Commitment and Contingencies: Legal Proceedings |
12 Months Ended |
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Dec. 31, 2022 | |
| Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] | |
| Commitment and Contingencies: Legal Proceedings | Commitment and Contingencies: Legal Proceedings
We record an estimate of a loss when the loss is considered probable and estimable. Where a liability is probable and there is a range of estimated loss and no amount in the range is more likely than any other number in the range, we record the minimum estimated liability related to the claim in accordance with ASC 450, Contingencies. As additional information becomes available, we assess the potential liability related to our pending litigation and revises our estimates. Revisions in our estimates of potential liability could materially impact our results of operations.
On October 31, 2019, we received three civil complaints filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio on behalf of several Indian tribes. The Northern District of Ohio is the Court that the Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation (“JPML”) has assigned more than one thousand civil cases which have been designated as a Multi-District Litigation (“MDL”) and captioned In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation. The allegations in these complaints focus on the activities of defendants other than the Company and no individualized factual allegations have been advanced against us in any of the three complaints. We reject all claims raised in the complaints and intend to vigorously defend these matters.
CyDex, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ligand, and Baxter Healthcare Corp. (“Baxter”) are parties to a license agreement relating to Ligand’s Captisol® technology and, more specifically, relating to Captisol®-enabled Nexterone® (amiodarone HCl premixed injection). CyDex contended that Baxter has not paid all of the royalties due to CyDex under the terms of the license agreement and Baxter contends that it has overpaid royalties for several years. On April 6, 2021, Baxter initiated an arbitration with AAA pursuant to the arbitration provision of the license agreement. On April 21, 2021, CyDex filed an answering statement and counterdemand. On December 2, 2021, Baxter filed an Amended Notice of Arbitration Demand seeking a declaration limiting the “royalty term” of the license agreement to “the later of i) the expiration of the licensed [p]atent; or ii) when there are no longer any CyDex patents listed in the Orange Book for [Nexterone®].” Baxter later clarified its position, and asserted that royalties should have ceased being due upon the May 4, 2022 expiry of CyDex’s U.S. Patent No. 6,869,939. The parties conducted a three-day arbitration hearing May 24-26, 2022. In a September 9, 2022 Final Award, the Tribunal ruled in CyDex’s favor by (1) denying Baxter’s request for a partial refund of previously paid royalties, (2) granting CyDex’s request for underpaid royalties, and (3) concluding that “[g]oing forward Baxter shall pay CyDex” a royalty consistent with CyDex’s construction of the license agreement until, at least, the March 13, 2029 expiry of CyDex’s U.S. Patent No. 7,635,773.
On April 22, 2022, Pfenex Inc. (“Pfenex”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Ligand, received a notice of alleged breach from Beijing Kangchen Biological Technology Co., Ltd. (“Kangchen”) with respect to a Development and License Agreement , dated April 18, 2018, between Pfenex and Kangchen (“License Agreement”) pertaining to the development and commercialization of teriparatide in certain Southeast Asian countries. The allegations in the notice focused on the activities of Pfenex and other parties. On June 16, 2022, we rejected all claims raised by Kangchen in the notice. On June 24, 2022, Kangchen served Pfenex a notice of termination of the License Agreement and demanded initiation of the dispute resolution process in accordance with the License Agreement. On June 29, 2022, we again rejected all claims raised by Kangchen in the notice of termination and agreed to engage in the applicable dispute resolution process, including good faith negotiations between the parties. On October 20, 2022, we agreed to make a single lump sum payment to Kangchen in connection with a termination agreement that, among other things, terminates the License Agreement and releases all claims between the parties arising from the License Agreement. The payment was recorded as general and administrative expense during the year ended December 31, 2022. A termination agreement between Pfenex and Kangchen went into effect in December 2022.
From time to time, we may also become subject to other legal proceedings or claims arising in the ordinary course of our business. We currently believe that none of the claims or actions pending against us is likely to have, individually or in the aggregate, a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. Given the unpredictability inherent in litigation, however, we cannot predict the outcome of these matters.
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