v3.26.1
License Agreement
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2026
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
License Agreement
8.
License Agreements

 

Ascendant Health Sciences Ltd. License Agreement

On April 30, 2026, the Company entered into a License Agreement (the “License Agreement”) with Ascendant. Pursuant to the License Agreement and subject to certain rights retained by the Licensor, the Licensor granted the Company: (1) the exclusive and sublicensable rights to develop, manufacture, commercialize and otherwise exploit the Licensor’s anti-IgE monoclonal antibody known as Ascendant-221, which was formerly known as UB-221 (together with certain related molecules, the “Licensed Molecules”) and products containing a Licensed Molecule (collectively, the “Licensed Products”) throughout the world (except the mainland of China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan (together, the “Ascendant Territory”)) (such territory of the Company, the “Cue Territory”) for any and all uses; and (2) the non-exclusive and sublicensable rights to manufacture the Licensed Molecules and Licensed Products in the Ascendant Territory solely for the purposes of developing and commercializing the Licensed Molecules and Licensed Products in

the Cue Territory.

As consideration for the rights granted to the Company by the Licensor, the Company paid the Licensor $15.0 million as the upfront payment, and will pay up to an aggregate of $676.5 million in additional potential milestone payments, and tiered royalty payments (at percentages ranging from high single-digit to low double-digit) on future net sales of Licensed Products. The additional milestone payments include $5.0 million upon the completion of manufacturing technology transfer, $6.5 million upon the completion of data and know-how transfer, up to $205.0 million upon the achievement of specified development and regulatory milestone events, including upon receipt of threshold data from a specified Phase 2 clinical trial, and up to $460.0 million upon the achievement of specified commercial milestone events. In the event the Company grants a sublicense of its rights under the License Agreement within the first 18 months after the effective date of the License Agreement, certain sublicensing revenues received by the Company will be shared with Licensor at specified percentages between 20% and 40% for a period of up to 18 months after the effective date. In addition, in the event of a specified change of control transaction with respect to the Company within the first 18 months after the effective date of the License Agreement, certain milestone payments will accelerate, in an amount up to $215.0 million.

 

Under the License Agreement, royalty payments will be payable on a product-by-product and country-by-country basis outside of the Ascendant Territory during the period commencing on the first commercial sale and continuing until the later of: (a) the 10-year anniversary of the date of such first commercial sale; (b) the expiration of the relevant patent claims; and (c) the expiration of the relevant regulatory exclusivity. Subject to a certain floor, the Company’s royalty payments will be reduced by specified percentages for patent expiration, biosimilar entry, payments for third party intellectual property, compulsory sublicenses or drug pricing programs. The Company’s royalty payments are also subject to reduction in connection with royalty rates owed to an upstream academic licensor.

 

In connection with the execution of the License Agreement, on April 30, 2026, the Company and the Licensor also entered into a securities purchase agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”), pursuant to which the Company agreed to issue to the Licensor at an initial closing (the “Initial Closing”) pre-funded warrants (the “Initial Closing Pre-Funded Warrants” or the “Ascendant Pre-Funded Warrants”) to purchase up to 551,724 shares of common stock of the Company, as partial consideration for the license and rights granted under the License Agreement. The exercise price of the Initial Closing Pre-Funded Warrants is $0.001 per share. The Initial Closing occurred on May 4, 2026. Pursuant to the terms of the Purchase Agreement, and subject to and contingent upon the achievement of specified clinical and financial milestones (the “Top-Up Milestones”), the Company has agreed to issue to the Licensor at a second closing (the “Top-Up Closing”) the Top-Up Shares such that, when combined with the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the Initial Closing Pre-Funded Warrants (the "Initial Closing Pre-Funded Warrant Shares"), the Licensor will beneficially own a number of shares of common stock (directly or indirectly) equal to no less than 7.5% of the Outstanding Capital Stock (as defined in the Purchase Agreement) immediately following achievement of the final Top-Up Milestone; provided that the aggregate value of all such securities issued to the Licensor under the Purchase Agreement (determined by multiplying (x) the sum of the Top-Up Shares and the Licensor Warrant Shares (as defined below) by (y) the closing price of the common stock on the Nasdaq Stock Market on the date of achievement of the final Top-Up Milestone) will be no less than $15.0 million (the “Value Threshold”). If the dollar value of such securities exceeds the Value Threshold, the Purchase Agreement provides that the Licensor will be entitled to be issued all such securities at the Top-Up Closing with no cap on the aggregate dollar value of the issuable securities, except that the Company will not issue any Top-Up Shares to the Licensor to extent that such issuance would require approval of the Company’s stockholders in order to satisfy applicable listing rules of the Nasdaq Stock Market, including without limitation Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635, without first obtaining such stockholder approval (any such Top-Up Shares, the “Excess Shares”) and, in such event, the Company will instead issue to the Licensor pre-funded warrants to purchase the number of shares of common stock equal to the Excess Shares (the “Top-Up Pre-Funded Warrants”), which Top-Up Pre-Funded Warrants will only be exercisable following receipt of approval by the Company’s stockholders of the issuance of shares of common stock upon exercise of such Top-Up Pre-Funded Warrants (the “Top-Up Pre-Funded Warrant Shares”) in accordance with the applicable listing rules of the Nasdaq Stock Market, including Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635. “Licensor Warrant Shares” means the Initial Pre-Funded Warrant Shares and the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the Top-Up Pre-Funded Warrant Shares (as discussed above).

The Company accounted for the License Agreement and Purchase Agreement as a combined contract. The licenses and rights granted to the Company all pertain to in-process research and development ("IPR&D") assets as the underlying Licensed Products are still under development (in clinical trials). Since the acquired set does not meet the definition of a business, the purchase of the IPR&D assets was accounted for as an asset acquisition under ASC 805-50.

The initial cost of the IPR&D asset was equal to $35.1 million, which is comprised of the upfront cash payment of $15.0 million, the fair value of the Initial Closing Pre-Funded Warrants of $16.5 million, and the initial fair value of the contingently issuable Top-Up Shares of $3.65 million. As the IPR&D assets do not have alternative future uses, the initial cost of the IPR&D assets was expensed immediately.

As of June 30, 2026, the Company recognized a liability of $5.7 million related to the Top-Up Obligation, which is included in non-current liabilities in the accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheets. During the three and six months ended June 30, 2026, the Company recognized a $2.1 million loss from changes in the fair value of the Top-Up Obligation, which is included in other

income (expense), net in the accompanying condensed consolidated statements of operations. See discussion of Top-Up Shares in Note 3.

 

As the contingent consideration settled in cash are not accounted for as derivatives under ASU 2025-07, the contingent consideration will be recognized when probable and reasonably estimable. Contingent consideration related to (i) development milestones will be expensed as incurred under ASC 730, (ii) regulatory milestones will be capitalized as intangible asset(s) under ASC 350, and (iii) commercial milestones and royalties will be expensed as cost of goods sold as the underlying net sales of the Licensed Products occur.

 

Einstein License Agreement

 

On January 14, 2015, the Company entered into a license agreement, as amended and restated on July 31, 2017 and as further amended on October 30, 2018, January 13, 2024, and April 10, 2025 (the “Einstein License”), with Albert Einstein College of Medicine (“Einstein”) for certain patent rights relating to the Company’s core technology platform for the engineering of biologics to control T cell activity, precision, immune-modulatory drug product candidates, and two supporting technologies that enable the discovery of costimulatory signaling molecules (ligands) and T cell targeting peptides.

Pursuant to the April 2025 amendment, Einstein consented to the Company’s entry into the Collaboration and License Agreement (the “BI Collaboration and License Agreement”) with Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH (“BI”) and granted the Company the right to sublicense to BI. In addition, Einstein and the Company agreed to amend specified upstream payment obligations that may be owed to Einstein by the Company, solely in connection with the sublicense to BI.

Under the Einstein License, the Company holds an exclusive worldwide license, with the right to sublicense, import, make, have made, use, provide, offer to sell, and sell all products, processes and services that use the patents covered by the Einstein License, including certain technology received from Einstein relating thereto (the “Einstein Licensed Products”). Under the Einstein License, the Company is required to:

Pay royalties and amounts based on a certain percentage of proceeds, as defined in the Einstein License, from sales of Einstein Licensed Products and sublicense agreements.
Pay escalating annual maintenance fees, which are nonrefundable, but are creditable against the amount due to Einstein for royalties.
Make significant payments based upon the achievement of certain milestones, as defined in the Einstein License. Payments made upon achievement of milestones are nonrefundable and are not creditable against any other payment due to Einstein. At June 30, 2026, the Company had made aggregate payments totaling $3.89 million since inception with respect to achievement of these milestones.
Incur minimum product development costs until the first commercial sale of the first Einstein Licensed Product.

The Einstein License requires the Company to pay a percentage of sublicenses related to the Company’s patent rights for components of its core technology that is licensed from Einstein.

The Einstein License expires upon the expiration of the Company’s last obligation to make royalty payments to Einstein which may be due with respect to certain Einstein Licensed Products, unless terminated earlier under the provisions thereof. The Einstein License includes certain termination provisions if the Company fails to meet its obligations thereunder. The Company was in compliance with its obligations under the Einstein License at June 30, 2026 and December 31, 2025.

Pursuant to the Einstein License, the Company issued to Einstein 22,385 shares of the Company’s common stock in connection with the consummation of the initial public offering of its common stock on December 27, 2017.

The Company accounts for license fees incurred in connection with the Einstein License in accordance with ASC Topic 730, Research and Development. Please refer to Note 11 Collaboration Revenue.