TELA Bio, Inc. Commitments Disclosure
(12) Commitments and Contingencies
Legal Proceedings
From time to time, the Company may be a party to lawsuits, claims, and other legal proceedings that arise in the ordinary course of its business. While the outcomes of these matters are uncertain, management does not expect that the ultimate
costs to resolve these matters will have a material adverse effect on the Company’s consolidated financial position, results of operations, or cash flows.
Agreements with Aroa
In August 2012, the Company entered into a License, Product Development, and Supply Umbrella Agreement (“Aroa Agreement”) with Aroa. The Aroa Agreement provides the Company a license to patent rights and other intellectual property related to Aroa’s products and technologies for use in certain indications and expires on the expiration of the last patent covering the products (currently March 9, 2031). The Company has the right to extend the term of the agreement by an additional 10 years following the expiration of the last patent covering the products on commercially reasonable terms to be negotiated by the parties. This agreement initially limited the Company’s license rights to the U.S. but was subsequently amended in March 2013 to include certain countries in Europe including the United Kingdom and members of the European Union and certain former Union of Soviet Socialist Republic satellite nations. The Aroa Agreement required payments aggregating up to $4.0 million upon the achievement of U.S. and European cumulative product sales targets. All amounts have been paid.
Other key terms of the amended Aroa agreement in addition to those disclosed above are as follows:
| ● | The Company purchases product from Aroa at a fixed transfer cost as a percentage of Aroa’s cost of goods, which, subject to a true-up adjustment, results in an amount equal to 27% of the Company’s net sales of the Company’s OviTex and OviTex PRS products, with the exception of OviTex inguinal hernia repair (“IHR”) product configurations, for which the Company pays the greater of the initial fixed transfer cost or 27% of our net sales of OviTex IHR. |
| ● | The transfer price and the quarterly true-up amount continued to equal 27% of Company’s net sales of licensed products, with the exception of the IHR products, where the total amount payable to Aroa will at least equal the aggregate transfer pricing paid to Aroa for such products during the applicable calendar year. |
| ● | Provisions exist for the Company to step in and operate Aroa’s plant if a supply failure occurs and is not cured within a set timeframe. Under the amended agreement, the criteria for a supply failure was modified to mean a failure by Aroa to timely supply, during any consecutive period, at least 75% of the products ordered by the Company under binding purchase orders. During the period that the Company steps in and assumes manufacturing responsibility, the Company shall pay a royalty of 6% of net sales in lieu of 27% of net sales of the licensed products. |
Research and Development Agreements
As of December 31, 2025, the Company had $1.8 million in milestone payments related to certain research and development arrangements which are currently deemed not probable as the timing and likelihood of such payments are not known with certainty.
Employment Agreements
The Company entered into employment agreements with key personnel providing for compensation and severance in certain circumstances, as defined in the respective employment agreements.
Leases
The Company leases office and laboratory space in Malvern, Pennsylvania under a noncancelable lease (the “Malvern Lease”). The Malvern Lease, which was concluded to be an operating lease, was amended in October 2023 to extend the term of the lease from May 2028 to May 2030 (the “Lease Amendment”). Pursuant to the Lease Amendment, the Company leased an additional 15,881 square feet at the Company’s corporate headquarters which commenced on December 1, 2023 (the “Expansion Premises”) and relinquished 4,652 square feet of non-contiguous space previously subject to the lease agreement on June 30, 2025 (the “Relinquished Space”). The Expansion Premises increased the Company’s total leased square footage in the building from 24,725 square feet to 40,606 square feet, which was subsequently reduced to 35,954 square feet as of June 30, 2025 following removal of the Relinquished Space. The modification of the lease terms for the Company’s existing space was not treated as a separate contract; however, the Company notes that the Expansion Premises is being treated as a new ROU asset. The Lease Amendment required the Company to pay an additional security deposit of $0.3 million. The Malvern Lease has annual scheduled payment increases and provides the Company with a renewal option for an additional term of 60 months at the end of the lease term. The Company evaluates renewal options at lease inception and on an ongoing basis and includes renewal options that it is reasonably certain to exercise in its expected lease terms when classifying leases and measuring lease liabilities. As the Company is not reasonably certain to exercise the renewal option, the additional 60-month term has been excluded.
Operating lease leasehold improvements are depreciated over the lesser of the useful lives of the leasehold improvements or the lease term.
The Company determined that the rate implicit in its lease is not readily determinable, and therefore, the Company uses its incremental borrowing rate as the discount rate when measuring operating lease liabilities. The incremental borrowing rate represents an estimate of the interest rate the Company would incur at lease commencement to borrow an amount equal to the lease payments on a collateralized basis over the term of a lease. The Company used an incremental borrowing rate of 11.66% to discount the Malvern Lease payments included in the operating lease liabilities recognized.
The Company recognized $0.5 million of lease cost during the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024 and $0.3 million of lease cost during the year ended December 31, 2023. Cash paid for amounts included in the measurement of operating lease liabilities was $0.6 million, $0.6 million and $0.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively, and these amounts are included in operating activities in the consolidated statements of cash flows. As of December 31, 2025, the remaining lease term for the Malvern Lease is 4.4 years.
The following table reconciles the undiscounted future minimum lease payments (displayed in aggregate by year) under non-cancelable operating leases with terms of more than one year to the total operating lease liabilities recognized on the consolidated balance sheets as of December 31, 2025 (in thousands):
2026 | $ | 557 |
2027 |
| 570 |
2028 | 583 | |
2029 | 595 | |
2030 | 250 | |
Thereafter | — | |
Total undiscounted future minimum lease payments | $ | 2,555 |
Less imputed interest | (554) | |
Total operating lease liabilities | $ | 2,001 |
As of December 31, 2024, $0.5 million representing the current portion of operating lease liabilities is included in in the consolidated balance sheets and $1.5 million representing the long-term portion of operating lease liabilities is included in in the consolidated balance sheets.
Historical Timeline
| Fiscal Year | Filed | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Mar 25, 2026 | Showing above |
| 2024 | Mar 21, 2025 | |
| 2023 | Mar 22, 2024 | |
| 2022 | Mar 23, 2023 | |
| 2021 | Mar 23, 2022 | |
| 2020 | Mar 25, 2021 | |
| 2019 | Mar 30, 2020 | |
About Commitments Disclosures
Commitments and contingencies disclosures catalog a company's off-balance-sheet obligations and legal exposures — purchase commitments, guarantee arrangements, pending litigation, and regulatory proceedings. These items represent potential future cash outflows that may not appear as liabilities on the balance sheet until they become probable and estimable.
Key signals: litigation reserves and disclosed loss ranges quantify management's estimate of legal exposure, but unquantified "reasonably possible" losses often represent the larger risk. Watch for changes in language around pending cases — shifts from "remote" to "reasonably possible" or increases in estimated loss ranges signal deteriorating outcomes. Unconditional purchase obligations and take-or-pay contracts create fixed cost structures that reduce operational flexibility. Guarantee arrangements for subsidiaries or joint ventures can create cascading obligations. Compare the total commitment schedule against projected free cash flow to assess whether the company can meet its obligations without additional financing.