Exhibit
10.14
EXCLUSIVE LICENSE
AGREEMENT
THIS EXCLUSIVE LICENSE AGREEMENT
(the "Agreement"), is entered into
as of the first day of November 2007 (the "Effective Date"), by and
among Institut Gustave Roussy, a private cancer research and
treatment non-profit making center incorporated in the Republic of
France ("IGR"), IGR&D, S.A., a company
incorporated in the Republic of France, Creteil (societe anonyme au
capital de 200 200 euro, immatriculee au Registre du Commerce et
des Societes de Creteil sous le numero B 432 439 776) and whose
registered office is 39, rue Camille Desmoulins – 94805
VILLEJUIF Cedex ("IGR&D"), represented by Isabelle Pelletier
Bressac, managing director (hereafter "IGR&D"), and Omnimmune
Corp., a Texas corporation located at 4600 Post Oak Place, Suite
352, Houston, Texas 77027, U.S.A. (hereinafter
"Omnimmune"). IGR&D and Omnimmune may also be
hereinafter jointly referred to as the "Parties" and individually
referred to as the "Party."
WHEREAS, IGR is the sole and exclusive owner of the
Inventions (as defined below);
WHEREAS, Omnimmune is interested in exploiting and
commercializing the Inventions, which relate to monoclonal
antibodies, cell lines, genetic sequences and gene-based products
that target and are related to a hormone called human
chorionic gonadotropin (hCG);
WHEREAS, IGR has granted all of its right, title and
interest to the Invention to IGR&D, its technology transfer
Affiliate, meaning that IGR&D is duly authorized to negotiate
and to license the rights under the Licensed Patents;
and
WHEREAS, Omnimmune desires, and IGR&D has agreed to
license the rights under the Licensed Patents pursuant to the terms
of this Agreement.
NOW, THEREFORE , in consideration of the mutual promises
contained herein and other good and valuable consideration, the
receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged, and with
the intent to be legally bound hereby, the Parties hereto agree as
follows:
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Affiliate shall mean, with respect to a particular
Party, a person, corporation, partnership, or other entity that
controls, is controlled by or is under common control with such
Party. For the purposes of the definition, the word "control"
(including, with correlative meaning, the terms "controlled by" or
"under the common control with") means the actual power, either
directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, to
direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of
such entity, whether by the ownership of at least fifty percent
(50%) of the voting stock of such entity, or by contract or
otherwise.
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Confidential
Information shall
mean all confidential or proprietary materials or information
designated as such in writing by the party disclosing such
information (the "Disclosing Party"), whether by letter or by the
use of an appropriate proprietary stamp or legend, prior to or at
the time any confidential or proprietary materials or information
is disclosed by Disclosing Party to the receiving party (the
"Recipient"). Notwithstanding the foregoing, information
or materials which are orally or visually disclosed to Recipient by
Disclosing Party, or are disclosed in writing or other tangible
form without an appropriate letter, proprietary stamp or legend,
shall constitute Confidential Information if Disclosing Party,
within thirty (30) days after such disclosure, delivers to
Recipient a written document or documents describing such
information or materials and referencing the place and date of such
oral, visual or written or other tangible disclosure, and the names
of the employees or officers of Recipient to whom such disclosure
was made.
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Designative
Representatives shall
mean employees, consultants and advisors of the Parties or any
Affiliate thereof to whom Confidential Information is disclosed
only on a “need-to-know” basis and who are directed and
required to both maintain the disclosed Confidential Information in
strict confidence and exclusively use such Confidential Information
solely for the purposes expressly permitted under this
Agreement.
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Field shall mean all fields of use.
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First
Commercial Sale shall
mean the first sale of a Licensed Product by Omnimmune or an
Affiliate or sublicensee of Omnimmune to a Third Party in a country
following regulatory approval of such Licensed Product in that
country or, if no such regulatory approval or similar marketing
approval is required, the date upon which such Licensed Product is
first commercially launched in such country.
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IND shall mean an application submitted to a
regulatory authority to initiate human clinical trials, including
(1) an Investigational New Drug application or any successor
application or procedure filed with the FDA or any foreign
equivalent thereof, and (2) all supplements and amendments that may
be filed with respect to the foregoing.
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In
Vitro Diagnostic
510(k) shall mean a
premarket notification submission to the United States ("US") Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) or similar governmental agency in
jurisdictions other than the US. The submission must
provide evidence that the device is accurate, safe, effective and
substantially equivalent to a device legally marketed in the United
States.
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In
Vitro Diagnostic
Clinical Study shall mean
in order to demonstrate clinical use as an aid in cancer detection,
evaluations of hCG antibodies, hCG genes or gene products to
demonstrate that hCG as a tumor marker is a significant indicator
of the presence of cancerous cells.
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In
Vitro Diagnostic
Compilation and Submission of a 510(k) shall mean a premarket notification or
application submitted to the FDA or similar governmental agency in
jurisdictions other than the US, the purpose of which is to
demonstrate that the medical device to be marketed is substantially
equivalent (SE) to a legally marketed device that was or is
currently on the U.S. market. The manufacturer may not
place their device into U.S. commerce until they receive a
marketing clearance/SE letter from the FDA.
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Improvements shall mean any improvement, addition,
enhancement, modification, development, invention, alteration
and/or technical advance or other discovery, whether patentable or
not, the exploitation of which is dependent on or would infringe
(but for a license thereto by IGR or IGR&D (as the case may
be)) at least one Valid Claim contained in the Licensed
Patents.
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Licensed
Information shall mean
know-how, research and development, analyses, notes and other such
records, procedures, assay and other methods, formulae, indices,
techniques, drawings, improvements, software code, algorithms, data
management or interpretive systems, processes, protocols, genetic
or other libraries, designs, concepts, models, inventions,
discoveries, copyrights, trade secrets and other intellectual
property, whether proprietary or not, including, without
limitation, data generated in pre-clinical and clinical studies,
relating to the Licensed Technology, along with any and all
documents and other records (electronic or otherwise) relating
thereto, including, without limitation, any and all results of
experiments, clinical trials and studies relating to
the claims made in the Licensed Patents, and owned by IGR or any
Affiliate thereof or to which IGR or any Affiliate thereof may have
any rights of use.
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Licensed
Material shall mean the
tangible or physical materials necessary for the effective exercise
of the Licensed Patents or any other uses and such other materials
as are routinely produced through use of the original materials,
including, without limitation, the materials listed on Attachment A
hereto and any and all other cell lines, samples, primers,
monoclonal antibodies, reagents, DNA or RNA replicated from
isolated DNA or RNA, recombinant proteins produced through use of
isolated DNA or RNA, substances routinely purified from a source
material included in the original materials (such as recombinant
proteins isolated from a cell extract or supernatant by
non-proprietary affinity purification methods) and any other
materials relating to the Licensed Patents, together with any
progeny, mutants and unmodified derivatives thereof, and owned by
IGR&D or any Affiliate thereof or to which IGR&D or any
Affiliate thereof may have any rights of use.
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Licensed
Patents shall mean the
following United States patents: US 6194154 entitled
“Malignant human cell transformation detection method”
claiming the priority date March 4, 1996, from the French patent
application FR9602683, and US 6514708 entitled “Process for
detecting the malignant transformation of human cells”
claiming the priority date March 4, 1996, from the French patent
application FR9602683 (the “Original Licensed
Patents”), and any and all patent applications and patents
issued thereon in connection with any and all Improvements,
and
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(1) all
continuations, divisions, continuations-in-part, reissues,
re-examinations, and extensions thereof, and any patents issuing
therefrom that are owned or controlled, in whole or in part, by
IGR, including, without limitation, any and all provisional patent
applications and Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) patent
applications, all divisions and continuations of these
applications, all patents issuing from such applications,
divisions, and continuations, and any reissues, reexaminations, and
extensions of all such patents;
(2) to the
extent that the following contain one or more claims directed to
that described in subsection (1) immediately
above: (i) continuations-in-part of (1) above;
(ii) all divisions and continuations of these
continuations-in-part; (iii) all patents issuing from such
continuations-in-part, divisions, and continuations; and
(iv) any reissues, reexaminations, and extensions of all such
patents; and
(3) to the
extent that the following contain one or more claims directed to
that described in subsection (1) immediately above: all
counterpart foreign applications and patents related to that
described in subsections (1) and (2) above, including
those listed in Appendix A.
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Licensed
Process shall mean any
process, service, formulae, algorithm, data management or other
systems, methodology or similar capability that is covered in whole
or in part by an issued, unexpired claim or a pending claim
contained in the Licensed Patents, including, without limitation,
the process or methodology for detecting malignant transformation
of human cells and its applications for diagnosing and monitoring
cancer patients and for developing cancer prognosis.
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Licensed
Product shall mean any
product or part thereof that (1) is covered in whole or in part by
an issued, unexpired claim or a pending claim contained in the
Licensed Patents in the country in which any such product or part
thereof is made, used or sold; (2) is manufactured by using a
process that is covered in whole or in part by an issued, unexpired
claim or a pending claim contained in the Licensed Patents, in any
country in which any such process is used or in which any such
product is used or sold or (3) is developed or manufactured from
the Licensed Material or Licensed Information, but which is not
covered under clauses (1) and (2) above.
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Licensed
Technology shall
mean the Licensed Patents, Licensed Information and Licensed
Materials, along with the Licensed Products and Licensed Processes,
and any and all Improvements thereon.
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NDA shall mean an application submitted to a
regulatory authority for marketing approval of a product, including
(1) a New Drug Application, Product License Application or
Biologics License Application filed with the FDA or any successor
applications or procedures, or any foreign equivalent thereof, and
(2) all supplements and amendments that may be filed with respect
to the foregoing.
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Net Sales shall mean with respect to the Licensed
Technology, the gross revenue received by Omnimmune or its
Affiliates (in the case where any such Affiliate is not a
sublicensee) for the sale of the Licensed Products or
Licensed Processes during the term of this Agreement to a
Third Party, less allowances for the following items:
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(1) trade,
quantity and cash discounts actually allowed;
(2) discounts,
refunds, rebates, charge backs, retroactive price adjustments, and
any other allowances actually granted which effectively reduce the
net selling price;
(3) product
returns and allowances actually granted;
(4) any tax,
tariff or duty imposed on the production, sale, transportation,
delivery or use of the product (excluding federal, state or local
taxes based on income);
(5) freight,
postage, shipping, transportation, customs duties, excises and
insurance charges actually allowed or paid for delivery of Licensed
Products, to the extent billed; and
(6) a reasonable reserve for bad
debts accrued in accordance with Omnimmune's standard accounting
practices applied consistently across its business.
For the
avoidance of doubt, Net Sales (or performance, as the case may be)
of Licensed Technology shall not include Transfer Pricing Amounts.
Net Sales for Licensed Products and Licensed
Processes sold by Omnimmune or its Affiliate(s) as a unit in
conjunction with other licensed processes or licensed
products will be determined pro rata in accordance with the
respective stand-alone price or value of such licensed products
and/or licensed processes.
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Phase I
Study shall mean a study
of a product in human volunteers or patients, the purpose of which
is the preliminary determination of safety and tolerability of a
dosing regime and for which there are no primary endpoints (as
recognized by FDA) in the protocol relating to efficacy.
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Phase II
Study shall mean (1) a
dose exploration, dose response, duration of effect, kinetics,
dynamic relationship or preliminary efficacy and safety study of a
product in the target patient population, or (2) a controlled dose
ranging clinical trial to evaluate further the efficacy and safety
of a product in the target patient population and to define the
optimal dosing regimen.
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Phase III
Study shall mean a
controlled pivotal clinical study of a product that is
prospectively designed to demonstrate statistically whether such
product is effective and safe for use in a particular indication in
a manner sufficient to obtain regulatory approval to market such
product.
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Sublicense
Revenue shall mean,
except as otherwise provided herein, all amounts actually received
by Omnimmune or any Affiliate thereof (if such Affiliate is the
sublicensor under a sublicense) from a sublicensee on account of
the sublicensing of all or any part of the Licensed Technology,
including, without limitation, all sublicense fees, royalties,
milestone payments and other fees or payments; provided ,
however , that Sublicense Revenue shall not include any
amounts constituting (1) bona fide research and development
funding, such as NIH or other grants, directly relating to
potential Licensed Products or Licensed Processes, as reflected in
the recipient's books and records in accordance with generally
accepted accounting principles, including allocations for overhead
and general and administrative costs, and (2) amounts
reimbursed by a Third Party for payments for bona fide research and
development activities directly relating to potential Licensed
Products or Licensed Processes, as reflected in the recipient's
books and records in accordance with generally accepted accounting
principles including allocations for overhead and general and
administrative costs.
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Territory shall mean worldwide.
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Third
Party shall mean any entity other than the Parties to
this Agreement and their respective Affiliates.
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Transfer
Pricing Amounts shall
mean prices used in the transfer of materials between units or
Affiliates or Sublicensees of the same company, at cost or cost
plus transportation costs and only if this transfer does not result
in a consumption, destruction or loss of activity of the Licensed
Product.
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Valid Claim shall mean a claim of any pending, or issued and
unexpired Licensed Patent which shall not have been withdrawn,
canceled, or disclaimed, nor held invalid by a court of competent
jurisdiction in any unappealed or unappealable decision (after all
such statutes of limitation for such appeal have run) in the
country where the product or process was made, used or sold by
Licensee or its Affiliates.
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Exclusive
License . Subject to the terms and conditions
of this Agreement, IGR&D grants to Omnimmune and any Affiliate
thereof, an exclusive license in the Territory for the term of this
Agreement to use the Licensed Patents, Licensed Material and
Licensed Information (along with Improvements thereon), directly
and indirectly, to invent, characterize, select, discover, make,
develop, manufacture, use, sell, rent, lease, distribute, import,
export or otherwise use the Licensed Products, and to practice and
permit the practice of the Licensed Processes in the Field, with
rights to sublicense to Third Parties.
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Representations and Warranties
. Each of IGR and
IGR&D represents and warrants that, except as otherwise
provided in this Agreement, (1) it has not transferred by
license or otherwise any rights in the Licensed Technology to any
Person, (2) that each has the power and authority to enter into,
deliver and perform its obligations under this Agreement, and
(3) it has not knowingly taken any action or omitted to take
any action that would result in the invalidity, reduction in scope
or abandonment of any of the Licensed Patents. Each of
IGR and IGR&D further covenants that it will not knowingly or
intentionally take or omit to take any of the actions described in
the immediately preceding sentence.
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Access to
Licensed Information and Licensed Material . During the term of this Agreement,
each of IGR and IGR&D, as applicable, shall provide as soon as
reasonably practicable, but in no event later than ten (10)
business days following the Effective Date, Omnimmune with (1) all
Licensed Information and Licensed Materials, and (2) a reasonable
opportunity to discuss the Invention with IGR's research
personnel. Each of IGR and IGR&D shall have a
continuing obligation during the term of this Agreement to
supplement such disclosures to Omnimmune with current information
and materials relating directly to the Licensed Patents, including
any Improvements to Licensed Patents. Omnimmune shall
provide each of IGR and IGR&D with a Federal Express account
number or an account number for another courier service, so that
IGR or IGR&D, as applicable, may ship the Licensed Material to
Omnimmune.
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Sublicensing
Rights . For
the term of this Agreement, IGR&D grants to Omnimmune the right
to grant sublicenses of the Licensed Technology to Third Parties in
the Field and throughout the Territory; provided ,
however , that (1) the sublicensee shall have agreed
that any right granted thereto pursuant to this Subsection shall be
subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, including,
without limitation, Section 16(d) below; (2) Omnimmune will provide
promptly IGR&D with information of any grant of any such
sublicense and will provide to IGR&D, upon IGR&D’s
request, a copy of any sublicense agreement; provided, that
Omnimmune's obligation to provide a copy of any such sublicense
shall be subject to applicable confidentiality obligations of
Omnimmune, and any sublicense provided to IGR&D shall
constitute Omnimmune Confidential Information; and (3) no such
sublicense shall relieve Omnimmune of its obligations under this
Agreement.
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Royalties
and Other Payments .
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License Fee
Upfront Payment . A one-time nonrefundable and
non-creditable license fee of one hundred twenty-five thousand
euro (125,000€) as follows:
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(1) Twenty-five
thousand euro (25,000€) shall be paid upon and coincident
with the Effective Date;
(2) Fifty
thousand euro (50,000€) shall be paid upon the first
anniversary following the Effective Date; and
The balance of
fifty thousand euro (50,000€) shall be paid upon the second
anniversary of the Effective Date.
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License
Maintenance Fees . An annual license maintenance fees
according to the schedule below:
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(1) Ten
thousand euro (10,000€) one (1) year from the execution of
this Agreement;
(2) Twenty
thousand euro (20,000€) two (2) years from the execution of
this Agreement;
(3) Thirty-five
thousand euro (35,000€) three (3) years from the execution of
this Agreement;
(4) Fifty
thousand euro (50,000€) four (4) years and thereafter from
the execution of this Agreement.
(1)
In Vitro Diagnostic Milestones . Milestone
payments for each diagnostic Licensed Product within thirty (30)
days of the following events:
(i) In
the territory of the United States and so long as the Original
Licensed Patents have not been rendered invalid or held to infringe
on any other patent right as of the due date thereof, Omnimmune
shall pay IGR&D the following:
(A) At
the commencement of an In Vitro diagnostic Clinical Study: Five
thousand euro (5,000€);
(B) Upon
compilation and Submission of a 510(k) authorization or equivalent
thereto : Ten thousand euro (10,000€); and
(C) At
the First Commercial Sale following the 510(k) authorization or
equivalent thereto: Twenty-five thousand euro
(25,000€) if the First Commercial Sale is in the United
States of America (“USA”).
(ii) If
milestones are reached in countries outside of the territory of the
United States or if the Original Licensed Patents have been
rendered invalid or held to infringe on any other patent right as
of the due date thereof, Omnimmune shall pay IGR&D the
following:
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At the
commencement of an In Vitro diagnostic Clinical Study: Two thousand
five hundred euro (2,500€);
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Upon
compilation and Submission of a 510(k) authorization or equivalent
thereto: Five thousand euro (5,000€); and
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At the First
Commercial Sale following the 510(k) authorization or equivalent
thereto: Twelve thousand euro five hundred euro
(12,500€) if the First Commercial Sale is in the United
States of America (“USA”).
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(2)
Therapeutic Milestones . Omnimmune agrees to make milestone
payments to IGR&D for each Licensed Product within thirty (30)
days of the following events:
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At the first
entrance in Phase II Clinical Trial: Twenty five
thousand euro (25,000€);
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At the first
entrance in Phase III Clinical Trial: Seven
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