nltx-20210331

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20549

__________________________________________________

FORM 10-Q

__________________________________________________

(Mark One)


☒			QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the quarterly period ended March 31, 2021


☐			TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from ________ to ________

Commission file number: 001-36327

__________________________________________________

Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

__________________________________________________


Delaware						98-0542593
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)						(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

188 East Blaine Street, Suite 450

Seattle, Washington 98102

(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code): (866) 245-0312

__________________________________________________

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:


Title of each class	Trading Symbol(s)	Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, par value $0.000001	NLTX	The Nasdaq Global Market

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act:


Large accelerated filer	☐	Accelerated filer	☐

Non-accelerated filer	☒	Smaller reporting company	☒

		Emerging growth company	☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ¨ No ☒

As of May 10, 2021, there were 42,345,720 shares of the registrant’s common stock outstanding.

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Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc.

Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q

For the Quarter Ended March 31, 2021

INDEX



			Page
		PART I. FINANCIAL INFORMATION (Unaudited)

Item 1.		Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets	2

		Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations	3

		Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows	4

		Condensed Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity	5

		Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements	6

Item 2.		Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	11

Item 3.		Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk	16

Item 4.		Controls and Procedures	17

		PART II. OTHER INFORMATION

Item 1.		Legal Proceedings	18

Item 1A.		Risk Factors	18

Item 2.		Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds	59

Item 3.		Defaults Upon Senior Securities	59

Item 4.		Mine Safety Disclosures	59

Item 5.		Other Information	59

Item 6.		Exhibits	60

	SIGNATURES		60

Except as otherwise indicated herein or as the context otherwise requires, references in this report to, “the Company,” “we,” “us,” “our” and similar references refer to Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc. (formerly Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, Inc.), a Delaware corporation. The name “Neoleukin” is a registered trademark of the Company in the United States. This report also contains references to registered marks, trademarks and trade names of other companies that are property of their respective holders.

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PART I. FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1. Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

NEOLEUKIN THERAPEUTICS, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

(Unaudited)

(In thousands of U.S. dollars, except per share and share amounts)


	March 31, 2021		December 31, 2020
Assets
Current assets
Cash and cash equivalents	$	178,391	$	192,556
Other current assets	2,915		1,966
Total current assets	181,306		194,522

Property and equipment, net	5,110		3,570
Operating lease right-of-use assets	11,473		10,154
Intangible asset, net	293		347
Other non-current assets	1,921		1,926
Total assets	$	200,103	$	210,519

Liabilities
Current liabilities
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities	$	7,308	$	7,181
Operating lease liabilities	1,047		659
Finance lease liabilities	52		49
Total current liabilities	8,407		7,889

Non-current operating lease liabilities	12,606		11,306
Non-current finance lease liabilities	122		108
Total liabilities	21,135		19,303

Stockholders’ equity
Common stock - $0.000001 par value - authorized, 100,000,000 as of March 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020; issued and outstanding, 42,326,033 as of March 31, 2021 and 42,196,296 as of December 31, 2020.	—		—
Preferred stock - $0.000001 par value - authorized, 5,000,000 as of March 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020; 0 issued and outstanding as of March 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020.	—		—
Additional paid-in capital	526,724		524,022
Accumulated deficit	(347,756)		(332,806)
Total stockholders’ equity	178,968		191,216
Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity	$	200,103	$	210,519

The accompanying notes form an integral part of these condensed consolidated financial statements.

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NEOLEUKIN THERAPEUTICS, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations

(Unaudited)

(In thousands of U.S. dollars, except per share and share amounts)


	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2021		2020
Operating expenses
Research and development	$	9,707	$	5,498
General and administrative	5,241		3,573
Total operating expenses	14,948		9,071
Other income (loss), net	(2)		429
Net loss	$	(14,950)	$	(8,642)
Net loss per common stock – basic and diluted	$	(0.27)	$	(0.18)
Basic and diluted weighted average common shares outstanding	54,944,421		49,168,451

The accompanying notes form an integral part of these condensed consolidated financial statements.

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NEOLEUKIN THERAPEUTICS, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

(Unaudited)

(In thousands of U.S. dollars)


	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2021		2020
Operating activities
Net loss	$	(14,950)	$	(8,642)
Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities:
Stock-based compensation	2,420		683
Depreciation and amortization	247		171
Amortization of operating lease right-of-use assets	265		528
Unrealized foreign exchange (gain)/loss	—		(14)
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
Other current assets and other non-current assets	(813)		266
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities	(631)		878
Operating lease right-of-use assets	—		(169)
Operating lease liabilities	104		(141)
Net cash used in operating activities	(13,358)		(6,440)

Investing activities
Purchase of property and equipment	(1,089)		(107)
Net cash used in investing activities	(1,089)		(107)

Financing activities
Proceeds from exercise of stock options	282		3,392
Payment on finance lease obligations	—		(2)
Net cash provided by financing activities	282		3,390

Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash	—		(11)
Net change in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash during the period	(14,165)		(3,168)
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, beginning of period	193,434		143,093

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, end of period	$	179,269	$	139,925

Supplemental disclosure of non-cash investing and financing activities:
Purchases of property and equipment unpaid at period-end	$	794	$	—
Operating lease liabilities arising from obtaining ROU asset	$	1,584	$	9,614

The accompanying notes form an integral part of these condensed consolidated financial statements.

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NEOLEUKIN THERAPEUTICS, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity

(Unaudited)

(In thousands of U.S. dollars, except share amounts)


	Common Stock			Additional Paid-In		Accumulated		Total Stockholders'
	Number	Amount		Capital		Deficit		Equity
Balances, December 31, 2019	37,996,849	$	—	$	441,216	$	(299,529)	$	141,687
Shares issued upon exercises of stock options	376,311	—		3,392		—		3,392
Shares issued upon vesting of restricted stock units	13,000	—		—		—		—
Stock-based compensation	—	—		683		—		683
Net loss	—	—		—		(8,642)		(8,642)
Balances, March 31, 2020	38,386,160	$	—	$	445,291	$	(308,171)	$	137,120

Balances, December 31, 2020	42,196,296	$	—	$	524,022	$	(332,806)	$	191,216
Shares issued upon exercises of stock options	91,737	—		282		—		282
Shares issued upon vesting of restricted stock units	38,000	—		—		—		—
Stock-based compensation	—	—		2,420		—		2,420
Net loss	—	—		—		(14,950)		(14,950)
Balances, March 31, 2021	42,326,033	$	—	$	526,724	$	(347,756)	$	178,968

The accompanying notes form an integral part of these condensed consolidated financial statements.

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NEOLEUKIN THERAPEUTICS, INC.

Notes to the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

(Unaudited)

1. Nature of operations

Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc. (“Neoleukin” or “the Company”) is a biopharmaceutical company creating next generation immunotherapies for cancer, inflammation and autoimmunity using de novo protein design technology. Neoleukin uses sophisticated computational methods to design proteins that demonstrate specific pharmaceutical properties that provide potentially superior therapeutic benefit over native proteins.

2. Summary of significant accounting policies

(a)Basis of presentation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements are presented in United States (“U.S.”) dollars and have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”) and pursuant to the rules and regulations of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) for interim financial information. Accordingly, these consolidated financial statements do not include all of the information and footnotes required for complete consolidated financial statements and should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 25, 2021.

In July 2020, the Company sold all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Canada) (“Aquinox Canada”) to an unrelated third party. On December 31, 2020, Neoleukin Corporation, the Company's wholly owned subsidiary, was merged into the Company. As a result, the Company has consisted of a single operating company since December 31, 2020.

In management’s opinion, the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements reflect all adjustments (including reclassifications and normal recurring adjustments) necessary to present fairly the financial position of the Company as of March 31, 2021, and results of operations and cash flows for all periods presented. The interim results presented are not necessarily indicative of results that can be expected for a full year.

(b)Use of estimates and assumptions

The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of expenses during the reporting period. Significant areas requiring estimates include valuation and recognition of stock-based compensation, the incremental borrowing rate utilized in the measurement of operating and finance lease liabilities, amortization and depreciation of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, and pre-clinical, clinical, and other accruals. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

(c)Reclassification

The Company reclassified prior year changes in operating lease right-of-use assets and operating lease liabilities in the condensed consolidated statements of cash flows to conform to current year presentation. This reclassification had no effect on net cash used in operating activities.

(d)Leases

At contract inception, the Company determines if the contract is or contains a lease. Lease liabilities are recognized on the lease commencement date based on the estimated present value of lease payments over the lease term. To determine the present value of the lease payments, the Company utilizes its estimated incremental borrowing rate based on information available at the lease commencement date as the interest rate implicit in the lease is typically not readily determinable. The related right-of-use assets are recorded net of any lease incentives received. Variable lease cost primarily includes building operating expenses as charged to the Company by its landlords and payments for lessor-owned assets that are not covered by a tenant improvement allowance.

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The Company includes options to extend the lease in its lease liability and right-of-use asset when it is reasonably certain that it will exercise that option. None of the Company's options to extend the rental term of any of its existing leases were considered reasonably certain as of March 31, 2021.

For leases of office space and equipment, the Company has elected to not separate the lease components from the non-lease components.

For leases of office space with a lease term of 12 months or less and which do not include an option to purchase the underlying asset, the Company has elected to recognize the lease payments in the statement of operations on a straight-line basis over the lease term.

(e)Fair value of financial instruments

The carrying amounts of certain of the Company’s financial instruments, including cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, receivables, accounts payable and other liabilities, approximate their fair values because of their nature and/or short maturities.

At March 31, 2021, and December 31, 2020, the Company had $156.3 million and $108.3 million in money market funds, respectively. Money market funds are level one financial instruments as they are valued at fair value, which is the closing price reported by the fund sponsor from an actively traded exchange.

(f)Earnings (loss) per share

Basic net loss per share is calculated by dividing the net loss by the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding for the period, without consideration for common stock equivalents. Common stock equivalents such as outstanding stock options and unvested restricted stock units are included in the calculation of diluted earnings per share only in periods of net income. Such common stock equivalents are excluded in the calculation of diluted net loss per share in periods of net loss as inclusion of such amounts would be anti-dilutive. Outstanding pre-funded warrants as of March 31, 2021 of 12,663,010 are considered outstanding as of their issuance date and are included in the basic and diluted net loss per share calculation because they are fully vested and exercisable at any time after 61 days' notice for a nominal cash consideration.

(g)Recently issued and recently adopted accounting standards

In December 2019, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2019-12 “Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes.” The objective of the standard is to improve areas of GAAP by removing certain exceptions permitted by Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 740 - Income Taxes and clarifying existing guidance to facilitate consistent application. ASU 2019-12 became effective for fiscal years and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2020. The Company adopted this standard on January 1, 2021 on a prospective basis. The adoption of this ASU did not have a material impact on the Company's financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, and financial statement disclosures.

3. Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

Restricted cash, included in other non-current assets in the condensed consolidated balance sheets, includes $0.9 million in cash deposits the Company maintains with its bank as collateral for the irrevocable letters of credit related to its lease obligations.

The following table provides a reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash in the condensed consolidated balance sheets that sum to the total of the same such amounts shown in the condensed consolidated statements of cash flows:


(in thousands)	March 31, 2021		December 31, 2020
Cash and cash equivalents	$	178,391	$	192,556
Restricted cash	878		878
Total cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash	$	179,269	$	193,434

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4. Leases

The Company enters into lease arrangements for its facilities as well as certain equipment, classified either as operating or finance leases.

The Company has a lease agreement, as amended by the execution of two subsequent amendments, for approximately 33,300 square feet of office space in Seattle, Washington for the Company’s principal executive offices, a laboratory for research and development, and related uses. The lease commenced on January 15, 2020 and expires on February 1, 2029, with the option to extend the lease for two five-year terms. The lease provides for a tenant improvement allowance of up to $9.5 million. As of March 31, 2021, there was a tenant improvement allowance receivable of $1.3 million recorded in other current assets related to reimbursable build-out costs incurred by the Company.

The Company has a lease agreement for approximately 6,272 square feet of office space in Seattle, Washington, for additional office and laboratory space for research and development and related uses. In March 2021, the Company executed an amendment to this lease pursuant to which the contractual lease term was extended through September 30, 2026, unless terminated earlier, with the option to extend the lease for an additional 28-month term. The execution of this amendment was accounted for as a modification to the lease due to the extension of the lease term and an increase in lease payments, and the Company recorded an increase in the lease liability and related right-of-use asset of $1.6 million.

As of March 31, 2021, and December 31, 2020, the Company’s operating lease right-of-use assets were $11.5 million and $10.2 million, respectively. As of March 31, 2021, and December 31, 2020, the Company’s finance lease right-of-use assets were $0.3 million and $0.3 million, respectively.

5. Equity

(a)Common stock and pre-funded warrants

The Company is authorized to issue 100,000,000 shares of common stock with a par value of $0.000001 as of March 31, 2021. As of March 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020 the total number of shares of common stock issued and outstanding was 42,326,033 and 42,196,296, respectively.

As of March 31, 2021, the Company also has pre-funded warrants outstanding to purchase an aggregate of 12,663,010 shares of common stock. The pre-funded warrants are exercisable at any time, with 61 days' notice, for an exercise price of 0.000001, except that the pre-funded warrants cannot be exercised by the stockholders if, after giving effect thereto, the stockholders would beneficially own more than 9.99% of the outstanding common stock, subject to certain exceptions. The holders of the pre-funded warrants will not have the right to vote on any matter except to the extent required by Delaware law.

(b)Stock-based compensation expense

Stock-based compensation expense is classified in the condensed consolidated statement of operations as follows:


	Three Months Ended March 31,
(in thousands)	2021		2020
Research and development expenses	$	1,018	$	283
General and administrative expenses	1,402		401
Total stock-based compensation expense	$	2,420	$	683

Total unrecognized compensation cost for all stock-based compensation plans was $23.8 million as of March 31, 2021. This cost is expected to be recognized over a weighted average remaining vesting period of 3.00 years.

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The fair values of stock options granted are estimated using the Black-Scholes option pricing model with the following weighted average assumptions:


	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2021		2020
Expected volatility	89.68	%	90.00	%
Expected dividends	0	%	0	%
Expected terms (years)	6.06		6.05
Risk free rate	0.61	%	0.78	%

(c)Stock options

A summary of the Company’s stock option activity and related information for the three months ended March 31, 2021 is as follows:


	Number of Shares	Weighted Average Exercise Price		Weighted Average Remaining Contractual Life (in Years)	Aggregate Intrinsic Value (in Thousands)
Outstanding at December 31, 2020	6,846,289	$	6.42	8.71	$	53,127
Options granted	140,800	$	12.83
Options exercised	(91,737)	$	3.07
Options cancelled/forfeited	(3,774)	$	16.63
Outstanding at March 31, 2021	6,891,578	$	6.59	8.51	$	40,710
Exercisable as of March 31, 2021	2,205,214	$	5.04	7.68	$	16,908

During the three months ended March 31, 2021, 91,737 shares of common stock were issued upon exercise of options with an aggregate intrinsic value of $1.0 million. During the three months ended March 31, 2020, 376,311 shares of common stock were issued upon exercise of options with an aggregate intrinsic value of $1.3 million. The weighted-average grant date fair value of options granted during the three months ended March 31, 2021 and March 31, 2020 was $9.43 and $5.62 per share, respectively.

(d)Restricted stock units

A summary of the Company’s restricted stock unit activity and related information for the three months ended March 31, 2021 is as follows:


	Number of Shares	Weighted Average Grant Date Fair Value
Non-vested at December 31, 2020	186,500	$	8.19
Restricted stock units granted	—	$	—
Restricted stock units vested	(38,000)	$	5.42
Restricted stock units forfeited	—	$	—
Non-vested at March 31, 2021	148,500	$	8.89

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(e)Employee stock purchase plan

The Company’s 2020 Employee Stock Purchase Plan (“2020 ESPP”) was adopted by the Company’s Board of Directors in March 2020 and approved by the Company’s stockholders in May 2020. A total of 759,936 shares of common stock have been reserved for issuance under the 2020 ESPP.

Subject to share and dollar limits as described in the plan, the 2020 ESPP allows eligible employees to contribute, through payroll deductions, up to 15% of their earnings for the purchase of shares of the Company’s common stock at the lower of 85% of the closing price of the Company’s common stock on the first trading day of the offering period or 85% of the closing price of the Company’s common stock on the last trading day of the offering period. There are two six-month offering periods during each fiscal year, ending on May 15 and November 15.

6. Earnings (loss) per share

The Company excluded the following potentially dilutive shares from diluted net loss per share as the effect would have been anti-dilutive for all periods presented:


	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2021	2020
Outstanding stock options	6,891,578	5,344,927
Restricted stock units	148,500	134,000
Shares issuable under 2020 ESPP	22,521	—
	7,062,599	5,478,927

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Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

You should read the following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with the unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included elsewhere in this report and our audited consolidated financial statements and notes included as part of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020.

Forward-Looking Statements

The following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements are based on our management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. All statements other than statements of historical facts are “forward-looking statements” for purposes of these provisions, including those relating to future events or our future financial performance and financial guidance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “might,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “project,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “intend” or “continue,” the negative of terms like these or other comparable terminology, and other words or terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial performance. These statements are only predictions. All forward-looking statements included in this document are based on information available to us on the date hereof, and we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Any or all of our forward-looking statements in this document may turn out to be wrong. Actual events or results may differ materially. Our forward-looking statements can be affected by inaccurate assumptions we might make or by known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including, among other things, impacts on our business due to health pandemics or other contagious outbreaks, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. In evaluating these statements, you should specifically consider various factors, including the risks outlined under the caption “Risk Factors” set forth in Item 1A of Part II of this quarterly report on Form 10-Q, as well as those contained from time to time in our other filings with the SEC. We caution investors that our business and financial performance are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties.

Overview

We are a biopharmaceutical company creating next generation immunotherapies for cancer, inflammation, and autoimmunity using de novo protein design technology. We use sophisticated computational methods to design proteins that demonstrate specific pharmaceutical properties that provide potentially superior therapeutic benefit over native proteins. Existing protein engineering treatments generally involve the modification of native proteins. With our proprietary platform we design completely new protein structures from the ground up, capable of demonstrating specific biological properties. Through this method we are able to produce proteins that, while resembling native proteins, may have novel molecular interfaces, differential activation of specific cell types, increased stability, or improved biodistribution compared to native proteins in order to deliver greater therapeutic benefit. De novo proteins have the capacity to be cytokine receptor agonists, antagonists, or result in conditional activation of specific cytokine receptors such that they may regulate inflammation or the immune response to cancer. We are initially focused on key cytokine mimetics, which we refer to as Neoleukin de novo cytokine mimetics. Neoleukin de novo cytokine mimetics can be modified to adjust affinity, thermodynamic stability, resistance to biochemical modification, pharmacokinetic characteristics, and targeting to tumor or inflamed tissues.

On August 8, 2019, Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc. ("Former Neoleukin"), completed its merger with Aquinox, in accordance with the terms of the Agreement and Plan of Merger dated August 5, 2019 ("Merger Agreement"), by and among Aquinox, Former Neoleukin and Apollo Sub, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aquinox. Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, Apollo Sub, Inc. merged with and into Former Neoleukin, with Former Neoleukin surviving the merger as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aquinox (the "Merger"). Upon completion of the Merger, Aquinox was renamed Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc. and Former Neoleukin was renamed Neoleukin Corporation. On July 31,

2020, we sold all issued and outstanding capital stock of our Canadian subsidiary, Aquinox Pharmaceuticals (Canada) Inc. to an unrelated third party. On December 31, 2020, Neoleukin Corporation was merged into Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc.

NL-201

Our lead product candidate, NL-201, is an IL-2/IL-15 immunotherapy designed to eliminate binding to the alpha subunit of the IL-2 receptor (also known as CD25) while maintaining high-affinity binding to the beta and gamma subunits. In multiple preclinical animal models, a precursor to NL-201 demonstrated substantial anti-tumor activity without detectable binding to CD25, as compared to native IL-2. Following these preclinical studies, we further refined our precursor to extend its half-life, resulting in our NL-201 product candidate. We have since completed multi-dose, non-GLP and GLP toxicology studies of NL-201 in rats and non-human primates. This included completion of GLP in-life dosing with no unexpected toxicities observed. NL-201 is intended to be used as either a single-agent or in combination with complementary therapeutic modalities, including checkpoint inhibitors. In addition, we believe NL-201 holds promise in combination with allogenic cell therapy to expand and maintain populations of transplanted CAR-T and natural killer ("NK") cells.

IL-2 is one of the few immuno-oncology drugs proven to work as a single agent. IL-2 has a demonstrated mechanism of action for treating tumors; however, it has encountered issues as a therapeutic due to the biased activation of cells that contain CD25. CD25 induces conformational changes in IL-2 that enable high-affinity binding to the beta and gamma subunits of the IL-2 receptor. Preferential binding to endothelial cells expressing CD25 is believed to exacerbate vascular leak syndrome, while preferential activation of CD25-expressing regulatory T cells can inhibit anti-cancer immune responses. Due to IL-2’s potential for high toxicity, with vascular leak syndrome and cytokine storm being frequent side effects, and reduced efficacy over time, its use as a therapeutic has been limited. Further, low-dose treatments have generally been insufficient to demonstrate activity.

While the problem posed by IL-2 is well understood, it has been difficult to modify native IL-2 to retain potent activation of IL-2 receptor signaling while eliminating binding to CD25. Instead of modifying native IL-2, computational methods were used to design a new sequence with the proper intermolecular interactions to efficiently bind the beta and gamma subunits while eliminating CD25 binding. As opposed to traditional recombinant human, or humanized, protein therapeutics, de novo proteins are entirely novel sequences with limited homology to native proteins. While there is a potential that patients may mount an anti-drug immune response against NL-201, we believe that this risk may be mitigated by several factors, including the stability of the protein and its resistance to proteolytic degradation.

We submitted our Investigational New Drug Application ("IND") to begin a Phase 1 clinical trial for NL-201 in December 2020. On January 7, 2021, we received a clinical hold letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") related to the IND in which the FDA informed us that we needed to develop a new assay that more precisely measures the amount of protein being administered and demonstrate with this assay that dose and administration procedures will accurately deliver the intended dose of NL-201. The FDA also had additional requests not related to the clinical hold to be addressed by amendment of the IND. On April 23, 2021, the FDA removed the clinical hold.

On May 5, 2021 we announced dosing the first patient in a Phase 1 clinical trial of NL-201 for advanced solid tumors. The Phase 1 study is planned to enroll up to 120 patients with advanced, relapsed, or refractory solid tumors. Patients will receive monotherapy, intravenous NL-201 and may continue treatment until disease progression. The trial will assess safety, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, immunogenicity, and antitumor activity. When the recommended dose and schedule are determined, we expect to enroll indication-specific expansion cohorts of patients with renal cell carcinoma and melanoma. The trial will be conducted at multiple sites in North America and Australia. The first patient was dosed in Australia.

Other Research Programs

Beyond our initial focus on NL-201, our research team is working on further applying de novo protein design principles to develop therapeutics to address significant unmet medical needs in other areas, including immuno-oncology, inflammation, and autoimmunity. Our research is powered by the Neoleukin platform, our computational

framework for developing highly selective, hyper-stable de novo proteins. Beyond NL-201, we are developing targeted and conditionally active IL-2/IL-15 mimetics, as well as cytokine mimetic programs for other oncology targets. Our research team is also actively applying the Neoleukin platform to generate de novo receptor agonist and antagonist candidates against multiple targets of interest for inflammatory and autoimmune indications. As we validate additional candidates, they will enter our preclinical pipeline.

Due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, we have been investigating the application of our de novo protein technology to prevent or treat SARS-CoV-2 infection. In November 2020, we announced the publication of our scientific work in the journal Science detailing the creation of CTC-445.2d, ("NL-CVX1"), a de novo protein decoy that is specifically designed to block infection of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings demonstrated that NL-CVX1 blocks infection of human cells in vitro, even when a high viral burden is used. Furthermore, intranasal administration of NL-CVX1 protected Syrian hamsters from a lethal dose of SARS-CoV-2. We are evaluating a potential first-in-human trial of NL-CVX1, and will continue to assess the program as the SARS-CoV-2 landscape evolves.

Finances

We will need to raise substantial additional capital to support our continuing operations and pursue our growth strategy. Until such time as we can generate significant revenue from product sales, if ever, we plan to finance our operations through the sale of equity, debt financings or other capital sources, which may include collaborations with other companies or other strategic transactions. There are no assurances that we will be successful in obtaining an adequate level of financing as and when needed to finance our operations on terms acceptable to us or at all. Any failure to raise capital as and when needed could have a negative impact on our financial condition and on our ability to pursue our business plans and strategies. If we are unable to secure adequate additional funding, we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue the development and commercialization of one or more product candidates or delay our pursuit of potential in‑licenses or acquisitions.

Based upon our current operating plan, we believe our cash-on-hand will be sufficient to fund operations into 2023.

COVID-19 Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the globe and continues to impact worldwide economic activity. During this unprecedented time, protecting the health and well-being of our employees and community is a top priority. In addition, we are focused on maintaining continuity of our research, development and business activities while balancing potential impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March 2020, we transitioned to a work from home policy for our employees and discontinued all work-related travel. In the first quarter of 2021, some employees returned to working in person at Neoleukin facilities in accordance with guidance from Washington State and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC"). Business-critical research and development work has continued throughout the pandemic, adhering to employee safety guidelines. We continually assess our work policies and monitor guidance from the state and the CDC in order to determine any changes to current work practices.

Results of Operations

Operating Expenses

The following table summarizes our operating loss for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020:


	Three Months Ended March 31,
(in thousands)	2021		2020		$ Change		% Change
Research and development	$	9,707	$	5,498	$	4,209	77	%
General and administrative	5,241		3,573		1,668		47	%
	$	14,948	$	9,071	$	5,877	65	%

Research and Development Expenses

Research and development expenses consist primarily of costs incurred under arrangements with third parties, such as contract research organizations ("CROs"), manufacturing organizations, and consultants, personnel related costs (including stock-based compensation and travel expenses), facility-related costs, and lab supplies.

For the three months March 31, 2021, research and development expenses were $9.7 million, compared to $5.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020. The increase in research and development expenses during the three months ended March 31, 2021 was primarily due to increased expenses incurred from IND-enabling and clinical trial startup activities related to our lead product candidate, NL-201, and in connection with the advancement of other Neoleukin technologies. The increase is also due to facility-related costs associated with the build-out of our new headquarters and laboratory in Seattle, Washington.

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel related costs (stock-based compensation and travel expenses), facility-related costs, insurance, and professional fees for consulting, legal and accounting services.

For the three months ended March 31, 2021, general and administrative expenses were $5.2 million, compared to $3.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020. The increase in general and administrative expenses during the three months ended March 31, 2021 was primarily due to increases in personnel-related costs and professional service fees as we continue to grow our operations, along with facility related costs associated with the build-out of our new headquarters in Seattle, Washington.

Other income (loss), net


	Three Months Ended March 31,
(in thousands)	2021		2020		$ Change		% Change
Interest income	$	3	$	434	$	(431)	(99)	%
Foreign exchange gains/(losses)	(5)		15		(20)		(133)	%
Other expenses	—		(20)		20		(100)	%
Total other income (loss), net	$	(2)	$	429	$	(431)	(100)	%

The decrease in interest income during the three months ended March 31, 2021 as compared to the three months ended March 31, 2020 of $0.4 million is due primarily to a decrease in interest rates.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Since our inception, we have incurred net losses and negative cash flows from our operations. Our operating activities used $13.4 million and $6.4 million of cash flows during the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. As of March 31, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $347.8 million, working capital of $172.9 million, and cash and cash equivalents of $178.4 million.

Cash Flows

The following table summarizes our cash flows for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020:


	Three Months Ended March 31,
(in thousands)	2021		2020
Net cash (used in) provided by:
Operating activities	$	(13,358)	$	(6,440)
Investing activities	(1,089)		(107)
Financing activities	282		3,390
Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash	—		(11)
Net change in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash	$	(14,165)	$	(3,168)

Net cash used in operating activities

Net cash used in operating activities for the three months ended March 31, 2021 increased compared to the three months ended March 31, 2020 due to an increase in operating expenses resulting primarily from expenses incurred in developing our lead product candidate, NL-201, and in connection with the advancement of other Neoleukin technologies. The increase is also due to facility related costs associated with the build-out of our new headquarters in Seattle, Washington.

Net cash used in investing activities

For the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020, cash used in investing activities consisted primarily of acquiring laboratory equipment and office furnishings.

Net cash provided by financing activities

For the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020, net cash provided by financing activities was primarily the result of proceeds from stock option exercises.

Operating and Capital Expenditure Requirements

We have not generated product revenue or achieved profitability since our inception and we expect to continue to incur net losses for the foreseeable future. As of March 31, 2021, we had approximately $178.4 million in cash and cash equivalents. Based on our current business plans, we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund our planned operations into 2023. However, our future capital requirements and the period for which we expect our existing resources to support our operations, fund expansion, develop new or enhanced products, or otherwise respond to competitive pressures, may vary significantly from our expectation and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned. Unless and until we generate sufficient revenue to be profitable, we will seek to fund our operations through public or private equity or debt financings or other sources. If we raise additional funds through the issuance of convertible debt securities, these securities could have rights senior to those of our common stock and could contain covenants that restrict our operations. There can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain additional equity or debt financing on terms acceptable to us, if at all. Our failure to obtain sufficient funds on acceptable terms when needed could have a negative impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition, cash flows and future prospects. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:

•the number and characteristics of any future product candidates we develop or may acquire;

•the scope, progress, results and costs of researching and developing our product candidates or any future product candidates, and conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials;

•the timing of, and the costs involved in, obtaining regulatory approvals for any future product candidates;

•the cost of manufacturing our future product candidates and any products that may achieve regulatory approval;

•the cost of commercialization activities if any future product candidates are approved for sale, including marketing, sales and distribution costs;

•the timing, receipt and amount of sales of, or royalties on, future approved products, if any;

•our ability to establish and maintain strategic collaborations, licensing or other arrangements and the financial terms of such agreements;

•any product liability or other lawsuits related to our products;

•the potential delays in our preclinical studies, our development programs and our planned clinical trials due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic;

•the expenses needed to attract and retain skilled personnel; and

•the costs involved in preparing, filing, prosecuting, maintaining, defending and enforcing patent claims, including litigation costs and the outcome of such litigation.

Please see Item 1A of Part II of this Quarterly Report titled “Risk Factors” for additional risks associated with our substantial capital requirements.

Contractual Obligations and Commitments

Our future minimum contractual commitments were reported in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, as filed with the SEC. As a result of the lease amendment executed in March 2021, as discussed in Note 4, Leases in the Notes to the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part 1, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, future operating lease payments through 2026 have increased by $1.9 million.

Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates

The preparation of these consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our consolidated financial statements. We evaluate our estimates and judgments on an ongoing basis. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events and various other factors that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. A summary of our significant accounting policies is presented in Part II, Item 8 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020. There have been no material changes to our significant accounting policies during the three months ended March 31, 2021.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2(g), Recently issued and recently adopted accounting standards in the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We do not have any off-balance sheet arrangements.

Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

As a “smaller reporting company,” as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act, and pursuant to Item 305 of Regulation S-K, we are not required to provide quantitative and qualitative disclosures about market risk.

Item 4. Controls and Procedures

Evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures. Under the supervision and with the participation of our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, our management conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures, as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act, as of the end of the period covered by this report.

In designing and evaluating our disclosure controls and procedures, management recognizes that any disclosure controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. In addition, the design of disclosure controls and procedures must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and that management is required to apply its judgment in evaluating the benefits of possible controls and procedures relative to their costs.

Based on management’s evaluation, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to, and are effective to, provide assurance at a reasonable level that the information we are required to disclose in reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosures.

Changes in internal control over financial reporting. Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, evaluated any changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the period ended March 31, 2021, and has concluded that there were no changes that materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting in connection with the evaluation required by Rule 13a-15(d) and 15d-15(d) of the Exchange Act.

Part II. Other Information

Item 1. Legal Proceedings

We may from time to time be named as a party to legal claims, actions and complaints, including matters involving employment, intellectual property or others. We are not presently a party to any legal proceedings that, in the opinion of our management, would reasonably be expected to have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results or cash flows if determined adversely to us. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

Summary of Risk Factors

An investment in our common stock involves various risks, and prospective investors are urged to carefully consider the matters discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” prior to making an investment in our common stock. These risks include, but are not limited to, the following:

•We will require substantial additional capital to finance our operations which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If we fail to obtain necessary financing, we may be unable to complete the development and potential commercialization of our product candidates.

•We have incurred significant losses in every quarter since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses in the future.

•We have a limited operating history, which may make it difficult for you to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability.

•We currently have no source of product revenue and may never become profitable.

•Our product candidates are in early stages of development and may fail in development or suffer delays that materially and adversely affect their commercial viability. If we are unable to complete development of, or commercialize our product candidates, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.

•Our business is heavily dependent on the success of our Neoleukin platform and of our most advanced product candidate, NL-201. Existing and future preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates may not be successful, and if we are unable to commercialize these product candidates or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.

•Our clinical trials or those of any future collaborators may reveal significant adverse events not seen in our preclinical studies and may result in a safety profile that could inhibit regulatory approval or market acceptance of any of our product candidates.

•If we do not achieve our projected development goals in the timeframes we announce and expect, the commercialization of our products may be delayed and, as a result, our stock price may decline.

•Our approach to the discovery and development of our therapeutic treatments is based on de novo protein design technology which is unproven and may not result in marketable products.

•We rely on and expect to continue to rely on third parties to conduct certain of our preclinical studies and clinical trials. If those third parties do not perform as contractually required, fail to satisfy legal or regulatory requirements, miss expected deadlines or terminate the relationship, our development program could be delayed with potentially material and adverse effects on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

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•We rely on and expect to continue to rely on third-party manufacturers and suppliers to supply components of our product candidates. The loss of our third-party manufacturers or suppliers, or our or their failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements or to supply sufficient quantities at acceptable quality levels or prices, or at all, would materially and adversely affect our business.

•The outbreak of the novel strain of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, could adversely impact our business, including our preclinical development activities and clinical trial activities.

•If we are not able to obtain, maintain, and enforce patent protection for our product candidates, our Neoleukin platform technology, or other proprietary technologies we may develop, development and commercialization of our product candidates may be adversely affected.

Risk Factors

You should carefully consider the following risk factors, in addition to the other information contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including our condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes. If any of the events described in the following risk factors occurs, our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected. This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q also contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of factors that are described below and elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Capital Needs

We will require substantial additional capital to finance our operations which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If we fail to obtain necessary financing, we may be unable to complete the development and potential commercialization of our product candidates.

The development of biopharmaceutical product candidates is capital-intensive. If our product candidates enter and advance through preclinical studies and clinical trials, we will need substantial additional funds to expand or create our development, regulatory, manufacturing, marketing, and sales capabilities. We have used substantial funds to develop our technology and product candidates and will require significant funds to conduct further research and development and preclinical testing and clinical trials of our product candidates, to seek regulatory approvals for our product candidates and to manufacture and market products, if any, which are approved for commercial sale. In addition, we expect to continue incurring costs associated with operating as a public company.

Preclinical studies and clinical trials for our product candidates will require substantial funds to complete. As of March 31, 2021, we had approximately $178.4 million in cash and cash equivalents. We expect to incur substantial expenditures in the foreseeable future as we seek to advance NL-201 and any future product candidates through preclinical and clinical development, the regulatory approval process and, if approved, commercial launch activities. Based on our current operating plan, we believe that our available cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into 2023. However, our future capital requirements and the period for which we expect our existing resources to support our operations, fund expansion, develop new or enhanced products, or otherwise respond to competitive pressures, may vary significantly from what we expect and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned. Our monthly spending levels vary based on new and ongoing research and development and other corporate activities. Because the length of time and activities associated with successful research and development of our product candidates is highly uncertain, we are unable to estimate the actual funds we will require for development and any marketing and commercialization activities for approved products. Our future funding requirements, both near and long-term, will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:

•the timing, cost and progress of preclinical and clinical development activities;

•the number and scope of preclinical and clinical programs we decide to pursue;

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•the progress of the development efforts of parties with whom we have entered or may in the future enter into collaborations and/or research and development agreements;

•the timing and amount of milestone and other payments we may receive or make under our collaboration agreements;

•our ability to maintain our current licenses and to establish new collaboration arrangements;

•the costs involved in prosecuting and enforcing patent and other intellectual property claims;

•the costs of manufacturing our product candidates by third parties;

•the cost of regulatory submissions and timing of regulatory approvals;

•the potential delays in our preclinical studies, our development programs and our clinical trial activities due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic;

•the cost of commercialization activities if our product candidates or any future product candidates are approved for sale, including marketing, sales and distribution costs; and

•our efforts to enhance operational systems and hire additional personnel, including personnel to support development of our product candidates.

If we are unable to obtain funding on a timely basis or on acceptable terms, we may have to delay, reduce or terminate our research and development programs and preclinical studies or clinical trials, limit strategic opportunities or undergo reductions in our workforce or other corporate restructuring activities. We do not expect to realize revenue from sales of commercial products or royalties from licensed products in the foreseeable future, if at all, and, in no event, before our product candidates are clinically tested, approved for commercialization and successfully marketed.

We will be required to seek additional funding in the future and currently intend to do so through additional collaborations and/or licensing agreements, public or private equity offerings or debt financings, credit or loan facilities, or a combination of one or more of these funding sources. If we raise additional funds by issuing equity securities, our stockholders will suffer dilution and the terms of any financing may adversely affect the rights of our stockholders. In addition, as a condition to providing additional funds to us, future investors may demand, and may be granted, rights superior to those of existing stockholders. Our future debt financings, if available, are likely to involve restrictive covenants limiting our flexibility in conducting future business activities, and, in the event of insolvency, debt holders would be repaid before holders of our equity securities received any distribution of our corporate assets. If we raise additional funds through licensing or collaboration arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our product candidates or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us. We also could be required to seek collaborators for product candidates at an earlier stage than otherwise would be desirable or relinquish our rights to product candidates or technologies that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves. Failure to obtain capital when needed on acceptable terms may force us to delay, limit or terminate our product development and commercialization of our current or future product candidates, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

We have incurred significant losses in every quarter since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses in the future.

We are a biotechnology company with a limited operating history. Investment in biotechnology is highly speculative because it entails substantial upfront capital expenditures and significant risk that any potential product candidate will fail to demonstrate adequate effect or an acceptable safety profile, gain regulatory approval or become commercially viable. We do not have any products approved by regulatory authorities for marketing or commercial sale, we have not generated any revenue from product sales to date, and all of our product candidates are in early clinical or preclinical development. We continue to incur significant expenses related to our ongoing operations. As a result, we are not profitable and have incurred losses in every reporting period since our inception in 2003. For the three-months ended March 31, 2021 and March 31, 2020, we reported net losses of $14.9 million and $8.6 million, respectively. For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, we reported net losses of $33.3 million and $69.4 million, respectively. As of March 31, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit since inception of $347.8 million.

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We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and operating losses for the foreseeable future as we seek to identify, acquire and conduct research and development of future product candidates, and potentially begin to commercialize any future products that may achieve regulatory approval. We may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other unknown factors that may adversely affect our financial condition. The size of our future net losses will depend, in part, on the rate of future growth of our expenses and our ability to generate revenues. Our prior losses and expected future losses have had, and will continue to have, an adverse effect on our financial condition. If any of our future product candidates fail in clinical trials or do not gain regulatory approval, or if approved, fails to achieve market acceptance, we may never become profitable. Even if we achieve profitability in the future, we may not be able to sustain profitability in subsequent periods.

We have a limited operating history, which may make it difficult for you to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability.

Our operations to date have been primarily limited to organizing and staffing our company, acquiring product and technology rights, discovering and developing novel de novo proteins, undertaking preclinical studies and early clinical development activities, and, prior to the merger, developing small molecule drug candidates and conducting clinical trials of rosiptor. We have not yet obtained regulatory approval for any product candidate. Consequently, evaluating our performance, viability or possibility of future success will be more difficult than if we had a longer operating history or approved products on the market.

We currently have no source of product revenue and may never become profitable.

To date, we have not generated any revenues from commercial product sales, or otherwise. Our ability to generate revenue from product sales and achieve profitability will depend upon our ability, alone or with any future collaborators, to successfully commercialize any products that we may develop, in-license, or acquire in the future. Even if we can successfully achieve regulatory approval for any future product candidates, we do not know when any of these products will generate revenue from product sales for us, if at all. Our ability to generate revenue from any of our future product candidates also depends on several additional factors, including our or any future collaborators’ ability to:

•complete development activities, including the necessary clinical trials;

•complete and submit Biologics License Applications, or BLAs, to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, and obtain regulatory approval for indications for which there is a commercial market;

•complete and submit applications to, and obtain regulatory approval from, foreign regulatory authorities;

•set a commercially viable price for our products;

•establish and maintain supply and manufacturing relationships with third parties, and ensure adequate and legally compliant manufacturing of bulk drug substances and drug products to maintain that supply;

•develop a commercial organization capable of sales, marketing and distribution for any products for which we obtain marketing approval and intend to sell ourselves in the markets in which we choose to commercialize on our own;

•find suitable distribution partners to help us market, sell, and distribute our approved products in other markets;

•obtain coverage and adequate reimbursement from third-party payors, including government and private payors;

•achieve market acceptance for our products, if any;

•establish, maintain and protect our intellectual property rights; and

•attract, hire, and retain qualified personnel.

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In addition, because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with biological product development, any future product candidates may not advance through development or achieve the endpoints of applicable clinical trials. Therefore, we are unable to predict the timing or amount of increased expenses, or when or if we will be able to achieve or maintain profitability. In addition, our expenses could increase beyond expectations if we decide, or are required by the FDA or foreign regulatory authorities, to perform studies or trials in addition to those that we currently anticipate. Even if we can complete the development and regulatory process for any future product candidates, we anticipate incurring significant costs associated with commercializing these products.

Even if we can generate revenues from the sale of any future product candidates that may be approved, we may not become profitable and may need to obtain additional funding to continue operations. If we fail to become profitable or are unable to sustain profitability on a continuing basis, then we may be unable to continue our operations at planned levels and be forced to reduce our operations.

We will require additional capital to finance our operations which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. If we fail to obtain necessary financing, we may be unable to complete the development and potential commercialization of future product candidates.

Developing pharmaceutical products, including conducting preclinical studies and clinical trials, is expensive. Our operations have consumed substantial amounts of cash since inception. If we identify and advance any current or future product candidates into clinical trials and launch and commercialize any product candidates for which we receive regulatory approval, we expect research and clinical development expenses, and our selling, general and administrative expenses to increase substantially. In connection with our ongoing activities, we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund our operating requirements for at least the next 12 months. However, circumstances may cause us to consume capital more rapidly than we anticipate. We will likely require additional capital for the further development and potential commercialization of future product candidates and may also need to raise additional funds sooner to pursue a more accelerated development of future product candidates.

If we need to secure additional financing, fundraising efforts may divert our management from our day-to-day activities, which may adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize future product candidates. In addition, we cannot guarantee that future financing will be available in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. If we do not raise additional capital when required or on acceptable terms, we may need to:

•significantly delay, scale back or discontinue clinical trials related to the development or commercialization of any of our future product candidates or cease operations altogether;

•seek strategic alliances for research and development programs at an earlier stage than we would otherwise desire or on terms less favorable than might otherwise be available; or

•relinquish, or license on unfavorable terms, our rights to any future product candidates that we otherwise would seek to develop or commercialize ourselves.

If we need to conduct additional fundraising activities and we do not raise additional capital in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us, we may be prevented from pursuing development and commercialization efforts, which will have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and prospects.

Our forecast of the period of time through which our financial resources will be adequate to support our operations is a forward-looking statement and involves risks and uncertainties, and actual results could vary as a result of a number of factors, including the factors discussed elsewhere in this “Risk Factors” section. We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could spend our available capital resources sooner than we currently expect. Our future funding requirements, both near and long-term, will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:

•our ability to identify additional product candidates for development;

•if we in-license or acquire product candidates from third parties, the cost of in-licensing or acquisition;

•the initiation, progress, timing, costs and results of clinical trials for any future product candidates;

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•the clinical development plans we establish for any future product candidates;

•the achievement of milestones and our obligation to make milestone payments under our present or any future in-licensing agreements;

•the number and characteristics of product candidates that we discover, or in-license and develop;

•the outcome, timing and cost of regulatory review by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities, including the potential for the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities to require that we perform more studies than those that we currently expect;

• the cost to establish, maintain, expand, and defend the scope of our intellectual property portfolio, including the amount and timing of any payments we may be required to make, or that we may receive, in connection with licensing, preparing, filing, prosecuting, defending, and enforcing any patent claims and maintaining and enforcing other intellectual property rights;

• the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and financial results;

• the effect of competing technological and market developments;

• the costs and timing of the implementation of commercial-scale outsourced manufacturing activities; and

• the costs and timing of establishing sales, marketing, distribution, and pharmacovigilance capabilities for any product candidates for which we may receive regulatory approval in territories where we choose to commercialize products on our own.

If we are unable to expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities due to a lack of capital, our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows, and future prospects could be materially adversely affected.

Risks Related to Discovery, Development and Commercialization

Our product candidates are in early stages of development and may fail in development or suffer delays that materially and adversely affect their commercial viability. If we are unable to complete development of, or commercialize our product candidates, or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.

We are in the early stages of our development efforts. We have no products on the market and all of our product candidates, including NL-201, are still in early clinical, preclinical or drug discovery stages, and we may not ever obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates. We have limited experience in conducting and managing the clinical trials necessary to obtain regulatory approvals, including approval by the FDA. Before obtaining regulatory approval for the commercial distribution of our product candidates, we or an existing or future collaborator must conduct extensive preclinical tests and clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy in humans of our product candidates. Additionally, we have a portfolio of targets and programs that are in earlier stages of discovery and preclinical development and may never advance to clinical-stage development. If we do not receive regulatory approvals for clinical testing and commercialization of our product candidates, we may not be able to continue our operations.

We may not have the financial resources to continue development of, or to enter into collaborations for, a product candidate if we experience any issues that delay or prevent regulatory approval of, or our ability to commercialize, product candidates, including:

•preclinical study results may show the product candidate to be less effective than desired or to have harmful or problematic side effects, which could cause us to delay or even abandon clinical testing;

•negative or inconclusive results from our clinical trials or the clinical trials of others for product candidates similar to ours, leading to a decision or requirement to conduct additional preclinical testing or clinical trials or abandon a program;

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•product-related side effects experienced by patients in our clinical trials or by individuals using drugs or therapeutic biologics similar to our product candidates;

•our third-party manufacturers’ inability to successfully manufacture our products or to meet regulatory specifications;

•inability of any third-party contract manufacturer to scale up manufacturing of our product candidates and those of our collaborators to supply the needs of clinical trials or commercial sales;

•delays in submitting INDs or comparable foreign applications or delays or failures in obtaining the necessary approvals from regulators to commence a clinical trial, or a suspension or termination of a clinical trial once commenced;

•conditions imposed by the FDA, the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, or other applicable regulatory authorities regarding the scope or design of our clinical trials;

•delays in enrolling patients in our clinical trials;

•high drop-out rates of our clinical trial patients;

•inadequate supply or quality of product candidate components or materials or other supplies necessary for the conduct of our clinical trials;

•inability to obtain alternative sources of supply for which we have a single source for product candidate components or materials;

•greater than anticipated costs of our clinical trials;

•manufacturing costs, formulation issues, pricing or reimbursement issues or other factors that no longer make a product candidate economically feasible;

•harmful side effects or inability of our product candidates to meet efficacy endpoints during clinical trials;

•failure to demonstrate a benefit-risk profile acceptable to the FDA, EMA or other applicable regulatory authorities;

•unfavorable inspection and review by the FDA, EMA or other applicable regulatory authorities of one or more clinical trial sites or manufacturing facilities used in the testing and manufacture of any of our product candidates;

•failure of our third-party contractors or investigators to comply with regulatory requirements or otherwise meet their contractual obligations in a timely manner, or at all;

•delays and changes in regulatory requirements, policy, and guidelines, including the imposition of additional regulatory oversight around clinical testing generally or with respect to our technology in particular; or

•varying interpretations of our data by the FDA, EMA or other applicable regulatory authorities.

We or our future partners’ inability to complete development of, or commercialize our product candidates, or significant delays in doing so due to one or more of these factors, could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

Further, cancer therapies are sometimes characterized as first-line, second-line, or third-line, and the FDA often approves new therapies initially only for advanced cancers, i.e. third-line or beyond. When cancer is detected early enough, first-line therapy, usually chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, or a combination of these, is sometimes adequate to cure the cancer or prolong life without a cure. Second- and third-line therapies are administered to patients when prior therapy is not effective. We expect our clinical trials for NL-201 will be with patients who have received one or more prior treatments. Subsequently, for those of our products that prove to be sufficiently beneficial, if any, we would expect to seek approval in earlier lines of therapy. Any product candidates we develop, even if approved, may not be successfully approved for earlier lines of therapy,

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and, prior to any such approvals, we will likely have to conduct additional clinical trials, which are often very lengthy, expensive, and have a significant risk of failure.

Our business is heavily dependent on the success of our Neoleukin platform and of our most advanced product candidate, NL-201. Existing and future preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates may not be successful, and if we are unable to commercialize these product candidates or experience significant delays in doing so, our business will be materially harmed.

Our business is heavily dependent on our ability to obtain regulatory approval of and then successfully launch and commercialize our product candidates. We have invested a significant portion of our efforts and financial resources in the development of our proprietary system of advanced computational algorithms and methods for the design of functional de novo proteins, which we refer to as our Neoleukin platform, with an initial focus on key cytokine mimetics, which we refer to as Neoleukin de novo cytokine mimetics. Our lead product candidate, NL-201, is a Neoleukin de novo protein derived from our Neoleukin platform. However, NL-201 and our other product candidates are still in early stages of development. Our ability to generate commercial product revenues, which we do not expect will occur for many years, if ever, will depend heavily on the successful development and eventual commercialization of our lead product candidates. Our product candidates may not be successful in clinical trials or receive regulatory approval. Even if they are successful in clinical trials, regulatory authorities may not complete their review in a timely manner, or additional delays may result if an FDA Advisory Committee or other regulatory authority recommends non-approval or restrictions on approval. In addition, we may experience delays or rejections based upon additional government regulation from future legislation or administrative action, or changes in regulatory authority policy during the period of product development, clinical trials, and the review process. Regulatory authorities may approve a product candidate for targets, disease indications or patient populations that are not as broad as we intended or desired, approve more limited indications than requested, or require distribution restrictions or strong safety language, such as contraindications or boxed warnings. Regulatory authorities may also require Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies, or REMS, or the performance of costly post-marketing clinical trials. Even if we successfully obtain regulatory approvals to market our product candidates, our revenues will be dependent, in part, upon the size of the markets in the territories for which we gain regulatory approval and have commercial rights. If the markets for patient subsets that we are targeting are not as significant as we estimate, we may not generate significant revenues from sales of such products, if approved.

We plan to seek regulatory approval to commercialize our product candidates both in the United States and in selected foreign countries. In order to market and sell our product candidates in the European Union and many other jurisdictions, we must obtain separate marketing approvals and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements. Approval by the FDA does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions, and approval by one regulatory authority outside the United States does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions or by the FDA. The approval procedure varies among countries and can involve additional testing. In addition, clinical trials conducted in one country may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other countries. The time required to obtain approval may differ substantially from that required to obtain FDA approval. The regulatory approval process outside the United States generally includes all of the risks associated with obtaining FDA approval. In addition, in many countries outside the United States, it is required that the product be approved for reimbursement before the product can be approved for sale in that country. We may be required to expend significant resources to obtain regulatory approval, which may not be on a timely basis or successful at all, and to comply with ongoing regulations in these jurisdictions.

The success of our Neoleukin platform, NL-201, and our other product candidates will depend on many factors, including the following:

•successful completion of necessary preclinical studies to enable the initiation of clinical trials;

•successful enrollment of patients in, and the completion of, our clinical trials;

•obtaining adequate financing to perform the expensive clinical development programs anticipated for approval;

•receiving required regulatory authorizations for the development and approvals for the commercialization of our product candidates;

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•establishing and maintaining arrangements with third-party manufacturers;

•obtaining and maintaining patent and trade secret protection and non-patent exclusivity for our product candidates and their components;

•enforcing and defending our intellectual property rights and claims;

•achieving desirable therapeutic properties for our product candidates’ intended indications;

•launching commercial sales of our product candidates, if and when approved, whether alone or in collaboration with third parties;

•acceptance of our product candidates, if and when approved, by patients, the medical community and third-party payors;

•effectively competing with other therapies, including those that are currently in development; and

•maintaining an acceptable safety profile of our product candidates through clinical trials and following regulatory approval.

If we do not achieve any one or more of these factors in a timely manner or at all, we could experience significant delays or an inability to successfully commercialize our product candidates, which would materially harm our business.

Our current or future clinical trials or those of any future collaborators may reveal significant adverse events not seen in our preclinical studies and may result in a safety profile that could inhibit regulatory approval or market acceptance of any of our product candidates.

If significant adverse events or other side effects are observed in any of our clinical trials, we may have difficulty recruiting patients to our clinical trials, patients may drop out of our trials, we may be required to pause, delay, or abandon the trials or our development efforts of one or more product candidates altogether, we may be required to have more restrictive labeling, or we may experience the delay or denial of regulatory approval by the FDA, EMA or other applicable regulatory authorities. We, the FDA, EMA or other applicable regulatory authorities, or an Institutional Review Board, or IRB, may suspend clinical trials of a product candidate at any time for various reasons, including a belief that subjects or patients in such trials are being exposed to unacceptable health risks or adverse side effects. Some potential therapeutics developed in the biotechnology industry that initially showed therapeutic promise in early-stage trials have later been found to cause side effects that prevented their further development. Even if the side effects do not preclude the product candidate from obtaining or maintaining marketing approval, undesirable side effects may inhibit market acceptance of the approved product due to its tolerability versus other therapies. We designed NL-201 to mimic the therapeutic activity of the cytokine interleukin-2, or IL-2, and interleukin-15, or IL-15, while limiting the toxicity cause by the preferential binding of native IL-2 and native IL-15 to cells that co-express the alpha subunit known as CD25. However, it is possible NL-201 will demonstrate significant adverse events similar to, or in addition to, those associated with IL-2 and IL-15, such as vascular leak syndrome, hypotension, impaired kidney and liver function, and mental status changes. Therapies involving cytokines have been known to cause side effects such as neurotoxicity and cytokine release syndrome.

Further, de novo proteins are a new class of therapeutics that have not been previously tested in humans. De novo proteins can be substantially different from all known proteins and as a result, it is unknown to what extent, if any, these de novo proteins will produce immunologic reactions in patients. Immunologic reactions could substantially limit the effectiveness of the treatment, the duration of treatment, or represent safety risks.

Additionally, if any of our product candidates receives marketing approval, the FDA could require us to adopt a REMS to ensure that the benefits of the product outweigh its risks, which may include, among other things, a Medication Guide outlining the risks of the product for distribution to patients and a communication plan to health care practitioners. Furthermore, if we or others later identify undesirable side effects caused by any of our products, several potentially significant negative consequences could result, including:

•regulatory authorities may suspend or withdraw approvals of such product;

•regulatory authorities may require additional warnings on the label of such product;

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•we may be required to change the way such a product is administered or conduct additional clinical trials;

•we could be sued and held liable for harm caused to patients; and

•our reputation may suffer.

Any of these developments could materially harm our business, financial condition and prospects.

If we do not achieve our projected development goals in the timeframes we announce and expect, the commercialization of our products may be delayed and, as a result, our stock price may decline.

From time to time, we estimate the timing of the anticipated accomplishment of various scientific, clinical, regulatory and other product development goals, which we sometimes refer to as milestones. These milestones may include the commencement or completion of scientific studies and clinical trials and the submission of regulatory filings. From time to time, we may publicly announce the expected timing of some of these milestones. All of these milestones are and will be based on numerous assumptions. The actual timing of these milestones can vary dramatically compared to our estimates, in some cases for reasons beyond our control. If we do not meet these milestones as publicly announced, or at all, the commercialization of our products may be delayed or never achieved and, as a result, our stock price may decline.

Our approach to the discovery and development of our therapeutic treatments is based on novel de novo protein design technology that are unproven and may not result in marketable products.

The success of our business depends primarily upon our ability to discover, develop, and commercialize a pipeline of product candidates using our Neoleukin platform. Unlike traditional protein-based therapeutics that modify native proteins, our Neoleukin platform designs new proteins from the ground up. Our platform uses advanced computational algorithms and methods to design functional de novo proteins that are hyper-stable, modifiable, and are designed to optimize desired intermolecular interactions and eliminate undesirable interactions. While we believe this approach will enable us to develop product candidates that may offer unique therapeutic benefits, the scientific basis of our efforts to develop product candidates using our Neoleukin platform is ongoing and may not result in viable product candidates.

While we have had favorable preclinical study results related to NL-201, we are still in the early stages of product development of NL-201. Our approach may be unsuccessful in moving NL-201 through clinical development, discovering additional product candidates, and NL-201 or any product candidates that we are currently developing may be shown to have harmful side effects or may have other characteristics that may necessitate additional clinical testing or make the product candidates unmarketable or unlikely to receive marketing approval. If any of these events occur, we may be forced to abandon our development efforts for a program or programs, which would have a material adverse effect on our business and could potentially cause us to cease operations.

To date, NL-201 is our only product candidate currently being tested in a clinical trial, and testing is in the early stages. We have not tested any of our other product candidates in any clinical trials. We may ultimately discover that our Neoleukin platform and any product candidates resulting therefrom do not possess certain properties required for therapeutic effectiveness. Our product candidates may also be unable to remain stable in the human body for the period of time required for the drug to reach the target tissue, or they may trigger immune responses that inhibit the activity of the product candidate or that cause adverse side effects in humans. We may spend substantial funds attempting to mitigate these properties and may never succeed in doing so. In addition, product candidates based on our Neoleukin platform may demonstrate different chemical and pharmacological properties in patients than they do in laboratory studies. Our Neoleukin platform and any product candidates resulting therefrom may not demonstrate the same chemical and pharmacological properties in humans and may interact with human biological systems in unforeseen, ineffective, or harmful ways.

The regulatory approval process for novel product candidates such as ours can be more expensive and take longer than for other, better known or extensively studied product candidates. Because the FDA has no prior experience with de novo proteins as therapeutics, we anticipate that this may increase the complexity, uncertainty and length of the regulatory approval process for our product candidates. We or any future partners may be required to perform additional or unanticipated clinical trials to obtain approval or be subject to post-marketing testing requirements to

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maintain regulatory approval. If the products resulting from our Neoleukin platform and research programs prove to be ineffective, unsafe, or commercially unviable, our Neoleukin Platform and pipeline would have little, if any, value, which would have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

Preclinical and clinical development involve a lengthy and expensive process, with an uncertain outcome, and results of earlier studies and trials may not be predictive of future trial results. We may incur additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of our current product candidates or any future product candidates.

All of our product candidates are in early clinical, preclinical or earlier development and their risk of failure is high. It is impossible to predict when or if any of our product candidates will receive regulatory approval. To obtain the requisite regulatory approvals to commercialize any product candidates, we must demonstrate through extensive preclinical studies and lengthy, complex, and expensive clinical trials that our product candidates are safe and effective in humans. Clinical testing can take many years to complete, and its outcome is inherently uncertain. Failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. The results of preclinical studies and early clinical trials of our product candidates may not be predictive of the success of later-stage clinical trials. The design of a clinical trial can determine whether its results will support approval of a product and flaws in the design of a clinical trial may not become apparent until the clinical trial is well advanced. We may be unable to establish clinical endpoints that applicable regulatory authorities would consider clinically meaningful, and a clinical trial can fail at any stage of testing, and we have limited experience in designing clinical trials and may be unable to design and execute a clinical trial to support marketing approval. Differences in trial design between early-stage clinical trials and later-stage clinical trials make it difficult to extrapolate the results of earlier clinical trials to later clinical trials. Moreover, clinical data are often susceptible to varying interpretations and analyses, and many companies that have believed their product candidates performed satisfactorily in clinical trials have nonetheless failed to obtain marketing approval of their products. A number of companies in the biopharmaceutical industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials due to lack of efficacy or to unfavorable safety profiles, notwithstanding promising results in earlier trials, and we could face similar setbacks. There is typically a high rate of failure of product candidates proceeding through clinical trials. Most product candidates that commence clinical trials are never approved as products and there can be no assurance that any of our current or future clinical trials will ultimately be successful or support clinical development of our current or any of our future product candidates.

Commencement of our future clinical trials is subject to finalizing the trial design and receiving approval from the FDA to proceed with clinical testing or similar approval from the EMA or other comparable foreign regulatory authorities. Even after we submit our IND or comparable submissions in other jurisdictions, the FDA, EMA, or comparable foreign regulatory authorities could disagree that we have satisfied their requirements to commence our clinical trials or disagree with our study design, which may require us to complete additional preclinical studies or amend our protocols or impose stricter conditions on the commencement of clinical trials.

We may encounter substantial delays in the commencement or completion, or termination or suspension, of our clinical trials, which could result in increased costs to us, delay or limit our ability to generate revenue and adversely affect our commercial prospects.

We or any collaborators may experience delays in initiating or completing clinical trials or may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, any future clinical trials that we could conduct that could delay or prevent our ability to receive marketing approval or commercialize NL-201 or any future product candidates, including:

•we may be unable to generate sufficient preclinical, toxicology, or other in vivo or in vitro data to obtain regulatory authorizations to commence a clinical trial;

•we may experience issues in reaching a consensus with regulatory authorities on trial design;

•regulators or institutional review boards, ethics committees, FDA, EMA or other applicable regulatory authorities, may not authorize us or our investigators to commence a clinical trial or conduct a clinical trial at a prospective trial site;

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•we may experience delays in reaching, or fail to reach, agreement on acceptable terms with prospective trial sites and prospective contract research organizations, or CROs, the terms of which can be subject to extensive negotiation and may vary significantly among different CROs and trial sites;

•clinical trial sites may deviate from trial protocol or drop out of a trial;

•clinical trials of any product candidates may fail to show safety or efficacy, produce negative or inconclusive results, and we may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional preclinical studies or clinical trials or we may decide to abandon product development programs;

•the number of subjects required for clinical trials of any product candidates may be larger than we anticipate, enrollment in these clinical trials may be slower than we anticipate, or subjects may drop out of these clinical trials or fail to return for post-treatment follow-up at a higher rate than we anticipate;

•our third-party contractors may fail to comply with regulatory requirements or meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner, or at all, or may deviate from the clinical trial protocol or drop out of the trial, which may require that we add new clinical trial sites or investigators;

•we may elect to, or regulators, IRBs, or ethics committees may require that we or our investigators, suspend or terminate clinical research or trials for various reasons, including noncompliance with regulatory requirements or a finding that the participants in our trials are being exposed to unacceptable health risks;

•the cost of clinical trials of any of our product candidates may be greater than we anticipate;

•the supply or quality of our product candidates or other materials necessary to conduct clinical trials of our product candidates may be insufficient or inadequate to initiate or complete a given clinical trial;

•we may be unable to obtain or manufacture sufficient quantities of our product candidates for use in clinical trials;

•reports from clinical testing of other therapies may raise safety or efficacy concerns about our product candidates; and

•we may fail to establish an appropriate safety profile for a product candidate based on clinical or preclinical data for such product candidate as well as data emerging from other molecules in the same class as our product candidate.

We could also encounter delays if a clinical trial is suspended or terminated by us, the IRBs of the institutions in which such trials are being conducted, or the FDA, EMA or other regulatory authorities, or if a clinical trial is recommended for suspension or termination by the Data Safety Monitoring Board, or the DSMB, for such trial. A suspension or termination may be imposed due to a number of factors, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements or our clinical protocols, inspection of the clinical trial operations or trial site by the FDA, EMA, or other regulatory authorities resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold, unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a product or treatment, failure to establish or achieve clinically meaningful trial endpoints, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial. Clinical studies may also be delayed or terminated as a result of ambiguous or negative interim results. Many of the factors that cause, or lead to, a delay in the commencement or completion of clinical trials may also ultimately lead to the denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates. Further, the FDA, EMA, or other regulatory authorities may disagree with our clinical trial design and our interpretation of data from clinical trials, or may change the requirements for approval even after they have reviewed and commented on the design for our clinical trials.

Our product development costs will increase if we experience delays in clinical testing or obtaining marketing approvals. We do not know whether any of our clinical trials will begin as planned, will need to be restructured or will be completed on schedule, or at all. Significant clinical trial delays also could shorten any periods during which

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we may have the exclusive right to commercialize our product candidates and may allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, potentially impairing our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates and harming our business and results of operations. Any delays in our clinical development programs may harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations significantly.

If we experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment of patients in clinical trials, our clinical development activities could be delayed or otherwise adversely affected.

Patient enrollment, a significant factor in the timing of clinical trials, is affected by many factors including the size and nature of the patient population, the number and location of clinical sites we enroll, the proximity of patients to clinical sites, the eligibility and exclusion criteria for the trial, the design of the clinical trial, the inability to obtain and maintain patient consents, the risk that enrolled participants will drop out before completion, competing clinical trials, and clinicians’ and patients’ perceptions as to the potential advantages of the product candidate being studied in relation to other available therapies, including any new drugs or therapeutic biologics that may be approved for the indications being investigated by us. Furthermore, we expect to rely on our collaborators, CROs, and clinical trial sites to ensure the proper and timely conduct of our future clinical trials, including the patient enrollment process, and we have limited influence over their performance. Additionally, we could encounter delays if treating physicians encounter unresolved ethical issues associated with enrolling patients in future clinical trials of our product candidates in lieu of prescribing existing treatments that have established safety and efficacy profiles.

Our inability to enroll a sufficient number of patients for our clinical trials would result in significant delays or might require us to abandon one or more clinical trials altogether. Enrollment delays in our clinical trials may result in increased development costs for our product candidates, slow down or halt our product candidate development and approval process and jeopardize our ability to seek and obtain the marketing approval required to commence product sales and generate revenue, which would cause the value of our company to decline and limit our ability to obtain additional financing if needed.

Interim, preliminary, and topline data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.

From time to time, we may publish preliminary or topline data from our clinical trials, which is based on a preliminary analysis of then-available data, and the results and related findings and conclusions are subject to change following a more comprehensive review of the more complete data related to the particular study or trial. We also make assumptions, estimations, calculations and conclusions as part of our analyses of data, and we may not have received or had the opportunity to fully and carefully evaluate all data. As a result, the topline or preliminary results that we report may differ from future results of the same studies or clinical trials, or different conclusions or considerations may qualify such results, once additional data have been received and fully evaluated. Preliminary or topline data also remain subject to audit and verification procedures that may result in the final data being materially different from the preliminary or topline data we previously published. Interim data from clinical trials that we may complete are subject to the risk that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change as patient enrollment continues and more patient data become available. As a result, interim, preliminary, and topline data should be viewed with caution until the final data are available. Adverse differences between interim, preliminary or topline data and final data could significantly harm our reputation and business prospects.

Failure to obtain regulatory approval in international jurisdictions would prevent any future product candidates from being marketed outside the United States.

In order to market and sell our products in the European Union and other jurisdictions, we must obtain separate marketing approvals and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements. The approval procedure varies among countries and can involve additional testing. The time required to obtain approval may differ substantially from that required to obtain FDA approval. The regulatory approval process outside the United States generally includes all of the risks associated with obtaining FDA approval. In addition, in many countries outside the United States, it is required that the product be approved for reimbursement before the product can be approved for sale in that country. Obtaining foreign regulatory approvals and compliance with foreign regulatory requirements could result in significant delays, difficulties and costs for us and could delay or prevent the introduction of our

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products in certain countries. We may not obtain approvals from regulatory authorities outside the United States on a timely basis, if at all. Approval by the FDA does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions, and approval by one regulatory authority outside the United States does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or jurisdictions or by the FDA. A failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one country may have a negative effect on the regulatory approval process in others. We may not be able to file for marketing approvals and may not receive necessary approvals to commercialize our products in any market. If we are unable to obtain approval of any of our future product candidates by regulatory authorities in the European Union or another jurisdiction, the commercial prospects of that product candidate may be significantly diminished and our business prospects could decline.

Recently enacted and future legislation, including potentially unfavorable pricing regulations or other healthcare reform initiatives, may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain marketing approval of, and commercialization of, our future product candidates and affect the prices we may obtain.

The regulations that govern, among other things, marketing approvals, coverage, pricing and reimbursement for new drug products vary from country to country. In the United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there have been a number of legislative and regulatory changes and proposed changes regarding the healthcare system that could prevent or delay marketing approval of our future product candidates, restrict or regulate post-approval activities and affect our ability to successfully sell any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval.

In the United States in recent years, Congress has considered reductions in Medicare reimbursement for drugs administered by physicians. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, the agency that administers the Medicare program, also has the authority to revise reimbursement rates and to implement coverage restrictions for drugs. Cost reduction initiatives and changes in coverage implemented through legislation or regulation could decrease utilization of, and reimbursement for, any approved products, which in turn could affect the price we can receive for those products. While Medicare regulations apply only to drug benefits for Medicare beneficiaries, private payors often follow Medicare coverage policy and payment limitations in establishing their own coverage polices and reimbursement rates. Therefore, any reduction in reimbursement that results from federal legislation or regulation may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors.

In March 2010, President Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act in an effort to, among other things, broaden access to health insurance, reduce or constrain the growth of healthcare spending, enhance remedies against fraud and abuse, add new transparency requirements for healthcare and health insurance industries, impose new taxes and fees on pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers and impose additional health policy reforms. The Affordable Care Act, among other things, also expanded manufacturers’ rebate liability to include covered drugs dispensed to individuals who are enrolled in Medicaid managed care organizations, increased the minimum rebate due for innovator drugs from 15.1% of average manufacturer price, or AMP, to 23.1% of AMP and capped the total rebate amount for innovator drugs at 100% of AMP. The Affordable Care Act and subsequent legislation and regulation also revised the definition of AMP for calculating and reporting Medicaid drug rebates on outpatient prescription drug prices. Furthermore, the Affordable Care Act imposes a significant annual, nondeductible fee on companies that manufacture or import certain branded prescription drug products. Substantial provisions affecting compliance were enacted, which may affect our business practices with healthcare practitioners, and a significant number of provisions are not yet, or have only recently become, effective. Certain provisions of the Affordable Care Act have been subject to judicial and Congressional challenges to repeal or replace certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act. Congress has considered legislation that would repeal or repeal and replace all or part of the Affordable Care Act. While Congress has not passed repeal legislation, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act repealed, effective January 1, 2019, the tax-based shared responsibility payment imposed by the Affordable Care Act on certain individuals who fail to maintain qualifying health coverage for all or part of a year that is commonly referred to as the “individual mandate”. The Affordable Care Act has also been subject to judicial challenge. In December 2018, a federal district court judge, in a challenge brought by a number of state attorneys general, found the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional in its entirety. Pending appeals, which could take some time, the Affordable Care Act is still operational in all respects. Congress may consider other legislation to repeal or replace elements of the Affordable Care Act. Because of the continued uncertainty about the implementation of Affordable Care Act, including the potential for further legal challenges or repeal of Affordable Care Act, we cannot quantify or predict with any

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certainty the likely impact of the Affordable Care Act or its repeal on our business, prospects, financial condition or results of operations.

In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. On August 2, 2011, the President signed into law the Budget Control Act of 2011, which, among other things, created the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to recommend to Congress proposals in spending reductions. The Joint Select Committee did not achieve a targeted deficit reduction of at least $1.2 trillion for the years 2013 through 2021, triggering the legislation’s automatic reduction to several government programs. This includes aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year that went into effect on April 1, 2013 and, due to subsequent legislative amendments to the statute, will remain in effect through 2029 unless additional Congressional action is taken. On January 2, 2013, President Obama signed into law the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which, among other things, further reduced Medicare payments to several providers and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years. These laws may result in additional reductions in Medicare and other healthcare funding, which could have a material adverse effect on our customers and accordingly, our financial operations. Legislative and regulatory proposals have been made to expand post-approval requirements and restrict sales and promotional activities for pharmaceutical products. Furthermore, there has been heightened governmental scrutiny recently over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products. For example, there have been several recent Congressional inquiries and proposed bills designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer’s patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drug products. We cannot be sure whether additional legislative changes will be enacted, or whether existing regulations, guidance or interpretations will be changed, or what the impact of such changes on the marketing approvals of our future product candidates, if any, may be.

In the United States, the European Union and other potentially significant markets for our future product candidates, government authorities and third-party payors are increasingly attempting to limit or regulate the price of medical products and services, particularly for new and innovative products and therapies, which has resulted in lower average selling prices. Furthermore, the increased emphasis on managed healthcare in the United States and on country and regional coverage, pricing and reimbursement controls in the European Union will put additional pressure on product coverage, pricing, reimbursement and utilization, which may adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows and future prospects. These pressures can arise from various sources, including but not limited to, rules and practices of managed care groups, judicial decisions and governmental laws and regulations related to Medicare, Medicaid and healthcare reform, pharmaceutical reimbursement policies and pricing in general.

Some countries require approval of the sale price of a drug before it can be marketed. In many countries, the pricing review period begins after marketing or product licensing approval is granted. In some foreign markets, prescription pharmaceutical pricing remains subject to continuing governmental control even after initial approval is granted. As a result, we might obtain marketing approval for a product candidate in a particular country, but then be subject to price regulations that delay our commercial launch of the product, possibly for lengthy time periods, which could negatively impact the revenues we are able to generate from the sale of the product in that particular country. Adverse pricing limitations may hinder our ability to recoup our investment in one or more product candidates even if our product candidates obtain marketing approval.

Laws and regulations governing international operations may preclude us from developing, manufacturing and selling certain product candidates outside of the United States and require us to develop and implement costly compliance programs.

As we expand our operations outside of the United States, we must comply with numerous laws and regulations in each jurisdiction in which we plan to operate. We must also comply with U.S. laws applicable to the foreign operations of U.S. businesses and individuals, such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA. The creation and implementation of international business practices compliance programs is costly and such programs are difficult to enforce, particularly where reliance on third parties is required.

The FCPA prohibits any U.S. individual or business from paying, offering, authorizing payment or offering anything of value, directly or indirectly, to any foreign official, political party or candidate for the purpose of influencing any

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act or decision of the foreign entity in order to assist the individual or business in obtaining or retaining business. The FCPA also obligates companies whose securities are listed in the United States to comply with certain accounting provisions requiring us to maintain books and records that accurately and fairly reflect all transactions of the corporation, including international subsidiaries, and to devise and maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls for international operations. The anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA are enforced primarily by the U.S. Department of Justice. The SEC is involved with enforcement of the books and records provisions of the FCPA.

Compliance with the FCPA is expensive and difficult, particularly in countries in which corruption is a recognized problem. In addition, the FCPA presents particular challenges in the pharmaceutical industry, because, in many countries, hospitals are operated by the government, and doctors and other hospital employees are considered foreign officials. Certain payments to hospitals in connection with clinical trials and other work have been deemed to be improper payments to government officials and have led to FCPA enforcement actions.

Various laws, regulations and executive orders also restrict the use and dissemination outside the United States, or the sharing with certain non-U.S. nationals, of information classified for national security purposes, as well as certain products and technical data relating to those products. Our expanding presence outside the United States will require us to dedicate additional resources to comply with these laws, and these laws may preclude us from developing, manufacturing, or selling certain products and product candidates outside the United States, which could limit our growth potential and increase our development costs.

The failure to comply with laws governing international business practices may result in substantial penalties, including suspension or debarment from government contracting. Violation of the FCPA can result in significant civil and criminal penalties. Indictment alone under the FCPA can lead to suspension of the right to do business with the U.S. government until the pending claims are resolved. Conviction of a violation of the FCPA can result in long-term disqualification as a government contractor. The termination of a government contract or relationship as a result of our failure to satisfy any of our obligations under laws governing international business practices would have a negative impact on our operations and harm our reputation and ability to procure government contracts. The SEC also may suspend or bar issuers from trading securities on U.S. exchanges for violations of the FCPA’s accounting provisions.

Even if we are able to commercialize our future product candidates, the products may not receive coverage and adequate reimbursement from third-party payors, which could harm our business.

Our ability to commercialize any products successfully will depend, in part, on the extent to which coverage and adequate reimbursement for these products and related treatments will be available from government authorities, private health insurers, health maintenance organizations and third-party payors. Patients who are prescribed medications for the treatment of their conditions generally rely on third-party payors to reimburse all or part of the costs associated with their prescription drugs. Coverage and adequate reimbursement from government healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and private health insurers are critical to new product acceptance. Patients are unlikely to use our future product candidates unless coverage is provided and reimbursement is adequate to cover a significant portion of the cost of our product candidates. A primary trend in the U.S. healthcare industry and elsewhere is cost containment. As a result, government authorities and other third-party payors have attempted to control costs by limiting coverage and the amount of reimbursement for particular medications. Increasingly, third-party payors are requiring that drug companies provide them with predetermined discounts from list prices and are challenging the prices charged for medical products. Third-party payors may also seek additional clinical evidence, beyond the data required to obtain marketing approval, demonstrating clinical benefits and value in specific patient populations before covering our products for those patients. We cannot be sure that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be available for any product that we commercialize and, if reimbursement is available, what that level of reimbursement will be. Coverage and reimbursement may impact the demand for, or the price of, any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval. If coverage and reimbursement are not available or are available only at limited levels, we may not be able to successfully commercialize any product candidate for which we obtain marketing approval.

There may be significant delays in obtaining coverage and reimbursement for newly approved drugs, and coverage may be more limited than the purposes for which the drug is approved by the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory

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authorities. Moreover, obtaining coverage does not imply that any drug will be paid for in all cases or at a rate that covers our costs, including research, development, manufacture, sales and distribution. Interim reimbursement levels for new drugs, if applicable, may also not be sufficient to cover our costs and may only be temporary. Reimbursement rates may vary according to the use of the drug and the clinical setting in which it is used. Reimbursement rates may also be based in part on existing reimbursement amounts for lower cost drugs or may be bundled into the payments for other services. Net prices for drugs may be reduced by mandatory discounts or rebates required by government healthcare programs or private payors and by any future relaxation of laws that presently restrict imports of drugs from countries where they may be sold at lower prices than in the United States. Coverage and reimbursement for drug products can differ significantly from payor to payor. As a result, the coverage and reimbursement determination process is often a time-consuming and costly process with no assurance that coverage and adequate reimbursement will be obtained or applied consistently. Third-party payors often rely upon Medicare coverage policy and payment limitations in setting their own coverage and reimbursement policies. Our inability to promptly obtain coverage and profitable reimbursement rates from both government-funded and private payors for any approved products that we develop could have a material adverse effect on our operating results, our ability to raise capital needed to commercialize products and our overall financial condition.

We have never marketed a drug before. If we are able to identify and develop or acquire a product candidate that is ultimately approved for sale but are unable to establish an effective sales force and marketing infrastructure or enter into acceptable third-party sales and marketing or licensing arrangements, we may be unable to generate any revenue.

We do not currently have an infrastructure for the sales, marketing and distribution of pharmaceutical drug products and the cost of establishing and maintaining such an infrastructure may exceed the cost-effectiveness of doing so. In addition, NL-201 is our only product candidate in clinical development, and such clinical development is in the early stages. If we are able to successfully advance NL-201 through clinical development or to identify and establish other product candidates and advance them through clinical development, in order to market any products that may ultimately be approved by the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities, we must build our sales, marketing, managerial and other non-technical capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services. If we are unable to establish adequate sales, marketing, and distribution capabilities, whether independently or with third parties, we may not be able to generate product revenue and may not become profitable. We will be competing with many companies that have extensive and well-funded sales and marketing operations. Without an internal commercial organization or the support of a third party to perform sales and marketing functions, we may be unable to compete successfully against these more established companies.

We may not be successful in our efforts to use our Neoleukin platform to expand our pipeline of product candidates and develop marketable products.

The success of our business depends in part upon our ability to discover, develop, and commercialize products based on our Neoleukin platform, which may fail to identify other potential product candidates for clinical development for a number of reasons. Our research methodology may be unsuccessful in identifying potential product candidates or our potential product candidates may be shown to have harmful side effects or may have other characteristics that may make the products unmarketable or unlikely to receive marketing approval. If any of these events occur, we may be forced to abandon our development efforts for a program or for multiple programs, which would materially harm our business and could potentially cause us to cease operations. Research programs to identify new product candidates require substantial technical, financial, and human resources.

We may expend our limited resources to pursue a particular product candidate and fail to capitalize on product candidates that may be more profitable or for which there is a greater likelihood of success.

Because we have limited financial and managerial resources, we focus our research and development efforts on our lead product candidate, NL-201, with initial indications including renal cell carcinoma and melanoma. As a result, we may forgo or delay pursuit of opportunities with other product candidates that later prove to have greater commercial potential. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency, we are also utilizing a portion of our research and computational bandwidth to investigate the potential application of our de novo protein technology toward COVID-19. Our resource allocation decisions may cause us to fail to capitalize on viable commercial

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products or profitable market opportunities. Our spending on current and future research and development programs and product candidates for specific indications may not yield any commercially viable product candidates. If we do not accurately evaluate the commercial potential or target market for a particular product candidate, we may relinquish valuable rights to that product candidate through collaboration, licensing or other royalty arrangements in cases in which it would have been more advantageous for us to retain sole development and commercialization rights to such product candidate.

We face substantial competition, including companies developing novel treatments and technology platforms in oncology. If these companies develop technologies or product candidates more rapidly than we do or their technologies are more effective, our ability to develop and successfully commercialize product candidates may be adversely affected.

The development and commercialization of drugs is highly competitive. Our product candidates, if approved, will face significant competition and our failure to effectively compete may prevent us from achieving significant market penetration. Most of our competitors have significantly greater resources than we do and we may not be able to successfully compete. We compete with a variety of multinational biopharmaceutical companies, specialized biotechnology companies, and emerging biotechnology companies, as well as with technologies and product candidates being developed at academic institutions, governmental agencies, and other public and private research institutions. Our competitors have developed, are developing, or will develop product candidates and processes competitive with our product candidates and processes. Competitive therapeutic treatments include those that have already been approved and accepted by the medical community and any new treatments, including those based on novel technology platforms that enter the market. We believe that a significant number of products are currently under development, and may become commercially available in the future, for the treatment of conditions for which we are trying, or may try, to develop product candidates. There is intense and rapidly evolving competition in the biotechnology, biopharmaceutical, and interleukin and immunoregulatory therapeutics fields. Competition from many sources exists or may arise in the future. Our competitors include larger and better funded biopharmaceutical, biotechnological, and therapeutics companies, including companies focused on oncology therapeutics, as well as numerous small companies. Moreover, we also compete with current and future therapeutics developed at universities and other research institutions. Some of these companies are well-capitalized and, in contrast to us, have significant clinical experience, and may include our future partners. In addition, these companies compete with us in recruiting scientific and managerial talent.

Our success will depend partially on our ability to develop and commercialize therapeutics that are safer and more effective than competing products. Our commercial opportunity and success will be reduced or eliminated if competing products are safer, more effective, or less expensive than the therapeutics we develop.

Our lead product candidate, NL-201, is under development for the treatment of advanced solid tumors, including melanoma and renal cell carcinoma. If approved, it would face competition from approved advanced melanoma and renal cell carcinoma treatments, including multiple checkpoint inhibitors, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, VEGF inhibitors, recombinant human IL-2, and several chemotherapy drugs or combinations. Further, we are aware of several IL-2 or IL-15 agonists in various stages of clinical and preclinical development.

Many of our competitors have significantly greater financial, technical, manufacturing, marketing, sales, and supply resources or experience than we have. If we successfully obtain approval for any product candidate, we will face competition based on many different factors, including the safety and effectiveness of our products, the ease with which our products can be administered and the extent to which patients accept relatively new routes of administration, the timing and scope of regulatory approvals for these products, the availability and cost of manufacturing, marketing and sales capabilities, price, reimbursement coverage, and patent position. Competing products could present superior treatment alternatives, including by being more effective, safer, less expensive, or marketed and sold more effectively than any products we may develop. Competitive products may make any products we develop obsolete or noncompetitive before we recover the expense of developing and commercializing our product candidates. Such competitors could also recruit our employees, which could negatively impact our level of expertise and our ability to execute our business plan.

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We expect the product candidates we develop will be regulated as biological products, or biologics, and therefore they may be subject to competition sooner than anticipated.

The Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009, or the BPCIA, was enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act to establish an abbreviated pathway for the approval of biosimilar biological products (both highly similar and interchangeable biosimilar biological products. The regulatory pathway establishes legal authority for the FDA to review and approve biosimilar biologics, including the possible designation of a biosimilar as “interchangeable” based on its similarity to an approved biologic. Under the BPCIA, an application for a biosimilar product cannot be approved by the FDA until 12 years after the first licensure date of the reference product licensed under a BLA. The law is complex and some provisions are still being interpreted and implemented by the FDA. As a result, its ultimate impact, implementation, and meaning are subject to uncertainty.

A biological product submitted for licensure under a BLA is eligible for a period of exclusivity that commences on the date of its licensure, unless its date of licensure is not considered a date of first licensure because it falls within an exclusion under the PBCIA. There is a risk that this exclusivity could be shortened due to congressional action or otherwise, potentially creating the opportunity for generic competition sooner than anticipated. Most states have enacted substitution laws that permit substitution of only interchangeable biosimilars. The extent to which a highly similar biosimilar, once approved, will be substituted for any one of the reference products in a way that is similar to traditional generic substitution for non-biological products is not yet clear, and will depend on a number of marketplace and regulatory factors that are still developing.

Risks Related to Our Reliance on Third Parties

We rely on and expect to continue to rely on third parties to conduct certain of our preclinical studies and clinical trials. If those third parties do not perform as contractually required, fail to satisfy legal or regulatory requirements, miss expected deadlines or terminate the relationship, our development program could be delayed with potentially material and adverse effects on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

We currently rely and intend to continue to rely in the future on third-party clinical investigators, CROs, clinical data management organizations, and consultants to assist or provide the design, conduct, supervision, and monitoring of preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates. Because we rely on and intend to continue to rely on these third parties and will not have the ability to conduct all preclinical studies or clinical trials independently, we will have less control over the timing, quality, and other aspects of preclinical studies and clinical trials than we would have had we conducted them on our own. These investigators, CROs, and consultants will not be our employees, and we will have limited control over the amount of time and resources that they dedicate to our programs. These third parties may have contractual relationships with other entities, some of which may be our competitors, which may draw time and resources from our programs. The third parties with which we may contract might not be diligent, careful, or timely in conducting our preclinical studies or clinical trials, resulting in the preclinical studies or clinical trials being delayed or unsuccessful.

If we cannot contract with acceptable third parties on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, or if these third parties do not carry out their contractual duties, satisfy legal and regulatory requirements for the conduct of preclinical studies or clinical trials or meet expected deadlines, our clinical development programs could be delayed and otherwise adversely affected. In all events, we will be responsible for ensuring that each of our preclinical studies and clinical trials are conducted in accordance with the general investigational plan and protocols for the trial as well as applicable legal and regulatory requirements. The FDA generally requires preclinical studies to be conducted in accordance with Good Laboratory Practices, or GLPs, and clinical trials to be conducted in accordance with Good Clinical Practices, or GCPs, including for designing, conducting, recording, and reporting the results of preclinical studies and clinical trials to assure that data and reported results are credible and accurate and that the rights, integrity, and confidentiality of clinical trial participants are protected. Our reliance on third parties that we do not control will not relieve us of these responsibilities and requirements. Any adverse development or delay in our preclinical studies or clinical trials as a result of our reliance on third parties could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

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If any of our relationships with these third-party CROs or others terminate, we may not be able to enter into arrangements with alternative CROs or other third parties or to do so on commercially reasonable terms. Switching or adding additional CROs involves additional cost and requires management time and focus. In addition, there is a natural transition period when a new CRO begins work. As a result, delays may occur, which can materially impact our ability to meet our desired clinical development timelines.

We rely on and expect to continue to rely on third-party manufacturers and suppliers to supply components of our product candidates. The loss of our third-party manufacturers or suppliers, or our or their failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements or to supply sufficient quantities at acceptable quality levels or prices, or at all, would materially and adversely affect our business.

We do not own or operate facilities for drug manufacturing, storage, distribution, or quality testing. We currently rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third-party contract manufacturers to manufacture bulk drug substances, drug products, raw materials, samples, components, or other materials and reports, and conduct fill-finish services. Reliance on third-party manufacturers may expose us to different risks than if we were to manufacture product candidates ourselves. Our third-party manufacturers may prioritize another customer’s needs in front of ours, especially in the event of a global pandemic. Additionally, raw materials and components used in the manufacturing process, particularly those for which we have no other source or supplier, may not be available or may not be suitable or acceptable for use due to material or component defects, may be in short supply, and may significantly increase in price. There can be no assurance that our preclinical and clinical development product supplies will not be limited, available at acceptable prices. In particular, any replacement of our manufacturer could require significant effort and expertise because there may be a limited number of qualified replacements.

The manufacturing process for a product candidate is subject to review by the FDA, EMA, or other applicable regulatory authorities. We, and our suppliers and manufacturers, must meet applicable manufacturing requirements and undergo rigorous facility and process validation tests required by regulatory authorities in order to comply with regulatory standards, such as current Good Manufacturing Practices, or cGMPs. Securing marketing approval also requires the submission of information about the product manufacturing process to, and inspection of manufacturing facilities by, the FDA and foreign regulatory authorities. If our contract manufacturers cannot successfully manufacture material that conforms to our specifications and the strict regulatory requirements of the FDA, EMA or other applicable regulatory authorities, we may not be able to rely on their manufacturing facilities for the manufacture of elements of our product candidates and approval may be delayed. Moreover, although we do not control the manufacturing process at our contract manufacturers and are completely dependent on them for compliance with current regulatory requirements, we are responsible for ensuring that our products comply with regulatory requirements. If any of our manufacturers fails to comply with such requirements or to perform its obligations in relation to quality, timing or otherwise, or if our supply of components or other materials becomes limited or interrupted for other reasons, we may be forced to enter into an agreement with another third party, which we may not be able to do on reasonable terms, if at all. In some cases, the technical skills or technology required to manufacture our product candidates may be unique or proprietary to the original manufacturer and we may have difficulty transferring such to another third party. These factors would increase our reliance on such manufacturer or require us to obtain a license from such manufacturer in order to enable us, or to have another third party, manufacture our product candidates. If we are required to change manufacturers for any reason, we will be required to verify that the new manufacturer maintains facilities and procedures that comply with quality standards and with all applicable regulations and guidelines; and we may be required to repeat some of the development program. The delays associated with the verification of a new manufacturer could negatively affect our ability to develop product candidates in a timely manner or within budget.

We expect to continue to rely on third-party manufacturers if we receive regulatory approval for any product candidate. To the extent that we have existing, or enter into future, manufacturing arrangements with third parties, we will depend on these third parties to perform their obligations in a timely manner consistent with contractual and regulatory requirements, including those related to quality control and assurance. Any manufacturing facilities used to produce our products will be subject to periodic review and inspection by the FDA, EMA, or other applicable regulatory authorities, including for continued compliance with cGMP requirements, quality control, quality assurance, and corresponding maintenance of records and documents. If we are unable to obtain or maintain third-party manufacturing for product candidates, or to do so on commercially reasonable terms, we may not be able to

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develop and commercialize our product candidates successfully. Our or a third party’s failure to execute on our manufacturing requirements, comply with cGMPs, or maintain a compliance status acceptable to the FDA, EMA, or other applicable regulatory authorities could adversely affect our business in a number of ways, including:

•an inability to initiate or continue clinical trials of product candidates under development;

•delay in submitting regulatory applications, or receiving regulatory approvals, for product candidates;

•loss of the cooperation of future collaborators;

•subjecting third-party manufacturing facilities to additional inspections by regulatory authorities;

•requirements to cease distribution or to recall batches of our product candidates; and

•in the event of approval to market and commercialize a product candidate, an inability to meet commercial demands for our products.

Additionally, our contract manufacturers may experience manufacturing difficulties due to resource constraints or as a result of labor disputes or unstable political environments. For example, the outbreak of COVID-19 has spread across the globe and has resulted in extended shutdowns of businesses in the United States, Canada and many other countries and has had ripple effects to businesses around the world. Global health concerns, such as COVID-19, could also result in adverse effects to our manufacturing operations. If our contract manufacturers were to encounter any of these difficulties, our ability to provide our product candidates to patients in preclinical and clinical trials, or to provide product for treatment of patients once approved, would be jeopardized.

Our third-party manufacturers may encounter difficulties in production. If we or any of our third-party manufacturers encounter such difficulties, our ability to provide supply of our product candidates for clinical trials, our ability to obtain marketing approval, or our ability to provide supply of our products for patients, if approved, could be delayed or stopped.

Our product candidates are biopharmaceuticals, and the process of manufacturing biopharmaceuticals is complex, time-consuming, highly regulated, and subject to multiple risks. Our contract manufacturers must comply with legal requirements, cGMPs, and guidelines for the bulk manufacturing, fill-finish services, packaging, and storage of biopharmaceuticals used in clinical trials and, if approved, marketed products. Our contract manufacturers may have limited experience in the manufacturing of cGMP batches.

Manufacturing biopharmaceuticals is highly susceptible to product loss due to contamination, equipment failure, improper installation or operation of equipment, vendor or operator error, inconsistency in yields, variability in product characteristics, and difficulties in scaling the production process. Even minor deviations from normal manufacturing processes could result in reduced production yields, product defects, and other supply disruptions. If microbial, viral, or other contaminations are discovered at our third-party manufacturers’ facilities, such facilities may need to be closed for an extended period of time to investigate and remedy the contamination, which could delay clinical trials and adversely harm our business. Moreover, if the FDA determines that our third-party manufacturers’ facilities are not in compliance with FDA laws and regulations, including those governing cGMPs, the FDA may deny approval of our application until the deficiencies are corrected or we replace the manufacturer in our application with a manufacturer that is in compliance.

In addition, there are risks associated with large scale manufacturing for clinical trials or commercial scale including, among others, cost overruns, potential problems with process scale-up, process reproducibility, stability issues, compliance with cGMPs, lot consistency and timely availability of raw materials. Even if we obtain regulatory approval for any of our product candidates, there is no assurance that manufacturers will be able to manufacture the approved product, or provide fill-finish services, to specifications acceptable to the FDA, EMA, or other applicable regulatory authorities, to produce it in sufficient quantities to meet the requirements for the potential launch of the product or to meet potential future demand. If our manufacturers are unable to produce sufficient quantities for clinical trials or for commercialization, commercialization efforts would be impaired, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

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Scaling up a biopharmaceutical manufacturing process is a difficult and uncertain task, and our third-party manufacturers may not have the necessary capabilities to complete the implementation, manufacturing, and development process. If we are unable to adequately validate or scale-up the manufacturing process at our current manufacturers’ facilities, we will need to transfer to another manufacturer and complete the manufacturing validation process, which can be lengthy. If we are able to adequately validate and scale-up the manufacturing process for our product candidates with a contract manufacturer, we will still need to negotiate with such contract manufacturer an agreement for commercial supply and it is not certain we will be able to come to agreement on terms acceptable to us.

We cannot assure you that any stability or other issues relating to the manufacture of any of our product candidates or products will not occur in the future. Our de novo protein product candidates may not demonstrate sufficient long-term stability to support a BLA filing or obtain approval, or the product shelf life may be limited by stability results. Poor control of production processes can lead to the introduction of adventitious agents or other contaminants, or to inadvertent changes in the properties or stability of our product candidates that may not be detectable in final product testing. If our third-party manufacturers were to encounter any of these difficulties, our ability to provide any product candidates to patients in planned clinical trials and products to patients, once approved, would be jeopardized. Any delay, interruption or other issues that arise in the manufacture, fill- finish, packaging, or storage of clinical trial supplies could delay the completion of planned clinical trials, increase the costs associated with maintaining clinical trial programs and, depending upon the period of delay, require us to commence new clinical trials at additional expense or terminate clinical trials completely. Any adverse development affecting clinical or commercial manufacturing of our product candidates or products may result in shipment delays, inventory shortages, lot failures, product withdrawals or recalls, or other interruptions in the supply of our product candidates or products. We may also have to take inventory write-offs and incur other charges and expenses for product candidates or products that fail to meet specifications, undertake costly remediation efforts or seek more costly manufacturing alternatives. Accordingly, failures or difficulties faced at any level of our supply chain could adversely affect our business and delay or impede the development and commercialization of any of our product candidates or products, if approved, and could have an adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition, and results of operations.

As part of our process development efforts, we also may make changes to the manufacturing processes at various points during development, for various reasons, such as controlling costs, achieving scale, decreasing processing time, increasing manufacturing success rate or other reasons. Such changes carry the risk that they will not achieve their intended objectives, and any of these changes could cause our product candidates to perform differently and affect the results of our ongoing clinical trials or future clinical trials. In some circumstances, changes in the manufacturing process may require us to perform ex vivo comparability studies and to collect additional data from patients prior to undertaking more advanced clinical trials. For instance, changes in our process during the course of clinical development may require us to show the comparability of the product used in earlier clinical phases or at earlier portions of a trial to the product used in later clinical phases or later portions of the trial.

We may, in the future, seek to enter into collaborations with other third parties for the discovery, development and commercialization of our product candidates. If our collaborators cease development efforts under our collaboration agreements, or if any of those agreements are terminated, these collaborations may fail to lead to commercial products, and we may never receive milestone payments or future royalties under these agreements.

We expect a significant portion of our future revenue and cash resources to be derived from collaboration agreements or other similar agreements into which we may enter in the future for research, development, and commercialization of other therapeutic technologies or product candidates. Biopharmaceutical companies are our likely future collaborators for any marketing, distribution, development, licensing, or broader collaboration arrangements. If we fail to enter into future collaborations on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, or such collaborations are not successful, we may not be able to execute our strategy to develop certain targets, product candidates, or disease areas that we believe could benefit from the resources of either larger biopharmaceutical companies or those specialized in a particular area of relevance.

Revenue from research and development collaborations depends upon continuation of the collaborations, payments for research and development services, and resulting options to acquire any licenses of successful product candidates, and the achievement of milestones, contingent payments, and royalties, if any, derived from future

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products developed from our research. If we are unable to successfully advance the development of our product candidates or achieve milestones, revenue and cash resources from milestone payments under our collaboration agreements will be substantially less than expected.

With respect to future collaboration agreements, we expect to have limited control over the amount and timing of resources that our collaborators dedicate to the development or commercialization of our product candidates. Moreover, our ability to generate revenues from these arrangements will depend on our collaborators’ abilities to successfully perform the functions assigned to them in these arrangements.

Collaborations involving our product candidates may pose the following risks to us:

•collaborators have significant discretion in determining the efforts and resources that they will apply to these collaborations;

•collaborators may not pursue development and commercialization of our product candidates or may elect not to continue or renew development or commercialization programs based on preclinical studies or clinical trial results, changes in the collaborators’ strategic focus or available funding, or external factors such as an acquisition that diverts resources or creates competing priorities;

•collaborators may delay clinical trials, provide insufficient funding for a clinical trial program, stop a clinical trial, or abandon a product candidate, repeat or conduct new clinical trials, or require a new formulation of a product candidate for clinical testing;

•collaborators could independently develop, or develop with third parties, products that compete directly or indirectly with our product candidates if the collaborators believe that competitive products are more likely to be successfully developed or can be commercialized under terms that are more economically attractive than ours;

•collaborators with marketing and distribution rights to one or more products may not commit sufficient resources to the marketing and distribution of such product or products;

•collaborators may not properly maintain or defend our intellectual property rights or may use our proprietary information in such a way as to invite litigation that could jeopardize or invalidate our intellectual property or proprietary information or expose us to litigation or potential liability;

•collaborators may infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties, which may expose us to litigation and potential liability;

•disputes may arise between the collaborators and us that result in the delay or termination of the research, development or commercialization of our product candidates or that result in costly litigation or arbitration that diverts management attention and resources; and

•collaborations may be terminated and, if terminated, may result in a need for additional capital to pursue further development or commercialization of the applicable product candidates.

As a result of the foregoing, our current and any future collaboration agreements may not lead to development or commercialization of our product candidates in the most efficient manner or at all. If a collaborator of ours were to be involved in a business combination, the continued pursuit and emphasis on our product development or commercialization program could be delayed, diminished or terminated. Any failure to successfully develop or commercialize our product candidates pursuant to our current or any future collaboration agreements could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

Moreover, to the extent that any of our future collaborators were to terminate a collaboration agreement, we may be forced to independently develop these product candidates, including funding preclinical studies or clinical trials, assuming marketing and distribution costs and defending intellectual property rights, or, in certain instances, abandon product candidates altogether, any of which could result in a change to our business plan and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

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We may have conflicts with our collaborators that could delay or prevent the development or commercialization of our product candidates.

We may have conflicts with our collaborators, such as conflicts concerning the interpretation of preclinical or clinical data, the achievement of milestones, the interpretation of contractual obligations, payments for services, development obligations or the ownership of intellectual property developed during our collaboration. If any conflicts arise with any of our collaborators, such collaborator may act in a manner that is adverse to our best interests. Any such disagreement could result in one or more of the following, each of which could delay or prevent the development or commercialization of our product candidates, and in turn prevent us from generating revenues: unwillingness on the part of a collaborator to pay us milestone payments or royalties we believe are due to us under a collaboration, which could require us to raise additional capital; uncertainty regarding ownership of intellectual property rights arising from our collaborative activities, which could prevent us from entering into additional collaborations; unwillingness by the collaborator to cooperate in the development or manufacture of the product, including providing us with product data or materials; unwillingness on the part of a collaborator to keep us informed regarding the progress of its development and commercialization activities or to permit public disclosure of the results of those activities; initiating of litigation or alternative dispute resolution options by either party to resolve the dispute; or attempts by either party to terminate the agreement.

We may not successfully engage in strategic transactions, including any additional collaborations we seek, which could adversely affect our ability to develop and commercialize product candidates, impact our cash position, increase our expenses, and present significant distractions to our management.

From time to time, we may consider strategic transactions, such as additional collaborations, acquisitions of companies, asset purchases, and out- or in-licensing of product candidates or technologies that we believe will complement or augment our existing business. In particular, we will evaluate and, if strategically attractive, seek to enter into additional collaborations, including with major biotechnology or biopharmaceutical companies. The competition for collaborators is intense, and the negotiation process is time-consuming and complex. Any new collaboration may be on terms that are not optimal for us, and we may not be able to maintain any new collaboration if, for example, development or approval of a product candidate is delayed, sales of an approved product candidate do not meet expectations or the collaborator terminates the collaboration. In addition, a significant number of recent business combinations among large pharmaceutical companies has resulted in a reduced number of potential future strategic partners. Our collaborators may consider alternative product candidates or technologies for similar indications that may be available to collaborate on and whether such a collaboration could be more attractive than the one with us for our product candidate. Our ability to reach a definitive agreement for a collaboration will depend, among other things, upon our assessment of the strategic partner’s resources and expertise, the terms and conditions of the proposed collaboration, and the proposed strategic partner’s evaluation of a number of factors. These factors may include the design or results of clinical trials, the likelihood of approval by the FDA, EMA, or other applicable regulatory authorities, the potential market for the subject product candidate, the costs and complexities of manufacturing and delivering such product candidate to patients, the potential of competing products, the existence of uncertainty with respect to our ownership of technology, which can exist if there is a challenge to such ownership without regard to the merits of the challenge, and industry and market conditions generally. Moreover, if we acquire assets with promising markets or technologies, we may not be able to realize the benefit of acquiring such assets if we are not able to successfully integrate them with our existing technologies. We may encounter numerous difficulties in developing, testing, manufacturing, and marketing any new products resulting from a strategic acquisition that delay or prevent us from realizing their expected benefits or enhancing our business.

We cannot assure you that following any such collaboration, or other strategic transaction, we will achieve the expected synergies to justify the transaction. For example, such transactions may require us to incur non-recurring or other charges, increase our near- and long-term expenditures and pose significant integration or implementation challenges or disrupt our management or business. These transactions would entail numerous operational and financial risks, including exposure to unknown liabilities, disruption of our business and diversion of our management’s time and attention in order to manage a collaboration or develop acquired products, product candidates or technologies, incurrence of substantial debt or dilutive issuances of equity securities to pay transaction consideration or costs, higher than expected collaboration, acquisition or integration costs, write-downs of assets or goodwill or impairment charges, increased amortization expenses, difficulty, and cost in facilitating the

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collaboration or combining the operations and personnel of any acquired business, impairment of relationships with key suppliers, manufacturers or customers of any acquired business due to changes in management and ownership, and the inability to retain key employees of any acquired business.

Accordingly, although there can be no assurance that we will undertake or successfully complete any transactions of the nature described above, any transactions that we do complete may be subject to the foregoing or other risks and would have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. Conversely, any failure to enter any additional collaboration or other strategic transaction that would be beneficial to us could delay the development and potential commercialization of our product candidates and have a negative impact on the competitiveness of any product candidate that reaches market.

Risks Related to Our Business and Operations

The outbreak of the novel strain of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, could adversely impact our business, including our preclinical and clinical development activities.

Public health crises such as pandemics or similar outbreaks could adversely impact our business. The outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus, which causes the disease called COVID-19, has evolved into a global pandemic. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, or similar pandemics, we may experience disruptions that could severely impact our business, manufacturing, preclinical development activities, preclinical studies and clinical trial activities, including:

•delays or disruptions in preclinical development activities, including non-clinical experiments and investigational new drug application-enabling good laboratory practice standard toxicology studies due to unforeseen circumstances in supply chain;

•interruption or delays in the operations of the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory agencies, which may impact timelines for regulatory submission, trial initiation, and regulatory approval;

•interruption or delays in our CROs and collaborators meeting expected deadlines or complying with regulatory requirements related to preclinical development activities, preclinical studies, and clinical trial activities;

•interruptions of, or delays in receiving, supplies of our product candidates from our contract manufacturing organizations due to staffing shortages, productions slowdowns, limited availability of raw materials, or stoppages and disruptions in delivery systems;

•delays or difficulties in any planned clinical site initiation, including difficulties in obtaining IRB approvals, recruiting clinical site investigators and clinical site staff;

•delays or difficulties in enrolling patients in clinical trials;

•increased rates of patients withdrawing from any planned clinical trials following enrollment as a result of contracting COVID-19 or being forced to quarantine;

•diversion of healthcare resources away from the conduct of our preclinical development activities, preclinical studies and clinical trials, including the diversion of hospitals serving as clinical trial sites and potential clinical trial sites, and hospital staff supporting the conduct of clinical trial activities;

•interruption of key clinical trial activities, such as clinical trial site data monitoring, due to limitations on travel imposed or recommended by federal or state governments, employers and others or interruption of clinical trial subject visits and study procedures (particularly any procedures that may be deemed non-essential), which may impact the integrity of subject data and planned clinical study endpoints;

•limitations on employee or collaborator resources that would otherwise be focused on the conduct of our preclinical development activities, preclinical studies and clinical trial activities, including because of sickness of employees or their families, the desire of employees to avoid contact with

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large groups of people, an increased reliance on working from home or mass transit disruptions; and

•reduced ability to engage with the medical and investor communities due to the cancellation of conferences scheduled throughout the year.

These and other factors arising from the COVID-19 pandemic could worsen in countries afflicted with COVID-19, or could return to countries where the pandemic has been partially contained, each of which could further adversely impact our ability to conduct preclinical development activities, preclinical studies and clinical trial activities and our business generally, and could have a material adverse impact on our operations and financial condition and results.

In addition, the trading prices for our common stock and other biopharmaceutical companies, as well as the broader equity and debt markets, have been highly volatile as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting impact on economic activity. As a result, we may face difficulties raising capital when needed, and any such sales may be on unfavorable terms to us. Further, to the extent we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of existing stockholders will be diluted.

The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic may impact our business, manufacturing, preclinical development activities, preclinical studies and clinical trial activities and will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, such as the ultimate geographic spread of COVID-19, the duration of the pandemic, the potential for a second pandemic after it is contained, travel restrictions and actions to address the pandemic or treat its impact, such as social distancing and quarantines or lock-downs in the United States and other countries, business closures or business disruptions and the effectiveness of actions taken in the United States and other countries to contain and treat the disease.

We will need to grow our organization, and we may experience difficulties in managing our growth and expanding our operations, which could adversely affect our business.

As of March 31, 2021, we had approximately 78 full-time employees. As our development and commercialization plans and strategies develop, we expect to expand our employee base for managerial, operational, financial and other resources. In addition, we have limited experience in product development. As our product candidates enter and advance through preclinical studies and clinical trials, we will need to expand our development and regulatory capabilities and contract with other organizations to provide manufacturing and other capabilities for us. In the future, we expect to have to manage additional relationships with collaborators or partners, suppliers, and other organizations. Our ability to manage our operations and future growth will require us to continue to improve our operational, financial, and management controls, reporting systems, and procedures. We may not be able to implement improvements to our management information and control systems in an efficient or timely manner and may discover deficiencies in existing systems and controls. Our inability to successfully manage our growth and expand our operations could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

Any inability to attract and retain qualified key management and technical personnel would impair our ability to implement our business plan.

Our success largely depends on the continued service of key management, advisors and other specialized personnel. We currently do not maintain key person insurance on any of these individuals. The loss of one or more members of our management team or other key employees or advisors could delay our research and development programs and have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. The relationships that our key managers have cultivated within our industry make us particularly dependent upon their continued employment with us. We are dependent on the continued service of our technical personnel because of the highly technical nature of our product candidates and technologies related to our Neoleukin Platform, and the specialized nature of the regulatory approval process. Because our management team and key employees are not obligated to provide us with continued service, they could terminate their employment with us at any time without penalty.

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Competition for skilled personnel in our market is intense and may limit our ability to hire and retain highly qualified personnel on acceptable terms or at all. We also face competition for personnel from other companies, universities, public and private research institutions, government entities and other organizations. Our future success will depend in large part on our continued ability to attract and retain other highly qualified scientific, technical and management personnel, as well as personnel with expertise in clinical testing, manufacturing, governmental regulation, and commercialization. If we are unable to continue to attract and retain high-quality personnel, the rate and success at which we can discover and develop product candidates will be limited which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Our relationships with healthcare professionals, principal investigators, consultants, customers (actual and potential) and third-party payors are and will be subject, directly and indirectly, to applicable anti-kickback, fraud and abuse, privacy, transparency and other healthcare laws and regulations, which could expose us to penalties, including without limitation, civil, criminal and administrative sanctions, civil penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, individual imprisonment, possible exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs, integrity obligations, contractual damages, reputational harm, administrative burdens and diminished profits and future earnings and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations.

As a biopharmaceutical company, even though we do not and will not control referrals of healthcare services or bill directly to Medicare, Medicaid or other third-party payors, federal and state healthcare laws and regulations pertaining to fraud and abuse and patients’ rights are and will be applicable to our future arrangements with third-party payors and customers who are in a position to purchase, recommend and/or prescribe our product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. These broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations may constrain our future business or financial arrangements and relationships with healthcare professionals, principal investigators, consultants, customers, and third-party payors and other entities, including our marketing practices, educational programs and pricing policies. Restrictions under applicable federal and state healthcare laws and regulations that may affect our ability to operate include, but are not limited to, the following:

•the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which, among other things, prohibits persons from knowingly and willfully soliciting, offering, receiving or providing paying any remuneration (including any kickback, bribe, or rebate), directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in cash or in kind, to induce or reward, or in return for, either the referral of an individual for, or the purchase, lease, order or recommendation of, any good, facility, item or service, for which payment may be made, in whole or in part, under a federal healthcare program such as Medicare and Medicaid;

•federal civil and criminal false claims laws, including the federal civil False Claims Act, and civil monetary penalty laws impose criminal and civil penalties, including through civil whistleblower or qui tam actions, among other things, prohibits individuals or entities from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, to the federal government, including the Medicare and Medicaid programs, claims for payment or approval that are false or fraudulent or from knowingly making a false statement to improperly avoid, decrease or conceal an obligation to pay money to the federal government;

•HIPAA, which, among other things, imposes criminal liability for knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program or to obtain, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, any of the money or property owned by, or under the custody or control of, any healthcare benefit program, regardless of the payor (e.g. public or private) and knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up by any trick or device a material fact or making any materially false statements in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services relating to healthcare matters;

•HIPAA, as amended by HITECH, and its implementing regulations, which also imposes certain obligations, including mandatory contractual terms, with respect to safeguarding the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information without the appropriate authorization by entities subject to the law, such as health plans, healthcare clearinghouses and healthcare providers;

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•the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act and its implementing regulations, which requires certain manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologics and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (with certain exceptions) to report annually to CMS, information related to “payments or other transfers of value” made to physicians (defined to include doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors) and teaching hospitals, and applicable manufacturers and applicable group purchasing organizations to report annually to CMS ownership and investment interests held by physicians (as defined above) and their immediate family members and payments or other “transfers of value” to such physician owners and their immediate family members; and

•analogous local, state and foreign laws and regulations, including: state anti-kickback and false claims laws which may apply to our business practices, including, but not limited to, research, distribution, sales and marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by state governmental and non-governmental third-party payors, including private insurers; state laws that require pharmaceutical companies to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the applicable compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government; local, state and foreign laws that require drug manufacturers to track gifts and other remuneration and items of value provided to healthcare professionals and entities and file reports relating to pricing and marketing information and/or register their pharmaceutical sales representatives; and local, state and foreign laws that govern the privacy and security of health information in specified circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and often are not pre-empted by HIPAA, thus complicating compliance efforts.

Efforts to ensure that our internal operations and any business arrangements with third parties will comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations will involve substantial costs. Recent healthcare reform legislation has also strengthened these laws. For example, the Affordable Care Act, among other things, amends the intent requirement of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, such that a person or entity no longer needs to have actual knowledge of this statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation. In addition, the Affordable Care Act c

SEC Form 10-Q filed by Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc.