Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

License Agreement with Duke

v3.24.1.u1
License Agreement with Duke
3 Months Ended
Feb. 29, 2024
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
License Agreement with Duke

Note 12 – License Agreement with Duke

On February 23, 2021, the Company entered into a Patent and Technology License Agreement (the “Duke Agreement”) with Duke University ("Duke"), pursuant to which Duke has granted to the Company an exclusive license to make, have made, use, import, offer for sale, sell and otherwise commercially exploit (with the right to sublicense) certain licensed products and to practice certain licensed processes, and the exclusive right to use certain regulatory data and technical information in connection with such licensed patent rights, in the treatment, prevention, cure, reduction, mitigation or other management of certain diseases in humans, except, with regard to certain patent rights, in certain excluded fields of use and in certain territories, subject to Duke’s reserved rights to practice the licensed rights for all research, public service, internal (including clinical) and/or educational purposes. The Duke Agreement was amended pursuant to the First Amendment to License Agreement dated February 4, 2022 (the “First Duke Amendment”) and the Second Amendment to License Agreement dated February 17, 2023 (the “Second Duke Amendment”).

 

Duke has completed or is in the progress of completing a total of 19 FDA approved clinical trials related to the Duke License Agreement. The Company intends to fund additional clinical trials, as necessary, to provide the proof of efficacy that is required by the FDA to issue BLAs for some or all of the indications mentioned above.

 

In addition, Duke has provided its manufactured mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for one arm of a four arm, placebo controlled, multi-site, double blinded Phase 3 clinical trial, run by Emory University to treat osteoarthritis of the knee, in which cells from three different sources are compared to the current standard of care. The results did not show any benefit from any of the sources compared to the current standard of care.

 

The Company purchased a 56,000 square feet facility in Durham in which it plans to open the Cryo-Cell Institute for Cellular Therapies. Previously, the FDA granted Duke the right to treat certain patients with infusions of cord blood under its Expanded Access Program. In November 2023, Duke University transferred to the Company an Investigational New Drug (IND) relating to the use of umbilical cord blood to treat children with cerebral palsy. In February 2024, the Company submitted the protocol related to a Phase 3 clinical trial under this IND utilizing allogeneic umbilical cord blood to treat children with cerebral palsy and requested Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation.

 

The Duke Agreement extends until expiration of the last Royalty Term, unless sooner terminated as provided in the Agreement. Royalty Term generally means the period beginning on the first commercial sale of each licensed product or licensed process and ending fifteen (15) years thereafter. Upon expiration of the applicable Royalty Term with respect to a particular licensed product or licensed processes, the licenses and rights granted by Duke to the Company under the Agreement with respect to such product or process become fully paid-up, royalty-free, perpetual and irrevocable.

 

In accordance with the original Duke Agreement, the Company was required to pay Duke a license fee equal to $12,000,000, of which $10,000,000 has been paid to date and an additional $2,000,000 was due on February 23, 2023. In addition, during the Royalty Term, subject to certain minimum royalties, the Company is required to pay Duke royalties based on a portion of the net sales varying from 7% - 12.5% based on volume. The Company is also obligated to pay certain legal fees and expenses associated with related patents.

 

On February 17, 2023, Company entered into a Second Amendment to the License Agreement (the “Second Amendment”) with Duke, as previously disclosed in the Company’s Form 10-K filed on February 28, 2023. The Second Amendment changes the

license fee due to Duke. The final payment of $2,000,000 was due on February 23, 2023. The Second Amendment added a new milestone payment upon FDA approval of the first licensed product comprising cord tissue derived MSC (“ctMSC”) for autism spectrum disorder. The Second Amendment also added a new ctMSC milestone that the Company will open a manufacturing facility for the licensed product prior to the initiation of a Phase III clinical trial using ctMSC’s. As part of the Second Amendment, on March 3, 2023, the Company entered into the Clinical Study and Research Agreement (the “Research Agreement”) with Duke to provide funding to complete the Duke IMPACT Study ("the Study"). The Second Amendment allocated the $2,000,000 required payment toward the funding and completion of the Study. In consideration for the work to be performed under the Research Agreement, the Company is obligated to make a total of 14 payments of $187,407 commencing in March 2023 and a final payment of $187,400 upon the submission of a draft proposed publication for peer review and delivered to the Company of the completed IMPACT Study. Duke agreed this will be no later than September 30, 2024. The additional costs to be incurred above $2 million represent additional consideration payable to Duke under the Research Agreement. The nature of these costs is the outsourcing of funding for research and development (R&D) of the licensed product. The Data Safety Monitoring Board for the IMPACT Study recently has determined that the trial’s targeted accrual has been reached and consists of 137 patients.

Pursuant to the original Duke Agreement, unless the Duke Agreement is terminated or renegotiated as permitted per the Duke Agreement, the Company is also required to pay Duke minimum annual royalties beginning on the second anniversary of the effective date as follows:

Year 2: $500,000
Year 3: $1,000,000
Year 4: $2,500,000
Year 5 and each year thereafter during the term of this Agreement: $5,000,000

In addition, the Company is required to pay Duke certain milestone payments, as follows:

$2,000,000 upon initiation of the first Phase III clinical trial for an indication other than Autism Spectrum Disorder, for a licensed product comprising cord tissue (the "Autism Milestone Payment"); and
A number of shares of the Company’s common stock equal to the corresponding percentage of the Company’s fully-diluted equity ownership outstanding as of February 23, 2021 as follows:
(1)
5.0% upon execution of the Agreement;
(2)
2.5% upon cumulative net sales of licensed product and licensed process of $10,000,000;
(3)
2.5% upon cumulative net sales of licensed product and licensed process of $75,000,000;
(4)
2.5% at each of the following market cap of the Company (based on a rolling 30-day average closing market cap) triggers:
o
Equal to or greater than $300,000,000, provided such trigger occurs within 18 months of February 23, 2021; and
o
Equal to or greater than $500,000,000, provided such trigger occurs within 24 months of February 23, 2021.

The First Amendment changed the requirements of the Company with regard to the minimum annual royalties payable to Duke. As amended, the minimum annual royalties are as follows:

Year 3: $500,000
Year 4: $1,000,000
Year 5: $2,500,000
Year 6 and each year thereafter during the term of this Agreement: $5,000,000

The Amendment also changed the requirements of the Company to pay Duke certain milestone payments, as follows:

$2,000,000 two years after the first patient or subject is treated in the first Phase III clinical trial of a licensed product comprising cord tissue derived MSC for an indication other than Autism Spectrum Disorder.

 

During the first quarter of fiscal 2021, the Company capitalized $15,372,382 as a Duke Agreement which was considered to be an asset acquisition and which represented the costs to obtain the Duke Agreement, and also recorded a corresponding liability to Duke for the Duke Agreement. The costs that were capitalized as a Duke license agreement includes the present value of the $12,000,000 license fee, $3,585,172, or 409,734 shares, of the Company’s common stock transferred to Duke and certain acquisition costs. The Company is amortizing these costs over 16 years. As of the three months ended February 29, 2024 and February 28, 2023, the Company recorded $0 and $240,193, respectively, in amortization expense which is reflected in amortization expense on the accompanying consolidated statements of income.

 

During fiscal 2023, the Company recognized that there were indications of impairment of the assets associated with the Duke license agreement. The Company evaluated the triggering events that existed as of November 30, 2023, tested the asset group for recoverability and measured the long-lived asset impairment. During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, the results were received from a phase 2/3 trial to treat osteoarthritis of the knee conducted to compare the effectiveness of an injection of a corticosteroid control to mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) preparations from autologous bone marrow concentrate (BMAC), adipose derived stem cells in the form of Stromal Vascular Fraction (SVF), and third-party human mesenchymal stem cells manufactured from umbilical cord tissue at Duke University for the treatment of unilateral Knee Osteoarthritis (OA). No benefit was shown from any of the sources compared to the current standard of care. Given these results (that included the Duke MSCs to which the Company licensed the exclusive rights) and other factors, it was determined that the uncertain future cash flows from the Duke license agreement may not be enough to recover the carrying value of the asset resulting in a fully impaired asset. During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, the Company recorded an impairment charge of the full carrying value of $13,108,064.

 

Through this Duke Agreement, the Company intends to expand to a triad of core business units to include: (1) its cord blood bank and other storage services; (2) cord blood and cord tissue infusion clinic services in conjunction with the undertaking of cord blood and cord tissue clinical trials to obtain BLA approvals for new indications, and (3) biopharmaceutical manufacturing if BLA(s) are approved by the FDA. Due to equipment delivery delays, the Company is now projecting to open the Cryo-Cell Institute for Cellular Therapies and begin infusing patients during fiscal 2024.

 

The Company entered into a Master Services Agreement with Emmes Biopharma Services LLC ("Emmes") serving as the Company's contract research organization, to conduct a phase 3 clinical trial infusing allogeneic umbilical cord blood into children with cerebral palsy. In consideration for the services to be rendered by Emmes, the Company will make payments in accordance with the budget and payment scheduled outlined in the work order. The period of performance is November 1, 2023 through April 6, 2028. The total fees will be $6,352,291. Included in the total fees is a $100,000 payment due upon execution and a monthly management fee of $21,862 per month payable for 53 months commencing during the first quarter of 2024. As of the three months ended February 29, 2024 and February 28, 2023, the Company recorded clinical trial expenses of $94,099 and $0, respectively, and are reflected in research, development and related engineering expenses on the accompanying consolidated statements of income. The total cost of the trial is currently estimated at $20 million.