Company: PHAT
Filing Date: 2025-03-06
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-034183
Chunk: 203

Company: Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-06
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 203
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 file a patent application related to a product candidate or technology. Moreover, because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent applications that may later result in issued patents that VOQUEZNA and any future product candidates may infringe. In addition, identification of third-party patent rights that may be relevant to our technology is difficult because patent searching is imperfect due to differences in terminology among patents, incomplete databases and the difficulty in assessing the meaning of patent claims. In addition, third parties may obtain patents in the future and claim that use of our technologies infringes upon these patents. Any claims of patent infringement asserted by third parties would be time consuming and could:

•result in costly litigation that may cause negative publicity;

•divert the time and attention of our technical personnel and management;

•cause development delays;

•prevent us from commercializing, or continuing to commercialize, VOQUEZNA (and/or other approved products containing vonoprazan), and any future product candidates until the asserted patent expires or is held finally invalid or not infringed in a court of law;

•require us to develop non-infringing technology, which may not be possible on a cost-effective basis;

•subject us to significant liability to third parties; or

•require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, or which might be non-exclusive, which could result in our competitors gaining access to the same technology.

Although no third party has asserted a claim of patent infringement against us as of the date of this annual report, others may hold proprietary rights that could prevent VOQUEZNA and any future product candidates from being marketed.

Any patent-related legal action against us claiming damages and seeking to enjoin activities relating to VOQUEZNA and any future product candidates or processes could subject us to potential liability for damages, including treble damages if we were determined to willfully infringe, and require us to obtain a license to manufacture or develop VOQUEZNA and any future product 

88

candidates. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of employee resources from our business. We cannot predict whether we would prevail in any such actions or that any license required under any of these patents would be made available on commercially acceptable terms, if at all. Moreover, even if we or our future strategic partners were able to obtain a license, the rights may be nonexclusive, which could result in our competitors gaining access to