APLS 2017 Annual Report

50 agreements with contract manufacturers or to do so on acceptable terms. Even if we are able to establish agreements with contract manufacturers, reliance on contract manufacturers entails additional risks, including: • manufacturing delays if our third-party contractors give greater priority to the supply of other products over our product candidates or otherwise do not satisfactorily perform according to the terms of the agreements between us and them, or if unforeseen events in the manufacturing process arise; • the possible termination or nonrenewal of agreements by our third-party contractors at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us; • the possible breach by the third-party contractors of our agreements with them; • the failure of third-party contractors to comply with applicable regulatory requirements; • the possible mislabeling of clinical supplies, potentially resulting in the wrong dose amounts being supplied or active drug or placebo not being properly identified; • the possibility of clinical supplies not being delivered to clinical sites on time, leading to clinical trial interruptions, or of drug supplies not being distributed to commercial vendors in a timely manner, resulting in lost sales; and • the possible misappropriation of our proprietary information, including our trade secrets and know-how. We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on a small number of third-party contract manufacturers to supply most of our supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients and required finished product for our preclinical studies and clinical trials. We do not have long-term supply agreements with any of these third parties. If any of our existing manufacturers should become unavailable to us for any reason, we may incur delays in identifying or qualifying replacements. We also rely on other third parties to store and distribute drug supplies for our clinical trials. Any performance failure on the part of our contract manufacturers or distributors could delay clinical development or marketing approval of our product candidates or commercialization of any resulting products, producing additional losses and depriving us of potential product revenue. For example, in the past we have experienced issues associated with the manufacturing process for APL-2 that have resulted in delays in the supply of APL-2. These delays resulted in us incurring additional costs and delays in our PNH development program. If we experience other issues or delays in the future, our development of APL-2 may be materially delayed and our business adversely affected. Any manufacturing problem, the loss of a contract manufacturer or any loss of storage could be disruptive to our operations, delay our clinical trials and, if our products are approved for sale, result in lost sales. Additionally, we rely on third parties to supply the raw materials needed to manufacture our product candidates. For example, one company currently produces most of the PEG that is used in pharmaceutical and drug development globally. PEG is a component of APL-2. If this supplier of PEG experiences manufacturing and supply problems with respect to PEG, then the manufacturers with whom we contract may have difficulty in procuring PEG for the supply and manufacture of APL-2. Any reliance on suppliers may involve several risks, including a potential inability to obtain critical materials and reduced control over production costs, delivery schedules, reliability and quality. Any unanticipated disruption to our contract manufacturing caused by problems at suppliers could delay shipment of our product candidates, increase our cost of goods sold and result in lost sales with respect to any approved products. If any of our product candidates are approved by any regulatory agency, we will need to enter into agreements with third-party contract manufacturers for the commercial production and distribution of those products. It may be difficult for us to reach agreement with a contract manufacturer on satisfactory terms or in a timely manner. In addition, we may face competition for access to manufacturing facilities as there are a limited number of contract manufacturers operating under cGMPs that can manufacture our product candidates. Consequently, we may not be able to reach agreement with third-party manufacturers on satisfactory terms, which could delay our commercialization efforts. Third-party manufacturers are required to comply with cGMPs and similar regulatory requirements outside the United States, such as the ICH. Facilities used by our third-party manufacturers must be approved by the FDA after we submit an NDA and before potential approval of the product candidate. Similar regulations apply to manufacturers of our product candidates for use or sale in foreign countries. We do not control the manufacturing process and are completely dependent on our third-party manufacturers for compliance with the applicable regulatory requirements for the manufacture of our product candidates. If our manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications or the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA and any applicable foreign regulatory authority, they will not be able to secure the applicable approval for their manufacturing facilities. If these facilities are not approved for commercial manufacture, we may need to find alternative manufacturing facilities, which could result in delays in obtaining approval for the applicable product candidate. In addition, our manufacturers are subject to ongoing periodic inspections by the FDA and corresponding state and foreign agencies for compliance with cGMPs and similar regulatory requirements both prior to and following the receipt of marketing approval for any of our product candidates. Some of these inspections may be unannounced. Failure by any of our manufacturers to