Belite Bio, Inc ("Belite Bio" or the "Company") was notified by Friedman LLP ("Friedman"), the Company's then independent registered public accounting firm, that effective September 1, 2022, Friedman combined with Marcum LLP ("Marcum") and continued to operate as an independent registered public accounting firm. On December 12, 2022, the audit committee of the board of directors of the Company approved the engagement of Marcum Asia CPAs LLP ("Marcum Asia") to serve as the independent registered public accounting firm of the Company. The services previously provided by Friedman will now be provided by Marcum Asia through the same audit team and engagement partner.
Friedman's reports on the Company's financial statements for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2020 and 2021 did not contain an adverse opinion or a disclaimer of opinion and were not qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope, or accounting principles. Furthermore, during the Company's two most recent fiscal years and through December 12, 2022, there were no disagreements with Friedman on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure, or auditing scope or procedure, which disagreements, if not resolved to Friedman's satisfaction, would have caused Friedman to make reference to the subject matter of the disagreement in connection with its reports on the Company's financial statements for such periods.
For the fiscal years ended December 31, 2020 and 2021 and through December 12, 2022, except for the material weakness in internal control identified by the Company and Friedman in the "Risk Factors" section in Belite Bio's registration statement on Form F-1 filed with and subsequently declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "Commission") on April 28, 2021, there were no other "reportable events" as that term is described in Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S-K.
The Company provided Friedman with a copy of the above disclosure and requested that Friedman furnish the Company with a letter addressed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stating whether or not it agrees with the above statement. A copy of Friedman's letter is filed as Exhibit 16.1 to this Form 6-K.
During the Company's two most recent fiscal years and through December 12, 2022, neither the Company nor anyone acting on the Company's behalf consulted Marcum Asia with respect to the application of accounting principles to a specified transaction, either completed or proposed, or the type of audit opinion that would have been rendered on the Company's consolidated financial statements, or any other matters set forth in Item 304(a)(2)(i) or (ii) of Regulation S-K.
Belite Bio Inc. published this content on 13 December 2022 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 13 December 2022 21:04:00 UTC.
Belite Bio, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical drug development company. The Company is focused on advancing novel therapeutics targeting retinal degenerative eye disease, such as atrophic age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and autosomal recessive Stargardt disease type 1 (STGD) both of which progressively lead to permanent blindness, and metabolic diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), type 2 diabetes (T2D), and gout. Its lead product candidate, LBS-008 as an oral daily treatment for STGD1 and Geographic Atrophy patients. In STGD1, it is developing LBS-008 as once-a-day tablet treatment to target Retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4) by disrupting vitamin A (retinol) binding to RBP4 which leads to reduced delivery of retinol to the eye and reduced accumulation of toxic vitamin A by-products. Its product candidate also includes LBS-009 an anti-RBP4 oral therapy targeting liver disease, including NAFLD, NASH, and T2D.
BELITE BIO, INC 
