Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Organization and Description of Business

v3.22.1
Organization and Description of Business
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2021
Organization and Description of Business  
Organization and Description of Business

FORTRESS BIOTECH, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements

1. Organization and Description of Business

Fortress Biotech, Inc. (“Fortress” or the “Company”) is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to acquiring, developing and commercializing pharmaceutical and biotechnology products and product candidates, which the Company does at the Fortress level, at its majority-owned and majority-controlled subsidiaries and joint ventures, and at entities the Company founded and in which it maintains significant minority ownership positions. Fortress has a talented and experienced business development team, comprising scientists, doctors and finance professionals, who identify and evaluate promising products and product candidates for potential acquisition by new or existing partner companies. Fortress through its partner companies has executed such arrangements in partnership with some of the world’s foremost universities, research institutes and pharmaceutical companies, including City of Hope National Medical Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, AstraZeneca plc and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Ltd.

Following the exclusive license or other acquisition of the intellectual property underpinning a product or product candidate, Fortress leverages its business, scientific, regulatory, legal and finance expertise to help the partners achieve their goals. Partner companies then assess a broad range of strategic arrangements to accelerate and provide additional funding to support research and development, including joint ventures, partnerships, out-licensings, and public and private financings; to date, four partner companies are publicly-traded, and three have consummated strategic partnerships with industry leaders Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and InvaGen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (a subsidiary of Cipla Limited) and Sentynl Therapeutics, Inc. (“Sentynl”). On October 6, 2021, AstraZeneca plc (“AstraZeneca”) (acquiror of Alexion) purchased 100% of our partner company Caelum Biosciences, Inc. (“Caelum”) for approximately $150 million upfront and up to $350 million in contingent regulatory and sales milestone payments.

Several of our partner companies possess licenses to product candidate intellectual property, including Aevitas Therapeutics, Inc. (“Aevitas”), Baergic Bio, Inc. (“Baergic”), Caelum, Cellvation, Inc. (“Cellvation”), Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc. (“Checkpoint”), Cyprium Therapeutics, Inc. (“Cyprium”), Helocyte, Inc. (“Helocyte”), Journey Medical Corporation (“Journey” or “JMC”), Mustang Bio, Inc. (“Mustang”) Oncogenuity, Inc. ("Oncogenuity"), and UR-1 Therapeutics, Inc. (“UR-1”).

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Since inception, the Company’s operations have been financed primarily through the sale of equity and debt securities, from the sale of partner companies, and the proceeds from the exercise of warrants and stock options. The Company has incurred losses from operations and negative cash flows from operating activities since inception and expects to continue to incur substantial losses for the next several years as it continues to fully develop and prepare regulatory filings and obtain regulatory approvals for its existing and new product candidates. The Company’s current cash and cash equivalents are sufficient to fund operations for at least the next 12 months. However, the Company will need to raise additional funding through strategic relationships, public or private equity or debt financings, sale of a partner companies, grants or other arrangements to develop and prepare regulatory filings and obtain regulatory approvals for the existing and new product candidates, fund operating losses, and, if deemed appropriate, establish or secure through third parties manufacturing for the potential products, sales and marketing capabilities.  If such funding is not available or not available on terms acceptable to the Company, the Company’s current development plans, and plans for expansion of its general and administrative infrastructure may be curtailed. The Company also has the ability, subject to limitations imposed by Rule 144 of the Securities Act of 1933 and other applicable laws and regulations, to raise money from the sale of common stock of the public companies in which it has ownership positions. In addition to the foregoing, the Company experienced minimal impact on its development timelines, revenue levels and its liquidity due to the worldwide spread of COVID-19.