Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Organization and Description of Business

v3.24.1
Organization and Description of Business
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2023
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 focused on acquiring and advancing assets to enhance long-term value for shareholders through product revenue, equity holding and dividend and royalty revenue streams. Fortress works in concert with its extensive network of key opinion leaders to identify and evaluate promising products and product candidates for potential acquisition. The Company 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 (“COH” or “City of Hope”), Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (“St. Jude”), 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 (“Mayo Clinic”), 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 and subsidiary 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, sales transactions, and public and private financings. To date, four partner companies are publicly-traded, and three have consummated strategic partnerships with industry leaders, including AstraZeneca plc as successor-in-interest to Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“AstraZeneca”) and Sentynl Therapeutics, Inc. (“Sentynl”).

Our subsidiaries and partner companies that are pursuing development and/or commercialization of biopharmaceutical products and product candidates are: Avenue Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATXI, “Avenue”), Baergic Bio, Inc. (“Baergic”, a subsidiary of Avenue), Cellvation, Inc. (“Cellvation”), Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CKPT, “Checkpoint”), Cyprium Therapeutics, Inc. (“Cyprium”), Helocyte, Inc. (“Helocyte”), Journey Medical Corporation (Nasdaq: DERM, “Journey” or “JMC”), Mustang Bio, Inc. (Nasdaq: MBIO, “Mustang”), Oncogenuity, Inc. (“Oncogenuity”) and Urica Therapeutics, Inc. (“Urica”). Aevitas Therapeutics, Inc. (“Aevitas”) was a consolidated subsidiary company until the sale of its primary asset to 4D Molecular Therapeutics in April 2023.

As used throughout this filing, the words “we”, “us” and “our” may refer to Fortress individually, to one or more of its subsidiaries and/or partner companies, or to all such entities as a group, as dictated by context. Generally, “subsidiary” refers to a private Fortress subsidiary, “partner company” refers to a public Fortress subsidiary, and “partner” refers to an entity with whom one of the foregoing parties has a significant business relationship, such as an exclusive license or an ongoing product-related payment obligation. The context in which any such term is used throughout this document, however, may dictate a different construal from the foregoing.

Reverse Stock Split

On October 9, 2023, Fortress filed a Certificate of Amendment to its Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, as amended, to effect the 1-for-15 Reverse Stock Split of the Company’s shares of Common Stock (the “Reverse Stock Split”). The Reverse Stock Split was approved on August 10, 2023, by the Company’s Board of Directors and by the Company’s stockholders at a special meeting held on October 9, 2023. As a result of the Reverse Stock Split, every 15 shares of the Company’s pre-reverse split Common Stock was combined and reclassified as one share of Common Stock. The proportionate voting rights and other rights of common stockholders were not affected by the Reverse Stock Split, other than as the result of payment for fractional shares. No fractional shares were issued in connection with the Reverse Stock Split. Stockholders who would otherwise have held a fractional share of Common Stock received a cash payment in lieu thereof. In addition, there was no change to the authorized capital of the Company as a result of the reverse Stock Split and the number of authorized shares of common stock remained 200,000,000.

All share and per share information has been retroactively adjusted to give effect to the Reverse Stock Split for all periods presented. Proportionate adjustments were made to the per share exercise price and/or the number of shares issuable upon the exercise or vesting of all stock options, restricted stock and warrants outstanding at October 10, 2023, which resulted in a proportional decrease in the number of shares of the Company’s common stock reserved for issuance upon exercise or vesting of such stock options, restricted stock and warrants, and, in the case of stock options and warrants, a proportional increase in the exercise price of all such stock options and warrants.

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 subsidiaries/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 parent Company’s current cash and cash equivalents of $40.6 million are sufficient to fund the parent entity and private subsidiary 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. Fortress 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.