1. Nature of the Business Scholar Rock Holding Corporation (the “Company”) is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, and delivery of innovative medicines for the treatment of serious diseases in which signaling by protein growth factors plays a fundamental role. As a global leader in transforming growth factor beta (“TGFβ”) superfamily biology, the Company’s novel understanding of the molecular mechanisms of growth factor activation enabled the development of a proprietary platform for the discovery and development of monoclonal antibodies that locally and selectively target the precursor, or latent, forms of growth factors. By targeting the signaling proteins at the cellular level and acting in the disease microenvironment, the Company believes that it may avoid the historical dose-limiting safety challenges associated with inhibiting growth factors for therapeutic effect. The Company’s first product candidate, apitegromab, is a highly selective, fully human, monoclonal antibody, with a unique mechanism of action that results in inhibition of the activation of the growth factor, myostatin, in skeletal muscle. Apitegromab is being developed as a potential first muscle-targeted therapy for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy (“SMA”). The Company is conducting SAPPHIRE, a pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of apitegromab in patients with nonambulatory Type 2 and Type 3 SMA. In 2023, the Company completed enrollment for the Phase 3 SAPPHIRE trial. In 2024, the Company announced data from the Phase 2 TOPAZ trial extension period which showed patient outcomes at 48 months of treatment with apitegromab. The FDA granted Fast Track designation, Rare Pediatric Disease designation and Orphan Drug designation to apitegromab for the treatment of SMA in May 2021, August 2020 and March 2018, respectively. The European Medicines Agency (“EMA”) granted Priority Medicine (“PRIME”) designation in March 2021 and the EC granted Orphan Medicinal Product designation in December 2018 to apitegromab for the treatment of SMA. In October 2023, the Company announced plans to expand into cardiometabolic disorders and advance its anti-myostatin program with SRK-439, a novel, fully human anti-myostatin monoclonal antibody, for evaluation in cardiometabolic disorders, including obesity, towards a potential investigational new drug (“IND”) submission in 2025. To inform the development of SRK-439, in May 2024 the Company initiated the Phase 2 EMBRAZE proof-of-concept trial, designed to assess the safety and efficacy of apitegromab to preserve muscle mass in individuals living with obesity and on background therapy of a GLP-1 receptor agonist (“GLP-1 RA”), with data expected in the second quarter of 2025. The Company’s second product candidate, SRK-181, a highly selective inhibitor of the activation of latent TGFβ is being developed for the treatment of cancers that are resistant to checkpoint inhibitor therapies, such as anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 antibody therapies (referred to together as anti-PD-(L)1 antibody therapies). SRK-181 is being evaluated in the Company’s Phase 1 DRAGON proof-of-concept clinical trial in patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors that exhibit resistance to anti-PD-(L)1 antibody therapies. The Phase 1 DRAGON trial completed enrollment in December 2023 and continues to treat patients who remain on study. This two-part clinical trial consists of a dose escalation portion (Part A) and a dose expansion evaluating SRK-181 in combination with an approved anti-PD- (L)1 antibody therapy (Part B). Part B includes the following active cohorts: urothelial carcinoma, cutaneous melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, clear cell renal cell carcinoma, and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Safety, efficacy and biomarker data were presented in November 2023 at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer 38th Annual Meeting and in June 2024 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (“ASCO”) annual meeting. Additionally, the Company continues to create a pipeline of product candidates to deliver novel therapies to underserved patients suffering from a wide range of serious diseases, including neuromuscular disorders, cardiometabolic disorders, cancer, fibrosis, and iron-restricted anemia. The Company was originally formed in May 2012. Its principal offices are in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since its inception, the Company’s operations have focused on research and development of monoclonal antibodies that selectively inhibit activation of growth factors for therapeutic effect, as well as establishing the Company’s intellectual property portfolio and performing research and development activities. The Company has primarily financed its operations through various equity financings, as well as research and development collaboration agreements and the Company’s debt facility (Note 10). Revenue generation activities have been limited to two collaborations, both containing research services and the issuance of a license. The first agreement, executed in 2013, was with Janssen Biotech, Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson and was terminated in July 2022. The second agreement (the “Gilead Collaboration Agreement”), with Gilead Sciences, Inc. (“Gilead”), was in effect between December 2018 and January 2022. No revenues have been recorded from the sale of any commercial product. The Company is subject to a number of risks similar to other life science companies, including, but not limited to, successful discovery and development of its drug candidates, raising additional capital, development by its competitors of new technological innovations, protection of proprietary technology and regulatory approval and market acceptance of the Company’s product candidates. The Company has incurred recurring losses since its inception, including net losses of $115.4 million and $77.3 million for the six months ended June 30, 2024 and 2023, respectively. In addition, the Company had an accumulated deficit of $791.8 million as of June 30, 2024. The Company anticipates that it will continue to incur significant operating losses for the next several years as it continues to develop its product candidates. The Company has evaluated whether there are certain events, considered in the aggregate, which raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern beyond one year after the date that the consolidated financial statements are issued. Based on current operating plans, the Company does not expect to have sufficient cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities to fund its operating expenses and capital requirements beyond one year from the issuance of these consolidated financial statements without receiving additional external financing, and therefore, the Company has concluded that there is substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. The Company will require additional funding through a combination of contribution from revenues, equity offerings, debt financings or other capital sources, such as collaborations with other companies, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements to finance its future operations. The Company may not be able to obtain such funding on acceptable terms, or at all, and the Company may not be able to enter into collaborations or other arrangements. The terms of any such funding may adversely affect the holdings or rights of the Company’s stockholders. If the Company is unable to obtain sufficient capital, the Company may be forced to delay or reduce the scale of some of its operations.
|