PROSPECTUS SUPPLEMENT (Subject to Completion) Issued October 7, 2009
(To Prospectus dated September 18, 2009)

 

Filed Pursuant to Rule 424(b)(5)

Registration No. 333-161696

 

27,500,000 Shares

 

 

Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

 

COMMON STOCK

 

 

 

 

Lexicon is offering 27,500,000 shares of its common stock. Of these shares, 16,412,613 are being offered through the underwriters named in this prospectus supplement and 11,087,387 are being offered by Lexicon directly to Invus, L.P., Lexicon’s largest stockholder. If Invus elects to purchase these shares, it will purchase directly from Lexicon at the price to the public.

 

 

 

 

Our common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “LXRX.” On October 6, 2009, the reported last sale price of our common stock on The Nasdaq Global Market was $1.83 per share.

 

 

 

 

Investing in our common stock involves risks.  See “Risk Factors” beginning on page S-6 of this prospectus supplement.

 

 

 

 

PRICE $           A SHARE

 

 

 

 

 

The underwriters will not receive any compensation with respect to the shares being offered by Lexicon to Invus.

 

We have granted the underwriters the right to purchase up to an additional 2,461,892 shares to cover over-allotments.

 

The Securities and Exchange Commission and state securities regulators have not approved or disapproved these securities, or determined if this prospectus supplement or the accompanying prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

 

The underwriters expect to deliver the shares to purchasers on          , 2009.

 

 

 

 

MORGAN STANLEY

 

 

 

 

THOMAS WEISEL PARTNERS LLC

 

                    , 2009

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

 

You should rely only on the information contained or incorporated by reference in this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus. Neither we nor the underwriters have authorized anyone to provide you with information different from that contained or incorporated by reference in this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus. We are offering to sell the shares of common stock, and are seeking offers to buy the shares of common stock, only in jurisdictions where offers and sales are permitted. The information contained or incorporated by reference in this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus is accurate only as of the date of this prospectus supplement, or the documents incorporated by reference, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus or any sales of the shares of common stock.

 

In this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, unless otherwise indicated, “Lexicon,” “Lexicon Pharmaceuticals,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its subsidiaries. We own or have rights to trademarks or trade names that we use in connection with the operation of our business. The Lexicon name and logo, LexVision^® and OmniBank^® are registered trademarks and Genome5000^tm is a trademark of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. This prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus also include trademarks owned by other persons.

 

PROSPECTUS SUPPLEMENT SUMMARY

Issuer		Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Common stock offered		27,500,000 shares(1)
Common stock to be outstanding after this offering		164,871,548 shares(2)
Use of proceeds		The net proceeds of this offering are estimated to be approximately $48.1 million after deduction of underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses based on an assumed public offering price of $1.83 per share, which is the reported last sales price of our common stock on October 6, 2009. We currently intend to use the net proceeds for research and development. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds to acquire or invest in complementary products and technologies or for general corporate purposes. See “Use of Proceeds.”
Nasdaq Global Market symbol		LXRX
Risk Factors		See “Risk Factors” beginning on page S-6 and the other information included in, or incorporated by reference into, this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus for a discussion of certain factors you should carefully consider before deciding to invest in shares of our common stock.

(1)		Includes 11,087,387 shares offered directly by us to Invus at the price to the public set forth on the cover page of this prospectus supplement pursuant to Invus’ right to purchase up to the number of shares that is sufficient to maintain its pro rata ownership of our common stock. While Invus has indicated interest in purchasing such shares, an indication of interest is not a binding commitment or agreement to purchase shares and, as a result, Invus may purchase fewer or no shares in this offering.
(2)		Based on 137,371,548 shares of our common stock outstanding as of September 30, 2009 and excludes:

	•	18,527,651 shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of outstanding stock options at a weighted average exercise price per share of $4.20; and
	•	12,873,824 shares of common stock available for future grant or issuance under our stock incentive plans.

														Six Months Ended
		Year Ended December 31,												June 30,
		2006				2007				2008				2008				2009
														(unaudited)
		(in thousands, except per share data)
Statements of Operations Data:
Revenues		$	72,798			$	50,118			$	32,321			$	18,459			$	7,157
Operating expenses:
Research and development			106,695				104,332				108,575				57,524				43,084
General and administrative			21,334				20,740				20,281				11,759				10,425
Total operating expenses			128,029				125,072				128,856				69,283				53,509
Loss from operations			(55,231	)			(74,954	)			(96,535	)			(50,824	)			(46,352	)
Interest and other income (expense), net			801				3,721				(349	)			1,768				(1,527	)
Consolidated net loss before taxes			(54,430	)			(71,233	)			(96,884	)			(49,056	)			(47,879	)
Income tax provision stock			119				—				—				—				—
Consolidated net loss			(54,311	)			(71,233	)			(96,884	)			(49,056	)			(47,879	)
Less: net loss attributable to noncontrolling interest in Symphony Icon, Inc.			—				12,439				20,024				11,072				6,246
Net loss attributable to Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.		$	(54,311	)		$	(58,794	)		$	(76,860	)		$	(37,984	)		$	(41,633	)
Net loss attributable to Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. per common share, basic and diluted		$	(0.81	)		$	(0.59	)		$	(0.56	)		$	(0.28	)		$	(0.30	)
Shares used in computing net loss attributable to Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. per common share, basic and diluted			66,876				99,798				136,797				136,795				137,203

		As of June 30, 2009
		Actual				As Adjusted(2)
		(unaudited)
		(in thousands)
Balance Sheet Data:
Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments(1)		$	79,670			$	127,793
Short-term investments held by Symphony Icon, Inc.			7,735				7,735
Long-term investments			56,409				56,409
Working capital(1)			83,601				131,724
Total assets			244,333				292,456
Long-term debt, net of current portion			65,970				65,970
Accumulated deficit			(529,028	)			(529,028	)
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. stockholders’ equity			147,109				195,232

(1)		Includes restricted cash and investments of $430 as of June 30, 2009.
(2)		Reflects the net proceeds from the sale of 27,500,000 shares of common stock in this offering at an assumed public offering price of $1.83 per share, which is the reported last sale price of our common stock on October 6, 2009, after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses.

 

An investment in our common stock involves risks.  You should carefully consider the following risk factors, together with all of the other information included in, or incorporated by reference into, this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus in evaluating an investment in our common stock. If any of the following risks were to occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially adversely affected. In that case, the trading price of our common stock could decline and you could lose all or part of your investment.

 

Risks Related to Our Need for Additional Financing and Our Financial Results

 

We will need additional capital in the future and, if it is unavailable, we will be forced to significantly curtail or cease operations. If it is not available on reasonable terms, we will be forced to obtain funds by entering into financing agreements on unattractive terms.

 

As of June 30, 2009, we had $136.1 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments, including $56.4 million of auction rate securities and related rights, and $7.7 million in investments held by Symphony Icon, Inc. We anticipate that the net proceeds of this offering, our existing capital resources, and the cash and revenues we expect to derive from drug discovery and development collaborations and other collaborations and licenses will enable us to fund our currently planned operations for at least the next 12 months. Our currently planned operations for that time period consist of the completion of our ongoing clinical trials, the initiation and conduct of additional clinical trials and the continuation of our small molecule drug discovery and preclinical research efforts. However, we caution you that we may generate less cash and revenues or incur expenses more rapidly than we currently anticipate.

 

Although difficult to accurately predict, the amount of our future capital requirements will be substantial and will depend on many factors, including:

 

 

Our capital requirements will increase substantially as we advance our drug candidates into and through clinical development. Our capital requirements will also be affected by any expenditures we make in connection with license agreements and acquisitions of and investments in complementary products and technologies. For all of these reasons, our future capital requirements cannot easily be quantified.

 

If our capital resources are insufficient to meet future capital requirements, we will have to raise additional funds to continue our currently planned operations. If we raise additional capital by issuing equity securities, our then-existing stockholders will experience dilution and the terms of any new equity securities may have preferences over our common stock. We cannot be certain that additional financing, whether debt or equity, will be available in

amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. We may be unable to raise sufficient additional capital on reasonable terms; if so, we will be forced to significantly curtail or cease operations or obtain funds by entering into financing agreements on unattractive terms.

 

Invus, L.P., our largest stockholder, may decline to grant its consent which is required for us to conduct additional equity offerings at prices less than $4.50 per share. In addition, we can provide no assurance that Invus will exercise its rights to require us to initiate up to two pro rata rights offerings in which it would be obligated to purchase its pro rata portion of the offering.

 

In June 2007, we entered into a securities purchase agreement with Invus, L.P., under which Invus made an initial investment of $205.4 million to purchase 50,824,986 shares of our common stock in August 2007 and has the right to require us to initiate up to two pro rata rights offerings to our stockholders, which would provide all stockholders with non-transferable rights to acquire shares of our common stock, in an aggregate amount of up to $344.5 million, less the proceeds of any “qualified offerings” that we may complete in the interim involving the sale of our common stock at prices above $4.50 per share. Under the securities purchase agreement as in effect prior to this offering, Invus could exercise its right to require us to conduct the first rights offering by giving us notice within a period of 90 days beginning on November 28, 2009 (which we refer to as the first rights offering trigger date), although we and Invus may agree to change the first rights offering trigger date with the approval of the members of our board of directors who are not affiliated with Invus. In connection with and subject to completion of this offering, we will agree to extend by nine months the period during which Invus may exercise its right to require us to conduct the first rights offering to a period of one year beginning on the first rights offering trigger date. Under the securities purchase agreement as in effect prior to this offering, Invus may exercise its right to require us to conduct a second rights offering by giving us notice within a period of 90 days beginning on the date that is 12 months after Invus’ exercise of its right to require us to conduct the first rights offering or, if Invus does not exercise its right to require us to conduct the first rights offering, within a period of 90 days beginning on the first anniversary of the first rights offering trigger date. In connection with and subject to this offering and Invus’ consent relating to this offering, we will agree to modify the timing of this right to permit Invus to exercise its right to require us to conduct the second rights offering by giving us notice within a period of one year beginning on the date that is 90 days after Invus’ exercise of its right to require us to conduct the first rights offering or, if Invus does not exercise its right to require us to conduct the first rights offering, within a period of one year beginning on the first anniversary of the first rights offering trigger date.

 

In addition, under the securities purchase agreement as in effect prior to this offering, if Invus elects to exercise its rights to require us to initiate a rights offering, Invus is required to purchase its pro rata portion of the offering, and must commit to purchase the entire portion of the offering not subscribed for by other stockholders. In connection with and subject to completion of this offering, we will agree to modify these obligations such that, if Invus elects to exercise its rights to require us to initiate a rights offering, Invus will be required to purchase only its pro rata portion of the rights offering, and will not be obligated to purchase the entire portion of the offering not subscribed for by other stockholders. Under the securities purchase agreement, until the later of the completion of the second rights offering or the expiration of the period following the second rights offering trigger date during which Invus may require us to initiate the second rights offering, we have agreed not to issue any of our common stock for a per share price of less than $4.50 without the prior written consent of Invus, except pursuant to an employee or director stock option, incentive compensation or similar plan or to persons involved in the pharmaceutical industry in connection with simultaneous strategic transactions involving such persons in the ordinary course. In addition, if we notify Invus of a proposed public offering for an offering above $4.50 per share during the period in which Invus may initiate a rights offering, Invus will have a period of 10 business days in which to exercise its right to require us to conduct a rights offering, in which case we would be required to forego the proposed public offering and proceed with the rights offering. Although Invus may consent to this offering, if we are not able to issue common stock at prices equal to or greater than $4.50 per share in the future, due to market conditions or otherwise, this obligation will limit our ability to raise capital by issuing additional equity securities without the consent of Invus. In the event Invus declines to grant such consent and, in addition, elects not to exercise its right to require us to initiate the first rights offering, or elects to limit the size of the first rights offering, our ability during this period to satisfy our future capital requirements by issuing equity securities will be limited if we are unable to do so by issuing common stock at prices equal to or greater than $4.50 per share.

We have a history of net losses, and net losses have been increasing in recent periods. We expect to continue to incur increasing net losses and may not achieve or maintain profitability.

 

We have incurred net losses since our inception, including net losses of $41.6 million for the six months ended June 30, 2009, $76.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2008, $58.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2007 and $54.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2006. As of June 30, 2009, we had an accumulated deficit of $529.0 million. We are unsure when we will become profitable, if ever. The size of our net losses will depend, in part, on the rate of decline or growth in our revenues and on the level of our expenses.

 

We derive substantially all of our revenues from drug discovery and development collaborations and other collaborations and technology licenses, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Our future revenues from collaborations and technology licenses are uncertain because our existing agreements have fixed terms or relate to specific projects of limited duration and future revenues from such agreements, if any, depend on the achievement of milestones and payment of royalties we earn from any future products developed under the collaborations. As a result, we depend, in part, on securing new collaboration and license agreements. Our ability to secure future revenue-generating agreements will depend upon our ability to address the needs of our potential future collaborators, granting agencies and licensees, and to negotiate agreements that we believe are in our long-term best interests. We may determine, as we have to date with respect to our four clinical drug candidates, that our interests are better served by retaining rights to our discoveries and advancing our therapeutic programs to a later stage, which could limit our near-term revenues. Given the early-stage nature of our operations, we do not currently derive any revenues from sales of pharmaceutical products.

 

A large portion of our expenses is fixed, including expenses related to facilities, equipment and personnel. In addition, we expect to spend significant amounts to fund our research and development activities, including the conduct of clinical trials and the advancement of additional potential therapeutics into clinical development. As a result, we expect that our operating expenses will continue to increase significantly as our drug programs progress into and through human clinical trials and, consequently, we will need to generate significant additional revenues to achieve profitability. Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis.

 

We have licensed the intellectual property, including commercialization rights, to our drug candidates LX1031 and LX1032 to Symphony Icon and will not receive any future royalties or revenues with respect to these drug candidates unless we exercise our option to purchase Symphony Icon.

 

Our option to purchase all of the equity of Symphony Icon, thereby allowing us to reacquire these drug candidates, is exercisable by us at any time, in our sole discretion, until June 15, 2011 at an exercise price of (a) $81 million, if the purchase option is exercised before June 15, 2010 and (b) $90 million, if the purchase option is exercised on or after June 15, 2010 and before June 15, 2011. The purchase option exercise price may be paid in cash or a combination of cash and common stock, at our sole discretion, provided that the common stock portion may not exceed 40% of the purchase option exercise price. Any such issuance of common stock may also be subject to Invus providing its consent to such issuance as required by our securities purchase agreement with Invus.

 

If we elect to exercise the purchase option, we will be required to make a substantial cash payment or to make a lesser but still substantial cash payment and issue a substantial number of shares of our common stock, which may in turn require us to enter into a financing arrangement or license arrangement with one or more third parties. The amount of any such cash payment would reduce our capital resources. Payment in shares of our common stock could result in dilution to our stockholders at that time. Other financing or licensing alternatives may be expensive or impossible to obtain. If we do not exercise the purchase option prior to its expiration, our rights to purchase all of the equity in Symphony Icon and to reacquire LX1031 and LX1032 will terminate. We may not have the financial resources to exercise the option, which may result in our loss of these rights. Additionally, the clinical data available to us may not be sufficient for us to make a determination of whether we should exercise the option prior to June 15, 2010 or June 15, 2011.

At June 30, 2009, we held $56.9 million (par value), with an estimated fair value of $44.3 million, of auction rate securities for which auctions have failed and, as a result, we may not be able to access at least a portion of these funds without a loss of principal.

 

At June 30, 2009, we held $56.9 million (par value), with an estimated fair value of $44.3 million, of investments with an auction interest rate reset feature, known as auction rate securities. Until February 2008, the market for our auction rate securities was highly liquid. Starting in February 2008, a substantial number of auctions “failed,” meaning that there was not enough demand to sell all of the securities that holders desired to sell at auction.

 

In November 2008, we accepted an offer from UBS AG, the investment bank that sold us our auction rate securities, providing us with certain rights related to our auction rate securities. The rights permit us to require UBS to purchase our auction rate securities from us at par value during the period from June 30, 2010 through July 2, 2012. Conversely, UBS has the right, in its discretion, to purchase or sell the securities at any time by paying us the par value of the securities. In connection with our acceptance of UBS’s offer, in January 2009, we entered into a credit line agreement with UBS Bank USA that provides, as of June 30, 2009, up to an aggregate amount of $37.0 million in the form of an uncommitted, demand, revolving line of credit. The credit line is secured only by the auction rate securities and advances under the credit line will be made on a “no net cost” basis, meaning that the interest paid by us on advances will not exceed the interest or dividends paid to us by the issuer of the auction rate securities. We have drawn down the full $37.0 million available to us under the credit line as of June 30, 2009.

 

Although we have accessed the maximum amount permitted under the credit line and expect to exercise the rights and sell our auction rate securities to UBS on June 30, 2010, the earliest date allowable under the rights, we will have no means to access $19.9 million (par value), as of June 30, 2009, invested in auction rate securities before such date without a loss of principal. Further, UBS and its affiliates may not be able to maintain the financial resources necessary to perform its obligations under the rights or credit line. As a result, we cannot provide any assurance that we will be able to access the funds invested in auction rate securities without a loss of principal, unless a future auction on these investments is successful or the issuer redeems the securities.

 

Our operating results have been and likely will continue to fluctuate, and we believe that period-to-period comparisons of our operating results are not a good indication of our future performance.

 

Our operating results and, in particular, our ability to generate additional revenues are dependent on many factors, including:

 

 

Because of these and other factors, including the risks and uncertainties described in this section, our operating results have fluctuated in the past and are likely to do so in the future. Due to the likelihood of fluctuations in our revenues and expenses, we believe that period-to-period comparisons of our operating results are not a good indication of our future performance.

 

Risks Related to Discovery and Development of Our Drug Candidates

 

We are an early-stage company, and have not proven our ability to successfully develop and commercialize drug candidates based on our drug target discoveries.

 

Our business strategy of using our technology platform and, specifically, the discovery of the functions of genes using knockout mice to select promising drug targets and developing and commercializing drug candidates

based on our target discoveries, in significant part through collaborations, is unproven. Our success will depend upon our ability to successfully generate, select and develop drug candidates for targets we consider to have pharmaceutical value, whether on our own or through collaborations, and to select an appropriate commercialization strategy for each potential therapeutic we choose to pursue.

 

We have not proven our ability to develop or commercialize drug candidates based on our drug target discoveries. The generation and selection of potential drug candidates for a target is a difficult, expensive and time-consuming process that is subject to substantial technical and scientific challenges and uncertainties, without any assurance of ever identifying a drug candidate warranting clinical testing. The process involves the optimization of a wide variety of variables, including among many other things potency against the target, selectivity for the intended target relative to other proteins, absorption, metabolism, distribution and excretion characteristics, activity in animal models of disease and the results of other preclinical research, and feasibility and cost of manufacture, each of which may affect one or more of the others in ways that conflict with the desired profile.

 

Furthermore, we do not know that any pharmaceutical products based on our drug target discoveries can be successfully developed or commercialized. Our strategy is focused principally on the discovery and development of drug candidates for targets that have not been clinically validated in humans by drugs or drug candidates generated by others. As a result, the drug candidates we develop are subject to uncertainties as to the effects of modulating the human drug target as well as to those relating to the characteristics and activity of the particular compound.

 

In addition, we may experience unforeseen technical complications in the processes we use to identify potential drug targets or discover and develop potential drug candidates. These complications could materially delay or limit the use of our resources, substantially increase the anticipated cost of conducting our drug target or drug candidate discovery efforts or prevent us from implementing our processes at appropriate quality and throughput levels.

 

Clinical testing of our drug candidates in humans is an inherently risky and time-consuming process that may fail to demonstrate safety and efficacy, which could result in the delay, limitation or prevention of regulatory approval.

 

In order to obtain regulatory approvals for the commercial sale of any products that we may develop, we will be required to complete extensive clinical trials in humans to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our drug candidates. We or our collaborators may not be able to obtain authority from the FDA, or other equivalent foreign regulatory agencies to initiate or complete any clinical trials. In addition, we have limited internal resources for making regulatory filings and dealing with regulatory authorities.

 

Clinical trials are inherently risky and the results from preclinical testing of a drug candidate that is under development may not be predictive of results that will be obtained in human clinical trials. In addition, the results of early human clinical trials may not be predictive of results that will be obtained in larger-scale, advanced stage clinical trials. A number of companies in the pharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials, even after achieving positive results in earlier trials. Although our four clinical drug candidates have been generally well-tolerated in Phase 1 clinical trials at the dose levels we expect to evaluate in Phase 2 clinical trials, we have not yet completed Phase 2 clinical trials of any of these drug candidates in patients suffering from the disease or condition that the drug candidates are designed to treat. Negative or inconclusive results from a preclinical study or a clinical trial could cause us, one of our collaborators or the FDA to terminate a preclinical study or clinical trial or require that we repeat it. Furthermore, we, one of our collaborators or a regulatory agency with jurisdiction over the trials may suspend clinical trials at any time if the subjects or patients participating in such trials are being exposed to unacceptable health risks or for other reasons.

 

Any preclinical or clinical test may fail to produce results satisfactory to the FDA or foreign regulatory authorities. Preclinical and clinical data can be interpreted in different ways, which could delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. The FDA or institutional review boards at the medical institutions and healthcare facilities where we sponsor clinical trials may suspend any trial indefinitely if they find deficiencies in the conduct of these trials. Clinical trials must be conducted in accordance with the FDA’s current Good Clinical Practices. The FDA and these institutional review boards have authority to oversee our clinical trials, and the FDA may require large

numbers of test subjects. In addition, we must manufacture, or contract for the manufacture of, the drug candidates that we use in our clinical trials under the FDA’s current Good Manufacturing Practices.

 

The rate of completion of clinical trials is dependent, in part, upon the rate of enrollment of patients. Patient accrual is a function of many factors, including the size of the patient population, the proximity of patients to clinical sites, the eligibility criteria for the study, the nature of the study, the existence of competitive clinical trials and the availability of alternative treatments. Delays in planned patient enrollment may result in increased costs and prolonged clinical development, which in turn could allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do and impair our ability to commercialize our products or potential products.

 

We or our collaborators may not be able to successfully complete any clinical trial of a potential product within any specified time period. In some cases, we or our collaborators may not be able to complete the trial at all. Moreover, clinical trials may not show our potential products to be both safe and effective. Thus, the FDA and other regulatory authorities may not approve any products that we develop for any indication or may limit the approved indications or impose other conditions.

 

Risks Related to Our Relationships with Third Parties

 

Disagreements with Symphony Icon regarding the development of our drug candidates LX1031 or LX1032 could negatively affect or delay their development.

 

While we are the party primarily responsible for development of our drug candidates LX1031 and LX1032 in accordance with a specified development plan and related development budget, our development activities are supervised by Symphony Icon’s development committee, which is comprised of an equal number of representatives from us and Symphony Icon. Any disagreements between us and Symphony Icon regarding a development decision may cause delays in the development and commercialization of those drug candidates or lead to development decisions that do not reflect our interests. Any such delays or development decisions not in our interest could negatively affect the value of LX1031 or LX1032.

 

We are dependent in many ways upon our collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies. The revenues we receive under these agreements have been decreasing in recent periods and are likely to continue to decrease in the future. If we are unable to achieve milestones under those collaborations or if our collaborators’ efforts fail to yield pharmaceutical products on a timely basis, our opportunities to generate revenues and earn royalties will be reduced.

 

We have derived a substantial majority of our revenues to date from collaborative drug discovery and development alliances with a limited number of major pharmaceutical companies. Revenues from our drug discovery and development alliances depend upon continuation of the collaborations, the achievement of milestones and payment of royalties we earn from any future products developed under the collaborations. If our relationship terminates with any of our collaborators, our reputation in the business and scientific community may suffer and revenues will be negatively impacted to the extent such losses are not offset by additional collaboration agreements. If we are unable to achieve milestones or our collaborators are unable to successfully develop products from which royalties are payable, we will not earn the revenues contemplated by those drug discovery and development collaborations. In addition, some of our alliances are exclusive and preclude us from entering into additional collaborative arrangements with other parties in the field of exclusivity.

 

We have limited or no control over the resources that any collaborator may devote to the development and commercialization of products under our alliances. Any of our present or future collaborators may not perform their obligations as expected. These collaborators may breach or terminate their agreements with us or otherwise fail to conduct product discovery, development or commercialization activities successfully or in a timely manner. Further, our collaborators may elect not to develop pharmaceutical products arising out of our collaborative arrangements or may not devote sufficient resources to the development, approval, manufacture, marketing or sale of these products. If any of these events occurs, we may not be able to develop or commercialize potential pharmaceutical products, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.

Conflicts with our collaborators could jeopardize the success of our collaborative agreements and harm our product development efforts.

 

We may pursue opportunities in specific disease and therapeutic modality fields that could result in conflicts with our collaborators, if any of our collaborators takes the position that our internal activities overlap with those activities that are exclusive to our collaboration. Moreover, disagreements could arise with our collaborators over rights to our intellectual property or our rights to share in any of the future revenues of compounds or therapeutic approaches developed by our collaborators. Any conflict with or among our collaborators could result in the termination of our collaborative agreements, delay collaborative research or development activities, impair our ability to renew or obtain future collaborative agreements or lead to costly and time consuming litigation. Conflicts with our collaborators could also have a negative impact on our relationship with existing collaborators, materially impairing our business and revenues. Some of our collaborators are also potential competitors or may become competitors in the future. Our collaborators could develop competing products, preclude us from entering into collaborations with their competitors or terminate their agreements with us prematurely. Any of these events could harm our product development efforts.

 

We lack the capability to manufacture materials for preclinical studies, clinical trials or commercial sales and rely on third parties to manufacture our drug candidates, which may harm or delay our product development and commercialization efforts.

 

We currently do not have the manufacturing capabilities or experience necessary to produce materials for preclinical studies, clinical trials or commercial sales and intend in the future to continue to rely on collaborators and third-party contractors to produce such materials. We will rely on selected manufacturers to deliver materials on a timely basis and to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, including the current Good Manufacturing Practices of the FDA, which relate to manufacturing and quality control activities. These manufacturers may not be able to produce material on a timely basis or manufacture material at the quality level or in the quantity required to meet our development timelines and applicable regulatory requirements. In addition, there are a limited number of manufacturers that operate under the FDA’s current Good Manufacturing Practices and that are capable of producing such materials, and we may experience difficulty finding manufacturers with adequate capacity for our needs. If we are unable to contract for the production of sufficient quantity and quality of materials on acceptable terms, our product development and commercialization efforts may be delayed. Moreover, noncompliance with the FDA’s current Good Manufacturing Practices can result in, among other things, fines, injunctions, civil and criminal penalties, product recalls or seizures, suspension of production, failure to obtain marketing approval and withdrawal, suspension or revocation of marketing approvals.

 

We rely on third parties to carry out drug development activities.

 

We rely on clinical research organizations and other third party contractors to carry out many of our drug development activities, including the performance of preclinical laboratory and animal tests under the FDA’s current Good Laboratory Practices regulations and the conduct of clinical trials of our drug candidates in accordance with protocols we establish. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or regulatory obligations or meet expected deadlines, our drug development activities may be delayed, suspended or terminated. Such a failure by these third parties could significantly impair our ability to develop and commercialize the affected drug candidates.

 

Risks Related to Regulatory Approval of Our Drug Candidates

 

Our drug candidates are subject to a lengthy and uncertain regulatory process that may not result in the necessary regulatory approvals, which could adversely affect our ability to commercialize products.

 

Our drug candidates, as well as the activities associated with their research, development and commercialization, are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory agencies in the United States and by comparable authorities in other countries. Failure to obtain regulatory approval for a drug candidate would prevent us from commercializing that drug candidate. We have not received regulatory approval to market any of our drug candidates in any jurisdiction and have only limited experience in preparing and filing the

applications necessary to gain regulatory approvals. The process of obtaining regulatory approvals is expensive, and often takes many years, if approval is obtained at all, and can vary substantially based upon the type, complexity and novelty of the drug candidates involved. Before a new drug application can be filed with the FDA, the drug candidate must undergo extensive clinical trials, which can take many years and may require substantial expenditures. Any clinical trial may fail to produce results satisfactory to the FDA. For example, the FDA could determine that the design of a clinical trial is inadequate to produce reliable results. The regulatory process also requires preclinical testing, and data obtained from preclinical and clinical activities are susceptible to varying interpretations, which could delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. In addition, delays or rejections may be encountered based upon changes in regulatory policy for product approval during the period of product development and regulatory agency review. Changes in regulatory approval policy, regulations or statutes or the process for regulatory review during the development or approval periods of our drug candidates may cause delays in the approval or rejection of an application. Even if the FDA or a comparable authority in another country approves a drug candidate, the approval may impose significant restrictions on the indicated uses, conditions for use, labeling, advertising, promotion, marketing and/or production of such product and may impose ongoing requirements for post-approval studies, including additional research and development and clinical trials. These agencies also may impose various civil or criminal sanctions for failure to comply with regulatory requirements, including withdrawal of product approval.

 

If our potential products receive regulatory approval, we or our collaborators will remain subject to extensive and rigorous ongoing regulation.

 

If we or our collaborators obtain initial regulatory approvals from the FDA or foreign regulatory authorities for any products that we may develop, we or our collaborators will be subject to extensive and rigorous ongoing domestic and foreign government regulation of, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, labeling, promotion, advertising, distribution and marketing of our products and drug candidates. The failure to comply with these requirements or the identification of safety problems during commercial marketing could lead to the need for product marketing restrictions, product withdrawal or recall or other voluntary or regulatory action, which could delay further marketing until the product is brought into compliance. The failure to comply with these requirements may also subject us or our collaborators to stringent penalties.

 

Risks Related to Commercialization of Products

 

The commercial success of any products that we may develop will depend upon the degree of market acceptance of our products among physicians, patients, health care payors, private health insurers and the medical community.

 

Even if approved by the relevant regulatory authority, our ability to commercialize any products that we may develop will be highly dependent upon the extent to which these products gain market acceptance among physicians, patients, health care payors, such as Medicare and Medicaid, private health insurers, including managed care organizations and group purchasing organizations, and the medical community. If these products do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance, we may not generate adequate product revenues, if at all, and we may not become profitable. The degree of market acceptance of our drug candidates, if approved for commercial sale, will depend upon a number of factors, including:

 

 

If we are unable to establish sales and marketing capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to market and sell our drug candidates, we may be unable to generate product revenues.

 

We have no experience as a company in the sales, marketing and distribution of pharmaceutical products and do not currently have a sales and marketing organization. Developing a sales and marketing force would be expensive and time-consuming, could delay any product launch, and we may never be able to develop this capacity. To the extent that we enter into arrangements with third parties to provide sales, marketing and distribution services, our product revenues are likely to be lower than if we market and sell any products that we develop ourselves. If we are unable to establish adequate sales, marketing and distribution capabilities, independently or with others, we may not be able to generate product revenues.

 

If we are unable to obtain adequate coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors for any products that we may develop, our revenues and prospects for profitability will suffer.

 

Our ability to commercialize any products that we may develop will be highly dependent on the extent to which coverage and reimbursement for our products will be available from third-party payors, including governmental payors, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and private health insurers, including managed care organizations and group purchasing organizations. Many patients will not be capable of paying themselves for some or all of the products that we may develop and will rely on third-party payors to pay for, or subsidize, their medical needs. If third-party payors do not provide coverage or reimbursement for any products that we may develop, our revenues and prospects for profitability will suffer. In addition, even if third-party payors provide some coverage or reimbursement for our products, the availability of such coverage or reimbursement for prescription drugs under private health insurance and managed care plans often varies based on the type of contract or plan purchased.

 

A primary trend in the United States health care industry is toward cost containment. Current and future prescription drug benefit programs, including any programs that may be proposed as a result of the change in the presidential administration in January 2009, may have the effect of reducing the prices that we are able to charge for products we develop and sell through plans under the programs. These prescription drug programs may also cause third-party payors other than the federal government, including the states under the Medicaid program, to discontinue coverage for products we develop or to lower the price that they will pay.

 

Proponents of drug reimportation may attempt to pass legislation, which would allow direct reimportation under certain circumstances. If legislation or regulations were passed allowing the reimportation of drugs, it could decrease the price we receive for any products that we may develop, thereby negatively affecting our revenues and prospects for profitability.

 

In addition, in some foreign countries, particularly the countries in the European Union, the pricing of prescription pharmaceuticals is subject to governmental control. In these countries, price negotiations with governmental authorities can take six to 12 months or longer after the receipt of regulatory marketing approval for a product. To obtain reimbursement and/or pricing approval in some countries, we may be required to conduct a clinical trial that compares the cost effectiveness of our drug candidates or products to other available therapies. The conduct of such a clinical trial could be expensive and result in delays in the commercialization of our drug candidates. Third-party payors are challenging the prices charged for medical products and services, and many third-party payors limit reimbursement for newly approved health care products. In particular, third-party payors may limit the indications for which they will reimburse patients who use any products that we may develop. Cost-control initiatives could decrease the price we might establish for products that we may develop, which would result in lower product revenues to us.

 

Our competitors may develop products and technologies that make our products and technologies obsolete.

 

The biotechnology industry is highly fragmented and is characterized by rapid technological change. We face, and will continue to face, intense competition from biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, as well as academic research institutions, clinical reference laboratories and government agencies that are pursuing research activities similar to ours. In addition, significant delays in the development of our drug candidates could allow our competitors to bring products to market before us, which would impair our ability to commercialize our drug

candidates. Our future success will depend upon our ability to maintain a competitive position with respect to technological advances. Any products that are developed through our technologies will compete in highly competitive markets. Further, our competitors may be more effective at using their technologies to develop commercial products. Many of the organizations competing with us have greater capital resources, larger research and development staff and facilities, more experience in obtaining regulatory approvals and more extensive product manufacturing and marketing capabilities. As a result, our competitors may be able to more easily develop technologies and products that would render our technologies and products, and those of our collaborators, obsolete and noncompetitive. In addition, there may be drug candidates of which we are not aware at an earlier stage of development that may compete with our drug candidates.

 

We may not be able to manufacture our drug candidates in commercial quantities, which would prevent us from commercializing our drug candidates.

 

To date, our drug candidates have been manufactured in small quantities for preclinical and clinical trials. If any of these drug candidates are approved by the FDA or other regulatory agencies for commercial sale, we will need to manufacture them in larger quantities. We may not be able to successfully increase the manufacturing capacity, whether in collaboration with third-party manufacturers or on our own, for any of our drug candidates in a timely or economic manner, or at all. Significant scale-up of manufacturing may require additional validation studies, which the FDA must review and approve. If we are unable to successfully increase the manufacturing capacity for a drug candidate, the regulatory approval or commercial launch of that drug candidate may be delayed or there may be a shortage in supply. Our drug candidates require precise, high-quality manufacturing. The failure to achieve and maintain these high manufacturing standards, including the incidence of manufacturing errors, could result in patient injury or death, product recalls or withdrawals, delays or failures in product testing or delivery, cost overruns or other problems that could seriously hurt our business.

 

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

 

If we are unable to adequately protect our intellectual property, third parties may be able to use our technology, which could adversely affect our ability to compete in the market.

 

Our success will depend in part upon our ability to obtain patents and maintain adequate protection of the intellectual property related to our technologies and products. The patent positions of biotechnology companies, including our patent position, are generally uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions. We will be able to protect our intellectual property rights from unauthorized use by third parties only to the extent that our technologies are covered by valid and enforceable patents or are effectively maintained as trade secrets. We will continue to apply for patents covering our technologies and products as and when we deem appropriate. Pending patent applications do not provide protection against competitors because they are not enforceable until they issue as patents. Further, the disclosures contained in our current and future patent applications may not be sufficient to meet statutory requirements for patentability. Once issued, patents still may not provide commercially meaningful protection. Our existing patents and any future patents we obtain may not be sufficiently broad to prevent others from practicing our technologies or from developing competing products. Furthermore, others may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or design around our patents. If anyone infringes upon our or our collaborators’ patent rights, enforcing these rights may be difficult, costly and time-consuming and, as a result, it may not be cost-effective or otherwise expedient to pursue litigation to enforce those patent rights. In addition, our patents may be challenged or invalidated or may fail to provide us with any competitive advantages, if, for example, others were the first to invent or to file patent applications for these inventions.

 

Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending applications, unknown to us, which may later result in issued patents that cover the production, manufacture, commercialization or use of our technologies, drug targets or drug candidates. If any such patents are issued to other entities, we will be unable to obtain patent protection for the same or similar discoveries that we make. Moreover, we may be blocked from using or developing some of our existing or proposed technologies and products, or may be required to obtain a license that may not be available on reasonable terms, if at all. Further, others may discover uses for our technologies or products other than those covered in our issued or pending patents, and these other uses may be separately patentable. Even if we have a patent claim on a particular technology or product, the holder of a patent

covering the use of that technology or product could exclude us from selling a product that is based on the same use of that product.

 

The laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending such rights in foreign jurisdictions. Many countries, including certain countries in Europe, have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner may be compelled to grant licenses to third parties (for example, the patent owner has failed to “work” the invention in that country or the third party has patented improvements). In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, the patent owner may have limited remedies, which could materially diminish the value of the patent. Compulsory licensing of life-saving drugs is also becoming increasingly popular in developing countries either through direct legislation or international initiatives. Such compulsory licenses could be extended to include some of our drug candidates, which could limit our potential revenue opportunities. Moreover, the legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the aggressive enforcement of patent and other intellectual property protection, which makes it difficult to stop infringement.

 

We rely on trade secret protection for our confidential and proprietary information. We have taken security measures to protect our proprietary information and trade secrets, but these measures may not provide adequate protection. While we seek to protect our proprietary information by entering into confidentiality agreements with employees, collaborators and consultants, we cannot assure you that our proprietary information will not be disclosed, or that we can meaningfully protect our trade secrets. In addition, our competitors may independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information or may otherwise gain access to our trade secrets.

 

We may be involved in patent litigation and other disputes regarding intellectual property rights and may require licenses from third parties for our discovery and development and planned commercialization activities. We may not prevail in any such litigation or other dispute or be able to obtain required licenses.

 

Our discovery and development efforts as well as our potential products and those of our collaborators may give rise to claims that they infringe the patents of others. We are aware that other companies and institutions have conducted research on many of the same targets that we have identified and have filed patent applications potentially covering many of the genes and encoded drug targets that are the focus of our drug discovery programs. In some cases, patents have issued from these applications. In addition, many companies and institutions have well-established patent portfolios directed to common techniques, methods and means of developing, producing and manufacturing pharmaceutical products. Other companies or institutions could bring legal actions against us or our collaborators for damages or to stop us or our collaborators from engaging in certain discovery or development activities or from manufacturing and marketing any resulting therapeutic products. If any of these actions are successful, in addition to our potential liability for damages, these entities would likely require us or our collaborators to obtain a license in order to continue engaging in the infringing activities or to manufacture or market the resulting therapeutic products or may force us to terminate such activities or manufacturing and marketing efforts.

 

We may need to pursue litigation against others to enforce our patents and intellectual property rights and may be the subject of litigation brought by third parties to enforce their patent and intellectual property rights. In addition, we may become involved in litigation based on intellectual property indemnification undertakings that we have given to certain of our collaborators. Patent litigation is expensive and requires substantial amounts of management attention. The eventual outcome of any such litigation is uncertain and involves substantial risks.

 

We believe that there will continue to be significant litigation in our industry regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. We have expended and many of our competitors have expended and are continuing to expend significant amounts of time, money and management resources on intellectual property litigation. If we become involved in future intellectual property litigation, it could consume a substantial portion of our resources and could negatively affect our results of operations.

We use intellectual property that we license from third parties. If we do not comply with these licenses, we could lose our rights under them.

 

We rely, in part, on licenses to use certain technologies that are important to our business, and we do not own the patents that underlie these licenses. Most of these licenses, however, have terms that extend for the life of the licensed patents. Our rights to use these technologies and practice the inventions claimed in the licensed patents are subject to our abiding by the terms of those licenses and the licensors not terminating them. We believe we are currently in material compliance with all requirements of these licenses. In many cases, we do not control the filing, prosecution or maintenance of the patent rights to which we hold licenses and rely upon our licensors to prosecute infringement of those rights. The scope of our rights under our licenses may be subject to dispute by our licensors or third parties.

 

We have not sought patent protection outside of the United States for some of our inventions, and some of our licensed patents only provide coverage in the United States. As a result, our international competitors could be granted foreign patent protection with respect to our discoveries.

 

We have decided not to pursue patent protection with respect to some of our inventions outside the United States, both because we do not believe it is cost-effective and because of confidentiality concerns. Accordingly, our international competitors could develop, and receive foreign patent protection for, genes or gene sequences, uses of those genes or gene sequences, gene products and drug targets, assays for identifying potential therapeutic products, potential therapeutic products and methods of treatment for which we are seeking United States patent protection. In addition, most of our gene trapping patents and our licensed gene targeting patents cover only the United States and do not apply to discovery activities conducted outside of the United States or, in some circumstances, to importing into the United States products developed using this technology.

 

We may be subject to damages resulting from claims that we, our employees or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their former employers.

 

Many of our employees and independent contractors were previously employed at universities, other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. We may be subject to claims that these employees, independent contractors or we have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other proprietary information of their former employers. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention. If we fail in defending such claims, in addition to paying money claims, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel. A loss of key research personnel and/or their work product could hamper or prevent our ability to commercialize certain drug candidates, which could severely harm our business.

 

Risks Related to Employees, Growth and Facilities Operations

 

The loss of key personnel or the inability to attract and retain additional personnel could impair our ability to expand our operations.

 

We are highly dependent upon the principal members of our management and scientific staff, the loss of whose services might adversely impact the achievement of our objectives and the continuation of existing collaborations. Recruiting and retaining qualified clinical and scientific personnel will be critical to support activities related to advancing our clinical and preclinical development programs, and supporting our collaborative arrangements and our internal proprietary research and development efforts. Competition is intense for experienced clinical personnel, in particular, and we may be unable to retain or recruit clinical personnel with the expertise or experience necessary to allow us to pursue collaborations, develop our products and core technologies or expand our operations to the extent otherwise possible. Further, all of our employees are employed “at will” and, therefore, may leave our employment at any time.

Our collaborations with outside scientists may be subject to restriction and change.

 

We work with scientific and clinical advisors and collaborators at academic and other institutions that assist us in our research and development efforts. These advisors and collaborators are not our employees and may have other commitments that limit their availability to us. Although these advisors and collaborators generally agree not to do competing work, if a conflict of interest between their work for us and their work for another entity arises, we may lose their services. In such a circumstance, we may lose work performed by them, and our development efforts with respect to the matters on which they were working maybe significantly delayed or otherwise adversely affected. In addition, although our advisors and collaborators sign agreements not to disclose our confidential information, it is possible that valuable proprietary knowledge may become publicly known through them.

 

Security breaches may disrupt our operations and harm our operating results.

 

Our network security and data recovery measures may not be adequate to protect against computer viruses, break-ins, and similar disruptions from unauthorized tampering with our computer systems. The misappropriation, theft, sabotage or any other type of security breach with respect to any of our proprietary and confidential information that is electronically stored, including research or clinical data, could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial condition. Additionally, any break-in or trespass of our facilities that results in the misappropriation, theft, sabotage or any other type of security breach with respect to our proprietary and confidential information, including research or clinical data, or that results in damage to our research and development equipment and assets could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

Because most of our operations are located at a single facility, the occurrence of a disaster could significantly disrupt our business.

 

Most of our operations are conducted at our facility in The Woodlands, Texas. While we have developed redundant and emergency backup systems to protect our resources and the facilities in which they are stored, they may be insufficient in the event of a severe fire, flood, hurricane, tornado, mechanical failure or similar disaster. If such a disaster significantly damages or destroys the facility in which our resources are maintained, our business could be disrupted until we could regenerate the affected resources. Our business interruption insurance may not be sufficient to compensate us in the event of a major interruption due to such a disaster.

 

Risks Related to Environmental and Product Liability

 

We use hazardous chemicals and radioactive and biological materials in our business. Any claims relating to improper handling, storage or disposal of these materials could be time consuming and costly.

 

Our research and development processes involve the controlled use of hazardous materials, including chemicals and radioactive and biological materials. Our operations produce hazardous waste products. We cannot eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or discharge and any resultant injury from these materials. Federal, state and local laws and regulations govern the use, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of hazardous materials. We may face liability for any injury or contamination that results from our use or the use by third parties of these materials, and such liability may exceed our insurance coverage and our total assets. Compliance with environmental laws and regulations may be expensive, and current or future environmental regulations may impair our research, development and production efforts.

 

In addition, our collaborators may use hazardous materials in connection with our collaborative efforts. In the event of a lawsuit or investigation, we could be held responsible for any injury caused to persons or property by exposure to, or release of, these hazardous materials used by these parties. Further, we may be required to indemnify our collaborators against all damages and other liabilities arising out of our development activities or products produced in connection with these collaborations.

We may be sued for product liability.

 

We or our collaborators may be held liable if any product that we or our collaborators develop, or any product that is made with the use or incorporation of any of our technologies, causes injury or is found otherwise unsuitable during product testing, manufacturing, marketing or sale. Although we currently have and intend to maintain product liability insurance, this insurance may become prohibitively expensive or may not fully cover our potential liabilities. Our inability to obtain sufficient insurance coverage at an acceptable cost or otherwise to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of products developed by us or our collaborators. If we are sued for any injury caused by our or our collaborators’ products, our liability could exceed our total assets.

 

Risks Related to Our Common Stock

 

Our stock price may be extremely volatile.

 

The trading price of our common stock has been highly volatile, and we believe the trading price of our common stock will remain highly volatile and may fluctuate substantially due to factors such as the following:

 

 

These factors, as well as general economic, political and market conditions, may materially adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

 

In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted. A securities class action suit against us could result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business.

We may engage in future acquisitions, which may be expensive and time consuming and from which we may not realize anticipated benefits.

 

We may acquire additional businesses, technologies and products if we determine that these businesses, technologies and products complement our existing technology or otherwise serve our strategic goals. If we do undertake any transactions of this sort, the process of integrating an acquired business, technology or product may result in operating difficulties and expenditures and may not be achieved in a timely and non-disruptive manner, if at all, and may absorb significant management attention that would otherwise be available for ongoing development of our business. If we fail to integrate acquired businesses, technologies or products effectively or if key employees of an acquired business leave, the anticipated benefits of the acquisition would be jeopardized. Moreover, we may never realize the anticipated benefits of any acquisition, such as increased revenues and earnings or enhanced business synergies. Future acquisitions could result in potentially dilutive issuances of our equity securities, the incurrence of debt and contingent liabilities and amortization expenses related to intangible assets, which could materially impair our results of operations and financial condition.

 

Future sales of our common stock may depress our stock price.

 

If our stockholders sell substantial amounts of our common stock (including shares issued upon the exercise of options and warrants) in the public market, the market price of our common stock could fall. These sales also might make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-related securities in the future at a time and price that we deem appropriate. For example, following an acquisition, a significant number of shares of our common stock held by new stockholders may become freely tradable or holders of registration rights could cause us to register their shares for resale. Sales of these shares of common stock held by existing stockholders could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

 

Invus’ ownership of our common stock and its other rights under the stockholders’ agreement we entered into in connection with Invus’ $205.4 million initial investment in our common stock provide Invus with substantial influence over matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions, as well as other corporate matters.

 

Under the stockholders’ agreement we entered into in connection with Invus’ $205.4 million initial investment in our common stock, Invus currently has the right to designate the greater of three members or 30% (or the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates, if less than 30%) of all members of our board of directors, rounded up to the nearest whole number of directors, pursuant to which Invus has designated Raymond Debbane, president and chief executive officer of The Invus Group, LLC, an affiliate of Invus, and Philippe J. Amouyal and Christopher J. Sobecki, each of whom are managing directors of The Invus Group, LLC. In the event that the number of shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates ever exceeds 50% of the total number of shares of our common stock then outstanding (not counting for such purpose any shares acquired by Invus from third parties in excess of 40% (or, if higher, its then pro rata amount) of the total number of outstanding shares of common stock, as permitted by the standstill provisions of the stockholders’ agreement), from and after that time, Invus will have the right to designate a number of directors equal to the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates (not counting for such purpose any shares acquired by Invus from third parties in excess of 40% (or, if higher, its then pro rata amount) of the total number of outstanding shares of common stock, as permitted by the standstill provisions of the stockholders’ agreement), rounded up to the nearest whole number of directors. The directors appointed by Invus have proportionate representation on the compensation committee and corporate governance committee of our board of directors.

 

Invus’ rights with respect to the designation of members of our board of directors and its compensation and corporate governance committees will terminate if the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates falls below 10%. Invus will also have the right to terminate these provisions at any time following the date on which the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates exceeds 50% (not counting for such purpose any shares acquired by Invus and its affiliates from third parties in excess of 40% (or, if higher, its then pro rata amount) of the total number of outstanding shares of our common stock, as permitted by the standstill provisions of the stockholders’ agreement).

Invus has preemptive rights under the stockholders’ agreement to participate in future equity issuances by us (including this offering and any qualified offering), subject to certain exceptions, so as to maintain its then-current percentage ownership of our capital stock. Subject to certain limitations, Invus will be required to exercise its preemptive rights in advance with respect to certain marketed offerings, in which case it will be obligated to buy its pro rata share of the number of shares being offered in such marketed offering, including any overallotment (or such lesser amount specified in its exercise of such rights), so long as the sale of the shares were priced within a range within 10% above or below the market price on the date we notified Invus of the offering and we met certain other conditions.

 

The provisions of the stockholders’ agreement relating to preemptive rights will terminate on the earlier to occur of August 28, 2017 and the date on which the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates falls below 10%.

 

Invus is subject to standstill provisions restricting its ability to purchase or otherwise acquire additional shares of common stock from third parties to an amount that would result in its ownership of our common stock not exceeding 49% of the total number of shares outstanding. These standstill provisions will not apply to the acquisitions of securities by way of stock splits, stock dividends, reclassifications, recapitalizations, or other distributions by us, acquisitions contemplated by the securities purchase agreement and the stockholders’ agreement, including in the rights offerings and upon Invus’ exercise of preemptive rights under the stockholders’ agreement.

 

Except for acquisitions pursuant to the provisions described above, and subject to certain exceptions, Invus has agreed that it will not, and will cause its affiliates not to, without the approval of our unaffiliated board, directly or indirectly:

 

 

The standstill provisions of the stockholders’ agreement will terminate on the earliest to occur of (a) August 28, 2017, (b) the date on which the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates falls below 10%, (c) the date on which the percentage of all of the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates exceeds 50% (not counting for such purpose any shares acquired by Invus from third parties in excess of 40% (or, if higher, its then pro rata amount) of the total number of outstanding shares of common stock, as permitted by the standstill provisions of the stockholders’ agreement), (d) the date on which any third party makes a public proposal to acquire (by purchase, exchange, merger or otherwise) assets or business constituting 50% or more of our revenues, net income or assets or 50% of any class of our equity securities our board of directors recommends or approves, or proposes to recommend or approve, any such transaction or (e) the date on which any third party acquires beneficial ownership (by purchase, exchange, merger or otherwise) of assets or business constituting 20% or more of our revenues, net income or assets or 20% of any class of our equity securities or our board of directors recommends or approves, or proposes to recommend or approve, any such transaction.

 

Subject to certain exceptions, Invus has agreed that neither it nor its affiliates will sell any shares of common stock to third parties that are not affiliated with Invus if, to Invus’ knowledge, such transfer would result in any such third party (or any person or group including such third party) owning more than 14.9% of the total number of outstanding shares of our common stock.

 

The provisions of the stockholders’ agreement relating to sales to third parties will terminate on the earliest to occur of (a) August 28, 2017, (b) the date on which the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock

owned by Invus and its affiliates falls below 10%, and (c) the date on which the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates exceeds 50% (not counting for such purpose any shares acquired by Invus and its affiliates from third parties in excess of 40% (or, if higher, its then pro rata amount) of the total number of outstanding shares of our common stock, as permitted by the standstill provisions of the stockholders’ agreement).

 

In any election of persons to serve on our board of directors, Invus will be obligated to vote all of the shares of common stock held by it and its affiliates in favor of the directors nominated by our board of directors, as long as we have complied with our obligation with respect to the designation of members of our board of directors described above and the individuals designated by Invus for election to our board of directors have been nominated, and, if applicable, are serving on our board of directors. With respect to all other matters submitted to a vote of the holders of our common stock, Invus will be obligated to vote any shares that it acquired from third parties in excess of 40% (or, if higher, its then pro rata amount) of the total number of outstanding shares of common stock, as permitted by the standstill provisions of the stockholders’ agreement, in the same proportion as all the votes cast by other holders of our common stock, unless Invus and we (acting with the approval of the unaffiliated board) agree otherwise. Invus may vote all other shares of our common stock held by it in its sole discretion.

 

The provisions of the stockholders’ agreement relating to voting will terminate on the earliest to occur of (a) August 28, 2017, (b) the date on which the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock held by Invus and its affiliates falls below 10%, (c) the date on which the percentage of all outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates exceeds 50% (not counting for such purpose any shares acquired by Invus from third parties in excess of 40% (or, if higher, its then pro rata amount) of the total number of outstanding shares of our common stock, as permitted by the provisions of the stockholders’ agreement), and (d) the termination of the standstill provisions in accordance with the stockholders’ agreement.

 

Invus is entitled to certain minority protections, including consent rights over (a) the creation or issuance of any new class or series of shares of our capital stock (or securities convertible into or exercisable for shares of our capital stock) having rights, preferences or privileges senior to or on parity with our common stock, (b) any amendment to our certificate of incorporation or bylaws, or amendment to the certificate of incorporation or bylaws of any of our subsidiaries, in a manner adversely affecting Invus’ rights under the securities purchase agreement and the related agreements, (c) the repurchase, retirement, redemption or other acquisition of our or our subsidiaries’ capital stock (or securities convertible into or exercisable for shares of our or our subsidiaries’ capital stock), (d) any increase in the size of our board of directors to more than 12 members and (e) the adoption or proposed adoption of any stockholders’ rights plan, “poison pill” or other similar plan or agreement, unless Invus is exempt from the provisions of such plan or agreement.

 

The provisions of the stockholders’ agreement relating to minority protections will terminate on the earlier to occur of August 28, 2017 and the date on which Invus and its affiliates hold less than 15% of the total number of outstanding shares of our common stock.

 

If we are unable to meet Nasdaq continued listing requirements, Nasdaq may take action to delist our common stock.

 

Our common stock trades on The Nasdaq Global Market, which has qualitative and quantitative listing criteria, including operating results, net assets, corporate governance, minimum trading price and minimums for public float, which is the amount of stock not held by affiliates of the issuer. If we are unable to meet Nasdaq continued listing requirements, Nasdaq may take action to delist our common stock. A delisting of our common stock could negatively impact us and our shareholders by reducing the liquidity and market price of our common stock and potentially reducing the number of investors willing to hold or acquire our common stock.

Risks Related to this Offering

 

We have broad discretion in the use of the net proceeds from this offering and may not use them effectively.

 

As of the date of this prospectus supplement, we cannot specify with certainty the particular uses for the net proceeds we will receive from this offering. Management will have broad discretion in the application of the net proceeds, including any of the purposes described in “Use of Proceeds.” The failure by our management to apply these funds effectively could have a material adverse effect on our business.

 

Provisions contained in our charter documents and Delaware law may inhibit a takeover attempt, which could reduce or eliminate the likelihood of a change of control transaction and, therefore, the ability of our stockholders to sell their shares for a premium.

 

Provisions in our corporate charter and bylaws and applicable provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law may make it more difficult for a third party to acquire control of us without the approval of our board of directors. These provisions include:

 

 

These provisions may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve the payment of a premium over prevailing market prices of our common stock.

 

The availability of shares of our common stock for future sale could depress our stock price.

 

Upon completion of this offering, we will have outstanding an aggregate of 164,871,548 shares of common stock, assuming no exercise of outstanding options. Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public markets following this offering, or the perception that such sales might occur, could have a material adverse effect on the price of our common stock or could impair our future ability to obtain capital through offerings of our equity securities.

 

Our executive officers, directors and Invus have agreed pursuant to “lock-up” agreements that, subject to certain exceptions, for a period of 90 days from the date of this prospectus supplement, they will not sell any shares of common stock without the prior written consent of Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated. See “Underwriters.”

 

This prospectus supplement, the accompanying prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference into this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus contain certain information regarding our financial projections, plans and strategies that are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and 21E of the Exchange Act. We have attempted to identify forward-looking statements by terminology including “anticipate,” “believe,” “can,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “should” or “will” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements, which are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors may include, among other things, statements which address our strategy and operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future, such as projections of our future results of operations or of our financial condition, the status of any collaborative agreements or clinical trials, the expected timing of the completion of our ongoing clinical trials and the results of such trials, including top-line data, expected enrollment in our clinical trials, and our research and development efforts and anticipated trends in our business. Discussions containing forward-looking statements may be found, among other places, in the “Prospectus Supplement Summary” section of this prospectus supplement, as well as in the “Business” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of documents incorporated by reference herein.

 

We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events. However, there may be events in the future that we are not able to predict accurately or which we do not fully control that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. Many important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, including those discussed under “Risk Factors” in this prospectus supplement and other sections of the documents incorporated by reference into this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus. We undertake no obligation to publicly release any revisions to the forward-looking statements or reflect events or circumstances after the date of this prospectus supplement.

 

We estimate that the net proceeds from the sale of the 27,500,000 shares of common stock that we are offering will be approximately $48.1 million, based on an assumed public offering price of $1.83 per share, which is the reported last sale price of our common stock on October 6, 2009, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses. If the underwriters exercise their option to purchase 2,461,892 additional shares in this offering and Invus does not exercise its right to purchase additional shares from us sufficient to maintain its pro rata ownership of our common stock, we estimate the aggregate net proceeds to us will be approximately $52.4 million. If the underwriters exercise their option and Invus exercises its right to purchase an additional 1,663,108 shares from us sufficient to maintain its pro rata ownership of our common stock, we estimate the aggregate net proceeds to us will be approximately $55.4 million. To the extent the actual public offering price per share in this offering is higher or lower than $1.83 or the number of shares we elect to sell is greater or less than the number herein indicated, our net proceeds will be adjusted in proportion to such changes. We currently intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for research and development, including the Phase 2 clinical trials of our four most advanced drug candidates and our other preclinical research and development efforts. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds to acquire or invest in complementary products and technologies or for general corporate purposes. We have no current plans or commitments as to any such acquisition or investment.

 

The amounts that we actually expend for research and development, acquisitions, investments or general corporate purposes will vary significantly depending on a number of factors, including our future revenues, the amount of cash we generate from operations and the progress of our product development efforts. Accordingly, our management will retain broad discretion in the allocation of the net proceeds from this offering.

 

Pending such uses, we intend to invest the net proceeds from this offering in interest-bearing, investment-grade securities.

 

Our common stock is quoted on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “LXRX.” The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, the range of the high and low sales prices per share for our common stock as reported on The Nasdaq Global Market.

 

 

As of September 30, 2009, there were approximately 243 holders of record of our common stock. On October 6, 2009, the reported last sale price of our common stock on The Nasdaq Global Market was $1.83 per share.

 

We have never paid cash dividends on our common stock. We anticipate that we will retain all of our future earnings, if any, for use in the expansion and operation of our business and do not anticipate paying cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

 

The following table presents our unaudited capitalization and other data as of June 30, 2009 on an actual basis and as adjusted to give effect to (i) the sale by us of 27,500,000 shares of common stock in this offering at an assumed public offering price of $1.83 per share, after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses and (ii) the amendment to Article IV of our certificate of incorporation increasing the number of authorized shares of our common stock from 300,000,000 shares to 900,000,000 shares, which was approved by our stockholders on July 15, 2009. To the extent the actual public offering price per share in this offering is higher or lower than $1.83 or the number of shares we elect to sell is greater or less than the number herein indicated, our net proceeds will be adjusted in proportion to such changes. You should read the following table in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the related notes incorporated by reference into this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus.

 

 

 

The table above excludes 19,648,719 shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options outstanding as of June 30, 2009 at a weighted average exercise price of $4.18 per share and 11,862,063 shares of common stock available for future grant or issuance under our stock incentive plans.

 

As of June 30, 2009, our net tangible book value was approximately $125.3 million, or approximately $0.91 per share. Net tangible book value per share represents the amount of our total tangible assets, excluding goodwill and other intangible assets, less total liabilities divided by the 137,330,254 shares of our common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2009. After giving effect to our sale of 27,500,000 shares of common stock in this offering at the assumed public offering price of $1.83 per share, after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses, the net tangible book value as of June 30, 2009 would have been approximately $173.4 million, or approximately $1.05 per share. This represents an immediate increase in net tangible book value of $0.14 per share to existing stockholders and an immediate dilution in net tangible book value of $0.78 per share to new investors purchasing shares of common stock at the assumed public offering price.

 

The following table illustrates this dilution on a per share basis:

 

 

 

As of June 30, 2009, there were outstanding options to purchase a total of 19,648,719 shares of common stock at a weighted average exercise price of $4.18 per share. To the extent that any of these stock options are exercised, there may be further dilution to new public investors.

 

Under the terms and subject to the conditions contained in an underwriting agreement dated the date of this prospectus supplement, the underwriters named below for whom Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated is acting as representative, have severally agreed to purchase, and we have agreed to sell to them, severally, the number of shares of common stock indicated below:

 

 

The underwriters are offering the shares of common stock subject to their acceptance of the shares from us and subject to prior sale. The underwriting agreement provides that the obligations of the several underwriters to pay for and accept delivery of the shares of common stock offered by this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus are subject to the approval of various legal matters by their counsel and to other conditions. The underwriters are obligated to take and pay for all of the shares of common stock offered by this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus if any such shares are taken. However, the underwriters are not required to take or pay for the shares covered by the underwriters’ over-allotment option described below.

 

The underwriters initially propose to offer part of the shares of common stock directly to the public at the public offering price listed on the cover page of this prospectus supplement, less underwriting discounts and commissions, and part to certain dealers at a price that represents a concession not in excess of $      a share under the public offering price. No underwriter may allow and no dealer may re-allow, any concessions to other underwriters or to certain dealers. After the initial offering of the shares of common stock, the offering price and other selling terms may from time to time be varied by the representatives.

 

We have granted to the underwriters an option, exercisable for 30 days from the date of this prospectus supplement, to purchase up to an aggregate of           additional shares of common stock at the public offering price set forth on the cover page of this prospectus supplement, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The underwriters may exercise this option solely for the purpose of covering over-allotments, if any, made in connection with the offering of the shares of common stock offered by this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus. To the extent the option is exercised, each underwriter will become obligated, subject to certain conditions, to purchase about the same percentage of the additional shares of common stock as the number listed next to the underwriter’s name in the preceding table bears to the total number of shares of common stock listed next to the names of all underwriters in the preceding table.

 

The following table shows the per share and total underwriting discounts and commissions that we are to pay to the underwriters in connection with this offering. These amounts are shown assuming both no exercise and full exercise of the underwriters’ option.

 

 

The underwriters have informed us that they do not intend sales to discretionary accounts to exceed five percent of the total number of shares of common stock offered by them.

 

We, our directors and executive officers and Invus have agreed, without the prior written consent of Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated on behalf of the underwriters, during the period ending 90 days after the date of this prospectus supplement, not to:

 

 

 

whether any such transaction described above is to be settled by delivery of common stock or such other securities, in cash or otherwise. The restrictions described in this paragraph do not apply:

 

 

In order to facilitate the offering of the common stock, the underwriters may engage in transactions that stabilize, maintain or otherwise affect the price of the common stock. Specifically, the underwriters may sell more shares than they are obligated to purchase under the underwriting agreement, creating a short position. A short sale is covered if the short position is no greater than the number of shares available for purchase by the underwriters under the over-allotment option. The underwriters can close out a covered short sale by exercising the over-allotment option or purchasing shares in the open market. In determining the source of shares to close out a covered short sale, the underwriters will consider, among other things, the open market price of shares compared to the price available under the over-allotment option. The underwriters may also sell shares in excess of the over-allotment option, creating a naked short position. The underwriters must close out any naked short position by purchasing shares in the open market. A naked short position is more likely to be created if the underwriters are concerned that there may be downward pressure on the price of the common stock in the open market after pricing that could adversely affect investors who purchase in the offering. As an additional means of facilitating the offering, the underwriters may bid for, and purchase, shares of common stock in the open market to stabilize the price of the common stock. The underwriting syndicate may also reclaim selling concessions allowed to an underwriter or a dealer for distributing the common stock in the offering, if the syndicate repurchases previously distributed

common stock to cover syndicate short positions or to stabilize the price of the common stock. These activities may raise or maintain the market price of the common stock above independent market levels or prevent or retard a decline in the market price of the common stock. These transactions may be effected on The Nasdaq Global Market, in the over-the-counter market or otherwise. The underwriters are not required to engage in these activities, and may end any of these activities at any time.

 

We and the underwriters have agreed to indemnify each other against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act.

 

A prospectus supplement or accompanying prospectus in electronic format may be made available on the web sites maintained by one or more of the underwriters, and one or more of the underwriters may distribute prospectuses electronically. Other than the prospectus supplement or accompanying prospectus in electronic format, the information on any of these websites and any other information contained on a website maintained by an underwriter or syndicate member is not part of this prospectus supplement or accompanying prospectus. The underwriters may agree to allocate a number of shares to underwriters for sale to their online brokerage account holders. Internet distributions will be allocated by the underwriters that make Internet distributions on the same basis as other allocations.

 

European Economic Area

 

In relation to each Member State of the European Economic Area which has implemented the Prospectus Directive, each Manager has represented and agreed that with effect from and including the date on which the Prospectus Directive is implemented in that Member State it has not made and will not make an offer of our shares of common stock to the public in that Member State, except that it may, with effect from and including such date, make an offer of our shares of common stock to the public in that Member State:

 

(a) at any time to legal entities which are authorised or regulated to operate in the financial markets or, if not so authorised or regulated, whose corporate purpose is solely to invest in securities;

 

(b) at any time to any legal entity which has two or more of (1) an average of at least 250 employees during the last financial year; (2) a total balance sheet of more than €43,000,000 and (3) an annual net turnover of more than €50,000,000, as shown in its last annual or consolidated accounts; or

 

(c) at any time in any other circumstances which do not require the publication by us of a prospectus pursuant to Article 3 of the Prospectus Directive.

 

For the purposes of the above, the expression an “offer of shares to the public” in relation to any our shares of common stock in any Member State means the communication in any form and by any means of sufficient information on the terms of the offer and the our shares of common stock to be offered so as to enable an investor to decide to purchase or subscribe the our shares of common stock, as the same may be varied in that Member State by any measure implementing the Prospectus Directive in that Member State and the expression Prospectus Directive means Directive 2003/71/EC and includes any relevant implementing measure in that Member State.

 

United Kingdom

 

Each underwriter has represented and agreed that it has only communicated or caused to be communicated and will only communicate or cause to be communicated an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity (within the meaning of Section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000) in connection with the issue or sale of the our shares of common stock in circumstances in which Section 21(1) of such Act does not apply to us and it has complied and will comply with all applicable provisions of such Act with respect to anything done by it in relation to any our shares of common stock in, from or otherwise involving the United Kingdom.

 

Vinson & Elkins L.L.P., Houston, Texas, will pass upon the validity of the shares of common stock offered by this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus for us. Certain legal matters in connection with this offering will be passed upon for the underwriters by Ropes & Gray LLP, Boston, Massachusetts.

 

Ernst & Young LLP, independent registered public accounting firm, has audited our consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2008 included in our Current Report on Form 8-K filed on September 2, 2009, as set forth in their report, which is incorporated by reference in this prospectus supplement. Our financial statements are incorporated by reference in reliance on Ernst & Young LLP’s report, given on their authority as experts in accounting and auditing.

 

We file reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC. You may read and copy the reports, proxy statements and other information that we file with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, D.C. 20549. Please call the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330 for information about the operation of its Public Reference Room and for its prescribed rates to obtain copies of such material. The SEC also maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding registrants, like us, that file electronically with the SEC. The address of the SEC’s Internet site is http://www.sec.gov. Our website is http://www.lexpharma.com.

 

Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and other filings with the SEC are available, free of charge, through our website, as soon as reasonably practicable after those reports or filings are electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC. Information on our website or any other website is not incorporated by reference into this prospectus supplement or the accompanying prospectus and does not constitute a part of this prospectus supplement or the accompanying prospectus.

 

This prospectus supplement is part of a registration statement we filed with the SEC relating to the securities we may offer. As permitted by SEC rules, this prospectus supplement does not contain all of the information we have included in the registration statement and the accompanying exhibits and schedules we filed with the SEC. You may refer to the registration statement, exhibits and schedules for more information about us and the securities. The registration statements, exhibits and schedules are available at the SEC’s public reference room or through its website.

 

The SEC allows us to “incorporate by reference” the information we have filed with it, which means that we can disclose important information by referring you to those documents. The information we incorporate by reference is an important part of this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, and later information that we file with the SEC will automatically update and supersede this information. We incorporate by reference into this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus any future documents filed with the SEC under Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act subsequent to the date of this prospectus supplement and prior to the termination of the offering.

 

$150,000,000

 

 

 

 

Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

 

 

Common Stock
Preferred Stock
Debt Securities
Warrants
Rights
Units

 

 

 

 

We may offer common stock, preferred stock, debt securities, warrants and/or rights, either individually or in units, from time to time in one or more offerings in amounts, at prices and on terms to be determined in light of market conditions at the time of sale. We may also offer common stock or preferred stock upon conversion of debt securities, common stock upon conversion of preferred stock or common stock, preferred stock or debt securities upon the exercise of warrants or rights.

 

Each time we sell these securities, we will provide a supplement to this prospectus that contains specific information about the offering. The supplement may also add, update or change information contained in this prospectus. You should carefully read this prospectus and any supplement before you invest.

 

Our common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “LXRX”. The prospectus supplement will contain information, where applicable, regarding any other listing on The Nasdaq Global Market or any securities exchange of the securities covered by the prospectus supplement. The reported last sale price of our common stock on September 1, 2009 was $1.35 per share.

 

Investing in our securities involves risks. See “Risk Factors” on page 2.

 

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

 

 

The date of this prospectus is September 18, 2009.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

 

You should rely only on the information contained in this prospectus and documents incorporated into this prospectus by reference. We have not authorized anyone to provide you with information different from that contained in this prospectus or the documents incorporated by reference herein. This prospectus may only be used where it is legal to sell these securities. The information contained in this prospectus, the documents incorporated by reference herein and any supplements to this prospectus is accurate only as of the dates of their respective covers or earlier dates as specified therein, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or any supplement to this prospectus or of any sale of our common stock.

 

 

In this prospectus, “Lexicon,” “Lexicon Pharmaceuticals,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its subsidiaries.

 

 

The Lexicon name and logo, LexVision^® and OmniBank^® are registered trademarks and Genome5000^tm is a trademark of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

 

LEXICON PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.

 

 

You should carefully consider the risk factors and all other information contained in this prospectus and any prospectus supplement and incorporated herein by reference before purchasing our securities. Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk.

 

For a discussion of these risks, please see:

 

 

For more information about our SEC filings, please see “Where You Can Find More Information” and “Documents Incorporated By Reference” on page 24 of this prospectus. See also “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” on page 20 of this prospectus.

 

Our authorized capital stock consists of 900 million shares of common stock, $0.001 par value, and five million shares of preferred stock, $0.01 par value. As of September 1, 2009, there were 137,262,363 shares of our common stock issued and outstanding, 67,891 shares of our common stock issued and held in treasury and no shares of preferred stock outstanding.

 

The following summary description of our capital stock is based on the provisions of our restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, restated bylaws and the applicable provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law. This information may not be complete in all respects and is qualified entirely by reference to the provisions of our restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, restated bylaws and the Delaware General Corporation Law. For information on how to obtain copies of our restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, and restated bylaws, see “Where You Can Find More Information” on page 23 of this prospectus.

 

Common Stock

 

The holders of common stock are entitled to one vote for each share held of record on all matters submitted to a vote of the stockholders and do not have cumulative voting rights. Accordingly, holders of a majority of the shares of common stock entitled to vote in any election of directors may elect all of the directors standing for election. Subject to preferences that may be applicable to any outstanding shares of preferred stock, the holders of common stock are entitled to receive ratably such dividends as may be declared by the board of directors out of funds legally available therefor. Upon the liquidation, dissolution or winding up of Lexicon, holders of our common stock are entitled to share ratably in all assets remaining after payment of liabilities and the liquidation preferences of any outstanding shares of preferred stock. Holders of common stock have no preemptive rights and no right to convert their common stock into any other securities. There are no redemption or sinking fund provisions applicable to our common stock. All outstanding shares of our common stock are, and all shares of common stock that may be issued under this prospectus will be, fully paid and non-assessable.

 

Preferred Stock

 

Pursuant to our restated certificate of incorporation, our board of directors has the authority, without further action by the stockholders, to issue up to five million shares of preferred stock, in one or more series. Our board of directors is authorized to fix or alter from time to time the designation, powers, preferences and rights of the shares of each series of preferred stock, including dividend rights, conversion rights, voting rights, terms of redemption, liquidation preferences and sinking fund terms. Our board of directors may also establish from time to time the number of shares constituting any series of preferred stock, and to increase or decrease the number of shares of any series subsequent to the issuance of shares of that series, but not below the number of shares of any series then outstanding.

 

We will fix the rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions of the preferred stock of each series in the certificate of designation relating to that series. We will incorporate by reference as an exhibit to the registration

statement that includes this prospectus or as an exhibit to a report filed under the Exchange Act, the form of any certificate of designation that describes the terms of the series of preferred stock we are offering before the issuance of the related series of preferred stock. This description will include:

 

 

If we issue shares of preferred stock under this prospectus, the shares will be fully paid and non-assessable and will not have, or be subject to, any preemptive or similar rights.

 

The Delaware General Corporation Law provides that the holders of preferred stock will have the right to vote separately as a class on any proposal involving fundamental changes in the rights of holders of that preferred stock. This right is in addition to any voting rights that may be provided for in the applicable certificate of designation.

 

The issuance of preferred stock could adversely affect the voting power, conversion or other rights of holders of common stock. Preferred stock could be issued quickly with terms designed to delay or prevent a change in control of our company or make removal of management more difficult. Additionally, the issuance of preferred stock may have the effect of decreasing the market price of our common stock.

 

Arrangements with Invus, L.P.

 

In June 2007, we entered into a securities purchase agreement with Invus, L.P., pursuant to which Invus purchased 50,824,986 shares of our common stock for approximately $205.4 million in August 2007. This purchase resulted in Invus’ ownership of 40% of the post-transaction outstanding shares of our common stock. Pursuant to the securities purchase agreement, Invus, at its option, also has the right to require us to initiate up to two pro rata rights offerings to our stockholders, which would provide all stockholders with non-transferable rights to acquire shares of our common stock, in an aggregate amount of up to $344.5 million, less the proceeds of any “qualified offerings” that we may complete in the interim involving the sale of our common stock at prices above $4.50 per share. Invus

may exercise its right to require us to conduct the first rights offering by giving us notice within a period of 90 days beginning on November 28, 2009 (which we refer to as the first rights offering trigger date), although we and Invus may agree to change the first rights offering trigger date with the approval of the members of our board of directors who are not affiliated with Invus. Invus may exercise its right to require us to conduct the second rights offering by giving us notice within a period of 90 days beginning on the date that is 12 months after Invus’ exercise of its right to require us to conduct the first rights offering or, if Invus does not exercise its right to require us to conduct the first rights offering, within a period of 90 days beginning on the first anniversary of the first rights offering trigger date. The initial investment and subsequent rights offerings, combined with any qualified offerings, were designed to achieve up to $550 million in proceeds to us. Invus would participate in each rights offering for up to its pro rata portion of the offering, and would commit to purchase the entire portion of the offering not subscribed for by other stockholders.

 

Board of Directors.  Concurrently with the execution of the securities purchase agreement, we entered into a stockholders’ agreement with Invus under which Invus has the right to designate the greater of three members or 30% (or the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates, if less than 30%) of all members of our board of directors, rounded up to the nearest whole number of directors, and pursuant to which Invus has designated Philippe J. Amouyal, Raymond Debbane and Christopher J. Sobecki.

 

In the event that the number of shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates ever exceeds 50% of the total number of shares of our common stock then outstanding (not counting for such purpose any shares acquired by Invus from third parties in excess of 40% (or, if higher, its then pro rata amount) of the total number of outstanding shares of common stock, as permitted by the standstill provisions of the stockholders’ agreement), from and after that time, Invus will have the right to designate a number of directors equal to the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates (not counting for such purpose any shares acquired by Invus from third parties in excess of 40% (or, if higher, its then pro rata amount) of the total number of outstanding shares of common stock, as permitted by the standstill provisions of the stockholders’ agreement), rounded up to the nearest whole number of directors. The directors appointed by Invus have proportionate representation on the compensation committee and corporate governance committee of our board of directors.

 

Invus’ rights with respect to the designation of members of our board of directors and its compensation and corporate governance committees will terminate if the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates falls below 10%. Invus will also have the right to terminate these provisions at any time following the date on which the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates exceeds 50% (not counting for such purpose any shares acquired by Invus and its affiliates from third parties in excess of 40% (or, if higher, its then pro rata amount) of the total number of outstanding shares of our common stock, as permitted by the standstill provisions of the stockholders’ agreement).

 

Preemptive Rights.  Invus has preemptive rights under the stockholders’ agreement to participate in future equity issuances by us (including any qualified offering), subject to certain exceptions, so as to maintain its then-current percentage ownership of our capital stock. Subject to certain limitations, Invus will be required to exercise its preemptive rights in advance with respect to certain marketed offerings, in which case it will be obligated to buy its pro rata share of the number of shares being offered in such marketed offering, including any overallotment (or such lesser amount specified in its exercise of such rights), so long as the sale of the shares were priced within a range within 10% above or below the market price on the date we notified Invus of the offering and we met certain other conditions.

 

The provisions of the stockholders’ agreement relating to preemptive rights will terminate on the earlier to occur of August 28, 2017 and the date on which the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates falls below 10%.

 

Standstill Provisions.  Invus is subject to standstill provisions restricting its ability to purchase or otherwise acquire additional shares of common stock from third parties to an amount that would result in its ownership of our common stock not exceeding 49% of the total number of shares outstanding. These standstill provisions will not apply to the acquisitions of securities by way of stock splits, stock dividends, reclassifications, recapitalizations, or other distributions by us, acquisitions contemplated by the securities purchase agreement and the stockholders’

agreement, including in the rights offerings and upon Invus’ exercise of preemptive rights under the stockholders’ agreement.

 

Except for acquisitions pursuant to the provisions described above, and subject to certain exceptions, Invus has agreed that it will not, and will cause its affiliates not to, without the approval of our unaffiliated board, directly or indirectly:

 

 

The standstill provisions of the stockholders’ agreement will terminate on the earliest to occur of (a) August 28, 2017, (b) the date on which the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates falls below 10%, (c) the date on which the percentage of all of the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates exceeds 50% (not counting for such purpose any shares acquired by Invus from third parties in excess of 40% (or, if higher, its then pro rata amount) of the total number of outstanding shares of common stock, as permitted by the standstill provisions of the stockholders’ agreement), (d) the date on which any third party makes a public proposal to acquire (by purchase, exchange, merger or otherwise) assets or business constituting 50% or more of our revenues, net income or assets or 50% of any class of our equity securities or our board of directors recommends or approves, or proposes to recommend or approve, any such transaction or (e) the date on which any third party acquires beneficial ownership (by purchase, exchange, merger or otherwise) of assets or business constituting 20% or more of our revenues, net income or assets or 20% of any class of our equity securities or our board of directors recommends or approves, or proposes to recommend or approve, any such transaction.

 

Sales to Third Parties.  Subject to certain exceptions, Invus has agreed that neither it nor its affiliates will sell any shares of common stock to third parties that are not affiliated with Invus if, to Invus’ knowledge, such transfer would result in any such third party (or any person or group including such third party) owning more than 14.9% of the total number of outstanding shares of our common stock.

 

The provisions of the stockholders’ agreement relating to sales to third parties will terminate on the earliest to occur of (a) August 28, 2017, (b) the date on which the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates falls below 10%, and (c) the date on which the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates exceeds 50% (not counting for such purpose any shares acquired by Invus and its affiliates from third parties in excess of 40% (or, if higher, its then pro rata amount) of the total number of outstanding shares of our common stock, as permitted by the standstill provisions of the stockholders’ agreement).

 

Voting of Shares.  In any election of persons to serve on our board of directors, Invus will be obligated to vote all of the shares of common stock held by it and its affiliates in favor of the directors nominated by our board of directors, as long as we have complied with our obligation with respect to the designation of members of our board of directors described above and the individuals designated by Invus for election to our board of directors have been nominated, and, if applicable, are serving on our board of directors. With respect to all other matters submitted to a vote of the holders of our common stock, Invus will be obligated to vote any shares that it acquired from third parties in excess of 40% (or, if higher, its then pro rata amount) of the total number of outstanding shares of common stock, as permitted by the standstill provisions of the stockholders’ agreement, in the same proportion as all the votes cast by other holders of our common stock, unless Invus and we (acting with the approval of the unaffiliated board) agree otherwise. Invus may vote all other shares of our common stock held by it in its sole discretion.

The provisions of the stockholders’ agreement relating to voting will terminate on the earliest to occur of (a) August 28, 2017, (b) the date on which the percentage of all the outstanding shares of our common stock held by Invus and its affiliates falls below 10%, (c) the date on which the percentage of all outstanding shares of our common stock owned by Invus and its affiliates exceeds 50% (not counting for such purpose any shares acquired by Invus from third parties in excess of 40% (or, if higher, its then pro rata amount) of the total number of outstanding shares of our common stock, as permitted by the provisions of the stockholders’ agreement), and (d) the termination of the standstill provisions in accordance with the stockholders’ agreement.

 

Minority Protections.  Invus is entitled to certain minority protections, including consent rights over (a) the creation or issuance of any new class or series of shares of our capital stock (or securities convertible into or exercisable for shares of our capital stock) having rights, preferences or privileges senior to or on parity with our common stock, (b) any amendment to our certificate of incorporation or bylaws, or amendment to the certificate of incorporation or bylaws of any of our subsidiaries, in a manner adversely affecting Invus’ rights under the securities purchase agreement and the related agreements, (c) the repurchase, retirement, redemption or other acquisition of our or our subsidiaries’ capital stock (or securities convertible into or exercisable for shares of our or our subsidiaries’ capital stock), (d) any increase in the size of our board of directors to more than 12 members and (e) the adoption or proposed adoption of any stockholders’ rights plan, “poison pill” or other similar plan or agreement, unless Invus is exempt from the provisions of such plan or agreement.

 

The provisions of the stockholders’ agreement relating to minority protections will terminate on the earlier to occur of August 28, 2017 and the date on which Invus and its affiliates hold less than 15% of the total number of outstanding shares of our common stock.

 

Registration Rights.  Concurrently with the execution of the securities purchase agreement, we entered into a registration rights agreement with Invus, pursuant to which Invus has certain registration rights with respect to shares of our common stock acquired by Invus under the securities purchase agreement. These registration rights require, among other things, that if we propose to register any of our securities under the Securities Act of 1933, or Securities Act, either for our own account or for the account of others, Invus is entitled to notice of the registration and is entitled to include, at our expense, its shares of common stock in the registration and any related underwriting, provided, among other conditions, that the underwriters may limit the number of shares to be included in the registration and in some cases exclude these shares entirely. Invus has waived these registration rights with respect to any offerings of our securities pursuant to this prospectus. In addition, Invus may require us, at our expense and subject to certain limitations, to file a registration statement under the Securities Act with respect to its shares of our common stock.

 

Anti-Takeover Effects of Provisions of Delaware Law and Our Charter Documents

 

Delaware Takeover Statute.  We are subject to the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. In general, the statute prohibits a publicly-held Delaware corporation such as Lexicon from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person became an interested stockholder, unless the business combination is approved in a prescribed manner. For purposes of Section 203, a business combination includes a merger, asset sale or other transaction resulting in a financial benefit to the interested stockholder. An interested stockholder is a person who, together with affiliates and associates, owns (or within three years prior, did own) 15% or more of our voting stock.

 

Charter Documents.  Our restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, requires that any action required or permitted to be taken by our stockholders must be effected at a duly called annual or special meeting of stockholders and may not be effected by a consent in writing. Additionally, our restated certificate of incorporation, as amended:

 

 

 

Our restated bylaws provide that candidates for director may be nominated only by our board of directors or by a stockholder who gives written notice to us not less than 120 days nor more than 150 days in advance of the first anniversary of the date of our proxy statement relating to the previous year’s annual meeting of stockholders. The authorized number of directors is fixed in accordance with our restated certificate of incorporation, as amended. Our board of directors currently consists of ten members, divided into three classes. As a result, a portion of the board of directors will be elected each year. The board of directors may appoint new directors to fill vacancies or newly created directorships. Our restated bylaws also limit who may call a special meeting of stockholders.

 

Delaware law and these charter provisions may have the effect of deterring hostile takeovers or delaying changes in control of our management, which could depress the market price of our common stock.

 

Transfer Agent and Registrar

 

The transfer agent and registrar for our common stock is BNY Mellon Shareowner Services. The transfer agent for any series of preferred stock will be named and described in the prospectus supplement for that series.

 

The following description, together with the additional information we may include in any applicable prospectus supplements, summarizes the material terms and provisions of the debt securities that we may offer under this prospectus and the related indenture. While the terms summarized below will apply generally to any debt securities we may offer under this prospectus, we will describe the particular terms of any debt securities that we may offer in more detail in the applicable prospectus supplement. If we indicate in the prospectus supplement, the terms of any debt securities offered under that prospectus supplement may differ from the terms described below. However, no prospectus supplement shall fundamentally change the terms that are set forth in this prospectus or offer a security that is not registered and described in this prospectus at the time of its effectiveness.

 

We may offer debt securities in the form of either senior debt securities or subordinated debt securities. Unless otherwise specified in a supplement to this prospectus, the debt securities will be our direct, unsecured obligations and will rank equally with all of our other unsecured and unsubordinated indebtedness.

 

The debt securities will be issued under an indenture between us and a trustee. The following summary of the general features of the debt securities to be governed by the indenture is subject to, and qualified in its entirety by reference to, the provisions of the indenture applicable to a particular series of debt securities. We have filed a form of indenture as an exhibit to the registration statement which includes this prospectus. Capitalized terms used in the summary have the meanings specified in the indenture.

 

General

 

The terms of each series of debt securities will be established by or pursuant to a resolution of our board of directors, or a committee thereof, and set forth or determined in the manner provided in an officer’s certificate or by a supplemental indenture. The particular terms of each series of debt securities will be described in a prospectus supplement relating to such series, including any pricing supplement.

 

We can issue an unlimited amount of debt securities under the indenture that may be in one or more series with the same or various maturities, at par, at a premium or at a discount. We will set forth in a prospectus supplement, including any pricing supplement, relating to any series of debt securities being offered, the aggregate principal amount and the following terms of the debt securities:

 

 

 

We may issue debt securities that provide for an amount less than their stated principal amount to be due and payable upon declaration of acceleration of their maturity pursuant to the terms of the indenture. We will provide you with information on the federal income tax considerations and other special considerations applicable to any of these debt securities in the applicable prospectus supplement.

 

If we denominate the purchase price of any of the debt securities in a foreign currency or currencies or a foreign currency unit or units, or if the principal of, and premium and interest on, any series of debt securities is payable in a foreign currency or currencies or a foreign currency unit or units, we will provide you with information on the restrictions, elections, general tax considerations, specific terms and other information with respect to that issue of debt securities and such foreign currency or currencies or foreign currency unit or units in the applicable prospectus supplement.

 

Transfer and Exchange

 

Each debt security will be represented by either one or more global securities registered in the name of The Depository Trust Company, as Depositary, or a nominee (we will refer to any debt security represented by a global debt security as a “book-entry debt security”), or a certificate issued in definitive registered form (we will refer to any debt security represented by a certificated security as a “certificated debt security”) as set forth in the applicable prospectus supplement. Except as set forth under the heading “Legal Ownership of Securities” below, book-entry securities will not be issuable in certificated form.

 

You may transfer or exchange certificated debt securities at any office we maintain for this purpose in accordance with the terms of the indenture. No service charge will be made for any transfer or exchange of certificated debt securities, but we may require payment of a sum sufficient to cover any tax or other governmental charge payable in connection with a transfer or exchange.

 

You may effect the transfer of certificated debt securities and the right to receive the principal of, and any premium and interest on, certificated debt securities only by surrendering the certificate representing those certificated debt securities and either reissuance by us or the trustee of the certificate to the new holder or the issuance by us or the trustee of a new certificate to the new holder.

 

No Protection in the Event of a Change of Control

 

Unless we state otherwise in the applicable prospectus supplement, the debt securities will not contain any provisions which may afford holders of the debt securities protection in the event we have a change in control or in the event of a highly leveraged transaction (whether or not such transaction results in a change in control) which could adversely affect holders of debt securities.

 

Covenants

 

We will set forth in the applicable prospectus supplement any restrictive covenants applicable to any issue of debt securities.

 

Consolidation, Merger and Sale of Assets

 

We may not consolidate with or merge with or into, or convey, transfer or lease all or substantially all of our properties and assets to, any person, which we refer to as a successor person, unless:

 

 

Events of Default

 

Event of default means, with respect to any series of debt securities, any of the following:

 

 

No event of default with respect to a particular series of debt securities (except as to certain events of bankruptcy, insolvency or reorganization) necessarily constitutes an event of default with respect to any other series of debt securities. The occurrence of an event of default may constitute an event of default under our bank credit agreements in existence from time to time. In addition, the occurrence of certain events of default or an acceleration under the indenture may constitute an event of default under certain of our other indebtedness outstanding from time to time.

 

If an event of default with respect to debt securities of any series at the time outstanding occurs and is continuing, then the trustee or the holders of not less than a majority in principal amount of the outstanding debt securities of that series may, by a notice in writing to us (and to the trustee if given by the holders), declare to be due and payable immediately the principal (or, if the debt securities of that series are discount securities, that portion of the principal amount as may be specified in the terms of that series) of, and accrued and unpaid interest, if any, on all debt securities of that series. In the case of an event of default resulting from certain events of bankruptcy, insolvency or reorganization, the principal (or such specified amount) of and accrued and unpaid interest, if any, on all outstanding debt securities will become and be immediately due and payable without any declaration or other act on the part of the trustee or any holder of outstanding debt securities. At any time after a declaration of acceleration with respect to debt securities of any series has been made, but before a judgment or decree for payment of the money due has been obtained by the trustee, the holders of a majority in principal amount of the outstanding debt securities of that series may rescind and annul the acceleration if all events of default, other than the non-payment of accelerated principal and interest, if any, with respect to debt securities of that series, have been cured or waived as provided in the indenture. We refer you to the prospectus supplement relating to any series of debt securities that are discount securities for the particular provisions relating to acceleration of a portion of the principal amount of such discount securities upon the occurrence of an event of default.

 

The indenture provides that the trustee will be under no obligation to exercise any of its rights or powers under the indenture at the request of any holder of outstanding debt securities, unless the trustee receives indemnity satisfactory to it against any loss, liability or expense. Subject to certain rights of the trustee, the holders of a majority in principal amount of the outstanding debt securities of any series will have the right to direct the time, method and place of conducting any proceeding for any remedy available to the trustee or exercising any trust or power conferred on the trustee with respect to the debt securities of that series.

No holder of any debt security of any series will have any right to institute any proceeding, judicial or otherwise, with respect to the indenture or for the appointment of a receiver or trustee, or for any remedy under the indenture, unless:

 

 

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the holder of any debt security will have an absolute and unconditional right to receive payment of the principal of, and any premium and interest on, that debt security on or after the due dates expressed in that debt security and to institute suit for the enforcement of payment.

 

If any securities are outstanding under the indenture, the indenture requires us, within 120 days after the end of our fiscal year, to furnish to the trustee a statement as to compliance with the indenture. The indenture provides that the trustee may withhold notice to the holders of debt securities of any series of any default or event of default (except in payment on any debt securities of that series) with respect to debt securities of that series if it in good faith determines that withholding notice is in the interest of the holders of those debt securities.

 

Modification and Waiver

 

We may modify and amend the indenture with the consent of the holders of at least a majority in principal amount of the outstanding debt securities of each series affected by the modifications or amendments. We may not make any modification or amendment without the consent of the holders of each affected debt security then outstanding if that amendment will:

 

 

Except for certain specified provisions, the holders of at least a majority in principal amount of the outstanding debt securities of any series may on behalf of the holders of all debt securities of that series waive our compliance with provisions of the indenture. The holders of a majority in principal amount of the outstanding debt securities of any series may on behalf of the holders of all the debt securities of such series waive any past default under the indenture with respect to that series and its consequences, except a default in the payment of the principal of, or any premium or interest on, any debt security of that series or in respect of a covenant or provision, which cannot be

modified or amended without the consent of the holder of each outstanding debt security of the series affected; provided, however, that the holders of a majority in principal amount of the outstanding debt securities of any series may rescind an acceleration and its consequences, including any related payment default that resulted from the acceleration.

 

Defeasance of Debt Securities and Certain Covenants in Certain Circumstances

 

Legal Defeasance.  The indenture provides that, unless otherwise provided by the terms of the applicable series of debt securities, we may be discharged from any and all obligations in respect of the debt securities of any series (except for certain obligations to register the transfer or exchange of debt securities of such series, to replace stolen, lost or mutilated debt securities of such series, and to maintain paying agencies and certain provisions relating to the treatment of funds held by paying agents). We will be so discharged upon the deposit with the trustee, in trust, of money and/or U.S. government obligations or, in the case of debt securities denominated in a single currency other than U.S. dollars, foreign government obligations, that, through the payment of interest and principal in accordance with their terms, will provide money in an amount sufficient in the opinion of a nationally recognized firm of independent public accountants to pay and discharge each installment of principal of, premium and interest on and any mandatory sinking fund payments in respect of the debt securities of that series on the stated maturity of those payments in accordance with the terms of the indenture and those debt securities.

 

This discharge may occur only if, among other things, we have delivered to the trustee an opinion of counsel stating that we have received from, or there has been published by, the United States Internal Revenue Service a ruling or, since the date of execution of the indenture, there has been a change in the applicable United States federal income tax law, in either case to the effect that, and based thereon such opinion shall confirm that, the holders of the debt securities of that series will not recognize income, gain or loss for United States federal income tax purposes as a result of the deposit, defeasance and discharge and will be subject to United States federal income tax on the same amounts and in the same manner and at the same times as would have been the case if the deposit, defeasance and discharge had not occurred.

 

Defeasance of Certain Covenants.  The indenture provides that, unless otherwise provided by the terms of the applicable series of debt securities, upon compliance with certain conditions:

 

 

The conditions include:

 

 

Covenant Defeasance and Events of Default.  In the event we exercise our option to effect covenant defeasance with respect to any series of debt securities and the debt securities of that series are declared due and payable because of the occurrence of any event of default, the amount of money and/or U.S. government

obligations or foreign government obligations on deposit with the trustee will be sufficient to pay amounts due on the debt securities of that series at the time of their stated maturity but may not be sufficient to pay amounts due on the debt securities of that series at the time of the acceleration resulting from the event of default. In such a case, we would remain liable for those payments.

 

“Foreign Government Obligations” means, with respect to debt securities of any series that are denominated in a currency other than U.S. dollars:

 

 

Governing Law

 

The indenture and the debt securities will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York.

 

The following description, together with the additional information we may include in any applicable prospectus supplements, summarizes the material terms and provisions of the warrants that we may offer under this prospectus and the related warrant agreements and warrant certificates. While the terms summarized below will apply generally to any warrants that we may offer under this prospectus, we will describe the particular terms of any series of warrants that we may offer in more detail in the applicable prospectus supplement. If we indicate in the prospectus supplement, the terms of any warrants offered under that prospectus supplement may differ from the terms described below. However, no prospectus supplement shall fundamentally change the terms that are set forth in this prospectus or offer a security that is not registered and described in this prospectus at the time of its effectiveness. Specific warrant agreements will contain additional important terms and provisions and will be incorporated by reference as an exhibit to the registration statement that includes this prospectus or as an exhibit to a report filed under the Exchange Act.

 

General

 

We will describe in the applicable prospectus supplement the terms of the series of warrants, including:

 

 

 

Before exercising their warrants, holders of warrants will not have any of the rights of holders of the securities purchasable upon such exercise, including:

 

 

Exercise of Warrants

 

Each warrant will entitle the holder to purchase the securities that we specify in the applicable prospectus supplement at the exercise price that we describe in the applicable prospectus supplement. Unless we otherwise specify in the applicable prospectus supplement, holders of the warrants may exercise the warrants at any time up to the specified time on the expiration date that we set forth in the applicable prospectus supplement. After the close of business on the expiration date, unexercised warrants will become void.

 

Holders of the warrants may exercise the warrants by delivering the warrant certificate representing the warrants to be exercised together with specified information, and paying the required amount to the warrant agent in immediately available funds, as provided in the applicable prospectus supplement. We will set forth on the reverse side of the warrant certificate and in the applicable prospectus supplement the information that the holder of the warrant will be required to deliver to the warrant agent.

 

Upon receipt of the required payment and the warrant certificate properly completed and duly executed at the corporate trust office of the warrant agent or any other office indicated in the applicable prospectus supplement, we will issue and deliver the securities purchasable upon such exercise. If fewer than all of the warrants represented by the warrant certificate are exercised, then we will issue a new warrant certificate for the remaining amount of warrants. If we so indicate in the applicable prospectus supplement, holders of the warrants may surrender securities as all or part of the exercise price for warrants.

 

Governing Law

 

The warrants and warrant agreements will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York.

 

Enforceability of Rights by Holders of Warrants

 

Each warrant agent will act solely as our agent under the applicable warrant agreement and will not assume any obligation or relationship of agency or trust with any holder of any warrant. A single bank or trust company may act as warrant agent for more than one issue of warrants. A warrant agent will have no duty or responsibility in case of any default by us under the applicable warrant agreement or warrant, including any duty or responsibility to initiate any proceedings at law or otherwise, or to make any demand upon us. Any holder of a warrant may, without the consent of the related warrant agent or the holder of any other warrant, enforce by appropriate legal action its right to exercise, and receive the securities purchasable upon exercise of, its warrants.

 

The following description, together with the additional information we may include in any applicable prospectus supplements, summarizes the material terms and provisions of the rights that we may offer under this prospectus and the related rights agreements. While the terms summarized below will apply generally to any rights that we may offer under this prospectus, we will describe the particular terms of any series of rights that we may offer in more detail in the applicable prospectus supplement. If we indicate in the prospectus supplement, the terms of any rights offered under that prospectus supplement may differ from the terms described below. However, no prospectus supplement shall fundamentally change the terms that are set forth in this prospectus or offer a security that is not registered and described in this prospectus at the time of its effectiveness. Specific rights agreements will contain additional important terms and provisions and will be incorporated by reference as an exhibit to the registration statement that includes this prospectus or as an exhibit to a report filed under the Exchange Act.

 

General

 

We may issue rights to purchase common stock, preferred stock, debt securities or other securities. These rights may be issued independently or together with any other security offered hereby and may or may not be transferable by the stockholder receiving the rights in such offering. In connection with any offering of such rights, we may enter into a standby arrangement with one or more underwriters or other purchasers pursuant to which the underwriters or other purchasers may be required to purchase any securities remaining unsubscribed for after such offering.

 

Each series of rights will be issued under a separate rights agreement which we will enter into with a bank or trust company, as rights agent, all as set forth in the applicable prospectus supplement. The rights agent will act solely as our agent in connection with the certificates relating to the rights and will not assume any obligation or relationship of agency or trust with any holders of rights certificates or beneficial owners of rights. We will file the rights agreement and the rights certificates relating to each series of rights with the SEC, and incorporate them by reference as an exhibit to the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part on or before the time we issue a series of rights.

 

We will describe in the applicable prospectus supplement the terms of the series of rights, including:

 

 

The description in the applicable prospectus supplement of any rights that we may offer will not necessarily be complete and will be qualified in its entirety by reference to the applicable rights certificate, which will be filed with the SEC.

Exercise of Rights

 

Each right will entitle the holder of the right to purchase for cash such amount of shares of common stock, preferred stock, debt securities or other securities at such exercise price as shall in each case be set forth in, or be determinable as set forth in, the prospectus supplement relating to the rights offered thereby. Rights may be exercised at any time up to the close of business on the expiration date for such rights set forth in the prospectus supplement. After the close of business on the expiration date, all unexercised rights will become void.

 

Rights may be exercised as set forth in the prospectus supplement relating to the rights offered thereby. Upon receipt of payment and the rights certificate properly completed and duly executed at the corporate trust office of the rights agent or any other office indicated in the prospectus supplement, we will forward, as soon as practicable, the shares of common stock, preferred stock, debt securities or other securities purchasable upon such exercise. We may determine to offer any unsubscribed offered securities directly to persons other than stockholders, to or through agents, underwriters or dealers or through a combination of such methods, including pursuant to standby underwriting arrangements, as set forth in the applicable prospectus supplement.

 

Governing Law

 

The rights and rights agreements will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York.

 

The following description, together with the additional information we may include in any applicable prospectus supplements, summarizes the material terms and provisions of the units that we may offer under this prospectus and the related unit agreements. While the terms summarized below will apply generally to any units that we may offer under this prospectus, we will describe the particular terms of any series of units that we may offer in more detail in the applicable prospectus supplement. If we indicate in the prospectus supplement, the terms of any units offered under that prospectus supplement may differ from the terms described below. However, no prospectus supplement shall fundamentally change the terms that are set forth in this prospectus or offer a security that is not registered and described in this prospectus at the time of its effectiveness. Specific unit agreements will contain additional important terms and provisions and will be incorporated by reference as an exhibit to the registration statement that includes this prospectus or as an exhibit to a report filed under the Exchange Act.

 

General

 

We may issue units comprised of one or more shares of common stock, shares of preferred stock, debt securities and warrants in any combination. Each unit will be issued so that the holder of the unit is also the holder of each security included in the unit. Thus, the holder of a unit will have the rights and obligations of a holder of each included security. The unit agreement under which a unit is issued may provide that the securities included in the unit may not be held or transferred separately, at any time or at any time before a specified date.

 

We will describe in the applicable prospectus supplement the terms of the series of units, including:

 

 

The provisions described in this section, as well as those described under “Description of Capital Stock,” “Description of Debt Securities” and “Description of Warrants” will apply to each unit and to any common stock, preferred stock, debt security or warrant included in each unit, respectively.

Issuance in Series

 

We may issue units in such amounts and in numerous distinct series as we determine.

 

Enforceability of Rights by Holders of Units

 

Each unit agent will act solely as our agent under the applicable unit agreement and will not assume any obligation or relationship of agency or trust with any holder of any unit. A single bank or trust company may act as unit agent for more than one series of units. A unit agent will have no duty or responsibility in case of any default by us under the applicable unit agreement or unit, including any duty or responsibility to initiate any proceedings at law or otherwise, or to make any demand upon us. Any holder of a unit may, without the consent of the related unit agent or the holder of any other unit, enforce by appropriate legal action its rights as holder under any security included in the unit.

 

Title

 

Lexicon, the unit agents and any of their agents may treat the registered holder of any unit certificate as an absolute owner of the units evidenced by that certificate for any purpose and as the person entitled to exercise the rights attaching to the units so requested, despite any notice to the contrary. See “Legal Ownership of Securities.”

 

We can issue securities in registered form or in the form of one or more global securities. We describe global securities in greater detail below. We refer to those persons who have securities registered in their own names on the books that we or any applicable trustee maintain for this purpose as the “holders” of those securities. These persons are the legal holders of the securities. We refer to those persons who, indirectly through others, own beneficial interests in securities that are not registered in their own names, as “indirect holders” of those securities. As we discuss below, indirect holders are not legal holders, and investors in securities issued in book-entry form or in street name will be indirect holders.

 

Book-Entry Holders

 

We may issue securities in book-entry form only, as we will specify in the applicable prospectus supplement. This means securities may be represented by one or more global securities registered in the name of a financial institution that holds them as depositary on behalf of other financial institutions that participate in the depositary’s book-entry system. These participating institutions, which are referred to as participants, in turn, hold beneficial interests in the securities on behalf of themselves or their customers.

 

Only the person in whose name a security is registered is recognized as the holder of that security. Securities issued in global form will be registered in the name of the depositary or its nominee. Consequently, for securities issued in global form, we will recognize only the depositary as the holder of the securities, and we will make all payments on the securities to the depositary. The depositary passes along the payments it receives to its participants, which in turn pass the payments along to their customers who are the beneficial owners. The depositary and its participants do so under agreements they have made with one another or with their customers; they are not obligated to do so under the terms of the securities.

 

As a result, investors in a book-entry security will not own securities directly. Instead, they will own beneficial interests in a global security, through a bank, broker or other financial institution that participates in the depositary’s book-entry system or holds an interest through a participant. As long as the securities are issued in global form, investors will be indirect holders, and not holders, of the securities.

 

Street Name Holders

 

We may terminate a global security or issue securities in non-global form. In these cases, investors may choose to hold their securities in their own names or in “street name.” Securities held by an investor in street name would be

registered in the name of a bank, broker or other financial institution that the investor chooses, and the investor would hold only a beneficial interest in those securities through an account he or she maintains at that institution.

 

For securities held in street name, we will recognize only the intermediary banks, brokers and other financial institutions in whose names the securities are registered as the holders of those securities, and we will make all payments on those securities to them. These institutions pass along the payments they receive to their customers who are the beneficial owners, but only because they agree to do so in their customer agreements or because they are legally required to do so. Investors who hold securities in street name will be indirect holders, not holders, of those securities.

 

Legal Holders

 

Our obligations, as well as the obligations of any applicable trustee and of any third parties employed by us or a trustee, run only to the legal holders of the securities. We do not have obligations to investors who hold beneficial interests in global securities, in street name or by any other indirect means. This will be the case whether an investor chooses to be an indirect holder of a security or has no choice because we are issuing the securities only in global form.

 

For example, once we make a payment or give a notice to the holder, we have no further responsibility for the payment or notice even if that holder is required, under agreements with depositary participants or customers or by law, to pass it along to the indirect holders but does not do so. Similarly, we may want to obtain the approval of the holders to amend an indenture, to relieve us of the consequences of a default or of our obligation to comply with a particular provision of the indenture or for other purposes. In such an event, we would seek approval only from the holders, and not the indirect holders, of the securities. Whether and how the holders contact the indirect holders is up to the holders.

 

Special Considerations for Indirect Holders

 

If you hold securities through a bank, broker or other financial institution, either in book-entry form or in street name, you should check with your own institution to find out:

 

 

Global Securities

 

A global security is a security that represents one or any other number of individual securities held by a depositary. Generally, all securities represented by the same global securities will have the same terms.

 

Each security issued in book-entry form will be represented by a global security that we deposit with and register in the name of a financial institution or its nominee that we select. The financial institution that we select for this purpose is called the depositary. Unless we specify otherwise in the applicable prospectus supplement, The Depository Trust Company, New York, New York, known as DTC, will be the depositary for all securities issued in book-entry form.

 

A global security may not be transferred to or registered in the name of anyone other than the depositary, its nominee or a successor depositary, unless special termination situations arise. We describe those situations below under “Special Situations When a Global Security Will Be Terminated.” As a result of these arrangements, the

depositary, or its nominee, will be the sole registered owner and holder of all securities represented by a global security, and investors will be permitted to own only beneficial interests in a global security. Beneficial interests must be held by means of an account with a broker, bank or other financial institution that in turn has an account with the depositary or with another institution that does. Thus, an investor whose security is represented by a global security will not be a holder of the security, but only an indirect holder of a beneficial interest in the global security.

 

If the prospectus supplement for a particular security indicates that the security will be issued in global form only, then the security will be represented by a global security at all times unless and until the global security is terminated. If termination occurs, we may issue the securities through another book-entry clearing system or decide that the securities may no longer be held through any book-entry clearing system.

 

Special Considerations for Global Securities

 

As an indirect holder, an investor’s rights relating to a global security will be governed by the account rules of the investor’s financial institution and of the depositary, as well as general laws relating to securities transfers. We do not recognize an indirect holder as a holder of securities and instead deal only with the depositary that holds the global security.

 

If securities are issued only in the form of a global security, an investor should be aware of the following:

 

 

Special Situations When a Global Security Will Be Terminated

 

In a few special situations described below, the global security will terminate and interests in it will be exchanged for physical certificates representing those interests. After that exchange, the choice of whether to hold securities directly or in street name will be up to the investor. Investors must consult their own banks or brokers to find out how to have their interests in securities transferred to their own name, so that they will be direct holders. We have described the rights of holders and street name investors above.

The global security will terminate when the following special situations occur:

 

 

The prospectus supplement may also list additional situations for terminating a global security that would apply only to the particular series of securities covered by the prospectus supplement. When a global security terminates, the depositary, and not we or any applicable trustee, is responsible for deciding the names of the institutions that will be the initial direct holders.

 

This prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference into this prospectus contain certain information regarding our financial projections, plans and strategies that are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and 21E of the Exchange Act. We have attempted to identify forward-looking statements by terminology including “anticipate,” “believe,” “can,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “should” or “will” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements, which are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors may include, among other things, statements which address our strategy and operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future, such as projections of our future results of operations or of our financial condition, the status of any collaborative agreements, our research and development efforts and anticipated trends in our business.

 

We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events. However, there may be events in the future that we are not able to predict accurately or which we do not fully control that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. Many important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, including those discussed under “Risk Factors” in this prospectus and any prospectus supplement and other sections of the documents incorporated by reference into this prospectus. We undertake no obligation to publicly release any revisions to the forward-looking statements or reflect events or circumstances after the date of this prospectus.

 

Our earnings were insufficient to cover fixed charges in each of the years in the five-year period ended December 31, 2008 and in the six-month period ended June 30, 2009. “Fixed charges” consist of interest expense, the estimated interest included in rental expense and accretion on redeemable convertible preferred stock. The following table sets forth the computation of our ratio of earnings to fixed charges for the periods indicated:

 

 

 

For the periods indicated above, we had no outstanding shares of preferred stock with required dividend payments. Therefore, our ratios of earnings to combined fixed charges and preferred stock dividends for the periods indicated are identical to the ratios presented in the table above.

 

Except as otherwise described in the prospectus supplement relating to an offering, we intend to use the net proceeds from the sale(s) of securities offered pursuant to this prospectus and any prospectus supplement for research and development and general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures and working capital needs. We may also use some or all of the net proceeds to acquire or invest in businesses, products and technologies that are complementary to our own.

 

The amounts that we actually expend for working capital purposes, investments or acquisitions will vary significantly depending on a number of factors, including future revenue growth, if any, the amount of cash we generate from operations and the progress of our product development efforts. Accordingly, our management will retain broad discretion in the allocation of the net proceeds from the sale(s) of the offered securities. If we elect at the time of the issuance of the securities to make different or more specific use of proceeds other than as described in this prospectus, the change in use of proceeds will be described in the applicable prospectus supplement.

 

We may sell securities under this prospectus from time to time in any one or more of the following ways:

 

 

We may sell securities under this prospectus from time to time in one or more transactions:

 

 

The prospectus supplement relating to the securities will set forth the terms of the offering of such securities, including the name or names of any underwriters, brokers, dealers or agents, the name or names of any managing underwriter or underwriters, the purchase price of the securities and the net proceeds to us from such sale, any delayed delivery arrangements, any underwriting discounts and commissions and other items constituting underwriters’ compensation, any public offering price, any discounts or concessions allowed or reallowed or paid to dealers, any commissions paid to agents and any securities exchange or market on which the securities may be listed.

 

If we use underwriters in the sale of securities, the underwriters will acquire the securities for their own account. The underwriters may resell the securities from time to time in one or more transactions, including negotiated transactions, at a fixed public offering price or at varying prices determined at the time of sale. Underwriters may offer securities to the public either through underwriting syndicates represented by one or more managing underwriters or directly by one or more firms acting as underwriters. Unless we inform you otherwise in the prospectus supplement, the obligations of the underwriters to purchase the securities will be subject to certain conditions, and the underwriters will be obligated to purchase all of the offered securities if they purchase any of them. The underwriters may change from time to time any public offering price and any discounts or concessions allowed or reallowed or paid to dealers.

 

In connection with the sale of our securities, underwriters, brokers, dealers or agents may receive compensation from us or purchasers of securities for whom they may act as agents, in the form of discounts, concessions or commissions. Underwriters, dealers and agents that participate in the distribution of our securities may be deemed to be underwriters, and any discounts or commissions received by them from us and any profit on the resale of securities by them may be deemed to be underwriting discounts and commissions under the Securities

Act. Any person who may be deemed to be an underwriter will be identified, and the compensation received from us will be described, in the prospectus supplement.

 

During and after an offering through underwriters, the underwriters may purchase and sell the securities in the open market. These transactions may include over-allotment and stabilizing transactions and purchases to cover syndicate short positions created in connection with the offering. The underwriters may also impose a penalty bid, whereby selling concessions allowed to syndicate members or other broker-dealers for the securities sold for their account may be reclaimed by the syndicate if those securities are repurchased by the syndicate in stabilizing or covering transactions. These activities may stabilize, maintain or otherwise affect the market price of the securities, which may be higher than the price that might otherwise prevail in the open market, and, if commenced, may be discontinued at any time.

 

If dealers or brokers acting as dealers are used in the sale of the securities, we will sell the securities to such dealers or brokers as principals. The dealers or brokers acting as dealers may then resell such securities to the public at varying prices to be determined by such dealers or brokers at the time of resale. The names of dealers or brokers acting as dealers and the terms of the transaction will be set forth in the prospectus supplement relating to such securities. We may sell the securities directly or through agents designated by us from time to time. Any agent involved in the offer or sale of the securities will be named, and any commissions that we pay to such agent will be set forth, in the prospectus supplement relating to such securities. Unless otherwise indicated in the prospectus supplement, any such agent will be acting on a best efforts basis for the period of its appointment.

 

We may sell securities directly, in which case no underwriters or agents would be involved. We may sell securities directly to institutional investors or others who may be deemed to be underwriters within the meaning of the Securities Act with respect to any sale of those securities.

 

We may offer securities through agents in connection with a distribution to our stockholders of rights to purchase such securities. The terms of any such sales will be described in the prospectus supplement relating thereto. Pursuant to any standby underwriting agreement entered into in connection with a rights offering to our stockholders, persons acting as standby underwriters may receive a commitment fee for all securities underlying the rights that the underwriter commits to purchase on a standby basis. Additionally, prior to the expiration date with respect to any rights, any standby underwriters in a rights offering to our stockholders may offer such securities on a when-issued basis, including securities to be acquired through the purchase and exercise of rights, at prices set from time to time by the standby underwriters. After the expiration date with respect to such rights, the underwriters may offer securities of the type underlying the rights, whether acquired pursuant to a standby underwriting agreement, the exercise of the rights or the purchase of such securities in the market, to the public at a price or prices to be determined by the underwriters. The standby underwriters may thus realize profits or losses independent of the underwriting discounts or commissions paid by us. If we do not enter into a standby underwriting agreement in connection with a rights offering to our stockholders, we may elect to retain a dealer-manager to manage such a rights offering for us. Any such dealer-manager may offer securities of the type underlying the rights acquired or to be acquired pursuant to the purchase and exercise of rights and may thus realize profits or losses independent of any dealer-manager fee paid by us.

 

All securities we offer, other than common stock and other securities issued upon a reopening of a previous series, will be new issues of securities with no established trading market. Any underwriters may make a market in these securities, but will not be obligated to do so and may discontinue any market making at any time without notice. We cannot guarantee the liquidity of the trading markets for any securities.

 

If so indicated in the prospectus supplement, we will authorize agents, underwriters, brokers or dealers to solicit offers from certain types of institutions to purchase securities at the public offering price set forth in the prospectus supplement pursuant to delayed delivery contracts providing for payment and delivery on a specified date in the future. Such contracts will be subject only to those conditions set forth in the prospectus supplement, and the prospectus supplement will set forth also the commission payable for solicitation of such contracts.

 

We may have agreements with the underwriters, dealers and agents to indemnify them against specific civil liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act, or to contribute with respect to payments which the underwriters, dealers or agents may be required to make as a result of those specific civil liabilities.

Underwriters and agents and their affiliates may be customers of, engage in transactions with, or perform services for us or our subsidiaries in the ordinary course of their businesses.

 

The validity of the issuance of the securities offered by this prospectus has been passed upon for us by Vinson & Elkins L.L.P., Houston, Texas.

 

Ernst & Young LLP, independent registered public accounting firm, has audited our consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2008 included in our Current Report on Form 8-K filed on September 2, 2009, as set forth in their report, which is incorporated by reference in this prospectus and elsewhere in the registration statement. Our financial statements are incorporated by reference in reliance on Ernst & Young LLP’s report, given on their authority as experts in accounting and auditing.

 

We have filed with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-3 under the Securities Act regarding the offer and sale of securities under this prospectus. This prospectus, which constitutes a part of the registration statement, does not contain all of the information contained in the registration statement or the exhibits to the registration statement, as permitted by the rules and regulations of the SEC. For further information about us and our common stock, please review the registration statement and the exhibits filed as a part of it. Statements made in this prospectus that describe documents may not necessarily be complete. We recommend that you review the documents that we have filed with the registration statement to obtain a more complete understanding of these documents. A copy of the registration statement, including the exhibits filed as a part of it, may be inspected without charge at the SEC’s Public Reference Room, 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549, and copies of all or any part of the registration statement may be obtained from the SEC upon the payment of fees prescribed by it. You may obtain information on the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC maintains a website at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding companies that file electronically with it.

 

We are subject to the information and reporting requirements of the Exchange Act and will file periodic reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC. You may inspect any of these documents as described in the preceding paragraph.

 

The SEC allows us to “incorporate by reference” into this prospectus information that we file with the SEC in other documents. This means that we can disclose important information to you by referring to other documents that contain that information. The information incorporated by reference is considered to be part of this prospectus, except for information superseded by information in this prospectus. We incorporate by reference the documents listed below that we have previously filed with the SEC and any future filings we make with the SEC under Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) (other than information furnished to the SEC under Item 2.02 and 9.01 of Form 8-K) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, prior to the termination of the offering of the securities covered by this prospectus:

 

 

 

Any statement contained in a document incorporated or deemed to be incorporated by reference in this prospectus will be deemed to be modified or superseded for purposes of this prospectus to the extent that a statement contained in this prospectus or in any other subsequently filed document which also is or is deemed to be incorporated by reference in this prospectus modifies or supersedes that statement. Any statement that is modified or superseded will not constitute a part of this prospectus, except as so modified or superseded. You may rely on any statement contained in this prospectus or in documents incorporated or deemed to be incorporated in this prospectus, unless that statement has been subsequently modified or superseded as described above prior to the time you make your investment decision.

 

Upon your written or oral request, we will provide you at no cost a copy of any or all of the documents incorporated by reference in this prospectus, other than the exhibits to those documents, unless the exhibits are specifically incorporated by reference into this prospectus. You may request a copy of these documents by contacting:

 

Investor Relations
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
8800 Technology Forest Place
The Woodlands, Texas 77381-1160
Telephone: (281) 863-3000