Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

License and Transfer Agreement

v3.5.0.2
License and Transfer Agreement
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2016
Accounting Changes and Error Corrections [Abstract]  
License and Transfer Agreement

12. License and Transfer Agreement

On April 18, 2016 the Company entered into a license and transfer agreement (the “Original Agreement”) with Enumeral Biomedical Holdings, Inc. (“Enumeral”), pursuant to which the Company acquired a non-exclusive worldwide license to use specified patent rights and know-how owned by Enumeral to research, develop and market fusion protein. As contemplated by the terms of the Original Agreement, the Company entered into a definitive license and transfer agreement (the “Definitive Agreement”) with Enumeral on June 6, 2016, to expand the scope of the Company’s option to license additional antibodies from Enumeral. Under the Definitive Agreement, Enumeral has granted Pieris options to license two additional undisclosed Enumeral antibodies (each, a “Subsequent Option”); the Subsequent Options expire on May 31, 2017. If Pieris licenses an additional antibody pursuant to a Subsequent Option, Pieris must pay, to Enumeral, an additional undisclosed option exercise payment; any resulting fusion protein products will be subject to royalties and development and sales milestones in the same amounts applicable to the fusion proteins consisting of an Enumeral’s PD-1 antibody linked to one or more Anticalin® proteins.

 

Under the terms of the Original Agreement, the Company agreed to pay Enumeral an upfront license fee of $250,000 upon signing in April 2016 and subsequently elected to pay a $750,000 maintenance fee in May 2016. The terms of the Definitive Agreement, were essentially unchanged from the Original Agreement, the Company has agreed to pay Enumeral development milestones up to an aggregate of $37.8 million and sales milestones up to an aggregate of $67.5 million. Consistent with the terms of the Original Agreement, the Company also agreed to pay Enumeral royalties within a range in the low to lower-middle single digits as a percentage of net sales depending on the amount of net sales in the applicable years. In the event that the Company is required to pay a license fee or royalty to any third party related to the licensed products, the royalty payment due to Enumeral shall be reduced by the amount of such third party fees or payments, up to 50% of the royalty payment for each calendar year due to Enumeral.

The term of the Definitive Agreement ends upon the expiration of the last to expire patent covered under the license. The Definitive Agreement may be terminated by the Company on 30 days’ notice and by Enumeral upon 60 days’ notice of a material breach by the Company (or 30 days with respect to a breach of payment obligations by the Company), provided that the Company has not cured such breach and dispute resolution procedures specified in the Agreement have been followed. The Agreement will also automatically terminate if the Company fails to make the maintenance fee payment described above.

All amounts paid related to the Agreement have been expensed as research and development expense as incurred. The Company incurred $0 and $1.0 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016.