item in question, if approved, would materially or adversely affect the rights of holders of shares and (b) unless we have provided the depositary with an opinion of our counsel to the effect that (a) the granting of such discretionary proxy does not subject the depositary to any reporting obligations in the Cayman Islands or the ROC, or by the ROC FSC, or TPEx, (b) the granting of such proxy will not result in a violation of the laws, rules, regulations or permits of the Cayman Islands, the ROC, the ROC FSC or TPEx, (c) the voting arrangement and deemed instruction will be given effect under the laws, rules, regulations and permits of the Cayman Islands, the ROC, the ROC FSC and TPEx and (d) the granting of such proxy will not under any circumstances result in the depositary being treated as the beneficial owner of ADSs under the laws, rules, regulations or permits of the Cayman Islands, the ROC, the ROC FSC and TPEx.

The effect of this discretionary proxy is that, if you fail to give voting instructions to the depositary as to how to vote the ordinary shares underlying your ADSs at any particular shareholders’ meeting, you cannot prevent our ordinary shares underlying your ADSs from being voted at that meeting, absent the situations described above, and it may make it more difficult for shareholders to influence our management. Holders of our ordinary shares are not subject to this discretionary proxy.

You may not be able to withdraw the underlying ordinary shares of our ADSs.    Pursuant to ROC law, an ADS holder who is a non-ROC person wishing to withdraw and hold deposited ordinary shares from the ADS facility is required to appoint an eligible agent in the ROC for filing tax returns and making tax payments, or a Tax Guarantor. Such Tax Guarantor will be required to meet the qualifications set by the Ministry of Finance of the ROC and will act as the guarantor of the withdrawing ADS holder’s tax payment obligations. In addition, subject to certain limited exceptions, under current ROC law, repatriation of profits by a non-ROC withdrawing ADS holder is subject to the submission of evidence by the withdrawing ADS holder of the appointment of a Tax Guarantor to, and approval thereof by, the ROC tax authority and of tax clearance certificates or evidentiary documents issued by the Tax Guarantor. We cannot provide any assurances that a withdrawing ADS holder will be able to appoint and obtain approval from the tax authority in a timely manner or at all.

 

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Pursuant to ROC law, an ADS holder who is not an ROC person or ROC entity wishing to present ADSs to the depositary for cancellation and withdrawal and holding of the Deposited Securities from the depositary receipt facility is required to register as a foreign investor with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, or TWSE, if the ADS holder has never been registered as foreign investor with the TWSE previously, for making investments in the ROC securities market prior to withdrawing and holding the underlying ordinary shares from the depositary receipts facility.

Additionally, pursuant to ROC law, such withdrawing ADS holder is required to appoint a local agent in the ROC to, on such ADS holder’s behalf, open a securities trading account with prior approval granted by the TWSE with a local securities brokerage firm (with qualification set by the FSC) and a bank account, pay ROC taxes, remit funds, exercise shareholder rights and perform such other functions as the ADS holder may designate upon such withdrawal. In addition, such withdrawing ADS holder is also required to appoint a custodian bank and open a custodian account to hold the securities and cash in safekeeping, make confirmations, settle trades and report all relevant information. Without making such appointment and the opening of such custodian account, the withdrawing ADS holder would be unable to hold or subsequently sell the deposited ordinary shares withdrawn from the ADR facility on the TPEx. The laws of the ROC applicable to the withdrawal of the underlying ordinary shares may change from time to time. We cannot provide any assurances that current law will remain in effect or that future changes of ROC law will not adversely affect the ability of ADS holders to withdraw deposited ordinary shares.

Purchasers of our ADSs may not receive distributions on our ordinary shares in the form of ADSs or any value for them if it is illegal or impractical to make them available to holders of ADSs.    The depositary for our ADSs has agreed to pay to purchasers of our ADSs the cash dividends or other distributions it or the custodian receives on our ordinary shares or other deposited securities after deducting its fees and expenses and certain taxes. Purchasers of our ADSs will receive these distributions in proportion to the number of our ordinary shares their ADSs represent. However, in accordance with the limitations set forth in the deposit agreement, it may be unlawful or impractical to make a distribution available to holders of ADSs. We have no obligation to take any other action to permit the distribution of our ADSs, ordinary shares, rights or anything else to holders of our ADSs. This means that purchasers of our ADSs may not receive the distributions we make on our ordinary shares or any value from them if it is unlawful or impractical to make them available to ADS holders. These restrictions may have a negative impact on the market value of our ADSs.

Purchasers of our ADSs may be subject to limitations on transfer of their ADSs.    ADSs are transferable on the books of the depositary. However, the depositary may close its transfer books at any time or from time to time when it deems expedient in connection with the performance of its duties. In addition, the depositary may refuse to deliver, transfer or register transfers of ADSs generally when our books or the books of the depositary are closed, or at any time if we or the depositary deems it advisable to do so because of any requirement of law or of any government or governmental body, or under any provision of the deposit agreement, or for any other reason in accordance with the terms of the deposit agreement. The rights of our shareholders may differ from the rights typically offered to shareholders of a U.S. corporation.

Our corporate affairs are governed by our Articles and by the laws governing Cayman Islands corporations and companies engaging in drug development, marketing and sales businesses, as well as by the common law of the Cayman Islands. Certain rights and responsibilities of our shareholders, ADS holders and members of our board of directors under Cayman law are different from those that apply to a Delaware corporation. For example, Directors of Cayman Islands exempted companies are required to observe certain fiduciary duties. These duties are owed to the Cayman Islands company and include the duty to act in the best interests of the company and the shareholders as a whole. However, the fiduciary duties of a director of a Cayman Islands exempted company may not be the same as the fiduciary duty of a director of a U.S. corporation. In addition, controlling shareholders of U.S. corporations owe fiduciary

 

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duties to minority shareholders, while shareholders (including controlling shareholders) of Cayman Islands companies owe no fiduciary duties to either to the company or to other shareholders. Further, the rights of our shareholders to bring shareholders’ suits against us or our board of directors under Cayman Islands law are much more limited than those of shareholders of a U.S. corporation. For example, under Cayman Islands law, a shareholder who wishes to bring a claim against a director would generally need to obtain permission from the courts to bring a derivative action, in the name of the company, against the director. This is because the director of a Cayman Islands exempted company owes duties to the company and not to individual shareholders. As a result, our shareholders may have more difficulty protecting their rights in connection with actions taken by our directors than they would as shareholders of a U.S. corporation. In addition, minority shareholders in a Cayman Islands exempted company have more limited rights than minority shareholders in a U.S. corporation in relation to mergers and similar transactions that the company may carry out. For example, if a merger under the Companies Law involving a Cayman Islands exempted company is approved by the requisite majority of shareholders, a dissenting minority shareholder would have the right to be paid the fair value of their shares (which, if not agreed between the parties, will be determined by the Cayman Islands court) if they follow the required procedures, subject to certain exceptions. Such dissenter rights differ substantially from the appraisal rights, which would ordinarily be available to dissenting shareholders of Delaware corporations. Further, if a takeover offer is made to the shareholders of a Cayman Islands exempted company and accepted by holders of 90% of the shares affected, the offeror may require the holders of the remaining shares to transfer such shares on the terms of the offer. An objection can be made to the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands but this is unlikely to succeed in the case of an offer which has been so approved unless there is evidence of fraud, bad faith or collusion. A minority shareholder in this scenario would have no rights comparable to the appraisal rights which would generally be available to a dissenting shareholder of a U.S. corporation in similar circumstances. See the section of this prospectus titled “Description of Share Capital and Governing Documents” for a description of the principal differences between the provisions of Cayman law applicable to us and the U.S. Delaware General Corporate Law relating to shareholders’ rights and protections.

We qualify as a foreign private issuer and, as a result, we are not subject to U.S. proxy rules and are subject to Exchange Act reporting obligations that permit less detailed and less frequent reporting than that of a U.S. domestic public company.    We report under the Exchange Act as a non-U.S. company with foreign private issuer status. Because we qualify as a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act, we are exempt from certain provisions of the Exchange Act that are applicable to U.S. domestic public companies, including (i) the sections of the Exchange Act regulating the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations in respect of a security registered under the Exchange Act; (ii) the sections of the Exchange Act requiring insiders to file public reports of their stock ownership and trading activities and liability for insiders who profit from trades made in a short period of time; and (iii) the rules under the Exchange Act requiring the filing with the SEC of quarterly reports on Form 10-Q containing unaudited financial and other specified information, or current reports on Form 8-K upon the occurrence of specified significant events. In addition, our officers, directors and principal shareholders are exempt from the reporting and “short-swing” profit recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act and the rules thereunder. Therefore, our shareholders may not know on a timely basis when our officers, directors and principal shareholders purchase or sell our ordinary shares or ADSs. In addition, foreign private issuers are not required to file their annual report on Form 20-F until the date that is four months after the end of each fiscal year, while U.S. domestic issuers that are accelerated filers are required to file their annual report on Form 10-K within 75 days after the end of each fiscal year. Foreign private issuers also are exempt from Regulation Fair Disclosure, aimed at preventing issuers from making selective disclosures of material information. As a result of the above, you may not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are not foreign private issuers.

 

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As a foreign private issuer, we are permitted to adopt certain home country practices in relation to corporate governance matters that differ significantly from Nasdaq corporate governance listing standards. These practices may afford less protection to shareholders than they would enjoy if we complied fully with corporate governance listing standards.    As a foreign private issuer, we are permitted to take advantage of certain provisions in the Nasdaq listing rules that allow us to follow ROC law for certain governance matters. Certain corporate governance practices in the ROC may differ significantly from corporate governance listing standards. When our ADSs are listed on The Nasdaq Global Market, we intend to continue to follow ROC corporate governance practices in lieu of certain corporate governance requirements of Nasdaq. See “Management—Foreign Private Issuer Exemption.” Therefore, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they otherwise would have under corporate governance listing standards applicable to U.S. domestic issuers.

We may lose our foreign private issuer status in the future, which could result in significant additional costs and expenses.    As discussed above, we are a foreign private issuer, and therefore, we are not required to comply with all of the periodic disclosure and current reporting requirements of the Exchange Act. The determination of foreign private issuer status is made annually on the last business day of an issuer’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter. We would lose our foreign private issuer status if, for example, more than 50% of our ordinary shares are directly or indirectly held by residents of the United States and we fail to meet additional requirements necessary to maintain our foreign private issuer status. If we lose our foreign private issuer status on this date, we will be required to file with the SEC periodic reports and registration statements on U.S. domestic issuer forms, which are more detailed and extensive than the forms available to a foreign private issuer. We will also have to mandatorily comply with U.S. federal proxy requirements, and our officers, directors and principal shareholders will become subject to the short-swing profit disclosure and recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act. In addition, we will lose our ability to rely upon exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements under the Nasdaq listing rules. As a U.S. listed public company that is not a foreign private issuer, we will incur significant additional legal, accounting and other expenses that we will not incur as a foreign private issuer, and accounting, reporting and other expenses in order to maintain a listing on a U.S. securities exchange. These rules and regulations could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors and more expensive to procure director and officer liability insurance.

We are an EGC and we cannot be certain if the reduced reporting requirements applicable to “emerging growth companies” will make our ADSs less attractive to investors.    We are an EGC as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as we continue to be an EGC, we may take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not EGCs, including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404, exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We may take advantage of these exemptions until we are no longer an EGC. We could be an EGC until December 31, 2023, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if the aggregate market value of our ADSs and ordinary shares held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the end of our second fiscal quarter before that time, in which case we would no longer be an EGC as of the following December 31st (the last day of our fiscal year). We cannot predict if investors will find our ADSs less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our ADSs less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our ADSs and the price of our ADSs may be more volatile.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, shareholders could lose confidence in our financial and other public reporting, which would harm our business and the trading price of our ADSs.    Effective internal controls over financial reporting are necessary for us to provide reliable financial

 

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reports and, together with adequate disclosure controls and procedures, are designed to prevent fraud. Any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. In addition, any testing by us conducted in connection with Section 404, or any subsequent testing by our independent registered public accounting firm, may reveal deficiencies in our internal controls over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses or that may require prospective or retroactive changes to our financial statements or identify other areas for further attention or improvement. Inadequate internal controls could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our ADSs.

Management will be required to assess the effectiveness of our internal controls annually, starting with our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2019. However, for as long as we are an EGC under the JOBS Act, our independent registered public accounting firm will not be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404. An independent assessment of the effectiveness of our internal controls could detect problems that our management’s assessment might not. Undetected material weaknesses in our internal controls could lead to financial statement restatements requiring us to incur the expense of remediation and could also result in an adverse reaction in the financial markets due to a loss of confidence in the reliability of our financial statements.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research, about our business, the price of our ADSs and our trading volume could decline.    The trading market for our ADSs depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If no or too few securities or industry analysts provide coverage or if one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our ADSs or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of our ADSs would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our ADSs could decrease, which might cause the price of our ADSs and trading volume to decline.

Our U.S. ADS Holders may suffer adverse tax consequences if we are characterized as a passive foreign investment company.    Generally, if for any taxable year (i) 75% or more of our gross income is passive income, or (ii) at least 50% of the average quarterly value of our assets are held for the production of, or produce, passive income, we would be characterized as a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, for U.S. federal income tax purposes. For purposes of the above calculations, a non-U.S. corporation that directly or indirectly owns at least 25% by value of the shares of another corporation is treated as if it held its proportionate share of the assets of the other corporation and received directly its proportionate share of the income of the other corporation. Passive income generally includes dividends, interest, rents, royalties and capital gains. Based on estimates of our gross income and gross assets (including tangible assets and intangible assets based on the anticipated market value of our ordinary shares), our intended use of proceeds of this offering, and the nature of our business, we believe we were a PFIC for the taxable year ending December 31, 2018 and we expect to be a PFIC for the current year and in future taxable years. There can be no assurance, however, regarding our PFIC status for any taxable year. If we are characterized as a PFIC, our U.S. shareholders may suffer adverse tax consequences, including having gains realized on the sale of our ordinary shares treated as ordinary income, rather than as capital gain, the loss of the preferential rate applicable to dividends received on our ordinary shares by individuals who are U.S. Holders (as defined in “Material Income Tax Considerations—Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations for U.S. Holders”), and having interest charges apply to distributions by us and the proceeds of share sales and having to comply with certain reporting requirements. Certain elections exist that may alleviate some of the adverse consequences of PFIC status and would result in an alternative treatment (such as mark-to-market treatment) of our ordinary shares; however, we do not intend to provide the information necessary for U.S. holders to make qualified electing fund elections if we are classified as a PFIC.

 

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Exchange Act, that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the words “may,” “might,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “objective,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue” and “ongoing,” or the negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology intended to identify statements about the future. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements and opinions contained in this prospectus are based upon information available to us as of the date of this prospectus and, while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. Forward-looking statements include statements about: 

 

•

the outcome, cost and timing of our product development activities and clinical trials;

 

•

our plans and expected timing with respect to regulatory filings and approvals;

 

•

our ability to fund our operations beyond this offering;

 

•

our plans to develop and commercialize our product candidates and expand our development pipeline;

 

•

our ability to enter into a transaction with respect to commercialization of our products and product candidates;

 

•

the size and growth potential of the markets for our product candidates, and our ability to serve those markets;

 

•

our sales and marketing strategies and plans;

 

•

potential market acceptance of our product candidates;

 

•

potential regulatory developments in the United States and foreign countries;

 

•

the performance of our third-party suppliers and manufacturers;

 

•

our ability to compete with other therapies that are or become available;

 

•

our expectations regarding the period during which we qualify as an EGC under the JOBS Act;

 

•

our use of the net proceeds from this offering;

 

•

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

 

•

our expectations regarding the terms of our patents and ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our product candidates.

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. As a result of these factors, we cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements in this prospectus will prove to be accurate. Furthermore, if our forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any

 

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other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame, or at all. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. We claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 for all forward-looking statements.

You should read this prospectus and the documents that we reference in this prospectus and have filed as exhibits to the registration statement, of which this prospectus is a part, completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.

 

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INDUSTRY AND MARKET DATA

This prospectus includes statistical and other industry and market data that we obtained from industry publications and research, surveys and studies conducted by third parties, as well as estimates by our management based on such data. The market data and estimates used in this prospectus involve a number of assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to such data and estimates. While we believe that the information from these industry publications, surveys and studies is reliable, the industry in which we operate is subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of important factors, including those described in the section titled “Risk Factors.” These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the estimates made by the independent parties and by us.

 

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TRADEMARKS, SERVICE MARKS AND TRADENAMES

The ASLAN Pharmaceuticals lion logo and other trademarks or service marks of ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Limited appearing in this prospectus are our property. Solely for convenience, the trademarks, service marks, logos and trade names referred to in this prospectus are without the ^® and ^™ symbols, but such references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights or the rights of the applicable licensors to these trademarks, service marks and trade names. This prospectus contains additional trademarks, service marks and trade names of others, which are the property of their respective owners. All trademarks, service marks and trade names appearing in this prospectus are, to our knowledge, the property of their respective owners. We do not intend our use or display of other companies’ trademarks, service marks, copyrights or trade names to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, any other companies.

 

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USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that the net proceeds from the sale of                      ADSs in this offering will be approximately $         million, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, based on the assumed public offering price of $         per ADS. If the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full, we estimate that the net proceeds to us from this offering will be approximately $         million, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed public offering price of $         per ADS would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering by $         million, assuming that the number of ADSs offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions. An increase (decrease) of 1.0 million in the number of ADSs we are offering would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering by $         million, assuming the assumed public offering price remains the same, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions.

We currently expect to use the net proceeds from this offering to fund the expansion cohorts for ASLAN003 in AML and the multiple ascending dose study for ASLAN004 in moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis patients. The remaining net proceeds, if any, are expected to fund new and other ongoing research and development activities, working capital and other general corporate purposes. While we anticipate seeking additional capital in the future through further equity offerings and/or debt borrowings, or through collaboration agreements, strategic alliances, licensing arrangements or marketing and distribution arrangements, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to raise additional capital on reasonable terms or at all.

This expected use of the net proceeds from this offering represents our intentions based upon our current plans and prevailing business conditions, which could change in the future as our plans and prevailing business conditions evolve. Predicting the cost necessary to develop product candidates can be difficult and the amounts and timing of our actual expenditures may vary significantly depending on numerous factors, including the progress of our development, the status of and results from clinical trials, any collaborations that we may enter into with third parties for our product candidates and any unforeseen cash needs. As a result, our management will retain broad discretion over the allocation of the net proceeds from this offering.

Pending the application of the net proceeds as described above, we plan to invest them in short-term, interest bearing obligations, investment-grade instruments or certificates of deposit.

 

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DIVIDEND POLICY

We have never declared or paid a dividend, and we do not anticipate declaring or paying dividends in the foreseeable future. We intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings to fund the development and expansion of our business.

The holders of our ordinary shares would be entitled to receive such dividends as may be declared by an ordinary resolution of our board of directors and is subject to our Articles and the Companies Law. Under Cayman Islands law, dividends may be paid only out of profits, which include net earnings and retained earnings undistributed in prior years, and out of share premium, a concept analogous to paid-in surplus in the United States. No dividend may be declared and paid unless our directors determine that immediately after the payment, we will be able to satisfy our liabilities as they become due in the ordinary course of business and we have funds lawfully available for such purpose. We are not permitted to pay any dividends or bonuses if (i) we do not have earnings or (ii) we have not yet covered our losses. Our Articles set out further detailed provisions dealing with how we may fund, create reserves for and pay dividends. See “Description of Share Capital and Governing Documents.”

Any dividends would be paid to the custodian of the ADSs and would be subject to further distribution to you as a beneficial owner of the underlying ordinary shares by the custodian.

 

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CAPITALIZATION

The following table sets forth our cash and cash equivalents and capitalization as of March 31, 2019 on:

 

•

an actual basis; and

 

•

an as adjusted basis to give effect to the sale of                      ADSs in this offering at the assumed public offering price of $         per ADS (based upon the closing price of our ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Market, on            , 2019) after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

You should read this information together with our unaudited interim consolidated financial statements appearing elsewhere in this prospectus and the information set forth under the sections titled “Selected Consolidated Financial Data,” “Use of Proceeds” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

 

		As of March 31, 2019
		Actual				As Adjusted
		(in thousands, except share and per share amounts)
Cash and cash equivalents		$	21,620			$
Long-term borrowings		$	14,140			$
Equity:
Ordinary shares, NT$10.00 par value per share, 500,000,000 shares authorized, 160,248,940 shares issued and outstanding, actual; shares issued and outstanding, as adjusted		$	51,627
Capital surplus		$	111,477
Accumulated deficit		($	136,813	)
Total equity		$	26,291
Total capitalization		$	40,431			$

Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed public offering price of $         per ADS (based upon the closing price of our ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Market, on May    , 2019) would increase (decrease) the as adjusted amount of each of cash and cash equivalents, total equity and total capitalization by $         million, assuming that the number of ADSs offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions. An increase (decrease) of 1.0 million in the number of ADSs offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) the as adjusted amount of each of cash and cash equivalents, total equity and total capitalization by $         million, assuming no change in the assumed public offering price per ADS as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus.

The number of ordinary shares outstanding in the table above does not include:

 

•

14,227,545 ordinary shares issuable on the exercise of share options outstanding as of March 31, 2019 under our 2014 Plan and 2017 Plan, at a weighted-average exercise price of $0.73 per ordinary share; and

 

•

174,167 ordinary shares authorized for issuance pursuant to future awards under our 2017 Plan as of March 31, 2019.

 

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DILUTION

If you invest in our ADSs in this offering, your interest will be immediately diluted to the extent of the difference between the portion of the public offering price per ADS in this offering attributable to each underlying ordinary share represented thereby and the net tangible book value per ordinary share after this offering. Dilution results from the fact that the portion of the public offering price per ADS attributable to each underlying ordinary share represented thereby is substantially in excess of the net tangible book value per ordinary share. As March 31, 2019, we had a historical net tangible book value of $3.2 million, or $0.02 per ordinary share and $0.1 per ADS. Our net tangible book value per ordinary share represents total tangible assets less total liabilities, all divided by the number of ordinary shares outstanding on March 31, 2019.

After giving effect to the sale of                      ADSs in this offering at the assumed public offering price of $         per ADS (based upon the closing price of our ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Market, on May    , 2019) and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, our as adjusted net tangible book value at March 31, 2019 would have been $         per ordinary share and $         per ADS. This represents an immediate increase in as adjusted net tangible book value of $         per ordinary share to existing investors and immediate dilution of $         per ordinary share and $         per ADS to new investors. The following table illustrates this dilution to new investors purchasing ADSs in this offering:

 

		Per Ordinary Share				Per ADS
Assumed public offering price per ADS		$				$
Net tangible book value per ordinary share and per ADS as of March 31, 2019			0.02				0.1
Increase in as adjusted net tangible book value per ordinary share and per ADS attributable to new investors purchasing ADSs in this offering
As adjusted net tangible book value per ordinary share and per ADS after this offering
Dilution per ordinary share and per ADS to new investors in this offering		$				$

Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed public offering price of $         per ADS (based upon the closing price of our ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Market, on May    , 2019) would increase (decrease) our as adjusted net tangible book value as of March 31, 2019 after this offering by approximately $         per ADS, and would increase (decrease) dilution to new investors by $         per ADS, assuming that the number of ADSs offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions. An increase (decrease) of 1.0 million ADSs in the number of ADSs we are offering would increase (decrease) our as adjusted net tangible book value as of March 31, 2019 after this offering by approximately $         per ADS, and would increase (decrease) dilution to new investors by approximately $         per ADS, assuming the assumed public offering price per ADS remains the same, and after deducting the estimate underwriting discounts and commissions. The as adjusted information is illustrative only, and we will adjust this information based on the actual public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing.

If the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional ADSs in full, the as adjusted net tangible book value per ADS after the offering would be $        , the increase in net tangible book value per ADS to existing shareholders would be $        , and the immediate dilution in net tangible book value per ADS to new investors in this offering would be $        .

 

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The table and discussion above is based on 160,248,940 ordinary shares outstanding as of March 31, 2019 and does not include:

 

•

14,227,545 ordinary shares issuable on the exercise of share options outstanding as of March 31, 2019 under our 2014 Plan and 2017 Plan, at a weighted-average exercise price of $0.73 per ordinary share; and

 

•

174,167 ordinary shares authorized for issuance pursuant to future awards under our 2017 Plan as of March 31, 2019.

To the extent that share options are issued under our equity incentive plans, or we issue additional ordinary shares in the future, there will be further dilution to new investors participating in this offering.

 

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SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA

The following tables summarize our selected consolidated financial data for the periods and as of the dates indicated. The selected consolidated statements of comprehensive loss data for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2017 and 2018 and the selected consolidated balance sheets data as of December 31, 2017 and 2018 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with IFRS, as issued by the IASB, and included elsewhere in this prospectus. The selected consolidated comprehensive loss statement data for the three months ended March 31, 2018 and March 31, 2019 and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of March 31, 2019 have been derived from our unaudited condensed interim consolidated financial statements, which are included elsewhere in this prospectus. The unaudited condensed interim consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with IFRS, as issued by the IASB, and on the same basis as the audited financial statements and reflect, in the opinion of management, all adjustments, which include only normal, recurring adjustments that are necessary for the fair statement of the financial information in those statements. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future and our results for the three months ended March 31, 2019 may not be indicative of results for the full year ended December 31, 2019. The following summary consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus.

 

		Year ended December 31,												Three months ended March 31,
		2016				2017				2018				2018				2019
														(unaudited)
		(in thousands, except share and per share data)
Selected Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss Data:
Net revenue		$	11,547			$	—			$	—			$	—			$	3,000
Cost of revenue			(125	)			—				—				—				(425	)
Operating expenses
General and administrative expenses			(6,956	)			(8,759	)			(10,514	)			(2,808	)			(2,256	)
Research and development expenses			(13,165	)			(30,381	)			(31,834	)			(5,623	)			(4,450	)
Loss from operations			(8,699	)			(39,140	)			(42,348	)			(8,431	)			(4,131	)
Non-operating income and expenses
Other income			—				—				187				—				—
Other gains and losses, net			127				(698	)			213				(262	)			(80	)
Finance costs			(524	)			(417	)			(492	)			(112	)			(199	)
Interest income			47				363				268				61				69
Total non-operating income (expenses)			(350	)			(752	)			176				(313	)			(210	)
Loss before income tax			(9,049	)			(39,892	)			(42,172	)			(8,744	)			(4,341	)
Income tax expense			—				—				(14	)			—				(3	)
Net loss			(9,049	)			(39,892	)			(42,186	)			(8,744	)			(4,344	)
Total comprehensive loss			(9,049	)			(39,892	)			(42,186	)			(8,744	)			(4,344	)
Net loss per share, basic and diluted			(0.09	)			(0.32	)			(0.28	)			(0.07	)			(0.03	)
Weighted-average shares used in calculating net loss per ordinary share, basic and diluted			105,027,040				124,424,960				149,739,242				130,128,940				160,248,940

 

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